This report examines barriers to academic freedom and the exercise ofbasic rights erected during the thirty-two year authoritarian rule of PresidentSoeharto in Indonesia. As this report was being prepared, Indonesia was undergoing what appeared to be a momentous transition, spurred on by students and faculty, toward a more democratic society. Although many of the barriers had been rendered ineffective by the momentum of the reform movement, a series of legal limitations on citizens= exercise of basic rights remained in place and military authorities continued to have broad discretionary power to limit citizen=s rights in the name of Anational stability.@ Indonesia was also facing a deep economic crisis and sporadic outbreaks of violence against ethnic Chinese. One of the central contentions of this report is that, under Soeharto, open inquiry and debate on just such issues was stymied by far-reaching censorship, surveillance, and ideological pressures, and by intimidation, harassment, and imprisonment of outspoken critics. Scholars and students, well-situated to explore the social and political realities that underlie such problems and help in the search for solutions, were among those targeted by the government. Objective criticism is the basis of social progress; it is difficult to imagine how that progress can be achieved without uninhibited research and dialogue.
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