Indonesian Images: The Culture of the Public World

by Niels Mulder

This book sketches the development of public discourse in Indonesia in the 1990s

249 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2000

Reviews

[Gede Suprayoga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr Niels Mulder wrote this book that described and explained Indonesian society's social construct before the New Order's collapse. He dug pieces of the societal elements from elementary and high school books, novels written by Indonesians, and in-depth interviews. The book contains a rich picture of what Indonesia has described. For example, what the students had studied from historical books was modernisation as a development from agriculture to an industrialised society that was necessary and ideal that community wanted to pursue without a doubt. Moreover, harmonisation is meant a social life without conflicts, and individuals should behave to avoid confrontation for the enormous benefit of diverse communities.

These pictures have revealed political, social, and cultural tensions resulting from a division between the ideal and the experience. Mulder has opened the curtains that blocked the perspective of seeing Indonesian society and its culture in a much more transparent way.