Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

With the rise of the Suharto military regime at the end of the Indonesian revolution new policies were enacted to further the suppression of the left. Once the immediate threat of social revolution had been dealt with, the new counterrevolutionary government began a political restructuring aimed at ending any form of open mobilization politics. A ban on villagers participating in any party activity at all – except voting at election time – was central to institutionalizing political passivity. The village people, who formed the overwhelming majority of the population in 1965–75, were simply to work, produce, and have no political engagement.After a national revolutionary struggle, lasting nearly 60 years, Indonesia entered a new era of mass counter-revolutionary violence. Suharto's New Order deployed a process of depoliticizing through a territorial command system of the armed forces. Special national coordinating bodies, based in armed forces headquarters, were established to coordinate this system of political management. The first was called Command for the Restoration of Stability and Order (Kopkamtib), later slightly restructured and renamed the Body for Coordination of National Stability (Bakorstannas). Military command posts existed at almost every level of society, with military personnel posted to all villages. This structure ensured that the ban on political party activity ... log in or subscribe to read full text