ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to understand the local politics and sentiments that motivated political behaviour in the 1997 and 1999 elections in a village in West Java. It looks at these elections as mirrors of political and social dynamics at the local level. The chapter briefly sketches macro-level developments and focuses on how national elections were interpreted and enacted in the countryside, far away from the corridors of power in Jakarta. The main analysis is of the local meaning and practice of the 1997 and 1999 national elections in Sariendah, a semi-urban village of some 10,000 people outside Majalaya in West Java. The 1997 election was the last under the New Order, and characterized by a controlled and engineered campaign. Voting was compulsory in New Order Indonesia. In the comparison of the 1997 and 1999 elections, politics in Indonesia operate according to community norms, local issues and patronage.
