News & issues

Christian pastor shot dead in Indonesia's Sulawesi

Reuters - October 16, 2006

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – An unidentified gunman shot dead a Christian pastor on Monday in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province, officials and church groups said, sparking fears of a return to sectarian fighting that once gripped the region.

Reverend Irianto Kongkoli was shot in the head when he was buying construction materials at a shop in the provincial capital of Palu, 1,650 km (1,030 miles) northeast of Jakarta, the Central Sulawesi government said.

"He had finished bargaining for some tiles when someone called him back into the store. When he entered, two shots were fired at the back of his head," said Jethan Towakit, head of the province's information bureau.

Central Sulawesi has been tense since the executions last month of three Christian militants over their role in Muslim-Christian violence that gripped the province's Poso region from 1998 to 2001.

Small bombs have sporadically exploded in Poso since the executions although most of them have caused no damage or injuries.

"There is always something disturbing our province. Bombings are like breakfast for us. The blasts have been small and the other day it was only a dud but this problem needs to be dealt with," Towakit told Reuters by telephone from Palu.

Central Sulawesi governor Bandjela Paliudju told reporters at the parliament that the killing might have been connected to Kongkoli's activism in protests against the executions.

The Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), the country's leading umbrella group for Protestants, urged the government to thoroughly investigate the murder.

"PGI regrets such an incident could occur many times without comprehensive solution. Such incidents indicate the government is not yet able to protect citizens," the group said in a statement.

It also called religious leaders in Central Sulawesi to avoid "getting trapped into efforts to pit religious groups against each other."

The three Christian militants were executed on September 22 by a police firing squad despite appeals from Pope Benedict and rights groups.

About 800 extra police and troops have been sent to Poso town due to the latest inter-religious tensions. Two Muslim men were killed last month by a crowd angered by the executions.

The latest shooting has prompted police to guard routes linking Muslim and Christian neighborhoods in Poso.

Three years of sectarian clashes in Central Sulawesi killed more than 2,000 people before a peace accord took effect in late 2001. There has been sporadic violence ever since.

Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam, but some areas in eastern Indonesia have roughly equal numbers of Muslims and Christians.

Three Islamic militants are on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

Their lawyers have said they would file a final appeal with the Supreme Court, arguing that the retroactive anti-terror legal provisions used to convict them had since been annulled.

Thousands stand up to fight poverty

Jakarta Post - October 16, 2006

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesians gathered here Sunday to join a worldwide campaign against poverty meant to remind world leaders of their promises to achieve the 2000 Millennium Development Goals.

The 24-hour-long "STAND UP Campaign: STAND UP Against Poverty, STAND UP for Millennium Development Goals", sought to be registered in the World Guinness Book of Records for the most people standing for the same cause in different locations within 24 hours.

It coincided with the Global Call for Action Against Poverty's month of mobilizations for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which falls on Tuesday.

The STAND UP campaign was held in cities across the world, including New York, London, New Delhi, Johannesburg and Manila. Details of the campaign are available at standupagainstpoverty.org.

In Indonesia, a series of activities were held in Jakarta, Bandung in West Java, Yogyakarta, Banda Aceh in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Medan in North Sumatra, Jayapura in Papua, Bali, Pontianak in West Kalimantan, Semarang in Central Java, Surabaya in East Java and Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan.

Kicking off at 5 p.m. Jakarta time, the activities included music concerts, poetry and prose readings, as well as several art performances.

In Jakarta, the main venue was the National Monument park in Central Jakarta, where an estimated 4,000 people turned up to watch musical performances.

Other venues were the Istiqlal and Al-Azhar mosques and the Martin Luther church, where religious services and sermons were held.

Campaigners counted down from 10 before standing up as a group and being counted. Jakarta's events will end Monday with a ceremony at the United Nations main offices on Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta and will feature and exhibition of UN publications and projects.

Erna Witoelar, the UN Special Ambassador for Millennium Development Goals in the Asia Pacific, received Sunday an official statement from the Indonesian Record Museum that the campaign was the first such gathering to be held in Indonesia.

Erna said the campaign was meant to remind Indonesian leaders that country had signed the Millennium Development Goals declaration and to urge it be more innovative in eradicating poverty.

The Central Statistics Agency reported last month that nearly 40 million Indonesians are extremely poor, up from 35 million last year.

The rise in the poverty rate was blamed on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration's failure to control the prices of basic food stuffs and the impacts of the two oil price hikes in 2005.

Under the Millennium Development Goals declaration, 189 state signatories agreed to meet eight targets related to creating sustainable development by the year 2015, including halving extreme poverty, curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education.

Other targets include ensuring basic health services, environmentally-conscious development and halving the child mortality rate.

Ticket scalpers unfazed by attempted crackdown

Jakarta Post - October 16, 2006

Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta – Scalpers are a common and exasperating sight at train stations here. You attempt to buy a ticket from the booth, slump in dejection as you are told the train is booked out, accept that you're just not going anywhere this weekend – and then, lo and behold, here's a nice gentleman who does have tickets for the train – at a significantly higher price than normal.

The mass exodus that occurs with the Idul Fitri holidays is peak business season for scalpers. There are usually more passengers than there are seats in the first place and scalpers use this to their advantage. But Yogyakarta train station decided that this year, enough was enough. Every person who purchases four tickets receives a stamp on the hand to prevent them from buying any more.

Unfortunately it has failed to have much of an impact. It turns out that the scalpers at Tugu train station in Yogyakarta are more creative than the managers. "After lining up for the ticket, we simply clean off the stamps and line up again," said Ambon, who has been a scalper at the station for 10 years.

He said it the stamp policy would not affect the scalpers since the train station's security officers knew the scalpers already and remembered their faces. Ambon said the move was also a "bluff" as many people, including employees of train company PT Kereta Api Indonesia, were involved in scalping.

For example, he said, each train staffer gets free tickets, which are then sold to scalpers. Prices for business class are raised by Rp 40,000, while an executive class ticket can set you back between Rp 50,000 and Rp 70,000 more than usual.

"We bought the tickets at high prices so we sell them at high prices too, since we have to make a profit," said another scalper, Ranto, while showing a ticket for the Taksaka executive train on Oct. 28. He was offering it at Rp 450,000, quite a mark-up on the official price of Rp 300,000 and said that he had bought the ticket from a train company employee for Rp 360,000.

Another scalper, Ranto, said that aside from buying tickets from train station employees or posing as passengers, they also asked other people to buy tickets for them.

"Every time we pay someone to line up for two tickets, we pay him Rp 80,000 and include a meal. Whether he gets the tickets or not, we still have to pay. But I was tricked recently – I paid someone to buy a ticket for an Oct. 29 trip, but there was no result," he said.

Ticket prices, he said, varied depending on the day of departure. A ticket for an executive class train leaving on Oct. 26 could be sold for Rp 400,000, but ticket prices for trips on Oct. 27 and 28 could reach Rp 450,000, while on Oct. 29 a ticket would cost Rp 500,000. The average official ticket price is Rp 300,000.

Ranto and Ambon both said they needed more than Rp 10 million behind them to stay in business, using the money to buy tickets for busy days such as Oct. 27 to Oct. 30. "The profits can be used to celebrate Idul Fitri," Ranto said.

Train company spokesman Mochtadi said he office had deployed plain clothes officers to monitor scalping activity at the station.

Yogya quake survivors pawn belongings

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2006

Slamet Susanto, Bantul – With Idul Fitri less than two weeks away and no money on hand, Yogyakarta earthquake victim Girah only has one option: pawning his old bicycle.

The 46-year-old resident of Kasongan hamlet, Bantul handed his bicycle over to the Bantul state pawnshop for Rp 150,000 (US$16.60), which he will use for Idul Fitri preparations.

"We're in difficult circumstances. I still haven't thought about how to buy clothes for my three children," he told The Jakarta Post after collecting his pawn ticket.

Girah's pottery business has been affected by the May 27 earthquake. His house and pottery-making equipment were damaged in the quake. He still lacks the means to repair his house.

To survive, Girah has been working at a large pottery factory in Kasongan. "I'm working at the moment. Later, if I have the money to repair my house and buy furniture, I will start producing pottery again," he said.

Another resident, Titin, 30, also visited the shop. She pawned her 14-inch television for Rp 500,000. "It's for Idul Fitri preparations. Plus, things are hard for us right now," said Titin.

Pawnshops have become a haven for people who need Idul Fitri cash due to their efficient procedures and relatively low interest rate of 1.6 percent per month. The total value of all transactions at pawnshops in Yogyakarta has risen between 40 percent and 70 percent, two weeks ahead of the annual holiday at the end of Ramadhan.

"Transactions have increased quite significantly since Oct. 1," said Bantul state pawnshop manager Susanta. She said in the first week of October, transactions totaled Rp 228 million, compared to just Rp 180 million in the same week of the previous month.

"The peak period for pawn transactions is seven days before Idul Fitri until the end of the month, which we estimate could approach Rp 900 million," she said.

Susanta added that according to a survey, there were two main reasons that most residents in Bantul pawned their belongings: Idul Fitri preparations and house repairs.

She said transactions actually declined following the May quake because most belongings suitable for pawning, such as motorbikes, TV sets and jewelry, had been damaged or lost.

"We expected transactions to increase again as Idul Fitri approached, especially due to the urgent need for celebrations and house renovations," said Susanta.

The pawnshop branch offices in Wates, Kulonprogo and Wonosari in Gunungkidul are reportedly doing well because of the holiday.

A warehouse employee at the Gunungkidul pawnshop, Masri Widodo, said the shop had already done Rp 457 million in business this month, compared to Rp 250 million the previous month. Transactions are expected to reach Rp 1.125 billion by the end of October.

"Our transactions have increased up to 60 percent, 90 percent of which is in the form of gold jewelry," said Kulonprogo pawnshop appraiser, Lilik Suryanto.

Analysts urge intelligence reform

Jakarta Post - October 13, 2006

Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – The failure to unravel the 2004 murder of human rights activist Munir highlights the need for speedy reform of the intelligence services, defense analysts said Thursday.

"The Munir case should be linked to the agenda of security reform," said defense analyst Edy Prihartono of the National Alliance for Intelligence Democratization (Sandi).

The alliance brings together 10 civil society organizations, including the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Imparsial, the Institute for the Free Flow of Information (ISAI) and defense watchdog ProPatria.

Edy, an analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said the reforms were aimed at assuring citizens that what happened to Munir would not recur in the future.

"We demand the security apparatus be reformed so as to be controlled and accountable," he said. "If they are not reformed, we can't tell them from criminals." ProPatria executive director T. Hari Prihartono said efforts to reform the security sector should now be focused on the state intelligence service.

Intelligence reform is "crucial", he told The Jakarta Post, saying intelligence was the "heart" of the nation's security sector. He said over the last seven years the military and police had improved and shown openness to change, but this was not the case with the intelligence service.

"We have never had a law on intelligence, after more than 60 years of independence," he said. The intelligence units are currently regulated by presidential decrees and government regulations. "Because intelligence is regulated by decrees lower than law, it has always become an instrument of power. For decades, intelligence has been a tool of power," Hari said.

The government submitted a bill on the intelligence service to the House of Representatives last month for deliberation. Civil organizations have been urged to get involved in the debate.

"We all bear the moral and political responsibility of watching over the deliberation," Edy said, adding that the Munir case was linked with the performance of the intelligence service.

Munir died from arsenic poisoning while traveling from Jakarta to Amsterdam on Garuda airline in 2004.

Courts found that off-duty Garuda pilot Pollycarpus, the sole suspect in the Munir case before he was exonerated by the Supreme Court, had frequent telephone contacts with agents from the State Intelligence Agency (BIN). BIN denied any involvement, but suspicion is rife that its members helped plot the killing.

A military analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, urged the government to declassify state secrets related to cases of human rights violations.

He also urged the government to separate intelligence agents and the agencies they were worked for. "The acts made of National Intelligence Agency (BIN) agents cannot be categorized as the official acts of the agency," he said. He therefore urged the government to disclose details of the phone calls between Pollycarpus and former top BIN official Muchdi PR to shed light on the alleged conspiracy behind Munir's killing.

Military analyst Andi Wijayanto said the Munir case showed that the state could stifle human rights cases on behalf of state secrecy. "The government-sanctioned fact finding team has pointed to sources of information that could disclose the Munir case but they are blocked from acquiring the information by the government," he said.

Decent housing for the urban poor remains out of reach

Jakarta Post - October 12, 2006

Pandaya, Jakarta – When you are on your way from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to downtown Jakarta, look down as your taxi climbs the first flyover. The ugly side of Jakarta's face stares back at you. Shanties line the streets next to a badly polluted river.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now passing over Pluit, the section of Jakarta closest to its international gateway, where the city of 10 million people's socioeconomic disparity is clear to see.

Below the toll road that swoops above are traffic filled streets lined with the cardboard houses of hundreds of families, and thousands of people with nothing to call home.

Cruise a little further to the north, however, and you'll see a totally different reality. Welcome to Pantai Indah Kapuk, the posh beach housing complex of some of the city's wealthiest residents, where every accessory to modern life is available.

The appalling sight of Pluit's slums and those in other parts of Jakarta and throughout Indonesia is the manifestation of the unfulfilled promises of many presidents and governors, who pledged to improve the well-being of the masses in their election campaigns.

Efforts to build low-cost flats to replace city slums have failed because the deeply debt-ridden government rarely has the money needed and the targeted low-income people are just too poor to buy even the cheapest of apartments. The economic crisis in 1997 crushed hopes further.

Land shortages, land prices, expensive building materials, hard- to-access bank credit and a complicated and corrupt bureaucracy have all been blamed for Indonesia's inability to provide decent housing for a large chunk of its 230 million people.

Indonesia needs to build 800,000 new homes every year. According to Habitat for Humanity Indonesia, which is involved in the building of houses in disaster-struck Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Central Java and Yogyakarta, up to 80 percent of the country's new homes have to be built by the residents and the remaining 20 percent by the government, NGOs and the private sector.

In Jakarta, the property business has started to boom again almost 10 years after the crippling economic crisis began, but apartments are only being built for the rich. Property developers are not interested in building low-cost flats because it is not economically viable – they would be too expensive for most people.

Fuad Zakaria, chairman of the Indonesian Association of Low-Cost Housing Builders (Apersi) reckons that each square meter of cheap flat would cost between Rp 3 million and Rp 4 million to build. Even if the flat was to be offered at Rp 5 million per square meter, nobody from the middle and lower income brackets would be able to afford to buy it. "Besides, developers deem the Rp 5 million price tag not profitable. Who is going to buy it?" he told Tempo.

Property developers have also complained about red tape in license procurement procedures. In Bogor, for example, Apersi reported that illegal levies account for 20 percent of the legal fees they have to pay.

Soeharto's New Order regime tried to solve the housing problem by building modest houses ranging from 21 square meters to 36 square meters in Bekasi, Depok and Tangerang – all just outside Jakarta.

But years later, the projects have turned out to be creating new problems. They consumed substantial land and quickened environmental degradation such as the loss of water catchments and pollution. And everyday millions of people living in these areas commute into Jakarta, requiring the development of new infrastructure, increasing the traffic in the capital and worsening the city's pollution. Handoko Ngadiman, chairman of Habitat for Humanity Indonesia sees a good political will in the Yudhoyono administration to build houses for the poor.

"The government is mulling a subsidy scheme to help the poor build houses," he told The Jakarta Post, adding that details of the plan are yet to be finalized.

Low-cost apartments undoubtedly would be the most efficient solution but Jakartans cannot wait until the government has the money to build affordable ones, such as those in Kebon Kacang, Central Jakarta, built by state-owned housing company Perumnas back in the 1970s.

Imagine if the apartments were to be built within a city where the necessary infrastructure is already in place and the occupants do not have to travel miles to get to their work. The government needs to expand the city's infrastructure and facilities.

