For discussing surgery on female organs, allowing a racy performance by dangdut singers and promoting an aphrodisiac, a number of broadcast stations were reprimanded for violating government standards.

The Central Java Broadcasting Commission (KPID) recently notified seven TV stations for failing to comply to "norms on public decency." The stations were SCTV, RCTI, Indosiar, Trans TV, TVRI Central Java, Solo's TA TV, Semarang's PRO TV and radio station Musvia SM in Magelang district.

"They clearly violated the programming standards that require them to comply with prevailing norms, civility and public decency, as well as privacy and personal rights," Zainal Abidin Petir of the KPID said.

The commission pointed out a Trans TV show, "Investigation Selebriti," which aired on June 4 that featured actress Julia Perez talking about vaginoplasty.

Julia was also the reason for KPID's censure of Indosiar, after she appeared on the show "Kiss" wearing what the commission said was "a very skimpy skirt."

SCTV's attention was called for showing a racy performance by dangdut group Trio Macan on its program "Inbox" on May 26 and singer Dewi Persik "shaking her breasts" during her performance at the SCTV Music Awards on May 29.

A similar performance by Persik that aired on May 26 on RCTI program "Dahsyat" resulted in a written warning from the commission.

Zainal said TA TV and TVRI were reprimanded for airing "irrational" programs. "One program on TA TV was offering an aphrodisiac, while TVRI was promoting faith healing by using verses from the Koran. Those verses should never be used in that manner."

PRO TV and Musvia FM in Magelang were reprimanded for failing to play the national anthem at the beginning and at the end of their broadcast.

Teenager passes out marrying cow he had sex with

Jakarta Globe - June 11, 2010

A Balinese teenager caught in the act of intercourse with a cow passed out on Friday when he was forced to marry the animal in a ceremony witnessed by hundreds of curious onlookers.

As the Jakarta Globe reported earlier in the day, Ngurah Alit, 18, an unemployed youth from the seaside village of Yeh Embang in Jembrana, was caught stark naked positioned behind the cow in a rice paddy field.

In his defence, Alit admitted to the act of bestiality but claimed the cow, which he believed was a young and beautiful woman, had wooed him with flattering compliments. As part of a Pecaruan ritual, a ceremony to cleanse the village of the unholy act of a man mating with a cow, Alit was forced to "marry" the animal.

Alit, however, according to Detik.com, passed out surrounded by locals and police, who were attempting to prevent a number of journalists from covering the spectacle. It is unclear whether or not he got to say "I do."

Alit's collapse prompted his mother to begin screaming hysterically, while other family members shouted at photographers not to take pictures. "Poor kid. He's actually a quiet kid," said one villager.

As part of the ceremony, Alit's victim and new bride was drowned in ocean. Alit, on the other hand, was symbolically drowned and bathed on the beach. "Only his clothes were thrown into the sea," the villager said.

Actions, demos, protests...

Activists demonstrate in opposition to nuclear plans

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2010

Jakarta – Dozens of activists from various cities staged a rally at the Proklamasi Monument in Central Jakarta on Saturday to oppose a government plan to build nuclear power plants.

They carried banners emblazoned with messages like, "No Nuke, No More Chernobyl" and "Our mother earth must be nuclear free zone". They also erected a giant tent at the park, exhibiting photographs of the nuclear victims from around the world.

"We denounce the plan and instead call for non-nuclear alternatives. We live in natural resource-rich country," Al Bahri, one of the activists said.

Taufiqurahman, another activist, doubted that the government and public alike are prepared for the consequences of having a nuclear plant.

"I doubt that the government has the capacity and commitment to monitor and safeguard the facility once it is built. Our government's mentality is too corrupt to trust," he said.

Arif Fiyanto, campaigner for Greenpeace Asia, said it would be hard for the government to assure the public of the facility's safety because the public was already well-informed.

Islamic groups demand dissolution of anti-terror squad

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2010

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – About 200 activists of Islamic groups rallied outside the National Police Headquarters in South Jakarta on Friday, demanding dissolution of the counterterrorism squad.

The protesters from the Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid and the Islamic Community Forum (FUI) said the anti-terror squad, better known as Densus 88, had often killed innocent people in their crackdown on terrorist suspects.

"For example, a dead body they call as a terrorist suspect has remained unidentified until today. This proves that the Densus 88 tends to shoot at anybody they don't like without sufficient evidence. They are more barbaric than infidels," a protester said.

He was referring to one of three terrorist suspects who were shot dead in Cawang by the anti-terror squad last month. So far the police have yet to unveil the dead man. The activists said international aid that went to the squad constituted foreign intervention in the country.

In response to the rally, National Police deputy spokesman Brig. Gen. Zainuri Lubis said the police had never caught suspects without evidence. "All the raids were legitimate," he said. The protesters dispersed peacefully at 4 p.m.

Activists say aspiration fund not the people's aspiration

Detik.com - June 10, 2010

Lia Harahap, Jakarta – Three people wearing masks with pictures of pigs on them brought a clay earthen pitcher. They also waved monopoly money in the air.

On the barrel was written the words "Pork Barrel Rp1 Billion". A large coloured banner was also glued to the House of Representatives (DPR) gate in Senayan, Jakarta, on Thursday June 10.

On another banner was written "The People Voice their Opposition to the Rp15 Billion Aspiration Fund" and screen shots from a Facebook social networking group that opposes the aspiration fund proposed by the Golkar Party.

They also brought a posters with messages such as "Aspiration Fund – Not the People's Aspiration", "Save [the] Budget for Indonesia" and "These Funds are Waited Funds and Don't' Represent the People".

The action organised by the Social Forum for Saving the State Budget (Format) was joined by around 20 people protesting against the 15 billion rupiah aspiration fund and the allocation of 1 billion rupiah for villages.

"This aspiration is not our aspiration. It is a proposal by people who feel comfortable strolling around the DPR. Not to mention the planned aspiration fund proposal of 1 billion rupiah for villages that has now surfaced. And this was also put forward by the Golkar", said Format speaker Hadi Prayitno in a speech.

"This must arouse suspicions that it's a pork barrel. Because the proposals are [really just] to enrich themselves and get fat!" shouted Prayitno. (nwk/nrl)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Aceh

Death strikes a blow to Aceh unity

Asia Times - June 11, 2010

Fabio Scarpello, Denpasar – The death of Teungku Hasan Muhammad di Tiro, the founder of the former pro-independence Free Aceh Movement (GAM), could intensify existing divisions in Indonesia's historically restive Aceh region and complicate ongoing discussions with Jakarta concerning the implementation of a 2005 peace agreement signed in Helsinki. The 85-year-old Hasan di Tiro died of natural causes in Banda Aceh on June 3.

Hendra Fadli, coordinator of human-rights group Kontras-Aceh, says "Hasan di Tiro's charisma worked as a unifying factor that smoothed over some of the different interests present in Aceh". Fuad Mardhatillah, an analyst at the Aceh Institute, added that "latent conflicts are widespread in Aceh, but yet to emerge" and that di Tiro's death "means that there is one less unifying figure that may keep the various players at bay".

As a secessionist rebel leader di Tiro was Jakarta's number one enemy for decades, but he died as an Indonesian citizen after his request to regain his citizenship was granted by Jakarta – the official documentation was delivered to him on June 2, the day before he died. He fled to Sweden in March 1979 as the Indonesian Army closed in on him after he declared Aceh an independent state in 1976. As a political asylum seeker, he became a Swedish citizen in 1984.

Throughout GAM's armed struggle, he maintained remote political control of the movement, relinquishing it only in his latter years as his health deteriorated. He was also respected by many Acehnese who did not subscribe to GAM's political objectives. This was evident when he was able to return to Aceh to a hero's welcome in October 2008 on the invitation of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. On that occasion, di Tiro was unofficially hailed as Aceh's "Wali Nanggroe", which loosely translates to "guardian of the state".

Elusive equilibrium

Despite a transition to democratic governance and a large measure of local autonomy, Aceh is still in search of a post-conflict equilibrium. Analysts say fault lines still exist on at least three different levels.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that has been allowed to implement the Islamic code of sharia. But this implementation has taken on political overtones, with the religious establishment maneuvering to work as a counterweight to local government authorities.

On the streets, local police have had their authority challenged by sharia police, while in the provincial legislature sharia- inspired laws have pitted Islamic-oriented lawmakers against secular representatives. For example, current governor Yusuf Irwandi, himself a former GAM member, refused to endorse a law that allowed for the stoning to death of adulterers. The regulation was nonetheless passed into law without Irwandi's signature in October 2008.

Tensions also exist between former GAM members that have entered mainstream politics since the conflict ended. The well-documented rift between the reformist wing, led by Irwandi, and the conservative wing, led by Malik Mahud, is alive and well. It stemmed from Irwandi's decision to run for governor as an independent candidate in 2006, defying Malik's endorsement of Humam Hamid.

Malik was prime minister of GAM's government-in-exile and a signatory to the Helsinki peace accord. Malik is now viewed as firmly in control of Partai Aceh (PA), the party that was established in mid-2007 to bring former GAM members under one political umbrella. Although the two factions managed to work together during the 2009 local elections, when Irwandi endorsed the PA, deeply entrenched differences in outlook remain.

Further tension has resulted from the unequal division of the peace dividend. On one hand there are the mid- to high-ranking former rebels associated with the network of patronage established after the 2006 and 2009 elections. In 2006, ten of the 23 district chiefs elected in the local polls were from GAM's ranks. In the April 2009 election, the PA won 33 of the 69 seats in Aceh's legislature, plus a majority of seats in seven of Aceh's district councils.

On the other hand are some former GAM foot soldiers that have remained on the periphery of the new power structure and have struggled to make a living. This group is alleged to be behind the spike in petty crime that was so evident in Aceh between mid-2007 and September 2009.

In between the two blocs is the Aceh Transition Committee (KPA), a civil organization established shortly after the 2005 peace accord to represent former combatants of GAM's military wing. According to some sources, KPA has grown into an almost parallel power structure in some areas of the province.

Legal maneuvers

While divisions have grown among ex-GAM cadre, simultaneously the relationship between Aceh and Jakarta has also become fraught, specifically over the translation of the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding into the Law on Governing Aceh (LoGA), which some say is a significantly watered-down version of the original memorandum of understanding (MoU).

For example, the Helsinki agreement states that any central government policies regarding Aceh would need the "consent of the Aceh government", but the LoGA weakened this provision to "consultation with" the provincial government. Other contentious items include the role of the Indonesian military, human-rights issues, and the release of the remaining GAM prisoners – as well as the disbursal of central government funds for reintegration.

Some locals argue that even this watered-down version of the MoU has been implemented in a patchy manner, with Banda Aceh complaining that Jakarta has been slow to issue the so-called regulation transfer – a document needed to legally transform a written law into one that can be applied in reality.

Analyst Mardhatillah argued that "the piecemeal implementation of the MoU has been very disappointing" and that "in order to hold Jakarta accountable, Aceh needs to be united". An Aceh-based foreign security consultant said that the current divisions present in Aceh actually play to Jakarta's advantage. He emphasized that di Tiro's death would weaken Aceh's intention to make the Wali Nanggroe a powerful, official position in the province similar to a sultan.

The provision to establish a Wali Nanggroe was a significant victory for GAM during the peace negotiations, but the text of the MoU is vague and the position has been a contentious issue ever since. GAM envisioned the Wali Nanggroe would have power to veto laws, dissolve the local assembly, maintain legal immunity and take decisive action in emergency situations. Jakarta has refused this wide-ranging view of the position, and has pushed via the LoGa for a more ceremonial role.

"Without Hasan di Tiro, it is likely that Jakarta's view will prevail," the security consultant said.

[Fabio Scarpello is the Southeast Asia correspondent for Adnkronos International. He may be contacted via www.fabioscarpello.com.]

Aceh rebel chief with a bloody cause

Melbourne Age - June 11, 2010

Damien Kingsbury – Teungku (Lord) Hasan di Tiro, who led the bloody independence movement in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh for three decades, has died of complications from leukaemia in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. He was 84.

He had earlier suffered two strokes, which limited his activity in the final years of the Aceh separatist rebellion that he initiated in 1976. The movement was disbanded under a peace accord in 2005.

Hasan di Tiro was born in the village of Tiro, near Pidie in Aceh, and came from a long line of influential Muslim religious scholars. Notably, di Tiro was the grandson of Cik di Tiro, who was killed in 1899 leading Acehnese resistance to Dutch colonial forces that had invaded Aceh in 1873.

It has been claimed that when the Sultan of Aceh abandoned his besieged capital in 1874, he abdicated and made Cik di Tiro sultan. This claim was reinforced by the sultan not naming a successor when he died in 1907. Hasan di Tiro was thus widely viewed in Aceh as the legitimate successor to the Acehnese sultanate.

Following Indonesian independence in 1949, di Tiro studied in Yogyakarta and then in New York, where he worked part-time for the Indonesian mission to the United Nations. Following Jakarta reneging on an earlier autonomy agreement, Aceh joined the Darul Islam (House of Islam) Rebellion in 1953. Di Tiro quit the Indonesian mission in New York and set himself up as Darul Islam's "foreign minister".

The Darul Islam Rebellion ended in Aceh in 1962 when it was offered autonomy by Jakarta. However, the tumultuous political events of early 1960s Indonesia and then the establishment of the New Order government of President Suharto in 1966 meant that autonomy was never meaningfully implemented.

Di Tiro reappeared in 1974 when he unsuccessfully applied for a contract for what was to become Aceh's major natural gas field. With the increasing alienation of Acehnese from the Jakarta- dominated natural gas processing, in 1976 di Tiro established the Aceh-Sumatra National Liberation Front, better known as the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, or GAM).

He claimed that Indonesia was an illegitimate state and that Aceh should reclaim its pre-1873 independence. GAM launched its separatist campaign, including attacks on the new Exxon-Mobil LNG refinery. After being wounded the following year, di Tiro fled to Malaysia and then to Sweden, where he took out Swedish citizenship and oversaw the separatist struggle and GAM's political wing.

The separatist struggle rose and declined over the following three decades in response to Indonesian military repression and, in the late 1980s, the training of GAM fighters in Libya. The death toll of Aceh's brutal war has been estimated at between a low of 15,000 and more than 30,000.

In the 1990s, di Tiro suffered two strokes, which limited his capacity to direct the war. He continued, however, to be treated with great reverence by GAM political and military leaders, being referred to as "teungku" and "wali" ("saint"); all major decisions were put before him before action was taken. At the height of GAM's power in 2002, the organisation started by di Tiro controlled much of Aceh. In response to these successes, in 2003, the Indonesian army launched its largest ever military campaign, sending 70,000 troops and paramilitary police into Aceh, pushing GAM from most of its "liberated zones".

Following previous failed peace attempts, in 2004 the Indonesian government under the reformist President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono began to sound out new peace talks. This led to an agreement on December 24, 2004 to hold an initial meeting early in 2005. Two days later, the Boxing Day tsunami struck Aceh, killing about 170,000 people, destroying much of the province's infrastructure and adding new urgency to finding a resolution to the war.

Di Tiro was too frail to participate in the eventual peace talks but, through regular meetings in Stockholm, GAM negotiators received his blessing for each stage of the process. Di Tiro told this author that the final agreement – brokered in the Finnish capital, Helsinki – on genuine autonomy for Aceh was an honorable outcome and in keeping with the intentions of the earlier Darul Islam rebellion. He also endorsed Aceh's democratisation and the recreation of GAM as a democratic political party. Di Tiro's son, Karim, an American citizen, had much earlier given up interest in Aceh and in succeeding his father as "teungku".

Though very frail, Di Tiro returned to Aceh in 2008 and again, permanently, in 2009, taking out Indonesian citizenship the day before he died. He was buried in the di Tiro family cemetery next to his grandfather Cik di Tiro. He is survived by his wife, Dora, and son, Karim, who lives in Ohio.

[Professor Damien Kingsbury met Hasan di Tiro regularly between 2004 and 2007 and was adviser to the Free Aceh Movement at the Helsinki peace talks in 2005.]

West Papua

Police chief in Papua attacks media for painting a bleak picture

Radio New Zealand Internatinal - June 14, 2010

The chief editor of an independent newspaper in Indonesia's Papua region has denied a claim by Papua's police commander that journalists covering regional stories focus only on negative security issues.

Bekto Suprapto has criticised journalists for their reporting on shootings and incidents of tribal conflict. Victor Mambor of the weekly, Tabloid Jubi, says the criticism is disappointing.

"But I think the journalists not only publish the negative situation in West Papua. we also publish the positive situation in West Papua, the progress of development."

Victor Mambor and other members of the Alliance of Independent Journalists Papua, or AJI, met at the weekend with Mr Suprapto to discuss his claim.

The AJI calls it baseless, insisting local journalists are reporting facts accurately in the heavily-militarised region. The police chief says some media portray a false image of Papua as unsafe.

Military ties

Indonesia aims for further military ties with US

Reuters - June 10, 2010

Jakarta – Indonesia and the United States said on Thursday they had signed a defence framework arrangement to pave the way for further cooperation in military training, defence procurement and maritime security.

However, a US ban on military training since the 1990s for Indonesia's notorious special forces unit Kopassus remains in place, a US embassy spokesman said.

Security cooperation is something both countries want to improve, and Indonesia's defence minister said in March he was optimistic that the ban on training for Kopassus could be lifted.

Ties between Washington and Jakarta cooled in the 1990s over rights abuses, often linked to Kopassus in East Timor, Aceh and Papua, but the relationship has warmed during the presidency of Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.

"We have been talking for some time both internally and with the Indonesian government about how and under what conditions we might pursue re-engagement with Kopassus that is in accordance with our law, values and interests," said Tristram Perry at the US embassy in Jakarta.

Washington has gradually lifted military aid and sales restrictions and Indonesia's defence minister said in March about 2,800 Indonesian military officials were being trained in the United States.

Despite the lifting of some US restrictions, Jakarta has shopped elsewhere, turning to Russia for jet fighters and China for missiles. It is now talking to US defence firm Lockheed Martin about buying transport planes.

Indonesia is expected to ask for more economic and military aid during a planned visit by Obama, which has already been delayed twice in 2010 and is now targeted for late in the year.

Indonesia has been a frontline state in the US-led fight against Islamist extremism, and has had considerable success in quashing militants after deadly bombings by radical organisation Jemaah Islamiah and splinter groups, which want to build a regional Islamic caliphate. (Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Alex Richardson)

Human rights & law

NGOs demand justice in farmer shooting case

Jakarta Post - June 10, 2010

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Representatives of nongovernmental organizations grouped under the Solidarity for Riau Farmers held an art performance outside the National Police Headquarters in South Jakarta on Thursday to protest the death of a palm oil farmer at the hands of Mobile Brigade officers.

They also reported the murder of Yusniar, a 45-year-old mother of Kuantan Senggigi, to the police's detective directorate. Yusniar is believed to have been shot dead by the Mobile Brigade officers during a recent rally staged by hundreds of local farmers.

