Indonesia
To fix Indonesia's weak democratic foundations, the country needs to undergo a total reform of its political system through a rewrite on the 1945 Constitution as well as a shift to parliamentary administration, as suggested by scholars.
A demonstrator holds a banner reading “Save democracy” on March 20, 2024, during a protest in Aceh’s provincial capital Banda Aceh alleging fraud in the 2024 general election. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
Indonesia is not experiencing democratic backsliding but rather has suffered from fundamental weaknesses in its democratic system since the fall of the authoritarian New Order more than two decades ago.Speaking at a discussion of his latest book Democracy and the Rule of Law in Indonesia: A Legal Philosophical Analysis, Jesuit priest and legal scholar Stefanus Hendrianto challenged the widely held view that the country is in a democratic decline.
Instead, as he argued, Indonesia had failed to establish a strong and mature democracy following its transition from the authoritarian regime under former president Soeharto in 1998.
