from national legislation is the prohibition on blast fishing and use of poisons. People often
refer to the national gear ban as a sasi rule even though it is not formally written down in the
sasi rules. In other villages (e.g., Porto, Itawaka), operational rules under sasi have been
adopted as formal village law. Operational rules are also subject to revision to respond to
changes in technology and new social problems, as seen in Haruku (Kissya 1994).
18.3.4 The players in sasi
People having a decision-making role in marine sasi include adat leaders, kewang members,
the village head and, to a lesser extent, religious leaders. The role of fishers themselves is
often passive in terms of decision-making but they are key players in that their willingness to
comply with or break sasi rules has a direct impact on the institution. Women and, to a large
extent, youths, are not involved except as indirect supporters.
In many cases, the character and legitimacy of the village head are the key to the successful function
of marine sasi. Under modern government structure, the village head has great power and this
often results in decision-making that is highly centralized and efficient. LMD members appointed
as section heads may lack appropriate skills or be poorly informed about village issues and the
activities and programs of village organizations. In such cases, government decision-making may
rest almost exclusively with the village head. Thus, the modern village head may hold a much
more powerful and authoritarian position than the raja of former times, who was obliged to take
counsel from his constituency. Officially, the people elect the village head and, in theory, anyone
could be elected. However, Nolloth is a fine example of a situation where the village head was
selected as the legitimate village leader because of his lineage, i.e., he is the raja. His LMD members
are also all traditional authorities. In sasi villages, the village head has to be of the royal (raja) line in
order to be fully acknowledged. If this is the case, he will be inaugurated not only by the village
government but also by the adat leaders, and will assume the sacred function of kepala adat. This
allows the village head to be involved in both formal village programs and traditional ceremonies.
External interests may influence the election of a village head, as was reported in Haruku and
also in Hutumuri. Elections can be manipulated either in favor of or against traditional leaders.
Under the Indonesian system, all candidates must be screened and approved by the
government. Popular candidates may be disqualified at this stage, or some votes may simply
be neglected during the election process. On one hand, lingering adat structures may make
nonsense of the concept of democratic elections. On the other hand, even traditional leaders
with broad popular support may be vulnerable.
The other key players in sasi are the kewang members, who patrol sasi areas, and catch and
prosecute rule breakers. In one village, there may be one or more kewangs, divided along the
lines of family affiliation (see the Nolloth case study) or an area of jurisdiction i.e., land or
sea, as in Haruku. Kewang members, aside from the head of the kewang who inherits his
position, may be selected in a variety of ways. For instance, there may be one kewang member
per founding family, or one for each subdivision of the village land, or one per village
administrative unit, etc. (Lokollo et al. 1996). The number of members in a traditional village
kewang varies but often exceeds 20 people. In villages where sasi has evolved into an almost
purely commercial transaction stripped of adat ceremony, the kewangs are no longer traditional-
style village police, but the hired hands of the person who has purchased resource extraction
rights (see Kabauw and Pelauw villages, Appendix 7).
Overall Discussion and Conclusions 263