Configuration of Multi Actors in Power Access at the Construction

Phase of the Asahan 3 HEPP Project

Saruhum Rambe, R. Hamdani Harahap

, Zulkifli Lubis

and Harmona Daulay

Universitas Sumatera Utara, Indonesia

Keywords: Access, Power Relation, Multi-Actors, Development.

Abstract: The background of this research is to answer the problem of why development projects that are in accordance

with the principles of sustainable development goals for providing renewable and environmentally friendly

energy, overcoming the shortage of electrical energy for industry and households, driving the economy for

the creation of prosperity, in reality do not run smoothly. By taking the case of the Asahan 3 hydropower plant

project (Asahan 3 HEPP Project) which is currently in the development process, the researcher tries to answer

it with the assumption that the development project is a limited socio-economic resource and is contested by

many parties (multi-actor). The researcher uses the arena concept from Bourdieu and the power concept as

the basis for thinking, and the access theory from Ribot and Peluso as the basis for the analysis. The approach

used in the methodology is multi-actor ethnography with qualitative data collection and analysis techniques.

This study resulted in the findings that the practice of spectacular accumulation of multi-actor to obtain,

maintain and control access to projects contributes to the achievement of development targets and progress.

Multi actors from the community around the company, to nomads at the regional and national levels

participate in the contest to benefit from the project's presence.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Jokowi government in 2015 launched a strategic

national electricity program with a capacity of 35,000

MW, to overcome the shortage of electrical energy

supply for households and industry at that time, and

long-term energy needs in accordance with the

national economic growth target. In accordance with

the spirit of achieving the global goals of sustainable

development and commitment to emission

reductions, the national policy is to increase electrical

energy from environmentally friendly sources and

renewable energy such as Hydroelectric Power Plants

(PLTA).

To make the national electricity program a

success, the government is accelerating by

collaborating with the private sector to produce

electrical energy, and revitalizing development that

had stalled. One of them is the Asahan 3 HEPP

Project (2 x 87 MW) which is located on the border

of Asahan Regency and Toba Regency in North

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9035-6729

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1558-980X

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1070-447X

Sumatra by utilizing the potential of the Asahan

River. This project had stopped its construction

process in the pre-construction stage due to problems

in land acquisition, and resumed land acquisition in

2018, and is currently entering the construction stage

with a completion target in early 2024.

Socially, the challenges faced at the construction

stage were social disturbances in the form of

demonstrations, stopping the fleet and access to

material and labor mobilization, threats and

suppression. Based on GTF Asahan 3 data, from July

2019 to December 2022, there were 131 times of

disruption to work operations. These disturbances

took the form of demonstrations, the stoppage of the

fleet of material and labor carriers, and the cessation

of work at the project site. A series of actions above,

which have an impact on the achievement of targets

and work progress.

However, on the other hand, all parties in the

government and the surrounding community stated

that they supported the presence of the project for the

Rambe, S., Harahap, R., Lubis, Z. and Daulay, H.

Conﬁguration of Multi Actors in Power Access at the Construction Phase of the Asahan 3 HEPP Project.

DOI: 10.5220/0011566000003460

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Social and Political Development (ICOSOP 2022) - Human Security and Agile Government, pages 277-281

ISBN: 978-989-758-618-7; ISSN: 2975-8300

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

277

public interest and to improve the welfare of the

community. This is stated in the AMDAL document,

the results of socio-economic studies, and the results

of environmental management monitoring that cover

social aspects.

This raises the question, why do all parties state

that they support the presence of the project in their

area, but social disturbances are still high. To answer

this question, the researcher examines the actors

involved and their interests in order to map out actors,

interests and strategies.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In order to understand the configuration of the multi-

actor who practices spectacular accumulation to

obtain, maintain and control access in the Asahan 3

HEPP Project, I examine some literature as a rationale

and analysis tool. Starting from referring to the

concept of Arena from Foucault (Udasmoro, 2020)

and the concept of Power from Foucault (Astuti,

2013). Bourdieu defines Arena or Field as a space

where social actors/agents compete with each other

for various material resources and symbolic power.

Meanwhile, Foucault views power as a resource that

is owned by everyone, whose manifestation is in the

form of power relations. The occurrence of inequality

in power relations due to the unequal ability of the

subject to accumulate sources of power.

Next, examine the meaning of development

through the study of Tania Li (2012). Tania Li

mention development for the purpose of increasing

prosperity the “Will to Improve”. In practice,

programs designed to improve the prosperity of the

poor are actually not value-free, the people targeted

by the program are not empty spaces that can be filled

with anything, development actors who he calls

community guardians are also not free from group

interests.

