UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Crisis, Contradiction and Contingency: An Ethnography of Corporate Capitalism in Korea and Indonesia Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7vm585tk Author Eau, Jaisohn Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Crisis, Contradiction and Contingency: An Ethnography of Corporate Capitalism in Korea and Indonesia By Jaisohn Eau A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Anthropology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Laura Nader, Chair Professor Stanley H. Brandes Professor Sylvia Tiwon Spring 2010 © 2010 Jaisohn Eau. All rights reserved. Abstract Crisis, Contradiction and Contingency: An Ethnography of Corporate Capitalism in Korea and Indonesia by Jaisohn Eau Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Berkeley Professor Laura Nader, Chair This dissertation is a multi-sited ethnography that focuses on social groups and individuals in factories, business, civil society, government, and corporate organizations in Korea and Indonesia. The project takes a "vertical slice" of social organizations in both countries. By analyzing the linkages connecting these individuals and groups, the dissertation examines the social and cultural consequences of corporate capitalist policies and practices that contributed to the onset of the global economic crisis of 1998. 1 Dedicated to the Workers of Indonesia and Korea, who have shown, by sacrificing their lives to build a better world for future generations, the limitless possibilities to democratically rebuild it. i Table of Contents Crisis, Contradiction and Contingency: An Ethnography of Corporate Capitalism in Korea and Indonesia Chapter 1: Political Economies: South Korea and Indonesia Chapter 2: Ethnography of Korean Management in Indonesia Chapter 3: Ethnography of Indonesian Migrant Labor in Korea Chapter 4: Ethnography of Social Institutions during the Global Economic Crisis Chapter 5: Steps Towards an Ethnography of Corporate Capitalism ii Acknowledgments This dissertation project would not have been possible without the generous guidance of my teachers in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. I owe my greatest debt to Professor Laura Nader, who has graciously mentored me throughout my studies and research. Dr. Nader will always be my role model teacher, activist-scholar, and citizen, as she is for countless people around the world. I would also like to acknowledge the many invaluable anthropological lessons I continue to learn from Berkeley Anthropology faculty. I would like to thank Professors Elizabeth Colson, Stanley Brandes, Gerald Berreman, Nelson Graburn, Xin Liu, Aihwa Ong, Stefania Pandolfo, Herbert Phillips, and Paul Rabinow. In the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, I express my gratitude to Professors Jeffrey Hadler and Sylvia Tiwon for continuing to provide me with meaningful insights into Indonesia’s place in the world. During my research period in Indonesia, Dr. Nico Kalangie and Mr. Helmy Fauzi made sure that I was safe and also intellectually challenged, for which I am very grateful. I would also like to thank Dr. Jae Kyu Park for his generous guidance and support in Korea. Roberto Gonzalez and Tarek Milleron provided invaluable friendship throughout my graduate work. Gracias por todo. This dissertation would never have been completed if it were not for the two most significant people in my life, Sung Hee Yoo and Mina Sohn. Thank you both with all my heart, for always teaching me the most important lessons in life. iii Chapter 1: Political Economies: South Korea and Indonesia Historical Backdrop A Place in the Sun In May 1986—five years after President Ronald Reagan invited Korean dictator Chun Doo-Hwan to the United States as his first foreign policy act1-- Reagan’s Secretary of State George Schultz visited Seoul and praised the government for “a progressive movement going in the terms of the institutions of democracy.” This was a time when dissidents were routinely harassed and jailed if not mysteriously disappeared, when labor organizing was outlawed, and publishers of seditious books were given life sentences. Schultz heaped praise upon General Chun Doo- Hwan’s military government, the same one that had killed as many as 2000 protesters and bystanders in the city of Kwangju less than six months after taking power in a coup d'état in December 1979 (Clark 1988). President Carter’s comment after this massacre was telling: “Koreans were not ready for democracy…according to their own judgment.” In spring 1987, less than a year after Shultz’s visit to Seoul, Koreans took to the streets in mass protest, perhaps a familiar image now to the mainstream media-connected global audience. This time, however, the so called “neck-tie brigade”— middle class white collar workers--joined the dissidents, factory workers, students, and religious organizations in calling for an end to dictatorial rule and democratic elections (Hart- Landsberg 1998:197). The killing of university student protesters proved the final nail in the coffin of the General’s regime. The floodgates were open and General Chun—by then self-declared as President Chun—stepped down from power as his right-hand man and 1 Cumings notes that the support of Chun and de facto the Kwangju massacre angered students and the Korean public even more, and to this day, have residual effects of anti-American sentiment. As Cumings states (1997:390), “The first of many anti-American acts was the arson of the Kwangju U.S. Information Service office in December 1980; by the mid 1980s such acts were commonplace, with many young people committing suicide for their beliefs.” 