Ika Krismantari, Jakarta – Some prefer the last option, reportedly including market operator PD Pasar Jaya, said to be running a dirty business involving local thugs in managing markets in the city.

Several market merchants in Jakarta have acknowledged this dirty practice persists in the management of traditional markets.

"They use thugs to control traders in the market. They want to create fear so when problems arise, everything remains under control," Jakarta Street Vendors Association head Apoan Saragih told The Jakarta Post.

Pasar Jaya runs 153 traditional markets in Jakarta and thugs are believed to exist in every market, operating with the local company's knowledge.

These thugs are known to ask for additional money of traders for security fees. Aside from paying rental fees, the traders are asked to pay this additional cost per day.

Each merchant has to pay between Rp 5,000 (55 US cents) and Rp 10,000 a day to these people or reportedly they risk losing their business. The targets for this illegal operation are not only traders inside the market buildings but street vendors operating around surrounding buildings.

"They will not allow us to display our goods when we refuse to pay," said Burhaddin, 55, a street vendor at Cipulir Market, South Jakarta. "We are pressured all the time but we cannot fight because this [business] is my only source of income," says the man who has been running his business since 1993.

The Post visited several traditional markets in Jakarta and found that most traders did not appear to mind the current system, allowing this illegal practice to continue as they said they believed giving money protected their business from those criminals. They said they saw the money as an extra fee to maintain order in the market.

Nining Indroyono Soesilo, urban economics expert from the University of Indonesia, agrees such illegal practice is maintained by Pasar Jaya to avoid possible conflict with local thugs that may create bigger problems for management and traders.

"If [the thugs] are not 'nurtured', they can threaten the entire market system. So, the best option is to make them partners in managing the market," says Nining who carried out research on thuggery and markets in Jakarta in the 90s, which she believes to exist to the present day.

Pasar Jaya spokesman Nur Havids denied the thugs involvement in the management of markets in Jakarta. "Thugs do exist in the markets but they are not part of the management," he said.

The Post recently observed a person wearing an official uniform asking for money of traders in Kebayoran Lama Market in South Jakarta. "It is only for daily retribution," said the man, who refused to give his name.

The man also approached a number of street vendors outside the market building asking for money. According to the management's principle, those traders are not under the authority of Pasar Jaya.

It is not clear where traders' money will go but Kebayoran Lama Market head Royani explained the money goes into security and a cleaning service budget.

"There are no thugs in the market. If they exist, they can do nothing because I am the king of thugs here," Royani said over the phone, then burst in his laughter.

Soeharto's daughter reclaims ownership of TV station

Jakarta Globe - June 28, 2010

Jakarta Globe – One of the daughters of deceased dictator Suharto claims to have reclaimed ownership of Indonesian television station Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia from tycoon Harry Tanoesoedibjo.

Denny Kailimang, a lawyer acting for Suharto's eldest daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, known as Tutut, told a news conference on Sunday that the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights had issued a decree canceling another decree it had passed in 2005, which stated that PT Berkah Karya Bersama was the owner of TPI.

"The cancellation of the ministry's 2005 decree means Mbak Tutut is now the owner of TPI," Denny told Metro TV. He added that the station's new CEO was Yapto Soeryosumarno, the chairman of the Patriot Pancasila Party and a long-time friend of the Suharto clan.

The saga began in 2002 when Tutut appointed Berkah to help her deal with the station's debts.

Tutut has claimed that Berkah misused her appointment letter to proclaim himself her representative and to hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on March 18, 2005, during which he assumed a 75 percent stake in TPI.

Tutut claims that the meeting took place a day after she held a similar shareholders' meeting.

The channel under Tutut also hit problems when it attempted to re-register online with the government as the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights only recognized the management that had been established during the March 18 meeting.

The registration Web site was operated by PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika, founded by brothers Hartono and Harry Tanoesoedibjo, who also own Berkah. Sarana is currently embroiled in a graft case for allegedly embezzling registration fees through the Web site.

Siti says her registration after her March 17 meeting was rejected due to a problem in the online system. Her suit also names Sarana, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and PT Cipta Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia, the current operator of TPI.

Berkah lawyer Andi Simangunsong insisted the acquisition was in line with existing regulations, but declined to detail his arguments until the next hearing.

The Attorney General's Office on Friday said it had named former Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra and Hartono suspects in a Rp 410 billion ($45 million) embezzlement case, a week after prosecutors were lambasted by lawmakers for failing to do so.

The AGO began an inquiry into the case after finding that 90 percent of revenue generated from the Web site went to Sarana Rekatama Dinamika, which had been appointed by the ministry to run the service.

Cast aside by society, thousands fill last-stop welfare centers

Jakarta Globe - June 26, 2010

Ulma Haryanto & Arientha Primanita – Jakarta is no city for buskers, beggars, roadside sex workers, the homeless, delinquents and the mentally challenged who are poor. This is what any staff member at Jakarta's social welfare centers will tell you.

In theory, these institutions are there to "rehabilitate" the less fortunate. But in practice, they are either transit centers for those netted by the Jakarta administration's Public Order Agency (Satpol PP), or temporary homes for the elderly and the mentally challenged.

"The groups of undesirables who come to this city are endless," Ruminto, an official at the Bina Insan Bangun Daya center in Cipayung, East Jakarta, told the Jakarta Globe on Friday. "Even with the new regulations and procedures [on public order] that we now have and are implementing in the field, new faces keep cropping up. Once you end up here, it takes time for you to get out."

To be officially released, those admitted to a center must provide necessary documentation, including ID and family cards; official letters from the city agency that dropped them at the center and from the Jakarta Social Affairs Agency; and a stamped and signed document from the person being held promising not to return to the streets. "When they hand everything over, we will discharge them for free," Ruminto said.

For those with nobody to claim them or who don't want to leave, the center would simply wait 21 days before deciding to which of the other welfare centers they can be transferred.

Jakarta is home to at least 25 of these social welfare centers, Ruminto said. "We have institutions for people of all ages. Children and the elderly. The mentally challenged and teenagers. We have one specifically for drug users, but we don't have one especially for roadside transsexuals."

In these centers, many are common faces. Ruminto said Vera, a mentally challenged woman in the Cipayung center picked up by public order officers on Friday, was a frequent guest. Speaking in broken English, she said: "Hello, sister! I'm sorry. Don't hit me."

"Once she claimed she was a victim of sexual violence. The next time she said she was pregnant. I'm not surprised to see her again," Ruminto said.

Eva, originally from Garut, West Java, who was in the center after being picked up for busking, said Vera was sometimes the center's sole entertainment.

"We laugh at her. She likes to take her shirt and pants off," Eva said. On a more serious note, she said she had no other livelihod option. "I am not good at hairdressing, so I busk. I make Rp 50,000 [$5] to Rp 90,000 a day. Other than this, what else is there, really?"

The center gives few reasons for these women to want to stay: accommodation in a cramped cell with 20 to 30 other people, raised wooden platforms for beds and a 14-inch television with no sound.

The centers are also home to people who don't feel they should be there in the first place. At the city's social welfare center in Kedoya, West Jakarta, 23-year-old Sarni sat in the hallway. She was breast-feeding her baby daughter while minding her two other children.

"My son was playing near Carrefour in Mangga Dua, North Jakarta," she said. "I was sitting near a busway shelter when suddenly officers came and took my son away. He did nothing wrong. My kids and I were then taken. We haven't done anything wrong. I am no beggar."

Sarni said she lived in Pademangan, North Jakarta, with her husband, a garbage collector. "My husband gives me Rp 300,000 a month. It is enough."

Each block in the Kedoya center has a steel fence. The residents are sometimes locked inside their cells, which have no beds.

Tarmijo Damanik, head of the Kedoya center, said the facility accommodated people picked up in raids by public order officers. He said the shelter was currently running at maximum capacity because of an increase in the number of raids over the past two weeks.

One such current resident is Syariffudin, 27, from Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta, who was brought in this week after being caught working as a three-in-one traffic jockey in Permata Hijau. "I earn around Rp 50,000 a day; I have my own regular costumers. I really like the job," he said.

The center budgets Rp 21,000 per person for three meals a day.But Dayat, a beggar, said that even though he received food every day, he did not want to be at Kedoya. "I feel trapped. I'm young. I want to be outside."

Actions, demos, protests...

Workers reject electricity hike

Jakarta Post - June 30, 2010

Rana Akbari Fitriawan and Panca Nugraha, Bandung/Mataram – Hundreds of workers took to the streets in Bandung, West Java, on Tuesday to reject the central government's plan to raise electricity fares starting July.

The workers, from different companies in Bandung city and regency, Cimahi city and West Bandung regency, staged their protest outside Gedung Sate building.

"The policy to increase the electricity rates shows that the government does not care for the people," said Jajang, a worker who came from West Bandung.

He feared the raise would raise companies' operational costs, which later may trigger a mass workers' dismissal. The workers, most grouped under the All-Indonesia Workers Union (SPSI), demanded the government drop the plan to raise electricity costs.

The House of Representatives' Commission VII overseeing energy and minerals agreed on June 15 to the government's plan to raise the base electricity rates by an average of 15 percent for all customers starting July 1, excluding those using between 450 and 900 volt-amperes.

The government said the electricity rate adjustments would save Rp 7.3 trillion in government subsidies until the end of the year. Electricity subsidies in the 2010 state budget revision reached Rp 55.1 trillion (US$6.06 billion), higher than the previous estimate of Rp 37.8 trillion.

President Susilo Bambang Yudho-yono said last week the adjustment was needed to safeguard the economy while protecting low-income people.

Before the workers' protest, about 1,000 members of the Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) in West Java staged protests for a similar reason.The group's spokesman, Luthfi Afandi, said there were many things the government could do to reduce the subsidy without burdening the people.

"One measure is to ensure efficiency within [state electricity company] PLN and prevent leaks and corruption," he said.

Separately, in West Nusa Tenggara, PLN promised that rotating blackouts in Lombok would end early July at the latest.

The company's general manager in the province, Purwanto Penabang, said Tuesday the rotating blackouts would end due to the operation of 22 units of rented generators with the capacity of 22 megawatts starting last Friday. The 22 generators, he added, had been placed at PLTD Ampenan and PLTD Taman Mataram diesel power stations.

"We can end the rotating blackouts early July," Purwanto told The Jakarta Post. He said that with the rented units, PLN could supply 95 megawatts of electricity, while during peak hours it should be able to supply 110 megawatts.

"We can cover up the 15 megawatt deficit with a supply from PLTD Paokmotong diesel power station in East Lombok, which is currently under repair," he said.

Previously, Lombok residents suffered from 24-hour blackouts every two days since the company experienced a 40-megawatt deficit.

Furious contract teachers hurl plants, pots at city hall

Jakarta Globe - June 30, 2010

Arientha Primanita – A protest on Wednesday by about 200 angry contract teachers in front of City Hall turned ugly after they claimed they were being ignored and began throwing pots and plants at the building.

The teachers wanted the city to promote them to civil servants, as promised by Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, said Eddi Sudiyo, a member of the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Teacher Supporting Communication Forum (FKGBI), which claims to represent more than 6,700 contract educators.

Contract teachers currently only receive a Rp 710,000 ($78) monthly subsidy from the central government. Being promoted to civil servant status as full-time teachers would mean higher pay, health insurance and pensions.

Eddi said they were ignored by the administration in a protest last week, so they returned to the City Hall early on Wednesday morning, armed with mats, cooking tools and equipment as they were prepared for a protracted demonstration.

But by late afternoon the weary protesters became impatient and started throwing things – tomatoes, cooking pots and even the potted plants decorating the exterior of the City Hall – over the fence. Police officers watched the protesters but not intervene.

"They are angry and impatient. We have been here since morning, we want to meet the governor or city secretary," Eddi said. The city offered them a meeting with the head of the city's human resources office, but they refused, he said.

Syarifah Efiana, chairwoman of FKGBI, said that the governor had once promised them civil servant status based on the revision of 2005 Presidential Decree on Contract Workers in 2007. "Right now we only want the governor to seriously consider our fates," she said.

Budi Hastuti, the human resources head, said the city was coordinating with the State Ministry of Education and State Ministry of Administrative Reforms on the city's contract teachers' status.

Papua solidarity protest calls for end to military operations

Tribunnews.com - June 28, 2010

Alie Usman, Jakarta – Scores of demonstrators from the group Solidarity for Papua (SUP) that had gathered at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta on Monday June 28, ended up stopping at several points along the length of Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat on their way to the State Palace.

The protesters, most of which were wearing traditional Papuan dress and tassels, soon caused the flow of traffic on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat to come to a halt creating total grid-lock for several minutes.

One of the worst things was when the crowd took up almost the entire width of road in front of the Communication and Information Ministry office. At this point they held speeches and closed off the road for several minutes. Other road users were forced to use the busway lane to get by.

Although the action paralyzed traffic, there was no response whatsoever by police or security personnel on guard in front of the building.

Before moving off to the State Palace, the pro-Papua demonstrators gathered at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to hold a protest action. After giving speeches for several minutes, they continued the action with a long-march to the State Palace on Jl. Medan Merdeka in Central Jakarta.

The protest was in response to their disappointment over the failure to end the military operational zone (DOM) status and scorched earth policy in the Tingginambut district of Puncak Jaya, which they say has resulted in numerous human rights violations.

The protesters, most of which came from inland tribes in Papua and brought regional symbols with them, called on the government to immediately lift the DOM status in Papua. They also called on the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to immediately step in and investigate a variety of cases of military violence in Tingginambut.

Notes

SUP (Solidarutas Untuk Papua) was established in mid June and includes activists from the Papuan Student Association (IPMA- PAPUA), the West Papua Student Alliance (AMWP), the Anti Colonial Movement (GANJA), the National Student Front (FMN), the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH), the Indonesian Association of Catholic Students (PMKRI), Student Struggle Center for National Liberation- Political Union of the Poor (Pembebasan-PPRM), the Political Committee of the Poor-Peoples Democratic Party (KPRM-PRD), the Youth Organisations Union of Struggle (KPOP), the Indonesian Student Union (SMI), Perempuan Mahardhika (Free Women), the West Papua Women's Liberation Movement of Struggle (GP3-PB) and the Indonesian Struggle Union (PPI).

[Translated by James Balowski.]

A day of demonstrations as police grill Luna Maya

Jakarta Globe - June 28, 2010

Jakarta Globe – Two groups with two distinct messages are currently protesting outside National Police headquarters as celebrity Luna Maya undergoes questioning in relation to the Peterporn sex tapes scandal.

The hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) are demanding police arrest Luna and Cut Tari, who allegedly appears in a second pornographic video starring Peterpan lead singer Nazril "Ariel" Irham. "Eradicate moral terrorists. Arrest Luna Maya and Cut Tari now," the demonstrators shouted.

The Indonesian Poor Union (SRMI), meanwhile, asked the police not to become preoccupied by the films. "Catch corruptors and state fund thieves. Don't be too busy investigating the sex tapes. The sex tapes are personal and a distraction from important issues," one protester said.

Luna arrived at the police headquarters at 5:30 a.m., Metro TV reported. Cut Tari is yet to be seen. Both actresses are currently classified as witnesses in the case, though Ariel has been arrested.

Yulius Irwansyah, a lawyer acting for Luna, said the television personality would hold a news conference after the police interview.

Aceh

Lucks runs out for gamblers caned over card game in Aceh

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2010

Nurdin Hasan, Jantho (Aceh) – Three of 21 men caught gambling on cards last month were caned with seven lashes each in public on Friday in Jantho, Aceh Besar district, the second time the punishment has been meted out this year in the deeply Islamic province.

The caning was ordered by the Jantho Shariah Court on Thursday and overseen by the local prosecutors' office. Two Shariah Police officers delivered the strokes on a stage erected inside the subdistrict's Al Munawwarah Mosque shortly after Friday prayers. The three men, identified as local farmers Mukhtar Rahmadi, 29, Suherman, 32, and Hasbi bin Acek, 45, were caught gambling by police on May 27 with 18 others.

They claimed they were only playing to pass the time while waiting for a wedding banquet the next day in neighboring Montasik subdistrict.

The caning drew hundreds of onlookers, one of whom yelled out "Good for you!" as Mukhtar received his lashes. He was heard replying: "What's so good about that?"

All three declined to speak to the media after the incident, and were promptly driven away in a waiting car.

Gambling is a corporal offense in staunchly Islamic Aceh, which upholds partial Shariah law. The proscribed punishment, as stipulated in a 2003 Shariah bylaw, is six to 12 lashes with a rattan cane.

Jantho chief prosecutor Bendry Almy said another man in the case, 41-year-old M Yasin, had also been sentenced to caning by the court, but had been granted a stay of punishment because of a pre-existing medical condition.

"He had a stomach ailment, something to do with having had his spleen removed," Bendry said. "The doctors recommended we hold off on whipping him until he feels better."

Aceh Besar Police chief of detectives Adj. Comr. Agung Prasetyo said the court had only ordered that four of the 21 men caught gambling be caned because they had bet the highest sums of money.

"The others were staking Rp 1,000 a hand, but when these four men bet, the combined bet was Rp 3.6 million [$400]," he said. "We let the others go after we'd questioned them, because the Shariah bylaw doesn't authorize us to arrest anyone."

Despite not being allowed to make arrests, Agung declined to say under what authority the four high-rollers were taken into custody.

Teuku Hasbi, head of the Aceh Besar Shariah Agency, addressing the crowd ahead of the caning, said the punishment needed to be meted out more often if it served as an effective deterrent against similar offenses.

"Gambling is something that destroys the spirit and destroys families, no matter how you look at it," he said. "No one wins. Those who do only become puffed up and arrogant, while those who lose become depressed or vindictive," he added.

He called on the three men about to be lashed to "come to your senses and renounce your crime". "Repent and embrace Allah!" Hasbi said.

Aceh Besar administration official Zulkifli Ismail, representing the district at the flogging, said authorities had no intention of halting caning as a punishment, despite an outcry from human rights activists. "Caning knocks sense into people," he said. "If we don't keep doing it, people will keep on flouting our laws."

Maximum sentence sought in alleged Aceh religious police rape

Jakarta Globe - June 23, 2010

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Prosecutors on Tuesday asked the Langsa District Court in Aceh to sentence a member of the province's Wilayatul Hisbah Shariah Police to 12 years in prison for the alleged rape and torture of a 20-year-old female student in January.

Prosecutor Sayed Muhammad said the defendant, Muhammad Nazir, 29, had taken turns raping the woman in a police detention cell with two other officers in the early hours of Jan. 8, a Friday.

"As an officer of the Wilayatul Hisbah, he was supposed to be upholding Islamic Shariah law. Instead, he brutally violated the law," Sayed told the Jakarta Globe.

The prosecutor said that under Article 285 of the country's Criminal Code, the maximum punishment for rape is 12 years in prison.

"He also gave confusing and convoluted statements during interrogation," Sayed said, adding that this played a part in prosecutors seeking the maximum jail term for the defendant.

Judge Lukman Bachmid presided over the trial. Friday is considered "a day of goodness" in Islam, and afternoon prayers on Friday are mandatory for Muslims.

The victim was taken into custody for allegedly engaging in an immoral act with her boyfriend on Jalan Lingkar, near the PTPN-I Langsa ring road.

Both the woman and her boyfriend were brought in by police and questioned over the alleged violation of the 2003 Shariah Public Indecency Law.

Sayed said that a medical examination confirmed that the victim had been sexually assaulted and that she had suffered severe hemorrhaging as a result of the rape. The trial is scheduled to resume on July 12.

Another defendant in the case, Feri Agus, 28, is being tried by the same court. A third suspect, Dedy Setiawan, 27, is still at large. Sayed said the prosecutors' sentencing demand for Feri would be read in court next month.

Marhami, from the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (LBH Apik), who has been assisting the victim during the trial, said the victim's family expected the perpetrators to be given the maximum sentence under the law.

West Papua

British adventurer held in 'rat infested' jail after shipwreck

The Telegraph (UK) - June 28, 2010

Bonnie Malkin, Sydney – Anthony Corbyn, who holds dual British and Australian nationality, was attempting to sail from Australia to the Philippines as part of a bid to circumnavigate the globe, when his yacht the Shiseido hit a coral reef ten days ago.

Mr Corbyn, 65, made it to shore, but his passport and other identity documents were lost at sea. Authorities in West Papua are suspicious of unaccredited arrivals due to a long-running separatist campaign.

Doubting Mr Corbyn's account of events, they placed him in a detention centre in the town of Merauke.

The author, who has written two non-fiction books about his relationships with married women, now faces a long wait while authorities verify his claims.

Joko Prihadi, Merauke District Police Chief, said Mr Corbyn would stay in detention until investigators were satisfied that his story was true.

"We went and examined the ship and it seems like it sank through natural causes, like he said," Mr Prihadi told the Australian Associated Press.

"But we need to dig a bit deeper, there could be some political agenda there. So we need him to stay until we can conclude what really happened."

In 2008, five Australians who arrived in West Papua without the proper travel documents after a joy flight from the Torres Strait Islands were detained in Merauke for 10 months. Mr Prihadi has refused to put a timetable on the investigation into Mr Corbyn's story.

