Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, Mentawai Islands – The indigenous people of Mentawai Islands in West Sumatra have demanded that the central and local governments recognize their rights as an ethnic group, rights accorded to other ethnic groups across the country.
Their demands, raised during the first Mentawai People's Congress in the regency capital city of Tuapejat recently, include involvement in policy-making, especially with regards to culture, education, the economy and natural resources management.
The congress, attended by 249 representatives from traditional communities across the regency, also approved the establishment of the Concern for Mentawai People's Alliance, an organization tasked with overseeing a number of traditional groups at the district and subdistrict level.
The congress concluded that the Mentawai people had often been excluded from involvement in various government community programs for having long been stigmatized as an isolated tribe.
The congress urged the regental administration and legislature to formulate a number of policies to ensure they recognize the people's rights, such as issues on natural resources, education, cultural development, health, land ownership and public policy.
Chairman of the alliance's council, Urlik Tatubbeket, 45, who was elected during the congress, said that people were reluctant to join organizations due to the negative sentiment people had had under past governments.
For example, the people had been organized into forced labor during the Dutch and Japanese occupation. And in the 1950s, the Indonesian government required the Mentawai people to join the Mentawai Youth Association (PPM). "Those who did not were penalized, thus discouraging people from joining organizations now," said Urlik, who is also a preacher in Sarenuk, on Sipora island.
Urlik said the alliance was the first such traditional organization in Mentawai to date. It had been launched in stages in the districts and subdistricts in recent years and was inaugurated during the recent congress.
According to Urlik, Mentawai's traditional people have never been involved in development projects carried out by the central or provincial administrations due to their lack of participation in organizations.
"They still remember how the New Order government tried to eradicate the local culture, regarding it as primitive," he said.
According to Urlik, the indigenous people are still marginalized. Government policies on education, culture and natural resources management – such as the issuance of forest concession and timber exploitation permits – have not accommodated local people's interests.
"A solid community would in fact ease the burden of the government because villages would be protected and traditional law implemented," he said.
The congress issued 19 recommendations, most of which were addressed to the Mentawai Islands legislature and administration. The congress urged both institutions to resolve agrarian and forestry issues with regards to government projects, such as transmigration and logging, and to formulate a policy to determine people's rights over natural resources.
Speaker of the Mentawai Islands Legislative Council and a native of Mentawai, Kortanius Sabeleake, welcomed the congress' recommendations.
"The people of Mentawai are an ethnic group that cannot be linked with other ethnic groups. We believe that no one would think of wiping out the Mentawai tribe, and for that we hope the alliance will teach the younger generation positive things about the local culture so that the identity of the Mentawai people will not be lost," he said.
Mentawai Vice Regent Aztarmizi concurred, saying that the Mentawai people lack cultural organizational skills compared to the closely-knit Minangkabau ethnic group's Minangkabau Cultural Assembly on mainland West Sumatra, which works together with the provincial administration in regional development.
"We hope the alliance will be able to encourage more people to work together with the local administration, not just to protest," he said.