Thailand
Indonesia: Freeport Workers: Freeport Make Great Contributions
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Arland Suruan, a representative for the Care for Freeport Solidarity Movement said that Freeport Indonesia is the only company that provides great contributions in the development of the Papua people.
“[Freeport] is the only foreign company in Indonesia that provides great contribution to the Papuan people,” Arland said on Thursday, March 9, 2017.
Arland stated that Freeport even gave more attention to the Papuan people compared to state-owned enterprises. Arland argued that even SOEs cannot match what Freeport had done. “When our [journalist] friends asked of SOEs can do better, sorry, but we doubted it,” Arland said.
In addition, Arland asserted that Freeport is a company that can accommodate Papuan indigenous people. “The question is, who is more nationalist, the US company, of the national company,” Arland said.
Another representative of the Movement Betty Ibo, said that so far, only Freeport that wanted to employ people who cannot read or write. Betty added that Freeport even provided higher salary compared to the average salary in the region.
Betty said that Freeport had provided much literacy program to the Papuan people, starting from engineer development program, up until the management levels. “Only Freeport can do such things,” Betty said.
Another representative Virgo Salossa, said that conditions in Papua would be worse if Freeport had not been established in the region. “Many said [Freeport] never provided a contribution, but do they ever think what would it be if there was no Freeport?” Virgo said.
Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2017/03/09/056854435/Freeport-Workers-Freeport-Make-Great-Contributions