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This book discusses the development and use of community as an instrument of government. It argues that the small local communities embracing most of Java's population are basically political constructions and elements of a modern capitalist order. Sullivan proposes that the practice demonstrates that it is more efficient to govern communal collectives than a smaller family or other household units, making it possible to control vast populations with little administrative overhead. ... Read more

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Post-colonial social and political change at the village level has been a major continuing interest of the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project. In the village studies it has sponsored particular attention has been given to the lodgement of power, political organization, and the processes by which decisions are made.Relatively brief surveys of two to three months by Indonesian graduate students during 1955-1956 in twenty-three villages on Java and fourteen on Sumatra helped set the stage for subsequent studies in depth by four social anthropologists. These studies have been undertaken in Central Java, in West Java (one near Bogor and one near Sumedang) and Sumbawa, respectively by Dr. Koentjaraningrat, Dr. Gerald Williams, Andrea Wilcox Palmer, and Dr. Peter Goethals.The data collected and analysed in these studies should be of interest to the political scientist and sociologist interested in Indonesia as well as to the anthropologist. In view of the substantial areas of common concern in the research of these four anthropologists, it is our hope that their data will permit some meaningful comparison and that the significance of some of their findings may have a relevance transcending the Indonesian scene and prove useful to social scientists working in other areas.In any case there should be no doubt as to the intrinsic value of Dr. Goethals' study and of its significance to social scientists of whatever discipline who are concerned with contemporary Indonesia. Based upon two years of intensive research in western Sumbawa, his is the first of the village studies in depth to appear in the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project's Monograph Series. - George McT. Kahin, August 2, 1961 ... Read more

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This book examines the dynamic process of political transition and indigenous (adat) revival in newly decentralized Indonesia. The political transition in May 1998 set the stage for the passing of Indonesia’s framework decentralization laws. These laws include both political and technocratic efforts to devolve authority from the centre (Jakarta) to the peripheries. Contrary to expectations, enhanced public participation often takes the form of adat revivalism - a deliberate, highly contested and contingent process linked to intensified political struggles throughout the Indonesian archipelago. The author argues adat is aligned with struggles for recognition and remedial rights, including the right to autonomous governance and land. It cannot be understood in isolation, nor can it be separated from the wider world.

Based on original fieldwork and using case studies from Sulawesi to illustrate the key arguments, this book provides an overview of the key analytical concepts and a concise review of relevant stages in Indonesian history. It considers struggles for rights and recognition, focusing on regulatory processes and institutional control. Finally, Tyson examines land disputes and resource conflicts. Regional and local conflicts often coalesce around forms of ethnic representation, which are constantly being renegotiated, along with resource allocations and entitlements, and efforts to preserve or reinvent cultural identities.

This will be valuable reading for students and researchers in Political Studies, Development Studies, Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies and Politics.

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The armed forces of Indonesia have been engaged in off-budget business activities since the country declared its independence in 1945. Now, the newly democratic government would like to end that dependence on off-budget income and fully support the military with funding from the governmental budget.

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Customer Reviews (3)

Useful but biased and not extensive
Between 1965 and 1967 more than 1 million mostly Chinese Indonesians were murdered under the pretext that they were COmmunists. THe real reason for their killing was that they were a minority, they were Chinese and they were not Muslim, which made them a target of the Indonesian nationalist Muslim government under Suharto.

This book however ignores the murders, the genocide, the pogroms, and instead focuses on the plot that was the pretext or excuse for unleashing the genocide.This is tantamount to writing an entire book on the Holocaust and examining only the killing of Reinhard Heydrich instead of examining the subsequent mass murder.

This book is mostly one long anti-American bashing polemic that blames the United States for all the murder and terror inflicted by the Indonesian government on the Chinese minority.The book insinuates that John Foster Dulles and Eisenhower were 'waiting' for the attempted Communist coup and used the killing of a few military officers to unleash the coup and the mass murder.But the U.S had no role in the mass murder that followed.The U.S was fed a lie by Suharto, namely that the Communists were trying to sieze power, and thus Suharto was able to carry out his ethnic-cleansing.

