แผ่นดินและผืนป่าที่อาเจะห์: คน–ทุน–ที่ดิน–ผืนป่าและปาล์มน้ำมัน (1)

บทบันทึกเริ่มต้นของประสบการณ์บนผืนแผ่นดินอาเจะห์ จากผู้ได้รับทุนโครงการปัญญาชนสาธารณะแห่งเอเชีย

ภาพโดย: Junaidi Hanafiah 
                  ถ่ายที่ Sampoiniet  Aceh Jaya
                  19 กุมภาพันธ์ 2009
                  ปัจจุบัน เป็นช่างภาพข่าวที่ Sinar Harapan

                  รูปนี้ได้รับรางวัลอันดับที่ 40 จากการประกวดงาน FOTO KITA AWARD 2011 โดย National                     Geographic Indonesia ภายใต้สโลแกน 7 Miliar Manusia

(1) Aceh: Humans–Capital–Land–Forest and Oil Palm  

Ruayrin Pedsalabkaew

Asian Public Intellectual

(The views of the author do not reflect those of the API Fellowships Program, The Nippon Foundation, the Coordinating Institution, and / or the Partner Institutions.)

Once the wind blew steadily, the plane took off leaving Medan, North Sumatra behind. The tainted glass windows made the scenery outside look flimsy, though I still manage to get a glimpse of the geographical overview of Indonesia’s Sumatra.

Half way through the descent toward Aceh, the scenery down there was chiefly composed of ranges of mountain intersected with green lush forests. What shocked me was also some aerial image of brown and grey earth in the deforested areas. 

Smoke floats above toward the sky. It spreads thinly and extensively, though not so voluminous.  News about Indonesia’s forest fire a yearly déja vu. The smoke is blown away as far as Southern Thailand, year after year, such an image still lingers on.

On my right is the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Sumatra. The grey expanse of water spreads beyond my sight. Parts of the water appear light blue and dark blue. The white foams of waves remind me of Tsunami. 

Prior to the touching of the plane wheels on the runway of Bandar Udara Internasional Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport in Aceh, I felt heartened by a scene of lush green paddy field and the brown fields ready for rice shoot plantation. 

Along the road from the Airport to Banda Aceh, capital city of Aceh, one can find rural and agricultural livelihood where farming and husbandry are the lifeline.    

Lurking into the city of Banda Aceh, one finds the urbanite life with much higher tempo. Commercial buildings not higher than two floors could be seen along the way. Wooden stalls were everywhere selling everything; crowded streets, loud honking, motorcycles zigzagging through tight space between each vehicle. 

Nothing on the roads looks as luxurious like in Thailand. Much of the infrastructure has just been reconstructed after the 2004 Tsunami. 

According to 2010 data of the Population Statistics According To Gender in Province Aceh(http://regionalinvestment.bkpm.go.id/newsipid/demografipendudukjkel.php?lang=en&ia=11&is=37), the full name of Aceh reads “Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Province”.

Aceh’s population is 4,494,410 including 2,248,952 males and 2,245,458 females. Located on Western Sumatra, it covers 5,680,554.83 hectare (Statistik Deforestasi Hutan Aceh 2006–2009, WALHI Aceh (Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia). It is adjacent to the Strait of Malacca in the North, North Sumatra Province in the South, Strait of Malacca in the East and India Sea in the West. 

Most Acehnese are Muslims, followed by Protestants, Catholics, Hinduists, Buddhists, Konghuchu and others (Banda Pusat Statistik (BPS)–Statistik, Population of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, the Post-Tsunami Issue, Jakarta: Indonesia, 2005).

Aceh is composed of 23 Districts including 1.Kabupaten Aceh Barat 2.Kabupaten Aceh Barat Daya 3.Kabupaten Aceh Besar 4.Kabupaten Aceh Jaya 5.Kabupaten Aceh Selatan 6.Kabupaten Aceh Singkil 7.Kabupaten Aceh Tamiang 8.Kabupaten Aceh Tengah 9.Kabupaten Aceh Tenggara 10.Kabupaten Aceh Timur 11.Kabupaten Aceh Utara 12.Kabupaten Bener Meriah 13.Kabupaten Bireuen 14.Kabupaten Gayo Lues 15.Kabupaten Nagan Raya 16.Kabupaten Pidie 17.Kabupaten Pidie Jaya 18. Kabupaten Simeulue 19.Kota Banda Aceh 20.Kota Langsa 21.Kota Lhokseumawe 22.Kota Sabang 23.Kota Subulussalam (http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daftar_kabupaten_dan_kota_di_Indonesia).

According to locals in Banda Aceh, the city becomes more robust and is in a better shape than before it was struck by the Tsunami. Such development in infrastructure, education, society and economy has been made possible by aid from various organizations around the world.

Warm and loving welcome by the Acehnese makes me feel relaxed and love Aceh even more. They are not very competitive and do not treat human beings as commodities. That might explain why the Acehnese are amicable, outgoing and are ready to help others and refrain from exploiting people. Their life is permeated with mutual sympathy and caring for people around them.

It does not mean though that all Acehnese are just like that.

In the midst of development onslaught in Aceh, increasing social inequality stands out. It is not uncommon to find many beggars asking for money at traffic lights, in restaurants or teashops. They are led by people with eyesight in pair to ask for money from people. In one hour of sipping tea, you may find at least three pairs of the panhandlers. 

