| by Andi Abdussalam |
Jakarta, Nov 28 (ANTARA) - Once an oil exporting country, Indonesia is now rated as an importer one which has low sovereignty over its energy where foreign countries can enjoy relative liberty in tapping its energy resources. This is one of the opinions raised by speakers at a seminar on "Energy Resilience and Sovereignty In the Perspective of National Resilience" in Jakarta on Monday. The lack of sovereignty for Indonesia over its energy is a result of an energy paradigm inherited from the New Order government. "Talking about energy, the important thing is to change the old paradigm. Indeed, energy is a matter involving the sovereignty of the state," Deputy House Speaker Pramono Anung said. Therefore, the government should change the energy management paradigm it has inherited if the country's energy sources are to be preserved. "This paradigm has been applied since the New Order government and we are now facing its carry-over problems. For this, we need new people such as Pak (Mr) Dahlan to change this paradigm," Pramono said. Dahlan Iskan who was also a speaker at the seminar is the minister for state enterprises who is expected to advance state firms in the energy sector. He had earlier said that the government should develop five energy sectors in order to achieve national energy resilience, namely gas, geothermal, solar power , coal and nuclear. "The five aspects will be able to fulfill the country's energy resilience in the long run if they are developed based on the government's general energy principles." Dahlan told the national seminar. Unfortunately, so far national energy policy has not yet been aimed at preserving energy sources. This could be seen from the great liberty outsiders enjoyed in tapping Indonesia's natural wealth. Thus, according to Pramono, national energy resilience would only be a dream if the people did not realize the importance of energy. He said that North Korea, for example, had based its energy policies on its sovereignty. Energy was placed as a matter of state sovereignty where the state would base what it would do about energy on its sovereignty. The same was true in Cuba, he said, where people use energy in a frugal way as they realized the importance of energy. The price of fuel oil in Cuba was the same as in Indonesia. Yet, Cuba never felt it was running short of energy. "The United States which needs 30 million barrels of oil per day, does not use its own energy but imports it. It does not use even a single drop of its fuel oil, even if it could tap it from its own oil fields in Texas," Pramono said. Yet, former lawmaker Permadi said it was difficult for Indonesia to use and develop its energy sources for the benefit of the people while many of those sources were controlled by foreign companies. In fact, Indonesian workers including those of state oil and gas company Pertamina were able to manage energy sources on their own, yet sources were controlled by foreign firms. "How can we become master in our own home if many of Pertamina's competent workers are made to remain mere spectators," he said. LEMHANAS Governor Budi Susilo Soepandji said that based on information from various sources, Indonesia's energy supply and demand situation is quite precarious. The use of renewable energy sources and the implementation of energy conservation programs had not yet been optimal, he said in a paper titled "Energy Resilience and Sovereignty In the Perspective of National Resilience. Energy consumption which was growing by an average of 7 percent per year is not accompanied by adequate energy supply. The country's dependence on fossil-based energy was still high, accounting for 95.21 percent of its overall energy needs, he said. Therefore according to Dahlan Iskan, the government should change its pattern of fuel oils (BBM) consumption because oil production continued to drop while gas production continued to increase. In such a situation, commercial vehicles should no longer use fuel oils but compressed natural gas (CNG), or electricity. "Trucks must be directed to use CNG and motorcycles electricenergy," the minister said. Apart from that, Dahlan said. in order to overcome the shortage of power supply during the peak burden, the gas allocation for PLN should be increased. He said that in order to overcome the problem of high power demand during the peak burden, PLN was now building mini CNGs throughout Indonesia and was now in trial test in Jambi.***5*** |
Senin, 28 November 2011
RI HAS LOW SOVEREIGNTY OVER ENERGY
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