News & issues

Golf workers demand wage increase

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2006

Dozens of employees of Klub Golf Senayan in Central Jakarta demonstrate on Tuesday outside the management's office.

The gardeners, housekeepers, waitresses and security guards demanded a transportation and a meals allowance on top of their basic salary.

The workers' monthly pay, across the board, is Rp 820,000 (US$89), their spokesman, Agus Woro, said. The provincial minimum wage is Rp 812,000.

They were paid just Rp 720,000 before a letter was sent to the management last month, he said. "How can we support our families on that meager wage. It's just not enough," he said.

The workers threatened strike action. Four of them were invited into the office to discuss the problem. They reported that the company had asked for a month to consider the demand. Besides a wage increase, the protesters also want to be put on contracts.

None of the executives at the golf club, which is run by PT Sinar Kemala, were willing to speak to reporters.

Protesters meet Indonesian ambassador

Melbourne Age - March 6, 2006

Indonesia's Ambassador to Australia faced protests from Papuan and refugee activists on a visit to Brisbane.

A group of about 20 refugee and Papuan independence activists were held back by state and federal police at a function for the ambassador at the University of Queensland.

The function, closed to the public and media, was the second attended by Teuku Mohammad Hamzah Thayeb in Brisbane, in his first official state visit since becoming ambassador to Australia last December.

Protesters, some waving the banned Papuan Morning Star flag, called for a group of 43 Papuan asylum seekers to be granted protection and freed.

The group, including seven children, claimed asylum in January after landing their rickety boat on a Cape York beach in far north Queensland.

They are currently on Christmas Island where claims their lives are in danger due to their fight for Papuan independence are being assessed.

The Indonesian government disputes their claims and has guaranteed their safety if they return home.

But Refugee Action Collective spokesman Ian Rintoul said the Australian government should support the group and Papua's right to self-determination.

"We are calling for freedom for West Papua and the immediate release of the West Papuan asylum seekers from Christmas Island and for them to be granted permanent protection visas," Mr Rintoul said.

Earlier, Mr Thayeb said he did not understand why the group had sought asylum in the first place.

"They are not on Indonesia's wanted list, so they have no reason whatsoever to seek asylum," he said. "We would like to see them back in the villages and reunited with their families."

Describing Papua's fight for independence as a "dream of the past", Mr Thayeb said Indonesia was changing and was now a democratic place.

"What they claim is that they are being persecuted, even genocide, they even mention that word," he said. "I mean genocide in the 21st century – I don't think that is now the way of doing things. Nor are they being persecuted."

Mr Thayeb, who has previously said relations between the two countries could be affected if asylum is granted, steered away from the issue. "They are still in the process of being interrogated by you on Christmas Island, so I don't want to venture into that until we know what is the final decision," he said.

Watch out! The PKI could rise again

Detik.com - March 7, 2006

M. Rizal Maslan, Jakarta – Jakarta military commander Major General Agustadi Sasongko Purnomo is asking the public to be on guard against the reemergence of the communist movement. This can be seen from their activities that have become increasingly noticeable of late.

Purnomo cited activities such as the cultural exhibition at the Taman Ismail Marzuki Arts Center that was held by victims of the stigma against the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) on February 22 and the intellectual dissection of a historical book on the PKI affiliated Indonesian Peasants Front (BTI) and essays on the PKI by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, which he considers to be a form of consolidation by the party symbolised by a hammer and sickle.

This consolidation by the PKI said Purnomo, is in the framework of building a force to rehabilitate the reputation of the PKI as preparation for the 2009 general elections. Their target being for the PKI to reenter into the chessboard of Indonesian politics.

"If asked how strong is this reemergence, that can't be answered because it is unaccountable and cannot be measured, because its target is people. Communism is an ideology who's target is people", he said prior to opening the 2006 Jakarta Military Command Leadership Meeting at the Jakarta military headquarters on Jl. Mayjen Sutoyo on Tuesday March 7.

It is because of this that he is appealing to all parties to be on guard against the possibility of the reemergence of communism that is growing in the intensity of its activities – both openly or secretly.

In addition to cultural exhibitions and the intellectual dissection of books, other indications of the PKI's reemergence can also be seen from the many demonstrations being held by workers, farmers and student activists from left groups that in essence are calling for the repeal MPRS Decree 25/1966(1) on the dissolution of the PKI, the reactivation of communist organisations and dismantling of the territorial military commands.

"It's things like this that we must be suspicious of and be concerned about where they are heading", said Purnomo. Nevertheless, he believes that to date they still regard the demonstrations are being conducive and aimed at expressing a viewpoint. The public however, must still keep on guard.

Jakarta military command intelligence therefore is continuing to conduct surveillance on the activities of leftist groups. However the TNI (Indonesian military) no longer has the authority to act against them."But this is a part of the having authority over the nation's welfare, the TNI only provides backup data", he said. (umi)

Notes:

1. Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) Decree Number XXV/1966 on the Dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist and Communist Teachings.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Cool! Tommy got to spent 13 days in Jakarta last month

Detik.com - March 6, 2006

Triono Wahyu Sudibyo, Semarang – Among the convicts interned at the Nusakambangan Correctional Institution, it's likely that Hutomo Mandala Putra alias 'Tommy' Suharto is the most fortunate. Sentenced to 15 years jail, every year he consistently gets extraordinarily large remissions. But most surprising is that Tommy gets permission to leave the jail every month. Cool!

Data on Tommy in the records of the central government district office of the Department of Justice and Human Rights is indeed an eye-opener. Just imagine, in February alone, Tommy obtained permission to leave Nusakambangan Jail for a total of 13 days in order for him to be treated at the Gatot Subroto general hospital in Jakarta.

"Over one month, Tommy obtained permission [to leave] as many as three times", said the head of the East Java justice department's public relations division Bambang Winahyo W. when speaking with Detik.com at his office on Jl. Dr. Cipto in Semarang on Monday March 6.

In the records for February that Bambang showed Detik.com, Tommy obtain permission to go to Jakarta between February 8-13 and February 17-22. Earlier Tommy had also been given permission to leave between January 25-30. In total, Tommy has been able to enjoy freedom for 13 days in a period of one month.

Permission for Tommy to go to Jakarta in March is already in the system. According to the records Tommy already has already been given such permission for March 1-6. So as of today, Tommy is of course still in Jakarta and yet to return to "Hotel Prodeo".

Tommy has also submitted requests for leave between March 10-13 and March 13-15. If all of these requests are granted, for the month of March Tommy will spend 12 days in Jakarta.

Bambang said that whether or not such a request is granted is very much dependent on the request of a lawyer based on the recommendation of a team of doctors. In Tommy's case there are two teams of doctors who give such recommendations – a team of doctors at the hospital and a second at the prison.

A request is first submitted to the prison then reported on and confirmed by the Socialisation Monitoring Team. After this it is sent to the department of justice regional offices where the monitoring team also studies the request and decides whether or not to grant permission.

"As long as there is a recommendation from the medical team, the Department of Justice and Human Rights will give its consent for however much time will be needed. If [they] request a month, but on the recommendation of a team of doctors, yeah, we still grant it", he said. (asy)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Thousands of Muslims hold anti-US protests

Agence France Presse - March 5, 2006

Jakarta – Thousands of Muslims took to the streets of the Indonesian capital and marched towards the US embassy, denouncing Washington as the enemy of Islam and calling on Jakarta to embrace Sharia law.

More than 6,000 members of the hard-line Hizbut Tahrir rallied to the central Monas square, opposite the US embassy to protest alleged injustices against their religion across the world, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"US: enemy of the world," stated one of the many anti-US placards carried by the protestors, including veiled women and their children. "Down, Down (with) the USA. Rise, Rise (with) the Caliphate" said others. "US, get out of Iraq," yelled a speaker near the embassy compound. Out front two water cannons were deployed.

Lingering resentment against controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, oil politics and the treatment of Muslims held by US forces helped fuel the protests which were called by Hizbut Tahrir to mark the anniversary of the fall of the last caliphate.

Speakers, peppered speeches with shouts of Allahu Akbar (Allah is the Greatest), calling on Muslims of the world to unite and the Indonesian government to shed secularism and embrace Islamic sharia law.

Hizbut Tahrir insists sharia and an Islamic caliphate are answers to the problems afflicting the Islamic world, including in Indonesia, and the divisions splintering it with the West.

The last caliphate, an urbane scholar named Abdulmecid Efendi was ousted in 1924 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey. Caliphs are recognised as direct successors of the prophet Mohammad and messengers of god, while a calphate is a caliph who rules a country directly.

Although noisy, the rally proceeded orderly, and protesters left the embassy after four hours, marching to a nearby parking lot where scores of buses then transported them home.

Similar rallies by Hizbut Tahrir members were reported in the Indonesian cities of Surabaya in East Java, Solo, Yogyakarta and Semarang in Central Java, Medan in North Sumatra and in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

In Surabaya, protestors numbered around 6,000 and gathered at Taman Bungkul, a downtown open field. the ElShinta radio reported. In the other cities, their number ranged between 100 and 2,000, it said.

Exxon to face suit by villagers over abuse claims

Bloomberg News - March 3, 2006

Washington – Mobil Corp., the world's biggest oil company, must face a lawsuit by villagers in Indonesia who say the company contributed to human-rights abuses by government security forces.

US Judge Louis Oberdorfer in Washington denied a motion by Irving, Texas-based Exxon to dismiss the suit on sovereignty grounds, saying that US law trumps Indonesia's in deciding which court system should hear the case.

The villagers sued in 2001, claiming Indonesia security forces working for Exxon committed murder, torture and rape in Aceh province, where the company operates a government-owned oil and natural gas field and a pipeline.

The US State Department urged the judge to dismiss the suit in 2002, saying it would violate Indonesia's sovereignty and harm the war on terror.

"The US has an overriding interest in applying its own laws to defendants, all of whom are US companies," Oberdorfer said in his order. "Moreover, US law provides for punitive damages, which are particularly appropriate to apply if the question is whether to sanction US companies."

Indonesia law does not authorize punitive damages. Company spokeswoman Susan Reeves declined to make an immediate comment. Oberdorfer ruled in October that the suit by the villagers could proceed on state law claims, dismissing claims under the federal Alien Tort Claims and Torture Victim Protection acts.

Exxon argued that the case should be dismissed under the constitutional principle that foreign affairs shouldn't be addressed by the courts. It said its conduct in Indonesia was ethical and in compliance with the Southeast Asian nation's laws.

Shares of Exxon, which agreed in September to develop Indonesia's US$2.6 billion Cepu oil field, rose 51 cents to $60.85 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have risen 8.3 percent since the start of the year.

Bali tourism still stagnant five months after blasts

Jakarta Post - March 4, 2006

Luh Putu Trisna Wahyuni, Denpasar – Balinese involved in the tourist industry are increasingly worried about the imminent threat of massive layoffs due to the drastic drop in tourist arrivals on the island.

Four months after Bali was rocked by suicide bombings on Oct. 1, 2005, the tourist industry has yet to bounce back.

An average of 2,000 foreign and domestic tourists have arrived on Bali daily over the past two months, a far cry from normal times when there is an average of 4,000 tourist arrivals daily.

As a result, the hotel occupancy rate in Bali has dropped to as low as 30 percent. A number of hotels cannot even reach breakeven, let alone gain profits, thus jeopardizing the jobs of thousands of workers.

A number of cafes and restaurants in the Nusa Dua area have closed recently due to sluggish business.

A former employee of Bale Banjar restaurant in Nusa Dua, Ngurah Pinda, who had lost his job when the restaurant closed, said that he was resigned to his fate.

"We couldn't do anything because the cafe could only earn Rp 3 million (US$300) a day, while overhead costs reached Rp 15 million per day," he said.

The drop in tourist arrivals has also affected the handicraft business, threatening the future of at least 3,000 small and medium scale enterprises. Thousands of taxi drivers are also forced to park their cabs on the roadside due to the scarcity of passengers.

"There are very few passengers now. We sometimes can't even get enough money to buy gasoline," said Made Artana, a taxi driver.

Kuta and Sanur beaches are deserted, with only a few tourists passing by.

Data at the Bali Legislative Council shows that the lowest number of tourist arrivals was on Jan. 10, 2006, with 1,986 tourists, while the highest number was on Jan. 28, with 4,108 tourists. Only 2,140 tourists visited Bali on Feb. 14, despite it being Valentine's Day, while the highest number of tourists in February was on Feb. 1 at 4,087.

"Bali is not befitting from the recognition of it being 'the best island destination in the world'," said council member, Nyoman Budiarta, adding that the problem has been exacerbated by the absence of a definite calendar of events in Bali.

Beratha Ashrama from the Bali chapter of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (Kadin) acknowledged that the low tourist arrivals following the disturbances showed that tourism in Bali was very vulnerable.

"Tourism in Bali cannot remain steady amid disturbances, it is fragile, as is evident from the drop in tourist arrivals triggered by the bomb attacks and the bird flu scare."

The drop in the number of tourist arrivals throughout the country in 2005 was also acknowledged by Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik. He disclosed that only five million foreign tourists visited Indonesia in 2005 from a targeted six million.

Wacik warned that the battered tourism industry in Bali would have a severe impact on the economic and banking sectors. Of the Rp 9.7 trillion worth of loans extended to businesses in Bali, Rp 3.7 trillion went to the tourism sector.

"I'm aware that this is a very difficult year, especially when the hotel occupancy rate has dropped drastically. I have discussed the matter with the governor of Bank Indonesia and he has agreed to reschedule loan payments to 2007, on the assumption that conditions would have improved by next year," said Wacik.

According to Wacik, the measure was also taken to prevent mass layoffs in the tourism sector.

In response to the Bali Recovery Fund program, in which the central government had provided funds to revive the tourism sector in Bali, Minister Wacik acknowledged that a large portion of the funds would be allocated for promotional and security campaigns.

He added that officials from the ministry and Bali provincial administration would tour countries, such as Australia, Japan, China and European countries to promote Bali and other places in Indonesia as alternative tourist destinations, besides inviting foreign journalists to cover tourism destinations and organize a number of international events for promotional purposes.

Stakeholders in Bali's tourism sector have agreed to sit together with the central government, provincial administration, Kadin and tour operators from various provinces to discuss measures to develop sustainable tourism. The meeting will discuss measures to establish a tourist industry that could remain stable despite disturbances, such as in the case of Pattaya, Thailand, where tourism was able to recover soon after the tsunami.

Aceh

BRR warns it may take over unfinished contracts

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2006

Duncan Wilson, Banda Aceh – Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency for Aceh and Nias (BRR) chief Kuntoro Mangkusubroto has blasted non-governmental organizations, accusing some of dishonesty and a lack of professionalism, and threatened the agency would take over any projects that remain unfinished in June next year.

Kuntoro said some of the larger organizations had "lied" to their donors and the public about their progress, were beset by high overheads or divided by internal problems, and fixated with obtaining land for houses when most survivors wanted to return to their villages.

"One NGO took pictures claiming they had built 100 houses but they just built two houses. Another NGO built toilets but in some areas there was no water in them, how can professionals do that kind of thing?" Kuntoro said recently.

He singled out several NGOs for special criticism. They included UN Habitat, which he accused of "being slow in some areas". He also alleged that CARE had often behaved duplicitously.

Kuntoro said the BRR would measure the NGOs' current performance against their pledges, so that donor countries could best target their funding.

"We are so proud of projects and groups like the Salvation Army for example, but when it comes to bigger organizations I am sad to say they're not as effective.

"They have too many overheads and I believe too many internal governance problems and I feel it is my duty to communicate that to donors and the NGO head offices.

"Usually the NGOs say 'can you give us land?', but that is not the (correct) approach when 90 percent of people will go back to their villages," Kuntoro said.

He said that any agencies that failed to deliver on their commitments by the middle of next year would be required to leave, and the BRR or more efficient NGOs would assume their work.

"We will now be asking the NGOs to review their current performance against their December pledges, and submit new numbers and projects. The consequences are severe, but I want to send a signal that we are serious here and this is not business as usual. People have to work fast in these projects and I'm really serious about that."

Kuntoro's comments focused on the construction of housing, but BRR's Nias operations head William Sabander said Kuntoro intended to apply sanctions across the board. "He has told me that we will ask for commitments from all agencies, which should come with an action plan, and if this does not meet the schedules we need to evaluate and get someone to take over things, or the BRR could assign another agency," William said.

The BRR, UN and Red Cross recently announced they had pushed back by several months their March target for moving people out of tents and into temporary shelters.

Only 235 out of the estimated 16,000 temporary shelters needed for the 70,000 Acehnese living under canvas have been completed since the program began in September. About 12 percent of the around 120,000 new permanent homes required have been built.

While Kuntoro acknowledged his comments could create tensions between some NGOs and the BRR, Kuntoro said he hoped they and the performance review would encourage efficiency and transparency.

"We need the houses now, not at the end of the year. If the agencies say they have to scale back their pledge, fine, as long as they deliver the pledge.

"What I really worry about is philanthropists or donors' nasty surprise if they find out that something is untrue or not realistic," Kuntoro said.

UN Habitat project head Ian Hamilton said the organization may have been a little slow initially.

"Maybe we could have spent less time at the beginning talking and starting to build things but you always do much analysis at the start." Hamilton said the organization had built 200 homes, which put them "in the top four or five organizations." UN Habitat had agreed to construct 4,000 houses.

CARE's Aceh head Christophe Legrand said the company, with projects for this year worth US$30 million, was always transparent and professional.

"(Kuntoro's criticisms) may be referring to initial work in the emergency, but the standards we strive to reach are very high," Legrand said. He said the company had 700 houses at various stages of construction, but not one had yet been completed.

Hamilton and Legrand said they were not troubled by the Aceh and Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority's proposed review of non-government organizations, and enjoyed a positive working relationship with the organization and Kuntoro.

Government observing alleged GAM propaganda

Tempo Interactive - March 8, 2006

Oktamandjaya Wiguna, Jakarta – The government will continue observing alleged propaganda attempts by former members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to discredit Indonesia.

"If there are violations of the law infringement, then we will report them to the police, And if it's serious, we will take it to COSA (the Commission for Security Arrangements)," Minister of Communication and Information Sofyan Djalil told reporters after attending a cabinet meeting at the president's office, yesterday (7/3).

The propaganda attempts were reported by Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono during a working meeting with the Defense Commission of the House of Representatives (DPR), Monday (6/3).

During the meeting, Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander, Djoko Suyanto, said that the TNI side was preparing a contingency plan "which is extremely confidential."

A member of the delegation peace negotiation with GAM, Sofyan, asked all parties to be patient, bearing in mind the existing situation in Aceh.

"The conflict in the area has just ended and developing trust takes time," he said.

Aceh legislation no threat to integrity: LIPI

Jakarta Post - March 7, 2006

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – A scientist dismissed on Monday nationalist fears that the bill on Aceh governance would lead to the province's succession from Indonesia.

"There is nothing to worry about regarding the concept of self- rule in the context of the unitary state of Indonesia. The bill, which offers greater autonomy, is a good way to settle the Aceh conflict," Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) researcher Syamsuddin Haris told a House of Representatives hearing.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the government signed a peace deal in Helsinki last year, ending 30 years of conflict. In the deal, GAM dropped its demand for independence but asked for self-rule for Aceh in the form of special autonomy.

LIPI's Syarif Hidayat said although the concept of self-rule was derived from federalism, it had been adapted so the regional and central governments shared power.

"It is recommended that the government give an extended (form) of autonomy for Aceh, meaning giving the local administration the authority to handle all state affairs except key ones like defense and foreign policy," he said. The researchers stressed the agreement would not lead to Aceh becoming a "country within a country".

Former president Megawati Soekarnoputri and her party, the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle, have voiced their opposition to the law, along with retired military and police officers.

The House has until the end of the month to deliberate the bill as set out in the Helsinki peace agreement. However, legislators say it is likely the deadline for the bill may have to be extended.

The bill also allows for the creation of regional elections in Aceh, which are scheduled to begin in June or July.

GAM provoking anti-government sentiment

Detik.com - March 7, 2006

Anton Aliabbas, Jakarta – There are indications that the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leadership is actively carrying out anti- government propaganda. Nevertheless, in general the situation in Aceh is favorable.

"We must be objective in looking at the reforms and implementation of the peace deal. To date the atmosphere in Aceh has been favorable. There are many indications of this", said the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Widodo AS, following a cabinet meeting at the presidential offices on Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara in Central Jakarta on Tuesday March 7.

Widodo explained that a specific resolution obviously requires a process so that there are likely to be dynamics."All that remains is for us to manage this process so that it can create peace and the public can live normally. So leave it to us on how to monitor the process", he said.

Earlier, Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono had said that former GAM members are becoming increasingly active in holding goodwill meetings that are filled with propaganda and the distortion of facts with the potential to create unrest.

Incident in East Aceh

Widodo also took the opportunity to explain about the incident that occurred in East Aceh.

"The police's task was indeed conducting vehicle checks. But there was a motorbike driver that did not want to be stopped and was then prevented [from getting away] by a police officer and he then fell and it ended fatally. Perhaps the reaction by the public [in attacking a police station] occurred because they were demanding accountability for the incident", he said.

Widodo is therefore asking for the attention of all members of the public in order to avoid incidents such as this as much as possible.

In relation to the cabinet meeting, Widodo said they discussed two major topics, political, legal and security issues as well as the economy. With regard to political, legal and security issues, there was discussion on Aceh, Central Sulawesi and Papua. On Papua in particular, the meeting addressed concerns over the demonstrations that have taken place at PT Freeport Indonesia.

