Riwanto Tirtosudarmo From Colonization to Nation-State The Political Demography of Indonesia From Colonization to Nation-State Riwanto Tirtosudarmo From Colonization to Nation-State The Political Demography of Indonesia RiwantoTirtosudarmo IndonesianInstituteofSciences Jakarta,Indonesia ISBN978-981-16-6436-6 ISBN978-981-16-6437-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6437-3 JointlypublishedwithIndonesianInstituteofSciences(LIPI)Press. LIPI Press retains the right to market and sell the print version of the Work in English language in Indonesia. OriginallypublishedbyIndonesianInstituteofSciences(LIPI),Jakarta,2013 1thedition:©IndonesianInstituteofSciences(LIPI)2013 ©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.2021 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublishers,whetherthewholeorpartof thematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation, broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformation storageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthispublication doesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevant protectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublishers,theauthors,andtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationinthis book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publishers remain neutral with regardtojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations. ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore Foreword EventhoughthepandemicofCOVID-19hastemporarilyhamperedpeople’smove from one place to another, migration never ceases. Human beings, from the very beginning, have migrated, and the move has been accelerated in parallel with the wavesofglobalization.Migration,beinganessentialfactorofhumansociety,was, however, treated as an additional matter by a still popular notion of nation-state whichconsistsofpeople,society,culture,andboundaries.Migrationstudies,onthe otherhand,havesometimesremainedintheeconomicandthedemographicdomain, andnotbeendevelopedintoawiderandricherfield. Seeingthemaintitleofthisbook,readersmayhaveanimpressionthattheauthor discussesdecolonizationprocessofIndonesia.Theauthordoesdiscusscolonization and building of a nation-state. However, he does so not by describing merely the process of colonization, independence, and nation-building. Instead, Dr. Riwanto Tirtosudarmo,arenownedsocialscientistofIndonesia,byfocusingontransmigra- tion in Indonesia, demonstrates the ways of discussing the political factors and agents behind the transmigration and consequences of transmigration from the viewpoint of “political demography.” Readers will realize how the domestic trans- migration programs and the government’s attitude towards international migration arelinked,inpositiveaswellasnegativeways,withIndonesiannation-buildingthat is yet to be completed. Dr. Riwanto, an expert of social demography, has stepped into a new dimension which encompasses migration, local societies, and politics, domesticaswellasinternational. As Dr. Riwanto rightly points out, migration is a multifaceted phenomenon in whichonewillbeabletoobservedomesticpolitics,economicbenefit,international politics; manipulation of ethnic images; social problems both among hosts and guests;andbusiness-relatedmigration. Dr.Riwantopresentsavarietyofexamplesfrom Indonesia,thecountrycharac- terizedbypersistentsurplusandimbalanceoflabor.Whilehesparesmanypageson the situation in Kalimantan, the topics he deals extend from ethnic conflicts to environmental degradation, from colonial to modern era, and from East Timor to vii viii Foreword West Irian. Nevertheless, behind the issues, Dr. Riwanto consistently sees the intents,omission,incongruence,andindifferenceinthesphereofpolitics. ThechaptersinthisbookdemonstrateIndonesiansituationseenfromamigration perspective and at the same time suggest a new approach to migration studies by stressingpoliticalfactors. EmeritusProfessorofAnthropology, KojiMiyazaki TokyoUniversityofForeignStudies, Tokyo,Japan ’ Publisher s Note As a scientific publisher, BRIN Publishing (formerly known as LIPI Press) holds high responsibility to enlighten society intelligence and awareness through the provision of qualified publication. This scientific book entitled From Colonization toNation-State:thePoliticalDemographyofIndonesiawasoncepublishedbyLIPI Press in 2013. This book has encountered quality control mechanism through the editorialprocess,includingpeerreviewandcopyediting. The book critically assesses the continuities and changes in the state’s demo- graphic engineering practices from the introduction of the Dutch colonial ethical policy at the beginning of the twentieth century until the dawn of the twenty-first century following the collapse of Indonesia’s New Order regime in 1998. Several issuesthatarecoveredinthebookincludetransmigrationpolicy,internalandcross- bordermobility,ethnicmobility,andthepoliticsofmigration. We surely hope this book could give new insights and information, especially aboutthedynamicnatureofdemographyanditslong-termprofoundimplicationfor social and political changes. The book is also expected to contribute to a better understanding of Indonesia’s complex social and political changes, which is cur- rently approaching a new historical crossroad of the twenty-first century. With the increasinginterconnectednessofcountriesthroughflowsandmovementsofpeople, theinfluenceofIndonesia’spolitical,demographicchangeswillnotonlybewithin butwilleventuallybefurtherbeyonditsborder. Asafinalnote,wewouldliketoexpressourheartfeltgratitudetoeveryonetaking partintheprocessofthisbook. BRINPublishing ix Introduction: The Political Demography of Nation-State Building As one might expect in a region with deeper sources of political instability and fewer democratic traditions, the ways in which population issues and politics have intersected havebeenharsher. MichaelS.TeitelbaumandJayWinter(1998,5) Atthedawnofthetwenty-firstcentury,Indonesiaisenteringafreshchapterinits history, when a new narrative must be written on the fate of this archipelago. Borrowingthephraseologyoftwoimportantcollectionsofessays,whichrepresent thescholarlymoodoftheday:“thenation-stateisatbayorundersiege,”1perhaps, weshouldalsoponderonthefutureofIndonesia,atthishistoricaltrajectory.Prior to,andintheaftermathofSuharto’sNewOrderstepdownfrompowerinMay1998, aseriesofeventsindicatesthatIndonesiawasrackedbymanyincidentsofsocialand political conflict that put the idea of Indonesia as a nation-state “at bay” or “under siege.”Therapid,social,andpoliticaltransformationcurrentlyoccurringeventually could change the reconfiguration of the existing nation-state formation. The most criticalphenomenoninthisgallopingmakeoveristheincreasingpoliticalmobiliza- tion, based on seemingly primordial sentiments related to territory, ethnicity, and religion. Ethnicity, in a broader sense, seems a common platform, often subtly interwovenwiththenotionofterritoryandreligion, transformingthecurrentpolit- ical organization and making it complicated and difficult to untangle. The central positionofethnicity,invariousformsofsocialandpoliticalconflicts,putsIndone- sia,perhaps,inacomparablesituationtothatexperienced,previously,intheEastern EuropeancountriesandintheSovietUnion,intheaftermathoftheColdWar.Yet, asMaybury-Lewis(1997,ix)notes: Ethnicityisoneoftheobscurestissuesofthemall.Inspiteofthefactthatthereismuchtalk nowadaysaboutethnicityandethnicgroups,itisnotalwaysclearexactlywhatthatmeans orwhyethnicityshouldhavesuchapowerful holdonhumanimaginationandbehavior. 1Young, C. (ed.). 1993. The Rising Tide of Cultural Pluralism: The Nation State at Bay? and Ferguson,R.B.(ed.).2004.TheStateUnderSiege:PoliticalDisintegrationinthePost-ColdWar Era. xi xii Introduction:ThePoliticalDemographyofNation-StateBuilding Ethnicconflicthassupplantedcommunismasthespecterthatishauntingtheworld.Writers, commentatorsandnewspapersarecurrentlytellingusthatpeopleareeverywheregivingin totheprimordial urgetobandtogetherwithotherslikethemselvesandtoharassorkill thosewhoaredifferent. What is written by Marybury-Lewis in 1997, more than two decades ago, has beencontinuouslyringinginourearsaswithinthelasttwodecadesindeedethnicity that is then manifested in the so-called politics of identity and the resurgence of populism transforms the world into the current situation. In Indonesia, the postcolonialdiscourseonethnicityhasbeendevelopingintandemwiththeincreas- ingstatedominationofsociety.Althoughthenationalmotto“UnityinDiversity”is constantly propagated, the state practice recurrently emphasizes the importance of culturaluniformityanddisregardsethnicplurality.Theideaofnationalintegration, anobsession of theruling elites, hasstrongly influenced theconstruction ofdiffer- ences and heterogeneity as a perceived national threat. Such a threat, again in the perceptionoftherulingelites,hastobeeliminatedinordertoachievetheimagined national unity. Assimilation and harmony, two keywords translated into state poli- cies and programs, must be designed to realize national integration and economic prosperity. The omission of questions on ethnicity in population censuses, after Independence, perhaps, is also deeply rooted in the ruling elites’ perception of the notion of a national threat emanating from any demographic exposure of ethnic identity. Exposition of such heterogeneity, perceived as possibly enhancing sukuisme (ethnocentrism, primordial sentiment), and in turn, threatening the reali- zation of Indonesian national integration. The Central Bureau of Statistics, as the stateinstitutionresponsibleforconductingpopulationcensuses,isconstantlyunder pressure from the higher state officials to erase any questions on ethnicity.2 Popu- lation politics, in which demographic change is regarded as making a significant contributiontopolitics,hasapparentlybeeninherentwithinthenationalelitepsyche sincethebeginningofindependence.Demographicengineering,asamechanismfor obtainingthedesiredculturalhomogeneityandultimately,nationalintegration,isan 2ThisinformationwasobtainedbytheauthorfromaconversationinSeptember2000withoneof the senior staff of the Central Bureau of Statistics who has been involved in the preparation of populationcensusesincludingplayinganimportantroleinthepreparationofthe2000Population Census. Statistical information on ethnicity is therefore lacking; if there is any, it is usually an extrapolation of the ethnicity statistics based on the 1930 Colonial Census. Another source of informationisthestatisticsonlanguagesspokenathome,ascollectedduringthe1990Population Census. According to the 1990 Census, the composition of languages spoken at home was as follows: Javanese (40%), Sundanese (25%), Indonesian (13%), Madurese (4.3%), Minangkabau (2.3%), Batak (2.2%), Bugis (2.2%) with the rest, minority languages. The estimation of ethnic composition using language as a proxy is very unreliable due to the fact that a relatively large proportionusesthenationallanguageratherthantheirlocallanguage;also,aspeoplemigratedthey could possibly have replaced their original language with their new local language. In 2000, surprisingly,thegovernmentdecidedtoincludeethnicityintheCensusquestionnaire.