Friends of the adventurer, who hails from Wiltshire but now lives in Cairns, have expressed fears for his health. Mr Corbyn has described the conditions in the immigration centre as "rat, cockroach and mosquito infested".

"The entrance has heavy iron gate locked at night, iron bars also incorporated into window frames," he told AAP. "Movement restricted to compound or with officer as an 'escort' when shopping for food."

Mr Corbyn said he had been interrogated for eight hours by 11 Indonesian police officers, only two of whom spoke English.

Dorset resident Antoinette Khodabandeh, who was due to fly to the Philippines to meet Mr Corbyn until his journey was cut short, said she was extremely worried.

"I'm really worried that he is going to come out of there in a coffin. My fear is that this is going to drag on and they are going to told him in order to extract money."

Keith Mortimer, one of the Australians detained in Merake in 2008, said that conditions in the detention centre were "worse than you can imagine". "He has to assimilate with the local population," he said. "If he doesn't he will die."

The Australian government have said that they are providing consular assistance to Mr Corbyn and hope that the situation can be resolved quickly.

One of Mr Corbyn's books is called Lothario's Diary, and details his exploits with married women.

In an "About the author" section, he describes himself as a "happy adventurer who visited, worked and lived in 86 countries before sailing around the world in my own yacht".

"I have been face to face with a lion, confronted by a silver- backed gorilla, charged by a bull elephant and stood firm against overwhelming enemy odds while armed with a rifle," he wrote. "The only thing that turns my legs to jelly is a woman's beguiling smile."

Government neglects Papua earthquake victims: Council

Jakarta Post - June 26, 2010

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – The Regional Representatives Council claims the government was too slow in helping victims of a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that rocked the Papua regencies of Yapen and Biak last week.

"More than a week on, the government has done little, despite the fact that the disaster has claimed lives and displaced thousands of people. The government's slow reaction is indicative of the double standards in disaster mitigation efforts," Deputy Council Speaker Hemas said in a press statement Friday.

Hemas, the consort of Yogyakarta Governor Sultan Hamengku Buwono X, said the Papuan people had been treated with discrimination.

"Is this happening because Papua is far from Jakarta, so the government chooses to ignore that region? Things would have been very different had the earthquake struck Java, Bali or Sumatra. Many institutions would have rushed to help and deliver relief supplies and to show off."

Reports said thousands of people in three remote villages in Yapen were at risk of starvation and outbreak of diseases as the quake had practically isolated the areas.

The feeling of being discriminated against by the central government among Papuan people has for decades fueled demands for secession from Indonesia. The special autonomy granted to the natural resources-rich province in 2001 has not stopped separatist group Free Papua Organization from laying down arms.

Hemas criticized the fact that both President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono had failed to convey official condolences to Papuans following the devastating earthquake.

"Therefore, the Council urges the government to move quickly and swiftly in dealing with the earthquake in Papua. The government must be directly involved to show it is serious in establishing fair and non-discriminatory governance," she said. "The regions need concrete action, not promises for mere political showboating."

Quoting reports from the ground, the earthquake, which took place on June 16, killed 17 people, wounded 24 and displaced around 4,600 people.

However, the Serui disaster management post in Yapen reported that the actual number of displaced people could reach 10,000 residents. The quake, it added, had destroyed at least 5,000 houses.

The quake also caused material losses worth an estimated Rp 800 billion (US$88 million) as it damaged infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, as well as water facilities and drainage systems.

Quake taskforce head Alex Kiriweno said assistance from the central government and the Papua administration was essential and that large funds would be needed to rebuild Yapen Island.

It took Papua Deputy Governor Alex Hesegem a week to visit the victims in Serui. He urged all Papua provincial administration employees to donate money to the relief effort.

Donations can be sent to Serui Quake Assistance via transfers to the Serui branches of Bank BRI (account number 0309-01-000286-30-1) or Britama (0309-01-017374-50-1).

Vice presidential spokesman Yoppie Hidayat denied Hemas' claims, saying the government had taken real action to help quake victims in Papua. "The Vice President has been coordinating with the Social Services Ministry in taking necessary measures to handle the impacts of the earthquake in Papua," Yoppi told The Jakarta Post.

Jakarta admits torture of Papuan prisoners is indefensible

Radio New Zealand International - June 24, 2010

The Indonesian government has told the global rights watchdog group, Human Rights Watch, that it plans to address the mistreatment of political prisoners in Papua.

In its new report on freedom of expression in Indonesia, HRW found that jails hold at least 100 political prisoners from the Papua and Moluccas regions, and some are being tortured.

HRW has met Foreign Ministry and Corrections Department officials to discuss the findings.

HRW Asia's Phil Robertson says they urged the officials to press for better treatment and release of political prisoners, as well as to have investigations into alleged torture

"Very little has been done to look into those torture allegations by these prisoners. And in some cases, the torture was happening for days and days and was significant and very sustained. And people didn't receive any medical treatment afterwards to recover from the effects of the torture."

He says the government admitted that the torture detailed in HRW's report is indefensible.

UN backing weakens Papua status challenge

Radio New Zealand International - June 24, 2010

An academic in Indonesian politics says the United Nations approval of the referendum which incorporated Papua region into the republic makes it difficult to have it revised.

This comes as Vanuatu is seeking the UN General Assembly's support for the International Court of Justice to give an opinion on the legality of the way the former Dutch New Guinea was ceded to Indonesia.

Under 1969's Act of Free Choice a group of West Papuans voted for integration into Indonesia rather than independence.

The referendum is widely regarded as having been stage-managed by Indonesia but Damien Kingsbury of Australia's Deakin University says the UN backing of the referendum will be hard to change.

"Basically what they would have to do is establish a committee of investigation to go back and look at whether the Act of Free Choice was in fact a legitimate act and whether the United Nations made a mistake. Now that's possible. but whether or not it happens again is an open point but if they don't try to pursue it then they're not going to get anywhere."

Release political prisoners in Papua, Maluku, government urged

Jakarta Globe - June 23, 2010

Nivell Rayda – The government must release 100 political prisoners in Papua and Maluku if it is to make any headway in its upcoming human-rights dialogue with the European Union, says a leading rights group.

The call came with the release of the 43-page report "Prosecuting Political Aspiration: Indonesia's Political Prisoners" by New York-based Human Rights Watch, which draws from more than 50 interviews with prisoners between December 2008 and last month.

HRW says the Papuan and Maluku activists were arrested for peacefully expressing their political views by raising the banned Morning Star flag, a symbol of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM), and the South Maluku Republic (RMS) flag.

"Imprisoning activists for peacefully voicing their political views is an ugly stain on Indonesia's recent improvements in human rights," said Phil Robertson, HRW's deputy Asia director. "It's out of step with Indonesians' growing aspirations as a democratic and rights-respecting country."

The report also details the treatment of activists during their time in detention, especially by members of the Densus 88 counterterrorism squad in Ambon, Maluku, as well as police and prison guards in Papua, and the failure of the government to hold those responsible to account.

Reimond Tuapattinaya, a Maluku activist arrested in June 2007, described his alleged beatings by members of Densus 88. "If they held an iron bar, we got the iron bar. If they held a wooden bat, we got the wooden bat," he was quoted as saying in the report.

"They used everything. The torture was conducted inside Tantui [prison] and the [Maluku Police] headquarters. I was tortured for 14 days in Tantui, day and night. They picked me up in the morning, and returned me, bleeding, to my cell in the evening."

Next Tuesday, the EU will hold its first human-rights dialogue with Indonesia in Jakarta. HRW said the EU should raise its concerns about these cases and push for the annulment of a 2007 government regulation banning the peaceful display of separatist symbols, which is considered treason.

"Peacefully raising a flag is not something anyone should be arrested for, and torture is unconscionable," Robertson said. "The European Union should make clear that the world is appalled by these abuses and press Indonesia to free these prisoners and amend the penal code to prevent future human-rights violations."

Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar last month pledged the release of several political prisoners in Papua after a visit to one of the prisons in the province. However, he said those charged with complicity in armed conflicts or raising the Morning Star flag would be shown no clemency.

Allegations of rights abuses in the province's main prison, Abepura Penitentiary, have gone largely ignored by the ministry.

Usman Hamid, chairman of the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said Indonesia breached the terms of its 2006 ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights each time it charged political activists with the Criminal Code articles on treason.

"These are the same articles that were used to silence critics of the Dutch colonial administration and to jail political activists under the Suharto regime," Usman said.

The Criminal Code, adopted by the Indonesian government in 1946, is based on Dutch colonial law established in 1918. "The government should be consistent in implementing the ICCPR and stop the persecution of those involved in peaceful protests," Usman said.

The covenant guarantees people's right to determine their political ideology, as well as the freedom of movement and speech.

PNG accused of being out of step on West Papua issue

Radio Australia - June 23, 2010

A Vanuatu member of parliament says he's not worried about reaction from Indonesia to Vanuatu's attempts to get the question of West Papua raised internationally. On Saturday, parliament unanimously passed a motion calling for the International Court of Justice to investigate the legality of West Papua becoming part of Indonesia in the 1960s.

Vanuatu has had a long association with pro-independence factions in the mainly Melanesian and Christian western half of New Guinea island, and is the only country that hosts a West Papuan diplomatic office.

One of the members who strongly backed the parliamentary motion is independent MP Ralph Regenvanu, who says the West Papua issue is becoming more and more significant throughout Melanesia. He's accused the government of Papua New Guinea, which has always opposed raising the West Papuan issue internationally, of being out of step with Melanesian opinion.

Presenter: Bruce Hill

Speaker: Independent Vanuatu MP, Ralph Regenvanu

Regenvanu: I think the fact that Vanuatu's Parliament is strongly behind the West Papuan cause simply reflects the views of the population of Vanuatu. Throughout Vanuatu, people are very well aware of the fact that West Papua is a territory that is still under what we would consider colonial rule by Indonesia, that they are Melanesian people, and this is sentiment that has been held in Vanuatu since before independence and it has actually been renewed with the new generation of ni-Vanuatu that have been born since independence and West Papua is sort of a cause celebrate for a lot of people in Vanuatu.

Hill: Doesn't this put Vanuatu out of step with other nations in the region, such as Papua New Guinea, in particular, which have always been pretty strongly against raising the West Papua issue. PNG has a long land border with West Papua and they would never want to offend the Indonesians?

Regenvanu: Yes, but I think the situation with regardless of who has Papua is more about Papua New Guinea is out of line with their own general opinion through Indonesian states at least, if not through the Pacific. You've got to remember that, for example, at the 2006 Melanesian Arts Festival in Suva, Fiji decided to invite West Papua to participate as a Melanesian country or state or territory. You've got to remember that the people in New Caledonia are very sympathetic with the West Papuan cause, seeing themselves in that kind of a situation and you've got to remember also that Solomon Islands has a very strong support for West Papua, so it is more that Papua New Guinea is the only Melanesian country that consistently has presented its support for West Papua as being expressed at MSG leaders summits at the forum as well has advocated very strongly not to be raised against the wishes of other Melanesian countries.

Hill: Well, now that Vanuatu has taken this very, very strong international stand, do you think that other Melanesian nations might eventually join you in supporting West Papuan independence?

Regenvanu: That's very much what we're hoping, yes.

Hill: Indonesia is a very large, very influential country. Aren't you afraid of offending Jakarta by this? It is very much part of their territory. They see it as that way and they are not going to take very kindly to other countries as they would see it, interfering in their internal affairs?

Regenvanu: Yes, I think that may be a view that Indonesia will take most probably. Indonesia may choose to react how it will to this statement.

Hill: Now while this debate was going, a prominent Vanuatu politician Serge Vohor, said well, if Vanuatu is so opposed to Indonesian control of West Papua, then the country should go the whole hog and break off diplomatic relations with Jakarta?

Regenvanu: Yes, that is one of the views that is being held by members of parliament and the other view is that we need to maintain relations and talk about this as partners.

Hill: Do you think the Indonesians are just going to take this lying down? Do you think they will not retaliate?

Regenvanu: They may well retaliate. We don't know what will happen.

Hill: Does that concern you?

Regenvanu: It doesn't concern me personally, as an individual on ni-Vanuatu or as a member of parliament simply because we don't have many relations with Indonesia in terms of trade, in terms of anything. It is very clearly requesting the General Assembly to support a question being put to the international court of justice to provide an advisory opinion and we hope that that will be relatively uncontroversial.

Human rights & law

Torture still legal in Indonesia: Researcher

Jakarta Post - June 30, 2010

Jakarta – Indonesia has yet not overturned many laws allowing torture – which the country must do as part of a UN agreement signed almost 25 years ago, a researcher says.

Indonesia signed the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) in 1985. The convention obliges Indonesia to take effective legislative, administrative and judicial action to prevent torture, which includes implementing regulations that criminalize torture, independent researcher Febi Yonesta said.

"However, we still find many regulations that allow or tolerate the use of torture and other inhumane punishments," he said at the launch of the Partnership for Governance Reform research report, which documents Indonesia's compliance with UNCAT.

Several national and regional regulations contravene the convention, such as Law No. 12/1995 on Penitentiaries, Law No.2/PNPS/1964 on the Death Penalty and Aceh's Regional Regulation on whipping, he said.

"The Criminal Code doesn't define torture as a crime. The code only cites cruel treatment [article 551-335] and extortion of confession [article 422] as criminal actions," he said.

More than 83 percent of suspects or defendants in Jakarta said police treated them violently during the detention or investigation processes, according to a 2008 Jakarta Legal Aid survey.

Survey respondents allege that police used violence to elicit confessions (44 percent), obtain information (32 percent) or for other reasons (3 percent). Nineteen percent of respondents did not answer.

More than half of the respondents alleged they were beaten by the police, 43 percent were verbally abused, 25 percent were kicked, 24 percent were slapped, 24 percent were threatened at gunpoint, 11 percent were forced to strip, 10 percent were dragged, 4 percent had their eyes covered by duct tape and 2 percent were burned.

Another researcher, Ali Akbar, said that torture could be reduced by implementing witness and victim protection programs; detaining perpetrators and extraditing perpetrators; ensuring that the investigation, prosecution and trial processes conform to UNCAT and by paying indemnities.

"The Victims and Witnesses Protection Law doesn't mention victims of torture. Their protection depends on the interpretation of the Witnesses and Victims Protection Agency," he said.

The Criminal Law Procedure Code does not require that the police or state institutions pay compensation to victims of violence, he said.

The mechanism for claiming compensations through the Human Rights court – Government Decree No. 3/2002 and the Victims and Witnesses Protection Law – requires a obtaining a court verdict, which many victims think is a long and complex process, he added.

"There is no legal rule that accommodates the right of torture victims to be compensated as stipulated in international agreements," Ali said.

In the report, Partnership for Governance Reform suggested amending, revising and harmonizing domestic anti-torture-related regulations to comply with the covenant; improving administrative efforts to prevent torture; and improving the interrogation ability of law enforcers.

The report also recommends emphasizing anti-torture education in police training and strengthening and establishing effective reporting and supervision systems. (rdf)

HRW's torture reports may have been fabricated: Government

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2010

Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – The Justice and Human Rights Ministry plans to take action on reports alleging the torture of Ambonese and Papuan prisoners arrested by the National Police's Detachment 88 antiterrorist squad, for having waved banned flags at rallies.

"If the torture really occurred, report it to me," Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar said Thursday, adding that torturing people, particularly prisoners, was a serious violation of human rights that could not be justified under Indonesian law.

However, according to Haris Azhar from Kontras, Human Rights Watch (HRW) had reported the case to the Directorate of Correctional Institutions under the ministry, but the report had been rejected.

On Wednesday, HRW released a report in Jakarta stating that Detachment 88 had tortured people arrested during peaceful rallies in Maluku and Papua. The report was based on interviews with more than 50 political prisoners that were conducted between December 2008 and May 2010.

According to human rights activists, the police had tortured prisoners to get them to renounce their separatist activities, such as hoisting the banned Papuan Morning Star flag and the South Maluku Republic (RMS) flags, in public.

The report shows that a school teacher, Johan Teterisa, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for treason for his role in the unfurling of an RMS flag during a traditional cakalele war dance performance in Ambon, Maluku, on June 29, 2007.

Teterisa was beaten repeatedly with sticks and kicked by police officials until he lost consciousness, it says.

In Papua, Filep Karma was sentenced to 15 years in jail in May 2005 for treason, for allegedly organizing a pro-independence rally and trying to raise the Morning Star flag in 2004. He is now suffering from prostate problems that require surgery, but the prison clinic has told him to just drink water and rest.

Teterisa and Filep are among 10 prisoners who were featured in the report which narrates their stories, including the torture.

"Why was an antiterror squad deployed to handle cases of people being charged with treason as political prisoners?" Haris told The Jakarta Post, adding that the government had formed Detachment 88 to combat terrorism in Indonesia.

"Why should the government send Detachment 88 to areas where there are no threats of terrorism?"

He said he believed the existence of terrorist threats in Indonesia was being used as a pretext for arresting people displaying banned regional flags in public places.

"The law on treason (under the Criminal Code) is often abused by the authorities," he said, adding that waving flags could not be construed as intending to establish a state separate from Indonesia.

Haris said the government should ensure that its law enforcement officers did not use violence because Indonesia had ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture in 1998.

"Indonesia claims to be more democratic, but has failed to accommodate the right to express political aspirations," Haris said. He added that the government should accommodate this right instead of criminalizing political activists.

Haris criticized the government saying it was supposed to be more responsive in handling such cases.

With regards to the allegations of torture, Patrialis said "this is what HRW claims, but we don't know whether the incidents really occurred."

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said he had not yet received any reports related to the torture of political prisoners. "First we will check whether torture occurred or not," Aritonang said. (ipa)

Rights body says police abused detainees after Mojokerto violence

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2010

Amir Tejo, Surabaya – The National Commission on Human Rights has accused police in Mojokerto, East Java, of gross human rights abuses in their treatment of suspected rioters arrested during violent protests in the lead-up to elections for the local district head.

The protest, which took place on May 21 outside the Mojokerto Legislative Council building, was believed to have been in response to the local polling commission's decision to disqualify one of the candidates, a respected Muslim cleric.

At least 19 people were injured in the violence, in which rioters set fire to a meeting room inside the council building and destroyed 22 vehicles belonging to legislative officials and the incumbent district head.

After visiting the district to probe allegations of police brutality, Syarifudin Nghulma Simeulue, from the rights commission, also known as Komnas HAM, said on Wednesday the abuse claims had been made by protesters he had interviewed.

He said Komnas HAM had set up a team to investigate the claims following a meeting on June 9, at which the commission adopted the resolution that the accusations be looked into.

The May protest began with an estimated 200 people, calling themselves the People's Empowerment Committee, rallying outside the council building as three candidates for district head prepared to campaign.

The demonstrators were reportedly incensed that a fourth candidate, Dimyati Rasyid, a local religious figure popularly known as Gus Dim, had been disqualified for failing the mandatory health examination.

Armed with homemade weapons, the protesters attempted to force their way into the council building but were stopped by police. The mob then attacked the police barricade, broke through and ransacked the building. East Java Police arrested several rioters and later named 13 of them suspects.

The district election proceeded peacefully at the 1,843 polling stations across Mojokerto on June 6, in stark contrast to the earlier scenes of violence. Election officials said 789,961 voters cast ballots across Mojokerto's 18 sub-districts.

Musthofa Kamal defeated incumbent district head Suwandi by a landslide, with 65 percent of the vote compared to 32 percent.

Indonesia's not-so-well-kept secret

Jakarta Globe - June 23, 2010

Phil Robertson – On June 29, 2007, a village teacher led more than 20 young men into an Ambon stadium in an unauthorized performance of the cakalele, the traditional Maluku dance, in front of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and dozens of dignitaries.

Suddenly, the dancers unfurled the banned Republic of South Maluku flag, creating an uproar and prompting Yudhoyono to take over the microphone, ordering their arrest.

Johan Teterisa, the teacher, was arrested and taken to the police's Detachment 88 antiterror office in Ambon. Police officers allegedly kicked him and beat him with their bare hands, a chair and iron bars, breaking his ribs.

They demanded he sign a letter calling on other activists seeking independence for Maluku to disband their movement. He refused. In the days after the dance, police rounded up more than 100 activists in and around Ambon whom the authorities believed supported the independence cause.

The following April, the Ambon District Court sentenced Teterisa to life in prison for treason. Other colleagues who had displayed the flag received sentences of seven to 20 years. Teterisa later appealed and his prison term was decreased to a still outrageous 15 years.

Teterisa never fully recovered from the torture he endured after his arrest. "The police and the prison never let me go to a doctor," he told Human Rights Watch recently in Lowokwaru Prison in Malang, East Java. "I cannot sleep on my side. I also have headaches."

A senior EU delegation arrives in Jakarta next week for the first official dialogue between the European Union and Indonesia on human rights. The delegates are likely to be told that, unlike during the Suharto era that ended in 1998, Indonesia has no more political prisoners.

