The Legacy of the New Order Military in Local Politics: West, Central and East Java

Abstract

Post-Soeharto scholarship regarding the Indonesian military (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, TNI) has largely concentrated on two areas of military politics: first, institutional reform at the national level, such as the elimination of the sociopolitical section in the military organisation and military neutrality in national elections; and second, the military involvement in political violence in remote areas.1 Such studies leave an important question untouched: civil-military relations in the everyday politics of ‘non-conflict’ areas where most citizens live. How have democratisation and decentralisation re-shaped local elite politics and civil-military relations? What legacies of the New Order military remain consequential for political dynamics at the local level? This chapter tries to answer these questions by focusing on political developments in West, Central, and East Java