Indonesia Rising: The Repositioning of Asia's Third Giant

by Anthony Reid (Editor)

There are reasons for thinking that this is at last Indonesia's moment on the world stage. Having successfully negotiated its difficult transition to democracy after 1998, Indonesia has held three popular elections with a low level of violence by the standards of southern Asia. Recetly its economic growth rate has been high (above 6 per cent a year) and rising, where China's has been dropping and the developed world has been in crisis. Indonesia's admission in 2009 to the G20 club of the world's most influential states seemed to confirm a status implied by its size, as the world's fourth-largest country by population, and the largest with a Muslim majority. Some international pundits have been declaring that Indonesia is the new star to watch, and that its long-awaited moment in the sun may at last have arrived.

198 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Anthony Reid was a New Zealand-born historian of Southeast Asia. His doctoral work at Cambridge University examined the contest for power in northern Sumatra, Indonesia in the late 19th century, and he extended this study into a book The Blood of the People on the national and social revolutions in that region 1945–49. He is most well known for his two volume book "Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce", developed during his time at the Research School of Pacific (and Asian) Studies, Australian National University in Canberra. His later work includes a return to Sumatra where he explored the historical basis for the separate identity of Aceh; interests in nationalism, Chinese diaspora and economic history, and latterly the relation between geology and deep history.
Professor Reid taught Southeast Asian history at University of Malaya (1965–1970) and Australian National University (1970–1999). He became the founding director of the Southeast Asia Center, University of California, Los Angeles, 1999–2002, and then the founding director of Asia Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), 2002–2007. He retired from NUS in 2009. Thereafter he was based in Canberra as Professor (Emeritus) at the Australian National University.
As a writer of fiction he styled himself Tony Reid. He was the son of John S. Reid, a New Zealand diplomat who held postings in Indonesia, Japan and Canada in the 1950s and 1960s.

Reviews

[SSC · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of papers or feature length articles ordered in a clever way to introduce the reader to Indonesia, her positioning in a geopolitical setting, and explaining why this is the case - the Basri and Sukma articles address this well. The book provides summary historical information and how this has set the tone for foreign policy, the country's development and how at times the country has not fulfilled expectations.

Issues of climate change and Indonesian Muslims are addressed in separate articles and are informative however Jotzo on climate change does not give practical advice of how these issues can be overcome. He provides a paragraph referring to vested interests that are likely to block improvements and need for incentives but nothing beyond this.

Decentralisation of power post Suharto comes up a number of times but may have required to be addressed more comprehensively in this volume.

A good introduction to Indonesia, with insights up to the present but no clear view on where the country is going or what needs to be done next.

[Arief Wicaksono · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing new nor enriching the debate on backcast and forecast of the predictable Indonesia political economics agenda. In fact Reid is too intrinsic in probing the contemporary politics, overlooking the global hydrocarbon agenda and its carbocracy in steering Indonesia since the installment of Soeharto's New Order.

[Katherine Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative