The Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong and the Sun Flower Movement in Taiwan have given hope in the creative energy of the youth in transforming society.  It is not only politics but art, and it is not only protest but an ingenious way of invoking different meanings.  The images of the young in communal spirit, and peaceful action, using social media, stand in sharp contrast to the violent and destructive, almost primal  images of global terrorism.

However, the complex condition of social transformation in 21st century, in particular in Asia and Southeast Asia, restrain us from romanticizing these memorable, hopeful moments.  Can the same means of artistic creativity and social media network be used for bad politics?  How effective are these strategies in the face of State violence, repressive society, divided nation?  If the medium is the message, to what ends should it be aimed? These questions compel us to ground the meaning of creativity and movement contextually to unpack their complexity  and contradiction.

In this talk I will focus on the different ways “political society” (Partha Chatterjee, as discussed by Chua Beng Huat, 2015)  responds to significant events in Indonesia, and discuss the reasons and  implications of the contradictory responses. The first case is volunteers’ activism in the 2014 Indonesian election and the current preparation for the Jakarta governor’s election in 2017. These  are examples of democratic initiatives involving young people with growing political engagement, using social media and creativity. The creative energy, however, is not directed against the state—as in Hong Kong and Taiwan—but more like in Thailand, towards opposing camps in a horizontal competition, generating a social media battle that can turn murky. This case shows how history (cold war legacy, race-religion politics) is revisited and reenacted in the new post-reformasi era.

The second case is the dark humor and comic  responses to the January 2016 Jakarta suicide bombings, which deflated the terrorist attack. This response is in stark contrast to the frantic “battle call” upon  the media exposure of an  LGBT in a state university a month later. The two events unleash creative energy of a different mood and speak of the complex relatations between  the process of democratization, contested construction of national identity, class, life style and  religious conservativism. Josephine Ho’s (2008) essay on Asian modernity and “gendered vulnerabilities”, while speaking of Taiwan, is highly relevant to understanding what is going on in Indonesia.

Texts to read:

Josephine Ho (2008), “Asian Modernity and its Gendered Vulnerabilities” NIAS Nytt; Jun 2008; 1; ProQuest Social Science Journals, pp 9-11
Yasih, Diatyka Widya Permata and Andi Rahman Alamsyah (2014) The Paradox of Virtual Youth Politics, Inside Indonesia, http://www.insideindonesia.org/the-paradox-of-virtual-youth-politics

Melani BUDIANTA is Professor of Literature and Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia. She is the founder of Women’s Research Institute, and was active in the women’s movement in the 1998 Reformasi movement. She is engaged in inter-Southeast/Asian initiatives and literary and cultural activism. Her recent publications include Indonesian Women Writers (coedited with Yvonne Michalik, 2015), and “Precarious Cosmopolitanism: Work Migration and Cultural Belonging in Globalized Asia  (International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2016, vol 19. No. 3).