The concept of 'developing' countries dismissed as a cruelly misleading euphemism. The much talked of economic 'take-off' cannot take place in countries like Indonesia, where a bazaar mentality dominates commerce. Her population of about 135 million in 1977 is likely to rise by the year 2000 to 280 million by which time she will be unable to feed herself. Optimistic theories of development, and facile blaming of Dutch imperialism, hide the reality of chronic socio-economic stagnation. These will have to be discarded if the problem of Indonesia is to be understood, let alone solved.

The author demonstrates the 'Indonesian Tragedy' not so much by argument, as by depicting the country as he experienced it from day to day. In developing his conclusion, he draws on history, and the works of sociologists, some of whom he disagrees with. In this way he sheds light on the predicament of Indonesia and helps to illuminate a problem common to much of the Third World.