The value of honesty embedded in the conduct of the Balik ethnic group has prompted Sibukdin, 58, to voice his community’s inner emotions.
By
SUCIPTO
·6 minutes read
The man who never enjoyed schooling does not want to see the erosion of humanity with the development of the new capital city. Wearing a black cap with a yellow motif, Sibukdin related memories of his thriving village.
In Sepaku subdistrict, the Balik ethnic group’s native village was once endowed with forestland lasting generations, with fruit trees covering the plains and slopes. This blessing of nature enabled shifting cultivation. The clean, flowing river water was fit for drinking and boating, tall trees offered a home for honey bees and the dense forest was suited for hunting and medicinal herb scouring.
Shifting cultivation is a farming system that uses land by turns. When the harvest time was over, farmers would shift to another plot of land while waiting for the old plot to naturally rejuvenate itself. Now the zone located in Sepaku district, North Penajam Paser, East Kalimantan, has changed.
Shifting cultivation is no longer practiced because the Balik’s land has shrunk. At least since the 1970s, the government has licensed industrial forest areas in the greater part of the natural forest once a source of livelihood of Balik people. Along with the development, the New Order government also initiated a transmigration program, several areas of which belonged to Balik people as land for cultivation.
“In the past, before the 1970s, we drank the water of the Sepaku River. Now it’s no [longer possible] because the water is turbid and fouled from industrial waste,” said the 58-year-old man on Wednesday (27/7/2022).
The place where he lives is known as old Sepaku, as a reference to the first village existing before the transmigration program and industrial forest licensing. A number of government programs did not involve local people as residents who were the early inhabitants of the land. Consequently, the living space of the Balik community has been even more limited.
We are open to everybody and uphold peaceful relationship.
The environmentally friendlier shifting cultivation is no longer practised as the land has been partitioned to mark its corporate and individual control, something that was unknown to them. Communal ownership like that of the customary forest and farmland has ceased to exist with the publication of land certificates for settlers and transmigrants.
However, the Balik and Paser ethnic groups living in the zone earlier have received the people arriving and settling in Sepaku. They have never protested against the various government policies either. Many Balik and Paser people have even married people of diverse ethnicities and transmigrants from Java, Sulawesi and other regions.
“We are open to everybody and uphold peaceful relationship,” said Sibukdin.
IKN’s advent
Nonetheless, after the government established Sepaku district as the zero-point of the development of the State Capital City (IKN) Nusantara, Sibukdin and his community refused to remain silent. It is because the Balik ethnic group is engulfed in feelings of uncertainty. They do not have land certificates to stop them from being involved in government programs.
They are not yet recognized as a traditional community either, so they have no customary zone and forest of their own to manage in a communal fashion. Such inner quandaries are what he expresses at various meetings ranging from those of the district administration and the IKN Authority to the central government.
“Our ancestors said lies are prohibited. We are even forbidden to lie to animals. With this in mind, I convey what is truly felt and feared by the Balik community,” he pointed out.
Sibukdin has chosen the path of diplomacy instead of mass rallies to pose threats or other forms of tense action. His choice is not without reason. The values treasured by the Balik community have become his way of life.
“The identity of the Balik ethnic group is virtue, rather than vice. We voice our aspirations without any desire to secure projects or business deals. This is our struggle for our posterity,” he said, gazing out the window.
He has met with many officials and government representatives to reveal the fears of Balik people. Apart from the communal management zone and recognition as a traditional community, he has also raised the issue of basic rights that have so far developed slowly in his village.
After the Balik’s fears received wide coverage in national and international media, Ali Mochtar Ngabalin, special staffer of the Presidential Office, visited the wooden house of Sibukdin.
He requested that the Sepaku residents, including the Balik and Paser people as early inhabitants, be allowed to enjoy the development of the new IKN. They do not want to be sidelined when health, educational facilities and infrastructure are developing in their village.
A lot of local knowledge of herbal medicine has been lost due to the increasingly remote forest from the village. As a result, the Balik people’s children and grandchildren no longer practice traditional healing with forest herbs today.
Still, formal schools where Balik young people are educated also have minimal facilities. The valuable and inexpensive local wisdom of herbal medicine is not contained in school curricula either.
This raises Sibukdin’s deep concern. The IKN development will reportedly invite millions of state civil servants from Jakarta and its vicinity. There will even be many experts with different capabilities, networks, educational backgrounds and privileges working to support the new capital city in their village.
We don’t blame the government mission, but this mission still neglects the common people lacking access to education and having lived here for generations.
The situation, according to Sibukdin, will make human resource competition in Sepaku unmatchable. Local residents, already facing difficulty in accessing education due to minimal infrastructural development, will be facing people with many privileges. Local people leaving their homes and being displaced, Sibukdin believes, is inevitable amid the capital city development with the motto “a world city for everybody”.
“The competition will be serious. We don’t blame the government mission, but this mission still neglects the common people lacking access to education and having lived here for generations,” he added with a frown.
Although he has no idea whether he is listened to or not, Sibukdin will not stop communicating the real inner feelings of his community. It is a manifestation of the Balik ethnic group’s reverence for maintaining virtuous values.
Sibukdin
Born:Sepaku, 13 December 1963
Occupation: Customary chief, Balik Ethnic Group, Sepaku Subdistrict (2003-present)