Public debate on nuclear power banned
JAKARTA (JP): A rare public debate on whether Indonesia should use nuclear power was canceled at the last minute yesterday because the organizers did not have the necessary police permit.
The organizers told journalists and participants who went to Erasmus Huis for the debate that the event had been canceled.
Muhammad Anung, executive coordinator of the discussion, said the police and the Ministry of Home Affairs had objected to the presence of "one of the speakers" but did not specify who.
Anung believed that the authorities objected to Abdurrahman Wahid, the recently re-elected chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama and the leader of the Forum of Democracy which is critical of the government.
"I don't understand why Gus Dur, who is very popular, is not allowed to speak," he said referring to Abdurrachman by his nickname.
Abdurrachman was never actually listed as one of the speakers at the public debate, but was mentioned as being among the people invited to the event. Given Gus Dur's prominence and concern about the issue, he was expected to speak, Anung said.
Jakarta police spokesman Lt. Col. Bambang Haryoko said last night that the duty of the police was to ensure that the meeting had a proper permit. "If we allowed a gathering to proceed without a permit and then something happened, it is the public who would lose out in the end," Haryoko told The Jakarta Post.
The organizers had invited three speakers, Endro Utomo, the director of new energy development at the Ministry of Mining and Energy; Nengah Sudja, an energy expert, and Leonardo Simandjuntak, an energy researcher from the Pelangi Foundation, a non-governmental organization.
Abdurrahman had earlier threatened to camp out and fast at Mt. Muria in Central Java -- the site where the government envisages Indonesia's first nuclear power plant will be built -- if the government went ahead with the plan.
The government is currently conducting a feasibility study on the plant and a decision is expected in 1995 or 1996 at the latest.
Environmental activists meanwhile have been drumming up support for the opposition of the plan and have challenged the government to an open public debate on whether Indonesia should go nuclear.
The arrangements for yesterday's discussion were jointly coordinated by the Indonesian Forum for Environment and the Anti- Nuclear Society of Indonesia.
Anung said the organizers had applied for a permit from the police three days before the meeting was scheduled to take place.
The police refused to issue the permit, saying that the organizers should go to the Ministry of Home Affairs to obtain clearance for one of the speakers. But when Anung went to the ministry, he was told this was a matter for the police to decide.
Anung speculated that the refusal was prompted by fears that the debate would initiate a campaign opposing the nuclear power plant project.
He said such a debate is necessary to encourage greater public participation in the decision of whether or not Indonesia should resort to nuclear energy.
The police refusal to issue the permit was criticized by Mulyana W. Kusumah from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation and Asmara Nababan, a member of the National Commission of Human Rights and secretary of the International Non-Governmental Organization Forum for Indonesian Development.
Both men said the environmental forum ought to sue the police because there was no legal basis to ban the public meeting.
"If we are not allowed to express our ideas, what kind of nation will we be?" Mulyana said.
The legal aid body is currently suing the police for banning one of its own seminars to discuss land disputes. The case is being tried at the Jakarta State Administrative Court.
"We must question whether the permit instrument does not hamper the public's participation in development," Asmara said.
He said such a measure violates the freedom of expression. "Anti- nuclear discussion is not a crime. It is our right to agree or disagree with the nuclear power plant project," he said. (sim/bsr)