Mataram – Violence triggered by constant rolling blackouts have prompted the authority of state-owned electricity company PT PLN in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) to turn to the police for protection.

Ahmad Zuzdjazd, PLN human resources manager, said they had officially requested the police's protection and security.

"We have asked for protection, especially for vital power installation plants," he said on Wednesday after meeting NTB administration secretary Abdul Malik in Mataram.

Admitting to suffering deficits in power supply, the PLN office has cut the public's electricity supply more frequently over the last two weeks.

Hundreds of people in East Lombok stoned the Masbagik office of the diesel powered plant on Tuesday. They shouted angry chants against the unannounced blackouts, which had been recurring more frequently.

"We are still investigating the incident," R. Sujoko, an officer in charge of public relations at the East Lombok police office, said.

Ahmad conceded there was a 40 megawatt (MW) power deficit, saying the plants could only supply 70 MW of the ideal 110 MW.

Mojokerto rioters not with us, activists claim

Jakarta Globe - May 26, 2010

Amir Tejo, Mojokerto (East Java) – Activists involved in a protest last week in Mojokerto, East Java, claim that the organized mob that turned the rally violent and attacked police and set fires was not part of their group, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights said Wednesday.

Syarifudin Nghulma Simeulue, a commissioner who visited Mojokerto to investigate the incident, said he had discussions with the group of activists who staged the protest at the district legislature last Friday. The violence left 19 people injured and 22 vehicles destroyed.

He said that according to the activists, the organized mob that went on a rampage had appeared suddenly from behind the crowd of real protesters. The activists said none of their previous protests had turned violent.

He said the activists would hand the commission, known as Komnas HAM, all documents and recordings they had regarding the incident.

"We will study and analyze all those documents, and after that we will decide whether the commission will dispatch a fact-finding team to look into this riot or not," Syarifudin said.

He said his visit here was also prompted by reports the commission received at its Jakarta headquarters that some of the people arrested after the incident had been mistreated by the police. He said he had yet to meet with those being detained. The local police have arrested 13 suspects so far.

Syarifudin said he also found that some of those injured by gunfire during the mayhem were still under tight police guard at Wahidin Sudirohusodo General Hospital. The victims also have not received financial assistance from the police or the local government, he added.

"The bullet that went through Rendi's chest was owned by the government and therefore it should be held responsible and take care of Rendi's medical bills," he said, referring to one of the victims shot during the protest.

Aceh

Aceh's religious police crack down on tight jeans

Sydney Morning Herald - May 27, 2010

Tom Allard, West Aceh – "Let me ask you a question," says the regent of West Aceh, Ramli Mansur, leaning back in his chair in his spacious office. "What do you think when you see a woman's round shapes?"

"Rather nice, I suppose," I reply. "But it wouldn't make me feel like raping anyone."

"Aah, but that's because you are used to it!"

Mr Ramli's dismissive response was hardly surprising. The former member of Aceh's independence movement, school teacher and traditional Islamic healer is on a mission to implement perhaps the most austere form of sharia seen in Indonesia, and his first concern is the appearance of his district's 85,000-odd women.

Starting today, he will begin distributing 20,000 long skirts, a campaign to stop women wearing trousers. While almost all women in Aceh wear the jilbab, or headscarf, many follow the Indonesian fashion for tight jeans, even if they are worn modestly under a tunic.

"Obviously, there is a problem with sexy dressing," Mr Ramli explains. "We see that rapes take place in big cities where free access is allowed between different sexes. Here the economy is small and we don't want it to be like that."

Even before the policy is introduced, West Aceh's Wilayatul Hisbah, or religious police, have been setting up roadblocks outside the district's capital of Meulaboh, inspecting every car and stopping motorcycles if there is a female rider on board wearing trousers.

In a 60-minute operation in the hamlet of Arongan, more than 25 women were yesterday taken aside for a lecture on Islamic morals and asked to sign a document, vowing not to repeat their mistake and pledging to "immediately report" to the religious police if they notice someone else violating Islamic law.

Some women are upset by the intrusion, with one storming back to her vehicle. And conversations with young West Acehnese in Meulaboh's cafes elicit a similar anger. Almost all of the jeans-clad women have been pulled over, or know someone who has.

They are proud Muslims but find the religious police tiresome, at best.

"A lot of our friends go to Medan [in nearby north Sumatra] so they can wear tight jeans," said one waitress. "You can't even wear jeans under your skirt here. We are very confused about these regulations."

Others, however, are more enthusiastic. A middle-aged woman watching proceedings at Arongan, who also declined to be named, said: "I really agree because teenagers today are very stubborn. They don't follow advice from parents and this program helps."

The responses reflect Aceh's conflicted approach to sharia. Known as "Mecca's Verandah" for its early adoption of Islam, Aceh has had sharia, complete with police and courts, for eight years.

Adultery and gambling are punishable by public caning while offences such as dressing inappropriately or unmarried people fraternising with the opposite sex meet with stern lectures or a requirement to report regularly to sharia authorities for further instruction.

But, since the Governor, Irwandi Yusuf, took office in 2007 the laws have been rarely enforced. Very few public floggings have taken place in the past three years and Mr Irwandi has cut the budget to the sharia police and refused to sign a law passed by the legislature introducing death by stoning for married adulterers.

He also wrote to Mr Ramli urging him not to proceed with his skirt distribution plan, but was openly rebuffed.

"Yes, it's true. But what we are doing is in accordance of law," said Mr Ramli, who is diverting money from his own budget to double the size of the religious police.

And, as his district prepares for the public caning of 26 people in coming months, Mr Ramli is contemplating a run for governor.

West Aceh introduces bylaw on tight jeans

Jakarta Globe - May 26, 2010

Nurdin Hasan – If you are a Muslim woman who likes wearing tight jeans or miniskirts, then the West Aceh district may not be the place for you.

Starting today, the district government's Wilayatul Hisbah, or Shariah police, will go out on "raids" to find women they deem to be inappropriately dressed.

"Starting Wednesday we are going to strategic points, and women who wear tight trousers or jeans will be given long skirts to wear. Their jeans will also be confiscated," West Aceh district chief Ramli Mansur said.

About 20,000 long skirts have been collected from donations by groups that supported a similar bylaw banning the wearing of shorts by men. However, the effectiveness of the sweeps could be muted after the district chief announced the exact location of the raids.

"After a ceremony, we will start the raids at three locations heading toward the [district] capital of Meulaboh. The raids will be conducted at Kaway XVI, Arongan Lambalek, and Nagan Raya," he said.

But if some West Aceh women are hoping that ineffective raids lead to softer clothing bylaws in the future, they could be in for a long wait.

"I hope people from other places who come to West Aceh will respect the regulations we have here," Ramli said. "I am doing this because it is an Islamic command to uphold the Shariah kaffah [to abide by Islamic tenets in their entirety] in Aceh, especially in West Aceh."

Ramli said that under the law, all women should wear the baju kurung, a flowing traditional outfit that covers most of the body and a veil. He also called on shops in the district to stop selling tight-fitting clothes for women.

"I am doing this as a leader who will be responsible to God for what I have done for the people of West Aceh," the official said.

Violators who refuse to hand over their jeans or who are repeat offenders are to be punished. "We are going to detain them," he said, without giving any indication of the length of detention.

Shariah law is in partial use in staunchly Islamic Aceh – the only province where it is practiced in the world's most populous Muslim country.

"We are going to implement this in a persuasive way until we reach a stage where nobody wears tight clothes," Ramli said.

But according to a British Broadcasting Corp. report, some women in West Aceh have objected to the new bylaw, saying it curtails their personal freedoms and mobility. The law will only apply to Muslims.

Aceh's uneasy peace in focus

Jakarta Globe - May 25, 2010

Ade Mardiyati – After the devastating tsunami in 2004, Aceh – then in the midst of an armed rebellion – entered a new era. The bloodshed was ended by a peace agreement signed by the Indonesian government and the pro-independence Free Aceh Movement in Helsinki on Aug. 15, 2005.

After nearly 30 years of fighting, members of the rebel group, also known as GAM, laid down their arms and returned to society. Interestingly, many of them now work as civil servants, including former GAM leader Irwandi Yusuf, who is now governor of Aceh.

Despite what appears to be a success story, the province is nevertheless facing another chapter of struggle in terms of rebuilding the lives and communities of its citizens now that the conflict has ended, which could be a threat to the peace process.

"In the Aftermath of Peace: Hope and Struggle in Aceh" by Sandeep Ray was screened on May 19 by the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club at the Goethe Institute. The documentary served as the center piece of a night of discussions about the province and its efforts to rebuild.

The event also featured lectures by Sandra Hamid, a cultural anthropologist and the senior program director of the Asia Foundation in Indonesia, and Rizal Sukma, the executive director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.

Ray's documentary featured interviews with ex-combatants, conflict victims and government representatives.

Some of the interviews clearly implied that one of the core problems was the unsatisfactory situation of the Acehnese, directly affected by the decades-long conflict, after the peace deal was signed. They believed the central government had neglected its promises in the agreement.

In the film, the government is said to have altered what was promised in the memorandum of understanding, such as rehabilitation efforts, farms and assistance for former combatants. Instead of fulfilling the expectations, people interviewed in the film said the government had only given small amounts of money, barely enough to provide support during the rebuilding effort.

"If the people get what the MoU promises – a fair distribution of resources between the central government and us – marginalized people like us can benefit from this," a former GAM rebel said in the film. "That is my hope. That is what freedom means to me."

The same situation was also faced by other members of the conflict-affected community, namely the women who lost their husbands, sons and relatives. These women also demanded compensation for what they have lost.

What seemed to be missing from the film was a peek at the province's economic development, so as not to solely look at the past violence and the ramifications of the prolonged armed conflicts, and to find out whether there had been improvements in the past five years, as well as the political and social consequences that were brought about by the peace. In relation to this matter, Sandra said that the most pressing challenge was how to ensure that issues rooted in governance – as experienced in so many places in Indonesia – were not allowed to become the causes of new conflicts.

Meanwhile, Rizal, who was also interviewed in the film, reminded the audience that in many parts of the world that emerge from conflict, a relapse often takes place within 10 years' time.

"That's why, I think, some within the government continue to remind every one to work harder to deliver the promises of peace, especially in the economic area," he said.

"The continuing support from the international community is also important to ensure that the Aceh peace process would withstand the challenge of relapse beyond the 10 years time frame."

Rizal said that he was heartened by the large turnout at the event, which saw a crowd of over 50 coming from a range of backgrounds and professions.

"The fact that so many people attended the event, especially from the diplomatic and foreign community, clearly suggests that attention to Aceh from the international community is still there," Rizal said.

"The international community is still committed to see that Aceh would continue to be a success story of peace building.

"This [attention] should serve as an important asset for Aceh to develop into a more democratic and prosperous area in Indonesia," he said. "All the support is still there."

East Aceh councillor attacked fleeing love nest

Jakarta Globe - May 25, 2010

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – An East Aceh district councillor was hospitalized after an angry mob that suspected him of committing adultery attacked him while he was trying to escape from his love nest, residents of the town said on Monday.

Mohammad Yusuf, 32, was set upon by Langsa residents when he tried to flee the house on Sunday morning.

Muhammad, an Aceh Party councillor, was found in the house with a woman identified as Santi.

In staunchly Islamic Aceh, where sharia law is partially in force, it is illegal for people of the opposite sex to congregate in close proximity with each other unless they are related. The villagers also found another unmarried couple, Saifullay, 33, and Nava, 25, in the home when they searched it.

"When the residents raided the house, both couples were fully dressed. But when they checked [Yusuf's] room, they found a condom with sperm in it," village head Bahrum Nazar said.

According to the village boss, Yusuf had tried to tell the villagers he had recently married the woman, but soon recanted the story when he realized they did not believe him.

Angered by the deception, the villagers were on the verge of accosting the councillor when Bahrum and police officers intervened. "After that, Yusuf tried to flee through the back door. But the locals chased him and beat him up," Bahrum said.

Police officers rushed Yusuf to Langsa general hospital before taking his companions to the police station for questioning. "If he had not run, they would not have hit him. The others were left unharmed," Bahrum said.

Adj. Comr. Yosi Muhammartha said the four may face charges of violating a 2003 Qanun, or local bylaw, that banned people of the opposite sex being in close proximity outside of marriage. If found guilty, they could be given nine lashes of the cane.

Yosi said Yusuf also might face drug charges after a pipe used to smoke amphetamines was found in the house.

Lawmakers in Aceh passed a law last year that would allow convicted adulterers to be stoned to death but the provincial governor refused to sign off on it.

The Aceh Party, founded by former guerillas of the now disbanded Free Aceh Movement, holds the most seats on the East Aceh district council.

Aceh's young look to the future to rebuild after the tsunami

Melbourne Age - May 24, 2010

Selma Milovanovic – One-year-old Mayuri wriggles out of her father's arms and flops to the ship's deck. Gripping her father Sidik's hand, she takes wobbly steps, gurgling and smiling.

Around them, a rooster crows and children laugh. Tourists buy cool drinks on the ship-turned-cafe, surveying the ocean and settlements below.

This is Apung 1, the electric generator ship that razed 500 houses when it was hurled on to land five kilometres from the beach in Banda Aceh during the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.

Now, the eerie tourist attraction stands on the former site of two houses.

"It's a memory to those lost in the tsunami, but this is my first time on the ship since the tragedy," says Sidik, a mobile phone salesman. "I lost a lot of friends and I will never forget them. It's a sad place."

Across the road, widow Rosmiati, 58, sits on the floor of her simple six-metre-by-six-metre house, identical to most others in her street. For 15 years before the big wave came, there was a five-bedroom house there. Now there are only two bedrooms.

"They didn't ask me what I wanted, they just built it like elsewhere," Rosmiati says of the local aid agency that co- ordinated the rebuilding. "It is totally different. It is much smaller than before.

"It would have been better to have consulted the owner of the house, the local people, but the new government organisational policy made us powerless."

Rosmiati lost 50 relatives in the tsunami. She and her immediate family survived. Her home was rebuilt two years after the tragedy and her husband, a local government employee, died a month later.

Rosmiati survives on his pension and shares her house with her grandson, while her children live elsewhere.

According to Simon Field, Aceh manager for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Rosmiati's complaint is common among tsunami survivors, but aid agencies simply followed government policy.

Mr Field said there were still about 100 households waiting for accommodation five years after the tsunami, "while people who may not have deserved a house have got a house".

With 98 per cent of its targets reached under a four-year, $6 billion investment program, UNDP is looking to enable local authorities to sustain the community after it pulls out in 2012.

The organisation is building infrastructure and showing local government agencies how to maintain it into the future.

Muhammad Yahya, general secretary of Partai Aceh, a local party that holds 33 out of 69 seats in the Acehnese parliament, says the government also had to ensure people had jobs and land.

Many of the Acehnese poor are former combatants in the province's armed struggle against the Indonesian Army, which ended in 2005. These people, along with other classes of poor, were last year promised two hectares of state-owned land per household.

While Mr Field says that up to 1 million people will eventually benefit from the initiative, Mr Yahya says progress has been slow. As they wait for a chance at a new way of life, many still engage in illegal logging, despite a moratorium on the practice.

Among the beneficiaries of foreign aid money are schools such as the Babun Najah Pesantren, an Islamic boarding school. Since the tsunami it has doubled as an orphanage for 272 children aged five to 18.

Ninety-two orphans still attend the school. Their education is subsidised by fee-paying students, a small government scholarship and a US non-government organisation.

[Selma Milovanovic is visiting Indonesia as a fellow of the Asia Pacific Journalism Centre's Understanding Near Neighbours fellowship.]

West Papua

Papuan church leader says new province won't ease conflict

Radio New Zealand International - May 31, 2010

A Papuan church leader says creating another province out of the Indonesian half of New Guinea is not the answer to the ongoing conflict in Papua region.

A plan to create Central Papua as a new and additional province to the exising two, Papua and West Papua, appears to be gaining traction in the Regional House of Representatives.

The deputy chairman of a House Commission considering draft legislation on regional division has urged local figures to commit themselves to the establishment of a new province in the Highlands region.

But Socrataz Sofyan Yoman of the West Papua Baptist Church says creating a new province is unnecessary.

"Conflict is increasing, especially in the Puncak Jaya area. More troops and police are going there. This is the saddest problem (the militarisation of Papua). We try to look for the way to solve this problem: a peaceful negotiation is the proper way."

Nine years on, Papuans say autonomy has brought few benefits

Jakarta Globe - May 28, 2010

Nurfika Osman – Little good has come of the special autonomy status conferred on Papua in 2001 with most people there left behind by the nation's push for development, activists and community representatives said at a discussion in Jakarta on Wednesday.

"We haven't seen for ourselves the benefits of development in Papua, despite being nine years into the special autonomy phase," Papuan Students Association representative Agus Kossay told the Jakarta Globe. "Where do the trillions of rupiah from the budget go?"

He added most Papuans still lived in poverty. "It's particularly bad in the mountain areas," he said. "We also suffer from gross human rights violations."

In a 2005 study, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) listed Papua as having the lowest human development index in the country, rating it at 62.1 compared to the national average of 69.6.

Biak native and University of Indonesia student Yopi Paliama told the Globe that things had deteriorated since the province was granted special autonomy. "The roads, buildings, everything are just as they were 10 years ago," he said. "What on earth is the government doing by way of development?"

Paskalis Kossay, a House of Representatives legislator from Papua, said the failure of autonomy to bring change could be blamed on both the government and the people of Papua.

"Everything got messed up after the 2003 presidential decree establishing the new province of West Papua," he said. "Now the development aims for Papua itself are unclear. Where are we actually headed?"

He also blamed the varying notions of that autonomy comprised. "The idea as espoused by the central government differs from that touted by the local administration, which in turn is different from that held by the local people," Paskalis said.

"Some of the people on the ground believe it means separating from Indonesia," he added.

But Papua Development Planning Board head Alex Rumaseb argued that there had been a significant level of development in the province.

"There's improved access to education and health care, and we're doing our best to develop every part of the province," he said. "Admittedly, though, it's more difficult in the central highland areas."

Alex added the main hurdle was how to empower human resources. "Our biggest problem is developing the human resources to develop their own region," he said, adding that Papuans comprised only 30 percent of the work force, while the rest were mostly migrants from elsewhere in Indonesia.

French reporter allowed to stay in Indonesia

Radio Australia - May 28, 2010

Baudoin Koenig, a French independent TV documentary maker due to be expelled from Indonesia has today been allowed to stay in the country. However his assistant, Carole Liorthois, has been deported back to France for having overstayed her tourist visa.

The pair were arrested in the Indonesian province of West Papua on Wednesday after filming a student rally. Around 150 protesters were asking the Indonesian government for democracy and autonomy.

The Indonesian authorities changed their minds after France's ambassador to Indonesia intervened and sent a letter to the Minister of Human rights who's also in charge of immigration issues.

Presenter: Caroline Lafargue, Radio Australia's French service

Speaker: Baudoin Koenig, French independent TV documentary-maker

Lafargue: It's a partial victory for Baudoin Koenig who had to accept a compromise after having acknowledged he had made a mistake with his assistant's visa – a tourist visa which she overstayed one day.

Koenig: Today I'm allowed to stay until the 4th of June. It's a compromise. I can continue filming and interviewing – in Jakarta among other places, but of course I'm not allowed to go back to West Papua. I don't accept that. However all the people I am in contact with in West Papua as well as in Jakarta tell me it's a very important decision. It means that there are people here who accept the democratic principle. It's not the mandatory deportation system anymore. And nobody touched my report, my footage wasn't seized. On the whole it's a sign that soon foreigners will be allowed to report in West Papua and I hope that decision will serve as a precedent to improve the situation.

