The irony of Prabowo’s energy self-sufficiency

“God gives us gifts, plants that make us independent of other nations. Crops such as oil palm head can produce diesel and gasoline, and we also have other crops such as cassava, sugar cane, sago, corn and others. We also have enough geothermal underground energy, a lot of coal, and a lot of energy from water,” said the 8th Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in his inauguration speech at the MPR Building on October 20.

Prabowo Subianto made the energy speech to emphasize that Indonesia has the potential to be energy self-sufficient. The idea of energy self-sufficiency is certainly good and seems very nationalistic. But is that the problem with energy in Indonesia?

To answer that question, we can examine them one by one, starting with coal. Indonesia has abundant coal reserves in the energy sector. According to data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR), Indonesia’s coal reserves in 2021 reached 38.84 billion tons. If the average coal production is 600 million tons per year, the age of coal reserves is still 65 years, assuming no new reserve findings.

The abundance of coal reserves makes Indonesia very dependent on coal. Based on data from the National Energy Council (DEN), around 40.46 per cent of Indonesia’s energy mix in 2023 is still dominated by coal, followed by petroleum at 30.18 per cent, natural gas at 16.28 per cent, and renewable energy at 13.09 per cent.

Unfortunately, coal is a non-renewable energy. It will run out sooner or later. Coal is also dirty energy. Coal combustion emissions produce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which cause the climate crisis. The climate crisis has caused ecological disasters in various parts of the world, including Indonesia. Not only that, the coal mining process also causes natural damage. Water, soil and air pollution are the impacts of coal mining operations. Coal mining is also one of the causes of agrarian conflict in the community because mining concessions often displace community-managed areas.

In short, Indonesia’s coal wealth has become a curse for its citizens because it has become a source of injustice, ecological, economic, and social injustice. The question is, will the injustice surrounding coal be put aside under the pretext of energy self-sufficiency?

Another energy source mentioned by Prabowo Subianto is palm oil. Palm oil plantations have been one cause of forest conversion in Indonesia. A report compiled by Greenpeace and a geospatial expert organisation entitled TheTreeMap, launched in 2021, found that at the end of 2019, 3.12 million hectares of oil palm were planted in forest areas, which is around 19% of the total area of oil palm plantations in Indonesia.

The use of palm-based energy will increase demand for the commodity. This means more forests will be sacrificed. If that happens, it will be a global climate crisis and an ecological disaster at the local level.

Irresponsible expansion of oil palm plantations also has the potential to cause agrarian conflicts between surrounding communities and large-scale oil palm companies. Usually, the state, through the security forces, will side with the large-scale oil palm plantations. The potential for agrarian conflict will also be stronger if cassava and sugarcane plantations are made the mainstay of the energy self-sufficiency agenda. Is the massive development of palm oil, sugarcane and cassava for energy self-sufficiency by ignoring ecological and agrarian justice issues fair?

The next energy source Prabowo Subianto revealed in his speech was geothermal. This energy source is widely rejected by surrounding communities because it threatens the sustainability of nature and can potentially remove communities from their sources of livelihood.

In East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), the geothermal project has been met with resistance from the community. Community resistance to the geothermal project in Wae Sano, NTT, caused the World Bank, which planned to fund the project, to cancel its funding. One reason was that the geothermal project in Wae Sano did not fulfill the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) aspect, which is the standard for World Bank projects.

Still in NTT, in Poco Leok, Flores, the local community rejected the geothermal project. The locals believe that the project, which is planned to be funded by the German Development Bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), will remove them from their sources of livelihood. In early October, protests led to violence against residents, and journalists covered the demonstrations.

Prabowo Subianto mentions the energy sources that support his idea of energy self-sufficiency, which are part of the sources of injustice in society. The idea of energy self-sufficiency is important and good, but it is more important to bring energy justice to the people of Indonesia.

The energy generation from the sources mentioned in Prabowo Subianto’s speech was controlled by only a handful of people in this country, more commonly called the oligarchs. Palm oil plantations are one of the mainstays of Prabowo Subianto’s energy self-sufficiency idea. For example, according to data from the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU), 54.52 per cent of palm oil land is only controlled by 0.07 per cent of private palm oil companies. The same thing happens in coal mining.

Unfortunately, in Prabowo Subianto’s speech during his inauguration as the 8th President of Indonesia, there was not a single mention of the energy injustices in this country. In fact, efforts for energy self-sufficiency without correcting these injustices will only benefit a handful of people and sacrifice the majority of the community.

The public must continuously raise the issue of energy justice. Without public voices on energy justice, policymakers in this country will misidentify the problem and formulate the wrong solution. A self-sufficient solution that ignores energy justice is a false solution that comes from a failure to identify the problem. The public should remind Prabowo Subianto that he needs to identify the energy problem in Indonesia correctly.