Anita Barraud – Democracy in Indonesia is fragile and the economy struggling. In a nation of 240 million, half the population live on less than $2 a day. Indonesia has the lowest standards of education in the region and one of the highest rates of corruption.
The dangers of shadowy terrorist cells still exist. Some Islamic boarding schools teach extremist ideology, there are continued abuses by a still powerful military, elites from the old authoritarian regime still influence the political, business and legal landscape. Nepotism, collusion and money politics are entrenched. So many challenges; so many issues to explore.
While waiting at Denpasar airport in Bali, I meet a young man from Flores, an island off the coast of West Timor. We chat and I tell him my brief: four radio programs exploring Indonesia's transition to democracy.
He laughs. "Indonesia has had democracy for just over 10 years. There are countries that have had it for 150 years and still haven't got it right," he says.
He has a point. Since 1998, Indonesia has transformed. There are now more than 30 political parties, a robust anti-corruption drive and the military, officially at least, is banned from political influence. The conservative Islamic parties have suspended campaigns for the introduction of shariah law. The two main Muslim organisations are stressing a just and prosperous nation rather than an Islamic state.
In little more than a decade, Indonesia has guaranteed freedom of the press, expression and association, and has signed all the major UN conventions on human rights and disability and mandated sexual equality, aiming for 30 per cent female representation in all government administrations.
East Timor gained its independence and Aceh achieved special autonomy status. Open a newspaper in Indonesia, watch afternoon talk shows on television and you'll find vigorous discussion and criticism, even ribald satire, on issues that rival any in a Western democracy.
It's a far cry from the stifled, often brutal repression of more than three decades under the Suharto New Order era, and a remarkable achievement for any nation, let alone one that contains as many ethnic groups, languages and traditions as there are days of the year.
The average age in Indonesia is 27. This year 180 million people are eligible to vote in the parliamentary and presidential elections. At least half will barely remember the Suharto era and 13 per cent will be first-time voters. So, in a nation of youth in a young democracy, why do political billboards and banners across the archipelago feature wrinkly faces from the old regime? Where are the open-faced, bright young leaders?
Most of the presidential candidates played a role in the authoritarian regime, including a former head of the Special Forces Unit who is related by marriage to the Suharto family, a retired general, as well as the incumbent, who was a high-ranking military official. Former military, police, business moguls and members of wealthy or well-connected families are prominent in the many new parties as well as in the more established cadres.
In Jakarta, I talk to analysts, politicians, students, artists and activists, as well as people in the streets. At Paramadina University in south Jakarta, established in 1998 to promote modern Islamic values, Anies Baswedan is a Muslim intellectual who, at 38, is the youngest head of a university. He was voted one of the top 100 intellectuals by US-based Foreign Policy magazine last year.
Baswedan provides one obvious reason as to the lack of fresh faces in post-Suharto politics. "In 1997 and '98, the student movement led the demonstrations against Suharto, at the time most of us were in our late teens or early 20s, now we are still only in our 30s, so by most standards we are not in a position yet to become leaders."
But, he adds, it's true that to get into politics in Indonesia you need money and connections. "Money, politics, collusion and nepotism are still part of the political fabric and it will take time for that to change," says Anies.
Some students sit in the shade of a tree eating dried noodles and chips, and texting friends. While the 19-year-olds are more excited about Barack Obama than local politics, they are keen to participate in the April elections. One student had already made his mark in a local district poll. He was disappointed his candidate was not elected but shrugged and said, "next time".
Throughout my journey, from the northern tip of Sumatra to the East Timor border, even in the poorest regions, Indonesians are largely positive about the transition to democracy, despite a failure to deliver economic stability to more than half the population.
Whether eating steamed cassava with subsistence farmers in West Timor, drinking the famous thick Acehenese coffee in northeast Bireuen district with teachers at their newly built primary schools, or talking to young artists at a noisy gallery in south Jakarta, I found a real pride, optimism and engagement with the political process.
It's reflected in past voter turnout figures, surely one of the best in the democratic world, apart from Australia, where voting is compulsory.
The 1999 and 2004 national elections in Indonesia attracted between 75 and 93 per cent participation and an average 70 per cent took part in direct elections for local district heads.
