While global attention is riveted to the ousting of Suharto, there is a crime that continues in Indonesia and its neighboring countries, no matter who is in power. That crime is the destruction of a traditional way of life and the erosion of an ecosystem.
Spouting the usual rhetoric about improving lives and providing greater prosperity for all, logging and mining interests are displacing one of the oldest indigenous cultures in the world. Dayak people are being pushed aside to ensure the unchecked expansion of palm tree plantations, gold mines and large-scale deforestation in Kalimantan (formerly known as Borneo), their traditional home. The highlands of Kalimantan are believed to be covered by some of the oldest rainforests in the world.
The Dayaks' lives are complicated by the fact that their territory is ruled by three nations - Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam. The Dayak people themselves are composed of 37 different groups. Though not a pacifist society (they were historically described as headhunters), they were able to live in relative harmony with the world around them until fairly recently.
This culture was largely able to continue its traditional way of life through the 1960s. Dayak life is centered around communal long houses. Several long houses clustered together make up a village. They practice shifting agriculture, moving from place to place as soil becomes depleted, thus permitting the forest to renew itself. This traditional practice is disharmonious with logging interests.
In 1966, with the coming to power of Suharto's New Order government, the first large-scale logging began. Since then, there has been grave deforestation accompanied by massive destruction of the villages and culture of the Dayaks. Some reports indicate that half of the forests have been logged, with six million hectares so badly damaged they are no longer productive.
The Dayaks have been forced out of the forests by logging. In some cases there have been resettlement efforts, but often they have simply been driven away from their homes. Oil palm plantation owners work closely with government officials. They force Dayaks into surrendering their existing land claims in order to move the people into permanent settlements, offering jobs on the plantations as an alternative to hunting, gathering and traditional agricultural practices. Resistance to these efforts has, at best, only slowed logging for short periods of time.
As though the logging isn't bad enough, mining companies want the large mineral deposits, including gold, copper, coal and iron, in the hills and mountains of Kalimantan. Mining companies from Australia and Canada are engaged in wide-scale exploitation of the mineral resources of Borneo, much of it on land formerly occupied by the Dayaks. The best known of the mining interests is Rio Tinto, but others such as Properties Kalimantan Gold Corporation are also actively mining in Dayak territory. As well as displacing people, these mining efforts destroy vast tracts of land. Rio Tinto and the Indonesian-based Jarita Jayaraya have admitted that over three-quarters of 1,200 hectares of cleared land for one jointly owned mine cannot be rehabilitated due to heavy metal contamination.
A final threat is the forced relocation of settlers into now-deforested Dayak territory. This has created the first widespread settlements in areas previously unoccupied by permanent populations. The Dayaks, with their tradition of shifting agriculture, lived in close harmony to an ecosystem now facing urbanization, chemical-dependent agriculture, tree plantations of exotic species, logging and mining. The newcomers are from a different religious, cultural and linguistic backgrounds than the Dayaks, perpetuating the ongoing cultural genocide.
Resistance by the Dayaks and their supporters is often severely countered. It is also virtually ignored by the Western media. As Alex Ryan, from the Sydney, Australia-based Rainforest Action Group said in an interview, "The Dayaks have been blockading for over 15 years - it only came to public attention when [Swiss environmentalist Bruno] Manser got involved. The voices of the Dayak, who comprise 44 percent of the Sarawak [a state of Malaysia found on the island of Kalimantan] population, are not heard."
Participants in blockades have been jailed, fined, beaten and shot, with at least one killed. Protests have included creative efforts, including an attempt by three Dayak people to patent a claim on the home of Rio Tinto's executive director to develop rice paddies and fish farms.
In an effort to draw attention to their struggles, representatives of the Dayaks toured Australia in February of this year, focusing their talks on Rio Tinto's mines and their personal experiences dealing with the oppressive regime working hand in hand with the mining and timber interests.
Daniel Paras, one of the Dayak representatives, and his family were driven out of their home by the Mobile Brigade, a special troop of heavily armed police, when the Paras refused to be forcibly resettled. Similar reports abound.
The funds to build the infrastructure for mining and forestry come from such global institutions as the World Bank, which loaned $50 million to fund roads to transport logs from the last remaining primary rainforest in Sarawak.
While receiving these funds and moving into indigenous lands, the corporations involved try to sound like good corporate citizens by claiming to provide the education and opportunity for traditional peoples to become part of the dominant economic system. For example, Kalimantan Gold Corporation claims, "The company is committed to social development and protection of the environment. A number of initiatives have been established to provide training and education for villagers. These include a training program to teach local Dayaks drilling and exploration skills, a scholarship program for village children, a village development program and a nursery for the collection and research of the endangered Garuh tree. The company is also co-sponsoring a Participatory Rural Assessment program in the villages near the... work area. This program is designed to assist villagers in identifying the types of projects and activities that could be implemented for village development."
Effective solidarity actions are hampered by a lack of direct contacts with the Dayaks. However, Down to Earth and the Borneo Resources Institute are two good sources of information on the Dayaks and their struggles, as well as for ideas for action. Consult these groups before considering a solidarity action. Efforts like the 1991 occupation of a Malaysian tourist office to draw attention to the struggles of the Dayaks are effective when linked to the most current needs for action.
For more info, contact Down to Earth, 59 Athenlay Road, London SE15 3EN, England; dte@gn.apc.org. Borneo Resources Institute, GOP LB 23 - BN 354, 98009, Miri, Sarawak Malaysia; bri@tm.net.my.