Lafargue: The French TV documentary-maker was allowed to stay in Indonesia by the very same Minister of Human Rights who declared two weeks ago that he was considering liberating political prisoners from West Papua. Baudoin Koenig is working on a documentary film exploring Indonesia's history since 1945 and its founding principle: Pancasila – unity in diversity. This led him logically to West Papua – an Indonesian province mainly populated by Melanesian Christians and where a low level pro- independence insurgency has been waged against rule from Jakarta by the Free Papua Movement, the OPM. There were again clashes between Papuan autonomists and Indonesian police earlier this week.

Koenig: We have met Neles Tebay, the chairman of the University of Theology in Jayapura, a catholic priest involved in the peace negotiations between West Papuans and Jakarta. And on our way back to the hotel, we've come past a student's demonstration – so we started filming it. There were around 100-150 persons. It was organised by the West Papua National Committee. On the banners, the slogans were: "Respect democracy" and "autonomy for West Papua". This demonstration was very peaceful. And we have been arrested in front of 30 local journalists. I felt aggressively from the two Indonesian policemen who bumped in to me until I show them my press card. And then we spent 7 hours in the immigration office.

Lafargue: What did they ask you during the seven hours?

Koenig: They kept asking the same questions: what are you doing here? Why do you film a demonstration which is against the Indonesian government?

Lafargue: Baudoin Koenig spent only six and a half hours reporting in West Papua before being arrested and transferred to Jakarta. The status of foreign journalists in West Papua is not clear. Mr Koenig says the Indonesian immigration was rather ambiguous in the issuing of his journalist visa.

Koenig: The director of the immigration service has organised a press conference straight way, in which he has given false information. He has claimed that we didn't have a journalist visa or special arrangements, etc. which isn't true. I've lodged my journalist visa application in February. My papers are in order. But my visa can be read two ways: on my permit, there's a first line that says: the filming will take place in Aceh, Jakarta, Sumatra. Kalimantan, etc., and when it comes to West Papua, there's no mention of Jayapura. But on the other hand, there's a second line that says I can report everywhere in Indonesia except in Poso- in Sulawesi- because there has been a conflict between Christians and Muslims over there.

Lafargue: Baudoin Koenig's documentary is to be broadcast on the Franco-German ARTE television network.

Papua estate may still go ahead despite moratorium

Radio New Zealand International - May 28, 2010

A project to create a large agricultural estate in Merauke in Indonesia's Papua province may still to go ahead despite the President announcing a two-year moratorium on new logging concessions.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has signed a deal with Norway in which Indonesia will receive up to one billion US dollars for honouring the moratorium. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the commitment to stop the conversion of peatland is welcomed by environmentalists.

Indonesia is the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, with 80 per cent of its emissions stemming from deforestation. As well as felling trees which absorb carbon, deforestation in Indonesia's swampy peatlands releases carbon from the exposed peat as it dries.

The moratorium will put curbs on Indonesian's palm oil industry and there is speculation it may derail plans for the agricultural estate in Merauke where there are large swampland forests.

However, a presidential climate adviser has indicated the estate would still go ahead in a way that doesn't involve peatlands conversion.

DPD supports plan to establish Central Papua as new province

Jakarta Post - May 27, 2010

Jakarta – A member of the Regional House of Representatives (DPD) fully supports a plan for the creation of Central Papua as a new province separate from the existing Papua provinces.

"As long as the plan constitutes the wishes of the local people and meets the requirements as set out in the existing ruling, there will not be any hindrance to processing it," deputy chairman of DPD's Commission I Eni Khairini said as quoted by Antara news agency in Timika on Thursday.

Eni explained that as one of the highest state institutions that represents regional interests at the central government level, the DPD is in charge of giving consideration to any legal draft bill on regional division.

Without the DPD's consideration, Eni said, the legality of the regional division may be legally defective.

Eni, therefore, urged local figures in Central Papua to commit themselves to struggle for the establishment of the new province, unlike the for-and-against conflict on the Central Papua division idea in 2003.

"If there is no problem in the region, there will also be no problem at the central government level," said Eni, a representative of Bengkulu province.

French journalist tries to avoid deportation

Jakarta Post - May 27, 2010

Erwida Maulia and Nethy Darma Somba, Jakarta/Papua – When French journalist and lecturer Baudouin Koenig and his student Carole Lorthiois arrived in Indonesia a month ago, they thought Indonesia, the world's third-largest democracy, applied press freedom, as the government itself often claims. What they did not know was the freedom stops at Papua, where the two were arrested for filming a political demonstration.

On Wednesday evening the two were seeking to escape deportation after meeting with officials from the central immigration office in Jakarta, following their arrival from the Papuan capital of Jayapura.

"The central immigration office gives them three days to prepare for the deportation on Friday," Koenig's interpreter Halidah Leclerc, told The Jakarta Post. "But we are still seeking for solutions to complete the filming."

Head of the Jayapura immigration office Robert E. Silitonga, said earlier that Koenig and Lorthiois would be immediately deported back to France for violating their visas on arrival in Jakarta.

Halidah said Koenig had secured a 45-day visa to film in Indonesia and had spent 30 days in the country so far.

Silitonga said the two French nationals were only permitted to shoot their documentary film in Sorong, not in Jayapura, and were not permitted to cover political protests.

On Tuesday Koenig filmed a rally held at the Papua legislative council in Jayapura by the West Papua National Committee (KNPB).

Silitonga said that aside from being deported, they would also be blacklisted from entering the country for a year.

In his press statement sent to the Post, Koenig said he had worked with an Indonesian press card and a press visa valid for all the country except Poso in Central Sulawesi. However, AP reported that Lorthiois only had a tourist visa.

"I negotiated permission with the Indonesian authorities in February 2010. The subject was clear: portraying the emerging economic power, the G20 member, the biggest Muslim democracy in the world in the mirror of Pancasila and democracy; from Aceh to Papua," Koenig wrote.

"I came to Papua to film the census and the process of dialogue was opened 10 days ago by the Justice and Human Rights Ministry. My only fault was to cross a demonstration on the way to the hotel and as any journalist would have done, I stopped the car and filmed."

Koenig said he had never thought filming a simple rally would mean a violation, given he had enjoyed freedom elsewhere.

"It's ironic. I've been accused of intending to portray the country in a bad light by showing that people are allowed to protest in a calm and peaceful atmosphere and I was arrested in front of 50 journalists, photographers and cameramen."

Independence for Papua still hotly debated

Jakarta Post - May 27, 2010

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Papuan independence from the Republic of Indonesia remains a hot topic among Papuans, with many still struggling for a separate state, a discussion heard Tuesday.

The issue emerged again during a discussion in Merauke on a book entitled Integrasi Telah Selesai (Integration Is Done) published by the Nusantara Study Center and edited by Agus E. Santoso and Yosep Rizal.

Those who advocate separation, the discussion heard, do not acknowledge the 1969 Pepera (Act of Free Choice) poll, which resulted in Papua being included in the Republic of Indonesia.

Such separatists allege the petition procedure was riddled with violations and claim it was not conducted according to the New York Agreement's one man one vote, but used a representative system in which Papuans were only represented by 1,025 people.

"Independence has been deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of Papuans. Papua is still running forward, heading toward independence," said the chairman of LMA Malind Anim Albert Moiwend.

Those in support of NKRI, on the other hand, say that Papua is an integral part of Indonesia as stipulated in a United Nations (UN) decree issued on November 1969 following the 1969 petition, and believe the issue is closed.

Nicolash Messet, who has been in self exile for 34 years in his struggle for Papuan independence, said he had decided to return to Indonesia after learning the chances for Papua to be granted independence were slim.

The international community, he said, is now focused more on issues of global warming, deforestation and not the establishment of a new nation.

"It will be very difficult, even impossible, for the UN to discuss the matter of Papuan independence. Even if it is finally reopened, the process will be very complicated," said Nicolash, who was also the main speaker at the discussion.

French journalist questions his arrest, deportation

Jakarta Post - May 26, 2010

Jakarta – A French journalist who was recently deported after filming a rally in Jayapura, Papua, is questioning his expulsion by Indonesian authorities'.

Television producer Baudouin Koenig, who had been reporting on Indonesian democracy, experienced freedom of the press in Indonesia and was surprised that he was arrested for filming a demonstration, he wrote in an email Wednesday while in transit from Jayapura to Jakarta.

"It's ironic. I have been accused of having an intention to give a bad image of the country by showing that people are allowed to protest for their ideas in a calm and peaceful atmosphere," he said.

Koenig said that he was arrested in front of 50 journalists, photographers and cameramen. He said he had Indonesian press card, a press visa valid for all parts of the country except Poso, Central Sulawesi and permission from the authorities to report on democracy in Indonesia.

"The same institutions cannot pretend today that they only accredited me to [make a] film on tourism and the beauty of Indonesia," Koenig said.

He said he and a student filmed the national census in Papua and a recent dialogue with Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar.

"My only fault was to cross a demonstration on the way to the hotel. I stopped the car and I started to film. I should have waited for my guide," he added.

Immigration officials questioned the pair for six hours after their arrest for visa violations Tuesday. Baudouin said he concluded his statement to immigration officials with "vive la democratie" (long live democracy).

"I hope that the democratic principles of Indonesia will allow me to finish the huge (and also positive) portrait of Indonesia," he wrote in the e-mail.

Journalists protest over French colleagues detained in Papua

Jakarta Globe - May 25, 2010

Nivell Rayda – Local members of the media have condemned Tuesday's detention of two French journalists in Papua, saying the move undermined freedom of the press.

Victor Mambor, chairman of the Papua chapter of the Independent Journalist Alliance (AJI), said the government had crossed the line.

"We are condemning the government move to keep the journalists from doing their work. There should not be any limitation to what the reporters can or cannot cover as long as it does not violate press laws," he said.

Baudouin Koenig, 54, and Carole Lorthiois, 27, from the French Arte television network, were brought in for questioning by the Papua immigration office on Tuesday over alleged visa violations. They were reportedly covering a protest rally in front of the provincial Regional Legislative Council (DPRD).

The chief of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights' office in Papua, Nazaruddin Burnas, said that the pair had not secured a permit to work in the province.

"Only Baudouin holds a permit issued by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture to document cultural events in Jakarta, Gorontalo and Aceh," he said. "Baudouin did not however have permission to film in Papua. Carole was worse – she didn't have a permit at all."

The journalists now face deportation and a possible ban from coming back to the country.

The Antara news agency reported that the pair were apprehended at about 1:30 p.m. as they were filming a rally by a group calling itself the Papua National Committee. An Indonesian woman identified as Halidah, who was supposedly acting as their translator, was also questioned by immigration officials.

Koenig, Antara said, was a producer for a Paris-based production company, Mano a Mano, while Lorthiois was working with him as a sound assistant on the project. They were said to be filming a documentary called "Indonesia Tomorrow."

Christian Le Peutrec, the manager of Mano a Mano, told The Associated Press that the arrest would not derail the documentary project.

"We've talked to Baudouin on the phone. They're being expelled from Papua. They'll be in Jakarta tomorrow," Le Peutrec said by telephone.

Officials from the Directorate General for Immigration in Jakarta declined to comment on the matter, while the France Embassy could not be reached.

Rival communities clash in Timika

Jakarta Post - May 25, 2010

Markus Makur, Timika, Papua – Police in Mimika regency, Papua, on Monday detained four people following a conflict stemming from the death of a resident in an attack on Mimika Baru district on Sunday evening.

Mimika Police chief Muhammad Sagi told reporters on Monday that security conditions in Timika, Mimika's capital, were still tense following the murder.

Soon after the murder, he said each of the three involved community groups were blocking streets and conducting manhunts in search of members of rival groups. "We are trying to bring leaders of the rival groups together to reach an agreed solution," Sagi said.

He said the conflict emerged following the bashing death of Lamber Rumte alias Ondo Wambe, 30, of Kei, who was allegedly attacked by a group of people in a dam compound. The mob had accused Lamber of committing adultery at the site with one member their family, Yupina Tabuni.

Following the incident, according to Sagi, a group of people from the Kei community tried to exact revenge Monday morning by blocking Jl. Hasanuddin street, forcefully stopping passersby and burning tires.

The violence has so far resulted in wrongful attacks on Eltinus Kiwak, 42, of Amungme and Marthen Pigome, 25, of Paniai.

The revenge incident incited other groups of people both from Amungme and Paniai to take revenge by attacking the Kei residential complex in Pattimura area.

Together, hundreds of people from both Amungme and Paniai jointly blocked Jl. Budi Utomo and Timika Indah crossroads. Police were immediately deployed to the scene and no other incident materialized that day.

Sagi said there was a rumor spreading that a Paniai resident was taken hostage by the Kei group but it turned out later that the person was hiding in the woods before being found by police. The tension, however, prompted hundreds of Kei women and children from Kodok village in Kwamki Baru subdistrict to flee their homes.

Many took shelter at the nearby Indonesian Air Force Base in Timika in the face of rumors that a group of Amungme and Paniai people were set to attack Kei residential complexes all across Timika.

One of the refugees, Marci Tanlean, told reporters Monday she heard the information from a relative living in Pattimura. "We came here for our safety. We just brought with us what we could bring," she said.

The Air Force Base Commander, Let. Col. Nyoman Suadnyana, said they welcomed the refugee after coordinating with the Mimika police. "We will provide the hundreds sheltering here with whatever food we have," he said.

Program raises Papuan women's stature

Jakarta Post - May 26, 2010

Markus Makur, Paniai (Papua) – The move to involve women in community development has gained momentum in Painai regency, Papua, with a training program specifically targeting women.

The Raising Her Voice program is run by the People's Welfare Development Foundation (Yapkema) in Paniai with Oxfam GB Papua.

It trains 30 women from Mee and Moni tribes from the regency's three districts – Obano, Enarotali and Bibida – to encourage them to take part in development programs.

One of the women, Emiliana Songgonao, said the program focused on governance and sharing responsibilities between men and women within families, communities and the regency administration.

She said the program helped raise awareness among women in the past year, such as on their rights to healthcare and education and allowed them to take part in development.

"I understand my rights through the training and I can voice my concern to the Paniai government," she told The Jakarta Post in Bibida district.

The administration has also backed the program through the recent signing of an MoU with Oxfam and Yapkema on the empowerment of people's welfare, gender equality in the implementation of public policies, and the improvement of human resources.

However, despite the signing of the MoU at the regency level, the agreed points have not been implemented by officials.

Local health agency secretary Usman Busa said his agency had worked with NGOs, including Oxfam and Yapkema, to improve health services.

In Paniai, he said, his office trained villagers to become volunteers at integrated health centers. The agency runs 136 centers in 10 districts and 70 hamlets across the regency.

The administration, Usman added, also aimed to empower people and improve access to healthcare by setting up community health centers and by assigning midwives to hamlets. He acknowledged that many of the midwives did not stay long, leaving 80 percent of the posts vacant.

"The problem lies in the high costs, which differ from hamlet to hamlet. Transportation is only possible by renting a plane or helicopter so it's hard to serve remote villages," Usman said.

The head of Obano hamlet in Obano district, Hendrik Keya, said poor health services were an issue in the district, with many children suffering from malnutrition and many people dying of diarrhea.

Women in the district, he said, helped deal with the problem by getting actively involved in improving health services, including promoting better nutrition for children and pregnant women, due to a lack of doctors and medical workers.

Raising Her Voice program coordinator from Yapkema in Paniai, Nathan Pigome, told the Post that the program worked by making women aware of their rights in the government and of their equal rights with men in development programs.

The program also empowers people economically. Most area residents earn their living from agriculture. He said the activities in the three districts were Oxfam and Yapkema's pilot projects.

"The voices of women from Paniai's farming communities are heard by the Paniai regency administration. These women also take part in development planning meetings at the village level and higher," he said.

French journalists arrested in Papua

Antara News - May 25, 2010

Two French television journalists were arrested by immigration officers in Jayapura, Papua on Tuesday.

Baydo in-Koeniag, a French television producer and her reporter Caroll were arrested at 1.30 p.m. when they were covering a rally held by the National Committee of Western Papua at Papua's Regional Legislative Council in Jayapura.

The reason for their arrest is unknown. The two journalists are currently undergoing intensive questioning by the local immigration officers.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of the Ministry of Legal and Human Rights said they had not received any reports about the arrest.

In July 2009, three French television journalists from France 24 network were also arrested by police and security officers of a pulp factory in Jambi when they were covering an alleged illegal logging.

Villagers flee deadly Papua tribal clash

Jakarta Globe - May 24, 2010

Timika – A violent tribal conflict in Timika, Papua, has prompted scores of women and children to flee their homes to the safety of a nearby military base, a witness said on Monday.

"We heard from a relative that people from the Dani and Paniai tribes were looking for Kei people," said Marci Tanlain, a resident of Kodok village in Timika. "That's why we've fled here, we're afraid of being attacked."

Marci said that she would only return to her village after the clash had subsided.

At the military airbase, the refugees – mostly women, children and the elderly – were accommodated in several rooms, said Lt. Col. I Wayan Suwatnyana, the base commander.

Anyone seeking protection at the base was welcomed, Suwatnyana said, adding that the situation in Timika was expected to soon return to normal.

He said that local religious and tribal leaders needed to meet as soon as possible to try to settle the problem between the tribes.

The clash itself was triggered by the death of Lamber Ondos Rumte, 30, a member of the Kei tribe, at the hands of four assailants on Sunday. Angry relatives and friends accused members of the Dani and Paniai tribes of the murder, and later attacked villagers from those tribes, injuring at least three.

The Dani and Paniai were incensed by the revenge attack. Dozens of Paniai, armed with machetes and bows and arrows, marched to Inauga village in Timika on Sunday night to find Kei tribesmen. The mob, however, was stopped by Mimika district police and the province's elite mobile brigade (Brimob) unit, which used a water cannon to disperse the crowd.

Mimika Police Chief Muhammad Sagi said that the city was beginning to return to normal, and four suspects had been detained for questioning over the death of Lamber.

The police chief said that the leaders from the three tribes involved in the conflict would be called on to enforce a truce and resolve the situation.

Last month, clashes between two groups in Kwamki Lama, another village in Mimika, were sparked after the death of a Kampung Karang Senang resident, who was found shot dead with some 20 arrows in his body. Three police officers were injured trying to end that conflict.

Tribal clashes often erupt in Mimika, where several large tribes live side by side. They are usually settled in a traditional manner, using compensation and communal feasts. (Antara, JG)

Human rights/law

Indonesian minority groups 'still being attacked'

Jakarta Post - May 27, 2010

Jakarta – Indonesia's minority and religious groups remain vulnerable to violence and discrimination, says an Amnesty International report released Wednesday in Indonesia.

The influential group cited the case of Christian students at SETIA Theological College (STT) in Jakarta who continued to study and live in sub-standard temporary buildings after a violent attack by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) forced their evacuation in July 2008.

The FPI is a hard-line Islamic group in Indonesia. There are calls from Indonesians and moderate Muslims for the government to regulate or ban the FPI, but currently no action has been taken against the group.

The Amnesty International report also said that the Indonesian government has been hampering freedom of expression and that at least 114 people were detained in 2009 for public statements or demonstrations of dissent.

"The overwhelming majority [of those detained] were peaceful political activists who were sentenced to terms of imprisonment for raising prohibited pro-independence flags in Maluku or Papua," said the report.

