Pigai Inflamed 'Papua Gets What' From Freeport Gresik Smelter Construction, Denny Siregar Gives Shocking Answer

Illustration-(Photo: Doc PT Freeport Indonesia)

JAKARTA - Human rights activist Natalius Pigai was inflamed when the government built the PT Freeport Indonesia smelter in the Gresik Special Economic Zone (SEZ), East Java, rather than in Papua. Pigai said that there was no economic benefit for Papua from this development.

Pigai's disappointment was expressed through a tweet on his Twitter account, @NataliusPigai2 quoted Thursday, October 14. While broadcasting several reports on online media, Pigai said "This is not fair to Papua. What can Papua get? All the good will be seen, the bad will also be found out," Pigai tweeted.

Pigai continued, the reason he protested the construction of the smelter was solely because of humanity and justice. "I am defender of humanity & justice.!"

Pigai's tweet got the attention of netizens with 1,309 likes and 387 Retweets. Social Media Activist Denny Siregar also commented on Pigai's tweet. According to Denny, there are no regional affairs in the construction of the Gresik smelter. "What's this, Pigai.. This is not a regional affair. It's only an economic and business matter," Denny tweeted at @Dennysiregar7.

"The infrastructure to build a smelter requires a large amount of electricity, Gresik is already there and there is no need to build it again. Then the waste is also already in its container. If you don't know, ask. Not busy bringing the area," said Denny.

Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir said that the PT Freeport Indonesia smelter being built in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Gresik, East Java will produce an average of 35 tons of gold per year. The transaction value will skyrocket to tens of trillions.

Furthermore, Erick Thohir said that PT Freeport's smelter investment was worth Rp42 trillion. In the smelter, copper refining will be carried out to produce a copper cathode. This includes gold, silver and other precious metals.

"So that later we can produce an average of 35 tons of gold per year with a transaction value of IDR 30 trillion," he said at the groundbreaking of the smelter in the Gresik Special Economic Zone (KEK), Gresik Regency, East Java, Tuesday, October 12.

Not only providing income benefits, said Erick, the smelter built in the Gresik SEZ is also able to absorb 40,000 workers by prioritizing native East Java workers.

"Earlier, the Governor of (East Java) entrusted the majority of his workers from East Java, so that the certainty of the opening of the workforce will also occur," he said.

Erick revealed that PT Freeport Indonesia's revenue increased by more than 100 percent after its share ownership was controlled by Indonesia as much as 51 percent. Erick said that Freeport's performance had continued to improve in the past year.