INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND EMPOWERMENT (IRE) Yogyakarta is an independent, non-partisan and non-profit oriented organisation, based on an academic community in Yogyakarta. It focuses on developing and deepening democracy through enhancing ideas, critical attitudes and tactical actions of civil, political and economic society elements and also the state.
Background
IRE was established and legalized by a notary deed in June 2nd, 1994. It was formed in response to the absence of society’s critical attitude and autonomy in encountering various forms of the repressive and discriminative socio-political constructions of the global regime, state, market and socio-cultural context, deeply rooted within society. The people were very powerless when confronting the cultural and socio-political structures.
The powerlessness of the people was in light of the domination and control the state applied by means of an oppressive military and bureaucracy. A monopoly and exploitation the state ran had marginalized them through the market. The state, through the socio-cultural context of media, often committed banditry and sectarian manipulations. As the result of these acts the people developed incivility towards the state. Even though the state played a dominant and hegemonic role, the government was not managed in a transparent and responsible manner. It was even undermined by blatant corruptions and deprivations. Therefore, it tended to be a soft state equipped with less capacity in ensuring: (1) the transformation of the economy, (2) social redistribution and (3) in dealing with inter-actor-conflicts within society.
At the same time, they were also put more aside in the wake of the imperialism global-regime through the ‘market’. The international regime, by means of the state, has caused people’s dependency. Moreover, the global regime spread homogenization and regimentation of culture through people socio-cultural that in turn resulted in the alienation and isolation of some people. In daily life, in the context of socio-cultural, discriminations emerged through various instruments such as religions, ethnicity, gender, age, race, etc. This caused public incivility in the form of horizontal violence.
During the New Order era the oppressions of the International regime, state, market and socio-cultural context worked systematically. They generated the people’s powerlessness and the extinction of people’s creativity and autonomy. When the New Order had been bankrupted along with Soeharto’s downfall, democracy began. The people were offered thousands of hopes, but also a million of challenges. The state’s restrictions scaled down, however the euphoria during transition period triggered incivility, jeopardizing the democracy and society themselves. The violence reproduced by the state had yet been stopped, in addition the shift of power from the state to the people or central to regional, was being followed by rampant horizontal conflicts in the socio-cultural context. Anyone could apparently recognize the massive horizontal violence in many regions or the emergence of “majority tyranny” based on religions, ethnicities, races, and so on. Meanwhile, the people have yet been able to be free themselves from the international regime’s oppressions through market and socio-cultural contexts.
So far, the powerlessness of local communities has remained a “social justification” of IRE to untiring existing within society. IRE, by undertaking such empowering efforts, keeps on working to provide support for the establishment of self-reliant and democratic civility of local communities.
