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Eastern Indonesia, most notably Nusa Tenggara Timor province, has been frequently referred to as the poorest region in Indonesia and claims have recently been made that it is the most corrupt as well. The spread of corruption in the post-Suharto period, with the introduction of regional autonomy and decentralisation, has often been commented on; but what is corruption? How do people define it? This paper uses an anthropological lens on corruption to suggest that with the spread of ideas of 'good governance' and 'democracy', one significant way that local communities in NTT province engage with the state and define corruption is as an abuse of power and non-consultation with the populace. This has become particularly acute with the government belief that new investment opportunities in the reform era will become a road to development and prosperity for local communities, who are, however, seen to be unable to provide for themselves or seek their own ways out of poverty. Several regional governments in NTT province have taken advantage of new laws put into effect in the reform era to award mining concessions to domestic and foreign mining companies. A swell of protest has arisen across the province, however, and an increasing critique of poor government and corrupt practices focuses on these mining contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The boundaries of what has constituted 'Eastern Indonesia' have shifted depending on the historical, cultural, political, or economic context. We review various ways that Eastern Indonesia has been understood, to overview the different ways of delineating and approaching this fascinating part of Indonesia in order to introduce this special issue. The intention of this special issue, however, is not to attempt to clearly define Eastern Indonesia once and for all, but to open up via these various historical and contemporary concerns with Eastern Indonesia, new ways of grappling with this region in the present Post-Suharto era. The current social and political transformations offer a great deal of opportunity to reflect on the way global and national flows of people, money, notions of governance and religious ideas, are so crucial to understanding and making sense of the current dynamics in the region. By focusing our attention on how these global and national influences intersect with the local, we want to bring out how they are appropriated and manipulated by local communities; at the same time they may undermine and transform what is taking place at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how ideas about empowerment often end up being manipulated by those in power, its implications, and what effect this has had on the trajectory of the Catholic Church in the western part of Flores during this period of revival, empowerment, and "indigenization". What many have referred to as a "decentralization of money politics" into the provincial regions during the regional autonomy era seems to have reinforced an increasing emphasis on money in power configurations; this has occurred not only in local political dealings, but also in the church hierarchy. Against the wider historical background of the Catholic Church in Western Flores, particularly the rise of the "self-supporting Church" in the Manggaraian Diocese, this article examines developments of indigenizing and empowering the local Catholic community. The suggestion is that the conflicts in the Manggaraian Church reflect strains that have existed historically in the structure of the Catholic Church and represent tension within the Church between struggles for power over the community and efforts to empower the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]