Conflict likely in Bandarlampung poll

Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung

Compared to other cities in Indonesia, Bandarlampung may be the most aggressive in terms of mobilizing ethnic-based organizations for the coming direct regional election on June 27. Among the biggest and most prominent of the ethnic-based organizations are Paku Banten and Lampung Sai.

Paku Banten, an organization of people of Banten and Sundanese ethnicity, has at least 100,000 members, while Lampung Sai, whose members are people who are native to Lampung, claims to have hundreds of thousands of members.

Paku Banten, for example, was often cited as the main support group behind Oemarsono when he was governor. Meanwhile, Lampung's current governor, Sjachroedin Z.P., Oemarsono's successor, was strongly supported by Lampung Sai for his candidacy through the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction at the Lampung Legislative Council.

Other ethnic-based organizations are the Lampung Traditional Council (LMAL) representing various traditional groups in Lampung, the Batanghari Sembilan Community representing the people of Komering, South Sumatra and Bengkulu, Pujakesuma, affiliated to people of Javanese descent in Lampung from migrant parents and many others. Besides those, there are still other groups of Balinese, Bugis, Chinese-Indonesians and Madurese.

But not all of those from a certain ethnic group are members of the same ethnic organization.

Each organization claims that it has the most members.

Although the number of members is difficult to gauge, the ethnic-based groups are a force to be reckoned with for politicians in any election as can be seen from the number of political brokers emerging to "sell" them to politicians.

The larger their membership, the more they are in demand. A power broker usually sells claims of support from hundreds of thousands of members from a specific ethnic group.

The success of the election of Sjachroedin Z.P. as Lampung governor due to the support from Lampung Sai further strengthened public opinion that ethnic-based organizations play a central role in Lampung politics.

According to a communications expert from Bandar Lampung University, Jauhari Zaelani, the trend in ethnic-based organizations may be linked to the history of Lampung as a center of trade and migration in Sumatra.

He explained that Lampung has been a trade center since the Portuguese and Dutch colonial era. Many newcomers from Makassar and Banten came and resided in Lampung.

The waves of settlers increased after the Dutch colonial administration relocated people from Bagelen and Purworejo in Central Java, to Gedongtataan in South Lampung.

"In the New Order era, large-scale migration programs have changed Lampung, a large part of which was forested into new towns such as Metro, Seputih Surabaya, Seputih Mataram, Pekalongan and Pringsewu.

"Nearly all the names of areas in Central and East Java are found in Lampung. Newcomers who later stayed permanently, then formed groups which eventually turned into ethnic-based organizations," said Jauhari.

Data at the Lampung Central Bureau of Statistics shows from around seven million inhabitants of Lampung, 61 percent are Javanese, while Lampung natives only accounted for about 20 percent.

Even though Javanese is the majority ethnic group in Lampung, the Javanese in Lampung only recognize a few ethnic-based organizations such as the Pujakesuma, Panginyongan and Giri Kusumo.

Nanang, a doctoral candidate in communications at the University of Padjadjaran, Bandung, said that the Javanese in Lampung had a bigger chance of winning the elections even though they had not formed organizations but only groups because the ethnic sentiment among them was deeply rooted.

In six regencies and municipalities where direct regional elections are to be held on June 27, The Jakarta Post observed that there was a difference in characteristics among the people in choosing their leaders. In Metro for example, fierce competition between ethnic Javanese and Lampung prevailed.

In Bandarlampung, although 38.5 percent of the 522,885 voters are Javanese, the competition between the Javanese group and people native to Lampung or other groups is not quite apparent.

What was obvious was the rivalry between mayoral candidates backed by the Paku Banten and Lampung Sai organizations.

The fact is, there was no mayoral candidate supported by Javanese ethnic groups, only candidates from Paku Banten and Lampung Sai.

According to Jauhari, the organizations are very susceptible to conflict and some had civilian paramilitary forces.

"Lampung may be the province with the most paramilitary forces. These activities can trigger conflicts," added Jauhari.