The Making of Modern Indonesian Intellectuals: The Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI) and Democratic Socialist Ideas, 1930s to mid-1970s

Abstract

This thesis examines the intellectual aspects of socialism in Indonesia—and democratic socialism in particular—by focusing on three figures in the Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI): Sutan Sjahrir, Soedjatmoko and Sumitro Djojohadikusumo. Through analysing articles and the writings of these key figures, this study shows how democratic socialist thought evolved from the nationalist movement period in the 1930s to the rise of the New Order developmental state in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The origin of Indonesia’s democratic socialist movement stemmed from intellectuals and the study-club network connected to Sjahrir; specifically, in the context of the struggle against fascism and colonial conservatism. Rejecting both the mainstream nationalists’ obsession with unity and Marxist-Leninist notions of class struggle, the democratic socialists established the democratic transformation of Indonesian society as the ultimate goal of national liberation. They sought to achieve this transformation through anti-feudal modernisation. Some of the most significant contributions of democratic socialism were through establishing parliamentary democracy and the multi-party system in the 1950s, as well as modernising technocratic intellectuals, who played a major role in socioeconomic development planning. While the PSI was short-lived as a party, and its aim of establishing a welfare state based on the principles of economic democracy was hindered by the rise of authoritarian regimes, it created an intellectual tradition that has endured to the present day.