Adaptation and Continuities in Clientelism in a Fishing Community in Takalar, South Sulawesi

This article examines clientelistic politics during a local election in a fishing community in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Numerous studies have identified Indonesia’s fishing communities as locations of hierarchical social relations characterized by patron-client relations connecting boat owners and other traders with fishers, in which the latter are frequently deeply indebted to the former. Through a study of the 2017 local election in Takalar district, this article demonstrates that these social patterns are readily transferred to the political sphere, giving rise to a form of traditional brokerage in which coastal patrons act on behalf of candidates to direct their clients’ voting behaviour. At the same time, coastal villages also saw significant patrimonial brokerage, in which the key actors were state officials, and political brokerage in which candidates formed campaign teams involving miscellaneous political and social networks and local community leaders. Distribution of patronage, in the form of money, goods and favours, was widespread. This article thus illustrates the complexity and competitiveness of contemporary clientelistic politics in Indonesia, including in a community in which traditional forms of clientelism are deeply entrenched.