A desert island ?
A desert island ?
The year 2004 is a special one for Indonesians as this
country has had two national events that will determine its
future, notably the legislative election and the country's first-
ever direct presidential election. Those elections were held on
April 5 and July 5, respectively.
The hurly-burly of people watching the vote counting on April
5 and July 5 and the preparations for the elections, including
the campaigns, put police and security forces throughout the
country on full alert. However, we did not anticipate one thing:
an increase in smuggling and illegal logging.
The discovery of smuggled rice, sugar, textiles, cigarettes,
liquor and cars, mostly thought to belong to Malaysian
businessmen, has been reported by most dailies in Jakarta,
including The Jakarta Post.
And on May 11, it was reported that hundreds of trucks laden
with wood (belonging mostly to Malaysian companies) were every
day being smuggled from West Kalimantan into Malaysia via the
Entikong border crossing, without the slightest effort by
Indonesian security and government officials to stop them.
On the other hand, a staggering report revealed that as a
result of unchecked illegal logging on Sumatra island, the
country was losing Rp 15 trillion a month (The Jakarta Post, July
7), which means Rp 180 trillion (US$20 billion) a year.
Indeed, this country's pristine and virgin rain forests have
been damaged considerably since exploitation started three
decades ago. Severe environmental degradation has been done,
resulting in natural disasters such as landslides, flooding,
forest fires, etc. Yet, the government, in particular the
Ministry of Forestry, has failed to deal with the problem.
Of course, the minister of forestry is not alone in coping
with environmental degradation and the disasters that follow.
Together with the National Police chief and the armed forces
commander, he signed a memorandum of understanding last year to
deal with illegal logging, but, in fact, to no avail.
However, apparently after reading a touchy story in Kompas on
June 28 titled Get prepared for the desert island of Kalimantan,
illustrating the grave condition of its forests, the East
Kalimantan Police chief urged the central government on June 30
in the same paper to close down the Indonesian-Malaysian border
crossings for at least four months to stop logs being sent to
Malaysian wood factories. He wanted to teach the Malaysian wood
producers a lesson that without a supply of logs from Kalimantan
their factories would go bankrupt.
M. RUSDI
Jakarta