Kalau katong ini su orang adat, kenapa kita orang seng dapat status negeri adat?
Lalu, negeri adat pu arti apa?
Bukannya negeri itu su adat?
Terus, dong biking apa lai, par tambah kata adat dibelakangnya?
Jadi, adat itu pu arti apae?
If we are already an adat community, why do we not obtain the status of negeri adat?
Thus, what is the definition of negeri adat?
Should ‘negeri’ not supposedly possess ‘adat’ already?
Then, why should there be the word ‘adat’ behind it?
So, what is the meaning of adat?
-Zakaria Limehuey, one of the traditional leaders of Masihulan-
- 1 The provincial negeri regulation of Maluku in 2005 was translated from the National Law (Undang-Und (...)
- 2 Negeri is the adat-base traditional Maluku system of village administration. According to Cooley (1 (...)
1In contemporary Indonesia, the re-emergence of adat, or what Davidson & Henley (2007) refer to as “adat revivalism,” or in Indonesian known as ‘kebangkitan adat,’ has been a prominent phenomenon in the course of decentralisation, which began in 2000. It has been marked by the recognition of customary villages (desa adat), with, among others, the revival of ancient toponymes, like pakraman in Bali, nagari in Sumatra and negeri in Maluku. In this latter province, the readoption of the term negeri has been formalised by the Government Regulation at the provincial level (Peraturan Daerah/Perda Provinsi) of Maluku No. 14 of 2005, which became an umbrella provision (Perda Payung) that highlights negeri as an adat law community in the territory of the Government of the Province of Maluku (Penetapan Kembali Negeri Sebagai Kesatuan Masyarakat Hukum Adat Dalam Wilayah Pemerintahan Provinsi Maluku).1 This is then further regulated to a certain regional level, for example, in the capital city of Maluku, Ambon in 2008, and in the regency (kabupaten) of Central Maluku in 2006. Essentially, this policy changed the status of the uniform village model called desa in Suharto’s New Order era (through the Law of the Village Administration No. 5 of 1979) to a village model based on adat, which, in the context of Maluku, is called negeri.2
- 3 This division was formalized in the Regional Regulation of Central Maluku Regency No. 1 of 2006 con (...)
2At the moment of its implementation, the administrative structure of negeri was divided into two categories with different characteristics: (1) negeri adat, which relates to customary law (hukum adat), and (2) negeri administratif, which is not related to customary law and concerns villages inhabited by transmigrants originating from outside Maluku islands.3 Through the most recent National Law No. 6 of 2014 concerning desa adat, the central government has clarified that the localities placed under the status of negeri highlight two matters. First, a decentralisation process that allows the lowest units of state administrations to set up administrative restructuring (pemekaran). In other words, the state central government acknowledges negeri adat and negeri administratif. Moreover, with this policy, negeri adat can establish its customary structure, including rules to elect a sovereign (mata rumah parentah) from a specific clan as a traditional leader. Second, both negeris could autonomously manage their financial funding (Alokasi Dana Desa/ADD) allocated by the central government. Thus, several regions of Maluku manifested their enthusiasm in gaining such economic autonomy.
- 4 . These types of conflicts are important to be observed considering a similar conflict provoked b (...)
3However, the minority groups that only gained the status of negeri administratif manifested their discontent. The group upon which this article focuses on, Masihulan, a local minority tribe (suku) that lives in the forest of Seram Island, is one of these groups. After Masihulan gained the status of negeri administratif in 2016, its members were disappointed. Indeed, while they had taken advantage of this policy in carrying out pemekaran from its previous principal village of Sawai and had succeeded in developing economically, this status ignored their customary organisations and practices as well as their sovereignty on their traditional territory. Disputes then emerged within Masihulan’s community, particularly through grievances addressed to the upper hierarchy of the community, i.e., Sawai, which is considered as their “father community” (negeri adat induk). While tensions initially regarded claims of the adat authority with Sawai, another open conflict erupted for territorial reasons with the neighbouring community of Rumah Olat, a dusun which has not received the negeri’s status from Sawai.4
4For Tania Li (2007: 337) commenting adat revivalism in Central Sulawesi, to invoke adat is “to claim purity and authenticity for one’s cause.” The questions that emerge are: who has the right to define the purity and authenticity of adat? And what are the causes of the people invoking adat in Masihulan? I will examine these questions by focusing especially on the process of pemekaran Masihulan into negeri administratif vis-à-vis the higher status of negeri adat. I will try to unveil how the terminology of negeri adat has aroused numerous side effects of overlapping adat claims between local comunities. Through the ethnographic method and participatory mapping with Masihulan members in June-August 2016 and a second visit on July 2019, I will reconstruct Masihulan members’ migration itineraries and their traditional territorial boundaries. These are poorly documented in the literature, whereas they have been displayed to claim and gain adat rights. Based on the interview with one of the community’s elders of Masihulan, Zakaria Limehuey, my hypothesis is that the three questions posed by the interlocutor can help us to point out what is at stake in adat rivalries in Seram: (1) If we are the adat community (komunitas adat), why don’t we obtain the status of negeri adat? (2) Thus, what is the definition of negeri adat? Should negeri not supposedly possess adat already? Then why should there be adat behind it? (3) So, what is the meaning of adat?
5The definition of adat has a broad spectrum and is an object of intense discussions among social agents concerned by adat as a label: local communities, the government, promotors of tourism and development, and academia. In Indonesia, the term of adat is also known as adat istiadat, which generally means “customs” or “traditions”, or more precisely “the complex of stable and strongly integrated concepts and rules within the cultural system that regulates human actions in the social life of a particular culture” (Koentjaraningrat et al. 1984: 2, author’s personal translation). For the Malukunese, adat has recently gained a political significance and is considered to be at the core of their “identity” (the sociocultural features that they consider as unique and make them coherent as a community, in comparison to the “others”). It encompasses the norms, habits, or traditions, generally unwritten but conditioning relationship and behaviour. These features are believed to have been established progressively by the ancestors to guarantee the well-being of the community (Cooley 1966: 140; Bartels 2017: 258-259). According to Elengenhoven (2021: 696), adat has not yet been clearly defined: “Adat is originally an Arabic term meaning “custom” or “habit”, and was introduced by Islamic merchants in Maluku and throughout the Indonesian archipelago from the 1200s onward. The term was used as a way to refer to indigenous customs that could not be incorporated into Islamic law.” According to Burns (2007), the concept of adat that was then referred to as adat law (hukum adat) in Indonesia was almost entirely the creation of the Dutch during the colonial era. One could therefore interpret that the notion of adat was a romanticisation, which was considered to return to the imagination and codification of the Dutch adat law.
6The concept of negeri in the context of Central Maluku-Seram Island, is believed to have been manipulated by the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) in the 17th century. Cooley stated that:
The present structure of village society seems to go back at least to 1645, early in the period of Dutch East India Company rule. There is good evidence for believing that in the process of subjugating the area, the Company administrators destroyed an earlier hierarchical structure, groupings of villages under a strong ruler, and sought to give autonomous status to each village by making it self-governing, of course under the supervision of the Company (Cooley 1966: 139).
7By the 19th century, the governmental structure of negeri was officially integrated into the colonial governmental administration. This incorporation was explicitly stated in the “Bulletin of Acts and Decrees” (Staatblad) 19a, 1824, which highlighted the importance of local rights and responsibilities, especially those of negeri’s elites in relation with the Dutch government (Leirissa 1982: 1).
8From this point on, this paper will focus on the Masihulan by describing their struggle to survive after their settlement has been moved three times and how their traditions have been transformed since the colonial era of early 20th century.
- 5 In the current Indonesian administrative division, Seram Island is divided into three regencies: We (...)
- 6 Ellen (2014: 256), “Classification of subject peoples by religion was a standard feature of adminis (...)
9Masihulan is located on Seram Island (see Fig. 1) within the administrative area of Central Maluku Regency, North Seram District, Maluku Province, Indonesia. Maluku is also called “the island of spices” due to the importance played by cloves and nutmegs in its commercial development. Seram Island, the second-largest island of Maluku5, covers an area of 17,151 km², surrounded by the Seram and Banda seas. The society of Maluku is delineated through ethno-religious divisions. Ethnic identity is not secularised and the different ethnic affiliations distinguish the communities and segregate them across rural settlements. In rural areas, the villages tend to be homogeneously characterised by the distribution of religious identities, a classification legacy from the colonial era.6 Three areas were established: Protestant Christian, Muslim, and Alifuru villages.
- 7 Hoskins (1996: 2) in Ellen (2002: 281) defines head hunting as “an organised, coherent form of viol (...)
10The Dutch colonisers generally designated Masihulan as ‘alifuru.’The term alifuru contains the meaning of ‘savage’, referring to religious practices considered as non-civilised, and was associated to the Masihulan tradition of living in the forest and to their headhunting tradition7, or what the Masihulanese call ‘Uiyaului.’ This tradition is linked to the Masihulanese cosmology before 1966, which was structured around the role played by forces of the environment, particularly sky and earth (‘Lante-Takule’), considered as complementary structural elements. As with the other hinterland community tribes, they considered the sky as a father figure and the earth as a mother figure.
Fig. 1 – Masihulan settlement migration patterns and the division of Soa territory
11Generally, negeri, whatsoever classifications it may be assigned with, has a system comprised of numerous social units, which we can categorise as houses (mata rumah), and which together form an ensemble called soa. In the context of the compactly populated Masihulan, the soa can be considered as a clan —Masihulan holds eight clans, some of which are divided into sub-clans.
12From the mid-seventeenth century until 1799, the Dutch East India Company maintained a small military post in Sawai in order to monopolise the spice trade (Valeri 2000: 38). During the 19th century, the Dutch established a new military post in Wahai, positioned 120 kilometers from Sawai, along the coastal line. In 1914, an Onderafdeeling (administrative district) at Wahai was created, where many of the villages from the interior were forced to move. This displacement was due to the Dutch’s assumption that the hinterland population resisted their presence by attacking them using headhunting. By the early 20th century, the area was sufficiently pacified to be placed under the Dutch civilian rule (Valeri 2000:39). Based on the oral narration of Masihulan, the clans used to live in a forest known as Kaisuku, and they were forced by the Dutch to move into a new settlement located in the coastal area called Poputun (whose name was inspired by the name of a guava tree’s roots found in the area) (see Fig. 1). In this new settlement, they were finally provided by the colonial authorities the status of a negeri sub-unit of Sawai adat, in order to be easily controlled. As a result, this situation turned Sawai as the centre of negeri (negeri induk) and Masihulan as its periphery, functioning as Sawai’s guard.
