Outline

Overview

This unit examines the history of Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, emphasizing the interaction between Islam, nationalism and democracy. The unit traces these forces impact on the formation of modern Indonesia from the late nineteenth century, highlighting the experience and legacy of colonialism, the independence struggle, and the rise and fall of military rule. Particular attention is given to changing notions of national identity, debates about the place of Islam in the polity and authoritarianism and democratisation.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit	Asian Studies
Credit points	6
Prerequisites ?	12 Junior credit points in units of study listed in Table A
Corequisites ?	None
Prohibitions ?	None
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator	Adrian Vickers, adrian.vickers@sydney.edu.au

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length
Assignment	Take-home assessment task Mini-essays assessing knowledge of content and analysis of sources	45%	Formal exam period Due date: 15 Nov 2024 at 23:59	2000 words
Outcomes assessed:
Participation	Tutorial participation Contributions to tutorials via chat and discussions	10%	Ongoing	n/a
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Research essay Students design their own essay topic and then research it	45%	Week 13 Due date: 25 Oct 2024 at 23:59	2000 words + 500 word proposal
Outcomes assessed:
= hurdle task ?

Assessment summary

*Research essay: after submitting an essay proposal of 500 words to design their own essay topic in week 7, students research and write the essay of 2,000 words.

*Take-home exam: mini-essays on topics provided, 2,000 words.

*Tutorial participation: contributions to class discussions via chat and orally.

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a High distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a Distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard.

Result name	Mark range	Description
High distinction	85 - 100	Demonstrates a high level of understanding of content combined with strong analytical ability, especially an ability to construct original arguments from evidence.
Distinction	75 - 84	Demonstrates good understanding of content combined with good analytical ability, especially an ability to construct sound arguments from evidence.
Credit	65 - 74	Demonstrates understanding of content combined with analytical ability, especially an ability to construct arguments from evidence.
Pass	50 - 64	Demonstrates basic understanding of content and ability to construct an analytical argument.
Fail	0 - 49	When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

For more information see sydney.edu.au/students/guide-to-grades.

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

This unit has an exception to the standard University policy or supplementary information has been provided by the unit coordinator. This information is displayed below:

The Assessment Procedures 2011 provide that any written work submitted after 11:59pm on the due date will be penalised by 5% of the maximum awardable mark for each calendar day after the due date. If the assessment is submitted more than ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded. However, a unit of study may prohibit late submission or exclude late penalties only if expressly stated below.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Support for students

The Support for Students Policy 2023 reflects the University’s commitment to supporting students in their academic journey and making the University safe for students. It is important that you read and understand this policy so that you are familiar with the range of support services available to you and understand how to engage with them.

The University uses email as its primary source of communication with students who need support under the Support for Students Policy 2023. Make sure you check your University email regularly and respond to any communications received from the University.

Learning resources and detailed information about weekly assessment and learning activities can be accessed via Canvas. It is essential that you visit your unit of study Canvas site to ensure you are up to date with all of your tasks.

If you are having difficulties completing your studies, or are feeling unsure about your progress, we are here to help. You can access the support services offered by the University at any time:

Support and Services (including health and wellbeing services, financial support and learning support)
Course planning and administration
Meet with an Academic Adviser

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity
Week 01	History, Heritage and Memory	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 02	How Indonesians Write Their History	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 02	The politics of history	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 03	Dutch colonialism in Indonesia	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 03	Understanding the Netherlands East Indies	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 04	Disaster in Indonesian history	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 04	The Influenza Pandemic	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 05	Nationalism in Indonesia	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 05	The plural nation	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 06	From the Japanese Period to the Revolution	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 06	Participation in the Revolution	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 07	The New Nation	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 07	Region and state in the 1950s	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 08	Guided Democracy	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 08	Communism in Indonesia	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 09	The Killings and the rise of the New Order	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 09	State and society in the 1970s	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 10	Islam and politics in the New Order	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 10	Islam and the Indonesian state	Tutorial (2 hr)
Week 11	The end of the New Order	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 11	Conflict and transition	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 12	National unity in Indonesia	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 12	Indonesia and Papua	Tutorial (1 hr)
Week 13	Evaluating Indonesian history	Lecture (2 hr)
Week 13	Closing discussion	Tutorial (1 hr)

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

The two background texts outlining major developments in Indonesia are:

Vickers, Adrian, A History of Modern Indonesia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) [available in electronic format through the Fisher library website]

Ricklefs, M.C., A History of Modern Indonesia (London: Macmillan, 1981 and 1993).