As previously reported, separatists from the South Maluku Republic (RMS) group tried to wave an RMS flag in front of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's entourage during his visit to Maluku in June 2007.

RMS protesters performed an unscheduled cakalele war dance for a quarter hour before one protestor unfurled a large RMS flag during a ceremony to commemorate National Family Day.

The government said that the group's actions were a serious threat to the country's unity. Authorities detained a number of RMS activists in 2004 and 2005 who were later arrested and convicted for involvement in similar incidents.

Amnesty International also said that the government continued to intimidate and harass human rights activists and that at least seven activists were facing criminal defamation charges.

Most alleged human rights violations against human rights defenders, including torture, murder and disappearances, have remained unsolved and those responsible have not been brought to justice, the report said.

In the case of Munir Said Thalib, Amnesty International said that those responsible for slaying the human rights activist were still at large.

There were violent clashes throughout the year in Papua province, said the report. Police torture was widespread during a series of arrests, interrogations and detentions in Papua. Security forces also allegedly committed unlawful killings.

"In January, at least 75 villagers from Suluk Bongkal village, Riau Islands, were charged with illegally claiming land and were arrested after being forcefully evicted from the land," said the report.

The group also criticized the government for a failure to bring to justice past human rights violators in Aceh, Papua, East Timor (now Timor Leste) and elsewhere in the archipelago.

Children 'unaware' of their rights

Jakarta Post - May 27, 2010

Dina Indrasafitri, Jakarta – Can a nation protect its own children if so many of them are unaware of their own rights?

In 1990, Indonesia ratified the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

However, a coalition of NGOs have said that many of the nation's children still feel deprived of their rights to safety and to be free from discrimination. Some of them are not aware that the nation guarantees them those rights.

A coalition of national NGOs, supported by a consortium of international NGOs including Save the Children and Plan, issued a review of the implementation of CRC in Indonesia from 1997 to 2009.

The review included a survey that involved 377 children from 14 categories, including drop-outs, street children and children who have become victims of conflicts.

However, only 62 percent of those children said that they had heard of the CRC. Out of that 62 percent, only 2 percent said they had learned of the CRC from the government. The majority said that NGOs had informed them of the CRC.

Hening Budiyawati, who led the survey, said that most of the 377 children felt that their rights had not been fulfilled, and that they felt unsafe in their lives.

"They feel that [the government] has yet to involve them in decisions that change their lives or the forming of development poli-cies that will affect their situation," she said.

Tika Ayu, one of the children who participated in the consultation, said that Indonesian students were taught in school about human rights, but not children's rights.

"We must admit that there have been several developments, especially in judicial aspects and also specifically to do with the rights of children," Ahmad Taufan Damanik, head of the presidium of the national coalition, said.

He cited several examples of such progress, including the ratification of conventions and covenants, including the ratification of the 1957 ILO convention on the eradication of forced labor and the passing of the 2002 law on child protection.

But several of the nation's laws might systematically hinder its efforts to protect children's rights, Ahmad said.

Those laws include the 1974 law on marriage. According to one of its articles, a marriage is permitted when the man has reached the age of 19 and the woman 16. Ahmad said that the law was discriminatory because it differentiated between men and women.

Furthermore, he said, the law also stipulates that dispensation requested by the parents of both children who plan to get married can be issued to girls of 16 or older and boys of 19 or older.

Another point highlighted by the report concerns the treatment of children accused of violating the law. This includes laws governing trial procedures and jail sentences.

Hening said the legal processes for children charged under the criminal law often stripped children of their rights, including their right to education.

"When a child is arrested, or has their case processed legally, their right to freedom is the one that is stripped, but the other ones, such as the right to education or health, must still be fulfilled," she said. The juvenile court law sets the minimum age at which a child can incur sanctions at 8.

Wahyu Hartomo, the assistant deputy for Children's Social Problems at the Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry, said that the government had already made its own report this year on the implementation of CRC in Indonesia.

Probe into FPI 'drag queen' raid demanded

Jakarta Globe - May 26, 2010

Dessy Sagita & Zaky Pawas – As the National Commission on Human Rights on Wednesday told police to investigate hard-liners from the Islamic Defenders Front for raiding and forcefully shutting down a civil-rights training session for transsexuals last month, a transsexual said such intimidation would not deter her or her friends from attending future sessions.

"Any activity that educates should be supported, not dissolved. We expect being treated as equals. No such acts will scare me or my friends," Merlyn Sopjan, head of the Malang Transsexuals Association (Iwama), told the Jakarta Globe.

"To intimidate someone in the name of religion will only worsen the image of that hard-line group because many Indonesian Muslims despise their violent acts."

Merlyn was referring to last month's raid in Depok, when dozens of Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) members charged into a session organized by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

Meanwhile, Komnas HAM commissioner Hestiarmi Wulan pushed police to investigate the raid. "That raid insulted the commission, because we were in the midst of giving a human-rights training session. Our job is to impart knowledge of one's legal rights to society. Transsexuals are a part of our society."

Police were unable to do much when the group burst into a room at the Bumi Wiyata Hotel in Depok where the training session was being held, panicking about 25 transsexuals present.

The FPI's Depok chapter head, Idrus Al-Ghodri, said the training should be halted because it recognized the transsexual community. Idrus said his organization also believed the organizers had not asked permission from local community leaders, the Depok city authority and the police.

The head of the Depok Police detective unit, Comr. Ade Rahmat, has said the FPI members came in the erroneous belief that it was a drag-queen contest. The disruption lasted just 15 minutes before the FPI members, in long white tunics and white skull caps, left after negotiations with the police, Ade said.

He added that the event had been planned to be capped by a contest to elect a transsexual ambassador of human rights.

There were no injuries in the incident but some glass was broken. Ade said that the police didn't find any permit violation regarding the training.

Nurkholis, deputy head of Komnas HAM, said: "Minority groups like transsexuals, gays and lesbians are very prone to human-rights violations. They have to deal with negative stigma on a daily basis, that's why they need to understand everything about human rights.

"They need to know that everybody is equal before law, and that therefore they need to stand up and defend themselves when being abused or harassed."

Children's rights groups slam lack of government action

Jakarta Globe - May 25, 2010

Nurfika Osman – Calling on the government to listen to the cries of children across the country, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations on Tuesday detailed horror stories ranging from religious intolerance to sexual abuse.

Speaking at a news conference in Jakarta, Ahmad Taufik Damanik, executive coordinator of the National NGO Coalition for Child Rights Monitoring, said abuses continued to occur because children's rights issues were too often overlooked.

"In almost every planning session by the government, children's rights issues are put aside. In every planning document, be it at the national or provincial level, children's rights have never been considered as an indicator," he said.

"Children should be heard and their hopes and wishes should be fulfilled by the government."

The call comes as the government puts the finishing touches on its latest report on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which it ratified in 1990. The country is required to submit a report every five years but has so far failed to submit its third and fourth reports.

The coalition, meanwhile, on Tuesday released its own report on the implementation of the convention from 1997 to 2009. In it, a wide range of problems are detailed, including overlapping regulations and weak enforcement on issues such as health care, education and religious freedom.

In an accompanying documentary the coalition screened during the news conference, a teenage boy said he had been attacked because he belonged to Ahmadiyah, a minority Islamic sect that has often been the target of discrimination. "They kept beating me because I belong to Ahmadiyah, and nobody tried to save me," he said.

A teenage girl, also from Ahmadiyah, said her teachers did not allow her to take the final examination for Islamic studies. "There was no sholat [prayer] practice for the Ahmadiyah students. The teachers did not let us take the test," she said. "They only gave us a written quiz."

Another boy who was arrested for a minor crime said children were not treated well in prison, especially if they were from Ahmadiyah. "Everyone gets beaten up. Guilty or not, they force us to say that we are guilty," he said.

He said police placed him in detention centers designated for adults, and that he was asked for a bribe by prosecutors during his trial. "We are poor people so how can we pay them?" he said. "They are heartless and bandits. They kept trying to prolong the legal process; if we had money, the trial would have been quick."

The boy also said the food in jail was bad. "It was not even good enough for animals," he said.

The three teenagers in the film, whose identities were not disclosed to protect them, are currently in West Java and in the care of the NGO coalition, which has been working with other international groups such as ChildFund Indonesia, Plan, Save the Children, Terre de Hommes and World Vision. All the incidents discussed in the film occurred last year.

Tika, a high school student from Semarang who was at the news conference, said children were not aware of their rights.

"I think the government should promote this so that people know our rights and, most important, that we also know what our rights are," she said. "I just know that we have the right to participate in anything, such as in the process to draft the government report."

According to Tika, the worst form of abuse against children is sexual abuse. "Children who are abused sexually can be infected with HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases," she said.

Maxie, an Ambonese boy who witnessed the violence that tore the city apart in 1999, said children in conflict areas were subject to physical abuse and violence. "We could die at any moment," he said at the news conference.

Rudy Purboyo, a spokesman for the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, told Jakarta Globe that it was still coordinating with other ministries to complete the UN report, but added: "We would never neglect the rights of children, because that is our job.

Labour/migrant workers

Workers demand better pay

Jakarta Post - May 31, 2010

Desy Nurhayati, Denpasar – The Bali Tourism Union is calling on the provincial administration to immediately set a minimum wage for their members.

The union says that the standardized wage is crucial for workers, given that tourism was the main source of income on the resort island.

Union head Putu Satyawira said that since tourism was the breadwinning sector in the island, workers and related stakeholders had the potential to have higher spending in the market.

"People on the island make their money from tourism. Therefore, the wage system for tourism workers should be standardized to ensure better livelihoods, which will then have a multiplying effect in other sectors," Satyawira said.

There are around 16,000 tourism workers in Bali, mostly in Badung regency, who work in many popular tourist spots such as Kuta and Nusa Dua.

According to Satyawira, the current wage scheme for the workers in all fields uses a minimum wage set by the regency administration as the benchmark. In Badung, for instance, the minimum wage is Rp 1.1 million (US$110).

He said the minimum wage should be at least the same or exceed the wage calculated using the survey of appropriate living standards (KHL) regulated under the 2005 regulation by the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry.

"Based on the survey in June 2009, a minimum wage for a single worker, who has been working less than a year, with a daily need of 3,000 calories, is set at around Rp 1.33 million. Therefore, the current wage is still below the KHL standard," he stressed.

Satyawira said the demand for a minimum wage system for tourism workers was not aimed to discriminate the sector from others.

"It's not that tourism workers want to be treated differently, we just want tourism workers to have a positive economic impact in terms of higher consumer spending in other sectors," he said.

He emphasized that the minimum wage excluded service charges that the workers usually received from customers, saying that the wage only covered a sum of money the workers earn from their employers.

He said the administration should draft a regulation, in which there were classifications to determine the amount of minimum wage the workers could earn. "The classification can be based on, for instance, the rank of hotels or restaurants the workers are employed in."

The workers' union also expects the provincial administration to have set up the minimum wage scheme by next year or by 2012, and to set a specific time target to achieve 100 percent of the KHL standard.

Commenting on the workers' demands, head of the Bali chapter of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) Tjokorda Artha Ardana Sukowati, known as Cok Ace, said the association would be open to discuss the issue along with tourist operator organizations and related stakeholders.

He said that wage was only one of many components concerning the monthly income of workers.

"One of the biggest contributions to the workers' monthly income is the service charge in hotels and restaurants, which is 10 percent of the rate. Wage is only a small portion of their take- home pay every month," Cok Ace told The Jakarta Post.

"That's why many workers in the tourism sector can survive in low season, because they not only rely on salaries from their companies, they also have other sources of income. Basically we are open to discuss this issue to find a favorable solution for all parties," he added.

Environment/natural disasters

Indonesia to scrap permits to save forests, official claims

Reuters - May 31, 2010

Sunanda Creagh – Indonesia will revoke existing forestry licences held by palm oil and timber firms to save natural forests under a $1 billion climate change deal signed with Norway last week, a government official said on Monday.

Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who announced the deal last week in Oslo, said new concessions for the conversion of natural forest and peatlands would be suspended for two years. But he did not say at the time how existing concessions would be affected.

Preserving forests is seen as crucial to slowing climate change because trees absorb enormous amounts of greenhouse gases.

Indonesia has huge tracts of tropical forests but a rapid deforestation rate. It has pledged to cut emissions by 2020 to 26 percent lower than the level if no action were taken or 41 percent lower if it is able to secure foreign funding and other assistance, like technology.

Part of the $1 billion promised by Norway will be spent on compensating businesses that have existing concessions cancelled in order to keep forests standing, said Agus Purnomo, head of the secretariat of Indonesia's National Climate Change Council.

"When you revoke licences, when you cancel things, it involves money," Purnomo said. "It's not that we will cancel all licences but 1/8 only 3/8 if there is a need to do so" to keep primary forest intact, he said.

Compensation to permit holders could include cash, land swaps or other "amicable, workable and realistic solutions," he said.

Palm oil firms such as Wilmar and Indofood Agri Resources have ambitious expansion plans in Indonesia, already the largest producer of an oil used to make products ranging from chocolate to soap. Palm oil and pulp and paper firms are most likely to be affected, said Purnomo.

"But I am not ruling out any possibility. The spirit of the agreement was to save the remaining natural forest and peatland and we will do whatever humanly possibly to make it happen, within the legal context of Indonesia," he said.

"If we have to go through cancellations in the court system, we will do it." Permit holders will find out within six months if their concessions will be honoured, he said.

"Some of them don't have a valid permit, they are just making a claim," said Purnomo. "If they don't have a valid permit, we are not going to compensate. If they are getting it through bribery, we are not going to give" compensation.

Four years on, victims of Lapindo mudflow still in limbo

Jakarta Post - May 30, 2010

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Hundreds of people and activists staged a rally to mark the fourth year since the Sidoarjo mudflow submerged thousands of houses in Sidoarjo, East Java.

Meanwhile, hundreds of others commemorated in Porong, Sidoarjo, by staging a concert, shadow puppet play and traditional East Javanese ludruk theater performances.

In Jakarta, activists staged a play in which two men smeared with mud bemoaned their fate as all their belongings were lost to the mudflow.

The play also featured two men wearing the masks of Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. In the play, the two men gave the impression that they ignored the plight of the victims.

"It symbolizes the lack of action by the government in dealing with the mudflow case, leaving the victims in limbo," Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) coordinator Andri S. Wijaya said.

He said the government had not taken any concrete steps to uphold justice in the case in the past four years. "The most pressing concern is the government's lack of attention to the fate of school-aged children and women," he said.

The protesters rallying in front of the presidential office included activists from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Institute Hijau Indonesia, Women's Solidarity and People's Coalition for Justice in Fisheries (Kiara).

Activists from Jatam in East Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, Yogyakarta and Sidoarjo also held separate rallies to mark the anniversary.

Dozens of Jatam activists in East Kalimantan threw mud at the offices of PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) as a sign of protest. The Bakrie & Brothers own a 7 percent stake in KPC's parent unit, PT Bumi Resources.

In Sidoarjo, an event was held for hundreds of victims from nine villages including Kedungbendo, Siring, Jatirejo, Renokenongo, Gempolsari and Besuki and organized by art community Taring Padi and NGO Lafadl Initiative.

Event organizers said they aimed at sending message to the public not to forget the disaster and that in the past four years the government was oblivious to gross human rights violations resulting from the disaster.

Community Legal Aid chairman Taufik Basari criticized the authorities for not enforcing the law since the mudflow disaster occurred. "The poor law enforcement only created uncertainty for the future of the victims. It is not clear when they will be compensated, how much and in what way," he said.

The government allocated Rp 5.3 billion (US$572,000) for the Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency in 2007 and an additional Rp 500 billion in 2008. The government spent Rp 1.1 trillion on the Lapindo case in 2008 and an additional Rp 1.14 trillion in 2009.

Indonesia's tiger-whisperer works his magic in the forest

Melbourne Age - May 29, 2010

Allard, West Aceh – As conflict between villagers and the endangered Sumatran tiger becomes increasingly common, Acehnese authorities have turned to a novel solution, hiring a full-time pawang harimau, or tiger magician, to commune with the magnificent beasts and encourage them to return to the forests.

Using chants and incantations while holding an amulet, Sarwani Sabi says he can talk to tigers and persuade them to leave the villages they now frequently visit to find food as their forest habitat diminishes.

"I just go to where the tigers have been and wait there and pray," says the sprightly 70-year-old farmer and father of 10. "Then, if I see the tiger, I will start talking to them."

Watching Mr Sarwani communicating with tigers at close quarters when they are often distressed or hungry is extraordinary, says Abu Bakar Chekmat, head of Aceh's Natural Resources Conservation Agency and Mr Sarwani's boss.

"I don't really know how he does it. Perhaps it doesn't make sense but that's the knowledge he has," he says. "If the tigers are guilty, he will catch them. If they are not, they will go away... that's his wisdom."

By guilty, Mr Abu Bakar means inclined to attack humans. For it is on this topic, that Mr Sarwani talks to the tigers. The "good tigers", he says, agree not to eat humans and head back to the forest. This happens in most cases, he says, and they never return.

The "bad ones" refuse to leave. Only then will Mr Sarwani set a trap, using a live goat or dog as bait. The tigers are then taken into the agency's care to be released into the forest.

Only 500 Sumatran tigers remain in the wild, roaming the forests of Indonesia's large northern island but under siege as logging reduces forests and poachers seek pelts and body parts to use in medicine. About 154 tigers live in Aceh, the province on the island's northern tip and this year alone there have been seven instances of tigers coming into villages searching for food.

According to Mr Abu Bakar, the end of the long-running civil war between separatists and the Indonesian military has increased contact between tigers and humans.

"People left their plantations and gardens because of the fighting. They then became the habitat of the tigers. After the peace deal the contacts have intensified as people returned," he says. Even so, deforestation is by far the biggest contributor to human-tiger conflict.

Mr Sarwani has been a tiger magician since the age of 15, learning the techniques from his grandmother and father.

"Some say I have magic powers," he says. "But I say these powers come from Allah. There is a verse in the Koran about taming animals and I use that, and other things."

Mr Sarwani has been called in to communicate with 70 tigers in his career, usually working free of charge. He is one of the last practitioners of an art that has been passed through the generations.

Palm oil industry safe from forest moratorium

Jakarta Post - May 29, 2010

Aditya Suharmoko, Oslo – Existing palm oil contracts will be exempt from a two-year moratorium on new concessions to clear the nation's natural forests and peatlands, says President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

In a historic agreement with Norway, Indonesia pledged to support a two-year moratorium on new concessions that permit conversion of virgin forests and peatlands into plantations.

In exchange, Indonesia will receive a US$1 billion grant from Norway to reduce deforestation in the country. Indonesia is also required to establish a special team to oversee the disbursement of the fund.

The moratorium has raised questions about the expansion of palm oil businesses in Indonesia, which, together with Malaysia, account for almost 90 percent of the world's palm oil production.

Yudhoyono said palm oil plantation companies could continue their businesses in Indonesia.

"We have a policy to use degraded land... for the continuation of the palm oil industry in Indonesia," he said in a joint press conference with Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at Holmenkollen Park Hotel Rica during the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference.

Yudhoyono said he would ensure that the palm oil industry could continue business-as-usual while the nation's forests would be protected. "[There is] degraded land that can be utilized for agriculture, including palm oil," the President said.

The countries involved pledged to provide US$4 billion between 2010 and 2012 to preserve the world's forests.

That amount reflects an increase from $3.5 billion originally pledged in Copenhagen in December 2010, Stoltenberg said during the conference.

"There was [also] a new commitment from Denmark during this meeting," Stoltenberg said. He did not provide a specific figure for the commitment.

