Affirming Dispossession: Governmentality and the Power of Positive Narratives in Indonesia’s New Rice Field Project

Abstract

In 2024, President Prabowo Subianto reaffirmed Indonesia’s commitment to achieving national food self-sufficiency by continuing large-scale agricultural initiatives, including the establishment of 1 million hectares of new rice fields in Merauke, South Papua. While previous studies have highlighted how food estate programmes are legitimised through narratives of crisis and indigenous incapacity, comparatively little attention has been given to the role of affirmative or positive narratives in facilitating land conversion. This study examines how the new rice field project is implemented and legitimised through the combined operation of regulatory frameworks, security involvement, market incentives, and discursive strategies. Employing a qualitative case study design, data were collected through in-depth interviews with key government and community stakeholders in June 2025, supplemented by documentary analysis of policy reports and media coverage. Drawing on the concepts of power and exclusion, and of governmentality, the study argues that land dispossession in Merauke is facilitated not only through coercive or institutional mechanisms, but also through affirmative narratives that portray indigenous communities as productive participants in national development. These narratives function as techniques of governance that normalise exclusionary land-access arrangements while encouraging voluntary compliance with state-led agrarian transformation.