home.social

#tomlembong — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #tomlembong, aggregated by home.social.

fetched live
  1. Stories From Indonesia @[email protected] ·

    Energy Transition: What’s the True Cost of Your Nickel? Greenpeace International

    What’s the True Cost of Your Nickel? Greenpeace Pictures of the Week

    Greenpeace International, 6 June 2025

    Greenpeace Indonesia activists, alongside four young West Papuans from the Raja Ampat archipelago in Eastern Indonesia, staged a peaceful protest today at the Indonesia Critical Minerals Conference to expose the devastating environmental and social consequences of nickel mining and smelting.

    The activists deployed a banner reading, “What’s the True Cost of Your Nickel?” and unfurled others with messages: “Nickel Mines Destroy Lives” and “Save Raja Ampat from Nickel Mining.”

    The protest extended beyond the conference hall, with Greenpeace Indonesia activists and Papuan youth displaying banners in the exhibition area outside.

    Messages such as “Nikel Bukan Masa Depan” (Nickel is Not the Future) and “Save Raja Ampat the Last Paradise” were prominently displayed amidst industry booths and attendees.

    This post is based on https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/75271/greenpeace-pictures-of-the-week-23/.

    © Dhemas Reviyanto / Greenpeace – https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/75271/greenpeace-pictures-of-the-week-23/Greenpeace Indonesia activists unfurl banner “Nickel Mines Destroy Lives” as Deputy Foreign Minister Arief Havas Oegroseno delivers speech at the Indonesia Critical Minerals Conference 2025, Jakarta. https://www.greenpeace.org/indonesia/siaran-pers-2/63070/aktivis-greenpeace-aksi-di-konferensi-nikel-internasional/

    In related news:

    In earlier news…

    The Suffering Behind the War of Words Between Former Widodo Trade Minister Tom Lembong and Ministers Luhut & Bahlil

    Press Release, Mining Advocacy Network (JATAM), Jan 26, 2024

    Indonesia’s Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia and Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Gen. (Retd.) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan have issued strong responses to remarks made by Thomas Lembong, co-head of the national presidential election campaign of candidates Anies Baswedan and Muhaimin Iskandar, about Indonesia’s nickel processing policy and electric vehicle industry.

    In a recent post by the podcast Total Politik, Lembong, a former Trade Minister and head of Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), criticized the extensive smelting initiatives, warning that domestic oversupply risks could depress nickel prices.(1) He also highlighted Tesla’s shift in China to Lithium Ferro Phosphate (LFP) batteries, which eliminates the need for nickel altogether.(2)

    https://youtu.be/f9fT1LyJumQ?si=KG9mlF5z64rw0ZWn

    The ensuing war of words reflects a focus among Indonesia’s political elite on industrial priorities rather than the welfare of impacted communities. Neither Lembong, nor Ministers Luhut and Bahlil, have publicly acknowledged the detrimental effects of nickel downstreaming on local populations, which has left many impoverished while boosting industry profits.(3) Nickel extraction expansion has displaced communities, polluted water sources, damaged marine ecosystems, degraded forests, and triggered health crises, violence, criminalization, and workplace accidents—some resulting in fatalities.

    Also Read: Elections: China Downstream, The Tentacles of Indonesia’s Nickel Oligarchy By Project Multatuli

    This dire situation is evident across Indonesia’s major nickel industrial estates, from PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Morowali in southern Sulawesi, PT Gunbuster Nickel Industry in North Morowali, Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry in Konawe, Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP) in Central Halmahera in Maluku province, to the industrial complexes on Obi Island under the Harita Group’s control.

    The political and business dynamics of these clashes, set against the backdrop of Indonesia’s 2024 presidential election, reveal more than just the flaws in President Joko Widodo’s accelerated nickel downstreaming agenda. Co-ordinating Minister Luhut and Minister Bahlil’s opposition to Lembong’s criticisms could be seen as defending vested interests within Indonesia’s political-business complex.(4)

    Minister Bahlil, for instance, has ties to PT Meta Mineral Pradana, a nickel mining company with two concessions in North Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi, owned by his PT Papua Bersama Unggul (90% ownership) and PT Rifa Capital (10%).

