INTRODUCTION

Why were non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Indonesia able to increase to such an extent and to develop so many types of activities under the authoritarian Suharto regime (1965–98)? Meticulous research on Indonesian NGOs has already been conducted by Eldridge (1995), Hikam (1995), Sinaga (1995), Shuto (1997), and Riker (1998), but this question has not been adequately addressed.

To find the answer, it is necessary to grasp the concrete measures by which the Indonesian state controlled NGOs during the Suharto years and how the NGOs responded to those measures. It will then be seen that behind the “strong state” image of the Suharto regime was an inconsistency in the state's control and the systematization of that control. This inconsistency made it possible for the regime to deal with the activities of NGOs to its own advantage, but it also created space in which NGOs were able to operate freely. These characteristics have not changed fundamentally since the end of the Suharto regime.

This study will clarify, from this perspective, the reasons for the Indonesian state's inconsistency in its control of NGOs and the domestic and overseas factors that promoted NGO activities. It is further noted that the environment in which NGOs operate in the post-Suharto era is rapidly changing, and at the conclusion I would like to comment briefly on this.

In Indonesian “NGO” has been called “LSM” (Lembaga Swadaya Masyarakat, Self-Reliant Social Organization) or “LPSM” (Lembaga Pengembangan Swadaya Masyarakat, Self-Reliant Social Development Organization). With these appellations, organizations sought to evade repression under the Suharto regime, which interpreted “non-government” as “anti-government” (Setiawan 1996, pp. 336–37). But with Suharto's departure it is no longer necessary to exercise self-restraint in this way, and now the term ornop, a direct translation of “non-government organization”, is used as well as LSM (Setiawan 2000).

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENT STATE OF NGOs

Historical Development

The concept of the NGO was introduced in Indonesia in the 1970s, but the background against which NGOs took root and spread in Indonesia has a much longer history.