Justice, geography, and steel: Technology and national identity in Indonesian industrialization

Osiris

Volumn 24, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 253-277

  Moon, Suzanne ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 70450225592     PISSN: 03697827     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/605978     Document Type: Article

References (75)

1. Michael Hitchcock and Victor King, introduction to Images of Malay-Indonesian Identity, ed. Michael Hitchcock and Victor King (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1997), 5.
2. Jan Aart Scholte, "The International Construction of Indonesian Nationhood, 1930-1950," in Imperial Policy and Southeast Asian Nationalism, ed. Hans Antlov and Stein Tonnesson (Richmond, Surrey, UK, 1995), 191-226; and
3. Scholte, "Identifying Indonesia," in Hitchcock and King, Images of Malay-Indonesian Identity (cit. n. 1);
4. Coen Holtzappel, "Nationalism and Cultural Identity," in ibid. Hitchcock and King, Images of Malay-Indonesian Identity, 63-108.
5. Hitchcock and King, introduction (cit. n. 1), 3-4.
6. Benedict O'G. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Refl ections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London, 1983);
7. Holtzappel, "Nationalism and Cultural Identity" (cit. n. 2); and
8. Scholte, "Identifying Indonesia" (cit. n. 2).
9. See, e.g., the speech given by Sukarno, The Birth of Pancasila, 1 June 1945 (Jakarta, Indonesia, 1952)
10. ; a copy of this speech is reprinted in D. R. SarDesai, Southeast Asian History: Essential Readings (Cambridge, Mass., 2006).
11. See also Eka Darmaputera, Pancasila and the Search for Identity and Modernity in Indonesian Society: A Cultural and Ethical Analysis (Leiden, Netherlands, 1988)
12. ; Pintamalem Singulingga, Analisis Faktor-Faktor Yang Mempengaruhi Pemantapan Identitas Nasional Dalam PJPT II Untuk Meningkatkan Ketahanan Nasional Indonesia (Jakarta, Indonesia, 1992);
13. Abdullah Muchammad Ruslan, Peranan Media Massa dalam Memlihara dan Memantapkan Identitas Bangsa Indonesia (Jakarta, Indonesia, 1992).
14. Geographic data was found in Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. "Indonesia," http: // search.eb .com / eb / article-9106301 (accessed 24 April 2008). For general Indonesian history, see
15. M. C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia since c. 1200, 4th ed. (Stanford, Calif., 2008);
16. Jean Gelman Taylor, Indonesia: Peoples and Histories (New Haven, Conn., 2003)
17. This is a large and complex topic. A few recent works on the subject include Jemma Purdey, Anti-Chinese Violence in Indonesia 1996-1999 (Honolulu, 2006)
18. Leo Suryadinata, Chinese Indonesians: State Policy, Monoculture, and Multiculturalism (Singapore, 2004)
19. ; and R. William Liddle, "Coercion, Co-optation, and the Management of Ethnic Relations in Indonesia," in Government Policies and Ethnic Relations in Asia, ed. Michael E. Brown and Sumit Ganguly (Cambridge, Mass., 1997).
20. Holtzappel, "Nationalism and Cultural Identity" (cit. n. 2);
21. Darmaputera, Pancasila and the Search for Identity (cit. n. 5).
22. This approach is refl ected in Suharto's push for Pancasila education in schools. See R. E. Elson, Suharto: A Political Biography (Cambridge, UK, 2001).
23. Elizabeth F. Drexler, Aceh Indonesia: Securing the Insecure State (Philadelphia, 2008)
24. ; Anthony Reid, ed., Verandah of Violence: The Background to the Aceh Problem (Singapore, 2006);
25. Jim Elmslie, Irian Jaya under the Gun: Indonesian Economic Development versus West Papuan Nationalism (Honolulu, 2002).
26. For a 2006 statement from the Free Papua Movement, see http: // www.eco-action.org / ssp / westpapua.html (accessed 23 Sept. 2008.). East Timor's battle for independence is another example of this process. See Richard Tanter, Gerry van Klinken, and Desmond Ball, eds., Masters of Terror: Indonesia's Military and Violence in East Timor (Lanham, Md., 2006).
