Nasionalisasi sebagai Jalan Keluar Kemandirian Ekonomi Bangsa Indonesia
Oleh : Riza Zuhelmy*
Perlu dicatat bahwa sampai saat ini Indonesia adalah penghasil 25% timah, 2,2% batubara, 7,2% emas, dan 5,7% nikel dunia. Berlawanan dengan semakin menipisnya cadangan mineral tambang kita, sampai saat ini sumbangan industri pertambangan pada PDB tidak pernah menembus angka 3%, atau tidak pernah lebih dari 50 trilyun rupiah. Produksi tembaga dan emas pada tahun 2004 dari PT Freeport (salah satu dari banyaknya perusahaan tambang asing yang beroperasi di Indonesia) di lubang Grasberg yang setara dengan 1,5 milyar US$ (15 trilyun rupiah). PT. Freeport yang dimiliki pemerintah Indonesia hanya sebesar 9,4% dari keseluruhan saham. Merujuk data tahun 1995, di areal tersebut tersimpan cadangan tembaga sebesar 40,3 milyar pon dan emas 52,1 juta ons. Deposit ini mempunyai nilai jual 77 milyar dollar AS. Hingga 45 tahun ke depan penambangan di Grasberg masih menguntungkan. Kemasan promosinya yang paling menakjubkan adalah, biaya produksi tambang emas dan tembaga di sini yang termurah di dunia.
Kondisi Masyarakat : Tapi lihatlah apa yang terjadi atas penduduk asli dari suku Amungme maupun suku-suku lainnya. Jika disimak dari kategori Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave, sebagian besar dari mereka hidup masih seperti di zaman batu. Dengan kaki telanjang dan penutup tubuh hanya sebatas kemaluan, mereka mengembara di hutan-hutan, mengejar binatang buruan bersenjatakan panah dan tombak. Nyaris tidak masuk akal bahwa ada mahluk manusia bertahan dengan cara demikian di tengah udara dingin di atas ketinggian lebih 2.000 m dari permukaan laut.
Hal yang serupa terjadi di Riau PT. Caltex Pacific Indonesia yang sekarang bernama Chevron telah mengeksploitasi kekayaan pertambangan di negeri selama puluhan tahun. Terhitung sejak awal Negara ini terbentuk sampai sekarang ini PT. CPI sangat mendominasi pengelolaan asset pertambangan minyak bumi yang dititipkan Tuhan kepada masyarakat manusia di Indonesia di negeri ini. Kekayaan alam yang seharusnya menjadi pondasi pengembangan corak produksi manusia malah dijadikan lading akumulasi modal oleh kapitalis asing dan dalam negeri (pemerintahan kaki tanggannya). Sebagaimana yang kita ketahui bahwa perkembangan masyarakat manusia adalah didasari pada aktivitas produksi yang dilakukannya, sehingga hal tersebut akan melahirkan corak produksi. Serta industri modern yang sehat dan bersih bias tercapai bila tenaga kerja tersebut menjadi tenaga produktif (selain mampu berproduksi, terpenuhi hak primernya yakni : sandang, pangan, dan papan, serta hak sekundernya pendidikan, kesehatan, hiburan, olahraga, dan lain sebagainya. Hal ini yang tidak pernah kita temukan dari proses produksi tuan kapitalis yang selalu diundang oleh kaki tangannya (Pemerintahan Rezim Orde Baru sampai SBY-JK dan antek-anteknya). Logika nya kemiskinan, kebodohan, keterbelakangan yang kita rasakan adalah sebuah konsekwensi. Sakai misalnya menjadi suku yang sangat terisolir serta hamper seluruh desa tempat PT. CPI beroperasi tidak mendapatkan layanan Pendidikan, Kesehatan yang gratis dan layak, Jalan yang rusak serta tidak berlistrik. Padahal pemerintah dengan mengandalkan industri pertambangan kita yang begitu luas bias menjawab ini semua. Tidak ada data yang kongkrit tentang hasil produksi PT. CPI dan kontribusinya kepada rakyat, yang ditinggalkan adalah Monumen miliyaran Barel yang telah tersedot, Kebodohan, Keterbelakangan, Kemiskinan, Penyakit, Limbah dan Penderitaan. Pemprov Riau saja baru melakukan upaya penelaahan berapa keuntungan produksi minyak bumi di Riau beberapa waktu lalu.
Padahal, dengan produksi minyak sebanyak 500 juta bbl per tahun, Indonesia punya sisa waktu hingga 10 tahun. Sedangkan dengan produksi 2,9 TSCF per tahun, cadangan gas bumi akan kosong dalam 30 tahun. Sepanjang kurun waktu tiga tahun terakhir, pemasukan sektor migas- yang mayoritasnya adalah ekspor- mencapai 25% (rata-rata) dari keseluruhan pendapatan negara (APBN), atau sekitar 70-80 trilyun rupiah. keuntungan sebesar 170 trilyun rupiah per tahun yang akan diraih Exxon ke depannya di blok Cepu saja. sekitar 137 perusahaan migas yang kini beroperasi di Indonesia, sedangkan hanya 20 di antaranya yang merupakan perusahaan nasional.
Cost recovery merupakan pengeluaran negara untuk membiayai investasi pengembangan lapangan migas sehingga pendapatan dari migas harus dipotong cost recovery dulu baru masuk kantong pemerintah. Total cost recovery yang dikeluarkan pemerintah untuk migas 2005 membengkak 50,9% atau US$2,54 miliar dari US$4,99 miliar pada 2004 menjadi US$7,53 miliar.
pembagian hasil produksi dengan KPS-KPS (kontraktor production sharing) atau MNC-MNC migas dan cost recovery yang begitu merugikan bangsa kita, Sebagai contoh mungkin bisa dipergunakan data per-migas-an kita setahun lalu. Jika menggunakan asumsi rata-rata harga minyak 2005 US$60 per barel maka dengan data BP-MIGAS yang mencatat angka lifting minyak 2005 adalah 364.376.000 barel maka total pendapatan minyak di tahun 2005 adalah US$21,8 miliar. Angka tersebut belum dipotong cost recovery, dengan membengkaknya cost recovery minyak hingga US$4,19 miliar yang harus dibayar pemerintah pada KPS, maka sisa pendapatan migas yang harus dibagi hasil US$17,61 miliar. Dari kontrak kerja sama antara pemerintah dengan KPS, sepertinya tidak ada pembagian hasil 85:15 sebagaimana disebut-sebut selama ini. Rata-rata kontrak kerja sama pemerintah dengan KPS adalah 60% pemerintah dan 40% KPS. Dengan demikian dari pendapatan minyak US$17,61 miliar, pemerintah US$10,6 miliar, KPS US$7,04 miliar, hanya selisih US$3 miliar dari pendapatan pemerintah. Padahal KPS sudah menerima bagian US$4,19 miliar yang harus dibayar pemerintah sebagai cost recovery sehingga total bagian KPS dari seluruh pendapatan migas US$11,23 miliar. Sementara pemerintah hanya mendapat US$10,6 miliar. Dari angka yang ada, maka bagian pemerintah lebih kecil ketimbang KPS.
UU Migas No. 22 Tahun 2001.
Semakin mempermudah MNC-MNC Migas dunia seperti Shell, Petronas, Total, Chevron, dan Texaco menjelajahi ranah usaha yang sama sekali baru tetapi cukup menggiurkan bagi mereka - sektor hilir migas. Undang-undang yang salah satu pra syarat pencairan pinjaman lembaga-lembaga keuangan dunia, telah memuluskan liberalisasi sektor hilir migas seperti pengilangan, pengangkutan, sampai ke pemasaran.
