Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

200 CULTURAL TENSIONS IN RURAL INDONESIA
recent years, when some families have oriented themselves inwards. These more
restricted spheres of social interaction take the kin-group as centre. Cognitive
descent groups (sometimes called trah in Java) have grown stronger. As in most
peasant communities, there is a conformist and redistributive ideology in
Sariendah. Richer households are expected to assist poorer households with
political protection and economic security; in exchange they receive the loyalty and
support of subordinates. Concepts such as hormat (respect for hierarchy) and
rukun (harmonious social appearances) are essential, at least on an ideological
level.
The village community is maintained by a number of social relations and
institutions: by arisan (rotating credit associations), by slametan (ritual meals), by
tolong menolong (mutual assistance labour parties), by state-supporting social
organisations, by Islamic ummat gatherings, and such activities as jointly watching
a soccer game or cooking for a celebration. In the late afternoon, young men and
women stand in groups and exchange comments about each other. Adult men join
in, to learn the latest round of gossip before going home for dinner. This helps to
strengthen the affinities that bind the community together. It is important to note
that this ‘community spirit’ is neither a survival of the past, nor a retreat from the
modern world. It is rather a reconstruction of everyday practices and beliefs, an
identity in which the modern factory work meets the traditional village. Because of
the tenacity of this community spirit, we have every reason to believe that it will
survive. Although young people perhaps want Cep Agus’s wealth, they do not wish
to inherit his social position, isolated from the community. The same people who
want to live a royal life also wish to be part of the community.
There is another factor at work here. In a certain sense, the state needs a strong
community spirit. The community is the arena where development programmes
are carried out and where political control is maintained. Since the 1980s, the New
Order government has consciously promoted notions of ‘familism’ (kekeluargaan)
and ‘original democracy’ (demokrasi asli) in which liberal notions of individual
freedom and procedural democracy are less important than consensus, harmony
and the maintenance of hierarchy. This is in line with a more general trend in East
and Southeast Asia to return to Asian values turning away from Western liberal
values of freedom and choice. We can also notice here that the Suharto
government has promoted a more refined (halus) style of language, art and ritual,
if not of everyday lifestyle (Pemberton 1994). According to this ideology, the local
community plays a central, but often underrated, role. The community is a critical
arena for the government’s political control and ideological mobilisation. From the
perspective of higher authorities, the strength of the local government, of village
celebrations, of notions of a common Indonesian nationality, and of national
development, have helped to make the community an important arena in the policy
of economic development and political stability. In the local community, authorities
can have a high level of control, and can even afford to ignore much of what
happens, because communities are so tightly knit that they become ‘effectively self-