“Politics of Violence and Adaptation: Democratization and Local Political Stabilization in Indonesia” (Kyoto University Press, 2015)

Masaaki Okamoto (Associate Professor, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University)

I am really honored to recive this authentic Ohira Masayoshi Memorial award. One thing that added my pleasure to receive this award was the fact that the first recipient of this award was my supervisor, prof. Tsuchiya Kenji (late).
This awarded book aims to analyze the logic behind the political stabilization process at the local level in Indonesia during the period from the fall of 32 years’ authoritarian regime in 1998 to the democratic consolidation. The major focus is the Banten area but the book also intends to show that the logic of political stabilization process in the area is more or less relevant in other parts of Indonesia.
Many specialists on Indonesian politics see Indonesian democracy as less substantial or as corrupt and oligarchic. I don’t deny that analysis, but I also think the corrupt and oligarchic politics is not so strange for any country that has just started the democratic transition. Realizing a high-standard politics is just tough for a young democratic country. The danger lies in the possibility of the emergence of the idea that the democracy itself is the cause of the corruption and oligarchy and it is to be replaced with an authoritarian regime. Different from this simplistice negation of the young democracy in Indonesia, this book argues that the young democracy has become less and less violent and the democratization and decentralization have contributed to the weakening of conflicts based on the horizontal social cleavages such as the ethnicity and religion.
The money politics is still rampant both at the national and local levels and, therefore, the Indonesian democracy is far from the perfect. But it doesn’t mean that the Indonesian state and society is doing nothing on the corruption issues. The newly established independent anti-corruption agency called KPK has played an unexpectedly great role and proved into a series of corruption cases. For example, KPK finally arrested the corrupt governor and her younger brother with the help of vibrant civil local society in Banten. So, the book ends with the rather optimistic view on the future of Indonesian democracy.
I hope this book could give a new perspective not only on the Indonesian democracy but also on the other new democratic countries. Thank you.

Profile
1994: LL.A in Comparative Politics at Kyoto University
1996: M.A. in Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University
1996-1997: Study at Pajajaran University in Indonesia
1999-2001: Research Fellow at Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University
2001-2003: Long-term Expert of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency)
2003-present: Associate Professor of CSEAS, Kyoto University
2011: Ph.D. (Area Studies), Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
2011-2012: Senior Visiting Researcher at Harvard Yenching Institute, the USA
2012: Visiting Scholar at Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, the USA
2015: Visiting Scholar at Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore