THE VULNERABILITY OF BAJAU LAUT AS STATELESS PEOPLE IN SABAH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51200/ejk.v26i2.2771Keywords:
Bajau, Bajau Laut, stateless, Sabah, exploitAbstract
ABSTRACT The Bajau Laut, or Sea Bajau or also often referred to with the derogatory label Palauh by other communities, are known to be living within their ancestral domain of the Sulu and the Celebes Seas or the Sulu-Semporna-South Sulawesi Triangle. During the Pre-British period, their mobility around this region was well established as part of their civilization and was not an issue with other peoples in the land-based territories. However, the legal status of the Bajau Laut became problematic when citizenship and territories were formalized by the emergence of the nation-states of the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. In the case of the Bajau Laut population located on the Malaysian side of Sabah, the dynamics of their own internal development has become more complicated. In Sabah there are three groups of Bajau: the West Coast Bajau, the various groups of East Coast Bajau, and the Bajau Laut who can be found along Sabah’s east coast, and around the islands off of Semporna. These three groups can be differentiated by their language and dialects, as well as livelihood, status in life, education, community structure and their general worldviews. The West Coast Bajau and the East Coast Bajau have slowly integrated themselves into the Malaysian society, while the Bajau Laut continues their semi-nomadic life at sea and are generally regarded as stateless by the Malaysian government. This paper looks into the changes that has occurred within the Bajau Laut group and how they are viewed by the Sabah government and society. One of the main finding of this paper is that the status of the Bajau Laut as stateless has made them more vulnerable and easily exploited. This in turn presents as a possible security problem to the state as these people pledges allegiance to no one.
References
Allerton C. (2014). Statelessness and the lives of the children of migrants in Sabah, East Malaysia. Tilburg Law Review 26, 26–34.
Amrullah, M., Othman, Z., Radzi, M. M., & Abdul Rahim, M. S. (2018). Komuniti Suluk dan persoalan migrasi. Jurnal Kinabalu, 24, 35–55.
Badariah, S. (2018). Pendidikan alternatif sebagai wadah keterangkuman sosial dalam kalangan penduduk yang tiada kewarganegaraan di Pulau Mabul, Sabah. Jurnal Kinabalu, 24, 177–206.
Brunt, H. (2013). Stateless stakeholders: Seen but not heard? MA Thesis (Unpublished). University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
Brunt, H. (2015). A position paper on the vulnerability of Bajau (APRRN). Retrieved from http://rightsinexile.tumblr.com/post/115241976092/a-position-paper-onthe-vulnerability-of-bajau.
Clifton, J., & Majors, C. (2011). Culture, conservation and conflict: Perspectives on marine protection among the Bajau of Southeast Asia. Society and Natural Resources, 25, 716–725.
Gusni Saat. (2003). The identity and social mobility of Sama-Bajau. Jurnal SARI, 21, 3–11.
Gusni Saat. (2016). Issues in social categorization and its consequences among the group of Sama-Bajau ethnic in Sabah. Paper presented at the International Conference on Bajau Sama Diaspora & Maritime Southeast Asian Cultures, 19–24 April, Semporna, Sabah.
Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI). (2014). The World’s Stateless. Wolf the Legal Publishers: Netherlands.
Jakarta Post. (15 July 2018). The future of the stateless.
Kaifumi, N. (2001). Pirates, sea nomads or protectors of Islam? A note on ‘Bajau’ identifications in the Malaysian context. Asian and African Area Studies, 1, 212–230.
Kiefer, T.M. (1972), The Tausug violence and law in Philippines Moselem society, New York: Holf, Reinhart and Winston. Marshall, S., Saidatul, N.H, M., & Junaidah, J. (2019). Contestations over Malaysian citizenship and the preliminary case for recognising the stateless Bajau Laut community. Borneo Research Journal, Special Issue, 66–78.
Massey, H. (2010). UNHCR and De Facto Statelessness. LPPR/2010/01 (UNHCR). Retrieved from https://refugeeresearch.net/rrn_node/unhcr-and-de-facto-statelessness/
Nimmo, H. A. (1986). Recent population movements in the Sulu Archipelago: Implications to Sama culture history. Archipel, 32, 25–38.
Nimmo, H. Arlo. (1990). Religious beliefs of the Tawi-Tawi Bajau. Philippine Studies, 38(1), 3–27.
Ramli Dollah et al. (2018). Peranan peristiwa dalam pembentukan identiti: Peristiwa Tanduo 2013 dan pembentukan identiti masyarakat Suluk (Tausug) di Sabah. Jurnal Kinabalu, 23, 21–42.
Rodziana, M. R. (2017). Addressing statelessness in Malaysia: New hope and remaining challenges. Stateless Working Paper Series, 2017/9. Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion
Sather, C. (1997). The Bajau Laut: Adaptation, history and fate in a maritime fishing society of South Eastern Sabah. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
Sather, C. (2001). Bajau laut boat-building in Semporna. Techniques & Culture, 35–36, 177–19.
Schult, V. (2000). Sulu and Germany in the late nineteenth century. Philippine Studies, 48 (1), 80–108.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (2014). Nationality and statelessness: A handbook for Parliamentarians. Retrieved from https://www. un.org/ruleoflaw/files/Nationality%20and%20Statelessness.pdf
Warren, J. (2002). Irranun and Balangingi: Globalization, maritime raiding and the birth of ethnicity. Singapore: NUP
Warren, J. F. (1971). The North Borneo Chartered Company’s administration of Bajau, 1878–1909: The pacification of a maritime, nomadic people. Ohio: Ohio University Center for International Studies.
Yap Beng Liang. (2001). Politik dan ekonomi masyarakat Bajau Kota Belud, Sabah. Kuala Lumpur: Akademi Pengajian Melayu, Universiti Malaya.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Total Views: 2354
| 
Total Downloads: 4236
