The Issue of Nias Land Ownership in Protected Forest Areas in

South Tapanuli, Indonesia

Suheri Harahap, Badaruddin, Zulkifli Lubis and Fikarwin Zuska

Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Conflict, Land, Religion, Tribe, The Economy.

Abstract: History proves that the manipulation of religion, ethnicity, race, ethnicity for socio-economic and political

interests is very dangerous for the life of a nation state. Protected forest area becomes an event that is never

expected by many people, because actually when viewed from their residential areas which are also far apart

and even in daily activities so far the economy runs without any obstacles. The conflict occurred because

the residents of Tolang Jae Village did not fulfill the demands of the Nias tribe. Conflicts also occur because

of excessive emotions due to beatings/mistreatment of Tolang Jae Village residents carried out by the Nias

tribe in Adian Goti Village.

1 INTRODUCTION

Citizens' clashes occurred on December 23

, 2013 in

Tolang Jae Tapanuli Village South between Nias

residents and Tolang Jae Village residents, Sayur

Matinggi District, became an event that was never

expected by many people, because their residential

areas that are also far apart and even in daily

activities so far in the economy running without any

obstacles. Besides, the South Tapanuli society, is a

very heterogeneous society from many aspects;

ethnicity, race, and even beliefs with relatively high

mobility of life since centuries ago. But apparently

live together in this area became a potential conflict

that was unavoidable at that time.

Ethnic riots stem from various problems and lead

to socio-economic inequality and are cultural

protests that provide strong evidence that social

order in plural life has been violated and destroyed.

Pelly (1999: 34). In fact, in many cases, conflict and

ethnic violence, the religion that breaks out in

society is more motivated by social, economic, and

political conditions than differences in belief. Even

religion, ethnicity, race, ethnicity are often used as

factors of legitimacy to move emotions and

primordial solidarity.

History proves, manipulation of religion,

ethnicity, and race for social, economic and political

interests is very dangerous to the life of a nation

state which are often used as a trigger for violence.

Munandar (2003) explained that social conflicts

often arise lately are indicators of the ongoing

process of social transformation, in the form of

representations of conflicting social values and

religious values as well as a shift in values and

control of strategic resources in the form of power or

politics and the economy. Meanwhile, Klinken

(2007), summarizing five cases of communal

violence in Indonesia; Sanggau Ledo and Sambas in

West Kalimantan, Sampit in Central Kalimantan,

Poso in Southeast Sulawesi, Ambon in Maluku and

Halmahera in Southeast Maluku. Klinken in seeing

violence between ethnicity and religion inherently

rejects the cultural approach. For Klinken there are

several variants of the cultural view of communal

violence which are all irrelevant, because (1) see the

long-term tendency of violence as a root in social

configurations in Indonesia, (2) ethnic prejudice

among people considered not modern, (3) political

intolerance, (4) klen loyalty and (5) primordialist

stereotyping.

2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 Conflict

Ethnic conflict is a conflict that is related to urgent

problems regarding politics, economy, social,

culture, and territorial between two or more ethnic

Harahap, S., Badaruddin, ., Lubis, Z. and Zuska, F.

The Issue of Nias Land Ownership in Protected Forest Areas in South Tapanuli, Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0010012000870092

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social and Political Development (ICOSOP 3 2019) - Social Engineering Governance for the People, Technology and Infrastructure in

Revolution Industry 4.0, pages 87-92

ISBN: 978-989-758-472-5

communities. (Brown, 1996). Ethnic conflicts are

often nuanced in violence, but they may not. Ethnic

conflicts in Bosnia and Angola have an enormous

dimension of violence. Meanwhile, Quebec's

demand for greater autonomy from the Canadian

government has almost no dimension of violence at

all. Many local conflicts in a community have no

ethnic basis at all. So, these conflicts cannot be

called ethnic conflicts. The battle between the

Cambodian government and the Khmer Rouge army

can never be called an ethnic conflict because the

nature of the conflict is an ideological problem, not

an ethnic problem.

