| Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia | |
Indonesia News Digest 43 – November 16-23, 2006
Jakarta Post - November 23, 2006
Jakarta – National Military (TNI) commander Air Chief Marshall
Djoko Suyanto said Wednesday that officers aspiring to be
politicians should retire. Suyanto said officers who retire, run
for elections and lose cannot re-enter the force.
"It's TNI's official line; a serving officer cannot run in the
election," Suyanto said as quoted by Antara. He added that the
policy was intended to demonstrate that the military was serious
about abandoning politics.
During the 32 years of Soeharto's authoritarian rule, the
military played a dominant role in politics. Military officers,
both active and retired, held key positions in the government.
The 2004 law on the military bars the TNI from politics so that
it can focus on its defense functions.
Reuters - November 23, 2006
Heri Retnowati, Sidoarjo – Indonesia blamed an uncontrolled mud
flow on Thursday for a gas pipeline explosion that killed at
least seven people and injured 12 on Java island.
The late Wednesday blast – which disrupted gas operations in the
area – occurred near the city of Surabaya in a part of the
state-owned Pertamina East Java Gas Pipeline.
The incident happened in the area where hot mud has been gushing
from near the Banjar Panji exploratory gas well since the end of
May following a drilling accident, inundating several villages
and causing an unfolding environmental disaster.
"The explosion was caused by land subsidence, which had weakened
a dam. It broke the transmission pipe which then made the
pressure rise to 400 psi (pounds per square inch) and the gas
automatically shut down while the remaining gas ignited," Energy
Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro told reporters.
He said the mud flow that began on May 29 made the soil sink, and
dismissed risks of another blast.
Basuki Hadimulyono, the head of the government's mud task force,
said the blast killed eight and one of the bodies could not be
identified because it was charred beyond recognition.
Another four people were still missing, officials said.
Hadimulyono said his team sought to end the mudflow problem by
the end of December or early January and would strengthen all the
dykes in the meantime.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters
authorities "would take steps needed to ensure that the situation
would not deteriorate further." A Pertamina official said the
blast's cause was not known.
"We don't know exactly why the gas pipe exploded but the effect
of the blast stopped gas distribution for Surabaya and Gresik,"
said Sukadi, Pertamina's gas transmission chief for East Java
distribution.
Another official said there had been a long-standing plan to move
the pipeline from the mud area.
Gas fields shut
Officials said most of those killed by the accident, which
occurred at around 7:30 p.m. (1230 GMT), were military and other
government personnel involved in trying to secure the mud flow.
The well leaking mud was operated by Indonesia's Lapindo Brantas,
a unit of PT Energi Mega Persada, partly owned by the Bakrie
Group, which is controlled by the family of Indonesia's chief
social welfare minister, Aburizal Bakrie.
The firm has denied the mud flow is directly linked to the
drilling operation.
Energi has unveiled a deal to sell units that control Lapindo but
Indonesia's market watchdog agency has said a ban on the move
still applies.
Bakrie has said he has not been involved in group activities
since becoming a minister, and has endorsed a government view
that Lapindo should be held responsible for the mud woes.
More than 10,000 people have so far been displaced by the mud,
gushing at a rate of 50,000 cubic meters (1.75 million cubic
feet) a day from the well.
Experts say the mud leak could have been triggered by a crack
about 6,000 feet deep inside an exploratory well drilling
operation near Surabaya.
A Pertamina official said it would not have to import more diesel
oil after a request from the state power firm for the fuel for
use at power stations to make up for the lost gas.
Australian oil and gas firm Santos Ltd. said on Thursday that the
Maleo gas project, in which Santos has a 67.5 percent stake, shut
production after the explosion.
Maleo gas, along with gas from other fields in the area, is
delivered into the East Java pipeline.
The news sent Santos' shares down as much as 3.3 percent to a low
of A$10.80, but they edged back to close at A$11.00.
Gas output at the Pagerungan field had also been shut after the
blast, a unit of oil exploration firm, Energi, said.
(With additional reporting by Telly Nathalia and Muklis Ali in
Jakarta, and Jonathan Standing and Ben Wilson in Sydney)
Anti-Bush Protests
Aceh
West Papua
Human rights/law
Politics/political parties
War on corruption
Environment
Gender & sexuality
Foreign affairs
Economy & investment
Opinion & analysis
News & issues
Military barred from campaigns
Indonesian pipeline blast kills 8, mud flow blamed
West Java workers demand minimum wage hike
Jakarta Post - November 23, 2006
Some 1,000 factory workers from industrial complexes in Cimahi staged a protest outside West Java Governor Danny Setiawan's office in Bandung on Wednesday, demanding a raise in the minimum wage (see photo).
They called for a monthly paycheck of at least Rp 880,664 (US$95.72) in order to meet basic needs. Cimahi Regent Itoch Tochija has recommended a Rp 840,000 monthly wage, set to be introduced early next year.
Wednesday's was the most recent in a string of protests in the two weeks since the mayor approved the recommendation. The figure was determined after negotiations between officials, employers and workers' unions. Each province must publicly announce its decision by early December, a month before the new wage goes into effect.
"This is unfair. The regent made a quick but inhumane decision," yelled a protesting worker, Dadan.
The head of the employment office, Bambang Arie, earlier asked the workers to understand the difficult situation companies face. Texile producers have been suffering huge losses due to illegal imports.
A representative from the All-Indonesia Workers Union in Cimahi, Adang Sutisna, said they would demand that the governor postpone negotiations on the province's minimum wage until workers were fairly treated.
Jakarta Post - November 22, 2006
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – A majority of Indonesians believe that globalization has brought many benefits to them, with most people wanting the Indonesian government to take an active role in world affairs, a survey by an Australian institution says.
The Lowy Institute for International Policy, which conducted the survey in 10 provinces across the country with 1,200 respondents between June 19 to July 6, found that 61 percent of the people interviewed believed that the increasing connection of the Indonesian economy to others around the world was mostly good for Indonesia.
The level of trust in globalization was even on par with that neighboring Australia (where 64 percent of respondents trusted globalization), an advanced country with high growth because of its open economic system.
The confidence in globalization is reflected in the belief that Indonesia's relations with most of the major powers is increasing as well as in the demand that Indonesia's foreign policy be aimed at increasing cooperation in the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations and supporting the work of the United Nations.
Ivan Cook, the head of the survey team, said that the study found that almost 70 percent of the respondents had a perception that Indonesia's relations with US were increasing or staying the same while 55 percent believed that ties between Indonesia and China were getting better.
"Except with Japan, the majority of Indonesians believe that their relations with their neighbors or major countries are increasing or staying the same," he told a seminar on the connections between Indonesia, Australia and the world at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta on Tuesday.
One of the commentators at the seminar, Endy M. Bayuni, chief editor of The Jakarta Post, welcomed the fact that most Indonesians thought positively about globalization. "It's very revealing. It means that most Indonesians still believe in free trade," he said.
The survey also found that most Indonesians were outward looking, with over 70 percent of respondents saying that they were very interested or somewhat interested in news about relations between Indonesia and other countries. Almost 90 percent of the respondents believed that Indonesia should take an active part in the world affairs.
In portraying Indonesians' attitudes to their neighbors and to regional and global powers, the survey found that the respondents feel most positive toward Malaysia (66 percent) and Japan (64 percent).
However, many of the seminar's participants were surprised and disappointed with the survey's finding that Indonesian and Australian relations were not improving, with a lack of understanding present on both sides.
According to the survey, most Australians see Indonesia as still essentially controlled by the military and a dangerous source of terrorism and believe that they have the right to worry about Indonesia as a military threat. Meanwhile, most Indonesians see Australia as still seeking to separate the province of West Papua from Indonesia and trying to interfere in Indonesia's affairs too much.
The most surprising finding was that both Indonesians and Australians gave each other low rankings. "I am amazed by this finding after all these years of building relations," said Hadi Soesastro, the executive director of CSIS.
Both Hadi and Jusuf Wanandi of the same institution, however, offered the explanation that Indonesia-Australia relations were very much driven by seasonal accidents, such as Timor Leste or asylum seeker problems. "I think public opinion can't be used to measure the success of foreign relations as many others indicate its success," Jusuf said.
Australian Ambassador Bill Farmer and former Indonesian ambassador to Australia Wiryono Sastrohandoyo, another speaker at the seminar, both also believe that with person-to-person contact to continue intensively over the years, understanding between the two countries was still high. "We grant more visas to Indonesia than Britain, the US and Canada combined," Farmer said.
Endy urged the media to play an increasing role in raising the awareness of the importance of Australia for Indonesia and Indonesia for Australia.
Jakarta Post - November 21, 2006
Abdul Khalik, Bogor – At least two of the experts who attended the bilateral talks between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and US President George W. Bush, are unsure whether their rapid- fire meetings with the American leader will amount to anything useful.
Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University scholar Komaruddin Hidayat, who met Bush on Monday, said the most important issue for Muslims here was how to solve the decades-old Palestine- Israel conflict. "I have conveyed this to President Bush; that this is our prime concern. As long as there is no sign that the US is willing to solve the problems, Indonesian Muslims will continue to show their anger against the US," he said.
Komaruddin said he told Bush that Muslims here were trying to battle extremism and asked him to reconsider US policies.
"Implicitly, we said, please, America's foreign policy, specifically on the Middle East, must be revised. Don't be one- sided because the crisis in Muslim world is mostly influenced by cases in the Middle East," Komaruddin said.
"Bush was very open and appreciative of criticism and argument because he seems to be very committed to democracy. It remains to be seen how he implements our suggestions in the field," Komarudin said.
Along with Komaruddin, Bush met eight other public figures – physicist Yohannes Surya, economist Muhammad Ikhsan, educational expert Arief Rahman, health expert Nila Moeloek, Papuan leader Frans Wospakrik, Acehnese leader Yusni Sabi, Ridwan Jamaludin of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and Adi Santoso from the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology.
Each of them was given only three minutes to convey what they wanted Washington to do to help Indonesia.
"From the beginning, I didn't expect much from the talks. What can you get out of three minutes? However, this was a golden opportunity for us to say what we wanted to the US. Oh, how short a time we had," one expert said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Bush also met some younger guests – primary students from Bogor's SDN Papandayan school – at the Bogor Presidential Palace, where he stayed during his busy six-hour meeting.
Yudhoyono described his talks with Bush as "open, frank, constructive, sometimes critical, and what is important is that we tried to discuss cooperation on how to make Indonesia-US relations touch on the lives of our people."
It was Bush's second trip to Indonesia. The Bush administration wants to establish strategic relations with Indonesia, which has Southeast Asia's largest economy.
Jakarta Post - November 21, 2006
Evi Mariani, Brussels/Belgium – Poverty and human rights abuses are still serious problems in Indonesia, with non-governmental organizations presenting a bleak report on both issues at a recent meeting in Brussels, Belgium.
The report, orchestrated by the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), highlighted the worsening poverty in the country. The latest government data show that at least 39 million Indonesians, 17.7 percent of the population, live on less than one US dollar a day.
"According to INFID calculations this year, Indonesia needs Rp 200 trillion (US$22 billion) a year to halve extreme poverty by 2015, as stated in the Millennium Development Goals," Donatus Marut of INFID told the meeting on Nov. 3.
He added that the state budget would not even cover half the required amount as Indonesia's annual debt installment was usually higher than its combined health, education, housing and public services budgets.
In 2006, the government paid Rp 76.6 trillion (around $8 billion) in debt installments, while spending Rp 64.2 trillion ($7 billion) on health, education and public services, the report revealed. "Indeed, the economic growth rate increased this year, but it hasn't been translated into the real economy," Marut said.
A long-time debt cancellation campaigner, INFID blamed the country's perpetual poverty partly on government economic polices that it said appeared to please creditors demanding the privatization of public services and trade liberalization.
The report stated that such "neoliberal" practices had failed to protect small traders, poor rural residents and fishermen.
It said a lack of governmental commitment to allocating big enough budgets to crucial poverty alleviation sectors such as health, education and social services was also to blame for the situation.
It would be impossible for Indonesia to raise Rp 200 trillion a year unless all its debts were canceled, which was unlikely, Marut said. "Neck-deep in debt, we will not be able achieve the Millennium Development Goals on poverty alleviation by 2015, not even by 2020," he said.
Marut said that INFID was pushing the cancellation of some debts "proven to be illegitimate". "We have conducted surveys on loans from Japan to build dams. For example, from 70 percent to 80 percent of the loan to build the Asahan Dam in North Sumatra was used to pay human resources deployed from Japan and to buy Japanese machinery. Worse still, the electricity generated from the dam has been used for a Japanese aluminum factory and not for local residents," he added.
He said Indonesia could take the case to the international court to have the debt canceled. "INFID wants to broaden the definition of illegitimate debt. Development debts that have failed to generate benefits for the people should be canceled," Marut said, although he acknowledged that debt cancellation would not solve the poverty problem.
Based on a report from the National Development Planning Agency in 2003, an average 75 percent of tied aid was foreign utilized, meaning the money went back to the donor countries through paying the salaries of foreign workers and purchases of imported goods.
Adding to the grim country report, Poengki Indarti from Imparsial, an Indonesian human rights monitor, said violent abuse cases continued to take place throughout the archipelago.
"Palu and Poso have become a stage of terror," she said, referring to areas in Central Sulawesi where some 1,000 people were killed in a sectarian conflict between 2000 and 2001. "Positive progress in Aceh does not necessarily mean the area is now free of violence. There have been 22 groups reported to have launched terror (attacks) among civilians there," Poengki said.
The perpetrators of violence were varied, but state personnel like military and police were still number one, she added.
The report also described the 2004 murder of noted human rights campaigner Munir as a setback for the Indonesian government's human rights record.
The sole suspect was earlier this year acquitted of the murder charges by a Jakarta court, leaving the identity of the killer still a mystery, although a government fact-finding team had previously implicated former top intelligence officers.
The Brussels meeting was held to decide on work focus point for Indonesian NGOs and their European partners.
There are several Europe-based NGOs focusing on issues in Indonesia. Many of the NGOs, such as Tapol UK and the Germany- based Watch! Indonesia, focus on development, human rights and regional problems in Aceh, Papua and other conflict areas.
Jakarta Post - November 17, 2006
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The government and all political factions at the House of Representatives have agreed to continue listing religion on identity cards.
"We have decided that the religious reference will stay on ID cards," said Sayuti Asyathri of the National Mandate Party (PAN), who chairs the special committee on the civil registry bill. "We are all aware that compulsion in religion is a bad way to promote God, but we have come to terms with political reality," he added.
Listing religion on the cards has broad and deep support among Indonesian politicians.
Critics have questioned the practice, however, since faith is personal. They have also pointed out that it leaves followers of minority beliefs vulnerable to discrimination.
The decision to maintain the religious reference was made with little fanfare. Lawmakers reportedly discussed the issue for only a short time. They are expected to pass the bill into law later this year.
Little was known about the talks because the committee deliberated the bill far from the public eye. The last committee meeting was at a hotel in West Jakarta.
The religious reference on ID cards has long been a source of discrimination against followers of beliefs other than the five traditionally recognized by the government – Islam, Catholicism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. The government recently added Confucianism to the official list.
Indonesians embracing other faiths have been singled out for refusing to name one of the accepted religions on their ID cards. Their children have been denied basic services.
The director general for civil registration at the Home Affairs Ministry, Rasyid Saleh, denied that the disclosure of faiths led to discrimination and insisted that it was only an administrative measure. "There is not much that we can do about religions. We only record them for our population database. To recognize or not to recognize religions is not within our jurisdiction," Rasyid said.
A new compromise allows people who do not belong to one of the six recognized faiths to leave the religion column on their ID cards blank. The government would note their specific religions only for its own records.
Leaders of non-recognized faiths quickly denounced the move, however. Engkus Ruswana, a Sundanese leader who adheres to an ancient belief, said the current administration was no better than the previous authoritarian regime.
"The obligation to state one of the five official religions or leave it blank for people like us is a telling indication that we are still considered second-class citizens," he said.
A national coalition for people of other faiths has been campaigning for their right to be recognized in the civil registry bill. The committee turned down their requests to take part in the bill's deliberation.
The former chairman of the Indonesian Communion of Churches, Rev. Nathan Setiabudi, said the bill was unconstitutional. "Article 28 of the Constitution clearly states that the government must recognize all religions and faiths," he said.
| Anti-Bush Protest |
Jakarta Post - November 22, 2006
Yuli Tri Suwarni and Theresia Sufa, Bandung/Bogor – Angry public bus and minivan owners in Bogor are planning to bill the government for losses incurred by United States President George W. Bush's visit to the city on Monday.
Chairman of the West Java Organization of Land Transportation Owners, Andriansyah, said 12 bus companies operating 240 city and intercity buses at the Baranangsiang terminal reported they had suffered Rp 600 million (US$65,217) in losses because of the two-day disruption to services caused by the terminal's closure on Sunday.
The company owners are demanding the government compensate them, he said. The terminal was back in operation Tuesday.
"Bus companies have already suffered huge losses with the mushrooming of travel operators and decreasing numbers of passengers. Now we have to suffer again because of a state guest," Andriansyah said in Bandung on Tuesday.
The loss was calculated based on average passenger numbers and a demand for compensation would be proposed to the transportation ministry soon, he said.
Andriansyah said the government should consider the impact of state visits on public transport operators before it holds such events in the future.
"The government shouldn't only think about the benefits, especially if (the event) is unlikely to bring benefits anyway. One thing is for sure, we're working here, so we should be supported." An average of 18,000 commuters a day leave from the bus terminal for Jakarta.
Tightened security and rerouting during Bush's visit led to widespread congestion in the city and 5,000 public minivans and buses did not operate Monday.
