Private lives, public spaces: Representations of kerajaan, kebangsaan and kerakyatan in the Malay world

This dissertation concerns itself with the ideas of power and its manifestation in the discourse of the history and nationalist aspirations of the Indonesian nation. To that end, I will use the first two volumes of the Buru quartet (This Earth of Mankind and Child of All Nations) Pramoedya Ananta Toer. The dissertation begins with an introduction to the concepts and causes of the pre-colonial Malay world and will discuss the Hikayat Hang Tuah, an eminent court chronicle from the 17 th century. The hikayat addresses the concept of kerajaan (the state of having a king), kerakyatan (the state of being a subject) and kebangsaan (nationality). In the ensuing chapters, the discussion will focus on the writing of history in Indonesia and the impact that the Suharto regime (Orde Baru or New Order) has had on the nation. The issue of colonialism and the construction of gender (imperial feminisms) is also addressed to illustrate the how the Dutch regime attempted (in collusion with the local, native aristocracy) to move the system of kebangsaan (nationality) and kerakyatan (the state of being a subject) back to kerajaan (the state of having a king).; In order to address the issue of nation-ness and the new colonialism that emerged after Dutch rule, I use the first two volumes of Pramoedya's Buru quartet. In these works, the issue of a different history (that of the people) is recorded via the agency of fiction. I use the voice of the nyai (concubine) to address the colonial situation and later, delve into the character of Minke, Pramoedya's narrator, and his own awakening to the newly forming Indonesian nation. My conclusion addresses the general sentiment and emotions of the people of Indonesia and illustrates the continuing struggle of the citizens against their own indigenous oppressors who have taken over from the colonial masters and imposed their own regime of thought and ideologies.; My intention in this document is to show how history of the Malay world is constructed via the Hikayat Hang Tuah and the ruling house of the raja is subverted by a commoner (Hang Tuah). The move from kerajaan (the state of having a king) to kebangsaan (nationality) and kerakyatan (the state of being a subject) become the focus of the dissertation, moving from the hikayat to the works of Pramoedya Ananta Toer---the movement from kerajaan (the state of having a king) to kebangsaan (nationality), kerakyatan (the state of being a subject) and finally back to kerajaan via the ideological impositions of the Orde Baru of Suharto's regime which lasted from 1966--1998.