The most serious problem is probably land acquisition because the price increases every year. The city administration recently promised to help private developers wanting to build low-cost apartments in Jakarta but the bylaw is failing because there are so many commercial interests fighting for land on prime sites.

"It is impossible to build cheap apartments with the government setting the prices if we have to compete in the free market to obtain the land," Kompas quoted a Perumnas official as saying.

But in fact the official's premise is questionable. What about the state property scattered throughout the city, not to mention the land seized from debtors by the now defunct Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency? Perhaps there is something to be done, after all.

Anti-gift policy protest continues

Jakarta Post - October 11, 2006

Jakarta – Parcel vendors claiming a ban on government officials exchanging gifts at Idul Fitri is harming their businesses continued their protest Tuesday.

The vendors, who Monday gathered outside the office of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which issued the ban, marched on the House of Representatives on Tuesday to demand it be scrapped.

"The KPK has to review its decision," Fahira Fahmi Idris, chairwoman of the Indonesian Association of Parcel Vendors and daughter of Industry Minister Fahmi Idris, told the House of Representatives Commission III on law and home security.

Commission III chairman Trimedya Panjaitan said the House would discuss the issue in a meeting with KPK heads next week.

Plan for single identity number flawed, say NGOs

Jakarta Post - October 9, 2006

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – A coalition of non-governmental organization has rejected a government plan to introduce a single identification number (SIN) based on the personal information printed on citizens' ID cards.

The Civil Administrative Consortium said during the weekend the plan was misguided because the current ID card system was insecure. It suggested the planned SIN instead be based on information collected by civil registration agency.

"We are all aware that ID cards contain inconsequential information that can change over time. The cards are also easily forged," said Ari Masyhuri, secretary general of the consortium.

The consortium said if ID cards became the basis for the SIN, only adults would qualify for the numbers. "Only people above 17 years are eligible to apply for ID cards, so what about our children? Chances are they will be denied public services," Ari said.

The House of Representatives and the government are currently deliberating a bill on civil registrations that sanctions the introduction of the SIN. In their last meeting, the government and the House special committee on the bill agreed on the need for every Indonesian citizen to have a single ID number.

The consortium has criticized the bill, saying it confuses demographic, administrative and civil affairs. Activists have also pointed out numerous flaws in the bill.

They say it contradicts the 2002 Child Protection Law that mandates free civil registrations for every newborn. "The bill does not mention whether registrations are free," Ari said.

It also gives 60-day grace period for people to apply for all civil registrations, while the child protection law states that the grace period is one year.

People's Legal Aid Institute executive director Suma Mihardja said the government's desire to introduce the SIN could be related to the Home Affairs Ministry's plan to create a multi- million dollar civil registration system.

"We have heard that a project worth Rp 500 billion (US$55 million) will soon kick-start once this law takes effect," he told The Jakarta Post.

He said the project would create a single identification system and produce a universal, forgery-proof ID card. "But we fear that such a project will be prone to corruption as has happened in the past," Suma said.

West Papua

Papua trials continue without defendants

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2006

Jakarta/Timika – Relatives of seven Papuans on trial for the 2002 killings of two Americans and one Indonesian demanded a fair trial in Papua on Friday as the defendants continued to boycott the session in a Jakarta court.

The country's ties with the United States were strained by the incident and only improved after they agreed to collaborate in solving the case, which had initially sparked suspicions the Indonesian military was involved.

During the Friday trial at the Central Jakarta District Court, prosecutors read out charges against the defendants, demanding jail sentences for the men of between eight and 20 years. "They have intentionally and together performed the murders," prosecutor Anita Asterida said quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Prosecutors sought 20 years' jail for Antonius Wamang for planning the murders and 15 years for Agustinus Angaibak and Yulianus Deikme for their involvement. They demanded eight years' jail for each of four other defendants – Rev. Ishak Onawame, Esau Onawame, Hardi Sugumol and Yarius Kiwak – for assisting the men.

Six of the defendants arrived at the court for the trial but refused to sit in the dock.

Speaking from the visitors section, one of the defendants, Rev. Ishak Onawame, asked the judges to consider customary law, religion and "modernity" when trying the case, saying that Papua's 253 tribes had long relied on customary law. "As evidence, we're still using customary law. In modern law, right becomes wrong, and wrong becomes right," he was quoted by Antara news agency.

Ishak accused the judges, led by Andriani Nurdin, of understanding the killing only from its "packaging", not its content. "The panel of judges should know the content first, not only the wrapping. Don't open the package first and you make a wrong decision," he said without elaborating.

The accused then left the trial before it ended because one of their number, Hardi, was sick. "We only want to stand trial if Hardi is present," Ishak said before departing under police guard.

The prosecutor showed a letter from a doctor to the panel of judges, explaining Hardi's absence. The seven defendants are protesting their trial in Jakarta and have boycotted previous sessions.

The men are accused of shooting dead three PT Freeport Indonesia employees when they ambushed their car convoy near the company's Grassberg gold and copper mine in 2002. The trial is scheduled to continue on Oct. 31 when judges will read out their verdicts.

In Timika, demonstrators staged a peaceful protest outside the district office, after marching from Rev. Ishak's house carrying posters and singing. At the building, which was tightly guarded by police, the protesters led by Ishak's son, Damaris, prayed for 30 minutes to ask the trial proceed in accordance with the law.

After the prayer, a protester, Vinsen Oniyoma, said in a speech the seven defendants were innocent. He said the trial was politically motivated and urged the men be released.

If they were not, there would be more protests to demand the closure of PT Freeport's Grassberg gold mine, he said.

"We seek truth and justice in accordance with the country's laws. We want the Papua Police, council and governor to look into this issue. Papuans are poor and have suffered enough," Damaris said.

Damaris said the arrest of the seven was unlawful and urged the government to allow his aging father to return home.

Timika district office head Arifin told the protesters their demands would be delivered to judges at the Jakarta court.

Police kill one in Papua as mob attacks over government aid

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2006

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – After being denied government assistance, dozens of Papuans went on a rampage Friday, burning government offices and clashing with police officers.

Police opened fire on the mob after they set fire to a post office and the Puncak Jaya regency council building in Mulia city at about 1 p.m. One person was killed and four others injured. The deceased has been identified as Lirius Tabuni.

The violence began after dozens of people were denied Rp 300,000 cash payments from the government. The money was being distributed to offset the financial impact of fuel price increases.

According to officials, the people in question were not eligible for the money because they did not possess official cash assistance cards.

The situation quickly deteriorated, as they attacked the Mulia post office and dozens of nearby private residences. The mob then moved to the regency council building, which they burned to the ground. Police officers deployed to the scene opened fire to regain control of the situation.

Papua Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Max Donald Aer said the rampaging mob left officers no choice but open fire before any more damage was done. "The residents who did not possess the cards entitling them to the cash assistance went on the attack," he said.

There were no immediate reports of arrests in the case.

He said police had taken control of the situation and calm had returned to Mulia. However, a platoon from the Papua Police's paramilitary Brimob unit has been deployed in the city to ensure there is no repeat of the violence.

Asked about the residents who did not have the cards entitling them to cash assistance, the marketing manager of postal company PT Pos Indonesia's Jayapura branch, Yohanes Untung, said the cards were issued on the authority of local statistics bureaus responsible for registering poor families.

He said the postal company was only responsible for delivering the cash to those people already in possession of cards.

In Puncak Jaya regency, 22,286 residents are eligible for the cash assistance, amounting to more than Rp 6.6 billion (US$726,717) in total.

This was just the latest violent incident since the government began distributing the cash assistance earlier this year. In May, five people were injured in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, when a large crowd of people attempted to force their way into the city's post office.

In Bandung regency, five people were arrested after dozens of residents vandalized a village administrative office during a dispute over the assistance.

Abepura convicts get five years

Jakarta Post - October 12, 2006

Jayapura – The Jayapura District Court on Wednesday handed down a five-year prison term to Sem and Wandik, the latest defendants to be convicted for their involvement in a bloody clash last March which killed five security personnel during a protest against the Freeport gold mine.

Sem, 22, was found guilty of violating the Criminal Code article on assaulting security personnel.

The court has now sentenced 21 defendants in the case. The final defendant, Seven Wendik, who is accused of killing an Air Force officer in the March clash, is still waiting for his verdict.

The defendants' lawyers, Ecoline Situmorang and David Sitorus, said the verdicts were unfair and the court failed to take into account the reasons for the protest. All 21 defendants were given prison sentences of between five and 15 years.

Human rights/law

Pornography bill shifts focus to protecting children

Jakarta Post - October 16, 2006

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – All political factions involved in the deliberation of the controversial pornography bill have agreed to draw up provisions that would act as a strong deterrent against the distribution of pornographic materials that exploit children.

Deputy chairwoman of the House of Representatives special committee on the pornography bill, Yoyoh Yusroh, of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said over the weekend that all factions were likely to agree on severe punishment for those who produce, distribute and put on display pornographic materials that feature children.

"We have proposed that the prison sentence range from one year to life imprisonment. As for the fine, it could be anything up to Rp 20 billion," Yoyoh told The Jakarta Post. She said that such a severe punishment would be needed to curb the current massive proliferation of pornographic materials.

"Take a look at our television today. Children are exposed to a heavy dose of such materials on a regular basis," Yoyoh said, citing a survey conducted by the Habibie Center which found that of 27 cartoon shows aimed at children, only seven carried decent content.

Yoyoh said that all factions in the special committee had agreed that a special article would be devoted to punishment for those involved in child pornography.

"This indicates that we are serious about combating pornography that exploits children," she said, adding that the initial version of the bill only vaguely incorporated provisions on child pornography into several articles.

The earlier version of the bill, for instance, prohibits the production, distribution and display of pornographic materials containing sexual intercourse or conduct that could be construed as sexual intercourse with children.

Article 21 of the initial draft also prohibits the employment of children as models in the production of pornographic materials that would require them to masturbate and/or be involved in sexual intercourse.

In the last meeting of the formulating team, lawmakers agreed on a definition of pornography. Differences, however, linger over what would be considered as indecent acts.

The special committee members have also disagreed on what would be the title of the bill. Some factions were in favor of the name pornography bill while others wanted to incorporate the words indecent acts, holding on to the initial title of the bill.

A small team is now assigned to draw up a new draft of the bill behind closed doors before the House special committee holds an open session to deliberate the new draft. Most of the formulating team have been tight-lipped over the contentious issues in the bill.

The bill caused an uproar and marked divisions in society when it was first floated with supporters claiming that it would be necessary to fight indecency and detractors rejecting it for fear that it would place the blame on women and suppress freedom of expression.

Chairman of the special committee, Balkan Kaplale, of the Democratic Party, however, asserted that in spite of the differences all political factions would return to the negotiating table and arrive at a compromise soon.

"One of the good signs is that all factions have submitted a list of contentious issues for the bill, something that could not have been achieved until recently," Balkan said.

Australia, Indonesia 'to swap prisoners'

Australian Associated Press - October 12, 2006

Twelve Australians jailed in Indonesia – including convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby – could soon be eligible to return home with a landmark deal believed to have been struck between the two nations.

Indonesian laws and human rights minister Hamid Awaluddin said Indonesia had reached agreement with Australia to swap prisoners, but did not say who would be eligible under the scheme.

At this point, Indonesian and Australian government are in a stage of agreement to swap prisoners from each countries. Realisation will be after (the Islamic holiday) Lebaran, Hamid told the Rakyak Merdeka newspaper.

Fifty-seven Indonesian prisoners in custody in Australia would be sent back home under the deal, and 12 Australians, he said.

The Indonesian Laws and Human Rights department's Sukartono Supangat said the agreement covered Australian prisoners in custody for drugs and paedophile matters in Bali.

He confirmed Corby would be one of the Australians under consideration. However, it is unclear whether Corby would take up such an offer.

In August Corby's lawyer, Erwin Siregar, rejected the possibility of her transfer back to Australia to serve the rest of her 20- year drug smuggling conviction. At the time, Siregar said his client was not interested in the prisoner exchange deal as she wanted to return to Australia "a free woman".

It was not clear how much of their sentence prisoners would need to serve before being repatriated to their home countries.

Supangat said there was still a long process ahead, despite the agreement. "It's a long process. Its only a first round agreement," he told AAP. "After this has been agreed, then it must pass as legislation in parliament. Then, there's technical regulation on that. So, there's still a long time to go."

The Indonesian prisoners to be repatriated were mostly those in custody on immigration and illegal fishing matters.

Abuse a fact of life for young in Indonesia: UN

Jakarta Post - October 13, 2006

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Children here and overseas are frequently physically and emotionally abused at home and at school with many people around the world thinking the abuse is "normal", a UN study revealed on Thursday.

The report, issued by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's office, reveals that for many children violence is routine, unreported and part of their daily reality. Indonesia is one of 77 countries that still regards corporal and other violent punishments acceptable as legal disciplinary measures, it said.

For Indonesia studies were conducted in 2002, 2003 and this year by the UN body for children, Unicef, and Indonesia's State Ministry for Women's Empowerment.

In a statement sent to The Jakarta Post, the United Nations said the report was "the first single document that provides a comprehensive global view of the range and scale of violence against children". Forms of violence range from sexual abuse in the home to corporal and other humiliating punishments at school.

In Indonesia, the UN's 2002 survey, which involved 125 children and took place over six months, revealed that two-thirds of the boys and about a third of girls had been physically beaten. The survey also found that more than a quarter of the girls surveyed had been raped.

In a much broader survey in 2003 in which about 1,700 children participated, the vast majority reported being slapped, punched, or having an object thrown at them.

This year, UN studies in three provinces showed excessive physical and emotional violence against students in schools.

In Central Java, 80 percent of teachers admitted to have punished children by yelling or shouting at them in front of their classmates or peers. Some 55 percent admitted to ordering students to stand in front of the class.

In South Sulawesi, 90 percent of the teachers said they had told students to stand in front of the class, followed by 73 percent yelling at students and 54 percent ordering them to clean the toilets.

In North Sumatra, more than 90 percent of teachers admitted to order their students to stand in front of the class and 80 percent yelled at students.

"Violence against children is a violation of their human rights, a disturbing reality of our societies," said Louis Arbour, UN high commissioner for human rights in a statement. "It can never be justified, whether for disciplinary reasons or cultural traditions. No such thing as a reasonable level of violence is acceptable." Unicef executive director Ann M. Veneman said violence had a lasting effect on children and their families and also on communities and nations.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the expert who led the study, said the best way to deal with violence against children was to nip it in the bud.

"Everyone has a role to play in this, but states must take the primary responsibility. That means prohibiting all kinds of violence against children... and investing in prevention programs to address the underlying causes," he said.

The report cited World Health Organization data, which estimates that in 2002 some 150 million girls and 73 million boys were subjected to forced sexual intercourse and other forms of molestation, while 53,000 were killed.

International Labor Organization data shows that in 2004 there were 218 million child laborers worldwide, 126 million in hazardous work. WHO estimates up to 140 million women and girls have undergone genital mutilation.

The report also calls for the appointment of a UN special representative on violence against children, "to act as a high profile global advocate" to promote prevention and elimination of violence against the young.

US wants Munir killers prosecuted

Jakarta Post - October 12, 2006

Tony Hotland and Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The unresolved murder of noted human rights campaigner Munir continues to get international attention, while his widow, Suciwati, is preparing to address the United Nations Human Rights Commission about the case.

United States Ambassador to Indonesia B. Lynn Pascoe said Indonesia should bring Munir's killers to justice, after the acquittal of the only suspect in the case by the Supreme Court last week. Pascoe made the remarks in a meeting Wednesday with Suciwati.

"The United States regrets that there is currently no one who has been held accountable for that crime," the embassy said in a statement as quoted by AP. It said Washington would encourage Indonesia to vigorously pursue resolution of the case.