"The police have abused their authority. The killing was a proof that law enforcers are no longer public servants but the defenders of businesspeople," said Mukri Friatna, the Indonesian Environmental Forum's (Walhi) West Region manager.

Another farmer, Disman, is in critical condition due to gunshot wounds he sustains. Mukri said dozens of farmers were arrested.

The farmers staged the protest over allegations that PT TBS, a palm-oil plantation operator, had broken an agreement on production sharing scheme signed by the two parties in 1997.

Supri Suyardi, one of the farmers, said the agreement stipulates that the land concession lasted only until 2002. "But until today they have yet to return the land to us. That's why we protested by harvesting the palm oil," Supri said.

National Police deputy spokesman Brig. Gen. Zainuri Lubis said the provincial police was investigating the case.

Information law hampered by lack of funds

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2010

Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – The law championing access to public information was implemented a month ago is almost impossible to enforce because the government has not made available much needed funds, human resources and facilities.

Members of the Information Commission have complained about not being paid and a lack of supporting government regulations needed to specify provisions in the laws to make them applicable.

Commission member Dono Prasetyo said that the unpaid salary forced him to moonlight as a speaker at various seminars to make ends meet. "It's not that much, but enough to get by and cover my transport cost," he told the told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He said even he was still in the dark about the amount of his remuneration as a commissioner because the government had not yet announced the remuneration system.

"We have consulted with the Ombudsman Commission and we were told that the range of remuneration for a state commissioner was between Rp 12 million and Rp 20 million. But to date we haven't heard an official announcement about this from the government," he said.

He claimed he hadn't been paid since he and fellow commissioners were installed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last year. To make matters worse, the commissioners had not been equipped with proper support staff, which often hampered the commission's function.

"I only hope the administration pays serious attention to the problem because we are all well aware that our situation could tempt us to turn to corrupt practices," he said.

This situation is commonplace with newly established institutions due to a lack of human resources management and planning. Several years ago, replacement judges from the Corruption Court also complained of their salaries not being paid.

President Yudhoyono installed seven commissioners in June last year in preparation of implementing the 2008 Law on Access to Public Information. Led by Achmad Alamsyah Saragih, the commission comprises representatives from civil society groups and the government.

The commission's main job is to settle any dispute that may occur between those who demand transparency and public institutions that have the information. The commission is obliged to determine whether the information should be considered classified or public.

Those unsatisfied with the commission's decision could file a complaint with the district court and appeal to the Supreme Court if it is unresolved.

According to Saragih, the government has provided a budget of Rp 12.5 billion since the commission's establishment to support the its day-to-day operations.

He added that a building in outskirt area of Meruya, West Jakarta, owned by the of Communications and Information Ministry, has also been made available for the commission. "Considering the risk our job involves, I really hope we are able to move to an area with better access and security," he said.

He said that better security systems were a must because they would be dealing with official documents from state institutions. "Security system is vital to safeguard the lives of commissioners when we are handling high-profile and potentially inflammatory cases."

Rights body finds violence in North Sumatra riot

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2010

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has confirmed the April 26 riot in Mandailing Natal regency, North Sumatra, was violent and has recommended those involved be criminally investigated.

"We recommend the residents and police personnel involved in the incident be processed through the proper legal channels," Jhoni Nelson Simanjuntak, a commission member in charge of monitoring and investigation affairs, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

The incident stemmed from rivalries between two groups of residents, one from Lingga Bayu district and the other from Natal district over the plasma field at PT Perkebunan Sumatera Utara.

People from Natal felt they were being sidelined even though the plant is located in their district. The police personnel broke up the conflict, but residents proceeded to vent their anger on public facilities.

Jhoni said the residents burnt PT Perkebunan Sumatera Utara's property and assets and damaged the police's office. The police arrest of some residents the following morning has also been criticized for violating human rights.

Jhoni met with North Sumatra Police Deputy chief Brig. Gen. Syafruddin and his staff on Monday to discuss the riot, which caused Rp 2 billion in damage.

The Natal people said they were angry because they were not involved in the establishment of the new district, which motivated them destroy some of the company's property and assets.

Jhoni, however, said that there was an indication of third party involvement in the riot. "These are all related to the upcoming regional election, but the commission does not have the authority to investigate such an issue," he said.

Mandailing Natal regency is scheduled to go to the polls in September.

Deputy Police chief Brig. Gen. Syafruddin, said the North Sumatra Police would look into the findings by the human rights commission.

Labour & migrant workers

Advocates angry after domestic worker bill made low priority

Jakarta Globe - June 14, 2010

Ismira Lutfia – Domestic workers' advocates have lashed out at the House of Representatives for bumping a bill on protecting their rights from the list of priority legislation for deliberation this year.

A coalition led by the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT) said on Monday that House Commission IX, which oversees welfare issues, had on June 2 opted to drop the bill from the priority list of legislation despite the initial fanfare it raised when unveiling it.

Jala PRT chairwoman Lita Anggraini said the decision showed lawmakers' "insensitivity" to the many issues facing domestic workers in the country, including abuse and disfranchisement of basic rights.

Former lawmaker Nursyahbani Katjasungkana said legislation to formalize the job done by domestic workers was urgently needed to end exploitation and ease monitoring of the sector.

"A working relationship should not be determined by where the job takes place or whether it is formal or not," said Nursyahbani, director of the Institute for the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice.

"When their income is targeted as foreign-exchange remittances, the government sees no need to determine whether they are formal or informal workers," she said, referring to the huge sums sent home by the estimated six million Indonesians employed as domestic workers abroad.

Commission IX lawmaker Rieke Dyah Pitaloka, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), told the Jakarta Globe that the commission had put the bill on the back burner because it needed "further and deeper analysis, and consideration of the pros and cons being debated in society."

However, she agreed the bill was about an urgent human-rights issue, and said the commission would meet again to decide whether to reinstate it to the priority list. "We really need to pass this bill into law," she said.

Anis Hidayah, director of labor watchdog Migrant Care, said the lack of domestic legislation to deal with workers' rights "weakens Indonesia's bargaining position" in relation to host countries such as Malaysia or those in the Middle East, where nearly three-quarters of Indonesian migrant workers are employed.

"This lack of legislation will always be a stumbling block in Indonesia's demands for better protection of our workers," Anis said.

Haris Azhar, deputy chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said dismissing the bill as a low priority showed "the country's disregard for the rights of its citizens, mainly those employed as domestic workers."

He said the lack of legislation affected women in particular, who make up the majority of domestic workers and are increasingly forced into the sector because of a dearth of jobs in their home villages.

"The current wave of economic development has passed them by and failed to create jobs for them," Haris said.

As it is currently written, the domestic workers' protection bill would require employers to provide a minimum of 12 days of paid leave annually after the first year, as well as other benefits similar to those enjoyed by workers in the formal sector.

The bill, if passed into law, would allow the recruitment of domestic workers as young as 15 years old, but those under 18 would need written consent from their parents or guardian.

Government treats migrant workers as export commodities

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2010

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Migrant Care is one of the NGOs providing legal advocacy for troubled migrant workers. Its executive director Anis Hidayah shared her experience with The Jakarta Post's Ridwan Max Sijabat.

Question: Why is the rate of abuse of Indonesian migrant workers currently on the rise?

Answer: This is in line with the accelerated rate of labor exports and the lack of job opportunities at home, especially in rural areas. Besides, the government had no political will to reform the human trade. It has functioned more as fire extinguisher, reactive rather than responsive.

Do you think the government is involved in human trafficking?

Government regulation and policy have opened major loopholes for human trafficking that allegedly involves government apparatus.

How?

The legal procedures involve immigration officers, the police, the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry and the Health Ministry. This has been manipulated to supply workers illegally. Labor supply and human trafficking are two sides of the same coin, depending on how the procedure is set up and operated. The government is guilty by omission.

What are crucial points in the labor export procedure?

First of all, the flow of information is very weak and many workers get trapped in the human trade because of a lack of information on overseas employment. Second, the labor protection mechanism and sanctions against those involved in manipulating the existing mechanism are very weak. The absence of close supervision in the labor export procedure has also contributed to smuggling and abuses overseas.

What is your comment on the government blaming labor exporters and migrant workers as culprits in the deviating labor export practice?

We see it as part of the government's attempt to avoid public blame. The government should reform the controversial regulations and procedures and give special emphasis to its main task of generating jobs and providing protection for all citizens. The government should give the red carpet treatment to all citizens arriving home after working overseas. The task of providing worker protection could be delegated to labor exporters.

Do you ever find that many government apparatuses have abused their power in issuing relevant documents for migrant workers?

Yes, we do. All workers pay a price to get the documents, including falsified ones and many workers are not aware of potential problems when their documents are falsified and they do not acquire adequate training in their job competence and communication skills.

Do you think the law needs revision and the UN convention needs to be ratified?

The revision and the ratification are a must to ensure fundamental rights for all stakeholders in supplying workers overseas and providing protection for them.

The government also has to change its paradigm of treating workers as a commodity export rather than migrant workers who must be treated humanely.

As a civilized nation, Indonesia should show its political commitment to upholding the dignity of its people. And they can be adopted by user countries as legal basis to make a political commitment to protection our migrant workers overseas.

Do you think the increasing number of abuse cases against migrant workers has something to do with the prolonged conflict between the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry and the National Board for the Placement and Protection on Indonesian Migrant Workers?

Yes, I think so. The service for migrant workers have been undermined because of the two sides' conflicting interests and both have failed in providing protection for migrant workers. The two institutions should be replaced by an independent labor placement and protection commission to facilitate the workers' migration overseas.

What should the government do for the labor export?

Very simple. The government should simplify the labor export procedure to be cheap, rapid and safe. The government should end the dominating role of private labor supply companies. The government should no longer send uneducated and unskilled workers, especially those from rural areas, who know less about modernity and international relations.

How does Migrant Care provide advocacy for troubled workers?

It is our standard procedure to respond quickly through mediation, to ensure workers' rights, or through court, to allow them justice. In many cases, justice is a high price for which troubled workers have already paid. We also accompany troubled workers to file legal complaints to relevant authorities in pursuing their rights.

How should labor migration be facilitated? Are there any lessons we can learn from other countries?

Regional administrations should be given more authority in facilitating their citizens to migrate abroad. They have to have their manpower planning on how to generate jobs and facilitate workers to work abroad.

They should also empower their own training centers to train prospective migrant workers in terms of job competence and communication skills.

The government should also set a standard curriculum for job training at all 180 training centers nationwide while labor exporters concentrate on supplying workers and seek overseas labor markets.

Besides providing training and documents, the government should also be in charge of protecting all workers and handling labor disputes during their trip and their employment overseas.

The government should also improve the workers' access to insurance claims from appointed insurance companies.

This simplified procedure will cut the red tape and the pooling houses in Jakarta and outskirts where slavery has been often practiced, will become history.

Environment & natural disasters

Government's pledge to reduce forest fires questioned

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2010

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – The government's pledge to reduce forest fires in attempt to help slow climate change is now under question after a report revealed the number of recorded hotspots soared last year.

The 2009 State Environment Report launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono showed the number of fire hotspots rose to 32,416 in 2009 from only 19,192 in the previous year.

The Environment Ministry pointed its finger at weak law enforcement and a lack of supervision from local authorities for the increasing number.

"Illegal land clearing with fires by local people in Kalimantan and Sumatra is still rampant," Heddy Mukna, deputy assistant for forest and land management at the Environment Ministry told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He said that in Kalimantan, local administrations were forced to withdraw policies prohibiting land clearing due the protests from local people. "It [land clearing] caused the increase number of hotspots in Kalimantan last year."

The report showed the number of hotspots in West Kalimantan increased to 7,276 in 2009 from 2,881 in the previous year. In Central Kalimantan, the total number of hotspots reached 4,942 last year from only 1,852 in 2008, while in South Kalimantan fires jumped to 1,291 from only 372 in 2008.

The annual Report of State Environment was issued in line with commemoration of World Environmental Day to report on conditions such as the quality of water, air and atmosphere as well as forest and biodiversity issues.

The plan of action on climate change issued in 2007 stipulates the government must slash the number of forest fire hotspots by 50 percent annually in a bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The were 35, 279 hotspots in 2006.

A year after the promise was made in an international forum on climate change in Bali, hotspots decreased to 17,896 in 2007 and 19,192 in 2008. In 2009, the number soared to 32, 416.

Heddy said that President Yudhoyono had revised the target of a 50 percent reduction to only 20 percent by 2010 in line with the country's commitment to cut emissions by 26 percent by 2020.

"The target of a 50 percent reduction in hotspots has been revised to only 20 percent, but the baseline on whether from it is from 2006 or 2008 remains unclear," he said.

The government has said that most of the 26 percent target reduction could be realized by only reducing forest fires and planting trees. Heddy said the government targeted to have zero forest fire in 2014.

Climate Society Forum (CSF) coordinator Giorgio Indarto, said the rising hotspots showed the strategy used to deal with forest fires was weak.

"It means President Yudhoyono still has lots of work to do to meet his promise to cut the emissions. The President must stop making new promises and should focus on real action to stop the forest fires," he said.

Forest fires have long been an annual event in the country during the dry season. The massive forest fires in 1997 placed Indonesia as the world's third-largest emitter CO2.

Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said the forest fires had created cross-border issues, with smoke blanketing neighboring countries such as Malaysia almost annually.

Hatta has summoned governors, regents and lawmakers from 10 provinces prone to forest fires to prepare for forest fires this year.

President admits that Indonesia lacks credibility

Agence France Presse - June 10, 2010

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday acknowledged his country lacked credibility as it seeks billions of dollars in foreign aid to battle climate change.

He said Indonesia suffered a "trust deficit" in the international community that was hampering its ability to win backing for initiatives such as a moratorium on deforestation and cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

"This is the reason for reform. We can turn the trust deficit into a trust surplus. Let's be sure that the institutions in this country are credible," he said in his opening remarks to a weekly cabinet meeting.

Indonesia is one of the top emitters of climate-warming gases blamed for rising global temperatures, largely through deforestation due to illegal logging and clearing for palm oil plantations.

Yudhoyono shocked environmentalists and palm planters alike last month when he announced a two-year moratorium on deforestation from 2011 in exchange for a billion dollars in aid from Norway.

But no one knows how the moratorium will be enforced in a country where experts say illegal logging is rampant and the government's figures about deforestation rates and forest cover are seen as wildly inaccurate.

"All institutions in this country must be credible so that there are no obstacles when we seek cooperation with friendly countries and the international community," Yudhoyono said, referring to the pact with Norway.

"I ask [ministers] not to be discouraged, not to be angry, that frankly the international community does not fully trust the institutions in many developing countries including ours...."

Norway will offer aid from 2014 but only as long as Indonesia has made verifiable progress in halting deforestation.

The verifiability of such initiatives is crucial to broader UN- backed efforts to link developed-world climate change funds to forest conservation in developing countries like Indonesia.

"If there is no reduced deforestation, we will not pay. If there is reduced deforestation, we will pay," Norwegian Prime Minister Stoltenberg told a press conference in Oslo as the moratorium was announced last month.

The United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates deforestation is responsible for 17 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Clean city awards have critics asking 'what's the point?'

Jakarta Globe - June 9, 2010

Ismira Lutfia – While more cities and towns were honored with the central government's annual Adipura clean-city awards this year in recognition of their improved waste-management efforts, critics say there's not really much to be proud of.

This year's Adipura awards and certificates were presented on Tuesday by the state minister for the environment to 140 cities and towns in four different categories: metropolis, large cities, medium cities and small towns.

Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra, took first place in the metropolis category. In 2009, just 126 cities qualified for awards. A parade of floats wound through Jakarta on Tuesday to celebrate the winners in each category.

All five of Jakarta's municipalities won Adipura awards, with Central Jakarta in second place. In a surprising turn, Bekasi, a satellite city of Jakarta, nabbed an award after it was shamed as one the nation's dirtiest cities a few years ago. East Java capital Surabaya took fourth place, followed by Tangerang in third. In 2006, Tangerang was noted as the dirtiest city in the country.

However, environmentalists said the awards did not reflect reality. Slamet Daroyni, the director of urban environments at the Indonesia Green Institute, said the measure used for the awards was "far from ideal." Cities were judged solely on their management of garbage.

"It would be better if there was another parameter to assess their green efforts," Slamet told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday.

"About 40 percent of the Bekasi area is always flooded and the swamp areas have been converted into residential complexes," he said. "It would probably be better if this was an award for the dirtiest cities; that way they would be more determined to clean up," Slamet said.

The shaming effect of such a distinction was enough to trigger the administration of Banjarmasin, in South Kalimantan, to clean up its act after it was named the second-dirtiest city in the country, after Tangerang, in 2006. Banjarmasin won Adipura certificates in 2009 and 2010.

"We were shocked and ashamed," Banjarmasin's environmental agency head, Rusmin, told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday. He said residents had since become more aware of littering.

Adipura certificates are given to cities that have shown significant improvement but don't qualify for awards. They are handed out as "an incentive," said Melda Mardaline, Adipura assessment team coordinator. She said that Banjarmasin had become significantly cleaner over just a few years.

But Melda said no city was completely clean. She said that, in judging for the awards, no city or town had so far managed to reach a score of 81 or more for the "very good" category. First- place Palembang scored a 73 out of a possible 100.

Ubaidillah, director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said the recognition was superficial if "it did not coexist with green policies."

"I think it would be more effective if this the award was given to individuals or communities in the cities that have really strived for a cleaner environment," Ubaidillah told the Globe.

"They've been overlooked without any incentive or recognition from the government," he said, adding that such localized attention would instill green habits and encourage more people to participate in making their cities cleaner.

Slamet said the Adipura was fine as long as the recipients did not overlook the fact that the main meaning of the award was to provide urban dwellers a comfortable and safe place to live, and if it avoided meaningless assessment indicators. "The important thing is to have a clean and humane city," Slamet said.

Hermin Roosita, the Environment Ministry's deputy minister for spatial planning, said on Tuesday that the ministry planned to expand its appraisal criteria for the awards to include assessments of cities' integrated urban management.

"We will evaluate the cities' urban spatial functions, such as their sidewalk allotment," she said. Melda said the new assessment scheme would cover clean rivers, water and sanitation programs.

Rusmin said the award showed Banjarmasin residents that "our efforts have been rewarded... despite the difficulties we have with our topographical features."

The city is situated at the mouths of the Barito and Martapura rivers and lies 20 centimeters below sea level, Banjarmasin Mayor Ahmad Yudhi Wahyuni said.

"Technically, it is difficult [to maintain a clean city] because of our geographical situation, especially when the high tide recedes and leaves trash," Ahmad said on Tuesday after receiving the certificate. "So we multiplied the frequency of our trash sweeps."

Women & gender

Women in politics ignored by legislators, parties: Experts

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2010

Jakarta – Indonesia's political parties and legislators have not strongly supported women in politics, despite a law that requires that women comprise 30 percent of all candidates, say researchers.

