Don't Rush to Judge, the Cipayung Tragedy Must Be Investigated Objectively
The death of three workers in a pipeline project in the Cipayung area is a tragedy that has left deep grief. This incident must serve as a moment to comprehensively evaluate the implementation of occupational safety and health (K3) so that similar events do not happen again.
However, while the investigation is still ongoing, pressure has emerged for the Governor of Jakarta to immediately dismiss the President Director of PAM Jaya. Such a step deserves scrutiny because it risks pre-empting the results of the official investigation.
In a state governed by law, every workplace accident has a clear handling mechanism. Determining who is responsible must be based on facts, the findings of law enforcement, and examination by labour inspectors — not on assumptions or public opinion pressure.
The public also needs to see this issue in its entirety. Based on the explanation already provided by PAM Jaya’s commissioners to the public, the work on the ground was carried out by PT Moya Indonesia as the executing contractor. Therefore, the investigation should first untangle the entire chain of responsibility, from the executor of the work, the application of K3 standards, the supervision system, through to the contractual relationships between the parties involved.
In construction projects, legal responsibility is not automatically borne by the project owner every time a workplace accident occurs. There is a division of responsibility regulated in the work contract as well as in laws and regulations.
Therefore, who was negligent, who controlled the work on the ground, and who was responsible for implementing K3 can only be established through an objective and transparent investigation.
If it is true that the work was still at the execution stage and had not yet been handed over to the commissioning party, then that fact is also an important part that must be traced in the investigation process. All technical, administrative and contractual aspects need to be brought into the open so that no one is made a scapegoat before all the facts are revealed.
Criticism of the project organisers is part of democracy. However, criticism must also be built upon data and the legal process as it runs. Demands for the dismissal of PAM Jaya’s President Director before the investigation results are announced actually risk obscuring the substance of the matter, namely uncovering the cause of the accident and ensuring who is truly responsible.
What society needs now is not early judgement, but a professional, independent and transparent investigation. All parties with a role in the project, from the executing contractor and supervisory consultant to other parties with legal responsibility, must be examined proportionally.
Only in that way can justice for the victims be upheld, while also ensuring that a similar tragedy does not happen again.
The Cipayung tragedy must not be used as a tool to build opinion that pre-empts the legal process. Respecting the results of the investigation is a form of respect for the principles of justice and good governance. Whoever is later proven negligent must be held accountable. But before the legal facts are revealed, no one deserves to be sentenced in the court of public opinion.
Rinanto Dwi Hantoro, SH, Executive Director of Mata Pena, an Institute for Labour Social Studies