Transitional Justice in Southeast Asia Theory and Practice
Abstract
The issue of transitional justice has largely evaded the theoretical discussion on the democratization in Southeast Asian context despite the importance of coming to terms with the history of abuse and violence of the past authoritarian regimes. This article fills out this lacuna by incorporating the regional analysis of transitional justice process in several Southeast Asian countries to the larger and mainstream theories of transitional justices that are developed from other contexts. Using the case of transitional justice in Cambodia, East Timor, the Philippines, and Indonesia, this article found that the two most predominant accounts in the literature – the “balance of power” and the “justice cascade” theories – are inadequate to explain the conditions of emergence of the transitional justice and the kind of justice measure that the state would adopt. In turn, studies of empirical cases in these four Southeast Asian countries shed light on three plausible factors previously overlooked in the literatures: a) the distinctive, locally based, notion of justice; b) the frame and narrative of legitimacy of past violence; and c) the degree of complicity and entrenchment of current ruling elites in the past conflict.
References
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Brown, Kris. “‘What It Was Like to Live Through a Day’: Transitional Justice and The Memory of the Everyday in a Divided Society.” International Journal of Transitional Justice 6, no. 3 (2012): 444–66.
Christie, Kenneth. The South African Truth Commission. Basingtoke: Macmillan, 2000.
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Gorjão, Paulo. “The Legacy and Lessons of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor.” Contemporary Southeast Asia 24, no. 2 (2002): 313–36.
Huntington, Samuel. The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.
Huntington, Samuel P. “How Countries Democratize.” Political Science Quarterly 106, no. 4 (1991): 579–616.
Huyse, Luc. “Justice After Transition: On the Choices Successor Make in Dealing with the Past.” Law and Social Inquiry 20, no. 01 (1995): 51–78.
Jeffery, Renée, and Hun Joon Kim, eds. Transitional Justice in the Asia-Pacific. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
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Kelsall, Tim. Culture Under Cross-Examination: International Justice and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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———. “Interrogating the" Gap" Between Law and Justice: East Timor’s Serious Crimes Process.” Human Rights Quarterly 34, no. 4 (2012): 1021–44.
———. “Local Memory Practices in East Timor: Disrupting Transitional Justice Narratives.” International Journal of Transitional Justice 5, no. 3 (2011): 434–55.
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Kim, Hun Joon. “Structural Determinants of Human Rights Prosecutions After Democratic Transition.” Journal of Peace Research 49, no. 2 (2012): 305–20.
Kimura, Ehito. “The Struggle for Justice and Reconciliation in Post-Suharto Indonesia.” Southeast Asian Studies 4, no. 1 (2015): 73–93.
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Robison, Richard, and Vedi Hadiz. Reorganising Power in Indonesia: The Politics of Oligarchy in an Age of Markets. London: Routledge, 2004.
Shaw, Rosalind, Lars Waldorf, and Pierre Hazan. Localizing Transitional Justice: Interventions and Priorities After Mass Violence. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010.
Sikkink, Kathryn. The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics. London: WW Norton & Company, 2011.
Sikkink, Kathryn, and Hun Joon Kim. “The Justice Cascade: The Origins and Effectiveness of Prosecutions of Human Rights Violations.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 9 (2013): 269–85.
Simmons, Beth A. Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Skaar, Elin. “Truth Commissions, Trials-or Nothing? Policy Options in Democratic Transitions.” Third World Quarterly 20, no. 6 (1999): 1109–28.
Snyder, Jack, and Leslie Vinjamuri. “Trials and Errors: Principle and Pragmatism in Strategies of Interntional Justice.” International Security 28, no. 3 (2014): 5–44.
Solaas, Ida Maria. “Transitional Justice in East Timor: A Case Study of Justice Versus Reconciliation and Its Consequences.” Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of Oslo, 2009. https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/15080/MasterxthesisxIdaxMariaxSolaasxxJulyx2009.pdf?sequence=1.
