Every time I asked my informant about who were shrimp farmers in Tarakan, he would direct me to pond owners. They, most of them, were men, between 40 to 60 years old, and had a nice big house. They were not anymore actively involved in the shrimp farming daily activities. Instead, their role now was more of a pond manager. They used to be the one who actively involved in shrimp farming, even in developing the pond. They did the experiments to find out the best formula for their farming practices: how to choose best shrimp fry, how to do the stocking, open/close the water gate, harvest the shrimp, and sold shrimp. As time went by, along with the increasing of their tambak assets, they became pond managers with groups of workers/partners. These workers/partners took over the daily work which was done by the pond owners before.
Most of the successful shrimp farmers in Tarakan were Bugeneese who, most of them, practiced the knowledge of shrimp farming from their homeland, even though that they already lived in Tarakan for years. The system they used to organize their workers/partners was based on Punggawa-Sawi system (see Pelras (2000) for further information about Punggawa and his Sawi). Punggawa-sawi system originated and was practiced by Bugis and Makassarese of South Sulawesi. Punggawa is usually a noble (Pelras, 2000) and based on the information given by my other informant, Punggawa , in Tarakan area, is also known as a person who has a lot of tambak, big (economic) capital, and a lot of Sawi. Referring to the relation of Punggawa-Sawi, Pelras (2000) said that sawi is more as partner to Punggawa instead of wage laborer. Instead of giving monthly salary, Punggawa shares profit, and so does the risk, of shrimp/fish farming.
One of Punggawa I interviewed is a nobleman from Pinrang. He is in fact appointed by his “people” as the King of Bakaru in Pinrang, South Sulawesi, even though he already left the area as teenager. In Tarakan, he is one of the most successful shrimp farmers. He had started his farming activities in late 1970s with one pond of around 10 ha. Now, he has several ponds located on small islands in the Sesayap Delta, several houses (in Tarakan, Sulawesi, and Java), oil palm plantation in Nunukan, cacao plantation in South Sulawesi, several wives, and more than 20 children. In managing his tambak assets, he is assisted by his second son as his right hand and his first wife as the treasurer.
Henceforth, in this paper, I will call him as “Pak Haji Raja”, his second son as “Mas Second Prince” and his first wife as “Ibu Hajjah Ratu”.
So, Pak Haji Raja neatly organizes his tambak activities with him or Mas Second Prince as Punggawa with teams of sawi who serve them. Pak Haji Raja adopted the Punggawa-Sawi system, with some variations, to organize his tambak. Pak Haji Raja/Mas Second Prince is the highest Punggawa because they provide all the capital and are the decision makers. Below them are, as described by Tahawila (in Pelras, 2000), small Punggawa or ‘manager keliling’ according to Pak Haji Raja and his Sawi. The manager keliling supervise five to seven Sawi who are responsible for taking care of several ponds located in one island. Manager keliling were the trusted ones and usually members of Pak Haji Raja’s extended family. Every time Sawi have problems dealing with tambak management, they would report to manager keliling who would report the problems to Pak Haji Raja or Mas Second Prince and waited for their decision.
The Sawi, are usually lead by ‘ketua’ Sawi who is also appointed by Pak Haji Raja as their religious teacher. This was related to a religious organization in which Pak Haji Raja is one of the leaders. He became member of this organization since 1980’s and was believed as the first person who spread the believes of this organization and now he is one of the Imams for Tarakan area. The ketua sawi/religious teacher taught sawi about Islamic knowledge and organization doctrines. This, automatically, made all the sawi of Pak Haji Raja became members of the same religious organization. Pak Haji Raja saw it as an advantage, or in other words, this religious organization became one of his social capital which assured his sawi integrity: “they are not afraid of me, instead, they are afraid of God” (Pak Haji Raja, 2011).
What I want to share here is, that Pak Haji Raja (and also the other pond owner I met and interviewed), despite his social status well known as Punggawa, would be happy to be called as (shrimp) farmer. Since, it is him who started to build tambak and even if he is now not involved directly in the daily shrimp farming activities, he still makes key decisions and the one who give orders. All decisions he makes and order he gives would be based on his experiences as a farmers. So, in his mind he is still a farmer, but not in practice.
PS: next time, I would describe more about ‘Pos’, ‘Company’ and how the shrimp trade system works in Tarakan.
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