Regional Candidate’s Mining Corporation

JAKARTA – Rohidin Mersyah accuses his rival, Agusrin Maryono Najamuddin, as the perpetrator responsible for the devastating flash flood that struck Bengkulu City in April of 2019. The Bengkulu gubernatorial election incumbent blatantly mentions the forest and mining companies owned by Agusrin as the cause of the floods. One of which is the PT Bara Mega Quantum. According to Rohidin, the companies contribute to the environmental damages in the province he currently leads. 

“Agusrin alsa owns an HGU permit (right to cultivate), a broad space of forest in the Northern Bengkulu area under the name PT API. That also contributed to the environmental damages in Bengkulu,” said Rohidin in the regional head candidate discussion on Tuesday, November 23, 2020. PT API he refers to is PT Anugerah Pratama Inspirasi, a company with a 41 hectare forest concession permit (HPH) in Bengkulu. One document suggests the company is still in operations in 2018. However, the company is currently unregistered by the Law and Human Rights Ministry’s Directorate of General Legal Administration. 

Agusrin strongly denies Rohidin’s allegations during the open debate and decided to counterattack his political rival by accusing Rohidin of accepting money for his candidacy as Bengkulu mayor. “The Governor accepted money at the time. How can he say such things, there’s no need to expose these stigmas,” said Agusrin. In turn, Rohidin denies the claims. 

Agusrin was the two-term governor for Bengkulu from 2005-2010 and 2010-2012 and is now running again in the gubernatorial election together with Imron Soryadi. He was removed from office and received a 4-year imprisonment sentence after he was found guilty of property tax graft in the province. Meanwhile, Rohidin is the incumbent paired with Rosjonsyah Syahili, a regent for Lebong in the Bengkulu Province. 

Rohidin’s allegation against his rival affirms a number of reports by environmental organizations in Bengkulu who exposed the extractive company owned by Agusrin. However, activists noted that Rohidin plans to release 53 thousand hectares of natural forest areas in protected and conservation zones for corporate reasons. 

“Back in January Rohidin sent a letter suggesting letting go of 53 thousand hectares to the Forestry and Environment Ministry,” said Uli Arta Siagian, executive director of Genesis Bengkulu, a foundation advocating environment issues in the province. 

Potentially, both candidates equally share the same conflict of interest in managing natural resources. According to Uli, Agusrin is said to be linked to a number of corporations such as PT Inmas Abadi, PT Adidaya Perkasa Nusantara, and PT Bengkulu Mega Quantum. He is also registered as a commissioner and shareholder at the company that operates in Bengkulu. In a special case involving PT Bengkulu Mega Quantum, Agusrin is linked through another firm, PT Asa Investment.

Head of the Agusrin-Imron campaign manager, Suharto, admits that the individual he endorses is tied to the corporations mentioned earlier but claims Agusrin will not provide special treatments for family corporations regarding permits. He even promised that Agusrin will not be involved in company matters if he gets elected as governor and will handover them to Agusrin’s relatives. “This is not the first time Agusrin took office as governor. He remained independent all this time and did not monopolize,” he said. 

In the past, the companies were not directly handled by Agusrin despite having his name in the company’s deed of establishment. The corporations were run by staff members and Agusrin’s relatives. Suharto was adamant that Agusrin will work for the interests of Bengkulu residents. The candidate had even promised to broaden the agricultural sector that has defined the province.

Meanwhile, Rohidin claims that the plan to let go of the area is for social and customary forestry of people in Bengkulu. This reason is also used to deny allegations from environmentalists that suspected the concessions would be used for mining corporations. “Not one hectare of the 53 thousand will be used for business,” Rohidin confirmed on Tuesday, December 8, 2020. 

The Golkar Party politician claims he never issued any mining permits throughout his two-year leadership as Bengkulu governor and insists otherwise, as he claims to have revoked 86 mining permits and stopped extending 16 business permits that have expired. 

Head of the Bengkulu Coal Entrepreneurs Association (APBB), Sutarman, said that the Bengkulu administration does indeed plan to let go of 53 thousand hectares of forest areas for the extractive industry’s concession permits, mainly coal mining. He claims this step needs to be done as Bengkulu has more than enough supplies. “The coal reserves in Bengkulu reach 200 million tons,” he claims.

Meanwhile, Rohidin claims that the plan to let go of the area is for social and customary forestry of people in Bengkulu. This reason is also used to deny allegations from environmentalists that suspected the concessions would be used for mining corporations. “Not one hectare of the 53 thousand will be used for business,” Rohidin confirmed on Tuesday, December 8, 2020. 

