Dayaks query govt development plan
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)