Poverty of Parmalim Indigenous People:

Discrimination, Intolerance and Political Accessibility

Tonny P. Situmorang and Faisal Andri Mahrawa

Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Poverty, Indigenous Peoples, Parmalim Community, Political Accessibility.

Abstract: Poverty is the estuary for all the problems of social discrimination faced by the Parmalim indigenous people

who are in Toba Samosir District, North Sumatra Province, Indonesia. The social discrimination then led to

intolerance towards Parmalim because of their beliefs that were considered different. The purpose of this

study was to map and analyze the problems of poverty experienced by the Parmalim indigenous people.

This research is a constructive qualitative paradigm research by analyzing phenomena, social structure and

empirical issues of poverty of the Parmalim community. The findings of this study in the field mention that

poverty, discrimination and intolerance experienced by the Parmalim indigenous people are caused by the

low political accessibility of the Parmalim community which makes them marginalized in the fields of

social, economic, education and the difficulty of obtaining employment.

1 PRELIMINARY

The characteristics of Parmalim poor people in

accessing policies are measured by their income.

Poverty experienced by the Parmalim com munity

has not been considered as one of the indicators in

the framework of structural functional theory seen as

a functioning item for the implementation of an

orderly, balanced and orderly community life

(Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977). Poor people with

small incomes are more likely to be vulnerable to

policy discrimination.

The many needs of life reduce the allocation of

health costs for individuals and their families. On the

other hand, work routines continue to squeeze in to

meet family needs without being accompanied by

health care. Such conditions are getting worse when

individual health decreases while medical expenses

are not affordable. This fact further supports the

view that low economic status is closely related to

the low quality of health and even vulnerable to

death.

Class analysis views economic conditions as

representations of social class struggle as a form of

individual constitutive relations with other

individuals in the Parmalim community. Such

assumptions will place the individual as an absolute

factor determining the high quality of health and

ignoring the possibility of other factors. The

determination of income and employment for the

economic quality of Parmalim's people raises social

class discourse in policy studies (Kara & Egresi,

2013). Economic problems are not merely variables,

but constitutive vehicles of Parmalim's social

relations. In fact, the socio-economic class is very

influential on the social life of individuals not only

related to social relations and interactions, but also

to the life needs of the Parmalim community.

Furthermore, according to BPS data, the poverty

rate in Toba Samosir Regency in 2017 increased by

0.32% from the previous year. Data from the Central

Statistics Agency (BPS) shows, in 2016 the number

of poor people was 14.40% of the total population of

124,496 people or 18,001 people. Then in 2017 it

becomes 14.72% of the total population of 125,099

people or 18,033 people (BPS, 2018). The poverty

line is the value of expenditure per capita to fulfill

food, drink, housing, clothing, education, health, and

other basic needs. These poor people are spread in

the Toba Samosir areas inhabited by the Parmalim

community such as; Toba Holbung Village, Uluan

District, Binangalom Village, Lumban Julu District

and Lumban Lobukparik Village, Bonatua

Subdistrict.

In the conditions in Toba Holbung Village in

Toba Samosir for example, Marudut Butar-butar

claimed that his income as a farmer could not be

calculated per month. But it depends on the harvest

Situmorang, T. and Mahrawa, F.

Poverty of Parmalim Indigenous People: Discrimination, Intolerance and Political Accessibility.

DOI: 10.5220/0010012200990105

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social and Political Development (ICOSOP 3 2019) - Social Engineering Governance for the People, Technology and Infrastr ucture in

Revolution Industry 4.0, pages 99-105

ISBN: 978-989-758-472-5

from the garden he owns. This is due to the

horticulture plants they harvest once every three

months. Then, if the calculation is a figure of IDR

401,220.00 - as monthly income becomes an

indicator of poverty according to government

standards.

The average Parmalim community earns around

Rp 2,700,000 every three months if there is no

problem with crop failure. This means that if divided

into three months, Marudut Butar-Butar's income is

around Rp. 900,000 per month. The dilemma is of

course that this figure is compared with the Regional

Minimum Wage figure in Toba Samosir regency

2018 which is Rp. 2,276,521.00-, of course, Rp.

900,000.00 / month income is still far from the word

prosperity.

The problems so far are the various policies of

the local government of Toba Samosir Regency

related to agriculture, for example superior seeds,

fertilizers and counseling in the framework of

modernizing agriculture, not touching the Parmalim

community as a whole and maximally.