- 8 For Bartels (2007: 177), pela is a general term in Maluku-Ambon that designates a system of allianc (...)
- 9 Bartels (2007: 163) explained that the big house-baileo as the customary house symbolizes the local (...)
13This relationship between the centre and the periphery, known as pela8, was considered by Masihulanese as unequal and even repressive by prioritising “family-hood.” This grievance was increased by the displacement of Masihulan’s baileo 9 (the “big house,” where the society’s ceremonies were performed) to Sawai’s baileo, named Luma Salaola. Sawai became the centre and the key holder of the baileo, acting as a father guardian (petuanan), while Masihulan at the periphery acquired the status of a child (aniala). From a historical perspective, pela roots from Alifuru’s headhunting tradition that was used to invite other villages and clans to defend or attack (Bartels 2007: 179). In Masihulan’s understanding, the system of pela is semi-permanent and can be modified or renegotiated in certain conditions, especially when feuds continue to emerge. Therefore, this relationship was rejected by Masihulan. But, this hybridised form of negeri in both traditional and colonial senses allowed Sawai to claim the integration of Masihulan’s adat territory inside the adat territory of Sawai. Noteworthy, the name of Masihulan in these conditions is an insulting name that was given from Sawai when the Dutch started their administrative data collection from each negeri in Seram Island. The name Masihulan is derived from the language of Sawai ‘Masiasu’, which means “loser”. Quoting one of Sawai’s Ipaenin clan elders, “Masiasu itu pu arti orang yang kasihan. Kasihan… kasihan… kasih lari saja sudah…” (“Masiasu means a loser. Pity… what a shame… let them [the Masihulanese] just go and run away...”) (excerpt taken from an interview in Sawai on July 24th, 2016). Masihulanese were renowned in the past as ‘warriors’ (manawa kapitane paikole), and now they are considered by Sawai people (and by themselves) as a weak community that only hides in the forest.
- 10 The first territory section is soa Limehuey Utele in the mountain zone of Soya, and the second terr (...)
14Oral narratives of Masihulan provided a list of kings from the early 19th century until 1937. But after 1937, according to the informants, the last king, Lokoni Patalatu, left them due to humiliation and loss. The disappearance of their king caused a lack of leadership position in Masihulan, with the sole authority embodied by the vice-king, Tuale Patalatu. From this moment, the majority of the population lived in a scattered manner within the forest and the society, being composed of two clan-based social groupings (soa Limehuey Utele and soa Limehuey Latu) (see Fig. 1), divided in a shared territory.10
15The discourse of adat in Indonesia has been a matter of discussion during numerous colonial episodes. Adat had been used as an instrument of indirect rule by colonial legislators. Subsequently, from the declaration of independence in 1945 onward, the concept of adat was turned into a nationalist instrument of state centralisation during Sukarno’s (1945-1967) and Suharto’s (1968-1998) presidencies (Engelenhoven 2021: 708). In Maluku’s post-colonial era, Bartels (2007: 691-722) had used the term ‘kebangkitan adat’ to analyse how Maluku’s population tried to revitalise their adat during several conflicts. This ‘kebangkitan adat’ was divided into three periods, with the following implications in the context of Masihulan:
- 11 The location of Rohune was previously the location of Rumah Olat which was then given to Masihulan (...)
16(1) At the beginning of Sukarno Old Order’s regime (Orde Lama), in 1950, the separatist movement of the Republic of South Maluku (Republik Maluku Selatan, RMS) emerged in Seram Island. It ended in 1963 after the capture of the leader of the RMS, Soumokil, by the Indonesian military forces. During the conflict, the forest near Masihulan had become a war zone between RMS and the Indonesian military. Sawai was the basecamp of the Indonesian military force, while the forest of Masihulan became a hiding area for the RMS. Masihulan, at the interface of the two camps, was accused by the Indonesian authorities of cooperating with RMS. A sudden attack from the Indonesian military force caused the death of Thomas Sapulete, one of Masihulan’s public figures. This exact event forced Masihulan to move, where Sawai then requested that they be settled down in Rohune11, located next to Sawai (see Fig. 1). The displacement that Sawai requested to Masihulan was due to ‘safety’ reasons: Sawai being a basecamp of Indonesian military force and on the basis of their proximity at Rohune, Masihulan would manifest their pro-Indonesia positioning. Moreover, the destruction as a result of the attack, having caused material damages, especially the destruction of Masihulan’s baileo, was interpreted by the community as a form of rejection of their Lante-Takule (sky and earth) belief by their ancestors. Besides that, because Masihulan was located close to the entirely Muslim-populated settlement of Sawai, they began to reflect on the importance of embracing a religion recognised by the state. Masihulan finally decided to voluntarily convert to the Protestant Christianity (Gereja Protestan Maluku or GPM) in 1963. Three years later, the whole community converted to Christianity and further rejected key elements of its tradition —such as killing other human beings in ritual wars and headhunting raids— by associating said acts to sinful practices. Masihulan members nevertheless maintained and reshaped several features of this tradition, particularly by assuming that the church was their ‘baileo’.
