Transmigration and its failures

Transmigration and its failures

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo yesterday blamed planning blunders for the failure of many transmigration projects.

"These failures are usually caused by errors made by the designing consultants and officials," he said. Officials often appoint the wrong consultant and fail to control or supervise the transmigration program properly, he added.

Opening of a two-day workshop on improving the design of transmigration sites, Siswono said the government's resettlement program does not always meet expectations.

He said that isolated locations with a lack of access roads were often chosen a sites. There were also cases where the land was extremely barren, or the land overlapped mining concessions or encroached on the property of local tribes.

The minister noted that poor coordination between government agencies, errors in design details and input as well as inadequate supervision had caused some of the failures.

Siswono said the mistakes were "understandable".

"The blunders were not deliberate. We should understand that the areas outside Java -- which, for instance, are very mountainous and swampy in places -- are very different. Therefore, what is planned in Java, does not always coincide with the reality in these areas and mistakes occur," he said.

Siswono said that the government has earmarked more than Rp 1.1 trillion (US$500 million) for transmigration for the fiscal year starting in April. This includes the restoration of 56 transmigration sites which are now facing troubles, he said.

Siswono encouraged workshop participants to find a better method of clearing land than burning.

"I am sure there is a way the wood can be decomposed into some kind of fertilizer," he said.

Last year, huge fires destroyed large forests in Kalimantan and Sumatra, causing a haze which disturbed neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.

Poor people living on Java, Madura, Bali and Lombok are given priority in the transmigration program. According to government statistics, almost 12 million people have been moved so far.

Most of the people are tenant farmers, fishermen, unemployed people, drop-outs, unskilled workers and semi-nomad farmers.

The average population density on the island of Java is 840 people per square kilometer. (pwn)