    Similarly, Co-ordinating Minister Luhut’s stake connects him to PT Energi Kreasi Bersama (Electrum), a joint venture between PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia Tbk and PT TBS Energi Utama Tbk (TOBA), a company owned by Luhut. Electrum focuses on developing an integrated electric vehicle ecosystem, from manufacturing electric motorcycles and battery technology to battery swapping stations and charging infrastructure. Through GoTo, Luhut’s interests align with Garibaldi “Boy” Thohir, a recent vocal supporter of the presidential election candidates Prabowo Subianto and President Joko Widodo’s son Gibran.(5) Boy Thohir holds shares in and sits on the Board of Commissioners of GoTo.(6)

    Ultimately, the high-profile clash involving Tom Lembong, Luhut, and Bahlil appears to prioritize personal and industrial interests over the environmental and social toll of nickel extraction. The nickel debate, rather than addressing the plight of affected communities or mitigating environmental destruction, seems geared toward securing political gains in Indonesia’s 2024 presidential election.

    Also Read: Transition: Mass Movements NU and Muhammadiyah To Get Cabinet Posts in New Government After Accepting Mining Permits, Tempo

    Regardless of whether Tesla relies on Indonesian nickel, mining operations in Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua continue unabated, with scant regard for the suffering of residents and ongoing environmental degradation.

    This article is based on https://jatam.org/id/lengkap/derita-warga-di-balik-saling-serang-tom-lembong-vs-luhut-bahlil

    In related news:

    Rate this:

    #China #CleanEnergy #climateChange #Democracy #Energy #EnergyTransition #Environment #EV #HumanRights #Indonesia #LingkunganHidup #Mining #News #Nickel #nikel #Papua #pilpres2024 #Politics #PrabowoGibran #renewableEnergy #sustainability #tomlembong #totalpolitik
    #totalpolitik #tomlembong #sustainability #renewableenergy #prabowogibran #politics
  2. Stories From Indonesia @[email protected] ·

    Lembong-PT Timah Cases: Prosecutors Arrest Lawyers, TV Executive For  “Obstruction of Justice”, Antaranews.com

    Attorney General’s Office Prosecutors Arrest and Detain Lawyers and TV News Director for Alleged Obstruction of Justice, Antaranews.com

    By Nadia Putri Rahmani for Antaranews.com, 22 April 2025

    Suspect in obstruction of justice case, law faculty professor and attorney Junaedi Saibih, is led away by Attorney General’s Office investigators to a waiting car at the Attorney General’s offices in Jakarta, Tuesday April 22, 2025. (ANTARA/Nadia Putri Rahmani)

    Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) has outlined the alleged roles of lawyer Marcella Santoso, lawyer and university professor Junaedi Saibih, and director of news at a private Jakarta television station Tian Bahtiar in a case of alleged obstruction of justice.

    Director of Investigations at the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) of Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office, Abdul Qohar, alleged early Tuesday morning at the Attorney General’s offices in Jakarta that the conspiracy had started when suspects Santoso and Saibih had ordered the suspect Bahtiar to generate a negative narrative that placed the Attorney General’s Office in a difficult position.

    The negative narrative was in relation to its handling of high profile cases of alleged corruption over tin commodity trading in the government controlled tin mining concessions (IUP) of SOE PT Timah Tbk between 2015 and 2022, alleged corruption in the administration of sugar importation licenses under then trade minister suspect Tom Lembong, and alleged corruption in the provision of crude palm oil export facilities.

    Qohar claimed the negative narrative had been broadcast in a variety of forms of publication, from news reports to seminar events.

    The suspect Saibih, he claimed, had created a positive narrative and opinion for his team, and created a methodology for calculating alleged government financial losses which appeared to demonstrate that the calculations presented by the Attorney General’s Office were incorrect and misleading.

