Caltex accused of exploiting Riau's Sakai tribe

Caltex accused of exploiting Riau's Sakai tribe

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru, Riau

Impoverished for half a century, Riau's Sakai tribe as ancestral land owners should have been entitled to at least 1 percent in royalties from the profit of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia, a production-sharing contractor of state oil company Pertamina operating in the region.

Prof. Dr. Tabrani Rab, an advocate of the Free Riau Movement and now member of the Regional Autonomy Advisory Council, aired this claim recently and indicated that Caltex's exploitation of the Sakai people's ancestral land had brought misery to the tribe.

"The Rio de Janeiro conference in 1992 decided to put natural resources and indigenous tribal rights under the protection of United Nations' member countries. The meeting I attended cited the Amazon's Kranac tribe as an example, and thus Caltex's treatment of Riau locals is in contradiction to this," he explained.

According to him, despite the contractor's community development program worth US$5 million annually, this aid has only been released over the last several years, while around 7,000 Sakai people are still living in dire poverty.

Syamsul Rakan Chaniago, an observer of legal affairs, and A.B. Purba, chairman of Riau's human rights commission, referred to the need to stipulate the mining royalties under an autonomous regional government.

"Freeport as an American company is capable of providing 1 percent compensation in royalties for the Amungme tribe in Timika, Papua, why can't Caltex do the same?" queried Syamsul.

He continued, that, in line with the reform movement, Caltex had indeed channeled aid to the Sakai community but it could not meet the diverse development needs of the whole community, while the Riau provincial administration still had to provide special funds for this purpose.

To compensate the tribesmen for being been driven out from their ancestral land, the provincial legislature has finally secured the assurance from Caltex that the company will employ locals, particularly the Sakai, as manual workers or guards, but none have been recruited as yet.

A.B. Purba pointed out that the recent publication of a Sakai- German dictionary by a German researcher served as a reminder of how foreigners paid such great attention to the small community living in the area of Caltex's operations, "while we ourselves are seemingly unaware of the tribe."

In his view, Caltex has violating the Sakai's human rights, because the company's operation has deprived them of hunting sites and polluted the rivers where they used to catch fish.

In response, Hanafi Kadir, Caltex's communication and media relations manager, said the company had shown concern for the people around its operational sites, as reflected by its scholarships for Sakai children in Duri and Minas, renovation and construction of schools, custom houses and handicraft centers.

"We strive to do our best for the local people, abide by all the laws in force and uphold the highest ethical standards," he said, commenting briefly on the 1 percent in royalties demanded for the Sakai last weekend.

Prof. Hans Kalipke (69), a lecturer at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and researcher on the Sakai community since 1978, said that before long, the tribe would only be remembered as part of local history.

Kalipke asserts that the community was a target of the former social affairs ministry's isolated tribe development project. Spending fairly large funds on the building of settlements for tribesmen including the Sakai, the project was detrimental to the tribe because they were virtually forced to leave the forests that provided their livelihood.

"The government overlooked the fact that the Sakai relied on the forests for a living, while the housing units failed to suit their needs. Ironically, after their forced removal their forests were denuded by industries," he said.

His over 20 years' experience in living with the Sakai people has resulted in a Sakai-Indonesian-German dictionary, which he co-authored with Mohammad Agar, a Sakai student in Germany, launched in Pekanbaru some time ago.

Based on literature, as one of Riau's native tribes, the Sakai originally lived in remote jungles separated from other indigenous ethnic communities. They used to build wooden platform houses on river banks for easy transport and fishing.

Formerly only clad in bark, they lived in groups of no more than four families and led a nomadic existence. With their limited knowledge of agriculture, they only grew tubers as staple food and caught fish or hunted game, only to move later when no more animals were left.

Once embracing animism, in 1832 they began to be introduced to Islam through the Siak sultanate, now located in Siak regency. The spread of Islam among them, however, was slow due to their habit of eating pork.

By means of German anthropologist Moszkowski's 1908 map of the region where Sakai people lived, U.S. Standard Oil Company of California discovered oil in its survey in 1924, followed by NV Nederlandsche Pacific Petroleum Maatschappij in 1930. In 1935, oil firms started exploration.

In May 1952, PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia struck oil in the Minas field, Bengkalis regency, marking the commencement of Caltex operations in Riau.

It is on Sakai land that the oil zone has now been divided into, among others, the Rokan block, Siak block, Kampar block, and Pekanbaru block, whose contracts just expired.

Likewise, the oil production sharing contract periods with Caltex involving the various blocks in Riau expire in 2002.