Germany also pledged 350 million euros ($371 million) to support the commitment, said Stoltenberg. Other major contributors included the US, Norway, France, the United Kingdom and Japan, he added.

He said the money would come from the Norwegian government's budget, but he expected that the private sector could contribute up to $30 million by 2012.

Developed countries' large budget deficits after the 2008 global financial crisis and the current euro debt crisis would limit public sector contributions, he said. However, businessmen such as financier George Soros and Microsoft founder Bill Gates had expressed interest in contributing, said Stoltenberg.

"There is no way to get the money without mobilizing the private sector, " he said.

Money might also be mobilized by other means, including carbon pricing, carbon taxes, emissions trading and charges on air tickets and maritime transportation, he added.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia expected to reduce emissions by 26 percent in 2020 with its own resources, or by 41 percent with international support.

The President and his entourage arrived in Oslo on Wednesday. He left Norway on Friday and is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Saturday morning.

After four years of mud, Sidoarjo blame question lingers

Jakarta Globe - May 28, 2010

Green groups blasted the government on Friday for failing to seriously consider and take action on the lives ruined as a result of Lusi, the gigantic mud volcano which continues to spew toxic sludge in Sidoarjo, East Java, four years after it erupted.

The disaster has inundated hundreds of hectares of land, leaving thousands homeless, but the controversy does not end there, green groups pointed out.

"It would need political bravery from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to open this case again, because then the police and the Attorney General's Office would review the decisions on why the investigation was stopped," said Chalid Muhammad, head of the Indonesian Green Institute, at Friday's media briefing during a commemoration event for the four-year anniversary of the mud flow.

Independent foreign experts have concluded that haphazard gas exploration drilling by PT Lapindo Brantas, a company linked to Aburizal Bakrie, was almost certainly responsible. Aburizal was recently appointed managing chairman of a joint secretariat set up by President Yudhoyono's ruling coalition.

Lapindo and the government have in turn laid the blame for the eruption on an earthquake that struck days before, about 280 kilometers away, a theory that has been dismissed as insufficient by foreign scientists.

Yudhoyono ordered the company to pay about $400 million for mud containment efforts and compensation to more than 10,000 families.

But analysts believe the total cleanup, if it is ever done, will cost many billions. All attempts to plug the geyser have failed and new spouts are opening up, threatening to destroy more villages, homes and livelihoods in Sidoarjo. The mud lake is so huge – seven square kilometers in area and 20 meters deep – that it is now visible from space. Experts have warned that the mud may continue to flow for several decades.

Friday's commemoration was also supported by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), the Fisheries Justice Coalition (Kiara), Women's Solidarity for Human Rights, OneWorld, the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Imparsial, and the Community Legal Aid Institute (LBHM).

In August 2009, the East Java Police halted its probe into the case, citing a lack of witnesses to confirm a link between the mud flow and drilling activities at Lapindo's Banjar Pandji I well, after the Supreme Court backed up a decision by the South Jakarta District Court denying a lawsuit by the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation that charged Lapindo was responsible for the ongoing eruption of hot mud.

Chalid said he was very pessimistic, citing the "fact that the No. 1 man in the country had no political bravery" to solve the mud flow disaster case.

The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation's Zainal Abidin voiced the same sentiment, saying investigators were taking a cue from the president. "Once there is a serious directive to deal with the case, then there will be serious action from them also," Zainal said.

Indonesia agrees to 2-year freeze on forest concessions

Jakarta Globe - May 27, 2010

Abe Silangit & Fidelis E. Satriastanti, Oslo – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced on Wednesday that Indonesia would stop issuing new concessions for peatlands and natural forests for two years, effectively imposing a temporary halt on deforestation.

The decision was part of a deal reached with Norway, which has agreed to grant $1 billion to help preserve the Indonesian forests.

"We will conduct a moratorium for two years where we stop the conversion of peatland forest," Yudhoyono said at a joint news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

"Sufficient non-forest lands exist for Indonesia to accommodate the growth of its vitally important plantation industries, a major source of livelihoods," the Indonesian government delegation in Oslo said.

The agreement will be legally binding once Norway signs a deal with the financial institution managing the fund. Fitrian Ardiansyah, World Wildlife Fund Indonesia's climate and energy director, welcomed the move but said it still depended on how the government treated the moratorium.

"It could be a good opportunity if those two years were used to review development plans to decide whether programs such as the Merauke food estate are beneficial."

The massive Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate in Papua, activists say, will see more than 1.1 million hectares of forests felled. Presidential climate adviser Agus Purnomo said, "we will work it out so that there will be no peatlands converted."

But Elfian Effendi of Greenomics Indonesia was unconvinced. "I'm sure in the process Norway will be disappointed with Indonesia in keeping the agreement."

Greenomics said earlier this year that the Ministry of Forestry's proposed forestry program put about 3.4 million hectares of forests at risk of development over the next 10 years.

Bottled water firms should be held responsible: Wahli

Jakarta Post - May 26, 2010

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Malang, East Java – Deforestation on the slopes of Mt. Arjuna in Pasuruan regency has reached alarming levels and private companies benefiting from its natural resources need to take responsibility, says the Each Java branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).

Purnawan Dwikora Negara, a Wahli coordinator in East Java, said that deforestation posed dangers to people living around the forest.

Data shows that of the 15,600 hectares of protected forest area, about 3,400 hectares are damaged and categorized as critical, in addition to another 402 hectares that were burned in 2009.

"What makes it alarming is the damaged forest has functioned as a water catchment area that supplies springs and underground water reserves," Purnawan said recently, adding that reforestation efforts by plating trees must be urgently pursued.

Private companies, such as bottled water companies, have also benefited from the springs and must be held responsible and pay compensation to the community, he said.

There are 14 bottled water companies operating at Mt. Arjuna, including PT Tirta Investama, with its product Danone Aqua. The company has been granted a concession that allows it to take water at a rate of 50 liters per second from the Pandaan water spring.

Around 1,500 truck tanks, each holding a capacity of 5,000 liters, carry water from the water springs in Mt. Arjuna to be sold to Surabaya, Sidoarjo, and Pasuruan.

While exploiting the water resources, the companies have criticized for their lack of environmental conservation. Several companies have implemented corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, but groups such as Wahli say the results have been minimal so far.

For Walhi, companies should be obliged to allocate 60 percent of its revenue for reforestation. "Take it as an environmental fee because they get everything for free," Purnawan said.

However, the CSR manager for Danone Aqua in the East Java region, Arief Fatullah, denied suggestions his company was not giving back. He said they planted 30,000 seedlings from 2008-2009, which would be followed by another 50,000 this year.

"We are also implementing foster forest programs in a total area of 72 hectares. That's part of the Arjuna Mountain forest conservation," Arief said.

He said the company had spent Rp 2 billion on its CSR program in East Java, but Purnawan said the sum was not comparable to the company's huge revenue.

Newmont didn't pollute Buyat, new study finds

Jakarta Globe - May 24, 2010

Fidelis E Satriastanti – A probe by a panel of experts has found that gold miner PT Newmont Minahasa Raya did not do harm to the environment over years of dumping mine tailings into Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi.

In a report issued on Saturday, the panel said the seawater quality in the surrounding areas met national and international standards.

Since 1996, the gold mining company has been releasing tailings from its mine into the bottom of the bay, attracting strong criticism from local residents and green groups, who have accused it of polluting seawater and affecting people's health. Tailings are the portions of ore left over after the gold has been separated out.

The independent scientific panel was established under the so- called Goodwill Agreement entered into by the government and the Newmont subsidiary. It comprises experts from Manado State University, Sam Ratulangi University, the University of Indonesia and foreign scientists from Australia and the United States.

Panel member Amin Soebandrio said the group had examined all aspects of the water, including physical, chemical and biological measurements, before determining that arsenic and mercury levels fell within national and international standards.

"We also compared fish captured within 10 kilometers of the area with those captured in other coastal areas, and their heavy metal contents were also very low," said Amin, from the University of Indonesia.

But Rignolda Djamaluddin, director of Manado-based Kelola Foundation, said the findings ignored important aspects such as biodiversity and social welfare.

"We proposed for them to check on the impact on fish by breeding them on site. We also asked them to examine cells on the algae, but not one of our considerations was included," said Rignolda, who has participated in the Buyat research since the beginning. "They also did not include the impact on the ground, whether the pollution had reached people's wells to cause so many diseases."

Residents in the area have long reported inordinate numbers of seizures, headaches, lumps, skin irritations and birth defects.

He also demanded the State Ministry for Research and Technology evaluate the work of the team, which he believed leaned toward believing that the company had not polluted the areas.

However, Amin said the panel's task was only to test the condition of the water around the tailings and not to deal with ground contamination.

"There has been an assumption from the Ministry of Health that there are increased levels of arsenic and mercury in the wells, but it's not in our authority to make that connection," he said.

"But if we have already discovered no arsenic or mercury in the seawater, then there is no reason to check the groundwater, especially considering that people's wells are far away from the ocean."

He insisted the panel had no relationship with Newmont. "The panel was not authorized to do sampling; we only worked and analyzed the data presented to us by an independent contractor."

Indonesia's biodiversity under serious threat: LIPI

Jakarta Post - May 24, 2010

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) urged the public and government Saturday to improve awareness about conserving Indonesia's precious biodiversity, which is under threat from population growth and deforestation.

The LIPI's Umar Anggara Jenie, said that Indonesia should do more to save its vast biodiversity, which plays a pivotal role in providing essential needs, such as food.

"We need to do more taxonomy (classifying organism) and conservation," Umar said at an event held in observance of the International Day for Biological Diversity at Cibinong Science Center in Bogor, West Java.

The theme of this year's observance was Biodiversity for Development and Poverty Alleviation. The event also featured an exhibition on biodiversity, conservation and a seminar.

According to the LIPI, Indonesia boats more than 38,000 species of plants, of which 55 percent are native. The richness has made Indonesia the world's fifth-most wealthy country in terms of biodiversity.

"We have identified around one million species of animals and plants in Indonesia with more yet to be identified," said the head of LIPI's Biology Research Center, Siti Nuramaliati Prijono.

The data can be accessed through the Indonesian Biodiversity Information System (IBIS) online at ibis. biologi.lipi.go.id. It contains information about species in Indonesia. "Biodiversity is a strategic asset that can boost our nation's self-reliance and competitiveness," Umar said.

"Unchecked, rapid development along with swelling population growth is threatening our precious diversity." The LIPI is advocating a more environmentally friendly approach to development.

As part of its conservation efforts, Indonesia has ratified the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and passed a law on its ratification in 1994.

"Among the conservation activities the government has implemented are the breeding of endangered animals in their natural habitat and outside, as well as setting a strict quota on the export of certain species," the director of biodiversity for the Environment Ministry, Hary Santoso, told The Jakarta Post.

Critics, however, said the government's claims that it was making efforts to preserve biodiversity were hollow as widespread deforestation still threatened wild habitats. Bogor Agriculture Institute (IPB) entomologist Damayanti Buchori said damage of habitat and lack of political will from government and politicians had been the main threat to biodiversity.

"I feel very great concern with high deforestation for mining to plantations; what do we do to stop it if the country wants to conserve biodiversity," Damayanti, who was also lead scientist at the Nature Conservancy (TNC) said. (ipa)

Women & gender

Agency launches empowerment program for female workers

Jakarta Post - May 29, 2010

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) launched Thursday an empowerment program for former and hopeful female migrant workers in three Java provinces.

Set to benefit about 5,000 workers in 90 subdistricts in Indramayu in West Java, Sragen in Central Java and Banyuwangi in East Java, the "Empowerment Program for Female Migrant Workers and Their Families" has been funded by Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) and fully supported by the World Bank.

Similar programs funded by Ausaid have been in effect since last year in West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara; two provinces that contribute a significant number of Indonesian workers overseas.

"Core issues the participants will learn from the program are access to finance, access to information, and setup mechanism at local level," BNP2TKI chairman Jumhur Hidayat told The Jakarta Post Thursday after the launch.

World Bank Social Development gender specialist Dewayani, responsible for the monitoring of the bank's technical assistance for the program, said it could help participants understand how to access loans to finance their departure abroad and how to benefit from their remittance funds, among others.

Jumhur said the program targets female migrant workers in particular, as they make up over 70 percent of Indonesians working overseas.

"And over 95 percent of Indonesian migrant workers currently in trouble are women. This is related to the fact that, while male workers usually work at the formal sector, women usually work in the informal sector, generally as domestic workers," he said.

Problems mostly faced by workers, who currently number over 1,000 according to BNP2TKI records, are unpaid salaries, abuses and one-side lay off, Jumhur said.

The World Bank and BNP2TKI said in a joint press statement regarding the program that it was aimed at ensuring recruitment of migrant workers through official way, improving the workers' access to financial services and improving supporting mechanism for secure migration.

"The program was born due to the fact that a large number of workers sent overseas have yet to be a subject of sufficient protection neither before and during the placement nor upon their return to Indonesia," the statement says.

Lisna Poeloengan, acting director for protection at the BNP2TKI, said there were about six million Indonesian workers overseas according to 2008 record.

The International Labour Organization said these workers sent over US$6 billion of remittance to Indonesia every year.

West Java, Central Java and East Java have been picked for the program because they are among regions in the country that send largest numbers of migrant workers.

In 2009, West Java alone recorded remittance of Rp 80 billion per day or about Rp 2.9 trillion a year from overseas workers, while Central Java and East Java Rp 8 trillion and Rp 2.5 trillion per year, respectively.

The number of migrant workers from Central Java and East Java have increased by 100 percent and 80 percent, respectively, in 2008 and 2009; while in West Java the figure has been relatively the same.

The program will last until March 2012, with funding from JSDF amounting to $1.56 million in total.

Women in politics: Players or puppets?

Jakarta Globe - May 28, 2010

Dewi Kurniawati – Yuli Rahmawati stepped into Indonesia's political ring for the first time last month. Given that she is better known as sex kitten model and actress Julia Perez, she decided to live up to her sultry reputation.

Perez sported nine-centimeter heels and oversized sunglasses as she made her first appearance as candidate for deputy district head in Pacitan, hometown of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in East Java.

Affectionately known as Jupe, Perez's visit was her maiden attempt to win over voters.

She has triggered a national debate over whether celebrities should be running for office. Many shook their heads in disbelief following her decision to jump into the race. Among the public, some view the phenomenon of actors, singers, comedians and other famous Indonesians hitting the campaign trail as politics at its lowest form. They aren't alone – even Perez was initially taken aback by her nomination.

"The first thing that crossed my mind was, 'Is this some kind of a joke? Is this for real?', because all this time I never imagined myself going into politics," she told Jakarta Globe during a two-hour car ride from Yogyakarta to Pacitan to launch her political adventure.

"But then I saw this as a chance passing in front of me. So I grabbed it. Hopefully my nomination will inspire Indonesia's youth to get involve in developing this country."

While Perez is backed by a coalition of eight political parties for her run in Pacitan, her nomination also exemplifies the problems afflicting politics.

With a lack of strong candidates and political leaders, some parties are turning to celebrities to help attract votes in both local and national elections.

While they may draw a crowd, these celebrities – many of whom are women – lack experience or an understanding of grassroots issues, prompting accusations that they're simply the puppets of local political bosses.

Perez is far more famous for racy bikini and lingerie photo shoots than her knowledge of government budgets or bread and butter issues such as food and fuel subsidies.

Regardless, she rejects the argument that she's nothing more than window dressing. "The coalition thinks I have potential. I speak three languages, and as such I can lure investors to come and help build Pacitan," she said.

The nomination of Perez has polarized the electorate and officials alike, with the Ministry of Home Affairs threatening to enact new election regulations that would require candidates to pass a morality test and have prior experience working in government or in a political or civil society organization.

The morality clauses, said Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi, would ban candidates who were drinkers, adulterers, gamblers and drug users, among other offenses. Perez has remained diplomatic amid the controversy.

"I respect what the minister said, but I'm just responding to what life offers me. Pros and cons are part of democracy," she said. "People might reject me because they think I'm not serious, but in time they will come to see that I'm very serious about jumping into politics."

Puppet Masters

Sutikno, head of Perez's coalition campaign team from the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), said they were considering five possible candidates to run for district head alongside Julia, including a cousin of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is from Pacitan.

"There is this thinking, since Pacitan is President Yudhoyono's birthplace, that then we should let his Democratic Party win the district chief election without a fight," Sutikno told the Jakarta Globe.

Despite his claims to have carried out a thorough vetting process, some Pacitan voters said Sutikno was clearly taking advantage of the notoriety of Perez and Yudhoyono's cousin, Nurcahyono, to win.

"Jupe's nomination is a total joke. We laugh about it because we all know who's behind her," said batik shop owner Ratnasari, referring to Sutikno. "We'll do whatever we can to stop her running." "He's just a political broker for the sake of money," another Pacitan resident told the Globe.

Using women as the face of campaigns is a somewhat new trend in the country's political scene. Many female candidates in local elections being held across the country this year have ties to sitting officials.

One example is Haryanti, the first wife of district head Sutrisno in Kediri. She ran against her husband's second wife, Nurlaila, for Sutrisno's vacant seat on May 12 and won.

Before the vote, Nurlaila said she was running because she was sick and tired of mismanagement – and allegations of corruption – within the Kediri administration. She received no political backing from her husband, who is ineligible to seek a third straight term and who, according to Nurlaila, backed his first wife.

"It was a challenge to face the first wife in this race. They did everything to sabotage my run for the seat," Nurlaila said.

Although familiar with politics from her previous job as village chief for 23 years, she said the race for district chief was a grind.

"It was extremely difficult for me to get a political vehicle. Many parties were sabotaged by the incumbent," she said, adding that she cut all communications with her husband before the election.

"They are now my political enemies," Nuraila said. "Political parties asked for money from me to get their support. That's a must, because I couldn't have run without their support."

Political analysts say women have a much tougher time getting elected than their male counterparts now that voters directly elect them, because they have fewer financial resources.

Despite losing, Nurlaila said she was proud to have run without any political backing from her husband. She also said celebrity candidates didn't need to be backed by local or even national political power brokers. "If you can be an actor, why should you be a puppet?" she said.

Angelina Sondakh, a former Miss Indonesia who is now a member of the House of Representative (DPR) from the Democratic Party, said women needed to genuinely fight for their roles and position in politics, not just be token candidates.

"What I learned in Parliament is that you have to fight to be heard and get what you want. We have to be fully equipped and resourceful, or else they think you know nothing," Sondakh said.

"The problem is, political parties only see women as dessert, not the main course," she said. "I also see female celebrities being used as puppets. I encourage women to be involved in decision making, not just become ceremonial officials."

Many celebrities, Sondakh said, had very little knowledge of politics and important issues, which was why they were easily manipulated. "They should negotiate about their exact role the second they are approached by political parties to be a candidate," she said.

Politics lecturer Maswadi Rauf, from the University of Indonesia, said many celebrity candidates lacked the capability, experience and knowledge to be good candidates.

"Most of them know nothing about politics, regardless of their gender," he said. "And political parties want the easiest and cheapest way to get votes. They both are responsible for this chaos."

Hungry for power

Money politics is an oft-made allegation during elections, but it's always very difficult to prove.

It was crystal clear, however, in the case of Ratih Sanggarwati, a former top model in the 1980s who earlier this month ran unsuccessfully for district chief of Ngawi, East Java.

Her humble house in the center of Ngawi was also her campaign headquarters. Ratih had secured support from two Islamic-based parties – the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB).

