Indonesia in 2009: Democratic Triumphs and Trials

In 2009, national affairs in Indonesia were dominated by elections that were held in two rounds: legislative elections on 9 April and presidential elections on 8 July. A second round of presidential elections was scheduled for September, but proved unnecessary because the incumbent, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, won a landslide victory in the first round, with just over sixty per cent of the vote. With his political party also coming first in the parliamentary elections, 2009 was President Yudhoyono's year: he becomes the first post-Suharto president to serve more than one term, and the first Indonesian president to be democratically re-elected. Moreover, in 2009 his government could also claim other significant achievements, including continuing positive economic performance which largely spared Indonesia from the worst effects of the global financial crisis, and, after two bombings in Jakarta in July, the killing by police of key Islamist terrorists. His government also demonstrated an increasingly confident posture and high profile on the world stage. With the third successful elections since Indonesia's transition from authoritarian rule began in 1998, the year also marked a milestone in democratic consolidation.

Yet amid the triumph, both for President Yudhoyono and for Indonesian democracy, there were also stumbles, some of which point toward future dangers. The administration of the elections was bungled — so badly that had the margin of Yudhoyono's victory been narrower, the very legitimacy of his victory may have been in doubt. In the final months of 2009, the President's efforts to form a new government and set out an agenda for a second term were overshadowed by a series of interconnected corruption scandals, exposing serious misdeeds and a culture of mendacity in the bureaucracy that not only cast a pall over the President's much-vaunted achievements on the anti-corruption front but also pointed to underlying systemic problems in Indonesian democracy.

The Legislative Elections: Yudhoyono's Dominance and Party Realignments

The year 2009 dawned with all political forces concentrating on preparations for the April legislative polls. Approximately 171 million voters were to vote in over half a million polling booths around the country, for 560 seats in Indonesia's national parliament, the DPR (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, People's Representative Council), 132 seats in the less powerful DPD (Dewan Perwakilan Daerah, Regional Representative Council), and for several thousand seats in the thirty-three provincial legislatures and about 500 district legislatures around the country. In many ways, the legislative elections are thus a multitude of separate local polls fought out by individual candidates mobilizing local networks and appealing to local concerns. They are also, as in any democracy, an important moment of nationwide political participation and an opportunity for voters to pass judgment on their national government and leaders.

President Yudhoyono was the dominant national political figure entering the election year, and the ease and magnitude of his victory, and that of his party, Partai Demokrat, were the striking features of the whole electoral cycle in 2009. Up to the middle of 2008, public opinion polls had shown that Yudhoyono's popularity was in decline, and for a time his predecessor and chief rival, Megawati Soekarnoputri, was ahead. It seemed that Yudhoyono would be the latest victim of the mood of cynicism and disenchantment through which the Indonesian public has viewed most of their political leaders since the new democratic era began in 1999.

Several factors combined to put Yudhoyono in a commanding position as the election year dawned, including the paucity of credible opposition and the relative health of the economy, despite the global financial crisis (see below). Most important were a number of economic policies by which the government made direct payments to poorer Indonesians. In particular, a direct cash assistance (BLT, Bantuan Langsung Tunai) programme was launched in mid-2008 to compensate over eighteen million poor families with payments of 100,000 rupiah (US$10) per month when fuel prices increased due to rises in the world price of oil. These payments continued, despite the subsequent decline in fuel prices, with the third and final...