Skephi opposes Siberut resettlement<\/p>\n
By Stevie Emilia<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Network for Forest Conservation
\n(Skephi) warned yesterday that the government's plan to open
\nresettlement areas on Siberut Island off the coast of West
\nSumatra could destroy the local culture altogether.<\/p>\n
Rasyid Harsuna Lubis of the group's community development
\ndivision said the plan, announced this week, would further
\nmarginalize the 25,000 islanders rather than bring them into the
\nfold of modernization as the government intended.<\/p>\n
Rasyid, who spent six years on a community development work in
\nSiberut, underlined the islanders' strong suspicion against
\nnewcomers, an attitude they developed because of past bitter
\nexperiences with outsiders coming to exploit the island.<\/p>\n
He warned that forcing the resettlement plan could lead to
\nphysical clashes between the islanders and the newcomers.<\/p>\n
"We cannot agree to the plan because the islanders have
\ndifficulties in mixing with outsiders," he told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
"They have learned from past experiences that newcomers always
\ntried to exploit them, to hurt them," he added. He cited as an
\nexample the time when loggers came to the island and felled the
\ntimber from areas that belonged to the islanders.<\/p>\n
Such is the islanders' suspicion that even Skephi was not
\nwelcomed when it came to the island in 1993 to carry out a
\ncommunity development project on behalf of the Ministry of
\nForestry, he said. "It's hard to say whether we've made progress
\nin the project because of the islanders' rejection."<\/p>\n
Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo announced on
\nTuesday that President Soeharto has given the go-ahead to the
\nplan to revive an old plan to open settlement areas in Siberut.<\/p>\n
The resettlement program on the island was shelved in the
\n1980s because of objections from environmental organizations who
\nfelt that the move would destroy the tribes' culture.<\/p>\n
Siswono said recent studies found these concerns were not
\nfounded and that bringing in settlers could in fact help bring
\nthe islanders, who still live in a stone-age era, into the fold
\nof modern civilization.<\/p>\n
The minister added that the President had asked him to proceed
\nwith the plan with caution and take into account the
\nenvironmental and cultural impacts.<\/p>\n
According to a recent traveler to the island, some semblance
\nof modernization has touched north Siberut where people eat rice,
\nwear clothes and shoes and children go to school and money is
\nused as their medium of exchange. But in the south, people still
\nwear only a kabid (loincloth), eat sago, practice barter economy,
\nuse bows and arrows to hunt and invite a kerei (shamans) to
\ncommunicate with the hereafter.<\/p>\n
Rasyid warned that forcing modern civilization on the Siberut
\ncommunity would destroy their culture.<\/p>\n
It could lead to an even greater isolation because there is
\nunlikely to be any social intercourse between the islanders and
\nthe settlers, he said.<\/p>\n
"This will be just like another Timika," he said, referring to
\nthe copper mining town that had been established in the middle of
\nthe jungle in Irian Jaya, another region where the local people
\nwere still living in stone-age period.<\/p>\n
Rasyid suspected that something else was behind the
\ngovernment's move other than the concern about the state of
\nbackwardness of the islanders.<\/p>\n
He said he heard that two politically-connected figures have
\nbeen seeking to obtain concessions to open up palm oil
\nplantations on the island, using settlers as their workers.<\/p>\n
On the studies referred to by Siswono, Rasyid said they were
\n"too shallow" to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n
"The people who conducted the studies did not do a thorough
\ninvestigation of the Siberut community. They didn't explore every
\npart of the island," he said, adding that the questions asked in
\ntheir survey used terms which the islanders could not have
\nunderstood.<\/p>\n
Rasyid questioned Siswono's assertion that the Siberut
\nislanders were in a state of backwardness. "What does
\nbackwardness mean? Ask the same question to the islanders. Do
\nthey feel that they have been left behind?" (31)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/skephi-opposes-siberut-resettlement-1447893297",
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