Sidoarjo – About 100 mud flow victims from Besuki Timur village, Jabon district, Sidoarjo, East Java, staged a rally on Tuesday, blocking one of the alternative roads connecting Kalitengah village and the damaged toll road.

The victims demanded the Sidoarjo administration provide public facilities like schools, mosques, sport centers and cemeteries.

They said they wanted to have a normal life, as they had before Lapindo mud flow hit their village and demolished their houses, as well as the village's public facilities.

Rally coordinator Slamet said the villagers were finding it difficult to bury their relatives' bodies.

"People from other villages do not allow us to bury our relatives at their public cemetery. They gave no clear reason why we were prohibited from doing so."

The rally, which caused traffic jams along Kalitengah road, ended after police agreed to send the protesters' proposal to the Sidoarjo administration.

Rallies in Jakarta on Wednesday likely to cause traffic trouble

Jakarta Globe - October 14, 2009

Jakarta Police's Traffic Management Center has warned drivers that there may be traffic snarls in Jakarta on Wednesday due to several planned protests.

University students will stage a rally in front of the Corruption Eradication Commission office on Jalan Rasuna Said, Kuningan, at 11 a.m. The student group, named the Movement To Save People's Money, or Gempur, consists of members from at least two universities.

The second rally at the commission, known as KPK, is planned for 1 p.m. and is being held by the Corruption Eradication Movement, which consists of students from 10 universities.

According to police, there are also demonstrations planned in front of the parliament building and the State Audit Agency building on Jalan Gatot Subroto between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Drivers are advised to avoid the areas because traffic delays are expected.

Demos to target palace, election commission and police HQ

Detik.com - October 7, 2009

Didi Syafirdi, Jakarta – Five protest actions and one silent action will enliven Jakarta today. In order to avoid traffic jams, road users are asked to stay clear of stretches of road in the vicinity of the demonstrations.

According to information obtained from the Metro Jaya regional police Traffic Management Center (TMC) for Wednesday October 7, the first action will take place at 9am at the Horse Statue traffic circle in front of the State Palace on Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara.

A demonstration will also take place at the offices of the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Jl Imam Bonjol in Central Jakarta.

Also at the same time, an action will be held in front of the Nikko Hotel on Jl. MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta, in the shape of a solidarity campaign for the prevention of leprosy.

Then at 10am, protesters will hold demonstrations at the KPU, the Constitutional Court followed by the National Police headquarters.

At 1pm a protest action will be held at the Jakarta City Hall, which will be continued at the Buddha Bar restraint.

Also at the same time, demonstrations will be held at two other locations, namely the West Irian Jaya liaison office on Jl. Cilosari in Central Jakarta and at the office of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). (did/lrn)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Traffic havoc after armed residents block road to stop eviction

Jakarta Globe - October 8, 2009

Azis Edward – Anticipating a forced eviction, hundreds of residents blocked a road in Cakung Cilincing, North Jakarta, on Thursday morning armed with molotov bombs and sharpened sticks to defend their homes.

The road blockade lasted for three hours and brought traffic in the area to a standstill. Hundreds of vehicles were backed up from the obstruction.

Cheryl, a university student, said she had been stuck for three hours and was forced to miss her class. A housewife named Ani, who was driving her son to school, decided to abandon her car and walk to escape the traffic.

The angry locals had threatened to set fire to vehicles, but started to calm down and ended the road block after North Jakarta Police Chief Senior Commissioner Rudi S warned them to either move or face charges. Police decided to delay the eviction.

The eviction was the result of a legal tug of war between the residents and a man named Makbul, who has claimed he had a legal certificate showing that the two hectares of land where the residents have built their homes belongs to him.

The residents have denied the claim and said that they are the rightful owners of the land because they have lived there for 15 years. However, they do not have any legal papers to confirm their claim.

The conflict began in 2008, and Thursday was the second time that an eviction of the neighborhood was delayed. The eviction was first scheduled to take place in August but it was delayed due to the Islamic fasting month.

Activists rally to demand free ride on toll road

Jakarta Post - October 8, 2009

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – Dozens of the Kaukus Peduli Jalan Tol (Toll Road Concerned Caucus) activists rallied outside the office of Cikupa-Merak toll road operator PT Marga Mandala Sakti (MMS) in Cikupa, Tangerang on Thursday to protest a 58 percent increase in toll rates.

"We warn the operator against collecting money from commuters until the toll road and its facilities are repaired," rally coordinator Uyus Setiabakti said.

The protesters were about to unfurl a banner which read "Gratiskan Jalan Toll" (Free Toll Road) at the Cikupa toll gates but hundreds of police officers foiled them.

During the rally, the activists also demanded that the government terminate the contract awarded to PT MMS, discipline police officers who frequently collected illegal levy on the toll road and conduct a laboratory test on materials used by the company to build the toll road.

In response to the protest, PT MMS spokeswoman Indah Permanasari said the activists had barked up the wrong tree.

"We are just the operator and the toll rate hike is already final because the government has decided it," she said. She added the company was conducting a major reconstruction of the Tangerang- Merak toll road, which is expected to finish in 2014.

Aceh

Human rights watch calls Shariah stoning law in Aceh 'torture'

Agence France Presse - October 13, 2009

A new law mandating death by stoning for adulterers in Indonesia's deeply Islamic Aceh province advocates "torture" and should be overturned, US-based group Human Rights Watch said Monday.

"Stoning and flogging constitute torture in any circumstances," Human Rights Watch Asia head Elaine Pearson said in a statement.

"Imposing these draconian punishments on private, consensual conduct means the government can dictate people's intimate lives."

The law – which also allows punishments of up to 400 lashes for child rape, 100 lashes for homosexual acts and 60 lashes for gambling – was passed unanimously last month by lawmakers in the staunchly Islamic region.

It has yet to be approved by the provincial governor and is opposed by the central government in Jakarta.

The law, based on local interpretations of Islamic or sharia law, is supposed to replace elements of Indonesia's criminal code. It allows the death penalty for a married person and 100 lashes for an unmarried person found guilty of adultery.

Human Rights Watch urged the central government and a new incoming local parliament in Aceh to overturn the law.

A foreign ministry spokesman, Teuku Faizasyah, told AFP the law would not come into effect without the approval of Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, who has stated his opposition to the law.

"Even if local government approves it, if the central government thinks it's not in line with national law, the central government can ask it to overturn or annul the law," he said.

"The central government wants to make it clear that the law and legislation at the provincial level should not in any way contradict the law and legislation promulgated at the national level."

Aceh had previously adopted a milder form of sharia law in 2001 as part of an autonomy package from Jakarta aimed at quelling separatist sentiment.

Nearly 90 percent of Indonesia's 234 million people are Muslim, but the country also has significant Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Confucian minorities. Most local Muslims practise a moderate form of the religion.

Miss Indonesia shames us all, cry Aceh's clerics

Jakarta Globe - October 12, 2009

Nurdin Hassan, Banda Aceh – In the latest religious dispute out of Aceh, a prominent group of Islamic clerics has denounced newly crowned Putri Indonesia Qori Sandioriva for "bringing shame" to the province by abandoning its conservative Muslim values on her way to winning the title.

Sandioriva, 18, who was born in Jakarta but has an Acehnese mother, beat out 37 other contestants from 33 provinces to win the pageant on Friday. She will represent Indonesia in the 2010 Miss Universe Pageant.

Aceh's Daya Ulema Association criticized Sandioriva for not wearing a jilbab during the competition or observing other norms of Shariah law. Granted special autonomy, the province strictly adheres to Shariah law.

"We are not bothered by the Putri Indonesia contest. What bothers [us] is why she represented Aceh, but did not reflect the values and culture of the Acehnese people who are well-known for their Islamic faith," said Teungku Faisal Ali, the association's secretary general.

"Dayah [and all ulema regret that a contestant representing Aceh did so without representing Aceh's values."

The province has imposed partial Shariah law since 2001, and expanded it further under a 2006 autonomy law. However, the province's laws must not violate existing national laws or the Constitution, a situation that has created legal tussles.

Last month, Aceh's provincial legislature passed a bylaw mandating that adulterers be stoned to death, which drew protests from human rights groups and brought embarrassing international media attention. Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf has refused to sign the new bylaw.

Regardless, the uproar over Putri Indonesia has shown that some groups in Aceh continue to flex their muscles in support of its autonomy, even though the pageant doesn't have a swimsuit competition.

Faisal said Sandioriva shouldn't have represented Aceh because her father is Sundanese and she studies at the University of Indonesia near Jakarta.

Sandioriva, who finished in the top five in both the gown competition and the interview segment, said she received permission from the Aceh government to compete, given that the province doesn't have a selection process for Putri Indonesia.

"If it is true the Aceh government gave her permission, then their commitment to enacting Shariah is questionable," Faisal said, adding that Acehnese contestants should only show their face, palms and feet.

In reply to a question, Sandioriva told the pageant's host, Charles Bonar Sirait, that she didn't feel the need to wear a jilbab or veil. "Hair is beauty, and I am proud of beauty," she said.

The controversy may return next year when Sandioriva competes in Miss Universe, which has a swimsuit competition.

"Promoting Aceh should not be done by showing genitalia, especially when she competes for the Miss Universe title, which surely will disgrace Aceh even more," Faisal said.

Sandioriva's win was a hot topic among local Facebook browsers over the weekend, with many supporting the new beauty queen but most reprimanding her for not wearing a jilbab.

Painful memories of tsunami for people of Aceh

The Australian - October 10, 2009

As the people of West Sumatra gather the ruins of their lives around them and slowly start again, forced to accept there are bodies that will never be recovered from last week's earthquake and landslides, residents of Aceh can only watch with sorrow and understanding.

They have seen it all before – only far, far worse – and they know there is no point giving up or looking back. Banda Aceh storekeeper Radiah Abdullah puts it as well as anyone: "We just have to accept what Allah gives us."

Mrs Abdullah survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami by sheer good luck. Seven months pregnant, she climbed to the top floor of a neighbour's three-storey house as the ocean roared towards her at 300km/h, and then on to a nearby giant electricity company generator barge driven 5km inland by the raging waters.

Her husband, at a popular recreational angling spot at the time, perished. His body was never found. Their now four-year-old son, when asked what he understands of his disappearance, says simply: "My father is fishing. He's not coming home."

The barge on which Mrs Abdullah took refuge that day remains where it came to rest on top of an unknown number of bodies, a monument to the massive toll – 126,000 died in Sumatra alone, and about 350,000 in all the affected countries – and the random nature of fate.

The land around it has been reserved, never to be built on. A peace park winds its way along one side, children playing on monkey bars among neatly arranged gardens and, at one end, a small kiosk houses a display of the horrors of that Boxing Day morning and the days that followed.

It is not possible to sanitise the past when the past is this bloody. An exhibition of explicit photographs, slowly fading reddish from the sun but still all too clear, is reminder enough of what everyone here lived through.

Four dead infants, lined up alongside each other, faces undamaged, beatific. Row upon row of bloated humans, arms sticking straight up at wrong angles in the death rigor, laid out in the sun as the living peer desperately across, searching for the missing. Piles of bodies stacked in disorder on the backs of trucks, waiting to be disposed of.

A visitor from Lhokseumawe, more than 300km to the south, clicks her tongue, muttering as she moves from one photo to the next. "It's just sad, so sad." Her young daughter is with her, silent.

And still these pictures do not tell of the awful stench that hung in the air across Banda Aceh in those days, the greasy death perspiration that trickled down the skin, the putrid, rancid mud that was in everything, the sight of dogs feeding on human corpses by the side of the road. These things were all real.

Council worker Mohammad Kasim supervised the burial of 46,718 people in a mass grave in Ingin Jaya district. He knows exactly how many went into the ground "because I made a note of every one that came here, each time new ones came, and we dug holes, 8m deep, and into each hole went as many as 300 bodies". He paces out a space 4m by 4m to illustrate. "That's how big each hole was. For 300 bodies. We dug them with backhoes."

The Ingin Jaya mass grave has become a memorial park, with a concrete wave sculpture more than 12m tall rearing up in one corner. Visitors are constant. A small group of men and women sits in the shade of a hut, singing verses from the Koran in low voices. Prayer here is the order of the day.

During the just-finished Muslim holy period of Idul Fitri, the joyous climax to Ramadan when wrongs are forgiven and peace made with the past, this park swarms with people.

Few can be sure if they're at the right spot, the place where their father or mother or sister or brother or next-door neighbour is buried. It's not the only mass grave in Banda Aceh – just the biggest. And in those early days of the crisis, when civil administration was wiped out and public health a far greater priority than social nicety, if you couldn't find a loved one quickly, you weren't likely to ever discover which hole they'd been shovelled into.

Memorials to the disaster are dotted across the worst-hit parts of Banda Aceh, some of them remarkably reminiscent of the war memorials of country Australian towns, with names chiselled on marble to remember those who never returned.

Everywhere, across a city that was in places wiped out, buildings have sprung up again, all bright red-and-blue tiled and corrugated zinc roofs. In the first days of the emergency you could see clear to the coast from kilometres away, because the trees and houses that had been there no longer stood.

Now they are back, each construction proudly declaring which part of the world sponsored its return to life, as billions of dollars in aid and reconstruction money flowed in to Aceh.

A madrasah – a Muslim school run by the Religion Department, under the two-tier Indonesian education system – has been built by Islamic Relief and Austcare, and funded by the Wollongong Community, according to its foundation stone.

But the death memories never go away. Everything in Aceh now is measured by a new scale, one whose starting point is piles of bodies scattered across the city and the countryside, and across dreams. Across nightmares.

The labourers at the Lhokgna memorial park want to know how the bodies produced by West Sumatra's disaster last week compare to those of Aceh.

"There, they are crushed or they are buried. You don't even see them. Here, they were carried on the water, scattered, left wherever they fell," says one. "They were everywhere."

For Mrs Abdullah, the news from Padang and the hillside areas of Pariaman and even further north, where hundreds died in landslides triggered by the earthquake, was like a spear through the heart.

"I cried, I couldn't say a thing; I cried remembering what happened to me back then," she says. "Now it's our neighbours and our brothers and sisters who are experiencing it."

Retired civil servant Syamsuddin Mahmud says that even though his own tsunami trauma is over, watching the grief of Padang over the past week and a half brought back much of the pain.

"We saw it on TV, for a week people who couldn't get out (of ruined buildings), trapped people crying for help; this is what was so sad," he says. "For Acehnese, the suffering lasted 15 minutes and then you were dead."

And as the shock and pain recede, West Sumatra will begin facing its huge reconstruction challenge.

Aceh's stoning bylaw draws more criticism from clerics

Jakarta Post - October 8, 2009

Jakarta – The debate about whether to review Aceh's bylaw that allows adulterers to be stoned heated up Tuesday, with religious leaders voicing their objection to the enactment of the law.

General secretary of the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace, Johannes Hariyanto, said that the bylaw, which was passed by the Aceh legislative council in September, went against the constitution.

"The bylaw is not based on Indonesia's constitution, but on a law that originated outside the country."

Eighty religious leaders, representing religions and beliefs from around the archipelago, attended the conference held in Jakarta from Monday to Tuesday, urging the President to review the bylaw.

The leaders also demanded that other laws and regulations hampering the freedom of religion in the country be reviewed.

Johannes said that although the constitution guaranteed the rights of all citizens to choose and practice their religion or belief, several laws and regulations stipulated otherwise.

He added the country had seen many instances of members of religious sects depending on the mercy of certain individuals to be able to practice their beliefs.

"One noteworthy case is that of the Ahmadiyah. The government does not have the right to decide whether this religion is wrong. The government has no authority on theological matters," he told The Jakarta Post.

Ahmadiyah is a religious sect the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) says is heretical. Members of the sect have been attacked by various Muslim groups. Last year, the government allowed Ahmadiyah members to perform their religious activities but banned them from proselytizing new believers. Their decision was based on the 1965 law on religious blasphemy.

Ari Dwipayana, a political analyst and lecturer at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, said the blasphemy law was one of the laws the President needed to review.

"The law has become the government's instrument to determine whether a religion or belief is official, and allows the establishment of bodies or institutions, such as the government's Coordinating Body for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs in Society, with the authority to dissolve sects," he said.

Ari said the 2006 law on administration discriminated against religious groups other than those officially endorsed as state religions – Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.

He added that before the administration law came into effect, followers of unofficial religions had to declare themselves believers of one of the official religions in the religion section of their identity cards.

Johannes also highlighted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's recent speech made at Harvard University in the United States.

"He said Indonesia was the best example of Muslim tolerance, that although it was a Muslim-majority country, we could still live side by side and in peace. There are still Ahmadiyah followers in Mataram, who were pushed aside just because they have a different belief," he added.

Some 130 Ahamadiyah members are still living in a shelter in Mataram after hard-line Muslims attacked their village in February 2006.

West Papua

Indonesia assures returning West Papuans refugees are safe

Radio New Zealand International - October 15, 2009

The Indonesian embassy in Papua New Guinea has denied that West Papuan refugees who are repatriated to Indonesia will be in danger at the hands of the security forces when they return.

Indonesia's government is planning a mass repatriation of about 400 Moresby-based refugees next month, having offered to fund any West Papuans who want to return by the end of the year.

However, West Papuan advocate groups and refugee spokesmen in PNG have voiced grave concerns for the safety of those who return, claiming West Papuans who previously returned have been persecuted by the Indonesian military and often killed.

But embassy spokesman Joneri Alimin denies there is any threat. "Indonesian government can guarantee that the people will be safe in the travel back to their home town. They will not be harassed while being returned to their homeland."

Joneri Alimin says all the West Papuans in the repatriation exercise are returning voluntarily.

Dozens of Papuan groups want peace talks with Jakarta

Jakarta Post - October 10, 2009

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNLC) said dozens of organizations in the restive province of Papua demanded talks with the central government to find peaceful solutions for separatist and human rights' violation issues.

"Papua wants to communicate with the government to resolve challenges in Papua," West Papua Military Council spokesman and WPNLC member Jonah Wenda said in Jayapura, Papua. "We are just waiting for the government to set the date."

He was accompanied by other WPNLC members, Yahamak tribe members A.S. Kailele and S.M. Paiki, and a number of well-known Papuan figures.

Jonah claimed 30 organizations in Papua, affiliated with the WPNLC, wished to hold peace talks with the central government in Jakarta, mediated by a third party.

The WPNLC was formed because there was a need for a body to discuss pressing issues, said Kailele, who was jailed in Kalisosok in East Java for raising a separatist flag in Papua, which is regarded as a subversive act. "The WPNLC has also been established to conduct and promote peace talks," Jonah said.

He added the WPNLC sent two letters to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2007 and 2008 requesting the central government participate in dialogue with Papua, but the President did not respond.

The WPNLC held various meetings with companies in Papua, claimed to have taken place overseas for security reasons, to organize a conference with the central government, mediated by a third party. "We are ready to converse with the government about important issues," Jonah said.

Jonah added the organizations in Papua wanted peace to reign in the province. He said the WPNLC hoped for resolutions to conflicts in Papua to be carried out peacefully.

S.M. Paiki, another WPNLC member, said peace talks between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the government, which was mediated by a neutral party, showed the separatist issue could be resolved by involving a third party. "A third party can be either a certain country or an international NGO," Jonah said.

Earlier, human rights activists and analysts urged the central government to initiate dialogue with representatives from various groups in Papua, to avoid violent outbreaks and separatism in the resource-rich province. They argued dialogue was an effective way to end the violence in Papua.

The call came after repeated attacks on US-based gold mine company PT Freeport Indonesia in Mimika regency. Gunmen opened fire on a company bus Saturday morning, injuring two men. This is the latest incident since attacks at the mine that claimed three lives in July.

A group of Papuan leaders, led by West Papua Legislative Council Speaker Jimmy Demianus Ijie, asked Vice President Jusuf Kalla to mediate a dialogue between Jakarta and Papua to solve long- standing problems.

Jimmy said Kalla was suited to the job, due to his key role in restoring peace in Maluku, Poso, Central Sulawesi, and also in Aceh.

Repatriation of Papuans from Papua New Guinea by end of 2009

Antara News - October 9, 2009

Jayapura – The first phase of the repatriation of Papuans from Papua New Guinea (PNG) is scheduled to begin by the end of this year, after all the facilities had been prepared.

"I think this year will see the start of the repatriation, because the project had been delayed several times since 2006," Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu said in Jayapura Thursday.

Suebu added that he had also established coordination with all the regents in Papua in preparing the facilities for the Papuans from the PNG, because they will be sent back to their hometowns.

In answer to a question, he also said that the repatriation will be carried out both by land and air. The process by land will go through Wutung in the RI-PNG border," he said.

While 708 Papuans will be repatriated, 2000 to 3000 of them would still be in the neighboring country, but all of them had already registered themselves for the repatriation.

The 708 Papuans will include 9 for Sorong, West Papua, 451 for Jayapura regency, 108 for Boven Digul, 8 for Biak, 4 for Tolikara, 13 for Jayawijaya, 9 for Puncak Jaya, 5 for Merauke, 83 for Keerom, and 49 for Mimika.

The repatriation expenses will be taken from the Papua provincial budget and from the central government4, the governor said.

Since the 1980-1985 period, many Papuans had entered neighboring PNG for political reasons and human right violations during the armed conflict between the Indonesian military (TNI) and OPM (Free Papua Organisation).

Indonesia moves to repatriate West Papuans

Radio Australia - October 9, 2009

Indonesia is currently undertaking a program to repatriate several thousand West Papuan freedom activists living in Papua New Guinea. The West Papuans have been living PNG since they left their homeland during their struggle for political freedom over the last 30 years – and have called PNG home.

