One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

This chapter analyzes the Indonesian democratic experiment under Yudhoyono’s presidency (2004–2014). Like the Megawati administration, the main telos of the Yudhoyono administration was maintaining political stability. Yudhoyono tried to achieve this by inviting all political parties to support his administration. This approach has come at a heavy price, as it has strengthened political domination, granting larger political parties a monopoly in presidential politics and undermining the opposition. Yudhoyono also maintained political stability through his political rapprochement with Islam. The relationship between Islam and the State has become one area of political contestation that shapes Indonesian constitutional identity. Under Yudhoyono’s democracy, the conflict produced a new constitutional identity of theocratic constitutionalism, which rose through the combination of governmental policy, the pressure from Islamic forces from the bottom up, and the failure of the judicial system to check and correct legislation and policies favorable to Islamic groups. This new constitutional identity has undermined both democracy and the rule of law because it wields political domination on behalf of Islamic forces.