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)