Page 130 - Demo

Islam, Democracy and Human Rights in Contemporary Indonesia113First, the term %u201cindigenous people%u201d in an Indonesian contextcould lead to a great misinterpretation. Geographically, Indonesia is an archipelagic country with around 18,000 islandscovering a total of 2 million square kilometers. In 2013, its totalpopulation stood at 250 million, comprising more than 1,000ethnic and subethnic groups. Before independence, these groups lived with their owncultures and traditions under their respective kingdoms. InSouth Sulawesi, for example, Bone was an independentkingdom with its own unique political systems, cultures, andtraditions. Similarly, its neighbor, Gowa, was also a uniquekingdom. In Papua, there are some 300 local languages spokenby different ethnic and sub-ethnic groups. Within this context,it is indeed a misleading concept to dichotomize those ethnicgroups into indigenous and non-indigenous peoples, especiallygiven Indonesia%u2019s tenet of unity in diversity.US society is different because, despite the fact that it is greatlydiverse, its people have lost their context of origin. The majority ofAmericans are immigrants from many countries across the world.To %u201cAmericanize%u201d US residents is therefore much easier than to%u201cIndonesianize%u201d those in the archipelago. For the United States toidentify its indigenous populations, such as American Indian orHawaiian minorities, is also quite easy. Similarly, the indigenousAustralian Aboriginal population is also quite easy to recognize.In Indonesia, diversified ethnic groups remain in their respectiveentities and social environments despite their faith in the unitarystate of Indonesia%u2019s system.Within this context, Indonesian laws use various terms torefer to indigenous peoples, such as masyarakat suku terasing(alien tribal communities), masyarakat tertinggal (neglected