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ARCHIPELAGIC NETWORKS OF POWER: VILLAGE ELECTRIFICATION, POLITICS, IDEOLOGY, AND DUAL NATIONAL IDENTITY IN INDONESIA (1966-1998) A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Yulianto Salahuddin Mohsin January 2015 © 2015 Yulianto Salahuddin Mohsin ARCHIPELAGIC NETWORKS OF POWER: VILLAGE ELECTRIFICATION, POLITICS, IDEOLOGY, AND DUAL NATIONAL IDENTITY IN INDONESIA (1966-1998) Yulianto Salahuddin Mohsin, Ph.D. Cornell University 2015 This dissertation examines Indonesia’s Village Electrification Program in the so-called “New Order” period (1966-1998) under Soeharto. I investigate the New Order government’s motives to supply electricity to the countryside, the ways it built the electrical infrastructure to light the villages, and the meanings attributed to electricity by some of the country’s leaders, bureaucrats, the Indonesian State Electricity Company (PLN) engineers, and villagers. I argue that the Soeharto government’s rural electrification project was entangled with narratives of Indonesia’s dual national identity. Domestically, Soeharto’s program to light rural areas was governed by an overwhelming desire to establish an internal national identity as a “developing Pancasila nation,” i.e. as a developmental nation- state based on the state ideology Pancasila. The principles heavily influenced the program and resulted in a “grid without a grid,” i.e. a network of mostly diesel power generating stations that were not all connected physically. Instead PLN linked these power plants organizationally by operating and maintaining them. In addition, nationally the New Order government also connected the provision of electricity in the villages with electoral politics. In a practice that I call patrimonial technopolitics, Soeharto brought electricity to the villages and held numerous village electricity inauguration ceremonies to persuade villagers to vote for the regime’s ruling political party in the general elections. In parallel, the New Order regime designed and constructed large-scale power plants using various primary energy sources and connected regional grids in Java, Madura, and Bali in one massive interconnected system (PLN grid). I contend that the development of this electrical infrastructure was tied to the New Order’s constructed image of Indonesia as a capable nation completing notable infrastructure and economic development projects, which was mainly projected to the international audience. The main element of this external national identity was showcasing economic development and village electrification in Bali as an exemplary case of Indonesia’s noted national development. The Soeharto government selected the island as a venue for wide-ranging regional and international gatherings. Some of these meetings involved high-level conferences of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional political-economic bloc, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Through these two organizations New Order Indonesia performed its role regionally and internationally. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Yulianto Mohsin (he goes by “Anto”) was born in Indonesia and came to the United States in the 1990s. He studied mechanical engineering and earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the City College of New York. After interning at a small engineering firm in New York City and at General Electric Power Systems in Schenectady, New York, he subsequently found a gainful employment with GE as a mechanical engineer. The job allowed him to be part of a team that designed steam turbines for the company’s customers, to see how a turbine’s rotating components were made in the shops, to learn GE’s various product lines, and to participate in the one of the company’s “clean energy” initiatives. Although he had a keen interest in many energy topics, he felt that his engineering training did not fully equip him to understand and analyze the multidimensional issues of energy and the environment. His quest for a new understanding led him to take a Science and Technology Studies (STS) course at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). While working full time he took a “Technology and Social Theory” course that changed his mind and outlook about the study of science and technology. After working for six years, he decided to pursue his newfound passion by enrolling in Cornell University’s Science and Technology Studies (S&TS) Department’s doctoral program. When this dissertation is filed, he is working as a Henry Luce Asian Environmental Studies postdoctoral fellow at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY. v To Titin, Sophia, and Dela To my parents, brother, and sister To my parents-in-law vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS When I started graduate school in the fall of 2007, I developed an interest and a habit to read the acknowledgements section of many intellectual works. Initially I read them in books, but increasingly in peer-reviewed journal articles and in countless dissertations that I came across and downloaded from the ProQuest database (I have been collecting many dissertations about Indonesia after learning about the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project). I became aware that producing intellectual works is very much the result of a social process. The authors of many of these works are usually part of a community of other scholars whose works, comments, insights, feedback, and suggestions inspired and helped them to undertake their research and complete their work. For graduate students, at the very least, members of their dissertation committee form a small community that help them with their research, writing, and teaching. My primary goal in reading those acknowledgements was to learn how to best convey my outmost appreciation to the many people who have helped me on my exciting intellectual journey to complete this dissertation. I may still fall short in my attempt to express my sincerest gratitude. But I hope those who are mentioned in this acknowledgements section and many others who are not necessarily named here (for instance a few of my former teachers in primary and secondary schools as well as in college) know how grateful I am for their inspiration, encouragement, support, and guidance in helping me complete this project. Perhaps to help me systematically thank all of the people I would like to thank for supporting me on my intellectual journey, I thought I would go through the list somewhat chronologically. First, I would like to thank Sulfikar Amir who encouraged me take my first STS course at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in the fall of vii 2004, where he was completing his doctoral degree there. I initially hesitated, but he assured me that both the course and the professor teaching it (Langdon Winner) would help me get a better sense of what this strangely sounding discipline was all about. He was right. I learned a great deal and was very pleased with the course that I decided to sign up to take a second course called “Science Studies” taught by then another RPI faculty member (and later I found out a Cornell S&TS alumnus) Rayvon Fouché in the following semester. After taking two STS courses, I made up my mind to seriously prepare myself to apply for an STS graduate program. This is when another friend comes into the picture. I thank Merlyna Lim for helping me refine my personal statement and for her many useful advices. In fact, throughout my graduate study both Sulfikar Amir and Merlyna Lim constantly provided the encouragement and support that an inexperienced graduate student needed. Terima kasih banyak! When the good news came that I have been accepted to pursue a graduate study at Cornell S&TS doctoral program, it was not an easy decision to readily accept the offer. At the time, my wife Titin and I were expecting our firstborn and we were in the middle of moving to a new place because a job promotion I had received earlier at work. The Cornell S&TS Department was kind enough to allow me to defer my enrollment for a year. This helped me settle down a bit and adjust to being a new parent. But it was my wife’s full unconditional support and comforting assurances that allowed me to finally make the confident decision to go back to school. So I quit my job, enrolled in Cornell S&TS graduate program, and never looked back. I cannot thank her enough for this. Along the same line, I would like to thank my parents-in- law for believing in me. They offered a tremendous help when both of our daughters were born and provided “a home away from home” whenever we came to Denpasar for a visit and for an extended stay when I conducted my fieldwork. My parents and brother Kemal were initially opposed to my going back to school, but my sister Diana viii wholly supported my vision and dream. Fortunately as time progressed, both my parents and brother started to understand my “stubbornness” and “eagerness” in this endeavor and they began to support my family and me. My mother constantly prayed and hopes the best for us. Kemal and Diana often gave me a lift to or from the many libraries I visited in Jakarta. I thank all of them for their support. At Cornell University, where I arrived to start my graduate study in the fall of 2007, I was fortunate to be able to take a number of exciting classes with some S&TS faculty members. Of the faculty members whose courses I took, I eventually asked Ron Kline, Sara B. Pritchard, Trevor Pinch, and Tamara Loos to become my dissertation committee members. I could not have asked for a better dissertation committee. First and foremost, I would like to thank Ron very much for agreeing to take me in and two other graduate students as his advisees at a time when he was already thinking of retiring and not taking another student.

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