Beyond Bandung: developmental nationalism and (multi)cultural nationalism in Indonesia

Abstract

This article argues that the Indonesian case is characterised by at least two important variations on the thesis of a transition from developmental to cultural nationalism. First, the transition took place with the establishment in 1966 of Soeharto's New Order, much earlier than in most other countries, and was associated less with neoliberal policies than with a pronounced capitalist bias which could be combined either with statist or economically liberal policies. Second, the variants of cultural nationalism that have been most openly adopted by Indonesia's postcolonial state have been multicultural rather than exclusionary in orientation. The article provides an overview of the transition from developmental to (multi)cultural nationalism in Indonesia in the mid-1960s. These changes are highly visible in the Indonesian context because each successive political regime has defined its identity in large measure by its particular nationalism. Since the Indonesian state has historically been the main site for power struggles within the political elite, the changes over time in nationalist ideology reflect quite closely the changing political and economic fortunes of particular elements within this elite. They also indicate how elites are trying to define their relations to other groups in Indonesian society, and how they are adapting to constraints imposed, and opportunities presented, by a changing national and global political economy.