"We are only conducting persuasive security measures to prevent the occurrence of anarchistic acts, and our obligation is to listen to input from the public and [determine] how to conduct community development so that it can bring benefits to the public", he said. (san)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Aceh bill, a decentralization bill at best

Jakarta Post - March 6, 2006

Riyadi Suparno – The high-ranking officials gathered around a table at a ministry office in Jakarta literally divided Aceh's forests into a number of concessions, to be offered to the interested businesspeople with the deepest pockets.

Not only that, but Jakarta also plundered the oil, gas and other natural resources of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and returned a fraction – about 0.5 percent – of the money earned to the province.

These things came to pass in the Soeharto era; they may not happen again.

The bill on Aceh governance, which is being deliberated by the House of Representatives, should prevent any exploitation of Aceh resources by people in Jakarta without the consent of the Aceh government.

However, at this stage, the Acehnese are outsiders in the discussion and consideration of the bill. They can only wait, and on the odd occasion, try to influence the debate; but they are not a party to it. In this case, the battle ground is far from level.

Those at the center could launch a war of attrition against the Acehnese by having their way with the bill, but this would bring about disaster.

Therefore, it is high time for both the government and the House to take into account the concerns raised by the Acehnese over the past few months, particularly with regard to a number of articles in the bill, which require special attention from the working committee deliberating it.

The most contentious issue concerns the division of power between the central government and Aceh, aside from some terms that could open doors to Aceh's independence.

In terms of division of power, the Aceh bill adopts much of Law. 32/2004 on special autonomy for Aceh, stipulating that Aceh would govern the public sector, except on foreign affairs, defense, national security, national fiscal and monetary policies, the judicial system and religious affairs.

But the Acehnese want the central government to be responsible for external defense, not defense in general, which would infringe on the civil lives of the Acehnese; and give religious affairs to the Acehnese, considering that Aceh has adopted sharia.

On these two issues, there is no reason for the central government not to agree with the Acehnese.

On other political issues, while it is heartening to see the governance bill adopts local political parties – as pledged in the peace agreement signed by the government and the Free Aceh Movement – it fails to recognize independent candidates. Again, the central government has no reason to drop articles about independent candidacy from the bill, as this would do no harm but only good for local democracy.

Also, the center should meet the Acehnese request for a clear division of power between the executive and legislative branches, allowing the legislative council to demand accountability in the use of the local budget. Such a clear division would also benefit local democracy, subjecting the local executive to legislative scrutiny, which would in turn improve local governance.

On the economic side, the Acehnese demand they be allowed to manage resources in Aceh, including oil and gas and vital infrastructure like ports and airports, and demand more revenue sharing from taxation.

The government would likely be willing to give strategic infrastructure like ports and airports to local governments, but is going to insist on overseeing oil and gas, as well as keeping taxation as it is.

Understandably, if the government backs down and gives the authority over oil and gas to the Aceh government, other resource-rich provinces like Riau, East Kalimantan and Papua would demand the same thing.

But on taxation, the Acehnese proposal demands serious consideration, particularly with regard to land and property taxation, which in other countries normally falls within the purview of local governments.

From here, it is clear that the bill on Aceh governance, particularly that drafted by the Aceh legislative council, serves as no more than a special decentralization bill at best. It accommodates all the important aspects of local governance that are missing from our decentralization law, Law No. 32/2004.

When the bill on Aceh is passed into law, with all those good qualities in tact, we could expect to see quality staffing in Aceh public offices and better public services. Eventually, the Acehnese would be more prosperous as a result of better resource management and improved accountability.

When it happens, it will be time to replicate this system of better local governance in all other regions in the country, to improve public service and the welfare of the people. Let Aceh be a role model for all of us.

[The author is a staff writer of The Jakarta Post.]

Muslim groups say bill is what Aceh needs

Jakarta Post - March 3, 2006

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – After many years when it was too dangerous for him to visit his Aceh family home, Muslim Ibrahim finally returned with last August's signing of a peace agreement between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

"Thanks to the truce, I can now stay in my mother's house whenever I want to," the chairman of the Aceh Ulema Consultative Assembly (MPU) told legislators deliberating a bill on governance in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam on Thursday. "Before that, I didn't dare. Even if I had wanted to, my mother wouldn't have let me," added the Banda Aceh resident.

Religious figures from the overwhelmingly Muslim province told legislators the Acehnese welcomed the truce after many years of strife, although there were differing views on whether sharia law should also be applied to non-Muslims.

"All Acehnese share the same view because they experienced peace in Aceh after the truce," MPU deputy chairman Daud Zamzani said. "But to make it lasting, we need a law on Aceh's governance." Saying that sharia Islamic law was fully supported by the public, Daud urged legislators to ensure the bill gave authority to the Aceh administration.

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, the country's two largest Muslim organizations, as well as Jamiatul al-Wasiyah, a Muslim institution based in Aceh, said the passage of the bill was essential for trust building in the province.

"The Acehnese aspiration to practice sharia should not be seen as a move to separate from Indonesia. This is what they want," said M. Masyumi Naim of NU. However, NU and Muhammadiyah differed on the scope of the sharia court.

NU representative Soleh Amin said they should cover all people in Aceh, including non-Muslims and the military. He argued that it would be illogical and inefficient to impose separate legal systems in an area. "The same treatment for all Acehnese would make it more efficient," Soleh said.

Muhammadiyah responded that non-Muslims should not be subject to sharia because Indonesia adheres to national law and regional law. "We couldn't remove district courts in Aceh because it is part of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia," said Hasballah M. Saad, an Acehnese who chairs the Muhammadiyah legal department.

He said sharia's implementation in the province was not "maximal", with caning currently the only sanction for crimes such as gambling, theft and adultery.

The House special committee conducting the hearing is seeking opinions from the government, the Regional Representatives Council, social organizations, experts and individuals before the March 31 deadine for its passage.

The 50-strong committee also plans to meet with former presidents Soeharto, B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid and Megawati Soekarnoputri. Soeharto, 84, has been diagnosed with diminished mental capacity due to old age, while Gus Dur and Megawati, who chairs the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, have expressed concerns about aspects of the bill.

Aceh leaders upbeat on support for governance bill

Jakarta Post - March 2, 2006

Sri Muninggar Saraswati and Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Aceh leaders are optimistic that Jakarta will accommodate their people's political aspirations in the new bill on Aceh governance.

Members of the Advocacy Team for the bill on Aceh governance said they had already met with the leaders of major political parties, national officials, House of Representatives legislators and activists to ask for their political support of the bill.

During the past few days they have met Golkar Party and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) leaders along with former president Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid.

"Although they have already given their political support (to the bill) symbolically, we do hope they give their full backing to the bill (when it reaches the House for deliberation)," team leader Abdullah Saleh said.

The PDI-P has expressed its opposition to the peace deal signed by the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) last August in Hensinki. The agreement ended three decades of bloody conflict during which more than 12,000 people died.

PDI-P leader Megawati Soekarnoputri told the Aceh leaders that in principle she supported all negotiations to end the conflict. However, Megawati said she had reservations about the issue being "internationalized" under the current deal, and said a permanent solution must be sought that kept Aceh part of the Unitary State of Indonesia. Gus Dur has voiced similar reservations to the bill but has promised to reread it.

Team member Mawardi Ismail said despite Megawati and Gus Dur's political stance, the pair had created a strong foundation for an Aceh peace.

"Before his election as president, Gus Dur supported a self- determination referendum for Aceh if it was deemed the best way to settle the issue... Megawati has also been very eager to settle the conflict peacefully (in the past)," he said. Megawati's government imposed martial law in Aceh in 2003 and ordered the deployment of troops to restore security and order in the province.

Asked on a possible rejection of the Aceh people's political aspirations in the bill, the team said the bill was not a fixed price and it did not contain crucial points which were completely strange to the existing political system and the law.

In the House of Representatives, a group of retired military officers demanded that the House drop the bill on Aceh governance because they fear that it opens doors to Aceh's independence.

About 50 retired officers, many of them were former generals aged between 70 and 80, aired their concern during a meeting with the House of Representatives. "It could lead to separatism," Lt. Gen. (ret) Suryadi, who chairs the Retired Army Officers Union, told the legislators.

There are a number of articles in the bill that allow the resource-rich province to split from Indonesia, he said. One clear example, Suryadi argued, is the title, which suggests that Aceh is an independent entity.

Among most senior protesting officers were Lt. Gen. (ret) Purbo S. Suwondo, Maj. Gen. (ret) Kiki Syahnakri. Lt. Gen. (ret) Syaiful Sulun and Lt. Gen. (ret) Kharis Suhud, who is a former House speaker.

The House of Representatives is currently seeking ideas from competent sources to finalize the bill that will become the basis for forming the Aceh government as mandated by the Helsinki peace accord between the Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) that ended three-decade of war.

"What's the urgency for the deliberating the bill? Reject it and draft a better one," Purbo said. To the surprise of the former officers, most of whom are elderly in their 70s and 80s, some legislators defended the bill.

Aceh federalism fears dismissed

Jakarta Post - March 1, 2006

Tn. Arie Rukmantara and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The controversial bill on Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam governance would not make the tsunami-ravaged province into a federal state as some people feared, a group of constitutional law experts and political scientists told the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Constitutional law professor Sri Soemantri said the bill clearly stated Aceh was part of Indonesia. "I was earlier concerned about the title of the bill, but I stopped worrying about federalism after I reviewed the content," Sri said to questions from legislators.

The senior lecturer at Padjadjaran University's School of Law asked legislators to include articles in the bill to monitor the establishment of qanun, or regional regulations, issued by the Aceh legislative council.

"Monitoring would be mandatory to ensure (the regulations) are in line with the laws of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia," Soemantri said.

Allowing the qanun, he argued, would make Aceh legally distinct from the rest of Indonesia. The Aceh legislative council, however, could easily pass a series of qanun that were not in line with Indonesian law, he said.

Fellow constitutional law expert Ismail Sunny said the central government needed to retain authority in some areas of government. He suggested the legislators review articles on the position of the Wali Nanggroe, or state leader, because its powers could overlap with those of the provincial governor.

Meanwhile, political expert Ichlasul Amal said the Acehnese only expected Indonesian acknowledgement of their identity. "That is the main point. The substance of the bill is little different from the existing laws on Aceh," he said.

Soemantri and Ichasul said legislators should scrap articles involving the establishment of a special rights tribunal in Aceh because it was unnecessary. "We have the Constitution, human rights law and a law for a human rights tribunal that applies nationwide. There is no need to set up a special rights tribunal in Aceh," Soemantri said.

The experts told legislators their main challenge was to synchronize the principles in the Constitution with the content of the memorandum of understanding signed by the government and the Free Aceh Movement last year.

Another constitutional law expert, Satya Arinanto, said the bill also needed to be harmonized with other laws governing Aceh. "Without disregarding the Acehnese who compiled the bill, it is obvious that (the bill) contains articles from some existing laws with some modifications," he said.

Separately, Aceh leaders held a meeting with Golkar Party heads, urging them to speed up the deliberation of the bill.

"We come here to urge Golkar, as the biggest faction in the House and whose leader (Jusuf Kalla) heads the special committee on the Aceh governance bill, to speed up the deliberation of the bill," Aceh acting governor Mustafa Abu Bakar said after the meeting.

Mustafa said Aceh leaders would continue to lobby all factions at the House to speed up deliberations of the bill. Kalla said he had instructed the Golkar faction to complete the deliberations of the bill before March 31 as mandated by the Helsinki deal.

Some contentious issues in the bill on Aceh governance

Its name: the bill on Aceh governance

• About Aceh governance:
  • The form of Aceh governance (Article 2)
  • The borders of Aceh (Article 3)
  • The authorities (Chapter IV and Chapter V)
• About the Aceh legislative council
  • Its authority to approve central government or House of Representatives decisions on Aceh (Article 20 Paragraph (1)
• About the post of Wali Naggroe (Chapter XI)
• About economy and finance (Chapter XXIII and XXV)
  • Revenue sharing between the Aceh administration and central government

West Papua

Protests demand Freeport mine closure

Green Left Weekly - March 8, 2006

Zoe Kenny – On February 25, the five-day blockade by several hundred West Papuan villagers of the sole access road to Freeport's Grasberg mine was called off. The villagers achieved their modest goal of retaining the right (although formally illegal) to fossick among the mine's tailings to collect copper and gold remnants.

However, protests have continued in Jakarta and Jayapura, the capital of Papua province. A tent city has also been set up by protesters in Timika, a town near the mine. The protesters have been demanding that the mine be closed and that Indonesian soldiers be withdrawn. Marthen Goo, a spokesperson in Jakarta for the West Papuan People's United Front was quoted by Reuters on February 28 as saying: "This is just the beginning of our fight because we have not received anything good from Freeport. We are going to protest until Freeport is shut."

These demands have been getting some sympathy from legislators in the Papuan provincial parliament (which is subordinate to the Indonesian central government), and a special parliamentary session will be held on March 22 to discuss the mine.

Freeport McMoRan's Grasberg mine, of which Australian-based mining company Rio Tinto is the second largest investor, has been a long-running source of conflict and misery for the West Papuan people. In May 2000, Australia's Mineral Policy Institute described Freeport's Grasberg mine as having "the world's worst record of human rights violations and environmental destruction".

The mine's history has been riddled with corruption. Freeport company director James Moffett gained a mining license in West Papua in 1967 after years of sweet-talking and bribing Indonesian dictator General Mohammed Suharto. Since then, the mine has made Moffett into one of the most highly remunerated CEO's in the world. In 1995 and 1996 he earned US$83 million. Lat year, his declared income was $64.8 million.

In a special investigative report, the December 27 New York Times noted that "Freeport has built what amounts to an entirely new society and economy, all of its own making. Where nary a road existed, Freeport, with the help of the San Francisco-based construction company Bechtel, built virtually every stitch of infrastructure over impossible terrain in engineering feats that it boasts are unparalleled on the planet."

Freeport's Grasberg is the biggest gold mine in the world and most accounts reckon that it is the third largest copper mine in the world. It is estimated that even after more than 30 years of mining, there are still reserves to warrant mining for another 34 years.

The company contributed $33 billion in direct and indirect benefits to the Indonesian government, approximately 2% of GDP, between 1992 and 2004, and contributed $1 billion in 2005. In some years, it has been the biggest source of revenue to the Indonesian government.

However, the West Papuan people have seen very little of this largesse. In particular, the indigenous people who lived in the mining concession area have suffered numerous injustices and humiliations. The several thousand Amungme and Kamoro people who lived in the area were relocated from their traditional lands into refugee settlements, as well as gravitating to the mining town of Timika, previously home to a small population.

"Now it is home to more than 100,000 in a Wild West atmosphere of too much alcohol, shootouts between the soldiers and police, AIDS and prostitution, protected by the military", the December 27 New York Times reported. This has led to what some have called "cultural genocide". Without access to their traditional land and with little prospect of employment, the local people are losing their social and cultural cohesiveness. Alcohol abuse and drug dependencies are more common.

Freeport was not required to compensate the local people for anything other than the dwellings they had lived in, and is allowed to exploit the natural resources of the area unhindered.

Environmental devastation

Another of the horrific side effects of the Freeport mine has been the large-scale environmental destruction that it is carried out in West Papua. The mine is literally destroying the 4884- metre high Mount Jaya, which is considered sacred by the local people. Every day hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rock are mined from a pit that is almost 1 kilometre deep. It is then milled in a process that uses 3.5 billion litres of water a month and the waste, estimated at 700,000 tonnes per day, is dumped into Lake Wanagon and the Ajkwa River. Since it began, the mine has already generated 1 billion tonnes of waste. The waste that has accumulated in the highlands surrounding the mine is estimated at being up to 300 metres deep. The waste that flows down river systems into the lowlands has left a trail of destruction. An internal Indonesian government memorandum obtained by the New York Times last year estimated that the waste has killed all life in the river system.

The mine's management has warned local people not to drink water or eat plants growing near the river, but has not explained why. The waste has also killed large amounts of vegetation growing beside tributaries of the Ajikwa River, leaving a desolate landscape. In his 2002 study, Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Issues: An Encyclopedia, Bruce Johansen, professor of Native American studies at the University of Nebraska, quoted an observer describing the scene as, "Dead and dying trees are everywhere, their broken branches protruding from tracts of gray sludge... Vegetation is being smothered by accumulated sludge that is several yards deep in some places."

The waste has also accumulated in the lowlands and has now buried 233 square kilometres of once-abundant wetlands as well as destroying at least 130 square kilometres of rainforest.

It is estimated that by the time the mine is exhausted in 2040, it will have generated 6 billion tonnes of waste.

The environmental record of the Freeport mine is so bad that in 1995 the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which insures US companies against political risk, revoked Freeport's insurance. No other company had ever been cut off before.

Local resistance

The environmental devastation wreaked by the mine and the lack of adequate compensation and benefits from the mine's operations has fuelled support for the Free Papua Movement (OPM), which has waged a low-intensity guerrilla war for many years. It has also led to sporadic uprisings by local people, many which have been violently suppressed by the Indonesian military (TNI).

In 1977, the OPM and other local people expressed their anger and frustration at the mine by blowing up an ore pipeline. The response by the TNI was Operation Tumpas (annihilation), in which attack jets fired on villages. An unknown number of people died. The Indonesian government admits that 900 were killed. Local people believe that the number was in the thousands.

Although the TNI's suppression of the OPM "insurgency" and uprisings by local people has always helped the smooth running of the Freeport mine, the company has also maintained its own security forces.

In March 2003, Freeport disclosed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it paid the TNI $4.7 million in 2001 and $5.6 million for the employment of about 2300 "Indonesian government security personnel".

According to the New York Times report, Freeport began to directly pay the military and police in Papua for this role from 1996. The NYT reported that Freeport discovered that the TNI had been involved in organising and co-ordinating a 1996 uprising of local people against the mine, which had resulted in $3 million worth of damage and the mine shutting down for three days.

After a meeting between Moffett and Indonesian government representatives, a deal was struck whereby Freeport would begin making direct payments to the military.

Between 1996 and 2004 at least $50 million was spent by Freeport, officially on providing vehicles, accommodation and food for TNI personnel. Some of this money was also directed to the police's Mobile Brigade, notorious for its human rights abuses and murders.

The NYT reported that company documents it had obtained revealed that some individual commanders received tens of thousands of dollars, in one case up to $150,000.

An estimated 160 people were killed by the TNI in the mine area between 1975 and 1997, and there have been reports of torture taking place in buildings owned by Freeport.

'The State of Freeport' a fait accompli tragedy

Radio Netherlands - March 5, 2006

Aboeprijadi Santoso – Papua is a synonym for a fait accompli tragedy. It is frequently forced into situations by external forces which then become immutable. First, the Dutch came and it was forced to become part of the Dutch East Indies, and then to become part of the Republic as the result of New Order-style trickery, but which was accepted as legitimate by the rest of the world.

The third fait accompli was the operations of a major corporation which combined local political and economic interests with (multi-)national interests to exploit its natural resources for the benefit of everyone excepting the local people but which also brought Papua a multidimensional disaster, a tragedy called Freeport.

No longer keeping quiet For two weeks, there has been uproar in Papua. It all began when a number of men panning for gold in the operational area of the mighty US copper and gold company, Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold Inc. were arrested.

It subsequently turned out that they had come there to pan thanks to the efforts of an army unit in charge of guarding the Freeport mine.

So, this means that these illegal panners were rounded up by the very same army unit that had brought them there in the first place? The reason? They were accused of being from the OPM, Organisasi Papua Merdeka.

But if they were OPM, why had they been brought there? Outsiders, people from Jakarta or from overseas, are in the habit of using NKRI (United State of the Republic of Indonesia) as nothing more than a slogan, proclaiming that 'it must be the OPM'. Isn't that what is undermining the NKRI? So what more do you want?

But when you talk about the "OPM", it means that there is no security, while the lack of security is the reason for increasing their bill for taking charge of Freeport's security.

Papuan people who are well aware of the dynamic in Papua have known about this for a long time. But this time they are no longer staying quiet.

'This has been army's way in Papua for decades,' they say. And they have been speaking out not only to the media but also in the streets. Not only in Wamena, but also in Nabire, Jayapura, Manokwari, Makassar, Jogjakarta and Jakarta. They are calling for Freeport to be closed down because they see the company here as 'The State of Freeport'.

Is 'The State of Freeport identical with the New Order?

The company that is running one of the world's biggest gold mines is more than simply a business enterprise. It is situated in a very remote region, on a mountain called Grasberg, on the slopes of the Central Highlands.

Its history is amazing. This was the very first foreign investment concluded under the New Order, which was signed at a time when Papua (West Irian) was still in limbo, on 1 April 1967, still awaiting the results of the Act of Free Choice in 1969.

Today, according to a report in The Australian, Freeport's annual income is US$4.2 billion, with a profit of US$934.6 million. Whereas the New Order began life with the tragic massacres in 1965-66, it began its accumulation of wealth from the natural resources with Freeport's arrival in Papua.

Freeport is more than a fait accompli tragedy. It arrived along with the New Order under the centralist military rubric of NKRI. With its headquarters in Louisiana in the US, it operates in the depths of the Papuan jungle, on the slopes of Grasberg. No journalists have ever entered the area. You can only glimpse Grasberg with the help of Google.

During its lifetime, Freeport has earned the third largest profits in this Republic while lining the pockets of the Soeharto Family and the army.

Since the 1980s, thanks to the efforts of Soeharto's son-in-law, Major General Prabowo, Freeport has paid money to the local military command, army units and police which have guarded Freeport, in violation of American law, though such laws do not exist in Indonesia. Freeport's operations have never been transparent and with good reason.

Freeport is also part of the mechanism of the New Order and its operations would never have been possible without the New Order regime, with its NKRI centralism. So, like it or not, Freeport is a kind of state.

Thanks to Google, we know that the men panning for gold, other outsiders and even the local inhabitants cannot enter the area of Freeport operations, high up in the mountains and heavily guarded by the army, excepting when these panners are brought there by the men guarding Freeport. And according to Papuan observer, Dr Benny Giay, 'in the territory of Freeport, the army is God'.

