Nurfika Osman – After years of being accustomed to public attention for his penchant for flamboyance, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Herman Sarens Sudiro on Wednesday found himself the subject of a different kind of scrutiny – of hospital staff and the soldiers guarding him.

The 79-year-old former head of the late President Suharto's presidential guard was admitted to Mitra Kemayoran Hospital in Central Jakarta on Wednesday, a day after he had finally surrendered himself to Military Police. They had been pursuing him in a case involving misappropriation of Army property.

Herman surrendered just before noon on Tuesday, ending a standoff that began on Monday at the upscale home of his daughter in Bumi Serpong Damai, Tangerang.

"According to a team of doctors, he is medically unfit to appear before a tribunal at this time," said Air Vice Marshal Sagom Tamboen, a military spokesman.

Despite being a high-ranking general, Herman was better known for his penchant for flashy historical military uniforms, powerful motorcycles and horses, and also for promoting the country's first World Boxing Association match in the 1980s.

The arrest of Herman, said to be close to a number of former top military officials, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is rumored to be politically motivated, a military expert said on Wednesday that it was simply because he could not amicably settle a dispute he had with the Armed Forces.

"There have been so many land disputes involving Army generals which have been settled peacefully via a consensus," said Andi Widjajanto, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia. "[Herman] could not be asked to settle a dispute via a consensus, so the military command had to come into the picture and he was detained."

Herman's connections were said to be a factor in the military being unable to wrest back control of the disputed 29,085-square-meter plot of land on Jalan Warung Buncit Raya in South Jakarta. He was one of the senior officials in the president's election campaign team last year and was believed to also be close to Gen. (ret.) Wiranto, the chairman of the People's Conscience Party (Hanura).

Andi, however, disagreed that Herman was close to Yudhoyono. "If so, he would have been protected," he said.

Herman, he said, had also not distinguished himself in his military career, never having been involved in high-profile operations.

Andi said the land dispute had surfaced because of greater transparency. "It was a common thing in the '70s and '80s for military assets to belong to a single military general," he said. "Nobody would have been brave enough to bring up that issue then."

But during the reform era, the Ministry of Finance demanded military assets be returned to the state.

"The ministry can now legally demand the military and the incumbent officer be brought before a military tribunal if they do not return military assets," Andi said.

NGO activists deplore officials' overseas TKI visit

Jakarta Post - January 19, 2010

Oyos Saroso H.N, Bandarlampung – Activists from NGOs in Lampung have voiced their protest over the ongoing visit by 10 Lampung officials and 15 council members to Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen.

They deemed the visit, arranged as part of a dialogue program with Indonesian migrant workers (TKI) from Lampung working in Hong Kong from Jan. 17 to Jan. 22, as a waste of state funds.

"The program is nothing other more than a vacation. We believe there is a gratification motive as the visit's purpose is vague. If it is to improve the TKI placement system to Hong Kong, there's no need to send dozens of officials there," said Strategic Studies and Policies Center (Pusbik) director Aryanto, in Bandarlampung, on Monday.

Aryanto said the visit is just an excuse by the Lampung provincial administration in order to disburse assistance funds from the provincial budget in 2010. He added the visit was regarded as inefficient because only 150 TKI worked there.

"Based on information the budget for the purpose amounted to Rp 250 million [US$25,000] but we believe the amount is more as they will also visit Macau and Shenzhen in China.

"Besides the Rp 250 million allocated by the Lampung administration, according to reports the visit is also financed by the Indonesian consulates in Hong Kong and China."

Aryanto added the visit breached Presidential Instruction No. 11/2005 on overseas official visits.

"Besides a waste of funds, the Home Ministry apparently has not been notified of the visit. The Home Ministry's Information Center head Saut Situmorang said he had not been notified of the visit. Besides the lack of permission, the number of participants is also too big."

Lampung Parliament Watch (LPW) head Tisnanta said the visit was not beneficial. "It would be better if the funds were used to improve the TKI placement system at the local level. Rp 250 million is a huge amount for Lampung, especially now as many poverty issues remain unaddressed."

Lampung Governor Sjachroedin Z.P. objected to criticism that the visit was wasteful and took credit for the idea.

"So far, many TKI from Lampung have been involved in a number of cases overseas, and some have even returned home dead. Eventually, they were known to come from Lampung because they applied as TKI by using identity cards from other provinces in Indonesia.

"The official visit is in the framework of studying the TKI placement system so that we can provide protection for those working overseas."

Sjachroedin added Lampung was one of the provinces sending TKI overseas, such as to Hong Kong.

He said prospective migrant workers were provided with skills training at training centers before being placed overseas.

"They are also taught English and Mandarin. Based on our evaluations thus far, the condition of trained TKI from Lampung is better compared to those leaving overseas through other provinces or middlemen."

Lampung legislative vice speaker Hantoni Hasan had said earlier he and 14 council members would visit Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen under the invitation of the provincial administration.

Presidential Palace fence renovation costs Rp22 billion

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2010

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Critics say that despite campaigning on a populist platform, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono continues to act the opposite by renovating the fence encircling the Presidential Palace compound at a cost of Rp 22.58 billion (US$2.54 million).

"The amount is four times the cost of renovating the fence around the National Monument," Roy Salam, a legal and political budget researcher at the Indonesia Budget Center, told The Jakarta Post over the phone Sunday.

Renovation of the National Monument's fence cost Rp 8.8 billion, despite covering an area 11 times larger than the palace's 6.8 hectares. "The budget is excessive," Roy said.

According to Hasrul Azwar, a member of the House of Representatives' budgetary committee, the government proposed the amount citing concerns of a possible terrorist attack on the President. "That's why we approved it," Hasrul told the Post over the phone.

The government submitted documents in November 2009 purportedly showing that the President was a target of a possible terrorist attack when they proposed the budget. "The government said the renovation would also improve security at the palace," Hasrul added.

When asked to clarify the security concerns brought up by the government, Hasril said he did not know. "The government did not give details," he said.

He said the public should not be worried because the use of the funds would be audited later, "so there should not be any problems".

Roy, however, said the House should have rejected the proposal because the government did not submit details of the fence renovation project. "We still don't know what kind of fence will be used or what security equipment will be installed," he said.

He also underlined the social impact of the renovation, saying it made the palace more inaccessible to the public with its three- meter-high fence.

"The palace is a state symbol and people have a right to get access to it," Roy said. "When it is surrounded by such a high fence it will only create boundaries with the public."

It could mean the government was trying to distance itself from the people, he said.

Previously, Yudhoyono also made a controversial decision when he issued Cabinet members and heads of other state institutions Toyota Crown Royal Saloon automobiles as their official cars. The 79 new cars cost Rp 800 million each.

Another controversial item is the Rp 200 billion procurement of a presidential airplane. All these items were placed in the 2009 supplementary state budget.

According to the head of Indonesia Corruption Watch's (ICW) political division, Abdullah Dahlan, these allocations were deliberately put in at the last minute in November last year so the House's budgetary committee did not have enough time to analyze the budget in detail.

"The House should have been critical in determining whether this is the kind of development people need," he told news portal detik.com. He added such provisions would only create a negative impression of the government.

"Building a higher fence will not address security issues. To effectively address security, the state security force needs to better coordinate with the police," Abdullah said.

Actions, demos, protests...

Thousands rally against free trade treaty in Surabaya, Semarang

Jakarta Post - January 21, 2010

Jakarta – Thousands of workers took to the streets in Surabaya, East Java, and Semarang, Central Java, on Thursday to protest the implementation of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA), Antara state news agency reported.

The protesters in Surabaya, who came from the East Java regencies of Gresik, Sidoarjo, Pasuruan, Mojokerto and Jombang, staged their protest rally outside the East Java Legislative Council on Jl. Indragiri.

Sudarmadji, the coordinator of the rally, said ACFTA would pose a serious threat to workers in East Java because it would make domestic products less competitive than Chinese products that would flood domestic markets.

"The government should anticipate it because ACFTA will only make the people miserable," Sudarmadji said in front of the legislative building.

Separately in Semarang, Central Java, thousands of workers also staged a similar rally in front of the state radio station RRI office on Jl. Ahmad Yani from where they marched to the Central Java Legislative Assembly building under tight police guard.

Central Java Provincial Legislative Assembly deputy speaker Bambang Sadono came out of the building and met the protesters. He said the workers' plea would be taken into consideration by the council and would be voiced to the central government.

"Central Java Governor Bibit Waluyo will today send a letter to the central government and ask for a postponement of the free trade agreement," Bambang told the demonstrators.

KPK gets boost from protesters in Medan

Jakarta Post - January 21, 2010

Medan – Around 100 people staged a rally Wednesday outside the North Sumatra legislative council in Medan in support of the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) investigation of a Rp 102.7 billion graft case.

The case in Langkat regency allegedly implicates former Langkat regent Syamsul Arifin, now the North Sumatra governor.

The protesters from the Big Family of Indonesian Pancasila Society urged the council to set up a special committee to probe the graft case.

Demonstrator Misno, a resident from Langkat, questioned why the case remained resolved.

Students throw rotten eggs at picture of SBY

Jakarta Post - January 20, 2010

Purwokerto, Central Java – Several students threw rotten eggs at a picture of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a rally protesting the Bank Century bailout, in Purwokerto, Central Java, on Tuesday. Police officers did nothing to stop the protest, of students of Jenderal Soedirman University.

"The House inquiry into the bailout was just a conspiracy of the political elites and a political deal," rally coordinator Helmi Soeim said.

Demonstrators call for cancellation of this year's national exams

Jakarta Globe - January 17, 2010

Nurfika Osman – Hundreds of students, parents and activists rallied on Sunday, calling for the abolition of the national examination and threatening a boycott if the government insists on going ahead with testing.

"If the national examination is conducted this year, we will ask parents to ask their children not to participate in the examination," Muhammad Isnur, a lawyer from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute representing parties opposed to the exam, told the Jakarta Globe.

The campaigners, who identified themselves as the Alliance of Students and Society to Dismiss National Examinations, held placards calling for an end to the exam at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta, with some 20 police officers standing by.

Muhammad claimed that regardless of whether they passed or not, students were suffering "psychological problems" because of the testing.

"The exam abuses their rights and the government should be responsible for the damage it has done so far," he said. "They should apologize to the students and parents."

The Supreme Court has ordered the Education Ministry to improve the quality of education nationwide before holding any further annual national exams, which have come under fire because of widespread cheating.

However, the ministry has stood its ground and insists the national exam will go ahead asscheduled this year.

"The national examination is not a good way to decide whether a student can advance to college or not as there are educational disparities between different schools and regions of the country," Muhammad added.

"There is a gap in the quality of Indonesian teachers and this should be fixed immediately in order to produce smarter students. The government should set up a better system and let the teachers conduct the examinations and decide whether the students pass or not."

The campaign to abolish the national exams has attracted widespread support on the Internet, with three Facebook groups dedicated to the cause. They are Erasing the National Examination: Stop Creating Fear Among Students with 161,420 members, Facebooker Volunteers Supporting the Supreme Court to Dismiss the National Examination with 74,310, and the Students' Movement to Stop the National Examination with 57,439.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono acknowledged this month that the national exam should not be the sole determining factor in whether students graduate. But Education Minister Mohammad Nuh said the president's comments did not mean the exam in March would be scrapped and stressed that students who failed could retake the test.

Students must get an average 5.5 out of a possible 10 in each test subject to move to the next level of education.

Aceh

Students halt hunger strike in aid of Aceh tsunami victims

Jakarta Globe - January 21, 2010

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Students in the West Aceh capital of Meulaboh have ended a five-day hunger strike to demand housing for survivors of the 2004 tsunami after several of the strikers grew dangerously weak.

"We stopped the hunger strike because [the students] were growing very weak and some of them had fainted," Chaidir, chairman of Student Solidarity for the Defense of Education (Sombep), an association of student organizations from local universities, said on Thursday.

The hunger strike, which was called off late on Wednesday, involved 15 Meulaboh students who had gone without food since Saturday to demand the government build at least 1,500 more houses for survivors of the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami.

The students began their protest on Dec. 26, setting up a tent near a camp housing almost 400 people displaced by the tsunami, which killed up to 170,000 people in the province. Meulaboh was one of the hardest-hit areas.

Chaidir said two of the three remaining hunger strikers lost consciousness at about 7 p.m. on Wednesday, and the remaining student then decided to end the action.

"As of today, four of our friends are still receiving fluid intravenously. Not in the hospital but at their respective homes, because we don't have the money to take them to the hospital," Chaidir said.

Chaidir said that other students and tsunami survivors from the camp were planning to begin a new hunger strike today.

"So far 16 survivors, including two women, have said that they want to join the hunger strike to call on the government to provide them with houses," he said.

He said the government had yet to come forward with a promise of houses for the tsunami survivors.

Ramli Mansur, the head of West Aceh district, earlier told the Jakarta Globe that he supported the students and welcomed their involvement in fighting for the rights of the survivors.

In a show of support, Ramli said he would refuse to sign a document officially handing over to the district houses, buildings and infrastructure constructed by the Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency in the wake of the tsunami, citing "many unresolved issues in West Aceh."

Officials fire local Shariah police chief over Aceh rape case

Jakarta Globe - January 20, 2010

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Zulkifli Zainon, the mayor of Langsa city in Aceh, officially dismissed the chief of the local Shariah Police, Syahril, on Wednesday over allegations that three of his officers gang-raped a 20-year-old university student.

Syahril, who also acted as the city's public order chief, was formally removed from his post during an official ceremony on Tuesday. He was replaced by Syahbainur.

Syahril has been transferred to the office of the Langsa administration, where he will hold no specific position.

"It was only natural that there would be condemnation and pressure from various public elements, from community leaders, nongovernmental organizations and students, to fire the three [officers] and discharge the head of the public order command and Shariah Police," Zulkifki said following Tuesday's ceremony.

"We in the government must be alert to see and respond to such demands to avoid unwanted consequences," he said.

Syahril told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday that he accepted his dismissal.

"There was a lot of pressure from the public and students to have me fired because of the actions of three of my subordinates," he said. "I'm responsible for my subordinates' actions. My dismissal is the consequence and impact of their deed."

"Maybe it was my fault, not being able to control the Shariah Police members who committed this savagery," he added.

Syahril said the three alleged rapists had not been fired from their contract positions with the Shariah Police, also known as Wilayatul Hisbah, pending a police investigation and a possible trial.

Syahril said all three suspected rapists were married and had children. Police he said, continued to interrogate two of the suspects, identified only by their initials and ages as FA, 28, and MN, 29. The third suspect, identified as 27-year-old Dedi Setiawan, is still at large.

Syahril said news of the alleged rape broke after the victim "cried in her mother's arms and told her she had been raped by three WH members."

"The girl's mother had previously received a call from the police telling her to come to the police station to pick up her daughter," he said.

He added that on Jan. 7, the student had been detained with her boyfriend near a traffic circle on the city ring road and the pair were brought in by the three police officers accused of the rape for "interrogation and re-education."

"Around dusk the Shariah Police had finished questioning and re- educating them and asked for [the couple's] address so their parents could be contacted," Syahril said.

"The couple refused to divulge the information, maybe because they were afraid their parents would find out. So they were told to spend the night in different rooms of the office. Then, early Friday morning, we learned that the officers went back to rape the girl."

Despite the scandal, the Shariah Police have continued to conduct patrols across the province, though the frequency of the patrols has been cut back to avoid a public backlash.

"Now, you cannot see young people hugging their lovers on motorcycles or sitting close together in quiet places. Maybe this rape incident has served as a lesson to teach the public and parents to become more aware of the need to properly educate their children," Syahril said.

Asked if the people of Langsa were frightened that members of the Shariah Police might commit similar crimes, Syahril said: "Possibly. But we hope this kind of shameful case will not happen again. My three subordinates have besmirched the name of the WH and the implementation of Islamic Shariah that is being promoted in Aceh."

Aceh's deputy governor, Muhammad Nazar, said on Tuesday that there was no need to disband the province's Shariah Police because there was no legal obligation to do so.

Dismissing calls for the Shariah Police to be disbanded over the case, Nazar said that the alleged rape was not the fault of the organization.

"Just because some individuals do something wrong does not mean the institution should be disbanded," he said. "Those who did wrong simply need to face harsh punishment."

Rape case puts sharia police in difficult position

Jakarta Post - January 20, 2010

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A group of sharia police personnel unusually just sit in the back of a pick-up patrol vehicle while making the rounds in downtown Banda Aceh, Aceh province, on Monday.

No raid is conducted that day at beauty salons or other public places considered prone to sharia (Islamic law) violations. No stern actions are taken or arrests made that day.

"We are decreasing the intensity of raids these days," Aminah, the spokeswoman for the Banda Aceh female sharia police force, said.

The credibility of sharia police in the province has been completely, and rightly, destroyed following the rape of a university student by three sharia police officers last week.

"Because of this case we don't dare warn or advise people in violation of sharia law. They will fight back and insult us if we do so. It's better to keep a low profile at the moment," Aminah said.

The student was raped on Jan. 8 when she was detained at the sharia police's detention center in Langsa. The Aceh police have arrested two of the rapists. The third suspect is still at large.

Aminah said the rape case had put the sharia police in Langsa in a difficult position, especially when they had to deal with violators. "We're seen as hypocritical when we 'give advice' as we cannot even control our own morals," she said.

Critics have called on the provincial administration to dissolve the sharia police, arguing the force's existence only destroyed and damaged the good image of the implementation of Islamic law in Aceh.

"It's a waste of money. We're not even sure why the sharia police was established in the first place," Taf Haikal, an activist in Banda Aceh, said.

He said sharia police only had the authority to monitor the implementation of sharia law and advise violators. "If the [provincial] administration is serious about implementing Islamic law, they should let the [secular] police do the monitoring," he said.

This, he added, could be done by recruiting police personnel who have a background in sharia. Such personnel, he said, would more effectively monitor the implementation of sharia as they had a strong legal basis in upholding the law.

The same demand to abolish sharia police has also been expressed through Internet social networking sites such as a Facebook page to ban sharia police in Aceh that has gathered support from more than a million armchair activists.

The alliance of community caring for woman's rights strongly condemned the rape, calling it torture and a crime against humanity.

Norma Manalu, the head of the women and children's division of the coalition of Aceh human rights NGOs, said sharia police did not have the right to detain anyone.

Quoting an article from the 2002 Qanun (bylaw) on the implementation of Islamic sharia, Norma said if a violation of sharia law occurred, the sharia police only had the authority to warn and advise violators.

If no change in attitude is shown by the violators, the sharia police can, at most, refer the case to the police. "They don't have the right to detain violators," Norma said.

"This means that detention by sharia police of a person alleged to have violated sharia law is against prevailing laws, which take precedence," she added.

Gays, lesbians face discrimination in sharia Aceh

Jakarta Post - January 20, 2010

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Growing up, Faisal was not really aware that he had a different sexual orientation from his friends, but as an adult he is very conscious of his sexuality and the discrimination he suffers as a result.

Faisal lives in Aceh, the only province in Indonesia that has Islamic sharia law.

He was not fully aware that he was gay during junior high school and even dated several girls at school. "That was just to show people that I was a real man," Faisal said.

