Book Launch and Film on Local Politics in Indonesia
28/02/2007 - 19:30
28 February 2007
19.30 - 21.30hrs.
Heeren XVII Room
Oost Indisch Huis, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Kloveniersburgwal 48, Amsterdam
Organized by ASiA and KITLV
Programme:
19.30: Introduction by Henk Schulte Nordholt (KITLV Leiden).
19.40: Local Politics in Indonesia Today by prof dr Mohtar Mas'oed (Universitas Gadja Mada, Yogyakarta).
20.00: Documentary film: ‘Faces of Everyday Corruption in Indonesia' by Lexy Rambadeta.
20.45: Introduction by Gerry van Klinken of ‘Renegotiating Boundaries: Local politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia' and ‘Communal Violence and Democratization in Indonesia: Small Town Wars.'
21.00: Presentation of books to prof Mohtar Mas'oed.
Drinks in foyer.
Books to be presented:
1. Henk Schulte Nordholt and Gerry van Klinken (eds)
Renegotiating Boundaries: Local politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia
Leiden: KITLV Press 2007.
After 32 years of enforced stability, in 1998 the New Order was at an end. Things began to happen in the provinces that no one was prepared for. Democratization was one, decentralization another. Ethnic and religious identities emerged that had lain buried under the blanket of the New Order's modernizing ideology. Unfamiliar, sometimes violent forms of political competition and of rent-seeking came to light.
Decentralization was often connected with the neo-liberal desire to reduce state powers and make room for free trade and democracy. To what extent were the goals of good governance and a stronger civil society achieved? How much of the process was 'captured' by regional elites to increase their own powers? Amidst the new identity politics, what has happened to citizenship? These are among the central questions addressed in this book.
2. Gerry van Klinken,
Communal Violence and Democratization in Indonesia: Small Town Wars.
London/New York: Routledge 2007.
Indonesia democratized after the long and authoritarian New Order regime ended in May 1998. But the transition was far less peaceful than is often thought. It claimed about 10,000 lives in communal (ethnic and religious) violence, and nearly as many in separatist violence in Aceh and East Timor. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the episodes of long-running, widespread communal violence that erupted during the post-New Order transition.
Communal violence on this scale is new to Indonesia. It has been poorly understood by the interested public and specialists alike, whether within Indonesia or outside it. By adopting a contentious politics approach that examines the sociological processes of communal violence, the book details six episodes including ethnic fighting in West and Central Kalimantan, and Muslim-Christian violence in Central Sulawesi, Maluku (Ambon) and North Maluku. Van Klinken argues that there exists enough similarity between these episodes of communal violence to consider them as a single phenomenon. This violence can be linked to the practice of politics in Indonesia's frontiers, namely small towns beyond Java where democratization and decentralization has led key figures to compete for control of the local state in 'emergency mode', by mobilizing ethnic and religious crowds. Such occurrences demonstrate how communal violence can erupt in a poor third world country when faced with conditions of a weak state.
Lexy Rambadeta is a well-known documentary filmmaker. His work includes films on Aceh, Timor Leste, the human right activist Munir, and youth in Sumbawa. He is also partner in the KITLV project that aims to make an audiovisual archive of everyday life in Indonesia in the 21st century. ‘Faces of Everyday Corruption in Indonesia' won the first prize at the Documentary Film Festival in Yogyakarta in December 2006.
For more information: Sikko Visscher (ASiA) s.visscher@uva.nl tel: 020 525 2107 or Ireen Hoogenboom (KITLV Leiden): hoogenboom@kitlv.nl tel: 071 257 2295.