Indonesia's President Soeharto led one of the most durable and effective authoritarian regimes of the second half of the twentieth century. Yet his rule ended in ignominy, and much of the turbulence and corruption of the subsequent years was blamed on his legacy. More than a decade after Soeharto's resignation, Indonesia is a consolidating democracy and the time has come to reconsider the place of his regime in modern Indonesian history, and its lasting impact. This book begins this task by bringing together a collection of leading experts on Indonesia to examine Soeharto and his legacy from diverse perspectives. In presenting their analyses, these authors pay tribute to Harold Crouch, an Australian political scientist who remains one of the greatest chroniclers of the Soeharto regime and its aftermath.

These essays investigate institutionalized violence in New Order Indonesia and the ongoing legacy Suharto's dictatorship has conferred on the nation. The collection includes papers on East Timor, Aceh, Biak, the police, and the Indonesian military, among other topics.

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Beginning to Remember charts Indonesia's turbulent decades of cultural repression and renewal amid the rise and fall of Suharto's New Order regime. These cross-disciplinary pieces illuminate Indonesia�s current efforts to reexamine and understand its past in order to shape new civic and cultural arrangements. In 1998, "reformasi" brought a wave of relief and euphoria. But Suharto's removal did not dispel persistent corruption, official secrecy and denial, religious and ethnic violence, and security policies leading to tragedy in East Timor, Aceh, and other regions. But the reformasi did open up new possibilities for seeing the past. What followed was a surge of discourse that challenged officially codified national history in mass media and publishing, in public policy debate, in the arts, and in popular mobilization and politics. This volume is an exploration of some of the expressions, narratives, and interpretations of the past found in Indonesia today. The authors illustrate ways in which the dissolution of the Indonesian state's monopoly on history is now permitting new national, local, and individual accounts and representations of the past to emerge. The book covers fields from performing arts and literature to anthropology, history, and transitional justice. The book opens with Goenawan Mohamad's dramatic poem Kali, the first publication of this important work by one of Indonesia�s leading intellectuals, which has become the libretto for an international opera production. Another chapter is a personal memoir by one of Java�s famous shadow-play masters, Tristuti Rachmadi, for years imprisoned under the New Order. Leading historian Anthony Reid commemorates the national struggle at the regional level, while South African lawyer Paul van Zyl compares efforts in transitional justice in Indonesia, East Timor, and South Africa.

Media, Culture, and Politics in Indonesia is about the institutions and policies that determine what Indonesians write, read, watch, and hear. It covers the print media, broadcast radio and television, computers and the internet, videos, films and music. This book argues that the texts of the media can be understood in two broad ways: 1. as records of a "national" culture and political hegemony constructed by Suharto's New Order and 2. as contradictory, dissident, political and cultural aspirations that reflect the anxieties and preoccupations of Indonesian citizens. Media, Culture, and Politics, now brought back to life as a member of Equinox Publishing's Classic Indonesia series, explains what has escaped state control, not only by self-conscious resistance, but also because of the ownership patterns, technologies, and modes of consumption of media texts and institutions. The role of the media in the downfall of Suharto is examined and the legacy of his New Order is analyzed. This dynamic and innovative text is suitable for all students of Indonesian languages and culture, Asian studies, Southeast Asian studies, cultural studies, media studies, and contemporary politics. Krishna Sen is Professor of Asian Media and Dean of the Humanities Research Centre at Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia David T. Hill is Professor of Southeast Asian Studies and Fellow of the Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia

This revised third edition provides an analysis of Suharto's New Order from its inception to the emergence of B.J. Habibie as President. The author reassesses the New Order's origins and its military roots and evaluates the considerable economic changes that have taken place since the 1960s. He examines Suharto's politics and, in a new chapter, the reasons behind the crisis and Suharto's fall.