The New Order Nationalist Rhetoric: The Articulation of Javanese Identity in Post-Colonial Indonesia

Abstract

The article seeks to find evidence that Indonesians perception of 'the west' is still continue to be informed by the past 'nationalist' rhetoric of the New Order government. Ever since Indonesia's second president, Soeharto, the state government has raised awareness of 'the West's' cultural paradigm by using dogmatic virtues of female sexuality and 'westernization'. The article employs scholarly archives in the form of school textbooks in order to critically trace the tensions between nationalism and what is perceived as 'western' culture, as well as its effect on gender and sexuality norms in Indonesia.