When transportation operators met officials before the visit they suggested buses operate from company terminals so they could avoid paying compensation, he said.
"But we weren't stupid, it's better for us not to operate. Who wanted to travel on Monday when all the roads were congested? Besides, not all passengers know where our terminals are."
Meanwhile, the management of the Bogor Botanical Gardens is demanding the government pay for repairs to its water catchment area since the two Rp 6 billion helipads built there to welcome Bush are no longer in use.
Head of the ex-situ conservation unit Sudjati Budi Susetyo said Tuesday the State Secretariat had promised to dismantle the helipads soon after Bush's visit on Monday.
"We don't need the helipads and our water plant collection in the area will need extra attention if we have to host every visiting head of state," Sudjati said. The helipads are becoming a popular attraction for visitors to the park, he said.
Bush's entourage did not land in the gardens next to the presidential palace but instead arrived at the Padjadjaran Sports Stadium and took a motorcade to the venue.
Jakarta Post - November 21, 2006
Bogor, Bandung, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Makassar – Some braved the rain to protest, while other chose to watch proceedings from afar during the visit of United States President George W. Bush to Bogor on Monday.
One group of protesters stood in the rain along Jl. Padjajaran, while thousands of others from the Islamic Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia group demonstrated in the Warung Jambu area.
Others from Pakuan University, the Prosperous Justice Party and some claiming to be followers of controversial psychic Ki Gendeng Pamungkas gathered around the Baranangsiang bus station. Despite the large number of demonstrators, the protests in the city took place peacefully.
Prior to Bush's arrival at Bogor's Presidential Palace, police and troops fanned out in five security rings, the furthest two kilometers from the building.
Around noon, protesters from Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia and 31 other Islamic groups entered ring two until soldiers and police blocked them from moving any closer. The group stayed there until about 5 p.m.
Other areas in the city were unusually empty, with many buses and minivans not operating. "On normal days, we operate up to 30 buses heading to Lebak Bulus and Tangerang. All are filled with around 30 to 40 passengers," Budi, the spokesman for the Agra Mas bus operator, said. "Today (Monday), the numbers of passengers (per trip) dropped to only seven or eight people."
The temporary closure of Baranangsiang station led to long lines of passengers at the Ciawi crossing.
Protests also escalated across the nation Monday, with demonstrators displaying their opposition to Bush's visit in some unusual and creative ways.
In the West Java capital of Bandung, student protesters dressed up one of their number as Bush before draping him in an American flag and setting him on fire. The double was apparently not injured in the stunt. "Don't let (Bush) tell us what to do. His party lost (in the midterm elections) anyway, so why should we let him control us?" said Shidarta, a protester.
Fast-food restaurants were the target of student groups who took to the streets in Yogyakarta and Surabaya.
The Gadjah Mada University Students Alliance Against Bush, the Indonesia Students Front and Indonesian Students Movement held separate protests Monday on a main road in Yogyakarta. After the protest, some 300 front members sealed off two restaurants they claimed represented the US.
In Surabaya, the demonstrations turned violent, with protesters clashing with police when they refused calls to disperse. Several students were reportedly beaten in the fracas.
The National Student League for Democracy and Left Democratic Force used the visit to call on the government to take over foreign mining businesses here. Some students then marched to a McDonald's restaurant near the US consulate office where they fought with police guarding the area.
In Makassar, groups protesting included the Indonesian Nationalist Students Movement and the Muhammadiyah Students Association.
Jakarta Post - November 20, 2006
Urip Hudiono, Hanoi/Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has warned people not to "excessively" protest US President George W. Bush's visit on Monday, as Muslim militants publicly called for Bush's assassination and thousands of people rallied across the country to oppose the meeting.
"If something bad happens, the world will blame us. We certainly don't want to be regarded as a country that can't respect its guests," Yudhoyono said Sunday in Hanoi after attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit.
Bush is scheduled to talk with Yudhoyono at the heavily guarded Bogor presidential palace during his six-hour visit Monday.
Yudhoyono said any incident during the short visit would cause repercussions that would last for much longer.
Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Adang Firman said police were treating extremely seriously reports of possible attacks by hard liners on the meeting.
The city police will deploy 7,700 officers, about two-thirds the total staff, to guard the visit.
Meanwhile, more than 5,000 protesters grouped in the "Coalition To Crush Bush" marched from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to the State Palace in Central Jakarta on Sunday, with Muslim militants publicly calling for the assassination of the American leader.
Habib Rizieq, leader of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), said the deaths of Muslims across the globe should be revenged. "His blood is halal (permitted) to be shed. Not only is it halal, but it is obligatory to kill him," Rizieq told a crowd on Sunday as quoted by AFP.
"Kill, kill" the crowd yelled, pointing their fists up, when Rizieq shouted Bush's name, while the shouting of "America" was greeted with shouts of "Destroy, destroy".
The coalition of hardline and conservative Islamic groups included Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, the Muslim Forum, the Surakarta Muslim Youth Forum, the Indonesian Muslim Brotherhood Movement and the Tafsir Alquran Assembly.
They carried banners and Palestinian flags and condemned Bush as a war criminal and a human rights violator for invading Muslim states such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and for supporting the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
The protesters warned Yudhoyono and Vice President Yusuf Kalla they risked an election defeat in 2009 for receiving Bush.
They later marched to the United States Embassy, some six kilometers away from the State Palace. There they distributed posters and fliers to recruit people for a major anti-Bush rally in Bogor.
At another protest in South Jakarta, more than 5,000 supporters of the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) rallied peacefully against the visit at the Al-Azhar mosque. PKS leader Tifatul Sembiring and former People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Amien Rais were in attendance.
Tifatul, whose party holds the largest number of seats in the Jakarta legislative council, said Bush was responsible for the deaths of more than 650,000 people since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The PKS leader later blessed some 2,000 party members set to leave for Bogor to join a protest.
Similar rallies were also staged in cities in East Java, West Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, Riau, West Nusa Tenggara, Yogyakarta and Aceh.
In Bogor, West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Soenarko Ardanto inspected several helipads prepared for Bush and his entourage, while security forces were on full alert at the palace. It is estimated Bush's visit has cost the government a whopping Rp 6 billion (about US$660,000).
Streets around the palace will be cordoned off Monday and cellular phone signals will be jammed within a 200 meter radius around the venue.
Bush is set to arrive at 4 p.m. at Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusumah Airport before leaving for Bogor by helicopter. He will have dinner with Yudhoyono and is scheduled to leave at 10 p.m.
The talks between the two leaders will focus on education and health issues, including increasing study scholarships and efforts to combat bird flu, officials have said.
The two will be joined by experts, public figures and a group of elementary school students.
Associated Press - November 19, 2006
Zakki Hakim, Jakarta – Thousands wound through the streets of Indonesia's capital and gathered at a grand mosque Sunday to protest President Bush's upcoming visit to the world's most populous Muslim nation, some chanting "War criminal" and "You are a terrorist!"
Bush's arrival Monday comes amid mounting anger over US policy in the Middle East and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan – seen by many here as attacks on their faith.
Talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a close ally in Washington's war on terror, are expected to touch on those issues and on ways the United States can help with poverty alleviation, education, health and investment.
Security will be tight amid warnings that the threat of an attack by al-Qaida-linked militants has "escalated sharply" in recent days, though it was not clear if a plot had been uncovered. "The threat is higher," is all Maj. Gen. Adang Firman, Jakarta's police chief, would tell reporters.
Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation and has more Muslims than any other in the world, with some 190 million mostly moderate believers.
During Bush's last state visit in 2003, talks focussed largely on terrorism. This time he is expected to solicit the government's advice about the Middle East crisis and the North Korean and Iranian nuclear disputes, something Jakarta is eager to offer after years on the diplomatic sidelines.
"Bush recognizes he has to change... that in order to succeed he must cooperate with friends and allies abroad," said Jusuf Wanandi of the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "He sees now that unilateralism won't work."
Islamic hard-liners, students, housewives and taxi drivers have staged small but rowdy rallies every day this month and will be harder to convince. Demonstrations climaxed Sunday, with nearly 13,000 turning out in the capital and vowing even bigger protests for Bush's 10-hour visit.
Nearly 10,000 Muslims dressed in white snarled traffic, some carrying banners that said "Punish Bush the war criminal" and "Bush: Wanted dead or alive for crimes against humanity." One man dragged an effigy of the American president on the road behind him.
Others gathered at the al-Azhar mosque, Jakarta's second largest, to hear speeches by Islamic hard-liners denouncing Bush and US foreign policy.
"Why is the US backing Israel, which has bombed Palestinians and Lebanon," Tiffatul Sembiring, president of the Justice and Prosperity Party, asked the crowd of 3,000 who spilled from the mosque into the courtyard. "Bush is a terrorist," he said to cheers. "He's killed people in Afghanistan and Iraq."
Indonesia's leader, meanwhile, wants US help in fighting poverty and a spiraling bird flu outbreak that has killed 56 people – a third of the world's total. He is also eager to see American investors return to his country, which remains desperately poor eight years after the ouster of former dictator Suharto.
Agence France Presse - November 19, 2006
Bhimanto Suwastoyo, Jakarta – Thousands of hardline Muslims have rallied against US President George W. Bush's visit to Indonesia, with some militants calling for the killing of the American leader.
Bush is scheduled to spend a few hours in the world's largest Muslim nation Monday on his way home from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hanoi. Muslim political groups and some hardline religious leaders have condemned the visit and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for inviting the US leader.
Addressing some 7,000 people in front of the presidential Merdeka Palace, Habib Rizqie, the head of the militant Front for the Defenders of Islam, said that the deaths of Muslims across the globe should be revenged.
"His blood is Halal (permitted under Islam) to be shed. Not only is it halal, but it is obligatory to kill him," Rizieq told the crowd.
"Kill, kill" the crowd yelled, pointing their fists up, when Rizieq shouted Bush's name, while the shouting of "America" was greeted with shouts of "Destroy, destroy."
Hundreds of policemen were lined up behind a barbed wire barricade preventing the protestors from getting close to the palace.
Speakers, all calling Bush the devil and condemning the visit, also warned Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Yusuf Kalla, that they risked election defeat for receiving Bush.
"SBY (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) step down from the throne if you cannot uphold the dignity of the nation," said a large poster while a man was holding a picture of a young Osama bin Laden with the words: "Want to go to heaven? Kill Bush."
Bush is scheduled to spend most of his visit at the Summer Palace in the resort town of Bogor.
Safiatun, 36, who came to the Jakarta protest with her two young children and a group of other veiled women from nearby Depok, said they had come to show support for the anti-Bush drive. "I just hate Bush," she said, adding the standard motto of the day, that "Bush is the devil."
The rally was organised by the Muslim Forum, an umbrella organisation grouping some 80 Islamic groups – mostly hardliners and conservatives.
At another protest in south Jakarta, more than 5,000 supporters of the Islamic political party PKS (the Prosperous Justice Party) rallied against the visit on the grounds of a mosque.
PKS head Tifatul Sembiring later blessed representatives of some 2,000 party members who were to leave for Bogor to join a major planned protest rally there Monday.
Besides the hundreds of police guarding the main rally at the palace, at least six trucks and six buses full of police were deployed to guard a roundabout popular with protesters.
ElShinta radio also reported massive protests against the visit, involving more than 1,000 Muslims in Makassar, South Sulawesi and in Surabaya, East Java, while smaller protests were also reported in at least eight other cities in Sumatra and Java.
The US president's brief visit to Indonesia has triggered daily street demonstrations and a threat to move a no-confidence motion against Yudhoyono.
Reuters - November 19, 2006
Jerry Norton, Jakarta – Thousands of protesters ranging from militant youths to mothers carrying babies demonstrated across Indonesia against US President George W. Bush on Sunday, a day before he visits the world's most populous Muslim country.
Indonesia is a key regional ally for the United States in its "war on terror" and looks to America for trade and investment, but many Bush administration policies, especially in the Middle East, are unpopular here.
"Punish Bush the war criminal," "Bush Master Terrorist" and "Bush shit" read posters carried by several thousand Indonesians who marched to the presidential palace in Jakarta. Several groups participated, including the militant Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).
"Essentially, we all agreed that Bush is a murderer in the eyes of Muslims across the world," FPI member Alnurdin told reporters as the protest tangled traffic on a hot and sultry day.
Separately, the Islamic-oriented Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) rallied thousands of supporters at a Jakarta mosque, with some carrying signs saying "Stop Bush Now."
Demonstrations were also reported in South Sulawesi province, Yogyakarta, and Bogor, the site of Bush's visit. The short stop will be his last in Asia before returning home from a trip that also took him to Singapore and Vietnam.
In a common protest theme, a PKS open letter to Bush said he spread terror by US military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Middle East criticism
The Indonesian government has consistently condemned US actions in those countries as well as for perceived favoritism of Israel and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to raise the issues when he meets Bush on Monday afternoon in Bogor, 50 km (30 miles) south of Jakarta.
The leaders also will discuss topics from education and poverty to cooperation on anti-terrorism and fighting bird flu.
Officials on both sides have played down prospects of major new agreements. Washington is happy with what Indonesia has been doing to help track violent militants while the Bush administration has lifted restrictions on military sales that were a major irritant to Jakarta.
In recent days there have been several announcements Bush can point to as more recent evidence of good ties, including $55 million in US aid for anti-corruption and childhood immunization programs.
Those could help blunt criticism over the cost and trouble of security preparations for the visit, including building helicopter pads in a Bogor botanical garden and plans to lock down much of the town during and ahead of the visit.
The US ambassador to Indonesia, Lynn Pascoe, has said the need for security reflects the reality that "there are lots of crazy people in the world out there, (who) will do crazy things."
Indonesia has seen several deadly bomb attacks in recent years against Western targets and blamed on Islamic militants, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
Hundreds of suspected violent militants have since been arrested but some remain at large in the country of 220 million, like Malaysian national Noordin Top.
"As long as all of Noordin Top's group have not been captured of course the threat is still present," intelligence chief Syamsir Siregar told reporters on Saturday.
Jakarta Post - November 18, 2006
Palu, Central Sulawesi – Protests against US President George W. Bush's planned visit to Indonesia on Nov. 20 continue in parts of the country.
On Friday morning, hundreds of students from the School of Social and Political Sciences at Tadulako University burned pictures of Bush in front of the Palu municipal office. The protest then moved to the Central Sulawesi legislative building, where students delivered speeches on their objections to Bush's visit.
Demonstration leader Muhammad Syarif called Bush the "world's biggest human rights violator and the world's most wanted person".
The students also criticized the government's preparations for the visit, which they called excessive and expensive. They said hosting Bush would not benefit the country, but it would cost residents of Bogor a lost day of business.
Demonstrators attempted to set alight several tires in front of the legislative building, but police moved in and prevented them from setting the fire.
The police were out in force to ensure the demonstration remained peaceful. The crowd dispersed before the call to Friday prayer.
| Aceh |
Jakarta Post - November 23, 2006
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – After being suspended for around a month for his alleged involvement in a corruption case, Akhyarmansyah Lubis has been appointed by the Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) as the agency's asset management adviser.
"This stealthy appointment is unfair to the Achenese as it deals with a suspect in a BRR corruption case," Akhiruddin Mahyuddin, an activist from the Aceh Anti-Corruption Movement, said in Banda Aceh on Tuesday.
Akhiruddin said his organization had learned that Akhyarmansyah was appointed with the consent of BRR chief Kuntoro Mangkusubroto.
Akhyarmansyah, a former employee in the BRR budget section, is accused of being involved in the misuse of Rp 480.5 million (US$50,000) for the procurement of books titled Building a Land of Hope. Besides Akhyarmansyah, other suspects in the case include Hendrawan Diandi, the head of the book procurement project.
"The appointment shows BRR is not committed to eradicating corruption and is exactly the same as other government institutions in Indonesia, which tend to protect their own," Akhiruddin alleged.
He said his organization feared the appointment of Akhyarmansyah to his new position would allow him to become involved in other graft opportunities.
BRR spokesman Tuwanku Mirza Keumala said that despite the appointment, Akhyarmansyah was still currently suspended by the agency. "Akhyarmansyah remains suspended on full pay from his work at BRR, both in Jakarta and Banda Aceh," Mirza said.
Akhyarmansyah was appointed to the adviser position in order to help speed up access to documents and other evidence during the legal investigation into the corruption case, Mirza added.
"BRR will not be able to do anything if the suspect is absent. It is BRR's responsibility to help facilitate the legal process," he said.
Mirza also said the appointment was legally required to protect Akhyarmansyah's rights while suspended. BRR will make a final decision on whether Akhyarmansyah will remain employed at the agency as soon as the court has issued its verdict in the book procurement case, he said.
"Until then we have to abide by the principle of presumption of innocence. That's why we have to honor all of his rights," he said, reiterating that BRR fully supported the investigation led by the Aceh Prosecutor's Office.
Jakarta Post - November 21, 2006
Nani Afrida, Aceh Jaya – It was once too dangerous to dine out in Aceh Jaya's Tuwe village, a former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) stronghold and the scene of frequent fighting between guerrillas and soldiers.
But now the ominous sound of gunfire, which used to be common in the former military "black"-zoned district of Panga, has been replaced with good-natured banter.
The village's coffee shop is regularly packed with locals keen to talk politics before the upcoming Dec. 11 elections. The walls of the premises are adorned with campaign stickers, with those belonging to ex-GAM candidates dominating.
A former rebel soldier, Jalina Budi, was among the regulars when The Jakarta Post went there. "I came back home to this village especially for the elections. I was living in Malaysia before," Jalina said in thick Malay accent.