Suciwati is scheduled to fly Thursday to the United States to visit the UN and lobby members of the US Senate and House to pressure Indonesia to solve her husband's murder. The trip is being facilitated by the New York-based organization, Human Rights First.

The Supreme Court last week quashed the murder conviction of Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, citing insufficient evidence. The court cut his prison term from 14 years to two years, allowing his conviction on a related forgery charge to stand.

The verdict stirred controversy, particularly since two lower courts had found Pollycarpus guilty. No-one else has been implicated in the Sept. 7, 2004, murder, which took place aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight to Amsterdam. Pollycarpus used the forged document to board the plane and subsequently exchanged seats with Munir.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would not publicly announce the results of a presidential fact-finding team in the case, despite pressure from former team members to do so, his spokesman said Wednesday. "Why bother? Everybody already knows about the contents of the team's report, so why would the President make an announcement?" said Andi Mallarangeng.

He said there was no need for the President to publicly comment about the case because he had entrusted National Police chief Gen. Sutanto to revitalize the investigation. "How Sutanto puts the order into action is up to him. So if critics are speaking out now about the process, ask Sutanto about his choices," Andi said.

The fact-finding team concluded that the murder was the result of a conspiracy involving former State Intelligence Agency (BIN) members. During his life, Munir was a staunch critic of the armed forces and intelligence services for widespread human rights abuses.

The fact-finding team has said the President must announce its findings because he established the team and publicly endorsed the probe.

The Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the two largest major parties, voiced serious concerns over Pollycarpus' exoneration. But they have not yet decided whether to call for a special inquiry into the case by summoning those allegedly involved, particularly former BIN officers.

"We have no plan to bring the case to a House plenary session to seek approval for the use of an inquiry or interpellation rights to pressure the government to carry out a thorough probe of the case," said Happy Bone Zulkarnain, secretary of the Golkar Party faction.

Similarly, Trimedya Panjaitan of the PDI-P faction, who heads the House Commission on legal affairs, human rights and domestic security, said there was no plan to raise the issue soon due to conflicting political interests among members.

However, he asked Suciwati and former members of the fact-finding team to hand over the team's findings to the commission soon for discussion.

Soeripto, a legislator with the Prosperous Justice Party, said his faction would seek political support from major factions for a House inquiry into the case.

Releasing Munir report will prove your commitment, SBY told

Jakarta Post - October 11, 2006

Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must make public a report by a presidential fact-finding team into the murder of human rights activist Munir, the leadership of the organization he cofounded says.

"By making the results public, the President will make his political position clear – that he endorses the results and the recommendations of the fact-finding team," said Asmara Nababan, a former team member who is on the board of the independent Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

The calls followed the Supreme Court's exoneration of the sole suspect in the murder, Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto. Judges cut Pollycarpus' jail term from 14 to two years because they ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict him of poisoning Munir in September 2004.

Asmara said a presidential decree setting up the team authorized Yudhoyono to make the results public. Announcing the results is "an obligation for the government", he said and the President would be held accountable if the team's recommendations were not followed up.

Set up by the President on Dec. 23, 2004, the team submitted a report on the murder in June last year. Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng earlier said making public the team's report was unnecessary because part of the document had already been leaked to the public.

Kontras has also recommended the government review the police's investigation of the Munir case and set up a new fact-finding team with the power to direct future police probes. The President has instead revived the former police team led by Brig. Gen. Surya Dharma Nasution, a move criticized by activists as ineffectual.

Kontras board chairman Ibrahim Zakir said the organization also supported the plan by Munir's widow, Suciwati, to bring the case to the United Nations Council of Human Rights. Suciwati leaves for the United States on Friday on the invitation of the Human Rights First group to receive an award for Munir and to lobby the US Congress.

On Tuesday, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bahrul Alam defended the reappointment of Surya to head the investigation. Surya, who heads the transnational crimes division at the National Police, is the "best man" for the job, Anton said.

He was earlier replaced as chairman of the fact-finding team by Brig. Gen. Marsudi Hanafi, now South Sumatra deputy police chief. In his follow-up to the investigation, Surya will first "check on all the evidence and witnesses," Anton said.

Every two weeks the team is obliged to report progress made in the investigation to National Police chief Gen. Sutanto, who then notifies the President. Sutanto said the team's progress investigating the case would likely depend on the cooperation of Pollycarpus.

An earlier court that convicted Pollycarpus for murder found evidence of frequent calls from his cell phone to one owned by a former National Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy director Muchdi before the murder. He and other former BIN officials have denied involvement in the murder.

'Unreasonable verdicts could lead to the death of common sense'

Jakarta Post - October 11, 2006

The Supreme Court's split decision to quash the murder verdict of Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, the sole defendant in the killing of rights activist Munir, is seen by some as a major blow to efforts to promote human rights and justice. The Jakarta Post's Ary Hermawan spoke with Justice Artidjo Alkostar, who offered the dissenting opinion in the Pollycarpus decision. The following are excerpts of the interview.

Question: Can you explain the legal reasoning behind your conviction that Pollycarpus was guilty?

Answer: First of all, I have to explain the position of the Supreme Court as a judex juris, the highest court whose verdicts are final and binding. The Supreme Court is not judex facti; the district courts and the high courts examine facts. The Supreme Court examines the enforcement of the law as stipulated in the Criminal Code.

Pollycarpus was convicted by a district court and the high court. And the two made a correct decision, although it may have lacked something if seen through conspiracy theory. Pollycarpus was found guilty of two crimes: using counterfeit documents and killing Munir. The conviction should be cumulative, which means the sentencing of the two crimes should be jointly imposed and added together. I agreed with the prosecutors' demand that Pollycarpus be sentenced to life.

I don't think there was anything wrong with the application of the law at the district and high court level, especially regarding the correlation between Polly and the death of Munir. I agree with the legal reasoning of the district court judges, who used a posteriori logic. They observed from consequences first and then causes. Usually the judges use a more conventional way of thinking, which is from cause to consequence.

This is the Munir case seen through a posteriori logic. We have the facts or consequences. Munir was known to have been poisoned to death. How did he die? It is impossible that he died because he fell or had a heart attack. So we have to look for the causes, which are very clear.

The clues are that Polly exchanged seats with Munir. Polly was wandering around the pantry. And he did those things for no reason. It's so strange. He was off duty but forced his way on duty. The trial revealed that Polly was off duty. And the document he used to fly to Singapore turned out to be counterfeited. It could only mean that he was forcing himself to do these things. Those clues are then corroborated by the fact that Polly phoned Munir before the flight.

These signs imply a causality between the consequence and its causes, between the death of Munir and the preceding actions of Pollycarpus. Remember, not merely an activity, but a set of activities. This set of activities correlated with the death of Munir.

The other two justices on the panel said there was no evidence Pollycarpus murdered Munir. Aren't these clues also considered evidence?

Those clues are definitely evidence. It is recognized in the law. Evidence cannot just fall from the sky. It comes out during trial. This is in line with the principle of criminal law, which is to seek material truth. In contrast to the principle of civil law, which is to find formal truth. In the case of Munir, what we're looking for is material truth.

The sense of justice of this nation will be hurt if law enforcers can be easily fooled by criminals and corrupt people. If we are defeated in terms of logic, this country will be broke. We have to be prudent. Law enforcers should be intelligent in dealing with the logic of those implicated in extraordinary crimes.

Can you describe the situation when you heard the Pollycarpus case?

We definitely had a heated debate and the trial was not like a normal one. We were at odds and our differences were so sharp. You see, the other two judges rejected the prosecution's argument and granted the appeal of the defense. The trial was so long that the judges hearing the next case had to wait for us.

Was there any pressure from outside the courtroom?

No. At least, I know there was no pressure put on me. I don't know about the other two justices. Go ask them.

What about the prosecution's plan to seek a review of the case? Is that legal and would it be useful?

That is one of the legal avenues that could be taken by the prosecutors. Pak Bagir (the Supreme Court chief) has set up a panel of judges for the planned review. It is a valid legal measure and there is a precedent when prosecutors sought a review of Muchtar Pakpahan's acquittal.

Are you suggesting that the prosecution file for a review?

No, I'm not in that position. I'm just saying that filing a review would be valid. I know that people have talked about it and I say this discourse is valid.

Anyway, that is not the only way. The public could conduct an examination and studies regarding the verdict, to clear up this case. Unreasonable verdicts could lead to the death of common sense. We have to do this to get rid of the dark side of the Indonesian judiciary. The case of Udin (a journalist at Yogyakarta daily Bernas who was beaten to death in 1996 after writing about corruption cases involving local government officials), for instance, is one of those dark sides. I hope that future generations will have a clearer and brighter history. So there are still many legal avenues available to respond to the verdict.

Munir's widow Suciwati has asked the Supreme Court to reopen the case. What do you think?

No, we can't do that. She has no competence to say so.

Aren't you afraid that people will lose trust in the Supreme Court because of controversial verdicts?

I'm not in a position to answer that question. Somebody else must answer that. If I were still the director of the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute, I would be happy to answer it. I think it's unethical for me to say anything about it.

ELSAM urges forming of reconciliation committee

Tempo Interactive - October 11, 2006

Eko Ari Wibowo, Jakarta – The Executive Organization of People's Advocacy Studies (ELSAM), an organization of human rights activists, is urging that the government shortly forms a Commission of Truth and Reconciliation.

The House of Representatives (DPR) should use its right of inquiries as part of its responsibility in legalizing the Law on Commission of Truth and Reconciliation Number 27/2004.

"The government should have formed the commission six months after the law was legalized," said I Gusti Agung Putri, the Director of ELSAM at the Ibis Tamarin Hotel, Wednesday (11/10).

Gusti Agung said that Law on Commission and Reconciliation was legalized on 6 October 2004, however, the government is yet to establish the commission. If the government does not form the commission soon, he said, there will be many denials regarding human rights violation in the past.

"Denials are around, now. In fact, perpetrators of human rights cases have even been released,' he said.

The Commission of Truth and Reconciliation must be established soon because the government does not have excuses to delay it.

As regards the delay caused by the government, said Gusti Agung, the President is yet to recognize the candidates of the commission members. "It's irrational," he said.

ELSAM has also urged that DPR and the President be more tangible in forming the commission by allocating funds in the state budget.

Munir's widow to seek help from UN and United States

Jakarta Post - October 10, 2006

Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – The widow of murdered human rights campaigner Munir is planning to lobby American and United Nations officials to help her pressure the Indonesian government to uncover the mystery behind the death of her husband.

Suciwati has been invited by Human Rights First (HRF) to New York and Washington D.C. to receive a human rights award for her deceased husband. She will depart Thursday night and return home on Oct. 23.

"I will lobby our friends at the U.S congress and the United Nations as well to press the Yudhoyono government to move ahead with the investigation," she told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

The HRF will facilitate her meeting with US Senators and Congress members. Suciwati is scheduled to also attend a UN general assembly to discuss the case.

"We will address the failure of the Indonesian authority in resolving the Munir case," Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence coordinator Usman Hamid told the Post. He will accompany Suciwati on the visit.

The investigation in Munir's death was set back by the Supreme Court decision to quash the murder conviction of Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, the sole suspect. Munir was poisoned with arsenic on a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Singapore in 2004.

Usman said that Indonesia was a part of the UN council and needed to show its commitment to serving justice for its citizens in line with the international convents it had ratified.

"President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has promised to enforce the law seriously in the country. But the fact shows that Indonesian authorities have failed to disclose this case," he said.

From June 28 to July 5, Usman and Suciwati traveled to the Netherlands and Belgium and met with European Commission representatives to seek support for the disclosure of the details of the Munir murder case.

Their efforts were not fruitless. European Commission president Manuel Baroso questioned Yudhoyono about Munir's murder while the two were attending an Asia-Europe meeting last month.

Yudhoyono later made assurances that the probe would continue and ordered National Police chief Gen. Sutanto to revitalize the investigation team. "We will continue seeking international support. If we can't find justice here, we'll try to find it somewhere else," Usman said.

Meanwhile, the Central Jakarta District Court opened Monday the trial of a lawsuit filed by Suciwati against PT Garuda Indonesia for negligence leading to the poisoning death of her husband. She is demanding US$1.4 million in damages for the negligence. Her lawyer, Choirul Anam, alleged that Garuda was guilty of negligence so gross it was "nearly deliberate".

He said the lawsuit was aimed at revealing an alleged conspiracy involving the national carrier in the death of Munir. "The police have failed to reveal the involvement of Garuda in the killing," Choirul said.

In the lawsuit, it is stated that Garuda was negligent in giving Munir a seat other than what was stated on his boarding pass and failing to make sure that the food and drink served to its customers was safe.

Garuda are also faulted in the lawsuit for not banning Pollycarpus, who used fake documents to get on the same flight as Munir, and for its poor treatment of Munir when he fell ill during the flight. The suit mentions 11 people linked to Garuda, including Pollycarpus, as defendants.

Garuda lawyer Wirawan Adnan denied the accusations, saying it was impossible for the airline and its officials to have been involved in the assassination. The trial is adjourned until Oct. 30.

Groups blast Jakarta on activist's death

Associated Press - October 8, 2006

Anthony Deutsch, Jakarta – Human rights groups on Sunday criticized a Supreme Court decision overturning the 14-year prison sentence of a man convicted of killing Indonesia's most prominent activist.

Munir Said Thalib, a human rights lawyer who was threatened in the late 1990s after revealing abuses by the Indonesian military, died of arsenic poisoning in September 2004 on a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it had seen insufficient evidence to back up an earlier decision by a lower tribunal that an off-duty pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, had laced Munir's food with poison.

The acquittal has angered many in Indonesia, where the case was seen as a test for a legal system still plagued by corruption after nearly three decades under former dictator Suharto. His regime, toppled by a popular uprising in 1998, was known for the widespread imprisonment and killing of political opponents.

"The failure to secure a conviction for Munir's murder is a huge blow for human rights protection and the reform process supposedly under way in Indonesia," Brad Adams, Asia director for the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch, said in a recent statement.

Munir's wife, Suciwati, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, maintains the murder was the result of a conspiracy by military intelligence members who wanted to get back at Munir for his activism. She has said the key to Munir's case lies in a trove of telephone taps between a high-ranking Indonesian general and the pilot, which the intelligence service refuses to make public.

That theory was supported by Asmara Nababan, an Indonesian rights activist and member of the fact-finding team established by the government last year to probe the case. The team concluded that Priyanto had had contact with an agent from Indonesia's intelligence agency, information which never surfaced in court.

Nababan said Sunday that if Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono "had given full support, I believe the murderer, the executioner and the mastermind could be punished by now."

The president's spokesman told reporters after the court's decision was announced that Yudhoyono has ordered police to "improve and heighten their investigation."

The criticism comes at an awkward time for Yudhoyono, a leading contender for this year's Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end a bloody war in Indonesia's Aceh province.

Experts and bookmakers are predicting the Norwegian committee that awards the prize will honor the Aug. 15, 2005, peace agreement between the Indonesian government and Aceh separatist rebels which ended 29 years of fighting that left 15,000 people dead. Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, the mediator of the accord, is considered the favorite, followed by Yudhoyono.

"As an Indonesian citizen I am proud he was nominated," Munir's wife told reporters after the court's decision, "but as a victim I feel he should never get the prize, unless he resolves this murder."

[Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini contributed to this report.]

Munir probe chief failed before: Activists

Jakarta Post - October 8, 2006

Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – The reappointment of Brig. Gen. Surya Dharma Nasution to lead the police team probing the murder of human rights champion Munir will only undermine the police and the President's credibility, activists said Saturday.

Surya led the police team formed in 2004 to investigate the murder but was later replaced by Brig. Gen. Marsudi Hanafi, now South Sumatra deputy police chief.

