HARMONY BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY IMAGE IN THE PAVILION OF INDONESIA AT WORLD EXPO IN THE PERIOD OF THE NEW ORDER

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:World Expo has been used for number of objectives. It serves as place where cultural exchanges take place and findings of cutting edge technology for the advancement are displayed. It also represents the national identity of nation and at the same time strengthens awareness to find solution for universal issues. The New Order regime made strategic policies relating to tourism development and its improvement. They activel y worked on cultural mission to foreign countries and exhibitions such as the World Expo. This regime also took serious measures to shape and improve Indonesia's positive image based on their achievements in the nation's development measures. Referring to the Garis Besar Haluan Negara (GBHN) Guidelines of the State Policy' concerning communication, the New Order stated, international communication aims at improving Indonesia's positive image based on the achievements of the development so hopefully it will give positive impact on the significant increase of the development activities... (bappenas.go.id). The New Order government shaped the image of Indonesia before the world through the presence of its pavilions in the World Expo. Indonesia's positive image in the eyes of the world became extremely important for the New Order regime.Although the organizer of the World Expo always offered different themes for every event to be used by the pavilions to pass on the messages they want to send, plainly, all the pavilions of Indonesia during the New Order regime appeared similar; they all portrayed the face of Indonesia by means of the merging of modern and traditional building, cultural diversity through dances, traditional music, demo of the making of Indonesia's traditional crafts such as making batik, keris a wavy-bladed kind of dagger', and carving and weaving. In view of that, this research will focus on analysing how the New Order 's positive image was presented in the display of the Indonesia's pavilions in World Expo.FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION:New Order's Situation:New Order was regime that created distinct boundary with the previous regime, the Old Order. A message from President Soeharto on the spirit of the New Order, in seminar organized by the Indonesian Army taken place in Bandung in August 1966 was as follows: ... New Order will be of more pragmatic and realistic but we will not forget about our idea on the meaning of independence. New Or der wants to put the national interest at the forefront by keeping holding on the ideology that totally goes against communism and imperialism. New Order did not go against strong government and leadership; this is the characteristic that we will use in this transitional period. New Order will implement the principle of democracy in the field of economy. This is meant to reach fair and prosperous society based on the five principles (Pancasila) and One Supreme God as our moral values. (Knapp, 2007).The birth of the New Order was interpreted as the starting point to re-arrange the regulations to save the nation. The New Order created political orientation in the form of order, stability, security and economic development. Development, according to the New Order, can be carried out when all conflicts both in terms of politics and ideology can be avoided and removed.In its early period, the New Order regime worked on the national development focusing on the agriculture and the industrial supporting the agriculture sector by means of the policy of agricultural modernization, which is by changing the traditional way of farming to modern one. This policy actually follows the development of the world's agricultural technology moving towards industrialization. This regime aimed to lower the dependency of the farmers upon the climate and nature, to increase food productions to meet the needs of the speedy ever - growing needs of the population. …