Activist Archives: Youth Culture and the Political Past in Indonesia

Abstract

Activist Archives: Youth Culture and Political Past in Indonesia. By Doreen Lee. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2016. Softcover: 278pp. Almost two decades after fall of Suharto regime in May 1998, we still know very little about movement that was driving force behind Indonesia's turn to democracy. In post-Suharto era, movement lost limelight to other actors better equipped for game of politics, and thus moved ever deeper into realm of collective memory as feverish episode in history, aligned with longer history of (youth) activism in Indonesia. Yet, as Doreen Lee persuasively argues in Activist Archives, it is from edges of history that pemuda fever continues to infuse present with urgency and legitimacy (p. 3), animating culture of democracy that firmly established radical styles and ideas within political and cultural landscape of Jakarta. Remedying dearth of literature on post-New Order activism, Activist Archives offers sophisticated ethnography of Generation 98, ingeniously structured around key tropes of material and ideational spaces that activists inhabit. With keen eye for detail and paradox, Lee delves deep into micropolitics of these spaces, starting with Archive. She shows how activists' feverish drive to document, consign, and assemble signs of nationalism (p. 11) served as an authenticating to compete with state discourse, which was, however, complicated by concurrent need for secrecy, epitomized by tacit rule: Burn after reading. By highlighting social life behind documentation, Lee uncovers significant findings that many other researchers might have overlooked. A charming example is scene reconstructed from scribbles found on back of official statements used during 1997 subversion trials; it shows how two activists, waiting for their turn to testify, exchanged insolent jokes, conveying the undercurrent of youthful nonchalance and puerile lightheartedness even during gravity of subversion trial (p. 55). Youthfulness also pervades chapters on Street and Style, which show how performativity of protest and carefully cultivated look helped to make subversive symbols of left trendy and less threatening, thus creating a new model of citizenship for Indonesian youth by making political participation desirable and accessible (p. 91). In an engaging section on production and circulation of protest T-shirts, Lee further illustrates how this visual economy served purposes of collective identity as well as propaganda. But while she properly contextualizes iconography in political history, crucial differentiations in style between different activist communities, which symbolize deep fractures in post-Suharto movement, are neglected. Not all activists identified with appearances of Molotov cocktail-throwing urban warrior pictured in two illustrations (pp. 92--93). Though this image dominated protest scenes and media reports in early years of reform, it was acceptable to certain groups only, and rejected by others opposed to their mode of protest. Leaving image unproblematized risks making caricature of negotiated self-presentation, as happened with cliched image of revolutionary of 1945 that many Indonesia scholars uncritically accepted. The chapter on Violence presents more careful analysis, introducing notion of student counterviolence as dynamic practice that solidifies and simultaneously disrupts students' moral superiority over state. This is illustrated by various fascinating vignettes. But most gripping is story of former activist Iblis, who was abducted and tortured by military in 1990s. With great sensitivity, Lee recounts his sense of devastating defeat at realizing his nothingness as sacrificial scapegoat subjected to his torturers' whims. …