Jakarta – An environment official says certain members of the Singapore government and business community have been paying bribes to local government officials at Batam to obtain permission to dump waste in waters off the industrial island.
Secretary of the Environmental Impact Management Agency's Batam branch, Dendi N. Purnomo, says all sorts of toxic pollutants and solid waste materials from Singapore have ended up in Batam due to the inclination of local officials to accept bribes.
"Because Singapore has very strict regulations on pollutants and solid waste, many of its businessmen just come to Batam and give some tips to local officials, then they can easily obtain a permit to dump all of their solid waste and pollutants here," he was quoted as saying by Antara in Batam yesterday.
Dendi said that no matter how hard Indonesia tries to keep Batam free from Singapore's solid and liquid waste materials, the island state's businessmen can always find loopholes in Indonesian regulations or the Indonesian bureaucracy, through which they can carry waste over in state-owned ships and dispose of it in waters off Batam.
He said the Batam Authority has strict regulations on maintaining a sustainable use of the environment and it is prohibited to import waste.
"However, tips and bribery can easily overcome everything: regulations, security guards and government officials." Dendi said some members of the Batam Authority feel it is the responsibility of police to stop the illegal dumping of toxic waste.
He admitted that Batam's lax law enforcement and corruption give people in Singapore the impression that it's easy for rich people to violate regulations in Indonesia.
"Of course they look down on us and think the law here is about as valuable as some small change in Singapore dollars. This is why we would be pleased if police could confiscate any ships carrying pollutants and take stern measures against their crews." Earlier this month, Batam Customs Office refused to allow in 22 containers of waste and urged Indonesian importers to send the containers back to Singapore.
Used cars
Apart from pollutants, Singapore is also keen on smuggling its second-hand cars into Indonesia. Dendi said the car smuggling racket is more serious than the importation of waste products.
"Singapore businessmen send over hundreds of used cars that were produced in 1990s, completely ignoring the regulations here. They just allocate some dollars notes [for Indonesian officials] and everything will be okay." He said the people who buy the smuggled cars will never be arrested, because they are mainly police, civil servants and other local government officials and journalists.
"With prices ranging from just Rp15 million [US$1,780] and Rp20 million [US$2,370], hundreds of people are interested in buying second-hand cars from Singapore," he added. So far there has been no indication that officials in Batam will attempt to stop the car smuggling.