Contestation of actors in a seizure of tin resource in Bangka

Abstract

This study aims to map the position and role of mining actors (community) in their contestation in a seizure of tin resource in Bangka. In the contestation it is expected that a new direction regarding the transition of consolidation of democracy, that takes place in Bangka, is illustrated or reflected. In an effort to achieve the aim, the contestation of mining actors is confronted with changes in the political ecology of tin resource as well as the determination of the transition of consolidation of democracy towards a better direction or vice versa. This study uses a qualitative approach of Giddens’ structuralism with analysis of the paradigm of Critical Theory. In the historical realism of mining in Bangka, it is illustrated that the state’s dominance through mining corporate (PT Timah Tbk) was very powerful and diminished in the post New Order era. Effort to unravel the things behind that change refers to the work of the Critical Theory paradigm. The research was conducted in the hamlets of Airputih and Mayang in West Bangka Regency with a focus on the contestation of two mining actors with the state, regional government and investor/private actors. The results showed that: (1) the political map of the governance of tin resource in Bangka shifts in character from a state’s monolithic to a distributed multilithic; (2) The non-capitalistic Reformer Actors (RA) carry non-capitalist eco-populist ideology while starting “stop mining” with revitalizing the potential of community modes of production, and Transitional Actors (TA) carry Capitalist ideology while starting “tin for the people” stay afloat with tin mining despite the destruction of the environment; (3) in the practice of mining in Bangka the RA is more accurately described as Rational Actors, while TA is more accurately described as Pragmatic Actors.