The restoration of gotong royong as a form of post-disaster solidarity in Lombok, Indonesia

Abstract

This article explores the mobilization of local resources to reconstruct devastated villages in Lombok after the earthquake of 2018. Local leadership and NGOs managed to mobilize survivors and their communities to rebuild their devastated built environment by evincing the principle of gotong royong. They made an effort to include the survivors in the reconstruction effort, enabling them to begin their recovery trajectory and creating bonds of friendship and trust between various religious groups and villages. In other disaster aftermath situations, such as Aceh after the tsunami of 2004, NGOs and the Indonesian government did not succeed in mobilizing survivors by evoking the principle of gotong royong and, in some cases, even paralyzed the communities they tried to help. On the basis of qualitative data collected immediately after the earthquakes in 2018 and in the following year, I argue that local leaders and NGOs managed to mobilize these groups through effective leadership, transparency about funds and goals, stakeholder participation, an understanding of local legislature and explicit roles of accountability.

Learning from Floods—How a Community Develops Future Resilience

“…Similar to Māori Manaakitanga, the Indonesian community believes in Gotong-royong (mutual assistance) which means to work together in a positive manner and mostly done in a volunteer manner [69]. The practice of Kaitiakitanga and restoring the mana to the natural environment is familiar to the Dayak people indigenous to Borneo living in the floodplain of the Kapuas River.…”

A neo-institutional analysis of social protection: Insights from Indonesia

“…In rural Java, community life is guided by moral principles of cohesiveness: close interaction, low conflict, strong cooperation, and high solidarity (Sutiyo et al, 2018). Findings from other localities in South Sumatra, South Kalimantan, East Java, Yogyakarta (Yuda et al, 2021), and Lombok (Koopman, 2021) present various cases of solidarity and togetherness within the community. They become the basis of resource mobilization and participation in various activities, such as teamwork in building public facilities (Sutiyo et al, 2020), scheduling neighborhood night patrol, helping one another in sickness, death, and during house renovation (Sumarto, 2017).…”

“…There are traditions of consensual decision-making ( musyawarah) and mutual help ( gotong-royong ) throughout localities. According to Koopman (2021), the traditions already existed since the pre-colonial period and are now the key cultural concepts in Indonesian society life. In rural Java, community life is guided by moral principles of cohesiveness: close interaction, low conflict, strong cooperation, and high solidarity (Sutiyo et al, 2018).…”

School Management Effectiveness: The Analysis Of Organizational Culture, Leadership Style, Work Environment, And Satisfaction

“…Working together in the bearing of burdens (gotong royong) to help each other in the community has been the working culture of the Indonesian people since the days of their ancestors (Simarmata et al, 2020). The soul of gotong royong comes from the community spontaneously to help others in times of emergency (Koopman, 2021). The traditional culture in the Balinese Hindu community called Tri Hitta Karana is the harmonious relationship of three elements: the man with God, the man with man, and the environment.…”