Panel
4. Seeing from the Neighbourhood: States, Communities and Human Mobility
This presentation investigates the corrupt practices of the Pertamina oil company that led to its bankruptcy in 1975 under General Ibnu Sutowo. By reading through discourses surrounding the problems of Pertamina prior to and after its financial fiasco, the presentation will look into how different actors defined normative constructs in order to explain the reasons that led to the downfall of the company. These actors include the people in the oil-sector or so-called oilmen, technocrats and civil society, student activists and newspaper editors. We investigate transnational relations as an analytical tool used by these various actors in order to explain the event. The scandal itself was couched within discourses on modernity, traditionalism and the wider question of governance. The different actors construct different discourse and highlight particular transnational relations in order to explain and legitimize/delegitimize the strategies of oil governance ran by Pertamina. The relationship between corruption, normativity and transnational relations can be defined in order to understand New Order natural resource governance, particularly in the oil and gas sector. Understanding the New Order as both a transnational phenomenon and normative discourse allow us to rethink its governance structure.
Farabi Fakih
Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia