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

206 CULTURAL TENSIONS IN RURAL INDONESIA
Deaths are important events in Indonesia, but this show of communion still
surprised me. This was a typically suburban ward: none of the people living there
had been born there, and people worked in different parts of Yogyakarta. Every
house had a fence and people mostly stayed in their homes in the evenings. But
this death showed that ‘traditional’ social practices are not gone: it is exactly on
such critical occasions that the community spirit is best displayed. To be sure,
visitors got food when they arrived, and some of those who assisted were paid in
cash. But these monetary transactions–which no doubt can be attributed to the
‘Age of Money’–did not undermine the very real sense of community solidarity.
The parvenus, Pak Guru et consortes, seem to live a perfectly well-adjusted
modern and global life. They have TVs and cars, they go on holidays to fancy resorts
on the South Java Sea, and once in a while they take the one-hour drive into
Bandung for a snack at KFC and to watch a movie. But, as we have seen, they are
also subject to local restriction. Not all of the new rich are totally free of the places
they come from. On one level they might wish to cut off as many social relations as
possible, at least those involving social obligations, but on another level they still
value village life. When I asked Cep Agus why he continues to live in Sariendah, he
says that he relishes the quietness of a small village, and that he does not have the
yearning to move to Bandung. Through his contacts outside the village he is not in
need of everyday relations with neighbours, and seems rather content with the
present situation.
Frans Hüsken has proposed the term ‘hesitant capitalist’ for those Javanese
entrepreneurs who shrink at the prospect of adopting the uncompromising
strategies of the free-wheeling capitalist. Rather, they chose to retain some of their
local security and, most of all, their state protection (Hüsken 1989:166). In this
spirit, Cep Agus and other new rich in Indonesia might be called the ‘hesitant rich’
who prefer to maintain some local social ties, rather than taking the unsafe step
away from the community. Even though the new rich live secluded in their
mansions, they are a part of that community, willingly or unwillingly. The future of
the middle class and the new rich in Indonesia is not easy to predict. What we can
say, though, is that we are not witnessing a simple transition from an Asian
traditionalism to Western modernity. The community-based lifestyles discussed in
this chapter can definitely not be understood within such a framework.
The new rich are in many ways placed between the community and the state,
operating not only as the political clients of the government, but also as cultural
brokers. They take a middleman position with dual responsibilities and dual
orientations. Since they are state clients, they must also be credible examples.
Elsewhere (Antlöv 1995), I have argued that a successful village leader
must achieve a balance between state ideology and community values. To a
certain extent this is also true of the new rich, especially since so many of them
have gained their wealth from their relations with the state and are seen by the
community as representing the state. Disliked leaders arouse criticism, political
action and disorder. If tensions continue to grow between the new rich and the
broader masses of the population, it might be difficult to take Indonesia further into