Masculinities and Violence in Indonesia (and India)

1. Masculinities and Violence in Indonesia (and India) Pam Nilan School of Humanities and Social Science University of Newcastle Pamela.Nilan@newcastle.edu.au Argyo Demartoto DepartmenSosiologi Universitas Sebelas Maret argyodemartoto@ymail.com Project funded by an Australian Development Research Award

2. Definition of violence • Suatu tindakan berupa fisik, verbal [ucapan], maupun emosional yang bertujuan atau yang menyebabkan kerusakan bagi orang atau kelompok lain. Misalnya, keresasan verbal [ucapan], pelecehan, premanisme, intimidasi, pemerasan, perkelahian, pemberontakan, penjarahan, penyerangan, pemerkosaan, penyiksaan, pembantaian, pembunuhan • Any act – physical, verbal or emotional – that is intended to, or results in, harm to another person or group. For example, verbal abuse, harassment, bullying, intimidation, extortion, fighting, rioting, assault, rape, torture, manslaughter, murder

4. Outline • Research question • Methodology • Background to the study in Indonesia • Quantitative findings • Qualitative findings • Conclusions of the study • Implications for practice

5. Research question How can we understand the key practices and relations of violence through which masculine gender identity is constructed and enacted in different social and cultural contexts in Indonesia (and India)?

6. Methodology • A multi-method approach was chosen to gather data in both breadth and depth. • Surveys were collected from 1004 men in Indonesia and 1000 men in India. • Interviews were conducted with 86 men in Indonesia and 59 men in India. • Interviews were also conducted with 18 NGO workers in Indonesia and 24 NGO workers in India. • Qualitative data was collected using a ‘snowballing’ technique. • Indonesian research was undertaken in Jakarta, Solo, Pekanbaru, Makassar and Mataram. • Data was collected by male Indonesian research assistants.

7. The concept of masculinity in Indonesia • Writing about Indonesian masculinity Adian (2001) refutes the popular idea that the nature of men is ‘kodrati’ – destined by God, but points out the difficulty for Indonesian scholars in moving beyond a biologically-determined discourse towards the idea that masculinity is ‘konstruksi’ – constructed. Adian implies that gender relations in Indonesia appear entirely ‘natural’ because they do not require the constant self-conscious adjustment of significant status relationships such as aristocracy, ethnicity and age, for example.

8. Indonesian masculinities • There is no one Indonesian ‘masculinity’. Every Indonesian culture in Indonesia defines masculinity slightly differently. Yet almost all Indonesian cultures are patriarchal. • Each Indonesian city is distinctive in terms of ethnicity, economic activity and wealth, so each city shapes the forms of masculinity for men living there, and the kinds of violent interactions that might take place between them. • Yet there are masculine gender characteristics that seem to run across the archipelago. Key concerns of men include: • Position in age hierarchy • Position in cultural or religious status hierarchies • Gaining income • Status in sex, marriage and family relations • Maintaining honour, respect and being in control

9. Indonesian masculinities • Men always acting as heads of families and as breadwinners, operating in the public sphere, and not being responsible for the upbringing of children or the sharing of household work. In the area of sexuality, one would infer a thinly disguised ‘legendary’ heterosexual promiscuity of men (Dede Oetomo, 2000). • The New Order militaristic State until 1998 was ‘built on an excessively masculine power obsessed with control’ (Saskia Wieringa, 2003) . • ‘The authoritative, masculinist and monolithic discourse of the Suharto era was intolerant of any perceived threats to the hetero-normative social order’ (Marshall Clark, 2010). • Boellstorff (2004) describes amok as a ‘masculine and often collective enraged violence’ of a public nature that may be a cultural reaction to shame or threat. Men running amok are perceived to be overwhelmed by their powerful emotions.

10. Honour and Respect • Indonesian men often engage in violence against other men over matters of honour and respect. • Physical disputes were not seen as unusual by the men we interviewed and stories of attack and reprisal to gain and maintain respect were commonplace. • The negative effects of such everyday social violence between men are many: injuries, deaths, danger to bystanders, loss of revenue for local business, pressure to pay for protection, and community fear. • Men hate to lose ‘face’ before others.

11. Indonesia: A culture of violence? • Struggles for dominance and authority in Indonesia are not only frequently conducted by violent means, they concern the question of who controls violence. • Some kinds of violence between men are permitted to flourish but others are condemned and prosecuted. • Culturesof violence extend as a continuum of masculine practice from street fights to the top level of the security forces.

