Purwokerto, Central Java – The prolonged economic crisis has brought about an increase in the number of divorces, Muhammad Farid, an official at Purwokerto's religious court said Monday.

"In 2009, the court recorded a 70 percent increase (on average) in the number of divorce cases every month," Farid told The Jakarta Post.

He said the court heard at least 250 divorce cases every month this year while only processing 150 similar cases monthly last year.

He revealed most of the divorce cases were filled by wives. "The major reason is economic, such as husbands losing their jobs."

Indonesia's poor welcome Burmese sea refugees

New York Times - April 18, 2009

Idi Rayeuk, Indonesia – The only solace for the almost 200 men living in a squalid refugee camp here is the freedom they now have to pray.

"In Myanmar, if we pray, we are killed," said Alam Shah, 38, a member of the Rohingya Muslim minority, who fled the predominantly Buddhist Myanmar last year. "I'm scared they will send us back there. It is a very, very dangerous country."

The Rohingya here were found floating at sea on Feb. 2, after having spent three weeks aboard a wooden boat with no motor, no food and no water. When they were found by an Indonesian fisherman off the coast of Aceh, Indonesia's northernmost province, many were close to death.

A few months before, another boat with about 200 Rohingya refugees landed in Sabang, on the northern tip of Aceh, where they are now being held at a naval station. Several more boats were found by the Indian coast guard carrying almost 400 Rohingya.

Research by nongovernmental organizations suggests that all the refugees had passed through detention camps on islands just off the coast of Thailand. According to interviews with the refugees, the Thai military towed and abandoned at least six boats at sea between November and January, when the international news media picked up the story and the so-called push-backs were halted.

The expulsions reversed a policy in which Thailand had allowed thousands of Rohingya to land in recent years, mostly on their way to Malaysia. The Thai military had denied accusations of pushing the refugees out to sea, but Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand said in February that some boats had been towed out to sea and that he intended to investigate.

About 1,200 men are known to have been pushed out to sea, more than 300 of whom drowned, according to the Arakan Project, a nongovernmental human rights group. There are fears, however, that many more Rohingya from Bangladesh and Myanmar, formerly Burma, are still missing.

"It is difficult to say what the exact numbers are," said Chris Lewa, an expert on Rohingya issues who runs the Arakan Project. "But based on the interviews we have done with refugees that have ended up in India and Indonesia, we think there were many more push-backs than have been confirmed."

"What does seem clear," Ms Lewa said, "what is consistent among all the interviews we have done with the refugees, is that they were detained on islands off the coast of Thailand before being towed out to sea and set adrift by the Thai military."

Last week, after months of delays, the United Nations began the process of "status determination" for the 391 men being held in Idi Rayeuk and Sabang. The process, a series of interviews with refugees, will determine if they are in need of protection and can stay in Indonesia, or if they are economic migrants who should be returned to Myanmar.

At the same time, on the resort island of Bali, leaders from around Southeast Asia, including from Myanmar, are beginning discussions about regional migrants, including the Rohingya.

Indonesia, which regional analysts have praised for its leadership in matters like human rights, disaster reconstruction and other issues involving Myanmar, fears a flood of thousands of Rohingya to its shores if the men in Aceh are allowed to stay.

"Indonesia is trying to play a leadership role in this situation," said Lilianne Fan, a humanitarian worker who has worked in Aceh and Myanmar and is now advising the Acehnese governor.

"Compared to other regional governments, the Indonesians have responded very well, especially since they have engaged international organizations," she said.

The United Nations estimates that about 723,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar, where the military government considers them foreigners and denies them citizenship, passports or the right to own land. There are also hundreds of thousands of Rohingya living in Bangladesh.

The Rohingya in Myanmar live mostly in the northern state of Rahkine and in the past fled through Bangladesh and into the Middle East. But new travel restrictions imposed by Bangladesh's government have forced the Rohingya to find alternative destinations like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The process of status determination and the negotiations that will need to take place between Myanmar and Indonesia could take many months. Meanwhile, the few aid organizations in Idi Rayeuk are concerned that the camp is not equipped to house refugees for long.

The men were greeted generously by the local Acehnese, many of whom live in abject poverty themselves but can relate to the Rohingya's situation. Many Acehnese here have family members who were forced to flee a separatist conflict that raged in Aceh for 30 years until a peace agreement was reached in 2005. Idi Rayeuk, in fact, was once a central launching point for Acehnese trying to flee the country.

"The support has been unreal and an inspiration for the rest of the world," said Sara Henderson, president of the Building Bridges to the Future Foundation. "They are still giving free fish to the camp when they have barely enough to eat themselves."

But the generosity of the Acehnese and the local government is nowhere near enough, Ms. Henderson said. The men still live in tents on wet, muddy ground. Sanitation, food and water remain basic, and security is almost nonexistent. Seven men fled the camp last Monday morning, apparently afraid they were about to be deported, but they were all later caught.

Several of the refugees are also suffering from serious health problems, like tuberculosis, but the camp lacks qualified doctors and money for health care.

The Building Bridges to the Future Foundation, which was founded in response to the December 2004 tsunami in Aceh, has been pressing for donations to help coordinate the camp and provide necessary logistical support. The local government has offered to provide a larger plot of land if money can be raised for necessities like temporary barracks, sanitation and food.

"The local community and the government do not have the funds to support a refugee camp of 198 men," Ms. Henderson said. "They barely, and rarely, have the funds to take care of themselves."

Government told to renegotiate German loans for warships

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2009

Novan Iman Santosa, Jakarta – The government should declare void a German government loan to procure 39 used warships, as it constitutes an odious debt, a workshop held at the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (Infid) concluded Wednesday.

Infid executive director Donatus K. Marut told The Jakarta Post, on the sidelines of the workshop, that the loan did not fulfill its contractual requirements.

"There is a German law prohibiting the sales of arms intended for use in a conflict. Indonesia, at the time of the sale, was experiencing internal conflicts in Aceh, East Timor and Papua."

Donatus also said the loan contract clearly stated the warships should not be used in any military operations but only to protect coastal and commercial shipping lanes as well as to combat smuggling. He added the loan was unfair to the Indonesian people.

"The Indonesian government should open a negotiation with the German to scrap this odious debt. The government should take the initiative to negotiate the matter."

Several German civic groups, such as the Westphalian Church and Erlassjahr, also opposed the debt and have called for its annulment.

Odious debt can be defined as a debt that does not best serve a borrowing nation and its people but instead is used for military aggression or internal oppression.

According to a 2007 Infid study, Indonesia acquired the warships from the former East Germany fleet in 1993 for US$442.8 million.

The sale, strongly supported by then state minister for research and technology B.J. Habibie, was supported by a $200 million loan from the German government's credit agency Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW) and brokered by a German firm, Ferrostaal.

In addition, the deal was insured for a total of US$466 million by Hermes AG, the German export credit agency.

The study's researcher, George Junus Aditjondro, described the 39 warships as useless and suggested the funds be used to improve the welfare of poor fishermen.

Meanwhile, defense expert from the University of Indonesia, Andi Widjajanto, said the procurement of the 39 warships was actually relatively inexpensive.

"But the costs to repair, modify and maintain the warships to be seaworthy were very expensive," he told the Post.

"It is better to dump all aging warships and buy new ones, instead of trying to maintain old machines. The question is, are we willing to have such a huge gap in our weaponry system."

Aceh

Former rebel party looks likely to dominate Aceh parliament

Kyodo News - April 20, 2009

Jakarta – The Aceh Party, a local party representing former Aceh rebels, is projected to win control of the parliament in Indonesia's northernmost province Aceh, a local poll monitor said Monday

The party is expected to get 43.8 percent of the votes, followed by the national-based Democrat Party with 14.3 percent; Golkar with 6.6 percent; Prosperous Justice Party with 3.8 percent; National Mandate Party with 3.4 percent; and United Development Party with 3 percent, said Elly Sufriadi, executive director of Community for Aceh Resources Development.

But five local parties will not get any of the 60-seats in the Aceh provincial parliament as they did not gain enough votes to meet the requirement of 5 percent of total votes, Sufriadi said.

Voter sampling was done with cooperation from the US-based National Democratic Institute and was conducted during the April 9 parliamentary elections at 576 polling stations throughout Aceh's 23 regencies and municipalities. The margin of error was about 1.9 percent.

"Voters tend to choose parties that could show a strong commitment to maintaining peace in Aceh. They even put peace as the number-one priority over other important issues, including the economy," Sufriadi said.

"The new (provincial) parliament is expected to work with the executives, also chosen by popular vote, to create a brand new Aceh in the future," he added.

Aceh, which is rich in natural resources, suffered from almost three decades of separatist conflict between the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian Armed Forces.

But a tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004 that killed or left missing 170,000 people in the province forced the sides to finally reach a peace agreement in 2005.

The agreement gives Aceh a special deal, including allowing local political parties to contest elections in Aceh. Only nationally active parties are allowed in the other provinces. In 2006, Aceh Party candidate Irwandi Yusuf won the provincial governorship.

Official election results for Aceh and the rest of Indonesia are to be announced May 9.

Aceh Party's victory offers hope, concern

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2009

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Former separatist combatants have managed to transform the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) into a major local political force after last week's legislative elections.

Early official results of election vote counts show that the Aceh Party (PA), established by former rebels, secured a majority of votes in the country's westernmost province.

As of Friday afternoon, the vote tabulation center of Aceh's Independent Election Commission (KIP) recorded that the party has secured 37.68 percent of votes for the party, enough to allow it to dominate the Aceh legislative council. The PA's win in Aceh had been forecast much earlier.

During the campaign period, the party's red flags and other symbols were highly visible across the province, even in remote villages. The party was the only contestant that staged campaign rallies in all of Aceh's regencies.

Humam Hamid, a sociologist from the Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh, said the PA's victory had nothing to do with primordialism. "Other local parties only secured a small amount of votes. They were even beaten by national parties like the Democratic Party and the Golkar Party."

Aceh is the only province allowed under election law to have local parties contest for legislative seats in the province. There are five other local parties in Aceh aside from the PA the People's Aceh Party (PRA), the Acehnese People's Independent Aspiration Party (SIRA), the United Aceh Party, the Aceh Sovereignty Party (PDA) and the Safe and Prosperous Aceh Party (PAAS).

Humam said that the PA's victory was the logical consequence of GAM's three-decade fight against oppressions in Aceh, and added that it was backed by loyal and well-organized supporters.

"I simply followed the trend. In the past we had voted for national parties for years, but nothing changing here. This time I vote for the PA and I will see how they are going to manage our trust," Mahdi, a resident of Seuneubok Punti village in East Aceh, told The Jakarta Post.

Another villager, who wished to remain anonymous, said he voted for the PA because he was afraid that peace would be ruined if the party lost the election. "It's like having a naughty son. I simply give him what he wants and expect that he will not be naughty anymore."

Some Acehnese, especially those who were not affected by the brutal military operations, have expressed concerns that the PA's victory could allow it to use an "intimidation approach" to serve its political interests.

Party Spokesman Adnan Beuransyah rejected this concern. "Our internal evaluation found that former combatants can mingle very well with other community members," he said. About 30 percent of the party's legislative candidates are former combatants.

Humam said there should not be suspicion of the PA. "We should give them the opportunity to prove themselves to Acehnese people."

Acehnese political observer Saifudin Bantasyam warned of high political tensions between the PA and the central government if the latter breaks its promise to implement all points in the Helsinki peace agreement, which gives full authority to the Aceh administration to manage its natural resources.

Four years after the tsunami, BRR's task is done. Well, almost.

Jakarta Globe - April 16, 2009

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – A number of homes still remain unfinished, but at 10 a.m. on Thursday, the nameplate of the Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency, or BRR, was taken down from its office in Lueng Bata, as scheduled.

The agency closed down after four years of overseeing the massive task of rebuilding the earthquake and tsunami-ravaged Aceh Province and Nias Island.

BRR's chairman, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, said during the agency's final press conference here that through cooperation with regional governments, donor countries, UN agencies and NGOs, and a Rp 35 trillion ($3.25 billion) budget, they had managed to rebuild Aceh and Nias as planned.

"The target was achieved. All numbers in the blueprint were achieved," he said. "In the first blueprint, we were supposed to build 90,000 houses. But as of today, 140,304 housing units have already been constructed."

Kuntoro said, however, that a few more houses were being constructed by various organizations. Some 400 families, victims of the tsunami, are still living in temporary shelters.

"Those still living in barracks already know when and where their houses will be completed, so they have no worries at all," he said, explaining that the remaining unfinished houses were due to unscrupulous contractors who had run away with the construction funds.

Kuntoro said that having overseen about 15,000 projects, it was not unexpected for BRR to leave a few remaining loose ends, especially given the scale of destruction caused by the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami, which killed more than 170,000 people in the province and destroyed infrastructure along 800 kilometers of coastline.

But he added that some BRR personnel would remain in Aceh until the end of the year to oversee the completion of these projects.

During its four-year mandate, BRR also built 13 airports and airstrips, 23 seaports, 1,115 medical facilities, 1,759 schools, 3,696 kilometers of road, 363 bridges and 996 government buildings. It also assisted 195,726 small- and medium-sized enterprises, trained 155,182 workers and 39,663 teachers, and rehabilitated 101,240 hectares of farmland.

"Hopefully, BRR will be recorded as a good part of history," Kuntoro said.

West Papua

Ghost of terror grips Papua

Tempo Magazine - April 21-27, 2009

In the lead-up to the elections, Papua was hit by terror. The OPM was accused of involvement, but its leaders behind bars deny it.

A fleeting shadow made its way through the heavy rain in Jayapura City on Monday night last week. The machete in the hand of the figure with unkempt hair sliced through the falling rain, puncturing the right armpit of Alexander Pong alias Ongko, 64. The resident of Jl. Cenderawasih who was cleaning the drain in front of the house collapsed in a pool of blood. A moment later, the machete still dripping with blood was thrust into the back of Ngatiman, 36, a resident of Jl. Kasuari. Several hours earlier, 29-year-old Maria Waren was stabbed by a man whose entire body was smeared with mud. The resident of Jl. Proyek Karsatama, Perumnas II Waena, fell flat on her face. Sustaining grave injuries, the victims were rushed to Dian Harapan Hospital.

By night the terror tightened its grip on the housing complexes of Heram district, Padang Bulan and Abepura. Residents were evacuated, the lights in the houses were turned off, while others stood guard on the streets. The residential areas stand adjacent to the Cenderawasih University rectorate building that was set on fire on voting day. The following day, three residents of Skow, Muara Tami district, who were riding a motorbike, were caught in a volley of gunfire. The rounds damaged the motorbike but the riders, 35-year-old Alimuddin and his wife and child, were unhurt.

When police attempted to pursue the perpetrator who seemed to move like a ghost, the terror attacks turned on the police. Papua Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers were fired on in the village of Lumbuk in Tingginambut district, Puncak Jaya. Second Brigadier Musa Aninam was struck down dead by a bullet and six of his colleagues wounded. "They had wanted to pick up a colleague who was sick," said Puncak Jaya District Police Chief, Deputy Sr. Comr. Chris Rihulay.

One after another, the terror spread in the leadup to the legislative elections on April 9. The day before the elections, a bomb exploded on the Muara Tami Bridge. That night, three ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers in Wamena were stabbed to death and two of their colleagues seriously wounded. The perpetrator left behind a piece of paper with the message reading "From the West Papua Liberation Military Commander".

On voting day itself the Abepura Police Station was attacked. Four of the perpetratorsYance Yogobi, Andi Gobay, Dino Agobi and Erik Logowere arrested after being shot. A machete and homemade bomb were confiscated. One of the perpetrators who managed to get away is known to be Nahason Mabel, a private tertiary education institution student in Jayapura.

Up until three days after the election, the bombings and killings were still spreading. Three homemade bombs were discovered near the Abepura Police station. Nearby a sheath of a knife made from wood with the picture of the Morning Star flag was left lying on the ground. On that day also, 31-year-old Supandi Juhari, an ojek driver in Wamena, was stabbed to death on Jl. Sanger. "Possibly the perpetrators were members of the Free Papua OrganizationNational Liberation Army (TPN-OPM)," said Jayawijaya District Police Chief, Deputy Sr. Comr. Mulia Hasudungan Ritonga.

That night, the Pertamina oil company's depot in Bo village, Biak, was set on fire. Sarini, a 4-year-old child died in the blaze when scores of houses were burnt to the ground. Around midnight, an armed contact between the Indonesian Military (TNI) and 'ghost militia' took place at the Wutung Police post near the Indonesia- Papua New Guinea boarder.

The elections, a special day held amidst the riots, were also seriously affected. According to the head of the Jayapura City Elections Supervisory Committee, Moses Youmungga, reports of election violations after polling day increased from 20 to 30 cases; Most occurred in Abepura.

The violations occurred as a result of panic. After voting had finished, precisely at 12 noon, all of the polling stations rushed to count the votes, which were then secured at the respective district offices. Aside from many witnesses failing to attend – which meant there was no independent verification of the data – no official reports were made out. "It was a state of force majeure, panic as a consequence of the rioting," said Moses.

Strangely, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal & Security Affairs, Widodo A.S., has asserted that there was no link between the acts of terror and efforts to thwart the elections in Papua. "There's no connection," he said. Romulo Simbolon, Widodo's secretary, added that separatist issues have long existed in Papua. "We don't yet know who the perpetrators are, whether it was the OPM or not." According to Romulo, there were no actors from Jakarta involved in the Papua riots. There was also no connection with the earlier golput (non-voter group) student demonstrations in Papua. "The riots were because of the idea of separatism," said Romulo.

On Wednesday last week, the Papuan regional government, the Trikora XVII Regional Military Command and the Papua Regional Police gathered to discuss the issue. The result was that the police were still unable to reveal the perpetrators behind the riots and the acts of terror. "We will be calling on public figures throughout Papua to contain the panic," said Papua Police Chief, Insp. Gen. Bagus Ekodanto.

