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Military Politics in Pandemic Indonesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Jun Honna
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Abstract

Indonesia remains the country with the largest number of Covid-19 fatalities in Southeast Asia. Observers have focused on the political impact of President Joko Widodo's crisis management. Many argue that the pandemic has exposed the country's democratic decline. This article focuses on the military and analyzes how the army has instrumentalized the coronavirus crisis to boost its agenda. We look into four cases of active army lobbying aimed to expand its missions beyond national defense, arguing that the army has skillfully exploited the Covid-19 crisis to reverse some key post-Suharto military reforms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 15 , August 2020 , e7
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2020

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