Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

BLURRED BORDERS AND SOCIAL INTEGRATIONS99location of Sangihe and Talaud within the Indonesianarchipelago. These northern island kabupaten are themost peripheral within the province of North Sulawesi,not just in terms of distance, but also in terms ofdevelopment and infrastructure. Provincial politics isdominated by the Minahasa ethnic group and people inthe capital of Manado often look down on orang pulau(“island people”) from the north—the irony being thatMinahasans themselves also feel marginalized withintheir country. Nusa Utara is therefore twice removedfrom the nerve center of the Indonesian nation. Thesituation is even worse for the remote northernmostislands in the immediate border area. A concretemanifestation of this marginalization is that the largefish processing plants (among these are subsidiaries ofPhilippine companies) are located in North Sulawesi’spremier port city of Bitung. The jobs and revenuescreated, therefore, do not benefit the people in theborderzone where the fish are caught.This marginalization extends to government structures,processes and mindsets as well. For example, to encourageeconomic development, the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East-Asia-Growth-Area (BIMP-EAGA) wassigned into existence in 1994 and is experiencing renewedenthusiasm after some growing pains. Informants fromlocal government units in Sangihe, however, are not tooimpressed by this initiative since they are not includedin the structure that formulates BIMP-EAGA’sprograms and strategies. Their interests are supposedto be represented by the provincial and national-levelofficials who sit in the meetings. The Sangihe regency,therefore, prefers to forge local-to-local linkages withPhilippine counterparts from Sarangani province andGeneral Santos City. The local government and localbranches of national agencies based in Tahuna also havesubstantive suggestions on amending legal frameworksfor cross-border trade, yet there are no venues for themto be heard by decision-makers in Jakarta.intersection of various variables is, of course, a truism,especially in borderzones, where lines of ethnicity andpolitical loyalties are far from self-evident. Throughoutthis research, what struck me was not so much identitiesin themselves—the way people feel, think and talk aboutthemselves—but the specific contexts in which givenidentities are generated, strengthened and weakened.This can be illustrated by the story of Miangas.With a total population of 982 people, life on Miangasis simple. There are no telephones, no cellular sites,no television antennae, no stores nor eateries. Fishingand copra are the main sources of livelihood. FromMiangas, Cape San Agustin in Davao Oriental can bereached in three hours by pump boat. By contrast, ittakes three days to reach the main island of Sulawesiaboard a passenger ferry that ploughs the route everyfortnight. Most of the adults, frequent border crossers,speak Visaya and/or Tagalog and tune into Philippineradio every day. Many are agricultural migrant workersin Southern Mindanao. Locals interchangeably refer totheir home as Isla de las Palmas—its Spanish name datingback to colonial times. Like many other outer islands inthe sprawling Indonesian archipelago, Miangas rarelymakes waves. An unprecedented expression of dissentin May 2005, however, put Miangas on the map.The trigger was the death of Miangas Village SecretaryJhonlyi Awala, who succumbed to injuries he receivedat the hands of the Chief of Police of Miangas. Thelatter reportedly lost his temper when he encounteredthe drunk Awala on a Monday afternoon and beatIn this section we have seen how the present-dayisolation of Sangihe and Talaud is a product of recenthistory and state policies. We have also seen that thetraditional inter-coastal movement of people has beencarried over to present times. As legal scholar ImmanuelMakahanap explained to me: “Laws cannot stop thenatural flow of people who have developed bonds withother islands over hundreds of years.” It is in the nextsection that we look into the formation of identitiesamong local populations.Identities in contextThat identities are fluid constructs, contingent on theBorder Crossing Station MiangasAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows