Military Politics, Ethnicity and Conflict in Indonesia.
This paper outlines the history of the military in Indonesia and its role in politics, as well as in perpetrating violence. Since its inception at the time of Indonesian independence, the military has had a defined role in both defence and politics, particularly during the Sukarno (1945-1965) and Suharto eras (1966-1998). While this role has been somewhat reduced in the Reform era (beginning mid-1998) through various stages of military reform, many of the underlying principles of the involvement of the military in politics still remain in reality. Given the historical dual roles of the military, it has been able to set agendas and perpetrate violence without civilian oversight. In Papua, this has led to various acts of violence perpetrated by the military and the police, often tapping into local ethno-religious relations. However, this has been less overt than the violence occurring in Aceh. In Aceh, the initial response of the military in the 1950s to Acehnese resistance was more accommodating and less violent than the military operations in the 1970s to the 1990s. While the negotiations in the 1950s were a drawn-out process, it enabled a peaceful agreement to be reached without extensive use of force. However, in later periods the orchestrated use of violence in Aceh left locals seeing the military from Java as colonisers. Furthermore, these repressive strategies did not elicit peace agreements but rather stimulated further rebellion, which some argue was part of a broader military strategy of creating tension and maintaining a role for the military in domestic security provision. In Maluku, clashes between the military and police, as well as bias on the part of different sections of the armed forces towards each of the warring communal groups, increased the levels of violence and prolonged the conflict. Today, the role of the military in politics has been significantly reduced by disbanding the political sections of the military in the regions and a number of other reforms. However, many of the original principles of the functions of the military remain, whereby they can still be involved in politics and elections by resigning from their military posts.
The Papua conflict : Jakarta's perceptions and policies
Executive SummaryThis study discusses the development of Indonesian attitudes and policies toward Papua from the preparations for Indonesian independence in mid-1945 to the present day. It emphasizes the Indonesian view that Papua has been an integral part of the Indonesian state ever since the proclamation of independence. In Jakarta's eyes, Papua is no more or less part of Indonesia than Yogyakarta or Manado. The study traces the ebb and flow of Indonesian government policies toward Papua from the founding President Sukarno to his daughter President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Indonesian governments have changed from radical nationalist through military authoritarian to democratically elected. Government policies, too, have ranged from the overtly repressive to the occasionally accommodative. The study argues that the nationalist conviction that Papua is an integral part of Indonesia remains the dominant framework in which government policy is made and public opinion formed.Indonesia's sovereignty in Papua has been contested for much of the period since Indonesia proclaimed its independence-challenged initially by the Netherlands and since 1961 by various groups within Papuan society. After the Netherlands refused to include Papua in the transfer of sovereignty of the Netherlands Indies to Indonesia in 1949, President Sukarno skillfully mobilized nearly unanimous support for the struggle against the Netherlands. He made the struggle for West Irian (Papua) an issue of national unity. Indeed there were no significant leaders or politi- cal parties that did not support the struggle to return West Irian to Indonesia. The second Papuan challenge evolved in the context of the dispute between the Netherlands and Indonesia. Sukarno recognized that a rival Papuan national claim posed a greater threat to Indonesia's own claim than the continuation of Dutch colonial administration.Indonesia's victory over the Dutch in 1962 confronted Sukarno's government with the challenge of how to integrate and administer Papua. West Irian's status as a nationalist trophy made the task of integrating the territory into Indonesia's political and administrative system more difficult. The study discusses how Indonesia developed an administration in Papua and considers the Indonesian responses to the emergence of Papuan resistance. We contend that the "security approach" developed during the New Order period was counterproductive. Indeed it has consolidated a separate Papuan identity and strengthened a desire for Papuan independence. The study examines Jakarta's attitude toward the right of self-determination for Papuans and its management of the 1969 "Act of Free Choice." Although Jakarta secured the only result acceptable to it, the Act of Free Choice was conducted in such a way as to remain not only the focus of Papuan refusal to become part of Indonesia but the focus of international scrutiny as well.Later the paper examines how the post-Suharto governments have developed policies in response to the resurgence of Papuan nationalism. This renaissance has occurred in the broad political context of the struggle to create a more open, competitive, and democratic political system in Jakarta and the separation of East Timor. The Indonesian government faced a dilemma: how much freedom of expression and organization could be tolerated in Papua when those freedoms were used to mobilize widespread support for Papua's independence? This dilemma is related to the underlying predicament Indonesia faces in Papua. Jakarta's authority is powerful but fragile. It has the capacity to maintain its authority in Papua but relies on its near monopoly of the control of force to do so. The reliance on force-in democratizing Indonesia as in the authoritarian New Order-has a powerful counterproductive dynamic: it fuels the opposition it is supposed to quell. The brief Papuan Spring indicated something of the fragility of Indonesia's position. The unprecedented (but not unrestricted) political space of late 1998 to late 2000 revealed how few Papuans envisioned a future Papua as part of Indonesia. …
The effect of family size on parents' labor supply and occupational prestige: Evidence from Taiwan and Mainland China
Abstract This paper studies the effect of family size on parents' labor supply and occupational prestige, using the censuses of both Taiwan and Mainland China. We rely on the exogenous increase in child quantity that results from having twins at the first birth. Our results indicate that an increase in family size has negative effects on the labor supply of mothers, but not of fathers, in both Taiwan and Mainland China. In addition, we find that in Taiwan fathers tend to switch to occupations with lower prestige scores in response to an increase in family size. However, the negative effect of family size on occupational prestige is not observed in Mainland China, where the occupational mobility is low.