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Freeport threatened legal action against RI: Setya
Under fire: House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto faces journalists after meeting with Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, then chief of the Presidential Office, at Wisma Negara in Jakarta on Jan
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Under fire: House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto faces journalists after meeting with Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, then chief of the Presidential Office, at Wisma Negara in Jakarta on Jan. 1. Setya faces mounting criticism for allegedly misusing the names of the President and Vice President and attempting to trade governmental favors for shares in Freeport Indonesia. (Kompas/Dany Permana) (Kompas/Dany Permana)
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span class="inline inline-center">Under fire: House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto faces journalists after meeting with Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, then chief of the Presidential Office, at Wisma Negara in Jakarta on Jan. 1. Setya faces mounting criticism for allegedly misusing the names of the President and Vice President and attempting to trade governmental favors for shares in Freeport Indonesia. (Kompas/Dany Permana)
House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto says that gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia has threatened to bring legal action against the Indonesian government if does not immediately extend its mining contract (KK) until 2041.
The lawmaker said the threat emerged during his conversations with a Freeport executive with whom he had three separate meetings.
Outside his house on Wednesday evening, Setya detailed the chronology of the three meetings.
He said his first meeting with Freeport president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin took place in his office on the third floor of the House complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta, at around 2 p.m. on April 27. Maroef met him, he said, and asked him to help extend Freeport's mining contract until 2041.
According to the Golkar Party politician, Freeport had agreed to build a smelter in return for the contract being extended. The smelter, Freeport reportedly said, would not be built in Papua but in Gresik, East Java, and preparations for it were nearly complete. If the contract was not extended, claimed Setya, Maroef threatened international arbitration against Indonesia in July 2016.
Soon after the meeting, Setya reported the discussion, including Freeport's extension demand, to President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo. However, Setya said, the President firmly said that the government would not discuss Freeport's contract extension before 2019, two years before the miner's current contract expired, in 2021.
'The President firmly said that any Freeport-related measures the government took had to be in line with the law and in the interests of the Indonesian people, especially the Papuans,' said Setya as quoted by kompas.com on Thursday.
After receiving the President's explanation, Setya and Maroef met for the second time in a hotel in Jakarta at 5 p.m. on May 13. Setya said that as he was concerned about the pressure Maroef was applying, especially his threat of legal action, so he decided to invite a businessman along, namely Riza Chalid.
In the meeting, Setya said he conveyed the President's position of not extending the contract before 2019. Acting on Jokowi's explanation, Setya also told Maroef that Freeport's mining contract would have to be revised to deliver greater benefits to the Indonesian people, especially Papuans.
'I have never misused the names of the President and the Vice President. They are both state symbols that we must protect and pay respect to,' he said.
Setya said Maroef could not accept the explanation and instead reasserted his threat of legal action.
Unsatisfied, Maroef requested a third meeting with Setya. At 4 p.m. on June 8, they met again at the same hotel with Riza again in attendance.
Setya claimed that in that meeting Maroef tried persistently to get him to help expedite the renegotiation of the Freeport's contract extension.
'We were still discussing the international arbitration matter. We thought this was something we needed to resolve [and] that's why I agreed to meet with him again,' said Setya.
Setya said it was in the pair's third and final meeting that his conversation with the Freeport executive was secretly recorded. Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said then used the audio file as evidence when reporting him to the House ethics council. In Sudirman's report, Setya and Riza were accused of asking for Freeport shares and falsely suggesting that Jokowi and Kalla were aware of the move.
Setya has rejected Sudirman's accusations but admitted that there was talk about shares in the third meeting. However, Setya said, the shares spoken of related only to Freeport's share divestment being managed by the Finance Ministry. He also said the audio files and their transcripts, which went viral on social media, were incomplete.
Separately, Freeport spokesperson Riza Pratama said as quoted by kompas.com that as the Indonesian government's contractor, Freeport had adhered to existing rules and regulations. As the subsidiary of US-based Freeport McMoran, he continued, Freeport had also adhered to the US Foreign Corrupt Practice Act. Based on that evidence, Riza claimed it was unlikely that Freeport would act illegal by distributing share allotments to Indonesian officials to expedite the company's contract extension process. (ebf)(+)
