Agar fights for Sakai's survival
Haidir Anwar Tanjung, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru-Riau
The name Sakai might bring to mind the illiterate primitive community of the forests of Siak Riau regency. But although their birthplace boasts Caltex oil fields, these indigenous Riau people are still living in poverty.
Despite their seemingly isolated existence, one Sakai man has earned a Master's degree in language and literature from a German university. Mohammad Agar Kalipke is the first-ever Sakai to have reached such a high level of education.
Agar obtained his degree in 2000 in Austronesian languages and literature from the School of Oriental Studies at Hamburg University, Germany. This is considered an extraordinary achievement for a Sakai, given the general standard of living of this ethnic group.
Just like anybody else in his traditional community, Agar spent his childhood moving from one place to another amid the thick jungle of Bengkalis regency, Riau. It never entered his mind that he would one day go to an overseas university and obtain a degree.
Of a small build, the near-sighted Agar is now pursuing his doctorate at the same university, he is currently back home researching for his thesis.
"I returned home in December of last year and will be here for the next four months to research the sacred aspects of charms and the difference between charms and poetry, a prerequisite to completing my program at Hamburg University. The research is basically a study of the old Malay language," said Agar, the son of a Batin (the local name for a chieftain) of the Sakai people in Duri area, Bengkalis regency.
His major contribution to his ancestral land has been the publication of Worterbuch Sakai-Indonesich-Deutch, a 390-page Sakai language-Indonesian-German dictionary published in 2000. This was the result of collaboration with his foster parent Hans Kalipke between 1993 and 1998.
During the compilation of this dictionary -- now quite popular on his Hamburg University campus -- to determine the origins of the Malay language in Sakai vocabulary, Agar was assigned to translate from Sakai into Indonesian various Sakai texts like Sakai song lyrics, tales, myths, sagas and fables. The works were later translated into German.
Agar and Kalipke spent quite a long period of time recording material for the dictionary on 5,000 sheets of paper and 70 cassettes. They recorded the daily lives of the Sakai people, an activity that, according to Kalipke, was quite complicated.
Kalipke said that the dictionary would be very useful to anthropologists who were interested in the origins of Malay, the language on which the Indonesian language is based. Nobody, he added, knows for sure where the Malay language originated from.
In Agar's mind, this dictionary -- now also on sale in the United States and Japan -- is an important historical record for the Indonesian people.
Agar said that when he returned home after staying in Germany for several years, he found his people were still living primitively, just as they had when he was a child.
Problems had arisen as the destruction of the forest in Riau was contrary to everything the Sakai believed in. For the Sakai, the forest is foremost a sanctuary and a place of worship. They live in the forest, protect it, and raise their children there.
The poor condition of the tribe's homeland has been aggravated over the last decade with the government's claim that the land is state property. The area had been proclaimed a forest-concession area and timber estates are located there. Worse still, the Sakai say that their homes have become "safe havens" for illegal loggers.
"The government permits timber companies to exploit vast forest areas where the Sakai live. Very soon, the Sakai people will be forest people without a forest. This is indeed a tragedy. The Sakai people, who live and die in the forest, can no longer see their own forest. I can't imagine what will happen to the Sakai people in the future," said Agar, who was born on July 19, 1961.
Agar believes that the destruction of the forest will directly lead to the disappearance of various Sakai words. Simply put, this is because animals and plants of the forest, which are represented by words, are now extinct.
He thinks that environmental damage will cause the Sakai people to lose their identity as forest people. After the forest areas are gone the lifestyle of the Sakai people will be impossible to maintain.
"It is really tragic that our forests have disappeared for the sake of business. The Sakai people, who lead traditional lives in the forest, are compelled to live in a modern way. Unfortunately, in their transition to modernity, they have been abandoned," said Agar, who is a widower.
Given the precarious future facing the Sakai people, Agar reminds all relevant parties to prioritize education for his people. Education, he said, will prevent the Sakai people from being uprooted from their indigenous culture. Education will also allow the Sakai people to be able to lead lives outside the Sakai community.
"Unlike what people generally think of the Sakai people, we are not stupid. We are as good as other ethnic communities in Riau. The problem is that unlike other migrant people, we are always abandoned and not given the chance to study," he added.