Territory, Class, and Kinship: A Case Study of an Indonesian Regional Election

Abstract

This article examines electoral strategies used by candidates in regional elections in new Indonesian jurisdictions. It uses the 2017 regional election in Maybrat, West Papua as a case study. It explores the candidates’ strategies and motivations in context, as well as their results. Research indicates that similar election strategies were used by candidates, such as exploiting elements of territory, class, and kinship. However, their emphases differed: the losing candidate had positioned class solidarity centrally in their campaigns, while the victorious candidate had emphasized spatial solidarity. This research also observed the exploitation of latent tensions over the location of the regional capital in the new jurisdiction of Maybrat, where the creation of new resources, services, and public offices intensified long‐standing contestations. Ultimately, distancing themselves from electoral logics that target individual voters, the candidates in Maybrat targeted specific groups, a strategy representative of Papuan society’s communal tendencies.

Islamic Populism and Village Chief Elections in Java

“…At the same time, other identitiessuch as ethnic identity-have also been exploited in Indonesian elections (Aspinall, Dettman, & Warburton, 2011;Fox, 2018;Haryanto, Sukmajati, & Lay, 2019). When significant social inequalities exist, such strategies have often been successful.…”

“…Sub-village units, known as dusun or dukuh, are used to distinguish between insiders and outsiders; 7 in such a context, clans (trah) significantly shape social bonds and political preferences. Although such a situation is not unique to Javanese villages (Koentjaraningrat, 1967;Kartodirdjo, 1992;Haryanto, Sukmajati, & Lay, 2019), the dusun of Javanese villages are more consolidated than elsewhere. 8 Tönnies community.…”

Asymmetric Election: Political Decentralization As A Lesson Learnt From Indonesia 2019 Simultaneous Election Problems

“…This indicates that there is a framework for alternatives to mitigate the inefficiency of political parties through the decentralization of the administrative structure of the state. His statement focuses on two aspects of the party system: 1) the distribution of partisan allegiance between central and regional governments, and 2) the propensity of local officials to express local interests (Haryanto et al, 2019). The asymmetry election enabled the voices of local people to be heard in the elections.…”

Personal Networks and Election in Divided Society: Women Candidates’ Strategy in the 2019 Legislative Election in Ambon Indonesia

“…Previous studies show that, by exploiting primordial allegiances such as religion, candidates have a great opportunity to win votes (Pariela, 2007;Tomsa, 2009a;Brown & Diprose, 2009;Ernas, 2015;Arjon, 2018;Lamerkabel & Lattu, 2018;Mietzner, 2019)-especially in areas that have recently experienced or are currently experiencing social conflict and segregation (Van Klinken, 2006;Tomsa, 2009b). While politicians use this strategy to consolidate their power (Hamayotsu, 2011;Haryanto, Sukmajati, & Lay, 2019), voters consider religious identity to be more important than parties' or candidates' programmes (Liddle & Mujani, 2007;Higashikata & Kawamura, 2015). Religious identity often strengthens in areas where voters come from diverse religious, ethnic, and/or racial backgrounds (Fernandes, 2018).…”