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Indonesia News Digest No 31 - August 4-10, 2003
Straits Times - August 9, 2003
Jakarta -- Indonesian police said yesterday that rebels from the
separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were behind last month's bomb
attack on Parliament, and that one man still wanted over the
incident had fled to the rebellious province.
Police arrested two men late on Wednesday over the July 14 attack
that caused minor damage. No one was hurt in the incident.
"We have arrested two men. A third has run off to Aceh. This
group we have identified as GAM, which has conducted several
bombings in other places," National Police chief General Da'i
Bachtiar told reporters.
Police believe the men were also behind explosions in April at
Jakarta's international airport and near the UN building in the
capital. No one died in those blasts.
Jakarta Post - August 8, 2003
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Lhokseumawe -- The martial law
administration in Aceh probably had not anticipated that people
in the province would suffer when troops drove them into refugee
camps in a bid to split them from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)
rebels.
Eighty-five families who are now living in refugee camps in Paya
Bakong and Matang Kuli districts in North Aceh are complaining of
an uncertain future after they were forced to leave their
villages over two months ago. The villagers, whose homes are
located about one hour south of Lhokseumawe, the capital town of
North Aceh, said they were asked to abandon their homes on May 28
by the 408th Rajawali combined battalion. "I should be a junior
high school student by now, but because we were ordered not to go
to school I could not finish my final exams," Syaifullah, who
ranked first in state-run elementary school SD Krueng Pase Blok
B, said on Wednesday.
Unlike other camps, no schooling is provided for the children.
"We even cannot read any books because the soldiers have burned
them," Syaifullah, who is staying in Meunasah Lueng hamlet along
with his parents, added.
A resident of Pante Kirou hamlet, Rohamah, said that she and her
neighbors were told they would have to leave their village for
only three days and therefore should not carry all their
belongings. "They [the military] said they would take care of our
houses and should we return without their knowledge then our
security would no longer be their responsibility.
"But after one-and-half months, we went back to see how things
were going because there was no word from the soldiers who all
had left our village. Several houses had been burned down, others
were in a mess and our precious belongings had all gone. Only the
heads and the legs of cows were left," she said.
The residents decided to stay to repair their houses. But after
two days, the sounds of planes forced them to flee again.
Such a situation has sparked fear among the residents whenever
they pick pinang (areca nuts) and cocoa from their plantations.
Nur Hasanah, a young mother, said that eight days after
delivering her second baby girl -- who is now two months old --
her husband Bachtiar, 25, went to the river running through their
hamlet to catch fish along with three other residents.
"The other three managed to escape from soldiers who stopped them
and accused them of being GAM members. I have not heard any news
of my husband since," she said.
People's desire to return home has motivated some refugees to
follow a convoy of journalists entering their hamlet. "Please
help us to return to our old life," one of them said.
The Lhokseumawe-based military operation command spokesman, Lt.
Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki, said the military was aware of residents
who were taking refuge in places other than the shelters provided
by the martial law administration.
"To clear a certain area from rebels, the residents are moved to
the nearest shelters. If security is restored then they could
return home. We would not make the residents suffer any further
from this operation, so I will seek clarification about this
information," he said on Wednesday. "What I know is, residents
who are afraid of the military operation are involved in the
rebel movement."
But the residents of Blang Rheum village in Jeumpa district,
Bireuen, told a different story. Fifteen young men in the village
had fled home as the military tanks entered the area at dawn on
June 13. "I thought doomsday had come," 61-year-old Khatijah
recalled. That morning the young men left their families for the
hills with only the clothes they were wearing.
Rohana, 28, was heavily pregnant when her husband Sulaeman left.
Their unnamed baby girl is now two-months old. "My husband is not
a GAM member. I know that. He fears both GAM members and the
military. The sound of gunfire far from here disturbed him. He
has a weak heart. That morning he said he had to go because he
could not bear the conflict. He cannot return home as soldiers
have closed the area," she said in tears.
Democratic struggle
Labour issues
Students/youth
Rural issues
'War on terrorism'
Government & politics
2004 elections
Regional/communal conflicts
Human rights/law
Focus on Jakarta
News & issues
Environment
Aid & development
Islam/religion
Armed forces/police
Military ties
Economy & investment
Aceh
Aceh rebels blamed for bomb attack on Parliament
Acehnese people bear the brunt of forced evacuation
Troops kill eight more suspected Aceh rebels
Agence France Presse - August 7, 2003
Indonesian troops have shot dead another eight suspected separatist rebels in Aceh province, the military said.
Troops shot dead five men believed to be Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerrillas during a clash at Meukek in South Aceh district on Wednesday, said military spokesman Ahmad Yani Basuki. A marine was shot and wounded in the 30-minute clash, he added.
Another rebel was shot dead at Mon Layu in Bireuen district later the same day, Basuki said. Troops shot dead a guerrilla at Mutiara Timur in Pidie district.
Troops also shot another rebel dead during a clash at Matang Jane in Aceh Tamiang district on Wednesday while a civilian was killed by a stray bullet, Basuki said.
Two men believed to be GAM rebels late Tuesday shot dead a former village chief at Beuringan in North Aceh district, the spokesman said.
The military's latest figures show a total of 630 rebels killed since the armed forces on May 19 launched a massive operation to crush GAM. The rebels say many of those killed are civilians.
The military says more than 1,300 rebels have been arrested or surrendered during the same period while the army and police lost a total of 53 men.
GAM has been fighting for independence since 1976. More than 10,000 people have been killed in the resource-rich province on Sumatra island since then.
Detik.com - August 4, 2003
Nurul Hidayati, Jakarta -- The presidential decree authorising a military emergency in Aceh is being challenged by the People's Lawyers Union (Serikat Pengacara Rakyat, SPR). The class action against President Megawati, the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, Akbar Tandjung, and TNI [armed forces] chief General Endriartono Sutarto is to be held at the Central Jakarta state court on Jl. Gajah Mada.
According to the schedule, the session will open at 11am on Monday (4/8/2003). SPR's spokesperson Habiburokhman said that what has been perpetrated by the these government officials in issuing Presidential Decree Number 28/2003 on the Military Emergency in Aceh was an illegal act.
"We want to demonstrate our rejection of the military emergency in Aceh" said Habib to Detik.com via telephone.
"Many victims have already fallen, TNI soldiers and our police, as well as ordinary civilians. They should not fall victim just because this bankrupt government is incapable of finding a peaceful solution to resolve the problem in Aceh, the war must be stopped", added Habib.
Habib predicted that there was a possibility that this session would be the first and also the last. "If the judge refuses to [allow] the trial to continue, we will ask the judge to give advise [on what steps we can take next], that is what we will request", he said.
Habib's pessimism was because in the class action against BBM [the recent price increases to fuel] suffered the same fate. It failed mid-way because it was rejected by the judge. (nrl)
[Translated by James Balowski.]
Reuters - June 30, 2003
Sidney Jones, Indonesia project director of Brussels-based analysts International Crisis Group suggests that the Jakarta government has an electoral interest in stirring up a nationalist backlash against foreign involvement in peace talks with separatists in Aceh.
She argues that Indonesia's hardline military operations will alienate civilians in the troubled province and push them towards the guerrillas. Jones, who has 20 years experience of working in and on Indonesia, previously worked for Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
On May 19, Aceh's fragile peace process collapsed, and the Indonesian government declared a state of emergency in the rebellious province.
Little over a month later, military operations have resulted in hundreds of deaths, hundreds of arrests, intimidation of government critics, controls on the press, and restrictions on access.
The Indonesian government appears to have lost sight completely of winning over an alienated population, and a return to the negotiating table is unlikely any time soon.
In the Indonesian government's eyes, negotiations were a disaster and simply succeeded in strengthening the Free Aceh movement, the guerrilla group known by its Indonesian acronym, GAM. Jakarta politicians are using the military operations to appeal to a strongly nationalist streak in the Indonesian populations, and as a result, there is strong public support for crushing the rebels.
It is not clear that either side is willing to make the compromises necessary to resume peace talks. Both sides bear responsibility for the failure of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement that was signed last December 9.
The agreement left many issues unresolved, and each side disseminated its own interpretation of what the political endgame would be. GAM said it was independence, the government said it was autonomy under Indonesian sovereignty.
There were disagreements over how GAM would disarm, and how the Indonesian army would "relocate". The two sides had radically different interpretations of a reference in the agreement to a free election in Aceh in 2004.
To the government, it meant that GAM would take part in national elections under existing election laws which do not allow regionally-based parties, while to GAM it meant a referendum on Aceh's political status.
GAM used the dramatic reduction in violence during the first two months of the ceasefire to regroup, rearm and recruit new members, and in response, the army began to actively undermine the agreement.
A last-minute effort in Tokyo to salvage the agreement failed, and the Indonesian military, consciously using the US-led war in Iraq as a model, launched long-planned operations within days.
The distrust generated between the two sides would make it hard enough to resume negotiations, but there are additional obstacles.
The Indonesian military may be using the operations as a springboard to greatly increased political influence as the 2004 national elections approach.
If it succeeds in controlling information domestically, and portraying the counterinsurgency effort as a success, it may be hoping to get parliamentary support for winning back control over internal security from the police.
Military-police rivalry has become a dangerous staple of Indonesian politics. The professionalism of the police investigations into the Bali bombings in October 2002 seemed to be helping the demilitarisation of internal security; but the Aceh operations can be seen as an assault on that process.
All indications so far are that the Indonesian public, except for most Acehnese and a small but vocal group of activists and intellectuals, remains solidly behind the use of force.
This may change, but as the country approaches its first direct presidential election ever next year, having a popular issue around which to mobilise nationalist support is crucial.
Not a single politician with presidential aspirations has raised serious criticism or concerns about the conduct of the military in Aceh. On the contrary, they have disparaged the negotiations and questioned international involvement in the conflict.
They have pointed to the involvement of a Geneva-based organisation, the Henri Dunant Centre, which participated from the start by facilitating the talks. Jakarta politicians have also questioned the motivations of the United States, Japan, and the European Union, which gave the most visible international backing to peace talks.
The fact that the GAM leadership in exile is based in Sweden has only fuelled the nationalist backlash against foreign meddling.
All of this bodes ill for any early resumption of negotiations. But if and when the political climate improves, the December 9 agreement could still provide the basic framework for discussion under certain conditions.
- Both sides must be willing to offer a different set of negotiators. Given the mutual suspicions and allegations of bad faith, it is hard to see how the same teams used to negotiate the December 9 agreement could be effective in a new round.
- Rather than a non-governmental organisation as mediator, the facilitator of talks should be a government, with the ability to enforce sanctions against violators of the agreement. 7 Both sides show more willingness to compromise on some of the fundamental issues.
Heavy international pressure on Indonesia at present to return to negotiations could be counterproductive.
Any lobbying from the United States and Britain in particular is going to fall on deaf ears, as many Indonesians, including powerful members of the political elite, say that Indonesia is on far stronger ground using military force in Aceh than the coalition forces were in Iraq. The European Union's position is weakened by public anger -- manipulated or genuine -- at Sweden for harbouring the GAM leadership.
Japan is the one country involved in the earlier negotiations to have retained strong credibility with the Indonesian government, and if negotiations become possible at a later date, Tokyo is likely to play a key role.
Without losing sight of opportunities for renewed negotiations, the international effort should be to keep the operations under as much scrutiny as possible; request regular visits to Aceh even if that means accompaniment by a government escort; support local efforts to document the conduct of operations; provide humanitarian support and ensure transparency of relief operations; and work in any way possible toward the development of stronger civilian institutions in Aceh, including in the justice sector.
The Indonesian government speaks of encouraging Acehnese to return to the embrace of the motherland. This embrace is more like an iron grip, and it may be creating a second and third generation of GAM rebels.
| Democratic struggle |
Green Left Weekly - August 6, 2003
Max Lane -- The 2004 election campaign has started. There have been two important initiatives. The first relates to the major establishment parties, those with substantial numbers of MPs in the parliament. The second is the creation of the left-wing People's United Opposition Party (Partai Persatuan Oposisi Rakyat, or Popor).
The most reported initiative is that by Nurcholis Madjid, who has been "campaigning" to be nominated as a presidential candidate. Madjid has no large political organisation and no significant history as a politician. It is precisely these "qualifications" that have made it possible for him to be considered, by some at least, a serious candidate. Madjid, who is now warmly referred to as Cak Nur (elder brother Nur) in the press, is better known as an intellectual. He is seen as a "clean" figure outside the elit politik.
All the opinion polls, and the comments on Indonesia's streets, show that the population is vehemently hostile to this political elite. The problem for Madjid is that he stands only very partially outside the elite, if it all. It was Madjid who offered to head a "Reformasi Committee" to be established by the former dictator Suharto in the last weeks of the dictatorship. This was offered as a means of facilitating a smoother "transition" to some new political system, with Suharto still presiding. The proposal was rejected by the student movement and the mass democratic movement and Suharto was forced to resign.
More recently, Madjid's ties to the elit politik have been manifested in his announcement that he would seek nomination as the presidential candidate of the most elitist of all parties, Golkar. Golkar was founded by the military and headed by Suharto for most of his dictatorship. Golkar was the only party from which Suharto drew cabinet ministers.
Since the fall of Suharto, Golkar has remained a key element of the ruling elite, except during the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid. Frightened by Wahid's liberal agenda, Golkar worked with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) to oust him.
Recent reports indicate that Madjid might reconsider his efforts to seek Golkar's nomination. There is no doubt that his announced intention to seek Golkar's support caused a drop in his popularity. Perhaps among the middle class, who are more familiar with his name, he may retain some support. However, among the poor masses, as well as among students, trade unionists and others, joining with Golkar immediately weakened his position.
Interestingly, Madjid seems to be keeping his options open. In late July, he attended a congress organised by the Banteng National Awakening Party (PNBK), led by former PDIP leader and anti-Suharto figure Eros Jarot. Madjid was given a warm welcome at the congress, attended by thousands of members. Jarot invited him onto the stage, where Madjid said he would be happy to be adopted "in some way or another" by the PNBK.
Madjid's campaign contrasts with that of left-wing labour leader Dita Sari. On July 27, Sari chaired a meeting in Jakarta of around 300 representatives, from more than 50 organisations, which formed the People's United Opposition Party (Popor). She was elected the new party's chairperson. Popor's vice-chairperson is Jusuf Lakaseng, who is also chairperson of the radical People's Democratic Party (PRD).
"We have established this party to strengthen the national opposition forces, which have been divided by the elite forces, the oppressors of the people", Sari told the July 29 Kompas newspaper. Sari said she hoped that Popor would become a significant political force. "Our platform is clear, it is anti- New Order [as the regime of former dictator Suharto was known], anti-militarist and [against] global capitalism", she affirmed.
Among the organisations present were trade unions, including the large and politically independent food and drink workers' union and the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (which Sari also heads), as well as farmer organisations, teachers' unions, and human rights organisations.
Popor's campaign shares just one similarity with that of Madjid's: it also seeks to respond to the masses' desire for a political leadership based outside of the political elite. Beyond this, the two campaigns are very different. Madjid's campaign concentrates only on winning the presidency. The Popor campaign concentrates on empowering the country's poor and working people.
As Iwan, a leader of the Popor-affiliated National Student League for Democracy, told the July 28 Kompas: "To date, the people's struggle against the corrupt elite has had no structure. So we are attempting to build a structure for this struggle." Popor's affiliates are busy convincing others to help them set up branches throughout the country.
Another difference is in the arena of policy. What are Madjid's policies for dealing with the economic, social and cultural crisis? Will they be the same as those of Golkar, the support of which he is seeking? Golkar's basic policies are the same as that of the PDIP: accept the neoliberal economic recipe of the International Monetary Fund; continue the war in Aceh; and go slow -- super-slow -- on the trials of the corrupt figures and human rights violators of the Suharto era.
At Popor's founding congress, polices and resolutions on almost all key questions were formulated and adopted. Among other policies, Popor rejects economic neoliberalism, calls for an end to the war in Aceh and demands the speedy trial of all Suharto's crooks and human rights violators.
| Labour issues |
Jakarta Post - August 7, 2003
Bandung -- West Java Governor Danny Setiawan asked workers from state-owned aircraft company PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI) on Wednesday to cease their daily protest rallies against their suspension to curb potential security disturbances.
The demonstrations in Bandung had created a "big social cost", Setiawan said after a meeting with local military and police chiefs to discuss security in West Java.
"Instead of protests, I ask PT DI workers to send their representatives to the local legislative council, police or court to convey their grievances. It will be more effective and efficient."
PT DI suspended all its 9,643 workers on full pay last month, citing financial problems. They have since staged rallies outside the company compound and in other areas in Bandung. Around 2,000 of the workers have returned to work after pressure for the company to annul the suspension.
| Students/youth |
Kompas - August 12, 2003
Jakarta -- In the era of reformasi a national leadership crisis has developed, including among the younger generation. Therefore the younger generation needs to hold a youth congress which can then give rise to a future leader. This leader must have a spirit of leadership and prestige.
This [proposal] was put forward by novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer in an open discussion at the anniversary of the Institute for Social and Economic Research, Education and Information (LP3ES) in Jakarta on Monday (11/8).
"What the younger generation must to is get active! Fight all the things that are rotten", explained Pram, Pramoedya's familiar name. Without courage from the younger generation, it will be impossible for there to be any advance [in this country]. Pram [said he was] convinced that among the present younger generation it will be possible to find a candidate as a national leader who would be suitable.
"Because I can no longer trust the present political elite at all. What real achievements have they given to the nation and state? All of them just talk", said Pram.
When asked whether a section of the younger generation at the moment tend to be apathetic so that they are frequently dubbed the MTV generation, Pram answered "That is the problem they, the younger generation, which they must solve themselves", said Pram.
Commenting on the leadership of [President] Megawati Sukarnoputri, shaking his head he said, "She is not a leader. Megawati came from the palace and returned to the palace. Meanwhile her father came from jail and returned to jail", said Pram. [Meaning Megawati lived in the presidential palace with her farther, Indonesia's founding President Sukarno, until he was removed by General Suharto and has now returned to the presidential palace as president. Sukarno, then a leading member of the independence movement, was jailed by the Dutch during the colonial period then jailed again after Suharto and the military sized power in 1965]. (b14)
[Translated by James Balowski.]
Antara - August 9, 2003
Bandung -- Hundreds of students from various organizations staged a demonstration on Friday afternoon in front of the Domestic Administration College (STPDN) in Jatinagor, Sumedang district, West Java, where President Megawati Soekarnoputri attended a student inaugural ceremony.
It was reported that the demonstration started at 1:30 pm and proceeded peacefully. But, when two helicopters at 3:15 pm carrying the president and entourage landed on a campus helipad, the students became enraged as police stepped up security precautions.
Jakarta Post - August 7, 2003
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- Three student activists were acquitted on Wednesday by the Central Jakarta District Court on charges related to a rally that was held last January 22.
"I couldn't believe it. I thought I would be punished," said Rico Marbun, one of the defendants.
The panel of three judges, led by I Ketut Gede, ignored the prosecutors' argument that the defendants -- Rico, Fathul Nugroho and Ardi Purnawan Sani -- violated Law No. 9/1998 on freedom of expression by not informing the police before holding a rally near the official residence of President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Jl. Teuku Umar, Central Jakarta.
"The defendants did inform the police, evident by the fact that the police were present to monitor the rally," the court ruled.
Prosecutor M. Manik said he would consult with his superiors before deciding whether to appeal the decision. Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence the defendants to three months in jail.
Rico is the former chairman of the University of Indonesia (UI) Student Executive Body, a student group that has been active in protesting the policies of Megawati.
Several activists have been sentenced by courts across the country for holding antigovernment demonstrations. Among them are two activists who were sentenced for stepping on photographs of Megawati and Vice President Hamzah Haz during a rally in Jakarta. A student activist in Aceh was sentenced for painting an "X" over photographs of the two leaders earlier this year.
Antara - August 7, 2003
Jakarta -- Hundreds of university students grouped in the Greater Jakarta University Students' Executive Body (BEM) staged a rally in front of the parliament here Wednesday demanding the discontinuation of the ongoing annual People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) session.
They said they would besiege the parliament building to show that they had lost their trust in the Assembly members who were only wasting money by holding their annual meeting.
The demonstration which took place at about 15:00 hours local time proceeded in an orderly manner, although the students demonstratively burned the passes they had obtained to attend the MPR annual session as observers. Some of their representatives also delivered fiery orations ridiculing the MPR and the government.
| Rural issues |
Jakarta Post - August 4, 2003
Nana Rukmana, Majalengka -- The declining price of cloves has prompted farmers in Talaga and Baturajeg districts to uproot their clove trees, saying they could no longer afford to maintain their plantations .
Some of them have tried to switched to fruit growing in the hope of making good their losses on cloves.
Talaga and Baturajeg districts are widely known as West Java's clove-growing centers, with some 400 farming families traditionally making their living from the commodity.
Dadang, 40, a farmer from Talaga, said that he had cleared his plantation by ripping up and burning some 300 clove trees. "I have already spent a lot of money taking care of the trees, but the price of cloves has dropped sharply," he explained.
He said he had to spend between Rp 10 million (US$1,176) and Rp 15 million to maintain each hectare of his two-hectare plantation. Currently, cloves are selling for a mere Rp 4,000 per kilogram, far below the Rp 85,000 per kilogram fetched during the last harvest season. Dadang has now planted fruit trees, such as durian and orange trees, as well as vegetables.
Aminudin, 46, a farmer from Baturajeg, echoed Dadang's comments. He said he had torn up some of his clove trees and sold them for firewood. "We sell a bundle of branches for between Rp 1,500 and Rp 2,000. Not so bad, I suppose," Aminuddin said.
The uprooting of clove plantations is set to increase, and has begun to happen also in the neighboring regencies of Banjaran, Wanahayu and Cibaur.
In response to the situation, Majalengka plantation agency director Tuti Suwarti said she could not control the market. "We cannot do anything to control the market price. But we can offer farmers assistance should they wish to shift to other, more profitable commodities," Tuti said.
| 'War on terrorism' |
Jakarta Post - August 9, 2003
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- The State Intelligence Body (BIN) has asked for more power in the war on terror, but an analyst on Friday suggested that coordination among the country's intelligence institutions was a better solution to prevent terror attacks.
BIN chairman Hendropriyono, who offered an apology to the Marriott bombing victims, said late on Thursday that BIN wanted the power to act, not just to give an early warning to people. "How can we prevent a certain action from taking place if we know a suspect but we cannot make an arrest," Hendro said. Without the power to make an arrest, BIN would be like a German shepherd dog whose tail was held by its owner so that it could not run after the target.
Military analyst from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Kusnanto Anggoro, however, opposed Hendro's proposal, saying that an intelligence institution must not have the authority to make an arrest.
"Their main duty is to give an early warning of possible attacks, that is all. The police is the only institution that has the authority to make an arrest," he asserted on Friday, noting that no arrest should be permitted without convincing evidence.
Instead of asking for more power, Kusnanto said BIN should play its role in coordinating all intelligence institutions in the country, as mandated by President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Indonesia has several intelligence institutions, including BIN, the Indonesian Military's intelligence body (BAIS), intelligence units at the National Police and the Attorney General's Office.
Megawati has tasked BIN to coordinate all the works of those intelligence bodies.
"Actually, there was no way for them not to share information. Intelligence institutions inform the police of their findings, they have the authority to make arrests. Otherwise, they could also report it [the information] directly to the President," Kusnanto said.
If the police or the President consider the intelligence reports about possible attacks are credible enough, they must share the reports with the public in the form of warnings, such as travel warnings (usually imposed by western countries).
Hendropriyono admitted the poor coordination among intelligence institutions in the country. "It's a disaster and we must support each other in the future with solid cooperation. How can we have good cooperation if we blame each other," he told reporters, promising to increase the cooperation among intelligence institutions.
The crack in relations among intelligence agencies started when the police separated from the military in 2001, leading to a drop in the standard of intelligence operations in the country.
And the poor performance of intelligence operations has often been cited as one of the main factors in the country's failure to prevent a series of terror attacks, with the latest at JW Marriott Hotel in South Jakarta that killed 10 people and wounded 149 others.
According to Kusnanto, the lack of coordination was caused by rivalry among the institutions. Therefore, to forge better coordination and communications, they must attempt to put aside their own interests. "Only if they are able to put aside psychological problems within themselves, the country's intelligence performance will improve," Kusnanto said.
Agence France Presse - August 9, 2003
Jakarta -- Indonesian newspapers have welcomed the death sentence handed to Bali bomber Amrozi even as they took President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government to task for being too laid back in tackling terrorism.
The sentence handed out to the terrorist -- the first of 34 suspects to be tried for the Bali bombings -- is "an event of major significance", wrote The Jakarta Post in an editorial yesterday. "Indeed, both the judgment and the circumstances that led to it can be regarded as setting a new milestone in the country's history of jurisprudence," the paper said.
Commenting on pictures showing a smiling Amrozi welcoming his death sentence with a raised fist, the Republika daily called his behaviour "rather odd ... as if a hero had just won a war".
Koran Tempo said it was a reminder that terrorism cannot be defeated by relying only on heavier penalties and repressive actions. "Why? Amrozi's thumbs-up drives us to reply that we will never run out of militants ready to become martyrs," it wrote in an editorial. It said rising "social frustration" and exploding unemployment contribute to militancy while Ms Megawati's government has failed to promote democratic reform necessary for combating terrorism.
Koran Tempo warned that the battle against terrorism will be a marathon that must be conducted with the guarantee of civil rights and free speech. "Without all that, we will watch again with shattered hearts a smile and happy flash in the eyes like the one shown by Amrozi yesterday."
The dailies also blamed the police for ignoring warnings that preceded Tuesday's hotel bombing and failing to seriously address the threat of terrorism. "The bomb struck the nation where it really hurts: at the reputation of Indonesia and particularly of the government in its ability to deal with the threat of terrorism," said The Jakarta Post in its editorial on Wednesday.
It said the blast took the government by surprise despite much recent evidence indicating terrorists were planning further attacks. "The writing was on the wall that the terrorists, whoever they are, would strike again sooner or later," it said, blaming the government "for its laid-back attitude towards the threat of terrorism".
Straits Times - August 9, 2003
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- Foreign infidels may have been the targets but nine of the 10 people killed in the Jakarta bombing on Tuesday were Indonesians just going about their daily life in the Indonesian capital.
Most were drivers and security guards with young families that now will have to fend for themselves. Four of them were drivers for the renowned Blue Bird taxi company. They were waiting for fares outside the lobby when the car bomb ripped through the hotel, sending off lethal fireballs that engulfed them. Horrified onlookers saw screaming taxi drivers engulfed by fire in their cars.
One of the victims, Mr Harna, had a wife and three children aged between 18 months and six. Three others, Eyo Zakaria, Hidayat and Miftah Tobiin, were also young fathers. Their ages ranged from 27 to 40.
Father of two Slamet Heriyanto, 35, was working as a security guard for the PT Permata Birama Sakti next door when the blast killed him.
Private driver Johaness Boelan, 55, was actually thinking of retiring before he was caught by the blast, according to his family. He stayed at work to earn enough to pay for treatment for his 17-year old daughter who suffers from leukaemia.
Friends and families could hardly comprehend their losses, saying the attack was almost too absurd to believe. "What have we done wrong? He is just a father trying to make ends meet for his family," said Mr Johannes' wife, Frida Sopacua.
Another driver, Al Muhaddar, a close friend of Mr Harna, was quoted by The Australian newspaper as saying: "I am a driver, a stupid man about these matters but I want to ask, where is the satisfaction for those people when drivers like us are killed?"
Most of those interviewed were sceptical about the government giving them financial assistance. Any compensation would likely come from their employers instead, they felt.
Blue Bird spokesman Arvin Ardianto told The Straits Times the company had agreed to cover funeral costs as well as medical bills for the other four drivers who had been hospitalised. The company would also set aside about 30 million rupiah for each family of the dead drivers and award scholarships to their children. The families were also entitled to insurance payments and funds donated from other company employees.
Other parties also offered help. The US Embassy in Jakarta has pledged US$500,000 in assistance for the victims of the bombings and some private charity groups are preparing to raise funds. The government has said it would foot medical bills for all blast victims.
Assistance would include hospitalisation, medication, surgeries, and periodic checks for a year after the release from the hospital. It would not cover plastic surgery for burn victims, however.
Some families of the dozens of people injured in the attack were shocked when told they would have to pay for costly treatment. Some hospitals have charged victims for certain treatments and medications.
On the day of the bombing, they even asked their patients to place a money deposit before agreeing to treat them. "We have just been hit by a tragedy, the hospitals should help lift our burden not give us more headaches," said one of the victims' relatives.
In the past, disbursement of financial assistance for victims of natural disasters and terrorist attacks has been slow and often less than promised amounts after corrupt officials took cuts.
Radio Australia - August 8, 2003
As the Bali verdicts begin to unfold, the investigation is still fresh into the bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta this week. While Indonesian police are saying they believe it was the work of Jemaah Islamiah, an investigation has been launched into the possible involvement of the country's armed forces.
Presenter/Interviewer: Peter Lloyd, Southeast Asia correspondent
Speakers: Indonesian government advisor, Djuanda
Peter Lloyd: One of the most high profile members of the Megawati Government is the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and one of his top advisers is a former Navy intelligence officer named Djuanda.
He says attempts to blame Muslim extremists for the latest bombing are premature and may be disguising a campaign by darker forces trying to undermine the country's five year experiment with democracy.
Djuanda: We have another group who has also the capacity of making terror by bombing, let's say the Asian terrorist militaries, Asian terrorist intelligence.
Peter Lloyd: Are you actually investigating that possibility?
Djuanda: Right. So I persuade those with authority to be more and more let's say, decisive in this case.
Peter Lloyd: What advice are you giving the Security Minister? Are you telling him that you need to investigate other possibilities, such as military involvement?
Djuanda: That is already in the, what do you call it, in the works.
Peter Lloyd: People who want to undermine Megawati?
Djuanda: Yes. Undermine, not only undermine, but at the same time to make the, what do you call it, to make a pact for them taking the [inaudible]. So creating the political tension.
Peter Lloyd: For decades, Indonesia's police force played a subordinate role to the armed forces. Then, two years ago the two were separated. Police are now are struggling to develop independent intelligence capacity and while they are getting help from outside sources such as the Australian Federal Police, security operatives like Djuanda believe the Army is still jealously guarding important information about internal security threats.
Djuanda: They are [inaudible] to the Army. This is the problem.
Peter Lloyd: Do you think that the military does hold back intelligence that it has?
Djuanda: Of course!
Peter Lloyd: But specifically about what happened on Tuesday. Do you think that is an example of the withholding of information?
Djuanda: I can assume that.
Peter Lloyd: Is the bottom line here that for some in the military, they have no interest in preserving this democratic experiment, they would prefer mayhem because it could lead to a return to an authoritarian government?
Djuanda: We know also that terrorism is a danger for democracy. Right? But what type of democracy we will have if this democracy becoming the opportunity for the terrorists to channel their language of [inaudible] violence.
Agence France Presse - August 8, 2003
A severed head found at the scene of Jakarta's deadly hotel bombing belonged to a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah extremist network, Indonesian police said.
Indonesia's top detective Erwin Mappaseng told reporters the head has been identified as belonging to Asmar Latinsani, 28, a native of West Sumatra. "He was recruited as a member of Jemaah Islamiyah by Sardono and Muhammad Rais. These two men were members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) who were arrested prior to the bombing at the JW Marriott hotel," Mappaseng said.
The al Qaeda-linked JI is also blamed for the Bali bombings last October and a string of other bloody attacks in the region. It seeks to establish a pan-Islamic state in much of Southeast Asia.
Police had sketched a reconstruction of the head which was found on the fifth floor of the hotel. At least 10 people died and 146 were injured in the car bombing Tuesday.
Mappaseng did not say if Asmar is believed to be the driver of the Kijang van which blew up in what authorities suspect was a suicide bombing. He said Asmar's sister confirmed the identity of the head based on a scar and a mole on his neck. The other two JI members were arrested between the Sumatran cities of Medan and Pekanbaru, Mappaseng said.
The breakthrough came as Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri called for an international coalition to fight terrorism. Delivering the ASEAN Lecture here, Megawati said the September 11 attacks on the United States, last October's Bali bombing, and the Jakarta hotel bombing have shown that regional plans of action to tackle terrorism and cross-border crimes like drug smuggling are inadequate.
"It became clear that no single country or group of countries could overcome this threat alone. In Indonesia's view, which is shared by the rest of the ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] members, it would take a global coalition involving all nations, all societies, religions and cultures to defeat this threat," she said.
Megawati was speaking a day after judges on the resort island of Bali handed down their first verdict for the Bali bombings.
Local newspapers on Friday welcomed the death sentence handed to Bali bomber Amrozi, 41, the first of 34 suspects to be tried for the October 12 bombings that killed 202 people, mostly Western holidaymakers, on Bali's tourist strip.
The sentence is "an event of major significance," wrote The Jakarta Post in an editorial. "Indeed, both the judgment and the circumstances that led to it can be regarded as setting a new milestone in the country's history of jurisprudence," the paper said.
A smiling Amrozi welcomed his death sentence with a raised right fist and then gave two thumbs up as police led him away.
The Republika daily called his behaviour "rather odd ... as if a hero had just won a war." Koran Tempo said Amrozi's reaction to the sentence is a reminder that terrorism cannot be defeated by relying only on heavier penalties and repressive actions.
"Why? Amrozi's thumbs-up drives us to reply that we will never run out of militants ready to become martyrs," the paper wrote in an editorial. The paper said rising "social frustration" and exploding unemployment contribute to militancy while Megawati's government has failed to promote democratic reform necessary for combating terrorism.
Koran Tempo warned that the battle against terrorism will be a marathon one that must be conducted with the guarantee of civil rights and free speech. "Without all that, we will watch again with shattered hearts a smile and happy flash in the eyes like the one shown by Amrozi yesterday," the paper said. It ran a cartoon on its front page depicting a smiling Amrozi, with sticks of dynamite in place of teeth.
The United States on Thursday welcomed the death sentence. "We commend the government of Indonesia for the professional manner in which it conducted this trial. The court's decision is a clear sign that Indonesia is serious about combatting terrorism," said Tara Rigler, a State Department spokeswoman. "Bringing the perpetrators to justice is an important step in ensuring that what happened in Bali is never repeated," said Rigler.
Indonesians and Australians alike welcomed the sentence. Some 88 Australians died in the blast along with 38 Indonesians. The attack wrecked the economy of the resort island, known as peaceful paradise island of clear blue seas and white sand beaches. Community security guards and police, who watched the trial on video, jumped for joy and raised their fists when the sentence was read. Police threw their batons in the air.
"Justice is done this afternoon. it's good for a bad person," said Colin Marshall, a New Zealander whose friend was killed. "Many young Australians roasted like pigs because of him." Endang Isnani and nine other Bali women left widowed by the bombing watched the trial on video. "We were all delighted here. It's what we had hoped for," she said.
Agence France Presse - August 7, 2003
An Indonesian court on Thursday found an Islamic militant called Amrozi guilty of the Bali bombing last October and sentenced him to death.
"Amrozi has been legally and convincingly proven guilty of terrorism. We hereby ... hand down the death sentence on Amrozi," said chief judge I Made Karna, to applause inside and outside the court. He described the terror bombing of two crowded nightspots, which killed 202 people, as a "crime against humanity." Amrozi smiled broadly and shook his fists in the air after the sentence. He again smiled and shook his fists in apparent triumph as police led him out of court. The judge said he has seven days to decide whether to appeal.
Amrozi, a 41-year-old car mechanic, had sat patiently through proceedings as Indonesian judges began reading their verdict on his role in last October's attacks on the resort island.
"Allahu Akbar!" [God is greatest] Amrozi shouted six times as he took the defendant's chair facing five judges in red and black robes. His lawyers answered with similar shouts.
Security outside the court in the Bali capital Denpasar was intense following Tuesday's deadly hotel bombing in Jakarta, which has been blamed on the Jemaah Islamiyah group responsible for the Bali attack. About 300 police with sidearms and 250 local guards, carrying traditional curved daggers known as keris, were posted around the court. Cars and motorbikes were banned from the area.
"He has to die, he has caused so much loss for so many people," said Ketut Sari, 55, a member of the Balinese traditional guard. "There are a lot of people who have been suffering, a lot who have no work, people in commerce also have difficulties. He should just be shot."
Amrozi was the first of 34 people to be detained for the bombing of two crowded nightclubs and was the first to go on trial. Other key suspects, including two of his brothers, will also face a verdict in coming weeks. Prosecutors say he attended planning meetings for the attack and bought a tonne of bomb-making chemicals and the van used to carry the largest bomb, which devastated the Kuta tourist belt.
Amrozi has expressed only satisfaction at the death of scores of Western holidaymakers in what he called "dens of vices." Some 20 Australian victims of the blasts or their relatives were in court to see justice done. Among them was Brad Phillips, seven of whose friends from an Australian football team died in the blasts. He himself was injured in the Sari Club bombing.
Asked Amrozi's sentence, Phillips said: "The death penalty for him will perhaps make us feel better." Some 164 Westerners including 88 Australians and 38 Indonesians died and scores more were injured. "I am very angry at him [Amrozi]. I hope he gets what he deserves," said 19-year-old Balinese woman Luh Januari, whose father was killed.
Also expected to hear a verdict in coming weeks is the attack's alleged field commander Imam Samudra. Samudra's brother Lulu Jamaluddin was questioned by police after he entered the court. He apparently did not have a tag indicating his bags had been inspected.
Melbourne Age - August 7, 2003
Indonesia, hit on Tuesday by its second high-profile terrorist bombing in less than a year, is acquiring a reputation as a soft target for international terrorism. The country's oil, large Muslim population and strategic location are all contributing factors. But as important as anything are the cumulative effects of chronic misgovernment.
It isn't yet clear who is responsible for Tuesday's car bombing of the Jakarta Marriott Hotel, although all the early indications, including the choice of an American-owned target, suggest that al-Qaeda or one of its local affiliates may be involved.
Perhaps not coincidentally, two men from one of those affiliates, Jemaah Islamiah, are now being tried for last year's bombings in Bali, which left more than 200 people dead, many of them Western tourists.
There is nothing inevitable about Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population, becoming a haven for terrorists. The characteristic forms of Islam in Indonesia are moderate and tolerant. The main motor of instability there is not religion but repression.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri enjoys far more democratic legitimacy than her predecessors. Sadly, she has not so far used her authority to press for needed reforms.
She is not doing nearly enough to subordinate the country's harsh and corrupt military to civilian control and promote the rule of law. Without this, victory over terrorism will be hard to achieve.
The Bush Administration is right to offer Jakarta help in the common struggle against terrorism. It must also insist, however, that civil liberties and democratic accountability not become the first victims of the Megawati Government's enhanced anti-terror campaign.
Helping fight terror in Indonesia should not mean handing unchecked power to its already unaccountable army, which remains repressive more than five years after the fall of the Soeharto dictatorship.
Megawati has wrongly indulged the military. She has allowed it to retain excessive influence over economic and political life, let high-ranking officers escape accountability for massacres in East Timor and unleashed a ruthless new campaign against separatists in the province of Aceh.
Fighting terror effectively requires winning the co-operation of ordinary Indonesians, not further alienating them through military high-handedness.
Megawati's failures do not excuse these or any acts of terrorism. Al-Qaeda fanatics are fighting their own international jihad, which has little to do with democracy or Indonesian politics. But misgovernment has helped make Indonesia a soft target.
Jakarta can best fight back by speeding its transformation into a more democratic society.
[This is an edited version of an editorial in yesterday's New York Times.]
Radio Australia - August 7, 2003
At the Marriott Hotel bomb site in Jakarta, investigators have been sifting for clues into the attack, but suspicion has already fallen on regional terror network, Jemaah Islamiah because of a mounting series of parallels to the Bali bombings. A senior Indonesian officer believes police have identified a suspect who expressed his desire to launch a suicide attack in a coded e- mail.
Presenter/Interviewer: Rafael Epstein
Speakers: Brigadier Goris Mere, senior police officer in Bali bombing investigation
Rafael Epstein: Brigadier Gories Mere was one of the most senior police officers involved in the investigation into the Bali bombings. Familiar with Jemaah Islamiah's tactics, Gories Mere says the Jakarta bombing is almost certainly a JI attack.
Gories Mere: The modus operandi, the suicide bomb, we can mention that these are the activity of JI.
Rafael Epstein: So you think it is likely that it was JI in Jakarta?
Gories Mere: Yeah, yeah, yes.
Rafael Epstein: He said suspects in the Bali attacks sent emails to each other, speaking of their wish to participate in suicide bombings, using the code words "they want to get married". Now he says, six weeks ago police intercepted an email from Asmal in which he expressed the same desire "to get married". They suspect that man was at the wheel of the vehicle that detonated at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.
Gories Mere: The letters, the email interception that mention he wants "to marry as soon as possible". "Marry" is a word, a code word of the JI, "I want to plant a bomb", a suicide bomb, he wants to make a suicide bomb.
Rafael Epstein: So this is an email you intercepted from someone in JI?
Gories Mere: Yeah, yeah, yes.
Rafael Epstein: Who was the email from?
Gories Mere: The suspect [inaudible] Asmal.
Rafael Epstein: Speaking on his mobile phone, while at the crime scene, Brigadier Gories Mere says Asmal's family will be contacted and police officers will take DNA samples from them and their relatives. Police will then try to match that to body parts, including a hand, found with the wrecked car.
Gories Mere: And then now I send our men to his parents and his family in Wanwan [phonetic] province to take a DNA off his parents and then we bring it back to compare with the hand found on the crime scene and also with the blood we found on the crime scene, to compare if the DNA is identical as Asmal who has sent an email message to other people on another day.
Radio Australia - August 7, 2003
There are fears the Jakarta bombing has shaken the commitment of President Megawati Sukarnoputri to Indonesia's five year experiment with democracy. Two major terrorist strikes in twelve months has prompted a senior government minister to argue that some of Indonesia's new found civil liberties may have to be sacrificed.
Presenter/Interviewer: Peter Lloyd, Southeast Asia correspondent
Speakers: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's Security Minister; Marty Natalegawa, senior Indonesian government spokesman
Peter Lloyd: The blast is a devastating blow for Indonesia. Having won praise for fighting terrorism after Bali, it's now clear that it hasn't done enough and Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says new national security measures are to be implemented.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono: There will be mechinations that people will be able to report to the local police and other government apparatus if they are seeing that uniqueness occur in their surrounding. We will charge intelligence agencies, police, immigration section to conduct a detections operation to be able to detect whether there are terrorist cells that are operating here in Indonesia.
Peter Lloyd: The Minister did not provide further details but he urged Indonesians to be prepared to accept the sort of restrictions that could raise the concerns of human rights campaigners.
For those who fear that some of the freedoms gained during the country's five year experiment with democracy are about to be wound back, there was worse to come.
Senior Foreign Ministry Spokesman Marty Natalegawa was sent out with a message that President Megawati now regards tougher internal security measures as a legitimate trade off in the fight against the threat posed by JI.
Marty Natalegawa: We need to save lives, we need to pre-empt and prevent terrorist attacks. If that means regular liberties that we normally enjoy will have to be somewhat, not curtailed, but looked at and made arrangements for, then it may be worth it, if at least we can save the bigger thing which is democracy itself, which we have just won.
Peter Lloyd: Do you think you can sell that to the Indonesian people?
Marty Natalegawa: We have to sell it, we have no other option, we have to have everyone on board.
This is not a government intent on taking away civil liberties. We have seen on our television screens, it is ordinary Indonesians that have fallen victim to this and you cannot tell them that all this is acceptable for the sake of some certain principles which would not mean much for those who have lost their loved ones as a result of this terrorist act.
Peter Lloyd: Whatever clampdown follows, the government is still a long way from proving its mettle against terrorism. JI may have been dealt a blow by efforts to hunt down operatives after Bali, but the latest blast suggests the fanatics are far from defeated.
Straits Times - August 7, 2003
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- The blasts that rocked the Indonesian capital came a day after the reopening of Paddy's bar which was devastated in the Bali bombings.
Now, Indonesians are wondering how they will pick up the pieces of an economy which had just begun to show signs of recovery from the earlier attack, the Iraq war and the Sars outbreak.
As they struggled to return to normal lives, some hit out at the government. "The government needs to improve the intelligence services," said one bank employee. "In the Suharto era, the government knew even if a needle dropped on the floor."
Analysts said investors had just started to show interest in Indonesia again, when bombs devastated the JW Marriott Hotel. Now nervous investors are likely to delay major decisions and foreign tourists are expected to stay away.
The Bali bombings caused a sharp downturn in the number of visitors to the island which accounts for about half of the US$4.5 billion the country earns annually from tourism.
Yesterday, Jakarta office buildings and hotels imposed car checks at their entrances, causing traffic jams in the slow lanes of the capital's major roads. Many Indonesians, as well as foreign residents, said they would avoid crowded areas such as shopping centres, and those linked to American interests.
However, the Jakarta Composite Index recovered slightly after a drastic plunge following the bombing, and the rupiah was strengthening after the government vowed to continue to prop it up. With a stable exchange rate, the central bank would not likely raise its interest rates, helping to steady the economy, analysts said.
Director David Chang of Paramitra Securities told The Straits Times: "The government's response by supporting the rupiah shows that it has become more experienced in handling the impact of such a disaster on the economy." But that did not mean investors would return to Indonesia anytime soon, with the blast hurting confidence in the country, he said. "Because of the bombings, and the security advisories issued by other governments, people will travel less, including businessmen. When business trips are cancelled, decisions are usually postponed," Mr Chang said.
"Foreigners who work here will be more nervous. Because of the higher risk, you have to pay higher package and pay higher insurance for people to work in Indonesia."
Meanwhile, Indonesians expressed anger not just at the government, but at the terrorists. "Maybe the bombers don't have a God," Ms Ade Agusuaersih, 26, told the Associated Press from her hospital bed yesterday. She is a waitress at the Marriott Hotel's lobby restaurant, who was injured in the blast. "They are like animals," she said, as her husband played with their one- year-old son.
At the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Ms Warsinah, in her 60s, bravely attempted to identify her nephew Harna, a 37-year- old Silver Bird taxi driver who was killed at the scene. She cried when she saw the body but was not sure if it was really him. Then when her husband checked the ID card found in the man's clothes, she let out a wail. "My poor boy!" she shouted. "He had three kids ... Just kill them [the bombers]! Kill them!"
Agence France Presse - August 7, 2003
Indonesia's police chief linked the deadly bombing of a Jakarta hotel to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network and warned of fresh attacks by the al Qaeda-connected group.
General Dai Bachtiar said Tuesday's car bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel, which killed up to 14 people and injured 150, bore several similarities to the Bali attack last October which killed 202 people.
"From investigations we have done so far there are some common elements with the Bali bomb blast," Bachtiar told hoteliers and entertainment venue operators at a meeting called Wednesday to advise them on upgrading security.
In each case, he said, a mixture of low and high explosives was used and the chassis number of the vehicle was erased. The number on the locally-made Kijang van which exploded outside the Marriott had been recovered with forensic help. In each case the vehicle was sold to someone who left no address with the vendor.
Bachtiar said police had prepared a sketch of a head found at the scene of the blast but did not confirm whether the hotel blast, like those in Bali, was a suicide bombing. He said kerosene was found in the Kijang van outside the Marriott. "Their aim is to have a big explosion and create a big fire. With a big fire they hope to bury all evidence."
Imam Samudra and other detained Bali bomb suspects "do not want to admit they are JI but from the documents we know they are JI members," Bachtiar said.
The police chief said documents seized from a group of nine JI suspects arrested separately this month show "they will do terror activities again in a number of cities including Jakarta." He said a list of targets had been recovered.
"From our investigations other members [still at large] have the capacity to launch terror attacks. This is because their friends are facing justice and are sure to get tough punishment. They want to free their friends and show they still exist."
The first verdict against a Bali suspect -- a man called Amrozi -- is due Thursday. He could face the death sentence if convicted.
National detective chief Erwin Mappaseng said separately the Marriott bomb was detonated by mobile phone -- like at least one of the Bali blasts. "This modus operandi is similar to the Bali bombing and the bombing at the house of the Philippine ambassador," Mappaseng said.
In Sydney Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the Jakarta bombing had all the hallmarks of JI. Downer warned of possible new attacks as early as Thursday.
Investigators say JI staged the attack on two Bali nightclubs and the US consulate to avenge oppression of Muslims worldwide. Of the three separate attacks on the resort island last October 12, at least one was triggered by mobile phone. The blast at the ambassador's residence in Jakarta in August 2000, which is also blamed on JI, killed two people and injured 21.
"It [the hotel bomb] was detonated by a handphone," Mappaseng said. "We found the cellphone." He said the car bomb which ripped through the US-managed Marriott -- a favourite venue for US embassy functions -- contained TNT, RDX, HMX (a high melting point explosive) and black powder. Police from Australia, Interpol, Malaysia and Singapore are helping in the investigation, he said.
The attack on the hotel tore through the lobby and downstairs restaurant, shattering many windows in the modern 33-storey building.
There was confusion Wednesday over the exact death toll. The Indonesian Red Cross put the toll at 14 dead, while the health ministry said only 10 people died. Australia said it had been informed as many as 16 were killed. One foreigner, a Dutch executive, has been confirmed among the dead.
The attack on a well-guarded venue in the heart of Jakarta is a huge blow to the government, which has spent the nine months since Bali trying to repair the country's image. Vice President Hamzah Haz said the attack showed the country's intelligence and security capability was still too weak.
In an attempt to address criticism and shore up confidence in the already-fragile economy, the government said it would launch a wide-ranging review of security measures at public and private buildings.
The bombing drew global condemnation. The United States said it was "deplorable", the EU said there was "no justification for such a brutal outrage" while Singapore condemned the blast as a "dastardly act of terror".
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he would officially offer police assistance in the investigation, although Australian policeman were already at the site of Tuesday's blast.
Straits Times - August 7, 2003
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- Two weeks ago, I received a phone call from a long-standing and well-placed informant in Indonesia. He passed me critical information that the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorist network was planning a major strike in Indonesia this month.
Probed about his source, he said that it was a mid-level JI operative, whom he refused to name. Nor would he reveal contact details. It was an invaluable tip-off to a Page 1 report we published on July 31 in The Straits Times outlining key leadership changes in JI and plans it had for carrying out a terrorist attack in the country and region in the next few months.
The story was based on information culled from interviews with Indonesian intelligence officials, police counter-terrorism sources and security experts in the region. Five days after the report, a car bomb blew up at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta's commercial district.
It all seemed too much of a coincidence. I pressed my informant to link me up with this elusive JI source. He was reluctant, but relented eventually by getting the operative to call me in the office on Tuesday, some four hours after the attack on the Marriott.
The JI man refused to identify himself, but launched into an attack on President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her policies towards Muslims in Indonesia. He said that the explosion was a "bloody warning" to her administration not to crack down on JI members in the country.
"This is a message for her and all our enemies that if they execute any of our Muslim brothers, we will continue this campaign of terror in Indonesia and the region," he said.
Yesterday, Indonesian police announced that they had seized documents last month showing that terrorists had planned to target the area around Jakarta's Marriott Hotel. Jakarta police spokesman Prasetyo told the Associated Press that the documents were seized in the central Java town of Semarang last month, when police arrested four JI members.
In the documents, there were references to some target areas including the location of the Marriott, he said. "There was a warning that there were some targets and we have been anticipating an attack," he said, adding that security forces had increased patrols in the Marriott area but this failed to prevent the attack.
The revelation confirmed our July 31 report that the threat levels in Indonesia were very high.
That report quoted an Indonesian intelligence source as saying that all indications pointed to an attempt by a leadership to carry out a Bali-style operation in Indonesia or the region in the next few months, to make the point that they are still alive and active.
Security sources also noted that the large cache of weapons, chemicals and explosives -- some of which might have come from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines -- seized in Semarang in Central Java recently was just the tip of the iceberg.
Jakarta Post - August 6, 2003
Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta -- The deadly bomb blast at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta on Tuesday will undoubtedly hurt confidence in the an economy that had just started to recover as nervous investors and tourists shun the country, experts said.
"Investors are shocked from the psychological point of view. The bombing will shatter the confidence of investors in the economy, which has just started to recover from the Bali attacks," Raden Pardede of the Danareksa Research Institute told The Jakarta Post.
The rupiah closed on Tuesday 2.1 percent lower against the US dollar from the day before, while the Jakarta stock index lost even more ground to end the day at 3.1 percent lower than Monday's close.
"This had to happen just when we were experiencing a rise in indirect investment, such as in stocks and the bond market. I could see that there was also direct investment waiting to come here, but all this will be disrupted by the bombing," said Aburizal Bakrie, the chairman of the Indonesian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Kadin).
The two agreed that the attacks had the potential to further slow down the pace of the country's economic recovery.
Analysts also said that the country's hard gained macroeconomic stability might be adversely affected by the bomb blast unless the authorities took serious measures to mitigate the impact.
Since the start of the year, sentiment in the country's macroeconomy had been improving, with the rupiah finally stabilizing, supported by capital inflows from foreigners seeking higher returns amid low global interest rates and weakening dollar assets.
In order to help minimize the impact, Raden called for a swift response from the government to provide some respite for shocked investors, and at the same time assure them of its commitment to cracking down on terrorism. "Market players and investors are now waiting to see how the government will react to this," he said.
There are at least two things that the government could do to help mitigate the impact, Raden said: "One involves a security and legal approach, while the economical approach is the other." The security approach meant that the government had to be able to show its seriousness in finding the culprits behind the attack while also making sure that such a bombing would not happen again.
"Tough gestures from, let's say, the President, would be helpful in rebuilding confidence," Raden said.
As for the economic approach, the government should make the most use of the current budget to provide a further stimulus for the economy to help it weather the effects of the blast.
Dradjad Wibowo, an economist with the Institute for the Development of Economics and Finance (Indef), was also of the opinion that the authorities could help lessen the impact. Regarding the monetary authority, Dradjad stressed the importance of the central bank closely guarding the movement of the rupiah to avoid further panic selling or speculation.
Containing the rupiah within a relatively stable band, he said, would be crucial as it this would serve as a benchmark for the country's macroeconomics indicators.
Laksamana.Net - August 5, 2003
Following is a brief look at some bombings in Indonesia since 1999. The list is by no means complete, as dozens of explosions occurred over the past three years in the Maluku islands and Central Sulawesi amid deadly religious clashes.
Reuters - August 6, 2003
Indonesian share prices and the rupiah currency plunged after a huge explosion in a luxury hotel in Jakarta's business district.
Jakarta stocks ended down 3.06 per cent yesterday with the composite index finishing at 488.53 points, its lowest close in more than two months.
The explosion in the basement of the Marriott Hotel reinforced worries about the law and order situation in the world's most populous Muslim nation, market sources said. "Stocks fell because of the explosion. I heard it is very damaging. It raises fresh concerns over the security condition," said a local dealer.
The rupiah also weakened, with quotes down about 2 per cent on the day to 8670 per US dollar -- although the fall was limited by the likelihood of central bank intervention. "Major banks are not moving as they fear the central bank may soon come in," one currency dealer in Jakarta said.
The rupiah avoided a three-month low of 8725 per dollar hit in late July, and still remains the strongest Asian currency against the US dollar this year.
Bhanu Baweja, UBS currency strategist in Singapore, said the risks of investing in Indonesia were well known, and so markets were not likely to be too unsettled for an extended period.
"Most of the people who are in Indonesia really do know the security risk that goes along with investing in this place," he said. "I think security risk is probably on the rise slightly, but you haven't seen the international investor come into Indonesia in a very big way in any case."
When the rupiah slumped in July as investors switched out of Indonesia's high-yielding debt and into equity markets elsewhere, the losses were stemmed by Bank Indonesia intervention. Last week, central bank governor Burhanuddin Abdullah told Reuters he expected the rupiah to trade between 8200 and 8600 per dollar for the rest of the year.
Asked about the amount of foreign funds flowing into Indonesia, he said: "In the past two months, around $US4 billion came in -- around $US2 billion in the form of FDI, around $US1 billion into the stock market or portfolio investment and $US1 billion in the money market, ie, hot money."
Sydney Morning Herald - August 6, 2003
Matthew Moore -- There have been five explosions in Jakarta this year, only one of which police have solved -- and that was a bomb exploded by a member of its own bomb squad.
And yet, despite all of these bombings, most of the news about Indonesia's campaign against its home-grown terrorist threat has been good. At least it was until yesterday.
Of course it's too early to say for sure who carried out yesterday's bombing, but the signs are it is the work of an extremist Islamic group. If that is shown to be the case, it will be a big setback for Indonesia as it attempts to convince the world it has succeeded in containing Muslim extremists.
There is plenty to be alarmed about with yesterday's bomb. For starters, it was detonated at a hotel that has security as tight as any in Indonesia to protect its largely Western clientele. It was detonated at 12.50pm, right on peak hour for Jakarta's wealthy set, who usually lunch from 12 or 12.30.
It was a large bomb. Police have said it was made of high explosive, although they have not yet worked out how much was used. And although there is no evidence of who detonated the bomb, already several people, including Jakarta's Governor, have suggested a suicide bomber was responsible.
Whoever did this bombing was meticulous and was prepared to attack one of the most high profile and obvious targets in the country.
Before Bali, few of the Indonesian authorities took terrorism seriously, but in the months since there has been an obvious change. President Megawati Soekarnoputri's railing against the dangers of Islamic extremism in her report to Parliament on Friday was just one more example of how the Government has been prepared to take on extremist groups and to crow about it.
The ongoing arrests and prosecutions of suspected members of Jemaah Islamiah, especially the 30 involved in the Bali bombings, are more practical examples of how police have succeeded in catching terrorists.
But yesterday's bomb will undo so much of this work. Embassies will now inevitably review the safety of their non-essential staff, some of whom have only just been allowed back to Indonesia after the Bali bombs.
Travel warnings will be maintained or increased, further frightening away skittish tourists, sentencing many in Indonesia's tourist industry to more months of radically reduced incomes. Five-star hotels can now expect plenty of cancellations and there will be new debates about what the next target will be.
For Indonesia this second big bomb is proof that it has still not managed to contain the threat from terrorists. It will take an awful lot more arrests now before Indonesia can hope to convince a sceptical world it is a safe place to visit or do business.
Sydney Morning Herald - August 6, 2003
Matthew Moore, in Jakarta, Sean Nicholls, Tom Allard and agencies -- A massive lunchtime car bomb at a prestigious Jakarta hotel killed at least 14 people and wounded 150 yesterday in an attack that appeared to be aimed at foreigners.
It was the biggest blast in Indonesia since the October 12 terrorist attacks in Bali and authorities immediately suspected a suicide bomber had carried out the attack for Jemaah Islamiah -- the group blamed for Bali.
Terrorism experts believed the attack on the American-owned Marriott Hotel was orchestrated by JI to coincide with tomorrow's first verdict in the Bali bomb trial, when Amrozi faces a likely death sentence.
Just three kilometres from the bombed hotel, the man accused of heading JI, Abu Bakar Bashir, spent yesterday in the witness box denying his involvement in terrorism.
The bomb, which police said was a high-explosive such as TNT, shattered windows more than 30 floors above the ground, showering guests with glass at the five-star hotel.
"The bomb that hit the Marriott was similar to the bombing in Bali," the national police chief, General Da'i Bachtiar, said. He noted the common use of a car bomb.
Amid confusing reports about foreigners killed, police said they might have included an Australian, an American, a Dutchman and a Malaysian. But late last night the Australian embassy said police had confirmed that no Australians were among the dead.
A Melbourne businessman injured in the restaurant, Michael Rudman, 39, was discharged in a fair condition after three or four hours in hospital. His mother, Sharon, and wife, Jacqui, told the Herald he called to say he was safe and would be coming home today.
Australian Simon Leunig had just arrived in Jakarta from Perth and was relaxing in his room at the Marriott. "The window blew in, blew me across the room," he told Reuters Television. "I got out of there as fast as I could."
But outside the scene was worse, he said. "The taxi drivers and taxis were on fire ... a couple of drivers didn't make it."
Mr Leunig and a Belgian tourist helped two drivers escape the flames and found another bleeding in a bush. Mr Leunig, the international marketing manager of Perth's Edith Cowan University, had been in Jakarta on business.
Most of the injured appear to have been eating in the hotel's large ground-floor restaurant, famous for its buffet lunches, which fronts onto a horseshoe-shaped driveway that leads to the hotel entrance.
General Bachtiar said police found the remnants of the car bomb, a Toyota Kijang van. Body parts had been found near the van but police could not say if it was a suicide bomber.
However, Jakarta's Governor, Sutioso, said there was "a strong possibility" it was a suicide attack. A suicide bomber was also used in the Bali attacks.
Indonesia's Defence Minister, Matori Abdul Jalil, said: "I cannot say it is the JI ... but what is clear is that the arrests of two or three JI members does not mean terrorism has ended."
After a cabinet meeting, the Security Minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said: "We will never surrender to terrorism." Varying reports said the bombing van was parked in the basement or at the entrance to the hotel.
The force of the blast blew out almost all the windows in Permata Plaza building, about 25 storeys high, adjacent to the Marriott. It destroyed 22 cars and left an eight-square-metre hole in the driveway that led to the carpark below.
It was the sort of strike that the Australian and other foreign embassies had been warning their citizens of since October 12. However, the hotel had been regarded as one of Indonesia's safest and was selected by the Prime Minister, John Howard, on his visit to Jakarta this year. After the Bali attacks the Australian and other embassies used it to brief their citizens. The US Government held July 4 celebrations there last month.
Mr Howard said he was horrified by the attack and "it's yet another reminder that the fight against Jemaah Islamiah and other groups goes on and it will be a fight that takes years and it will require to co-operation of all the agencies in the region". He had been approached by the Indonesian police to send help. Three federal police in Jakarta -- and more if needed -- would help.
Indonesia's Vice-President, Hamzah Haz, said: "Marriott is American. Whether this is aimed at destroying US interests, I think there may have been such an aim." It was the fifth bomb attack to hit the Indonesian capital this year, but the first to claim lives. It came just three weeks after Indonesian police seized three-quarters of a tonne of explosives, including 40 kilograms of TNT, from a house in Central Java. They arrested about 10 suspected JI members they said were planning attacks.
The US warned last week that al-Qaeda -- said to have links to JI -- was planning new suicide hijackings and bombings. "Intelligence agencies have warned for months now of the possibility of attacks and the bulk of Jemaah Islamiah remains at large," said Andrew Tan, a security expert from Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.
Hans Winkelmolen, a 49-year-old Dutch bank executive and father of two based in Jakarta, was among those confirmed dead. One report said seven Indonesians died.
Greg Brown, an Australian businessman staying in a building across the street, said: "There's no doubt from anyone I'm talking to in the street that was targeted because of that Western gathering. It also could be because of lunch time, which is a prime time for the restaurant in the ground floor, where a lot of expats go for lunch and business meetings."
| Government & politics |
Jakarta Post - August 8, 2003
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) concluded its Annual Session on Thursday with a call for President Megawati Soekarnoputri to create a clean government.
MPR chairman Amien Rais also reminded both the government and lawmakers that some reform agendas had not been attained, more than five years after the movement was launched in 1998.
"Create a clean government and enforce the law," Amien said in the closing ceremony attended by President Megawati, Vice President Hamzah Haz and several cabinet ministers. "Corruption eradication drives are often rhetoric only." Amien did not give details, but critics have slammed President Megawati for dragging her feet in prosecuting alleged high-profile corrupters, mostly associated with the Golkar party, the political bandwagon of former dictator Soeharto.
During the seven-day meeting, Amien's National Mandate Party (PAN) accused the President's family members of indulging in shady business deals.
Amien also spelled out reform agendas Indonesia has to carry out, including defending the country's unity, improving human development, stimulating economic recovery and ending foreign borrowing.
The MPR meeting produced four decrees, namely on the establishment of the Constitutional Commission, the revocation of eight Assembly decrees, the revision of internal Assembly regulations, and suggestions to state institutions.
The closing ceremony was marked with the handing over of MPR suggestions to the President, the House of Representatives (DPR), the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and the Supreme Court (MA). However, the recommendations would not be binding and the President could just ignore the without penalty.
The Assembly also agreed to organize another session at the end of September next year to hear the accountability speech of the President, House speaker, chief justice, and BPK chairman.
The Assembly agreed on all four decrees deliberated during the meeting after the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction withdrew its proposal on two items -- the banning of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), and the rehabilitation of founding president Sukarno.
PDI Perjuangan had insisted on revoking an Assembly decree issued in 1967 on the annulment of Sukarno's presidency and to rehabilitate his name. "For the sake of togetherness, our faction accepts the opinion of other factions," said PDI Perjuangan spokesman I Dewa Gede Palguna, referring to the factions' suggestion to leave the rehabilitation issue to the President.
All factions agreed to retain the decree outlawing the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the banning on dissemination of communist, Marxist, and Leninist teachings.
Concerning the establishment of the Constitutional Commission, the Assembly agreed to extend its term from six to seven months. The Commission, which has to be set up within the next two months, will consist of 31 members. Recruitment of the commission's members will be carried out by the Assembly's working body.
The Commission will be tasked with assessing the amendments of the Constitution carried out by legislators from 1999 to 2002. The Commission will report to the Assembly's working body, which will then report to the General Session of the Assembly in September next year.
The Annual Session was supposed to last ten days and cost Rp 20 billion. In response to public criticism, however, the Annual Session was cut to seven days.
Results of seven-day Annual Session
Source: Assembly's Annual Session
Jakarta Post - August 6, 2003
The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) agreed to cut short its Annual Session from 10 days to seven in an attempt to save the state budget Rp 6 billion from the total allocation of Rp 20 billion . However, the Rp 2 billion-per-day event is still too expensive in the eyes of ordinary people. Some said skeptically that the Session would not do anything for them as it would not improve current conditions. This is what they said to The Jakarta Post.
Antok, 41, works at a supermarket in Sunter, North Jakarta. He lives in Cempaka Baru, Central Jakarta, with his wife and son: I don't know what legislators are discussing now at the Annual Session. I'm not the slightest bit interested. This year's Annual Session is the same as in previous years -- dull and nonsensical. The meeting seems a waste of time to most people.
To be honest, I don't care about it. Why should we care about it if legislators don't care about us? I believe that most legislators promote their own interests rather than the nation's -- they're all self-publicists.
Regardless of such meetings, legislators are incapable of improving people's lives. So why is it so important to hold such a costly session? Even if the assembly shortens the session to seven days, the amount spent will still be exorbitant. Worse, most of the money is allotted for legislators' accommodation: Sound's crazy, doesn't it? Enny, 32, is a teacher at a private junior high school in Tangerang, Banten. She lives in Bumi Serpong Damai, Tangerang with her husband and son: I've no idea what's going on in the legislature right now. I don't know and don't want to know what legislators are doing at the session.
I've never really wanted to know about the agenda at annual sessions. I just think there's nothing so important that I have to find out all about it.
I've become quite apathetic now about the deteriorating situation in the country. None of the leaders or high-ranking officials really side with the people.
They only waste public money. Why should I be a good taxpayer if the taxes are used to pay corrupt officials, like all of them? Even if they shorten the session to seven days, it does not mean that they are being thrifty. Fourteen billion rupiah for seven days is still a lot to spend.
It would be far better and honorable if legislators or government thought of the poor state of education in the country.
They could disburse the money set aside for the session to increase teachers' welfare, instead. I would agree completely with the idea as it would help to improve the quality of education here.
Otherwise, the state budget will be spent on the wrong posts and people, as at present. The people's representatives do not deserve that much as they do not represent the people, but their own vested interests.
Simin, 50, is a sidewalk vendor who sells cold drinks in Pluit, North Jakarta. He lives in Tanah Merah, North Jakarta, with his wife and two children: I don't care about what legislators do now in the MPR building. The legislators and I don't know each other, so why should we care about them? I don't believe their discussions will ever favor the people's interests. They don't necessarily improve people's lives, do they? I don't agree with the session, whether extended or shortened, because it's all the same -- a waste of public money. To shorten the number of days doesn't necessarily mean the budget will be cut.
Millions of people struggle hard simply to earn Rp 20,000 a day. Meanwhile, legislators get Rp 800,000 a day just for their five- star hotel accommodation! Ironically, they are called the representatives of the people, including those in the low-income bracket -- it's nonsense! I won't say any more. I'm fed up with my own hardships in life. The session is none of my business, after all.
Jakarta Post - August 6, 2003
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta -- President Megawati Soekarnoputri may breath a sigh of relieve, at least for the time being, as there are no prospects that she will be unseated by legislators in the same way that former president B.J. Habibie was unseated in 1999.
Megawati will still have to present her accountability report next year, as Habibie did, but the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) agreed on Tuesday that it would not assess her performance.
"In next year's session, there will be no separate commission set up to issue a decree in response to the accountability report," GBPH Joyokusumo, the chairman of Commission C1 deliberating a new decree on the MPR's standing orders, told reporters here.
Indonesia has had three presidents in the last five years. Habibie's successor Abdurrahman Wahid was impeached by the MPR in July 2001. Soon after, Megawati took over.
The MPR factions have agreed that the Assembly would convene for the last time in September 2004 to hear the President's accountability report. However, the report would have no legal or political consequences for the President as the Assembly would not respond to her accountability report on the implementation of the state policy guidelines (GBHN) through the issuance of a binding MPR decree.
The question of how binding or non-binding an MPR decree may is not as easy as it seems, though. Last year's MPR decree on Aceh, which stipulated a peaceful solution to the separatist issue, for example, was binding. Yet, with MPR support, the President decided otherwise this year.
Joyokusumo said that the responses to the accountability report would be presented by individual MPR factions rather than as a separate decree.
He said the 1999-2004 MPR would convene on Sept. 30 at the latest. However, should it fail to convene on that date, it would have to hold the session at least one week before the new crop of MPR members for 2004-2009 were sworn in.
"We will discuss the matter further with the General Elections Commission (KPU)," he said.
Previously, the factions in the MPR were at odds over whether or not the President would have to deliver an accountability report during the 2004 session. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) insisted that the President should only have to deliver a progress report on her three-year administration.
The National Awakening Party (PKB) faction demanded that the accountability report be delivered in April 2004. The faction said that Megawati was elected by the current MPR and therefore she should present her accountability report to the body that had elected her.
Joyokusumo said that the factions on Commission C1 had also agreed that the 2004 session would also hear reports on how much the constitutional commission had done in carrying out a comprehensive review on the amendments made so far to the 1945 Constitution.
Separately, Commission C chairman Barlianta Harahap said that the Assembly would recommend that the House of Representatives (DPR) set up a disciplinary committee to promote greater discipline and honesty among its members.
He declined to comment when asked if such a council would also decide the fate of House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, who has been convicted of corruption. He is currently appealing his conviction.
Barlianta also said the Commission C2 had not discussed a proposal from a number of factions in the MPR to fire Minister of Trade and Industry Rini M. Suwandi for her alleged involvement in irregularities in the purchase of Russian-made Sukhoi jet fighters.
Earlier, Rizal Jalil of the Reform Faction, which is dominated by MPR speaker Amien Rais' National Mandate Party (PAN), had demanded that the Assembly issue a recommendation for the dismissal of Rini, whom he claimed had violated various laws and regulations in a barter deal with a Russian export firm.
Jakarta Post - August 4, 2003
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) removed the only potential hurdle for a smooth Assembly session on Sunday by withdrawing its proposal to repeal a decree banning the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the dissemination of communism, Marxism and Leninism teachings in the country.
PDI Perjuangan's about-face was made public at the preliminary hearing of the People's Consultative Assembly Commission B in charge of identifying decrees to be repealed in the current Assembly session.
"In order to ease debate, we are ready and willing to withdraw our proposal [to revoke the banning of the PKI]," PDI Perjuangan spokesman I Gede Sudibya said at the hearing on Sunday. The statement drew applause from legislators attending the hearing.
PDI Perjuangan legislator Permadi said after the hearing that the faction withdrew its proposal in order to avoid voting on the issue.
PDI Perjuangan, the largest faction in the MPR, had been steadfast in its proposal to repeal an MPR decree issued in 1966 that outlawed the PKI and banned the dissemination of information on communism, Marxism and Leninism after the 1965 abortive coup.
Following the failed coup blamed on the PKI, hundreds of thousands of suspected PKI members and their family members were killed in waves of violent vengeance against the party.
Relatives of alleged PKI members were also discriminated against for more than three decades under the leadership of iron-fisted Soeharto, who effectively became president after Sukarno signed a decree giving him executive power to restore peace and order in the attempted coup's aftermath.
The executive power is known as Surat Perintah Sebelas Maret or the March 11 Executive Order, also known as Super Semar.
At Sunday's hearing, all factions agreed that the ban on the PKI and the dissemination of communism, Marxism and Leninism teachings must be maintained. They, however, emphasized that discrimination against family members or relatives of suspected former PKI members must be ended. They did not say how.
Spokesman for the military and police faction Djasrie Marin said on Sunday that the nation must not waver in its ban on the PKI and communism.
PDI Perjuangan also demanded that several decrees relating to founding president Sukarno be repealed in a show of goodwill to rehabilitate the image of Sukarno. Other factions, however, rejected the proposal, arguing that there was no need to rehabilitate Sukarno's name as he was already remembered as a prominent father of the nation. MPR decrees relating to Sukarno include on the Super Semar to Soeharto and a decree on the revocation of Sukarno's presidency.
The 11 factions in the Assembly remain divided on other MPR decrees. The Regional Representatives faction (FUD) is the only faction that insisted on maintaining an MPR decree on the implementation of regional autonomy. Other factions demanded that the decree be repealed because regulations on regional autonomy were clearly mentioned in the amended Constitution and regional autonomy laws.
Regarding the legal status of MPR decrees, the Annual Session proposed to classify 139 decrees issued between 1960 and 2002 into eight groups.
The first group is for decrees to be repealed, the second for decrees to be repealed with conditions, the third for decrees declared effective with conditions, the fourth for decrees declared effective until the setting up of a new government in 2004, the fifth for decrees declared effective until the enactment of laws, the sixth for decrees declared effective until the enactment of new Assembly internal regulations, the seventh for decrees considered to be equal to laws, and the eight for decrees considered effective at the time of endorsement.
Of the total 139 decrees, 12 decrees remain unsolved, providing reason for factions to debate.
Unsettled decrees
Source: Assembly's Annual Session
| 2004 elections |
Kompas - August 8, 2003
Jakarta -- Although the hopes and interests of society with regard to the 2004 general elections are very positive and indicate an attitude of enthusiasm, society feels pessimistic about whether the elections will be able to change their lives. This pessimistic attitude has emerged because society understands that the benefits of organising the elections cannot be enjoyed by ordinary people, but only by the politicians [who are presently in government].
This pessimistic attitude was apparent in a survey carried out by the Centre for the Study of Development and Democracy/Institute for Social and Economic Research, Education and Information (Cesda/LP3ES) of 3000 respondents in 13 provinces between March 1-12. The results of this survey were presented on Thursday (7/8) by LP3ES researcher Enceng Shobirin, who also holds the position of vice-director of LP3ES. Discussing the results of this research was Syamsuddin Harris from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Political Research Centre.
This pessimistic attitude could be seen from answers to the question: "Do you, or do you not, feel certain that the 2004 elections will change the destiny of society for the better". As many as 46 per cent declared that they were not certain, while those who declared they were certain was only 27 per cent. The remainder answered that thy did not know.
Enceng said that the results of the survey showed that Indonesian society is quite mature in its views of the political process. This is visible although society is disappointed with [existing] political figures, but this disappointment has not diminished their views about democracy, politics and elections.
People's views about elections for example, appears to be positive. As part of a political system and one of the important elements in the basic principles of democracy, elections are viewed as an important event (93 per cent). Only three percent of people considered elections unimportant.
The importance of elections for the majority of people in society is based on three things. There are those that consider elections as social mechanism to participate in determining state policy (39 per cent), elections represent a mechanism which is able to guarantee a peaceful transition of government (29 per cent) and that the elections are a mechanism for society to channel their interests (19 per cent).
On the question of people's preference towards politics for example, it can be seen that 56 per cent of people view politics as "something good". Only 18 per cent were of the view that politics is "something bad".
As with [their views on] politics, people responded positively to the process of democracy. Democracy is viewed as a system which can guarantee freedom of speech in society (55 per cent) and represents a mechanism where the government can be determined by the people (15 per cent).
According to Syamsuddin Harris, in his discussion of the research, the results of the LP3ES survey contradict the general view which says that society is skeptical about politics and democracy. The positive response to politics, democracy and the elections indicate that society has an optimistic view of the future and does not want to return to the old system, the system of authoritarianism which was applied by the New Order regime [of former President Suharto]. (vin)
[Translated by James Balowski.]
Jakarta Post - August 8, 2003
A'an Suryana, Jakarta -- Close to tears, veteran politician Akbar Tandjung handed in his application form to contest the race for the Golkar party's candidate for the 2004 general elections.
"My leadership experience has provided me with enough reasons to take part in the Golkar convention," Akbar, struggling for words, told reporters after submitting his application form. He was referring to his track record of chairmanship in numerous organizations.
It was not immediately clear why Akbar was so emotional. The Golkar party chairman, who has been convicted and sentenced to jail for stealing Rp 40 billion earmarked to feed Indonesia's most needy, said he completed his registration forms in front of his family on Thursday morning.
Apart from his leadership experience, Akbar also based his decision to enter the presidential race on the support from 22 of the 31 Golkar chapters throughout the country, he said.
The current Speaker of the House of Representatives was flanked by his wife Krisnina Maharani and his two daughters at Golkar party headquarters. Actress Nurul Arifin was seen among his entourage.
In his youth, Akbar was chairman of a number of organizations, including the Indonesian Muslim Students Association (HMI), the Indonesian National Youth Committee (KNPI) and the Young Renewal Generation of Indonesia (AMPI).
Thursday was the last day for Golkar presidential hopefuls to submit applications. A day earlier, another strong Golkar candidate, former TNI chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto, submitted his application.
Akbar's move to enter the presidential race through Golkar, the electoral machine of autocrat Soeharto, has been widely expected. In the autocrat's 32-year rule, Akbar held ministerial posts in four different cabinets between 1988 and 1999.
Those postings included Minister of Youth and Sport, Minister of Housing, Minister of Housing and Settlement and the State Secretary.
Akbar said he would resign from the presidential race in the Golkar convention if his appeal to the Supreme Court regarding his conviction in a multi-billion corruption case was rejected. He has been sentenced to three years' jail but remains free pending the appeal.
He also said he would be willing to accept the vice presidential candidacy. "The vice presidential candidacy has been decided at the recent Golkar leaders' meeting, and I must respect it," Akbar said.
Wiranto, on the other hand, has said that he would only be willing to run for president.
The election will be held between June and August next year, preceded by general elections in April.
Among the forms Akbar submitted was a curriculum vitae, letters of intent, a letter from the court saying that Akbar had not been sentenced to five years in jail and other requirements.
Other presidential hopefuls who submitted their applications forms Thursday were media baron Surya Paloh, educator Kemala Motik Abdul Gafur, businessman Rifai Siata and businessman cum artist Setyawan Djodi, bringing the total number of Golkar candidates to 19. The number will be trimmed to five at Golkar's convention in October and to one in February next year.
Agence France Presse - August 7, 2003
Former Indonesian military chief general Wiranto, who is accused by rights groups of war crimes in East Timor, said he would contest next year's presidential election on a ticket from the party of former dictator Soeharto.
"I'm ready to be the sixth president of Indonesia in 2004," Wiranto was quoted by the official Antara news agency as saying yesterday.
Wiranto said he passed up the chance to take over the presidency during the political turmoil in 1998 when Soeharto was under widespread pressure to resign. "If I had had the ambition to be president [at that time], I could have done it in 1998 when I was the military commander, when the situation allowed," he said.
Presidents and vice-president have so far been elected through a tiered system in which elected legislators vote them into office. But the two will be directly elected for the first time next year.
Human rights groups accuse Wiranto of responsibility in the violence surrounding East Timor's vote for independence from Indonesia in 1999. Wiranto was not among 18 military officers and civilians who appeared before a human rights court over the Indonesian army-backed wave of bloody militia violence against East Timorese independence supporters.
The general has said he had done what he could to prevent the violence and promote reconciliation between the warring camps. But United Nations-funded prosecutors in East Timor have indicted him and numerous other Indonesian officers over the violence. Jakarta refuses to hand anyone over for trial.
Laksamana.Net - August 4, 2003
The withdrawal of noted Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid from the presidential race by way of the Golkar convention has revealed the existing of two contending forces with different hidden political agendas within Golkar that were trying to manipulate Madjid for their own interests.
The two factions are most easily described as the pro- and anti- Akbar Tanjung factions, distinguished by their support or opposition for the party chairman, sentenced to three years jail on corruption charges and awaiting the result of an appeal to the Supreme Court.
For those from the anti-Akbar Tanjung faction, pushing Madjid's political ambition into the convention to choose a presidential nomination was useful to widen the split among Golkar members.
This faction's calculations were based on the fact that both Madjid and Tanjung rely on the same power base: the alumni of the Muslim Student Association, or HMI.
Most of Golkar's provincial chapters are in the hands of Tanjung's supporters from HMI, and were appointed as leaders and functionaries during his term as chairman.
This group presented a significant obstacle to the anti-Tanjung faction that wanted to use the convention as a means of defeating Tanjung and of nominating another figure as the Golkar presidential candidate.
Among the figures reported to have already collected forms to make themselves available for nomination at the convention are former Armed Forces Commander Gen. (ret.) Wiranto, former commander of the Army Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, media baron Surya Paloh, Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta, Golkar politician Marwah Daud Ibrahim and Muslim activist Tuty Alawiyah.
A source close to Golkar told Laksamana.Net that Wiranto is seen as the most serious contender in the eyes of the pro-Tanjung faction although business leader Aburizal has received strong backing from the provincial chapters, with 27 out of 30 saying they would accept him.
This is two more than Wiranto's tally, while Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare Jusuf Kalla won 24 nods, Surya Paloh 23, Tanjung 21, Prabowo 17, Hamengkubuwono X 13, and Madjid, before his decision to quit the race, with 12. The provincial chapters were allowed to approve more than one nominee.
If Madjid has continued with his campaign, the HMI connection in Golkar would have been divided into those in favor of Madjid and those in favor of Tanjung.
Such division would have made Wiranto the likely winner at the convention. Prabowo, Aburizal Bakrie and Surya Paloh would potentially become the swing voters in favor of Wiranto rather than Madjid or Tanjung.
Though a personal rival of Wiranto from the days before Suharto's forced resignation from the presidency in May 1998, Prabowo has been wooed by the alumni of Indonesian Muslim Student Union (PII) to back Wiranto, at least for the convention. Small wonder if rumors spread last week that Wiranto and Prabowo had reached a deal to support each other in the Golkar convention.
Aburizal Bakrie, Jusuf Kalla and Surya Paloh, assuming they are serious about wanting to take part in the coming convention, all have track records of wanting to take sides with the winning candidate given their business-minded attitude of opportunism.
Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengkubuwono X has no historical or ideological affiliation with political Islam and represents the conservative nationalists.
Marwah Daud, so far supported by 10 chapters, has emotional reasons for revenge against Tanjung because of his betrayal of former President B.J. Habibie. Tanjung contributed to Habibie's failure to be reelected as president at the general session of the People's Consultative Assembly in October 1999.
Meanwhile a source from the intelligence community says there were other more sinister motives in the minds of some elements. "Madjid's decision to take part in the convention was pushed by the proponents of the New Order regime whose special operations (OPSUS) agents had been infiltrated within the Muslim community close to Madjid," he said.
Madjid, added this source, was quite aware of this scheme. Thus, for the sake of unity and solidity within the HMI group within Golkar, Madjid decided to resign from the convention.
Former President Abdurrahman Wahid praised Madjid, saying that the scholar had maintained his role as the moral guru of the nation. This was somewhat surprising given Wahid's previous stand in rejecting Madjid's nomination as a presidential candidate for the National Awakening Party (PKB).
"Nurcholish has taught us how to play high politics, while still maintaining credibility and morality in building our democracy," said Gus Dur.
Passage of the Presidential Election Law conveniently allows a defendant to run for the presidency, bringing Tanjung a new chance for a shot at the top, and made Madjid lose relevance.
As the patron and the moral leader of HMI over three decades, Madjid knows very well that if Tanjung decides to take part in the convention, he will win the battle because of the total support given by the HMI alumni who dominate the Golkar structure from branches, provincial chapters, right up to the central board.
The HMI group can only nominate one candidate, of course. Either Tanjung or Madjid would have to step aside, and it was Madjid who broke first.
Jakarta Post Editorial - August 4, 2003
When Nurcholish Madjid announced last week that he was withdrawing from the Golkar convention that will be held to select its presidential candidate, he was not the only one who felt disgusted at the country's second largest party. When Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung decided that he too would run for the nomination, he effectively killed the democratic character of the convention.
Given his power over the party's regional chapters, and to a lesser extent the central executive board, the outcome of the convention, slated to take place in February, is almost a foregone conclusion. Akbar's action has reduced the significance and value that the convention might otherwise have had for the development of democracy in this country.
A legacy of the repressive Soeharto regime, Golkar has tried hard to project itself as a reformed and even a democratic party. So much so that it managed to come second in the 1999 general election. But from the way Akbar has handled the convention, we can see that some things never change in Golkar. And one of these is its practice of the politics of deception, which enabled it to maintain its power for 32 years, with the help of its chief patron Soeharto, of course.
The Golkar convention has now become a mere formality. If and when he is officially nominated as the party's presidential candidate in February, it will not be seen as a vote of confidence in Akbar's leadership of the party. Rather, it will be widely perceived as another display of the power and influence he wields within the party as it gears itself up for the general election in April and the presidential election in the middle of 2004.
Nurcholish, a respected Muslim scholar, was right to pull out of the convention.
Given his untainted reputation and image, Nurcholish's participation would have lent credence to Golkar, something he was prepared to give when he still believed that the party meant well in opening up the presidential nomination process to everyone. Even many of his supporters and friends acknowledged that one way for Nurcholish to attain the presidency would be to contest the Golkar nomination through the convention.
Had he been selected by the convention -- and there was some real support for him within the party -- it would have been a marriage of convenience, or even an unholy alliance. Nurcholish, a public figure of strong moral stature, would have lent respectability to Golkar, which is still beset by the political baggage of its past. In return, Golkar, likely to be one of the largest political parties in 2004, would have helped him clinch the presidency.
Many people, including Nurcholish, gave the benefit of the doubt to Golkar when it announced early this year that it was opening up its presidential nomination process through the holding of a national convention. Most of the other big parties automatically nominated their chairpersons. But with Akbar still embroiled in a corruption scandal, it would have been difficult for Golkar to nominate him directly without undermining its own electoral chances.
Naturally, the prospect of the presidency is very alluring for anyone with an interest in the future of this country. And yet, here is the country's second largest political party desperately searching for a credible presidential candidate because it cannot find one within its own ranks.
Hence, when the convention process officially began last month, Nurcholish decided to run, as did more than a dozen others, including a number of discredited figures from the Soeharto regime. That was how open the convention was. There was a genuine belief that Golkar was sincere in opening up its selection process. Nurcholish was certainly participating with the understanding that Akbar, as the party chairman, would stay out of the fray.
With Akbar now having decided to run, there is no real contest. We have seen how Akbar, even at the height of the corruption scandal last year, managed to rally the support of the majority of the regional chapters against attempts to remove him from the chairmanship.
Now, despite having been convicted by the district court for corruption, a conviction upheld by the high court, he still controls the regional chapters. And with these chapters holding the power to select the presidential candidate at the Golkar convention, there is no question that most, if not all, will vote for the party chairman.
There is no real point in holding the Golkar convention any more. Nurcholish was right to withdraw and we wish him success in finding another vehicle on which to ride to the presidential palace.
The Golkar convention is nothing but a ploy. It is another example of the Machiavellian politics that Golkar has excelled at for more than three decades. But, the question is, who is Golkar really deceiving this time?
Straits Times - August 4, 2003
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- In the end, the murky world of politics, where money, power and clout sometimes hold more sway than the merits of goals and projects, probably got to Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid.
And this could have influenced his decision to withdraw his bid to compete for Golkar's presidential nomination.
Indeed, his brief fling with Indonesia's second-largest political party was hardly seen as one that would endure. It was, as some analysts said, an unholy alliance -- "like a nun being forced to perform erotic dancing in a nightclub".
Golkar had flirted with the idea that having a figure like Mr Nurcholish, with a reputation as the "moral teacher of the nation", could attract votes in the April parliamentary election, which would precede the country's first-ever direct presidential poll next year.
Banking on this, Mr Nurcholish's camp had expected to take advantage of Golkar's political power to win the presidency. But in practice, analysts said, this union was too idealistic to achieve. The 63-year-old, in fact, had little chance of beating other contenders in the ongoing party convention process to select a presidential candidate.
Perhaps it was this realisation that forced Mr Nurcholish to withdraw from the race, after concluding that the convention process was not as fair and democratic as he had thought. A series of visits to influential party officials in the provinces may have shown him that in the end, money -- not the programmes he offered -- would decide their support for him.
Preliminary assessments in Golkar's provincial charters showed that he was way behind other candidates like businessmen Surya Paloh and Aburizal Bakri and retired general Wiranto. Out of 29 provinces, only 14 gave their support to him, placing him second to last out of the 10 contenders.
This shows that although he may have had a shot at the presidency in the direct presidential election, he would have had a hard time doing it on a Golkar ticket facing tough competition ahead of the final convention in February.
Said political analyst Budiman Moerdijat of the Van Zorge Heffernan political risk consulting firm: "This is just the beginning of a very long and competitive process. Even those that came up tops at this stage may not be able to sustain the support in the upcoming months, much less those that had quite a poor early result like Nurcholish. The real battle will be fought in the lower level of regency chapters, where the bulk of the final votes in the convention will come from."
Of the more than 500 votes needed to win the convention in February, 416 votes will come from party chapters in the lower regency level.
Some have also linked Mr Nurcholish's decision to Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung's official announcement on the same day that he was entering the race, despite an ongoing legal process on his graft conviction. Mr Akbar was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for embezzling state money but is awaiting the Supreme Court's decision on his appeal.
His participation in the presidential race has been guaranteed after Parliament killed an article in the recently passed Bill on the presidential election that forbids convicts from running for the top job. With him in the picture, the battle for Golkar's presidential ticket obviously got tougher.
Mr Budiman said Mr Akbar would likely wield his influence as party chairman to affect the outcome of the convention. "Even if he decides later to pull out of the convention, he could throw his weight behind one of the candidates in return for a political favour if his choice of candidate does become the president," the analyst said.
For Mr Nurcholish though, it is not the end of the road yet. Smaller Islamic and secular parties are now toying with the idea of making him their presidential nominee.
| Regional/communal conflicts |
Jakarta Post - August 7, 2003
Palu -- A powerful bomb exploded again on Thursday morning, in the sectarian conflict-torn city of Poso, Central Sulawesi province.
The explosion killed Bahtiar, alias Manto, 20, from Kayamanya and damaged buildings, Antara reported. The bomb exploded at 9am local time.
But, AFP reported that police identified Bachtiar as a suspected bombmaker who blew himself up Thursday as he built an explosive device in the troubled district of Poso.
"Our initial analysis from the evidence in the field is that he was making a bomb at the time and it exploded," provincial police spokesman Agus Sugianto told AFP. Sugianto said Bachtiar was on the police wanted list in connection with a July 11 bombing that wounded three people at a Poso cafe. Bachtiar was also wanted in connection with the burning of a car in 2001.
The explosion blew off Bachtiar's hands and severely damaged his eyes and chest, Sugianto said. He died at the scene. "We can't yet determine if it was high or low explosive," he said. Bachtiar was alone at the time in his father's house, which was heavily damaged.
Up to 1,000 people were killed in Muslim-Christian violence which broke out in Poso in 2000. The government brokered a peace deal in December 2001 but sporadic violence continues.
Sugianto said inter-religious relations have already improved in the region, so police could not say whether the blast was linked to Poso's internal conflict.
| Human rights/law |
Jakarta Post - August 9, 2003
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- Four national figures -- Abdurrahman Wahid, Nurcholish Madjid, Adnan Buyung Nasution, and Salim Said -- will testify before an inquiry of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) investigating the 1998 May riots.
Inquiry chairman Salahuddin Wahid said on Friday that his team would hear an explanation from the four about the political situation at the time of the riots.
"We believe the May riots were sparked by political rivalries. We want to hear an explanation from them," Salahuddin told The Jakarta Post on Friday. Abdurrahman and Nurcholish were among the national leaders summoned by then president Soeharto before the latter stepped down on May 21, 1998. Buyung is a lawyer and Salim Said an observer of political and military affairs.
The inquiry anticipates that the national figures will be able to throw light on the political rivalry at that time so that the team could make a strong conclusion.
The team believes that the massive riot in 1998 was planned. However, his team has not been able to identify the mastermind of the riots which claimed more than 1,200 lives, said Salahuddin.
The nine-member inquiry is now working to finish its investigative report and will then hand over the report to the Attorney General's Office for further action.
Asked whether the report would be better than the previous report made by the Komnas HAM, Salahuddin admitted that he had not read the report yet. "But, of course, we strive to do our best," said Salahuddin who is also Komnas HAM deputy chairman.
He said Nurcholish and Buyung had agreed to testify before the inquiry.
Earlier, the inquiry subpoenaed dozens of retired and active military and police officers. But, the military and police officers did not answer the summons.
Komnas HAM has given the team six months, from March to September this year, to finish its investigation. After the investigation the team will conclude whether or not gross human rights violations had been committed during the riots.
Salahuddin said that he was not sure whether the inquiry had gained public support. Only rights activists, riot victims and their relatives were concerned with efforts to unravel the May riots, asserted Salahuddin.
Jakarta Post - August 4, 2003
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- Past rights violators could take advantage of the planned Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a means to whitewash the past and keep their hands clean, rights activists warned on Saturday.
They were commenting on President Megawati Soekarnoputri's statement before members of the People's Consultative Assembly last Friday that the government was planning to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with past human rights violations.
In the Truth and Reconciliation Commission bill submitted to the House of Representatives in June, past human rights violations, including the mass killing in the aftermath of the abortive coup in 1965, were to be settled by the victims and perpetrators out of court.
Coordinator of the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Usman Hamid said the commission would only provide impunity for security officers implicated in various rights violations when carrying out their duties.
Asmara Nababan, former secretary-general of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said the government had to grant more power to the commission, otherwise "we will only repeat the failure we experienced in bringing East Timor rights violators to justice".
"The commission is complementary to the rights tribunal, it has to have the authority to summon alleged rights violators before offering to reconcile with the victims or proposing a trial for those who ignore the summons.
"To avoid failure in summoning military officers implicated in past rights abuses, the commission must be vested with subpoena rights," Asmara told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
He was referring to the failure of Komnas HAM to summon the perpetrators of the Trisakti, Semanggi I and Semanggi II incidents as well as the 1998 riots due to what he called "technical reasons".
Megawati said on Friday that Komnas HAM should not necessarily handle all human rights violations because "our history is full of turmoil resulting in many bitter memories that can only be resolved through special treatment". Critics have said that the country's first ever human rights tribunal, in which alleged human rights violators were prosecuted in the former province of East Timor in 1999 had failed to break the cycle of impunity.
From a total of 18 defendants, 10 military and police officers and one civilian were acquitted. The remaining seven other defendants, including former East Timor governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares and former Wiradharma military resort commander Brig. Gen. M. Nur Muis, were sentenced to jail but remain free pending appeal.
Up until now, the government has yet to establish an ad hoc tribunal to try perpetrators of the 1984 bloodshed in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, despite mounting demands from rights activists.
Several military officers are alleged to have been involved in the mass killing, including the incumbent Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) Commander Maj. Gen. Sriyanto.
According to Usman Hamid, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission bill has many flaws, including the mechanism for providing compensation for victims of rights abuses and the principle of retroactivity.
"It is not immediately clear how the government will provide appropriate compensation for rights victims.
"The government has also said that the commission is to facilitate reconciliation between violators and victims of violations that took place before the enactment of Law No. 26/2000 on the ad hoc rights tribunal. Does it mean the killing of hundreds of civilians in North Sulawesi during the Dutch colonial period will also be covered by the commission?" Usman asked.
| Focus on Jakarta |
Jakarta Post - August 8, 2003
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta -- The city administration is doing almost nothing to prevent Jakarta's rivers from becoming industrial and household dump sites. City Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) environment impact protection head Ridwan Panjaitan claimed the condition of the rivers was worsened by the absence of a sewerage system in the city.
"You can imagine how heavily polluted our rivers are as there is no sewerage system to deal with waste," Ridwan said. However, BPLHD data shows that of 22,506 industries/businesses in the city only 65 or 3 percent have liquid waste disposal permits.
The rivers are black with pollution and emit an awful stench. During the dry season the condition of the rivers worsens as water levels drop. By the time the water flows out to sea it is thick with waste.
Ridwan admitted his office had not been able to control the industries despite environmental laws giving his office the authority to investigate polluting industries, and impose stiff penalties. He blamed limited staff numbers.
BPLHD senior staff member Dulles Manurung said it was currently investigating 46 cases of pollution, all launched after complaints from the public.
Of the cases, 20 industries were under investigation, 16 had been issued warnings for improper liquid waste management and 10 others had been ordered to repair their treatment facilities.
He said based on Gubernatorial Decree no. 582/1995, warning letters were sent to the polluters three times. The industries were given three months after each warning to improve waste treatment facilities.
Dulles said if the industry still failed to act it would be denied access to release its waste into the rivers and the administration would publicly name the industry as an environmental polluter.
Polluters can receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a maximum fine of Rp 500 million (US$60,240) under environmental laws. If the damage leads to death the maximum sentence is 15 years in jail and a fine of Rp 750 million.
The agency earlier announced that only four out of the city's 99 hospitals have efficient programs to manage radioactive and clinical waste.
The people in close proximity to the hospitals live in jeopardy as radiological waste can cause various diseases such as cancer, while clinical waste can spread diseases from the hospital. Many hospitals reportedly dump their liquid waste into the rivers and their solid waste at the Bantar Gebang dump site in Bekasi.
Among the hospitals seen to be negligent in their waste disposal are an eye center in Central Jakarta, a hospital belonging to a state enterprise in South Jakarta and a hospital belonging to a private university in North Jakarta.
Jakarta Post - August 7, 2003
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta -- Some 300 bajaj (three-wheeled motorized vehicles) were parked at the City Council compound on Wednesday in a noisy and smoky protest against the administration's plan to replace them with the Kancil (four- wheeled vehicles).
Owners and drivers of the Indian-designed bajaj objected to the planned replacement, saying the price of the locally made Kancil of Rp 34 million (US$4,000) was too expensive compared with their bajaj priced at Rp 15 million.
Besides the price, the Kancil's daily rental fee of Rp 50,000 was also too high as the bajaj's daily rental fee was only Rp 30,000, they said.
"If I shift to the Kancil, my income will be lower since we have to pay a higher rental fee," Darlan told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the rally. He said his daily income which currently reached Rp 60,000, would drop if he had to pay a rental fee of Rp 50,000 for the Kancil.
The bajaj drivers and owners also refused an offer by Kancil producer PT Kancil Automotive Marketing Industries to buy their vehicles at Rp 5 million each. The producer earlier said the Rp 5 million could be used as a down payment to buy a Kancil.
It's still unclear whether the Rp 50,000 daily rental fee for the Kancil was also considered an installment for the golf-cart like vehicle, which would eventually lead to ownership. Another bajaj owner Solihin, however, added that he was ready to negotiate with the Kancil maker if the offer was interesting.
He said he bought a bajaj for Rp 18 million three years ago, therefore he would not accept the offer of Rp 5 million to trade in his bajaj. "It would be OK if the compensation was close to Rp 15 million and if the price of the Kancil is not too high," he added.
Meanwhile, chairman of City Council Commission D for development affairs Koeswadi said the planned replacement of bajaj would not be conducted in the near future. "We are still discussing a bylaw on transportation. We have not decided whether to replace the bajaj," Koeswadi, a councillor of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle told the protesters.
In the draft, the administration only stated public transportation vehicles shall be motorized vehicles with four or more wheels. So the bajaj was excluded in the bylaw. The planned bylaw was also criticized for excluding non-motorized vehicles, such as pedicabs, as public transportation vehicles.
There are 14,000 bajaj currently operating in the city's streets. The replacement of bajaj with Kancil will take a long time as the Kancil producer has only produced 100 vehicles so far. Kancil, which has a 400 cc engine, is manufactured by PT Induro International in Tangerang, Banten province. Governor Sutiyoso earlier pledged that the bajaj would be banished from the streets when he launched the Kancil.
The bajaj was introduced in Jakarta in 1975 when the city was led by Governor Ali Sadikin. The plan to replace the bajaj with the Kancil was announced in 2001 as the two-stroke engine of the bajaj makes a deafening noise and emits heavy exhaust fumes.
| News & issues |
Kompas - August 7, 2003
MPRS Decree Number XXV/1966 on the Dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist and Communist Teachings is still being maintained as law. However for the families who have been affected by this "collective sin" as a result of this decree, the issue is not one of the decree being revoked or not(1). The problem is the discrimination that they have to endure.
"We are pessimistic that the government is serious about revoking the MPRS decree which has put us in the position of the victims and [those who have been] sacrificed. It's all empty talk and I am not truly convinced there is any seriousness there", said Maryono (50) at his home which is also his place of work in Surabaya, East Java, on Monday (4/8). In order to support his family, he opened a small salon because his efforts to become a state civil servant were blocked by the stigma of black family.
Maryono is the fifth child of seven. His farther, the late Mustaji who was declared to have been involved in the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), was arrested, tortured and jailed for 12 years without any kind of legal process. Mustaji, who in the last years [of his sentence] was held in the Nusakambangan jail and released in 1978, was an employee with the Locomotive Division and a member of the Indonesian National Army with the rank of sergeant first-class.
"Our lives as a family were totally destroyed because of it", said Maryono emotionally. They were ostracized. They could only hope that obscure history of the 1965 affair(2) would be set straight and reexamined. When asked to related the experiences of his family who were ostracized by society, Maryono was not that interested. "Everyone knows about us and how our family was discarded and ostracized. We have forgiven them already, because they didn't know any better", he said calmly.
He also related some the economic difficulties which directly befell his family after the arrest of his father. As well as this, his and his six siblings' efforts to become civil servants were blocked because their identity cars were given an "ET" [ex- tapol, ex-political prisoner] stamp. "We have never been able to obtain a statement of cleanliness(3) or the phrase Sampul D [D Seal]", he recalled.
These discriminatory actions caused all of the members of his family to then go their different ways seeking a means to survive. In the midst of these unimaginable difficulties, their family often received threats from particular parties, such as the military or police. "The threats began to abate in the 1990s. But we are still hunted by fear", he explained.
The general chairperson of the Central Leadership Committee of the Struggle Institute for the Rehabilitation of Victims of the New Order Regime (Lembaga Perjuangan Rehabilitasi Korban Rezim Orde Baru, LPR-KROB), Sumaun Utomo, is of the view that the MPRS decree represents a stain on the history of the Indonesian nation. "This MPR decree has given rise to a number of regulations and legal instruments which have caused families who had previously been involved with the PKI to be treated in a discriminative manner", said Suamaun who is now 80 years of age.
Sumaun said that although he was released from Buru Island(4) at the end of 1997, he has never felt truly safe. "It was just like leaving a 'small jail' and entering a 'big jail", he said.
The MPRS decree has resulted in a number of regulations being issued which according to Sumaun are really strange. "Even the family of prisoners had to experience limitations, moreover at two levels, that is two above, two below and two to the side [meaning it affected the parents, the grandparents, the children and the grand children and family members related by marriage of ex-tapols - JB]. This kind of thing doesn't happen anywhere else [in the world]", said Sumaun.
There are various limitations which are applied to prisoners and their families including not being allowed to write, not being allowed to present public talks, not being allowed to teach, not being allowed to be politically active, not being allowed to work as a lawyer, not being allowed to become a civil servant and not being able to hold social events.
As a result of these kind of regulations, Sumaun's first child was not accepted as a civil servant. This was despite the fact that Sumaun's first child fulfilled the qualifications to become the headmaster of a technical school in Gombong, Central Java.
An ex-tapol in Central Java, according to Sumaun, was not even allowed to hold a wedding party for their child because they were an ex-tapol.
Up until this day Sumaun, still experiences discrimination. For example in efforts to obtain an ID card, although he is already 80 year of age, Sumaun is still not allowed to hold a life long ID card. This is despite the fact that according to regulations, citizens who are 60 years of age may hold an ID card for life. Truly, this stigma sticks to people for their entire life-- (INU/ATO)
Notes
1. One of the agenda items of the annual session of the People's Consultative Assembly held between August 1-7 was to discuss revoking a number of dated laws and regulations including MPRS Decree XXV/1966. Although the proposal to revoke the decree was originally put forward by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the party of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, it was later withdrawn clearing the way for the decree to remain in force.
2. 1965 affair - an alleged coup attempt in 1965 which the New Order regime of former President Suharto blamed on the PKI.
3. From the 1970s to the early 1990s, a special screening (Litsus) was used to weed out communists in the bureaucracy, military, politics, education, journalism and other "strategic" professions. An offshoot of Litsus was "Bersih Lingkungan" (clean environment), a phrase to denote a person as "pure" from any possible communist influence.
4. Buru Island, near Ambon, was used as a prison camp where thousands of political prisoners were held for decades by the New Order regime of former President Suharto. Prisoners were encouraged to grow crops and take part in sports and participate in activities designed to change the way alleged dissidents thought.
[Translated by James Balowski.]
Kompas - August 4, 2003
Getting rid of a bad image which has long been planted in the minds of society is not an easy matter. The polemic over the issue of the revoking of MPRS Decree Number XXV/1996 on the Dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist and Communist Teachings has yet to end. The stigma which sticks to families of ex-political prisoners (ex- tapols) or Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) tapols, is also yet to disappear.
Outside of the political debates among the politicians, which is one of the agenda items of the annual session of the People's Consultative Assembly at the moment, society itself is still ambiguous in viewing the issue of the PKI and communism.
On the one had, society is able to accept living together with ex-political prisoners who were involved in the G30S/PKI affair(1) or their families. However, on the other hand, society is still afraid about what roles they should be allowed to play, particularly if they take on social and political roles in society, even if they just become heads of neighborhood associations.
From the results of the survey this time around, the half-hearted impression which was shown by respondents in accepting the existence of ex-tapols, should [be expected to] have already been rehabilitated since the era of the government of President B.J. Habibie(2).
More than three quarters of respondents had no problem if ex- tapols or their families live among them in society. The majority of respondents also considered that putting a special code on the identity cards (KTP) of ex-tapols or their families was unnecessary. However more than a half (52 per cent) of respondents still had problems if ex-tapols are given the same rights [as other people] to be elected as neighbourhood or community heads for example.
In the world of politics, respondents rejection of a role for ex-tapols is even more visible. No less than 72 per cent of respondents disagreed if they [were to be allowed to] hold government jobs or become government officials.
This was not just against ex-tapols. With regard to their families, more than half (55 per cent) of respondents had a problem if family members of ex-tapols held government jobs or become government officials.
It is difficult to see how ex-tapols or their families can become involved again in the political world of the nation. Society still does not fully trust the political role of ex-tapols or their families.
This was apparent from the attitude of 74 per cent of respondents, who disagreed if ex-tapols formed a political party, even if such a political party was free of communist ideology.
If for example ex-tapols or their families play a role in other existing political parties, it appears that it would be difficult for them to hold seats in parliament as representatives of the people.
At least 70 per cent of respondents disagreed if ex-tapols become members of parliament. And 59 per cent of respondents disagreed if family members of ex-tapols become members of parliament.
Apparently, for the majority of the public, communism is still viewed as a concept which is frightening, bad, and be of concern. This stigma appears to still influence how attitudes are formed in viewing the rights of ex-tapols to live or play a role in line with other members of society.
From this survey, at least 69 per cent of respondents view communism as something bad. Only 24 per cent of respondents no longer viewed communism as a threat and considered communism not to be an issue.
In general, [the results of] this survey are not very different compared to a survey of the same kind last year. Apparently, respondents assessment of communism and respondents way of viewing ex-tapols and their family has not experienced any real change. In last year's survey, 77 per cent of respondents were of the view that communism is something bad.
The stigma which clings to ex-tapols and their families is difficult to get rid off if a fear and an excessively negative view, which can tend to become a social paranoia against communism, continues to survive and be maintained in society.
As a consequence, it has become difficult for ex-tapols and their family, even their grand-children and great grand-children to have a normal life as ordinary members of society and fully enjoy their rights, especially the right to participate in political life.
Certainly, there are some who are of the view that at the moment, that for the younger generation who did not directly experience the PKI rebellion in 1965, it will be easier to be more moderate in viewing the issue of the PKI and communism.
The younger generation therefore has more potential for participating in a process of reconciliation with the families and descendants of ex-tapols or people directly involved in the G30S/PKI affair.
However, what was actually found [in the survey] was different. The survey indicated that there was no meaningful difference in the way communism is viewed between respondents in the younger age group (17-34 years) and respondents aged above 55 years who were 17 years old at the time of the G30S/PKI affair.
Just looking at the results, no less than 27 per cent of respondents aged 17-24 years disagreed if ex-tapols are allowed to live normally in society. Meanwhile, among respondents aged above 55 years, only 19 per cent were found to reject the presence of ex-tapols in society.
Apparently, the fear of communism has succeeded in being inherited from one generation to next. Moreover, though the New Order government [of former President Suharto], this inheritance appears to still be maintained by jargon such as the latent danger of communism, the obligatory showing of the G30S/PKI film(3), and because the communist label was indiscriminately stuck on anything [or anyone] that was critical of the Suharto government at that time.
Perhaps, this has been the one and only success of the New Order which remains, its war on "-ismes". Suharto's success in the era of the New Order, is not easily to leave behind, even after the nation has entered the era of reformasi along with all of the euphoria of freedom. (BE Satrio Litbang Kompas)
Notes
1. G30S/PKI: Gerakan 30 September/Partai Komunis Indonesia, the September 30 Movement/Indonesian Communist Party. An acronym referring to the alleged coup attempt in 1965 which the New Order regime blamed on the PKI. G30S was a grouping of middle ranking officers lead by Lieutenant Colonel Untung, who kidnapped and killed six generals whom they accused of being members of a "Council of Generals" allegedly organising a coup against Indonesia's founding President Sukarno.
2. President B.J. Habibie was former President Suharto's hand- picked successor to replace him after he was forced to resign from office in 1998.
3. G30S/PKI film: In September 1998, the government dropped the requirement for all TV stations to broadcast the film "Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI" (The Betrayal of the September 30 Movement/PKI), a dramatization about the alleged communist coup. The film had been a compulsory program for all stations on September 30 since its release in 1984.
[Translated by James Balowski]
Jakarta Post - August 6, 2003
Agus Maryono, Cilacap -- Civil servants, including teachers here, say they have been forced to buy T-shirts bearing the picture of the local chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Fran Lukman.
Lukman chairs the Cilacap branch of President Megawati Soekarnoputri's PDI Perjuangan in Central Java, and is also the regency's legislative council speaker.
The order to buy the T-shirts was reportedly approved by the Cilacap education and culture office. The T-shirts which also carry the PDI Perjuangan's red symbol are sold for Rp 12,500 each.
"If we don't buy them we could be moved to other places or our promotions postponed. Our superiors who are PDI perjuangan members say subordinates must do whatever they say," Suyono, a 49-year old teacher, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The PDI Perjuangan dominated the 1999 elections in Cilacap, one of its strongholds in the province.
Earlier last week, elementary and junior high school students in Cilacap complained that they had been "asked" to buy exercise books bearing the pictures of President Megawati, her father and founding president Sukarno, Regent Probo Yulastoro and Fran Lukman.
The request, also issued by the local education office, has angered parents and school principals, as well as other residents. Many believe the exercise books are connected with next year's general elections.
Each student in the regency has been strongly urged to buy a pack of four exercise books for 5,000 (58 US cent). The covers of the exercise books are red -- the color of the PDI Perjuangan.
Currently, there are some 290,000 elementary and junior high school students in the regency, while the number of civil servants including teachers is around 16,000.
Other teachers who declined to be named said the PDI Perjuangan's T-shirts are sold through education offices in subdistricts. "If we refuse to buy one, we could be moved to a remote area. Who is not afraid of that threat? For our safety, I think we have to follow the order," a teacher said.
On Sunday, all village and subdistrict heads, as well as teachers and other civil servants in Jeruk subdistrict held a meeting with local PDI Perjuangan leaders to discuss the party's campaign to win the 2004 elections.
Those present at the meeting, including Cilacap Regent Probo, wore the party's red T-shirts. Probo is chairman of the PDI Perjuangan's so called Team of Success.
Spokesman for the Cilacap administration Slamet M.M. could not confirm reports that local civil servants, including teachers, had been asked to buy the T-shirts.
He denied that his office had enforced the policy, saying that civil servants should not affiliate themselves with certain political parties, which was the case during former president Soeharto's authoritarian rule.
Separately, the Golkar chairman of the Cilacap chapter, Indiatun Sukardi, lamented the attempt to use civil servants as political pawns. "After the New Order collapsed, there was a commitment to the ideal that civil servants should be [politically] neutral," he added.
He said such a political maneuver must end as it was undemocratic. "The regent should have thought about improving the welfare of civil servants instead of forcing them to support a certain political party," Sukardi said.
Straits Times - August 6, 2003
Jakarta -- A wealthy Indonesian businessman once implicated in a bank scandal that led to the downfall of former president B.J. Habibie jumped to his death from a hotel window yesterday.
Mr Marimutu Manimaren, 46, a commissioner of the troubled Indonesian conglomerate Texmaco, leapt from the 56th floor of Aston Hotel in downtown Jakarta, said police Major Kusdiantoro.
The death follows that of Hyundai executive Chung Mong Hun who was found dead on Monday morning after falling from his high-rise South Korean office building in an apparent suicide. Mr Chung, chairman of Hyundai Asan Corp, was under investigation for illicit payments of millions of dollars to communist North Korea.
Mr Manimaren was a former deputy treasurer of ex-dictator Suharto's Golkar party, Indonesia's second-largest political party.
The party's chairman, Mr Akbar Tanjung, told journalists that he regretted the death of Mr Manimaren. He said he had last met Mr Manimaren and his elder brother Marimutu Sinivasan, the Texmaco president, two weeks earlier when they told him "of the problems faced by their company".
Police said Mr Manimaren checked into Aston Hotel on Monday evening after leaving instructions with his driver, Udin, to pick him up at 7am yesterday.
The case has been classified a suicide because there was no sign of a struggle in his room, said Colonel Zainuri Lubis. But nothing has been ruled out yet.
South Jakarta's chief of detectives Commander Merdisyam said a thorough investigation into the businessman's death had been ordered. "There is the possibility that it was a suicide, but Manimaren was a business and political figure so we have to look into all possibilities," he said.
Texmaco is threatened with takeover by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency if it cannot repay the US$29-million letter of credit facility it drew from a state bank and 29 trillion rupiah it owes the government.
Mr Manimaren was one of several Golkar officials suspected of involvement in the 1999 "Baligate" scandal, in which the equivalent of US$80 million was illegally transferred from the insolvent Bank Bali to a company closely linked to Golkar. The funds were allegedly used to finance that year's unsuccessful election campaign by Mr Habibie, Suharto's hand-picked successor.
Police officers questioned Mr Manimaren over his alleged role in the scandal at the time, but did not charge him.
Associated Press - August 4, 2003
Jakarta -- As Indonesian authorities clamp down on pirated entertainment products, vendors' kiosks at a Jakarta shopping mall are forlornly empty. The sellers sit glum and idle.
"We sell only originals now," said Titi Badriah, pointing to DVDs selling for US$22 a piece. But minutes later, she was pushing a business card into the hands of a prospective customer, promising to deliver to his home pirated DVDs of "Matrix Reloaded" and "Finding Nemo" for US$3 each.
Indonesia, reportedly the third-largest market for pirated entertainment products after China and Vietnam, is under pressure to crack down on contraband. More than 80% of all CDs, VCDs, DVDs, computer software and videogame discs are illegal copies, industrial experts say.
A tough new law that took effect last week may improve Jakarta's standing with the US and other source countries of software and entertainment products. Governments from those countries have threatened harsh trade sanctions against Indonesia for tolerating continued violations of intellectual property rights.
A buyer of pirated computer software can be punished with up to five years in prison or a US$61,000 fine. But it's early days yet for the law, and vendors said they are skeptical whether it will be implemented aggressively.
"Whenever there is a demand, I am sure there will be sellers," Badriah said, adding that foreign visitors are some of her best buyers. "They buy dozens of disks. They go home carrying plastic bags packed with them."
In the past, Indonesian authorities have regularly raided vendors' stalls in Jakarta's commercial Glodok district.
But the notoriously corrupt police usually returned seized goods after "negotiations" and "settlement money" was paid, vendors said. The sellers would usually be back in their stalls and operating normally a week or two after the raids.
"It's a cat-and-mouse game," said Harris Simanjuntak, 27, as he sat next to his plywood stall displaying cheap VCDs and music CDs at a busy downtown open market.
The more expensive DVDs were stashed in instant noodle boxes a few meters away. "We have a guarantee from the police that they won't target poor people like us. They are going after the large producers and distributors," said Harris, who can earn US$80 on a good day -- far more than the average US$2 a day wage in Indonesia.
Police spokesman Prasetyo said police were aware that many unemployed people from the capital's poor areas earn a living from piracy. He said authorities feared that violent protests could erupt if they target small-time vendors.
"We don't want to risk riots," he said. "Besides it's more effective to cut the supply from the distributors." Simanjuntak said legal jobs are hard to find amid Indonesia's current economic doldrums. "Every job has its risks," Simanjuntak said. "I know it's illegal, but at least it is better than mugging people."
| Environment |
Green Left Weekly - August 6, 2003
Jakarta -- On July 28, the government of South Kalimantan (Borneo) and Indigenous Dayak commmunity leaders strongly denounced Placer Dome, a Vancouver- and Sydney-based mining company, for its plans for mining operations in one of the last protected tropical forests in Indonesia. Despite fierce local government and community opposition, the mining giant intends to exploit mineral deposits situated in a mountain area that has enjoyed protected forest status since 1928.
Placer Dome's operations are opposed by the South Kalimantan provincial government, which stands firm in its position against mining activities in the Meratus Mountain protected forest. Bachruddin Syarkawi, the leader of the provincial House of Representatives, has called on the national government to stop Placer Dome.
Placer Dome is seeking an exemption from Indonesian Forestry Law 41/ 1999, which bans open-cut mining in protected forest areas. In total, 136 mining companies have applied for permits from the government to mine 11.4 million hectares of protected forest areas throughout Indonesia. The national government was expected to make a decision on July 3, but so far has failed to do so. Throughout Indonesia, communities have held protests, and some 6000 citizens have sent postcards to the government supporting protected forest areas.
The Council of Dayak Meratus, representing 115 communities, issued a passionately worded letter of protest, signed on June 25, urging President Megawati Sukarnoputri to reject Placer Dome's plans because mining activities would threaten their water sources, their sacred sites and their livelihoods.
The mining industry has applied enormous pressure on Indonesia, which is desperate for international investment after a disastrous economic performance the past year. Mining companies, including Placer, have sought and received assistance from Canadian and Australian embassies in Jakarta on the matter of allowing mining in Indonesia's protected areas.
A coalition of organisations, including the Indonesian Mining Advocacy Network, the Australian Mineral Policy Institute, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and MiningWatch Canada has called on the Indonesian government to uphold its environmental protection laws.
| Aid & development |
Asia Times - August 6, 2003
Bill Guerin, Jakarta -- With Indonesia's power needs hovering on the critical, a mothballed specter from the unlamented Suharto past -- a 1,320-megawatt coal-fired plant in central Java -- is being resurrected along with more than two-score other Suharto- era plants that were halted when the aging dictator fell from power in 1998. This time, however, they are to be run more rationally.
The cash register in front of the ill-starred Tanjung Jati B plant, as it was known, was operated by Suharto's daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana. Toward the end of the Suharto era, it was hopeless to start a major project of any kind in Indonesia without taking as a partner one of Suharto's rapacious children. Siti's PT Impa Energy Co simply took a 20 percent stake in Tanjung Jati B, begun in 1997 by Hong Kong-based Hopewell Holdings, as a cost of doing business.
Tanjung Jati B was emblematic of the entire Suharto kleptocracy. From rice to cars to beer to hotels to highways to buses, there was little that escaped the eye of Siti and her siblings. PT Impa Energy's stake was to be covered by a purchase price of US$0.0645 per kilowatt-hour -- more than 50 percent higher than contracts are being negotiated today -- that Hopewell had "negotiated" with Indonesia's state electricity utility, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN).
Japan's giant trading house, Sumitomo, was the designated engineering and equipment contractor. The plant was originally planned to be finished in 2004 but was shelved when it was 70 percent completed after critics, including the World Bank, said power purchase prices were much too high.
Today, however, after decades of successful industrialization and development, Indonesia is power-starved. Home industries and small factories, even in the most isolated rural areas, depend on power as much as industry does. PLN's installed capacity is about 21,000MW nationwide, with some 18,000MW for the densely populated islands of Java and Bali. In practice, however, PLN can only provide 12,000-14,000MW in Bali and Java, where the peak load can reach 16,000MW.
Additional power demand until 2005 in Java alone is projected to be about 12,000MW. PLN calculates its minimum power reserve margin at 30 percent to avoid extended blackouts during peak demand periods, but transmission bottlenecks prevent it transmitting excess supply from East Java, where spare capacity is available, to West Java, where it is needed. Hence the resurrection not only of Tanjung Jati B, but a whole panoply of energy plants.
The decades of Indonesia's transition to a power-fed economy -- and the seeds of its current power shortage -- flowered in the early 1990s, when the Suharto regime had grown so corrupt that the national power monopoly was forced to sign power purchase agreements with independent power producers (IPPs) for 27 power plants, all with consortia of international energy companies whose enforced local partners were Suharto's family members and cronies.
PLN was virtually stony-broke after the financial meltdown in late 1997 and the ensuing nose-dive of the rupiah against the US dollar. Most of Indonesia's borrowing and its oil and gas and private power costs are in dollars, while its revenues are in rupiah. IPPs in effect owned and ran PLN's monopoly power-supply network. Today, many of the other resurrected projects are not due on-stream for another three or four years, although some are running and selling power to PLN. Most have chosen to sign new agreements rather than expose their previous contracts to public scrutiny.
PLN had little support from the three administrations that followed Suharto's 1998 downfall until finally President Megawati Sukarnoputri's coordinating minister for the economy, Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, took up the torch. (The power crisis forced itself into the public mind when a major blackout last September plunged most of Greater Jakarta into darkness for several hours after a rupture of transmission lines from a giant 3,400MW coal- fired complex in Suralaya, west of Jakarta; see Indonesia's power sector gropes in the dark, September 20, 2002.)
A ministerial team was set up, headed by Kuntjoro-Jakti, tasked with restructuring the power sector and renegotiating the private power contracts. The minister pushed for the resumption of work on 26 power plants, which need a total investment of some $12.5 billion. In July 1999 Jakarta approached Japan asking it to bail out the project and eventually, in December 2000, Sumitomo announced it was interested in more than just constructing Tanjung Jati B.
In June 2001 Hopewell's chairman, Gordon Wu, who himself was nearly driven bankrupt by the Asian financial meltdown, said he had reached a provisional agreement with Jakarta to sell his interest in Tanjung Jati B, and that Indonesia would seek a soft loan to finance the acquisition. Wu eventually declared force majeure, a legal stratagem intended to excuse him from liability on the ground that failure to perform could not be avoided by the exercise of due care. He abandoned what had become a white elephant that had cost him HK$4.8 billion (US$640 million). He sold out to Sumitomo early last year and pocketed a mere US$215 million after settling outstanding contractors' bills of $38 million. Suharto's daughter's company walked off with $53 million.
Sumitomo announced last week that it was about to resume building the $1.65 billion project. It will provide $550 million, with the rest funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and a consortium of Japanese financial institutions.
At the end of March Tokyo committed to a yen loan deal worth $616 million to be used to expand the capacity of the Muara Tawar and Muara Karang gas-fired power plants, just outside Jakarta. Indonesia's oldest ally and investor, Japan, will be the country's biggest creditor by far when Jakarta severs its link with the International Monetary Fund, which came in to attempt to rescue the economy in 1997 after the Asian financial meltdown. The many Japanese businesses operating in Indonesia, particularly in the manufacturing sector, are keen to see a secure and developed power infrastructure, especially in industrialized West Java.
Possibly out of fear of PLN default, JBIC asked the government to provide a guarantee. Jakarta will provide modest financial support -- $540 million by way of a liquidity facility covered by a sovereign guarantee. In the event of PLN's default the guarantee would kick in and it would take over the loan repayments, though PLN would be expected to repay the government.
PT Central Java Power (CJP) will manage the project along with PLN. The latter will rent the plant from CJP for power distribution to the public when it is finished in 2006. PLN will buy the power at a negotiated price of $0.04 per kilowatt-hour.
The project was also delayed when Kuntjoro-Jakti and his fellow ministers encountered major problems with Minister of Trade and Industry Rini Soewandi, who argued for months that a sovereign guarantee mandated counter-trade obligations. Kuntjoro-Jakti, Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro and PLN president director Eddie Widiono all disagreed, as did Sumitomo and CJP. In mid- April Soewandi suddenly threw in the towel and dropped her insistence on the need for counter-trade in that deal.
Two weeks later, however, while accompanying Megawati to Moscow on an official visit, Soewandi pulled off a major counter-trade deal for the purchase of Russian Sukhoi fighters and other hardware (see Arms deals buoy Russian-ASEAN trade, April 23). She is now being blamed by many legislators for neatly bypassing government procedures, though military chief General Endriartono Sutarto has told parliament it was his idea and not the minister's.
Kuntjoro-Jakti and his team have also helped PLN successfully negotiate new contracts with other private electricity suppliers covering periods of between 20 and 30 years and a total available capacity of 10,430MW. Widiono said last week that of the 26 independent power producers, 14, with combined generating capacity of 10,615MW, had agreed to continue their projects under a new tariff rate averaging $0.046 per kilowatt-hour. This compared with up to $0.084 previously and will save the utility at least $5.9 billion over the next 20-30 years.
Pertamina, the state-owned oil and gas giant, took over one project and the government and PLN each agreed to take over two others. Seven others agreed to terminate their purchase agreements and the government is offering them to new investors.
Though some $65 billion has been spent on bailing out the banking industry, the power sector had been all but neglected and left to fend for itself. This has now changed and the government is inking in a brand-new energy policy as a national priority.
The policy will redress earlier government failures to develop the potential of Indonesia's abundant reserves of natural gas. Last month PLN signed two deals that signal a move toward gas as the fuel of choice for firing power plants. It agreed to buy about 100 million cubic feet of gas per day from Amerada Hess for 21 years, starting in 2005, for $1.2 billion and 40 million to 60 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from Australian-based Santos Ltd for $250 million.
The gas in both deals comes from offshore blocks in East Java and will be used as an alternative source of energy to keep the lights burning at home.
| Islam/religion |
Straits Times - August 8, 2003
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- A survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre last December revealed some startling facts about Muslim attitudes in Indonesia towards terrorism. It suggested some 25 per cent of 220 million Indonesians felt terrorism was a legitimate weapon in defending Islam.
The United States war on extremism following the September 11, 2001 attacks was greeted with scepticism and hostility especially by fringe radical groups that appeared to set the tone of national debate.
What a difference 18 months has made. The bombings in Bali last year and the latest strike in Jakarta have turned the Muslim ground against extremism. The October 12 attack on the two nightclubs in the tourist island resort was criticised heavily. But even then, the criticism was diluted by conspiracy theories that the bombings were a US-led plot to drag Indonesia into its fight against global terrorism.
The Marriott bombing on Tuesday revealed little of such discourse. The moderate Muslim majority appeared to speak with one voice. "Kill them, kill them" shouted one Indonesian who lost her son, calling for the bombers to be punished. Another declared that "they have no heart".
And Indonesia's top Muslim groups were also swift to condemn Tuesday's attacks, suggesting that the battle for the hearts and minds of Indonesian Muslims has turned against the radicals.
The Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, which together comprise 60 million Muslims, issued a joint statement that underscored concerns that the attack had damaged the name of Islam and Indonesia. "The perpetrators have not become just the enemy of the security apparatus in Indonesia," NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi said. "They have become the enemy of all Indonesians because they have hurt our feelings."
Where questions were once being asked about the powers of security agencies to investigate radical groups, the Muhammadiyah is now urging them to step up intelligence action. A joint statement by him, and Muhammadiyah chief Syafii Ma'arif, noted: "A lot of the bombing incidents remain unsolved ... We demand that the government, particularly the police, improve their performance to counter terror."
Jakarta Post - August 7, 2003
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, the country's two largest Muslim organizations, led a chorus of condemnation against the bomb attack on JW Marriott Hotel and called on people to remain calm.
In their joint statement issued on Wednesday, the two groups that boast 75 million followers between them, asked people, including community leaders and observers, to refrain from speculating on what caused or who perpetrated the act of terror that claimed at least 14 lives, but to leave it to the police.
On behalf of their constituents, Hasyim Muzadi, who chairs NU, and Ahmad Syafii Maarif, who heads Muhammadiyah, said in their statement that speculation and conspiracy theories over the tragedy would only complicate the matter.
They called on people to remain calm and ignore provocation and speculation about the tragedy.
Both figures demanded the government "uncover the case and the terrorist network behind the incident immediately, professionally and transparently".
"The party behind the bombing is cruel, despicable and barbaric. I personally feel tired of this but we must not give up. Security officers must get tough with the perpetrators, regardless of their religion or ethnicity," Syafii said.
The series of bombings across the country this year revealed the government's weakness in investigating and preventing the crimes, they said.
"We demand that the government, particularly the police, improve their performance to counter terror acts. We demand the improvement not only in the investigation but also preemptive moves in a bid to prevent similar cases from occurring in the future," the joint statement read.
They admitted that the police should not be singled out in the case as the fight against terrorism was not only the duty of security officers but the whole nation. "We encourage the police to investigate the case and the government must fulfill their needs. But they must abandon political motives and work as professional officers," Syafii said.
The two leaders of moderate Muslim organizations also expressed condolences to the victims and their families over the tragedy. "The blast not only hurt the victims and their families, but the whole nation. The blast has not only done physical damage to the country, but has threatened Indonesia's interests in politics, economics and culture in both the regional and international communities," Hasyim told a joint press conference at Muhammadiyah headquarters in Central Jakarta.
Both Hasyim and Syafii agreed that the Marriott bombing had nothing to do with Islam. "The police must take the perpetrators to justice regardless of their religion. There is no other choice but to provide strong evidence," said Syafii.
Earlier, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) joined the condemnation against people behind the bombing and threw its weight behind the government's efforts to investigate the case. "The government should be open to the public about any developments in the investigation to avoid rumors among people," said Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, Komnas HAM chairman, in his statement.
A number of political parties, including the National Mandate Party and the Bull Nationalist Freedom Party (PNBK), also condemned the bombings, saying it was an affront to humanity.
| Armed forces/police |
Jakarta Post - August 7, 2003
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- The Indonesian Navy is currently questioning four Marine soldiers over their alleged involvement in the murders of a businessman and his Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) bodyguard last month.
The four soldiers are identified as Second Lt. SAS, Corporal SR, Corporal FH and First Pvt. SS from the Second Marine Brigade based in Cilandak, South Jakarta, the Navy spokesman, Commodore Adhyaman A. Saputra, said on Wednesday.
"Following the reports of the police and other sources, our internal affairs department have been questioning the four soldiers. They have been detained at the Navy's military police detention center, here [at the Navy headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta] since July 31," he said.
"The investigation is focusing on the murders of PT Asaba president director Boedyharto Angsono and his bodyguard [First. Sgt. Edy Siyet]," he added.
Adhyaman confirmed that the four soldiers had been moonlighting as private security guards for Gunawan Santoso, Boedyharto's former son-in-law. They are also believed to have been implicated in the murders. Gunawan has been hunted by the police since his escape from Kuningan Penitentiary in Cirebon, West Java, on January 15. Now, he is also wanted for questioning, as witnesses have claimed that he might be involved with Boedyharto's killing.
"The Navy leaders have ordered us to take stern sanctions against the four soldiers, if they are found guilty. The sanctions could include discharging them from the military," Adhyaman said. "They will probably be charged with committing premeditated murder. However, we must wait for further investigation," he said.
He also emphasized that "the Navy investigators have yet to declare the four soldiers suspects." The four soldiers could face a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment. They will be tried in a military court.
Boedyharto, 60, and Edy were gunned down by an unidentified man in the parking lot of Sasana Krida sport stadium in North Jakarta on July 20. They were about to play basketball when a man approached them and started to shoot at Edy before shooting Boedyharto. Boedyharto suffered six shots to the head and body while Edy was shot once in the head. Police found eight spent cartridge cases at the scene. Boedyharto's driver Darjan, who witnessed the shooting, survived the incident as he remained inside the bulletproof Mercedes-Benz S600 car.
The shooting took place only a month after Asaba's finance director Paulus Tejakusuma was shot in Jl. Angkasa, Kemayoran, Central Jakarta. He was severely injured and is reportedly undergoing medical treatment overseas.
Days after the murder, the National Military Police Commander Maj. Gen. Sulaiman A.B. formed an investigation team comprising of Jakarta Military Police officers and police personnel after learning that the killer used a military standard weapon, either a gun or a rifle, with caliber 9mm.
A source from Boedyharto's family said that the motive behind the murder could be linked to a family feud. However, Adhyaman said that so far, "the soldiers have yet to inform us who instructed the execution of the murders or what the motive behind them was."
ABC - August 3, 2003
When Indonesia's human rights court sits this week to close the book on 18 trials arising from the bloodshed that ravaged East Timor four-years-ago, one fact stands out -- most of the suspects have been acquitted.
That outcome has already been heavily criticised by international and local human rights groups.
Some analysts say what the acquittals have done is to help rehabilitate the military and make it unlikely they will significantly be held to account for abuses in other hot spots such as Aceh, where the army launched a offensive in May.
"They reflect very much not just the continuing, but probably the growing status of the TNI in the Indonesian political environment," Damien Kingsbury said, an expert on the military (TNI) at Australia's Deakin University, referring to the trials.
The military was probably stronger now relative to the government than at any time since the mid-1980s during the iron-fisted rule of ex-general Suharto, Mr Kingsbury said.
Indonesia promised an outraged world it would account for the carnage that accompanied East Timor's vote to break free from Jakarta's rule in August 1999, when militia gangs backed by elements in the Indonesian military went on a killing spree. The United Nations estimates that 1,000 people were killed.
On Tuesday, after more than a year of hearings, the human rights court will hand down its final verdict, on Major General Adam Damiri, the regional military commander at the time and the most senior general on trial for crimes against humanity.
There have been five convictions, including two military officers. All are appealing. The toughest sentence was 10 years, given to a civilian. Major General Damiri himself received a boost in June when the prosecution told the judges to declare him not guilty.
After Suharto's downfall in 1998, the military encountered unprecedented criticism over its role in his autocratic rule. However, under Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, with whom the generals have good ties, the military has tried to burnish its image. While the renewed war in Aceh is unpopular among Western governments, it has won overwhelming support at home.
Responding to critics of the trials, military spokesman Major General Sjafrie Sjamsuddin said "we did not have any chance to influence the process -- it was impossible for us to intervene".
Andi Samsan Nganro, a court spokesman, blamed a lack of evidence for the small number of convictions, adding some witnesses were afraid to come to Indonesia. "Most of the victim witnesses could not be present -- what we need is evidence that can uncover what happened," Mr Nganro said.
Indeed, there has been little suggestion that the military, which had 12 personnel on trial tried to influence the proceedings. Some say but that misses the point. The acquittals will only encourage the military to act with impunity in Aceh where another separatist struggle is taking place, a Western diplomat said.
A military court in Aceh has convicted nine soldiers for rape and other abuses during the offensive, but all are low ranking.
Nelson Belo, a Timorese rights activist, lost six friends during the post referendum violence in East Timor. He gave up hoping the Jakarta court would deliver justice long ago.
"An international tribunal needs to be set up in order to bring justice to the people of East Timor and for new crimes in Aceh and West Papua and other Indonesian provinces," Mr Belo said.
Getting an international tribunal to probe the East Timor violence would be a hard sell, but the diplomat added "I think the cynics say it's not going to happen, a lot of things were not supposed to happen, including a referendum".
| Military ties |
ASAP statement - August 6, 2003
[The following is a statement issued by Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific on August 6.]
Following a July 31 meeting in Jakarta between security and defence chiefs on both sides, the Australian government reiterated its support for closer military ties with the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), including the discredited Kopassus special forces.
Under the guise of "fighting terrorism", the Australian government is using the Bali bombing in October 2002 and the August 5 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in central Jakarta to develop closer ties with the TNI. Joint military exercises with the Indonesians, which also involved US forces, have taken place over the last few years, and the defence minister Senator Robert Hill is keen to arrange more.
Military ties were scaled back following the post-ballot carnage of TNI and its militia proxies in East Timor in 1999. US military ties were cut back, and restrictions placed on the sale of military hardware to Indonesia by the US, Britain and some European countries.
In Australia, low-level Indonesian officer training continued. The Bali bombing provided the pretext for Canberra to renew its push for greater military and police ties.
Senator Hill is on record promoting Australian military ties with Kopassus -- the special forces army unit responsible for atrocities throughout Indonesia, West Papua and Aceh. Hill tries to justify cosying up to Indonesia's state-sponsored killers by arguing that if Australia is to improve Indonesia's expertise in "fighting terrorism" it has to work with Kopassus, the unit responsible for "counter-terrorism".
The same line is being echoed in the US by the defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld. There, the Bush administration recently overruled Congress to release US$400,000 to the TNI held up after a preliminary US investigation pointed to Indonesian soldiers as the likely perpetrators of an ambush in Timika in West Papua last July 31 near the Louisiana-headquartered Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold mine. Indonesian police and NGO investigations have also implicated the TNI in the attack in which two Americans and one Indonesian were killed, and 11 were injured including a six-year old child.
Only one senior military figure -- Major-General Adam Damiri -- has been convicted for crimes against humanity in East Timor, following the ballot in 1999, and he is appealing his three-year jail term. (Of 18 senior Indonesian military and police officers brought to trial in the ad hoc Human Rights Court, 12 were acquitted. The six found guilty were given light sentences.)
The Indonesian military is using US- and UK-supplied weapons -- Bronco "counter-insurgency" aircraft, Hercules transport planes, Hawke jet fighters and Scorpion tanks -- in its attack on the peoples of Aceh and West Papua, despite agreements not to use them in internal matters.
Given this and the fact that an Indonesian Defence White Paper, published this year, argues that Indonesia faces no external threat, it can be fairly assumed that any military assistance from the West will ultimately be used against Indonesians themselves.
The TNI is trying to regain its position in politics following the post-Suharto reformasi period. Establishing closer military ties with the TNI means giving political support to its oppressive practices.
