Fukushima: A disaster produced by capitalism 10 July 2012
A damning report by an independent parliamentary commission has catalogued the lack of safety measures that produced last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster. While the natural forces unleashed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami were uncontrollable, their devastating impact was foreseeable, and could have been greatly minimised. The giant Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which operated Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, did not reinforce its reactors to meet the required earthquake resistance standards. The regulatory body, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), took no action to enforce the quake code. The company and the regulatory bodies were aware that the plant was vulnerable to tsunamis, but took no action. Disaster planning was inadequate or absent at every level—at the plant, TEPCO headquarters, NISA and the prime minister’s office. The result was chaos when the earthquake and tsunami struck. The plant lost all power and its backup supplies failed. Engineers and workers, who had not been trained to deal with a disaster of this scope, struggled to bring the situation under control with inadequate equipment and manuals. A series of hydrogen explosions badly damaged reactor buildings. Units 1, 2 and 3 underwent partial meltdowns, and high levels of radioactivity leaked into the sea and air. It took months to bring the reactors under control, and the full extent of the damage remains unknown. To dismantle the plant and clean up the surrounding region will take decades. The lack of a planned response by government, NISA and TEPCO compounded the disaster, threatening what the report circumspectly described as “an even more frightening scenario”. The evacuation of local residents was disorganised: tens of thousands of people were not adequately informed and were repeatedly moved, including into zones of high radioactivity, as the evacuation zone was successively expanded. The long-term impact of the disaster on people’s health and the environment is unknown. The nuclear catastrophe—the worst since the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown in Ukraine—was the product of decades of collusion by governments, nuclear regulators and the nuclear power industry. The report used the term “regulatory capture” to describe the relations between NISA, the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) and the nuclear power industry. In other words, the NISA and NSC functioned to protect the interests of companies like TEPCO, not public safety. The Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC) report, released last week, was unusually forthright. It was clearly aimed at trying to dispel the widespread public suspicion, distrust and opposition to the nuclear industry. While the commission concluded that the disaster was “man-made”—that is, the product of the negligence and deliberate flouting of basic safety standards—it held no-one accountable. It proposed no legal action against individuals or entities, including TEPCO, and limited its recommendations to general proposals for regulatory reform. NAIIC chairman Kiyoshi Kurokawa sought to deflect responsibility for the catastrophe onto Japanese people in general. In the report’s introduction, he declared: “Its fundamental causes are to be found in the ingrained conventions of Japanese culture: our reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority; our devolution to ‘sticking with the program’; our groupism; and our insularity.” These comments involve a gross distortion of reality. Experts in Japan have for years warned of the dangers of nuclear reactors sited in areas prone to earthquakes and tsunamis, and highlighted the incestuous relationship between regulators and the power industry. They have had to confront a powerful and well-financed nuclear lobby intent on protecting profits. Within TEPCO and other power companies, it was not “groupism” that silenced workers, but a management culture of bullying and threats. Responsibility for the Fukushima disaster does not rest with ordinary Japanese people, but with the ruling class that has put the