Local NGOs have been trying to help farmers broaden their options, while the government imports five million tonnes of rice a year. It revised the patent law in 1997 to make plant varieties patentable, but it has not enacted it yet. According to Tjahjadi, 'any sui generis system for Indonesia would have to be based on farmers' rights. Their main concern is that systems such as as patenting or UPOV fail to recognise the collective rights of local communities to genetic resources and traditional knowledge, and therefore foster biopiracy. Not only governments, but the people who stand to be most affected, are agitating for a real challenge to TRIPs before its 'life patenting' clause is implemented in Asia.
Farmers manage the country's genetic resources as the peoples' resource.
We are innovators, too. The tension is growing perceptibly. In April, one trade official in Europe, who goes unnamed, described the TRIPs Review as '1999's MAI'. This is a haunting reference to the way public opposition sank the Multilateral Agreement on Investment last year. And we pray he's right.