Products and producers of social and political change: elite activism and politicking in the Mentawai Archipelago, Indonesia

Abstract

Products and Producers of

Social and Political Change. Activism and Politicking in the Mentawai

Archipelago is about a generation of young, formally educated and politically

engaged Mentawaians. From the late 1990s onwards these people, whom I have called the Mentawaian elite, have been involved in a quest for more access to the resources of the local state. The introduction of decentralisation and regional autonomy has formed an important window of opportunity for the Mentawaian elite. Due to their intense lobby the Mentawai Archipelago became an independent district in 1999. Freed from decades of cultural, economic and political hegemony of the mainland oriented Minangkabau, the Mentawaians now saw themselves placed for the laborious task to built a new district from scratch. Divided over seven chapters, this thesis describes and discusses developments in anticipation of the new district as well as the intense politicking that characterised the first years of Reformation. This thesis offers an in-depth portrait of a generation of Mentawaians that is as much a product as well as a producer of social and political change.