JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Indigenous communities holding customary rights in the PT Freeport Indonesia operational area, Mimika Regency, Papua, want to be involved in the negotiation process. They also want share ownership rights in the mining company from the United States. So far, Freeport has stated that it is ready to release up to 51 percent of its shares to Indonesia.
"We welcome Freeport's willingness to release up to 51 percent of its shares to Indonesia. "We want indigenous communities in the Freeport mining area to have ownership rights in share divestment," said Chairman of the Amungme (Lemasa) Tribal Traditional Deliberation Institute, Odizeus Beanal, Monday (4/9), after meeting the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Ignasius Jonan in Jakarta. According to Odezius, so far the indigenous people in Mimika have never been involved in the work contract agreement between PT Freeport Indonesia and the Indonesian Government.
Therefore, in negotiations, his party wants to be directly involved in the negotiations. "So far we have only received corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, which is actually the company's obligation," said Odizeus. Regarding the share size, continued Odizeus, this will be discussed further with the government. Likewise, the question of the mechanism, whether indigenous peoples get it for free or have to buy it, is still under discussion. The amount of CSR funds received by indigenous communities, he said, ranges from IDR 500 billion to IDR 1 trillion every year, in the form of facilities and services for health, education and local economic development.
Separately, divestment policy researcher at Article 33, a research institute for social change, Iqbal Damanik, said that in a number of share divestment cases in Indonesia, regional governments which also had the right to buy shares were suspected of not having enough funds. A free share scheme could be a way out. “According to calculations, divestment costs are sometimes not cheap. The problem is, the central government, regional government, state-owned companies and regional state-owned companies do not have enough funds to buy shares. "If the funds are obtained from debt, the dividends obtained (if any) are sometimes used up to pay the debt installments," said Iqbal.
Until now, the Indonesian Government's share ownership is only 9.36 percent for the 50 years of Freeport's operations in Indonesia. Under existing regulations, Freeport is obliged to release its shares to Indonesian participants in an amount of no less than 51 percent.
We welcome Freeport's willingness to release up to 51 percent of its shares to Indonesia. Ignatius Jonan
https://www.pressreader.com/indonesia/kompas/20170905/281908773291223
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