ARI Working Paper Series

This paper investigates how a regional, ethnic-oriented party, the Dayak Unity Party (commonly abbreviated PD), grew out of the logic of colonial rule.  The Dutch of had forged a “Dayak” identity out of a diverse, autochthonous, non-Islamic population to be juxtaposed against Islamic “Malays.” Specifically, however, the Catholic Church was the institution through which the party’s future leadership–missionary-educated, and in large part seminary students–emerged.  In late 1945, admist the ruins of a crumbled Japanese administration in the province’s headwaters, the first Dayak political organization in West Kalimantan with provincial-aspirations was formed.

In the two elections of the 1950s in which it participated, PD performed exceptionally. Ultimately, however, its success could not overcome the personal animosities among its leadership that had dogged the party since its inception and the changing winds of national politics, namely, Soekarno’s (and later Suharto’s) and the army’s aversion to party-dominant, liberal democracy.