Democracy and Military Oversight in Crisis: The Failed Civilianisation of Indonesia’s Ministry of Defence

Author:

Mietzner Marcus1

Affiliation:

1. Department of Political and Social Change, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

Abstract

In 1998, Indonesia endeavoured to civilianise its defence department after decades of military-dominated rule. This civilianisation project was widely seen as a crucial element of democratisation itself. But the initiative ended in disillusionment: by 2014, the ministry was again placed under a conservative former general, and in 2019, it came under the control of Prabowo Subianto, an ambitious ex-military leader with strong ties to the pre-1998 autocratic regime. As a result, the reform drive in the ministry came to a halt, and civilians were marginalised again. This article argues that several factors account for this reform failure: first, the ministry’s long subordination to the military prior to 1998; second, the lack of will and power on the part of civilian ministers between 1999 and 2014 to pursue meaningful reforms; and third, a larger roll-back of democratic reforms beginning in the 2010s. Embedding these latest developments in a larger historical context, the article demonstrates that the defence ministry has been a barometer of Indonesia’s fluctuating democratic quality over time.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Political Science and International Relations

Reference35 articles.

1. Arifin C. (2019, October 8). Prabowo Subianto diisukan minta jatah Menhan, begini tanggapan pengamat [Rumors say Prabowo Subianto asked for the position of Defence Minister as his allocation, this is the response by observers]. Tribun News. https://www.tribunnews.com/nasional/2019/10/08/prabowo-subianto-diisukan-minta-jatah-menhan-begini-tanggapan-pengamat

2. Oligarchic Populism: Prabowo Subianto’s Challenge to Indonesian Democracy

3. Azzura S. N. (2020, January 26). Sri Mulyani ingatkan Prabowo soal belanja alutsista [Sri Mulyani gives a reminder to Prabowo in regard to defence equipment purchases]. Merdeka. https://www.merdeka.com/uang/sri-mulyani-ingatkan-prabowo-soal-belanja-alutsista.html

4. Reforming security sector governance

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