What Going On .....

WHAT IS IT WITH BANDA NAIRA 2009? Yes, the acurate possible question represents a number of our question marks if seeing displays advertisement a few weeks lately, especially displays advertisement of campaign PILPRES 2009.

Mostly " advertisement of Politics" the presidential candidates carries the same theme; the importance of association and unity, improvement quality of education and public prosperity, and under developed do not take care of fullness of Indonesian nation which compound. Background choice shooting also different; starts from rural region until town, from market until industry, and from finite seaboard to mount.

Draws it, among so much advertisement of the presidential candidate, Banda Naira selected as background shooting by 2 national figure, namely; Rizal Malaranggeng, and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ( president RI). Hence proper if some people asked around, what is it with Banda? Does draw it Banda, which in just Indonesia map only a point, so making " kepincut" liver of the the figures?

Rizal, for example, what makes sekuel its(the campaign until 3 episode; 2 having theme first episode " if there is a will, there is a way", and last episode having theme " new generation of new hope" with motto: " dream the imposible to reach the stars", altogether having background island Banda Naira its(the exotic mount plus. Rizal depicted to be so close to resident Banda Naira (setting: port Banda Naira), huddles up the fishermens (setting: one of house in Nusantara), and care to education of children (setting: fella house Hatta). Again we enquire, what is it with Banda Naira ?

Has not losed surprise taste, advertisement of other politics has punched our ear. Voice SBY ( President RI) promptly will " answers" oration of fella Karno: " Has fallen to pieces us? Will we lose and submerged?" SBY answers: " Not, from sabang until merauke, from mianas until PRUN, we will coalesce, for the shake of Indonesia Raya.

Possibly for civilian, SBY sentence runs felt ordinary, but not for us people Banda, more again for people island Run x'self. The sentence thunder girder basin which is so(after emotion and prides upon.

So(after emotion, because Pulau Run isle only that is totally disappeared approximant is swallowed [by] epoch. Even may simply almost most of Indonesian people do not know the island, more than anything else history in it. Many people forgets, that have ever taken place big event of 5 past century, about power region conversion between Englishs ( which that moment masters approximant of all American continent, except Manhattan), with Dutch ( what masters approximant of all Indonesia continent, except Pulau Run). Hence peppercorn " agreement Breda" in the year 1617, to strive barter between Run and Manhattan. [ This valid history and do not be argued, except by a Indonesia is my mengaku-nga knew history telling the transfer takes place between Manhattan and island Bangka. For this thing is we can debate length]

Any is its(the history version, its(the fact is now Pulau Run almost certain is forgotten [by] many people. Condition of its(the sosial-ekonomi is also almost far from interference ( read: help) government. Now just has not there are electrical lighting and adequate cleanness water sanitary landfill for public life taking place there.

What prides upon is, condition of Pulau Run which is cloistered and concerns that felt a few " cured" with articulate utterance of SBY in its(the campaign, will depict its(the undoubtfulness is to be more care to outmost islands is of all [by] Indonesia region.

To Rizal, SBY, and the other politicians. Hopefully it all do not promise mere. Hopefully also not " merchanidise" politician like the one public?peoples has waited with thirst and hungry the things all of you promise.......

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The Spice Island : ..

Banda Islands Today

Banda is within the administrative province of Maluku, Indonesia, a part of Eastern Indonesia also known as the Moluccas. Most people in Banda are farmers and/or fisherman, and are of varying ethnic backgrounds, descended from original Bandanese and immigrants from all over the world, especially Java, the Malay Peninsula, Bay of Bengal and Europe. The people speak Indonesian, and approximately 95% are Muslim and 5% Christian. Nutmeg remains an important export crop, along with fish (particularly tuna), cloves, and bananas. Tourism was also an important part of the economy, with several thousand domestic and foreign visitors arriving per year prior to the 1999 conflict. There are hopes of reviving this soon.

The largest town in the islands is Naira, on the island of Banda Naira which also has the market, high school, museums, government offices and the wharf and air strip that serve all of the Banda islands. Naira is a town of about 6,000 people. Many of the buildings date from the Dutch colonial period, and are very interesting architecturally with polished marble or tile floors and inner courtyards and gardens. Some are in ruins, although there have been some recent efforts to restore some of them. The pace of life is pleasantly slow here, even though it is the most "bustling" town in the islands. The largest island is Banda Besar, which has several small villages along its coast, and a rugged mountainous interior. These islands are accessible only by motor boat. Each has a unique atmosphere and geography, are less "developed" than Naira (i.e. few or no motor vehicles or telephones) and all invite exploration.
The Banda Islands have spectacular scenery, and many visual reminders of the past, like crumbling, overgrown fortresses and colonial-style houses. The surrounding coral reefs are some of the most beautiful and unspoiled in the world, with steep drop offs to the deep Banda Sea basin. (sources)

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Foreign envoys visit Banda Naira

Ambassadors of Singapore and the Netherlands, and the U.S. Embassy's deputy head of mission, recently visited Banda Naira in Maluku province.

