People's Forum opens acrimoniously
People's Forum opens acrimoniously
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
Despite internal friction, the Indonesian People's Forum (IPF) opened with a colorful series of activities on Sunday, including a traditional music festival, children's drawing competition and a bicycle rally.
The event, organized by a coalition of non-governmental organizations, is intended to serve as a forum for civil society groups to express their views and expectations regarding the coming UN ministerial meeting on sustainable development.
"This is the place where people can express themselves freely and convey their messages to the delegations that are talking about the world's future," I Gusti Ngurah Karyadi of the IPF organizing committee said on Sunday.
The people's forum is a fringe event of the fourth preparatory committee meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) currently underway in Nusa Dua, Bali.
NGOs, and eight other civil society groups, including farmers, indigenous people and businesses, have been involved in the multi-dialog meetings with government delegations currently negotiating at the preparatory committee meeting.
Since early in the morning, Balinese Bleganjur music groups from five regencies paraded around the Nusa Dua resort in their traditional customs giving tourists a wonderful glimpse of the island's traditions.
The music groups from Tabanan, Karang Asem, Gianyar, Singaraja and Bangli regencies performed their music in different areas of the resort before heading to the Amphitheatre in Nusa Dua, where the opening of the Indonesian People's Forum took place.
Many tourists and foreign delegation members stood on the roadsides waiting for a chance to get photos of the traditional music groups.
Just as the Bleganjur groups were walking down the road playing their music, hundreds of people on their old-style bicycles entered Nusa Dua after completing a 15-kilometer ride from Sanur to join the forum's opening ceremony in the Amphitheater.
Meanwhile, at the beach near the Amphitheater, dozens of children assembled to participate in a drawing competition titled "The earth of my dream".
The lively events were, however, tainted by the obvious conflict among members of the coalition of non-governmental organizations.
The conflict started when dozens of NGO activists rallied to urge the boycotting of the preparatory committee meeting. They distributed leaflets calling on fellow activists to boycott the UN event.
The organizing committee of the Indonesian People's Forum appeared stunned by the leaflets, with dozens of NGOs mentioned as endorsing the boycott.
IPF chief coordinator Emmy Hafild, who is also the executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), was seen crying and discussing the matter with Urban Poor Consortium executive director Wardah Hafidz as they had both been unaware of the existence of the leaflets.
The incident halted the IPF's activities inside the Amphitheater.
Following the incident, however, IPF coordinator Dewi Suryalaga said: "There is a lot of friction inside the NGOs, but we will let the dissenting opinions be aired and we will continue to participate in scheduled IPF events."
Other events continued after the organizing committee managed to persuade the group of people calling for the UN meeting to be boycotted to tone down their demands.