The Price of Indonesian Democracy

Pricy Democracy
The Price of Indonesian Democracy 
Abstract     

      Democracy has been exists in Indonesian system since Sukarno’s era of Guided Democracy in 1957. Even though when Suharto took the presidential chair in 1965 Indonesia was going backward of its realization of democracy, but in 1998 after the fall of the authoritarian Indonesia started to implement a more open and liberal-political aspect of democracy. This democratization did not come with a cheap price. Just before Suharto’s fall, Indonesia experienced a severe economic crisis that resulted in the economic dislocation of millions of households, a sharp rise in poverty, a 13% decline in gross domestic product (GDP) and near bankruptcy in the financial sector. The economic crisis lead to huge protest by the citizens especially universities students who come out to the DPR/MPR building bearing the entire country aspiration that sadly ended with the shooting of four Trisakti’s students. The shooting incident later followed by May 1998 Riots in several cities. The riots mainly target Ethnic-Chinese properties, causing more than thousand people died, more than 170 cases of rape were reported, and material damage valued at more than Rp 3 trillion. After this much prices Indonesia paid to gain its democracy it is not exaggerated if the generation today have responsibility to protect the democracy through participation in the political activities.

Keywords: democracy, guided democracy, economic crisis, democratization