Priest Y.B. Mangunwijaya joins farmers' protest<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Renowned writer and priest Y.B. Mangunwijaya
\njoined hundreds of farmers and students from Gadjah Mada
\nUniversity here on Tuesday in a demonstration against perceived
\nunnecessary intervention in farmers' lives.<\/p>\n
He was seen wearing a farmer's triangular bamboo hat and a
\nsarong at the protest at the university's School of Forestry that
\ninvolved about 200 farmers from dozens of villages in Magelang
\nregency. Farmers and students of the Alliance of Volunteers for
\nSaving Nature (Arupa) unfurled posters, one which read, \"Do not
\nforce farmers to buy fertilizer.\"<\/p>\n
A survey from August to October by the Pesticide Action
\nNetwork -- Indonesia, an organization focusing on farming,
\ndisclosed how many village cooperatives were no longer
\nfunctioning.<\/p>\n
Coordinator Riza V. Tjahjadi said cooperatives offered prices
\nwhich were too low and they also lacked sufficient capital to buy
\nfarmers' crops. Farmers are instead selling their crops to either
\nmill owners or loan sharks who determine prices.<\/p>\n
The survey was carried out in West Sumatra, North Sumatra,
\nRiau, West Java, Central Java, East Kalimantan and South
\nSulawesi.<\/p>\n
The study was released in conjunction with World Food Day
\nwhich fell on Friday Oct. 16. Also on Friday 150 students
\nprotested at the Yogyakarta governor's office. The member of
\nMAKAN (literally eat, short for Community for Food Concern) said
\nfarmers had lost freedom to decide what crops they could plant.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday a demonstrating farmer said, \"The price of
\nfertilizers has been arranged by a monopoly. The price of rice
\nhas been arranged. Then where is the value of the farmer?\"<\/p>\n
\"Don't sacrifice farmers merely for the pride of self-
\nsufficiency!\" he said.<\/p>\n
Mangunwijaya said his support for farmers was to realize the
\n\"people's sovereignty\". \"A people-oriented economy can only
\nemerge if the people's dignity is valued by the government.\"<\/p>\n
The former government repeatedly increased the producer floor
\nprice of unhusked rice for the benefit of farmers. But farmers
\nhave said they are suffering losses because of the low selling
\nprice of rice and the high price of fertilizers.<\/p>\n
In 1985 former president Soeharto was rewarded by the Food and
\nAgricultural Organization for achieving self-sufficiency in rice
\nbut since the early 1990s the country imported rice again.
\n(23\/swa\/44\/01)<\/p>",
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