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Timor Sea, the voiceless
"Montana oil spill polluted Timor Sea", Indonesian media reported last month
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"Montana oil spill polluted Timor Sea", Indonesian media reported last month. The news reveals the environmental consequences surrounding the explosion at the Montara Drilling Station in Australian territory in Aug. 21, 2009. The news might not have bothered Indonesia unless the impacts had not reached the Timor Sea.
The magnitude of the impact of more than 500 million liters of oil spill (ABC, Nov. 24, 2009) on sea biota, such as fish and seaweed is devastating.
The alarming situation is that the bioaccumulation of inorganic chemical substances from the oil spill in eaten fish could be passed on to unborn babies.
Consequently people living on the South Timor coast and Rote Island, especially poor fishermen, are at enormous risk of being contaminated by chemical substances.
The oil spill could seriously affect the ecological habitat of the Timor Sea and its surrounding islands.
Therefore, there is a critical need to raise the issue with the polluter from the Australia side.
However, after almost seven months without appropriate action, Indonesian diplomacy has failed to advocate the very basic of its citizens' rights: The right to sustain their lives.
In many cases, the publication of the impact of environmental problems may not attract people's attention.
Made worse because the oil spill does not affect people in Java, it is hard to hope that the central government will pay serious attention to the suffering of the people in the remote areas of Indonesia. In this society, ecology problems may only invite the "nimby" answer.
The Timor Sea pollution case is a reminder of a book written by Rachel Carson in 1962. In her book, she exposed land and water contamination by agricultural pesticide which had been used extensively in the United States between the 1940s and the 1960s.
The result was a stunning decline in the number of birds (Robbins and Stewart, 1949) as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) substances bioaccumulated in adult birds' bodies through the food chain. The substance in fact caused egg shells to become thinner and thus breakable. As a result, no new birds hatched in spring.
The book, which was then titled Silent Spring, helped voiceless nature to speak out and emphasized the destructive capability of toxic substances which could incapacitate children through their mothers.
The book, which attracted huge public and policy attention, was labeled as one of the early prologues to the modern environmental movement.
Later, after a long debate, several countries banned DDT from the industry and the market.
On these grounds, and with regard to the Timor Sea pollution case, both the Indonesian government and the people should think and ask themselves how they are going to save the next generation.
Will our children inherit the failures of their fathers and government in protecting the environment?
Will they lose their homes and families because of the trees their fathers slashed? Will they blame their mothers because of the contaminated fish she ate before the pregnancy?
And should we verbalize the agony of the Timor Sea, or would we rather keep the sea voiceless and remain reluctant to act until it is all too late.
The writer is a Ph.D. candidate at Wageningen University and a member of Forum Academia NTT.
