Jakarta, Jubi TV– The bill on the Establishment of the Southwest Papua Province has secured an endorsement from the House of Representatives Legislative Body (Baleg) on Monday, May 30, 2022.
According to Baleg Deputy Chairman Achmad Baidowi, after hearing the views of nine factions, eight factions agreed. Meanwhile, one faction (the Democratic Party Faction) requested that the bill be returned to the proposer to be refined again.
Deputy Chairman of Commission II overseeing home affairs Syamsurizal said that initially, Commission II proposed three bills for harmonization in the Baleg, namely the Papua Province Bill, the West Papua Province Bill, and the Southwest Papua Province Bill.
“However, after an in-depth study and looking at previous experience, when establishing a new province, we do not need to make changes to the law on the main province,” he said, as quoted by Antara.
He mentioned the formation of North Maluku Province, for example, wherein the Law on Maluku Province was not changed. It was the same with the establishment of Bangka Belitung Province, wherein the Law on South Sumatra was not changed.
Therefore, according to him, Commission II proposed that the Papua Province and West Papua Province Laws need no revision. “The Commission II considers that there is no need to revise the Law on Papua Province and West Papua Province. We propose harmonization of the Southwest Papua Bill only,” he said.
After the harmonization process is completed at the Baleg, lawmakers are expected to approve the Southwest Papua Province Bill as a House of Representatives initiative in its upcoming plenary session. (*)
Jakarta, Jubi TV– Papua Governor Lukas Enembe finally opened up about his experience of receiving intimidation through the distribution of hoaxes on social media by certain groups, such as questioning his loyalty to Indonesia.
Enembe wondered why he was often stalked by certain people when conducting both state duties and personal agendas (as an ordinary person apart from his position as governor), then his activities were framed as massive hoaxes.
“Why is this not experienced by 33 other governors in Indonesia?” said Enembe at the Papua Province Liaison Office in Jakarta on Friday, May 27, 2022.
He also wondered why the state still had to question his attitude and nationalism as the Governor of Papua. He has been working as a civil servant for 20 years and to date, he remained an Indonesian citizen who upholds the spirit of Bhineka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity). “Why should we question my nationalism as Papua Governor?” Enembe said.
According to Enembe, building Papua must be done with the heart. “I also need to convey that the Papuan provincial government has been running well with excellent communication and coordination, including with the central government and all parties,” he concluded. (*)
- Two more palm oil companies in Indonesia that sued a local official for revoking their permits have had their lawsuits rejected.
- They join a growing list of palm oil firms being held to account for legal and administrative violations that were uncovered in a May 2021 audit of oil palm concessions across West Papua province.
- Four other lawsuits filed on similar grounds by other companies have also been thrown out since December 2021.
- Activists have welcomed the verdict, saying it’s an opportunity for the government to give the concessions back to the Indigenous communities who live on the land.
JAKARTA — A court in Indonesia has dismissed lawsuits filed by two palm oil companies against a district head who revoked their permits over various violations. The May 23 rulings mark the latest in a string of legal defeats for palm oil companies who lost their licenses to operate in Indonesia’s West Papua province.
PT Anugerah Sakti Internusa (ASI) and PT Persada Utama Agromulia (PUA) had filed separate lawsuits on Dec. 29, 2021, against Samsuddin Anggiluli, the head of South Sorong district in West Papua province. But the judges hearing the cases in the Jayapura State Administrative Court ruled that the revocations ordered by Samsuddin, on the basis of various legal and administrative violations by the companies, was justified.
“This ruling highly upholds the sense of justice, especially for the preservation of the environment in Papua,” Pieter Ell, a lawyer representing Samsuddin, told local media.
The lawyer representing both companies, Iwan Niode, said that the judges’ argument that the lawsuits were submitted after the deadline had passed was not valid.
“It’s clear that we will appeal the verdict because the judges didn’t take into account our administrative objections,” he told local media.
In December 2021, the same court threw out similar lawsuits against the head of neighboring Sorong district that had been filed by two other companies whose licenses were also revoked. A month later, the court also rejected two lawsuits filed by a third company against the Sorong district head.
The permit revocations were carried out in May 2021 following a province-wide audit of oil palm plantation licenses, which was started in 2018. According to the government audit, PUA had secured a location permit for 12,100 hectares (29,900 acres) of land and ASI for 14,667 hectares (36,243 acres). However, neither company had acquired a right-to-cultivate permit, or HGU, the last in a series of licenses that oil palm companies must obtain before being allowed to start planting. That meant they hadn’t started planting oil palm trees by the time they were supposed to, which is an administrative violation and which prompted the South Sorong district government to revoke their licenses.
The government audit found PUA’s and ASI’s respective concessions still comprised 97% and 96% intact forest.
The two companies are members of a corporate plantation group called Indonusa Agromulia. Indonusa isn’t a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the world’s leading sustainability certification scheme for palm oil, and doesn’t have a so-called NDPE policy that would commit it to zero deforestation, no peatland development, and no exploitation of communities and workers.
Nico Wamafma, forest campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia, welcomed the court rulings, calling them a victory for Indigenous Papuans who live in the concessions. He said the court had ruled in line with the government of West Papua to protect the region’s Indigenous residents.
“It’s better for all related parties to obey and carry out the court ruling, and we will continue to monitor this [case],” Nico said.
He added the South Sorong case should be a lesson for other district heads and mayors to be more judicious about awarding plantation licenses. He also called on national lawmakers to see the recent string of court rulings as a catalyst to finally pass a bill on Indigenous rights, which has been languishing in parliament for a decade.
The bill, submitted to parliament in 2012, was meant to provide recognition of the customary laws and land rights of Indigenous communities across Indonesia. Many of the concessions whose permits were revoked were also the subject of competing claims between the palm oil companies and Indigenous and local communities. With the companies now out of the picture, the passage of the Indigenous rights bill would provide the legal basis for granting these communities the right to take back control of the land and manage it, Nico said.
“The protection and recognition of Indigenous rights is one of the way to preserve the remaining natural forests in Bumi Cenderawasih,” he said, using a common term for Indonesia’s Papua region. “That way, Indigenous people will have complete freedom to manage their ancestral areas and can be economically independent without destroying the forests.”
Banner image: A road made by a palm oil company by clearing the forest in Jayapura Regency, Papua. Image by Asrida Elisabeth/ Mongabay Indonesia.
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