INDONESIANS IN FOCUS : FERDI TANONI

Indonesians in Focus: Ferdi Tanoni

By Wombat | May 3rd, 2006 |  

Born in Niki-Niki, South Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara, on Sept. 16, 1956, Ferdi can rightfully be called a true nationalist fighter.
A symbol of the liberation of Indonesia’s traditional fishermen, he voices the aspirations of Indonesian people fighting for their rights in the Timor Sea and on Pasir Island. These areas are rich in oil and gas deposits.
Ferdi has defended the rights of Indonesia’s traditional fishermen when they are apprehended or subjected to unfair treatment by Australian security officials. For him, Indonesia’s traditional fishermen represent the image of national dignity.

“Australia arrests and mistreats Indonesia’s fishermen. This is tantamount to trampling upon our self-respect. 

I will never stop fighting for the rights of the Indonesian community and those of our traditional fishermen in the Timor Sea,” he said. A modest man, married to Lilik Harsanti since 1983, Ferdi has a long history. He lived in Sydney, Australia, for about a decade, working in a fashion agency in Surry Hills. When he returned to Indonesia in 1982, he started his own business as a supplier. He also developed a solar energy business with a private company in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

Ferdi promoted cooperation between the Indonesian government and the private sector, on one hand, and Australia, on the other, in Indonesia’s eastern regions in 1992. That cooperation led to the establishment of the Communication Forum of East Nusa Tenggara, East Timor, and North Australia Businessmen.

The forum is chaired jointly by Tanoni, who represents Indonesia, and Peter Gordon Carew, a representative of the Australian side.

In 1994, work by the forum led to the signing of the Kupang and Dilli Accords. This could be considered the first step toward the establishment of a new economic growth zone in the southern part of Indonesia, with Kupang and Darwin serving as the gateways for the Pacific Rim.

Four years later, Ferdi came up with an initiative for the establishment of a sister-city relationship between Kupang and Palmerston, in Australia’s Northern Territory. This effort has led to various activities jointly organized by the two cities.

In 1999, just before the popular vote was conducted in East Timor, Ferdi began to take a critical attitude toward Indonesia’s policy on the ownership of oil and gas deposits. In the same year he also started advocating in favor of fishermen whom Australia, he said, had treated arbitrarily.

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Ferdi wrote to then-president Habibie, warning him that whatever the result of the 1999 popular vote in East Timor, the Indonesian government should be able to separate that issue from cooperation in the Timor Gap.

He argued that the popular vote was held under the auspices of the United Nations, while the Timor Gap accord was a matter solely between Indonesia and Australia. Jakarta, however, failed to follow up on this concept.

When Habibie was later succeeded by Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, with Megawati Soekarnoputri serving as Vice President, Ferdi again urged the Indonesian government to immediately review the Timor Gap Accord between Indonesia and Australia and renegotiate the matter on a trilateral basis with Timor Leste (formerly East Timor).

That followed significant geopolitical changes in the Timor Sea with the emergence of the new state of Timor Leste.

“Gus Dur responded favorably to the suggestion, but foreign minister Alwi Shihab failed to follow it up,” Ferdi said in an interview at his house in Kota Baru, Kupang.

To help their struggle gain legitimacy, Ferdi, along with the late Valens Goa Doy, a reporter, and Faisal Basri, an economist, set up the West Timor Care Foundation (YPTB).

It is the only non-governmental organization in Indonesia that fights for the rights and interests of Indonesia in the Timor Sea, including the Timor Gap and Pasir island. That is important, given that Canberra is perceived by some to have been unfair toward the Indonesian traditional fishermen who have fished in the Timor Sea for the past 450 years.

From 2000 until today, YPTB has been waging a fierce struggle to defend Indonesia’s rights and interests in the Timor Sea.

It has criticized various examples of unfairness in the relationship between Indonesia and Australia in the Timor Sea. It argues this relationship has been to the disadvantage of Indonesians, particularly in West Timor.
In 2001, in the plenary session of the East Nusa Tenggara provincial legislative assembly, the Timor Sea Task Force was established. 

It comprised various social elements in East Nusa Tenggara. Ferdi was named its executive chairman.

Two years later, a meeting of traditional communities was held in the former Insana kingdom in North Central Timor regency, which shares a border with Timor Leste’s Ambennuu district.

About 350 traditional community figures from West Timor, Rote, Sabu and Alor attended the meeting. In the Insana Declaration, they assigned Ferdi to fight for the various rights and interests of the traditional communities in the Timor Sea area, regionally, nationally and internationally.

That fight, he says, is a Herculean task. Nonetheless he’s optimistic that in due course the people’s aspirations will become a reality. He says protesting against aspects of Australian policy that are judged to harm Indonesian interests does not mean he is anti-Australian.

“For me, Australia is not only the closest neighbor of Indonesia’s West Timor but, more than that, Australians are brothers and sisters to Indonesians.

“Unfortunately, under Prime Minister John Howard, Australia has shown arrogance toward Indonesia. It has annexed areas rich in natural oil and gas deposits in the Timor Sea and also cunningly oppressed Indonesia’s traditional fishermen. It is these practices that we must resist,” he said.

Ferdi has now begun establishing a network involving national figures, young intellectuals, academics and activists to put pressure on Jakarta in its dealings with Australia.

“It is very obvious that Australia has indirectly lorded it over Indonesia in the Timor Sea but Jakarta has turned a blind eye to this reality. The Foreign Affairs Ministry even tends to defend Australia by presenting all sorts of arguments, most of which are unfounded,” he said.

Penulis : Drs.Simon Arnold Julian Jacob