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  • Geologists Blame Gas Drilling for Indonesia Mud Disaster

    img_0641The University of Durham, in northeastern England, said 74 top scientists in petroleum geology debated Lusi at a conference in Cape Town, South Africa on Tuesday.

    Four experts put forward varying hypotheses, including the university’s professor of geology, Richard Davies, it said in a press release.

    Forty-two scientists voted in favour of Davies’ argument that the cause lay with a gas exploration well, Banjar-Panji-1, that was being drilled in the area by oil and gas company Lapindo Brantas, it said. (more…)

  • ANTARA – Kaukus DPR Desak Pemerintah Selesaikan Masalah Lapindo

    "Wilayah empat desa ini sudah diusulkan dan mendapatkan persetujuan

    DPR
    RI
    tanggal 11 September 2008," kata Suripto yang juga Wakil Ketua Komisi III
    (bidang hukum) DPR itu.

    Menurut politisi PKS itu, kondisi keempat wilayah desa itu sudah sangat tidak
    layak huni lagi akibat dampak lumpur yang menyebabkan sumber-sumber penghidupan
    warga disana seperti sumur dan sawah, tidak dapat digunakan lagi.

    Tidak layaknya daerah tersebut juga dikarenakan munculnya bubble gas baru yang
    tidak terkendali. khususnya di Siring Barat, Mindi dan Jatirejo Barat serta
    penurunan tanah (land subsidience) sehingga banyak bangunan yang retak dan akan
    ambruk.

    Kaukus juga mendesak agar pembayaran pembelian tiga desa, yakni Besuki,
    Kedungcangkring dan Pejarakan yang juga diluar peta terdampak agar dilakukan
    secepatnya paling lambat satu bulan sebelum masa kontrak rumah berakhir. (*)

     

  • ANTARA – Semburan Lumpur Sidoarjo Diperkirakan Berlangsung 140 Tahunasus Lapindo Butuh Advokasi Internasional

    Dalam konferensi geologi internasional yang berlangsung 21-22 Oktober lalu,
    semua geolog internasional sepakat semburan lumpur Sidoarjo (Lusi), yang
    dikenal sebagai lumpur Lapindo adalah sebuah mud volcano yang biasa muncul
    akibat remobilisasi sedimen dan fluida cekungan bawah tanah.

    Gunung lumpur itu sudah tidak menjadi isu hangat lagi dalam konferensi geologi
    internasional yang berlangsung di Burlington House Piccadilly London. Namun isu
    pemicu terjadinya Mud Volcano menjadi fokus diskusi dalam pertemuan pakar
    geologi dunia itu.

    Beberapa geolog kelas dunia itu bahkan berpendapat, merasa beruntung karena
    bisa menjadi saksi dan mempelajari gunung lumpur raksasa yang sedang lahir dan
    tumbuh.

    Pada kesempatan itu juga dijelaskan bahwa gunung lumpur akibat remobilisasi
    lumpur bawah tanah itu sudah lama menjadi obyek penelitian ilmuwan global. Ilmuwan
    Eric Deville dari Perancis dalam membe
    rikan
    ceramah utamanya mengatakan, "mud volcano adalah sebuah sistem bumi agar
    lestari".

    Puncak sesi diskusi mengenai Lusi ketika Dr. Richard Davies dan ketiga temannya
    menyatakan bahwa semburan Lumpur Sidoarjo adalah akibat pemboran (drilling) BJP
    I.

    Namun peserta seminar Dr. Nurrohmat Sawolo ahli drilling dari PT Energi Mega
    Persada (EMP) langsung menepis hipotesa tersebut. Karena semua data yang
    dijadikan dasar penyimpulan Davies sangat beda dengan data drilling otentik
    yang dimiliki Lapindo. Padahal data versi Lapindo itu asli dan menjadi pegangan
    kepolisian dan kejaksaan RI dalam penyidikan kasus Lusi, katanya.

    Pembicara dari

    Indonesia    ,
    Bambang Istadi menyimpulkan bahwa semburan Lusi bukan disebabkan oleh "underground
    blowout". "Dasarnya ada empat fakta berdasar data autentik
    Lapindo," jelasnya. Pertama, data rekaman tes temperatur dan sonan selama
    50 hari terhadap sumur BJP I menunjukan hasil menolak fenomena blowout. Fakta
    kedua tidak ada luberan, gas, steam, ataupun lumpur keluar dari Sumur BJP
    ketika dibuka.

