Transmigration program
[1] This involved moving people permanently from the island of Java, but also to a lesser extent from Bali and Madura to less densely populated areas including Kalimantan, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua.
The program, however, has been controversial as fears from native populations of "Javanization" and "Islamization" have strengthened separatist movements and communal violence.
[3] The policy was first initiated by the Dutch colonial government in the early nineteenth century to reduce crowding and to provide a workforce for plantations on Sumatra.
The program diminished during the last years of the Dutch era (the early 1940s) but was revived following Indonesian independence, in an attempt to alleviate the food shortages and weak economic performance during Sukarno's presidency in the two decades following World War II.
[citation needed] After independence in 1949, under President Sukarno, the program continued and was expanded to send migrants to more areas of the archipelago such as Papua.
It had a significant impact on the demographics of some regions; for example, in 1981, 60% of the three million people in the southern Sumatra province of Lampung were transmigrants.
[2] In August 2000, after the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the fall of the New Order, the Indonesian government again reduced the scale of the transmigration program due to a lack of funds.
The rate has shown gradual increases in recent years with funding for transmigration activities at $270 million (2.3 trillion IDR) and a target of relocating 20,500 families in 2006.
Indigenous people often feel marginalized and lose access to land and natural resources that are an important part of their lives.
[citation needed] The government agencies responsible for administering transmigration were often accused of being insensitive to local customary or adat land rights.
Many environmental issues were identified at project appraisal: the potential for soil erosion, the possibility of declining soil fertility, need for protection against pests and disease, possible adverse effects on wildlife and deforestation, impact on indigenous people, and the need to strengthen the borrower's capacity for managing natural resources.
[22] There is open conflict between migrants, the state, and indigenous groups due to differences in culture—particularly in administration, and cultural topics such as nudity, food and sex.
Religion is also a problem as Papuans are predominantly Christian or hold traditional tribal beliefs while the non-Papuan settlers are mostly Muslim.
