THE MYSTICAL WORLD OF INDONESIA, Allen Sievers, the John Hopkins
University Press, Baltimore and London, 1974

The preface (pp. ix-xiv) states the attempt at a holistic
consideration, examining the various diverse aspects composing the
whole tapestry of Indonesia. It contrasts the rationalism of the
West with Oriental mysticism. There follows a Guide (pp. xvi-xix) to
pronunciation of Indonesian spellings, to Indonesian titles, to
Indonesian currency and to some three dozen terms.

Chapter One, "An Introduction" (pp. 1-29), begins with Sukarno
ruling for two decades from independence in 1945, embodying perhaps
national characteristics and ideals and raising questions by his
downfall as to the validity of such characteristics. It proceeds to
Oriental irrationality, the belief Sukarno had magic powers, his
reliance on dukuns (seers), the mystical resonance of his Five
Principles and other slogans, the deeper level of early Indonesian
(or at least Eighth Century Buddhist) tradition underlying more
recent Islamic and Western influences. Here is balance and harmony
reconciling such divisive entities as communism, nationalism and
religion.

There follows the diverse unity of Indonesia. The national language,
Indonesian, derived from Malay, is a second tongue for many in a
country of some two hundred dialects and languages. There are
various ethnic and cultural components of the nation, though the
Chinese, for example, despite centuries of residence, are viewed as
foreigners. Indonesia's size (territorial and population) is beyond
the notice of many Westerners, some of whom retain visions of the
wealth and romantic paradisiacal environment of the islands. There
is a variety of tropical vegetation and fauna. There is rice (some
wet, much dry) cultivation. There is the kampung (village cluster of
houses) sometimes brought into large cities by migrants. There is
adat (traditional village ways). There is mystical beauty in dress
(batik), in dance dramas, puppet dramas, percussion ensembles, in
inherited well-fashioned krisses (bladed weapons), in painting, in
poetry, in other literary arts and especially in the great temple
structures dating back to the Eighth Century.

Chapter Two, "From Proto-Malays to Islam" (pp. 33-49), begins with a
caution about the scarcity and unscientific nature of early
Indonesian historical sources, Mongoloid and Proto-Malay immigrants
in the millennium and a half from c. 2,500 BCE joining to produce:

   the distinctively Malay ethnic type and cultural pattern, which
   is characterized by tribal-village life, with its adat; wet-rice
   agriculture with irrigation, together with hunting and fishing;
   animism; headhunting; monolith building; bronze and ironwork;
   bark cloth; pottery; the outrigger canoe; navigation; and forms
   of art and music that can only be surmised (probably including
   the primitive wajang, a kind of batik and the gamelan or its
   ancestor). p. 35

Writing came from Indian influence. Chinese contact is posited since
at least Early Han times. In 414 CE Fa Hsien observed a probably
Javanese (the island designation is uncertain) Hindu state. Fifth
Century Sanskrit inscriptions have been found on Borneo and Java.
Then comes Balinese and Javanese court poetry. Modern speculation
suggests more warlike feudal states inland and commercial coastal
states. Named are the three great states of Melayu, Shri Vijaja and
Madjapahit. Shri Vijaja on Sumatra was a centre of Buddhist
learning, attracting students from China and India, exporting texts
and exerting an influence on Tibet. It was an emporium visited by
the merchants of many lands. For more than half a millennium it was
a great civilization. Madjapahit, dating from the 1292-1293 strike
by Kublai Khan's forces against Java (Kertanagara who had aroused
Mongol ire had been overcome by an under-ruler who received the
Mongol blow; Kertanagara's nephew rose to rule), had some glorious
times before it fell some two centuries later.

There is the arrival of Islam and various speculations on reasons
for conversion: Islam was seen as another spiritual resource, not an
exclusive one; Islam was a means of escaping caste distinctions;
military force spread Islam; acceptance of Islam in colonial times
was an act demonstrating independence from Western domination. Nine
great saints are said to have greatly propagated the new religion.
Sufi mysticism forms a major part of the Islam accepted by
Indonesians and explains the resonance of Islam for Indonesians.

Chapter Three, "Europe in the Indies" (pp. 50-76), begins with the
1511 Portuguese strike at Malacca, the ages old attraction of the
Spice Islands and the questionable behaviour of Portuguese and Dutch
spice exploiters. Henry the Navigator, Vasco da Gama, Albuquerque
propel the Portuguese seaward around Africa, to India and the East
Indies. Portuguese military might and monopolistic commercial focus
were more effective than their Christian missionary efforts. The
Dutch arrived c. 1600 and began to replace the Portuguese. Along
with their language and names for many islands, the Portuguese and
Spanish brought to the East Indies, "maize, sweet potatoes, cocoa,
tobacco, and cinchona." (p. 56)

The Dutch struggled with England for East India trade and prevailed,
though such conflict, with events that included the Amboina massacre
of English and Japanese in 1623 quite negatively impacted overall
Dutch-British relations. The Dutch East Indies Company was founded
in 1602. It grew to establish itself in Japan, Taiwan, Ceylon, South
Africa, Persia, India, continental Southeast Asia and the East India
islands. Batavia, founded on Java in 1619, was the company's
colonial centre. In the complexity of island politics, the company
played an influential role, including assuming the commercial and
trade functions of Java, leaving the Javanese a solely agricultural
function.

