By: Norman Triangga)*
“Let our natural resources remain stored in the earth, until our engineers can process it myself” Ir. Soekarno.
That is one of the Indonesian first President moral message to Indonesian natural resources can be exploited by his own people, not exploited by other countries. The colonization of Indonesia’s wealth is still ongoing. Theft of genetic resources by actors under the guise of foreign researchers increasingly rife. Unfortunately not many people who are concerned with this issue. Thievery of genetic resources by actors under the guise of foreign researchers increasingly occur. Unfortunately not many people who are concerned with this issue.
At present many foreign researchers both government and non-government to Indonesia for different guise, such as by building research collaborations. Not only that, they also get in the way of pretending to be a tourist. With the mask of foreign researchers they take the rich biodiversity in Indonesia for later study.
Even the other agenda under the guise of foreign researchers we have experienced for a long time. It is common knowledge, the weakness of Indonesian lecturers and researchers are writing a reputable international scientific journals.
The weakness was an opportunity for foreign researchers to shape public opinion on Indonesia according to their viewpoint. Our biodiversity is often stolen not only in the form of real tangible objects but also the data that we difficult to obtain.
If the case is allowed to progress, the stability of Indonesia in various sectors in the future will be interrupted. The sibergitas of various parties is needed so this occupation could be controlled and Indonesia are not deceived again.
The government rightly gives more opportunity for Indonesian researchers to develop by give easier access to financial support to conduct research. Besides that, the awareness of people that Indonesia is very rich and we as citizens of Indonesia who are concerned should want to know and want to participate actively in maintaining what we have.
It is inevitable that the culture in Indonesia still strong, people are not concerned with other issues such as guarding Indonesia’s natural wealth. Indonesian people is so friendly and never reluctant to help each other even helping take the sampling process for foreigners. The ignorance can be main factor in the foreign exploitation of resources Indonesia. Thus the discussion room should always be built both in academic circles and among the general public.
