Learning From Other Sources

The Javanese also gained knowledge and information from groups outside the transmigration settlements. Two important sources were other migrants within and near the transmigration locations, and the media.

South Kalimantan

Other migrants became an important source of information as the new settlers broadened their contacts outside the settlement. In the daily-flooded swamp, for example, many transmigrants learned about swamps from Javanese migrants from the Tamban sub-district and from other transmigrants who had settled earlier in the area around the village. The Tamban Javanese were particularly important. Many new settlers (25 per cent) reported that they had travelled to Tamban during the first year of settlement, to seek information about and experience of tidal swamp agriculture. Communication with the Tamban

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Javanese was much easier than with the local people because of shared language and culture. The Tamban Javanese welcomed them warmly and provided much help. They understood the transmigrants’ situation well, for it reminded them of their own experience and struggle to survive.

During the transmigration program period, most Javanese from the daily- flooded swamp had worked with the Tamban Javanese, especially during the harvest. The Tamban Javanese usually provided accommodation and food, while the transmigrants harvested the rice under the bawon system. 1 During work in the rice fields, they also gathered information about swamp conditions and agricultural practices. They learned still more from the Tamban Javanese when some of the latter moved to the daily-flooded swamp, replacing other transmigrants who had been resettled to another transmigration location.

The Tamban Javanese also inspired the settlers in a way that the Banjarese could not. The Tamban Javanese had convinced the transmigrants not to give up, saying that they had faced even more difficult conditions when they had first arrived in Tamban.

In the high-tide and indirect swamps, new migrants were dominated by Javanese transmigrants who had arrived a few years earlier in the areas surrounding these locations. These earlier migrants had more experience in the swamp ecosystems than the new transmigrants. Contact and communication were also much easier than with the local Banjarese, facilitating the flow of information.

1 Bawon is a Javanese harvesting system whereby each harvester receives a portion of the amount he/she harvests.

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In the indirect swamp, another important influence derived from the Javanese of the Barambai transmigration location, who had settled there in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The transmigration program also had transferred a few who had been involved in the Gajah Mada test farm project in Barambai to the indirect swamp, where they became field staff counterparts to help develop swamp agriculture.

The second major source of information from outside the settlement was the mass media, such as radio, television and newspapers, although their contribution was limited. In the first year of settlement none of these facilities were available because of transport problems. No one had television and very few Javanese owned radios. Moreover, while agricultural information was broadcast, the material was about agriculture in general, and did not focus specifically on tidal swamps.

During the transmigration program period, the contribution of the media remained small. Only a few Javanese transmigrants seem to have received the leaflets provided by the agricultural offices. Most reported that they had never seen this material. There was still no television, although the number of respondents who owned radios increased slightly. Little relevant information could be obtained from rural and agricultural development programs broadcast on the radio.

The contribution of the media, particularly radio, increased slightly during the village period. Almost all owned radios by this time, although the material broadcast on the local radio remained limited. At this time, more Javanese read newspapers, especially the local newspapers brought from Banjarmasin. However, these also contained very little material relevant to local agriculture. Only a few Javanese in any of the swamp areas had television, although all were

able to watch it. One television would be watched by as many as 20-30 people. Its impact on the agricultural knowledge was limited because the viewers, particularly the younger Javanese, preferred entertainment programs rather than rural development or news programs, which they did not consider interesting.

East Kalimantan

Like the Javanese in the swamp sites, most respondents in Bukit Village reported that they had obtained important agricultural information from people outside the settlement, particularly after crop yields fell four years after settlement. The information from migrants came from two major sources: other Javanese who had settled earlier in other transmigration locations surrounding this village, and Buginese migrants located between Balikpapan and Samarinda. The earlier migrants had experienced similar problems of declining crop outputs after a few years of cultivation. These transmigrants had observed and quickly adopted indigenous swidden cultivation, but with crude techniques. They grew mountain rice in secondary forest by cutting small trees and slashing scrub, then burning before planting. After one or two harvests, they abandoned the land, moving to another area. The Javanese in Bukit Village also quickly adopted these techniques.

During the village period transport improved significantly, thus villagers became more mobile, directly or indirectly picking up agricultural information from other sources. These especially included Buginese migrants, who had established pepper gardens in East Kalimantan, and other Javanese transmigrants, particularly those living between Balikpapan and Samarinda. Some respondents described how they had learned about pepper growing from the Buginese through other migrants. They asked other Javanese who had settled

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close to the Buginese gardens to introduce them to the Buginese so that they could observe their pepper gardens and learn how to plant this crop. Others had learned how to grow pepper directly from the Buginese when they met them in Balikpapan market or when they worked together in timber companies.

The second source of outsider information in this area was the media, though the amount was limited. At first few Javanese owned radios, none had television and few reported reading the transmigration leaflets. The importance of radio, particularly in providing information on rural and agricultural development, increased slightly during the transmigration program and village periods. As in the swamps, the contribution of television to agricultural information was limited. During my field work, 15 per cent of households had television sets and allowed others to watch favourite programs like songs and Indonesian films rather than news and rural development programs.