"The 30 percent quota has not yet been achieved," said Adriana Venny, a gender researcher for the legislature, at an event on Friday for a book on the status of women legislators in the 2004-2009 legislative term. The 2008 Political Party Law requires that women comprise 30 percent of the national and regional boards of all political parties that compete in elections.

One reason behind the slow pace towards meeting the quota is a persistent cultural perception that women are inferior and unfit for public office, Adriana said.

"Other issues include public questioning of women's leadership abilities and the lack of an atmosphere conducive to gender equality in the legislature," she said.

Ani Soetjipto, another researcher for the book, said that the structure and mechanisms used during the 2004-2009 legislative period did not fully implement a gender-responsive approach.

"One of the problems was a lack of understanding of gender among both male and female legislators," she added.

"This caused the development of seemingly gender-neutral regulations that did not seem to discriminate against women, but once implemented discriminated against women," she said.

Political parties also excluded women legislators from administrative structures during the last legislative period, Adriana said.

"Before the legislative election, all parties passed the verification process because they had fulfilled the political party law." "After the election, only two parties kept their promises and fulfilled the 30 percent quota within their party structure."

Women legislators faced several problems in the 2004-2009 period, such as a lack of political support from their parties, Adriana said. "Many political parties have an ambiguous attitude towards the 30-percent quota for women," she said.

Male and female legislators were also equally ambiguous in supporting pro-women policies, she said.

A report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) discussed at the book event shows that the number of female representatives in the House of Representatives increased from 11.8 percent in 2004-2009 to 17.32 percent for the 2009-2014 term, which is well below the target of 30 percent.

Adriana said that even though the current working period of women representatives had increased, their performance was not optimal.

"In fact, there is a decline," she said. "The delayed deliberation of the domestic workers protection bill is just one example," she said. (map)

Refugees & asylum seekers

Indonesian asylum seekers allege abuses

UPI - June 14, 2010

Jakarta – Some asylum seekers in an Indonesian detention center are on a hunger strike, saying immigration officials use stun guns and threaten to kill them.

Detainees allege the Tanjung Pinang facility houses 40 to 50 people in each cell and they say they aren't eating until the human rights abuses, including the use of stun guns, stop, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported Monday.

"If I ask to see doctor or UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) they say they will use this," the detainee said. "They threaten us they come to the door and show us the weapons and say 'we will kill you, we will kill you.'"

Atiqullah Mairi, an Afghan asylum seeker recently in Tanjung Pinang, says he experienced the device first-hand. "More than 15 times they gave me an electronic shock," he said. "It was like a gun, a small gun with an electronic shock."

The immigration detention center on Bintan Island southeast of Singapore, was refurbished as part of an $8 million project funded by the Australian government, the ABC said, but the Indonesian government is responsible for its operation.

Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young has been pushing the government to release information about the agreement Australia has with Indonesia over its detention centers.

"The government has failed to even confirm if those sort of human rights standards are part of any agreements," she said.

"They refuse to put the agreement on the public record I've asked for it numerous times it makes you wonder if a) an agreement exists and b) what the content of that agreement really is."

Health & education

30% of prisoners are drug abusers: Official

Jakarta Post - June 10, 2010

Jakarta – Drug offenders account for 30 percent, or about 40,000 of the 132,000 Indonesian prisoners, the director general for correctional institutions, Untung Sugiyono, said Wednesday.

The drug offenders dominate prisons in major cities across the country, he said, after visiting prisons on Nusa Kambangan Island, Central Java, as part of the observance of World Anti- Narcotics Day.

In Java, the number of drug-related prisoners number 1,763, and only a few of them serve their jail terms on Nusa Kambangan, he said.

Nusa Kambangan Island is dreaded as a "prison island" for hard- core criminals and in the past was used to confine political prisoners, especially the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Minister against sex education in schools

Jakarta Post - June 10, 2010

Jakarta – Sex education has been in place in many schools across the country, but Education Minister Muhammad Nuh expressed on Thursday his objection to the extra curricular subject. Nuh said children did not need formal education about sex as they would learn it by nature.

"I am perhaps an obsolete person. I do not see the significance of sex education in school," Nuh was quoted by Antara after the Education Committee meeting presided over by Vice President Boediono at the vice presidential office in Jakarta.

The minister added sex education in school would not protect children from the adverse impacts of Internet technology on moral norms as evident in the recent circulation of sex videos featuring high-profile celebrities.

Nuh expressed his concern about the spread of the porn clips through the Internet, but rejected widespread requests that the government formalize sex education as part of the national curriculum.

He instead asked teachers to step up checks on cellular phones and conduct regular search on students' bags to prevent them from possessing porn materials.

Indonesia urged to adopt UN curbs on baby formula adverts

Jakarta Globe - June 9, 2010

Nurfika Osman – Activists and nutritionists have urged the government to adopt an international code that bans the unethical promotion of breast-milk substitutes in a bid to increase breast-feeding rates.

"Babies are now getting sick and dying because companies are encouraging mothers to stop breast-feeding their babies," David Clark, a Unicef nutritionist, said in Jakarta. "The code prohibits unethical marketing practices that undermine breast- feeding."

The International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes, adopted by the World Health Assembly in 1981, stipulates that "there should be absolutely no promotion of breast-milk substitutes, bottles and teats to the general public; that neither health facilities nor health professionals should have a role in promoting breast-milk substitutes; and that free samples should not be provided to pregnant women, new mothers or families."

"Companies know this but they keep violating the code," Clark said. "If the government adopts clear legislation and has a clear monitoring system, we can work on this. We need an independent law to bring it into force and consumer advocacy organizations as watchdogs to watch the implementation."

Clark said countries such as India, Brazil and Bangladesh had adopted the code and had taken companies to court based on it.

According to the World Health Organization Web site, since the code was adopted, 65 countries have enacted legislation implementing all or many of its provisions and subsequent relevant World Health Assembly resolutions. More than 20 other countries currently have draft laws awaiting adoption.

Agus Pambagyo, from the Breast-Feeding Coalition, an NGO, said Indonesia had only a ministerial decree and regulation promoting six months of exclusive breast-feeding. He said the country needed clear legislation that carried criminal liabilities.

Utami Roesli, the head of the Indonesian Lactation Center, said the lack of legislation was part of the reason breast-feeding rates in the country were just 30 percent, which is considered low by international standards.

Utami said the core of the problem was that many people including health professionals like doctors, did not know about the code.

"The formula companies are taking advantages of this. They make mothers giving up breast-feeding, saying the milk substitutes have the same nutrition as their milk," she said.

"Breast-feeding saves babies and research has found that babies who are not breast-fed in their gold ages [0-6 months] are more likely to suffer health and mental problems in the future." Among these problems, Utami said, are social withdrawal, depression, anxiety and attention deficit disorder.

Agus said ideally babies would be breast-fed until the age of two. "We are facing a long and bumpy road to the full implementation of the code in Indonesia, but we have to continue trying," he said.

Utami said "there is no substitute for mother's milk." "Breast- feeding is the most effective preventive public health intervention to reduce infant mortality and morbidity," she said.

"Formula companies' promotions have reduced breast-feeding and increased the use of breast-milk substitutes."

Clark said that if mothers were suffering malnutrition, society should help them with nutrition so they could breast-feed. "Even though she is malnourished, her milk contains reasonable nutrition, so we just have to help her, feed the mother, not give the baby formula milk," the UN nutritionist said.

Bank Century inquiry

KPK in doghouse after no Century graft found

Jakarta Globe - June 10, 2010

Anita Rachman & Farouk Arnaz – The Corruption Eradication Commission told the House of Representatives on Wednesday that it had not yet found any indications of corruption in the Bank Century bailout, drawing the ire of legislators.

The comment was made during a meeting between the House team monitoring the criminal investigation of the bailout, the antigraft commission, or KPK, the National Police and the Attorney General's Office.

House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung, a veteran lawmaker from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and other legislators expressed their disappointment after Muhammad Jasin, a KPK deputy chairman, said no indications of corruption had been found.

Lawmakers said such a "soft stance" on the part of the respected antigraft commission may have been influenced by the legal dilemma in which two KPK deputies, Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Riyanto, were mired.

Chandra, however, said the antigraft commission was not under any political pressure. "We guarantee 1,000 percent that our investigation of the Bank Century bailout is legit," he said.

Jasin said the KPK had questioned 96 witnesses and focused on corruption allegations arising from the injection of short-term liquidity (FPJP) into the bank in the first phase of the bailout. "We have yet to find any indication of corruption in the use of the FPJP money," he said.

Attorney General Hendarman Supandji backed up the KPK's findings, saying his office had not detected any losses to the state as a result of the bailout.

He said that no matter how many times the authorities brought in former Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Vice President Boediono for questioning, "the results would be the same, because there's just no evidence pointing to financial losses to the state."

Pramono, who chaired Wednesday's hearing, said he was particularly disappointed with the KPK's claims, citing the commission's renowned tenacity in pursuing graft probes.

"[It's disappointing] that the KPK has come up with nothing concrete in this case," he said. "It's clear the KPK is under some political pressure."

Pramono said the House had identified at least 40 irregularities in its inquiry into the bailout, and chided the KPK, AGO and police for not following up on its recommendations.

Several lawmakers, including Fahri Hamzah, from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Bambang Soesatyo, from Golkar, and Trimedya Panjaitan, from the PDI-P, questioned whether the KPK's commitment to getting to the bottom of the case was flagging.

"It was the KPK that first investigated the Bank Century scandal and came up with indications of financial losses to the state," Trimedya said. "But now there's been a wavering in the KPK's approach. It started out strongly, but now it's wobbly."

Jasin said the witness testimonies and findings so far should not be extrapolated to draw a final conclusion. He said the probe was ongoing, with 111 officials still being investigated.

Pramono called for the investigations to be wrapped up this year so the House could focus on "asset recovery" next year.

KPK and AGO find no corruption in Century case

Jakarta Post - June 10, 2010

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Attorney General's Office said they had not yet found any indication of corruption after questioning 96 witnesses in connection with the Bank Century bailout.

"To date, the investigation has not found any indication of corruption," KPK deputy chairman Mochammad Jasin said during a hearing with the House of Representatives' Bank Century Monitoring Committee on Wednesday.

Jasin said the commission had questioned 31 witnesses from Bank Indonesia, 39 from the former Bank Century, 11 from the Deposit Insurance Corporation, two from the Financial System Stability Committee, one witness from the Capital Market Supervisory and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency and 12 witnesses from other related institutions.

Also attending the hearing were National Police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji.

Hendarman acknowledged his institution had found several misuses in the bailout process, but said unless investigators found evidence to prove "state budget loss", neither the AGO nor the KPK could claim any corruption in the case.

"The audit results from the Supreme Audit Agency don't indicate the bailout caused any losses to the state budget," he told the hearing, adding that only the agency, independent auditors or the State Development Finance Comptroller can claim "state budget loss".

He said that according to the 2001 Corruption Law, four criteria are required to cite an action as corruption: violation of law, gain by the perpetrator, abuse of power, and infliction of losses on the state.

The House declared the bailout flawed in early March and demanded that legal measures be taken against anyone suspected of having committed corruption.

The bailout was authorized in November 2008 by then Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, who is now Vice President, and then finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who is now a managing director of the World Bank. The KPK questioned Mulyani and Boediono on April 29 this year.

A member of the committee from Golkar, Bambang Soesatyo, said he was disappointed with the KPK and the AGO investigation results.

He said the House plenary session in March had found 60 indications of misuse of power in the bailout process. "We challenge the KPK to expose the case, so that everything will become clear," he told the meeting.

Sutan Bathoegana, a legislator for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, told the National Police, the AGO and the KPK to take more initiative in investigating alleged fraudulent practices in the controversial bailout.

"Each agency must pick up the ball. Do not wait for the others to make a move," Sutan, a member of the House monitoring team, said. He added that law enforcers should not hesitate to question state officials deemed responsible for the bailout.

"However, stick to the rule of law, rather than political motives. I believe from your expressions that you will not let yourselves be sidetracked," he said.

At the end of the hearing, the House monitoring team deemed that the work of the National Police, the AGO and the KPK was not optimum.

Chairman of the team and legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Pramono Anung recited the team's recommendations for the three law enforcement agencies.

"The agencies have to make a legal framework and a timeline to solve the case in accordance with their respective authorities," he told the hearing. He added the three agencies must report their progress to the monitoring team every two months. (rdf)

KPK finds no corruption in the Bank Century bailout

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2010

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said Wednesday that it had yet to find any indications of corruption after questioning 111 witnesses in connection with the Bank Century bailout.

"The temporary investigation results have not found any corruption indications yet," Deputy Chairman of the KPK M. Jasin said in a meeting held by the Bank Century Supervisory Committee of the House of Representatives at the House building in Jakarta.

Also attending the meeting were National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji.

A member of the committee from Golkar, Bambang Soesatyo, said he was disappointed with the KPK's investigation results.

He said that the House plenary session in March had found 60 indications of misuse of power in the bailout process. "We challenge the KPK to expose the case, so that everything will be clear," he told the meeting.

The House declared the bailout flawed in early March and demanded that legal measures be taken against anyone found to have committed corruption.

The bailout was authorized in November 2008 by the then Bank Indonesia governor, Boediono, who is now vice president, and the then finance minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who is now one of the World Bank's managing directors. (rdf)

Graft & corruption

KPK should hold strong in deputies' case, activists say

Jakarta Globe - June 13, 2010

Nivell Rayda – Several activist groups on Sunday urged the Anti-Corruption Court to summon 11 people to testify in a bid to unravel the alleged attempt to frame two deputies from the Corruption Eradication Commission.

The groups said the commission, known as the KPK, should not to allow the Attorney General's Office determine the fates of deputy commissioners Bibit Samad Riyanto and Chandra M Hamzah, and that the trial of graft suspect Anggodo Widjojo might resolve the legal quandary surrounding the case.

Anggodo is currently on trial for attempting to bribe Bibit and Chandra with Rp 5.1 billion ($555,000) to drop a graft investigation into his brother, Anggoro Widjojo, who has since fled to Singapore. However, the National Police and AGO insist the KPK deputies had extorted Anggodo.

Dadang Trisasongko, an anticorruption expert at the Partnership for Governance Reform, said two findings, one from the Constitutional Court and the other from the presidentially appointed team known as "the team of eight," contradicted the police and AGO's stance on the case.

"From these two findings, there is already enough proof that law enforcers tried to undermine the KPK by framing two of its deputies," he said. "The KPK's presence is not liked by the other law-enforcement agencies because it threatens to unravel their corrupt practices."

On Nov. 3, more than 60 wiretapped recordings of conversations between Anggodo and several law-enforcement officials were played at the Constitutional Court, revealing an alleged plot to fabricate a bribery case against the KPK deputies. The hearing was televised live across the nation and caused a widespread public outcry.

The team of eight, after having interviewed those involved in the extortion investigation into Bibit and Chandra, ruled that there was not enough evidence to charge the pair with any criminal offense.

"There has been a distortion of the legal arguments used by the police and the AGO," said Eryanto Nugroho, executive director of the Center for Law and Policy Studies (PSHK). "The attorney general failed to adhere to the team of eight's recommendation to halt the case based on its weak legal grounding."

Following the intense public outcry, the AGO last November dropped the case against Bibit and Chandra on the grounds that pursuing it would be "sociologically harmful." The Jakarta High Court, upholding a lower court decision, this month ruled the AGO's reasoning was not recognized by law and ordered the case to proceed.

Dadang accused the AGO of deliberately mishandling the case. "It was a time bomb made to weaken the KPK and make it dependent on the AGO," he said.

The AGO last week said it could still lodge a judicial review with the Supreme Court over the High Court ruling, but Febri Diansyah, a researcher at Indonesia Corruption Watch, dismissed the proposed move as "a waste of time" because the termination of the case was still legally weak.

Febri added that judges at Anggodo's trial should summon those involved in the wiretapped recordings, including National Police investigator Sr. Comr. Farman, a former deputy attorney general, Abdul Hakim Ritonga, and the former deputy attorney general for intelligence, Wisnu Subroto, to clarify the situation.

Eight recordings are said to involve Anggodo and Farman. In one of them, Farman allegedly tells Anggodo to change his testimony to make it fit with the chronology of the extortion case. The transaction with Bibit "couldn't have happened on the 10th because it was a Sunday," one of the recordings says.

Meanwhile, some of the recordings suggest that Wisnu assured Anggodo that he would be a victim of extortion, and therefore could not be charged. Wisnu has admitted that he received a Mercedes-Benz sedan from Anggodo, but said that he purchased it from the businessman.

As many as 24 recordings are said to involve Ritonga. In a conversation between Ritonga and a suspected case broker, Ong Yuliana Gunawan, the latter reportedly asks: "Where should I send these two boxes of durian?"

It is speculated that "durian" was a code for bribes, although Attorney General Hendarman Supandji has insisted that she was referring to the actual fruit.

Ritonga resigned from his post after the recordings were released, while Wisnu was already retired at the time. Farman remains at the National Police.

On Nov. 26, the Constitutional Court declared that the extortion case against Bibit and Chandra had been fabricated, spurred by the bitter rivalry between the KPK and the National Police and AGO.

Tensions between the law-enforcement agencies had been high since the KPK arrested and prosecuted former National Police Chief Rusdiharjo for embezzlement during his time as Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia, and former senior prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan for receiving bribes.

Susno slams police over general's fishy account

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2010

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Detained former National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji lambasted the police on Friday for issuing a statement that said it was "normal" that a police general had Rp 95 billion (US$10.36 million) stashed in his bank accounts.

Susno was referring to his successor Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi's recent statement that the money in two bank accounts belonging to Insp. Gen. Budi Gunawan had been legally earned. "Ito's statement was weird. He was jumping to a conclusion," Susno said.

"The 2003 Money Laundering Law stipulates that any state official owning suspicious accounts is obliged to explain the origin of the funds. So the obligation to prove the legality of the money is the owner of the accounts, not detectives nor Pak Ito as the chief detective," he said.

Last week, Ito said police detectives had identified the sources of the suspicious funds owned by 10 high-ranking police officers, including Budi.

Budi Gunawan is the head of the police internal affairs division, a former member of a police fact-finding team tasked with investigating allegations that Susno had breached the police code of ethics.

"It turned out that Budi's money came from the business run by him and his family. Nothing is wrong with that," Ito said.

Susno replied that he was not sure that Budi's money was legal. "A police detective should not so easily believe information given by the owner of the funds.

"Detectives must investigate the exact nature of the business, how much the monthly profit is, how much it pays in taxes, and check whether its financial report was audited by a public accountant. Have the detectives done these things? I don't think so," Susno said.

On Wednesday, the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) demanded the Corruption Eradication Commission take over the investigation into Budi's bank accounts from the police.

A document said to have been released by the ICW, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post, states that Budi and his son allegedly conducted suspicious transactions between 2005 and 2008.

A number of businesspeople frequently transferred money to his bank accounts, the document says.

The report concludes there is enough evidence to investigate Budi, the former Jambi Police chief, on suspicion of gratuity and money laundering. Budi has denied he committed illegal activities. He said the funds in his bank accounts amounted to "much less than Rp 95 billion".

In fact, Budi's official wealth report stated that the net worth of his assets was Rp 4.6 billion.

A police officer with Budi's rank receives a basic monthly salary of between Rp 4 million and Rp 6 million, excluding benefits.

Susno said Budi's wealth report could be suspected of being fake. "He can be charged under the Criminal Code," he said.

AGO takes its KPK battle to Supreme Court

Jakarta Globe - June 11, 2010

Camelia Pasandaran & Heru Andriyanto – The Attorney General's Office on Thursday announced that it would mount an extraordinary challenge to a High Court ruling that overturned its decision last year not to prosecute a controversial case against two antigraft deputies. It plans to file a request for a judicial case review directly with the Supreme Court.

"The AGO will undertake an extraordinary legal effort, or a case review, regarding the ruling of the High Court in the pretrial case with the reasoning that the considerations of the judges in that ruling showed a real mistake," Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said.

Speaking at President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's office after consulting with him on the case, Hendarman said his office would not directly appeal the decision, as the law does not allow appeals of pretrial rulings.

Two Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputies, Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto, were declared suspects in September for allegedly abusing their powers and committing extortion related to a case involving graft fugitive Anggoro Widjojo.

However, the AGO was forced to halt the case in December after the Constitutional Court played shocking wiretapped phone conversations indicating a plot to bring down the two and after Yudhoyono urged the termination of the case amid a public uproar.

The AGO was criticized afterward for not halting prosecution by invoking the public interest – known by the Dutch term "deponering."

But Hendarman said on Thursday that this had also been out of the question as it would have been time-consuming, requiring the approval of all three branches of the government – the executive, judicial and legislative.

He pointed out that the legislature had requested that the case be processed in line with the Code of Criminal Procedures, which does not recognize the dropping of a case, while the High Court, part of the judicial branch, had ordered the trial to proceed.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Amari, the deputy attorney general for special crimes, confirmed that the current status of Chandra and Bibit was still as suspects, based on the High Court ruling, which upheld a district court decision, that insisted the prosecution should proceed. "They are suspects now," Amari said. "But we see no reason we should detain them."

The law requires a suspect to be detained if prosecutors have reason to worry that he or she will flee justice, repeat the offense or destroy evidence, "but we believe Chandra and Bibit will not do that," Amari told a news conference at the AGO.

"We have only two remaining options: go to court [to challenge the decision] or request a case review," he said. "We decided to ask for a case review because we believe we were right when dropping the case."

A case review requires new evidence or strong argumentation to be presented, and Amari said the two courts had made "a blatant mistake" that the AGO may challenge.

"In their verdicts, the courts ruled that once prosecutors declared a criminal case as complete, it must be brought to the court for trial, whereas Article 139 of the Code of Criminal Procedures allows us to examine further and assess whether or not it's worth trying by the court.

Other articles in the code allow us to terminate a case when we eventually find that it's not worth trying," Amari said.

Renowned legal expert Todung Mulya Lubis denounced Hendarman's decision as ambiguous because a case review would be time- consuming, the very reason the chief prosecutor used against the deponering option.

"The best option remains deponering. It produces a solution once and for all," Todung told the Jakarta Globe, adding that halting the prosecution would be "to rescue the Corruption Eradication Commission, not just Bibit and Chandra."

Taufik Basari, the lawyer for Bibit and Chandra, said his clients' concern was not having to face the court, but that if the case went to trial "then the judicial system legitimizes a fabricated case and rules in favor of a man like Anggodo."

Taufik also said naming his clients as suspects would lead to their suspension from the KPK, leaving only two active deputy commissioners.

Judge calls for logic in trial of KPK leaders

Jakarta Post - June 10, 2010

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – A judge at the Constitutional Court suggested Wednesday that the trial of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairmen, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah, be held off until the court issued a verdict on Anggodo Widjojo's case.

Akil Mochtar, a Constitutional Court judge, said Anggodo's trial for attempted bribery could not be separated from the extortion case allegedly involving Bibit and Chandra.

"The police accused Bibit and Chandra of having extorted Anggodo, while the KPK said it was Anggodo who tried to bribe the KPK leaders. It's impossible for both cases go to trial and all defendants be proven guilty," Akil said.

Anggodo is currently standing trial at the Corruption Court for allegedly attempting to bribe Bibit and Chandra to obstruct an investigation into a corruption case involving his fugitive brother Anggoro Widjojo.

Bibit and Chandra will themselves testify as witnesses at Anggodo's next hearing, according to KPK spokesman Johan Budi.

Bibit and Chandra, meanwhile, may soon face trial at the South Jakarta District Court after the Jakarta High Court recently ruled in favor of Anggodo, who had filed a pretrial motion against a decision by the Attorney General's Office to stop the prosecution into alleged extortion and abuse of power involving the KPK chairmen.

To avoid legal dispute surrounding the case, Akil said, one case must reach a verdict first before the other can be tried. "In this case, Anggodo's case should finish first because he's already facing trial," he said.

If the judges ruled Anggodo guilty, Akil went on, the verdict would affect the extortion case of Bibit and Chandra.

"If the judges at the Corruption Court convict Anggodo for attempted bribery, the logic will automatically say that Bibit and Chandra never extorted Anggodo.

"Anggodo's verdict would then have to be used by the judges chairing Bibit and Chandra's case to declare the two innocent," Akil explained.

Senior lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, however, said it was best that the pair stand trial to settle the case. "[It's better] to bring Bibit and Chandra to court to dismiss developing controversy among the public and clear up the impression that they're afraid to appear in court," he said.

Todung said another option was that the President used his abolition right, but added that it was unlikely because the protracted nature of the process.

Bibit himself has said he and Chandra were ready to face trial. "However, as the media know, I never committed the crimes laid against me. We all have been informed that Pak Chandra and I were framed," Bibit said recently.

A member of the team of lawyers for Bibit and Chandra, Bambang Widjojanto, however, said he did not trust the integrity of the judges if the pair were to stand trial. "The case facing them is a product of a fabrication by law enforcers, how can I believe that the judges are clean?" he said.

Bambang agreed with Akil's suggestion that Anggodo's trial must be concluded as soon as possible. "If Anggodo is found guilty, it can be the base for the acquittal of Bibit and Chandra," he said.

Another option was that Anggodo's verdict – if he was found guilty – could be used by the AGO to throw out the KPK chairmen's case.

Before facing trials, Anggodo case had been investigated and prosecuted by the KPK while Bibit and Chandra had been probed by the police and prosecuted by the AGO. Bibit and Chandra came into trouble after Anggodo filed a report to the police, accusing the KPK leaders of extortion in order to settle a graft case involving his older brother Anggoro.

Witness says false dossier made to trap KPK deputies

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2010

A witness in a bribery case implicating two Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairmen testified in the bribery trial of Anggodo Widjojo that he was forced by the businessman to make a false statement to the police to frame one of the KPK leaders.

In Tuesday's trial session, witness Edy Soemarsono admitted that Anggodo Widjojo, who is currently standing trial for allegedly bribing Chandra M. Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto, had ordered him to make a false statement to the police to trap Chandra for extortion.

"Anggodo told me to provide the police with a false statement that the bribe given to Chandra was ordered by Antasari Azhar, who was the KPK leader at that time," Eddy said at the Corruption Court Tuesday.

According to Edy, Anggodo had designed the false statement to corner Chandra with charges of extortion instead of bribery.

His testimony came when the Attorney General's Office was mulling whether to prosecute Bibit and Chandra for allegedly extorting Anggodo, following a court verdict overruling its decision to drop the case last year.

Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes, M. Amari, told reporters Tuesday the AGO believed they had sufficient evidence to convict the two KPK leaders. "The prosecutors have found that the dossier has legitimate indications of crimes," Amari said.

Anggodo is believed to have tried to influence the KPK to drop the corruption investigation into his fugitive brother Anggoro Widjojo.

Edy testified, "I heard from both Anggodo and a middleman, Ari Muladi, that as much as Rp 6 billion (US$648,000) had been allocated for 12 KPK investigators, including M. Jasin, Bibit and Chandra."

He also admitted that he had met both Muladi and Anggoro in Singapore because he was curious about allegations that several KPK investigators had been bribed.

Anggodo denied all of Edy's statements during Tuesday's trial session. He said the police had investigated himself, Edy and Muladi simultaneously.

"The investigation details are different from Edy's testimony," he said, adding that he wanted the police investigators to testify in court. "I conveyed the truth earlier in the trial," Anggodo said. (JP/ipa/rdf)

ICW alleges senior police officer has $10 million bank account

Jakarta Globe - June 9, 2010

Nivell Rayda – The country's most prominent antigraft watchdog officially lodged a complaint with the Corruption Eradication Commission on Wednesday linking a bank account containing Rp 95 billion ($10.3 million) to a senior officer from National Police headquarters.

Danang Widoyoko, chairman of Indonesia Corruption Watch, said there were indications of bribery and illegal gratuities linked to the account, allegedly belonging to a two-star police general identified as "BG."

Danang brought along several documents to support the group's claim. It is still not known whether the documents submitted include classified dossiers from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), which is able to monitor suspicious transactions at virtually all financial institutions in the country.

"We are disappointed that the National Police have refused to investigate how the officer was able to obtain such a vast wealth," ICW deputy chairman Emerson Yuntho said in a text message to the Jakarta Globe. "It shows that the police are not ready to reform."

Earlier, National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi said the PPATK had forwarded documents linked to the suspicious account but claimed that no indications of any criminal activities had been discovered.

Problem cops moved out in 'routine' reshuffle

Jakarta Globe - June 9, 2010

Farouk Arnaz – A National Police brigadier general accused by the force's former top detective of receiving bribes will be officially replaced and brought before an ethics tribunal, a police spokesman said on Tuesday, claiming the move was simply part of a routine rotation.

"I have said from the start that legal procedures in connection with [alleged violations] of the professional code of conduct and ethics will be taken up, irrespective of this rotation," Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said at National Police headquarters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Brig. Gen. Radja Erizman, the top detective at the National Police's Economic Crimes Division, is scheduled to take up the post of expert adviser to National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri. The same post had been given to Brig. Gen. Edmond Ilyas, who was removed from his post as Lampung Police chief in the wake of the scandal surrounding rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan.

Radja will be replaced by Sr. Comr. Aries Sulistyanto, a coordinator in the division. Police first investigated Gayus in October 2009, when he was found to have Rp 28 billion ($3 million) in his bank accounts. He was tried for embezzlement instead of the more serious charges of money laundering and corruption, but was acquitted by the Tangerang District Court in March for lack of evidence.

His case gained publicity when former chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji alleged that three serving senior police officers, including Radja and Edmond, had received bribes from Gayus to weaken the case against the 30-year-old former tax official.

Edward said Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Wahyono would also be moved as part of the rotation. Wahyono, widely criticized for his handling of the April riot in Tanjung Priok, is scheduled to take up the post of National Police intelligence chief. That position is currently held by Insp. Gen. Saleh Saaf, who will soon retire.

Saleh this year headed one of two police teams investigating misconduct allegations against Susno for testifying at a court trial without the consent of the National Police chief.

West Java Police Chief Insp. Gen. Timur Pradopo will take over as Jakarta Police chief. Timur will be replaced by Brig. Gen. Sutarman, the head of training and education at the Police Academy.

Edward said 103 officers, including 23 high-ranking ones, would be affected by the rotation. They will assume their new posts within two weeks.

War on terror

Islamic group to file human rights complaint in police killings

Jakarta Globe - June 13, 2010

Farouk Arnaz – An Islamic organization said on Sunday it would file a complaint against the antiterror police at the National Commission on Human Rights this week over the police's fatal shooting of two men.

The two men, who were buried at the Pondok Rangon Cemetery in East Jakarta last week, had so far not been identified by police, even as anti-terror detectives claimed that they were suspected terrorists, said Munarman, who represents the Islamic People's Forum (FUI).

The two men were gunned down during an anti-terror police raid on May 13. Munarman said the FUI would file a report with the commission, known as Komnas Ham, on Tuesday.

"These are murders and they must be investigated. There is a strong indication that these shootings were conducted outside of the necessary legal procedures that need to be taken and they were conducted by the state," Munarman told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

"The state must be held responsible. The police did not even know who these people were. It is wrong for them to kill and then label the dead as suspected terrorists without identifying who they are."

Anti-terror police on May 13 conducted raids in Cawang, East Jakarta, and Cikampek, West Java. Five suspects were killed. Three of them were identified as terror suspects Maulana, Sapono and Yusuf. The two remaining have not yet been identified.

National Police Densus 88 chief Brig. Gen. Tito Karnavian could not be reached for comment on Sunday. Earlier however he had told the Jakarta Globe that police had made no mistake in gunning them down.

"We arrested [the two men] because they were [caught] together with Maulana in Cawang. We then took them to Bekasi to investigate them further. However, they tried to seize our officers' weapons. They got shot," Tito had said.

When asked if police had asked those who were shot to identify themselves, Tito had said: "Yes, we did ask them. They gave us fake names."

Deputy chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Haris Azhar, said on Sunday that police needed to clarify who the men really were.

"It would be good if police admitted that they are wrong, if they are indeed wrong," Haris said. There must be accountability for the deaths. There must be an evaluation of the antiterror law.

"Indonesians hate terrorists, because we are not radicals. At the same time, it is everybody's right to report to Komnas Ham, if [police] kill someone without cause," he said.

You cannot kill people only because you label them as suspected terrorists and not give them a chance to undergo a proper trial. Not only police in the field should be held accountable, but also the commander."

Kabul Supriyadi, a Komnas Ham member, said that once the report was filed, the commission would study it and discuss whether or not to set up a fact-finding team over the matter.

Iqbal Huseini, also known as Reza, a convicted former terrorist who was among those who arranged the funeral for the two dead men, said he had taken the initiative to arrange the funerals for humane reasons.

"I tied to contact my friends and network to identify who these men are. We failed to do so. We don't know who they are but it is the responsibility of all Muslims to give their brothers a proper burial," Iqbal said.

Police determined to entrap Bashir, hard-liners claim

Jakarta Globe - June 11, 2010

Farouk Arnaz – Members of the hard-line Islamic People's Forum (FUI) on Friday accused the National Police of planning to fabricate terrorism charges against cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.

"We have received information that the National Police will soon name as a suspect and arrest Abu Bakar Bashir," FUI secretary general Muhammad Al Khaththath said during a demonstration at National Police headquarters in Jakarta.

"We believe this is being engineered to corner Muslims by naming Bashir and other Muslim leaders as suspects after the recent paramilitary training in Aceh."

The group also demanded the disbandment of the police's elite anti-terror squad, Densus 88.

Another forum official, Munarman, said: "We know exactly that we, as Muslims, are being entrapped. All these allegations are based on comments by Sofyan Tsauri, a police deserter named as a suspect by police over the Aceh paramilitary training."

He asked how Sofyan could arrange shooting practice for militants inside the headquarters of the police's elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob), on the outskirts of Jakarta, as had been claimed. "We believe he is an agent to entrap Muslims," Munarman said.

Sofyan was an officer with the Depok Police. He is alleged to have illegally obtained weapons and ammunition from inside National Police headquarters, including 12 AK-15 rifles and about 12,000 bullets.

But National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri has dismissed the entrapment claims, saying Sofyan was influenced by a militant cleric.

Police have named three members of an Islamist group led by hard-line cleric Bashir as suspects for helping to fund an armed group in Aceh that had allegedly been planning an attack on the Presidential Palace on Independence Day.

The three members of Bashir's Jamaah Anshoru Tauhid (JAT) were among at least 14 suspects arrested in several locations, including the group's Jakarta office, on May 6. But police later released 11 of them.

Haris Amir Falah, Hariadi Usman and doctor Syarif Usman, are still in custody. Haris heads JAT's Jakarta chapter, while Hariadi and Usman are members.

Police sources have previously said they are close to naming Bashir as a suspect and have plans for when and where to arrest him. But a National Police spokesman, Brig. Gen. Zainuri Lubis, said on Friday he had not heard anything about Bashir's imminent arrest.

Commission: Most antiterrorism raids violate human rights

Jakarta Post - June 10, 2010

Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) announced Thursday that most anti-terrorism raids conducted by police force have violated human rights.

"The crackdowns made by the police's antiterror squad have never represented principles of protection of human rights," Komnas Ham commissioner Stanley Adi Prasetyo said during a hearing with the House of Representatives in Jakarta, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Stanley said the commission found police often used abusive interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists, which goes against Indonesia's ratification of the UN Anti-Torture Convention.

Komnas HAM chief Ifdhal Kasim said that neither the government nor the police have responded to reports of possible abusive investigations into terrorism. "The main barrier in upholding human rights is the government itself," said Ifdhal.

Sex & morality

Indonesian stars express dismay over porn video

Agence France Presse - June 14, 2010

Jakarta – Indonesian teen heart-throb Nazril Ariel and his model girlfriend Luna Maya expressed shock Monday over an X-rated video that has appeared on the Internet apparently showing them having sex.

The explicit but grainy video, which appears to have been shot by Ariel during the act, is one of two sexy celebrity clips doing the rounds of Indonesian cyberspace and fuelling calls for tighter controls of the Internet.

The other appears to show Ariel, the 28-year-old lead singer of a band called Peterpan, having intercourse with his ex-girlfriend, model Cut Tari.

In a joint interview with TVOne, Ariel and Maya said they were victims of defamation and urged fans not to jump to conclusions. But they did not clearly deny it was them in the video.

"The thing is, this is not over yet. There is still an ongoing investigation process. It is not supposed to be exaggerated before there is confirmation," Ariel responded when asked if it was him in the clip.

An exhausted-looking Maya, 26, accused the media of exaggerating the story.

"What's clear is that we're not how people accuse us of being," she said when asked whether she stood by comments to police that the video was fake.

"It's shocked us. It never crossed my mind that this kind of thing will happen to us... This is defamation."

Police have questioned the three celebrities, who could each face 12 years in jail for producing or distributing pornography under a tough anti-porn law adopted in the mainly Muslim country in 2008.

In East Java on Monday police raided high schools and checked students' mobile phones to make sure they had not downloaded the videos.

"The operation has been conducted to keep the students away from the porn video as it would have a bad impact on them. Students are not supposed to watch that kind of video," local police spokeswoman Sri Sukorini told AFP.

It is not clear how the explicit videos were obtained or who uploaded them to the Internet, where they remain widely available.

The stars' corporate sponsors including Unilever and Sharp have dropped them from product promotions, while Maya no longer hosts a popular music television show.

