Nabiel under fire for alleged incompetence
Nabiel under fire for alleged incompetence
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta
Non-governmental organizations called Minister of the Environment
Nabiel Makarim incompetent on Wednesday, but stopped short of
urging him to resign.
The criticism was lodged by the Indonesian Forum for the
Environment (Walhi), the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) and the
Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam).
The NGOs sent a motion of no confidence to the minister and
appealed to the next president not to reappoint Nabiel for a
another five-year team in office.
Nabiel has been known to criticize the government's policies
on the environment, but that was before he was appointed minister
by President Megawati Soekarnoputri in 2001.
"Pak Nabiel is my colleague. I am really upset that he cannot
do his job well," Walhi director Longgena Ginting said during at
a press conference in Jakarta.
Jatam coordinator Siti Maimunah said her organization had come
to the same conclusion that the minister had failed to
demonstrate his commitment to environmental conservation and
sustainable development.
She said there were at least seven cases in which Nabiel
failed to protect the environment, including the issuance of a
permit for mining in protected forests and his tardy response to
the leak at the Balongan oil refinery in Indramayu, West Java.
Other cases were the landslides in the Grasberg area of PT
Freeport Indonesia in Papua, widespread sand dredging from
coastal areas in Riau, pollution blamed on PT Newmont Minahasa
Raya (NMR) in North Sulawesi, and environmental damage allegedly
caused by PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT) in Sumbawa, Maimunah
added.
She explained that the leak at state-owned oil and gas company
Pertamina's Balongan refinery, which has not been repaired since
November 2002, had caused pollution along a 25-kilometer stretch
along the coastline off Indramayu.
Local people collected 221 kilograms of oil from the coastal
area in January last year.
Maimunah said PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) has, since 1996,
dumped four tons of tailing into Buyat Bay, which caused health
problems and reduced the income of local fishermen.
A three-month old infant, Andini Lesun, has died, apparently
because of the pollutants emanating from Newmont, she said. The
baby suffered from skin diseases and a skull abnormality since
birth.
Walhi policy campaigner P. Raja Siregar said that a series of
analyses on the sediment around the Buyat Bay showed a high level
of arsenic and mercury in fish.
Environmental activists have found many dead fish after the
opening of the NMR mine in 1996, he added.
"The findings from the various groups are basically the same
that there are dangerous pollutants," he said.