A Prince in a Republic
The Life of Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX of Yogyakarta

John Monfries (Author)

9789814519380

Paperback / softback, published 30 April 2015

376 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.561 kg

Hamengku Buwono IX, the late Sultan of Yogyakarta Special Province, is revered by Indonesians as one of the great founders of the modern Indonesian state. He leaves a positive but in some ways ambiguous legacy in political terms. His most conspicuous achievement was the survival of hereditary Yogyakartan kingship, and he provided rare stability and continuity in Indonesia's highly fractured modern history.

Under the New Order, Hamengku Buwono also helped to launch the Indonesian economy on a much stronger growth path. Although remembered as the epitome of ""political decency"", he faded from power and influence as Vice President in the 1970s, and the repressive and anti-democratic features of Suharto's New Order seemed to contradict much of what Hamengku Buwono originally stood for. This biography seeks to explain his political standpoint, motivations, and achievements, and set his career in the context of his times.