Thanks to an article in The New York Times last December, we know all about the privileged position of Freeport ever since the New Order because of their exceptional contract.

Contract must be revised

Now, the people in the Central Highlands are furious. Movements have emerged that have been inspired by the struggles of America's civil rights fighter, Martin Luther King and are occurring in Papua as well as in towns and cities in Java and Sulawesi. Now, they are angry with Freeport and with the army who is in control of Freeport.

Several months ago, a young boy from the locality was shot in Waghete, and the man who shot him received a light sentence. Even worse was the detention of a dozen or more people together with Antonius Wamang, charged with the murder of US citizens, teachers at a school near Timika, in August 2002.

According to the police chief at the time, I Made Mangku Pastika, the perpetrators were a group of TNI soldiers but after the US exerted continual pressure on Jakarta for the arrest and trial of the perpetrators, Jakarta brought forward Wamang and a number of Papuans, who were not the real perpetrators.

These are the events that resulted in the Central Highlands protest calling for Freeport to be closed down.

Of course, the government in Jakarta does not like the idea of losing this highly profitable resource, while Freeport for its part is not happy about losing an investment which is now worth $US 12 billion. So once again, Papua is caught in a fait accompli.

No wonder, the demand being made Central Highland Papuans is being interpreted as a demand for the revision of Indonesia's contract with Freeport. That's Freeport for you!

Students take Freeport protests nationwide

Jakarta Post - March 2, 2006

Andi Hajramurni and Suherdjoko, Makassar/Semarang/Jakarta – Anger at PT Freeport Indonesia continued Wednesday, with protesters demanding the closure of the company's mine in Papua over allegations Freeport was stealing the wealth of Papuans and degrading the environment.

Papuan students demonstrated in three cities – Makassar in South Sulawesi, Semarang in Central Java and Jakarta.

In Makassar, a protest involving about 30 students turned violent when they vandalized the West Irian Liberation Monument.

Police officers stood by as the students tore the lettering from the monument, and replaced it with the words, "This is the Papuan People's Tyranny Monument." Officers had to step in to prevent a fight between the monument's caretaker, Takdir H Lawata, and the students.

"Please, go ahead with your rally, but don't destroy the monument. This is a historical monument, celebrating the liberation of the Papuan people from the grip of the PKI," Takdir said, referring to the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party. "I care for this monument night and day, and you just destroy it," he shouted at the students.

The protesters also criticized Vice President Jusuf Kalla for his statement that the government would not shut down Freeport's operation. They accused the Vice President of betraying the people of Papua for the benefit of big business.

"Jusuf Kalla comes from eastern Indonesia, so he should be on the side of eastern people, including Papuans. In reality, however, he has betrayed us," JP Tabuni, the coordinator of the action, said.

In Semarang, Papuan students unfurled banners which read, "Close Freeport now", "Freeport has to be responsible for the destruction of the ecosystem in Timika/Papua" and "Improve the Welfare of the Papuan People now." The peaceful rally ended at 11:30 a.m. after rally coordinator, Fransiscus Kekey, read out the students' demands. Kekey accused Freeport of failing to improve the welfare of Papuans during its 39-year operation in the province.

Papua's natural resources have been exploited for the benefit of the company, while the people of Papua have been abandoned to poverty, he said. "Freeport just steals the wealth of the Papuan people, without doing anything to improve their welfare," he said.

He claimed Freeport had posted profits of US$494 million in 2003, up from $398.5 million in 2002, but only between 1.3 and 1.6 percent of that money had gone to the Indonesian government.

In Jakarta, hundreds of Papuan students and Papuans living in Java and Bali held a peaceful rally. Police installed barricades in front of Plaza 89 in South Jakarta, where Freeport's offices are located, preventing demonstrators from approaching the building. Several people addressed the crowd outside the building, denouncing Freeport and demanding the closure of its mine.

Protesters demand an end to plunder of Papua

Sydney Morning Herald - March 2, 2006

Mark Forbes, Jakarta – A stone-age bow and arrow shoot-out between tribesmen and guards at the giant Freeport gold and copper mine in Papua has snowballed into a stand-off symbolising Papuans' push for independence and their belief that their province is being plundered.

Freeport, the world's biggest goldmine, was forced to halt production in the Indonesian province last week after being blockaded by the tribesmen, who pan the tailings at the mine for scraps of gold. Although the US-owned mining company claimed last weekend to have ended the conflict with a traditional stone- burning ceremony and offers of assistance, Papuan students have continued to demonstrate daily in Jakarta.

And each day this week, hundreds of police have used water cannon to prevent rock-throwing students storming Freeport's headquarters. The protesters' demands have escalated: they now want the mine closed and Indonesian soldiers withdrawn from the province.

Hundreds more have staged rallies in Papua's capital of Jayapura, while a tent-city opposing the mine has been erected in Timika, the nearest town to Freeport's mine, Indonesian police said.

Following a 24-hour sit-in at Papua's provincial parliament, some legislators yesterday endorsed the protesters' demands and promised to pursue them with Jakarta.

One legislator, Hana Hikoyabi, said the contract between Freeport and the Government was secretive.

"The protest is an accumulation of years of disappointment," Mr Hikoyabi said. "We hope Freeport is willing to open up. Freeport has to realise the gold, copper and anything it mined in Timika belongs not to them, but to Papuans."

One of the Jakarta protest leaders, Marthen Goo, said the struggle was just beginning. "We have not received anything good from Freeport. We are going to protest until Freeport is shut."

A spokesman for Freeport, Siddharta Moersjid, said the company was very concerned about the continuing protest, but confused about the motivation. "This has nothing to do with what happened at the mine last week," he said.

Security forces had tried to clear illegal miners away from the banks of a river into which Freeport dumps its tailings. Police fired rubber bullets while the miners reportedly used bows and arrows.

Freeport has agreed local authorities could give permission to pan the tailings. Most of the hundreds of illegal panners have migrated to the area recently, attracted by rising gold prices.

Freeport is experiencing growing pressure over its relationship with the Indonesian military in the province. An investigation has been called into revelations that Freeport made direct payments to soldiers who guarded the mine.

Freeport demonstrators released

Detik.com - March 1, 2006

Indra Subagja, Jakarta – The Jakarta metropolitan police have finally released the six activists that took part in a demonstration at the offices of PT Freeport Indonesia at the Plaza 89 Building in Kuningan. They were released because police did not have sufficient grounds to charge them with being provocateurs or having intimidated security personnel. Their status as suspects however remains unchanged.

The six activists from the People's United Struggle Front for West Papua had earlier been arrested and named suspects by the South Jakarta district police yesterday after a demonstration at the Freeport offices.

The six are Awing and Ridlo from the Indonesian Legal Aid Association (PBHI), Ari Aryanto from Solidarity Aceh-Papua (SAP), Islah and Rawin from the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi Jakarta) and Ruis from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras). The six were accused of intimidating security personnel and provoking the demonstrators.

"They were released earlier this afternoon because we don't yet have sufficient evidence", metropolitan police public relations officer Superintendent Ketut Untung Yoga Ana told journalists at his office on Jl. Sudirman on Wednesday March 1.

According to Untung, police investigators could not keep them in custody because in legal terms they did not have sufficient evidence. "But we are still collecting evidence and conducting and investigation", he said briefly. (zal)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Non-indigenous Papuans infiltrating protests hunted

Detik.com - March 1, 2006

Iqbal Fadil, Jakarta – After arresting six activists during a demonstration at Plaza 89 in South Jakarta yesterday, police have renewed the hunt for activist they believe infiltrated the group of indigenous Papuans protesting against PT Freeport Indonesia.

Police suspect that they intentionally taking advantage of the People's United Struggle Front for West Papua (Perpera PB) that for the third day in a row have rocked Plaza 89 where Freeport has its offices.

"Watch out! Tighten up your ranks. Don't let your sisters and brothers be used by other groups to take advantage of this momentum", shouted a police officer though a loudspeaker from a police car parked on the grounds of the Plaza 89 Building on Jl. HR Rasuna Said in South Jakarta on Wednesday March 1.

After issuing the warning a police officer then tried to arrest an activist who was standing near the line of indigenous Papuan demonstrators. This resulted in a tug-of-war between police and demonstrators who tried to protect the activist. In the end the protesters were able to bring the activist beak into their ranks.

From Detik's observations, security personnel have indeed reinforced security at this demonstration. They have setup ropes so that the demonstrators that arrived at 12noon remain in the cordoned off area. Journalists that over the last two days have been able to mingle with protesters have been asked to stay away from them. Journalists are only allowed to stand on the sidewalk and the medium strip between the slow and fast lanes.

The tightening of security is believed to be because police are concerned about "infiltrators" joining the demonstrations. In addition to the warning, police also asked protesters to be well behaved in conveying their wishes.

As a result of the demonstration, traffic traveling in the fast lane from Mampang in South Jakarta in the direction of Menteng in Central Java was slowed to a crawl.

On Tuesday afternoon six activists were arrested and on Wednesday they were named as suspects in provoking protesters and intimidating security personnel. The six are Awing and Ridlo from the Indonesian Legal Aid Association (PBHI), Ari Aryanto from Solidarity Aceh-Papua (SAP), Islah and Rawin from the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi Jakarta) and Ruis from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras). (umi)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Leftists organise solidarity with West Papuans

Green Left Weekly - March 1, 2006

Max Lane – The application for asylum by 43 West Papuan political activists and their families, who arrived on Australia's Cape York peninsula in January after a five-day voyage on a rickety boat, brought the political and social situation in the Indonesian province of Papua to the attention of the Australian public. Public meetings and protest actions have been organised in a number of cities in solidarity with the West Papuan independence movement.

Solidarity actions in Indonesia itself in support of Papuan democracy activists have been mainly organised by a group called Papua Aceh Solidarity (SAP), which has staged street protests, mainly involving Indonesian and Papuan students, since at least 2004. There are several other Indonesian groups sympathetic to the plight of Papuans, in particular human rights organisations, one of the most prominent being the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM). While these human rights institutions concentrate on research and advocacy, SAP has concentrated on public protest actions. At the core of SAP, alongside the Acehnese and Papuan activists, are members of the left-wing People's Democratic Party (PRD).

Indonesian solidarity protests

In 2004 and 2005, many of the SAP demonstrations combined Acehnese, Papuans and activists from other parts of the Indonesian archipelago. Protests were held at the Electoral Commission, on campuses, at the national parliament, and in several different city centres, including Jakarta, Jogjakarta, Surabaya and Denpasar. The protests usually took up specific policies being imposed by the central government, but in particular the military operations in Aceh prior to the recent ceasefire and the regular acts of violence against indigenous Papuans in West Papua.

There have also been regular protest actions by organisations of Papuan students based in different cities in Java, Bali and Sulawesi. Several hundred Papuans are studying in Indonesian universities in these areas at any one time, usually on national, provincial or church scholarships.

Last October, 100 students from the Papuan Students Alliance (AMP) held a demonstration outside the campus of the State University of Gajah Mada in the city of Jogjakarta. They were protesting the swearing in of members of the Papuan Peoples Assembly (MPR), a new, purely advisory body set up by the national government as a concession to independence sentiment in Papua. The students saw the MPR as part of a policy package offering "special autonomy" to Papua without any real transfer of decision-making power.

Sections of the Papuan elite, based in the government bureaucracy that developed during the Suharto years and on connections with national and international business, have given the MPR some support. The demonstration was supported by several left-wing groups, including the PRD and the National Democratic Students League (LMND).

On January 19, Papuan students from AMP held a demonstrated outside the US consulate in Denpasar. They were protesting the connections between the US mining giant Freeport and the Indonesian military (TNI). There was also concern about the arrest of Papuans charged with the murders of three US teachers in Timika, which many regard as a scapegoating exercise against Papuan activists. The demonstration was supported by the PRD and LMND as well as a progressive Islamic student organisation.

A few days later in Jogjakarta there was another joint protest action by Papuan students supported by the PRD, LMND, the National Student Front (FMN) and several other organisations. The protesters marched from Gajah Mada University into the city centre. They demanded the release of the Papuans arrested for the murders of the US teachers in Timika, the arrest of implicated police and army personnel and the immediate withdrawal of the TNI from Papua.

On January 20, a demonstration organised by the Students Action Front took place in Menado in North Sulawesi during a visit by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Twenty demonstrators were detained by police, including four Papuans, but were released later in the day. The protesters demanded the resolution of human rights violations cases in Papua, as well as other parts of Indonesia. They also demanded an end to the import of rice into Indonesia; rejected recent rises in fuel and electricity prices; called for repudiation of the foreign debt; demanded an end to the increase in the number of military command posts throughout the country; and called for the seizure of corruptly gained assets and for cheap education and health for the people. The Menado protest came one day after a separate demonstration by Papuan and non-Papuan students.

Papuan politics

Papuan politics are now reported daily in the Indonesian national media. In 1999-2001, during the presidency of Abdurahman Wahid, considerable political space was opened up in Papua. A Papuan People's Congress was held, involving a very broad representation of the indigenous Papuan section of the population in West Papua. (A majority of the province's population is now made up of poor farmers and traders from Sulawesi, Java, Bali and other Indonesian islands.) The congress called for a "straightening out" of Papuan history – a not-so-veiled reference to the fake "act of free choice" organised by the Suharto dictatorship in 1969 under which Indonesia's annexation of Dutch New Guinea was supposedly given popular endorsement.

The congress elected a Papuan Presidium Council (DPD) and established a Customary Law Council (DAP, made up mainly of traditional tribal leaders). At the core of the DPD was the Papuan political elite, many of whom had been members of Suharto's Golkar party.

Wahid also allowed for the Papuan flag to be flown publicly alongside the Indonesian flag. His government changed the name of the province from Irian Jaya to Papua.

After Wahid's toppling by a massive campaign of destablisation organised by Golkar, the new government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri took several measures aimed at halting the momentum toward Papuan sovereignty that Wahid's policies had unleashed. These measures included a law to divide the province into two or more provinces, potentially pitting resource-rich and resource- poor parts of Papua against each other. This went against an earlier law on autonomy that had created the Papuan People's Assembly, which was required to approve any such new laws.

It was during Megawati's rule that violent harassment of Papuan activists and leaders increased. The Papuan political figure who had emerged as dominant out of the Papuan People's Congress, Theys Hiyo Eluay, a former Golkar politician, was murdered on November 10, 2001 – just a few months after Wahid had been deposed. Although Theys maintained close relations with the TNI generals, he was killed by army personnel.

More harassment and violence has occurred since then, but it has not been sufficiently systematic or intense enough to stop open political organising. There are now many political and student groups operating in West Papuan towns. Important organisations are the Papuan Student Alliance, the Papuan National Students Front, and the West Papuan People's Struggle United Front. There are also a range of human rights advocacy groups, some connected to the churches.

The Free Papua Movement (OPM), a confederation groupings striving for Papuan independence, is also active, but not openly. It is still illegal to openly advocate independence.

According to left-wing Papuan activists in Jakarta, it is the DPD and the DAP, dominated by the Papuan political elite (some of whom have ties with Freeport and BP) that wields the greatest political authority among the indigenous Papuan population. These bodies are ambivalent on issues of sovereignty and popular empowerment, using these issues to gain support at election times and exert pressure on Jakarta through public meetings, but then seek deals with the Jakarta political elite.

While sporadic killings of grass-roots activists continue to occur, more scope has been created for the Papuan elite to participate in the province's official politics. At the moment, there are elections for local sub-provincial heads, attracting a wide range of candidates.

Subsistence economy

The majority of indigenous Papuans have not been able to emerge out of their traditional rural subsistence economy. The urban- based capitalist economy developed after the Dutch colonialists left in 1962. It was based on the influx of poor farmers and others into Papua from different parts of Indonesia, blocking indigenous Papuan involvement. However, during Suharto's 1966-98 New Order regime, a modern class structure did develop in the towns, with a Papuan capitalist class being integrated into the Indonesian capitalist ruling class through the business networks that stretched into the province.

The majority of Papuans in the subsistence sector are even more deprived of education and health facilities than the more than 1 million poor non-Papuans and Papuans in the urban centres.

A recent statement of the PRD observed that the "suppression of democracy and of any kind of welfare in Papua under militarism and economic exploitation by the national government of the bourgeoisie has resulted in a process of forming a Papuan national character. However, this is still at the level of the embryo of a nation. It is not yet manifested in a total conception of a nation. The fundamental political and economic problems facing Papuan and Indonesian society are the same: neoliberalism."

The PRD sees the key task in relation to Papua as being the creation of the widest democratic space so that a broad, open dialogue among the Papuan people can help form, free of any intervention from the current national government, a democratic autonomous government. The PRD demands the withdrawal of the TNI from Papua, rejection of any attempts to split up Papua, rejection of the imposition of the advisory MPR, the starting of a pro-people program of industrialisation and the formation of a solid Papuan people's democratic united front.

[Max Lane is the chairperson of Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (APSN), a network of activists around Australia who are building solidarity with movements for social justice, genuine democratisation and self-determination around the Asia Pacific region. For more information visit .]

Papua travel ban halts abuse scrutiny: envoy

Sydney Morning Herald - March 1, 2006

Tom Allard – The Indonesian Government is preventing human rights observers from monitoring the situation in Papua amid "worrying" reports of abuses in the troubled province, says the United Nations' special envoy on the prevention of genocide, Juan Mendez.

In an interview with the Herald, Mr Mendez also said the UN was prepared to step in and mediate a solution to the long-running tensions in the province. "It's very worrying and there's evidence about violence that's continued since 1963. It's important that we look closely at the conflict now and make sure it's not getting out of hand," he said.

"We certainly have it under our inquiry but it's hard to assess the situation on the ground... it's hard to know what is going on in West Papua." Asked if he was prepared to act as a mediator between the Government and separatists, Mr Mendez said "absolutely", although that would require an invitation from both parties.

Indonesia has been tightly restricting human rights experts from the UN, academia and non-government organisations from visiting Papua for years, a ban on unfettered access that has extended to foreign media for at least the past 18 months.

Chris Ballard, an expert on Papua from the Australian National University, said he had been banned from entering the province since 2001. In the absence of independent scrutiny, he said the assurances from Indonesian leaders had to be treated with caution.

"When the [Indonesian] foreign minister makes a statement that there aren't human rights abuses in Papua, there's absolutely no way of telling if it's the truth," he said.

Senior Indonesian ministers have vehemently denied that indigenous Papuans are being repressed.

Military presence to be maintained at Freeport

Jakarta Post - March 1, 2006

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – Ignoring Papuan protesters' demands, the government will maintain a military presence at PT Freeport Indonesia's mine in Papua.

The mine and its military guards have been at the center of a week-long protest by Papuans, who say they have benefited little from the development.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Army chief Gen. Djoko Santoso said Tuesday the government would stick to its policy of allowing the military to safeguard strategic facilities in the country, including Freeport. "We have no plans to pull out soldiers from these projects," Kalla said at the Golkar Party's head office here.

Separately, Santoso said he would not withdraw troops from Freeport unless the government ordered him to do so. "To date, there has been no such request," he told Antara. The Army had one battalion, or around 600 troops, safeguarding the company's mining site at Tembagapura, he said.

Fresh demands for the closure of Freeport's operations in Papua have been intensifying after local tribespeople were forbidden from panning gold in Freeport's waste ore. The tribes blockaded access to the mine for three days, while Papuans in major cities, including Jakarta, took to the streets to protest the mine's military guard.

Kalla said the government had no intention of stopping Freeport's operations or revising the firm's working contract as many Papuans have demanded. "We must respect the contract. We will evaluate it every five years, but will not revise it at the moment," he said.

The government granted PT Freeport Indonesia, a local arm of New Orleans-based Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold Inc., its first contract in 1967 and extended it in 1991, allowing the company to extract gold from the area until 2027.

Environmentalists and local tribespeople have urged the government to revise the contract to seek a bigger revenue split.

In Jakarta, hundreds of protesters rallied outside Freeport's offices for the second consecutive day, demanding an end to Freeport's operations and a thorough investigation into corruption, environmental destruction and human rights violations involving the mine.

The protesters from the West Papuan People's United Front clashed with some 300 policemen. One demonstrator, 21-year-old Meliana Gombo, was rushed to the nearby MMC Hospital with serious head injuries after she was badly beaten by a policeman.

In Papua, the provincial legislative council's deputy speaker, Komarudin Watubun, told Antara he would send a letter to the government demanding a suspension of Freeport's operations in Papua. This would give his office and the Papua People's Council (MRP) time to study the firm's two working contracts and seek a possible revision, he said.

The MRP planned to convene a plenary meeting to discuss the Freeport operations on March 22, he said.

Freeport protests continue in Papua

Jakarta Post - March 1, 2006

Jayapura, Papua – Protests against the mining firm, Freeport, continued in Jayapura on Tuesday, with some protesters staging an overnight sit-in at the provincial legislative compound.

The protesters are demanding the closure of the company, greater recognition of local people's rights and the release of Papuan students in Jakarta, who were arrested after setting fire to the building that houses Freeport's offices.

Provincial legislators, Komarudin Watubun and Hana Hikoyabi met the protesters, and told them that they agreed with the demands and would formally convey them to authorities in Jakarta.

Komaruddin said Papuans, most of whom have no idea about the content of the contract between Freeport and the Indonesian government, demanded some openness. "All this time has passed (since the 1970s when Freeport's operations began), and yet none of us even knows what the exact arrangements of the contract are...," he said.

Hana said the protests showed that injustice had been done. "The protest is an accumulation of years of disappointment. We hope PT Freeport is willing to open up, Freeport has to realize the gold, copper and anything it is mining in Timika, belongs not to them, but to Papuans, and the owners want to know what those miners are doing there," he argued.

