INDONESIAN ACADEMIC MORAL’s CALL:
“RESTORE THE LIVING SPACE SOVEREIGNTY AND ECOLOGY OF THE NORTH KENDENG PEOPLE”
Introduction
We, educators and researchers, always observe, supervise and be present in every event of the nation’s journey. We want to ensure that the administration of the state, the order of life among citizens, and development for the purpose of community welfare, are carried out by taking into account the principles of social justice, respect for the right to life of indigenous peoples / local communities, and ecological justice. These principles had been thought out in a visionary manner by the Founding Fathers of the Nation, and thus formulated in the Constitution and mandated in various Indonesian laws and regulations to this day.
We convey this call because we believe that the sovereignty of the people and the common good for the nation is our collective responsibility so that the Indonesian nation can achieve its great goal of becoming a great, dignified and just nation.
We learn that the decisions of scientists who are wrong, are not careful, and ignore humans and their living space, will have a major impact on the potential for environmental disasters, and human and community misery. There are many examples of how we have made mistakes, the impacts of which are difficult to recover, including the Lapindo mud case. When scientists and the government decided that the Lapindo drilling was merely a technical issue, without taking into account that the location had people, culture and history, the impact was tremendous damage and difficult to recover.
Java Island Ecological Emergency
There are a lot of research and studies that show the carrying capacity of the Java Island environment which is increasingly critical, including:
- Java Island has the smallest karst area in Indonesia, even though the karst landscape has a hydrological function that controls the ecological system in the area. The surface of the karst hills acts as the main water storage. If there is karst damage, it will be difficult to renew because karst is a natural formation since 470 million years and the newest is from 700,000 years ago.
- The condition of forests in Java Island is also at a critical point, because its area is rapidly decreasing. The forest area is only about 24% of the area of Java Island (Puspijak KLH, 2015);
- With the shrinking forest area and karst stretch, Java Island has received a very heavy burden because 60% of the population lives on the island of Java. The population faces the threat of disaster, with an indication that all provinces in Java Island have a high index of prone to flooding, abrasion, landslides and drought, which are also exacerbated by climate change.
- The damage and weakening of the ecological carrying capacity of Java Island is also due to pressure from the rampant mining of limestone and cement factories on karst areas, large and small, both legal and illegal.
Kendeng Utara Village Community and Living Space
Kendeng Utara is a portrait of a karst area that resembles a dragon in Java, surrounded by springs and stores an underground river. Kendeng is one of the bumper areas for Java Island water absorption. That is why when the government rolled out a policy of adding a cement factory and designated the Watu Putih Rembang groundwater basin as its location; potential ecological disaster looms over the residents. Especially are the farmers, whose lives depend on nature, cannot be separated from the land, and from generation to generation have held local wisdom / knowledge about ecological sustainability.
In principle, land, water and other agrarian sources are not strictly commodities (commodities). Its management cannot be fully left to the market mechanism (UUD 1945, Article 33, UUPA, No / 5/1960). Essentially, human relations with land and natural resources are complex and layered socially, culturally, economically, ecologically, and spiritually. Therefore, all national economic development policy practices should not reduce this relationship to only one dimensional form. Reducing the complexity and layers of these relationships on a continual basis will be able to shake and destroy the interconnections of social, economic, political and ecological sustainability.
Historically, the people around the mountains of North Kendeng have lived for a long time and have been dependent on the resources and living space of the Kendeng mountains from generation to generation. Socio-economically, the people in North Kendeng live quite prosperously with the agricultural model as they are currently developing. The agricultural economic development model is characterized by a combination of rice fields, fields, crops and livestock. They have the adaptive ability to develop agriculture with local wisdom in harmony with the land around Kendeng Utara, which even though it looks barren. It is not enough reason to say that the people around the mountains of North Kendeng are not prosperous or poor, because it really depends on how the development paradigm and the measurement model for the level of welfare are used (Sajogyo Institute; Sains, 2015).
The entry of the cement industry in this region has actually threatened the main source of the economy of farmers and rural communities around the North Kendeng’s Mountains and its surroundings. The threat is not only about the need for water, but also about the potential for damage North Kendeng’s mountain ecosystem living space and agricultural ecosystem as a whole. Therefore, if the government sets the national development paradigm on the concept of “development from the periphery”, then the village community and their living space must be positioned as the main subject of development, not as an object.
The Legal Facts
The existence of local communities and their living space is protected by the Constitution and a number of Indonesian laws and regulations, and there has even been a court ruling in this case.
- Supreme Court Reconsideration Decision No. 99 / PK / TUN / 2016 stated that the Watuputih Groundwater Basin Area, the location where PT. Semen Indonesia will carry out mining, which is a Karst Landscape Area that must be protected. The Supreme Court’s decision is based on the Letter of the Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Number 3131/05 / BGL / 2014 dated July 1, 2014, which in its consideration page 112 states: “… Geological Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (ESDM) in its Letter to the Governor Central Java (Exhibit P-32) expressed his opinion to preserve the Watuputih CAT aquifer so that there are no mining activities … “
- The debate about CAT Watuputih as a Karst Landscape area should have been completed in court proceedings with reference to two things: First, the question of whether or not the Underground River has been presented through evidence by each party in the Court. The Supreme Court in its consideration on page 113 states: “Mining which is carried out as depicted in the Amdal results in the collapse of underground river walls …” Second, the Amdal of PT. Semen Indonesia 2012 in CHAPTER VI Page 28 clearly recognizes the existence of an underground river in their mining area. Thus, the decision of the Supreme Court is a decision that has permanent legal force and should not be debated.