This means that it is related to work problems,

especially the Parmalim people who work as

farmers, complex problems occur related to

effectiveness and efficiency in agriculture. Similar

conditions were experienced by members of the

Parmalim community who lived in Porsea who were

also farmers. If we analyze in substance what causes

them to fall into the category of poor people (Knox,

1979). The complexity of these problems disrupts

their welfare. Because the programs from the

government have not been obtained directly related

to their welfare.

If you look at the impact of local government

policies on the phenomenon of poverty occurring in

Toba Samosir Regency, in this case the Parmalim

community. Directly it does not necessarily make

the Toba Samosir regional government not care, the

regional government has tried to respond to

problems that have never been resolved. This study

describes the problems of poverty experienced by

the Parmalim community because of the low

political accessibility they experience.

2 METHODS

This research is a qualitative research with a

functional structural paradigm in explaining the

political accessibility of the Parmalim community in

Toba Samosir Regency, North Sumatra. The

researcher collected data using the interview

method. While the secondary data of this study was

obtained by researchers from international journals,

national journals, books and releases of media

coverage. The collection of research data is also

carried out through a process of reviewing

documents or reports relating to the focus of

research in explaining the political accessibility of

the Parmalim community.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Social Bias of the Parmalim

Community

Empirically, the Parmalim community living in

Toba Samosir District especially in Sibadihon

village, Toba Holbung village and Binangalom

village still exclude themselves from social

interaction. This is due to the argument that if you

get too close to society in general. So the values that

exist in the Parmalim community can be eroded by

modernization and development.

Figure 1: Map of Toba Samosir.

Binangalom Village is a village located in Toba

Samosir Regency, precisely to Lumban Julu District.

Although the community of Binangalom village is

fairly small, it has a variety of religions and beliefs

which up to now still live a harmonious and

harmonious life. There is Islam, Protestant

Christianity, Catholic Christianity, and Parmalim

itself. During the worship service, Parsaktian (place

of worship of Parmalim) in Binangalom village on

the day of worship, the congregation was very busy

on Saturday, which not only came from the village

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100

itself but there were other villages that were part of

the Parmalim Binangalom people from Gopgopan

village and Silatting.

However, the current conditions arise within the

Parmalim internal division itself which has resulted

in the emergence of 2 Ihutan (Parmalim's main

leaders) namely Monang Naipospos with Poltak

Naipospos. Such a situation resulted in divisions up

to the lowest structure, which included the Parmalim

community in the village of Binangalom also

experiencing divisions to create two camps. This

situation also created a conflict among the

community about the implementation of worship

between the two camps who did not want to carry

out worship together. Then finally reconciled by the

lumban julu sector police.

In the village of Binangalom, the Parmalim

community following the Monang Naipospos camp

with its ulu punguan on behalf of Makden Sinaga

held a worship service on Saturday at 10:00 WIB at

Parsaktian Binangalom. While the Poltak Naipospos

camp with its ulu punguan named Anton Sinaga

then held a worship service at 12:00 on Saturday just

after the opposite side had finished worshiping. In

the opinion of the speakers, with such a situation the

Parmalim community is difficult to reunite. Then he

said "ikkon ujion ni debata dapot dapot akka na

tiur", which means that the problem of internal

conflict in the Parmalim community is a test of the

almighty and there will be wisdom behind it all.

According to Ulupunguan Binangalom, Resbon

Sinaga said;

"In social life, in the village of Binangalom itself

the Parmalim community had experienced

discrimination from parties outside the parmalim.

He admitted that at that time often faced problems

in the management of permit documents in their

villages, such as the management of BPJS.

Furthermore, socially the obstacles they feel are

nothing but sourced from one of their beliefs.

Where even in traditional events they are now

starting to ignore each other between the two

camps. There is no mutual assistance if they come

from different camps."

In the world of education, in a number of regions

in Toba Samosir Regency a "has been

builtParguruan", a place where Parmalim school

children attend their faith lessons. But until now the

government has not put attention on the welfare of

the Parmalim teachers. Teachers carry out teaching

and learning on a voluntary basis, and are sometimes

given incentives by the parent Parmalim

organization in Huta Tinggi Laguboti.

Meanwhile, for social life in the village of Toba

Holbung, which is very far from public roads in

Toba Samosir Regency, where uphill, rocky and clay

roads are counted dozens of kilometers, it makes it

difficult for people to interact between the Parmalim

Toba Holbung community and outsiders. This

somewhat isolated situation seemed to be agreed

upon by the Parmalim community in Toba Holbung

who seemed to not want their cultures to be affected

and eroded by the rapid development of the times.

