The Gelandangan of Jakarta: Politics among the Poorest People in the Capital of Indonesia

Parsudi Suparlan
1974 Indonesia  
This paper tries to show how a specific urban environment shapes the way its inhabitants participate in politics, the goals they hope to achieve, and their conception of what politics itself is all about. The environment referred to is that of the poorest people in Jakarta, called orang gelandangan. The term gelandangan is derived from the word gelandang, which means "always on the move" and "never settling in one place." For a long time the better-off Jakarta citizens have concluded that there
more » ... are groups of people living in Jakarta without stable jobs or stable places to live, yet maintaining a specific way of life. They call these peo ple orang gelandangan and stereotype them as shiftless, dirty and un trustworthy .
doi:10.2307/3350692 fatcat:sbpkahurt5c5pnhtzu7q7ugadm