Link to get the full article:  http://sscs.massey.ac.nz/pdf/Macrae/Pilkada05ASR.pdf

Politik and Pilkada

Until recently, politik was a dirty word in Indonesia, “marked by a sinister tonality acquired after the political killings of the mid-1960s” (Pemberton, 1994, p. 4; see also Antlov, 2003, p. 75). After the fall of Suharto in 1998 and the end of his New Order [Orde Baru] regime, four changes of president in the following six years, and the successive programs of reformasi [reform], demokratisasi [democratisation] and desentralisasi [decentralisation], however, politics is back in the public domain. In Bali, where a studied apoliticism was raised to the level of an art sanctioned by religion (MacRae, 2003); the political has re-entered public life more gradually, with public figures now stepping into the formal political arena as candidates in free elections.

Link to get the full article:  http://sscs.massey.ac.nz/pdf/Macrae/Pilkada05ASR.pdf