Presenter: Firmin Nanol

Speaker: Spokesman for the Indonesian Embassy in Port Moresby, Joneri Alimin

Nanol: The Indonesian Embassy in Papua New Guinea is organising a "Voluntary Repatriation" program to help West Papuan separatists who are willing to return home.

Embassy spokesperson, Joneri Alimin says no one is being forced to return. He says the Indonesian authorities will guarantee the safety of those who volunteer to return.

Alimin: It is a voluntary repatriation program for West Papuans who want to go back to their homeland voluntarily and if they want to go back, we asking the Indonesian Government if they will facilitate them.

Nanol: Mr Alimin, is their security guaranteed when they go back. The Indonesian and the Kopasus security officers will not torture them and intimidate them?

Alimin: For sure, 100 percent.. the Indonesian Government would guarantee them that they will be safe when they return to their homeland. And you know until now, there is no report of like harassment from the West Papuans who already repatriated back to Papua Province with guarantee.

Nanol: How can that be guaranteed? Are they going to sign some form of documents to say that they will not be tortured, intimidated. How can you guarantee that?

Alimin: Yes, you know of course if they want to join this program, they have to fill some document. They process the statement they want to go back. The government in Indonesia also have a think about the program and also already prepared everything regarding the security you mean.

Nanol: A group of West Papuans living in the capital Port Moresby claim the voluntary repatriation program is not in their interest.

West Papua pro-independence activist Samuel Ingamar says they will only return when their dream for political freedom is realised. He says they will not volunteer to return as life will be hard for them once they return.

Ingamar: I don't think it is good for West Papuan, because the tension in West Papua, it is not okay for West Papuans to return home.

Nanol: Do you think their safety will be guaranteed?

Ingamar: It is not safe, because we all are West Papuans. We come for one motive for West Papua to be self-independent. When you go back to West Papua, you are fulfilling the dreams of the Indonesians. Indonesia does not need West Papuans. They only need our resource our land and what's the use of us going back there. We all are freedom fighters that seek for independent for West Papua, and are going back to West Papua is not a solution for West Papuans as freedom fighters.

Nanol: You and some of these West Papuans who are living up there in Moresby, are some of your members also involved or given the names for voluntary repatriation or what is the situation?

Ingamar: For us here, a total of 169. We did not put our names there for repatriation. We are against that program. We only put our leg to West Papua when we get self-independence only, but volunteer back to Indonesia, no.

Nanol: Indonesian officials are visiting provinces in Papua New Guinea where West Papuan political activists and families are living to inform them of the "Voluntary Repatriation" program.

Spokesperson, Joneri Alimin told Pacific Beat, an estimated seven hundred West Papuans have indicated they wish to return since last year. He says they hope to repatriate nearly 400 West Papuans including women and children by next month.

Papua tribe lawsuit on Freeport proceeds

Jakarta Globe - October 8, 2009

Heru Andriyanto – A court showdown between a Papuan tribe and US mining giant Freeport McMoRan resumed on Thursday after negotiations to settle the dispute out of court collapsed, a lawyer said.

The Amungme tribe in Papua filed a lawsuit in a Jakarta court against Freeport McMoRan's local unit, PT Freeport Indonesia, seeking $30 billion in compensation for environmental damage over 40 years of operations on their ancestral lands in the country's easternmost province.

"In the first hearing on Aug. 6, the judge gave us 40 days to reach a mutual settlement through dialogue. But we could not reach an agreement so the lawsuit resumes," Titus Natkime, a lawyer for the tribe, told the Jakarta Globe ahead of the hearing in the South Jakarta District Court.

The lawyer said that on Sept. 15, his team had asked the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington to suspend the trading of Freeport shares in all markets under the commission's auspices until the civil case was settled. "We also reported this case to the National Commission for Human Rights," he said.

The lawyer has said that he represented about 90 Amungme tribe members who live in the lowlands of a mountainous area in Papua's Mimika district, where Freeport runs its massive copper and gold mine. The plaintiffs claim they are the legitimate owners of 2.6 million hectares of land on which the mine is located, and that the 1967 work contract between the government and Freeport was made without their approval.

The tribe has also accused Freeport of illegally evicting indigenous people, with the support of government troops.

The lawsuit is also directed against the government and PT Indocopper Investama, a Bakrie group company, each owning a 9.36 percent stake in PT Freeport Indonesia. The plaintiffs have demanded that the court fine the defendants "$20 billion for environmental damages caused by mining activities and $10 billion for human rights violations."

Freeport has criticized the legal action as lacking credibility. "Previous lawsuits against Freeport making similar baseless environmental and human rights claims have been dismissed in both Indonesian and United States courts due to the inability of the plaintiffs to present facts to support their allegations," the company said in an e-mail to the Jakarta Globe.

"We have reached several land rights agreements with the Amungme and Kamoro tribes, traditional inhabitants of our area of operations, and these agreements go beyond what is required by law," said Budiman Moerdijat, a spokesman for Freeport.

Freeport said it had established land rights trust funds in 2001 for the Amungme and Kamoro tribes and contributed $27 million to those funds through 2008, with a plan to continue making contributions of $1 million annually.

Human rights/law

Part of law disappears in cloud of smoke

Jakarta Globe - October 13, 2009

Febriamy Hutapea & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The government and the House of Representatives were under strong pressure on Tuesday to investigate how a section in the newly enacted Health Law that identifies tobacco as an addictive substance had disappeared.

Ade Irawan, coordinator for public service affairs at Indonesian Corruption Watch, said she didn't believe the official excuse that it was a fluke.

"We argue that this is not just an accident, especially when we know that some tobacco companies lobbied legislators when they reviewed the last Health Law [No. 23/1992]," Ade said on Tuesday. "This time, I don't know if cigarette makers were involved, but the article on tobacco is gone."

The ICW has urged the president and the National Police to establish a special team to investigate the matter, he said, adding that it would file a complaint with the police.

The House's ethics council must also conduct a separate investigation to determine if any lawmakers were involved in the matter, he said.

Former lawmaker Hakim Sarimuda Pohan – who was a member of House Commission IX oversees population, health, manpower and transmigration – also urged the House's ethics council and the police to investigate.

"We want this case to be cleared. Who was behind this? There must be invisible hands that worked on this," Hakim told the Jakarta Globe.

Hakim said he believed that the article could not have been dropped due to a technical error because the section disappeared from the legislation but was present in the explanation chapter.

"There has been a betrayal of the highest decisions of governmental bodies that have the authority to create laws," Hakim said.

State Secretary Hatta Rajasa said he was baffled by the matter.He said the article was already missing when his office received the draft legislation from the House to be signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Rajasa said Yudhoyono had told him to "settle the matter to prevent public doubt."

Hatta said it would have been difficult for someone to deliberately manipulate the legislation.

Jakarta's anti-graft boss Antasari Azhar on trial for murder

The Australian - October 9, 2009

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – The head of Indonesia's anti- corruption commission has appeared in court charged with masterminding the murder of an alleged rival for the attentions of a beautiful golf caddy.

Antasari Azhar, 56, was arrested in May, two months after businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen was shot dead by motorcycle- riding gunmen as he was leaving a Jakarta golf course.

Zulkarnaen, who was the director of a state-owned pharmaceuticals company, was reportedly secretly married to the 22-year-old caddy, Rani Juliani, with whom Mr Antasari was said to have had sexual relations.

But Mr Antasari claims he was set up after prosecuting high- ranking Indonesians, including an in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Other prominent targets have been bankers, prosecutors and members of parliament.

The commission was set up by former president Megawati Sukarnoputri in 2003 as part of the post-Suharto reform push, but there has been constant tension between it and elements of the police and the attorney-general's department.

Prosecutors allege Mr Antasari organised the hit on Zulkarnaen when the latter threatened to expose his relationship with Ms Juliani, who has been in hiding since the arrest.

Revelations that Zulkarnaen had taken the caddy as a third wife, without telling his first two wives, ensured the affair was reported in salacious detail.

Ms Juliani reportedly confirmed she had performed sexual favours for the anti-corruption boss, but in testimony Mr Antasari gave to the police, which was published in local newspapers this week, he said he met her at a four-star hotel in South Jakarta after being "curious because a golf caddy wanted to see me".

He said Zulkarnaen happened to see him at the hotel with Ms Juliani and challenged him, saying: "What are you doing with my wife here?"

Ms Juliani's evidence to police was considered so vulgar they claimed it was delaying the start of the prosecution, but it appeared in preliminary evidence yesterday regardless.

Prosecutors claimed, in explicit detail, that Mr Antasari demanded she perform sex acts on him in a room at the hotel, which she allegedly did against her will.

Mr Antasari is one of nine men on trial for the murder. The others include a former police chief, a newspaper proprietor and a businessman.

"I object to all the accusations," Mr Antasari said as the charges against him were read out in the South Jakarta district court. "I'm optimistic. I'm not involved, 1000 per cent. I will expose everything – the day he was murdered, I was in Australia."

Mr Antasari faces the death penalty for premeditated murder if the case against him is proved.

Since his arrest, he has claimed that a fugitive businessman, wanted for graft by the commission had paid bribes to two of his deputy commissioners to make his case be dropped.

There have also been alleged links to the Bank Century scandal, in which individual shareholders are believed to have benefited from a parliament-approved bailout of the ailing financial institution.

More than 400 police were in place yesterday at the start of the trial yesterday. "The case has drawn a lot of attention, so we must ensure high security at the trial venue," a police spokesman said.

Police ready to help with Munir case review

Jakarta Globe - October 8, 2009

Farouk Arnaz – National Police on Thursday said they would provide support for the Attorney General's Office to review the controversial murder case of renowned activist Munir Said Thalib.

Former top intelligence official Muchdi Purwoprandjono was acquitted of charges he ordered the killing.

"We will fully submit to the attorney general and, if necessary, we will help. The principal authority is with the prosecution team," National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri told reporters.

Asked if police needed to set up a new team to collect evidence for the case review, Bambang said: "No. It's not necessary to set up a new team. If the attorney general asks for it, we will provide assistance," he said.

The mystery behind Munir's murder remains unsolved despite the fact that he was killed five years ago.

Prosecutors accused Muchdi of ordering the murder to avenge his ouster from the top post of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) in 1998, arguing that Muchdi was fired following fierce criticism from Munir over the alleged kidnapping of students and activists by the elite unit.

But a district court ruled on Dec. 31 last year that such a motive could not be proven and the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal in June. The only remaining legal option for the AGO is to ask for a case review. Munir died of arsenic poisoning on a Garuda flight en route to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 2004.

Government slammed for failing to protect children

Jakarta Post - October 9, 2009

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) has slammed the government for its failure to protect children's rights, leading to highest infant mortality rate in Southeast Asia, and endless child trafficking and prostitution.

KPAI chairman Hadi Supeno told reporters here Friday that although most Indonesian children had secured their right to education, the same thing did not apply to their right to access to health care.

He said infant mortality rate currently stood at 34 infants per 1,000 births, meaning that about 160,000 infants died every year or three babies died every minute. "That is the highest in Southeast Asia," Hadi said.

The government, he went on, has also failed to provide special protection for children, leading to 150,000 children being stranded on the streets, 60,000 becoming prostitutes and 30,000 becoming victims of trafficking.

Children are those under the age of 18, and they amount to 80 million in Indonesia.

The KPAI will hold a massive campaign on children's rights across a number of regions in collaboration with regional administrations.

House of Representatives sets aside human rights in doing tasks

Jakarta Post - October 9, 2009

Jakarta – The House of Representatives has yet to take the human rights factor into consideration in doing their legislative task and control function, say an activist.

Evaluating the House's performance in the 2004-2009 period here on Thursday, they said that despite the constitutional assurance of human rights protection and the country's ratification of numerous international rights charters and covenants, human rights has not been a parameter for the House in making laws and controlling the executive body.

"Even though Indonesia, as a country, has ratified many human rights covenants and agreements in the past, the legislative body still put human rights issues as a second priority when it comes to deliberating bills into laws," Agung Yudhawiranata from the Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) said.

The lacks of the human rights factor to be taken in legal consideration during bill deliberation has affected their legislation products in terms of quantity and quality.

Agung said that the conclusion was based on Elsam's study in 2008 and 2009. The study shows that out of 129 laws made by the House between the 2005 and 2008, only 35 of them are related to human rights issues.

"Of 35 human rights-related laws, only 19 of them pay attention to the universal human rights standards. The remaining 16 have the tendency to rights constraints," Agung said.

Agung said that the new House had to establish a fixed human rights parameter that had to be accepted by all factions.

"The parameter must be in line with previous human rights-related laws, such as children protection law, anti-abusement law, racial discrimination eradication law," he said. "The parameter must also be in line with international covenants and agreements on socio-politics and culture," he added.

Agung also said that the activists also regretted the fact that House legislators have never sought inputs from the National Commission of Human Rights, National Commission of Women Protection, and National Commission of Child Protection when they were deliberating bills, including the rights-related ones.

"The House has frequently ignored activits and nongovernmental organizations because they are considered merely as civil society groups, not state institutions," he said.

According to him, the government could no longer monopolize the human rights protection because besides nongovernmental organizations, the state has had special commissions to uphold the human rights. "The House should also exercize its control function to monitor the upholding of human rights," he said.

Responding to Agung, Dedy Djamaludin, a legislator from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said that he was pessimistic for the House to be able to improve its valuation towards human rights issues in the deliberation process of bills.

"It is a political fact that each faction in the House has its own political interests. Even the most idealistic member will keep his or her mouth shut in front of his or her respective faction," he said.

He said although the House of Representatives had been trying to coordinate among themselves in the process of making laws, especially civil laws, the government should play its important role in providing legal and insurance protection for the people because it had ministries, departments, state agencies, special commissions and experts. "We have less expert staff than the government's," he said.

Dedy said that after deliberating bills, the House and the government should have the bills synchronized with the constitution and international human rights. He also said all commissions, if not legislators, should have researchers and expert staff to help make quality laws.

According to him, all factions have their own political interests to fight for, so that they failed frequently to consider the human rights factor in deliberating the bills. Yet, the House has tried to repair the way it deliberated the bills and the current working system has been better than the past, he said.

Presidential decree on rights court 'urgent'

Jakarta Post - October 8, 2009

Jakarta – An NGO has urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to issue a presidential decree concerning the establishment of an ad hoc human rights court.

"The House of Representatives made several recommendations to the President related to human rights in Indonesia," deputy director of Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) Indriaswati Saptaningrum, told a conference in Jakarta on Wednesday.

"This includes establishing an ad hoc human rights court to try those behind the abduction of government critics in 1997 and 1998."

Elsam urged the President to investigate what had happened to 13 kidnapped activists who had remained missing since then.

Families of the missing people and victims of human rights abuses that occurred in 1998 and 1999 have fought for justice, but to no avail.

"As a candidate who included upholding human rights in his agenda during the July presidential election, it's about time President Yudhoyono demonstrated his commitment to these rights," Indriaswati said.

"If he fails to do this, his administration will look bad and lose trust both internationally and domestically."

Elsam's special staffer for politics and human rights, Amiruddin Alrahab, said the newly elected legislators should also show their commitment to human rights by continuing to urge the President to establish the human rights court even though it had been recommended by the previous House members.

Refugees/asylum seekers

Asylum-seekers threaten to blow up boat in Indonesia

Agence France Presse - October 14, 2009

Sydney – About 260 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers detained in Indonesia have threatened to blow up their wooden boat if the navy forces them to disembark, an Australian report said on Wednesday.

A spokesman told The Australian newspaper that the group, which was stopped en route to Australia, would explode gas canisters and leap into the ocean to avoid being held in Indonesia.

"We have gas canisters and we have told the navy we will blow up the boat and jump into the ocean if they try to force us off the boat," the man, who gave his name as Alex, was quoted as saying.

The boat was stopped off Krakatoa island early on Sunday following a reported direct intervention by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd involving talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Australia's main immigrant detention facilities, on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, are under serious strain and have been forced to boost capacity to 1,400 by installing 280 temporary beds in an activity room, an official told AFP.

The explosion threat comes after five asylum-seekers were killed and dozens injured in a blast on a people-smuggling boat stopped off Australia in April. Police have claimed a fire on board was deliberately lit.

Alex told The Australian the ethnic Tamil group was fleeing Sri Lanka's war-torn north, where he alleged widespread atrocities against Tamils in refugee camps.

He said they had each paid 15,000 US dollars to board the wooden boat in Malaysia a fortnight ago after flying there from Jaffna. "We are civilians, not Tamil Tigers," he said, referring to the defeated rebel group.

Indonesia is a key staging point for people-smugglers guiding refugee boats to Australia, where immigration is a major political issue.

Population & migration

Indonesia family planning hampered by lack of money, authority

Jakarta Globe - October 8, 2009

Dessy Sagita – The limited authority and small budget provided to the national body responsible for family planning and birth control have put the country at risk of a population explosion and a lowering of the general standard of living, an official said on Thursday.

"We don't have the budget to make our programs work and we don't have the ability to reach out to the most important elements in society, teenagers," Sugiri Syarief, head of the National Coordinating Agency for Family Planning (BKKBN), said during a news conference to mark World Contraception Day, which is celebrated every Sept. 26.

Sugiri said his agency had a budget of Rp 1.6 trillion last year, and that figure only rose by Rp 30 billion ($3.2 million) this year. He said the BKKBN ideally needed Rp 3.5 to Rp 4 trillion to effectively implement its programs.

He said that regional autonomy had also hampered the BKKBN's ability to operate effectively.

"Many city mayors have shown a lack of commitment and have only set aside a very small portion of their regional budget for contraception and birth control programs," Sugiri said.

"It's ironic that while general public awareness about birth control is increasing, politicians don't think their districts need a family planning program."

Sugiri said contraceptive use in the country had stagnated. He said that in 2002, 60 percent of sexually active couples used contraceptives, but that figure had only risen to 61 percent in 2007. Meanwhile, he said, there are approximately five million couples who want to postpone having children or space the time between pregnancies but do not have access to contraceptives despite a government ruling that they be made available for free.

Sugiri said the highly successful New Order-era family planning program, known as KB, had been abandoned in the euphoria that followed political reform. "KB was considered a product of the New Order, and therefore people felt it had to be abandoned," he said.

Sugiri said that in order to make its programs work, the BKKBN needed to be able to promote contraceptive use among teenagers and unmarried women.

A 2008 survey by the National AIDS Commission (KPA) found that 62.7 percent of high school students were sexually active, and a 2009 survey by the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) revealed that more than two million abortions were performed annually, 30 percent involving teenagers.

"Whether we like it or not, our teenagers are having sex, and we need to protect them from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases that could be fatal," Sugiri said.

Farid Alfansyah Moeloek, a former health minister, said many of the problems facing Indonesia, including climate change and illegal logging, were related to the enormous needs of the country's population. "It's too bad we don't have specific laws related to reproductive health," he said.

Farid said the government should consider setting up a program using family doctors to educate the public and increase awareness of birth control.

Indonesia's population may reach 255 million by 2015

Jakarta Post - October 9, 2009

Jakarta – The National Family Planning Coordinating Board of Indonesia (BKKBN) revealed the country might exceed its ideal population of 237.8 million people by 2015, if existing budget and technical challenges continue.

BKKBN head Sugiri Syarief said Thursday the country's population might reach 255 million by 2015.

He said the government needed between Rp 3.5 trillion and Rp 4 trillion (US$366 million and $418 million) this year, to push the population growth rate down from 1.3 percent to 1.1 percent next year. To reach the 2015 target, Sugiri said the country's population growth rate must fall to less than 1 percent each year.

Speaking at a press conference for World Contraception Day on Oct. 26, Sugiri said the state budget provided Rp 1.6 trillion last year for family planning. "We have Rp 1.63 trillion for this year's family planning program," he said.

"Although my agency has received another Rp 30 billion, I don't think the budget is sufficient to support family planning coordination."

However, he expected improved coordination between the Office of the Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare and the Health Ministry.

Farid A. Moeloek, a health expert from the University of Indonesia, told the conference Indonesia needed a reproduction law to monitor the population growth rate, as the health law recently passed by the House of Representatives did not accommodate for family planning.

"Indonesia will need family doctors to provide people with family-planning education," he said, "This is because many people are not well informed about family planning methods, including the use of various contraceptives such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and condoms."

Sugiri said men were not well-educated about contraceptive methods such as vasectomy. BKKBN's data shows only 1.5 percent of Indonesia's male population have had vasectomies. "There are limited contraceptive procedures available to men," he said. "There are condoms or they can have vasectomies."

He said the country would soon have a new male contraceptive, now being developed by the Biomedics Department at Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java. "The new contraceptive method is still in the preclinical stage and will be ready in about 10 years' time," he said, but declined to elaborate.

Sugiri also said there was no consistency in regional administrations' family planning budgets. "Budgets vary according to the size and population of regions," he said.

"Allocated budgets are not proportional to the size and population within regions, and some regions allocate Rp 40 million, while others only provide Rp 1.2 billion."

In addition to budgets, Indonesia also has technical challenges, such as an inability to effectively make contraception accessible to the public.

"Many families can't afford health insurance," Sugiri said. "Which means they are unable to receive information and support."

However, family planning coordination, which was introduced in 1970, has proved successful in pushing Indonesia's population growth down.

Sugiri referenced Widjojo Nitisastro, chairman for the economic advisory team for then president Soeharto. In 1966, before the introduction of family planning, Widjojo predicted Indonesia's population would reach 285 million in 2000 and 330 million in 2008.

