Farmers condemn globalization

Fidelito Ahmad, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Some 1,500 farmers from across the country arrived here on Wednesday to attend the second congress of the Federation of All- Indonesia Farmers Unions (FSPI), where they will declare their opposition to privatization and globalization.

Dressed in black, participants at the congress marched from the Surabaya Institute of Technology campus to the Surabaya Convention Hall on Jl. Arief Rahman Hakim for the congress's opening ceremony.

Karyono of the Pasundan Farmers Union said the congress was held in response to the free trade era and government policies that failed to protect farmers from the consequences of liberalized world markets.

"We are very concerned about the free trade era as we farmers are not yet organized to face the future," Karyono said.

The farmers consist of union representatives from various parts of the country, including Jambi, West Java, Banten, Aceh, Lampung and East Java. All the discussions to be held during the congress will take place in Malang, 90 kilometers south of Surabaya, from Thursday through Sunday.

The event's organizing committee chairman Abdullah Mas'ud, who also chairs the East Java Farmers Union, said the congress would seek united steps to turn back the tide of globalization.

He said both the government and the House of Representatives had failed to protect farmers' interests by drafting and endorsing legislation at the expense of the country's farmers.

"The government and the House have collaborated to enact rulings that oppress farmers. How come farmers, who have been treated unfairly in the country, now have to face the effects of multinational investments?" Mas'ud said.

He was referring to the bills on water resources, agrarian affairs, mines and energy, and plantations, which will allow the private sector to invest in these fields.

"I can't imagine how farmers can cope with privatization while the government fails to provide the necessary support and facilities. The government sells fertilizer and seeds at high prices and imposes taxes on farmers instead," Mas'ud said.

The water resource bill holds out the possibility that farmers may have to pay charges for their use of irrigation water.

He said the congress was aimed at discussing the government's restrictive policies, and empowering rural organizations so that they could fight for a just agrarian system.

Karyono, a former student activist in 1998, said the congress reflected farmers' disappointment with the government's failure to put reform into effect.

"The government has turned a deaf ear to the people's demands, including ours," he said. "That's why the congress will seek a solution and, if necessary, a revolution."

The FSPI was established in July 1998 in the North Sumatra regency of Asahan and held its first congress in February 1999 in the provincial capital of Medan.

In a statement released in conjunction with its second congress, the federation vowed to fight what it termed World Trade Organization-sponsored neo-liberalism, a policy that would force all countries ratifying the agreement to cut subsidies and open their domestic markets to imports.

The federation feared that privatization in the exploitation of natural resources would reduce the people's access to these resources.

"It's obvious that this will thwart Indonesians in their desire to create a just and prosperous society," read the statement, which was signed by FSPI chairman Henry Saragih and Mas'ud.