arose.

Given the political and economic instability, on 21 May, 1998 Suharto finally

announced his resignation (Crouch, 2010). Following the fall of Suharto, reforms have

been gradually made in almost every aspect of the Indonesian government. As an

example, the governance system was decentralised (this will be further explained in

Chapter Six). Reforms in the law, military, the electoral system also took place, to

name a few (Crouch, 2010; Erb et al., 2013; Forrester, 1999; Schwarz and Paris, 1999).

In short, the post-Suharto era provided space for Indonesia to become a newlydemocratic

country. Civil society started to flourish and the quantity of CSOs

increased significantly. While there was no official database to calculate the exact

number of CSOs in Indonesia, some figures can be traced. According to the National

and Political Unity Office, a unit within the Indonesian Ministry of Internal Affairs,

there were 3,225 organisations registered in 1995. The amount doubled to 8,720 and

then increased sharply to 13,400 in 1998 and 2000 respectively (Koran Jakarta, 2013).

In 2013, 139,957 CSOs were registered by different governmental institutions, 108 of

them are international CSOs registered under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Government officials believe that the numbers of CSOs could actually be higher, as

some CSOs may not register themselves with government agencies (JPNN, 2013).

Nonetheless, these figures illustrate the tremendous development of CSOs in Indonesia

over this time.