According to Brown (1996), the word 'ethnic

conflict' is often used flexibly. In fact, in some of its

uses, this word is actually used to describe a type of

conflict that has no ethnic basis at all. An example is

the conflict in Somalia. Many parties categorize

conflicts that occur in Somalia as ethnic conflicts. In

fact, Somalia is the most homogeneous country in

terms of ethnicity in Africa. The conflict in Somalia

occurred not because of conflicts between ethnic

groups, but because of conflicts between one local

authority and another local authority, both of whom

came from the same ethnic group.

Here clearly a fairly specific definition is needed

of what is meant by ethnic conflict. According to

Smith (2006), ethnic community is a concept used to

describe a group of people who have a common

ancestor, the same social memory and some cultural

elements, while Rozi (2003) says that social conflict

occurs because of the poor condition of the structure

of social structures causing people get angry easily

with other people. Suseno (2003) says that there are

at least four factors supporting social conflict in

Indonesia.

First, cultural conflict, related to primordial

conflict based on religion, ethnicity, and region.

Second, related to the accumulation of feelings of

envy and envy. People are easily provoked by others

and they tend to behave exclusively on the basis of

religion and (ethnic) groups. Third, people's

behavior is influenced by a culture of violence in the

community. Fourth, the New Order political system

which positions military power which tends to solve

problems with an undemocratic approach.

Geertz (1996), sees ethnicity as a matter of

primordial sentiment, thus ethnicity is formed by

various primordial sentiments such as kinship,

religion and language. Although Geertz himself did

not pursue studies of inter-ethnic conflict in depth,

but from his position to see that ethnicity is built on

primordial sentiment, then actually the seeds of

inter-ethnic conflict can occur because of the

encouragement of the formation of ethnic identity

due to the development of parochialism,

communalism and racism. The methodological

implication of Geertz's theoretical position, known

as symbolic interpretation, is 'unit analysis' which is

community in its effort to see symbols that are

mutually agreed upon as a 'culture' by the people.

There are several characteristics of conflict

escalation, namely:

Disputes:

1. Tension, jealousy in the community

2. Increasing scarcity of general property resources

3. The daily conversation is about complaints

4. Conflict management mechanisms succeeded in

suppressing disputes.

Non-violent confrontation:

1. appears 'latent' conflict

2. Dividing lines develop, ie "we versus them"

3. Political leaders have sprung up

4. A daily conversation about "partiality"

5. The economic and / or political power of

individuals is used to encourage personal

demands

6. The parties to the conflict no longer use the

old/tradition approach and turn to 'external'

institutional or legal mechanisms.

Escalation to violence:

1. A part of the population mobilized in the name

of "cause"

2. Tradition, institutional and legal approaches have

proven to fail to control disputes

3. Open expressions of hostility and anger

4. Everyday conversation contains demands and

threats

5. The negative language of the general population

reflects its political leaders

6. Parties in conflict raise their demands and

broaden their goals

7. Warring parties attract allies from outside the

direct population.

Open violence:

1. Violence begins with acts of sporadic aggression

and isolated against individuals and / or sabotage

of property.

2. Attacks become coordinated

3. Acts of violence are always associated with "the

other party"

4. A sense of deadlock develops

2.2 Relations between the State and

Society in Conflict Resolution

Migdal (1988) in the theory of state and society

relations states that the ability of a country to

ICOSOP 3 2019 - International Conference on Social Political Development (ICOSOP) 3

achieve change in society requires the role of their

leaders to strive to make state planning, public

policy and action, including the ability to enter into

involving the community, regulating social relations,

and managing existing resources properly. Changes

in the community in this regard can be related to

conflict resolution efforts.

For Migdal (1988), the ability of the state to

make changes in society requires the role of leaders

to carry out state planning, public policies (policies),

and actions (actions). That ability includes the

capacity to enter into the community (to-penetrate),

make rules of social relations (regulate social

relationship), collect resources (extract resources)

and use resources in accordance with predetermined

ways (appropriate use resources in the determined

ways). A strong country is characterized by a high

ability to complement state planning, public policy

and action, while a weak country has a low ability in

the capacity to enter into society, make social rules,

gather resources and use resources in a way that has

been determined.

