Candidates Fail to Raise Natural Resource, Energy Issue, says ICW

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Both incumbent presidential candidate Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Prabowo Subianto failed to talk about the root cause of natural resources and energy issues in the second presidential debate on Sunday.

Both candidates preferred to talk more about how to overcome irresponsible mining companies that leave behind mine sites that further endanger the environment.

Prabowo Subianto promised that he will act firm against mining exploitation companies and bring, what he calls ‘mining criminals’ to the international court of justice and further restrict a mining company’s environmental impact analyses (Amdal).

Meanwhile, incumbent Jokowi said that he plans to implement the B100 program, a fuel which is made entirely of palm oil, after implementing the B20 program which is the use of biodiesel comprised of 20 percent bio contents. He sees palm oil as an alternative to stop depending on imported fuel.

Based on a study by the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) on export mining commodities consists of coal, lead, and nickel from 2007-2017, they found that the Indonesian government experienced losses in coal export up to Rp130.334 trillion from 2006-2016.

ICW reports that the government experienced an indicated loss up to RP7.635 trillion in lead export while nickel export experienced Rp6.793 trillion loss.

ICW blames the losses to the government’s unclear programs and vision on food, energy and environment management, and the poor coordination between government instances.

ANTARA