COULD Indonesia end up as just a row of political parties? A century or so ago, we would not have minded this. The Indische Partij, Communist Party, Sarekat Islam Party, Partai Nasional Indonesia (Indonesian National Party) and others were born. They arrived with conviction.

Back then, “politics” was assertion. “Politics” was the endeavor to dismantle a discourse considered flawed, but rammed home by the colonial power machine as a const