Ambition, Regulation and Reality. Complex use of land and water resources in Luwu, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

In this book I present three case studies of the complex regulation of use of land and water resources in Luwu. Attention to the role of legalcomplexity -the existence of different sources and definitions of normative-legal regulation in the same socio-political space - is an important conceptual point of departure of this study. Each of the three case study sections contains specific conclusions pertaining to the issues involved. The last chapter of the book (chapter 11) is primarily a reflection on the wider meaning of the forms of complexity analyzed in the case studies for processes of regulation of resource use. In an epilogue I pay attention to the complex character of broader socio-political processes in Luwu District. The state-led development of irrigation systems is an important factor in the economic and societal changes in Luwu since the colonial period. The basis of these rapid and radical changes was laid by the Dutch colonial government in the thirties of last century. Two spearheads of colonial development policy in the framework of the 'Ethical Policy' were emigration (from densely populated Java to the thinly populated 'OuterIslands' of the colonial empire) and irrigation. InNorth Luwu, both were combined in programmes for colonization (resettlement of Javanese farmers on islands outside Java) and development of large irrigation systems based on civil engineering approaches.These colonial development plans for Luwu were suddenly interrupted by the turbulent social and political developments in the region: the Japanese occupation, the return of the colonial power after Japanese capitulation, decolonization and theDarulIslam (DI/TII) rebellion from the early fifties until 1965. In that same year the Suharto regime came to power. After 'peace and order' had been restored in an extremely violent way, large financial donors like the World Bank supported the regime by allocating large sums of development funding. 'Pembangunan' (development) became a keyword in the political ideology of Suharto's 'New Order'. From the late sixties, the old colonial development agenda was revived. In Luwu, this led to an approach combining what was now called 'transmigration' (resettlement of farmer families from Java,BaliandLombok) with the large-scale development of irrigation systems and other infrastructure. These interventions have radically changed Luwu, and not only in a negative sense. Irrigated agriculture and improved infrastructure have considerably increased the standard of living and food security of the local population of Luwu as well as of migrants.At the same time, transmigration and regional migration have turned Luwu into an, in many respects, very complex society in which tensions and conflicts between the local population and migrants along lines of ethnic and religious affiliation regularly lead to violence. Because of the ethnic diversity it harbours, Luwu is often called a 'TamanMini' (MiniatureGarden), in analogy with the exhibition of the material culture of the 'recognized' ethnic groups in the archipelago established by the Suharto family. Luwu society is not only complex in a legal sense but also in a socio-cultural, political-administrative sense, as I will show in the three case studies. This high degree of complexity of Luwu society also plays an important role in issues concerning the use of natural resources.The first case study (see chapter 3) is an analysis of the regional history of migration of farmers from highlandSouth Sulawesito lowland Luwu. This massive migration in the second half of the twentieth century has had a great impact on current land tenure inNorth Luwu. The availability of land resources in Luwu was a strong pull factor for highland migrants in search of agricultural land. The massive and uncontrolled character of this migration and settlement inNorth Luwumade these processes politically very sensitive. Differences in ethnic and religious identity between migrants and local population are, moreover, a continuous source of tension and violent conflict. A deeper explanation of the political and social sensitivity of this migration can be found in the ways in which migration is related to wider processes of socio-economic, cultural and political-administrative change in the region. In my analysis of migration I pay special attention to the emergence and growing role of a specific 'Toraja' identity among the highland population. I pose the question whether there is a relationship between the emergence of new identities and identifications in the area and migration to lowland Luwu. ThisTorajaidentity is primarily a product of Dutch colonial and missionary politics. Both in colonial administration and mission thereexistedthe wish to unite the various population groups in highland South andCentral Sulawesiadministratively into 'GreaterToraja'. This administrative unit was intended to unite all Christianized highland groups into a 'buffer' against Islam, which had been established