Lighting “Paradise”: A Sociopolitical History of Electrification in Bali

Abstract

The article explores the sociopolitical history of electrification in Bali in the so-called New Order period of Indonesia (1966–98). It discusses the intertwining factors that drove electrification on the island to move more quickly than in other areas in Indonesia, culminating in the electrification of all Bali's villages in 1995. Bali's tourism industry, the New Order's village electrification program, the construction a national television network, and Bali's selection as a venue of many important regional and international meetings in Indonesia all contributed to the rapid growth rate of electrification on the island. Underlying all these factors was the New Order regime's construction and projection to the world of Indonesia's identity as a rapidly modernizing nation with a part to play on the global stage. The New Order government thus poured a huge amount of resources into electrifying the island. Although the Balinese welcomed the attention and resources provided by the Suharto government to develop Bali, they wanted to ensure this effort was not merely to use the island to promote Indonesia's image overseas. Rather, they wanted development there to be more meaningful than it was and to improve people's welfare. Their criticisms shared the same sentiments of some critiques of New Order Indonesia's development efforts in general.

Keywords:

• Bali
• Indonesia
• electrification
• New Order
• ASEAN
• OPEC

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Ron Kline, Sara B. Pritchard, and Tamara Loos for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article; Sulfikar Amir as a guest editor for inviting me to submit it for a special edition of EASTS; two anonymous reviewers for their critical suggestions to improve the manuscript; Joel T. Luber for his valuable help editing my manuscript; and the Cornell Graduate School and the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies for providing funding of my research trips to Indonesia. Any remaining deficiencies in the text are my own responsibility. All translations from Indonesian to English are done by the author unless otherwise noted.

Notes

 1 Bali's island-wide power grid was completed in 1989.

 2 The PLN's organizational divisions changed over time. In the 1970s, it was divided into thirteen regional divisions, two electricity distribution areas, and one office that handled the production and transmission of electricity for the two distribution areas. In 1995, the PLN was divided into eleven regional areas, one special region of Batam, and four distribution areas that were all located in Java. East Timor was part of the PLN Eleventh Region from its annexation by Indonesia in 1976 until 1999 when it seceded following a referendum.

 3 Historians of Indonesia mark the New Order period as between 1966 and 1998 to signify the time from the effective transfer of power from Sukarno to Suharto on 11 March 1966 until Suharto's resignation on 21 May 1998.

 4 For a notion of development, see a brief discussion in Abraham 1998: 11–12.

 5 See the PLN Bali website for its own brief history: http://www.pln.co.id/disbali/?p = 62; and Darmono et al. 2009. For a few critical studies on electrification in Indonesia, see Brodman 1983 and Husin 1989.

 6 For a history of the development of Bali as a tourist area, see Picard and Darling (1996), which provides a good account. The book's Indonesian translation, Bali Pariwisata Budaya dan Budaya Pariwisata (1998), is an updated and more comprehensive version.

 7 In 1976, the average exchange rate was 415 rupiahs to the US dollar.

 8 Volt-ampere (VA) is a unit of apparent power, while watt is the unit of so-called real power. In this context, residents would know if they could run a particular electrical appliance given the available VA rating. Utility companies such as the PLN use this information to size electrical wires.

 9 The Cold War concerns drove the US administration in the 1960s to develop a plan for a global communication system. Hughes Aircraft and AT&T were the two private US companies that developed communication satellites for profit. See Slotten 2002. For an analysis of the meanings attributed to the Palapa satellite by groups of Indonesian engineers, businessmen, and government bureaucrats who helped develop the network of satellite ground stations and used the satellite discourse for political purposes, see Barker 2005.

10 The widely read Indonesian weekly magazine Tempo featured a cover article about this program ( Tempo 1979).

11 Although Indonesia is a member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), it never hosted an Islamic summit in the country.

12 Dr. Arismunandar recommended that Indonesia build a high-voltage transmission line to economically transmit and distribute electricity in the country. He made this suggestion in a speech delivered on the occasion of his appointment as full professor in the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Indonesia on 22 November 1977 (Arismunandar 1978).

13 The US Congress also tried to raise this issue by writing a letter to President Reagan on the eve of his visit to Bali. The letter and another earlier letter that was written to Secretary of State George Shultz and signed by twenty-one US senators are reproduced in “The United Nations and East Timor” ( Indonesia 1986).