East Kalimantan: The Decline of a Commercial Aristocracy

Burhan Magenda has produced a study of the role of local aristocracies that dominated the politics of the various regions outside Java from pre-colonial to postcolonial times. Such an area of interest has largely been ignored in previous studies of Indonesia and this study corrects that mistake by focusing upon the area of East Kalimantan, a harbor principality engaging in commercial trade. The author details the bureaucratic positions obtained by aristocrats under the Dutch colonizers and the tensions that existed among the various levels and groups within the aristocracy. He also delves into the anti-aristocratic feeling and nationalistic sentiment (among people the aristocrats were alienated and independent from) which made the aristocrats' transition to the post-colonial period especially difficult. 1991. 120 pages.