The Red And White Cabinet Is Considered To Be Cleaning Up Oil And Gas Policies

JAKARTA - The Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka government through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) is considered to be conducting a massive arrangement in the management of the national mining and energy sector.

This step is referred to as part of a long-term strategy towards energy sovereignty and restructuring of the national economy.

Public Policy Observer at the Islamic University, Syekh Yusuf (UNIS) Tangerang, Adib Miftahul, said President Prabowo is currently carrying out a total reset of economic and political systems, including in the energy sector.

Prabowo is doing a massive overhaul. He recalculated the wealth of resources and reorganized who was entitled to manage it," Adib said in a public discussion entitled One Year Prabowo-Gibran: Are We Sovereign in Energy? in BSD, Banten, Monday 13 October.

According to him, many energy projects are now being re-evaluated so as not to become a game ground for energy brokers who have been controlling the oil and gas and mining business chain in Indonesia. As long as the brokers are still strong, whoever the minister is will find it difficult to bring change. Therefore, we must support control measures from the President," he said.

Adib also assessed that the revocation and return of mining permits that were widely carried out by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources under the leadership of Minister Bahlil Lahadalia in the past year were part of efforts to enforce stricter regulations. He gave an example of mining cases in Raja Ampat which he considered to be an important lesson so that business licenses were no longer given carelessly.

"The problem is not the lack of rules, but the weakness of enforcement. So the government's move to curb permits and ensure the construction of smelters is the right thing," he said.

Adib added, one of the biggest challenges the government has had is to face negative narratives on social media that often mislead the public. "Video cuts or statements are twisted, then create wrong dictions in the public. Even though policies are not necessarily as bad as imagined," he said.

He emphasized that the governance of mining and energy that is transparent is the foundation towards national sovereignty. "The mine can be done, as long as it is strictly regulated and the results return to the people. If everything is regulated properly, then there is nothing wrong with the mine," said Adib.

Meanwhile, an energy observer from the Gerilya Institute, Subah Agung Sulistio, assessed that the policy of downstreaming mines and the construction of six tin smelters worth IDR 7 trillion is proof that the government is starting to seriously build the sovereignty of natural resources.

"If we process raw materials ourselves, the added value is much greater. The taxes return to the state, not to foreign companies," he said.

However, Subkan reminded the importance of supervision of rent and monopoly practices in the mining sector. "We have to make sure that state revenues from mining really enter the state treasury, not leakage in the middle of the road. For this reason, independent audits and technology-based surveillance systems are needed," he said.