Alibat : Sangat logis jika agenda pengurangan subsidi BBM dilakukan secara ‘serius’ sekali oleh rezim Mega-Hamzah sampai ke SBY-JK.
Resiko Kedepan : Persaingan di sektor hilir harus dibuat ‘seadil-adilnya’ untuk tamu-tamu asing tersebut (baca: MNC-MNC migas). Sungguh menyedihkan bila melihat bagaimana Pertamina yang korup dan hampir bangkrut dipaksa bersaing dengan MNC-MNC bermodal besar dan teknologi tinggi, sampai akhirnya dapat dipastikan akan tersingkir sama sekali di masa depan jika tidak ada perubahan (baca: reformasi) yang radikal di dalam tubuhnya.
Rakyat miskin Indonesia yang jumlahnya telah mencapai 115 juta orang.
Karena telah dapat disimpulkan bahwa penguasaan industri pertambangan, dan menjadikan Indonesia sebagai pasar, adalah jantungnya kepentingan utama imperialisme di Indonesia, maka jalan keluar utama untuk membendung dan melawan arus penjajahan asing adalah dengan melaksanakan program nasionalisasi seluruh aset pertambangan dan migas pada tahap awalnya. Dengan Program-program semacam nasionalisasi, pengambilalihan hingga pemberlakukan pajak yang tinggi bagi investasi dan royalti pendapatan perusahaan-perusahaan asing, adalah program-program yang sangat ditakuti oleh imperialisme.
Ada beberapa metode yang pernah digunakan di dunia untuk melakukan nasionalisasi.
Pertama adalah dengan jalan mere-negoisasi kontrak kerja sama (Kontrak Karya dan Kontrak KPS).
Contoh :
Presiden Evo Morales mengleuarkan sebuah dekrit yang memutuskan untuk menasionalisasi seluruh aset migas di Bolivia yang diwujudkan dengan paksaan untuk re-negoisasi seluruh kontrak yang telah ada. Disebutkan bahwa seluruh perusahaan energi asing memiliki waktu 180 hari untuk menyetujui kontrak baru dengan perusahaan milik pemerintah Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB)-semacam Pertamina nya Bolivia. Selama masa transisi, YPFB akan memperoleh pemasukan 82 persen dan produsen (MNC-MNC) hanya 18 persen. Hanya perusahaan yang mau menerima kontrak baru tersebut yang diizinkan beroperasi di Bolivia. Langkah ini dilakukan dengan mengajak seluruh rakyat. Dalam salah satu pidatonya Morales memanggil para warga Bolivia untuk memobilisasi diri guna menghadapi setiap upaya sabotase yang dilakukan pihak lain atas operasi pengambilalihan itu. Tidak ketinggalan militer setempat pun ikut digerakkan atas komando sang presiden. Tak lama setelah Morales mengeluarkan perintah itu, pimpinan militer segera mengerahkan pasukannya ke ladang migas yang ada di negara Amerika Latin itu. Sekitar 56 ladang migas telah diduduki oleh negara.
Perubahan dalam kontrak meliputi aspek peningkatan pembagian keuntungan (saham), kejelasan konsep alih teknologi, dan peningkatan pajak/royalty.
Contoh :
Pada tahun tahun lalu pemeritah Venezuela minta kepada maskapai-maskapai swasta asing itu untuk merobah kontrak mereka dengan menjadikannya sebagai joint-venture atau mixed company bersama Petroleos deVenezuela SA (semacam Pertamina nya Venezuela), dengan pembagian saham sedikitnya 60% untuk perusahaan minyak negara Venezuela. Banyak maskapai-maskapai asing ini menerima tawaran syarat-syarat baru ini tanpa banyak perlawanan, karena berpendapat bahwa meskipun lebih banyak uang yang masuk kas negara Venezuela, mereka toh masih mendapat keuntungan juga (perlahan kita rebut secara total).
Yang kedua adalah penghentian sepihak kontrak yang sudah ada dan kemudian memberikan kompensasi.
Jika kepentingan nasional mendesak dan merugikan, kita berhak melakukan secara sepihak pemutusan kontrak lalu memberikan kompensasi seperlunya untuk masa kontrak yang belum dipenuhi.
Contoh :
Perdana Menteri Iran Mossadegh yang pernah menasionalisasi perusahaan minyak Anglo-Iranian pada masanya berkuasa (meskipun harus kehilangan kekuasaan – digulingkan AS), Memang betul bahwa tindakan penghentian kontrak karya ditengah jalan memungkinkan dibawanya negara ke arbitrase internasional (di Indonesia dilegalkan dengan UU. No. 25 Tahun 2007 Pasal 21-22 UU PMA bahwa keberadaan hak kepada investor asing yang melakukan penanaman modal yang dibolehkan dalam UU PMA untuk melakukan arbitrase terhadap pemerintah Indonesia jika terjadi pemutusan secara sepihak).
Yang sangat menarik Menteri Urusan Minyak Venezuela Ramirez soal kesiapannya menghadapi konfrontasi dengan maskapai-maskapai asing yang mereka sita ladang minyaknya, seperti TOTAL (Perancis) dan ENI (Italia). Ia mengatakan bahwa pemerintahnya “siap untuk pergi ke pengadilan di langit kalau mereka mau”, dan memperingatkan bahwa maskapai-maskapai asing yang terlibat dalam konfrontasi semacam itu tidak akan diikutsertakan dalam proyek-proyek yang akan datang di Venezuela yang mempunyai cadangan minyak sangat besar itu.
Yang ketiga adalah dengan menasionalisasi secara langsung tanpa adanya re-negoisasi kontrak ataupun kompensasi.
Situasi-situasi yang revolusioner dari massa rakyat sangat menunjang untuk pelaksanaan metode ini. Contoh yang paling bagus adalah seperti dalam kasus Kuba. Setahun setelah Revolusi Kuba 1959, pemerintah Fidel Castro menasionalisasi kilang-kilang minyak AS, Texaco dan Exxon, serta Shell milik Belanda, juga menasionalisasi seluruh industri pokok—termasuk 382 perusahaan dalam negeri—sektor perbankan swasta asing dan dalam negeri.
Telah mengambil alih perusahaan-perusahan swasta di antaranya pertambangan milik Yukos, perusahaan swasta perminyakan raksasa. Hasilnya adalah Rusia berhasil meraih pendapatan ratusan miliar dolar AS dari ekspor migas. Sehingga anggaran belanja negara mencatat surplus sebesar 56 miliar dollar AS. Rusia juga bisa memiliki cadangan devisa sebesar 277 miliar dollar AS, ketiga terbesar di dunia setelah Cina dan Jepang.
Pernah Kita Lakukan!
Himbauan nasionalisasi ini tertuang secara hukum di PP 13/1960 (nasionalisasi industri perbankan), PP 50/1959 (nasionalisasi industri pertambangan), PP 45/1959 (nasionalisasi industri maritim), PP no. 012/1959 (nasionalisasi peternakan dan perkebunan), PP no. 018/1959 (nasionalisasi industri gas dan listrik), dll.
Upaya yang mirip juga pernah terjadi di Indonesia pada zaman pemerintahan Soekarno saat suhu perpolitikan tanah air sedang panas sekali di penghujung tahun 50-an. Himbauan langsung dari Sukarno untuk menasionalisasi seluruh aset Belanda yang ada di Indonesia disambut dengan meluasnya aksi-aksi rakyat buruh-tani yang terorganisir.
Militer Indonesia Ga Beres!!!
