Nunukan: Town strained to the limit by returnees

John Haba, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta, habanet52@hotmail.com

As a newly established regency in 2000, Nunukan, formerly a district of Bulungan regency in East Kalimantan, has increased its role both as a transit point for people from other provinces, and as a site for border crossing between Nunukan and Tawau to purchase goods in the neighboring country.

Historically, people from other islands such as South Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara -- mostly from Flores -- and Java started entering this region after 1950 for various reasons. Struggling for a better life could be a determinant variable besides family reunions and other factors that have prompted people to enter Nunukan in the last 10 years.

One hidden reason to enter into Tawau is to work in households or on plantations, either legally or illegally. The current ethnic composition and development programs in the city of Nunukan suggests that migrants are being favored at the expense of the local Tidung people.

With the waves of illegal workers arriving from Tawau and Kinabalu since July 2002, Nunukan is facing mounting problems, particularly potential conflict among the illegal workers and the local Tidung.

Based on Law No. 47 1999, Nunukan was declared a new regency on June 7, 2000. Encompassing 14,657.7 square kilometers, it covers five districts -- Sebatik, Lumbis, Sebakung, Krayan and Nunukan. Overall, there are 212 villages on Nunukan with a variety of ethnic groups living together: the Tidung, Javanese, migrants from South Sulawesi, the Dayak, the Banjar, Timorese and the Melayu people.

In 1999, the former Nunukan district had a population of 81,472 with an average annual population growth of 2.89 percent and a density of some 5.9 percent per square kilometers.

From 1998 to 2000 job seekers entering Nunukan comprised 54,294 people from South Sulawesi, followed by 15,107 from East Nusa Tenggara and the rest from Java and other provinces.

At the end of the monarchy period of Bulongan (1770-1958) and during Dutch colonial rule, the center of government was in Tanjung Selor, which until now has abundant natural resources.

Nunukan's annual income reached Rp 402 billion in 1999 with oil and gas alone contributing Rp 300.7 billion, apart from the contribution of agriculture, trading and services.

Nowadays with regional autonomy the local authority is trying to exploit more resources to gain regular revenue from sectors such as forestry, while it still depends on the budget allocation from Jakarta.

As a new regency, Nunukan is struggling to meet all demands while it faces two major constraints: a scarcity of skilled people to exploit its natural resources and limited financial resources to undertake its various development plans.

Presumably, one way out of the present predicament would be to allow the incoming people from other provinces to invest there; as they are not always a burden for the Nunukan people, but create jobs in trading, construction, transportation and agricultural sectors. On the other side there is also potential ethnic resentment on the part of the locals, as has been shown toward Bugis migrants who control business activities, emerging as new landlords and playing vital roles as traders at markets.

Being remote from Jakarta, there has been little attention from either the central or provincial government. Local bureaucrats in East Kalimantan's capital, Samarinda, argue that the lack of transportation means to cover the long distance between Samarinda and Kalimatan's interior must be a main consideration in developing areas such as Nunukan. The legacy of a "top-down" mode of development is also still felt from the Soeharto era, with many feeling marginalized.

Clearly, without a good development strategy after the introduction of regional autonomy, Nunukan will face many domestic problems.

The thousands of illegal workers entering Nunukan since Malaysia cracked down on undocumented migrants since July 2002 has led to the direct potential problem of having scores of unemployed people in town, one obvious issue being that of how to feed them.

It is the people of Nunukan who will also bear the brunt of this tragedy if a way out is not found soon.

Dr. John Haba, who graduated from the University of Western Australia in Perth, has recently conducted research on migrant workers in East Kalimantan as part of a study for LIPI.