ABSTRACT
In Indonesia, the capacity to formulate and carry out development policies resulting in technological progress and economic growth tends to be seen as more important than the capacity to create open polities endowed with the benefits and virtues of Euro-American civil society. The Indonesian mode of governance is characterised by centralised authoritarian institutions, technocratic polities, diffuse class distinctions, and the high value attached to personal leadership, political consensus, religious morality and collective welfare. Thus, although there is a developing civil society in Indonesia, it does not take the forms familiar to European and American citizens. The right of political opposition and the liberal-individualist notion of civil participation are seen as incompatible with Indonesian political culture. Instead, over the last twenty-five years a regime of depoliticisation of civil life based upon the political leadership of President Soeharto, the active involvement of the military in societal affairs, and a state ideology known as Pancasila, has been a viable solution in this country. Other contributing factors have been Indonesia’s position as a bridgehead against communism; a pragmatic approach to foreign and Sino-Indonesian corporate business investments; a massive flow of oil and gas export revenues; and a strong sense of commitment to development objectives, with a concomitant allocation of funds and some exposure to external influence.