The council plans to hold a special plenary meeting on March 22 to discuss the Freeport issue and the protesters' demands, and the conclusions will be delivered to the House of Representatives and the central government.

Mine protesters rally for third straight day

Dow Jones Newswires - March 1, 2006

Jakarta – Indonesian demonstrators rallied for a third consecutive day Wednesday in front of the offices of a US mining giant demanding that it cease operations in Papua province.

About 400 police ringed the high-rise building housing PT Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of New Orleans-based Freeport- McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX), where 100 demonstrators assembled. Unlike previous days, there were no scuffles.

Protesters claim that the company's Grasberg mine – which reportedly contains the largest gold deposits in the world – has not brought any benefits to local residents during its 40 years of operations. They also accuse Freeport of backing Indonesia's security forces in crackdowns against the local population.

"Freeport has to be closed because the environment has been damaged and many locals were massacred just because of its presence in Papua," said Marten Goo, one of the protesters.

Environmental groups accuse the multinational company of causing an ecological disaster by dumping tailings directly into once- pristine rivers that flow into the Arafura Sea.

Smaller protests were held in two other Indonesian towns.

In Makassar, on Sulawesi island, several dozen students carrying a "Close Freeport" sign gathered at a monument marking Indonesia's takeover of Papua from the Dutch in the 1960s. A similar demonstration was held in the city of Bandung, southeast of Jakarta.

Last week, Freeport had to halt operations at the mine in Papua - Indonesia's most remote province, politically and geographically - after 500 locals set up barricades on a road leading to the site. The desperately poor villagers were demanding the right to sift through waste rock dumped by the mine and sell tiny amounts of gold and copper, a practice the company says is illegal.

Operations resumed Saturday following negotiations involving local ethnic and religious leaders.

Military ties

US says reform of military on the right path

Agence France Presse - March 3, 2006

Jakarta – A US envoy said that ongoing reform in Indonesia's powerful armed forces (TNI) was on the right path and the United States wanted to provide more support for the changes ahead.

Washington has been "very satisfied with the approach of the TNI toward reform", despite past strains between the two nations, said Christopher Hill, visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

"We're confident that the Indonesian military is continuing on its reform path and we want to assist in this process," Hill told a press briefing in Jakarta.

Indonesia – the world's largest Islamic nation – and the United States resumed full military ties in November. They were severed over human rights allegations against the military in 1991 when Jakarta's forces launched a bloody crackdown on pro-independence protesters in East Timor.

Critics have blasted the resumption, saying that Indonesia's military has not yet taken full responsibility for its past rights abuses, particularly in East Timor before and in the run- up to its independence in 1999.

"Of course not everyone agrees with this... but I can assure you that the US government believes this is the right approach and this is what we are doing," Hill said.

Washington in January donated 11 million dollars worth of medical equipment – equal to a full-scale US military hospital – to be used as a fleet hospital by the Indonesian navy, in the first exchange since the ban was lifted.

"We're convinced that the Indonesian government and the Indonesian military in particular have moved quite clearly on the path of reform and we want to support it," the assistant secretary of state added.

Indonesia began reforming its military in 1998 after its autocratic former president Suharto stepped down.

Hill, who held talks on bilateral, regional and international matters with three Indonesian ministers earlier Friday, also said US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was expected to visit Indonesia on March 14.

Indonesia welcomes Aussie missile deal

Australian Associated Press - March 2, 2006

Australia's decision to buy long-range stealth cruise missiles for the RAAF will make Jakarta "feel safer", a senior Indonesian defence official said. The comment was another sign of warming defence ties between the two neighbours.

The federal government this week announced the purchase of the Joint Air-To-Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM, billed as "the world's most accurate cruise missile", in a $350 million deal with US manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

When Australia initially considered buying the weapons two years ago, Jakarta warned the introduction of the first stealth cruise weapon in South-East Asia would lead to a fresh regional arms race and fuel suspicions about Canberra's strategic intentions.

But under new pro-Western President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia has dropped its opposition to the purchase. "Their intentions are good," Dadi Susanto, Indonesia's Director-General of defence strategy said of Australia.

"We are not worried or afraid, especially as the relationship between Australia and Indonesia is very good right now. As a matter of fact, if countries neighbouring Indonesia have good weapons systems like this, we feel safer."

The JASSM, costing around $540,000 each and with a range of 400kms, was the most potent of several weapons under consideration for the RAAF to help counter the hole to be left by the looming retirement of the F-111 strike bombers.

The missiles will be fitted first to the shorter-range FA-18 fighters and eventually to the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter when it arrives from 2013.

The low-flying, hard-to-detect weapon allows aircraft to attack moveable and fixed targets including hardened bunkers from outside the range of enemy air defences.

A spokesman for Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono said the missiles would not create tensions in Jakarta "as long as they are not pointed at us".

Susanto said Indonesian defence chiefs had been briefed on the purchase and the reasons behind it by defence liaison officers from the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. "We are not surprised, as we have been notified about this several times now," he said.

The diplomatic turnaround is another sign of warming defence ties between Canberra and Jakarta since the 1999 nadir following Australia's military intervention in East Timor.

Former President Megawati Sukarnoputri made little effort to repair strains. But President Yudhoyono, a former general elected in 2004, counts Prime Minister John Howard as a friend and under his administration relations have warmed rapidly.

A group of 31 Indonesian special forces soldiers recently completed a training course with Australia's elite SAS troops in Perth, while on Monday Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said both countries may mount joint navy patrols to deter illegal fishing.

Pornography & morality

Designer, artists cut porn bill down to size at the House

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2006

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Edward "Edo" Hutabarat held up the coffee-table book he wrote on traditional Indonesian fashion, including attire with plunging necklines and tightly cinched corsets, during a House of Representatives hearing on the pornography bill. Known for his efforts to promote the kebaya traditional blouse, the designer said the tank-top also was part of Indonesian clothing. "Am I also subject to the bill?" Edo asked.

He was part of a delegation led by lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis who met with Commission III on legal affairs to discuss the recent case of models and photographers accused of obscenity.

A militant group reported models Isabel Yahya and Anjasmara as well as photographer Davy Linggar and arts curator Agus Suwage for pictorial during the CP Biennale 2005 Urban/Culture in Jakarta last year. Todung said criminalization of the arts may lead to self-censorship among artists, filmmakers and writers, which eventually would undermine Indonesia's cultural riches.

He warned the porn bill would cause social unrest if it was passed without accommodating the concerns of some groups in society. "Do we need the bill? Couldn't we just use the Criminal Code?" Todung said, adding that many articles in the bill would be prone to manipulation.

Critics say the bill, carrying heavy penalties for the display or promotion of pornography, infringes on the private domain. Articles ban kissing in public, sensual dance and the exploitation of sexual activity in literature, paintings, photographs or recordings.

Art scholar Aminuddin said a group could not brand something as pornographic, because it took "stages" to develop an understanding of an artist's intent. He said nudity and appreciation of the human body was part of the classical tradition.

"Nudity is certainly not obscenity," he asserted. "I understand your case. I don't agree with certain groups that are forcing the country to impose Arabic values on other groups here," legislator Eva K. Sundari of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said.

Deliberation of the bill has been prioritized by several Muslim- based parties, particularly the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP).

PPP legislator Lukman Hakim told the delegation that the arts should also be considered from a religious point of view. "PPP is not against art, but there should be some limitations," he said.

Separately, former president and PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, former House speaker Akbar Tandjung and former vice president Try Sutrisno urged legislators to be prudent in deliberating the bill.

"Don't let the bill disturb the lives of people because the essence of a law is for the benefit of the public," Megawati said in Denpasar, Bali, one of the main hubs of opposition to the bill.

Batam businesses decry porn bill

Jakarta Post - March 7, 2006

Fadli, Batam – Entertainment and tourism businesspeople in Batam expressed their concerns Monday over the controversial pornography bill following a meeting with a House special committee, but received little assurance their worries would be addressed.

At the meeting with the committee from the House of Representatives on Saturday, the businesspeople raised fears the bill, if passed into law, would have a negative impact on the island's tourism and entertainment sectors, as well as restrict people's freedom of expression.

Deputy head of investment and promotion at the Batam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), Jadi Rajagukguk, told The Jakarta Post the bill was rejected by representatives of the tourism and entertainment industries who attended the meeting.

"The draft bill is like the seed of a disease, and will make foreign tourists afraid to come to Indonesia," Jadi said.

Other associations which, alongside Kadin, opposed the bill, were the Association of Barelang Entertainment Services, the Association of Cultural Discussion, the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association and Batam's Travel Tour Association.

Jadi said that even before the bill had been passed into law, Barelang Police had started warning shops against selling revealing clothing and women not to wear such clothing in public, causing concern among the community.

"We heard that one shop opted to close after being warned by the police, and there are many shoppers at the malls who fear that the way they dress might cause the police to target them."

He expressed surprise at comments by members of the House special committee, who reportedly said they had not proposed the bill and did not necessarily agree with it, but were only doing their job in moving it through the House. "They told us at the meeting we should blame previous legislators since they drafted the bill," Jadi said.

Batam is experiencing a decline in tourist numbers. In 2004, the island city hosted over 1.5 million visitors, but in 2005 that number fell to just over 900,000. "I don't know what sort of numbers we will get next year, especially if we have this new law saying that dressing sexy is a no-no in Indonesia," Jadi said.

Chairman of the Indonesian Tourist Guides Association, Edy Surbakti, is also concerned the bill will have a negative impact on the number of tourists coming to enjoy the tropical climate.

"For tourists from Korea, China and European countries, tanned skin is a symbol of pride, showing they have been sunbathing in a tropical country," said Edy, who also questioned how the government planned to familiarize tourists with the bill.

Anas, a member of the Social Association of Indonesian-Chinese in Batam, said his group was against the bill as it failed to provide details on what sorts of clothing and which parts of the body were regarded as "pornographic" and unsuitable for public display.

"Some Chinese people in Batam wear sleeveless clothes and miniskirts, are these considered wrong? We're worried about this," Anas said.

It is also feared that the bill will restrict artists from expressing themselves, according to Samson Rambah Pasir, chairman of the Batam Art Council.

"Several dances from the Riau Islands seem like erotic performances, like the Joggi dance, which accentuates the woman's body, but it's not nudity. We're worried the bill will make people afraid to be creative," Samson said.

The bill, however, received support from the chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council in Batam, Asyari Abbas, who said the bill was written after receiving advice from representatives of all the country's religions.

"The concerns of businesses and artists are overblown. Let's wait and see the benefits of the law for young people in Batam. We need to protect them from the everyday images of pornography and sex," he said.

Cleric, legislator say porn bill needs more consultation

Jakarta Post - March 7, 2006

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The House of Representatives should exercise extra caution before passing the pornography bill into law because many of its contentious articles have not been resolved, a respected Muslim cleric says.

Cleric Mustofa Bisri of the 40-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama said legislators should listen to the opinions of many people from a variety of backgrounds and faiths before passing the bill into law. "The House should accommodate as many people's aspirations as possible," he told Antara in Semarang, Central Java, on Monday.

Mustofa, who runs a Muslim boarding school in Rembang near Semarang, said the bill contained no clear-cut definition of pornography. The existing vague definition could allow multiple interpretations and cause confusion and conflict, he said.

The content of the draft bill is currently being disseminated in selected provinces before it is passed. Particularly controversial articles in the law involve regulations on public dress and restrictions on nudity in the media and art. If the bill became law, women who bare their shoulders or legs or artists who include nudity in their work could be prosecuted for indecency and could be jailed or fined up to Rp 2 billion (US$217,503).

Strongest opposition to the bill has come from predominantly Hindu Bali, where nudity in certain contexts is an accepted part of the island's art and culture. Balinese also worry that tourism could be affected by the law – with holidaymakers forbidden from wearing revealing swimming outfits.

Balinese protesters have threatened to seek independence from Indonesia if the bill is passed as is. Opposition has also been voiced in Papua, another place where there are few cultural prohibitions on nudity, and in Batam, where tourism plays an important part in the island's economy.

Women's groups and artists throughout the country are also against the bill, which they say intrudes on personal privacy, curtails creativity and criminalizes women for their sexuality.

Mustofa criticized some Muslim groups that were trying to push the law through the House without proper consultation. The pressure was "a manifestation of panic from Muslims who have no self-confidence", he said. There was little transparency in the drafting of the bill, Mustafa said.

"It seems that certain Muslims are so worried about globalization and are unable to deal with it that they are resorting to speedily passing this law."

First drawn up in 1999, the bill had been shelved until last year when it was revived after pressure from Muslim-based parties concerned about what they perceived was the moral degradation of the nation.

A House legislator said the bill showed tolerance for pluralism was waning in this multi-religious and multicultural society.

Sidharto Danusubroto of the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle said pluralism was under threat as long the pornography bill existed in its present form. "There are certain groups who are forcing their ideology on others," Sidharto said.

He said the bill was unsuitable for Bali and Papua for cultural and religious reasons. "The bill is not urgent because the issues are already covered by the Criminal Code," he said.

A member of the Indonesian Ulema Council, Ma'ruf Amin, meanwhile, criticized people who were trying to "block, change and slow down" the deliberation of the bill, calling them "the liberal- minded who seek unlimited freedom".

Most people in Indonesia backed the bill, Ma'aruf said. "We urgently need it." Neither were Muslim groups forcing others to adopt their values, he said. "There will be compromises for sure. We do not want the law to force people to cover up their bodies completely. We are not rigid."

Details still fuzzy on changes to porn bill

Jakarta Post - March 6, 2006

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Following a visit by legislators to Bali, Batam and Papua to gauge public opinion on the pornography bill, it's still a guessing game whether there will be major changes to the controversial bill.

While House of Representatives special committee chairman Balkan Kaplale promised people in Batam there would be major changes to the draft of the bill, legislator Rustam E. Tamburaka said in Bali that "there may be some exceptions in the bill for Bali and Papua".

Members of the House committee returned Sunday from their visit to the provinces from where people had raised objections to the bill. A group of Balinese earlier told legislators how eroticism and sensuality were part of their culture.

In a meeting with several groups in Batam, Balkan had previously asked the participants to contemplate the timeliness of the bill, saying that a series of recent natural disasters and tragedies that hit Indonesia were "a warning from God".

"This bill is a part of our efforts to strengthen the moral fiber of the nation, some of which has been damaged," the legislator of the Democrat Party said, referring to prostitution, human trafficking and the debasement of women in adult magazines and tabloids.

Balkan added that of 167 groups and individuals invited by the committee to discuss the bill, only 22 rejected it, including well-known figures from the art world. However, he was at a loss for words when a number of participants bombarded him with questions.

One participant raised concerns that he would be arrested when going online to view a painting of a nude woman by Italian artist Michelangelo. Others questioned the possible arrest of athletes, who wear shorts or miniskirts, and models sporting revealing clothing in fashion shows.

Balkan only replied that the draft of the bill, containing 11 chapters and 93 articles, would see major changes during an upcoming deliberation on the bill next week.

However Balkan's colleague, Rustam, said in Denpasar there would be possible exceptions in the implementation of the bill in Bali and Papua due to their unique cultural traditions. "Both regions deserve consideration," he said amid a colorful protest against the bill.

The Golkar Party legislator said that the bill would respect the Papuan tradition of wearing the koteka (penis sheath) as well as foreign tourists who sunbathe in bikinis, because "it is the tradition they bring from their countries".

Balinese artists are also allowed to make nude sculptures or paintings, he added. Rustam added that legislators may scrap articles on penalties, which reach billions of rupiah, but did not elaborate.

Balinese legislator of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Ni Gusti Ayu Eka Sukma Dewi, said that she was opposed to the bill despite the fact that she was a member of the committee.

"It is useless for the government to discuss such a bill which displeases so many people, because it would waste time and money," she said as quoted by Antara newswire.

During a plenary meeting last September, all factions, PDI-P included, unanimously threw their weight behind the establishment of a special committee assigned to deliberate the draft of the bill, which is supported by Muslim-based parties. The factions have yet to officially announce their stance on the bill, but it appears that the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) is its main supporter.

Criticism of the bill includes its failure to clearly define those guilty of producing pornography materials, thereby victimizing women.

Bali bikinis to be exempt from crackdown

Australian Associated Press - March 6, 2006

A looming morality crackdown in Indonesia may spare Bali so bikini-clad tourists are not arrested on the beach.

A special committee in Indonesia's parliament is reviewing proposed laws to ban pornography, erotic dancing and even adults kissing in public across the mainly Muslim nation.

But one committee member said mainly Hindu Bali and restive Papua province could be given special status to reflect their different cultures.

But in a Sodom-and-Gomorrah style warning for the rest of the country, committee chairman Balkan Kaplale, who comes from the same Democratic Party as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said the laws were imperative.

Recent disasters like the Aceh tsunami, landslides and earthquakes were "a warning from God" about Indonesia's reform- era slide towards immorality. "This bill is a part of our efforts to strengthen the moral fibre of the nation," Kaplale told the Jakarta Post.

Indonesia's parliament, which contains a large bloc of Islamic- based MPs, wants to amend the criminal code to outlaw anything that could offend decency or "arouse lust" in children.

That includes husbands and wives kissing in public, unmarried couples living together and homosexual sex, along with any flash of thighs, bottoms or breasts, punishable by up to 10 years in jail and heavy fines of more than $A100,000.

The new laws are being pushed by Islamic-based parties, although the secular Yudhoyono has also complained about moral lapses like the fashion for bare belly-buttons.

After weeks of public rallies both for and against the measures in Bali, Jakarta and other major cities, Golkar party MP Rustam Tamburaka said tourists wearing bikinis and other skimpy swimsuits would be safe from arrest by police.

Papuan tribesmen wearing traditional penis-covering gourds known as koteka also had no reason for concern, he said.

"It is the tradition they bring from their countries," Rustam told the Jakarta Post. "There may be some exceptions in the bill for Bali and Papua."

More than 1,000 Balinese demonstrators last week gathered in front of vice-governor Alit Kelakan's office to protest against the bills and watch G-string wearing dancers threaten secession if the bills were passed into law.

Many major Indonesian artists and actors have also voiced opposition, claiming the crackdown would be a blow to human rights freedoms.

Balinese sculptors and artists have complained the laws would prevent them painting or making nude or topless statues, even where they reflect traditional temple art.

"In the past, Balinese women never wore a bra, yet the custom did not turn the society into a sex-craving, pornographically demented community," rally organiser Cok Sawitri said. Rustam said the changes, which could include dropping fines, would be considered this week.

Huge turnout as Balinese decry porn bill

Jakarta Post - March 4, 2006

I Wayan Juniartha, Denpasar – About 1,000 protesters here greeted a visiting delegation of legislators deliberating the pornography bill by threatening to organize acts of civil disobedience if it becomes law.

"We designed the rally to underline the open and tolerant nature of Balinese culture. That's the reason why the rally is filled with traditional art performances and music concerts," the rally's chief organizer, I Gusti Ngurah Harta, said.

A regional youth leader, who met with the House group, also warned that Bali would secede from Indonesia if the bill took effect.

"If this bill is passed, we won't hesitate to leave the Republic of Indonesia," Bali branch head of the Indonesian National Youth Committee, I Putu Gede Indriawan Karna, said to applause as quoted by detik.com.

Protesters came from all walks of life, numbering community activists, academics and ordinary citizens, and included a transsexual who took time to freshen up during the rally (photo above).

There has been widespread opposition to the bill, which critics say goes too far in taking a moralistic approach to clamp down on pornographic materials and obscene acts, which would also include public displays of affection. Women's rights activists fear women are particularly vulnerable to its misuse, while some ethnic groups, such as the Balinese and Papuans, have nudity as part of their cultural displays.

The rally opened at Ngurah Rai International Airport with dozens of cheerleaders welcoming the eight legislators upon their arrival.

Local punk and reggae bands, including popular Superman is Dead and Lolot, then took the stage at Puputan Margarana square with songs promoting freedom of expression.

In the afternoon, Cak performers, led by world renowned dancer Rina, enlivened the rally with their primal, trance-like display. Their powerful performance was followed by a riotous show of Joged Bumbung, Bali's most sensuous folk dance. Four female dancers, including a bare-breasted older woman, transfixed the audience.

They performed across the street from the building where the delegation met with Bali's vice governor Alit Kelakan as well as local community figures and scholars.

"Balinese arts and religious beliefs have never considered sensuality and sexuality as an impure, morally reprehensible thing. Instead, sensuality and sexuality are treated as natural, integral parts of our lives as human beings," another rally organizer, Cok Sawitri, said.

"In the past, Balinese women never wore a bra, yet the custom did not turn the society into a sex-craving, pornographically demented community."

A participant in the meeting with the legislators said they reminded them that Indonesia was not a monolithic state where one group could impose its values on the rest.

"The bill has blatantly ignored the fact that Indonesia comprises hundreds of ethnic groups with different cultural values and religious beliefs. The bill, which represents the moral values and belief of one single group, has the potential to cause the disintegration of the state," I Gusti Putu Artha said.

Women's rights activist Luh Anggraeni said the bill discriminated against women."It is as if the woman is the only party responsible for the nation's moral decadence. Most of the prohibitive articles in the bill are directed at women."

Participants also said the passage of the bill would inflict irreparable damage on the local tourism industry, the island's economic backbone, already hobbled by a downturn in visitors from two separate bombings in the last four years.

No thighs in 'moral municipality'

Jakarta Post - March 4, 2006

As if to keep up with other regions in the campaign for moral values, the Tangerang municipality is promoting what it calls "morality building" by enforcing anti-alcohol and anti- prostitution regulations through a series of raids.

The first target was sellers of alcoholic drinks. Five people have been arrested and put on trial. Two of the suspects were managers of Carrefour and Hyper Market located in the municipality. The Carrefour manager was fined Rp 6 million (US$645) and the Hyper Market manager Rp 3 million because of the alcoholic drinks on their shelves.

