Challenging the promise of decentralization: The case of marginalization of Mosalaki role in Nggela Vilage in Ende Lio, Flores

This paper analyses the impact of democratic practices in Ende Lio District, Indonesia, in 2015. Regional Autonomy Law as the embodiment of democratic practices has generated a new opportunity for the local people and political actors as a legitimate local leader instead of the traditional informal leader. On the other hand, it has yielded negative outcomes, specifically the elimination of strategic roles of traditional leaders in the society. This study focuses on factors related to the diminishment of authority and legitimation of the informal leaders who had held traditional wisdom firmly in a village of Ende Regency. This study used a qualitative approach by analysing the factors that caused the Mosalaki, the traditional informal leader, to lose authority and legitimation. It collects data from field observation and in-depth interviews with the key informants that practically held local formal office and informal custom-based governance during the decades of decentralization. It found that, on some occasion, the Mosalaki, as the informal leader, could still hold the equal position and authority in Liko Mbelo Telu (Three Furnaces), carrying out the Ende Lio people’s traditional aspirations in some public ceremonies and rituals. But on the other hand, it has to manage a balancing course of action with the formal leader in order to accomplish regional development programmes that designed by the regional or central government.