A native of Panga, the 31-year-old was GAM's operational commander for the district. During the recent military emergency period, Jalina fled to Malaysia to avoid capture by the authorities. "I support the elections but I still don't have a personal preference for any candidate. (GAM) leaders haven't released instructions on who we should vote for," Jalina said.
Two former GAM leaders are running for provincial governor, from the eight pairs ruled eligible to contest the elections.
Among the hopefuls are Irwandi Yusuf, the movement's representative on the Aceh Monitoring Mission, who is pairing up with the chairman of the GAM-affiliated Aceh Center for Referendum Information, Muhammad Nazar.
GAM's Hasbi Abdullah, meanwhile, is running with United Development Party deputy candidate Humam Hamid.
While he was still waiting for a GAM "instruction", Jalina hoped Aceh's new leaders would help rebuild the province, following the signing of peace deal between the government and GAM in Helsinki last year.
Jalina said he would vote for anyone one who was honest, fair and a native of Aceh, regardless of whether they were from the military or GAM. "If we vote for a person who is close to us, it doesn't mean they will be able to lead Aceh. But most importantly, there should be no bloodshed," he said.
Aceh people will also vote for 19 regents and mayors in regional polls held the same day.
Panga district was badly affected by the 2004 tsunami, with the waves sweeping through 19 of its 23 villages, killing hundreds of people. Three thousand people from the district are eligible to vote in the elections, with 420 of them from Tuwe.
Village chief Marwan Basyah believed the elections would proceed peacefully here because most of "the residents have already chosen their candidates", he said.
However, many villagers said they were unsure whether they had been officially put on the voting lists. "I know there will be elections but I don't know whether I've been registered or not," 23-year-old Misnawati said.
Jakarta Post - November 21, 2006
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Two foreign observers have been accredited by Aceh's Independent Election Commission (KIP) to monitor the upcoming Aceh vote.
The two are the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) and the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM).
ANFREL is the first Asian regional elections network. Based in Thailand, it works to promote the democratization process on national and regional levels in Asia.
"We hope the direct regional leadership elections in Aceh will be successful and transparent in order to establish democracy for the people of Aceh," said ANFREL Executive Director Somsri H. Ananuntasuk in Banda Aceh.
He added that ANFREL expected to learn about the voting process from the Acehnese, as well as ways to overcome election flaws.
ANFREL has sent a team of 11 people to Aceh, including members from Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea, Srilanka, Thailand the United States. They will be divided into six teams and spread across the province.
ANFREL will work with KIP, which has dispatched 120 poll workers to the voting stations.
The EU EOM had earlier sent 30 monitors, who were assigned throughout the mayoralties and regencies in the province.
"The poll watchers will be divided into 15 teams, with each team consisting of two members," said EU EOM spokesperson Indraneel Datta.
Each team will later monitor two areas until the end of voting.
Besides the 30 long-term poll watchers, the European Union will also dispatch another 45 members for the short-term monitoring team a few days ahead of the elections.
The European Union will send around people in total, from 22 countries. They will carry out their duties until Jan. 10, 2007.
KIP has classified the foreign election monitors into three groups – regular foreign monitors, diplomatic foreign monitors and supporting foreign monitors, each of which are distinguished by the identity cards issued by KIP.
In addition to the foreign election monitors, the polls will be watched by local election watchdogs accredited by KIP. They include the People's Election Education Network, which will observe polling stations across the province through 3,400 volunteers; the Aceh NGO Forum, comprising 500 members; and the Aceh International Recovery Program, which will monitor elections in nine mayoralties and regencies with 300 poll watchers.
The Aceh direct regional elections and the gubernatorial election will be held simultaneously in 19 mayoralties and regencies on Dec. 11.
Jakarta Post - November 20, 2006
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Muhammad Kalianda is tired of waiting for help to build a new home to replace the one destroyed in the December 2004 tsunami. So the 53-year-old teacher is slowly working alone to finish the building an aid agency promised him.
"My new home was abandoned by the contractor from the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR), just like that, even though it wasn't finished," the resident of Peulanggahan village in Banda Aceh told The Jakarta Post.
When the contractor left, the house was far from complete. It lacks a proper floor and windows and is not stable. "I have to do everything my own. I've spent Rp 50 million (US$5,434)," said Muhammad, who also works as a tailor.
He said that the construction workers who had started the house had told him that the contractor was running out of money. "That's why the workers simply left my house," he said. He said he was finishing the work himself because he was tired of renting houses, which often were expensive and too small for his family.
At least 80 houses meant for tsunami survivors in the area have been abandoned by contractors hired by BRR and Oxfam.
"We heard that the BRR's houses were built with the 2005 budget and are not yet finished. But houses built in Peulanggahan with the 2006 budget are almost complete," said Alfian, a youth leader in the village.
He said they had visited Oxfam and BRR to ask the two agencies to complete the work but had not received a clear answer. "Oxfam said they're running out money to build the houses," Alfian said.
With the houses unfinished, many tsunami survivors are living in barracks, rented houses or with their relatives.
BBR spokesman Tuwanku Mirza said the agency was committed to building housing for tsunami survivors in Peulanggahan village. "We'll also process the contractors who simply left without finishing their jobs," he said.
Oxfam blamed increasing construction costs for the problem, saying that budget blow-outs due to expensive building materials had doubled their original estimates in Aceh.
"We will continue completing unfinished houses. We're still committed to do so," said Oxfam executive director Barbara Stocking.
Melbourne Age - November 18, 2006
Mark Forbes – On Banda Aceh's outskirts sits a deserted village of banana yellow fibro shacks, held together with duct tape and built without water or power in the middle of a flood plain. Here, in an Indonesian province devastated by the 2004 tsunami, international charities have designed houses without water or sewerage and several have been forced to fire local staff for pocketing reconstruction funds.
According to CARE Australia head Robert Glasser, the unprecedented scale of the international response to the disaster exposed flaws in aid delivery. "It ranges from petty laziness and poor supervision, substitution of poor quality materials and bigger procurement issues," Glasser says. "You need better systems for checking all this, and it all means more money and slowing the rebuilding down."
The site of one of the world's biggest reconstruction programs – with $10 billion allocated to resurrect Aceh after the tsunami – Indonesia also remains one of world's most corrupt countries. This is despite the concerted efforts of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to tackle the "cancer" in his nation's heart.
This weekend the issues highlighted by the country's patchy record on aid delivery will be on the table when World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz joins delegates at the G20 summit in Melbourne to debate the effectiveness of aid and how corruption erodes assistance vital to the world's most vulnerable.
The problems – to which the bank freely admits having contributed – are of vital interest to Australia, which gave its largest single aid package to Indonesia after the tsunami. Now the World Bank is hoping that tough anti-corruption measures being pioneered in Indonesia will provide a model for the rest of the world.
Wolfowitz, a key architect of America's invasion of Iraq and its ambitions to reshape the world, was President George Bush's controversial choice to take the reins of the World Bank last year. Despised by many for his policies but admired for his intellect, Wolfowitz ignored the furore over his appointment, waiting 12 months to make his first major policy pronouncement. Its location, Indonesia, and his warning of rampant corruption undermining aid and development efforts, was almost as ambitious and controversial as his attempts to re-engineer the Middle East.
Corruption was a "heavy anchor" holding back Indonesia, Wolfowitz said. "We know that when governments don't work, the development assistance we provide to governments doesn't work either. It means that children are denied the education they need – mothers are denied the health care they deserve – and countries are denied the institutions needed to deliver real results."
Just 10 years ago the World Bank was refusing to discuss corruption and working closely with the rapacious Soeharto dictatorship. The head of its Indonesian anti-corruption unit, Joel Hellman, concedes the bank shares blame for ignoring the regime's excesses and allowing billions of dollars to be siphoned off.
"Our program had been so severely affected, our credibility as an institution in Indonesia had essentially plummeted because we engaged for years without ever talking about corruption or raising the problem," Hellman says. "It led to absolute outrage. To recognise this is the key development issue in Indonesia, we really altered our program. Our whole country program is designed around governance issues."
With Australia contributing $1 billion in grants and loans to Indonesia after the tsunami, the spectre of corruption is raising a sweat at the highest levels in Canberra. After negotiations with Jakarta, Australia has agreed to direct most funds through Indonesian Government agencies, many still riddled with corruption.
Canberra barred AusAid officials from commenting to The Age, but they have visited Hellman's office in recent weeks, asking how to avoid corruption scandals.
"We've been talking to AusAid about this," Hellman says. "With its new program, a lot of its money will go into government projects, so they are going to go through the budget and support road building and other things, that means all the points and opportunities where government officials can take bribes.
"Now our projects have layer upon layer of extra safeguards to try and prevent bribery from happening, and even still we're constantly faced by the problem, by no means have we solved it."
Although the Yudhoyono administration has formed anti-corruption bodies that have succeeded in putting senior police, business people and one minister behind bars, it is locked in a stand-off with the World Bank over bribes allegedly paid to win major road building projects. An internal investigation found a large British consultancy firm had greased the palms of numerous Indonesian officials, making a series of payments at each stage of the tendering.
Under Wolfowitz's new anti-corruption guidelines, the bank wrote to the Indonesian Government four months ago, cancelling $10 million allocated to three road projects and demanding $6 million paid to the firm be refunded. Hellman describes the Government response as "ambivalent". In fact, senior officials blasted the bank for making the revelations and have so far refused to hand back any funds.
Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto, declared "the World Bank must not make arbitrary accusations". The chairman of national planning agency Bappenas, which oversees all foreign aid, dismissed the issue as a complaint from a disgruntled competitor.
Indonesia has referred the issue to an anti-corruption commission investigation but Bappenas executive director Syahrial Loetan indicates the funds are unlikely to be returned.
"The process has been two-way process. If they think something happened then the responsibility should be with both," Loetan says. He says there were irregularities in the awarding of the project, but alleges World Bank personnel were involved. "The World Bank, they've been here for (such) a long time that it's also strange if they know there is a corruption case but they only talk now," Loetan says.
"They take one example and they generalise, it happens in all of the programs. It's very unfair that all activities are considered corruption cases. Of course the minister got mad at that statement."
Last year, Loetan drew up President Yudhoyono's anti-corruption plan. He says much remains to be done, but there has been significant progress.
Loetan believes safeguards can protect Australia's $1 billion Indonesian aid program. "We're in the process of increasing transparency. Everybody from very upstream to very downstream can see how much money allocated to where, to whom, to what," he says.
With unprecedented billions, and hundreds of disparate charities and agencies, flowing into the tsunami reconstruction, the results in Aceh are being closely monitored.
The United Nations' coordinator of the recovery program, Eric Morris, spoke to The Age from New York, shortly after a final briefing for the UN's special envoy overseeing the disaster response, former US president Bill Clinton.
Clinton heard a sober analysis, highlighting the remaining challenges as well as the achievements, Morris says. The scale of the disaster exposed "naive assumptions" by aid agencies and governments about how quickly you could construct more than 100,000 houses – they were to be completed this year, but just over 20,000 have been built.
"There were intense challenges in land acquisition, materials and the capacity of agencies to implement," Morris says. "Coordination is the hardest part of the job, and it is still difficult to get so many actors to cooperate.
"On corruption, Clinton doesn't believe the monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are in place to really get on top of this and that is pretty much correct, they do remain very, very weak."
In Aceh, frustration is growing at the pace of reconstruction and lack of assistance to help locals build new livelihoods and sustainable businesses. Last month a rock-throwing mob besieged Aceh's reconstruction agency and watchdog groups claim graft is systematic in the recovery effort.
The best answer, when it comes to aid delivery, says Care Australia's Glasser, is "fully engaging the local communities to identify what they need and have oversight of what happens".
What many locals want is the chance to sustain themselves, rather than remain dependant on aid. There are some success stories. With grants of just $10,000 to co-operatives of village women, AusAid and the International Organisation for Migration have provided funds to re-establish village markets.
From behind a stall creaking with fresh produce in Peudada village, four hours south-east of the provincial capital Banda Aceh, 41-year-old Rosdiana boasts that "business has never been so good".
"Here I've got vegetables and on the other side of the market I am selling cakes and sweets. My children are going to school with new clothes and I have even managed to send my oldest boy to a good high school," she says. Rosdiana is one of close to 2000 women in remote villages to join the network of 15 women's cooperatives. The program provides each cooperative with seed money and business management training for small ventures like market stalls, home industries and agriculture.
The World Bank's Hellman agrees that local involvement, as well as external oversight, reduces the risk of funds being diverted. Direct funds to the local communities and encourage them to directly monitor the project, he says. "Our view is they have the strongest incentive to ensure to ensure they get the money," he says.
"With housing and infrastructure, those projects have a significantly lower procurement prices, which is a very good indicator of corruption. For example, how much do you pay per kilometre of road? On a kilometre of road built through these community projects you can save 30 per cent on the procurement alone."
There was no "magic bullet" against corruption, with a "constant battle" against fraud even at the village level, Hellman warns. "Corruption has not been eradicated by far in Indonesia; nobody is that naive. When you find it not only do you have to act in it, you must learn from it as far as how you structure your projects," he says.
[Mark Forbes is The Age's Indonesia correspondent]
| West Papua |
Jakarta Post - November 22, 2006
Evi Mariani, Brussels/Belgium – Indonesian and European human rights activists attending a recent conference in Belgium expressed concern at the Indonesian Military (TNI)'s plan to deploy at least 35,000 soldiers along the border between West Papua and Papua New Guinea.
Currently, there are between 6,000 and 7,000 soldiers stationed in Papua, spread among static posts, patrolling the 800-kilometer border and in barracks.
While Papua has a relatively low soldier-to-population ratio of 1:150, there have been several reports of conflicts between military and civilians in the resource rich area. Most native Papuans live in poverty and there is a popular independence movement.
"There is a plan to send 12,000 to 15,000 soldiers to border areas in Papua by 2014," said Andi Widjajanto, a military analyst and member of the TNI's Defense White Paper team, speaking at the conference, a meeting of Indonesian and European non-governmental organizations arranged by the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) office in Brussels, Belgium.
The plan, set out in the 2003 Defense White Paper, is part of military reforms set in motion in 2000, when the People's Consultative Assembly issued a decree separating the police force from the military.
"Civil society then wanted TNI to stop regarding citizens as threats. Consequently, TNI needed to define new threats. One of them is threat from outside the country, hence the militarization of land border areas, in Papua as well as in Kalimantan and Timor," Andi added.
Andi's statement provoked an impassioned debate at the conference on the motivation behind the plan, as neither PNG, nor Malaysia or Timor Leste, which all share land borders with Indonesia, pose any real threat to the country.
"Once the Indonesian military deploys troops along the border, PNG might see it as a threat; they would probably call in military assistance from other countries, most likely Australia. In short, the deployment could incite undue military conflict," a European NGO representative said.
Others raised concerns about military involvement in illegal logging and also the increase in alleged human rights abuses directed a Papuans accused of being separatist rebels.
Andi said that while there was no real threat from the neighboring countries, the border militarization was a consequence of the military's reform, as TNI was now looking outside of the country.
"I call on European NGOs for suggestions for feasible alternatives for the Indonesian military," he said. "So far (TNI) still thinks that border militarization is the most feasible and most financially wise because TNI can not afford to by state-of- the-art border security equipment."
Andi said that the European Union's "border regime" program was a suitable arrangement for Papua, as it did not require many armed soldiers to be station on the border and could thus minimize the potential for conflict with neighboring countries or locals. "However, 30,000 soldiers (stationed) in Papua is inevitable. The question is whether to put them on the border or in the barracks. I personally think it would be better to put them in the barracks. It still poses the potential for conflicts, but this would be less, considering that the soldiers would not be roaming around carrying arms," he said.
Papuan Catholic priest, Neles Tebay and Uwe Hummel from the Germany-based West Papua Network, urged the government to hold a dialogue with the Papuans as soon as possible.
"The government stopped the official transmigration wave to Papua and promised there would be no more," Tebay said. "But actually, there was to be a second wave of transmigration, but this time it would not be Javanese farmers carrying hoes, but soldiers toting guns."
Australian Associated Press - November 22, 2006
Police fired warning shots to disperse hundreds of Papuans who protested outside the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby to demand recognition as Australian citizens.
The peaceful rally turned nasty after Papua New Guinea police ordered the crowd to move on and began manhandling protesters to get them to leave the high commission's car park. The crowd eventually dispersed but some protesters were injured in scuffles with police.
Australian Papuan Community coordinator Jonathan Baure said the protesters wanted Australia to recognise that Papuans were not given a choice to remain Australians when PNG became independent in 1975.
The rally was in response to a call from the High Commission for all Australian citizens to register at the commission's offices so they could be readily found in emergencies.
Several hundred Papuans, some displaying Australian Papuan flags, gathered in the car park outside the commission's steel gates to listen to speeches this morning.
Baure said that as Papuans in PNG they were still Australian citizens and there had never been a referendum in Papua to legally sever ties with Australia.
Papua, covering what is now the southern half of the PNG mainland, became an Australian territory under the Papua Act of 1905 and Papuan-born people acquired Australian citizenship under Australia's 1948 Citizen Act.
Baure said the people of former New Guinea covering the islands, highlands and northern coastal regions outnumbered Papuans three to one in the lead-up to independence but did not have the right to decide that Papuans should lose their Australian citizenship. "We want Australia to come back and govern us, we want them to give our grandchildren a better opportunity. We don't care about neocolonialism," he said.
There was too much corruption in PNG and Papuans felt dominated by New Guineans, Baure said. He warned of future frictions between Papuans and New Guineans which could prove a problem for Australia.
