ABSTRACT
The vast and diverse archipelago nation of Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world, and an arena in which neoliberal imperatives have run into resistance from traditional cultural orientations. Indonesian mental models of the economy tend to include suspicion toward free markets and private ownership of natural resources, and toward foreign and ethnic Chinese ownership. There is a concomitant belief in the importance of the state in economic affairs, not just as the guarantor of a secure basis for a market economy and as a regulator of economic activities in neoliberal terms, but also as an initiator of economic activities, manipulator of market prices, and owner of productive assets, particularly natural resources. Neoliberal tenets are often viewed in pejorative terms.
