Uma politics : an ethnography of democratization in West Sumba, Indonesia, 1986-2006 / Jacqueline A.C. Vel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vel, Jacqueline, 1958-

Contributor:

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Series:

Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde ; 260.

Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 1572-1892 ; 260

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political culture--Indonesia--Sumba Barat.

Political culture.

Democratization--Indonesia--Sumba Barat.

Democratization.

Sumbanese (Indonesian people).

Politics and government.

Sumba Barat (Indonesia)--Politics and government.

Sumba Barat (Indonesia).

Sumbanese (Indonesian people)--Politics and government.

Sumba Barat (Indonesia)--Social conditions--21st century.

Indonesia--Sumba Barat.

Physical Description:

xvii, 277 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden : KITLV Press, 2008.

Summary:

This book is written out of an intimate knowledge of Sumba's social groupings, from farmers through Chinese shopkeepers and government officials. Jacqueline Vel lived in Sumba as a development worker for six years in the 1980s and has made frequent return visits for further research since then. She studied every stage of 'transition to democracy' in the local context, thus creating this ethnography of democratization.

The book analyses themes apparent in a series of chronological events that occurred over a period of twenty years (1986-2006): village level politics under the New Order, political violence as the New Order's authority crashed in 1998, and the leadership styles that developed amidst the new electoral democracy that followed. Jacqueline Vel illustrates her analysis with biographies of main political actors and ethnographic vignettes depicting their styles and strategies. Sumbanese politics are analysed as a process of negotiating private interests and reciprocal obligations of the leaders and their personal cliques, rather than viewing them only through the lens of political parties or programmes they propagate. Uma Politics is the sequel of Vel's dissertation The Uma Economy, and the title refers to the uniquely Sumbanese type of network politics. The author brings together tradition with the modern economy, government and politics into an evolving, dynamic concept of political culture. Book jacket.

Contents:

Sumbanese election campaign 1

Making democracy work 3

Outline and arguments 6

Sumba in Indonesian context 7

Neo-patrimonialism in a democratic state 7

Widening world of the local elite 10

State, power and the forms of capital 10

Tradition and authority 12

Space and time 13

Individuals and networks 14

Political class 16

Uma economy and Uma politics 18

II Sumba and the state 21

Sumba: geography and subsistence 23

Population 28

History of state formation on Sumba 30

State and Sumbanese Christianity 35

State as career: Umbu Djima and the forms of capital 41

The state as bureaucratic procedures 47

The state as economic sector 49

Social cleavage 51

III Tradition, leadership and power 55

Traditional cultural capital 56

Ethnicity and traditional political organization 60

Traditional leadership 62

Legitimacy and adat 64

Traditional concepts of power 67

Power resources 70

Village 74

IV Legal pluralism and village politics 81

Village politics 83

Legal pluralism 85

Forms of capital 87

Adat in Lawonda 91

The state in the village 93

The Christian church in Lawonda 95

The development organisation 97

Umbu Hapi versus Pak Vincent 100

Clash of paradigms or legal pluralism 106

Village justice in West Sumba in 2004 108

V Regime change and democratization 113

Democracy and constitutional liberalism 114

Demands of Reformasi 116

Changing local regime 117

Uncertainty after May 1998 118

Capital town 121

VI Violence in Waikabubak 125

Explaining communal violence 127

Preparation: master narratives, previous antagonisms and crisis discourse 129

Narrative one: clan rivalries 129

Narrative two: violence, warfare and violent rituals in West Sumba 130

Narrative three: local political rivalry 132

Narrative four: national crisis discourse 133

Trigger incident 135

Transformation into communal conflict 136

Elevation into a wider discourse 137

The aftermath 138

Explanation and interpretation 140

Explanation one: criminal incident 140

Explanation two: part of local elite's political struggle 141

Explanation three: part of long series of endemic riots 142

Waikabubak as case of 'post-Suharto violence in Indonesia' 143

Consequences for the 1999 bupati elections 146

VII Growing political public 149

International development aid for political reform 150

Civil society on Sumba 152

Adat revival 156

In touch with the rest of the world 158

Radio and newspapers 161

Voices of the political public 163

Small town 166

VIII Creating a new district 171

Decentralisation and pemekaran 171

Economic stakes 174

Historical arguments for pemekeran 175

Cultural and religious arguments 180

Rhetoric and theatre 181

Social forces behind pemekaran 185

Overseas Sumbanese 185

Local campaign leaders 189

Well-educated but unemployed youths 190

Women 191

Campaigning for Central Sumba 191

IX Elections 201

Local election experience 201

Democratic elections in 1999 203

Parliament elections in 2004 204

Presidential elections 211

Pilkada 212

West Sumba's pilkada candidates 214

Umbu Bintang: the performing prince 219

Election rally in Kabunduk, Central Sumba 221

Symbols, rhetoric and 'the angry man' 225

Pote Leba: the intellectual bureaucrat 227

Golkar, bureaucrats and businessmen 229

The result 232

The local context 238

Capital and leadership 240

Political identity 242

Political class, political public and the tani class 243

Democratization and Uma politics 246.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [257]-269) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9789067183246

9067183245

OCLC:

263427049