"He was replaced by Marsudi because he failed," Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) executive director Usman Hamid told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Surya currently heads the transnational crimes division at the National Police. He was reappointed as the team's chief Friday, replacing Marsudi. "We have to say 'no' to this team. It will not work. It will only undermine the credibility of National Police Chief Gen. Sutanto and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono," he said.

Rachlan Nasidik, the executive director of rights group Imparsial, said the government-sanctioned fact-finding team had filed a report to the President that Surya was among officers reluctant to investigate Munir's murder.

"The investigation into the phone contacts between (Garuda pilot) Pollycarpus and Muchdi PR (of the National Intelligence Agency, BIN) was carried out by the government-sanctioned fact-finding team because Surya had done nothing about it for months," Rachlan said.

Muchdi has denied involvement in the murder. Meanwhile, former BIN chief Hendropriyono has said the agency had no role in the murder, although he conceded BIN officers may have been involved in their private capacities.

Usman said he doubted Surya had the will to probe the Munir case because the police general was known to be a close associate of Muchdi. He challenged Sutanto to prove the police were unafraid to investigate all people implicated in Munir's murder, even if one was a "military general".

Pollycarpus was the only person convicted for the Sept. 7, 2004, murder of Munir. He was sentenced to 14 years' jail but the term was cut to two years last week by the Supreme Court after an appeal. The court declared Pollycarpus not guilty of killing Munir but guilty of falsifying a document that allowed him to travel on the same aircraft as the activist.

Since the latest verdict, rights groups have increased calls for subsequent investigations to focus on the alleged role of BIN officers in Munir's murder. When earlier convicting Pollycarpus, the Jakarta District Court concluded he "did not act alone".

The groups have demanded investigators follow up the many phone calls made by Pollycarpus to Muchdi's cell phone days before Munir was found dead on a Amsterdam-bound Garuda plane.

Usman said the police had not seriously probed the case and instead had blocked the investigation. "Why has (Surya) been appointed as the team's new chief?" he said.

A former member of the fact-finding team, Asmara Nababan, said Surya often ignored findings and recommendations made by the team. "We came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with the police's work," he told the Post.

Asmara said the need for the police to be audited by an independent body was urgent because they were "not allowed to be objective about the matter." "The audit will reveal whether the police are unable or simply unwilling to find Munir's killer," he said.

Munir was murdered in 2004 on a Garuda flight to the Netherlands. An autopsy found a lethal dose of arsenic in his body.

The police have vowed to speed up the murder probe after President Yudhoyono ordered Sutanto to revitalize the team.

Yudhoyono earlier promised Munir's widow, Suciwati, the government would find the people responsible for her husband's murder.

War on terror

Why JI crumbled in wake of Bali bombings

Sydney Morning Herald - October 14, 2006

Hamish McDonald – Four years after the first Bali bombings, a new picture has emerged of the Islamic jihadist organisation that carried them out, thanks to the insights of a former Australian intelligence analyst.

The picture is both disturbing and reassuring. The jihadists of Jemaah Islamiah were very ordinary young Indonesians, and there are many more out there than the 370 reported to have been rounded up.

But they were unprepared for the consequences of jihad on their own turf, and what seemed an impressively secret organisation quickly disintegrated under the weight of the security crackdown set off by the October 2002 bombings.

After the bombs went off, Ken Ward, a longtime senior Indonesia analyst at Canberra's Office of National Assessments, was one of a small team that spent seven weeks collating what was known about the likely bombers, their motivations and the Indonesian elite's reactions to the bombings.

It was a time of early mornings spent writing and delivering reports, with sleep occasionally disturbed by vivid nightmares of the bloodsoaked scene at the nightspots where 202 people, including 88 Australians, were killed, and scores more injured.

As the joint Indonesian and Australian police inquiry began arresting JI members, Ward went back to his usual work of analysing successive Indonesian governments.

But after taking early retirement from the Office of National Assessments in February last year to set up as a private consultant, he set out to satisfy his lingering curiosity about JI and its members, bringing together his extensive contacts and experience as diplomat and intelligence analyst, as well as an earlier record as a young academic researcher on Indonesian politics. By various informal means, Ward gathered transcripts of statements made to the police by about 100 detained JI members, many of whom have now been tried and convicted.

The provisos are that the degree of coercion in the police interrogations is unverified, and some testimonies are self- serving or alternatively highly protective of JI's alleged spiritual leader and co-founder, Abu Bakar Bashir.

At the end of each statement is a biography of the subject, which has provided a tentative sociology of JI.

Ward notes that, below Bashir and fellow JI co-founder Abdullah Sungkar, most JI members in his sample were 20 years or more their junior. They often had lowly educations; only 11 had university degrees and seven had other tertiary diplomas. The rest were mostly high school graduates. Several had trained with jihadists in Afghanistan and Mindanao in the southern Philippines.

Most had daytime occupations such as Muslim preachers or were small traders in items such as honey, dates, clothes, oils and perfumes, which they sold from moveable stalls rather than permanent shops. "They were fairly marginally placed within Indonesian society," Ward says.

At Bashir's Ngruki Pesantren (Koranic school) near the central Java city of Solo, JI recruits were encouraged to take operational aliases, often those of companions of the prophet Muhammad, and the organisation developed with a high level of secrecy in the 1990s.

Local branches reported to four regional divisions, which in turn reported to a central headquarters called the Qiyadah Markaziyah. All communications were supposed to be vertical, and a number of security rules including "need to know" applied.

When the central HQ gathered at Tawangmangu near Solo on October 17, five days after the Bali bombings, there was no formal discussion of the attack, according to the testimonies of several of those who attended, though Mukhlas acknowledged his participation on the margins of the meeting.

Truthfully or not, many of the JI detainees claimed Bashir kept himself distant from activity "in the field". Ward is amazed at how much the arrested JI members did tell the police. "The disadvantage of this youthful organisation is that many seemed completely unprepared for their arrests, and often blurted out almost everything they knew," he says.

The al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, is often said to plan his attacks as a provocation to bring down on Muslim societies a heavy-handed American response, and thereby generate more resentment, Ward notes.

"But in the case of JI, I don't think they totally understood what would be the results of their action," Ward says. "What happened after the Bali bombings came as a total surprise to them."

As the arrests of JI operatives proceeded, including that of Hambali, who is still in US custody, the sophisticated JI structure collapsed over the course of 2003, Ward says.

Follow-up bomb attacks against the Jakarta Marriott hotel, the Australian embassy and again in Bali show a degree of continuing operational capability, but it is hard to see evidence of any strategic vision.

Once regional sectarian conflicts had come to an end, the jihad failed to spark much sympathy within Indonesia, and JI's remaining groups, though still dangerous, are as far as ever from connecting their attack to their grand plan of an Islamic state within the country, let alone an Islamic caliphate across South- East Asia.

Indonesia marks 2002 Bali bombing anniversary

Agence France Presse - October 12, 2006

Benito Lopulalan, Kuta – Indonesians and foreigners on Bali have marked the fourth anniversary of deadly bombings by Islamic extremists with a series of emotional ceremonies and rituals on the resort island. The October 12, 2002 bombings on two nightclubs killed 202 people, mostly Western tourists, and were blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terrorist network.

The atrocity claimed the lives of people from 22 countries. Australia, which for years saw Bali as its backyard playground, lost the largest number of victims, with 88.

At midnight (1600 GMT Wednesday), a 12-kilometre (seven-mile) length of cloth symbolising peace was unfurled by a group of Balinese at Jimbaran beach, beginning at one of three cafes hit by a subsequent attack in October 2005. The triple suicide bombings last year, also blamed on key JI members, killed 20 innocent bystanders.

The cloth was unrolled along the road to the front of the international airport and then to a memorial to the victims of the 2002 attacks in the busy tourist district of Kuta.

"The cloth has been placed on the road so that anyone can step on it. It is a symbol of our willingness to forget the past while at the same time recalling the tragedies that have hit this land," said Save Dagun, one of the organisers. "We should not cry over those who died. They are like pearls, like martyrs who must push us towards peace," he said.

The ritual unleashed emotions among Bali residents. At the airport, one man stopped his car to get out. "Why should bombings be celebrated? I have lost a lot because of the bombs," he told those laying down the one-metre (yard) wide cloth before clambering back into his car and driving away.

It also sparked demands for the execution of the three key bombers who are now on death row – Amrozi, Ali Ghufron and Imam Samudra. Wayan Arta, 32, and his friends wrote on the cloth: "Please execute Amrozi!" and "Execute Amrozi in Bali!" The trio were moved to Java for security reasons.

About 150 family and friends of victims attended a memorial held by the Australian government on a cliff overlooking the ocean near Kuta under tight security.

Eight-year-old orphan Alief, who lost his father I Mawan Sardjono in the bombings, read a poem to the group.

"Four years ago when I was four years old, and my brother was three, I was just a little boy but my daddy went away. Now, no matter where I look for him, I only find a grave every single day," he said. "I long to see my daddy who went away."

Australian ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer read a statement by Prime Minister John Howard. "On behalf of the Australian government and people I again offer (the victims' loved ones) my deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences," he said. "Our thoughts and prayers are also with the people of Indonesia and the many other nations affected by the attack."

Later, a group of about 600 Balinese paraded from another of the cafes hit in the 2005 attacks in Kuta to the nearby memorial, led by people carrying incense and 1,460 balloons, one symbolising each day in the past four years.

Some among the procession carried a 12-metre length of white cloth over their heads and were accompanied by traditional sarong-clad musicians. The group laid flowers at the memorial, where a plaque lists the victims' names.

Earlier, Australian tourist Mark Parre watched as the street was covered in white cloth during the overnight ritual.

"I was touched by everything that happened. With the white cloth, it's like a dream," he told AFP. "It is beautiful how the Balinese people share their feelings with the world, their feelings of sadness. It is beautiful that the people do it, not the government. This touches my heart."

Terrorism network commanded from jail

Sydney Morning Herald - October 11, 2006

Mark Forbes, Jakarta – Jailed leaders of Jemaah Islamiah are using Indonesian prisons as a recruiting ground and publishing house, translating radical Islamic texts and distributing them across the country to indoctrinate future terrorists.

The translated jihadist manuals are being widely distributed, says Sidney Jones, a leading expert on JI and the Asian director of the International Crisis Group. Ms Jones's warning yesterday was endorsed by the counterterrorism chief of Indonesia's Security Ministry, Ansyaad Mbai.

Major-General Mbai said there was a "real and present" terrorist threat in Indonesia, despite the arrest of 300 terrorists and the killing of master bombmaker Azahari Husin last year.

A covert "de-radicalisation" campaign was under way, secretly using former senior JI figures to persuade potential terrorists against turning to violence, he said.

However, terrorist leaders were using the internet from inside prison to issue instructions and to call for more attacks against the West. General Mbai said the terrorists had even managed to convert some of their prison wardens.

Ms Jones said Imam Samudra, one of the Bali bombing leaders on death row, was still using a mobile phone from his cell despite controversy caused by revelations that he had been using a laptop to issue calls for jihad over the internet.

JI had splintered over the past three years, with the hardline bombers headed by the fugitive Noordin Top at odds with the group's mainstream that was trying avoiding immediate violence. But JI was proving resilient in the face of police crackdowns, Ms Jones said. "There is a lot of recruiting going on," she said.

Convicted terrorists were using their prison cells to translate Arabic jihadist manuals, including instructions on forming terrorist cells and carrying out attacks. "The universality of these manuals is worrying," she said. "They focus on Muslims being persecuted and oppressed by colonialists."

The manuals were being distributed as pamphlets, books, and over the internet, she said. Several publishing firms linked to senior JI figures were publishing hardline texts, which were being sold through bookshops in Jakarta.

Samudra had written a book with a print run of 12,000, large for Indonesia. Much stricter controls on materials going into and out of Indonesian prisons needed to be introduced, Ms Jones said.

The terrorist threat from JI had lessened because of police action, Ms Jones said, but it was likely there would be more bombings in Indonesia.

It was worrying how easily terrorists such as Top had been able to recruit sympathetic Muslims, she said. "There were more volunteers for suicide bombers than they could use [for the second Bali bombing]."

With the splintering of the JI leadership, small cells were independently undertaking terrorist attacks, Ms Jones said. She gave the example of a cell in Poso which beheaded three Christian schoolgirls this year.

General Mbai said law enforcement alone could not halt terrorism. He declined to give details of Indonesia's "deradicalisation" campaign because doing so could undermine it. He defended the Government's failure to ban JI, saying it was a political decision designed to avoid disrupting a newly formed democracy.

Politics/political parties

Gloomy outlook for Islamist parties

Jakarta Post - October 16, 2006

Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – The future of political Islam remains bleak in Indonesia, with fewer than one in 10 Muslims saying they would still vote for Islamic parties in the next election, a survey revealed Sunday.

But the polling conducted by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) shows religious radicalism and extremism remain strong in the nation with the world's largest Muslim population.

The survey of 1,092 Muslims found only 9 percent would choose Islamic parties if the elections were held today.

"The prospects for Islamic parties are filled with uncertainty," Sayuti Asyathri of the National Mandate Party said in response to the survey. "Political Islam should take firm measures to strengthen its activism."

The survey showed that 43 percent of Muslims here preferred to support secular parties, such as Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Democrat Party rather than Islamic parties such as the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). Only 5 percent said they were "close" to Islamic parties.

The survey, which was conducted across the country from September to mid-October, concluded that the political leanings of Indonesian Muslims are basically liberal and pluralistic.

Most respondents also believed that democracy was compatible with Islam and the state ideology of Pancasila. The poll revealed that 82 percent of the respondents believed in democracy and only 5 percent disagreed with the concept.

"Mainstream Muslims here think that the public sphere should not be regulated by Islamic sharia," said LSI executive director Saiful Mujani.

Political analyst and Muslim scholar Bachtiar Effendy said Islamic parties would never see real success. "They are often too busy with their own issues, such as an Islamic state and sharia," Bachtiar said, adding that the issues had been brought up in academic discourse since the 1960s.

"Nothing is new in LSI's findings. Islamic parties have never won elections," he said, also citing the work of noted American anthropologist Clifford Geertz.

Saiful said Islamic parties must change their political orientation and become more pluralistic in order to survive. "In the end, all parties have to be pluralist."

Despite the apparent weakness of political Islam, the poll found that religious radicalism and extremism quietly have a strong grip on Indonesia.

The survey found significant numbers of Indonesian Muslims agreed with the violent approach used by the Al-Qaeda-linked regional terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah, which has been fighting for the establishment of an Islamic state in Southeast Asia.

According to the survey, 9 percent felt the Bali bombings were justified as a form of "jihad to defend Islam". Another 80.7 percent explicitly condemned the Bali attacks. "Nine percent is certainly a significant figure to represent people supporting such extreme acts as the Bali attacks," Saiful noted.

In addition, 17.4 percent of respondents said they supported Jamaah Islamiyah, 16.1 percent backed the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) and 7.2 percent supported Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia. The latter two are hard-line Islamic groups campaigning for sharia in the country.

Restrictions sought on electoral participation

Green Left Weekly - October 11, 2006

James Balowski, Jakarta – Although still three years away, citing the need to prevent Indonesia's 2009 general elections from becoming "overly fragmented" by a plethora of new political parties, legislators are seeking to limit the number of parties that can participate.

The move is part of a draft amendment to the 2003 electoral law, initiated by the large, established parties, to increase the electoral threshold from 3% to 5%.

The electoral threshold system was enacted after the 1999 elections so that only parties that garnered 2% of the seats in the House of Representatives (DPR) were eligible to contest the 2004 election. A 2003 law passed to serve as the foundation for the 2004 legislative elections raised the bar to 3% for the 2009 elections.

This means that parties with less than 3% of DPR seats must either merge with other parties or reapply from scratch under a new name.