Upon completing senior high school, he gradually realized he was gay and began searching for a partner of the same sex. Local transsexual figure Edy Saputra said that in Islam, humans were created in couples.

"There is not a detailed explanation on whether that couple is a man and a woman, two men, or two women," argued Edy who is the director of Violet Grey, a gay and transgender group in Aceh.

In September 2009, Aceh's legislative council passed a bylaw that criminalized homosexuality and stipulated that adulterers be stoned to death.

For Faisal, being gay in a province with Islamic sharia law is no easy matter. He has endured much suffering and pressure to adapt to Aceh's religious surroundings.

"The biggest challenge comes from within the family. Usually, a family with a gay member will try to hide that from the public because homosexuality is regarded as a disgrace to the family," he said.

When he tried to be open about his sexuality with relatives, they responded by trying to take him to a psychiatrist to have him "cured". "They also tried forcing me to do masculine activities, such as playing soccer."

Faisal also faces discrimination from the public, which he said, still regarded gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders as sinful.

Faisal said, members of a gay community, who are not courageous enough to reveal themselves to the public, will be haunted by an identity crisis for the rest of their life, while those who reveal themselves publicly face the risk of being ridiculed and even ostracized by the community.

"I know that most people regard gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual communities as some sort of disease that should be avoided and eradicated."

Consequently, members of these communities are often subject to abuse and discrimination from the general public.

Faisal said he did not choose to be homosexual, but that it was a gift from God. "If you meet a homosexual, regard them as a normal person who has the same rights and position as you."

Faisal feels the Aceh community should be more aware of the issues associated with the gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender community.

He and his friends are currently forming a group to accommodate the aspirations of those suffering public discrimination because of their homosexuality. "Violet Grey acts as a bridge between the public and homosexual communities."

Faisal and his peers expect the community in Aceh will accept them, or at least have an understanding that homosexuals are also members of the community who have the same rights as others.

Aceh dismisses calls to disband Shariah police

Jakarta Globe - January 19, 2010

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Aceh's deputy governor said on Tuesday that there was no need to disband the province's Wilayatul Hisbah, or Shariah Police, because there was no legal obligation to do so.

Muhammad Nazar was speaking after three officers from the controversial Shariah Police were arrested for allegedly gang- raping a 20-year-old university student earlier this month. The incident was believed to have occurred after the woman was detained by the suspects for allegedly violating public decency laws.

Dismissing calls for the Shariah Police to be disbanded over the case, Nazar said the alleged rape was not the fault of the organization.

"Just because some individuals do something wrong does not mean the institution should be disbanded," he said. "Those who did wrong simply need to face harsh punishments."

But Evi Narti Zein, a noted human rights activist in Aceh, said the Shariah Police should be disbanded because they had proven themselves useless in implementing Islamic law and were a waste of taxpayer money.

"All they do is target and discriminate against women, scare people, particularly women, with their raids and target women who do not cover their hair or who wear tight clothing," said Evi, executive director of the Coalition of Aceh Human Rights NGOs.

"We don't want them to turn into a new paramilitary force. There's no need for them in Aceh since it only adds to the trauma experienced by Acehnese women."

Evi said the qanun, or Islamic code, served as the basis for the region's Shariah-inspired laws but police operations enforcing them were applied selectively.

"So many state officials, for instance, are caught engaging in immoral acts but none of them ever face lashings. They pay a fine," she said. "There was even a [Shariah Police] official caught acting immorally with a woman in Banda Aceh, but nothing happened to him."

The issue has made it to the Internet with groups on the social networking site Facebook pushing for the Shariah Police to be disbanded. One group had attracted more than 1,900 members as of Tuesday night, while another group condemning the alleged rapists had drawn nearly 4,000 members.

Andre Ahmad, founder of the group called Bubarkan WH di Aceh (Disband the Shariah Police in Aceh), said that he had set up the group in response to "the tragic and humiliating incident in the implementation of Islamic Shariah in Aceh."

Evi said she and other women's rights activists in Aceh would fully support the Shariah Police if they worked to ensure that the interests of the people – such as the provision of good health services, affordable basic necessities and free education – were fulfilled as required by Islamic law.

She said Shariah principles would be better implemented through different government agencies, not through law enforcers. "I've talked with members of the Shariah Police in Meulaboh. They say they are only there to pass judgement on people's morals."

West Papua

Fears for more tension in Mimika after killing of Papua's Kwalik

Radio New Zealand International - January 22, 2010

A Papua analyst says increasing militarisation of Indonesia's Mimika district and recent actions by police are incendiary for local Papuans aggrieved by the killing of separatist leader Kelly Kwalik.

The senior Free Papua Movement leader was shot dead by police in a raid in Timika town last month, prompting anger among many Papuans, especially the local Amungme tribe.

There's been a steady increase in the presence of security forces in the Timika area since a series of deadly shootings of staff from the nearby Freeport gold and copper mine last July.

The convener of Sydney University's West Papua Project, Jim Elmslie, says there is a high potential for turmoil.

"Certainly amongst the Amungme population and the West Papuans, they're still incredibly sad and angry about the killing of Kwalik. And I noticed this week that fifty policemen were given commendations on their behaviour, or over the Kwalik killing, so that's really spitting in the face of the Papuans. More troops, more police, it increases the tension in the whole region."

Rivals break bows, arrows to bury the hatchet

Jakarta Post - January 21, 2010

Markus Makur, Timika – Two rival groups engaged in a tribal war over the past two weeks in Kwamki Lama village in Mimika regency, Papua, held a traditional peace ceremony on Wednesday marked by the breaking of bows and arrows.

Among those attending the ceremony at the village's Kios Panjang market compound were Mimika Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Muhammad Sagi, Mimika Military Command chief Let. Col. Refrizal, Papua Police Mobile Brigade Unit commander Comr. Yustanto, Mimika Baru district head James Noldy Sumigar and a number of local figures.

The peace ritual commenced when hundreds of residents from the rival groups carried bows and arrows into the market compound.

After a brief prayer led by Rev. Melkianus Kum, four war chiefs from both sides stood under triangular bamboo poles and separated residents from both groups. The groups each brought in a pig and shot them dead with arrows, handing them over to their rivals.

War chiefs from each of the two groups later stood under the split bamboo poles indicating that both groups could cross over to the other side where the clash once took place.

The peak of the ceremony was marked with the breaking of the bows and arrows by both groups' war chiefs and followed by two gunshots to the air by Mimika Police chief Muhammad Sagi, which was followed by loud cheers by both sides.

War chiefs from the downstream group in Tuni Kama, Izak Murib, and Stefanus Kulla from the Upper group in Jalan Mambruk II, later signed the peace pact, which was witnessed by Sagi. The peace pact was also signed by witnesses from both sides.

Sagi responded positively to the peace initiative to end the dispute. "Today is the end of the conflict between residents. I hope that in the future Kwamki Lama residents could live in peace and harmony and carry out their daily activities normally and without any disturbances," Sagi addressed the crowd.

He urged every member of the community in Kwamki Lama to honor the peace agreement that had been reached.

Sagi said Mimika Police had posted personnel at the conflict location as part of their efforts to maintain security. Residents from the two groups shook hands and hugged each other after the ceremony.

The tribal war which broke out on Jan. 4 was sparked by a rape incident and payment of customary fines. The conflict claimed three lives and scores of others were injured. One of those killed was Isodorus Edoway, 13, a junior high school student at the YPPGI junior high school in Kwamki Lama.

Mimika legislative council speaker Trifena Tinal said she would urge the Mimika regency administration to realize development in Kwamki Lama.

She said social jealousy had taken place among the community in Kwamki Lama due to lack of attention from the Mimika regency administration, especially in development. "We will urge the Mimika administration to draft a local bylaw to form the Kwamki Lama district," she said.

Rights body questions Freeport CSR

Jakarta Post - January 21, 2010

Irawaty Wardany and Novan Iman Santosa, Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights has questioned officials from gold and copper mining firm PT Freeport Indonesia over the company's local CSR funding.

Commission chairman Ifdhal Kasim told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that representatives of three villages near Freeport's operation area had filed reports with the commission to call for transparency in the distribution of the fund.

"Since 1995, the company has had an agreement with the local people to donate 1 percent of its gross profit to foundations to be distributed for development projects," Ifdhal said.

"The villagers want the company to be clear on where the money goes and who receives it."

He added any move that could be misconstrued as being nontransparent could create conflict among villagers, hence Wednesday's questioning of the Freeport officials.

"Fortunately they were really cooperative in explaining how the fund worked," Ifdhal said.

He declined to say how much money Freeport distributed every year or who received it. "We haven't reached any conclusion on the case," he said.

Deputy chairman Ridha Saleh said the commission might need to question representatives of the foundations.

"We hope to resolve this problem within a month," Ifdhal said. "We also asked the Freeport officials about their corporate social responsibility programs and the fees they pay the government."

Freeport Indonesia is the local subsidiary of US-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, the world's largest publicly traded copper company. Freeport Indonesia spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan confirmed Wednesday's meeting.

"We were explaining Freeport's community development programs through our corporate social responsibility, including the provision of a voluntary fund for social development through an independent institution," he told the Post over the phone.

"The partnership fund is managed by, among others, the government, local customary groups, Freeport and local figures."

Mindo added the program and the fund were audited annually by an independent auditor. "The report is published in the mass media as well as in meetings with local figures," he said.

He added the partnership fund went to the Amungme Kamoro Societies Development Institution (LPMAK). "We have channeled US$330 million by 2009, since the program started in 1996," Mindo said.

Besides the partnership fund, he went on, Freeport also provided a trusteeship fund of $1 million to the Amungme and Kamoro tribes as part of its land rights recognition. "The trusteeship fund is managed separately by each tribe, independent from the fund for the LPMAK," Mindo said.

'Government ignores upholding human rights in Papua'

Jakarta Post - January 20, 2010

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – The Human Rights Commission considers the government ignored upholding human rights in Papua in 2009.

Matius Murib from the commission's Papuan branch said criminalization of Papuan civilians had escalated significantly, with security forces discrediting anyone suspected of being a member of a separatist group.

"The criminalization of people who hoisted [separatist] flags, the stoppage of peaceful demonstrations and the shooting of Free Papua Organization [OPM] leader Kelly Kwalik are a projection of how the government is reluctant to have a dialogue with the Papuans," he said. Kelly, accused of masterminding a series of attacks on employees of US-based mining company PT Freeport Indonesia, was shot dead by police December last year during a raid on his house in Timika.

"We think Kelly's death showed the government's failure in settling conflict within a democratic framework in Papua," he said.

Matius said human rights activists were closely watched and at times intimidated when investigating human rights abuses or meeting representatives of international organizations.

He said the government preferred to use military and security approaches in dealing with Papuans, thereby violating the civilian rights of the people. The government never thought it had failed to provide Papuans with their basic rights, which might be the reason for their separatist demands.

"Data from the International Fransiscans in 2004 showed 80 percent of indigenous Papuans live under the poverty line, 36.1 percent do not have access to health facilities," Matius said.

Increasing exploitation of Papua's natural resources worsened the situation, therefore, they had asked the government and regional administrations to give priority to Papuans. "Promises to improve welfare, uphold democracy and justice – Yudhoyono's three main programs – should be enjoyed by the Papuans," he said.

Timika tribal war rages on, one more dies

Jakarta Post - January 20, 2010

Markus Makur, Timika – A junior high school student was killed by arrow shots in the wake of a tribal conflict between two rival groups in Timika, Papua, residents said Tuesday.

The death of Isodorus Edoway, 13, increased the toll from the series of clashes in Kwamki Lama village, Timika, to three people.

The conflict involved the upstream and downstream groups in the village. It had started with open clashes, but was now turning into guerrilla warfare.

Witnesses said Edoway was ambushed by some 15 members of the downstream group Monday and shot with arrows.

The attack took place as the victim was on his way home from the Gereja Indonesia Education Foundation junior high school in Kwamki Lama using an ojek (motorcycle taxi), they added.

Edoway initially wanted to go to school but, because there were no classes being held in the school due to the ongoing tribal war in the village for the past two weeks, he went home by ojek from Kwamki Lama to his house in Gang Degama, Timika.

The downstream group apparently were not only targeting those from the upstream group but also people from other tribes in Kwamki Lama who were not involved in the tribal feud.

Moments after the attack, Mobile Brigade officers arrived at the incident scene and found Edoway in a critical condition. He was rushed to the Mitra Masyarakat Hospital in Timika to get medical treatment but later died from the eight arrow wounds.

On Tuesday afternoon, Edoway was laid out at his home in Gang Degama before being buried.

Earlier, on Jan. 17, a resident from the downstream group, Namon Kogoya, 28, was found dead with 23 arrow wounds all over his body behind the Indonesian Air Force housing complex.

Previous open clashes between the two rival groups in Kwamki Lama since Jan. 4 had claimed the lives of two people and injured dozens of others.

Local officials in Mimika held an impromptu meeting on Monday at the Mimika regency legislative council following the latest death from the tribal war.

The meeting was attended by all council members, Mimika administration secretary Martyn Giyai, Mimika Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Muhammad Sagi and Mimika Military Command chief Lt. Col. Refrizal.

Councilor Karel Gwijangge expressed deep regret over the death of Edoway.

Dwijangge said Edoway's death was purely police negligence for not being assertive in arresting and charging those involved in the conflict in Kwamki Lama.

"This is no longer a customary issue, but purely a criminal one. The perpetrators who attacked the student [Edoway] should be arrested and prosecuted.

"The attack on the student is categorized as a human rights violation and stern action should be taken against them," Dwijangge said.

Hotma Marbun installed as Papua Military Commander

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2010

Jakarta – Maj. Gen. Hotma Marbun was installed as the Cendrawasih Papua Military Commander on Monday, replacing Maj. Gen. Azmyn Yusri Nasution.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu, West Papua Governor Abraham O Atururi, Papuan People's Assembly chairman Agus Alua and other local leaders.

Indonesian Army chief of staff Gen. George Toisutta, who led the ceremony, said the Papua Military Command had a unique character, with its vast forests, long beaches and limited transportation, Kompas.com reported.

He added that illegal logging and fishing were still serious problems in the province.

Papuans have new regional military chief

Antara News - January 18, 2010

Jayapura (Papua) – Major General Hotma Marbun here Monday took over the Cenderawasih regional military command (Kodam-XVII) overseeing Papua and West Papua provinces from Maj Gen Azmyn Yusri Nasution.

The ceremony marking the transfer of duties from Yusri Nasution to Hotma Marbun was led by Army Chief of Staff General George Toisutta and attended, among others, by Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu and West Papua Governor Abraham Octavianus Ataruri.

"The area overseen by the Cenderawasih regional military command shares a border with Papua New Guinea with which we should maintain good relations," Toisutta said on the occasion.

The Army Chief also asked the new regional military commander to continue his predecessor's efforts to give guidance to the military in the region on how to help ensure the smooth and secure implementation of development programs in the provinces of West Papua and Papua.

"The law must be upheld because we do not want the Indonesian nation and state to be torn apart by groups that undermine the unity and integrity of the Republic of Indonesia," he said.

Papuan problem must be solved with dialogue

Kompas - January 18, 2010

Jakarta – Acts of violence and human rights violations in Papua have continued throughout 2009. This situation has further complicated efforts to resolve various problems in Papua through dialogue, as desired by the majority of Papuan people.

"In order that dialogue can proceed calmly and peacefully by accommodating the interests of all people in Papua, the security forces must be withdrawn from Papua. Up until now every increase in TNI-Polri (Indonesian military-police) numbers has further complicated the situation in Papua", said the deputy chairperson of the Papuan National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) representative office, Matius Murib in Jakarta on Sunday January 17.

As long as security forces remain in Papua, it will be difficult to organise a dialogue to resolve the Papuan problem peacefully. This is because the security forces are the biggest violators of human rights in Papua.

The results of monitoring by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) between October and November 2009 found 11 cases of violence in Papua. The largest number of cases were shootings (5 cases), followed by the raising of the Morning Star flag (3 cases).

A peaceful situation is necessary before there can be dialogue, said Murib, so that a process of Papuan internal consolidation can take place, particularly in determining who is appropriate to represent the Papuan people, both native Papuans as well as migrants.

The determination of who is to represent the Papuan people is important bearing in mind that there are around 300 ethnic groups in Papua and more than half of the current population are migrants. (MZW)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Human rights/law

IKOHI calls for search of abducted activists, human rights court

Kompas - January 23, 2010

Kompas – The families of the victims of forced disappearances in 1997-1998 are hoping that the government will soon form a team to search for the 13 people still missing. It is hoped that this demand will be fulfilled before the end of the 100 hundred days of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration.

"The search for the [missing] victims must be a priority, in addition to which we are also awaiting the establishment of an ad hoc human rights court, as mandated by the DPR's [House of Representatives] plenary meeting," said Indonesian Association of the Families of Missing Persons (IKOHI) chairperson Mugiyanto in Jakarta on Friday January 22.

The 2004-2009 DPR issued a recommendation for an investigation into the activists forcibly abducted in 1997-1998. There were four points in the recommendation, namely that the president immediately form an ad hoc human rights court, that a search be conducted for the 13 people declared still missing by the National Human Rights Commission, rehabilitate and provide compensation to the families of the victims and that the government ratify the International Convention on Forced Disappearances.

From earlier experiences and the experiences in other countries, said Mugiyanto, the process of forming an ad hoc human rights court can be long and drawn out. Never mind that President Yudhoyono has not yet issued a presidential decree on the matter. "This is the reason we want the search for the 13 victims to be a priority in the formation of an independent team", he said.

The team, said Mugiyanto, could use as a reference the Munir Fact Finding Team, or the Team of Eight that was formed to investigate the case involving Corruption Eradication Commission deputies Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah. "Part of the team's membership must be civil figures with credibility, who have a good track record and can access the locations that are suspected to have been used to detain the disappeared," he said.

Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Usman Hamid added that there are no longer any grounds for the government not to implement the DPR's recommendations on the abduction and disappearance of people in 1997-1998.

"I the era of the Gus Dur [former President Abdurrahman Wahid] administration, 28 days after the DPR issued a recommendation to investigate the Tanjung Priok [shootings in 1984], a presidential decree on the matter was produced. So why has is it now become so drawn out and protracted", said Hamid. (AIK)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Antasari, Tommy and the justice system in Indonesia

Jakarta Globe - January 22, 2010

Heru Andriyanto – The death sentence being sought for former antigraft czar and murder suspect Antasari Azhar has reignited debate over capital punishment in a country with more than 100 people on death row and which executed 10 people in 2008 – a record for the post-Suharto era.

Rights activists have said that aside from capital punishment being a violation of human rights, the country's notoriously corrupt judicial system raises the real possibility that an innocent person could end up facing the firing squad.

Antasari, along with middle-ranking police officer Wiliardi Wizar and businessman Sigid Haryo Wibisono, is facing the death sentence for allegedly plotting and ordering the murder of businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen in March last year.

Prosecutors in Antasari's case argued that death was appropriate for the defendant, in line with the legal principle that provides for heavier sentences for the instigator of a crimes. In separate trials, prosecutors sought life sentences for the five men who carried out the murder – although they were sentenced to jail terms of between 17 and 18 years.