12. Violent cultures of masculinity • Post-1998, civil conflict changed from a top-down, state-driven pattern of violence to lateral power struggles between groups. • Post-Suharto Indonesia inherited criminalised ‘grey areas’ between state agencies and the underworld, where one finds numerous men for whom violence is both a way of life and a way of making a living. • Localised ‘ethnoreligious identities’ were reinvigorated and politicised providing significant symbolic capital for men seeking status advancement through membership of gangs, militias and Islamic jihadi movements. • In a 2007 World Bank survey of governance, on the scale of ‘absence of violence’, Indonesia ranked a low 15 points. • Local men fighting each other is normalised, an everyday occurrence.

13. Violence as a ‘cultural repertoire’ • Throughout this paper male violence is understood as a cultural repertoire for achieving specific outcomes, including material gain, dominance and legitimation, rather than as a pathology or instance of primordialism • During the New Order, state violence was normalised while non-state forms of conflict such as civil, community, activist, ethnic, religious, domestic and family violence were officially banished altogether from public discourse • In the vacuum, local communities dealt with internal conflicts and tensions themselves, even carrying out their own forms of vengeance and justice

14. Local violence • During the New Order widespread corruption meant that criminal elements of the male population engaged openly in violence, creating a ‘culture of fear’. • Fearful communities actively deployed their own defensive patrols, making use of physically powerful neighbourhood men with a reputation for the use of force. • Boundaries between criminal behaviour, intimidation and valid community protection were blurred. Also ‘dwifungsi’ military. • After 1998, post-Suharto Indonesia inherited criminalised ‘grey areas’ between state agencies and the underworld. • In a 2007 World Bank survey of governance, on the scale of ‘absence of violence’, Indonesia ranked a low 15 points.

16. Quantitative results

17. Survey results – experience of violence • Over 70% of men had sometimes or often experienced male peer violence • 59% of men had sometimes or often experienced violence in their communities • 59% had sometimes or often experienced violence related to defence of honour • 50% had sometimes or often experienced family violence • 45% had sometimes or often experienced criminal violence • 36% had sometimes or often experienced domestic violence • 28% had sometimes or often experienced political violence • 21% had sometimes or often experienced religious violence

18. Survey results – what causes violence? • Over 90% thought it very likely or extremely likely that young men would be involved in violence • Over 90% thought it very likely or extremely likely that unemployed men would be involved in violence • 90% thought alcohol and drug use were important factors • Over 80% thought it very likely or extremely likely that unmarried men would be involved in violence • Over 90% thought poverty and lack of work were important factors • 79% thought domestic conflict a factor in violence between men • 72% thought disputes over women were factors in violence between men

19. Survey results – acceptability of violence • 79% agreed or strongly agreed that violence was never justified • 41% agreed or strongly agreed that aggression was needed • 36% agreed or strongly agreed that their religion allows violence sometimes • 32% agreed or strongly agreed that violence gains the respect of women • 29% agreed or strongly agreed that violence against women is OK sometimes • 22% agreed or strongly agreed that violence gains the respect of men

20. Survey results – reducing violence • 96% thought more jobs would reduce violence • 96% thought more religious piety would reduce violence • 93% thought better community leadership would reduce violence • Over 90% thought better education and social services would reduce violence • Over 90% thought controlling alchol and drugs would reduce violence • 89% thought more police presence would reduce violence • 84% thought filtering violence from media would reduce violence • 83% thought banning gambling would reduce violence • 71% thought changing local laws would reduce violence • 64% thought improving the status of women would reduce violence

21. Qualitative findings

22. Tawuran – peer fighting • From the time I was a small boy I fought with my peers, right up until I was in junior high school. Then past that point no more. I fought a lot because of my scar here (shows place) where I was bitten. It happened when I was set upon by two lads, a boy I knew and his cousin. They worked together. One held me down while the other bit me (MK2, 38, Security Police, Married, Muslim, Makassar, 25 June, 2010).

24. ‘Everyday’ violence • About ten o’clock at night, me and my friends were sitting at the patrol post in our neighbourhood. Then a really drunk guy suddenly came up to us. This drunkard destroyed parts of the patrol post building. I was wounded in the forehead by the weapon he was wielding (MK12, 24, Junior Public Servant, unmarried, Muslim, Makassar, 17 June, 2010). • That violence that I experienced began with what you call intimidation, then it turned into physical violence. That time it was a battle between two opposing gangs. A guy from the other gang was killed and two people were injured (J2, 40, Ex-prisoner, married, Muslim, Jakarta, 12 August, 2010).

