THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Dancing with Legitimacy Globalisation, Educational Decentralisation, and the State in Indonesia Irsyad Zamjani 28 September 2016 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University © Copyright by Irsyad Zamjani 2016 All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Lawrence James Saha, for the tremendous support throughout my candidacy. This thesis would not have been done in four years without his expertise, guidance, assistance and patience. I would also like to thank the rest of my thesis committee, Dr Joanna Sikora and Dr Adrian Hayes, most sincerely for their constructive feedback, which pushed me to solidify my analysis. Grateful thanks are also due to all of my informants in Jakarta, Surabaya, and Kupang who took the time to participate in my research. My thanks also go to all of the local people who made my fieldwork works, especially Joe, the motorcycle taxi driver who took me to almost all places I needed in Kupang fast and safe. My wife and I are also deeply indebted to Robin and Tieke Brown not only for Robin’s terrific job in editing the thesis, but also for their sincere friendship and care, especially during the last months of our chapter in Canberra. This doctoral study would never happen without the sponsorship of two important parties. I am extremely thankful for the scholarship awarded by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) that landed me the ANU admission in the first place. I would also like to thank Professor Darren Halpin, the Head of School of Sociology, who helped me obtain additional scholarship for my final semester from the university. My academic and social life in a quiet capital like Canberra would have never been merrier and livelier without the collegiality and friendship I found in the School of Sociology environment. I thank the entire school faculty for showing prolific versions of sociological imagination to address limitless world problems. I also thank all my “companions-in-arms” in the school with whom I enjoyed intellectual exchanges and shared ups-and-downs experiences as PhD seekers: Dolruedee Kramnaimuang, Mandip Rai, Asiyah Kassim, Ehsan Nabavi, Philip Ho, Rohan Todd, Anna Tsalapatanis, and other colleagues. v I also feel so blessed and fortunate to have the opportunity to spend almost my whole Australian life in the University House and Graduate House. I would like to thank Tony Karrys who introduced me to the community and all other staff members who offered their generous assistance and smiles during my four-year convenient stay. I would also like to thank all fantastic people in the two houses who have been nice and friendly neighbours. Being a foreigner in Australia has never been a tough experience thanks to the warm and strong bound of the Indonesian community. I want to thank Vida Kusmartono, Bayu Dardias, Rezza Akbar, Luthfi Mahasin, Ahmad Muhajir, M. Falikul Isbah, Najib Kailani, Burhanuddin Muhtadi, Muhammad Riza, and other community members. Special thanks due to three wonderful couples who have been our “godparents” in Canberra: Urip and Wahyu Sutiyono, John and Nenen McGregor, and Amrih and Inez Widodo. Back in Indonesia, my thanks also go to my supervisors and colleagues in the Centre for Educational and Cultural Policy Research of MoEC who encouraged me to start this PhD journey and kept helping throughout my study: Dr Hendarman, Dr Bambang Indriyanto, Dr Mahdiansyah, Mrs Yendri Wirda, and Mrs Erni Hariyanti. Other colleagues also shared equal contribution but it is not possible to name everyone. I am also indebted to two intellectual mentors whose support and reference reinforced my motivation to take this challenging path: Professor Iwan Gardono Sujatmiko and Dr Hanneman Samuel. Finally, my heartfelt thanks go to my wonderful wife, Irene Budi Prastiwi, for the affection and encouragement throughout this marathon thesis writing. I also want to thank my siblings, in-laws, and their families who never give up their care and love: Sujarto, Siti Surjanah, Mamik Lutfiah, Ahmad Fanani Zamroni, Slamet Budiyono, Hermintyas, and Inneke Tyas Shanti. Despite all the hardness in life, generally, and in the process of achieving this degree of PhD, particularly, none is harder than losing my beloved mother, Hj. Rumiatun, when this journey was only 10-month old. At this stage, no expression is sincerer to celebrate her eternal love than dedicating this work for her. vi Abstract Decentralisation has become a global norm that has changed the face of education governance in many countries since the late 1970s. Indonesia was completely swept up by this movement in 2001 after the severe legitimacy crisis ended the three-decade- reigning centralist regime of the New Order. This