Rights activists argue that prosecutors are applying double standards, pointing to the handling of the 2008 trial of a former top intelligence official, Muchdi Purwoprandjono, who was accused of ordering the murder of Munir Said Thalib, a prominent human rights activist.

Usman Hamid, chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), which Munir founded, pointed out that the prosecutor in charge of Muchdi's case, Cirus Sinaga, is also leading the prosecution in Antasari's trial.

But in Muchdi's trial, Cirus only proposed a 15-year sentence despite the fact that he had earlier demanded a life sentence for the man who carried out the murder, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto.

"They are not consistent with the principle, getting soft in the face of a retired Army general but acting stern against civilian defendants," Usman said during a recent interview with the Jakarta Globe.

Lawyers also point to inconsistencies in the case of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former President Suharto, who ordered the July 2001 murder of a Supreme Court justice who had upheld his conviction for graft.

The two men convicted of carrying out the murder were sentenced to life in prison, while Tommy received a 15-year jail term and served less than a third of that after a series of sentence reductions.

"The Tommy case is one more proof of how unpredictable our justice system is," said Alamsjah Hanafiah, a lawyer whose client, Gunawan Santoso, is awaiting execution for his conviction in a separate murder case.

"Tommy and Gunawan faced exactly the same charges. Both were accused of premeditated murder, hiring hit men to carry out the murder and fleeing justice. But what a contrast of fates for Tommy and Gunawan."

Alamsjah said on Friday he was preparing to file for a judicial review with the Supreme Court.

According to Kontras, at least 109 people are currently awaiting execution by firing squad. Convicted drug dealers make up roughly half of that figure. Authorities in 2008 executed 10 convicts, including three people convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings. That figure matched 1986 for the most people executed in Indonesia in a single year.

But rights group Imparsial says the death penalty belongs to a bygone era and should be abolished. "The death sentence is against the 1945 Constitution and reflects 19th century values of retribution, which doesn't apply in today's society," said Poengky Indarti, Imparsial's executive secretary.

Police do u-turn over raids and abuse tests for street children

Jakarta Globe - January 21, 2010

Arientha Primanita & Zaky Pawas – The Jakarta city administration has been forced to drop a controversial plan to stage raids to catch street children and subject them to physical examinations for evidence of sexual abuse, saying on Thursday that it will adopt a softer, more persuasive approach.

Budi Hardjo, head of the city's Social Affairs Agency, backtracked on comments to the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday in which he said that children caught in a citywide dragnet in cooperation with the police, the Jakarta Health Agency and the Ministry of Social Affairs would be given "rectal examinations for indications of sodomy."

"People misunderstood the program and the intentions of the joint team, degrading the program even though it had good intentions. Bekasi conducted the raids first, and people assumed that we would use the same methods," he said on Thursday, referring to Jakarta's satellite city in West Java.

The U-turn is an embarrassment to authorities, who stand accused of hatching an ill-conceived strategy to assure the public they weren't neglecting the city's street children – estimated at well over 4,000 – in the wake of the recent confession by alleged serial killer Bayquni, aka Babe, that he had raped and killed at least 10 young boys.

Following an outcry from the public and activists, Harry Hikmat, director of child social services at the Ministry of Social Affairs, said the plan to have the capital free of street children by next year would no longer include police raids on their known hangouts.

He also said the ministry was cooperating with local authorities, including in Jakarta, on the street children issue.

"The method was never meant to be a raid, we know that it's a term used for crime," Harry told a news conference. "We will first do assessments to learn who they are, their backgrounds and their experiences during their lives on the streets."

The Jakarta Social Affairs Agency will collect data on street children and beggars until Feb. ary 19, he said, which will be followed by visits from social workers. "The social workers will go to the streets and [homeless] shelters to have persuasive conversations with the children to get to know them personally," Harry said, adding that the program will run continually.

The results of the assessments will be used to help form national and regional policies on child protection, as well as new programs to get children off the streets. The interviews will also find out whether the children have been molested or abused while working or living on the streets, he said.

Sex abuse exams violate Jakarta street kids' rights: Commission

Jakarta Globe - January 21, 2010

The Jakarta city administration said on Wednesday that it would join a police initiative to round up street children and physically examine their anuses for evidence of sexual abuse, a move that the country's leading nongovernmental child-rights organization opposes as abuse.

The move follows a police announcement on Tuesday that street children would have to submit to rectal examinations in an effort to identify victims of sexual abuse.

Budi Hardjo, head of the city's Social Affairs Agency, said that during the citywide search for street children, the Jakarta Health Agency and the Jakarta Police would cooperate in an effort to find possible child abusers. He said that 500 personnel from different agencies would be involved.

The planned round-up is in response to the arrest of Bayquni, 49, who is also known as Babe, an accused serial killer who allegedly killed at least 10 male street children. He admitted to police that he sexually abused the corpses of his victims.

As a first step, Budi said, the city would begin a sweep today of all five municipalities in Jakarta. He said children identified by the city would be interviewed to find out why they were living on the street and undergo a health examination.

"When we find them, we will look for the reason they are on the street, whether they are from broken homes, runaways or victims of human trafficking," Budi said.

Budi said children caught up in the city dragnet would be examined both psychologically and physically. He said they would be given a rectal examination to determine whether they had been sexually abused.

Arist Merdeka Sirait, the secretary general of the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak), told the Jakarta Globe that his group was deeply opposed to the government's approach to street children.

Arist said that even the terms the Social Affairs Agency were using are wrong – especially the emphasis on rectal examinations.

The city plans to send the children to social shelters for protection and to receive education and skills training. Budi said the agency had budgeted Rp 50 billion ($5.4 million) to support 25 shelters in the five Jakarta municipalities.

There are 4,023 street children registered with Jakarta's Social Affairs Agency, though it is widely assumed that many more are not listed.

"If a street child is found to have been sodomized then police will begin an investigation to determine what legal action is needed. This is a step we are taking to prevent another 'Babe' case," Budi said, referring to the alleged serial killer.

In addition to street children, Budi said the operation would also target sex workers and other people at high risk of abuse and disease.

"Street children are people, and under the constitution their rights are protected by the state. They're neither criminals nor animals," Arist of Komnas Anak said, adding that taking children to shelters forcefully was a move doomed to failure.

Arist said that what the city government was doing was a violation of human rights that dehumanized the street children.

Instead, the child advocate said, the government should initiate a program based on affection and communication with victimized minors. "They are not mere objects of some government program," he said.

"They should be given alternatives and a way to find a life off the street. They need education and skills and job opportunities based on their potential," Arist said.

But forcing street children to join a program inside a shelter would not achieve its aims, Arist said, because the children would just reject the effort.

Arist said his group demanded the city administration stop the raids. If the city continues with the plan, especially the rectal examinations, Komnas Anak will enlist street children to file a class action legal suit against the city to stop the sweeps, he said.

"This is to protect the rights of the children, which are obviously being taken for granted," Arist said.

Government revokes 706 'problematic' bylaws

Jakarta Post - January 20, 2010

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The Home Ministry says it has revoked 706 "problematic" economic bylaws during the first 100 days of the new government, citing they breach higher regulations.

Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi said he had handed the bylaws to the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), which is expected to reference the bylaws in its audit of regional finance reports.

"The ministry has handed over the problematic bylaws to the BPK for supervision. To related regional administrations, I ask that you withdraw the revoked bylaws. Revoking the bylaws is part of the Home Ministry's first 100-day program," Gamawan told tempointeraktif.com on Tuesday.

He spoke at the national working meeting of the Indonesian Regency Administrations' Association (Apkasi) in Madiun, East Java, which was officiated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The ministry earlier coordinated with the BPK in dealing with more than 1,200 problematic bylaws revoked since 2002 and said they were against the regional policy's spirit.

Director general for regional financial administration management Timbul Pudjianto was reported as saying that most revoked bylaws ruled on levies from taxes and retributions, which are imposed by regions to increase revenue.

"The revoked bylaws are almost surely related to money," Timbul said.

In his speech Tuesday, Gamawan reminded regional administration chiefs not to set regulations that were against higher ones.

He said policies made at regional level, as with higher ones, should be aimed at improving public service, adding that many regions did not provide quality service.

Gamawan cited as an example "one-door" licensing services. He said only 75 percent of more than 500 regencies and municipalities could provide this in Indonesia.

Apkasi chief Sujono admitted that many regional-level officials did not effectively manage regions, resulting in reliance on the central government to process business and investment licenses.

At the event, Yudhoyono told state officials at both central and local levels, to implement what he dubbed "mobile services".

"Many people don't know how to process driving licenses, birth certificates and land certificates among others. The government, including regional administrations, must reach out," Yudhoyono said.

He also reminded event participants that "debottlenecking" was the central government's top priority to smoothen procedures, open businesses and invest in regions.

Critics slam Antasari death request

Jakarta Globe - January 20, 2010

Heru Andriyanto – A thirst for blood and double standards in the graft-tainted prosecutor's office were behind the push to sentence to death former anticorruption czar Antasari Azhar and two co-defendants in the murder of businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, critics said on Wednesday.

Usman Hamid, chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), expressed concerns that prosecutors were driven by outside interests in recommending the death penalty for Antasari, who uncovered a humiliating bribery scandal at the Attorney General's Office in 2008 when he was at the helm of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Antasari previously served as a prosecutor himself for more than 20 years before taking up the top post at the KPK in 2007.

"The demand for a death sentence [in this case] is based on obscure facts about the murder presented by prosecutors," he said. "They have failed to assure the public that Antasari was the brains behind the crime, so I'm afraid that more convicts are in danger of erroneous executions based on wrongful convictions."

Usman said Kontras opposed capital punishment, "in particular because our own justice system is not free from corruption and political influences that make our courts highly vulnerable to errors," he said. "Once a death-row convict is executed, then those errors cannot be undone."

But it was not just the experts who were expressing doubts on Wednesday, with members of the public also raising questions about the prosecution's shambolic case.

Agus Marwo Prianto, 38, a commuter living in Bekasi who has followed the trial since it began in October, said he was not sure Antasari had ordered the murder as claimed by prosecutors.

"I don't think Antasari is powerful enough to be the mastermind of a high-profile murder case. Especially after Susno Duadji appeared as a witness for him," he said, referring to the former National Police chief of detectives who made a surprise appearance as a defense witness at a recent hearing.

Even though Susno's own office had investigated the murder case and brought Antasari to trial, he told the court about "unusual procedures" carried out during the investigation. He said his deputy at the time, Hadiatmoko, had taken charge of the case and had reported directly to National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri.

The AGO on Wednesday acknowledged that it had taken part in drafting the death sentence demand for Antasari and two other suspects accused of organizing the mafia-style killing, policeman Wiliardi Wizar and businessman Sigid Haryo Wibisono.

The five men charged with actually carrying out the murder have already been convicted and were sentenced at the Tangerang District Court in December to jail terms of between 17 and 18 years.

Deputy attorney general for general crimes, Kamal Sofyan, said the AGO had to take into account the demand for the five hitmen to receive life sentences. "There we demanded life sentences for them, so there's no way we were going to propose more lenient sentences here," he said. "We are just following the rules."

According to the law, masterminds who organize crimes should receive heavier sentences than their accomplices.

Environment/natural disasters

Java deforestation continues, threatens endangered animals

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2010

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Malang – The pace of deforestation in Java from 2007 to 2010 has reached 10,000 hectares and has become a serious threat to people and protected wildlife on the island. East Java is recorded as the biggest contributor to deforestation in Java, at a rate of 438.1 hectares annually.

ProFauna Indonesia campaign officer Radius Nursidi said recently the actual pace of deforestation is believed to be higher than the data issued by the government. The deforestation rate of 10,000 hectares is based on data issued by the Forestry Ministry and took place from 2003 to 2006. The deforestation rate in Java is recorded at 2,500 hectares annually, or 0.2 percent of Indonesia's total, which is 1.17 million hectares annually.

Although Java is ranked fourth after Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi in terms of deforestation levels, the remaining forested areas in Java are vital because Java is home to many rare and endemic wildlife species threatened with extinction, while the forest, as the protected animals' habitat, has not been well preserved.

"The current situation could pose a serious threat to people and rare animal species in Java, such as the Javan hawk eagle [Spizaetus bartels], silvery gibbon [Hylobates moloch], Javan langur [Trachypithecus auratus], Sunda slow loris [Nycticebus coucang], Javan surili [Presbytis comata], Javan rhinoceros [Sunda rhinoceros] and other endemic animals," Radius said.

The government should take practical and political measures to protect the remaining forest and wildlife in Java. It should set up security posts at the entrances to natural conservation areas.

At present, Nursidi said, "people can enter and leave the natural conservation areas easily, including wildlife poachers".

Forest conversion in Java has a direct impact on widespread poaching, especially in East Java.

ProFauna observations show wildlife poaching and illegal logging are still taking place on a regular basis in areas, such as the R. Soerjo Grand Forest Park in Pasuruan and Merubetiri National Park in Banyuwangi, due to lax supervision by authorities and ease of access.

ProFauna's latest survey of 70 bird markets in 58 cities nationwide in 2009, found at least 183 protected animals being traded freely. "And the province trading the largest number of protected animals is East Java," ProFauna Indonesia chairman Rosek Nursahid said. Generally, the trade in protected animals at major bird markets, such as in Surabaya and Jakarta is done covertly, with animals not displayed openly but secretly, in traders' storehouses or homes, and shown only to prospective buyers.

Rosek said the wildlife trade issue should be made a national issue because it violated the 1990 law on the conservation of biological natural resources and their ecosystem. The law stipulates that violators involved in the illegal trade of wildlife species can face a 5-year prison sentence and be fined Rp 100 million (about US$10,000). "Despite the law protecting wildlife from illegal trading, in practice the trade is still going on in many places in Indonesia," said Rosek.

Stop converting peatlands, government study recommends

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2010

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – A study by the government has recommended a moratorium on peatland conversion if the country wants to meet its pledged emission cuts to tackle climate change.

The study commissioned by the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) also proposes a land-swap scheme to relocate existing licenses in the peatlands, but not in other degraded forests.

"Land swaps coupled with a revision of spatial planning to conserve unlicensed peatlands could contribute up to 37 percent in potential emission cuts," Basah Hernowo, the director of forestry and water resources conservation at Bappenas, told The Jakarta Post at the weekend.

Indonesia has around 21 million hectares of peatlands, mostly in Sumatra with 7.2 million hectares, Kalimantan with 5.8 million hectare and Papua with 8 million hectares. Most of the peatland in Papua is untouched.

The study predicted that peatlands contributed about 1 billion tons of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year, or half of the country's total emissions.

Under a business-as-usual scenario, the study predicted emissions from peatlands would contribute 1,387 million tons by 2025.

"The utilization of the peatlands probably contributes less than 1 percent of GDP, yet accounts for almost 50 percent of emissions," Basah said.

The second phase of the study to assess economic aspects of peatlands will be conducted this year.

A number of plantations, industrial timber concessions (HTI) and forest concession holders (HPH) run business in the peatlands.

The Agriculture Ministry issued a 2009 decree allowing plantations to convert peatlands with a thickness of less than 3 meters.

Many said the decree was contrary to the ministry's letters to governors in 2007, asking local administrations to stop the conversion of peatlands into oil palm plantations.

"Enforcing the law on existing forest and the plantation concessions operating in the peatlands could yield about 338 million tons in CO2 reduction, or 24 percent by 2025," he said.

Basah said the rehabilitation of peatlands and preventing fires could also cut about 430 million tons of CO2 emissions.

Indonesia has pledged to abate the country's emissions by 26 percent by 2020, of which 14 percent will be cut from forest and peatlands.

The study said that emissions from peatlands were dominated by anthropogenic fire emissions, peat oxidation and the removal of above-ground biomass from deforestation and forest degradation.

"The current emissions from the peatlands come mostly from Sumatra and Kalimantan, whereas Papua has extensive shallow peatlands that have the potential to increase Indonesia's emissions if they are developed in the future," he said.

Forest campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia Yuyun Indradi, said the study should be made as a basis to cut emissions from peatlands.

"The problem is poor law enforcement against those companies that have already converted the peatlands," he said.

Greenpeace has protested the destruction of peatlands in Riau, including in Semenanjung Kampar, which they say store around 2 gigatons of carbon, with peat layers of more than 15 meters.

The Bappenas study also recommended the need for effective institutions to overcome overlapping mandates on the management of peat and lowland areas in the country.

It also proposed the need to develop peatland carbon policies to attract financial incentives under the current Carbon Development Mechanism (CDM) scheme.

Endangered animal trading on the rise in Indonesia

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2010

The government is expected to handle more cases involving poaching, trading and smuggling of endangered and protected animal species in Indonesia this year, but on the other hand the fate of the forests, which function as the natural habitat of the animal species, have been further neglected, says an environmentalist.

"The handling of the cases is a crossroads, on one hand they show a rising trend, on the other the government seems to neglect the condition of forests in Indonesia," said ProFauna International wildlife observer Rosek Nursahid, in Malang.

He added the wildlife cases should have been handled together with the forest as the habitat of the animal species and that more and more forested areas had been damaged or cleared by people, so access to wildlife poaching would be easier.

"The government tends to give industries opportunities to control the forest's function. We project that the area of wildlife habitat would be further restricted over time."

He cited the takeover of forests in Malang, East Java, such as the R. Soerjo Community Forest Park in the Mount Arjuna area where forested areas had been converted into farms, forcing endemic wildlife species to flee the area.

"We used to be able to easily find the endemic Javanese lutung monkey in the Mount Arjuna forest, but it is hard to find it in the area now."

In its 2009 end-of-the-year report, ProFauna announced that trade in protected animal species in Indonesia was still high. The latest ProFauna survey conducted at 70 bird markets in 58 cities in 2009 indicated 183 rare and protected animal species had been traded.

From the dozens, 14 bird markets had traded in the rare cockatoo and parrot, 21 markets trading in primates, 11 trading in mammals and 13 trading in birds of prey.

East Java is recorded as the province trading the most number of protected animals in the country, while the Depok Bird Market in Surakarta, Central Java, as the city trading the highest number of protected wildlife species.

The trade in protected animals in major bird markets in Surabaya, Semarang and Jakarta, is carried out clandestinely.

"The protected animals are not exhibited openly, but covertly in storehouses or the traders' houses. They would only show the animals to a real buyer," Rosek said.

Besides Java, the trade in rare animal species also takes place in Sumatra and Bali. In Sumatra, the area the government must pay special attention to is Palembang.

One of the animal trading centers in Palembang is the Pasar 16 Ilir, which trades in various species of rare animals, such as eagles, monkeys, pangolins and slow lorises. "Palembang is still the center of the pangolin trade in Sumatra."

Bali, said Rosek, had a thriving wildlife trade, especially in green turtles. Despite a drop in the number of cases compared to before 2000, turtle smuggling to Bali continued to take place.

The latest case was unveiled at the end of May last year when fishermen attempted to smuggle seven turtles into Bali.

There are still at least six illegal turtle breeding locations in Bali as of now operating on the pretext of tourism, most of which are located in Tanjung Benoa. "This shows that Bali is still the main turtle trade destination in Indonesia," Rosek said.

A controversial issue arose last year when Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika proposed a quota of 1,000 turtles for the sake of traditional and religious rituals.

