Copyright 2000 www.cosmopolis.ch Louis Gerber All rights
reserved.
Modern Indonesia since c. 1300
a book by M.C. Ricklefs, second edition 1993, 392 p.
Indonesia has been at the center of
international attention for several years now. In order to understand the
archipelago's complex present, one needs to have a look at its history. M.C.
Ricklefs, Director of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the
Australian National University, explores precisely this theme. The second
edition of his book was published in 1993. It is not very substantial on what
happened after 1975, but it offers a
clear chronology and "a basic but detailed narrative of Indonesian
history since c. 1300". The book covers the time from the emergence of the
modern era with the coming of Islam until the country's independence in 1950,
its guided democracy of 1957 to 1965 and the creation of Suharto's "New
Order".
Ricklefs introduces the reader to the major
issues of the different periods and the most important published secondary
sources. The earliest inscriptions of the Indonesian archipelago are on seven
stone pillars from Kutai in East Kalimantan, which on palaeographic grounds
are dated to c. AD 400. Also very early Chinese sources are available.
"Indigenous sources and Chinese records have enabled scholars to
reconstruct much of the history of the pre-Islamic states of Indonesia, which
included some major empires of the ancient world. One of the greatest of
these, Majapahit, is discussed briefly in Chapter 2 [...]", which
concentrates on the struggle for hegemony in the years 1630-1800.
The pre-Islamic states were Hindu-Buddhist.
They not only left major literary and artistic legacies, but they continued to
be influential long after the coming of Islam, as Ricklefs discusses in his
chapter on the destruction of the colonial state (1942-50). "The social,
administrative and political traditions of these states also had an abiding
influence."
For Ricklefs, the period since c. 1300 appears
"to make a coherent historical unit, which this book calls Modern
Indonesian history". There are of course sub-periods, but three
fundamental elements give it a historical unity. Firstly, a cultural and
religious one: the Islamisation of Indonesia began in c. 1300 and continues
today. Secondly, a topical element: the interplay between Indonesians and
Westerners began c. 1500 and still continues. Thirdly, a historiographical
element: primary sources throughout this period are written almost exclusively
in the modern forms of Indonesian languages such as Javanese and Malay (rather
than Old Javanese and Old Malay) and in European languages. All these elements
emerged between 1300 and 1500 and have remained ever since.
The author opted for a detailed narrative which
gives students and other readers a lot of information from which to build their own generalisations or to question
those of others. Ricklefs does not give space
to broad interpretive themes and does not try "to impose any new
synthesis upon Indonesian history, although of course [his] views are implicit
throughout the volume."
The author gives the history of Java a greater
precedence: because is has received more historical study than any other
island and is therefore better known; because its people represent over half
of the population of the archipelago; because Java has been the center of much
of the political history of both colonial and independent periods, has exerted
an influence over other areas and thus has greater significance for the history of
Indonesia as a whole; and because Ricklefs' own research has concentrated on
Java which has colored the book. Outer islands still need to be further
researched.
Until the establishment of Suharto's "New
Order" from 1965 to 1975 and the revolution of oil prices following the
Arab-Israeli war of 1973 which transformed Indonesia, the book is very
valuable. But of course, further readings, especially starting with
Indonesia's independence, should complement Ricklefs study. The years since
1993 are summarized on six pages. The second edition of 1993 ends with words
Suharto's "New Order" gave: despite a middle class created through
the economic success which "might demand more political involvement in
the affairs of the state, an end to corruption and a more just society",
the strongest impression of the "New Order" on Ricklefs is of its
durability. "There were grounds for thinking that its political, social
and economic structures were so deeply rooted that they could survive even the
retirement or death of the President." History has shown at the end of
the 1990s that this is not the case. Still, Ricklefs' book remains valuable for
what happened before these events.