Week 1

Legêne, Susan and Henk Schulte Nordholt, ‘Introduction: Imagining Heritage and Heritage as Imagined History’ in Legêne, Susan et al., Sites, Bodies and Stories (Singapore: NUS Press, 2015), pp. 1-30.

Week 2

Asvi Warman Adam, ‘History, Nationalism, and Power’, in Vedi R. Hadiz and Daniel Dhakidae (eds), Social Science and Power in Indonesia, pp. 247–274 (Jakarta/Singapore, Equinox/ISEAS, 2005).

Week 3

Taylor, Jean Gelman, ‘Many Kingdoms, One Colony’, in Indonesia: Peoples and Histories (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), pp. 238-278.

Excerpt from Max Havelaar, by Multatuli, in Tineke Hellwig and Eric Tagliacozzo (eds.), The Indonesia Reader: History, Culture and Politics, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), pp. 128-132.

Vickers, Adrian, ‘Chapter 1, Our colonial soil’ in A History of Modern Indonesia, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 9- 33.

Week 4

Sandick R.A. van, ‘The Eruption of Krakatoa’, in Tineke Hellwig and Eric Tagliacozzo (eds.), The Indonesia Reader: History, Culture and Politics, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), pp. 252–255.

Kartodirdjo, Sartono, ‘The Religious Revival’, chapter V of The Peasants’ Revolt of Banten in 1888. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1966.

Brown, Colin, “The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 in Indonesia,” in Death and Disease in Southeast Asia: Explorations in Social, Medical and Demographic History, ed. Norman G. Owen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 235–56.

Week 5

Elson, R. E., ‘Constructing the nation: Ethnicity, race, modernity and citizenship in early Indonesian thought’, Asian Ethnicity, 6, 3, (2005), pp. 145-60.

Foulcher, Keith, ‘Sumpah Pemuda: The Making and Meaning of a Symbol of Indonesian Nationhood’, Asian Studies Review, 24, 3 (2000), pp. 377-410.

Sukarno, ‘Nationalism, Islam and Marxism (1926)’, in Herbert Feith and Lance Castles (eds.), Indonesian Political Thinking 1945-65, (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1970), pp. 357-361.

Sukarno, ‘The Pantja Sila (1945)’, in Herbert Feith and Lance Castles, eds., Indonesian Political Thinking 1945-65, (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1970), pp. 40-49;

Week 6

Anthony Reid, ‘From Briefcase to Samurai Sword’ in Alfred McCoy, Southeast Asia Under Japanese occupation, (Newhaven: Yale, 1980), pp.16-32.

Idrus, Surabaja, a translation, Benedict R. O'G. Anderson and S. U. Nababan (trans.), Indonesia, 5 (April 1968), pp.1-28.

Frederick, William H., ‘The Appearance of Revolution: Cloth, Uniform and the Pemuda Style in East Java, 1945-1949’, in Henk Schulte Nordholt (ed.), Outward Appearances (Leiden: KITLV, 1997), pp. 199-248.

Week 7

Schulte Nordholt, Henk, ‘Indonesia in the 1950s: Nation, modernity, and the post-colonial state’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 167, 4 (2011), pp. 386-404.

Lee C. ‘At The Rendezvous Of Decolonization: The Final Communique of the Asian-African Conference, Bandung, Indonesia, 18-24 April 1955’, Interventions - International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 11 (2009), pp.81-91.

Prijono, ‘Nation Building and Education (1959)’, in Herbert Feith and Lance Castles (eds.), Indonesian Political Thinking 1945-65, (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1970), pp. 327-328.

