Jakarta, Sept 14 (Antara) - President-elect Joko Widodo, better known
as Jokowi, is urged to assign clean ministers from professional circles
and fight against oil and gas mafia which controls the country's oil
business.
"We hope people appointed as ministers by Jokowi are clean figures from
professional circles who have integrity and capability," Director of
Indonesia Monitoring Center (IMC) A.H. Wakil Kamal told a press
conference on Friday.
Kamal
said that Jokowi should appoint clean people to fill in ministerial
posts in the ministry of energy and mineral resources, the ministry of
state-owned enterprises and other ministries on economic affairs.
"These
important positions should be filled in with professionals not with
people coming from political parties. These ministries are prone to
being used as sources of political funds," he said.
Jokowi
should keep distance from those allegedly involved in oil mafia in an
effort to create a clean government. Oil mafia operating in the country
so far should instead be eliminated.
There should be no discrimination in fighting against oil mafia.
"The
government must investigate, arrest and take them to justice, no matter
who they are," Adian Napitupulu, the secretary general of the National
Activists Association (PENA)98, said meanwhile on Saturday.
The
government must stop the operations of oil mafia which undermines the
country's oil and gas business. For that purpose, the government set a
priority scale.
"We have to make a priority scale to settle the
big issue as there is a lot of ones. Mafia inside the policy making is
more dangerous," Adian added.
To
clean mafia elements from inside, IMC Director Kamal suggested that
Jokowi should study the track records of people he would appoint as his
ministers.
"Jokowi
must soon declare that people around him are clean from mafia and
corruption. There are still a lot of clean people such as academicians
and practitioners he could assign so that his cabinet will be clean and
respected. We also call on Jokowi not to be intervened, including by
Megawati Soekarnoputri (leader of the PDIP party who nominated him),"
stated Kamal.
Kamal
suggested that Jokowi should cooperate with the Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK) and the Financial Transaction Analysis and Report
Center (PPATK) in tracing the track records of his would-be ministers.
By
appointing clean ministers, Jokowi will be able to fight
indiscriminately oil and gas mafia and other abuses of state money.
PENA
98 Secretary General Adian Napitupulu even offered himself to be
appointed as a member of an Anti Oil and Gas Mafia Task Force, promising
he would help crack down on the country's oil and gas mafia.
"We
are ready to do the job if Jokowi assign us. We are ready to lead it.
We will take immediate concrete steps to stop illegal activities in the
oil and gas sectors," he said.
Jokowi's
intention to set up a task force to fight oil and gas mafia is a good
plan but the task force should act objectively.
"I
think it is a good plan as long as the task force is objective and
indiscriminate," energy economic observer Marwan Batubara said earlier.
Marwan said that if a task force is really set up, it should have
commitment to fighting oil mafia without discrimination. However, it
should not happen that it would adversely create a new form of mafia.
In the meantime, researcher Salamuddin Daeng of the Institute for
Global Justice expressed fear that the formation of an anti oil and gas
mafia could turn out to adversely create a new mafia.
"Before setting up a task force, the government should first understand
well how a mafia was formed. If the government tries to crack down on
it with the establishment of a task force, it seems that it fails to
understand comprehensively how the mafia was set up," Salamuddin said on
Thursday.
Fighting
mafia in that way (by a task force) indicates that one did not
understand the philosophy and history of oil and gas mafia and how it
works.
"Further,
it will be worse if the anti-mafia task force comprised people who have
previously been involved in or main actors in the oil and gas business
in Indonesia," he said.
He therefore expressed fear that big
time mafia people, both outside and inside the government, would remain
to be untouched by the law. Thus, the oil and gas mafia elimination
campaign would only become a lip service.
"The Jokowi - Jusuf Kalla government should learn the history how the
mafia was formed so that it will be able to take effective strategies to
overcome it," Salamuddin Daeng said.
He said that the presence of mafia was in line with the liberalization,
a move that only undermined the principles of Constitution, especially
in the oil and gas sector. Mafia became stronger and stronger as the
role of the state in national oil and gas management continued to
decine.
As
a result, according to Salamuddin, the oil and gas sectors were
controlled by international companies in cooperation with domestic
syndicates who capitalized on mafia inside the oil and gas institutions,
including government institutions.
"The
oil and gas Mafia works in all oil and gas business chains: in the
upstream to downstream sectors, in the awarding of oil production
sharing contracts that disadvantaged the state, in the production
manipulation, in oil and gas export and import and in theft of
subsidized oil for resale to the private sector and overseas," he
explained.
As a matter of fact, foreign oil mafia has also operated in the
upstream area. "They manipulated the oil and gas business by marking up
cost recovery funds, manipulating the number of oil wells, manipulating
production figures and manipulating production sharing values and
taxes," remarked Salamuddin.
In the downstream sector, oil and gas mafia also thrived and
manipulated the state oil share handed over by contractors, abused
subsidy funds from the state budget and stole subsidized oil to be sold
to industry and abroad.
He said that the oil mafia also play roles in important institutions
such as the ministry of energy and mineral resources, SKK Migas (oil and
gas regulator), BPH Migas(Upstream oil and gas regulator), state-owned
oil firm Pertamina and PN Gas (state gas distributor firm).
"The institutions serve as money machines for the mafia bosses who in
general occupy higher political positions," Salamuddin explained.
Salamuddin is of the view that if Jokowi fights against the oil mafia
by using another mafia approach, it will only worsen further the energy
resilience in the future.
Therefore, economic political observer Ichsanuddin Noorsy said that one
of the ways to crack down on oil mafia is to disband the SKK Migas. But
its functions should not be given to Pertamina.
"To close doors for the oil and gas mafia, the SKK Migas functions, if
already disbanded, should not be given to Pertmina. I think the people
know why I do not suggest it be returned to Pertmina," noted
Ichsanuddin.
He said that he and other observers had since long called for the closure of SKK Migas.
If the SKK Migas is closed, he said, its functions should be given to a new state-owned company.
"The idea is to establish a new state company in oil investment, export
and import sectors. This new state company will export and import oil
directly without using a third party," Ichsanuddin said.***2***
(T.A014/H-YH)
(T.A014/A/A. Abdussalam/A/Yosep) 14-09-2014 16:05: |
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