Flouting the law: Vigilante justice and regional autonomy on the Indonesian border

TY - JOUR

T1 - Flouting the law: Vigilante justice and regional autonomy on the Indonesian border

AU - Eilenberg, Michael

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - After the Asian Economic Crisis in 1997 and the fall of president Suharto’s authoritarian regime in 1998, rural and urban Indonesia experienced a surge in vigilante killings and the rise of non-state forms of authorities working within the twilight of legality and illegality, catering the role of the state. Institutional uncertainty, large-scale decentralisation reforms and the deterioration of formal legal authority in post New Order Indonesia tempted these processes. This apparent lawlessness became especially evident along the fringes of the Indonesian state where state authority has continuously been waxing and waning and contested. This paper argues that by observing these processes of ‘lawlessness’ and vigilantism from the borderlands provides us with an exceptional window in understanding the ambiguous relationship between law and order in post-New Order Indonesia.

AB - After the Asian Economic Crisis in 1997 and the fall of president Suharto’s authoritarian regime in 1998, rural and urban Indonesia experienced a surge in vigilante killings and the rise of non-state forms of authorities working within the twilight of legality and illegality, catering the role of the state. Institutional uncertainty, large-scale decentralisation reforms and the deterioration of formal legal authority in post New Order Indonesia tempted these processes. This apparent lawlessness became especially evident along the fringes of the Indonesian state where state authority has continuously been waxing and waning and contested. This paper argues that by observing these processes of ‘lawlessness’ and vigilantism from the borderlands provides us with an exceptional window in understanding the ambiguous relationship between law and order in post-New Order Indonesia.

U2 - 10.4232/10.ASEAS-4.2-3

DO - 10.4232/10.ASEAS-4.2-3

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1999-2521

VL - 4

SP - 237

EP - 253

JO - A S E A S: Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies

JF - A S E A S: Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies

IS - 2

ER -