Indonesia's Megawati eyes tougher line on foreign firms
Quoting: biznews
Indonesian opposition leader and presidential candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri said on Friday she would take a tougher stance in contract negotiations with foreign resource firms if elected in July.
"We have a real weakness in the way we write our contracts. We are too polite," she told a meeting of business leaders, citing as an example the huge Grasberg copper mine run by PT Freeport Indonesia, unit of U.S. firm Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX.N) in Papua, also known as Irian Jaya.
"I went to Freeport and I saw the way the earth is being exploited but the local Irian people are kept down," she said.
"We have a real weakness in the way we write our contracts. We are too polite," she told a meeting of business leaders, citing as an example the huge Grasberg copper mine run by PT Freeport Indonesia, unit of U.S. firm Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX.N) in Papua, also known as Irian Jaya.
"I went to Freeport and I saw the way the earth is being exploited but the local Irian people are kept down," she said.
This is the ultimate in brazen hypocrisy. During her term, she mis-used the President's national emergency legislative powers to make a sweetheart deal for thirteen foreign mining companies to circumvent the forestry law, no doubt in exchange for a big chunk of re-election donations. One of the companies was Freeport.