Tongam Panggabean
Globalisierung
Titel des Promotionsprojekts: Indigeneity and the Movements for the Rights of Indigenous People in Contemporary Indonesia: Local Resistance of Indigenous Benzoin Peasants in the Toba Highlands
This research explores the crucial and timely nexus of indigeneity, the indigenous struggles, and human rights inter alia indigenous peoples' rights from a local perspective in the current post-authoritarian regime Soeharto with a case study of the indigenous benzoin peasants in the Toba Highlands of North Sumatra of Indonesia who find themselves suffering from a multitude of contestations over customary forests for decades. This research interest concerns how the actors of indigenous movement construct indigeneity to access and legitimate their claims for self-determination, land rights, and dignity, and particularly seeks to assess how local activists negotiate with actors representing the international arena of indigenous rights and how new opportunities for cross-border collaboration are established. By extension, to understand the gaps and fractures in the interactions, this research will also look into patterns and dynamics of the local resistance and strategies of representing and positioning in different arenas, including how the ideas on indigenous people’s rights are translated and adapted in trans-local spaces. For these goals, the research methodology is based on a multi-sited ethnographic approach, leaving space for employing other relevant research methods such as indigenous research methodologies, while data collection is based on interviews and observations. My background as an indigenous rights defender has mainly motivated this research and formed its focus, in which the desired scientific outcomes can potentially come up with an innovative basis for applying the knowledge in the field of development and human rights advocacy.
Contact
Academic Background
- Master of Arts (MA) in Human Rights at the Friedrich Alexander University (FAU), Erlangen, Germany, 2020.
- Bachelor in History at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences of the University of Sumatra Utara (USU), Indonesia, 2009.
Courses attended
- The 23rd Human Rights and People’s Diplomacy Training Program (DTP) for Asia and the Pacific Region, University of New South Wales, (UNSW), Dili, Timor Leste, 2013.
- The 16th Human Rights Course for Human Rights Defender, Bogor, the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM), Bogor, Indonesia, 2012.
Work Experiences
- Executive Director of the Institute for Legal Consultation and People Advocacy of North Sumatra (BAKUMSU), a legal and advocacy group based in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, December 2020-July 2024.
- Coordinator of the Division of Knowledge of the Institute for Legal Consultation and People Advocacy of North Sumatra (BAKUMSU), October to November 2020.
- Managing editor of the Journal of Soeara Rakjat, 2011 to 2018
- Program officer for Human Rights Advocacy at the Institute for Legal Consultation and People Advocacy of North Sumatra (BAKUMSU), 2009-2017.
- Assistant researcher of a research topic “Election and Clientelism in Indonesian“ commissioned by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) and Gadjah Mada University (UGM), June to October 2014.
- Media support for the National Inquiry on the Rights of Indigenous People, commissioned by the National Commission on Human Rights Indonesia, 2014.
Membership and association
- Chairman of Supervisory Board of the Networks of Indonesian Christian Civil Society Organizations (JKLPK), 2023 to 2025.
- Steering Committee of the General Assembly of the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), 2022.
- Member/co-founder of the Association of the Institute for Legal Consultation and People Advocacy of North Sumatra (BAKUMSU) since 2022.