The "Peterporn" scandal has again highlighted the gulf between liberal, urban Indonesians and those who hold more traditional values in a mainly Muslim country which has seen rapid modernisation over the past decade.

Critics said police should focus on serious crime such as corruption, and questioned why they were not cracking down on distributors of pirated, hardcore pornographic DVDs which are available across the country.

"These raids (on schools) are silly. The police are over- reacting... because even under the anti-porn bill ownership of a sex video is not forbidden," University of Indonesia communications analyst Ade Armando said.

Religious conservatives in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's cabinet have said "Peterporn" underscores the need for tighter controls of the Internet in the country of 240 million people.

Hardline Muslim vigilantes meanwhile accused the celebrities of "moral terrorism" and threatened to take matters into their own hands if they were not arrested within three days.

"If the police cannot arrest Ariel, Luna and Cut Tari within three days, we are going to raid places that sell porn videos in Jakarta," Habib Salim, head of the militant Islamic Defenders Front, told The Jakarta Globe website.

"Porn actors and actresses are another form of terrorism. This is moral terrorism. We have to save the citizens from any harm that will degrade our morality." (AFP/ir)

Celeb sex-tape scandal hits taboos in Indonesia

Associated Press - June 13, 2010

Niniek Karmini, Jakarta – Indonesians grappled with their first-ever celebrity sex-tape scandal, casting aside social taboos as they swarmed around office computers and mobile phones to watch clips allegedly showing a much-loved pop star with two girlfriends.

The story topped newscasts for a week and dominated chatter on social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. But just as controversial was the reaction of officials in the newly democratic nation.

Police initially threatened to charge the "stars" under a strict anti-pornography law.

Several high schools were raided for mobile phones so the offending clips could be removed. And some ministers said the incident pointed, once again, to moral decay and the need for stricter controls of the Internet.

Indonesia, a secular nation with more Muslims than any other in the world, emerged from 32 years of dictatorship in 1998. It won praise for tackling the tough tasks of fighting corruption and terrorism and implementing widely lauded social and economic reforms.

But it still faces challenges on the road to democratization, from the explosion of grass-roots campaigning on the Web to old- style politicians, who speak to small constituencies or narrow- based parties rather than the central government, said sociologist Wimar Witoelar. For some, the initial instinct still is to clamp down.

When the scandal spurred debate as to whether education about sex – a subject still taboo at home and in the classroom – should be added to the school curriculum, Minister of Education Muhammad Nuh responded with a flat out "no." "I may be obsolete, but I don't see that sex education in schools is needed," he told reporters. "I believe people will learn about sex naturally."

Instead, he recommended authorities search students' mobile phones for copies of the tapes, the rapid dissemination of which "violates the rules and cultural norms in a religious society". "Whoever is responsible should be punished," Nuh said.

The first six-minute video clip appears to show pop singer Nazril Irham, better known as Ariel, in bed with his girlfriend Luna Maya, a top model, actress and, up until the scandal, the face of Lux beauty soap. The two deny it was them, saying the footage has been doctored, but were called in for questioning by police.

Initially officers threatened to charge them under a tough anti- pornography law, even though there was no indication the intimate but explicit sex scenes were ever intended for public viewing.

"If someone is proven to have intentionally distributed the videos, that person will be charged," said Brig. Gen. Zainuri Lubis, spokesman for the national police, adding even those caught downloading clips and copying it for others could face jail time.

Local media said the video started appearing in early June after Ariel's laptop was stolen and many similar tapes, with other celebrities, are still out there.

Then a second eight-minute video emerged, purportedly showing Ariel with a former girlfriend, also a well-liked model and television presenter, further fanning public appetite for more.

As the tapes were downloaded onto Facebook and YouTube (they have since been removed by the sites' administrator) and distributed from mobile phone to mobile phone, the country tottered on the verge of sexual hysteria.

Fifteen-year-old Bintang Irvano, a student at a high school in south Jakarta, huddled around a mobile phone with his two friends to look at the video "for about the fourth time."

He said after teachers started launching daily raids, teens started removing the footage from their phones ahead of class only to later upload it.

"It's easy to get it back again," said Raikhan Daffa, 16. "We just pass it to one another by Bluetooth." "Hey, it's one way to learn about sex!" he said, laughing.

Work grinded to a halt at some offices last week, as employees discussed the scandal on Facebook or forwarded a steady string of jokes, the punch lines all tied to the scandal.

The country of 240 million has seen an explosion of social networking as more people have access to the Internet, prompting the government earlier this year to propose a bill to regulate content. Public pressure forced it, eventually, to be shelved.

But, in the wake of the sex-tape saga, Minister of Information and Technology Tifatul Sembiring renewed calls for content control, and teams immediately set out to deploy firewalls for more than 2,000 Internet cafes around the country. He said it was a "race against time" to protect children from harm.

Others argued while it is important to protect the young, new media has a key role to play in helping democratize the country, and curtailing content does not come without risks.

"The government may have good intentions," said Roy Suryo, an information and technology analyst. "But freedom of information and personal access rights have to be protected as well."

[Associated Press writer Robin McDowell contributed to this report.]

Sex-tape scandal latest diversion from nation's real problems

Jakarta Globe - June 11, 2010

Joe Cochrane – Could it be that the country's most popular model/presenter/actress was in a racy homemade sex tape with her pop-star boyfriend? Actually, the bigger question should be: Who cares?

I have yet to witness the mad sexual hysteria that is supposedly gripping the entire country after the posting of sex tapes alleged to include Luna Maya, her boyfriend, Ariel, and fellow celebrity Cut Tari. That said, judging from the hype, I must be one of about seven people in this country of 235 million who haven't seen them – and as such have not been driven insane or blinded by their evil powers. I also had more important things on my schedule this week.

But I'm guessing that the vast majority of Indonesians were too busy as well, because I categorically reject the idea that tens of millions of people, including every single teenager and schoolboy and girl, have watched the alleged celebrity sex tapes. The country has fewer than 40 million Internet users, so every single one of them would have to have sought out the tapes and then shared them with others, including small children.

That, of course, is nonsense, but it still hasn't stopped Internet haters from demanding new controls to "protect" the country's children from immoral behavior. As if living with staggering levels of corruption and poverty isn't enough to spur the authorities into action.

The Luna-Ariel-Cut Tari sex-tape scandal is yet another senseless diversion from the country's real problems.

It's not even certain that the tapes are genuine, and if they're not, we're going to have a lot of stupid-looking government, police, education and child-welfare officials out there. Plus we could potentially have lawsuits filed by the celebrities in question.

But there is a bright side here. The sex-tape scandal has finally exposed that Indonesian society has been taken down a dangerous road by its leaders and needs to change course. Since 1998, the country has carried out wildly successful political and economic reforms, but its soul isn't any better. And this certainly is not because of sex tapes or gyrating dangdut dancers – it's because many of the country's politicians, law enforcement officials and senior religious figures are bereft of common sense.

Consider this fact: Since the first sex tape began making the rounds on the Internet on June 4, about 3,318 Indonesian children under the age of 5 have died. That's an average based on statistics by the United Nations Children's Fund, which reports that 173,000 Indonesian children under 5 died in 2008, the vast majority from preventable diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia.

In addition, 23 percent of Indonesian children under 5 are "moderately to severely malnourished," according to Unicef. And here are a few more statistics: only 2 percent of Indonesians study beyond high school; there's a 50 percent school dropout rate among 15-year-old Indonesians; 40 percent of all Indonesians do not have access to proper sanitation facilities; and some of the country's other human-development indicators are equal to those of sub-Saharan Africa.

Pretty grim stuff, huh? But what has gripped the attention of the National Police, Jakarta education officials, lawmakers and even a cabinet minister? Celebrity sex tapes that may or may not be real. Even if the tapes are real, are they more important than child health and education?

So far, the answer is yes. The Jakarta Police and city education officials announced plans to conduct raids at schools to search students' cellphones for the sex tapes. It's a pity they didn't exhibit such zeal in protecting street children from alleged serial child killer Bayquni, or help more city high school students pass the national examinations.

It's also a pity how lowly they think of the city's teenagers in general. But then again, if we believe the country's government officials, lawmakers and religious leaders, Indonesian teenagers do nothing but blindly seek out pornography the same way that horror-movie zombies go after human brains.

But the statement of the week belongs to Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar, the Jakarta Police spokesman, who said on Thursday that in addition to checking students' cellphones for the sex tapes, "we are also going to raid several places that sell porn DVDs."

Pardon me, sir, but aren't you supposed to be doing that anyway? Isn't it your job to raid DVD stores selling pornography, or are all those rumors I hear about payoffs and kickbacks to pirate DVD vendors true?

Of course, the whole sex-tape debacle wouldn't be complete without city police threatening to prosecute Luna, Ariel and Cut Tari under the antipornography and information and electronic transactions laws. You remember them, right? The two most useless laws on record. How many people have been prosecuted under those laws? Three? Four? And at what cost? Those laws have only divided Indonesian society, thrown innocent people such as Prita Mulyasari in prison, and made Indonesia look like a backward, radical country internationally. Has the House of Representatives passed any laws lately to alleviate rural poverty, which is at the root of the appalling child mortality rate? Of course not. Lawmakers haven't passed a single piece of legislation since being sworn in.

Given the uproar over the sex-tape scandal, maybe the House should form a special committee, a la the Bank Century witch- hunt, to investigate Luna, Ariel and Cut Tari. I'm sure that idea would get support from all kinds of politicians, who can then play to the cameras with ritual denunciations of smut instead of doing any real work.

In addition, of course, the minister of communications and information technology, Tifatul Sembiring, is using the scandal to call again for controls on Internet content, just like they have in China, which ironically is probably Indonesia's main provider of pirated DVDs, both pornographic and non-pornographic.

It's certainly confusing, but amid the fog, an unexpected knight has ridden in to save the day: the National Police. Officials from the same institution that allegedly brought you the framing of two antigraft officials and the Gayus Tambunan tax and corruption case are saying that no charges will be brought against the celebrities alleged to be on the sex tapes.

Instead, its officials have said they only want to find out who posted the tapes on the Internet, and go after them. Finally, some common sense. Best of luck to them. And in the meantime, leave Luna alone.

[Joe Cochrane is a Jakarta Globe contributing editor.]

Sex scandal titillates Indonesians

The Australian - June 11, 2010

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – An internet porn scandal involving a starlet who once interviewed Hillary Clinton on live television, another celebrity with links to Australia and the male singer in a fantastically successful teen pop band has erupted in Indonesia.

At least two explicit sex videos are circulating widely, with ordinary Indonesians so captivated they are watching them on mobile phones in offices and while travelling on public buses.

More than 30 further recordings are said to exist, all of them allegedly featuring pop star Nazriel "Ariel" Irham, lead singer in the pop band Peterpan, having sex with a range of nubile young celebrities. They are all said to have been on a laptop belonging to Ariel that was recently stolen.

The affair, dubbed "Peterporn", has piqued the interest of authorities from the national police up to Vice-President Boediono, whose spokesman said he was "deeply concerned about the negative impact these porn videos could have on our children".

One of the actresses implicated in the scandal is Luna Maya, a part-Austrian movie and soap star who was until this week host of the country's most popular music show on television, Dahsyat (Awesome).

Following the emergence of the sex videos, Maya has taken leave from the program, which famously featured an exclusive interview with the US Secretary of State during Mrs Clinton's visit to Jakarta last year.

Among facts revealed to Maya during that hard-hitting encounter were the former first lady's love of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones "because I am someone who loves the music of my youth".

The youth of Indonesia now has a special reason to love the music of Peterpan, as the scandal gains momentum.

Daily newspaper Koran Tempo reported that the videos were hugely popular among high-school students using internet cafes, and the affair has dominated social networking medium Twitter.

Maya is in a relationship with Ariel, and the pair feature together in commercials for Lux soap. The soap's manufacturer, the multinational company Unilever, announced on Wednesday that it would be scrapping the advertising campaign.

The existence of a sex tape featuring the pair presumably raises little more than eyebrows, but the woman implicated in a second "Peterporn" video, soapie starlet Cut Tari, has caused more serious problems, given that she has been married for six years.

Her husband, businessman Johannes Joesoef Subrata, refused to deny outright that Cut was the star of the video. She and Mr Subrata met and married in Sydney in 2004, and have a two-year- old daughter named for the Australian city where they fell in love.

Mr Subrata said only that he "hoped for the best" for his family, although once the police investigation is over, that could be a forlorn hope. Prosecutors are likely to press for the case to be the first high-profile use of controversial anti-pornography legislation, passed just last year.

'Feverish' minister wants ban on 'negative' Internet content

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2010

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The communications and information technology minister said sex videos allegedly featuring celebrities made him "feverish", adding that the country needed a rule to ban "negative" content on the web.

In the absence of such a ban, Minister Tifatul Sembiring said he would summon Internet service providers to help stop the spread of the clips, Antara news agency reported. He said he hadn't seen the video but a report on them from his subordinates made him "feverish".

"Why would anyone tape such a private thing?" he said on the sidelines of a Cabinet meeting at the State Palace on Thursday.

Following the passage of the controversial 2008 Information and Electronic Transaction Law, the ministry had proposed a regulation that would justify government control of multimedia content. The plan was dropped following uproar and a rebuke from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Police on Thursday cited two laws that could be used against anyone proven to deliberately produce the video for public distribution: the electronic information law and another controversial law passed in 2008, the law on pornography.

Earlier, police had also cited the Criminal Code, under which it is a crime to distribute "indecent" material, punishable with a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison.

Pornography law advocates say penalties under the Code were too light. The maximum penalty under the pornography law is 12 years imprisonment for those guilty of producing media with pornographic content, or a fine of Rp 6 billion.

Police have summoned the celebrities suspected of being featured in the videos – vocalist Nazril "Ariel" Ilham, Luna Maya and Cut Tari – for questioning next week. All three have denied appearing in the videos, while police have said it was "possible" that the suspect would be one of the people featured in the clips.

The police added that they were hunting those suspected of producing and distributing the videos. Tifatul said under the pornography law, anyone making sex tapes – even for private purposes – could be guilty of violating the law.

Tifatul was former chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), a leading advocate of the then pornography bill.

He said anyone owning the websites hosting the videos could also be penalized. The electronic information law states anybody transmitting or downloading pornographic content could face up to six years in prison.

The video has spread across the country and teachers in a number of cities confiscated students' mobile phones to check their content.

However, Makassar Mayor Ilham A. Sirajuddin said with Makassar in South Sulawesi ranking third among the country's most wired cities, confiscating phones would not help.

Television host Cut Tari on Thursday was the latest of the three celebrities to deny being in the videos. "Even my mother and my husband don't believe it's me," she said at her residence, accompanied by her husband, J. Yusuf Subrata.

Politics & political parties

President says pork plan may be worth a look

Jakarta Globe - June 11, 2010

Camelia Pasandaran & Anita Rachman – Just a day after rumors began spreading that the Golkar Party was considering pulling out from the ruling coalition, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono indicated his readiness on Thursday to discuss the party's controversial "pork-barrel" proposal.

"If we see the intention [behind the proposal], the context is actually positive because it centers on the relationship between constituents and those elected into office in regard to developing the regions," Yudhoyono said.

"If this is what they meant, then in my opinion, or the government's opinion, the House and the Regional Representatives Council [DPD] could formally propose to the government a special allocation for the regions that clearly need such a policy."

Yudhoyono's statement comes despite an ongoing public outcry regarding Golkar's proposal, which would give each legislator Rp 15 billion ($1.6 million) to develop their constituencies.

The speaker at the House of Representatives, Marzuki Alie, a senior member of Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, said the proposal, which would cost a total Rp 8.4 trillion, amounted to "theft" from the state budget.

Angered but determined, Golkar went on to suggest allocating Rp 1 billion to develop each of the country's villages and subdistricts. This too, however, appears doomed to failure in the House.

Yudhoyono on Thursday said the public backlash regarding the controversy had even resulted in him receiving some of the vitriol, with some people accusing him of personally "masterminding" the scheme.

"Early this morning, I received messages from someone who thought that I was actually behind this proposal," he said.

But the president said the idea had merit and should be looked at in a positive light. He suggested that funding for regional development should be discussed at the upcoming National Development Planning Coordinating Meeting (Musrembang).

"This would be better because input from all parties would then come into the budgeting process," he said, adding that the Regional Representatives Council could also be called on to work with the government and the House to monitor the scheme.

On Wednesday night, a Golkar official threatened the party would quit the ruling coalition if it did not get its way, triggering rumors that the party was getting ready to jump ship.

"If we cannot stay together, if we don't have the same views anymore, what is the use of us staying in this coalition?" Yamin Tawari, associate chairman of Golkar's executive board, said in response to the House leadership decision to shelve its proposal.

Yamin tried to deflect criticism of the proposal, which was backed by party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, by saying representatives from the other coalition parties had previously agreed to support it during a coalition meeting.

Setya Novanto, chairman of Golkar's faction in the House, said on Thursday that his party welcomed the Yudhoyono's open mindedness. "The president has given us suggestions. We appreciate this. We shall evaluate the matter among our party members," Setya said, adding that it was never Golkar's intention to directly control or dictate how much money should be allocated to the scheme.

Amir Syamsuddin, a senior Democrat, however, had a different view. "The president has not approved the proposal, but he also did not reject the idea completely," the party's former secretary general said. "Yudhoyono said the idea was good, but it had to be handled carefully."

No chance we'll pull out of Joint Secretariat, Golkar says

Jakarta Globe - June 11, 2010

Anita Rachman & Armando Siahaan – The Golkar Party has no plans to leave the ruling coalition led by the Democratic Party, it said on Thursday.

"We would never think of leaving the joint coalition secretariat, much less actually do it," Golkar secretary general Idrus Marham said.

On Wednesday, Yamin Tawari, associate chairman of Golkar's executive board, said the party should quit after the other coalition partners shot down its proposal to provide each lawmaker with Rp 15 billion ($1.6 million) to fund development projects in their constituencies.

"If we can't stick together, if we don't have the same views any more, what's the use of us staying in the coalition?" Yamin said after the House of Representatives' leadership's decision to shelve Golkar's "pork barrel" proposal.

He said Golkar understood that the idea of a coalition was to have a forum where members could discuss opinions. "And it is now happening, a place to debate conceptual ideas," he said.

Golkar legislator and House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso said Yamin's statement was not a threat to quit the coalition, but was "merely an expression of disappointment and anger."

Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a political analyst with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said Yamin's frustration was understandable because he felt that while the joint secretariat had initially considered Golkar's idea, it later denounced it amid the growing public outcry against the proposal.

"But the discussion was informal, and the joint secretariat never took an official stance on the issue," Ikrar said.

Sunny Tanuwidjaja, a political analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it was important to differentiate between a remark made by a party member and an official party statement.

Indonesia, he said, had reached the stage where a politician had the courage to express an opinion differing from the official party stance.

Golkar, Sunny said, was fully aware that it could not afford to lose its current position in the coalition's joint secretariat over an issue that has been widely rejected by coalition partners, the government and the general public.