It was the turn of lades of the night Monday, and the public order officers arrested at least 30 women, who they decided were prostitutes. All of them now stand accused of violating Bylaw No.8/2005, which prohibits anyone from doing "suspicious things", which will be construed by the public order officers as prostitution.

Witnessed by thousands of people at the courthouse, several of the defendants pled innocent. The judge, however, fined them Rp 1,000 each and let them go. While those who admitted to suspicious behavior were fined between Rp 150,000 and Rp 550,000, or between three and eight days in jail if they did not pay the fines.

The Tangerang authorities may have claimed success in their morality building scheme, but there are serious and noteworthy issues that the authorities must handle more seriously in the future.

Some of the women arrested during the raids said they were not prostitutes. One woman, who is pregnant, asked the judge to summon her husband, which the judge adamantly refused. The judge banged his gavel, declared her guilty and ordered her to pay the fine. As she did not have the Rp 300,000 with her, she had no choice but to be taken directly to the women's penitentiary, and her husband had no idea where she was. She was later found to be an elementary school teacher and regular housewife.

Another woman, who was waiting for her husband in a hotel lobby, accompanied by a friend of her husband, had another story. She also fell victim to the morality raids and had to suffer through the same treatment as the teacher.

The judge said the women had violated Article 1 Paragraph 4 of Bylaw No.8/2005, which prohibits anyone from hanging around on streets, in hotel lobbies, open fields or squares, boarding houses, entertainment centers, coffee shops or other people's homes. No wonder the elementary school teacher was arrested, after all, she was waiting at a bus stop.

The Tangerang municipality may be proud of these raids to uphold what they assume to be "a responsible, honest and religious vision", which according to Islamic teachings is called akhlakul kharimah. But, from a legal point of view, the bylaw is discriminative and unfair.

It is not easy to explain suspicious behavior by a woman as decided by public order officers, who jump to the conclusion that she must be a prostitute. And why is the bylaw just targeting women?

Who will be held responsible if the housewives file lawsuits against the authorities for the embarrassment of being accused prostitutes?

What will the authorities do if a man sits in a hotel lounge waiting for a friend for a business meeting? Will he be picked up for violating the bylaw?

What would happen to a woman who has to commute from her office alone at night? The nation's Constitution guarantees freedom for all citizens to travel everywhere in this country at any time.

Instead of answering those questions accordingly, Tangerang Mayor Wahidin Halim insists that the society must follow the administration's akhlakul kharimah vision. The next move on the morality agenda, he stated, was greater efforts to uphold moral values, and so the focus will now be on schoolgirls' thighs and knees.

The mayor said that in the near future, all schoolgirls from elementary to high school would be required to wear skirts that cover the knees. He said female students would have to dress modestly, with longer skirts, without explaining the connection between long skirts and modesty.

There is nothing wrong with the mayor's moves. But, admiration of symbols like long skirts could be misleading. We do hope that the mayor is not of the opinion that schoolgirls who do not wear long skirts are promiscuous. The bylaw on schoolgirls' dress codes seems unnecessary in the first place. Concentrating on good governance and eradicating corruption, collusion and nepotism may be more appropriate and more useful to society.

The "moral municipality" has not been declared free from corruption, while abundant jobs, mostly infrastructure projects like road repair, need more serious attention than elementary schoolgirls' thighs and knees.

Human rights/law

Secrets first, information second, says government

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2006

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Legislation protecting state secrets should be passed before the freedom of information bill is made law, or there could be complications, the government says.

In the first hearing with the House of Representatives on the information bill Tuesday, Information Minister Sofyan Djalil proposed that the deliberation of the state secrets bill should come first to prevent classified information from being released.

Sofyan said first the government should define the kind of information that could be accessed by the public. "Information on certain issues such as security and foreign policy are generally classified," he said.

Activists have called for the state secrets and information bills to be combined for reasons of efficiency but the government has rejected the idea.

"Even the president of the United States is authorized to issue regulations securing certain information from public access," Sofyan said. In the US, there were more than 140 laws restricting information, he said.

Sofyan cautioned that if the law was not written properly, it could lead to "the misuse of information for a goal that is against the law".

Political factions in the House are scheduled to present their views on the bill in a week or so before the public and business groups have their input.

Legislator Theo Sambuaga, of the House Commission I on defense, said freedom to information was guaranteed by the Constitution.

"The future law is meant to assure the principles of transparency in public policy-making and as a means for checks and balances on the system.

"It guarantees people's rights to get complete, accurate and up- to-date information from state institutions," he said.

However, the legislators also agreed that certain information needed to be kept secret for security reasons.

Anti-discrimination bill needs overhaul

Jakarta Post - March 4, 2006

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The anti-discrimination bill currently before the House of Representatives is too narrow in scope and will do little to end unfavorable treatment against minority groups, say legislators, analysts and activists.

Nursyahbani Katjasungkana of the National Awakening Party and Sutradara Gintings of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said the draft law was "too shallow" because it didn't address many of the underlying problems that triggered social conflicts.

Legislators needed to get down from their ivory towers to see what was going on in society and then redesign a more comprehensive bill, they said.

Nursyahbani said the bill only targeted racial and ethnic discrimination in the country. "What about gender and religious discrimination? Socio-economic discrimination and many other forms of injustice?" she told a discussion organized by the PDI-P here on Thursday.

Many women were abused at home and in the workplace and were being deprived of their basic rights, but no protections were given to them in the bill, Nursyahbani said. Neither would the bill do anything to stop the continuing religious discrimination in the country.

"(Under the new bill) could we bring Religious Affairs Minister Maftuh Basyuni to court for his recent statement that the Ahmadiyah (sect) should abandon Islam and create a new religion?" she said.

Ahmadiyah is a small Islamic group that recognizes another prophet after Muhammad. Its followers have been attacked and arrested in many regions across the country after the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued a fatwa that declared the group a heretical sect.

Harry Tjan Silalahi, a social analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said the bill made too much of the May 1998 riots.

This gave the impression the bill was aimed at compensating Chinese-Indonesians that suffered at the hands of their countrymen during the disorder, he said.

"There are too many other racial and sectarian conflicts which are not mentioned in the bill, ranging from the 1965 coup attempt to the sectarian conflicts in Ambon (Maluku) and Poso (Central Sulawesi). We need not only to eliminate the discrimination against Chinese-Indonesians but also many other forms of discrimination," said Harry, who is of Chinese descent.

Discrimination continued to exist in the country because the process of nation-building was not yet complete, he said.

Some of the best laws against discrimination already existed in the nation's revised 1945 Constitution.

"Our founding fathers were really aware of the importance of living in togetherness – which they saw as being part of a national consensus. Discrimination and social conflicts have emerged because the virtues of common sense and togetherness are now absent from society," he said.

Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, the chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights, said the government did not need another anti-discrimination law because all forms of discrimination were already dealt with in the 1999 Human Rights Law and many other United Nations covenants the government had signed.

Instead it should ensure the existing laws were properly enforced, he said.

"We already have the Constitution and many laws guaranteeing human rights and the equal treatment of citizens, but so far there is no legal certainty and the rules have not been properly or fully enforced," Abdul said.

Overcrowded and short staffed: Picture of city prisons

Jakarta Post - March 3, 2006

Jakarta – The Jakarta administration conceded Thursday that high levels of overcrowding and low levels of staffing in city prisons may have left the door wide open for four inmates to escape from Cipinang Penitentiary on Tuesday.

"Prisoners sleep like sardines packed in a can. We need to take this matter seriously and do something about it," Jakarta Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo said after meeting with officials from the Justice and Human Rights Ministry to discuss plans to improve prison conditions.

Jakarta has three main prisons: Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta, Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta and Pondok Bambu Penitentiary in East Jakarta.

Salemba prison has a maximum capacity of 826 prisoners but, as of Feb. 13, it houses 4,562 inmates, who are watched over by 255 guards. Pondok Bambu women's prison has 1,732 inmates – though its maximum capacity is 504 – and 234 guards. The main Cipinang prison, which has a maximum capacity of 1,789, houses 4,257 prisoners.

The ministry's Director General of Penitentiary Security Djoko Mardjo said generally there are 45 inmates to a cell, which are designed to accommodate seven. Djoko said overcrowding in prisons inevitably led to lapses in security.

The four escaped from Cipinang Penitentiary early on Tuesday by punching a hole through an outer wall. The escapees were identified as Yonathan Womsiwor, who was serving an 11-year sentence for murder; Luhur Subagyo Utomo, who was sentenced to eight years for dealing drugs; Bambang, who was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for drug possession; and Willy Pranata, who was serving nine years for bank robbery.

Shortages of guards in city prisons may have increased inmates' chances of escape. "It has been suggested that we recruit more guards to bolster security. But we have to recognize the costs are high – we have to pay their salaries every month until they retire," Djoko said.

Ideally, there should be one guard to five prisoners, he added. "At present, one guard has to watch over 60 or 70. I think we can still guarantee security but not orderliness. For instance, the prisoners are not allowed to bring money or cell phones inside, but we sometimes find those things on their personage," he said.

The ministry's Director General of Penitentiaries Mardjaman agreed with Djoko. "It's a classic problem, but that's a fact, we are lacking facilities and guards. We are constructing new buildings and replacing the old ones in the Salemba and Cipinang prisons. The new building in the eastern part of Cipinang prison can hopefully start taking inmates next April – while we are constructing a hospital for the prisoners and more cells," he said.

Although high-end security systems are standard in prisons overseas, Mardjaman said such a system was a long way off here. "It is costly, we don't have the money," he said.

In a related development, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani said he was coordinating with the West Java Police, East Java Police and Lampung Police to recapture the escapees. "They come from those three areas, and it is likely they will return to their hometowns," Firman said.

Citizenship law flawed, activists say

Jakarta Post - March 2, 2006

Hera Diani, Jakarta – The 1958 Law on Citizenship is doing more to harm Indonesian families than it does to help or protect them, experts say.

Most people affected by the law are transnational couples, who are subject to many restrictions. The law contains odd requirements that result in legal complications for couples raising a child, or even maintaining unity as a family. Observers say there are many flawed articles in the law that need revising.

Article 23 (c) of the law stipulates adopted children automatically lose their Indonesian citizenship and gain their adopted parents' nationality. Activists fear the clause could encourage child trafficking and the abandonment of children.

"Indonesia has the fourth-highest number of child trafficking cases in the world and we're afraid that the country will continue to ignore its responsibility to protect its children," said Dewi Tjakrawinata, the head of the Aliansi Pelangi Antar Bangsa organization for transnational parents.

The recent case of Tristan Dowse, an Indonesian boy who was adopted by Irish couple at the age of two months but two years later was returned to an orphanage in Jakarta, was an example of how the law further complicated an already complex situation, she said.

Because the boy had become an Irish citizen – he was ineligible for free education and had to pay for visas and other immigration expenses. The financial problem was only solved when an Irish high court recently ruled the boy's adoptive parents must pay regular maintenance for the four-year old. The boy is now living with his birth mother. "This could happen to any child," Dewi said.

Another article obliges every citizen living abroad to regularly report to an Indonesian embassy or consulate for five years or lose their citizenship. This creates difficulties for migrant workers living in small cities or remote places far from an Indonesian mission.

"Thousands of migrant workers in Malaysia have lost their Indonesian citizenship status because of (the law). One (stateless) migrant lived in Malaysia for 37 years. Those workers are not only often unaware of the regulation, they also live far away from the consulate and usually their employers keep their passports," Dewi said.

Women's activist and lawyer Asnifriyanti Damanik said the law was full of discrimination against women, particularly those in transnational marriages. Security was lost the moment an Indonesian married a foreigner, because they could not sponsor their partner for a visa. If the partner could not work here the family could break up, she said.

Neither could an Indonesian wife win custody of her children if the couple divorced or split because the children of transnational marriages automatically received their fathers' citizenship.

Activists are urging the House of Representatives to revise the law. "The problem of citizenship is not just for women and transnational families, it applies to all of us," Asnifriyanti said.

Popular resistance

Protests continue over Poso regent's credibility

Jakarta Post - March 2, 2006

Ruslan Sangadji, Palu – Poso Regent Piet Ingkiriwang might be experiencing sleepless nights after residents and civil servants in the Central Sulawesi town continued protesting against him Wednesday following a report that his university degree was issued by a questionable institution.

In their protest, some of the civil servants in the regental administration even went on strike in a display of nonconfidence for the regent.

According to a report by the Coalition of People for Peace in Poso to the Central Sulawesi Police, it questioned Piet's undergraduate and master degrees.

In the written report, provided for journalists by the police, his master's degree was given by the Jakarta Institute of Management Studies, which is among 30 educational institutions that is not accredited with the National Education Ministry.

When contacted by The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, Piet said he would let the police deal with the matter. "It is not a fake diploma. We'll see. Since the case has been reported to the police, let the police decide," he said.

With the report, he became one of 29 troubled officials in the province who were suspected of using fake diplomas or degrees, including those coming from the illegal institutions. Two others were Tolitoli Regent M. Ma'ruf Bantilan and Tolitoli regental council member Makmur Hakka.

Central Sulawesi Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Rais Adam said Wednesday the police would be careful in dealing with such cases.

Responding to the protest, coordinator of non-governmental organization the Poso Center, Yusuf Lakaseng, expressed concern over the impact of the protests on the administration.

"We're very worried that the heated political situation in Poso might lead to the administration's collapse and might cause provocative acts that lead to open conflict within the community," Yusuf said as quoted by Antara.

He said the ongoing protest by thousands of residents and civil servants in open criticism of Piet's leadership showed that the administration was out of touch with the needs of residents in the conflict-torn area. "In his leadership, he should not use only an authoritarian approach," Yusuf said.

He encouraged the administration to allow people's participation. "We hope Regent Piet Ingkiriwang is willing to change his leadership style since it doesn't meet the psychological needs of residents after the conflict," Yusuf said.

However, he also called on residents and civil servants to be objective, and to criticize the administration's performance rather than individuals. "The criticism should not be based solely on subjective matters for certain political interests, especially not because of a difference in religion," he said.

Hunger striker hospitalized on day 18

Jakarta Post - March 1, 2006

Jakarta – One of the hunger strikers who claim to have suffered health problems because of the ultra-high voltage electricity wires (Sutet) in their village was admitted to Cikini Hospital on Monday, his 18th day of fasting.

Kuswiyanto, 24, a resident of Langensari in Semarang, Central Java, is in critical condition. He was diagnosed with liver, kidney and bowel problems.

Kuswiyanto is one of 18 men and women from a number of villages on Java who sewed their lips together to protest the proximity of ultra-high voltage wires to their property. The protest took place on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta.

The spokesman of the Solidarity for Sutet Victims, Mustar Bona Ventura, said Kuswiyanto was found unconscious on his bed.

"We check their condition on the hour. The difficulty is, sometimes we cannot differentiate between a sleeping person and one who has fainted," he said.

Though the protest began two months ago, Mustar said the government had not offered any solutions.

The number of protesters is expected to swell as people from 146 villages that have ultra-high voltage power lines travel to Jakarta to voice their complaints.

War on terror

Indonesians face East Java terror probe

Australian Associated Press - March 7, 2006

Two Indonesians suspected of having links to the Bali bombings and an attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta are being interrogated in East Java.

News of their arrest came as the Indonesian parliament ratified two international treaties the government says will help it fight the global war on terrorism.

Deputy national police spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam said officers caught Arif Hermansyah and Ahmad Basyir Umar on Friday and would decide their status soon.

Alam said the two men had close links to Noordin Top and his slain partner Azahari Husin, leading operatives of the al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiah militant group, which is blamed for the Bali bombings.

"These arrested two are old players. We have seven days from the date of arrest before we decide whether they could be suspects," he said, adding both were arrested in the East Java city of Surabaya.

"We believe Arif gave (explosives) to Noordin M Top prior to the Kuningan bombing," Alam said, referring to the 2004 bomb attack at the Australian Embassy, located in Jakarta's busy Kuningan district.

Alam added police believe Umar hid Top and Azahari before the latter was killed during a police raid last year in the East Java retreat area of Batu.

Top, whom authorities believe is an expert in recruiting young suicide bombers among Indonesia's poor, has become South-East Asia's most wanted Islamic militant since the death of Azahari, Jemaah Islamiah's alleged chief bombmaker. Police believe Top is still on Java, Indonesia's main island.

Indonesia's parliament, meanwhile, has ratified two global treaties against terrorism – the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Financing and the 1997 International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombing.

"Only with effective international cooperation can terrorism be eliminated," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told the parliament. "Our support for these two conventions will smooth that cooperation and strengthen our legal institutions and capacities in combating terrorism." Wirajuda did not mention when the president would give his final seal to conclude the ratification process.

Indonesian authorities have blamed Jemaah Islamiah for a number of major bombings against Western targets in the world's most populous Muslim country in recent years.

Top and Azahari, both from Malaysia, have been key players in most of the attacks, police say.

A number of junior militants linked to Top have been arrested in the past months, but Indonesian officials and Western governments say Top and his followers are still a threat, despite the arrests and the killing of Azahari.

Army man gets four years for aiding Jihadists

Jakarta Post - March 3, 2006

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – The Bandung Military Court sentenced Chief Pvt. Yuli Harsono on Thursday to four years in prison for illegal possession of explosives, which he was planning to give to a militant Muslim group, the Indonesian Mujahiddin Council (MMI).

The court also ordered that Yuli be dishonorably discharged from the Indonesian Military (TNI).

The sentence was a year less than that demanded by the prosecutors, who charged him with weapons possession and suspicion of abetting the reactionary Islamist group with close ties to several convicted terrorists, most notably, MMI's founder Abu Bakar Ba'asyir.

The panel of judges, presided over by Lt. Col. Hazarmein, did however, surmise that Yuli's crimes were committed without the consent of TNI officers. "Such acts betray the soldiers' oath and endanger the lives of all citizens of Indonesia," Hazarmein said.

Both the prosecution and defense teams were considering appeal, but no decisions were announced as of Wednesday night. "The verdict of four years is too heavy for me. To be discharged (from the TNI) is already enough punishment," Yuli said.

During the inquiry process, the military investigators found scores of bullets and projectiles of various caliber, along with a hand grenade at his house in Cimahi, West Java and his wife's house in Purworejo, Central Java.

The ammunition was obtained while Yuli was the quartermaster at a war training complex in Cimahi. The chief private later absconded with the explosives and apparently was on the verge of passing it on to MMI operatives.

Commenting on this part of the verdict, Yuli strongly denied there was a connection between the ammunition and MMI. "The was no connection whatsoever. Those are my personal belongings," said Yuli, who has been in detention since June 2005.

The verdict was handed down after just five hearings with testimony from seven TNI witnesses and five MMI devotees.

Corruption/collusion/nepotism

Graft courts in regions vital: NGOs

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2006

Jakarta – The government should take the fight against graft to the regions where malfeasance is still widespread among officials, the National Coalition of NGOs against Corruption says.

The activists called for the government to establish an anticorruption court in each province, saying regional courts could not be trusted to deliver proper verdicts free from political interference. So far, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has only one court in Jakarta, while the majority of corruption cases have come from outside the city.

Indonesian Corruption Watch head Teten Masduki said Monday a lack of supervision from Jakarta had fueled corruption in local administrations. Police, officials and courts were doing little to stop graft in the regions despite the government's national campaign, Teten said.

"There is a very large gap between what is promoted in the capital and what is actually happening in the provinces," West Nusa Tenggara coalition head Ervyn Kaffah said. "SBY's shock therapy on corruption in Jakarta is also only happening in Jakarta," Kaffah said.

The provinces' elite often used the military to threaten people who attempted to expose corruption in their administrations, while police often failed to process reports about graft, he said.

The NGOs demanded police and prosecutors establish an agreed standard for handling graft cases. Personnel who were found to have been involved in graft or were not properly following up corruption cases should face the full weight of the law, they said.

Graft cases needed to be handled transparently and accountably and cases that had stalled should be reevaluated. Investigations should focus on the losses they caused to the state and finding the perpetrators, they said.

Some cases have stalled for no apparent reason. While Southeast Sulawesi Governor Ali Mazi has been reported to the police in connection with the illegal mark-up of a power generation project worth Rp 20 billion, the case has yet to reach the courts.

Meanwhile, a resettlement project scam allegedly involving Alor Regent Ans Takalapeta, which cost the state Rp 1.3 billion, was dropped when East Nusa Tenggara police decided to halt all investigations.

Neither were all of those accused of graft being investigated, the activists said. Out of the 45 former members of the Pontianak Regional Legislature who were accused of embezzling Rp 2.8 billion from the regent's budget, only five were eventually investigated.

Then there was the case of the 17 members of the Depok Legislature, each convicted of embezzling a total of Rp 7.3 billion from Depok's budget and sentenced to two-year jail terms. Despite the verdict, none of the councillors were in prison, the NGOs said.

While criminals went unpunished, whistleblowers continued to fear for their personal safety and risked prosecution, they said.

Unconvinced public seeks one-roof court for graft

Jakarta Post - March 6, 2006

Jakarta – Observers of the country's judicial system have suggested a one-roof process under the Anticorruption Court, viewing the current system as failing in the prosecution of corruption cases.

Professional Civil Society chief Ismet Hassan Putro says the court system has failed to manage corruption cases, as seen in the exoneration of ICW Neloe and other suspects in the recent Bank Mandiri corruption trial at the South Jakarta District Court. The verdict drew harsh criticism about the lack of commitment of judges and prosecutors to fighting corruption.

Ismet agreed with the suggestion of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) last week that corruption cases, either from the KPK or the Attorney General's Office (AGO), should be tried in the Anticorruption Court.