- The Watuputih CAT status is declared as a Geological Protected Area based on its function as groundwater infiltration in accordance with the Rembang Regency Regulation No.14 of 2011 concerning the 2011-2031 Rembang Regency Spatial Planning, Article 19 / a.
- CAT Watuputih has also been designated by the President as one of the Groundwater Basins (CAT) with an area of 31 Km2 based on Presidential Decree No. 26 of 2011.
- KLHS is a part of which is required by the Law on Environmental Protection and Management (UUPPLH) which obliges the Government and Local Governments to make KLHS in order to ensure that the principles of sustainable development become the basis and are integrated in the development of an area and / or policies, plans, and / or programs. KLHS is regulated by Government Regulation No. 46 of 2016 which emphasizes the principle of sustainable development, guarantees community involvement, and the mechanism for implementing KLHS.
Human and Cultural Problems
The struggle of North Kendeng farmers should be responded to with a comprehensive academic approach, analyzed multi, inter and trans-disciplinary, and read with academic honesty and clear conscience. From a cultural perspective that focuses on humans, this event must be seen as a system of knowledge and a legal system (tradition) that was born by the geographical, social and historical locality of the local community. Humans, and their relation to the universe, cannot be reduced to numerical and technical terms.
Knowledge System
- The knowledge system is needed by humans to carry out their life in harmony with nature and fellow humans. This farming community teaches us about the philosophy of the essential relationship between humans and Mother Earth, the universe. A basic knowledge of humans and living space, as well as the preservation of the future of the island of Java and Indonesia.
- These local knowledge systems are as sophisticated as modern knowledge systems and can be found in mythology, stories of experiences and daily history related to human relations with nature and biodiversity. Unfortunately local historical narratives and their relation to the natural environment are often immersed in major historical narratives and are not adequately recorded in the repertoire of mainstream science.
- Traditional Law System
- The Traditional law system was born because of the need to regulate the relationship between citizens, what citizens can and cannot do for the sake of living together.
- The principle in traditional law regarding land resource ownership in agricultural communities is: “Land is lost, we are extinct”. That is, uprooting them from their living space is equivalent to eliminating them. They will not only lose living space, but also exposure to cement particles which have the potential to damage the soil, karst, water sources, plants and especially their lungs.
Statement of Academicians Attitude
In the name of a just nation and state life and respecting the existence of the local community of North Kendeng farmers, to ensure their survival, which is very dependent on natural sustainability, we state the following attitude:
- The government and all parties should respect the decision of the Supreme Court Reconsideration. It is very good if we are willing to learn experiences from various other countries that respect the survival of local / customary communities along with their living space, culture and history, for their survival. The government should be consistent with the development paradigm with the concept of “building from the periphery” that it creates itself.
- The interest in economic development should not be paid for by the loss of any community living space, along with its culture, customary law and history. With the disappearance of the living space and economic space of the communities around the factory, which are majority farmers, there is concern that the gap in social stratification will be even higher. In fact, the issue of economic inequality is an important problem facing Indonesia today, compared to economic growth.
- The modern development paradigm that has been carried out in developed countries including Asia, is now increasingly leaving extractive industries which exploit natural resources (land and water), for mining purposes and clearing forests for mono-culture plantations. An example is the closure of cement factories in China, which is the world’s largest cement producer, since 2013. The reason for the closure is the ecological and health impacts of its citizens who are exposed to pollution from cement plants. Since then, China has moved part of its cement industry to Indonesia
- The modern development paradigm is an effort to enable young people, the intelligence of citizens, women and men, to create various creative works, giving birth to various innovations, creations, which are competitive. The success in building the potential of works, technological inventions, and the birth of intellectual property rights in the field of science and technology will further enrich state finances. This is very possible considering that Indonesia is entering the demographic window in 2020-2035, in which the young / productive age population will reach 200 million, and provide potential development capital by relying on their intelligence, creation and innovation.
- There are still many ways to advance the nation’s development including providing cement, in a way that is more concerned with humans and the preservation of nature, through modern science and technology from thousands of smart minds of scientists, who are honest hearts and with integrity. The current need for cement is not considered very urgent compared to the certainty of community food sovereignty and conservation interests. Currently, domestic cement production is still sufficient, especially in Java. The projection of cement demand in the future is still safe. Therefore, sacrificing agriculture and people’s water sources for the production of cement for export is not wise.
Recommendation
The construction of the cement factory in Rembang has been completed, and now it is just mining. Based on the explanation above, with all respect and humility, we urge the President to cancel the cement mining plan as mandated in the Supreme Court decision. The construction of a factory that has already been established must be reviewed from a critical perspective, with a precautionary principle, so as not to repeat various previous construction mistakes. With that, it is also possible to review various other existing mines (limestone and cement), both legal and illegal. Efforts to protect human safety from non-renewable ecological damage, and to maintain human living space in harmony with nature, culture and civilization, are far more valuable for Indonesia’s long-term future than the current economic benefits.
List of Academicians and Researchers:
