Transmigration has loftier goals: Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): According to President Soeharto, the government's transmigration program has other, more lofty objectives than simply moving people from the crowded parts of Java and Bali to other, less populated islands.

He stressed that the transmigration program can also further promote unity between the diverse religious, racial and cultural differences in the nation.

President Soeharto talked in detail about the transmigration program as he inaugurated the first, grand rice harvest at the Tanah Miring transmigration camp near Merauke, Irian Jaya, on Saturday.

"Through transmigration, these differences become a source of strength in the national development endeavor," Soeharto said.

"It becomes like cement which forms cohesion between people with different religious, ethnic and cultural background."

First Lady Mrs. Tien Soeharto, Minister for Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo, Minister of Public Works Radinal Moochtar, Minister of Agriculture Sjarifuddin Baharsjah and Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono were among the entourage from Jakarta.

"In the next decades, we will be witnessing a united society and new generations who will grow up in an era of heterogeneity," Soeharto said.

The transmigration program is intended to stimulate development in the targeted areas, redistribute the population, and improve the welfare of the settlers as well as the local people, he said.

Irian Jaya, Indonesia's easternmost province, is a perfect location for the government's transmigration program simply by virtue of its size which. at 400,000 square kilometers, makes it is nearly four times larger than Java. It also has a small population -- a mere two million compared to the 160 million in Java.

The Irian population already includes 190,000 transmigrants from Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara. And a lot more are coming in the next few years.

Rich

Soeharto noted that Irian Jaya is rich in natural resources but it does not have the skilled, human resources to be able to tap them effectively.

"The natural resources will remain idle if they are not exploited," the president said.

It is no coincidence that many villages in the province remain in abject poverty, he said. "Transmigration can help take these villages out of backwardness, poverty and illiteracy," he said.

For Soeharto, the trip to Irian Jaya also had personal, nostalgic significance. This is because it was almost twenty one years ago to the day that Indonesia successfully captured the province from the hands of the Dutch, putting an end to all Dutch colonial interests in this part of the world.

It was Soeharto himself who headed the military operation.

The President, accompanied by Irian Jaya Governor Jacob Patippi, also inaugurated a 335 kilometer road project connecting Merauke in the south with Tanah Merah and Waropko in the hinterland.

The road was part of the planned trans-Irian highway linking Merauke with the provincial capital of Jayapura in the north.

"The road will open isolated, remote areas in Irian Jaya," Soeharto said. (rms)