The resistance mounted by the other coalition partners against the pork-barrel fund also showed that Golkar does not have an absolute grip over the secretariat, Sunny said.

"If a Golkar idea has the potential to damage [the other coalition parties'] credibility before the people, they will not risk their political image by agreeing to it," he said.

Golkar threatens to quit coalition after proposals rejected

Jakarta Globe - June 10, 2010

The Golkar Party is threatening to quit the government's coalition government after two controversial proposals were embarrassingly rejected by the House of Representatives.

"If we cannot stay together, if we don't have the same views anymore, what is the use for us to stay in the coalition," Yamin Tawari, associate chairman of Golkar's Executive Board, said on Wednesday night in response to the House leadership decision to shelve Golkar's pork barrel proposal.

House of Representative's Speaker Marzuki Alie, a senior member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, effectively killed the Golkar proposal that legislators be given Rp 15 billion ($1.6 million) to spend on their constituents as attempted "robbery" from the state.

The embattled party's follow-up proposal to allocate Rp 1 billion ($108,000) for development in each of the country's villages and subdistricts now appears to be heading for the same fate, in yet another political blow.

Yamin, however, attempted to deflect criticism from the proposal, which had been defended by party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, saying representatives of the coalition parties had agreed to support it during a coalition meeting, known by its acronym Setgab.

"All have to share common responsibility," Yamin argued. "If we cannot stay together and have no more similar views, what is the use for as to stay in the Setgab," Yamin said.

Bakrie has reportedly conveyed a message to the Democrats that the views are those of an individual and not of the party.

According to House Deputy Speaker Promono Anung, of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), a House leadership meeting had discussed the various aspects of the proposal and in the process had questioned the way in which the Rp15 billion figure was arrived at, and how the funds would be channeled and spent.

"Since there was no clarity on these points, we rejected the proposal," Pramono said. If the proposal was approved, it would only create opportunities for the misuse of the funds in the regions, he added. (Antara/JG)

Golkar's latest play looks like a loser

Jakarta Globe - June 10, 2010

Anita Rachman – The Golkar Party's follow-up proposal to allocate Rp 1 billion ($108,000) for development in each of the country's villages and subdistricts, after its earlier plan to give every lawmaker Rp 15 billion was shot down, appears to be heading for the same ignominious fate.

Tjatur Sapto Edy, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legislation and a National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker, said Golkar's newest proposal was a rehash of an idea brought up several years ago to develop remote regions.

However, he said, it should not be up to legislators to name the sum awarded to each region.

"It's true that legislators must be accountable to their constituents, but development programs should be discussed at the local level," he said. "Local administrations can then prioritize the necessary programs for the people, whether it's a new bridge or a dam, for instance."

Tjatur added that Golkar's prospects of pushing the proposal through the House were slim, pointing out that with between 70,000 and 72,000 villages and subdistricts, the scale of the funding would be immense. "Taking Rp 70 trillion from the state budget is not a trifling matter," he said.

House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso, a Golkar stalwart, said on Tuesday that the party was preparing to propose the scheme if its earlier idea to allocate funds to each House legislator to develop their constituencies was rejected.

Fahri Hamzah, of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said his party had opposed the pork-barrel plan and would also shout down the latest proposal. He stressed that legislators should not be involved in deciding how the state budget was spent. "No, we're not taking money back to our constituents," he said.

Ganjar Pranowo, of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) also criticized Golkar, calling on it to come up with a detailed program rather than just throwing out random figures. Such a proposal, he said, should be based on a feasible program.

"The PDI-P once analyzed a similar program and came up with a figure of at least Rp 2 billion for each village and subdistrict," Ganjar said. "But what's important here is the program, not the figure."

He added that if Golkar really had the public's interest at heart, it would push for amendments to the 2004 Regional Governments Law and lobby the government to allocate more of the state budget to the regions.

Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) political analyst Burhanuddin Muhtadi said Golkar's latest idea was simply a face-saving move after the lashing it took over the pork-barrel plan.

"The intent is good, but the program is unclear," he said. "Why the fixed Rp 1 billion per village? Did it occur to them that one village might need more than another?"

Burhanuddin pointed out that villages in Papua would definitely require more funding than villages in Java, for instance. He said if Golkar wanted the House to treat it seriously, it should draw up a clear plan. "If they only throw out raw figures like this, they're going to be shot down again," he said.

Kisses of death for 'thieving' pork plan

Jakarta Globe - June 9, 2010

Anita Rachman & Irvan Tisnabudi – The Golkar Party's controversial proposal to give each lawmaker Rp 15 billion ($1.6 million) to development their constituencies looks all but dead after the speaker of the House of Representatives and cabinet ministers on Tuesday strongly criticized the plan.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie, a Democrat, called the Rp 8.4 trillion proposal "theft from the state's budget." He said development for villages must be based on clear programs, rather than a fund simply divided up among lawmakers.

Deputy House Speaker Pramono Anung, from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), also said discussions of the "pork-barrel" scheme would end badly given the likelihood of the funds being misused. He said Golkar was the only party backing the proposal.

Pramono said that at a House leaders' meeting on Monday evening, several factions, including the PDI-P, the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP), had responded negatively to the plan.

"I am sure it will never find a way to be realized," he said. "I personally opposed the idea because it's very prone to misuse."

Pramono pointed to the question marks over the proposal: how transparent its mechanism would be, whether it would be drawn from state or local budgets, and how it would be responsibly managed by lawmakers or local governments.

Anis Matta, another deputy speaker as well as the general secretary of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said Monday's meeting was informal and Golkar was free to propose the fund. "But most of us will not stand to pass the proposal," he said.

Anis said the plan would not reduce the development gap, as 60 percent of the fund would end up in Java as it had the most lawmakers.

Cabinet ministers joined the chorus of rejection. "The state budget both for this year and the next has covered the financial needs of the regions well," Coordinating Minister on the Economy Hatta Rajasa said. The additional funds would lead to "instability" of the nation's finances.

Minister for State Development Planning Armida Alisjahbana said the government would not entertain the plan.

She said infrastructure development, especially for sustainable energy, would require more capital, but that this should be prioritized in the state budget instead of being put in lawmakers' hands.

"The global demand for clean energy use will expand our infrastructure priorities, especially for the Ministry of Maritime and Fisheries," she said.

Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo has previously said that he too would reject the Golkar plan.

Deputy House Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso, of Golkar, said his party would honor any decisions made by the legislature and the government. But he said the party's objective was just to develop all areas in the country, especially smaller or more remote areas.

Privo said Golkar was preparing an alternative plan. "If the Rp 15 billion proposal is rejected, that is okay. If it is accepted, thank God!" Priyo said. "But we are preparing to propose another scheme – Rp 1 billion for each subdistrict or village throughout Indonesia."

House pork plan gets an online roasting on Twitter, Facebook

Jakarta Globe - June 9, 2010

Armando Siahaan – After having attracting the ire of government officials, lawmakers and analysts, Golkar Party's proposal to allocate Rp 15 billion ($1.6 million) to each legislator to fund development projects in their constituencies has now stirred up a wave of Web-based criticism.

Micro-blogging site Twitter is now abuzz with tweets on the controversial pork barrel proposal, spawning the popular hash tag #tolakdanaaspirasi.

As of Tuesday evening, the topic had drawn more than a thousand tweets, while the keywords "dana aspirasi" (aspiration fund, what Golkar calls its plan) showing 820 hits. Denouncements of the plan have not just come from regular netizens, but also from prominent public figures.

"If the pork barrel is approved, I'm sure Indonesia will be poorer. Hey Bakrie, deal with the Lapindo mudflow," wrote shannifernanda, referring to Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie and Lapindo, one of his family's companies, which is widely blamed for a devastating mudflow in East Java.

Acclaimed filmmaker Joko Anwar has also weighed in. On Sunday, he urged his more than 50,000 followers on Twitter to take up the cause against the proposed fund. "Brothers and sister, I need your help. Let's make #tolakdanaaspirasi a trending topic, so that the taxes we pay aren't embezzled," he wrote.

Meanwhile, several Facebook groups criticizing the plan have cropped up. The fastest-growing one is Tolak Dana Aspirasi DPR (Reject the House's Pork Barrel Plan), which has the tag line "We have to act and prevent the manipulation from happening." As of Tuesday evening it had 272 fans and counting.

The group has posted links to articles and blogs all objecting to the proposal.

Outspoken political pundit Wimar Witoelar said the barrage of criticism on social media sites suggested there were "more people opposed to the pork-barrel plan than in support of it." Wimar, who has 50,000 followers on Twitter, said "people on Twitter still have common sense and logic.

"An idea like the pork-barrel fund could only appeal to those who have been tainted by money politics," he added, lambasting Golkar for trying to muscle the plan through the House. "It's a ridiculous idea. But the people on Twitter are still in their right minds, unlike those lawmakers."

Wimar also lauded the use of the micro-blogging site to quickly and effectively weigh in on the pressing topics of the day.

Charta Politika analyst Yunarto Wijaya said the social resistance mounted through these sites could serve as a grass-roots movement to influence government policy- and decision-making. "The opposition to the pork barrel highlights the revival of civil society involvement in politics," he said.

The wider movement was spearheaded by people like Islamic scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla and economist Poltak Holtadero, who both boast large numbers of followers, Yunarto said. "These leaders are able to mobilize society, prodding the people into thinking clearly," he said.

Yunarto said discussions of current issues on social media could also serve an educational function, by informing those who knew little about the issues and granting them an understanding beyond what politicians could offer, which was usually "disguised in formality and legality."

Social media now played a supervisory role over the country's politics, he said. "It serves as a pillar of democracy when the three branches of government fail to function," he said.

Aburizal's leadership sinks Golkar image

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2010

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – A Golkar Party senior politician says that the current leadership under Aburizal Bakrie has sunk the party into deeper pit of bad public image.

"As of now, there are two high ranking Golkar officials who give public statement about their ideas without a prior discussion at the party executive board.... this causes Golkar to receive a lot of condemnation," Zainal Bintang told The Jakarta Post via a text message on Wednesday.

"First, there is a statement about freezing the Bank Century bailout case and there is another statement about the necessities to have a disbursement of aspiration fund for each legislator. These ideas have made Golkar the common enemy in front of the public," he added.

Golkar's Priyo Budi Santoso was the party elite who once said that the Bank Century case, which revolves around a bailout that ten folded to Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million), could be put into ice after one of the alleged people deemed responsible for the bailout, former finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, was ousted from her post and started her new job as one of the World Bank's managing directors.

The issue of aspiration fund proposal, which was later abandoned due to mounting public opposition, was raised by numerous Golkar legislators, such as Harry Azhar Azis. The idea of the fund was to disburse Rp 15 billion of taxpayers' money into the pocket of each legislator for the sake of the development within their respective electoral region.

Zaenal added that Aburizal might need some assistance from Golkar chief patron, Akbar Tanjung, to prevent the party from sinking even deeper.

"Akbar Tanjung must actively guide Aburizal Bakrie, so that there will be no more Golkar members who recklessly make any statements that do nothing good for the party in the future," he said.

Big parties seek simple multi-party system

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2010

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The big and medium-sized parties are pushing for a 5 percent parliamentary threshold at all levels of government and a full district system in the 2014 legislative elections.

They are the seven political parties that each hold between 5 and 21 percent of seats at the House of Representatives. They will collaborate to achieve the goal in the planned revision of the 2008 law on political parties and legislative elections. The government is currently working on the draft.

Small parties have voiced their objection to the idea, accusing the stronger parties of trying to kill democracy. They mean to maintain the present 2.5 percent parliamentary threshold for the House, provincial legislatures and regental/municipal legislative councils.

Secretary-general of the Golkar Party Idrus Marham said the 5 percent parliamentary threshold was decided during the party's recent working meeting in Jakarta.

The party says it will not seek an electoral threshold higher than five percent because it would impinge on the freedom of association.

"We need a simple multi-party system not only because the existing major parties have similar ideological and political platforms, but because the party system needs to form a strong and effective government and uphold the presidential system," Idrus said Tuesday.

He claimed that the parties making up the Yudhoyono government, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the Democratic Party and Golkar all sought to introduce a simple multi-party system.

Democratic Party Chairman Anas Urbaningrum and PAN Secretary General Taufik Kurniawan said on separate occasions that the 100 percent increase to the parliamentary threshold was needed to "strengthen democracy".

"If the House doesn't have the political courage to build a simple multi-party system, democracy will go nowhere and all parties will fade into mediocrity as small parties 'hijack' supporters of major parties as has been apparent in the past three legislative elections," said Taufik.

If the parliamentary threshold is not increased, he added, the Democratic Party, which won the 2009 legislative election with 21 percent of seats at the House, would not be able to maintain its performance in 2014 because smaller parties would work to win over its supporters.

Gandjar Pranowo, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said his party had long ago proposed a higher parliamentary threshold at all levels to achieve an effective and strong government and better democracy.

Regarding the election system, he criticized the present semi- proportional system which, he said, is manipulated by certain major parties to win more seats at the House.

"Whether it is the proportional or district system that will be used later on, all seats at the House, provincial and regional legislatures must be contested in the electoral districts and remaining votes shouldn't be given to other parties that received too few votes to win any seats," he said.

The proposed increase in the parliamentary threshold has sparked opposition from minor parties, including the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), which said the move was orchestrated by major parties to absorb seats won by minor parties.

Regional elections

Political consultancy fees driving up election campaign costs

Kompas - June 14, 2010

Jakarta – The widespread use of political image projection, including in the recent elections of regional heads, is further driving up the cost of competing in elections. Political costs are being sapped to pay for survey institute services and political consultants. This is the "big harvest" for political consultants.

The Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) for example, claims to have ensured the victory of 17 governors in regional elections since 2005, or more than 50 percent of the governors elected throughout Indonesia. Currently the LSI is handing two candidate governors contesting regional elections in 2010.

"We want [to achieve] an even higher figure. Almost 90 percent of the clients handled by LSI have won regional elections. Even though some have lost, it was because they failed to meet the payments so there were programs that were not run", said LSI Executive Director Denny JA late last week.

Aside from acting as political consultants in the elections of political party chiefs, political consultants have also acted as consultants for candidates in 244 regional elections.

Political parties as well as candidates still make extensive use of their services for various motives, from simply wishing to assess their popularity to seeking to jack up their level of public recognition and electability among voters.

Pro-bono

Denny JA admits to once helping a candidate in a regional election without payment because the candidate was well known and liked by the public. The result was that the candidate won the gubernatorial election. The LSI has also assisted regional election candidates who are not well known, but have large amounts of funds.

"One other important proviso is that the candidate is not currently in jail. [Although] if they are still only a suspect, we can still help them win", said Denny.

Data gathered by Kompas over the period of a week indicates that the fee for hiring survey institute services to conduct an initial identification of a candidate's level of public recognition and electability for a regency or municipality election in Java is between 100-150 million rupiah (approx US$10-15,000). But the price varies greatly depending on the number of respondents surveyed, the margin of error as well as the size of the area and geographical conditions.

For regencies and municipalities outside of Java, the fee can swell by two to three times that amount because of limited access to transportation.

The cost of hiring a political consultant for a candidate taking part in a gubernatorial election can be as high as 40 billion rupiah. And although this is a huge amount of money to spend, the candidate could still lose. The size of the consultancy fee therefore is not a guarantee of a candidate's victory.

The highest profit levels belong to political consultants and can be as high as 50 percent of the contract fee. This high profit level is because consultants can arrange the programs and financing structure that is offered.

An investigation by Kompas Research and Development (Litbang Kompas) indicated a similar finding. The fee for a voter survey at the provincial level stands at between 100-500 million rupiah. The cost of political mass media advertising for a candidate governor is around 1-5 billion rupiah per month. The fee for image projection for a candidate governor can reach 20 billion rupiah.

Indo Barometer Executive Director M. Qodari says that the consultancy service hiring fee is very much dependent on the financial capacity of a candidate and the package of programs offered by a particular political consultant or survey institute. Above all, like other professional services, political consultancy and survey institute fees vary greatly depending on the reputation of a given firm.

Indonesian Public Opinion Research Association (AROPI) Secretary General and Executive Director of the National Survey Institute (LSN), Umar S. Bakry confirmed the range of fees found by Litbang Kompas' research. In some case the cost can be even higher.

According to Bakry, currently it is mostly survey institutes that exist in Indonesia. In addition to AROPI there is also the Indonesian Public Opinion Survey Association (Persepi). Political consultants in Indonesia however are still very rare and generally hold positions as political and mass communication specialists. Other political consultancy institutes, aside from the LSI led by Denny, include Fox Indonesia, one of the founders of which is Rizal Mallarangeng, Charta Politika (Political Charter) headed by Bima Arya Sugiarto and Pol Mark Indonesia founded by Eep Saefulloh Fatah. Three requirements

Denny JA says that there at least three requirements that must be met by candidates if they want to contest regional elections, namely being well known, liked and having the funds. "If they don't have these three, they won't win. But if they only meet two of the requirements, the possibility of winning still exists", he said.

The Golkar Party consistently makes use of political consultancy services. Golkar General Chairperson Aburizal Bakrie has said that his party uses surveys to look at the possibilities of what will occur in regional elections.

The closer a survey is conducted to an election the higher the likelihood that the result will be the same as the election itself. "So Golkar Party cadre who have a high rank in a survey usually get a similar result in regional elections", said Bakrie last week. (MZW/SIE/NWO)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Most regional elections problematic

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2010

Jakarta – The House of Representatives' Commission II on home affairs and regional autonomy has called for revision of the law on election administration after finding 30 out of 45 elections sparked controversies, with some of them going to court.

Deputy chairman of the commission Taufik Effendi said Friday the amendment was pressing to avoid electoral disputes in the future.

Taufik, a former state administrative reform minister, discovered problems ranging from voter roll to voting method during his visit to the Lampung regency of Pesawaran to monitor the regional election there on Friday.

"Ballot papers that were perforated could ignite disputes as there was no clear rule of the game," Taufik of the Democratic Party said as quoted by kompas.com. The election law says voters need only to tick their respective choices of candidate, rather than punching them as happened in the past.

Disputes over election results have also sparked acts of violence, the latest taking place in the West Nusa Tenggara regency of Bima and the North Sumatra regency of Samosir. Last month angry mob set fire on dozens of cars to protest disqualification of their candidate for the election in Mojokerto, East Java.

Joining Taufik in the trip were his fellow Democratic Party lawmaker Gray Koes Moertiyah and Sukiman of the National Mandate Party.

Major parties seek to reduce local election costs

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2010

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Major political parties called on the House of Representatives on Friday to accelerate revision of the regional administration law, make local elections less expensive and minimize money politics.

Representatives of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Democratic Party (PD), Golkar Party and National Mandate Party (PAN) said their candidates would face financial problems unless Law No. 32/2004 on regional administration was revised and the culture of vote buying was changed.

