Dayak, Madurese relations still tense

MENJALIN, West Kalimantan (JP): "Dayaks are just like bees. Disturb one of them and the whole nest will react," explains one Chinese-Indonesian in Sei Pinyuh, some 50 kilometers north of the provincial capital, Pontianak.

This indigenous Kalimantan tribe makes up some 41 percent, or 1.6 million people, out of the province's population of four million. Other ethnic groups include Malays (39 percent), Chinese-Indonesians (14 percent) and Madurese (2 percent), along with a sprinkling of Bugis and Arab-Indonesians.

Here, in hilly Menjalin subdistrict -- some 25 kilometers north of Sei Pinyuh -- live the Dayak's largest sub-ethnic community, the Kanayatn, of nearly 15,000. Much like most Dayaks, this community is known to maintain a strict practice of traditional customs.

West Kalimantan has been known as an area of relative harmonious relations among its ethnic communities despite tension with Madurese migrants who first came here in the 1960s.

Here, Chinese-Indonesians are not perceived only as being rich traders, for they are found in all levels of society. In fact, some reports indicated that poor Chinese-Indonesians participated in recent incidents of looting.

But the government's failure to address problems, such as the allocation of Dayak lands for transmigration programs and plantations, has perpetuated resentment here toward migrants, particularly the Madurese.

H. Nazarius, 56, an elder in Raba village, is Menjalin's timangung, or subdistrict head, the highest rank in Dayak traditional society.

He said his tribespeople were "quite hurt" by recent lootings of rice in some parts of the province.

Dayaks are demanding that migrants understand them better.

"Because Dayaks are indigenous to Kalimantan, it's their home. They feel they are obliged to take care of their home."

An elderly Kanayatn, Rachmat Sahudin, borrowed a West Sumatran adage to describe the need for outsiders to respect the customs of the place one resides in: "Wherever the earth you walk upon, there the sky must you uphold."

Dayaks, he said, have moved to the hinterland from near the sea and river "just to give way for migrants to settle". The word Dayak, which comprises many sub-ethnic groups, means uphill or upstream.

A Madurese elder in Siantan, H.M. Sulaiman, pointed to harmonious relations between the groups. "Some of us have even married Dayaks," he said.

There is still "isolation" between the two, says sociologist AB Tangdililing of Tanjungpura University.

Differences in customs and religion -- Dayaks are mostly Christian, while Madurese are Moslem -- have created communication gaps and perpetuated a mutual isolation, he said.

For instance, Nazarius said when a Dayak is killed, the non- Dayak suspects usually just fled instead of facing up to the traditional punishment of having to pay compensation in 48 hours to the victim and take part in a ritual to be "cured" of the devil.

Failure to face the crime of killing a Dayak, he said, could lead to a widening of ill feeling between ethnicities.

A social helper working closely with the community also admitted to feeling resentment against Madurese migrants.

"It's only those above (informal and formal leaders) who are at peace, but below it's still brewing," the worker from Flores island warned.

The source, requesting anonymity, also warned of a larger clash between the two groups than in 1997. (aan)