Transmigrants help speed up development<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto said yesterday that sparsely
\npopulated provinces in Indonesia need more settlers from Java to
\nspeed up development.<\/p>\n
The transmigration program aims to improve the living
\nconditions of poor people in Java and accelerate economic growth
\nof outer provinces, he said.<\/p>\n
An obvious benefit from the state-sponsored program is that
\npeople from different provinces with different cultural
\nbackgrounds can learn from each other, Soeharto told participants
\nof a Ministry of Transmigration national workshop.<\/p>\n
\"Transmigrants and indigenous people should live in harmony
\nand work together to improve their living standard and overcome
\ntheir common problems,\" he said.<\/p>\n
About 60 percent of Indonesia's 200 million population live in
\nJava, which constitutes only 7 percent of the country's
\nterritory.<\/p>\n
Kalimantan, four times bigger than Java, has only 10 million
\npeople, the President said.<\/p>\n
Kalimantan, where the government is developing one million
\nhectares of peat moss land into agricultural fields, has been
\ndesignated as a major transmigration destination.<\/p>\n
Java, Bali, Madura and Nusa Tenggara are the main areas that
\nsupply resettlers to thinly populated islands, such as
\nKalimantan, Sulawesi and Irian Jaya.<\/p>\n
The President said in the last 28 years the government has
\nbuilt 3,000 transmigration resettlement sites which accommodate
\n7.5 million people.<\/p>\n
The transmigration program has come into the spotlight since
\nthousands of transmigrants from Madura island, East Java, were
\nengaged in a series of bloody clashes with indigenous Dayaks
\nearlier this year. Hundreds of people were believed to have been
\nkilled and thousands of houses set on fire.<\/p>\n
Critics say that although the transmigration program has
\nbrought about economic development, it threatens the indigenous
\nculture and has sparked social envy.<\/p>\n
Emmy Hafild, chief of the Indonesian Forum for Environment
\n(WALHI), said the transmigration program was forceful, bringing
\nwith it culture shock for locals, especially Irianese.<\/p>\n
\"For the time being, we need to stop the program. If it
\ncontinues, Irianese who cannot compete with the outsiders will
\nalways be left behind,\" said Emmy earlier this year.<\/p>\n
In the current sixth Five Year Development Program that will
\nend in 1999, the government plans to resettle 600,000 families,
\nmostly from Java and build 1,200 new resettlement sites, mainly
\nin eastern Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The government hopes to resettle 80,000 families in the
\n1997\/1998 fiscal year alone. (06)<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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