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More religious groups reject mining concessions
Major religious organizations in the country have signaled that they will turn down the government’s offer to grant them mining concessions, citing the industry’s potentially harmful environmental effects.
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Economic machine: Smoke billows out of chimneys on July 28, 2023, at a nickel mine operated by PT Vale Indonesia in Sorowako, South Sulawesi. Indonesia acquired the company through a divestment mechanism earlier this year. (AFP/Hariandi Hafid )
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ajor religious organizations in the country have signaled that they will turn down the government’s offer to grant them mining concessions, citing the industry’s potentially harmful environmental effects.
The groups were responding to a controversial government regulation (PP) issued by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo that allows religious organizations to manage state-owned mines, an opportunity seized immediately by the country’s largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).
Abdul Mu’ti, the general secretary of the country’s other major Islamic group, Muhammadiyah, said the organization would carefully consider the opportunity as mining operations could have negative impacts on the public and Indonesia as a whole.
“Muhammadiyah will not be hasty and will measure our own abilities so that the mining management does not cause any problems for the organization, the people or the nation,” Abdul said on social media on Monday, adding that the organization needed to be “extra careful”.
He told The Jakarta Post two days later, on Wednesday, that no internal discussion on whether to apply for a mining permit had taken place.
Read also: NU mining permits slammed as pork barrel politics
Meanwhile, former Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin proposed that the group should flatly reject the offer because it would bring more harm than good.
