ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the representation of Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, in the early days of Independence when it was conceived by the first president, Sukarno, as the "portal of the country" and the "beacon of the emerging nations" of Asia and Africa. It argues that, in adopting modernist architecture for Jakarta, architect Sukarno's concern was not so much whether the concept was from the "East" or "West" but rather how he could best put Jakarta on the map of world cities. The chapter focuses on interpret architectural modernism historically within the political culture of Indonesia's Guided Democracy in order to show its role as both a progressive national unifier and a reinforcer of traditional values. It demonstrates that the presumed exceptions, not unlike their European "modernist" counterpart, are only a particular form of a different and more contradictory conceptualization of a global culture. The chapter shows how the complementary identification of both local and global is mobilized.