A high commission spokeswoman said two senior officials spoke to protest leaders and explained that a High Court ruling in Australia last year upheld laws that Papuans ceased to be Australian citizens when PNG became independent. "We are not expecting difficulties. Our hope is they remain peaceful and move on," she said.
The official said the protesters were not entitled to register as Australian citizens by descent.
"There are some exceptions depending on the age of the person at the time of independence and whether at the time of independence they had a right to permanent residence in Australia or to some other foreign citizenship."
They were welcome to apply by filling out the forms and paying the normal fee, the official said.
Baure said his group had collected 73,000 signatures on a petition and aimed to get 500,000 to take to the United Nations to urge a referendum on Papuans being granted Australian citizenship.
The Tyee News - November 21, 2006
Guy Warrington – "Of course the police are just as good at torturing as the army. Some of the cruder forms [include] putting a table leg onto the foot of somebody and then somebody heavily dancing on the table, which can be extremely painful. So, I mean torture is routine."
Carmel Budiardjo was in Victoria recently to speak about the little known tragedy unfolding in West Papua. In spite of harsh measures by Indonesian authorities to subdue the island's indigenous peoples, they continue to cling to the dream of self- determination.
The dense tropical rainforests and towering mountain ranges of West Papua are home to more than 300 distinct tribes, including some uncontacted peoples. Located 250 km north of Australia, and bordered by the independent nation of Papua New Guinea, the island as a whole contains the second largest rainforest in the world outside of the Amazon.
Forty-three years ago, West Papua was annexed by Indonesia. Since that time, large-scale military operations, massacres, land seizures and cultural assimilation policies conducted by the Indonesian government have placed Papua's extraordinary ecosystem and cultural diversity at risk of disappearing.
Budiardjo is the founder of TAPOL, a human rights organization that focuses on issues affecting Indonesia. In 1995, she won the Right Livelihood Award, often referred to as the alternative Noble Prize, for her work as a human rights advocate. Imprisoned for "political offences" after Suharto seized power, her husband spent 12 years in jail without trial or charge; she herself spent three years in jail before being released in 1971. While in Vancouver, she sat down with the author to discuss the grave situation facing the peoples of West Papua.
Betrayal and bloodshed
In 1949, Indonesia gained its independence from the Netherlands. West Papua, however, remained a Dutch colony. In 1961, after repeated failures to secure West Papua as its own through the United Nations, Indonesian President Sukarno threatened to annex West Papua by force. President Kennedy feared that American resistance to Indonesia's wishes might move the country to embrace Communism, so in early 1962 he supported talks between the Netherlands and Indonesia.
These negotiations led to the New York Agreement and obligated Indonesia to hold a United Nations sponsored election on Papuan independence. After occupying the island in 1963, Indonesia promptly re-named it West Irian. By 1969, they held the now condemned plebiscite, the Act of Free Choice.
Utilizing widespread intimidation and invoking a dubious voting method, Indonesia defrauded Papuans of their right to self-rule. In July of 1969, a declassified telegram from the US Embassy stated: "The Act of Free Choice (AFC) in West Irian is unfolding like a Greek tragedy, the conclusion preordained."
In spite of the serious concerns raised by some members of the international community regarding the vote, the US signalled disinterest in the matter. The UN General Assembly took note of the results, which formalized Indonesia's control of the region.
It has been estimated that 100,000 Papuans (about 10 percent of the population) were killed by the Indonesian military after they took control of West Papua. In a recent Associated Press article, human rights monitors put the death toll at approximately 200,000. The question of whether Indonesia is committing genocide has been raised.
HIV and 'crimes against humanity'
In 2004, Yale Law School produced a report exploring the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in relation to the Papuan question. It concluded that the actions of the Indonesian government, "taken as a whole, appear to constitute the imposition of conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the West Papuans. Many of these acts, individually and collectively, clearly constitute crimes against humanity under international law."
Throughout the island, Papuans face not only arbitrary arrests and detentions, but also disappearances and summary executions. After their arrest by security forces, people are frequently tortured. Those who challenge the government face beatings, electric shock, and being skinned alive. The Yale report also revealed that the Indonesian military has utilized aerial bombardment and deployed both napalm and chemical weapons against villagers, killing thousands.
Indigenous Papuans now face a new threat: AIDS. A 2005 report, published by the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, alleged that the military has been involved in supplying HIV/AIDS-infected prostitutes to the region. Currently, the province of Papua has the second highest number of AIDS sufferers in Indonesia, after Jakarta. With the number AIDS cases doubling in just four years, and the systematic discrimination against Papuans in government-sponsored AIDS education programs, many villages have virtually been wiped out.
An activist working on the Papua issue, who does not wish to be identified, stated that a Papuan representative characterized the AIDS issue this way: "Even if we are successful politically in helping the people of West Papua, it may be too late because they are already dead of AIDS anyway."
Canada's relationship
After a failed coup attempt swept General Suharto to power in 1966, between 500,000 and one million alleged Communists (PKI) were slaughtered throughout Indonesia. Despite the fact that Indonesia has had one of the bloodiest histories of the late 20th century, many western nations have been reluctant to suspend trade or arms shipments, or to end military co-operation.
Canada is no exception. Not only has the Canadian government been a critical political ally of Indonesia by attempting to block United Nations resolutions condemning its actions in East Timor, but it has sold military equipment to the regime.
Between 1990 and 1999, against the backdrop of ongoing human rights violations in East Timor and West Papua, Indonesia imported $24.8 million worth of military goods from Canada. From 2000 to 2002, Canada continued to supply military goods to Indonesia.
Though official Canadian policy requires close monitoring of arms sales to countries involved in conflict or human rights violations, Canada has exported arms and other military equipment to other countries with dubious human rights records, including Columbia, Nigeria and Turkey.
Indonesia continues to be an important Canadian trading partner, with bilateral trade in 2005 totalling $1.64 billion. British Columbia took in 19 per cent of all of Indonesia's exports to Canada – a total of $120 million US. In 2001, B.C. exports to Indonesia totaled $69 million US, accounting for 23 per cent of all of Canada's exports to Indonesia. There are currently more than 60 Canadian companies with resident offices in Indonesia, many from British Columbia and Alberta.
For the peoples of West Papua, rich natural resources have become a curse. Displacements due to military operations, massive resource extraction projects and transmigration programs have put considerable stress on the population. As the Yale report outlines, in some areas the infant mortality rate is above 60 per cent, and an average life expectancy is 30 years.
Divide and conquer?
"The basic problem with West Papua," says Carmel Budiardjo, "is it's an occupied country, and that this is not recognized by the world at large." Any understanding of the grim situation there, she says, begins with the fact that West Papau is rich with natural resources, and is "hugely wealthy – far wealthier than other parts of Indonesia." The biggest company operating there is Freeport-McMoRan Co., an American company based in New Orleans that operates the largest gold and copper mine in the world.
"Most of that wealth goes to Jakarta and it does not go to the West Papuan people. The West Papuan people were not involved in the decision to give [Freeport] concessions," notes Budiardjo. She points out that the Suharto regime and Freeport actually inked a contract for its mining operations in West Papua in 1967, before the Act of Free Choice.
In fact, says Budiardjo, Indonesia's leaders have short-circuited the special autonomy officially granted West Papau by Indonesia five years ago. "One of the provisions of this law," she explains, "was the establishment of the Papuan People's Assembly, with approximately 42 members, and made up of all Papuans. One of the things that this law says is that if there is any change with regard to the actual structure of the province, then [the Papuan People's Assembly] has to be consulted. Now this has not happened."
In the last few years, West Papua has been divided into two provinces. "There's the province of Papua and then another province which is called Irian Jaya Barat. Of course this decision to divide Papua into two provinces was done without consulting [the Papuan People's Assembly], so it was in violation of special autonomy."
To make "a tragic situation doubly evil," says the Sydney University report, the Indonesian army often cynically pays for military operations with the special autonomy funds set aside for Papuan health and education programs.
Closed access
As the HIV epidemic in the existing population coincides with a large influx of Indonesians, West Papuans, says Budardjo, are becoming ever "more marginalized." If the present rate of assimilation continues, argues human rights advocate John Rumbiak, Papuan culture, "will be extinct" in 10 to 20 years. "The basic strategy" of the Indonesian government, according to Budiardjo, "is to hang on to West Papua – and they know it's almost like a life and death struggle, because the Papuans are not happy. They don't want to be part of Indonesia."
Telling this to the rest of the world is made more difficult by the fact that foreign journalists and NGOs are often denied entrance to West Papua. Lately, an investigation into the shootings near the Freeport mine by the Papuan human rights organization ELS-HAM and the local police, alleged the possibility of Indonesian military involvement in the high- profile killing of foreign workers, including Americans. As a consequence of publishing this information, says Budiardjo, ELS- HAM is now facing a massive defamation lawsuit brought by the Indonesian army, which threatens to destroy the human rights organization.
Additionally, notes Budiardjo, the United States pressured Indonesia to quickly resolve the case regarding the killings, partly so that relations could be normalized and arms sales and US-sponsored military training could be resumed. Bringing hope to so tragic a place, says Budiardjo, really is a question of information. "People really have to know much more. We're always obstructed by the fact that there's so little in the press. Of course people should pressure their government to get their diplomats to go and visit West Papua."
Online Opinion - November 16, 2006
Adam Henry – The enigmatic Jakarta Lobby is "... an informal group of like-minded people who regard Indonesia as a special case". It is not a clandestine conspiracy, but an alliance of elites although some would deny the group's very existence.
The Jakarta Lobby operates from a position of privilege within the Australian establishment. Pro-Jakarta advocates have long recognised the dangerous potential for human rights violations in West Papua to become a major diplomatic issue. Fearful of being placed on the ethical back foot, as they had been with East Timor, such advocates have been emerging at regular intervals from within the diplomatic establishment to deliver their message.
The recent Lowy Institute report Pitfalls of Papua, and its endorsement by Paul Kelly (The Australian, October 7, 2006) are but the latest outcomes of the Pro-Jakarta PR campaign.
Cunningly intelligent Pro-Jakarta adherents must condemn the very notion of West Papuan self-determination, but also publicly refrain from asking the most basic human rights questions over the situation in West Papua.
One of the most significant examples of the Pro-Jakarta call-to- arms was a speech made earlier in 2006 by the Australian Ambassador to the US, Dennis Richardson. Its significance is all the more enhanced when one realises that the very top echelons of the Department of Foreign Affairs must have vetted its contents.
I believe that the ambassador's speech outlined the tactics that would be used to defend the unrepresentative vision of Australian-Indonesian relations constructed by the exclusive elites of the Jakarta Lobby.
The recent past - a call to arms
On March 8, 2006 the Ambassador Richardson who is a former director-general of ASIO, addressed The US-Indonesia Society: a group founded in 1994 to counter negative perceptions after repeated TNI (Indonesian National Defence Forces) human rights violations in East Timor.
The powerfully connected lobbyists of the US-Indonesia Society have been described as Indonesia's "... second Embassy in Washington". The former director general of ASIO ridiculed the existence of any Australian Jakarta lobby. He said only "some Australian commentators" maintain the existence of a Jakarta Lobby "... who conspire together to pervert Australia's national interests (this includes) all government officials who have either served in Indonesia, or who have worked on Indonesia in Canberra."
To deflect criticism over human rights and corruption concerns Richardson placed Jakarta in the frontline in the fight against terrorism and praised the transformation of Indonesia into an apparently utopian example of democratisation and cultural tolerance.
Indonesia, in some people's view, becomes a philosophical ideal beyond the cognitive capacity of critics. Even the subtext of the word "Indonesia" becomes an unquantifiable virtue "... beyond government".
Therefore no matter what the situation in West Papua, or for that matter other eastern islands of the Indonesian archipelago, Richardson's position means that our political support should never "... be allowed to be held hostage to issues such as (Indonesia's) corruption and (West) Papua."
Richardson's commitment to the values of democratic liberties struggling to take root in Indonesia is required to balance the negative "... voice of critics (which are) always the loudest". He implies that he, and the audience, are the true oppositional grouping tasked with rescuing Jakarta from policies diluted by unsympathetic foreign policy critics.
In the audience was the Indonesian Ambassador to the US, Sudjadnan Parnohadin-Ingrat, who was previously the Ambassador to Australia. Sudjadnan was the secretary to the Indonesian Task Force during the 1999 United Nations independence ballot in East Timor.
Richardson's pleas for unquestioning support for Indonesia are essential given the manner in which Indonesian elites such as Sudjadnan make use of the critical silence from Australia.
Questioned by The Washington Diplomat on Indonesian human rights Sudjadnan responded to an estimate that the TNI "... may have killed up to 200,000 Timorese during Indonesian rule". Sudjadun made no effort to dispute the figure seeing them as mere casualties of a secessionist war. As he said "... If (only) about 200,000 out of 220 million people (wanted to secede) I don't think this is very serious".
I believe East Timor under Indonesian rule (1975-1999) is comparable to the Killing Fields of Cambodia. There can be no doubt that intelligent men like Richardson are not ignorant of statistics. After independence in 1999 a UN report concluded "... human rights violations were massive, systematic and widespread ... starvation, arbitrary executions, routinely inflicted horrific torture, and the organized sexual enslavement and sexual torture of Timorese women were the hallmarks of the Indonesian authority and 183,000 est. Timorese starved or died of illness as a consequence of TNI-Kopassus actions during Indonesian rule."
When a powerful man like Richardson holds that nothing should hinder the Indonesian dream, we like Sudjadnan, possess enough understanding of the English language to comprehend the underlining significance i.e. issues like corruption and human rights are mere sideshows.
Richardson's style of commitment to Indonesia ignores the validity of human rights concerns over the actions of the TNI. Instead of using his speech to separate himself from Sudjadnan's East Timor 2 + 2 = 5 proposition I believe that, maybe unwittingly, Richardson urges unquestioning and principled support of Jakarta Lobby policies. Many efforts are now being made to build on his lead.
The present - the Jakarta lobby attacks
Paul Kelly wrote a characteristically expert opinion piece in The Australian (See "A new diplomacy over Papua", October 7, 2006). Kelly enthusiastically endorsed the Lowy Institute Report, The Pitfalls of Papua, as the virtual final word on the West Papua debate.
The main purpose of the article would appear to have been to discredit grass roots activists and ordinary citizens motivated by the norms of international law, a concern for human rights and the ethical quality of Australian diplomacy.
According to Kelly these are the ignorant people who might be actually moved to feel sympathy for the plight of Papuans suffering Indonesian military oppression. As I read it in Kelly's assessment they are a clear threat to the unquestioned goal of good relations with Jakarta.
He parrots Rodd McGibbon's conclusion that genocide cannot be used to describe policies employed by the Indonesians against Papuans.
Despite Kelly's ringing endorsement of the report it is interesting to note what he failed to analyse. Rodd McGibbon at least concedes that there has been a systematic pattern of human rights violations by Indonesian security forces since the 1960's.
To place this into perspective Ed McWilliams, a retired US Senior Foreign Service Officer, believes, "... a death toll of 100,000 (in West Papua) is entirely consistent with the savage record of this institution (TNI). The murder rate was augmented in the 1970s by provision of OV-10 Bronco aircraft, which were employed against civilians in both East Timor and West Papua." Even in the absence of the smoking gun of genocide, the Indonesian human rights record in that province is abysmal.
Kelly rightly points out there are differences between East Timor and West Papua that deserve analysis, but again fails to analyse his conclusions correctly.
Due to the presence of the Freeport Mine the scale of TNI corruption and business interests in the forestry sector is much greater than in East Timor. The two nationalist movements also differ in structure, unity and cohesiveness. The ethnic and linguistic diversity of Papuans is a factor. In common though is the reality of human rights violations. This commonality is not due to the loud and unsympathetic critics, but in my view to the inability of the TNI to not kill reluctant Indonesian citizens in large numbers.
Rewriting the past - the need to forget
The Jakarta Lobby argued for 25 years of the unending benefits of an Indonesian East Timor. Human rights concerns were dismissed as exaggerations or just ignored. When Paul Keating visited Jakarta in 1991 he praised the rise of Suharto's "New Order" government as the most beneficial event to Australian security since World War II. The 1965 massacres that established the New Order were then presumably beneficial in much the same way as Kokoda.
In 1965 American embassy officials, with the help of the CIA, compiled lists of suspected high-ranking communists within Indonesia that were handed to the Indonesian army. According to the CIA, 1965 was one of greatest massacres and significant events of the second half of the 20th century to be compared with Stalin's purges, the mass murder of the Nazis during World War II and the Maoists in the early 1950's.
Such was the carnage that the US Embassy advised Washington that it did "... not know whether the real figure is closer to 100,000 or 1 million (dead) but believed it wiser to err on the side of lower estimates, especially when questioned by the press".
The US attitude toward the mass killings was indifferent. Howard Federspiel formerly of the Bureau of Intelligence & Research (US State Department) remembered that: "No one cared, as long as they were communists ... No one was getting very worked up about it".
Hundreds and thousands of political prisoners (Tapols) were also jailed in the years after 1965-66. Historian Gabriel Kolko compared 1965 with the Nazis during World War II, and historian Peter Dale Scott has argued that the communist coup myth rests on many sources with "... prominent CIA connections".
At the end of the bloodletting the Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt stated, "With 500,000 to a million Communist sympathisers knocked off ... I think it is safe to assume a reorientation has taken place." At least this truthfully expressed the scale of death required to create the preferred western political climate of stability in Indonesia.
Keating's speech made no reference to the historical realities of 1965, but it may be speculated that Suharto understood clearly. Journalist Glen Milne (The Australian, April 25, 1992) saw that "... Keating had passed the first test of his leadership, successfully driving Australian-Indonesian relations beyond the policy straight jacket of East Timor". Australian journalists continued to be supportive of the regime but a year later Suharto was overthrown by a widespread citizen reform movement.
