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Democracy from Below Laila Kholid Alfirdaus

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Democracy from Below Laila Kholid Alfirdaus South-South PROGRAM The utilization of cultural practices have in fact helped the community to build and maintain good social relations, especially in post-disaster context, that the community is able to conduct peace keeping, which is useful to DEMOCRACY hasten recovery processes. Further, those cultural practices are also very healthy for the development of local democracy, which is important in community’s disaster governance. Based on the experiences of the two FROM BELOW communities in the above-mentioned areas in post-disaster contexts, this report highlights that democracy which is practiced from below every day, is an important seed for the development of democracy in general context. Cultural Practices It could be an alternate route for the official democratization, which is commonly done through general elections, legislating processes, and and Grassroots judiciary mechanisms. Initiatives in Indonesia Democracy from Below Laila Kholid Alfirdaus Research and Studies Serie Laila Kholid Alfirdaus DEMOCRACY FROM BELOW. CULTURAL PRACTICES AND GRASSROOTS INITIATIVES IN INDONESIA Democracy from below : cultural practices and grassroots initiatives in Indonesia / Laila Libro digital, PDF - (Programa Sur-Sur) Archivo Digital: descarga y online ISBN 978-987-722-216-6 1. Ciencias Sociales. 2. Democracia. 3. Democratización. I. Título. CDD 323 Other descriptors allocated by CLACSO: Culture / Democracy / Govement /Citizen /Indonesia South-South Program DEMOCRACY FROM BELOW CULTURAL PRACTICES AND GRASSROOTS INITIATIVES IN INDONESIA LAILA KHOLID ALFIRDAUS Government Department, Faculty of Social and Political Science, Diponegoro University CLACSO 50 YEARS Latin American Council of Social Sciences Deputy Executive Secretary Pablo Gentili Academic Director Fernanda Saforcada Soth-South Program Coordinator Karina Bidaseca Open Acces and Dissemination Knowledge Chief Editor Lucas Sablich Art Director Marcelo Giardino Production Gonzalo Mingorance Proofreading Eugenia Cervio First edition Democracy from Below. Cultural Practices and Grassroots Initiatives in Indonesia (Buenos Aires: CLACSO, November 2016) ISBN 978-987-722-216-6 © Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales Queda hecho el depósito que establece la Ley 11.723. This book is available in full text on the Web Virtual Library of CLACSO <www.biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar> No reproduction in whole or part of this book, or stored in a computer system, or its transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. CLACSO Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales - Conselho Latino-americano de Ciências Sociais (Latin American Council of Social Sciences) Estados Unidos 1168 | C1101AAX Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina Tel. [54 11] 4304 9145 | Fax [54 11] 4305 0875 | <[email protected]> | <www.clacso.org> CODESRIA Executive Secretary Dr. Ebrima Sall Head of the Research Program Dr. Carlos Cardoso IDEAs Executive Secretary Professor Jayati Ghosh Member of Executive Committee Professor C.P. Chandrasekhar The responsibility for opinions expressed in books, articles, studies and other contributions rests solely with the signing authors, and publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Secretariat of CLACSO ÍNDICE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 9 About the Report 9 Research Objective 11 Research Methods 11 Research Findings 12 This Research’s Contribution 14 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 15 Background 15 Research Questions 20 Research Methods 20 Outline of the Report 22 CHAPTER II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 23 Democracy and Democracy from Below 23 The Definition of Democracy and Democratization 23 Problems Related to Democracy and Democratization 24 Democracy from Below: An Alternate Route for Democratization 27 Challenges to Democracy from Below 30 Cultural Practices and Democracy (from Below) 31 Community Diversity Management and Democracy from Below 37 CHAPTER III. SOCIAL SETTINGS OF PADANG AND KALIURANG 41 Padang 42 Kaliurang 49 CHAPTER IV. POST-DISASTERS SITUATIONS AND SOCIAL RELATION COMPLEXITIES IN PADANG AND KALIURANG 55 Padang 56 Post-Disaster Situation 56 Post-Disaster Complexities: Discrimination against Minority Ethnic Chinese 60 Kaliurang 67 Post-Disaster Situations 67 Post-Disaster Complexities: Religious and Tradition Differences 71 Issue within Issue: Diversity within Post-Disaster Situations 75 CHAPTER V. GOVERNING DIVERSITY WITHIN: COMMUNITY CULTURAL PRACTICES AND DEMOCRACY FROM BELOW 79 Cultural Practices and Grassroots Diversity Governance: Raso Pareso in Padang and Serawung, Sengkuyung and Gotong Royong in Kaliurang 79 The Meanings for Local Communities 80 Cultural Practices