• Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.187-214
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• 2010

This article is aimed at understanding the goals of the citizenship educations and changes of political cultures in the Sukarno, Suharto, and the post-Suharto periods in Indonesia. Sukarno's and Suharto's regimes adopted Pancasila, Indonesia's state ideology, as the philosophical basis of education. The citizenship education based on Pancasila was nothing but a political education, which aimed at suppressing the masses and justifying authoritarian rules of the regimes. After the collapse of the Suharto regime, a democratic citizenship education has launched, which emphasized the expanded civic rights and obligations as world citizens and the masses' active participation in politics. However, in this new curriculum, Pancasila is still emphasized as the supporting philosophical pillar of education. The reason is because, through the values of communitarianism represented in the discourse of Pancasila, the state needs to control the possible irresponsible and undemocratic behaviors of local powers and global economy when liberalism is not effectively controlled.