Konferensi Pers
According to the mandate in Act No. 14 of 2008 regarding the Public Information Disclosure (KIP), the public’s rights to obtain and access all information, especially activities financed by public funds, are permitted based on the applicable regulations.
According to the point of the Public Information Disclosure Act (UU KIP), every public agency is obliged to open access for every applicant citizen or legal entity in Indonesia to obtain information access. Exceptions are for certain information that can endanger the country, business protection from unfair business competition, personal rights, position privacy, and public information that has not been controlled or documented by a public agency.
Information about natural resources is one of the important information that should be opened to the public. The Right to Cultivate (HGU) documents of Palm Oil Plantation are the basic information often searched by the environmentalists, especially for the community who depends on the natural resources. As an organization that concern with providing data and information on the environment and forest, FWI still feels difficulties in obtaining the information in the work environment of the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN). In fact, request for information is the legal and procedural way, which is possible in the UU KIP.
On July 22, 2016, Central Information Commission granted all FWI’s lawsuits to the Ministry of ATR/BPN regarding plantation information. Central Information Commission stated that all HGU documents of Palm Oil Plantation are open information and must be available all the time.
Unfortunately, before 14 HOK, where the Information Commission’s decision is permanent legal force, the Ministry of ATR/BPN objected and submitted an appeal to the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) on August 9, 2016. The Ministry of ATR/BPN has been clearly ignoring the UU KIP and violating the government’s vision in implementing the governance transparency as in the Nawa Cita (government’s nine hopes). Thus, FWI considers that it is necessary to have a press conference to spread the Ministry of ATR/BPN’s attitude that is not obey the law.
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