Ulu Punguan who is the leader of trust in a

village must be able to guard his people, organize,

teach, and educate. The Parmalim community in

Toba Holbung has the term "marmahan ihuta,

marorot ibalianMalim", how aleader must be able to

guard the Parmalim community with sincerity and

sincerity. The resource person explained that

Malim's culture and religion were actually

inseparable. Parmalim, which is an indigenous

religion in Batak land, should have been legalized as

one of the recognized religions in Indonesia. But

what is of concern is that the religion of imports

from outside Indonesian culture can be a recognized

religion in Indonesia, and a religion that has always

existed in the territory of Indonesia is not considered

at all.

The lack of attention to the survival of the

Parmalim community turned out to have an impact

on their social life. Where according to the Parmalim

Ulupunguan in Toba Holbung, one of the children

experienced one form of religious discrimination.

When he left for Jakarta to work he was required to

take care of KTP and other administrative

requirements by choosing one of the legitimate

religions in Indonesia while he was clear from his

birth that he had adopted the Parmalim belief which

had been handed down from great-grandfather to his

parents.

However, if in the Toba Samosir area, the

resource person claimed to have had the ease of

managing the administration about filling out

religious identity. In some cases the Toba Samosir

government was willing to fill their religious identity

with the Parmalim belief status.

In the education sector, Ulupunguan Parmalim

now has a teaching team from the Parmalim

community in several schools in the Toba Samosir

Regency area. They specifically teach about

Parmalim beliefs to school children who have a

background in Parmalim beliefs. But the government

did not pay attention to the continuity of the teaching

and learning process carried out by the Parmalim. It

can be seen how the regulation of the parmalim trust

education curriculum is not regulated at all by the

regional government, nor about the welfare of

teaching teachers who are not paid by the

Poverty of Parmalim Indigenous People: Discrimination, Intolerance and Political Accessibility

101

government. Regarding the salaries of teachers who

teach Parmalim trust education given by the

Parmalim organization itself (Mufid, 2012).

Given this, Lisbet Butar-Butar, which is a

parmalim Ulupunguan in Toba Holbung, emphasizes

that there is no reason to do good. Even when other

people come to the house of a believer in the

religion of Malim, they must be treated to drink and

eat. Better giving than receiving is a life motto that

is still held today. Because basically humans have

been given abundant natural resources, therefore the

people of Parmalim must be diligent in "mulaolaon",

which means working to support themselves and

their families to live well. This means avoiding

poverty but not too much. At this point, there is a

sensitivity of Parmalim individuals to make them

angry emotions because some factors feel that they

are not considered because they are considered

different. People's mistakes in understanding or

concluding related to their beliefs occur in each

individual almost every day.

The causes of angry emotions in some people

who feel discriminated are more influenced by social

factors (Delgado and Zwarteveen, 2008) The

feelings of hurt experienced by the Parmalim

community associated with emotional disturbances

have the potential to interfere with the breakdown of

consensus in society, especially related to

cooperation and mutual cooperation.

3.2 Discrimination Faced by Parmalim

Discrimination is one of the destructive things

experienced by the Parmalim community in the area

of Toba Samosir Regency, North Sumatra. In the

1960s, the Parmalim community was forced to fill in

the religious column on the KTP and register with

the religious department when conducting

marriages, find work and enter educational

institutions. Whereas the Parmalim community

trusted Debata Mulajadi Nabolon (the Almighty

God). If the Parmalim community refused, they did

not get access to government facilities and had

difficulty finding jobs in private institutions. The

position of the believer in this context is the

Parmalim community, in a binary position towards

superior power relations.

The Parmalim community is in a subordinate

position. The absence of recognition as citizens,

makes it seem as if there is no social protection and

guarantees for safe living. The discrimination

process received by the Parmalim community is not

only done horizontally, but also vertically. The

central and regional governments in the name of the

will to improve, intervene (are coercive) with the

mission to be civilized despite the uncivilized steps

that are shown.

Since the state passed Law No. 1 / PNPS / 1965

on Prevention of Abuse and blasphemy which

contain restrictions on religion in Indonesia is the

cornerstone of the country to make efforts

uniformity of the various religious groups in the

archipelago (Hasse, 2011).

Efforts are made considering the number of

religion or belief adopted by local communities

spread in various places. In all corners of Indonesia

there are various local religions that are only

adopted by the local community. To equalize

perceptions of nationality, the state also made efforts

to uniformize through efforts to merge these local

religions into one of the recognized religions

(Avellaneda, 2006).

Constitutionally Article 29 paragraph 2 of the

1945 Constitution which is very clear as the basis of

the constitution of religious freedom does not

necessarily become a reference in regulating religion

and its adherents. This article clearly states the rights

given to anyone to carry out what is believed.

