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Asia-Pacific Social Science Review

Abstract

To a certain extent, the enigmatic process of Indonesian constitutional amendment has been adequately raised, if not explained. Nonetheless, it is a no-brainer to suggest that the available accounts are far from presenting the whole picture of the process. Should we recognize the utmost gravity of the process of the emergence of the current model of democratization, it is imperative to consider the elusive contribution of the Constitutional Commission (“Komisi Konstitusi”) as a small cadre of Indonesia’s intellectual elites. Needless to say, this “other” process has been overlooked by the available scholarly accounts up to a point where it occupies the dustbin of history. Having said that, this article is the first to present a discussion on the overlooked work of the Commission as an elite-driven process of constitution-making in democratizing Indonesia. In addition to being situated within the tradition of archival-based biographical study, this study places the Commission as it pertains to the broader theoretical question with regard to the contemporary idea of constitutional tradition in Indonesian political thought. Moreover, another salient argument that this paper raises is that public displays of self-importance of the Commission provide a window not only for understanding the dynamics of the post-authoritarian Indonesian political thought but no less important to make a case for the importance of cultural analysis in understanding the constitutional practice.

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