Indonesia: Digital Communications Energising New Political Generation`s Campaign for Democracy

In September 2019, Indonesia witnessed its largest wave of youth protest in two decades. The protesters sought to prevent ratification of the Bill for the Revision of the Criminal Code, which was seen to curb civil liberties and freedom of expression, and demanded annulment of new legislation that would curb the authority of the Corruption Eradication Commission. Both pieces of legislation symbolised a gradual return to authoritarianism, which many view as a real risk given President Joko Widodo’s close ties with conservative and status quo forces. The protest, known as #ReformasiDikorupsi (‘Reform Corrupted’), was also called the ‘2019 Student Movement’ in the press due to the mass participation of students. It marked a ‘comeback’ of Indonesia’s student movement and revived memories of the role of student protest in ousting President Suharto in May 1998. However, the
#ReformasiDikorupsi protest fundamentally differs from the 1998 student movement, initiated as it was by a fluid alliance of non-campus groups. Moreover, the protest was largely spurred by digital communications, which engaged many students and other youths
who did not identify as traditional activists. Their participation brought a new élan and new energy to earlier democracy movements, which in the past few years had also been rejuvenated by a new generation of activist youth joining their ranks.

This paper argues that the youths who joined the #ReformasiDikorupsi protest represent a new political generation, whose political attitudes and ways of ‘doing politics’ are significantly shaped by their prolific online activity as well as their coming-of-age experience in a post-reform era that confronts them with contradictory demands. Over the
past decade, digital media had engendered critical democratic sensibilities among them and provided alternative channels for political engagement. This heightened a sense of political agency that prepared many for active participation in ‘real-world’ struggles. #ReformasiDikorupsi provided a tentative climax to these struggles, in which the mass participation of Indonesia’s ‘digital generation’ exposed the novel possibilities of ‘connective action’.