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Kalimantan
Overview |
Geography
Kalimantan, also known as Indonesian Borneo, covers the southeastern two-thirds of the island of Borneo, with Brunei and Malaysia making up the rest of the area. The climate is tropical, with annual rainfall averages more than 100 inches (254 cm), and a prolonged monsoon season that generally lasts from November to May. The island is covered with dense rain forests and mountains, resulting in much of the terrain being virtually impassable and large areas unexplored. Due to these geographical constraints, Kalimantan remains one of the most sparsely populated regions in the world.
Kalimantan encompasses four provinces: West Kalimantan, (capital Pontianak), Central Kalimantan, (capital Palangkaraya), South Kalimantan, (capital Banjarmasin), and East Kalimantan, (capital Samarinda). East Kalimantan is the second largest province in Indonesia.
Timber and mining operations have expanded across Kalimantan, resulting in a significant loss of the island’s forests. Much of this deforestation has occurred in Central Kalimantan. South Kalimantan is one of Indonesia’s largest wood producers.
The ecosystem has been heavily damaged in recent years due to the outbreak of forest fires, which some experts link to large-scale deforestation. Disastrous fires ravaged Kalimantan in 1997, destroying more than 10 million acres of forest there. Most recently, in July 2001, forest fires in West and Central Kalimantan resulted in smog cover as far as Singapore and southern Thailand, causing over 2,500 people to seek treatment at health facilities. Since the catastrophic fires of 1997-1998, an industry of fire analysis projects has been created. However, analysts suggest that Indonesia has done little to implement their suggestions and forest fires continue to threaten the environment of Kalimantan.
Population
The population of Kalimantan is approximately 9 million people. West Kalimantan has a population of 3.5 million to 4.1 million and is the most highly populated of Kalimantan’s four provinces, though its population density is very low. Central Kalimantan is the third largest province in Indonesia, but it is sparsely populated with 1.8 million inhabitants, less than 1% of the population of Indonesia. The two main population groups are the Dayak and the Malays. The Dayak, indigenous to Kalimantan, are forest dwellers and primarily Christian. The predominantly Muslim Malays live mostly in the coastal regions and the main cities of Kalimantan. Together, the two populations make up about 40% of the island’s population.
Kalimantan was seen as ideal for transmigrants because of its low population density and abundance of natural resources. Under Suharto, between 1971 and 1980, more than 100,000 transmigrants were sent to Kalimantan. In the following two decades the national transmigration program was expanded and more groups arrived including the Madurese, Javanese, Banjarese, and ethnic Chinese, from Java, Madura, Bali, Sulawesi and Sumatra. Additionally, more Muslim Malays have settled in Kalimantan.
The two main ethnic groups involved in the current conflict are the Dayak and the Madurese, a migrant group that dominates much of the small business sector. The Madurese make up approximately 8% of the total population of Kalimantan.
History
Kalimantan, sometimes called Indonesian Borneo, is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. The Dayak are the indigenous inhabitants of the Borneo rainforest and consist of diverse ethnic groups related to one another by culture and language.
In the 5th century, Borneo became an integral part of the Sumatra-based Sri Vijaya kingdom’s trading network. Because of its place on the India-China trade axis, Hinduism was brought to the island by about 400 AD. Chinese settlements were also established on the island before Europeans reached the Indonesian archipelago. In the 14th century, the Majapahit Empire of Java claimed control of Banjarmasin and much of southern Borneo. The coastal ports of Kalimantan were Islamic by around the 15th and 16th centuries and some of the sultanates, such as Kutai and Banjarmasin, became major trading centers.
In the early 17th century, Kalimantan became a scene of conflict between the British and the Dutch colonial empires, which led to the present day division of Borneo between Indonesia and Malaysia. In 1701, Banjarmasin rebelled and the British were evicted six years later. In the early 1800s, parts of the Banjarmasin sultanate were signed over to the Dutch. In 1859, war broke out between the Dutch and the Banjarmasis, and the latter was defeated, but resistance continued until 1905. The Dutch continued to control Kalimantan until the Second World War, when the Japanese occupied much of the island from 1942 until 1945.
Kalimantan has had a long history of immigration. In the mid-18th century, Chinese immigrants established gold-mining communities in western Borneo, but the settlements were destroyed by the Dutch in 1854. Immigrants from the impoverished island of Madura started arriving in Borneo as early as the 1930s. East Kalimantan has become one of Indonesia’s prime locations for transmigration. Migrants to Kalimantan settled on marginal lands and provided workers for the mining and logging industries. A major group that has voluntarily migrated to Kalimantan is the Bugis of southern Sulawesi. Although they had been settling in Kalimantan for around 400 years, the Kahar-Muzakar rebellion in 1951 spurred the Bugis to emigrate in larger numbers. Subsequent waves of Bugi transmigrants have joined their relatives in Kalimantan.
In August 17, 1945, Indonesia declared its independence. In 1949, the Dutch transferred sovereignty of Kalimantan to Indonesia. On May 23, 1957, Central Kalimantan was officially declared to be an autonomous province in Indonesia.
Economy
As compared with other regions of Indonesia, Kalimantan has a low level of industrialization. Basic infrastructure, such as community and health services, piped water and education, is limited. Poverty levels are also very high. Most of those that work in industry are migrants and there are few economic opportunities for local communities.
Kalimantan, however, is rich in natural resources including forests and various minerals, of which the government has taken much advantage. Large-scale coal mining began in the late 19th century. East Kalimantan has produced oil since the beginning of the 20th century, and liquefied gas is an important export. Most of the economy, however, is centered on the forestry-related sector. In Kalimantan’s vast rain forests, large-scale lumber operations that began in 1967 continue today at alarming rates, contributing to the destruction of the rainforest. In addition to lumber, other forest products are also exported, such as plywood, resin, and rattan.
In 1995, one of the richest gold deposits in the world was discovered in Northeast Kalimantan. Other mineral resources include industrial diamonds, bauxite, and extensive reserves of low-grade iron ore.
Agricultural is also an important sector of the economy. In many areas, forests have been cleared to make way for cash crops such as cocoa and oil palm, displacing the Dayak and their traditional lifestyle in the process. Kalimantan’s many agricultural products include rice, millet, maize, manioc, and sweet potatoes. Exports have been a primary engine of growth with such products as rubber, coffee and pepper being cultivated for export.
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