Surviving Sukarno
British Business in Post-Colonial Indonesia, 1950-1967
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3666264 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicholas J White (0000-0002-1897-1978, Liverpool John Moores University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1277-1315 |
| Publication date | 2012-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern Asian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0026749x11000709 |
| OpenAlex | W2135218032 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 20 |
Drawing principally upon a rich vein of previously unexploited business records, this paper analyses the experience of British firms in Indonesia between the achievement of independence and the beginnings of the Suharto regime. As in The Netherlands East Indies, British enterprises occupied a significant position in post-colonial Indonesia in plantations, oil extraction, shipping, banking, the import-export trade, and manufacturing. After the nationalization of Dutch businesses from the end of 1957, Britain emerged as the leading investing power in the archipelago alongside the United States. However, during Indonesia's Confrontation with British-backed Malaysia (1963-1966), most UK-owned companies in the islands were subject to a series of torrid (albeit temporary) takeovers by the trade unions and subsequently various government authorities. Most of these investments were returned to British ownership under Suharto after 1967. But, in surviving the Sukarno era, British firms had endured 15 years of increasing inconvenience and insecurity trapped in a power struggle within Indonesia's perplexing plural polity (and particularly between the Communist Party and the military). Indeed, theKonfrontasitakeovers themselves, varying in intensity from region to region and from firm to firm, were indicative of deep fissures within Indonesian administration and politics. The unpredictable and unsettled political economy of post-colonial Indonesia meant that the balance of advantage lay not with transnational enterprise but with the host state and society
Colonialism · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Government (linguistics · Independence (probability theory · Indonesian · Political science · Politics · Polity · Power (physics · Asian Studies and History · History · Law
Colonialism in its modern dress
Business, Governments and Political Risk in South Asia and Latin America since 1970
Subversive Seas
Negotiating cluster boundaries
Turning Adversity into Opportunity
Managing Political Risk in Global Business
The Indonesian state and the strategic use of foreign capital
Shallow roots
Decolonisation and the organisation of the international workforce
We will pay compensation from future profits
A European role in intra-Asian commercial development
Internment as a business challenge
The Settlement of Decolonization and Post-Colonial Economic Development
Expropriation as reparation
The Blue Funnel Legend
Historical Atlas of Indonesia
The Indonesian Economy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Bridges to New Business
A History of Modern Indonesia since c. 1300
Confronting Sukarno
Facing the Rising Tide
The Importance of Indonesianisasi during the Transition from the 1930s to the 1960s
Konfrontasi
Western Enterprise in Indonesia and Malaya
Maximum disavowable aid
Unilever Overseas
The Politics of Trade Union Formation in the Java Sugar Industry, 1945-1949
The Sarawak-Indonesian Border Insurgency
The Blue Funnel Legend
Indonesia's Government Estates and Their Masters
| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,93 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2025 (15) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |