Rendy Pahrun Wadipalapa (Opinion Koran Tempo/15 June 2022)
Riuh perjalanan safari politik para elite belakangan ini merupakan usaha keras dalam mendefinisikan posisi masing-masing menyambut tahun politik 2023 dan Pemilihan Umum 2024. Usaha itu dilakukan terutama karena begitu sempit dan terbatasnya sirkulasi nama-nama calon presiden, yang juga berarti begitu ketat dan alotnya negosiasi di antara para raksasa politik.
Full piece please see here
Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs
ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
Volume 43, Number 3, December 2021
pp. 557-584
The article examines the significant role of Nahdlatul Ulama (The Revival of the Islamic Scholars, NU), which claims to be the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, in defending presidential candidate Joko Widodo (Jokowi) from allegations that he was secretly a communist. Historically, NU has been one of the main drivers of the “communist imaginary” in Indonesia, promoting the idea that communism is a “latent threat” to the country. However, in the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections, NU endorsed Jokowi and sought instead to debunk the communist imaginary. Based on elite interviews and documentary research, this article argues that NU’s decision was based on its brokerage relationship with the Jokowi camp. In return for mobilizing both its vast membership and institutional networks to mitigate the weaponization of the communist imaginary against Jokowi, NU was able to secure for itself key government and bureaucratic offices that would strengthen its political influence in Indonesia.
Full version see here
From my piece in The Jakarta Post:
Every year, generally around September and October, we have the same debate concerning the revival of communism and communists in Indonesia. As the most anticipated election since 2014 approached, we saw how this old issue could still gain momentum in 2019. The level of trauma following mass persecution and killings in the aftermath of the abduction and murders of six generals and a low-ranking military member on Sept. 30, 1965, will lead to further manipulation by those among the political elite whenever they see fit. By October last year, amid heated debates regarding the “communist revival”, the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) released a statement that communist sympathy had never been proven and was always used by the political elite in election years — a strong claim from a government institute.
Our new article in Globalizations is out: 'Extracting from the periphery: authoritarian extractivism and subnational poverty in Indone...
