This paper examines the government policy on 'mass education' (pendidikan masyarakat) during the Indonesian state formation of the 1950s. The mass education program was launched by the government as a medium for the making of citizenship. The aim was to improve the people's knowledge and consciousness of becoming citizens. The program was thus an instrument of nation-state building. Today, in the post-Reformasi era, as identity politics is strengthening to result in the crisis of shared

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... hip, a discussion on the mass education program re-gains a relevance. Using the concept of public intellectual, this paper argues that the mass education program of the 1950s was an effective medium for the making of citizenship because it enhanced participatory engagement between the elite and the people. However, the program also reflected the policy makers' strategies for disseminating Pancasila, the state ideology, thus promulgating the elite's ideologization of the people.