International Journal of Media, Journalism and Mass Communications (IJMJMC) Volume 5, Issue 3, 2019, PP 45-51 ISSN 2454-9479 http://dx.doi.org/10.20431/2454-9479.0503005 www.arcjournals.org International Journal of Media, Journalism and Mass Communications (IJMJMC) Page| 45 A Critical Narrative of the Anderson Theory of Imagined Community: An Indonesian Perspective Pratiwi Cristin Harnita 1 , Putri Hergianasari 1 , Jamilah Ahmad, PhD 2* , Dewi Kartika Sari 1 1 Lecturer at Faculty of Social Science and Communication Science, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana 2 Professor at School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia 1. INTRODUCTION Benedict Richard O’Gorman Anderson was born in Kunming, China on August 26, 1936 . A renowned professor in the field of international studies at Cornell University, he is often called Ben Anderson who is a political expert and historian. Anderson also referred to as an Indo-chianist although of Jewish descent, had paid great attention to Javanese culture. His thinking about nationalism was talked about after he published the best-seller book titled “Imagined Unities” in 1983 which is still printed until today. He claimed that the Marxist approach as a factor in the emergence of nationalism in the world. He also analyzed critically about Indonesia and the government of Indonesia until he was banned from entering Indonesia during Suharto’s regime. Anderson was banned by Suharto’s regime after he released a controversial book titled "The Cornel Paper" which gave a new perspective about the September 30th movement coup which involved the murder of generals by the Indonesian Communist Party. However, after Suharto collapsed, he returned to Indonesia and stayed in Indonesia until he died at the age of 79 on December 12, 2015, in Batu City Malang district (www.sindonews.com, 2015). 2. THE INFLUENCED OF KAHIN AND BENJAMIN Anderson in his book Imagined Communities stated that colonialism and imperialism are extreme forms of the first wave nationalism. George Kahin's work influenced Anderson's thoughts on issues related to nationalism and revolution in Indonesia. Although George Kahin’s work did not philosophically define nationalism, he implicitly defined the meaning of nationalism through the clash of ideas of the elites as the driving force to Indonesian revolution that opposed colonialism and imperialism [1]. Kahin viewed Indonesian nationalism as elite nationalism and the nationalist thinking of the elitist group was the result of education influence from the West of which Kahin felt the need for Indonesia to fight western colonialism. However, Kahin’s works subsided the role of leftists during the revolution in Indonesia, which resulted in unbalanced argument on his findings. According to Anderson, Kahin's idea of nationalism began to move his narrative. Anderson perceives that the shift of actors during the revolution changed the concept of elite nationalism to youth Abstract: This article critically discusses the Anderson's theory of the imagined community, which is based on Anderson’s interest in Kahin and Benjamin’s theory of nationalism which was developed in 1959. This article discusses based on interpretation of imagined communities’ perspectives by Anderson on four characteristics which are nation building, imagine, limited, sovereign and community. This article also discusses the criticisms of several authors regarding Anderson's theory which is interpreted by his commentator as lacking in explaining the concept of nation. Anderson’s theory was also criticized as not being applicable to the Indonesian context of media before and after the cyber era. Despite criticism, Anderson's thoughts on Imagined Communities are still the subject of study by many scholars in Indonesia and in South East Asia. This article aims to add to the body of knowledge and perspectives to Anderson's Theory for both references and clarity of the endless argument about Imagined Communities perspectives, which concept is currently called as Cybernationalism. Keywords: Benedict Anderson, Imagined Community, Indonesia, Cybernationalism *Corresponding Author: Jamilah Ahmad, PhD, Professor at School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia