Indonesia’s Rejection of Greenpeace’s Scare Tactics is a Boon for Economic Development

Indonesia’s refusal to allow the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior to dock last week in the nation’s largest seaport rocked the world’s most prominent environmental non-governmental organisation on its heels. For the first time ever, a sovereign nation stood up for its people against the anti-development agenda espoused by activists purporting to preserve the environment at any cost, no matter what the impact on livelihoods and economic growth.

For the largest nation in Southeast Asia to take such a forceful stand against green activism underscores two important points. First, it is now much clearer that there is an inherent contradiction between the environmental goals shared by many of my colleagues in Parliament and the way about which these green groups go about trying to help our environment.  Indeed, some of my colleagues support Greenpeace’s mission, and that of other organisations such as the Rainforest Action Network and WWF.  Sadly, not only do these activist groups do little to actually improve the world’s environment, but also, more importantly, they prioritise environmental preservation above improving the economic potential of millions of people in the developing world.

Second, the massive amount of funding that European governments hand to NGOs such as Greenpeace is even more reprehensible.  These radical activists receive tens of millions in government grants for so-called environmental protection.  But in reality, this money goes towards ambitious campaigns in the developed world that are designed to pile guilt on companies, consumers and public officials for sourcing, purchasing and supporting commodities from the developing world.  This stifling of global commerce generally – and the ruining of jobs and local communities specifically – is certainly not something for which European taxpayers should be footing the bill.

The change in momentum in the global environmental debate that has resulted from Indonesia’s courageous rejection of Greenpeace’s naval antics has become quite evident. As the Jakarta Globe reported, Kumi Naidoo, the executive director of Greenpeace International, went on record to say, “If only the Rainbow Warrior was allowed [to dock], we could have an open discussion…”  An open discussion?  For the past 40 years, Greenpeace has attempted to use its millions of members to drown out the voices of the poor in pursuit of its anti-development goals.  This seems to be an abrupt about-face.  But let us not be fooled into thinking that Greenpeace was actually planning to dock in Jakarta for a month to engage in mutual dialogue.

The first Rainbow Warrior was deployed in 1978 to disrupt the work of fishermen off the coast of Iceland.  And since then, it has been a widely-successful mainstay of Greenpeace’s direct action.  Not anymore.  Let us all hope that more citizens will soon recognise that the real preservation and conservation goals that many of us in Europe believe in are not shared by Greenpeace and its allies.  And hopefully, governments will close their purses to these organisations that perpetuate poverty in Asia and other parts of the developing world post haste.

Respect to the Republic of Indonesia for showing Greenpeace what it is like to be bullied into a corner.  As the dominant global force behind militant environmental activism, they are certainly not used to it.  Finally a government has taken a stand against well-funded and well-coordinated extremists for the benefit of its own people who rely on the labour that these activists love to hate.  It is my hope that more nations follow suit.  If so, millions of people will be able to lead a better life.