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The country’s second-largest Islamic organization has given its backing to calls for a judicial review of the 2009 Mining Law, which it argues is riddled with unfair provisions.

Din Syamsuddin, the chairman of Muhammadiyah, said on Wednesday that the law included many articles that benefited foreign investors instead of domestic stakeholders.

“The problems of unfairness, exploitation of our natural resources and poverty can all be dealt with as religious problems, so we as a religious organization feel compelled to do something out of a sense of shared responsibility,” he said.

Din, speaking during a visit to the Muhammadiyah office by a coalition of civil society groups from mining areas in Papua and Kalimantan, said the unfairness could be seen in the dire living conditions in those two regions, which hold most of the country’s natural resource wealth.

He said those kinds of economic policies left the local community out of the development loop by depriving them of the trickle-down effects from the mining in their region, instead leading to a trickle-up effect in which only the owners of the mines profited.

“We should use this opportunity to work together to amend development and investment policies and devise those that don’t disenfranchise the local people,” Din said.

He added that policies that favored foreign investors and bore no positive impact for local stakeholders should be seen as a common enemy of all religious groups in the country.

“This is a rallying point for all of us as we strive for a shared goal,” Din said. “Religions may differ in theology, but we all abide by the same sense of morals.”

Opponents of the mining law are seeking a judicial review against it at the Constitutional Court, claiming it allows foreign operators a free hand in operating mines in the country with little obligation to give back to the community.

Thamrin Sihite, the director general of minerals and mining at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, denied the law was “foreign-minded” as alleged by its opponents.

“If the law is said to be foreign-minded, show me which part of it is,” he said.

“It’s OK if they want to lodge a judicial review against it, but they must first argue their point.”

Investors also initially balked at the law shortly after its passage, warning it could make investing in the mining sector more complicated.

Under the law, regional governments, not the central government, issue mining licenses. The law also reduces the lifespan of the new licenses to 20 years, down from 40 years in the previous law, and requires miners to set aside 25 percent of their production for sale in Indonesia.

Miners have pointed out that 20 years is too short a time frame for a long-term business such as mining.

 

Additional reporting from Faisal Maliki Baskoro