Historical Evolution in Indonesia

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Democracy as the political system in Indonesia has a long history and many processes until it could be formed as the political system like nowadays. Indonesia with its proclamation proved the independence of the country and announced freedom from colonialism. However, although the independence of Indonesia stated it as a sovereign country, the people of the country still have a problem in sovereignty.
It made the government set different democracy political system of the state to make it ideal and suitable for the citizen. By this condition, it reflected a long history of Indonesia’s democratic political system since the independence until now. Nevertheless, is the democracy system that has been organized until now reflected the democracy of people and made Indonesia as a democratic country?
The definition of democracy based on Abraham Lincoln is the government of, by and for the people. It means that the people of the state have the same rights, chance and voice to organize the government policy. In democracy, decision was taken by the majority vote. By this definition, it made Indonesia has 4 periods of democracy system that changed through the progress of the state.
• Parliamentarian Democracy (1945-1959)
A year after the independence in 1945, government of Indonesia set a political system named parliamentarian democracy or liberal. This system based on Temporary Constitution 1950, made the prime minister as the leader of government, whereas the President has a role as the head of the state. It made the position of legislative, higher than executive. Based on this structure, the democracy in this system was weak and being dominated by the interest of political parties. Since the cabinet is always successive, it made th...

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...rol each other by the principal of checks and balance. In fact, this condition sometimes made one of the institutions, such as executive still could not create prosperity for the people, because of the absolute power that they have. It means that democracy was actually a theory that needs the real and suitable operation to create the real prosperity for all.
In conclusion, democracy as the political system in Indonesia has several changes according to the condition of people in the state, because they were the object in applying the system. Since the beginning of independence until now, democracy formed into different ways of method and application with the same goal, creating sovereignty for the people by government. It was a long journey until finally the government could found the suitable way, such as the system nowadays and still trying to create sovereignty.

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