Inter-faith alliances in the Moluccas

The Moluccas, a place of tropical climate, high rainforests lush green to the peak and wandering parrots are situated in Indonesia in the far side of the World, yet their story is much closer to us. The Moluccas also known as the Spice Islands have long had a history of turbulent and riotous times. The islands have long been the main supplier of nutmeg and cloves, formerly a highly marketable commodity which Arab, Indian and Chinese merchants sought to exploit long before European explorers. Through the Arab connection, Islam was planted in the islands.
By the 1500s European explorers on their booty voyages began to pour into the region and within a short time blubber cheek European plantation owners accumulated immense wealth that derived from selling their riches to the European markets. They chandelled whatever resources were available, hoarded their wealth and increased the parcellation of the land. Nutmeg and cloves were so scarce and sought after in Europe as food preservatives in these times that they were practically worth more than gold. Affluent Europeans used to ingest the spices for medicinal purposes, in particular to cure bouts of gout and rheumatism or to offer relief from colic.
For the European explorers who came to this little-known region, the journey was ordinarily one of both wonder and terror. Their aromatic cargo was usually of portentous and colossal value, but the plantation labourers were often macerated with tiresome work.
As Europeans acquired new tastes, the price for these spices soared in Europe traders and an explosion of merchants came to the islands. The Portuguese had established their rule on some of the islands and brought with them missionaries to convert the islanders. They were followed by the Spanish and lastly by the Dutch, who ruled for the lengthiest period of time.
As a result of international interest, this has left the islands with a good mixture of the World’s faiths. Islam, as mentioned already, Christianity and Buddhism are all represented in these Lilliputian islands, all influenced by regional customs and traditions.
One of these regional customs is Pela, a kind of common law that dates back to the 15th century that has been the focus of study by the likes of the renowned Dr Dieter Bartels. Bartels describes Pela (which means brother) as a type of alliance between two or more villages, which can be Christian and Muslim. The common law was intended to bring and sustain peaceful co-existence between people of various religious affiliations. Pela law required that its members provided mutual assistance to one another in house building, planting, harvesting and provided help even during times of war. These inter-faith alliances under the umbrella of Pela meant that at times Muslims participated in building their Christian neighbour’s churches and likewise the Christians helped built their neighbours mosque.
As well as providing support in a close-knit community, the Pela system ensured that the financial burdens of weddings and ceremonies would be shared. The Pela alliance system ensured that foodstuffs reached the famished villagers, and they also enabled the locals to develop villages, as government aid was a rarity. It is worthy of respect that in a part of the World that is isolated, religious differences are put aside and a single identity can be composed of two faith communities. As well as providing help to each other without hesitation, the Pela alliance system formed a network across the Moluccas and brought with it the sentiment of belonging to bind together the diverse people coexisting there. Because Pela is uniquely Moluccan, it gives Moluccans a feeling of distinctiveness from other islanders.
Sadly due to the exploitation of religious differences by some of Moluccas past rulers together with a recent a build-up of mistrust between inter-faith communities and sectarian violence over the past decades, has contributed to the gradual death of the system. The Christian Moluccans for their part tried to form their own state but were overrun by the Indonesian army who forced them to migrate to the Netherlands. This has also been precipitated by events in Indonesia in general and by the importation of migrants from Sulawesi, who are alien to the system. Today the islands are a place of mistrust between both Christians and Muslims.
The Pela system may have ceased to function in Molucca but it exists in the Netherlands among the diaspora Moluccans. It is quite often the diaspora that keeps old ways and traditions alive and this is not limited to the Moluccans either. The diaspora has a very important role to play.
For those who remained in the Moluccas, the provocative and rogue military officers in the Indonesian army often raised their doubts about the loyalty of the Christians to the Indonesian republic.
The unique Pela alliance system seemed a great opportunity lost to unite the people of the Moluccas, both Christian and Muslim. What is more tragic is that the system was home-grown, the product of the islanders themselves yet it dissipated like the mist over the very rainforests in which the islanders live. Had divide and rule tactics not been used by foreign powers the islanders would have happily coexisted and even shown the World how coexistence can work. What might have been a practical divide and rule tactic used by former rulers has left very serious implications behind that have created a Kosovo style situation today.