    Fakta ketiganya adalah melalui re-entry diketahui mata bor tidak jatuh walau
    semburan yang berjarak 200 meter dari sumut BJP itu sudah berlangsung satu
    setengah bulan. Bila terjadi underground blowout pasti mata bor itu jatuh
    karena material lumpur yang keluar sudah jutaan ton.

    Fakta keempat tidak ditemukan "synthetic oil based drilling" dalam
    tes di berbagai titik survey semburan. "Semua fakta menunjukan sumur BJP
    masih sehat dan tidak terkoneksi dengan semburan," jelasnya.

    Peserta conference Dr. Christopher Jackson dari Imperial College London
    menyarankan solusi. "Harus segera ada kerjasama dan sharing data agar
    penyimpulan pemicu semburan Lusi menjadi benar," ujarnya.

    Sejak awal peserta geolog internasional yang datang dari Ame
    rika, Kanada, Perancis, Italy, Norwegia, Australia,
    German, Turki, Namibia, dan penjuru Inggris, Wales dan Skotlandia dalam
    konferensi ini sepakat bahwa Lusi sebuah mud volcano sebagai produk
    remobilisasi sedimen dan aliran fluida diwilayah cekungan bumi yang lemah.
    Karena itu semburan Lusi tidak bisa ditutup. (*)

     

  • Lapindo Belum Bayar Uang Muka Korban Lumpur

    Sidoarjo (ANTARA News) – Warga korban luapan lumpur Lapindo Brantas Inc. baik yang mendukung program pembayaran ganti rugi dengan cash and carry maupun cash and resettlement kini makin resah, karena hingga kini belum mendapat transfer pencairan dana 20 persen uang muka.

    Sebelumnya, warga korban lumpur yang mengungsi di Pasar Porong Baru (PPB) juga resah, karena pasca Perjanjian Ikatan Jual Beli (PIJB) uang muka ganti rugi 20 persen, seharusnya 14 hari kemudian ditransfer, namun hingga kini tak kunjung masuk.

    Informasi yang dihimpun ANTARA News, Kamis menyebutkan, kini korban lumpur yang pro cash and resetlement pasca Pengikatan Perjanjian Jual Beli (PPJB) akhir tahun 2007 sampai penandatangan uang kembalian tahun 2008, juga mengaku belum dapat transfer uang kembalian dari PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya (MLJ).

    Warga sudah mengkonfirmasi ke PT MLJ, namun hanya dijawab PT MLJ kini sedang terimbas dampak krisis global.

    Amir Suhadak, salah seorang warga yang mendukung cash and resettelement mengatakan, sebetulnya jawaban PT MLJ itu menambah keresahan warga, karena warga khawatir tidak dibayar.

    “Berdasarkan ketentuan yang tertulis, maksimal pembayaran dua bulan, setelah tanda tangan. Tapi, hingga kini uang kembalian belum masuk ke rekening kami,” katanya.

    Menurut dia, sebelum Lebaran 2008, dirinya pernah menanyakan masalah ini ke kantor PT MLJ di Surabaya, dan dijanjikan setelah Lebaran. Namun, ternyata hingga kini belum cair.

    Sementara itu, Vice President Relation PT Lapindo Brantas Inc (LBI) Yuniwati Teryana mengakui krisis global membawa dampak pada perusahaannya. Namun, PT LBI tetap akan mengutamakan tanggung jawab kepada warga.

    “Lapindo akan tetap melunasi ganti rugi korban lumpur. Tanggungjawab kepada korban lumpur akan tetap menjadi prioritas,” katanya berjanji. (*)

    © Antara

  • Safety Sought From Sidoarjo Mudflow Agency

    lumpursungaiporong

    The Sidoarjo regency administration is seeking a guarantee of safety from the government-backed Sidoarjo Mudflow Handling Agency (BPLS) that the dumping of hot mud into the River Porong will not trigger floods.

    Since October, 2006, BPLS has redirected 69 million cubic meters of hot mud into the river, triggering sedimentation that could lead to floods during the rainy season, expected to start in November.

    Sidoarjo regent Win Hendrarso warned BPLS that the increasingly shallow water on the riverbed as a result of the sedimentation could cause the river to overflow during the rainy season and his administration did not want mudflow victims to suffer yet more from such an incident.

