THE BARGAINING POWER OF THE MAYBRAT AND BUGIS-MAKASSAR ETHNIC GROUPS IN THE LOCAL POLITICAL DYNAMICS OF SORONG CITY

Abstract

This study explains how the bargaining power of both groups is constituted within the local political dynamics of Sorong City. It employs a qualitative approach with an interpretative phenomenological design, drawing on in-depth interviews, observation, and document analysis. The analysis combines Bourdieu's framework of capital and capital conversion with Emerson's theory of power-dependence relations. Three findings emerge. First, the bargaining power of both groups is not formed on the eve of electoral contestation but results from layered, intergenerational accumulation whose earliest stages occur largely outside the political arena. Second, the two groups follow distinct conversion pathways: the Maybrat move from a competitive habitus and a tradition of out-migration toward institutionalised cultural capital through rotating collective financing of higher education, then into the bureaucracy, reinforced by customary authority as symbolic capital; the Bugis-Makassar move from migration and trade toward economic capital, institutionalised through the South Sulawesi Family Association (KKSS) as an ethnicity-based organisation. Third, the two positions are asymmetrically interdependent: the normative closure of the top executive seat to indigenous Papuans prevents the direct conversion of migrant economic capital into that office, so conversion takes indirect forms through the deputy seat, candidate financing, and brokerage. The study contributes to the ethnic politics literature by showing that ethnic bargaining power is determined more by control over the supply of eligible candidates and over campaign financing than by demographic advantage alone.