Who was Christian Simbar and what was the motive for the attack on his troops?
Buntok Incident (1953)
In his brilliant essay Colonizing Borneo: State-building and Ethnicity in Central Kalimantan (2006), Gerry van Klinklen reveals that Christian Simbar (aka Uria Mapas) was the main leader of the Lawong Army. He was secretary to the district head (wedana or camat) in Buntok. This small riverside town in Dayak Dusun land is located about 50km northwest of Tamiang Layang.
The Lawong Army was a kind of 'Christian Dayak' alert group previously sponsored by the Dutch to counter the penetration of the Banjar Republic guerrillas into Dusun land from Hulu Sungai to the Southeast. It remained in existence after the transition to independence, and reappeared in written records as late as 1953 in Tamiang Layang, in the Dusun region of Hulu Sungai. Tentara Lawong had essentially become a local group no longer tied to broader political goals. Clearly not an orthodox Christian organization, it was active in indigenous 'mystical' cults.
The main purpose of this armed group is to defend local interests against hostile outsiders. It could even have had a vague relationship with the Ibnu Hadjar-led KRJT (Kesatuan Rakjat Jang Tertindas), which although allied with Darul Islam, was more like a non-religious grassroots movement resisting hegemonic state control (Iqbal, 2014).
The huge local support for the Lawong Army was not due to ideological reasons, but to its practice of robbing passing merchant boats and distributing the proceeds - Robin Hood style - to the poor and marginalized. Raiders from the Lawong Army had robbed boats at Kurau, Negara, and finally at Kalahien, near Buntok.
They acted like men of power, wearing government uniforms, also when distributing the proceeds later. But the incident at Kalahien in late 1953 was taken too far by the police who arrested a number of Simbar's men for robbing the Chinese-owned riverboat Gin Wei II. Four of those arrested were relatives of Simbar, and Simbar decided to strike back.
The Buntok attack was launched by a movement called "Telabang Pantjasila Sektor Dajak". Telabang (or telawang) is a shield. The name of the movement clearly refers to Pancasila as Indonesia's national ideology to prove its loyalty to Jakarta. The attackers were motivated by various frustrations such as government corruption and the cancellation of the swamp drainage program. The group added 'ready to die' to Pancasila, no doubt, with the aim of ingratiating itself with potential sponsors in Jakarta.
The next day the group changed its name to the grander, but somewhat less overt, Dayak term 'Mandau Telabang Pantjasila'. Mandau is the Dayak sword. It was ordained that the leader was Ch. Simbar alias Mandolin, a Dayak Ma'anyan tribal figure. What was important was that this group was fighting a loose alliance of anti-Jakarta insurgency movements, namely the KRJT, Darul Islam, and the Indonesian Islamic Army.
Simbar is certainly no pariah. He is a local government official who now speaks on behalf of many fellow officials in this Dayak region.
In a long and sympathetic meeting with a delegation of high-powered Dayak leaders led by the Barito regent, G. Obos, in December 1953 Simbar put forward a prominent ideological defense of his actions. G. Obos explained that Simbar was motivated by a sense of injustice suffered by the Dayaks, opposed to corruption and Islamic insurgencies, and that he and his men would surrender provided they were recruited into the police or army.
It seemed that an agreement had been reached, for the following day Simbar surrendered with 129 of his followers. All were taken to Banjarmasin. Another high-level meeting followed there between Dayak leaders and the deputy governor, police and prosecutor's office. Most of the men were released.
The police, still bitter about their members being victimized and unwilling to let the charges go, insisted on arresting the top leaders of Simbar's group and charging them with the piracy of the Gin Wan II. However, in mid-April 1954 Simbar was able to escape from custody and take a bus north to his homeland. In August it was announced that all charges against Simbar and his colleagues had been dropped. Still exasperated, the police initially insisted that Simbar should collect his release papers himself, but eventually the demand was dropped.
In June 1954 Simbar was back in the headlines of the local print media. He once again led an armed organization called 'Telawang, Mandau, dan Pantjasila' - sometimes also called 'Telabang Mandau Dajak Kalimantan'. He was still based in the Barito River basin around Buntok and Muara Teweh.
The police, still bitter about their members being victimized and unwilling to let the charges go, insisted on arresting the top leaders of Simbar's group and charging them with the piracy of the Gin Wan II. However, in mid-April 1954 Simbar was able to escape from custody and take a bus north to his homeland. In August it was announced that all charges against Simbar and his colleagues had been dropped. Still exasperated, the police initially insisted that Simbar should collect his release papers himself, but eventually the demand was dropped.
