The Dark Gift of May

By Budiman Tanuredjo, MemoBDM Substack, May 15, 2026

May always brings back memories. For Indonesia it marks the fall of the New Order regime after 32 years of rule. For Catholics, May is the month of Mary, a time for pilgrimage, reflection and inner silence.

This year I took a road trip from Wednesday night to Sunday morning. I traveled from Kerep Cave in Ambarawa to Sendang Sono in Kulonprogo, to Sendang Sriningsih in Klaten, Mojosongo Marian Cave in Solo, Ngrawoh Cave Park in Sragen and finally on to Tritis in Gunung Kidul.

I chose to travel by road so I would meet more people. Along the way I saw the nation at work. Buildings for the red-and-white cooperatives are beginning to appear in a few places. Cooperative cars are everywhere. National Nutrition Agency buildings are visible in various regions to support the free nutritious meal program.

But behind these buildings I sensed unease. How is the country really doing? The question arose again and again. In Sendang Sono, someone asked me why I wasn’t on television anymore. In Klaten, a trader asked me why television rarely reported the complaints of ordinary people. I couldn’t answer all of them. After people started to relax, I asked them: “Why don’t you join one of the [government’s new] cooperatives?” His reply was quiet: “I’m not sure it will work.” He then described his experience with regional bureaucracy — markups, unofficial fees, the fatigue of dealing with the system. “Even Nadiem is facing 18 years. And he was a minister,” he said.

At that moment I realized something: the ordinary people read the country very clearly.

Democracy on the brink

Before leaving Jakarta I chatted in the BacktoBDM guest room with a number of politicians and public figures: Benny K. Harman, Tubagus Hasanuddin, Ahmad Doli Kurnia and senior attorney Petrus Selestinus. One strong impression emerged from that conversation: the 1998 Reform is gradually coming to an end. That doesn’t mean elections are gone or parliament has been dissolved. But the spirit of democracy is gradually ebbing away.

The V-Dem Institute’s 2026 report even states that Indonesia is moving toward electoral autocracy. Democracy remains procedurally in place, but power has become increasingly concentrated and oversight institutions weakened. This phenomenon is described by Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way as competitive authoritarianism.

Modern regimes do not always openly kill democracy. Elections persist. Parties remain vibrant. The media continues to broadcast. But the political arena slowly becomes unbalanced: oversight institutions are weakened, the opposition loses space, the press loses its force as a check, and the law is applied selectively.

Democracy can appear alive from the outside while losing its substantive energy from within. Perhaps that is what we are experiencing today.

The press is losing its bite.

A Reporters Without Borders assessment suggests something similar: Indonesia’s press freedom ranking has fallen sharply, from 111th to 127th in the world. The country is now categorized as “difficult.”

This decline is more than a number. It reflects a new climate: the press is beginning to lose its watchdog function. Noam Chomsky calls this manufactured consent — when the media slowly shifts from acting as a check on power to shaping public agreement with the ruling party’s narrative.

Control does not always come through harsh censorship. Sometimes it comes through fear: fear of losing access, advertising, frequency or proximity to power; fear of an acid attack. As a result, criticism weakens not because it is banned but because people begin to censor themselves.

From democracy to oligarchy

The 1998 Reformasi changes offered great hope. Between 1998 and 2004, press freedom blossomed, a multiparty system emerged, decentralization took hold, and oversight institutions such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the Constitutional Court (MK) and the Judicial Commission were born.

However, procedural democracy does not automatically produce substantive democracy. Instead we saw party cartelization, transactional politics and the consolidation of a political-economic oligarchy. Parties gradually lost their ideological function and became preoccupied with managing access to state resources.

Democracy has shifted from “power by the people” to “elite competition for power.”

The nation’s spiritual atmosphere has felt stifled in recent times. Too many developments defy common sense: bans on discussions, control of narratives, suppression of criticism, nepotism and the selective application of the law.

All of this recalls the patterns we thought we left behind in 1998.

May should not simply be a ceremony to remember Reformasi. It should be a moment of national reflection. The country needs a national retreat — not one of platitudes and applause, but a space for honesty to confront the situation as it is.

Purchasing power is declining, inequality is widening, democracy is in retreat and public trust is eroding. Without honesty, Reform becomes an annual slogan.

Memo for us

May always reminds us: no power is truly eternal. History also teaches that democracy does not always die by coups. Sometimes it weakens slowly through small compromises and small fears, repeated over and over.

The country’s greatest task today is not simply to hold elections but to preserve the courage to be honest. A republic does not collapse solely because of economic crisis or political conflict. It collapses when too many people choose silence, even though they know something is wrong.

MemoBDM — Memo Nurani Bangsa

Budiman Tanuredjo is a senior journalist, former editor in chief of Kompas newspaper, host of KompasTV’s premiere current affairs talk show “Satu Meja The Forum” (2015 to 2025), author and doctoral student in political science. He now writes to give a voice to the voiceless through his MemoBDM Substack.

This post is based on https://open.substack.com/pub/memobdm/p/kado-kelabu-di-bulan-mei67. Featured image credit: Photographer Erik Prasetya via BBC and TribunNews, 20 Tahun Reformasi dalam Foto, Wanita Hebat Ini Masuk Catatan Sejarah, Ini Peran Mereka, https://medan.tribunnews.com/2018/05/21/20-tahun-reformasi-dalam-foto-wanita-hebat-ini-masuk-catatan-sejarah-ini-peran-mereka.