    “We don’t want to see floods as a result of a domino effect from the mudflow dump site. According to reports from the regency monitoring team and local people, residents are facing this threat because part of the river near Besuki village is now covered by mud,” he said when making a field tour to the mudflow-affected villages here on Tuesday.

    He also said his staff would ask BPLS to take risk-prevention measures in case local people faced flooding, in anticipation of possible floods during the rainy season.” I don’t want any more people to fall victim to a new disaster in the future.”

    Chairman of the expert team of the 10 November Institute of Technology (ITS) of Surabaya I Nyoman Sutantra said his team had frequently warned BPLS of the risks and that was why they had strongly opposed the dumping into the river.

    “If BPLS continues dumping the mud into the river, the regencies of Sidoarjo, Pasuruan and Surabaya will be inundated during the incoming rainy season,” he told The Jakarta Post.

    Sutantra deplored that BPLS has ignored the new method which his team had proposed as a better solution to stop the mud leaks and to handle the mud currently dumped into the river.

    The expert team has called on BPLS to reroute the mudflow into the lower wetlands which later could be developed into farmland but the agency ignored this because it could not access adequate funds to acquire the wetlands now used by local farmers for shrimp and fish ponds.

    Deputy chief of BPLS operational affairs Soffian Hadi defended the agency’s dump site policy, saying the river has functioned as the means for dumping the mud into the sea.

    “Even during the rainy season, it will be easier for the agency to dump the mud into the sea via the river,” he said adding that during the rainy season, a stronger current could take away at least 1,600 cubic meters per second into the sea.

    He said that the dumping of hot mud into the river has been reduced up to 40 percent and five heavy pumps were now deployed everyday to help push the stream of water to take the mud away.

    Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post

    Sumber: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/10/08/safety-sought-sidoarjo-mudflow-agency.html

  • Mud Victims Spooked by Own Ghost Towns

    PROLONGED MAKESHIFT LIFE: For nearly a year, 80-year-old mudflow victim Muana has lived in a makeshift hut erected along the defunct Porong toll road in Sidoarjo, East Java, beset by searing heat and numbing cold alternately, and hoping for a better life in the near future. She has urged the government to come up with the best solution for mudflow victims from the affected villages located outside the official map of affected areas. (JP/Indra Harsaputra)
    PROLONGED MAKESHIFT LIFE: For nearly a year, 80-year-old mudflow victim Muana has lived in a makeshift hut erected along the defunct Porong toll road in Sidoarjo, East Java, beset by searing heat and numbing cold alternately, and hoping for a better life in the near future. She has urged the government to come up with the best solution for mudflow victims from the affected villages located outside the official map of affected areas. (JP/Indra Harsaputra)

    Hundreds of houses in three villages were inundated with mud in Sidoardjo in February, and thousands of people were displaced from their homes, forcing them to live in makeshift tents erected along an abandoned toll road.

    While the sturdier structures in the three villages — Besuki, Kedung Cangkring and Renokenongo — were left inundated with mud and are now homes to various animals, the wooden houses were merely turned into rubble.

    “Most residents no longer have the courage to enter the ghost-like houses. We have left them to serve as silent witnesses to the disaster that has devastated not only our assets but also our community and future,” 54-year-old Paimin of Besuki told The Jakarta Post here Saturday.

    Another resident, 80-year old Muana, said that for the past eight months her family had lived without possessions and without hope.

    “I rely on my two children and their three grandchildren who are now staying with me in this bamboo hut,” she said.

    Muana’s 40-year-old daughter Munifah and 35-year-old son Ismael and their families have been living in the four meter by six meter hut since the mudflow submerged their makeshift houses in Besuki.

    They have made their livings as street vendors at a nearby housing compound ever since Lapindo Brantas Inc., an energy company that operates the mining site in Porong district that triggered the devastation, stopped distributing humanitarian aid last May.

    “We were hopeless and desperate when our aging mother contracted diarrhea. We had to borrow some money from neighbors so we could take her to a doctor at the nearby public health center,” said Munifah, who looks far older than her eight years.

    She said many people, including her mother, had contracted diarrhea after consuming water from ground wells that had been contaminated by toxic mud.