Seth J. Frantzman

An Excellent Look at a Sadly Overlooked Coup
"Pretext for Mass Murder" is an impressive overview of the complicated events behind the 1965-1966 coup in which pro-U.S. General Suharto seized power and began a three decade reign of terror. Roosa worked with a group of Indonesian scholars on interviews and other historical research which produced core material for this book. Though in the end Roosa concludes that a few members of the Indonesian communist party (PKI), by launching an ill-conceived anti-military action, did provide the provocation which rightist military forces and the U.S. had been waiting for in 1965, the foolhardy actions of those individual PKI members do not in any way absolve Suharto and his western backers for what consequently happened (an epic campaign of bloodletting which eviscerated the PKI and killed up to a million Indonesians).

In Roosa's words:"In the months before October, the United States and the army wanted an incident like the movement to occur[...] Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers - Allen at the head of the CIA and John Foster at the head of the State Department - viewed all nationalist Third World leaders who wished to remain neutral in the cold war as Communist stooges. In full confidence of their right to handpick the leaders of foreign countries, Eisenhower and the Dulleses repeatedly used CIA covert operations to overthrow such leaders: Mossadegh in Iran in 1953, Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, and Souvanna Phouma in Laos in 1960.The Dulles brothers viewed Sukarno as yet another irritating character who needed to be removed from the world stage."

The book effectively synthesizes a wealth of information and is extremely well written, and thankfully devoid of the clunky jargon which sinks so many otherwise useful academic volumes.

Great essay, not a great book
This book is not your typical one, as the subject matter, (the September 30th Movement), does not lend itself to a proper narrative.The whole event is surrounded in mystery, with many holes in the story yet to be filled, so the book is rather open ended and tries to interperate numerous accounts.If you are interested in the subject matter, it is the best source available.If you just have a mild interest in Indonesian history, it will probably be too dry a read.I'd give it 5 stars for being the best source of information on this topic, but can only give it 4 stars for reading enjoyability. ... Read more

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This new report provides a comprehensive, map-basedanalysis of the scale and pace of change affecting Indonesia's forestsand identifies the forces and actors that are drivingdeforestation. Forest Watch Indonesia and Global Forest Watch havecompiled the best available official data and reports fromenvironmentalists in the field to address the following questions: Howmuch of Indonesia's forest cover is left, and how much has been lostover the past 50 years? What is the condition of remaining forestcover today? What are the major driving forces behind deforestation,and who are the principal actors? Given current political and economicconditions in Indonesia, what are the prospects for forest policyreform?

The report's findings do not provide grounds for much optimism,despite clear signs of change in Indonesia. The major bilateral andmultilateral donors are now working actively with the IndonesianGovernment to develop a strategy and action plan for reform. TheIndonesian Ministry of Forestry is committed to implementing specificactions at the national level and has recently endorsed a wide-rangingregional plan to combat illegal logging. Yet, even if current policyreforms are successful, it is clear that Indonesia is in transitionfrom being a forest-rich country to a forest-poor country, followingthe path of the Philippines and Thailand. ... Read more

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The Politics of Indonesia is the only book to provide a complete analysis of Indonesian politics, from the declaration of independence until the election of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in late 2004. The book examines the underlying themes and tensions that affect Indonesian politics, from the dichotomy between the small wealthy elite and the poverty in which most of the population live to the system of corruption and patronage within which the political system and armed forces operate. Analyzing the role and impact of the military, separatism, the media, law, and the economy on Indonesia, this book provides a topical and thought-provoking guide to one of the regions most populous countries, and the largest predominantly Muslim country in the world. ... Read more