However, the country's population last year was much lower than Nitisastro's prediction. According to the government census, Indonesia's population in 2000 was 205.8 million and last year's population was 229 million.

Sugiri said the average age that Indonesians started families was 19.8 years old, and people considered the ideal age for starting families was between 25 and 35 years.

"Many developing countries' average age for having children is under 20," he said. He said this was because the nation was not sufficiently educated about family planning. (nia)

Labour/migrant workers

50 percent of workers not insured

Jakarta Post - October 15, 2009

Purbalingga – Half of all workers in Purbalingga regency in Central Java are not registered with the state social security company, PT Jamsostek, an executive said Wednesday.

"The number of workers who aren't insured with Jamsostek has reached 15,000, or half of the total workers in the regency," Jamsostek Purwokerto branch head Mulyadi said during a meeting with company owners in Purbalingga.

He added most workers in the regency, about 30,000 people, were employed in foreign-owned companies producing artificial wigs and eyelashes, mostly for export.

"We appreciate the companies' contribution in reducing unemployment," Mulyadi said. "But we regret the fact that they have neglected their workers' rights by not registering them with Jamsostek."

Indonesia stops sending maids to Kuwait over abuse

Agence France Presse - October 15, 2009

Jakarta – Indonesia has indefinitely suspended the traffic of domestic helpers to Kuwait due to concern over widespread abuse and exploitation by their employers, the labour ministry said Thursday.

About 500 women with complaints ranging from physical beatings to the denial of pay are sheltering at the Indonesian embassy in the oil-rich Gulf emirate, awaiting assistance to be sent home, ministry spokesman Budhi Laksana told AFP.

At Indonesia's request, Kuwait stopped accepting new maid arrivals on September 14, he said.

"We have temporarily stopped sending domestic helpers to Kuwait since September 14 to protect our helpers who had problems with their employers there," Laksana said. "The suspension will go on indefinitely until the problems are sorted out."

There are around 60,000 Indonesian domestic helpers in Kuwait and they are typically paid as little as 60 Kuwaiti dinars (210 dollars) a month, he said.

"Most said they were owed salaries and when they asked their employers for the money, they were beaten up and some ended up in hospital," Laksana said, referring to the 500 women at the embassy.

Indonesia imposed a similar ban on sending maids to Malaysia in June, after a 43-year-old Malaysian woman was charged with causing grievous bodily harm by beating and scalding her Indonesian employee her with boiling water.

"We haven't lifted the ban in Malaysia because the problems our helpers faced there haven't been solved," Laksana said.

Overseas workers left at the mercy of sharks, NGO says

Jakarta Globe - October 13, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran – The government has allowed individuals and groups to exploit Indonesian migrant workers by failing to provide them the necessary legal protection, according to a nongovernmental organization.

Anis Hidayah, director of Migrant Care, said the government's failure to ratify the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of Migrant Workers, which it adopted in September 2004, was sending the wrong signal.

"Indonesia has for years neglected the protection of the human rights of millions of migrant workers it has sent to work overseas," she said.

Anis said that with millions of Indonesian workers facing abuse and exploitation overseas, it was vital that the government ratified the convention to help protect these workers' rights.

According to data provided by Migrant Care, there are now 6.9 million Indonesians working overseas, mostly in Malaysia and the Middle East.

Reports of physical abuse and exploitation at the hands of employers are common, with the government's intervention limited to repatriating workers.

"The government sees migrant workers only as a source of income and completely ignores their needs," Anis said.

She said the 1990 convention set out the minimum standards a labor-supplying country should meet to protect and ensure the rights of its migrant workers.

The convention, for example, requires supplier countries to ensure that their workers abroad are well protected. Thirty-five supplier countries have ratified the convention.

Retno Dewi, chairwoman of the Indonesian Workers Association (ATKI), said the government's reluctance to ratify the convention was a signal of its lack of commitment to upholding human rights.

"The ratification of the convention may not automatically change the fate of many migrant workers," she said. "But it will show the international labor market that Indonesia is committed to protecting its workers."

Sri Wiyanti Eddyono, a member of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), called on the government to ratify the convention immediately.

"We want it to be ratified as soon as possible to guarantee better protection for migrant workers, who are mostly women," Sri Wiyanti said.

According to data provided by Komnas Perempuan, around 80 percent of Indonesian migrant workers are women.

Roostiawati, subdirectorate head of foreign cooperation at the migrant worker placement directorate of the Manpower and Transmigration Minister, said on Tuesday that the government had not been remiss in pushing the convention's ratification.

"We have to consider carefully before ratifying the convention," she said. "Problems of migrant workers will not be solved directly with the ratification. The 35 countries that ratified the convention have not been able to improve conditions for their workers."

However, she said that the government was working toward ratifying the convention, though she could not say when this would happen.

"Just because we have not signed the convention, it doesn't mean that we are not protecting our workers," Roostiawati said, adding that the government was now focusing more on other regional plans.

"Asean countries are drafting an agreement that will include the points of the convention and will be applied to all nations in Southeast Asia," she said.

HIV a growing problem among migrant workers

Jakarta Globe - October 11, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran – The number of Indonesian migrant workers infected with HIV/AIDS is increasing as a result of human trafficking and a lack of information provided by labor agencies in the country, an observer said on Sunday.

Retno Dewi, chairwoman of the Indonesian Workers Association (ATKI), said more cases of HIV/AIDS were being found among returning migrants, particularly those who had worked in bars.

"Those who work in the entertainment industry, such as at clubs and bars, are often forced to provide sexual services for their clients," she told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

Although no exact numbers have been collected by the association, Justina Evi Tyaswati, coordinator of the Voluntary Counseling and Testing clinic at Soebandi Hospital in Jember, East Java, said 30 percent of the 277 HIV/AIDS patients being treated at the hospital were former migrant workers who had been infected while abroad.

Retno said many migrant workers were forced into prostitution because that was the only way they could survive overseas with limited knowledge and skills.

"Some agencies send migrant workers without even bothering to equip them with the skills they need to obtain proper work," she said.

According to Retno, Indonesian migrant workers turning to prostitution is most prevalent in Macau, with whom Indonesia does not have a memorandum of understanding on migrant labor, Japan and South Korea, though she did not provide figures. Retno also said Indonesian migrant workers employed on farms in Malaysia tended to change sexual partners frequently.

"They're lonely on the farms, so they crave close relationships," she said. "Most of them cannot stand being alone, but they neglect to have 'safe' relationships."

Retno said the attitude of the government and migrant workers themselves was the main obstacle to controlling infection rates.

"We regard [sex outside of marriage] as taboo here," she said. "With that in mind, agencies often only advise workers to avoid having sex, but don't give them detailed information. They should inform them about how to have 'safe' sexual relations and offer more detailed information on how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases."

She added that disease was not the only threat faced by migrant workers who engaged in prostitution. "They also need to be wary of dangerous situations such as rape or being held against their will," she said.

Workers protest contract-based employment

Jakarta Post - October 9, 2009

Batam – More than 1,000 workers staged a protest on Thursday at Batam mayor's office in Riau Islands province, against contract- based employment, which they said did not provide them with job security.

Most protesters were workers for electronic firms in Batam, grouped under the Federation of Indonesian Metal Worker Unions (FSPMI). They said contract workers were paid less than the Batam minimum wage of Rp 1,045,000 per month.

"Once their two-year contract expires, companies refuse to extend them even if their performance is good. Instead, companies recruit new workers to avoid employing permanent staff, which would cost them more. This should not be allowed," Batam FSPMI leader Nurhalim said.

Environment/natural disasters

Climate change could threaten national security

Jakarta Post - October 15, 2009

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – The effects of climate change could threaten national security as thousands of outermost and small islands serving as baselines for territorial borders are at risk from being swallowed up by rising sea levels.

State Minister for National Developing Planning/Chairman of National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Paskah Suzetta said the disappearance of small islands could shift baselines on territorial borders and alter sea traffic routes.

"The changes in traffic routes in waters will pose serious risks to national security from illicit activities, including illegal logging and fishing, robberies, and exploitation of natural mining and energy resources," he said, adding this could also lead to food, energy and water crises.

"Thus, it is crucial to prioritize climate change issues in national development planning, including national security affairs."

A study predicts sea levels around Indonesia could rise by 0.4 meters within a year, washing away 7,400 square kilometers in coastal areas. By 2100, sea levels were predicted to have risen by 1 meter, which would swallow up 100,000 kilometers of land and submerge 2,000 islands.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi said Indonesia had already lost 29 islets since 2007 due to rising sea levels.

There are currently 17,504 small islands in Indonesia, of which 9,634 remain unnamed. The country's 81,000 kilometers of coastline are the second largest in the world with 60 percent of Java's population living along the coastal areas.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) defines how states may draw their territorial borders using baselines between the outermost points of outermost islands.

Bappenas is drafting a strategy that places climate change at the forefront in national development planning. The strategy, which considers all climate-change affected sectors, will provide guidelines in determining the allocation of the state budget to each department between 2010 and 2030.

Bappenas has also set up an Indonesian climate change trust fund (ICCTF) to pool all financial aid to tackle climate change.

Environmental guru Emil Salim said Indonesia needed to review its development policies, including on energy, defense and agriculture due to severe climate change impacts.

"We are not yet fighting with other countries but climate change could create conflict among communities, which would harm national security," said Emil, also a presidential advisor on environmental issues.

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono admitted the office had yet to include climate change in its national security policies. "However, we are already addressing efficient energy matters."

Death toll from Padang earthquake stands at 1,115: Official

Associated Press - October 14, 2009

Hundreds of people buried by landslides in Indonesia two weeks ago have been registered as dead, raising the death toll from last month's earthquake to 1,115.

Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono said Wednesday that the search for 300 missing people has ended and that they have been declared dead.

The 7.6 magnitude temblor devastated large parts of West Sumatra province.

A huge aid operation is under way to shelter and feed thousands made homeless. Tens of millions of dollars in outside assistance has poured into the region from foreign governments and relief groups.

Kardono said he has asked the government to pay the families of the dead roughly $250 in compensation. The homeless would get 50 cents a day for up to a month.

Activists urge new house to take up pro-environment agenda

Jakarta Globe - October 12, 2009

Fidelis E Satriastanti – The newly installed members of the House of Representatives only start work today, but already they have "homework" in the form of a comprehensive green agenda being pushed by environmentalists.

During a weekend event, leading green advocates urged new lawmakers to review all laws considered to be detrimental to the environment and people's welfare, implement more sustainable development programs and give the people a greater say in the creation and implementation of laws designed to protect the environment, particularly the 2009 Environmental Protection and Management Law. The advocates also encouraged the government to take a stronger leadership role in climate change negotiations.

"We are aware that the majority of House members are young and new so they probably do not really comprehend environmental issues," said Chalid Muhammad, coordinator of the Indonesian Green Institute.

"We [green groups] will approach each faction to address these issues because lawmakers need to be reminded [of their importance]. Hopefully they will be better than previous members."

Berry Nahdian Furqon, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said environmental issues went beyond science into the realm of the economy and politics.

"The House is important because it decides on the country's development," Berry said.

"Lawmakers need to realize that policy-making in this country has been very destructive because the government has only been about exploiting natural resources as a commodity, without paying attention to the welfare of the people."

Siti Maimunah, national coordinator of the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), said the previous House had been a disaster for the environment because many of the lawmakers approached their job as businesspeople more concerned with profit than looking after the interests of constituents.

"Because our [government's] development paradigm is exploitation, it's easy to understand why some members only thought about how to earn more money," Siti said, adding that new lawmakers had no choice but to give people a greater voice in dealing with environmental issues and crimes, as mandated in the new law on environmental protection.

The law stipulates coordination between civil servant investigators, police and prosecutors in handling environmental cases.

Teguh Juwarno, a House member from the Muslim-based National Mandate Party (PAN), said new lawmakers had their work cut out for them in dealing with green issues.

"Yes, we're facing many challenges," he said. "One concerns laws that are now being implemented. After the government signs the law, it thinks the job is done. But the problem lies in synchronizing the laws with other sectors. But with civil society's help in reminding us of what we are supposed to do, I hope we can do better than the last House."

Budiman Sudjatmiko, a legislator from the nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that while 70 percent of the new lawmakers were relatively young and many had experience as activists, they could struggle to balance their idealism with their new responsibilities in the House.

"That is the reality. But I don't think we should be pessimistic about the new lawmakers because they will also play a more significant role besides just budgeting," Budiman said.

"Each member has the right to establish organizations outside of the House to accommodate the aspirations of their constituents," he added.

Padang's collapsed buildings poorly constructed: Survey

Jakarta Post - October 10, 2009

Jakarta – Most buildings that collapsed during the recent earthquake in Padang, West Sumatra, were badly designed and constructed, a survey has concluded.

Josia Irwan Rostandi, head of the structure and material laboratory at the University of Indonesia, said that the Sept. 30 quake would not have killed so many had houses and public buildings met quake-proof construction regulations.

"We found that most toppled houses had no steel reinforcement supporting the brick walls; it should have been obvious that those buildings would have not withstood strong tremors," he told The Jakarta Post at a press conference held at the university in Depok on Friday.

His team from the university spent several days in Padang to assess the structural conditions of hundreds of destroyed buildings in the region in the aftermath of the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 700.

Josia also said many of the buildings that collapsed during the violent quake once had fewer stories. "Several stories were added to existing structures without reinforcing their columns and beams," he added.

He highlighted the Ambacang Hotel, which used to be one of the biggest hotels in Padang. "The building dates back to the Dutch colonial era. It was originally built as a two-story structure; later when it was turned into a hotel, they added four more floors," he said. The additional load, he added, placed pressure on the building's structure when the quake hit.

The first four floors of the hotel collapsed during the quake, trapping dozens of the hotel's 192 guests.

He urged regional administrations, especially those located in areas prone to earthquakes, to apply strict supervision to building sites.

"Those building tall structures should comply with the National Standards Agency's (SNI) 2002 regulation on quake-proof construction. Residents too must use quake-proof construction methods when building their houses," he said.

Under the regulation, buildings in Padang should be built to withstand peak ground acceleration (PGA) of 0.28 gal to 0.36 gal.

"The Sept. 30 quake had a PGA of 0.113 gal, far less than the estimated PGA for this area. Buildings constructed properly would have withstood the quake," Josia said.

"The regulation is based on the life-safety principal. If the tremor is weak, the buildings suffer minor damage; if the tremor is of moderate strength, the structure is damaged but reparable; if the tremor is strong, the structure suffers major damage but would remain standing," he added. (adh)

Bigger earthquake looms for West Sumatra

Sydney Morning Herald - October 8, 2009

Tom Allard, Jakarta – Scientists who examined last week's devastating earthquake in West Sumatra have come to an alarming conclusion: it was not "the big one" they have long been forecasting for Padang.

The region will likely feel the brunt of a powerful earthquake in coming years that will dwarf the ferocity of last week's quake and could be accompanied by a large tsunami, according to a top Indonesian seismologist.

Moreover, last week's quake has done little, if anything, to relieve the immense pressure building kilometres below the surface as the Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates grind against each other.

"We had all been expecting one in West Sumatra, and when the earthquake happened last week, we all thought 'OK, this is the one we had been anticipating'," said Sri Widiyantoro, an Australian-trained geophysicist from the Bandung Institute of Technology. "But now we have had a close look at it, we now know that it wasn't."

The Indo-Australia tectonic plate smashes into the Eurasian plate about 200 kilometres off the coast of Sumatra.

For almost 200 years, the pressure has built up to extraordinary levels in this so-called subduction zone. The first release of tension was the magnitude 9.1 undersea quake in 2004 off Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra, when a portion of the Indo- Australian plate cracked and slipped 30 metres across a 1000- kilometre front.

That seismic event produced the tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Months later, an 8.7 magnitude quake occurred further south in Nias, while there was a quake in 2007 off the coast of Bengkulu in South Sumatra.

"That series of events left a gap in West Sumatra," said Dr Widiyantoro. "It seems that this [250-kilometre-long] segment has not been broken."

It is inevitable in coming decades that it will be broken, perhaps in the near future given the events along the collision zone.

Last week's quake happened more than 100 kilometres from the collision zone, at a depth of 70 kilometres, and it was caused by a north-south movement in the earth's crust, rather than shallower, east-west movement caused by the two tectonic plates hitting each other.

Dr Widiyantoro and his team found this after examining GPS imagery of the area, which shows the Indo-Australian plate hasn't moved. "So we are still wondering whether a much bigger earthquake could occur," he said. "What we don't know is whether it will all break at once or whether there will be several smaller events."

Seismologists from Singapore's Earth Observatory have come to the same conclusion and say a one-off slippage of the Indo-Australian plate will cause an earthquake in West Sumatra with a magnitude of 8.8. That would produce a wall of water five metres high that would hit West Sumatra's coast.

"It would be very disastrous as Padang is very densely populated," said Dr Widiyantoro. "We have to be extremely alert."

The official death toll from last week's quake is 704, with 295 listed as missing.

West Sumatra Governor Gamawan Fauzi said rescuers would soon stop trying to retrieve rapidly deteriorating bodies from under landslides and instead declare the areas as mass graves.

Health & education

Poor Indonesians wonder how they'll cope without health plan

Jakarta Globe - October 13, 2009

Ulma Haryanto – Although the state health insurance system has been widely criticized for its shortcomings, millions of poor people across the country still depend on it for much-needed medical care.

Sarwiah, a 55-year-old widow from Tangerang, recently found that she had cervical cancer. She had been in pain for three years until the state insurance scheme, known as Jamkesmas, was introduced in early 2008, enabling her to get a medical examination at Tangerang Regional General Hospital, as well as to afford necessary medications.

"Before Jamkesmas, we had to pay for everything ourselves," she said. "I just went to a public health center for the pain because that was all we could afford."

Sarwiah said she still had to spend Rp 100,000 ($10) every two months for her pain medications.

After she received her Jamkesmas coverage, a doctor at Tangerang Hospital referred her to an oncologist at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM), in Jakarta, where she expects to receive treatment for her cancer.

According to a Jamkesmas administrative worker at RSCM, the hospital receives up to 300 patients a day from all over the country under the insurance scheme.

But some 16.3 million Indonesians may lose this health insurance next year, as the government says the number of people living below the poverty level has declined.

"The poverty rate in Indonesia has declined. Therefore the number of people covered by Jamkesmas will be reduced from 76.4 million to 60.1 million. The rest, 170 million others, will [need to] be covered by self-paid health insurance," Aburizal Bakrie, the coordinating minister for people's welfare, said on Monday.

Prof. Hasbullah Thabrany, a leading health expert from the University of Indonesia, said the government should be expanding health care coverage instead of reducing it.

"The government is responsible for health care, as is mandated in the Constitution's Article 28 H.1 statement on health care," he said. "The government should not confuse Article 34.1 of the Constitution: 'The State should care for the poor,' with 34.2: 'Social insurance for all,' meaning not only the poor," he said.

Meanwhile, people like Minik, a housewife from Lampung who was in RSCM to have a tumor removed, are hoping they are not among the 16.3 million who may lose their coverage.

With months of chemotherapy ahead of her, Minik is certain that even though her husband is employed they will not be able to afford her treatment.

Islanders suffer anemia, malnutrition: Survey

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2009

A recent survey conducted on two islands in the Thousand Islands regency painted a bleak picture of poverty and neglect.

"The problem of malnutrition and anemia cases in these areas requires urgent action," Adi Sasongko from the Kusuma Buana foundation (YKB), an NGO that focuses on health and community building, said Tuesday.

The foundation, in cooperation with the International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group (IPMG) and the Thousand Islands regency, conducted two month-long surveys on anemia, one on infants, children under 5, pregnant women, lactating women and mothers of children under 5, and another on students from Panggang Island and Pramuka Island.

The anemia survey on students was conducted in five schools and eight Integrated Community Health Posts (Posyandu), involving more than 1,800 respondents.

"The first survey showed that the prevalence of anemia cases among pregnant women had been 75.5 percent, whereas the national percentage is 50 percent," Adi said.

After 12 weeks of health education and treatments using supplements, the percentage decreased to 36.3 percent. The prevalence of infant anemic cases remained at 80.8 percent, the second survey, conducted in February and March, showed.

"Infants usually become anemic because their mothers were anemic during their pregnancy," Adi said.

The second survey showed anemic prevalence among children under five was 66.1 percent. The foundation also conducted a nutrition survey on students from 12 elementary schools in the area.

More than 2,300 students from the schools participated in the survey, and the results showed that as much as 28.4 percent of the respondents were suffering from chronic malnutrition according to body weight calculations.

"The cases mostly stemmed from lack of knowledge about nutritional matters. These people mostly eat rice and fish and do not follow a balanced diet," Adi said.

Vegetables are scarce in the islands, and most have to be brought from Jakarta, increasing their prices.

Sex and gender also affected malnutrition and anemic conditions as some families prioritized males in terms of nutrition, Adi explained. The Thousand islands regency, which comprises up to 897.71 hectares in land size, has a current population of 20,736. It became a regency in 2001 after previously having been part of North Jakarta municipality. (dis)

Malnutrition on the rise in Jember

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2009

Luthfiana Mahmudah, Jember – Every month at the Jember administration-owned RSUD Dr. Soebandi Hospital, at least four children under five years old are treated for malnutrition, a health official said Tuesday.

Public relations officer Judi Nugroho said, as of the first week of this month, the hospital had treated at least 40 children suffering from malnutrition.