A number of parties are suspected of being behind the terror and rioting. One is a group acting in the name of Mathias Wenda, which distributed a leaflet containing a threat to prevent the elections from going ahead. "They had already carried out an attack against members, right... I mean ojek drivers," said Bagus.

Koteka Lani however, who claims to be the spokesperson for the commander of the TPN-OPM group led by Goliath Tabuni from Wamena, has stated that the attacks, the shooting of ojek drivers and Brimob officers, as well as the other acts of terror, were carried out by his group. "The one running the OPM leadership is General Goliath Tabuni," said Lani. "These were TPN-OPM attacks against Brimob, TNI, Polri (National Police)." He also claimed that the six Brimob officers who were shot in Tingginambut died on the spot rather than just being wounded as reported by police. "The six Brimob officers died instantly."

But is it true that the perpetrators were OPM? OPM Tapol Napol (OPM Political-Convicted Prisoners) Secretary Filep Karma, in a letter sent to Tempo from Abepura Prison, said he does not believe it. According to Filep, since the 1980s the OPM has abandoned violent means to achieve its political goals. "OPM figures are now in their 70s and are complying with a leadership instruction to struggle through diplomacy and dialog," wrote Filep. He says there is a group claiming to be the OPM that is spreading terror and carrying out the attacks. Their goal, "So that there will be security projects in Papua with huge budgets."

The Papua People's Council (MRP) also doubts the involvement of OPM militia members. "The OPM only attacks the headquarters of security personnel," said MRP Chairman Agus Alue Alua. "It has never murdered civilians or damaged public facilities."

The police are indeed continuing to increase troop numbers. On polling day, 105 Brimob officers from the Southeast Sulawesi Regional Police were deployed in Papua. On Wednesday last week, National Police Headquarters sent 80 Brimob personnel from Kelapa Dua in Jakarta to Papua. "Their arrival coincided with the shooting in Tingginambut," said Bagus Ekodanto.

Papua Deputy Governor Alex Hesegem views the perpetrators of the riots as being highly organized. "We invite the Papua Traditional Council and the Papua Presidium Council to give it consideration," he said. The tight organization of the network of rioters has been confirmed by Cenderawasih XVII Regional Military Commander Maj. Gen. A.Y. Nasution. In order to assist police, the TNI has deployed thousands of personnel throughout the territory. "This is not a state of emergency, but of civil order," he said. "The police are still in the front line." The high level of security however, does not appear to have prevented further acts of terror. On the day of the arrival of the Brimob officers from Kelapa Dua, the Asologaima I State Junior High School was burnt to the ground. Yet the school had no electricity, stove or fireplace.

Dwidjo U. Maksum, Amandra M. Megarani (Jakarta), Cunding Levi, Tjahjono Ep (Jayapura)

Seven held over attack on police in Abepura

Jakarta Globe - April 20, 2009

Christian Motte – Police in Papua Province have arrested seven people in connection with the attack on the Abepura Police station in the provincial capital of Jayapura on the eve of the April 9 legislative elections.

During the operation on Saturday, police said they confiscated evidence including a video camera, police radio and two cellphones emblazoned with the Morning Star flag, which is an outlawed separatist symbol.

The suspects, John Hisage, Kanitius Hisage, Epekus Pawika, Jefri Haluk, Amitu Yomat, Tina Dami and Deli Wenda, were all arrested at a house belonging to Mas Murib, a suspected separatist group member. One of the suspects, John Hisage, was shot and wounded during the police operation.

Maj. Gen. AY Nasution, head of the Papua military command, said that the unrest in the region had been caused by members of the separatist Free Papua Movement, or OPM.

There were a number of pro-independence demonstrations in the lead-up to the April polls in the province, which were marred by incidents of arson, assault and murder targeting migrants, police and native Papuans.

The most recent incident was an attack by armed men on seven Mobile Brigade police personnel on Wednesday. One police officer, Brig. Musa Aninam, was killed.

OPM has denied allegations it masterminded the election chaos, saying that the police should not detain people without due process.

Papua Deputy Governor Alex Hasegem said that despite reports to the contrary, Papua was secure and the recent events were only minor, and could be handled by local police.

"This is only an overblown rumor, as Papua's current condition is very secure and under control," he said.

Australia again asked to intervene in West Papua

Southeast Asian Times - April 18, 2009

Sydney – The Australia West Papua Association, Sydney, has asked Australia's Foreign minister Stephen Smith to raise what it says is the continuing deteriorating situation in West Papua with the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The association wanted the foreign minister to urge the president to control the security forces in West Papua as a way of avoiding further escalation of the situation and avoiding possible bloodshed, its secretary Joe Collins said yesterday.

The latest incidents in West Papua included the killing of a policeman and the wounding of six others in an ambush last Wednesday, he said. It followed a series of attacks in the region.

The unidentified assailants had struck in Tingginambut, the Puncak Jaya district, West Papua and "may have been instigated by third parties out to distrupt the Presidential election as the Indonesian President's talk of reform is not welcome by all members of the security forces," the secretary said.

The association warned of the deterioration in West Papua in a letter written to the foreign minister earlier this month.

Click here for the statement and letter to Australia's foreign minister Stephen Smith.

Police seek people behind Papua poll violence

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2009

Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – The National Police is intensifying the search for those responsible for a string of violent events that rocked Papua around election day.

The police has named five suspects who were allegedly involved in the arson attack on the rector's building at the Cenderawasih University last Thursday, one of them identified by his initials as SW.

"We have learned that SW (is among those) who set fire to the Cenderawasih University. We've also known who ordered him," National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said Friday at the State Palace.

"We're chasing both SW and the man behind all of this." he said. He refused to disclose the alleged mastermind's identity for fear it would disrupt the manhunt.

He brushed aside the role of any foreign party, on lack of evidence. But he insisted the series of violent events were aimed at disrupting the elections, particularly in Papua.

The police sent a special team on Thursday night to Tingginambut district in the Papua regency of Puncak Jaya to help local police investigate a shooting incident that left a Mobile Brigade police officer dead and six others injured, Wednesday.

The ambush of police capped a week of violence in Papua province, starting April 8, when a home-made bomb exploded under the Muara Tami bridge on the border between Papua and Papua New Guinea.

On Wednesday evening, unidentified assailants stabbed five motorcycle taxi drivers in Wamena district in Jayawijaya regency, leaving four dead and one in critical condition.

Hours before the voting last Thursday, a police post at the border between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and the police station in Abepura area in Jayapura came under attack almost simultaneously.

The police shot into the crowd, killing one attacker and injuring eight others in Abepura. Six people have been named as suspects.

At daybreak, the rector's building at Cendrawasih University near Abepura was set ablaze by unknown people, burning documents and damaging one of three floors. Twelve people died in these violent incidents.

To help restore security and order in Papua, the South Sulawesi police sent Friday 105 Mobile Brigade personnel to the province. South Sulawesi police chief Insp. Gen. Mathius Salempang said the troops, led by Ad. Sr. Comr. Amiruddin, comprised bomb and riot specialists.

The order to back up the Papua police came from the National Police Headquarters only on Thursday evening. "We don't know how bad the security condition in Papua is. We only execute the order from Jakarta," Salempang said as he sent off the police elite force personnel. The troops would have left Makassar later in the day on an Air Force transport aircraft.

Meanwhile, Aceh Governor Irwandy Yusuf said local police were investigating vandalism that occurred around election day in the westernmost province.

[Andi Hajramurni contributed to the story from Makassar.]

Papuan church accuses Indonesian military of engineering violence

Radio New Zealand International - April 17, 2009

The Union of Papuan Baptist Churches has added its voice to claims that the Indonesian military is engineering attacks in the province and blaming them on Papuan separatists.

The head of the Union, Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman, says a series of recent violent incidents in Papua were premeditated acts by groups connected with the military, and he's urged Police to arrest the perpetrators.

There have now been 13 reported deaths in attacks across Papua this month, notwithstanding the eleven reported deaths from fighting between Indonesian military and alleged separatists on the PNG border last week.

Reverend Socratez says for many years now, the military has been manipulating such situations in a bid to destabilise the region.

"And always blame, accuse the Papuans or OPM but it's untrue. We know about that. Because they want to get benefit from that, they want to get more money, military equipment. They want to bring more troops to West Papua."

Authorities asked to probe series of attacks in Papua

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2009

Nethy Dharma Somba and Angel Flassy, Jayapura – Churches and civil society groups asked security authorities to carry out a thorough investigation into the series of attacks and burning of vital assets, apparently aimed at creating political chaos during the legislative and presidential elections.

The Communion of Papuan Baptist Churches asked security authorities to arrest not only those involved in the series of violent attacks and burning of vital assets, but also the masterminds behind the incidents.

"The incidents have threatened peace and unity among numerous ethnic groups in the province. The incidents seem to be systematic, not only threatening the province's integration with other provinces, but also aiming to turn the province into a new killing field," Chairman of the Communion of Papuan Baptist Churches Socratez Sofyan Yoman said Thursday.

He explained the events in Biak, Nabire and Wamena could not be separated from the series of security disturbances and burning of buildings in the provincial capital. All the incidents were planned systematically, he said, "and we are suspicious of a certain group who has chosen the general elections as the moment to turn the province into a sea of blood."

Three buildings were burned down in the last week: a junior high school building in Wamena on Thursday, a Cenderawasih University hall on voting day and a provincial General Elections Commission (KPUD) building in the city earlier this week.

The series of incidents, which was preceded by a pro-independence student demonstration in Nabire during the political campaign season, began with the burning of state-owned Pertamina's fuel depot in Biak a day before balloting day.

On voting day, a group of unidentified armed men launched an attack on Abepura Police station, leaving the city in a high state of alert, especially after rumors spread another series of attacks was being launched on vital assets in the city.

Jayapura Archbishop Mgr. Leo Laba Ladjar OFM Cap lamented the series of attacks on educational centers, saying those would disturb the emergence of future leaders in the province.

"The Catholic Church regrets the burning of the Cenderawasih University building and that of many schools," he said, adding violence was not a solution to any of the province's problems.

He said church leaders would hold a meeting with security authorities to discuss the tense situation in the province. "The series of incidents have created public unrest and threatened the long-standing peace on Papua land," he said.

Rev. Neles Tebay, rector of the Fajar Timur Higher Institute of Philosophy and Theology in Abepura, Irian Jaya, warned against a certain group trying to foment social conflict between indigenous people and migrants.

He added the attacks were not linked with the secessionist movement because most people were enthusiastic about voting for the legislative elections, and many unregistered voters had demanded a rerun of the legislative elections to be able to vote.

Human rights/law

House doubts it can pass crucial bills by deadline

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2009

Jakarta – Personal problems, laziness and the obligation to help their party achieve its goals have burdened legislators, raising doubts as to whether they can ratify dozens of crucial bills by September.

House of Representatives Speaker Agung Laksono recently announced that legislators should keep on working and remain focused on ratifying a group of important bills, regardless of the performance of their party in the general elections.

There are currently 39 priority bills that the current House needs to ratify by the end of its tenure in September.

However, the possibility of achieving the target is hindered by the constant lack of attendance of representatives, according to House Honors Board vice chairman Gayus Lumbuun.

"Most of them were unable to attend the meetings on the bills because of various reasons, such as personal problems or that they have other obligations with their respective political parties, whether it is for campaigning during elections or discussing coalition possibilities," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Gayus, also a parliament member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that it was essential for political parties to encourage their legislators in the House to increase their rate of attendance and participation in the meetings.

"The parties must also replace their caucus members if they are proven to be too lazy about attending the meetings, which are crucial for ratifying the bills," he said.

Agung Laksono told the Post that the House Disciplinary Board would send a warning letter to any legislator who did not attend three consecutive meetings and could even remove their names from the House if their absence continued.

Gayus said that increasing participation would enable the House to reach their target of completing the ratification of the bills.

"If political parties can encourage their caucus members to attend the meetings on the bills more frequently, then we will feel more optimistic about ratifying all of the bills before the end of our tenure," he said.

"However, if the current situation continues, then I cannot imagine what it will be like by the end of our tenure. I do not dare to make any prediction on how many of the priority bills we can make into laws by the end of our tenure," he added.

Gayus said that the PDI-P caucus had just managed to finish categorizing corruption court bills issued so far.

Hari Azhar Azis, a legislator from the Golkar Party, said that it was still difficult to predict how many of the 39 priority bills would be passed into law. "The obstacle to achieving the targets may also come from the government, not only from the House," he said.

In 2005, the House only completed the ratification of 14 bills out of its targeted of 55. In 2006, only 39 out of 43 bills became law. The House managed to reach its targets of ratifying 40 and 64 legislative bills into law in 2007 and 2008 respectively.

However, the majority of the bills ratified by the House in those periods were mainly connected with forming new territorial administrative units and did not touch on critical issues. (hdt)

Indonesia clears Time of defaming Suharto

Associated Press - April 16, 2009

Niniek Karmini, Jakarta – Indonesia's top court cleared Time magazine of defaming ex-dictator Suharto by alleging in a cover story that his family amassed a fortune during his rule. It said Thursday the publication did not have to pay $106 million in damages.

The ruling, which marks the end of the appeals process, was hailed as a victory for press freedom.

"We have been struggling to find justice for a decade now," said Todung Mulya Lubis, the magazine's lawyer, adding he hoped the decision would give journalists the courage to do their jobs. "It has been a long road."

Time ran a cover story in its Asian edition in May 1999 saying Suharto's family had pocketed billions of dollars during his 32- year reign – the bulk of it from oil and mining, forestry, property, banking and petrochemicals – and that they'd stashed much of the money overseas.

Lubis said the article was based on four months' reporting in 11 countries.

Suharto, who died last year at age 87, initially filed lawsuits against the magazine with the Central District Jakarta Court and later the Jakarta High Court, both of which ruled in Time's favor.

But in August 2007, the country's top court overturned the decisions, prompting the magazine to demand a judicial review.

Supreme Court Judge Hatta Ali said Thursday the article "did not violate the law" or breach "the press code of conduct." He said Time owed no money to the Suharto family.

"We are delighted with today's decision by the Supreme Court of Indonesia," said Michael Elliott, editor of Time International. "We would like to thank all of those in Indonesia and around the world who lent their support and voice to Time's case over the years."

Indonesia and its judiciary are considered to be among the world's most corrupt.

But the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is widely expected to win another five-year term this July, is credited with overseeing the trials and convictions of high- profile government officials charged with graft.

Suharto seized power in a 1965 coup that left up to half a million people dead. He ruled with an iron fist, killing or imprisoning hundreds of thousands of political opponents before he was ousted in a wave of street protests a decade ago.

He evaded prosecution on charges of embezzling state funds, with lawyers successfully arguing he was too ill to stand trial. And he was never tried for human rights abuses.

The Time article, titled "The Family Firm," alleged Suharto and his children amassed $73 billion, but much of it was lost in the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

The magazine – owned by Time Inc., a publishing division of media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. – alleged the family transferred some money from Switzerland to Austria and still had at least $15 billion in 1999.

"I'm very glad," Atmakusuma Astraatmaja, a senior journalist and former head of Indonesia's Press Council, said of the court ruling. "This is a victory not just for Time but for press freedom in Indonesia."

Labour/migrant workers

Employers again seek revision of 2003 worker law

Jakarta Globe - April 21, 2009

Janeman Latul & Anita Rachman – Newly installed business representatives in the National Tripartite Agency for Industrial Relations said on Tuesday that during the ongoing two-day meeting of the body they would ask that the current worker relations law be revised, arguing that it was detrimental to local businesses.

"We will ask again that it be reviewed and revised," said Djimanto, secretary general for the Indonesian Employers Associations, or Apindo, in an interview on Tuesday. "All the clauses involved with strikes and contract terminations, including compensation, put a huge burden on our hands, especially during the current economic crisis."

The law, which the Indonesian government regards as a balance between worker and business interests, was passed in 2003. However, employer associations have been protesting it ever since. In 2007, Apindo asked that the law be revised, but the government declined to do so.

"Worker contract termination is not only about severance, working year rewards, etc.," Djimanto said. "It's counterproductive to our businesses because the more permanent staff we have, the more burden it is. I think we would have no problem if a worker has a salary of about Rp 2.5 million [$233] per month, but what if they get Rp 25 million? It's killing us."

Hariyadi B Sukamdani, also from Apindo, said the law was discouraging businesses from hiring permanent staff, and that the business community was turning to outsourcing schemes instead.

He said the law required companies to sequester 32 percent of workers' salaries, including 11 percent for provincial minimum salary, 18 percent for the social security funds or Jamsostek and 13 percent to cover contract terminations as stipulated in the law.

Worker union representatives immediately protested any revision, charging that the business community was merely seeking more profit by sacrificing worker well-being despite the fact that Indonesian salaries were among the lowest in Southeast Asia.

"Apindo says the law is not investment-friendly but it is obvious that they should have to pay for social security and the minimum salary," said Said Iqbal, chairman of the Indonesian steel workers unions and a member of the tripartite forum. "They're just trying to find a way to profit by cutting their expenses. That's why they turn to outsourcing."

Both Hariyadi and Djimanto said they did not like outsourcing work, but that it was their only option. "It is hard to develop a working culture among outsourced workers because they keep changing, but it is a dilemma we face because of the law," Djimanto said.

The agency is comprised of business owners, labor unions and government representatives and seeks to improve communications among the three parties.

Tanners fire 1,200 workers on falling demand

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2009

Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – The global economic downturn has affected more than 1,200 workers in the large-scale and home- based leather industry since late 2008.

Indonesian Tanners Association (APKI) chairman Senjaya Herina said Thursday that three large-scale firms and 60 small-scale home-based leather enterprises had fallen bankrupt or terminated operations due to slumping demand, both for domestic and global markets.

