Environment minister shows diplomatic acumen

By Sugianto Tandra

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Environment Juwono Sudarsono is a good listener, an eloquent speaker and a humble man, characteristics which should stand him in good stead as the glaring international spotlight focuses on the country's environmental disasters.

Praise for Juwono, 56, was voiced not only by aides, but also by about 40 media representatives he invited for an informal meeting at his office yesterday. The professor of international politics invited his guests to be candid in their concern and criticism on how his non-portfolio office can deal with increasingly difficult environmental problems.

The minister, concurrently the chairman of the Environmental Impact Management Agency, also fielded questions about why fires now ravaging thousands of hectares of forests only ranked fifth on the government's stated list of priorities.

Reporters also asked this noted political analyst to keep true to his forthright comments of the past.

Juwono responded to all of the questions, "as a lecturer would do", one of his aides said to The Jakarta Post.

He was also able to impress his listeners, especially when he was speaking about how "democracy, human rights and environment are an inseparable trinity" which, if implemented, would lend a character of "social justice" to the country's development.

"The existence of social justice doesn't mean that everybody has an equal amount of everything. It means the opportunity of those in the lower levels of society is ensured by those already enjoying the fruit of development.

"It means that people in power care for those under them."

The former deputy governor of the military think-tank, National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) added: "History has taught us that social injustice is the beginning of the crumbling of governments."

Implementation of the trinity in development is what is known as sustainable development, he continued.

Democratization will in the long term call for decentralization of the management of natural resources so the local people will enjoy the benefits of the environment, and promotion of human rights will advocate that people's civil, political, social, cultural and economical rights be upheld, Juwono said.

Through the effective implementation of the trinity, "people will have courage to cry foul if government or businesses do something wrong to the environment".

Bait

In a display of his diplomatic prowess, he skillfully averted questions which would have pitted him against other ministers.

"I will not avoid any questions from journalists, but when it comes to overstepping the boundaries of other ministers' jurisdiction, that must be reconsidered."

He reverted instead to tackling questions about the fires which ravaged about 400,000 hectares of forests in East Kalimantan, causing an estimated Rp 7.5 trillion (US$937 million) in timber losses over the past four months.

The resulting smog threatens to blanket the drought-hit province, populated by more than two million people, unless winds can blow it away.

Although Juwono said he would answer questions openly about the fires, he added a caveat "that this ministry is only a supporting ministry".

His office was only supplying information, monitoring and giving recommendations on ways to anticipate more fires, he added.

"The ministries of forestry, home affairs and mines and energy are the ones with full technical authority on the handling of the fires," he said in response to a question from a reporter who compared him to his predecessors, the outspoken Sarwono Kusumaatmadja and the friendly but fiery Emil Salim.

"Then, if a disaster takes place in a province, it will be the responsibility of the governor."

Immediately after he was sworn in last month, the term "environmental diplomacy" was coined to justify how an international politics professor and political commentator would handle environmental issues.

He demonstrated his diplomatic wiles once again when asked if his background would help in dealing with all the undesirable international attention the country had received on its environmental record recently.

"In this case, you should ask the President," he responded.

"But my job, to put it simply, is to keep this lingkungan hidup (Indonesian for the living environment) from becoming a lingkungan mati (dead environment)."

The minister also promised that he would remain an "idealist in concepts, but a realist in carrying them out in the field.

"Try to understand this position, but trust me that the (critical) observer in me will remain."

Speaking as an observer, he said the economic crisis should be viewed as an opportunity for the nation to remain committed to the concept of sustainable development.

"In the next 18 months to 24 months when the crisis will subside, let's implement a sustainable development program."

He closed the meeting by reciting a line from a classic Indonesian children's song, Ibu Pertiwi (Motherland), which state that the country's forests, mountains, paddy fields and oceans are its wealth.

"Don't let them become just a memory," he said.