The political legacies of transmigration and the dynamics of ethnic politics: a case study from Lampung, Indonesia

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the political legacies of transmigration in local elections in Indonesia. Lampung province has an unusual ethnic make-up because in the past 100 years both the Dutch colonial administration and Indonesian Government have been implementing a transmigration programme. Transmigration has therefore changed the demographic pattern of Lampung. Since 2005, the mode of local election has been changed from indirect to direct. As a consequence of this, there is a revival of ethnic identity politics in local elections. In this paper, we focus on a transmigration affected area where the descendants of Javanese transmigrants are numerically dominant and correspondingly powerful in local politics. This research leads us to argue that ethnicity has become an important factor in local elections and that in transmigration affected areas it has led to the political domination of Javanese transmigrant descendants in local politics. We further to show how, in response to this, native Lampungese elites have adopted a number of strategies to help them retain a role in local politics. Our argument runs contrary to that of some scholars who have claimed that ethnicity is playing a diminishing role in Indonesian local elections.