Decentralization and Local Development in Indonesia:

The study is intended to show the perspective of local stakeholders towards mining operations in their area as for the past six years since 2000 the tension of anti-mining movements has been raised again in Indonesia. The mining area that has been taken as a case study is located in Soroako, South Sulawesi, Indonesia; where one of the biggest multinational mining companies in the world, International Nickel Company (INCO Limited) has been conducting its operation there since 1968 until today. The dominant factors of this study are highly based on the primary data analyses which are obtained directly through interviews with the local stakeholders in Soroako. The main argument of this study is that the anti-mining movements that recently have occurred in Soroako is not truly coming from the grass roots but more effected by the changing of national political situation, especially with the implementation of decentralization system in Indonesia since 2000.