SBY's 1.8 million hectare disaster?

We all remember Soeharto's disastrous 1 million hectare sawah (rice field) project in Central Kalimantan, the consequences of which still affect the province.

Will President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) attach his name to an even bigger ecological, sociological, climatic and financial disaster and scandal with the 1.8 million hectare palm oil plantations project in the center of Kalimantan?

Agricultural experts knew that rice could not grow in the peat swamps of the 1 million hectare Soeharto project; now the Bogor experts warn that, besides all the disastrous effects on the physical and human environment of the project, the fact is that the area designated is not suitable for sawit palm. Then what? Another sawit scheme,-- allowing the logging and total deforestation of 1.8 million hectares of rain forest, comprising two national parks, for the benefit of some mainland China companies -- and then goodbye?

It would not be the first time such a scheme would be carried out but certainly the most gigantic so far. This would undoubtedly discredit this reform President, his forestry and agricultural ministries, two governors and a number of regents.

All my wishes go out to the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) and the Dayak organizations in their efforts to prevent this tsunami of greed.

RASHID CARRI Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan