Why Nationalism Fails: The South Maluku Republic Movement in Indonesia

• In Event: Citizenship in the Peripheries: Identities in SE Asia (Mini-Conference 2/3)

Abstract

While many scholars have studied the origins of nationalist movements (Anderson 1983, Brubaker 1992, Greenfeld 1992), few scholars have studied why nationalist movements fail. Why do some nationalist movements have longevity, while others collapse or peter out? This paper explores this question through a study of the South Maluku Republic (RMS) movement, the first nationalist challenge to the territorial integrity of the Indonesian state. Unlike other nationalist movements in Indonesia, the RMS movement did not gain broader political support and quickly petered out. Factors that bolstered nationalist causes in the movements in Papua, Aceh, and East Timor—political and economic marginalization, strong military presence, and the exile of movement leaders—did not bolster support for the RMS in South Maluku. This paper argues that the RMS movement failed because leaders were unable to re-frame the religious movement into an ethnic one that had broader appeal. Claims to a broader ethnic collective identity did not have much resonance because Alifuru ethnic identity was not politically salient. Two factors undermined the development of strong ethnic identity in Maluku: 1) colonial legacies worked to make religious identities much more salient and 2) indigenous structures of governance (adat) worked to cultivate particularistic identifications at the village level instead of identification with a broader Alifuru ethnic identity. By highlighting factors inhibiting the development of a strong ethnic identity, this paper sheds light on one pathway leading to the demise of nationalist movements.

Author

• Jessica Soedirgo, University of Toronto