Authoritarianism : Southeast Asian dares to say enough is enough

Authoritarianism : Southeast Asian dares to say enough is enough

Johan Saravanamuttu, Contributor, Penang, Malaysia

Challenging Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia: Comparing
Indonesia and Malaysia
Edited by Ariel Heryanto and Sumit K. Mandal
RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2003
247 pp

Ariel Heryanto, Sumit Mandal and their co-writers are to be
congratulated for the publication of this important book. Written
and conceptualized in the period leading up to the reformasi
(reform) upheavals in Indonesia and Malaysia, it offers the
reader a serious and in-depth evaluation of the sociopolitical
implications of those events.

More than that, it examines and offers fresh analyses of the
challenges to the persistence of authoritarianism.

In the editors' words, Southeast Asian authoritarianism has
been critically challenged in the 1990s and beyond. Civil forces,
which the book examines so richly, have been shown to have
resisted the authoritarianism found in both Indonesia and
Malaysia, with salutary results.

Women activists, public intellectuals, artists, the industrial
class, environmental and Islamic activists continue to make
significant inroads into hegemonic and panoptic edifices of the
state.

However, resistance and challenges to authoritarianism do not
by themselves bring about "democracy". Indeed, the editors stress
the point that authoritarianism and democracy should not be seen
as a dichotomy or as polar opposites. One doesn't necessarily
flow into the other nor does one necessarily give way to the
other. Implicit in the book's approach is a critique of the
discourse of democracy itself.

The idea needs deep evaluation in terms of its dynamics and
manifestations in the region. And so-called democratic regimes
are never devoid of strains and inflexions of authoritarianism.
Clearly the writers offer a rich discussion of the variety and
the many layers and layerings of resistance to authoritarianism
in the two countries.

Heryanto's important theoretical chapter examines middle class
civil forces and intellectuals, and finds significant examples of
challenges to authoritarianism. Of particular interest is the
case study of Satya Wacana Christian University (SWCU) in
Indonesia which is analyzed in depth.

This case highlights the role of Indonesian intellectuals in
resisting authoritarianism. Heryanto also looks at some examples
from Malaysia focusing on reform intellectuals.

Much work still needs to be done here but the citation of
Sabri Zain's work (author of Reformasi Diary) is significant.
Beyond specific intellectuals, many middle class groups and
actors were clearly fired up by the reformasi movements in both
countries. More than any other event in recent history the
movements have brought to the fore civil forces as direct and
indirect agents of political change and transition, whether or
not this had led to the toppling of a regime.

The book is unique in that the writers have dug deep into the
experiences of both countries, giving cases and examples often
ignored or unanalyzed in the past by academics. Kelly offers
examples from Penang, an island thought to be a nest of important
NGOs in the region -- CAP, ALIRAN, TWN, SAM, MNS, among others.

Kelly posits that a "secular civil society" has emerged in
Penang in contrast to his other case study of Batam island. The
chapter examines in some detail the issue of environmental
degradation and cites the successful "Save Penang Hill" campaign.

Mandal's chapter is ground-breaking in that it offers an
interpretation of "art workers" as resisters to authoritarianism.
Typically, artists, dramatists, poets and literary writers will
carve out social spaces and terrains not normally deemed by
authorities to be "political" or threatening to the regime, but
in effect, artists generate resistance which burrows deep into
the social fabric.

He offers many examples, too many to name here, but the
formation in Malaysia of the Artis Pro-Activ (APA) in Kuala
Lumpur is a particularly interesting example.

Not unconnected to this group is the Instant Cafe Theater
which has been as effective in the area of entertainment as it
has been as a social critic often unbeknownst to those in power.
However, in July 2003, the Kuala Lumpur City Council threatened
to withdraw the troupe's license to perform, indicating a belated
understanding by the state of the power of political satire.

Ironically, middle class forces and actors have provided much
resistance in states such as Indonesia and Malaysia. In some
analyses, the middle class, seen as a beneficiary of
globalization, is often thought to be the first defender of the
authoritarian state.