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Since the fall of long-reigning President Soeharto, in 1998, Indonesia has been in an era of transition, away from an authoritarian regime, and on a quest for democracy. This quest started with decentralization laws implemented in 2001, which gave greater autonomy to the regions, and continued with the direct elections for the national and local legislatures and the President in 2004. The latest development in this democratization process is the implementation of a system for the direct election of regional leaders, which began in 2005; the first round of elections across the nation for all governors, mayors and district heads was completed in 2008. Authors of the chapters in this volume, the result of a workshop in Singapore in 2006, present data from across the archipelago for these first direct elections for local leaders and give their assessment as to how far these elections have contributed to a deepening democracy. ... Read more

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This report consists of establishments who provide social services to the community, based on the social work profession carried out in institutions operated by the government. Those institutions include the provision of accommodation for the aged; accommodation, rehabilitation, education and training skill for delinquent children, neglected or abused children, handicapped children, drug and narcotics victims, prostitutes, disadvantaged persons (unemployed, beggars etc.)This report covers the scope, size, disposition and growth of the industry including the key sensitivities and success factors.Also included are five year industry forecasts, growth rates and an analysis of the industry key players and their market shares. ... Read more

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This report consists of all activities (administrative, operational etc.) of the government civil defence forces, covering the Pertahanan Sipil= HANSIP (Peoples Civil Defence), the Keamanan Rakyat= KAMRA (Peoples Civil Security ) and the Resimen Mahasiswa = MENWA (Student Brigade), which are generally managed by the local government.This report covers the scope, size, disposition and growth of the industry including the key sensitivities and success factors.Also included are five year industry forecasts, growth rates and an analysis of the industry key players and their market shares. ... Read more

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This book explores the forces reconfiguring local resource governance in Indonesia since 1998, drawing together original field research undertaken in a decade of dramatic political change. Case studies from across Indonesia’s diverse cultural and ecological landscapes focus on the most significant resource sectors – agriculture, fisheries, forestry, mining and tourism –providing a rare in-depth view of the dynamics shaping social and environmental outcomes in these varied contexts.

Debates surrounding the ‘tragedy of the commons’ and environmental governance have focused on institutional considerations of how to craft resource management arrangements in order to further the policy objectives of economic efficiency, social equity and environmental sustainability. The studies in this volume reveal the complexity of resource security issues affecting local communities and user groups in Indonesia as they engage with wider institutional frameworks in a context driven simultaneously by decentralizing and globalizing forces. Through ground up investigations of how local groups with different cultural backgrounds and resource bases are responding to the greater autonomy afforded by Indonesia’s new political constellation, the authors appraise the prospects for rearticulating governance regimes toward a more equitable and sustainable ’commonweal’.

This volume offers valuable insights into questions of import to scholars as well as policy-makers concerned with decentralized governance and sustainable resource management.

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This study comprises five case studies from the ILO 1989 World Labour Report, which examines the employment conditions of public service employees. These case studies were subcontracted to scholars in developing countries - Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Venezuela. In order to compare the case study results with information from other developing countries, Derek Robinson from Magdalen College, Oxford wrote an overview on government employment and pay. The main message of the studies is that governments had to reduce expenditure on the wage bill, because they had to face up to rapidly increasing debt payments. Most governments chose to maintain public service employment as much as possible, while they reduced employment in (or privatized) public enterprises. ... Read more