Fellow reporters in Aceh told me that these beggars stay in hotel rooms. How to address the problem? There is no answer to this question. No one thinks these people cause any trouble, though; if you wanna give, give, if you don’t wanna give, then don’t give. 

Another livability aspect of Aceh is there is no thief here. You can buy things and put them safely in your car. No steal. One problem is the prisons here are overcrowded with people arrested on narcotic charges according to my fellow reporters.

These problems are simply belittled by the struggle of natural resources in Aceh. The region is so teemed with vast natural resources, i.e., forest, mines, natural gas, fish and others.

Commercialization of the natural resources has brought wealth to a handful of people at the expense of the majority. And the conflicts over them seem endless. 

Reviewing the works by Derek Hall, Philip Hirsch and Tania Murray Li. (2011), Powers of Exclusion: Land Dilemmas in Southeast Asia, one may find economic prosperity, particularly the industrialization, has surged since 1980s and it has suddenly destroyed rural quality. Land use has undergone extensive transformation, from agricultural to agro-industrial use and other business oriented purpose including real estate, tourism and infrastructure development. 

Vast tracts of land have been reserved for agro-industrial projects through the enforcement of land enclosure law. Such large plantations have encroached into forested area and traditional land tilled by community. 

Driven by pressure from within and outside the country, the government has intervened to determine land rights among small scale farmers. Under the discourse of “land for agriculture is key to economic development”, land use pattern has been subjected to extensive transformation and led to devastating conflicts. 

According to WALHI Aceh, land conflicts have been ongoing since 1990 until present, between the oil palm companies and the villagers, between mining companies and the villagers and between the state and the villagers as explained in the table below. 

Data of land conflicts in Aceh Province

Such a problem does not just exist in Aceh. It is a hot issue in third world countries around the world. 

And this happens despite that Aceh is home to vast natural resources including forest, minerals, gas, oil, etc.

Under the Suharto regime (1966–1998), the centralization policy of the Jakarta had failed to ensure fair and satisfactory distribution of benefits from the utilization of resources.  Much of the profits from resources in Aceh had gone elsewhere, but Aceh. In 1956, exports from North Sumatra earned about a half of the income from abroad by Indonesia (Bhuwadon Songprasert, Indonesia: Past and Present, 2004).

50% of oil and natural gas supplies in Indonesia are extracted from Aceh. Gas separation to make LNG and oil industry brought about huge revenue for the Indonesian government.

In 1980’s, revenue from oil and natural gas was as high as two to three billions dollars per annum. Per capita income of the Acehnese ranked the third in the country, 282% higher than the average income of Indonesians. Yet, much of such wealth was confined to a handful of people in government Indonesia. 

Employment which soared in the beginning of factory construction has begun to fade away. More and more, entrepreneurs seek to hire migrant workers or foreign workers instead (Suphapan Tangtronpairote, The State and Muslim Society in Indonesia, 2007). The local Acehnese are simply for hire as drivers, menial workers and the like (Rusdi Hamid, http://portal.in.th/peace-strategy/pages/5786).

Apart from the strong awareness of their historical prominence and greatness with the sovereign power of their Sultans, inequality in income distribution is another major factor that has given rise to conflicts and has led to three decades of armed conflicts between the central state and the Acehnese.

In the post conflict era, the central government allows Aceh to run as an autonomous region and local government has been elected to provide administration. Since most income of the Acehnese comes from natural resources, the local government set out policy to maximize economic benefits of natural resources through earning revenue from consortia within and outside the country which aspire to exploit the natural resources, particularly land.  The investors have been given concession rights to do logging and clearing the land for oil palm plantation and other schemes causing impact to the local Acehnese who dwell and live their life in forested area. 

According to WALHI Aceh, forests in lowland area of Aceh have quickly dwindled from 1,496,954 hectares in 1980 to 887,401 hectares in 2006. Until 2008, big investors have been given concession rights in ten regencies covering the area of 344,874 hectares. The deforested area has been mostly converted into oil palm plantations.

Oil palm is strategically used among ASEAN countries to make bio-diesel as renewable energy, particularly in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Malaysia employs better technologies in oil palm cultivation and bio-diesel production than other ASEAN countries and they set goal to export bio-diesel from oil palm to Europe. That also means, the country needs a lot of land for oil palm cultivation. 

As Indonesia is blessed with largest cultivable land, the government set out policy for the country to plant oil palm and to be the number one supplier of raw material for bio-diesel industry in the world (interview with Chanathip Sooksai, expert at ASEAN Energy Center, 2 September 2010). 

Based on the policy, Sumatra is tipped to home to the largest plantation of oil palm in ASEAN, and the largest of oil palm plantation in Sumatra can be found in Aceh. Most of the investors of the Aceh’s oil palm plantation come from Malaysia (interview with Khairul Mahalli, Indonesian businessman, 2 September 2010).

The exploitation of land and forest and their being turned into oil palm plantations has led to struggle for land resources between the investors and local community which has been living in and off the land. It has also given rise to extensive encroachment into wetland of the Sumatra, particularly in Aceh.

Apart from investments in rural area including the plantation, much of the land in urban area has been confiscated and provided for large scale development of infrastructure including roads, expressways, etc. it has subjected Borneo, Sumatra including Aceh to large scale development (Sophon Pornchokchai, Thansetthakit, 27–29 May 2010, p. 37).

This is an overview of the incumbent Aceh.

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