He said that production levels of tanners had evidently declined since early in the first quarter of this year.

"In general, each company has suffered a decline in business orders of up to 40 percent in the first quarter this year, compared to the same quarter last year," he said.

However, he could not detail the value of orders for both periods. Tanned leather is used as a raw material in the production of footwear, garments and leather bags.

Indonesian Footwear Association (Aprisindo) data shows that footwear exports declined by 3 percent to US$158.3 million in January this year, compared to $163.2 million booked in the same month last year.

With a downturn in demand, Senjaya said, large-scale and small- scale tanners had been forced to promptly lay off workers.

"There are at least 300 [laid-off]workers from the three [large] firms and another 900 workers from 60 home-scale enterprises," he said, adding that the big companies are in Jakarta and Banten.

One of the big companies produced 80,000 square feet of tanned leather every month, (7,430 square meters) while the other two firms each produced 25,000 square feet, he added.

He said the 60 home based small enterprises affected were based in Garut, West Java, in Yogyakarta and in Magetan, East Java. According to APKI data, there are 70 middle-sized and large-scale tanners in the country and 400 small-scale home-based ones, with a total production of 150 million square feet of tanned buffalo, sheep and goat leathers per annum.

Every year, local tanners export 25 percent of total annual production although they cannot meet the annual demand in the domestic market, which totals almost 250 million square feet.

Tanners, he said, were also lobbying the government to open up the market to wider sources of raw and treated leather from Myanmar, Brunei Darussalam and countries in Africa, so as to boost production to meet local demand.

Senjaya said that, as the government had issued policies supporting the consumption of local products, he expected sales (of hides) would reach "at least Rp 1.8 trillion ($167.44 million) by the end of this year - the same as that of last year."

APKI secretary-general Agit Punto Yuwono previously said slaughter houses in the country had an annual production capacity of 20 million goat and sheep hides, but was only able to produce 5 million.

He said the government had limited the number of countries supplying raw and treated leathers because of foot and mouth disease.

Environment/natural disasters

Protected forests facing underground mining threat

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2009

Alfian, Jakarta – The government is soon to issue a presidential regulation allowing mining companies to mine underground in protected forest areas, despite a recent report by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) highlighting poor management of mining operations by some mining companies.

Bambang Setiawan, director general for coal, minerals and geothermal at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said Monday evening that the presidential regulation was important as it would bring new legal certainties to underground mining operations.

"This regulation will not violate the existing law (the Forestry Law), which only forbids open-pit mining in forests, not underground mining," Bambang said.

Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Purnomo Yusgiantoro said that underground mining might be very costly, but would be worth the investment. "No problems with the higher cost as long as it provides higher profits," Purnomo said.

He added several protected forest areas were predicted to contain high reserves of coal and minerals. "Take the example of forests in Kalimantan, (where) the areas are estimated to contain huge reserves of coal."

Purnomo and Bambang did not specify when the regulation would be issued, saying only that this was under the president's authority.

Separately BPK lambasted the management of some mining operations in its audit report on coal mining management during the 2006- 2007 fiscal years.

It found as many as 212 cases of irregularities in coal mining management with potential state losses reaching Rp 2.69 trillion, along with another US$778.8 million, in total.

Losses reflected halts in reclamation collateral payments by 60 mining contract (KP) holders in Kutai, East Kalimantan; 30 KP holders in Tanah Laut, South Kalimantan; and Coal Contracts of Work (PKP2B) holders PT KJA and PT MSJ.

The total amount of the halted payments reached $3.18 million and Rp 127.25 billion in total, with BPK claiming this would burden state budgets if the contractors failed to fulfill their reclamation obligations. The audit found that 61 KP holders and 5 PKP2B contract holders did not properly manage the top soil and overburden in open cast mining areas, which could cause landslides, or erosion and reduce soil fertility.

BPK said all these irregularities were caused by a combination of policy weaknesses along with non-compliance by mining companies.

In response, Bambang said that most of the irregularities were found in KPs that were issued by regional governments. "We are conducting an internal evaluation on the BPK's findings," he said.

Orangutans need more protection: NGOs say

Jakarta Globe - April 17, 2009

Fidelis E. Satriastanti – Though the law stipulates that possessing an endangered animal is a serious criminal offense, it is accepted that simply returning the animal means escaping conviction, an activist said on Friday.

"It is a kind of tolerance for the owners of orangutans that if they are willing to give up their pets then the problem will be solved without any legal action," said Dwi Nugroho Adhiasto of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Based on the 1990 Law on Conservation, people who posses endangered species face a maximum of five years in prison and a Rp 100 million ($9,400) fine.

However, Dwi said the law did not seem to work for orangutans because no significant legal action had ever been taken in relation to such offending.

"They only confiscated the animals but nothing happened after – no further investigations or legal charges toward the owner, or even efforts to try to find who sold it to them," he said.

A report published on Thursday by TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring group, said that there were fewer than 8,000 Sumatran orangutans in the wild.

The group had also reported previously that an estimated 2,000 orangutans have been confiscated or turned in by private owners in Indonesia over the last three decades, but no more than a handful of people have been successfully prosecuted

"Basically, the case for orangutans is not illegal trading but mostly domestication," Dwi said.

Hardi Baktiantoro, executive director of the Center for Orangutan Protection, said there was still a lack of political will with regard to wildlife cases. "The government still depends on nongovernmental organizations," he said.

But Tony Suhartono, the director of biodiversity conservation at the Ministry of Forestry, questioned TRAFFIC's report and claimed that the group had not been operating in Indonesia since 2007. "If there is any domestication of orangutans, show us where and who," he said.

Women & gender

Clean sweep for women in West Kalimantan

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2009

Jakarta – Women legislative candidates added life to the Kartini Day celebrations in West Kalimantan on Tuesday with a possible unprecedented clean sweep of Regional Representative Council (DPD) seats.

Maria Goreti, Sri Kadarwati Aswin, Erma Suryani Ranik and Hairiah took unassailable leads in the 26-candidate race and look certain to win the four DPD legislative seats. Maria and Kadarwati will serve their second five-year term after taking first and second places in the 2004 polls, when electors voted for the first time for 124 DPD members.

The provincial elections commission will not announce the official vote count result anytime soon, but unofficial vote tabulation conducted by the provincial police based on vote tallies in 10,777 polling stations showed that the four women had secured "significant votes" at between 50,000 and 80,000 each. Kadarwati tops the table, followed by Maria, Hairiah and Erma.

The polls commission registered 3,154,887 eligible voters for the April 9 elections.

Hairiah expressed her surprise to hear of women candidates moving closer to winning all the DPD seats. "We may join the Guiness Book of Records if it happens," she said.

Hairiah, who is member of the West Kalimantan office of the National Commission on Human Rights, said her activities allowed her to keep in touch with the society possibly helping her win support. "My profession concerns the society, that's perhaps why people voted for me," she said.

She admitted she relied much on her network, as she did not have money to finance her campaign, Her network includes victims of violence, women, religious groups and human rights activists. "I don't have any campaign team, but there were volunteers who fought for me," she said.

Maria and Kadarwati looked to take advantage of being the incumbents to win back-to-back election.

Maria was a magazine journalist focusing on Dayak indigenous issues before she turned to politics in 2004. Kadarwati gained popularity due to her status as the wife of former governor Aspar Aswin. During her husband's term between 1999 and 2003 she often visited local people at grassroots level.

At 33, Erma is the youngest candidate. She has been active in the area of environmental protection. For almost 10 years she has worked as an expert on people's empowerment through the EC- Indonesia FLEGT support project, a European Union-funded non- governmental organization fighting illegal logging.

Female journalists, Central Java vice governor against polygamy

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2009

Suherdjoko and Slamet Susanto, Semarang, Yogya – More than 30 female journalists in Semarang, with the support of Central Java Deputy Governor Rustriningsih, declared Tuesday their opposition to polygamous and unregistered marriages.

The declaration was made in a get-together commemorating Kartini Day, which fell on April 21. Kartini was a women's rights pioneer in Indonesia. However Kartini, a daughter of a regent born in 1879, also failed to avoid tradition and entered a polygamous marriage.

"We invite the public to oppose polygamous and unregistered or contractual marriages under which women are usually treated unfairly," Shinta Ardhany of Radio 68H, who was backed up by Endang Istanti of MetroTV, said.

The government's plan to tighten regulation of polygamous marriages and ban unregistered and contractual marriages has sparked nationwide controversy.

Some believe the government should not interfere in the private lives of its citizens, while others say the plan should be strengthened with a revision of the 1974 marriage law.

Clad in traditional Javanese attire, the journalists said they had to struggle for equality on their own. "Women, please don't be dependent on others... being reporters is not an awkward profession any longer for women," Shinta said.

Meanwhile, former Kebumen regent Rustriningsih gave her full support to the movement against polygamy. The journalists presented the seedling of a mahogany tree as a symbol of women's toughness and a flower arrangement as a symbol of softness to her.

Earlier the women launched their action on Jl. Pahlawan, where they distributed flowers to motorists. Their actions gained the support of police officers. To mark Kartini day, female officers wore Javanese kebaya dresses, while policemen wore beskap.

"The emancipation of women has been promoted by Ibu (Madame) Kartini. Men and women are now equal," Adj. Sr. Umbar Wijaya, head of West Java traffic police, said.

Meanwhile in Yogyakarta, with the commemoration of Kartini Day in mind, the city's housemaids declared the establishment of the Housemaids Organization Congress on Sunday.

The congress aims to provide housemaids with a tool to struggle for improved welfare. "Under the congress we want an improvement of our welfare through the deliberation of government policy. It's important because housemaids are always considered second class workers," coordinator of the congress Buyung Ridwan Tanjung said on Tuesday.

"Ironically there was a regional regulation on housemaids deliberated 10 years ago, but no follow-up has been made yet," Buyung added.

Three women who suffered rights abuses presented with awards

Jakarta Globe - April 21, 2009

Nurfika Osman – The National Commission on Violence Against Women, or Komnas Perempuan, commemorated Kartini Day on Tuesday by presenting awards to three women who have struggled to overcome the pain of past human rights abuses allegedly perpetrated by the government and the Indonesian Armed Forces.

One of the women, Samiati from Aceh Province, was presented with an award for her efforts to rehabilitate and assist women who lost their husbands, sons and other family members during the recent war between the military and the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM.

Samiati, who lost her brothers Umar Usman and Samir in 1990, said she had to overcome repeated threats from the military during her attempts to empower women in Pidie Jaya district.

"I set up an organization to help the women who were left in pain after losing their husbands, sons, fathers and brothers, to help them cope with their suffering," Samiati said during the award ceremony in Jakarta.

The community group, the Aceh Integration Body that was established in 1999, however, was branded as a women's separatist organization by the government.

"I was accused of being the leader of a women's separatist group in 2001," she said. "Whereas I was only trying to help the women and children in my region."

Another recipient, Tinneke Pahua from Papua Province, said that it remained a struggle to empower women in Biak-Numfor district considering the recent history of extreme violence, where many women from her district were killed or suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the military during the Suharto era.

"The authoritarian New Order Regime forced all Papuans, especially women, to remain silent even though we were hurt so much by what they did," Tinneke said, citing the July 6, 1998, Biak massacre where women and children were among those killed by the military, which then dumped the bodies at sea.

As in Aceh, Tinneke said that the violence increased when a local women's community group – established to help women share and seek solutions to their problems – was accused of being a separatist group.

"During the New Order Regime, we were forced to remain silent, but when we entered the Reform Era and brought the truth to the public, they accused us of being separatists again."

The third award winner, Netty Kalengkongan from Poso in Central Sulawesi Province, said that women faced a number of challenges in conflict areas, including depression and fears that their children could not continue their studies.

"Many women suffered depression when their children were forced out of school to help their mothers by working for money," Netty said. "And as mothers, we felt sick in our hearts whenever our children asked about how, why and who killed their fathers or brothers."

Netty's husband and father were allegedly kidnapped and killed by the military in 1998.

All three women said that the human rights violations committed against them and their loved ones remained unresolved to this day and the lack of justice and equality only added to their suffering.

Adding salt to their gaping wounds, Tinneke said that widows were stigmatized in Indonesian society as women who were sexual teasers and as those who could not protect their marriages.

Azriana, head of Komnas Perempuan's Recovery Unit, said that they supported these women's local community organizations together with the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, or Kontras, by lobbying the government to give them access to educational, social, economic and political resources.

"They should be heard and today we remind ourselves of the never-ending struggle women too often face," Azriana said.

Kartini Day recognizes the role women have played in national life.

Raising a family alone

Jakarta Globe - April 20, 2009

Titania Veda – Despite the institute of marriage being the norm in Indonesian society, an increasing number of households are headed by women, both in urban and rural settings.

Although divorcees, single mothers and widows face social stigma and discrimination, many women support their families independently, by choice or circumstance.

Pekka, a nongovernmental organization that runs an empowerment program for households run by women, says more than 6 million households with children in Indonesia are managed by women. More than half of that number live below the poverty line.

But facts and figures don't tell the full story of these women's daily struggle for survival. In honor of Kartini Day – the birthdate of national heroine and women's rights advocate Raden Adjeng Kartini – we talked with four women struggling to raise their children alone and provide a future for their families.

Suryani

On a dirt road dotted with chickens in the village of Kalibuaya, West Java, Suryani sits outside her ramshackle hut, watching her youngest daughter play. The plump mother of three girls married twice, and divorced her second husband last year.

"My first husband played around, never came home and didn't provide for the children," the 36-year-old says. After nine years of marriage, she told her husband and in-laws she was going to Saudi Arabia to work and requested a divorce.

"Of course, I had no plans of the sort," she says with a laugh. "But they granted me a divorce because devout Muslims say it is not good to leave your husband to be an immigrant worker."

Her second husband was unemployed and polygamous, and wed three more women after taking Suryani as his second wife. She left him without any qualms.

"To have a husband or not is the same for me because I am not dependent on them. If I help them financially, they take it for granted and don't provide me with anything," Suryani says.

Before her first marriage at the age of 16, Suryani worked at a shoe factory. But she stopped when she became pregnant with her first child. "My husband asked me to," she says.

After her first divorce, Suryani returned to work, selling coconut rice, which she continues to do. "I didn't want to burden my parents," she says. "And I had to take care of my kids."

Her day begins at 3 a.m. each morning when she cooks the rice to sell in her village.

Though the dilapidated door of her simply constructed bamboo shack is stamped with the words "Poor Household," which allows her a small government subsidy, and she earns about Rp 30,000 ($2.80) a day from her rice sales, Suryani is a proud woman.

"I am happier to be a divorcee because there is no burden of a husband. I am free. There is no need to service, prepare or care for him. Here I only take care of the children. "I'll give my girls a future. They don't have to get it from their fathers."

Oon

Sixty-year-old Oon, who resembles a sparrow with her slight figure and constantly fluttering hands, was a victim of domestic violence until her husband died 14 years ago. Fondly called Amih, meaning mother in Sundanese, by her peers, the sprightly mother- of-five stayed with her husband for her children's sake.

"My mother had died, so I didn't have anywhere to take my children," she says, at her house in Karawang, West Java. On occasions when her husband's brutality became unbearable, Amih returned with her children to her father's house, but he provided neither protection nor understanding.

"My father would tell me to go back to my husband and give me money thinking our household was a mess because we lacked funds," she says.

Amih began caring for two of her grandchildren when her son's wife left him earlier this year, leaving the young children behind. She earns a meager living from dressmaking and doing bridal make-up, among other odd jobs.

When her husband died of diabetes, she took the opportunity to keep her children in school until senior high.

"When their father was alive, he would only let them attend secondary school," Amih says. "He didn't want them to be educated further because he was afraid our farm would have to be sold off to put them through school." The land was sold anyway during her husband's long illness.

After his death, Amih started volunteering for Pekka, teaching literacy skills to women in her village and educating children on gender equality. "As a widow," Amih says, "I have freedom."

Linda

Although she has two young children to care for, urban mom Linda filed for divorce last week.

"I just got fed up and tired," says Linda, who lives in East Jakarta. Her marriage difficulties stemmed from her husband being unfaithful to her and financial difficulties. Though her husband works as a supervisor at an auto workshop, Linda was the main provider for her family for many years.

"Our wages did not differ greatly but all of mine goes into the household!" she says. "My husband would give me Rp 800,000 per month for living expenses."

He took almost half of that back to pay installments on his motorbike, and much of the rest was given to his family. "I usually end up with only Rp 35,000 a month," Linda says.

When her first child was three weeks old, Linda's husband left them. "He returned when the baby was more than a year old." The marriage continued for another seven years after her husband's return and the couple had a second son.

However, her firstborn did not speak until he was 4, something Linda blames herself for. "I hardly talked to him [after he was born] because every time I opened my mouth I would cry," she says.

When her husband left, her in-laws accused her of being money- hungry and said her husband's desertion was to be expected, while her pious friends accused her of being a disobedient wife.

Linda, having left a waitressing job when she had her child, found herself abandoned by her husband, unemployed, broke and with a baby to care for.

Jobs for single mothers, Linda discovered, were few and far between. "Prospective employers would say to me, 'How can you work with a child? Your husband wouldn't allow it!'?" she says.

When she did get a job at a magazine, Linda says her salary was not enough to live on. She resorted to taking money from a weekly cooking class budget she handled for the magazine. "I would increase the budget and add in a bit of transport money for me and my staff," Linda says.

To support her children after her divorce, Linda is considering leaving them with her mother and going abroad to work. "My wages aren't enough to support the children by myself," she says. "When the divorce comes through, I won't be able to survive."

Though according to state and Islamic law, a husband and father must provide child support and alimony following a divorce, Linda doubts she will receive any money from her husband.

"The government provides a letter stating husbands must give child support, but that's just a letter," Linda says. "They can't force the men to pay."