27. See for comparison studies that examine the signifi cance of national identity for other groups in society, including Jean Gelman Taylor, "Identity, Nation, and Islam: A Dialogue of Men's and Women's Dress in Indonesia," in The Politics of Dress in Asia and the Americas, ed. Mina Roces and Louise Edwards (Eastbourne, Sussex, UK, 2007), 101-20;
28. Leo Suryadinata, Peranakan's Search for National Identity: Biographical Studies of Seven Indonesian Chinese (Singapore, 1993);
29. and Ariel Heryanto, "The Years of Living Luxuriously: Identity Politics of Indonesia's New Rich," in Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia, ed. Michael Pinches (London, 1999), 160-88.
30. Anderson, Imagined Communities (cit. n. 4).
31. For further attention to the role of mapping in the colonial period, see Eric Tagliacozzo, Secret Trades, Porous Borders: Smuggling and States along a Southeast Asian Frontier, 1865-1915 (New Haven, Conn., 2005).
32. The importance of manipulating maps is not limited to the colonial period. See John Pemberton's discussion of the Indonesian theme park Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (Beautiful Indonesia in Miniature) in On the Subject of "Java" (Ithaca, N.Y., 1994).
33. For the colonial period, see Rudolf Mrázek, Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony (Princeton, N.J., 2002)
34. especially for his discussion of roads and radio. Although not explicitly concerned with the technological side of the question, the role of newspapers in the colonial period is explored in
35. Ahmat Adam, The Vernacular Press and the Emergence of Modern Indonesian Consciousness (1855-1913) (Ithaca, N.Y., 1995).
36. For postcolonial history, see Joshua Barker, "Engineers and Political Dreams: Indonesia in the Satellite Age," Current Anthropology 46 (Dec. 2005): 703-27;
37. Barker and Bart Simon, "Imagining the New Order Nation: Materiality and Hyperreality in Indonesia," Culture, Theory, and Critique 43, no. 2 (2002): 139-53;
38. Barker, "Telephony at the Limits of State Control: Discourse Networks in Indonesia," in Local Cultures and the "New Asia": The State, Culture, and Capitalism in Southeast Asia, ed. C.J.W.-L. Wee (Singapore, 2002), 158-83;
39. Sulfi kar Amir, "Power, Culture, and the Airplane: Technological Nationalism in New Order Indonesia" (PhD diss., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2005), ProQuest Digital Dissertations, http://www.proquest.com/ (publication number AAT 3183611) (accessed 24 April 2008)
40. ; Phillip Kitley, "Pancasila in the Minor Key: TVRI's Si Unyil Models the Child," Indonesia 68 (Oct. 1999): 129-52.
41. For a discussion of local identities and radio, see Jennifer Lindsay, "Making Waves: Private Radio and Local Identities in Indonesia," Indonesia 64 (Oct. 1997): 105-23.
42. Barker, "Engineers and Political Dreams" (cit. n. 14).
43. Amir, "Power, Culture, and the Airplane" (cit. n. 14).
44. Please note that during the course of the events described here, Indonesia reformed their system of spelling. In some sources, the city is known as Cilegon, in others as Tjilegon. For simplicity, I am using the contemporary spelling throughout this article.
45. I have adopted the modern spelling of Suharto (used by R. E. Elson in his biography) rather than the alternate spelling in the older orthographic system, Soeharto.
46. George McTurnan Kahin, Nationalism and Revolution in Indonesia (1952; repr., Ithaca, N.Y., 2003), 147-212;
47. John O. Sutter, Indonesianisasi: Politics in a Changing Economy (Ithaca, N.Y.,1959).
48. Sutter, Indonesianisasi (cit. n. 19), 238-39.
49. Sukarno, Birth of Pancasila (cit. n. 5).
