The Historical dictionary of Indonesia, compiled by the noted Indonesianist Audrey Kahin is on its third edition, the first one being published in 1992 under the deft hands of another noted Indonesianist, Robert Cribb, and the second edition published in 2004, a collaboration between Cribb and Kahin. All three editions were under the editorship of Jon Woronoff, who has edited a series of Asian historical dictionaries, from East Timor and Nepal to India and the People's Republic of China. Aside from being an esteemed historian of Indonesia herself and significant other of another celebrated Indonesianist, George McTurnan Kahin, she had been the managing editor of the Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) Publications at Cornell University and editor of the important journal Indonesia from 1978 to 1995. She is now the executive director of the American Institute for Indonesian Studies and thus is exceptionally able to sense current interests in Indonesian studies along with extensive personal contacts of Indonesianists and Indonesians. This has been very telling in her choices regarding the dictionary entries.
Going solo in this latest instalment, Audrey Kahin continued Cribb's focus on post-1800 political and economic history, especially focusing on the later period of Indonesian history. This gives the dictionary a more contemporary presence, with a focus on the Reformasi period (1998–present day), especially the developments during Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's presidency (2004–14) and the first three months of the Joko Widodo presidency in early 2014. The edition contains 12 black and white maps which very usefully illustrate political changes at the geographic level. It also manages to incorporate the significant political changes of the Reformasi, with an emphasis on decentralisation and shifting from Jakarta-focused to regional-focused events, and putting greater emphasis on the growing importance of political Islam in the post-Suharto period. The dictionary follows the contours of Indonesian nationalist history, with a heavy emphasis on the development of the nationalist movement, the state and its elites. This is no doubt due to Audrey Kahin's interest in political history. This emphasis reduces non-political entries; even entries on culture, for instance, are often selected based on their political importance. While Indonesian politics has been an important arbiter in the development of Indonesian society and culture, using this as a yardstick results in excluding less politically relevant developments or discussing cultural and social development within a political perspective.
As a result of the emphasis on following the contours of nationalist political history, the variety of possible entries on colonial society, minorities or other more ‘obscure’ cultural or social topics are restricted. For instance, the Abbreviations, to use a proxy, contain only 21 colonial acronyms out of 274 on the list. The vast majority of acronyms are related to the state and to more recent Indonesian political history, including East Timor. Entries on pop and traditional culture and developments in music, literature or television are sparse. The special emphasis on Islam is understandable, considering that Indonesia is the largest Muslim nation, yet Buddhism is lumped together in the Hindu–Buddhist entry, despite both religions having had significant roles in Indonesian history. Many of the entries on the Netherlands Indies were chosen in relation to the nationalist movement. This limits the possible entries that are out there about issues that are not related with the nationalist movements, for instance in regional or urban history during the colonial period. There is little in the way of important ‘non-political’ colonial actors like Herman Thomas Karsten or Henry Maclaine Pont, both noted as significant figures by present-day Indonesian urban historians, architects and town planners. The appendices are extremely interesting and important, providing the lists of Indonesian traditional leaders, the governor generals of the Netherlands Indies, the cabinets of the Republic, and the heads of the armed forces. The appendices again focus on political history; there is no list on the economy, culture or society. Of the twelve maps that are included in this edition, only two were non-political: a map on the main geological features and a map on ethnic distribution of the archipelago.
The dictionary is thus more useful and interesting for those focusing on the political history of Indonesia, especially the more recent postcolonial and Reformasi political history. It is, just a smidge, possibly less interesting for people who are into more specific non-political aspects of Indonesian history. Beginners in Indonesian history will find that the Dictionary provides extremely useful general knowledge, but those interested in more specific topics will need to turn to other sources. This limitation is, of course, understandable. One dictionary cannot incorporate everything about the history of Indonesia. It does, however, provide a glimpse of what is currently considered as important topics within (American?) Indonesian studies, thus functioning also as a record to be used by future historians. Yet, it underscores the need to develop dictionaries that have multiple inputs from experts of various fields and periods. Such a dictionary would require a much larger number of entries and thus perhaps make important the transition from printed to digitally published material, as a more accessible and nuanced form for a future dictionary of Indonesian history.
