ABSTRACT
“Are you originally from Bali, the ‘paradise island’?” “Bali may be a paradise for rich people. For us, paradise is here, in Central Sulawesi, not in Bali.” “Have you ever returned to Bali?” “Yes, at least 10 times since 1983.” “How? It must be a very long trip by bus and sea.” “Not at all, I fly. A return air-fare to Bali from Palu is Rp 700 000. That’s less than a month’s profit from the harvest of cocoa.” This is an excerpt from a conversation with a Balinese farmer at Kasimbar, Central Sulawesi, in March 1997, just before the krismon. As we have seen, Bugis migrants were the major beneficiaries of Sulawesi’s 1998 cocoa windfall. We also know that, around the Bone Gulf in South Sulawesi, Balinese transmigrants’ sons often provide labour for Bugis farmers and have themselves adopted cocoa as a means of climbing the ladder towards middle-range incomes. However, both as labourers and as medium-sized cocoa farmers, the Balinese in this area seem to have benefitted less from the windfall than did the Bugis.