Political language - it's logic Jim, but not as we know it
Critics of the Jakarta Lobby were labelled anti-Indonesian, ignorant or just garden-variety racists. Such is the Lobby group's mentality that NGO's, human rights activists, the Catholic Church, critical media reportage and even Portugal were roundly condemned by the group for the violence perpetrated by the Indonesian military throughout the 80's and 90's in Timor.
Two Dili massacres occurred in November 1991 and the commentaries of Pro-Jakarta advocates just demonstrated their extreme political language and mentality.
The death toll was actively minimised while the second massacre was ignored. Greg Sheridan and Richard Woolcott, a former Ambassador to Indonesia, actually blamed Portugal for provoking the atrocity.
Former ANU Economics Professor Heinz Arndt lamented in The Australian, "... that the massacre was a tragedy, not because of the loss of life but because it inflamed anti-Indonesian hate campaigns in Australia".
Such commentaries seemingly implied that the unarmed dead were an extreme anti-Indonesian stunt by Timorese, who selfishly placed themselves in the path of innocent Indonesian automatic gunfire. The entire event of course staged solely for the domestic benefit of those meddlesome Australian do gooders who sympathised with the plight of the East Timorese.
In regard to 1965, Aceh, East Timor and now West Papua, the Jakarta Lobby lack the moral courage in their ethical position to acknowledge that one must accept murder and atrocity so long as it brings about a potential climate of advantageous diplomatic relations with Jakarta.
To be unquestioning of the merits of the Jakarta Lobby approach to Indonesia is to suspend belief in logic and to obscure human suffering. To be critical of the Indonesian military for its documented and appalling human rights record is not anti- Indonesian. Its urgent reform is required as much for ordinary Indonesians, and their fledgling democracy, as is for the future of human rights in the eastern Indonesian islands.
When George Orwell noted "Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind" he highlighted the ethical blackhole of the so-called necessary or noble lies used to pursue short-term political gain.
People who support such tactics demonstrate the ongoing wisdom of Orwell's philosophical insights.
| Human rights/law |
Jakarta Post - November 23, 2006
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The House of Representatives has demanded that the government act upon findings from the National Commission on Human Rights on the 1997 forced disappearance of 13 pro-democracy activists.
House Commission III on law and domestic security said in its recommendation that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should quickly orchestrate efforts to find the missing activists who were abducted by elements in the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) prior to the fall of then president Soeharto in 1998.
The commission also blasted the Attorney General's Office for refusing to follow up on the Komnas HAM findings and suggested the two institutions co-operate more closely in the future.
"Komnas HAM and the Attorney General's Office should sit together and talk through the investigation. The office should carry out its investigation afterward," Commission III chairman Trimedya Panjaitan said in a hearing with Komnas HAM.
Earlier in the meeting, Komnas HAM members expressed their grievances about the government's refusal to follow up their reports on the missing activists.
"In spite of the significant evidence that we have found, the Attorney General's Office refused to carry out its own investigation. It has refused to seek testimony from experts or look for new evidence at locations considered to be places where the activists were allegedly held captive," Komnas HAM member Enny Suprapto said.
Komnas HAM earlier reported that there were 13 abductees. They were identified as Yani Afrie, Sony, Herman Hendrawan, Dedi Hamdun, Noval Alkatiri, Ismail, Suyat, Petrus Bima Anugrah, Wiji Thukul, Ucok Munandar Siahaan, Hendra Hambali, Yadin Muhidin and Abdun Naser.
They were abducted, along with other pro-democracy activists in the last days of Soeharto's regime. Some of the activists, namely, Andi Arief, Faisol Reza, Pius Lustrilanang, Desmond Mahesa and Haryanto Taslam were released by their captors after experiencing physical and psychological torture.
Commission chief Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara said that chief of the Indonesian Military (TNI), chief of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad), chief of the Jakarta Military Command and chief of the military intelligence agency (BIA) at the time of the abduction could be held accountable for the operation.
The TNI leadership dismissed in August 1998, then chief of Kostrad Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto and his protege Maj. Gen. Muchdi PR and Col. Chairawan for their involvement in the abduction. No charges were brought against the three, however.
Commenting on the Attorney General's Office refusal to act upon its findings, Garuda said that the agency was faced with formidable political constraints. "The Attorney General's Office is dealing with political problems that have slowed them down in resolving the case," said Garuda.
Agence France Presse - November 22, 2006
Jakarta – Indonesia's police said they will seek assistance from the United States to speed up their probe into murder of respected Indonesian human rights activist Munir Said Thalib.
National police chief General Sutanto said he was committed to solving Munir's death.
"We are going seek technical assistance from the United States. We have contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and only need to bring evidence to their laboratory there," Sutanto said told reporters in Jakarta.
Munir's widow Suciwati last month held talks with acting US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs Scot Marciel on her husband's murder case.
Marciel assured her that the US would continue to press for a full and effective investigation into her husband's murder regardless of where that investigation may lead.
Munir was 38 when he was killed after his drink was laced with arsenic on a flight operated by the Indonesian national carrier Garuda from Singapore to Amsterdam in September 2004.
A Garuda pilot with links to BIN, the Indonesian intelligence agency, was jailed for 14 years for the murder but the Indonesian Supreme Court overturned his conviction earlier this month.
Human rights groups dismissed the court's decision, saying the evidence against the pilot was overwhelming.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has refused to publish the final report and recommendations of his fact-finding team set up to investigate the murder.
His refusal came despite a deluge of requests, including from 68 US lawmakers who wrote to him last year expressing concern over the case.
Sutanto said his men are currently working to obtain more testimony from other witnesses, but gave no further details.
Details of the case suggest a cover-up and links to Indonesia's powerful national intelligence agency, rights groups said.
Judges originally said the pilot's motive for the killing was to protect the Indonesian military and BIN.
Jakarta Post - November 20, 2006
Jakarta – A local human rights organization has accused the government of violating the right to freedom of expression. The Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) said that the government was monitoring and recording the online activities of Internet users.
The Information and Communications Ministry recently announced plans to form an "Internet Watchmen" team to prevent online crime among local users, a move that the proven unpopular, with various groups deeming it unconstitutional. The decrees stipulates that the government must set up such an Internet monitoring team to prevent "abuses" including terrorist threats.
HRWG coordinator Rafendi Djamin said the government had stopped the process of freedom of speech by establishing a group that could create interruptions.
"They want to watch for political movement," he said. "The minister of communications and information has created an extra- judicial mechanism to monitor us through the World Wide Web," Rafendi told The Jakarta Post.
"We reject any form of monitoring that could distort the right to information, to express and communicate because this would threaten the process of democracy and dwarf people's political awareness," he added.
He added that if any security threats were made or discovered through the Internet then it should be the role of the National Police's cyber-crime unit or the anti-terror group, not the ministry.
"If the government is serious about combating terrorism, then all they need to do is improve the performance of the cyber-crime unit of the anti-terror group," he said. Rafendi said he believed that the establishment of the body was being drive by the US "obsession" with combating terrorism.
An official, however, said that the monitoring system would not be all-encompassing. The Communications and Information Ministry spokesman said that the team would not be monitoring online content.
"We are only watching the logs, a small portion of a recorded account, to find any latent threats so we can anticipate things that could destabilize national security," said post and telecommunications directorate representative Gatot S. Dewa Broto. "Moreover, we can't look over everyone's shoulders all the time because of the limited numbers of our personnel. It would be impossible for us to do that," he added.
He said that unlike China and Malaysia, the Indonesian government did not monitor online content written by its citizens.
Several countries already use sophisticated software to watch Internet content, including emails, although critics are unconvinced that it is particularly effective in ending threats to a nation's security.
"Anything that curbs the freedom of expression is problematic," said Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group on Saturday. "It's not effective trying to curb crimes by this means as there is always a way for crime to exist. Terrorists can always use code language that nobody but themselves would understand," she said.
She added that she had no doubt that the Internet had increasingly become important for militant groups. "Jamaah Islamiyah personnel are highly literate with computers. If they are not, then they will be taught to become good at it," she said. Sidney added that in China, where the government aggressively monitors and screens Internet content, the practice was more harmful to citizens than it was helpful to the government. "It's better for freedom to prevail," she said.
Jakarta Post - November 17, 2006
Jakarta – A coalition of non-governmental organizations demanded Thursday that the Attorney General's Office (AGO) investigate the 1997/1998 forced disappearances of political activists.
This comes as the National Commission on Human Rights last week urged the Attorney General's Office to quiz four Army generals allegedly involved in gross human rights violations prior to the resignation of former president Soeharto.
The Association of Relatives of Victims of Forced Disappearance (Ikohi) claims that 14 of the abducted activists had died and nine were returned to their families by their abductors from the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus).
Several Kopassus officers were tried and convicted by a military tribunal in 1999 but activists are demanding that the masterminds be arrested and tried in the Human Rights Court.
"The state apparatus eliminated citizens for political goals and this is a crime against humanity," the NGO alliance said in a joint statement.
The alliance rejected Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono's claim that the case was closed with the 1999 conviction of the Kopassus members, saying the court failed to determine what happened to those who went missing.
| Politics/political parties |
Jakarta Post - November 20, 2006
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The Golkar Party's demand last week for a Cabinet reshuffle to enable it to place more party members in senior positions has not impressed political analysts.
The party controls 128 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives but only has three party members in the Cabinet.
J. Kristiadi of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said that the Cabinet reshuffle, requested in the 17- point statement released at the end of the party's recent leadership meeting, was a great disappointment. "Golkar is seeking more seats in the Cabinet and in local governments," Kristiadi told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.
Golkar has been clear in its disdain for the Yudhoyono's government. Yudhoyono is said to "favor" an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle member in a dispute over a gubernatorial post. Southeast Sulawesi Governor and Golkar member Ali Mazi is on trial for graft.
Golk has released the names of 13 Cabinet ministers it believes should be replaced due to "poor performance". Kristiadi said that the reshuffle request could well backfire, as the public would regard the party as not serving the people.
"The poor, the unemployed, justice seekers and those forcibly evicted to make way for development projects must be dismayed because their hopes that Golkar would help them through popular programs has been dashed," he said. Golkar, he added, needed to fully support government programs over the next three years if it wanted to win the people's sympathy.
Maswadi Rauf, a professor of political science at the University of Indonesia, said Golkar's four-day meeting last week was aimed at consolidation for the 2009 presidential election, in which the party is likely to field Kalla as its candidate.
"Golkar leaders in the region are clearly unhappy with its leader being number two in the government even though it won the legislative election. Moreover, it has only three cadres in the cabinet," Maswadi said. He also predicted that the demand for a cabinet reshuffle would further strain relations between Kalla, Yudhoyono and Golkar.
Maswadi criticized what he saw as "Yudhoyono's soft stand" on the political leaders who make up his Cabinet. He said the politicians should have quit their titles in their respective parties so that they could concentrate serving the public.
"He should have barred JK (Jusuf Kalla) from running in Golkar's chairmanship race in the 2004 Bali congress," Maswadi said. "Besides, because Indonesia applies a presidential, not parliamentarian, system of government, SBY should be more assertive in his decision making because he doesn't have to rely on the House of Representatives for political support." Meanwhile, politicians from minority parties supporting the government said Golkar, instead of criticizing Yudhoyono, should withdraw its cadres from the government and become an opposition party instead.
"From the outset we are sure Golkar would withdraw its support for the government mainly because the Yudhoyono-Kalla pair was elected directly by the people," said Batughana, deputy chairman of the Democrat Party.
Kompas - November 18, 2006
J. Osdar – Indonesian journalists roared with laughter when they witnessed the general elections or great election in the Malaysian state of Sabah in 1985. The total number of voters was only 300,000 out of a population of 1.2 million. But more than 30 political parties had registered to contest the elections.
Only a few of the larger parties appeared to be serious contenders, the United Sabah National Organization (USNO) and Victorious, a coalition of parties then power in the National Front coalition. Two parties that have consistently alternated in governing Sabah.
The remainder were the insignificant parties that were the cause of the laughter by political analysts in the country. The majority of these marginal parties had their central offices in a series of dilapidated houses and their names were also amusing: Shears, Sickle, Tractor and so on.
At that time the political and economic situation in Indonesia was relatively stable as only three political parties were allowed to contest elections. Two of these had their central offices in the elite area of Menteng in Central Jakarta, while the Golkar Party's central offices in the West Jakarta area of Slipi were pretty good too. The situation in Indonesia did indeed cause the journalists to feel qualified to laugh about Sabah.
On senior journalist from Jakarta at the time said that situation during the 1985 elections in Sabah resembled the elections in Indonesia in 1955, saying that many of the parties at the time were established based little on more than a willingness to give it a shot, to take a risk or had just been haphazardly thrown together.
The outcome of the Sabah elections however, surprised many when one of these marginal parties, the Sabah United Party (BPS), led by Datuk Pairin Kitingan, which had only been established only three months earlier was victorious. Although in the end it was destroyed, the party stepped forward, won and took power.
The laughter of those journalists in Sabah in 1985 would erupt again if they were to visit the offices of the new political parties that have registered with the Department of Justice and Human Rights to contest the 2009 Indonesian general elections.
Twenty-seven parties were included in the list of parties handed over to the House of Representatives Commission III on September 23. But finding a list like this at the Department of Justice and Human Rights on Jl. Rasuna Said in the Kuningan area of South Jakarta was not a simple task, even though officials at the office claimed it was "easy".
It took at least 12 hours of waiting to get and answer as to whether or not it was possible to see the list. Waiting in these offices was also an unpleasant story in itself, especially if you wanted to use the toilet. The toilets for ministers and Echelon I-IV officials are locked and the others, without locks, were disgusting.
It turned out that the list included parties that had submitted founding documents but not to establish a party. There were also names registered only showing the structure of various party directors. The party's addresses were also unclear. When visited, in one case it turned out that the official address was a furniture shop. There were also party offices that shared premises with a public telecommunications centre or wartel.
The wartels
Try going to the central office of the Satrio Piningit Party on Jl. Raya Warung Buncit in Jakarta. The party's offices are located at a small wartel that is staffed during the day by a teenage woman called Lilis. The party is listed as number 17 at the Department of Justice and Human Rights. But there is no party signboard in front of the office and along side it is a massage parlor and a signboard with the name of a shop selling men's health tonics.
In answer to journalists' questions, the party's general secretary Professor Doctor Haryono MBA said, "It's just the name, the Piningit Party, so it's not easy to find its location. Piningit, means still held back or hidden".
"People can laugh about the party if they want to. It's people's right to laugh. We want to take part in enlivening the festival of democracy", said the 57-year-old man who claims he is a graduate of a doctorate program at the International University of Missouri in the United States.
Haryono says that the party's funding comes from contributions by its members. "We mutually assist each other. There are also those that provide more for us", he said. Haryono's claims are the same as those expressed by the heads of the other political parties when asked about finances.
Then, in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta, there is the headquarters of the My Republic Party (Partai Republikku). When journalists arrived on the afternoon of Monday November 6, there was only one teenage woman in the open room. She handed out a leaflet containing the profile of the party's general chairperson and general secretary. It began with a profile of the My Republic Party general chairperson in which was written, "Armed Forces Rear Admiral Sasongko Sos MM. Born Kebumen 1950 grew up in Surabaya, height 178 cm, weight 90 kg. Married the apple of his eye, Norma Maduratni...".
Then, the profile of the secretary general Dr Tony P Tambunan SE MBA. "Graduated with a doctorate in economics from the American University 2001, height 178 cm, weight 89 kg, born Medan he... married Syupyati Hasan, born Betawi, Jakarta".
On a house at the end of Jl. Perdatam Raya in South Jakarta, is the sign of a company. This is the address of the New Order Party (Partai Orde Baru), which is registered as number 16 and led by Dr Ainal Khaik Hutapea. There were only three people at the office when visited on the afternoon of Wednesday November 8. Two officials and the house security guard. "The directors aren't here", said one of the three people at the office.
Parking area
There is also the People's Independence Party (Partai Kemerdekaan Rakyat) led by Alma Shepart Supit. Its offices are registered with the Department of Justice and Human Rights as the Gracia Tower on Jl. HR Rasuna Said, Jakarta. When visited by journalists, the offices were actually underneath the building's parking area. "The party isn't here any more ", said a security guard on Monday November 6. It turned out that the party had moved its offices to the Jembatan Dua area in North Jakarta.
On the side of a main road in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, is the central office of the Star Crescent Party (Partai Bintang Bulan), which occupies a room in what looks like a house come shop. The rear section of the house serves as the party's offices.
Not far away among a row of houses on Jl. Mampang Prapatan XII, is a banner of the Independent Peoples Party (Partai Rakyat Merdeka). When contacted by phone and asked why the party's name is the same as the newspaper Rakyat Merdeka, one of its directors only laughed in response.
Then, in second place on the list of political parties at the Department of Justice and Human Rights, is the Indonesia Youth Awakening Party (Partai Indonesia Muda Bangkit). The address written on the list is Level 7 Supra Tower, Jl. Let. Gen. S Parman, Jakarta. Nyonya Lingga, the manager of the building said, "Oh, that's the name of the corporation, but it moved two years ago".
Out of these 27 parties, it is the Democratic Renewal Party (Partai Demokrasi Pembaruan, PDP) that has received most praise from officials at the Department of Justice and Human Rights. The party's facilities are more than adequate and it has offices in every province and many regencies/cities.
The founders of the party say that the PDP was establish not as split off from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- P). They say the PDP is like a thousand motorboats that were made to confront the crisis of the PDI-P. According to the founders, there will be many PDI-P cadre and supporters that will be jumping ship and need a boat.