"Of them, 23 were suffering from marasmus and the rest, 17, from kwashiorkor (acute protein defficiency)," Judi said.

Among the children being treated is Ahmad Fauzi, 2, whose weight is only six kilograms; the normal weight for a child of his age is 12 kilograms.

"He has been like this for about a month," said Sana, his mother, Monday, as she lay down beside her ailing son. Sana said she only brought Fauzi to the community health center (Puskesmas) on Saturday, after a councilor came to her house and "forced" her to do so. "We didn't dare do so before because we didn't have enough money," she said.

Her husband, Miskari, she said, was just an agricultural worker whose income fluctuated. During planting or harvest time he could earn Rp 10,000 a day but out of season he earned nothing, regardless of the fact he had a wife and two children to support. Ironically, the family was not on the list of families eligible to receive government-paid health insurance (Jamkesmas) so they could get free medical treatment.

Poverty has been blamed for the high number of malnutrition cases in Jember regency. It was because of poverty that Fauzi never got enough breast milk from his malnourished mother and had to be fed with rice since he was a newborn, making him even more vulnerable to malnutrition.

According to data from the Jember Health Agency, at least 33,060 babies are vulnerable to malnutrition. Early solid food feeding has been blamed for the condition. The agency's public relations officer Yumarlis said out of the 38,000 babies born annually in Jember, only 13 percent had been fed exclusively on breast milk during their early months.

"This means 87 percent of the newborn babies were given additional food which made them vulnerable to malnutrition," Yumarlis said Tuesday.

Jember recorded 286 children under five years of age suffering from malnutrition in 2007 and 103 the following year. As of the first week of this month, the agency has recorded 74 cases of malnutrition, two of whom have died and 45 others are still being monitored by the agency.

"We have to monitor them for 90 days and provide them with additional nutrition and Vitamin A," Yumarlis said.

Indonesian government to cut state health insurance

Jakarta Globe - October 13, 2009

Dessy Sagita & Ulma Haryanto – About 16 million people are likely to lose their state health insurance, known as Jamkesmas, due to a reported decline in the number of people living below the poverty level, a senior minister said on Monday.

"The poverty rate in Indonesia has declined. Therefore the coverage under Jamkesmas will be reduced from 76.4 million people to 60.1 million people. The rest, 170 million others, would be covered by self-paid health insurance," said Aburizal Bakrie, the coordinating minister for people's welfare.

Aburizal said the poverty rate had declined by 14.5 percent, meaning 2.5 million people were lifted from poverty. He did not explain how this decline justified 16.3 million people having their state health insurance coverage revoked.

Jamkesmas is a health insurance scheme for the poor introduced in early 2008.

Aburizal acknowledged that a 2004 law on the social security system guaranteed that every citizen would be covered by health insurance. But he said nothing in the law stated that the government would be required to pay for it all.

However, Abdul Chalik Masulili, the Health Ministry's director for Jamkesmas, said the 16.3 million people in question would not immediately face revocation of their coverage, and would continue to receive Jamkesmas coverage through 2010.

"It's true that only 60.1 million people are considered eligible to receive Jamkesmas through the poverty-eradication program, but we are still going to pay for the other 16 million anyway [through 2010]," he said.

Chalik said the eligibility of the 16 million people in question to receive the insurance in 2011 would be evaluated next year. "We will conduct a thorough survey and we will re-evaluate the program in 2010. We will then decide the best mechanism for Jamkesmas accordingly," he said.

Chalik said that for 2010, the figure for Jamkesmas holders was still pegged at 76.4 million people and the budget had even been increased, from Rp 4.6 trillion ($487 million) in 2009 to Rp 5.1 trillion in 2010.

Adang Setiana, deputy minister for people's welfare, said the government remained optimistic that the country would be able to reach universal health insurance coverage by 2014.

"Having health insurance is obligatory for all Indonesians, but it doesn't mean the government should pay for everything. The government will only pay for those who really need it," he said, adding that it was only sensible for every able citizen to pay for health insurance.

"People in Indonesia spend more than Rp 10,000 a month on their cigarettes. It's more than what they have to spend on health insurance."

Ratna Kusumaningsih, a researcher at Indonesia Corruption Watch, said that the reduction in Jamkesmas coverage should not only be based on the poverty rate from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

Rather, the government should also look into other indicators, including the mortality rate of babies, children and mothers, especially in poor communities.

"Health is a cross-section initiative and cannot be determined by one ministry only," she said.

Ratna also said that the standard government insurance fee had not changed for decades, at a mere Rp 5,000 monthly per person, making it difficult to cover current health care costs for all.

Under the Jamskesmas scheme, the government pays fees directly to hospitals and health clinics.

But critics have said that the sum allotted was far below what had actually been disbursed. Payments are also often late, causing financial problems for hospitals and clinics.

Observers warn of tobacco tyranny in Indonesia

Jakarta Globe - October 11, 2009

Ismira Lutfia & Putri Prameshwari – About Rp 185 trillion ($19.6 billion) is spent each year treating smoking-related diseases, a consumer advocacy group said on Sunday as it renewed calls to increase the tax on cigarettes.

Speaking during a youth against smoking event organized by the National Commission on Tobacco Control, Tulus Abadi, chairman of the Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI), urged the government to increase the excise tax on cigarettes to make people think twice about taking up the habit.

"The tax in Indonesia is only 37 percent of the total price for a pack of cigarettes," he said, adding that some countries had taxes double that amount.

"It's devastating how low the tax on cigarettes is in Indonesia," Tulus said. "It is so low that it cannot even cover the medical cost of Indonesians who get smoking-related diseases."

The Ministry of Health estimates that about 400,000 Indonesians die each year from smoking-related illnesses. In 2005, a ministry study found that the state was paying an estimated Rp 105.4 trillion to treat smokers, or more than three times the annual revenue from cigarette taxes.

The government increased the excise tax on cigarettes by an average of 7 percent beginning on Feb. 1, 2009, but antismoking campaigners said that was still not high enough to be effective.

Tulus also said there was still too much cigarette advertising, with many young people picking up the habit because they were influenced by the media. "Around 60 percent of children in Indonesia are exposed to cigarettes," he said.

Cigarette producers, Tulus said, should also be forced to put graphic pictures depicting the dangers of smoking on every packet of cigarettes, as is required in many countries. He said this would allow people to see the kind of damage smoking does to the body.

Kartono Mohammad, a doctor and former chairman of the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI), likened the influence wielded by the cigarette industry over government policy to a new form of colonialism.

"Those who are invaded are not just the smokers themselves, but also the tobacco farmers since they have no bargaining power when selling their tobacco to producers," he said.

Sunday's youth against tobacco event was coincidentally held at the National Awakening Museum, once the Stovia colonial medical school, from which a student group initiated a national movement against the Dutch colonialist at the turn of the 20th century.

"The same pattern is happening today," Kartono said, explaining that a small group of young people were now driving the movement against the tobacco industry.

"Hopefully they will be inspired by the youth movement of the old days – they were only a minority then too," he said. "They also have to awaken a public that does not realize that they have been invaded."

Indonesia's education system relic of colonialism: Experts

Jakarta Post - October 9, 2009

Jakarta – Experts and practitioners have criticized the national education system, which they said was discriminatory and a throwback to the colonial era.

Senior education practitioner H.A.R Tilaar said the spirit of colonialism was still evident in the country's current education system as there was still social segregation, continuing on from the Dutch colonial era.

"Back then, there were schools for indigenous people, schools for those of Chinese or Arabian descent and schools for European nationals," he told a national symposium on education held at the University of Indonesia in Depok, southern Jakarta, on Thursday.

Nowadays, he added, the national education system was no different. "Now we have poor schools for the paupers and international standard schools with international curricula and sky-high tuition fees for the privileged."

The National Education Ministry is working to map the quality of the state schools in the country using students' national exam scores.

The schools would be categorized on three levels: minimum service standard schools (SPM), national standard schools (SSN) and international standard schools (SBI). Those pursuing the last two standards have frequently been eyeing top universities at homes or foreign universities.

Some schools become international standard pilot-project schools (RSBI), or state schools that are in the process of becoming SBIs.

SSN refers to state schools that have qualified teachers, adequate learning facilities and have had good academic achievements, while SPM refers to state schools with modest human resources and facilities. The tuition fees for SBIs are naturally much higher than in SPMs.

Tilaar said such classification prevented people from lower social classes from receiving quality education. "Because the poor don't pay, they are denied high quality education."

Education expert Eko Prasetya, also the writer of Orang Miskin Dilarang Sekolah (No school for the poor), said the government's advertisements on free education "made it clear education is simply business".

Eko said the ministry ran TV advertisements saying the government would provide free education for school children starting from this year, and the ads then changed to say that free education meant the government would pay for the schools' operational costs, but parents would still have to pay for their children's study materials, like books and pens.

"If parents still have to pay for those things, then you can't call it 'free education'. Free education means you don't need to pay for your uniforms, books, or even bus fares." Tilaar said.

Eko said the Taman Siswa schools in Yogyakarta had set a good example by providing education for the poor by taking in 100 students from low-income families every year.

"It's a good practice, but students still have to pay for expenses when they undergo orientation weeks." Tilaar said that the neo-liberalism paradigm in the country's education system had reduced the government's contribution to improving the quality of education.

"Our education institutions today are driven by market forces, and not by a good will, in the provision of quality education services," he said.

The practice was worse in the higher education institutions, he added. "Students should be constituents in higher education institutions, instead they are treated as if they are the source of funding for the schools' operations."

Tilaar urged the government to review discriminatory policy on the schools classification. (adh)

Corruption & graft

Anticorruption groups say defamation accusations a 'distraction'

Antara News - October 14, 2009

Anticorruption groups have asserted that the naming of two activists as suspects in a defamation case against the Attorney General's Office is simply a step to distract the public's attention from the rift between the nation's antigraft agency and the National Police.

Eko Haryanto, from the Committee to Investigate and Eradicate Collusion, Corruption and Nepotism in Central Java, said the AGO was trying to weaken the anticorruption movement.

"From our perspective, the AGO's decision to report the activists to the National Police for defamation is a way of trying to criminalize corruption eradication groups and limit their freedom of speech," Eko said.

On Jan. 7 the AGO filed a defamation complaint against the corruption watchdog, known as ICW, in response to a newspaper report claiming that the AGO had embezzled state funds recovered from corruption investigations over the past four years.

Rakyat Merdeka, a Jakarta-based tabloid, cited two ICW members, Emerson Yuntho and Illian Deta Arta Sari, as sources for the story. The pair have since been named as defamation suspects by police. According to Eko, the ICW data was valid because it was based on a state audit report.

Central Java's anticorruption groups have joined with the Love Indonesia, Love the KPK (Cicak) movement to call on the National Police chief to issue a letter of order to stop investigations, or a SP3.

"Defamation law can not be applied to institutions or organizations like ICW, it only applies to individuals," Eko said.

Antigraft activists to be questioned for libel

Jakarta Post - October 13, 2009

Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – Antigraft activists Emerson Yuntho and Ilian Deta Sari have been summoned for questioning by police in a libel case filed by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) earlier this year.

The two, from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), will be questioned as suspects after raising suspicions about the AGO's management of funds. "There's a big question mark hanging over the true motive behind the summons," Emerson told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

He added he was surprised by the move on the part of the police. "After months of no progress in the investigation, all of a sudden I'm being called in for questioning as a suspect," he said, adding he was currently drafting a media package to back up his claims against the AGO.

"I wasn't just talking bull," Emerson said. "I have the necessary data to support my suspicions about the AGO's fund management."

The case stemmed from an article published in the Rakyat Merdeka daily on Jan. 5 this year, in which Emerson and Ilian questioned the AGO's management of Rp 7 trillion recovered from graft cases. In response, AGO prosecutor Widoyoko reported the article to the police for defamation, but no action was taken at the time.

"You've got to question the timing of the summons, because it comes just as the witch hunt for antigraft activists mounts," said ICW's Febri Diansyah, as quoted by detik.com.

ICW is one of the most vociferous supporters of the embattled Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). The chairman of the latter is on trial for murder, while two of his deputies face bribery charges.

The National Police's deputy chief of detectives, Insp. Gen. Dikdik Mulyana Arif, declined to comment on the case against Emerson and Ilian. "I have to check with the investigators first before making any comment on this matter," he said.

Police have also issued a summons for a Rakyat Merdeka journalist to appear for questioning.

Independent team for Susno? Not a chance

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2009

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Although not counting out the possibility of an independent team to probe the National Police chief of detectives, Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, the National Police Commission said Tuesday it needed to consult first with the police chief on what option to take on the case.

"We had a meeting this afternoon and we came up with several options to settle this problem, but first we need to consult the options with the police chief because it is related to his institution," commission member Adnan Pandu Praja told The Jakarta Post here Tuesday.

Asked whether the option included the establishment of the independent team, Adnan only said "various options are available".

Lawyers for suspended KPK deputy chairmen, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah came to the the police commission Monday, and asked for an explanation from the police inspectorate regarding their report on a decision made by Susno naming the two KPK deputies as suspects in a power abuse and bribery case.

Both Bibit and Chandra are accused of violating their power by removing travel bans from corruption suspect Anggoro Widjojo and convict Djoko S. Tjandra, who are now at large.

They were later accused of receiving bribes from Anggoro, even though some key witnesses had withdrawn their testimonies against Bibit and Chandra.

Activists and anticorruption watchdogs suspected the criminalization of the two deputies was Susno's way of taking revenge against the commission, after he was wiretapped by the KPK during its probe into the Bank Century graft case.

The Indonesian Anticorruption Society (MAKI) also reported Susno to the inspectorate and the President on allegations of power abuse during his mediation between Bank Century and Budi Sampurna, who had attempted to retrieve his US$18 million in savings from the ailing bank.

However, the inspectorate announced last week that it found no indication of Susno's wrongdoing in the mediation.

A lawyer for the KPK deputy chairmen, Taufik Basari, said he could understand the police commission's response regarding their proposal of the establishment of an independent team to probe the police commissioner. "Its duty is only to give recommendation to the President and the police chief regarding the police reform," he said.

However, Taufik expected the commission could have directly given recommendations to the President without consulting with the police chief to avoid a conflict of interest. "Giving recommendations directly to the President would not exceed its authority anyway," he said.

He also revealed he and his team had filed for a judicial review with the Constitutional Court on Article 32 (1) c of the 2002 KPK law that allows KPK chairmen to be discharged if they defend criminal charges.

"We consider the article is discriminative because other state officials can only be discharged if the court convicts them," he said.

He added the article also violated the presumption of innocence principle because those defending charges were not necessarily guilty. "They can be proven innocent at the court. Besides the article is prone to be used to overthrow KPK chairmen. That is why we filed for a judicial review of the article".

Many cases under Susno dropped

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2009

Jakarta – Activists have accused the National Police of intentionally burying major cases, particularly graft-related, under chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, saying they have criminalized graft fighters instead.

"We have recorded a number of unresolved graft cases handled by the Bareskrim [criminal detective body]. Those cases are far more important for the public, rather than naming activists as libel suspects or former anti-graft body deputies as suspects in the alleged abuse of power," Emerson Yuntho of the Indonesia Corruption Watch told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Media reports have recorded dozens of major cases that are unresolved or were dropped by the Bareskrim in the past year.

In March, Susno took over the investigation into the voter list fraud case during the East Java 2008 gubernatorial election from the East Java Police. The takeover of the case took place shortly after Soekarwo, nominated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, was sworn in as the new governor on Feb. 12, 2009.

The case, which implicated the provincial polling body's former chairman, was investigated by local police and following a legal complaint by Soekarwo's rival Khofifah Indar Parawansa, nominated by the United Development Party (PPP) and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

The takeover of the case was followed by the replacement of Insp. Gen. Herman Surjadi Sumawiredja by Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam as East Java police chief.

Protesting the national unit's intervention, Herman then filed a resignation letter to the National Police, declaring interference "from a higher position" as the main reason for his departure.

Last October, the Bareskrim extended its investigations to include a graft allegation in connection with the purchase of Zatapi crude oil involving the state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina, local companies said to be close to the Presidential Palace and to Singapore-based oil importer PT Gold Manor International.

The police named four Pertamina officials and a director of Gold Manor as suspects but did not detain them. The suspects' names have also never been announced publicly and the case was subsequently closed.

The then National Police chief Gen. Sutanto was appointed as Pertamina chief commissioner in January while the graft case was still in progress. He was also included in the SBY-Boediono campaign team in the recent presidential election.

Susno's squad, in March, carried out an investigation into the US$197.5 million Indover bank scandal but many sources have claimed the case has already been dropped.

Indonesian Police Watch coordinator Neta S. Pane said police had no choice but to clarify the status of unresolved cases to the public. "Otherwise, the public may question their professionalism. The police may also lose the public trust," he said.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana could not explain the main reasons behind the dropped cases and the halted investigations into others. "I don't know the details of each case. Detectives must have explanations on the progress of investigations into these cases," he said. (bbs)

Unresolved cases:

2008: Zatapi scandal
2009: Indover bank scandal
2005: Police's 15 problem bank accounts

Closed cases:

2008: Voter roll fraud in East Java
2008: 13 illegal logging cases in Riau

New law may see KPK lose its authority to prosecute

Jakarta Post - October 9, 2009

Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – Following the House approval of the 2009 Corruption Court Law, the Corruption Eradication Commission may have to surrender its authority to prosecute to the AGO, despite NGO's and activist's claims that competition between the two institutions would improve prosecution in graft trials.

Under the new law it is unclear whether the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) or the Attorney General's Office (AGO) should handle prosecutions in graft cases the KPK investigates.

Currently, the KPK has its own team of prosecutors, but the AGO, which apparently regards itself as the only state body that should have the power to prosecute, has insisted that the commission stop at the investigation stage and then surrender its cases to the AGO.

On Thursday, KPK leaders met with Attorney General Hendarman Supandji to discuss the issue, with the likely result that both institutions will retain authority to prosecute.

Newly installed KPK interim chief Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean said his office was discussing the prosecution authority model as required by the newly passed law.

Tumpak said the discussion would help prosecutors from both offices clarify their respective responsibilities. "We need to coordinate with the AGO first, to anticipate the new graft court law," he said.

However, Tumpak refused to reveal details of the discussion to journalists, saying it was still under discussion.

On Thursday, a number of anti-graft activists said rivalry between the commission and the AGO in graft prosecution would improve the eradication of graft.

"Prosecutors from the KPK and the AGO will be forced to perform their best under the new law, otherwise they will be quickly spotted by the public as incompetent," Transparency International Indonesia secretary-general Teten Masduki told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

The KPK's prosecutors had shown zero tolerance toward graft perpetrators, by handing down hefty punishments, Teten said.

According to the KPK law, KPK prosecutors are not allowed to drop graft cases once prosecution has been initiated. "Apparently the public feel that the KPK would investigate cases more thoroughly than the AGO because the KPK law doesn't allow them to halt investigations," Teten said.

Graft cases handled by the KPK have all reached court, and all defendants have been punished, Teten said.

Conversely, the AGO has long been criticized for letting most corruptors evade justice by stopping investigations and interfering in prosecution, or for being lazy in preparing evidence for trials.

Teten said the KPK's excellent track record of graft prosecution would push AGO prosecutors to do better.

Several graft activists have long voiced the need for an amendment to the AGO law, in hopes the law would not allow prosecutors to halt investigations into corruption cases. By doing so, they argue, prosecutors would be more serious in preparing evidence and indictments during corruption case trials.

Legal expert Chaerul Huda of Muhammadiyah University in Jakarta agreed with Teten, saying the competition would force prosecutors to develop a more effective prosecuting model in corruption trials.

Most Indonesian business players pay bribes: Survey

Jakarta Post - October 8, 2009

Jakarta – A survey by Transparency International has revealed Indonesian business players are deeply entrenched in corruption, with 60 percent of respondents admitting to paying bribes to ensure the smooth outcome of projects.

The survey is part of the 2009 Global Corruption Report on the private sector, and surveyed 2,700 businesspeople in 26 countries across the globe in 2008.

"We discovered 60 percent of those entrepreneurs from the private sectors had to bribe the relevant authorities and public institutions," Transparency International Indonesia secretary- general Teten Masduki said Wednesday at a press conference in Jakarta.

The survey also found one in five businesspeople had lost out on projects because they refused to bribe officials, while two in five said officials at public institutions had directly asked for money.

In Indonesia, the survey only covered respondents engaging in the aviation and logging industry.

The aviation industry was chosen based on the assumption that regulatory neglect, coupled with bribery, had undermined passenger safety, as indicated by various fatal accidents that led to Indonesian airlines being banned from European Union airspace. The ban was imposed in July 2007 and lifted in July 2009.

A study under the report heard testimonies saying all matters regarding certificates in the aviation industry, including operating permits, pilot license extensions, increasing pilot ratings and even airplane airworthiness, could be resolved by paying a bribe.

"Even if all the conditions are met, you still have to fork over some money," said an anonymous source quoted in the report.

The forestry industry was scrutinized for the fact that illegal logging had made Indonesia the world's fastest destroyer of forests, with 1.87 million hectares of forests cleared every year between 2000 and 2005.

The report said the building of political connections between illegal logging syndicates and local officials had become obvious, highlighting the direct involvement of unscrupulous officials in the trade of illegal logs.

Political corruption in the issuing of licenses and concessions for logging was also apparent as shown by the arrest of Bintan regency secretary Azirwan and legislator Al Amin Nasution in April 2008, which led to the men being jailed for 30 months and eight years respectively, for conspiring to regulate concessions for personal benefit.