in Grassroots Diversity Governance 83 Cultural Practices and Democracy from Below 92 Linking Democracy from Below with Further Democratization Agenda: Some Ways Forward 95 CHAPTER VI. CONCLUSION 99 REFERENCES 103 LIST OF PICTURES Picture 1. Map of Indonesia 41 Picture 2. Map of Padang City in West Sumatra Province, Indonesia 42 Picture 3. Map of Padang’s Sub-Districts 43 Picture 4. Map of Special Province of Yogyakarta 51 Picture 5. Map of Sleman District and Kaliurang Region 51 LIST OF TABLE Table 1. Number of Victims of Padang Earthquake, 2009 57 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ABOUT THE REPORT This is a final report of a research project titled ‘Democracy From Below: cross-cultural community’s initiatives of post-disaster recovery in Indonesia’. This report tries to answer the existing pessimism of de- mocratization in developing countries especially post-the fall down of authoritarian regimes, which turn to create the corrupt governments. This report criticizes current approach that stresses on the promotion of official democracy, but lacks attention to grassroots democracy. Meanwhile, it is clear that grassroots community has potential to be the agent of democratization. Direct observation in two disaster-prone areas in Indonesia reveals that in spite of the hardship of social rela- tionship, there is still space for the community from different social backgrounds to develop democratic culture. The two communities’ experiences show us that democracy could live in a very simple way. It is not just of those that are established in public offices. It could live within the grassroots community’s daily life. It could present ev- erywhere, in everyday life and in any form. Even, democracy in dai- ly life could be an answer for the stagnancy of democracy in office. This report asserts that community in grassroots level is not a pas- sive actor of democracy that always depends on the political system in supra-structure. Through their cultural and social practices, they could be an active agent that plays crucial roles in the promotion of 9 Democracy from Below democracy. The report is based on a field research conducted in two disas- ter-prone areas in Indonesia, namely Sleman, Yogyakarta Province and Padang, West Sumatra Province. In Sleman the fieldwork was focused on Kaliurang, while in Padang it was focused on Chinatown (locally called Pondok). Kaliurang, Sleman, is identical with Javanese culture, while Padang, West Sumatra is identical with Minangkabau culture. The field research tried to elaborate community’s experience in dealing with the issues of diversity and differences during the pe- riods of post-disaster recovery. In Sleman, research was focused on Kaliurang and its surrounding villages near Merapi Volcano that be- comes one of the prominent tourism destinations in the Province. In Padang, research was focused around Pondok (Chinatown) that be- comes the center of economy in the area. These two areas were chosen because they have different char- acteristics of society. Kaliurang and its surroundings are rural, while Pondok is urban. Kaliurang depends on farming and volcano tourism, while Padang depends on trading. As Javanese, people in Kaliurang are generally known to be syncretic in their religious belief, while Mi- nangkabau is known to be a strict Moslem. Yet, communities in both areas have similarities in terms of ability to deal with the issues of di- versity and differences arose in the midst of recovery processes. They use their daily cultures in that matter. Kaliurang community uses got- ong royong, serawung, and sengkuyung, that assert the idea of collec- tiveness, mutual helps and mutual understanding, while Padang uses cultural values such as raso pareso, that contains the idea of tolerance, to build engagement amongst community members from different ethnic/religious groups during the recovery periods post 2010 volcano eruption in Yogyakarta and 2009 earthquake in West Sumatra. The utilization of cultural practices have in fact helped the com- munity to build and maintain good social relations, especially in post-disaster context, that the community is able to conduct peace keeping, which is useful to hasten recovery processes. Further, those cultural practices are also very healthy for the development of local democracy, which is important in community’s disaster governance. Based on the experiences of the two communities in the above-men- tioned areas in post-disaster contexts, this report highlights that de- mocracy which is practiced from below every day, is an important seed for the development of democracy in general context. It could be an alternate route for the official democratization, which is commonly done through general elections, legislating processes, and judiciary mechanisms. 10 Laila Kholid Alfirdaus RESEARCH OBJECTIVE The research tries to identify democracy that is built
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