The target community of the program that is not

an empty space is also expressed by Lubis (2017). His

dissertation research in Kapuas Regency, Central

Kalimantan Province, found that people who wanted

to change their behavior and habits from burning

forests to being subjects who guarded the forest,

through a program with globally designed ideas and

large funds from foreign aid, ultimately failed. The

cause of the program's failure, according to Lubis,

was the occurrence of a frictional environmental

phenomenon, namely efforts to form new subjects

through discipline with a series of ideas, mechanisms

and technology that did not run smoothly when in

contact with the program's target community who

were pragmatic with myopic cultural behavior. There

is no open resistance to the program, on the contrary

it is entered into the program as part of it (goes hand

in hand) but has a different purpose. The practice of

burning was still going on, but the subject admitted

that the perpetrator was not himself but someone else

who was not identified.

The next examination of the literature is the work

of Tsing (2011), especially regarding the practice of

Spectacular Accumulation, where actors at the local,

regional, national and global levels try to get the

maximum benefit from an issue. This illustrates that

there are many actors (multi-actor) whose existence

cannot be seen in an isolated area and is limited to

certain administrative areas. But these actors, can be

at various levels from local to global.

The next step is to look at the actors based on their

importance to the resources in the project based on

the right analytical tools. Understanding the

phenomenon that occurs is multi-actor trying to

obtain, maintain and control access, so to understand

it the researcher uses Access Theory from Ribot and

Peluso (2003). The basis of this theory is based on

Foucault's concept of power by interpreting access as

a person's ability to benefit from something. On this

matter, Ribot and Peluso see access not only based on

rights as in Ownership Theory (Bromley, 1991), but

also on ability through networks and a bundles of

power owned. The set of powers in question are

technology, capital, knowledge, labor, authority,

social identity and social relations.

So that the wider the social network they have and

the more sources of power they have within them, the

greater their ability to obtain, maintain and control

access. In fact, the ability of each actor is not the same

in accessing these sources of power so that power

relations between actors are almost always

asymmetric and inequalities (Ribot & Peluso, 2003).

3 RESEARCH METHODS

This study uses an ethnographic approach as part of a

qualitative research. In particular, the multi-actor

ethnography as described by Little (2007) is based on

the following considerations: (1) The plurality of

social-environmental interactions in which the group

lives, (2) The subject of the study is not only one

social group but several groups at once, (3) The

geographical scope of the study is not only limited to

the biophysical environment of local social groups

but also depends on several levels of socio-political

articulation related to the issue of the study.

ICOSOP 2022 - International Conference on Social and Political Development 4

278

By taking the social setting of the Asahan 3 HEPP

Project, data collection was carried out based on

participatory observations, in-depth interviews and

document studies from various sources. Meanwhile,

data analysis was carried out qualitatively through

categorization, data reduction and conclusions.

4 RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS

Asahan 3 HEPP Project (2 X 87 MW), which is

currently entering the construction phase. This project

is part of the national strategic 35,000 MW electricity

program launched by President Jokowi in 2015. This

project requires a large area of land for road access,

main construction and transmission sites. Deininger

in McCharty, Vel & Afiff (2013) mentions that

locations where large-scale land acquisitions will

always be at high risk, both from social and

environmental aspects.

One of the social risks is disruption to project

operations from actors around the project to get the

maximum benefit from the project's presence. The

profit maximization is to obtain, maintain and control

access to project resources, namely labor and work

participation.

The social map of actors in the project can be

grouped into two groups of powers, namely (1)

Development Authority, (2) Stakeholders Power. The

development authority is the project owner who is

authorized by the government to supply electrical

energy, namely PT. PLN (Persero) and the executor

of the work consisting of the main contractor and sub

contractors. Meanwhile, the power of stakeholders is

the actors who come from various elements of the

government and the surrounding community.

Government elements around the project such as sub-

district and village administrations, including

elements of the Military and Police unit who serve as

“Babinsa” and “Babinkamtibnas”. Meanwhile,

community elements are various organizations,

groups and individuals who actively participate in the

contest to obtain, maintain and control access to the

project.

The group of actors from the development power

has an interest in ensuring a conducive security

situation in the sense that there are no social

disturbances that will disrupt the achievement of

targets and progress. For this reason, the construction

stage is reached in accordance with the stipulated

time and the contractor benefits from the work.