However, this is far from the truth. Indonesia continues to severely punish and imprison activists – mostly from Maluku and Papua – for exercising their right to peacefully express their political views.

In Papua, Filep Karma is serving a 15-year prison sentence for treason for his involvement in raising the Morning Star flag, the banned symbol of the Papuan independence movement, at a rally in December 2004.

Karma has also faced various forms of mistreatment in custody by the police and prison guards. Now he is lying in his prison cell, waiting for the Justice and Human Rights Ministry to permit him to undergo urgently needed prostate surgery at a modern hospital in Jakarta.

In February, government authorities in Jayapura acknowledged that at least 48 political prisoners from Papua were languishing in prison.

According to the Maluku Civil Society Advocacy Team (Tamasu), an organization working to assist prisoners in Maluku, there are at least 70 political prisoners being held, including Teterisa and 36 others who are in prisons in Java, far from their families.

But it's not just the pro-independence activists who face imprisonment for peacefully speaking out.

In Java, journalists, civil society activists and ordinary citizens who criticize or make comments perceived as threatening the political or economic interests of the rich and powerful, too often find themselves subjected to criminal defamation charges. Everyday acts – such as complaining about treatment received at a hospital or asking a local official about a land assessment – can result in a defamation prosecution and a prison sentence.

And while the government goes after those for expressing their views, it still hasn't found the will to prosecute senior government or military officials for serious human rights violations.

While the country's military took a step back from politics a decade ago, officers have yet to be brought to justice for the massacres committed by their troops in East Timor, Papua, Aceh, Maluku, Kalimantan and elsewhere.

The case of Munir Thalib, the highly regarded human rights defender who was fatally poisoned on a Garuda Indonesia flight six years ago, remains unresolved, despite strong evidence it was orchestrated by high-ranking intelligence officers.

Indonesia increasingly claims the mantle of being a champion of democracy and human rights in Southeast Asia. The upcoming dialogue with the European Union is an excellent opportunity for the nation to back up its claim.

Both the European Union and Indonesia are to be commended for agreeing to hold a high-level annual dialogue on human rights, but they will need to show it can produce results.

Few of the issues likely to be on the table are as straightforward as ensuring the release of all those imprisoned for peaceful freedom of expression.

A good start would be for the European Union to urge the immediate release of Teterisa, Karma and the more than 100 other Papuan and Maluku activists currently imprisoned – and for Indonesia to do just that.

[Phil Robertson is deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.]

Papua political prisoner denied medical access

Associated Press - June 23, 2010

Papua – Filep Karma has served five years behind bars on a 15- year treason sentence for raising a banned flag in Indonesia's easternmost Papua province. He says he's endured beatings by guards, and now prison authorities are denying him medical treatment for a potentially life-threatening prostate ailment.

His case – and those of several other high-profile prisoners of conscience in far-flung separatist-torn regions – was highlighted in a 40-page report released Wednesday by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

They include Buchtar Tabuni, serving three years for "inciting hatred" by orchestrating an anti-government rally and Johan Teterisa, who was initially sentenced to life for leading dancers who raised pro-independence flags at a ceremony attended by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. It was eventually dropped to 15 years on appeal.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has made tremendous strides toward democratization since emerging from decades of dictatorship under Gen. Suharto in 1998. Citizens today can vote directly for president and the country has been lauded for sweeping reforms that have freed the media and vastly improved human rights.

But the government is highly sensitive to the separatist struggles in Papua and the Molucca islands. They restrict visits by human rights workers and journalists, and pro-independent activists have been given lengthy prison terms for peacefully expressing their views, organizing rallies or for simply raising separatist flags.

Phil Robertson, of New York-based Human Rights Watch, called the estimated 100 political prisoners in the two regions the "forgotten ones."

"What's happening to these political prisoners is frankly a stain on Indonesia's otherwise improving rights record," he said, adding the kind of broad charges leveled against activists, the failures of due process in their trials, and the abuses they suffer in detention, "marks back to a darker time... when one man, Suharto, and his family ran Indonesia."

There was no immediate comment from the government concerning the report. But Candran Listiyono, spokesman for the Directorate General of Prisons in the capital, Jakarta, told The Associated Press he was not aware of any mistreatment toward inmates and promised to investigate.

He said Karma, the 51-year-old former civil servant suffering from a prostate gland condition, had permission to go to a hospital for medical treatment – it was just a matter of timing.

"We haven't violated his rights in any way," he said. "He has food, water, a room, and the right to go to a hospital, so there's no problem."

But Karma, who is one of the country's best-known political prisoners, had a different story.

He led hundreds of students through the streets of Abepura in 2004 chanting "freedom" before joining a ceremony to raise the Morning Star flag, a symbol of the banned Free Papua Movement. When authorities tried to break up the demonstration, clashes broke out between protesters and police.

The father of two teenaged daughters was arrested immediately and sentenced in 2005 to 15 years in prison for treason.

Karma told The AP by mobile phone from his cell in Abepura prison he started complaining to friends about his prostate gland ailment in August 2009, but medics at the prison clinic said he just needed to drink more water and rest. Since then, he has been examined by doctors from Jakarta and elsewhere, who have repeatedly warned he needed surgery.

"My understanding is that if he doesn't get the medical treatment he needs, basically his various organs are not going to function," said Robertson. "I'm still waiting," Karma added. "I badly need treatment. They don't have the equipment they need here."

Karma also described brutal attacks by guards on others jailed for taking part in anti-government rallies, the worst of which left his friend, Ferdinand Pakage, blind in the right eye. Pakage is serving 15 years for killing a government official during a protest, a crime he says he didn't commit.

Peaceful Indonesian protesters jailed, tortured: Report

Reuters - June 23, 2010

Sunanda Creagh – Indonesian jails hold at least 100 political prisoners from the Papua and Moluccas regions, including some who were tortured, Human Rights Watch said in a report published on Wednesday.

The New York-based rights watchdog called on the Indonesian government to release prisoners detained for their political views and repeal laws allowing authorities to jail peaceful protesters for treason or rebellion.

It also urged the government to revoke laws banning the display of logos and flags. "The practice of lumping together peaceful advocates and armed militants and treating both as criminals continues in Papua and the southern Moluccas," the report said.

A secessionist movement has simmered for decades in resource-rich Papua, on the western half of New Guinea island, home to the enormous Grasberg mine operated by Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.

Hidden gunmen have launched fatal attacks on convoys of Freeport workers traveling to and from the mine, but it is unclear whether separatists were behind the attacks.

Indigenous groups in the southern Moluccas in eastern Indonesia, and particularly the island of Ambon, have also agitated for the creation of an independent Republic of the Southern Moluccas.

Police and military forces have attempted to crush both movements with harsh penalties for offences such as the unfurling of flags or, in the case of the southern Moluccas, dancing the "cakalele" – a traditional war dance associated with the secessionist movement.

The Human Rights Watch report detailed cases of alleged torture of political prisoners.

"I do not have the benefit of previewing the report prior to its release, so I do not know for sure the claim made in the report. But I am confident that there is a complaint procedure that prisoners can pursue if there is any ill treatment," Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said.

The report said that John Teterisa, a schoolteacher detained in 2007 for dancing the cakalele in front of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was beaten continuously for 12 hours a day for 11 days after his arrest.

"Several [police officers] beat him with iron rods and stones, and slashed him with a bayonet," the report said.

Teterisa was sentenced to life in prison in 2008, but the sentence was reduced to 15 years on appeal, the report said.

Another Moluccas activist quoted in the report described being beaten with pieces of wood, causing intestinal and urinary tract bleeding, after raising a separatist flag.

Labour & migrant workers

Government blasted for opposing ILO pact

Jakarta Globe - June 29, 2010

Putri Prameshwari – Labor activists have denounced the opposition by the Indonesian delegation to an International Labor Organization meeting this month to drafting a convention that would have provided legal protection for workers.

Lita Anggraini, chairwoman of the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT), said the government's decision at the 99th International Labor Conference in Geneva, held from June 2-18, to vote against a convention on workers' protection was "a betrayal of their own nation."

"The points in the convention are similar to what we have included in a draft of the domestic workers' bill," she said.

The bill calls for employers to allow workers a minimum of 12 days of paid leave annually after their first year of employment, in addition to other benefits similar to those enjoyed by workers in the formal sector.

If passed into law, the bill would also allow the recruitment of domestic workers as young as 15 years old, with written consent required from the parents or guardians of those under 18.

The House of Representatives' Commission IX, overseeing welfare issues, dropped the bill from the priority list of legislation after a meeting on June 2. Lita said that with Indonesia voting against the ILO convention and the House not taking the workers' bill seriously, there was no hope of government protection for the estimated 2.6 million domestic workers in the country or the 6 million overseas.

Ari Sunarijati, director of women and child affairs at the Federation of All Indonesian Workers Union (FSPSI), accused the government of showing no intention to improve protection for its workers during the ILO conference.

Ari, who attended the conference, said that even though the forum concluded with an agreement to draft a convention, Indonesia's vote to reject the plan was an embarrassment. "At the end, more than 300 delegations agreed to the convention."

In a press release, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said Indonesia in fact supported the final result of the conference, an agreement to start adopting a convention next year.

The records of the ILC proceedings show Indonesia voted that the standards discussed at the conference take the form of a recommendation, while most other delegations voted that the standards take the form of a convention supplemented by a recommendation.

Environment & natural disasters

'Follow the money' in forest crimes

Jakarta Post - June 30, 2010

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Indonesia's failure to slow illegal logging stems from weaknesses in the 1999 Law on Forestry, which focuses on investigation of illicit timber sources and not on the people who order and benefit from forestry crimes, officials said.

The country's anti-logging campaign should focus on the finances of illegal loggers and investigate suspicious financial transactions in the forestry sector.

"'Follow the money' should be the new paradigm in investigating forestry-linked crimes," said Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) representative Gunadi said during a seminar in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The seminar was organized by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

PPATK chairman Yunus Husein previously said suspicious transactions linked to the forestry sector soared in 2006 and 2007 after the government began a campaign against illegal logging.

Law enforcement faced difficulties in targeting the main actors behind illegal logging because of the weak law, said Hamzah Tadja, a representative of the Attorney General's Office (AGO).

"It requires law enforcement to find material evidence of illegal logging," said Hamzah, who is the AGO's deputy attorney general for general crimes.

Law enforcement focuses too much on seeking physical evidence of illegally-felled trees, which means they can only catch field operators who lack licenses to cut or to transport trees, he added.

Hamzah said implementation of the law on forestry must be complemented by the use of the anti-money laundering law to allow law enforcement agencies to trace the proceeds of forest crimes.

KPK deputy chairman M Jasin said that the laws on corruption eradication and money laundering should be applied so police can arrest main actors behind illegal logging.

Much of the 'forest mafia's' involvement in illegal logging took place before the Judicial Mafia Taskforce started investigating forestry crimes, taskforce member Mas Achmad Santosa said.

During the seminar, a senior researcher from CIFOR, Topo Santoso proposed an integrated law enforcement approach (ILEA).

"The ILEA aims to promote coordinated legal enforcement among major actors in the forestry sector to curb forestry crime, corruption, and money laundering," he said.

CIFOR research explored banking policies against laundering money from the proceeds of illegal logging and related crimes.

Bank Indonesia's 2009 regulation on money laundering and terrorism financing requires that banks implement due diligence measures on customer transactions.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the taskforce to target corruption in the forestry sector, including illegal loggers, to help protect the nation's forests.

Indonesia is the world's third largest forested nation with 120 million hectares of forest. More than one million hectares of forest are destroyed every year, mainly due to forest conversions to accommodate plantations and agriculture, as previously reported.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan previously said that more than 2 million hectares of forest had been illegally converted into oil palm plantations without permits from the ministry.

East Nusa Tenggara fishermen fear for future after oil spill

Jakarta Globe - June 27, 2010

Eras Poke, Kupang – Residents from fishing communities along the eastern seaboard of East Nusa Tenggara have called on the central government to do more to mitigate the impact of an oil spill that threatens their livelihood.

The spill was caused by a blowout at the Montara wellhead platform in the Timor Sea off the northern coast of Australia. The leak lasted 74 days, between August and November 2009, before the well was finally blocked, and by then the slick had already spread into Indonesian waters.

"We're not expecting any compensation," Mustafa, the chairman of a local guild of traditional Timor Sea fishermen, told the Jakarta Globe over the weekend. "We just want our fishing grounds to be free from contamination. Any compensation will be completely up to the government."

The impact of the spill on Indonesian fishermen was initially handled by East Nusa Tenggara Governor Frans Lebu Raya, who later handed it over to the central government, citing the province's lack of facilities to deal with the problem.

In May, provincial legislative speaker Ibrahim Agustinus Medah lambasted the governor for failing to abide by his promise to monitor the government's handling of the issue, saying he had witnessed firsthand the suffering of various local fishing communities as a result of the slick.

Medah, who visited the three districts of Rote Ndao, Sabu Raijua and Kupang, said the slick had devastated local seaweed farms and pearl farms. The province is renowned for its exports of South Sea pearls.

Mustafa said the impact on the pearl industry had been particularly heavy.

"We lost at least 6,000 oysters by September 2009, just a few weeks after the oil spill began," he said. "Each oyster costs an average Rp 1 million [$110], so the loss to local farmers was Rp 6 billion. The seaweed stocks, too, were lost during the same period."

He added that fish stocks in the area had decreased drastically because of the contamination, driving some fishermen to move elsewhere.

"Many of our fishermen have gone to Bangka-Belitung Islands [off southern Sumatra] to start a new life, because they can't fish here anymore," Mustafa said. "We will not stay silent after having suffered such losses."

He said the impact extended to other sectors of society, which now had to pay more for the fewer fish being brought to market.

"These days you get fish being sold for up to Rp 50,000 each, when before they would only cost between Rp 20,000 and Rp 25,000 each," he said. "The reduced supply is driving the price up, which affects everyone, not just the fishermen."

However, some fishermen say the reduced catches and disruptions to seaweed and oyster farming may have been be caused by inclement weather rather than the oil slick.

Alfian, a local fisherman, said he did not intend to move in search of more fertile waters. "There are no guarantees in fishing," he said. "No one can say with certainty whether one place will yield better catches than another place."

Silvy Fanggidae, the director of a local NGO working with fishing communities, said there was not enough evidence to link the oil spill and the reduced catches.

"There are so many other factors at play, such as the toxic chemicals that some fishermen use," she said. But she acknowledged the government had been slow to respond to the slick.

Alexander Oematan, head of East Nusa Tenggara's environmental monitoring agency, also advised against blaming the oil slick for the fishermen's woes, pointing out his office had not reached any conclusions.

Medah, meanwhile, called for a study to determine how long the current spell of poor catches would last. "Is it going to be one year, five, 10 perhaps?" he said. "Will it be permanent? Because if it is, it won't be a small problem anymore and those responsible must pay.

"This issue should be deemed a national tragedy, because it has already affected three districts in the province."

[Additional reporting from Antara.]

Little ground broken in new palm oil rules

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2010

Arti Ekawati – The government on Friday responded to rising international pressure on the country's palm oil producers by implementing a new certification system for environmental sustainability in the production of crude palm oil.

However, the new standards are unlikely to change the belief among environmental groups that the palm oil producers are contributing to deforestation and global warming, with Greenpeace immediately dismissing the system as a repackaging of the country's existing laws on palm oil production.

Bustar Maitar, team leader for forests at Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said he was disappointed, especially because the market, including retail consumers, is eager to see improved criteria to ensure sustainability in palm oil production.

"I don't see anything new or improved in the ISPO. It's only a collection of existing regulations and laws," Bustar said.

The certification system, called Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil, is mandatory for all palm oil producers. Much of its primary environmental criteria is a duplication of existing regulations. It will prohibit, for example, the use of peatland deeper than three meters, in line with a regulation issued in 2009.

It also prohibits the burning of forests for the purpose of clearing for plantations, in line with a 2004 law, with those found guilty of breaching the regulations facing a maximum fine of Rp 10 billion ($1.1 million) and a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

Those found guilty of destroying endangered species, such as the orangutan, living near plantations will face fines of Rp 200 million and up to 10 years in prison. The measures take effect on Jan. 1, 2011.

"The ISPO is intended to ensure that Indonesia is promoting the development of palm oil in a sustainable way. It will become mandatory and legally binding for all in the palm oil business," Deputy Agriculture Minister Bayu Krisnamurthi said.

The ISPO initiative follows a two-year moratorium on the clearing of primary forests and peatlands agreed to last month by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as part of a $1 billion deal with Norway intended to fight climate change.

The government has said that under the agreement, palm oil producers would not be allowed to clear primary forests or peatlands for palm plantation. The moratorium supersedes the ISPO standards in some cases, such as the use of peatland.

The nation's palm oil producers have come under heavy attack over the past year. Environmentalists say the growth of palm oil plantations contributes to deforestation and increases emissions of greenhouse gases. These claims are being taken increasingly seriously by international palm oil buyers.

Global consumer products giant Unilever suspended purchases from major palm oil producer the Sinar Mas Group in December, after Greenpeace alleged it was devastating rainforests and habitats for endangered species. Nestle followed suit in March.

Based on data issued by the Trade Ministry, the export value of crude palm oil products to countries in the European Union in 2009 was worth $2.26 billion.

Julian Wilson, the EU ambassador for Indonesia and Brunei, told the Jakarta Globe that Europe welcomed Indonesia's steps to create its own criteria for palm oil sustainability, since it shows the country's willingness to get serious in the fight against deforestation and carbon emissions. He said the European Union was ready to discuss the new standards with Indonesian officials.

"It sounds like a positive advance, especially if it's legally binding," Wilson said.

He said large palm oil buyers were increasingly wanting to make sure that the palm oil they were buying was sustainably produced. "Producers have to be able to comply with their consumers' requests," Wilson said.

Timor Sea oil spill forcing NTT fishermen to migrate

Antara - June 24, 2010

Kupang – Thousands of fishermen in Kupang's Oesapa area are preparing to migrate to Bangka Belitung in Sumatra to find a new livelihood, a fishermen's spokesman said.

They will migrate because their fish catches from the Timor Sea have declined drastically since the waters were polluted by an oil spill originating in Australian territory.

"Since the Timor Sea was polluted by an oil spill from a blowout in the Montara oil field on August 21, 2009, local fishermen's fish catches have dwindled drastically. Now they are thinking of migrating to Bangka Belitung to build a new life," H Mustafa, chairman of the East Nusatenggara (NTT)'s Timor Sea Traditional Fishermen's Alliance (Antralamor), told the press here Wednesday.

Some 3,500 fishermen grouped in Antralamor whose livelihoods had traditionally depended on fish from the Timor Sea had been affected by the oil spill following an explosion at an oil rig of PTTEP Australasia in the Montara oil field in the West Atlas Block in the Timor Sea, he said.

The fishermen have also pulled back most of the fish traps they had set in the sea along the Kupang coast because the contraptions no longer yielded the usual quantities of fish.

Meanwhile, an edible fat and oil biochemist at Nusa Cendana University (Undana), Dr Felix Rebhung, said the apparent pollution of the Timor Sea had forced deep sea fish in the waters to migrate to other waters.

"Deep-sea fishes are very sensitive to the conditions of their environment. If their environment or habitat is damaged or polluted, they will leave, and try to find a more friendly environment," he said.

"So, the fishermen's complaint about minimal fish catches is quite logical," he added.

Rebhung who teaches at Undana's faculty of agriculture said if a sea was contaminated by oil, oil condensate or lead, it would take many years for its ecology to return to normal.

Ferdi Tanoni, a local observer of Timor Sea affairs, said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should address the Timor Sea pollution problem with the same care and firmness as US President Barack Obama had shown toward the Gulf of Mexico oil spill from a British Petroleum (BP) rig.

"If Barack Obama demanded 20 billion US dollars in damages from BP, the operator of the Monatara oil field should pay about 15 billion US dollars to compensate the losses of fishermen in the western part of East Nusatenggara and the islands of Rote, Sabu and Sumba," he said.

Tanoni also urged the Australian government led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to disclose as soon as possible the results of its investigation into the Montara oil spill disaster.

The oil spill had caused thousands of fishermen and seaweed farmers in the western part of NTT to lose their source of living, making it "a humanitarian tragedy of huge proportions," Tanoni said.

Women & gender

Violence, circumcision among problems faced by NU women

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2010

Dina Indrasafitri, Jakarta – Fatayat Nadhlatul Ulama, the women's wing of the country's largest Muslim organization, reported that violence, early marriage and female circumcision are among the problems compromising the reproductive health of NU women nationwide.

Inequality in marriages, unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions are also issues Fatayat NU encountered during reproductive health campaigns it conducted in villages in 11 provinces from 2005 to 2010.

Fatayat's programs focused on reproductive health and gender mainstreaming and awareness building in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the National Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) since 2006, as well as programs with its long-time partner the Ford Foundation.

The programs included workshops on reproductive and sexual health, and occasionally the organization held discussions on abortion and female circumcision.

It also handed out booklets on reproductive health education "for future brides and grooms". These booklets contained information on subjects including sex, labor and sexually transmitted diseases.