In 2009, ProFauna Indonesia observed a number of places which were used as smuggling routes of rare animals outside the country.

They are identified as Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport and Talaud Islands in North Sulawesi.

On March 8, 2009, two Saudi Arabian citizens were arrested for smuggling dozens of protected animals at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport.

In October 2009, authorities foiled an attempt to smuggle 16 eagles and other animals to Japan through Soekarno-Hatta.

Talaud Islands should also be seriously focused because it is still a smuggling route of wildlife to the Philippines through the sea.

Authorities foiled an attempt to smuggle 234 animals through Talaud Islands in January last year.

Based on observation by ProFauna last year, law enforcers were able to uncover 53 cases of trade in wildlife species, which value was estimated at Rp 10 billion (S$1.51 million).

Women & gender

Protection on women rights still low

Jakarta Post - January 17, 2010

Despite prevailing laws on women rights, law experts see discrimination against women as rampant.

Mutiara Hikmah, a lecturer at the Law School of University of Indonesia, said that the government had adopted the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Act) since 1984 but the discrimination was seen in everyday life.

"Just as an example, the protection of the Indonesian government toward our domestic workers abroad, mostly women, is so low in comparison with other countries. Many are still receiving torturous treatment from their employers," she said at a seminar held by Salam UI on Nov. 28 at the auditorium of the Psychology Department at the University of Indonesia's campus in Depok, West Java.

The two-day seminar themed "Cerita Perempuan Indonesia" (The Stories of Indonesian Women) revealed that the country had gender issues where the society's patriarchal culture was legitimized in the laws inherited from the Dutch colonial government that treated women as subordinate.

Mutiara said that the law on domestic violence launched several years ago had raised awareness among women. "The police recorded an increasing number of reports on domestic violence every year since the law took into effect. We believed that no one would dare make such a report," she said.

She also pointed out the dilemma in the Criminal Code that criminalized abortion. She said that the law should make room for pregnant rape victims or unwanted pregnancy as long as the fetus is still four weeks' old or below. "We could improve this condition by raising people's awareness of the importance of women as a pillar in the country's structure, as well as providing education and the same access to information as men," Mutiara said.

Former lawmaker Nursanita Nasution said that women were needed to participate in politics especially during the democracy transition. "Women in parliament only represent 18 percent and most are not politicians, but wives and daughters of other politicians," she said.

Project officer Angga hoped the participants would be more aware of the rights of women and that the information and the knowledge from the seminar could trigger women to reach their potential, while men treat women with more respect.

Health & education

New court case due in Indonesian exam row

Jakarta Globe - January 22, 2010

Anita Rachman – Angry that controversial national exams have been given the green light, a group of students and parents want to force compliance with a 2009 court ruling mandating improvements in the national education system.

After the exams were given the go-ahead this week, the group said it would file a request with the Central Jakarta District Court to have the Supreme Court verdict on the necessity of improving the nation's education system carried out to the letter.

Muhamad Isnur, a Jakarta Legal Aid lawyer representing the group, said on Friday they would demand support from the district court to monitor educational improvements, as called for in last year's Supreme Court ruling.

The Central Jakarta District Court is the "same court where we filed our suit in 2007," Isnur said. "We don't see that the government has implemented our demands. Access to education and school facilities vary greatly across the nation."

Uncertainty has reigned since the Supreme Court last year upheld a High Court ruling requiring the government to improve teaching and school facilities before conducting another round of national exams. Those who wanted to eliminate the exams took this as a decision in their favor while the government argued the ruling was contingent on improvements that it claimed had already taken place.

Following a request for clarity by the national exams working committee of the House of Representatives' Commission X, which oversees education, the Supreme Court came down on the side of the government, saying its verdict did not mean the exams would be halted.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Harifin Tumpa said the ruling instructed the government to improve the education system and to conduct an evaluation before holding the national exam. "If the government has already made improvements, even if they are not yet complete, the exam can be held," he said.

Harifin said the Supreme Court gave the government the authority to set the standard of improvements, while admitting that an exact measurement would not be possible. Isnur said compliance should be overseen by the court and not left to the government. "It seems the government is just trying to find a way to legitimize their exam."

Muslim clerics to get free healthcare

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2010

Surabaya – The East Java provincial government has decided to provide free healthcare to clerics who run Islamic boarding schools across the province, Deputy Governor Saifullah Yusuf said Saturday.

Quoted by Antara state news agency, he said the initiative would help prevent clerics from suffering serious illnesses.

"Most Muslim clerics who sought medical treatment at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital were already in a severe condition," Saifullah said. This often led to the worsening health condition of the cleric, Saifullah added.

He publicly unveiled the plan for free medical care for clerics after accompanying East Java Governor Soekarwo in a meeting with influential cleric KH Mas Subadar at the Roudlotul Ulum Islamic boarding school in Pasuruan regency.

Soekarwo's entourage also included former East Java governor Imam Utomo. Saifullah said the government's medical team, including specialists, would visit the clerics or their Islamic boarding schools every three months for a health checkup.

The move will be part of preventive measures to keep local Muslim clerics healthy, he added. Due to their deep-rooted influence in society, Muslim clerics have always been figures that politicians must visit ahead of national or regional elections.

Governor Soekarwo was quoted by Antara as saying the funds for the free health care program would be allocated from the East Java provincial budget.

Last October, Soekarwo also said his administration would provide operational funds for Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and Islamic school students.

The Rp 185 billion fund will be allocated from the provincial budget, together with the fund for improving and developing teachers' skills, he added. The governor said the program would be fully implemented next year.

He said the student program would include more than 760,000 pesantren students and nearly 150,000 from Islamic junior high schools.

The operational fund will also be provided to more than 750,000 pupils (santri) of elementary school level and more than 100,000 junior high school students.

Under the program each student, the government said, would receive between Rp 15,000 and Rp 20,000 per month. Saifullah also said the provincial administration planned to issue a bylaw on a one-roof education ma nagement system that would unite formal and informal pesantren education under the authority of one administrative agency.

Currently, formal education comes under the authority of the education agency, while pesantren or other religious education is under the religious affairs agency.

According to Soekarwo, the new program is intended to improve the teaching skills of teachers at pesantren to ensure they have the same level of skills as teachers at formal education institutions.

Bank Century inquiry

Yudhoyono moves to quell impeachment talk

Jakarta Globe - January 22, 2010

Camelia Pasandaran & Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Bogor – In a surprise move seen as an attempt to shore up his authority, Indonesia's president on Thursday warned his detractors against trying to impeach him, noting that the country's presidential system made it especially hard to remove a head of state or government.

"We chose a presidential system, not a parliamentary system. A parliamentary system [can] result in a no-confidence vote, so a cabinet could be [voted] up or down, and ministers might fall. That is not [our] soul," Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said during a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Bogor.

Yudhoyono said the Constitution clearly detailed the process for removing a president.

"We should understand the content of our Constitution and implement it in the most correct way," he said. "The president cannot dismiss the House, MPR or the DPD, but it doesn't mean you can implement a culture of no-confidence votes as in a parliamentary system."

His remarks, apparently in response to activists' calls for his removal over the PT Bank Century scandal, followed a four-hour meeting with heads of seven state bodies: the House of Representatives, People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), Judicial Commission, Supreme Court, Constitutional Court, Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and Regional Representatives Council (DPD). Yudhoyono said the heads had initiated the meeting to discuss 13 crucial issues on democracy, the economy and justice.

According to the Constitution, the president and vice president can be impeached only after a lengthy political and legal process and if found guilty of violating the Constitution. Cabinet ministers cannot be impeached, meaning Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati's job is safe as long as Yudhoyono wants her to remain, despite recent calls for her removal over the Bank Century bailout.

While speculation of a possible attempt to impeach Yudhoyono or Vice President Boediono has faded, opposition lawmakers investigating the bailout have called on Yudhoyono to appear for questioning. The State Palace this week rejected those calls.

Yudhoyono said Thursday's meeting was unrelated to the bailout inquiry.

Airlangga Pribadi, a political expert from Airlangga University in Surabaya, said the meeting reflected the president's "political fear" over the bailout scandal and last year's public brawl between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and National Police, both of which have hurt his image.

"Possibly feeling afraid that his position has been threatened [by the House], the president seems to have felt the need to get assurances from other state institutions," he said, despite the fact that his ruling coalition dominates the House special committee investigating the bailout.

However, Yunarto Widjaja, a researcher with Charta Politika, said Yudhoyono may have been merely expressing concern about the workings of a presidential system in a "messy" country.

AGO to weigh up possible bans for dueling Bank Century books

Jakarta Globe - January 21, 2010

Heru Andriyanto – The Attorney General's Office on Thursday said it has begun to examine a book released in response to an earlier text linking President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to the Bank Century scandal.

Amari, the deputy attorney general for intelligence, said the AGO was looking at "Hanya Fitnah dan Cari Sensasi: George Revisi Book" ("Slander and Sensationalism: George's Revisionist Book").

"Slander and Sensationalism," which was released this month, was Setyardi Negara's answer to "Membongkar Gurita Cikeas: Di Balik Skandal Bank Century" ("Unraveling the Cikeas Octopus: Behing the Bank Century Scandal").

The first book, written by George Junus Aditjondro, accuses Yudhoyono's ruling Democratic Party of using nonprofit foundations associated with the president to transfer funds to its coffers during the 2009 elections. The book also claims that state funds intended to bail out Bank Century were diverted to one of the foundations.

"The AGO is looking over both books now," Amari said. However, he did not say if prosecutors would recommend banning the books.

Before it could rule on a ban, he said, the AGO would need to consult with officials from various government agencies, including the National Police, the Armed Forces (TNI), the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Ministry of National Education.

"Let's see whether we need to really ban these books or not," Amari said. "Of course, if we don't think a ban is necessary, we don't have to consult on the matter with other government agencies."

When he released his book earlier this month, Setyardi said his 28-page offering was written as a "review" George's "Unraveling the Cikeas Octopus."

Julius Felicianus, chief executive officer of Galang Press, which published "Unraveling the Cikeas Octopus," earlier told the Jakarta Globe that many government insiders and officials had come forward following the book's release to offer George information and data to support the claims made in the text.

'Bogus accounts' used in bailout

Jakarta Post - January 21, 2010

Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – Questions to the former police chief of detectives revealed Bank Century bailout funds went to potentially bogus accounts, proving some depositors violated banking laws to conceal ownership of deposits.

A questioning session by the House of Representatives' inquiry committee into last year's Bank Century bailout, which amounted to Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million), with Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji also found that Bank Indonesia (BI) should have detected an alleged scam at Bank Century long before its collapse.

The committee summoned Susno as he was the chief of detectives who arrested the bank's owner Robert Tantular upon orders from then vice president Jusuf Kalla.

Based on BI data, the Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK), chaired by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani and then BI governor Boediono, decided on Nov. 21 that Bank Century had failed and could cause a systemic threat to the banking system, and hence it had to be saved.

The Deposit Insurance Corporation (LPS) incrementally pumped a final total of Rp 6.76 trillion into the bank, ballooning from the initially estimated bailout cost of Rp 632 billion.

The three-star general told legislators that the police had obtained all their data about the violations implicating the Century owners two months before the bank collapsed.

Observers say this may strengthen suggestions from previous hearings the central bank had been weak in its banking monitoring or may have deliberately not been transparent about malpractice in Bank Century BI, Susno said, handed over documents needed to investigate the alleged scam to the police only after Robert's arrest.

"BI should have detected the violations earlier as it conducted an audit every three months, right?"

Susno said that the police received information about alleged potential banking law violations involving its owners, including fictitious credits, non-performing loans and loans lacking collateral before 2008, but without solid proof.

He said that when he went to BI to ask for cooperation to arrest Robert, BI officials said they did not have proof of any crimes. Anyway, he said, the police arrested Robert, who was sent to prison for five years.

Susno said BI withheld documents fearing police officers' investigation into the bank scandal would cause panic among customers.

When asked if BI had deliberately let the crime occur, Susno refused to comment. "I cannot answer whether they [BI officials] knew about the scandal or not."

On the channeling of funds, Susno told legislators that National Police detectives found in their investigation that, for example, funds went to a taxi driver in Ciputat in South Tangerang and an automotive repair shop keeper in Makassar.

The driver received Rp 24 billion and the businessman Rp 33 billion out of bailout funds totaling Rp 6.76 trillion.

"Yes, that's correct. But we could not classify the transfers as a banking crime as it would need a thorough investigation to find out where the money came from," Susno said.

"How come a driver owns Rp 24 billion and an automotive repair shop owner gets Rp 33 billion?"

He said he had not dug deeper into the case as he was replaced by Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi. Susno added the committee could ask the two to explain the transfers.

Some lawmakers raised suspicions the bank could have been used to launder money, with big depositors deliberately using other people's names to break down their deposits into smaller amounts to avoid suspicions and become eligible for deposit guarantee protection. The state had issued a guarantee as a response to the global crisis to cover all bank deposits up to Rp 2 billion should any bank fail.

Dangerous questions to be answered as Century inquiry wraps up

Jakarta Globe - January 20, 2010

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – As the House of Representatives' investigation into the PT Bank Century bailout ends, the public may soon learn who is to blame and whether any of the funds disbursed went to finance a presidential election campaign, information that could alter the face of Indonesian politics and disrupt President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration.

After more than a month of questioning top financial officials, convicted embezzlers, politicians and expert witnesses – including key figures like Vice President Boediono, who was the central bank governor at the time of the bailout, and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati – the 30-strong special investigation committee is now left with the arduous task of voting on what findings and recommendations to forward to the full House.

"We are going to map out and harmonize all the data we received in the hearings. It all will be done on Saturday," the committee's chairman, Golkar Party's Idrus Marham, said on Wednesday.

Political analyst Sulastio, director of the Indonesian Parliament Center, claimed he had been personally informed that the committee already had the names of a number of figures "suspected of violating laws."

The official justification for salvaging Bank Century – reiterated throughout House committee questioning by both Boediono and Sri Mulyani – was that its failure would have had a domino effect on the banking sector amid the unfolding global financial crisis and severe liquidity problems at a number of domestic banks.

But Boediono's predecessor at the central bank, graft convict Burhanuddin Abdullah, told the committee that the bank's collapse would not have posed a systemic threat.

Massive withdrawals of more than Rp 5 trillion ($540 million) were made from the bank shortly after it was bailed out and put under the control of the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS). It is now no secret that the bank's owners had looted the bank, leaving behind debts for the government to pick up.

Former Vice President Jusuf Kalla told the House committee that upon learning of what had occurred at the lender, he had instructed the National Police to arrest Robert Tantular, Bank Century's majority shareholder. Tantualar is now serving a five- year prison sentence for embezzlement.

Sulastio said finding exactly where the bulk of the money landed would be a tough job. "What the committee intends to do is focus on whether or not any of the money ended up financing a presidential election campaign," he said.

"It is going to be tough because the transactions were mostly done in cash. Money transfers, however, would be easy to track because transfers would be registered by the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center [PPATK]."

His statements came a day after a member of the president's ruling coalition reversed position and pledged to support the government's view that the controversial bailout was necessary.

Taufik Kurniawan, secretary general of the National Mandate Party (PAN), said his party now agreed that the failure of the troubled bank in November 2008 would have posed an unacceptable "systemic" threat, in essence agreeing that the bailout was necessary.

With the support of PAN's two legislators, Yudhoyono's Democrats now hold sway over 15 members of the special committee – half of the votes – including eight of its own lawmakers, three from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and two from the National Awakening Party (PKB).

There has also been much speculation that Aburizal Bakrie, a former senior cabinet minister under Yudhoyono and the current chairman of the Golkar Party, could attempt to benefit from the case by helping to engineer the ouster of Sri Mulyani. Aburizal and Sri Mulyani have previously clashed over the business dealings of the controversial Bakrie conglomerate.

However, Aburizal has denied any such efforts to oust Sri Mulyani, and Yudhoyono has come out and said that his finance minister is not going anywhere.

No funds went to Democrats: Susno

Jakarta Globe - January 20, 2010

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Camelia Pasandaran – Controversial National Police Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji on Wednesday told a House of Representatives special committee that none of the money used to bail out PT Bank Century in late 2008 was embezzled by any political party.

Susno refuted allegations that some of the money had ended up in the coffers of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, allegations that were at least partially responsible for triggering the House investigation last month.

At times cracking jokes, an apparently relaxed and confident Susno told the committee that the Rp 6.7 trillion ($710 million) in bailout money flowed into thousands of Bank Century accounts, but said he was convinced that none went to a political party.

"Nothing flowed into the account of a political party or [to] a certain party's individuals," he said, without elaborating, in response to a question.

Susno led the embezzlement investigation against Bank Century's owners as the then-National Police's chief of detectives. One of the bank's former owners, Robert Tantular, is serving a five-year prison term for issuing $220 million in fraudulent loans and misusing depositors' money. Susno himself was accused of helping business tycoon Boedi Sampoerna retrieve millions of dollars that had effectively been frozen in Bank Century in exchange for a Rp 10 billion payoff.

Susno has repeatedly denied the allegation, even shedding tears while speaking about it in front of lawmakers late last year. But on Wednesday he was all smiles, even joking with members of the special committee, who are now under fire for an investigation that seems to be making little progress.

When asked again by a lawmaker about the alleged Rp 10 billion, Susno shot back that he could have taken bigger offers if he had wanted to. "There is a bigger offer and it still applies," Susno replied, again without elaborating, momentarily lightening the usual grave tone of the hearings.

People's Democratic Defense (Bendera), a fringe nationalist group alleged to be linked to opposition political parties, has alleged that at least part of the bailout money was funneled into Yudhoyono's re-election campaign, to members of his inner circle and to various state agencies.

Yudhoyono and Democratic Party officials have vehemently denied the allegations.

Susno also accused Bank Indonesia, the country's central bank, of exercising poor supervision over Bank Century, which was a chronically troubled lender. He said the central bank should have known there was the potential for banking crimes as the bank was audited every three months.

Susno also confirmed testimony by former Vice President Jusuf Kalla that he had ordered the National Police to arrest Tantular. Kalla testified last week that former central bank Governor Boediono, who is now vice president, had been reluctant to report the case to the police.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Boediono said he had taken proper legal steps following Bank Century's collapse, including asking the Ministry of Finance to issue a travel ban on Tantular and seven other bank officials.

"On Nov. 20 [2008], for the first time, Bank Century was stated as a failed bank," spokesman Yopie Hidayat said. "The ban shows that Bank Indonesia took the necessary legal steps and did not let lawbreakers go free despite their mistakes."

Officials from the central bank and Finance Ministry, led by Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, approved the bailout during an emergency overnight meeting on Nov. 21, 2008.

During Susno's testimony, the police official also said that two major shareholders in Bank Century, Hesham al Warraq and Rafat Ali Rizvi, sent a letter to the National Police in June 2009 stating their willingness to reimburse the bailout funds. He said he forwarded the letter to Sri Mulyani, but she didn't respond.

Susno also confirmed reports that Rp 35 billion from the bailout money had been reimbursed to a mechanic in Makkasar, but only said "it should be investigated further."

Yudhoyono slams report as 'fiction'

Jakarta Post - January 19, 2010

Camelia Pasandaran & Febriamy Hutapea – Sri Mulyani Indrawati's job seemed more secure on Tuesday after an angry President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono lashed out against a newspaper article reporting a supposed deal that would see the Finance Minister replaced by the end of next month.

