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Indonesia’s Jokowi accused of ‘transactional politics’ over religious mining permits
- Analysts say the change will help ensure religious organisations continue to support Widodo even after he steps down as president in October
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Indonesian President Joko Widodo has been accused of glorifying transactional politics after he passed a law that enables the government to grant mining licences to religious organisations.
Widodo, who will relinquish power to president-elect Prabowo Subianto in October, signed a regulation on May 30 that awards religious organisations priority access to Special Mining Business Licence Area, or WIUPK, permits. The permits are void if a business is not established within five years.
Minister of Investment Bahlil Lahadalia said the government was prepared to give “coal mining concessions, which contain sizeable coal reserves” to Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation with around 95 million members.
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“We will give NU coal concessions whose reserves are large enough to be managed in order to optimise the organisation,” Bahlil said in a speech on May 31 at a congress of NU students in the city of Bekasi, adding that the process was almost finished.
NU Chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf welcomed the new law, saying it was a “bold step” to expand the use of natural resources controlled by the state for the benefit of the people more directly.
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