Chairwoman Maria Ulfah Anshor said during her speech at Fatayat's national seminar in Jakarta recently, that the organization's struggles to empower the country's women had not always been supported by other elements within NU. "Some (leaders in NU) still have a religious perspective that is gender-biased," she said.

NU, which claims 40 million followers in the country, bestows much of its authorities on male clerics, a mentality that Maria Ulfah said was largely founded on classic texts and conservative schools of thought.

Debate on early marriage, for example, has divided the NU, with supporters citing interpretations of Islamic teachings that disadvantage women.

Suririn, Fatayat's research and development division coordinator, said the organization would in the future take a friendlier approach to bridge disagreements between the leaders.

She admitted that in the past, Fatayat had felt a gap, or a lack of informal friendliness within NU, that resulted in tensions between male and female continents. "Maybe we have not conducted enough silaturahmi (effort to maintain friendly relations) with the gentlemen of NU," Suririn said.

NU's executive board member Maidir Harun in his speech during the same event said that he supported Fatayat and told them "not to lose spirit" when dealing with obstacles coming from inside the NU.

Fatayat's programs have also been met with suspicion by members of the public. "In one of the villages, the issue of gender equality was suspected of fueling rising divorce rates, we have also been accused of promoting sexual activities," Suririn, the coordinator of Fatayat's research and development department, said.

Suririn said that in some villages women had little knowledge of how to maintain their sexual health. "They do not know, for example, the effects anemia can have on pregnancy," she said.

Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar, who attended the event, lauded in her speech Fatayat's programs and efforts in reaching remote areas. She said the programs would help empower the country to meet the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).

Refugees & asylum seekers

Indonesia waiting for policy change on asylum-seekers

The Australian - June 29, 2010

Stephen Fitzpatrick – Indonesia warned yesterday that Jakarta would not allow itself to become a refugee processing centre for Australia.

"We don't interfere in (Australia's) business, and in fact they've got Darwin and many other places (to process asylum- seekers), so why should it be done in Indonesia?" National Assembly member Nurhayati Ali Assegaf asked yesterday.

Mrs Assegaf, a member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democrat Party, who sits on the powerful parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said there had been no request from Australia for Indonesia to become a "third country" processing point. And if there were, it was unlikely to be well-received.

Immigration department spokesman Maroloan Barimbing said Jakarta was "still studying the policies" likely to be pursued by new Prime Minister Julia Gillard during the remainder of her current term.

"In principle, if the (new Gillard) policies are good and can be more effective in handling the problem of illegal immigrants, then of course we would respond positively," he said.

Ms Gillard said at the weekend that, on the question of asylum- seekers, "obviously we do work with Indonesia and others and I will be open to looking at further effective measures to drive that co-operation and work".

The level of co-operation is in some doubt, however, with anti- people-smuggling legislation promised by Dr Yudhoyono during his speech to the Australian parliament more than three months ago reportedly still far from being ready.

The new laws, which would enable Indonesia to prosecute people- smugglers with punishments equal to those available in the Australian criminal justice system, have still been considered by the parliamentary committee responsible for proposing them to the house. "It's scheduled to be looked at in July," a committee staffer said.

And if the draft legislation makes it through the procedural stage of being considered by the committee, it faces dim prospects on the floor of parliament.

Records show Dr Yudhoyono, whose party is forced to operate in a coalition government, has not been able to pass any substantive legislation since the parliament sat last October.

As for suggestions that East Timor might be used as an asylum- seeker processing point, Fretilin parliamentarian Jose Teixera, a member of his country's parliamentary committee on defence, security and foreign relations, dismissed the idea.

"We ourselves have very strong guarantees in our constitution regarding the rights of asylum-seekers and refugees, given that we as a people were at one time seekers of these international rights," Mr Teixera said.

Population & migration

Agency seeks marriage age rise to curb population

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2010

Jakarta – The marriage age should be increased to 21 for girls and to 25 for boys to curb Indonesia's population growth, a representative of the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) said on Monday.

"If the marriage age is raised the birth rate will automatically decrease," said Masri Muadz, the agency's director of youth and protection of reproductive rights.

The 1974 Marriage Law stipulates that women must be at least 16 and men at 19 to marry but allows younger people to marry if their parents request permission from the Religious Court.

Underage marriage have increased in certain regions over the last several years, according to reports.

Early marriage dispensations requests at the Bantul regency Religious Court increased to 82 in 2009 from 70 in 2008, according to Kompas. Gresik regency, East Java recorded a 58 percent increase in dispensation requests between 2007 and 2008.

International organization Save the Children reported a 500 percent increase in requests lodged with the religious court in Malang, East Java, in 2008.

This trend will lead to more births and more health problems for women, Masri said. "The reproductive systems of women under 20 years of age are not fully developed and the risk of giving birth is bigger," Masri said.

Young couples are rarely adequately prepared and lack the education or steady income needed to support a marriage, he added.

Masri said the recommended increase in the minimum marriage age would give couples a longer period to prepare and to mature.

Concern over the minimum marriage age was also shared by Maria Ulfah Anshor, the chairwoman of the women's wing of Nahdlatul Ulama, Imdonesia's largest Muslim organization.

"The law states that girls are eligible to marry when they are 16," she said. "Girls of this age have not matured yet, even though physically they look ready. We also need to consider whether their reproductive organs have developed enough," she added.

Maria said that underage marriage was an issue still debated by Muslims. "At an earlier NU congress, a discussion led to a decision that people under 18 should not be allowed," she said. "Grass roots clerics cite the example that the Prophet married a 9-year-old girl," she added.

Some underage marriage supporters at NU's national congress in Makassar in March said that an arranged marriage between two children is permissible, but must not be consummated until the husband and wife are "strong enough to have sexual intercourse." The supporters did not elaborate further.

Underage marriage also violates children's rights, says an activist. "It violates a children's rights because of the different minimum marriage ages for girls and boys," said Setiawan Cahyo Nugroho, a representative of Save the Children.

Marriage is an indicator of maturity in Indonesia, and a 13-year-old who marries is considered an adult and no longer has rights as a child, he added.

Early marriage will lead young people to drop out of school, he said. "I have never heard of a child who marries and then continues to study," he said.

The BKKBN hopes to cap Indonesia's population at 234.1 million in 2010, however the Central Statistics Agency's near-complete census says the country's population may top 236 million people, as previously reported.

The agency has raised concerns about Indonesia's fertility rate at 2.6 children per woman. It did not meet a goal to reduce the rate to 2.2 in 2007. Indonesia's population growth rate was 1.097 percent in 2010, which is below the 2009 global rate of 1.133 percent, according to the CIA World Factbook. (map)

Population predicted to reach 234 million in 2010: Agency

Jakarta Post - June 23, 2010

Jakarta – Based on the latest report on the ongoing national census, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has predicted that Indonesia will see its population reach 234.2 million in 2010, as compared to 205.1 million people in 2000, kompas.com reports.

According to the BPS official website, the result of the 2010 national census, which started in early May and is scheduled to end in late June, aims to update population data as well as evaluate the government's programs in relation to reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

In 2000, Indonesia was dubbed the fourth-largest country in terms of population after China, India and the USA. Around 60 percent of the total Indonesian population lives on Java Island.

Health & education

Govt, NGOs seek cut in child, maternal deaths in 10 provinces

Jakarta Post - June 26, 2010

Jakarta – Civil society groups and 10 regional administrations agreed to implement joint initiatives in at-risk provinces to reduce high maternal and child mortality rates.

The programs, part of the recently-launched Maternal and Child Health Movement, will focus on ten provinces with high child mortality rates: West Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, North Maluku, Bengkulu, Gorontalo, South Kalimantan and Papua.

"This provides momentum for the government, the United Nations, religious organizations and the private sector to improve child and maternal health by working together," World Vision Indonesia representative Asteria Aritonang said Wednesday.

The Indonesian Demography and Health Survey reports a decrease in the maternal mortality rate from 3.07 to 2.28 per 1,000 live births between 2003 and 2007.

The survey also reports the child mortality rate decreased from 35 to 34 deaths per 1,000 live births in the same period.

Indonesia has not met the UN's Millennium Development Goals, which aim to reduce the maternal mortality rate to 1.02 and the child mortality rate to 23 per 1,000 live births by 2015.

Indonesia faces many challenges reducing maternal and child mortality rates by 2015, Coordinating Public Welfare Minister Agung Laksono said at the recent launch of the Maternal and Child Health Movement.

One challenge is uneven access to proper health care facilities, he added.

"Other challenges are a limited number of medical staff and the uneven distribution of doctors in some regions in Indonesia," he said. "Indonesia still lacks human resources in the health sector," he added.

The Indonesian Doctors Association is planning to train more general practitioners in Indonesia to help decrease maternal and child mortality rates.

"We will focus on East Nusa Tenggara, West Java and Papua, where maternal and child mortality are high," Indonesian Doctors Association representative Ali Bazad said.

"There are many general practitioners in the region. This is why we want to train general practitioners, because many people in Indonesia go to them to consult on pregnancies," said Ali, who heads the group's maternal and child health division.

Many general practitioners were not qualified to handle pregnancies, and poor diagnoses could lead to unwanted deaths, he said.

"One cause of unwanted death is excessive bleeding," he said. "This is why training the doctors is important," Ali added.

He said besides training, the association would also work together with local administrations to help improve health care infrastructure.

"We will assist the local governments by informing them that a lack of proper infrastructure will contribute to mortality," he said.

"We have to remind them about the problems that arise from a lack of facilities in hospitals, poor transportation systems and bad roads," he said.

"Just ensuring the availability of qualified doctors is not enough to decrease the mortality rate. Infrastructure is also important," he added. (map)

Graft & corruption

Graft probe into Rp95 billion in police general's account

Jakarta Globe - June 28, 2010

Nivell Rayda – The Corruption Eradication Commission on Sunday pledged to investigate two suspicious bank accounts containing Rp 95 billion ($10.45 million) allegedly belonging to a two-star police general, almost two months after an antigraft watchdog first made the accusation.

Haryono Umar, deputy chairman of the commission, also known as the KPK, said the chief of the body's graft prevention division, Eko Soesamto Tjiptadi, would lead the probe against the general, identified only as "BG."

"We will seek clarification in the near future because there is a huge discrepancy between the allegations and [BG's] asset declaration," Haryono said.

The investigation team will not include any police investigators stationed at the KPK, to avoid a conflict of interest, he added.

The questioned wealth – which is more than three times more than the original Rp 28 million found in the bank accounts of former mid-ranking tax official Gayus Tambunan – was first made public by Indonesia Corruption Watch in early May through a report filed with the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force.

The documents submitted by ICW included proof that a general it identified as "BG" had two bank accounts containing Rp 47 billion and Rp 48 billion, and evidence of money transfers into his accounts from individuals and private companies from 2005 to 2008.

The file also included his asset declaration – as required by the KPK of all public officials – that put his total wealth at only Rp 4.7 billion.

"There were indications of bribery and illegal gratuities in the accounts," ICW chairman Danang Widoyoko said. "The KPK must investigate how a police officer can have Rp 95 billion in his accounts and from where it originates."

The ICW, however, was threatened with charges in return. Although he was not named, Insp. Gen. Budi Gunawan, the head of internal affairs at the National Police, immediately said he was considering filing a complaint against ICW as he felt he was the general to whom the watchdog was referring.

"Allegations of the accounts are untrue," he said. "The accusations were slander and an attempt to weaken and assassinate my character and that of the National Police as an institution."

Budi also said that under the 2003 Money-Laundering Law and the 1998 Banking Law, ICW did not have the authority to release the data – allegedly based on a Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) report – to the public.

The PPATK is responsible for monitoring suspicious transactions at virtually all financial institutions and submits reports of such transactions to the National Police for investigation.

"Where did [ICW] get its data?" he said. "PPATK reports are top secret and can only be accessed by the National Police or the prosecutors' office."

National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi has pledged to prosecute whoever leaked the PPATK report. "Was [the leak] inside the PPATK or from police officers receiving the PPATK report?" he said.

PPATK chief Yunus Husein has denied leaking the report to the ICW, while the watchdog has refused to disclose its source. "All the data originated from public complaints received by ICW," Danang said.

But apart from this ruckus over the source of the information, not much appears to have been done in terms of actually looking into the allegations.

Ito said the police force had launched an internal investigation, but he added: "For BG, it is clear that the money was connected to his son's business deals. The accounts were not registered in the asset declaration because they were his son's. There are no anomalies there."

Danang said police were not serious about conducting an internal probe of BG's accounts. "Is Ito's statement based on a legal investigation or simply clarifications from the officer in question?" the ICW chairman said.

Documents obtained by the Jakarta Globe appear to show a full investigation is warranted.

The PPATK report identified Budi's bank accounts as holding large sums of money, but said there was no problem "as long as its owner could show that the transactions were not related to his position."

The document also named two companies that had been recorded as having transferred funds into the accounts – PT Masindo and PT Sumber Jaya Indah.

A police source close to the police investigation said Masindo was a property developer that in 2004 planned to build an apartment block on land belonging to the National Police. In 2006, Masindo failed to secure a deal with the police, and several investors reported the company for fraud and embezzlement.

Sumber Jaya, meanwhile, is a lead smelter operating in Bangka- Belitung and accused in 2007 of buying lead from illegal miners.

Sumber Jaya appears to have transferred funds totaling more than Rp 8.9 billion between Dec. 5 and 13, 2007, to Budi's son Herviano Widyatama, while Masindo transferred Rp 1.5 billion to Hervianto on Nov. 17, 2006, the PPATK document suggests.

Hervianto transferred Rp 9 billion to one of Budi's personal aides four times between January to July 2008. The same aide transferred Rp 2.2 billion in June 2007 to one of BG's accounts.

Budi's asset declaration, a copy of which was obtained by the Globe, showed that in 2009 he claimed to have only Rp 363 million in cash and Rp 4.3 billion in assets.

The KPK recorded that Budi had two houses in South Jakarta measuring 761 square meters and 1,000 square meters.

Budi reported the two houses as having a total value of Rp 2.3 billion. A source close to the police general told the Globe that one of the houses was in the Cilandak area of South Jakarta. Land in that area is valued at between Rp 5 million and Rp 7.5 million per square meter.

Budi also declared having 12 properties in Subang, West Java, ranging from 1,623 square meters to 21,270 square meters. Budi reported the properties as being valued between Rp 5.6 million and Rp 74 million.

The Globe's attempts to contact Budi for comment on Sunday went unanswered. Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force secretary Denny Indrayana said the team would supervise both the KPK and police investigations.

"We will make sure the ICW allegations are thoroughly investigated before police conduct an investigation into who leaked the PPATK report or charge anyone with defamation," Denny said. "Those filing reports must be protected until it is clear that the allegations are false."

Selection committee junks half of KPK head hopefuls

Jakarta Globe - June 28, 2010

Nivell Rayda – About half of all accepted applicants for the next leader of the powerful Corruption Eradication Commission survived the first round of cuts, including some controversial figures, officials announced on Sunday.

Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar, who chairs the 13-member ad-hoc selection committee, said 145 applicants passed the administrative part of the selection process and had moved on to the next round – interviews and writing a paper on corruption.

As expected, former Constitutional Court Chief Jimly Asshiddiqie and Judicial Commission Chairman Busyro Muqoddas – both seen as leading contenders – qualified.

Jimly, who is recognized for turning the Constitutional Court into a respected institution, last week resigned from his post on the presidential advisory board to concentrate on the race to head the antigraft commission, known as the KPK.

Busyro leads the Judicial Commission and is a longtime critic of a justice system frequently mentioned as one of the most corrupt institutions in the country, according to surveys by Transparency International Indonesia.

Several other more controversial applicants are still in the running as well, such as Bonaran Situmeang, the lawyer for businessman Anggodo Widjojo, who is currently on trial for obstruction of justice and attempting to bribe two KPK deputies. The KPK has also accused Bonaran of trying to bribe a key witness with Rp 1 billion ($110,000) to change his testimony.

Labor activist Muchtar Pakpahan also qualified. In 1996, Muchtar, who was then chairman of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI), was sentenced to four years in jail by the Supreme Court for inciting hatred against the government. Muchtar was later accused of swindling more than Rp 1.8 billion of the union's social security funds but was acquitted of all charges in 2005.

Gordon Mogot, a retired police officer who once headed the North Sulawesi Police, also made the cut. Gordon was once accused of accepting Rp 300 million in bribes related to a land dispute in the province. Gordon was investigated before a National Police ethics committee but was acquitted of all charges.

Selection committee member MH Ritonga said that for the next 30 days, the team would welcome all objections from the public regarding the candidates.

"We will coordinate with the police, the prosecutor's office, BIN [State Intelligence Agency] and several nongovernment groups to provide us input so we can conduct background checks on the candidates," Ritonga said.

The committee is expected to conduct two more rounds of screening before presenting two final candidates to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for approval on Sept. 15. Once approved, the candidates will undergo a fit-and-proper test at House of Representatives Commission III, which oversees legal affairs.

The 142 applicants who have been eliminated either failed to meet the requirements or did not submit the necessary documents.

"There are candidates who didn't submit legalized copies of their certificates, didn't submit their letters of reference from their previous places of work or a statement that they are not members of a political party," Patrialis said.

Lawyers Farhat Abbas and Otto Cornelius Kaligis both fall outside the age requirement as laid out in the law on the antigraft commission. The law says candidates to lead the agency must be between 40 and 65 years old and have at least 15 years of experience in legal or related fields.

Farhat, 34, shot to fame after marrying pop singer Nia Daniati and representing teenage model Manohara Odelia Pinot against her husband, Malaysian Prince Tengku Muhammad Fakhry. Kaligis, 68, is renowned for defending graft suspects.

Both lawyers are challenging the age requirements by filing a judicial review of the provision with the Constitutional Court. Patrialis said that even if Farhat and Kaligis succeeded in amending the law, the two would still be disqualified because a Constitutional Court decision would not apply retroactively.

Farhat disagreed with that notion. "The selection committee should wait for the Constitutional Court decision and postpone the announcement," he said.

'Ineffective' tax tribunal finally set for shake-up

Jakarta Globe - June 26, 2010

Nivell Rayda – After months of shocking reports exposing tax scandals, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights on Friday finally announced plans to amend the "ineffective" 2002 Law on Taxation Tribunal, seen as the Achilles heel of tax collection.

"The current Tax Tribunal Law has not been effective," Justice Minister Patrialis Akbar said after meeting the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force. He said the law had several loopholes that allowed for tax manipulation and evasion.

Mas Achmad Santosa, a member of the presidentially appointed task force, said the problems included the tribunal's confusing structure. The body, which handles disputes from private firms and individuals over their tax obligations, is structurally under the Finance Ministry but administratively under the Supreme Court.

"This creates confusion over which institution has the jurisdiction to supervise the tribunal," Mas Achmad said. "We want the government to sort out this conflict of authority so it is clear who has the power to sanction rouge judges."

There is also the matter of conflict of interest, as the tribunal is housed in the ministry building and its members include officials from the ministry as well as the Tax Directorate General.

The task force has said that more than 60 percent of cases that go before the tax tribunal are decided in favor of the taxpayer.

Among the many anomalies the task force noted was that in more than half of the cases, the tribunal failed to bring tax officials in charge of the problematic cases to the stand.

Deputy Attorney General Dharmono said the investigation process of tax evasion cases was also problematic.

The Tax Directorate General has the authority to conduct the preliminary probe of tax evasion cases, while the National Police handles the later stage of the investigation. But there is no clear regulation that dictates the procedure, leading to much confusion.

"Tax collection is far from ideal. We see that there are many areas which are prone to corruption and manipulation," Dharmono said. "There is even no standard operating procedures with clear means to measure the performance of the tax investigators."

The tax tribunal came under intense public scrutiny after the arrest of Gayus Tambunan, the rogue tax official who was one of the many case brokers operating within the Finance Ministry to win clients favorable judgments at the tribunal.

Several tax officials have been named as suspects for collaborating with Gayus, the latest being one of his superiors, identified as HN, and Maruli Pandopotan Manurung, the suspended acting head of the tax appeal department.

Teten Masduki, secretary general of Transparency International Indonesia said the tax office must restore its credibility by focusing on major tax evaders. "The ball is now in the Tax Directorate General's hands. People will judge whether they are committed to reform by prosecuting big companies suspected of tax evasion," he said.

Support still strong for KPK deputies

Jakarta Globe - June 24, 2010

Nivell Rayda – Indonesians are increasingly undecided as to the guilt of Corruption Eradication Commission deputies Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto in a Rp 5.1 billion bribery case, according to a poll released on Thursday.

Arman Salam, director of the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), which conducted the poll, insisted on Thursday that only a minority of the public believed the officials of the antigraft commission, also known as the KPK, had taken bribes from businessman Anggodo Widojo.

"Although there is a difference from the earlier survey, marked by the increase in undecided or unsure respondents, the percentage of those who truly believe that Bibit and Chandra had received bribe money [19 percent] remains roughly the same," Arman said.

The latest LSI report shows that 47.1 percent of the respondents doubted Chandra played a role in the bribery scandal, with 46.3 percent believing Bibit was also probably clean.

