Table of Contents
The Special Region of Yogyakarta (Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta) lies in the southern central part of Java, one of the most densely populated islands in the world. Its special treatment, as the term 'istimewa' (special) implies, stems from the Indonesian government's recognition of its historical importance as the heir of the Javanese kingdom, Mataram, and as the centre of the war of independence against the Dutch.
The Islamic kingdom, Mataram, which had replaced Hindu Majapahit in the 16th century, was partitioned into two self-governing Principalities in the mid-18th century when the Dutch established themselves as the dominant foreign power and involved themselves in power struggles amongst rival princes in Mataram. After the partition, Yogyakarta and Surakarta, located northeast of Yogyakarta, became the respective capitals of the two Principalities. From that time till 1942, both regions remained enclaves governed by indigenous rulers under the supervision of the Dutch residents whereas other parts of Java were subsumed under direct Dutch rule. The competition between the two Principalities for the status of legitimate heir of Mataram favoured Yogyakarta. Unlike the ruler in Surakarta who did not show his strong support to the provisional Indonesian government in the war against the Dutch, the Sultan in Yogyakarta was an enthusiastic supporter of it. The triumph of the provisional Indonesian government then signalled the defeat of Surakarta in its competition with Yogyakarta. The Yogyakarta Sultanate was given the privilege of becoming a special region, whereas Surakarta was amalgamated as part of the Province of Central Java.
Yogyakarta consists largely of two physiographically different areas; barren mountainous regions and fertile lowlands. The mountainous regions, constituting more than half of the total territory of Yogyakarta, incorporate the areas of Mt. Merapi in the north, the mountain range of Seribu in the east and the hilly areas in the west, creating a natural boundary for Yogyakarta surrounded by Central Java. The remaining regions are the lowlands, which are situated largely in the centre of Yogyakarta. Young volcanic soil (regosol) covering most of the lowlands and two rivers of the Progo and the Opak running across it from north to south make these regions one of the most fertile and densely populated areas in Java.
There are four districts (kabupaten) and one municipality (kotamadya) in Yogyakarta. Each district consists of sub-districts (kecamatan), each kecamatan of villages (kelurahan), and each kelurahan of hamlets (dusun). The present district and sub-district boundaries were established in 1945 after slight modifications were made to the pre-existing ones (Soedarisman:1984:85-90). The boundaries of the kelurahan were also drawn in 1945 but only after massive amalgamations. A few of the lowest administrative units in the colonial period (desa) were combined and restructured into a new kelurahan while dusun were instated as the new lowest administrative unit(ibid.:201-2). This amalgamation makes the size of kelurahan in Yogyakarta much larger than their counterparts in other parts of Java. It is not unusual to find kelurahan in Yogyakarta which have more than 10,000 residents.
The right to appoint officials in the kabupaten and kecamatan offices has been left in the hands of the central and regional governments, while the way to appoint kelurahan officials and the head of the dusun (kepala dusun or kadus) has oscillated between election by the residents and selection by a committee formed at the district level. Today, kelurahan officials except for its head (lurah), and the kadus are chosen by a committee formed at the district level from a few applicants who are pre-selected by a committee at the kelurahan level. The lurah is elected by direct votes from the residents.
Of the four districts in Yogyakarta, Sleman and Bantul share a few common geographical and population characteristics which differentiate them from Kulon Progo and Gunung Kidul. Both of them surround the city, providing areas which have accommodated the expansion of the city, and have a higher ratio of irrigated land (sawah) and higher population density than the other two districts.
Table II.1: Area and Population in Yogyakarta in 1990
|
Area (km2) |
Sawah (km2) |
Population |
Population density (per km2) |
|
|
Municipality |
32.50 |
3.43 |
412,059 |
12679 |
|
Sleman |
574.82 |
259.98 |
780,334 |
1358 |
|
Bantul |
506.85 |
174.03 |
696,905 |
1375 |
|
Kulon Progo |
586.24 |
108.13 |
372,309 |
635 |
|
Gunung Kidul |
1,485.36 |
79.96 |
651,004 |
438 |
|
Yogyakarta |
3,185.80 |
625.53 |
2,912,611 |
914 |
Source: Area and Sawah: Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta Dalam Angka 1990; Population: 1990 National Census.