Gareth Evans, a former Labor Party foreign minister, and now president of the conservative think-tank, the International Crisis Group, went on record last year saying: "I am one of those who has to acknowledge, as Australia's foreign minister at the time, that many of our earlier training efforts helped only to produce more professional human rights abusers".
This is still the case, as the bloody war on the Acehnese and the West Papuans reveal. Canberra must end its "special relationship" with the Indonesian elite. Ending all military ties would send a clear message that Australia does not support this militaristic policy which is unlikely to solve the complex range of issues currently facing the peoples of Indonesia.
Sydney Morning Herald Editorial - August 4, 2003
When Paul Keating was prime minister, Australia and Indonesia signed an "agreement on maintaining security", a pact strong on symbolism but light on substance. Australia also went out of its way to court the Indonesian Army's notorious Kopassus special forces unit, acting on the premise that Kopassus provided a disproportionate number of Indonesia's leading generals and that, under President Soeharto, generals had a disproportionate influence in Indonesian society. As it happened, the agreement on maintaining security lasted less than four years; Jakarta, stung by Australia's military intervention in East Timor, abrogated the agreement in 1999. But joint exercises with Kopassus, on hold since Timor, look set to resume. That will trouble many Australians, even if the focus is on counter-terrorism. But it is not the only cause for concern.
Old soldiers never die. Nor, in Indonesia, do they simply fade away. Today, many of the officers prominent in Kopassus when Mr Keating was supping with Soeharto have reappeared in civilian guise -- not unlike those Communist Party apparatchiks in Russia and Eastern Europe who, having made life hell for the democracy movement, went on to reinvent themselves as democrats as soon as they sniffed the winds of political change.
Some retired generals are making their presence felt in Golkar, the political grouping that was used by Soeharto to give his army-backed regime a semblance of legitimacy. Golkar is today the second strongest political force in Indonesia, after the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) of President Megawati Soekarnoputri. A Golkar candidate could, at a pinch, wrest the presidency from Megawati next year, or become her vice-president.
Nine men, including three retired generals, have registered as presidential contenders under the Golkar banner. One is Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto, a former Kopassus commander (and former son-in-law of Soeharto), who was cashiered after he admitted kidnapping nine political activists. Another is Lieutenant-General Agum Gumelar, who also led Kopassus during its high summer of repression. The third is General Wiranto, who, while not a Kopassus man, led the army at the time of the killing and arson in East Timor.
Three other retired generals, all with Kopassus backgrounds, have links to Megawati and her party, although none is standing for president. One, Lieutenant-General Theo Syafei, is a key presidential adviser currently defending himself against vote- buying charges. Another is the national intelligence chief, Lieutenant General A.M. Hendropriyono, who, in 1989, earned the epithet "the butcher of Lampung" when troops slaughtered at least 100 Muslim villagers in southern Sumatra. Yet another is the Governor of Jakarta, General Sutiyoso. In the clandestine Kopassus war against Portuguese East Timor, he became the first Indonesian to seize a town outside his nation's boundaries.
Much has changed in Indonesia since Paul Keating went out of his way to get close to Soeharto. Much remains unchanged. That so many army officers are continuing to thrive in what is supposed to be a new and democratic Indonesia is dismaying. Australia will have to get used to it as just one of many unusual developments in its large and still restive neighbour.
| Economy & investment |
Straits Times - August 9, 2003
Bryan Lee -- The bomb blast in Jakarta earlier this week may have left several dead and many injured, but investor sentiment in Indonesia seems to have been largely unscathed.
Fund managers cited a host of reasons that work in favour of the Indonesian market. Among them: A huge market, a country with vast resources and cheap stock valuations.
They were also quick to point out that the benchmark Jakarta Composite Index, which had slipped 3 per cent to 489 points on the day of the bombing, has since more than made up for the dip by rising 3.4 per cent to 505 points.
As for the fallout of the bomb blast itself, fund managers said that they had come to accept that such risks were part and parcel of investing in Indonesia.
Said Mr Tan Aik Chye, a fund manager with AIB Govett: "I didn't flinch compared with the Bali bombing ... We've been conditioned to this sort of risk already ... It's nothing out of the ordinary." Mr Tan, who has holdings in Indonesia's telecommunications, tobacco and banking sectors, said that unlike the Bali blasts which killed more than 200 people, Jakarta was less of a shock.
APS Asset Management portfolio manager Ho Kok Hua agreed: "People were less alarmed this time around as it is not the first time -- unlike when it happened in Bali." He added that by and large, investors in Indonesia had come to accept that terrorism would be a consistent threat for some time to come.
Indeed, fund managers told The Straits Times that since the Bali incident, investors had already incorporated higher risk premiums when evaluating their Indonesian ventures. Explained Aberdeen Asset Management's Mr Chris Wong: "You just have to factor in this worst-case scenario, which is not unexpected and is very much a possibility."
The Bali disaster also taught investors a few lessons. Said APS' Mr Ho: "Just looking back at the Bali blast, that did not have any long-lasting effects. Those who had panicked and sold their stock eventually lost out." This time around, investors had become wiser, he said.
Ultimately, fund managers are finding the buoyant long-term prospects of the Indonesian market too hard to resist. Aberdeen's Mr Wong said: "You've got to take a long-term view of Indonesia. The macroeconomy indicates that interim setbacks will not deter from the bigger story, which is a very big market with lots of resources." Mr Ho added: "The valuation of Indonesian stocks is still very cheap at the moment, even after adding in risk premiums." Also, with signs of a global economic recovery becoming more real, investors were becoming more willing to put up with more risks in view of the greater upside, AIB's Mr Tan said.
And the greatest of these risks may not necessarily be in the form of terrorism. APS' Mr Ho said: "I'm more put off by corporate-governance problems in Indonesia than the terrorism threat." Corporate governance refers to issues relating to shareholder rights and management transparency.
Jakarta Post - August 8, 2003
Ari A. Perdana, Jakarta -- The wounds have yet to heal. The pain caused by several bombing incidents in the last few years had yet to become relief while yet another explosion hit the country. The issue here is not about where it happened -- it was in one of Jakarta's business districts.
It is not about the target -- JW Mariott is part of a US-based hotel syndicate. The issue is the economy! For Indonesia, a country still crawling toward the exit from the crisis, any small social-political-security disturbance would create havoc. And it is we, whether the rich, and especially the poor, who suffer in the end.
So far this year, the economy has shown few improvements. The exchange rate of the rupiah has been relatively stable, stock market sentiment has improved and inflation has been under control. All of these create room for a fall in interest rates.
In the real sector, the gross domestic product (GDP) recorded a growth of 3.4 percent in the first quarter of the year -- good enough, considering last year's Bali blasts, the SARS epidemic and this year's war in Iraq. Moreover, gross domestic fixed capital formation and exports of goods and services have also grown since the second half of 2002, after a few years of negative growth. During the first half of 2003, exports increased by 10.53 percent compared with last year, although the growth was mainly fueled by the oil and gas, rather than the non-oil sector.
Another positive development is the increasing approval of foreign direct investment (FDI). The Investment Coordination Board (BKPM) recorded a 43 percent increase in FDI approved during the first half of this year. On the other hand, domestic investment approvals declined by 35 percent, but such a decline may be due to many conversions of domestic investment projects into FDI.
In general, the country is still suffering a net private capital outflow. But the net outflow had declined to below US$2 billion by the end of 2002. In 2001, net outflow was still more than $8 billion. At the peak of the crisis in 1998, it was more than $13 billion.
However, the achievements, expressed as statistics, are only part of the story. The economy still faces a number of problems. Production activity has not yet fully recovered. The agriculture and manufacturing sectors, the two largest contributors to GDP, only grew at 3.2 percent and 1.7 percent in the first quarter of the year. Some non-oil commodities are still showing negative growth. The situation in the real sector cannot be detached from that in the banking sector, which has yet to be fully restored to its intermediary function.
In addition, problems related to security, institutional reform, legal and political uncertainty are also factors that hamper recovery of the business climate.
A series of bombing incidents in Jakarta, including the latest at JW Marriott Hotel, will of course add to the negative factors impeding an economic recovery. It is not impossible that the incident will wipe out the small economic achievements. We may have to wait for about two to three months before the real impacts are felt. But at least we can draw part of the big picture by comparing the recent incident with last year's Bali blast.
On the day of the Marriott explosion, rupiah trading closed at the rate of 8,600, from 8,845 per US dollar the day before. Meanwhile, the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) Composite Index recorded a 15.4-point decline to 488.5 at stock market closing time. The impact was somehow smaller than that of the Bali blasts of October 12 last year.
On the first working day after the Bali blasts, the rupiah dropped by 340 points (October 14, 2002), closing at Rp 9,500. The JSX index also dropped by 39 points to 337.5. As of March 2003, the exchange rate was still hovering within the 8,800 to 9,200 range, and the JSX index at 380 to 420. Only since the second quarter has the rupiah strengthened to Rp 8,100 to 8,200, and the average JSX index crawled toward the 500 level.
After the Bali blasts, GDP in the fourth quarter of 2002 declined by 2.61 percent from the previous quarter. Tourism, accounting for 3 percent to 4 percent of GDP, was down by 0.91 percent.
Exports also dropped significantly by 23.01 percent from October to November 2002. But the impact of the Bali blasts did not last too long. From the fourth quarter of 2002 to the first of 2003, GDP had already grown by 2.04 percent, while tourism grew by 0.47 percent. Exports, too, returned to grow at 10.67 percent in December.
The above data illustrates that the economy was able to survive the prolonged, negative impact of the Bali blasts. Among the reasons behind it have been the central bank's ability to control the money supply, and the stimulus injected by the government through the state budget. However, there are several things to note before we become too complacent about the strength of the economy.
First, the government is unlikely to be able to provide another fiscal stimulus. Before the JW Marriott blast, finance minister Boediono had indicated that next year's budget would have a much smaller stimulus. The government targeted next year's budget deficit at 1 percent of GDP, and smaller loans from the Consultative Group on Indonesia. Hence, it would have to tighten its belt.
Meanwhile, the second semester 2003 budget position has yet to be secured. Revenue collected from the privatization of state-owned enterprises and asset sales by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) is still below target. At the same time, the government must spend more, including on the military operation in Aceh.
Second, the central bank may face a dilemma in implementing its monetary policy. On the one hand, the policy cannot be tightened further, as that would harm the real sector. On the other, a loosening of monetary policy would risk higher inflation and currency depreciation. Under current circumstances, people may not prefer to hold rupiah, which makes a further decline in interest rates dangerous for the currency.
Third, post-bombing market sentiment is also uncertain. Despite excellent work by the police following the Bali blasts, bombs still exploded in vital locations such as the Soekarno-Hatta Airport, a UN office and the legislature. The mood of investors will not be the same as last year, making it more difficult to return confidence to the country's business climate.
There are still many issues outstanding, apart from the three mentioned above. These are mainly unsolved problems such as law enforcement, corruption, political wrangling and so forth, which only increases the difficulty of dealing with the bombing problem. Without first dealing properly with these chronic issues, we simply leave our wounds exposed.
[Ari A. Perdana is from the Economist Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jakarta.]
Asia Times - August 8, 2003
Bill Guerin, Jakarta -- Indonesia is bracing itself for more hardship following Tuesday's Jakarta hotel bomb attack. As well as the death toll of at least 14 Indonesians and one foreigner, there may be serious consequences for an economy that had been on the mend.
The second major terrorist strike in the space of 12 months is a serious blow to President Megawati Sukarnoputri's administration after it appeared that she was slowly but surely gaining control of the country and reviving the economy.
Analysts have warned that the fate of the economy now depends greatly on the government's will to crack down even more on terrorism. This will affect the perception of risk and without it the confidence of investors in an economy, which had just started to recover from the Bali attacks, will remain shattered. And, as in Bali, the bombing will hit Indonesians much harder than foreigners despite the fact that foreigners were the focus of the attack.
There had been a growing sense of optimism over the past 12 months. Some of the militant groups seemed to be on the run and the Bali trials were up and running. Amrozi, the "smiling bomber" has just been sentenced to death for his part in Indonesia's last major terrorist strike, the October 12, 2002, bombing of two crowded Bali nightspots, which killed 202 people.
The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pandemic and the Iraq war came and went, leaving Indonesia relatively unscathed. As the world economy, slowed Indonesia's own year-on-year growth of 3.4 percent in the first quarter of this year encouraged the government to restart large infrastructure projects that had been mothballed.
The rupiah had been slowly appreciating during the past year or so. Following several months of stability near Rp 10,500 per US dollar around the end of 2001, it appreciated quite steadily, interrupted only by the Bali bombings last October, to approach Rp8,000 per US dollar by late May.
Tuesday's carnage is a major setback and certain to put the issue of law and order back into the news again. The ease with which the attack on the JW Marriott Hotel occurred despite supposedly heightened security in the capital may result in Jakarta being a "no go" area for many Westerners, at least in the short term. There are concerns about confidence in the ailing economy as nervous investors might shelve investment plans and the local corporate sector could find problems in raising cash overseas.
Tourism is the cause for most concern as tourism receipts are certain to plunge. While Jakarta has never been a must-see destination, the combination of the current bomb blast with the Bali blast a year ago is certain to reinforce tourist perceptions that Indonesia is a dangerous destination. Tourism is Indonesia's biggest hard-income earner, sustaining some 8 million people. In 2002, tourism brought in $4.3 billion in foreign exchange, 20 percent less than the preceding year. If tourism is badly hit the malaise will spread to other related sectors and affect the jobless total. An estimated 40 million are still unemployed.
Offices, other hotels, especially international hotels and offices, now have virtual rings of security around them. Australian resource companies surveyed at the Kalgoorlie Diggers and Dealers conference held in the Western Australian gold mining town of Kalgoorlie Wednesday said that they see no need to beef up security at their Indonesian operations but they would stop all non-essential travel through Jakarta.
The macroeconomic consequences of Tuesday's blast are predicted to be substantial though the short-term response from the financial markets appears to be one of "wait and see". Dradjad Wibowo, an economist with the Institute for the Development of Economics and Finance (Indef), warned that the central bank should closely guard the movement of the rupiah to avoid further panic selling or speculation.
Containing the rupiah within a relatively stable band, he said, would also serve as a benchmark for the country's macroeconomic indicators.
Stocks and currency rose Wednesday as investors saw buying opportunities. Some fund managers were even discounting the latest terror threat, mindful of the fact that immediately after the Bali bombing, Indonesian blue chips were a great buy.
The Jakarta Composite Index rose 1.2 percent after falling to an 11-week low Tuesday after the blast. It had risen more than 47 percent since the Bali bombing and soared 21 percent this year alone, making it Asia's fourth-best-performing stock-market index in dollar terms.
Dealers warn that although shares ended higher Wednesday as bargain hunters, mostly locals, bought blue chips that were hit badly Tuesday, overall sentiment remains wary. Many investors are watching for what the government might do to uncover those behind the bombing.
This is the same point made by local analysts. Pande Raja Silalahi, a leading economist the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), believes the crucial task now is for the government to show that it is in earnest in fighting terrorism and not merely talking about it.
Following the Bali carnage last year, Jakarta delivered up Rp10 trillion ($1.22 billion) in a stimulus package designed to cushion the economic impact. Minister of Finance Boediono said on Wednesday that the government would introduce a similar stimulus package to help revive investments after the latest terror attack, which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said was a "terrible tragedy" to the economy, The agency has full confidence in the government's ability to restore economic stability, according to Daniel Citrin, a senior IMF advisor. "I'm sure the government will do whatever it needs to do to stabilize the situation, and to maintain its economic program on course," Citrin said in Jakarta.
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, who said he was confident that economic recovery would remain on track, struck a similar note of optimism. "The recovery after the Bali bomb was faster than expected, showing our economy's resilience," he said.
Long-term damage to the economy was discounted by Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo. Urging Singaporeans to continue investing in Indonesia, he said the latest terror attack would dampen business confidence in Singapore and Asia in the short-term, but it should not affect longer-term economic recovery.
The fallout from the bombing will have an impact on trade, though not all of it negative. A sustained depreciation of the rupiah would increase the cost of imports but would drive up the cost of debt denominated in foreign currencies. Conversely, exports would be boosted as they become more competitive.
The general consensus is that it's all down to the government now. Actions taken in the next few weeks will determine whether or not any remaining confidence foreign investors still had in the country will return.
Radio Australia - August 6, 2003
There seems to be little doubt that the Marriott hotel was targeted because it is US-owned and frequented by foreigners. Jakarta's American expatriates held their July-4th celebrations at the hotel, and it was a popular lunch spot for western businessmen. But will those same businessmen now reassess their commitment to Indonesia?
Presenter/Interviewer: Deborah Steele
Speakers: Mardesiana, an equities analyst at Kim Eng Securities in Jakarta; James Castle, chairman of the economic and business intelligence firm, the Castle group; Rizal Ramli, leading Indonesian economist and former co-ordinating minister for finance; H.S. Dillon, economist, advisor and Executive Director of The Partnership for Good Corporate Governance; Simon Flint, a senior currency strategist at Bank of America
Steele: Doing business in Indonesia has never been easy ... but the end of the Suharto era has not brought the windfall some foreign investors had hoped. Political uncertainty, decentralisation, corruption, a confused regulatory environment and a volatile economy have all presented their challenges. But now it seems lives are at stake...
Mardesiana is an equities analyst at Kim Eng Securities in Jakarta. She says concerns about security have been heightened by the fact that the bombers were able to carry out their mission while Jakarta was on the highest possible level of alert. She says it's vital that arrests are made quickly.
Mardesiana: I believe people will see how the police handle the blast. If everything taken care of it's like what they did on the Bali bombing, people start to have confidence, I believe the people have more confidence again.
Steele: James Castle is chairman of the economic and business intelligence firm, the Castle group. He's also American. He says the economic impact of the bombing will be significant.
Castle: The first half of the year the financial markets had been moving very well. They started to slow down recently just because they were over-bought, but I would expect that to slow further in the weeks ahead, and probably start to stabilise again towards the end of the year. Hotel occupancy in Jakarta had started to go back up and it was above 70 per cent, some of the better hotels for the first time since the Bali bombing, and I expect that to be harmed somewhat. So it definitely will be an economic blow to the country, but I think it will be short term.
Steele: Leading Indonesian economist Rizal Ramli was co- ordinating minister for finance under Abdurrahman Wahid. He says the bombing threatens to exacerbate falls in foreign investment in Indonesia.
Ramli: This bomb in Marriott will have significant effects in terms of further contractions in the investment and other sectors of the economy. If the government has pro-active program to attract foreign investment, including law enforcement and streamlining and deregulation, then the effects of the bomb might be less. But the way this government is doing [it] has not been very effective, so I'm afraid because the government are unable to do something of significance, the effects of this bomb is going to be widely felt.
Steele: Prominent economist and advisor H.S Dillon is more optimistic about the government's capacity to entice foreign investors to stay in Indonesia.
Mr Dillon -- who's currently the Executive Director of the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia -- says any impact will be temporary because the macro-economic fundamentals are pretty good. But he notes that most would-be investors have a wait-and-see attitude any way ... due to presidential elections scheduled for next May.
Dillon: What is happening is only those companies who are here are coming up with the investment that is required actually to maintain their production level. But ... investments everybody has been holding until after the election, because there is so much uncertainty anyway and I think when we are going to see that the government is going to respond and demonstrate that it is firmly in control. I think it's very important for the government to demonstrate that they know what they are doing without over- reacting in terms of human rights. But if they demonstrate that they are in control, that would actually enhance confidence in the current administration.
Steele: Simon Flint, a senior currency strategist at Bank of America -- says the impact of the Marriott bomb blast will be significant as far as foreign direct investors are concerned. But he says in a city where there have been several other bomb blasts this year -- including at the parliament building, the police headquarters and the airport -- there could well be a level of acceptance about the increased risks involved in doing business in Jakarta.
Flint: I think though to some extent people get habituated to a certain level of risk, and so it doesn't mean necessarily that they become more and more nervous. Maybe people just tighten up their security arrangements and accept it as a certain risk of doing business in a relatively high-risk area.