Among Indonesians named are the Mataram rulers Sutu Widjaya (r. 1575
to 1601) and his grandson Sultan Agung. Coffee was introduced c.
1707 and this along with sugar and indigo became important crops. In
1740 occurred a massacre of Chinese at Batavia.

Constant warfare within the islands, including in the lengthy post
company period, came not only as a result of internal conflict, but
also due to fierce resistence to Dutch imperial rule. Among the
noteworthy struggles were those by Diponegoro who proclaimed a jihad
against the Dutch in 1825. Fifteen thousand Dutch and two hundred
thousand Javanese perished in the war. Also, the Sumatran state of
Atjeh fought long and hard, employing guerrilla warfare. The Dutch
attacked in 1873 and fighting lasted until at least 1908.

Chapter Four, "From Spice Islands to Coffee Plantations" (pp. 79 to
105), begins by stating the lack of prosperity in post colonial
Indonesia, although at the times of spice trade and plantations the
islands projected the image of possessing great wealth. Europeans
attacked Indonesian commercial capacity, in the sense that Europeans
took over that function from locals who had centuries of expertise
in commerce. Coffee, originally Ethiopian, was long traded by Arabs.
Europe's first coffeehouse opened in London in 1652. Around the turn
of the Eighteenth Century, coffee was introduced to Java.

   In 1713 Batavia was able to ship a ton of Javanese coffee to
   Amsterdam. By 1723 deliveries had increased a thousandfold, and
   by 1732 they amounted to over 6 million pounds. This level
   doubled by the end of the century. The chief barrier to the
   continuation of the exponential rate of growth was lack of demand
   --in Europe because of at least temporary saturation of the needs
   for those with a taste for it and in Indonesia itself because of
   the limiting purchasing power of the petani. p. 90

Coffee was the chief export product and remained so until the 1878
tree blight. The recovery did not allow coffee to surpass sugar
exported until synthetics appeared towards 1900. Mention is made of
the disturbances that occurred at the time of the American
Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, of liberalism two centuries ago and
the clash of concepts:

   Liberalism, in the sense of greater freedom and dignity for the
   peasant, was hard to reconcile with freedom of enterprise for the
   wealthy and powerful. p. 103

There is the dominant personality of Raffles, his founding of
Singapore, his attempt to end forced labour and promote money
economy among the peasantry. There are smallpox innoculations,
education in the vernacular, a new company arising in 1825 to
challenge the British traders in the East Indies.

Chapter Five, "Nineteenth Century Development Programs" (pp. 106 to
131), presents van den Bosch, governor and colonial minister in the
1830s, his "cultivation system" which is more a planned economy with
peasants paying rent and labouring. There was significant increased
production. The chapter compares the cultivation system and
Indonesian development in the Nineteenth Century with 1970s
development opportunities and the planned economies of Soviet Russia
and Communist China. There is the abolition of slavery in 1854, the
promotion of private estates and the reduction of enforced labour
after 1870, though legally the corvee was not abolished until 1942.
There is village involution, intensification of traditional
irrigation to cope with increased demands.

Chapter Six, "The Ethical System and the Depression" (pp. 132-147),
begins with the emphasis from 1900-1930 on the welfare of the
Indonesians, beneficial modernization and development. The concept
of honour price was raised in the 1890s, the feeling that the Dutch
owed the Indonesians for wrongs committed against them. There is the
investment in education, resulting in a tenfold increase from 1900
to 1930, but still having an attendance rate of only one in four
school age children in 1930. Efforts were made to enhance village
self governance and regional and national councils were founded. The
Dutch put effort into better irrigation, transportation and health
systems. There was significant economic expansion and the
contribution of relatively newer products can be noted.

   In 1925 rubber and petroleum represented 42 percent of the total
   value of exports, and 31 percent in 1930. p. 140

   The rubber industry literally began with the Forest Service's
   decision to concentrate on hevea brasiliensis, the principal
   source of modern latex rubber, in 1909, and the first substantial
   exports were in 1912. p. 139

Mention is made of 1920s inflation, of greater plantation
diversification on Java than on other islands, of the world renowned
botanical research centre at Bogor and of government monopolies on
salt and opium. There was little actual industrialization in the
Western sense before World War II and the War had its impact.

