HUMSS - Pujo Semedi Hargo Yuwono

Tragedy of the Private
Abuse of company’s wealth in an Indonesia plantation

In this work I try to move further from Garret Hardin’s idea that privatization of natural resources will protect them from utter destruction from the hands of people who utilize them and lead to maximum economic use--sustainable and productive. Historical ethnographic data that I gathered on an Indonesia tea plantation, called Sumbertelung, shows Hardin’s view is untenable. In one and half centuries of its existence the plantation has been subjected to internal theft of all kinds. From time to time the plantation’s productivity is always low and rarely produces annual profit. Closer observation reveals how production activity in Sumbertelung has been built on deeply entrenched categorical distinction--race, family background, gender--that are technically not related to working capability. Each fills a specific niche in the production activity and occupies specific spots in the plantation physical and administrative geography, and most critically, each is rewarded differently. It seems there is a close relation between categorical distinctions and internal theft, that a privatized resource would metamorphose into a common pool once it is operated in productive activity that is based on categorical distinction.