Tidak seperti di Bolivia yang mana tentaranya terideologi dan setia kepada rakyat. Di Tanah Air aksi-aksi rakyat tersebut begitu mudahnya dikooptasi oleh kelompok militer reaksioner. Seluruh perusahaan yang telah berhasil dinasionalisasi kekuatan buruh-tani diserahkan semerta-merta kepada militer
Hal ini ditunjukkan secara jelas, pada Tahun 1957, dengan dibentuknya Badan Nasionalisasi (BANAS) oleh Soekarno untuk melaksanakan ambil alih, atau Nasionalisasi perusahaan-perusahaan milik Belanda, dengan Ketua Harian BANAS Bapak D. Suprayogi (Mayjen), dan Bapak Suhardiman (Kapten-TNI-AD) sebagai Sekretaris BANAS. TMSU (Tambang Minyak Sumatera Utara) diserahkan kepada KASAD. Di zaman PM Ir. H. Juanda, 22 Juli 1957 -- setelah rapat umum yang dihadiri 15 ribu orang di Pangkalan Berandan 16 Juni 1957 -- Menteri Perindustrian dan Perdagangan IR. Inkiriwang menyerahkan kekuasaan mengenai TMSU kepada KASAD Jenderal AH. Nasution. Sebagai pemegang saham atas nama Pemerintah Republik Indonesia bertindak Ibnu Sutowo dan asistennya Mayor Harijono
Jangan Takut, Mari Kita Evaluasi dan Rebut Kembali!!!
Kegagalan masa lalu harus menjadi pelajaran untuk gerakan rakyat ke depannya. Setelah disajikan beberapa pilihan langkah untuk menasionalisasi, rakyat lah yang akan menentukan metode seperti apa yang digunakan sesuai dengan kondisi objektif yang berlaku dan yang paling memungkinkan. Program ini haruslah diyakini rakyat karena banyak sekali hal baik yang bisa dicapai untuk bangsa dengan melaksanakannya.
Jika berhasil menasionalisasi sektor migas saja, Indonesia akan menguasai mutlak minimalnya delapan milyar barrel cadangan minyak mentah Indonesia (produksi tahunan minyak mentah kita sekitar satu jutaan barrel) yang dengan asumsi harga minyak internasional 60 dollar AS per barrelnya akan bisa menyumbang cadangan devisa kita sebesar 480an milyar dollar AS.
Bukan Pertama Kali
Selama Orde baru dan juga sekarang pembangunan Indonesia semakin dikuasai oleh kekuatan ekonomi asing dan dibebani dengan semakin besar hutang luar negeri. Tetapi ini bukan pertama kali kemerdekaan Indonesia dikungkung oleh neo-kolonialisme ini. Pada tahun 1950an: vergardering, rapat massa, dan semua senjata revolusi lain juga digerakkan untuk melawan dominasi ekonomi asing dan hutang luar negeri.
Merdeka adalah ide pertama yang menyatukan rakyat Indonesia. Tetapi sejak semula kata MERDEKA mengandung banyak ide lain. MERDEKA adalah jembatan emas menuju keadilan dan kemakmuran. Rakyat disatukan oleh ide merdeka karena ide itu menggambarkan sebuah pengertian tentang realitas. Merdeka bukan sebuah konsep abstrak. MERDEKA berarti mempunyai negeri dan negara sendiri, tidak lagi dikuasai oleh kekuasaan bermental rasis, bertindakan eksploitatif dan memerintah secara diktator. Tetapi MERDEKA juga berarti menghilangkan eksploitasi, membuka kemerdekaan berpolitik dan membangun ekonomi dan budaya supaya tidak hanya formal kesamarataan dengan bangsa dan negara lain tetapi secara riil juga.
Tetapi pemerintah konservatif yang menguasai kabinet Republik Indonesia pada tahun sudah berkompromi dengan kekuatan kolonial. Belanda boleh mempertahankan perusahaannya yang sudah dibangun selama zaman kolonial sebagai hasil eksploitasi dan dominasi kolonialnya. Seluruh sektor modern dari ekonomi kembali dikuasai kekuatan neo-kolonial. Bukan saja itu. Pemerintah Hatta-Sjahrir ini juga menyetujui bahwa rakyat Indonesia harus bayar kompensasi pada Belanda untuk menutupi kerugian anggaran negara Belanda akibat 4 tahun melakukan perang terhadap rakyat dan bangsa Indonesia! Sehingga pada tahun 1949, Indonesia sudah berhutang luar negeri berjuta-juta dollar. Juga sebagian dari Hindia Belanda, Papua dibiarkan di dalam tangan penguasa kolonial.
Tetapi selama 1949-1957 banyak dari rakyat tidak tinggal diam dan tidak terima situasi ini. Sebuah front nasional untuk merebut kembali Irian Barat dibangun. Semakin lama jutaan orang terlibat. Perjuangan merebut kembali Irian Barat adalah sebuah perjuangan gerakan massa yang terus meningkatkan desakan terhadap pemerintah Indonesia untuk lebih giat memperjuangkan kemerdekaan Papua sebagai bagian dari Indonesia. Tetapi gerakan massa ini tidak sekedar terfokus pada Irian. Dengan sendirinya gerakan ini mempertajam fokus rakyat pada kenyataan bahwa ekonomi Indonesia masih ditangan Belanda dan bahwa negeri masih dibebani hutang negeri yang tidak adil.
Tuntutan atas nasionalisasi perusahaan Belanda dan pemutihan hutang luar negeri juga meningkat. Organisasi-organisasi kerakyatan, seperti serikat buruh, semakin giat, begitu juga partai-partai nasionalis dan kiri. Pada tahun 1957, kaum buruh di perusahaan Belanda bergerak dan menduduki perusahaannya. Boss-boss Belanda dipersilahkan berangkat. Dengan segera DPR mengesahkan tindakan ini dan semua perusahaannya dinasionalisasikan. Sisa hutang negeri pada Belanda (sebgain memang sudah dibayar) diputihkan. Pada tahun 1958 bisa dikatakan bahwa Indonesia berdaulat penuh terhadap ekonominya dan tidak mempunyai hutang luar negeri yang berarti. Pengalaman sesudah tahun 1958, juga menunjukkan bahwa memenangkan kemerdekaan formal (selesai direbut tahun 1949) disertai dengan mengusir kekuatan kolonial dari medan ekonomi (1956-57) tidak selesaikan masalah. 1958 Indonesia berdaulat terhadap ekonominya. Tetapi kekuatan neo-kolonial tetap menguasai ekonomi dunia, dan Indonesia mau tak mau tidak bisa lepas dari ekonomi dunia ini. Kekuatan neo-kolonial (imperialis) tetap menyerang. Pemerintahan Amerika Serikat dan Australia membantu gerakan PRRI dengan senjata. IMF dan Bank Dunia kirim delegasi ke Indonesia tahun 1962 mendesak Indonesia kembali ke ekonomi liberal, yaitu bersatu dengan ekonomi dunia dengan terima dikte-dikte kondisi dari Washington, London dan Tokyo. Pemerintah Amerika Serikat dan Inggeris Raya terus-menerus membangun hubungan secara diam-diam dengan teman-temannya di tubuh angkatan bersenjata yang terbuka untuk terima kembali kedudukan sebagai negeri dibawah dominasi nekolim. Militer sendiri lagi memperkuat kedudukan sesudah bisa memanfaatkan keadaan darurat militer untuk merebut banyak jabatan sebagai boss bekas perusahaan Belanda.
