H.S Dillon champions the plight of farmers

H.S Dillon champions the plight of farmers

By Sylvia Gratia M. Nirang

JAKARTA (JP): Harbrinderjit Singh Dillon always speaks his
mind when talking about human rights, farmers and the country's
national unity.

He is widely known as a government critic. His criticisms
range from agricultural policies to political and social
problems. He is now the executive director of the Center for
Agriculture Policy Studies (CAPS), a member of the National
Commission on Human Rights and a member of the state-sponsored
Communication Forum for National Unity (Bakom PKB).

Dillon often expresses his concern for the development of the
agricultural sector, which he says should be a top priority
because it is an important step in leading the country out of its
economic troubles.

"A strong agricultural sector would not only help the country
cope with the unemployment problem but would also encourage
farming activities to produce export-oriented commodities.

"We cannot build a strong nation if we cannot improve the
lives of people in rural areas. To improve their lives we have to
develop the agroindustry, because most of them work in the
agriculture sector," Dillon told The Jakarta Post in an interview
in his CAPS office last week.

Born in Medan on April 23, 1945, Dillon is the youngest child
of a business family. His father, Partap Singh, was a leader of
the Sikh community in Medan.

Dillon rebelled from the traditional family path of becoming a
businessman or a doctor, and studied agriculture. He became
totally involved in the sector, he explained, after seeing
farmers work themselves into the ground just to enrich the
plantation owners.

"When I was young my father often took us outside to Parapat
(a plantation town near Medan) or to other places. And we all saw
these people working in their black shirts, laboring in the
plantation. At that time I always wondered who they were and why
they worked so hard.

"And when I grew up I slowly began to realize that they must
be the underclass. So I decided then that I would study
agriculture even though my father wanted me to be a doctor like
my elder brothers.

"I decided that I had to study hard so I could improve the
life of those plantation laborers," he said.

In 1964 he studied agriculture and social economics at the
state-run North Sumatra University (USU) in Medan. He took 10
years to finish his studies, because, he explained, for three
years in the mid 1960s he was involved in a student movement.

After graduating from USU, he started working as a researcher
in the Ministry of Agriculture's agroeconomic survey program. He
then got a scholarship from the Agriculture Development Council
to study at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

In 1983 he earned his PhD in agriculture economics, with a
dissertation titled Growth with Equity: the Case of North Sumatra
Smallholder Development Project.

The project, which was prompted by the hardships faced by
North Sumatra's plantation laborers, then became the foundation
of smallholder estates, in which the government or private
companies shared their plantation areas with the farmers.

He returned to Indonesia in 1983 and worked on the Directorate
General of Plantation's special team for assistance projects.

He was then promoted to a director of the Ministry of
Agriculture's Commodity Analysis Division and then became an
adviser for commodity trade and development to the minister of
agriculture.

In 1996 he left the ministry, after realizing his principle of
empowering farmers was not in line with his colleagues in the
agriculture ministry.

"I joined the government because at that time I believed that
the government was fighting for the farmers. I have now realized
that it is not. There still are good people but they are a
minority. The dominating paradigm in the state is self-serving
officials. They are not civil servants, they are uncivil
masters."

That was the beginning of his new calling as a government
critic. He concentrated mainly on pointing out the failures of
the agriculture policies. And later founded the CAPS.

Married to Drupadi Harnopidjati, a lecturer of medicine at the
University of Indonesia, Dillon is the father of three sons:
Haryasetyaka Singh Dillon, 19, Mahawira Singh Dillon, 14, and
Mahareksha Singh Dillon, 13.

Drupadi's father was the rector of USU when Dillon studied at
the university.

Dillon was very close with the rector. The young couple's
relationship began when Drupadi's father asked Dillon to pick up
his daughter from the airport when she returned home for her
holidays from study in Jakarta.

At first, their relationship was opposed by Drupadi's mother
and Dillon's father, partly because of their different cultures
and religions. Dillon is a Sikh while Drupadi is a Muslim.

"But we finally managed to settle the problems, as we believed
that if we were together we would both be able to realize our
potentials higher than if we were separated or married other
people," he said.

They both decided to stick with their own religions.

"That's why I am very disappointed with the marriage law which
discourage inter-religious marriages.

"Inter-religious marriages help us maintain our national
unity, because families get to know other religions better and
when you get to know other religions, you can start to appreciate
them more."

Dillon is increasingly popular not only as an agriculture
analyst, but also as a political and social analyst since the
economic and political turmoil hit the country.

His sharp criticisms of the government regarding the abuse of
human rights led to him being elected a member of the National
Commission on Human Rights in December last year.

"I was very happy that they elected me ... because it provides
me a much stronger platform to fight for the economic, social and
cultural rights of farmers and rural inhabitants," he said.

Following are further excerpts of the interview with Dillon:

Question: Many people wonder why you, an Indonesian of Indian
descent, have become a government critic, instead of jumping into
business like many people of foreign descent do.

Answer: This is also one of the motives for my wanting to join
the government, to illustrate by example that it is not true that
people of foreign origin are only concerned with themselves, or
only concerned with pecuniary money-making motives.

Q: What do you think about the current state of our national
unity?

A: I have always been very interested in national unity because
from very early on I became cognizant on the fact that our
founding fathers have been very wise, very aware, of the
multiethnic, multiracial, multireligious nature of our society
and that is why they framed our constitution in such a manner.

I believe then and I still do that you can not take the
national unity for granted in a community such as ours ... You
have to keep on working. From time to time you have to renew your
commitment and you have to go back to the initial vision of the
community. You have to forge the nation out of these different
ethnic groups, different religions and all of that. And you have
to revitalize this vision.

Being a Sikh I think has helped me accentuate that, because
Sikhs are very few, I don't think there are more than 3,000 Sikhs
all over Indonesia. They are too small to be called a minority.
And then you feel that you are different, and if there is
discrimination then you realize that. And I always refuse to
accept discrimination.

So I urge all Indonesians from all ethnic backgrounds to bury
their racist sentiments because this is the best time to build
our country as our founding fathers intended it to be.

You may hate criminals, be they ethnic Chinese, Batak,
Javanese or any other ethnicity, but please never hate people
because their culture is different than yours.

Q: During the country's worst ever economic crisis, the
government seems to have just started to realize that
agroindustry could be a leading sector to lift us out of the
crisis. Problems in the agriculture sector are immense and
require immediate action. What policies should be introduced to
enhance agricultural productivity?

A: The crisis has been a logical consequence of bad policies all
these years, and has exposed all the faults in our food and
agriculture system. Not only is our reliance on food imports very
high but, now, there might be 60 million people living under the
poverty line compared to less than 20 million prior to July 1997.

The midterm challenges confronting Indonesians are:

* to raise production of all food commodities and products to
save foreign exchange through reduction of imports,

* to enhance productivity and exports of agriculture and
forestry commodities to generate badly needed foreign exchange,
and

* to design institutional and technological breakthroughs so
that policies to achieve the objectives would secure the food
needs of the poorest households during the transition, and
alleviate rural poverty while preserving the environment in the
medium term. However, much more pressing is needed to continue
providing adequate food at affordable prices to the general
public.

Q: Many believe that you are a strong candidate to fill the
minister of agriculture's position in the new cabinet, regardless
of which parties win. What do you think about that?

A: Really? For me if I can serve my people as a government
official that's fine. But if I could serve them better just being
as I am now, by being an outspoken person, then I would be
happier.