Sang Demokrat Hamengku Buwono Ix

Sang demokrat Hamengku Buwono IX

Prince in a Republic

Hamengku Buwono IX, the late Sultan of Yogyakarta Special Province, is revered by Indonesians as one of the great founders of the modern Indonesian state. He leaves a positive but in some ways ambiguous legacy in political terms. His most conspicuous achievement was the survival of hereditary Yogyakartan kingship, and he provided rare stability and continuity in Indonesia's highly fractured modern history. Under the New Order, Hamengku Buwono also helped to launch the Indonesian economy on a much stronger growth path. Although remembered as the epitome of "e;political decency"e;, he faded from power and influence as Vice President in the 1970s, and the repressive and anti-democratic features of Suharto's New Order seemed to contradict much of what Hamengku Buwono originally stood for.This biography seeks to explain his political standpoint, motivations, and achievements, and set his career in the context of his times.

Indonesia

This book traces the beginning of the process of nation-formation, the struggle for independence, the hopeful beginning of the new nation-state of Indonesia only to be followed by hard and difficult ways to remain true to the ideals of independence. In the process Indonesia with its sprawling archipelago and its multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation has to undergo various types of crisis and internal conflicts, but the ideals that have been nurtured since the beginning when a new nation began to be visualized remain intact. Some changes in the interpretation may have taken place and some deviations here and there can be noticed but the literal meaning of the ideals continues to be the guiding light. In short this is a history of a nation in the continuing effort to retain the ideals of its existence.