Philosophy Behind Soeharto’s New Order; The New Order (Orba)

“When we talk about The New Order; should we grieve or be happy?”

Before you read this essay any further, please note that we are not going to talk about the history of PKI and its affiliation, or play-side who is more right or wrong, but we will discuss the philosophy behind The New Order (Orba) instead. Furthermore, we will talk about relationship between The Political concept of Carl Schmitt and Soeharto’s regime on his New Order.

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First Cup of Coffee: The Political Concept

Carl Schmitt is a German political theorist/political philosopher that soon became one of the most influential political philosopher in the 20th century. Carl Schmitt’s course/views on politic is political existentialist, which in a nutshell means that every points he made in his book must be understood in their concrete and existential sense, not as metaphors or symbols, not mixed and weakened by economic, moral, and other conceptions, least of all in a private-individualistic sense as a psychological expression of private emotions and tendencies.