The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Indonesia seeks to protect ancient tribe Posted: 04 Feb 2014 08:03 PM PST Their lifestyle has drawn comparisons with the Amish in the US, but they live in even more basic conditions, residing in houses on stilts and dressing only in black sarongs and headdresses. It is in stark contrast to even many rural areas of Southeast Asia's biggest economy, where the rapid growth of the middle class has led to an explosion in the number of vehicles on the streets and people with smartphones. But fears have been growing in recent years that the traditions of the Kajang, who live in a densely forested area called Tana Toa on the central island of Sulawesi, are increasingly vulnerable. Officials worry there is little protection for the forests considered sacred by the tribe in a country where environmental destruction is rampant and that a sudden influx of technology could overwhelm their way of life. Now the local government in Bulukumba district is hoping it can use a recent ruling by the Constitutional Court of Indonesia as a launchpad to grant the Kajang the right to manage their own forests, instead of it being owned by the state. Tribal rights group Aman said it would be the first area in Indonesia to use the court ruling to grant an indigenous group such autonomy – a milestone in the fight for the rights of the country's approximately 70 million tribespeople. The attempt to help the Kajang is driven by outsiders and the tribe itself harbours some suspicions about any sort of external interference in their affairs. However the so-called "ammatoa", or chief, Puto Palasa said he did not object as long as the effort did not change the tribe's traditional ways, and recognised the attempts to help his beloved forest. "Preserving the forest will make this earth last longer," Palasa, who has never set foot outside the Kajang's tribal heartland and has received no formal education, told AFP. "Leaves invite the rain to fall, roots are home to springs, the forests are the world's lungs," he added in his native language called "Konjo". Signs of modernity are undoubtedly creeping in to the land of the Kajang, who number around 5,000, with the majority strictly following the tribe's traditions, according to a local government official. On a recent visit to Tana Toa, AFP saw some of the young Kajang clutching mobile phones while others were wearing sandals – the most ardent followers of tribal tradition prefer to go barefoot. Nevertheless much remains as it has done for centuries. Scores of men were seen lifting enormous tree trunks to build a traditional house while candlenuts, an oily nut which burns for a long time once lit, are the only lights at night. The Kajang even has its own mini-government, made up of 37 "ministers", including an agriculture minister who tells people when and where to plant their crops by studying the stars. They dole out punishments – which include fines and caning – for infringements of their rules, such as removing a tree that has fallen naturally or catching shrimps from rivers, activities the tribe believes create imbalances in the ecosystem. Little is known about the tribe's origins or how long they have been around but they claim to be one of the first peoples on earth, and say they are duty-bound to protect their ancestral lands. Their religion is a mix of tribal beliefs and Islam. Their total land covers around 760 hectares (1,900 acres), while the area of forest considered "sacred" – the tribe's heartland – covers some 330 hectares, according to research group the World Agroforestry Center. Bulukumba officials fear this ancient way of life could be wiped out if the Kajang are not given the right to manage their own lands, a move they believe would encourage the tribe to preserve its traditions. They hope to use the court ruling passed in May as the basis for a local bylaw to give the Kajang this right. The ruling said that indigenous people owned forest on their ancestral lands. Previously the state claimed ownership of all the country's forests. As with many such rulings made centrally in Indonesia, it still needs to be applied locally. Bulukumba officials argue the decision gives the Kajang the right to manage all their densely-forested land. The latest draft bylaw seen by AFP says that the land can be only traded among the Kajang. Officials hope it will be passed in the coming months. As well as giving the Kajang more control over their destiny, the bylaw would also overturn an official decision taken in the 1990s to allow some logging on their land. In reality the only logging in the area since then has been carried out by the Kajang themselves, who allow small numbers of trees to be cut down in certain areas for purposes such as building homes. Officials fear this could change at any moment – many tribes across Indonesia have lost their rainforest homes due to logging. Bulukumba forestry chief Misbawati Wawo says that in areas of the district outside the Kajang's lands, there has been widespread logging to make way for clove, cocoa and coffee plantations. "Our concern is if we don't make a written bylaw to protect these people, who can guarantee their traditions will still exist in 20 to 30 years?" she told AFP. – AFP, February 5, 2014. |
| Bill Gates – from teen geek to world’s richest man Posted: 04 Feb 2014 05:01 PM PST Bill Gates (pic) is now back in a hands-on role at Microsoft, the company he co-founded in 1975, which has been losing ground against rivals in the new tech landscape. In a shake-up announced yesterday, Gates, 58, assumes a new title – a board member who is "founder and technology advisor", giving up the role of chairman while Indian-born Satya Nadella, 46, becomes Microsoft's third CEO. It represents a new chapter for Gates, who left as CEO in 2000 as he handed the company reins to Steve Ballmer to devote more time to his charitable foundation. In 2008 he stepped away further from day-to-day operations. "I'm thrilled that Satya has asked me to step up," Gates said yesterday of his new role, adding that "I'll have over a third of my time available" to work with Microsoft on various products. Born October 28, 1955, William H. Gates grew up in Seattle with two sisters. His father William was an attorney and his late mother Mary was a schoolteacher and chairwoman of United Way International. Gates was a 13-year-old student when he began programming computers. He fell in love with the machines and school officials tapped into his programming prowess, swapping computer time for his services. Among the tales told about Gates is that while working on school computers, he tinkered with programming to put him in classes made up mostly of girls. Gates met Ballmer while the two were students at Harvard University. With the blessing of his parents, he left college after two years to start "Micro-soft" with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Gates has said that a chip released by Intel convinced him the time was right for a software company. The duo got the rights to computer software, modified it and rechristened it Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS). A key move by Gates was to focus on licensing software to computer makers in numerous "partnerships" that resulted in affordable machines being available to the masses. As the PC market grew, Microsoft became not just the world's top software company but the biggest company by value. Its virtual monopoly led to a much–publicised antitrust trial, in which the company managed to avert a break-up ordered by one judge, but had to endure years of government monitoring. Gates turned his attention from software to fighting disease and other ills around the world with his wife, under the auspices of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The charity has disbursed more than $28 billion (RM93.1 billion) for causes including fighting malaria, helping small coffee farmers and for college scholarships. Even while Microsoft has floundered in recent years against the likes of Google and Apple, Gates's fortune has not suffered. He remains near the top of the world's richest with net worth estimated by Forbes magazine at some $72 billion. Gates has also funded other ventures including Corbis, a huge digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe. He is also a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway, headed by Warren Buffett. Gates has accepted Buffett's challenge to wealthy individuals, pledging to give at least half their fortunes to charity. Gates was married on January 1, 1994, to Melinda French and they have three children. His Microsoft biography notes he is "an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf, tennis and bridge". – AFP, February 5, 2014. |
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