The most important economic activity in Yogyakarta has been agriculture. It has employed the majority of the population, especially in rural areas, and has provided the largest part of the regional income. During the colonial time, the most intensively cultivated crop was sugarcane. In many parts of its lowland regions, the percentage of land in sugar cultivation was more than 33 percent in 1920, one of the highest ratio in Java (Geertz,1963:73). Since foreign plantations were expelled after independence, sugarcane has never recovered its dominant position. Instead, rice, the staple food of the Javanese, has been the most popular crop planted in the lowland regions while other crops such as maize, cassava, peanuts and soybeans are cultivated either as the secondary crops in the irrigated areas or as the major crops in the mountainous ones.
For the last two decades, the primary position of agriculture in the Yogyanese economy has been gradually threatened. The Gross Regional Domestic Product, one of the indicators of the economic trend in Yogyakarta, shows that the share of agriculture in GRDP has been in decline. In 1969, it was 38.9 percent (Hill and Mubyarto,1978:30) while it dropped to 30.5 percent in 1988 (KSY,various issues). The number of people working in the agricultural sector has also decreased from 56.3 percent in 1971 to 45.5 percent in 1990 (BPS,various issues). These changes show increasing importance of non-agricultural sectors as ways of obtaining livelihood for the people in Yogyakarta.
The main road connecting the city of Yogyakarta to other major cities in the western part of Java is always crowded with speeding buses, petrol tanks, trucks, cars, motorbikes and other non-motorised vehicles such as animal-drawn carts, becak pedalled by manpower and bicycles. Every morning, this two-lane road is filled with rows of motorbikes and bicycles which carry villagers from rural areas to the city. The same panorama is unfolded in the late afternoon, but in the opposite lane. The expansion of the city has greatly changed the scenery alongside the road. The first sawah is visible only after riding about 4 kilometres further westwards from the edge of the city. Up to this point, the road is walled by one or two storey buildings accommodating shops and small restaurants. Further westwards from this point, first a large block of sawah halved by a narrow path and then a residential area surrounded by tall palm trees appear in turn. This scenery reminds one of the impact of the Dutch colonial policy, which divided sawah into two, one for sugar plantation and the other for paddy cultivation, on Yogyanese rural landscape.
Kolojonggo, the hamlet (dusun) considered in this thesis, is situated around 300 metres north from this road. It is located about 9 kilometres westwards from the city center and around 7 kilometres from the western edge of the city. It takes around fifteen to twenty minutes to arrive at the city from Kolojonggo by motorised vehicles, around thirty to forty minutes by bicycle, and less than two hours on foot. As this geographical proximity implies, the lives of villagers in Kolojonggo have been closely related to the city. All the policies to control the rural population, designed by court functionaries when the Yogyanese Sultanate had its independent power, by the Dutch colonial government when it overruled the Sultanate, by the Japanese from 1942 to 1945, by the Old Order government before 1965 and by the New Order Government since then, have had an immediate impact on villagers in Kolojonggo, shaping their modes of life.
Administratively, Kolojonggo belongs to kelurahan Sumber, kecamatan Gamol, and district Sleman. [1] Kolojonggo lies about 150 metres above sea level and its soil is composed mainly of young volcanic soil. The water supply is stable throughout the year and no shortage of water has been experienced since the construction of Mataram channel during the Japanese occupation period. This gives favourable conditions for the development of wet-rice cultivation. In the 1950s and 1960s, double cropping was a common practice, which has become triple cropping per year or five crops in two years after the introduction of new rice varieties in the 1970s. The fertile land in Kolojonggo has been a factor in supporting a large population. In 1993, the population density in Kolojonggo reached approximately 1800 persons per km2, well above the average population density in Yogyakarta.