profits of the giant power companies ahead of public safety. The expansion of the nuclear industry has also been a strategic issue for Japanese imperialism—not only reducing its dependence on imported gas and oil, but providing a path to the rapid production of nuclear weapons if required. Collusion between big business, government and industry is hardly restricted to Japan. In every country, the health and safety of working people in their workplaces and their communities are routinely subordinated to the dictates of profit. Moreover, the past three decades of market restructuring have led to the systematic erosion of the limited regulations that previously existed. In many instances, regulatory bodies have been cut back or replaced by corporate “self-regulation”. Fukushima is just one of the major disasters that have exposed the criminal character of capitalism. One year earlier, an explosion at the BP-run Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and created the worst environmental catastrophe in US history. The Bush and Obama administrations fast-tracked the project, which proceeded without an environmental impact study, despite public concern and opposition. In the wake of the oil spill, the Obama administration acted as a virtual attorney for BP, assisting the energy giant to minimise the economic and political fallout. From the outset, the White House made clear that the disaster would not impede further offshore oil projects—including by BP. The Japanese government, first under Prime Minister Naoto Kan, and now Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, has performed a similar service for TEPCO—providing a huge bailout for the company and limiting the payouts to small businesses and individuals whose lives have been devastated. Last month Noda gave the go-ahead for restarting one of Japan’s nuclear reactors—without any but the most limited safety checks. On the same day that the NAICC report was released, the No 3 reactor at the Oi nuclear plant commenced operations, in a location highly prone to earthquakes. The real lesson that should be drawn from the report’s revelations is the incompatibility between capitalism and even the most elementary needs of humanity for a healthy and secure environment. The only way of preventing tragedies such as the Fukushima disaster is through the abolition of the profit system by the international working class and the establishment of a world planned socialist economy. Peter Symonds Fukushima: A disaster produced by capitalism http://bit.ly/L6m424 ------Original Message------ To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Mengurai Agenda Asing di Balik LSM Sent: 9 Jul 2012 23:15 SHNEWS.CO: Mengurai Agenda Asing di Balik LSM http://bit.ly/MV91pn Mengurai Agenda Asing di Balik LSM Ninuk Cucu Suwanti| Senin, 09 Juli 2012 - 15:25:06 WIB  (dok/SH) Di balik sikap kritis, muncul tudingan miring sejumlah LSM menikmati dana untuk “mengawal” agenda asing Baru-baru ini, terbongkar aliran dana dari Wali Kota New York Michael Bloomberg untuk Bloomberg Initiative To Reduce Tobacco Use Grants Program sebesar US$ 6.443.492 (atau Rp 57,9 miliar) kepada lembaga-lembaga di Indonesia sejak 2007. Beberapa lembaga telah menjadi kaki tangan kampanye antirokok dan yang menerima dana tersebut adalah Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) sebesar US$ 45,470 ( Rp 409.230.000). Yayasan Lembaga Konsumen Indonesia (YLKI) juga dua kali menikmati dana Bloomberg tersebut untuk penegakan area bebas rokok dan peraturan terkait pelarangan iklan produk tembakau di Jawa, Indonesia. US$ 127,800 pada Januari 2011 hingga April 2012 dan US$ 454,480 pada Mei 2008 hingga Mei 2010. Selain kedua LSM ini, ada beberapa lembaga lainnya yang juga menikmati aliran dana dari Bloomberg tersebut (lihat tabel). Lembaga-lembaga tersebut bertugas menggalang dukungan di DPR untuk mengegolkan kebijakan pengendalian tembakau di DPR tingkat nasional maupun daerah dan mengkampanyekan antirokok kretek pada masyarakat. Harus Berani Menanggapi lembaga yang ditunggangi kepentingan asing ini, Ketua Panitia Khusus Rancangan undang-undang, Abdul Malik Haramain, menegaskan agar negara tidak perlu takut bertindak untuk menyikapi organisasi masyarakat yang melanggar. RUU Ormas yang sedang dibahas di DPR berisikan aturan sumber keuangan, hak, dan kewajiban hingga sanksi, serta larangan keberadaan ormas, termasuk ormas asing. Sanksi di RUU Ormas, menurutnya, berawal dari teguran tertulis. Jika tidak diindahkan akan dilanjutkan dengan pembekuan fasilitas APBN-APBD. Setelah itu diikuti pembekuan aktivitas oleh Kemendagri dan Polri dengan tidak memberikan izin kegiatan pada ormas dan terakhir pembubaran melalui pengadilan. Pada RUU ini, ormas asing yang tidak melakukan kewajiban dan melakukan pelanggaran diakhiri dengan sikap tertinggi, yakni tindakan diplomatik.Terkait dana yang diperoleh, RUU Ormas juga mewajibkan transaksi dilakukan secara perbankan. Hal ini dilakukan agar dana-dana yang masuk bisa diakses termasuk peruntukannya. Ini karena berdasarkan analisis PPATK pada 2011 ada transaksi US$ 137 juta yang tidak terlacak. Berdasarkan catatan, Malik mengatakan ormas asing yang mendaftar di Indonesia berjumlah 148 namun hanya 109 yang diberikan izin Kemenlu. "Itu harus melalui jalur normal, perbankan, termasuk LSM dan ormas yang berafiliasi ke asing, seperti WWF, GreenPeace, dan Hizbut Tahir. Mereka juga harus melaporkan keuangannya. Kalau tidak, tentu bisa dicabut SKT (Surat Keterangan Terdaftar)-nya," tutur Malik. Paling Seksi Kepala Pusat Penerangan (Kapuspen) Kementerian Dalam Negeri (Kemendagri) Reydonnyzar Moenek mencontohkan isu Papua sebagai isu yang paling "seksi" untuk "dimainkan" LSM. Dia bahkan sempat menuding ada beberapa LSM Indonesia yang berafiliasi dengan LSM asing untuk menginternasionalisasi permasalahan di Papua. Dalam hal ini, kata dia, pemerintah kerap didiskreditkan tidak becus atau setidaknya kurang memberi perhatian pada Papua dan masyarakat di sana. Negara dikesankan melakukan pembiaran atas rangkaian pelanggaran hak asasi manusia (HAM) di Bumi Cendrawasih. Dengan begitu, persoalan Papua akan menjadi masalah internasional. Upaya internasionalisasi oleh LSM itu tidaklah gratis. Dia mengatakan, LSM lokal mendapat sejumlah dana yang tidak sedikit dari LSM asing sebagai pamrih atas upayanya mengkritik kinerja pemerintah. Donny bahkan sampai menuding LSM-LSM yang bersangkutan merupakan mata-mata pihak asing. Untuk itu, pemerintah mengambil langkah tegas untuk mengawasi aktivitas LSM. Tujuannya, kata Menteri Dalam Negeri Gamawan Fauzi, agar negara ini tidak "dijual" kepada pihak asing oleh LSM. Langkah pengawasan dan pengaturan LSM, tutur Gamawan, dilakukan dengan mengharuskan semua ormas yang beraktivitas untuk mendaftar kepada kementerian yang dipimpinnya. Bagi ormas yang nekat tidak mendaftarkan diri, negara akan mempersulit setiap aktivitasnya, di antaranya pemerintah tidak akan memberi bantuan pembiayaan kepada ormas yang bersangkutan. Pemerintah bahkan mengancam tidak akan memberi rekomendasi izin kegiatan dari kepolisian jika LSM yang bersangkutan memintanya untuk beraktivitas. Kewajiban lain bagi ormas yang beraktivitas di Tanah Air adalah melaporkan laporan dan audit keuangannya kepada pemerintah, terutama jika ada pendanaan dari lembaga asing. Gamawan menegaskan, laporan keuangan tersebut harus dapat diinformasikan kepada publik. Publik pun harus tahu peruntukan dana yang didapat suatu ormas, terutama dari pihak asing. "Publik harus tahu dana itu digunakan untuk aktivitas apa. Jangan sampai ada yang terima dana besar-besaran dari asing, ternyata digunakan untuk kepentingan asing, misalnya disintegerasi," ujar Gamawan, Jumat (6/7). Gamawan menjelaskan, pemerintah mencatat saat ini terdapat setidaknya 64.000 ormas yang terdaftar di seluruh Indonesia. Ormas-ormas tersebut terdaftar di Kemendagri dan Kementerian Hukum dan HAM. Sementara Kemenlu melakukan verifikasi dan mendapat setidaknya 160 ormas asing beroperasi di Indonesia. "Belum termasuk LSM lokal yang tidak mendaftarkan diri," kata Gamawan. Di masa Orde Baru, LSM hanya menonton saat massa rakyat ramai-ramai menjatuhkan diktaktor Soeharto. Saat ini LSM terdepan menjadi alat koorporasi menguasai pasar dan mengeruk sumber daya alam dan manusia Indonesia sebanyak-banyaknya. (Sinar Harapan) Sent from my BlackBerry® powered by Sinyal Kuat INDOSAT ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! 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