Nasionalisme Etnik Di Kalimantan Barat

Abstract

Nowadays ethnical celebration triggered by the uncontrollable identity politics, is happening in Indonesia. In West Kalimantan, for instance, a struggle for the identity politics has succeeded in forming new governments in district levels. The new district governments are always based on the dominant ethnic groups in the area. The political impact of the identity politics can whip up the ethnical spirit by giving hegemony to ethnic monitory in the area. This paper argues that this phenomenon could become “ethnic nationalism”. Theoretically, identity politics is a struggle of a group or marginal people (periphery) politically, socially as well as culturally and economically. Various ethnic conflicts in West Kalimantan relate to the identity politics and the resistance towards the hegemony of the ruling ethnic elite. The paper concludes that the ethnic conflicts in West Kalimantan are the forms of effort of an ethnic group to show their existence. These people have been threatened, or for a long time they have been marginalized systematically, so that their spirit to fght against hegemony rise. Identity politics appearing in the forms of cultural institution such as ethnic customary council could be explained as the ethnic systematic efforts to strengthen their identity, which eventually could become a prospective “ethnic nationalism”. Key words : Politics, identity, conflicts, nationalism, ethnic, hegemony.