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Islam, Democracy and Human Rights in Contemporary Indonesia159must not be swept away by political currents that drift too closeto the island of capitalism or to that of socialism.Therefore, the electoral system most suitable for Indonesia%u2014despite its strengths and weaknesses%u2014is the closed proportionalsystem. This system can help prevent divisions between thestrong and the weak, divisions that could ultimately lead tonational disintegration.Empirical Principles: Democracy and the EconomyThe demand to pursue the path of democracy at the end ofthe twentieth century was, in fact, triggered by the deteriorationof the national economy following the monetary crisis that struckThailand in mid-1997. This crisis soon spread like a virus acrossthe region, plunging Indonesia into an economic collapsemarked by hyperinflation and depression. As a result, in 1998,Indonesia%u2019s economic growth plummeted to %u201316.54%. Thenumber of poor people suddenly doubled to around 79.4 million,or 39.1% of the total population of 202 million, and mass layoffsoccurred across the nation.This economic shock led to social and political turmoil anda multidimensional crisis that forced an end to the centralizedsystem of governance, paving the way for decentralization,which aimed to bring public services closer to the people. Theauthoritarian era had to be concluded. The New Order regime,supported by military power, was replaced by civil supremacyunder a democratic state framework%u2014even though at that time,we had barely begun to spell out, let alone understand, the veryword democracy. We did not yet know how to manage it%u2014howto establish a balanced separation of powers among the