The Roots of stagnation of the peasants’ social movement in Kalibakar, South Malang

Abstract

This paper embodies the complete results of our field research on the stagnation of the peasant movement in Kalibakar, South Malang. It aims to reveal the reasons behind the stagnation of Kalibakar peasant movement, and how it should be responded considering the peasants’ struggle since the New Order era. The stagnation has severely hit the movement organization, Forum Komunikasi Petani Malang Selatan/ FORKOTMAS (The South Malang’s Peasants Communication Forum), the spirit of the peasants, and the support from the involving networks. Such stagnation has directly impacted the sustainability of the struggle for the land reform idealized by the peasants. The scope and limitations of this research lie in the subjective micro perspectives from FORKOTMAS administrators and peasants on the stagnation of their organizations. This research employed Theory of Symbolic Interactionism by George H. Mead as a theoretical framework to analyze the obtained data, with the main theoretical concepts of mind, self, and society. Results showed that the peasants’ thought (mind) did not consider their movement was stagnant in an absolute sense. The peasants regarded themselves have self-readiness (self) to change the orientation of the movement through the development of socio-economic organizations and/ or institutions, and education for the Kalibakar community. The peasants are also ready to continue efforts of land certification by optimizing the support network of Malang Raya community leaders (society). This research implies that the Kalibakar phenomenon is an articulation of a dynamic dialectic between the thoughts of peasants, themselves, and a wider Malang society.