Teten said businesspeople pay "not only with cash, but also with political support for those in power".

Soy Martua Pardede, a member of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said businesspeople had to bribe officials because they had long been forced to do so, citing "the business environment". (naf)

War on terror

Jemaah Islamiah cell in 'disarray' after Top's death

Australian Associated Press - October 13, 2009

The hardline Indonesian terrorist group founded by slain militant Noordin Mohammed Top has been left in complete turmoil by the killing of its new leader, analysts say.

Militant brothers Saifuddin Jaelani and Mohamed Syahrir were killed in a shootout with officers from Indonesia's elite Detachment 88 anti-terror squad during the raid on a boarding house on Jakarta's outskirts last week.

Jaelani, also known as Saifuddin Zuhri bin Jaelani Irsyad, was a senior acolyte of Noordin – who was himself killed in a police raid last month – and a key organiser of July's attacks on two Jakarta hotels.

Indonesian police believed Jaelani, little-known before the hotel bombings, had become the new leader of Noordin's Jemaah Islamiah splinter cell.

US intelligence firm Stratfor says Jaelani's death was another damaging blow for the group, which sometimes calls itself Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad.

"Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad currently appears to be leaderless, in turmoil and lacking support from the general Indonesian Muslim population," Stratfor says.

"In militant groups, this combination usually breeds factionalism, infighting, and general ineffectiveness in carrying out coordinated, large-scale attacks."

Police believe Jaelani recruited the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up inside the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels on July 17, killing seven people, including three Australians.

It was Jaelani, a Yemeni-trained preacher with suspected links to Middle East terror groups, who could be heard calling for the destruction of Australia, the US and Indonesia in video footage released by police earlier this month.

Syahrir, the elder of the two, also helped organise the hotel attacks and construct the bombs used. He once worked as a technician for Indonesia's national airline, Garuda.

Police say they have now caught or killed almost everyone involved in the July 17 attacks.

Killings of suspected terrorists is murder: Hard-line cleric

Jakarta Globe - October 12, 2009

Candra Malik – Radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir said police committed murder when they killed suspected terrorists Muhammad Syahrir and Saefudin Jaelani during a raid in Ciputat, Tangerang on Friday.

"The police sought to murder the martyrs to kill jihad and dakwah [the spreading of the word of Islam]. But their deed was futile," Bashir said. The jihadi movement against the United States and its cronies would never die, he said.

Abdurrahim, founder of Al Ghuraba, a jihadist group that once fought in Afghanistan, and a close friend of suspected terrorist Muhammad Jibril, also denounced the raid.

"The police took that step to quickly settle their affairs. Rather than fighting it out in the court, better to just kill the suspects," he said.

Meanwhile, three hardline groups, the Islamic Studies and Action Center, Surakarta Muslim Soldiers (LUIS) and Indonesian Muslim Youth Solidarity (SPII) demanded that National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri step down for violating human rights by not doing his utmost to capture the suspected terrorists alive.

"The police even shot Air Setiawan, Eko Sarjono, and Hadi Susilo to death and they're not even on the wanted list," said a spokesperson for the organizations, referring to suspects killed in another raid.

Villagers oppose burials of Indonesia terrorists

Agence France Presse - October 12, 2009

Jakarta – Indonesian villagers said on Monday they had rejected a request by the family of two terror suspects killed by police to bury the bodies in their village, saying they were unwelcome dead or alive.

The brothers, alleged planners of July 17 twin suicide attacks against luxury hotels in Jakarta, are believed to have been killed in a raid on their hideout on Friday, although police have not confirmed their deaths.

The family of the dead men, Syaifudin Zuhri bin Jaelani and Mohammed Syahrir, wanted to bury them in their father's childhood village of Sampiran, West Java.

But village chief Maman Suparman said the request had been rejected after meeting of elders on the weekend. "We don't want terrorists in our midst, dead or alive. We condemn what they did... killing innocent people is inhuman. It's against Islamic teachings," he told AFP. "All of us disapproved. Our village's name will be tarnished. If the bodies are brought here we will drive them out."

Jaelani and Syahrir were accomplices of slain Malaysian terror leader Noordin Mohammed Top, the alleged mastermind of the hotel attacks who was killed by police in Central Java on September 17.

Police have confirmed the deaths of two brothers in the raid and are expected to formally identify them later on Monday. The brothers will probably be buried in a public cemetery in east Jakarta, next to another of the July 17 plotters who was killed in an earlier police operation, Tempo newspaper quoted their sister, Sucihani, as saying.

Attention turns to hunt for two planners of first Bali bombings

Sydney Morning Herald - October 12, 2009

Tom Allard, Jakarta – Counter-terrorism authorities in Indonesia and across South-East Asia will redouble efforts to find two men who have been at large since the first Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

It is seven years to the day since the attacks in Bali shockingly introduced mass casualties to the region, but Dulmatin and Umar Patek, who played key roles in planning the blasts, have eluded capture, spending much of their time in Mindanao in the southern Philippines.

On Friday, Indonesian police killed two men they believe were leading planners of explosions at two luxury hotels in Jakarta in July, Saifuddin Jaelani and his brother Mohamad Syahrir. They also arrested a third brother, Fajah.

If confirmed today by DNA tests, the deaths will mean that most of the people involved in the July attacks have been arrested or killed.

This gives authorities more scope to hunt Dulmatin and Umar Patek, who were peers of Noordin Mohammad Top, the terrorist organiser who was killed last month.

Analysts fear they may reactivate their violent jihad now that the cell Noordin put together for the hotel blasts has all but been dismantled.

Dulmatin, an Indonesian who spent time in Afghanistan, is an electronics and bomb-making expert who fled to the Philippines with Umar Patek a year after the first Bali blasts. Despite numerous reports of his demise and a $US10 million ($11 million) bounty on his head, Indonesian counter-terrorism authorities believe he is still alive.

Umar Patek, a Java-born man of Arabic heritage, is also believed to be alive. Both men are believed to have continued training new recruits under the protection of Abu Sayyaf, a militant Islamic group that controls swathes of the southern Philippines.

The maritime border between the Philippines and Indonesia is poorly patrolled and there are concerns both men could come back to Indonesia to wreak havoc. Ansyaad Mbai, the head of the Indonesian security ministry's anti-terrorism desk, last month identified Umar Patek and Dulmatin as continuing dangers, along with another terrorist, Upik Lawanga.

Lawanga's history as a terrorist goes back more than 10 years to the Muslim-Christian conflicts in Poso, a regency in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi. He, like Dulmatin, is a bomb-making expert.

Jakarta bombers believed killed in police raid

Sydney Morning Herald - October 10, 2009

Tom Allard, Jakarta – Indonesian police believe they have killed the two most wanted terrorists in the country after a raid on a boarding house where militants linked to the July hotel bombings in Jakarta were hiding.

The suspects – Saifuddin Jaelani and his brother Mohamad Syahrir – were tracked to the house in Ciputat, near the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University on Jakarta's outskirts.

Just after people left for Friday prayers, police secured the area and then raided rooms on the second floor of the boarding house, resulting in a short but intense gun battle.

A police spokesman, Nanan Soakarna, told reporters last night that two men – believed to be Jaelani and Syahrir – died in the raid. "It is our suspicion obtained from witness and other information we have collected," he said, adding final confirmation would have to wait until forensic tests had been completed.

Seven small bombs were found in the boarding house, he said. The raid was sparked after the arrest early yesterday morning of another suspected terrorist, Fajar. Witnesses reported gunfire and loud explosions accompanying the police action.

If the deaths of the two men are confirmed, the raid is the latest counter-terrorism coup by Indonesian police, who have gone a long way to dismantling the network of violent extremists who have killed hundreds across the archipelago since the first Bali bombings of 2002.

Jaelani and Syahrir were key organisers of the suicide bombings of the Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in July that killed seven bystanders, including three Australians. Jaelani recruited the two suicide bombers and was heard chanting "Destruction to America. Destruction to Australia. Destruction to Indonesia" on video footage taken just before the twin blasts as the bombers had a picnic and exercised in a park across the road from the hotels.

He was also believed to have assumed control of the terrorist network run by Noordin Mohammad Top, the Malaysian-born Islamic extremist who orchestrated a string of attacks over six years in Indonesia and was killed only last month.

In a letter purported to have been written by Jaelani and released by police, he boasted of how extensive the terrorist network was, with individuals assigned to a variety of tasks, from bomb-making to recruitment and raising finances. The letter was written after the terrorist attacks.

Jaelani spent four years studying in Yemen, where he was believed to have forged links with Middle Eastern extremist groups, possibly including al-Qaeda. He was a persuasive recruiter, who targeted disenfranchised and religious young men, separated them from their friends and convinced them that killing civilians was a justified response to the West's alleged "war on Islam".

Syahrir – a former technician with the national airline, Garuda – was a bomb-making expert who police believed help construct the two explosive devices that devastated the Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels.

Both men frequented mosques and earned money by selling Islamic medicines and setting up health clinics based on remedies that date back to the lifetime of the prophet Muhammad more than 1400 years ago.

The Islamic boarding house raided by police was an ideal hiding place for fugitives. Boarders are usually allowed to keep to themselves and authorities do not monitor them closely.

Terror experts, Muslim leaders tell police: 'Take suspects alive'

Jakarta Globe - October 9, 2009

Nurfika Osman & Candra Malik – Terrorism experts and religious leaders were critical of police after two suspected terrorists were reportedly killed in a raid on Friday, saying security forces missed an opportunity to gather key intelligence on terror networks by failing to take them into custody.

Saifuddin Zuhri bin Djaelani Irsyad and Mohamad Syahrir, both suspects in the July 17 bombings of Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, are believed to have been killed in a raid in Ciputat, Tangerang, west of Jakarta, after Muslim prayer services on Friday. Police declined to confirm their identities until the official autopsy was completed on Monday.

Sydney Jones, an expert from the Jakarta office of the International Crisis Group, said police should have captured the suspects alive "because both of them know more information about terrorism links even though they are relatively new people."

Jones said their deaths did not signal an end to terrorism in the country, as thousands of other terrorists remained at large.

"It is going to be very difficult to unravel terrorism networks if they are dead as we need to know their links," she said. "Now anyone can be the successor and we do not know who he is," Jones added, indicating that security forces are still unclear who might take the helm of terrorist groups after the death of Noordin M Top, who was killed last month during a raid near Solo.

She declined to speculate on possible future leaders of the terrorist networks in Southeast Asia, but said other dangerous figures include Nur Hasbi, who is also wanted in connection with the hotel bombings. The list of wanted terrorists also includes Reno, alias Tedi, who has been at large since 2005, and Maruto Jati Sulistiono, who has evaded police capture since 2006. All three men have escaped police dragnets.

Meanwhile, Jaleswary Pramodhawardani, a military expert from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said police violated the country's 2003 Law on Terrorism, which stipulated that they try their best to capture terrorists alive.

"Murdering is not the police's job. They have to find solutions to get the links instead of conducting military operations to get the terrorists," she said.

Zainal Adnan, the chair of the Solo branch of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), also raised questions about the shootings. "Why are they always caught dead? Why is it that all the public gets is more bodies? This is a bad for the image of Islam and its followers, who have shared the blame for terrorism," Adnan said.

He said killing the terrorists in such a raid would only increase suspicion that police were not equipped to tackle terrorism properly.

"It should be enough for police to immobilize them by shooting them in the leg or another body part that won't kill them. That way, the suspects can be brought to trial to reveal the case in front of a panel of judges," he said.

Muhammad Kurniawan, a lawyer with the Islamic Studies and Action Center, who arranged the funerals of suspected terrorists Bagus Budi Pranoto, Ario Sudarso, and Hadi Susilo, said he believed police had an ulterior motive in ensuring the raids ended in death.

"Since the siege in M Zuhri's house in Temanggung where Noordin M Top was thought to be hiding, and then it turned out he wasn't, police embarrassment seems to have no end. It seems there's a plan that requires all suspected terrorists to die rather than to be brought to trial, where it could be legally determined whether or not they were terrorists," he said.

Village refuses alleged terrorists' bodies

Jakarta Post - October 10, 2009

Jakarta – Residents of Sampiran hamlet in Benjaran village in Talun district, Cirebon, West Java, have refused the bodies of two slain suspected terrorist brothers – Syaifudin Zuhri and Muhammad Syahrir – in their village.

"The decision was agreed by local leaders and the family of Jaelani Irsyad (the father of the brothers," Benjaran chief Makid told Antara news agency Saturday.

Makid said that the residents considered the brothers have stained the village's name. Makid said that only Jaelani was born and raised in the hamlet, while the two brothers born and grew in Jakarta.

The brothers were killed in counterterrorism raid at a boarding house in Ciputat, South Tangerang. They are believed to be linked to the late Malaysian-born Noordin M. Top.

Both of them have been the subject of a nationwide manhunt after police linked them to the July 17 bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta, in which nine people were killed and more than 50 injured.

Two killed in terror raid likely Jakarta bomb suspects: Source

Jakarta Globe - October 9, 2009

A police source has told the Jakarta Globe they are convinced that the two men killed in Friday's terror raid are Saifuddin Zuhri bin Djaelani Irsyad and Mohamad Syahrir, both wanted in relation to the July Jakarta hotel bombings, but police will have to carry out tests before their identities are confirmed.

The source said forensic tests and if necessary, DNA tests, would be carried out before police formally identified those killed in the raid. The bodies were being taken to the National Police Hospital in East Jakarta.

Police on Friday carried out a raid on a kost, or boarding house, in Ciputat, Tangerang, near the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University. Both Saifuddin and Mohamad were believed to be residing at the house.

Police last month released a letter by Saifudin in which he claimed to be the new leader of the Al Qaeda network in Southeast Asia.

A video obtained by police from terror mastermind Noordin M Top's laptop computer showed Saifudin monitoring the suicide bombers and preparing them for the July attacks. Police believe that Saifudin was the head of the operation, recruiting the suicide bombers.

Syahrir is the brother-in-law of a militant suspect shot dead by police in a Central Java raid in September.

Islam/religion

Government urged to respect Ahmadiyah rights

Jakarta Post - October 15, 2009

Jakarta – A series of attacks on followers of the Ahmadiyah religious sect has once again drawn criticism, with an expert in religion and democracy urging the government to exercise its authority when there are violations of human rights.

Alfred C. Stepan, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion at Columbia University in New York, said on the sidelines of a discussion held Tuesday that while the government must keep a principal distance, the separation did not mean the state should never get involved in religious matters.

"They should think more about whether there are circumstances in which they have to act quickly because I think it is the government's responsibility if people's rights are in peril," he said.

Followers of the Ahmadiyah group are deemed heretics by mainstream Muslims for recognizing sect founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the last prophet. Islamic teachings maintain that the Prophet Muhammad is the last prophet.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued an edict officially declaring Ahmadiyah to be a heretical sect. For years, followers of the religious sect have suffered attacks from various Muslim groups. Some of the attacks, which involved hard-line Muslims, resulted in the fire-bombing of Ahmadiyah mosques and houses.

Stepan said the attacks were violations of human rights and therefore the government's intervention was needed. "It is the duty of a democratic government to protect its people's rights even if they have to act against some people's freedom," he said.

Although such measures should not go against the constitution, he said.

In the discussion, Stepan also said that Indonesia was a place where democracy and religions coexisted. Indonesia, he noted, recognized and respected all the major religions, except Judaism.

"India and Senegal are also examples of democracies that recognize and financially support all religions, but keep some principal distance that would allow the state at times to interfere in the religion (if there were human rights violations)," he added.

However, he said, the Indonesian government had shown much less willingness to exercise the principal distance than the other two countries. "That may be a problem," he added.

Stepan said that in all democracies, tolerance on the state's part and the religions' part were needed. Stepan terms the concept "twin tolerations". For democracy to function, he said, democratically elected governments must tolerate citizens' legitimate aspirations, "as long as they do not hurt other people".

"In pure democratic theory, any group that doesn't violate other people's rights has the right to articulate some of their ideas in civil society," he said.

At the same time, religious hard-liners cannot reject the sovereignty of an elected government; instead forcing religious rules on the populace. "That's too great a restriction on democracy," he said.

Theoretically, twin tolerations would allow religion to act in the area of the civil society, he said. But, "the twin tolerations could also break down if someone violates it from the other side, if this happens the government must have some role in it," he added.

Stepan also said that fundamentalism does not necessarily not pose an obstacle to democracy. He added his research in India showed the greater the intensity of religious practice, the greater the intensity of support for democracy.

There are about 200,000 practicing Ahmadis in Indonesia. (adh)

Court throws out child abuse charges against controversial cleric

Jakarta Globe - October 14, 2009

Nurfika Osman & Antara – A Central Java court on Tuesday threw out child abuse charges against self-proclaimed Islamic cleric Sheikh Puji over his marriage to a 12-year-old girl.

Ungaran District Court Chief Judge Hari Mulyanto delivered a preliminary ruling in the case stating that the "indictment regarding sexual intercourse is invalid because it is inaccurate, unclear and incomplete."

A preliminary ruling decides whether a case has met all the requirements to proceed to trial. An inaccurate, unclear and incomplete indictment is sufficient grounds to drop a case.

Hari said the prosecution had failed to detail how and when the defendant had committed the acts for which he had been accused.

Novel Al Bakrie, a member of the defense team, claimed that the 12-year-old girl, who became Puji's second wife in August 2008, was "not a victim" and that she "loves" Puji.

Puji, 43, whose real name is Pujiantocahyo Widianto, was charged under the Child Protection Law for allegedly "persuading a child to have sex and/or taking advantage of a person's economic condition for his or her own benefit," and under the 1974 Marriage Law for marrying a minor.

Prosecutors said they would refile the charges but did not say when this would happen.

Here comes the bribe: Religious affairs office demands 'fees'

Jakarta Globe - October 12, 2009

Nivell Rayda – Ali did not expect to be solicited for bribe money from the "religious" office that was supposed to take care of arrangements for his marriage, but that was exactly what happened.

The 24-year-old newlywed was referring to the Office of Religious Affairs, or KUA, which handles everything under Islamic law, from issuing marriage certificates and Hajj pilgrimage documents to divorces and inheritances. Religious Affairs officials, known as penghulu, are also authorized to lead marriage ceremonies.

"I knew that there would be some administrative fees, but nobody bothered to tell me exactly how much," he told the Jakarta Globe recently. "Instead I was told by the official who was to lead the marriage ceremony that the KUA needs donations from the bride and groom just to cover all the office expenses.

"If they really expect donations and they were sincere about it, they should at least be transparent enough to inform us how much the official fees were and we would gladly provide extra." Ali (not his real name) said he paid Rp 150,000 ($16) that day and would pay a further Rp 500,000 on the day of his wedding.

"I just hope that the official is true to his word," he said. "I'm afraid that if I don't pay they will be reluctant to take care of our papers. I just don't want any fuss."

Junaedi (also not his real name), chief of a Religious Affairs Office in Jakarta, admitted to the Globe that his office relied on "donations" from couples to cover its expenses. "We receive very little budget from the central government. If it weren't for donations, we don't know how the office would run."

The official said he could get Rp 500,000 ($53) to Rp 4 million for a ceremony and could lead up to 12 weddings a month.

Fauzi Salim, who was married more than six years ago, said he, too, was solicited for bribes. "They never openly ask for money. They first look at your reception to see how lavish it is and solicit information about your background to see if you're rich. Then KUA officials talk about their experiences, such as how much they got when they lead a certain ritual to give us some idea of how much we should give them."

Sonny, a newlywed, said he had to call off his wedding at first because the official who was supposed to lead his procession did not show up. "When I went to the KUA and filed the necessary documents I immediately told them I only wanted to pay the official fee," he said. "I could see their faces start to change."

Ade Irawan, coordinator for public service affairs at Indonesia Corruption Watch, said that regardless of the situation, officials receiving money could be charged under the 1999 law on corruption.

"If couples give the money out of their own initiative it could be considered a gratuity. If the motivation is to expedite the issuance of the certificates then it is bribery, but if the official threatens not to come at all unless he is paid then it is extortion," he said. "As hard as it is, people should stop paying more than the official fee."

Kaelani, a Religious Affairs official in Jakarta, said he only accepts money from couples who are "sincere." "If they feel reluctant about giving the money, then the money would be haram [forbidden]," he said.

"I am not like officials who refuse to lead the ceremony unless they are paid. I just suggest that the newlyweds think of those who are less fortunate, to spread the wealth around. For me, as long as everyone is happy, the bride is happy and the guests are happy, the KUA officials should be happy, too," Kaelani said.

Sex & morality

Japanese porn star will not visit Indonesia for film

Jakarta Globe - October 14, 2009

Japanese porn star Maria Ozawa, better known as Miyabi, will not be arriving in Indonesia.

The decision to cancel her arrival was the result of a meeting between the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Maxima Productions in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Metro TV reported that Maxima Productions had finally agreed to ditch its plan to import the starlet to appear in a locally produced movie to avoid public controversy.

Previously, the production house had denied rumors they would pull the plug on the project and told the media that they would only "delay and reschedule" Miyabi's visit, following protests.

Miyabi was originally scheduled to arrive in Jakarta this week to start filming for the comedy movie titled "Menculik Miyabi" ("Kidnapping Miyabi"). However, the plan had triggered outcry from religious groups.

Last week, Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) staged a demonstration in front of the production house's office. Communications Minister Muhammad Nuh also suggested the production house consider public sensitivity and think about replacing Miyabi with a "less controversial actress."

