Action needed to ease tension in W. Kalimantan

Action needed to ease tension in W. Kalimantan

At least 12 Madurese were killed in a week of sporadic clashes
that erupted on Feb. 21 between Madurese and Malays in villages
in Sambas regency, West Kalimantan. Earlier, three Malays were
killed in an attack by the Madurese. The resentment between the
so-called "migrant" Madurese and the "indigenous" Malays, Dayaks
and Chinese, is long standing. The Jakarta Post reporter Sugianto
Tandra visited these areas early March.

SAMBAS, West Kalimantan (JP): Prengki, a 27-year-old Malay
fisherman, is confident his father died as a martyr when a group
of Madurese attacked their village of Parit Setia in Jawai
subdistrict.

As a Muslim, he believes the reward for a martyr is heaven.

Wasli died on Jan. 19, which coincided with the first day of
the Muslim holiday of Idul Fitri, celebrated after a month of
fasting. Two other Malay villagers died with Wasli in the attack
that lasted for less than 20 minutes.

Most of the around 200 attackers were from the predominantly
Madurese Rambaian village in Tebas subdistrict, some 20
kilometers away.

Prengki said his family were having their Idul Fitri meals
when they were told the machete-wielding Madurese had descended
upon their village. Wasli and his friends were killed when they
tried to stop the attackers from advancing.

Prengki, who has only an elementary school education, is now
alone in earning a living for his 42-year-old mother and three
younger brothers. But he said he held no grudge against those who
killed his father.

"But this should be enough. No more blood should be shed," he
avers.

Police explained the Rambaian villagers went on a rampage to
Parit Setia after they found out that three of their own had been
beaten up by Malays for attempted robbery.

After the death of Wasli and his fellow villagers, villagers
in Rambaian offered to make peace, which the Parit Setia people
accepted.

Tension, however, remained. Clashes broke out intermittently
in the subdistricts of Tebas, Jawai and Pemangkas on Feb. 21
after a Madurese stabbed and seriously wounded a Malay public
transportation driver.

Rumor has it that the Madurese refused to pay for the service.
But when the Malay glowered at him, he unsheathed his dagger and
stabbed the driver.

With injuries to his abdomen, the driver returned home. Fellow
Malays then waged attacks on any Madurese they encountered in the
surrounding area.

Police found the bodies of 12 Madurese over the week, some
decapitated and with their hands chopped off, in the three
subdistricts.

At least 65 houses, including some belonging to Malays, were
torched. Over 100 Madurese -- mostly children and women -- fled
to the Sambas police precinct for shelter.

Over 100 police mobile brigade personnel with troopers backing
them secured Rambaian. Inhabited by over 3,000 Madurese, the
village is the biggest Madurese enclave in Sambas.

Madurese, however, are a minority in Sambas which has a
population of 800,000 people, with Dayaks and Malays being the
dominant ethnic groups and Chinese-Indonesians the third largest
with 19 percent of the total population.

West Kalimantan Police chief Col. Chaerul Rasjidi conceded the
unsolved murders in Parit Setia added fuel to ethnic tensions.
Local leaders have expressed concern that it would take the
community a long time to bind their wounds.

Muslim

Many local leaders were baffled why there was so much tension
as both ethnic groups are Muslim.

"Why? We are of the same Aqidah (faith)," said Muslimin, a
local Madurese councilor in the Sambas legislature.

In the early 1997, Madurese also clashed with the native
Dayaks. At least 300 Madurese were killed and thousands forced to
return to their original island of Madura off the coast of East
Java.

Prejudice is certainly always present in ethnic tensions. The
Chinese, the Dayaks, and the Malays all complained the Madurese
were hot-blooded and quick to resort to violence to settle petty
problems.

Sambas Dayak elder I. Libertus Ahie said in Singkawang there
was a saying among non-Madurese people that "our livestock are
ours when they are young, but theirs (Madurese) when mature."

Malay driver Hermansyah, 35, in Singkawang repeated the
sentiment. A Chinese Li Cun Li, 43, of Bakau village in Jawai
said the Madurese there would just abuse them without reason.

However, Madurese Kasim, 52, of Matang Terap village in Jawai,
said: "... no, we are just ordinary people. We also want peace."

Kasim is considered to be an influential community leader.
Madurese youths hang out at his house.

When asked about the stereotyping, Muslimin and Zaenal Abidin,
who is also a United Development Party (PPP) member in the Sambas
regency legislature, agreed there were Madurese groups who like
to make trouble.

Zaenal described how there was also a saying "the Chinese may
have the lemon trees, but it's the Madurese who own the sacks."

"But that shouldn't be generalized," said Zaenal, who is a
Madurese born in West Kalimantan.

"There are two groups within the Madurese community here, one
led by bad guys who gamble and like cock fighting, and those
under the good guys led by kyai or Muslim clerics," said
Muslimin, who was born in Madura.

Muslimin suggested the government establish Muslim boarding
schools, called Pesantren, to educate youths of both groups so
they may grow up in Islamic ways and be closer to one another.

Separately interviewed in Pontianak, the capital of West
Kalimantan, sociologist A.B. Tangdililing of the Tanjungpura
University shared the opinion.

According to Tangdililing -- a Bugis from South Sulawesi --
tensions arose because many of the Madurese failed to adjust to
the local culture and retained their carok custom, in which one
defends one's honor with a duel to the death using the
traditional clurit or crescent machete.

Besides, unlike the Madurese in East Java, there were not
enough role models for the community in West Kalimantan, he said.
Another important factor, of course, was the economic crisis
which has caused people to be angered more easily, he said.