IThis study explores the inculcatio

IThis study explores the inculcation of the civic ideal through the education system in
Indonesia since its inception, and particularly during the New Order period. It seeks to
show which factors, apart from the interests of successive regimes, have made the
construction of the civic ideal possible.
Based on a critical approach to the analysis of texts, it argues that the role of Indonesian
citizenship education, exemplified by the student textbooks produced in the last decade of
New Order Indonesia, has been to regulate the moral reasoning and behaviour of
Indonesian citizens on two dimensions: the relations between the state and Indonesian
citizens, and the relations between citizens. Indonesia’s state ideology, National
Constitution and the notion of ‘integral state’, coupled with the sociological approach of
structural-functionalism, were employed as the guiding principles in narrating the nation.
These instruments were used to legitimate the authoritarian rule of the former New Order
regime. The strategy of overemphasing the importance of macro-social ideology
neglected micro-social interactions. In an attempt to forge national integration and
identity, a conformist perspective was imposed to legitimate the suppression of cultural
differences and individual rights.