However, at the implementation level as in Law No.

1/PNPS/1965, precisely limits the freedom of

followers of religion to carry out their beliefs. State

recognition of the six religions has an impact on the

difficulty of developing local religions. They

continue to be under the shadow of the issue of

desecration of religion (Hasse, 2011).

Regulations governing the issue of religion make

the followers of local beliefs, especially the

Parmalim community, as followers who have

identities that are isolated from those of other

religions. This gave rise to the stigma towards

Parmalim's belief followers who were discriminated

against.

This is experienced by Tetty Veronika Manurung

who is a Police Woman (Polwan) who is on duty at

the Tobasa Police Precinct Narcotics Unit which

adheres to the belief of Parmalim. Many times Tetty

Manurung experienced discrimination because she

often filled Parmalim's trust column since she joined

the police unit.

Tetty Manurung said at least four times

experienced discrimination during the registration

process to become a police officer and placed in the

area. In fact, some members of the committee and

their friends did not hesitate to suggest that they

replace their beliefs with a religion recognized by

the state.

What was experienced by Tetty Manurung was

based on her determination by remembering the

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words of King Revealed Manakok Naipospos who

said;

"If the dead ant is stepped on by an elephant, it

cannot be said to be a winning elephant. If

elephants and elephants fight, one dies, then the

living is the winner."

This understanding is enough to encourage

Parmalim followers to survive in the world of

undesirable suffering as the core practice of teaching

Hamalimon to behave on the Caller.

Parmalim has the belief that the ancestors of

none were imprisoned and oppressed for stealing,

murdering, slandering cheats, adultery which all

violated Hamalimon's ethics. They were imprisoned

and vilified for the truth believed to be because of

worshiping Mulajadi Nabolon which they called

Debata and the supreme Lord. Although Parmalim

regards independence is still imprisoned in the sense

of not physical, it must still be guided that it all

happens not based on crime. Always cling to the

message of the ancestors not to avenge the act of

ignorance in a foolish way, crime in a malicious

way, slander by slandering.

Parmalim encourages intellectual thinking

through deepening the teachings and intellectual

balance through education. That has been done since

1939 when Parmalim founded the Parmalim School.

Parmalim intellectuals have sprung up since then,

duping and ignorance are still struggling on the other

side (non-Parmalim) until now claiming Parmalim is

misguided and not given space.

The Parmalim, which is said to have no adat, still

maintains the refusal of westernization in Batak

customs by Parmalim. Gondang Batak is maintained

even though some say it contains an element of

animism. Gondang Batak for Parmalim is a media

offering to Mulajadi Nabolon. Batak indigenous

people are run as a media to establish solidarity,

strengthen friendship, respect each other and respect

human rights in accordance with the customary

order imprinted in the Batak culture. If because

Parmalim does not give pork it is called uncivilized,

it is very surprising, because Parmalim gives beef or

buffalo meat, which is the highest component of adat

in batak culture (Mufid, 2012)

3.3 Intolerant Policy

The issue of intolerance against people Parmalim

only a tiny fraction of the tens of indigenous

communities of Indonesia are spread in various

regions of the country who have a problem with self-

actualization as a citizen who is also a part of a

unified identity stateless (Brian, 1993).

This issue is actually underway already since a

long time ago, the problem of the population

administration information system was when

followers of the belief community felt that emptying

the religious column on the e-KTP issued based on

Law No. 23 of 2006 concerning Population

Administration, has had a detrimental effect on the

implementation of basic rights of trustees in gaining

access to public services, such as marriage, birth,

employment, funeral, and education.

The ebb and flow of trust groups is closely

related to the repression carried out by immigrant

religious groups who later built a sacred system of

state power and ideology. In this case the dominant

religious group uses the power of the state to repress

through policies issued by the government. So that

the original religions, for example, formed a

community organization and those who lived it

individually continue to experience pressure and

eventually experience depreciation. Most of them

are scattered in areas that are not safe because of the

terror of religious paramilitary forces, in

economically disadvantaged corners, and in large

cities the detraditionalisation places that continue to

run rampant, under the pretext of civilizing them

(Burger, 1987).

The problem they faced then became very

serious. Because even though Indonesia has become

an independent nation of more than seven decades,

despite the existence of the local religious groups of

the archipelago, they still do not enjoy the results of

such independence. They seemed to be guests in

their own country. This is because they continue to

experience serious, structured, systematic and

widespread discrimination. There are still many

groups that adhere to local religion who have

experienced discrimination since their birth until

their death.

