Governmental Control and Intervention Towards Songs Writings in Indonesian on 1959-1998

Mohamad Ulil Albab

Abstract

This thesis discusses governmental control and intervention towards songs writing in Indonesia, espescially in Soekarno’s Managed Democracy (Demokrasi Terpimpin) untill Soeharto’s Pancasila regime, namely from 1959-1998. The thesis compares the intervention imposed in both regime. Along Managed Democracy, music is part of revolutionary struggle since it is written to enhance nationalism against colonialism and imperialism. On the other hand, a different policy is conducted in Soeharto’s Pancasila Democracy regime, namely to ban critical songs against his authorization. The data in this thesis is collected both by interviewing agents of music history and by collecting from music archive and document. The theory used to dicuss the problems is Gramsci’s hegemony and political aoproach. The discussion conducts phases in historical method, namely: heuristic, critic, interpretation and historiography. The result shows governmental intervention in Soekarno’s regime is imposed to fight against imperialism and colonialism. Whereas governmental intervention in Soeharto’s era is conducted to maintain his power and to enhance western influence.

Keywords: Intervention, control, song, guided democracy,