Jakarta residents move to defend Miyabi

Jakarta Post - October 12, 2009

Jakarta – A group of Jakarta locals will form a group to defend Japanese porn movie star Maria Ozawa, or Miyabi, who will visit Indonesia to shoot a comedy film.

Moses Silalahi of Petukangan Utara subdistrict in South Jakarta said he and some of his friends would rally in support of the Japanese adult film star under a community group called the Miyabi Defenders' Front.

"The front will be set up to counter those who oppose Miyabi's arrival, a position which I think has no reasonable grounds as she is violating no law," Moses told tempointeraktif.com on Saturday. The front will be inaugurated next week and will rally support for Miyabi, particularly on the Internet.

Conservative Muslim groups, including the Indonesian Ulema Council, have called on the government to ban Miyabi from entering Indonesia for fear of the negative impact her presence may have on the younger generation. Reports said searches for Miyabi on the Internet had skyrocketed since her planned visit was unveiled last month.

Students burn women's underwear in protest against porn star

Antara News - October 12, 2009

Students set fire to women's underwear on Monday during a protest at an Islamic university against Japanese porn star Maria Ozawa, or Miyabi, who is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta to star in a local film.

The students in Kudus, Central Java, started the rally at 9 a.m. by parading around campus chanting "Refuse Miyabi." Around twenty students were holding posters declaring: "Say no to Miyabi. Don't lower the honor of Indonesian film by allowing Miyabi in Indonesia."

Later, they collected the posters and burnt them along with some women's undergarments. They said the action symbolized their feelings towards Miyabi.

The event coordinator, Anas, said Miyabi was a porn icon and her involvement in an Indonesian movie would indirectly promote pornography in the country.

"Menculik Miyabi" ("Kidnapping Miyabi") is a comedy movie by local company Maxima Productions. The producers have said it will not contain any pornographic scenes. The movie is set to begin shooting in mid October after Miyabi's scheduled arrival in Jakarta on October 14.

Islamic group to protest Japanese porn star Miyabi in Jakarta

Jakarta Globe - October 9, 2009

A demonstration against the rumored arrival of Japanese porn star Maria Ozawa, more popularly known as Miyabi, will take place in Jakarta on Friday along with three other protests.

Jakarta Metro Police's traffic management center said that at 1:30 p.m. that Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) is planning to stage a rally in front of the Maxima Productions building at Mangga Dua, Central Jakarta. Maxima is the film company behind "Menculik Miyabi" ("Kidnapping Miyabi"), a local comedy film set to star the controversial actress.

The general manager of Maxima Productions, Setiadi, told the press on Friday that Miyabi would be fully clothed in the movie. "We are Eastern people and we know the rules. It's impossible for us to make a porn or sex movie," he said. Setiadi said he was open to discussions with the FPI.

The other three protests scheduled for Friday are aimed at more usual suspects than imported adult movie starlets. A demonstration will take place in front of Bank Indonesia building on Jalan MH Thamrin. A rally is also planned outside the Attorney General's Office at Sultan Hasanuddin, South Jakarta. The office of the Corruption Eradication Commission on Jalan Rasuna Said in South Jakarta will be the fourth target of protest groups today.

Drivers are advised to avoid these areas because traffic jams are likely to occur as a result of the demonstrations.

Indonesian hard-liners outraged by Japanese porn star

Jakarta Globe - October 9, 2009

Azis Edward – About 50 members of the Islam Defenders Front went to the office of Maxima Pictures on Friday to protest the planned involvement of porn star Maria Ozawa, better known as Miyabi, in the movie "Menculik Miyabi" ("Kidnapping Miyabi").

After praying at Nurul Abror Mosque in Mangga Dua, West Jakarta, the members of the front, or FPI, proceeded to the office of Maxima Pictures at the Ibis Business Complex, also in Mangga Dua, carrying placards and shouting: "Allahu akbar [God is the greatest]! Miyabi, destroyer of morality!"

Several FPI representatives, led by Habib Fahri Jamalullail, deputy chief of the group's Jakarta branch, later entered the office to meet with Maxima executives. Fahri said Maxima's plan to bring Miyabi to Jakarta threatened to undermine the morality of the Indonesian people.

"We can't let Miyabi come to Indonesia. We will ask Maxima to replace her with another actress," Fahri said before the start of the meeting.

After about 15 minutes, the FPI representatives emerged from the office, expressing disappointment that the company had failed to give a conclusive response to their demand.

Fahri said if Maxima failed to cancel Miyabi's visit to Jakarta, the FPI would intercept the actress at the airport. "We will accost her at Soekarno-Hatta airport," he said.

Despite a government regulation that allows foreigners to enter Jakarta as long as they do not have a criminal record, Fahri said the FPI would still protest her visit. "Miyabi is a person who has desecrated religion because what she does is forbidden," he said.

Maxima, in a news conference at its office after the rally, said it would take the FPI's complaints into consideration in reviewing the production of "Menculik Miyabi."

The film's producer, Oddi Mulya Hidayat, said that while he respected the FPI's right to protest, he was unable to say whether Miyabi's participation in the movie would be canceled. "We have to analyze it from a number of different angles because we're running a business here," he said.

However, Oddi did say that Maxima was still unable to confirm that Miyabi would be arriving in Indonesia because of bureaucratic obstacles. "To get Miyabi here is a difficult process. So far, only 80 percent of the administrative issues [are settled]," he said.

Oddi said that as long as it was legal, Maxima would insist on casting Miyabi, but added that the production would be relocated out of Jakarta. "We will change the location. It could be out of the country, or in Bali," he said.

He said in a last-case scenario, Maxima would consider replacing Miyabi with another actress if that was the only way to get the production done.

Pornography back in court: Warnings of harm to youth

Jakarta Globe - October 8, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran – Graphic pornographic images made a return to the Constitutional Court on Thursday, much to the discomfort of some of the judges considering a judicial review filed against the controversial Anti-Pornography Law.

The government's expert witness, Elly Risman, a psychologist from child-protection NGO Yayasan Kita and Buah Hati, presented a number of explicit images she argued would have a devastating effect on young people.

She selected images from a pornographic Web site that exploited the name of a popular children's cartoon program, Naruto, which does not contain pornography, to illustrate her point. During her presentation, at least two of the nine judges hearing the case occupied themselves by looking at the floor.

Claiming to have conducted surveys with thousands of children, Elly said her research showed that almost 70 percent of elementary school-aged children had admitted to accessing pornographic material in films, comics, magazines, newspapers and on cell phones and the Internet.

She said that when the children surveyed were given the opportunity to ask any question they liked about the opposite sex, many had asked about sexual intercourse or wanted to know how to make babies.

"Most of them no longer have innocent questions relevant to their age, as they have been widely exposed [to pornography] by those media," she said.

Elly said her research revealed that 97 percent of high school students had accessed pornographic material. "Watching [pornography] for two days in row made me feel like I was going to have a heart attack," she added.

Neuroscientist Andre Mayza, also appearing on behalf of the government, said exposure to sexually suggestive images was addictive and, in the long term, could lead to brain damage.

"It distracts people's attention making them unable to concentrate, and in the end may result in brain damage similar to having a traffic accident," he said, adding that "the addiction may result in sexual crimes."

Some 30 organizations representing various groups throughout the country, including cultural, ethnic, human rights, artists and women's rights groups, are appealing against the controversial Anti-Pornography Law, which they say is draconian and deeply flawed.

The groups argue that the law's definition of pornography is vague and misleading, causing problems with its interpretation, and contend that Article 4 of the law, which forbids people from producing, distributing or selling anything that can be categorized as pornography, is unconstitutional. Article 4 also stipulates prison sentences of up to 15 years for violators and fines of up to Rp 7.5 billion ($795,000).

The groups say that it is better to use the existing laws in the Criminal Code to police pornography. The law has been challeged twice previously.

Wirawan Adnan, of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), argued the law was needed to protect the morality of the country's youth. He said pornography was a corrupting influence, citing research by the National Coordinating Agency for Family Planning (BKKBN) that showed 39 percent of young people have engaged in premarital sex.

Diversity & multiculturalism

Forum strives for strong multicultural society

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2009

Luh De Suriyani – Thousands of people took part Monday evening in the Gema Perdamaian (Echo of Peace) at the Bajra Sandhi Monument in Renon, south Denpasar.

Waves of people began flocking to the monument from early dusk, on the southern side of the Puputan Margarana soccer field. The participants hailed from all walks of life, representing a gamut of ethnicities and religions.

A street procession, during which the participants carried a long white banner in a collective peaceful march around the field, highlighted the event held annually to promote peace and remind the world of the importance of non-violent responses.

The participants formed a 500-meter-long line led by a group of children performing the sacred Rejang Dewa dance. The dance is usually performed at the beginning of a Balinese Hinduism temple festival to welcome arriving deities.

Following the children dancers was a group of participants tasked with carrying the banner symbolizing purity and peace. The group comprised representatives of different religious communities, including the Hare Krishna, Muslims, Christians and Buddhists.

Behind them was a group of religious leaders who recited prayers and verses from their respective holy books. Bringing up the rear of the procession was a group of youths who carried a statue of the Garuda Pancasila, the official emblem of the country, and the Red-and-White flag of the Republic.

As the Hare Krishna followers chanted their devotional songs, the Balinese youths sounded their Bleganjur gamelan ensemble in chorus, providing the march with an inspiring audio accompaniment brimming with joy and energy.

"We want to show religious tolerance and harmony through this event," said Supriyono, founder of the Bali branch of Paguyuban Ngeksigondo, which focuses on the preservation and development of Javanese cultural and spiritual heritage. Its members participated in the march dressed in traditional Javanese dress.

Bali administration secretary I Wayan Yasa said his office would always support any initiatives aimed at developing a strong and committed multicultural society.

"This island is home to people from various ethnicities and religions," he said. "We want to keep sustaining and nurturing tolerance and harmony."

Separately, Gema Perdamaian organizing committee head I Nyoman Baskara warned participants of the "seeds of social distrust and conflict" that had long existed in Bali.

"There is a growing gap between the haves and the have-nots; the farmers lose their land, villages are locked in dispute over territories," he said.

Elections/political parties

PDI-P at the crossroads: Coalition or opposition?

Jakarta Post - October 15, 2009

Jakarta – Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri now faces a bigger task than merely to determine her party's political stance, since her decision could mean she has to face her own husband, Taufik Kiemas.

Megawati has been known to firmly believe – especially in the light of her years of broken relations with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – that playing as an opposition and not joining the next Cabinet is the best option for her party.

PDI-P deputy secretary-general Agnita Sinedekane on Tuesday reaffirmed Megawati's stance, saying the chairwoman was likely to maintain the party's role in opposition to Yudhoyono.

However, Taufik, who is also PDI-P's chief patron, has said repeatedly he would allow any member of his party to become a minister in the next Cabinet should Yudhoyono offer them the posts.

Relations between Taufik and Yudhoyono have apparently been improving lately, with the latter's Democratic Party, holding most seats in the House of Representatives, endorsing Taufik to become the chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

The possibility of a PDI-P executive being nominated for a ministerial post was also recently hinted by Democratic Party secretary-general and House Speaker Marzuki Alie, who said PDI-P Secretary-General Pramono Anung would likely spend less than a month in his position as House deputy speaker, since he could be moved to "another post" immediately.

Taufik was also seen at the House in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday, while his party held an internal meeting in Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta. When asked why he was not at the meeting, Taufik said "I have been asked that question too many times, I refuse to answer".

Speculation also circulated Wednesday that one of the items on the PDI-P meeting agenda was the possible dismissal of Pramono. However, Agnita told The Jakarta Post no plans to dismiss anyone from the party had been raised at the meeting.

PDI-P executive Gayus Lumbuun said the party was discussing its orientation for party legislators at the House.

Megawati's daughter, Puan Maharani, said there was no friction between her parents, and that the family, which had inherited the blood of Sukarno [Indonesia's first president]', was "solid".

"I also want to make it clear that any statement from anyone claiming to be the spokesperson for the chairwoman is not official," she said. "Official party statements can only be issued directly by either the chairwoman or the secretary- general."

Puan also said none of the party executives, including Pramono, had offered themselves to Yudhoyono to be selected as ministers.

Meanwhile, Pramono said the party's final stance would be decided within the next three to five days. Pramono also confirmed there was intense political communication between his party and the Democratic Party. "Honestly, communication is getting better," he said.

"The results of the improved communications can be seen in the success of Pak Taufik being elected MPR chairman," he said.

Political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Siti Zuhro, said the current turmoil within the PDI-P had been caused by the party's own fragmented condition. "If we use the family as a metaphor, people would not cheat on their spouses if their marriage was solid," she said. (hdt)

Defection of SBY's campaign spokesman ruffles a party feathers

Jakarta Globe - October 9, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran & April Aswadi – Outrage has greeted the appointment of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ally Rizal Mallarangeng to a senior position in the Golkar Party.

Zainal Bintang, a senior member of the former ruling party, which was hammered in April's legislative elections, said the defection of Mallarangeng from Yudhoyono's Democratic Party to Golkar, where he will head the party's think tank and policy analysis division, showed the yellow party was becoming blue, referring to Golkar's official color, yellow, and the Democrats' blue.

"Rizal Mallarangeng's appointment to a Golkar post has tainted the image of the party," Zainal was quoted by Antara news agency as saying. "He often jumps from one party to another."

Rizal, Yudhoyono's spokesman during the legislative and presidential elections, was a member of former President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) before joining Yudhoyono's party in 2004.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, elected on Wednesday as chairman of Golkar, has widely been expected to bring the party closer to Yudhoyono's ruling coalition, if not join it.

On Friday, Bakrie, who critics believe will use his power to expand his business empire, visited Yudhoyono at his private residence in Cikeas, Bogor.

Andi Mallarangeng, Yudhoyono's spokesman and a brother of Rizal, said the visit was simply a social call by a new political party leader to the president. "The president congratulated him as Golkar has been cooperative with the government," Andi said.

However, at least one observer said the visit most likely involved Bakrie pledging Golkar's support for the next administration in exchange for valuable positions within Yudhoyono's cabinet.

Tjipta Lesmana, a political analyst, said the president may have requested that Bakrie include Rizal on the Golkar Party board.

"Rizal and Yudhoyono are close," he said. "The president may have asked Bakrie to give Rizal a position. The two are not only close, their relationship is like a 'marriage.'?"

However, Tjipta did not rule out the possibility that Rizal, who announced plans to run for the presidency in July but couldn't get any political party to back him, may have been motivated by personal ambition.

"He's an ambitious person," Tjipta said. "He jumped from one party to another just to secure his powerful position."

Despite his party preference, Rizal remains close to Bakrie. His latest position was as an expert staff member at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare.

Aburizal's cabinet choice draws strong protests

Jakarta Post - October 10, 2009

Rizal Harahap and Hyginus Hardoyo, Pekanbaru, Jakarta – Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie's move to include political turncoat Rizal Mallarangeng and Titiek Soeharto in the party's executive board has sparked a strong protest from active cadres and functionaries.

Zaenal Bintang, a senior party figure, called Aburizal's move to pick Rizal to lead the think tank and research department a humiliating move.

"His (Rizal's) presence in the party leadership structure has spoiled (Golkar). He moves from one party to another," Zainal said in Jakarta on Friday. "He was also once involved with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), he is nothing but an opportunist."

Zaenal also said Rizal's appointment had degraded and insulted party loyalists who had spent years shedding their blood, sweat and tears for the party. "I urge Golkar members to stand together to protest the decision and demand Rizal step down from his post," he said.

Besides Rizal, Titiek Prabowo, second daughter of late former president Soeharto, was appointed as deputy to the secretary- general and Idrus Markham as secretary-general. Agung Laksono and Theo L. Sambuaga retained their positions as deputy chairman.

Rumors were spreading that Aburizal picked Idrus after an intervention from the Presidential Palace who disliked Maj. Gen. (ret.) Luhut Panjaitan who was tipped for the post.

Other Golkar members said they did not have any problem with Aburizal's decision, but they did have some questions over Rizal's competence and capabilities.

"I believe Pak Aburizal has a strong reason behind his decision to name Rizal. Both of them also go way back. However, I must say that in all my years with Golkar, I have never known what Rizal has done for Golkar," Golkar senior politician Fahmi Idris said.

Golkar faction chairman at the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), Hajriyanto Tohari, said that he personally thought that the party should have appointed someone with a stronger economic background.

"If we have to name someone outside of the party to lead an internal department, I think we should have chosen someone with more specific skills, like an economist... because Golkar needs more people who can develop solid economic ideas for the nation's future," he said.

A member of Yuddy's success team, Indra Piliang, said that he was not "hurt" by Rizal's appointment, because as part of the losing team, he had to accept whatever was coming to him. "We have to admit that Rizal is the biggest success story in the nation's political scene this year," he said.

Aburizal, popularly known as Ical defended his decision and said on Friday that Rizal was the only one in his field "and I know him well."

Rizal was a former member of the SBY campaign team and worked closer with his Democratic Party during the recent general election and helped the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) when he was a member of the Freedom Institute. Titiek had been inactive in Golkar following her father's downfall in May, 1998.

Political analysts say it would raise a serious question on the future of democracy if both Golkar and PDI-P joined the ruling coalition which it was feared by some could pave the way for the re-birth of an authoritarian regime.

If these two parties join the ruling coalition, then the government will be supported by a strong coalition controlling 92.5 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives. (hdt)

Bakrie Takes over fractured Golkar Party, promises unity

Jakarta Globe - October 9, 2009

Febriamy Hutapea, Pekanbaru (Riau) – Aburizal Bakrie on Thursday began his six-year term at the helm of Golkar, the country's second largest political party, and vowed to maintain its position at the forefront of national policy.

Aburizal will begin serving a second term as coordinating minister of people's welfare in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's cabinet this month, confirming speculation that he intended to keep the party from becoming a much-needed opposition force.

Yudhoyono's Democratic Party won the largest number of seats in the 560-member House of Representatives. The victory was bolstered by the forging of an alliance with 23 political parties to back his re-election.

In his inaugural address, Aburizal said he would "continue to stress that our party is a frontline guardian of the government's policies."

"Opposition and coalition, in the context of an ever progressing Indonesia, are no longer" mutually exclusive options, he said.

After being elected the new Golkar Party chairman on Thursday, Aburizal said he planned to pay a visit to Yudhoyono soon to present the new party leadership.

He said Golkar, which has suffered two electoral defeats this year, must be clever in its political maneuvers to serve the interests of the party. However, he added that Golkar's interests "also coincide with those of the nation."

Under his leadership, Aburizal said the party would place a high priority on consolidating the organization, forming cadres, boosting creativity and ideas and winning elections at all levels.

"All central and regional executive cadres have to be able to unite in heart and spirit, strengthen discipline, tow the party line and agree on" all internal party matters, he said. Aburizal added that this game plan would allow the party to mend internal rifts that formed ahead of the presidential election in July.

Sharp ideas a clear party strategy would allow Golkar "to win public opinion, and through that our party will be able to influence government policies in various sectors."

Aburizal, who will lead the party for the 2009-15 term, which is one year longer than the customary five-year tenure, vowed to work "day and night, seven days a week, to make the party greater."

The expanded tenure was meant to ensure the party would not be fractured by internal strife in the run up to the 2014 elections. The term after his would be trimmed back to four years to prevent the change in party leadership from coinciding with a presidential election.

To help him lead the party, Aburizal chose a cast of supporters that included former House Speaker Agung Laksono and senior lawmaker Theo Sambuaga as deputy chairmen, former Golkar chairman Akbar Tanjung as head of the party's advisory board and lawmaker Idrus Marham as secretary general.

None of his rival contenders for the party chairmanship – media mogul Surya Paloh, lawmaker Yuddy Chrisnandi or Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, President Suharto's youngest son – or their backers made it into leadership posts.

Among those appointed to the leadership, two prompted rowdy reactions when they were announced. Titiek Suharto, a daughter of the party's former longtime patron Suharto, was named deputy secretary general, while Rizal Mallarangeng, an older brother of Yudhoyono's spokesman, Andi Mallarangeng, became head of the executive board's ideas and policy department.

Aburizal garnered 296 of the 528 votes in the party congress, while 240 went to his strongest rival, Paloh. Yuddy and Tommy failed to tally a single vote.

Bakrie to steer Golkar Party back into SBY's embrace: Analysts

Jakarta Globe - October 8, 2009

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Analysts say newly elected Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie will solidify support for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and ensure the profitability of his business interests, at least for the next five years.

Speaking in Jakarta on Thursday, Patra M Zen, chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), said Yudhoyono would be indebted to "share" his power with his outgoing coordinating minister for people's welfare in return for political support.

"Ical's individual interests and also his business group's interests will be safe for the next five years," Patra said, using Bakrie's nickname. The Golkar chairman was elected to serve a five-year term.

Sebastian Salang, from the Concerned Citizens Forum for the Indonesian Parliament (Formappi), agreed with Patra that Bakrie would most likely align Golkar with the president's Democratic Party.

"Now we just wait and see how the two groups compromise the power," he said. "If agreed to, it reinforces the attitude that Golkar always wants to stay part of the ruling government."

The addition of Golkar to the Democrat's coalition would mean that more than 70 percent of the total seats in the House of Representatives would be aligned with the government, which conversely meant a weakening of a critical opposition, Salang said.

"What we have to be worried about is that it will have a negative impact on the checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches as mandated by democratic principles," he said, adding that the lack of proper opposition could open the door for abuses of power.

