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| Indigenous Tribes Call for Land Law At 4th Congress Indigenous peoples began their fourth congress in Tobelo, North Maluku on Thursday. JG Photo/Philip Jacobson & Daniel Pye |
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Tobelo,
North Maluku. Under a blue sky on Thursday, thousands of indigenous people from
across the country marched around the town of Tobelo in northern Halmahera.
Local
residents and reporters lined the route, snapping photos of the parade that
marked the start of the fourth congress of the Alliance of Indigenous Peoples
of the Archipelago (AMAN).
This year’s
congress, which runs until Wednesday, has come a long way from when it was
first held 13 years ago in Jakarta.
For the
first time, lawmakers and government officials are involved, with House of
Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie and Tourism and Creative Economy Minister
Mari Elka Pangestu among participants.
“We do not
look at the government as the enemy. We see them as a potential partner,” said
Patricia Wattimena, AMAN’s officer on advocacy and Asean affairs.
It was a sentiment
echoed by the event’s keynote speaker, Noer Fauzi Rachman, the head of the
agrarian studies department at Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), albeit with
a harsher bent.
“The state
is the source of the problems, but it can also solve the problems,” he said.
Fauzi, who
wrote his dissertation on land reform and rural social movements in Indonesia
for the University of California, Berkeley, said indigenous people felt as if
they were being “sacrificed by the state.”
He said
government lines such as “land acquisition for development” meant nothing as
long as indigenous people were excluded from the political process.
“They need
genuine participation and representation in the political process,” he said.
Highlighting
the thrust toward working with the government, AMAN, which was formed during
the first congress in 1999 and is now Indonesia’s largest indigenous peoples
organization, presented the government with a draft bill that would change how
they are seen under law.
If passed
into law, the bill would give indigenous people the right to free, prior and
informed consent, allowing them to withhold consent and effectively veto
initiatives such as mining projects or a plantation concession that might
affect their land and disrupt their way of life.
Henry
Saragih, head of the Indonesian Farmers Union (SPI), compared the situation to
colonialism and called for more indigenous people in the House.
“Indigenous
people are in crisis. We did the water ritual, but most indigenous people don’t
have sovereignty over their own water,” he said, referring to the ceremony that
served as the climax of the parade. Community representatives poured water they
had brought into a large fountain to symbolize unity.
Mari later
told participants that the knowledge of indigenous peoples — sustainable
fishing techniques, for example — could be harnessed to “add value to
resources” and create a high-value local economy.
“This can
be a new strength for Indonesia so that indigenous people can not only prosper
but be happy,” she said.
But Fauzi
responded by telling Mari that indigenous peoples’ rights to their land must be
clearly stated in law, and he urged the acceptance of the draft law.
Lisga
Klisye, from Ambon, Maluku, said he had seen too many people displaced by
forestry, mining and plantation interests to take Mari at face value.
“We still
don’t trust the government,” he said, speaking through a greying beard hanging
off his chin. “Not yet.”
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