Adalah persekutuan ini – kekuatan nekolim berpusat di Washington dengan sebagian elemen tentara yang sanggup menjadi komprador pihak nekolim yang mendirikan Orde Baru, menindas gerakan pembebasan nasional yang anti-nekolim dan membuka pintu mengundang nekolim masuk kembali. Mula-mula nekolim ini dibatas-batasi sedikit untuk memberi ruang element-elemen tentara ini, serta kroninya, membangun konglomerat bisnisnya sendiri. Tetapi mau tak mau dengan jalan itu ekonomi Indonesia kehilangan integritasnya dan manjadi bagian dari sebuah ekonomi dan pasar dunia yang dikuasai Washington, London, Berlin, Tokyo, Canberra dan lain-lain.
Pada tahun 1997 ketergantungan ekonomi Indonesia pada kepentingan asing mejadi terbuka untuk semua orang melihat. Akibat faktor eksternal, ekonomi Indonesia runtuh dan belum bisa pulih. Dalam situasi ini, pihak kapitalis asing memperbesar lagi kekuasaannya melalu berbagai persetujuan baru dengan IMF.
Blok Langgak, Blok Sagu, Blok Rokan dan Blok Lainnya disektor Migas Kini Milik Siapa dan Untuk Siapa?
Permasalahan yang sangat mendesak dan menjadi buah bibir saat ini adalah pengelolaan blok langgak yang sudah berakhir masa kontraknya dengan PT. CPI sejak 2005 yang lalu. Namun sampai sekarang belum ada kepastian pengelolaan blok langgak kedepan. Hal ini diperparah lagi sikut-sikutan pengelolaan bukan dilihat dari siapa yang lebih professional dan sanggup mengelola tetapi perusahaan yang mana yang dekat dengan penguasa Riau hari ini dialah yang akan mengelola. Riau Petroleum sebagai BUMD yang bergerak pada pengelolaan dan produksi migas harus bersaing dengan PT. SPR (Sararna Perekonomian Riau) yang baru diusulkan ke DPRD Riau untuk diatur bidang pengelolaannya disektor pertambangan. Dan sampai saat ini kedua perusahaan ini belum memperlihatkan kepada rakyat Riau kesanggupannya mengelola sector pertambangan dan menjadikannya penopang kemandrian ekonomi. Perkembangan terakhir DPRD Prov, Riau sedang membahas tentang hal ini dengan memebentik Panitia Khusus, ironisnya panitia ini bukan membahas tentang kontrak karya (KPS) tetapi membahas PT. SPR agar bias menjadi BUMD yang bergerak disektor pertambangan. Dan pembahasan tentang hasil tambang dikemanakan, apakah dikelola menjadi barang yang lebih bernilai guna belum menjadi pembahasan yang serius. Padahal waktu terus berjalan dan produksi terus berlanjut tanpa kejelasan pengelolaan dan hasil produksi dikemanakan.
Inilah yang menjadi alasan pemerintah pusat enggan memberikan pengelolaannya oleh BUMD – Pemprov Riau. Belum blok Rokan yang berada di Rokan hilir akan berakhir kontraknya, blok Sagu serta blok yang lainnya. Padahal ini sangat berpotensi untuk dijadikan milik kita (rakyat Riau) untuk menopang kemandirian ekonomi rakyat Riau. Seharusnya Nasionalisasi bias kita mulai dari sini.
Gambaran permasalahan dunia perindustrian kita adalah sebagai berikut :
a. Sektor pertanian cukup besar kontribusinya pada PDB, sekitar 18,5% dan sebagian besar tenaga kerja mendapatkan nafkah dari sektor ini, yaitu sekitar 54%. Akan tetapi disisi lain tingkat upah di sektor ini sangat rendah dibanding sektor industri, yaitu sekitar setengahnya.
b. Produk sektor pertanian sebagian besar tidak diolah lanjut menjadi komoditas yang tinggi nilainya, baik untuk pasaran dalam negeri maupun untuk export, seperti beras, aci (tepung cassava), minyak goreng, crumb rubber, sheet, bungkil, teh, kopi, ikan, udang, kayu lapis, cengkeh, dan sebagainya. Penggunaan karet untuk dijadikan komoditas yang lebih tinggi nilainya masih terbatas pada ban mobil dan sejenisnya, belum mencakup konversi menjadi material konstruksi dengan sifat-sifat khusus ataupun komponen permesinan yang berkualitas tinggi. Ekstrak dari tumbuh-tumbuhan untuk bahan obatobatan, misalnya masih sangat terbatas dan pengolahan lanjut dari ekstrak semacam itu juga lebih terbatas lagi.
c. Produk-produk sektor pertambangan juga belum diolah, atau sangat sedikit yang telah diolah menjadi komoditas-komoditas yang bernilai tinggi, seperti high performance steel, high performance ceramics, senyawa organo-metalik, monomer, synthetic polymers, dan sebagainya.
d. Kemampuan produksi barang modal pada umumnya masih sangat terbatas pada struktur-struktur statik, seperti tangki, anjungan, tiang listrik, badan pesawat terbang, boilers, chassing, dan sejenisnya. Produksi rotary dan dynamic devices seperti turbin, kompressor, mesin-mesin perkakas (machinetools), dan sebagainya pada umumnya terbatas pada perakitan, atau belum dilaksanakan.
e. Telah terakumulasi kemampuan teknologi untuk mengoperasikan sistemsistem yang komplex, seperti pembangkit listrik, pabrik pupuk, pabrik LNG, dan sejenisnya; juga dalam hal perakitan dan konstruksi berbagai jenis struktur, serta dalam melakukan system-design.
f. Kemampuan dalam produksi barang-barang elektronik sangat terbatas pada pengoperasian sistem produksi komponen dan perakitan barang-barang konsumen. Kemampuan produksi barang elektronik untuk pemakaian profesional, seperti instrumen untuk pengukuran dan pengendalian otomatik, komputer, dan sejenisnya dapat dikatakan belum terjangkau.
memodifikasi pendekatan dan pelaksanaan industrialisasi yang kini berlangsung dengan memberi penekanan pada upaya:
a. Memanfaatkan sebesar-besarnya kemampuan dan kekuatan yang telah dipunyai, dan yang selama ini telah menunjukkan ketahanan dan ketangguhan dalam menopang perkembangan ekonomi komoditas, yaitu sektor pertanian, dengan cara mengalokasikan upaya yang besar untuk menegakkan industri yang berbasis pada pemanfaatan produk-produk pertanian menjadi komoditas yang bernilai tambah tinggi dan dibutuhkan di dalam negeri serta mempunyai peluang yang baik di pasar internasional;
b. Menegakkan berfungsinya industri teknologi, yang pada taraf mula ditekankan bagi berkembangnya industri pemroses hasil pertanian menjadi komoditas yang lebih canggih, sebagaimana dikemukakan di butir sebelumnya.
Untuk mewujudkan strategi dasar tersebut langkah-langkah yang harus dilaksanakan adalah:
- Mengenali dan menerapkan teknologi budi daya yang lebih produktif dan efisien di sektor pertanian, baik dalam budi daya tanaman, pengusahaan hutan, maupun dalam budi daya ternak dan perikanan;
- Meniadakan hambatan-hambatan institusional dalam perdagangan hasil-hasil sektor pertanian, khususnya yang menyangkut kebijaksanaan harga serta pengaturan tata-niaga, dan secara bersamaan membuka peluang pasar bagi produk-produk tersebut dengan memfungsikan industri proses pengolah hasil pertanian menjadi produk-produk yang lebih canggih, berpeluang pasar, dan berdaya saing;
- Mengerahkan sumberdaya IPTEK (dengan pendanaan yang mencukupi) untuk melakukan penelitian dan pengembangan yang mendukung pada terbentuknya preskripsi-preskripsi teknologis dalam berbudi daya, menggunakan teknik-teknik bio-teknologi, dan dalam memproses hasil budi daya menjadi komoditas-komoditas canggih;
- Mengalokasikan sumberdaya nasional untuk menumbuhkan industri peralatan proses (process equipment industries) dan mengembangkan keahlian-keahlian yang diperlukan untuk itu, baik dalam perancangan dan fabrikasi dan konstruksi peralatan proses, maupun di dalam melakukan proses-proses alih teknologi;
- Menegakkan industri teknologi, terutama yang memfokuskan perhatian dan upaya dalam penciptaan proses-proses pengolahan hasil-hasil pertanian, perkebunan, kehutanan, dan perikanan(kelautan) dan menciptakan sistem-sistem pemroses (peralatan proses) untuk mengakomodasi pelaksanaan proses-proses yang dikembangkan tersebut. Secara ringkas, strategi dasar yang diturunkan dengan pendekatan analitis sebagaimana diuraikan terdahulu, pada dasarnya merumuskan langkah-langkah untuk memperkuat upaya yang tertuju pada pelaksanaan industrialisasi yang secara eksplisit merujuk kepada penekanan untuk menggunakan landasan kekuatan ekonomi yang telah tersedia, yaitu sektor-sektor yang telah disebutkan di atas.
