Gap in understanding of natives revealed
JAKARTA (JP): A gap in the understanding of indigenous peoples was revealed on Friday during the third day of a congress of indigenous peoples.
Officials addressing the congress, using terms such as "backward communities" and "isolated people", their definitions of progress and prosperity, national interest and empowerment, were among issues which drew scathing criticism by some 250 participants at the congress, the first of its kind.
Representatives from the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations and the Ministry of Mines and Energy addressed the congress.
State Minister of Agrarian Affairs Hasan Basri Durin was the only minister who attended the congress. The Ministry of Defense and Security was not represented at the forum.
Representatives waited patiently for their turn to address officials, and the atmosphere was heated as most were emotional.
Officials had said policies of their respective ministries were "beginning to respond to the era of reform", saying new policies on land, plantations and mining would respect and take into account the interests of indigenous people.
But participants said such efforts were too late for the survival of their people.
"Do not wait for new laws," a representative from Riau in Sumatra said. "Stop exploitation of resources right now."
Another representative, citing environmental destruction from a pulp and rayon mill in North Sumatra, shouted, "There is no way we can prosper and participate in development when we cannot even breathe the air."
On the same day the government decided to temporarily suspend the operation of the plant of PT Inti Indorayon Utama.
A representative of the Rimba people in Jambi province quietly said the only thing his people needed from the government was an end to environmental destruction.
"We do not need houses or anything," Tengganai Meratai said. "We only request that the remaining forest area be left to us, that no more clearing of forest take place."
The Rimba people, comprising some 3,000 families, are being resettled but most of the homes for the resettlement remain empty.
An expert at the Ministry of Mines and Energy said that mining regulations stated that sacred places were barred from mining activities. However, a leader from East Nusa Tenggara, Petrus Almet, said that 800 tons of marble, considered sacred by his people, had not yet been returned.
"We make our living in animal husbandry and farming; if marble is to be processed we take it from other places," Petrus, chief of the Amatan people, told The Jakarta Post.
On the sidelines of the congress, renown sociologist Selo Soemardjan said the government rarely heeded researchers' recommendations made in the interest of local peoples.
Minister Hasri said one difficulty in land cases concerning indigenous peoples, was land ownership rights of indigenous people were not always clear.
The congress, organized by 13 non-governmental organizations, also featured a demonstration by women participants.
The women protested, among other things, mining operations which they claimed caused a variety of birth defects.
Women sang and carried posters at the traffic circle in from of Hotel Indonesia, the site of the congress.
One poster read "Annul Law No. 5/1979", referring to the law on village administration. While the House of Representatives is deliberating a new autonomy law, organizers said Law No. 5/1979 directly affected indigenous people.
Representatives of the women demanded "the rejection of all forms of massive natural resource exploitation... leading to the loss of land... needed to support families". (anr/01)