Indonesia’s sense of self, the West, and democracy: an ontological (in)security perspective

ABSTRACT

Democracy has remained an important phenomenon in Indonesian politics over the past two decades. Despite various studies on the topic, the question of ontological security, or security of the Indonesian self that lies at the heart of Indonesia’s identity, agency, and relations with others, has been largely overlooked. This article deviates from rationalist accounts to argue that democracy has been a crucial source of self-identification in Indonesia’s ontological struggle driven by colonial stigmas and existential anxiety. Similar to ‘sovereignty’ and ‘unity’, the idea of ‘democracy’ has been used repeatedly for many purposes, including the construction of the modern Indonesian state and the stabilisation of its sense of self. Recently, thanks to global politics and security, Indonesia’s democratic self has been recognized and showcased by the West. This democratic identity has fostered a sense of pride in achieving long-sought modernity, social agency and the ontological security of the state.

KEYWORDS:

• Indonesia
• democracy
• modernity
• stigma
• the West
• ontological security

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Jürgen Rüland, Aninda Rahmasari, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Paruedee Nguitragool is Assistant Professor at School of International Affairs, Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration, Chiang Mai University, Thailand. Her articles have appeared in political science and area studies journals, including Asian Survey, European Journal of East Asian Studies and Pacific Affairs. Her books include Environmental Cooperation in Southeast Asia: ASEAN’s Regime for Transboundary Haze Pollution (Routledge, 2011) and ASEAN as an Actor in International for a: Reality, Potential and Constraints (co-author with Jürgen Rüland, Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration, Chiang Mai University. Part of the empirical material was drawn from the ‘Beyond Occidentalism’ project funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).