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Straddling the Border: A Marginal History of Guerrilla Warfare and ‘Counter-Insurgency’ in the Indonesian Borderlands, 1960s–1970s*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2011

MICHAEL EILENBERG
MICHAEL EILENBERG*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Ethnography, University of Aarhus, Moesgaard, 8270 Hojbjerg, Denmark Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Post-independence ethnic minorities inhabiting the Southeast Asian borderlands were willingly or unwillingly pulled into the macro politics of territoriality and state formation. The rugged and hilly borderlands delimiting the new nation-states became battlefronts of state-making and spaces of confrontation between divergent political ideologies. In the majority of the Southeast Asian borderlands, this implied violent disruption in the lives of local borderlanders that came to affect their relationship to their nation-state. A case in point is the ethnic Iban population living along the international border between the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan and the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Based on local narratives, the aim of this paper is to unravel the little known history of how the Iban segment of the border population in West Kalimantan became entangled in the highly militarized international disputes with neighbouring Malaysia in the early 1960s, and in subsequent military co-operative ‘anti-communist’ ‘counter-insurgency’ efforts by the two states in the late 1960–1970s. This paper brings together facets of national belonging and citizenship within a borderland context with the aim of understanding the historical incentives behind the often ambivalent, shifting and unruly relationship between marginal citizens like the Iban borderlanders and their nation-state.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 6 , November 2011 , pp. 1423 - 1463
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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31 A Special Forces unit locally known as the Red Berets that later evolved into the notorious Kopassus elite force.

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42 The Malaysian and Commonwealth troops erected army camps in Batu Lintang, Lubok Antu and Jambu across the border in Sarawak just opposite the Indonesian camps. See Gurr, Robert, Voices from a Border War: 1 Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, 1963 to 1965 (Melbourne: R. M. Gurr, 1995), pp. 106–107Google Scholar.

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48 Stephen Kalong Ningkam was an influential politician of mixed Iban/Chinese decent from the Katibas region in Sarawak just opposite the border who held the position of Chief Minister from 1963–1966.

49 See also Christine Padoch who has noted similar emigration of Kalimantan Iban from the upper Kapuas River into Sarawak during Confrontation in order to escape harassment by members of the Indonesian military. See Padoch, Christine, Migration and Its Alternatives among the Ibans of Sarawak (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1982), p. 31Google Scholar.

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51 For detailed accounts of the numerous clashes between the Indonesian Army and Commonwealth troops in the Nanga Badau-Lubok Antu area see Ibid., pp. 85–102.

52 Personal interview, 23 March 2007.

53 On the Commonwealth troop build-up on the Sarawak side of the Perayung hills and their bombing across the border, see also Pugsley, From Emergency to Confrontation, pp. 314–315. Still today the hilly borderland is littered with old dirt trenches and unexploded bombs.

54 Personal interview, 22 June 2007.

55 See Smith, Neil, Nothing Short of War: With the Australian Army in Borneo 1962–66 (Brighton, Victoria: Citadel Press, 1999), p. 7Google Scholar.

56 The ambiguous affairs behind this coup attempt that later led the way for the overthrow of President Sukarno is still highly controversial.

57 Layang, Implikasi Ketertinggalan.

58 Personal interview, 23 July 2007.

59 Heidhues, Mary Somers, Golddiggers, Farmers, and Traders in the ‘Chinese District’ of West Kalimantan, Indonesia (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 2003), pp. 243–244CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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61 Here I deliberately place the term ‘insurgency’ within quotation marks as it is important to remember that the term ‘insurgency’ carries a negative conation that the rebels’ cause is illegitimate, whereas the rebels themselves see the government authority itself as being illegitimate.

62 Rachman, Ansar et al. , Tanjungpura Berdjuang—Sejarah Kodam Xii/Tanjungpura, Kalimantan Barat (Pontianak: Kodam Tanjungpura, Kalimantan Barat 1970), p. 239Google Scholar.

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71 The Sarawak Special Branch was originally created in 1949 to collect intelligence on various subversive activities and secessionist movements including those inspired by communism. This special unit of the police later played an important role in curbing the spread of communist ‘propaganda’ in the state during the 1960s and 1970s.

72 Soemadi, Peranan Kalimantan Barat, p. 96; Rachman et al., Tanjungpura Berdjuang, pp. 320–321.

73 See Tempo, ‘166.129 Orang Itu Mau Kemana; Dari Wna Ke Wni’, Tempo, Edisi 24/04, 17 August 1974; Tempo, ‘Bedil Serawak’, Tempo, Edisi 27/04, 7 September 1974.