Under current law, the Anticorruption Court is only authorized to try cases from the KPK, while cases from the AGO go to other courts.

Separately, Indonesian Corruption Watch chief Teten Masduki said he agreed with the expansion of the Anticorruption Court's authority.

"The Anticorruption Court should not only try cases from the Corruption Eradication Commission, but also cases from the AGO," he said, adding that the other courts still could not be trusted.

He said many defendants in corruption cases tried in the court system were released, and that of the 47 corruption cases handled in courts other than the Anticorruption Court, half had resulted in sentences of under two years. "In the Anticorruption Court, the sentences can be up to life," he said.

The Anticorruption Court, with no defendants so far having escaped punishment, is seen as firmer in trying corruption cases than the other courts. A defendant appealing his sentence also faces the strong possibility of it being increased instead of dismissed.

Ismet said defendants tried in regular courts often escaped prison, not just because of the judges who presented the verdicts, but also because of weak charges from prosecutors.

He also pointed out that the AGO was lacking in human resources. He noted that the best prosecutors had been transferred to the KPK, leaving the AGO with prosecutors who lacked knowledge, especially in banking matters.

"Most prosecutors do not have banking in their academic background. Then they must face bankers who know the banking world inside out. They don't have a chance," he said.

Indonesian Corruption Watch chief Teten Masduki disagreed with Ismet, saying there were still many good prosecutors in the country, but added that prosecutors should seek out the assistance of experts in financial and banking matters when dealing with corruption cases such as Bank Mandiri.

Commenting on the criticism, AGO spokesman Masyhudi said prosecutors did seek expert advice when trying cases. "We ask the Supreme Audit Agency or banking experts for their opinions."

Masyhudi had no objections to the one-roof process suggestion, saying it would be a good idea, but that it depended on the government and the legislature to provide the necessary regulations.

Ismet also called for the government to make legislation that would allow corruption cases from the AGO to be tried in the Anticorruption Court.

Critics slam 'faltering' fight against corruption

Jakarta Post - March 2, 2006

Jakarta – The government and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) came under fire Wednesday from legislators, legal experts and observers for their failures in the battle against corruption.

Legislator Taufiqurrahman Saleh of the National Awakening Party (PKB), Sulton Huda of the Muslim organization Nahdhatul Ulama and Ismet Hassan Putro, head of the Professional Civil Society, agreed during a discussion on corruption Wednesday the government lacked the political will to fulfill its commitment to eradicate graft.

At the discussion, also attended by lawyer Lukarni and advocate Indra Sahnun Lubis, the panel of speakers criticized the institutions responsible for fighting corruption, including the KPK, for being selective in which cases they chose to pursue. The Attorney General's Office also was faulted for its lack of progress in prosecuting corruption cases.

Sulton of Nahdhatul Ulama said the government had failed to demonstrate it was serious about stamping out graft. He said the government's campaign was "only small talk, it's only on the surface".

Ismet Hassan Putro also said the antigraft campaign had yet to progress beyond the point of talk. "The fight against corruption is still only Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's personal pledge, and has yet to be implemented as government policy," he said.

He noted the presidential palace itself was not corruption-free, pointing to the recent scandal surrounding letters allegedly issued by Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi about the renovation of the Indonesian Embassy in Seoul.

Ismet said there was a lack of coordination between the President's promises and the actions of the legal authorities.

Separately, President Yudhoyono, speaking from Cambodia on Wednesday, was quoted by Antara as saying improvements were needed in the battle against graft. He said stamping out corruption was both a priority and official policy.

At the discussion on corruption, Ismet said the Corruption Eradication Commission continued to shy away from big graft cases. "The KPK is picky about the cases it deals with," he said. He pointed out that of about 9,000 reports filed on possible graft, no cases of corruption, collusion and nepotism had emerged from the Attorney General's Office, the police or state companies.

In addition to these three institutions singled out by Ismet, the commission also has never looked into possible corruption cases involving the military or the presidential palace during its two years of operation.

Separately, Indonesia Corruption Watch chief Teten Masduki told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday the KPK was not living up to its role as the "superbody" of corruption eradication.

According to the 2002 law under which the commission was established, one of the KPK's roles is to supervise the prosecution of corruption cases. However, the commission has yet to play this role.

Sulton said that unlike other criminal trials in which the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty, corruption trials should operate under an initial assumption of guilt, as suggested by former president Abdurrahman Wahid.

Legislator Taufiqurrahman said the country needed a more reliable legal framework to assist authorities in stamping out graft. He added that the battle against corruption was a daunting task. "Reform must be carried out over and over again to fight corruption."

Regional/communal conflicts

Calm returns to Ambon after police, military clash

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2006

M. Azis Tunny, Ambon – Calm returned to Ambon on Tuesday following a weekend of violence between police and military personnel that left one police officer and one soldier dead, and one civilian injured.

Residents have resumed their daily routines in the conflict-torn city, and joint police and military patrols are helping to keep the peace.

Maluku Police chief Brig. Gen. Adityawarman said Tuesday both the police and the military had taken internal measures to prevent the situation from worsening. "But this case will continue to be investigated and will be dealt with transparently," he said.

So far, only one police officer, Chief Brig. Imanuel Mahise, has been arrested. He is believed to have started the violence between police and military personnel by allegedly attacking a soldier.

Indonesian Military chief Air Marshal Djoko Suyanto said Monday the clash between several soldiers and police officers had been triggered by individual problems, and described those involved as "teenagers who (were) still emotional".

Adityawarman expressed concern the incident would undermine security in Ambon ahead of the self-proclaimed South Maluku Republic anniversary in April. The situation, he said, might be manipulated by people seeking to sow conflict in Maluku. "So we want to find those responsible for the clash," he said.

Pattimura Military Command chief Maj. Gen. Syarifudin Summah urged people, particularly police offices and soldiers, to practice restraint. "We always have a rise in security disturbances in the lead-up to April. We hope police and military personnel will not be provoked," he said.

A source at the military command said measures taken to prevent a larger clash included restrictions on personnel wanting to leave offices and compounds, both at day and night. Only personnel from certain units, such as internal affairs, are allowed to leave police and military complexes, and only after their commanders have granted them permission.

Meanwhile, Bishop PC Mandagi of Amboina diocese called on the police and the military to immediately resolve the matter. "The clash shows they're not disciplined. The police and the military should make people feel safe, not cause problems," he said.

Police officer questioned over clash in Ambon

Jakarta Post - March 7, 2006

Jakarta/Ambon – An Ambon Police officer was questioned Monday following a clash between police and military personnel which sparked a weekend of violence in which two people died.

Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Air Marshal Djoko Suyanto said Monday the clash between several soldiers and police officers last week was triggered by individual problems and had nothing to do with any perceived rivalry between the military and the police.

"It was unplanned," he said on the sidelines of a meeting with House of Representatives Commission I on defense. He described the men involved as "teenagers who are still emotional".

There has been a series of conflicts between the military and the police since the separation of the police from the TNI at the beginning of the reform movement in 1998.

In Ambon, chief of the Maluku Police's security unit, Adj. Sr. Comr. I Wayan Suparman, said Chief Brig. Imanuel Mahise was questioned over his alleged involvement in the beating of a soldier, First Brig. Aprisol A. Luik, last Friday.

The clash allegedly started when Aprisol, who was on his way home to Teluk Ambon Baguala, stopped his motorcycle outside the office of the paramilitary police (Brimob) unit in Tantui. Imanuel is alleged to have approached and attacked the soldier, and was allegedly soon joined by other police officers.

Aprisol ran to a nearby police post, where he was picked up by members of his unit and taken to the army hospital.

Following the incident, two men – a police officer on Friday and a soldier on Saturday – were stabbed to death. A university student was seriously injured after police officers allegedly fired shots into a crowd on Saturday.

The tension subsided Monday after a team from the National Police and TNI Headquarters was deployed to Ambon to deal with the matter.

Maluku Police chief Brig. Gen. Adityawarman said Monday the investigation into the cases would involve officers from both the TNI and the National Police. "The joint investigation will gather information and we will discuss it together," he said.

He blamed the weekend's tension on Friday's incident. "It started with the stabbing and went on and on. The police officer who started this will be punished," Adityawarman said.

Separately, Col. M. Jayusman, who heads the military police at the Pattimura Military Command, told The Jakarta Post on Monday that so far no soldiers had been arrested over the violence.

Tension intensifies in Ambon city

Jakarta Post - March 6, 2006

M. Azis Tunny, Ambon – Peace was shattered in conflict-torn Ambon in Maluku province when a soldier was stabbed to death Saturday and in a separate incident, a student was seriously injured when the police allegedly shot into a crowd of people.

Both incidents took place following tension between the police and military personnel in Ambon after the death of Second Brig. Arnold R. Wakolo who was stabbed to death by eight unidentified people outside a restaurant Friday night. Wakolo, who carried a rifle on his back, could do little to repel the attackers and died on the way to the hospital.

On Saturday, a military personnel, Second Brig. I Putu Haryanto, was stabbed to death and died on the spot. His body was flown to his family in Bali Saturday.

Following the two incidents, tension heated up in Ambon, with both police officers and military personnel, all carrying firearms, traveling in groups.

"This is the first time I have seen traffic police carrying guns since I have worked as a motorcycle taxi driver," Saiful Mahu, 31, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

According to chief of Maluku Police, Brig. Gen. Adityawarman, the tension was triggered by previous act when a military personnel from Pattimura command was hit by a police officer when passing on a motorcycle outside the police paramilitary unit headquarters in Tantui, Ambon on Thursday.

"This was then followed by the stabbing incident and it went on. The police officer who started this will be given a severe sanction," Adityawarman said Sunday.

Separately, chief of Pattimura military command, Maj. Gen. Syarifudin Summah, deplored the conflict between his personnel and the police. "I've coordinated with the police chief since the Tantui case and we've been conducting joint patrols since Friday night," he said.

The situation made many residents decide to stay inside at night after widespread rumors that there were road blocks at several points close to the military and the police areas.

The situation worsened when police officers allegedly shot into a crowd in Batumerah village in Sirimau district Saturday night, injuring 21-year-old Saiful Wakano.

The student of Pattimura University School of Engineering, who was on his way home after doing his homework, was taken to Al- Muqadam hospital for treatment to remove a bullet that passed through his back and into his stomach.

"I didn't know what was going on. I had just finished my homework. I stopped when I saw the crowd but suddenly, police cars showed up and (the officers) shot at us," Saiful said at the hospital, saying the car stopped some 35 meters away from the crowd and some 10 police offices got out of the cars.

"We heard the first shot, maybe it was a warning shot," Saifudin Japsuha, 24, a Batumerah resident who was at the site, told the Post.

When the crowd did not immediately disperse, the police officers walked toward the people who ran in panic. At the same time, he said he heard repeated shots. "Maybe some of those shots hit one of our residents," Saifudin said.

Saiful's family asked the authorities to find the shooter and punish him, urging both the military and the police to solve their conflict to prevent more civilian victims.

"The military and police should protect people, not create problems," said Saiful's uncle Abidin Wakano.

"The conflict between the two institutions has caused anxiety among the people, at a time when people's lives had returned to normal after years of conflict. The conflict could disrupt recovery and reconciliation," he said.

Chief of Ambon and Lease Islands Police, Adj. Sr. Comr. Leonidas Braksan, said the police would be responsible for the case and find those responsible and would pay for Saiful's medical treatment.

Gender issues

Group says women at more risk of abuse

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2006

Jakarta – Cases of violence against women sharply increased last year and it is feared they will soar in the future with more regions introducing shariah bylaws, which trample on women's rights, a report says.

The National Commission on Violence Against Women, in conjunction with International Women's Day which falls Wednesday, released a report Tuesday on violence against women in 2005.

Commission chief Kamala Chandrakirana reported a 45 percent increase in reported cases of violence against women, from 14,020 cases in 2004 to 20,391 cases in 2005. Some 82 percent of the cases were domestic abuse.

She said the increase showed an iceberg phenomenon, a situation in which the complete picture is hidden beneath the surface, but later revealed. This indicates the number of reported cases in 2005 represents the actual extent of violence against women in Indonesia, she said.

Kamala said women had been gaining confidence about reporting the violence they suffered or witnessed since the Domestic Abuse Law came into effect in 2004.

However, Kamala said the problem was not entirely a domestic issue. She said the state was also perpetrating violence against women with the deliberation of the pornography bill.

Local administrations are also at fault for producing bylaws attacking women's rights on the basis of morality or decency and even religion, she said.

Kamala said there were at least 16 policies, at both national and regional levels, restricting women's space in the public sphere, as well as controlling their dress and behavior.

She said the pornography bill was not actually about pornography, but rather a systematic discrimination by the state against women. "The bill is discriminative against women and it runs against human rights," Kamala said. She said that about eight articles in the bill stopped women from wearing revealing garments or dancing in a suggestive manner.

Violators of the pornography bill could face up to 10 years' prison or a fine of between Rp 200 million and Rp 1 billion. If the bill is passed into law, the government will have to establish a special body to enforce it, Kamala said. She said the state, through that special body, would be a perpetrator of systematic discrimination against its citizens.

Seven cities and regencies – Cianjur, Garut, and Tasikmalaya in West Java; Tangerang in Banten; and Enrekang, Maros, and Bulukumba in South Sulawesi – through the authority given to them by regional autonomy, already have bylaws on how women should dress and act.

A recent case in Tangerang – which has a bylaw outlawing prostitution – outraged women's rights groups. A pregnant elementary school teacher, who was waiting on the side of the road for her husband to pick her up, was taken for a sex worker by public order officers and promptly arrested. Kamala said the bylaw left a lot of room for error.

The bylaw bans people, either in public places or locations visible from public places, from soliciting, either by words or signals.

Trafficking of women on the rise in North Sumatra

Jakarta Post - March 1, 2006

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – An organization has warned that the trafficking of women from Medan to Malaysia is increasing in intensity, with 16 new cases in the first two months of the year.

The executive director of non-governmental organization Child Protection and Analysis Center, Ahmad Sofian, said the center reported 60 cases of girls and young women being forced to work as commercial sex workers in Malaysia last year. Already in the first two months of the year, the center has dealt with 16 cases.

"From the cases of trafficking we have found, there's an indication that North Sumatra is being used as a transit point by the trafficking syndicate," Sofian told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He said the syndicate picked North Sumatra for a number of reasons, including its proximity to Malaysia and the ease with which a passport could be obtained there.

Before leaving for Malaysia, many of the trafficking victims, who come from all over Indonesia, stay in Medan to get passports and identity cards made, he said, accusing the syndicate of working with immigration officials to facilitate the departure of the women.

Responding to the increasing number of cases of trafficking from the province, the head of the North Sumatra Police's crimes division, Sr. Comr. Ronny Sompie, said police were working hard to put an end to the crime. He blamed the proximity of Malaysia for the rise in the number of trafficking cases.

"We are working with the Malaysian police to track down trafficking cases, and several people have been arrested. We have been assisted by several non-governmental organizations that focus on this issue," Ronny said.

Sofian's center helped send 11 Indonesian women back to their hometowns Saturday.

One of the women, "Nunung", said she was tricked into working as a commercial sex worker without pay in Malaysia for four years. The 21-year-old native of Pontianak, West Kalimantan, could not believe she was again a free woman.

"Apart from not getting paid, it was hard even to eat. I went through all that for four years working as a sex worker in Malaysia," Nunung said at Polonia Airport before she left Medan for Pontianak.

The 11 women returned home with nothing more than small bags of clothes. Nunung said she was ashamed to return home without anything for her family, but she had no other option.

"It's OK that I have brought nothing home. I just feel grateful that I am able to go home rather than suffer in Malaysia," she said.

She left for Malaysia with a man named Zul in 2002, who promised her work as a cellular phone shop attendant with a decent salary.

But upon arrival in the country, the junior high school graduate was kept at a house and forced to work at a karaoke bar in Pucung, Malaysia, until she was apprehended by Malaysian police.

The center's coordinator, Azmiati Zuliah, said the 11 trafficking victims sent home Saturday, including Nunung, were "rescued" when apprehended by the police, who took them to Semenyeh camp in Kajang, Selangor Dahrul Ehsan, Malaysia.

"When we heard the trafficking victims were apprehended by Malaysian police, we, with the help of North Sumatra Police, worked to help send them back home. The effort was fruitful as they were able to return to their hometowns," said Azmiati.

She said many girls, mostly elementary and junior high school graduates, who were promised decent work and high salaries in Malaysia ended up as commercial sex workers.

Health & education

How the drug war is being lost

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2006

[The Battle of the Banners is underway in Surabaya and many other cities. They scream "SAY NO TO DRUGS". They're part of Indonesia's war against narcotics – a conflict doomed to fail, according to experts. The Jakarta Post contributor in Surabaya Duncan Graham reports.]

Dony Agustinus is truly junkie tired, as the addicts say. Though he's only 25, he carries his lean body like a man who's long passed 40 and seen too much, crippled with the cares of the world.

Yet he hasn't had a hit for almost five years. Since June 6, 2001, to be exact – nine years after he started. The reason? "To be cool".

Like most reformed addicts he knows the precise moment he made the decision to quit. He'd just been diagnosed as HIV positive, probably through sharing dirty needles.

"I didn't know anything about the disease," he said. "I thought I had only six months left and I didn't want to die. So I stopped." He's lived to turn his corrosive, negative experiences into positive action by starting a drug rehabilitation center in the hill town of Trawas outside Surabaya.

Wahana Kinasih was funded by Dony's mother, Margarethna Nanik Sunarni. She stayed the distance with her son through the soul- scarifying years searching for a cure in Indonesia and overseas.

Medication, counseling, shock therapy, religion, brutality – Dony's had them all. He knows more about drug addiction and failed treatments than a hall full of experts who've never felt the soaring thrill of a hit and the wrenching agony of withdrawal.

But he has to sit politely in drug conferences and listen to doctors, government workers, police and others tell addicts to pray feverishly, drink coconut milk, see a paranormal – or just decline.

"The SAY NO TO DRUGS campaign isn't working for the same reason it didn't work in Australia 20 years ago," said Joyce Djaelani Gordon.

"It's pushed by people who have limited understanding of substance abuse, addiction, social marketing and behavior change. If they'd done solid research, they would know the message say no is translated as do. Basic psychology shows most people want to try what they're told not to."

Joyce is a psychologist and founder of the Yayasan Harapan Permata Hati Kita (YAKITA) addiction and treatment center at Ciawi, Bogor, West Java. She works with her husband David, also a psychologist and former user, helping addicts. Their strategy is based on a psychological, spiritual approach and the 12-step Narcotics Anonymous program.

This has been built from the internationally famous and proven Alcoholics Anonymous strategy. This provides an instant aftercare program through regular confidential group meetings where experiences are shared.

NA supporters believe addiction is a disease. Users have to take responsibility for their actions and recognize a power greater than themselves. Treatment has to involve the family often the root of the problem. The spiritual principle is: Trust God, love yourself and help one another.

Indonesian statistics, as former president Megawati Soekarnoputri once observed, are not to be trusted. Officially, the police say they handled almost 6,000 drug cases in Jakarta last year and made almost 8,000 arrests.

The Jakarta Narcotics Agency reckons there are up to 15,000 injecting drug users in the capital alone. NGOs talk about a pandemic and say maybe a quarter of a million people around the archipelago already have HIV – with the number growing daily.

One study involving the National Narcotics Agency and the University of Indonesia claimed Indonesians are spending more than Rp 12 trillion (US$ 1 billion) on drugs.

Whatever the real numbers no one denies there's a serious problem. The disputes come over ways to treat it.

At one extreme is the roughhouse, heavy-penalty approach. As the junkies say – "if your only tool is a hammer, you see every problem as a nail." When politicians announce "crackdowns" and "tough stances" they know they're on a vote-winner. Electorates everywhere find the issue dirty and too difficult to unscramble. Druggies are not nice people. There's little sympathy – until a family member becomes a user. Then the awful education begins.

"Recovery is a long process," said David Gordon. "There can be four, five or more relapses before an addict gets clean. Parents get tired, disgusted and depressed. They lose faith in 'cures' and grow wary of treatments."

In 2001 then president Megawati declared a "war" against drug trafficking to much acclaim. But despite his past experiences and present front-line commitment Dony refuses to be conscripted. The bumper sticker on his little red car reads: DRUG ABUSE IS BAD; THE DRUG WAR IS WORSE.

The US has been running its drug war for years. Millions of dollars have been spent and nearly 500,000 are behind bars for drug crimes. Yet drugs get cheaper and more readily available.

The US-based Drug Policy Alliance advocates public health alternatives to the criminal justice approach; this means treatment instead of jail for users. The Alliance says the war on drugs has become a war against public health, constitutional rights and families who suffer dreadfully when a breadwinner is jailed.

The reasoning runs that a war has a clearly defined enemy, while the drug issue is too complex for them-and-us, good-and-bad solutions. But like all snappy slogans the appeal lies in the mind-numbing simplicity.

We get warm fuzzies by sponsoring a SAY NO banner, even when it hangs alongside a slick ad promoting cigarettes – which many say is the gateway drug to narcotics.

Drugs have founded a major legal industry in Indonesia. The police, lawyers, jailers (50 per cent of prisoners have been sentenced for drug crimes), bureaucrats, doctors, clinics, journalists, ad agents and many other professionals are making money. They do so by catching, prosecuting, defending, denouncing and treating users. There's no shortage of work.

Attitudes alter when the kids of the powerful fall victim. When former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke revealed his daughter Roslyn was a user the image of the druggie as a down-and-out lout who deserved no pity took a battering.

The PM's admission encouraged others to be frank, showing that drug abuse has no class, education, social or religious barriers. Public discussion opened the issue and the old taboos collapsed. A new campaign began.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said Indonesia is committed to fighting AIDS, but there is no nationally agreed strategy on prevention and intervention.