thesis aims to analyse the way educational decentralisation helped to save the nation from the crisis, but was then faced with challenges from the local district governments because the central government endeavoured to restore its control. Using the analytical concepts of the new institutional theory and drawing upon data from documents and 38 interviews with strategic informants, the thesis investigates how the institutional legitimacy of educational decentralisation was garnered, manipulated, and then contested. The thesis focuses on 3 case studies: Indonesia as the national case, and the two municipal governments of Kupang and Surabaya as comparative case studies of local district education governance. Like other newly decentralised nations have experienced, the narrative of educational decentralisation in Indonesia was initially scripted by multilateral actors with the neoliberal spirit of market supremacy. However, against the liberal and critical arguments that suggest the weakening of the central state or the rise of market institutions as the follow-up of educational decentralisation, the findings show a rather contrasting reality. Decentralisation has facilitated the proliferation of Weberian states in the local district arenas, which equally claim institutional legitimacy for governing the local educational system in their respective ways. After analysing interviews and documents from the embedded multiple case studies, the presentation of the findings is organised into three main parts. In the first part, the thesis analyses the global and local processes of the delegitimation of the centralist regime, and the way decentralisation becomes a strategy for garnering compensatory legitimation for the central state. In this case, decentralisation was part of the loan condition imposed externally by the multilateral institutions, the World Bank and IMF, and also became the magic word to settle down the internal secessionist aspirations. In the second part, the thesis also discusses the institutional mechanism that enabled the central government to restore its power after decentralisation, while keeping itself vii legitimate. In this sense, the decentralised structure remained, but the central government employed the discourse of local incompetence to introduce other means of centralisation. Lastly, in the third part, from the comparative studies of two local district governments, Kupang and Surabaya, the thesis shows how the legitimacy of the central government authority continues to be challenged in the localities. Despite the central government’s pressures for national standards and their enforcement measures, local educational governance survives with different models and practices. In conclusion, I argue that the different local governance types do reflect an ideal practice of decentralisation. However, in Indonesia this ideal is not the case because decentralisation has created different and illegitimate local practices. They are illegitimate because these practices are not based on the solid consensus of the regulatory structure and norms which exist between the central and the local states. Thus, rather than becoming a local basis for reinforcing the legitimating capacity of educational decentralisation as a global institution, the different practices might become the local source of delegitimation. Some national states would rethink their conformity to the international pressure of decentralisation if they were aware that the policy would potentially lead them to another crisis of legitimacy. viii Acronyms and Abbreviations 3-M : Manpower, Material and Money AMS : Algemeene Middelbare School (General Middle School) BAN : Badan Akreditasi Nasional (National Accreditation Board) Bansos : Bantuan Sosial (Social Assistance) BAP : Badan Akreditasi Provinsi (Provincial Accreditation Board) Baperjakat : The Rank and Position Consideration Agency BKD : Badan Kepegawaian Daerah (Local Civil Service Employment Agency) BOS : Bantuan Operasional Sekolah (School Operational Assistance) BOSDA : Bantuan Operasional Sekolah Daerah (Local School Operational Assistance) BSNP : Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan (National Education Standardisation Agency) DAK : Dana Alokasi Khusus (Special Allocation Funds) DAU : Dana Alokasi Umum (General Allocation Funds) DPR : Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (the House of Representatives) DPRD : Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah (Regional Representative Council) GoI : Government of Indonesia GR : Government Regulation HBS : Hogere Burger School (Higher Citizen School) HIS : Hollandsch Inlandsche School (Dutch-Native School) IMF : International Monetary Fund Juklak : Petunjuk Pelaksanaan (Operational Guidelines)