Tin Mining and the Formation of a New Local Shadow State: The Case of Lom People, Bangka Indonesia

Abstract

Tin of Bangka has been exploited since the 18 th century. Exploitation throughout history has led to various debates over the subject on the right to access and control tin. After the New Order regime in 1998, the intensity of the controversy debates increased and escalated because the subjects were increasingly mapped, contested with a variety of interests, and creating a local "'fallacious"' state. Among the controversy debates, there is still room for another controversy. How could ethnic minorities called the Lom tribe which known as traditional, full of mysticism, believed to be conservationists, could be trapped into the economic turmoil of illegal tin mining? This article tries to prove that the Lom Tribe is not entirely in a dark matter. The practice of small-scale voluntary, massive and extensive tin mining in customary forest, accompanied by efforts to create counterterritories and claims for customary autonomy is a form of struggle to maintain the continuity of access/control over tin and resistance against the expansion of private oil palm plantations. This kind of practice marks the emergence of a new local shadow state in the lowest village governance structure.