A desert island ?<\/p>\n
The year 2004 is a special one for Indonesians as this
\ncountry has had two national events that will determine its
\nfuture, notably the legislative election and the country's first-
\never direct presidential election. Those elections were held on
\nApril 5 and July 5, respectively.<\/p>\n
The hurly-burly of people watching the vote counting on April
\n5 and July 5 and the preparations for the elections, including
\nthe campaigns, put police and security forces throughout the
\ncountry on full alert. However, we did not anticipate one thing:
\nan increase in smuggling and illegal logging.<\/p>\n
The discovery of smuggled rice, sugar, textiles, cigarettes,
\nliquor and cars, mostly thought to belong to Malaysian
\nbusinessmen, has been reported by most dailies in Jakarta,
\nincluding The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
And on May 11, it was reported that hundreds of trucks laden
\nwith wood (belonging mostly to Malaysian companies) were every
\nday being smuggled from West Kalimantan into Malaysia via the
\nEntikong border crossing, without the slightest effort by
\nIndonesian security and government officials to stop them.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, a staggering report revealed that as a
\nresult of unchecked illegal logging on Sumatra island, the
\ncountry was losing Rp 15 trillion a month (The Jakarta Post, July
\n7), which means Rp 180 trillion (US$20 billion) a year.<\/p>\n
Indeed, this country's pristine and virgin rain forests have
\nbeen damaged considerably since exploitation started three
\ndecades ago. Severe environmental degradation has been done,
\nresulting in natural disasters such as landslides, flooding,
\nforest fires, etc. Yet, the government, in particular the
\nMinistry of Forestry, has failed to deal with the problem.<\/p>\n
Of course, the minister of forestry is not alone in coping
\nwith environmental degradation and the disasters that follow.
\nTogether with the National Police chief and the armed forces
\ncommander, he signed a memorandum of understanding last year to
\ndeal with illegal logging, but, in fact, to no avail.<\/p>\n
However, apparently after reading a touchy story in Kompas on
\nJune 28 titled Get prepared for the desert island of Kalimantan,
\nillustrating the grave condition of its forests, the East
\nKalimantan Police chief urged the central government on June 30
\nin the same paper to close down the Indonesian-Malaysian border
\ncrossings for at least four months to stop logs being sent to
\nMalaysian wood factories. He wanted to teach the Malaysian wood
\nproducers a lesson that without a supply of logs from Kalimantan
\ntheir factories would go bankrupt.<\/p>\n
M. RUSDI
\nJakarta<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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