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ABSTRACT
The core–periphery model proposed and revised by Friedmann [Regional Development Policy; Urbanisation Planning and National Development] has influenced urban studies and urban planning for decades. Yet, the urban-rural dichotomy perhaps implied in that visionary model has been criticised for failing to take into account the complexities and blurred categories of contemporary urban aggregations. From another perspective, the critical issue has been what constitutes an urban setting and, connected to that issue, the question of where do small towns fit in a model associated with large industrial metropolitan areas. This paper explores the history and contemporary context of Sekadau, a small town in Indonesia’s province of western Borneo. For centuries, Sekadau has been a link in international trade and has had to reinvent itself as political and economic structures shifted. How has it developed with no industry and no urban planning?
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 J. Friedmann, Regional Development Policy: A Case Study of Venezuela (Cambridge, 1966).
2 J. Friedmann, Urbanisation Planning and National Development (Beverly Hills, 1973).
3 D. Slater, ‘Underdevelopment and Spatial Inequality: Approaches to the Problems of Regional Planning in the Third World’, Progress in Planning 4 (1975): 97–167.
4 L. Hautamäki, Approaches to Regional Development: Two Decades of Research (Tampere, 1985).
5 D.M. Jeffrey, ‘A Core-periphery Analysis of Population and Urbanisation Patterns in Natal/Kwazulu’ (Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Natal, Durban), 1989.
6 G. Raagmaa, ‘Centre-periphery Model Explaining the Regional Development of the Informational and Transitional Society’ (paper presented at 43rd Congress of the European Regional Science Association (Ersa), Jyväskylä, Finland, August 27–30, 2003). Although Raagmaa is a prolific author, this 2003 essay clearly lays out the relevant issues and is frequently cited even twenty years later.
7 M.S. Heidhues, ‘The First Two Sultans of Pontianak’, Archipel 56 (1998): 273–297.
8 The antiquity of this trade route is suggested by the presence of a seventh century Sanskrit inscription found on a tributary of the Sekadau River 80 km upriver from Sekadau town. See J.J.K. Enthoven, Bijdragen tot de geographie van Borneo’s wester-afdeeling (Leiden, 1903).
9 V. King, ‘The Peoples of the Middle and Upper Kapuas: Possible Research Projects in West Kalimantan’, Borneo Research Bulletin 8 (1976): 87–105.
10 M.S. Heidhues, ‘The First Two Sultans of Pontianak’, Archipel 56 (1998): 273–297.
11 B. Smith, ‘The Origins of Regional Autonomy in Indonesia: Experts and the Marketing of Political Interests’, Journal of East Asian Studies 8 (2008): 211–234.
12 P.H. Van der Kemp, ‘De vestiging van het Nederlandsch gezag op Borneo’s westerafdeeling in 1818–1819 naar onuitgegeven stukken’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 76 (1920): 117–161.
13 M.S. Heidhues, ‘The First Two Sultans of Pontianak’, Archipel 56 (1998): 273–297.
14 J.C. Jackson, Chinese in the West Borneo Goldfields: A Study in Cultural Geography (Hull, 1974).
15 Enthoven, Bijdragen tot de geographie van Borneo’s wester-afdeeling.
16 W. Youngblood and E. Nevius, ‘Journal of a Tour on the Kapuas’, The Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia 1 (1856): 84–126.
17 Enthoven, Bijdragen tot de geographie van Borneo’s wester-afdeeling.
18 Ibid.
19 M. Dove, ‘Transition from Native Forest Rubbers to Hevea brasiliensis (Euphorbiaceae) Among Tribal Smallholders in Borneo’, Economic Botany 48 (1994): 382–396.
20 N.L Peluso, ‘Rubber Erasures, Rubber Producing Rights: Making Racialized Territories in West Kalimantan, Indonesia’, Development and Change 40 (2009): 47–80.
21 The processing of illipe nuts in Sekadau to produce oil (tallow) for export was reported in some detail in 1840: Youngblood and Nevius, ‘Journal of a Tour on the Kapuas’.
22 Fieldnote obtained in Sekadau town, July 2002.
23 Peluso (2000) focused on another region of West Kalimantan, where the details of such cooperation may have differed, in part, because of a rather different ethnic composition.
24 M. Dove, ‘Living Rubber, Dead Land and Persisting Systems in Borneo: Indigenous Representations of Sustainability’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 154 (1998): 19–54.
25 Peluso, ‘Rubber Erasures, Rubber Producing Rights’.
26 T. Kaartinen, ‘Frontier-making and Salvage Landscapes in West Kalimantan (Indonesia)’, Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde 66 (2020): 235–252.
27 After the signing of an agreement between Indonesia and the People’s Republic of China in 1958 (Undang-undang 1958), Mandarin-medium schools affiliated with the Republic of China in Taiwan were closed. Today Sekolah Hua Khew’s impressive two-story brick building is used for badminton games and temporary storage.