    Ismael said the village’s residents had received nothing from the government or Lapindo despite promises of immediate compensation for mudflow victims made by BPLS, the government agency tasked with handling the disaster.

    “BPLS and the village head have frequently come here to make sure that the government will pay the compensation soon but so far we have been given empty promises,” he said.

    Many people claiming they are refugees, he said, have filed complaints with BPLS and the local administration. They attempted to stage a protest against Lapindo, he said, but the company’s middlemen thwarted the attempt.

    He said the damage to his house and farmland had been assessed by the local government, and that he and all of the other village residents had been informed of the amount of compensation they were due, but that they had never received it.

    “We are not beggars but we have been left without answers. The government should have paid the compensation 14 days after the deal (on compensation payment) was signed,” he said, adding that the deal was signed in early August.

    Besuki, Kedung Cangkring and Renokenongo are among nine villages that were devastated by the February mudflow.

    Four villages were destroyed by a mudflow that hit on May 29, 2006, creating a giant lake of mud.

    Some of the residents of the four villages received 20 percent of the compensation promised to them. They continue to demand the remaining 80 percent.

    Some of the 600 residents of Renokenongo village currently living in makeshift shelters inside Porong market said they were disappointed Lapindo had broken its promise to pay the compensation last month.

    “Lapindo committed to paying the compensation once it had finished assessing the residents’ damaged assets in mid September. Yet, they have given no reasons for why the payments have been suspended,” said Pitanto, coordinator of the Renokenongo mudflow victims association.

    Pitanto also called on non-governmental and religious organizations to help encourage Lapindo and the government to immediately pay the compensation to the mudflow victims.

    BPLS spokesman Zulkarnaen said the government would disburse Rp 160 billion immediately to pay 20 percent of the total compensation to the residents of the three villages located outside the disaster location.

    “The compensation will be paid immediately to 1,481 victims from the three villages,” he said, but declined to name a date for the payment.

    Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post

    Sumber: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/10/20/mud-victims-spooked-own-ghost-towns.html

  • Victims Refuse to Sell Muddy Land to Lapindo

    Some 69 families in the East Java villages of Jatirejo, Siring and Renokenongo are standing their ground, refusing to sell their land as part of the compensation plan proposed by the energy company being held responsible for the mudflow disaster.

    “If we accept the proposal the company is offering, it will amount to turning our land into cash, but in principle that’s not what we want to do,” Ipung, a spokesperson for the villagers, told The Jakarta Post.

    Some 69 families in the East Java villages of Jatirejo, Siring and Renokenongo are standing their ground, refusing to sell their land as part of the compensation plan proposed by the energy company being held responsible for the mudflow disaster.

    “If we accept the proposal the company is offering, it will amount to turning our land into cash, but in principle that’s not what we want to do,” Ipung, a spokesperson for the villagers, told The Jakarta Post.

    Lapindo Brantas Ltd., a giant energy company belonging to the Bakrie family, has proposed compensation for the residents.

    “This land belonged to our ancestors and our ancestors entrusted it to us,” said Ipung, who was born in the village of Jatirejo.

    Jatirejo, Siring, and Renokenongo are three of seven villages affected by the Lapindo mudflow disaster which began when mud gushing from a mining site in Porong district, Sidoarjo regency, May 29, 2006.

    Initially, the four villages of West Siring, Jatirejo, Mindi, and Renokenongo were inundated. In February this year, three more villages, Besuki, Kedungcangkring and Pejarakan were likewise buried in hot mud that sprang out of new, adjacent leaks.

    In a matter of days, the Porong district villages, near the East Java capital of Surabaya, were wiped from the map. Since then, disaster victims have organized themselves into several forums to advocate for their rights.

    Ipung said his group of 69 families still refused to take any compensation offered by Lapindo.

    “They tried to first intimidate us then bribe us so we would take the compensation and sell our land.”

    He said further he was once visited by a stranger armed with a pistol and offered a bribe to stop encouraging other residents to decline Lapindo’s compensation offer. Despite his efforts, most disaster victims have accepted the initial compensation from the company, including some Jatirejo villagers.

    According to the two-phased offer, Lapindo paid out 20 percent of the full compensation in advance to all residents. Those with deeds were supposed to receive the remaining 80 percent in cash by June 2008; those without, should have received an offer of housing.

    However, Lapindo switched the second cash disbursement for titled victims with a new offer of existing housing in the Kahuripan Nirvana Village housing complex located in the Surabaya outskirts.

    Lapindo was supposed to pay the 80 percent in the form of land and housing only to people without land deeds.

    Some victims have rejected the offer because they feel living in a housing complex would disrupt their culture and traditions. “A housing complex doesn’t suit us because we used to live in the village far from the city and we depend on vast areas of land for our farming,” said Pitanto, a leader of the Renokenongo mudflow-victim group.

    The villagers have instead demanded Lapindo compensate them with land and housing of the same value that they lost, not with cash.

    “We ended up accepting the worst possible compensation scheme because of the pressure of trying to make ends meet,” Pitanto said.

    The compensation process is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Most of the mudflow victims hope either Lapindo or the government will pay the compensation soon so they can use it to buy land, rebuild their villages and start all over again.

    Faisal Maliki Baskoro, The Jakarta Post

    Sumber: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/10/13/victims-refuse-sell-muddy-land-lapindo.html

  • Mudflow Families Celebrate Idul Fitri in Makeshift Huts

    For Supardi, the recent Idul Fitri celebrations were vastly different to previous years as his village struggled to rebuild after a devastating mudflow struck in February this year.

    As neighborhood head of Besuki village, Supardi and his fellow villagers celebrated Idul Fitri in emergency tents and makeshift houses after their homes and farmland were destroyed in the disaster.

    For Supardi, the recent Idul Fitri celebrations were vastly different to previous years as his village struggled to rebuild after a devastating mudflow struck in February this year.

    As neighborhood head of Besuki village, Supardi and his fellow villagers celebrated Idul Fitri in emergency tents and makeshift houses after their homes and farmland were destroyed in the disaster.

    “We tried to celebrate Idul Fitri as we had in past years, but it’s not the same because we have been expelled from our own homes and deprived of our rights for fair compensation and humane treatment,” Supardi said.

    Despite the poor conditions, Supardi said he was still positive because the disaster had drawn the community together in survival throughout the economic hardship.

    Residents displayed their unity by agreeing to perform the Ied prayer at the damaged village mosque, and by greeting each other according to the Sillaturahmi Islamic family tradition.

    Sillaturahmi is a tradition practiced every Idul Fitri where Muslim families go from door to door visiting their relatives and neighbors, asking for forgiveness by kissing and shaking hands.

    “We used to take two to three days going on Sillaturahmi in our village, but this time it only took a couple of hours because we live right next to each other,” Supardi said.

    Tears were shed at the Sillaturahmi ritual as residents shook hands and comforted each other, asking for pardon.

    Mudflow and gas bubbles inundated Besuki and two other nearby villages, Pejarakan and Kedungcangkrin, earlier this year, rendering them uninhabitable.

    Despite the presidential decree for compensation payment issued in August, residents are yet to receive any funding or humanitarian aid from the government. The major energy company held responsible for the disaster, Lapindo Brantas Inc., is also yet to distribute any compensation.

    The disaster, which buried four villages and hundreds of hectares of farmland, was triggered by hot mud leaks from the company’s mining site since May 29, 2006.

    Following the February nightmare, which submerged hundreds of homes, many people have left their temporary shelters to build huts on their damaged farmland in the village after having difficulties adjusting to their new environment and making money to survive the economic hardship.

    “We have been living together for years, living separately in a new environment feels awkward,” Supardi added.

    Now, the 250 Besuki residents have been living together in makeshift houses along the damaged Porong toll road and planned to stay there until the government or Lapindo pay for the compensation.

    According to the 2008 presidential decree, the mudflow victims in Besuki, Pejarakan and Kedungcangkring villages are entitled to fair compensation from the state budget but so far they have received only a Rp 2.5 million in advance payment to allow them to rent a house for two years while waiting for their resettlement into nearby villages and the payment of the remaining 80 percent compensation.

    “We don’t know the location of the new settlement designated for us yet, but what really matters for all of us is to be together again in one village and just try to start all over again,” Supardi said.

    Faisal Maliki Baskoro,  The Jakarta Post, Sidoarjo

    Sumber: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/10/13/mudflow-families-celebrate-idul-fitri-makeshift-huts.html

  • Indonesia’s One-Man Wrecking Crew

    Friday, 10 October 2008, written by Our Correspondent

    The Jakarta Stock Exchange remains closed after Bakrie Group companies are suspended from trading amid allegations of irregularities Indonesia’s billionaire Chief Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie, whose companies are already being held responsible for the biggest man-made environmental disaster in Indonesian history, is now in trouble for playing a major role in wrecking the country’s stock market, which has been closed for three days.

    The Jakarta Stock Exchange remains closed after Bakrie Group companies are suspended from trading amid allegations of irregularities

    Indonesia’s billionaire Chief Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie, whose companies are already being held responsible for the biggest man-made environmental disaster in Indonesian history, is now in trouble for playing a major role in wrecking the country’s stock market, which has been closed for three days.

    Six companies controlled by the powerful Bakrie Group were suspended from trading Tuesday on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in the wake of wild gyrations in prices that drove the group’s shares down by 30 percent.

    The exchange has ordered a probe into trading of the shares, with traders and analysts openly saying the stocks had been manipulated to drive up their price. Lenders to the Bakrie Group, wary after being burnt the first time his empire collapsed after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, are believed to have sought his family companies’ stock as collateral. The stock comes with stringent conditions and bankers worry that some loan covenants may be triggered if the stock remains untradeable. The group has not disclosed what the conditions of group loans are.

    Given Bakrie’s political clout and the fact that his companies have routinely escaped scrutiny by government officials, it is questionable how far the investigation will go. However, the disastrous blowout of a Bakrie-controlled gas well two years ago and the environmental damage it did, plus other problems, may have made him less than welcome in the cabinet of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has made reducing corruption a major goal of his administration. The country’s indefatigable Corruption Eradication Commission has been arresting politicians right and left.

    The exchange’s benchmark composite index plummeted more than 21 percent this week, the biggest three-day fall in 20 years as major foreign investors pulled back from emerging markets, and particularly those as dicey as Indonesia’s. The Jakarta Stock Exchange was Asia’s worst-performing market before exchange president Erry Firmansyah shut it Wednesday. There was hope that it would reopen on Friday, but Firmansyah told reporters it would remain closed to give investors a chance to “calm down before they make decisions.”

    While suspicion has focused on the Bakrie-owned PT Bumi Resources Tbk, the country’s largest coal miner, it has also shone a spotlight on the Jakarta Stock Exchange as well, which has often been likened to a gaming casino rather than a rational market, with rampant insider trading and traders taking control of blocks of stock in so-called “pump and dump” pyramid selling games between them to drive up the price and draw in retail investors. A classic game is to drive up the price of a stock by selling it between each other until enough unsuspecting investors have been drawn in, then to sell and get out, watching the price drop precipitately.

    PT Agis Tbk, a general trading and electronics company, is a case in point. In June of 2007, Agis was responsible for the collapse of the composite index when 20 brokerages defaulted on trades in the company’s shares worth Rp23 billion. Agis’s share price had risen from Rp300 to Rp4,000 in less than six months before plummeting.

    Similarly, PT Bumi Resources was the focus of hyperactive trading during the runup in commodity prices earlier this year.

    “Among these six companies under the Bakrie Group banner, Bumi Resources is the prima donna,” Sugianto, a market trader with BNI Securities, told local media. Sugianto noted that trading in Bumi Resources accounted for almost 30 percent of the movement in the index every month.

    Although in June soaring coal prices pushed Bumi up to make it the largest capitalized company on the exchange, its shares have plunged 75 percent since hitting a record high of Rp8,750 on June 10.

    Bayburs Alfaris, an independent market analyst, said trading in Bumi was dominated by so-called “market makers,” who are able to drive prices up or down. “It was the market makers who drove Bumi’s stock price on the exchange,” Alfaris said, calling the stock a “beautiful play” during its heyday.

    Bumi was trading at Rp950 on January 2 before it began its exponential, almost ten-fold rise. Apart from the uptrend in commodity prices, Alfaris said, the increase in Bumi’s stock price helped it succeed in its bid to acquire Australia-listed Herald Resources Ltd.

    Herald’s main asset is its 80 percent interest in the undeveloped Dairi lead and zinc mine, which is awaiting a permit before construction work can start. The Indonesian state-controlled nickel producer PT Aneka Tambang Tbk owns the other 20 percent.

    Both Alfaris and Sugianto said they are suspicious about the trading in Bumi stock movements, although they caution that it appeared to have been done within market rules.

