Dr Agus Suwignyo1, Dr Nanang Indra Kurniawan2, Dr Wawan Mas’udi3, Dr Poppy S. Winanti4, Dr Muhammad Djindan5, Dr Suzie Handajani6
1Universitas Gadjah Mada Department of History, , Indonesia, 2Universitas Gadjah Mada Department of Politics and Government, , Indonesia, 3Universitas Gadjah Mada Department of Politics and Government, , Indonesia, 4Universitas Gadjah Mada Department of International Relations, , Indonesia, 5Universitas Gadjah Mada Department of Politics and Government, , Indonesia, 6Universitas Gadjah Mada Department of Anthropology, , Indonesia
Chair: Dr Agus Suwignyo
Overview:
While progressing in many extents, Indonesian democracy over the past twenty years has moved to tumultuous trajectories so paradoxical its future nobody knows. Political reforms, widening freedom of speech and law enforcement are convincingly improving. However, those who live inside Indonesia also witness and experience that identity politics, oligarchy pattern of leadership, and systematic challenges to corruption eradication have gained supports in the recent years which nonetheless are embedded in a democratic mechanism. In this panel, speakers—all Indonesians—will discuss from the insiders’ view the future of Indonesian democracy by examining the working of its ideology, practices of governance, and life style manifestation of the Indonesian youth. The main question is: why should Indonesia defend or give up democracy? The sources of data being analysed include archival texts, surveys, interviews and ethnographic observations. Digging into both conceptual and empirical aspects, the speakers argue that the ideological discourse of democracy and the working of the institutional mechanism of governance have a lot to be improved and synchronized. However, for democratic values to be embraced in the practices of daily life, a shift in the paradigm of participatory society is also required. Indonesian democracy is too complicated with both promises and perils that whether to defend or to give it up hardly earns a good, immediate reason.