The Making of Indonesia

The Making of Indonesia

The facts and myths about Indonesia, a Southeast Asian country, make it a highly complex subject matter with its incomprehensibly dynamic history, politics and social structure. Its international image, however, to a certain extent has been defined by Oriental theories that partially represent its true political, social, historical, religious and national aspects.

The President of the United States articulated his views, while addressing the students of the University of Indonesia: “The nations of Southeast Asia must have the right to determine their own destiny, and the United States will strongly support that right.  But the people of Southeast Asia must have the right to determine their own destiny as well.” (Obama 2010)

The concepts of ‘Orientalism’ and ‘othering’ could not have been explained in better words. The region of Southeast Asia is supposed to have common issues; and this kind of geographical cartography represents the mind set of the Western nations. The phrase, ‘the right to determine their own destiny’ has profound repercussions of centuries of colonialism and imperialism of Southeast Asian countries. This historical fact has so rendered the concept of Orientalism to a great extent. As the heritage of Indonesia is diverse, it was natural to ignore certain facts about Indonesia while studying and analyzing its existing political, religious and social structures. Islam, being the dominant religion in this country raises concerns in the West that desire it to become a secular country, in its own interest.

The territories that became Indonesia produced lengthy, bloody dynastic struggles, savage pirates, and bitter resistance to colonial conquest, but the existing cultural conditions were so deeply embedded that even the arrival of Islam turned few into crusaders for the faith.... Indonesia has become something of a bell-weather country, in which the world will see what modern Islam can make of itself, but, for now,...