Audrey Kahin

This study deals with the political history of the Indonesian province of West Sumatra and the Minangkabau people from the late colonial period up to the present, focussing on the course and degree of their integration into the contemporary Indonesian state. The book provides a local perspective on the growth and development of the nationalist movement in Indonesia, the struggle for independence, and the trauma involved for West Sumatra in adapting to an Indonesian state based on very different concepts of government than those that animated the anticolonial struggle in the region. It also helps understand the backgrounds of the recent violent insurgence in several parts of the Indonesian archipelago against the rule of the Javanese-controlled central government.

West Sumatra and the Indonesian Polity, 1926-1998

Rebellion to Integration

Benedict Anderson

Over the past two decades there has been a continuing debate among Western scholars concerning the nature of Indonesian politics and the best approaches for understanding them. Several of the most important contributions to this debate were never published and others have gone out of print. Thus, it has been difficult for a new generation of students of Indonesia to be aware of the range of opinions and discussion in Western academic circles concerning the character of postrevolutionary Indonesian politics. For this reason, it appeared to us useful to bring together a series of articles that can provide a framework for understanding the evolution of these perspectives. Clearly, we could not include all the important contributions to the debate, and this selection has been made on the basis of the best representation of differing views over time. In general the pieces appear in chronological sequence in order to delineate more clearly the evolution of the debate. To maintain this chronological development we have also made no changes in the arguments as originally presented, nor, with one exception, permitted the authors to do so, even when they have altered their opinions since originally writing the essays. Passages, however, have occasionally been cut from published articles where they are too repetitive, or where they are not relevant to the major themes being presented here. All such omissions are indicated by a series of dots (...). Because of the continuing nature of the debate, the collection is being published as an Interim Report which we hope will stimulate further reactions and analyses.

Thirteen Contributions to the Debate

Interpreting Indonesian Politics

George McTurnan Kahin

Based on access to secret documents and interviews with many of the participants, Subversion as Foreign Policy is an extraordinary account of civil war in Indonesia provoked by President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and resulting in the killing of thousands of Indonesians and the destruction of much of the country's air force and navy. "This startling new book reveals a covert intervention by the United States in Indonesia in the late 1950s involving, among other things, the supply of thousands of weapons, the creation and deployment of a secret CIA air force and logistical support from the Seventh Fleet. The intervention occurred on such a massive scale that it is difficult to believe it has been kept almost totally secret from the American public for nearly 40 years. And this CIA operation proved to be even more disastrous than the Bay of Pigs". -- San Francisco Chronicle "An exemplary study of an ignominious chapter of the Cold War in Southeast Asia". -- Journal of Asian Studies "Subversion as Foreign Policy is a remarkable book.... The Kahins have provided a rare insight into the workings of U.S. policy towards Indonesia, both clandestine and official". -- London Times Literary Supplement

The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles Debacle in Indonesia

Subversion as Foreign Policy

This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Indonesia contains a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 900 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Indonesia.

Historical Dictionary of Indonesia

R. B. Cribb

Indonesia is Asia's third largest country in both population and area, a sprawling tropical archipelago of some 180 million people from hundreds of ethnic groups with a complex and turbulent history. One of Asia's newly industrializing countries, it is already a major economic powerhouse. In over 800 clear and succinct entries, the dictionary covers people, places, and organizations, as well as economics, culture, and political thought from Indonesia's ancient history up until the recent past. Includes a comprehensive bibliography, maps, chronology, list of abbreviations, and appendix of election results and major office-holders. This second edition has been thoroughly updated and expanded to cover the events that have occurred in Indonesia's history in the past fifteen years.

Audrey Kahin

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