President Yudhoyono accused the report, based on anonymous sources, of pitting him against political parties.

"Something that is not happening has been created out of nothing. This could have the potential to disturb the markets and hurt the rupiah. It also creates a strange political condition and fuels slander, fiction, political intrigue and something that is outside of the Constitution," Yudhoyono said following a meeting in Madiun, East Java.

His statement came a day after an article in the Jakarta Post quoted anonymous sources from the Golkar Party saying the finance minister would be forced out. The story was picked up by a number of domestic and international news agencies.

It added that she would be replaced by Anggito Abimanyu, the head of the Fiscal Policy Agency, in February. The story was denied by the president's office and Golkar.

"The sources stated that the finance minister would be replaced by a person with the initials AA. Who is AA? I don't even know. They say the source is from Golkar," Yudhoyono said. "This is pitting me against Golkar and Pak Ical [Golkar Chairman Aburizal Bakrie.] It is creative but creative in a bad way."

Considered icons of reform, both Vice President Boediono and Sri Mulyani have in recent days faced the House of Representatives special committee investigating the 2008 bail-out of PT Bank Century.

Sri Mulyani's rocky relationship with Aburizal has been widely reported. She told the Wall Street Journal last month that the House inquiry was aimed at ousting her because Golkar officials did not agree with the reforms she was trying to usher in.

Numerous calls to the Jakarta Post were not returned on Tuesday.

Political expert Andrinof Chaniago said the supposed plot to remove Sri Mulyani could no longer even be considered so much as a rumor.

"It is hardly a rumor. What might have happened is that a single political party wants to create a condition in order to gain power by putting its own party member or appointee in the post vacated by Sri Mulyani," he told the Jakarta Globe, adding that the same party could be trying to destabilize Yudhoyono's coalition.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives welcomed the Finance Minister with a round of applause at a House plenary session on Tuesday and praised her for providing them with a near-perfect accountability report on the 2008 State Budget.

"This, by far, is the best budget accountability report in the past 10 years, as the deficit nears zero," Sri Mulyani said. In her report to the audience of lawmakers – many of whom also questioned her over the bailout as members of the House special committee – she underlined the significance of the global financial meltdown in 2008.

Sri Mulyani also dismissed talk that there was a cabinet reshuffle in the offing. "The President himself has said there is no reshuffle," Sri Mulyani said.

Democratic Party leader Anas Urbaningrum reiterated that message, saying the president's party would focus instead on conducting a thorough cabinet evaluation.

Indonesia finance minister may go over bank rescue

Reuters - January 17, 2010

Jakarta – Indonesia's reformist finance minister may be replaced by the end of February over her role in the bailout in late 2008 of a small bank, an official at a political party in the ruling coalition said on Monday.

The departure of Sri Mulyani Indrawati, a top reformer in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's cabinet, would deal a severe blow to the president's drive to reshape Southeast Asia's largest economy that has won a broad praise from global investors.

The official from the Golkar Party, who declined to be quoted by name, told Reuters that Indrawati may be replaced "by the end of February," echoing a report on Monday in the English language daily newspaper the Jakarta Post that also quoted anonymous Golkar sources.

Golkar is headed by tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, an old-style politician who has long resisted Indrawati's reforms, resulting in tensions within Yudhoyono's government.

Bambang Soesatyo of the Golkar Party said Anggito Abimanyu, head of the fiscal policy agency within the finance ministry, would be the best replacement for Indrawati if she stepped down.

Local stocks, the rupiah and bond prices showed a muted reaction to the reports, but investors kept a wary eye on the development, with the key focus on whether Yudhoyono would be able to find a successor capable of maintaining the reform drive.

"The markets are concerned about the continuity of reforms and policy. Market sentiment could turn bad," said Andry Asmoro, an economist at Bahana Securities. "The political risks are likely to increase if (she) quits."

Indrawati could not be reached for comment. The president's spokesman could not be reached either.

Both Indrawati and Vice President Boediono have come under attack from non-reformers over their decision to bail out Bank Century, a small lender.

Indrawati and Boediono, who was governor of the central bank at the time, both approved the government rescue of Bank Century late in 2008 as Indonesia started to feel the impact of the global financial crisis.

Analysts have priced in the possibility of Indrawati's ouster regarding the scandal over the 6.7 trillion rupiah ($729.4 million) government rescue of Bank Century, a Reuters survey showed last week.

Indrawati and Boediono were widely expected to play a critical role in attracting foreign investment into one of the region's fastest growing economies and a member of the Group of 20 leading economies.

Both technocrats have defended the decision during their testimony before a parliamentary inquiry committee, saying the decision was aimed at preventing the bank's troubles from spreading into a broad-based crisis.

President Yudhoyono was re-elected in July on the back of his government's economic policies, reforms, and efforts to tackle corruption.

[Reporting by Sara Webb, Telly Nathalia, Gde Anugrah Arka and Sunanda Creagh; Writing by Choonsik Yoo; Editing by Alex Richardson.]

SBY soothes political allies to prevent probe heating up

Jakarta Post - January 17, 2010

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono can no longer suppress his resentment over the behavior of members of the House of Representatives' committee investigating a decision by the government and the central bank to rescue the graft-ridden Bank Century in late 2008.

In a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Yudhoyono lashed out against ministers from the coalition parties, questioning the committee's ethics and attitude in treating his officials.

Despite forging an alliance with the government, committee members from the Golkar Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) insisted on hurling harsh questions and accusations at Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati during the committee's hearings.

Boediono, while serving as central bank governor, and Mulyani as finance minister were the decision makers behind the bailout that cost a total of Rp 6.76 trillion (US$700 million), more than 10 times the amount originally granted.

While unable to fight back against harsh criticism from committee members, Boediono was humiliated during the committee hearing Tuesday, a condition deemed grossly impolite by Yudhoyono, who holds strong Javanese traditions.

"The President (in the Cabinet meeting) raised the issue of ethics and the attitude of committee members. He is very concerned about the unethical way the members questioned the officials," said Information and Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring Thursday.

"The hearing was just like a television reality show. The President hopes for more conducive relations between the government and the House in the future," he said.

The President has called for an evaluation of his 422-member coalition as his administration nears the end of its first 100- days, with speculation rife that Yudhoyono will review his coalition following the behavior of Golkar and PKS legislators. Yudhoyono's coalition makes up 75 percent of seats at the House.

"We are still working out ways to improve the attitude of the committee members, as well as our commitment to keep the coalition solid," said House Speaker Marzuki Ali of Yudhoyono's Democratic Party on Friday.

Although having a potentially strong coalition, Yudhoyono has thus far refused to openly declare his full support for Boediono and Mulyani making the bailout decision, as well as forcing the coalition parties to end the bailout debate.

Yudhoyono's indecisiveness has kept the government and the House unnecessarily occupied in resolving the case, draining most of the energy needed to find solutions to improve the economy and social affairs.

"Yudhoyono should openly declare in public that the bailout decision was his full responsibility, and take the problem into his own hands. This is well needed to put an end to the unproductive debate at the House," said senior lawyer and member of the President Advisory Board Adnan Buyung Nasution on Saturday.

Yudhoyono is now pulling some new strings by trying to lower the tension of the investigation through lobbying by his inner- circle.

The National Awakening Party (PKB), for example, has replaced two of its investigation committee members with more amiable members.The National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP) have also softened their stance on the bailout.

What is left for Yudhoyono is to shut down Golkar and PKS, while leaving minority of opposing sides; the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and the Greater Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) to push their agenda.

"I've heard there has been intensive lobbying to undermine the committee. The ruling elite is playing its coalition cards," said committee member Hendrawan Supratikno of the PDI-P.

Golkar, the PKS, the PKB and the PAN dismissed allegations they were toning down the heat on the bailout probe. "The aim of the committee is to get to the problem of the bailout. I don't see the investigation as a threat to the President," said committee chairman Idrus Marham of Golkar.

In previous reports, analysts believed Golkar's aim in pushing for the bailout probe was merely intended to unseat Mulyani due her string of disputes with Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie.

The intention of other coalition parties, however, may be limited to seeking greater bargaining power for financial resources through state companies, government-initiated projects and procurements, as well as heads of government and state agencies.

J. Kristiadi, a political analyst from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) criticized the fragile coalition, which he said was built on weak foundations, instead of an ideal political platform.

As a result, he said, the investigation committee was being used to attack the bailout decision and gain political power. "I believe this process will not solve the case. It will only end with political negotiations," he added.

Temporary findings indicate depositors may have played big role.

Hendrawan Supratikno

Faction: PDI-P (16.6 percent of legislative seats/opposition)

Temporary findings on bailout motive: A combination of officials wanting to save big depositors and those honestly seeking to save the economy.

Other findings:

1. Messy Bank Indonesia (BI) banking supervision. There are indications the central bank provided misleading and insufficient information to the Finance Ministry to justify the bailout.
2. Power struggle between then vice president Jusuf Kalla and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over the bailout plan.
3. Weak argument there was a systemic threat.
4. Yudhoyono's active involvement in the bailout decision.

Mukhamad Misbakhun

Faction: PKS (10.6 percent of legislative seats/coalition member)

Temporary findings on bailout motive: Vested interests wanted to save big depositors.

Other findings:

1. Messy Bank Indonesia (BI) banking supervision. There are indications the central bank provided misleading and insufficient information to the Finance Ministry to justify the bailout. 2. Power struggle between then vice president Jusuf Kalla and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over the bailout plan. 3. Weak argument there was a systemic threat.

Idrus Marham

Faction: Golkar Party (19.3 percent of legislative seats/coalition member)

Temporary findings on bailout motive: Reckless decision making by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani.

Other findings:

1. Messy Bank Indonesia (BI) banking supervision.
2. Weak argument on whether there was a systemic threat.

Anas Urbaningrum

Faction: Democratic Party (26.4 percent of legislative seats/head of coalition)

Temporary findings on bailout motive: To prevent a systemic threat in the banking sector from the failure of Bank Century, as well as saving the economy from falling into a financial crisis.

Other findings:

1. Messy Bank Indonesia (BI) banking supervision.
2. Strong argument to bail out the bank because of a systemic threat.

House uncovers mess in bank bailout case

Jakarta Post - January 17, 2010

After almost two months of investigation, the House of Representatives' Bank Century bailout inquiry committee has uncovered the messy side of the government and the central bank's decision to salvage the small bank in the wake of the impact of the global financial turmoil in late 2008. The Jakarta Post's Niken Prathivi wraps up the team's temporary findings on the case. Here are the stories:

Despite its questionable objectivity in investigating the bailout case, the committee has at least uncovered a blend of motives underlying the decision, as well as the political battle between senior government officials behind the case.

According to the committee, a combination of unnecessary panic due to the global crisis and pressure to salvage the bank's major depositors may have played a role in pushing through the decision.

"We view these two factors as the main trigger for the bailout," committee member Hendrawan Supratikno from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said. "There are a lot of players behind the case, and we're still trying to identify their roles."

The committee believes there were some officials who wanted to have the bank intact in order to rescue major depositors while on the other hand, there were those who honestly wanted to keep the bank afloat to prevent a systemic risk to the banking sector amid the uncertain economic climate at the time.

While the systemic risk argument remains a matter of debate, major depositors are certainly the biggest gainers.

With the bank continuing to operate, major depositors' savings were spared as the government only guarantees savings of below Rp 2 billion (US$213,000) if a bank collapses.

The committee has shown that the politically wired Sampoerna family, several state companies and a central bank foundation accounted for more than 35 percent of funds owned by big depositors in the bank.

This excludes the bank's short-term borrowings, or interbank fund, from several small and provincial banks. Should Bank Century have folded, these banks would also have been at risk of collapse as they could not recoup their funds.

The Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK), headed by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati with members including then Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, decided on Nov. 21, 2008, to rescue Century, now renamed Bank Mutiara.

After the decision, the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS) took over the bank under BI supervision and guidance. However, under LPS and BI management, the bailout swelled to Rp 6.76 trillion (US$760 million), more than 10 times the Rp 632 billion originally agreed by the KSSK.

In a hearing at the committee on Wednesday, Mulyani said she refused to bear any responsibility for the bailout fund ballooning beyond the agreed figure.

She argued the LPS and BI were entirely responsible for managing and supervising the bank after the KSSK took the decision to go ahead with the bailout.

In its interim findings, the committee said it believes BI misled the Finance Ministry in exaggerating the scale of the impact to the banking sector from a Century collapse.

"It's clear that BI somehow provided misleading information to the KSSK to justify the bailout," committee member Mukhamad Misbakhun from the Justice and Prosperous Party (PKS) said.

Then BI governor Boediono, now Vice President, as well as other current and former BI officials remained tight-lipped over questions raised by committee members. Their comments were limited to a series of "I don't know", "I can't remember", "ask the expert" and "let me check".

The testimony of then vice president Jusuf Kalla hinted at BI's misleading input when he said Mulyani met him on Sept. 30, 2009, and spoke of BI's actions in the bailout decision.

"Mulyani came to me saying she felt she was being deceived by BI when the bailout swelled from the Rp 632 billion proposed by BI during the KSSK meeting," Kalla said.

Mulyani refused to comment on the issue. However, when the scandal first broke out in the middle of last year, she repeatedly placed the blame on BI's poor data and subsequent supervision of the bank.

Apart from the credibility of BI's input, the committee has also highlighted the fact that Kalla was not kept abreast of developments in the bailout decision process.

Kalla, who at the time was politically powerful due to his position as Golkar Party chairman, was kept out of the loop in the Bank Century case despite his key role supervising the economic ministers.

As President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was on an overseas trip between Nov. 13 and 26, Kalla was officially authorized to be acting president.

However, according to Kalla, Mulyani and Boediono never consulted him over the bailout plan, a move deemed irregular. He claimed he received the report on the bailout four days later when Mulyani and Boediono officially met him to discuss the decision.

In her testimony, Mulyani claimed she had sent a text message to Kalla immediately after making the bailout decision. Lawmakers, however, believed Kalla was left out because had he known beforehand of the bailout plan, he would have rejected it.

Just days before the bailout, Kalla has dismissed a proposal from Mulyani and Boediono to have a full blanket guarantee to cover all bank deposits, a move taken by other neighboring countries. A full guarantee is needed to ensure bank depositors don't move their funds overseas, causing a serious run on local banks.

Another mystery uncovered by the committee was the rundown informal KSSK meetings before the Nov. 21 bailout, which essentially highlighted the bank rescue plan.

In a Nov. 13 meeting, for example, the KSSK saw the need to draft options for the rescue plan despite being fully aware of Bank Century's deteriorating condition a week earlier. The meeting also showed the scale of the Century problem. Such revelations counters earlier arguments by the KSSK that they knew of the scale of the problem during the Nov. 21 meeting.

Thus far, the committee findings are far from confirming speculations over campaign funds owned by Yudhoyono's inner- circle and affiliates deposited in Bank Century. The committee has previously assumed the bailout is merely aimed at rescuing the funds.

Major Bank Century depositors a week before the bailout

1. Sampoerna family Rp 1.5 trillion
2. PT Jamsostek Rp 212 billion
3. PT Telkom Rp 165 billion
4. PT Perkebunan Nusantara Rp 10 billion
5. ASABRI Rp 5 billion
6. PT WIKA Rp 20 billion

Bank Century interbank borrowings (Total value of Rp1.1 trillion)

1. Bank Sinar Mas
2. Maybank
3. BPD Sulawesi Tenggara
4. BPD Aceh
5. BPD NTT
6. BPD NTB
7. Anglomas

Source: Report on informal KSSK meeting on Nov. 13

Unsolved mysteries in the bailout case

1. Speculation over the existence of Yudhoyono's campaign fund in Bank Century that may justify the bank's rescue. The committee has thus far been unable to clarify this issue, which is being used as the reasons for forming the committee.

2. The reasons why Yudhoyono, Mulyani and Boediono bypassed Kalla in the bailout plan.

3. A Cabinet meeting on Oct. 8, 2008, or two months before the bailout, reflects no panic over the economic situation.

4. Mulyani's confession to Kalla that she was being deceived by the central bank over the cost of the bailout.

Coalition deemed fragile over bailout

Jakarta Post - January 16, 2010

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – After only three months, the Democratic Party-led majority coalition at the House of Representatives seems too fragile to offer full political support to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government amid the ongoing procedural investigation into the Rp 6.76 trillion (US$712 million) Bank Century bailout.

Like the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerinda), legislators from the Golkar Party and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) asked pressing questions to witnesses in their attempt to uncover procedural violations in the bailout process.

Golkar's Bambang Soesatyo said his party was not part of the coalition and that it had its own agenda in the investigation.

"Ever since the presidential election, Golkar has been at loggerheads with the President and his party. The fact that several Golkar figures are in the cabinet is the result of our political lobbying," he said.

Andi Rachmat of the PKS said his party's main goal was to get to the bottom of the scandal by investigating it thoroughly.

"Unfortunately there is a price to pay because the Century case will implicate many (important) figures," Andi said, adding the PKS wanted the whole process to be transparent. "We're performing our constitutional function, to maintain checks and balances," he added.

PDI-P, Golkar and the PKS identified a number of legal violations during the bailout process when questioning a number of officials, including Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, both key players behind the bank bailout.

Sri Mulyani, also chairwoman of the Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK), admitted receiving poor information from Bank Indonesia during the decision making process on Nov. 21, 2008. Boediono was central bank governor at the time.

Former vice president Jusuf Kalla testified that he was kept out of the loop on the Bank Century bailout process. He also blamed the high cost of the bailout on Boediono.

So far, only committee members from the Democratic Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the United Development Party (PPP) have pulled their punches when questioning witnesses.

The President has called for an evaluation of his 422-member coalition as his administration nears the end of its first 100- day.

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) political analyst J. Kristiadi criticized the fragile coalition, which he said was built on a weak foundation, instead of ideal political platforms.

As a result the inquiry was being used to attack the bailout decision and gain political power, he said. "I believe this process will not solve the case. It will only end with political negotiations," he added.

Graft & corruption

ICW reports 106 judges to Judicial Commission

Jakarta Post - January 20, 2010

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) reported 106 "troubled" judges to the Judicial Commission on Tuesday citing their tendency to acquit or hand down lenient sentences to corruption suspects.

ICW legal and judicial supervisory division coordinator, Ilian Deta Arta Sari, said one of the judges had acquitted 35 corruption defendants in one year.

"Is it a hobby or a habit?" she asked reporters at the Judicial Commission building.

The tendency to acquit corruption defendants took place in almost all district courts throughout the nation as well as the high court and Supreme Court levels, ICW said.

ICW found that in 2009, more than 200 out of 378 corruption suspects, or 59.25 percent, have been acquitted by the courts, with only 154 being found guilty.

ICW pointed out two unnamed Supreme Court justices included in the list of judges who have acquitted corruption suspects without clear reasons.

Unfortunately, the sentences given to guilty defendants were also toothless as deterrents because 82 of the corruption defendants (21.69 percent) received prison sentences of less than a year, 23 were sentenced to up to two years, 26 received sentences of up to five years and six defendants received up to 10 years in prison.

