Megawati rapped for neglecting environment

Megawati rapped for neglecting environment

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Environmental experts have criticized President Megawati
Soekarnoputri for failing to address serious environmental
problems in her annual report to the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR), saying it reflected the government's lack of
concern for the issue.

Megawati did not mention environmental issues in her speech on
Friday, in which she focused on the government's efforts to
eradicate separatism and terrorism.

"It shows that the government and political parties have no
idea about how to address the environmental problems we are
facing," former state minister for the environment Sarwono
Kusumaatmadja said on Saturday in Sukabumi, West Java.

He was speaking to The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of an
annual gathering of recipients of Sampoerna Foundation
scholarships.

Sarwono said the government should not ignore strategic issues
such as education, health and the environment.

"The government should inform the public about the latest
situation in these sectors, and what it has been doing to improve
the situation," he said.

Longgena Ginting, executive director of the Indonesian Forum
for the Environment (Walhi), concurred with Sarwono.

"Megawati's regime is one that has no clear environmental
agenda," he said on Sunday.

Megawati presented her report to MPR members on Friday,
claiming successes in the areas of political stability, national
security, the drive against terrorism and the economy.

The speech also emphasized the government's determination to
wipe out separatism in Aceh, Papua and other troubled areas.

However, the president was low-key on her cabinet's
performance in addressing other crucial issues such as
corruption, and did not even mention education, health, and the
environment.

Indonesia has seen serious environmental destruction as the
result of unchecked deforestation and illegal logging in its
forests, including protected ones, across the country.

Disasters like landslides, floods, droughts and forest fires
are annual problems in the country, all of which are blamed on
severe deforestation and illegal logging. These disasters inflict
billions of dollars of losses on the country ever year.

In some areas, the disasters have claimed hundreds of lives.

Water and air pollution as well as industrial waste also pose
a serious threat to human health due to poor management and
control on the part of the authorities.

Ginting urged the government to formulate concrete action to
resolve the country's environmental problems.

The Megawati administration should focus on the environment as
much as it did on national security so as to prevent further
destruction and degradation, he said.

"Otherwise, how will we really be able to escape from the
crisis if future development is not sustainable," he said.

Citing an example, Ginting said the government should show its
commitment to upholding MPR Decree No. 9/2001 on agrarian reform
and natural resources management through the enactment of a law
on natural resources management, and the establishment of a body
to settle land disputes.

"But what we see on the ground is that the government has done
nothing to implement the decree," he said.