- 12 As an illustration, in 1991, Masihulan only had 50 households with less than 1,000 people in their (...)
17(2) After that, under the authoritarian New Order regime of Suharto the different variations of adat all across the archipelago were predominantly associated to Javanese adat (adat Jawa), under the Law of the Village Administration (UU No. 5 of 1979 about Pemerintahan Desa). In one hand, this law erased all traditional villages in Maluku that had the status of negeri and converted them into desa. On the other hand, because desa were required to have a minimum population of 1,000 people and 200 registered households (kepala keluarga), Masihulan never gained the status of desa. It only earned the status of dusun and remained under the administrative control of Sawai, which had gained the status of desa.12 Therefore, all village funds and government services went through Sawai. The desa status also changed the structure of negeri, such as erasing the status of the king. Elections of the head of desa (kepala desa) and head of dusun (kepala dusun) were carried out with a democratic system in which every clan (marga) in Maluku had the right to become a leader (mata rumah parentah). For example, in 1987-1990 and 1991-2011, Masihulan was led twice by a kepala dusun from an external clan, Yulius Makatita, from Ambon.
18(3) The fall of Suharto’s authoritarian New Order regime, in a period named Reformasi, strengthened the polarisation between Muslims and Christians. It resulted in conflicts in Maluku, beginning in 2000 and ended with the establishment of Malino II Accord, in February 2002. Earlier, in 1999, Masihulan had to move their settlement for the third time, from Rohune to Mapa (whose name was rooted from a water source called Wae Mapa) (see Fig. 1). This movement was due to their location being very near to, as previously mentioned, the Muslim-populated Sawai and thus fearing the possibility of an attack from Sawai. Masihulan population then hid and spread throughout the forest according to the soa zones mentioned previously. Sawai managed to reduce the tension by using the tradition of pela petuanan-aniala. Even though this relational system had always been ‘rejected’ by Masihulan, the customary approach could muffle the religion-based conflicts. In 2000, when the situation became calmer, Masihulan moved out of the forest and settled in Mapa, relatively far from Sawai (approximately 5 kilometers). This area finally became their permanent settlement until this day, and this movement converged with the official separation from Sawai as a negeri administratif. Generally, in Maluku, reflection upon this conflictual experience has been centred around narratives of culture and tradition, especially through the reactivation of adat as a symbol of peace, for example, with efforts to revitalize the tradition ‘ikatan pela’. For all the people of Maluku, irrespective of their religion, the definition of pela has been enlarged to pela gandong, literally: “being from one womb” (satu kandung). This notion refers to a common ancestorship, originating from the mountain of Nunusaku in West Seram (Bartels 2007: 717).
19Looking at the bigger picture today in post-Reformasi era, following Bartels as well as Davidson & Henley, we can refer to a 4th phase of adat revivalism (‘kebangkitan adat’). More or less similar to previous regimes, adat has been used as a political instrument around the narratives of identity. “Adatisation” within regional autonomy policies had the objective of countering the inequalities developed during the New Order regime, perceived as over-centralised and not prioritising civil rights as well as over-unifying local cultural values (Davidson & Henley 2007; Engelenhoven 2021). The demands of returning to the governmental structure of negeri in Maluku thus reflected old grievances toward the New Order regime.
20Within the context of autonomous regional politics, the revival of adat was a potential factor of ethnic hatred and violence from the start (Bourchier 2007: 114). Moreover, adat-based movements used ideologically and politically often threaten to become bandwagons for the pursuit or defence of private wealth and power (Davidson & Henley 2007: 5). This tendency can be identified in previous studies showing that adat has been used as an instrument of pemekaran to mobilise ethnic sentiments by local elites motivated by money and political positions. These instrumental factors have fuelled a series of communal conflicts upon claims for territory and cultural identities, such as in East Sulawesi (Tirtosudarmo 2008), North Maluku (Aini 2012), and West Seram (Seitte 2009). All these conflicts, especially in Maluku, were the result of identity tensions in the context of the pemekaran at the provincial and regency levels, which have fragmented the society between the local or “indigenous” population (putra daerah) and transmigrants (pendatang) from Java and Sulawesi in particular. However, with the application of negeri adat policy, pemekaran was also manifested on smaller local entities, causing further fragmentation of the local population. It was especially the case with claims of autochthony between mountain-Masihulan and coastal-Sawai population.
21Although the concept of negeri adat was accepted by Sawai’s community, it was rejected by Masihulan because it officialises the idea of petuanan-aniala, indicating a return to the colonial era arbitrary hierarchies and the loss of adat rights. Moreover, for Masihulan, the “indigenous” slot is acknowledged to be no longer suitable, considering the community’s long history of migration, conversion to Christianity, and the loss of the baileo and the king. Nevertheless, pemekaran also embedded the promise of more autonomy and economic development, positioning Masihulan in a dilemmatic situation.
Fig. 2 – Illustrations of past and present Alifuru
a – Illustration of an Alifuru practicing headhunting in Seram Island, 1813 (taken from Moeurs et coutumes des peuples, ou Collection de tableaux, représentant les usages remarquables, les mariages, funérailles, supplices et fêtes des diverses nations du monde [1813: 27], available online in gallica.bnf.fr : http://ark.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb33490316j.public).
b – Masihulan men after the performance of the traditional welcoming dance of cakalele, 2016 (Photo credits: Eduardo Erlangga Drestanta).
![Fig. 2 – Illustrations of past and present Alifurua – Illustration of an Alifuru practicing headhunting in Seram Island, 1813 (taken from Moeurs et coutumes des peuples, ou Collection de tableaux, représentant les usages remarquables, les mariages, funérailles, supplices et fêtes des diverses nations du monde [1813: 27], available online in gallica.bnf.fr : http://ark.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb33490316j.public).b – Masihulan men after the performance of the traditional welcoming dance of cakalele, 2016 (Photo credits: Eduardo Erlangga Drestanta).](docannexe/image/3446/img-2.png)
22Alifuru is the specific term used locally to designate the part of the population which has adhered to the indigenous culture, resisting the influences of both Islam and Christianity (Cooley 1966: 137). According to Bartels (2017: 32-33), Alifuru (Arufuru, Alfuren) is a collective meaning that leans towards tribes in remote areas of eastern Indonesia, including but not limited to Sulawesi, Halmahera, and Seram. In the past, Alifuru groups that could be identified and had influence in the coastal area were Alune and Waemale. According to the oral tradition, Alifuru originates from the west of Seram and can be classified as Wemale-Melanesia and Alune-Melayu Polynesia (Bartels 2017: 40-41).
- 13 According to von Benda Beckmann & von Benda-Beckmann (1994: 119), “People speak of cari (searching) (...)
23The Masihulanese are also known as Alifuru’s fastest warriors and most fearsome in North-Seram due to their ability in headhunting activities; hence them being referred by the surrounding communities as “si anjing merah” (the red dogs), or what the Masihulanese call “yasu manate.” This minority group has a small population, comprised of approximately 427 people, while Sawai has 4,603 people. In terms of geographical characteristics, the population lives in the forest-mountain area, while Sawai is in a more open-coastal area. Furthermore, a discourse of dominant differences exists between interior and exterior populations, revealed through their composition: the coastal village, i.e., Sawai, is composed of a mixed population, with transmigrants coming from Bugis, Java, and Buton; whereas the majority of the interior, i.e., Masihulan, is comprised of Alifuru people and a few transmigrants. The other differentiation is based on the level of economy and education. The population of Sawai is sedentary, more economically developed, and more educated. The professions that dominate the population are civil servants, teachers, and fishermen. Meanwhile, life in Masihulan is simpler, with daily activities centred on hunting, harvesting, and gathering (cloves, cacao, coconuts, durians, and sagoos). Few of the members have a full-time job and the majority organise their economy outside the banking system. To obtain economic resources they also perform trade or rent their land with the maxim “Entering the forest to live today,” practicing what von Benda Beckman & von Benda-Beckmann (1994:119) called ‘the economy of cari’ (in Indonesian, cari means “looking for,” “searching”)13.
24With this classification, Alifuru and their characteristics include Masihulan, and they are still generally associated to this day by coastal Sawai as ‘primitive’, ‘backward’, and ‘savages’. While trying to counter these stereotypes, during the pemekaran, Masihulan had to revive its vernacular specificities in order to legitimate its separation from Sawai, and therefore it strengthened its identity as Alifuru, which had already been identified in the legal documents since the colonial era (see Fig. 3). Nevertheless, this situation posed difficulties for the Masihulanese, since ‘Alifuru’ is a category considered as inherited from the Dutch era and, in practice, have converted to Christianity. Thus, if they claim their identity as ‘Alifuru’, they would have to explicitly admit that Sawai is the negeri adat that shelters them according to the rules of pela Petuanan-Aniala. Remembering the small population of Masihulan compared to Sawai, it was impossible for them to declare an open war or negotiation due to the high chances of being disadvantaged. Therefore, Masihulan’s main strategy has been to search for their identity roots in order to distinguish themselves from Sawai. Nevertheless, several public figures reject the identity of Alifuru and would like to turn their identity to another one. Quoting Sony Limehuey, a Masihulanese public figure:
Katong bukan Alifuru… kita orang juga seng Masihulan, katong itu Paisipulane!
We are not Alifuru…we are not Masihulan either, we are Paisipulane!
(excerpt taken from an interview in Masihulan on July 27th, 2016).
25This section will briefly relate key narratives of Masihulanese oral tradition, which are mobilised by the community as markers of self-claimed identity.
Fig. 3 – Classification of Seram Island population by the Dutch, 1911
This document is an archive owned by the church of Masihulan (Gereja Protestan Maluku-Rehoboth Masihulan) taken online from Bronnen betreffende de Midden-Molukken 1900-1942 (1997: 265) written by van Fraassen and Jobse and was used by the head of dusun Masihulan as a proof that they were ethnically Alifuru and differentiated themselves from Muslim Sawai (retrieved in 2016).
- 14 According to an interview on August 11th 2016, the traditional leader in Masihulan, Simon Limehuey, (...)
- 15 Saniris is a Seramese term for the council which used to govern the region of the Three Rivers (Coo (...)