"What Indonesia lacks is rights for divorced women. I understand we are not a developed country that can provide a lot of financial assistance from the government," she says, "but there should at least be a support system that can help mothers bring up their children."

Liany

Single mom Liany considers herself lucky. "I don't have to take care of those babies called husbands, just a real baby," says Liany, who lives in East Jakarta.

The proud mother of a 9-year-old boy says she prefers to stay single for her son's sake, "to protect him from having a father that is not right for him."

A petite woman of Chinese descent, Liany became pregnant when she was 26. The baby's father wanted nothing to do with the child, but she decided to keep him anyway. "I wanted to be responsible," Liany says.

To do so without creating a scandal, Liany had to lie. "My gynecologist advised me to register as a married woman and to create a husband's name," Liany says. She also invented a fictional father of her child to talk about to her employers and peers.

"In the office people think I'm a widower," Liany says. Other tales she told included an boyfriend overseas and a secret marriage. Her son remains unaware of the identity of his father.

Liany isolated herself from family and friends throughout her pregnancy and only informed her own mother when the boy was more than a year old.

"I was in a mess and I wanted to clean it up myself," Liany explains. Her first few years as a single mother were rough. She was fired from her job at a law firm when her son was 30 days old and was unemployed for the next nine months.

When she applied for jobs, she was often rejected because of being a single mother. "Some employers frankly said they don't accept single mothers," Liany says.

At that time, Liany refused to lie about her status. "How could I? I had breast milk I needed to refrigerate every few hours and I couldn't stop talking about the baby!" she says.

She lived off her savings until they ran out, then sold her jewelry. There were times when she and her son had nothing to eat but cheap biscuits.

"My target was to survive for the day. It was alright if my baby and I died at night, but we just had to survive to the end of the day," Liany says.

Eight years ago, she found an office job, and her life has taken a turn for the better. "I wanted to be a teacher but I can't earn Rp 800,000 a month and still be able to feed my son," says Liany, who left a job teaching English at a local seminary after the birth of her son.

Single parents in Indonesia are often unable to obtain birth certificates for their children without a marriage certificate. According to Unicef, 60 percent of Indonesian children have no birth certificates.

Liany is grateful that her son has a certificate, but disagrees with the wording on it. "The certificate should not say 'born out of wedlock' because that is the biggest burden for a child to carry," Liany says.

"Indonesians don't have an understanding view of others," she says, adding that people call her son anak haram, which means forbidden child. "People say society is changing, but it depends on which class of society and which educational level," Liany says vehemently.

The thinker: Taking Kartini to heart

Jakarta Globe - April 20, 2009

Roswita Nimpuno Khaiyath – Today is Hari Kartini, or Kartini Day, a national holiday proclaimed by the late President Sukarno in 1964 in recognition of Raden Ajeng Kartini for establishing the first school for Javanese girls and for becoming an important symbol of Indonesian identity.

As a schoolchild, it was on Hari Kartini that we wore the traditional Kain Kebaya dress, sang one of our national songs, "Ibu Kita Kartini," and participated in costume contests, cook- offs and flower arrangement competitions. Schools hosted lectures, parades were held and the women's organization Dharma Wanita specially marked the holiday.

Does the account of a life in the early 20th century published by oppressors deserve more recognition than a woman who took up the sword?

Of royal Javanese blood, Kartini was Born on April 21, 1879, the fifth child and first daughter of RMAA Sosroningrat, who was a district chief, the equivalent of a mayor, in Mayong. Her mother, MA Ngasirah, was the daughter of Kyai Haji Madirono and a teacher of religion.

But since she was not of sufficiently high nobility, her father married a second time to Raden Ajeng Woerjan, a direct descendant of the King of Madura. After the marriage, Kartini's father was elevated to Regency Chief of Jepara, replacing his second wife's own father. Kartini's mother was demoted to the second tier.

Kartini was allowed to attend Dutch school until the age of 12, but as required of Javanese nobility she then had to follow the tradition of pingintan – being secluded in preparation for marriage. Girls were not allowed to leave the house and were confined to their rooms, learning to sew, embroider and other "female activities of leisure" that a woman of her station would be expected to undertake in life.

Kartini's life went along pretty much as expected until she became the fourth wife of Raden Adipati Joyodiningrat, the Regency Chief of Rembang, in November 1903. She was then permitted by her husband to establish a school for girls on the east porch of the Rembang Regency Office complex.

Earlier, during pingitan, Kartini, who spoke fluent Dutch and was an avid reader, wrote letters about her life to several Dutch pen pals. One of them, Rosa Abendanon, happened to be the wife of JH Abendanon, the Minister for Culture, Religion and Industry in the East Indies.

After Kartini's death during childbirth at the age of just 25, he collected and published the letters in a book entitled "Door Duisternis tot Licht" (Through Darkness Into Light). Published in 1911, the book became the foundation on which Kartini's fame was built; for its insights into Dutch rule, Javanese life and the role of women. It was later translated into several languages and vehicle in the struggle for suffrage.

Inspired by Kartini, a Dutch family established the Kartini Foundation, which built what later became known as Kartini Schools for women, first in Semarang in 1912, followed by more schools in places throughout Indonesia, such as Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Malang, Madiun, Cirebon.

This month, at a Kartini function at Erasmus Huis, the cultural center for the Netherlands in Jakarta, neither the State Minister for Women's Empowerment nor the speakers bothered to wear a traditional costume.

The discussion about Kartini as an Indonesian heroine turned out to be a presentation of guidelines from the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment. Another speaker used the recent election campaign to discuss equality for Indonesian women.

At three overseas universities that offer Indonesian studies – the University of California at Berkeley, Holland's Leiden University and Monash University in Australia – annual Kartini seminars and conferences focus on her fight for women's education and against polygamy; the fact that she married a man twice her age who already had 3 wives and 6 children, goes ignored.

But it might also be good to remember that at about the same time that Kartini was writing her letters from the comfort of her home, Tjoet Nyak Dhien, the so-called Jihad heroine of Aceh, joined her husband in the jungles leading armed troops fighting for independence from the Dutch.

She died in West Java in 1908 after being captured and tortured by the Dutch. Also around the same time, Maria Walanda Maramis, an activist in North Sulawesi Province, also established schools for girls and championed the right for women to vote.

Is the pen mightier than the sword? Does a woman whose account of daily life in the Dutch East Indies during the early 20th century published by her oppressors deserve more recognition than a woman who took up the sword to fight for independence?

Today, many Indonesian women will celebrate Hari Kartini, wear the kain kebaya and participate in domestic female indulgences. But 105 years after the death of Kartini, have Indonesian women really achieved equality?

Films on women and their stories

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2009

Jakarta – Although they might not be about "grand narratives" or "bombastic issues", women do have stories to tell. Such as simple stories of being a woman in an ever patriarchal world, as an upcoming international women's film festival in Jakarta will reveal.

From an intimate depiction of how a mother juggles prostitution and back-breaking construction work, to the tale of the bittersweet life of a bipolar woman, stories screened at the V Film Festival, scheduled from April 21, are from women, for women and about women.

"Lately, we have seen emerging female filmmakers produce excellent works about women's lives," festival director Ening said. Despite such trends, she found the issue still remained marginalized, even at the country's existing film festivals.

"Even in major film festivals like Jiffest – the Jakarta International Film Festival – the screenings of these kinds of movies received very limited attention. As few as two people at a time attended such showings," said Ani Ema Susanti, one of the directors of collective documentary At Stake.

It might indeed be true that this emerging minor subgenre has been overlooked for too long.

A collaborative work of Kartini Asia Network, Salihara Community, Kalyanashira Foundation and Jurnal Perempuan Foundation, V Film Festival – feel free to interpret "V", the festival committee said – is the first of its kind in the last decade, after a similar event was held back in 1997.

The film screenings will be accompanied by a series of discussions with the filmmakers and a moviemaking workshop. "In the long run, we also plan to open participatory filmmaking workshops that will really allow ordinary women to express themselves," festival committee member Olin Monteiro said, adding V would be an annual event.

For now, plans and ideas have been toned down to focus on screening quality women's films.

More than a dozen films, ranging from short documentaries, to full-length features, offer a variety of themes by female filmmakers from France, Germany, the United States, ex-Soviet Union countries, as well as more than a handful from Indonesia.

French film Water Lilies, a tale about teenaged synchronized swimmers, is set to open the festival, while German documentary Mother Beast-Mother Human, on pondering motherhood, will close the event on April 26.

In between, are films with more down-to-earth themes, which Indonesian women should find accessible.

Ani's documentary, for example, portrays the lives of two Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong, and their quest for love.

Her work, as well as that of three others collaborating for the documentary At Stake, received much enthusiasm during its screening at the 2009 Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, in February, as viewers saw a different side to the stories of women living in what they perceived as merely an "exotic tropical country".

Unfortunately, two segments of At Stake, on female circumcision and discrimination against single women on reproductive health services, will be scrapped during its screening at the V film festival, as their directors are male.

"It is part of the rules of female film festivals that we can only screen works by women," explained film producer Nia Dinata, from Kalyanashira Foundation.

Sexist as that may seem, perhaps women have been victimized and marginalized by this patriarchal society for so long that they deserve to have their own space for once. No offense, guys!

Information and screening schedule of V Film Festival can be found at: www.festivalfilm.multiply.com. All films are open for public for free.

Female coalition to report election fraud

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2009

Luh De Suryani and Niken Prathivi, Denpasar – The Bali Women's Political Movement coalition will file a report on alleged election fraud targeting female candidates to the Bali Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) on Friday.

Coalition spokeswoman Ni Nyoman Sri Widhiyanti said the coalition would represent the female candidates by delivering the violations reports. The coalition comprises Bali Sruti, Bali's Indonesian Political Caucus for Women (KPPI), the Women Forum and gender equality activists.

"The report is an effort to ensure fair, clean and educational elections in Indonesia," Widhiyanti said, at the evaluation forum of "Let's Support Bali's Women Candidacy" movement held Thursday.

Head of Bali Sruti Luh Riniti Rahayu said several female candidates had identified signs of fraud during the April 9 elections and the subsequent ballot counting process.

Most fraud involved the deliberate deflation of the number of votes received by female candidates. "We have to combat such violations in order to strengthen women's self-esteem in entering politics."

Temporary results show as many as 30 female candidates succeeded in securing legislative seats. One of them is Ida Ayu Indra Kondi Santosa, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- P). Kondi Santosa won a seat at the House of Representatives.

Despite her victory, Kondi Santosa claimed a significant number of her supporters' votes had been "stolen" during the ballot counting process.

"In Gianyar regency, the votes I received were deflated by 400 votes. in Karangasem, by 300 votes and in Badung, by 100 votes. "My supporters and I will closely monitor the vote counting to prevent further attempts to reduce my support," she stressed.

KPPI Bali secretary Titik Suharyati said the violations may have occurred because the Panwaslu failed to effectively monitor the counting process at village and district levels.

Separately, a PDI-P legislative candidate, Ida Bagus Alit Arganegara, who failed to secure a seat, took dozens of his supporters to the Badung Regional Elections Commission (KPUD) office to protest the ballot mix-up. He claimed the mix-up had cost him 28 votes.

"The 28 votes went to the party, instead of to the candidate. This really damaged Arganegara's constituents' right to vote for him," protester Ida Bagus Ketut Purbanegara said.

In response, Badung KPUD head I Wayan Jondra said the Badung KPUD would soon report the case to the Bali KPUD.

Health & education

Leprosy endemic in East Tanjungjabung

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2009

Jambi – An outbreak of leprosy has reached an endemic stage in Tanjungjabung regency, with one person in six per 10,000 suffering from the disease, which causes legions to form on the skin and remains highly stigmatized.

The regency health agency has recorded 62 cases of leprosy between January and March this year spread across three districts: Nipah Panjang, Sungai Lokan and Sungai Jambat.

"We predict that the number of people with leprosy is larger since many of them do not go to hospitals," head of the agency Thamrin Madjid said on Friday. "Some people are still ashamed of the disease. They think that it's God curse."

East Tanjungjabung Regent Abdullah Hich has instructed community health centers and midwives to report and call people to bring their relatives and neighbors infected with the disease to nearby health centers for treatment.

Corruption & graft

Chief justice cancels graft court judges' replacement

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2009

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Bowing to pressure from anticorruption groups, the Supreme Court has revoked its earlier decision to appoint 12 new judges to the Corruption Court.

"I've ordered the withdrawal of all the letters of appointment," Supreme Court Chief Harifin A. Tumpa told reporters on Friday, after installing six new deputy heads to the Supreme Court.

The cancellation came after protests from antigraft groups against the questionable track records of some of the new judges assigned to the Corruption Court.

The legal procedure for the appointments was also criticized. The activists said it was against the 2002 Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) law, which obliges the Supreme Court to make public candidates for Corruption Court judges.

Harifin admitted that there were several violations in the appointment process. "I just read the law. In fact we had published it in our website but there are several procedures that we missed in the process. That's why I have to decided to withdraw the letters [of appointment]."

The chief justice said the withdrawal was allowed because the letters stipulated the decision was subject to change if it was found to contain a mistake.

The Supreme Court announced the appointment of 12 judges to the Central Jakarta District Court and nine others to the Jakarta High Court on its website on April 12, 2009.

Six of the new judges were set to receive what is seen as a promotion to the Corruption Court, which is overseen by the Central Jakarta District Court.

The six judges to be replaced would have gone on to new positions: Gusrizal to head Bogor District Court, Kresna Menon to chair the Bandung District Court, Sutiono to lead the Sumedang District Court, Moefri to head the Sampit District Court as well as Teguh Haryanto and Martini Mardja who were to get new positions as deputy heads of the Tulungagung District Court and the Kayu Agung District Court, respectively. These moves have now been put on hold.

However, their replacements were opposed by Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) and other critics because they had ever acquitted several corruption suspects.

"Six of the new judges had acquitted corruption defendants and we never knew whether they [the defendants] really deserved acquittals or if it was because the judges failed to understand corruption cases, which were probably related with the poor indictment by prosecutors, or this was related to judicial mafia," ICW legal researcher Febri Diansyah said.

However, Harifin refused to consider acquittal a criteria to appraise the performance of judges. "Acquittal is not forbidden in our judicial system. If judges really find the defendant not guilty why should they be punished?"

He said the six current judges were to be "promoted for regeneration" at the Corruption Court. "Their career will not develop if they remain in the court, besides we consider there are many good judges out there who can replace them," Harifin said.

In response, ICW activist Illian Deta Arta Sari on Friday lauded Harifin's decision to revoke the candidacy of the six replacement for the Corruption Court judges. "We expect the Supreme Court will not repeat the same mistake," she said.

KPK 'ineffective' in tackling corruption in the bureaucracy

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2009

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is said to have failed to push for transparency in the financial affairs of regional administrations, although it has arrested many governors, regents and regional councilors since its inception six years ago.

Data from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) shows an increase in suspicious financial reports at the regional level after the KPK was born in 2003, the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has said.

"The KPK has been ineffective in rooting out corruption at the regional level despite all the arrests, and also failed to deter corruption when the arrests took place," ICW deputy coordinator Adnan Topan Husodo told participants discussing bureaucratic reform on Friday.

The discussion followed the US embassy's Korupsi dan Pemerintahan book launch, a translation of Susan Rose-Ackerman's Corruption and Government.

According to the BPK data the ICW quoted, the number of reports in the "adverse" category – which contain many questionable points – has increased from 4 percent in 2004 to 19 percent in 2007.

The number of financial reports under the "no opinion" category has also increased sharply from 2 percent in 2004 to 17 percent in 2007. On the other hand, "unqualified" reports, which are deemed free from suspicious points, have decreased from 7 percent in 2004 to 1 percent in 2007.

"The KPK tends to carry out sporadic, unnecessary actions that are neither effective nor sustainable in the long run," Adnan said.

He cited the KPK's training on corruption prevention as one of the ineffective measures. "During the training, officials were taught the different definitions of corruption. That was unnecessary, because most of them already know what corruption is."

The Commission often skipped areas known to be prone to corruption in their prevention programs, Adnan added. "For example, the KPK dragged all the regional officials in Manado (North Sulawesi) to court for corruption. However, it didn't carry out its corruption prevention program in that area," he said.

KPK Deputy Chandra Hamzah admitted the commission had not been very effective in freeing the country's bureaucracy from corruption.

"It is impossible to get rid of corruption in the bureaucracy on our own," he said. "This calls for administrative reform, which is to be carried out by various elements of the state." (dis)

Elections/political parties

Kalla to compete with SBY in presidential race

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2009

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Golkar party has given mandate to chairman Jusuf Kalla to build coalition with other political parties promoting him as presidential candidate in upcoming election.

"Golkar will promote Kalla for president," said Zainal Bintang, head of the Golkar party's division on labor and transmigration, on Wednesday. He said that the decision would be distributed to head of the party's provincial chapters in the plenary meeting on Thursday.

After week of intensive talk, Golkar and the Democratic party failed to reach agreement on coalition, ending the plan to pair Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla in upcoming presidential election.

Golkar announced result of negotiation talks between team of the parties. "The talks on coalition with Democratic party has collapsed," said Seomarsono Secretary General of the Golkar told the press conference.

PDI-P threaten to boycott race

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2009

Dicky Christianto and Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The so-called Teuku Umar Block, led by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), is considering not contesting the upcoming presidential elections, not out of fear of being defeated, but because of what they call the systematic and massive manipulation of the recent legislative elections. So far the PDI-P ranks third in the ongoing national tallies.

After accompanying Megawati in receiving Chairman of the Greater Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) Prabowo Subianto on Tuesday, PDI-P Secretary-General Pramono Anung Wibowo said that the numerous election problems, namely voter list fraud, IT problems and slow vote counting were key contributors to the camp's decision not to nominate a presidential candidate.

