Conflict likely in Bandarlampung poll

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.