Indonesian community characteristics as contingency factor of local government

國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

45 Chapter 3

The Contextual Background

3.1. Indonesian Leadership

In chapter II we have briefly discussed about the cultural characteristic of the regions observed. In this chapter, we will discuss the characteristics in general. Since the aim of the current study is to identify the effective leadership behaviors in Indonesian local government, the following discussion presents the characteristics of Indonesian leader in different cases.

We found only few studies have discussed explicitly the Indonesian leaders‟ political behaviors. Nevertheless, we consider they are relevant for the current study discussion.

3.1.1. Indonesian community characteristics as contingency factor of local government performance

Indonesia consists of hundreds of distinct native ethnic and linguistic groups.

Its territory is clustered into 6 areas: Sumatera, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara and Papua. The dominant ethnic group in Indonesia is the Javanese (Java Indonesia.org 2011). Not only the Javanese is dominant in culture, but politically Indonesia has been influenced by the Javanese culture. To be Javanese means to be a person who is civilized and who knows his manners and his place (Geertz 1989, Koentjaraningrat 1985). The individual serves as a harmonious part of the family or group. Life in society should be characterized by rukun (harmonious unity), which Mulder (1983) has described:

Rukun is soothing over of differences, cooperation, mutual acceptance, quietness of heart, and harmonious existence. The whole of society should be characterized by the spirit of rukun, but whereas its behavioral expression in relation to the supernatural and to superiors is respectful, polite, obedient, and distant, its expression in the community and among

‧

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

46

one's peers should be akrab (intimate) as in a family, cozy, and kangen (full of the feeling of belonging) (Mulder 1983).

To achieve rukun, persons should be primarily group members; their individuality should be expressed through the group. All overt expressions of conflict should be avoided. Unlike Western culture, which regards individualism and group belonging as mutually exclusive, most Javanese consider the two intimately related (Mulder 1983). Mutual assistance and sharing of burdens (gotong royong), within both the family and the community, should reflect the concept of rukun (Mulder 1983;

Koentjaraningrat 1985). The preceding discussion indicates that there are two different cultures exist here, the collectivism which is represented by the Javanese culture and the individualist which represents the Western culture. Hofstede (1991) defines individualism and collectivism as follows:

Individualism pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family. Collectivism as its opposite pertains to societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive ingroups, which throughout people‟s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.

In the context of leadership, according to Triandis (1993), the image of the ideal leader is likely to be different in collectivist and individualist culture. The ideal collectivist leader is paternalistic, taking good care of the ingroup. Such a leader would support, solve personal problems, and generally show maintenance and consideration behaviors towards their follower. Meanwhile, the ideal leader for individualist is the one who allows them to do their own thing, but is supportive when they need help. It is one who will respect and admire their distinctiveness, who

‧

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

47 accepts their search for pleasure and achievement, and helps them with interpersonal competition. In Indonesia, to be effective leaders should perform the ideal leader characteristics of collectivist culture. That is, not only leader be a manager, but they also a protector, a mentor, a father and must be responsible for their follower and their extended family (Widyahartono 2007, Gani 2004). To have the authority or power as a leader in Indonesian society, there are three sources of authority or power identified:

factionalism (Barth 1993), favors and moral influences of ethical qualities (Antlov and Cederroth 1994).

Derives from the Seminar of Perkembangan Sosial-Budaya dalam Pembangunan Nasional (the Development of Socio-culture in the National Capacity Building) in 1970, Koentjaraningrat discussed in his book “Kebudayaan, Mentalitas dan Pembangunan” (1974) about the stereotype of Indonesian mentality. He mentioned that 84 percent of Indonesian people are rural society with peasant mentality and 16 percent are urban society with an employee (noble) mentality. The peasant mentality is characterized by the following values and beliefs that 1) they value working only for the purpose to find something to eat for the day; 2) they believe that people should live harmoniously with the nature, therefore human should not take the natural resources more than they need to; 3) they highly value the concept of sama-rata-sama-rasa (equality and same effect) hence people should not be self-assertive and must stay equal. The point of these values is, the peasant culture embraces people to live in harmony, therefore they avoid competition.

On the other, the noble mentality is characterized by the following attitude that 1) they value working as the way to make them happy by earning cash to buy luxurious things; 2) they enjoy daydreaming and believe that people has their own fate therefore they let the soul to follow its destiny; 3) they have a mentality of

‧

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

48

superior oriented that they tend to wait for superior direction and avoid disagreement with the superior which also known as asal bapak senang (as long as the boss happy) motto. The point of these values is the noble‟s values prefer to play safe in order to fulfill their needs.

By comparing the two characteristics, it seemed that the peasants have positive value which is illustrated by the need for harmony with the nature. It suggests that we should not take the natural resources more than we need and maintain the environment in balance. They were right in fact, floods happened in Indonesia in the past couple years were partly caused by human greed that is the illegal logging. On the other hand, it is a positive value as well for the noble groups to work harder in order to pursue something that they want. Unfortunately, they worked hard only for having luxurious materials which it may lead to corruption if they cannot have enough money. Moreover, ingratiation (in negative meaning) practices which are illustrated by as long as the boss happy value may carry the patronage values into the organization. As a consequence, the values might fail the public service delivery as it was studied by Blunt et.al (2012). We concern the capability of regional leaders in identifying the characteristics of their community. It is concerned because the peasant and noble mental attitudes of Indonesian people might impede the nation building of Indonesia (Marzali 2005).

The preceding discussion shows that there are values characterize the Indonesian community. The noble and peasant mentality has positive and negative value if it is related to the development process. Effective leader in Indonesian society which represent the collectivist society should perform the ideal leader characteristics of collectivist culture. That is, not only leader be a manager, but they also a protector, a mentor, a father and must be responsible for their follower and their extended

‧

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

49 family. Additionally, to be effective, the Indonesian leader should also know the source of power to lead, that is by factionalism, favors and moral influence.

Regarding the local government performance, we have not found any study which examines the values discussed previously. We would argue that only Blunt et.al study might represent the study between the community values and the performance of healthcare and educational services.

Therefore, in this current study, we try to examine patronage practice and local culture of the selected regions. We believe that regions have different community characteristics. In other words, the regions might differ in their culture, hence their local government performance also differences.