! ! ! ! Appealing to the Masses Understanding Ethnic Poli5cs and Elec5ons in Indonesia ! ! ! ! by Colm A. Fox! B.A. in Communica5ons, September 1994, Dublin City University Masters of Pacific Interna5onal Affairs, May 2005, UC San Diego ! ! ! ! ! A Disserta5on submiMed to ! ! The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in par5al fulfillment of the reQuirements for the degree of Doctor of ! Philosophy ! August 31, 2014 ! ! Dissertaon directed by! Henry E. Hale Associate Professor of Poli5cal Science and Interna5onal Affairs ! ! The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University cer5fies that Colm A. Fox has passed the Final Examina5on for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy as of June 10, 2014. This is the final and approved form of the disserta5on. ! ! ! Appealing to the Masses Understanding Ethnic Poli5cs and Elec5ons in Indonesia! ! ! Colm A. Fox ! ! Disserta5on Research CommiMee Henry E. Hale, Associate Professor of Poli5cal Science and Interna5onal !Affairs, Disserta5on Director R. William Liddle, Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University, CommiMee !Member Susan K. Sell, Professor of Poli5cal Science and Interna5onal Affairs, !CommiMee Member ! "ii ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! © Copyright 2014 by Colm A. Fox All rights reserved ! ! ! "iii Acknowledgements ! There are many people I’d like to thank for their help in researching and wri5ng this disserta5on. At George Washington University, I would first like to thank my advisor Henry Hale and my commiMee members, Susan Sell, Bill Liddle, Eric Lawrence, and Nathan Brown. To a large degree my interest in ethnic poli5cs was fostered during Henry’s class on ethnicity and ethnic conflict. To date, much of what I know on ethnic poli5cs—and on how to be a scholar—I have learned from Henry. Throughout the disserta5on process he gave me ample space to explore, but also gently heralded me back on track when necessary. This disserta5on would be far inferior without his experienced guiding hand. From the very beginning of my studies at George Washington University, Susan Sell has supported me in terms of surviving the rigors of graduate school and in my development as a scholar and teacher. All of this was done with a great sense of humor. While we differ in terms of our topic of study, she has never failed to come up with insigh`ul and construc5ve comments. Bill Liddle has been an inspira5on when it comes to the study of Indonesian poli5cs due to his extensive scholarship, and most important, his selfless dedica5on to nurturing scholars of Indonesia over five decades. I thank him for his help in guiding this disserta5on. Eric Lawrence was my sta5s5cs guru. Through his classes and his advice, he has always been able to make sta5s5cs intelligible. He also has a keen eye for design and has helped me understand the importance of using sta5s5cs to communicate ideas in a clear and meaningful manner. Finally, I thank Nathan Brown for serving on my commiMee. His careful read of my disserta5on and his insigh`ul comments and cri5Ques have helped "iv me to look at the bigger picture and find where my disserta5on fits in the broader literature. In addi5on, while not on my commiMee, I thank Kimberly Morgan. Her support for compara5ve field research and her Quick response on administra5ve maMers during her years as Director of Graduate Studies in the Poli5cal Science department has been invaluable. I was also fortunate to have a remarkable group of suppor5ve friends at George Washington University who have (oben unwingly) served as sounding boards for ideas contained in this disserta5on. For their advice and friendship, I thank Davy Banks, Dina Bishara, Enze Han, Michele Jorkovich, Brian Karlson, Inwook Kim, Craig Kaufman, Joey O’Mahoney, Lilian Ting, and Ajay Vergese. This disserta5on would not have been possible without the kindness of many Indonesians who helped me during my travels in Indonesia. My ini5al trips to Indonesia were for language training. I’d like to thank my home-stay families, Bapak and Ibu Trisoyno, and Bapak and Ibu Sulis Krave. They introduced me to life in Indonesia and gave me a home. I also thank the whole team at the United States-Indonesian Society (USINDO) sponsored language program at Universitas Gadja Madah and at the Consor5um for the Teaching of Indonesian and Malay (COTIM) program at Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana. In par5cular, I thank my teachers and tutors, Bapak Basuki, Taufik Nur, Ibu Rio Rini, Chris5an Rudianto, Ibu Sugihastu5, and Toar Sumakul, for their pa5ence and encouragement. For research assistance in North Sumatra, I thank Ines Cute, Husnul Isa Harahap, and Ibrahim Zafar. Without their help I would not have been able to gather a frac5on of the data contained in this disserta5on. In addi5on to the raw data, they also taught me "v much about the ethnic geography, culture, and poli5cs of North Sumatra. I also thank J. Anto at the media NGO KIPPAS in North Sumatra. He kindly gave me access to their wonderful archives of North Sumatran papers