Letter: Indigenous people's rights

LEADPARA>This is a comment on an article "ILO pushes govt on customary land rights," (The Jakarta Post, Oct. 28).

Indonesia has been remiss in failing to deal fairly with the rights of indigenous people. Many social and economic problems encountered by indigenous people in Indonesia can be traced to what amounts to their dispossession. One need only look to Papua to see just how injustice has been perpetrated.

At the time RI took over Papua in the 1960s the indigenous people owned the land they lived on, but they have been, in effect, dispossessed of it as if by a neocolonial regime. They had the same rights as their brothers in the other half of the island of New Guinea. Just across the border in Papua New Guinea, previously a colonial regime, but now fully independent, customary land ownership is guaranteed in the constitution so the indigenous people are in charge of their lives and what happens to their land.

Australia has been much slower to recognize the customary land ownership of the indigenous people of Australia but good progress has been made and the process is irreversible.

The recognition has been empowering to both the Aboriginal people and to the wider community as it has acknowledged the wrongs of a past colonial era. Greater recognition of the rights of indigenous people is long overdue in RI.

It does not hurt to say we have been wrong and were perpetrating the policies of a colonial era; it could be a very uplifting experience to show to the indigenous people and the world that we do recognize customary land ownership and the rights of indigenous people.

Ratification of the 1989 Convention on Indigenous and Tribal People would be a good start, to demonstrate Indonesia's maturity, but it must be backed up by real change, not just words.

Nairdah
Sydney