"Countries that have adopted harm-reduction programs (like needle exchanges, factual information and easy access to condoms) have brought HIV/AIDS under control," said Joyce.

"However, Indonesia and the US, where they've focussed on eliminating illicit drug use have seen the diseases spread rapidly." Commented her husband David: "Indonesia has plans for action, but no action. Few have any idea what to do."

Government still dragging feet on bird flu

Jakarta Post - March 6, 2006

Jakarta – The deadly avian influenza virus continues to take its toll on the population as the government discusses the formation of a national commission on bird flu.

The Office of the Coordinating Minister for Public Welfare had promised to establish a national commission on bird flu early this year, almost three years after the initial outbreak of avian influenza in the country in 2003.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, however, is yet to sign into operation the commission that could speed up action on bird flu.

The seriousness of the problem is evident, with Indonesia now having the highest fatality rate after Vietnam, with 70.3 percent of suspected bird flu patients dying. Moreover, the country has the highest number, five, of cluster cases in the world.

Bird flu is endemic among poultry in 26 of 33 provinces in the country, with birds in 161 cities and regencies exposed to the H5N1 virus. Six of the provinces have reported human deaths.

With the commission not yet established, ministries such as the Health Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry are alone in handling the increasingly serious disease.

An official at the Center for Indonesian Veterinary Analytical Studies, H. Soehadji, said Tuesday the government lacked coordination and focus in its handling of the disease.

A national strategic plan has been set into place with 10 main points to accomplish. These points include controlling avian influenza in poultry and in humans, protecting high-risk groups, increasing integrated surveillance, capacity building of medical workers and laboratories, and research.

Other points are the restructuring of the poultry industry, strengthening legislation, monitoring and evaluation. However, the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Public Welfare, charged with the coordination of ministries in the handling of bird flu, faces difficulties with no national commission to support it.

Soehadji said that because the country was now dealing with a widespread disease, the commission was needed to break through sectoral and regional barriers. "This commission is needed because in this special autonomy era, the central government cannot just give orders to local administrations."

An expert adviser to the public welfare minister, Emil Agustiono, who has been appointed a member of the national commission, also agreed on the importance of the commission.

He said Monday integrated special body that could cut through the bureaucracy was needed to halt the spread of the disease.

"There's a bit of difficulty in coordinating, because the Agriculture Ministry is not under the Office of the Coordinating Minister of Public Welfare," he said.

He added that hopefully next week the President would legalize the commission. Besides coordination, Emil noted that financial problems were also a factor slowing down the handling of the bird flu problem.

International organizations such as the World Bank, which have promised to help the country, have yet to provide funding for either mass culling or medicine stockpiling.

Emil said the donors' delay in granting funding was probably because they first wanted to see proof of Indonesia's commitment to handling the disease.

He noted that last week, the World Bank's country director to Indonesia, Andrew Steer, promised to donate US$10 million in the form of a grant,

The World Bank, when asked for confirmation, said they were planning to send a team to assess the possibility of granting the funds needed by Indonesia, but had yet to specify any amount.

The Agriculture Ministry's director general of farming, Mathur Riadi, said the government has allocated Rp 30 billion for the culling of about three million birds exposed to the virus in 26 provinces.

Armed forces/defense

More marines implicated in marijuana bust

Jakarta Post - March 7, 2006

Jakarta – Following the arrests of two soldiers Saturday for transporting marijuana, the Marine Corps conceded Monday that at least four other marines could be involved.

It vowed to take stern measures against any member of the marines who was transporting or selling drugs.

Navy spokesman Commodore Malik Yusuf said the marine's internal affairs officers had confirmed the involvement of four other marines. He said he would not reveal the names or the roles of the four as the investigation was ongoing.

"We take this matter seriously and, if they are proven guilty, we'll see to it that they are severely punished," he said. He said the corps would take over the case from the police because active soldiers were involved.

Pvt. Efrizal was arrested on Saturday with about 199 kilograms of marijuana after he led police on a high-speed chase along local turnpikes. The marijuana's estimated street value is about Rp 360 million (about US$37,894).

Another member, whose identity was not revealed by the corps, was arrested later in the afternoon on the basis of information given by Efrizal. The two were detained at the South Jakarta Police station before being transferred to Marine Corps Headquarters in Cilandak, South Jakarta.

It is no secret that many military officers take up extra work to make ends meet. A number of them have ended up involved in serious crime.

Meanwhile, South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Wiliardi Wizar said that, although the police were not handling the case, they could still track down any civilians who were involved.

An investigator, who asked not to be named, said the police had gotten the names of the four marines from text messages on Efrizal's cell phone.

"After he (Efrizal) was arrested, we checked everything including the messages on his cell phone. There are five messages that implicate the four marines," he told The Jakarta Post.

Williardi said that, a few hours after Efrizal's arrest, South Jakarta Police detectives tracked Pvt. Misbach, 31, to Ciganjur intersection in South Jakarta.

"In his text message, Misbach said he wanted to buy 5 kg of marijuana," Williardi said.

In preliminary questioning, Efrizal admitted to police it was his second time transporting marijuana from Aceh to Jakarta. "Last month, he successfully brought 50 kg (of marijuana) to Jakarta," Williardi said.

Efrizal, who is Acehnese, drove his own car from Aceh to Jakarta, with the packages of marijuana inside. Sporting his marine beret and uniform, Efrizal was not checked when boarding the ferry from Bakaheuni Port in Lampung to Merak Port in Banten.

"The customs officers neglected his car because he was in uniform. But it is impossible that they were not at all suspicious because it was such a huge amount of marijuana," Williardi said.

He surmised that Efrizal set off with 200 kg of the drug but gave a kilogram to customs officials in Merak and Bakaheuni to smooth his passage. "...that's why we need to press on with this investigation, because there are some missing links that need to be explained," he said.

Military loses 14 million dollars in graft: Army chief

Agence France Presse - March 7, 2006

Jakarta – The Indonesian army has lost 129 billion rupiah (14 million dollars) in an alleged embezzlement scheme involving a colonel and an official from the state bank Mandiri, it has been reported.

The colonel, who was also the director of the army's housing fund Ngadiman, was detained last month along with bank official H.P. Simbolon, on suspicion of conspiring to embezzle some 29 billion rupiah.

But the Koran Tempo quoted Army Chief General Joko Santoso as saying that under the scheme, Ngadiman also stole some 100 billion rupiah that was supposed to be used to set up a foundation, on top of the original amount.

The foundation was to provide free education for children of soldiers, but stipulated that the army must first put up 100 billion rupiah as collateral.

After agreeing to give the foundation the money in July 2004, the army discovered late last year that it was bogus, Santoso said.

"We checked and the money turned out to be missing," Koran Tempo quoted him as telling a parliamentary meeting Monday.

Jakarta police detective chief Syahrul Mamma told AFP in February that Simbolon had already confessed to transferring 29 billion rupiah into the colonel's private account, which was managed by his branch, in 2004.

Simbolon also admitted he had been paid 800 million rupiah (87,000 dollars) by Ngadiman in May 2005 to issue a fictitious cheque, which the colonel later gave to his supervisors during a routine fund inspection. The embezzlement was uncovered when the cheque bounced.

No military spokesman was immediately reachable for comment. Corruption is rife within Indonesia's armed forces, according to anti-graft watchdogs.

TNI seeks entry into practical politics

Jakarta Post - March 7, 2006

Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – At a glance, there was nothing significant about the proposal by departing Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto that soldiers be allowed to exercise their right to vote in the 2009 general election.

The general's statement, made around the time he was being replaced by Air Marshal Djoko Suyanto in the middle of last month, should simply have been ignored, as it was made by an officer who was leaving his post and thus had no authority to issue strategic policies.

Some observers have taken Endriartono's remark as trying to influence his successor, delivering a "must-do" list to Suyanto.

This is certainly not unprecedented. A few days before he was replaced as TNI chief by Endriartono in June 2001, Adm. Widodo AS made the equally controversial announcement that the TNI wished to remain in the national legislature until 2009.

What made Widodo's statement so controversial was that it was made while deliberations were underway on the bill on general elections – submitted by the government in May 2001 to the House of Representatives, and which proposed allowing members of the TNI, along with the National Police, to vote in the 2004 elections.

Widodo was referring to the 2000 People's Consultative Assembly decree that granted seats to the TNI/National Police in the Assembly until 2009, in exchange for which members of the military and police would not be allowed to vote in elections. The decree also states that both forces must remain neutral and stay out of politics.

Widodo's statement was strongly criticized by the public and the House/People's Consultative Assembly, which responded by issuing a regulation that abolished the "automatic representation" of the TNI/Police in the House and/or Assembly in the 2004 elections. At the same time, the regulation delayed giving the vote to TNI members until 2009.

However, unlike Widodo's statement, which received near unanimous rejection from the public and the House/Assembly, Endriartono's proposal has divided the nation.

Those who back Endriartono base their argument on the 2003 laws on presidential elections and legislative elections, which grant all Indonesians – regardless of their occupation – the right to vote in the elections. On the other side, those who oppose the proposal say it could lead to the sort of military abuses the country witnessed in the past.

Despite the splitting of opinion, there are questions about just how significant Endriartono's statement really is, given that if the proposal were endorsed, it would only affect some 500,000 votes of active military soldiers, roughly equal to one seat in the House.

But we should not forget that in a direct presidential election, 500,000 votes could be enough to swing the election for a candidate.

And that figure is even larger if you include active officers of the National Police, who are eligible to vote in the elections and might be influenced by the existing chain-of-command principle applied in both the military and police institutions.

Include family members of active and retired TNI soldiers and police officers, grouped in the Association of Retired Indonesian Military Personnel, the Association of Wives of Indonesian Military Personnel, the Association of Children of Active and Retired Indonesian Military Personnel and different police organizations, then the proposal for TNI soldiers to be given the right to vote in the 2009 elections becomes much more significant.

It is not inconceivable that, if allowed to vote, the military could decide a direct presidential election. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono received 69,266,350 votes, or 60.68 percent of the total vote in the 2004 presidential election, with many observers pointing to his military background as the reason for his strong showing.

Perhaps now is the time for the country to allow military soldiers and police officers to exercise their right to vote in elections.

But first we need clear regulations to prevent this huge potential block of votes from being manipulated to support a presidential candidate, without thought for that candidate's track record, credibility, capability and, last but not least, acceptability.

Business & investment

Review mining contracts: Activists

Jakarta Post - March 7, 2006

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – A band of former 1980s student activists have joined the chorus of protests against the mining industry here, demanding the government review all work contracts with mining companies.

The ProDemocracy network, a group consisting of former student activists, many of whom were arrested during the Soeharto regime for demanding land reform, urged the government to reform the country's mining industry because they said it had failed to improve the welfare of Indonesians.

The group urged the government to review all working contracts with mining companies to seek better revenue splits in production contracts. It should also clamp down on officials who issued licenses for firms that polluted the environment, they said.

"If the government fails to re-acquire the country's natural assets from these companies, people's living standards will never increase," ProDemocracy secretary general Ferry J. Juliantono said to a gathering of about 250 political activists.

Indonesian Forum for the Environment head Chalid Muhammad said the work contracts of mining and energy companies should be reviewed because 85 percent of the companies working here were foreign owned.

"If we don't review the contracts, the nation could go bankrupt because its natural treasures are being taken away in exchange for minimal compensation," he said.

Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry director general Simon Sembiring said those who opposed mining were not looking at the wider contribution of the sector.

Claims miners only contributed between Rp 4 trillion and Rp 7 trillion (US$435-761 million) in annual revenues to the government were gross understatements, he said. "What (activists) often cite is non-tax revenue, but the industry has contributed much more in tax payments," he told The Jakarta Post.

Last year, the industry had contributed more than Rp 17 trillion to government coffers – Rp 12.9 trillion in tax payments and Rp 4.7 trillion in non-tax payments, he said. "This year, we are targeting about Rp 17.9 trillion in state revenue from the sector," he said. Mining firms also employed about 90,000 workers.

Simon said the working contracts of about 40 mineral and coal mining firms could be reviewed only if the government and the companies agreed to do so. The government already carried out routine reviews of revenue sharing agreements in the sector because prices fluctuated every year, he said.

Government open to further duty reductions: Official

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2006

Anissa S. Febrina, Jakarta – Following complaints from local manufacturers over the extent of recent reductions in import duties, the Finance Ministry's tariffs committee will accommodate further requests for lower duties on imported raw materials, an official has said.

"There will be no 'third-round' of reductions, but we recognize the need to reduce the duties on some goods based on individual requests," said the chairman of the tariffs committee, Anggito Abimanyu.

The tariffs committee announced a second round of import duty reductions on Feb. 1, and will hold further discussions on possible duty reductions for additional products and the gradual harmonization of different types of duties by 2010.

The government has imposed import duties since 2004 on certain agricultural, fisheries, pharmaceutical and metal products that should have comparative advantages or are considered economically, socially or politically sensitive.

However, manufacturing companies have complained that this has made the import duties on some raw materials higher than those on processed and assembled goods.

The president of Japanese electronics manufacturer Toshiba, Yuji Kiyokawa, pointed to the high import duties on components and steel slabs – which are used in the assembly of electronics goods – as an example of the sort of problems the tariffs committee had to address.

"The government imposes duties of between 15 and 25 percent on components and steel slabs," Yuji said. "If these duties were lowered, Indonesia would clearly be more competitive." He explained that as the investment climate changed quickly, especially in the Southeast Asia region, companies were now more willing than ever to relocate. "Firms will go to those places that enjoy high levels of competitiveness," he warned.

Separately, Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) vice chairman Rachmat Gobel said that the import duties on steel slab needed to be reduced.

He said that the import duties on upstream steel products, for example, could reach up to 20 percent while those on downstream products ranged between only 5 and 12.5 percent. Upstream steel products are used in the manufacture of electronic goods and machinery.

Kadin has repeatedly urged the government to reduce the import duties on raw materials to avoid Indonesian manufacturing companies being reduced to little more than packagers.

Kadin skeptical about new investment policy

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2006

Jakarta – The business community, tired of the government failing to deliver on promises, is demanding it come through this time by implementing its latest economic policy package to increase investment and infrastructure development in the country.

"Implementation is certainly the key word here. The government must declare this year the year of implementation – of actually carrying out its planned policy actions," the chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), M.S. Hidayat, said Tuesday on the sidelines of the powerful business group's annual gathering.

Although the business community welcomes and supports the policy package, Hidayat said there was inevitable skepticism from past experience where similar policy announcements proved hollow.

"We don't have to go too far back and only have to look at last October's incentive policy package, which has been hampered because many regulations related to its implementation have yet to be amended.

"This also happened to the Infrastructure Summit, as many investors cannot commence with their projects due to similar regulation obstacles," Hidayat said, referring to government's offering of 91 major infrastructure projects to investors last year, with Kadin the event's main sponsor.

The government last week issued a package of 85 policy actions in five sectors – bureaucracy, taxation, customs and excise, labor and small and medium-sized enterprises – that it plans to implement within the next three years to improve the investment climate.

This follows a similar package of 153 policy actions for infrastructure development, aimed at encouraging more private participation through fiscal incentives.

Hidayat added that the implementation timeframe was too long. "I also doubt the policy actions can be implemented in time if they are based on laws still being deliberated in the House of Representatives," Hidayat said.

"The policy actions should be based on presidential regulations or decrees, for example, so they can be executed promptly, parallel to the amendment of the related laws." Hidayat said the government also should focus on eradicating the chronic problem of the high-cost economy, an action which would not only support the policies, but also strengthen local businesses for investment and exports.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the National Economic Recovery Committee, Sofjan Wanandi, stressed the importance of consensus in the political domain for the successful implementation of the policies.

"Everyone must agree with the improvement and increase of investments, and the government must see to this," he said. "Let's not say we support the policy packages, but later badger and politicize every investment project for our own political interests." Sofjan said the government must implement the policy packages by 2007 at the latest.

"If it's later than that, then we will have lost the momentum to fix our economy," he said. "This is because political tensions will emerge in 2008, as everyone gears up for the 2009 General Elections." Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono, who attended the gathering, asserted the government was serious about implementing the policies, and invited Kadin and the public to set up an implementation monitoring team.

Maspion hit by strike, competition

Jakarta Post - March 6, 2006

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – Household goods manufacturing company PT Maspion has been hit by the double blow of cheaper products from China and Vietnam, and a massive strike by workers demanding higher pay.

With cheap products from China and Vietnam flooding into the domestic market, Maspion, which has 51 factories in East Java that employ a total of 18,000 people, is struggling to maintain its competitive edge.

Many consumers are turning to imported products because they are generally cheaper. This is combined with a slump in industrial production at the company following the domestic fuel price increases.

And late last month, thousands of Maspion workers took to the streets of Surabaya, forcing management to give in to their demand for more pay. The strike placed the chairman of the East Java legislative council's public welfare commission, Saleh Mukadar, in a difficult position.

Saleh had the striking workers demanding Maspion's management be required to pay them the revised minimum monthly wage of Rp 685,500 (US$74.10) for Surabaya, from the previous minimum wage of Rp 655,000. At the same time, Alim Markus, the president of Maspion, was protesting that if the company was required to increase salaries, it would be forced to shut down some of its factories.

Saleh quoted Alim as saying that if the workers' demand for a raise was approved, Maspion would have to close two of its factories in East Java, resulting in massive layoffs.

"Even if the workers had not gone on strike and halted production, we are already suffering loses. It's very difficult to meet workers' demand," Alim said as quoted by Saleh.

Saleh has received similar complaints from other businesspeople affiliated with the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) on the revised city minimum wage.

Apindo has filed a lawsuit with the Surabaya State Administrative High Court against the East Java gubernatorial decree on the revised minimum wage.

It was on the basis of this lawsuit the management of Maspion finally gave in to the workers' demand and raised their wages by Rp 30,000 per month, on the hope the court would throw out the revised wage and the company could roll back salaries.

A hand-written order on the raises was issued Feb. 27, signed by Alim Markus, who is also chairman of the East Java branch of Apindo, and Andi Tjandra, Maspion's human resources director, as well as the chairman and vice chairman of the legislative council's public welfare commission.

However, Apindo's lawsuit against the gubernatorial decree was rejected by the court March 3. The court found that the deliberation of the revised minimum wage was legal and Apindo had no grounds to call for its repeal.

After the court's decision, workers began demanding Rp 711,000 a month. Maspion has refused this demand, saying it is above the city minimum wage and the fuel price increases had left the company unable to pay workers any more.

Workers have returned to work due to dismissal threats if they continued their protests.

"President Susilo should open his eyes because all of this was the consequence of the increase in fuel prices, not to mention the planned increase in electricity rates. I don't know when this madness will end," Saleh said.

Exports at risk amid persistent allegations

Jakarta Post - March 6, 2006

Anissa S. Febrina, Jakarta – With the failure to properly address recurring transshipment and dumping allegations against Indonesian businesses, analysts say the government should learn that it's better to act now than pay later.

The long overdue response to complaints from Indonesia's trade partners – especially the United States – on rampant illegal transshipment of textiles and shrimp, as well as dumping allegations on paper products, puts future exports of the commodities at risk.

The US has threatened to impose premium import duties on exports of textiles and to temporarily halt imports of shrimp from Indonesia due to suspicions the commodities originated from China and Thailand.

"There is an immediate need to curb illegal transshipment and respond to dumping allegations to avoid exports of the commodities from being banned entirely," Centre for Strategic and International Studies economist Yose Rizal Damuri said last week.

Transshipment, a legal measure in the ordinary course of business, becomes an unlawful practice when undertaken to circumvent trade laws and other restrictions applicable to the shipment.

The US imposed a quota on imports of China's textile and garment products last year. Since then, exports of the products from Indonesia to the US have increased significantly. "Chinese manufacturers choose Indonesia because it is easier to obtain an illegal certificate of origin (COO) here," Damuri said.

Illegal transshipment involves claiming a false COO to circumvent quotas, avoid paying higher duties such as antidumping or countervailing duties or to receive benefits from special trade programs.

Unlawful transshipment can establish an erroneous restraint level on a host country based on the level of unlawful transshipped goods, thereby restricting legitimate manufacturers.

The Trade Ministry limits the issuance of the COO to specific areas, such as Java, North Sumatra, Batam and Bali. However, it is still easy to acquire a fake COO in Indonesia, a source close to the ministry said, "for only US$3,000 to $4,000".

Damuri said the government should impose strict sanctions on those proven to have done such criminal conduct.

Meanwhile, for lined-paper products, the US Department of Commerce said that it was conducting further investigations on alleged dumping of the products. A country can impose antidumping duties on products sold at a lower price than the price on the home market to protect its own industry.

The Trade Ministry's director for trade safeguard, Martua Sihombing, said the government had sent a letter denying the dumping allegations from the US. "The private sector must work very closely with us in this matter to be able to pass the investigation phase and prove that we did not take such a (protective) policy, or it would hamper our exports' sustainability," Martua added.

In 2003, the US Department of Commerce imposed antidumping import duties on farm-raised shrimp from China, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Brazil and Ecuador. Four Indonesian companies were under investigation for alleged transshipment of the products from China and Thailand. Then fisheries minister Freddy Numberi said that his office would revoke licenses of the companies if they were proven to have committed illegal practices, Antara newswire reported.

Investment fears over mine protest

Sydney Morning Herald - March 4, 2006

Mark Forbes, Jakarta – The Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has intervened in the growing controversy surrounding Papua's giant Freeport mine, warning that continuing, violent demonstrations could scare off investors, and questioning the protesters' motives.

Dr Yudhoyono said he would meet senior ministers to seek a resolution to the crisis surrounding the world's largest gold mine, sparked 11 days ago when tribesmen armed with bows and arrows confronted guards who prevented them searching for gold in Freeport's tailings.

