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.