in lowlandSulawesimany centuries ago and was seen as a threat.Indonesian independence did not bring these political ambitions to an end. In the fifties they even played an important role in regional politics. Its most important manifestations were attempts to establish 'GreaterToraja' (called 'TorajaRaya') as an administrative unit at the level of a province, the struggle for autonomy of the southern highlands as 'TanaTorajaDistrict' from the languishing Luwu kingdom, and a lowland-oriented expansionism referred to as 'Lebensraum' by formerTorajapoliticians. In the latter, the high potential of lowland Luwu in terms of (irrigable) agricultural land played an important role. Massive migration to the Luwu Plain was not only seen as a solution to the social problems in the densely populated and socio-politically hierarchic highlands but also as part of a political strategy oriented towards Luwu. The first ideal died in the political realities in the region in the course of the fifties. The second ideal was realized by the actual establishment ofTanaTorajaDistrict in the fifties. The expansionism oriented towards lowland Luwu manifested itself in a rapidly increasing migration toNorth Luwuand exploitation of land in this area. I conclude that there was indeed a relation between the emergence ofTorajaidentity and migration strategies to gain access to land resources in lowland Luwu.The second case study (see chapters 4 to 6) is an analysis of the long-term effects of intervention in land rights in the framework of thePompenganIntegrated Area Development Project (PIADP). PIADP, a bilateral Indonesian-Dutch project for rural development, was propagated as a model for integrated rural development inIndonesia. The project had started in 1980 as thePompenganImplementation Project (PIP), an irrigation project that focused on construction and paid little attention to the social aspects of development. Under the influence of the problems that arose during implementation, of changing views of 'development' and of increasing attention to the social dimensions of processes of planned change PIP changed into the 'integrated' PIADP. The core of PIADP was intervention in land tenure through a programme for redistribution of land and resettlement of farmers.Notwithstanding this shift towards other core activities the project basically remained an irrigation project. Problems of land use, land rights and population density were primarily seen as a threat to local management of the future irrigation infrastructure, and land reform and farmer settlement as a solution to these problems. However, the new approach also meant a shift from a technical intervention to a much more radical, complex and socially sensitive socio-legal type of intervention. PIADP was characterized by new, social objectives originating from Dutch development policy, like creating an egalitarian structure of landownership and greater security of tenure. Thus, a growing awareness of the complexities in implementing PIP had led to even much more complex solutions to the problems, tied to ever more ambitious objectives. To reach these objectives, a 'project law' was created on the basis of Dutch donor norms and priorities as well as sections of the Indonesian 1960 Basic Agrarian Law. Existing claims to land in the project area (that is: local rights built up in the past but not by definition recognized and usually not titled by the government) were inventoried and weighed in a selection procedure for PIADP. The claim holders whose claims were recognized by the project, became 'beneficiaries' of PIADP, and qualified for land and other project facilities.The central research questions for this part of the research are: which definition of land rights has 'won', the local one based on labour invested in and boundaries created by land clearing, or the (re)definition of land rights on the basis of PIADP project law? What was the impact of the land reform programme on land use and land rights? How do various actors cope with the situation of legal complexity? How are conflicts solved and by whom? What is the role of legal institutions? Chapter 4 contains a description of the local context of PIP and PIADP and an analysis of the emergence of new developmental ambitions and objectives for PIADP. In chapter 5 I present an analysis of the implementation of the programme of land redistribution and settlement in PIADP, mainly based on my own experiences as an adviser of the land reform and settlement programme. In chapter 6 I analyze the long-term effects of this programme on security of tenure in the former project area. The analysis shows, among others, that claimants and former 'beneficiaries' of the programme have massively returned to the pre-project claim boundaries. The definition of land rights based on pre-project claims to land prove to be much stronger and to give more security of tenure than land rights defined and recognized by the government in the framework of PIADP. Further, the analysis makes clear that the government has completely withdrawn from the problems of former PIADP. Formal state-issues land