Jakarta – The founder of Indonesian Climate Justice Literacy, Firdaus Cahyadi, said that campus intellectuals must reject the revision of the Mineral and Coal Law (Minerba Law), which is planned to be passed by the Legislation Body of the House of Representatives (DPR) on February 18.
“If it is allowed to be passed without resistance, that date will be the date of the death of the campus’ critical voice,” he said Wednesday, February 12.
He added that through the revised Minerba Law, efforts to silence the critical voice of the campus through the distribution of used mining concessions would get a legal umbrella. Firdaus highlighted that granting mining concessions to universities is a strategy to legitimise government policies that damage the environment.
“Scientists on campus will be used as mere rubber stamps for government policies that destroy nature and cause social conflict in society,” he explained. He also reminded that previously, the government had done the same thing to religious mass organisations such as Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah.
Under President Prabowo Subianto’s leadership, Firdaus believes that the government’s commitment to the environment has weakened. “The indication is that President Joko Widodo’s bad legacy of dividing up coal mines to silence the critical voices of religious organisations has not been corrected but instead continued and extended to universities,” he said.
He warned that Indonesia would face an ecological disaster if this trend continued.
Firdaus urged members of the House of Representatives to oppose the government’s stance, which he said was heading towards “ecological suicide.” “The revision of the Minerba Law, which allows mining concessions to silence the critical voices of universities, must be stopped,” he said.
He said that members of the House of Representatives must hear the voice of the people and not just approve every government idea that has the potential to endanger the preservation of nature and the safety of citizens.
However, Firdaus also emphasised that the public cannot just wait for good intentions from DPR members. He invited campus intellectuals to be more active and firmly reject the state’s efforts to silence their critical stance. “If universities get mining concessions, campus intellectuals will become mere intellectual labourers,” he said.
According to him, this will damage the integrity and dignity of universities as centres of critical thinking. (Hartatik)
