The tumult and violent labor strike against the Indonesian subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. in Papua over the past few weeks has not simply been an expression of anger over low pay, but what the native Papuans have long perceived as egregious injustice regarding the exploitation of the huge gold and copper deposits in their area.
We don’t see the workers’ demand for pay increases of more than 12 times their minimum wage (currently between US$2 and $3.50 a day) as representing the genuine aspirations of the employees.
The demand, we think, was mainly a medium for the venting of frustrations and anger over what workers see as the plundering of local natural resources under a mining concession awarded more than 42 years ago by the central government through what is also perceived to have been an extremely corrupt process.
There is also a perception in the public, right or wrong, that most major mining companies that obtained their concessions under Soeharto’s authoritarian rule between 1967 and 1998 had bulldozed their way through the licensing system to obtain all the necessary permits for their operations in collusion with corrupt officials.
This disillusionment was kept under control during Soeharto’s authoritarian rule. But the fall of Soeharto, which ushered in the democratic era in 1998, has encouraged local people, who for more than 32 years were completely excluded from the decision-making process in regards the exploitation of local natural resources, to forcefully assert their rights.
The people of Papua have often staged street demonstrations and demanded that mining operations in their areas be simply closed down, claiming that the mines have not benefited the local community but have instead damaged the environment.
The issue is often further complicated by the fact that the protesters consist of local leaders, pressure groups, human rights and environmental watchdogs — some with genuine causes and legitimate grievances but others with only self-serving interests.
But the blunt fact that the bulk of the royalties and tax receipts from the giant mine flow directly to the central government has worsened the feelings of injustice, especially among the native people.
The death of four workers caused by shots fired by the local police who were attempting to control the crowd and from “unidentified gunman” during a strike that began on Oct. 15, the latest being on Friday, has further added to the local community’s anger toward the company and central government.
We find it mind-boggling that Freeport, which has been operating its Papua mine since 1973, has been unable to develop among the local community a sense of owenership of its giant Grasberg mine.
The Freeport mining complex seems to have remained an American enclave, populated largely by foreigners and migrant workers from provinces outside Papua. Very few local people have been able to join even the mid level management of the company.
The local community may have harbored a sense of ownership and stood by to protect the giant mining company if they felt they were gaining real benefits from its operations through the employment it created and a fair share of royalties and tax receipts from it.
And the central government’s mishandling of the long-harbored wish among many native Papuans to form a new state, which erupted in further violence in Jayapura on Wednesday, leaving five more Papuans dead and countless others injured, has added to political and social tensions that the American mining company must now deal with.
The manner in which the government and Freeport management resolves the labor issues at Freeport will also affect other big mining concessions.