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| Cornelis responded firmly to an issue currently drawing significant public attention. Documentation: Cornelis. |
By Masri Sareb Putra
Member of Commission XII of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) and also a member of the Budget Committee (Banggar), Cornelis responded firmly to an issue currently drawing significant public attention.
Legal Uncertainty and Threats to Resource Sovereignty
The issue concerns the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) between Indonesia and the United States, which is now facing legal uncertainty. Cornelis highlighted what he sees as a serious threat posed by the agreement to Indonesia’s sovereignty over its natural resources and national energy security.
In his capacity as a legislator overseeing the energy, mineral resources, environmental, and investment sectors, Cornelis warned that the ART agreement could become a gateway to broader exploitation of Indonesia’s strategic natural resources. He referred specifically to a clause requiring Indonesia to remove export restrictions to the United States on all critical mineral commodities.
“If we continue to open the floodgates for raw mineral exports amid this legal uncertainty, we are effectively pawning our national energy sovereignty,” Cornelis stated firmly. “This would undermine the hard-earned blueprint for downstream development of nickel and cobalt industries that Indonesia has painstakingly built.”
The former two-term Governor of West Kalimantan further cautioned that such exploitation could extend beyond nickel and cobalt to other highly strategic resources vital to the nation’s future, including uranium, thorium, and rare earth elements.
According to him, Indonesia’s natural wealth must not be extracted merely due to external policy pressure that has already been proven legally flawed.
Energy Independence and National Resilience
Beyond concerns over raw material exports, Cornelis also strongly rejected the large-scale energy import commitments from the United States embedded in the ART agreement. He urged Indonesia to remain self-reliant in meeting its national energy needs.
“I emphasize the issue of oil and gas, do not buy from the United States. We must be self-sufficient. Surrendering our energy resilience through a legally defective agreement is tantamount to committing sovereignty suicide,” he declared.
For Cornelis, energy security is inseparable from national dignity. Dependence on foreign energy imports, particularly under uncertain legal frameworks, could weaken Indonesia’s bargaining position and long-term strategic autonomy.
The Role of Borneo People in Defending Strategic Resources
Cornelis also underscored the broader implications for communities across the archipelago, including the people of Borneo, who have historically lived closest to many of Indonesia’s richest mineral and energy reserves. For Borneo people, especially Indigenous communities, natural resources are not merely commodities but ancestral lands, cultural heritage, and the foundation of intergenerational survival.
Policies that prioritize raw exports over downstream processing risk perpetuating extractive patterns that leave local communities with environmental degradation while value creation happens elsewhere. Strengthening domestic processing industries, therefore, is not only an economic strategy but also a moral obligation to ensure that Borneo people and other resource-rich communities become rightful beneficiaries, not victims, of national development.
In closing, Cornelis urged the government to take decisive action to protect national sovereignty and the welfare of its citizens. He emphasized that Indonesia must not compromise the livelihoods of its people for legally uncertain trade arrangements.