"Only one of them got more than 10 years in prison," ICW deputy coordinator Emerson Yuntho said.

He added the main point of concern was that 16 of the defendants were given suspended sentences.

The number increased compared to the previous year (2008), which saw suspended sentences handed out to 10 defendants. Three justices, yet again unnamed by ICW, handed down the suspended sentences.

"We get the impression that giving a suspended sentence is merely a formality when dealing with corruption convicts," Emerson said.

Previously, the chief justice had sent a letter to ICW denying the allegations against his institution and said ICW's data was invalid.

However, Illian emphasized it was the Supreme Court's data that was invalid.

"The Supreme Court said there were no suspended sentence handed down in 2009," she said.

"On the contrary, we found 16 suspended rulings that have been published or aired by the media."

She added ICW would send their data to the Supreme Court.

In response to its findings, ICW asked the commission to summon the 106 judges to be questioned in relation to their rulings and recommended the judges be dismissed should the commission find any violations.

Commissioner Zainal Arifin said his office would follow up the report by conducting a plenary meeting with other commissioners.

"We will evaluate the report and observe whether there was anything untoward in the rulings to determine the judges who are the bad apples," he told The Jakarta Post.

Previously, Judicial Commission chief Busyro Muqoddas said the commission had planned to summon 62 judges whose rulings were considered to be controversial and problematic.

He said the commission had received 968 public complaints of problematic rulings nationwide last year.

As of Dec. 1, 2009, the Judicial Commission has recommended 28 contentious rulings be re-evaluated by the Supreme Court, but none of them have been followed up.

Anggodo demands middleman Muladi be named a suspect in KPK case

Jakarta Globe - January 20, 2010

Nivell Rayda – Detained businessman Anggodo Widjojo has demanded the Corruption Eradication Commission also name a middleman as a suspect in an attempt to undermine the antigraft body, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

Anggodo's lawyer, Bonaran Situmeang, said the commission, also known as the KPK, should name Ary Muladi as a suspect for attempted bribery and obstruction of justice.

Ary reportedly told Anggodo that he could stop a KPK investigation into Anggodo's brother, Anggoro Widjojo. Anggodo in return claims to have channeled Rp 5.1 billion ($550,000) to Ary, money he alleges Ary stole.

Ary later told the commission and National Police investigators that the money never went to KPK officials but was instead passed on to another middleman, whom he identified as Yulianto. Authorities have been unable to determine Yulianto's real identify or whereabouts.

"Ary Muladi played a key role in the bribery," Bonaran said. "[He] should also be named as a suspect."

The commission on Wednesday questioned Anggodo in relation to the charges against him. Anggodo became the center of public controversy last year after the KPK released 67 wiretapped phone conversations between him and several law enforcement officials allegedly involved in an attempt to frame two KPK deputies.

Anggodo endured more than five hours of questioning on Wednesday before being returned to Cipinang Penitentiary.

The KPK on Wednesday also questioned Eddy Sumarsono, chief editor of news tabloid Investigasi. Eddy supposedly facilitated a meeting between Anggodo and a former deputy attorney general, Wisnu Subroto, in the alleged attempt to fabricate a case against the commissioners.

Eddy is also said to have arranged a meeting with former KPK chairman Antasari Azhar after Anggodo spoke of the possibility of bribing him. Antasari is now on trial in an unrelated murder case and faces the death penalty.

It was while Antasari was under arrest that he told police of Anggodo's claims that members of the KPK had accepted bribes. The allegations were never proven and the Attorney General's Office later dropped the case.

Muladi's lawyer, Suhadi, said that his client believed the KPK should be able to located Yulianto. The lawyer rejected claims that Yulianto was fictitious, saying Muladi was involved in several businesses with him.

Anticorruption efforts 'toothless': ICW

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2010

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) warned the war against corruption in 2010 would likely be "toothless", citing various attacks on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), seen as the spearhead in the war against corruption, in 2009.

The concerns arose after corruption eradication efforts in 2009 faced obstacles meant to weaken the commission through legislation and direct attacks on KPK leaders.

"Efforts to weaken the KPK and the Corruption Court escalated in 2009," ICW legal researcher Febri Diansyah told a press conference Sunday.

KPK deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah were accused of abuse of power, receiving bribes from and extorting fugitive corruption suspect Anggoro Widjojo. The accusations were shown to be fabricated and the men were acquitted of all charges.

Febri also said the newly amended Corruption Court Law brought "undesirable" changes to the war against corruption. Some of the significant changes include the composition of the Corruption Court's panel of judges, giving priority to career judges rather than ad-hoc ones, despite the questionable credibility of career judges.

"Many [career judges] acquit corruption suspects tried in district courts, while some suspects are sentenced to less than the minimum punishment of one year in prison," Illian Deta Arta Sari, the coordinator for ICW's legal and judiciary supervisory division, said.

Irrespective of the concept of presumption of innocence, Illian questioned the judges' and the Supreme Court's commitment to eradicating corruption.

Another amendment is the planned wiretapping procedure requiring law enforcement officials to obtain permission from a district court judge that could complicate efforts to spy on suspects. Wiretapping is one of the main tools in gathering evidence against corruption suspects.

ICW cited the expansion of the Corruption Court to all 33 provinces as another worrisome change, especially with widespread case brokering in the judiciary. There are concerns this could render the courts toothless.

"President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's commitment is also in question as he has required law enforcers to get his permission to question regional heads and legislators as witnesses or suspects in corruption cases," Febri said. He added that all these measures would weaken antigraft efforts, including the KPK's work.

"I think this year the government will still be focused on portraying the image that they are working to fight graft," ICW coordinator Emerson Yuntho said.

He added that graft suspects faced no threats from district courts because acquitted suspects would taint antigraft efforts.

Emerson said that considering corruption suspects would fight back, the KPK's role would be reduced to prevention rather than enforcement. "The KPK's role will be limited to uncovering cases, not concluding them," he said.

He added sentences handed down by the Corruption Court would not deter would-be offenders because of the string of light sentences handed down in the last months of 2009.

He cited the case of former South Sumatra governor Sjahrial Oesman, who was sentenced to one year in prison despite his role in bribing legislators to get approval from the House of Representatives to convert protected forests in his province.

Extent of Indonesia's prison corruption surprises task force

Jakarta Globe - January 16, 2010

Nivell Rayda – At least Rp 14.5 billion ($1.6 million) in bribes is paid annually at East Jakarta's Cipinang Penitentiary, a researcher from an antigraft watchdog said on Friday.

"When a single family member pays a visit to Cipinang Penitentiary, they have to bring anything from Rp 100,000 to Rp 250,000 with them," said Illian Deta Arthasari, from Indonesia Corruption Watch.

"First they have to 'rent' a vest for the inmate in question and then they have to pay each guard anywhere from Rp 10,000 to Rp 20,000," she said. "And there are 10 guards in total."

Illian said similar practices occurred in prisons throughout the country. She added that the figures were based on interviews last year with inmates' families.

"Officially, these facilities are free. In practice, if they refuse to pay, they can forget about seeing their loved ones," she said.

Illian said there were 200 visitors to Cipinang on any given day, which added up to at least Rp 5.2 billion in illegal fees per year from visits alone.

"This figure does not include special requests, such as privacy – officials charge more for sofas and private rooms," she said.

Illian added that inmates were asked to pay anything from Rp 2 million to Rp 10 million for the processing of parole and remission applications. There are at least 1,500 applicants at the penitentiary each year.

On Thursday, the ICW presented its information to the presidentially appointed Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force. Denny Indrayana, secretary of the task force, said the figure had surprised the team.

"This is what's occurring in Cipinang Penitentiary. What about the one in Pondok Bambu or other prisons? This is astonishingly disturbing," the presidential adviser said.

Accompanied by members of the media, the task force recently conducted a surprise inspection at the Pondok Bambu Women's Penitentiary. Officials discovered that certain high-profile inmates, including businesswoman Artalyta Suryani, sentenced to five years in prison in 2008 for bribing a state prosecutor, enjoyed special privileges – including spa treatments, air- conditioning and LCD televisions.

Justice Minister Patrialis Akbar appeared blind to the scale of the problem. "I have contacted the Cipinang Penitentiary chief directly. He assured me that there are no illegal fees," Patrialis said.

Asjudin Rana, head of Jakarta's Penitentiary Office, said such practices continued despite reform efforts.

"It's like biting without any teeth," he said, emphasizing that higher ranking prison officials officially made only about Rp 2.5 million per month. Compounding the problem, the current state budget for prisons covers only a third of their operational costs.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has, however, recently announced an extra Rp 1 trillion to build 20 to 30 new prisons and address severe overcrowding.

Islam/religion

Indonesia 'needs role models'

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2010

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Pluralism and freedom in Indonesia has faced challenges since the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued an edict against secularism, pluralism and liberalism in 2005, and the deaths of two key pluralism figures.

Clerics in East Java recently suggested the issuance of a fatwa forbidding female Muslims from straightening their hair and from holding pre-wedding photo sessions.

They said hair straightening was haram for women as it could lead to immoral acts if the intention was to improve physical appearance, while pre-wedding photos should be banned because in such circumstances men and women were unmarried but already mingling with the opposite sex.

The clerics also forbade Muslim women from riding an ojek (motorcycle taxi) or becoming an ojek driver due to concerns that a woman might touch or be close to a member of the opposite sex, or expose haram parts of her body.

The same gathering consisting of 250 leaders of Islamic boarding schools in Java and Madura, had previously endorsed a fatwa that forbade Muslims from using Facebook.

Under such conditions, Ulil Abshar Abdallah a Muslim intellectual, said this country needed figures like the late Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid or Nurcholis Madjid (Cak Nur), who could promote pluralism and oppose MUI's delegitimization of pluralism.

"We need role models like them that can be looked to by people when facing pluralism issues," he told a discussion conducted by the newly established Journalist Association for Diversity (SeJuK) on Thursday.

He said that was what Indonesia had been lacking since the death of Gus Dur and Cak Nur. Gus Dur died on Dec. 30, 2009, after years of health problems, while Cak Nur passed on in 2005.

The edict has even generated criticism towards activists promoting pluralism. "That makes us defensive," Ulil said.

Siti Musdah Mulia, chairwoman of the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP), said the Indonesian government was still discriminating against those who had non-mainstream beliefs.

The government recognizes five religions; Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam and Confucianism.

"People who don't subscribe to the recognized six faiths have to lie when applying for identity cards simply because they do not want to get into trouble or be reported by the subdistrict officials," Musdah said.

She added that the conditions had worsened with the behavior of legal enforcers who found it difficult to separate their roles as legal enforcers and as religious devotees. "They often designate themselves as faith judges," she said.

The chief editor of The Jakarta Post, Endy M. Bayuni, on the other hand, considered that freedom of expression in Indonesia had been widely opened up despite efforts to limit it.

As examples, he cited the book banning by the Justice and Human Rights Ministry and the Attorney General's Office, and the wiretapping regulation that the Communications and Information Ministry was trying to take over. "But thanks to the Internet, we can fight against that mentality."

Muslim leader laments ignorance, intolerance of Christians

Jakarta Globe - January 22, 2010

Dessy Sagita – The head of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization admitted on Friday that a report stating that Christians were the most frequent victims of religious freedom violations here was true.

Said Agil Siradj, who heads the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said that sometimes a minority of Muslims are intolerant towards other religions, particularly Christianity. Said said such intolerance by extremists was based on limited knowledge about Islam.

"They [the extremists] don't have enough understanding about what Islam is all about," Said said in response to a report issued on Thursday by the Wahid Institute, a non-governmental organization focused on promoting pluralism. The report said that of 35 cases of religious freedom violations lodged with police in 2009, 28 were against Christians.

Said added that Christians should help maintain religious tolerance by being more sensitive towards Muslims. "It is fine if the Christians want to build a church. It would, however, be best and wise if they discussed it first with the people living in the neighborhood, so there will be no misunderstanding," he said.

The Wahid Institute is the brainchild of late former President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, who was a leader of the NU and the grandson of its founder, Hasyim Asy'ari.

"The report is true. Even though legally Christianity is a religion recognized and protected by the state, still so many violations and even attacks occur," Rev. Gomar Gultom, executive secretary of the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), said.

Gomar said the violations were sometimes quite obvious as when some groups oppose the building of churches, or even try to prevent Christians from conducting religious rituals in accordance with their beliefs.

"A church in Sibuhuan, South Tapanuli [in North Sumatra] was burnt down this afternoon," Gomar said on Friday, adding that there had been incessant complaints about the existence of the church for a month.

Even though Christianity is "legal" in Indonesia, there were still many who treated believers of "traditional religions or sects" better than they would treat Christians, he said.

"People who believe in Kejawen in Java, or Sunda Karawitan, are treated better than Christians, even though legally they are not acknowledged by the state," Gomar said. "The government has no excuse for letting such tragedies happen," he said.

Father Dani Sanusi from the Indonesian Bishops Conference said that church burning and attacks against Christians have resulted in deep trauma for many Indonesian Christians.

"A lot of Christians are deeply traumatized and are reluctant to attend Christmas mass, or any other religious ceremony because they are afraid for their safety," he said.

Women reject fatwa on hairstyles, 'ojek'

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2010

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – Muslim women in Surabaya, East Java, have flatly rejected a fatwa recently issued by local clerics, who said women changing the color and form of their hair using the rebonding technique is haram (forbidden under Islam).

"Hair coloring and straightening are just a matter of fashion, and have nothing to do with one's level faith," university student Ulfa Damayanti, 19, told The Jakarta Post on the weekend, after undergoing a rebonding treatment at a stylist in Surabaya.

Ulfa said she would continue visiting the hair stylist every three months, to have her hair done, something she has been doing for the last five years. Ulfa had her parents' permision to have her hair cut, she said.

Last week, a problem-solving forum of leaders of Islamic boarding schools for female students, from across Java and Madura islands, issued an edict stating it is haram for Muslim women to color and change the form of their hair.

During the meeting, held Thursday at Lirboyo Islamic boarding school in Kediri, East Java, the clerics argued that hair straightening could invite immoral acts if the intention was only to change physical appearance.

The forum also banned women from working as ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers or from using ojek services to go to certain places or to pass quiet areas because it could incite immoral acts.

Riding on an ojek could bring women into contact with the male ojek drivers' skin, and expose aurat (parts of the body that must not be exposed).

Ulfa said rebonding had nothing to do with the causes and effects of immoral acts. Citing an example she pointed to rape cases allegedly committed by Muslim teacher As'ad Syukur Fauzanni of Kedung Rukem, Surabaya, involving 17 of his own female students in 2008.

"Even a few months ago, a santri [Islamic boarding school student] in Surabaya raped his fellow female santri at an Islamic boarding school. This means immoral acts can just occur anywhere," Ulfa said.

Separately, housewife Ida Ayu Rohmana, 34, voiced a similar objection. "I'm also an obedient Muslim, but I'm proud to know a woman who works as an ojek driver. I see it as proof that today's women are much more capable of doing manly jobs," she said.

"If ulema ban women from working as ojek drivers and then the women have to earn a living by working as prostitutes or by stealing, what will they say?" Ida asked.

Ida, who goes to the market to shop everyday on an ojek also said she would continue using this form of transport since she considered it safer than riding a motorcycle on her own. "I'm afraid of being robbed if I take a motorcycle on my own. Once a woman was murdered like that."

MUI yet to endorse edicts on hair, 'ojek'

Jakarta Post - January 17, 2010

Jakarta – The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has not endorsed the fatwas issued at a recent gathering of Muslim clerics in East Java, a council leader has said.

The leader, Cholil Ridwan, added that he personally supported them. The MUI does not discuss issues until the public sees them as essential and asks the council to begin a discussion, Cholil said.

"The MUI must issue a fatwa (on the issue) if there is a request from an institution or individual. As long as there is no request, the MUI will focus on its work," Cholil was quoted by detik.com as saying.

He was commenting on the controversial issuance of fatwas by a gathering of East Java clerics that forbade Muslims from modifying their hair such as by dyeing and straightening it, and from holding pre-wedding photo sessions.

The same gathering had previously forbidden Muslims from using social networking site Facebook. The edict was endorsed by 250 leaders of Islamic boarding schools in Java and Madura.

They said that hair straightening was haram for women as it could lead to immoral acts if the intention was to improve physical appearance. "If we refer to the syariat (Islamic law), I have no objection to the fatwa," Cholil said.

Separately, MUI deputy secretary Asrorun Ni'am Sholeh said the fatwa that forbids Muslims from straightening their hair should be put in the right context or the public would find it misleading.

"If the intention and the outcome are negative, then it should not be allowed. But if the intention and the outcome are positive, then it is recommended," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

Asrorun emphasized that straightening hair, known here as "rebonding", is a beautifying technique. It is permitted as long as the materials used do not harm users. From an Islamic law perspective, he said, hygiene and beauty are recommended.

The clerics in East Java also forbade Muslim women from riding an ojek (motorcycle taxi) or becoming an ojek driver. The clerics stated by riding an ojek a woman might touch or be close to a member of the opposite sex, or expose her aura.

Transportation observer Ofyar Tamin pointed out that ojek exist because of the need for cheap, fast transport, especially in places with severe traffic jams.

"People need ojek as an efficient mode of transport. If riding an ojek is forbidden, it will hamper the mobility of people," Tamin said. "The government could implement same-sex public transport, but I don't think this is feasible."

Regent ignores plea, churchgoers to hold services on street

Jakarta Post - January 17, 2010

Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta – Members of a church congregation in Tambun Utara, Bekasi, said they would hold their upcoming Sunday service on a street should the Bekasi regency administration refuse to reopen their under-construction church, closed earlier to ease protests from locals.

Filadelfia Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP) church official Tigor Tampubolon said the congregation had sent Thursday an official letter to Bekasi regent Sa'duddin, requesting him to either retract his decision or facilitate them to find another place to run Sunday services. "But, we haven't received a response," Tigor told The Jakarta Post Friday.

The Bekasi regency administration sealed off Tuesday the building site in Jejalen Jaya subdistrict following a series of protests by local residents over the legality of the church.

Earlier Sunday, more than 100 members of the HKBP held services under tight police security, after hundreds of subdistrict residents rallied to demand the congregation stop religious activity and church construction be halted until a building permit was obtained.

Residents gathered in front of a block of a land surrounded by a 2-meter-high wall, where members of the congregation held their Sunday service.

Shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is Great), "Go away" and "We have been deceived", residents entered the compound, but were blocked by 200 police officers, deployed from Bekasi Police and seven other precincts to secure the area.

Bekasi regency secretary Dadang Mulyadi, promised to mediate a meeting between HKBP church elders and Jejalen Jaya subdistrict leaders, scheduled for Tuesday.

He said Sa'duddin would lead the meeting. However the administration closed the church Tuesday without notifying it. The congregation then reported the administration to the National Commission on Human Rights, which concluded that the regent's decision was a "violation of human rights".

"The church congregation had submitted a request to the Bekasi administration for a building permit (for the would-be church) over a year ago, but did not receive a response," commissioner Jhonny Nelson Simanjuntak said Thursday.

"No wonder they were dissatisfied and looked for other solutions, including holding Sunday services on the empty land." The commission said they would also send a letter this week to Sa'duddin to ask him to retract his decision. As of Friday, there was no official statement made by the Bekasi administration regarding the issue.

