Hopefuls fail to push environment

By Rizal Harahap
Source : The Jakarta Post

Three Riau governor and vice-governor candidate pairs failed to address threats to the region's environment, including deforestation, when they outlined their strategies during a plenary session of the province's legislative council on Friday.

Governor candidate Chaidir and running mate Suryadi Chusaini, who were nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, promised to allocate 60 percent of the province's budget for poverty alleviation, education, health care and infrastructure development.

"This province is rich in natural resources, but still has a high poverty number. It means the development approach in the province was wrong and should be changed," said Chaidir, who is also the legislative council chairman.

He criticized the previous governor for touting the province's 8-percent economic growth rate despite rising poverty and unemployment figures.

Golkar Party-nominated governor candidate Rusli Zainal and running mate Bambang Mit said they would concentrate on developing infrastructure in villages and isolated areas.

"We will improve the quality of human resources in villages and isolated areas. We will free them from the poverty trap," said Rusli, who is also the incumbent governor and chairman of the province's Golkar Party chapter.

However, Rusli said his administration had reduced the rate of poverty in the province to 10 percent in 2007 from 14 percent in 2004.

The unemployment rate also decreased to 9.28 percent from 13.9 percent in the same period, he said.

Governor candidate Thamsir Rachman and running mate Taufan Andoso Yakin, who were nominated by the Democratic Party, also pledged to develop villages and isolated areas.

"We will allocate 50 percent of the budget for development in villages and isolated areas," said Thamsir, a former regent of Indragiri Hulu regency.

Executive director of the Riau chapter of the Indonesian Forum for Environment Johny Setiawan Mundung said the governor candidates had avoided crucial issues, including illegal logging, deforestation and smoke pollution.

"They were not sensitive to the strategic issues which have been monitored by people across the world," Mundung told The Jakarta Post.

He said environmentalists had long doubted that the candidates were committed to conserving the environment.

"If we look at their track records, two of the governor candidates were involved in damaging the forest," he said without mentioning the names of the candidates.

He said the candidates had promoted investment activities that had resulted in damaged forests in their respective regencies.

Mundung called on the public to abstain from voting in the election, citing that none of the candidates could be depended on to protect or rehabilitate the environment.