Abstract Elite-Peasant Relations in Post
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ABSTRACT ELITE-PEASANT RELATIONS IN POST-AUTHORITARIAN INDONESIA: DECENTRALIZATION, DISPOSSESSION, AND COUNTERMOVEMENT Iqra Anugrah, Ph.D. Department of Political Science Northern Illinois University, 2018 Kheang Un, Director This study investigates why elites accommodate peasant interests concerning land rights and natural resource management at the local rather than national level and variations of local accommodation of peasant interests across districts in post-authoritarian Indonesia, a young middle-income democracy with a substantial agricultural population. Utilizing ethnographic, interview, and archival/document materials from 24 months of fieldwork with a focus on three case studies – the national dynamics of agrarian politics in Jakarta, the land rights struggle led by the Bengkulu Peasant Union (STaB) in North Bengkulu District, and the advocacy efforts for watershed sustainability and peasant livelihood promoted by local farmers’ groups and environmental activists in Serang District – I analyzed factors shaping the occurrence and variation of accommodation of peasant interests by the elites. This study found that the presence of a unified organizational platform representing peasant communities and the convergence of interests between elites and peasants influence the occurrence of accommodation of peasant interests by the elites. This explains why there is a lack of accommodation of peasant interests at the national level where peasant organizations are fragmented and a lack of interest convergence between elites and peasants. Conversely, in North Bengkulu and Serang, the local peasants are organizationally unified and there is a convergence of interests between the local elites and the peasants, leading to accommodation of peasant interests at the local level. Moreover, this study also found that variations in local accommodation types are shaped by the degree of salience of local agrarian issues and the strength of the local civil society. In North Bengkulu, the main local agrarian issue – land rights – is politically salient. Furthermore, its civil society landscape is vibrant. This led to the occurrence of accommodations through mobilization in which peasant interests are accommodated after sustained peasant mobilization by STaB. In contrast, in Serang, the local agrarian issues – environmental degradation and the declining quality of peasant livelihodd – are less politically salient. Additionally, the local civil society landscape is less vibrant. This has led to the emergence of accommodation through corporatism, in which peasant interests are accommodated under a corporatist natural resource governance framework. Echoing Karl Polanyi, this rise of societal efforts to protect peasant livelihood and influence agrarian politics in contemporary Indonesia can be seen as an example of a countermovement against the excessive marketization and elite expropriation of social life. Relatedly, this research also highlights several important theoretical and practical implications, namely: 1) the persistence of “the peasant question” in the Global South, 2) the intersecting dynamics between agrarian changes and democratic politics, 3) the extent to which rural social movements and community organizations can contribute to democratic deepening, and 4) the extent to which political democracy can contribute to the empowerment of marginalized populations and a more equitable development outcome–in other words, the democratization of development and class relations. NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY DEKALB, ILLINOIS AUGUST 2018 ELITE-PEASANT RELATIONS IN POST-AUTHORITARIAN INDONESIA: DECENTRALIZATION, DISPOSSESSION, AND COUNTERMOVEMENT BY IQRA ANUGRAH 2018 Iqra Anugrah A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Doctoral Director: Kheang Un ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The saying “it takes a village to raise a child” could not be more true. In the process of producing this dissertation, I have relied on so many people and accumulated a lot of debt from their generous help. The next couple of pages are therefore dedicated to thanking their tremendous contribution. As usual, naming names risks missing some people. In that case, the error of omission is all mine. First and foremost, as a field researcher, I have to thank my primary local interlocutors in the field – the ordinary peasants and villagers, who kindly welcomed, chatted with, provided shelter for, and most importantly, embraced this clueless city boy as one of their own. They opened up their homes to me and shared their rich life stories. I learned a lot from them not only about my dissertation topic but also about life in general. For that, I would be forever grateful. A luta continua. The gruelling dissertation writing process was greatly helped by guidance from my dissertation committee and some other mentors. Kheang Un is the model dissertation adviser that anyone could hope. My time working with him at Northern Illinois University (NIU) has been pleasant and fulfilling both professionally and personally. I really appreciate his commitment to and support for this dissertation project, even when I did not have yet a clear idea of what it would look like. The help of other committee members is also significant. Scot Schraufnagel guides my thinking to be more “PoliSci-y” and methodologically-sounding and is always ready to help with administrative matters. Eric Jones infects me with the historical way of inquiry and iii convinced me to learn Dutch. Michael Buehler sets a high standard for the study of Indonesian local politics and his willingness to work with me even after his departure to SOAS is highly appreciated. Michele Ford from the University of Sydney did not sit at the dissertation committee, but for me she effectively served as the unofficial fifth member. She took me under her wing and encouraged me to publish and participate in the Southeast Asianist tribe. Her support is always motivating. This dissertation also bears the mark of the late Danny Unger, who read early drafts of the dissertation proposal and gave some important suggestions. Ajarn Danny, you will be missed. Needless to say, the contribution of these mentors has been immense. Writing this dissertation requires long fieldwork, which in turn requires a lot of logistical support. Thanks to the generous funding from the NIU Political Science Department Russell Smith Scholarship, the Transparency for Development (T4D) Predoctoral Fellowship from the Ash Center at Harvard Kennedy School and Results for Development Institute, the Visiting PhD Scholar Fund from the University of Sydney’s Southeast Asia Center, and the ENITAS Scholarship from the Institute of Thai Studies at Chulalongkorn University, I was able to conduct two-years of fieldwork in Indonesia. In particular, I would like to thank Steve Kosack, Courtney Tolmie, and Jessica Creighton from the T4D Project for their trust in my work and invitation to collaborate with them. My time in Sydney was also a fruitful one, since I was able to connect with Australia’s Southeast Asian Studies community. My research also benefits from the institutional support of the Institute for Economic and Social Research, Education, and Information (LP3ES) in Jakarta, which warmly welcomed me as a Visiting Research Fellow and provided office space throughout my fieldwork period. I thank my colleagues at LP3ES, especially the Institute’s Deputy Director, Triyaka Lisdiyanta, for their support. iv The role of my home institution, NIU, is also equally significant. Both the Department of Political Science and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) on campus have been lively and supportive intellectual homes in the middle of DeKalb’s flatland and its bone-crushing winter, not to mention their financial support and excellent training. I would like to thank the following faculty members in the Department for their professional advice in assisting me to enter Academia Obscura : Michael Clark, Colin Kuehl, Aarie Glas, and Ches Thurber. At the Center, the support of Judy Ledgerwood during her tenure as the Center’s director is very appreciated. Besides intellectual guidance, institutional and collegial support is also crucial. Without the administrative support of April Davis and Jackie Joiner in the Department as well as Kim Wilson and Angie Dybas before their departure, I would be lost in navigating the University’s paperwork. The Center also gave me the opportunity to interact with wonderful Southeast Asianists across campus and take “weird” courses on Southeast Asia’s pre-colonial history and ghosts for instance. The Center’s staffs are also lovely people. Special thanks to Liz Denius for her help in editing my funny English. Different parts of this dissertation have been presented at the Department and CSEAS on campus, LP3ES, Kyoto University’s Southeast Asian Studies in Asia Conference, workshops at the University of Sydney, Chulalongkorn University’s ENITAS Awardee Presentation, Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta at the invitation of the American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS), Akatiga Center for Social Analysis in Bandung, the worker-owned Diskaz Labor House Coffee shop in Jakarta, and Akar Foundation in Bengkulu. I thank the participants of these forums who gave me the opportunity to test my hunches and hypotheses, corroborate my empirical findings, and correct me when I was wrong. Additionally, conversations with Jeffrey v Neilson, Edward