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79 The four other areas were Sajingan (Sambas district), Balai Karangan (Sanggau district), Senaning and Sungai Antu (Sintang district). See Tempo, ‘Membenahi Perbatasan’, Tempo, Edisi 17/04, 29 June 1974.

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84 Growing hill rice plays a vital role in the Iban social and spiritual way of life and many of the more conservative Iban are extremely reluctant to give up this form of rice cultivation.

85 Soemadi, Peranan Kalimantan Barat, pp. 96–99.

86 Rachman et al., Tanjungpura Berdjuang, p. 295.

87 Soemadi, Peranan Kalimantan Barat, p. 104.

88 Ibid., p. 124.

89 Pancasila relies on five principles; (1) Monotheism, (2) Humanism, (3) The unity of nationalism, (4) Democracy through representative government, (5) Social justice.

90 For a more detailed discussion of national schooling in the borderland and the paradoxical outcomes see Eilenberg, Michael, ‘Paradoxical Outcomes of National Schooling in the Borderland of West Kalimantan, Indonesia: The Case of the Iban’, Borneo Research Bulletin 36 (2005)Google Scholar.

91 Personal interview, 30 May 2007.

92 Tempo, ‘Agama & Perut’, Tempo, Edisi 34/04, 26 October 1974.

93 Anonymous, ‘Apostolisch Vicariaat Van Borneo: De School Te Landjah Gesloten’, Onze Missiën in Oost- en West-Indië: Tijdschrift der Indische Missie-Vereeniging 5, no. 58–60 (1921–1922)Google Scholar.

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95 See Letters from Lanjak 1908–1917, to Pater Provinciaal. 30 September 1912, P. Ignatius. Kapucijnenarchief, Archivum Capuccinorum Hollandvae (ACH), s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.

96 Eilenberg and Wadley, ‘Borderland Livelihood Strategies’.

97 The rebels were divided into two groups concentrating on different parts of the West Kalimantan-Sarawak border. The PARAKU mostly operated in the remote eastern reaches of the border (Sintang, Kapuas Hulu) while the PGRS (Pasukan Gerilya Rayakat Serawak) operated in the western parts.

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99 According to Fujio Hara, a Sarawak Iban named Ubong was appointed deputy commander of the PARAKU in the late 1970s. See Fujio, ‘The North Kalimantan Communist Party’, p. 502.

100 For a detailed description of the general political dynamics in West Kalimantan during the era of militarization see Davidson, Jamie S., Violence and Politics in West Kalimantan, Indonesia (Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Political Science: University of Washington, 2002)Google Scholar.

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102 Ibid., p. 2. It is important to remember that this White Paper was part of Malaysian Government anti-communist propaganda.

103 Conboy, Ken, Kopassus: Inside Indonesia's Special Forces (Jakarta/Singapore: Equinox Publishing, 2003), p. 95Google Scholar.

104 Whether this statement is true is difficult to assess; local rumours say that instructors from the RRC entered Kalimantan during this period, but it is more likely that the General Peng mentioned here was a Sarawak Chinese trained in China. Like the PARAKU, many of the TNKU soldiers used an alias. However, in his account of the military involvement in fighting the PARAKU, General Soemadi mentions the 1971 surrender of a rebel leader named Sim Kiem Peng from the PARAKU Unit Satuan 330 who operated in the Lanjak area. See Soemadi, Peranan Kalimantan Barat, pp. 130–131.

105 Personal interview, 23 March 2007.

106 Ibid.

107 van der Kroef, Justus M., ‘Indonesian Communism since the 1965 Coup’, Pacific Affairs 43, no. 1 (1970): p. 49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

108 Porritt, The Rise and Fall of Communism, p. 164.

109 Rahman, The Treat, p. 15.

110 See also Soemadi, Peranan Kalimantan Barat, p. 94.

111 Personal interview, 10 April 2007.

112 See Tempo, ‘Siapakah Kie Chok’, Tempo, Edisi 33/01, 16 October 1971.

113 For similar statements see McKeown, The Merakai Iban, p. 105.

114 Personal interview, 23 July 2007.

115 Ibid.

116 See H. A. M Japari, ‘Buku I: Pembangunan Jalan Darat Di Kabupaten Dati Ii Kapuas Hulu Sebagai Upaya Membuka Isolasi Daerah’, (Putussibau: Pemerintah Kabupaten Daerah Tingkat II Kapuas Hulu, 1989), p. 11.

117 Personal interview, 23 July 2007.

118 See Lumenta, Dave, ‘Borderland Identity Construction within a Market Place of Narrative. Preliminary Notes on the Batang Kanyau Iban in West Kalimantan’, Masyarakat Indonesia-Majalah Ilmu-Ilmu Social Indonesia XXX, no. 2 (2005)Google Scholar; Pirous, ‘Life on the Border.’