Although the tribesmen lifted a blockade of the mine last weekend, protests in Jakarta and Papua have continued to call for Freeport's closure, linking the dispute to the province's struggle for greater autonomy and benefits from its natural resources.

Together with a deadlock between the state-owned oil company Pertamina and Exxon Mobil over the right to manage a $2 billion offshore oil project, Dr Yudhoyono is concerned his quest for increased foreign investment could suffer.

The causes of the Freeport conflict must be urgently identified and tackled, he said. Funds contributed by Freeport to the local community must be distributed fairly. But he said some elements behind the protests might not be concerned about problems at the mine.

Yesterday's Jakarta Post suggested provocateurs might be trying to drive down Freeport's share price after a government edict that the company sell 10 per cent of its shares locally.

Violent protests could deter foreign investors, Dr Yudhoyono said. "They'll see what is being done to businesses that invested here and it will scare them away." A solution must be found. "If it's about Freeport's funds for community development, then discuss it," he said.

Dr Yudhoyono is facing criticism for failing to implement a deal for greater autonomy for Papua, the scene of a violent, long- running independence struggle.

Protesters have linked Freeport to claims that Jakarta and multinational corporations are environmentally and financially pillaging the resource-rich province. Freeport is Indonesia's largest taxpayer, contributing more than $150 million a year to the state.

Dr Yudhoyono also issued a broadside to Pertamina's management, which is in a six-month stand-off with Exxon over the rights to develop the rich Cepu oil field. He said the state-owned oil firm needed restructuring and had "run slow, half-baked and ineffective".

During a controversial visit to Burma Dr Yudhoyono called on the regime to allow access to regional monitors. He confirmed he did not raise the plight of the imprisoned democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and called for Burma to be given time to implement democratic changes.

Indonesia still has work to do, economists says

Jakarta Post - March 1, 2006

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – The country's often gloomy business and economic front received a much-welcome boost this week, with several positive reviews from international agencies.

Global credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service announced it may raise Indonesia's debt ratings on continuing sound fiscal management, while global money-laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said it was no longer imposing tight monitoring on the country.

While the reviews may help lift the local financial markets, analysts are warning the government against prematurely patting itself on the back, with a way to go on the road to economic recovery.

"The reviews are, of course, good news for the economy, but we have to remember that they focus more on the macroeconomic side, so their impact is mostly limited to the interests of the country's haves and foreign investors," said Bank Mandiri chief economist Martin Panggabean.

"What is more important now is how the government can translate this into the microeconomy, into the real sector, with more significant impact on the general public."

While acknowledging the positive sentiment the reviews would bring to portfolio investment in the stock, bond and forex markets, Martin urged the government to up efforts to stimulate the labor-intensive manufacturing sector, such as the auto and cement industries. Both have suffered a slump in sales due to last year's economic slowdown amid high inflation and interest rates.

Moody's said Monday it was considering upgrading Indonesia's B2 debt rating on the government's ongoing achievement in maintaining the state budget deficit under 1 percent of GDP. This comes after Standard and Poor's raised its outlook on Indonesia's B+ rating early in February.

Higher ratings and positive outlooks lower issuer's borrowing costs – good news for the government's plan to offer some US$1 billion worth of global bonds sometime next month. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Bank Indonesia Deputy Governor Hartadi A. Sarwono are currently on a roadshow to major world financial centers.

The FATF, meanwhile, announced last Wednesday that Indonesia, after being removed from its list of noncooperative countries last year, was no longer under its monitoring because of improved legal policies in tackling money laundering practices.

Before issuing the money laundering law, Indonesia's country risk status saddled local firms with higher premium and stricter procedures with their international counterparts on financial transactions.

Echoing Martin's view, Bank International Indonesia chief economist Ferry Latuhihin said the positive impact of the reviews would likely be limited to mere indications the economy was improving.

"But that still relies more on the government's own efforts, not just from good reviews or better ratings," he said. "The government must improve the tax system and (curb) bureaucratic red-tape to attract long-term foreign direct and portfolio investments."

Government, business rebuked over research, technology

Jakarta Post - March 1, 2006

Jakarta – The government is doing almost nothing to support research and technology development in the country, investing less than half a percent of the nation's total gross domestic product in this important sector, scientists say.

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) deputy head Lukman Hakim said despite the government declaring 2005 and 2006 the Indonesian years for science, it had only invested 0.3 percent of national GDP in research and technology.

This amount was far lower than other Southeast Asian countries, which were investing an average of 2.2 percent of their GDP in the sector, Lukman said Wednesday after addressing a national seminar on chemistry.

Indonesia's research and technology budget stands at Rp 1.6 trillion (US$173 million), with about half going into research.

Lukman said the small allocation showed the government and businesses lacked the will to improve the situation. The scant attention paid to research and technology also helped ensure Indonesia was unable to compete globally, he said.

The business sector, in particular, had neglected long-term investment for research, while it had no problem spending on advertising. This year's projected private sector spending on advertising could reach Rp 28 trillion, he said.

Lukman said the lack of a long-term view was also evident in the way many businesses were treating the environment. "The business sector is ruining the environment with deforestation and pollution without thinking about the consequences."

The country also is being flooded with imported products, often of a substandard quality, which Indonesians could produce better if they had the right training. "We prefer buying cheap imported products, which make us dependent on other countries, rather than developing our own products," Lukman said.

LIPI researcher Dipo Alam said Indonesians needed to change the way they looked at the world. Political events, such as local elections and the disorder they cause, dominate public discourse, he said. "Meanwhile, the public and especially policy-makers have forgotten to give their attention to research and technology," he said.

Dipo said only by prioritizing the sector could the government lead a change of thinking, which would bring more people into research and technology fields.

Opinion & analysis

Ambon and law enforcement

Jakarta Post Editorial - March 7, 2006

During the years of bloodshed in Maluku and North Maluku one of the most fervent wishes of residents was for law enforcers to do their jobs, and do them properly. At one point "An eye for an eye" became a common motto and the Ambonese feared for their survival, with the death of at least 6,000 people out of a total population of about 2.1 million in the two provinces.

Maluku has faded out of the headlines in the past three or four years and the people live in relative peace, although over 15,000 families are still refugees and only minor players in the violence, not the masterminds, have been prosecuted.

Several violent incidents during the last week have caused much concern, with people fearfully watching every seemingly trivial scuffle, particularly in Ambon, the province's small capital. A fight between a public transportation driver and a passenger in Ambon in the early 1999 sparked incidents in the other islands of Maluku, causing rumors that Christians were attacking Muslims and vice versa.

Late Friday a police officer was stabbed to death by eight unidentified attackers and the next day a soldier was killed, while a student sustained serious injuries after police fired into a crowd. There were reports of tires being burned and a main street blockaded by residents angry at the police shooting of their neighbor. Locals removed the blockade Sunday after gaining assurance from the police that they would name the officer who shot student Saiful Wakano.

Since a government-brokered peace agreement was signed Feb. 12, 2002, a number of incidents have threatened the sense of security that Ambon residents are trying to maintain. Thus, with every explosion or shooting, bystanders keep a distance and allow the police to do their job. After last week's incidents, if anyone was looking for hostile motivations from a religious group, they kept such thoughts to themselves.

Locals have said they know from experience that war between Muslims and Christians is just what some troublemakers are looking for, given that Maluku was for decades the nation's showcase for religious and ethnic harmony.

With the latest incidents, we applaud the job of the law enforcers in keeping the precious peace in Maluku, the once famed spice islands. Following what could only be described as the criminal neglect of law enforcers in 1999, we have seen efforts to assign the best available officers to Maluku, particularly in Ambon. These new personnel know that apart from keeping law and order they also have a stained legacy to overcome, that of both the military and police virtually standing by as crowds engaged in violence and destruction, and often making it worse by lending or selling weapons to the warring parties.

In Ambon appreciation has grown for law enforcers. Once given a clear mandate they managed to end the scenes of machete and gun- toting youngsters in the streets, which for a few years became common.

Nowadays, letting sparks fly beyond even a single scuffle puts the reputation of law enforcers at stake, for locals have seen firsthand the damage done by those who take the law into their own hands. They have learned to trust the men in uniform, with people now willing to resume business and return to their homes. And with that trust locals have had little patience with the usual excuses for any flaw in keeping the peace, such as a lack of funding or other resources.

Locals in Ambon seem to be concentrating more on rebuilding their lives than demanding justice for their losses, which they rightly deserve. When one's life has been turned upside down with the deaths of loved ones, and the destruction of property and livelihoods, an assurance that one can live free from fear is the least the state can provide.

Freeport's imbroglio

Jakarta Post Editorial - March 3, 2006

The stated motives behind the series of recent street demonstrations by Papuans in Jayapura, Jakarta, Semarang and Makassar, demanding the closure of Freeport's giant mine in Papua, are said to be because the mine does not benefit the local people. But such complaints are highly questionable, even mind- boggling.

The presumed trigger for the demonstrations was a minor clash on Feb. 21 when Freeport security guards ordered at least 100 illegal miners to stop panning for gold just outside the Grasberg copper and gold mine. Only one security guard was reported hurt, but the local gold panners and their supporters succeeded in halting the mine's operations for three days.

The street protests in the four aforementioned cities against PT Freeport Indonesia, the unit of US-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., seemed to only have a tenuous connection to the local miners' grievances. The city protesters stated that they wanted the closure of the Freeport mine, which last year produced 793,000 metric tons of copper and 3.55 million ounces of gold (and paid over US$130 million in taxes to the government).

Such street demonstrations have become commonplace here since 1998-1999, when Soeharto's exit unleashed a collection of activists – non-governmental organizations, local leaders – some touting genuine community interests, several with selfish interests and ulterior motives – most of whom were kept silent during Soeharto's authoritarian rule.

The resulting breakdown of law and order in several provinces, combined with the virtual meltdown of the national economy, had made many big resource-based ventures, located mostly in remote areas, highly vulnerable to arbitrary claims or other forms of opposition.

We have also observed protests from environmental and human rights groups, which accused large companies like Freeport of damaging the environment, violating basic human rights or being involved in the intricate web of Soeharto's crony capitalism.

Freeport, which began production in Papua in 1972, could have been an integral cog of Soeharto's politico-business machinery and could have been inevitably drawn into collusion and corruption, which characterized the Soeharto era. But none of the allegations charged against the New York-listed company has ever been proven in court.

Now that such street protests emerged again without any major accident or incident, we cannot help but to be reminded of a similar "incident" that hit PT Kaltim Prima Coal, in East Kalimantan, which was then controlled by BP (now called "Beyond Petroleum") and Anglo-Australian company Rio Tinto, in 2003.

Kaltim Prima, which operates one of Indonesia's largest coal mines, was then hit by a barrage of protest demonstrations that halted its operations. As it happened, BP and Rio Tinto were then facing deadline pressures to divest their shares in the coal mine to Indonesian interests.

So damaging had been the impact of the demonstration and blockade of its mining operations that both foreign companies hastily sold their controlling interests, reportedly at a fire-sale prices, to PT Bumi Resources – a unit of the Bakrie Group, a diversified conglomerate connected to the Bakrie family (of which Aburizal Bakrie, the welfare minister is an integral part) – simply to get out of its mining operations in the province as soon as possible.

It may well be purely coincidence that Freeport McMoRan, at the request of the Indonesian government, is also offering 10 percent of its shares to private Indonesian interests under the condition that the transaction must be concluded at a fair market price. Analysts say the market value of the 10-percent stake, based on its latest quotations in the New York Stock Exchange, is now about US$1.2 billion.

The 10-percent stake had actually been sold in 1991 to PT Bakrie Brothers, which later resold it to PT Nusamba, controlled by Soeharto's golf buddy Mohammad Bob Hasan, as part of the realization of Freeport McMoRan's divestment of 20 percent of its interests in FI – the other 10 percent was sold to the Indonesian government. However, because Nusamba defaulted on its debt after the 1998 economic crisis, Freeport McMoRan reacquired the 10 percent stake.

Even though, Freeport McMoRan is not facing any deadline pressures for the divestment, we cannot help but suspect that some provocateur might have been playing a big part in the current protest demonstrations in a subterfuge to drive down Freeport McMoRan's share prices.

Whatever the real motive of the protest demonstrations, the protesters' demand for Freeport's closure is irrational, because the company has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing. The government therefore should protect the company for the sake of legal certainty and see to it that the protest demonstrations in Papua and other provinces remain under control.

But it is also well-advised for Freeport McMoRan to realize that for such a giant mine operating in such a remote area, where the government has yet to provide basic services, it is no longer enough to simply abide by the law.

Freeport McMoRan should also increase its social responsibility above the mandatory floor for good corporate governance standards. Operating prosperously in the midst of an impoverished community often fosters resentment and envy that may eventually explode into resistance as people, in the current democratic era, will no longer keep silent about what they perceive to be an unjust distribution of wealth.

Fighting illegal loggers

Jakarta Post Editorial - March 2, 2006

The Indonesian government made the right decision to aggressively promote forest product certification, or ecolabeling, as a market-based instrument to curb illegal logging, because the traditional approach to protect forests through a regulatory system has failed miserably due to the corrupt system of governance and inadequate institutional capacity.

Indonesia has enacted laws on environmental protection and has issued a myriad of regulations and rulings to protect forests, in addition to the creation of non-tariff barriers to prevent the trading of illegally cut wood. Yet deforestation continues. Inter-island trade and export of illegally felled timber remains rampant.

The government seemed to realize that since only incremental improvement can, at best, be made in the system of governance and institutional capacity, it became more urgent now to step up forest-product certification to supplement the regulatory system in curbing illegal logging.

Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban warned the businesses in the wood processing industry Monday that Japan had joined the green- products movement in the European Union and the United States. The green consumer movement mobilizes consumers, traders and conservation groups to shun or boycott forest products, which are not certified according to internationally recognized standards of sustainable forest management. Forest certification thus controls illegal logging through demand-side and supply-side approaches.

How does ecolabeling or certification protect the forests? The process of certification involves the inspection of the operations of forest-based companies to verify that their forest concessions are being managed in accordance with social, environmental and economic aspects of sustainable forest management, as described in the relevant standards set by the Bonn-based Forest Stewardship Council. Usually independent certifying bodies assign a multidisciplinary team of specialists to carry out the assessment before a certificate can be issued for a fixed period of time.

The process of certification also includes the audit of forest harvests, primary, secondary processing, manufacturing, distribution and sale (the system of tracking the source of the wood) to ascertain that the timber processed was truly derived from sustainable, properly managed forests.

Traders and general consumers in Indonesia, like those in other Asia-Pacific (including China), African and Latin American countries, have yet to be converted into full supporters of the green-product campaign.

Indonesian timber companies, as well as the pulp and paper producers, may circumvent local regulations or bribe officials to get illegally cut wood, but they will no longer be able to sell any of their products to Europe, the United States or Japan. They thus have no other choice but to have their operations and products certified according to the principles of sustainable forest management.

The problem with ecolabeling in this country is how to make the certification process less costly to encourage more companies, notably medium-sized ones, to have their operations audited for certification. To help reduce the costs, the government – actually, the Indonesian Ecolabeling Institute (LEI), on behalf of the government – may consider developing group certification schemes, which depend on some consistency between the different properties in terms of management and some internal monitoring, so that the certifiers can inspect only a sample of the sites each year.

The LEI, which was set up in 1998 with funding support from the WWF, the US government and many NGOs from Europe and North America, also needs to accredit more independent certifying bodies, based on international standards, to conduct certification of forest-based companies.

Indonesia, like most other developing countries, still has a long way to go before most of its forest-based companies are capable of complying with the principles of sustainable management, but expanding forest certification across the timber industry could speed up the process.

But major donors affiliated with the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI), who have often expressed grave concerns about extensive damages in the world's second-largest tropical forest (Indonesia's), should contribute more to building up a higher national capacity for forest certification in the country.

However, the development of the certification system will not run smoothly unless the Indonesian government streamlines the system of its regulatory procedures in land-use planning, land rights, forest harvesting permits and timber transportation documents.

Forest certification, as a market-based instrument, will become much more effective in saving forests if banks also use sustainable forest management as a screening tool for loans.

Aceh, the critical stage

Jakarta Post Editorial - March 1, 2006

We may have good reason to congratulate ourselves for the peace in Aceh, which has now lasted for six months, the longest in decades, but we must never forget the role played by our international friends in ending the violence.

The peace accord between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) was signed in Helsinki, Finland, last August. The cooperation between the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), ASEAN, the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency, the central and local governments, the Acehnese and GAM is undoubtedly behind the current peace in Aceh.

Past efforts, initiated with as much candor and goodwill, failed to produce results. The longest that peace lasted was a couple of months. This was the case with the humanitarian pause under former president Abdurrahman Wahid in 2000, and another truce brokered by the Henry Dunant Centre in December 2002.

The European Union and five members states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been working tirelessly over the last six months to see that Aceh is demilitarized peacefully. The province will see its first free elections some time in August.

With a feeling of gratitude for our international friends, we received encouraging news this week that the EU has agreed to extend the presence of AMM in the province until June 15. This is another breath of hope. The transition to peace in Aceh is entering a critical stage, with the government and the people of Aceh at odds over the bill on governance in Aceh.

The time for deliberation is short, as the law should be in place by March 31, but the head of the special committee dealing with the bill was only elected last week. There are indications the House of Representatives is dragging its feet on the bill, and there are concerns among the Acehnese the eventual law will depart from certain aspects of the peace accord.

How much will the House accommodate the aspirations of the Acehnese? How much will the final draft differ from the three separate drafts submitted by the government, GAM and the Acehnese people, through the Aceh Provincial Legislative Council? These are all open questions, but the outcome of the bill's deliberation will be indicative of the trajectory of peace in Aceh. Contentious clauses abound in the bill, such as independent candidates in elections, local political parties and the Acehnese flag. Opponents to these clauses often hide behind the pretext of nationalism, or perhaps more accurately a myopic nationalism.

There are signs that certain Jakarta politicians and bureaucrats are playing with fire. A recent proposal by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to divide Aceh into three provinces is a case in point, as this would violate the Helsinki deal. There is nothing wrong with partitioning a huge province, especially when it is in accordance with local demands. The problem is the timing. Aceh has just recovered from the catastrophic tsunami and is on its way to genuine peace.

Politicians who like to force their ideas on people at any cost do not necessarily see peace in Aceh as a necessary boost to Indonesia's ebbing prestige. They should be reminded of the thousands of people who perished in the 30-year separatist conflict in the province. They should decide whether to pursue their short-term political interests or to listen to the conscience of the Acehnese.

Our largely unsettled internal politics, left out of the reform movement, underline the need for international friends. This is another reason we welcome the extension of the AMM's presence in Aceh. We believe a little pressure from international friends never hurts. We may even need such pressure to maintain the fragile and hard-won peace in Aceh.

Palm oil: Enemy number one of tropical rainforests

Agence France Presse - March 1, 2006

Pekanbaru – Margarine, lipstick, ice cream, shampoo, chocolate – all use palm oil as a crucial ingredient but with booming demand, the plantations are swallowing up forests, a conference here heard.

How to balance profit with preserving the environment and limiting deforestation provided the cut and thrust at a two-day meeting here in Riau province on Sumatra island, where huge swathes of forest have been among the casualties of the palm oil boom.

In recent years, Jakarta has delivered huge concessions to palm oil producers, with many firms employing tens of thousands of people in Southeast Asia's largest economy.

"Up to now the government has only been looking at the profits, not at the impact of releasing so many permits," Fitrian Ardiansyah from conservation group WWF, told AFP.

The WWF organised the conference here attended by activists, companies, government officials and international financial institutions.

Ardiansyah said palm oil plantations has been blamed for environmental disasters such as floods and landslides, pushing endangered animals – such as elephants and tigers – to extinction, and creating Southeast Asia's annual smoke haze crisis.

According to Indonesia's forestry ministry, the area of palm oil plantations has soared from 120,000 hectares (296,000 acres) in 1968 to 5.5 million hectares in 2004.

The sector earned 4.0 billion dollars in exports in 2004 and Indonesia now appears likely to wrest the title of world's top palm oil producer from Malaysia in the next two years.

At the same time, the country is losing its forests at the rate of approximately four football fields per minute, the forestry ministry concedes – but it still argues that the development is helping communities.

"The standard of living of the populations residing in or around the forests is still low," explained Arman Malolongan, director- general of forest and nature conservation at the ministry. More than 10 million poor live in forests or their surrounds, he said.

The large plantations entice with promises of creating thousands of jobs. The Singapore-based company APRIL, for instance, says it creates 30 stable jobs each time it plants 100 hectares.

Environmentalists do not call that into question but they would like to see a strict legal framework put in place along with other controls to make sure wider issues are taken into account.

For example, the WWF is pushing the High Conservation Value Forest concept, which would see a forest assessed for its ecological and social value alongside its potential development benefits.

Logging companies and plantations are advised to use this tool to gauge the value of the forest before clearing it – if it is identified as having high a conservation value, then the company should stop its planned operation.

Some palm oil producers such as APRIL, which has adopted the tool, thus hope to placate Europeans and the Japanese, who are major palm oil consumers along with China. "The market awareness on the environmental issues is much more intense in Europe than in China," APRIL president Jouko Virta told AFP.

Institutions such as the World Bank and private banks such as HSBC are refusing to finance projects detrimental to primary forests with high ecological value, representatives of these institutions said here.

Another argument against the plantation projects is that they may be serving as an excuse to simply plunder the forests: once the often valuable tropical trees are cut down, the operations are too often halted and the devastated areas left as wasteland, the WWF's Ardiansyah said.

In West Kalimantan province, on the Indonesian part of Borneo, for instance, authorities have authorised 2.5 million hectares to be cleared in the past five years but only one million has been actually planted.