To commemorate its 54th anniversary and welcome the World Class Research University Program, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIPOL) UGM held an international seminar entitled "Rethinking Indonesia: Political Transition Policy Changes". The seminar which took place in the Graduate Seminar Room in UGM FISIPOL presented Joan Ricart, Max Lane, Cornelis Lay, Vedi R Hadiz Afred Stepan, Gabriel Lele, Jamilah Ahmad, Johann Matti, Nadjib Azka, Paul Smith, Suparjan, and Tadjuddin Noer Effendi as the speakers.
The seminar which was opened by the Dean of FISIPOL, Prof. Dr. Pratikno, explained the various historical records in Indonesia:Â several major transition phases and significant change of social and political structures. Along with the great wave of decolonization in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the late 1940s, Indonesia finally gained independence after the colonial period that last more than three centuries.
Reform is widely believed to be a political transition from authoritarian regime to a more democratic one. The fall of Soeharto has destroyed the political structure of the New Order. In the decade that followed, Indonesia was introduced with a variety of changes.
In particular, the seminar highlighted the implementation of decentralization policies and processes of post-Suharto democratization that have extensively changed the relationship of contemporary politics in Indonesia. Efforts to limit the centralization of the state, which has been widely acknowledged as the source of totalitarianism, have been done by increasing community participation that involved various actors, primarily those related to major projects of political and economic liberalization. Multi-party system, decentralization, decentralization policy, economic liberalization, and so on, are not separated from these efforts.
Â