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For decades, Indonesia's 1945 Constitution, the second shortest in the modern world, was used as an apologia by successive authoritarian regimes. A bare-bones text originally intended as a temporary measure, it did little beyond establish basic state organs, including a powerful presidency. It did not offer citizens real guarantees or protections. These weaknesses were ruthlessly exploited by the military-backed regime that President Soeharto headed from 1966 until his fall in 1998. The (first ever) amendments to the Constitution, which began the following year and were completed in 2002, changed all this. Enlarging and rethinking the Constitution, they ushered in a liberal democratic system based around human rights, an open society and separation of powers. These reforms also created a Constitutional Court that has provided Indonesia's first judicial forum for serious debate on the interpretation and application of the Constitution, as well as its first significant and easily-accessible body of detailed and reasoned judgments. Today, Indonesian constitutional law is rich, sophisticated and complex. This book surveys this remarkable constitutional transition, assessing the implementation of Indonesia's new constitutional model and identifying its weaknesses. After covering key institutions exercising executive, legislative and judicial powers, the book focuses on current constitutional debates, ranging from human rights to decentralisation, religious freedom and control of the economy.
This book critically evaluates different models of judicial leadership in Indonesia to examine the impact that individual chief justices can have on the development of constitutional courts. It explores the importance of this leadership as a factor explaining the dynamic of judicial power. Drawing on an Aristotelean model of heroism and the established idea of judicial heroes to explore the types of leadership that judges can exercise, it illustrates how Indonesia’s recent experience offers a stark contrast between the different models. First, a prudential-minimalist heroic chief justice who knows how to enhance the Court’s authority while fortifying the Court’s status by playing a minimalist role in policy areas. Second, a bold and aggressive heroic chief justice, employing an ambitious constitutional interpretation. The third model is a soldier-type chief justice, who portrays himself as a subordinate of the Executive and Legislature. Contrary perhaps to expectations, the book’s findings show a more cautious initial approach to be the most effective. The experience of Indonesia clearly illustrates the importance of heroic judicial leadership and how the approach chosen by a court can have serious consequences for its success. This book will be a valuable resource for those interested in the law and politics of Indonesia, comparative constitutional law, and comparative judicial politics.
How did democracy became entrenched in the world's largest Muslim-majority country? After the fall of its authoritarian regime in 1998, Indonesia pursued an unusual course of democratization. It was insider-dominated and gradualist and it involved free elections before a lengthy process of constitutional reform. At the end of the process, Indonesia's amended constitution was essentially a new and thoroughly democratic document. By proceeding as they did, the Indonesians averted the conflict that would have arisen between adherents of the old constitution and proponents of radical, immediate reform. Donald L. Horowitz documents the decisions that gave rise to this distinctive constitutional process. He then traces the effects of the new institutions on Indonesian politics and discusses their shortcomings and their achievements in steering Indonesia away from the dangers of polarization and violence. He also examines the Indonesian story in the context of comparative experience with constitutional design and intergroup conflict.
Understanding and managing inter-religious relations, particularly between Muslims and Christians, presents a challenge for states around the world. This book investigates legal disputes between religious communities in the world’s largest majority-Muslim, democratic country, Indonesia. It considers how the interaction between state and religion has influenced relations between religious communities in the transition to democracy. The book presents original case studies based on empirical field research of court disputes in West Java, a majority-Muslim province with a history of radical Islam. These include criminal court cases, as well as cases of judicial review, relating to disputes concerning religious education, permits for religious buildings and the crime of blasphemy. The book argues that the democratic law reform process has been influenced by radical Islamists because of the politicization of religion under democracy and the persistence of fears of Christianization. It finds that disputes have been localized through the decentralization of power and exacerbated by the central government’s ambivalent attitude towards radical Islamists who disregard the rule of law. Examining the challenge facing governments to accommodate minorities and manage religious pluralism, the book furthers understanding of state-religion relations in the Muslim world. This accessible and engaging book is of interest to students and scholars of law and society in Southeast Asia, was well as Islam and the state, and the legal regulation of religious diversity.
Shah uncovers the complex interaction between constitutional law, religion and politics in three key plural societies in Asia.
Indonesia has a growing population of almost 300 million people, it is increasingly involved in world affairs, and has a booming economy. The need to better understand its unique, complex, and often obscure legal system, has become pressing. This is true across a wide range of sectors including, but not limited to, trade and investment, crime and terrorism, and human rights. Indonesia's democratization after the fall of Soeharto in 1998 triggered massive social and political changes that opened up this diverse, and formerly tightly-controlled, society. Law reform was a key driver of Indonesia's transformation and its full effect remains to be seen. This book offers clear and detailed explanations of the foundations of Indonesia's legal system in the context of its legal reform and rapid development. It offers succinct commentaries on a wide range of issues, examining the judicial process, the constitution, corruption and the court system, contract law, administrative law, foreign investment, taxation, Islamic law, and family law. It examines current substantive law and judicial interpretation and presents case studies of how the system operates in practice. Written in an accessible and engaging style, this book is an essential guide for readers seeking quick and clear answers to questions regarding the law and its application in Indonesia.
Since the first edition, Indonesia has undergone massive political and legal change as part of its post-Soeharto reform process and its dramatic transition to democracy. This work contains 25 new chapters and the 4 surviving chapters have all been revised, where necessary. Indonesia: Law and Society now covers a broad range of legal fields and includes both historical and very up-to-date analyses and views on Indonesian legal issues. It includes work by leading scholars from a wide range of countries. There is still no comparable, English language text in existence.
This book focuses on constitutional reform in Indonesia (1999-2002) from the perspective of shari'a. The study reveals one possible picture of how Islam and constitutionalism can co-exist in the same vision, not without risk of tension, but with the possibility of success.
This is an intensive study of Indonesian politics from the attainment of full independence in December 1949 to the proclamation of martial law in March 1957, and President Soekarno's subsequent establishment of "guided democracy". It is intended as a contribution to the ongoing discussion of democracy in the new states of Asia and Africa, of the ways in which Western political institutions are transformed when employed in non-Western social settings, and of the obstacles to be overcome if such institutions are to operate in consonance with the authority systems of new nations and with their solution of economic and administrative problems. Now brought back into print as a member of Equinox Publishing's Classic Indonesia series, The Decline of Constitutional Democracy is considered to be the definitive study of Indonesia in the 1950s and will be of great interest to the growing number of social scientists concerned with the pre-industrial nations and in particular with their efforts to use and adapt Western political institutions. This is a solid and scholarly account, but, writing on the basis of much personal observation, Dr. Feith manages to present his material in such a way that readers with no previous background in the subject will be able to follow the book almost as easily as will specialists. HERBERT FEITH (1930-2001) became familiar with Indonesia during 1951-53 and 1954-56 when he was an English Language Assistant with the Ministry of Information of the Republic of Indonesia. A citizen of Australia, he received an M.A. degree from the University of Melbourne in 1955 and a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1961. He was a Research Fellow in the Department of Pacific History, Australian National University, from 1960 to 1962 and was Chair of Politics at Monash University from 1968 until 1974.