ABSTRACT
During the 1990s, the Indonesian central government targeted Madura as one of the many areas to be developed. The process was marked by several rejections of plans to build mega-projects on the island. The first was the people and the kiai’s (religious leaders) rejection of the Nipah Dam and the other was the kiai’s refusal to accept the industrialization scheme in the construction of the Suramadu Bridge. Both events were characterized by the involvement of kiai as the leaders of the people. This chapter is an important source of information for anyone interested in state–society relations in an authoritarian country.