26In ancient times, Negeri Masihulan was called ‘Paisipulane’, meaning ‘the moon comb’ (sisir bulan, in Indonesian). It refers to the name of the favourite jewellery of Rapie Hanuele, one of the princesses of the oldest kingdom of Seram Island, Henamena Nunuele, located in the mountains of West Seram. The kingdom was also known by the locals as Nunusaku14. Based on the oral history, a banyan tree was located in the kingdom, and it was described to have three big branches, symbolising three separating flows found in the big rivers of Seram Island: Tala, Eti, and Sapalewa. These are symbols of three big customary councils, called saniris15, located in the kingdom of Henemena Nunuele.
27However, in this big kingdom, communal battles happened continuously, led by factions that desired to seize the king’s beautiful daughter, Princess Rapie Hanuele. Even though exiling the princess was the only solution to stop the violence, two major groups entered in conflict. One thought it was best to kill the princess, and another thought it was best to save her by exiling her out of Seram. The latter group decided to hide the princess outside Seram Island. During her exile, her sister and brother visited her. When they returned, they brought the princess scarf filled with pieces of jewellery, covered in deer blood, as a proof of her death to the locals who wanted to kill her under the banyan tree. Finally, they placed the scarf at the centre of the banyan tree and danced the maru-maru —a dance with 14 circular patterns.
28Fights still occurred because of mutual distrust: the first five circles were represented by those who had agreed to exile Princess Rapie Hanuele, and the next nine circles were composed by the party that had wanted the death of the princess and did not believe in the evidence of the scarf. The majestic maru-maru dance became full of blood; war cries resounded to kill each other. Nunusaku, a holy land, was splashed with blood and hatred, cursing the kingdom by sinking it into a lake. Those who survived finally fled and tried to save the princess’ jewellery and belongings, looking for a new place, called Sabulawe Latalae. Then, an agreement was arranged. The first five circles settled in the east, from the coast to the mountains, while the nine outer circles settled in the west, from the coast to the mountains. The first five circles are known as Patalima (lit: “the group of five”), and the nine outer circles are known as Patasiwa (lit: “the group of nine”). Then, a Patalima group began a journey to find Princess Rapie Hanuele’s jewelry. When they achieved to bring back her moon comb, they called themselves Paisipulane.
29The status of negeri administratif does not provide Masihulan a possibility to change their name to Paisipulane. However, as a strategy to legitimise their identity, they have placed a pillar at the center of the new settlement. The monument marks the officiation of Masihulan as a negeri administratif, obtained on February 17th, 2016, with the symbol of Paisipulane placed on the top.
30With the status of negeri administratif, Masihulan’s adat structure to this day is not recognised and still uses the desa structure inherited from the Suharto era (the term desa was the only word that was replaced by negeri) (see Fig. 5b). However, through their oral tradition legacy, the community can still reconstruct its adat administrative structure (see Fig. 5a). As shown in the chart below, there are eight main clans in Masihulan: Limehuey (comprising three sub-clans: Utele, Latu, and Sano), Asomate, Lumanuele, Sapulete (consisting of two sub-clans: Lumapui and Lumakane), Lumakutile, Patamanue, Patalatu (comprising one sub-clan called Latu Lahu-Lahu) and Matoke.
Fig. 4 – Moon comb pillar, symbol of Paisipulane
Paisipulane monument and a billboard of a bupati (regent) candidate for 2017 stating “baiknya katong pilih kembali, Tuasikal.Abua SH dan Marlatu.L.Leleury, SE, untuk melanjutkan”.
- 16 See Kabartimur (2021) “16 tahun tanpa raja, Walikota didesak sahkan ranperneg (rancangan peraturan (...)
31The re-establishment of negeri in 2016 in Maluku was marked by new episodes of conflict between the clans who claimed to have the right to become sovereign (mata rumah parentah). This conflict was also linked to the access of funds allocated to negeri —up to one billion rupiahs (approximately USD 70,000) per year. Negeri adat Sawai, as an example, to this day, does not have any king and each mata rumah parentah remains in dispute over the rights of the king. Another example is Negeri Batu Merah in Ambon, which was leaderless for 16 years, from 2005 to 2021, since the Mayor of Ambon had not recognised a king for this Negeri.16
Fig. 5 – Comparison of negeri and desa structure
a – Illustration of the government structure of negeri adat Masihulan (Source: Focus Group Discussion with traditional leaders in Masihulan on 19th July 2016).
b – Illustration of the government structure of negeri administratif Masihulan (Source: Maluku Protestant Church of Masihulan Strategic Plan 2015-2020).
32Comparatively, Masihulan, who also had experienced the absence of any king, adopted a more pacifistic reaction. From 2019, Masihulan tried to restore their adat within their negeri administratif leadership structure by appointing one of the members of Patalatu clan (a legitimate mata rumah parentah), Yondri Patalatu, as a head of negeri. However, they wanted to transform the role and functions of the king as equivalent to those of the kepala desa in order to reinforce electoral democracy mechanisms. In this regard, every clan has the right to be king, similarly to the election of kepala desa. One of the traditional leaders, Josias Asomate, stated:
Beta pikir sistem desa ini sebenarnya lebih bagus toh, lebih demokratis (jadi) lebih baik akang seperti ini…jadi walaupun katong, orang Maluku harus punya raja lagi… katong seng punya masalah dengan marga mana yang boleh memerintah, asal rajanya bagus memerintah, begitu toh?