Some indicators of state and community relations

(modeling of state society relations) are:

1. Compliance. Use of compliance by living

sanctions to control society.

2. Participation. Participation is related to

volunteerism and action in carrying out state life.

3. Legitimating (validity). In connection with the

acceptance of society (acceptance) even approval

(approbation) with the rules of the game made by

the state, social control as a true and good.

2.3 Theories about Ethnic Groups

According to Koentjaraningrat (1985), a group is an

individual unit that is bound, inter alia: (a) a system

of norms that regulates the behavior of group

citizens; (b) a sense of group personality based on all

citizens; (c) repeated gathering of group members'

activities; (d) a system of rights and obligations

governing interaction between group members; (e) a

leader or administrator who organizes group

activities; (f) a system of rights and obligations for

individuals towards certain productive assets,

consumptive assets or heirlooms. One such group is

the kinship (clan). The big clan (clan group) is a

kinship group consisting of all the descendants of an

ancestor who are counted through a lineage of the

same type is the descendants of male and female

citizens.

Meanwhile, ethnic groups (ethnic groups)

according to Koentjaraningrat (1999) are: groups of

people who are bound by awareness and identity of

'cultural entities' while consciousness and identity

are (not always) strengthened by language. The

cultural entity in question is sourced from the

relevant cultural citizens. This means, the culture of

Toba is different from the culture of Simalungun or

Karo even with Malay or Minangkabau, each of

which has a special personality and identity

(particular system) in accordance with their

respective cultural entities.

Furthermore, Barth (1988) asserts that ethnic

groups can be known as cultural units and as

structures. As a cultural unit, ethnic groups can be

observed from: i) the continuity of the cultural unit

and ii) the existence of factors that influence the

formation of that cultural unit. And vice versa, as an

order, ethnic groups show the existence of a group

characteristic that is astrictive and can be estimated

in terms of the background of its origin. The group

will be formed if someone uses his ethnic identity in

categorizing himself with others in the purpose of

interaction.

Nevertheless, social interaction and contact will

not necessarily eliminate local identity. Someone

who makes contact, because in interacting and social

contact requires the same sign that can be accepted

by both parties, namely the formation of certain

social systems. Such interactions will not result in

mixing with cultural change. The similarity of the

sign is needed because of the mutual dependence

(mutualism) between the two parties.

According to Barth (1988) stated that in general,

ethnic groups are known as a population that; (1)

biologically capable of breeding and surviving; (2)

have the same cultural values and be aware of a

sense of togetherness in a cultural form; (3) forming

their own communication and interaction networks;

(4) determine the characteristics of their own groups

that are accepted by other groups and can be

distinguished from other population groups.

Furthermore, Barth sees that ethnicity is formed

through social interaction, so this is where the

concept of ethnic boundary is born. Conflict

between ethnic groups can occur because of

differences in the ownership of means of production

that affect relations between ethnic groups.

Klinken (2001), by borrowing the theory of

Doug McAdam's work suggests that Dynamics of

Contention, where identity can be distinguished in

two types, namely: (1) identity of order and (2)

separate identity. The identity of the order shows the

characteristics of various kinds of social relations

that are built up while the separate identities are the

characteristics of special and narrow relationships.

The Issue of Nias Land Ownership in Protected Forest Areas in South Tapanuli, Indonesia

When these two identities are involved in a battle,

they both tend to show different 'repertoires'.

Furthermore, Klinken said that battles involving

embedded identities tended to prioritize lower-level

actors with repertoires that were: 1) particularistic -

especially related to specific groups, problems or

places, 2) small scale - involving a small number of

people, 3) directly not too mediated by

intermediaries who have special rights. Such battles

look spontaneous. Conversely, battles involving

separate identities tend to involve elites and present

activities that make demands, meaning that: 1)

Modular - not tied to a particular place and so on, 2)

large scale - thus requires broad coordination, and 3)

brokered - involving entrepreneurs, politics and

communication networks.