Not far from the Santa Church in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, is the party of Sys NS who previously established the Democrat Party. He left the party to found a new "funky" party with many of its leaders artists or young people. The party was even launched at a youth centre, the Cilandak Town Square (Citos).
Papernas
Meanwhile, in an area where scavengers collect and recycle rubbish, amidst the clutter of dirty shacks and in the rows of slum housing lying between Jakarta's skyscrapers, are the coordination posts of the Preparatory Committee of the National Liberation Party of Unity ((KP-Papernas).
The posts lie between the small hills of rubbish collected by scavengers in Kampung Guji Baru, Kebon Jeruk, Jl. Bojong Raya, Kelurahan Rawa Buaya (Cengkareng), Kampung Basmol (Kembangan sub-district), Jl. Jampe Raya (Koja political district, Tanjung Priok), Jl. Pedongkelan (Kayu Putih political district, Pulo Gadung) and the South Jakarta area of West Tebet.
On any one day at these coordination posts, it is possible to meet with Papernas leaders such as Dominggus Octavianus Tobu Kiik, Lukman Hakim, Zaenal Abidin, Iwan, Dwie Laksono, Ny Rasmiana, Ny Eni, Rendy, Marlo Sitompul, Jumisi, Igor and others.
Every day, morning to evening, they work with people needing help because of problems obtaining identity cards, difficulties getting direct cash assistance (BLT) that was promised by the government for the poor as compensation for fuel price hikes last year, trying get free medication (in accordance with government regulations) or affordable education, because they have been evicted from their homes, extortion and other such problems.
"We established the party not to just sit in the parliament or on the executive. The party and the general elections provide the momentum for us to consolidate and unite so that we have the strength to deal with the people's grievances and their complaints have been ignored by the government or the big parties to this day", said Zaenal Abidin, the chairperson of Papernas Jakarta who was chatting with a Mrs. Haryati.
The wife of a construction worker, Haryati is a young woman who almost died of hemorrhaging when giving birth and was unable to get treatment because she did not have any money. Thanks to assistance from the Papernas coordination post, Haryati was able to give birth to the baby in a hospital.
Most of the women who have become members of this party have stories like Haryati. And after joining Papernas, they gained the experience to then assist people suffering a similar fate as they.
Two children
In the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar, one of the representative chairpersons of Papernas, Wahida once helped a housewife from Goa called Upi. A mother of two children Upi set herself on fire after being refused BLT. Wahida and her colleges took he to hospital immediately. After recovering, Upi jointed Papernas and through the party is now actively supporting people with similar problems.
"We formed the party to be there among the people whose aspirations and fortunes are not touched upon by the government and the big parties which have existed since the New Order period. We are always there [for them]...", said Marlo Sitompul, the head of Papernas' urban poor division.
People in Papernas enjoyed hearing the story about Sabah. But while is not the same as Indonesia, what happened in Sabah could happen anywhere. A marginalised party emerging the victor or a movement bringing down an established party. "It's not an impossibility, the events of May 1998 could be upon us again if those who play in the big parties, parliament, the business world, the courts, military institutions, yes those very same people... The ones who always receive the big profiles in your newspapers [continue to ignore the people]", said Sitompul.
[Translated by James Balowski.]
| War on corruption |
Jakarta Post - November 16, 2006
Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Criminologist Adrianus Meliala laments the government's lack of action against crimes involving state officials.
During the inauguration Wednesday of his professorship at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Adrianus said that taking no action to stop crimes was a crime in itself.
Also an advisor to the National Police chief, Adrianus said this was reflected in the widely shared perception about the anticorruption drive which has spared state officials from prosecution.
"While the crimes are not a government policy, it is then an act of neglect by the state if these crimes are allowed to become rife," he said in his inauguration speech.
The impunity of state officials, Adrianus said, was a crystal clear example of such a state crime in past administrations, notably during Soeharto's 32-year rule.
"But while the Yudhoyono administration proves to be making democratic progress, there's still a complaint of how the state is reluctant to fully reform the Indonesian Military, how elements in the public attack each other, and how certain officials have escaped (rights activist) Munir's murder trial," he said.
Hoodlums and armed civilian groups that attack others and go unpunished, said Adrianus, are one example.
The Islam Defenders Front (FPI) is an infamous model of these groups, he said. FPI members have gained notoriety for vandalizing places they consider un-Islamic, such as nightclubs and publishers of adult magazines.
"... the government seems to be overwhelmed by rapid social and political changes and then 'borrows' the hands of civilians to carry out violence against other civilians," said Adrianus.
The 2004 murder of rights campaigner Munir has seen no one held accountable despite reports by a fact-finding team sanctioned by the President indicating the alleged involvement of State Intelligence Agency (BIN) officers.
Law enforcers, Adrianus said, should be able to hold the government accountable for such a state crime.
"But the question is can these law enforcers criminalize and punish state officials who created their institutions and gave them authority?" he said.
Furthermore, he added, there is very little attention given to state crimes because criminals are far less likely to be prosecuted if the crimes are less personal and on a larger scale.
"The best solution for a state crime is through coordination between the various state elements rather than pursuing a lawsuit," said Adrianus.
Jakarta Post - November 17, 2006
Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – Anticorruption activists say forces linked with former president Soeharto's Golkar Party are attempting to obstruct the fight against Indonesia's deep-rooted graft.
"With full awareness and for the sake of pride and wealth, they (Golkar) are systematically fighting back against the anticorruption movement," Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) advisor Abdullah Hehamahua told a discussion here Tuesday.
The discussion, hosted by Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia, was called "Fighting the Counter-Attack by Corrupt People". It took place while Golkar was gathered for a four-day national leadership meeting in Jakarta.
Abdullah said the old regime is using Golkar, which has been trying to regain power, as its political machine to reverse the anti-graft drive. Golkar was Soeharto's vehicle during his 32- year reign, which ended in 1998. The strongman is widely accused of fostering a culture of corruption.
Abdullah said the party's opposition to the establishment of a new presidential advisory team to strengthen the fight against corruption reveals its blatant efforts to hinder reform.
The president's team is chaired by former attorney general Marsillam Simandjuntak, who is known for his anti-Golkar sentiments. It drew criticism from party leaders including Golkar's chair, Vice President Jusuf Kalla. Analysts say Kalla feared the team, called the Presidential Working Unit for the Management of Reform Programs, might target Golkar.
Abdullah said that with Golkar maintaining national prominence despite the 1998 downfall of Soeharto, reforms had failed to change the bureaucratic system. "And when the reform movement faces a deadlock, the party fights back," he added.
His opinion was shared by Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator Teten Masduki, who said the old regime is "hijacking" the process. He said hope was fading for the country to strengthen such bodies as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to combat corruption.
Teten said the KPK should work hard to boost its performance instead of grumbling about its legal position, which is now tenuous since the law that created the KPK has been challenged in court. "We are hopeless if we only deal with this problem," he said.
He said the KPK was holding onto a time bomb by not arresting Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin for his alleged involvement in a corruption case at the General Elections Commission.
"The KPK only has six months left to act. By October (2007), its chief and deputy chiefs will be replaced. By May, Hamid will have to set up a selection committee. The minister, I think, should be named a suspect. His interests will surely influence the selection process," Teten said. Hamid, a close ally of Kalla, has denied the allegations.
Legal expert Eddy Hiariej from Gadjah Mada University said Golkar was responsible for the nation's chronic political corruption. He said those who profit from corruption were fighting back by mounting the Constitutional Court challenge to the law that created the KPK. The court is headed by former Golkar politician Jimly Asshiddiqie.
Former KPU chief and ex-Golkar politician Nazaruddin Syamsuddin and his colleagues, all convicted of graft, have asked the court to disband the KPK, saying its powers overlap with those of police and prosecutors. They have also challenged the KPK's authority to wiretap graft suspects and to investigate cases that took place before the commission's establishment.
The plaintiffs also questioned the KPK's inability to halt an investigation once it was started, saying it violated the principle of presumption of innocence. The court has begun hearing the plaintiffs' request for a review.
| Environment |
Jakarta Post - November 16, 2006
Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Clean air campaigners were careful about selecting a smoke-free dining establishment as the venue for a public discussion in Cikini, Central Jakarta, on Thursday.
The waitresses, however, had gone about placing ashtrays on every table, encouraging some participants to light up.
"It's a fact, the smoking ban is not effective. I don't know why the management of this cafe allows people to smoke," said the moderator of the discussion, Tubagus Haryo Karbiyanto, who chairs the air quality division of the Jakarta Caucus for the Environment.
The discussion was also attended by officials from the Jakarta Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) and City Council Commission D for environmental affairs.
The Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi Jakarta), the organizer of the discussion, said the administration had not shown the political will to enforce the ban.
"Many building operators, for example, have not met their obligations but we are yet to see the city administration stepping in to punish them," said Walhi Jakarta director Selamet Daroyni.
Previously on Tuesday, Walhi Jakarta revealed findings from its inspection of 10 shopping centers, six university campuses, six houses of worship, two hospitals, four office buildings, three bus terminals and two playgrounds.
Selamet said that half of the university campuses had not put up no-smoking signs or designated smoking areas. "The same went for shopping centers, houses of worship, office buildings and public buses," he said.
The smoking ban is part of the 2005 bylaw on air pollution. The bylaw also make emissions tests mandatory for private vehicles and requires public transportation vehicles to use compressed natural gas (CNG).
However, since the administration has been slow to issue supporting gubernatorial decrees to implement the bylaw, only the smoking ban regulation has been put into action. Selamet said Walhi and other environmental groups had submitted six drafts of gubernatorial decrees to support the implementation of the bylaw.
Walhi has also set up a hotline to encourage the public to monitor the implementation of the smoking ban. "However, we have only received 60 complaints from the public in the last three months, far lower than 200 complaints in June. This shows the public is apathetic about the administration's clean air campaign," he said.
Selamet said public involvement was important to push the administration to implement the bylaw.
Azas Tigor Nainggolan, the chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum, said the City Council was also responsible for the poor implementation of the air pollution bylaw. "The Council has failed to do its duty," he said.
Yosiono Anwar Supalal, the head of the BPLHD's air control division, said the governor would issue a decree on the smoking ban next week.
Jakarta Post - November 18, 2006
Jakarta – The government promised on Friday that Lapindo Brantas Inc. would still be held responsible for the damage caused by the Sidoarjo mudflow, despite a change in the company's ownership.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla said holding the owners of the oil and gas exploration company accountable for the disaster, in which a botched gas exploration well has spilled mud over a huge area in East Java, leaving 12,000 people homeless, was non-negotiable.
"As long as the company's still here, not going anywhere, we will hold it accountable," he said.
As of Nov. 14, Lapindo has been owned by Freehold Group Limited, an investment company based in the British Virgin Islands, which focuses on acquiring full low-priced shares in companies to be energized for a resale.
Freehold acquired all the shares of Energi Mega Persada (EMP) in Kalila Energi Ltd. and Pan Asia Enterprise Ltd., the two firms that operated Lapindo.
EMP was 70 percent owned by the Bakrie Group, which belongs to Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, who is also a close friend of Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
It is understood that Freehold is not affiliated with the Bakrie Group.
Lapindo owns half of the operating shares for the troubled Brantas oil block, where the mudflow started. The other shareholders are Medco E&P Brantas (32 percent) and Santos Brantas (18 percent).
Asked if Lapindo's new owner would be financially responsible for paying for the full cost of the disaster, including its physical and social effects on the local people, Kalla said the decision would left to the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam).
"That's for Bapepam to study and scrutinize. What I can assure (you of) is that Lapindo remains responsible for everything," he said.
Whether or not Medco and Santos will share the responsibility is unclear, as a recent Presidential decree describes only Lapindo as being responsible for the environmental and social recovery of the area.
The mud has been flowing from the oil block for more than five months and is now contained by large dams and embankments, although the government is still at loss as to how to stop the mud.
Over the past few weeks, the government has been channeling the mud into the sea, fearing that the arrival of the rainy season could cause the embankments to collapse.
Green groups and locals have protested against the move, saying that it will damage marine life in the area.
Jakarta Post - November 16, 2006
Jakarta – In another twist to the Sidoarjo mud volcano disaster, PT Energi Mega Persada (EMP) says it has sold PT Lapindo Brantas Inc., its unit that operates the gas well that caused the massive mud eruption in East Java, to an unaffiliated company.
EMP, an affiliate of a company controlled by the family of Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, signed an agreement on Nov. 14 to sell its shares in Kalila Energi Ltd. and Pan Asia Enterprises Ltd. to Freehold Group Ltd., an independent third-party incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, the company said in a statement sent Wednesday to the Jakarta Stock Exchange.
Kalila and Pan Asia, both based in Hong Kong, jointly own Lapindo.
EMP did not provide any financial details regarding the sale, nor details about Freehold Group's approach to accepting responsibility from the former shareholders for the costs of coping with the mud disaster.
The company only said that Lapindo Brantas would be supported by Minarak Labuan Co. Ltd., another affiliate of the Bakrie Group, in tackling the mudflow. Company executives were not available for comment.
Lapindo Brantas owns half of the Sidoarjo gas well, while PT Medco Energi Internasional and Australia's Santos Ltd. own 32 percent and 18 percent respectively.
Santos said recently that Lapindo had told them that the cost of containing and eventually stopping the mud could increase by up to 80 percent over earlier estimates to US$180 million.
The announcement came after the Capital Markets Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) refused to approve EMP's plan to sell Lapindo to Lyte Limited, a unit of the Bakrie Group.
Bapepam had sought clarification regarding the consent of EMP's minority shareholders for the plan.
The agreement to sell Lapindo to Freehold, however, "requires no approval from shareholders," EMP said in the statement, as it "neither involves any conflict of interest nor is it material." The company also said it believed the sale was in the best interests of the minority shareholders.
EMP, Indonesia's second largest publicly-listed oil and gas firm, had three times postponed a shareholders' meeting to seek approval for the sale of Lapindo to Lyte.
The announcement came a day after EMP and PT Bumi Resources, another company controlled by the Bakrie Group, canceled a planned merger due to the delay in the sale of Lapindo.
EMP gave assurances that the sale agreement with Freehold would take into account the needs of the people of Sidoarjo, with Lapindo receiving support from Minarak Labuan Co., another Bakrie Group affiliate, for its efforts to deal with the disaster.
In a separate statement, EMP said Lapindo was ready to face a lawsuit filed by Medco, and had appointed Houston-based law firm Baket Botts to represent it.
In its action, Medco argues that Lapindo violated their May 1992 joint operation agreement for the Sidoarjo gas well. Medco is also demanding that it be exempted from any obligation to compensate the victims of the disaster.
| Gender & sexuality |
Jakarta Post - November 19, 2006
Sydney may have led Australia in promoting its Mardi Gras marches, but this doesn't translate into widespread acceptance of sexual difference in the country next door. "Poofter-bashing" is still a hazard for homosexuals in some parts of a nation that claims to be liberal and progressive. So what about Indonesia, a land rigid with religion, tense with taboos? Some prejudice, but no fear or repressive laws, according to Dede Oetomo, the nation's leading gay rights activist, who spoke to The Jakarta Post contributor Duncan Graham in Surabaya.
It will be a quarter-century next year that academic Dede Oetomo, fresh from his studies overseas, and a couple of friends published the first newsletter for Indonesian homosexuals. This was during the repressive New Order administration, when the government banned transvestites from appearing on TV and sexual issues were seldom discussed.
One woman minister famously said then that there were no lesbians in Indonesia, although most research suggests about 10 percent of the population anywhere in the world naturally seeks same-sex relationships. The official line was to deny that the Republic had been infected by "deviants".
These "creatures" were fiends from the decadent West, which is where Dede, the bright young man from East Java, had spent the previous five years. He had been studying for a doctorate at the prestigious Cornell University in New York, the center of scholarship on Indonesian issues. There, he'd become part of a on-campus gay group.
So it wasn't surprising when some said he was importing American ideas on sexuality that had no place in Eastern culture. What was unexpected, however, was that this criticism came from the academic gays Dede had met in the United States – not from Indonesians who were trying to define their desires.
It was an intellectual argument: The "outsiders" thought Indonesian gays should build their own Asian culture of difference based on traditional practices. (see sidebar)
But the men and women wrestling with notions that didn't fit the government-approved model of marriage and two kids welcomed Dede's initiative. They didn't care where the information had come from, as long as it provided help.
"We were really young and naive and just thought that producing a newsletter was the right thing to do," said Dede.
"Apart from Surabaya and one or two people in Malang, Solo and Jakarta, the openly gay community was tiny. Looking back, I now realize our actions were quite subversive.
"Around 1981, two lesbians 'married' in Jakarta and this caused a major media storm. It raised many questions about sexual preference that I felt had to be addressed. I wrote a letter to Tempo magazine and suggested other gays might want to contact me. They did – with up to 40 letters a week."
After the newsletter's publication, Dede and friends started Indonesia's first gay organization, Lambda Indonesia, later to become Gaya Nusantara. This is a national rights group now famous internationally not just for linking people, but also for advocating safe sex and fighting AIDS, and combating discrimination.
That's not so difficult in Islamic Indonesia. Unlike Australia and many other Western countries with a Christian heritage, the republic hasn't made homosexuality illegal. So the searing debates on whether the law should be changed haven't happened here, though there is a discrimination issue with age: Heterosexual relations are legal over the age of 16, but for homosexuals it's 18.
In Singapore and Malaysia, which inherited their laws from Britain, homosexuality is still illegal.