Hasto Kristiyanto, the PDI-P's local election desk deputy chairman, said the party had won 58 of 94 local elections this year, including two governor's elections.

However, the PDI-P has also spent a lot of money to maintain voter loyalty in Central and East Java, he added. More than 240 local elections will be held in 2010.

"The party and its candidates had no other alternative except to spend vast sums to win the governor's elections in Riau Islands and Central Kalimantan and many the regency and mayoral elections in Riau and North Sumatra," he said.

"The elections may benefit the people financially... but [money politics] may not benefit democracy and can undermine the legitimacy of elections. Elected regional heads may abuse their power to recoup money that they spent during the election," Hasto told The Jakarta Post.

PDI-P created the local election desk to design election strategies and to cut down on election costs. "PDI-P will contest local elections only if it has a chance to win, as shown by surveys," Hasto said.

He said that in many regions, businessmen have invested in local elections and emerged as political brokers for party cadres as an attempt to gain financial advantages.

PDI-P has initiated political contracts with their candidates to secure their loyalties after Bibit Waluyo and Gamawan Fauzi, the governors of Central Java and West Sumatra, shifted to other parties.

Ade Komaruddin, secretary of the Golkar faction at the House, said the party's local election desk will make local elections cheaper.

"We want the local election draft law being deliberated by the House to limit candidates to either party cadres or popular independent candidates with political capital," he said.

PAN secretary-general Taufik Kurniawan said the local elections bill should be designed to help mature democracy in regions to minimize vote-buying.

"The dominance of money politics in local elections comes from the lack of maturity of the democracy process in the regions. If people think about democracy maturely, then money politics will have less influence," he said.

More election violence on the horizon poll watchdog warns

Jakarta Globe - June 11, 2010

Anita Rachman – The government body tasked with supervising elections warned on Friday of more riots during the "peak season" for local elections from June to July.

Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) member Bambang Eka Cahya Widodo said money politics and interference with the General Elections Commission (KPU) at the local level could spark protests.

Valina Singka Subekti, a former KPU member and a lecturer at the University of Indonesia, said that with many uneducated and impoverished voters, conflicts could easily turn into riots.

"At the moment, candidates have several new ways of using money politics to attract voters," Bambang said. "Studying the seven riots that have happened so far, I am afraid riots are unavoidable and it might get worse during June and July."

As many as 244 provincial, regional and municipal polls are scheduled for this year. Bambang said 60 regions had held elections so far.

"You might not consider seven riots out of 60 elections a big figure, but it's early days. We have about 120 local elections in June and July and I am very concerned about this."

Bambang said the worst riots this year had been during the elections in Mojokerto, East Java, and Toli-Toli, Central Sulawesi.

Last month, at least 19 people were injured, 22 vehicles destroyed and a meeting room at the district legislature in Mojokerto burned during a riot over the poll for district head.

The demonstrators were angry that religious leader Dimyati Rasyid had failed a medical exam required as part of the selection process.

In previous years, local elections have been tainted by voters registering multiple times using false identities. Bambang said elections where the incumbent was standing for reelection were especially prone to riots. Many incumbents tended to use state money for their campaigns and abused their power to interfere with the local KPU.

"This is often the spark to a conflict and ends in a riot, because people lose faith in the KPU," he said.

Bambang mentioned a new kind of money politics used to win votes by persuading people to be part of a false campaign team. He cited an example in West Waringin, Central Kalimantan, where a candidate had 66,000 volunteers while there were only about 150,000 voters.

"So what's the point of the election?" he said. "These people are not voluntarily signing up to be on the campaign team."

Farouk Muhammad, chairman of Regional Representatives Council Committee I, said the solution was to ensure the KPU was independent and neutral. Farouk said elections had to appear independent so that the people would trust the KPU.

Bambang promised Bawaslu would try to improve human resources at the local level, mapping and predicting future conflicts that could end in riots.

Legislation & parliament

Lawmakers pressured on financial crisis bill

Jakarta Globe - June 13, 2010

Irvan Tisnabudi & Muhamad Al Azhari – The finance minister and experts are pressuring lawmakers to deliberate the latest draft of a bill on protocols for handling a financial crisis, to ensure fiscal and monetary authorities have a strong legal basis to take action in such an event.

The bill has been resubmitted to the House of Representatives several times after it was rejected at the end of 2008.

The need for a strong legal basis for decision makers to face a crisis has gained urgency amid fears of the effects of Europe's debt crisis spreading to Asia, though so far its impact is mostly noticeable only within the financial market sector. However, even that could take a toll, causing more financial institutions to collapse, as when the 2008 financial crisis struck the country.

"There needs to be a legal basis for both the government and the central bank to prevent the effects of global financial instability undermining stability here in Indonesia, for example, conducting a bailout for a bank," said Standard Chartered Bank senior economist Fauzi Ichsan, noting that such a law would prevent a case similar to the controversial Bank Century bailout.

Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said on June 2 that the government had submitted the latest draft of the bill to the House and that he expected a hearing would be scheduled to speed up its deliberation.

He warned on Friday that Indonesia still needed to be wary of the effects of the European debt crisis. Perceptions of weakness could damage Indonesia's economy, he said after a meeting with Vice President Boediono and Naoyuki Shinohara, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

The latest draft provides the basis for policy on crisis resolution, including frameworks for how the deposit insurance scheme works, emergency liquidity injections from the central bank as the lender of last resort and mechanisms on who takes responsibility for preventing or overcoming a possible crisis.

On Dec. 18, 2008, lawmakers rejected the financial-crisis bill over concerns that some articles could erode the central bank's independence, creating opportunities for corruption and giving too much power to a small group of officials, including the finance minister, to regulate markets.

That draft was actually a more detailed version of the government's regulation in lieu of law (perpu) issued in November of that year to ease the impact of the financial crisis raging at that time.

Since then, the government has revised the draft bill, removing the most contentious part naming the finance minister as the highest decision maker and putting more of that burden on the president.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about pushing the bill through. Fuad Rachmany, the head of the Capital Market and Financial Institution Supervisory Board (Bapepam), was quoted by Kontan news-paper on June 4 as saying the law would not be effective in dealing with a crisis as long as politics still played a big role in shaping government decisions.

"It does not matter on what legal basis a decision is made, if there is no good will from all parties during a crisis, it will be useless," Fuad said. He was referring to how former Finance Minister Sri Mul-yani Indrawati and former central bank governor Boe-diono were blamed for approving a Rp 6.7 trillion ($730 million) bailout of troubled Bank Century.

Some lawmakers were aggressive in trying to oust Sri Mulyani through the use of a special investigation into alleged wrongdoing connected to the 2008 bailout during the height of the global financial crisis.

In her strongest comments on her departure, Sri Mulyani told Britain's Financial Times newspaper on May 27 that her decision to leave the finance minister post to become a managing director at the World Bank was greatly affected by concerted political attacks.

Meanwhile, in the absence of a so-called Financial System Safety Net (JPSK) law, the Finance Ministry, central bank and Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS) rely on a memorandum of understanding they renewed on June 1 on who must do what when a crisis strikes.

Agus declined to say what was different in the deal from the one the three institutions made last September, but he said he hoped at least it could serve as a temporary umbrella for authorities to act if a crisis struck.

Wimboh Santoso, the central bank's chief of financial system stability, said that preparing for a financial crisis was like preparing for a battle.

Lawmakers criticized for 'unnecessary' Mideast visit

Jakarta Post - June 10, 2010

Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – A group of 17 lawmakers are set to fly to the Middle East this month in attempt to help Palestine gain independence, but critics have blasted the trip as a waste of time and money.

Ahmad Muzani, a lawmaker from the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, the House of Representatives had planned the visit months ago and was not a response to the recent Israeli attack of a ship carrying aid to Gaza.

The lawmakers, from the House's commission on foreign affairs, are slated to depart on June 17. They will visit Jordan, Egypt and Palestine before returning home on July 4.

Muzani claimed the visit was part of the House's monitoring function of the government's foreign policies, especially in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict in which Indonesia is aiming to play a part in efforts to broker peace in the region.

Ahmad Basarah, another lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the visit reflected Indonesia's concern over the fate of the Palestinians.

"We are taking the initiative as ordered by the opening statement of our country's Constitution, which tells us to play an active role in supporting all countries to gain independence," he said.

Muzani said they would meet with the parliamentary members in the countries they visited, including Palestine.

"We want to encourage the divided factions in Palestine to unite to achieve independence," he said, adding they planned to meet with the Hamas faction in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank.

While the lawmakers say the trip is justified, critics believe otherwise. Jaleswari Pramodhawardani, from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences said the trip was unnecessary.

"If they want to help the Palestinians, then by all means they could visit the Palestinian Embassy here. By going there, it will only spend more money on an unclear purpose."

Besides, she added, it would be better for lawmakers to start working on legislation instead of going to Palestine.

Coordinator of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) Ucok Sky Khadafi, said he doubted the trip had been planned long before the Gaza incident early this month.

"There was no discussion on the plan to visit Palestine at the early budget meeting. The funds to finance this trip will likely be taken from the reserve funds worth Rp 24.3 billion," he said.

According to Fitra, this year alone, lawmakers are scheduled to visit 58 countries.

Neither Muzani and Ahmad is aware of the funds they will spend to finance their trip to the Middle East. "I still have no idea about the budget to this date," Ahmad said.

Harry Azhar Azis, head of the House of Representatives' budget agency, said he was not informed about the cost of the trip, but added that usually every legislator received $275 per day per person during visits abroad. He also said these lawmakers usually traveled business class.

Jakarta & urban life

Groups blast city for defying ruling against land reclamation

Jakarta Globe - June 13, 2010

Arientha Primanita – The Jakarta administration's insistence on continuing with its reclamation project off its northern coast is an insult to the nation's highest court, legal and nongovernmental organizations said on Sunday.

The city should accept a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the State Ministry for the Environment, declaring the reclamation project illegal, they said.

"The Jakarta administration must respect the Supreme Court ruling and cooperate with the Environment Ministry by putting a stop to the project," Nurkholis Hidayat, from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), said on Sunday.

"The administration should instead rehabilitate the north coast by replanting the mangroves that have been destroyed as a result of the reclamation project."

The city is reclaiming a 32-kilo-meter-long stretch in Jakarta Bay to provide an additional 2,700 hectares of land. The project has failed to pass an environmental-impact analysis (Amdal).

City spokesman Cucu Ahmad Kurnia said on Sunday that the city had gone through proper legal channels to conduct the reclamation project. "Land reclamation is needed for Jakarta, and all Jakartans," Cucu told the Jakarta Globe.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo has said the city administration was proceeding with the plan based on a 2008 presidential decree regulating spatial planning in Greater Jakarta and the Puncak and Cianjur areas of West Java, as well as a 2007 law on spatial planning.

"This reclamation will trigger economic and social problems. People's lives and earnings will be drastically affected," Nurkholis said.

The coalition of legal and nongovernmental organizations will visit the Environment Ministry on Thursday to demand that it immediately execute the Supreme Court ruling, he said.

The coalition includes the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), the Indonesian Green Institute, the People's Coalition for Justice in Fisheries (Kiara), the Jakarta Fishermen's Communication Forum (FKNJ) and the national Traditional Fishermen Commission.

Kiara secretary general, Riza Damanik said the environmental costs of the reclamation project would be three times as big as the profits reaped by the city once the project was completed.

"It will no doubt worsen flooding and cause the fishermen of Jakarta Bay to lose their livelihoods," Riza said. "If the city continues to defy this Supreme Court ruling, it could set a bad precedent for other regions that may also want to reclaim land."

The plan was proposed in 1994, but was sidelined in 2003 by the State Ministry for the Environment after its Amdal failed. The contractors initially working on the project filed a suit to overturn the ministry's ban in the Jakarta Administrative Court.

The court ruled in favor of the contractors, but the project remained suspended after the ministry appealed. Last July, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Environment Ministry, but the decision was only forwarded to the Jakarta Administrative Court in March.

Made Suarjaya, chief of the legal disputes subdivision at the Jakarta Legal Bureau, said the six contractors handling the project were still studying the Supreme Court ruling.

Tiharom, 34, from FKNJ, said his forum was firmly opposed to the reclamation plans. "Our catch area has drastically decreased since the '90s," Tiharom said.

Flooding highlights poor state of Jakarta's 1960s drainage system

Jakarta Globe - June 9, 2010

Arientha Primanita – The recent localized street flooding caused by unseasonal rains across Jakarta highlights the need to seriously improve the city's poor drainage system, an academic and council officials said on Wednesday.

"The administration should repair and expand the existing roads and add more drains," Trisakti University urban planning expert Yayat Supriyatna said.

He said the cityscape had changed drastically over the decades while the drainage system had been relatively untouched during the same period. Most drains were now either broken, clogged with garbage or closed off due to buildings being constructed above them.

Yayat called on the administration to remap the city's drainage network, pointing out that it was easy to spot the non- functioning drains by looking for flooded streets.

"Jakarta's drainage system is in bad condition, which has an adverse knock-on effect on the traffic problems," he said. "Even moderate rains can cause localized flooding that leads to heavy traffic jams."

Yayat said Jakarta had developed so rapidly that it would be difficult and costly to overhaul the drainage system.

City councilor Berlin Hutajulu said the Jakarta Public Works Office must prioritize repairs of the drains. "It's important that the drainage system is fixed and expanded, because it will help channel the rainwater more effectively, which in turn will lead to smoother-flowing traffic."

In some parts of the city, roadside gutters often overflow onto the streets, Berlin said. "This is something the city administration should ideally be prepared for, because it has the budget and the program in place."

Tarjuki, head of water resources maintenance at the public works office, said it had allocated Rp 30 billion ($3.2 million) this year for the repair and construction of drains in 33 flood-prone locations, with priority points along Jalan Jendral Sudirman and Jalan MH Thamrin.

He said one short-term solution for the problem of flooding would be to widen roadside drain inlets to allow for faster runoff.

Fakhrurozi, the office's head of water resources, said Jakarta's drainage system had been laid out in the 1960s and had not been overhauled since, receiving only routine maintenance.

"The age is just one problem," he said. "Another is that the drains also carry utility cables for telephones, electricity and fiber optics. The biggest culprit, though, is all the garbage that gets tossed in there."

Wiriatmoko, head of the Jakarta Spatial Planning Agency, said the drainage system and the utilities should ideally be separated. "Building a ducting system is probably the best option to get around this problem," he said.

A ducting system to carry utility connections underground would free up the drains, Wiriatmoko said, but would require a thorough study of the existing drainage network before it could be drawn up.

Economy & investment

IMF warns of threat of capital outflow

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2010

Vincent Lingga, Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) charted out Thursday a rosy outlook for Indonesia's economy for the rest of this year with an estimated growth of 6 percent, but warned the government that a volatile global environment could heighten risk aversion and sharply reverse capital flow.

An IMF mission said at the end of its annual assessment of Indonesian's economy that volatile capital flow complicated the country's policy strategy, but it urged the government to maintain its policy of exchange-rate flexibility in responding to changing global conditions.

"Globally, there is a lot of liquidity, but the global environment is still volatile even though the financial situation in Europe has stabilized. If the European situation worsens, then heightened risk aversion could trigger a reversal of capital flow," Thomas R. Rumbaugh, chief of the mission, told a news conference.

Bank Indonesia (BI)'s Senior Deputy Governor Darmin Nasution revealed last week that more than US$2 billion flew out of the country during the height of the recent Greek debt crisis.

Rumbaugh praised the country's economic resilience in weathering the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and recent turbulence in Europe and attributed the macroeconomic stability to prudent policies the government has pursued in coping with the recent dramatic shifts in the global economy.

The IMF saw BI's current monetary stance as appropriate but cautioned that as credit growth recovers, the central bank should act firmly to anchor inflation expectations within the target range of 4-6 percent.

Rumbaugh observed the fiscal outlook this year is also supportive of economic stability and consistent with plans to further reduce public debts relative to gross domestic product, which is currently less than 30 percent. But he urged the government to focus its fiscal policy on structural reforms.

"The tax ratio is simply too low, the government investment spending is too low due to slow budget execution, and spending on subsidies is too much," added Rumbaugh, division chief at the Asia and Pacific Department.

Energy subsidies alone accounted for $14.5 billion or almost 13 percent of total government spending this year, while tax revenue as a percentage of GDP is less than 13 percent, the lowest in ASEAN.

He said the IMF's projection of a 6 percent economic growth this year was based on a strong investment recovery as private consumption growth was estimated to remain at 4 percent.

"If investments, which were rather flat last year, do not recover strongly this year, the growth could be less than 6 percent," he said.

During its 10-day visit in light of the IMF surveillance mechanism, the mission also discussed with economy ministers about the findings of the financial sector assessment program (FSAP) on Indonesia conducted recently by the IMF and the World Bank.

"The FSAP concluded the financial system has made remarkable progress over the last decade, with most major banks reporting high capital standards, comfortable levels of liquidity and solid profitability," said Herve Ferhani, deputy director for monetary and capital market department, which co-led the assessment.

However, he warned that the government should promulgate clear- cut, precise legal guidelines for dealing with problem banks because the legal framework currently in place was not adequate. The government is in the process of proposing to the parliament a bill on a financial system safety net.

Ferhani also stressed the need for deepening the capital market with new instruments to provide investors with a wider choice of vehicles and reducing corporate reliance on bank funding as well as strengthening the law-enforcement authority of the Capital Market Supervisory and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency.

"A capital market with a broader variety of instruments could help stem a sudden threat of a reversal of capital flow during times of market turbulence," he added.

Government raises foreign ownership limits

Jakarta Post - June 10, 2010

Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – Indonesia has issued a new presidential regulation that increases foreign ownership limits for certain local businesses and properties.

The negative investment list was issued to improve the nation's investment climate for both foreign and domestic investors, and also in order to comply with the ASEAN Economic Community commitment, officials say. The government, for example, raised the maximum ownership for foreign investors in the construction sector to 67 percent from 55 percent, and the hospital services sector to 67 percent and 65 percent under the new negative investment list.

Hospitals owned by foreign investors can expand their activities nationwide, the regulation states. "Foreign investors can also own up to 95 percent of power plants," said Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) head Gita Wirjawan in a press conference Wednesday.

Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa also attended the press conference.

A crucial article in regulation No. 36/2010 rules that a foreign investor owning a controlling stake larger than allowed under then new regulation after a rights issue must release their shares within two years to comply with the limits set by the regulation.

Foreign investors can then sell their shares to domestic investors, or through Indonesia's stock market, or the company can buy the shares, to be treated as treasury stock.

The regulation does not cover portfolio investors who buy shares from the stock market, Gita said. "If there are foreign investors considered as a controlling stakeholder, then the regulation becomes effective," he said.

The regulation also recognizes a grandfather clause, meaning the new regulation will not affect investors that have complied with the previous regulation issued in 2007, he added.

"This regulation also recognizes law hierarchy, so other regulations whose hierarchies are below this regulation are not effective," said Gita, adding that Indonesia wanted to eliminate investment uncertainties.

