The Busang hoax

The controversy over the Busang gold mine has come to an anticlimactic end. Bre-X, the Canadian company which claimed to have discovered the world's richest gold deposit in the hinterland of East Kalimantan, has announced the findings of an independent analysis, which says that no commercially feasible gold deposit has been found in the Busang area.

The announcement has been a blow to many parties -- particularly since experts at Strathcona, the laboratory where the Bre-X samples were tested, suspect a willful attempt at deception. The suspicion is that ore coming from other locations were mixed into the Busang samples to make it seem that mining was commercially feasible.

Oddities, indeed, were present in abundance in the Bre-X Busang saga, including the manner in which it was handled by the government. On the Internet a joke has been circulating that novelists and filmmakers could earn a good deal more from Busang than gold miners.

Such interesting stories, which seem as if they were taken from the TV serial Dynasty, have focused much of the attention of the world press on Indonesia. Unfortunately for us, this is no reason for pride, but rather for embarrassment. What was shown was a tale of stupidity springing from greed. All the talk that has been spent on the subject so far has merely been a waste of energy.

The Busang story tells of how a great country such as Indonesia could be hoodwinked by stock brokers from across the seas. It is time, therefore, for Indonesia to immediately start applying world standards in every aspect of its national life. This means that legal security must be assured for every citizen without exception.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta