ABSTRACT
For three decades under Soeharto (1966–98) Indonesia was an authoritarian state. There were no effective checks, institutional or democratic, on the exercise of government power. Formally, the state was bound by the 1945 Constitution, but the judiciary lacked power to enforce it and was not independent (Lev 1978; Pompe 2005). The government, usually with military support, strictly controlled elections, directly appointed members of national assemblies, restricted the activities of opposition parties, curtailed or extinguished political freedoms, controlled the media, and repressed dissent, often violently (Budiman 1994; Lubis 1993).
