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

HANS ANTLÖV 205
community in which he lived. So in a fantastic feat of solidarity, none of his lowrank
neighbours showed up (although five richer and rather like-minded peer
families did, including Cep Agus). Pak Guru and his family are not liked and are
commonly criticised behind their backs, yet they accept this price for their
seclusion, and have no desire to achieve an exalted position in the community.
The reactions towards the lifestyle of Pak Guru are indicative of the tensions
that the New Order village is enduring, and which the new rich must face up to. It
is not merely for the new rich to take on a new standard and style of living, and
expect that it will be acclaimed by neighbours and friends. Even in the globalised
economy of Sariendah, there are social relations and cultural imaginations that
balance the forces of modernity.
CONCLUSION
How general are these observations? They are from a single location in Java, but I
believe that these trends and tensions can be identified also in larger cities. As to
the state support of the new rich, even conglomerate capitalists in Jakarta cannot
operate without state support (Raillon 1994). As for the community orientation, it is
notable that Jakarta is almost emptied of its Muslim population once a year at Idul
Fitri (end of the fasting holiday). Families return to their home village (pulang
kampung), to seek the blessing of the family elder. I can still vividly remember one
man posted as an army sergeant in Jakarta who returned home with his Chinese
wife at Idul Fitri. They arrived in a nice new minibus and, to show off their new
wealth, they threw 50-rupiah coins on the ground as they walked through the
hamlet, a ‘traditional’ royal custom. Not all of the new rich would be so blatantly
pretentious, but it is important for all of them to retain an affinity with their home
village. In doing so, they also preserve some of its values. The hope of the army
sergeant was to gain status and prestige, as he was planning to return to Sariendah
after his posting in Jakarta. But what he demonstrated was that he was a typical
class-traveller who could not handle the lifestyle expected of him.
A quite different story might exemplify the resilience of local community spirit. In
one of the typical middle-class suburban wards of Yogyakarta, built in the early
1980s, a respected man died in January 1996. It happened at 3.00 in the morning,
at the main Yogyakarta hospital, after some time of illness. After only two hours,
several men and women from the ward had arrived to assist and bring comfort.
The local ward chairman, the Kepala RT, even brought 2 million rupiah (appr. US
$900) in case the family could not pay the hospital bill (the body is not allowed to
be removed unless the bill is paid). When the family returned with the corpse at 7.
00 am, hundreds of people had already gathered. Neighbours brought food and all
the necessary ritual cloth and incense needed for the funeral. At 10.00, the family
and some neighbours left to make the 6-hour trip to the home village of the
deceased. When they returned 24 hours later, a week-long period of mourning
began, with neighbours passing by every day with food and a word of comfort.