Indonesia Today

The turn of the century and the crossroads of reformasi presents a timely juncture for examining Indonesia's political, economic, and social history--both to evaluate current events and to chart the country's future course. Providing an up-to-date overview, this volume explores events, processes, and themes in contemporary Indonesia--including the evolution of political institutions and democracy, economic development and political economy, religious and social movements, political ideology, and the role of the armed forces. By holding a mirror to historical events, the authors add a rich dimension to our understanding of Indonesia and its problems, free from the exigencies of the present and the prejudices of the past.

The turn of the century and the crossroads of reformasi presents a timely juncture for examining Indonesia's political, economic, and social history--both to evaluate current events and to chart the country's future course. Providing an up-to-date overview, this volume explores events, processes, and themes in contemporary Indonesia--including the evolution of political institutions and democracy, economic development and political economy, religious and social movements, political ideology, and the role of the armed forces. By holding a mirror to historical events, the authors add a rich dimension to our understanding of Indonesia and its problems, free from the exigencies of the present and the prejudices of the past.

In May 1998, President Suharto stepped down as President of Indonesia.With his fall, the third largest country in Asia has plunged into anarchy and political, economic and social strife. Racial and religious clashes, culminating in riots, burning and chaos, have become the order of the day. Fissures in the social fabric are widening and there is a real danger that this multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural country may disintegrate, just like Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.Indonesia today is a fragile nation, a country in crisis. It is breaking apart because just as Sukarno had failed in his interplay of strength between Communism and the armed forces, Suharto failed to keep the balance of power between the armed forces and Islam. Moreover, the Indonesian people, by and large, have lost the spirit of tolerance, symbolised in the Indonesian state crest, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity). Without this spirit, so vital to a multi-religious and plural society, Indonesia is becoming economically ravaged, spiritually plundered, politically distraught, and socially incoherent.The author served as Singapore's Ambassador to Indonesia from 1970 to 1974. His interest in Indonesia began many years ago from 1955, when he had gone to Bandung to cover the Afro-Asian conference as a journalist. As Ambassador, he had the opportunity to travel widely across the country and observe the Indonesians at close quarters. Today, his friends range from President Suharto, Indonesia's military leaders, governors, mayors, to ordinary citizens, journalists, musicians and artists.In this book, he portrays the Indonesian people, their history and their cultural traditions. He provides insightful analyses and perspectives of the political collapse of Suharto and describes the danger facing the country. Describing the diversity in the history, traditions, customs and cultures of the various ethnic groups, he understands Indonesia like no other. Bringing the outsider's clarity of perception and the journalist-diplomat's experience of tradition and history, Lee Khoon Choy speaks with authority and credibility, passion and sensitivity about the challenges facing a vast, heterogeneous country that comprises 336 ethnic groups speaking 250 dialects.

In A New Criminal Type in Jakarta, James T. Siegel studies the dependence of Indonesia’s post-1965 government on the ubiquitous presence of what he calls criminality, an ensemble of imagined forces within its society that is poised to tear it apart. Siegel, a foremost authority on Indonesia, interprets Suharto’s New Order—in powerful contrast to Sukarno’s Old Order—and shows a cultural and political life in Jakarta controlled by a repressive regime that has created new ideas among its population about crime, ghosts, fear, and national identity. Examining the links between the concept of criminality and scandal, rumor, fear, and the state, Siegel analyzes daily life in Jakarta through the seemingly disparate but strongly connected elements of family life, gossip, and sensationalist journalism. He offers close analysis of the preoccupation with crime in Pos Kota (a newspaper directed toward the lower classes) and the middle-class magazine Tempo. Because criminal activity has been a sensationalized preoccupation in Jakarta’s news venues and among its people, criminality, according to Siegel, has pervaded the identities of its ordinary citizens. Siegel examines how and why the government, fearing revolution and in an attempt to assert power, has made criminality itself a disturbing rationalization for the spectacular massacre of the people it calls criminals—many of whom were never accused of particular crimes. A New Criminal Type in Jakarta reveals that Indonesians—once united by Sukarno’s revolutionary proclamations in the name of “the people”—are now, lacking any other unifying element, united through their identification with the criminal and through a “nationalization of death” that has emerged with Suharto’s strong counter-revolutionary measures. A provocative introduction to contemporary Indonesia, this book will engage those interested in Southeast Asian studies, anthropology, history, political science, postcolonial studies, public culture, and cultural studies generally.

In Politics in Contemporary Indonesia, Ken M.P. Setiawan and Dirk Tomsa analyse the most prominent political ideas, institutions, interests and issues that shape Indonesian politics today. Guided by the overarching question whether Indonesia still deserves its famous label as a ‘model Muslim democracy’, the book argues that the most serious threats to Indonesian democracy emanate from the fading appeal of democracy as a compelling narrative, the increasingly brazen capture of democratic institutions by predatory interests, and the narrowing public space for those who seek to defend the values of democracy. In so doing, the book answers the following key questions: What are the dominant political narratives that underpin Indonesian politics? How has Indonesia’s institutional framework evolved since the onset of democratisation in 1998? How do competing political interests weaken or strengthen Indonesian democracy? How does declining democracy affect Indonesia’s prospects for dealing with its main policy challenges? How does Indonesia compare to other Muslim-majority states and to its regional neighbours? Up-to-date, comprehensive and written in an accessible style, this book will be of interest for both students and scholars of Indonesian politics, Asian Studies, Comparative Politics and International Relations.

Beginning to Remember charts Indonesia's turbulent decades of cultural repression and renewal amid the rise and fall of Suharto's New Order regime. These cross-disciplinary pieces illuminate Indonesia�s current efforts to reexamine and understand its past in order to shape new civic and cultural arrangements. In 1998, "reformasi" brought a wave of relief and euphoria. But Suharto's removal did not dispel persistent corruption, official secrecy and denial, religious and ethnic violence, and security policies leading to tragedy in East Timor, Aceh, and other regions. But the reformasi did open up new possibilities for seeing the past. What followed was a surge of discourse that challenged officially codified national history in mass media and publishing, in public policy debate, in the arts, and in popular mobilization and politics. This volume is an exploration of some of the expressions, narratives, and interpretations of the past found in Indonesia today. The authors illustrate ways in which the dissolution of the Indonesian state's monopoly on history is now permitting new national, local, and individual accounts and representations of the past to emerge. The book covers fields from performing arts and literature to anthropology, history, and transitional justice. The book opens with Goenawan Mohamad's dramatic poem Kali, the first publication of this important work by one of Indonesia�s leading intellectuals, which has become the libretto for an international opera production. Another chapter is a personal memoir by one of Java�s famous shadow-play masters, Tristuti Rachmadi, for years imprisoned under the New Order. Leading historian Anthony Reid commemorates the national struggle at the regional level, while South African lawyer Paul van Zyl compares efforts in transitional justice in Indonesia, East Timor, and South Africa.