Judged Not to Commit to Environment, Walhi Rejects Palace Invitation

Last updated on May 6th, 2021 at 07:42 am

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as the head of state has no commitment to protect the environment which has the potential to cause natural disasters later. This was said by the Executive Director of the National Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Yaya Nur Hidayati, Tuesday (3/3).

Nur Hidayati explained, Walhi refused to attend the meeting. The reason, the bill is considered to neglect environmental aspects and human rights.

“This rejection is based on our study. Walhi is of the view that the content of this bill shows the President’s bad commitment to environmental protection. This bill will perpetuate the crisis conditions, facilitate investment, but put the people under the threat of disaster,” said Nur Hidayati.

Furthermore, she said, Walhi assessed that the background and contents of this bill only prioritized investment and ignored other aspects, especially the rights of a citizen in protecting his environment.

“The spirit of policy-making is aimed at protecting investment by adhering to regulations that are considered hindering, and not based on a spirit to improve governance aimed at protecting the rights of citizens,” she explained.

For that reason, Walhi stressed that the invitation from the palace through the Deputy V Head of the Presidential Staff Office (KSP) related to the discussion of the Draft Omnibus Law on Employment Copyright (Ciptaker), Wednesday (4/3) to discuss the matter of the Work Copyright Bill did not have any urgency.

“Quoting the letter we received, that the agenda of the meeting was the submission of written views related to the material stipulated in the Cipta Karya Bill. Through this open letter we conveyed, that Walhi refused to attend the meeting,” said Nur Hidayat.

“For this reason, we urge that President Joko Widodo withdraw the Surpres and the Cipta Karya Bill from the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia. We also urge the DPR RI to refuse to discuss the entire Omnibus Law in the Cipta Karya Bill,” concluded Nur Hidayati.