Farmers condemn globalization
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.