Fifth Biennial meetings.

FIFTH BIENNIAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE BORNEO RESEARCH COUNCIL

OPENING ADDRESS

Warsito Rasman, The Governor of Central Kalimantan Palangka Raya 

Presented August 10, 1998

On behalf of our local government we extend a very warm welcome to all of you to this unique small town of Palangka Raya, the "Beautiful City". It is a great opportunity for us to get together with scholars/scientists, especially those from America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Papua New Guinea and from Indonesia, and especially from Borneo/Kalimantan which includes Brunei Darussalam, Sarawak, Sabah, as well as from four provinces in Kalimantan.

The Indonesian Government, and especially the local government of Central Kalimantan, is honored to hold the Fifth Biennial Conference of the Borneo Research Council this year with the main theme "Borneo/Kalimantan and Sustainable Development". This encompasses various sub-topics such as human, educational, sociocultural, economic, and health resources development.

We believe that there is a great deal of interesting and significant research being carried out in Central Kalimantan. Especially we note the Mega Project, involving 1 million hectares of peat land resources development, being done by a wide range of experts, such as foresters, biologists, anthropologists, linguists, and sociologists. We are fully aware that Central Kalimantan with its rich natural resources offers great opportunities for researchers from all over the world. Many of our natural resources have remained untouched by development up to the present. This is due to our geographical conditions. This is the reason why we in Palangka Raya are very interested to compile, record, and preserve our traditional cultural heritage with the help of experts, and with the collaboration of both the Government and non-governmental agencies.

This conference is most timely as it stimulates awareness of the need to undertake more research in Central Kalimantan, so that findings can contribute by assisting the Government in setting up policies for further development. We can all learn from one another in this conference. And after the conference is over we can continue to collaborate in various aspects of development, especially in our future research.

We appreciate that all of you represent a wide range of different fields of knowledge, backgrounds, and interests. It is a very special occasion for us in this area to see such a distinguished group of people. You have five days of deliberation ahead of you with much to discuss and achieve. We believe that you all will make this conference an unforgettable event.

Last but not least, we wish you every success and a happy stay in Palangka Raya. Hereby I declare that this conference is officially opened.

MESSAGE FROM THE RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PALANGKA RAYA

Professor Dr. Ir. H. Ali Hasymi, Rector of the University of Palangkaraya Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, August 10, 1998

Permit me to welcome you all as conference participants to the Land of Isen Mulang. It is with great pride and as a considerable privilege that Central Kalimantan Province and the University of Palangkaraya have been chosen to be the hosts for this conference.

Borneo (it is called Kalimantan by the Indonesian people) is a rich island, It is not only rich in natural resources, but in its human resources and socio-cultural aspects as well. Through this conference, we hope to explore, identify, and conserve our environment and attempt to contribute the best to our community and environment.

I hope that the conference will benefit all of you and will give the best contribution to the welfare of the population of Borneo/Kalimantan and also to the development of science and technology.

Have a lively conference and may God bless us all.

GREETINGS FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE BORNEO RESEARCH COUNCIL

Dr. George N. Appell, President of the Borneo Research Council Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts, USA

It is my very great pleasure on behalf of the officers and directors of the Borneo Research Council to welcome you to this Fifth Biennial Conference of the Council. This conference is a continuation of a dream that many of us have shared for years, a dream first articulated by Dr. Vinson H. Sutlive, Jr., Executive Director.

We are indeed most grateful to the Honorable Governor of Kalimantan Tengah for his kind invitation to hold this conference here in Palangka Raya. We want to express our appreciation to Professor Dr. Ir. H. Ali Hasymi, MS, MA, Rector of the University of Palangka Raya, for his kindness in offering to host this important conference and for his support and help in making this conference a success.

We want to express our deepest thanks to Professor H. KMA M. Usop, MA, Coordinator of the local organizing committee for the conference, for initiating the idea to the Board of Directors of the Borneo Research Council to hold the Fifth International Conference in Palangka Raya. We have worked long and hard to bring this conference to fruition. We are furthermore most grateful for the work and efforts of Drs. C. Yus Ngabut, M.Pd., Chair of the Organizing Committee and Programme Committee. To Drs. Kumpiady Widen, former Chair, we wish him every success in his studies in Australia. Finally, this conference is the culmination of months of work to bring us all here together. We want to express our deep appreciation to all those members of the various committees for the time, energy, and effort they have put into bringing this conference about and facilitating the exchange of ideas and results of research.

When the Council was established in 1968, our goal was to forward research in the social, biological, and medical sciences in all regions of the island of Borneo. Understanding the importance of recognizing the past as the prologue and foundation for building a strong future, the directors, officers, fellows, and members of the Council have tried to support the work of recording and interpreting the rich cultural materials of Bornean societies, past and present, the study of Bornean flora, fauna, and their ecosystems, including their interrelations with the people of Borneo, the history of environmental change, the relationship of all these to the health of the peoples of Borneo, and the application of such research results to informed plans for the future.