"Several signatories of the agreement share similar thoughts that as long as the voter list problem is not settled completely, it will be useless to contest the presidential race because the voter list manipulation strongly benefits a certain (other) block," he said as quoted by Kompas.com.

Besides Megawati, former president Abdurrahman Gus Dur Wahid, Prabowo, as well as chairpersons and senior figures from 16 other parties are signatories to the agreement and are threatening to not sign the results of the legislative polls.

Pramono stressed the move was aimed not at boycotting the presidential race but at giving political warning to the importance of free and fair elections and the PDI-P would certainly nominate its candidate if the problems were settled comprehensively. The block has set a deadline of May 9 to settle the problems.

Unlike the PDI-P, the Golkar Party expects to win around 16 percent of votes from the legislative elections, enough to realistically seek a coalition with President SBY's Democratic Party, which is expected to win some 20 percent of the vote.

Cahyo Kumolo, head of the PDI-P's election winning team and PDI-P Deputy Chairman Maruar Sirait said Megawati has never ordered party members to boycott the legislative polls and said the party was still in a position to contend in the presidential election.

"What happen is that we are filing reports containing misappropriations conducted during the legislative elections to the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu). A legal supporting team has been organized especially for this matter." he said.

Responding emotionally to what he perceived as a PDI-P boycott threat, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked the political elites and candidates to show political maturity in dealing with the election violations.

"It is hurt to be accused of cheating when we've never done that and have not even the slightest intention to do so. I also want all the problems regarding the voter lists to be settled soon. Be careful; don't be too harsh with the cheating allegations."

Yudhoyono said he was, too, engrossed with the troubled voter list, adding he had ordered Home Affairs Minister Mardiyanto to urge the General Elections Commission to fix the lists. (hdt)

Rights body forms team over flawed voter lists

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2009

Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has set up a team to investigate why so many people were left off the fixed voter lists for the April 9 legislative elections.

"We have appointed a three-member team with high competency in the fields of politics and law to investigate the alleged fraud that took place during the last elections," commission deputy chairman Ridha Saleh said Tuesday.

However, he declined to name the team members, saying only they were an academic, a former General Elections Commission (KPU) member, and a former university rector. "We've also set a deadline for the team to publish their findings by May 10," he said.

The commission claims the recent elections were rigged and that there were systemic violations that led to millions of eligible voters being disenfranchised.

Komnas HAM put the number of unregistered voters at an estimated 46 million, while political activists claim there were around 10 million voters left off the final lists.

"This fraud is a violation of political civil rights, but before we can call it a gross violation of human rights, we need to investigate it first," Ridha said.

He added the commission would also summon KPU members and Home Minister Mardiyanto in the near future to explain the problems with the flawed voter lists.

Komnas HAM chairman Ifdhal Kasim previously said that if these errors were intentional, further investigations and even trials would be necessary.

During the recent polls, the commission monitored several conflict-prone regions, including Papua, Ambon, Aceh, and Poso in Central Sulawesi, as well as border areas like Atambua in East Nusa Tenggara and Nunukan in East Kalimantan.

The official rights body focused its monitoring on marginal groups, such as internally displaced people, migrant workers, prisoners and hospitalized mentally ill patients. It found the majority of voters in those areas were unregistered or were not allowed to vote, even though their names were on the lists.

Several civil society groups, such as the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), the Indonesian Legal Aid Association (PBHI) and the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (LBH APIK), have taken legal action to challenge the recent election results by filing a civil lawsuit on April 14 against the KPU and the government for preventing citizens from voting in the recent elections.

Politicians have also criticized the legislative elections, calling them "the worst elections" among all polls ever held – including in 1999 and 2004 – since former president Soeharto's downfall.

They claimed more irregularities occurred this year than in the two previous polls. They issued a joint statement challenging the poll results after a meeting at former president Megawati Soekarnoputri's house on Jl. Teuku Umar, Central Jakarta, on April 14.

Prominent figures in attendance included Prabowo Subianto of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), National Mandate Party (PAN) member Toto Daryanto, United Development Party (PPP) member Rusdi Hanafi, Crescent Star Party (PBB) chief patron Yusril Ihza Mahendra, and Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) member Ferry B. Siregar.

Economy likely to start picking up during last quarter of 2009

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2009

Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – The pace of Indonesia's economic growth will likely pick up in the last quarter of the year on strengthening consumption while predicted signs of global economic recovery start bolstering export demand, according to economists.

The higher growth in the last three-month period would compensate for lower growth in the second and third quarters, compared to quiarter one, resulting in an overall full-year economic growth of between 3 and 4 percent.

"The economy will decline in the second quarter (of 2009), slope (gently down) in the third quarter and start to pick up in the fourth quarter of the year," Bank Mandiri chief economist Mirza Adityaswara told a press conference on Tuesday.

The central bank estimated the economy expanded 4.6 percent in the first quarter this year, expecting a full-year growth of between 3 percent and 4 percent. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) will officially announce the first-quarter economy results in May.

Mirza said there were already signs of confidence in the economy last month, as seen from the increasing sales of cement, motorcycles and housing. But the impact of declining overall industrial production will affect the economy in the second and third quarters.

He estimated nonetheless that the economy will grow at 4 percent this year, with the manufacturing sector growing by 2 percent, or only about half of the 3.7 percent growth posted for the sector in 2008.

M. Chatib Basri, an economist at the University of Indonesia (UI), shared the same forecast, saying that overall consumption – the largest contributor to Indonesia's economy – would decrease in the second and third quarters of 2009 due to the impact of declining industrial production but with a very good chance of picking up in the last quarter.

"However, whether the economy can pick up in the fourth quarter will still also depend on global growth. I hope it can," he said, expecting the country's economy to expand overall between 3 percent and 4 percent.

In the first quarter, consumption remained strong, resulting in economic growth of 4.5 percent, said Chatib, who is also an advisor to the Finance Ministry.

The government's stimulus in the form of tax cuts has helped people to spend more on consumption, particularly as Indonesians are less exposed to credit. There are more young people than old people that shop more often and poor people are tending to spend money as soons as they get it, Chatib said.

The economy will depend more heavily on government spending this year as private consumption slows down, while exports and investment are predicted to contract, compared to last year.

According to BPS, exports contracted by 32.9 percent in February. The Trade Ministry said exports might contract by up to 30 percent overall during 2009.

But a low inflation rate will help spur demand and provide the central bank more headroom to cut its benchmark interest rate to spur growth. According to BPS, inflation slowed to 7.9 percent by March.

Mandiri Sekuritas chief economist Destry Damayanti said that as inflation would likely continue to slow, BI could "more aggressively cut its rate".

Yudhoyono, Kalla agree on coalition

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2009

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says his Democratic Party and Vice President Jusuf Kalla's Golkar Party have so far agreed on maintaining coalition in the government and legislative level.

The President said he had met with Kalla on Monday to explore the possibilities of maintaining the coalition, though refused to yet name the latter his vice presidential pair candidate to run for second term in July 8 presidential elections.

"Everything is still in process. Talks still continue. And at this extent Golkar and Democratic Party have the same will to continue our togetherness in coalition in the government and in the parliament, along with some other parties," Yudhoyono said in a press conference at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday.

"My meeting with Pak JK (Kalla) was part of the exploration to build the coalition. We stop there. There are rumors that I have had a vice presidential candidate from Golkar or other parties. But, my answer is still the same; I haven't at all talked about who will be my vice presidential candidate pair," the President added.

He said he was keeping his ears to talks among parties intending to establish coalition with the Democratic Party over who were the right figures to pair with him in the presidential race.

Over a coalition with Golkar, he said the final word would depend much on the results of Golkar leaders' meeting and his Democratic Party's national gathering later this week.

Slow vote count exposes KPU's poor performance

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2009

Jakarta/Bandung/Yogyakarta – The electronic but slow vote counting finally came to an end after almost two weeks on Monday, as the General Elections Commission (KPU) races against time to complete the counting of paper ballots from the April 9 legislative elections.

Only 13 million out of approximately 170 million votes were counted as the KPU moved vote counting to its office, after spending Rp 30 billion (US$2.8 million) on scanner technology to provide online vote tabulation capabilities, Rp 18 billion on communications – not to mention the rental fee for a spacious room at the five-star Borobudur Hotel in Central Jakarta.

Not even the members of the poll body are happy with the computerized vote counting process. Sri Nuryanti, the KPU member overseeing fixed voter list, said the commission was considering stopping use of the electronic system.

"We should conduct a thorough evaluation toward the whole system as to avoid the same problem from happening in the presidential election," she said.

She acknowledged the problems rested mostly with the data synchronization process.

"Unlike in the 2004 election, when the KPU brought the whole electronic system to regional branches, this time around we only endorsed it and left the rest to the regional branches. In other words, we cannot control them," she said.

Problems with scanner machines used to transfer data during the synchronization process exacerbated problems. Poll observers said the slow vote count only confirmed the KPU's managerial flaws, following the voter list brouhaha.

"The KPU had better hire more people to enter the manual data. This offers us more certainty than the technology the KPU is using right now," Hadar Gumay of the Centre for Electoral Reform (Cetro), said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered Home Minister Mardiyanto to grill the KPU over its slow counting. Yudhoyono said the government was ready to help the KPU finish the count on time.

"I've been following news that the KPU, despite its use of an electronic system, has been seen as doing the count slowly. Some even said the manual count would have been faster," Yudhoyono said after opening a Cabinet meeting on elections at the Presidential Office.

"Therefore I've asked the home minister to establish communications with the KPU in this regard, and to ask for an explanation whether the KPU can comply with the set timetable. It should be able to." In Bandung, representatives from 21 political parties in West Java walked out from a plenary meeting to endorse manual vote counting at the local KPU. The group threatened not to sign the election results as they suspect a significant disparity between actual and official results.

"To us the general election only represents the will of big political parties," Asep Dariadi, a spokesman for the group, said.

The vote count shows the Democratic Party finished first in Bandung with 442,769 votes, followed by the Prosperous Justice Party, which collected 185,596 votes.

Meanwhile in Bantul, Yogyakarta, the local elections commission failed to announce the results of vote counting after data files from all districts were corrupted by a virus.

87 percent plan to vote for Yudhoyono: Survey

Jakarta Globe - April 20, 2009

Muninggar Sri Saraswati – If the July presidential election were held today, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would garner a whopping 87.5 percent of the votes, according to a poll by the Strategic Center for Development and Policy Review, or Puskaptis.

Trailing Yudhoyono by a long distance was former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, the chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, with only 5.83 percent. Prabowo Subianto, the controversial former general and head of the Great Indonesia Movement Party, or Gerindra, followed with 5 percent. Vice President Jusuf Kalla received the backing of only 1.67 percent of the respondents.

Kalla nonetheless remains Yudhoyono's most viable running mate, according to the polling organization, which closely predicted the victory by the president's Democratic Party in legislative elections held on April 9.

According to the poll, which was conducted last week, 28.72 percent of respondents said they expected Kalla, who chairs the Golkar Party, to continue his vice presidential role. Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X and Hidayat Nurwahid, the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, or MPR, were tied as runners-up in the vice presidential sweepstakes with 23.4 percent. Prabowo came in fourth with 10.64 percent, followed by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati with the approval of 5.32 percent of the respondents.

Whether or not they expect Kalla to continue as vice president, 26.8 percent of respondents said they approve of him, with 25.77 percent choosing Hidayat, while the Sultan ranked third with 20.62 percent.

With the eventual pairings for the July race still up in the air, political sources have speculated this week that Megawati might drop her presidential bid, leaving the PDI-P to propose running the Sultan as its presidential candidate.

PDI-P secretary general Pramono Anung refused to confirm the rumors, saying the party was waiting to see who Yudhoyono would pick as a running mate. Bondan Nusantara, of the sultan's campaign team, said only that the royal, who is a member of Golkar, might align himself with PDI-P, without specifying if he was eyeing either the presidential or vice presidential post.

Puskaptis director Husin Yazid said the Yudhoyono-Kalla team was viewed positively by the public, the majority of whom believe the pair should continue to lead the country for the next five years. State news agency Antara quoted Husin as saying that "46.77 percent of respondents expect the continuation of the government's development program, while those who seek changes reached 43.55 percent."

According to the poll, economic problems top concerns, with 50.83 percent of respondents listing them as the government's biggest problem. Corruption eradication, with 21.67 percent, and security issues, 7.50 percent, were second and third.

A number of other opinion polls are also predicting that Yudhoyono will sweep the presidential election in July in a single round.

The poll was conducted from April 13 to 17 in 33 provinces, although the number of respondents was not provided. The sampling error was given at plus or minus 3 percent.

Yudhoyono supporters launch 'Indonesia Bisa'

Jakarta Post - April 20, 2009

Jakarta – The founders of the Democratic Party, together with partisans, have formed a campaign team called "Indonesia Bisa" or "Indonesia Can", to support Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's bid for reelection as president.

"Indonesia Can" was declared an organization at the Bima Room of the Bidakara Complex in Jakarta on Saturday, Antara news agency reported.

The founder and former chairman of the Democratic Party, Prof. Subur Budhisantoso, was named the leader of the new organization, which was also supported by a number of figures belonging to Yudhoyono's campaign team in the 2004 presidential election.

In its manifesto, the organization said the country had a strong foundation to face various challenges ahead and realize national goals.

The group aims to promote the spirit of solidarity and uphold all value systems in the community as assets in dealing with current and future national problems.

The party was formed while Yudhoyono was the chief security minister under President Megawati Soekarnoputri. SBY quickly gained popularity after he quit the cabinet and declared his quest for presidency in early 2004.

Strife brewing at PAN, PPP over coalitions

Jakarta Post - April 20, 2009

Adianto P. Simamora and Slamet Susanto, Jakarta/Yogyakarta – With coalition talks between parties intensifying ahead of the presidential election, strife is brewing within the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP) over whether to support President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's re- election bid.

PAN advisory board chairman Amien Rais hosted a closed-door meeting with 28 heads of the party's provincial chapters in Yogyakarta on Sunday, with party chairman Soetrisno Bachir absent. The latter was busy monitoring the vote tally from the April 9 legislative elections.

The meeting, held at Amien's home, resulted in a four-point recommendation, including the need to build a coalition with Yudhoyono's Democratic Party and to involve the advisory body that Amien chairs in any discussion about PAN vice presidential hopefuls.

Amien, the former PAN chairman and a presidential candidate in the 2004 election, refused to be named Yudhoyono's running mate. He said he would arrange a meeting between Yudhoyono and Soetrisno to discuss the issues of a coalition and vice president.

"The result [of this meeting] will be tabled at the party's plenary meeting on April 27," Amien said.

The meeting comes only a week after Soetrisno met with Prabowo Subianto, presidential candidate from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) for coalition talks. There has been no follow-up to that tjte-'-tjte.

PAN East Nusa Tenggara head Eurico Guteres said the Yogyakarta meeting was an informal talk to determine the party's stance ahead of the July 8 presidential poll.

But Soetrisno's confidant Sayuti Asyathi played down the significance of the meeting, saying it was only a gathering to voice the aspirations of the party's members.

"There's nothing special about the meeting. It was only aimed at gathering aspirations, but it did not represent party policy," said Sayuti, who was absent from the meeting. He dismissed speculation the gathering reflected internal party strife, saying "There are no rifts within the party."

Asked why Soetrisno had skipped out despite Amien's invitation, Sayuti said, "Pak Soetrisno did not know the development of the meeting."

He insisted the party had set an internal ruling requiring all members respect the party's decisions, including on the coalition issue.

As of Sunday, data from the Vote Tabulation Center showed the PAN with about 6 percent of votes, in fifth place just behind the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

Internal discord has also rocked the PPP, and it peaked Friday when a group of party members took over the party's headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta. The takeover continued through Sunday.

The members demanded chairman Suryadharma Ali step down in light of the party's poor showing in the legislative elections. Quick counts revealed the Islamic-based party received only 5 percent of votes, down from 8 percent in 2004.

Suryadharma has met with leaders of other parties, including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which is likely to nominate Megawati Soekarnoputri as its presidential candidate, alongside SBY and Gerindra's Prabowo.

PPP chief patron Bachtiar Chamsyah claimed the majority of PPP supporters backed Yudhoyono's reelection bid.

Strong opposition needed to check SBY's coalition

Jakarta Post - April 20, 2009

Jakarta – With President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party set to form a coalition with the Golkar Party and most of the middle-rank parties, the next executive branch of government will dominate the new House of Representatives, political experts have said.

Beside Golkar, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the United Development Party (PPP) have all expressed their intention to join the Democratic Party to support Yudhoyono's bid for re- election.

According to all quick count results, the Democratic Party will win with 20.5 percent of the total votes, followed by Golkar and the PDI-P with some 14 percent each. The PKS, the PAN and the PKB are next on the list with some 8 percent, 6.5 percent and 5 percent respectively.

Experts said Sunday with the coalition gaining over 50 percent of the total votes, and thus controlling the House, any government policies should pass smoothly through the legislative body.

"The situation is different now because the PD managed to gain the most votes. The party and its coalition will play a dominant role in the House," a political analyst from the Indonesian Institute for Science (LIPI), Lili Romli, said in Jakarta on Sunday.

The party's current situation is very different from the election five years ago when it could only garner around 7 percent of the votes. Although the party later formed a coalition with Golkar, the winner of the 2004 elections, it could do little to influence the House passing any proposals from Yudhoyono's administration, resulting in many of the government's planned policies being rejected during House sessions, and raising criticism Yudhoyono's government was not effective.

After the election, Yudhoyono stressed he wanted a strong coalition both in the executive and the House to ensure his next government could execute its programs without being hijacked by the legislators.

Lili, however, warned such a dominant ruling coalition could create a situation like that of Soeharto's New Order when the House simply acted as a rubber stamp for the government's programs.

"We need an opposition bloc as well in order to avoid a situation like the New Order era, in which the government dominated the parliament," he said.

