Indonesia In The New World

Globalisation is more complex than ever. The effects of the global financial crisis and increased inequality have spurred anti-globalisation sentiment in many countries and encouraged the adoption of populist and inward-looking policies. This has led to some surprising results: Duterte, Brexit and Trump, to name a few. In Indonesia, the disappointment with globalisation has led to rising protectionism, a rejection of foreign interference in the name of nationalism, and economic policies dominated by calls for self-sufficiency. Meanwhile, human trafficking and the abuse of migrant workers show the dark side of globalisation. In this volume, leading experts explore key issues around globalisation, nationalism and sovereignty in Indonesia. Topics include the history of Indonesia’s engagement with the world, Indonesia’s stance on the South China Sea and the re-emergence of nationalism. The book also examines the impact of globalisation on poverty and inequality, labour markets and people, especially women.

There are reasons for thinking that this is at last Indonesia's moment on the world stage. Having successfully negotiated its difficult transition to democracy after 1998, Indonesia has held three popular elections with a low level of violence by the standards of southern Asia. Recetly its economic growth rate has been high (above 6 per cent a year) and rising, where China's has been dropping and the developed world has been in crisis. Indonesia's admission in 2009 to the G20 club of the world's most influential states seemed to confirm a status implied by its size, as the world's fourth-largest country by population, and the largest with a Muslim majority. Some international pundits have been declaring that Indonesia is the new star to watch, and that its long-awaited moment in the sun may at last have arrived.

Dalam novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley memperkenalkan sebuah dunia baru: dunia kita, beberapa abad di masa depan. Dunia di mana suatu pemerintahan telah berhasil menelusuri akar ketidakbahagiaan manusia, yang bermuara pada tiga hal: keluarga, seni, dan Tuhan. Demi menanggulanginya, bayi kemudian diciptakan dari dalam botol; melalui proses genetika yang canggih ia dihilangkan dari penyakit, dilepaskan dari kecacatan, untuk kemudian terbebas dari derita besar bernama orang tua. Tumbuh besar, mereka hanya belajar apa yang pemerintah ingin mereka pelajari. Maka seni pun dikebiri, menjadi tak lebih sekadar alat hiburan dan propaganda untuk masyarakat. Sementara sains dijadikan buku resep untuk hidangan industri. Konsumerisme diajarkan sebagai jalan hidup yang utama. Kitab suci diharamkan. Kebahagiaan dipusatkan pada dua sumber utama yakni seks bebas dan candu—konsumsinya dilegalkan dan dipantau ketat oleh pemerintah. Melalui cara-cara inilah perkembangan jiwa manusia berusaha diredam, karena apapun yang merangsang jiwa sesungguhnya adalah benih kegusaran yang pada akhirnya bakal menimbulkan ketidakstabilan masyarakat. Dengan melindungi status quo, maka kebahagiaan hakiki, utopia, dapat diraih. Tidak dengan murah memang, namun sekalinya tercapai, sistem sosial tersebut mustahil diruntuhkan. Sebuah tonggak keberhasilan peradaban manusia di depan alam serta Tuhan penciptanya. [Mizan, Bentang Pustaka, Hidup, Dunia, Tuhan, Bumi, Indonesia]

The argument here is that, although Indonesia would appear to be the natural leader in Southeast Asia, it has been singularly unsuccessful in putting its stamp on ASEAN. If anything, ASEAN has been put on Indonesia’s bebas dan aktif (independent and active) foreign policy stamp through Indonesia’s deference to self-constructed obligations to ASEAN solidarity and consensus. ASEAN’s political incoherence on regional security matters suggests that, for Indonesia, strategic independence from the immobilism of ASEAN decision making would put bebas dan aktif back into play in pursuit of Indonesian national security interests.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2020 BY NPR, THE FINANCIAL TIMES, AND GQ The hidden story of the wanton slaughter -- in Indonesia, Latin America, and around the world -- backed by the United States. In 1965, the U.S. government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians. This was one of the most important turning points of the twentieth century, eliminating the largest communist party outside China and the Soviet Union and inspiring copycat terror programs in faraway countries like Brazil and Chile. But these events remain widely overlooked, precisely because the CIA's secret interventions were so successful. In this bold and comprehensive new history, Vincent Bevins builds on his incisive reporting for the Washington Post, using recently declassified documents, archival research and eye-witness testimony collected across twelve countries to reveal a shocking legacy that spans the globe. For decades, it's been believed that parts of the developing world passed peacefully into the U.S.-led capitalist system. The Jakarta Method demonstrates that the brutal extermination of unarmed leftists was a fundamental part of Washington's final triumph in the Cold War.

Asia-Pacific in the New World Order critically explores the notion that a distinctive regional power bloc is developing linking countries bordering the Pacific, with East Asia at its core. This student-friendly volume sheds light on the complex interplay between global, regional and national forces which have transformed the Asia-Pacific area into one of the most vibrant and economically successful regions in the world. Historical narratives alongside geopolitical and geoeconomic perspectives are deployed to examine the shifting pattern of power relations and security structures across the region, set within a wider world context. Key issues addressed include: * what are the primary security problems of the region and how are they being resolved? * does the dynamic growth of the region, and particularly the rise of China, pose a challenge to existing structures of world order? The text has a strong interdisciplinary flavour drawing on analytical approaches from the international relations, political economy and political geography literature. Authors have been drawn from the Asia-Pacific region and the UK and all are established scholars in their specialist fields.