DKI the most irresponsible on environment affairs: Minister

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration is the most irresponsible provincial administration in the country in reforming its environmental protection institutions, according to State Minister of Environment Sonny Keraf.

Speaking at a seminar on environmental education for Jakarta schools, Sonny said that his office had asked all provincial administrations to reform institutions that oversaw environmental protection in their respective areas.

Sonny said all other provincial administrations had given a positive response to his office's request, but the Jakarta administration seemed to be deliberately unresponsive.

"DKI Jakarta (the Jakarta administration) is always buying time, trying to avoid the restructuring of the environmental protection institutions.

"Maybe, DKI does this because of efficiency considerations," Sonny said at the seminar, organized by the Extension Program for Learning and Research in cooperation with the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi).

Sonny said other provinces had planned to establish or reform institutions to oversee environmental protection efforts.

Nevertheless, it has yet to be determined whether the institution would be under the provincial administration or an independent body outside it.

"In my opinion, it would be better to establish the institution in the form of an independent body, because such a body would have flexibility in its coordination with other sectoral bodies," Sonny said.

He added that at the regency level, the environmental protection institution could be established under the control of the regency or mayoralty administration.

Besides, Sonny also revealed his office's talks with the Ministry of National Education to introduce lessons about the environment to junior and senior high schools across the country, including those in Jakarta.

"But we have yet to reach an agreement with the ministry on whether the environment lessons should be inserted into the existing curriculum or be introduced through extra-curricular programs," he said.

Nevertheless, he said he would prefer introducing environmental issues through extra-curricular programs to creating a new subject on the environment for school students.

Through such extra-curricular activities, students could be involved in various environmental programs that would stimulate students' interest in care of the environment.

If environmental issues were introduced to students as a separate subject matter, Sonny, said, students would not develop sufficient interest in the environment itself, but instead, would merely try to achieve a good score in it as a curriculum subject.

"Lessons about the environment should not be introduced to students theoretically; I would rather introduce environmental issues through extra-curricular programs," he said. (01)