What distinguished Ratih from her rivals was that her headquarters was open to the poor, especially local pedicab drivers, who were given three free meals a day. On the day that she outlined her platform and guiding vision at the local legislature building, about 700 of them rallied to support her.

"I support her because I want changes," said pedicab driver Sudarman, while tucking into breakfast at Ratih's house just before the May 12 election.

Everything about Sanggarwati's campaign seemed genuine enough until half an hour later, when one of her campaign team explained the scheduled activities for that day and then fielded questions from the assembled supporters.

One pedicab driver quickly raised his hand and asked: "Are we going to get money if we go with you today?"

When the campaign member replied "No!", most of the drivers immediately began leaving. One of them yelled, "Boo! Why should we hang out here if you don't give us money!"

"That is the reality of politics," said Deni, a member of the campaign team. "Its common knowledge that you have to spend at least Rp 8 billion ($864,000) to get 30 percent of the votes."

In Indonesia's era of direct, free and fair elections, money can buy political machinery and sway voters, and the women who are trying to get into the game can't seem to free themselves from this reality.

Angelina Sondakh said she despised the practice, saying it was bad for potential female candidates.

"I think women should stay out of politics if they have to pay for political support," she said. "That means the parties take everything: your money, your popularity, what else? You have no pride left.

"When you give voters Rp 30,000 each, you leave damage for five years. It's supposed to be your job to educate them. If we have abilities, we don't have to buy votes, we don't have to spend money for political vehicles."

Sondakh said she did not pay for political backers or votes to win a seat in the House. "Women should know what they're getting into, because it's going to be hell," she said.

"There is no such thing as a free lunch. That is part of the political deal, and I think it's not wrong. It is just business as usual in this country."

Population & migration

Census: Indonesia grows by 3 million a year

Jakarta Globe - May 25, 2010

Camelia Pasandaran – Indonesia's population is continuing to grow rapidly, expanding by 30 million in the past decade, preliminary results of the national census show.

The world's fourth largest nation now numbers an estimated 235 million to 240 million people, Central Statistics Agency head Rusman Heriawan revealed on Monday.

With about 90 percent of the monthlong national census now completed, Rusman said the agency, better known as the BPS, believed the population would not top 240 million.

"The number of Indonesian people is between 235 and 240 million," he said on the sidelines of a food security conference.

The last national population census in 2000 put the population at 205 million, while the best estimates for 2009 were around 231 million, he said. The figures mean the nation has added three million people a year.

"We have to make new projections based on the census, such how to compose a food security strategy in regard to demand for rice, corn, beef and so on. We can no longer use the current data, but should make a prediction based on the population 10 years ahead," Rusman said.

Opening the conference, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Indonesia should be aware of the impact on food stocks of the fast-growing population.

"The population needs food," he said. "Meanwhile, around the world there is an increase in the number of middle-class people, who consume more food. Growing demand is not only caused by population growth but also the rise in their [prosperity] levels."

A population of 235 million this year would mean the annual population growth rate has averaged 1.4 percent over the past decade, while 240 million would mean an average annual growth rate of 1.6 percent.

Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said the rapid population growth showed the country's family planning program, remarkable for having successfully reined in an explosive population rise during the three decades under President Suharto, was no longer effective.

"Our family planning program is not running well, especially in outer regions," Gamawan said.

Suharto's program was internationally recognized as having pushed down the population growth rate to 1.6 percent by 1996 from 2.3 percent at its inception in 1972. The end of Suharto's highly centralized government in 1998 was followed by decentralization, which also resulted in a waning emphasis on family planning.

"Probably people have already forgotten the family planning program," Rusman said.

He said another aspect highlighted by the preliminary results was that migration patterns were changing. The largest migration levels were recorded in cities such as Denpasar, Manokwari in Papua, Mamuju in West Sulawesi, Batam and Pekanbaru in Riau.

"Denpasar and Manokwari have become migration destinations as they are provincial capitals," Rustam said. "Developing districts and cities such as Mamuju, Batam and Pekanbaru are also becoming target destinations. Regional autonomy has significantly changed the map of the Indonesian people."

The census is due to be completed by May 31.

Health & education

Indonesia under fire on world anti-tobacco day

Agence France Presse - May 31, 2010

Jakarta – Indonesia's failure to ban tobacco advertising or enforce laws against smoking in bars and restaurants came under heavy fire Monday as the United Nations marked world anti-tobacco day.

The country of some 240 million people is one of the last vestiges of laissez-faire tobacco controls in the world and is paying the price in terms of growing rates of addiction, especially among women and children.

Indonesia's addiction to tobacco and tobacco industry tax revenues were graphically illustrated last week with the release of a video on the Internet of a two-year-old Javanese boy with a 40-cigarette-a-day habit.

But Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said it was up to city governors to regulate smoking and tobacco advertising, effectively ruling out a national response.

"It is time we protect children and women from cigarette smoke. It requires courage to fight against tobacco," she said according to Vivanews.com news website as she urged city governors to issue tough anti-tobacco regulations.

Cigarette consumption in the Southeast Asian archipelago soared 47 percent in the 1990s, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Almost 70 percent of men over 20 years of age smoke and regular smoking among adult women almost tripled to 4.5 percent between 1995 and 2004.

Some cities including the capital Jakarta have set limits on smoking in public places but the rules are widely ignored, and tobacco advertising – much of it aimed at women and teenagers – is ubiquitous.

Tobacco companies such as Philip Morris subsidiary PT HM Sampoerna employ around six million Indonesians and contribute more than six billion dollars a year to state coffers in excise taxes alone.

Yet cigarettes remain extremely cheap by international standards, with a pack of 20 costing a little over a dollar.

"The spike in growth of new smokers in Indonesia cannot be separated from the country?s weak regulations and abysmal law enforcement on tobacco use," The Jakarta Globe said in an editorial.

"The government has shown no political will to take on the powerful tobacco industry despite a growing public outcry."

Indonesia is the only country in Asia not to have ratified the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

System cannot cope with 12 years of compulsory schooling: experts

Jakarta Globe - May 31, 2010

Putri Prameshwari – The government's intentions may be good, but education experts have serious doubts about whether the government can pull off its plan to introduce 12 years of compulsory education.

Satria Darma, chairman of the independent education watchdog Indonesian Teachers' Club, told the Jakarta Globe the country could not implement its nine-year compulsory system properly, let alone an expanded system. "Deal with the current program first before going to the next one," he said.

Children in this country are required to attend six years of elementary education and three in junior high. Many provinces offer a three-year senior high school program but it is not mandatory.

Students who quit after graduating from junior high can continue on at vocational schools but a senior high school diploma is required to enter college.

In a visit to a state high school in Bali last week, Vice President Boediono was asked by a student why the country had not implementing a 12-year system like most other countries.

"Globalization will mean we will be unable to compete with foreigners if we only have nine years of education," the student told the vice president. "What can a junior high school graduate do for work? The government should establish 12 years of basic education."

In response, Boediono said the government was committed to rolling out the program in stages. "We will use this program to increase the quality of our nation in an effective way," he said.

Many students are forced to drop out after elementary school so they could work to support their families. "Poverty is a classic reason for not being able to continue education," Satria said. "The government must to tackle this first."

Satria said he recently met a girl in Balikpapan who had to drop out after elementary school. "The girl became a prostitute because of the poverty she had to endure," he said.

According to Education Ministry data, this year only 69 percent of junior high school students are continuing on to senior high or vocational schools, while the rest dropped out after the national exams.

In theory, tuition is free at state schools, although in practice most schools require parents to contribute to an annual "maintenance fund." National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh acknowledged funding was an issue when it came to implementing the 12-year education system.

"If we could, we would start the 12-year program immediately," he said. "But since there is not enough money for it, we are introducing it gradually."

Nuh predicted the 12-year program would be implemented nationwide by 2014. Some provinces have already started requiring students to continue on to senior high level, including Jakarta, East Kalimantan, East Java and Bali.

"In Bali, 89 percent of junior high school students have enrolled for senior high school," Nuh said.

Arief Rachman, an education expert from the Jakarta State University, said Boediono's statement in Bali might just be a political move.

He said such a policy would mean nothing if it were not followed by a program outline. "It will take a long process of implementation," Arief said. "The government must sit down first with stakeholders."

Satria said that if the central government were serious, it was imperative that it issue a regulation detailing how the expansion would be implemented.

"For example if they apply a mandatory 12 years of study and a child cannot afford to enroll in a high school, what should the regional administration do about it?" he said.

Arief said the role of regional administrations was very important when it came to applying the changes as they were the ones that knew their respective areas.

With 51 million elementary and junior high school students across Indonesia, he said the program would be difficult to apply without good coordination at the federal and local level.

"The central government will not be able to do it alone," Arief said. Good preparation would determine which areas were prepared for the expansion and which were not.

Satria agreed, saying it would take much greater determination from regional administrations to apply a 12-year program. He said students in most regions were not given complete access to nine years of education as attending school was still too expensive for many.

"They still don't care about education, it's not their priority," Satria said. "As long as it is still that way, don't expect to raise the standard even higher."

Bank Century inquiry

PDI-P: Century case holds public officials hostage

Jakarta Post - May 28, 2010

Jakarta – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has urged for a quick legal settlement of the Bank Century bailout case as it has politically held a number of public officials hostage.

PDI-P Secretary General Tjahjo Kumolo warned law enforcers on Friday that they could prolong the political ordeal if they continued to drag their feet in dealing with the case.

"Therefore, the legal process must be accelerated," Tjahjo, who is also the PDI-P chairman at the House of Representatives, told Antara.

He was responding to the House's monitoring committee on Bank Century case which refused to continue its hearings with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police recently on the ground that the two law enforcement institutions did not use the House's recommendation as reference.

The House declared the bailout a flaw and recommended a legal process against those responsible for the policy, including Vice President Boediono, the Bank Indonesia governor when the bailout was approved in 2008, and former finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

Tjahjo said the PDI-P did not take seriously the failure of the police and KPK to launch investigations based on the House's findings and recommendation.

"The House's recommendation is a political decision and we do not want to meddle with the legal process. The police and KPK may not refer to the House's findings and recommendation," Tjahjo said.

AGO cannot touch Boediono, Mulyani

Jakarta Post - May 27, 2010

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – Former finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati can leave the country for the US with ease as the Attorney General's Office (AGO) said it could not touch her or Vice President Boediono in connection to the Bank Century bailout.

Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, told legislators at the House of Representatives on Wednesday the AGO could not summon Boediono and Mulyani for questioning related to the bailout as the case had been handled by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

"The 2002 law clearly states that if the KPK has begun an investigation into a certain case, then the AGO is not authorized to probe into the same case," Hendarman told reporters after a hearing with the House monitoring team on the Bank Century case.

"Only if the KPK decides to hand over the case to us could we launch an investigation."

The bailout, which rose tenfold to Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million) from its original estimate, was authorized in November 2008 by Mulyani and Boediono, the then Bank Indonesia governor.

Both Boediono and Mulyani have persistently defended the bailout as necessary move to save the country's banking industry from the adverse impacts of the global financial crisis

The House inquiry, however, found last March the bailout was flawed and riddled with graft. The lawmakers officially recommended legal measures by the AGO, KPK and the police against those held responsible for the bailout.

However, Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said the AGO could not summon Boediono and Mulyani for questioning because they had been summoned and investigated by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Hendrawan Supratikno from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) criticized the AGO's move, which he said focused mostly on Bank Century branch managers.

"Why haven't you investigated the middle level? This is the level where most of the violations occurred," said Hendarman.

Another team member, Tjatur Sapto Edi from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said he was unimpressed by the AGO's commitment and performance on following up the case.

"You [the AGO] only focused on the shareholders... what about other matters?" Tjatur said.

"I also feel confused about the division of labor among the AGO, the KPK and the police in the case. I would like to request you to reveal the respective authority of each institution in investigating the case."

The monitoring team's interim chairman, Priyo Budi Santoso from the Golkar Party, said that every single law enforcement institution had been moving too slow in investigating the case.

"We see and feel the law enforcers are not working at the level we need. There is progress, but it is still not enough by the House's standard," Priyo said.

"We want the case to be investigated at 120 kilometers per hour, while the law enforcers only manage to run at 70 kilometers per hour."

Priyo also said the team planned to have a simultaneous meeting with all three law enforcement institutions as soon as possible. "We are going to invite them all so that none of them can throw the responsibilities to the other," he said.

Graft & corruption

Corruption defense lawyers eye KPK chairmanship

Jakarta Post - May 29, 2010

Jakarta – More than 60 people have officially expressed interest in leading the country's antigraft commission, many of whom are surprisingly lawyers, including some who have defended alleged corrupters.

As of Thursday, the special committee tasked with selecting the chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had received applications from at least 63 aspiring candidates.

"In terms of profession, the applicants are dominated by lawyers," committee secretary Achmad Ubbe told The Jakarta Post on Friday, adding that scholars came in second, followed by NGO activists, police officers and bankers.

Danang Widoyoko of the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said he was concerned about the trend. "Some of those lawyers might just want secure their business interests," he said.

Among the lawyers who applied for the top post at the KPK are Farhat Abbas, now a lawyer for graft suspect Muhtadi Asnun, who acquitted tax officer Gayus Tambunan from corruption charges; and OC Kaligis, a lawyer for Anggodo Widjojo and a number of graft convicts, including Artalyta Suryani, an alleged case broker.

Another lawyer applying for the post is Alamsyah Hanafiah, who defended former state power firm PT PLN official Hariadi Sadono, a suspect in a Rp 80 billion (US$864,000) graft case.

Danang said the reason why lawyers dominated the selection process was they met the criteria of having a good understanding of law and having at least 15 years experience in law.

"No one can rule out anyone from registering if he or she meets the requirements," KPK deputy chairman M. Jasin told the Post when asked about the issue. He cited the 2002 KPK Law, which stipulates any eligible Indonesia citizen may apply.

Danang said he was upbeat the selection committee would select candidates with integrity and clean track records.

"The administrative selection process, including a writing test, is only an early stage of the whole selection process," Danang said. He added that, "Interviews to screen candidates, as well as input from the community to check and evaluate their backgrounds and track records, will counter the problem."

Jasin explained the tight selection process would minimize the possibility of selecting the wrong person. "The quality of the selection process is very important," he said, adding he would gather information on the candidates' background from independent sources.

A member of the committee Erry Riyana, who was a KPK executive for 2003-2007, said it was not wise to comment on this matter since it was only the third day of total 21 days of registration.

"We should wait. From my experience, people usually flood the registration during the last three days before it closed," Erry said.

As of today, only five applicants had submitted complete documents, while the others will submit complete applications on Monday.

Those who have completed their documents are former police official Insp. Gen. Budi Setiawan, banker Hertanto Cahyo Suryo, International Theological Seminary lecturer Harvest Stevanus Wiji Suratno and former economy director for the National Police detective agency Brig. Gen. Weni Warouw.

Erry added the committee had already been scouting people to search for reliable candidates. "It's like direct selling, we approach figures who meet the requirements and have integrity," he said. (ipa)

Police: Dozens of companies bribed Gayus

Jakarta Post - May 28, 2010

Jakarta – National Police detectives have launched an investigation into dozens of companies for allegedly bribing junior tax officer Gayus HP Tambunan, who has been arrested for his role in a case brokering mafia which also involved law enforcers and judges.

Spokesman for the National Police Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said Friday the detectives were working with the Directorate General of Taxation.

"There are dozens of companies now being investigated," Edward was quoted by kompas.com. He said the police would only name the companies during a media conference on Monday. He said some of the companies were found to have bribed tax officers to scale down their tax obligations.

The National Police summoned four companies in connection with the tax mafia practice involving Gayus. No suspect has been named in the cases, which have reportedly caused Rp 25 billion (US$2.68 million) in state losses.

KPK recruiting new chief, but criteria is vague says ICW

Jakarta Post - May 25, 2010

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – A special committee tasked with selecting a chairman for the antigraft body officially opened registration for candidates Monday, but criticism over its selection criteria is mounting.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said Monday the selection committee should have a profile of the ideal leader for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) before opening recruitment.

However, the committee has yet to communicate its vision of an ideal KPK leader to the public, ICW researcher Febridiansyah told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

He acknowledged that several committee members had voiced their criteria of the new KPK leader, but said that, "what we have been hearing is very general. The committee has yet to break the criteria down to better understand what constitutes, for example, integrity."

He added the committee members had only mentioned the criteria for the KPK leader as stipulated in the 2002 KPK Law, but did not go into detail.

The law requires a KPK leader to be capable, honest, of high moral integrity and of good reputation. It also bans selected leaders from doubling as political party officials.

The selection committee is scheduled to open registration for the candidacy of the KPK leader today; less than three weeks after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono named the committee members.

The committee is comprised of nine members from various professional backgrounds, including Todung Mulya Lubis, Ahmad Syafii Maarif, Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas, Rhenald Kasali, Hariyadi B. Sukamdani and Ichlasul Amal.

The committee chairman, Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar, in May said that candidates who were financially established were preferable. Many have slammed the proposed standard as irrelevant.

Febridiansyah said the committee should scrutinize the candidates' track records. He also recommended a closer look into candidates' special ties with businesses or corrupt politicians.

"The mafia in businesses, the legal system and in the political scene should be not be eligible," he added. Many lawyers are known to be involved in judicial corruption practices.

He singled out a member of the presidential advisory board, Jimly Asshidiqie, to make the right choice for the post.

Febridiansyah said that if the new KPK leader was an advocate, he would be able to help reveal the dark side of the profession.

Benny K. Harman, chairman of the House of Representatives' Commission III overseeing legal affairs, however, said he preferred someone from the Attorney General's Office (AGO).

"The KPK needs someone from the AGO," he told the Post. He also gave several selection criteria for the new KPK leader, including integrity, the courage to eradicate corruption and independence.

"Integrity can be measured by the candidates' track records and how they went about in their previous workplaces," he said.

Febridiansyah also criticized the committee for its passive recruitment policies. "Instead of opening recruitment, they should have gone out and scouted promising candidates. There are a lot of people with integrity who won't register themselves in an open recruitment," he said.

Susno death threats prompt move to new detention digs

Jakarta Globe - May 25, 2010

Nivell Rayda & Nurfika Osman – The Witness and Victim Protection Agency on Monday said it would protect whistle-blower Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, but the National Police said this would not affect the case against the detained former chief of detectives.

Abdul Haris Semendawai, chairman of the agency, known as the LPSK, said it had agreed to grant Susno's request for protection. "We have conducted an investigation and concluded that Susno qualifies for our protection as a witness," Semendawai said, adding that the protection also extends to Susno's family.

He said that once Susno agreed, the LPSK would contact the National Police to transfer him from a police detention center in Depok into LPSK custody.

Susno's lawyer, Henry Yosodiningrat, said that Susno's removal from his detention center and into an LPSK facility could not come soon enough.

"There have been death threats made against Susno. And he is currently being held inside a police headquarters. We feel that this [transfer] is the best thing for his safety," Henry said.

The National Police say Susno took Rp 500 million ($55,000) in bribes from lawyer Haposan Hutagalung. They allege the bribes were paid through case broker Sjahril Djohan in return for favors for a Singaporean businessman embroiled in a dispute over an arowana fish farm in Riau with his local partner.

But Susno's lawyers contend that the charges are trumped up retaliatory attacks on a man who put himself in danger by pointing the finger at his fellow officers.

Susno claims that several senior officers took bribes from former tax official Gayus Tambunan in return for them building a weaker corruption case against him. The resulting fallout left one general removed from his post and several investigators put under investigation for graft.

Bambang Widjoyanto, a legal analyst at Trisakti University in Jakarta, said that while Susno would be physically safe under the protection of the LPSK, Indonesia did not give deals to people who plea bargain or turn state's witness.

