Environment office seeks more power

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government plans to revise the Environment Law to give the authorities more power to go after polluters, an official said on Wednesday.

The deputy for environmental compliance at the Office of the State Minister for the Environment, Hoetomo, discussed the plan to revise Law No. 23/1997 on the environment after officiating a public discussion on the issue.

"The quality of our environment is deteriorating," he said. "That is why, through the revision, we want to give our civil investigators the same authority as investigators in the customs and excise office and the forestry ministry -- the authority to arrest and confiscate the assets of individuals or institutions that commit crimes against the environment."

Under the planned revision, the environment ministry would have the authority to seize the assets of companies guilty of pollution.

"With this power, we could halt the operations of a company that is suspected of polluting the country without waiting for approval from other agencies," said Hoetomo, adding that the revised law was expected to be submitted to the House of Representatives in February.

A professor of environmental law, Koesnadi Hardjasoemantri, who also advised the government team drafting the revised law, said the revisions would include minimum penalties for violators.

"The present law only stipulates maximum penalties, allowing environmental criminals to get off with light penalties," he said.

The proposed revisions have been greeted with caution in some quarters. An official at the industry ministry told The Jakarta Post any additional powers given to the environment ministry should not frighten off investors.

"We should not pass regulations that frighten investors, since we desperately need them," said the official, who asked not to be identified.

The deputy director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, Ridha Saleh, also criticized the planned revisions because they failed to protect communities that suffered as a result of environmental crimes. "The government's version of the revised law does not clearly define what constitutes an environmental crime or the rights of the victims," he told the Post.