Who Owns the Indonesian Countryside? From Corporate Capital to Capitalist Farmers and Landlord Capitals

Author

Muchtar Habibi

Abstract

Many recent studies on Indonesia have underlined the importance of corporate capital, either private or state-owned, as the dominant actors in the countryside. This paper argues that in the different contexts of rurality in Indonesia, noncorporate capital, including capitalist farmers and landlord capitalists, functions as a prominent segment of the rural ruling class. The paper develops an understanding of these dominant actors by exploring internal differentiation among them. Different fractions within both capitalist farmers, including ‘typical capitalist farmers’, ‘politico-bureaucrat capitalist farmers’ and ‘professional capitalist farmers’, and landlord capitalists, including ‘present landlords’ and ‘absentee landlords’, shape the nature of their cooperation and competition and how they relate to other classes. The internal dynamics of the rural ruling class shape the organization of commodity production and class reproduction (accumulation) strategies in specific settings. Drawing on the processes of agrarian change in rural Java and Sumatra, this paper sheds light on the nature of the rural ruling class, an important segment of the current trajectories of capitalism in Indonesia. By doing so, it adds a new perspective on the broader power relations in the countryside.