A political analyst from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), J. Kristiadi, told The Jakarta Post that Yudhoyono's dominance in parliament would not lead to a situation that resembled the New Order's total hegemony. "During the New Order, there were no other political parties in parliament other than Golkar. Now, we have many to check the government," he said. (hdt)

SBY: three presidential candidates to contest July election

Jakarta Post - April 19, 2009

Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Sunday it was almost certain he would face former president Megawati Soekarnoputri in the presidential election once again, but with different vice presidential candidates.

"Almost certainly Ibu Megawati will be competing against with me. Almost certainly there will be another pair of presidential and vice presidential candidates," he said at his residence in Cikeas, Bogor,responding to a question about the possibility of a coalition with Megawati's party.

There is widespread speculation the other presidential candidate could be Prabowo Subianto, former commander of the Army's Special Forces.

According to quick counts and the interim official poll results, Yudhoyono's Democratic Party has won 20 percent of votes, followed by Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party.

Prabowo's Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) has collected about 5 percent, but Prabowo has managed to build a coalition with other smaller parties. The presidential election is slated for July 8.

At the same occasion, Yudhoyono stipulated five criteria for his next vice presidential candidate for the upcoming presidential election.

Speaking to reporters at his residence in Cikeas, Bogor, Yudhoyono said his potential running mate should first of all have strong personal integrity, with strong morality in politics.

Second, he said, the candidate should have the capacity to work as a vice president.

Next, the candidate must be loyal to the president as the head of state, and therefore the next vice president should be free from any vested interests.

"This vice president is different because he is going to be elected by the people. He must have a high capacity to coordinate and synergize the works of Cabinet ministers, in line with the president's policies," he said.

He added his next vice presidential candidate should be accepted by the majority of the people, and finally, with himself. Yudhoyono explained the five criteria were developed after talks with a number of leaders from other political parties.

Fun with blind-date democracy at the polling booth

Jakarta Post - April 19, 2009

Pandaya – Turning up at the polling station on last week's election day was like a great family outing for many people, especially those taking the once-every-five-year political event (pesta demokrasi) lightly.

The station set up in every neighborhood consisted of an open plastic tent and a row of open chest-high cubicles, thus allowing voters to look at and talk to each other, but not enabling you to steal a glance at which legislative candidate the person next to you had voted for.

In my neighborhood, the people in charge of the registry, security and an army of witnesses representing the numerous contesting political parties looked extremely relaxed. Nobody hurled insults at each other as some did during the street rallies.

Approaching the polling station, I almost fainted at the sight of a neighbor who once got very angry at me because my dog would furiously bark at him every time he passed by my house. In fact, I have apologized to him for my dog's nasty behavior, but apparently my pet will not forgive him for pelting him with stones and cursing him at every encounter.

To my surprise, that day he greeted my daughter Anggie, my wife Nuny and I with a smile. We were not sure if his smile was really sincere or designed just for that particular day, or if he would stop threatening my best friend.

In the booths, Nuny and Anggie were puzzled by the bulk of three ballot papers containing a litany of headshots of perfect strangers. Yes, it's real fun: Picking people you don't know to represent your interests in the House of Representatives, Provincial Legislative Council and Regional Representative Council.

"Hey, which one do you have to tick for the House member of your choice?" I heard my confused wife ask me, giggling.

"It's my secret," I smilingly replied.

"Is this Sylvia Sumarlin the daughter of Sumarlin, the minister during Soeharto's heyday?"

"Yes"

"OK, I'll vote for her."

A minute or two later, after browsing through the pages, she still was not sure whom to choose to represent her at the provincial legislative council.

"Ah, this man at the bottom looks Chinese," she held up the ballot paper and showed me the photograph of the man that had grabbed her attention, much to the amusement of the witnesses. "He has fair skin and slanting eyes. He is definitely my choice," she said, laughing.

On our way home, my florist wife said she chose the Chinese- looking candidate simply because she befriends many Chinese and because the Chinese constitute most of her clients!

Anggie, who celebrated the day as a first-time voter, burst in with a slightly different story. She said she had voted for candidates from a "nationalist party" she reckoned would grab at least 14 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives.

"I was following the priest's advice in his sermon last Sunday, remember?" she said.

Of course I did. This priest dedicated his routine sermon to giving a piece of his mind on the Communion of Indonesian Churches's (PGI) stand on issues pertaining to the general election. Interestingly, he didn't recommend Christian-leaning parties because the churches firmly believe in pluralism and in the Unitary State of Indonesia.

With no clue about almost all of the names, she chose the political party instead of picking a stranger. By doing so, she delegated the authority to choose the legislative candidates to the party. As for her DPD senator, she said she chose a woman bearing a "Western name".

The other day Pak Kumis, a neighbor of mine, who makes a living selling meatballs bakso, said he just couldn't stop wondering why none of the legislative aspirants who had bought votes had knocked on his door on the eve of the election and offered him cash, as they reportedly did in some regions.

"If they had, we would probably have had a familiar face or two to chose from and have forgotten the rest," he said. I cannot tell if he was only joking, but I do know pragmatic people who honestly admitted they would never turn down "political money" and they would give their vote to the most generous donor.

And I believe there has been some truth in this game. The earth- shaking early victory of President Yudhoyono's Democratic Party has been widely linked to the highly populist cash-for-the-poor program he fiercely defends.

To this day, all the funny stories from the polling booths left me wondering just how irrational people could be when the eventful day came to exercise their political rights. Now I know why major parties would do anything to recruit celebrities, from dangdut singers, comedians to sitcom stars as their legislative candidates, although this tactic has often met resistence from loyal cadres who think it steals their thunder.

The National Mandate Party (PAN) became a butt of national jokes for its legendary penchant for celebrities. Putting more than 30 of them on its candidate list, PAN has been nicknamed the National Artist Party (Partai Artis National) and looks proud of it, with pollsters forecasting a gain of 6-7 percent vote.

The Golkar Party, winner of the 2004 elections and seeing its gains plummet like falling stars, may learn from PAN's trick and recruit more comedians and sinetron stars to its legislative candidacy lineup in future elections.

Kalla's vice presidential candidacy gains support

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2009

Jakarta – A move to keep the duo of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla has gained further ground as Golkar Party leaders agreed Friday to let its provincial chapter heads select the running mate for Yudhoyono in the July election.

Golkar secretary-general Soemarsono said the party's plenary meeting Friday confirmed its coalition with Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.

"Provincial chapters will decide names of Golkar's vice presidential candidates during the party's special executive meeting on April 23," Soemarsono said after the meeting.

"They could propose a single candidate or more than two names to be offered to the coalition." Soemarsono said heads of the party's branches at regency level would be excluded from the process.

Last month Golkar chair Kalla declared his candidacy for the presidency with support from heads of the party's 33 provincial chapters.

He repeatedly reiterated his bid for the presidency during the open campaign ahead of the April 9 polls. In his campaign, Kalla boasted he was a "better and faster" leader.

Kalla admitted he made up his mind for the presidency following an insulting statement from an executive of the Democratic Party who predicted Golkar would only secure about 2.5 percent of the vote in the legislative elections.

Soemarsono said that a significant drop in support in last week's polls had caused the party to reconsider its quest for the presidency. "We must be realistic with the candidacy as we failed to meet our target of winning 20 percent of the votes in the legislative polls," he said.

Earlier in the day, Golkar executive Syamsul Muarif said the party might not disclose any vice presidential candidates, but would ask Kalla to lead a special team to negotiate with Yudhoyono. Previous surveys found that the ticket of Yudhoyono and Kalla would seal the race in just one round.

On Thursday Golkar's West Java chairman Uu Rukmana said the party's provincial heads would offer Kalla, media magnate Surya Paloh, advisory member Aburizal Bakrie, former chairman Akbar Tandjung, House Speaker Agung Laksono and Yogyakarta Governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X to Yudhoyono as choices for running mate.

Senior executive of the Democratic Party Taufiq Effendi admitted that the party was still waiting for confirmation from Golkar on the candidacy of Kalla as the running mate for Yudhoyono.

"Is Golkar going for Kalla or not? We still want to form a coalition with Golkar as it will build a strong government and we will take into account their vice presidential candidate," he said.

Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) deputy secretary general Fahri Hamzah said the Muslim-based party would quit the coalition with the Democratic Party if Yudhoyono took Kalla as his running mate.

"We might become an opposition or take an independent stance," Fahri said Friday. He said that the duo of Yudhoyono-Kalla was ineffective because of constant rifts between them.

PKS co-founder Hidayat Nur Wahid, asserted the party's bid to nominate a vice presidential candidate in the coalition with the Democratic Party would remain on the table. He said the PKS was the only party, aside from the Democratic Party, that had managed to increase its votes in last week's polls.

Suspicious transactions soar during polls

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2009

Jakarta Post, Jakarta – The Indonesian financial intelligence unit reported a sharp increase in suspicious transactions in the country's financial institutions during the election campaign, raising concerns on the legality of some political campaign fund sources.

The report from the Financial Transaction Reports Analysis Center (PPATK) shows that suspicious transactions, in domestic banks and in non-bank financial institutions, almost tripled from about 486 cases per month before the election campaign began in July 2008, to about 1.300 cases per month in the first three months of 2009.

"We have received more reports on suspicious transactions than last year, and the number of reports have jumped drastically since January," PPATK said in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The financial intelligence body said that it has submitted 666 cases to the police and Attorney General's Office after finding them to possibly involve corruption, money laundering and fraud. "Signs of possible corruption are what we found most among these suspicious transactions," it said.

These allegedly involve money transferred to politicians to finance political campaigns for the 2009 legislative and presidential elections.

"It must have been something to do with elections campaign funds. I think it is a way to get around the restrictions on campaign donations. PPATK should cooperate with the police and Bawaslu (the election monitoring body) to find out to which candidates the money went," Danang Widyoko of the Indonesia Corruption Watch said.

Election law puts a limit of Rp 1 billion on personal contributions and Rp 5 billion on company contributions to political parties. A transaction is considered to be suspicious if it involves, for example, a sudden transfer of money without clear explanations about the sender or the intended use of the funds.

Earlier, PPATK chairman Yunus Hussein said the suspicious transactions were an indication of possible money laundering cases in Indonesia, a country regarded as a target for international money laundering. He did not rule out the possibility that dubious transactions might be connected to political parties and related institutions.

PPATK also noted a sudden increase in cash transactions during the election period, raising suspicions that the funds may have been mobilized for the general elections. Money politics has been commonplace among political parties in Indonesia particularly ahead of and during national and local elections.

While poll monitors had reported suspected money politics practices and alleged violations of the election regulations pertaining to the maximum limits for corporate and individual contributions to political parties, no cases have come to court. This was attributed to weak data and poor financial investigations.

Yunus said his office would only be able to analyze and trace whether the financial transactions were channeled to political parties or politicians if the National Elections Commission (KPU) asks for help.

Yunus said he had asked the House of Representatives to complete the deliberations of a revised bill on PPATK, strengthening its role and authority to deal with suspicious transactions. If approved, the bill would allow the center to investigate suspicious transactions and to freeze assets.

On its seventh anniversary on Thursday, the financial intelligence body said it would cooperate with more government institutions to join forces to eradicate money laundering within the country.

Small parties vow to remain active despite poor vote tallies

Jakarta Globe - April 17, 2009

Muninggar Sri Saraswati & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Indonesian voters have made a firm decision on the fate of 29 national political parties that participated in last week's elections: None of them will play actively on the country's main political stage – the House of Representatives, that is – for at least the next five years.

All 29 parties gained less than 2.5 percent of the total national vote in the House section of the overall legislative elections. The Elections Law stipulates that parties with less than 2.5 percent are denied the chance to gain any seats in the House, even if their candidates topped the voting in their local electorates.

The law is aimed at limiting the number of factions in the House in a bid to simplify the political-decision making.

Many of the 29 parties gained even less than 1 percent of the national vote, reflecting the weak support of voters for the parties, most of which were established recently.

Ahmad Rofiq, the secretary general of the National Sun Party, or PMB, admitted that his party may not be able to reach the parliamentary threshold, although technically, it may have won nine seats in the House.

"We may not make it [to the House]. However, we will not close down our party because we are likely to get some seats in the provincial legislative councils and district councils," he said on Thursday.

As of Thursday evening, the General Elections Commission, or KPU, tally showed that PMB, a splinter group of the National Mandate Party, had gained as low as 0.40 percent of the total vote. The Indonesian Workers and Employers Party, or PPPI, also predicted it would not make it to the House. According to the KPU tally, the party has so far secured 0.74 percent of the vote.

Rudy Prayitno, the PPPI secretary general, said the party would continue its activities. "We will nurture this party," he said.

Amelia Yani, who chairs the National People's Concern Party, or PPRN, said her party, along with a number of other small parties, would push the Constitutional Court to allow parties that could not meet the parliamentary threshold to have their representatives in the House. "These parties could form one faction in the House," she said. The PPRN gained 1.13 percent of votes, according to the KPU tally so far.

Despite the lack of support from voters, these parties have insisted on supporting a presidential candidate in July. "We are still maintaining communications with other parties for the July elections," Rofiq said.

The apparent winner of the legislative elections this year, the Democratic Party, has not belittled these parties, regardless of their performance.

On Thursday, Democratic Party chairman Hadi Utomo announced that a number of parties had signed a contract with his party. The contract stipulates, among other things, securing the parties' political will to support Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the July presidential election.

Apart from the National Awakening Party, or PKB, which gained around 5 percent of the national vote, the other eight parties that signed the contract received less than 2.5 percent of the vote. They were the PMB, the PPPI, the Crescent Star Party, or PBB, the Pioneer Party, the Democratic Renewal Party, or PDP, the Concern for the Nation Functional Party, or PKPB, the Indonesia Justice and Unity Party, or PKPI, and the Prosperous Peace Party, or PDS.

Civil lawsuits against government, KPU begin pouring in

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2009

Jakarta – Civil society groups began filing lawsuits Thursday against the government and the General Elections Commission (KPU) over elections shortcomings.

The plaintiffs based their lawsuits on their disappointment with the voting process during the general elections. They deemed the elections fraudulent because many people were not listed in the voter lists and were thus unable to vote.

On Thursday, the Central Jakarta District Court held the first hearing between the People's Lawyers Union (SPR) against the President, the KPU and the home minister.

None of the defendants nor their representatives were present for the hearing, which SPR spokesman Habiburokhman called "very disappointing".

"We are very disappointed. We submitted the necessary files for this hearing a week ago, and the defendants' offices are not far from the court," he told reporters after the hearing.

Presiding judge Reno Listowo said the defendants might had missed the hearing because they were too busy with other matters, such as running the country.

"That's not a good enough reason, in my opinion, because they can at least send an official letter or representative. The government always fails to show up for the first hearing, which indicates they want to buy more time," Habiburokhman said.

Reno said the court could send a warning letter to the defendants to request their presence at the next hearing next Thursday. "If by then the defendants fail to show up, we will demand the court continue with the trial against them in absentia," Habiburokhman said.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs accused the defendants of violating Law no. 22/2007 and Article 22(e) of the 1945 Constitution on direct, honest and fair general elections by neglecting the inaccuracies in the voter lists.

"For that, we demand the court rule against the defendants – the KPU, the home minister and the President – and find them guilty for their violations," he added.

SPR brought the case to court on behalf of FX Arief Poyuono, a citizen who claimed he "almost had his constitutional right to vote robbed during the elections and had to fight (his) way through to earn (his) rights back".

Habiburokhman said despite being only one man, Arief represented Indonesians as a whole in the lawsuit. He added that neither his client nor the union demanded that revotes be held. "We're not looking for revotes," he said.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Legal Aid Association (PBHI) has also filed lawsuits and demanded another election for disenfranchised voters. PBHI chairman Syamsuddin Radjab told The Jakarta Post he had filed the lawsuit on Tuesday and expected the first hearing to begin by April 21.

Syamsuddin and representatives of other civil society groups claimed the government and the KPU had left around 45 million voters disenfranchised through sheer ignorance and negligence in drawing up and updating the voter lists.

The government and the KPU are likely to be on the receiving end of even more lawsuits, after the leaders of 13 political parties said recently they would collaborate to gather evidence for legal action over the elections irregularities. (hdt)

State rights body investigating KPU

Jakarta Globe - April 17, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran – The National Commission on Human Rights, or Komnas HAM, has confirmed that it is investigating allegations that the General Elections Commission, or KPU, violated the rights of up to 20 million citizens by depriving them of a chance to vote in last week's legislative elections.

"We have established a team to establish evidence of rights violations," Ridha Saleh, the Komnas HAM deputy chairman, said on Friday.

He said the commission had yet to decide if it would propose fresh elections for voters who were left off the final voters list.

"We will wait until the investigation is complete to decide," he said. "Our recommendations, as well as the results of the investigation, will be announced before the election results are released on May 9."

However, Abdul Hafiz Anshary, the KPU chairman, said that while he liked the idea of holding new polls, it would be impossible to do.

"The law does not allow us the option of conducting another election," he said on Friday. "It's a good idea, because we do really want all eligible voters to have the same opportunity, but we cannot do anything as it is prohibited by law."

The comments followed calls from a number of groups on Friday urging Komnas HAM to open an investigation into irregularities concerning the voters list.

"We want Komnas HAM to recommend a special election for those voters who were unregistered," said Ray Rangkuti, chairman of the Indonesian Civil Society Circle.

The grouping of NGOs and academics claimed that between 10 million and 20 million people were deprived of their right to vote. "The election was unconstitutional," Rangkuti said, adding that it was the KPU's legal obligation to carry out another poll for citizens left off the voters list.

Megawati meets more political leaders

Jakarta Globe - April 16, 2009

Muninggar Sri Saraswati – Former Finance Minister Rizal Ramli has demanded that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono replace all seven members of the General Elections Commission for failing to act independently.

