Richard Ness : Blog : Without a Shred of Credible Evidence to Defend, The Ministry of Environment Supports An Appeal In Buyat Bay Case

Without a Shred of Credible Evidence to Defend, The Ministry of Environment Supports An Appeal In Buyat Bay Case - 27 Apr 2007
by Eric

On Tuesday, literally within an hour or two after the court handed down a decision clearing my Dad and Newmont of any wrong doing in the Buyat Bay Case the Ministry of Environment stated in that they would respect the decision.

Yet, this afternoon 3:30 pm Jakarta time, the Ministry of Environment [KLH] held a press conference to announce that they would in fact “respect the decision” for about two days and are now supporting an appeal of the Buyat Case. This absolutely reeks of political pressure from outside forces.

It now appears that everything I wrote and posted earlier regarding KLH respect for the courts decision was wrong. It seems they no longer have confidence in the District Courts and the 50 plus points outlined by the courts 260 page verdict, for example:

• KLH must no longer believe Newmont obtained the AMDAL even though that was shown in court.
• KLH must no longer believe that there was a permit from Minister of Environment Sonny Keraf, even though that was shown in court
• KLH must no longer believe the Police sampling had numerous problems (24 samples taken – 34 showed up at the lab), even though that was shown in court
• KLH must no longer believe that independent studies by UN WHO, CSIRO, ALS and all universities showed there was no pollution, et al even though that, too, was shown in court.

At the root KLH doesn’t seem to believe that the Indonesian legal system works and is not interested in re-instituting the role of good science in the policy debate. They seem determined to take my Dad and NMR through another court process, even after enduring 21 months of trial, more than 50 hearings, over 60 witnesses, 10,000 pages of scientific evidence, a vigorous investigation by the panel of judges, an independent resampling of the Bay's waters ordered by the judges, that resulted in a 260-page verdict containing over 50 points of legal considerations that eviscerated the false charges to start with.

It also appears that The Wall Street Journal may have spoken too soon if this case is appealed when they wrote Wednesday, “Pass the word, please: The world's most populous Muslim nation is open for business” and that the “correct verdict… was never in doubt.” But what message is the Government really trying to send. I wonder what message the WSJ and the rest of the business community will believe if the verdict is appealed.

Privately, I have held this as my greatest fear; knowing that the chance of an appeal was high. However, because of the overwhelming strength of the Court’s arguments outlining all the errors and inconsistencies with Government’s evidence, combined with a flawed investigation, I was starting to believe there really is no ground, legally, on which an appeal could be based.

And so it appears that this is, as a friend would who likes to quote Churchill, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” I prefer the Martin Luther King Jr. quote myself when he said that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” It is my greatest hope that if the case is appealed by the Government, that the Supreme Court will come to the same decision, provided they use the same reasoned arguments and rely on sound scientific data. Lastly, politics or attempts at face-saving should not influence their decision.