Govt to move people to empty islands

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Still smarting from the loss of Sipadan and Ligitan islands, the government is planning to resettle people from densely populated areas to 88 uninhabited islands on borders with neighboring countries under the transmigration program.

"We have 88 small, empty islands that are located on border areas with neighboring countries. We will relocate people to these islands for the sake of our sovereignty," Djoko Sidik Pramono, the director general for the empowerment of transmigration areas at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, told a press conference.

The status of the islands is stated in government regulation No. 38/2002 on the List of Geography Coordinates of the Base Line Points of the Indonesian Archipelago.

Indonesia lost the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan to Malaysia after a legal dispute that dragged on for years ended last December with the International Court of Justice ruling that the islands in the Sulawesi Sea belonged to Kuala Lumpur.

The court considered the administrative measures taken by the British colonial power, who once ruled Malaysia, over the two islands as strong reason to award them to Malaysia.

Since then, Indonesia has realized that it can no longer ignore a single island on the country's borders.

Djoko said the transmigration program would give Indonesia political advantage, although it might not yield economic benefit.

The transmigration program for small islands on border areas is part of the nationwide program for 2003 to 2009, which is expected to relocate over 300,000 families from densely populated areas.

Djoko said the government had provided subsidies to manage fishing or husbandry activities as incentives for those who are willing to live on the small islands.

The fishing system will emulate the old transmigration scheme (PIR), in which a private company will provide settlers with fishing equipment, while the government will develop infrastructure, such as houses and roads, he said.

At present, the government is focusing on relocating people to Natuna island, which is located on the border between Indonesia and Vietnam.

"We have resettled 960 families and we are planning to move more than 1,000 families to the island," he said.

For those who relocate to Natuna, the government has allocated hefty subsidies for them. An oil palm plantation there has been closed for not being profitable, said Djoko.

However, as the island has started up oil and gas production activities, at least three local investors are interested in sinking their money into the oil palm plantation business, he said.

One of the companies plans to build a factory to process palm oil into household products, such as oil and soap, he said.

"Natuna will be a model for developing other small islands on border areas," he said.