Inti dari pendekatannya adalah meningkatkan keterkaitan sektor-sektor tersebut dengan sektor industri manufaktur, dan upaya yang dipilih untuk itu adalah:
• Meningkatkan permintaan agregat terhadap komoditas hasil sektor pertanian dan lainnya dengan mendorong pertumbuhan investasi di sektor manufaktur yang tertuju pada pengolahan hasil-hasil pertanian, perkebunan, perikanan, kehutanan, dll untuk menghasilkan komoditas yang canggih, bernilai tambah tinggi, dan mempunyuai permintaan pasar yang tinggi di dalam negeri dan di pasar internasional;
• Memperkuat industri alat-alat proses agar lebih mampu menyediakan dan menanggapi permintaan barang modal yang diperlukan dalam industri manufaktur pengolah hasil pertanian, perkebunan, perikanan, kehutanan dll;
• Meningkatkan efisiensi dan produktivitas sektor pertanian, perikanan, perkebunan, dll dengan melakukan intervensi teknologis, sehingga sektor ini mampu menanggapi permintaan yang dibangkitkan dari upaya yang dikemukakan di butir pertama, tidak hanya dalam kuantitas tetapi juga dalam memenuhi dinamika perubahan persyaratan yang dikehendaki.
*) Ketua Umum Komite Pimpinan Pusat – Serikat Tani Riau (KPP-STR)
Dan Ketua Umum Sentral Gerakan Rakyat Riau (SEGERA)
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Jumat, 24 Oktober 2008
CALTEX Corporate Colony
Feature
How an Oil Consortium Pollutes Indonesia
by Robert Weissman
PEKANBARU, INDONESIA <../../../../cgi-bin/country-query?country=Indonesia> - The trees in front of AhmadÆs house, along the Mempura River, are dead, leafless and brittle symbols of development gone awry in IndonesiaÆs Riau Province, on the island of Sumatra. "I relied on the trees for wood for my roof and for food," Ahmad says, "but now there are only a few trees left."
Ahmad (not his real name) blames Caltex, the Asian joint venture of oil giants Texaco and Chevron, for the death of the trees. Six miles upstream, at one of its network of 78 "gathering stations," Caltex separates water from oil recovered from its Zamrud field. After initial separation of oil in tanks from water, the water is discharged into a series of lagoons, where gravity is supposed to separate any remaining oil from the water and the water temperature is reduced by surface cooling; the water then released into canals and eventually into the jungle watershed.
Dead trees are not the only ills for which Ahmad thinks Caltex is responsible. In recent years, the MempuraÆs fish population has also declined, posing severe hardship for people like Ahmad, who formerly worked as a fisher. Now he only works sporadically, collecting rubber from area trees. Ahmad says he wishes he could move his house, but, for him, leaving his village is practically inconceivable.
Others in AhmadÆs village echo his complaints - and also pin responsibility for their problems on Caltex. Nazwar (not his real name), who says the river often smells of oil, reports that the river water is no longer safe to drink, and that those who have drunk the water have become very sick or even died. Nazwar worries about the future of the village, and wonders how it will survive with the river, its lifeblood, polluted and unsafe. "We try to make do," he says.
Caltex flatly denies any responsibility for the villageÆs problems. "Oil content of fresh water discharged from [the Zamrud] gathering station has been consistently within guidelines," says Erwin Kasim, government and public relations general manager of Pertamina, the Indonesian state oil company for which Caltex is a contractor. "The surface water in the Zamrud area, including the Mempura River, is heavily laden - in fact black - with peat and tannin and is not a typically good habitat for fish," Kasim adds. "These heavily organic jungle streams are not a good source of drinking water."
The dispute in the Mempura village is only one of a number of emerging environmental conflicts between Riau communities and Caltex. Although the company boasts about its social and environmental policies and practices, there is increasing evidence that CaltexÆs operations are polluting areas throughout Riau. In June 1993, researchers from the British branch of Greenpeace tested water samples near six Caltex gathering stations and concluded in a report that CaltexÆs operations have been responsible for "large-scale releases of hydrocarbon contaminants into the freshwater system [that] have led to irreparable environmental damage resulting in severe long term hazards to human health and the quality of both surface and subsurface freshwater environments."
Greenpeace did not test the Mempura River for oil pollution, but Simone Troendle, the Greenpeace scientist who took the Riau water samples, says it is entirely possible that CaltexÆs upriver operations are responsible for the problems about which Ahmad, Nazwar and the other villagers are complaining. How oil contaminants are spread throughout the Riau rainforest ecosystem is a complicated process, she says, varying at each gathering station according to the direction of groundwater flows, how much waste Caltex is discharging and a number of other factors. At the very least, she says, the Mempura villagersÆ complaints "must be looked into."
The governmentÆs cut
CaltexÆs operations are spread widely throughout Riau. The company operates more than 100 oil and gas fields within a concession area of 32,000 square kilometers, and its pipelines and access roads criss-cross the province, cutting swaths through the Sumatran rainforest.
Caltex, which first invested in Riau in the early part of this century, is by far the largest oil producing company in oil-rich Indonesia. Each year the company pumps more than 200 million barrels of oil out of the ground.
CaltexÆs operations are governed by a production sharing contract with the Indonesian government. The current agreement allocates 10 percent of the profits derived from CaltexÆs Indonesian operations to the company, and the remaining 90 percent to the government. Accordingly, Caltex is a highly valued foreign investor, and not likely to be criticized by the government; despite IndonesiaÆs ongoing and somewhat successful attempts to diversify its economy, oil still accounts for 31 percent of the debt-ridden countryÆs foreign exchange earnings.
Local villages polluted
The environmental impact of CaltexÆs vast operations is only just beginning to be scrutinized, and even now local villagers are hesitant to challenge the companyÆs effect on the Riau ecology.
That the environmental problems caused by Caltex have not been recognized until now is not surprising, says GreenpeaceÆs Troendle, because of the capacity of the natural environment to absorb pollution. That capacity is limited, however, and the effects of pollution do eventually manifest. That is what is now happening, Troendle believes.
It is not surprising either that the political response to the pollution is developing slowly. In Indonesia, where nearly three decades of brutal authoritarian rule under President Suharto have taught people that protesting against government-supported projects can have extremely high costs, fear is pervasive, especially in the countryside, and remote villages do not have much recent tradition of standing up for their rights.
In the Mempura village, for example, Nazwar says residents have never complained directly to Caltex about their problems. "We donÆt know how to do it," he explains.
But now, aided by local environmentalists, Riau villagers may be slowly beginning to challenge the company.
