Hukum Kampung

Gratilla

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Joined
May 17, 2018
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115
We have 12 dogs:
- Emma (Gt Grand Ma, neutered),
- Bella (Grand Ma, neutered),
- BG (Ma) + 4 siblings and 5 puppies.
Anybody want a cute puppy?

Yesterday our dogs attacked 3 sheep that had wandered onto our land. Myself and my (not-so-little-anymore) boy, fended off the dogs waiting for the caretaker to collect his itinerant baa-sterds. He didn't show - apparently had gone home without counting his returning sheep. Or perhaps he did count them and fell asleep somewhere. Our staff came over and returned the sheep to their owner.

Final tally, 2 sheep in wide-eyed shock, plus one that needed to be halalled,

Pop Quiz - Under Kampung Law who was at fault?
a) The owner?
b) The missing shepherd?
c) Us?

Answers:
a) Minus 5
b) Minus 10
c) You've been in Indonesia too long!

Anyway, the owner tried to take advantage of the situation and demanded 500k compensation. He'd never bumped heads with my wife before who knocked him down to 100k - and threw in the carcass as a bonus. This he sold off as satay that evening.

And all's well...
 
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So I'm just wondering... If the roles were reversed - your farm animal got killed somehow by the sheep owner neighbor. Would the same Kampung Law apply?

I've not been in Indonesia for any lengthy period of time, so just wondering if this is an equally fair system in the Kampung. My understanding is that's not usually the case. If you're an expat (bule), most all accidents, mishaps, etc, tend to be your fault regardless of who is really at fault. I've been told repeatedly this is almost always the case with car accidents - if you're indeed the owner and/or driver of one of the vehicles.

BTW - interesting story, thanks for sharing.
 
Anyway, the owner tried to take advantage of the situation and demanded 500k compensation. He'd never bumped heads with my wife before who knocked him down to 100k - and threw in the carcass as a bonus. This he sold off as satay that evening.

And all's well...
100k with carcass and situation resolved? Sounds like a good deal!

Did you make some great soup with the bones or something?
 
So I'm just wondering... If the roles were reversed - your farm animal got killed somehow by the sheep owner neighbor. Would the same Kampung Law apply?

The post was offered with a sighhhhh in (grudging) acceptance of local custom. Sheep, goats, chickens etc have "right of way" in the kampungs - so if an itinerant goat snacks on your prize tomatoes, you now know whose fault it isn't. In general it's not a bule thing.

So if you squish a chicken while speeding along in your Panther at 20kph, it's YOUR fault irrespective of whether or not you're a bule. (BTW, there's an interesting thread on bule-involved-car-accidents somewhere on the forum.)
 
I have a concern that your neighbour will intentionally let his sheep loose to your land again and try to get more money when your dogs attacks the sheep.
 
And I thought I was the forum's numero uno cynic!!

OK, I doubt we'll get a deliberate repeat. We have a good mutually supportive relationship with our neighbours and I'm sure they'll show their disapproval at someone trying to take advantage. Also, 100k is hardly worth the trouble.

After 2 decades we fit in pretty well, conform to local customs, get invited to the weddings etc, although they all know not to expect me at any "knob chops"!

I saw the flock unattended in the coconut plantation next to us earlier today and a couple of our dogs were showing lazy disinterest as the sheep were not trespassing. The shepherd appeared after his whiz and flashed me a sheepish (sic) grin. When he came over later to fill his buckets from our water tanks, I asked that he try and keep his charges outside our boundaries as I wanted to plant a lot of veggies. He agreed to cooperate.
 
In places as North Sulawesi the livestock also includes the dogs btw. So when driving there at dusk or dawn, you really need to be careful not to hit one because they’re gonna make you pay...
 
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And I thought I was the forum's numero uno cynic!!......
Has the competiton begun already?

...OK, I doubt we'll get a deliberate repeat. We have a good mutually supportive relationship with our neighbours...
Good to hear that you have a good relationship with your neighbour. I heard a case involving a dead rooster, a happy, proud dog and his amazed, happy for him friends (not involved in the hunting process). It ended up with negotiation. The very next day, the owner of the rooster claimed that the dog did it again to his chicken, which was not true.
 
Such law is very flexible! I was speaking to an Indonesian. He told me he had one occasion poisoned some dogs (with some sort of very deadly poison, I don't know the details, but deadly poisons you can murder people with are very readily available). I don't quite understand why, but I think he wanted to test if it would work? I didn't really follow the reasoning, but anyway the owners of the dogs complained and wanted compensation. So he said 'I will give you a million rupiah but if you tell my father then you get nothing'. Anyway, they told his father and the father backed him up and said 'he said you would get nothing, so you get nothing'.

Another time he filled his corn field with poison to keep off the neighbours' free-ranging chickens, which all died.

Anyway, this story may be embellished by him, but the essential moral is that village law depends on who you are, who you're related to, and so on. Certainly not any sense of who is right and who is wrong.
 
Another time he filled his corn field with poison to keep off the neighbours' free-ranging chickens, which all died.

I think there are like four articles in the penal code that state you're not allowed to illegally enter someone's property and when you do any damage it's like up to 2+ years of prison... see if any adat or 'hukum kampung' can beat that.
 
I think there are like four articles in the penal code that state you're not allowed to illegally enter someone's property and when you do any damage it's like up to 2+ years of prison... see if any adat or 'hukum kampung' can beat that.
Do they give chickens 2+ years in prison?
 
100K was what I paid for 10 skewers of sate kambing plus sides and drink in Jakarta. Getting the entire carcass for that price seems to be a good deal.
 

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