ABSTRACT
Though starting as a federated state in 1949, since 1950 Indonesia has defiantly clung to its formal status as a unitary state and has demanded allegiance to it by its numerous, often disparate, geographically scattered and sometimes reluctant peoples. From the outset, Indonesia has faced a number of regional rebellions based on both the relatively arbitrary construction of the state and in particular its highly centralized control from the government in Jakarta. Into the 21st century, however, despite continuing grumblings from some members of its constituent regions the state appears to be increasingly settling into what might nominally be termed a hybrid organizational form. As with much else in Indonesian political life, the syncretization of otherwise incompatible agendas appears to be producing a solution which, if not entirely satisfactory to many on the country’s periphery, has largely achieved through rhetorical device that which could not be achieved constitutionally.
