EXTRAE, EXTRAEB
4.2.3 FUNCIONES LÓGICAS SI
resisted the interference of the company, as did the populations of Hoamoal, East Ceram and Buru between 1651 and 1656. After the Dutch had succeeded in repressing these insurrections, they took complete control of the clove trade and production on the islands (Knaap, 1992: 21; Widjojo, 2007:26).
In 1864, the Dutch put an end to the spice monopoly because the international market for spices decreased sharply, and Java had already become a centre for much more valuable export commodities such as sugar, tobacco and indigo (Chandler et al., 2005:130). The declining value of spice as a commodity caused Ambonese to abandon their clove plantations. To survive, many farmers tried to cultivate new introduced crops, such as coconut, cacao and tobacco, but they did not succeed (Chauvel, 1990: 14). 8,060 Ambonese who had previously worked as village clove farmers became manual labourers or administrators in the colonial government (Leirissa, 1995: 4). As described in the previous section, they obtained burger status once they had found salaried positions.
Ambonese Christians were favoured over Muslims as employees of the colonial government. This was partly because the Dutch trusted Christians more, but also because the Christian education was better, thus making Christians better equipped work for the government; some had studied in schools established by Protestant missionaries. Conversely, Muslims were neither interested in working for the colonial government, nor had they studied at Christian schools because of their concerns about being converted to Protestantism. Protestants and, to a lesser degree, Catholics found privileged roles as, for example, bureaucrats, middlemen, doctors, nurses, teachers and soldiers across the whole colony, while Muslims mainly worked as petty traders, sailors and fishermen (Bertrand, 2002: 62-63). As only Protestants took advantage of the education system to fill bureaucratic and military positions in Ambon and elsewhere in the western part of the Dutch Indies, the economical division between Protestants and Muslims had intensified by the end of the 19th century (Bartels, 1977: 11).
This economic polarization along religious lines rose to unprecedented heights in the first half of the 20th century and during the Old Order regime that followed independence. It only started to change during the New Order regime (1966-1998), a change that was enhanced by migration from Sulawesi and Java. The number of migrants, most of whom were Muslims, increased from the beginning of the 1970s. Muslims from Buton and Makassar moved spontaneously to Ambon to seek employment, while many Javanese, again mainly Muslims, came as members of transmigration projects initiated by the government. This influx of Muslim migrants gradually took over local trade, transportation and established commercial enterprises, thus becoming a threat to, and reducing the economic opportunities for Ambonese Christians. As a result, the Ambonese saw Muslim outsiders become
wealthier than themselves, and dominate these areas of the economy (Goss, 2000:19-20).
As a result of the shifting balance between the number of Muslims and Christians in Ambon and the interference of the central government in Jakarta, towards the end of the New Order Muslims began to obtain more and more of the key jobs in the administration, such as that of governor, vice-major, and head of department (Bertrand, 2002: 67-71). Although the balance is still in favour of Christians, the competition and tensions between Muslims and Christians was without doubt the main trigger for violence in the closing years of the Suharto regime (van Klinken, 2001: 18; Sidel, 2008: 37-38).
Educational and religious developments
Islam was introduced to the Moluccas in the middle of the 15th century by Javanese, Malay and Arab merchants and wayfarers. It began to spread when the kings of Ternate, Tidore, Bacan and Jailolo in the northern part had embraced the new faith shortly afterwards (van Fraassen, 1883: 2; Chauvel, 1990: 1-23, Bräuchler, 2010a: 67). Before the arrival of Islam, the Ambonese practised an indigenous animistic belief system called Nunusaku. According to this belief, the ancestors of the Ambonese originally came from a sacred mountain of the same name. After a quarrel among them, their descendants were divided into Patasiwa and Patalima. Despite this division, they promised to respect one another and maintain harmony and solidarity (Bartels, 1977: 313-320). As already stated, Islam mainly developed in ulilima villages in Northern Leihitu (Aritonang and Steenbrink, 2008:32). During the presence of the Portuguese on the island, the population of Leihitu remained predominantly Muslim, while Catholicism took root among of the rest of population. In 1605, when the Dutch replaced the Portuguese, there were about 16,000 baptized Catholics in Ambon and Lease (Chauvel, 1990:18), the majority of whom were gradually converted to Protestantism during the VOC period.
Besides proselytizing the indigenous population, Christian missionaries established health services and schools in several locations on the island. By 1618, a teacher-training school had already been founded in Ambon. Schoolteachers became the main agents for the spread of Protestantism, as they acted as local religious leaders at the same time. Between 1633 and 1860, the number of primary schools in the Afdeeling Ambon increased from 32 with 1,200 pupils to 54 with 5,190 pupils. Schools became the main forum for introducing Protestantism (Chauvel, 1990:25).
The VOC was replaced by the colonial state at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1823, the colonial government started to support educational activities initiated by Reformed Protestant missionaries in the Moluccas by paying the salaries of village teachers. Between 1817 and 1871, village teachers were made responsible for both teaching in the schools and leading religious services in the churches.