Membangun Peradaban Bersama Rakyat

The theme for the commemoration of World Human Rights Day from December 10, 2006 to December 10, 2007 will be “Fighting Poverty”. Long before that, it had been discussed internationally in various high-level world conferences on poverty reduction. Until the UN World Food Summit in 2002 in Rome, he believed that the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, to halve the world’s poor by 2015 would not be achieved.

The main indication that poverty can be reduced is the freedom of the earth’s population from hunger or the availability of adequate healthy and nutritious food. More than 800 million people are currently undernourished and more than 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day.

In Indonesia, towards the end of 2006 to early February 2007, news about food shortages and rising prices of rice – as a staple food that made the poor people unable to buy it – had to eat nasi aking (rice leftover which is dried to be re-cooked), as if buried by there is a lot of news about natural disasters and accidents. In fact, the threat of hunger is also one of the main factors in death, which is no less important than disasters, such as the hunger busung that occurred in NTB in early 2006, even though this area is one of the main food-producing areas (rice granaries) in Indonesia. Right to Food

The right to food has long been declared as a human right through various international agreements. Among them; The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) or UDHR, 1948, reads “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food …” Article 25 (1)

The Preamble to the FAO Constitution, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ECOSOC Right) or ICESCR, 1966, reads “The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living … including adequate food …” and agree to take appropriate steps to realize this right. Article 11 (1) and RDWFS, 1996, reads “We, the Heads of State and Government … reaffirm the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger.” All of these international agreements essentially guarantee that everyone has the right to adequate and healthy food.

These international agreements have been ratified by the Indonesian government, especially the ICESCR (ECOSOC Right) which is the main basis for the fulfillment of the right to food, because it includes the right to food. But what happened? It seems that ratification is just a monumental ratification that is recorded on the international sheet only. The reality on the ground is very far behind from the good intentions of the agreements signed at the international level. It could be that this is used as a sweetener so that Indonesia is considered to have respected human rights in the eyes of the world by ratifying various human rights covenants declared, because this will benefit and become a condition when Indonesia plays a role in international level negotiations in various interests.

The condition that various human rights covenants have not been implemented in Indonesia even though they have been ratified can be proven by the chaotic condition of food security in Indonesia. We are still very often in various mass media reports that people are not fulfilled with the most basic need, namely food.

Ratification of international human rights covenants in Indonesia is translated into legislation; Law No. 7, 1996, Concerning Food, reads “Food security is the condition of the fulfillment of food for households which is reflected in the availability of sufficient food, both in quantity and quality, safe, equitable, and affordable.” (Article 1 number 17).

The establishment of the National Food Security Council with Presidential Decree no. 132 in 2001 and the issuance of PP No. 68, 2002, concerning Food Security, it reads “To achieve food security, policy formulation, evaluation and control of food security are carried out” (Article 17).

Every form of human rights is always accompanied by obligations or responsibilities of the state at three levels, namely to respect, to protect and to fulfill. Likewise with the right to food. That means that when a country has ratified the human rights covenants declared internationally, the government of that country is obliged to fulfill what is meant in the international dictums which are intended to protect and secure the human condition to protect its basic rights or human rights.

Although there have been so many agreements at the international and national levels that regulate this matter, the right to food is constantly denied by various parties who feel disadvantaged by the existence of these agreements and regulations, especially multinational companies such as trans national corporations and multinational corporations. TNCs/MNCs) through various international conferences and forums. Even more worrying is that food is currently seen as a mere trading commodity, not as a social commodity as the main condition for sustaining human life.

Likewise, social objects or commodities that are the main support for the availability of food raw materials, namely land, where all plant foods come from plants grown on fertile soil. This social object of land is also being steered by global trade designers so that land can be used as an object of international trade, for that we must ask questions about the low-cost land certification program with the Prona program financed by the World Bank. Although this program is very helpful for the poor who are unable to certify their land, on the other hand, the more certified our land is, the easier it will be to sell it.

Selling the land referred to above is not only a literal meaning of selling, but there are many aspects called selling, we can pledge our land certificates to the bank as collateral when we borrow money at the bank, then when we are unable to pay the land will be confiscated. From this assumption, we finally have to ask why are the poor people now forced to have credit cards? On the one hand, there is an obligation for foreign banks to extend credit to the public, but what is meant by the obligation regulated by the state is for small and micro businesses, not for consumptive purposes.

The tug at international trade negotiations led by the World Trade Organization (WTO) regarding the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) and trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) is widely opposed by international civil society circles, because it will strengthen control TNCs/MNCs and alienating farmers and fishermen from their sovereignty over genetic resources.

How fraudulent the fate of farmers in developing countries and poor countries is because they do not receive subsidies for agricultural production costs, do not receive protection from the state, do not receive the main attention and take sides with the policies of the state that were born. On the other hand, the markets of developed countries also do not support agricultural products from developing countries and poor countries enter into commodities that enliven their markets because of protection from their countries which do not allow entry for reasons of quality, quality and quantity sustainability. In fact, agricultural products from developed countries are now flooding the markets of developing and poor countries. It is even more ironic that developed countries that do not consume rice are now producing rice and surpluses, only for the sake of trade which leads to profit alone. Farmers also receive excessive subsidies and incentives from the state. This is what farmers’ organizations and world civil society oppose to exclude agricultural affairs from the WTO agenda and finally the WTO fails to agree on the international rules in agriculture (AoA) even though it has been discussed since more than 5 years ago, since the Doha round.

Causative factor

Substantial causes of food shortages occur because; 1). The availability of land for farmers is continuously narrowing due to conversion of agricultural land to large plantations, urban expansion development, settlements and land grabbing in the past. 2). Regeneration of farmers, the farming profession is no longer a noble and proud thing because it can feed many people, but farmers are considered a profession that is dirty and covered in mud and does not promise to be prosperous, let alone rich. 3). The uniformity of staple foods, whereas in the past, traditionally Indonesia recognized various types of staple foods, such as one area in Sulawesi eating sago, one area in Java eating arrowroot and one region in Papua eating tubers. 4). The destruction of local wisdom of traditional food systems, such as village barns that have existed in the past, in various parts of Indonesia. 5). Policies that are not in favor of farmers. 6). Agricultural protection and subsidies are not the main priority of the Indonesian government, as an agricultural country. 7). Prices of tools and materials for production facilities are not balanced with the selling value of agricultural products.

Powerful Kick in the Long Term

The steps that need to be taken together, (of course) especially the government as the holder of the policy authority are; 1). Immediately agrarian reform is carried out, as planned by the government through the National Land Agency (BPN) which will redistribute 8.15 million hectares of land, on condition that it no longer clears forests that have been very thin. 2). A good image of the farming profession through various kinds of media campaigns and formal and non-formal educations. 3). Reviving the diversity of staple foods for ethnic/regional which have a history of non-rice staple foods. 4). Reviving traditional food sovereignty systems such as village rice barns. 5). Create policies that favor farmers and revise policies that are not impartial. 6). Prioritize protection and subsidies in agriculture, especially food crops. 7). Carry out fair trade by balancing the price of production inputs with the price of agricultural production while maintaining a range of margins, or there must be sufficient profits for farmers. Of course the above is done in stages and will take quite a long time. However, if applied consistently, surely hunger will be overcome.

By: Iswan Kaputra (Deputy Director of BITRA Indonesia & Member of the People’s Coalition for National Food Sovereignty (KRKP)
This article was published in ANALISA Daily, Medan on March 3, 2007