Chapter Seven, "From Nationalism to Sovereignty" (pp. 151-165),
begins with the Japanese in 1942 and then following the Japanese
defeat in 1945 the five year struggle for recognition of Indonesian
independence. Various originating strands of pro-independence
thought are presented, including modernist Islam, the influential
feminist voice Raden Adjeng Kartini who died in her early twenties
in 1904 ("There is no Moslem country today in which women are more
emancipated than in Indonesia." p. 152), the youth group Sukarno
joined called Young Java after 1918, and a number of political
organizations in the generation before the War and during the
Japanese occupation. Independence was proclaimed on August 17, 1945.
The Dutch did not immediately accept this and there was a
complicated period of diplomatic, military and political activity
before they did.

Chapter Eight, "Politics and Policy under Sukarno" (pp. 166-189),
begins with the unsuccessful attempt at democratic governance in the
1950s. The diversity of Indonesia, the diffusion of loyalties and
the inability of the government to retain adequate popular support
led to a "Guided Democracy." Sukarno did possess a personal charisma
and he was able to forge a governing coalition from disparate
political parties, including Christians and Communists. There was
violence and there were secessionist conflicts.

The author, seemingly a product of the Cold War, wonders at the
strength of the Communists and the absence of a military coup
against them. (p. 178) Interestingly worded are the following:

   In September 1956 Communist youth were at least passively
   encouraged to attack the British embassy, on the pretext of
   protesting the Suez invasion. p. 175

Indonesia's hosting of Asian-African conferences and Asian Games are
described as, "grandiloquent anti-Western gestures." p. 179

   and strangely enough, the United States built an elaborate access
   highway to the sports arena and sent Peace Corps volunteers to
   coach athletics. p. 179

Sukarno is asserted to have been involved in the 1965 Communist
coup. This was defeated and the anti-Communist backlash cost at
least two hundred thousand lives. Power flowed to General Suharto.
Mentioned are: Sukarno's policy of Indonesianization (with its
impact on Dutch, Chinese and British ownership), his opposition to
the US role in Vietnam, his attempt to add West New Guinea to
Indonesia (formally accomplished after his term) and his
confrontation with Malaysia.

Chapter Nine, "The Structure of the Economy" (pp. 190-210), stresses
the difficulty in applying precise statistics for incompletely
recorded data dealing with economic activity not much corresponding
to Western concepts. Having clearly warned the reader, the author
then supplies statistics on land use, income, exports,
manufacturing, estate processings, mining, petroleum, shipping,
railroads, etc.

Chapter Ten, "Economic Policy and Performance" (pp. 211-226), begins
with the socialist concern for the people in the early period of
independence. There were efforts to ensure the plentiful
availability of rice. Foreign exchange rates that charged importers
more than exporters had to pay netted the Indonesian government
money. Specific imports could also be restricted or prohibited.
Currency destabilization occurred.

   A vacillating policy after 1956 failed to curb inflation, and a
   drastic reform was required in 1959. In August sweeping
   stabilization regulations were issued. First, the exchange rate
   was altered from 11.4 rupiahs to the dollar to 45. Second, the
   domestic value of money was revalued for large holders by
   reducing the negotiable value of large bills (500- and 1,000-
   rupiah notes) by 10 percent and by virtual confiscation of 90
   percent of the value of deposits over 25,000 rupiahs. p. 215

In 1963 there was a wide ranging effort at economic stabilization.
Military spending was one cause of economic imbalance. There were
industrial and agricultural plans, not highly regarded by this
author. He also takes a dim view of the nationalizing of Dutch banks
and the severing of currency links with the Dutch and Europeans,
assessing Indonesia's joining of the IMF, the World Bank and the
Columbo Plan as inadequate to make good the losses from cutting
those Dutch links. He states there was economic decline under
Sukarno.

Chapter Eleven, "Policy and Politics under Suharto" (pp. 229-252),
mentions Suharto's tradition Indonesian indirection, mysticism,
army factions, the security agencies protecting against Communists
and others, continuing struggles against Communists, political
prisoners, difficulties for minorities, such as Chinese and
Christians, the 1971 election with the government GOLKAR achieving
236 of 360 seats, overpopulation, education, urban renewal in the
capital, administrative inefficiency, nonalignment in foreign
policy, avoidance of military alliances and the declaration with
Malaysia that the territorial limit of the two countries covered the
Straits of Malacca.

   Finally established in 1967, ASEAN comprises Indonesia, Malaysia,
   Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. ASEAN is itself
   nonaligned and is essentially social, economic and cultural
   rather than military in its orientation. p. 250

Chapter Twelve, "The Economy under Suharto" (pp. 253-276), begins
with the greater foreign investment under Suharto. It mentions
inflation, the 1965 rupiah worth a thousand old rupiahs, removal of
price controls and agricultural intensification.

