Their backers have wealth and influence. They have been known to cajole and threaten. Over the past two years they have taken illegal mining to an unprecedented level, pillaging three million tonnes of coal alone from the two South Kalimantan concessions run by Australian mining company Broken Hill Proprietary. BHP is the biggest but by no means only victim of a phenomenon that has swept Indonesia since the economy nose-dived three years ago. The government estimates there are 62,000 illegal miners across the country, twice the number working legally.
Government officials are frank about the problem.
Meanwhile, Jakarta seems unable to act against newly emboldened regional power-holders who collude with the illegal operators and criticize central government for siding with foreign mining companies. These developments bode ill for the spread of local autonomy. Short-sighted provincial officials scrambling to line their own pockets ignore the damage to the economy and environment of their provinces. State-owned mining businesses are also affected. In West Sumatra, coal-miner Bukit Assam recently expelled thousands of industrially equipped miners from its Ombilin mine.