ABSTRACT
The goal of many of Mushin’s top leaders was to perpetuate their position of power. The people who had guided the community since 1955 wished, as privileged groups do, to preserve the status quo. The military accession to power in 1966 injected a number of uncertainties into the political environment. This prompted local leaders to intensify their efforts to establish a secure and continuingly favourable place in the hierarchy of power. At the same time, the top leaders were not a monolithic body, as we have already seen. Rather they were divided into contending factions whose political goals were in conflict.