I think the system of desa is good, it is more democratic (so) is better like this... so even if we, the people of Maluku, have a king... we do not [need to] have any problem about which clan is ruling, as long as the king is good at leading, right?
(excerpt taken from an interview in Masihulan, August 13th, 2016).
33In addition, Masihulan questioned the reason behind the return of negeri adat, since many aspects have changed or do no longer fit to the organisation nowadays. For example, the function of captain (Kapitan) as a war leader and that of the king’s messenger (Marinyo) are considered as no longer relevant. Josias Asomate, who also happened to be the kapitan of Masihulan, expressed this matter:
Kapitan itu apa pu guna? Kan sekarang su seng ada perang lai macam dulu? Kalaupun ada kan tinggal semua marga pasti ikut bergerak akang… lalu Marinyo juga pu guna apa? Sekarang katong kan tingalnya su berdekatan di Mapa, seng perlu kirim orang lai untuk kirm pesan macam dulu di dalam hutan.
What is a kapitan for? There is currently no war, right? Even if there is a war right now, all clans will immediately take action... then, what is the function of marinyo? Now that we live close together in Mapa, there is no need for someone to deliver messages like the old days when living in the forests.
34Despite the debates and concerns, Masihulan still benefited from its current status as an administrative state, receiving 100 million rupiahs from the central government fund in 2016 using it to install electrical wiring, purchase generators, and other constructions in the village.
- 17 See Patty (2016) “Warga Adat Tuntut Pengembalian 7.000 Hektar Tanah,” at: www.Kompas.com [accessed (...)
- 18 I carried out the reconstruction of Sawai’s and Masihulan’s traditional boundaries in their respect (...)
35Before the separation, Masihulan was a dusun of desa Sawai. In the official structure, desa Sawai has five dusun: Opin, Besi, Olong, Rumah Olat, and Masihulan (see Fig. 6). The three former dusuns are Muslim-populated and the other two latter are Christian-populated. Sawai can claim the territory illustrated by the brown colour on the map in Fig. 4 (approximately 27,000 hectares) due to the all five adat territories of dusun being under the pela petuanan-aniala. This ensemble includes Masihulan’s traditional territory, marked by the green line on Fig. 4 (around 11,000 hectares). Masihulan is able to reconstitute how its traditional zones have been constructed, based on an oral history reporting migration itinerary from west to north Seram, and finally entering the petuanan-aniala Sawai system. Each displacement has an unwritten story in traditional poetry, phrases, or songs (kapata) that explained four geographical points where they drew their natural boundaries with other intersecting communities. The first point is the western boundary of Masihulan in Nakaheli Mountain with Horale; the second point is the eastern boundary of Masihulan in Selawai River with Huaulu; the third point is the southern boundary of Masihulan at the Noa Headwaters with Nuaulu. However, regarding the fourth point, which is the northern boundary with Sawai, no one from Masihulan can tell where the natural boundaries are which limits the land with that of Sawai, meaning that, when faced with Sawai, Masihulan has difficulties to argue boundaries. Moreover, in 2016, Roho, a neighbouring negeri of Sawai, demanded financial compensation through legal action for the traditional internal territory that negeri Sawai (2,000 hectares) and negeri Wahai (5,000 hectares) took over and which were used by a shrimp agribusiness company named PT. Wahana Lestari Investama (see Fig. 6).17 Hence, adat territory is fluid and can be easily contested by any clan, including Masihulan. This is the reason why Sawai has difficulties to give Masihulan its adat status; Sawai would probably lose their adat territory based on petuanan-aniala 18.
Fig. 7 – Surveillance on the attack of Rumah Olat.Masihulan men protecting their village from attacks of Rumah Olat on 3rd July 2016 (Photo credits: Eduardo Erlangga Drestanta).
36The initial hope for Masihulan to do pemekaran from Sawai began during Reformasi, through the regional regulation issued by Central Maluku Regency in 2006, which allowed desa to become negeri. However, as explained by Lazarus Patalatu, a former kepala dusun who became the traditional leader in Masihulan and one of the first initiators of pemekaran, the change was not easy. Moreover, the process was stopped due to problems with operational funds and regency-level political arrangements that went back and forth to the capital regency of Masohi. In addition, Sawai, as the main desa, strongly rejected Masihulan’s change of status.
37In 2009, Marten Limehuey (also known as Ateng), another Masihulan community leader, who has close ties to a member of the Regional Legislative Councils (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah, DPRD) from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle political party (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan, PDIP) used this relationship to try to change the status of the dusun to negeri. Together with Mr. Yulians Limehuey (dusun secretary), Andi Limehuey (traditional leader), and Sohaley (teacher), they went to the capital regency of Masohi to consult and make a proposition to a member of the council. However, there was no response from the regent (bupati) to follow up the proposal due to identical reasons stated above.
- 19 See Patty (2014) “Jalan Diblokade, Lalu Lintas di Pulau Seram Lumpuh Total” “Roads Blocked, Traffic (...)