The discrimination experienced by the Parmalim

community involves discrimination involves

government actors on behalf of the state through

policy products. At the state level, the government is

aware or not has built a policy system and / or

regulation system for the management of diversity

that is all ambiguous, overlapping and minus the

perspective of human rights.

Then the practice of intolerant policies towards

people who believe in God Almighty involves

academics. Educated people and academics

perpetuate the stigma and academic categorization

of a belief, through the categorization of religion and

not religion. The belief that comes to the archipelago

is called religion with all the rights inherent in it,

while local beliefs are not considered as religion

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103

with all the problems attached to it. Even more

tragic, the belief in God Almighty was stigmatized

as a primitive belief called the stigma of animism or

dynamism and others.

The Parmalim community complained about the

obstacles in arranging official personal documents

(such as marriage certificates, family cards, birth

certificates), as well as other interests such as:

entering the world of formal education, the world of

work, health papers, arranging SIMs, STNK, or even

in daily interactions. These constraints limit

Parmalim's access to various interests. In order to

facilitate this access, some Parmalim included other

religious identities in the religious column on their

KTP such as: Christianity, Catholicism and Islam.

But in the practice of daily life they continue to

implement Ugamo Malim teachings, because

basically the Parmalim belief contained the

teachings of hamalimon taught by the Malim Debata

as the core of Ugamo Malim. The limited access is

as expressed by the teachers who teach around

Laguboti and Balige.Minar Naipospos who is a

follower of the Parmalim faith in Sibadihon Village

stated:

"When entering school and looking for work.

There is a feeling of inferiority when at school

then when looking for work. Many feel that we

(Parmalim) are different from them because our

identity is considered unclear because it is not part

of religion in general.

Moreover, there are limitations which are

very substantial in nature as the main reason,

some people finally chose Parmalim to use other

religious identities. This was revealed by

Pardomuan Simanjuntak who said:

"Like the community in general, many members of

the Parmalim community also tried to become

civil servants. At that time, for example, when I

registered to become a civil servant, I included

Christianity in order to be able to fulfill the

requested documents. Because in that column

there is no Parmalim or other trust column".

According to Ihutan Parmalim Monang

Naipospos, it was confirmed that the limited access

tends to cause some Parmalim who have an interest

in changing the identity of their KTP. Because they

have to choose one of the religions recognized in the

religion column so that they can be recognized

administratively by state. If not, then there will be

many obstacles that they will face starting from

education issues, population administration to other

special matters, such as birth certificates and

marriage certificates.

Furthermore, Monang Naipospos has so far

chosen to keep emptying the religious fields on the

KTP in its name. According to him it is an identity

that is inherent in him and does not need to be

changed. According to Monang Naipospos who said

that;

"There are a lot of events when students from the

Parmalim community write Islam or Christianity

on their ID cards. I can understand this because it

is difficult for them to answer what courses they

will take on campus. This condition is a routine

problem that I hear and find on campuses because

they are confused".

Moreover empirically the world of campus has

not accommodated what it believes in the world of

academics. The courses provided refer to the types

of religions that are officially recognized as religions

according to Indonesian laws and do not provide

courses for groups called the state as believers.

4 CONCLUSION

The approach used in this study views poverty from

the aspect of fulfilling basic needs. The approach to

basic needs relating to social conditions is very

complex seeing poverty as an inability of a person,

family, or community to meet minimum needs,

including food, housing, clothing, health services,

education, and provision and other policies (Cobo,

2016). Knowledge of the community This local

Parmalim has a focus on the relationship between

humans, animals, plants, and aspects of trust that

exist in the local and specific environment, some

aspects have differences with universal laws that

usually apply and are known by other communities

outside of them.

Empirically, the Parmalim people living in Toba

Samosir District, especially in Sibadihon village,

Toba Holbung village and Binangalom village, still

excluded themselves from social interaction. This is

due to the argument that if you get too close to

society in general. So the values that exist in the

Parmalim community can be eroded by

modernization and development. This is due to the

view of the general public towards the Parmalim

community who consider the belief group as

"sipelebegu" (devil worshiper) to make the

Parmalim community experience social problems.

It must be acknowledged that the Parmalim

community still exists until now on the one hand

accepting all forms of structuring or constructing the

state against the mourners of local beliefs. They

adhere to a religion determined by the state. In the

matter of population administration, they included

one of the country's official religions as their official

religion. But on the other hand, they also carried out

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resistance or defiance of all forms of state regulation

and regulation of the Parmalim community itself.

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