Protection Rackets, Preman and Politics: Gangs and Elections in Indonesia

• In Event: Compromising Democracy: Agents of Democratic Regression in Southeast Asia

Abstract

There is a growing recognition that gangs are important political actors in democracies around the world (Maruko 2003, Harriot 2003, Vaishnav 2017). Their involvement in electoral processes is well documented. Criminal organizations shape political outcomes by illicitly funding electoral campaigns (Casas-Zamora 2013), repressing protestors (Tajima 2018), and instigating electoral violence (Kagwanja 2003, Dercon and Gutierrez-Romero 2011). Through these actions, gangs weaken the rule of law, reduce political accountability, and erode democratic norms. This paper seeks to contribute to this growing body of work by exploring and empirically documenting how criminal organizations participate in elections in Indonesia, as well as the ways that their participation has undermined democratic institutions and norms in the country. I do this by conducting a media analysis of the most widely read national newspapers in the country—Kompas, Republika, and Tempo—over the past ten years. Specifically, this paper documents the actors involved, the jurisdictional sites of their involvement, and the most common forms of political intervention that gangs engage in. By empirically substantiating how illicit actors engage in elections, this paper sheds light on actors in Indonesia that have weakened the rule of law, reduced political accountability, and eroded democratic norms.

Author

• Jessica Soedirgo, University of Amsterdam