1 hand-picked successor General Roh Tae-Woo received the spotlight as he immediately proclaimed that direct presidential elections would be held later that year in December 1987 (Cumings 1997:391).2 Although General Noh eventually succeeded in winning the election, this period marked a turning point in not just Korea’s political democracy, but also in its political economic trajectories. Due to decades of rapid growth in production and export of exponentially growing global economic markets for chemicals, electronic, steel, and textiles, Korea’s economy grew by leaps and bounds, prompting a burgeoning economic and business literature praising Korea’s rapid economic growth (Kim 1997; 1998). Together with Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, Korea was firmly anchored in its status as an “Asian Tiger,” a newly industrializing country (NIC) that was undergoing rapid economic growth. If the direct elections, gradual easing of civil rights, and hyper economic growth were not enough to showcase Korea’s place in the sun, the country successfully hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul (Cumings 1997:337). It was a moment for Koreans to shine in the spotlight of the global media, as modern apartment buildings, high-rise office towers, and Korean-made consumer electronics, cars, and steel were paraded for the first time to the global public. (Larson and Park 1993). Coming of Age in a Military Dictatorship Just as Korea was going through its last weeks under its second successive military dictatorship, my family left the country. I still recall watching the intensifying protests from the bedroom that I shared with my twin brothers, as our apartment overlooked a Presbyterian university famous more for Molotov cocktails and tear gas than theological treatises. Our father used to round us up in the station wagon, and drive 2 He did not step down empty handed of course. During Chun’s nationally publicized trial in 1996, it was discovered that he had amassed at least $900 million during his dictatorship (Cumings 1997:391). 2 off into the countryside so that we could breathe fresh air until the protests died down. Our high school leased its lone building from another university known for its student protests, where we would routinely have “tear gas” breaks and days off. I recall one curious student who unknowingly opened a tear gas canister, which subsequently exploded in his face; we did not see him again in school for a few days. Such occurrences were not uncommon in those times. From the point of view of a high school student, these protests became routine, a minor annoyance, especially when they prevented us from going to a sporting event or the latest Hollywood movie. In fact, once my family arrived in the United States (and more so when we moved to Kenya a year later), we often felt that we missed such adrenaline- charged moments in Seoul, of which student and worker protests were certainly key components. Some eleven years later in May 1998, while conducting field research in Indonesia for this dissertation, I found myself reflecting on these experiences as I rode in an SUV with a Korean factory manager as he expeditiously drove through riot-torn Jakarta, deftly avoiding bricks being thrown at us ostensibly for looking Chinese, or, perhaps, Korean. Students were congregating on the streets and university campuses en masse. Wildcat strikes were overwhelming even the ever-ready military and factory guards in the industrial areas that we lived and worked in. The Korean factory managers that I lived with for my field research were worried that angry Indonesians would direct their anger towards them, as had been the case with Chinese Indonesians, who at the time controlled the majority of the country’s economic wealth (Hill 1996, Robison 1986). From neighbors and associates, we learned of Koreans being beaten or robbed in Jakarta, pulled over by mobs on major toll roads, and especially en route to the airport, as organized thieves knew that wealthy people were fleeing with valuable possessions. And of course, we read 3 the daily reports of ongoing atrocities against the Chinese. 3 We held nightly watches around our residence with baseball bats, in faint hopes of discouraging truckloads of looters that were ransacking neighboring compounds just because they now could.