TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The coalition of #BersihkanIndonesia or Cleaning Indonesia suspected that the enactment of the new Omnibus Law on Job Creation was an order from mining corporations, particularly those in the coal mining sector.

According to the coalition, with the Job Creation Law, the government sells out Indonesia's natural resources for free by relaxing the royalty payment up to zero percent.

“Granting zero percent of royalty payment is the same as giving the coal free of charge to companies, denouncing the mandate of the 1945 Constitution that natural resources are for the prosperity of the people,” said the coalition spokesperson from environmental conservation group Auriga Nusantara, Iqbal Damanik, in a written statement, Thursday, October 8, 2020.

As the country is facing economic recession and many people are losing their jobs due to the ongoing pandemic, President Jokowi and the House of Representatives (DPR) chose to grant a bailout by saving the mining business players.

The bailout was noted in the Job Creation Law, paragraph 5 of Article 128A on the energy and mineral resource cluster.

Such incentives, Iqbal said, would push for massive exploitation and destruction of the environment and people’s living spaces. This was contrasted with the government’s initiative to limit the coal production that was noted in the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN).

“All of this happens because the legislation on the job creation law has been locked up by a conflict of interest. The political and business oligarchic actors in the parliament have mixed up,” said the coalition spokesperson from the mining advocacy network (JATAM) Nasional Merah, Johansyah.

He mentioned that as much as 50 percent of the DPR members and the leaders were connected to the coal business. Even the Omnibus Law Task Force that participated in drafting the law were commissioners and directors of coal companies who will also receive benefits from the Employment Creation Law policy.

Read: Palace Rebuffs Rumors on Jokowi Avoiding Omnibus Law Protests

MUHAMMAD HENDARTYO