"The law on the protection of victims and witnesses states that cooperating with law enforcers does not erase one's crime," he said. "The only thing Susno could hope for is leniency from the court."

Mas Achmad Santosa, a member of the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force, said the law needed to be revised if the country truly wanted to deal with endemic corruption.

"Whistle-blowers need to be protected from prosecution," Santosa told the Jakarta Globe. "There are not many effective ways to unravel these cases, and a successful investigation often relies on insiders who know first- hand about acts of corruption. Whistle-blowers are often the perpetrators themselves."

Susno has been pressing for a pretrial motion challenging his arrest. The South Jakarta District Court on Monday began hearing the motion and the National Police are scheduled to present their arguments when the hearing resumes today.

A National Police source last week told the Globe that a probe could be in the offing following indications from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) that Rp 3.8 billion in possible bribe money had flowed into Susno's accounts.

A copy of a confidential PPATK report obtained by the Globe said: "Financial transfers from Johnny Situwanda, [a businessman] and Iskandar ZM to Susno's accounts should be investigated on suspicion they may be linked to the latter's position as chief of detectives."

According to the report, Johnny, Susno's former lawyer, transferred Rp 1.5 billion to Susno's BCA account and Rp 1.1 billion to his Bank Mandiri account in March 2009.

Police on Monday summoned Johnny to testify for the second time but his lawyer said his client would not make an appearance because he was in Singapore.

Taskforce identifies corruption 'loopholes'

Jakarta Post - May 25, 2010

Jakarta – The Judicial Mafia Taskforce says the lack of protection for whistle-blowers involved in cases they expose, is one core problem perpetuating rampant corruption across the country.

"The lack of whistle-blower protection is a fundamental loophole in our legal system," Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the chairman of the taskforce, said Monday during a discussion at the Indonesian Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center in Jakarta.

Other "core problems" cited by Kuntoro included weak supervision of law enforcement agencies, weak human resource management, a lack of leaders with integrity and capability in the agencies, the excessive authority of the agencies and a lack of remuneration.

The discussion was held to coincide with the launching of a book published by the taskforce titled Mafia Hukum: Modus Operandi, Akar Permasalahan dan Strategi Penanggulangan (Judicial Mafia: Modus Operandi, Root of the Problem and Eradication Strategies) and the taskforce's new website www.satgas-pmh.go.id.

A legislator from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), Martin Hutabarat, said the arrest of Comr. Gen. Susno Duaji showed the current witnesses, victims and whistle-blowers law needed revision.

Susno was the first to publicize the Gayus Tambunan tax case, the investigation for which was ongoing during his tenure as National Police chief detective. He was deactivated from that post in late 2009, and exposed the case in early 2010.

Susno was officially arrested on May 11 by the National Police in connection with a different case, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rp 500 million (US$55,000) from graft suspect Sjahril Djohan to "settle" a fraud case at a Riau-based arowana fish-breeding company, PT. Salmah Arowana Lestari.

A law expert from Transparency International Indonesia, Teten Masduki, said the current law failed to motivate "peripheral actors" to expose corruption they were involved in. He suggested law enforcement agencies provide incentives for whistle-blowers involved in cases.

"The Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK], for instance, should grant immunity to a whistle-blower," he said.

He criticized the current corruption law, which he said "trapped" both bribers and officials who accepted bribes. The bribes were extorted by officials threatening to hold information or services necessary to bribers' businesses or other interests.

Teten said the country needed harsher punishment for corruptors and not only ill-gotten assets should be seized but all of their property.

The taskforce announced Monday it was currently focusing on four institutional improvement programs: the internal and external supervision of law enforcement agency empowerment, tax court reform, the whistle-blowers protection implementation plan and the retrospective accountability implementation plan through income and asset declaration.

The taskforce reported that since its establishment in December 2009, it had received 1,678 public reports, 658 of which have been reviewed. (rdf)

Modus operandi of judicial corruption

The provision of expensive gifts to law enforcement officers or sponsoring certain events for law enforcement agencies to establish a "good relationship".
The police ask for transport or other expenses from people involved in a case.
The manipulation of prosecutor or judge placements.
The manipulation of charges.
Bribing witnesses and judges to manipulate evidence and questioning.
Bribing judges to change the status of individuals facing charges, for instance, from a suspect to a witness.
Bribing judges to delay or facilitate the arrests.
Bribing judges to ensure favorable verdicts.
Bribing prison officials to ensure special facilities for certain prisoners.
The extortion of inmates relatives to ensure more comfortable visiting environments.

Supporters and critics clash at Susno's pre-trial hearing

Jakarta Globe - May 24, 2010

The pre-trial hearing to contest the National Police's decision to arrest its former chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji and name him as a suspect was held at South Jakarta District Court on Monday. Susno, who is in a detention facility in Depok, West Java, will not be attending the hearing.

"He is not present today but we'll request that the judge allow him attend the next hearing," M. Assegaf, one of Susno's lawyers said on an SCTV report. Today's agenda was to hear the lawyers' motion read by Henry Yosodiningrat.

Henry said Susno's arrest was not based on sufficient evidence and it was not necessary. The hearing would resume tomorrow with the police's response. If the judge accepted the pre-trial motion, the case against Susno would be closed.

A number of public figures and retired police officials attended the hearing, including Ret. Senior Official Marsudi Hanafi. "I'm here today to support Susno. Truth will prevail because Indonesia is a nation of law," Marsudi said.

Outside the courtroom, both supporters and non supporters of Susno clashed. Around 100 people from "National Solidarity Against Corruption and Case Brokers" chanted "Free Susno!", while around 500 people shouted back "Susno is a whistle-blower!"

A member of the "Sky Army", the group opposing Susno, threw a plastic water bottle towards the supporters who retaliated by throwing more bottles. Police intervened and ordered both groups to distance themselves from each other.

War on terror

Indonesia's antiterror fight out of control: Muslim groups

Jakarta Globe - May 26, 2010

Heru Andriyanto – Lawyers and Muslim groups went to the National Commission for Human Rights on Wednesday to lodge complaints about abuses in the police's antiterror drive and demand action to stop the killing and torture of suspected terrorists as well as fabrication of cases, a practice they believe has been utilized for the last seven years.

"We went to the commission to report many irregularities in the police's handling of terrorism cases, including the arbitrary killings and torture of terror suspects," said lawyer Guntur Fatahillah, who represents the Muslim Defenders Team (TPM).

He pointed to the investigation results of the 2003 JW Marriott Hotel bombing, in which police claimed they had found the severed head of suicide bomber Asmar Latin Sani on the fifth floor of the building.

But a finding by TPM suggested that the roof of the Toyota Kijang van used in the suicide bombing remained intact, making it impossible for the head to reach the fifth floor, Guntur told the Jakarta Globe in a telephone interview.

In another police operation several weeks after the July 17, 2009, twin bombings at the Marriott and the nearby Ritz-Carlton Hotel, police claimed to have killed terror suspect Air Setiawan when he was delivering explosives to a home in Jati Asih, Bekasi, at midnight, but Air's son said his father was still at home in Solo at 3:00 p.m. Bekasi and Solo are separated by some 550 kilometers.

A police probe into the September 2004 car bombing at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta found that the explosive materials were supplied from a chemical shop in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta. But Guntur said the shop had been closed down earlier by police following the terrorist attack on a shopping mall in Senen, Central Jakarta.

"Police antiterror operations have gone beyond control and worst of all, in many cases they prefer to kill the suspects," Guntur said.

Also joining the group was Abu Jibriel, the father of Muhammad Jibriel, who is currently on trial as the alleged financier of the twin hotel bombings. The elder Jibriel had earlier accused police of torturing his son but his motion to halt the trial based on claims of human rights abuses was rejected.

"The evil by Densus 88 [the elite police antiterror unit] has no limit but no action has ever been taken against it," he was quoted as saying by the Web site arrahmah.com, which was operated by his son.

In the South Jakarta District Court, a lawyer for female terror suspect Putri Munawaroh also raised concerns about abuses during antiterror operations.

Putri was pregnant when her rented home was raided by police, resulting in the deaths of mastermind Noordin M Top, her husband and several other suspected militants. The demand to release her from detention was rejected and she gave a birth to a boy at the police hospital and has since been keeping the baby with her inside the cell, lawyer Achmad Michdan said.

"Terrorism is the problem of the nation, so the handling of it must be transparent, accountable and based on the presumption of innocence," Michdan said.

"Apart from the torture and intimidations, terror suspects are often denied access to their family and lawyers. Police provided the lawyers for them without first asking approval from the suspects. This is against the law that grants the suspects' rights to pick their own lawyers."

Islam/religion

Hairdressing fatwa a door to prostitution: Transvestites

Jakarta Globe - May 25, 2010

Amir Tejo, Dessy Sagita & Anita Rachman – Transvestites on Monday lambasted a religious ruling banning them from cutting or styling Muslim women's hair unless they were spouses or blood relatives.

"We have no access to jobs as mainstream office workers. The only thing we can do is work at beauty salons," said Irma Subechi, head of the Surabaya Transvestites Association (Perwakos). "If even that is declared haram [forbidden in Islam], what else can we do?"

Irma said that the recent fatwa would further marginalize transvestites and "slowly kill" their identity as rightful members of society.

Issued by leaders of 125 pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) from across Java during a meeting at Al Falah pesantren in Kediri, East Java, the fatwa cited that since transvestites were male, it was therefore forbidden for them to see – much less touch – a woman who was not their spouse or blood relative.

They were, however, allowed to cut and style men's hair, since they themselves were men, the fatwa said.

Irma said that a recent study in Java found that 25 percent of some 670 transvestites surveyed worked at beauty salons.

Perwakos itself actually recommends transvestites to build their hairdressing skills and to find work in beauty salons as a way to prevent its members from resorting to work as prostitutes.

Abdul Manan, one of the instigators of the fatwa, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday that hair was "part of a woman's aurat [parts of the body that should not be shown under Islamic law] that must be covered, so it cannot be seen, touched or cut by a man who is not their family."

Abdul said that he would bring the fatwa to the attention of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organization. He added that if the fatwa was endorsed by NU's national board, then all Muslim women in Java would be banned from getting their hair cut or styled by transvestites.

Maria Ulfah Ansor, who heads the women's wing of NU, questioned the ban on Monday.

"They are working as hairdressers and stylists and makeup artists. This is not a problem," she said. "It is true that according to our [Islamic] teachings, we cannot be touched by them because it could lead to temptation, but this is not in this case. This is just work, so it is fine."

Nurkholis, a commissioner at the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), pointed out that such a fatwa was not legally binding.

But Jakarta-based makeup artist and hair stylist Marcell Runtu, said that it could still encourage more transvestites into prostitution or crime, due to loss of business.

"There are so many men today working as hairstylists or makeup artists, many of them straight," he said. "Do you think they should lose their female clients too?"

Activists say no to centralization alms management

Jakarta Post - May 25, 2010

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – Activists rejected a government's plan to centralize the collection and management of alms or zakat, arguing the move would end privately run alms institutions and disadvantage low-income people as recipients.

Juperta Panji Utama, secretary-general of the Zakat Movement for Indonesia, an alliance of alms institutions from across the country, said privately run alms institutions have so far been working effectively in collecting and managing alms from the community.

"The government cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that more people trust privately run zakat institutions, not state-run ones, to distribute and manage their alms," Juperta said.

In terms of collection, he said privately run zakat management institutions or LAZ could collect higher fund amounts, while in terms of distribution creativity, many could provide facilities for the poor, from free hospital care and schooling to economic empowerment programs.

"We have been helping the government in dealing with poverty. Please don't end private zakat institutions just because there's an opportunity to collect huge amounts of money from the community."

He said research conducted by the Public Interest Research and Advocacy Center in 2007 found the number of people highly interested in helping others was extremely high, but many raised doubt over the transparency of institutions managing their donations.

"We have proved we manage funds transparently. We always publish our audit for the public. Every single donator is informed on where their alms go," Juperta said.

A bill on the revision of the 1999 Zakat Management Law is waiting for deliberation at the House of Representatives. One main point in the draft, which causes concern among privately run alms management institutions, is the plan to centralize alms collection and management.

The Religious Affairs Ministry said the bill was proposed due ineffective alms management in the last 10 years. It also proposed the new law would only recognize state-run alms management agency Badan Amil Zakat (BAZ) as the only institution to manage the funds, from the national down to the subdistrict level.

Then religious affairs minister Maftuh Basyuni said in a meeting with the Regional Representatives Council Ad Hoc Committee late February last year that currently there was no clear relation between various zakat institutions. Some are under the coordination of BAZ, while others operate independently, he added.

He said the unclear relation makes it hard to map the alms' potentials and targets across the country, resulting in unequal distribution.

Separately, Ismail A. Said, president director of noted privately run alms institution Dompet Duafa, suggested the government consider the Indonesian Central Bank operation manner.

"The Indonesian banking system allows private- and state-run banks walk side by side, growing and competing healthily. The Central Bank clearly positions itself as a regulator and controller. It doesn't play as an operator. Business roles are fully performed by both private and state-run banks," Ismail said. "We demand the government act fairly. Private alms institutions also build awareness among the community to pay for their zakat obligation."

Bambang Eka Wijaya, a member of the Lampung Care board of founders, urged the government to eradicate the point to centralize alms collection and management in the draft bill. "I'm afraid that if the bill is approved and gives the government the authority to solely manage alms, we might have more low-income people in the country because it's likely that less people will pay alms since they may not trust the government body."

Transvestites banned from taking female clients at beauty salons

Jakarta Globe - May 24, 2010

One hundred and twenty-five Islamic boarding schools or pesantren from Java and Madura island issued a fatwa banning transvestites from cutting and/or styling Muslim women's hair unless they are muhrim (related by blood or marriage).

The fatwa was issued during a meeting at Al Falah Islamic boarding school in Kediri, East Java last week. According to them, transvestites are still male, therefore it is haram or forbidden for them to see and touch a woman who is not their spouse nor a blood relative.

"Hair is part of a woman's aurat (parts of the body that should not be shown under Islamic law) that must be covered so it can not be seen, touched or cut by a man who is not their muhrim," Abdul Manan one of the instigators of the fatwa said in news portal Detik.com.

The fatwa would be implemented by banning transvestites from working in beauty salons.

"The transvestites can still give haircuts to male clients – no problem – but they must not do so for female clients," Abdul said, adding that he would bring this to the attention of PBNU (Nahdlatul Ulama National Board).

Meanwhile, the East Java's Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) refused to respond to the fatwa. "MUI doesn't have to respond to such a fatwa, it's not yet necessary for us to respond," the chairman of East Java's MUI Abdusshomad Buchori said.

Popular Muslim preacher says politics no place for clerics

Jakarta Post - May 24, 2010

Surabaya – A preacher and former chairman of the Reform Star Party (PBR), a splinter of the United Development Party (PPP), Zainuddin MZ, said politics was "no place for clerics".

"The prophet taught us that if you give an assignment to the incompetents, then you are condemned to see their failures. I have proven this saying when I was active in politics for three and a half years," the cleric was quoted as saying by Antara news agency in a sermon at a Surabaya hospital on Saturday night.

Zainuddin, popularly known as "the cleric with a million followers, helped establish and chaired the PBR in 2002. It was initially called the Reformed United Development Party (PPP Reformasi).

The PBR followed in the footsteps of other Islamic parties and was defeated by secular and nationalist parties including the Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Democratic Party during the 2004 legislative elections. It garnered only 2,764,998 votes, or 14 seats at the House of Representatives.

In 2009, the party gained 1,264,333 votes and failed to pass the electoral threshold of 2 percent. Most Islamic parties, with the exception of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the PPP, faced the same fate.

"My time in politics has made me realize than the political stage is not for clerics. That's why I quit and returned to preaching again," he told his audience, which included National Education Minister Mohammad Nuh and chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama's East Java branch, Mutawakkil Alallah.

"The difference between clerics and politicians is that clerics, as followers of Prophet Muhammad, always think of the people all, while politicians think of the people only when campaigning."

Some Muslim scholars have voiced concerns over how politics divides and weakens the role of Muslim clerics. One of the main issues raised at the national congress of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organization, was how steer the organization away from politics.

The organization has called on the government to abolish regional elections as many of its members have been involved in often violent local political bickering.

Politics/political parties

Sri Mulyani hints Golkar behind exit

Jakarta Globe - May 26, 2010

Armando Siahaan – If you go by her most recent statements, Sri Mulyani Indrawati clearly fingered the Golkar Party and its chairman, businessman Aburizal Bakrie, as the primary drivers behind her resignation as finance minister, political analysts said on Wednesday.

In a report published by the Financial Times newspaper, Sri Mulyani said her efforts to reform the country's economic system had been "hijacked" by a number of actors in the business and political sectors.

During a speech last week, the former finance minister pointed out that one reason she decided to resign was the barrage of political attacks she had to face. Sri Mulyani added that a political marriage had occurred that would not uphold the needs of the public, and which she could not "afford to be a part of."

"As her departure neared, Sri Mulyani seemed to be pointing to someone or a particular group, which she considered the destroyer of reform," Fadjroel Rachman of the Anti-Corruption Civil Society Coalition (Kompak) told the Jakarta Globe.

"It seems like Sri Mulyani was pointing toward Aburizal Bakrie, a businessman who uses Golkar as his political vehicle."

Bakrie and Sri Mulyani had long clashed over tax disputes involving his companies.

Fadjroel said Sri Mulyani implied Bakrie during her speech when she said a political marriage had occurred between a businessman and a ruler. "It is clear that Sri Mulyani was implying the 'marriage' between SBY [President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] and Bakrie," he said.

Fadjroel added that Bakrie needed Yudhoyono to clear his companies of tax-related legal disputes. In turn, Fadjroel said, Yudhoyono needed Bakrie reel in Golkar's political pressure, triggered by the Bank Century saga.

Golkar had been instrumental in pushing for House of Representatives investigations into the Rp 6.7 trillion ($716.9 million) government bailout of PT Bank Century.

Fadjroel said the marriage took the form of the recently established coalition joint secretariat, with Yudhoyono as chairman and Bakrie as the managing chairman.

Lalu Mara Satriawangsa, the deputy secretary general of Golkar, denied that Bakrie and Golkar were the reasons behind Sri Mulyani's departure.

Lalu Mara said Golkar's aggression throughout the Bank Century case was not based on political motivation to attack Sri Mulyani, but simply to act upon a lawful finding of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) that the state-funded bailout contained irregularities.

Lalu Mara said Bakrie had no tax problems personally, and that the tax disputes involving his companies would be settled in court. "There is no personal feud over the so-called tax problems," he said.

Lalu Mara also dismissed the widespread belief that the birth of the coalition joint secretariat was strongly linked to Sri Mul- yani's resignation. "The secretariat was built to smooth political communication between coalition members."

Sunny Tanuwidjaja, a political analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said there were a host of reasons substantiating the fallout between Sri Mulyani and Bakrie.

"We cannot omit the cases where Sri Mulyani's policies collided with Aburizal's interests," he said, referring to Sri Mulyani's prosecution of Bakrie-owned companies for tax evasion.

Sunny questioned the timing of the joint secretariat's inception and Sri Mulyani's resignation, and how Golkar appeared to soften its stance on the Century investigation, suggesting that Sri Mulyani was the party's main target during the long-running saga.

"Let's not forget that there was a report based on a Golkar member's statement that there was in fact a deal to replace Sri Mulyani," Sunny said. "We can't confirm this definitely, but the evidence has led us to the best conclusion."