In the late 1930s, nationalist leaders Mohammad Hatta and Sutan Syahrir were exiled to Banda Naira by the Dutch colonial masters.

"Hatta later became Indonesia's vice president (1945-56) and prime minister (1948-50). Syahrir also became prime minister of Indonesia (1945-1947)," Indonesia's former ambassador to Australia as well as The Jakarta Post's senior editor, Sabam Sigian, said in Jakarta.

According to Sabam, historian Des Alwi invited Singaporean Ambassador Ashok Kumar Mirpuri, Dutch Ambassador Nikolaos van Dam, U.S. Embassy deputy head of mission John A. Heffern and his wife Libby Heffern, Sabam and U.S. Library of Congress Jakarta field director William Tuchrello and his wife Anita Tuchrello to visit Banda Naira from May 10 to May 13.

During their four-day trip, the diplomats visited Ambon, Banda Island, Central Maluku and other places in the province, and attended the graduation ceremony of the Banda Naira Fisheries Institute on Sunday.

They also met Maluku Governor Karel Albert Ralahalu.

Antara news agency reported that Governor Ralahalu asked the U.S. government to lift its travel warning, saying Maluku is safe for foreign tourists.

"I asked John A. Heffern ... to tell the U.S. government about the real condition in Maluku in the hope that the country could lift its travel warning," Ralahalu said Wednesday.

In another positive development, Dutch Ambassador Van Dam announced Wednesday the Dutch Chamber of Commerce and Industry would soon send a team to Maluku to explore investment possibilities there.

"I have visited Maluku four times so far and found that conditions in the province are conducive to investment because the security situation after three years of sectarian conflict has significantly improved," Van Dam told Antara.

With unsurpassed underwater beauty, Maluku would attract Dutch investors wanting to invest in the province's tourism sector, Van Dam said.

While returning to Jakarta the group faced a delay in Ambon.

"The Batavia Air Flight No. 7P-344 from Ambon to Surabaya was delayed. It was not good. The ambassadors and others were forced to wait for two hours at the Ambon airport," Sabam said. (The Jakarta Post)

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The Blessed Land : [1]

Tanah Barkat (Blessed Land): The Source of the Local in the

Banda Islands, Central Maluku, 1)

by: Phillip Winn, (2)

Introduction

The Banda Islands in central Maluku have long been a site of historical transformations. As a consequence, human relationships to land and place in the Bandas need to be understood in terms of dynamic processes of culture and history. In the pre-colonial period, the islands formed a key part of extensive trading networks reaching across the archipelago to link Maluku with the northern seaports of Java, the cosmopolitan city-state of Malacca in peninsular Malaysia, and ultimately to the Middle East, China and Europe. By the arrival of the first Europeans, the population of the islands included numbers of resident Malay and Javanese merchants, with significant socio-cultural changes in progress. In particular, autochthonous structures of authority had been transformed through the acceptance of Muslim practices and the burgeoning importance of local trade functionaries.

Military conquest of the Banda Islands in 1621 by the Dutch East India Company or VOC (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) resulted in more radical change: the destruction or displacement of much of the existing population of the islands followed by the imposition of the perkerniersstelsel or ‘nutmeg-planter system’. Among the world’s earliest plantation enterprises, this venture relied on several centuries of importing captive labour—in particular, slaves—from regional and extra-regional sources. The VOC’s decimation of indigenous-language speakers, in combination with the diverse origins of the colonial-era population, can certainly be linked to the emergence of a shared and distinctive Malay language that has been referred to as Banda Malay. It still forms the main contemporary vernacular spoken in the Banda Islands.

It is against this background that representations of the land (tanah) itself is prominent in shaping an ontological topography within which the contemporary significance of locality and the legitimacy of local identification take shape. The current population acknowledge descent from immigrants of diverse origins and generally engage in what Carsten (1997) characterises as a ‘future orientation’, where genealogical reckoning is relatively shallow in historical depth butextremely broad in contemporary reach.

Unlike the island Malay population Carsten describes, contemporary Bandanese valorise traditions of knowledge concerning the past, in particular, those that relate to the Banda Islands. This knowledge (known as adat Banda) represents the islands as possessing profound religious significance—in fact, as a blessed land or tanah berkat. By engaging in collective ritual practice (known as kerja adat), local residents enact obligations to social collectivities that derive their meaningfulness from narratives of place, rather than genealogically based visions of ancient shared relatedness. Participation in collective ritual occasions was understood as communicating and reinforcing the moral commitments and goals of religion alongside idealised visions of sociality. Ritual practices additionally confer legitimacy to contemporary assertions of authentically local identity.
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1) In T. Reuter (ed.) 2006: Sharing the Earth, Dividing the Land,
2) School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Faculty of Arts,
Australian National University

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