Pathways to Resilience Indonesian Sea Nomads “Orang Suku Laut” in the Post Development Era

Abstraksi

The recognition of Indigenous Peoples at the international level is very active and progressive in the present time. The United Nations and several International Organizations are working to protect the right and equality of the Indigenous Peoples worldwide. Then, Agenda 2030 also directly mentioned the important roles of the Indigenous Peoples in the two targets consisting of Goal 2 in the target 2.3 and Goal 4 in target 4.5. In terms of climate change adaptation, the traditional ecological knowledge of Indigenous Peoples is well acknowledged in practice to tackle climate change in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2014. In Indonesia, the right of Indigenous Peoples has been declared in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia (amendment) Chapter 18 - clause 2 and Chapter 281 - clause 3, the Minister’s Decree of Ministry of Home Affair Indonesia Number 52 the Year 2014 and the Indonesian Act No. 1 the Year 2014. In Indonesia, the specific term for tribe groups or Indigenous Peoples refers to Masyarakat Hukum Adat. There are specific requirements to be acknowledged as the Masyarakat Hukum Adat in accordance with the Indonesian Act No. 1 the Year 2014 which one of them is the customary land. Meanwhile, one of the tribes in Indonesia is sea nomads, Orang Suku Laut. Unfortunately, the Orang Suku Laut could not be defined as Masyarakat Hukum Adat because they do not possess the customary land. In additional, the perceptions of community (Malay’ people outside the Orang Suku Laut) for the Orang Suku Laut as ‘stupid people, smelly people who never bathe, people who do not have bathrooms, people who have black magic, and people who live and do everything in their boats’ is increasing the marginalization inadequately. Indeed, how could the Orang Suku Laut face this circumstance? The objective of this research is to investigate the social disruption of the Orang Suku Laut as a vulnerable group in the post-development era. The study was conducted in the Orang Suku Laut, Lingga Regency, Riau Island Province between November 2018 to January 2019. The semi-structured questionnaire was developed for field observation and an in-depth interview with the multilevel informants by using the purposive sampling method. The number of the informants were 77 consisting of the groups of leaders, elder, women, and youth in the Orang Suku Laut communities, society, government, private sectors, and local organization. The Orang Suku Laut is the Indigenous Peoples of Malay Ethnic in the Lingga Regency, Riau Island Province. Various history information explained that the ancestor of Orang Suku Laut is the sea guard from the Islamic Kingdom namely Kesultanan Lingga or Sultanate of Lingga. Therefore, the Orang Suku Laut of the Lingga Regency is still living under the poverty line and categorized as illiteracy and innumeracy groups. Predominantly, the Orang Suku Laut is working as a fisherman or labor of mangrove charcoal making corporation. Recently, they scattered around the Lingga Regency in 30 places whereas some of them are still living as nomads in the sea by a small boat named Sampan Kajang. This research found that there are various challenges as the obstacle in the social life of the Orang Suku Laut in daily life. Firstly, the lack of acknowledgment of identity as Masyarakat Hukum Adat in both national policy and regional (district level) which direct to local perception, rights, and equality to get proper development project. Secondly, degradation of local knowledge and cultural belief that decreased the community spirit and resilience in the social life and environmental degradation. Then, a problem in the migration of young people, because of livelihood and environmental problem, climate change, and globalization. Moreover, the accesses to get the proper education for the school-aged children, the availability of educational infrastructure and teachers are the challenges for the Orang Suku Laut in the post-development era. Lastly, the lack of health service for the Orang Suku Laut where it still is able to find the mortality of mother and baby in the post-partum, seasonal skin diseases and tuberculosis. In the period of post-development era for the Orang Suku Laut is very struggling. The combined local knowledge, science, and technology is an alternative solution to increase the capability and resilience of the Orang Suku Laut from modernization. An appropriate framework is needed to figure out the social disruption of the Orang Suku Laut. Regarding international agreement and targets, the challenge of the Orang Suku Laut can be a baseline and common practice to enumerate the progress of sustainable development goals and national determined commitment. Therefore, the participation approaches using Free Prior and Inform Consent (FPIC) should become a tool to elaborate and to integrate the local knowledge and the challenges into action plans and development projects. Furthermore, the increasing access to health and education services for the Orang Suku Laut will strengthen human capital and encourage local economic development which leads to social welfare.