Bali: An open fortress

Abstract

For many Balinese, recent developments have been a confusing experience. It looks as if various unrelated and diffuse processes are at work with highly insecure outcomes. This chapter traces some of these processes and investigates to what extent they are interrelated. It discusses recent shifts in economic and political relationships between Bali and Jakarta, the impact of political reform and administrative decentralization in Bali, and in particular at the effects these had on the politics of caste, the position of regional aristocracies, and the formation of new party-based politics. In Bali decentralization did not stop at the district level but affected the village level. What were the implications of these changes in terms of local autonomy and conflict management? The chapter discusses long-term trends accelerated by the recent agony of decentralization and reform. These changes increased a sense of insecurity, which formed the breeding ground of the Ajeg Bali movement. Keywords: administrative decentralization; Ajeg Bali movement; conflict management; economic relationship; fragmented autonomy; Jakarta; new party-based politics; political reform; regional aristocracies