Febriany, V.

English

In this thesis, I reassess the long-term impact of the New Order´s policies on everyday lives through the lens of Indonesia’s community-based health care program, Posyandu. This program was successful during the authoritarian New Order, but declined in democratic Indonesia. I examine public policies and perform ethnographic fieldwork in West Java and East Nusa Tenggara provinces. The study concludes that the Posyandu program thrived in the New Order because the regime was able to mobilize thousands of women to volunteer. It did so, not by instrumentalizing citizen rights—the right to basic health care —but by appealing to the duty citizens owed their communities. Ironically, one unintended and long-term consequence of this hierarchical New Order construction of citizenship was the empowerment of those women who volunteered. The discourse was of obedient yet active women citizens who were conscious of their civic duty to contribute to their communities. Two changes have led to the decline of Posyandu in today´s decentralized and democratic Indonesia. At a structural level, local governments have less incentive to support the Posyandu program than they did under the centralized New Order. The program is seen as not yielding sufficient patronage resources. Meanwhile (and this too is ironic in view of the nation´s democratization), the New Order citizenship discourse has been replaced by an Islam-inspired discourse that emphasizes personal virtue, piety, and morality

International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion online publications

Can authoritarianism be good for women?:Community-based health care, citizenship, and democracy in Indonesia

https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/127681296/Thesis.pdf

Can authoritarianism be good for women?:Community-based health care, citizenship, and democracy in Indonesia

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International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion online publications