Around 500 protesters under a coalition of farmers and fishermen against the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Bali marched around Renon Park on Tuesday and demanded the conference be stopped.
The coalition, named Gerakan Lawan (Fighting Movement) and Social Movements for an Alternative Asia alliance, started their oration in the park’s eastern parking lot at around 9 a.m. and went on by circling the complex, causing traffic congestion around the area.
Indonesian Farmer’s Union (SPI) president Henry Saragih said that protesters were demanding the WTO Ministerial Meeting be halted as it only promoted a free-trade regime that disadvantaged farmers.
The Bali Package is a bad agreement for developing countries. We are forced to accept the cooperation, but on the other hand, countries aren’t allowed to subsidize small farmers and hungry civilians, he said during the rally on Tuesday.
Final journey: A woman carries the symbolic effigy of her deceased relative before boarding an outrigger on Sanur Beach for a brief journey to the ocean, where the effigy will be released into the waves. BD/I Wayan JuniartaFinal journey: A woman carries the symbolic effigy of her deceased relative before boarding an outrigger on Sanur Beach for a brief journey to the ocean, where the effigy will be released into the waves. BD/I Wayan Juniarta
WTO is not doing anything for farmers, and has gone down the wrong path since its establishment 18 years ago, he added.
He said that the organization should change its priorities and protect farmers around the world, adding that protests would continue until Dec. 6.
Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan has said that the WTO meeting would result in what he calls the Bali Package, a concrete deal among organization members.
He said the agreement would mostly be around the elimination of trade barriers. The conference will run through Dec. 6 in Nusa Dua.
Also among the protesters were members of the Korean Peasant’s League, Taiwan Rural Front and World Development Movement from the UK, and other organizations from the Philippines, India and Thailand.
Besides the SPI, Indonesian groups participating included the Indonesia Fisherfolks and the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen’s Union (KNTI).
Korean protesters used head covers, symbols of mourning and carried a wooden coffin that resembled the WTO.
We are here to end the WTO. The WTO has killed farmers and caused so much pain in the world. Huge transnational corporations pain the people, said Yoen Goem Soen from the Korean Women’s Peasant Association.
Weiche Fu of the Taiwan Rural Front said that his country’s agricultural developments had worsened since it participated in the WTO.
Taiwan has started to import low-cost agricultural products from overseas and local farmers’ [products] cannot compete with them, Fu said.
He urged the Taiwanese government to ban free trade and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Denpasar Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Djoko Hariutomo, who was present at the venue, got into talks with the protesters, who intended to burn the wooden coffin carried by the Korean protesters to symbolize the end of the WTO.
However, he refused to give them permission.
Police spokesman Adj. Comr. IB Sarjana said that more than 400 personnel from the Denpasar Police and Mobile Brigade (Brimob) and one water canon were dispatched to safeguard the demonstration.
The demonstration, themed End WTO, Food Sovereignty Now, passed the Bali Legislative Council building and the governor’s office. The protesters planned to march to the Japanese consulate office, but were intercepted by the police.
Nissa Yura from Solidaritas Perempuan (Women’s Solidarity) said: The WTO agreement threatens women’s reproductive systems by allowing imports of transgenic fruits.
Meanwhile, around 200 people marched from Puputan to the Ngurah Rai sports complex (GOR) and hundreds of Udayana University students did the same along Jl. Sudirman.
Later in the afternoon, a group of activists and farmers staged a protest at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center (BNDCC) following the opening ceremony of the ninth WTO Ministerial Meeting.
While holding signs, the 50-man group shouted their pleas to the WTO delegates, especially members of the G33 group, to defend food security issues in the meeting.
S. Kannaiyan, a protester with India’s Committee of Farmers Movement, said that their goal was to stop developing countries’ agriculture from being exploited.
Meanwhile, another protester, Cindy Weisner from Miami-based Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, said that even though the US was considered a major influence in the forum, the US citizens themselves faced the devastation caused by global trade in their daily lives.
Whether or not the US plays a negative or positive role in these spaces, what we know is the deep impact. We know about the lack of jobs it creates in the US, we know about the land condition and we know about the forced migration, she said.
2012 PT. Bina Media Tenggara