However in both countries, various middle class groups have
become significant and powerful advocates and champions of
democracy. The empirical and yet nuanced evaluation of middle
class forces offered by the writers in the various chapters is
indeed a very welcome and refreshing treatment of the subject.

Of course, there are contexts, constraints and limits to
resistance. Here I like to highlight Noraini Othman's chapter
which deals with Islamization. Delving deeply into the Malaysian
case, she shows how Islamization has negatively affected women's
rights. Muslim women are doubly faced not just by a domination of
patriarchal norms but one refurbished by calls to implement a
more comprehensive sharia (Islamic law).

The problem is further compounded in Malaysia by the Islamic
opposition party PAS, linked to reformasi forces but attempting
the implementation of criminal Islamic law (hudud). Such ironies
are not lost on the writer, a member of Sisters-In-Islam, who
provides the reader with a sturdy study of the problems of
addressing authoritarianism in Muslim societies.

Both Malaysia and Indonesia are ethnically mixed countries and
Budianta's chapter on gender politics shows that women's activism
in both countries has developed multicultural approaches which
transcend ethnicity and religion. However, it is clear that as
majority Muslim states, Indonesia and Malaysia will continue to
be confronted with issues of "political" Islam in years to come,
given the thrust of high profile Muslim political parties in both
countries. The development of "secular" civil society as opposed
to the discourse of the so-called "Islamic" state has clearly
began to impact on mainstream politics in both countries.

Another major constraint on the resistance to authoritarianism
concerns labor and especially the issue of migrant workers. The
chapter by Hadiz shows that a "disconnect" exists between social
activism and the labor movement. The vast influx of literally
millions of Indonesian "guest" workers into Malaysia has failed
to prod a weak Malaysian trade union movement to champion their
rights.

As late industrializers operating with a "tight labor market',
the only apparent progressive trajectory of the Indonesian and
Malaysian labor movements would be the development of the
capacity for self-organization in the long term. O'Donnell's
insight about the authoritarian state's complicit role with
global capital still applies here.

Let me reiterate two of the more significant comparative
issues pertaining to the problem of authoritarianism. These
"cross-national" issues are important in that a learning curve
exists between the two neighboring countries often through the
communications and interventions by social activists of both
countries. The writers of this book are themselves important
agents of such cross-national learning.

The first cross-national issue would be women's rights and
gender. Budianta's thorough and comparative chapter shows that
women's activism is not only significant but has been effective
in some ways in both countries while leaving still much more work
to be done.

Budianta suggests that women's activism is much more advanced
in Malaysia, with Malaysian women even putting up a candidate in
the last election (1999) under the Women's Candidacy Initiative.
However, in both countries, empowerment of women remains weak
given the pervasiveness of patriarchal norms articulating within
conservative societies while ethnic and religious revivalism tend
to act in a hegemonic rather than in a counter-hegemonic fashion.

The second cross-national issue is the role of middle class
forces. Chapters by Heryanto, Mandal and others illustrate the
importance of middle class actors and forces in resisting
authoritarianism in both countries. Yet, middle class activism is
limited and is also often a two-edged sword. It is limited
especially in Indonesia where the bulk of society is constituted
by a disempowered peasantry and weak, disorganized working class.

In Malaysia, which has increasingly becoming a middle class
society, an opposite irony seems to be true; the spoils of
developmentalism will lure most of the increasingly affluent
working and middle classes away from political activism.

Secondly, while middle forces in both countries may become
effervescent and activated in times of economic crises, they tend
to slink into political indifference in times of prosperity. On
the brighter side, years of prosperity in both countries
especially in the mid-1990s failed to eliminate many significant
middle class forces of civil society.

While we may have no final answers to the many issues of
democratic transition in Indonesia and Malaysia raised in the
book, its insightful and ground breaking analyses will definitely
provide the reader with the conceptual tools to probe deeper into
the question.

The reviewer is a professor of political science at the School
of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang.