Laman fights for communal land

Laman fights for communal land

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru Riau

Talang Mamak is one of the tribes living in isolation in the Riau
jungle. The tribespeople lead a modest life without formal
leaders. The tribal chief holds a traditional position handed
down from one generation to another.

Known as a hinterland tribe, the Talang Mamak now number only
about 6,000 and depend for their lives on the natural resources
found in the Bukit Tigapuluh National Forest Park in Riau's
Indragiri Hulu regency.

Deep in the forest, there is one person whom these people
respect and obey. Simple in appearance and proud of his
ancestors' traditions, Patih Laman, an 80-year-old man of small
build and with shoulder-length gray hair, is the leader of the
Talang Mamak people.

"Patih", a position equal to that of a deputy regent in modern
Indonesian society, is the highest position among the Talang
Mamak people. Patih Laman, the 62nd person in his family line to
assume this position, ascended to the chieftainship when he was
15.

Laman has devoted all his life to his people in Durian Cacar
village, Kelayang district, Indragiri Hulu regency. He realizes
that the Talang Mamak people are marginalized and hardly any of
them are formally educated. Bereft of his wife only two years
ago, Laman, like virtually everybody else in his community, is
illiterate.

Nevertheless, Laman, who is a father of four, is considered a
role model for his people because he is a very responsible
person. Despite his illiteracy, he has done everything in his
power to defend the tribe's communal land and forest.

In 1973, he witnessed how in the name of development, their
ancestral land changed ownership. Meranti and other trees were
felled. About 200 hectares of their forest was denuded and
coconut palm trees were planted there instead.

The Talang Mamak used to grow sialang, trees that usually
attract honey bees. From one sialang tree, they could collect at
least 150 kg of honey. The Talang Mamak earned some money from
selling this honey. Unfortunately, there are now only 10 sialang
trees left in their forest.

"This is a great disaster for us. We rely on forest produce
for our lives," Laman told The Jakarta Post, who visited his
stilted and bark-walled house, his hand pointing to the vast
coconut palm plantation stretching far off into the distance in
front of his home.

As the years went by, and again in the name of economic
development, their ancestral land became an easy target for PT
Perkebunan Nusantara IV, a state-owned estate company determined
to convert the forest land into a plantation. Finding this
intolerable, Laman mobilized his people to resist the plan.

Under Laman, the Talang Mamak have been putting up strong
resistance and are always ready to shed their blood to save their
forest. They had to admit defeat, however, during the repressive
New Order regime of Soeharto.

"Our communal forest sustained repeated destruction. The New
Order destroyed the pillars of our lives," he said, dragging
deeply on his clove-flavored cigarette. "Our forest has been
destroyed."

He said that the Talang Mamak actually possessed some 100,000
hectares of communal land in the 128,000-hectare national park.
Today, only 12,000 hectares are left as the rest has been
converted into transmigration sites, timber estates controlled by
forest concessionaires, and coconut palm plantations.

"If we had not put up a fight, there would be nothing left of
our land," he said sadly.

It is only natural that Laman has never stopped making efforts
to save the Talang Mamak's forest, an area rich not only in
meranti and ramin trees, from which quite expensive timber is
obtained, but also with other rare flora and fauna.

There are at least 192 species of rare bird, 59 species of
mammal, including tigers and Malayan tapirs, and 660 species of
plant, among which are Rafflesia arnoldi, a kind of fungus
locally known as the muka rimau fungus, Igunura sp, locally known
as mapau kalui and Johannestejsmania altifrons, locally called
salo.

Realizing that the use of force would be useless in defending
their forest, Laman tried to establish social and political
relations with the local bureaucracy, hoping that they would
support the Talang Mamak's effort to fight oppression and resist
attempts to rob them of their ancestral rights to their communal
land. On one occasion, Laman even walked 40 kilometer just to see
people from the local district administration.

He began his struggle at the district level and then went
higher to the regency level, and finally brought the case to the
attention of the governor of Riau. Unfortunately, all his
protests fell on deaf ears. His efforts brought him bad luck as
one day he was accused of being a communist, a label slapped on
him after he took some of his people to stage a protest rally at
the offices of the Riau governor in the 1990s.

What did Laman, who has now got 16 grandchildren and 4 great
grandchildren, say about this accusation of being a Communist?

"I'm illiterate and know nothing about Communism. As you
accuse me of being a member of the Indonesian Communist Party
(PKI), and say that the PKI is all about, then you, Mr Governor,
must be a PKI member also," he told Soeripto, the then Riau
governor. Soeripto said nothing.

As part of his indefatigable efforts to defend the 12,000
hectares of communal land left to his people, Laman, with the
help of some environmental non-governmental organizations, met
the House Speaker and the chairman of the National Commission on
Human Rights in Jakarta. His unceasing efforts bore fruit as
President Soeharto issued a decree handing over the 12,000
hectares of forest to the Talang Mamak. Now that they have this
decree, any attempt to take over the land has been and will be
foiled.

Laman recalled his experiences during the time of Indonesia's
first president, Sukarno. In the old days, Siak, the largest
sultanate in the Malay Peninsula, with its seat in Riau's Siak
regency, supported Indonesia's proclamation of independence, and
the Talang Mamak people were assured that they were fully
entitled to their forest.

"When Pak Karno (President Sukarno) was president, not even
one inch of our land was seized. We even got back the land once
controlled by the Dutch. After Pak Karno was replaced, we lost
nearly all our land. We don't have enough land today as our
population is growing," he explained.

Thanks to his insistent and tireless struggle, Laman was
awarded a citation from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
International for Conservation in November 1999 in recognition of
his great efforts in defending his people's communal rights and
land.

Ironically, it was only shortly before his departure to
Malaysia to receive the citation that Laman obtained his local
identity card.

"If I had not had to go to Malaysia, I would still be without
this identity card," he said smiling. Possession of an identity
card is a prerequisite for applying for a passport.

Laman has not yet reached the end of his struggle, though. He
is fighting to get the Indragiri Hulu regency administration to
issue a regional regulation confirming the Talang Mamak's rights
over their communal land. This effort should bear fruit soon. In
April this year, Indragiri Hulu regent, Raja Tamhsir Rachman,
drafted a regional regulation to protect the Talang Mamak'
communal land.

"This regional regulation will entitle each Talang Mamak group
to a plot of land measuring 600 hectares and this land is
entirely theirs. We are grateful to the regent for the great
attention he has paid to us. Still, I will push further for the
allotments to be increased. We now have more children and
grandchildren, you see," said Laman.