Siti Nurbaya Bakar: This is a crime abetted by licensing
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - It has been a busy fortnight for Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar for no other reason than the seasonal emergence of forest fires. This year, the ministry has had to deal with an even more problematic agenda. Two incidents occurred that complicated an already sensitive situation: the hostage-taking of environmental ministry officials as they investigated a burned site owned by Andika Permata Sawit Lestari (APSL) at Rokan Hulu, and the discovery of a peatland area suspected to be newly cleared by Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) on Pulau Padang at Merbau Subdistrict, Meranti Regency.
At the same time, Nurbaya, 60, was censured by President Joko Widodo who was in China attending the G20 summit: She had to immediately settle the problem of the forest fires. At the time, smoke had already begun to cover Riau and creep across the Malacca Strait to Singapore. Ministry officials were taken hostage when they were in the process of putting up signs banning further use of the scorched forested areas within the APSL area. They were surrounded by a crowd who threatened to kill them. The people forced the officials to erase all photographs and video recordings and uproot the signs placed by the environment and forestry ministry. The hostages were only released at 2:30am the following day, following negotiations by the police. Luckily, the recordings of the scorched lands, taken by an overhead drone, escaped destruction.
