42
Do Protests Have a Place in Democracy? A Look at the 2019 Indonesian Student Protests By Nour Attalla Protests have throughout time been an important part of the political process. They have resulted in the toppling of many dictatorships, and raised awareness for important political causes across the world. Young people usually participate the most in protests, and in democracies they often also participate the least in elections. Although protests are commonly accepted as a part of the political process, their efficacy in democracies is questionable, and if they fail, this can lead to more political disillusionment of the protesters. Is protesting really an effective way of voicing frustration with the political system of a democratic country? In Asia, over time there has been a very strong development of protests led by students and young people in general. From the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 to this past year in Indonesia, protests have become a staple of East Asian politics, as the continent has developed rapidly during the last decades.
KCL Politics Society
Many previously underdeveloped East and South East Asian countries have experienced rapid economic growth, which has improved education levels and welfare standards in general. Younger generations have often grown up with significantly lower exposure to poverty than their parents. This is not to say that poverty no longer exists in these countries, but the educated middle classes have grown rapidly into an important social group. As many younger generations have been more exposed to liberal values, they are more prone to prioritise and defend them than older generations, who have experienced serious material depravity. This past fall, widespread student protests broke out in Indonesia after the democratically elected parliament passed a set of laws restricting free speech, increasing religious conservatism, and reducing protection against corruption. Many expressed fears that they would lose civil liberties due to new strict limitations on abortion rights and premarital sexual relations. Also, the weakening of the country’s ‘Corruption Reduction Commission’ could allow president Widodo to gain increased personal power in government. The anti-corruption commission was created in 2002
after general Suharto’s 30-year long violent dictatorship was toppled by student protests in 1998. Reducing its powers could roll back the two decades of steady democratisation in the country. In Asia, political trust among the general population is often quite low due to a history of violent coups, rampant corruption, and violent dictatorships. This explains why younger generations have little trust in formal political channels, and instead regularly express their frustration with their country’s governance by protesting. Protests are not only confined to East Asia however, as protests are also common in Western countries, despite them having some of the highest levels of democracy and political freedom in the world. Disillusionment with the political process in Western countries is a concerning sign about the effectiveness of the democratic political process. Protesting is seen as a way of affecting change without participating in electoral politics, which can be perceived as bureaucratic and ineffective. Also, protest patterns defy the misconception that younger people are less engaged in politics, because protesting shows a