In line with the ASEAN Economic Community commitment, the regulation sets out an attachment providing ASEAN investors higher maximum ownership in some sectors, including cargo handling, foreign sea vessels and recreation.

ASEAN investors may own up to 60 percent of cargo handling services, higher than the 49 percent regulated for other foreign investors. ASEAN investors can also own up to 60 percent of foreign sea vessels and 100 percent of recreation businesses.

"Therefore, there will no longer be inconsistencies between domestic and ASEAN [regulations]," said Deputy Trade Minister Mahendra Siregar.

Also in the regulation, the government stipulates ownership of base transceiver stations must be 100 percent local, after an intense debate between BKPM and the Communications and Information Technology Ministry.

Highlights of Negative Investment List

Existing investors can expand the same activities in different locations without having to establish new institutions, unless laws forbid.
Portfolio investors in the stock market are not regulated by the regulation.
In a takeover, the ownership of surviving companies should be as stated in the permit.
In a rights issue, foreign investors can purchase shares if local investors do not participate. If their shares are more than allowed, within two years they should sell the shares to local investors, or through the stock market, or the company could buy the shares to be treated as a treasury stock.
There is a grandfather clause, which means companies that already have permits before the new regulation is effective do not have to follow the new regulation.
Relevant regulations that are ranked below the new regulation would to defer to the new regulation.
Previously closed sacarine and siclamat industries are now open with special permits.
Foreign investors can own 67 percent of construction businesses, up from 55 percent previously.
Foreign investors can own up to 45 percent of film-related businesses.
Hospital ownership by foreign investors is raised to 67 percent from 65 percent.
Foreign investors can own up to 95 percent of power plant businesses.
Foreign investors can own up to 49 percent of a plot of land larger than 25 hectares for planting staple foods, including corn, soybeans, beans.
Base transceiver stations can have no foreign ownership.

[Source: Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM).]

IMF puts Indonesian growth at 6 percent in 2010, 2011

Reuters - June 10, 2010

Neil Chatterjee & Gde Anugrah Arka – The International Monetary Fund on Thursday forecast Indonesia's economic growth will accelerate this year amid improving investment and said the central bank may need to adjust its monetary policy if price pressures rise.

The Fund also said after meetings in Jakarta with Indonesia's central bank and other officials that recent capital outflows from Indonesia were likely to be temporary and it saw small downside risk from the euro zone debt woes.

"We see growth accelerating to 6 percent and we think inflation will be contained at under 5 percent," Thomas Rumbaugh, the IMF's division chief for Asia and Pacific, told reporters.

Southeast Asia's biggest economy expanded 4.5 percent in 2009, among the few countries in Asia to have posted growth during a period of global recession, thanks to resilient domestic demand.

Drawn by its strong growth prospects, investors have poured into Indonesia's bonds, stocks and its currency, the rupiah, in the past year, when its markets saw stellar gains. The stock market is up nearly 10 percent so far this year, one of the best performers in Asia.

Rumbaugh said demand and commodity price pressures could start to rise and lead to slightly higher inflation in the future, requiring a policy response from the central bank, Bank Indonesia.

"We don't see the need for it yet... later in 2010 they may need to prepare to adjust monetary policy if inflationary pressures increase," Rumbaugh said.

Indonesia's annual inflation in May accelerated to 4.16 percent, its highest level in a year, as food prices picked up, and was in line with expectations.

A Reuters poll in April predicted Indonesia's economy to expand 5.8 percent this year and 6.1 percent next year. The poll also forecast Indonesia's year-end inflation at 4.9 percent this year and 6.0 percent next year.

Since late 2009, central bank officials have stressed that they saw no reason to raise interest rates as they expected inflation to be within their 4-6 percent target range in 2010. Analysts, however, expect rate hikes by the third quarter this year and see Bank Indonesia as potentially behind the curve.

Deputy governor Hartadi Sarwono said on Wednesday that the central bank may need to raise interest rates to 7 percent next year after keeping them on hold at a record low of 6.5 percent this year.

The comments were the first by the central bank on the timing and scale of any rate rises that will likely be aimed at curbing inflation, and come after the country's finance minister said last month rates could stay at 6.5 percent through 2011.

Indonesia's bond yield curve has steepened in the past two weeks as a result of lower yields on the short end of the curve, which analysts said suggested increased market expectations of a near- term benign rate outlook.

Millions of fishermen still live in poverty

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2010

Agus Maryono, Cilacap – More than 90 percent of the country's 15.5 million fishermen are living below the poverty line due to an underdeveloped local fishing industry, an official from the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry says.

The ministry's director general of fisheries, Dedy Heryadi Sutisna, said that his office was working to improve the situation.

"We are now thinking hard about how to improve the living conditions and dignity of millions of fishermen in Indonesia so they can be as prosperous as fishermen in developed countries," he said during a recent official visit to Cilacap, Central Java.

He said one strategy the ministry was considering was building economic development centers for fishery activities – called "Minapolitan Cities" – in a number of regions that have fishing communities.

"The plan will certainly require the involvement of all stakeholders if it is to be realized and for marine potentials to be fully exploited," he said.

He said that 16 cities and regencies had been designated as guinea pigs for the new centers, including Jakarta and the Cilacap, Pelabuhan Ratu and Bitung regencies.

The ministry, he said, believed the low productivity of the nation's fishermen was largely due to problems in the nation's distribution of fuel, which has suffered numerous hiccups over the last three years since fuel prices were increased across the board in 2007.

"Unless the problem is well taken care of as soon as possible, the Minapolitan City program will be hard to carry out," he said.

Dedy said the nation's fishermen required on average 2.5 million kiloliters of fuel per year. However, he added, only 1.5 million kiloliters had been designated by the government for the fisheries industry for the period from 2010-2011.

"We can do nothing about (the fuel supply) but propose the amount we need. It's fully the authority of Pertamina to manage the fuel distribution," he said, referring to the state-owned oil and gas company.

"Only Pertamina knows exactly why the fuel allocation for fishermen keeps decreasing."

Separately, head of the Cilacap Marine Fishery Port, Mian Sahala Sitanggang, also said there was a lack of fuel supply for fishermen. Mian said that there was a special fuel station for fishermen in Cilacap managed by KUD Minosaroyo cooperatives.

He said that to supply the 30,000 fishermen in the region, the station needed 1,200 kiloliters of fuel per month. This demand, he said, would increase sharply during harvest season.

"But in reality, we are only supplied with an average of 950 kiloliters of fuel," Mian said.

Eight state firms losing money face liquidation

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2010

Jakarta – Eight under-performing state firms face liquidation under a state enterprises consolidation program, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar says.

Mustafa said in Jakarta on Monday that the eight companies were part of 20 state firms placed in "special care" due to their worsening financial conditions.

The 8 companies are paper producer company PT Kertas Kraft Aceh, shipping companies Djakarta Lloyd and PT Industri Kapal Indonesia, film company Perum Film Nasional, printing company PT Balai Pustaka, PT Survei Udara Penas, airline PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines and aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia.

Analysis & opinion

Five percent parliamentary threshold, but who benefits?

Kompas - June 11, 2010

M Zaid Wahyudi – The growing number of ordinary people's votes that are needlessly lost is a direct consequence of the application of an increasingly higher parliamentary threshold. Millions of votes given and managed with great effort by election organisers have to be discarded for the sake of the big parties desire to maintain their power in the name of simplifying the political parties.

A proposal to increase the parliamentary threshold (ambang batas parlemen) from 2.5 percent during the 2009 elections to 5 percent for the 2014 elections has been put forward by the large political parties and agreed to by the medium-size parties in a draft revision of Law Number 10/2008 on the Election of Members of the House of Representatives (DPR), Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and Regional House of Representatives (DPRD). The stipulation on the parliamentary threshold will apply to the DPR but not affect provincial, regency and municipal DPRDs.

The big political parties as the supporters of the parliamentary threshold increase hold that the increase can be used as a means to simplify the parties. "Increasing the threshold is not to block new parties, but rather to simplify the political parties," said Chairuman Harahap, the chairperson of the DPR's Commission II on Domestic Affairs from the Golkar Party parliamentary faction for the North Sumatra II electoral district.

Stealing the people's vote

The parliamentary threshold is a limit on the minimum number of votes that need to be obtained by a party in order to place their representatives in parliament. In the 2009 elections, the threshold was set at 2.5 percent, which was taken from a party's share of the valid vote nationally.

If the party's vote share is below this limit, the votes by voters that support the party will be pronounced forfeited. Legislative candidates (caleg) from the party meanwhile, despite receiving a high vote, exceeding the vote division number (BPP, calculated by dividing the number of voters by the number of seats available) and receiving more votes than legislative candidates from parties that passed the parliamentary threshold, will still not get into the DPR because their party's vote failed to fulfill the requirements.

Of course those parties that obtained less than 5 percent of the vote in the last election, whether they have seats in the parliament or not reject the proposed increase. The general chairperson of the Ulema National Awakening Party (PKNU), Choirul Anam believes that increasing the parliamentary threshold goes against the hopes of those, including the political parties, that want to reduce the rate of golput (white vote) or voters who intentionally do not use their right to vote. [So people feel] that after they have voted, their vote simply discarded and wasted. "Don't keep stealing the people's vote," he said.

In the 2009 elections, the number of voters in the legislative elections was declared by the General Election Commission (KPU) in November 2008 to be 171.27 million. Out of this total, as many as 104.1 million votes for the 38 national parties contesting the election were declared valid and included in the process of calculating the distribution of seats in the DPR.

Because of the stipulation on the 2.5 percent parliamentary threshold however, the parties that obtain a vote share below this limit were automatically disregarded and not included in the calculation of the seats. The result was that only nine political parties obtained seats in the DPR.

The total number votes for these nine parties was 85.05 million or only represented 49.66 percent of all the voters registered in the election. Meanwhile the number of votes garnered by the other 29 parties that failed to pass the parliamentary threshold and were discarded was 19.05 million.

Principle of proportionality

Using the vote share in the 2009 elections as a reference, an increase in the parliamentary threshold to 5 percent would result in the disqualification of the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura). The number of votes that would be forfeited would swell to as much as 32.8 million.

After the allotment of seats is calculated, the difference between the vote share percentage and the share of seats would become even more unbalanced. This situation would result in the principal of proportionality in accordance with the chosen electoral system being further undermined.

The electoral system practiced by Indonesia following the process reformasi or of political reform begun in 1998 is a proportional system with several variations. One of the principles in this system is that the allocation of seats for a party in the DPR is equivalent or proportional to its vote share in the elections.

The results of the 2009 elections indicated that the imposition of the 2.5 percent parliamentary threshold most benefited the large- and medium-size parties. The Democrat Party, which obtained 20.84 percent of the vote, was able to amass up to 26.43 percent of the seats in the DPR. The Hanura Party meanwhile, which obtained 3.77 percent of the vote, was only able to gain 3.21 percent of the seats in the DPR.

Following on from this, if a parliamentary threshold of 5 percent is imposed and using the results of the 2009 elections as a reference, the Democrat Party, which garnered 20.84 percent of the vote would obtain 30.89 percent of the seats in the DPR. All of the parties that pass (the parliamentary threshold) would obtain a greater percentage of seats than their vote share (see Table 1).

"This situation causes a disproportionality between the vote share and the seats obtain by a party so that there will be parties that are over-represented and likewise parties that are underrepresented in the DPR", said Centre for Electoral Reform (Cetro) Executive Director Hadar N Gumay.

Blocking new parties

Obtaining 5 percent of the valid vote in an election is not an easy matter, particularly for new political parties. In the history of Indonesian elections post reformasi, only three parties have obtained an outright vote of more than 5 percent in their first participation in an election.

In the 1999 elections, the PKB obtained 12.62 percent of the vote and the National Mandate Party (PAN) garnered 7.12 percent of the vote. A similar success was experienced by the Democrat Party in the 2004 elections with 7.45 percent of the vote. However the votes garnered by these three parties were very much determined by the drawing power of their parties' leaders, KH Abdurrahman Wahid, Amien Rais and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) on the other hand enjoyed a gradual increase in its vote share. In the 1999 elections, when it was still called the Justice Party (Partai Keadilan, PK), it only garnered 1.36 percent of the vote. Its vote share jumped to 7.34 percent after changing its name and taking part in the 2004 elections.

Meanwhile the vote share of the small parties has in fact tended to be stable at less than 3 percent. Changes in their vote share are largely influenced buy the total number of parties taking part in the election. The less parties participating in the election, the larger the vote share gained by the small parties.

It is this situation that has made the discourse on increasing the parliamentary threshold to 5 percent being seen as an attempt to block the emergence of new parties. Indonesian democracy will no longer be open because it will be difficult for alternative parties to respond to the public's needs in a particular period.

"This is a narrowing of representative space for Indonesian society that is actually pluralistic," said Research and Advocacy Coordinator Tommi A Legowo from the parliamentary watchdog Forum of Concerned Citizens for Indonesia's Parliament (Formappi).

It is because of this therefore, it is natural and there are good reasons for this discourse to attract distrust and be seen as a short-cut by the big parties to simplify the party system. The less political parties in parliament, the easier it will be for the parties in power to dictate political policy and the lower the political costs that they will have to bear to push through policies.

Table 1.

Comparison of seats obtained based on a parliamentary threshold of 2.5 percent and 5 percent

2.5% Threshold 5% Threshold

No Party Votes Percent Seats Percent Seats Percent

1 Hanura 3,981,531 3.77% 17 3.21% - -

5 Gerindra 4,664,213 4.48% 26 4.64% - -

13 PKB 5,144,371 4.95% 28 5.00% - -

24 PPP 5,531,119 5.32% 38 6.79% 41 7.32%

9 PAN 6,289,378 6.05% 46 8.21% 48 8.57%

8 PKS 8,198,940 7.88% 57 10.18% 65 11.61%

28 PDI-P 14,572,223 14.01% 94 16.61% 110 19.64%

23 Golkar 15,002,516 14.44% 106 18.93% 123 21.96%

31 Democrat 21,673,389 20.84% 148 26.43% 173 30.89%

PDI-P: Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle. PPP: United Development Party

Attempts to simplify the political parties

Election Legal Basis Requirement to contest election Requirement to obtain a seat in the DPR Number of parties contesting election Number of parties in the DPR

1999 Law Number 3/1999 2% of seats in the DPR Proportional and majority of votes in level II regions 48 21

2004 Law Number 12/2003 3% of seats in the DPR BPP* and majority of votes in electoral district 24 16

2009 Law Number 10/2008 All electoral contestants in the 2009 elections were allowed to contestant the next (2009) election Minimum of 2.5% of the valid national vote, BPP, and majority of votes in electoral district 38 national parties plus 6 local Aceh parties 9

* BPP: Vote Division Number - Calculated by dividing the number of voters by the number of seats available

Electoral representation based on electoral threshold

2.5% electoral threshold

Number of votes represented 85,013,725 81.73% of the vote

5% electoral threshold

Number of votes represented 71,286,610 68.53% of the vote

Source: Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) research, Kompas Research and Development

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Why does Indonesian democracy stop at Papua?

The Guardian (UK) - June 9, 2010

Baudoin Koening – As a French journalist, I came to Indonesia to draw the portrait of the greatest emerging power of the G20 members and largest Muslim state in the world, in the context of a democracy regaining its rights alongside its motto "unity in diversity", which has guided the Indonesian government since its independence.

For a month, I travelled freely in the archipelago. I worked without any restriction on topics as sensitive as the application of sharia law, terrorism, corruption, the slaughter of communists in 1965 and the state of the economy. And so, in possession of a valid press card and a journalist visa valid throughout the country (except in the region of Posso the Celebes), I arrived in Jayapura, the capital of West Papua.

A mere hours after my landing, I touched the limits of freedom of the press. I was arrested while filming a student demonstration in favour of autonomy and democracy. After eight hours of interrogation, the bureau chief of immigration cancelled my visa and sent me back to Jakarta for immediate expulsion. So what exactly is there to hide from foreign journalists and researchers here in Papua?

The police accused me of wanting to give a bad image of the country by filming a banned demonstration. My pictures tell of demonstrators demanding greater autonomy, dialogue with Jakarta and an end to the corruption that drains the budget. The protesters were peaceful, the police presence discreet. A few hours earlier, I had interviewed Neles Tebay. The Papuan Catholic priest told me about how he worked to revive dialogue with Jakarta.

These two scenes shot before my arrest echo the opening speech by Patrialis Akbar, minister of justice and human rights, 10 days earlier in Jayapura. Responding to Indonesian journalists, he said he planned the release of Papuan separatist militants and a mediation on the European model that has brought peace to Aceh, at the other end of Indonesia.

But I wonder about the image Indonesia wants to promote when it comes to press freedom and the democratic process, when in front of television cameras and press photographers, a western TV crew that is only doing its job is arrested. When every tourist has a camera, this anachronistic desire to control information has no meaning. This is not freedom of expression that is a threat to the image and future of Indonesia, but repressive practices, intolerance and massive corruption inherited from 32 years of new order.

Today, I want to see the decision of Akbar (at the request of the ambassador of France) to suspend my immediate deportation and allow me to finish my film as a sign that soon, it will be possible for any journalist to witness dialogue between Papuans and Jakarta under Indonesia's founding principles: unity in diversity, social justice for all, democracy, religious tolerance, and a just and civilised humanity.

				2.5% Threshold		5% Threshold
No	Party	Votes	Percent	Seats	Percent	Seats	Percent
1	Hanura	3,981,531	3.77%	17	3.21%	-	-
5	Gerindra	4,664,213	4.48%	26	4.64%	-	-
13	PKB	5,144,371	4.95%	28	5.00%	-	-
24	PPP	5,531,119	5.32%	38	6.79%	41	7.32%
9	PAN	6,289,378	6.05%	46	8.21%	48	8.57%
8	PKS	8,198,940	7.88%	57	10.18%	65	11.61%
28	PDI-P	14,572,223	14.01%	94	16.61%	110	19.64%
23	Golkar	15,002,516	14.44%	106	18.93%	123	21.96%
31	Democrat	21,673,389	20.84%	148	26.43%	173	30.89%

Election	Legal Basis	Requirement to contest election	Requirement to obtain a seat in the DPR	Number of parties contesting election	Number of parties in the DPR
1999	Law Number 3/1999	2% of seats in the DPR	Proportional and majority of votes in level II regions	48	21
2004	Law Number 12/2003	3% of seats in the DPR	BPP* and majority of votes in electoral district	24	16
2009	Law Number 10/2008	All electoral contestants in the 2009 elections were allowed to contestant the next (2009) election	Minimum of 2.5% of the valid national vote, BPP, and majority of votes in electoral district	38 national parties plus 6 local Aceh parties	9

2.5% electoral threshold
Number of votes represented	85,013,725	81.73% of the vote
5% electoral threshold
Number of votes represented	71,286,610	68.53% of the vote