Indonesia's Leading Fraction of Capital

This article argues that since 2019, a fraction of capital centred on three coal mining companies - Adaro Energy, Bumi Resources, and Indika Energy - has assumed leadership of Indonesia's capitalist class. The spokesmen of this fraction of capital - Erick and Garibaldi Thohir, Rosan Roeslani, Arsjad Rasjid, Sandiaga Uno, Anindya Bakrie, Wishnu Wardhana, Muhammad Lutfi, and Agus Lasmono - have orchestrated political stability, shaped Indonesia's national development strategy, and championed capital's moral authority. The article develops this leading fraction of capital thesis through engagement with Marcus Mietzner's 2023 book The Coalitions Presidents Make: Presidential Power and Its Limits in Democratic Indonesia. It extends Mietzner's treatment of oligarchic power exercised in representation of the general interests of the capitalist class by tracing the enduring ties that bind a set of key oligarchs together. Once these ties are made visible, the individual efforts of these oligarchs to represent capital become legible as together constituting a fraction of capital's coherent programme of class leadership. By providing an account of this programme of class leadership, the article helps explain Indonesian capitalism's present dynamism.