Dayaks query govt development plan
JAKARTA (JP): A leading anthropologist criticized the government's development programs yesterday, saying that many of its schemes had done more harm than good to the Dayak tribe in Kalimantan.
Stephanus Djuweng, himself a Dayak, said the development programs implemented in Kalimantan had caused a lot of damage to the pristine forests, depleted the natural resources, and hurt the cultures of the island's various tribes.
"Development projects are occupying the Dayak ancestral land, cutting their commercial rubber plantations ... their collective forests, polluting their rivers, (and) womanizing their girls," Djuweng said at a book launch held at the Ibis Hotel in West Jakarta.
The book, called A Citizen's Guide to the Multilateral Development Banks and Indigenous People, was written by Cindy M. Buhl of the Bank Information Center, a non-governmental organization designed to provide information to NGOs in many parts of the world.
Among those at yesterday's launch were human rights campaigner Adnan Buyung Nasution, and Zoemrotin K.S., chief of the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development, the organizer of the ceremony.
One consequence of the poorly coordinated development programs, Djuweng said, was the Dayaks' practice of burning down forests without realizing the environmental damage they were causing.
Djuweng said the establishment of a number of timber estates, palm oil plantations and the pulp industry was at the expense of Kalimantan's vast forests.
World Bank
He said the World Bank, which has helped finance Indonesia's development, should also be held responsible for the environmental damage in Indonesia.
Benjamin Fisher, an World Bank official in charge of the environmental affairs of indigenous people, defended the World Bank's policy.
Fisher said the bank had improved its development policy by encouraging indigenous people, like the Dayak, to participate in the programs.
He stressed the bank would not support the Indonesian government's development programs if the local people resisted them.
He said that in the past five years the bank had employed more personnel to monitor the social and environmental damage caused by Indonesia's development programs.
He said the term "indigenous people", which is often used by the government and the non-governmental organizations, has yet to be clearly defined.
Djuweng, who also directs an institution aimed at conserving Dayak traditions, said intimidation and abuse by some government officials also degraded the Dayak's culture.
He accused government officials of forcing Dayak tribesmen to change their culture, and replace their traditional longhouses with other houses, the construction of which benefited the officials.
The tribesmen were also ordered to cultivate crops that could be traded on the world market. (16)