The village of Sungai Limau has been the leader so far. It reportedly first complained - to both the company and the government - of the effects of alleged Caltex pollution in 1991. But its complaints were not addressed, and they did not generate any media or outside attention.
Then, in a January 1993 letter, Sungai Limau, now supported by the Riau chapter of the Indonesian environmental group WALHI, again charged Caltex with polluting the Sungai Limau and Siak rivers. The Sungai Limau villagers reported problems almost identical to those cited by the Mempura villagers. Their letter noted that oil is often visible in and around the rivers, and they complained that the riversÆ fish population has declined so much that they can no longer fish in them. They also said that a number of villagers have contracted rashes, diarrhea and other sicknesses as a result of the oil pollution.
During the same period, WALHI Riau brought together a coalition of individuals, known as Solidarity Forum, to investigate the Sungai Limau peopleÆs claims. From January to April, the Solidarity Forum investigated CaltexÆs operations.
At the end of April 1993, WALHI Riau wrote a letter to the Indonesian environmental ministry, Bapedal, in which the organization claimed that the preliminary Solidarity Forum investigation had found CaltexÆs Pusaka gathering station, located near Sungai Limau village, responsible for the pollution of the Sungai Limau and Siak rivers. WALHI Riau alleged the water to be contaminated with cyanide and hydrogen sulfide, and polluted for a decade. The letter called on Bapedal to conduct a special investigation of Pusaka and other Caltex gathering stations.
The government did respond to this round of complaints. In January 1993, the Riau governor sent a fact-finding mission to investigate and in April 1993, Bapedal conducted an investigation. The government investigations did not substantiate the charges. Caltex touts the investigations as proof that it is not responsible for the problems besetting Sungai Limau and other villages. As he does in the case of the Mempura village, CaltexÆs Kasim says the river is peat-laden and unfit for household use. The January 1993 investigation team, says Kasim, found "the oil content and discharged temperatures [at the Pusaka gathering station] below guidelines. No oil was detected along the [Caltex]-built discharge canal" which leads to the Siak River. The team also concluded that there was no disturbance of local fish populations and that the skin irritations of which villagers complained were due to poor hygiene, not pollution.
There are reasons to doubt the governmentÆs findings, however. First, the close Caltex- government relationship raises serious questions about the governmentÆs willingness to regulate or sanction the company. Second, Ribut Susanto, president of WALHI Riau, claims that WALHI Riau members witnessed Caltex engaging in a special clean-up of waste canals just prior to the Bapedal investigation in April. Caltex categorically denies SusantoÆs claim, but if it is true, SusantoÆs contention would undermine any basis for trusting the governmentÆs findings. Finally, Greenpeace tests of water samples near six Caltex gathering stations concluded that the villagersÆ claims are valid, and that water supplies are seriously polluted, posing severe health and environmental dangers.
Black gold, toxic effluent
The Minas gathering station, another of the 78 Caltex gathering stations dotting the Riau countryside, lies only a few miles to the north of Pekanbaru, RiauÆs capital. It appears as a bizarre anachronism, its huge oil tanks standing on open tracts of land cleared from in the middle of the Sumatran rainforest. The water treatment system here is very much like those upstream from the Mempura and Sungai Limau villages. Pipes carry oil-contaminated production water, pumped from CaltexÆs fields along with oil, from the tanks to mucky pits, where the water is dumped. The water in the pits, or lagoons, is steaming hot, and sometimes bubbling hot, because the underground fields from which it came are close to the western Pacific volcanic zone. The banks of the lagoons are covered with oil deposits and patches of oil float on top of the lagoons. Water which has settled to the bottom of the lagoons, supposedly free of oil contaminants, is discharged into a series of canals, or streams, which eventually lead to the Siak River, the main river running through Riau.
The June Greenpeace test, however, found the water discharged from the Minas gathering station to be highly contaminated, with oil registering 190 parts per million. This level of contamination, explains the Greenpeace report, poses serious threats to human health and the environment.
Caltex challenges the validity of the Greenpeace findings for the Minas gathering station, with Kasim contending that the Greenpeace sample at Minas was "taken not from a final discharge stream but from an intermediate treatment pit discharge." But Troendle says she walked along the artificial channels running out of the Minas gathering station for several miles and saw no other water treatment mechanism.
Although the Greenpeace study found the highest level of contaminants at the Minas gathering station, it found oil pollution at each of the other five sites it tested. Contamination levels at the other sites averaged an unsafe 9.4 parts per million.
Caltex denies that these discharge levels endanger human health or the environment, with Kasim pointing out that Indonesian guidelines limit oil concentrations in water discharges to 25 ppm. Kasim says the companyÆs "effluent processing technology achieves effluent discharge concentrations of dissolved and suspended materials that are within worldwide limits for prudent operation. We simply do not agree that [CaltexÆs] effluent treatment is inadequate."
Unsafe discharges were not the only environmental problem with CaltexÆs operations which the Greenpeace researchers identified. Because the settling lagoons are not sealed and receive effluent loads which are then poorly confined, hydrocarbons contaminate the soil below the settling lagoons and threaten groundwater quality, the Greenpeace researchers wrote. Again, Caltex denies any problem; Kasim says, "the settling lagoons or treatment pits are specifically designed to allow separation time for water and oil. The sites will be reclaimed and remediated to full legal and prudent standards when production operations are complete."
A final problem cited by Greenpeace stems from the discharge of hot water. Because the discharged water is as hot as 175 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Greenpeace, hydrocarbon contaminants in the water are likely to evaporate, creating local air pollution, much of which can return to the earth in RiauÆs frequent rains. Caltex denies that its discharges are hotter than 113 degrees.
Cutting a deal
That the Sungai Limau villagers and WALHI Riau were able to pressure the government into conducting an investigation of CaltexÆs environmental performance is itself somewhat remarkable, given the repressive nature of Indonesian government and its tight alliance with Caltex.
Both the government and Caltex appear very interested in defusing any protest activities in their infancy, and a key element of their strategy is dividing the local community and splitting it off from non- governmental organizations such as WALHI Riau. Government representatives told Singau Limau villagers that they should negotiate directly with Caltex, without the interference of third parties such as WALHI Riau.
And, according to Susanto, Caltex has succeeded in negotiating directly with leaders of the community, without the involvement of either WALHI Riau or broad segments of the village. At a June 1993 meeting with the head of Sungai Limau village, according to Susanto, Caltex agreed to help build a few wells, make an addition to a school, repair a road and provide some other assistance to Sungai Limau, as well as to investigate the side effects of the companyÆs discharge system. These forms of compensation, says Susanto, "are very far from what the community wants."
Whether Caltex can reach a final agreement with Sungai Limau and snuff out the complaints there is likely to affect what other villages who may be affected by CaltexÆs expansive operations do. If the Sungai Limau dispute can be resolved quietly, without much local or international publicity, it will not have much ripple effect. But if the Sungai Limau villagers can force an admission of Caltex wrongdoing or extract substantial compensation for the damages they have suffered, or if international attention is focused on CaltexÆs operations, local communities and the provincial and national governments will direct a much more searching eye at the Caltex operations which dominate the Riau countryside.
Sidebar
"Responsibility"
CALTEX TAKES PRIDE IN ITS PROCLAIMED ETHIC of corporate social responsibility. "For decades it has been CPIÆs [Caltex Pacific Indonesia] policy that within the area of CPI operation, the communities and their immediate environs should grow and prosper as does CPI," says Kasim. The roads the company has constructed to service its network of pipelines that criss-cross Riau are open to use by area residents, and, Kasim says, the company contributes to the construction of schools, mosques, electric lines and other local infrastructure.