26. Defending territory • It is mostly safe around where I live, but quite often there are motorbike thieves, or chicken thieves. Those thieves are outsiders. If they catch them the local people burn or kill them. Yes, even kill them (J10, 67, Motorbike Transport Driver, married, Muslim, Jakarta, 7 August, 2010).

27. Compensatory violence • A guy like that is accustomed to behaving that way. The first cause is hard difficulty in his life, such as no money, little education. That forms a hard character early on. So he always feels like he has nothing, and violence is the main way of getting satisfaction. Secondly, he is after material gain through extortion (J2, 40, Ex-prisoner, married, Muslim, Jakarta, 12 August, 2010).

28. Poverty and unemployment • If a man is poor then life becomes increasingly more difficult in the search for a better existence. He has to struggle to fulfil even just his own needs such as filling his stomach. Such a struggle is desperate and that’s why poverty has the potential to lead to violence (MK10, 34, Local Politician, unmarried, Muslim, Makassar, 18 June, 2010). • Unemployment makes them stressed because they can’t get work. So they just sit around in a group drinking, with nothing to do. They become very emotional. A man can see his neighbour working and he asks how come you aren’t unemployed? (S12, 21, Factory Worker, unmarried, Muslim, Solo, 27 July, 2009).

29. Gang violence • My mates in the motorcycle club, they often fight. It’s natural. They do racing activities together and there are a lot of them, so automatically they make enemies (MT5, 27, Policeman and Motor Cycle Club Member, Hindu, married, Mataram, 15 June 2010). • An example of a local fight is between local gang one and gang two from somewhere else. When they meet face-to-face there will often be a fight because it comes down to a dispute about authority over territory between this gang and that gang (S10, 20, University Student, unmarried, Muslim, Solo, 27 July, 2009).

30. Violence against women • There is very little physical violence against women here. The most usual form of violence is snapping at her and reprimanding her. That form of violence is definitely the most common to be conducted against women whether inside or outside the family (MK11, 40, University Lecturer, married, Muslim, Makassar, 19 June, 2010).

31. Violence against women • If I were to beat my wife, I would have the right because I was teaching her how to behave properly(R4, 31, Military, Muslim, married, Pekanbaru, 4 August 2010). • Domestic violence happens inside the family. It’s only natural. It happens from time to time in a family when there is a misunderstanding between husband and wife. Sometimes it happens if a wife breaks the rules, like coming home late at night is not proper behavior in a man’s eyes (R3, 25, Trader and motorbike racer, Muslim, single, Pekanbaru, 8 August 2010). • It happens either because the husband is cheating on his wife or the wife is cheating on her husband (J15, 45, Security Police, married, Muslim, Jakarta, 2 August, 2010 • The husband has been unfaithful, so she gives him hell (MK2, 38, Security Police, Married, Muslim, Makassar, 25 June, 2010).

32. Findings: violence against women • In the interviews there was significant reluctance to talk about violence against women. • Men who did give accounts referred to justificatory rationalizations such as blaming the victim, and exonerating the male perpetrator on the grounds of financial stress. • It was often articulated within the interviews that men had the right to control and discipline women and that much violence stemmed from women not ‘behaving properly’.

33. Finding: growing awareness among men • It is violence if a guy yells at his girlfriend that she is a whore, a prostitute. That often happens to women (MK1, 28, Gang Member, unmarried, Muslim, Makassar, 20 June, 2010). • Our culture has always been patriarchal, so that the man holds the authority. Men have a higher social status compared to women. Patriarchal culture greatly influences all aspects of life in the home (MK11, 40, University Lecturer, married, Muslim, Makassar, 19 June, 2010).

34. Finding: growing awareness among men • The predominant form of violence takes place in the home. Violence in the home can be dealt with under Law Number 23 (2002) for the Protection of Children. Then there is Law Number 23 (2004) that includes domestic violence against women, and Presidential Decree Number 65 (2005) that set up a national commission on violence (R12, 35, NGO worker, Muslim, married, Pekanbaru, 2 August 2010). • Domestic violence? That would not be carried out by any man who knew about the regulations against it (MK2, 38, Security Police, Married, Muslim, Makassar, 25 June, 2010).

35. Men’s views of the national police and security police forces • For preventing violence the police are really ineffective. Look what happened in Makassar CBD, the police were part of the violence (MK9, 32, Political Party Activist, married, Muslim, Makassar, 23 June, 2010). • Not involving the police means avoiding the trouble they make and the local politics too, which inevitably comes back to money having to be paid(J1, 30, Martial Arts Enthusiast, unmarried, Muslim, Jakarta, 5 August, 2010).