38In 2012, the pemekaran of North Seram Raya Regency (Kabupaten Seram Utara Raya, KSUR) from the Central Maluku Regency (Kabupaten Maluku Tengah, KMT) was in motion to be implemented. To become a new regency, it requires at least five districts (kecamatan), but KSUR only had four kecamatan at the time, being comprised of Seram Utara (Wahai), Seram Utara Barat (Pasanea), Seram Utara Timur Seti (Seti) and Seram Utara Timur Kobi (Kobi). Sawai was promised a new status of kecamatan —Kecamatan Teluk Dalam Sawai. To become the 5th kecamatan, Sawai had to divide the dusun under its structure because a kecamatan is required to comprise at least five villages. Sawai thus proposed the five dusun (Besi, Opin, Olong, Rumah Olat, and Masihulan) to become desa. However, this motion regarding the division of KSUR was again and again not met with a prompt response by the bupati of KMT in 2014, leading to civil unrest and even demonstrations breaking out in the North Seram region.19 Consequently, Sawai ultimately failed to become a kecamatan, and Masihulan’s status remained as a dusun along with the other four dusun.
39With the opportunity provided by the most recent law (No. 6 of 2014), Marten Limehuey and his relative Yulians Limehuey immediately contacted the previously mentioned member of DPRD to resubmit a proposal for a new negeri adat Masihulan. At first, Sawai refused to give the rights to Masihulan. But, in order to prioritise the success of pemekaran, Yulians Limehuey negotiated the possibility of implementing the status of negeri admnistratif and to abandon Masihulan adat territory to the benefit of Sawai. Moreover, with the election of bupati being scheduled for the next year, Masihulan took advantage of this political moment by negotiating to provide a guaranteed vote from them. Finally, on February 17th of 2016, Masihulan officially stood independently as negeri administratif apart from negeri Sawai, placing a billboard of a bupati candidate next to the Paisipulane monument (see Fig. 4). Nevertheless, with this new status, Masihulan only had a small territory of 64 hectares for 410 inhabitants (121 households) and lost their customary territory.
40After the split, elements of conflicts began to resurface, particularly when the entrance gate of Masihulan was destroyed by Sawai. In an interview, a young Sawai man explained the reason behind their initiation of the attack:
Jalan Masihulan ini milik kita orang (Sawai). Lagian, dong orang memang berani (Masihulan)? Dorang kan cuman beberapa ekor sa!
[Because] the route that Masihulan passed through belongs to us (Sawai). Besides, where would they get such bravery? There were only handful bunch of them!
(excerpt taken from an interview in Sawai on June 26th, 2016).
41Other tensions emerged that at one point, resulted in open battle between Masihulan and Rumah Olat. The first factor concerned Rumah Olat’s interest in gaining equal status with Masihulan (from dusun to negeri). Meanwhile, the second factor of tension stemmed from the fact that Rumah Olat claimed rights to the location (Mapa) where Masihulan currently resides. With an equal population of around 400 people, the two clans fought for a week, prompting the evacuation of women and babies from the forest, but without any casualties.
42The implementation of negeri adat in Maluku manifests how the pemekaran administrative fragmentation has involved essentially instrumental administrative and economic concerns, whereas cultural, religious, and micro-political dimensions linked to adat have been obliterated. This disregard of the different socio-political dimensions embedded in adat sharpens the tensions between the social groups that are involved in territorial fragmentation and grouping, raising inequalities and sentiments of injustice. These destabilisations have provoked numerous communal conflicts based on territorial and cultural identity claims. For Masihulan, negeri adat is unfairly used and considered as artificial, as it is only used to accommodate old fashioned practices of power, locally titled as colonial, over the Alifuru group and only benefitting to the coastal population. Through the re-establishment process, negeri has been regarded as a one-way repressive act enforced by Masihulan’s previous main village, Sawai.
43Nowadays, Masihulan certainly has the opportunity to self-develop as a negeri administratif, but they have lost their customary status and the consequences in the short and medium terms are yet to be known. Masihulan has a long history of migration, religious conversion, and even communication with the outside world, and these features have historically transformed them. Therefore, Masihulan rejected Alifuru’s denomination, no longer suitable to their social and religious practices and has self-claimed a new identity referent, with the community’s name of Paisipulane. But in reality, when it comes to justifying their authenticity and their separation from the Sawai, they have found themselves caught in a dilemma, as they have to cling to the narratives recorded in colonial documents, giving them only an Alifuru identity. This situation pressures Masihulan community, which has to envisage adat as a label to be negotiated with Sawai. The confusion surrounding this negotiation is reflected in the following statement from Masihulan’s adat leader, Zakaria Limehuey:
Katong su mau turun dari gunung, terpaksa kah maupun seng terpaksa… mau pigi ke sekolah, pindah Kristen… tapi sekarang dorang suruh kita balik lai pakai adat macam primitif begitu? Macam Baileo lai? punya Raja lai? Kalau begitu, kenapa katong seng balik lagi saja? Sekalian tinggal di dalam hutan, mulai lagi cincang kepala macam katong pu tete nene moyang?
We had already come down from the mountains, willingly or unwillingly, to go to school, to convert to Christianity, but now they ordered us to go back to the primitive adat ways. To have baileo “big house” again? And be led by kings again? If that is the case, why don’t we just go back again? Might as well live in the jungle, start head hunting all over again like our ancestors.
(excerpt taken from an interview in Masihulan on August 15th, 2016).
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