Under the current law, to gain electoral registration, a party must show it has branches in more than 50% of the country's 33 provinces, and in each of the provinces where it has members it must show it has branches in more than 50% of the districts, and in each district more than 30% of the sub-districts.

These requirements are aimed at making it difficult for new parties, especially those whose social base is among the poor and do not have the money to "buy" branches.

Golkar Party legislator Ferry Mursyidan Baldan and Tjahyo Kumolo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said the electoral threshold is needed to prevent elections from becoming overly fragmented by the growing number of political parties. Golkar and the PDI-P hold the largest number of seats in the DPR.

"The more parties participating in elections, the more democratic the country will be, but it will be ineffective and inefficient. It's better for minority parties to form a coalition with other parties if they want to take part in elections", Baldan was quoted as saying by the September 23 Jakarta Post. Kumolo even proposed a threshold of at least 15% to allow only major parties to contest elections.

They have good reason to be worried. While President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration still enjoys a relatively high level of support, legislators and the parties they represent are seen by most people as lazy, incompetent, corrupt and self- serving. This has resulted in a growing apathy or outright hostility towards the traditional parties, demonstrated by numerous surveys and large numbers of people not bothering to vote in the recent round of regional elections.

This has also triggered a mushrooming of new parties representing local and issue-based politics or others seeking to challenge International Monetary Fund and World Bank-driven neoliberal policies that have resulted in soaring unemployment and poverty.

On September 25 for example, Detik.com reported that 27 new political parties have recently registered with the justice and human rights department.

Some are those that failed to reach the electoral threshold and are reapplying under a new name, such as the Star Crescent Party, which has been rebadged as the Crescent Star Party. The New Order Party is perhaps hoping to exploit nostalgia for the relative economic prosperity middle-class Indonesians enjoyed under Suharto's New Order dictatorship, while the Indonesia Women's Christian Party is based on a Christian sect comprising only of women members.

According to a report by the Liputan 6 news service, the Satria Piningit Party has established its executive boards at the thousands of small public phone centres that dot Indonesia's towns and city centres. Still others, like the Defence of the State Party and the My Republic Party, may reflect a growing concern over a perceived "disintegration of the nation", spurred on by regional autonomy processes and divisive sharia-inspired local bylaws.

Activist-based groups with an explicitly anti-neoliberal platform such as the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas), which has its basis among workers, farmers, students and the urban poor, have already come under attack as they attempt to consolidate local branches.

On September 17, some 40 armed thugs from a militia group calling themselves the "Tauhid anti-communist movement" (Gertak – meaning to threaten) intimidated participants and tore down banners during a launch of Papernas's East Java branch. Gertak claimed Papernas was a communist organisation for supporting victims of the anti-communist purges that took place when Suharto seized power in 1965.

Responding to the moves to increase the electoral threshold, a September 14 Papernas press release said that the "simplification" of the electoral system is intended by the traditional parties to maintain their domination and positions of power despite the fact that their performance has been far from satisfying.

The general secretary of Papernas's Preparatory Committee, Dominggus Oktavianus Kiik, told Green Left Weekly that it also represents an explicit admission by the big political parties that they have failed to win the people's hearts and that they are worried about the emergence of new political forces that are genuinely fighting for the interests of the people. "This totally contradicts the spirit of democracy that is the basis for the creation of people's political, economic, social and cultural sovereignty", he said.

Papernas, which was launched on July 23, is a new electoral party initiative by the People's Democratic Party (PRD), a radical left activist party whose current chairperson is well-known labour rights activist Dita Sari. It is also aimed at starting the process of overcoming the extreme fragmentation that has been characteristic of social protest and the progressive movement since Suharto's fall.

The party, which will be campaigning around a program based on three banners of nationalism – the abolition of the foreign debt, the nationalisation of mining companies and the development of the national industry for the welfare of the people – will hold its first national congress on November 26-29.

Government/civil service

Government to cut civil servants by 1 million

Jakarta Post - October 16, 2006

Jakarta – State Minister for Administrative Reforms Taufik Effendi said Saturday that the number of civil servants would be reduced by at least one million in order to improve efficiency.

Taufik, speaking in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, said that the present 3.6 million servants were too many and inefficient and needed to be reduced in stages to reach an ideal number. He said the reduction had already begun and that the number of new recruits employed to replace retirees had been reduced.

Government statistics show that 125,000 civil servants retire every year. Over the last few years, Taufik said, only around 20,000 to 25,000 new government employees have been hired each year. "The problem is that about 65 percent of the civil servants do clerical jobs and they are not functional," Taufik was quoted by Antara as saying.

He added that a large number of civil servants had been placed in positions for which they were not academically qualified. Nor are they proportionally distributed, he said. In Bali, Jembrana regency has 4,600 civil servants, but neighboring Tabanan has 15,000. In Kalimantan, Kutai Kartanegara has 18,000 civil servants, Taufik said.

Disparities also occur in the ministries. The Finance Ministry has 72,000 employees, the Home Ministry 125,000 and the Education Ministry 103,000.

"The too many government employees makes the state administration ineffective. The state could collapse if it has to continue paying a great number of employees at a time of economic hardship," he said.

In the future, he said, positions in the government will be filled by employees with relevant expertise and the number of clerical jobs will be slashed.

Taufik predicted that by the year 2014, five million civil servants will have retired and the government will have to pay Rp 40 trillion in pensions.

He also said that in the future, the government would have to set aside a huge amount of money to pay civil servants as of 2007 because the minimum monthly salary will be raised from Rp 600,000 to Rp 1,6000.

Civil servants will also have to improve their work ethic, he said, as government employees were "notorious for their poor service". "For example, they should know that if they keep making it difficult for people to start businesses, Indonesia will remain poor because many people will not be able to find employment," he said.

Supporters, critics give President thumb up

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2006

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono came off well in a House of Representatives discussion of his first two years in power, with even traditional critics praising his work.

His supporters said that during his first two years of administration, Yudhoyono had managed to resolve problems that had beaten previous leaders.

"One of the President's notable achievements was bringing about peace in Aceh, which has been the country's trouble spot for the last 30 years. This was a monumental political feat," said Anas Urbaningrum, a former member of the General Elections Commission who now sits on the Democratic Party central board.

Anas went on to present a long list of the President's achievements, including the government decision to finish repaying the country's debt to the International Monetary Fund and the rise of press freedom. Information and Communications Minister Sofyan Jalil also gave a glowing assessment of the President's performance over the last two years.

He said the administration had managed to solve a problem that had dogged every past administration, controlling the military.

"For the first time in maybe 30 years, 95 percent, if not all, of our troops are in their barracks, which is good for this country and for the soldiers themselves," Sofyan said.

He added that under Yudhoyono, a relative calm had been brought to trouble spots such as Aceh, Ambon and Poso.

Sofyan said that Yudhoyono had also helped democracy take root in the country, as indicated by the election of over 246 local heads in Indonesia's first-ever direct polls in 2004.

According to the Indonesian Survey Institute's most recent poll on the President, the most recent results of which were released Wednesday, 67 percent of respondents thought Yudhoyono's performance was satisfactory. In a poll last month only 38 percent of respondents were satisfied.

Plaudits also came from those on the other side of the political fence to the President.

Former House of Representatives Speaker and current Golkar Party Leader Akbar Tandjung said that while some of Yudhoyono's policies had failed to tackle the country's chronic problems of unemployment and poverty, the government's efforts had at least provided a glimmer of hope.

"We expect the government will be able to translate the hope into reality," Akbar said. He had earlier criticized the government, saying that unemployment had soared under Yudhoyono.

Legislator Sabam Sirait of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle was vague in his assessment of the past two years. "There is no clear-cut benchmark by which we can gauge the government's performance," Sabam said.

Environment

Indonesia dumping sludge from mud flow

Agence France Presse - October 16, 2006

Jakarta – Indonesia began dumping mud surging from a gas exploration site in central Indonesia into the sea on Monday, hoping to minimize destruction from the disaster that has submerged entire villages and displaced thousands.

The mud flow started after an accident deep in a drilling shaft on the seismically charged island of Java four months ago. It now covers more than 1,100 acres and is being contained by an ever- expanding network of dams.

Despite opposition from environmentalists, the government eventually aims to dump the mud into the sea 20 hours a day, 650 cubic feet per second, said Rudi Novrianto, a government spokesman.

Experts say the mud volcano is one of the largest ever recorded on land. It is believed to come from a reservoir more than three miles underground that has been pressurized by tectonic activity or by the accumulation of hydrocarbon gases.

Indonesia urged to ratify treaty on haze

Associated Press - October 13, 2006

Niniek Karmini, Pekanbaru – Southeast Asian nations Friday urged Indonesia to ratify a regional treaty to fight annual brush fires that have sent choking smoke across parts of Malaysia and Singapore, saying only then would it get financial help.

Even as emergency talks were held, a thick haze from brush fires on Indonesia's Borneo and Sumatra islands, which have been burning for about two months, continued to disrupt flights and trigger health warnings in the neighboring counties.

Environmental ministers from Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore urged Indonesia in a statement released after their daylong meeting "to urgently finalize the ratification of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution." Only then would a regional firefighting fund be discussed.

"Nothing can move forward unless Indonesia ratifies the agreement," said Malaysia's Environment Minister Azmi Khalid. "Details of the fund can only be worked out once the agreement is signed."

Indonesia is the only country in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations that has yet to ratify the agreement, which would result in the establishment of a regional coordinating center capable of reacting quickly to the smoke.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono earlier this week apologized for the haze and his spokesman said Thursday his country was prepared to sign on, but did not provide a time frame.

Though Indonesia stressed that 300 individuals have been arrested and lawsuits filed against six companies suspected of using illegal slash-and-burn methods, Singapore said it was getting frustrated.

"We do complain," said the city-state's Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Yaacob Ibrahim. "I think each country has the right to complain."

Talks were held in the Indonesian town of Pekanbaru on Sumatra island, one of the areas hit hardest by the annual haze that has plagued the region since the 1990s. The fires are mostly set by farmers or companies as a cheap way to clear land for plantations. The peaty soil can smolder for weeks or months.

"We are truly ashamed by this haze, but are unable to fight it alone," Chairul Zainal, head of Riau province's environmental impact agency, told The Associated Press. "It is really disturbing the health of the people and hitting the economy."

Residents of Pekanbaru said the air had improved because of recent rainfall, but many were skeptical the government could solve the problem.

In Malaysia, air quality was in the "moderate" range for most areas Friday, according to the Meteorological Department. It said hazy skies would linger over the country's largest state, Sarawak, while rain was expected to bring some relief to other areas.

The land-clearing fires resulted in Southeast Asia's worst haze in 1997-98, when smoke from Sumatra blanketed much of the region and was blamed for losses of nearly $9 billion in tourism, health costs and business.

Only developers seeing green in Senayan

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2006

Anissa S. Febrina, Jakarta – If spirits wander the city determined to set things right, the ghost of former president Soekarno might continue to haunt the grounds of Central Jakarta's Senayan complex.

On the 279.1-hectare property, which Soekarno envisioned as a center of physical and sports activities, as well as the city's lungs, are malls and hotels. Has Soekarno's vision been eroded away in favor of profit? Or does the city no longer need parks and other recreational areas?

Several decades ago, years after sports complex Gelora Bung Karno was built in 1960, Indonesian athletes were at the peak of their performance, taking the country all the way in regional competitions.

Aside from bad management, the fact that a complex designated for the development of sports has been partly converted into commercial spaces has surely contributed to the fall.

The country is no longer known for its achievements in sports but has become a leading consumerist society. This year, it topped a global ACNielsen survey for the success of its shopping malls.

"Soekarno wanted to build a complex that would contribute to the nation's character building," Siswono Yudo Husodo, the former vice chairman of Gelora Bung Karno's managing company, said recently.

In 1958, when Indonesia was appointed as host of the Asian Games Federation, Soekarno arranged for a US$12.5 million Soviet loan to build the Senayan complex. Four kampongs made way for the project and more than 60,000 residents were relocated.

The main stadium, two smaller stadiums, an indoor tennis court, basketball court and swimming pool were completed by 1962. Accommodation for athletes followed. The complex was then named Gelora Bung Karno and was managed by a foundation.

The first business-aimed conversion occurred when a suitable venue was needed for the PATA tourism conference in the early 1970s. Governor Ali Sadikin allowed the conversion of 11 hectares of land into a hotel and a convention hall, the Hilton – now the Sultan – and the Jakarta Convention Center, both built by companies affiliated with conglomerate family the Sutowos.

It was further stipulated in a 1984 decree that the area would be used for political and business activities as well. Under the Soekarno-phobic government campaign under Soeharto, the complex was then renamed Gelora Senayan.

Not long after, more malls, hotels and office buildings were built and now less than half the land is used for recreational purposes.

Around a quarter of the area, or 67.52 ha, is occupied by government buildings and public facilities like schools, community health centers and a subdistrict office. More than 74 ha has been converted into malls, hotels or office buildings.

As business premises in Senayan complex were built based on build, operate and transfer (BOT) contracts, it is unlikely they will ever be reconverted into green areas. Now, only 5.9 ha remains as Jakarta's supposed lungs.

The private companies pay an amount of money for compensation but none really compensate for the loss of green areas.

Governor Sutiyoso said previously that if the Senayan complex was managed by the city administration, there would be no more conversion of green spaces there.

"We are trying to maintain what is left of the green space by making sure that the permitted 20 percent floor area ratio is adhered to," Gelora Bung Karno managing company director Indra Setiawan said.

The company also plans to jointly open a seedling center, which will also function as a public park, on a 1.8-ha vacant lot.

Sutiyoso's promise might sound attractive, however, managing the rights to the complex itself is still in the hands of the State Secretary's office, which seems happy with things the way they are.

All in all, the damage is done. Developers might see green when passing the area, but not because of the greenery, more due to the money-making opportunities.

It could be argued that the city and the complex management benefit anyway from the conversions as they receive more taxes and compensation money.

But a State Audit Agency report last October revealed several problems that may lead to potential state losses of Rp 28.15 billion. Most of the cases were related to inadequate compensation for land use rights, some even allegedly involved corruption by state officials.

While the management appears to have no qualms about kicking "illegal" street vendors off the premises, penalizing high- ranking officials and tycoons is another matter.

Pressure intensifies on Indonesia as meeting sought over haze

Agence France Presse - October 11, 2006

Martin Abbugao, Singapore – Pressure is intensifying on Indonesia to take action on the smoke haze blighting neighbouring countries as Singapore invited regional ministers to discuss "urgent" measures to tackle the problem.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has written Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to "express his disappointment" over the recurring problem, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.

Lee's comments followed criticism Tuesday from Malaysia's Natural Resources and Environment Minister Azmi Khalid, whose country has also suffered unhealthy air quality levels because of the haze.

A meeting of environment ministers from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) states affected by the haze will be held in Singapore on Friday, the Singaporean leader told Yudhoyono.

The meeting would discuss "urgent and long-term measures" to tackle the smoke haze problem, Singapore's environment ministry said in a separate statement. It said Singapore had invited ministers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei.

"Its objective is to muster ASEAN's resources to help Indonesia cope with the present haze problem," the foreign ministry said.

The Friday gathering could also help in preparing for an international meeting which Indonesia could convene, "to marshal the expertise and resources needed to help Indonesia and ASEAN tackle the haze problem effectively," it said.

"In his letter, Mr Lee had stated that Indonesia needed to deal with the problem in a timely and effective manner, so that investor confidence in Indonesia, Indonesia's international standing and ASEAN's credibility would not be affected," the ministry said.

"Mr Lee had also noted that while it may be too late this year to prevent the fires that cause the haze, it was critical to take action now in order to prevent future forest fires."