At least 33.6 percent of those surveyed said that they definitively believed Chandra was innocent and 32.1 percent saying the same of Bibit. The report shows a fall in public sentiment from a similar LSI survey conducted in January, showing that 55.7 percent believed that Chandra was innocent and 56.1 percent that Bibit had not taken bribes.

The KPK deputies were accused last year of extorting businessman Anggodo Widjojo out of Rp 5.1 billion ($555,000) in exchange for dropping graft charges against Anggodo's fugitive brother, Anggoro. Both have repeatedly denied the claims.

In response to the latest survey, Indonesia Corruption Watch chairman Danang Widoyoko said that the public needed to remember the hearings at the Constitutional Court in November, when the KPK played 67 wiretapped recordings between Anggodo and several officials from the National Police and the Attorney General's Office.

The recordings strongly indicated a plot between Anggodo and law-enforcement officials to fabricate a bribery case against the KPK deputies. The hearing was televised live across the nation causing widespread public outcry.

"The recordings should be made public again. That would make people truly remember that Bibit and Chandra are innocent," Danang said. "The people involved in the plot should be prosecuted."

Following intense public pressure after the recordings were released, the AGO in November dropped the case against Bibit and Chandra on the grounds that pursuing it would be "harmful to society."

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.

The survey, however, shows that 53.9 percent of the population believes that the High Court decision was a move to undermine the much respected KPK.

Anggodo is now on trial at the Anti-Corruption Court on charges of bribery and obstruction of justice. Witnesses have told the court that Anggodo forced them to fabricate testimony against Bibit and Chandra.

Tensions between the law-enforcement agencies have been high since the KPK began winning convictions against high-level police officials and prosecutors.

Taskforce says Judicial Mafia is striking back

Jakarta Post - June 24, 2010

Jakarta – Judicial Mafia Taskforce Secretary Denny Indrayana says the judicial review request filed by activist group Petition 28 against the presidential decree on the establishment of the taskforce is an attempt by corrupt elements in the court system to "strike back".

The taskforce suspects that disgruntled judicial system officials may be behind the filing of this review lawsuit with the Supreme Court on Monday, which requests that the court declare Presidential Decree No. 37/2009, on the establishment of the Judicial Mafia Taskforce, illegal.

"What is happening currently is just one of the efforts to weaken and dismiss the taskforce," Denny said during a discussion at the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) office in Jakarta on Thursday.

He said that this move was part of a three-prong strategy by the judicial mafia to weaken the ongoing endeavor to eradicate rampant corrupt judicial practices in the country's law enforcement agencies.

"First, they file a judicial review request questioning the legal basis of the establishment of bodies to fight judicial corruption," Denny said

He continued that the second move was to encourage the House of Representatives to revise and weaken the laws regarding the authority of such corruption eradication bodies.

"Third, they try to criminalize the leaders of such bodies, as is currently happening to the Corruption Eradication Commission deputies [Bibit Samad Riyanto and Chandra M. Hamzah]," Denny said. (rdf)

Key witnesses incriminate Anggodo

Jakarta Post - June 23, 2010

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK)'s director of law enforcement Ade Rahardja on Tuesday testified at a trial hearing of Anggodo Widjojo, denying any acquaintance with Ari Muladi, an alleged middleman in the bribery scandal.

Ari had claimed Ade was one of a number of people asked by Anggodo to ferry bribe money to KPK deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah.

Anggodo is on trial for allegedly attempting to bribe Chandra and Bibit. He is also believed to have tried to influence the KPK to drop an investigation into his brother Anggoro Widjojo, the owner of PT Masaro Radiokom, regarding his role in a graft case involving the procurement of radio equipment for the Forestry Ministry in 2007.

Last year, Bibit and Chandra faced charges for soliciting bribes during the investigation into Anggoro, but the charges were dropped due to an increasingly vocal public sentiment they had been framed.

Their case was reopened after Anggodo won a lawsuit against the two KPK leaders for abuse of power in their investigation into Anggoro.

Ari Muladi, who also testified on Tuesday, denied that he had helped Anggodo fabricate a chronology of events related to the case provided to the National Police.

He claimed Anggodo ordered him to come to an apartment, where Anggodo and another Masaro executive Putranevo Alexander Prayugo presented him with the chronology. Anggodo told Ari to read and memorize the chronology, Ari claimed.

According to court records, Anggodo and middleman Ari created the chronology to frame Bibit and Chandra on July 15, 2009. Putranevo said in a previous hearing that he had helped Anggodo and Ari type up the chronology.

Ari also testified that he had delivered Rp 5.1 billion (US$566.100) from Anggodo to another alleged middleman, Yulianto, to be distributed to KPK leaders M. Jasin and Bibit Samad Rianto, as well as to a former director of investigation at the commission Bambang Widaryatmo. "I saw three envelopes containing money," Ari said.

Presiding judge Tjokorda Rai Suamba asked Ari why he had told Anggodo that he would deliver the bribe himself. "I was scared of Anggodo," Ari replied, adding that he would never have admitted to Anggodo that he had handed the money to another middleman.

"Who is Yulianto? How come you trusted him with that huge amount of money?" the judges asked. Ari said Yulianto had been a close acquaintance. The existence of Yulianto has not been confirmed. Ari said he had never known where Yulianto lived.

Ari testified that Anggodo had asked him to help revoke the KPK's decision to ban Anggoro from going overseas. However, earlier at the trial, Ade denied the KPK had ever revoked this decision. (ipa)

War on terror

More suspects arrested in terror raids

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2010

Farouk Arnaz, Antara & Agence France-Presse – The National Police's counterterrorism unit arrested two more suspects following successful raids in Central Java in which it netted three terror suspects, one of whom topped the authorities' most- wanted list, officials announced on Friday.

The two new suspects, Medi, aka Budianto, 55, and Bintang Juliardhi, 23, were arrested by officers from Densus 88 on Thursday following the capture on Wednesday of Abdullah Sonata, Sogir and Agus Mahmudi. Police have identified Medi as Sogir's father.

"He lives in Purbalingga in Central Java, but he was with Sogir on Wednesday when we made the initial arrests," Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang, a National Police spokesman, said of Medi. Bintang, meanwhile was arrested in Srengseng Sawah on the outskirts of Jakarta near Depok.

"We believe he helped Sofyan Tsauri hide Sonata," Edward said, referring to the former police officer who is also accused of selling weapons to militants in Aceh earlier this year.

Sonata, who was until his arrest the country's most-wanted terror suspect, was captured on Wednesday in a raid in Boyolali district in Central Java, while Sogir and Agus were arrested in neighboring Klaten district.

All three have been linked to a militant network that held training camps in Aceh, which police began targeting in February. Police suspect the group, which has alleged links to militants in China, the Middle East and the southern Philippines, was preparing a Mumbai-style attack on key targets in Indonesia.

Sonata, a close associate of slain terrorist mastermind Noordin M Top, was sentenced to seven years in jail in 2006 for hiding Noordin and for possessing illegal firearms. He was released in April 2009 on good behavior.

Edward said police had recovered eight already-prepared bombs during Wednesday's raids, as well as various bomb-making equipment. They also recovered two homemade air rifles with scopes, two.38-caliber handguns, an airgun, two plastic bags containing ammunition, a sword and five hunting knives.

Edward said the suspects planned to attack a police target on July 1, the force's 64th anniversary, as well as the Royal Danish Embassy, ostensibly in retaliation for cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published by a Danish newspaper in 2005.

The cartoons prompted widespread protests in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, and the Danish ambassador was forced to temporarily leave the country after receiving death threats.

Meanwhile, the Danish government said it wold step up security at its mission in Jakarta in the wake of the raids.

"Extremists will not succeed in making us leave," Foreign Minister Lene Espersen told Danish television station TV2 News on Thursday. "There is no doubt that there is a growing focus on Denmark," she added.

Espersen also said Danish intelligence service PET would take "new measures to ensure adequate security of personnel" at the embassy in Jakarta.

PET chief Jakob Scharf said intelligence officers were currently on their way to Jakarta to assist Indonesian authorities with their investigations.

Indonesia's deradicalization program under fire

Associated Press - June 25, 2010

Robin McDowell – Not long ago, Abdullah Sunata was a poster child for Indonesia's efforts to persuade jailed terrorists to give up their violent ways. He was given furloughs to attend lawn parties and police helped pay for mounting hospital bills when his wife gave birth.

But immediately after his release on good behavior one year ago, Sunata allegedly returned to his old ways, catapulting to the top of the country's most-wanted list.

He was arrested Wednesday for suspected involvement in a plot to carry out a Mumbai-style attack in the capital, Jakarta, and several high-profile assassinations, including one on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Sunata's turnaround, experts say, highlights weaknesses in the predominantly Muslim country's deradicalization program.

Unlike Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Singapore, efforts here have been largely police-led, focusing on getting prisoners to renounce violence and co-opting informers.

While officers provide financial help to reformed inmates and their families, and sometimes help negotiate early releases, little is done to challenge radical religious tenets, such as the goal of imposing Islamic rule.

"Many of those who are supposedly deradicalized remain committed to those goals," said John Horgan, director of the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Pennsylvania State University.

Indonesia was thrust into the front lines of the battle against terrorism in 2002, when Al Qaida-linked nightclub bombings on the resort island of Bali killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists. There have been several attacks on Western targets since then, but all have been far less deadly – and the most recent was a year ago.

Analysts credit a security crackdown that has netted nearly 600 militants. Of those, about 20 are considered reformed and actively working with police.

There have been several success stories, most famously Nasir Abbas, a former Al Qaida-linked militant who helped train the Bali bombers. After his 2004 release from prison, he became instrumental in helping track down and arrest several of his former comrades.

He also enters prisons to hold religious arguments with inmates against some violent forms of jihad. But many others join the list of disappointments.

Bomb-maker Bagus Budi Pranoto engaged in the deradicalization program while serving a four-year sentence for involvement in a 2004 Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta. Soon after his release, he helped carry out last year's attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.

Making friends with the enemy always has its risks, and other nations have seen high-profile failures as well.

The Saudi rehabilitation program – considered a pioneer of deradicalization – encourages returning detainees to abandon Islamic extremism and reintegrate into civilian life. The well- funded and highly structured program includes psychological counseling, vocational training and religious re-education.

One Guantanamo detainee who was released in 2007 and sent to Saudi Arabia to benefit from that program later fled to Yemen and became deputy commander of Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

"There's no one country that can guarantee that their deradicalization program will work 100 percent of the time," said Ansyaad Mbai, the top anti-terrorism official at Indonesia's Coordinating Ministry for Security and Political Affairs.

"The most important thing is that there are terrorists who want to cooperate and are aware of their mistakes and ideological confusion," he said. "If five out of 10 give up the are on the right side," he tells them before handing them their arms, one by one. "And what we are doing now, God willing, will be good in God's eyes," to which the youths replied: "God willing!"

Sunata was arrested in 2005 for possession of weapons and for hiding Noordin M. Top, the late bomb-making expert who orchestrated all of the major suicide bombings targeting Westerners in Indonesia, including the Bali nightclub blasts. Behind bars, Sunata was viewed as a shining example of how even hardened criminals could change.

"He was a nice person, cooperative with our rehabilitation program," said Noor Huda Ismail, executive director of the Inscription Peace Foundation, established in 2008 to help reform terrorism inmates. "But in the end, I admit it, he was a failure. "It looks like his old friends convinced him to return to his jihadi ways."

Sunata's new cell, uncovered in February, was comprised of militants from several groups with ties to the Middle East and the Philippines. Authorities found a cache of M-16 assault rifles, revolvers and thousands of rounds of ammunition at their jihadi training camp in Aceh.

They also said they uncovered plans to launch Mumbai-style terror strikes and to kill Yudhoyono and other high-profile targets.

More than 70 alleged members of the Aceh cell have been arrested or killed by police in recent months. Of those, it was found, 16 had relapsed into criminal behavior after being released from jail, said Sidney Jones, an expert on Southeast Asian extremists.

"It isn't really so much a question of 'is the deradicalization program working or not,' it's the fact that prisons in Indonesia are out of control," she said. Unless that changes, "Sunata in prison may not be as dangerous as he was outside, but he certainly continues to be a threat."

Last month, police blocked a blog publishing an article allegedly written by Sunata, in which he called on fellow former convicted terrorists to continue to fight for their faith and not to follow in the footsteps of people such as Abbas – the reformed Al Qaida-linked militant – calling him a "helper of evil."

Detachment 88 'tortured prisoners': Report

Jakarta Post - June 24, 2010

Indonesian anti-terror squad Detachment 88, which is partially funded by foreign nations, cooperated with prison guards and police to torture political prisoners, says an international watchdog group.

The allegations were made in Human Rights Watch (HRW)'s recent report, which is based on interviews with more than 50 political prisoners conducted between December 2008 and May 2010, said repres entatives at a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday.

"Detachment 88 [has] tortured activists for peacefully waving banned symbols," said Phil Robertson, HRW Asia division deputy director, when quoting the report.

The report alleges that anti-terror squad members, police and prison guards tortured people in collusion and independently.

HRW said that Johan Teterisa, an alleged organizer of the Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM), was tortured by Indonesian authorities.

The school teacher was convicted of treason and sentenced to 15 years in prison for unfurling a flag in support of the South Maluku Republic (RMS) in front of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a traditional dance in Ambon, Maluku, on June 29, 2007.

"Teterisa was beaten repeatedly with sticks and kicked by Detachment 88 officials until he lost consciousness," said Panjaitan, a representative of the Advocacy Team for the People of Maluku.

Police beat Teterisa almost continuously for at least 12 hours every day for 11 days after he refused to sign a statement supporting the FKM's dissolution, Panjaitan said. Teterisa said police and Detachment 88 officers demanded that he sign the statement, said the report.

Candran Listiyono, spokesman for the Directorate General of Prisons, said that he was not aware of any mistreatment of inmates and promised to investigate, as reported by the Associated Press.

HRW asked all benefactor countries, including Australia, the Netherlands and several European Union countries, to stop funding Detachment 88 until there is an impartial independent investigation of its activities, Roberston said.

Detachment 88 was created under the aegis of the National Police in August 2004 after a series of terrorist attacks. Unit officers previously said that they were watching Indonesia's hot-spots for terrorists who may use internal conflicts to launch attacks. (ipa)

Indonesia's top terror suspect behind bars

Agence France Presse - June 24, 2010

Arlina Arshad, Jakarta – Indonesia's "most wanted" terror suspect was behind bars Thursday after raids which left one officer wounded and uncovered a stash of explosive materials, documents and weapons, police said.

Islamist extremist Abdullah Sunata was captured alive in Boyolali district, Central Java, late Wednesday while two suspects were arrested and another killed in an operation in neighbouring Klaten district, police said.

A top security official said the bomb-making member of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror network was planning to bomb the Danish embassy in revenge for cartoons of the prophet Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper in 2005.

There were also indications of a plot to attack a ceremony to celebrate the founding anniversary of the Indonesian police force on July 1, he said.

"There were plans to attack the Danish embassy. Abdullah Sunata is the central figure in the plan," security ministry anti-terror chief Ansyaad Mbai told AFP.

After the deaths of terror leaders Noordin Mohammed Top and Dulmatin, and the capture and killing of scores of their disciples over the past 10 months, police said Sunata was the most-wanted terrorist still at large in the country.

"He's the number-one suspect we're after, since the other terror leaders have died. You can say he's the main figure," deputy police spokesman Zainuri Lubis told AFP.

Another Indonesian terror suspect considered far more dangerous, however, is Umar Patek, who has a one-million-dollar bounty on his head under the US government's Rewards for Justice Programme.

Patek, the alleged field coordinator for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, is thought to be in the Philippines although there have been unconfirmed reports of him re-entering Indonesia.

Sunata was arrested while travelling on a public bus from Solo to Jakarta, police said without confirming reports he was armed with a backpack bomb. "This is a significant arrest," senior police spokesman Edward Aritonang said.

Police allege he was a key facilitator of a Dulmatin-led militant group that had set up a training facility in Aceh province before it was dismantled by security forces in February. Dulmatin, another leading figure in the 2002 Bali bombings, was killed by Indonesian police in March.

A veteran of religious conflicts in Poso and Ambon, Sunata was released in 2009 after serving only a fraction of a seven-year sentence for his role in the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta which killed 10 people.

One of the other men detained in Central Java on Wednesday was identified as Sogir, who had also spent time in jail over the embassy attack, police said.

Sunata was a follower of late JI faction leader Noordin, who police killed in September last year after one of Southeast Asia's biggest manhunts.

Noordin was responsible for a series of terror attacks in Indonesia including the embassy bombing and twin suicide blasts at luxury hotels in Jakarta last year which killed seven people.

As details of Sunata's arrest emerged, Noordin's father-in-law, Baharudin Latif alias Baridin, 55, went on trial in Jakarta for allegedly sheltering the fugitive in his Central Java home as he prepared last year's hotel bombings.

"The defendant deliberately provided assistance and facilities to the perpetrator of terrorism by hiding from police the most- wanted terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top," prosecutor Firmansyah told the court. Latif's son, Ata Sabiq Alim, 24, was also put on trial separately for similar offences.

Top terror suspect plotted attack on police anniversary day

Jakarta Globe - June 24, 2010

Farouk Arnaz – Antiterror police foiled the country's most- wanted terrorist fugitive, Abdullah Sonata's plot to attack several police offices on the Police Anniversary Day on July 1.

"According to the document and intercepted phone conversations among [the terror suspects], we knew that they were preparing to attack on [Police Anniversary Day]," a top antiterror police officer told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday.

In the conversations, Sonata dubbed the police 'kittens'. "Sonata said, 'let's attack all the kittens in their nest on their birthdays,' "according to the source, adding that police's new target in the fight against terrorism is Abu Tholut, alias Mustofa. He has become the most wanted fugitive and influential figure in the terrorist network.

The source said the planned attack on Police Anniversary Day would possibly take place at Mobile Brigade Headquarters in Depok just to the south of Jakarta.

"They did not mention clearly where the attack would take place but it could be at the Mobile Brigade Headquarters because the ceremony will be attended by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri and foreign dignitaries," he said.

He noted that police still tried to get more information from Sonata and two other suspects about the location where they hid the explosives and 10 AK47 rifles.

"We allege that they hid those dangerous materials somewhere. The threat is obvious and we can not be complacent or more terror will follow," he said.

Abdullah Sonata, was seized in one of two raids on Wednesday night in Klaten, Central Java together with Agus Mahmudi and Sogir.

The Densus 88 officers were believed to have shot dead a suspect named Yuli Karseno, an Army deserter. Yuli's body is en route to Jakarta from Yogyakarta. A forensic team will conduct an autopsy at the National Police Hospital in East Jakarta.

Indonesia's most-wanted terror suspect arrested

Associated Press - June 23, 2010

Niniek Karmini, Jakarta – Indonesia's elite anti-terror squad arrested the country's most-wanted man and two of his aides in a series of coordinated raids on Java island, police said. Another suspected militant was killed the shootout.

Abdullah Sunata is accused of helping set up a network that was reportedly plotting a Mumbai-style attack targeting foreigners at luxury hotels in the capital, Jakarta, and several high-profile assassinations, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. He jumped to the top of the fugitive list in the world's most populous Muslim nation following the deaths of Nordin M. Top and Dulmatin, who both died at the hands of police in the last year.

"We have successfully arrested Sunata and two other suspects," national police spokesman Maj. Gen. Edward Aritonang told The Associated Press after a raid on their rented home in Cungkrungan, a village in Central Java province late Wednesday. They found a bomb in a backpack and several revolvers.

An earlier raid on a house in nearby Girimulya village also yielded explosives and weapons.

Police could not immediately confirm a report on Metro TV that said documents discovered during one of the sieges indicated the men were planning an attack on the Danish embassy in Jakarta.

The 2005 publication of caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper sparked widespread protests in Indonesia.

The country of 240 million has battled Islamist militants with links to the Southeast Asian network, Jemaah Islamiyah, since 2002, when extremists bombed a nightclub district on Bali island, killing 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

There have been three other major suicide bombings since then, the most recent targeting two luxury hotels in Jakarta a year ago killing seven

Though hundreds of suspected militants have been captured or killed in a security crackdown in recent years, terrorists have proved to be a resilient foe, with networks splintering and mutating.

Sunata's new cell, uncovered in February in westernmost Aceh province, was comprised of militants from several different groups. Authorities discovered their jihadi training camp and found a cache of M-16 assault rifles, revolvers and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

At least 60 suspected members of that network have been arrested in recent months. Another 13 have been killed, prompting some critics to say valuable intelligence was being lost.

Ken Conboy, a Jakarta-based expert on Southeast Asian terrorist groups, said the arrest of Sunata was significant. "He'd be able to connect a lot of the dots about the Aceh operations," from funding and training to potential targets, he said. "What were these guys going to be used for?"

Sunata was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2006 for hiding Top, an expert bomb-maker who once headed Jemaah Islamiyah. He was released in April 2009 for good behavior, but returned to the terrorist network.

