Adat and land rights neglected in Sarawak – Part One
By John Riwang and Apang
Before Brooke rule and colonial administration in Sarawak, the indigenous communities, particularly the Dayak groups, were governed by their own respective adat.
But over time, this adat has been forcibly changed by the State into a homogeneous, State-based institution, thereby destroying the uniqueness of adat to each particular indigenous community.
Among other functions, the adat is used by Sarawak’s indigenous communities to claim rights over land, forest resources and their livelihood. The failure to understand the importance of adat to Dayak indigenous communities of Sarawak would render any discussion on human rights futile.
Clifford Sather said that adat: “[…] covers all of the various customary norms, jural rules, ritual interdictions and injunctions that guide an individual’s conduct, and the sanctions and forms of redress by which these norms and rules are upheld…these rules apply to virtually all spheres of human life, social, economic, religious and political.”3
Adat is an all-encompassing institution that presides over activities such as marriages, religious festivals, death and mourning, childbirth, dance and music, construction of new longhouse, and even tradition past-times such as music and weaving.
It is also important to note that unlike the Malay notion of adat, the concept of adat among many Dayak communities of Sarawak is not distinct from religious rituals and practices. Adat and religious beliefs are one and the same thing.
According to Ter Haar (1948), the adat is not restricted to what we commonly regard as “customary law”.4
The concept of adat is not restricted to the notion of adat as laws or rules. Because the adat resembles the generic concept of ‘customs’, it includes all the activities people customarily practise in their society. It also covers the individual’s behavior and personal habits, whether he or she is practising good or bad adat.
Generally, the function of the adat is to ensure harmonious relationships among members within the community and also to maintain a general state of wellbeing with the spirit world. Breaching this adat would risk a breakdown in social relationships. Such contraventions would lead to punishment in both the secular and spiritual senses.
The adat and the formation of the state
Before Sarawak came under colonial rule, the indigenous communities did not define their social identities based on ‘ethnicity’ as we understand it today, such as Iban, Bidayuh, Kayan and others. Their social identities were defined by their geographical space, such as people belonging to a particular river, tributary, hill, mountain or watershed area.
Their social loyalty was based on each geographical space and its own kinship system. Each community living within a specific geographical space was governed by its own unique adat.
However, with the formation of the State that began with the Brooke administration, the adat – as a concept and its traditional functions – was changed to fit the requirements of the state constitution.
The evolution of the adat from its unique traditional form to its constitutional profile today was caused mainly by the adoption of the values of the colonial and post-colonial governments.
When the Brooke administration began to strengthen its grip on Sarawak in the mid-19th century, the structure of the adat was altered and it was constituted as ‘customary law’.
For instance, during the Brooke administration, the Iban tunggu (fines) according to the adat were made systematic and were assigned monetary values. Also, the Brookes introduced courts to replace the Iban bechara (hearing) that was usually carried out in a longhouse ruai (verandah) and witnessed by the longhouse dwellers.
These new colonial practices, in replacing the traditional adat, eventually spread to all the indigenous communities in Sarawak.
The adat then became an institution sanctioned by the state. The adat at the local level is administered by the Penghulu or chiefs, who receive a salary from the state.
Clifford Sather said that due to this ruling and the replacement of traditional adat by the state, the Brookes began to wipe out some aspects of the adat that seemed negative or morally bad by their standards.
These included the death penalty for incest, forcible seizure of property, slavery and headhunting. What is left of the adat now is represented by the precious antique collections stored in a government-run institution, the Majlis Adat Istiadat, under the aegis of the Sarawak Chief Minister’s Office.
Alteration of the adat inevitably affected land use system as well. The Land Order in Sarawak was first introduced in 1863, changed in 1920, and amended to what we know today as the Sarawak Land Code in 1958.
These changes have had far-reaching implications for the indigenous communities in Sarawak. For example, in the cases affecting the Orang Ulu and Penan in particular, jungle clearing is not an option to acquire land rights.
The various Orders, Ordinances and the Land Code sought to restrict the acquisition of land rights through the practice of local adat by the various indigenous communities.
Ironically, a written permit from a Superintendent of the Land and Survey Department has been required for any attempt to create customary rights for any piece of land after 1958!
