Siberut Island likely to have settlement areas

Siberut Island likely to have settlement areas

JAKARTA (JP): The government said yesterday it is planning to resume its program to open up new settlement areas on Siberut Island off West Sumatra, in an effort to bring the largely backward island into the modern civilization fold.

The project was shelved in the 1980s because of strong objections from environmental groups who were concerned about the impact that the presence of settlers might have on the islanders.

Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo told reporters after meeting with President Soeharto that recent studies found that these concerns were unfounded and that keeping the island isolated meant keeping them in a state of backwardness.

"Siberut Island is even more backward than most areas in eastern Indonesia, with inhabitants still living very much in a by gone era. Obviously, we cannot leave them in that state," he said.

The President, while agreeing to revive the plan to send settlers to Siberut, one of the Mentawai Islands in the Indian Ocean, underlined the need to pay heed to the environmental aspects of the program, he added.

The government's transmigration program is aimed at a more even distribution of Indonesia's 195 million population, two thirds of whom now live on Java and Bali.

Siswono said he was hopeful that the government would come close to its target of resettling 77,000 families in its transmigration program in the 1995/96 fiscal year, which ends on March 31.

So far, nearly 53,000 families have been resettled, and the government hopes to be able to resettle another 23,000 in the next month and a half, he said.

For the 1996/97 fiscal year, the government has set a target of 91,000 families, comprising 55,000 families who would be fully sponsored by the government, and 36,000 "self-sponsored" families who will receive limited government assistance.

Irian Jaya, Indonesia's easternmost and least populated province, will receive the bulk of them, with around 8,000 families.

The government's optimism was supported by the growing trend that more and more people are motivated to join the transmigration program without waiting for government hand outs.

Siswono said many of these "self-sponsored" transmigrants were relatives and friends of earlier settlers. There were also the offspring of earlier settlers who have grown up and decided to move to new settlement areas.

Siswono's statement contrasts with many earlier media reports suggesting that many settlers had given up hope altogether, sold their land and returned to home villages in Java.

Self-sponsored transmigrants still receive two hectares of land from the government, but they have to cover other costs, such as clearing the land and building houses, by themselves.

This year's settlers include a sizable number of poor people, landless farmers and forest squatters, the minister said.

Siswono also disclosed a program to encourage settlers to diversify into horticulture crops, besides planting traditional food crops like rice.

For this program, the ministry has set aside Rp 12 billion ($5.2 million) to provide the high yielding seeds of various crops such as ground nuts, and various fruit and vegetables.

He said that with such seeds, there is no reason for Indonesia to resort to importing fruit which is now flooding markets in major cities.

He added that the ultimate goal of this program is for these settlement areas to export their produce.

The program will be introduced at selected transmigration sites to avoid disrupting food production and therefore farmers' incomes. "Only transmigration areas that are well established and prosperous will be selected," he said. (emb)