The Indonesian Tragedy

First published in 1978, The Indonesian Tragedy is a controversial book that argues that Indonesia’s lack of economic development is due to the blind attempt to force a Western economic model on a population, whose culture and psychology are unsuited to it. The author demonstrates the ‘Indonesian Tragedy’ not so much by argument, as by depicting the country as he experienced it day to day. In developing his conclusion, he draws on history, and the works of sociologists, some of whom he disagrees