Award
- Development-oriented Scholarship of Brot für die Welt (BfdW), 2018
- The 23rd Diplomacy Training Program (DTP) Fellowship of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), 2013
- The Ministry of Education, Research and Technology of Indonesia Scholarship, 2006
Books edited and book chapters
- Panggabean, Tongam and Cahyono, Eko (ed). (2022). Ilusi Industri Pariwisata: Cerminan Krisis Lingkungan dan Ancaman Green Grabbing di Kawasan Danau Toba, Obelia Publisher, ISBN: 9786238188079
- Panggabean, Tongam. (2022). Epilog: Mitos Ekonomi Hijau, Penjelasan tentang Persoalan HAM dan Ekologi di Kawasan Strategis Nasional Danau Toba in Panggabean, Tongam, Cahyono, Eko (ed). (2022). IIlusi Industri Pariwisata: Cerminan Krisis Lingkungan dan Ancaman Green Grabbing di Kawasan Danau Toba, Obelia Publisher
- Panggabean, Tongam. (2020). Securing Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in the Timber Industry: Lessons from the Implementation of the FSC’s multi-stakeholder System in Indonesia, Friedrich Alexander University (FAU), Germany (master’s thesis)
- Panggabean, Tongam. (2015). Desa dan Bayang-bayang Investasi, in Simanjuntak, B. (2015). Arti dan Fungsi Tanah Bagi Masyarakat Batak Toba, Yayasan Obor Indonesia, ISBN: 978-979-461-938-4
Working papers, articles, and interviews cited
- The Urgency of Effective Human Rights Due Diligence for Extractive Mining Investment Chains, published by the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development-INFID 2024 (working paper).
- Land rights and climate change in SEA and the Pacific (a campaign film by BfdW), March 7, 2024 (interview cited).
- Indonesian government accused of putting lives at risk with zinc mine permit published in The Guardian, January 12, 2023 (interview cited).
- Disaster Shadows Chinese Mining Ventures in Southeast Asia (author: Tongam Panggabean and Dustin Roasa), published in The Diplomat, January 28, 2021 (article).
- Exposed: The links between Indonesia’s deforestation and Xinjiang, published in Aljazeera, April 14, 2023 (interviewed cited).
- China’s Trade Grows in SE Asia Under BRI, as Do Concerns, published in VOA, October 15, 2023
- Indonesian court revokes DPM mine approval over tailing fears, published in The Mining Magazine July 28, 2023 (interview cited).
Presentation in Conferences and Seminars, Lecturers
- Environmental and Social Impacts of Mining in Indonesia: tailing dams with a case study of the Dairi Prima Minerals (DPM), a presentation at an international webinar jointly organized by Earthworks, Inclusive Development International, Rain Forest Foundation Norway, Mighty Earth, and BAKUMSU, 26 September 2023.
- The Practices and Gaps in Advocating Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia, a presentation at the Southeast Asia and Pacific Land Rights Workshop organized by BfdW in Siem Reap, Cambodia, November 2022.
- Peluang dan Tantangan Bisnis dan HAM di Sektor Kehutanan dan Masyarakat Adat, a presentation at the national development conference organized by the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), Jakarta (July 13, 2022).
- Lecturer on thematic topics of business and human rights (BHR), business ethics, and environmental ethics at the Department of Business and Management, Faculty of Economy, and Business of the University of Sumatera Utara (USU) since August 2023.
- Guest lecture on the topic of Practices of Business and Indigenous Peoples’ rights in Indonesia at the International Social Work Department of Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai, India (March 28, 2021, and March 30, 2022).
- Guest lecture on the topic of the Challenges of Civil Society in Promoting Human Rights at the Department of International Relation of Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH), Tangerang, Indonesia, (June 18, 2021).
Forthcoming working paper and conference
A working paper with the topic “The Illusion of the Tourism Industry: Environmental Crisis and the Threat of Green Grabbing in Toba Lake, North Sumatra” will be presented at the Association for Asian Studies Conference (AAS-in-Asia 2024) on Agrarian Dimensions of the New Tourism Industry in Indonesia (9 - 11 July 2024, Yogyakarta, Indonesia). The paper is an extended case study in five districts surrounding Toba Lake in North Sumatra (Tapanuli Utara, Samosir, Simalungun, Dairi, and Karo), which addresses environmental and agrarian aspects of the new tourism industry under the framework of the National Strategic Project of Tourism initiated by Joko Widodo’s administration (2014-2023). It interrogates the mobilization of “ecotourism” discourse and policy in securing land acquisition and its impacts on biodiversity and marginalized peasants and indigenous groups in North Sumatra. This presentation will also document the mobilization of the traditional land tenure system in the five districts as a basis for communities’ resistance to contemporary forms of tourism development.
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