Transmigrants lose their chance to earn a living

Bonifasius Gunung, Indonesian Advocacy Service for Justice and Peace (PADMA), Jakarta

Transmigration, a program that promotes public welfare, has come back into the spotlight. In Sintang, West Kalimantan, 3,500 families of farmers participating in the transmigration-related nucleus estates and smallholders project (PIR-Trans) in various settlement units in West Kalimantan, have been plagued with poverty and a great deal of suffering from errors committed by the government and the nucleus company in charge of implementing the transmigration.

The farming communities initially believed that the government and relevant agencies in the transmigration scheme had spent time considering, planning and preparing all the facilities promised. But when the participants arrived at the project locations, the promised facilities of a house on a 0.5-hectare plot and a two- hectare estate with oil palms were not there.

The government's insensitive, inconsistent, arrogant and discriminative attitude in law enforcement has caused scarce job opportunities, a high mortality rate among infants and pregnant women, infant malnutrition, a high dropout rate among high school students and child labor, and the sale or exchange of children for rice -- clear indications of how the transmigrants have been left to live in absolute poverty.

It is important and urgent to address the following questions to the government: (1) Why haven't the government and all agencies concerned with the transmigration scheme taken concrete measures to settle the transmigrants' problems? (2) Why has the government appointed a nucleus company, which has shirked its responsibility and not shown any remorse?

These are only a few questions among the many that need to be raised to find out the causes behind this transmigration failure. The longer they remain unanswered, the stronger will be the public's impression that the government is not only incapable of solving the problem but is also purposely allowing them to live without an opportunity for survival. Perhaps the transmigrants' situation has created an opportunity for affluence within the government circles through corruption, collusion and nepotism.

The poverty suffered by the 3,500 transmigrant families is a direct result of the government's failure to grant them legal rights as required by the law on transmigration, therefore, the government should be held accountable for their misery. As a public instrument authorized to undertake efforts to promote the welfare of society, the government is legally bound to alleviate the transmigrants' poverty.

Therefore, it is imperative and urgent to make comprehensive and fundamental efforts to solve the transmigrants' problems. With reference to the project participants in the ninth settlement unit in Singkup, Kedawangan, fifth and ninth settlement units in Marau and Manis Mata districts, Ketapang and the second and third units in the Ketunggu Ilir district, Sintang, West Kalimantan, the urgent efforts that need to be made are the following:

o A revision of all regulations designed to implement the transmigration program. Presidential Instruction No.1/1986, for instance, cannot be effectively implemented because (a) there are too many agencies involved in the PIR-Trans program implementation, (b) there are overlapping areas of authority delegated to the agencies, (c) there is no clear boundary of coordination between the agencies, and (d) the government, in this case the agriculture minister, has no authority over its supervision or to seek the accountability of the nucleus company appointed as the government's business partner.

o A review of regulations relating to acquisition of communal property land in transmigration locations. This is important because often the new transmigrants are driven away by locals who feel they have not yet received proper compensation for the land acquired by the government for the transmigration. The potential potential for conflict between locals and newcomers must be minimized. Rational and natural assimilation should remain a priority to strengthen social stability, a main goal of transmigration.

o Stern action needs to be taken against all parties abusing authority and power. Otherwise, transmigration will pose major issues in the future and can even disrupt the nation's sociopolitical stability.

o Concrete steps should be promptly taken for the transmigrants now struggling for their rights, such as returning them to their areas of origin and giving them compensation or moving them to another resettlement area and providing them with a sufficient living allowance.

By not fulfilling its obligations, the accusations that the government has committed deception, which is a criminal offense, and a legal infringement, a civil offense, will be hard to evade.