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In 2004 the Indonesian government made a commitment to provide its entire population with health insurance coverage through a mandatory public health insurance scheme. It has moved boldly already provides coverage to an estimated 76.4 million poor and near poor, funded through the public budget. Nevertheless, over half the population still lacks health insurance coverage, and the full fiscal impacts of the government s program for the poor have not been fully assessed or felt. In addition, significant deficiencies in the efficiency and equity of the current health system, unless addressed will exacerbate cost pressures and could preclude the effective implementation of universal coverage (UC) and the desired result of improvements in population health outcomes and financial protection.For Indonesia to achieve UC, systems performance must be improved and key policy choices with respect to the configuration of the health financing system must be made. Indonesia s health system performs well with respect to some health outcomes and financial protection, but there is potential for significant improvement. High-level political decisions are necessary on key elements of the health financing reform package.The key transitional questions to get there include:the benefits that can be afforded and their impacts on health outcomes and financial protection; how the more than 50 percent of those currently without coverage will be insured; how to pay medical care providers to assure access, efficiency, and quality; developing a streamlined and efficient administrative structure; how to address the current supply constraints to assure availability of promised services; how to raise revenues to finance the system, including the program for the poor as well as currently uninsured groups that may require government subsidization such as the more than 60 million informal sector workers, the 85 percent of workers in firms of less than five employees, and the 70 percent of the population living in rural areas. ... Read more

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Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state, with more than 18,000 islands and over 7.9 million square kilometres of sea. The marine frontier presents the nation with both economic opportunities and political and strategic challenges.Indonesia has been affected more than most countries in the world by a slow revolution in the management of its waters. Whereas Indonesia's seas were once conceived administratively as little more than the empty space between islands, successive governments have become aware that this view is outmoded. The effective transfer to the seas of regulatory regimes that took shape on land, such as territoriality, has been an enduring challenge to Indonesian governments.This book addresses issues related to maritime boundaries and security, marine safety, inter-island shipping, the development of the archipelagic concept in international law, marine conservation, illegal fishing, and the place of the sea in national and regional identity. ... Read more

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The To Pamona, the people of the highlands of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, exhibit the effects of a complicated history of colonial contact. In this anthropological study, Albert Schrauwers examines the profound impact of a Dutch Protestant Mission on the religion and culture of the To Pamona.

Schrauwers reveals how a unique discourse on religion in the Netherlands was exported to its colony, Indonesia. The missionaries fostered a religious nationalism that ultimately transformed the region's cultural and political identity over the course of the subsequent century. The role of the church in Dutch and Indonesian affairs of state is established and the historical roots of this 'pillarization' are unearthed. Central to this phenomenon among the To Pamona, says Schrauwers, was the influence of Dutch missionary Albert C. Kruyt, who used ethnographic methods to impose upon the people a foreign religion and social structure.

Schrauwers has based his study on extensive archival research conducted in the Netherlands, as well as two years of field work in Sulawesi. He presents a dynamic view of the evolution of religious practice among the To Pomona, and brings new material to the scholarship on identity and religion in Indonesia. ... Read more

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Politics in Indonesia desribes the attitudes, aspirations and frustrations of the key players in Indonesian politics as they struggle to shape the future. Although Indonesia is sometimes seen as a "closed" political system, Douglas E. Ramage makes it clear that in fact real questions are being asked about the future of the political order in Indonesia.

Politics in Indonesia focuses on the role of political Islam and shows that the state has been remarkably sucessful in maintaining secular political institutions in a predominantly Muslim society. Ramage analyzes the way in which political questions are framed with reference to the national ideology, the Pancasila, and explores the ways in which Indonesia's political, military, religous, democratic and intellectual leaders employ the Pancasila to strengthen their own political power. ... Read more

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Governing Indonesia is about the birth of indonesian democracy, and the recent political history of Indonesia from 1950 to the present day.

The essential question Governing Indonesia asks is: do countries of the third world stand a better chance of attaining a real democracy by initially limiting individual democratic rights in favour of economic progress, managed ethnic diversity and the general good?

Raj Vasil controversially argues that the most effective way of ensuring the success of democracy in the newly-industrialised nations such as Indonesia is to introduce democracy gradually.Paradoxically, the increasingly wherewithal of Indonesian citizens will ultimately make it possible for them to act more effectively as citizens of a true democracy than by introducing all the elements of a typical western style liberal democracy at the start.


· The only book that looks at modern indonesian politics from the perspective of the modern political development in the region as a whole
· The author's controversial argument about the need and role of `limited' democracy in modern developing countries
... Read more