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)