Bureaucratising Reciprocity: Gotong Royong and Indonesia in the Jokowi Era

Abstract

States appropriating ideas of mutual aid for their own ends is a well-established feature of modernist development. Examples from the global south range from ujamaa in Tanzania to Minga in the Andes. The co-opting of these terms has enabled states to provide a sense of cultural authenticity to their nationalist and developmentalist projects. One of the most discussed examples of this has been the Indonesian term gotong royong. The term translates as mutual and reciprocal assistance. In Indonesia gotong royong has worked its way through Indonesian political cultures since independence with Sukarno suggesting the Pancasila (the five principles in the preamble to the 1945 constitution) could be reduced to the notion of gotong royong. The term was also routinely used in the slogans of the New Order Period (1966-1998). This thesis traces the historical deployment of the term and its modern origins. It also shows how gotong royong has been employed in conjunction with organicist and developmentalist ideologies by the state. This has largely been done in an attempt to reorient cultural practices to hierarchical forms of government. From this there is an examination of the use of gotong royong by current Indonesian president Joko Widodo (Jokowi). It places this deployment in a context of democratic backsliding, increased polarisation, developmentalism, and a faltering pandemic response. It concludes that there is an identifiable logic in the state’s use of gotong royong. This logic involves the appropriation of moral economies and their affective ties towards a project of rule or government.