Abdurrahman Wahidas Efforts at Consolidating Democracy in Indonesia at Soeharto Authoritarian Regime Era (1990-1998)
Abdurrahman Wahid, former President of Republic Indonesia, was the first president at the Reformation Era which toppled down the authoritarian Soeharto regime. His success on becoming president because of his idea of democracy as well as his tract records of his efforts to consolidate democracy was able to convince both the secular nationalists and Islamist Muslims. His thought of democracy had justification from the fiqh paradigm employed by the traditionalist Muslims, mean while his efforts at consolidating democracy was not partisan, involving different social political groups. He was also able to convince the supporters of Soeharto as he was not reluctantly to accommodate them as long as having commitments to establish democracy. It was due to his non-revolutionary approach to progress at the Soeharto regime era, but his zigzag strategies often confused both his supporters and his opponents. He had made a counter discourse both to Soeharto regime and the Islamist Muslims, besides his commitment to develop religious organization groups to play a role of civil society.
