See: Vedi R. Hadiz, Democracy and Money politics – The case of Indonesia, in: Robison, Richard (ed), Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Politics, 2012, pp.71-82

Partyforumseasia: Hadiz’s sober assessment on page 78 underlines our thesis that the constant use of Duvergerian (and followers’) paradigms will miss the point.

Left:
Colourful campaigning (PPP) Indonesian fun style.

“The Indonesian experience since 1998 reiterates the necessity of reassessing conventional renderings of electoral politics and of political parties. It is hardly useful to label Indonesia’s parties as ‘immature’, ‘irrational’ or ‘neo-patrimonial’ on the basis of idealized notions of party roles in Western liberal democracies. In the context of post-authoritarian societies like Indonesia, political parties as they exist currently – able to utilize money politics and even political thuggery when necessary – are quite suited for the purposes of the range of predatory interests that dominate them. It may be said that there is an internal logic to political party life and electoral competition that does not make internal transformations very likely in the foreseeable future. In fact, given the experience of democracies which have emerged in recent times, such as those in Southeast Asia, the liberal pluralist model associated with the Western experience may become increasingly exceptional.”