All Discussions Tagged 'West' - The 4 Freedoms Library2024-03-29T14:14:33Zhttp://4freedoms.com/group/indonesia/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=West&feed=yes&xn_auth=noWest Papua Transmigration Program (Islamization)tag:4freedoms.com,2010-02-11:3766518:Topic:173592010-02-11T07:36:41.000Zshivahttp://4freedoms.com/profile/shiva
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<div><p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">The <b>transmigration…</b></span></span></p>
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<div><p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">The <b>transmigration program</b> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; color: rgb(94, 94, 94);">(Indonesian: Transmigrasi) was an initiative of the Indonesian government to move landless people from densely populated areas of Indonesia to less populous areas of the country. This involved moving people permanently from the island of Java (moslem) but also to a lesser extent from Madura (moslem) to less densely populated non moslem areas including Papua, Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Sulawesi.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"> The stated purpose of this program was to reduce the considerable poverty and overpopulation on Java, to provide opportunities for hard-working poor people, and to provide a workforce to better utilize (pillage) the natural resources of the outer islands. </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"> The program, however, has been controversial with critics accusing the Indonesian government of trying to use these migrants to reduce the proportion of native populations in receiving areas, thus weakening separatist movements. The program has often been cited as a major and ongoing factor in controversies and even conflict and violence between settlers and indigenous populations.</p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">The policy was first initiated by the Dutch colonial government in the early nineteenth century to reduce crowding and to provide a workforce for plantations on Sumatra.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"> The program diminished during the last years of the Dutch era, but was revived following Indonesian independence, in an attempt to alleviate the food shortages and weak economic performance during Sukarno's presidency in the two decades following WW2.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Since the 1990s, violent conflict has occurred between some transmigrant (Moslem) and indigenous populations(non moslem); in Kalimantan, hundreds were killed in fighting between Madurese (moslem) transmigrants and the indigenous Dayak people(non moslem).</p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Indonesia's transmigration program was the target of extensive opposition, particularly from within indigenous populations in the regions where transmigrants were settled. Some foreign and domestic observers have also criticized the program's intentions and implementation.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Many indigenous people saw the program as a part of an effort by the Java-based Indonesian Government to extend greater economic and political control over other regions, by moving in people with closer ties to Java and loyalty to the Indonesian state. This was particularly resented amongst some in areas such as Papua, which had an active secessionist movement. The government agencies responsible for administering transmigration were often accused of being insensitive to local customary or adat land rights.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Transmigration has also been blamed for accelerating the deforestation of sensitive rainforest areas, as formerly sparsely-populated areas experienced great increases in population. Migrants were often moved to entirely new "transmigration villages," constructed in regions that had been relatively unimpacted by human activity. By settling on this land, natural resources were used up and the lands became overgrazed, resulting in deforestation.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">In many examples, the program also failed in its objective to improve the situation of the migrants. The soil and climate of their new locations were generally not nearly as productive as the volcanic soil of Java and Bali. The settlers were often landless people lacking in farming skills, let alone skills appropriate to the new land, thus compromising their own chances of success.[1] Despite major government spending, which in some years was equivalent to thirty or forty percent of the entire government budget for some outer islands, necessary investments in transportation, water, and education were lacking</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">This has also resulted in communal (anti moslem) clashes between the indigenous population and the transmigrants. For example, in 2001 the indigenous Dayaks and the transmigrant Madurese clashed during the Sampit conflict resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of Madurese being displaced.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><b>Under the cloak of transmigration, islam has made the largest invasions in modern history </b></p>
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