The mystification of the unitary state of Indonesia

Riwanto Tirtosudarmo, Jakarta

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono attended the commemoration of "Pancasila Sanctity" Day on Oct. 1, a practice that was scrapped by former president Abdurrahman Wahid. The purpose of the celebration, however, has changed to not only remember the (non-communist) victims of the alleged coup attempt by the now defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), but to reaffirm the country's commitment to the concept of the Unitary State of Indonesia, known by its Indonesian acronym "NKRI".

NKRI until now is still regarded as having a sacred and mystical status that stands above and beyond all other interests.

Indonesia, in contrast with the neighboring state of Malaysia, was born as a nation with a strong sentiment of civic nationalism. The Javanese, although demographically the dominant ethnic group, accepted non-ethnic based nationalism.

On Oct. 28, 1928, leaders of various youth organizations gathered in Batavia (now Jakarta) and declared the Youth Pledge -- One Nation, One Nationality, and One Language.

"Indonesia", an obscure Greek word first coined by G.W. Earl and J.R. Logan in their articles written in 1850, was subsequently used by a progressive student organization in the Netherlands and became an important symbol of nationalism and a rallying slogan for nationalist leaders in the struggle for independence.

When our founding fathers declared the nation's independence on Aug. 17, 1945, secular ideologies (nationalism, communism and socialism) apart from Islam became the basis for party politics after independence.

Political life in the fifties and early sixties shows the continuation of trans-ethnic based parties and the importance of civil society in Indonesia. After the Sept. 30 tragedy, and the ouster of the country's first president Sukarno, only the military and the weak nationalist and Islamic parties still existed in the Indonesian political landscape.

The military under Gen. Soeharto, who became Indonesia's second president in 1968, slowly transformed itself into a powerful organization that comprehensively infiltrated national politics and civilian government. The Indonesian political terrain was depoliticized under the new quasi ideology of developmentalism. The government, supported by the U.S. and the West generally, focused national development strategy on economic growth.

Furthermore, under Soeharto political parties were marginalized and the regions become peripheralized. In this period, decentralization was conducted within the contexts of over-centralization and the deepening process of mystification of Indonesia as a conclusive and final unitary state.

In the New Order's period a narrow version of Indonesian nationalism was entrenched and became a source of intimidation and persecution for the government's critics and any groups that were perceived as a threat to national integration and the political stability of the ruling elites.

With the fall of Soeharto from power in 1998 political parties flourished again. The 1945 Constitution was amended, and general elections were far more democratic. The over-centralization was loosening up.

It is within this changing climate of decentralizing politics that ethnicity emerged as a strong mobilizing cultural movement in the post-Soeharto political landscape. The emergence of ethnic politics in the current decentralizing era could have detrimental impacts on Indonesia's nation-building process.

The strengthening of ethnocentrism -- mostly reflected by non Javanese -- that developed in conjunction with the implementation of new decentralization policies could be seen as a process of disintegration from within. From the perspective of ethnic relations in Indonesia it also interesting to see whether the current emergence of ethnic politics also reflects the long suppressed anti-Javanese sentiment.

Relations between the centre and regions have always been an important political agenda item and are constantly being negotiated throughout the life of the republic.

However, the mystification of NKRI under Soeharto is regaining momentum again now. The military's strong perception of the nation as essentially constituting a spatial entity with a clear geographic boundaries that should be jealously guarded from external threats has become the underlying factor in mystifying NKRI as a sacred cow with all its taboos.

From this narrow nationalistic view point the possible implementation local autonomy in Aceh and Papua, or federalism as a logical political alternative for a future Indonesia, has always been resisted by the ruling elites.

Yet, on the contrary, Indonesia has been experiencing a process of disintegration from within under the sacredness of NKRI. A celebration of national symbols is indeed crucial in strengthen people's feeling of nationhood, however it should not obliterate it.

The writer is a researcher at the Research Center for Society and Culture, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).