KPK Targets Illegal Oil Palm Companies

Syahrul Fitra, who visited Surya Dumai Agrindo's plantation area as a legal researcher from the Jakarta-based Auriga Nusantara Foundation, pretended to be a local resident in order to penetrate the premises. Syahrul did not look familiar to the two security guards at the company's entrance portal in Kampung Baru village, Bengkalis, Riau.

That afternoon, Syahrul joined a group of Kampung Baru citizens who wanted to fish in the canal located inside the oil palm plantation owned by Surya Dumai. There was a half-meter gap by the portal that serves as an entry-exit point for workers. The path, which lies along the edge of the oil palm plantation, is a popular path for people headed for the canal. "If you take a car, you'll certainly not be able to go through. So I pretended I was going fishing," said Syahrul, interviewed last week.

November 29, 2016