Between the elections of 1998 and 2004, Indonesia had four presidents, none of whom served a full five-year term. Suharto remained in office for just two months following his reelection in 1998. Habibie, his successor, served for only one year. Abdurrahman Wahid (1999–2001), who followed Habibie, was replaced after two years in office by Megawati Sukarnoputri (2001–04), the daughter of the late Sukarno. Dubbed an age of reformation (reformasi), these unsettled years immediately following the end of the New Order were characterized by increased freedom of the press, public demands for the development of a strong democracy and effective law enforcement, and calls by some regions for a greater degree of independence. Meanwhile, various areas in eastern Indonesia were destabilized by ethnic and religious conflicts.

When Suharto resigned, the obligation of delivering the presidential accountability report, a speech that he had made about every five years while in office, fell to Habibie, who presented the address in 1999. The report was rejected by the parliament, however, largely because of the controversy surrounding East Timor, which had seceded from the republic during Habibie’s presidency. Following this rejection, Habibie declared that he would not stand for reelection to the presidency.

The next president, Wahid, was an intellectual, newspaper columnist, and leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, an organization of Muslim religious scholars. Popularly known as Gus Dur (“Gus” being a reference to both his nobility and his devotion to Islam), Wahid was the first candidate to win the presidency through a vote by the People’s Consultative Assembly (Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat; MPR), as opposed to the earlier consensus-seeking process (musyawarah). With liberal views on religion and politics, he was able to garner votes from both Muslims and non-Muslims in the MPR to defeat Megawati, the presidential candidate of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia-Perjuangan; PDI-P), which had the most seats in the parliament. Once in office, however, Wahid was unable to promote cooperation between parliamentary factions, the military, and other political forces beyond his own party. He also was implicated in a number of scandals. In 2001, just 19 months after he won the presidency, Wahid was impeached by the parliament and dismissed from office.

Wahid was succeeded in office by his vice president, Megawati, who maintained some of his presidential priorities. Among those were the preservation of the integrity of Indonesian territory and the recovery of the economy. On the domestic level, Megawati strove to resolve conflict in restless regions such as East Timor, Aceh, and Irian Jaya. East Timor achieved full sovereignty in 2002. Aceh and Irian Jaya were given special autonomy and an increased budget; Irian Jaya became Papua in 2002 and was divided to become two provinces, Papua and West Papua, in 2003. In an effort to solicit foreign investment and explore additional export opportunities, Megawati traveled extensively during her first year in office, visiting the nine members of ASEAN, the United States, Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea, India, and other countries.

Despite Megawati’s accomplishments, however, confidence in her government was eroded by continuing economic problems, violence associated with separatists, and political corruption. The PDI-P lost badly in the April 2004 elections for the country’s new bicameral legislature, with Golkar—the former ruling party under Suharto—winding up with the largest number of seats in the lower chamber. Three months later Megawati survived the initial round of voting in the country’s first-ever direct presidential election, but she was easily defeated in a runoff vote by her opponent, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (her former security minister) of the Democrat Party (Partai Demokrat; PD).

Yudhoyono’s administration soon faced a major crisis: in late December 2004 a severe earthquake off the northwest coast of Sumatra triggered a large tsunami that inundated the island’s western coastal areas, notably in Aceh province, causing widespread death and destruction. In spite of that disaster, Yudhoyono succeeded in significantly improving the country’s economic and political stability. In the April 2009 parliamentary elections, Yudhoyono’s PD garnered the largest proportion of seats in the lower chamber and formed a majority coalition there. Presidential elections were held again in July 2009, and Yudhoyono won a second term in office.

In late September and early October, however, Yudhoyono was again confronted with disaster: another major earthquake and its aftershocks occurred off the coast of Sumatra, killing more than a thousand people and injuring thousands more in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra. More natural calamities followed in 2010. On October 25 another tsunami struck the Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra, killing some 500 people. Almost simultaneously, Mount Merapi in central Java began erupting, and it continued to do so for several weeks, causing the deaths of at least 350 and forcing some 130,000 to evacuate the area.

Indonesia nonetheless was generally prosperous and peaceful for most of Yudhoyono’s second term. In October 2012 Indonesia’s 34th province was created when North Kalimantan was carved out of the northern third of East Kalimantan. The country’s gross domestic product grew by more than 6 percent annually in 2010–12, and inflation fell to less than 5 percent. Economic growth began to slow in 2013, however, and inflation rose. His administration was dogged by corruption scandals, which also affected some high-ranking officials of the PD. Those factors led to growing public disillusionment with Yudhoyono’s government, and in the April 2014 parliamentary elections Megawati’s PDI-P won the largest number of seats in the legislature, in part because of the appeal of Joko Widodo (popularly known as Jokowi), the party’s nominee that year for president. Jokowi, who had risen from relative regional obscurity in central Java to win the 2012 election for governor of Jakarta, defeated former general Prabowo Subianto of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Partai Gerkan Indonesia Raya; Gerindra) in the July 2014 presidential election. Jokowi faced a legislative challenge, however, because Gerindra, led by Prabowo, was able to form a large-majority coalition in the parliament that included the PD, Golkar, and the Muslim PPP. In 2015 Indonesia’s economic performance was solid but slightly lower than expected, and Widodo responded by shuffling his cabinet.

Jokowi remained popular throughout his presidency thanks to his economic policies, including infrastructure development projects and social welfare programs. However, concerns arose over allegations that Jokowi—who could not run again in the 2024 presidential election because of term limits—was attempting to build a political dynasty when his eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, was selected as the vice presidential running mate of presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, the defense minister in Jokowi’s cabinet. Gibran, who was in his mid-30s, became eligible to run for the vice presidency in 2023 only after a court headed by Jokowi’s brother-in-law lifted the requirement that individuals must be at least 40 years old to serve as vice president. Prabowo promised to continue Jokowi’s infrastructure projects but has been criticized for alleged human rights violations. Other leading candidates were Anies Baswedan, the former governor of Jakarta, and Ganjar Pranowo, the former governor of Central Java. Whereas Prabowo was seen as relatively in line with Jokowi’s policies, Anies was widely viewed as being on the opposite end of the political spectrum from Jokowi. All three candidates heavily leveraged social media during their campaigns, as more than half of the eligible voters were millennials or members of Generation Z. Many young voters voiced concerns about the state of the economy.

On February 14, 2024, the presidential election was held, and early vote counts by independent pollsters indicated that Prabowo had won. He received about 58 percent of the vote, surpassing the threshold of 50 percent necessary to be elected president. Shortly after the voting, Prabowo claimed victory at a stadium in Jakarta, where he told his supporters, “We should not be arrogant, we should not be proud, we should not be euphoric. We still have to be humble. This victory must be a victory for all Indonesian people.”