PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has made the decision to disregard the plight of the Indigenous People – Dayak Hibun in Dusun Entapang and Kerunang, Sub-district of Bonti, District of Sanggau, West Kalimantan Province.
These communities have been adversely affected by the activities of the palm oil plantation company, PT Mitra Austral Sejahtera (PT MAS). This unfortunate outcome comes after RSPO rejected the grievances of the Dayak Hibun, who have been protesting and voicing their concerns for the past 11 years.
The complaint was initially lodged against PT MAS, a subsidiary of the Sime Darby Group, which has encroached upon the agricultural lands and livelihoods of the Dayak Hibun. It is suspected that there may have been irregularities in the granting of business rights to PT MAS. This suspicion arises from the interpretation of ‘Derasa’ as a means of transferring land ownership or trading land from numerous smallholders to the company, a practice that appears to be unjust.
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On 10 August 2023 RSPO sent Decision of Complaint Panel (CP). It stated to reject the complaint by villagers of Entapang and Krunang. The rejection happened for the lack of evidences on what they complained and PT MAS is no longer the subsidiary of Sime Darby Group.
Redatus Musa, the member of Dayak Hibun told that RSPO failed to obey the regulation and procedures in RSPO itself. Because of the failure, RSPO failed to qualify what indigenous people hoped for RSPO. “RSPO ignored our fundamental human rights,” he said, as in the official statement to Palmoilmagazine.com, Tuesday (26/9/2023).
Redatus continued palm oil production (fresh fruit bunch/FFB) from plasma partnership with the company is no longer purchased. This is a loss for the villagers. What they hoped for that RSPO would fairly deliver solution, means nothing anymore.
“We are disappointed and really angry because RSPO interpreted ‘Derasa’ randomly. ‘Derasa’ does not mean to ask for compensation, nor purchase documents, and rights substitution,” Redatus said.
The indigenous people of Dayak Hibun have culture called ‘Derasa’. It means as the rights to rent, not to let rights on land. This is confirmed by interpretation that Indigenous Board of Dayak published which the authority to interpret indigenous terms that have something to do with Dayak tribe.
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The Dayak Hibun asked for RSPO to revoke the decision and should apologize to Dayak Hibun community because of misinterpreting ‘Derasa’.
“We give 7 x 24 hours for RSPO to apologize. If not, we would deliver available indigenous sanction in our tribe. I would ask our villagers not to complain this case to RSPO. We are disappointed. After knowing annual meeting which was only ceremony, we never heard our cased discussed. We got consultation with the experts to know if RSPO could be our hope to support for palm oil industries, but what we decided is that to get indigenous ways to deliver sanctions for the company,” Redatus said.
Meanwhile Abdul Haris, the campaigner of TuK Indonesia said, RSPO as an institution does not prioritize transparent and accountable process to decide what PT MAS is facing. “The decision in CP to reject what the Dayak Hibun faced after 11 (eleven) years means that RSPO does bad process in making decision,” he said.
The most crucial thing that RSPO intentionally violated was RSPO procedure of complain and appeal in 2018 which it is the guidelines to decide. According to point number 3 CP Decision, independent expert report was accepted on 10 February 2020. According to section 12.3, it mentioned that CP would consider and tell decision in sixty (60) days of work since investigation process was closed. The fact showed that the complaint by the Dayak Hibun was decided on 10 August 2023. (T2)