His claims repeat those of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, which has alleged that the embattled commission, or KPU, favors Yudhoyono's Democratic Party and Vice President Jusuf Kalla's Golkar Party.

Ramli, who has previously compared Yudhoyono to former dictator Suharto and has called his status as a suspect for allegedly organizing an antigovernment protest that ended in violence "politically motivated," was speaking after a meeting with PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Ramli, who has aspirations for the presidency, has placed himself firmly in the opposition camp led by Megawati and including the Great Indonesia Movement Party, or Gerindra, headed by Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto, and the People's Conscience Party, or Hanura, headed by Gen. (ret.) Wiranto, aligning themselves against the incumbent president.

Also meeting with Megawati on Tuesday was former Home Affairs Minister Ryaas Rasyid who, like Ramli, said his discussions with the former president centered on the appalling state of the final voters list, which has been heavily criticized by observers as having failed to include numerous eligible voters while containing the names of the deceased, underage voters and even people not yet born.

On Tuesday, Ramli and other figures, including presidential hopefuls Wiranto and Prabowo, issued a statement criticizing the organization of the legislative elections, alleging possible fraud and questioning the independence of the KPU.

Ryaas also said that the final voters list was a very serious issue that needed to be thoroughly investigated.

"This cannot be settled simply by saying, 'Fine, we will fix the list for the presidential election.' This case must be settled," he said. "We should seek those who are responsible for it and the damage that has been done."

Ryaas reiterated that the problems involving the final voters list "were not natural."

Meanwhile, PDI-P secretary general Pramono Anung said that his party had instructed its branches in the regions to monitor the drawing up of temporary voters lists for the presidential election in July.

"We have instructed the branches to set up posts to receive complaints about the voters lists," he said. "Hopefully, the irregularities will not happen again in July."

Pramono said his party would hold a national working meeting next week aimed at naming Megawati's running mate. Among the potential candidates are Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, Akbar Tandjung and Surya Paloh from the Golkar Party, Prabowo and Hidayat Nur Wahid from the Prosperous Justice Party, or PKS.

Losing candidates begin to feel the stress

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2009

Jakarta – With the results of vote counting trickling in from across the nation many former legislative candidates have begun showing symptoms of stress and depression upon learning of their poor performance in the recent legislative election; some have even resorted to suicide.

The Center for Social, Narcotic and Mental Rehabilitation in Bungkanel, Karanganyar, Central Java, has admitted nine former legislative candidates exhibiting signs of mental disorders.

"The nine patients are from West and East Java. Sorry, it is unethical for us to give their identity," Supono Mustajad, director of the center, said Wednesday, as quoted by Antara.

Supono said several patients frequently talked in their sleep, asking for their money back because of their failure to gain a significant number of votes. "One patient wants to be nudist and another one keeps silent with horrifying visions," he said.

The center has 25 rooms with star rated hotel facilities and employs 11 doctors, including two psychiatrists.

The rate of occupancy at a psychiatric hospital in Surakarta has doubled from an average of 100 patients per day before the polls to 200 per day since the election.

The hospital's spokeswoman, Diah Sri Mawarti, however, declined to confirm or deny the admission of former candidates, saying the hospital did not make any distinction between politicians and other patients.

"They came here without any political attributes and they were identified based on their identity cards, not their status," she said.

Meanwhile, Kristofel Max, a Golkar Party legislative candidate who was running for a seat on the Kupang City Council in East Nusa Tenggara, is in critical condition at W.Z. Yohannis General Hospital after he was involved in a motorbike accident. The patient is suffering from a fractured neck and serious injuries to his face.

He admitted he was driving his motorcycle at a high speed after learning of his poor performance in the election. He said he borrowed a lot of money to finance his political campaign. "I spent too much but gained less because they [voters] did not vote for me," he said.

Dani, a nurse at the hospital, said the patient was suffering from major stress which led him to ride his motorcycle recklessly, causing a collision with an oncoming car.

More severely, Efrizal, a legislative candidate of the National Front Party (Barnas) in South Aceh, died of a heart attack in a hospital in Tapaktuan shortly after learning of his low vote tally. Chairman of the local chapter of Barnas, Zumardi, denied reports that the death was linked with election results.

Srihayati, a former legislative candidate from the National Awakening Party (PKB), committed suicide in Bangunjaya village, Langkaplancar, Ciamis, West Java. She received just 12 votes in the village.

Earlier in the week, two legislative candidates in Bali and Semarang died of heart attacks after vote counting at polling stations.

Nationwide, upwards of 1 million people from 38 national parties and six local parties in Aceh contended for a limited number of seats in provincial, regency and municipality legislatures, as well as the Regional Representatives Council and the House of Representatives. Each of them spent at least Rp 500 million (US$46 million) from their own pockets or bank loans to finance their campaigns.

Like many other former candidates, Yuniar, who was running for the Golkar Party in West Java, asked residents of Pasirjaya village in West Bogor district to return bank deposits worth Rp 50,000 each that he had given them, as he gained just one vote in the village.

A legislative candidate of the Democratic Party in Palembang similarly asked a group of Muslim women to return a set of Qasidah musical instruments she given in exchange for votes, as she failed secure a seat in the district.

[Yemris Fointuna contributed to this story from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.]

Economy & investment

Investors see Indonesian market as third most optimistic

Jakarta Post - April 20, 2009

Ika Krismantari, Jakarta – The Indonesian capital market has retained its position as the third most optimistic market in the Asia-Pacific region in the first quarter of this year.

A survey released last week by the Dutch financial services giant ING, placed Indonesia after India and China, strengthening its position as one of the stronger capital markets in the region, amid the global economic crisis that has sent most bourses in the world into turmoil. Last year, Indonesia also ranked third after China and India.

"The ongoing optimism is likely because investors felt that Indonesia's economy was cushioned to an extent by high commodity prices and fuel prices correction," ING Securities Indonesia president director Robert Scholten said in a text message.

He added the government's quick response to the global crisis by managing the country's economy well had also made investors more confident in Indonesia.

The survey measures and tracks investor sentiment and behavior every quarter from 13 Asia-Pacific markets, including China, Hong Kong, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Commenting on investor confidence in the Indonesia capital market, Mandiri Asset Management head of equity Kenny Soejatman said Indonesia had become a safe haven for investors.

"The political situation is relatively stable, even after the elections, and the economy is still growing, so there is no reason for investors not to invest here," he said.

The relatively peaceful legislative elections, coupled with early poll results that indicate the incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono may likely be re-elected, have received positive responses from the market.

The Jakarta Composite Index jumped 11.8 percent in the last two weeks, while the rupiah gained 7.1 percent this month, making it Asia's best-performing currency.

Despite the global crisis, the Indonesia economy is expected to keep growing by between 4 and 4.5 percent this year, relatively better than neighboring countries, where the economies may contract.

The Finance Ministry estimates the economy grew by between 4.3 percent and 4.8 percent in the first quarter of this year. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) will announce the official figure in May.

However, stock market analyst Felix Sindhunata suggested a touch of caution, warning it was still not clear who would run the administration for the next five years. "We must wait at least until the presidential election in July."

Despite the encouraging outlook on investor confidence in the Indonesian market, the ING survey also showed the investor sentiment index for Indonesia fell to 96 in the first quarter of this year from 109 in the fourth quarter last year, as investors were taking a conservative investment approach in the face of the worsening global economy.

"It's not surprising to see Indonesian investors remain conservative in their investment approach. This is after all not the first crisis to hit Indonesia, and most investors have learned their lesson," Scholten said.

Some of investors' views:

56 percent of Indonesian investors take a balanced investment strategy and continue to look for medium- to long-term growth with stable return.
51 percent do not know what investment decision to take and 32 percent claim they will invest less and reserve more cash.
83 percent are worried about job security.

Source: ING

Government to launch 'I love Indonesia' logo

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2009

Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – Indonesia will launch the "I Love Indonesia" logo, a move to encourage Indonesians to love and appreciate locally made goods and services, Minister of Trade Mari Elka Pangestu said Thursday.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is set to launch the logo on April 22 as a way to respond to the global economic downturn that has hit local industries hard, Mari said.

The move, Mari said, should not be translated as meaning support for protectionism, "It is more to encourage people to love and appreciate locally made goods and services."

The growth of domestic industries in the first quarter of 2009 is estimated to be between 1 percent and 1.5 percent lower than forecast, said Industry Minister Fahmi Idris. Fahmi said in February that industries in 2009 might expand between 3.6 percent and 4.6 percent on average during this year.

"In terms of volume, (tons of commodities) exports might only contract by 10 percent or less," said Mari while the value of exports might contract by up to 30 percent in 2009, but less if prices recovered.

According to the Finance Ministry the value of exports contracted by 39 percent during quarter one. The fall in exports and industrial growth has encouraged government to push harder to promote locally made products.

Fahmi said the government would talk to retail players to encourage them to display locally made products. "We will discuss about it. The solution will be (through) business to business schemes," he said.

He added the textile industry was the most affected by the global economic downturn, while the food and beverages sectors and the electronics industry could cope relatively well with the slowdown.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla has repeatedly encouraged ministers and businesspeople to use locally made products, particularly shoes.

Indonesia's economy is becoming more dependent on the domestic market to substitute for the impact of the decline in exports. Private consumption usually accounts for at least 60 percent of the economy.

Investment approvals down 99% in first quarter

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2009

Ni Komang Erviani, Denpasar – The Bali Investment Board has recorded a 99 percent drop in investment plans on the island in the first quarter this year.

In the first quarter of 2008, investment plans were valued at Rp 6.3 trillion, while in the same period this year the value of investment plans fell to Rp 53.5 billion or US$4.73 million.

Nyoman Suwirya Patra, head of the Bali Investment Board, told reporters Tuesday the drop in investment plans was due to the current global financial crisis.

"We recorded only 15 foreign investment plans valued about at Rp 53.5 billion in January, mostly in the textile industry, construction, trade and tourism-related busi-nesses," he said. Suwirya added there had been no domestic investment in Bali during February and March.

Around 57 percent of planned investment projects in the country are located in Badung, Buleleng and Gianyar regencies, and Denpasar municipality.

In 2009, the Bali provincial administration set an ambitious target of investment worth Rp 10.3 trillion despite the global crisis. "I am afraid we cannot achieve the target," Suwirya said.

He said he was pessimistic Bali could achieve the 2009 target because his office had also recorded unhealthy investment figures in 2008. In 2008, Bali set investment targets of Rp 11.2 trillion, but only 7.5 percent of this target was reached.

However, the head of the Badung Tourism Agency, Gede Subhawa, said he felt optimistic about the strength of the tourism industry in the region.

Badung is the richest regency in Bali, housing the island's top tourist destinations such as Nusa Dua, Kuta, Jimbaran, Seminyak and Legian. Subhawa said the average hotel occupancy rates in Badung remained at 50 to 60 percent, quite high considering the low holiday season.

"The financial crisis will not be as severe as the post-bombing period," Subhawa said.

Bali tourism industry suffered terrorist bomb attacks in October 2002 and October 2005. Hotels' occupancy rates hovered at between 10 and 30 percent as tourists prefered other destinations.

Following the attacks, the number of tourists dropped drastically with average hotel occupancy rates reaching only 10 to 30 percent of capacity.

Rainata Tjoa, marketing communications director of the Westin Hotel and Resort, admitted there had been a slight drop in reservations and corporate meetings. "But the number is not too significant," she said.

The Westin Hotel is currently hosting an international meeting on human trafficking.

Sugeng Purnomo, director of communications at the Laguna Resort in Nusa Dua, was also optimistic, saying the resort's occupancy rates at 50 to 70 percent were stable.

Indonesia central bank sees 2009 bank loans growth halving

Reuters - April 16, 2009

Dicky Kristanto, Jakarta – Indonesian bank loans' growth is expected to halve to around 15-16 percent in 2009 from about 30 percent last year, a deputy central bank governor said, amid a slowdown in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

Analysts said the slow loan growth was partly due to stubbornly high lending rates charged by banks as they seek to maintain profits and prepare for a possible spike in non-performing loans as the economy weakens.

A recent study by Bank Indonesia, the central bank, indicated that several sectors considered to face higher credit risk had seen slower loan growth, including manufacturing, farming and mining.

Annual loan growth in the mining sector, for example, fell to 17.9 percent in February from 35.5 percent in January, central bank data showed.

Given Indonesia's relatively under-developed corporate bond market, bank lending plays a crucial role in the domestic economy and accounts for the bulk of Indonesia's corporate debt.

Indonesia's domestic corporate bond market is equivalent to just 1.3 percent of GDP, compared to 35 percent in Malaysia, according to report by the Asian Development Bank.

"For the banking industry, 15-16 percent lending growth is still quite high in the current situation, while it is negative in other countries," Muliaman Hadad, a deputy central bank governor, said on Wednesday.

Indonesia held parliamentary elections last week and will hold a presidential election in July, with economic performance one of the top issues for voters.

The central bank has forecast growth of 3-4 percent in 2009, slowing from 6.1 percent last year as demand for exports slump.

Indonesia is far less dependent on exports than some of its neighbours because of its large domestic market. In a bid to spur domestic demand, the central bank has cut its benchmark interest rate BIPG by 2 percentage points to 7.5 percent, but the moves have largely failed to translate into lower bank lending rates.

Many banks have been reluctant to cut lending rates, citing the need to keep extra cash amid market uncertainty.

"We have excess liquidity but it does not mean that we will be able to (significantly) cut rates," said Sudaryanto Sudargo, a director at major lender Bank BRI (BBRI.JK), adding that "we have to be prudent."

For those seeking mortgage loans, lending rates can be as high as 18 percent, Teguh Satria, chairman of the Indonesian Real Estate Association (REI), told Reuters.

"Mortgage rates usually hover about 4 percentage points above the BI rate. So that they should have been around 11.5-12 percent. The fact is that the rates are now way above. The lowest rate now is 14 percent, it could even hit 18 percent. This is way too high," Satria said.

Lending rates for some consumer goods were even higher. Hafid Hadeli, finance director at PT Adira Finance (ADMF.JK), one of the country's largest automotive financing firms, said lending rates for motorbike loans were now fixed at around 20 percent. (Editing by Sara Webb)

Stronger private consumption to drive economic growth next year

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2009

Jakarta – Stronger growth in private consumption and recovering overseas demand will lead to higher economic growth for Indonesia next year, the central bank says.

In its economic outlook report for 2009-2014 published Wednesday, Bank Indonesia forecast economic growth to be between 4.5 and 5.5 percent in 2010. The forecast is in line with the government's recent figure of about 5 percent.

The GDP of Southeast Asia's largest economy was valued at US$433 billion last year.

BI estimates private consumption, including household con- sumption, will grow by 4-5 percent next year, up from 3.2-4.2 percent this year.

Private spending accounted for an average of 64 percent of Indonesia's GDP between 1998 and 2008, up from 58 percent between 1988 and 1997. "The characteristics of the economy tend to be domestic-demand-driven growth," the report said.

However, BI warned household consumption, the main driver of private consumption, would be in a more fragile state as it was heavily financed by labor income instead of savings, loans or other sources.

Around 60 percent of Indonesian workers are employed in the manufacturing, agricultural and mining sectors, which could be hard hit by the crisis, according to BI.

"The possibility of household consumption slowing in a significant way due to the impact of the global crisis should be closely watched because there is already a wave of layoffs following a decline in the performance of the export-oriented sector."

BI forecast export growth this year to contract by between 5.1 and 4.1 percent, while possibly growing next year at between 6.7 and 7.7 percent.

BI, however, emphasized the need for the government to immediately diversify the country's export market and goods in order to be able to meet the forecast. "Lack of overseas market diversification has caused export performance to be hit hard (by the crisis)," BI said.

Japan, the United States, Singapore, South Korea and China account for more than 50 percent of Indonesia's export sales.

BI also said Indonesia's export commodities, mainly raw natural resource goods, had also weakened export performance due to fluctuations in commodity prices.

Lower global commodity prices will also contribute to the easing in the country's notorious inflation. BI noted the main contributors for inflation next year will be an abundant disposable income due to the government's tax stimulus for companies and workers.

Analysis & opinion

The authorities and the media promote vigilantism in Aceh

Inside Indonesia No. 96 - April-June, 2009

Sarah J. Newman – On any given afternoon around the Lapangan Tugu, the large field nestled in between Syiah Kuala University and IAIN Ar-Raniry University in Banda Aceh, clusters of students can be seen hanging out together or having a snack at one of the little food stalls that start to appear there at that time of day. Groups of young men playing pick-up football seem to be the main focus of attention. But if you stroll slowly along the sidewalk, you start to notice hushed conversations between young couples. A young man and woman sitting close together, careful not to be too close.

Signs posted on the trees marking the periphery of the field admonish these young couples. "This is not a dating area!" reads one. Or "Attention! Extreme khalwat is prohibited here." This latter sign was posted by the Anti-Maksiat (Anti-Sin or Anti- Immorality) Committee of Darussalam, the neighbourhood that is home to these two state universities in Banda Aceh.

An evolving legal code

Khalwat, which is prohibited by this second sign, is a word adopted into Indonesian and Acehnese from Arabic. Its common usage in Aceh today refers to an unmarried and unrelated man and woman being alone together. These types of signs are common in areas such as the Lapangan Tugu where young people frequently gather. If you stay at the field until just before the call to prayer at sunset, sometimes you will see the "WH" (Wilayatul Hisbah) or syariah police drive around in their patrol car, using a bull horn to tell the young students to go home and pray.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that has special permission to enact syariah law in full. Qanun (Law) 14 of 2003 on khalwat was one of the first three syariah regulations passed by the Acehnese provincial government when permission to implement syariah was granted to Aceh following the fall of the Suharto government in 1998. Along with laws prohibiting gambling and the sale and consumption of alcohol, this qanun is seen as a symbol of Aceh's determination to reform its legal code under the influence of syariah regulations.

