State of Authority: State in Society in Indonesia

Gerry van Klinken and Joshua Barker, eds.

A major realignment is taking place in the way we understand the state in Indonesia. New studies on local politics, ethnicity, the democratic transition, corruption, Islam, popular culture, and other areas hint at novel concepts of the state, though often without fully articulating them. This book captures several dimensions of this shift. One reason for the new thinking is a fresh wind that has altered state studies generally. People are posing new kinds of questions about the state and developing new methodologies to answer them. Another reason for this shift is that Indonesia itself has changed, probably more than most people recognize. It looks more democratic, but also more chaotic and corrupt, than it did during the militaristic New Order of 1966–1998. State of Authority offers a range of detailed case studies based on fieldwork in many different settings around the archipelago. The studies bring to life figures of authority who have sought to carve out positions of power for themselves using legal and illegal means. These figures include village heads, informal slum leaders, district heads, parliamentarians, and others. These individuals negotiate in settings where the state is evident and where it is discussed: coffee houses, hotel lounges, fishing waters, and street-side stalls. These case studies, and the broader trend in scholarship of which they are a part, allow for a new theorization of the state in Indonesia that more adequately addresses the complexity of political life in this vast archipelago nation. State of Authority demonstrates that the state of Indonesia is not monolithic, but is constituted from the ground up by a host of local negotiations and symbolic practices.
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Phan Châu Trinh and His Political Writings

Vinh Sinh, editor & translator

Phan Châu Trinh (1872–1926) was the earliest proponent of democracy and popular rights in Vietnam. He favored a moderate approach to political change and advised Vietnam’s leaders to seek reform within the French colonial system rather than organize violent resistance. This collection of four of Phan’s essays, accompanied by Vinh Sinh’s masterly introduction, illuminates both this turbulent era and the courageous intelligence of the author.
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Dependent Communities: Aid and Politics in Cambodia and East Timor

Caroline Hughes

Dependent Communities investigates the political situations in contemporary Cambodia and East Timor, where powerful international donors intervened following deadly internal conflicts. This comparative analysis critiques international policies that focus on rebuilding state institutions to accommodate the global market. In addition, it explores the dilemmas of politicians in Cambodia and East Timor who struggle to satisfy wealthy foreign benefactors and constituents at home.
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Man Like Him, A: Portrait of the Burmese Journalist, Journal Kyaw U Chit Maung

Journal Kyaw Ma Ma Lay

The story of eight years in the brief life of Journal Kyaw U Chit Maung (1912–1946), a courageous Burmese journalist and editor. His political analyses helped guide the nation during a turbulent era marked by internal struggles to establish a democracy independent of Britain in the late 1930s and the Japanese Occupation of the 1940s. The memoir is written by U Chit Maung’s wife, Journal Kyaw Ma Ma Lay, a resilient woman whose deep admiration and love for her uncompromising husband are captured here.
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