   There are some difficulties for the tani in converting to the new
   IRRI high-yield strains. Aside from the fact that the cost of
   inputs are higher, the new plant does not grow as high. As a
   consequence, the traditional ani-ani harvesting knife must be
   replaced with the sickle, and the harvester must stoop over. This
   technological innovation represents a radical break with
   Indonesian custom and constitutes a barrier to adoption of the
   high-yield varieties. There is another very serious obstacle. The
   high-yield varieties taste different, and hence to the Indonesian
   consumer, worse. As a result, the price of the new rice is lower
   and the return to the farmer lower. p. 259

However, the high-yield rice became significant and rice production
did increase. There are debt repayment and rescheduling efforts,
foreign exchange with the 1973 rate Rp 415 to one US dollar,
reduction of government deficits, increased confidence, economic
recovery, some detail in growth and investment figures, including
taxation of foreigners in the country longer than three months. Some
two hundred American companies had Indonesian offices in 1973.

Inadequate infrastructure is presented: deteriorating railroads,
insufficient roads, bridges, vehicles, ships, electricity (available
to fewer than three percent of the population). The air service is
said to be in good shape.

Chapter Thirteen, "Dualism" (pp. 279-297), begins by offerring the
concept that forecasts may prove insulting. It proceeds to
inferences that in health and development the prospects are poor, at
least for the next generation. There follows Boeke's theory of
dualism, first introduced in his PhD thesis of 1910.

   Dualism means the coexistence within one society of two
   heterogeneous subsystems, imported capitalism and indigenous
   peasant pre-capitalism, each of which is a mature system sui
   generis. The two systems are separated by a genuine chasm, the
   absence of the intermediate stage of "early capitalism" (a
   Marxian category to Boeke). If it were not for the missing stage,
   there would be an evolutionary continuity in which the early
   stage would be but a lagging transit to the higher stage, as from
   feudalism to capitalism or from capitalism to socialism, and
   hence not Dualism. p. 282

Boeke notes the religious mentality in the continuity of traditional
ways and the resistence to capitalism. Boeke holds that,
"pre-capitalist societies are not economic-minded." p. 285 He states
that Indonesian villagers see spiritual power as maintaining the
existence of the village. There is the community of the village, as
well as the non-capitalist attitude. Dualism, involving the
intrusion of capitalism, weakens the village community, attacks
traditional handicrafts, attracts villagers away from the village
and/or into debt. Reduction of the death rate produced the problem
of overpopulation. Nevertheless, villages tend to a relatively
static persistence, accepted even by critics of Boeke (there is a
sizeable bibliographic note on pp. 291-292). Allen Sievers returns
to spirituality, or to use his term, "mysticism." This is held to be
widespread throughout the country.

   Benedict R. O'G. Anderson points out that the Revolution itself
   was conceived by the pemuda and others less in political terms
   than as an intense experience, continuous with a village
   education in mystic schools, whether Islamic boarding schools
   (pesantren) or schools conducted by a djago, a fighter and
   teacher of hermetic truths and ascetic skills. Even since the
   advent of the New Order, or perhaps especially since then, a
   thousand or so mystical sects have sprung up on Java. There has
   also been a considerable revival of Buddhism, at the expense of
   Islam. p. 295

This is castigated by Sievers, referred to as unhealthy, the cenre
of Indonesia's many problems and, in his opinion,

   If modernity is to be the goal, there must be a transformation of
   values, which means the abandonment of mysticism. p. 295

Chapter Fourteen, "Evaluation and Prognosis" (pp. 298-318), begins
with poverty, high rate of population increase, the symbiosis within
civilized peasant societies of the literate urban elite and the
rural peasantry and the vitality of Indonesian mysticism. There is a
summing up of the background chapters, a reiteration of the
comparative successes of the New Order, cautions concerning
expectations of investment returns and continuing diversity,
potentially very divisive.

Sievers notes the need for continuing foreign investment. He
recommends village reconstruction, education, land reform,
improvement of local infrastructure and trading opportunities.
Simple this may seem, but it was unattained previously and offers
the best chance for significant modernization.

There remains another hundred pages of (largely statistical)
appendices, of bibliography and of index. Sievers does state clearly
that Indonesia and its leaders may not wish to modernize, and,
perhaps, Sievers can be defended as attempting some kind of
objectivity and awareness that the world is larger than Western
capitalism. However, looking back at his book from post Cold War
times, this reviewer feels the work is very much a product of that
conflict and the author is arguably as much a devotee of a sect and
contained within his sectarianism as the Indonesians are abiding
within their own mysticism he so intolerantly proclaims must be
abandonned.

Michael McKenny August 23-30, 2003 CE


Solarguard Southeast Asia



Solarguard Homepage