36. Men’s views of the national police and security police forces • They only show up after the action is over, like the police in Bollywood movies (J17, 36, Factory Worker, married, Muslim, Jakarta, 4 August, 2010) • I was sentenced under Article 170 (Group Violence against a Person or Property). It was the same gang I was involved with. We beat up a member of the security forces. The reason we were forced to attack him was because he treated me so cruelly. Yeah sure he was a member of the security forces, and I had done wrong. Fine. OK. Slap me around a bit. But no. He crept up without warning and kicked me furiously. Slowly, after a few days, I felt I could not put up with it, I mean the arrogance of that policeman! (J2, 40, Ex-prisoner, married, Muslim, Jakarta, 12 August, 2010)

37. Men’s views of the national police and security police forces • Illegal stall-holders were dragged away by the security police in a very cruel way (S10, 20, University Student, unmarried, Muslim, Solo, 27 July, 2009). • I have seen the police beat up a young drug addict. I absolutely did not agree with what they did. I really couldn’t stand it even though I hate illegal drugs. Yes OK, put him in a cell, but don’t treat him like that, in that harsh way (S7, 50, Local Golkar Secretary, married, Muslim, Solo, 28 July, 2009).

38. Community mediation: positive views • Ourlocal community offers us guidance so we can resolve violent conflicts in a private way so they don’t become criminal (R19, 41, Market Trader, married, Muslim, Pekanbaru, 9 August, 2010) • If there’s an ongoing problem we have to resolve it like a family, within the family (MT6, 45, Military District Head, Muslim, married, Mataram, 26 June 2010) • Usually if there is a local conflict, we try and resolve in a family, consensus way (J19, 26, Journalist, unmarried, Muslim, Jakarta, 4 August, 2010)

39. The neighbourhood night patrol: blessing or curse? • Ourpatrol does use violent means from time to time, whether on the orders of the neighbourhood organisation leader or whatever (R19, 41, Market Trader, married, Muslim, PekanBaru, 9 August, 2010). • In the end they stopped getting drunk every night in front of the local neighbourhood patrol post. Just by chance the command post is in front of the house of the head of the neighbourhood organisation. They don’t drink there any more because they are no longer involved in extortion for him. I think the violence happened because they were allowed to do it (MK9, 32, Political Party Activist, married, Muslim, Makassar, 23 June, 2010).

40. Religion as a mediating influence • After a local gang war erupted, there was a preacher or religious leader who gave a talk or mediated. I think they are more readily listened to because religion has a real force and significance in everyday life (MK7, 30, Policeman, married, Muslim, Makassar, 19 June 2010) • We have a community organisation of men that meets together when we go to the mosque. In the discussion all men are able to say what they want and we can discuss it in a good way. In those discussions violent men become aware that they can be very beneficial for the community (S12, 21, Factory Worker, unmarried, Muslim, Solo, 27 July, 2009)

41. Finding: managing violence • Most men mistrust the police and perceive community mediation approaches to be far more effective and trustworthy in dealing with local violence in their communities. • Since it is probable that most of the men had experienced some form of social violence themselves, their comments indicate how they and their friends might prefer to be dealt with. • Community mediation is admired, but also admitted as vulnerable to corruption, nepotism and the serving of vesting interests. • It is concluded that the residual effects of authoritarian rule under the New Order manifests in a legacy of corrupt practice and mutual mistrust in both police and alternative approaches.

42. Conclusions • Boys are enculturated into practices of fighting and aggression • Men have a high exposure to violence • Men have normalised attitudes towards violence • The social construction of masculinity emphasises the defense of honour and respect within long-established male status hierarchies • Unequal opportunities for access to education and work are contributing factors to violence • Men are not inclined to see women as their equals • Men are not well-prepared for the responsibilities of marriage and children • There is some growing awareness among men that domestic violence is wrong

43. Implications • Violence is far more common among men with little to do and few prospects. This implies community employment schemes could be productive • Male violence starts in schools. Bullying practices must be challenged • Although men mistrust the police, stronger law enforcement and support for community mediation will have a beneficial effect in dealing with violence • Community education programs can help convince men not to use physical violence in their social relations, including with women • Religious authorities must challenge violence directly

44. Project Team: Pam Nilan, Alex Broom, Argyo Demartoto, Assa Doron, KR Nayar, John Germov. For further information: www.newcastle.edu.au/school/hss/research/research-grants/masculinities-and-violence.html TerimaKasih Thankyou