TPL to resume operations soon
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Despite increasing protests from non-governmental organizations and locals, pulp mill PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL), the new name for PT Inti Indorayon Utama, will go ahead with its plan to resume operations in the next two months after gaining a green light from the government.
Leo S. Batubara, chairman of the 11-member team (Team 11) appointed by the government to tackle the pulp mill issue, said there would no more hindrances for the pulp company to resume operations in accordance with a joint decree issued by four ministers recently.
The joint decree signed by Minister of Industry and Trade Rini M. S. Soewandi, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea, Minister of Environment Nabiel Makarim and Minister of Forestry M. Prakosa, allows the pulp factory to resume operations on the condition that it will apply environmentally friendly technology and its environmental performance will be audited annually.
The decree also requires the pulp mill to adopt a sustainable approach in exploiting the forest and to carry out a social community development program to empower people living around the factory in Porsea, a small town in Toba-Samosir, North Sumatra.
The company is required to allocate 1 percent of its annual net sales or around Rp 7 billion for its social community development program. It is also expected to contribute around Rp 55 billion annually in taxes and fees to the local administration.
"We are confident that TPL will undertake all efforts to avoid any deterioration of the environment," he said in a press conference here on Wednesday.
An alliance of NGOs and many locals in Toba-Samosir have opposed the pulp mill's reopening because of its bad performance and superior attitude in the past. So far, 16 people, including two church ministers, are facing charges of vandalism at the Balige District Court in connection with the ransacking of the Porsea district chief's office recently.
Besides being accused of causing damage to the environment, the company has been blamed for lowering the water level of Lake Toba and damaging the roads in the province.
The pulp factory was asked by former president B.J. Habibie to halt operations temporarily in July, 1999 in response to a wave of demonstrations both in North Sumatra and Jakarta. Dozens of people were killed in clashes between demonstrators and security personnel between 1999 and 2000.
The pulp company's new management with majority shares owned by two consortia in Hong Kong and Boston, have pledged to comply with the environmental law and all conditions required by the government.
The management has also agreed to recruit as many workers as possible from locals living around the factory to help cope with the unemployment problem in the underdeveloped regency.