Meanwhile, the power of stakeholders such as Village

Heads, NGOs, Youth’s Organization, and influential

individuals carry out various access strategies based

on rights and abilities which are described as follows.

4.1 Rights-Based Access Mechanism

The strategy of actors to obtain, maintain and control

access based on rights-based access mechanisms is

the provisions contained in the Environmental Impact

Analysis (AMDAL) document for the Asahan 3

HEPP Project. The provisions in this document are an

obligation for the project party to fulfill them as a

legal obligation. Among them are regulated related to

placing the surrounding community as a priority for

local workforce recruitment. It is further regulated in

the acceptance mechanism through mutual agreement

between project representatives and village

government representatives. To run it, an institution

was also formed, namely the Asahan 3 HEPP Project

Cooperation Committee.

4.2 Power-Based Access Mechanism

The strategy of actors through power-based

mechanisms is based on social networks and a set of

sets of power (Ribot & Peluso, 2003), according to

research findings described as follows:

a. Social Identity

The use of identity as a basis for power to obtain,

maintain and control access, is identification as

indigenous peoples as opposed to immigrants.

Furthermore, the original population was also raised

again the category between the natives who live in the

village with the natives who live in province &

nation’s capital. Actors who use social identity as the

basis of power for access identify clans categorized

as land clans, namely Panjaitan and Marpaung in

Tangga Village, and Siagian and Hutagaol in North

Meranti Village.

b. Authority

Actors who use authority as the basis of power for

access can be seen, among others, from the position

of the village coconut who receives monthly funds

from the project, which is known as coordination

money. On behalf of the village head, this actor uses

his authority to recommend someone in local

recruitment, and work packages. By stating that the

village head who knows the people who need it most

should be prioritized, he gives legitimacy for the

people he calls to take precedence over the others.

However, in practice often the people who are

recommended are relatives.

Conﬁguration of Multi Actors in Power Access at the Construction Phase of the Asahan 3 HEPP Project

279

c. Knowledge

Knowledge as the basis for access power can be seen

from village officials who have knowledge of the

location of the main construction site and

transmission according to the project design, have

benefited by purchasing land from residents cheaply,

and have received multiple benefits when receiving

compensation from the project. Knowledge is also

used to accumulate profits by planting trees from the

start at the point of the construction site which when

calculating and paying for it makes a big profit.

d. Capital

The ability to gain access is based on capital

ownership, marked by local entrepreneurs who

combine with other powers such as social identity and

knowledge, local actors succeed in gaining access and

benefits in the procurement of goods and services in

the Asahan 3 HEPP Project.

of 9-point. The sentence must end with a period.

4.3 Multi-Actor Access Power Relations

The power relations between development actors and

stakeholders are realized in accordance with their

respective interests to obtain maximum access as

described by Tsing (2011) as spectacular

accumulation. The power of development with an

interest in a conducive situation exercises its power

through regulation which Foucault calls

governmentality (Astuti, 2013). Meanwhile,

stakeholders exercise their power through various

strategies that are assessed according to their

respective objectives. Community elements from

organizations such as NGOs and Youth”s

Organization carried out demonstrations, stopped the

material transporting fleet and other forms of

operational disturbance to force the project's

objectives to be accommodated. Meanwhile, actors

from government elements negotiate access through

forms of support or delay the signing of documents

required by the project party.

Among the actors in the community in the access

contest, among others, mutually negate the pattern as

follows: (1) Actors who appear as project supporters

and above that have the ability to control access and

at the same time exclude actors who are competitors.

(2) Actors who carry out resistance to supporting

actors through delegitimization while at the same

time trying to gain access by carrying out a series of

disturbances and demands. (3) Actors build

cooperation with supporting parties who control

access, and on other occasions become part of groups

that carry out resistance.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The Asahan 3 HEPP Project is a limited socio-

economic resource both to be able to provide

opportunities for everyone. For this, there is a

struggle for access by multi actors by maximizing

efforts through rights as well as social networks and

basic access powers such as social identity,

knowledge, capital, authority, and social relations.

Differences in the ability of actors to accumulate

access, both in terms of rights and capabilities, lead

to disparities in the access they have. Among them are

causing resistance and mutual negation among actors

to be able to obtain, maintain and control access,

some of which are excluded.

This study found that interference by stakeholders

is not aimed at permanently stopping project

operations, but the interference is aimed at gaining,

maintaining and controlling access as part of an effort

to accumulate benefits from the presence of

development projects in their area.

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