9 - Who Are the Orang Riau? Negotiating Identity across Geographic and Ethnic Divides

Summary

Debates about identity have multiplied across Indonesia in the wake of the implementation of regional autonomy. In the ethnically heterogeneous province of Riau, identity is prominent in the public debate and pivotal to struggles over the distribution of resources and questions of political allegiance. This chapter examines the extent to which these public discourses of identity are reflected at the grassroots level, drawing from my own experiences as an intermittent member of a non-Malay Riau household, and on data from semi-structured interviews conducted in June 2002 with community leaders and 40 other people from a range of social and ethnic backgrounds (see Table 9.1).

Half of the interviews took place in Pekanbaru (the provincial capital, located on the mainland) and half in Tanjungpinang (traditionally the major administrative centre in the islands). They focused on four issues: understandings of regional autonomy; the potential division of Riau into two provinces; who can lay claim to being an orang Riau (a person of Riau); and relationships among ethnic groups.

My informants' responses confirmed that the hopes of the people of Riau for improved access to economic resources have fuelled both general public support for autonomy and Malay claims to preferential treatment. However, they also suggested that affective factors should not be overlooked in attempts to understand the nuances of regional autonomy in Riau. On the one hand, Malay identity is emerging as a form of collective expression. On the other, Malayclaims to place have left many non-Malays with a sense that they have no place to claim. Where, then, does indigeneity end and citizenship begin? This question, which lies at the very heart of the identity conundrum in Riau, is important for Indonesia as a whole as it emerges from the New Order period.