Clerics warn Muslims against sinful hairdos, photo shoots

Jakarta Post - January 16, 2010

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – In a controversial move, clerics in East Java have issued a fatwa forbidding Muslims from dying and straightening their hair, and from holding pre-wedding photo sessions.

The edict was endorsed by 250 leaders of Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) in Java and Madura, who convened for a problem- solving forum in Kediri, East Java.

Cleric Darul Azka said Friday that hair straightening was regarded as haram for women because it could lead to immoral acts if the intention was to improve physical appearance.

"In Islam, especially in the study of the kitab kuning (traditional yellow book), women wearing accessories or changing their hairstyle, in hope of attracting members of the opposite sex, is the same as revealing parts of the body that must not be exposed under Islamic law, or aurat, and this is forbidden," Darul told The Jakarta Post.

The fatwa was issued as the clerics ended the bahtsul masail forum on Thursday, which was held in conjunction with the Lirboyo Islamic boarding school's (Kediri) centennial anniversary. A similar gathering had previously forbidden Facebook.

Darul said a woman was allowed to change her appearance if she intended only to please her husband, and that she must ask for her husbands' consent before changing her appearance.

"So, there should be no excuse for unmarried women to change the shape and color of their hair. This prohibition is also aimed at preventing Western cultures from influencing Muslim youths in Indonesia," Darul said.

Forum spokesman Muhammad Nabiel Haroen said the ulema had also banned women from working as motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers and from being involved in pre-wedding photo sessions because in such circumstances they unmarried but already mingling with men. "Such photo sessions mean eternalizing the vice," he said.

Another preacher, Tohari Muslim, said it was forbidden for women to work as ojek drivers because of the difficulty of eliminating the possibility that immoral acts could be committed under such circumstances, especially if the women were married.

"Just imagine if a female ojek driver carried a male passenger who was not her muhrim, or a close relative who was forbidden to marry but allowed to associate with her. Women are not allowed to become ojek drivers because it would be hard for them to avoid sinful acts and matters that could lead to slander," he said.

Muhammad added that apart from being banned from becoming ojek drivers, women were also prohibited from using ojek motorcycle services, especially on routes that passed through deserted areas.

"It is also haram for women to take ojek because her skin could brush against that of the opposite sex, she could expose her aurat, or be in close proximity to male ojek drivers in deserted places," Muhammad said.

The ulema forum also forbade Muslim artists from playing non- Muslim roles in movies or TV soap operas.

"The edict is binding for all Muslims in Indonesia, but it's up to individuals to abide by it because Indonesia is not an Islamic state," Muhammad said.

Sex & morality

'Sexy dancing' arrests an effort to take the Paris out of Bandung

New York Times - January 21, 2010

Norimitsu Onishi, Bandung – Known during colonial times as the "Paris of Java," this city is famous for its universities, cuisine, fashion and night life. But there is a movement to remove those aspects of the city's centuries-old Sundanese culture considered non-Islamic.

The recent arrest of four women for "sexy dancing" during a New Year's Eve party at the Belair Coyote Bar and Restaurant has raised concerns that it may be a prelude to wider restrictions here and elsewhere in the country.

The women, as well as a manager and an event organizer, could be the first to be charged under the one-year-old Anti-Pornography Law, which bans public displays of flesh.

Though a couple of weeks have passed since the arrests, it was still not clear what happened at Belair, which showcased bikini- clad women dancing on a bar top – like the waitresses in the movie "Coyote Ugly."

Arman Achdiat, the Bandung Police's chief of detectives, said the authorities had received complaints, via text messages, that the dancers had gone beyond bikini dancing and offered customers flashes of full nudity. "This happened at private table dances," Achdiat said. He declined to say whether investigators caught the dancers in the act.

Holding a 441-page copy of the Anti-Pornography Law, Achdiat, 38, said the dancers needed to be questioned further to determine whether to charge them under the Criminal Code or the more severe Anti-Pornography Law, which could lead to 10 years in prison for the dancers and 15 for the manager and organizer.

Clubs like Belair came to Bandung more than a decade ago, and about 10 now offer what is known here as "sexy dancing," often featuring some nudity, said Budi Rajab, 49, a sociologist and expert on Bandung at Padjadjaran University here. Though new, the clubs recalled at least part of this easygoing city's history.

"There's always been some debate over why Bandung was called the Paris of Java," Rajab said. "Was it the cool weather? Or was it because the women here were considered more beautiful? When I examined colonial-era documents, it was clear that it was the beautiful women."

But just as the power of religious and political conservatives has grown nationwide in the past decade, there has been a movement here to take the Paris out of Bandung. Dada Rosada, the two-term mayor, has tried to close the city's old red-light district, Saritem.

"It existed for 200 years and I shut it down," Rosada said, adding that he wanted to keep gambling and sexy dancing out of the city. "If people want gambling, they can go to Singapore or Malaysia. If they want sex, they can go to Thailand."

Despite the mayor's crackdown, Saritem has come back to life, though business has yet to recover fully. On a recent evening there were few customers in the district's warren of narrow streets, where family-owned brothels employed young women from rural Java.

"A lot of people think Saritem is still closed, or they're afraid to come," said Rully, 38.

Rully, whose family has worked in Saritem for four generations, waited for customers outside his home, chatting with a woman selling deep-fried vegetables out of her stall.

Though Saritem has survived, Hafizh Utsman, 70, the leader of the West Java branch of the Indonesian Council of Ulema, the country's leading clerical organization, described Rosada as the best mayor in Bandung's modern history.

"We are trying to eliminate the non-Islamic parts of West Java's traditional culture," Utsman said. For example, he said that participants at weddings were urged to celebrate by reciting Koranic verses, not by dancing, as is the custom here.

To that end, the governor of West Java, where Bandung is located, cited the Anti-Pornography Law to criticize a local dance called jaipong as being too sensual. The dance, which is rooted in West Java's Sundanese culture, features the graceful movements of the arms and hands as well as swinging of the hips.

Fearing that the Sundanese culture was under attack, dancer Nanu Munajah Dahlan, 49, formed a jaipong support group in Bandung's outskirts. In recent years, he said, Sundanese culture has ceded ground to Muslim fundamentalists. For example, at official events, the kecapi, a Sundanese stringed instrument, was played less often than the rebana, a drum used in Islamic music.

At official events featuring jaipong dancers, government officials pressed organizers to tone down the dance's sensuality. But Nanu refused and, in a recent after-school dance lesson, he was pursuing his protest as elementary and secondary school girls accompanied by their mothers came to practice jaipong.

The girls danced to songs about the flower of a yam or a tiger awaking from a deep sleep. Jaipong dancers, Nanu said, represent the goddess of rice. Her movements symbolized her fertility and that of the land.

"I'm Muslim, but I also want to keep our traditional culture," Nanu said. He feared, though, that the arrest for "sexy dancing" under the Anti-Pornography Law could be only the beginning. "I'm worried that we could be next," he said.

Elections/political parties

Financial problems put regional elections at risk

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2010

Jakarta – Almost none of the administrative regions that will hold elections this year have approved budgets proposed by local polling commissions, putting the scheduled political agenda at risk.

Each regional administration has to allocate sufficient funds to finance two rounds of voting.

"This has become a national problem. We fear the election process will be disrupted and the central government will have to extend the term of office of incumbent leaders," General Elections Commission (KPU) member I Gusti Putu Artha said Thursday on the sidelines of a meeting in Jakarta between KPU leaders and representatives of regional elections commissions from across the country.

The problems have led to the Jambi provincial polling body having to postpone gubernatorial elections for three months because the provincial administration had neither endorsed nor disbursed election funds as proposed by the election commission.

Other provinces facing similar situations include Riau Islands, West Sumatra and North Sulawesi, as well as 13 regencies and municipalities.

Artha blamed regional administrations for failing to plan for election spending in advance.

Regional elections will take place in stages in 244 regencies, municipalities and provinces across the country this year.

Indonesia's Democrats told to trim coalition

Jakarta Globe - January 21, 2010

Febriamy Hutapea & Muninggar Sri Saraswati – Political analysts on Thursday said the ruling Democratic Party should not hesitate to trim its coalition after it had openly accused the Golkar Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) of disturbing the harmony of the alliance.

"It has been very clear that the coalition is not performing well. I think it is too bulky, the president must have the courage to slim it down, otherwise, he and the Democrats should stop complaining," political analyst Ikrar Nusa Bakti of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said.

After an overwhelming victory in the 2009 legislative elections, both the president and the Democratic Party should be confident of being able to garner the necessary support in the House of Representatives to implement government policy, he said.

Fajar Nursahid of LP3ES agreed, saying that the government has been too busy handling cases – like the rift between the law enforcement institutions and the Century case – to focus on improving the people's welfare, a loss of focus exacerbated by a shaky coalition.

"The president should know by now who is loyal and who is an opportunist. He should let those opportunist [parties] go," he suggested.

On Thursday, Democratic Party lawmaker Ruhut Sitompul said that [Golkar and PKS] appear to have a hidden agenda of using the House probe into the Century Bank bailout to corner Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

"Even the opposition parties are not as hostile as some of the coalition parties," he said, pointing to demands made by Golkar and PKS members to suspend Boediono and Sri Mulyani while the Century probe is in progress.

As a member of the ruling party, Ruhut said that he had an obligation to defend Boediono and Sri Mulyani and therefore a similar stance should also be taken by the coalition parties. "Everyone should be consistent. If they want to be critical, they needn't tag along," Ruhut said.

Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie and the party's top executives have denied the accusations. PKS lawmaker Misbakhun rejected the idea that hidden interests were behind his party's criticism of the Century issue.

"We have no intention of trying to corner certain ministers. We're investigating the case within the correct framework in order to solve the bailout scandal," he said.

The coalition agreement between the PKS and the Democrats, he said, should not force the party to turn a blind eye to the Century scandal.

"Don't tell us to be silent or just follow blindly. We have to be critical. This is our way of strengthening coalition ties," Misbakhun said.

Bakrie lays out strategy to help Golkar win elections in 2014

Antara News - January 18, 2010

Medan – After humbling losses at the polls in 2009, the Golkar Party is aiming to attract at least 40 million votes and win the general legislative elections in 2014, party chairman Aburizal Bakrie said over the weekend.

After installing party board members in North Sumatra on Saturday, the controversial business magnate said Golkar would achieve the goal by returning to its tried and tested strategies of consolidation and lifting party membership down to the village level.

He said the party hoped to mobilize at least 100 members in each village, as well as 300 sympathizers.

"If the target of 100 cadres plus 300 sympathizers is achieved, we will have at least 40 million voters in the 2014 general elections and that will mean Golkar will again emerge as the winner," he said.

Thumped by the Democratic Party and pipped by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in last year's polls, Golkar in October elected Bakrie head of the political vehicle of former President Suharto.

Bakrie, a far from popular politician linked to a number of scandals and business controversies, including the Lapindo mudflow disaster, acknowledged it would be difficult to achieve the goal because other parties would be also be competing for voters.

"It is not an easy job but nor is it impossible to achieve together. We will work hard to meet the target," he said.

Bakrie added that the party hoped to win at least 50 percent of the vote in the local elections in every province.

To reach the mark, he said the party would change the way it selected candidates for elections. Formerly, candidates were selected through a provincial-level party convention but in the future they will be chosen through survey-based selections.

He said that before Golkar would accept any candidates for the local elections, a survey of their electability would be conducted by an independent organization, with the results passed to the party's executive board.

"As of now, we will only nominate cadres who are supported not by some party elites as we have done in the past, but by the people based on survey results. So regional party leaders will not be automatically nominated as candidates for local leadership," he said.

The party's national executive board, led by himself, would establish a team to discuss the survey results.

"Who we are going to nominate will be discussed and determined by the team based upon the survey results. So we can ensure that only figures who are really supported by the people will be nominated," he said.

Bakrie advised all who wished to become local leaders to reach out to the people to win support, repeating that the nominations would depend heavily on the survey results.

"We will stick to our commitment of 'people's votes, Golkar's votes'. So only those really supported by the people will be nominated by the party as local leaders. Based on that, we believe the target of winning 50 percent at the local elections can be achieved," he said.

Major Indonesian parties face suit over use of state land

Jakarta Globe - January 18, 2010

Nivell Rayda & Markus Juanto Sihaloho – A coalition of minor political parties on Sunday threatened a class-action lawsuit against three of the country's oldest parties over their use of government land to house their offices.

"We will file a class-action suit with the Supreme Court. Right now we are assessing the cost to the state," Eki Sulistyo, chairman of Jakarta's Alumni Association, said after a meeting at Hotel Atlet Century Park on Sunday.

The three parties in question are the United Development Party (PPP), the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). All three were established after Suharto came to power in 1966, and were granted state property during the New Order era in Jakarta and other cities to be used as head offices and regional headquarters.

Although it has failed to win any seats in the House of Representatives for almost 10 years, the PDI is still considered active and took part in the 2009 elections. A PDI breakaway party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), is now one of the country's biggest political organizations.

The backers of the lawsuit have demanded that the three parties return the property to the state, alleging that they are in violation of the 2008 Election Law.

Sulistyo also said that several PDI-P chapters were occupying properties previously allocated to the PDI by the state. "We know the PDI-P is not occupying the old PDI headquarters on Jalan Dipenogoro [Central Jakarta], but some of its offices in other cities are [in old PDI offices]," he said.

PDI-P's national headquarters is now located in Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta.

"The rules and regulations – as well as the political situation – have changed since the New Order and we ask the PPP, Golkar and the PDI-P to return the properties, unless other parties are granted the same privilege," Sulistyo said.

Golkar secretary Idrus Marham, who chairs the House of Representatives' special committee investigating the bailout of PT Bank Century, said his party "is ready to challenge any lawsuit. The properties were not on a lend-lease basis but were granted to Golkar," he said. "We still have the right to occupy these locations."

PDI-P lawmaker Tjahjo Kumolo said the threatened class action was "misplaced". "Please distinguish between the PDI-P and the old PDI. All of our facilities are owned and managed by PDI-P members," he said. "None of it belongs to the PDI."

PPP's deputy secretary general, Romy Romahurmuzy, said the properties were the legal assets of his party. He said those behind the class action should take up the their concerns with the government, which was responsible for the original decree.

"Rather than spending time on such a case, it would be better for [them] to find more productive work," he said.

"This has been launched amid political wrangling over the Century bailout case. We cannot, therefore, escape the conclusion that there are political interests at the root of this."

Sulistyo denied the class action was aimed at punishing parties that have been critical of the current administration, such as the PDI-P. He also said the timing of the threatened class-action lawsuit was not linked to Golkar and the PPP having ignored coalition ties by speaking out against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the House's pecial committee investigating the Rp 6.7 trillion ($710 million) government bailout of the former Bank Century.

The coalition behind the class action includes many of the minor political parties that endorsed Yudhoyono's re-election. None of the parties has a seat in the House.

Guruh announces bid for PDI-P top post

Jakarta Post - January 17, 2010

Founding president Sukarno's son Guruh Soekarnoputra announced Saturday his bid for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) top job, which may lead him to a possible showdown with the incumbent and elder sister Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Guruh shrugged off the possible battle between siblings, telling his supporters who gathered at his residence on Jl. Sriwijaya Raya in South Jakarta that he was out to join the race in April.

"I am ready to contest the election to respect your aspiration. I consider your trust a call of duty," he said as quoted by kompas.com.

He said his nomination was driven by his concern about the party's poor performance in the last two elections and his aim to restore the party's past glory.

"The party's votes dropped from one election to another, which indicated something had gone wrong with the party. We have to fight for changes and resist a status-quo," he said.

Guruh, who is a noted artist, said Megawati as his sister had given him her blessing.

Administration & government

Ministers get poor grades, reshuffle suggested

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2010

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should reshuffle his cabinet as 10 ministers of his Cabinet were graded with poor performance in the first 100-days of his second presidency, a political observer said Wednesday.

Boni Hargens of the University of Indonesia said among the ten ministers with bad grades were Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu, Information and Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring, Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar and State Administrative Reforms Minister Evert Ernest Mangindaan.

"The assessment of those ministers was based on three indicators; leadership quality and managerial capability; problem solving and carrying out strategic programs," Boni told a discussion held by Batuputih Trans Syndicate.

"The ministers' poor performance was not based on their quality and capability, but on their political compromises and interests."

Boni also handed a poor grade to Vice President Boediono saying the former Bank Indonesia governor had done nothing except attempt to save himself from the controversial Bank Century bailout worth about Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million).

Also at the discussion were Indra Jaya Piliang of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and Budiman Sujatmiko of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Indra agreed with Boni saying the performance of several ministers was not satisfactory and it appeared they did not understand their duties.

"Some ministers are not being responsible," he said. "Failing to realize their 100-day work programs is unsatisfactory," he said of the ministers. "There is almost no strategic program to improve the nation."

Indra said naming Hatta Rajasa, chairman of the National Awakening Party (PAN), as coordinating economic minister was biased. "Every decision or policy will be questioned as to whether it's in the interest of the country or the party," he said of the position being handed to the party chairman.

While supporting the idea of a Cabinet reshuffle, Indra said it should not be undertaken after the 100-day period. He said it should take place after the first six months.

The discussion also touched on bureaucratic reform issues with Budiman suggesting the bureaucracy be separated from the government. "If we don't separate the bureaucracy from the government, the President will fail," he said.

"Bureaucratic reform is needed because bureaucracy and the government are two different institutions. Bureaucracy is only answerable to the law, not to the government."

Budiman said bureaucracy could criticize or even boycott government policy. "People in the bureaucracy should be professionals, and not be involved with political parties," he said.

Minister under the gun after falling flat in first 100 days

Jakarta Globe - January 20, 2010

Fidelis E Satriastanti – Almost 100 days into his tenure as environment minister and Gusti Muhammad Hatta found himself confronted by visibly irritated lawmakers who wanted to know why his ministry had achieved so little of its priority programs.

Gusti appeared before House of Representatives Commission VII, which oversees environmental affairs, on Tuesday to defend his ministry's achievements in fighting forest fires and its participation in December's UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, two of the main objectives of the ministry's 100-day program, which ends on Jan. 28.

Lawmaker Dewi Aryanti Hilman, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the ministry was overly ambitious when it drew up its 100-day program. She also questioned the ministry's commitment and capability to rein in big corporations accused of destroying the environment.

"Why is the environment minister failing to go after big corporations, and not getting this into the papers and the media? They should be working to go after the big fish," Dewi said.

There are 56 companies on the government's own "black list" of worst environmental offenders, including 10 state-owned enterprises and 12 foreign companies.

The companies on the black list operate across a range of industries, including oil and gas, coal mining, pulp and paper, textiles, fish processing, plywood and palm oil. Among the companies is an oil and gas joint venture involving PT Pertamina in South Sumatra, six state-owned plantations, nine plywood companies, 10 palm oil concerns and a leading milk producer.

Lawmakers were annoyed not only by what Gusti had failed to do but also by what he failed to say. The minister made no mention during Tuesday's meeting of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's bold emissions cuts pledge made at a G-20 meeting in the United States last year. Yudhoyono had pledged to reduce the country's carbon emissions by a lofty 26 percent by 2020.

