Abstract
Civil society movements have occupied an important position in Indonesia's democratisation. This article seeks to determine why anti-offshore tin mining movements in the post-authoritarian era failed in Bangka but succeeded in East Belitung, an area where tin mining has historically been important. By analysing the political opportunity structures and political settlement mechanisms involved, this article argues, first, that the movement's success in East Belitung can be attributed to open political access, fragmentation within elite circles, and alliances with influential elites; such political opportunities were not available in Bangka. Second, in Bangka, the local bourgeoisie and brokers used clientelistic approaches in their political settlement and prevented resistance by co-opting local communities within the extraction chain. In East Belitung, meanwhile, such efforts were stymied by the lack of local bourgeoisie, the strength of environmental awareness, and the availability of alternative economic resources. It may thus be concluded that, while a clientelistic approach to settlement may prevent conflict, it also limits the political participation of civil society movements—an important element of democracy.
Highlights
Since the fall of Suharto's authoritarian regime, Indonesia's transition to democracy has coincided with the rise of local resistance movements and increased conflict
Through patronage and clientelism mechanisms, those who have access to natural resources remain capable of strategically influencing policy (Aspinall, 2011)
The above analysis has produced arguments that, in conjunction, answer this article's research question: "Why did the anti-offshore mining movement fail in Bangka, but succeed in East Belitung?" Evidence has shown that, in the extractive industries, political opportunity structures and settlements are closely intertwined with historical factors as well as local economic and political dynamics
Summary
Since the fall of Suharto's authoritarian regime, Indonesia's transition to democracy has coincided with the rise of local resistance movements and increased conflict. This study's second theoretical pillar is the concept of political settlement, which is used to analyse the power relations between social movements and their competitors (i.e. state and private sector actors) in resource conflict as well as the power relations between state actors and extractive industries (Bebbington, 2015, in Winanti, 2020) By employing this concept, POS' inability to recognise the influence of informal actors (local bourgeoisie and brokers) on formal institutions' policymaking will be mitigated. This section has provided an introductory overview of the historical context and political/economic dynamics of tin extraction in Bangka–Belitung These islands' different contexts have implications for local residents' response to offshore mining, resulting in the people of Belitung strongly opposing such mining and the people of Bangka accommodating it.
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