COVER STORY
The Nickel Mining Feast
As the government plans to build the ecosystem for electric vehicles, demand for nickel has surged. In Indonesia, the largest nickel reserves are in Central and Southeast Sulawesi. Entrepreneurs are thronging both provinces. Tempo’s two-month long investigation revealed these business interests in nickel mining had the companies scrambling to secure land, using legal loopholes and bribes to obtain licenses. Officials, politicians, tycoons, and even former environment activists are involved in the mining ‘feast’. Sulawesi is stripped of half a million hectares of forest.
POLITICS
Slave Laborers for Langkat Regent
One was caught, three cases were exposed. The Corruption Eradication Commission, after arresting the Langkat regent for alleged infrastructure project bribery, discovered a jailhouse in the regent’s home. The inmates were drug addicts forced into labor in his oil palm plantation. By what means could this state official enforce modern slavery?
ECONOMY AND BUSINESS
The Geothermal Asset Tug of War
The plan to set up a parent state enterprise in the geothermal sector has stalled. The Finance Ministry has rejected results of asset valuation for the State Electricity Company’s geothermal power plants as being too costly. How did this turn of events occur?
INTERVIEW
Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti
The two were reported to the police by Minister Luhut Pandjaitan on charges of defamation. In fact, both rights activists quoted a study of business networks of public officials in the conflict are of Papua. Haris and Fatia were only revealing evidence at their disposal.
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