INCR - Indonesia Network for Crisis and Reform

The Reformation or Reformasi in Indonesian is the name commonly used for the post 1998 era in the history of Indonesia. This is due to a more open and liberal political and social environment in Indonesia after the Revolution of 1998 forced the resignation of the authoritarian President Suharto, ending the three decades of the New Order period.

The Reformation period has been characterized by a careful political balance between long established sociopolitical norms and several emerging forces in Indonesian society. These balancing acts have produced compromises between those backing greater democracy and civilian rule and the interests of the still powerful military of Indonesia; between the growing force of Islamism and the desire to maintain secular government; between demands for greater regional autonomy and supporters of the older centralized state; and between the economic ideologies and policies of neoliberalism and the those of the welfare state.

The process of Reformation in Indonesia, much like that of glasnost in the former Soviet Union, has also been characterized by greater freedom of speech in marked contrast with the censorship of the New Order-era. In the political sphere this has led to a more open political debate in the de-regulated news media, as well as a flowering of cultural expression in the arts.

In addition to longstanding political and cultural debates, Indonesia in the Reformation period has been shaped by a number of events and phenomena of global significance. These have included the growing attentions of the Western world on Indonesia since the Islamic terrorism following the September 11, 2001 attacks, and challenges in dealing with the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004.