Reform after Reformasi: Middle Class Movements for Good Governance after Democratic Revolutions in Southeast Asia

The global discourse of good governance was localized during the Indonesian reformasi movement which toppled the Suharto regime. The movement’s slogan denouncing ‘collusion, corruption and nepotism’ could not have summarized the World Bank’s position any better! Yet less than a decade later, authoritarian regimes in Pacific Asia are flourishing while the new democracies flounder. The instability of democratic governments in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand is the result of a dialectical relationship between good governance and democracy. Invoked initially during anti-dictatorship struggles, the good governance discourse has been redirected against democracy in reaction to the rise of money politics and a populist challenge. A middle class-led insurrection that drew military backing toppled democratically-elected leaders in the Philippines and Thailand. But these people power coups could not bring about better governance as political systems remained patrimonial. The paper concludes with brief comparisons of populism in Latin America and reformism in South Korea.