Legacies of History, Present Challenges, and the Future

Summary

Introduction

Of the many myths and legends in Indonesia, the notion of the “Great Majapahit” has been the most attractive to many Indonesians. Mohamad Yamin, regarded as Sukarno's ideologist, was the main proponent of this legend. He believed that the Majapahit Hindu Kingdom in the fourteenth to sixteenth century was a vast and strong Kingdom, covering the entire archipelago and extended its influence as far as Madagascar in the West and Taiwan in the North.

In reality, however, Indonesia came into being only in the twentieth century, when nationalism began to grow in certain parts of the archipelago, and more specifically since the Youth Oath or Pledge in 1928 that recognized “one country, one nation and one language, namely Bahasa Indonesia”, as the national movement was taking shape. In 1945 this modern state was established by the Nationalist Movement. Thus, the Indonesian state and nation were only established some 63 years ago. It is quite a young nation.

The Legacies of Sukarno and Soeharto

The first era of this young nation was led by President Sukarno. This period began after World War II and the four years of the revolution. The economy was in shambles and political development highly unstable. Following the Dutch model, we had many political parties, and in 1947 developed a liberal parliamentary democracy which deviated from the presidential system under the 1945 Constitution. Unstable coalitions came and went during this phase with the government on average lasting only 11 months.

The general election in 1955, the first of its kind, and an honest one, produced four main parties, but there was no stability. Bung Karno (or Brother Karno, as Sukarno was affectionately called) tried hard to have the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party) included in the government but he did not succeed. Some of the regions, especially Sumatra and Sulawesi, rebelled and martial law was proclaimed in early 1958.