Indonesian politics is not just about Jakarta or Java

John A MacDougall

Most of us know Sulawesi as just a big, strangely shaped Indonesian island. Some may have heard about the Toraja (www.batusura.de/directory.htm), Bugis (www.indopubs.com/bugis.pdf), Manado (www.theminahasa.com/indexen.html and www.minahasa.net), Poso (www.crisisweb.org/library/documents/asia/indonesia/074_jihad_in_central_sulawesi_mod.pdf and http://hrw.org/reports/2002/indonesia), as well as Inco and Newmont (www.eca-watch.org/problems/asia_pacific/indonesia/japan_inco.pdf, www.iied.org/mmsd/mmsd_pdfs/indonesia_hr_baseline.pdf, www.walhi.or.id/eng and www.newmont.co.id/minahasaraya/index.php). Whew!

Get ready for a shock — Sulawesi is in the news big-time these days in Indonesia, but most Indonesians - save some scholars (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indonesian-studies/message/2719 and /2723) — are as poorly-equipped to understand what’s happening there as are outsiders. And even scholars tend to focus on only a single geographic area or ethnic group within Sulawesi.

Politics

South Sulawesi in particular has gained political clout - native sons include one recent Indonesian president, BJ Habibie from Pare-Pare, incumbents Vice President Jusuf Kalla from Watampone, People’s Welfare Coordinating Minister Alwi Shihab from Rappang, and Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaludin from Pare-Pare. Central Sulawesi adds the State Minister for Youth and Sports Adyaksa Dault from Donggala. See the Tokoh Indonesia website (www.tokohindonesia.com/ensiklopedi).

Not bad for small-town boys from an island comprising just seven per cent of the nation’s population (crunch the numbers at www.bps.go.id/sector/population/tables.shtml). Indonesian politics is not just about Jakarta or Java anymore.

The notion of one centre (pusat) increasingly distorts the burgeoning reality of grand and petty powerhouses in the regions (daerah). It represents a lively research topic (www.kitlv.nl/modern-indonesia.html and www.insideindonesia.org/edit78/p25-26_GVK.html) and foreshadows an even more de-centred politics re-constructed in part from a vast array of past kingdoms (http://rulers.org/indotrad.html).

Sulawesi nowadays exemplifies the massive local government shakeups and ethnic conflict rife throughout Indonesia (www.jai.or.id/jurnal/2002/sv/04em_sv.pdf, www.icg.org//library/documents/report_archive/A401055_18072003.pdf and www.cityu.edu.hk/searc/WP29_02_Jacobsen.pdf). In recent times, there was simply South Sulawesi (Sulsel), Central Sulawesi (Sulteng), Southeast Sulawesi (Sultra) and North Sulawesi (Sulut) (see www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/indonesia_adm_2002.jpg for a map of past administrative reality). Gorontalo, with 90 per cent Muslim Gorontalese, exited from Sulut in December 2000, increasing Sulut’s Christian (mainly Manadonese) majority to 69 per cent. West Sulawesi (Sulbar) was carved out of Sulsel in October 2004 for the main (Muslim) Mandar ethnic group in this area. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulawesi) helps show how the political map has changed.

General election maps (down to city/district level) valid as of April 2004 are still available in pdf format at www.kpu.go.id/peta. So are 2004 provincial electoral results tables for presidential (www.kpu.go.id/hasil_pilpres/suara_sah-1.php) and legislative elections (click the bottom box at www.kpu.go.id/suara/hasilsuara_dpr_sah.php for the DPR and play with the top drop-down menu at www.kpu.go.id/suara/hasilsuara_dpd_sah.php for the DPD).

Society

Linguistic and ethnic diversity (www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=1061 and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indonesian-studies/message/93) on Sulawesi approaches astonishing levels. Especially in Sultra (Buton, 23 per cent, a census category masking great heterogeneity, see www.idrap.or.id/ethnolinguistic.htm) and Sulteng (Kaili 20 per cent), no ethnic group comprises as much as a quarter of the provincial population.

Nor do the Bugis (now about 45 per cent) reach majority status in the new Sulsel, or the Minahasa (33 per cent) in the new Sulut. Only in Sulbar and Gorontalo, the relatively small Mandar (half a million) and Gorontalese (one million) peoples are apparent majorities.

Media

Local Sulawesi mass media (and Sulawesi generally) remain poorly internetted, though the nationally-oriented press online spasmodically carries Sulawesi news in greatly varying depth. Fajar (www.fajar.co.id) focuses on Metro Makassar, Sulsel and Sumbar.

For Sulteng there is the diminutive Radar Sulteng (www.radarsulteng.com) and a small archive run by Yayasan Tanah Merdeka (Free Land Institute, www.ytm.or.id/ind/2005.html). Kendari Pos (Sultra), Gorontalo Pos, and other small Jawa Pos News Network (JPNN) newspapers (www.jawapos.com/group) do not have a regular online presence. Komentar (www.hariankomentar.com) is a lively Manado daily, while the private Sulutlink portal (www.sulutlink.com) struggles valiantly to keep up. Manado Times (www.manado-news.com) is the new online version of JPNN’s Manado Post.

Provincial and local e-government sites in Sulawesi once had a growing and important net presence as news providers and portals. For Sulsel, see the still impressive official site at www.sulsel.go.id. But official Sultra, Sulteng, Gorontalo and Sulut sites are currently offline or password-protected.

Frolics

For lighter fare, listen to traditional Sulawesi music by typing ‘sulawesi’ in the Quick Search box at www.folkways.si.edu/search/AlbumDetails.aspx?ID=2410, then hit Info in the three albums, and click on each sound track to hear it. To see what Sulawesi looks like, enjoy the photo show by typing ‘sulawesi’ at http://images.google.com. Ready for a Sulawesi higher education? For starters, virtually visit Universitas Hasanuddin in Makassar (www.unhas.ac.id).

John A MacDougall (johnmacdougall@comcast.net) edits Indonesia Publications (www.indopubs.com) and moderates the indonesian-studies list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indonesian-studies).