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.