Deepening Democracy in Indonesia?: Direct Elections for Local Leaders (Pilkada)

15. ETHNIC POLITICS AND THE RISE OF THE DAYAK BUREAUCRACTS IN LOCAL ELECTIONS: Pilkada in Six Kabupaten in West Kalimantan

327 Ethnic Politics and the Rise of the Dayak Bureaucrats in Local Election 327 15 ETHNIC POLITICS AND THE RISE OF THE DAYAK BUREAUCRACTS IN LOCAL ELECTIONS Pilkada in Six Kabupaten in West Kalimantan Benny Subianto INTRODUCTION The province of West Kalimantan is one of the most ethnically and religiously heterogeneous provinces in Indonesia. Apart from the Dayaks, Malays, and Chinese, the Madurese is one of the main ethnic groups in West Kalimantan. The Madurese were never a significant migrant group in numerical terms; however, they were highly visible because they lived separately from other ethnic groups, building their own ghettos. It is quite interesting that the 2000 Population Census does not mention “Dayak” as an ethnic category in West Kalimantan. The reason might be because the Dayak people always identify their ethnicity with their “sub-ethnic” groups, such as Iban, Taman, Kanayatn, Mualang, Desa, Ribun, Pesaguan, Simpakng, Jalai, etc. In fact, as an ethnic grouping, “Dayak” is an invented category, created by Dutch anthropologists and colonial administrators during the Dutch colonial period to depict the indigenous people of Borneo who were neither Malay nor Muslim; it was used in the 1930 Population Census. The 2000 Population Census was the first census after the 1930 census which included ethnic categories, but since 327 15 DeepeningDemocracy Ch 15 1/15/09, 11:22 AM 327 328 328 Benny Subianto it did not use the category “Dayak” in the demographic profile of West Kalimantan I refer to the data provided by military sources; in those sources the “Dayaks” count for 41 per cent of the population, while the Malays are 39 per cent, Chinese are 12 per cent, and the rest, labelled “Others” and including Javanese, Madurese, Buginese, make up 8 per cent of the population.1 Unlike most provinces in Indonesia, where certain ethnic and religious groups are dominant, there is no single dominant ethnic or religious group in West Kalimantan. The Muslim population counts for 57.62 per cent, followed by Catholics 24.05 per cent, Protestants 9.96 per cent, and Buddhists 6.41 per cent of the population.2 This suggests that although Muslims count for more than half of the total population, they are not the real dominant religious group since the number of non-Muslims is quite substantial. Furthermore, the ethnic and religious profile of West Kalimantan very much reflects ethnicized Malaysian-type politics (politik perkauman), in which ethnicity and religion overlap. Being Malay in Malaysia is always Muslim; similarly, being Malay in West Kalimantan is always Muslim. Being Dayak is always either Christian or pagan. If a Dayak converts to Islam, he or she will be categorized as “Senganan”, which is no longer considered Dayak. This kind of ethnicized politics is not found in most other Indonesian provinces. While the demographic profile of West Kalimantan suggests that there is no dominant ethnic or religious group, the Dayaks have been economically and politically deprived since the New Order came to power. This is perhaps part of the reason why the demographic profile is quite fragile and has triggered ethnic and religious conflict. Bloody ethnic conflict broke out between the Dayaks and Madurese in Sanggau Ledo sub-district, kabupaten Sambas, in December 1996. The violence reeled from one set of horrific incidents to another through the first few months of 1997.3 Two years later, in January 1999, another incident of ethnic violence of high magnitude broke out between the Malays and Madurese in Tebas sub-district, kabupaten Sambas. Attacks and counter-attacks involving the Malays and Madurese continued well into March. The situation worsened when a Dayak was killed in an incident; the violence then spread to involve the Dayaks, too. The bloodshed continued in successive waves for about three months. Reportedly, 186 people lost their lives, and at least 26,000 Madurese became IDP (internally displaced people). The untamed violence turned into a type of “ethnic cleansing”, in the sense that the Malays strongly resisted the return of the Madurese to their long time home in kabupaten Sambas (Petebang and Sutisno 2000). The recurrent ethnic violence in West Kalimantan had already started in the early days of the New Order, from October 1967 to March 15 DeepeningDemocracy Ch 15 1/15/09, 11:22 AM 328 329 Ethnic Politics and the Rise of the Dayak Bureaucrats in Local Election 329 1968, when the Dayaks were instigated by the army to evict the remnants...