August 28, 2024
JAKARTA – “Aug. 22 was recorded as a historic day. Thousands of elements of society took to the streets in various cities, voicing their rejection of the revision of the Regional Elections Law, which was deemed to benefit the dynasty of Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.” (“This is not a nation belonging to a particular family”, BBC Indonesia, Aug. 24)
Historic? You could have fooled me! There have been many demonstrations over the decades. For example, Malari, short for Malapetaka Lima Belas Januari (Disaster of Jan. 15), took place in 1974 to fight against corruption, high prices and inequality in foreign investments. Then in 2005-2006, there was a series of protests throughout the nation against the anti-pornography bill, which was seen to threaten Indonesia’s cultural diversity and pluralism. The bill was nevertheless passed in 2008.
A more recent example was seen in the 2020 demonstrations against the Job Creation Law, which was purportedly meant to increase investment and industrialization. Protesters were concerned with the law’s impact on work conditions and the environment. The protest was against the bill, and it ended up being passed into law anyway. So, what’s new?
There have been many other protests over the decades. There’s even a Wikipedia entry titled “Protests in Indonesia”, featuring 19 pages which do not even reflect recent developments.
Regarding the Aug. 22 protests, on Aug. 23 the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) issued a statement expressing their deep concern over “the excessive use of force such as violence, rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannons and batons against students, human rights defenders and journalists involved in the protest demonstrations … on Aug. 22, 2024, in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang and Makassar, Indonesia.” Again, what’s new? At least there were no fatalities this time.
For a while now I have been feeling very jaded about political developments in Indonesia. As someone who has lived during the New Order (1966-1998) and 26 years of the Reform Era, I feel like Phil Connors, the television weatherman and protagonist of the 1993 film Groundhog Day. He was trapped in a time loop and forced to constantly relive the events of Groundhog Day, Feb. 2.
The political crises that occur in Indonesia are like Groundhog Day, a kind of déjà vu. At age 70, after 40 years of having risked my freedom, at times perhaps my life, to fight against authoritarianism, it is painful to witness the backsliding, nota bene involving a president who at the time embodied “A New Hope”, the front-page headline of TIME magazine on Oct. 27, 2014, which featured a close-up of Jokowi’s face.
Concerns over Jokowi’s dynasty-building are also not new. There have been others: Soeharto, Megawati Soekarnoputri and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
“In 1964, Harry Benda, a well-known Indonesianist from Yale University, said the Republic of Indonesia would never fully become a democratic country because its elites helped build a political culture that inherited feudal political traditions of the past. Approximately six decades have passed, and Benda’s anxiety has found its relevance in the widespread perpetuation of power based on lineage”. (“Indonesia, the dynastic democracy soap opera!”, The Jakarta Post, Jan. 24, 2024, and “From reformation to deformation? 25 years of backsliding”, the Post, May 24, 2023).
Sure, the protests concern a variety of topics – corruption, freedom of expression, violence against women, workers’ rights, etc. However, the theme of the central narrative is the same: democracy or the rights of the people, versus authoritarianism.
The purpose of a legal system is to prevent injustice, but in Indonesia the letter of the law is being used to defeat the spirit of the law. In fact, Bivitri Susanti, a constitutional law expert from Jentera Law School (STH), says the law in Indonesia is often weaponized to intimidate the public. This especially rings true during the electoral process.
A millennial friend of mine commented, “I wonder if three plus decades under Soeharto traumatized the collective Indonesian psyche so much they now have dictatorial Stockholm syndrome? Unbelievable that in less than 30 years we’re sliding right back!”
The Stockholm syndrome is a condition in which hostages develop a psychological bond with their captors.
I replied, “That’s one way to look at it.” There have certainly been examples of it in individuals such as Budiman Sudjatmiko (born 1970), a former 1998 activist who now supports Prabowo Subianto and has joined his Gerindra Party. Prabowo admits to having been involved in the kidnapping of nine anti-Soeharto activists, of which Budiman was one. In November 1998, Prabowo was dismissed from military service after being found guilty of “misinterpreting orders”.
But on a collective level, perhaps it is more fitting to refer to Chinua Achebe’s 1958 debut novel and magnum opus Things Fall Apart, about the effect of colonization on a people. Achebe (1930-2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet and critic, regarded as a central figure of African literature, an essential novelist on African nationalism and colonization.
Ernest Emenyonu, a Nigerian professor of African literature, defines Things Fall Apart as a “classic study of cross-cultural misunderstanding and the consequences to the rest of humanity, when a belligerent culture or civilization, out of sheer arrogance and ethnocentrism takes it upon itself to invade another culture, another civilization.”
This is what happened in what is now Indonesia, invaded in turn by the Portuguese (1512-1602), the Dutch (1602-1808, 1816-1942), the French (1806-1811), the British (1811-1816) and the Japanese (1942-1945). It was however the Dutch that left the most profound and lasting influence.
One enduring influence of colonization is trauma, both individual and collective. Colonization is a patriarchal system which defines the colonial powers as beings, and everyone else as “things” or objects to be used for the benefit of the rulers. This is why trauma is endemic in a patriarchal system, producing intense trauma that is passed on from generation to generation.
Without realizing it, the traumatized individuals or peoples want to take revenge for the pain they suffered, and do so by targeting someone or even a whole group of people unrelated to the perpetrators or cause of the trauma. This is why there is so much continuity in Indonesian history, because we have not broken the cycle of trauma. In fact, we are not even aware that we are traumatized.
Even female Indonesian leaders, including Megawati, once they become part of the ruling elite, are also imbued with patriarchal attitudes and behaviors. This is the reason why House of Representatives Speaker Puan Maharani fails to defend the Domestic Workers Protection Bill.
We need a study on the long-term effects of trauma, invasion, conquest etc., on the collective psyche of nations, spanning generations. Political psychohistory maybe?
We have a tendency to think in terms of years and decades given our lifespans, but nations evolve in generational terms. It would benefit humanity to envision the amalgamated attitudes as a collective “mind” and understand how to treat the national equivalent of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Maybe then we can be free of our trauma. Only then can we truly be democratic.