Port security and preman organizations in Indonesia

Abstract

Strongmen have long been widely associated with bandits, violent entrepreneurs or revolutionaries. Such strongmen should be differentiated from the strongmen of politics. The latter are defined as political leaders who rule by repression and exercise an authoritarian administration, while the former are defined as gangsters who benefit from local insecurities to obtain an occupation, build their reputation and accumulate social and political influence when they become involved in politics. In the case of Indonesia, there have already been several significant works on these stereotypically sturdy and muscular people, who have been represented as bandits (Suhartono Citation1995), village leaders (Onghokham Citation1978), rebels (Cribb Citation1991), local heroes, powerbrokers and criminals (Schulte Nordholt Citation1991). Preman, Indonesian contemporary free men (Dutch: vrije mannen), stand in between a blurred line of strongmen and violent groups. Preman (thug) was originally used to refer to irregular or demobilized soldiers; later, the term came to mean bandit and then gangster.