Clients, Citizens, Voters: Ambiguities of Preferences in Leadership Qualities in Sumatra, Indonesia

• In Event: 128. Agents of Innovation or Clientelism? Understanding Local-Level Governance in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Direct-election (Pilkada) is generally considered one of the major achievements of decentralization and democratization in post-Soeharto Indonesia, especially because it has allowed some reform-minded leaders to rise. It has also transformed the traditional patron-client relations between elite-patrons and their followers, as clients are “empowered” as voters and patrons run in local elections to secure leadership.

Despite these positive changes, however, the experience of local electoral democracy has also shown that patronage practices are still rampant in many regions. In these regions, corrupt officials stay popular and may win the elections. Consequently, Indonesia’s district elections have illustrated the dissonance between the positive image of electoral democracy and the proliferation of patronage practices.

This paper thus investigates the ambiguities of local democracy in the everyday interaction between the citizens and the (local) state. How has democracy reshaped Indonesian citizenship? While pragmatism may explain voters’ choice of wealthy candidates, other traditionally recognized patron qualities –which are not congruent to good governance ideals- may also determine voters’ preferences of leaders.

Using a political anthropology approach, the paper therefore calls for the reconceptualization of Indonesian “citizenship” beyond the simplistic fulfilment of civic, political and social rights, to the one which takes into account the fine-tuning of local specificities.

To illustrate this argument, the paper takes Sumatra as a case study, where six out of its ten popularly elected provincial governors have been charged with corruption.

Author

• Deasy Simandjuntak, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) - Yusof Ishak Institute