T

he government has been urged to pay attention to the Talang Mamak, the indigenous people of Semerantihan village in Suo-Suo subdistrict, Sumay district, Tebo regency, Jambi, to make them as equally developed as other residents in the region.

Semerantihan is located in a production forest that borders the Manggatal River in Bukit Tigapuluh National Park (TNBT) to the north and the Kemumu River to the south, west and east.

Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem restoration (REB30) manager Syahredho said that almost all adults in the village were illiterate and only a few of the youth were literate.

'€œTheir votes were counted in the election, but their rights were ignored,'€ Syahredho said on Monday.

He added that the most important thing to do for the tribe was to rehabilitate the access road to the village so that those who owned motorcycles could easily go in and out to buy daily necessities or sell forest products.

Meanwhile, Gede Garang, a local customary leader in Suo-Suo, said that the government, through the Social Affairs Ministry, developed a housing complex for the Talang Mamak tribe in 1994 to 1996, along with a mosque and an elementary school.

Yet, he said, there was only a single access road to Semerantihan, the home of 43 Talang Mamak families, which branched off Km 26 along PT Wirakarya Sakti'€™s corridor.

The road, he said, was so rocky that only four-wheel-drive vehicles could reach the village. Locals mostly ride motorcycles.

'€œWe only have an elementary school here, which is a distance school of the SD 167/VIII elementary school in Suo-Suo subdistrict,'€ Talang Mamak tribe chief, Patih Serunai, said recently.

Serunai said 38 Talang Mamak children currently went the school, which only has a single teacher who resides in Semerantihan.

Other facilities include a volleyball field and a soccer field. No health facility, market or electricity are available in the village. Some residents use generators for illumination, information and entertainment purposes. Cell phones only work in some spots.

Only a few of the residents, mostly newcomers, have wells for a clean water supply. Most locals depend on the river for bathing, washing and sewage disposal.

To provide health services, the Tebo regency administration visits the village once in every three to four years and, as a result, locals depend on the village'€™s traditional healers and midwives for medication and to deliver babies.

Only recently locals built a small bridge over the Kemumu River at their own expense.

'€œWe deliberately made it small just to enable motorcycles to go across,'€ said Serunai.

He added that if the bridge had been built larger, it would have made it easier for illegal loggers to enter the village and damage the forest.

The Talang Mamak tribe, he said, protected the forest very well. They considered the forest as the place where gods and goddesses stayed, medicinal plants grew and where their prey animals lived.

Most of the locals make a living from agricultural products. They plant rice, vegetables and other crops.