    The suspect Bahtiar had then transferred the narrative created by Saibih into news on a number of social media and online media, he claimed.

    “(In the so-called negative narrative) the prosecutor’s office had also been portrayed in a negative way, as harming the rights of the suspects or defendants represented by (now) suspects Santoso and Saibih as the attorney’s for the various suspects or defendants,” he claimed.

    Santoso and Saibih, Qohar continued, had also organized and funded seminars, podcasts, and talk shows in various online media by directing negative narratives in the news in order to influence the evidence in the different trials.

    The different media activities were then covered by the suspect Bahtiar and broadcasted on Jakarta television station JAKTV and JAKTV’s official online accounts, including on TikTok and YouTube.

    Qohar also claimed that Santoso and Saibih had funded demonstrations with the aim of subverting the investigation, prosecution, and proving of the three cases in court.

    Bahtiar had also used the demonstrations to create negative portrayals in the news about the Prosecutor’s Office, he claimed.

    “So, their goal was clearly the forming of negative opinion as if what the investigator was handling was not right, disturbing the concentration of investigators so that it was hoped, or their hope was, that the cases could be dropped or at least to disrupt the concentration of the investigation,” said Qohar emphasizing the point.

    For his role, suspect Bahtir had received Rp 478,500,000 ($32,000) which had gone into his personal account, Qohar alleged.

    “There had been no written contract between the JAKTV company and the parties named suspects so there was an indication suspect Bahtiar had abused his authority in his position as news director,” claimed Qohar.

    The three suspects have also been indicted under Article 21 of Law 31/1999 Concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended by Law 20/2001 Concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) 1 of Indonesia’s Criminal Code.

    Pending further processing, suspects Saibih and Santoso are being detained in custody at the Attorney General Office’s section of Salemba jail for the next 20 days.

    Meanwhile, suspect Santoso was not detained because she is already being held as a suspect over an alleged bribery case involving the acquittal of a crude palm oil export facility corruption case at the Central Jakarta District Court.

    Reporter: Nadia Putri Rahmani
    Editor: Hisar Sitanggang
    Copyright © ANTARA 2025

    This post is based on https://m.antaranews.com/berita/4785173/kejagung-ungkap-peran-advokat-dirpem-tv-swasta-yang-rintangi-penyidikan. Featured image credit: Former Deputy Chair of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Saut Situmorang is embraced by Anies Baswedan after hearing  Thomas Lembong sentenced to 4.5 years in prison over alleged corruption related to sugar importation at the Central Jakarta Corruption Court, Friday (July 18, 2025). (KOMPAS.com/Xena Olivia)

    In related news:

    Rate this:

    #ArmedForces #AttorneyGeneral #CivilRights #Corruption #Courts #Criminalization #Democracy #HumanRights #Indonesia #Intimidation #Journalism #Mining #Narrative #News #Podcast #Police #Politics #Politik #PressFreedom #PTTimahTbk #RegionalIndonesia #RuleOfLaw #Sawit #SocialMedia #SosMed #TomLembong #tomlembong
    #tomlembong #sosmed #socialmedia #sawit #ruleoflaw #regionalindonesia
  3. Stories From Indonesia @[email protected] ·

    Op-Ed: The Politicization of Former Trade Minister’s Arrest

    Editorial: The Politicization of Former Trade Minister Tom Lembong’s Arrest

    From Tempo.co, November 10, 2024

    The arrest of one Widodo-era Trade Minister, and government critic, Tom Lembong, raises troubling questions. Given the lack of evidence of corruption to justify the arrest, political motives appear to be overshadowing the rule of law.

    The Indonesian Attorney General’s Office seems to have increasingly abandoned the principle of equal treatment under the law. Under the government of President Joko Widodo, the office has frequently acted as a “hammer” against those opposed to government interests. The naming of Thomas Trikasih Lembong, known as Tom Lembong, as a suspect in a sugar importation corruption investigation indicates that this practice is being continued under the government of recently-inaugurated President Prabowo Subianto.

