Industry, officials in bed together while Jakartans choke

Industry, officials in bed together while Jakartans choke

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As long as the city administration continues to treat industry as
its cash cow, officials will remain blind to environmental damage
caused by business, environmental groups say.

Indonesian Center for Environmental Law senior researcher
Sukanda Husin told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that
environmental regulations were strong enough but the
administration lacked the will to enforce them.

Sukanda was speaking after Clean Air is Our Right, a
discussion also involving non-government organizations Pelangi,
the Asia Foundation, the United States-Asia Environmental
Partnership and the United States Agency for International
Development.

Environmental Task Force chairman Ahmad Safrudin said the
administration and industry colluded at the expense of the
public's right to a cleaner environment.

It is common knowledge that companies bribe officials to
escape punishment, he said.

The discussion was aimed at finding solutions to numerous
loopholes in regulations regarding air pollution control.

Speakers at the discussion implied that the regulations --
among others Law No. 23/1997 on environment management and
Governmental Decree No. 41/1999 on air pollution control -- were
ineffective, saying air quality in Indonesia had reached
disturbing levels.

Jakarta's air quality is considered among the worst in the
world, with vehicle emissions contributing about 70 percent of
the pollution.

Numerous companies throughout the city pollute the air but few
have faced prosecution.

A Jakarta Environmental Management Body official had said
earlier that it was having difficulty imposing sanctions or
filing lawsuits because of the lack of regulations, staff, time
and money.