Straddling the Border: A Marginal History of Guerrilla Warfare and ‘Counter-Insurgency’ in the Indonesian Borderlands, 1960s–1970s

Abstract

Post-independence ethnic minorities inhabiting the Southeast Asian borderlands were willingly or unwillingly pulled into the macro politics of territoriality and state formation. The rugged and hilly borderlands delimiting the new nation-states became battlefronts of state-making and spaces of confrontation between divergent political ideologies. In the majority of the Southeast Asian borderlands, this implied violent disruption in the lives of local borderlanders that came to affect their relationship to their nation-state. A case in point is the ethnic Iban population living along the international border between the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan and the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Based on local narratives, the aim of this paper is to unravel the little known history of how the Iban segment of the border population in West Kalimantan became entangled in the highly militarized international disputes with neighbouring Malaysia in the early 1960s, and in subsequent military co-operative ‘anti-communist’ ‘counter-insurgency’ efforts by the two states in the late 1960–1970s. This paper brings together facets of national belonging and citizenship within a borderland context with the aim of understanding the historical incentives behind the often ambivalent, shifting and unruly relationship between marginal citizens like the Iban borderlanders and their nation-state.

Frontier constellations: agrarian expansion and sovereignty on the Indonesian-Malaysian border

“…Since the early 1960s, the Indonesian state has struggled to assert control over its national border with Malaysia and its natural resources, presenting arguments of national security and development promotion to the 'estranged and backward' frontier inhabitants (Wadley 2005, Eilenberg 2012a). For example, in 1963, the Kalimantan borderlands became heavily militarized as a result of an armed confrontation (Konfrontasi) between Indonesia and Malaysia, which was followed by a communist insurgency in the mid-1960s and the 1970s (Jones 2002, Eilenberg 2011. Ever since, border development and security has been a dominant state discourse and, until the early 1990s, the forested borderlands were categorized as a 'safety belt' or security buffer zone facing neighboring Malaysia (Soemadi 1974).…”

“…The rugged and forested borderlands often became insurgent hideouts and thus key battlefields in the war against communism and communist regimes (Dennis and Grey 1996, Subritzky 2000, Jones 2002, Tuck 2004, instigating processes of violent resettlement, resource exploitation and firm military control (De Koninck 2006). As argued by Nancy Peluso and Peter Vandergeest, counterinsurgency measures in forest frontiers in Southeast Asia (especially along national borders) have played a crucial role in state territorialization of forest resources (2011) Many of these forestlands have since been under various forms of military control and have become zones for economic exploitation, generating revenue for the military budgets (Peluso 2008, Eilenberg 2011. Despite the fact that many of these resourcerich borderlands are increasingly being targeted for large-scale development schemes and territorial control in a way that resembles past government strategies of securitization (Geiger 2008), so far only a few studies have critically engaged with the intricate links between emerging agricultural expansion and militarization in the borderlands (see for example Ito et al 2011, Woods 2011, Laungaramsri 2012).…”

“…The senior segment of the border population interviewed in 2011 views the TMMD program with caution and mixed emotions. The program conjures memories of forced labor, indoctrination and resettlement during the 1970s-1980s counter-insurgency programs (see Davidson 2003, Peluso 2008, Eilenberg 2011. 39 In the 1980s, the Suharto government introduced an official program of direct military development intervention called AMD (Indonesian Armed Forces Enter the Village).…”

“…In the border area, the AMD programs involved military personnel, who were involved in teaching projects and the development of rice production schemes. Although development was the official rhetoric of the AMD programs, they were primarily an attempt to take control of the region's immense natural resources and to prevent 'unreliable' border communities from being influenced by foreign (communist) ideologies (Eilenberg 2011). The processes of militarization that have taken place in the West Kalimantan borderlands in many ways resemble what Kevin Woods in his recent study of the China-Burma borderlands has called 'military territorialization' (i.e.…”

Doors and fences: Controlling Indonesia's porous borders and policing asylum seekers

“…So far, Indonesian borders, borderlands and border crossing activities have been researched, primarily in regard to migrant workers crossing between Malaysia and Indonesia (Amster, ; Kaur, ; Eilenberg, ). Particular attention has been paid also to the special trading zones, such as the Indonesia‐Malaysia‐Singapore Growth Triangle (Grundy‐Warr et al ., ; Long, ), and to trans‐border tourism, especially sex tourism (Lindquist, ; Lyons & Ford, ).…”