Shaping a ‘New Manggarai’: Struggles over culture and tradition in an Eastern Indonesian regency1

Abstract: Policies of decentralisation and democratisation since the end of the New Order of Indonesia in 1998 have seen a major shift of economic and political attention to the regions and widespread clamouring from local communities for more power in decision making and control over local resources. This regionalisation has led to a resurgence in interest in ‘tradition’ and a shift in the understanding of ‘culture’ as it was formed during the New Order. This article looks at contestations over the use of traditional culture in the regency of Manggarai (in Flores Island, Eastern Indonesia) and how, while political elites retain an image of culture similar to the New Order, local communities struggle to reform tradition in their own way and to regain local governance.     

Political contestation,resource control and conservation in an era of decentralisation at Indonesia's Kerinci Seblat National Park

Since the fall of long‐time strongman Suharto and his authoritarian ‘New Order’ government in 1998, Indonesia has embarked upon a series of decentralisation and democratisation reforms. This new era of decentralised politics has come to be known as Reformasi and has significantly altered the political landscape of the archipelago as national and subnational levels of administration continue to contest the balance of power. Indonesia's national parks, which remain under the authority of the national government, have become arenas for negotiated encounters between local resource users, aspiring district elites and the national government. This essay explores three legacies of incomplete and unfinished decentralisation as they related to national‐park‐based conservation, using Sumatra's Kerinci Seblat National Park as a case study.     

Social dialogue and industrial relations in South Korea: Has the tripartite commission been successful?

This paper analyses the sweeping changes in industrial relations in South Korea that have taken place since democratisation in 1987, which gave workers the right to organise themselves, and critically reviews the development of social dialogue since the financial crisis of 1997. A number of international labour specialists have maintained that social dialogue plays an important role in enhancing economic restructuring and the stability of industrial relations in order to compete in a global economy. Contrary to the positive assessment of social dialogue, the paper argues that the Korean Tripartite Commission has not reduced the antagonism between unions and employer organisations due to the influence of embedded, state‐led economic development. The financial crisis of 1997 merely provided a catalyst to propel the ‘historic compromise’ of February 1998, without creating effective institutional arrangements to maintain social dialogue. It is worth noting that the uncertainty of social dialogue results from the inability of the Korean Tripartite Commission to encourage employers and workers to trade off wage restraint for job security in the context of a lack of social welfare protections. The paralysed Korean Tripartite Commission provides fertile ground for reflecting on the complex relationship between social dialogue and institutional arrangements.     

Overcoming barriers: Myanmar's recent elections and women's political participation

Myanmar's 2015 elections have been credited with bringing about a myriad of changes within the country. Much has been written about the changing political climate within Myanmar. One topic which has not yet been discussed adequately, however, is the role of Burmese women in these recent elections. This paper seeks to examine women's political participation in Myanmar's recent move towards democratisation. Using rates of female candidacies in Burmese elections, comparing these figures with rates of female participation in other Southeast Asian countries, and ethnographic research with the Burmese voting public, this paper will contribute to the sparse scholarship regarding the role of women in new democracies and regime transitions. This paper finds that beliefs about traditional gender roles, rooted in traditional Buddhism, still shape the way both men and women in Myanmar view women's political participation. While women are better represented in Myanmar's government than they were in the past, this paper suggests that measures such as quotas or reserved seats based on gender may be the best way to increase Burmese women's political representation in the future.