The company presents itself as a paragon of social responsibility. In the September-October 1993 issue of the Harvard Business Review, Julius Tahija, former Caltex managing director and current chair of the CPI board of commissioners, proclaims, "For transnational corporations, meeting social responsibilities is an indispensable part of doing business in the developing world. ... It is perfectly true that an oil companyÆs principal purpose is to extract oil from the ground and sell it at a profit. ... [But multinational corporations] need development. And their need is urgent, whether they acknowledge it or not." Caltex, he asserts, recognizes the need for development and has provided a model for other companies.
Whatever the companyÆs contribution to the region may be, there is no denying that the sharp contrast of the wealth Caltex is tapping below the ground and the extreme poverty in villages above ground is stunning. Ahmad and his Mempura village, for example, have no electricity or running water, and their situation is replicated throughout Riau.
It would not be fair, however, to hold Caltex primarily responsible for the poverty in Riau. Caltex pours huge sums into the Indonesian governmentÆs coffers, but all of the money goes to the central government in Jakarta. "Every year we pass a resolution asking that some of the money go to Riau," says Dr. Chaidir, a member of the Riau Parliament, but every year the Jakarta government ignores or denies the request.
Still, CaltexÆs claims of social responsibility ring false in the impoverished villages whose subsistence-level economies have been tipped out of balance by what they believe to be the companyÆs environmental degradation.
How an Oil Consortium Pollutes Indonesia
by Robert Weissman
PEKANBARU, INDONESIA <../../../../cgi-bin/country-query?country=Indonesia> - The trees in front of AhmadÆs house, along the Mempura River, are dead, leafless and brittle symbols of development gone awry in IndonesiaÆs Riau Province, on the island of Sumatra. "I relied on the trees for wood for my roof and for food," Ahmad says, "but now there are only a few trees left."
Ahmad (not his real name) blames Caltex, the Asian joint venture of oil giants Texaco and Chevron, for the death of the trees. Six miles upstream, at one of its network of 78 "gathering stations," Caltex separates water from oil recovered from its Zamrud field. After initial separation of oil in tanks from water, the water is discharged into a series of lagoons, where gravity is supposed to separate any remaining oil from the water and the water temperature is reduced by surface cooling; the water then released into canals and eventually into the jungle watershed.
Dead trees are not the only ills for which Ahmad thinks Caltex is responsible. In recent years, the MempuraÆs fish population has also declined, posing severe hardship for people like Ahmad, who formerly worked as a fisher. Now he only works sporadically, collecting rubber from area trees. Ahmad says he wishes he could move his house, but, for him, leaving his village is practically inconceivable.
Others in AhmadÆs village echo his complaints - and also pin responsibility for their problems on Caltex. Nazwar (not his real name), who says the river often smells of oil, reports that the river water is no longer safe to drink, and that those who have drunk the water have become very sick or even died. Nazwar worries about the future of the village, and wonders how it will survive with the river, its lifeblood, polluted and unsafe. "We try to make do," he says.
Caltex flatly denies any responsibility for the villageÆs problems. "Oil content of fresh water discharged from [the Zamrud] gathering station has been consistently within guidelines," says Erwin Kasim, government and public relations general manager of Pertamina, the Indonesian state oil company for which Caltex is a contractor. "The surface water in the Zamrud area, including the Mempura River, is heavily laden - in fact black - with peat and tannin and is not a typically good habitat for fish," Kasim adds. "These heavily organic jungle streams are not a good source of drinking water."
The dispute in the Mempura village is only one of a number of emerging environmental conflicts between Riau communities and Caltex. Although the company boasts about its social and environmental policies and practices, there is increasing evidence that CaltexÆs operations are polluting areas throughout Riau. In June 1993, researchers from the British branch of Greenpeace tested water samples near six Caltex gathering stations and concluded in a report that CaltexÆs operations have been responsible for "large-scale releases of hydrocarbon contaminants into the freshwater system [that] have led to irreparable environmental damage resulting in severe long term hazards to human health and the quality of both surface and subsurface freshwater environments."
Greenpeace did not test the Mempura River for oil pollution, but Simone Troendle, the Greenpeace scientist who took the Riau water samples, says it is entirely possible that CaltexÆs upriver operations are responsible for the problems about which Ahmad, Nazwar and the other villagers are complaining. How oil contaminants are spread throughout the Riau rainforest ecosystem is a complicated process, she says, varying at each gathering station according to the direction of groundwater flows, how much waste Caltex is discharging and a number of other factors. At the very least, she says, the Mempura villagersÆ complaints "must be looked into."
The governmentÆs cut
CaltexÆs operations are spread widely throughout Riau. The company operates more than 100 oil and gas fields within a concession area of 32,000 square kilometers, and its pipelines and access roads criss-cross the province, cutting swaths through the Sumatran rainforest.
Caltex, which first invested in Riau in the early part of this century, is by far the largest oil producing company in oil-rich Indonesia. Each year the company pumps more than 200 million barrels of oil out of the ground.
CaltexÆs operations are governed by a production sharing contract with the Indonesian government. The current agreement allocates 10 percent of the profits derived from CaltexÆs Indonesian operations to the company, and the remaining 90 percent to the government. Accordingly, Caltex is a highly valued foreign investor, and not likely to be criticized by the government; despite IndonesiaÆs ongoing and somewhat successful attempts to diversify its economy, oil still accounts for 31 percent of the debt-ridden countryÆs foreign exchange earnings.
Local villages polluted
The environmental impact of CaltexÆs vast operations is only just beginning to be scrutinized, and even now local villagers are hesitant to challenge the companyÆs effect on the Riau ecology.
That the environmental problems caused by Caltex have not been recognized until now is not surprising, says GreenpeaceÆs Troendle, because of the capacity of the natural environment to absorb pollution. That capacity is limited, however, and the effects of pollution do eventually manifest. That is what is now happening, Troendle believes.
It is not surprising either that the political response to the pollution is developing slowly. In Indonesia, where nearly three decades of brutal authoritarian rule under President Suharto have taught people that protesting against government-supported projects can have extremely high costs, fear is pervasive, especially in the countryside, and remote villages do not have much recent tradition of standing up for their rights.
In the Mempura village, for example, Nazwar says residents have never complained directly to Caltex about their problems. "We donÆt know how to do it," he explains.
But now, aided by local environmentalists, Riau villagers may be slowly beginning to challenge the company.
The village of Sungai Limau has been the leader so far. It reportedly first complained - to both the company and the government - of the effects of alleged Caltex pollution in 1991. But its complaints were not addressed, and they did not generate any media or outside attention.
Then, in a January 1993 letter, Sungai Limau, now supported by the Riau chapter of the Indonesian environmental group WALHI, again charged Caltex with polluting the Sungai Limau and Siak rivers. The Sungai Limau villagers reported problems almost identical to those cited by the Mempura villagers. Their letter noted that oil is often visible in and around the rivers, and they complained that the riversÆ fish population has declined so much that they can no longer fish in them. They also said that a number of villagers have contracted rashes, diarrhea and other sicknesses as a result of the oil pollution.
During the same period, WALHI Riau brought together a coalition of individuals, known as Solidarity Forum, to investigate the Sungai Limau peopleÆs claims. From January to April, the Solidarity Forum investigated CaltexÆs operations.
At the end of April 1993, WALHI Riau wrote a letter to the Indonesian environmental ministry, Bapedal, in which the organization claimed that the preliminary Solidarity Forum investigation had found CaltexÆs Pusaka gathering station, located near Sungai Limau village, responsible for the pollution of the Sungai Limau and Siak rivers. WALHI Riau alleged the water to be contaminated with cyanide and hydrogen sulfide, and polluted for a decade. The letter called on Bapedal to conduct a special investigation of Pusaka and other Caltex gathering stations.
