Food is often used as an instrument to legitimize power. This occurred in Bakung, Blitar, around 1967-1968. This village was the site and silent witness to the New Order’s (Orba) genocidal atrocities against members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and its sympathizers. Furthermore, Bakung became a battleground for the New Order government, using food as a weapon to consolidate its political and economic power. As a result, Bakung’s agricultural system underwent a major shift, from traditional to modern.
This phenomenon was captured by Vanessa Hearman in her article, “Sweet Potato Dreaming: Development, Displacement, and Food Crisis in South Blitar, East Java, 1968” (2015). Using a food perspective, she examined the impact of military operations (1967-1968) on transformation of food security and consumption patterns among the Bakung people. Moreover, the research highlighted food as a deathly weapon to strengthen power. At that time, either the remnants of PKI and the New Order government used food as an instrument to gained influence and power.
After September 30th Coup
Hearman begins her story about the PKI’s remnants who camouflaged in Bakung, fleeing from military operation. Meantime, Major General Suharto exploited the September Coup to eliminate his political opponents, accusing them of being PKI’s members and the masterminding the Coup. Several PKI sympathizers faced threats from the military. This situation forced the PKI’s remnant to evacuated to Bakung, as this village was the party’s stronghold.
PKI leaders in East Java had indeed investigated Bakung’s suitability as a hideout, gathering place, and devising plans to counter the military. The village was chosen because it was a party stronghold. In the 1955 and 1957 Indonesian elections, the PKI won decisively in the region. Furthermore, South Blitar was also a stronghold of the PKI’s understructure which consisted of farmers, artists, and women.
The people of Bakung welcomed the PKI leaders with joy, even provided them with housing. The integration process was rapid, which is the PKI leaders becoming integrated with the people of Bakung. In return, they organized a new mode of agricultural training to help farmers increase productivity. Moreover, the program was intended to build revolutionary awareness to counter the military.
Traditional Pattern
Before the arrival of the PKI leaders, Bakung had a unique traditional agricultural system. Hearman said that farmers in the region were able to precisely calculate their farming system, adapting it to their need of food security, geography, seasonal cycles, and nutritional needs. However, the harvest was only used to encounter daily needs (subsistence).
Geographically, the soil in Bakung is considered unproductive as it is largely limestone. Either during the rainy and dry seasons, the soil remains difficult to managed. The people of Bakung often deal with extreme drought during the dry season. Meanwhile, during the rainy season, the area floods because the limestone soil cannot absorb water adequately.
Hearman demonstrated that farmers are highly skilled in traditional agricultural systems that have been practiced for generations. These systems are designed to adapt to these extreme environments. For instance, farmers utilize terracing and intercropping techniques to produce staple foods. The land is planted with dry rice (upland rice) alongside various tubers, secondary crops, and legumes.
Hearman further explained, this traditional agricultural system is the result of farmers’ ingenuity in maintaining their livelihoods while managing food security risks. Increasing crop diversity has resulted in a variety of staple foods, such as cassava or tiwul (rice flour), rice for children’s consumption and ceremonial occasions as well, and secondary crops or legumes to support family finances.
Modernization
Along with the arrival of PKI leaders, agriculture in Bakung began to shift toward modernization. They initiated modern agricultural training to increase productivity. Hearman explained that the PKI program was implemented because they believed that agricultural practices in Bakung remained traditional (referring to the Bakung community’s staple food, cassava or tiwul). Therefore, agricultural modernization was a crucial issue to increase the productivity of rice as staple food.
In line with the PKI, the New Order regime strangely considered agricultural modernization in Bakung was crucial issue. During this period, under the Green Revolution (1967-1970), the Indonesian government signed a contract with the CIBA Switzerland to increase agricultural productivity. The goal was to provide technical equipment to support the rice production strategy.
However, the PKI and New Order’s perspective on the Bakung agricultural system was completely arbitrary and reckless. This was because neither the PKI nor the New Order ever wisely considered local agricultural techniques adapted to nature conditions. Both merely measured the prosperity based on the availability of rice. Hearman argues that urban elites, such as PKI leaders and the government, consistently devalued cassava and other food crops.
Furthermore, cassava was seen as an indicator of poverty. As noted by the nutritionist of the time, Burhanudin Napitulu (1968), cassava consumption was linked to poverty and a major cause of malnutrition. This perspective stems from modern paradigm which associates underdevelopment with dietary inferiority (Corinna, 2007). Hearman, in this article, disagreed with this view, citing Pierre Van Der Eng’s explanation that cassava consumption cannot be linked to poverty and malnutrition.
Food Crisis and Shifting Agricultural Systems
The agricultural modernization proposed by the PKI and the New Order ultimately led to disaster. After that period, the people of Bakung suffered tremendously from a food crisis caused by the failure of modernization. Both the PKI’s modern agricultural training programs and the New Order’s green revolution projects consistently prioritized their respective political agendas.
This situation was exacerbated by the military operation (Operation Trisula) on June 1, 1968. The New Order government was very ambitious in eliminating the remnants of PKI in Bakung. The government argued that the PKI was orchestrating the rebellion to establish a de facto government in South Blitar. However, for Hearman, the primary motive for Operation Trisula was not based on this reason, but rather the PKI’s challenge to the legitimacy of the New Order in Bakung. This village also demonstrated that food politics in Indonesia is the heart of the asymmetrical state-society relations (Vu, 2003).
The military operation had a devastating impact on the lives of farmers. During the operation, they were forced to flee to the military detention camps without adequate food supplies. Furthermore, the land, crops, livestock, and food supplies left behind during the evacuation were eventually destroyed and stolen by the military and PKI. At that time, the people suffered from severe starvation.
After the operation, people remained hungry, and the region began to be ravaged by disease due to food shortages. Hearman stated that to address the food crisis, the New Order government implemented several programs, including training in animal husbandry, fisheries, commodity-based agriculture, and creative industries, all of which were directly supervised by the military.
It turned out these government programs actually worsened the people’s prosperity. This was because these projects altered the agricultural landscape, which was previously in harmony with nature. Hearman highlighted at that time, rice consumption increased, potentially replacing cassava as a staple food. Furthermore, farmers’ lands, previously rich in diverse crops, were replaced by government-provided commodity crops. This also marked a shift from a subsistence to a commodity-based economic system. However, these programs failed, and the people were oppressed as their land was seized by the military.
Bakung as depicted by Hearman, is a story of a shift in agricultural systems driven by a state agenda. This shift is rooted in the Green Revolution project and therefore confirms that food is the deadly instrument of politics and power. []