BOOK REVIEW: Bahasa Reformasi: Political Rhetoric in Post-Suharto Indonesia

This book was conceived as a result of the author s close monitoring of the profound political changes assailing Indonesia in 1997/1998. The author hypothesises that the liberalisation and democratisation process that swept through Indonesia during this historic moment would bear a deep impact on the political communication among Indonesians. Numerous incidents observed by the author during this time such as the pro-democracy rally which was staged by Indonesian students in Hamburg one day before President Suharto s resignation, the use of a new textual genre such as poetry recitation as a form of cultural expression by his Indonesian colleagues, the participation of the new Indonesian President, Abdurrahman Wahid, in a televised variety show, and political writings via the print media, prompted him to study the political rhetoric of the post-Suharto period in order to find out whether political communication in this changing times was reflective of a grass root level kind of communication or whether it was increasingly being professionalised.