50. See also J. D. Legge's enlightening analysis, especially his discussion of Sukarno's early work to integrate disparate nationalist groups, in Sukarno: A Political Biography (Sydney, 1972), 184-88.
51. For a detailed investigation of the Pancasila, see Darmaputera, Pancasila and the Search for Identity (cit. n. 5).
52. In practice, however, this meant privileging the pribumi, or indigenous people of Malay heritage, over people of Chinese heritage, who were treated as Dutch collaborators and hence tarred with the same brush.
53. On the loss of wealth to the Dutch, see Mohammad Hatta, "Drainage," in Verspreide Gescriften van Mohammad Hatta (Jakarta, Indonesia, 1952). Reprinted from the newspaper Hindia Poetra, issue 6, 1923. For a brief discussion of nationalist objections to technological and economic reform efforts, see
54. Suzanne Moon, Technology and Ethical Idealism: A History of Development in the Netherlands East Indies (Leiden, Netherlands, 2007), 140-43. On Sukarno's advocacy of noncooperation
55. , see Legge, Sukarno (cit. n. 21), 100-104.
56. Sutter, Indonesianisasi (cit. n. 19), 494.
57. Ibid., 174-75. For more on the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, see
58. Saito Shigeru, War, Nationalism,and Peasants: Java under the Japanese Occupation, 1942-1945 (Armonk, N.Y., 1994).
59. Gyan Prakash, Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India (Princeton, N.J., 1999).
60. Sutter, Indonesianisasi (cit. n. 19), 317-35. Tan Malaka was infl uential in both the Partai Kommunis Indonesia (PKI, Indonesian Communist Party) and the Partai Buruh Indonesia (PBI, Indonesian Workers' Party).
61. Ibid., 275-77. Other businesses could be owned by individuals, so long as the public welfare was always paramount. According to Sutter, only Masjoemi, the political party made up of a coalition of Islamic organizations, advocated private ownership as the norm (ibid., 317).
62. For Hatta's views on cooperatives, see Mohammad Hatta, The Co-Operative Movement in Indonesia (Ithaca, N.Y., 1957).
63. Sutter, Indonesianisasi (cit. n. 19), 34-79. See also Mrázek, Engineers of Happy Land (cit. n. 14).
64. Moon, Technology and Ethical Idealism (cit. n. 24), 136-37.
65. See also M. H. Thamrin, De Koloniale Structuur als Oorzaak van de Crisis en de Massaverarming (Batavia, Netherlands East Indies, 1932).
66. Sutter, Indonesianisasi (cit. n. 19), 498. Other desirable projects include a fertilizer factory, a soda plant, a glass and porcelain factory, tile and brickworks, earthenware factories, a cement factory, and paper factories.
67. Zakara Raib, a representative from the Ministry of Basic Industry and Mining, gave this fi gure in a press conference, as reported in "Trikora Steel Plant Project," Indonesian Observer, 22 May 1962.
68. "Menteri Perdatam Chaerul Saleh: Industri dasar sjarat mutlak merobah ekonomi kolonial," Warta Bhakti, 5 April 1962.
69. Legge, Sukarno (cit. n. 21), 268-77. For more on Sukarno's relationship to the military in the late 1950s and early 1960s, see
70. Herbert Feith, "Indonesia's Political Symbols and their Wielders," World Politics 16 (Oct. 1963): 79-97.
71. "Djiwa Besar menghubungkan semua manusia: Hari-Depan Sovjet dan Indonesia gilang-gemilang," Sin Po, 3 Sept. 1956. See similar rhetoric in a speech given in 1962 by Subandrio, the minister for foreign affairs, "Pidato Wakil Menteri Pertama / Menlu Subandrio Menjambut Upatjara Pemberian Komando Pelaksanaan Permbangunan Pabrik Besi-Badja Tjilegon," Kementerian Penerangan / Penerbitan Chusus, nos. 212-227 (Jakarta, Indonesia, 1962), 11-18.
72. "Djiwa Besar menghubungkan semua manusia" (cit. n. 37).
73. Feith, "Indonesia's Political Symbols" (cit. n. 36), 81-82.
74. Ibid. "Indonesia's Political Symbols", 81-82
75. Ibid. "Indonesia's Political Symbols", 81-82