3 METHOD

To explain the conflict between ethnic groups in

Tolang Jae Village, South Tapanuli Regency in

2013, researchers used a descriptive qualitative

research approach to explain the focus of the

problem from informant sources, data and literature.

Qualitative research can explain the naturalistic

perspective and interpretive perspective of human

experience (Denzin, 1994). Qualitative research is

research that aims to understand phenomena about

what is experienced by research subjects such as

behavior, perception, motivation, actions, etc.

holistically and by means of descriptions in the form

of words and language, in a special natural context

and with utilizing various natural methods.

4 DISCUSSION

Since 1982 Nias people have settled in Tolang Jae

Village and received permission from the local

Village Head. They borrowed land to be used as a

means of production to meet their daily needs, but

over time the number of Nias tribes in Tolang Jae

Village was increasing day by day, causing the need

for land to increase as well.

The history of the Nias tribe who settled in

Adian Goti (Dolok) in Tolang Jae Village has been

in the 1980s and has owned land that was bought or

compensated by local residents.

This land is the main source of life and

livelihood from gardening/farming. The Nias people

have become citizens who have KTP, KK and they

obey the law and pay taxes and interact socially and

culturally with local customs. Because so far it has

been running normally, harmonious and harmonious

with other residents.

The Tolang Jae Village conflict occurs because

the utilization of natural resources occurs not only

vertically between the local population and the Nias

tribe, with the government and officials but also

horizontally between the Nias tribe and the residents

of the surrounding villages who have claims and

links of interest to the forest area in Adian Goti

Village.

According to an interview with Yasmin Gea, in

February 2018 said that:

"The events of 2013 between Nias people and

people in Tolang Jae. In my opinion, it is caused

by social jealousy, but the issue is directed

towards SARA issues, even though the villagers

there want to control the land of our people Nias.

The previous stage can be seen by the village

community's deliberation efforts when dividing

Nias land, for example, if the land is 10 hectares,

then 7 hectares are equal to villagers, 3 hectares

are Nias people. I have seen about 400 hectares of

land on the mountains managed by our people in

Nias.”

From a social stand point, the conflict that

occurred between Tolang Jae Village residents and

Adian Goti Village resulted in several actions aimed

at cornering the Adian Goti community by limiting

and severing social relations, removing the residents

of Adian Goti Hamlet as part of the administration

of Tolang Jae Village and all rights and obligations

they were removed by the village administration as

residents residing in the Tolang Jae Village, and the

Tolang Jae Village community avoided interaction

or contact with the Adian Goti society.

From an economic perspective, the absence of

social interaction between the residents of Adian

Goti Hamlet with the residents of Tolang Jae Village

has severed economic relations in the form of trade

in agricultural products. Trading activities and the

buying and selling process require an interaction

process. The view presented above, is contrary to the

conditions found in the traditional market in Tolang

Jae Village, which was opened. The changes that

have taken place here, the people of Adian Goti sub-

village are no longer seen trading in the market.

A number of cases of conflicts over land in the

region that appeared confronting the Nias tribe with

residents of surrounding villages began to raise their

awareness about the status and strength of their

rights to manage land in the area.

Based on an interview with Ramadhan Siregar in

April 2018, he mentioned:

"They settled and opened land for plantations to

meet their daily needs. Regarding the expansion of

ICOSOP 3 2019 - International Conference on Social Political Development (ICOSOP) 3

the area, we do not know clearly the boundaries of

land use given by the government for the Sayur

Matinggi Subdistrict, South Tapanuli Regency.

Obviously, the residents feel disturbed by the

people who run and make policies. The land that

we mean is customary rights and village rights; it

is natural that they use it for life. The presence of

the Nias tribe people from various regions, they

settled and settled and opened the plantation land

that they bought from the forest owner

community. The legality of the land owned by the

cultivators is evidenced by a statement of land

expenditure. Form of validity of landowners as

cultivators. The Village Government is only

limited to knowing the act on the sale and

purchase of land meant by proof of a certificate of

land management ".