Agus Purnomo, spokesman for Indonesia's environment ministry, said he had heard that the ministry received Singapore's invitation. He confirmed Indonesia was also planning to hold a regional meeting on haze in Pekanbaru city on Sumatra island's Riau province, near Singapore.

Indonesia's annual burn-off causes a haze that typically smothers parts of Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand as well as Indonesia itself. Large corporations clearing forests for palm or timber plantations and small farmers using slash-and-burn methods have been blamed.

Azmi said he went to Indonesia in June to discuss the problem and was less than impressed with Jakarta's efforts."They informed me they have all the mechanisms in place to prevent haze and put out the fires," he said. "Of course, when you see the haze now, the conclusion can only be made that whatever mechanisms they have are not effective."

On Saturday Singapore's environment agency issued a health advisory because of the fog-like haze, while earlier this week Malaysia issued a hazard warning for ships plying the Malacca Strait after haze caused visibility to drop along the vital waterway. In Kuala Lumpur, the Air Pollutant Index hit an unhealthy reading of 159 Monday, forcing people to wear face masks.

The 10-member ASEAN group has drawn up an Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. Indonesia has yet to ratify the pact.

Indonesia insisted Tuesday that its efforts to subdue the land- clearing fires have been partially successful. Forestry Minister Malem Kaban said the number of illegal fires had been drastically cut in recent days. The Indonesian government has outlawed land- clearing by fire but weak enforcement means the ban is largely ignored.

Mudflow victims face unhappy, uncertain Ramadhan

Jakarta Post - October 10, 2006

ID Nugroho, Sidoarjo – For the thousands of Muslims made homeless by the Sidoarjo mudflow disaster there is little to celebrate this fasting month as they look forward to an uncertain future. "We can't really fast properly this year because everything we own has been destroyed or damaged by the mudflow," a resident, Boiman told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Boiman lost his home three months ago after mud began gushing uncontrollably from gas exploration company PT Lapindo Brantas Inc.'s well near the town of Sidoarjo. He and wife Sumani had lived in a simple house in Kedungbendo village a kilometer away from the well.

"Our house wasn't big. We slept in a 16-square-meter room, but it was where we could build a family," he said.

The bakso (meatball soup) vendor used to peddle his cart around villages in the area while Sumani worked as a house maid at the Tanggul Angin Sejahtera housing complex, two kilometers from their house. Both areas are now inundated and the disaster has put the couple out of work.

"The incident occurred very quickly. Mud suddenly engulfed our village, including my bakso cart," Boiman said.

The couple then sheltered in the Jatirejo village hall in Sidoarjo for two months before moving into rented accommodation. Although they are angry about the mudflow disaster, Boiman says he was forced to accept the one-off Rp 3 million (US$333) compensation payment from Lapindo.

"The money was little compared to the business I had built," he said. The Boiman family say they used to earn an average of Rp 800,000 a month – Rp 450,000 from selling bakso and Rp 350,000 from Sumani's salary as a house maid. When paying the compensation, Lapindo staff often asked residents to sign a statement promising not to sue the company.

Despite being fingered for "gross negligence" leading to the disaster a police investigation into the company seems to have stalled.

The mudflow, meanwhile, has made more than 3,000 families homeless, and put thousands more out of work. They include Tohajir and his wife, Sujiati, who had to stop selling vegetables at the Porong market in Sidoarjo.

"We had no other place to keep our vegetables because our house had been buried by the mud," Sujiati told the Post. Like Boiman, Tohajir also received Rp 3 million compensation from Lapindo. "We had no other choice," said Sujiati, the mother of Siska, 13, and Galang, 2.

Both families now live in a 21-square-meter house at the Sidoarjo state housing complex, 2 kilometers from the disaster site. They pay Rp 1 million for the annual rent. "We had to chip in together to rent the house, while organizing our lives again," Boiman said.

In their rooms, Boiman and Tohajir store their remaining belongings, including television sets, carpets and mattresses, and a few clothes. When breaking the fast on Sunday, tofu, tempeh bean cake and dried fish were on their spartan menu apart from rice.

To fill the time, Boiman and Tohajir make bricks from the mud – a job for the villagers dreamt up by Lapindo management. However, despite making 15,000 bricks, Boiman says he has not been paid. "They said they would pay me Rp 125,000 for each 1,000 bricks I made, but I have not received any money yet," he said.

Little money meant plans to go to their hometowns for Idul Fitri have been abandoned. "I usually return to Malang for Idul Fitri, while Tohajir goes to Mojokerto. But we won't be going back to our hometowns this year," Boiman said.

Haze needs action now, says Malaysia

Jakarta Post - October 10, 2006

Jakarta/Jambi/Palembang – As parts of Indonesia and neighboring countries continue to suffer through what is being called the worst haze since the massive forest fires of 1997, Malaysia's foreign minister urged regional cooperation to combat the annual problem.

Malaysia's Syed Hamid Albar said Southeast Asian nations had to work together to combat the recurring crisis, and formulate a plan of action rather than merely signing agreements that achieved little.

"Since we are suffering together, let's try and solve it together, in terms of action," he said as quoted by Agence France-Presse on Monday.

"It is one of those unfortunate things that we have not yet been able to translate (talk) into something meaningful. There must be a political position."

Indonesia is the only country among the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that has not ratified the ASEAN Transboundary Haze Agreement, which the grouping approved in 2002.

Indonesia's State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witular said the government was considering ratifying the agreement. That would pave the way for members of the regional grouping to exchange information and provide financial assistance to cope with the choking haze.

Rachmat warned that the haze blanketing parts of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Malaysia and Singapore could have a serious impact on the economy, public health and the environment.

He said recent tests by his office found particulate matter had reached far above 300 parts per million (ppm). Levels of between 51 and 100 ppm are considered tolerable.

The suffocating smoke has been blamed on farmers and companies using illegal slash-and-burn methods to clear land during the dry season.

However, the cooperative spirit urged by Malaysia's foreign minister failed to mask growing regional tensions brought on by the annual haze.

Malaysia's Health Minister Chua Soi Lek called on Indonesia to be "more proactive" in solving the problem, "because it not only causes resentment among our people, it also has economic implications", he said as reported by AFP.

Earlier, Singapore's Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said he hoped Indonesia would next year "understand our concerns and do something about the haze".

In Indonesia, hundreds of passengers were stranded at Sultan Taha Syaifuddin airport in Jambi on Monday after flights were canceled because the haze reduced visibility to between 50 and 500 meters.

Several boats collided in the province's Batanghari River and at least one crew member was declared missing, as boat crews reported visibility of only 10 meters.

In Palembang, the power plant in Borang, which serves South Sumatra, failed to function, leading to alternating blackouts.

Winds influenced by typhoons in the Philippines have led the smog southward to Palembang, said Suyatim, the head of the local Geophysics and Meteorological Agency.

Meanwhile, authorities in Batam in Riau Islands province said they were preparing 60,000 masks in anticipation of the haze reaching the island, a 40-minute ferry ride from Singapore. Visibility in Batam reached only six kilometers Monday.

Dozens arrested over illegal mining

Jakarta Post - October 10, 2006

Jakarta – Police here said on Monday they had arrested at least 53 people suspected of involvement in a recent violent protest against the closure of illegal mines in Bangka Belitung province.

Forty nine of the suspects were accused of attacking the provincial governor's office during the Oct 5. protest against the closure of an illegal lead mine and three lead smelter companies.

The remaining four were arrested for illegal mining in Bangka Belitung, which caused huge state losses and environmental damage, the police said.

"We are examining the suspects. We are doing our best to follow any steps necessary so justice can be upheld," National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Bambang Kuncoko said in Jakarta.

The Bangka Belitung Environmental Impact Control said that about 6,000 pit mining holes had been found across the province.

Unchecked and unregulated mining activities can lead to land degradation and increase the risk of flash floods and landslides in the rainy season and drought in the dry season.

Protected species traded quite openly

Jakarta Post - October 10, 2006

The market price of turtles varies depending on their unique features, including their rarity in the wild or their status as a protected species.

At the Flora and Fauna 2006 exhibition at Lapangan Banteng, Central Jakarta, in August, a sulcata tortoise species aged 15 was offered at Rp 20 million and a 15-centimeter cherry head cost Rp 1.8 million. The cheapest were green turtles from Brazil, on sale at Rp 20,000 each, cage included.

Sadly, a large number of the reptiles traded are protected by law, such as Papuan pig-nose turtles (Carettaochelys insculpta) and long-neck turtles, which range in price from Rp 75,000 to Rp 200,000, as well as green tree pythons (Morelia viridis), offered at over Rp 1 million, according to length.

Sutarno, a reptile trader in Jakarta, admitted that protected animals – local and imported – were sold quite openly. "I just sell what collectors don't want any more, and buy from suppliers outside Jakarta," he said.

Keepers of protected species are required to hold a certificate issued by the Natural Resources Conservation Center, Ministry of Forestry. "Generally, buyers don't ask about the origins and official papers for such animals," he added.

According to Mahda Putra, most collectors of rare reptiles do not have official documentation because government monitoring of wild animal keepers and traders is not that tight.

He acknowledged the pride among those who raise and collect such rare species. "In fact, the breeding, trading and hunting of protected animals are prohibited," he pointed out.

A variety of reptiles are available at animal markets and pet shops, like the decorative fish market on Jl. Kartini and Jl. Sumenep, Central Jakarta, and dozens of animal dealers along Jl. Barito, South Jakarta.

Reptile sellers can also be found in the Hanggar Teras Pancoran aquarium fish center and the Jatinegara bird market, East Jakarta.

The illegal reptile trade and the emergence of reptile lovers' clubs have triggered high demand for these animals taken from their habitat, which adversely affects their future conservation.

Meanwhile, the captive breeding of species threatened by extinction has not yet brought significant results. On the other hand, enforcement of legislation against illegal dealers, keepers and suppliers of rare animals remains very limited. No wonder (as revealed by the Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation, Ministry of Forestry) Indonesia has the longest list of wildlife species nearing extinction, including 126 birds, 63 mammals and 21 reptiles.

This is mainly due to the loss of their natural habitat following forest fires, illegal logging and hunting for trade. (Bambang Parlupi)

Health & education

Indonesia confirms 55th bird flu death

Agence France Presse - October 16, 2006

Bhimanto Suwastoyo, Jakarta – The death toll in Indonesia from bird flu rose to 55 after officials confirmed that a 27-year-old woman who died last week was infected with the virus.

The death is the third to be confirmed in two days in Indonesia, which is grappling with the world's highest number of deaths from avian influenza.

"Both tests showed her to be positively infected with the bird flu virus, making her the 55th fatal casualty" in Indonesia, said Tontro, an official at the health ministry's national bird flu information centre.

Positive results from two Indonesian laboratories mean that the World Health Organization (WHO) includes the case in its records.

The woman from Central Java province, identified by the centre as Mistiyem, developed symptoms on October 8 and was hospitalised on October 12. She died a day later, according to a statement posted on the WHO website.

The WHO said the source of her exposure to the virus was currently under investigation. The vast majority of cases in the archipelago nation have been spread by contact with infected poultry, though several cases of limited human-to-human transmission have also occurred here.

More human cases of the virus – 72 have now been reported in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation – increase the possibility of the H5N1 virus mutating to become easily transmissible among people.

Scientists fear that this could lead to a global flu pandemic with a potential death toll of millions.

On Monday, the health ministry confirmed the deaths of a 67-year-old woman who died in West Java's Bandung late Sunday and an 11-year-old boy, who died in Jakarta on Saturday. Both were believed to have had contact with poultry before they died, the WHO statement said.

Health officials said that the woman had been suffering from encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, believed to be caused by the virus and the first case of its type in Indonesia.

The UN's senior bird flu official appealed to international donors last month to speed up the disbursement of promised aid to Indonesia to help it fight the spread of H5N1 among the population.

Officials here have said they need around 250 million dollars a year for the next three years to effectively combat the virus, but next to no funds have arrived since donors pledged millions at a conference in Beijing this year.

Critics have charged that the country, which was accused of initially covering up outbreaks, has been slow to fight bird flu.

Rising suicides worry psychiatrists

Jakarta Post - October 11, 2006

Hera Diani, Jakarta – Medical experts warned Tuesday that Indonesia's rising suicide rate was representative of the declining level of mental health in the country.

They said public awareness about mental health was so poor that people did not seek professional help until illnesses had reached an advanced stage.

The experts, from the University of Indonesia, the World Health Organization and the Health Ministry, were addressing a seminar held in conjunction with World Mental Health Day on Tuesday.

Official nation-wide suicide statistics are unavailable, but in Jakarta, from 1995 through 2004, the rate was 5.8 suicides per 100,000 people. In 2003, the WHO noted that in many countries, suicide was one of the top three causes of death among people aged between 15 and 35 years.

WHO psychiatrist Albert Maramis said friends and relatives were frequently unaware of a person's mental illness until he or she committed suicide. He added that a mental illness increased the possibility of someone committing suicide by up to 10 times.

Irmansyah, the head of the University of Indonesia's school of psychiatry, said people needed to be more sensitive to those with mental health problems such as depression, stress or anxiety.

"When people talk about their bad feelings," Irmansyah said, "you need to heed them. When children refuse to go to school, maybe they are having a problem with social acceptance and it is a serious matter because, as it has been proven, it can lead to suicide when the problem is not solved."

Children as young as 10 have committed suicide in recent years in Indonesia.

Irmansyah also urged people to pay attention to new mothers, as what can seem like normal baby blues can lead to post-natal depression.

"When it's been going on for one to two years, only then will people seek help. There's a patient who was admitted to hospital after having hallucinations for 15 years," he said. "Worse still, when the patients have recovered, the families don't want to have them back. The mentally ill are still stigmatized and many end up on the streets."

An estimated 12 to 18 percent of Indonesians suffer from some sort of mental illness, Irmansyah said. The WHO has projected that by 2020, mental illnesses will be the biggest health problem facing developing countries.

G. Pandu Setiawan, the Health Ministry's mental health service director, said the country needed mental illness prevention programs.

"People with mental health problems lose their productivity, perhaps for a long time. Data released in 1997 showed that Indonesia lost Rp 31 trillion through productivity loss and medication costs caused by mental illness," he said.

Rector promises protesting students no more illegal fees

Jakarta Post - October 10, 2006

Jakarta – Hundreds of students at Bogor's Pakuan University protested at the campus Monday, demanding that the administrative staff who allegedly imposed illegal levies be punished.

Student council chairman Yuda Permana said parents had complained about demands for an additional fee ranging from Rp 50,000 to Rp 100,000 per student. The fee was imposed on top of the general fee new students pay.

Representatives of the protesting students were invited to discuss the matter with administrative staff. The staff said they had never agreed to ask students to pay more than the university's official fees. It was alleged that the university's finance department had been charging the extra fees.

Aside from demanding that the staff members responsible be punished, the students also demanded the tighter supervision of payment procedures. They asked the university's top officials to guarantee the practice would not continue in the future.

Pakuan University rector Sudodo Sumoamidjojo said that any member of staff found guilty of involvement would be dismissed.

"I have never made such a policy, if anyone has been charging illegal levies, we will be tough on them," he said. "And to avoid this from happening again, we will involve students in supervising the enrollment committee."

Economy & investment

Undemocratic regions hamper growth: Analyst

Jakarta Post - October 16, 2006

Benget Simbolon Tnb., Jakarta – Despite fairly free elections at a regional level, democracy in Indonesia is still at the procedural stage, promoting the "practices of a shadow state and informal economy" which could discourage foreign investors, a researcher says.

Syarif Hidayat, a researcher at the Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said here over the weekend that procedural democracy – as opposed to substantive democracy, which is indicated by the existence of democratic behavior – would only play into the hands of political and business elites in the country's regencies.

"That's why almost every (election) was dominated by the local elites," he told The Jakarta Post. He said that this led to the practice of a "shadow state" in which the bureaucracy was powerless to deal with the local elites who forced the political process for their own benefit.