This is extraordinary. The US presidential elections in 2008 attracted less than 60 per cent voter turnout, despite the excitement surrounding its first black major-party nominee.
Across the 17,500 islands (about 6000 of them inhabited) that straddle the equator from the edge of the Malay Peninsula to just north of the Gulf of Carpentaria, elections are a part of the local as well as national conversation. With more than 30 provinces as well as regencies, subdistricts and village polls, Indonesians are on a fast-track learning curve of the electoral process.
Baswedan is also a government adviser on decentralisation and regional autonomy. "Provincial heads, district leaders or bupatis are now answerable to their local constituents, not central government," he says.
Through the archipelago, a common complaint is that democratisation has created "little kings", local rulers pushing their own business or political interests.
There are revelations of corrupt practices, poll-fixing allegations and stories of mayors, village and district heads building palaces, employing their own shoe polishers or imposing civil shariah laws to force schoolgirls and female office workers to wear the veil.
Anies agrees the claims that devolving power to the regions and districts has to some extent decentralised corruption.
"It is true," he says. "But the local level now has to understand you have to deliver prosperity, jobs, houses, education, and if it is not happening, every five years the community can vote for change. If you see a local Bupati building a big house, it's pretty obvious that person won't last."
He says in more than 450 local elections since decentralisation was adopted in 2004, less than 30 per cent of members have been re-elected.
There are also complaints that local autonomy has added layers of fees and taxes, contributing to Indonesia's reputation as one of the hardest nations to do business in.
One of the younger generation of politicians and a woman, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, agrees that decentralisation has created problems. "It has created an additional challenge to us, but if we're serious about democracy we have to give power back to the people... it demands more time but it is manageable."
Indrawati believes Indonesia is poised to dominate the Association of South-East Asian Nations. "Indonesia is unique... all these countries think that a Muslim country cannot reconcile with democracy, but we did. This country has a lot of potential," she says.
The minister says districts are quickly learning that to attract investment they must provide efficient and transparent administrative practices.
Baswedan adds that media, business and activist groups are becoming vigilant in exposing bad or corrosive practices. It is here he believes that former student activists as well as young entrepreneurs are making their mark.
In central Jakarta, I walk around the crowded shopping strip of Jalan Sabang where stallholders are selling DVDs and mobile phones, and food vendors jostle for custom.
Reza, who has worked his food stall on this street for more than 40 years, deftly flips serabi, a cone-shaped rice flour and coconut pancake, and fills it with papaya custard.
Reza says despite being worse off financially he is happy in this new democratic era. During Suharto's New Order he didn't bother to vote. He remembers it as a time of prosperity and security but, he adds, no one really knew how much debt there was. "We didn't realise the level of corruption and money politics then," he says.
In 1997 during the Asian financial crisis Indonesia's banking system almost collapsed and the economy contracted by 14per cent. It's still in recovery. Suharto's handling of the crisis was one of the factors that led to his resignation and Indonesia's transition to a liberal democracy.
Reza celebrates the daily exposes of corruption, a sign, he says, of the dirty washing hanging out to dry. "Now we have a free media we know what's going on," he says.
At a funky art cafe in central Jakarta, some students show me the latest thing in cool mobile phone ringtones. It's a scratchy phone tap that was used to convict a former deputy attorney-general for his role in a financial scam during the Asian economic crisis. "Hear how bad they are, and we got them," they say with relish.
The students and Reza believe democracy is not fragile or struggling. While there's little expectation of dramatic changes following this year's elections, especially in the present global economic crisis, they are looking towards a new reformasi era.
Their greatest excitement is for 2014, the next elections, when present leaders and candidates will have run out of opportunities and many civil servants blocking reform agendas will have retired. They believe that five years from now Indonesia will not just have a young population but a youthful political face, as a new wave of leaders emerge.
[The first of a joint ABC-BBC four-part series on the elections, produced and presented by Anita Barraud, will go to air today at 2pm on ABC Radio National's new features and documentaries program, 360. It will be repeated on Wednesday at 1pm. Episodes on Aceh, West Timor and Bali will go to air on the following three Saturdays.]