Velthoen, Esther, ‘Hutan and Kota: Contested Visions of the Nation-State in Southern Sulawesi in the 1950s’, in Hannerman Samuel and Henk Schulte Nordholt, eds., Indonesia in Transition: Rethinking ‘Civil Society’, ‘Region’, and ‘Crisis’ (Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar, 2004).

Week 8

Soedjatmoko, ‘The Indonesian Historian and His Time’, in Soedjatmoko et al. (eds.), An Introduction to Indonesian Historiography, (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1965), pp. 404-415.

Alisjahbana, Sutan Takdir, ‘Sukarno – Promoter and Impediment’, in Indonesia: Social and Cultural Revolution, (1966), pp. 137-177.

Ruth McVey, ‘Teaching Modernity: The PKI as an Educational Institution’, Indonesia 50 (1990), pp. 5-28.

Week 9

Cribb, Robert, ‘Unresolved Problems in the Indonesian Killings of 1965–1966,’ Asian Survey, 41, 4 (2002), pp. 550-581.

Wanandi, Jusuf, ‘Chapter 3: the New Order’ in Shades of Grey: A Political Memoir of Modern Indonesia, (Equinox, 2012), pp. 84-90; 96-109.

David Bourchier, ‘Crime, law and state authority in Indonesia’, in Arief Budiman (ed.), State and Civil Society in Indonesia, Monash Papers on Southeast Asia no. 22 (Clayton, Vic: Monash University Press, 1990), pp. 177-212.

Lestari, ‘My Ideals for My Country’, in Putu Oka Sukanta, Breaking the Silence, (Clayton, Vic.: Monash University Press, 2014).

Week 10

Hefner, Robert W., ‘Ambivalent Alliances: Religion and Politics in the Early New Order’, Chapter 4 of Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2000).

TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign, ‘Appendices I-IV’, in Indonesia: Muslims on Trial (London: TAPOL, 1987).

Nadirsyah Hosen, ‘Religion and the Indonesian Constitution: A Recent Debate’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 36, 3 (2005), pp. 419-440.

Week 11

Aspinall, Edward, ‘Chapter 3: The Fall of Suharto’, in Opposing Suharto: Compromise, Resistance and Regime Change in Indonesia (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005), pp. 202-238.

Leila S. Chudori, ‘Redefining Indonesia’ The Australia-Indonesia Centre, 5 October, 2016 <http://australiaindonesiacentre.org/essay- series-redefining-indonesia-leila-s-chudori/>

Spyer, Patricia, ‘Fire without Smoke and Other Phantoms of Ambon’s Violence: Media Effects, Agency, and the Work of Imagination’, Indonesia, 74, (October 2002), pp. 21-36.

Week 12

Aspinall, Edward & Mark T. Berger, ‘The break-up of Indonesia? Nationalisms after decolonisation and the limits of the nation-state in post-cold war Southeast Asia’, Third World Quarterly, 22, 6, (2001) pp. 1003-1024.

‘Mica Barreto Soares’ in Jude Conway (ed.), Step by step: women of East Timor, stories of resistance and survival, (Darwin, N.T.: Charles Darwin University Press, 2010), pp. 124-141.

Chauvel, Richard and Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, ‘The Papua conflict: Jakarta’s perceptions and policies’, (Policy Studies 5, Washington: East- West Centre, 2005).

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

Outcomes
Graduate qualities

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. Demonstrate understanding of the structures of Indonesian history
LO2. Demonstrate ability to evaluate primary and secondary sources
LO3. Show appreciation of different perspectives on Indonesia and different ways of seeing the past
LO4. Show ability to research, synthesise and analyse a range of sources in order to produce informed arguments
LO5. Evaluate digital sources in researching and communicating concepts in Indonesian history.
LO6. Apply ethical standards to inquiry in Indonesian history particularly relating to decolonisation.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

This unit has been updated based on student feedback.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Support for students

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect

Current students

ASNS2661: History of Modern Indonesia

Semester 2, 2024 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Support for students

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect