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Session 140: Decentralization and Democratization in Cambodia and Indonesia: An Ethnographic Approach
Organizer: Elizabeth F. Collins, Ohio University
Chair: Lorraine V. Aragon, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Discussant: Rita Smith Kipp, University of the South
Decentralization as a strategy for strengthening democracy and good governance has been supported by the World Bank, the IMF, and Western governments. Three of these papers use an ethnographic approach to examine what actually happens when a policy of decentralization is implemented. Joerrn Dosch’s paper frames a comparison of decentralization in Indonesia and Cambodia focusing on the role of external actors, such as the IMF, World Bank, and Western governments. In the following papers, the dynamics of decentralization in four communes in Cambodia and several districts in the outer islands of Indonesia are discussed. The papers together suggest that decentralization may foster the rise of local elites, but at the same time people who have been marginalized may find new points of entry into the political process. This raises the question of how decentralization is best assessed as a strategy for democratization.
Decentralizing Cambodia from Above: The Case of an International Development Project
Joerrn Dosch, University of Leeds
The early stages of the decentralization process in Cambodia, traditionally a centralized state, date back to 1996 when the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiated a programme to empower political actors on the provincial level. However, it took another five years until the government formally committed itself to a decentralization policy and created the legal framework for its implementation. As the most decisive step in the process so far, local elections were held in 2002 which resulted in the establishment of more than 11,000 democratically legitimized Commune Councils. The paper argues that unlike processes of decentralization in most other countries, Indonesia for example, decentralization in Cambodia is not primarily driven by the interests and strategies of the national government or civil society actors. First and foremost, decentralization has emerged as an international development project drafted and managed by multilateral and bilateral donors such as UNDP, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the British DFID and German and French development agencies. This international engagement is based on the hypothesis that successful decentralization strengthens democracy and good governance. In view of the different and partly contradictory approaches to decentralization by the various international actors involved, decentralization is a fragile process though. The paper will evaluate the achievements and shortcomings of decentralization in Cambodia and particularly analyze the contribution of external actors.
Reshaping Cambodia’s Political Landscape: The Commune Council Elections of 2002
Joan M. Kraynanski, Ohio University; Netra Eng, Cambodia Development Resource Institute, Phnom Penh
The Cambodian Commune Council elections of 2002, replacing Commune Councils appointed by the central government, marked the beginning of decentralization in this newly-emerging democracy. The aims of the decentralization reforms are to establish a pluralist democracy and reduce poverty. This paper assesses how successful the Commune Council elections have been in achieving these aims by looking at their effect on poverty reduction and the participation of one traditionally marginalized group, women. The data on poverty reduction was collected by the Cambodia Development Resource Institute. Research on women candidates was collected through field research. Sixteen percent of the candidates on party slates were women. This was due to the collective effort of enthusiastic women-oriented NGOs, which encouraged, trained and supported the women candidates throughout the election process. This paper examines three aspects of women’s participation in the Commune process: (1) how effectively are women integrating into the Commune Council political structure; (2) what skills do they bring to the political process; and, (3) after the first year of political engagement are there indications that women’s participation in government will endure and prosper.
Maps and Dreams: Decentralization or "Blossoming" in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia
Lorraine V. Aragon, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Beyond both international and national ideals of democratization and good governance, one outcome of the Regional Autonomy laws in Indonesia since 1999 has been a dramatic remapping of the contours of some outer island provinces, districts, and sub-districts. This paper is designed to explore questions about who wanted some newly created and proposed future political entities, and why. How, in essence, is a new place with a new political and social identity created from a less differentiated chunk of the prior "geo-body?" The focus here will be Central Sulawesi, which has added several new districts, and is undergoing a lobbying effort for subdivision to create a new province in the east. There are many pedestrian material issues for partisan negotiation, such as which towns will become the new capitals, which leaders from which ethnic and religious groups will be the likely heads, and which people will stand first in line for the new civil service jobs. Central Sulawesi, however, has been a site whose post-Suharto collective violence maps exactly, from a temporal standpoint, on its experience of political decentralization or "blossoming." The challenge, then, is to ask how the re-districting aspirations of particular individuals or groups interacted with the paths of violence. I will argue the obvious: that at least some of these phenomena are related. Yet the goal here will be to put details of the Poso conflict aside and broadly consider how "pushes and pulls" to create new political units come into contact with the conflict’s ethnoreligious politics.
Decentralization and Democratization Indonesian Style
Elizabeth F. Collins, Ohio University; Ann Tickamyer, Ohio University
This paper takes an ethnographic approach to assessing how much decentralization has made government more accountable at the local level. Indonesian newspapers and well-placed local observers are full of stories about high levels of corruption at the district and provincial level in the period since Decentralization Laws were implemented. However, a closer examination of political interaction and policymaking in two districts of South Sumatra suggests that decentralization does make for somewhat more accountable government. This paper reports on two case studies of dynamic bupati who won office through money politics. However, since their election they have implemented policies that provide new real benefits to local residents. We explore new policies and planning for social welfare that takes place in these two districts in conjunction with the emergence of new networks of local elites, some of whom are contractors and businessmen, while others formerly worked in the Public Works Department under the New Order. The purpose is to assess the impacts of decentralization and direct election on accountability and social welfare provision at the local level.