The arrest of Indonesia’s fisheries minister on bribery charges has prompted a freeze on exports of lobster larvae, but a top official has indicated this is unlikely to be permanent, despite being at the heart of the ongoing corruption investigation.
Minister Edhy Prabowo was one of 17 people detained on Nov. 25 by agents from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on allegations of bribery related to the issuance of export permits. The fisheries ministry announced a suspension of lobster larvae exports as of Nov. 26, and the following day it announced that Edhy had resigned as minister. Edhy was minister for about a year, and the lobster export policy was the only meaningful regulation issued during this time.
His replacement in the interim is Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment. In a statement published Nov. 28, Luhut said he had ordered an evaluation of the lobster export program, but added that fundamentally there was nothing wrong with the policy.
If we see everything is good, we’ll continue it because this gives benefits to the fishers along the southern coasts, Luhut said.
The KPK has charged Edhy and six others, including two of his aides, Andreau Pribadi Misanta and Safri, with various counts of corruption. Two of the four others have been identified as Siswadi, an official with the freight-forwarding company PT Aero Citra Kargo (ACK), and Suharjito, the founder and president of PT Dua Putra Perkasa Pratama (DPPP), one of the companies awarded a permit to export lobster larvae.
The KPK alleges that Andreau was responsible for the decision to appoint ACK as the sole freight forwarder for the lobster exports, a position that the company allegedly exploited to inflate its freight prices. According to the KPK, Ahmad Bahtiar, a co-owner of ACK, wired 3.4 billion rupiah ($243,000) to Edhy via Ainul Faqih, an assistant to the minister’s wife. Ainul has also been charged, while Edhy’s wife, Iis Rosita Dewi, and Bahtiar have not. Edhy and his wife allegedly used the money to buy luxury goods during a working visit to Hawai?i; they were arrested upon their return at the airport in Jakarta, with KPK agents seizing the items, including a Rolex watch and Louis Vuitton shoes, as evidence.
The KPK also alleges that Suharjito of DPPP bribed the others in exchange for a permit to export lobster larvae. According to the KPK, the company has to date exported 10 shipments of wild-caught lobster larvae via ACK.
The lobster export issue is a hugely controversial one. Susi Pudjiastuti, the former fisheries minister, instated a ban on larvae exports in 2016 to prevent the overfishing of wild lobster stocks in Indonesian waters. Edhy, who has feuded publicly with Susi on several issues since taking office last year, first touted a plan to end the ban in December 2019, saying he wanted to cater to small fishers who depended on export markets. He also said Susi’s ban had failed to tackle the illegal lobster market.
In May this year, he lifted the ban, allowing exports to resume. But conservationists warned the new policy would undo efforts to replenish Indonesia’s wild lobster stocks, while fisheries industry watchers and investigative reporting found the selection of approved exporters was rife with nepotism and cronyism.
2020 Copyright Conservation news