OnOn thethe popoliticslitics ofof mmigrigratatioion:n: IndonesiaIndonesia andand BeBeyoyondnd Riwanto Tirtosudarmo i All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. ii OnOn thethe popoliticslitics ofof mmigrigratatioion:n: IndonesiaIndonesia andand BeBeyoyondnd Riwanto Tirtosudarmo LIPI Press iii © 2015 Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Research Centre for Society and Culture Cataloging in Publication On the Politics of Migration: Indonesia and Beyond/Riwanto Tirtosudarmo.–Jakarta: LIPI Press, 2015. xl hlm. + 362 hlm.; 14,8 x 21 cm ISBN 978-979-799-832-5 1. Mig ration 2. Indonesia 338.9 Copy editor : Sri Suratmini and Susi Fauziah Proofreader : Martinus Helmiawan and Noviastuti Putri Indrasari Layouter : Erna Rumbiati, Rahma Hilma Taslima, and Dhevi E.I.R. Mahelingga Cover designer : Rusli Fazi First Edition : September 2015 Published by: LIPI Press, member of Ikapi Jln. Gondangdia Lama 39, Menteng, Jakarta 10350 Phone: (021) 314 0228, 314 6942 Fax.: (021) 314 4591 E-mail: [email protected] iv CONTENT Editorial's Note ..........................................................................................vii Preface and Acknowledgment .....................................................................ix Introduction: The Politics of Migration and the Outline of This Book .......xvii PART I: INDONESIA Chapter One Transmigration as Ideological Policy ................................................. 3 Chapter Two Development-Migration-Conflict ...................................................... 41 Chapter Three Demographic Engineering and Displacement ................................. 69 Chapter Four Decentralization and Inequality ...................................................... 99 Chapter Five East Sulawesi Province? The Politics of Transcending Boundaries .. 117 Chapter Six The Failure of Nation-Building Project? ........................................ 147 PART II: BEYOND INDONESIA Chapter Seven Malay World and the Politics of Space .......................................... 165 Chapter Eight Cross-Border Migration and the Nunukan Tragedy ....................... 179 v Chapter Nine In the Margin of a Borderland: Florenese Community in Sabah .......................................................................................... 201 Chapter Ten The Making of a Minahasan Community in Oarai, Japan ........... 225 Chapter Eleven Migration, Ethnicity and Conflict in Southeast Asia ..................... 255 Chapter Twelve Migration-Development-Security Nexus: In Search of New Perspectives in the Changing East Asian Contexts ............ 281 Sources of Book Chapters ...................................................................... 321 References ............................................................................................... 323 Index ....................................................................................................... 353 Author’s Biography ................................................................................. 361 vi Editorial's Note s a scientific publisher, LIPI Press holds on high responsibility Ato provide high-quality scientific publication. The provision of qualified publication is the epitome of our works to participate in enlightening society intelligence and awareness as stated in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. The book On the Politics of Migration: Indonesia and Beyond sees migration from a different perspective, that is from its political stand- point making the book as multi-disciplined book of demography and politics. The focus is still on how Indonesia and its people approach migration, as they utilize internal migration and then further beyond their national borders. We surely hope this book could give new insights and informa- tion, especially about the politics of migration as a basis for further studies. As a final note, we would like to deliver our heartfelt gratitude to everyone taking part in the process of this book. LIPI Press vii viii Preface and Acknowledgment his collection is the result of two decades or so of my deep Tengagement in the study of migration in Indonesia and beyond, with all the chapters representing my more or less constant interest in the social and political dimensions of the movements of people. In 1990, I completed my doctoral thesis on the central and regional contexts of transmigration policy in Indonesia. Transmigration is state sponsored migration from Java and Bali to the other islands (Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua) in Indonesia. The thesis was submitted to the Department of Demography, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, Australia. From the beginning, in the thesis proposal, the subject matter of it was considered by my supervisors as problematic; apparently not quite fitting into the discipline of demography, lying somewhere in the borderland between demography and politics. One of my thesis committee, an anthropologist, even said that I was misplaced and should go to the department of politics rather than demography. While in the end, I was permitted to complete my thesis and was awarded a doctoral degree in demography, a feeling of being out of place and having to confine myself in the disciplinary border zone, have seemingly, continuously haunted my academic career. However, leaving aside those feelings of being misplaced, my ix doctoral dissertation, constitutes, in my own view of course, the most important academic basis for my further journey as a researcher in the field of demography and politics. At the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, where I have spent my entire research career, from 1980 until now, the collegial atmosphere of the Institute, especially in the Division of Social Sciences and Humanities, provides a unique academic environment where disci- plinary boundaries among Social Sciences and Humanities are not tightly demarcated. At the Institute, research topics have always been approached within the scope of inter and multidisciplinary perspec- tives. Research topics are routinely studied by teams with individual researchers contributing according to their research interests and capacities. Researchers at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences are encouraged to improve their individual capacities and expected to fulfil their independent responsibilities. After completing my doctoral degree in 1990, I became affiliated with the Research Centre for Population, and in 1999, I moved to the Research Centre for Society and Culture where social issues were approached within a broader perspective. The essays collected in this book, more or less reflect my involvement in multidisciplinary research, in these two research centres, within the Division of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. In retrospect, my interest in the politics of migration perhaps has been constituted more by accident than by a rational academic choice. I studied psychology during my undergraduate days before taking postgraduate study in demography. Therefore, my encounter with politics is not through systematic study but through reading and direct exposure too and going research experience.1 The decision to 1 Perhaps a kind of “political mindedness” that at the time was described by Goldsworthy (1988, p. 507) as sensitivity to the phenomena of values, interests and power in human affairs….has always occupied my thinking. x work on the central-regional contexts of transmigration policy, as my dissertation topic, was also partly resulted from my engagement in research projects conducted by the Research Centre for Population around the mid 1980s. Transmigration was a national policy to resettle people from Java and Bali to the other islands, to ease the popula- tion density in Java and open up agricultural lands outside Java. The mid 1980s were the heyday of Suharto’s New Order regime, when a centralistic government was in the full swing of power, engineering social and economic development in Indonesia toward particular ideological goals. The study I was involved in at the time aimed to assess the implementation of transmigration in Riau (Sumatra) and South Kalimantan. Up to that time, research studies on transmigra- tion were abundant yet only a few looked at the political aspects. The authoritarian nature of Suharto’s New Order rule obviously had little room for criticism of its politics, so given the strongly centralistic character of Indonesian politics at the time, my thesis topic was understandably considered politically sensitive issues. After I return to the Institute in 1991, I began to be involved in a research collaborative project by my research centre and ANU on demography and development in Eastern Indonesia. Between 1992–1995, as a researcher and a member of the management team of the project, I make frequent visits to various places in five provinces in Eastern Indonesia (West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, Papua and East Timor). It was during those visits that I realized the latent increasing tension between migrants and non-migrants, particularly in urban areas. My encounter with many informants in Mataram, Kupang, Dili, Ambon, Jayapura,