Corruption eradication commitment in natural resource shall be strengthened, according to the civil society as conveyed in the Workshop on The Prevention and Eradication of Corruption in the Mining, Forestry, and Plantation Sector last November in Balikpapan and Pekanbaru. The agenda is part of pre-events of The 5th Indonesia Anti-Corruption Forum (IACF), multi stakeholder forum initiated by government and civil society to synergize and consolidate civil society role in the effort to fight against corruption.
Carolus Tuah, spokesman of civil society delegation and also Director of Pokja 30 East Kalimantan, claimed that the government and KPK’s effort in combating corruption still limited to the administrative aspect of mining licensing. On the other hand, law enforcement show no significant progress.
“Even though KPK along with the Ministry and local government have initiated the National Movement to Save the Natural Resource (known as GNPSDA), the follow-up of the initiative is indeed weak. Less than 30% of non-clean and clear (CnC) mining permit in Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, and Southeast Sulawesi are being followed up. Also the debt collecting process of company’s financial obligation, including the non-tax revenue as well as reclamation and post mining fund,” explained Tuah.
He added, our investigation showed that the issuance of CnC mining permit status also problematical. There is an indication of corruption both gratification and kick back. For instance, 95% of CnC mining permits which is overlapped with the forest area in West Kalimantan did not possess borrow-to-use permits of forest areas (IPPKH). While Forestry Act clearly mention that mining activity in forest area without permit is felony.
On the other hand, Anfridus J. Andijoe, Head of Provincial Mining and Energy Agency in West Kalimantan, admitted that mining sector face serious and complex problems, but GNPSDA has succeed to settle some. “Stronger role of law enforcer are strongly needed here, particularly in collecting companies debt on the financial obligation. By doing so, our effort become more powerful, thus we will be heard,” said Ansfridus.
Syahrudin Ariestal, Director of JATAM Southeast Sulawesi argued that weak law enforcer role is highly related to indication of conflict of interest, considering the law enforcer also “play key role” in the mining sector. Responding to this, AKBP Setiadi Sulaksono, from regional police of Central Sulawesi affirmed the commitment of police in combating mining crime. However, Setiadi admitted that the police still heavily work on the illegal mining cases.
Weak law enforcement clearly shown in the case of human rights violation in ex-mining pits in East Kalimantan which has brought 26 victims. Pradarma Rupang, Coordinator of Mining Advocacy Network (JATAM) in East Kalimantan said that Jatam already reported the case to the local police. The Presidential Staff Office has established task force along with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR), Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and Province Government of East Kalimantan. National Commission of Human Right also has suggested several recommendations on the case settlement. “But there is no clarity until now,” said Rupang.
In another hand, huge corruption in the forestry sector that harmed local community and led to deforestation was being highlighted in the workshop in Pekanbaru. Researcher of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), Mouna Wasef explained that during 2003-2016 there are 12 corruption cases in the forestry sector which costed the country 2.2 trillion rupiah and 209,000 SGD. Common motive for such cases are bribery on the permit issuance and land conversion.
Moreover, Soelthon Nanggara, researcher of Forest Watch Indonesia revealed that Riau has the highest deforestation rate in Sumatra reaching 171 thousand hectares per year. He added that assuming same rate of deforestation each year and no reforestation, forest in Sumatera will vanish in 69 years.
Critical issue raised by Yaya Nurul Fitria, researcher of Jikalahari. Yaya said that many corruption cases handled by KPK in Sumatera have yet to put corporate as the subject of crime. Despite of their wrongdoing, many still operate till now.
As the output of the workshop, civil society formulate policy brief on the evaluation of corruption eradication commitment, both in the mining and forestry-plantation sector, as well as an open letter for President Jokowi calling for the establishment of special task force in mining sector. Attended the workshop were government, law enforcer, academician, and civil society from Sumatra, Kalimantan, Southeast Sulawesi and Central Sulawesi.