ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide an intellectual biography of Father Ignatius Wibowo, a prominent Indonesian sinologist and political scientist. Born to a Chinese Indonesian family in a city in Central Java Province of Indonesia, Wibowo became a Catholic priest and had decided to focus his study on China from 1977 on, due to the Catholic Church’s need to find a better understanding of the characteristics of that communist country. As this article highlights, Wibowo made a significant contribution to Sinology, particularly by providing an analysis of how the Chinese Communist Party had undergone significant changes over time. Wibowo also spent his time studying China’s relations with Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries. Finally, as a sinologist, Wibowo had also published extensive works on Chinese Indonesian communities, especially in the aftermath of the 1998 Riots which victimized members of these communities. But to many Indonesian scholars, Wibowo is not only known as a leading sinologist. He is also remembered for his contribution to the critique of the social, economic, and political system, which includes, among others, his critiques of neoliberalism, the role played by the state in the world globally influenced by neoliberalism, as well as of democracy.
