What Does Postmodernism Do in Contemporary Indonesia?

This paper historizes the recent vogue of post-modernist thought in Indonesia by relating that vogue to the cultural politics of the country's urban intelligentsia. The writer welcomes post-modernism, but with some serious reservations. He relates the contradictory political character of post-modernism to the position of the middle class in contemporary Indonesia. While the homology between the middle class and post-modernism may well be global, the writer considers the specificity of the relation in the Indonesian case.