Farming at the Jail: Collective Farming System of Buru Political Prisoners in 1969-1979

Abstract

This article discusses the implementation of the Project of the Rehabilitation Installation of Buru (Inrehab Buru) which removed as many as 9,957 political prisoners of Class B from Java Island to Buru Island. In this place they were totally alienated from all anti-government political activities against the Government of the New Order. Besides, this project was successful in making use of those political prisoners to be able to “berswadaya” dan “berswasembada” in the field of farming (to live on their own efforts and to be self-sufficient in the farming field). Through collective farming system, they fulfilled their daily needs by cultivating rice, palawija (crops planted as second crop in the dry season), salt, gula aren (sugar derived from sap of sugar palm), and rearing animals. The implementation of the collective farming system at the Buru Installation Rehabilitation had a positive impact on the native people of Buru Island by changing their life style from food gathering to food producing. However, it also had a negative impact on the local people. The negative impact was that the sago forests were on the decrease and the hunting grounds were getting narrower and narrower.