TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A member of Commission VII of the House of Representatives (DPR) Harry Purnomo and energy and mining expert from Energy Watch Indonesia (EWI) Ferdinand Hutahaean asserted that the government was not being transparent to the DPR regarding its plan to change PT Freeport Indonesia contract of work. Harry and Ferdinand were concerned that there are certain parties who attempted to reap benefits from the dispute.

"The government was not being transparent in communicating with the DPR about their strategy to ace Freeport," Harry said as quoted by Bisnis.com.

Harry said that the government seems to cover something since the dispute started, causing Commission VII to unable to gather more information about the problem.

Harry even stated that the government seemed to consider the DPR as a rubber stamp agency to approve its policy. Harry added that it would be hard for Indonesia to face Freeport in international arbitration.

On the other hand, Ferdinand Hutahaean said that the problem started when the government and Freeport signed the contract of work for the first time.

Ferdinand asserted that the contract of work did not mention that the company’s machinery and tools will be transferred to the government when the contract expires.

As a result, Ferdinand said that Indonesia will suffer losses if the company decided to pull out from the country.

Meanwhile, in relation to the suspicion about the involvement of government official in the dispute, Ferdinand said that the indications are clear. However, Ferdinand did not provide a detailed explanation on the indications.

BISNIS.COM