Yet unlike nationalism in the context of economic stagnation and social
stasis in Burma, in Indonesia the dramatic social transformations accompanying
three decades of rapid, sustained industrialization and economic growth
generated new possibilities for “reimagining” the nation. By the 1990s, a
vibrant, increasingly urbanized society was rapidly outgrowing the centralized
authoritarian state. When, in mid-1998, Suharto was forced to resign amidst
economic crisis and popular protests, there was a rapid and decisive reconfiguration
of the nation-state, colored by contestation and violent conflict