Sunny and Fadjroel, however, said Sri Mulyani should have been more straightforward in making statements.

"If she wants to enlighten the public that there has been a political cartel between a ruler and a businessman, then she should say it out loud," Sunny said. "These abstract metaphors have led to public guessing."

Sunny said that by revealing the truth, Sri Mulyani will help the country understand the political realities of the nation, "the negotiation dramas behind the scenes, a lesson for those who want to be involved in policy process and how to keep integrity when the political condition doesn't allow us to do so."

Sri Mulyani leaves Indonesia with a warning in the air

Jakarta Globe - May 27, 2010

Armando Siahaan – Sri Mulyani Indrawati left Indonesia to take up her new post at the World Bank on Wednesday leaving behind words of caution for the country's ability to continue financial reforms in the face of entrenched political opposition.

In her strongest comment on her departure yet, the former finance minister told Britain's Financial Times newspaper that her efforts to reform the country's economic system had been hijacked by a group of business and political interests that left her no choice but to accept the bank's offer to become a managing director. She begins her new job in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, her public crusade against tax evaders, especially those linked to Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie, received a blow after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of mining company PT Kaltim Prima Coal, part of the Bakrie Group interests, in a Rp 1.5 trillion ($160.5 million) tax-evasion case.

In March, the Directorate General of Taxation filed a case review to the Supreme Court three months after the Tax Tribunal ruled that the taxation office had not obtained sufficient grounds to investigate the company, which is the coal-producing unit of PT Bumi Resources.

The Supreme Court Web site said a three-member panel of judges on Monday rejected the case review, supporting the lower court decision. Court spokesman Andri Sutrisna confirmed that it had ruled in favor of Kaltim Prima.

In the FT interview published on Wednesday, Sri Mulyani warned: "The business community is not supportive of having the system co-opted for very personal, narrow interests. If they start to allow one party to hijack it, it is at the cost of everyone else... It is really a concern. It is a battle for Indonesia now."

Sri Mulyani has openly admitted that her decision to leave this month was greatly affected by concerted political attacks during her time as finance minister.

It has been no secret that Sri Mulyani has been involved in a feud with businessman-cum-politician Bakrie, as she has pressed tax-evasion cases against several companies connected to his massive conglomerate.

Conversely, Golkar Party lawmakers in the House of Representatives have been aggressive in trying to oust Sri Mulyani through the use of a special investigation into alleged wrongdoing connected to the 2008 bailout of Bank Century during the height of the global financial crisis.

Last week, in remarks widely seen as a swipe at the alliance between Golkar and the ruling Democratic Party, she said she could not have a role in a political union that was bad for the country. Two days after her resignation, a new coalition joint secretariat was announced, with Bakrie as its managing chairman, leading to suspicion that she was pushed out of office.

The newspaper said she singled out Bakrie as the main force behind the opposition to her reforms. "It's [Bakrie]... but I'm not denying that there aren't others," it quoted her saying.

She has also said that while she was not forced out, the president did not prevent her from leaving, either.

A spokesman for the Bakrie family told the Financial Times that her departure was not due to strained relations with Bakrie.

Former minister says Indonesia reforms hijacked

Agence France Presse - May 26, 2010

Former Indonesian finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati believes democratic reforms in Indonesia are being "hijacked" by powerful reactionary forces, a report said on Wednesday.

She said vested interests within the business and political elite opposed to her uncompromising efforts to bring the economy under the rule of law effectively ousted her earlier this month.

Her resignation to take a senior position at the World Bank has been seen as a major blow to reform in the country of some 240 million people, which emerged from 32 years of dictatorship under military strongman Suharto in 1998.

"The [Indonesian] business community is not supportive of having the system co-opted for very personal, narrow interests," she told The Financial Times.

"If they start to allow one party to hijack it, is at the cost of everyone else... It is really a concern. It is a battle for Indonesia now."

She pointed the finger specifically at Aburizal Bakrie, a powerful business tycoon who denies any conflict of interest between his commercial and political activities as head of the Golkar party.

Golkar was Suharto's political vehicle and has never been in opposition, despite seeing its electoral support dwindle in the democratic era. It is now a pivotal member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's ruling coalition.

Bakrie initiated months of parliamentary attacks against Indrawati, an economist and independent policy expert, over a controversial bank bailout despite no hard evidence being found to support allegations of corruption.

Days after her shock resignation on May 4, Yudhoyono installed Bakrie as the head of a new "secretariat" to oversee the coalition parties, handing him a position of privilege at the heart of the executive.

Indrawati denied any knowledge of a rumoured deal between Yudhoyono and Bakrie to oust her as part of a trade-off to ensure the smooth functioning of the government in Yudhoyono's second and final term.

She said her voluntary departure was based on the cold "calculation" that her position was untenable and a new minister might be able to advance vital reforms where she could not. "Also, the use of money to mobilise public opinion made me less effective," she said.

Civil service & bureaucracy

Indonesia's reform czar extends reach to governors

Reuters - May 26, 2010

Indonesia's powerful provincial governors will soon undergo regular performance reviews as part of the government's push for bureaucratic reforms nationwide, the head of the presidential delivery unit said on Tuesday.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set up the new unit after his re-election last year, picking trusted technocrat Kuntoro Mangkusubroto to tackle the many deterrents to foreign investment in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, ranging from woefully inadequate infrastructure to red tape.

Mangkusubroto told reporters Yudhoyono already receives monthly reports on the performance of government ministers and weekly updates on broader progress.

Such performance checks will be extended in June to provincial governors, who are elected, as part of a push for widespread bureaucratic reform. "Every milestone we will measure, and if there's a miss, you will have to explain," he said.

Mangkusubroto and the delivery unit have been tasked with addressing many of the issues which deter investment, curb economic growth, and hinder Indonesia's goal of obtaining an investment grade sovereign credit rating.

Such issues include power shortages, poor infrastructure, an unpredictable legal system and bureaucracy. "The challenge of this country is to get 2,000 trillion rupiah ($216.1 billion) in investment every year. That's the only way we can achieve 7 to 8 percent economic growth by the year 2014," Mangkusubroto said.

Investors often complain that, in some parts of the sprawling archipelago, decentralization has led to conflicting local and central government regulations, and created more red tape and more opportunities for corruption.

Mangkusubroto said that Indonesian ministers, for the first time, were now subject to performance contracts to ensure government policy was properly implemented. "A performance contract is nothing new in corporate life. But for Indonesia, that's really something," he said.

The presidential delivery unit presents reports on ministerial performance to the cabinet every 25 days and Yudhoyono is briefed weekly in a newly created "situation room".

Mangkusubroto, a former minister who was in charge of the reconstruction of Sumatra's Aceh province after the devastating tsunami in 2004, also heads a special legal reform taskforce.

Last year, the taskforce said it would help the tax office to investigate alleged tax evasion by plantations firm Asian Agri Group. The firm said it would cooperate fully with the investigation. Mangkusubroto said he expected the case to reach the courts this year.

His taskforce has received more than 1,600 detailed reports from the public on cases of corruption in the legal system, one of which led to a surprise raid on a prison where the taskforce discovered wealthy inmates living in luxury cells.

Legislation & parliament

Pledge of 70 new laws for Indonesia slashed to 17

Jakarta Globe - May 29, 2010

Anita Rachman – Having passed no legislation since being inaugurated in October, the House of Representatives has scaled back its ambitious goal of passing 70 laws this year, according to the panel that sets the legislative calendar for the House.

The national legislature may have to make do with just 17 priority bills for 2010, said Ignatius Mulyono, the chairman of the House Legislation Body.

"We are going to concentrate on those 17 bills this year, I guess," he said. "It is pretty hard to tell lawmakers to do their job of legislating these days."

Ignatius, a Democratic Party lawmaker, said on Thursday that through the end of May, the House had forwarded just six bills to plenary screening sessions, including a long-awaited protocol bill. By the middle of June, he promised, 17 draft bills would have been pushed through initial plenary screening – meaning that the draft would be completed – before being moved to commissions for deliberation.

Ignatius also confirmed that the House had so far passed no legislation this year, although he said he was hopeful that the remaining 53 bills on the to-do list would at least get a plenary screening by July.

"Many lawmakers have been focusing on monitoring tasks lately rather than legislation," he said, in apparent reference to high-profile media-friendly investigations such as the lengthy – and ultimately inconclusive – Bank Century hearings. "At least we have 17 bills to be passed this year," he said. "I am sure we could do more."

The 70-bill target was set early in the current session after criticism was leveled at the previous House for falling asleep on the job. The legislature that was inaugurated in 2004 passed just 14 of 55 bills proposed in its first year. For its entire five- year term through 2009, the previous House passed 186 of 284 proposed bills.

Ignatius said that the best-case scenario would see the House pass 40 bills this year during the six months in which it was in full session and able to debate legislation.

Of the 70 bills targeted for 2010, 36 were drafted by the House and 34 were proposed by the government.

"We have reminded them several times, please focus on bills; let's, for example, dedicate Wednesdays and Thursdays to legislative tasks. But so far, there has been a negative response [to the proposal]," said Ignatius, whose job is to research draft legislation, schedule bills for debate, coordinate the legislative agenda with the government and monitor the process.

Ignatius said he would also ask the minister of justice and human rights, Patrialis Akbar, to help push the bills proposed by the government.

Eva Kusuma Sundari, from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), took exception to Ignatius's remarks. She said legislation, monitoring and budgeting were all equal responsibilities of lawmakers.

She added that the House Legislation Body also needed to do a better job and that legislation needed to be reviewed more thorough by the body before the bills were brought to the House.

According to Eva, bills were being reviewed only at the commission level, a job that could be undertaken by Ignatius and his panel. "The Legislation Body should also work harder, not just push us to work quickly," she said.

Sebastian Salang, chairman of Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi), said he was not surprised lawmakers were pointing fingers at one another.

"They should not have set such an ambitious goal in the first place," he said. "Now they'll have to explain this mess to the people who voted for them."

House defends cost of legislators' home renovation

Jakarta Globe - May 25, 2010

Armando Siahaan – The House of Representatives' household affairs committee on Tuesday vehemently refuted allegations by a budgetary watchdog that the renovation of the official houses of lawmakers contained possible markups and other irregularities.

"The project went through the proper processes, it can be accounted for," said Refrizal, the deputy chairman of the committee also known as the BURT. "If they have proof of irregularities, by all means, report it to the authorities."

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) on Monday said the total cost of the renovation of 495 houses in the official residential complex in Kalibata, South Jakarta, should be about Rp 247 billion ($26.4 million), but had been inflated to Rp 445 billion.

"A markup is dangerous; it's a serious allegation," the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker said.

Refrizal said that if Fitra did have proof of irregularities, then BURT, as the body responsible for supervising the project, would be more than willing to support the claim. "If they don't have any data [on the markup], but already made a public statement, that's basically lying to the public."

Refrizal also questioned the data obtained by Fitra, saying there was a significant discrepancy from the BURT figures.

Fitra had claimed that the total renovation cost was Rp 445 billion – Rp 155 billion approved in 2009 and Rp 290 billion approved this year – while Refrizal said that according to a contract document submitted by the House Secretariat General, which initiated the project, the total project cost was Rp 355 billion. He said a total of Rp 152 billion was approved last year and Rp 203 billion this year.

"Where do they get the numbers from?" he said, adding that Fitra should file a proper report and check its accuracy before making what it called dubious public statements.

Refrizal said the project could be audited, as it went through a proper open tender process. He said the contract was given to state-owned PT Adhi Karya.

Fitra's Uchok Sky Khadafi acknowledged that there could have been a discrepancy. He said the group obtained its data from the House Secretariat General's list of budget implementation (DIPA) issued before the tender process, and it was possible the contract price was lower than the initial allocation.

But Uchok said a Rp 355 billion budget still seemed higher than justified. He said Fitra would investigate the budget proposal submitted by Adhi Karya.

Refrizal said the total budget was not for the renovations alone, but included the construction of 10 new two-story houses, a mosque and other facilities.

Refrizal also addressed Fitra's question on the whereabouts of materials removed during renovations, the sale of which Fitra estimated could earn the country almost Rp 5.8 billion.

"The old materials, such as the roofs and the rubble, were taken care of by the State Secretariat because state buildings fall under their authorities," he said. "Some of the materials were reused, but the rest should be with the State Secretariat."

Responding to Fitra's allegation that the lawmakers are wasting money through the allocation of Rp 11.4 billion for new furniture, Refrizal said the old furniture had been auctioned by the State Secretariat to former lawmakers, with the money going to the state.

Uchok said this was exactly what they wanted: "an explanation on where the materials went." "We will now check with the State Secretariat on whether they actually conducted the auction process or not," he said.

Refrizal welcomed Fitra's plan to raise the issue with such bodies as the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). "If they have the data, BURT will support them," he said.

Nining Indra Saleh, the House secretary general, told the Jakarta Globe that according to the law, all activity that used the state budget would be audited by the Supreme Audit Agency anyway, and therefore, "we must all wait for the BPK result."

Freedom of expression & press

Journalists say press freedom still under threat

Kompas - May 31, 2010

Jakarta – Earlier this month on May 3, mass media workers throughout the world commemorated World Press Freedom Day. Three Indonesian journalist organisations however, in a joint statement last week, said that press freedom in Indonesia is to this day still under threat.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) and the Association of Indonesian Television Journalists (IJTI) collectively rejected lawsuits against and the criminalisation of the press. There is also a tendency for the law to be misused to coerce the press. Meaning, this threatens press freedom.

The joint statement by AJI, PWI and IJTI was not just related to a civil lawsuit by Raymond Teddy H, a suspect in a gambling case, against seven media organisations, namely Kompas newspaper and Kompas.com, the private television station RCTI, the newspapers Warta Kota, Seputar Indonesia, Suara Pembaruan and, Republika and the Detik.com news portal, but also against the treats of violence that still befalls press workers and businesses. The civil lawsuit is still being heard at four district courts in Jakarta, with the exception of the South Jakarta District Court that has already reached a verdict.

The three organisations noted that on May 7, 2010, a contributor with the private television station SCTV in Ambon, Maluku, Juhry Samanery, was allegedly assaulted by Ambon District Court officials when he was covering a story. Samanery, ironically, was declared a suspect by the Ambon district police after being reported for striking an Ambon District Court official.

The concerns of the three journalist organisations appear to be valid. Although not noted by AJI, PWI and IJTI, three days after the commemoration of World Press Freedom Day, members of a certain youth organisation in East Kalimantan (Kaltim) vandalised the offices of Balikpapan TV and assaulted a Kaltim Post newspaper journalist. The two media companies share the same office. The youth group also visited the Tribun Kaltim newspaper office.

In Jakarta on April 28, 2010, the commander of a security platoon in the East Jakarta mayor's office, Apriyadi, was reported for head-butting Sun TV journalist Rio Manik. East Jakarta PWI coordinator Nur Alim was also dragged in and threatened with death by an East Jakarta security guard when he was covering a protest action in the area. Apriyadi, the perpetrator, was only received a written reprimand (Kompas, 30/4).

Two months earlier, on March 9, Metro TV journalist Deni Mozes was assaulted by a group of youths in Jembatan Organda, Abepura, Jayapura, Papua. The reasons for the assault on Mozes are unclear (Kompas, 11/3).

A media consultant from Britain, Tessa Paper, in a report titled "Don't Shoot the Bearer of News" (2009) notes that the number of case of violence against Indonesian journalists between 1996 and 2009 has fluctuated greatly. The largest number of case were recorded in 2000, as many as 122. The smallest number of cases was in 1996, with only 13 cases recorded.

Of the cases of violence resulting in the death of journalists, the most infamous was the case of AA Narendra Prabangsa (41) from Radar Bali. Prabangsa was found dead floating in Bungsul Bay, Padang Bai, Karangasem regency, Bali, on February 16, 2009. In the court hearing of the accused it was revealed that Prabangsa's murder was related to a news report.

The Prabangsa case is like a repeat of the tragic story of Bernas (Yogyakarta, Central Java) journalist Fuad Muhammad Safrudin (Udin). In 1996, Udin was assaulted resulting in his death because of a news report.

Aside from opposing the manipulation of the law to threaten press freedom, almost every year AJI, PWI and IJTI calls for press freedom to be respected. The press has to obey and respect the law, but reporting by the media must be based on fact and the truth and abide by the code of ethnics which is also protected by Law Number 40/1999 on the Press.

The press law states that press freedom is a citizen's right. Those who object to a mass media report can submit a right of reply. If they are still not satisfied, they can ask the Press Council to mediate.

This is what was done by the national police when it objected to a TV One report. The police even named a suspect in the case. Mediation by the Press Council on May 27 however resulted in an out of court settlement for both parties.

Not easy

Speaking in Jakarta on Sunday, Press Council Chairperson Bagir Manan conceded that it is not easy to pursuade and at the same time convince society to resolve problems through the press law when a party experiences problems as a result of mass media reporting. This however is what should continue to be endeavored.

Not only that, but the mass media and journalists, said Manan, must continue to improve themselves, particularly in relation to the quality of their reporting and consistently adhere to the principle of reporting in accordance with the journalist code of ethics and the press law. He welcomes all attempts to resolve disputes over news reports through the Press Council. "Of course we cannot prevent people from pursuing legal avenues when they feel their name has been tarnished or feel that the press has done something unpleasant through a news report", he said. However by using the code of ethic as a criterion, Manan is positive that the chances of errors in news reports will become smaller. In addition to this, the mass media and journalists must also properly understand various legal regulations, particularly those that can be used to indict the press.

"However, if correctly studied, such as Article 310 of the Criminal Code on defamation, it turns out that it must first be proved whether or not there was an element of intent. Likewise also with the articles on unpleasant conduct, it must still be proven that there was an element of intent," said Manan.

By properly understanding the articles that have the potential to indict journalists and the mass media in this way, added Manan, the press has a good means of defense. He still suggests however that society be disposed to going to the Press Council to resolve any and all disputes that occur.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Harifin A. Tumpa has already issued Circular Number 13/2009 appealing for the need to hear testimony from the Press Council as an expert witness in all press cases and disputes.

University of Indonesia criminal law expert Indriyanto Seno Adji adds that in order to avoid the criminalisation of the press, criminal sanctions should be removed from the press law. This is important so to avoided dualism in law enforcement.

According to Adji, it is time to develop restorative justice. Meaning, not all legal problems have to be resolved to the courts. (DWA/ANA/TRA)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

FPI attack photographer during riot

Jakarta Globe - May 27, 2010

A journalist was badly wounded after his head was beaten with a bottle by a member of Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) in Petamburan, Central Jakarta on Wednesday night.

Oktobriyan, a journalist from Lampu Hijau newspaper was covering an alcohol raid conducted by the FPI at a small kiosk, Metro TV said. He was taking pictures of FPI members wreaking havoc at the kiosk and beating up the kiosk owner and two locals.

A member of the angry mob hit Oktobriyan's head with a bottle. Bleeding, the journalist was rushed to the nearby Pelni Hospital by locals.

Ironically, the kiosk did not sell any alcoholic drinks. The bottles that FPI members thought to be beers were only soft drink bottles. After they finished damaging the kiosk, the mob moved on to attack a convenience store.

Oktobriyan and the three other victims reported the attack to Tanah Abang Sector Police. According to the police, they were not informed about the raid.

Police promise to charge journalist's attackers

Jakarta Post - May 29, 2010

Indah Setiawati, Jakarta – Tanah Abang Police sub-precinct chief Comr. Hendra Gunawan promised to investigate the case of a journalist, who on Wednesday was showered in glass bottles while covering a raid in Petamburan, Central Jakarta.

