Page 12 - BUKU A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE IN INDONESIA
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PREFACE
Although an understanding of identity is fluid, in
the sense that internal and external factors con-
tinuously form it, identity can generally be under-
stood as the character of a particular communi-
The writing of this ty. On the conceptual level, every nation has an
book is part of an identity as the identity is attached to the nation
instinctively, as stated by Hegel.
effort to facilitate
the Indonesian As the parliamentary institution of a nation that
people, especially gained its independence through a long fight for
freedom from colonialism, the People’s Represen-
its youth, to tative Council of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR-
understand the long RI) has a long history that can be traced back, at
journey this nation least to the beginning of the 20th century. Political
ethics essentially encouraged the creation of new
went through to life in the colonized land once called the Dutch
set up its political East Indies.
life through However, until the end of 2019, no book had com-
a respectable prehensively covered the history of the Indonesian
parliament. Readers parliament. Some of the available ones merely of-
fered a chronology, episodes, or snippets of the
seeking historical history. Hence, it is imminent for a country with
details can still a long history, expansive territory, and diverse
find them in the peoples and cultures to reconstruct its history,
including the journey of its parliament, which, in
pentalogy. this case, is the legislative body or a people’s rep-
resentative council.
That was why the Office of the Secretary-Gen-
eral of the Republic of Indonesia commissioned
a pentalogy of DPR-RI’s history to celebrate the
centenary of the Indonesian parliament. The
books were written between 2018–2019 — a long
writing process indeed.
dpr.go.id 5