Mother Nature's Wrath or Government Negligence?

Almost one hundred people dies and more than one hundred still missing in Situ Gintung tragedy.

It is a shock indeed. Especially since I live nearby.

Is it mother nature striking back due to lack of water absorbance or negligence by government? I think its a little bit of both.

Checking the bottom of dam is not a high priority in budget allocation. But maybe it should.

The incentive is heavy on building new infrastruture but much less on maintenance.

Deepest condolescent for many lost of life and livelihood

Air pollution: an agenda for cleaner energy

Commemorating the earth day on 22nd of April, Minister of Environment announced a ban new cars production (here) to reduce air pollution in the big cities. It sounds sensible with the fact that population of car has been increasing over 12% per year. As a result, cars in the roads has exceeding the current carrying capacity of existing roads. Regarding to the target, this minister' proposal would be ineffective. Why?

Any minister even president can't do much in terms of stopping car production besides Indonesia is not car producer instead we assemble imported car domestically, some of them are completely build up (CBU). Let imagine that minister can persuade the companies not to sell cars to Indonesia, as soon as the companies will flee to other neighbouring countries just to find softer businesss environment' regulations. Unemployment would rise adding up to current 12,7 million jobless population (here)

Now, if you can't find any new car in the market, where do you go? 2nd hand market or maybe black market. Although the 2nd hand market gives you better price, it will be slightly higher than before. You may find good car but you have to be aware that only few of them has good quality in terms of latest technology to reduce emission. In situation where less choice available, you would end up with affordable car wether or not it has proper technology for emission reduction. Emission technology would not be your first priority to buy car. So, moratorium of car production is not really as green as it looks.

Clean energy is a global agenda, and it would not be solved only with reducing car production. Instead it should be integrated with other agenda such as providing more conservation area in the cities. It has to be put as part of spatial plan which regulate and enforce the application of emission stadard. Lastly, economic incentive such as tax reduction or tax burden would encourage or discourage people to comply.

Pertamina versus Chevron

No, this is not about fight next big fight for Indonesian oil field.

I recently finished reading a book entitled "Collapes" by Jareed Diamond about how societies choose to fail or to succeed which according to him is is its relationship with nature. As Professor of Geography at UCLA and winner of Pulitzer Prize as well as National Medal of Science he know very well how to combine long historical vew with eye-opening analysis and captivating prose.

In the book, he recorded his visit to Pertamina site in Salawati Island, Papua and Chevron oil field in Kutubu, Papua New Guinea. This is a snipped on the first "From a long distance, the field's location could be recognized by a flame shooting out of a high tower, where natural gas obtained as a by-product of oil extraction was being burned off, there being nothing else to do with it (facilities to liquefy and transport it for sale were lacking). There are numerous oil spill on the ground. I encountered only three species of large fruit pigeons, of which 14 have been recorded elsewhere on Salawati. A Pertanima employee described to me the location of two pigeons breeding colonies, where he said that he hunted them with his shotgon..." (page 442-3).

This is his take on the second, "I look out the airplane windows for some signs of the oil field infrastructure that I expected to see lookin gup. I became increasingly puzzled still to see only uninterrupted expanse of rainforest...On the flight in, firearms or hunting equipment of any sort are forbidden, on the flight out; animals or plants of their feathers or parts that might be smuggled... New Guineas has many birds and mammal species whose presence and abundance are sensitive indicators of human disturbance... I discover to my astonishment that these species are much more numerous inside the Chvron area than enywhere else that I have visited on the island of New Guinea expecet for a few remote uninhabites areas... In effect, the Kutubu oil field functions as by far the largest and most rigourously controlled national park in Papua New Guinea" (page 444-6).

What are the probable explanations? I quoted in full:

"There are several differences between Pertamina's situation as a national oil company in Indonesia in 1986, and Chevron's situation as international company operation in Papua New Guinea in 1998, that may account for the differing outcomes. The Indonesian public, government, and judiciary are less interested in, and expect less from, the behaviour of oil companies than do their European and American counterparts encompassing Chevron's major costumers. Pertamina's Indonesian employees have had less exposure to enviromental concerns than have Chevron's Amrican and Australian employees.

Papua New Guinea is a democracy whose citizen enjoy the freedom to obstruct developmental projects, but Indonesia in 1986 was a military dictatorship whose citizens enjoyed no such freedom. Beyond that, the Indonesian government was dominated by people from its most populous islands (Java), looked on its New Guinea province as a source of income and a place to resettle Java's surplus population, and was less concerned with the opinions of New Guineans than is the government of Papua New Guinea, which owns the eastern hald of the same islands. Pertamina did not face rising environmental standards from Indonesian overnment, such as those that international oil company face. Pertamina is largely a national oil company within Indonesia, competing for fewer overseas contracts than do the big international companies, so that Pertamina does not derive an international competitive advantage from clean enviromental policies." (page 451-2)

Two questions come to my mind. Why Pertamina has not become an international oil company competing for overseas contracts (like say, Petronas Malaysia)? Second, how far have we really improve since 1986?