Aug. 17 and New Order: Nation-building problem<\/p>\n
Max Lane, Center for Asia Pacific, Social Transformation Studies
\nUniversity of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia,
\nmax_lane@telstra.com<\/p>\n
Indonesia was in a state of constant revolutionary motion from
\nthe beginning of the 20th century until Sept. 30, 1965. All
\naround the world the modern nation state was created through
\nrevolutionary processes. The French Revolution, with its slogan
\nof \"liberty, fraternity, equality\" has probably made the greatest
\nimpact on the popular mind although other European nations also
\nexperienced great revolutions.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of the 20th century, the concept of a modern
\nnation state called Indonesia was non-existent. What is now the
\nIndonesian archipelago comprised a wide range of societies. There
\nwere strong and highly developed kingdoms and societies organized
\nalong tribal lines.<\/p>\n
There were no modern nations, that is, communities with clear
\ngeographical borders, a common language, common currency and
\nshared economic life, and a shared cultural outlook.<\/p>\n
Like the struggle in Europe against despotism under kings and
\nprinces, in the archipelago, the political struggle associated
\nwith the struggle to create and establish the modern state was
\nrelated with the struggle against colonial despotism; which often
\nutilized aspects of the old, feudal despotism of the sultans and
\nkings that dominated the islands before the arrival of the Dutch.<\/p>\n
The struggle cannot be separated from the struggle for freedom
\nof despotism of all kinds. Most leaders of the anti-colonial
\nmovement, figures such as Sukarno, Mohammad Hatta, Syahrir, and
\nthe one who started it all, Tirto Adhisuryo, were all democrats,
\nopposed to despotism.<\/p>\n
Their answer to colonial despotism was the idea of \"Indonesia
\nMerdeka\" -- a \"free\" and \"independent\" Indonesia. Tirto
\nAdhisuryo, the subject of the series of four novels by Pramoedya
\nAnanta Toer (the \"Buru Quartet\"), founded the first newspaper
\nthat struggled against colonial despotism. The newspaper's slogan
\nwas \"voice of the governed\".<\/p>\n
It was the cry of the governed against despotism that
\ntriggered a great revolutionary process, leading to the idea of a
\nmulti-ethnic nation, \"Indonesia\", that brought into being the
\ngreat mass movements of the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Sarekat
\nIslam and Sarekat Rakyat; and that inspired the proclamation of
\nindependence on Aug. 17, 1945 and the political, guerilla and
\ndiplomatic struggle between 1945 and 1949.<\/p>\n
Indonesia was, and therefore is, the product of a conscious
\nstruggle for democracy and not a manifestation of a cultural,
\nethnic or religious unity. Later, various leaders and movements
\nsought to give more specific content to the call for \"Indonesia
\nMerdeka\". Some did seek to draw ideas for this purpose from
\nstocks of ideas from pre-existing cultural traditions.<\/p>\n
These included various trends in Islam and from Javanese folk
\nas well as aristocratic philosophy. But never was any of this
\nthinking far away from one or other of the streams of thought on
\nmodern democracy. Sukarno could draw on Thomas Jefferson and
\nKarl Marx, while using Islamic and Javanese folk concepts.<\/p>\n
The anti-colonial movement developed great streams of Islamic,
\nsocial democratic, and socialist thinking. The proclamation of
\nindependence followed by intense struggle until 1949 ended Dutch
\ncolonialism and formal transfer of authority from the Netherlands
\nto the Republic of Indonesia. The Indonesian state was
\nestablished, a huge step in building an Indonesian nation. But
\nformal independence did not complete the formation of the nation.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian language needed to be spread to the population
\nand to be developed into the real language of the people.
\nPolitical institutions that would convince the people that they
\nwere real owners and participants of the new country had to be
\nestablished. A national culture had to be developed that was more
\nthan just a conglomeration of traditional cultures; a national
\nliterature had to be established. The economy had to be
\nrestructured out of the hands of the Dutch and developed as an
\ninstrument of the welfare of the Indonesians, and not a small
\ngroup of Dutch, British and U.S. companies.<\/p>\n
The process of nation building, of completing all these tasks,
\nwas characterized by struggle between the ideological
\nperspectives that had developed during the previous decades. This
\nprocess, including up until 1965, despite various distortions,
\nwas essentially democratic: All the major ideological streams in
\nsociety were able to participate. Political parties were the main
\nengines of nation building; ideological struggle was the essence
\nof its democratic character.<\/p>\n
In 1965, Maj.Gen. Soeharto suppressed all struggle between
\nideologies, imposing a single formal \"ideology\", \"Panca Sila\".
\nThe New Order also introduced, by both force and money politics,
\na single real ideology combining extreme obedience to authority
\nand desire to be obeyed (gila hormat), worship of money and
\nvulgar economic growth and consumerism. We can call this ideology
\n\"Golkarism\".<\/p>\n
Parallel with this was a suppression of the political parties
\nof the Left, the purging of centrist parties of their Left wing
\nand the gutting of the right-wing parties of the ideological
\nlife. Soeharto's suppression of ideological struggle and his
\ngutting of the political parties also ended key elements of the
\nnatiion-building process itself. President Sukarno regularly
\nstressed right up until 1965 that the national revolution was not
\nfinished. Soeharto destroyed the revolutionary process before it
\ncould be completed.<\/p>\n
None of the political institutions, neither the parties that
\nsurvived during the New Order nor the parliamentary institutions,
\ndeveloped as genuine instruments of participation and ownership.
\nEven now the mass of the population is alienated from these
\ninstitutions and the political elite that inhabits them. Not
\nsurprisingly, local rather than national sentiment is
\nstrengthening. Even in Java, people are demanding provinces of
\ntheir own, such as Cirebon.<\/p>\n
The trend towards localism and the alienation from political
\ninstitutions, including parties, will only be reversed if
\nideological life can be restored. Nation-building can only be
\nresumed and completed with a conscious effort to redefine once
\nagain what is meant by \"Indonesia Merdeka\".<\/p>\n
In the political institutions, Golkarism still prevails. In
\nthe mainstream parties, one form or other of Golkarism dominates.
\nMany new parties have been formed but none yet have been able to
\nlaunch a new ideological offensive to redefine and give content
\nto the \"Indonesia Merdeka\" that was proclaimed on Aug. 17.<\/p>\n
Where will such a dynamic come from? The New Order created a
\npolitical elite rolling in money whose ideology is Golkarism. The
\nNew Order also created a mass of tens of millions of poor people,
\nalienated from the institutions of the political and conglomerate
\nelite.<\/p>\n
In the 1920s, Sukarno told the story of how he watched a poor
\nfarmer work his land with a single buffalo and no matter how hard
\nhe worked remained poor. The man's name was Marhaen. Marhaenism,
\nor an ideology of prioritizing both the needs and the
\norganization of the poor developed as a popular outlook during
\nthe national revolution between the 1920s and 1965.<\/p>\n
Now very few speak of the \"Marhaen\": But there is more talk of
\nthe \"rakyat miskin\", the poor. Now there is no great \"poor
\npeoples movement\", but everywhere the poor protest their
\nconditions and grumble about the elite. If the elite has created
\nGolkarism, then a poor peoples movement, when it develops, will
\nsurely also produce ideologies of its own.<\/p>",
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