The Struggle for the National Narrative in Indonesia

This chapter introduces the study by focusing on the role of narratives in shaping our understanding of the nation. The chapter begins by outlining the importance of developing a shared sense of purpose in a nation like Indonesia to achieve both domestic and international aims. We then look at the way in which narrative has been considered in existing research on Indonesia, before turning to what the relevant literature tells us about the role of narrative in shaping ideas about the nation. Finally, we discuss our approach to studying evidence of the national narrative in this study.

This chapter assesses the technocratic national narrative in Indonesia, and especially how current Indonesian president Joko Widodo (better known as Jokowi) drew on this narrative to compete for reelection in 2019. In assessing a range of examples of Jokowi’s political discourse, we set out the key plot, characters and moral of his national narrative. Through this analysis, we can see how the technocratic national narrative focuses on the need for skilled leaders with experience in government, and how it focuses on the particular qualities of the technocratic leaders and the public that they serve. Finally, we argue that the technocratic national narrative developed by Jokowi in Indonesia focuses on the importance of putting trust in skilled leaders while also maintaining a sense of optimism in Indonesia’s future.

In this chapter we consider the populist national narrative in Indonesia, and especially the role of presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto in shaping this narrative during the 2019 election campaign. The populist narrative provides the most powerful challenge to the technocratic national narrative in Indonesia, and provides a very specific plot, set of characters and moral. In this chapter we argue that the populist national narrative shares a story focused on the threats emerging from overseas, while also establishing the weak domestic elite as unable to stand up to this threat. In this context, the character of the populist leader is presented as crucial because of their strength and willingness to bring about change. For the populist national narrative, the moral of the story focuses on the importance not only of electing these strong figures, but also of bringing about policies that can protect Indonesia from the outside world and weak and selfish local elites.

In this chapter we turn from the two dominant national narratives in Indonesia to consider other potential sources of storytelling about Indonesia as a nation. In the first part of the chapter we turn to Islam and the power of Indonesia’s dominant religion to shape political ideas about the past, present and future of the nation. We argue that Islam provides potential powerful forms of storytelling, but also faces limitations in providing an alternative national narrative in its own right. In the second half of the chapter we turn to ideas about democracy, human rights and inequality, and consider the potential for these different sets of ideas to shape the overall Indonesian national narrative. Importantly, we note that while the dominant national narratives imagine Indonesians as all possessing a similar purpose, differences and inequalities in society mean that this is not necessarily the case, and there is the potential for challenges to the dominant national narratives on this basis.

In this final chapter, we conclude the study by addressing the way in which the struggle for the national narrative is important for domestic politics and Indonesia’s international behaviour. In the first part of the chapter, we consider how national narratives have shaped political competition, and particularly how we understand competition for the presidency in Indonesia. We then turn in the second section to focus on how the national narratives covered in this book shape governance. Here we use an example from late 2019 that demonstrates the challenge of governing at the national level in Indonesia, and what this means for maintaining a hegemonic national narrative. This case is important to consider as the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues in the 2020s increasingly impact Indonesian society. In the third section we consider how national narratives are a part of the ongoing contentious politics that take place both during and between elections. In the fourth section, we address how national narratives shape foreign policy and especially the practice of ‘grand strategy’. Finally, we consider what the competing national narratives might mean for the future of democracy in Indonesia.