Indonesia Beyond Soeharto

This text presents an accessible introduction to the most significant problems facing Indonesia and raises issues for further investigations. It addresses such questions as: how has Indonesia managed to remain one country?; and is there a truly national Indonesian culture?

Annotation. This book explores the position of Islam as one of the domestic political variables in Indonesia's foreign policy during the Soeharto era. It argues that the foreign policy of Indonesia toward the Muslim world under Soeharto was increasingly the result of political struggles between domestic actors, particularly the Muslim community and the State.

This book responds to the critical need of policymakers, practitioners, and scholars for current research on Indonesia.

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Three decades of authoritarian rule in Indonesia came to a sudden end in 1998. The collapse of the Soeharto regime was accompanied by massive economic decline, widespread rioting, communal conflict, and fears that the nation was approaching the brink of disintegration. Although the fall of Soeharto opened the way towards democratization, conditions were by no means propitious for political reform. This book asks how political reform could proceed despite such unpromising circumstances. It examines electoral and constitutional reform, the decentralization of a highly centralized regime, the gradual but incomplete withdrawal of the military from its deep political involvement, the launching of an anti-corruption campaign, and the achievement of peace in two provinces that had been devastated by communal violence and regional rebellion.

How can an underdeveloped country like Indonesia draw on outside resources for its national development without sacrificing its independence? Approaching the problem from the vantage point of the Indonesian elite, this important work explores the complex interactions between domestic political factors and the shaping of foreign policy. To illustrate the ways in which underdevelopment has affected Indonesia's international participation, Professor Weinstein presents a graphic picture of what Indonesia's leaders see when they view the outside world, and he systematically seeks out the sources of their perceptions. He shows that most of the elite see the international system as dominated by exploitative powers that cannot be relied on to assist Indonesia's development. He examines the relationship between perceptions and politics under both Sukarno and Soeharto and offers an illuminating comparison of the bases of foreign policy under each leader, revealing dramatic changes and surprising continuities. His cogent analysis helps to explain the sharp reversal of policy in 1966, and his conclusions form a convincing hypothesis that can be tested in other Third World countries. This book, now brought back to life as a member of Equinox Publishing's Classic Indonesia series, will attract specialists in Southeast Asia, as well as readers with a broader interest in the politics and economics of underdeveloped countries. FRANKLIN B. WEINSTEIN was Director of the Project on United States-Japan Relations at Stanford University, where he also taught in the Department of Political Science. A graduate of Yale University, he received his PhD from Cornell University.

"During much of Soeharto's thirty-two years of reign as president (1967-1998) Indonesia was seen as a successful test-case in third-world development, a wayward pariah turned into a shining example of modern economic planning and democracy. His New Order government won awards from the United Nations for the country's advances in family planning. The nation's massive development plans won the applause of the World Bank and international financiers. In fact, behind the New Order's benign facade was an intricate web of nepotism, corruption and a persistent and wide-ranging repression of civil liberties, the full scope of which is now just beginning to become apparent." "Indonesia in the Soeharto Years delves into many of the issues and incidents that shaped the nation, from the grim years of 1965 and 1966, up until the nation's first direct election for the president in 2004." "Photographs by many of the nation's top photojournalists and essays by economists, government leaders, journalists, activist and scholars provide unique insights into the politics, culture and history of Indonesia under the New Order." "With the more than fifty short essays, eighty photographic series and extended captions, and 500 historical photographs, this book is an essential document for anyone interested in the politics and culture of modern Indonesia. It is also a publishing milestone; with the work of 125 photographers under one cover, it offers the first-ever comprehensive pictorial look at contemporary Indonesian history."--BOOK JACKET.