For the last two decades, population growth in Kolojonggo has been almost stagnant. In 1971, its population was 522 while in 1993, 544. The low population growth can be attributed to, among others, migration and the success of the family planning program. The impact of the family planning program can be appreciated by comparing the age group below 10 with that between 10 to 19 in 1993. As table II-2 shows, there were 73 children below 10, while the number of teenagers was 115. The comparison of the age group below 10 in 1971 with that in 1993 also shows a sign of declining birth rate. The number of children belonging to this group has dropped from 159 in 1971 to 73 in 1993. [2]
Table II.2: Population in Kolojonggo in 1971 and 1993 [a]
|
1971 |
1993 |
||||||
|
Age |
Male |
Female |
Total |
Male |
Female |
Total |
|
|
0- 9 |
75 |
84 |
159 |
37 |
36 |
73 |
|
|
10-19 |
58 |
52 |
110 |
48 |
67 |
115 |
|
|
20-29 |
27 |
37 |
64 |
45 |
47 |
92 |
|
|
30-39 |
31 |
36 |
67 |
36 |
32 |
68 |
|
|
40-49 |
22 |
28 |
50 |
36 |
33 |
69 |
|
|
50-59 |
16 |
23 |
39 |
33 |
34 |
67 |
|
|
60 + |
14 |
19 |
33 |
23 |
37 |
60 |
|
|
Total |
243 |
279 |
522 |
258 |
286 |
544 |
a According to the official statistics made by the kelurahan office, the population of kelurahan Sumber
in 1990 was 11590, of which 5749 were male and 5841 were female.
Source: 1971: Census data; 1993: Records kept in the
kadus' (hamlet head's) house and interview data
The second factor contributing to a stagnant growth in population is out-migration, which has taken place in two ways. First, ten households recorded in the 1971 census emigrated from Kolojonggo as a group. Four of them moved to Sumatra following the government transmigration program, while six of them went to other parts of Yogyakarta. Migrations have also occurred individually, caused mainly by marriages and job-seeking. Table II-3 shows the places where the villagers who were registered in the 1971 census lived in 1993:
Table II.3: Places Where the Villagers Registered in the 1971 Census Lived in 1993
|
Age in 1971 |
||||||||||
|
0-9 |
10-19 |
20-29 |
30-39 |
40-49 |
50-59 |
60 + |
Total |
(%) |
||
|
In Kolojonggo |
73 |
37 |
37 |
50 |
33 |
18 |
4 |
252 |
48.3 |
|
|
In the same kelurahan |
8 |
13 |
8 |
4 |
33 |
6.3 |
||||
|
In the same region |
29 |
22 |
11 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
69 |
13.2 |
||
|
In Java |
29 |
27 |
2 |
1 |
59 |
11.3 |
||||
|
Outside Java |
12 |
7 |
2 |
1 |
22 |
4.2 |
||||
|
Deceased |
3 |
1 |
5 |
16 |
18 |
29 |
72 |
13.8 |
||
|
Unknown |
5 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
15 |
2.9 |
|||
|
Total |
159 |
110 |
64 |
67 |
50 |
39 |
33 |
522 |
||
Source: As for Table II-2.
Of the seven age groups in table II-3, that between 10 and 19 reflects the trends in villagers' mobility most clearly, since people belonging to this group were on the verge of changing their residence by marriage, job-seeking or transmigration in 1971. Of the 110 teenagers belonging to this group, 50 still lived in kelurahan Sumber, 22 in other parts of Yogyakarta, and 34 outside Yogyakarta in 1993. Lack of data on the population mobility before 1971 makes it difficult to judge whether the mobility of this group since 1971 has been higher than that of their parents' generation before the 1970s or not. However, considering that most siblings of the villagers older than 50 lived in the vicinity of Kolojonggo in 1993, work opportunities in big cities in Java have increased rapidly over the last two decades, and the transportation revolution in the 1970s, called 'revolusi colt', shortened the distance between different parts of Java (Hugo,1985:62-65), it is probable that the mobility of this group since 1971 has been much higher than before. The high mobility since the 1970s is also visible in the age group below 10 in 1971, whose search for permanent settlements is not yet complete. Slightly less than a half of them had already left kelurahan Sumber and lived in other parts of Yogyakarta or outside of it in 1993.
Having considered a few characteristics in population development, I will focus on the socio-economic developments in Kolojonggo since the 1970s. Developments in the agricultural sector after the introduction of the green revolution, diversification of the occupational structure and changes in the structure of land tenure will be the focus of this discussion. [3]