Constitutional Recognition and Legal Pluralism: The Struggle for Indigenous Rights in the Ammatoa Kajang Community

Abstract

This study examines a piece of local legislation, namely Bulukumba Regional Regulation No. 9 of 2015, which regulates matters relating to the Kajang Indigenous Community amidst the various challenges and dynamics that threaten the community’s existence. The specific focus of this study is on whether this regional regulation regulates constitutional rights (in the broad sense, i.e. rights based on the Constitution) whilst also providing an elaboration thereof. Furthermore, its responsiveness and its character as a ‘living law’, both in terms of substance and implementation, will form the subject of further analysis. This legal study combines a literature review for secondary data with in-depth interviews to obtain primary data from five representative figures regarding general perspectives on the Kajang Community. Using a legislative and conceptual approach, the data obtained were analysed qualitatively. The research findings indicate that the rights of the Ammatoa Kajang Customary Law Community, as set out in Bulukumba Regency Regional Regulation No. 9 of 2015, can be categorised as constitutional rights that must be protected, particularly the six rights explicitly mentioned, which correlate with rights whose constitutionality has been recognised both explicitly in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia and through the case law of the Constitutional Court. Furthermore, when examined through the lens of responsiveness and identified as ‘living law’, this regulation demonstrates a sufficiently responsive approach, although there remain various challenges in its implementation for the Kajang Indigenous Community.