A Country in Despair: Indonesia between 1997 and 2000 (review)

SOJOURN Vol. 18, No. 2 (2003), pp. 322-38ISSN 0217-9520 Book Reviews A Country in Despair: Indonesia between 1997 and2000. By Kees van Dijk. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2001. 621 pp. In late 1997 Indonesia's economy went into a tail-spin, culminating in social and political upheavals that saw Soeharto's resignation in May 1998, and resulting in a succession ofpresidents as Indonesia entered a period ofdemocratization. These events are well known, even to casual observers, but Kees van Dijk has penned a magnificent account of Indonesia between 1997 and 2000 that fleshes out the story in rich detail and analysis. The volume itselfcloses as the soon to be ousted President Abdurrahman Wahid is facing two major corruption, collusion, and nepotism {korupsi, kolusi, and népotisme or KKN) scandals and the political forces are arraying against him. The author has clearly sifted through a mountain ofmaterials, principally Indonesian language newspaper sources, to bring about an excellent chronicle. At 621 pages, this is quite a large book — and one can only marvel at the way in which a vast array ofsources have been combined. Despite its size and detail it is a thoroughly absorbing read — especially if one is already familiar with the events and characters that set the stage for a political and social transformation. The main substantive chapters of the book are supplemented by a large number ofhelpful appendices (showing political parties, cabinet line-ups, military leaders, a glossary, and so on). Like all histories (or contemporary history in this case), there is always a tension between themes and chronology. On the whole, this volume is structured well, in this sense. In writing on Indonesia, van Dijk is also up against the problem of a near complete paucity of primary archival material (the usual stock and trade ofthe historian), and is thus forced to rely on secondary sources. One of the hallmarks of this vol- Book Reviews323 urne, evident in the construction, is the conservatism ofinterpretation and analysis ofevents. The author is clearly very careful not to take on board street rumours as fact, and ifthey are included, they are portrayed plainly as "theories" or "rumours" — in contrast to other scholars who have chanced their arm a little more. One example is the way in which van Dijk skirts around the nature ofthe friendship between Soeharto's daughter, Tutut, and former general and cabinet minister, Hartono (p. 63). Another example is the delicate treatment of both the May 1998 riots and the mysterious killings of "sorcerers" in Java during 1999, in which the author is careful not to make concrete claims about who exactly master-minded the violence (if there was indeed such a mastermind ). There is so much to A Country in Despair that it is not possible to relay all its main themes in a review. But one ofthe interesting themes to emerge is how out of touch with reality (and the masses) Soeharto and his inner circle had become towards the end of his tenure. The impact of this misrule resulted in an economic crisis that affected the poor of Indonesia in terrible ways (see pp. 112-14 for an account of this). The author brilliantly sends up Tutut's "I Love the Rupiah" campaigns , where the wealthy élite made a great show of trading mostly small amounts ofU.S. currency in a bid to shore up the rupiah. In fact, this had little impact as the majority ofIndonesians were in no position to buy rupiah: "It was not theywho owned [U.S.] dollars" (p. 103). Van Dijk also notes that the public displays ofchanging U.S. currency back to rupiah demonstrated to the masses who had been playing the overseas currency game (ibid.). Likewise, Soeharto's announcement that serving ministers would take a one-year pay freeze (pp. 150-51) was another example of aloofness. It was supposed to be a symbol of saving the nation's resources, yet it only served to show that the members of the Executive were so independently (and probably "unusually") wealthy that they could afford to go without the ministerial stipend. A plan to disclose the wealth of ministers was also opposed by Tutut on the grounds that...