Foreword

Summary

As a scholar who has conducted over four decades of research in Indonesian politics, I can attest that the preman organizations are still part of the country's political and security fabric. In the run up to the next Indonesian presidential elections in 2024, blaring sirens and convoys of preman organization members in camouflage attire, out in support of certain candidates, will continue to be a constant reminder of the presence of these organizations in Indonesian politics.

The need for this book is obvious: to provide much needed insight on the use of non-state security providers by a developing non-Western democracy such as Indonesia. It sheds new light on the uncivil components of civil society that have been overlooked by most scholars of politics and international relations, activists, and diplomats who are not trained in the specificity of Indonesian political dynamics.

In the midst of the complexity of civilian-military relations in Indonesia, Dr Senia Febrica has written a book that explores the niche area of the involvement of preman organizations in Indonesian security. The book has mapped comprehensively the participation of preman organizations in securing ports, particularly small ports, which are important points of societal interaction and nodes of transportation that are often forgotten. It covers areas that border the three key sea lanes of communications in Southeast Asia that overlap with Indonesia's waters, including the Sunda Strait, the Strait of Malacca and the Sulawesi Sea. By doing so, it provides a new and novel way to understand the complexity of the involvement of preman organizations in port and border security in Indonesia. This book effectively combines observation, document and newspaper analysis, and interviews with various stakeholders, including those who are leaders and active members of preman organizations.

Fundamentally, what I really like about this book is its ability to tell the stories that address the implications of the involvement of preman organizations in Indonesia's political and security sectors, which are certainly not trouble free. The book describes how “incidental” conflicts between preman organizations with government authorities such as the police or societal groups such as fishermen represent just a fraction of the price the Indonesian government and society pay for the involvement of preman organizations in the country's politics and security.