Uken-Toa in the Pilkada of Central Aceh Regency in 2017: An Identity Politics

Abstract

This study aims at discovering the effect of identity politics of Uken-Toa in elections of regional heads or pemilihan kepala daerah of Central Aceh regency in 2017. This study utilized qualitative method. The method of collecting data was through interview. The location of the study was in Central Aceh regency. The informants were taken from gereral election commission, the winning team of regent and deputy regent candidate of central Aceh regency, the community leaders and traditional institutions of Gayo. The results of the analysis show that there is an effect of the practice of identity politics in the pilkada 2017 in Central Aceh regency, namely the practice of collaboration or political affiliation of Shabela that represents Uken clan and Firdaus that represents Toa clan greatly influences their victory in pilkada. This signifies that there was still massive power of identity as a political instrument. The existence of the power of identity is formed through the course of history, culture and politics. The polarization of the distribution of the identity politics of Uken-Toa in their victory in covering 2 (two) habitus, namely the political habitus Toa actor covers, pragmatism, traditionalism, and loyalty. Then, the political habitus of Uken actor includes, realism, modernism and royalism. The practice of identity politics is a politics that brings together the actors of Uken and Toa clans which include the role of habitus that determines and influences political practices