Allegations Of Conflict Of Interest Behind The Government's Reluctant To Set National Disaster Status

The atmosphere of the landslide disaster in Matauli Housing, Pandan, Central Tapanuli, North Sumatra, Saturday (6/12/2025). (ANTARA/Muhammad Adimaja/foc)

JAKARTA Nearly a thousand people died in flash floods and landslides that occurred in North Sumatra, West Sumatra, and Aceh. But the government did not budge, not to set a national disaster.

The government is said to have no sense of humanity because it has not issued a national disaster status for heartbreaking events in a number of areas in Sumatra.

Even when the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) reported the number of victims who died due to landslides in the three provinces to 969 people as of Wednesday (10/12). Meanwhile, the number of refugees reached 902 thousand people.

Seeing the large number of victims and the condition of the affected areas, the community urged the government to determine the status of the national disaster. This proposal was also submitted by almost all factions in the DPR, including members of the Gerindra faction, through the Deputy Chairman of Commission XIII Sugiat Santoso.

"I hope that as soon as possible the status of this disaster will be determined as a national disaster. So that the central government can directly handle this. Otherwise, it will be dangerous," said Sugiat.

However, until now the government has been unmoved. Instead of becoming a national emergency, the government only referred to the floods of Sumatra and Aceh as national priorities.

Lecturer at the Faculty of Ecology, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) Rina Mardiana said floods in the Sumatra region could not be seen as natural disasters.

Rina said this flood occurred as a result of a series of political decisions that ignored scientific studies, removed academic voices, and turned a blind eye to warnings from various environmental organizations.

Policies taken without a knowledge base prioritize short-term interests and oligarchy power relationships over the safety of citizens. The power relationship emphasized that the center sees the area as an exploitation area, not as a must-protect living space.

"We consider this tragedy as a policy disaster, a term that emphasizes that the suffering of the people is not nature's destiny, but a direct result of a series of wrong political decisions," he said.

Rina regretted the government's refusal to determine disaster status as a national emergency. In fact, he said, the government should know very well if the regional treasury dismissed it after cutting regional transfer funds.

"More insanely, the disaster funding post parked in BNPB is only around Rp491 billion. It is much higher in the Free Nutrition Food (MBG) budget which reaches Rp1.2 trillion per day. This regime does not have a sense of humanity," he said.

One of the things that people pay attention to in this disaster is the emergence of thousands of logs that were swept away by the swift flood water.

The wood is said to be the result of deforestation by companies engaged in the mining and palm oil sector. Executive Director of Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI) Mufti Barri said the disaster in Aceh was the result of years of forest destruction in Sumatra. FWI noted that Aceh's forests have shrunk by around 177 thousand hectares over the past seven years, including 16 thousand ha lost in 2024.

Responding to public pressure for the government to investigate the allegation, Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq has taken action against four companies which he said contributed to increasing ecological pressure in a number of upstream rivers in North Sumatra.

Three of the four companies are PT Agincourt Resources, PT Perkebunan Nusantara III, and PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy. Another company is not called Hanif. He also emphasized that his party had not closed the possibility of imposing criminal sanctions if the four companies were proven to have committed serious violations.

However, the Coordinator of the Anti-Ministry Network (Jatam) Melky Nahar said that the four companies that were being audited were only a few of the corporations in the forests of Sumatra.

One of the companies that is now being discussed is PT Tusam Hutani Lestani which is spread across Central Aceh, Bener Meriah, Bireuen, and North Aceh. The corporation with a land concession of up to 97 thousand hectares is associated with President Prabowo Subianto.

Referring to a number of sources, Prabowo's name did not appear as the owner, but his close people were clearly seen as having a relationship with this company. The document of the Directorate General of General Legal Administration (AHU) shows that the President Director of PT Tusam Hutani Lestani is Edhy Prabowo. The former Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has held the position since August 2024.

Prior to Edhy, the position was occupied by Prasetyo Hadi, who is currently the Minister of State Secretariat. Edhy Prabowo is the former Deputy General Chair of Gerindra, while Prasetyo Hadi is now filling the position of Chairman of the Organization, Cadreization, and Membership of the Gerindra DPP.

The issue of Prabowo's ownership of PT Tusam Hutani Lestani had already surfaced in 2019, precisely during the second debate of the presidential election. At that time, the incumbent Joko Widodo (Jokowi) quipped hundreds of thousands of hectares of land owned by Prabowo. Jokowi said Prabowo had 340 thousand hectares of land, with details of 220 thousand hectares of land in East Kalimantan and 120 thousand hectares in Aceh.

Prabowo did not deny the allegations. He emphasized that the land in question is a right to use business (HGU), which according to him remains state property. Prabowo also admitted that he was better at managing the land than foreign parties, because he considered himself a nationalist and patriot.

Then in the 2024 presidential election, it was the turn of former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to return it. Anies alluded to the existence of 340,000 hectares of land owned by Prabowo in the presidential candidate debate, which was again responded to by a statement of patriotism.

Overall, Jatam said that Prabowo Subianto through PT Tusam Hutani Lestari helped erode the cover of forests in the mountains and upstream of rivers in Aceh so that they eventually damaged water catchment areas, and weakened the ability of nature to withstand rainfall. Including when extreme rains hit the impact of Tropical Cyclone Senyar last November. However, Melky is pessimistic that the law enforcement promised by the Minister of Environment will run according to public expectations.

"It will not be free to enforce the law if the president himself is involved in the same conflict of interest," said Melky.