The government did respond to this round of complaints. In January 1993, the Riau governor sent a fact-finding mission to investigate and in April 1993, Bapedal conducted an investigation. The government investigations did not substantiate the charges. Caltex touts the investigations as proof that it is not responsible for the problems besetting Sungai Limau and other villages. As he does in the case of the Mempura village, CaltexÆs Kasim says the river is peat-laden and unfit for household use. The January 1993 investigation team, says Kasim, found "the oil content and discharged temperatures [at the Pusaka gathering station] below guidelines. No oil was detected along the [Caltex]-built discharge canal" which leads to the Siak River. The team also concluded that there was no disturbance of local fish populations and that the skin irritations of which villagers complained were due to poor hygiene, not pollution.
There are reasons to doubt the governmentÆs findings, however. First, the close Caltex- government relationship raises serious questions about the governmentÆs willingness to regulate or sanction the company. Second, Ribut Susanto, president of WALHI Riau, claims that WALHI Riau members witnessed Caltex engaging in a special clean-up of waste canals just prior to the Bapedal investigation in April. Caltex categorically denies SusantoÆs claim, but if it is true, SusantoÆs contention would undermine any basis for trusting the governmentÆs findings. Finally, Greenpeace tests of water samples near six Caltex gathering stations concluded that the villagersÆ claims are valid, and that water supplies are seriously polluted, posing severe health and environmental dangers.
Black gold, toxic effluent
The Minas gathering station, another of the 78 Caltex gathering stations dotting the Riau countryside, lies only a few miles to the north of Pekanbaru, RiauÆs capital. It appears as a bizarre anachronism, its huge oil tanks standing on open tracts of land cleared from in the middle of the Sumatran rainforest. The water treatment system here is very much like those upstream from the Mempura and Sungai Limau villages. Pipes carry oil-contaminated production water, pumped from CaltexÆs fields along with oil, from the tanks to mucky pits, where the water is dumped. The water in the pits, or lagoons, is steaming hot, and sometimes bubbling hot, because the underground fields from which it came are close to the western Pacific volcanic zone. The banks of the lagoons are covered with oil deposits and patches of oil float on top of the lagoons. Water which has settled to the bottom of the lagoons, supposedly free of oil contaminants, is discharged into a series of canals, or streams, which eventually lead to the Siak River, the main river running through Riau.
The June Greenpeace test, however, found the water discharged from the Minas gathering station to be highly contaminated, with oil registering 190 parts per million. This level of contamination, explains the Greenpeace report, poses serious threats to human health and the environment.
Caltex challenges the validity of the Greenpeace findings for the Minas gathering station, with Kasim contending that the Greenpeace sample at Minas was "taken not from a final discharge stream but from an intermediate treatment pit discharge." But Troendle says she walked along the artificial channels running out of the Minas gathering station for several miles and saw no other water treatment mechanism.
Although the Greenpeace study found the highest level of contaminants at the Minas gathering station, it found oil pollution at each of the other five sites it tested. Contamination levels at the other sites averaged an unsafe 9.4 parts per million.
Caltex denies that these discharge levels endanger human health or the environment, with Kasim pointing out that Indonesian guidelines limit oil concentrations in water discharges to 25 ppm. Kasim says the companyÆs "effluent processing technology achieves effluent discharge concentrations of dissolved and suspended materials that are within worldwide limits for prudent operation. We simply do not agree that [CaltexÆs] effluent treatment is inadequate."
Unsafe discharges were not the only environmental problem with CaltexÆs operations which the Greenpeace researchers identified. Because the settling lagoons are not sealed and receive effluent loads which are then poorly confined, hydrocarbons contaminate the soil below the settling lagoons and threaten groundwater quality, the Greenpeace researchers wrote. Again, Caltex denies any problem; Kasim says, "the settling lagoons or treatment pits are specifically designed to allow separation time for water and oil. The sites will be reclaimed and remediated to full legal and prudent standards when production operations are complete."
A final problem cited by Greenpeace stems from the discharge of hot water. Because the discharged water is as hot as 175 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Greenpeace, hydrocarbon contaminants in the water are likely to evaporate, creating local air pollution, much of which can return to the earth in RiauÆs frequent rains. Caltex denies that its discharges are hotter than 113 degrees.
Cutting a deal
That the Sungai Limau villagers and WALHI Riau were able to pressure the government into conducting an investigation of CaltexÆs environmental performance is itself somewhat remarkable, given the repressive nature of Indonesian government and its tight alliance with Caltex.
Both the government and Caltex appear very interested in defusing any protest activities in their infancy, and a key element of their strategy is dividing the local community and splitting it off from non- governmental organizations such as WALHI Riau. Government representatives told Singau Limau villagers that they should negotiate directly with Caltex, without the interference of third parties such as WALHI Riau.
And, according to Susanto, Caltex has succeeded in negotiating directly with leaders of the community, without the involvement of either WALHI Riau or broad segments of the village. At a June 1993 meeting with the head of Sungai Limau village, according to Susanto, Caltex agreed to help build a few wells, make an addition to a school, repair a road and provide some other assistance to Sungai Limau, as well as to investigate the side effects of the companyÆs discharge system. These forms of compensation, says Susanto, "are very far from what the community wants."
Whether Caltex can reach a final agreement with Sungai Limau and snuff out the complaints there is likely to affect what other villages who may be affected by CaltexÆs expansive operations do. If the Sungai Limau dispute can be resolved quietly, without much local or international publicity, it will not have much ripple effect. But if the Sungai Limau villagers can force an admission of Caltex wrongdoing or extract substantial compensation for the damages they have suffered, or if international attention is focused on CaltexÆs operations, local communities and the provincial and national governments will direct a much more searching eye at the Caltex operations which dominate the Riau countryside.
Sidebar
"Responsibility"
CALTEX TAKES PRIDE IN ITS PROCLAIMED ETHIC of corporate social responsibility. "For decades it has been CPIÆs [Caltex Pacific Indonesia] policy that within the area of CPI operation, the communities and their immediate environs should grow and prosper as does CPI," says Kasim. The roads the company has constructed to service its network of pipelines that criss-cross Riau are open to use by area residents, and, Kasim says, the company contributes to the construction of schools, mosques, electric lines and other local infrastructure.
The company presents itself as a paragon of social responsibility. In the September-October 1993 issue of the Harvard Business Review, Julius Tahija, former Caltex managing director and current chair of the CPI board of commissioners, proclaims, "For transnational corporations, meeting social responsibilities is an indispensable part of doing business in the developing world. ... It is perfectly true that an oil companyÆs principal purpose is to extract oil from the ground and sell it at a profit. ... [But multinational corporations] need development. And their need is urgent, whether they acknowledge it or not." Caltex, he asserts, recognizes the need for development and has provided a model for other companies.
Whatever the companyÆs contribution to the region may be, there is no denying that the sharp contrast of the wealth Caltex is tapping below the ground and the extreme poverty in villages above ground is stunning. Ahmad and his Mempura village, for example, have no electricity or running water, and their situation is replicated throughout Riau.
It would not be fair, however, to hold Caltex primarily responsible for the poverty in Riau. Caltex pours huge sums into the Indonesian governmentÆs coffers, but all of the money goes to the central government in Jakarta. "Every year we pass a resolution asking that some of the money go to Riau," says Dr. Chaidir, a member of the Riau Parliament, but every year the Jakarta government ignores or denies the request.
Still, CaltexÆs claims of social responsibility ring false in the impoverished villages whose subsistence-level economies have been tipped out of balance by what they believe to be the companyÆs environmental degradation.
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