Sriram, Chandra Lekha. “Revolutions in Accountability: New Approaches to Past Abuses.” American University International Law Review 19 (2003): 301–430.
Teitel, Ruti. Globalizing Transitional Justice: Contemporary Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Theiring, Robert. “The Policy of Truth: A Comparative Study of Transitional Justice Between the Rwandan Gacaca Court and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.” California Western International Law Journal 48 (2017): 159–88.
Un, Kheang. “Cambodia: Moving Away from Democracy?” International Political Science Review 32, no. 5 (2011): 546–62.
Wahyuningroem, Sri Lestari. “Seducing for Truth and Justice: Civil Society Initiatives for the 1965 Mass Violence in Indonesia.” Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 32, no. 3 (2013): 115–42.
Winters, Jeffrey A. Oligarchy. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Akmaliah, Wahyudi. “Remembering the Legacies of the Marcos Dictatorship: The Formation of Historical Memory and the Struggle for Justice in the Post-Marcos Period.” In The Work of the 2011/2012 API Fellows, 1–8. Bangkok, Thailand: API Regional Coordinating Institute, Institute of Asian Studies Chulalongkorn University, 2014.
Anderson, Benedict. “Cacique Democracy in the Philippines.” New Left Review, no. 169 (1998): 3–33.
Aspinall, Edward, and Fajran Zain. “Transitional Justice Delayed in Aceh, Indonesia.” In Transitional Justice in the Asia-Pacific, edited by Renée Jeffery and Hun Joon Kim, 87–123. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Brown, Kris. “‘What It Was Like to Live Through a Day’: Transitional Justice and The Memory of the Everyday in a Divided Society.” International Journal of Transitional Justice 6, no. 3 (2012): 444–66.
Christie, Kenneth. The South African Truth Commission. Basingtoke: Macmillan, 2000.
Cohen, David J., and Paul Seils. Intended to Fail: The Trials Before the Ad Hoc Human Rights Court in Jakarta. International Center for Transitional Justice, 2003. https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-Indonesia-Rights-Court-2003-English.pdf.
Fletcher, Laurel E., Harvey M. Weinstein, and Jamie Rowen. “Context, Timing and the Dynamics of Transitional Justice: A Historical Perspective.” Human Rights Quarterly 31 (2009): 163–220.
Gorjão, Paulo. “The Legacy and Lessons of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor.” Contemporary Southeast Asia 24, no. 2 (2002): 313–36.
Huntington, Samuel. The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.
Huntington, Samuel P. “How Countries Democratize.” Political Science Quarterly 106, no. 4 (1991): 579–616.
Huyse, Luc. “Justice After Transition: On the Choices Successor Make in Dealing with the Past.” Law and Social Inquiry 20, no. 01 (1995): 51–78.
Jeffery, Renée, and Hun Joon Kim, eds. Transitional Justice in the Asia-Pacific. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Jiwon, Suh. “The Politics of Transitional Justice in Post-Suharto Indonesia.” Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 2012. https://www.proquest.com/openview/48debc1c98d950cc38d5a77c98a23eee/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750.
Katzenstein, Suzanne. “Hybrid Tribunals: Searching for Justice in East Timor.” Harvard Human Rights Journal 16 (2003): 245–78.
Kelsall, Tim. Culture Under Cross-Examination: International Justice and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Kent, Lia. “Beyond ‘Pragmatism’ versus ‘Principle’: Ongoing Justice Debates in East Timor.” In Transitional Justice in the Asia-Pacific, edited by Renée Jeffery and Hun Joon Kim, 157–94. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
———. “Interrogating the" Gap" Between Law and Justice: East Timor’s Serious Crimes Process.” Human Rights Quarterly 34, no. 4 (2012): 1021–44.
———. “Local Memory Practices in East Timor: Disrupting Transitional Justice Narratives.” International Journal of Transitional Justice 5, no. 3 (2011): 434–55.
———. The Dynamics of Transitional Justice: International Models and Local Realities in East Timor. London: Routledge, 2018.
