Merantau: Causes and Effects of Minangkabau 9789814380164

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The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

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MERANT.AU:

CAUSES AND EFF:;.::CTS OF MINANGKABAU

VOLUNTARY MIGRATION

Mochtar Naim

Occasional Paper No. 5 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Singapore Price:

$2.00

PREFACE

The migration of Minangkabau men is a factor well-known to students of Indonesian society. Few, if any, have sought to analyse its causes and its effects. Mr. Mochtar Nairn, a Fellow of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, is the Director of the Center for Minangkabau Studies in Padang and was lecturer in Sociology at Andalas University in the same city. His long interest in this subject prompted him to undertake this pioneer work. The initial research was undertaken while Mr. Nairn held a research grant from the Ford Foundation. The original version of this paper, which presents some of the background to the problem and suggests some of the areas in need of research, was prepared for the 28th International Congress of Orientalists in Canberra, Australia in January,l970. After Mr. Nairn joined the Institute, here in Singapore, he presented a revised version in a seminar in April, 1971. The paper attracted wide attention and it was felt that it should be made available for a larger audience through publication. The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies looks forward to the time when Mr. Nairn completes his present study and shares his findings on this interesting, but long neglected, subject.

Josef Silverstein Director

5 May, 1971

Merantau:

Causes and Effects of Minangkabau Voluntary Migration by Mochtar Nairn

1.

The Magnitude

It is now estimated that the number of Minangkabau who go merantau (voluntarily going away from home)l, either temporarily or for a longer period of time, is more or less equal to the number who remain at home. According to the latest account taken recently from a 1971 census, currently in preparation, the population of West Sumatra is 2.7 million, an increase of only some 400,000 from the 1961 census.2 There is of course no sure way now to determine the number of Minangkabau who go merantau. The above is merely nn estimate, arrived at by taking into consideration several "push-out" factors and the popular estimates fre1uently disclosed by government and social leaders in and outside of West Sumatra.3 The popular Governor of Djakarta, General Ali Sadikin, has recently claimed that close to half a million of his subjects, or about one tenth of the entire metropolitan population, were Minangkabau. This number, he pointed out, was considerably larger than or even double the population of Padang itself, the provincial capital and largest city in West Sumatra, with a population of 207,500.4 During my field research in Y!est Java last September, leaders of the Minangkabau community in Bandung repeated to me the estimate once made by the previous Governor of \7est Java that there were no less than three hundred thousand Minangkabau scattered throughout West Java outside of Djakarta. There were MinangkabRu in practically every district and municipality in the province, including Tjirebon, Tasik, Tjiamis, Garut, Furwakerta, Sukabumi, Banten, etc. The leaders with whom I spoke estimated that some fifty thousand Minangkabau were now found in Bnndung and the surrounding vicinity alone. There were also several thousand Minangkabau in Central and East Java, especially in cities such as 8emarang, Pekalongan, Solo, Jogja, Surabaja and Malang; and some three hundred thousand in North Sumatra,

2

including more thnn a hundred thousand in the city of Medan and vicinity.5 About a hundred thousand Minangkabau lived in Gouth Sumatra with over fifty thousand in the city of Palembnng. The cities of Fekanbaru and Djambi to the east were henvily populated by Minangkabau. One might say that Peknnbaru, Djambi and other smaller towns in the east, were "satellites" of the highlands ~\Jest Sumatra. The vernacular spoken in Pekanbaru and in many parts of Riau is Minangkabau. One can easily trace with his forefinger the Minangkabau settlements along the west coast of Sumatra, from Atjeh in the north to Bengkulu in the south. Meulaboh and Tapaktuan in Atjeh, south of Sibolga, Natal and along the border in Tapnnuli, down to Muko-muko and Bengkulu in the south, were all these Minangkabau settlements with languages, adat and social structure closely related to those found in West Sumatra. These and the regions to the east ~ere nll, in fact, part of the old Minangknbnu kingdom. There were quite a number of r~'finangknbau in the Malay peninsula, in Singapore, Kuching, Serawak, Brunei rrnd Sabah. There were also many in other parts of Indonesia -- in Fonti:meJc, Bandjnrmasin, Samnrinda, Tarakan, in Makassar nnd Menado, in the Moluccas up to West Iri311, and in the islands of Nusa Tenggara. They were in fact scattered all over Indonesia and the 1\tlalc.y peninsula. It is well known that Negri Sembilan in Malaysia became a permanent settlement of Minangkabau who migr