Islam & religion

Analysts look to pedigree of FPI to explain its thuggery

Jakarta Globe - June 30, 2010

Ulma Haryanto – What is the real agenda of the Islamic Defenders Front and have its members been allowed to get away with their strong-arm tactics because they are backed by powerful forces in the police and the military? The question is often asked, but answers are hard to come by.

In recent months, the hard-line group, also known as the FPI, has led efforts to stop a supposed Christianization of Bekasi, and last week it was accused of inciting another group to break up a meeting between lawmakers and constituents in East Java, claiming the gathering was a reunion of the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Lawmakers and moderates have called for the FPI to be banned on the grounds that it is too radical and a threat to the state. This week, Eva Kusuma Sundari, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), claimed the group was "part of the conflict management strategy the Indonesian military exercises to maintain its power."

Edwin Partogi, from the political, legal and security advocacy division of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday that the formation of paramilitary groups such as the FPI were linked to the National Police and the Armed Forces to help quell student demonstrations during the downfall of Suharto in 1998.

"Support [from the military and police] dropped off as the FPI gained more autonomy," he said. "The structure of the Army and the police has also changed."

Noor Huda Ismail, an expert on extremism, said that during an interview with FPI leader Habib Rizieq two years ago, he confirmed that three Army generals had helped found the group.

Partogi suggested that although the organization itself now had its own agenda, it could still be wielded by state institutions. "There were examples where it seemed that they were used to limit freedom when that freedom was seen as a threat to the state," he said.

In several cases, he noted, police officers had actually stood by and allowed FPI vigilantes to intimidate others and engage in violent behavior.

During the incident in East Java, lawmakers complained that police did nothing while members of a group linked to the FPI broke up the meeting. The National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said this week it would investigate.

Meanwhile, FPI secretary general Ahmad Shabri Lubis denied that his group had any links to the police or the military. "That is a lie fabricated by those who support neo-communism and neo- liberalism," he said. "They want society to hate us, but in reality, we have people from new areas requesting to start their own FPI branches."

FPI's aggressive expansion is most evident on the outskirts of the capital, particularly in Bekasi, where the group has compelled officials to tear down a statue it did not like and begun a campaign to bring in Shariah law.

Ismail said the FPI and other radical Islamic organizations shared a similar agenda to enforce their brand of Islam on communities, and had no qualms about using violence and undemocratic means to achieve that goal.

Muhammadiyah needs change at top: Youth leader

Jakarta Globe - June 30, 2010

Anita Rachman – The youth leader of the country's second-largest Islamic organization has called on the group to choose a new chief at the weekend who can instigate changes and reform.

Muhammad Izzul Muslimin, Muhammadiyah youth wing chairman, said that although the current leaders were competent individually, collectively they tended to deliberate too much before making decisions.

"The leaders today are way too vigilant, they are not progressive enough, they're just continuing what they have been doing," he said, referring to his belief that not enough attention was paid to social issues apart from education and health.

The organization today will narrow down the number of hopefuls for the chairmanship from 124 to 39 before its national congress opens on Saturday.

Muhammadiyah, which has an estimated 28 million members, will hold its 46th national caucus from July 3-8. It will discuss the pressing issues facing the organization, as well as elect a new leader.

Selection committee chairman Rosyad Sholeh told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday that about 190 members, including the current general chairman and deputies and leaders from provincial branches, would meet today to narrow down the list of hopefuls.

"All 124 have confirmed their willingness to join the candidacy," Rosyad said. "The tanwir [branches] meeting will be held tomorrow, and by July 2 we will announce 39 candidates who will join the next screening."

Later, an estimated 2,500 members of the congress will trim the list down to the final 13. These 13 will then meet among themselves to choose the chairman to rule the organization for the next five years.

Among the 124 candidates are prominent figures such as incumbent Din Syamsuddin, former Education Minister Malik Fadjar and several sitting Muhammadiyah leaders, including Yunahar Ilyas, who heads its fatwa body.

Izzul said he hoped the future leaders could make changes and take heed of the suggestions from the juniors.

"I don't know who will go to the second round and finally the 13 candidates, but I believe figures like incumbent Din Syamsuddin will get the most votes," he said.

Rosyad also confirmed that Andi Nurpati, the polling commissioner who resigned her position to join the ruling Democratic Party, had been nominated by several branches but they had withdrawn her name because of her decision to join the political party.

"Before being appointed by the Democrat Party, Bu Andi stated her willingness to join the candidacy. But after being appointed, she dropped out," he said.

Muhammadiyah chairman Din has said he has sensed that the government might wish to interfere in the caucus to silence the organization's outspoken criticism of some of its policies.

The chairman said he expected political parties would be interested in securing a slice of the considerable Muhammadiyah vote.

However, Rosyad said that so far he had not seen any indications of interference from the outside. "So far, there have been no signs of that," he said.

Indonesia army behind Islamist thugs, lawmaker says

Agence France Presse - July 30, 2010

Presi Mandari, Jakarta – An Indonesian lawmaker on Wednesday accused the security forces of secretly supporting Islamist vigilantes as a kind of paramilitary force to intimidate opponents and commercial rivals.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari said extremist vigilantes known for violent attacks on bars, minorities and human rights advocates had direct links to military and police generals.

"The organisation is now part of the conflict management strategy the Indonesian military exercises to maintain its power," she told AFP, referring to the stick-wielding fanatics known as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).

"There are several military personnel who still 'use' the services of the FPI... I suspect they maintain and protect the FPI because they still have interests with them."

The FPI, which has thousands of members, is known for threatening, intimidating and physically attacking Indonesians with almost complete impunity despite repeated calls for the government to ban the organisation.

On Sunday it threatened "war" against the Christian minority in the Jakarta suburb of Bekasi and urged all mosques in the city to create armed militias.

Sundari is a member of a group of MPs who has demanded the government crack down on the vigilantes after they burst into an official meeting on health care in East Java last week and accused the organisers of being communists.

The meeting was sponsored by the House of Representatives and was attended by health commission chairwoman Ribka Tjiptaning and fellow MP Rieke Dyah Ayu Pitaloka.

Tjiptaning, a doctor who has written a book about her communist parents, has filed a complaint alleging police negligence for failing to protect participants in the meeting.

FPI chairman Habib Rizieq hit back at the group's critics, saying they were part of a communist and liberal conspiracy against the imposition of Islamic law in the secular but mainly Muslim country.

"Police should not discriminate – whoever propagates communism should be brought to justice as it is a criminal offence," he told a press conference at FPI headquarters in Jakarta.

He did not renounce violence and when a journalist asked him to respond to community concerns about violence he accused him of being a communist.

The military, known as the TNI, and the police have denied any links to Islamist vigilante groups. "The TNI does not have a pet," Defence Ministry spokesman Brigadier general I Wayan Midhio was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Post.

National police spokesman Edward Aritonang said violence by FPI members was under investigation.

Reflecting growing community concern about mob violence, The Jakarta Post said in an editorial that Jakarta and other cities in the country of 240 million people were "on the brink of anarchy". But the English-language daily added that banning the FPI would achieve little as long as the police – "the real brutes" – failed to do their duty.

"Actually, we cannot blame serial thugs for their behaviour. There is no point expecting the higher rules of moral civility from groups of men (and some women) who are cowards and hypocrites by preying on pacifist civilians in the name of God," it said.

"What we should condemn even more is the police and authorities who have not, and still are not, doing anything against these groups."

Legislator: FPI has the military backing

Jakarta Post - June 30, 2010

Hans David Tampubolon and Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The police are reluctant to get tough with the hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI) group because of its ties to the Indonesian Military (TNI), a legislator says.

"There is information saying the FPI is a pet of the TNI, and the police hesitate to deal face-to-face with the military, because police consider the armed forces their elder brother," said Eva Kusuma Sundari, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- P) politician.

She added the FPI was originally established to accommodate the interests of hard-line Muslim groups that had suffered from oppression by the government during the New Order era.

"The organization is now part of the conflict management strategy the TNI exercises to maintain its power. The FPI serves as a stepping stone for the military to re-enter politics," she said.

It was a blatant accusation of the military's role in supporting the FPI, which is known for anti-vice raids executed under the pretext of enforcing of Islamic law.

Most recently, FPI members raided and dissolved a discussion on a health bill in the East Java town of Banyuwangi last Thursday between PDI-P members of the House of Representatives' Commission IX on people's welfare.

Commission head Ribka Tjiptaning, also from the PDI-P, filed a report with National Police against the FPI on Monday and demanded the group's dissolution and a probe of the Banyuwangi police chief's decision to allow hard-liners to break up the event.

Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. I Wayan Midhio said Tuesday that the accusation was groundless and denied a link between the TNI and the FPI.

"TNI does not have a pet. TNI is a group of professional soldiers who obey the law. Since the reform era, TNI has focused on professionalism," he said.

On Monday, a caucus consisting House legislators from various parties said that the government, TNI and Home Affairs Ministry were responsible for the birth of the FPI and demanded President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to exercise his authority and dissolve the group.

Eva said government favoritism of the FPI was evident in a lack of follow-up actions against the group, despite its acts of violence.

"In 2008, [Yudhoyono] looked as if he had enough of the FPI and called for a coordination meeting between several institutions, such as the TNI, police, and Home Affairs Ministry. However, the meeting failed to generate a significant outcome," Eva said.

Yudhoyono's decision came in response to an attack by members of FPI and other hard-line Muslim groups on freedom of religion supporters who rallied in defense of Ahmadiyah followers at the National Monument in Central Jakarta on June 1, 2008, she added.

"After the meeting, the Home Ministry said the FPI could not be dissolved because it had never been listed with the ministry. However, I found out the FPI was indeed on the list. This means the ministry also has blood on their hands," she added.

Eva said the FPI was registered under Home Ministry Decree No. 69/D111.3/VIII/2006. Home Ministry spokesman Saut Situmorang said that the FPI had been listed as a mass organization and that there were procedures that must be followed to dissolve an organization.

"We need to secure the Supreme Court's approval to disband a mass organization," he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said Tuesday the police do not have the authority to dissolve a mass organization such as the FPI.

Sharia-based policies could 'disintegrate' Indonesia: NU

Jakarta Post - June 30, 2010

Dicky Christanto and Hasyim Widiarto, Jakarta – "If we support one movement advocating religious-based policies, others will want them too," Nahdlatul Ulama secretary-general Iqbal Sulam said Tuesday.

For example, a movement could arise advocating Hindu bylaws in predominantly Hindu Bali, he said. While Muslims seek to abide by Islamic teachings, making them into law "would do more harm than good," Iqbal said.

He was responding to calls for sharia-based bylaws in Bekasi, an industrial city east of Jakarta, which last week hosted a congress of a number of local Islamic groups.

Sharia bylaws are only legal in Aceh province, as one of the conditions of its special autonomy following the 2005 international agreement that ended decades of war.

However, since the introduction of regional autonomy in 1999, bylaws regulating private conduct and morality have sprouted in dozens of other regencies and cities.

Iqbal said all Islamic organizations should work harder to empower Muslims socially and economically and promote religious tolerance.

"Islam has come as a blessing for the entire universe. It has become an obligation for all Muslims to respect all people, including those of different faiths," he said.

Also on Tuesday, the chairman of NU's Bekasi chapter, Zamakhsyari Abdul Majid, said the organization had never approved a joint declaration issued from the above congress.

Clarifying an earlier report in this paper, he said the NU member at the congress was there "in his capacity as a member of the local Indonesian Ulema Council".

Earlier, an executive of the second-largest Islamic organization, Muhammadiyah, had also voiced his disagreement at proposals to pass sharia-based bylaws in Bekasi.

However, its Bekasi branch had agreed to the proposal. Its advocates had said sharia-based policies were needed to curb "ongoing efforts at Christianization," citing alleged attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.

On Monday a "caucus" of parliamentarians and activists had called for the banning of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), a group known for its vigilante violent actions against "threats against Islam". The caucus also raised the issue of bylaws "that accommodate violence".

Previous attempts at revoking such bylaws have failed. Three women had filed for a judicial review of the bylaw banning prostitution in Tangerang, Banten, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that it "did not violate higher regulations and laws".

Such bylaws "were just considered a way for local governments to pay more attention to local values," said activist Agung Putri, who heads the Elsam human rights watchdog.

Earlier this month, a curfew introduced for women in Pamekasan regency, East Java, became the latest in a string of discriminatory bylaws.

While the national women's rights body had identified 154 bylaws considered "discriminatory" toward women and minorities, constitutional law expert Saldi Isra said the popularity of the bylaws was "now in decline".

Observers have said these bylaws had been passed as "vote- getters" and that now voters were demanding the realization of election promises in the second, current, wave of direct elections.

Rights team to probe Islamic hard-liners

Jakarta Globe - June 29, 2010

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Farouk Arnaz – The National Commission for Human Rights said on Monday that it would establish a special team to investigate allegations of attacks carried out by hard-line Islamic groups, as lawmaker file charges against militants who broke up their meeting in Banyuwangi, East Java.

Ridha Saleh, deputy chairman of the commission also known as Komnas HAM, said the team would be officially unveiled at the group's plenary meeting next Monday, but could start work sooner because all commissioners had agreed on its importance. "We're currently selecting the people for the team. We hope to get it up and running as soon as possible."

He said Komnas HAM would summon National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri and the leadership of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) for questioning.

The police chief will be queried over allegations that the force was allowing radical groups to carry out attacks unfettered, as well as failing to investigate them properly, Ridha said.

"It's obvious that the police are reluctant to process such cases, and we want to know why," he said. "We also want to know why the police allow civilian groups to carry out raids, when clearly this the responsibility of the police."

The FPI, meanwhile, will be questioned over a litany of attacks and raids against lawful gatherings, including an incident on April 30 in which it disrupted a human-rights training session for transvestites organized by Komnas HAM in Depok.

"What the FPI and similar groups do threatens our democracy," Ridha said. "It goes against our Constitution and the human rights law."

In a separate development, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmakers pressed charges against an group linked to the FPI and the police after a meeting with constituents in Banyuwangi was broken up by the hard-liners.

"We want justice," Ribka Tjiptaning Proletariati, chairwoman of the House of Representatives Commission IX overseeing health issues, said before filing the complaint. "We abided by all the regulations to hold the meeting, including notifying the local police about it."

Ribka and fellow commission members Rieke Dyah Ayu Pitaloka and Nursuhud said they had been discussing health care issues with constituents at a restaurant in Pakis village when 10 to 15 members of the Islamic Ummah Forum burst in and demanded the gathering be dissolved.

The group, alleged to have been incited by the FPI, claimed the meeting was a disguised reunion of former Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members. The secretary general of the FPI has denied his group was behind the incident.

Ribka, who wrote the book "Aku Bangga Jadi Anak PKI" ("I Am Proud to Be a PKI Child") in 2002, said the meeting had nothing to do with the banned party.

Her lawyer, Prayuna, said: "They came as lawmakers, as state officials. The police should have protected them rather than acquiesce to the demands to break up the meeting."

Ribka also met with National Police head Bambang, who promised to take firm action in the matter.

"He promised to follow up on our report," she said, adding that he had called for an internal investigation of the police's involvement before processing the case. "Bambang said that would take no more than two weeks."

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang confirmed his office was conducting an internal investigation into the matter. "We hope all parties will uphold the law," he said.

Disband FPI, say legislators and activists

Jakarta Post - June 29, 2010

Bagus BT Saragih and Hans David Tampubolon – Legislators and activists have called for the banning of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), a hard-line group known for its violent, vigilante actions against perceived threats to Islamic values.

The Indonesian Parliamentary Pancasila Caucus, a group of legislators, regional representatives and activists, said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should prove "that the state cannot cower to acts of violence shown by the FPI" and other similar groups.

All victims of the FPI's thugs should report to the police so that the courts can classify the FPI as an outlaw group, the Caucus told a press conference on Monday.

Their statement was triggered by FPI actions on Thursday against legislators in Banyuwangi, East Java.

Legislator Ribka Tjiptaning of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) had reported the FPI to the police for breaking up a meeting on the new health bill in a restaurant, which she was attending with two other legislators.

Ribka also reported the incident to the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM), which, she said "should issue a recommendation to ban the FPI because of its frequent violation of human rights".

Banned groups, according to a 1985 law, include those who "disrupt security and public order" and which spread "communism or Marxism-Leninism or other teachings" in opposition to state ideology Pancasila and the Constitution.

Ribka was attending the meeting with fellow members of the House of Representatives' Commission IX overseeing health affairs, Rieke Diah Pitaloka and Nursuhud.

Ribka also reported Banyuwangi Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Slamet Hadi Supraptoyo for negligence, saying police stood by as the FPI hooligans intimidated members into breaking up the meeting.

Members of the Banyuwangi branch of the FPI, the Inter-religion Harmony Forum (FKUB) and NGO Gerak disrupted the gathering, which they believed to be a meeting of former members of the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and their families. Ribka is the author of I Am Proud to Be a PKI Child, published in 2002.

The secretary-general of the Jakarta branch of the FPI, Habib Novel, said the meeting "was actually a reunion of PKI members" or their sympathizers. "We couldn't allow the meeting to take place because the PKI is a banned organization" since 1965, he said.

FPI commander M. Sidiq said the group was "used to calls to disband." Only its members or the Home Ministry could disband FPI, he said.

In 2008, FPI leader Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Husein Syihab was jailed for 18 months for inciting violence against members of the Alliance for the Freedom of Religion and Faith at a peaceful rally in Jakarta.

Another Caucus member, Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, and a new member of the executive board of the President's Democratic Party, also cited the FPI's "systematic violence over the past years". "It's important for us to continuously push the government to disband the FPI," he said.

No need to ban FPI: PKS

Jakarta Post - June 29, 2010

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) says that there is no need to ban the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) despite the latter's continuous violent methods in preaching supposedly peaceful Islamic teachings.

"Let the law handle the [FPI]. As long as the police are firm on them, there is no need for them to become an illegal organization," PKS senior politician Agus Purnomo told reporters over the phone Tuesday.

Agus said that FPI's brutality often came as a result of the police's ignorance.

Agus also denied that FPI members were a vital part of his party's constituents. "The majority of our voters are not from the FPI," he said.

Previously, a caucus of legislators coming from various parties at the House of Representatives officially launched a statement demanding the FPI be banned.

The PKS, which recently announced to be more pluralist, had none of its legislators signing the statement. So is the case with the United Development Party (PPP), another Islamic party, and the relatively inclusive National Mandate Party (PAN).

The only Islamic party to have signed the statement was the National Awakening Party (PKB), which was founded by the country's most prominent pluralist figure, the late Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

The latest violent conduct made by the FPI was the ousting of three legislators during a free health clinic event. The FPI suspected the event was a reunion of the now disbanded Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members.

In recent years, the country has also recorded numerous violent incidents conducted by the FPI. Most were clashes with other people from different religions and some even with their Muslim counterparts, who the FPI deemed as being "too liberal to be Muslim".

Police deny neglect in hard-liner raid

Jakarta Globe - June 29, 2010

Farouk Arnaz& Ulma Haryanto – The National Police have denied allegations that they were lame ducks when it came to dealing with hard-line Muslim organizations, including the Islamic Defenders Front, as questions arise over the feasibility of disbanding such groups.

"We will definitely take firm action against whoever breaks the law, no matter who they are, including those from the Islamic Defenders Front [FPI]," spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said on Tuesday.

Edward said action would also be taken against police officers found guilty of professional neglect.

He was referring to Banyuwangi Police Chief Adj. Comr. Slamet Hadi Supraptoyo, who failed to prevent thugs from the Islamic Ummah Forum, a group said to be incited by the FPI, from allegedly breaking up a meeting sponsored by lawmakers to discuss free health care.

The FPI believed the meeting was to revive support for the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Asked why police could not disband organizations believed to be behind several recent violent incidents, Edward said police did not have the "authority and domain to disband any organization." "Police only have the right to uphold the law whenever people break it," he said.

The National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said on Monday that it would establish a team to investigate the attack on lawmakers from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in Banyuwangi. The lawmakers have filed charges against the mob and the local police.

Komnas HAM is expected to question the local police chief and the leader of the FPI branch. The FPI is also expected to be questioned over other alleged attacks and raids on lawful gatherings, including an incident on April 30 in which it disrupted a human-rights training session for transvestites organized by Komnas HAM in Depok.

Home Affairs Ministry spokesman Saut Situmorang said dissolving a mass organization was a protracted legal process regulated under a 1985 law and 1986 government decree. "Organizations that submit their statutes to the ministry are protected by the law, and the FPI has been registered with us for the past six years," he said.

He added the issue becomes even more complicated when considering the reach of the organization in question. "National-scale organizations fall under the auspices of the ministry while, at the provincial-level, they are overseen by the governor," Saut said.

Pan Mohamad Faiz, from the Indonesian Society of Legal Scholars, suggested the law itself might be outdated. "It was flawed from the start, which was when the state still had ultimate say in disbanding an organization," he said.

"But the times have changed and repressive laws can no longer be justified. In the meantime, all that can be done is to bring to bring the Criminal Code to bear against those who commit crimes," Pan said.

The 1986 decree forbids such organizations from inciting ethnic or religious hatred.

