The Rhetoric of the State: Dependency and Control in a Malaysian–Indonesian Borderland Key Words:

Abstract

This article examines dependency on cross-border labor and marriage along the international frontier in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo) and some local efforts to restrict outsiders. The international border in this remote region of Borneo is highly permeable, and border-crossing activities, including seasonal migrant wage labor and cross-border marriage, are crucial both to the local political economy and to the reproduction of the Kelabit family and farm. This article explores the unique position of the Kelabit as they attempt to appropriate aspects of state power or use the rhetoric of state power in their efforts to maintain a status quo with regard to neighboring, and closely related, migrant workers from across the border. I wish to gratefully acknowledge a Faculty Development Grant from Gettysburg College for support of research during the summer of 2003. Johan Lindquist, Donna Perry, and Melinda Wilson offered helpful comments and I am deeply indebted to the editors and the anonymous reviewers of Identities. I thank the Sarawak State Government (State Planning Unit, Sarawak Museum, Majlis Adat Istiadat) and many individuals in the Kelabit community—Poline Bala, Esther Bala, Michael Giak, Jerome Giak, Henry Lian, Robert Lian-Saging, and others. Finally, I owe much to the late Dr. Judson Tagal, who will be remembered for his passion and commitment in helping people in the Kelabit and Lun Bawang communities.