East Kalimantan DPRD Asks Officials Not To View Illegal Mining Brushes To Anticipate Social Conflict

Illustration of illegal tin mines in Babylon Province. (Between)

East Kalimantan (Kaltim) DPRD asked law enforcement officials to take a firm stance on the illegal mining phenomenon of Earth Etam.

Deputy Chairman of the East Kalimantan DPRD Muhammad Samsun said the effort must be carried out to anticipate social conflicts between mining companies and the surrounding community.

"I often respond to the issue of illegal coal mining that law enforcement officers should not be loose in enforcing the law when there are people who are disturbed, because other issues of social conflict will arise," he said in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, Friday, March 17, as reported by Antara.

According to him, to enforce the law, there should be no need for doubt and indiscriminateness. This means that if the rules/laws have been made, of course there will be considerations in their formation and impact if there is a violation.

"If there is a violation, it means that the impact will definitely occur. So, in order not to happen, it is regulated in the Law (UU), so that if everything is against the law, then it must be dealt with because there must be a bad impact, which is certain that the regulation was made for state security," said Samsun.

He revealed that the problem is only how law enforcement implements it because the rules already exist and the law enforcement area is in the judiciary (law enforcement officers), then the DPRD as a supervisory function.

This PDI-P politician (PDIP) believes that he will submit all forms of violations to law enforcers to be followed up on this, because those who have the authority to follow up on matters that are contrary to the law.

"I am sure that our law enforcement officers are fair in upholding justice and firm in enforcing the rules, we hope that the illegal mining phenomenon will not be prolonged and must be accommodated to be immediately followed up by the authorities so that it will have a good impact on the community around the mine," he said.

Meanwhile, member of the Special Committee (Pansus) for Mining Investigation Agiel Suwarno also explained that the public road used for coal transportation so far does not appear to have any corporate responsibility, as evidenced by the road conditions in the village that are passed every day are badly damaged.

"I had time to ask the community around Argo Mulyo Village, Sepaku PPU District, which runs every day through coal truck vehicles, whether there is a company's responsibility to repair roads, their answer is not at all, it is getting worse, including the destruction of the road that has been segmented," explained Agiel.

He explained that illegal mining companies in operational realization did not implement corporate social responsibility (CSR), as well as Community Development Programs (PPM), so the impact was clearly negative.