Content area
Full Text
ACEH: History, Politics and Culture. Edited by Arndt Graf, Susanne Schröter and Edwin Wieringa. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2010. xvii, 386 pp. (Col. illus.) US$59.90, paper. ISBN 978-981-4279-12-3.
Due to a protracted separatist conflict that haunted Aceh province for almost three decades until the signing of a peace agreement in 2005, balanced discussions of Acehnese politics and society have been scarce. This volume, which comprises a total of 17 chapters, seeks to amend this situation. It targets three audiences in particular: foreign aid and reconstruction workers, Acehnese interested in international scholarly approaches to Aceh, and international students interested in a "scholarly introduction into a variety of aspects of Acehnese history, politics and culture" (x).
The book is subdivided into four parts. The first part, "History," deals with particular aspects of the Aceh Sultanate, the Dutch colonial war, and the transition from colonialism to independent Indonesia. Sher Banu A.L. Khan provides an interesting account of the succession of Acehnese queens in the seventeenth century, which convincingly contests the idea that these were relatively "weak" rulers. Anthony Reid, in his chapter on Acehnese diplomacy and the "Turkish connection," successfully challenges the still prevalent view that Aceh in the nineteenth century was an "isolated" place. Subsequent contributions by Antje Missbach, on the Aceh War and the role of the Dutch orientalist Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, and Fritz Schulz, on the revolution and the Darul Islam rebellion, extend the narrative to the 1960s.
Part 2, "Contemporary Economy and Politics," starts with contributions by Nazamuddin, Agussabti and Syamsuddin Mahmud (on economic...