We are particularly appreciative of the presence and participation of colleagues from all over Borneo. We who founded the Council in the United States have been particularly gratified that the work of the Council is now being taken on locally in Borneo, and we look forward to further participation in maintaining a strong Council through the work and dedication of scholars from every region of Borneo and the world.

This conference gives us an exceptional opportunity to learn about the advancement of research, scholarship, and its application to policy that has been going on at the University of Palangkaraya, and I want to express my congratulations to the far-seeing vision of those at the university who have fostered such work.

I wish all of you who have come an exciting and productive conference and the time to renew old friendships and make new friends with scholars from around the globe. May it provide the opportunities to exchange ideas and the results of research that will lead to the betterment of all peoples.

Finally, it is with great disappointment that I am unable to attend this conference because of the press of work and conflicts in my schedule. But I look forward to reading the papers that are delivered as they are prepared for publication in the Proceedings Series of the Borneo Research Council.

GREETINGS FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BORNEO RESEARCH COUNCIL'S INDONESIAN OFFICE

Professor Syamsuni Arman, PhD Chairman of the BRC Indonesia Office

It is a great pleasure for me to be present among distinguished hosts and guests today. Eight years have passed since we had our first biennial conference in Kuching in July 1990, and four conferences have facilitated gatherings of scholars and professionals from all corners of the world. Scholars and professionals from Central Kalimantan have never been absent in all previous conferences, and here today you move one step further by hosting this conference.

This is the second BRC conference to be held in Indonesia. I realize that the local committee, under the direction of Prof. H. KMA. M. Usop, has worked very hard to make this conference a success, and on behalf of the Indonesia Office we want to convey our sincere appreciation for what you have done.

The success of a scientific event of this size could not have been achieved without the support of government agencies and offices, and the support of the people of Central Kalimantan in general.

In particular, we want to thank the Honorable Governor of Central Kalimantan for his invitation to hold this conference in this beautiful city of Palangka Raya. We also want to express our thanks to the Rector of the University of Palangka Raya for his support in making this conference possible.

I thank the participants coming from other provinces of Kalimantan and from other countries for their interest in Borneo and Kalimantan studies. I am sure that their contribution is well received and appreciated by the people of this region. I would like to express my pleasure in discovering that studies on the four provinces of Kalimantan have grown in numbers and depth, in line with similar growth in conference aims at communicating their findings within and beyond the campuses of Borneo and Kalimantan.

I wish all participants happy days to come and a successful conference.

WELCOMING ADDRESS BY THE CO-ORDINATOR OF THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Professor H. KMA M. Usop, MA, Co-ordinator of the Committee of the Fifth Biennial International Conference of the Borneo Research Council, Palangka Raya

Mr. Warsito Rasman, the Governor of Central Kalimantan; Dr. George N. Appell and Professor Vinson Sutlive, President and Executive Director of the Borneo Research Council; Professor Dr. Syamsuni Arman of Tanjung Pura University, Borneo Research Council representative in Indonesia; Professor Dr. Ir. H. Ali Hasymi, Rector of the University of Palanagkaraya; honorable guests, ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of the local committee may I welcome all of the participants of this conference and extend our best wishes to all the guests. We apologize for the postponement of this conference from July to the second week of August due to the national crisis that we have been facing. Many of the participants there have changed their schedules. However, some improvement is developing and we are grateful that the last report shows that about 250 participants have registered. More than half of them are domestic participants from many universities, schools, institutions, and non-governmental organizations, while the rest are foreign participants from USA, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, France, Finland, the Netherlands, England, and Germany. We believe that the holding of this meeting may have some positive impact on tourism and our security image.

We hope that we can serve you with the limited facilities that we can afford, to make your stay useful and pleasant.

Considering the global tendency of sustainable development, especially among the developing countries, including Indonesia and its Kalimantan provinces and its Borneo neighbors, we have encouraged ourselves to decide that the theme of this conference is focused on that concept. We hope that its orientation and translation in our discussions may result in enrichment of our thought and knowledge of many socio-cultural aspects of the problem.

For those who are interested to make further studies of Kalimantan, allow me to give a glimpse of information: we have only 1.5 million people in an area 1.5 times the size of Java, composed of 65 % Muslims (half of them Dayak Muslims and the other half consisting of Malays and other ethnic origins of Indonesia), and 17 % of Christian/Catholics and 18 % Kaharingan Hindus, most of Dayak origin. The Dayaks consist of several great ethnic groups: the Ot Danums in the upriver areas, and the Ngajus, the Dusuns (including the Ma'anyans), and the Ibans in the western part. Each has its many sub-ethnic groups. It is important to note that due to the spread of the Ngajus, the Ngaju language has in fact become the lingua franca among the Dayaks of this province, besides Banjarese Malay and Indonesian.

So we welcome you to this land of unity in diversity (Bhinneka Tunggal Ika) and to this city of sand, the only city specially built after our Independence as the capital of this province 41 years ago.

Thank you very much.