    Tom Lembong, who served as President Joko Widodo’s Trade Minister from 2015 to 2016, is accused of improperly authorizing the importation of 105,000 tons of sugar. Prosecutors allege the decision cost state revenue approximately 400 billion rupiah (around US$25.6 million), representing the profits notionally earned by eight private sector importing companies. Prosecutors argue that these profits would have gone to the state revenue if state-owned enterprise trading companies had conducted the importations.

    Selective Pursuit of Justice

    Equality under the law appears to be missing, as prosecutors have limited their investigation to Lembong’s tenure as Trade Minister. Similar policies during the tenures of other Widodo government Trade Ministers have not been investigated. During the two terms of President Joko Widodo, six individuals served as Trade Minister, including Rachmat Gobel (Nasdem Party), Enggartiasto Lukita (Nasdem Party), Agus Suparmanto (National Awakening Party), Muhammad Lutfi, and Zulkifli Hasan (National Mandate Party). All authorized sugar importations of varying quantities.

    Moreover, prosecutors have selectively utilized findings from a 2017 audit by the national Audit Board of Indonesia (BPK). The audit report, covering the tenures of Trade Ministers Rachmat Gobel, Tom Lembong, and Enggartiasto Lukita, identified irregularities in the importation of 1.96 million tons of sugar. The audit noted that the importations were not coordinated by the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, lacked technical approvals from the Ministry of Agriculture, and were unsupported by data relating to sugar requirements.

    Vague Charges

    Lembong is charged under Articles 2(1) and 3 of Indonesia’s Anti-Corruption Law, provisions often used to indict officials accused of making decisions that allegedly cause government financial losses. These articles are notoriously flexible, encompassing acts that enrich individuals or corporations by exploiting their positions, resulting in financial harm to state revenue.

    Legal Case or Political Theater?

    Prosecutors have yet to present compelling evidence, such as a clear money trail, to justify Lembong’s arrest. This has fueled suspicions that the case may be politically motivated—a hallmark of the Joko Widodo’s government.

    Lembong initially played a central role in Joko Widodo’s 2014 presidential election campaign, which led to his appointments as Head of the Investment Coordinating Board, and later as Trade Minister. However, after being dismissed from cabinet in 2016, he aligned himself with other sidelined officials, including Anies Baswedan, then the Minister of Education. Lembong has since supported Anies, now a presidential election candidate for 2024.

    During the campaign, Lembong was embroiled in debates with team of candidate Prabowo Subianto, particularly on nickel downstreaming policies. Candidate Subianto’s vice-presidential running Gibran, the son of President Joko Widodo, explicitly mentioned Lembong during a vice-presidential debate on January 21, 2024. Speculation has arisen that Lembong’s arrest is linked to these political tensions.

    Upholding Justice, Not Politics

    Prosecutors have to present robust evidence in court. If their cases rests solely on procedural errors, the Attorney General’s Office risks becoming a political instrument. This concern deepens should similar accusations are not leveled at other former trade minister who implemented identical importation policies.

    President Prabowo Subianto, as the Attorney General’s superior, must ensure that the justice system under his government remains impartial and untainted by political influence.

    This post is based on https://www.tempo.co/kolom/penahanan-tom-lembong-1166151.

    In related news:

    Rate this:

    #Asia #AttorneyGeneral #Business #Courts #Economics #Elections #Governance #HumanRights #IMF #Indonesia #JokoWidodo #NewOrder #News #Nickel #nikel #OrdeBaru #pilpres2024 #Politics #PrabowoGibran #PrabowoSubianto #RegionalIndonesia #RuleOfLaw #TempoMagazine #TomLembong #totalpolitik
    #totalpolitik #tomlembong #tempomagazine #ruleoflaw #regionalindonesia #prabowosubianto