Laws relating to mass organizations:

Article 13 – The government may freeze a mass organization's administration if it is found to have disrupted safety and/or public order.

Article 15 – The government also may freeze an organization's administration if it violates Articles 2, 3, 4 and/or 7:

Article 2 – A mass organization must have Pancasila as its sole principle.

Article 3 – An organization's goal must be relevant to or parallel with the 1945 Constitution.

Article 4 – An organization is obliged to mention Articles 2 and 3 in its statute.

Article 7 – An organization must have an organizational statute; live by, practice and protect Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution; and maintain national unity.

'Call to arms' the latest chapter in city's religious tensions

Jakarta Globe - June 28, 2010

Ulma Haryanto – A new move by hard-line Islamic groups in Bekasi to push for the creation of Islamic militant units to fight the "Christianization problem" and serve as morality police is just the latest in a string of incidents highlighting the increasing religious tension in the city just east of Jakarta.

On June 19, the 17-meter "Tiga Mojang" statue at the Haparan Indah housing complex was dismantled because "it does not posses a permit." But it followed protests by about 1,000 members from 60 hard-line Islamic organizations.

A day later, the first day of the Bekasi Islamic Congress, the Pondok Timur Indah Church was shut down "because the congregation held prayers in a place where they were not supposed to."

In May, St. Bellarminus, a Catholic school in Bekasi, was attacked by a group of people offended by a student blog that displayed the school's name and posted pictures and writing reportedly defaming Islam.

In February, members of the hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI) forcibly closed the Galilea Church in Bekasi, alleging that the congregation had been trying to convert Muslims.

But this latest plan, announced on Sunday at the conclusion of the Islamic congress, could be one step too far, pluralism advocates warned.

"The call to 'enforce' a certain group against the other could provoke the disintegration of the community and cause useless political tension," said Syafi'i Anwar, the executive director of the International Center for Islam and Pluralism.

Speaking on behalf of the Wahid Institute, Yenny Wahid demanded the government be more assertive toward hard-line religious groups.

"Anarchism on behalf of religion is increasing, and the government seems to fear any group that uses Islam," she said. "We do not want to be like Afghanistan under the Taliban."

Rev. Palti Panjaitan of the HKBP Filadelfia congregation in Bekasi, which has been refused a permit to build a church, agreed, saying that recently members of "several groups have become freer to do whatever they want."

"The current situation makes me want to separate myself from Indonesia," he said.

Yenny theorized that support from government officials could be fueling the situation. The Bekasi Islamic Congress, for instance, was held after Islamic organizations including the FPI and the Bekasi Islamic Missionary Council (DDI Bekasi) had warned Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Mohammad of more demonstrations targeted at his administration should the congress not be allowed.

"I wonder why a lot of officials are so cowed by the intimidation from these Islamic groups," Yenny said.

On the other hand, Palti surmised that the people of Bekasi, just outside the capital, had seen an increasing number of migrants in the past few years and perhaps were not ready to deal with them.

"We heard rumors of people saying that our church was an effort of Christianization," he said. "That's why they pressure the government to never issue us a building permit for our church."

Palti said his church was strictly for Batak Protestants as they used the Batak dialect in their services. Regardless of the reason, both Syafi'i and Yenny say the situation in Bekasi should not be tolerated.

"Shariah in Islam ensures justice and fairness for all," Syafi'i said. "Rahmatulillalamin, not rahmatulilislam [Blessings to all, not blessings to Islam]," he said, quoting a verse from the Koran.

Indonesia is a pluralistic country, so enforcing Shariah law would violate the Pancasila and 1945 Constitution, he added.

Yenny said the Indonesian state was one based on the supremacy of the law. "This country does not punish those who would change their religion," she said. "In fact, the freedom to worship is enshrined in the 1945 Constitution."

PDI-P lawmakers file police complaint against FPI

Jakarta Globe - June 28, 2010

Farouk Arnaz – Lawmakers from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, filed complaints with police on Monday after a meeting intended to discuss free health care in Banyuwangi, East Java, was allegedly raided by a group of thugs led by the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front.

"We want justice. We followed the procedures to hold the meeting, including sending a notification letter to the local police as regulated by the existing law," said PDI-P legislator Ribka Tjiptaning Proletariati, the chairwoman of House of Representatives Commission IX for health.

She was speaking to reporters outside National Police headquarters, where she lodged her complaint with fellow PDI-P legislators Rieke Dyah Ayu Pitaloka and Nursuhud.

The trio were attending the meeting in Banyuwangi when a group of 10 to 15 people from the Islamic Ummah Forum, allegedly backed by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), demanded the meeting end and the participants disperse. They claimed the meeting was a reunion of former Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members.

Ribka, who authored a book titled "Aku Bangga Jadi Anak PKI" ("I Am Proud To Be A PKI Child") in 2002, said the meeting had nothing to do with the PKI.

"They came as legislators. The police should have protected them instead of dispersing the meeting as demanded by the FPI," Ribka's lawyer Ribka Prayuna said.

The PKI was effectively wiped out 'following a failed 1965 coup attempt against the Sukarno government. Many hundreds of thousands of people were killed nationwide in a pogrom against the party and it remains banned.

The FPI has denied it was behind the attack. National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said they were investigating.

Muslim groups call for militia units, warn of potential 'war'

Jakara Post - June 27, 2010

Ulma Haryanto – Several religious organizations in Bekasi have recommended that every Mosque in Bakasi on the outskirts of Jakarta form militia units and called on all local Muslims to prepare for the possibility of "war" against what they perceive to be the Christianization of the city in West Java.

During the second Bekasi Islamic Congress at the Al-Azhar Mosque in Bekasi on Sunday, the call was made to all Bekasi Muslims to join forces against what they perceive to be the recent spreading of Christianity.

The groups are also expected to forward several recommendations to the Bekasi administration to create policies that are compliant with Shariah law.

"All Muslims should unite and standby because... the Christians are on to something," Murhali Barda, head of the Bekasi chapter of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

"Apparently they want to test our patience. We are planning to invite them for a dialogue to determine what they really want. If talks fail, this might mean war," he warned.

Saleh Mangara Sitompul, the secretary of the congress and also a member of the Bekasi branch of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, said another recommendation was for every mosque in Bekasi to form their own individual paramilitary units.

"We hope that the recommendations to the government could be a guide for them so that there will be no religious defamation or inter-religious conflicts," he said.

On Tuesday, the Islamic Defenders Front said that it would insist that the city issue policies in line with its view of Islam.

The comments came a day after the Bekasi government sealed another Protestant church because of constant pressure from hard-line groups, and three days after the administration pulled down the "Tiga Mojang," or Three Girls, statue.

The statue at the Harapan Indah residential complex was dismantled after demonstrations by hard-line pressure groups that deemed the sculpture at odds with conservative Muslim views.

The Jakarta suburb is becoming a religious battleground, with as hard-line Islamists claiming that Christian zealots have targeted the community.

Islamic groups declare war against 'Christianization'

Jakarta Post - June 27, 2010

Hasyim Widhiarto, Bekasi, West Java – A group of several Islamic organizations in Bekasi is planning to establish a joint center in all mosques in the city as an attempt to watch the ongoing attempt to convert locals to Christianity.

"The center will ensure the Christians [in the city] will not act out of border," Ahmad Salimin Dani, head of Bekasi Islamic Missionary Council, said Sunday in a Muslims public gathering in Bekasi. "If the Muslims in the city can unite, there will be no more story about us being openly insulted by other religions."

Held in the Al Azhar mosque, one of the biggest mosques in the city, the gathering was started at 10 a.m., followed by more than 500 people wearing Muslim attires.

The main agenda of the gathering was the announcement of the results of a recent joint Islamic congress held by leaders of dozens Bekasi-based Islamic groups.

The congress, held last week, discussed about the heating 'Christianization' issue in Bekasi as well as a plan to implement Islamic Sharia Law in the city.

PDI-P calls on SBY to take action against radical Islamic groups

Jakarta Globe - June 26, 2010

Anita Rachman & Ulma Haryanto – Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle lawmakers on Friday demanded the president take action against hard-line Islamic groups, after a meeting between legislators and local residents was disrupted by militants in Banyuwangi, East Java.

PDI-P lawmakers Ribka Tjiptaning Proletariati, the chairwoman of House of Representatives Commission IX, overseeing health issues, and commission member Rieke Dyah Ayu Pitaloka called the meeting to discuss health care legislation with constituents.

Rieke told the Jakarta Globe that 10 to 15 people from the Islamic Ummah Forum, most likely encouraged by the local branch of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), came to the meeting at a restaurant in Pakis village, Banyuwangi, to demand that the gathering be broken up. They claimed the meeting was a reunion of former Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members.

"When they first came in they didn't do anything, but once reporters came they got excited, shouting 'Allahu Akbar' [God is great'] and disrupting the meeting," Rieke said.

Some of the constituents had relatives who once were affiliated with the PKI, she said, but that had nothing to do with the meeting.

"We were discussing a social welfare bill that says anyone can be treated in hospital. We were engaged in activities that are protected by the Constitution," Rieke said. "This is just thuggery in the guise of religion."

The PKI was effectively wiped out following a failed 1965 coup attempt against the Sukarno government. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed nationwide in a pogrom against the party, which is still banned to this day.

Ribka, who authored the book "Aku Bangga Jadi Anak PKI" ("I Am Proud to Be a PKI Child") in 2002 about her father, said she was used to acts of intimidation.

"This only shows our country has yet to become democratic. There are still people out there who seem not to like my personal background," she said as quoted by state news agency Antara.

Rieke said hard-line groups like the FPI acted like "moral police," and that the health care meeting was just one example of myriad human rights violations perpetrated by such groups.

"The president has not done anything about this," she said. "The president has barely reacted to any riots [instigated by these groups]."

The secretary general of the FPI, however, said his group was not behind the incident. "There were maybe one or two members of the FPI who joined the demonstration, but the demonstration itself was not on behalf of our organization," Ahmad Shabri Lubis told the Globe on Friday.

He made it clear, however, that he condoned the disruption of the event. It was "the local people who rejected the un-Islamic PKI," Ahmad said. "Furthermore, the activity did not have any permit. The FPI is not involved and we knew nothing about it."

PDI-P lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari said the party was seeking ways to curb the influence of hard-line groups that tried to impose their will on society. "We have tried several times to find ways to dissolve these kinds of groups, but the Ministry of Home Affairs says it can't do anything because the groups aren't registered with it," she said. "I think the president should directly respond to this issue, because he has been quiet on this for too long."

'Deplorable' FPI strikes again

Antara News - June 25, 2010

Banyuwangi, East Java – A public meeting on free health care services sponsored by the House of Representatives here on Thursday was rudely disrupted by a crowd that considered it to be a gathering of the banned Indonesian Communist Party.

Members of the local branch of the Islam Defenders' Front (FPI), the Forum of Peace-Loving Banyuwangi, and nongovernmental organization Gerak arrived at the restaurant in Pakis village, Banyuwangi district, where the gathering was held, and demanded that those present leave.

"There are members of the PKI community here. Why are they here?" local FPI chairman Aman Faturahman shouted at the meeting's participants, referring to the communist party by its acronym.

The meeting was attended by the chairperson of the House Commission IX for health, Dr Ribka Tjiptaning Proletariati, and Commission IX member Rieke Dyah Ayu Pitaloka.

Aman claimed the meeting was actually a reunion among former PKI members and their descendants while the stated purpose of free health services familiarization was only a pretext or cover-up.

Amid the tension and to avoid further trouble, the meeting's organizers eventually escorted Dr Ribka and Rieke out of the restaurant and took them to the local office of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle on Jalan Jaksa Agung Suprapto.

Aman said he suspected the meeting was part of activities to keep the PKI legacy alive and eventually to prepare for its comeback. "We have to prevent a resurgence of the PKI because they began their actions to grab power in 1965 from Banyuwangi," he said, referring to an alleged coup.

Ribka, speaking later, said the FPI-led crowd's action in disrupting the meeting to familiarize the local community with free health care services was "quite deplorable" because the local people needed the services badly.

She refuted Aman's allegation the meeting was a reunion of former PKI members and their offspring. "Our meeting was really part of the House Commision IX's task to make people in the regions more aware of the need for free health care services," she said.

Ribka, who authored a book titled "Aku Bangga Jadi Anak PKI" ("I Am Proud to Be a PKI Child") in 2002, said she was inured to experiencing acts of intimidation.

"This only shows our country has actually yet to become a democratic one. There are still people who seem not to like my personal background," she said. Muhamad Abas, vice chairman of the PDI-P's Banyuwangi district chapter, who organized the meeting, said the audience at the meeting was made up of diverse elements of the Banyuwangi community but it was true that some of them were related to former PKI members.

Sex & pornography

Sex goes viral in Indonesia

Global Post - June 29, 2010

Sara Schonhardt, Jakarta – On a recent Saturday night in Jakarta, sultry songstress Julia Perez shook her cleavage before an enamored crowd of mostly middle-aged businessmen. The Indonesian performer and Sutra condom rep uses her popularity to teach people about the need for safe sex, but it's that type of behavior that has religious conservatives up in arms in a country still reeling from its first celebrity sex scandal.

A homemade sex video involving two of Indonesia's biggest celebrities has captivated the country for nearly a month, with millions downloading the offending clips to their mobile phones. The case has revived debate over government efforts to filter internet content and raised questions about people's perceptions of pornography in a nation where nearly 90 percent of the population claims Islam as its religion.

But at the heart of the issue is how Indonesians talk about sex, or rather, what is not said. Sex education is not part of the national curriculum, and that worries health experts who say Indonesian teenagers put themselves at risk trying to learn about a subject that, in most places, is still too taboo to discuss in public.

"Very young people are visiting sex workers because they're curious," said Baby Jim Aditya, a sexologist who works on educating women and youth about the dangers of unprotected sex.

When she talks to teens they ask how they can satisfy women and what the ideal penis size is. But people need proper and correct sex education, not one based on gossip, she said.

A week after the sex videos first appeared on the internet, Education Minister Muhammad Nuh rejected public proposals to formally teach sex education in the country's classrooms. He said children would learn about sex "naturally," and instead asked teachers to regularly search students' bags and cell phones for pornographic videos.

Nuh is known for his conservative views on religion and talks often of the need to preserve decency in the media. He said sex education would not protect children from the negative effects of unlimited internet access. But many parents, teachers and civil society groups say education is exactly what is needed to stop kids from quenching their curiosity about sex with pornography.

The government worries that if it teaches kids about sex it will lead to more sex outside marriage, said Baby Jim. "But that's not logical. We don't teach about corruption, but still people lie, manipulate and cheat on their spouses. There's a huge discrepancy between what we teach and what people do."

She said the government only worsens the problem by spreading misinformation. On June 17, Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring, a member of the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party and the one leading the charge for more internet monitoring, said increased access to pornography was fueling promiscuity, which was to blame for the rising rate of HIV infection in Indonesia.

Baby Jim said HIV spreads because people don't understand how to use condoms, and that in reality it is often unfaithful husbands who infect their wives.

"There is no single recipe for every kind of problem, but by teaching [teenagers] proper and complete sex education, then people will understand the value of their bodies, their partner's bodies and the responsibilities of having sex. That's important because here we just like to have the nice things, the delicious things, but we don't want to take the responsibility for those things," she said.

The videos featuring rock star Nazril Ilham, known as Ariel, and actresses Luna Maya and Cut Tari are the first such videos to hit the public, and many say this, coupled with the intrigue of celebrity misconduct, is the reason for their massive popularity. Past sex scandals involving government ministers have drawn far less attention – and moral condemnation.

Since the story broke, the mayor of Ariel's hometown has named him persona non grata and Islamic hard-liners have threatened raids on a cafe owned by Luna Maya. On the other hand, people say they are increasingly frustrated with the growing gossip and hypocrisy as media devotion to the story continues, and many say the news provokes ill will between Muslims and Christians.

In Indonesia it is both culture and religion that restricts people from talking about sex, said Ahmad Suaedy, the executive director of the Wahid Institute, which aims to promote a moderate and tolerant view of Islam.

Suaedy said it's normal to criticize pornography, but too often fundamentalists appeal to morality to get conservatives to join their agenda. And many cite studies by groups such as the Witherspoon Institute, a nonprofit research center with ties to Catholic establishments, to show that pornography leads to violence and social detachment.

Jason Iskandar, 19, disagrees. "It's just for my imagination when I masturbate. There's no influence on my private life," he said.

The recent high-school graduate made a film in 2007 called "Sarung Petarung" (Fighter Gloves) in which he asks classmates at his all-boys school about the usefulness of condoms. He finds that while his parents told him about the dangers of unprotected sex, most of his peers had never talked about the subject.

"Sex is taboo, but not pornography," Iskandar said. "We could swap our porn collections, but it was more taboo to talk about condoms or our own sexual activity."

Because Indonesia has only gained widespread access to the internet in the last decade, it has perhaps been more sheltered from pornography than the United States. But sexual innuendo has long existed in Indonesian popular culture. People often make sexually suggestive jokes and many TV shows are rooted in sexual comedy.

But serious talk about sex is still heavily repressed, said Baby Jim. And trying to keep a lid on something only increases interest among the uninitiated.

"It's not about Ariel and Luna any more, it's about who is going to explain when children want to know about [sex]. This is the responsibility of the government now," Perez said.

Suaedy suggests having a counselor or psychologist talk with students individually rather than adding sex education to the national curriculum, while President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has stepped in to say the scandal is an embarrassment and shows the need for lawmakers to keep the country's morality intact.

That makes Perez laugh: "If you want to talk about morals, what about corrupters? In Indonesia, they're the ones who really, really break the morals. It's not about being naked."

How far can the state intrude into our bedrooms?

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2010

Heru Andriyanto – The tough response from police to the current sex-video scandal, allegedly involving some of the country's top celebrities, has left many people worried about the legal consequences of what they get up to in the bedroom.

In naming pop star Nazril "Ariel" Irham a suspect for documenting his sexual exploits with two famous television presenters, police have used articles from the controversial Anti-Pornography Law, Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) Law and sections of the Criminal Code covering public indecency.

While there is so far no proof that Ariel made the racy videos accessible to the public – the main focus of the charges he faces – his arrest raises concerns that even the mere act of having extramarital sex may risk a jail term.

So, is adultery actually a crime? Article 284 of the Criminal Code clearly states that extramarital affairs are "a crime by accusation" – this means it can be prosecuted only if the affected spouse files a complaint with police.

For instance, Cut Tari, one of the women allegedly featured in the widely seen online videos, could not be charged unless her husband, Johannes Yusuf Subrata, officially reported the incident to police. And that is even if it can be proved that Cut Tari and Yusuf were married at the time the video was made.

Premarital sex, on the other hand, while frowned upon by Indonesia's largely conservative society, is not a crime – unless it is incestuous, involves a minor or involves violence or force. None of these conditions seem to have been present in the other sex videos, which allegedly feature Ariel with his current girlfriend, actress Luna Maya.

In Ariel's case, police appear to have focused their probe on the illicit production and distribution of pornographic materials. The Anti-Pornography Law carries a jail sentence of 12 years for those proven to have produced and distributed pornography that explicitly shows sexual intercourse, deviant sexual behavior, sadomasochism, masturbation, nudity and sex with children.

But criminal law expert Edi Hiariej, from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, has warned police against applying the law in Ariel's case because a supplementary explanation of the law clearly excludes material recorded for private and personal use.

"Police cannot charge Ariel with the law, unless they can prove that he was the first person to distribute those videos or to make them accessible on the Internet," Edi told the Jakarta Globe this week.

Furthermore, the Anti-Pornography Law was passed on Nov. 26, 2008, so Ariel could escape the charges if the videos were made before that. "The law doesn't apply retroactively," Edi explained.

Police also refer to Article 282 of the Criminal Code, which focuses on the illicit distribution of pornographic materials. So, once again they have to prove that Ariel was indeed the person who spread the videos.

The police's handling of this case has only served to create ambiguity and confusion as to how far the state can go in interfering in people's bedroom activities.

Adrianus Meliala, a criminologist from the University of Indonesia, has suggested that the police launched their probe simply because "the case is so big and so widely covered by the media that they cannot afford to miss it."

And it is not the first time the country has been rocked by a major sex scandal.

Yahya Zaini, a former Golkar Party lawmaker, was dismissed from the House of Representatives after footage of him naked with a popular dangdut singer emerged on the Internet in 2006. Despite the humiliation suffered by Yahya and his family, he was never charged with any crime.

Meanwhile, an indistinct voice recording of an alleged sexual relationship between former antigraft czar Antasari Azhar and a female golf caddie served as a key piece of evidence by prosecutors in a murder case against him.

Not only did Antasari lose his prestigious position at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), he was also eventually convicted for the crime that, according to the verdict, was motivated by the love affair.

Critics slam media for blurring line between private and public

Jakarta Globe - June 24, 2010

Ismira Lutfia – The frenzied media circus that sprang up around uploaded Internet sex videos that seem to star three local celebrities has prompted a debate over what should be considered public or private when it comes to sexuality, and the media's role in reporting on the issue.

