Desy Nurhayati, Denpasar – Activists on Monday criticized the ongoing APEC Summit as a way for developed countries to imperialize and exploit Indonesia's natural resources.
The Indonesian People's Alliance (IPA) and the Alliance of Students Against APEC advocated their slogans "fighting the global cooperation program that is against people's interests" and "fostering fair trade for the sake of the people".
They blamed the government's MP3EI (Masterplan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development) for causing massive land conversion that deprived farmers of their rights, and massive exploitation of natural resources by investors.
Jhonny Nugros, IPA representative, criticized the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) policy, saying it had threatened farmers. "Under the SEZ scheme, the government has the right to take over people's land to be managed by state-owned enterprises and private companies. This is not fair."
"The expansion of large plantations and mining areas has been oriented to exports, for the sake of imperialism. In fact, it has deprived poor people of their livelihoods," he said, adding that that kind of development perspective did not represent people's interests at all.
Dewa Angga, representative of the Alliance of Students Against APEC, said that the alliance aimed to advocate "a different perspective of development that is in favor of people, not investors".
"This movement is to educate people, to make them aware and criticize what is behind the APEC agenda, what are the political deals, the trade agreements, and whether they would have direct positive impact for the people, while there are thousands or even millions of farmers and laborers that had been badly affected by 'the liberalization of investment'," said the president of the Udayana University executive body.
Indonesia holds the rotating summit chairmanship of the Asia-Pacific bloc, which accounts for about 55 percent of the world's gross domestic product and some 44 percent of global trade.
At least 11 leaders have confirmed their attendance for the summit, including US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. As many as 7,000 delegates are expected to attend the summit, including hundreds of CEOs of global corporations. The event will get coverage from some 3,000 journalists.
The APEC Summit this year prioritizes three objectives: attaining the Bogor goals of maintaining momentum for trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, achieving sustainable growth with equity, and promoting connectivity.
Sindhu Andre, from the Alliance of Students Against APEC, said that the alliance called on the leaders to design and implement policies based on the real conditions and needs of the people, and not for the sake of the investors' interests and building political image.
Despite their harsh criticisms, the activists assured that they would not hold anarchic protests, saying their movement would mostly be conducted through discussion forums. On Oct. 8, they plan a peaceful demonstration in front of the US Consulate in Denpasar. "We will not hold any rallies around the Nusa Dua area as the security would be very tight," Sindhu said.
The National League of Students for Democracy (LMND) in their statement criticized the APEC forum as "detrimental to the nation's economy". "There have clearly been veiled interests from advanced countries to succeed in the liberalization of investment in developing nations under the agreements made during APEC. Indonesian leaders have to adhere to the principles of our 1945 Constitution in deciding policies, for the sake of the people, not the investors."