Some Development Problems in Bali

Abstract

In discussions on development in Indonesia the concept of centre-periphery has not been extensively used. It has been much commoner to utilize the dichotomy of inner and Indonesia. Inner Indonesia refers to Java, Madura, and Bali, the three islands characterized by extremely high population densities. Outer Indonesia comprises the remaining islands of the archipelago. During the colonial period the question of population numbers and density was significant. In Indonesia the lower population densities implied an availability of land for plantation and other similar forms of development, analogous to those being pursued in nearby Malaya. High population densities in inner Indonesia necessitated very particular forms of colonial economic development (for example, the sugar estates of east and central Java) in order to avoid insuperable problems of population displacement. Yet these same high densities enabled a greater degree of industrial development to take place, especially that designed to serve some of the basic needs of the Indonesian population. The inner-outer dichotomy conse quently came to reflect not just population density differences; it reflected also the difference between a relatively more industrialized and urbanized Java containing little large-scale commercial agriculture or mining, and a less urbanized outer region which, from certain specific areas, produced the greater part of the country's export income. The colonial economy was not an urban-based one. Exports consisted of crops produced by smallholders and plantations, or products from mining or forestry. A number of cities and towns existed in Indonesia during the colonial period, but they were not viewed by the government as primary development centres. There was an obvious need to build administrative centres, ports, transport nodes, and other central places which functioned within the structure of the colonial economy. Experience taught the colonial administration that the towns themselves were something of a problem. Politically they were fractious, pitting their Dutch inhabitants against a reluctant colonial government. Commer cially they were the main centres for the retailing and wholesaling by the Chinese, a group regarded with deep suspicion and generally prevented from conducting busi ness in the rural areas. For the poorer Indonesians towns were an unhealthy attrac tion, drawing migrants in considerable numbers to live in slum-like environments which were widely believed to constitute a hazard to their European neighbours. Post-colonial development, especially that of the last decade, has invested Indonesia's urban centres with a much expanded role. Although Indonesia remains 231