28 Because even from late colonial times Sekadau and Sanggau formed one administrative unit, it is difficult to obtain demographic data specifically for Sekadau alone. This estimate of 53,000 is based on the percentage of the Sekadau population as part of the combined statistics for Sanggau and Sekadau in 2003 (Undang-undang 2003), that is 32%, and applying that percentage (32%) to the combined population of the 1956 Sanggau regency (Undang-undang 1956).
29 Enthoven, Bijdragen tot de geographie van Borneo’s wester-afdeeling.
30 Peluso, ‘Rubber Erasures, Rubber Producing Rights’.
31 Huub J. W. M. Boelaars, Indonesianisasi, Het omvormingsproces van de katholieke kerk in Indonesië tot de Indonesische katholieke kerk (Kok, 1991).
32 C.P. Dames, ‘Gender, Ethnicity, Infrastructure and the Use of Financial Institutions in Kalimantan Barat, Indonesia’ (Unpublished PhD diss., University of Missouri-Columbia, 2012).
33 J.T. Collins & Herpanus, ‘The Sekujam language of West Kalimantan (Indonesia)’, Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia 19 (2018): 425–458.
34 In 1982, all the wooden shop houses in Sekadau bazaar were destroyed by fire. Most of these were replaced by new masonry and concrete buildings, enhancing the infrastructure of the town. While construction proceeded, the victims of the fire were relocated in temporary houses on the southeastern edge of bazaar area, which contributed to expanding the bazaar area.
35 R.L. Wadley, ‘The road to change in the Kapuas Hulu borderlands: Jalan Lintas Utara’, Borneo Research Bulletin 29 (1998): 71–94.
36 Until about 1980 the bazaar only extended about 300 m. from the main road that followed the riverbank. Beyond that was empty land and further inland the Chinese cemetery. Sometime before 2000 the graves were moved to the new Chinese cemetery at another location to the west of the town off the highway to Sanggau. The former cemetery land was then used for the construction of the terminal.
37 J. Mayer, and B. Suratmoko, Fire and Landscape in Sanggau, West Kalimantan, Indonesia (Bogor, 2000).
38 Source: www.disbun.kalbarprov.go.id.
39 T. Tanasaldy, Regime change and ethnic politics in Indonesia: Dayak politics of West Kalimantan (Leiden/Boston, 2012).
40 Source: https://www.unilever.com/Images/palm-oil-mill-list-from-unilever-suppliers_tcm244-530097_en.pdf.
41 Badan Pusat Statistik Kalimantan Barat 2020. https://kalbar.bps.go.id/.
42 G. Hugo, A. Champion & A. Lattes, ‘Towards a new conceptualization of settlements for demography’, Population and Development Review 29 (2003): 277–297.
43 A. Steinführer, A. Vaishar, and J. Zapletalová, ‘The Small Town in Rural Areas as an Underresearched Type of Settlement. Editors’ Introduction to the Special Issue’, European Countryside 8 (2016): 322–332.
44 Statistik Jumlah Penduduk Kecamatan Sekadau Hilir, 2019, https://sipak.sekadaukab.go.id/kec/610901.
45 S. Rots and A.M. Fernandez-Maldonado, ‘Planning Ciudad Guayana, an Industrial New Town in Oil-rich Venezuela’, International Planning Studies 24 (2019): 353–368.
46 Raagmaa, ‘Centre-periphery Model Explaining the Regional Development of the Informational and Transitional Society’.
47 D. Utomo, Pemekaran di Provinsi Kalimantan Barat bukan sekedar wacana, 2016. https://kalbarprov.htgo.id/berita/pemekaran-di-provinsi-kalimantan-barat-bukan-sekedar-wacana-2.html.
48 Source: [Jasa Konsultasi]. 2005. Laporan akhir. Jakarta: BAPPENAS.
49 [Indoplaces]. 2012. Pemerintah Kabupaten Sekadau. https://www.indoplaces.com/mod.php?mod=indonesia&op=view_region®id=3495.
50 See Steinführer, Vaishar, and Zapletalová, ‘The Small Town in Rural Areas as an Underresearched Type of Settlement’.
51 A. Hautamäki, ‘Activity Environment, Social Class and Voluntary Learning’, XXIInd International Congress of Psychology, Leipzig Germany, pp. 82–94, July 6–12, 1980.
52 Ibid.
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Chong Shin
Chong Shin is an Associate Professor. He is currently a lecturer and Senior Research Fellow at Institut Alam dan Tamadun Melayu (ATMA), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. His fields of interest are dialectology and sociolinguistics, particularly the Austronesian and Sinitic languages in Western Borneo and Sarawak.
James T. Collins
James T. Collins is an Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Ethnic Studies, National University of Malaysia. His principal interests are Austronesian historical linguistics, Malay dialectology, the minority languages of Maluku and Borneo, and the social history of Malay.