By Johannes Nugroho on 02:28 pm Nov 04, 2014
http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/opinion/johannes-nugroho-beware-return-paranoid-nationalism/
If ever a safe topic existed in Indonesian politics, it is undoubtedly nationalism. Its mass appeal is such that both presidential candidates Prabowo Subianto and Joko Widodo (Jokowi) espoused it without fail. Since it came to office, Jokowi’s government has also shown signs of wanting to be seen as stalwartly patriotic.
At least three civilian foreign aircraft have been intercepted and forced to land by the Indonesian Air Force of late. It is possible that chasing away unauthorized foreign aircraft in Indonesian airspace has always been a duty performed by the Air Force unflinchingly. It is also our right to protect our territory from unwarranted intrusion by foreigners. Nevertheless, the way the three incidents have been reported with so much dramatic sense of triumph is curious, to say the least.
For many supporters of Jokowi, the successful ensnaring of these aircraft is evidence of the government’s determination to protect Indonesia’s interests. The Air Force’s actions were greeted with such a sense of overdue triumph by most Indonesian social media users that one might surmise the previous government had been letting foreign trespassers into Indonesian airspace go scot-free.
Xenophobic paranoia
This narrative of intolerable foreign incursions and exploitation also finds its twin in Minister of Maritime and Fishery Affairs Susi Pudjiastuti. The minister bravely took a swipe at Malaysia ─ a neighbor with which we have had a rather checkered history ─ when she accused its fishermen of theft by openly conducting unauthorized fishing operations in our territorial waters.
As much as illegal fishing by foreigners must be prevented by any government, the amount of patriotic media posturing and incendiary words at the ministerial level directed against foreign countries may prove to be counter-productive. For a start, it will probably embarrass the Foreign Affairs Ministry and make its dealings awkward with the rebuked parties.
More importantly, Indonesian leaders today must make the right choice of nationalism apposite for a 21st-century nation. We must at all costs avoid being mired once again in the anachronistic postcolonial nationalism reeking of xenophobic paranoia during President Sukarno’s era.
Unfortunately, owing to the lack of unbiased historical research into the presidency of Sukarno during his successor’s era, Indonesians today tend to look back at it with nostalgia for our now-lost national greatness.
Papua campaign
In many ways, most Indonesians are largely ignorant of their own history. Our cognizance with it has been mostly orchestrated by our own government, to bolster our own sense of destiny and national pride.
Sukarno’s annexation of West Papua has always been portrayed in a positive light in Indonesia. Dressed as a rightful struggle to reclaim what was ours, the Trikora campaign to annex West Papua from the Dutch is taught to Indonesian students at school as a heroic military triumph.
The truth, however, was far less rosy. The Dutch forces in West Papua successfully repelled various attempted landings by the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI). In the end, it was Indonesia’s diplomacy that saved the day.
Later on, Sukarno spearheaded his unofficial yet very open war against the formation of Malaysia. In military terms, “Ganyang Malaysia” was a disaster, which the Suharto government happily brought to a swift end.
Despite its damaging effects, our unprovoked attack against Malaysia is still taught in classes throughout the country as a justified act against neo-colonialism. That Sukarno failed to prove Malaysia was puppet state of the British seems never to count for many of us.
Disinformation
It does not help that there are segments within the Indonesian media that seek to make our already-distorted sense of history even more twisted with further disinformation.
A recent article by merdeka.com tells of an unfounded claim that during the “heyday” of the Indonesian Air Force in the 1960s, Sukarno ordered the Indonesian Russian-made bomber Tupolev to cross into Australian airspace in an act of saber rattling.
This brand of paranoid, anti-Western nationalism may well be resurrected during Jokowi’s presidency. For a president who was labeled as a foreign agent by his rival during the campaign, Jokowi may feel he has to prove his nationalist credentials.
The fact that his main political base is the Indonesian Democratic of Struggle (PDI-P), a party now dominated by the Sukarno clan, may even help re-entrench the Sukarnoist narrative of history. At the very least, a more objective view of Sukarno’s follies may be difficult to attain in the current administration.
The old demon is perhaps already back, as Australian Indonesianist Edward Aspinall discovered lately. His article on the New Mandala website has generated very nationalist comments, some of which even go as far as to say foreign analysts should just keep out of Indonesia’s hair.
Considering Aspinall’s openly declared support for Jokowi during the presidential campaign, his demotion to the status of persona non grata by the ardent supporters of the president is overly harsh.
As the Sukarno years evidently show, the Indonesian narrative of nationalism brooked no alternative reading of history. It became a dogma. It would be a tragedy if the same were to recur under Jokowi.
Johannes Nugroho is a writer from Surabaya. Contact him at