Indonesia identity

Five case studies follow, examining particular identities and their evolution into different forms of nationalism. The first, paradoxically, is Chinese identity in Southeast Asia, in chapter 3. This is prioritised in part because overseas Chinese nationalism slightly preceded the anti-imperial nationalism of Indonesia and Malaysia (though not the Philippines), so that the different forms of nationalism emerging from the Malay category of chapter 4 emerged in critical dialectic with... 

Aceh follows as the ethnie nationalism most threatening to the Indonesian state. Chapter 5 demonstrates that the strength of this ethnie nationalism, by contrast with the stateless examples that follow, is precisely its memory of state. Acehnese may be less distinctive as a minority than Indonesia s Bataks or Malaysia s Kadazan, but they inherit an unusually strong sense of state resistance to outside control. The Batak and Kadazan cases, in chapters 6 and 7, reveal the different paths of political identity formation and assertion of previously stateless peoples that were possible in Indonesia and Malaysia respectively. The different outcomes are largely set by the gulf between the two state nationalisms with which they contended post-revolutionary, centralising civic nationalism in Indonesia evolutionary, federal and ethno-nationalist Malaysia. 

Change of imperial masters at a critical juncture (Spanish to American in the Philippines, 1898 Japanese to European in the rest of Southeast Asia, 1945) made possible the revolutionary assertion of the new antiimperial identity in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Burma. As in France in 1789, the revolutions sacralised the new identities which had been charted on the map by the old empires. To greater or lesser extent, the alchemy was effected through revolution, making the multiethnic imperial identity transform into a passionately felt new community. This provided a huge impetus for the new states in building on the heroic myths of revolution for their state nationalisms. 

The creoles which emerged from earlier male-only migration from Fujian, in other words, have not fared well in the age of race-based nationalism. Only the Chinese peranakan category in Indonesia has survived, and its survival owes more to outsiderness—the economic role it occupies in business and the entrenched racial resentment this provokes—than to any remaining cultural distinctiveness from the majority society. Nevertheless these creoles, surviving for shorter or longer periods, have played an exceptionally important role in forging Southeast Asia s modern identities. 

One of the greatest benefits of the formation of Malaysia in 1963 was that it at last created a neutral and artificial name for the country distinct from that of any ethnie. It thereby could in principle, like Indonesia and the Philippines but unlike Thailand, Burma and Vietnam, emphasise the national identity without necessarily marginalising minorities. But there were still profound tensions between the concepts of core ethnie and of neutral citizenship. Lee Kuan Yew s Singapore was expelled from the new country after less than two years because his vigorous campaign for a civic or territorial nationalism— Malaysian Malaysia the assertion that We are here as of right —was considered by Alliance leaders as certain to lead to violent conflict with Malay ethno-nationalism (Mahathir 1970 122). 

By the 1990s both communities were essentially urban diasporas scattered throughout Indonesia. If the diaspora already exceeded the homeland in population, it was totally dominant in wealth, education and dynamic. The political identity of each ethnie was overwhelmingly determined by this diaspora. One small example was a Karo Cultural Congress held in 1995 in the homeland city of Brastagi. Of the 300 Karo eminences invited, 85 per cent were from the cities of the diaspora (Prinst 1996). This phenomenon is not unique to the Bataks, but they are Indonesia s most important examples of how community is maintained in diaspora. 

In the depoliticised atmosphere of Suharto s Indonesia, cultural competition occupied some of the space which the robust politics of the 1950s and 1960s had left vacant. For urban Bataks seeking their place in the Indonesian sun, this could not be represented by the village cultures from which they had escaped. New cultural simplifications had to be devised, sanitised and rendered attractive to serve their competition for a place in urban and national life. The tourist gaze sometimes helped clarify and justify the package of new identity-markers, but it was the Indonesian competition that defined them. 

The fermentation products of Monascus, especially those produced by solid-state fermentation of rice, have been used as food and health remedies for over 1000 years in China. Monascus rice products (MRPs) are currently being used as health foods in the United States and many Asian countries such as Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Many studies have shown that Monascus spp. produce commercially viable metabolites, including food colorants, cholesterol-lowering agents, and antibiotics. The most important bioactive compound isolated from Monascus is monacolin K, which is identical to the potent cholesterol-lowering, antiatherosclerotic drug lovastatin, a 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl... 

Uncertainty Avoidance is defined as the degree to which individuals feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations, with high scorers showing a need for predictability and rules. France, for example, was shown to score highly on Uncertainty Avoidance, whereas Indonesia reflected a low score. This dimension has been shown to correlate with the requirement in certain countries to carry identity cards. It is important to note, however, that felt need does not necessarily go with a greater tendency to follow the rules. 

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