On the other hand, Salang said that the consolidation of power was a rational goal for Yudhoyono and was to be expected in any democracy around the world. But he urged Golkar and the Democrat coalition members to remain critical of government policy.

"They must always remember that all government policies must be for the benefit of the citizens," he said.

Asked about Golkar's prospects if it formed part of the government, Salang said the union would not guarantee the party's fortunes in the 2014 elections. "Golkar members must remember that even after 2004, with Jusuf Kalla occupying the position of vice president, they failed to win the 2009 elections," he said.

Separately, a senior official from the Democratic Party, Anas Urbaningrum, congratulated Bakrie on his success, saying he was the best choice to continue political cooperation between Golkar and the Democrats.

"We believe that it's easier to build communication and understanding regarding Indonesia's future with Golkar," Anas said. "To date, we feel comfortable enough communicating with Golkar and Ical."

Tjahjo Kumolo, a senior politician of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), meanwhile, declined to comment on Bakrie's election. "For us, it is unethical to respond to other party's internal affairs," he said.

Past likely to haunt Bakrie, says sociologist

Jakarta Globe - October 8, 2009

Nurfika Osman – Past failures and alleged scandals, especially the Lapindo mudflow disaster, will hound Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie as he assumes his position as the new chairman of the Golkar Party, a sociologist said on Thursday.

"His failures, such as his company's role in causing the hot mudflow in Sidoarjo, East Java, will taint the image of Golkar," said Endang Turmudi, a sociologist from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

Endang said this will hurt Golkar under Bakrie's leadership, including during the 2014 presidential election.

"To restore the image of Golkar as it was during Akbar Tanjung's era will be hard for Bakrie because of this Lapindo case," he said. "There is a joke that he is the minister for people's welfare, but he brings disaster to the people."

PT Lapindo Brantas, a Bakrie group company, was operating oil and gas wells in Sidoarjo when mud began to flow from a fissure close to a well in May 2006. More than 15,000 residents were eventually left homeless after their villages were inundated with mud.

Lapindo insists the mudflow was caused by 6.3-magnitude earthquake in Yogyakarta two days earlier. Numerous international experts have rejected that explanation.

Lapindo subsidiary PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya was appointed to handle compensation claims from victims of the mudflow, but it has repeatedly failed to meet all of its financial obligations.

Endang said many social welfare issues during Bakrie's tenure as minister needed to be addressed, including the huge number of people living below the poverty line.

"He must be able to decrease the poverty rate. During his administration, he had a National Program for Community Empowerment [PNPM], but the poverty rate remains high," Endang said. "He should be able to empower citizens or he will see his party's downfall."

According to the United Nations Development Program, about 37 million Indonesians are living below the poverty line.

Under the government's antipoverty program, Rp 10.4 trillion ($1.10 billion) was allocated to every district, including Rp 1.7 billion for employment-related activities.

Bakrie won more than half the votes at the Golkar Party's national congress on Thursday.

Aburizal Bakrie elected new Golkar chairman, Tommy gets no votes

Jakarta Globe - October 8, 2009

Pekanbaru, Riau – Golkar advisory board member and Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, Aburizal Bakrie, was officially elected as the new Golkar Party chairman on Thursday morning after securing more than half of total votes at the party's national congress.

There were 538 people who had a right to cast a ballot, but two were considered invalid. Bakrie secured 296 votes, while his strongest rival, Surya Paloh, only managed 240. Fellow candidates Yuddy Chrisnandi and Tommy Suharto did not receive any votes.

"Aburizal Bakrie is declared [as the party's general chairman] by acclamation," Fadel Muhammad, the committee chairman, said.

However, the vote was not free from controversy. A witness alleged that someone used a camera pen when casting their vote.

"This has to be followed up, this must indicate that there was vote buying involved," the witness said. The congress, however, ignored the suggestion from the witness.

'Development funds' shelled out at Golkar congress

Jakarta Post - October 8, 2009

Ruslan Sangadji and Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru – The Golkar Party's eighth national congress is awash in money, with rival candidates for the chairmanship shelling out hundreds of millions prior to the vote.

The camp of chief welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie, one of the four candidates for chairman to replace the outgoing Vice President Jusuf Kalla, began handing out money to each member of the party's regional branches from across Indonesia, a day after the congress opened on Monday evening.

Aburizal's team handed over Rp 250 million to each provincial branch head and another Rp 200 million to each regency and municipal branch head. The team said the money was "funds for the party's activities in each of the provincial, regency and municipal branches".

They also promised to hand out an additional Rp 500 billion if Aburizal, head of the country's wealthiest family, was elected chairman, and pledged to build permanent branch offices in all provinces.

Several branch heads admitted Wednesday they had taken money from Aburizal's camp. A regency branch head from Sulawesi, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "it's not wrong" to receive the money.

He added it was not technically vote buying because the money would be used to finance the party's regional operations. "I won't use the money for myself, but rather to finance party programs in my region," he said.

Aburizal has repeatedly said the money being handed around is not a kick-back, but simply a fund intended for development activities by the party at the regional level. "I'm a member of Golkar's executive board, so the money I gave constitutes funding to support Golkar in the regions," he said.

The other candidates in the race for chairman are media mogul Surya Paloh, upstart legislator Yuddy Chrisnandi, and convicted murderer Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former president Soeharto.

Surya's supporters say they were promised a party development fund of Rp 300 million. However, as of Wednesday, only Rp 100 million had been handed out, with the remainder to be paid only if Surya won the election.

This development saw several of Surya's supporters jump ship to Aburizal's camp. But there are also a number of others who fully supported Surya until the voting time.

Over at Tommy's camp, meanwhile, close aides said they had already put together a first-stage Rp 500 billion operational fund for those who supported him.

The money will be shared among branch heads supporting Tommy, but observations by The Jakarta Post concluded very little of the money was being paid out. As for Yuddy, there were no reports as of Wednesday that he had been buying votes.

Most officials at the congress say none of the regional branch executives are backing his candidacy.

"I think the party executives at the regional level are evaluating who has the biggest chance of leading Golkar," said a regional party official speaking on condition of anonymity.

"That's why they're being really picky about whose money to take, and they're certainly not going to take it from the candidates least likely to win."

Delegates' votes were not just being bought with money at the congress. The lavish facilities on offer included free temporary membership at the local golf course and room service massages, standing in stark contrast to conditions elsewhere in Sumatra.

Over in Padang and surrounding areas in West Sumatra, thousands are feared dead and many more remain without homes, food or medical care following last week's 7.6-magnitude earthquake.

Thousands of homes and offices have collapsed in the area, leaving rescuers overwhelmed with the scale of the disaster.

Observers have criticized the Golkar congress as a typical example of party that is completely oblivious of the issues facing its grassroots constituents once the elections are over.

Government/civil service

Next government faces plenty of homework

Jakarta Post - October 15, 2009

Aditya Suharmoko and Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – Economic ministers held their last meeting Wednesday and left plenty of homework for their successors, with unresolved problems ranging from boosting infrastructure, reform of the bureaucracy, to revitalizing the real sector.

While over the past five-year period the government has been relatively spot-on in terms of macroeconomic policies, classic problems hampering growth in the real sector have been largely unresolved, chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, MS Hidayat, said Wednesday.

With regard to revitalizing the real sector, as well as eliminating classic problems such as legal uncertainty and overlapping regulations, Hidayat suggested that, in order to have a more vibrant real sector, the government needs to change its mind-set to develop the nation's processing industries, rather than just being satisfied with robust primary industries.

"A sound primary industry is good, but in order for our industry to expand significantly there is the need to develop the processing industry as well, so that the country can also enjoy the added values," Hidayat said in an interview.

"What we have at the moment is, basically, we export our raw materials. Industries in other countries then process them into end-products and sell them back to Indonesia at far higher prices. This needs to change."

If all efforts to revitalize local industries are addressed by the next government, along with continued bureaucracy reform and an infrastructure boost, Hidayat said, Indonesia would definitely enjoy faster economic growth.

A faster growth in the next five-year period is indeed one of the utmost priorities for the next government, said Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati Wednesday, after a coordinating meeting with all economic ministers.

Mulyani, also the acting coordinating minister for the economy, told reporters that in the five years under the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, the government considered that reaching a 6 percent growth was "not enough" and poverty reduction was below expectation.

"I think there are many higher targets that we want to achieve, like the 6 percent growth, which is not considered enough. It's homework [for the next government]," Mulyani said.

Yudhoyono, who will run for a second term, and vice president- elect Boediono have promised to enable Indonesia to reach a 7 percent growth within the next five years.

Mulyani shared Hidayat's view that there were matters to be resolved by the next government to speed up the development in the private sector, such as improving the professionalism of bureaucrats, as well as intensifying growth-boosting infrastructure projects.

Mulyani said that "Bureaucracy functions, structural issues like land clearance [for infrastructure projects]" should be under review accordingly. To have higher growth, ministers need to accelerate bureaucracy reform, which critics have said undermine the economy. More capital is needed to revitalize industries, which await government and private sector cooperation, she said.

"The government's position in the economy and its collaboration with the private sector for the sake of the people will be important."

The economy grew 5.6 percent in 2005, 5.5 percent in 2006, 6.3 percent in 2007 and 6.1 percent last year.

Names of party elites beginning to emerge

Jakarta Post - October 12, 2009

Jakarta – The names of political party elites who President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono may appoint to fill slots in his next Cabinet have begun to circulate.

The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), for example, says Yudhoyono should appoint its former president, Hidayat Nur Wahid, to chair a ministerial post in the next Cabinet.

"I truly hope Hidayat is chosen to be one of the ministers," PKS president Tifatul Sembiring said at Hotel Century in Senayan, South Jakarta, as quoted by Antara on Sunday. "I hope Hidayat is named the next coordinating minister for people's welfare," Titaful said.

Hidayat deserved a position in the Cabinet because of his previous experience, he said. "Pak Hidayat was not selected to become the vice president, nor to regain his chairmanship at the People's Consultative Assembly [MPR], so I think he deserves a significant, honorable post."

Earlier, the media had speculated that Tifatul himself would be one of the ministers Yudhoyono appoints for the next Cabinet. Tifatul was said to become either the next forestry minister or information and communication minister.

Commenting on the rumors, Tifatul said that while he regarded them as "unproven" he would gladly embrace such an opportunity and would do the best he could if Yudhoyono appointed him.

Separately, PKS deputy secretary-general Zulkieflimansyah told The Jakarta Post his party would like to be given ministerial posts that had greater influence in public issues. "However, we cannot disclose what those posts are, because our other coalition partners could set their eyes on them as well," he said.

Yudhoyono's bloc consists of his Democratic Party, the PKS, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the United Development Party (PPP). However, he seems to have had two new additions, namely the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie said he would drive his party to support the government, while PDI-P chief patron Taufiq Kiemas said he would allow any member from his party to be named ministers.

Golkar's previous chairman, Jusuf Kalla, and Taufiq's wife, PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, were Yudhoyono's rivals during the July presidential election.

The possible inclusion of a PDI-P member was hinted by Democratic Party secretary-general Marzuki Alie during a friendly gathering with reporters at the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Marzuki, who is also the House speaker, said he suspected that one of his deputies, Pramono Anung, from the PDI-P, would only spend one month in his new post at the House. "I believe Pak Pramono will be transferred to another post in the near future," Marzuki said, while Pramono responded only with a smile.

Local media has speculated that Pramono could be named as the energy and mineral resources minister. Aside from Pramono, Taufiq's daughter, Puan Maharani, has also been said to become either the women's affairs minister or the social affairs minister.

Meanwhile, one of the Democratic Party central board chairmen, Ruhut Sitompul, said Yudhoyono would maintain a fair representation of non-partisans and partisans in his next cabinet.

"The proportion is 50-50. As for the partisans, it is logical for us to have the most posts because of our status as the winner of the general elections," he said.

Ruhut Sitompul's colleague at the party, Sutan Batugana, said recently that one of the party's executives to be named minister was Syarief Hassan.

House Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum is also rumored to be named as the next youth and sport affairs minister.

Each party in the coalition could receive only two posts at most, said Burhanuddin Muhtadi, a political analyst from the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI).

"PKS could be given three posts to compensate for Hidayat's loss; PKB and PPP would only receive two posts. PAN could receive two posts, but one of them would be an important coordinating minister post," Burhanuddin said.

"That post would be chaired by Hatta Radjasa, who played a vital role in Yudhoyono's victory during the election. Golkar and PDI-P would only be given two less-significant posts to prevent political jealousy from Yudhoyono's original partners." (hdt)

Activists warn of return to 'bad old days' of authoritarianism

Jakarta Globe - October 11, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran – Analysts and activists are expressing concern about the health of Indonesia's nascent democracy after the president's Democratic Party and its coalition have gained near-dominant strength as a result of this year's elections, warning of a possible return to the authoritarian days of the New Order era.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla's Golkar Party was expected to serve in opposition to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party and its wide coalition. But last week Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie was elected as its new chairman – a move seen bringing the party closer to the Democrats.

The appointment of Yudhoyono ally Rizal Mallarangeng to a senior position within the Golkar Party has strengthened that perception.

Meanwhile, Democrat support also helped Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) heavyweight Taufik Kiemas, the husband of former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, attain the chairmanship of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) – a move analysts say was a political investment.

"Democrats are investing in a political favor for the PDI-P because there's no such thing as a free lunch in politics," Lili Romli, a political analyst from Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), told the Jakarta Globe.

Kalla and Megawati were Yudhoyono's opponents during July's presidential election.

The Democrats have gained a strong hand in the House of Representatives, an institution intended as a check on the powers of the executive branch.

Representatives from the Democrat-led coalition, plus Golkar representatives, hold more than 90 percent of the seats in the legislature.

The Indonesian Parliamentary Center has warned that the dominance of the coalition may turn the legislature into a rubber stamp, as it was during the Suharto era.

"Being critical is needed. It should not just nod to all government policies," IPC director Sulastio told the Jakarta Globe. "If it is not critical, the House will not be carrying out its checks-and-balances function."

Political analysts are eagerly awaiting the names of the new cabinet members, scheduled to be announced on Oct. 21, a day after Yudhoyono and Vice President-elect Boediono are inaugurated.

Political activist Fadjroel Rachman said Yudhoyono has successfully consolidated his power in the executive and legislative branches, and should therefore use his political leverage to name the most deserving ministers to his cabinet.

"He complained several times during the previous administration that he was not fully supported by the legislature," Fadjroel said.

"This is actually the right time for him to compose his own cabinet without any intervention. [He should name] a strong and qualified cabinet."

But Fadjroel also warned that Indonesia may see a return to the era of authoritarianism.

"There is a big possibility that the government will be a semi- authoritarian government with a dictator for a leader," he said. "The democracy that we have tried to build after the New Order era may dissolve into a new form of authoritarianism."

Other analysts were a bit less alarmed. Daniel Sparingga, a political analyst from Airlangga University, said there was no reason to worry just yet. He said authoritarianism would only return if there was a systematic effort to weaken the House and civil society. "I don't see it that phenomenon now," he said.

The Democratic Party rejected suggestions that its dominance spelled the beginning of a return to the days under Suharto.

"Those fears are exaggerated," said Anas Urbaningrum, the head of the Democratic Party faction in House. "It's impossible to return to the New Order era. The political configuration and spirit have been changed and civil society has developed," Anas said.

Golkar's Idrus Marham also insisted on Sunday that despite the coalition's strength, his party will not abandon its function as a voice of criticism.

Lawmakers chastised for not being in House

Jakarta Globe - October 8, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran – Analysts on Tuesday attacked the House of Representatives for its poor attendance record, during a judicial review hearing in the Constitutional Court.

The court is hearing a case filed by four applicants – a lawyer, a teacher, a government official and an employee from a private firm – who want the Supreme Court Law overturned because fewer than 100 of the 550 elected representatives from the House were present for the vote.

Syamsuddin Haris, a political expert from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), testified that given the propensity of members of the House to turn up to plenary sessions simply to sign the attendance register, it was better not to hold the sessions in the first place.

"As they all live in houses close to one another, they should just sign the attendance form at home instead of taking the effort of coming to the House," he said sarcastically. "It's no use having a House building or even conducting elections if that's the way they're going to act."

The judicial review was filed with the Constitutional Court because of the poor attendance of lawmakers during deliberations over the controversial Supreme Court bill last year. At least half of the House members are needed to form a quorum to endorse bills.

When the House plenary meeting, led by Agung Laksono, endorsed the bill in December 2008, it is alleged there were no more than 96 members in attendance despite 283 having supposedly signed the register.

Syamsuddin said that representation in the House should only come in two forms, that of ideas and that of physical presence. "We should not acknowledge mere administrative representation, such as the signing the attendance form," he said.

Abdul Chaer, a language expert from the Jakarta State University (UNJ), said that the word "attendance" represented actual physical attendance.

"There is a common principle regarding attendance, and it means real physical attendance," Abdul said. "Signatures cannot represent attendance, because it cannot contribute to debate in the plenary sessions of the House. The physical body can only contribute during the endorsement of a bill."

Previously, Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, a legislator from the National Awakening Party (PKB), had told the court that abuse of the attendance register was a "big problem."

"If we had to have half the members attending the session [until the end], we would never be able to pass a bill," she said. "Besides, the regulation does not require physical attendance. If half of the members sign the attendance list, it is enough."

Government officials also defended the House members, saying that if physical attendance was a requirement, the House would have difficulties passing any bills.

Qomaruddin, the legal director at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, said that there was a convention in the House regulations that stated attendance only be proven with signatures.

However, Syamsuddin said that the convention was wrong and should therefore be revised. "If we can amend the Constitution, then it means we can also change the convention – especially as it is wrong," he said.

"It doesn't matter if the House can only produce a limited number of laws," Syamsuddin added. "The House target for passing bills during its five-year term is too ambitious, so as they try to reach the target in a short time, they instead come up with bad legislation."

The Constitutional Court will announce its decision within the next two week.

Aid & development

Breakthrough needed to reach MDGs: Commission

Jakarta Post - October 10, 2009

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The government has been urged to make a "breakthrough" in its children- and health-related programs, with Indonesia's infant mortality rate currently among the highest in Southeast Asia.

A breakthrough was needed to help the country achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which would see infant mortality rates drop to 17 infant deaths per 1,000 births, by 2015, Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) chairman Hadi Supeno said.

The existing programs were not enough to for Indonesia to meet the target, with current figures standing at 34 infant deaths per 1,000 births, he said. Indonesia's infant mortality rate was far higher than other countries in the region including the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam with 7, 12 and 18 deaths per 1,000 births, respectively.

"Without a breakthrough, perhaps we can only reduce the number to 29 deaths per 1,000 births," Hadi told a press conference on Friday.

The current mortality rate means that 160,000 infants die out of between 4 and 5 million births in Indonesia every year, he said. "That is the same as 15,000 dead infants per month, or one infant death every three minutes. The devastation caused by the West Sumatra quake and other disasters are nothing compared to this."

With mothers' health often serving as a contributing factor in the deaths, the government may have to launch programs campaigning for an end to early marriages, because younger mothers are more likely to have unhealthier babies, Hadi said.

To ensure sufficient nutrition for infants, Hadi also suggested massive campaigns on early breast-feeding initiation shortly after births, and exclusive breast-feeding for infants six months old and younger.

"And every institution and office must provide a special room for working mothers to breast-feed babies during work hours," Hadi said.

Many Indonesian children were denied their civil rights, with only 49 percent of more than 80 million Indonesia children having birth certificates, Hadi said.

He put the blame on regional administrations, with only 200 of almost 500 Indonesian regencies and municipalities providing birth certificate applications free of charge, despite a ruling in the 2002 Law on Child Protection that obliges them to provide the service at no cost. "Most regions still impose fees for birth certificate applications," Hadi said.

The government had also failed to provide special protection for children, he said, referring to the high number of troubled children. There are around 2.5 million abandoned children in Indonesia, 150,000 of whom live on the streets, Hadi said.

Around 25 million children are active smokers, 350,000 are drug users, 60,000 become prostitutes, and 30,000 are victims of trafficking. Indonesia currently has around 80 million children, i.e. those under the age of 18.

The KPAI, in collaboration with several regional administrations, plans to organize campaigns on the protection of children's rights in Indonesia, from Oct. 16-18, to coincide with the "Stand Up and Take Action Campaign to End Poverty and Achieve the MDGs" called for by the UN.

Up to 12 million Indonesians are expected to take part in the child rights-themed campaigns that will take place in (among others) Jakarta, Tangerang, Bekasi and several towns in Central Java.

Armed forces/defense

TNI business takeover 'merely a formality'

Jakarta Post - October 15, 2009

Jakarta – The much-awaited presidential regulation on the takeover of military businesses drew criticism due to the lack of detailed information, raising concerns on whether the transfer process would be transparent and accountable.

Jaleswari Pramodhawardani, an analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the regulation should have specified which business units were to be transferred.

"The military owns not only cooperatives and foundations, but also corporations, commercialized security services and commercialized state assets; the regulation should list them all," she said. She added that the regulation should also stipulate a clear transfer mechanism and time line for every kind of business unit.

Presidential Regulation No. 43/2009 on the takeover of military business units was issued Monday. The regulation stipulates that all business units that are directly owned and managed by the military must be transferred to the civilian government, in this case the Defense Ministry.

The regulation also says the ministry must manage all the cooperatives and foundations controlled by the military, as well as the state assets currently being used and managed by the military.

Jaleswari said Defense Ministry's takeover of the business units was "merely a formality". "In reality, the military businesses will not be transferred to a civilian government as we have expected." She added the ministry was partially controlled by the military.