119 Personal interview, 14 July 2007.

120 Just across the border in the Lubok Antu several Iban leaders were arrested and accused by Malaysian Forces of supplying food and intelligence to the PARAKU. For example, in 1968, ten Iban headmen were arrested in Lubok Antu accused of colluding with the communists. See Porritt, The Rise and Fall of Communism, p. 164.

121 The military policy of intimidation and violence was also widely felt among other Dayak communities living along the lower parts of the border. See Peluso, Nancy Lee, ‘A Political Ecology of Violence and Territory in West Kalimantan’, Asia Pacific Viewpoint 49, no. 1 (2008)Google Scholar.

122 Personal interview, 8 June 2007.

123 This incident is also noted in General Soemadi's 1974 account of the PARAKU period. See Soemadi, Peranan Kalimantan Barat, pp. 130–131.

124 Personal interview, 9 June 2007.

125 Wadley, Reed L., ‘Frontiers of Death: Iban Expansion and Inter-Ethnic Relations in West Borneo’, International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter 24 (2001)Google Scholar.

126 Reed L. Wadley has noted how the same term was used to describe the period of raiding and punitive expeditions during colonial times. See Wadley, Reed L., ‘Punitive Expeditions and Divine Revenge: Oral and Colonial Histories of Rebellion and Pacification in Western Borneo, 1886–1902’, Ethnohistory 51, no. 3 (2004): p. 628CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

127 Davidson and Kammen, ‘Indonesia's Unknown War’, p. 31.

128 The Wanra were a kind of local civil defence unit (Pertahanan Sipil or Hansip). See Sundhaussen, Ulf, The Road to Power: Indonesian Military Politics 1945–1967 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 192–193Google Scholar.

129 See also Presidential Decree no. 4 of 15 March 1965.

130 See McKeown, The Merakai Iban, pp. 384–385.

131 See Bala, Changing Borders and Identities.

132 van der Kroef, Justus M., ‘Indonesia, Malaya, and the North Borneo Crisis’, Asian Survey 3, no. 4 (1963): p. 255Google Scholar.

133 Porritt, The Rise and Fall of Communism, pp. 157–158.

134 Personal interviews, 19 and 21 March 2007.

135 Wadley, Reed L. and Eilenberg, Michael, ‘Vigilantes and Gangsters in the Borderland of West Kalimantan, Indonesia’, in State, People and Borders in Southeast Asia (ed.), Horstmann, Alexander (A Special Issue of The Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, Vol. 7, 2006)Google Scholar.

136 Tempo, ‘Sepucuk Telegram Dari Gerombolan’.

137 Personal interview, 9 April 2007.

138 Effendy, Machrus, Penghancuran Pgrs-Paraku Dan Pki Di Kalimantan Barat (Jakarta: P.T. Dian Kemilau, 1995)Google Scholar.

139 Personal interview, 9 March 2007.

140 Soemadi, Peranan Kalimantan Barat, p. 163.

141 Lumenta, ‘Borderland Identity Construction’, p. 17.

142 See Conboy, Kopassus, p. 148.

143 Colonel Soemadi is not to be confused with Brigadier General Soemadi mentioned earlier.

144 As rewards for their loyalty towards the New Order government, several well-connected Iban were, together with Military officers, given control of large timber concessions in the borderland. See Eilenberg, Michael, ‘Negotiating Autonomy at the Margins of the State: The Dynamics of Elite Politics in the Borderland of West Kalimantan, Indonesia’, South East Asia Research 17, no. 2 (2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

145 Personal interview, 23 March 2007.

146 ‘Sri Aman’ is a Malay phrase for peace and after the signing of the memorandum the town of Simanggang was renamed Sri Aman to commemorate the agreement. However, until today the Iban still use the former name of the town.

147 Fujio, ‘The North Kalimantan Communist Party’.

148 Pidato P. R. I., ‘Pidato Pertanggungan Jawab Presiden/Mandataris Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat Republik Indonesia: Presiden Republik Indonesia, Djeneral Soeharto’, (Jakarta: 1972).

149 For similar claims see also Japari, ‘Buku I’, pp. 11–12. Japari was District head of Kapuas Hulu from 1985–1995.

150 Davidson and Kammen, ‘Indonesia's Unknown War’, p. 33.

151 Lumenta, ‘Borderland Identity Construction’, p. 20.

152 Porritt, The Rise and Fall of Communism.

153 Eilenberg and Wadley, ‘Borderland Livelihood Strategies’.

154 Personal interview, 13 March 2007.

155 Eilenberg, ‘Negotiating Autonomy’.