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Wiranto, Golfried Siregar and eco films

Hey, I’m not a big fan of Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister, and former army general, Wiranto, but like so many others, I was aghast when I heard that he had been stabbed by an assailant, later suspected to be affiliated with Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) linked to the Islamic State (IS) movement

Julia Suryakusuma (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, October 16, 2019

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Wiranto, Golfried Siregar and eco films

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span>Hey, I’m not a big fan of Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister, and former army general, Wiranto, but like so many others, I was aghast when I heard that he had been stabbed by an assailant, later suspected to be affiliated with Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) linked to the Islamic State (IS) movement.

Why the attack, and why Wiranto?

His appointment as minister was more than a little controversial as he is said to have played a significant role “in facilitating human rights violations by the Indonesian Army and Jakarta-backed militias” in former East Timor and also in similar activities during the 1998 May riots.

There have been three motives suggested as to why Wiranto was targeted and none have to do with his past. One, that it was engineered by a rival as he is tipped to be a strong candidate for being reappointed security minister.

Two, that the attack was perpetrated by a radical group as he is seen as serving a regime they consider un-Islamic. Three, that the attack was fabricated to justify greater security measures and a harsher crackdown on Islamic extremism.

Whatever the reasons behind the stabbing, it is seen as an attack on the state. The title of one of the many articles in this paper related to the incident was “Indonesia on alert after minister attacked”.

Exactly a week before the Wiranto stabbing, another incident in Medan, North Sumatra, claimed the life of Golfried Siregar, 34, an environmental lawyer and grassroots activist. The police concluded that his death was the result of a motorcycle accident, a single-vehicle crash.

They said he was drunk, and that they found alcohol in his system. Six days after his death? Alcohol evaporates quickly Pak polisi! And where is the autopsy report anyway? Witnesses say before the accident Siregar only drank coffee and bottled tea.

The police have also stopped their investigation into the forgery of the signature of Onrizal, a forestry researcher from the University of North Sumatra, on an environmental impact analysis report (Amdal), a key permit, for the Batang Toru hydropower dam project. Given that the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) regards the Amdal as being flawed legally and in substance, Onrizal would have never signed it.

But guess what? Under the draconian Electronic Information and Transactions Law, Onrizal is now being sued by the PR firm hired by the North Sumatra Hydro Energy (NSHE) company contracted to build the dam. Talk about ironic!

Regarding Siregar’s death, Andreas Harsono, senior Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch stated that “his death under suspicious circumstances demands a prompt, thorough investigation into all those implicated”.

Siregar had acted to represent Walhi “in a lawsuit against North Sumatra’s governor over his 2017 approval of the construction of the US$1.5 billion Batang Toru hydroelectric dam” to be carried out by NSHE.

In his report, Andreas wrote, “Siregar was […] taking part in a legal case concerning an alleged forged signature in the Batang Toru dam’s environmental assessment report [and] involved in other controversial North Sumatra litigations”.

Siregar had in fact received threats, so it is hardly surprising that many think he was murdered. After all, environmental killings are a thing: activists, members of indigenous communities and journalists who report on these issues get murdered. Last year, 164 activists were murdered worldwide. In 2017, the figure was 201. Gulp!

It’s a classic situation: capital versus the environment. The government typically is with capital, which in the case of the Batang Toru dam, is from China.

Who’s afraid of China? Well, maybe everyone should be, especially if they know that the Batang Toru dam is part of a Chinese government global strategy called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It’s described by the Alliance of Environmental Researchers (ALERT) as being a “global labyrinth of some 7,000 infrastructure and extractive-industry projects that will span much of the planet” and will cut into many of the remaining wild ecosystems. Oh no! Bye, bye biodiversity!

The BRI involves infrastructure development and investments in 152 countries. 152 countries? No kidding! A means to Chinese dominance in global affairs and more?

The BRI has a targeted completion date of 2049, which happens to be the People’s Republic of China’s 100th anniversary. Aah, so that’s how the most populous country in the world celebrates its 100th anniversary!

According to ALERT, the area where the dam is to be constructed cuts across a forest that is the habitat of the Tapanuli orangutan, the rarest species of great ape in the world. There are now only about 800 left.

The dam would also reduce and fragment the land, cutting through some of the most biologically diverse rainforests, “greatly increasing its vulnerability to illegal poaching, fires, deforestation, mining and logging”.

Not surprisingly, there has been a flurry of protests against the construction of the Batang Toru dam, not just in Indonesia, but also around the world.

The attack on Wiranto was given wide press coverage, the death of Siregar much less so, although its implications have a much greater impact on humankind.

As then-United States president Barack Obama said in 2016, “the media absolutely overstates the risk of terrorism, when climate change and epidemics affect far more people […] there are many more people on an annual basis who have to confront the impact of climate change or the spread of a disease”.

Oh dear! What can we, as individual citizens, do about all this? About terrorism, possibly nothing, but about climate change, we can all do something.

Currently, from Oct. 11 to 20, the Eco Film Festival is screening 13 films in Jakarta on various aspects of climate change, which raises awareness of our over-consumeristic habits, the pollution caused by fossil fuels, how plastic is choking the world, the devastating effects of animal agriculture on climate change, the increasing chaos and inhumanity of urban living, and much more.

Reading about the attack on Wiranto may be intriguing, but most likely it doesn’t impact your life. Go instead to watch the films at the Eco Film Festival, and be inspired to change!

Go vegan, at least vegetarian or flexitarian, and drastically change your climate crisis inducing habits! If you don’t, shame on you because it means you are killing the future of your children, as Greta Thunberg said in her scathing and tearful United Nations address.

And maybe the media should publish more articles titled “Indonesia on alert — for attacks on the environment”!

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