"The state must look into this problem. Whoever is affected, everything must be resolved, including those of businessmen," he noted in a statement received here on Wednesday.
Susanto made the statement after meeting dozens of businessmen, who were members of the Lapindo Mud Victims Association from Sidoarjo District in the Parliament Complex in Senayan, Jakarta.
The mudflow disaster that struck on May 26, 2006, had swallowed businesses and factories, thereby resulting in them losing their assets and enterprises. So far, they had not received any compensation.
For almost an hour, he paid heed to the entrepreneurs, who opened up about their feelings, complaints, and sufferings due to the disaster. They are seeking to be paid for the damages they had to bear in accordance with the agreement.
Susanto said that these entrepreneurs had made important contributions to the nation, state, and society. They had paid taxes, were employed people, and had improved the economic conditions around factories. The Lapindo mudflow disaster was an incident that happened against their wishes, he stressed.
During the meeting, Susanto heard about some people having received compensation, yet the entrepreneurs did not get theirs in full.
To this end, he urged President Joko Widodo to immediately solve the problem. For almost 17 years, the issue of compensation to the Lapindo mudflow victims had yet to be addressed.
He also expects them to send an official letter to President Jokowi. Should the president respond to them, then he was confident of a best solution being found.
"I hope the president would accept them," he added.
He said the government could use various schemes to pay compensation to entrepreneurs, either from the state budget or from others.
If the government had paid compensation, then these assets could become the property of the government, a source of state wealth, he remarked. The state had nothing to lose when they paid compensation that amounted to around Rp800 billion.
President Joko Widodo's term of office to end in two years would conclude once the Lapindo issue was also solved, he stated.
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Translator: Boyke Ledy W, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Sri Haryati
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