Question: In each question, there are five sentences/paragraphs. The sentence/ paragraph labelled A is in its correct place. The four that follow are labelled B, C, D and E, and need to be arranged in the logical order to form a coherent paragraph/passage. From the given options, choose the most appropriate option.
Indonesia has experienced dramatic shifts in its formal governance arrangements since the fall of President Soeharto and the close of his centralized, authoritarian "New Order" regime in 1997.
The political system has taken its place in the nearly 10 years since Reformasi began. It has featured the active contest for political office among a proliferation of parties at central, provincial and district levels; direct elections for the presidency (since 2004); and radical changes in centre- local government relations towards administrative, fiscal, and political decentralization.
The mass media, once tidily under Soeharto's thumb, has experienced significant liberalization as has the legal basis for non-governmental organizations, including many dedicated to such controversial issues as corruption control and human rights.
Such developments are seen optimistically by a number of donors and some external analysts, who interpret them as signs of Indonesia's political normalization.
A different group of analysts paint a picture in which the institutional forms have changed, but power relations have not. Vedi Hadiz argues that Indonesia's "democratic transition" has been anything but linear.
As per the options comparing statements B, C and D as the sentences to follow statement A, statement C gets eliminated. Statements B and D are far better sentences to follow statement A than statement C.
The next decisive point is the ‘such developments’ in statement D. As statements A, B, and C are talking about several developments, statement D is best placed at the end of it all, and will mar the structure of the paragraph if placed anywhere in between.
The choice then becomes very clear. Also, the link between statement D and statement E with their ‘some analysts’ (statement D) and ‘different analysts’ (statement E) is also obvious.
Hence, the correct answer is option 5.