Residents living in forest stirs dilemma
Hasrul, The Jakarta Post, Kendari
La Abo's rest was disturbed by the presence of a number of officials from the Southeast Sulawesi provincial administration at the location where he lives last Thursday.
The middle-aged man suspiciously gazed at them one by one.
His seemed inhibited when answering questions about residents' land ownership titles posed by the officials, and was annoyed and emotional by some accusatory questions aimed at him.
Residents were stunned when La Abo shouted at the officials who were accompanied by a team from the Ministry of Environment.
"We won't leave before the government replaces our land," he shouted.
The man who has been living in the Murhum forest preserve since 2000 said that the government only knew how to evict people without providing any solutions.
"We are humans too, and we have the right to live in this country," he lamented.
It was somewhat natural for La Abo to be frustrated because he and the other residents had not been recognized by the government. They have not been provided with identity cards because they are regarded as illegitimate residents by the local administration.
He said that the Punggaloba village chief, Mukadas, had not accommodated residents of Kampung Baru. "He (Mukadas) said that it was on the instruction of the mayor," said La Abo.
La Abo has been entrusted by residents as the secretary of Kampung Baru. He said that he and the residents had been living there since 2000. There were only 30 families living there at the beginning, and had now increased to 98 families. The families lived in the 50 hectares areas, used to be forest area.
Together they cleared land for residence and built an access road from funds collected on a self-supporting basis.
The name Kampung Baru was based on mutual agreement. There is no neighborhood or community unit, and day to day administration is run together through deliberation.
Residents' houses are made of wood. The distance between each house is about 20 meters. At least 100 houses have been built. There is no electricity, and clean water stems from a spring channeled to homes through pipes.
Abo said that the local administration had never forced them to leave the area, but on the other hand, the Southeast Sulawesi Forestry Office had come in 2000 not to expel them but to request them to replant surrounding areas.
"We were provided with long-term tree seedlings," said Abo.
Abo hopes that the government recognizes them as official residents.
However, his wish will not be granted by the government willingly especially when the Murhum forest is a protected area.
The government deemed that their presence in the area would be a threat to the lives of Kendari city residents living on the foot of the Murhum forest preserve.
"Imagine that in 10 years time city residents will panic when water debits begin to decrease and floods will loom any minute," said head of the Southeast Sulawesi chapter Provincial Environment Impact Management Agency (Bapedalda), La Ode Zakariah.
According to him, impacts may not be noticed now, but signs have already been seen. "Water shortage and decreasing quality of water in Benubenua area have been noticed in the past two years, and erosion and floods are imminent," he said, adding that the residents had to leave the area.
The Murhum forest preserve is not virgin anymore. Human hands have tampered with it. Land clearance in the area from 1998 to 1999 has created a myriad of problems, whereas the 7,877.5- hectare forest is expected to become the buffer area for Kendari.
The Murhum forest preserve should be protected for the sake of the lives of people in Kendari. But on the other hand, the government cannot simply dismiss people who had been living there like animals.
Like what director of the Coastal and Outlying People Empowerment Agency (Lepmil), Rustanto said, "This is dilemmatic."