Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, v. 293; Power and Place in Southeast Asia, v. 5. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2014. xviii, 300 pp. (Figures, map, table.) US$148.00, cloth. ISBN 978-90-04-26508-0.
Political scientists tend to focus on capital cities, and anthropologists on the village, but few scholars pay much attention to what is in between, despite the fact that smaller cities house the bulk of the world’s urban residents and represent underappreciated political power. Gerry van Klinken’s The Making of Middle Indonesia: Middle Classes in Kupang Town, 1930s-1980s shines a light on the administrative class of one such middle city. Kupang serves as the backdrop to a careful historical study of local politics, charting the rise of administrative classes and detailing their connections to the central government. Van Klinken paints a picture of local administrators as synaptic figures, mediating between metropolis and village, centre and periphery. He argues that administrative elites represent the lifeblood of Indonesian politics, the glue holding the sprawling archipelago together.
Van Klinken has penned some of the most interesting, in-depth work on Indonesian politics, and this book is no exception. A companion to his co-edited volume, In Search of Middle Indonesia (KITLV Press, 2014), The Making of Middle Indonesia is an explicitly historical study, one with many implications for today. Organizationally, early chapters provide an introduction, assess the literature, and discuss fieldwork, and are then arranged chronologically, from Dutch colonialism, to the Japanese invasion and independence struggle, the Sukarno era, the ascent of the Indonesian Communist Party, the rise of the bureaucratic class, and the violent purge of Kupang’s leftists in 1965. The core of the book is a thoroughly researched local history of Kupang. Van Klinken has browsed archives, conducted interviews, and examined personal collections to construct a history that has not really been told. One of the book’s many highlights is the range of images and figures included, such as local maps and even labels from local manufacturing, providing some local flavour.
The book’s core contention is that “Middle Indonesia,” the country’s administrative classes, constitute Indonesian politics. As Indonesia survived the chaos of reformasi, scholars wondered what holds this massive, diverse country together. Some saw strong leaders, pluralism, or perhaps anti-colonial experiences as playing this role. Van Klinken’s response is that the country is bound together by state patronage and the personal networks of the thousands of bureaucrats across various levels of the state. For those who have conducted research in remote parts of the country, this explanation is entirely convincing. The state dominates regional political economies, keeping notables within Jakarta’s orbit. Here we see an evolution in van Klinken’s work, as he previously explained post-Suharto violence in terms of competition for control of local bureaucracy. The role of the subnational state is illustrated nicely by an example in the late 1960s, when 60 percent of East Nusa Tenggara’s provincial budget expenses were marked “other,” and 85 percent of this funding came from Jakarta (201). This illustrates both the local patronage and national resources that make subnational administrative classes such an important area of study.
“Middle Indonesia” refers to both a class of administrators as well as the towns they inhabit. In a sense, this is a different type of middle class; instead of the educated cosmopolitans of capital cities that dominate the democratization literature, these are the somewhat corrupt town leaders. If globalized middle classes in capital cities are forces for political change, provincial middle classes appear as vanguards of political stability. The provincial and township administrative classes are important because they are connected to rural Indonesia in ways that Jakarta’s middle classes are not, and indeed this is where Middle Indonesia draws its power.
For all of the book’s great strengths, I perceived a couple of shortcomings. Although the concept and empirics are exceptional, I found references to other studies to be awkward. Chapters 1 and 2 appear at first glance to provide a literature review and some broader historical context (chapter 2 is titled “Historical Synthesis”). However, both chapters fluctuate between academic theories and Indonesian events. There are dozens of times where the author alludes to academic theories, but not in a sustained, coherent manner. For instance, on page 11 there is a focused discussion of John Allen’s concept of Associational Power. Despite appearing as a touchstone for the book, it is not really returned to. Later chapters provide sporadic references to other studies, mentions that seem not entirely fleshed out.
Another potential criticism is that the book stops suddenly in the late 1960s. This was especially surprising since the introduction alludes to post-Suharto politics, the title suggests a focus through the 1980s, and early on notes the centrality of the 1970s oil boom in making Middle Indonesia. The book’s primary focus is, surprisingly, the 1965–1966 massacre of leftists and its immediate aftermath, with only a few pages devoted to the 1970s or 1980s, and none for events after this. Given extensive decentralization, subnational bureaucratic politics seem more important now than ever; the discussion of the creation of Nusa Tenggara Timor Province to reward local elites has clear parallels for the recent blossoming of district governments. Although more contemporary content is provided in the companion edited volume, this omission nevertheless makes this book feel incomplete.
Overall, though, this is an exceptional study. The author is to be commended, providing a convincing account of what makes Indonesia tick. It will be appreciated by anyone studying subnational politics and outer Indonesia, and it will provide an important lesson for those who study national politics or village life. Even though this detailed study is aimed mostly at Indonesia experts, it is a rewarding read for those interested in the places between metropolis and village in any country. As Indonesia has decentralized, it is reassuring that the keenest observers of the country have followed suit, providing a new appreciation for the vibrant middle.
Shane J. Barter
Soka University of America, Aliso Viejo, USA
pp. 411-413