Data from the national team overseeing the transfer of military businesses shows that the military controls at least 23 foundations overseeing 53 companies, and 1,321 cooperatives.

The military also owns 1,618 properties, covering more than 16,500 hectares, and 6,699 buildings. The data also showed the military's business assets are worth Rp 2.2 trillion (US$235.4 million).

The regulation stipulates the establishment of a team that will monitor the transfer of the military business units to the Defense Ministry.

A researcher at the Imparsial Human Rights Group, Al Araf, lamented the fact that the regulation had not set a deadline for the takeover of the business units.

"This will lead to uncertainty. This is proof that the government has yet to commit to the takeover." Secretary to the state minister for state enterprises Said Didu said there was no telling how long the team would take to complete the transfer process.

"The transfer process will be tough. We are expecting to see reservations, especially from the third parties involved in the businesses," he said Wednesday. (adh)

Critics slam plan for transfer of Indonesian military assets

Jakarta Globe - October 13, 2009

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The government's plan to place the management of the military's cooperatives and foundations under the Ministry of Defense was criticized on Tuesday for not getting to the root of the problem.

Jaleswari Pramodhawardani, a military analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that because most of the middle- and high-ranking officials at the ministry were also active members of the military, "a conflict of interest would persist."

A presidential decree expected before the end of the year plans to transfer all military businesses to the Ministry of Finance or the State Ministry for State-Owned Enterprises, but will allow the military to retain small, nonprofit cooperatives and foundations under the supervision of the Defense Ministry.

Jaleswari, however, said the government proposal would be "a backward step," because the ministry's personnel were not business-oriented and would therefore need significant outside assistance to run the assets, which were last year found to be worth a total of Rp 3.4 trillion ($360 million).

Instead, she suggested that the state-owned asset management company, PT Perusahaan Pengelolaan Aset, be entrusted with overhauling the 1,098 cooperatives and 23 foundations operated by the Armed Forces.

Separately, Batara Ibnu Reza, a senior researcher from Imparsial, a nongovernmental organization focusing on military issues, said that the Defense Ministry takeover could clash with its commitment to becoming more accountable and transparent.

He also said that taking over the management of the cooperatives and foundations could become a potential financial burden for the government, with the operational costs of the cooperatives and foundations being absorbed by the ministry's budget.

"The debts of the cooperatives and foundations are the responsibility of the institutions managing them," Batara said. "So it must first be stressed that it will not be the government that is responsible for paying back any debts."

Group releases suggestions for reform in TNI and defense ministry

Jakarta Globe - October 9, 2009

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Transforming the Defense Ministry into a purely civil institution must be the government's top priority during the 2009-14 term, a nongovernmental group said during a discussion in Jakarta.

The ProPatria Institute, an organization dedicated to defense issues, announced the recommendation as one of its top policy suggestions for the security sector during a forum hosted by the group on Wednesday.

The group said changes were needed to ensure defense policies were not too militaristic and to establish a clear separation between the bureaucracies of the ministry and the military.

ProPatria Executive Director Hari T Prihartono said civilians must fill the bulk of positions in the Defense Ministry's bureaucracy, which are currently dominated by high-ranking military officials.

The bureaucratic reforms must begin with the teasing out of agencies under the purview of the Ministry of Defense from the influence of the Armed Forces, he said.

"Improving civilian capacity, through formal or informal education, is always critical. And the Ministry of Defense should ensure that they support the process of changing the ministry into a purely civilian institution," Hari said.

However, a military analyst from the University of Indonesia, Kusnanto Anggoro, said rather than focusing on improving civilian bureaucracy in the ministry, it would be better for the government to push the next Defense Minister to thoroughly review the country's forces. He contended that most soldiers currently lack a militaristic orientation toward their jobs, and had gotten too soft.

"I have observed that most soldiers now have lost their spirit as soldiers, which makes them liable to forget their chief task: to remain ready to be deployed for conflict," Kusnanto said. "I think it's because most of them are deployed for social assistance like helping victims of natural disasters."

According to ProPatria, the group's recommendations are based on a review of the performance of the Armed Forces and police, as well as the handling of environmental, health and education issues.

Hari said the group also recommended ministry and the military conduct a strategic defense review and announce new revised plans for the next five years.

The Ministry must also review the Armed Forces's territorial command structure, which does not currently facilitate the development of a more professional military, he said. The group said that to improve domestic security, police and the Home Affairs Ministry must develop policies that provide security while preserving freedom for the country's residents, while tackling widespread poverty.

"Because poverty is one of the major causes of attitudes that turn against the law, as well as fostering antisocial and political disobedience," Hari said.

Rizal Sukma, an international relations expert and a member of the ProPatria team, said the country must take a more active role in international forums, especially the Group of 20.

He said the government must also develop multilateral relationships outside the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a forum too small for a country with as much potential influence as Indonesia. "It is better to enhance relationships with South Korea and Australia, which have bigger potential to influence the Asia Pacific than the Asean," nations, Rizal said.

ProPatria also recommended that the government take a bigger role in international action on climate change.

"Indonesians would suffer more from climate change than big Western countries. So we must take the leadership in any talks about the issue," said Chalid Muhammad, an environmentalist who is also a member of the team.

Hari added that the recommendations could be used as a reference for the country's representatives or governmental officials over the next term.

Nationalism & chauvinism

Indonesian workers stage peace rally in Malaysia

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2009

Jakarta – Some 200 Indonesian workers gathered peacefully in front of the worker's quarters of the YP Plantation Holdings in Rompin, Malaysia, on Wednesday to protest against attempts by certain groups to create tension between Malaysia and Indonesia, Antara has reported.

The protesters, who gathered for about half an hour, carried banners that read, "Kumpulan bendera jangan cemari kami" (the Bendera group don't undermine us), "Kami mencari rezeki halal di Malaysia" (We are working for a rightful livelihood in Malaysia) and "Malaysia dan Indonesia serumpun" (Malaysia and Indonesia are of the same stock). Local authorities later ordered the group to disperse as the gathering did not have a police permit.

One of the workers, Talib Halim Abdullah, 38, from Flores, West Nusa Tenggara, said they wanted to protest against the actions of small groups of Indonesians who had displayed hatred against Malaysia.

Talib, who has been working at the plantation for seven years, said they were treated well by the Malaysian government. "There is really no need to disturb Malaysia. We live in peace here," he said.

Another worker, Tupan Pramana Putra, 38, from Central Java said the people of both countries should live in harmony as they came from the same stock. He did not agree with the actions of Bendera, saying the people of both countries should instead work together to develop their respective countries.

Bendera vigilantes recently launched raids searching for Malaysians in the streets of Jakarta and threatened to wage war on Malaysia. This was the second protest by Indonesian workers following one in Cameron Highlands on Sunday.

Malaysia 'invasion' angers migrant workers: Embassy

Jakarta Globe - October 12, 2009

Nurfika Osman – The People's Democratic Defense, a fringe nationalist group that had announced plans to invade Malaysia, may think its fighting for its country and compatriot workers overseas, but an embassy official in Kuala Lumpur said they're only worsening the situation.

"Their plan to invade Malaysia and declare war has drawn huge attention [in Malaysia], which has only worsened bilateral relations and threatened the welfare of two million Indonesian workers," said Widyarka Ryananta, the head of the embassy's cultural division. "The migrant workers rely on Malaysia for their livelihood."

The group, also known as Bendera, claims to have the support of 8,000 migrant workers. But Ryananta said the group's plans had been attacked by the workers.

"Our workers in Perak state rallied, saying that they didn't support Bendera," Ryananta said. "This group is not only making Malaysians uneasy and scared, but it's also dividing its own compatriots."

He also said that during a visit to Entikong, West Kalimantan, which lies beside Malaysia's Serawak state, he found citizens there angry over Bendera's plan as it was disturbing their relations with their Malaysian neighbors.

"Those who are living in the border areas have a closer relationship with their neighbors and this group has damaged those normal relations," he said.

He said Indonesian officials in Malaysia would take legal action if Bendera pushed through with its invasion plans. "They don't have any right to do such things," Ryananta said.

Separately, a coordinator with Bendera said that the group was sticking to its invasion plan, despite the prohibitions and threats of being arrested by the National Police.

"We are going to declare war when all 1,500 volunteers have infiltrated Malaysia at the end of this month," Mustar said. "Now, our volunteers are spreading throughout Malaysia to check the conditions there."

About 200 Bendera volunteers were said to have left for Malaysia on Friday, with 125 more departing on Sunday. "We won't contact the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia as they don't support us," Mustar said.

Vigilantes ready to start invading Malaysia Friday, leader says

Jakarta Globe - October 8, 2009

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Although their plans have been widely condemned by officials, the People's Democratic Defense (Bendera) announced on Thursday that they are ready to invade Malaysia and would start to dispatch volunteer vigilantes on October 9.

Speaking at a press conference in Jakarta, Bendera coordinator Mustar Nona Ventura said they would not be deterred.

"We will dispatch volunteers as we've scheduled. Nothing will stop us from doing it, including threats from the Malaysian National Security Council or the Indonesian Police."

He said that around 1,300 volunteers would depart for Malaysia between October 9 and 22, including 50 medics. "They will enter through pathways that will be unexpected for Malaysian security," he said.

"Besides the volunteers, there are already 8000 Indonesian migrant workers [in Malaysia] who have committed to support what we do."

In response to an earlier statement by a Malaysian official that more security officers would be deployed to border areas to stop Bendera, Bonar said the volunteers are not afraid and regard it as an empty threat.

"It is not scary to anyone and it shows Malaysia's significant fear of Bendera," he said.

He also criticized a previous statement from a police spokesman that threatened to arrest any Bendera activists who attack Malaysia. Bona said the police should actually support and protect them from Malaysians who try to stop them from invading.

"If the police consider our actions a threat, then it will weaken our spirit to struggle and defend our country's sovereignty. So we apologize if it [the police's statement] will not change our intentions," Bona said.

"I think would be better for the Police and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to honestly disclose the true number of Indonesians who have died from torture or murder in Malaysia," he said.

Responding to the statement, Indonesian Military spokesman Air Vice Marshall Sagom Tamboen said they would not deploy special forces to stop the Bendera activists from entering Malaysia.

He said that the current immigration officers and soldiers on duty on the country's borders were enough to prevent any attack. "Surely our officers at the borders already know what to do. The officers will take the best steps, which in this case, will be by asking them to go home," Tamboen said.

Economy & investment

Indonesia growth rebound predicted in third quarter

Jakarta Globe - October 13, 2009

Dion Bisara & Muhamad Al Azhari – Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati is expecting the country's annual growth to rebound in the third quarter, supported by global economic recovery.

"Our [annual] growth is likely to be in a range of 4.1 percent to 4.3 percent in the third quarter [of 2009]," Sri Mulyani said, as compared to 4 percent in the previous quarter.

The finance minister is expecting accelerated spending in the fourth quarter. "Government spending was not too great in the third quarter. It's usually like this. But in the fourth quarter, it should pick up. In the fourth quarter, I think growth will come in at 4.5 percent," she said.

Budget deficit realization up to the end of September stood at only Rp 33.23 trillion ($3.52 billion), compared with the targeted Rp 129 trillion, reflecting sluggish government spending on projects intended to stimulate the economy.

Third-quarter GDP data is scheduled to be released by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) on Nov. 10.

Lending growth slower than estimate: Central Bank

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2009

Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – Bank lending will grow at a slower pace than expected this year, but will accelerate next year as the economy recovers, says the central bank.

Lending may expand 17 percent next year, acting Bank Indonesia (BI) governor Darmin Nasution said Wednesday.

"This year lending will be lower than estimated. In October, lending grew by about 11 percent year-on-year. So full-year growth will likely be lower than our estimate of 15 percent," he said.

Darmin added that lending had a slow growth not only because lending rates remained high, but because businesses were still waiting before expanding.

Law to boost businesses by cutting regional 'ghost' taxes

Jakarta Globe - October 12, 2009

Irvan Tisnabudi – The recently passed law on regional taxes should be welcomed by business because it sends regional governments a clear signal to stop levying unreasonable or illegal taxes, a legislator who drafted the measure said.

Speaking at a public discussion about the law on Friday evening, Nursanita Nasution of the House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing financesaid the law's main aim was to increase legitimate tax revenues while clamping down on illegal levies.

"I think the central government needs to be stricter on regional governments, as there have been many regional regulations that have contributed to making the business atmosphere unfriendly for investors," Nursanita said.

In the absence of concrete local regulations, regional administrations have been known to charge varying – and often wide- ranging – taxes on different business sectors.

The legislation lists the various sectors local governments are allowed to levy taxes on while raising maximum rates on motor vehicles, cigarettes, hotels and bars, advertising and mining activities. It will be a closed list, so regions will not gain revenues from charging taxes on sectors not included under the new law.

However, the move is likely to see some key goods and services, including second cars, cigarettes and advertising, become more expensive.

An important article of the law would allow local governments to increase levies on car and motorcycle owners who buy second vehicles, as well as higher maximum taxes on hotels and nightclubs and ciga rettes.

The Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) and carmakers have expressed concern about the law, fearing it could dramatically increase costs for businesses in some areas.

The association had earlier proposed a total of 700 regional regulations that needed to be either changed or taken off the books by the central government before the new tax law was made official. However, when the law was passed in August, Apindo said only 100 regulations had been dealt with.

Asked if the government was ignoring the aspirations of businesspeople by raising regional taxes with the new law, Budi Sitepu director general of regional taxes at the Finance Ministry, said on Friday that the state had thought this through.

"With the new tax law, everyone will have a clearer picture of how business is conducted in Indonesia, and there will be no more illegal 'ghost' taxes," Budi said.

"The central government has also fulfilled many demands from the Indonesian Employers Association by releasing the new tax law, as there are tax changes that will be good for the regional businessmen.

"I believe the new tax law will improve the overall business atmosphere in Indonesia."

He noted that regional governments would have leeway to implement some of the taxes later than the Jan. 1 deadline, to give businesses more time to adjust.

On Sunday, Djimanto, the head of Apindo, said that for the new tax measure to work, a closer relationship between the private sector and the central and regional governments was needed.

"The private sector needs to be involved in coordinating meetings about development [rakorbang] between regional governments and the central government, so their voices can be heard in future developments," he said.

Djimanto also expressed the need for the forming a "corporation" consisting of the central government, regional governments and the private sector to further enhance the relationship between the three groups.

Analysis & opinion

Natural disasters from a gender perspective

Jakarta Post - October 14, 2009

Indraswari, Kuala Lumpur – On Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009, a 7.6- magnitude earthquake struck West Sumatra, leading to massive destruction in the provincial capital Padang and surrounding areas. More than 800 people are confirmed dead and thousands missing.

Earlier, on Thursday, Sept. 3, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck West Java. At least 57 people were killed, 116 severely injured and 422 left with minor injuries from the powerful quake centered off the coast of Tasikmalaya that was also felt in Jakarta, Lampung and Bali (The Jakarta Post, Sept. 4, 2009).

The above earthquakes are neither the first nor the last ones in Indonesia, as scientists warn that Indonesians must prepare for strong earthquakes in the future.

In fact, human beings have been at the mercy of natural disasters since the beginning of time. The last two earthquakes as well as other natural disasters such as floods, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, landslides, droughts and famine remind us of how vulnerable we are.

While natural disasters are natural phenomena, their social, political and economic impacts are not necessarily natural. Eric Neumayer and Thomas Plumper, in their article "The Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters: The Impact of Catastrophic Events on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy, 1981-2002", state that, "In fact a vulnerability approach to disasters would suggest that inequalities in exposure and sensitivity to risk as well as inequalities in access to resources, capabilities and opportunities systematically disadvantage certain groups of people, rendering them more vulnerable to the impact of natural disasters" (Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 97(3), 2007, pp 551-566).

In other words, victims of natural disasters are not the same category of people. Women, children and the elderly are those in the vulnerable groups, and each of them has special needs.

Women especially become more vulnerable in the aftermath of natural disasters, as long before the disasters occur many of them are already the victims of gender-based discrimination and marginalization that lead to their interests not being accommodated.

In the immediate aftermath of natural disasters, when relief efforts are concentrated on finding survivors and meeting their basic needs for food, water and shelter, it is important to also include meeting the women's basic and special needs, such as sanitary pads for those who are menstruating and those who give birth in the refugee camps. Lactating and pregnant women at the camps also deserve special attention and care.

Although living in refugee camps is considered an emergency and for only temporary, women's safety in the camps needs to be guaranteed. The potential for sexual harassment has to be minimized by providing separate bathrooms and spaces that protect their privacy.

When it comes to the reconstruction phase – which normally includes rebuilding houses, schools, roads and other physical infrastructure as well as economic empowerment programs for the survivors – it is important to apply gender awareness and sensitivity and to make sure that women are not discriminated against in getting access to resources such as housing facilities and credit.

Elaine Enarson (2000), in her paper Gender and Natural Disasters, suggests that the most striking effect of disasters on women is the loss of economic resources and deterioration of economic status.

She adds that women on the margins of survival, living the "daily disaster" of poverty before, during and after natural disasters, are especially vulnerable.

In both the immediate and reconstruction phases, it is also necessary to provide childcare support – which under patriarchal norms are regarded as women's responsibility – so that women can have more room to move on to rebuild their life. This in turn will also benefit men and other family members.

Apart from becoming the victims, in the aftermath of natural disasters women can also become agents of change.

Various studies indicate that women are not necessarily passive victims who do nothing. Instead they play an active role in rebuilding their lives and those of their families.

In this context, it is important to involve women in the decision-making process in all stages of post-disaster relief efforts.

[The writer is an Indonesian visiting senior lecturer at the Gender Studies Program, School of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. The opinions expressed are her own.]

Homework for new MPs on military reform

Jakarta Post - October 8, 2009

Al Araf and Anton Aliabbas, Bandung – The swearing-in ceremony of the 2009-2014 House of Representatives' members is a sign that democratization in Indonesia is a continuing process. It is hoped the new Members of Parliament (MPs) will complete the reforms agenda, including those related to the Indonesian Military (TNI).

During the reform era, the House contributed to the success of military reform, by enacting some pieces of legislation on the security sector, such as Law No. 3/2002 on State Defense and Law No. 34/2004 on the Indonesian Military, although both laws still have substantial weaknesses.

The House deserves praise over its openness to engage civil society in the deliberation of those laws.

However, being open is not enough as the House lacks consistency in responding to criticism and input from the public. Sometimes, it accommodates inputs, but in some cases it disregards them. This shows the deliberation of bills in the House is politically motivated, especially in relation to parties, the House, the government and the military.

In general, the role of the House in military reforms is insufficient. Many people still consider the House's performance as poor. Research also suggests the same. Horse trading – a common phenomenon among MPs in the New Order era – continues to date. Political bargaining between the House and the government in the deliberation and passing of laws, government policies, programs and government budgets often leads to allegations of money politics.

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono once raised the issue of corruption, collusion and nepotism in the House over defense issues, calling some MPs "brokers" in the purchasing of defense equipment. Juwono, however, clarified his statement later after the MPs protested against him.

When it comes to legislation, MPs from the 2004-2009 House, who recently finished their term, did not pass any defense- and security-related bills. The military tribunal bill, for example, was not enacted despite nearly five years of deliberation. A revision of Law No. 31/1997 on the Military Tribunal has been mandated by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decree No. VII/2000 and the TNI law itself. Surprisingly, many MPs prefer to discuss bills that have been strongly opposed by the public, such as the state secrecy bill.

Similarly, a result by Imparsial shows parliamentary oversight on defense and security sector during the reform period was weak and ineffective. One of the main indicators of the House's weak parliamentary oversight on defense is its failure to verify state budget expenditure during the martial law and civil emergency in Aceh (2003-2004), where approximately Rp 5 trillion (US$523 million) was spent.

The parliament's weakness in promoting military reform is, on one hand, influenced by the MPs' lack of political will, which can be seen from the MPs' low attendance rate at House meetings. On the other hand, parliamentarians still do not fully grasp problems and issues related to defense and security.

Only a few MPs had a good understanding and were well informed about defense and security-related issues. And only a few of those have an academic background in defense and security.

Whereas, according to Larry Diamond and Marc F Plattner in Hubungan Sipil-Militer dan Konsolidasi Demokrasi, 2001 (Civil- Military Relations and the Consolidation of Democracy, 2001), civilian supremacy over military needs more than just efforts to control the military in order to minimize military intervention in politics.

So the head of government, the parliament and the minister of defense should have the ability to determine budget priorities and defense strategy, weapon purchasing and curriculum at the military academy as well as military doctrine, while members of a supervisory board should at least have the capacity to review and monitor policy implementation.

What Diamond and Partner said above shows us that self-reliance and civilian skills in managing a system of government or authority is an important factor when trying to put the military under the control of civilian authorities.

In such a situation, parties need to improve how they evaluate disciplinary issues regarding MPs, to place MPs at House commissions matching their skills and competence, to develop MPs' competencies through education and training especially on security and defense issues, and to strengthen MPs by assigning them experts.

A number of military reforms have not yet been completed. They include a review of the military tribunal law, the establishment of a national security law, the restructuring of the TNI's territorial command, the establishment of the Intelligence Act, the complete takeover of military businesses, as well as increasing soldiers' welfare.

Hopefully, the new MPs can demonstrate their commitment so that the primary aim of military reforms – to build a professional military – can be reached. Happy 64th anniversary, TNI.

[Al Araf is research coordinator at Imparsial human rights group, Jakarta. Anton Aliabbas holds Master's degree in Defense Management from Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Bandung.]