It’s been a while since I write a blog post on this website! The last couple of months have been very busy for me – I wasn’t only doing my research but also, inevitably, involved in some activist work. So I ended up staying in Jakarta longer than I expected, but eventually I was able to spare some time for my last round of fieldwork. I made it, so here I am, in Bengkulu. To be more exact, I will spend the next two months in North Bengkulu District, looking at the evolving relationship between the Bengkulu Peasant Union (Serikat Tani Bengkulu, STaB) and the local elites in post-authoritarian era. Some elaboration on this dynamics have been written here (especially in this chapter), but the data only cover up until 2007. More still needs to be written about STaB and the North Bengkulu peasants, which is why I am here.

So far it’s been a productive fieldwork – I finished conducting several interviews and got hold of some key documents on the land conflict between local peasants and plantation companies. Overall, it’s a good start. I’m gonna be busy, and expect more to come in the next couple of weeks.

Ah, it feels good to be back on the field again.