Environment Minister Jumhur Ready to Fight to Protect Indigenous Communities

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Environment Minister Jumhur Hidayat has stated his readiness to fight for strengthening community participation and ensuring protection for indigenous communities in every development project, including evaluating the Job Creation Law (UU Cipta Kerja).

“We will evaluate several aspects, particularly regarding how far the community can be involved in this process. The main point is that even if the state acts, it must be on behalf of the people,” Jumhur said during a press conference following the handover ceremony at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry office in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Jumhur emphasised that in the future, there should be no more development activities, especially extractive ones, that cause local communities to be displaced from their living spaces or experience a decline in their welfare levels.

The development perspective must be changed by placing the safety and welfare of indigenous and local communities as the top priority. In this way, he added, evaluating these regulations is important so that every development policy aligns with the principles of environmental justice.

Jumhur referred to his experience in the civil movement as the General Chairman of the All-Indonesian Confederation of Trade Unions (KSPSI), which paid special attention to the Job Creation Law because it was deemed counterproductive to efforts to preserve the environment and the rights of indigenous legal communities.

“In the past, we fought against the Job Creation Law, which turns out also involves environmental issues. Yes? Indigenous communities can be imprisoned if they oppose development—it’s there. Basically, forest communities that oppose can go to prison. Then the AMDAL eliminates community aspirations and so on,” he revealed.

This step is also part of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry’s efforts to translate the government’s vision into more inclusive regulations that favour the interests of the people at the grassroots level.

“We must reverse that perspective, and I am confident we can do it. The President said the Job Creation Law is too capitalistic. We must correct it to become a Pancasila-based law, something like that, a state based on Pancasila,” he asserted.