Transmigration program to put horse in front of cart

Transmigration program to put horse in front of cart

JAKARTA (JP): The government's transmigration program will now
concentrate on building facilities at resettlement sites in order
to lure people to move.

"We'll provide the sugar, let the ants reach for it," Minister
of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo told reporters yesterday,
reciting a popular Indonesian proverbs "Where there is sugar,
there are ants."

"We will still help with moving the people but this is not the
priority," Siswono said after opening a working conference at his
ministry.

The private business sector is also expected to join in this
endeavor, he said.

The government will build the infrastructures necessary to
develop new "growth centers" outside of Java, Sumatra and Bali,
he said. By doing this, these centers should attract
entrepreneurs, investors and workers to move out of densely
populated areas, he added.

The Ministry of Transmigration will cooperate with the
Ministry of Public Works to build roads and bridges linking
isolated areas in Sulawesi, Siswono said citing an example of an
on-going project.

Many of the new resettlement areas in the future will also be
tied to the development of plantations, timber estates, fisheries
projects and even industry.

All of these will require the participation of private
companies, which will provide settlers with seedlings, jobs and
assistance in marketing their produce, he added.

There are more than 50 large-scale resettlement sites being
opened in cooperation with private companies, he said.

In the past, the government's strategy had been focused more
on recruiting and transporting people. Since the program was
targeted at the poor, including landless farmers and displaced
farm laborers, the program had earned a reputation as a
discriminatory means to get them off the populous islands.

The government however is seeking to improve the program's
image and hopes to recruit more enterprising and educated people
into the program.

Drawback

The transmigration program in the 1993/94 fiscal year, just
missed its target, sending 49,260 families to the outer islands.
The target was 50,000 families.

During the same year, the government helped resettle 6,026
families under the spontaneous transmigration program, for those
who did not depend too much on government's assistance.

One major drawback of the program until now is the poor
educational background of the transmigrants. Most have only a
primary education.

As part of the campaign to lure more people on Java and Bali
to resettle, the ministry plans to hold a seminar next week
bringing sociologists to discuss ways to make the sedentary
Javanese and Balinese more outgoing and adventurous.

Siswono yesterday also discussed with President Soeharto the
preparations for the president's visit to Irian Jaya next month
to attend the first grand rice harvest at a transmigration camp
in Merauke, Irian Jaya.

Irian Jaya, a thinly populated province in eastern Indonesia,
is one of the major targets of the transmigration program.

This year, it is expected to take in 8,000 families. (prs)