and helped me understand print media in the province. Over the years, numerous Indonesian candidates, campaign workers, poli5cal analysts, journalists, and regular Indonesians carved 5me out of their busy schedules to help me understand local poli5cs, elec5ons, and campaign materials in North Sumatra, Java, and Maluku. I thank them for their 5me and generosity in sharing their insights. A number of Indonesians and foreign researchers helped me gather thousands of elec5on posters from across the country. They include the motorbike drivers who drove me around for hours while I photographed elec5on posters. I was helped immensely by Firman Witoelar and his network of researchers at SurveyMeter, plus a personal network of researchers. They willingly gave up their 5me to go out and photograph elec5on posters and send them on to me. I thank Dani Alfah, Abdullah Alwazin, Alpha Amirrachman, Colin Cahill, Erica Copeland, Kevin Fogg, Jesse Gers5n, Ruth Hastu5ningsih, Bee Landauer Menchik, TaufiQ Nur, Chris5na Pomianek, Lacey Raak, Jacob Ricks, Megan Ryan, Danau Tanu, Bart Thanhauser, Ibrahim Zafar, and Muslim Zainuddin. Without them, this disserta5on would have been far narrower in scope. During field research, I was fortunate to have a group of wonderful fellow researchers in the field. I thank En-Chieh Chao, Sebas5an DeMman, Kevin Fogg, Jeremy Menchik, Sarah Shair-Rosenfield, and Danau Tanu for their companionship. I would par5cularly like to single out Jeremy Menchik. His insight into the poten5al of studying elec5on posters proved invaluable for my disserta5on topic, and I worked with Jeremy in "vi gathering and coding the Indonesian elec5on poster dataset. In addi5on, through our numerous conversa5ons in Jakarta, I was able to hone my disserta5on research methodology. In researching this disserta5on, I met with and got advice from a number of Indonesianists. I’d par5cularly like to thank Edward Aspinall, Michael Buehler, Syarif Hidayat, and Marcus Mietzner. Michael Buehler kindly gave comments on my disserta5on proposal and advice on field research. Marcus encouraged me to go to North Sumatra for in-depth research on ethnic poli5cs, which ended up being a fortuitous choice. I thank Syarif Hidayat at the Indonesian Ins5tute of Sciences (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia, LIPI) for serving as my Indonesian counterpart and offering advice and introduc5ons during fieldwork. I also thank Edward Aspinall. Over the years he has provided invaluable encouragement and offered the best insights on contemporary ethnic poli5cs in Indonesia. In the process of researching and wri5ng this disserta5on, I have also benefited from comments and advice from Robert Adcock, Nathan Allen, Kuskridho Ambardi, Paddy Barron, Shane Barter, JacQue Bertrand, Robin Bush, Robert Cribb, Jamie Davidson, Greg Fealy, Michele Ford, Jonathan Hanson, Allen Hicken, Paul Hutchcrob, Jae Hyeok Shin, Karl Jackson, Mar5n Johnson, Sydney Jones, Benjamin Reilly, Blair Palmer, Tom Pepinsky, Sandeep Rae, Saskia Schäfer, Stephen Sherlock, Aim Simpeng, Al Stepan, Sunny Tanuwidjaja, Ross Tapsell, Risa Toha, and Dirk Tomsa. Over the years, this disserta5on has been refined during numerous presenta5ons of early findings and later, more polished findings. I would like to thank aMendees for their comments and sugges5ons during presenta5ons in Jakarta (at the Center for "vii Strategic and Interna5onal Studies and the Freedom Ins5tute), Australia (at the Department of Political & Social Change, Australian Na5onal University), Canada (at the University of Toronto), and the US (at UCLA and at a number of annual mee5ngs of the Asian Associa5on Studies and the American Poli5cal Science Associa5on). While intellectual s5mula5on is vital for any in-depth piece of research, so too is funding. I thank the Sigur Center for field research grants in 2008 and 2009 and the Matsushita Interna5onal founda5on for a field research grant from 2009 to 2011. Much of the wri5ng of this disserta5on was done as a visi5ng research scholar at the Ins5tute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life at Columbia University. This provided me with a perfect opportunity to complete the disserta5on. I thank Karen Barkey, Al Stepan, and Melissa Van for facilita5ng my stay. Dr. Mariah at Edit911 edited the final drab of the disserta5on. I thank her for a me5culous job in ironing out the inconsistencies and adding clarity to a number of passages, tables, and charts. I am very sure my parents would never have thought I’d write a disserta5on on ethnic poli5cs in Indonesia. However, our family holidays abroad fostered a curiosity of countries beyond our small Irish village. Their support and the independence they ins5lled in me allowed me to pursue my crea5ve and intellectual interests in places far from home and laid the founda5on for my academic work. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Sayaka. We met in the early stage of graduate school at George Washington University and over the years she has made innumerable sacrifices and put up with long periods of being apart.