Indonesia’s Omnibus Bill Receives Pushback from Environmentalists

Thousands stream into the streets of Jakarta, marching towards the building of the people’s representative council (Wikimedia Commons).

Protests have swept across Indonesia in response to the sudden ratification of an omnibus bill covering a wide array of seemingly unrelated topics. The now-passed bill outlines ways by which the government can create more jobs and encourage foreign investment. It received significant public pushback due to numerous controversial provisions that critics claim will deny workers’ rights and facilitate environmental exploitation. While most protestors have focused on the articles that aimed to revise labor laws, environmentalists have protested the decreased emphasis on public participation in environmental impact assessments, known as the amdal. 

Protests had successfully postponed action on the  bill—however, it resurfaced this year and received a vote last Friday, October 9. However, before the vote took place, activist groups planned massive protests and strikes across Indonesia. The legislature moved up the date of the vote and, on October 5, the public learned that the bill had become law. 

While many legitimate concerns regarding the bill exist, social media fanned numerous false narratives of the bill’s content, including that the new bill removed menstrual and pregnancy leave and eliminated severance payment. Rumors that the new omnibus bill would remove the need for the amdal sparked the most outcry from environmentalists. The amdal plays a key role in the approval of environmental permits for businesses across Indonesia. The rumor originated with the significant revision of Article 36 of Indonesia’s Protection and Management of the Environment law that obligated all businesses to conduct an amdal.  

The Minister of Environment and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya Bakar, said on October 7 that the omnibus bill did not remove the need for the amdal. Instead, she clarified, the bill would integrate amdal into other permit systems used by Indonesian companies and allow for better licensing processes, thereby strengthening environmental protection. 

According to Baker, when an environmental issue surfaced in the past due to company misconduct, it merely called into question the entity’s environmental permit. With this integration, the amdal becomes part of the basis for issuing business licenses in the first place. Within this new structure, if an environmental concern arises, the government can revoke a business’s entire operating permit rather than just its environmental credentials. Moreover, edits on the omnibus bill’s Article 37 confirm that the amdal continues to have relevance, as it clearly states that if a company fails to abide by the amdal, their working permit may become invalid. 

However, activists’ primary concern lies with the lessening of public participation in the amdal approval process. The former law had emphasized the importance of public participation from communities that a company’s activities would impact as well as environmentalist groups. The omnibus bill’s edits to this process now only mandate public participation from those directly impacted, excluding environmentalist groups and the wider community in general. 

Furthermore, under these new policies, not all businesses have to carry out an amdal. Instead, only investments deemed “high-risk” require an amdal, leaving room for environmental exploitation by all companies not designated as such. Moreover, the central government can overrule decisions rendered by local governments regarding environmental permits. 

In the second quarter of this year, Indonesia’s economy diminished by 5.32 percent. The bill represents Indonesia’s decision to prioritize economic development above environmental sustainability as the country scrambles to increase both employment investment during the pandemic.