It also caused what he termed an "informal economy", in which elites force government officials to manipulate public policies and distort the market mechanism in regencies. He said the undemocratic behavior would generate bribery and corruption, which would in turn prolong the existence of the high-cost economy inherited from the New Order era.

The absence of democratic behavior might also lead to regencies pursuing unproductive projects that did not bring any economic benefit to residents, he said. "How can we manage to attract foreign investors with an absence of legal certainty and market mechanisms?" he said.

Syarif said his views were based on the results of a survey he recently conducted in several provinces, including Jambi, South Kalimantan and Bengkulu, which have seen the establishment of democratic institutions and have governors and regents directly elected by the people.

The government revised the 1999 Regional Autonomy Law in 2004 with an additional regulation governing the direct elections of regents and governors.

But Syarif believes that the 2004 regulation only produced a procedural democracy. The central government needs to make sure that legal enforcement of the law is strictly conducted in the regions as part of the creation of conditions suitable for foreign investors, he says.

Indonesia badly needs foreign investors to stimulate its economy, which has grown by an average of only five percent a year since 1997's economic crisis. The government is currently designing a comprehensive investment law that is expected to draw foreign investment, but analysts have expressed doubt over its success.

Analysts believe that the undemocratic behavior that can lead to legal uncertainty at a regional level in Indonesia is a factor that could hamper the government's efforts to encourage investment.

Indonesia cancels ExxonMobil's Natuna gas contract

Agence France Presse - October 11, 2006

Victor Tjahjadi, Jakarta – Indonesia has terminated a contract with ExxonMobil Corp to drill a major offshore gas field in the Natuna Sea off the west coast of Borneo, in a move that may alarm foreign investors.

ExxonMobil however said that the contract stood firm as it was extendable and they were still working to develop the field.

The potential spat could heighten concern among foreign investors about the perils of doing business in Southeast Asia's largest economy, which is set to hold a summit offering infrastructure projects to foreigners next month.

Energy minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said late Tuesday that Exxon had failed to submit a plan for developing the block and selling the gas, which has a high ratio of carbon dioxide so is difficult to extract, to the regulator. "So the contract was automatically terminated," Yusgiantoro told reporters.

He said Exxon, which had a 76 percent stake in the Natuna D-Alpha block, had mistakenly thought the contract had been extended until 2009. Yusgiantoro said that state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina might now be first in line to operate the block. The company holds the rest of the share in the block.

Pertamina chief executive Ari H. Soemarno said that the state firm would still like to explore it. "If Pertamina does not continue exploration of that block, the money we have invested will be gone," he was quoted as saying by Bisnis Indonesia.

But a spokeswoman for the local unit of Exxon Deva Rachman said that based on a contract signed with the government in December 2004, Exxon could extend the contract twice – each for a period of two years – from 2005.

"There is a clause in the contract stipulating that we could extend the contract twice," she told AFP. "What we are pursuing to do now, based on that clause, is to maximise all possible conditions in order to further develop the Natuna D-Alpha field, which has a complex composition of gas reserves," Rachman said.

She said Exxon had so far spent more than 350 million dollars exploring the block. Exploration by the Texas-based firm and the government began in 1980 and the field is estimated to hold 46 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas.

Oil and gas industry analyst, Kurtubi who heads the independent Center for Petroleum and Energy Economic Studies in Jakarta, said he believed a new contract would be negotiated between the two sides.

"I am almost sure that the government would most welcome a contract extension if ExxonMobil can work on one and quickly resume exploration there," he told AFP. "What's important for the government now is that they start earning income by developing its natural resources," he said.

Kurtubi said that the termination of the contract was "more of a warning by the government for foreign oil investors who have signed contracts with the government to fulfill their obligations."

The disagreement follows the resolution in March of a four-year dispute between ExxonMobil and Pertamina over the joint operation of the Cepu oil field.

Concern among foreign investors over involvement in oil and gas projects in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's only member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC), has been a factor in the country becoming a net oil importer in recent years.

Opinion & analysis

Pramoedya's sun: Modernity and its prose

Jakarta Post - October 13/14, 2006

Goenawan Mohamad, Ubud, Bali – Pramoedya Ananta Toer is no longer with us, but such is his stature that his absence constitutes an assignment. Today we have the memory of a hero and piles of his prose works to deal with – not knowing for sure whether the subject of our discourse should be the former or the latter.

After the outpouring of eulogies that followed his death on April 30, I have decided now, rather than to submit yet another hagiography, to delve instead into his works and his ideas, while remaining acutely aware that in Pramoedya's case it is not always easy to detach the writing from the writer.

Besides the obvious autobiographical elements in his earlier stories, there is another explanation for that: Pramoedya has always made himself a "presence" in his narrative. Describing his creative process when he wrote Keluarga Gerilya (Guerrilla's Family), one of his wartime novels, he writes: "The truth is that the protagonist in a tale is none other than the I of the writer, the sun poised centrally above everything that it illuminates" (from an essay in Indonesia, October 1983).

It comes as no surprise that reading him is like going to an exhibition of archeological finds where the author meets a select group of visitors at the door, takes them in, and guides them confidently through the hall.

While the visitors, (i.e. the readers), are trying to absorb the materiality of the pieces displayed, the author explains and comments. One can discern his impulse to dispel any sign of indifference, apathy, and aimlessness. In the process, the reader comes to know more about his perspective than about the details of the thing exhibited.

I remember one part of Mereka Yang Dilumpuhkan (Those Paralyzed), in which he describes his first encounter with the Bukit Duri Prison in Jakarta. It begins with an exclamation point, drawing the reader immediately into the text. A little further into the paragraph you learn that the narrator finds the jailhouse terrifying (nampak seram); in fact, he shudders at the sight.

But there is not even a sketchy description of the opaqueness of the wall, the forbidding barbed wire above it, the sinister green of the gate, or the magnitude of the building. There is no clue as to whether the prison stands on the empty outskirts of the city or stands tall amidst other government buildings. What he thrusts upon the reader is not the space itself, but his urgency to infer.

My impression is that Pramoedya hardly had time for geographical space. In his novels, landscape is invariably minimized, the urban areas reduced to small plots and living rooms. It may be Pramoedya's way of representing Java in its dreary density, but I would say it is indicative of his focus; the world for him is primarily the fate of humans.

Pramoedya's emphatic bond is with the people of Blora, his hometown, or with the guerrilla fighters in the northern part of West Java during the Indonesian revolutionary war; with the Jakarta poor of the 1950s or with the segregated natives struggling to survive under colonial rule.

In his narrative, the railroads, rivers, hills and lampposts, the sea, and the depths of the night invariably move centripetally towards the human subject, as if drawn by a magnetic force.

Which is to say, there is a strong humanist outlook in Pramoedya's personal beliefs, which shapes the way he tells stories. In fact, in one of the letters he wrote from the Buru prison camp you can read his enthusiasm for the philosophy of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, which to Pramoedya is "a continuation" of the humanist ideas of the Aufklrung (Enlightenment). To him it was an achievement worth celebrating.

The world has been built by mankind to the best of his ability. It is hypocritical to teach of his inability, his insignificance. Those who teach God's greatness by stressing human triviality surely stand against culture and civilization.

His is by no means an unusual perspective. Like many Indonesian intellectuals of his generation and before, Pramoedya shows a profound trust in modernity, despite the fact that one of its consequences was the European onslaught on other parts of the world.

Obviously he does not see in modernity the brutal legacy of the Enlightenment, as different writers and philosophers describe it in the wake of the two great wars of the 20th century. Although it is unlikely he would admit it, his view is closer to that of Takdir Alisyahbana, the founding member of the Poejangga Baroe (New Writers) of the 1930s, who consistently spoke for the need to embrace the bourgeois model of progress.

Like Alisyahbana, Pramoedya refuses to accept both Islam and the pre-modern way of dealing with the world. Unlike Alisyahbana's writings, however, Pramoedya's stories display his penchant for deriding Muslims of some religious ranks, like ustads (religious teachers) and hajis. He seems to find things related to Islam obnoxious.

There is even a discernible racial undertone in Pramoedya's portrayal of Indonesians of Arab origin. In one of the short stories in Cerita Dari Jakarta (Tales from Jakarta) you will meet a Muchammad who is a former money-lender, a man with a "belly bulging forward" and eyes that are "deep and piercing as if they want to destroy everything they spotted" who at fifty-one gets married again, this time to his sixteen-year-old niece.

In the story, the man, constantly referred to as "the Arab", pays a visit to an ustad. Almost immediately they begin talking "boisterously" about the Prophet and the Koran – to be followed by banter over their polygamous lives. Let me quote a fragment of the repartee, from Sumit Mandal's translation of Tales from Jakarta: "Ustad, you have four wives, right?" "Yes." "Well, you must feel sleepy every day." Everyone laughed except ustad 'Amir. Dauntlessly he righted himself in his seat, his eyes blinking like a beacon. Then he said in an authoritative voice: "Whosoever walks in the path of the Prophet will be safe." The Arab nodded his head mockingly...

The story, more a sketch than anything else, ends with no culminating point. There is no clue to what may have prompted the writer to compose it in the first place. But one thing is obvious: Pramoedya unabashedly adopts stereotypes in depicting Arabs and Muslims – a predisposition probably associated with his view of Islam as a force from outside.

Pramoedya hinted at such a perspective in one of his later works of historical fiction, Arus Balik (Return Course). It is a 700- page story of lost glory, of the last Indonesian Hindu empire that is no more, marked by its end as a great maritime power and the coming hegemony of countries "beyond the wind" (Atas Angin), in the wake of the aggression of new Muslim centers and Portuguese ambition in the 15th and 16th century.

However, it would be a mistake to see the work as a testament of mourning by a Javanese nationalist. Pramoedya is quite open in his disdain of "Java" and the myth of its identity (not without a touch of regret at having no more heroic epoch). "I am very much against Javanism," he declares in one of the interviews collected in Saya Terbakar Amarah Sendiri (I am Burned by My Own Anger).

In a note published as part of Nyanyi Sunyi Seorang Bisu (Silent Song of a Mute), he accuses wayang, the popular Javanese shadow play, of "bringing people to the consuming world of illusion that stops all kinds of action."

Only after the puppet master finishes his performance, Pramoedya argues, can man assert his role, and by using "a pair of hands and all the fingers" determine his (and not the gods'), position in the world.

To perpetuate the wayang-created imagination is to "dismiss one's consciousness, terminate one's capacity to reason and make oneself dumb". That is what happens to the Javanese, Pramoedya says, who live in a "corrupt state of mind", unable to choose a course of action to liberate themselves.

Pramoedya is by no means a stranger to all things Javanese. In 1948, when he was 23, during his imprisonment by the Dutch occupying force, he reached a terrible moment of despair. He decided to practice patiraga, a Javanese mystical method for spiritual concentration to, as it were, annihilate the body:

"Through patiraga the servant approaches the Lord: Here is my I, I give everything back to Thee; take it all, and destroy Thy servant this very instant if he is no more use to Life. So it was; I really intended, quite deliberately, to kill myself by patiraga."

But miraculously the result was a triumph of sorts. His account of the event is worth quoting at length:

"But the Lord did not take back everything that I surrendered to Him – all was restored to me again. What he gave me was a mountain, on top of which stood a four-pillared Greek temple crowned with a triangular pediment, and a full-blazing sun still higher up.

You can see it was no longer a question of reason, or of the flesh. What was as clear as that sun itself was: I was permitted to go on living, could still be of some use to Life. I felt utterly, immensely happy. All the... soldiers with their rifles and bayonets, the prison walls and the schedule that regulated my life – suddenly felt miles removed from the island of happiness on which I found myself. (Indonesia,)"

The metaphors and images are powerful and vivid – a mountain, a four-pillared Greek temple, "a full-blazing sun" – things only great mystics would tell you in confidence. And yet Pramoedya's interpretation of this extraordinary experience is at odds with the traditional mystical belief in the dissolution of the self.

It is true that Pramoedya calls "the island of happiness" – the exalted moment he found at the end of his patiraga practice – a mysticum, "an island where the servant merges with his Lord, an island where Time ceases, and where creative work is faith."

But his perspective is unmistakably Cartesian, marked by the immutable presence of a thinking subject. He believes that the mysticum is equal to kebebasan pribadi yang padat, a solid personal freedom, which "liberates the I from the world outside it, and which places the I... beyond reach of the power of Time". (While using Benedict Anderson's excellent English version of the text, I prefer my own translation for kebebasan pribadi yang padat. To me, padat means "massive" or "solid", instead of "condensed".)

In other words, to Pramoedya, creativity is based on the preponderance of the subject. As I quoted earlier, for him, the "I" is the sun "poised centrally above everything that it illuminates".

Undeniably, Pramoedya is a prose writer par excellence. In the long list of his works I find only four pieces of poetry, none of significant quality. My impression is that he was never a great lover of poetry; his writings suggest a casual indifference to it.

I believe this has something to do with his view of language. Language, he says, is a writers' tool. His emphasis is on the writer's control of it. As he puts it, "Tools remain equipment, what is decisive is always the I." For him, "Subservience to one's tools leads to confusion, destroys the element of awareness in one's work, obliterates the function of illumination."

This, as I have suggested on another occasion, is the opposite paradigm of what I call the Mallarmian mold that shapes modernist poetry. In Mallarme's verse, it is the signifier that calls the shots; in Pramoedya's prose, it is the signified that does so.

Whereas poetry's becoming is prompted by the shocks and surprises of verbal differences – as if it were the language, not the subject, that speaks – Pramoedya's prose is the work of a persistent kesedaran, the Indonesian word for both awareness and consciousness. For Pramoedya, writing without kesedaran is like doing things in a trance or being possessed by the devil (kesetanan).

It would be interesting to know how Pramoedya would assess Surrealist writings or the works of Joyce, Kafka, and other Modernists. His translation works and essays never mention them. What we learn is that his models are Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Saroyan's Human Comedy, Idrus's writings, and the works of Maxim Gorki – the latter being an exemplar leading him to extol "Socialist Realism" as prescribed by the Stalinist Andrey Zhdanov.

A purposeful body of messages struggling proudly against their absence in the world – this is probably the way I would think of Pramoedya's works. If there is something Promethean about it, there is also a tension in the writing, because each story is a negotiation between the necessity of form and the "performative" compulsion. Pramoedya is a writer who believes that good things can be done with words.

In the end, history may have failed him. But history fails everybody. The wonderful thing about Pramoedya's works is that they never celebrate defeat. Deep inside them, the sun always rises.

[The writer is an author, poet and senior editor of Tempo weekly news magazine. This article was presented at the Ubud Literary Festival on Sept. 29, 2006.]

How Soeharto schemed and Habibie botched it

Jakarta Post - October 9, 2006

Endy M. Bayuni, Jakarta – The row over former president Habibie's allegations about an aborted military coup on the second day of his short term is overshadowing a more interesting revelation from his memoir: the events surrounding the collapse of the New Order regime on May 21, 1998.

Habibie may not say it directly in his book Detik-Detik yang Menentukan (Crucial Seconds), but it is clear that Soeharto's carefully laid out post-retirement plan was bungled because Habibie, then his deputy, gave the president the "wrong" answer when told about Soeharto's plan to step down the night before.

According to the book, Habibie's first reaction to the news was, that going by the Constitution, he would have to succeed Soeharto. He could have responded by also offering to resign – because the pair were "elected" by the People's Consultative Assembly on the same ticket three months earlier. But he did not.

Soeharto, according to the book, was not pleased with the response from a man he had carefully chosen to be his running mate three months earlier. The president abruptly ended their discussion and the two men have never spoken since. Soeharto's contempt was so deep that "he treated me as if I never existed," Habibie writes in the memoir.