So far, however, change has been incremental rather than total. The first steps were taken in 1999, as part of the central government's attempts to find a solution to the decades-long conflict that had plagued Aceh. This first stage allowed for the implementation of syariah law exclusively for Muslims and allowed the local Acehnese government to pass laws that would govern Muslims' religious lives, custom, and education. Later in 2001, as part of an autonomy deal offered by the then President Habibie's government, the application of syariah law in Aceh was broadened by allowing Islamic courts, which formerly only dealt with issues of family and property law, to deal with criminal justice cases as well.

Informal policing

In addition to the qanun, Islamic courts, and syariah police, informal mechanisms of implementing syariah law have also developed in Aceh. Vigilantism and community surveillance - ordinary citizens "taking the law into their own hands" – have become increasingly common. As was suggested in a July 2006 International Crisis Group report on Islamic law and criminal justice in Aceh, "The zeal shown by the vice and virtue patrol [WH] in enforcing the [new syariah] regulations has encouraged a report-on-your-neighbour process and a kind of moral vigilantism."

Vigilantism in Aceh actually predates the formalisation of syariah law. As one Acehnese woman explained, "The Acehnese were already used to vigilantism [when syariah law was implemented]." However, as evidenced by a considerable number of newspaper articles that report on the common occurrence of vigilantism and citizen's arrest in suspected khalwat cases, vigilantism has come to be seen as one of the main methods of controlling and repressing sexuality and preventing khalwat in Aceh.

This growing trend of communities patrolling sexuality parallels the WH's own focus on issues of sexuality. Out of the 1,245 cases that the WH handled between January and May 2008, 491 cases (39 per cent) concerned alleged sexual misconduct. As an article in the Jakarta Post on 10 June 2008 explained, "[T]he sharia police officers frequently apprehend girls who wear inappropriate clothes and couples found together in public and deserted places."

Media provocation

From a legal perspective, the rise in khalwat vigilantism is quite troubling. Although national legislation, such as the recently passed Anti-Pornography Law, implicitly condones vigilantism, Qanun 14 on khalwat in Aceh explicitly states that citizens may not "main hakim sendiri" (take the law into their own hands). Despite this legal stance, khalwat vigilantism is being promoted in many ways, including in media coverage of such cases in local newspapers.

Articles on khalwat vigilantism, like many other news stories in provincial newspapers, are highly sensationalised. The articles often read like detective stories, the vigilante neighbours cast in the role of moral heroes wiping away sin from their village or neighbourhood. In many cases, the community simply "runs out of patience", as one newspaper put it, witnessing alleged khalwat crimes that inspire vigilante action.

In one Serambi Indonesia article on a khalwat case in May 2008, the reporter described a community's determination to find evidence of khalwat after breaking into a neighbour's house. At first, the vigilantes only found the woman, alone in her bedroom, wearing nothing but a sarong. But the vigilantes did not "lose their heads". They searched the house from top to bottom until they found a young man hiding above the ceiling.

Despite the violence that ensued, the newspaper supported the vigilantes' actions by glorifying their role in the story.

Another case in May 2008 involving two Syiah Kuala University students caught having sex in a musalla (prayer room) on the IAIN Ar-Raniry campus received a lot of attention, both on campus and in the newspapers. The students were caught by a fellow university student who, as Serambi Indonesia reported, had been following them that particular afternoon out of "curiosity" about what the couple was up to. The article set up the typical dichotomy of moral protector or vigilante versus sinner, reporting on the case almost exclusively from the perspective of the student who caught the couple. The young man involved explained that he didn't "know why [he] was able to do something like that [commit khalwat]". And the female student said that she simply "couldn't deny the wishes" of her boyfriend. Portraying them as morally weak served to suggest that these two young people were deserving of surveillance and supervision.

Ongoing surveillance

It is not just catching the suspected khalwat couples that is valued in Aceh. It is also important to keep up the monitoring of one's village or neighbourhood. Neighbours will spy on a suspected couple until the early hours of the morning, just to confirm their suspicions, as a way of justifying their subsequent vigilante actions. Such was the case, as reported in Serambi Indonesia on 1 June 2008, when a few concerned neighbours waited outside a house until 4am so that they could catch the suspected couple "in the act".

The authorities quoted in newspaper articles reflect almost unanimous support for this type of community surveillance. As the Human Relations Officer at the Office of Syariah Law in Banda Aceh stated in a Serambi Indonesia article of 5 June 2008, "violations can be minimised if all citizens are proactive".

The promotion of community surveillance comes at a time when funding for the WH is very limited. As a result, many of their efforts have shifted away from enforcement to raising awareness and promoting surveillance at the village level.

In Banda Aceh, the guilt for khalwat crimes is often assumed to lie with outsiders – university students who come to the capital from elsewhere in the province for their studies, or "orang kampung" (villagers) who come looking for work. This emphasis not only implies that the moral stain is from outside the community in question, but it also justifies vigilante actions as a way of protecting the local community.

It is also often the unrestrained sexuality of the woman that is seen as the reason for cases of khalwat. Women connected to khalwat cases are often described in very sexualised terms, emphasising their improper appearance or describing them as "naughty". A WH officer in North Aceh said in a Serambi Indonesia article of 1 June 2008, that he hoped "citizens who have young, female children can watch over [these girls] more strictly so that religiously prohibited acts will no longer be committed".

What seems to be common in informal conversations and newspaper articles alike is a focus on the immorality, but not the illegality, of khalwat. This distinction is important, because it is the focus on morality that promotes vigilantism, even though it is clearly prohibited by the legislation on khalwat in Aceh. Although it remains unclear what the implications of promoting vigilantism might be, this type of action potentially undermines the development of the democratic process in Aceh because it validates and encourages informal and often illegal forms of law enforcement.

Meanwhile, back on the Darussalam campuses, student life seems to be continuing as usual. Couples still spend their afternoons along the field, pretending to watch football. Every so often, I catch sight of a bold young couple who dare to hold hands. But generally, a strict distance is kept, as no-one ever knows when watchful eyes will see something that inspires vigilante action.

[Sarah Newman (sarahjnewman@gmail.com) is an Oberlin Shansi Fellow at Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh, lecturing in English.]

Islamic parties have long been at an impasse

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2009

Bahtiar Effendy, Jakarta – If and when the results of the general elections are officially announced, it will only solidify the fact that Islam is no longer an important factor in Indonesian (partisan) politics. In fact, this is no novel assessment.

But, regardless of the fact that the likelihood of it becoming less important was growing, the thinkers and activists behind Islamic parties failed to take the necessary measures to prevent this from happening. And perhaps they still do not understand the sources of the problems.

As far back as 1970s, the importance of Islam in politics had begun to decline in Indonesia. Since then, Islamic parties have never enjoyed the same position they once held, especially during the early 1950s to mid-1960s. In those years, Islamic parties comprising Masyumi, Nahdlatul Ulama, PSII and Perti (plus two unimportant parties: Tarekat Islam and AKUI), controlled almost 44 percent of seats in parliament.

In fact, Sjahrir, the leader of the Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI) and three times premier of the revolutionary Cabinet, had predicted that if free elections were to be held in 1946, the Islamic parties (then represented solely by Masyumi) would obtain 80 percent of the vote.

The electoral strength of Islamic parties was also reflected in the executive branch of government. Following the transfer of authority from the Netherlands to Indonesia in 1949, Islamic parties such as Masyumi and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) were entrusted by Sukarno – on several occasions – to help form the government. However, it was only the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), Sukarno's very own party, which had more opportunities to lead.

Forty-four percent was hardly a dominant political force. But, given the performance of Islamic parties in parliament as well as government, no doubt they were parties of great importance. Indeed, they were a major political force that had shaped and influenced the country's national development.

The decline of their importance began when the New Order government chose to adopt a non-competitive system of government. This regime, coupled with elections where intimidation, coercion, fraud, and deceit were integral, served as the main reasons for the dramatic decline of the electoral strength of Islamic parties.

Collectively, in the 1971 elections, Islamic parties gained only 27.11 percent of votes. When they were transformed into the United Development Party (PPP), they were able to marshal slightly more support in the 1977 elections, gaining 29.29 percent. But, this figure dropped significantly in the 1987 elections, to 15.97 percent.

Surely, the New Order's authoritarianism played a pivotal role in the defeat of political Islam. In the 1999 elections – the first elections to be held after Indonesia was transformed into a democratic state in 1998 following Soeharto's departure from office – 10 Islamic parties collectively managed to obtain 37.59 percent of the vote. Five years later, in the 2004 elections, together seven Islamic parties did slightly better, receiving 38.35 percent of the vote.

But these heartening figures could be misleading. Unlike in the 1950s and 1960s, when Islamic ideology was rigorously upheld, post-Soeharto Islamic parties seem to have lost interest and commitment to ideology. Islam appears only to be something formally used as a party basis, but fails to serve as a factor that differentiates Islam parties from the rest.

In fact, two medium-sized parties such as the Nation Awakening Party (PKB) and National Mandate Party (PAN), which owed their emergence to Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah (Indonesia's two largest Islamic organizations), respectively, now refuse to be labeled as Islamic parties.

If their electoral gains are excluded from the equation, the electoral strength of Islamic parties was only 17.86 percent (1999) and 21.34 percent (2004). This increase was due to the dramatic performance of the Prosperous-Justice Party (PKS) that collected 7.34 percent of the vote in 2004 – an increase of more than 600 percent compared to what they got in the 1999 elections (1.36 percent).

The results of the April 9 elections are still weeks away. Yet the interim official results do not seem to differ from the quick counts. It is been generally perceived that the electoral strength of political Islam is dwindling. Only four Islamic parties are likely to be in parliament: PKS, PAN, PPP, and PKB. Others such as the Crescent Star Party (PBB) or the Reform Star Party (PBR) would not pass the 2.5 percent electoral threshold.

Together, these four Islamic parties could claim around 24 percent of the vote. Should PAN and PKB refuse to be identified as Islamic parties, the electoral strength of Islamic parties would deplete further to only 13 or 14 percent.

Even though PKS actually gained an increase of a little over 1 percent, it is generally regarded as stagnant considering the seriousness of its campaigns.

In all likelihood, it can be assumed that Islamic parties have performed poorly. The main reasons have been largely classical.

First, the inability of Islamic parties to translate ideological identity into concrete programs. This has either created a sense of fear among many voters or sent a signal that Islam does not actually serve as a defining factor in politics. So, there is no difference between "religious" and "secular" parties.

Second, like other parties, Islamic parties suffered internal rifts and disunity. This has not only made the mobilization of resources (both internally and externally) difficult, but also made a bad impression that the parties do not practice what they preach, since Islam emphasizes unity and brotherhood.

Third, the failure of thinkers and practitioners to realize the state has changed substantially from being ideologically driven in the 1940s and 1950s, to pragmatist now. In such a state, material wellbeing is seen as more important than spiritual wellbeing.

If there were any new lessons to be learned from this election, it was that none of the existing Islamic parties had experienced, strong, and respected leaders. The lack of charismatic and capable figures like Mohammad Natsir, Prawoto Mangkusasmito, Mohammad Roem, Wahid Hasyim, Idham Cholid, Subchan ZE, Zamroni (and many others) made constituents turn their heads to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono or even Megawati Soekarnoputri.

In short, unless and until Islamic parties are able to realize these factors and are willing to adjust accordingly their futures will remain on hold.

[The writer is a professor of political science at the State Islamic University (UIN), Jakarta.]

Army generals close ranks

Jakarta Post Editorial - April 17, 2009

It is a rude awakening in politics: Those who voted in the April 9 legislative elections may now find their favorite parties seeking alliances with partners who are not to their liking.

But, coalitions are nothing new to elections. Nor, as Lord Palmerston once said, is there such a thing as an eternal ally or a perpetual enemy in politics. Only interests are eternal and perpetual, the British statesman said. So, it follows that the enemies of one's enemies are one's friends.

This is what's been happening in front of us this week. Those who voted for nationalist-secular parties such as PDI-P (the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) may have felt their choices have been spoiled by looming coalitions with two ultra- nationalists clouded with past military abuses.

PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri is moving closer to retired army generals Prabowo Subianto and Wiranto, chairs to the newcomer Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), respectively.

The generals were among some 20 party leaders and 10 public figures, including former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, who met in the house of Megawati in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

At the meeting they had asked deadly question: Were the legislative elections legitimate? 10 million people had been robbed of their right to vote, they said, because among other reasons their names had not been on the electoral roll.

A score of rights activists present at the gathering threatened to file a civil lawsuit against the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the government, for what they perceived to have been the worst elections since 1999.

To be fair, Indonesia is one of the most complex places to conduct elections in the world, involving 171 million registered voters in 33 provinces and 471 regencies, and with 77 major election districts. The electoral roll has been one major headache for the KPU in the lead up to the elections.

On other end of the political spectrum, incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's secular Democrat Party (PD) is inviting potential partners including Islamic parties such as the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

And judging from the results of the April 9 elections (where people voted overwhelmingly for nationalist-secular parties), if this alliance clicks it could be disastrous for PD in the July presidential election. If PD forges an alliance with Islamic parties, more voters, including the minority non-Muslim voters, will abandon it.

This is one of the epithets of Indonesian politics, showing that the public is still inclined to choose a leader based on personality – a notorious hangover from our feudal past. The other is an apparent absence of ideology.

The government is faced with an urgent problem on its doorstep. In the worst case scenario, some party leaders may refuse to sign the results of the legislative elections or demand repeat elections. Any delays would in turn cause further delays to the presidential election.

If this happens, God forbid, there will be a power vacuum when Yudhoyono's presidential tenure expires in October – and there would be no law to refer to in handling such a turn of events. As such, anything could happen.

SBY gains wider support: What will happen next?

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2009

Jusuf Wanandi, Jakarta – The people have spoken. Although many mistakes were made by the General Elections Commission (KPU) and minor disturbances and irregularities took place, the April 9 legislative elections in general have been peaceful and fair.

As predicted in many surveys over the last few months, the Democratic Party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has become the number one party in parliament.

According to quick counts by several survey institutions, the party gained about 20 percent of votes, or triple the support it got in 2004. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party came in second and third, each garnering around 14 percent of popular votes. They are the three first-tier parties, and they all are nationalist.

The rise of the Democratic Party stemmed from SBY's popularity, which masked a very weak party machine. SBY has achieved wide popular support due to his populist policies that were acceptable to the people.

Those policies have not contributed to overcoming unemployment or eradicating poverty, although they do not seem to matter to the people during the elections. They also can create a lot of damage in the future, and SBY's government may be ill-prepared for a real downturn in the Indonesian economy due to the continuing crisis. It is expected the crisis will exert a greater impact still on the economy in June or July.

In the meantime, SBY has greater leverage now to choose his vice presidential candidate, because only the Democratic Party will be able to reach the parliamentary threshold of 20 percent of seats. But it will become more difficult for him to form a majority coalition in parliament that could make or break his programs in the next five years.

Support for the PDI-P declined by 5 percent from 2004 (from 19 percent to 14 percent), while Golkar experienced a greater fall, by 7 percent, from 21 percent in 2004 to 14 percent this year. As the main opposition party, the PDI-P could not dent SBY's popularity in the eyes of the people outside their true believers, because of the "teflon" impact their attacks (and those of other parties) had on SBY.

Golkar's decline was due to their late efforts to consolidate the party, although the poor results of last year's regional elections for governors in many regions, especially in North Sumatra and West Java, should have been a warning. Golkar was also unable to capitalize on the achievements of the government to boost their popularity, as SBY and the Democratic Party did.

The second tier of parties is led by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), who only gained 1 percent more than they did in 2004. In the end, the urban middle class who previously supported the PKS appear to have had second thoughts when they saw how the PKS governor in West Java created havoc by banning the performance of a popular folk dance like jaipongan. Furthermore, their role in the anti-pornography legislation and support for sharia law as a legal benchmark in more than 50 regencies is being watched closely.

But the more interesting question now is what will happen next.

With SBY's popularity and the achievement of the Democratic Party in the legislative elections, SBY is naturally the favorite to win the presidential election. And it is now up to him to look for his VP candidate and to form his coalition, which he needs to craft a parliamentary majority to push his programs through.

Creating a coalition will not be difficult for him because the smaller parties will want to join the government, but it will be another matter to ensure these parties will consistently support his programs. Who will he invite as his VP? Several times during the campaign he tried to persuade Jusuf Kalla from Golkar to stay on as his VP, but Kalla was unable to commit because he was dependent on his party's decision.

Of late, however, Kalla has given indications he will join SBY as VP and will bring Golkar back into the coalition in parliament to support the new government under SBY. In doing so, he will prevent the PKS becoming SBY's closest partner in the coalition. SBY has been especially weak toward moves by conservative Muslims to impose sharia law on the pluralist and nationalist state based on Pancasila. The PKS has tried to portray itself as a non- Islamic party, but the trust that non-Muslims need to fully accept this party in the same manner as they have accepted the PAN and the PKB is not there yet, especially in the party's genuine support for a pluralistic Indonesia. In addition, the decision-making process in that party is not transparent.

SBY's need to secure a majority in parliament to support government policies is the main bargaining point for Kalla and Golkar. Kalla still has to deal with dissenting views within Golkar, but most of the factions and their leaders have always preferred to be in the government rather than outside it.

The PDI-P, meanwhile, is crafting a coalition with Gerindra and Hanura. It should be aware the two leaders of those parties are still under a political cloud due to their past military abuses in Jakarta and East Timor. This could be a great liability for the PDI-P and Megawati in the presidential election.

But it is good for the PDI-P to participate in the presidential election to show that democracy is alive in Indonesia and that there is opposition to SBY in the election and in parliament. It will be an uphill battle for the PDI-P to win, but they have been in opposition before and have done this very effectively. They also have the trust of a decent number of people in building a nationalist state.

[The writer is vice chairman of the CSIS Foundation's board of trustees.]