“We have very little land and forest le , all have been turned over to companies,” said an anguished Leo. He thinks that oil palm plantations have polluted the water in their kampung. Fish are harder to come by. Birds and other game are also nearly extinct — ever harder to catch. is is why he and his cohorts are furious.
Such a stance has strained the relationship between them and several local community leaders and village officials whom they considered to be on the side of the oil palm companies. I contemplated for a week about how to reconcile these two camps. Because otherwise, not only would it hamper the PNPM Peduli program I was running there, it could also be a ticking time bomb like the Mesuji case (The Mesuji incident took place in 2013 where about 30 farmers were killed protesting what they saw as a landgrab of their traditional lands by oil palm companies) in South Sumatra.
I told them, going against oil palm companies and quarrelling with village officials was not the solution. It will only consume their energy as they would keep themselves busy fighting.