Providing Mining Concession For The Form Of Harassment Of Higher Education Institutions

Photo illustration. (Doc. Ist)

JAKARTA The Head of the Legal Division of the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), Muhammad Jamil, considers that the provision of mining concessions is a form of harassment against higher education institutions that should be in favor of the community or victims of mining activities.

In addition, through this discourse it is reasonable to suspect that the DPR and the government are trying to take advantage of universities to legitimize mining activities that damage the environment. The government is also said to be trying to relinquish the responsibility of improving the welfare of academics by "presenting" a WIUP governance permit to the campus.

"The state's inequality in ensuring the welfare of academics is about to be resolved in a trivial way, namely to let the campus support itself by mining," said Jamil, Sunday, January 26, 2025.

According to him, the revision of the Minerba Law cannot only be interpreted as a step to execute three decisions of the Constitutional Court, namely decision number 59/PUU-XVIII/2020, 60/PUU-XVII/2020 (formal testing), and decision number 64/PUU-XVIII/2020 (material testing).

Jamil argues that the revision of the Minerba Law seems to be a form of strategy for members of the DPR to look for opportunities to increase natural wealth, especially mining minerals in congregation, systematically and legally. Moreover, from the results of ICW searches, there were 354 members of the DPR for the 2024 2029 period with a business background. Meanwhile, of the 48 ministers in the Red and White Cabinet, 34 of them have business backgrounds, 15 of whom have extractive businesses

The declaration of natural wealth cannot be separated from the background and interests of the palace's political elite and parliament, the majority of which come from the background of business people. Another problem seems to domplement Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution in order to polish its mere image when prioritizing the provision of WIUP to universities and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)," he explained.

As is known, the Draft Law (RUU) on the Third Amendment to Law (UU) Number 4 of 2009 concerning Mineral and Coal (UU Minerba) opens opportunities for universities to obtain permits to manage metal mineral mines. Of the 11 important points that became the topic of discussion, one of the written points is the priority plan for granting mining business permits (WIUP) to universities and MSMEs or cooperatives.