Indonesian investigative publication, Tempo, has recently released a report revealing possible ties between the country’s fisheries minister and several local exporters of lobster larvae, Mongabay reported last week.
Minister Edhy Prabowo in early May decided to resume exports of baby lobsters, reversing the ban imposed by his predecessor, Susi Pudjiastuti, since 2016. Less than two months after the decision, his ministry awarded exports licenses to 31 companies out of the 100 that were seeking the permits. Tempo’s report found that owners and senior officials of many of those companies are members of the Great Indonesia Movement Party, or the Gerindra – where minister Prabowo is a senior member, the news service said.
The investigation reportedly reveals that brother Hashim Sujono Djojohadikusumo and a niece Rahayu Saraswati Djojohadikusumo of Gerindra chairman, Prabowo Subianto, have links to some of the winning exporters. Prabowo is believed a “close confidant” to chairman Subianto, who is currently Indonesian defense minister.
Two companies granted the permits are reportedly operated by Buntaran, a former fisheries ministry official found guilty of baby lobster smuggling and money laundering in 2017.
In addition, most of the 25 winning companies in the list assessed by Tempo had been formed in less than three months before the investigation was publicized, while the others had just jumped into the fisheries sector for a while, Mongabay reported.
Tempo also reportedly found that PT Royal Samudera Nusantara, one of the newly licensed companies, had failed to send a batch of baby lobsters to Vietnam in June as it missed a charter flight. The publication claims the failed attempt could have been the second shipment made by the company following the lifting of the ban in May. Ahmad Bahtiar Sebayang, a deputy chairman of the Tunas Indonesia Raya wing of the Gerindra party, is reportedly chairman of the board of PT Royal Samudera Nusantara.
After the investigation was released, minister Prabowo on 7 July issued a statement to defend his ministry’s decision regarding the granting of the export permits.
“There are two or three names that have been linked to me and immediately I’m being wildly judged,” he said. “Is it because I’m the minister, all of my friends can’t have business? I think that’s not what’s important, but the fairness instead. I am not giving special treatment to my best friends.”
Illegal exports of lobster larvae were estimated to cost Indonesia IDR 900 billion (USD 6.2 million, EUR 5.5 million) in revenue last year, Mongabay quoted Indonesian government’s anti-money-laundering watchdog PPATK as saying. The popular destinations for lobster larvae from Indonesia are Vietnam, Singapore and China.
Indonesia’s fisheries ministry said the country is estimated to have a wild lobster stock of 27 billion. However, the country’s National Commission for Fisheries Resources Research (Komnas Kajiskan) in a report in 2016, warned of overfishing of lobsters in six out of 11 fisheries management areas in Indonesia, with the fisheries product being caught at maximum capacity in the remaining areas, according to Mongabay.
Photo courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
