I knew about the article below co-written by André Vltchek and waited to post it here so that with a little snippet edited out of the original I could highlight a little known added imposition on the 'refugees' of LUSI - LUmpur -Indonesian for mud and SIdoarjo, the location.
Firstly, I would like to draw your attention to two sentences: Nur Kholifah is one of hundreds who received about $1,500, about 20 per cent of what the company promised, she says. She immediately handed over a quarter to a legal team battling for compensation.
The following is the bit edited out from the article.
Grasping Local Officials
Organizing demonstrations against Lapindo and pushing for victim compensation
became big business for several local individuals. They organized in a team called Tim Pengurus/Pendata and they have commonly charged victims 30% of any sum they receive from Lapindo.
Ms. Nur Kholifah further explained, “Some members of the team - themselves from inundated villages - have already built big houses with the money we paid them. The team mainly consists of Pak RT (neighborhood chiefs). We agreed on the cuts in advance - we had to, otherwise we would receive no compensation at all.”
So, if the 20% compensation paid was Rp.13.5 million (c.$1,500), 25% (Rp.3 million) went to lawyers and 30% (Rp.4 million) went to grasping local officials, leaving just Rp.6 million (c.$550) to the victims of Lapindo's incompetence.
Not all 'refugees', out of the more than 13,000 families (as at May 2007) have received even the limited compensation, which even in full would be by no means enough to replace their lost homes and livelihoods, and their children's disrupted schooling,
The mudflow is continuing, the ground is sinking as the mud escapes and, to add insult to injury, PT Lapindo Brantas has just been awarded a blue ranking "for complying with environmental standards set by the government."
On Wednesday last week, the ministry announced the results of its audit on 516 companies for the 2006-2007 period. These companies voluntarily took part in an environmental rating program, popularly known as Proper. The program classified companies into gold, green, blue, blue minus, red, red minus and black categories. They were judged according to achievements in controlling air and water pollution and in fulfilling environmental impact analyses (Amdal). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) program performance was also included.
Corporate social responsibility? To who? Its owners, including the Minister of Social Welfare, Abdurizal Bakrie, Indonesia's richest man?
Yet again, Indonesia lets itself become a laughing stock throughout the world for its brazen self-promotion and its seeming lack of empathy with its citizens..
And for this ibu, it all remains the same, a crying shame.
