‘Democracy 1.0’ Meets ‘Web 2.0’: E-Campaigning and the Role of ICTs in Indonesia’s Political Reform Process since 1998

In recent years the Internet has changed dramatically. The ‘Web 2.0’ with its new technologies such as Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube is now an important tool for social-networking with significant implications for both, the online and offline realms of society and politics. At the same time, while the development of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) has advanced in an unprecedented speed, the spread of such technologies was accompanied with significant political changes in Indonesia since 1998, marking the collapse of the Suharto-regime and the move towards a democratic governance system. After more than three decades of authoritarian rule, ‘democracy 1.0’ has marked a fundamental reform process creating new political parties and allowing the free expression of opinion. While ICTs played a visible yet limited role in this transition process towards a mature democratic system, the role of ‘Web 2.0’ technologies is increasing, especially in election times facilitating the formation of public opinion while connecting citizens to the political process. In systematically analyzing the development of ICTs in Indonesia this study wishes to explain the role that new information technologies play in the political process of this country since 1998, while paying special attention to the most recent parliamentary and presidential elections of 2009. In studying the role of ICTs in political transformation processes and democratic development represents a widely unexplored question in the scholarship addressing the political developments in Southeast Asia. Therefore, this study attempts to address this important new field of research through taking a closer look at Indonesia while applying new theoretic insights generated from the discussion of the concepts of e-government, e-governance, and e-democracy and the links that bind them, online and offline.