President, KPK, Urged to Take Over Forest Fire Cases

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) has urged President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to take over the forest fire cases involving plantation companies in South Sumatra.

"We hope the central government and the KPK will take over the law enforcement operations from the South Sumatran provincial government against the perpetrators of forest fires," Walhi's chief campaigner for forest and plantation Zenzy Suhadi stated here on Monday.

He noted that law enforcement by the local government against the plantation companies, which intentionally burnt forest and peatland areas for starting plantations, was nothing more than just a business negotiation.

Zenzy said Walhi no longer trusted the law enforcement carried out by the provincial government, which was alleged to have provided cover to the perpetrators.

He remarked that Walhi had also urged the KPK to monitor the government budget allocated to finance the management of haze problem arising due to the forest fires.

He emphasized that there was a strong indication that the recurring forest fires every year were set off intentionally in order to ensure a steady flow of government funds worth billions of rupiah to address the haze problem.

"We hope the South Sumatran provincial government could offer wider access to public information on forest fires," Zenzy remarked.

He pointed out that futile law enforcement against the erring companies was indicative of the fact that rampant mafia existed in the licensing practice.

He alleged that massive structural corruption existed in the natural resources sector in South Sumatra's local government bodies.

"Therefore, we urge President Jokowi and the KPK to take over the law enforcement process and initiate action against the companies responsible for starting peatland and forest fires," he added. (WDY)