Aksi, the fall of Suharto and Indonesian history
24/09/2008 - 15:30
24 September 2008
15.30 - 17.00 hrs
Seminar by Max Lane (Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore)
Aksi, the fall of Suharto and Indonesian history: the line of argument in Unfinished Nation: Indonesia before and after Suharto
Max Lane's book Unfinished Nation: Indonesia before and after Suharto was published in May, 2008. Unfinished Nation sets out an argument that the key factor in the fall of Suharto, especially its particular form, was the re-winning in the 1990s of a method of political struggle first introduced into political life during the early stages of the national revolution: aksi massa. It argues that this was particularly crucial as structures of Suharto authoritarianism were built around precisely the suppression of this mode of struggle. Its re-winning, therefore, has a specific significance in the longer term dynamics of Indonesian history. At the same time, the concluding chapters of the book point out that the re-winning of aksi massa as a mode of political action was not accompanied by a re-winning of either the progressive political ideologies associated with the national revolution, nor with a revival of ideological life in general. This emergence of a mode of political struggle attached to an ideology is presented as part of the explanation for the stagnation of the democratic mass movement since 1998 as well as, therefore, a problem requiring solution before any major progress will be made in attacking the structures of elite power.
Max Lane is a political activist, translator, writer and academic. He has translated into English the novels of Pramoedya Ananta Toer and the plays of W.S. Rendra. He has been a prolific journalistic writer on Indonesia, the Philippines and East Timor and has published academic articles and monographs in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. He was the founding editor of Inside Indonesia Magazine in the early 1980s. He has held academic positions at several Institutes. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore.
Date: Wednesday 24 September 2008
Time: 15.30 - 17.00
Venue: KITLV, Room 138, Reuvensplaats 2, 2311 BE, Leiden
For more information on this seminar please contact Esrih Bakker at bakker@kitlv.nl or 071-527 2295
The Leiden Southeast Asia Seminar is a cooperation of the IIAS, ISIM, VVI, KITLV, the Department of Languages & Cultures of Indonesia and the Department of Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology, Leiden University