Petitioner Blames Former Forestry Minister for Forest Fires

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - By October 2015, about two million hectares of forests in Indonesia lost in fires as a result of hotspots that occurred on industrial forest concessions (HTI) and oil palm plantations.

A petition in www.change.org, initiated by Syahrul Fitra, was made calling law enforcers to investigate state officials who gave permits for land opening on forests and peat lands. Syahrul in his petition urged police not only to investigate land burners, but also Zulkifli Hasan who served as the forestry ministry in the period of 2009-2014.

Between 2010 and 2013, it was reported that over 1.3 million hectares of forest had been turned into plantations. In 2012, the Forestry Ministry also granted land borrowing permit for mining on 900,000 hectares of forest.

“All of the permits were signed by Zulkifly Hasan who served as the Forestry Ministry at the United Indonesia Cabinet 2009-2014,” Syahrul said.

Syahrul called on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration to investigate ethics violation and authority misuse committed by Zulkifli Hasan. Syahrul viewed that Zulkifli’s actions had caused fires on forests and peat lands, causing suffers for millions of people due to haze.

Syahrul also urged the KPK to investigate the possibility of corruption involved in the concession permit granting.

Zulkifli, who now serves as the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker dismissed the allegation.

“During my terms of office, a moratorium was enforced. We were not allowed to grant any permit. There was no such thing,” Zulkifly told Tempo at the National Mandate Party’s office on Saturday, October 31, 2015.

Zulkifli, who also serves as the National Mandate Party’s chairman, said that he was not afraid of being linked to land and forest fires.

“Anything is not a problem for me. I will face it,” he said.

LARISSA HUDA