    “What we see is that the market makers maintained the movement of prices within the range permitted by the market rules,” Alfaris said. “While it appeared to be real, in reality it was all artificial.”

    “Bakrie Group stocks have always been the target of speculators,” Sugianto said. “They are very risky for serious investors.” He added that Bumi’s stock would likely fall further once trading resumed. “Margin calls will put additional pressure on Bumi’s stock price,” he said.

    Alfaris noted persistent market reports that parent company PT Bakrie & Brothers had defaulted on recent stock-related debts, another factor pushing sentiment down. A briefing by Bakrie that had been planned for Thursday has been rescheduled to next week.

    The Bakrie family, one of Indonesia’s richest, has continued to escape regulatory scrutiny by government officials despite a litany of complaints. The biggest came in May of 2006, when a gas well being drilled near Surabaya by Lapindo Brantas, a subsidiary of the Bakrie family-owned Energi Mega Perseda, blew out into a mud volcano that so far has drowned more than 14,000 homes, 33 schools, 65 mosques, a major toll road and an orphanage and continues to produce more than 20 Olympic swimming pools of stinking mud every day. Lapindo so far has agreed to pay out Rp4 trillion rupiah in compensation to villagers who have lost their homes.

    Asia Sentinel reported on September 22 that mud and gas have continued erupting ever since, defying all efforts to stop it and inundating a vast area of Surabaya. Hundreds have been sent to hospitals with breathing difficulties. Scores of factories have heen closed, at least 90 hectares of paddy fields were ruined and fish farms have been destroyed.

    Nonetheless, Indonesia’s Environment Ministry in September gave the company a green citation for complying with environmental standards. The award prompted embarrassment from officials and was soundly denounced by environmentalists.

    Despite Lapindo’s claim of faultlessness, it is paying Rp4 trillion (US$437 million) in compensation to villagers who lost their homes to the mudflow. Most people seem to have received 20 percent of their payment but they are still waiting on the rest.

    (c) Asia Sentinel

  • Jakarta Post Editorial: The Burning Seat

    Finance Minister Sri Mulyani has been sitting in the hot seat for some time now, and now her seat has now gone from hot to burning since businesspeople and politicians with vested interests have been making attempts to unseat her. We earnestly hope she will survive this saga.

    The imbroglio, we suspect, is related to what has been going on in the financial market, especially to the Bakrie Group. Many believe Bakrie is now in a make-or-break situation as it struggles to meet huge obligations to its creditors who hold shares in its subsidiary companies as collateral.

    Now that the value of this collateral has dropped significantly, Bakrie is trying to sell off its assets to repay $1.2 billion worth of debts that will mature between the end of this year and early next year.

    As the situation worsens, the Bakrie Group, controlled by the family of Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, may make a desperate attempt to get President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to bail them out using either state money or funds from state companies.

    It seems that most cabinet ministers and even Vice President Jusuf Kalla have made no objections to such a move. But Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, who holds the key to the state coffers, differs and even resists a move that smacks of a raw deal.

    We are concerned whether Sri Mulyani will be able to maintain her strong stance in the face of mounting pressure from various quarters. Because of her persistent anti-graft reform drive at the ministry, she has established more enemies than anyone else in her position previously.

    Her reform of the customs office at Indonesia’s largest port, Tanjung Priok, has cost certain businesspeople dearly. Those who once took an easy route by bribing customs officials to get their goods out of the customs area quickly (often by smuggling or under-invoicing imports), now find it much tougher to slip through.

    Worse, several parties now claim that customs officials who were dissatisfied with Mulyani’s work have intentionally slowed their pace of work. This development has impacted honest businesspeople who must bear higher capital costs because of the slowed movement of their goods. So now both kinds of businesspeople have a reason to dislike her.

    Mulyani’s anti-graft reforms at the tax office have also taken their toll. One good example is the much-publicized zealous efforts of the tax office to uncover the suspected tax evasion of a palm oil company belonging to Raja Garuda Mas Group, controlled by powerful businessman Sukanto Tanoto.

    Mulyani has also engaged in confrontations with certain coal producers, asking the immigration office to impose travel bans on businesspeople with coal interests who owed the state unpaid royalties and taxes. One such coal company belongs to the Bakrie Group.