The reduction pledge was neither included in the 100-day program nor the ministry's one or five-year programs. Gusti, lawmakers said, should have mentioned the matter considering it was a pledge made personally by Yudhoyono at an international forum.

Sulistyowati, assistant deputy for climate change impact control, had previously said that at least Rp 83 trillion ($8.88 billion) would be needed to finance efforts to reduce carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020, and an additional Rp 85 trillion in international support to achieve the more ambitious 41 percent emissions cuts target.

Green activists took turns lambasting the ministry on Tuesday, beginning with Chalid Muhammad, chairman of the Indonesian Green Institute.

"If one of the 100-day goals was to prevent forest fires, Indonesia should consider itself lucky because the rainy season must have helped in this matter without any actual effort by the ministry," he said, adding that little had been done in the most fire-prone regions of Riau, Jambi, North Sumatra, South Sumatra, Central Kalimantan and West Kalimantan.

As for the country's achievements at the UN climate talks, Chalid said Indonesia had failed to win the support of other countries to follow up on the results of the first climate change talks, in Bali in 2007, and to make the Copenhagen Accord legally binding.

"We were unable to gain support from other countries for the Bali Road Map and didn't push for funding on carbon-trading schemes," he said, referring to the so-called road map that outlined legally binding emissions targets for developed nations.

Berry Nahdian Furqon, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said that Indonesia's impact at the Copenhagen talks had been negligible.

"Copenhagen was a failure because it did not involve public participation, not even the legislature," he said. "There was no legally binding result, like we had aimed for, and there were no significant emissions targets for developed countries."

"Our government is well known for failing to integrate sustainable environmental solutions into other sectors in order to reduce problems caused by development," Berry said. He pointed to the government's failure to act on the 2009 Environmental Protection and Management Law, which was praised last year for giving the environment ministry a strong legal grounding to take action against those who harmed the environment.

Chalid said a systematic plan should have been set up to introduce the new law to other government ministries working on environmental issues.

"This means that the minister should be able to get the other ministers to work together to restore the environment, but this is not being done," he said.

Chalid also said the minister, as an aide to the president, should remind Yudhoyono about the new law's mandate and the importance of environmental issues.

"He should be able to tell the president that we already have this law and it stipulates environment issues are a national priority," Chalid said.

Some Cabinet ministers not efficient performers

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2010

Hans David Tampobolon, Jakarta – Masayuki Naoshima, Japan's Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry, never imagined he would have to wait over 30 minutes to see a minister after meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the Palace.

Tired of waiting, the Japanese minister left the office of Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Saleh grumbling after he failed to show up for the meeting last week. "It is very shameful," one of Naoshima's delegates said.

Darwin claimed he was stuck in traffic, and he made up for his lateness by meeting with Naoshima later at the latter's hotel. A government source, however, said that the second meeting never took place because Naoshima was too upset to meet with Darwin, and told his subordinates to meet him.

While in 10 days Yudhoyono's Cabinet will end its first 100-day period, ministers like Darwin have become a source of disappointment with the Cabinet failing to achieve its targets, with some observers and legislators agreeing that the administration's performance has been disappointing so far.

The first 100 days were characterized by lack of tight organization, starting from the failure of some ministers to get their act together and overshadowed by the brouhaha of the Bank Century investigation.

A legislator from the House of Representatives Commission VII on energy, Effendi Simbolon from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), told The Jakarta Post on Sunday that Darwin's lack of professionalism was not entirely his own fault.

"The person who is most responsible for Darwin's appointment is the President. Why did he appoint such an incapable person in the first place anyway?" he said.

Effendi also said that the President had already disappointed the public with his decision on the Cabinet composition.

"The President promised that the Cabinet in his second term would be more professional, however, we all know that the Cabinet is filled with a lot of political party figures who are lacking in competence and capabilities," he said.

Yudhoyono's Cabinet is considered by some antigraft activists to have failed in delivering the country's main agenda to uphold the rule of law and pursue corruption eradication in the first 100 days.

"The government's strategies on upholding law and corruption eradication, so far, focus only on partial strategies, such as focusing on building a good image," Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator Febri Diansyah said.

A legislator from the House Commission III on law, Desmon Mahesa from the Greater Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra), said that the government did not focus seriously on the real substance of law and corruption issues.

"What we have seen so far is how the government tries its best to build a good image by establishing needless law enforcement teams outside the police and the Attorney General's Office [AGO]," he said.

"We all know that those teams, such as the recent judicial mafia, task force are nothing but cosmetic attempts to entice the public. Yudhoyono should have put more focus on reforming the police and the AGO," he added.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said that people should not judge the Cabinet's performance prematurely before the 100-day period ended and that he believed all ministries had done their best to meet their targets.

"There are some ministries that have yet to achieve their goals, but we should note that there are a couple of days to go before the 100-day period ends," he said.

Economy & investment

Sharia banking grows strong in Indonesia

Jakarta Post - January 20, 2010

Iwan Suci Jatmiko, Contributor, Jakarta – It was with good reason that the Indonesian Ulema Council and the government established PT Bank Muamalat Indonesia on Nov. 1, 1991. Such a move was welcomed by the public, which invested Rp 84 billion in shares when the bank was established.

The people of West Java also showed their support by injecting Rp 106 billion into the bank. Although its business was not too bright in its early days, the bank recorded a profit of Rp 372.5 billion in the second quarter of 2009. The achievement of Bank Muamalat is proof of the great potential of sharia banking in Indonesia. Sharia banking is based on Islamic law.

The fact that Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population creates a huge market for sharia banking, and Bank Muamalat became the pioneer that made a breakthrough in the existing concept of banking.

Huge potential for sharia banking still exists in the country. Bank Indonesia data reveals there are currently five sharia banks operating in the country, namely Bank Syariah Mandiri, Bank Muamalat Indonesia, Bank Syariah Mega, Bank Syariah Bukopin and Bank Syariah BRI. Twenty-six other banks have sharia banking units, such as Bank Permata, Bank BNI, Bank CIMB-Niaga, Bank Danamon and BPD DKI.

The country's Muslims, accounting for 80 percent of the estimated 240 million population, are the target market of sharia banking. This means that 31 sharia banks or bank with sharia units are available to serve about 192 million Muslims.

Major conventional banks are also interested in establishing sharia banking units due to the huge potential in the country. Bank Indonesia predicts that sharia banks will enjoy business growth of between 5 and 5.5 percent this year due to high consumer spending and exports.

"Banks based on Islamic law are predicted to enjoy further growth in 2010," said Darmin Nasution, acting governor of Bank Indonesia, as quoted by BI deputy governor Budi Mulya at a seminar on sharia banking in Indonesia last month. Darmin added that sharia banks would continue to flourish due to the organic growth within existing banks and the establishment of new sharia banks and units.

Another reason for the growth potential of sharia banks is their ability to attract customers from conventional banks due to the impact of the global financial crisis. The universal principles held by sharia banks also make the growth possible. Hence, more and more customers are turning to sharia banks.

The profit sharing concept offered by sharia banks is attractive to most businesspeople in Indonesia. This method makes it possible for a customer to benefit from a loan. In conventional banking, a customer must pay interest on a loan regardless of whether the business is successful or not.

However, with the sharia profit sharing concept the customer will not have to bear the burden of paying interest if his or her business fails.

Sharia banking products are also varied and no less attractive than conventional banks' products.

Bank Syariah Mandiri, for example, makes available various savings products, such as personal, haj, education, time deposit and so forth. Naturally, the bank also offers various types of loans based on the profit sharing sharia concept.

It is predicted that more sharia banks will come into existence soon to compete with the five already established as the public is now more aware of the superior features of sharia banks. Among the banks that have applied to open sharia banks are: Bank BCA Syariah, Bank Jabar-Banten Syariah, Bank BNI, Bank Victoria and Bank Panin Syariah. Some bank authorities are targeting 26 percent growth for sharia banks with the assumption that the growth is based on organic growth.

Mulya Siregar, Bank Indonesia deputy director, said on Dec. 8, 2009 at a seminar on Islamic banking that sharia banks could grow by a maximum of 81 percent for asset ownership, adding that such growth could only be achieved if related government regulations supported the growth.

If government regulations did not fully support it, he said, growth would only be about 43 percent, which was based on the contribution of new players or new banks in this sector.

Bank BRI Syariah president director Ventje Raharjo also has a similar view on regulations, especially on the taxation applied to sharia banks. He said the taxes should be more lenient in this case.

"Sharia banks need to be given certain incentives, such as leniency in taxation and a lower ratio of capital ownership, or there should be a sharia banking development allocation in the state budget," he said.

The success of sharia banking in Indonesia has also attracted some foreign banks, although currently only HSBC has a sharia unit, called HSBC Amanah. Mulya Siregar, Bank Indonesia's head of Islamic finance, said there were strong rumors that new banks from Malaysia and Bahrain would establish sharia branches here.

In the midst of waning customer trust in particular conventional banks, sharia banks seem to provide a safer alternative for customers. However, along with the huge potential and many opportunities for sharia banks there are also challenges facing them as they still have to educate customers about the superior features and products of sharia banks that are equal to or better than those of conventional banks.

Sacking Sri Mulyani could hit the economy

Jakarta Post - January 19, 2010

Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – Ousting Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati Cabinet after the Bank Century bailout, as some speculation suggests may happen, could hit the economy, as international investors trust her leadership, analysts say.

Standard Chartered Bank senior economist Fauzi Ichsan said international investors have yet to pay attention to the Century Bank case as they still considered it a "local case".

"But if the case could topple the finance minister or the Vice President, then it would draw their attention," he said.

"Will it affect Indonesia? Maybe in the short term; but not in the long term, because it wouldn't [necessarily] affect the [economic] fundamentals," he argued in a forum held by Standard Chartered on Monday.

Fauzi pointed out that despite the negative impacts of the global economic crisis, Indonesia's economy grew 4.3 percent last year, pointing to strong fundamentals. The economy is predicted to expand by 5.5 percent this year.

Mulyani and former Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, now Vice President, were called by the parliamentary inquiry committee into the Century case to discuss their roles in the bailout decision. The bailout, costing an eventual total of Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million) to save the small bank, sparked controversies.

Mulyani – who has received praise for successfully reforming the previously corrupt tax office and customs and excise office – has repeatedly said she, in her capacity as the chairman of the Financial System Stability Committee, saved the collapsed bank to protect the financial sector from a systemic threat amidst the global financial crisis.

Some members of parliament believe that Mulyani may have violated an administrative regulation by failing to report bailout details to the ad interim president (former vice president Jusuf Kalla). Mulyani insisted during House questions that she had reported all her moves.

Anonymous sources at the Golkar Party have claimed there may be a political deal between Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to oust Mulyani to end the Century case.

But Yudhoyono, through his spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha, has clearly denied this.

Bank Negara Indonesia chief economist A. Tony Prasetiantono said unseating Mulyani from her position might be "counter-productive" if she did not commit any legal violations. So far there is no substantiation of any such allegation.

Tony said there are three essential issues revolving around the bailout that need to be addressed.

"First, whether closing Century would have caused a systemic threat or not. Second, whether the bailout funds are state funds or 'separated state funds' [because the funds came from the Deposit Insurance Corporation, while initial capital of Rp 4 trillion came from the state budget, then expanded to Rp 18 trillion from premiums of bank depositors].

"[Lastly], the legality of the regulation-in-lieu-of-law [on the Financial System Safety Net], used as the legal basis for a temporary capital injection into Century."

Furthermore, Tony was of the opinion that if a political deal between Aburizal and Yudhoyono did indeed materialize, then it would undermine the government's credibility.

"Then if there are problems, the solution will be in form of 'agreement' or 'political deal'. The government's policies will not be credible, and this would create difficulties for the government if it needed to influence or convince the market," he said.

Analysis & opinion

It's (military) business

Jakarta Post Editorial - January 22, 2010

A family friend came to the rescue to mediate, helping end the 30-hour military police's siege of a general's residence smoothly without a single bullet being fired. The scene was not out of a Hollywood movie, but a real-life incident that ended years of defiance by a once-powerful Army general to comply with a military tribunal's summons for a hearing into the embezzlement of military assets.

Yes, the narrative perfectly depicts the eventual surrender Tuesday of 79-year-old Brig. Gen. (ret) Herman Sarens Sudiro, a former corps commander of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and a close confidante of the late former president Soeharto. Accompanied by former youth and sports minister Adhyaksa Dault, who claimed to be a close friend of Herman's family, the general eventually gave up his resistance and was willing to meet the tribunal's summons for a hearing over his alleged involvement in the embezzlement of TNI assets.

Having built his military career through active service mostly within the capital Jakarta and neighboring West Java province, including a brief stint as commander of the presidential guards in 1967, the flamboyant Herman is known as an avid collector of expensive items, including big motorcycles, rifles and horses. He was active in the management of a number of sports associations, such as shooting, horse riding and boxing, and is currently chairman of the Indonesian Boxing Promoters Association.

The illegal land appropriation case was first brought before a military court in 1992, but Herman has consistently failed to appear, even though the court issued summonses in January, February and March last year.

The allegations against Herman came in the wake of the TNI headquarters' commitment to meet its constitutional obligation of ceding its business activities as part and parcel of its commitment for reforms. Already behind schedule – the deadline for the businesses takeover as stipulated in the 2004 law on the Indonesian Military was October 2009 – the TNI (and the government) is under constant pressure to immediately settle all the obstacles hindering its reform commitment, mainly on relinquishing its businesses.

Herman is alleged to have misappropriated a plot of land belonging to the Army in Warung Buncit in South Jakarta while he was serving in the military in 1967. Yet the land in Warung Buncit – currently idle and used as a parking lot for the neighboring South Jakarta Immigration Office and for visitors and staff of Vice President Boediono, who lives nearby – is apparently not the sole TNI property that the one-star general allegedly misappropriated.

"There have been allegations that [Herman] abused his authority regarding assets belonging to the military, which incurred state losses," TNI spokesman Air Vice Marshall Sagom Tamboen confirmed Tuesday.

Upon learning the motives and the way Herman had allegedly illegally appropriated the TNI's properties as well as poor documentation and control mechanism of state/military assets, it is therefore logical to draw the conclusion that the Warung Buncit case is only the tip of the iceberg. It is believed that there are still many other Hermans – military men with strong connections to the late military ruler Soeharto – who might have illegally appropriated and are in control of state/military assets.

The TNI (and/or the government) is racing against time to settle all the military business-related problems. It has failed to meet the constitutionally mandated five-year deadline. And it will be beyond everyone's expectation if the TNI needs another five years to completely meet its reform commitment.

Ulema-nization

Jakarta Post Editorial - January 20, 2010

For the devout, religion is a way of life. They look to what is condoned in their religion for what to eat, what to wear, whether to use contraceptives, etc. As needs arise, the faithful turn to religious scholars for answers not found in their holy books.

Why some would ask the ulema whether it is okay for women to straighten their hair, or ride an ojek (motorcycle taxi), is not quite clear; except that, now and then, new questions crop up on a wide range of activities, reflecting the anxious desire to express devotion in cities large and small.

A member of the Indonesian Ulema Council said the ban on hair treatment was "exaggerating", reports said, "because what is haram is the exposure of women's hair" to men who are not her muhrim (members of her family).

Whatever the precise reason, last week a group of ulema gathering in East Java said it was haram for women to change the shape and color of their hair, for it entailed changing their physical appearance to attract the opposite sex, unless it was for the husband, and with his permission.

The 250 leaders of pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) said the ulema also banned women from riding an ojek because of the potential of brushing up against the male driver who was not her husband or relative. They added that women can't work as ojek drivers either "because it would be hard for them to avoid sinful acts and matters that could lead to slander," except if they only catered to female passengers.

Another surprising edict was one on prewedding photo shoots (the ones seen on the wedding invitations). This is also haram, the ulema said, because in such circumstances the couples are unmarried but already mixing with each other.

All this may secure a Golden Globe for the most entertaining edict, if ever there was one. But at the end of the day, moderation and common sense must win in the current war over values.

Many would opt to ignore the report from East Java, dismissing it as a product of backward ulema. But its capital, Surabaya, is the country's second largest city, which, like Jakarta, should be a benchmark when it comes to regulation of society.

"Talibanization", to put it coarsely, cannot be given space in a nation which is learning the hard way how and why our founding fathers endured a gruelling debate on whether the new independent country should be based on religious or secular foundations. A woman here appreciates her right to wear the veil or not, but may feel differently over having the ulema rule on whether she can ride an ojek, or on how she can make an honest living.

The Indonesian Muslim here would appreciate their ulema much more if they tackled society's most troubling challenges. If corruption is a crime, then where is the edict which tells us it is haram for the pesantren to receive billions in donations originating from graft and money laundering?

With so many pressing issues, it is high time our learned scholars move away from their narrow pet motive of "protecting" women and society in the name of God.

Thank you, Anggodo

Jakarta Post Editorial - January 18, 2010

The moment millions of Indonesians were waiting for finally happened on Thursday when one of the most feared – but most beloved by several police generals and senior prosecutors – corrupt businessmen landed in jail.

Anggodo Widjojo lost his battle with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), at least temporarily. And now that he has been declared a suspect, the commission is obliged to send him to trial at the Corruption Court. And so far, all suspects prosecuted by the KPK have been convicted by this court.

But first of all, this nation must thank Anggodo. His assumption he would remain untouchable forever helped provide the nation with a golden opportunity to bring down all government crooks who helped him. Anggodo could have absconded overseas in the last few months, but he apparently chose to stay because he was certain no one could touch him.

However, with his vast networks among Indonesia's judicial system, and because so many corrupt officials owe him favors for his past generosity, the imprisonment of Anggodo may not do much to weaken his power. We do hope the Commission, particularly its deputy chairmen, Chandra M. Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto, won't miss this golden opportunity to bring down all the crooks connected to Anggodo.

Earlier, a presidential fact-finding team recommended the prosecution of senior police officers and senior prosecutors at the Attorney General's Office (AGO) whose names were clearly mentioned by Anggodo in telephone conversations wiretapped by the KPK. Here, the KPK has no excuse not to punish all of these suspects because the evidence against them is so blatant and damning. And a failure to bring these corrupt law enforcers to justice will see Indonesia going back toward the top of the world's most corrupt nations list.

If it hadn't been for the national public outcry last year, Anggodo would have successfully removed Chandra and Bibit from the KPK. He was very close to bringing the pair to court, although by all means the case against them was very weak. But who could say no to Anggodo before the public protests began?

He was so powerful that even President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono refused to step in, even though the wiretapped conversations clearly mentioned Yudhoyono as one of the top officials who Anggodo and his gang believed was fully on side. It is strange that while he was over-sensitive toward critics, Yudhoyono seemed very tolerant of Anggodo who humiliated him to an unbelievable extent.

Perhaps only a few Indonesians are still confident that the President and his government can thoroughly eradicate judicial corruption. But who still has confidence in the AGO and the National Police?

It is true that Yudhoyono has set up a special task force to eradicate judicial corruption. But based on the experiences of previous governments, such teams often end up total failures, even if initially they enjoy high-profile publicity in the media.

So again, we are lucky Anggodo was overconfident with his power. And the KPK is the only institution we still can rely on to uphold justice against bandits who hide behind state powers to steal from the state coffers.