The Golkar Party politician claims he never issued any mining permits throughout his two-year leadership as Bengkulu governor and insists otherwise, as he claims to have revoked 86 mining permits and stopped extending 16 business permits that have expired. 

Head of the Bengkulu Coal Entrepreneurs Association (APBB), Sutarman, said that the Bengkulu administration does indeed plan to let go of 53 thousand hectares of forest areas for the extractive industry’s concession permits, mainly coal mining. He claims this step needs to be done as Bengkulu has more than enough supplies. “The coal reserves in Bengkulu reach 200 million tons,” he claims.

The research lasted a whole month and looked into data from various sources, some of them were from the candidates’ themselves kept by the General Election Commission, Corruption Eradication Commission, and company deeds. The data are then analyzed and cross checked between corporate ownership and the data from the candidate, residencial identity, date of birth, as well as family-based corporate data.

Iqbal then sorts out the data of regional head candidates that own the most number of corporations, which includes sifting the corporations that are owned by popular politicians. The data filtering is also separated based on its regions. After sorting the region-based corporate data he found 189 candidates for regents and deputy regents linked to corporations; 63 mayor and deputy mayor candidates; and 15 governor and deputy governor candidates linked back to active corporations. He notes that this issue is massively saturated at the district and executive levels. 

This report discovered the identities of candidates with the most ownership of the 931 corporations. The most ownership in corporations belongs to the Makassar City deputy mayor candidate Munafri Arifuddin with a total of 41 corporations, which most of them operate in the extractive industry. Some of them are PT Barru Tambang Abadi, PT Mayassa Tambang Raya, PT Purnama Gemilang Sinergi, PT Surya Tambang Papua, and PT Tribatara Jaya Bara. Munafri is also registered as an active president director, director, and president commissioner in these corporations. 

Asked about his name appearing to be linked with dozens of corporations, the Makassar City deputy mayor candidate did not respond. Our calls and messages sent to his mobile phone were not responded to even though he looked to be actively online in his WhatsApp account. Campaign team leader for the candidate, Erwin Aksa, also did not respond to our messages despite reading it. 

Iqbal found other names linked to corporations, among others is the South Tangerang number 2 mayoral election candidate, Rahayu Saraswati, and the number 3 mayoral candidate for the same region Pilar Siaga Ichsan - who is also the nephew of former Banten governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah. Rahayu denied Tempo’s request for an interview. Meanwhile Pilar claims to have owned the corporation since college. “In the future the corporation will be diverted to my younger sibling or my wife so the workers can continue to be paid.”

For the past five years, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had detected the conflict of interest between state officials and businesses in the regional head election. According to their study there are hopes from entrepreneurs to the candidate for the regional head they sponsor to provide facilities according to their interests.

Ipi Maryati Kuding, KPK’s acting spokesperson for prevention, said the research on the 2018 regional elections revealed at least 82 percent of regional head candidates who are sponsored. “Citing the study, there are conflicts of interests that are dominated by entrepreneurs and business sponsors who expect rewards. This is one of the worries regarding transactional politics or the attempt to pay back the regional election spendings by using their authority after being elected.”

The anti graft institution’s research also discovered 95.4 percent of the aforementioned expectation for business interests. There are also 90.7 percent sponsors willing to fund regional head candidates in exchange for the ease to participate in a government tener project. 84.8 percent of financial donors expect assurance of running a business. 

The large amount of expectations from financial donors to regional head candidates opens the possibility of unethical practices. KPK’s evaluation found at least 5 corruption schemes often practiced by regional heads such as intervening with the regional spendings on procurement of services and goods, cash management, grants, social aid. They also found interventions in regional admissions such as retributions and taxes up to regional income from government central. KPK also found interventions in the aspect of permits such as providing recommendations, issuing permits, up to blackmail, there is also abuse of authority in the process of auctioning job positions. 

This year, the KPK has once again studied the backgrounds of the regional head candidates who participate in the 2020 Pilkada and found that businesses or private sectors dominate with 45 percent. The rest or 38 percent came from bureaucrats and 17 percent were legislators. Ipi Maryati suspects electoral candidates with business backgrounds will be higher considering that the previous incumbent regional head candidates have business backgrounds. 

Researcher from the Institute of Research, Education and Information of Social and Economic Affairs (LP3ES), Wijayanto, said these findings confirm that regional head candidates are massively backed by major financiers linked to corporations. It is not impossible to think that this would spark conflict of interest and policies that would only benefit a few groups. “When corporations finance the Pilkada election, the policies produced by regional leaders will tend to benefit capital owners instead of the public.”