Interlude | Patrol II
My last patrol with Team Barracuda was on December 8, 2015. With local elections happening later that month, the team had been busy. There was a growing unrest due to serious frictions between the different candidates and their voters, and Team Barracuda had been assigned to keep things under control. I joined the patrol hoping to observe how Cap Tikus emerged during these tense and unstable times. It was also nearing Christmas and New Year’s—a time of year often described to me as one of heightened attention toward alcohol, with its distribution and consumption more constrained and policed.
It was around 23:30 p.m. when we started the patrol. There were four pickups, and a fifth joined us later. This time, I jumped into the back of the pickup along with five members of Team Barracuda. Amanda joined the car with the captain and a few other members she had met before. Instead of following the usual route, we immediately left for the nearby neighborhood of Rike, where a “clash between villages” (tarkam or antara kampung) had been reported. The case in question involved a member of the army, who had instigated the clash while under the influence of alcohol. But he couldn’t be arrested as he was in the army and this required a different set of protocols.
The second case that night concerned a small group of older men. They were sitting in front of a shop drinking Cap Tikus. The pickup I was in was first in the convoy and thus the first to stop. A few officers jumped out and one of them, Ian, immediately grabbed one of the small plastic bottles sitting on the roadside and sniffed at its contents. He confirmed that it was Cap Tikus and poured the bottle’s contents out into the street. Convinced that there was more, he then asked the owner of the shop whether he had a storage space in back. The owner suggested that he didn’t, but his air of unease added to Ian’s growing suspicion. Ian insisted on going back behind the shop, but he returned shortly, a look of defeat on his face.
The team closed the case by encouraging the men to go home—and to wake their friend, who had fallen fast asleep on the bench next to them. He was the oldest of them all and very drunk. As the officers gave stern warnings to the (slightly) younger men, another, female police officer (polwan), finally walked over and attended to the old man, who was slowly waking up.
The final case of the night was a house party. My pickup had driven right past it, as it appeared to be a normal Saturday night party with loud music and people dancing. But the cars behind us decided to stop. Apparently, one of the officers had spotted cakol, a mixture of Cap Tikus and Coca Cola, on the table inside. This was enough reason to stop. Most of us stayed in our cars—morning was approaching, and we were tired—and the few officers that had entered the party soon returned. Partygoers had been given a warning and instructions to keep things under control.
As we drove off again, I raised a question with my fellow passengers in the back of the pickup: did they enjoy alcohol? All of them were men and all keen drinkers. They shared recipes and which drinks were most cocok (a good fit) for them, some preferring imported liquors over Cap Tikus, or mixes and cocktails over taking it straight. There was a growing enthusiasm in the back of the pickup because the captain had fallen asleep. Some lit cigarettes and smoked discreetly. “Instead of ‘BrentiJo Bagate,’ it should be ‘Brenti Jo Bamabuk,’” said Ian, changing the slogan from “Stop Drinking” to “Stop Getting Drunk.” All agreed that the campaign was unproductive and that drinking alcohol was not necessarily the problem—mabuk was. Nearly everyone in the back of the car shared stories of drinking and getting drunk but still maintained that miras was the main trigger for a lot of crime.
The text on this page is extracted from the PhD thesis: “Inside the Drinking Circle: Cap Tikus, Contested Modernities, and Youth Resistance in Manado, North Sulawesi.” This thesis was submitted by Nastasja Ilonka Roels as part of the Doctoral Regulations of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). All text references should be made to the original thesis manuscript, once published via the UvA Digital Academic Repository, and not to this website. Permission is required to copy, display or reuse images, songs, and videos.