Govt to boost transmigration

Govt to boost transmigration

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Transmigration plans to open a
new directorate whose task will be to find ways of encouraging
the traditionally reluctant to move people in Java to resettle.

Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo said the
proposal to create a separate directorate for the job currently
handled by the Directorate for Mobilizing and Supervision has
already been approved by the State Minister of Administrative
Reforms T.B. Silalahi, Antara reported yesterday.

The new directorate is expected to promote the self-
sponsored/self reliant transmigration program, particularly among
the people of Java, Siswono said.

One of the directorate's jobs will be to carry out social
engineering so that the Javanese and Sundanese will become even
more adventurous than the Minangkabau and Bugis people, he said,
referring to the West Sumatra and South Sulawesi ethnic groups
known for their knack at venturing to places far from their
homelands.

The Ministry of Transmigration is responsible for carrying out
the government's ambitious program of resettling as many people
as possible from overcrowded Java and Bali to the other islands
in the Indonesian archipelago.

The habit of the Javanese and Sundanese to stay in the places
they were born has been one of the chief obstacles to the success
of the program. Many Javanese transmigrants, not able to cope
with the harsh conditions of the new frontiers, have returned to
their former homes to try to once again eke out a meager living.

Siswono is confident that changing attitudes through social
engineering is not impossible.

He likened the challenge to the government's launching of the
national family planning program in 1969, when the idea was
widely scoffed.

The Secretary-General of Transmigration, Soemarsidik,
explained that the Directorate for Mobilization and Supervision
will be broken into two parts: one for the supervision of the
spread of the population and the other for community development.

The changes will be effected in August, he said.

Soemarsidik disclosed that the government is currently
preparing a new bill on transmigration to replace the current law
about the resettlement program. The bill is now at the State
Secretariat for a final review before it is presented to the
House of Representatives.

The bill on transmigration emphasizes regional development and
the creation of new economic growth centers as a way of
complementing the resettlement program.

It also emphasizes the need to diversify the occupational
bases of the settlers away from rice farming. The government in
recent years has developed transmigration programs related to the
opening of fisheries, forestry estates, and plantations in the
new settlement areas.

The bill proposes to motivate more self-reliant transmigrants,
who are less dependent on government handouts and other
facilities. It also seeks to bolster the participation of the
private business sector in the transmigration programs,
Soemarsidik said. (emb)