The next day, Soeharto announced to the nation he was quitting the presidency. The succession took place then and there at the presidential palace, with Habibie being sworn-in by the Supreme Court chief justice to become Indonesia's third president.

Habibie never found out what Soeharto's retirement plan was, and since Soeharto has never revealed it publicly, people can only speculate.

But people have long known that in the hours before his resignation, Soeharto transferred almost all his executive powers to Gen. Wiranto, the chief of the armed forces. The transfer was apparently contained in a letter styled on the infamous March 11, 1966, letter supposedly given by president Sukarno to Gen. Soeharto.

Wiranto has since bragged that he could have seized power then and there with the full mandate from the legitimate president, but being the "constitutional" person that he is, restrained and allowed Habibie to become the new president.

Between Habibie and Wiranto, it seems clear Soeharto would have preferred the latter as his successor. Why else would he have transferred so many powers to the general?

Since Soeharto had not planned on this early retirement – he had just been reelected to serve until 2003 – neither person, least of all Habibie, had been chosen or groomed as his heir-apparent.

Wiranto's loyalty was never in doubt. Seconds after the short resignation ceremony, he took the microphone and announced to the nation that he would personally protect the safety and the dignity of the former president and his family.

But the real reason why Wiranto did not make his move to grab power, we now learn, was because Habibie had pre-empted him by giving the "wrong" answer to what was effectively a two-option multiple choice question from Soeharto.

In response to Soeharto's statement "I am going to step down tomorrow", Habibie could have answered either A: "So, I'm going to be the next president?" or B: "I had better step down with you, Pak". He picked A.

Had the German-trained aerospace engineer answered B, then he would have paved the way for a military takeover with Wiranto in charge, but with Soeharto no doubt continuing to pull the strings.

Post-Soeharto Indonesia would have taken a greatly different historical path.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on where one stands, Habibie was not well-versed in Javanese tradition, where courtesans are expected to know, or at least guess, the correct response to a king's questions from his body language.

Regardless of the veracity of Habibie's allegations of a planned military coup the day after he assumed power, one thing is for certain, the military was confused by the unexpected turn of events.

Without Soeharto, who had been doing all the thinking for the military for 30 years or more, the generals were simply lost. There was certainly a massive deployment of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) under its chief, Lt. Gen. Prabowo, then a powerful figure because he was Soeharto's son-in-law.

Habibie triggered the current controversy when he suggested the deployment around the presidential palace where he resided was an act of intimidation on the part of Prabowo to influence his decisions, which he described as amounting to an attempted power grab.

At that time, Habibie was still picking his Cabinet and those he wanted to lead the military.

Prabowo and Wiranto, whom Habibie quotes as sources of information about the Kostrad deployment, are now entangled with Habibie in very public mudslinging, with allegations and counter allegations flying. As fascinating as it is to follow, the argument matters little to the nation. Its purpose is only to clear the names of the players who may have been besmirched by Habibie's revelations.

The Kostrad deployment is but a minor episode in the bigger story of how Soeharto's final scheme to control the direction of this country was botched.

All thanks to the naivete of one man who was supposed to have had the brains to read the mind of a Javanese king. Habibie guessed wrong. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Parcel-phobia

Jakarta Post Editorial - October 14, 2006

There is a serious problem in Indonesia that needs to be addressed: People tend to be hypocritical and distrustful of everything.

Clearly people love physical symbols in their daily lives. Houses of worship are always filled, and religious sermons attract huge crowds. Yet violence remains a popular way to settle disputes and differences. More seriously, the country is ranked as one of the most corrupt in the world.

The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has shown it is serious about combating corruption. However, there remains an excessive suspicion, as seen in the campaign against holiday gifts.

Based on the 2001 Corruption Law, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in 2004 issued an order for state officials not to accept gifts, including holiday parcels for Idul Fitri, Christmas or the New Year. According to the KPK, the sending of gift parcels to officials is a kind of bribery.

Commission chief Taufiequrrachman Ruki then sent a letter dated Oct. 4, 2006, to the President banning government officials from accepting parcels or holiday gifts, including flowers, from subordinates, colleagues and business partners. Copies of the letter were distributed to the heads of the House of Representatives, Regional Representatives Council, Supreme Audit Council and Supreme Court.

KPK deputy chief Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean said the commission had asked the President to set an acceptable limit on the financial value of gift parcels, pointing out that in the past the commission uncovered a government official accepting an Idul Fitri parcel worth Rp 2 billion.

According to the graft commission, holiday gifts are no longer about wishing to strengthen relationships or express friendship. Rather, they are an attempt to purchase influence. Maybe the commission is right, but then again maybe it's not. After all, giving gifts to friends and respected persons is a tradition here, and Idul Fitri, Christmas or New Year are the best times for gift-giving.

If the KPK's ban is based merely on the belief that holiday gifts are illegal and a form of corruption, the move will be futile. Officials could simply give out their bank account numbers and home addresses to those eager to buy them presents. Gifts would thus be able to continue to be given unbeknownst to colleagues or supervisors. In this case, the KPK's ban appears impractical.

Corruption is a matter of mentality, and it is this mentality that has become common in Indonesia. Motorists who refuse to yield to other vehicles and drivers who cut off other cars have a corrupt mentality. If people can engage in "corruption" just for space on the street, there is no doubt they will do anything and everything to enrich themselves. And that is what has happened here.

The anti-parcel movement could be just a reflection of the government's frustration at finding smart, legal ways to combat corruption, which unfortunately involves government officials at all levels.

The first victims of the KPK's policy are the parcel vendors, who recently protested to the commission and demanded a lifting of the ban.

Commission head Taufiequrrachman said the KPK had not banned people from buying and giving parcels. It is simply telling government officials not to accept holiday gifts. This may be true, but the KPK's warnings have frightened some people from even sending gift parcels to close friends or relatives working at private companies.

In truth, the no-parcel policy seems to a worthy but impractical attempt to help fight corruption. However, it also reflects the excessive suspicion that has taken over the country.

It is impractical and a waste of time to keep a watch out for parcels sent to or received by officials, while there is so much corruption out there that is going unaddressed.

Indonesia continues to suffer through financial woes, largely due to corruption. Therefore, combating graft is vital and deserves the full support of all layers of society. But trivial policies like the one on gift baskets are nothing more than an acknowledgement that the country has become so corrupt that sending and receiving Idul Fitri or Christmas gifts must be regulated by law.

Indonesia: Not mercy, but justice

Green Left Weekly - October 11, 2006

The Indonesian government recently issued a ministerial decree to implement a citizenship law passed in July. The law will clarify the status of hundreds of Indonesians studying abroad during the alleged 1965 coup attempt who had their citizenship stripped by the Suharto regime after the overthrow of President Sukarno for alleged links to "subversive movements". People's Democratic Party chairperson Dita Indah Sari argues that dealing with the exiles' status should not be an administrative question, but one of justice for victims of Suharto's New Order regime.

For more then 60 years they have lived in foreign countries after the land upon which their own blood was spilled would not condescend to accept them. This is not some fairy tale, but an episode in Indonesia's history.

Following the eruption of the 30 September Movement (G30S) affair in 1965, hundreds of Indonesians were unable to return home after they were deprived of their passports. These people, studying or working overseas in an official capacity, lost their citizenship after local Indonesian embassies revoked their passports.

The reason was a difference of political viewpoint. The victims were those deemed to be supporters of President Sukarno's political line of Nasakom – nationalism, religion, communism – or members or sympathisers of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). After the massive bloodletting that took place all over the country, for Suharto's New Order regime to annul their passports was a relatively simple matter.

For those unable to return home, their adopted countries did not offer many choices. With all their hearts, Indonesia had to become a thing of the past. Following the G30S affair, the fate of the families left behind was unclear, the exiles not knowing if they were dead or alive.

Most of these victims were forced to suffer endlessly in one place after another until in the end deciding to live in one country – where they have stayed to this day. Initially, being political escapees, because they needed legal, security and economic certainty, they were forced to change their citizenship.

Hundreds thus disappeared in foreign countries unable to expel their last breath in their mother country. Decades of their productive time passed by without being able to contribute anything to their beloved republic. They became scattered across countries such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Russia and China. Usually they were elderly, over 60 years old.

Decades passed and the political situation began to change, and the government of former President Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) tried to initiate a repatriation and rehabilitation of their rights. The then justice and human rights minister, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, flew to Europe to meet with their representatives, although the effort failed because of political reasons.

For its efforts the Gus Dur government was accused of compromising with the PKI, and not long afterwards Gus Dur was forced to step down and was replaced by Megawati Sukarnoputri. As Sukarno's eldest daughter, Megawati should have been more concerned about the issue, but she remained silent.

More recently, the current president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, expressed a desire to repatriate the exiles. The justice minister, Hamid Awaluddin, was delegated to facilitate the process. Essentially the Yudhoyono government wants to give them back their passports and citizenship through the newly ratified Law No. 12/2006 on Citizenship.

In principle, the government's intentions are positive. But from the various statements the government has made on the question, there are a number of basic issues that need to first be corrected, criticised or even challenged.

Firstly, the term used by the government to refer to the exiles is eks mahid, meaning former government-contracted students. They are referred to by this term because after their period of study was completed they were obliged to work as officials in a state institution for a certain period of time, as their overseas studies had been funded by the state.

This term is erroneous because it was not just students whose citizenship was revoked following the G30S affair, but everyone who was overseas and deemed to politically oppose the New Order regime.

This included students sent by the Sukarno government to study overseas (the majority were sent to former socialist countries), delegates from various mass organisations (labour, farmers', women's, youth, academic, cultural, sports and journalists' groups), Indonesian representatives to various international organisations and forums as well as state officials.

Because of this the name "eks mahid" is very misleading, even divisive. Will the rehabilitation policy only be valid for former students? If so, then how about the non-student exiles whose passports were also revoked? It would be more correct and fairer for them to be categorised as overseas political victims of Suharto's New Order.

Secondly, according to Yudhoyono and Awaluddin the planed repatriation of these exiles is based on a spirit of reconciliation following the ratification of the new citizenship law. There are also humanitarian grounds, because most are now quite old. However this type of thinking is narrow and shallow in character. Why? Because the exiles' problem is a political one, not just administrative.

The actions of the Suharto government in revoking the citizenship of a large group of citizens while they were carrying out their duties overseas – without trial – is a violation of the law and of human rights.

It is a political crime because it resulted in hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of people suddenly becoming stateless, without status and abandoned to live in a foreign country for years.

The resolution of the exiles' problems should not be linked with the question of naturalisation. Awaluddin's call for the department of foreign affairs to facilitate their citizenship documents indicates that the government does not understand, or is pretending not to understand, the real issues. If they are asked to submit a request for naturalisation it means the exiles are being equated with other foreign citizens who wish to become Indonesian citizens. But they lost their citizenship for political reasons, and there must be a political acknowledgement of this by the government.

The good political intentions and the seriousness of the Yudhoyono government can be measured by asking the following questions: Is the government willing to acknowledge that the revocation of their citizenship was a human rights violation and to then correct this? Does the Yudhoyono government have the courage to apologise for the political crimes of the New Order? How long will the government continue to provide cover for the New Order's actions?

It is impossible for a spirit of reconciliation and humanitarianism to be built on the negation of truth and justice. If this aspect is not addressed, is it then wrong for us to suspect that the Indonesian government only wants to build an image as a champion of human rights because it is presently campaigning to be elected as the chair of the United Nations Human Rights Commission? Or that Yudhoyono is just dressing up his image because, it is said, that he is a candidate for a Nobel Prize?

Before correcting past mistakes, the Yudhoyono government must apparently correct its error in the way it views the issue of the exiles. For the exiles, the problem is no longer one of wanting to return home or not, missing the motherland or not. It is no longer one of urgency, because many of them, following Suharto's fall in 1998, have been able to visit the motherland and meet with those family members that still remain. The primary issue is one of truth and justice.

For the victims, the government's readiness to give amnesty to, to rehabilitate and to provide assistance to the leaders and supporters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is a painful slap in the face. The exiles were not separatists, nor did they try to divide the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (to borrow from the government's term).

Many even took part in the war to defend the newly independent Indonesian republic from the Dutch, and, ironically, were then abandoned by the republic. Unlike GAM, they never once stopped feeling themselves to be Indonesian, loving Indonesia, thinking like Indonesians, speaking the Indonesian language. Like a child yearning for its mother, they are tired of longing for their mother country from afar.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

A bad neighbor

Jakarta Post Editorial - October 10, 2006

Choking once again on what has become a yearly haze, Indonesia's neighbors could be forgiven for thinking that Jakarta could care less about other countries in the region. Cynics say the noxious haze plaguing neighboring countries and parts of this country should blow over Jakarta, to jolt our top officials into action. It sometimes helps when the decision makers feel the consequences of their inaction.

More than 600 fire "hot spots" have been burning on Sumatra and Kalimantan islands since July, yet the government seems to be doing little to remedy this problem. Much as last year it did little, or the year before and so on.

Is there any sense of urgency for what has become a yearly grief over the past 20 years? Hardly. For these 20 years we have been doing an injustice to our neighbors and to our own people, since the first big forest fires in 1982.

Singapore suffered its worst air quality readings for more than nine years over this past weekend. Malaysia was forced to declare a state of emergency at its biggest seaports, Port Klang and Kuala Selangor, in August last year. Yet the authorities in Indonesia just sit back and relax.

It has become something of a mantra for our officials, the claim that there is nothing to be done about the fires until the rainy season comes to the rescue. Then the issue goes away only to come back with a vengeance the following year.

Once the issue dies with the arrival of the rain, key proposals by experts on how to deal with the scourge are conveniently shelved and the root causes of the problem go unaddressed.

All of this is often accompanied by mudslinging, as officials here blame any and all parties for the problem, from traditional farmers to illegal loggers, handily forgetting their own role in the recurring environmental disaster.

What is wrong with us? Who do we think we are, as a nation and a government, to cause such suffering to our neighbors and our own people? We would hate to think that because we are the biggest country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) we believe we can do as we please.

Billions of rupiah are lost each year in health and environmental costs, and the same amount of money, perhaps more, is lost by our neighbors. These losses include disruptions to the shipping and aviation industries.

Our neighbors have been more than tolerant of Indonesia's failure to deal with this annual problem. But this tolerance should not be perceived by Jakarta as a license to ignore the issue.

We have the tools in place to deal with the haze, so why is no action being taken? There is the 1994 ban on the burning of forests and grassland for land clearance, but the regulation is not consistently enforced and very few offenders have been brought to court since the 1980s.

One of the worst years for forest fires was 1997, when almost 10 million hectares of forest in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi and Papua were destroyed, affecting the health and economy of 70 million people across Southeast Asia.

More than 13,000 hectares of forest have been destroyed so far this season, according to the government.

The country is short of funds and lacking the equipment and technology to fight the yearly forest fires, but we are not totally helpless.

Industries in remote areas of Kalimantan and Sumatra, the two islands most prone to forest fires, can contribute to the prevention of fires by setting up their own fire fighting teams. This would be in their own interests, but in case they don't see it that way local governments should make it obligatory. And farmers still engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture can be educated about the dangers of using fire to clear land.

Regionally, the 10-member ASEAN has signed the so-called ASEAN Agreement on Trans-boundary Haze Pollution. A useful devise for fighting forest fires, it has been largely ignored for four years. And coincidentally, Indonesia is the only country that has not ratified the agreement.

Indonesia should immediately ratify the agreement to enable it to fight forest fire together with neighboring countries. It is a comprehensive devise that stipulates the setting up of an ASEAN center for that purpose. It is time for the government to admit it cannot deal with this scourge alone. It should be modest enough to admit this and be willing to cooperate with other countries to stop the haze.

By cooperating with ASEAN countries, the government would be implementing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's favorite motto: "We can overcome anything by working together." It only takes political will to stop exporting the haze.