The sudden fall of the authoritarian New Order in May 1998 drastically changed the landscape of Indonesian local politics. Newly found political freedom as well as opportunities made available by decentralization policies generated strong political and social movements in the regions. Ethnic politics, the struggle for power allocation among ethnic groups, is no longer considered as treacherous as it was under the New Order and in fact has become increasingly visible at local levels. Demands from indigenous peoples for a chance to fill local leadership positions have become common during district and provincial elections. This development is in stark contrast...

This chapter provides some theoretical perspectives to support the arguments of this book. First it examines concepts that link political change at the national level and ethnic politics to support the main argument that the politics of the Dayaks of West Kalimantan have always been constrained by the nature of the regime. The next two sections link ethnic identity formation and past marginalization with the particular nature of Dayak politics that are quite different from those of Malays, the other dominant ethnic group in the province. The next-to-last section explores related theories of ethnic conflict as a framework for the...

This chapter examines conditions prevailing prior to independence in the region that later became West Kalimantan. Those conditions prevented the emergence of Dayaks in the colonial-era government and contributed to the challenges that they faced after independence. The small advances in education that Dayaks experienced in the last years of colonial rule, however, helped to shape the role they would play in post-independence politics.

An understanding of the roots of ethnic identity of the two major native groups of West Kalimantan, the Dayaks and Malays, is central to this book. Dayaks and most Malays descended from the same ancestors and...

The situation of the Dayaks began to improve during the twentieth century, particularly in areas of direct rule. They started to acquire education and to work within the mission networks. Weakened sultanates and their violent collapse at the hands of the Japanese added to political changes in the province.

This chapter explores how Dayak political activities emerged after WWII and how they evolved until the early 1960s. The first section discusses the opportunities provided to the Dayaks after the end of WWII, analyzing the inclusive policies of post-war governments, the role of individuals within those governments, and the establishment of...

As discussed previously, the first Dayak political party supported the Dutch colonials, and Dayaks and their party were some of the staunchest supporters of DIKB, a state created by the Dutch. After temporarily disappearing from provincial politics after DIKB was dissolved in 1950, they recovered quickly following PD’s wins in the 1955 and 1958 elections. The number of Dayaks finding positions in the bureaucracy started to increase, although they still represented a very small percentage of the civil service. Dayaks were appointed as executive heads in several districts, and a Dayak was appointed governor of West Kalimantan. This golden era...

This chapter will look at the political, economic and cultural marginalization of Dayaks under the New Order regime. In politics, the Dayak bureaucratic elite faced obstacles to promotion to strategic positions and did not occupy any strategic positions in the government. Their economic conditions did not improve as rapidly as would be commensurate with the scope of development projects into their regions. In fact, the development programs such as logging, plantation operations and transmigrations brought negative effects that impaired the economic status of the Dayaks. They suffered from a continuing lack of access to economic opportunities in urban areas as...

Several significant ethnic conflicts have occurred in West Kalimantan since independence. The first took place in 1967, when hundreds or perhaps thousands of Chinese were murdered and more than 50,000 forced to flee from the interior areas now known as Landak and Bengkayang districts. A second, much smaller conflict between Dayaks and Madurese occurred in November 1979 in Samalantan (Bengkayang); members of both ethnic groups from about ten villages were involved, and the fighting lasted for about a week. Officials recorded 20 casualties and 50 houses burned down. Almost all Madurese evacuees were able to return to their homes after...

The unexpected fall of the New Order regime in May 1998 drastically changed Indonesian politics. Democratic institutions that had been co-opted for decades were restored. New political freedoms led to the blossoming of activities previously considered seditious. Ethnic politics, which had been repressed, found room to manoeuvre. In many parts of the country, the indigenous populations demanded the rights of putra daerah, which were usually translated into leadership positions in the local government. In West Kalimantan the Dayaks were first to seize the opportunity to openly organize themselves on the basis of ethnicity and to pursue ethnic political objectives. Immediately...

Drastic political change at the national level, particularly regime change, can have a decisive impact on ethnic politics at the regional level. The policies of successive regimes at the national level were not formulated to deal primarily with political conditions in the region. Local and provincial political dynamics were constrained by a framework determined by the centre. It has been demonstrated how such political change at the national level influenced Dayak politics in West Kalimantan from 1945. The Dayaks who had little or no political role prior to 1945 were suddenly given an important political role in the West Kalimantan...