Indigenous peoples tell of their misery

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.