Notes from a Conversation with Zadrak Wamebu

by Lafcadio Cortesi

I was asked to join Kemala as Project Officer for Papua Barat, soon after Pak Harto stepped down. I was troubled by whether the work Kemala had set out for itself - i.e. strengthening local and national NGOs and improving decentralized natural resource management and conservation - was still relevant in the confusing (at least for an outsider) and heady times of "reformasi."

I felt as though the question of Kemala’s relevance was particularly pressing in Irja where there has been a strong voice for self determination and history of resistance to Indonesian rule. I was afraid that given the new opportunities created by reformasi, perhaps the main focus of energy for many local communities and NGOs would become the political struggle for independence.

It was for these reasons that during my first visit, I approached some members of our partner communities and NGOs about this issue. Although there were a range of responses, I was surprised to find broad agreement around a couple of key points. Of course, being an outsider, particularly one in the role of providing support linked to a certain set of goals, there is a significant reason to believe that our conversations may have been somewhat skewed, and that in fact I was being told what people thought I wanted to hear, or that I did hear what, in fact I set out to hear in the first place.

These areas of agreement were summed up by Pak Zadrak, one of Irian’s most extraordinary NGO leaders. He reacted quite strongly to my query whether, with the ouster of Suharto and in "masa reformasi" KEMALA’s activities were irrelevant. Simply he replied that "our goal is having indigenous communities (masyarakat adat) and networks of communities that have: information and capability to make collective decisions and speak out; resource and land rights; and skills and understanding to manage their resources in a way that is not too disruptive to their culture or environment - so that just, meaningful and sustainable livlihoods can be achieved." Zadrak went on to say that without this for a basis, gaining independence or self determination could in fact be a process of substituting one top down system for another. There is of course some benefit to having ones own leaders in positions of power, but without a citizenry that is able to keep leaders accountable and a system where the rules are transparent, the danger is substituting one authoritarian regime for another.

For these reasons Zadrak reassured me that KEMALA, with its goals of improved and decentralized natural resource management and it strategies of training, networking, community mapping and advocacy is in fact contributing to creating just, meaningful and sustainable livlihoods and to strengthening the basis for an improved society - whatever governance system emerges out of the process of reformasi. Zadrak’s advice to me "get on with the job you’ve set out to do."