Imaginary histories and the real thing: A critique of Anderson and Benda on the “autonomous state” in Indonesia

Historically-minded observers of post-Sukarno Indonesia have occasionally noted the stylistic similarity of Suharto's “New Order” to that of Dutch colonial rule, with their common emphasis on administration rather than politics… and (as Harry Benda pointed out) the (Dutch) Indies approached as near as it ever did to the beamtenstaat idea, the state as efficient bureaucratic machine…. The Indonesian bureaucracy, however, serves itself. (McVey, 1982, p. 84,88) One cannot avoid the impression that American sociologists in observing third world matters have an attitude of misplaced sophistication…. Instead of making a profound analysis of the ways of production, that is the real social system, they call into being non-existent value systems, from which they try to elucidate “social actions.” (Utrecht, 1973, p. 44, 39) Laws and government may be considered in this and indeed in every case as a combination of the rich to oppress the poor and preserve to themselves the inequality of the goods which would otherwise soon be destroyed by the attacks of the poor. Adam Smith (1762, in Meek, 1976 p. 123)