The politics of the periphery in Indonesia - M. Sakai et al. (eds)

MINAKO SAKAI, GLENN BANKS, & J.H. WALKER, EDS.

The politics of the periphery in Indonesia: social and geographical perspectives

Singapore: National University Press, 2009

324pp. ISBN 978-9971-69-479-1,

pb US$28/S$38

Reviewed by John Sidel, London School of Economics and Political Sciences 

Over the course of the past decade, Indonesian politics and society have experienced a dramatic sea change, with centralised authoritarian rule replaced by decentralised democracy. The resulting transformations have been accompanied by two trends in academic research on Indonesia: a shift away from Jakarta, from national-level political and social developments, and from the central state in favour of local studies; and a shift away from grand narratives in favour of multiple – and more modestly framed – accounts of diversity in Indonesian political and social life.

The politics of the periphery in Indonesia: social and geographical perspectives, a collection of essays edited by Minako Sakai, Glenn Banks, and J.H. Walker and published by the National University Press in Singapore, exemplifies these trends. Here we have yet another edited volume on local trends across the sprawling Indonesian archipelago, by anthropologists, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and other scholars working on a range of different localities and themes. If there is a unifying focus of this volume, it is ‘identity’, with regional and ethnic identities treated in virtually all of the essays. Malay identity across Sumatra, Acehnese and Papuan ‘regional’ or ‘national’ identities, Dayak-Madurese conflict in West Kalimantan, ‘Chinese’ identity, and Indonesian national identity all serve as focal points in successive essays in the volume.

The volume begins with a set of overarching thematic essays, the richest and most illuminating of which is Audrey Kahin’s account of West Sumatra’s emblematic experience of integration within the Indonesian nation-state. Minako Sakai treats the diverse manifestations of ‘Malayness’ across Palembang, Padang, Medan, and the Riau Archipelago. Anthony Reid and Richard Chauvel offer historically informed explanations for the relative strength of Acehnese and Papuan nationalisms, with Chauvel’s account noteworthy for its emphasis on Christianity in Papua. Dedi Adhuri’s essay is also notable for its treatment of questions of access to maritime resources, the complexity and salience of which have only increased with decentralisation. As noted above, other essays treat questions of ethnic conflict, adat (customary law), and religion as well.

Among the final essays in the volume are three treating so-called Chinese-Indonesians: a broad historical overview by Charles Coppel, a discussion of ‘Chineseness’ in recent literature and film by Paul Tickell, and a biographical account of the late historian Onghokham by David Reeve. While appropriately idiosyncratic and especially moving for those who knew Ong, Reeve’s account is in some ways the most revealing of all the essays in the volume. In Ong’s life, Reeve makes clear, questions of ‘identity’ were confronted, evaded, sublimated, or simply ignored in a context in which class and power, anxiety and desire, sexuality and violence always loomed large. ‘Identity’ was never fully achieved or consolidated, and it did not always present itself as an overriding urge or imperative. Many of the essays in this volume express cautious optimism with regard to the possibility of an Indonesia in which diverse and fluid identities can be accepted and accommodated. Perhaps here it is worth adding an expression of hope for an Indonesia freer from the pressures and anxieties associated with the insistence on ‘identity’ in the first place.