They are trying to get any documents that can

strengthen their claims on the land being managed

and on their residence status in the nearby villages.

The letter of sale and purchase or compensation for

land is a piece of document they hold as evidence of

their rights, even though the documents are very

weak in terms of formal law. Identity Card (KTP) as

domicile and population identity is another

document that they try to be able to have, at least by

a family head.

Nias tribes also often come shopping on

Wednesday and Saturday to the Tolang market and

are also said to have turned on trading activities in

the market. The economy of the Nias tribe is

increasingly increasing. This can be seen from their

increasingly developing lives, they are able to send

their children to school, able to buy two-wheeled

vehicles. While the indigenous people of economic

life are increasingly declining over time. Such

conditions often lead to jealousy between indigenous

people and migrants.

Local community members or indigenous

residents in the three villages around the Tolang Jae

area differ in their position and interests when

dealing with the fact that the Nias tribe has cleared

forests in the area more than two decades ago.

However, they have the same position and interests

when faced with the fact that the status of the forest

area in Tolang Jae is a state forest that functions as a

protection and conservation.

The local people and Nias tribe alike must deal

with institutions and officials who have the authority

to administer state forests, which in this case are

represented by the Government of South Tapanuli

Regency. Residents do not know clearly that the two

government institutions have different authority

limits in managing state forests in the Tolang Jae

area, namely protected forest areas which are the

authority of the South Tapanuli Regency

Government through the local Forest Service. In the

understanding of citizens, it is quite simple that state

forests are managed by the government, and

substantively there is nothing wrong with this

understanding.

The unclear rules regarding the Nias tribe in the

protected forest area and Nias tribal population data

collection are a serious problem. Based on the

results of an interview with Ali Yamin Lubis in

February 2018 he said, in fact the events of 2013

were because the village head had initially given

KTPs and KKs to Nias people, so that Nias people

continued to grow without knowing how many of

them now. When they want to be expelled, surely

they make resistance. In addition, they have many in

number; they also have families who defend it.

This kind of incident is deliberately blown away

like the Church was set on fire. Though the proof is

not, polluting the river with pig manure. If we look

at the distance of the Aek Siondop river, it actually

goes to the Nias settlement, but that is very far away.

This is we do not know what behind this motive.

When dealing with law, this issue is raised. The

village head was wrong why they were given a KTP

and KK. Even though they were just gardeners, now

we can't do anything else. Why do we let outsiders

come in and out without permission, we cannot

blame everything on Nias people.

There are a number of interesting things to

consider about the relationship between local

residents and the Nias tribe in Tolang Jae Village.

Most of the economic land and employment that

should be owned by local residents. Finally captured

by the Nias tribe. This fact ultimately creates a

contradictory social climate and thickens the

primordial sensitivity of local communities. The

impact of the Nias tribe is very much felt in rural

areas. The Nias tribe tends to settle in mountain

areas. Because there are real economic

opportunities. Their success in managing the land is

a problem for local residents in Tolang Jae Village.

While the area is an area of lindung forest and ulayat

land and the agreement used to be a reason for the

villagers to question the position of the Nias tribe.

5 CONCLUSION

The Nias tribe who live in Adian Goti (dolok) in

Tolang Jae Village have been in the 1980s and have

owned land that was bought or compensated by local

residents, known to the Village Head, even though

most of it has been dictated. This land is the main

source of life and livelihood from gardening /

The Issue of Nias Land Ownership in Protected Forest Areas in South Tapanuli, Indonesia

farming. The Nias tribe have become citizens who

have Id Card (KTP), Family Card (KK) and they

obey the law and pay taxes and interact socially and

culturally (local customs) which have been running

normally, harmoniously and harmoniously with

other residents. The conflict occurred because the

residents of Tolang Jae Village did not fulfill the

demands of the Nias tribe. Conflicts also occur

because of excessive emotions due to beatings /

mistreatment of Tolang Jae Village residents carried

out by the Nias tribe in Adian Goti Village.

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