Incentives needed to instill pioneering spirit of Javanese<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Incentives are needed to instill a greater
\npioneering spirit among the ethnic Javanese population living in
\nJava so they will resettle on other islands, experts say.<\/p>\n
Speakers at a seminar on population movement concluded
\nyesterday that the Javanese people would willingly move from the
\ndensely-populated island to other regions if there was a
\nguarantee they could enjoy the same, modern facilities they had
\nin their places of origin.<\/p>\n
The speakers also agreed that a kind of "cultural engineering"
\nwas required to invigorate the Javanese people, who are known for
\ntheir low mobility. This cultural engineering would hopefully
\ninstill them with the pioneering spirit possessed by the Bugis in
\nSulawesi and Minang and Batak in Sumatra who dared to try their
\nluck and migrate to other regions.<\/p>\n
"Java's appeal has caused a brain drain in areas outside the
\nisland," Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo, said in
\nhis opening speech.<\/p>\n
He said that overcrowding had also increased the levels of
\nunemployment, deforestation and crime in Java.<\/p>\n
Siswono believes that it is very possible to develop the
\npioneering spirit among the Javanese and the Sundanese, two main
\nethnic tribes living in Java, given the fact that they can adapt
\nwell to new situations. He thought they could achieve this
\ndespite their traditional point of view concerning the place of
\nbirth.<\/p>\n
He added that a recent study showed that 87 percent of the
\nJavanese people were born, raised and died in the same regency.<\/p>\n
The minister said that investors could also be lured to put
\nmoney in other areas outside Java by a number of methods, such as
\nlowering the tax rate on new investments.<\/p>\n
Siswono said that Java has already accommodated a total of
\n62.3 percent of foreign and domestic investments in the country,
\nwhich lead to the urbanization to the island.<\/p>\n
Siswono was among the speakers of the seminar with the theme
\nof "Developing the Pioneering Culture in People's Mobility." This
\nprogram is part of the government's efforts to rejuvenate its
\nprogram to resettle people from Java to other islands.<\/p>\n
The other speakers were Minister of Population Haryono
\nSuyono\/Chairman of National Family Planning Board (BKKBN),
\nnoted scholar Abdurrahman Wahid, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X (King of
\nthe Yogyakarta Sultanate) and Jakob Oetama, editor-in-chief of
\nthe Kompas daily.<\/p>\n
The seminar, which was attended by some 250 scholars,
\ngovernment officials and members of professional organizations
\nconcludes today.<\/p>\n
Colonial time<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman told the participants that an adequate
\ninfrastructure in the transmigration areas, such as schools, post
\noffices, shops and public health centers, would encourage people
\nto move through their own initiatives. He said local leaders
\ncould be invited to witness such transmigration sites so they
\nwould tell other people about the benefit of moving to the new
\nareas.<\/p>\n
"What the people need is the sense of being a part of a town,"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
Sultan Hamengkubuwono told the seminar that movements among
\nthe Javanese people to other islands had occurred during the
\nDutch colonization, but such migration was forced upon the people
\nby the colonizers.<\/p>\n
He said that colonialism had also changed the culture of the
\nJavanese people who used to be dynamic and active -- the
\ncharacteristics of the pioneering spirit -- to become static.<\/p>\n
The Sultan said that the conquest of the coastal areas by the
\nDutch had forced the Javanese people, who once had a great
\nmaritime spirit, to become tillers of the soil.<\/p>\n
About 80 percent of Indonesia's 180 million people live in
\nJava, which has a population density of 814 people for every
\nsquare kilometer. This is compared to an average of 93 people
\nnationally, according to a 1992 population survey.<\/p>\n
Java is one of the most densely populated island in the world
\nand has already shown some signs of being unable to cope with the
\never increasing number of people. The most notable examples are
\nthe flooding which takes place during the rainy season because of
\noverdevelopment, and the severe water shortages in the dry
\nseasons.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/incentives-needed-to-instill-pioneering-spirit-of-javanese-1447893297",
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