Adil Al Hasan, Jakarta – Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician who is also a member of Commission XII of the DPR, Muhammad Haris, stated that the third revision of the Mineral and Coal Law which allows universities to manage mines could be an income opportunity. He said that if campuses manage mines, they must ensure that they are of high quality.
"The hope is that if campuses manage them, there will be high-quality mining management," said Haris in a written statement, quoted on Wednesday, February 5, 2025.
Haris made this statement in a discussion of the Legislation Forum with the theme Sustainability of Natural Resources: The Role of Universities in Ensuring Environmentally Friendly Mining Practices on Tuesday. According to him, these mines must be utilized as stipulated in Article 33 Paragraph 2 of the 1945 Constitution.
"For decades, maybe since we became independent, mines have been a luxury item and their management has been very exclusive. Campuses can implement their idealism in the context of mining management," he said.
Not only that, the granting of mining concessions is also considered to provide an opportunity for campuses to get better financial opportunities. He claimed that from this income, the difficulty in reaching higher education due to cost factors could be overcome.
"There is an opportunity for the community because the campus has large funds. If these funding sources are increased, there will be more vertical mobility for the nation's children," said Haris. According to him, this positive expectation should not be reversed.
Meanwhile, Professor of Management and Public Policy at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) Gabriel Lele said the plan to provide mining land concessions for universities is a new form of corporatism in the campus environment. Therefore, he emphasized that campuses should not open up space to obtain mining business permits.
This discourse was previously proposed in the Draft Law (RUU) on the Fourth Amendment to Law Number 4 of 2009 concerning Mineral and Coal Mining (UU Minerba) which has now been ratified as a DPR initiative proposal.
Gabriel considered this corporatism as a state strategy to include groups outside the government, including campuses, by providing certain benefits. However, this phenomenon comes with a condition, namely that campuses are no longer allowed to voice their critical voices.
"I actually see that this is also a form of subtle silencing of critical campus voices," he said, quoted from the UGM website.
Gabriel said this discourse has the potential to give rise to corruption and moral risk. Because according to him, if the campus is involved in mining management, the academic ethics that have been maintained so far will be shifted, because the campus must think with business logic that focuses more on calculating profit and loss. "Again, business logic is used," he said.
– Michela Gabriela contributed to the writing of this article.