Richard Ness : Blog : Is WALHI A Rogue NGO?

Is WALHI A Rogue NGO? - 30 Apr 2007
by Eric

WALHI along with JATAM and ICEL continue to behave irresponsibly and are hurting Indonesia and its people. It has now become clear that unless there is a result that fits the narrow self-interests of individuals like Chalid Mohammed, Raja Siregar, Siti Maemunah and Achmad Santosa, they would continue their destructive campaign.

WALHI and their collaborators are clearly not interested in environmental issues because there are enough environmental problems in their backyards that can benefit from their campaign. Every creek and river that passes through Jakarta is polluted but WALHI has shown no interest in cleaning up these water bodies even though millions are exposed to the pollution from these water sources.

WALHI is behaving like a spoilt child that is obsessed with Newmont and wants to get what it wants by throwing tantrums. First when the WHO report came out in September 2004 and it dismissed the allegations of Minamata disease, WALHI raised its noise level and still wanted the government to sue Newmont. Irrespective of the mounting body of evidence that continued to show that Buyat Bay was clean, fish are fine and people have no health problems, the Government sued Newmont both through a civil and a criminal case. First in 2005, the civil case was dismissed, and now after one of the most demanding legal cases in Indonesia’s history, Newmont has been cleared of the environmental crime also.

More than two years of litigation were conducted in the most transparent manner. The court was open to everyone, and the local, national and the international media attended the hearings regularly. The prosecutors and the defense were given equal opportunities to present their witnesses. In fact, the judges allowed the prosecution to present additional witnesses even after the defense had completed their hearings. The judges even allowed the prosecutors to disobey their orders to resample the water of Buyat Bay. Even with these far reaching flexibilities offered by the court, the prosecution failed to provide any credible evidence of pollution or health impact.

So it is a little odd that WALHI, JATAM and ICEL should complain about the verdict now. Working in synchrony with Jane Perlez of the New York Times, they are the ones who pressured the government to file the criminal case against Newmont and my Dad. The Government files the lawsuit against Newmont because they wanted the dispute to be resolved through a publicly transparent legal process.

After the verdict, the officials of the Ministry of Environment gracefully commented that they respect the decision of the judges. And now it is time for WALHI, JATAM and ICEL also to accept the verdict. But this is unlikely because Chalid Mohammed, Raja Siregar, Siti Maemunah and Achmad Santosa neither have the courage nor the dignity for such a respectful behavior. Therefore it becomes essential to expose the true character of these individuals to the whole world.

What is most interesting is that these four most vocal individuals who profess exceptional understanding of the Buyat issue did not have the courage to appear in court as expert witnesses during the trial. If they are so sure about their knowledge of Buyat Bay why didn’t they show up in the court as witnesses? The reason is clear—they knew that under cross-examination they would have been discredited and publicly humiliated as it happened to Rignolda.

The time has come for the world to know that WALHI, JATAM and ICEL are fake NGOs with nothing more than some narrow political agenda. They don’t have the strength of character to act in the interest of the people or the environment. They only know how to promote their private interests even if they have to lie, misrepresent facts or intimidate people. All their complaining and whining about the verdict now is hollow and it only further exposes their political motives.

Newmont and my Dad were subjected to a severe public scrutiny for more than two years. The time has come now to subject Chalid Mohammed, Raja Siregar, Siti Maemunah and Achmad Santosa of WALHI, JATAM and ICEL to a similar public scrutiny.