"I think there's more tolerance among the moderate Muslims than the Christians," said Dede. "Occasionally some radical Islamic group will try and disrupt a meeting, but usually they just want to make a point and then go. A one recent event in Central Java, they went home after we paid them Rp 500,000 (US$54)."
In his role as an advocate of gay rights for men and women and of sex education, Dede has traveled widely overseas and often works as consultant on health programs for aid agencies.
Dede was born in Pasuran, East Java in 1953, the eldest of four children in a bookish Chinese-Indonesian upper-middle class family. Dede said his siblings are all heterosexual "as far as I know".
His father, who worked for a multinational corporation, had dabbled in the Pentecostal Church while his mother had a Catholic background. The family believed in education, open discussion and arguing with older people; there's an element of zeal in his upbringing.
Dede's mother cautioned him against listening to the mumbo-jumbo spook stories of superstitious maids, and instead urged him to take a rational and scientific approach to life – and to challenge myth from whatever source.
Dede went to a Catholic school, but his education was largely secular.
"I realized I was homosexual when I was about 12," he said. "I thought I could change. I went to see psychologists, but these sessions were more discussions than counseling. Thank God I wasn't given electric shock treatment."
Such treatment was a common medical procedure at the time, when it was thought homosexuality could be cured.
"I read widely and realized that this was how I was, and that things were not going to change.
"However, I didn't come out with my family 'til I was in my 20s. It took them about a year to realize that I wouldn't be supplying any grandchildren and (to) accept me for what I am. Fortunately, my parents have never been into melodrama. Instead, they said it would be a good idea if I could help others. I think I come from a fairly unusual family."
Dede's parents hoped he'd become a doctor or an engineer; Dede wanted to be an historian, but ended up as a linguist. He enrolled at the Malang IKIP (Teachers' Training Institute, now the University of Malang), where his intelligence attracted lecturers with US contacts.
He was awarded a Ford Foundation scholarship and headed for the States, and completed a Ph.D. thesis on the language and identity of the Chinese community in Pasuran. When not studying, he taught Bahasa Indonesia to some of America's top scholars.
Back in East Java, he was hit by some covert prejudice when he first sought academic work, finding doors closed despite his high qualifications.
He eventually got a teaching job at the prestigious Airlangga University and started a relationship with a man that lasted 21 years. During this time, he wrote extensively for the international media and became the voice of the Indonesian homosexual community.
Now, the days of having to meet after nightfall in the yard of a Surabayan state high school have gone. When looking for a partner there are hairdressers, beauty salons, dance studios – and a restaurant in a five-star hotel which is well known as a gay hangout, but it costs Rp 80,000 ($9) just to get in, limiting access to the rich.
Even so, the "pink dollar" phenomenon that has swept the West with hotels, tour agencies, fashion shops and magazines competing for rich gay clients with high disposable incomes has yet to appear in Indonesia.
The shock-horror tabloid headlines full of contrived moral outrage have faded and in their place is fact-based commentary. Much of this has been driven by the needs of public education regarding sexually transmitted diseases, and the emotional problems facing people whose genes have determined their sexual choice.
Dede is no longer the demon in the dark. His academic credibility, ease with the media, reasoned arguments and acceptance internationally have put him in the mainstream. He's twice stood as a political candidate on a "rainbow platform" of enhancing the rights of minorities. Though unsuccessful, in the 2004 election for the local legislature, he garnered 235,000 votes.
The Internet has also given enormous freedom to people with different sexual needs. The furtiveness has largely vanished, though gays and lesbians still keep a low public profile; a recent lesbian "wedding" in a Surabayan hotel attracted no media coverage.
How much of this change can be attributed to Dede and Gaya Nusantara?
"I agree with those who criticize us because we are communicating with the better educated, media-savvy people in society, rather than those with limited schooling and living in isolated areas," he said.
"But information is now getting out to the wider community because the topic is no longer taboo in newspapers.
"Some say we haven't done much and that change would have arrived anyway through globalization. That may or may not be so, but we've given space to people, we've opened up the debate. Being gay now is completely different – but also more complex.
"We run a help line, organize face-to-face counseling and offer other services. There's still a lot more to do. The issue of domestic violence in gay relationships has not been addressed," said Dede.
"I wouldn't want to walk home alone in the dark from Sydney's Mardi Gras Festival, particularly as I'm an Asian. But I feel quite safe in Indonesia. However, there are reports of violence by low-ranking military personnel against men who look effeminate.
"Now the challenge is to build a new generation of leaders, and reach gay men and women who aren't at the top end of society to educate them on health issues. The (available) statistics are two years old, apply only in Jakarta and are a bit suspect. But they are all we have to go on."
For example, Dede quoted that "current" figures for HIV were "22 percent of waria (transsexual), 5 percent for male sex workers and 2.5 percent for gay men. Overall, gay men in Indonesia are aware of the risks, use condoms and lubricants and are responsible."
(In Australia, HIV cases among gay men are reported to have surged to a 10-year high after a slump in HIV infections. It's believed that the younger generation, no longer bombarded by safe sex messages, has become lax in taking precautions.)
"There's still some prejudice in society, but in international terms we're ahead. Where it's really difficult is for men and women who want to come out yet love their family and want to keep that love. We also want happy families. But not the government model."
Jakarta Post - November 16, 2006
Jakarta – A high level meeting of ASEAN countries in Jakarta called on Indonesian government officials Wednesday to collaborate and approach the grassroots community to promote gender equality.
Regional Program Director of UNIFEM for East and Southeast Asia, Jean D'Cunha, said that various ministries needed to think and act to solve various gender inequality issues.
"The responsibility for guaranteeing women's rights rests with various government structure, such as the National Planning Board and the Finance Ministry, with the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment at the helm," D'Cunha said.
The two-day meeting is jointly organized by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment and the ASEAN Committee on Women to narrow the gender gap in the region through refined policy making.
D'Cunha told The Jakarta Post that Indonesia urgently needed a change of attitude and values to hasten progress.
ASEAN consists of Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
A 2005 World Economic Forum study concluded that Malaysia and Thailand were ahead of Indonesia in achieving gender equality when it comes to the workforce.
Representative ASEAN women's ministers planned to come to a conclusion Thursday based on previous provisions from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Indonesia ratified CEDAW in 1984, integrated gender mainstreaming policy in 2000, and passed the Domestic Violence Law in 2004.
The 10 ASEAN member countries are among the 194 states that have ratified the "women's bill of rights" which is the cornerstone of all UNIFEM programs.
Besides CEDAW, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals set forth governments' commitments to enhance women's rights.
"We need to promote and implement the equitable and effective participation of women in all fields and at various levels of the political, economic, social and cultural life," said State Minister for Women's Empowerment Meutia Hatta.
Indonesian women are still far behind compared to their male counterparts in several sectors, such as education, health and politics, she said.
"There are twice as many illiterate Indonesian women compared to men," said Setiawati, a deputy of Meutia. The main problem, she said, was that decision making in households was usually left to the men.
"Maternal deaths in Indonesia are among the highest in ASEAN countries, about 307 per 100,000 women," Setiawati said.
For an Indonesian family, if they have limited finances and have two children, a boy and a girl, many would opt to pay for the boy's education although the girl might have a better aptitude toward learning. "It's hard work because we have to create a breakthrough in unconducive social and cultural conditions," Setiawati said.
In politics, Indonesia wants to reach a level where 30 percent of politicians are women, but in fact women comprise only 11 percent of all politicians, she added.
| Foreign affairs |
Sydney Morning Herald - November 17, 2006
Duncan Campbell – Indonesia is of vital strategic importance to Australia. That much is generally agreed. How we should deal with that reality is not. In making another security arrangement – a second attempt – with Indonesia, the Howard Government has erred. Indonesia scrapped the first security arrangement when we stepped into the East Timor crisis.
That first arrangement became the monument to Paul Keating's boast that his was an irreplaceable relationship with a previous Indonesian president, Soeharto. Subsequently, we have co-operated to counter terrorism and to augment our mutual capabilities to do so, to combat drug and people trafficking, and to respect our sovereign rights.
What, then, will we gain in the new agreement, and what is in it for Indonesia? The new text contains no less than four references to territorial integrity and separatism, which are preoccupations uniquely of Indonesia.
There is no reference to human rights. But there is a gratuitous reference to non-interference in the internal affairs of the other. If we had to resort to it again, as we did in East Timor, this second agreement would already have gone out the window like its predecessor. Yes, there's a lot on counter-terrorism, but then again existing levels of co-operation are high and productive, without the addition of the agreement.
The UN Security Council does not score a mention but then the Indonesians are understandably concerned with the possibility of insurrection and insecurity particularly in and around Ambon and West Papua.
On the other hand, if one were asked to identify where, in the arc of instability to our north, our interests might in the foreseeable future be most painfully engaged, it probably would be in Indonesian West Papua. What, then, are we signing up for? Some species of underlying non-aggression pact, a part of which now clearly involves our immutable commitment to Indonesian domination of the Papuans, no matter what?
The new agreement will likely introduce more tension and resentment into our bilateral relationship with Indonesia than provide relief at what is bound to become a pressure point. Do John Howard and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have to share a security blanket just because Keating and Soeharto did?
Until the demise of Soeharto and the electoral defeat of Keating, we sought to over-attain in and with Indonesia, looking always to achieve more than we should ever have aimed for or attempted. It has been an infantile failing and remains to be remedied. The late treaty between Keating and Soeharto was part of it.
Our relations with Indonesia need to be measured not by some notion of their magnitude but by how effectively we join bilaterally in anticipating friction of a serious nature. The ingredient essential to success will be early detection of problems and preparedness to take them on, even when that means accepting, as it will, some immediate aggravation to prevent the aggregation of damage to a point where relations are seriously, perhaps even permanently, harmed.
Our overall relations with Indonesia are so much more important than the Papuan part of them, which is not the same thing as saying the fate of the Papuans is not our concern. We must not let West Papua be handled as we handled East Timor.
If we try to evade this issue, if we legislate it off the bilateral agenda as the new security agreement will do, we will end up backing ourselves into a corner. The last thing we should be doing is making West Papua a no-go zone in our relations with Indonesia and in our bilateral discussion of local sources of instability.
The Howard Government began its dealings with Indonesia with an air of studied indifference designed to show a clear differentiation with the regional diplomacy of the Keating government. By the time of the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, the Prime Minister was looking more infatuated than indifferent.
In the meantime, he had finally bitten on the bullet in East Timor. Our exposure to Indonesian-grown terrorism was yet to be fully manifested, and the potential divisiveness of our differing legal systems yet to be felt politically in the two countries.
Measured over the 10 years of the Howard Government, a combination of miscalculation and mischance has produced an unsettling oscillation in our relations with Indonesia. The tendency has grown to handle problems through prime minister-to- president contact. But with summitry there must be heavy publicity, politically stage-managed for two sets of domestic consumption and if things go wrong, it is difficult to remit the mess to another level.
Howard has been lured, like Keating, into mistaken reliance on personal contact with a president. Now he has also duplicated the pursuit of a security pact, which is more likely to become hostage to difficulties in our dealings with Indonesia than to help in handling them.
The essential ingredient to successful Australian-Indonesian relations is to succeed in exposing the development of Indonesian West Papua to improved international scrutiny, and we are turning away from that prospect.
[Duncan Campbell is a former deputy secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.]
Jakarta Post - November 17, 2006
Duncan Graham, Surabaya – There's a critical five-letter word absent from the Framework for Security Cooperation agreement signed this week (Monday Nov. 13) in Lombok between Indonesia and Australia. The missing word is "Papua".
Despite its invisibility this is at the heart of the seven-page document dubbed the Lombok Treaty by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirayuda.
Discussions leading to the pact have been running for two years. But the decision by Australia to give asylum to 43 Papuan refugees who sailed to Australia last January put fuel in the negotiators' tanks.
The document is full of motherhood terms and rubbery words – diplomatic delights like "reaffirming", "recognizing" and "emphasizing." If these help establish trust then quibbling is out of place.
Inevitably the Lombok Treaty is short on what will actually be done in real terms, although Article 6 includes an "implementing mechanism". This commits the two countries to "take necessary steps" and "meet on a regular basis".
When there's a dispute – which is certain given the great gulf between the two countries' values and cultures – this shall be "settled amicably by mutual consultation or negotiation." There are no sanctions.
One issue has already been determined: If there's any strife about interpreting the bi-lingual document then the English text will prevail.
Although the emphasis is on security this isn't a military alliance. Such a treaty is prohibited under Indonesian law. The issue here is terrorism and just seems to reinforce already existing arrangements with the police and the military.
Nor is the treaty a law. Ahead lies ratification by both governments. In the wash-up only mutual goodwill will make this agreement work.
As anticipated there's a clause on drug trafficking. Watch out if death penalties are enforced against Australian drug runners and the talkback radio vitriolic shock jocks start slandering Indonesia again, demanding Canberra intervenes. Then the lines on "good neighborliness and non-interference in the internal affairs of one another" will get a real acid test.
There's no doubt the Australian government and opposition fear the "Balkanisation" of the Republic and want a unified and stable Indonesia.
Canberra, the region's perceived deputy sheriff, is facing multiple crises among the alleged "failed states" of the Pacific, along with problems in Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea. It certainly doesn't want more regional hassles.
The key point on Papua is Article 2, Item 3 – a black-letter lawyer's gem:
"The Parties, consistent with their respective domestic laws and international obligations, shall not in any manner support or participate in activities by any person or entity which constitutes a threat to the stability, sovereignty or territorial integrity of the other Party, including by those who seek to use its territory for encouraging or committing such activities, including separatism, in the territory of the other Party." ("Party" means nation.)
Does this mean that any future boat people who dig their toes into Australian sand won't have claims for refugee status recognized?
The answer will come when and if that happens. But any careful reading of the words above – particularly the phrase about "domestic laws and international obligations" – doesn't score out a repeat of this year's successful bids for asylum.
At that time the Australian government said it was powerless to act under law once an administrative decision had been made. It also knew the electorate was backing the Papuans.
When the government tried to buttress immigration law this was interpreted as an attempt to appease an inflamed Indonesia. The bid failed in August when Prime Minister John Howard withdrew the Migration Amendment Bill once he foresaw defeat. Even a few members of his own coalition were barracking for the Papuans.
If that same Papuan refugee scenario is rerun in the months ahead, the Indonesian outrage that led to ambassador Hamzah Thayeb being recalled for three months could erupt again.
Indonesians who recall with pleasure the Soeharto New Order administration still find it difficult to understand that in a democracy governments are not all powerful.
The shrill lobby groups in Australia seeking a free Papua (which they call West Papua) are unlikely to be muzzled by this treaty. They won't get any taxpayers' money. Their demands will be ridiculed and rejected by the government – and probably the Labor Party opposition that has so far given the treaty its cautious blessing.
Yet none of this is likely to quench the determination of the NGOs, church groups and minority party politicians. In fact it could help their cause. In the court of Australian public opinion where "getting a fair go" rules debate, being the underdog is always the favored position.
So the more the Papua separatists are rubbished and their statements undermined, the more their allegations of human rights abuses will get an airing and an audience. These claims will infuriate the Indonesian government and people, and ensure Papua remains the new pebble in the shoe of relations between the neighbors.
Unless serious political and administrative reforms are made to the satisfaction of the locals, effectively neutering the Australian agitators. It happened in the most western province of the Republic – so why not in the most eastern part?
[The writer is an East Java-based journalist.]
| Economy & investment |
Jakarta Post - November 23, 2006
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – As long as Indonesia is unable to fix its corrupt bureaucratic and legal system, the country will find it difficult to attract foreign investment from the US or other countries, the US envoy here says.
Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the meeting between US President George W. Bush and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono earlier this week, where they discussed bilateral relations and investment, among other things, would not help increase foreign investment in Indonesia if the Indonesian government itself failed to remove the barriers.
"Yes, they both discussed how to boost foreign investment into this country. But investment goes to countries that make it good for investment to come. You can't invest in a place for political reasons," he told a press conference Wednesday. He said that it was very striking that American companies signed investment deals worth up to US$2.5 billion in Vietnam when the US president visited that country recently.
"It goes to Vietnam and other places because they set conditions for the companies to come and do better," he said.
He noted that a lack of legal uncertainty remained a major problem for Indonesia in attracting foreign investment, pointing to the prosecution of Newmont Minahasa Raya president director Richard Ness, an American, who is facing three years imprisonment if convicted in a North Sulawesi court of causing pollution, as setting a bad example.
"What we want is Indonesia to become a competitive place... one thing you don't do... is bring court cases against somebody where you don't have any evidence. This is exactly what has happened in the Ness case. I read what they (the prosecutors) said, and we have had a whole year of testimony that says it's wrong," he said.
It was only by changing the legislation and ancillary regulations, and making sure that the people in charge are doing the right things, Pascoe said, that Indonesia could hope for more foreign investment.
Pascoe also complained about the problems faced by potential investors when "they run into the Indonesian bureaucracy", and about xenophobia and "anti-foreign" sentiment here, saying that every "comment aimed at telling foreigners how bad they are" only served to take investment away from Indonesia.
University of Indonesia economist Muhammad Chatib Basri agreed with Pascoe, saying that Indonesia's investment climate was still far from encouraging for investors due to a lack of legal and statutory clarity.
"Newmont is only one of many cases that concern many people. Labor law, for instance, is another problem. We have the commitment but we need time," he told The Jakarta Post.
Chatib said that the US was very important to Indonesia as it could influence other countries to invest in here.
Jakarta Post - November 17, 2006
Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – Indonesia's economy appears to be on track again, growing by 5.52 percent in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 from the same period a year earlier on a revival in consumer spending and strong commodity exports, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported Thursday.
