The Role of Moral Outrage on the Impeachment of Garut Regent in 2012-2013

Abstract

Moral and political are two things that cannot be separated. The marriage of a regent in Garut regency, Indonesia, with an underage girl eventually leads to community action, where people demand the regent to resign from his position as a regional head. It was not even four days of marriage the regent had divorced his young wife via a short message from his own mobile phone. Therefore, the people of Garut suddenly expressed their wrath through a large-scale demonstration which pushedthe Local House of Representative immediately to process the regent’s removal. This research utilized a qualitative approach with a case-study method, the data in this research relied on the practice of in-depth interviews, observations, and documentaries. This research succeeded to observe that the general factor which underlying the action of demonstration in Garut which demanded the resignation of the regent was caused by the political climate change of democratization in the national level which also impacted Garut Regency. The national politicalclimate change increased the unconventional public participation in Garut and provided political sphere for non-state actors to establish political-involvement balance between state actors and non-state actors themselves. In other hand, the specific underlying factor on this case is the regent’s behavior which was judged as the act of dishonorable humiliation on women’s dignity, especially his speech in some national television channels. The power of this study lies on its novelty, filling in lubrication and study originality, towards the moral and ethical behavior as the new object on Social Movement.