The resurrection and reconstruction of local traditions in Indonesia’s post-centralist era

This paper reiterates the role of the state in determining the dynamism of local traditions with reference to post-centralist Indonesia. Here the grip of the New Order era with its centralist system had capped, curbed and marginalised the inner dynamism of local traditions. Direct as well as indirect peripheralisation of these traditions had incapacitated them in regulating rules and order of local communities. With the onset of the Reformation movement, however, decentralisation which took over the administrative system right down to the grass roots had begun to restore the influence and resurrect the identity of local traditions. This is true in western Sumatera where defining elements of the local traditional Minangkabau governance system had steadily been reinstated in local administration. The reinstituion of the vintage nagari administrative system signifies this returning of the autonomy to the local tradition. It also signifies the reconstruction of several other traditions related to the Minangkabau ways of social life such as traditional customs, traditional democracy, nagari economics, and the re-enchantment of the religious way of life.