    But Mulyani had clashed with the Bakrie Group before this, when, through the Capital Market Supervisory Agency, she rejected a plan by Bakrie’s oil and gas entity, Energi Mega Persada, to spin-off Lapindo Brantas (which had created massive problems in Sidoarjo resulting from an uncontrolled mudflow that is believed to have resulted from Lapindo drilling activities there). This case was finally resolved, with Energi allowed to sell Lapindo to wash its hands of an uncertain future liability.

    And now, Mulyani is clashing with Bakrie again. This time, however the clash looks to be protracted, as Bakrie is in a do-or-die situation where it needs to attract buyers or get help from the state or it will face bankruptcy or hostile takeover. Mulyani has said if companies must go bust, then let them be. After all, it is their fault, and why should the government come to rescue them.

    Because of her persistence in protecting the state budget from abuse, Mulyani’s enemies have launched a covert operation to unseat her. In the public domain, concerted efforts have been made to discredit Mulyani — claiming she is “un-nationalistic” for her unwillingness to help out local indigenous businesspeople. Some of these people have even accused her of being a running dog for the International Monetary Fund, where she once served as an executive director.

    On the contrary, by acting firmly to clean up the customs and tax offices, by penalizing corrupt businesspeople and by acting firmly to defend the state budget from abuse, we can see Mulyani is in fact more nationalistic than those who have attempted to discredit her.

    The current political situation may present itself to President Yudhoyono as a big dilemma: whether to help his business friends, or to side with the impeccable and respected finance minister. But the choice is really clear.

    Thu, 10/23/2008 11:04 AM  |  Opinion | The Jakarta Post

    Sumber: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/10/23/editorial-the-burning-seat.html

  • Pembuangan Lumpur Lapindo Ke Laut Tak Menyelesaikan Masalah

    korbanlumpur.info – Kalangan pemerhati lingkungan dan banyak pihak menolak rencana pemerintah yang berencana mengalirkan lumpur Lapindo ke laut melaui kanal buatan. Seperti dalam pertemuan dengan Ketua Tim Ad Hoc Pelanggaran HAM lumpur Lapindo, Syafrudin Ngulma Simeulue di ruang pleno Komnas HAM hari ini (17/9).

    Seperti diketahui, pemerintah berencana membuang langsung lumpur Lapindo ke laut tanpa melalui Kali Porong setelah meyakini lumpur Lapindo tak bisa dihentikan. rencananya akan dibuat kanal selebar 200 meter dengan ketinggian kanal 15 meter yang panjangnya  14,6 kilometer.

    Direktur Eksekutif Nasional WALHI, Berry Nahdian Furqan mengatakan pembuangan lumpur Lapindo itu akan membuat paparan lumpur akan semakin meluas. “Selat madura itu arus lautnya bergerak,  jadi lumpur akan menyebar ke daerah yang lebih luas. Ini harus ditolak,” kata dia. Jika pemerintah masih memaksa pembuangan itu, menurutnya Pemerintah sudah bisa dikategorikan sebagai penjahat lingkungan. Karena upaya pemerintah itu akan merusak lingkungan.

    Sementara sudut pandang lain dikemukakan Mustiko Saleh. Menurut ahli pengeboran yang mantan wakil Direktur Pertamina ini langkah pemerintah itu adalah usaha yang mubazir, alias sia-sia. Sebab menurut dia lumpur lapindo itu bukan lumpur homogen, melainkan campuran air dan partikel yang digerus dari dalam bumi. “Air dan partikel itu akan pisah, jadi airnya akan mengalir dan partikelnya akan mengendap. Coba lihat Sungai Porong, endapannya itu tidak terbawa air,” ungkapnya. Ia menambahkan kalau di Kali Porong saja lumpur tidak jalan apalagi di kanal yang tidak punya air.

    Mustiko juga menjelaskan usaha pemerintah itu tidak menyelesaikan masalah, selama sumber lumpur tidak ditutup. Menurutnya ada tiga alternatif yang bisa untuk menutup lumpur yaitu penyuntikan lumpur berat, mengeluarkan air dan meledakkan lapisan tanah. “Berdasarkan pengalaman saya dan temen-teman di Drilling Engineer Club, semburan seperti ini bisa ditutup,” ujar dia. Ia juga menyesalkan pernyataan pemerintah yang mengatakan lumpur Lapindo sudah tak dapat diatasi. [navy]