"We have gathered information from three victims and three witnesses, but we have not identified any suspects yet," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. Hendra refused to state that the perpetrators were members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).

Journalist from local daily Lampu Hijau, Octobryan Purwo, 25, was attacked by a group of men wearing turbans last Wednesday, when photographing them raiding a stall selling beverages. The police brought him to the nearby hospital, where he got seven stitches on his head.

Margiyono from the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) urged the police to act swiftly. He cited the 1999 Press Law, which carries as a maximum one year of imprisonment and a fine of Rp 1 billion (US$104,000) for deterring journalists from covering news.

In May alone, AJI received four reports on journalists being attacked in the country.

Meanwhile, FPI chairman Salim bin Umar Alatas, said he planned to call the FPI troop commander Matsuni to ask whether their members were involved in the assault. He suspected the raid was undertaken by Muslim youths wearing FPI garb, because the organization had not scheduled any raid that day.

"If it turns out the perpetrators are our members, on behalf of the organization I apologize. The police can catch the suspects," he told the Post.

Late in April, FPI added to its violent track record by storming a human rights workshop jointly organized by the National Commission for Human Rights and the Indonesian Transgender Communication Forum, at a hotel in Depok, West Java.

The workshop was about to start when the members rushed the doors, shouting the name of God and destroying hotel property.

Press groups want public trial in Aceh journalist assault case

Jakarta Globe - May 26, 2010

Ismira Lutfia – Press advocacy groups are pushing for a public trial for a military officer accused of beating up an Acehnese journalist, despite sanctions already imposed on the officer.

Ahmadi, a reporter for Harian Aceh newspaper, was allegedly beaten on May 21 by Faisal Amin, an intelligence officer from the Simeuleu military district command, or Kodim, over a news report on illegal logging in the province's Simeuleu island.

Major Yuli Marjoko of the Iskandar Muda military command told the Jakarta Globe that "we immediately have taken internal sanctions against the accused officer on Friday shortly after the assault happened and he has been stripped of his position."

Hendrayana, the chairman of the Jakarta-based Legal Aid Foundation for the Press, known as LBH Pers, said the group would urge the police to investigate the case and prosecute the officer in a public trial.

"The verbal apology from the military regional commander did not [eliminate] the ongoing legal process," Hendrayana said.

Yuli said the military had formed a team to investigate the case. He said it would collect evidence and testimonies from witnesses at the crime scene in Simeuleu. However, he said that the case would be processed in a military tribunal.

Mukhtaruddin Yakob, the chairman of the Banda Aceh chapter of the Alliance of Independent Journalists told the Jakarta Globe that the press community in Aceh is demanding that the officer be prosecuted in public court despite an offer from the Kodim to settle the case amicably.

"We want the accused officer to be dismissed from his position," Mukhtaruddin said. "But we have explained to them that this move should not be judged as an anti-military attitude."

Jakarta/urban life

Public transportation only hope to tackle motorcycle boom

Jakarta Post - May 29, 2010

Eny Wulandari, Jakarta – The Jakarta administration must work quickly to build a credible public transportation network if it is to curb the rising number of motorcycles in the capital, which are now as numerous the city's residents, experts say.

Ellen S. W. Tangkudung, a transportation expert from the University of Indonesia, said Friday she blamed the city's poor public transportation network for the ballooning number of motorcycles. "People would probably not switch to use private vehicles if public transportation was reliable," she said.

She said motorcycle numbers had been increasing for six years throughout the country, driven by affordable credit schemes. Today, a new motorcycle can be purchased with an initial down payment of Rp 500,000 (US$50).

She said the city administration must improve public transportation, including by allocating a higher budget to procure public transportation vehicles.

"(At the moment) the city can only supply a subsidy for fuel and spare parts to provide an affordable public transportation service," she said.

More than 890 motorcycles are registered every day on average in Jakarta, according to Jakarta Police data.

As of May, there were 8,087,118 registered motorcycles in the city, just short of the number of people living here, which was 8.5 million as of May, according to the City Population and Civil Registration Agency.

Police data shows that about 1 million new motorcycles are registered every year.

This extraordinarily high number of motorcycles has exacerbated the city's already awful traffic, especially during rush hour. Matters become even worse when it rains and motorcyclists seek shelter under overpasses or bridges as evidenced this week when scores of motorcyclists stopped under a bridge on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, causing heavy congestion.

Chairman of the Indonesian Motorcycle Industry Association Gunadi Sindhuwinata said that his association did not have any plans to limit or reduce the number of motorcycles in the city. "It's impossible to control the number of motorcycles," he said.

He said there were about 35 million motorcycles that were in usable condition in the country, and that 6 million to 7 million of those were in Greater Jakarta. "Not all of the motorcycles recorded by the police are still operational. Some of them may be broken," he said.

He said his association had actually recorded a decrease in the percentage of motorcycles being sold in the capital. "Over the past 10 years, the change has been from 30 to 20 percent in 2009," he said.

He said his association has recorded growing sales in other provinces, including Bali and West Papua.

Force vehicles off roads to cut gridlock: Expert

Jakarta Globe - May 27, 2010

Kinanti Pinta Karana – On the same day the nation's largest car and motorcycle dealer predicted record sales, a scientist warned that the only way Jakarta would solve its massive traffic problems was by curbing vehicle ownership.

With too few roads and massive numbers of new vehicles rolling out every day, traffic was only going to get worse, Lukman Hakim, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said during a seminar on mass transportation in the capital on Wednesday.

"In Jakarta, the number of cars being sold has increased and now reaches 300 units daily, while motorcycles could soon rise to 800 a day," he told the German-Asean Conference on Mass Transport Technologies.

The startling figures came on the same day PT Astra International forecast record nationwide sales for motorcycles and cars. "We are optimistic we will surpass the 2008 record of 607,000 cars and 6.5 million motorcycles this year," said Prijono Sugiarto, Astra's president director.

He said favorable economic conditions had driven new car sales up 73 percent over the past year. In the first quarter of this year, motorcycle sales increased by 35 percent to 1.6 million units.

While the figures were positive for the country's economic outlook, it also meant more gridlock for the besieged capital, Lukman said. "Vehicle ownership should be limited [in Jakarta]," he said bluntly.

Traffic experts frequently cite the paucity of roadways in Jakarta, which make up only about 6.2 percent of its total area, as compared with metropolises such as Singapore, New York City and Tokyo, which devote up to 20 percent of their city space to roads.

With about 1.5 million vehicles in Jakarta squeezed onto roads that can only handle about one million, according to 2009 estimates from several experts, the result is a jumbled nightmare of mostly private vehicles – public transportation makes up only about 8 percent of all vehicles.

"It's not surprising that we see traffic jams every day during peak hour," Lukman said, "even on toll roads that were built to reduce traffic."

He said the snarl was also a threat to the economy. Citing research by Firdaus Ali, an environment expert at the University of Indonesia, Lukman said traffic jams in the Greater Jakarta area were estimated to cost more than Rp 26 trillion ($2.8 billion) every year. "Gasoline accounts for Rp 10.7 trillion, productive time lost Rp 9.7 trillion and health costs about Rp 5.8 trillion," he said.

Lukman strongly urged the government to start drafting regulations to limit vehicle ownership in the city. Common ways to reduce ownership are through punitive taxes on second and subsequent cars in each family, increasing taxes at the pump or by charging for road usage, such as with electronic road pricing, which is currently being considered by the government.

Such methods, however, are often criticized for unfairly penalizing the poor.

As if on cue, an official at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources on Wednesday said the agency was considering restricting motorcycle users from buying subsidized gas.

Evita Legowo, director general of oil and gas at the ministry, said the idea to bar motorcyclists from using the low-octane subsidized fuel was the result of a meeting with the Indonesian Motorcycle Industry Association (AISI).

Lukman, however, warned that greater efforts were needed beyond curbing subsidized gas. He said alternative modes of transportation had to be developed.

"Ownership limitations can only be implemented if the government builds an effective mass rapid transportation system. A number of countries have high-tech MRT systems, specializing in train technology," he said.

Jakarta's long-delayed MRT has still not broken ground despite repeated promises. The design for a limited first phase is to be finished this year, with construction due to start in 2012 – if all goes well, 14.5 kilometers of rail will be in operation by 2016.

Police/law enforcement

Witness protection agency seeks stronger law, decent facilities

Jakarta Post - May 24, 2010

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Often sneered at as a paper tiger, the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) is seeking stronger legal basis and more decent facilities to improve its performance.

LPSK chairman Abdul Haris Semendawai admitted Saturday the agency's job to protect whistle blowers had been hampered by major problems.

"As a 'new-born' institution, we know that we can't do much yet. We need stronger legal infrastructure and better facilities to improve our performance," Abdul told The Jakarta Post during a recent interview.

The LPSK's establishment in 2008 was mandated by the 2006 Victim and Witness Protection Law, which was passed five years after it was initiated.

During its first year, the LPSK could not perform well because it had been busy strengthening its organization while its personnel worked with inadequate facilities provided by the government, Abdul said.

"We had no permanent office for months. We ended up in a rented office," Abdul said. LPSK's office occupies a small section of the big old Perintis Kemerdekaan Building on Jl. Proklamasi in Central Jakarta.

The agency also has no permanent safe houses for witnesses or victims needing protection. "Nevertheless, it's better now. At least we can focus on our duty," Abdul said.

During the first four months of 2010, the agency received 49 protection requests, of which 11 were granted.

Whistle-blowers of "ordinary" crimes topped the list with 31 requests, or 64.58 percent, followed by corruption cases with 12 requests, or 25 percent, he said. The number of filed requests is relatively small.

By comparison, the Judicial Mafia Taskforce has received 1,670 reports since its establishment in January, according to its secretary, Denny Indrayana.

Abdul said the small number of requests for protection could be attributed to overlapping laws, some of which override the agency's authority.

Abdul cited Article 44 of the 2006 Victim and Witness Protection Law stipulating that any other laws dealing with victim and witness protection should be ignored. "In reality, many other institutions still apply those laws," he said.

Abdul mentioned the 2002 Law on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as an example. The law stipulates the KPK is obliged to grant protection for witnesses and whistle-blowers.

In fact, he added, the police also often provide protection to witnesses and whistle blowers.

LPSK will announce on Monday its decision on the protection request sought by former National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, who unraveled the massive graft cases in his former institution.

Economy & investment

Red tape blocks clean energy investment in Indonesia: US

Jakarta Globe - May 26, 2010

Arti Ekawati – Red tape, conflicting regulations and legal uncertainties keep US companies from investing in clean-energy projects in Indonesia that could help reduce carbon emissions and fight global warming, US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said during his visit on Wednesday.

Locke said US companies were eager to invest in Indonesia, but a lack of government transparency was a huge obstacle, making it difficult for businesspeople to under-stand the country's regulations.

"As I have discussion with American business leaders, one of the most concerning thing to them is lack of government transparency. They do not know how regulations are implemented or how the government comes up with its decisions," Locke said at the end of a two-day trade mission to Jakarta.

He said businesses "frequently don't know what the rules are, how they will be enforced or how decisions are made," while "bureaucratic bottlenecks" can caused development projects to be delayed for years.

"Especially in the energy sector, where upfront capital investments can be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, this uncertainty has the potential to inhibit foreign corporate investment here," he said.

Locke arrived in Jakarta with representatives of 10 US companies eager to invest in clean energy, especially in geothermal power plants, solar plants and wind power.

They included General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Oshkosh, Peabody Energy and Pratt & Whitney Power Systems. They met with business leaders and government representatives during the mission.

The trip comes ahead of a visit to Indonesia next month by US President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign a comprehensive partnership with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono covering trade, investment and the environment.

Indonesia has enormous potential in geothermal resources, as about 40 percent of the world's geothermal reserves can be found in the country. So far, only about 4 percent of that potential has been explored.

However, Indonesia is believed to be the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, largely because of large-scale deforestation.

Yudhoyono has promised to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 26 percent by 2020, and 41 percent with foreign assistance. His energy policy calls for increasing the production of renewable energy from 7 percent of generating capacity to 15 percent by 2025, while sharply boosting supply.

Locke said Indonesia had the potential to be a major player in clean energy, and to help the world fight climate change while providing the fuel for the global economy.

He said the world's demand for energy was expected to double by mid-century. With conventional energy, people needed to build at least two power plants with 1,000 megawatts of capacity every week to meet demand. Therefore new and innovative energy sources were needed.

"This new energy has to be clean to avoid catastrophic climate change and it has to be cheap to keep our economies growing," he said.

But Locke said Indonesia's energy and development goals were being undermined by such regulations as the Negative Investment List (DNI), which limits foreign investment in power plants producing less than 10 MW.

"I have been told Indonesia is working to amend this law, and I do hope the government will continue to roll back this and other anticompetitive regulations," he said.

Last year, Obama signed the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a stimulus package that includes investment in clean energy of as much as $80 billion.

"Ultimately, all the United States is seeking is a level playing field for its companies, where the cost and quality of their products determine whether or not they win business," Locke said.

"I have been discussing these and other concerns with my Indonesian counterparts. As you might expect, we do not always agree."

Analysis & opinion

Obama, Yudhoyono share a challenge

Asia Times - May 28, 2010

Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar (Bali) – What a difference a quarter makes. United States President Barack Obama, who spent two years in Indonesia as schoolboy Barry Soetoro, was first scheduled to visit Indonesia in March, but legislative obligations pushed the highly anticipated visit back to mid-June. Over the past 10 weeks, much has changed for both Obama and Indonesia, the world's third-largest democracy.

In March, Obama had the look of a loser. The US economy was still in the tank. Healthcare reform, Obama's major legislative initiative, seemed destined for defeat. The foiled Christmas Day bombing of a US airliner as it approached landing in Detroit, combined with the shootings of US Army personnel in Texas by a disturbed Muslim American officer, had created a narrative that the administration was soft on terrorism.

Rejectionist Republican opponents had gridlocked congress and seized control of the national debate, backed by the populist sloganeering of the "Tea Party" movement, indicating that a huge swing away from Obama's Democratic Party was likely in November's legislative elections.

As June approaches, Obama looks more like a winner, although the continuing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could become a political disaster – or the opening for more effective corporate and environmental reforms. The US economy has begun producing jobs rather than losing them. Healthcare reform passed. In primary elections and other votes so far this year, the Tea Party's anti-government sentiment has proven as difficult for Republicans to handle as Democrats.

Sri you later

For Obama's Indonesian counterpart, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, things have turned for the worse. His candidate for the chairmanship of Indonesia's Democrat Party was defeated last weekend. He still has a gridlocked legislature bent on thwarting reform on behalf of entrenched business interests. His internationally respected Finance Minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, resigned early this month for a top job at the World Bank.

Mulyani had been the target of a concerted campaign to discredit her by the Golkar party, Yudhoyono's legislative coalition partner. As she departed for Washington, Mulyani pointed the finger for her departure at business tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, the chairman of Golkar, the ruling vehicle for former president Suharto's 32-year military rule that ended in 1998. Bakrie is one of the many Suharto insiders who still dominate business and the military. In a recent Financial Times interview, Mulyani warned that reactionary business interests want to "hijack" reform. "It is a battle for Indonesia now," she said.

Meanwhile, a vocal minority pushing radical Islam outshouts a huge majority that favors a secular state but dares not speak against the religion. About 200 million of Indonesia's 240 million citizens follow Islam, giving it the world's largest Muslim population.

Since March, the terrorism issue has hit closer to home for both presidents. The plot to bomb New York's Times Square district, uncovered on May 1, led the administration to dismiss the director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair. However, even foiled plots leave Obama vulnerable to charges that he hasn't done enough to fight terrorism.

National Day massacre plot

In Indonesia, just two weeks after the Times Square incident, police uncovered a massive plot to attack national leaders at the August 17 National Day ceremonies, target foreigners, and, in the ensuing chaos, stage a coup that would impose Islamic law. According to officials, the plotting group was a faction of Jemaah Islamiyah that called itself al-Qaeda in Aceh, and may have ties to overseas terrorist organizations.

The two plots seemingly foreshadow a large anti-terrorism component to the upcoming presidential summit. The US can learn a lot from Indonesia, which has captured, tried and executed far more terrorists than the US, including the top operatives in the 2002 Bali bombing plot that killed 202 people, mainly foreign tourists. However, there are good reasons for caution about taking the anti-terrorism theme too far.

The official announcement of the foiled National Day attack plan came a month ahead of Obama's rescheduled visit. In February, a month ahead of the original date, Indonesian officials announced they had uncovered a terrorism camp in Aceh, the resource-rich far western province where Yudhoyono's first administration negotiated an end to a decades-long armed separatist civil war by offering limited autonomy, including a measure of Islamic law. The agreement came in 2005, after the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 weakened the military's dominance of the province.

Let's get normalized

In early March, Indonesian military officials stoked the rumor mill by saying that the US was ready to reinstitute aid to Kopassus, the Indonesian army's elite Special Forces unit. Kopassus has been blamed for a number of atrocities, including instigating the 1998 anti-Chinese riots in Jakarta. Those riots were thought to be designed to provide a pretext for a coup, particularly since the unit was then under the command of Suharto's former son-in-law Prabowo Subianto. Kopassus members also confessed to the 2001 murder of Papuan separatist leader Theys Eluway.

Ending the US ban on Kopassus funding would be the final step toward normalizing relations with the Indonesian military that were cut by the Bill Clinton administration in 1999. The George W Bush administration restored its training program for the rest of the Indonesian armed forces and arms sales after the 2004 tsunami. The US, along with Australia, also provides training and other aid to the National Police, including its Detachment 88 anti-terror squad.

But the Obama and Yudhoyono administrations may not rise to the terrorism bait. So far US officials visiting Indonesia to arrange the presidential trip – at least those whose presence has been made public – have focused on other issues, specifically human trafficking and improving the foreign investment climate. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said Indonesia needs more "smart diplomacy" that includes aid for education, exchange programs and other steps to improve human resources to help democracy succeed, as well as enhancing grassroots organizations that can trump extremism.

Not only in Bangkok...

The occupation and razing of parts of central Bangkok by anti- government protesters in Thailand highlights the danger to Indonesia, which has become in a dozen years the most functional democracy in Southeast Asia. Despite direct presidential elections and widely acknowledged free and fair elections for national and local offices, Indonesia's government remains largely dysfunctional.

Its judiciary is widely seen as dishonest, as highlighted by a plot unearthed last year between prosecutors, judges and business executives to frame leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission. The culture of corruption pervades every level of government and many clearly see public service as a license to enrich themselves and family at the expense of the public. The Bangkok protests showed what can happen when the sense of disenfranchisement – we vote, but nothing changes; wealth grows, but we stay poor – is allowed to fester. Those sentiments animate the US Tea Party phenomenon and in Southeast Asia are often at the root of terrorism. The feeling that the few are cheating the many is widely felt throughout Southeast Asia, and especially in Indonesia, as acutely as it was in Thailand.

Those sentiments are also just as subject to manipulation by a Suharto-era business tycoon, radical imam, or would-be military national savior as they are by an ousted former Thai prime minister or half-term Alaska governor. For Obama and Yudhoyono, the challenge is to move effectively to counter those feelings of disenfranchisement through democratic means. Rather than more soldiers, guns and courage in battle, the war will be won with teachers, books and courage to reform.

[Longtime editor of award-winning investor rights advocate eRaider.com, Gary LaMoshihas written for Slate and Salon.com, and works an adviser to Writing Camp (www.writingcamp.net). He first visited Indonesia in 1994 and has tracking its progress ever since.]