This is higher than the revised 5.08 percent increase in GDP clocked up during the previous quarter, and the fastest in the past five quarters, or since the third quarter of 2005.
The fuel price hikes in October last year, which spurred inflation, caused interest rates to soar and reduced people's purchasing power, had slowed down economic growth in the previous quarters.
On a quarterly basis, Indonesia's economy grew by 3.49 percent in the third quarter. In the first nine months of this year, the size of the economy expanded by 5.14 percent to Rp 2,421 trillion (US$266 billion), or Rp 1,378.4 trillion at 2000 constant prices.
"The economy has, in general, improved," BPS director Rusman Heriawan told a press conference to announce the latest GDP growth figures.
Higher personal consumption, which spurred the faster growth in the third quarter, was partly the result of the easing of inflation and a series of cuts in the central bank's key interest rate. Personal consumption, which contributes 61 percent to GDP, grew by a quarterly 1.66 percent and an annual 2.99 percent.
By October, inflation had fallen to 6.29 percent from 17 percent earlier this year, while Bank Indonesia cut its key rate to 10.25 percent this month from 12.75 percent mid-year. Lower inflation and interest rates have helped improve people's purchasing power.
Indonesia's strong export growth in the third quarter, meanwhile, was partly the result of the 5.36 percent growth in the country's agricultural sector over the three-month period.
Exports grew by 12.05 percent in the third quarter as compared to the same period last year, accounting for 31 percent of GDP.
"Plantation crops alone saw 36.4 percent quarterly growth, particularly palm oil and rubber," Rusman said.
Yet the good news may not be as good as it seems, given that government spending, which helped spur growth in the second quarter, has now slowed significantly. Investment, which is considered a more sustainable driver of growth than consumption, also remains in the doldrums. In addition, there are problems also with exports, as growth in this sector has mostly been in value rather than volume.
Government spending, which accounts for 8.5 percent of GDP, contracted by 5.03 percent in the third quarter, although it was still up 1.72 percent from the same period last year.
Separately, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said she expected growth in the fourth quarter to be "higher than 5.6 percent", but for the year overall "it may be difficult to reach 5.8 percent."
The government had revised down its own growth estimate in the 2006 budget to 5.8 percent from 6.2 percent. Indonesia's $266 billion economy grew by 5.6 percent last year.
| Opinion & analysis |
Asia Times - November 22, 2006
Gary LaMoshi, Bali – US President George W Bush has come and gone for his quickie summit with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, leaving his hosts to pick up the bill and the pieces.
Local authorities released an estimate of Rp6 billion (US$660,000) for security costs of the visit, which included a 2-kilometer security cordon around Bogor's Presidential Palace, 8,000 police officers, school and business closures, and the shutdown of mobile-phone networks. That figure doesn't nearly capture the visit's true costs, however.
At the famed Bogor Botanical Gardens, world leaders from Belgium's King Leopold to North Korea's Great Leader Kim Il-sung to Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen have enjoyed the flora and planted trees to leave behind something of value from their stay. Bush, on the other hand, leaves behind a pair of helipads that required the relocation of a rare lotus from its pond.
Nothing during the two leaders' chat of less than an hour and the news conference that followed contradicted the impression that President Yudhoyono had gone too far in welcoming the leader of the unpopular, if not illegal, invasion of Iraq to the world's largest Muslim-majority nation. On a question about Iraq, remove Yudhoyono's mention of a withdrawal timetable, and his response citing the need for progress along three tracks would have done former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld proud.
Globally televised impressions to the contrary, Indonesian protests during the past week were mainly orderly and small. Sunday, a day ahead of Bush's visit, saw the largest number of protests, and the count of demonstrators nationwide was 20,000 in a nation of 220 million. About 10,000 people braved the rain in Bogor – a suburb of sprawling Jakarta – to denounce the visit.
But tens of millions of Indonesians – the country's moderate, tolerant backbone still hard pressed to overcome the Asian economic shock of 1997 and its aftermath – questioned why the visit took place at all. Both presidents were in attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Hanoi the day before. Many viewed Bush's visit as a waste of time and money with little positive upshot for Indonesia. The opposition Islamic Prosperous Justice Party seized on these perceptions in a bid to regain its populist appeal.
Smothering embrace
The Indonesian public is understandably wary after US support propped up former president Suharto's authoritarian military regime for three decades. Yudhoyono suffers politically in Bush's smothering embrace as the United States' best friend in the Muslim world. In response to that popular distrust, Indonesia announced in advance that the presidents' agenda would be restricted to bland issues such as education, health – Indonesia has the world's largest number of reported bird-flu deaths – and technology.
Pity the poor reporter from the Indonesian government broadcasting company who read Bush a lengthy question on biofuel development, which elicited a well-rehearsed reply from Bush. Small increments in aid for education and health, which could have been announced in Hanoi or by routine news release, are dwarfed by the growing budget for military and counter-terrorism cooperation that was out of bounds for discussion.
A popular view here is that the US forced Bush's visit on Indonesia out of arrogance. Indonesia was reluctant to sign on to the United States' "global war on terror" campaign in the direct aftermath of the September 11, 2001, but former army general Yudhoyono has been a more willing conscript. Hundreds of suspected Muslim militants have been detained without charge during Yudhoyono's tenure, a U-turn policy that no doubt has gone down well in terror-obsessed Washington.
The impunity with which the US has pursued its global counter- terrorism campaign jibes well with the superiority-flaunting behavior of Indonesia's elite. Writ small, it's about cutting in line at the bank or store. Writ large, it's about low-ranking military personnel assassinating non-violent Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay or clear military-intelligence links to the in-flight poisoning of human-rights activist Munir Said Thalib.
King Tommy
Huotomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy Suharto, is widely viewed as Indonesia's unofficial king of impunity. Arguably, the son of the former president the US backed with aid and arms – the ill-gotten family fortune is estimated in some monitoring quarters at more than US$10 billion – singularly advanced the art.
Tommy got his start cashing in on Indonesians' love affair with clove cigarettes. With help from his family, Tommy created his own monopoly over the aromatic bud, requiring farmers to sell him their cloves and cigarette makers to buy only from him. In each case, he set prices that were fair – for Tommy Suharto.
After his father unceremoniously left office in 1998, Tommy found the business climate more challenging. Transfer of government land for a private development wound up getting Tommy convicted for a penny-ante offense by family standards. Usually judges can be persuaded to overlook such indiscretions, but in the reform spirit, Supreme Court justice Muhammad Syafiuddin Kartasasmita sentenced Tommy to jail time.
Judge Syafiuddin was later gunned down in Jakarta's morning rush-hour traffic and, according to a court verdict handed down in 2002, Tommy had ordered the judge's assassination. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail and sent to Java's Nusa Kambangan, a remote island prison also home to Bob Hasan, the highest- ranking Suharto crony to be jailed on corruption charges. Because the jail is hidden from prying eyes, with police tightly controlling access, there were widespread rumors that Tommy actually spent little time there.
On appeal, Tommy's sentence for ordering the judge's death was cut to 10 years, or half of what an Australian gets for carrying 4.3 kilograms of marijuana. With that reduction, plus remissions for good behavior, Tommy was released at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in October, after serving less than five years.
Future historians will find two things that stand out in the Tommy Suharto story. They'll be amazed that any court had the audacity to send the son of a former president to jail. They'll also be amazed that given his cozy arrangements at Nusa Kambangan, he and his pals bothered to win an official release. But that's the essence of impunity. It's not enough simply to get your way – you also have to make sure everyone knows it.
There's a special lesson in Tommy's story for democratically elected Yudhoyono as he embraces the US and Bush: impunity is an art, not a science. As Tommy's time in hiding and behind bars shows, even in Indonesia, no matter who you are, you can go too far and have to pay a price. But the pointless summit with the extraordinarily unpopular US leader may finally prove a Bush too far for Yudhoyono's strained relations with the Indonesian electorate.
[Gary LaMoshi has worked as a broadcast producer and print writer and editor in the US and Asia. Longtime editor of investor rights advocate eRaider. com, he's also a contributor to Slate and Salon. com, and a counselor for Writing Camp (www. writingcamp. net).]
Asia Times - November 21, 2006
Gary LaMoshi, Bali – US President George W Bush's scheduled 10- hour trip to Indonesia on Monday has entailed vast security preparations and logistical inconveniences and has evoked mass demonstrations across the country calling for the visit to be canceled.
Indonesians' widespread distrust of Bush and his "war on terror" is real, while US-Indonesian relations under Bush and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono are based mainly on fantasies and misrepresentations. Here's a look at a few of the leading myths in the warming bilateral relationship.
Myth number 1: US wants democratic reform in Indonesia
The US State Department says relations with Indonesia are guided by progress on human rights, democratic reform and accountability. Undoubtedly, Bush will pat directly elected president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the back and declare Indonesia the healthiest democracy in Southeast Asia and the Islamic world.
With Thailand under military rule – again – and the other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries that bother with elections essentially one party states, the local competition isn't tough. In the Muslim world, Turkey aside, the freest balloting these days takes place in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories, hardly anyone's idea of democratic success stories.
In praising Indonesia's reforms, the US wants to bask in the reflected glory, as if it had something to do with democracy's nascent revival there. For three decades, the US sponsored former president Suharto's autocratic regime. To be sure, the Americans tried to blunt the worst abuses, but mainly they tried to protect their companies in the mining and energy industries and prop up Indonesia as a bulwark against communist encroachment in Southeast Asia. And stable military rule was the best recipe for that.
The US probably hopes for Indonesian politics to turn out more like Singapore's, following the forms of democracy without those pesky uncertainties over which side will win. That's the way things were under Singapore patriarch Lee Kuan Yew's good friend and golf partner Suharto.
Myth number 2: Indonesia is a global beacon for moderate Islam
For most of Suharto's 32-year tenure, Indonesia was a textbook example of moderate, tolerant Islam. That's in large part because it was the only brand of Islam the regime tolerated. About 190 million of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslims, and the vast majority practice moderate Islam mixed with traditional beliefs.
But Indonesia's political history features tension between advocates of an Islamic state under sharia law (at the very least, applicable to Muslims) and secularists. The national constitution came down clearly on the side of secularism, enshrining freedom of religion.
Democratic reforms and a more open society have, ironically, given religious groups an opening. Islamists also represent a clean break with old political corruption, as they have in the Palestinian territories, Turkey and Pakistan. Indonesian Islamists can also turn the democratic ethos to their advantage: since Muslims are a majority, they should be able to have their beliefs respected and protected. In society where the rule has been winner take all, that argument has power, and scares 30 million non-Muslims.
So, while Indonesia's politics are slowly becoming more open and democratic, Indonesian society is undergoing more rapid Islamization: in some regions (beyond Aceh, which enacted sharia law under its peace deal with the government) local laws enshrine hardline Muslim dress codes and compulsory Koran study; Muslim vigilantes attack churches and other heretics while police watch, unwilling to act against religious organizations without political cover.
Uncertainty about the role of government in religious matters isn't confined to the police. While the constitution guarantees freedom of religion, Indonesia's national philosophy, Pancasila, mandates monotheism and specifies five accepted religions. The secular legal code includes offenses for insulting Islam and other laws governing worship. Unsurprising perhaps after three decades of being told what to think, people expect the government to tell them what to believe. If the government won't, then others will, and the voices of moderation rarely speak first or loudest.
Myth number 3: US support for the military furthers US interests
Of course, that depends on what the US believes its interests are. The US resumed full military ties with Indonesia last year, based on the myth that the military has reformed. In reality, the military remains corrupt, prone to abuses and beyond civilian control, so US aid undermines the State Department's triple play of human rights, democratic reform and accountability and in effect makes America complicit in military wrongdoing.
America's zeal for closer military ties buys its silence on Indonesian human-rights abuses, such as the 2004 airborne poisoning of anti-military activist Munir Said Thalib and continuing protection of military intelligence leadership linked to it. But it's also made the US an active conspirator in the dubious conviction of seven alleged Papuan separatists in the 2002 ambush killings of two Americans and an Indonesian near the giant Freeport MacMoRan Grasberg mine.
Initial investigations linked the shootings to the Indonesian military following Freeport's termination of so-called "security payments" to commanders amounting to thousands of dollars a month. But the military insisted that Papuan separatists, who'd never attacked foreigners, were behind the ambush. Indonesia indicted alleged separatist commander Antonius Wamang, and the US followed suit. In hiding, Wamang insisted they couldn't get a fair trial in Indonesia.
So America's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) struck a deal with Wamang: surrender to us and you will be tried in the US. The suspects agreed, and the FBI broke its promise, immediately turning the accused over to Indonesian authorities. The suspects got what they feared, convictions in a Jakarta kangaroo court last week. That sort of US double-cross won't win hearts and minds in Indonesia.
One US answer to the criticism is that its engagement with the military is the best way to curb abuses, through the American example of civilian control of the military, and produce enlightened officers like Yudhoyono, a former general. However that view ignores history: three decades of engagement under Suharto produced a catalogue of abuses overseen by hundreds of US-trained, stubbornly unenlightened officers.
The other answer is that US support for the military is a key plank in the global "war on terrorism". That position, too, is steeped in fantasy. First, Indonesia's police, the armed forces' rival, bear the brunt of fighting terrorism. More important, the military, eager to derail reform through destabilization, is at the root of most extremist violence. The military transported and armed Muslim jihadis to expand sectarian clashes in Ambon and Poso. Those conflicts became proving grounds for Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists who carried out the Bali, Marriott Jakarta and Australian Embassy bombings.
Myth number 4: Bush's visit will benefit US-Indonesia relations
Indonesian disdain for Bush is so widespread that not only will he dare not to appear in public, but his visit has already prompted protests throughout the country and apparently even a bomb attack on a Jakarta branch of US fast food chain A&W last Saturday.
Bush's unpopularity has provoked unprecedented security measures. More than a week before his helicopter lands, security forces claimed to have undercover teams in place to protect the area. The meeting will take place at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, beyond the throngs of Jakarta. Schools and business in Bogor will be closed, roads around the palace will be blockaded, and cell phone signals – which can be used to trigger bombs – will be jammed.
These steps may protect Bush during his few hours in Bogor but in the long run they'll alienate Indonesians as signs of US arrogance and reminders of how much of Indonesia's terrorist problem can be laid at Washington's doorstep.
When Bush stopped over in Bali in 2003, it could be argued that then-president Megawati Sukarnoputri gained stature from being photographed beside the US president. In 2006, distrust of Bush's America is so great that the summit will act to diminish the domestic standing of Yudhoyono, one of America's few friends in Indonesia. If the two leaders believe otherwise they're just fooling themselves, which is nothing new to the bilateral relationship.
[Gary LaMoshi has worked as a broadcast producer and print writer and editor in the US and Asia. Longtime editor of investor rights advocate eRaider.com, he's also a contributor to Slate and Salon.com, and a counselor for Writing Camp (www.writingcamp.net).]
Asia Wall Street Journal - November 20, 2006
Charmain Mohamed – Despite all its recent progress, Indonesia remains far from a fully functioning democracy. Religious intolerance is on the rise. Military reform is stalled. The normal checks and balances that form part of any democratic society remain far from taking root. Thus when US President George W. Bush visits Indonesia today, human rights needs to be high on his agenda.
That's not to deny the impressive progress already made in some areas. Topping the list are the credible multiparty elections of 2004 for the presidency and legislature – unthinkable during former President Suharto's three decades in power.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration has also started tackling corruption and overseen an impressive ceasefire and peace plan in Aceh.
But, in too many other areas, impressive rhetoric about the need for reform has not been matched by the reality on the ground. And Washington has lost much of its leverage to press for change: Citing shared national-security interests, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last year lifted congressional restrictions on American military assistance to Indonesia. Those restrictions were meant to encourage Jakarta to bring to justice military officers implicated in human-rights abuses and to increase civilian control over the armed forces.
But even after the 1999 massacre of more than 1,400 East Timorese by the Indonesian army and their local paramilitaries, not a single officer has been convicted of complicity. Many in Indonesia see this as a crucial test of whether President Yudhoyono's government is willing to rein in a military that has traditionally been allowed to operate above the law.
When it comes to civilian control over the armed forces, the situation is equally dire. A recent Human Rights Watch report found that the Indonesian military continues to raise money outside the government budget through corruption and a sprawling network of legal and illegal businesses. This self-financing undermines civilian control, contributes to abuse of power by the armed forces and impedes reform. Authorities have made little progress in implementing a 2004 law that attempts to address these problems.
It's a similar story when it comes to other human-rights issues as well. In February, Indonesia acceded to the two main international human-rights treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. But current revisions to Indonesia's Criminal Code continue to criminalize defamation and free speech, with the key offending articles remaining in the new draft.
There's also been an alarming increase in religious intolerance, with a spate of attacks on Ahmadiyya mosques and Christian churches across Java and North Sumatra in the last year. Few have been prosecuted for these crimes. Instead, dozens of new Shariah-inspired local laws, mostly in Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi, have been enacted. Women are bearing the brunt of this rise in Islamic radicalism in some areas.
But perhaps the most significant indication of how far Indonesia still has to go on the human-rights front is the unresolved 2004 murder of the country's foremost human-rights defender, Munir Said Thalib. Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, a Garuda Airlines pilot linked to high-ranking intelligence officials, was convicted in 2005 of premeditated murder. However, the Supreme Court threw out the verdict in October 2006, and no one else has since been held accountable.
All of these are issues that President Bush could usefully raise when he sits down with President Yudhoyono today at the palace in Bogor, just outside Jakarta. There may be sound strategic reasons for an alliance with Indonesia, but they should not stand in the way of pressing these human-rights concerns.
[Ms. Mohamed is a researcher on Indonesia for Human Rights Watch.]