titles have no value for those who hold them. Hence, coping with the continuing tensions and conflicts caused by PIADP requires a high degree of self-regulating capacity of the actors involved in the local conflicts in various ways.The third case study is an analysis of the role of land and water resources inKertoraharjo,avillageofBalinesetransmigrantsin theKalaenaarea inNorth Luwu(see chapters 7 to 10). Chapter 7 describes the history of settlement in the area and development of a relatively prosperous migrant society. Specifically Balinese arrangements in the fields of religion and village administration, social security and local irrigation management exist side by side with the blueprints of government administration. The diversity of areas of origin of the Balinesetransmigrantsand the different traditional norms and values (Ind.adat) introduced by these groups made the process of unification a difficult one. Chapter 8 focuses on the role of land inKertoraharjo. I analyze the differences in access to land for three status categoriesof migrants: the initialtransmigrants, their offspring and spontaneous migrants. In addition, I analyze the growing importance of cocoa cultivation next to (and sometimes instead of) irrigated agriculture since the late eighties. In an analysis of the historical development of landownership I show how Balinese landownership has spread fromKertoraharjoacross an increasingly large area stretching out across the provincial border. The growing interest in cocoa cultivation has crucially contributed to this trend. Expansion of Balinese control over land took place wholly outside the sphere of state regulation of land tenure and recognition through titling. Finally, I pay attention to the role of some forms of access to irrigated land that play an important role in strategies of economic advancement of, especially, the offspring of initialtransmigrantsand spontaneous migrants: sharecropping and pawning of land.Together, chapters 9 and 10 form an analysis of local irrigation management in the tertiary units of theKalaenairrigation system in which Balinese farmers own land. The technical and organizational uniformity of state-built irrigation systems in Luwu hides a high degree of ethnic and cultural diversity of the various migrant groups. What does this field of tension between standardized arrangements for local management and local diversity mean in the case of Balinese inKalaenasystem? The Balinesetransmigrantsbrought their own traditions, knowledge and practices of local irrigation management associated with the so-calledsubak, an age-old Balinese institution for irrigated rice agriculture in the broadest sense of the term (that is:subakdoes not only refer to operational and maintenance tasks but includes irrigation technical and managerial, agronomic and religious-ritual dimensions of rice agriculture). This part of the research focused on the history of local irrigation management among Balinese in the tension field formed by technology, norms and rules, and organizational arrangements based on engineering conceptions of irrigation management in the tertiary units on the one hand, and on thesubaktradition on the other. The most important research questions were: what is the role ofsubakand water users' associations in tertiary irrigation management among Balinese farmers? How are both related in the dimensions of technology, normative regulation and organizational arrangements? To what degree and in what way haveboth changed, influenced or merged in new 'hybrid' forms of local irrigation management? What is the influence of different definitions and conceptualizations of 'irrigation management' in both approaches?This part of the research shows that, deeply influencing each other,subakand the complex of water users' association and tertiary unit have developed in a location-specific manner. As a formal organization,subakhas become relatively marginal under the influence of the statutory introduction of the water users' associations related to the tertiary structure of the irrigation system. However, as an institution (that is: as regularized patterns of behaviour)subakcontinues to play a crucial role. Technical, normative and organizational elements ofsubakhave emerged in the world of local irrigation management formally defined by tertiary units and water users' associations. Thus, bothsubakand WUA have become 'hybrid worlds'.The last chapter (chapter 11) concludes the book with a reflection on the complex society that Luwu has become and its meaning for issues of resource management. The existence of a high degree of social, legal, ethno-religious and political-administrative complexity and its impact on forms of regulation, as clearly present and visible in the three case studies of this book, make approaches to regulation of natural resource use based on instrumental views of law coupled to mechanistic views of processes of development quiteprospectless. In an epilogue I finally point to the broader socio-political dimensions of Luwu District itself as a complex society in times of rapid and radical socio-political change.