Siswono says transmigration is voluntary

Siswono says transmigration is voluntary

JAKARTA (JP): The government yesterday denied allegations that
coercion is used in its drive to redistribute Indonesia's
population more evenly across the archipelago.

Minister of Transmigration and Forest Squatters Resettlement
Siswono Yudohusodo in his speech opening an international
congress on population resettlement, also stressed that the
government's transmigration program conserves nature, rather than
destroys it as is often alleged.

Siswono attributed these allegations to the lack of publicity
about the transmigration program Indonesia has been conducting.

The three-day seminar, which looks at the links between
resettlement and poverty alleviation efforts and is being
attended by around 200 people from 18 foreign countries, was
opened by President Soeharto at the State Palace.

Siswono said no one had been coerced into moving to other
islands. "Transmigration in Indonesia is voluntary, meaning that
people have freely participated in the program to improve their
situation," he said.

He pointed out that almost 95 percent of the people resettled
under the program have significantly improved their income.

Under the program that began in 1952, the government has
resettled 7.2 million people from the densely-populated islands
of Java, Bali and Lombok to sparsely-populated areas in Sumatra,
Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Irian Jaya.

"A majority of those resettled were poor families and had no
land to till," he said.

Transmigration is also helping to conserve Indonesia's huge
tropical rainforest, "the earth's lungs," by moving forest
squatters into permanent settlements outside forests, he said.

He also pointed out that some of the transmigration programs
are combined with the development of forestry estates near their
new homes.

A number of foreign delegations told The Jakarta Post that
their governments are also banking on resettlement programs to
spread their population and improve peoples' welfare.

Namibian Minister of Resettlement and Land Rehabilitation
Richard Kapelwa Kabadjan said that transmigrants in his country
are given four to seven hectares of land for agriculture,
plantations and fish ponds.

Sri Lankan Minister of Housing Construction and Public
Utilities Nimal Siripala De Silva said 58 percent of Sri Lanka's
population live in wetland which constitutes only a third of the
country's size while the two-thirds of dry land was sparsely
populated.

Deputy Chief of the Bangladesh Planning and Development Agency
Gopal Chandra Sen said his country is relocating people living in
slums in urban and rural areas.

"People who have only 0.5 hectares of land and consume only
around 2,100 calories every day are classified as poor and
encouraged to participate in the program," he said. (rms)