Indigenous people get a chance to talk

Indigenous people get a chance to talk

By Samsudin Berlian

JAKARTA (JP): Following the collapse of Soeharto's
authoritarian regime, various social groups across the country
have publicly voiced their grievances, criticism and hopes.

At the latest count, 58 new political parties have been set
up, not just in a bid for political power but to tell people and
the elite about their aspirations.

But one group -- or more correctly hundreds of small groups
usually lumped together in the fluid term "indigenous people" --
seemed to have remained in obscurity. Until last week that is
when the United Nations (UN) gave them a forum to voice their
views on their own situation.

The UN Development Program (UNDP) and UNESCO jointly organized
a one-day workshop on indigenous people, themed "Partnership in
Action," last Thursday to commemorate the International Day of
the World's Indigenous People, that falls on Aug. 9.

Eight tribal leaders, as well as anthropologists and non-
governmental organization (NGO) activists from all over the
country, were invited to talk. The event was not a comprehensive
study on all indigenous groups in Indonesia, but it offered a
mixture of tribes from eastern to western parts of the country,
from highlanders to sea people, and from tribal leaders familiar
with the modern world to those who could not even speak
Indonesian.

Likewise the leaders presented a potpourri of views, ranging
from simple "We Need" messages to in-depth discussions on land
rights for tribal people. Instead of dealing with general issues
of indigenous people, the workshop debated the specific cases the
tribal chiefs presented first-hand.

But even the simplest message uttered in a broken speech
contained valuable lessons, if listened to with empathy. A leader
of the Anak Dalam tribe who live in the jungles of southern
Sumatra, for example, told the workshop participants: "We need
television" -- a seemingly selfish wish of a tribe coveting
glittering things they did not need.

But a deeper probe revealed that a group of transmigrants
lived near their homeland. These newcomers owned a television set
and refused to let the tribal people watch it with them. Suddenly
the whole thing was put in a new light: tensions between the
tribe and the transmigrants.

From Nias, an island to the west of North Sumatra, came a
message of economic hardship. A plague killed thousands of pigs
and forced the people to substitute pigs, ever important in
traditional ceremonies, with eggs and not-so-traditional instant
noodles.

A more in-depth analysis came from Umbu Ndena Billi of Sumba
Island, 1,500 km east of Jakarta, who said the development
policies under Soeharto destroyed the vitality of indigenous
people.

Government-appointed village heads often ruled without clear
understanding of the indigenous people's needs, thereby creating
tension and dissent. At the same time, tribal lands were taken
away and the land given to favored companies.

In addition, Billi said: "Our children whom we send away to
study, when they have succeeded, become bureaucrats who are
against us because they have to obey the existing system of
governance."

He demanded indigenous people be given a greater say in
economic development and more freedom to run their own "internal
affairs", such as the freedom to implement traditional laws.

Abud Paus-Paus, a "raja" (king) who rules over six tribes on
the rocky Arguni island off the northwestern coast of Irian Jaya,
called for the government and aid communities to help establish a
basic system for education and health care, as well as to provide
clean water.

Chief Wesakin Asso of the Dani tribe from the Baliem Valley in
Irian Jaya, famous for their artistic wood carvings, delighted
the audience with his speech in the Dani language and
appropriately called for protection of their traditional culture
against the influx of newcomers and global culture.

"We need a minimuseum," he said, "to host sacred tribal
treasures." Thieves have apparently stolen many antique artifacts
and sold them cheaply as souvenirs.

Savitri Dyah, a researcher at the National Institute of
Sciences (LIPI), said that capability discrepancies between
indigenous people and newcomers in the Baliem Valley created
social tensions between them, making the area prone to ethnic
conflicts.

The Dani people were under pressure to sell their land as the
only means to get cash to function in a market economy they were
not familiar with. Since all their lands were communal lands,
this had created tension between the elders and young people.

From Kalimantan, Tumenggung Luansa of the Iban Tribe asked the
government to stop taking away their tribal lands to give to
timber companies. "Tribal leaders often did not even know that
their lands had been taken," he said.

He urged the government to include Dayak leaders in decision-
making about their lands. Dayak is the name given to some 400
ethno-linguistically related groups in Kalimantan.

Stepanus Djuweng, director of the Pontianak-based Institute of
Dayakology Research and Development, blamed the government for
its failure to recognize the existence of indigenous people,
calling them isolated communities, instead. The Ministry of
Social Services has identified 1.1 million members of isolated
communities living in 18 provinces in the country.

Djuweng said education -- supposed to help students open their
minds and broaden their horizons -- had become a means of
indoctrination to make Dayak children sneer at their own culture.
Moslem and Christian missionaries also looked down at Dayak
culture, he said.

The government treated the Dayak with contempt, he said, and
sought to destroy their communal homes, the "Long Houses", the
pillar of Dayak communities, arguing that such houses were used
for prostitution. Moreover, their forests, their source of
living, were taken from them, he added.

Djuweng said indigenous people did not need development, not
even sustainable development. His reason is that development is
another name for unacceptable global capitalism and that
development is incompatible with sustainability. So, there is no
such thing as sustainable development. What they needed, he said,
was empowerment for sustainability, sustainability being freedom
from development.

Djuweng's interesting concept is that while modern men always
want "to own", indigenous people want "to be". They are happy not
because they own anything but because there are just like fish in
the river, animals in the forest, trees bearing fruit, and
mountains staying where they are.

However, the "We Need" list that the tribal leaders brought to
the workshop may be proof that such a concept is too idealistic
and that in today's small world, compromises have to be made
between "to own" and "to be".

Noted historian Onghokham said in the workshop that no tribe
or anybody in the world could avoid internationalization or
globalization, and that invariably, in the meeting between global
and local cultures, traditional rights of local peoples tended to
disappear. "It is the duty of governments," he said, "to pay
attention to the peoples' rights."

"The right to development is the right of all peoples," said
the UNDP's acting resident representative, Anne-Birgitte
Albrectsen, explaining the UN's position on the issue.

The UN declared 1995/2004 as the International Decade of the
World's Indigenous People and pledged to improve their conditions
in such areas as human rights, the environment, development,
education and health.

It believes indigenous peoples must be empowered to make
choices that would enable them to maintain their cultural
identity while participating in national economic and social
life.

The writer is a member of staff at the UNDP in Jakarta. This
article was written in his personal capacity.