Indonesia and the "Third Wave of Democratization": The Indonesian Pro-Democracy Movement in a Changing World  By Anders Uhlin.  New York: St.Martin's Press. 1997.  293 pp., appendix, references, index.  Reviewer: Rita Smith Kipp, Kenyon College (kipp@kenyon.edu)

Anders Uhlin examines the highly variegated and largely uncoordinated efforts of many groups and individuals working for a more democratic future in Indonesia.  His purview encompasses the rainbow of NGOs operating in the country, labor activists, feminists, elite dissidents, journalists and academics -- actors whose immediate goals may or may not address directly the machinery of state and the political sphere in a strict sense.  He devotes a whole chapter to the different Islamic discourses about democracy.  For students or anyone new to the topic of democracy in Indonesia, this book is a good introduction to the major players and their different goals and tactics. It is clear and well-organized, with a useful list of references cited.   More than merely a descriptive survey or classification, this study engages head-on the question of whether democracy is a uniquely Western flower, one that does not easily transplant in other cultural gardens. It asks, too, the extent to which Indonesia's democracy movement is influenced by events transpiring elsewhere in the world and by conversations that transcend nations and language communities.

The subtitle evokes Samuel Huntington's THE THIRD WAVE OF DEMOCRATIZATION (1991), a book examining the period beginning around 1974 and culminating in the demise of the Soviet Union.   Indonesia is definitely not part of this "wave," Uhlin asserts, since the New Order has grown only more repressive in response to its democratic opposition.  Still, Uhlin wonders how the unexpected transformation of the Eastern bloc, and other events such as the massacre at Tiananmen, were read by Indonesian activists, and what lessons they drew from these events, if any.  He utilizes almost 90 interviews, most of them conducted during four months in 1994, with democracy activists and leaders.  He also monitors how the media, especially Tempo, portrayed the news of liberation struggles elsewhere.  Conferences and seminars in Indonesia that draw foreign participants, and the students who leave Indonesia to study abroad, as well as transnational support enjoyed by some labor and NGO groups, are additional sources of news, ideas, and information that shape those working for democracy in Indonesia.

Uhlin rejects the suggestion that these democracy activists are slavishly imitating a Western ideal, and that Indonesian cultures in general and Javanese culture in particular preclude democratic processes and structures.  First, it is clear that the inspiration for these activists is as likely to come from an international Muslim literature and the news reports from their Southeast Asian neighbors -- for example, the Philippines' "People Power" movement -- as it is Western ideologues.  With the realization that any idea or tactic has to be adjusted to Indonesia's circumstances, democracy advocates draw SELECTIVELY from these sources.  A diffuse inspiration, or less frequently, specific understandings about the preconditions for change, can come from these transnational contacts, but Uhlin notes most activists' reluctance to focus on the details of how democracy actually works in the places where it is being newly tried.  He sees little effort to develop a detailed program for the implementation of a democratic system in Indonesia. The activists' focus, rather, on the immediate task of undermining the juggernaut -- military, economic, political and cultural -- that stands in the way of democracy.

Second, Uhlin points out that the argument that Indonesian (or Javanese) culture precludes democracy is spurious because there is no single Indonesian or Javanese culture, but rather a plurality of ideas and experiences within these categories.  If feudalistic, authoritarian, and patriarchal threads weave through many Indonesian cultures, so do countervailing threads of cooperation, justice, and consensus.  Thus activists use terms such as MUSYAWARH, SHURA, MUFAKAT, and GOTONG ROYONG, indigenizing the discourse around democracy.  The New Order's relentless indoctrination of Pancasila ideology is no antidote for opposition, either, since democracy dissidents hold up the shortcomings of the present -- the gap between rich and poor, and the sham of the periodic election ritual -- against the abstract ideals of justice and democracy enshrined in the official ideology.

While focusing on the discourses of democracy and how these transpire in a transnational setting, Uhlin recognizes that change or stasis depends on more than merely the traffic in ideas. Structural and economic changes, in particular the growing numbers of those who work in industrial production, as well as a growing middle class and significant dissention within the elite are among the most important preconditions for change, he argues. Uhlin interprets the current moment, unlike the 1970s and 1980s, as a "pre-transition" phase. A transition to democracy has clearly not begun in Indonesia. Nevertheless, the struggle for democracy has been intensified and cleavages within the ruling elite have become evident" (157). Uhlin supposes that influences from outside may be especially formative in such a moment as this. 

This book was published before the economic bubble burst, plunging the country -- and the New Order -- into crisis.  Moving Indonesia toward economic reformation and democracy seems as difficult and elusive today as it did when this book was written.