In June 1954 Simbar was back in the headlines of the local print media. He once again led an armed organization called 'Telawang, Mandau, dan Pantjasila' - sometimes also called 'Telabang Mandau Dajak Kalimantan'. He was still based in the Barito River basin around Buntok and Muara Teweh.
Simbar's brilliance was in moving 'slickly' back and forth as he wished between the city and the jungle. Sometimes he plays the role of a Dayak candidate for elections. Sometimes he was an armed guerrilla leader. In May 1955, after coming out of the jungle, he stood among the top three candidates of the United Power Party.
The results of the election for the Transitional Regional Representative Council (DPRD Peralihan) held that year also established how ineffective ethnic Dayak electoral politics were. The pro-fourth province (Central Kalimantan) parties - namely Partai Persatuan Daya, PRN, and Parkindo - each received a small share of the vote. Although Persatuan Daya, Simbar's party, was clearly successful as a new party - winning 3%, 14% and 3% of the vote respectively, it was not enough to convince Simbar to stay in politics. It wasn't long before he reverted to his old tactics.
Into the Jungle Again
After losing the election Christian Simbar went back into the jungle in September 1956. But he did not break with the authorities.Most of his time was spent in his home area of Buntok and the northern part of Hulu Sungai, but he also moved west to the Kahayan River. Douglas Miles in his work Cutlass and Crescent Moon: A Case Study of Social and Political Change in Outer Indonesia (1976) provides evidence on the Upper Mentaya River, above Sampit in Kotawaringin, that Simbar could cooperate with the military.
Tjilik Riwut, who combined the role of civilian administration with a continuous military relationship, provided a channel and opportunity for his taskmasters. This allowed Simbar to act with impunity. His troops attacked a military armory in Sampit on November 10, 1956.
On December 6, Simbar's troops attacked the town of Pahandut, then only the capital of a district (kecamatan). Two policemen were killed, and the district head (camat) was one of three wounded. The gang allegedly burned houses, raped women, then fled with the gold and diamonds they had looted from locals, and goods from government offices. They headed north to Kuala Kurung along the Kahayan River, presumably with the intention of repeating the action.
The capital press considered the entire hinterland unsafe for boat travel, as the Simbar would shoot and rob passing trade and government boats. Meanwhile, up the Katingan River, the next river basin to the west was under the control of another gang leader named William Embang. Together they continued to call their movement Mandau Telabang Pantjasila Kalimantan.
But in the interior, Simbar was not seen as a rebel. He was ordained as a grassroots hero. Local leaders seemed to support him.
By 1957, in the opinion of Tjilik Riwut and the new military commander for Kalimantan, the security situation was 'ideal'. Meanwhile, Simbar was being slowly removed from the scene. He was no longer needed.
Simbar and Embang came out of the jungle and were taken to meet the official Kalimantan Governor Sarkawie and his entourage in Banjarmasin in March. Simbar told them he had 10,000 men throughout Central Kalimantan. The group then traveled together to Buntok and Bundar to witness a symbolic oath of allegiance to the state by 400 of them in each place.
The following month the group was the guest of honor at official celebrations in each of the three districts that would become part of the new province. They were renamed the Youth Front for the Development of Central Kalimantan, still led by Simbar, who was henceforth seen as one of the heroes of the people of Central Kalimantan (Riwut, 1979: 62; Usop, 1996: 82).
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| Grave Monument of Christian Simbar |
Out of the ring
Arkian, Central Kalimantan was born as a province on July 17, 1957 and Tjilik Riwut was elected as its first governor. Simbar himself was empowered with some money and tried his hand at business. He was not cut out for it and went bankrupt.In 1961 Simbar returned to the forest. He still imagined that he was the one who had paved the only path to political success. Meanwhile, he had forgotten about the lobbying in Jakarta by others.
Simbar had been tipped to take up the governorship after Tjilik Riwur's term ended, and this had left him emboldened. But that time no one protected him anymore.
Simbar was arrested and died under mysterious circumstances, shortly after his release from military custody in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. The local authorities have not forgotten the death toll on Simbar's side, so there is a suspicion that he was executed.
In conclusion, I would like to quote a poetic phrase from the writer Hermann Broch, that "Rebels are not to be confused with criminals, although society often considers rebels to be criminals, although criminals sometimes act as rebels to make their actions seem honorable."
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