Kent, Lia, Joanne Wallis, and Claire Cronin. Civil Society and Transitional Justice in Asia and the Pacific. Canberra, Australia: ANU Press, 2019.
Kiernan, Ben. “Introduction: Conflict in Cambodia, 1945-2002.” Critical Asian Studies 34, no. 4 (2002): 483–95.
Kim, Hun Joon. “Structural Determinants of Human Rights Prosecutions After Democratic Transition.” Journal of Peace Research 49, no. 2 (2012): 305–20.
Kimura, Ehito. “The Struggle for Justice and Reconciliation in Post-Suharto Indonesia.” Southeast Asian Studies 4, no. 1 (2015): 73–93.
Kuddus, Rohana. “The Ghosts of 1965: Politics and Memory in Indonesia.” New Left Review, no. 104 (2017): 45–92.
Lustre, Philip M. “Search for Marcos’ Wealth: Compromising with Cronies.” Rappler. February 25, 2016. https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/123667-marcos-cronies-compromise/.
Maglana, Mags Z. “Marcos Burial, Transitional Justice, and Peace Process.” SunStar Philippines. August 19, 2016. https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/93110.
Nalepa, Monika. Skeletons in the Closet: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Europe. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Nevins, Joseph. A Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor. Cornell University Press, 2005.
Olsen, Tricia D., Leigh A. Payne, and Andrew G. Reiter. “The Justice Balance: When Transitional Justice Improves Human Rights and Democracy.” Human Rights Quarterly 32 (2010): 980–1007.
Plantilla, Jefferson. “Elusive Promise: Transitional Justice in the Philippines.” Human Rights Dialogue, Transitional Justice in East Asia and its Impact on Human Rights, 1, no. 8 (March 5, 1997). https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/publications/archive/dialogue/1_08/articles/553.
Robison, Richard, and Vedi Hadiz. Reorganising Power in Indonesia: The Politics of Oligarchy in an Age of Markets. London: Routledge, 2004.
Shaw, Rosalind, Lars Waldorf, and Pierre Hazan. Localizing Transitional Justice: Interventions and Priorities After Mass Violence. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010.
Sikkink, Kathryn. The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics. London: WW Norton & Company, 2011.
Sikkink, Kathryn, and Hun Joon Kim. “The Justice Cascade: The Origins and Effectiveness of Prosecutions of Human Rights Violations.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 9 (2013): 269–85.
Simmons, Beth A. Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Skaar, Elin. “Truth Commissions, Trials-or Nothing? Policy Options in Democratic Transitions.” Third World Quarterly 20, no. 6 (1999): 1109–28.
Snyder, Jack, and Leslie Vinjamuri. “Trials and Errors: Principle and Pragmatism in Strategies of Interntional Justice.” International Security 28, no. 3 (2014): 5–44.
Solaas, Ida Maria. “Transitional Justice in East Timor: A Case Study of Justice Versus Reconciliation and Its Consequences.” Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of Oslo, 2009. https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/15080/MasterxthesisxIdaxMariaxSolaasxxJulyx2009.pdf?sequence=1.
Sriram, Chandra Lekha. “Revolutions in Accountability: New Approaches to Past Abuses.” American University International Law Review 19 (2003): 301–430.
Teitel, Ruti. Globalizing Transitional Justice: Contemporary Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Theiring, Robert. “The Policy of Truth: A Comparative Study of Transitional Justice Between the Rwandan Gacaca Court and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.” California Western International Law Journal 48 (2017): 159–88.
Un, Kheang. “Cambodia: Moving Away from Democracy?” International Political Science Review 32, no. 5 (2011): 546–62.
Wahyuningroem, Sri Lestari. “Seducing for Truth and Justice: Civil Society Initiatives for the 1965 Mass Violence in Indonesia.” Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 32, no. 3 (2013): 115–42.
Winters, Jeffrey A. Oligarchy. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Authors
Nastiti, A. (2021). Transitional Justice in Southeast Asia: Theory and Practice. Asia-Pacific Journal of Elections and Democracy, 1(02), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.54490/apjed.v1i02.21
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