Indigenous peoples tell of their misery

By Rita A. Widiadana

JAKARTA (JP): L.B. Dinggit, chief of the Dayak Bentian tribe in East Kalimantan, was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in San Francisco in 1997.

But no government recognition was forthcoming. Then East Kalimantan governor H.M. Ardans refused to acknowledge the international accolade for Dinggit's preservation of forested areas in his homeland.

Instead of sending a congratulatory message, the government took Dinggit to court for allegedly forging a list of signatures.

He was also charged with criminal offenses and sentenced to six years in prison.

Was he guilty of the crimes?

"I was defending my people's land and natural resources which have been exploited by the Indonesian government for commercial purposes," Dinggit said in his defense.

His story, told during the first congress of indigenous peoples in Jakarta in March, began in 1982 when PT Kalhod Utama was awarded a forest concession to manage about 1,400 square kilometers in Bentian Solai, home to the Dayak Bentian for about 1,300 years.

The tribe's once sacred territory has been transformed into prosperous industrial forests by PT Kalhod and several other companies.

"For us, the forest is everything. As the chief, I was responsible to protect my ancestors' property and the existence of my people," said Dinggit. He was exonerated in 1998.

Noer Fauzi, chairman of the Agrarian Reform Consortium, explained that virtually unrestricted access to forests occupied by indigenous tribes all over the country led to a free-for-all land grab in which the government-made laws reigned supreme.

The government, he said, considered forests significant mainly for their potential contribution to economic growth and national security. In contrast, tribal communities emphasized the importance of forests to provide secure livelihoods for their people and maintain sustainability.

"For this purpose, forested areas have been treated by the state as open access resources during nearly three decades," said Fauzi.

He described conflicts as frequent and often deadly. Even when indigenous groups, with the help of allies such as religious institutions and environmental non-governmental organizations, were able to take legal action, it was usually ineffective. Their position was further undermined by laws, he added.

"The dispute between the Dayak Bentian and the government symbolized the hegemony of the state laws over traditional community laws," he noted.

The case is but one of countless problems faced by indigenous or tribal peoples across the country's 27 provinces.

Millions of indigenous people occupy ancestral territories on Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi, West and East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, Irian Jaya and many other smaller islands.

Yet most of them are now destitute, lacking the right to voice their aspirations and properly manage their own property and natural resources.

Soetandyo Wignyosoebroto, a noted sociologist from Airlangga University in Surabaya and member of the National Commission on Human Rights, explained that political connections, economic power, bribes and sheer physical force determined the outcome of countless land disputes and other protests.

Rights of indigenous populations to their land and culture are recognized in the Constitutions as well as in several laws, such as the village administrative law No.5/1979 and law on mining.

In practice, however, no legal instruments were made in favor of the powerless native people.

For them, their region's lands, minerals and forests have been regarded by the state as belonging to whoever could muster the capital, labor and political patronage to exploit them and shield them from others.

Conference delegates said the government's intrusion into the lives of indigenous peoples spanned encroachment on their land for projects such as logging, mining, industrial zones, agribusiness and tourism development.

The government has structurally and systematically crippled their social, cultural, economic and political rights manifested in its development programs, delegates said.

Matea Mamoyau, a respected member of the Komoro tribe in Irian Jaya, said her people were always forced to channel their aspirations to the ruling Golkar during the New Order regime.

"They (Golkar leaders) kept making false promises to improve our living conditions which were always dismaying," she recalled.

There were no jobs, adequate schools and health facilities as Golkar promised to give them to these people.

The community's female members were required to take part in the government-sponsored family planning programs.

"We were like cattle herded to the local health centers. There, the doctors and nurses forced us to use IUDs, implants or swallow pills," Mamoyau said.

They said compulsory family planning programs occurred even in communities where women were dominant in cultural life or where traditional contraception was common.

Anchi Manate Sin Laelue of Kata Daek tribe in East Nusa Tenggara said her people used traditional birth control which yielded no side effects.

"In addition, the female members in our community were deprived of the rights. We don't have the right to sit among the chiefs to voice our needs," she said.