The stated motives behind the series of recent street demonstrations by Papuans in Jayapura, Jakarta, Semarang and Makassar, demanding the closure of Freeport's giant mine in Papua, are said to be because the mine does not benefit the local people. But such complaints are highly questionable, even mind-boggling.

The presumed trigger for the demonstrations was a minor clash on Feb. 21 when Freeport security guards ordered at least 100 illegal miners to stop panning for gold just outside the Grasberg copper and gold mine. Only one security guard was reported hurt, but the local gold panners and their supporters succeeded in halting the mine's operations for three days.

The street protests in the four aforementioned cities against PT Freeport Indonesia, the unit of US-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., seemed to only have a tenuous connection to the local miners' grievances. The city protesters stated that they wanted the closure of the Freeport mine, which last year produced 793,000 metric tons of copper and 3.55 million ounces of gold (and paid over US$130 million in taxes to the government).

Such street demonstrations have become commonplace here since 1998-1999, when Soeharto's exit unleashed a collection of activists – non-governmental organizations, local leaders – some touting genuine community interests, several with selfish interests and ulterior motives – most of whom were kept silent during Soeharto's authoritarian rule.

The resulting breakdown of law and order in several provinces, combined with the virtual meltdown of the national economy, had made many big resource-based ventures, located mostly in remote areas, highly vulnerable to arbitrary claims or other forms of opposition.

We have also observed protests from environmental and human rights groups, which accused large companies like Freeport of damaging the environment, violating basic human rights or being involved in the intricate web of Soeharto's crony capitalism.

Freeport, which began production in Papua in 1972, could have been an integral cog of Soeharto's politico-business machinery and could have been inevitably drawn into collusion and corruption, which characterized the Soeharto era. But none of the allegations charged against the New York-listed company has ever been proven in court.

Now that such street protests emerged again without any major accident or incident, we cannot help but to be reminded of a similar "incident" that hit PT Kaltim Prima Coal, in East Kalimantan, which was then controlled by BP (now called "Beyond Petroleum") and Anglo-Australian company Rio Tinto, in 2003.

Kaltim Prima, which operates one of Indonesia's largest coal mines, was then hit by a barrage of protest demonstrations that halted its operations. As it happened, BP and Rio Tinto were then facing deadline pressures to divest their shares in the coal mine to Indonesian interests.

So damaging had been the impact of the demonstration and blockade of its mining operations that both foreign companies hastily sold their controlling interests, reportedly at a fire-sale prices, to PT Bumi Resources – a unit of the Bakrie Group, a diversified conglomerate connected to the Bakrie family (of which Aburizal Bakrie, the welfare minister is an integral part) – simply to get out of its mining operations in the province as soon as possible.

It may well be purely coincidence that Freeport McMoRan, at the request of the Indonesian government, is also offering 10 percent of its shares to private Indonesian interests under the condition that the transaction must be concluded at a fair market price. Analysts say the market value of the 10-percent stake, based on its latest quotations in the New York Stock Exchange, is now about US$1.2 billion.

The 10-percent stake had actually been sold in 1991 to PT Bakrie Brothers, which later resold it to PT Nusamba, controlled by Soeharto's golf buddy Mohammad Bob Hasan, as part of the realization of Freeport McMoRan's divestment of 20 percent of its interests in FI – the other 10 percent was sold to the Indonesian government. However, because Nusamba defaulted on its debt after the 1998 economic crisis, Freeport McMoRan reacquired the 10 percent stake.

Even though, Freeport McMoRan is not facing any deadline pressures for the divestment, we cannot help but suspect that some provocateur might have been playing a big part in the current protest demonstrations in a subterfuge to drive down Freeport McMoRan's share prices.

Whatever the real motive of the protest demonstrations, the protesters' demand for Freeport's closure is irrational, because the company has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing. The government therefore should protect the company for the sake of legal certainty and see to it that the protest demonstrations in Papua and other provinces remain under control.

But it is also well-advised for Freeport McMoRan to realize that for such a giant mine operating in such a remote area, where the government has yet to provide basic services, it is no longer enough to simply abide by the law.

Freeport McMoRan should also increase its social responsibility above the mandatory floor for good corporate governance standards. Operating prosperously in the midst of an impoverished community often fosters resentment and envy that may eventually explode into resistance as people, in the current democratic era, will no longer keep silent about what they perceive to be an unjust distribution of wealth.