A widely criticized move by Indonesian President Joko Widodo to reform mining rules to bestow coal mining licenses on an allied religious organization is carving a rift between its executive leadership and Islamic activists in the community, sources told Mongabay Indonesia. On May 30, the president, commonly known as Jokowi, signed a revision to existing mining rules to allow the country’s religious organizations to operate mining concessions. The unorthodox reform was spearheaded by the country’s investment minister, Jokowi loyalist Bahlil Lahadalia, who has faced serious allegations of impropriety in the revocation and reissuance of mining permits. In Jakarta, allowing faith groups to become mining operators has been widely interpreted as part of a quid pro quo for the country’s largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, for delivering votes to Jokowi ally Prabowo Subianto. Prabowo was elected president in February this year after a court led by Jokowi’s brother-in-law changed age limits to allow Jokowi’s son to run as Prabowo’s vice president. Prabowo ran for high office in three previous elections over a 15-year period and was rejected by voters in all three contests. Two-term president Jokowi has long enjoyed extraordinary popularity, according to surveys of Indonesian voters dating back a decade. The ploy to hitch Jokowi’s 36-year-old inexperienced son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, to the Prabowo ticket transformed opinion polls and propelled Prabowo to a landslide election win. Civil society groups told Mongabay that the change was fraught with procedural and practical pitfalls. “It’s nonsense,” Muhammad Jamil, head of the legal desk…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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