Our history books tell us that the Dutch colonized Indonesia for three and a half centuries. It was not exactly the Dutch as a nation which came to our country. It was a consortium company named VOC, a trading firm accompanied by an array of Dutch army forces that set foot on Indonesian soil. Thus began Indonesia’s story of colonization and the massive plunder of its natural resources.

The Mollucas Archipelago once was known for its natural wealth, especially in spices, now exists only as a legend. Prosperity is unheard of in the Mollucas, The VOC has taken everything from the locals.

As fate would have its way, the VOC went bankrupt after 200 hundred years -- not because of strong opposition from any Indonesian local movement but due to heavy corruption from within.

Consequently, the Dutch government dissolved the VOC, and instead instituted itself on Indonesian territory. With it came upscaled and more systematic extraction and control of Indonesia’s natural resources. Life only became worse for the Indonesians. During this era, the colonial government imposed new systems of land management, the cultuurstelsel. Farmers were directed to plant only certain kinds of produce, such as tobacco in Dutch-defined plantations. They were also conscripted to work in these plantations. Meant to benefit the Dutch, the produce was exported to Europe at high prices.

Now, after four centuries, the same oppressive and exploitative system of regulation industrial plantations has endured under the auspices of the government of Indonesia. This is referred to as the Hutan Tanaman Industri (HTI).

The Dutch also came up with new laws on land management called domeinverklaringen. These legislative instruments declared that any land without entitlement belongs to state. As a result, many farmers and local peoples were disenfranchised because they could not show proof of landownership to the Dutch government. Up to this day, a similar law called the tanah negara principle remains in effect.

FinalIy, in 1945, Indonesia gained its so-called independence. But the economic plunder and extraction never abated. In 1967, the government of Indonesia (GOI) enacted three important laws: a) the Mining Law; b) the Forestry law (which has been amended by the 1999 Forestry Law); and c) the External Investment Act. These laws paved the way for the Indonesian government to open up all of the country’s forest and mineral resources to unlimited exploitation to private big business such as the Freeport, the first and still the biggest mining company which operates up to West Papua. Ironically, West Papua was not even part of Indonesia in 1967.

In 1972, the first UN Earth Summit (the so-called Stockholm meeting) was launched. The Indonesian delegation eagerly attended the meeting with its main agenda on "Environment and Population." Unfortunately however, the government preferred to present over-population as the main cause of environmental problems in Indonesia, rather than the glaring economic over-extraction of the multinational corporations.

Conflicts as an aftermath of erroneous environmental government policies on its ecosystems and the natural environment have been on the rise in Indonesia. The Legal Aid (YLBHI) noted that within only one year (1998 - 1999), 553 natural resources conflicts in 14 provinces in Indonesia, arose. These conflicts were largely between the government or multinational company and the local people. These do not include cases that were brought by the people directly to the Human Rights Commission.

Indonesia is likewise burdened by an external debt that already amounts to US$150 billion and which eats up a big slice of the national budget yearly. Around 40% of Indonesia’s income goes to countries in the North through debt payments. This represents Indonesia’s financial debt. Yet, we have not even factored in the historical debt owed us by the North after three and a half centuries of colonization, and the abuse and mining of our natural resources since 1967.

Although ecological debt is well understood in the Indonesian environmental activist agenda, we need to sharply frame and systematize this concept as the core and essence of the environmental movement.