Press watchdogs have lambasted the media for failing to draw a line between the two, and for failing to understand who are the real victims in the case of the so-called Peterporn videos.

At a discussion on Wednesday organized by Indonesia Media Watch, former journalist and media analyst Veven Wardhana said that the majority of print and broadcast media outlets failed to see that the leaking of these home videos constitute a breech of privacy that should be the central issue in the case.

"The media has failed to educate the public on what should be considered public and private," he added.

At the event, renowned filmmaker Nia Dinata said in a written statement read out by Mariana Amirudin, executive director of Jurnal Perempuan, urging the media to "get out of the private domain."

"Local media is still unable to distinguish between public and private. Their interests are driven purely by ratings and profit, which has caused them to consistently fail to live up to their main role as watchdogs for social and welfare issues," Nia said.

Veven said the moral condemnation heaped onto the three celebrities – singer Nazriel "Ariel" Irham, celebrity Luna Maya and TV star Cut Tari – by much of the public is hypocritical.

He stressed that what the celebrities allegedly did when recording the videos was done in private and never meant for public consumptio n.

"It should be obvious that, legally, the only people who should be charged are those who leaked the videos, not the video makers themselves," he said.

Gay-rights activist and Indonesia Media Watch cofounder Hartoyo said that only a handful of media outlets reported sensibly on the sexually-charged case; the vast majority did not, in particular popular TV "infotainment" gossip shows.

Panelist Andy Budiman, head of ethics and professionalism at the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), said his group has long denounced such shows as lurid tabloid journalism, despite the fact that the majority of viewers in Indonesia seem to believe they are sources of real information.

"They regularly violate the journalistic code of ethics," Andy said. "And now TV news programs are adopting the same characteristics. The media should educate their audience about the issues, rather than focusing on judging an individual's morality," Veven said.

Andy said it was pointless to apply moral standards in such cases, pointing out that "standards of moral conduct are relative, so no consensus could ever be reached."

"That's why moral values can never be used as a yardstick," he said, adding that a modern, enlightened society would instead refer to prevailing legislation for a public consensus on morality.

"The media should decide whether this issue is an infringement of the law or not, instead of prying into an individual's morality," Andy said.

Indonesian Broadcasting Commission official Idy Muzayyad agreed, saying that moral judgements are always open to varying interpretations.

He said some boundaries, though not explicitly delineated, were dictated by common sense, such as "in the context of broadcasting, where airing snippets of the sex videos must be considered a breach of the norms."

"Reporting on this issue is of course a broadcaster's right, but it's regrettable that most media outlets chose to air clips from the videos, making it a trial by the press," Idy said.

Press freedom, he went on, has become the go-to excuse when reporting on almost anything. He called on media organizations to keep in mind that with freedom comes responsibility, especially with regard to selecting subject matter.

"It would be preferable to avoid reporting on issues that agitate the public, or to find an angle that makes the issue less provocative," Idy said.

When camera's on, clothes should be too: Group

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2010

Dessy Sagita – "Don't even think of trying to make a sex video. Just take a look in a mirror, if you must."

This recent advice issued by National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang in the wake of the sex video scandal seems to have been taken to heart, at least by a local group calling itself Jangan Bugil Depan Kamera, or Don't Get Naked in Front of a Camera. The group on Thursday called on all Indonesians to stop producing pornography.

"Many people think it's OK to produce pornographic material as long as it is for private use. But with the Internet and today's technological devices, nothing is private anymore," Peri Umar Farouk, the resources coordinator for the group, told the Jakarta Globe as the Nazriel "Ariel" Irham scandal continues to rock the nation.

Peri said Indonesians seem to love their porn, both "producing and watching it." In fact, Google Trends ranked Indonesia as the country with the fourth-highest number of people accessing pornographic Web sites. The names central to the scandal – Ariel, actress Luna Maya and TV presenter Cut Tari – were producing an extreme upward curve in Google Trends.

"Indonesians also love Asian porn stars. For six consecutive years Indonesia ranked first as the country with the most searches for Maria Ozawa or Miyabi," a Japanese porn star, Peri said.

JBDK was founded in 2007 and campaigns against the production of pornographic material, the spread and distribution of porn, and "eradicating all traces of images, videos and any other form of porn."

Peri said thousands of Indonesians regularly watched pornographic acts aired via Web cams. "It's even more terrifying because it's real time, like a live show."

He said the video of former lawmaker Yahya Zaini naked in a hotel room with dangdut singer and aspiring politician Maria Eva had been downloaded by nearly two million people in a month.

"If one person spends Rp 1,000 to download the footage, multiply by two million, and multiply again by 800 videos, you do the math. How much money was wasted on downloading porn?" he said.

Experts question basis for charging Ariel

Jakarta Globe - June 23, 2010

Heru Andriyanto & Farouk Arnaz – With legal experts questioning the grounds for any prosecution, police said on Wednesday that the two women seen in sex videos with singer Nazril "Ariel" Irham would soon be named suspects and arrested, pending the results of physical examinations.

"We're sure we can charge Luna [Maya] and Cut Tari soon," National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi said.

"There has to be an article we can charge them with. If you have sex outside of marriage and the public finds out, then you should be punished, right?" he said. "It's only logical."

Ito said that even if the celebrities had not intended for the videos to be made public, "the fact is the videos were widely distributed. It's not magic. We suspect Ariel showed them to several friends to brag."

Police say three widely circulated sex videos feature Ariel, his actress-girlfriend Luna and TV host Cut Tari. The case has quickly become a battle of outraged moral guardians against the wide-open world of the Internet and permissive modern morality.

Legal experts, however, said grounds for prosecuting Ariel, who was arrested on Tuesday, were suspect.

Ariel, the frontman for the band Peterpan, is the first celebrity caught up in the controversial 2008 Anti-Pornography Law, with police charging him under Article 4, Paragraph 1, which bans the production, distribution and trade of pornographic materials.

"He cannot be charged under the anti-porn law because the supplementary explanation of the very same law clearly excludes production for personal and private possession," said Eddy Hiariej, a law lecturer at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.

Senior detective Brig. Gen. Saut Usman Nasution has argued that the exemption does not apply to a non-spousal sexual relationship, but Eddy said: "That argument is groundless, because the law doesn't specify that only married people can document their sexual relationship for personal use. It appears to me that the case is more about moral issues.

"Because the scandal came to the attention of the whole nation, and also the international media, police think they must do something," Eddy said.

Police have also charged Ariel under Article 282 of the Criminal Code that bans the distribution of pornographic materials.

"But so far it has not been proved that Ariel distributed the videos in the first place," said University of Indonesia criminal law expert Adrianus Meliala.

"Under this article, the first person who uploaded the videos to the Internet is the best suspect. While police still cannot find that person, the best they can do against Ariel is to charge him with criminal negligence."

Moral condemnation continued, with conservatives clearly wanting the celebrities to pay for their presumed sins.

"Police must apply cumulative charges to allow for the harsh punishment of perpetrators in a case of immorality," said Asrorun Niam Sholeh, a professor at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in South Jakarta. Ariel "has contributed to the moral degradation of the nation."

Brig. Gen. Musaddeq Ishaq, head of the National Police's medical unit, said police had performed "scientific crime identification" to confirm whether the three people in the videos were indeed the accused celebrities.

"We conducted what we call anatomical, anthropological and [dental] forensics to back up our case," he said. "What we did was compare these three people with the people in the videos."

He declined to say what the results were.

When it comes to porn, the real crime is the nation's hypocrisy

Jakarta Globe - June 23, 2010

Johannes Nugroho – Indonesia's latest enfant terrible, singer Nazril "Ariel" Irham of the band Peterpan, has been officially detained for his alleged role in the production of homemade sex videos featuring himself and at least two female celebrities. Ariel will no doubt be sacrificed at the altar of the controversial 2008 Anti-Pornography Law.

Legal polemics aside, though, the saga has also revealed an undesirable mask our nation chooses to wear, seemingly with pride: unabashed hypocrisy.

While religious clerics and politicians were busy condemning Ariel and his sex partners' "immorality," we also learned that the Web sites featuring the sex clips crashed because of the millions of Indonesians eager to watch them.

The outcry is almost deafening. The mayor of Bandung has declared Ariel persona non grata in his jurisdiction. A cafe owned by Ariel's girlfriend, Luna Maya, who is reportedly also in two of the sex clips, faced threats of a raid by Islamic hard-liners.

Our fervor to root out immorality does not stop there. Police have barged into schoolrooms to check whether students have the offending clips on their mobile phones.

In a move that surely infringes on constitutional rights, police officers who routinely stop motorbikes to check for driver's licenses have now suddenly become morality officers as well, demanding to check people's mobile phones for pornographic content.

The plain fact of the matter is that Indonesia, despite superficial piety and other self-delusions, is far from being a sexually ascetic nation.

A 2008 survey conducted by the government agency for family planning, BKKBN, indicated that 63 percent of urban teenagers have had premarital sex.

And, to boot, as our morally excellent Minister of Communications Tifatul Sembiring informed us, 97 percent of all our senior high school students have been exposed to pornography.

Nearer the bone, our prostitution industry can rival that of Thailand, and yet officially prostitution does not exist in Indonesia. No Indonesian law deals effectively with prostitution, hence our brothels are legally nonexistent.

As such, the local government cannot license them and yet they thrive, if only sanctioned by public servants who in all probability extort protection money from pimps and proprietors.

And then, ludicrously, during the Islamic fasting month, these brothels along with other nightlife spots are forbidden from operating. In the best tradition of Indonesian grand gesturing, then, the government officially forbids something that officially does not exist.

To project an image of perfect piety – at least for a month – the notion of religious freedom and human rights is tossed aside.

Still, this illusion of perfect piety may be destroyed when hard-liners treat recalcitrant nightspots to a dose of religious violence. If the government fully realizes that sex workers will always be around, then the sensible thing to do is to legalize them.

Several studies conducted among sex workers in Indonesia reveal that many young women were forced into prostitution by economic factors. Many are sold into it by parents and boyfriends. Then when they are in the industry, they receive no legal protection and are exploited by their pimps.

Few sex workers can escape the vicious cycle, and the main reason for it is that the sex industry is not regulated by law. A properly regulated sex industry means better protection for sex workers and a surer guarantee against abuse of power by pimps.

However, the problem remains that no lawmaker would have the audacity to introduce such a proposal. It would amount to political suicide, not because Indonesians are a host of sexually upright citizens, but because we are always more interested in appearances than substance.

When a documentary on the lives of resort boy toys in Bali ("Cowboys in Paradise") hit the news, authorities made sudden raids on the beaches despite the fact that the cowboys had always been there.

When it was revealed that 70 percent of liquor imports into the country come through Bali ports, all of a sudden we had a group of local lawmakers eager to wage a war against alcohol use.

Ariel's case is no different. He recorded the clips for his own enjoyment and they were leaked by someone else when he lost his laptop. Yet this case of breach of privacy has been magnified into a crusade against immorality by religious and conservative factions.

To make matters worse, the government, always vehemently hypocritical in the face of "piety issues," has joined the bandwagon.

Where was the government when religious thugs turned morality police violated Luna's constitutional right to own and operate her business as a citizen? Where is the rule of law when an anarchic militia group such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) takes the law into its own hands?

The government's own hypocrisy has made it wary of warding off anarchists who victimized Luna. To do so would be to condone the "immorality" of the actress. Perhaps upholding her rights would be unpopular in the eyes of our hypocritical public.

But to perpetuate such hypocrisy is an even worse crime against democracy and civilization.

[Johannes Nugroho is a writer based in Surabaya.]

Politics & political parties

DPD proposes village-fund plan similar to criticized Golkar idea

Jakarta Globe - June 29, 2010

Armando Siahaan – Though the idea is practically dead in the House of Representatives, the Regional Representatives Council on Tuesday revived a controversial proposal to allocate Rp 1 billion ($110,000) from the state budget for development programs in each of the country's roughly 70,000 villages.

Through the proposed scheme, the council, known as the DPD, aims to reverse the current state of budgetary politics where 70 percent is determined by the central government and only 30 percent by the regions, said Jhon Pieris, the head of DPD Committee IV.

Ideally, the country's budgeting should be a balance between bottom-up and top-down planning, he said, but as things are now, the executive government has the most say. "The people's aspirations may not be the same as the central government's aspirations," he said.

Jhon emphasized that the government would still implement the development projects and the money would be channeled through regional budgets, so the scheme did not deviate from the current mechanism. "We will guard the implementation of the program," he said.

Jhon said the proposal would be raised in the next DPD plenary session on July 13, before it was passed on to the House to be included in the 2011 state budget.

Laode Ida, the deputy chairman of the council, said the impetus behind the proposal derived from the fact that members of the DPD and the House had the political obligation to fight for their constituents. "They often perceive us as failing to struggle for their needs," he said, adding that the DPD and the House should serve as bridges between the people and the government.

The DPD's proposed scheme bears a great resemblance to the Golkar Party's proposal to allocate Rp 1 billion to each village.

Golkar made the proposal after its earlier idea that lawmakers each be given a Rp 15 billion "aspiration fund" for their constituencies was rejected. Laode denied the DPD was following Golkar, only that it was "inspired" by it.

Still, the idea might meet the same fate as Golkar's proposal. Yuna Farhan, from the Indonesia Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), said the village fund would only widen the economic gap in the regions.

If Rp 70 trillion were allocated to the village development fund, about 40 percent of it would end up in Java's six provinces, according to Fitra, while the remaining 27 provinces would share the rest.

Search is underway for 2014 bedfellows

Jakarta Globe - June 29, 2010

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Political parties are cozying up and consolidating as they seek ways to bulk up ahead of the 2014 general elections, an analyst says.

Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) political researcher Burhanuddin Muhtadi said on Tuesday the parties were employing three methods to counter a possible doubling of the parliamentary threshold at the next polls.

He said the first strategy was for small parties to band together as a confederation, similar to Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional. Last week, the National Mandate Party (PAN) said it was in talks with smaller Islamic parties to form a confederation.

PAN official Bima Arya Sugiharto said the move was necessitated in part by the potential doubling of the parliamentary threshold from 2.5 percent to 5 percent.

However, Burhanuddin said this would require sweeping changes to existing laws. "I don't think it will work because our election system doesn't allow for a legislative candidate to run from a confederation of parties," he said.

The second strategy, Burhanuddin said, was for small parties that failed to meet the threshold in 2009 to unite under one flag. In the last election they accounted for more than 20 percent of votes.

"It's possible to form such an alliance, but only if the top leaders from each party don't start fighting each other in a power struggle," he said.

A source within the Indonesian Muslim Brotherhood (Parmusi), an offshoot of the United Development Party (PPP), said it had held meetings with the National Sun Party (PMB), the Crescent Star party (PBB) and the Ulema National Awakening Party (PKNU), ostensibly on uniting.

Burhanuddin said the third consolidation tactic was the acquisition of social organizations by major parties, highlighted by last week's talks between the Golkar Party and Parmusi and the Reform Star Party (PBR).

Parmusi chairman Bachtiar Chamsyah is embroiled in a spat with the PPP, chaired by Suryadharma Ali, so a split could be on the cards, Burhanuddin said.

Golkar is believed to be arming for a possible onslaught by the National Democrats, a social organization formed by former Golkar heavyweight Surya Paloh, which has hinted at political ambitions.

"Of all the strategies, this tactic will prove the most successful," Burhanuddin said. "The key is for Golkar to give equitable compensation to the acquired parties, including the chance to nominate their own legislative candidates."

A sickly Golkar Party could find itself on life support

Jakarta Globe - June 28, 2010

Armando Siahaan – The Golkar Party's road to power could be waylaid by a feud brewing well before the 2014 general elections, one that could wrest away a sizable number of votes.

That threat comes from the National Democrats, a social organization founded by media magnate and former Golkar heavyweight Surya Paloh soon after his defeat last year to Aburizal Bakrie for the Golkar chair. But pundits believe it will not be long before National Democrat transforms itself into a political party in the run-up to the 2014 polls.

On Wednesday, Golkar seemed to acknowledge the group's political ambitions by warning all party members to dissociate themselves from the group. "We call on all our members to not participate in anything linked with the National Democrats," Golkar secretary general Idrus Marham said.

Among the Golkar stalwarts now aligned with the National Democrats are Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, Syamsul Maarif and Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono.

"Surya Paloh is in a position to take away at least 20 to 35 percent of Golkar's votes," said Burhanuddin Muhtadi, a political analyst from the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI).

He pointed to the Aceh native's 44 percent showing during the Golkar chairman election in Pekanbaru, Riau province, as evidence of his pulling power.

Yunarto Wijaya, a political analyst from Charta Politika, said the National Democrats' figureheads of Surya and Hamengkubuwono would be a huge draw for voters, and added that Syamsul and Ferry were skilled in rustling up grassroots support.

"Just looking at their leadership structure, the National Democrats could affect Golkar's performance significantly," Yunarto said.

The threat is not an unprecedented one. Prior to the 2009 elections, two influential Golkar members, Prabowo Subianto and Wiranto, both retired military generals, split from the party to set up the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) respectively.

That fragmentation cost Golkar dearly. Gerindra took 4.46 percent of votes in that year's polls, while Hanura took 3.77 percent. If those figures were combined with Golkar's 14.45 percent, then the party would have had as many seats at the House of Representatives as the ruling Democratic Party does.

Burhanuddin said extending the olive branch to Surya would be the party's best bet at getting the National Democrats back on board and mitigating the risk of a costly split. However, that opportunity may have been lost after Aburizal overlooked Surya for a place on the Golkar executive board.

"Both men are pillars of the party, but the spat between them has turned ugly real fast," Burhanuddin said. "Golkar is the party that stands to lose the most should the National Democrats decide to mobilize as a political party."

But the rift with Surya is only one of many problems that Golkar is grappling with. In the short term, it has to recover from the massive backlash to its pork-barrel proposal, in which it called for each House legislator to be given a Rp 15 billion development fund for their constituencies.

It received a roasting from other parties, top government ministers, budget watchdogs and the public. House Speaker Marzuki Alie, a Democrat, called it tantamount to a "theft of state funds."

It also rocked the boat that Aburizal skippered as chairman of the ruling coalition's joint secretariat. A rash threat to quit the coalition by Golkar's Yamin Tawari was derided by its partners as the kind of prima donna move Golkar was renowned for.

Analysts also point to the ruckus as evidence that Aburizal's appointment as coalition head is not a foregone conclusion of his growing favor with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Burhanuddin said Golkar's woes also stemmed from its failure to produce electrifying figureheads to galvanize votes, in the mold of the Democrats' Yudhoyono and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Reliance on a strong, popular, central figure is still a big part of Indonesian political culture, analysts say, where people vote based on the party's No. 1 rather than on platforms and ideology. "Golkar as an institution is formidable, but the lack of such figures means it's hemorrhaging support," Burhanuddin said.

The party is also blighted by its association to Aburizal, primarily over his family-controlled mining companies that are implicated in a tax-evasion and corruption scandal involving rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan.

The case is an extension of Aburizal's long-running feud with former finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, stemming from the latter's refusal to halt trading while share prices in Bakrie- controlled companies plummeted.

PPP maintains Islamic ideology

Jakarta Post - June 28, 2010

Jakarta – The United Development Party (PPP) said Saturday it would never change its Islamic ideology as had the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which recently declared that it was attempting to be an "inclusive party".

"We won't change our Islamic ideology because we don't want to betray Muslims and our history," party deputy secretary-general "Romi" Romahurmuzy said in Surabaya, East Java.

He admitted that in the last two general elections, Islamic-based political parties had been deserted at the polls. Romi said his party would benefit from the PKS' change of stance.

"If the parliamentary threshold [to allow parties to get legislative seats] rose to 3 percent, we believe the PPP votes would increase significantly because PKS supporters who are strong Islamic ideologists would join us," he said.

Moreover, he continued, some of the Islamic parties that failed to pass the parliamentary threshold in the last election – the Star Crescent Party (PBB), Reform Star Party (PBR), the Ulema National Awakening Party (PKNU) and Indonesia United Nahdlatul Ummah Party (PPNUI) – had unofficial ties with the PPP.

Muhammadiyah chairman fears political machinations

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2010

Anita Rachman – The chairman of the country's second-largest Islamic organization has raised the specter of plotting government officials and parties hijacking the group's national caucus to further their own political ends.

Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin said on Friday that the government might wish to interfere in the caucus to silence the organization's outspoken criticism of some of its policies, while political parties would want to secure a slice of the considerable Muhammadiyah vote.

"The possibility of outside interference is not unprecedented, given the huge voter bloc that Muhammadiyah represents," he said.

Muhammadiyah, which has an estimated 28 million members nationwide, will hold its 46th national caucus from July 3-8. It will discuss the pressing issues facing the organization, as well as elect a new chairman.

"I can smell the machinations," Din said. "I don't have any hard evidence to prove it, but that could either be because I've been so busy preparing for the caucus, or else they're using really sophisticated and subtle methods to interfere."

Despite his concerns, however, Din said it was unlikely any outside parties would be able to sway the course of the caucus or influence its outcome, particularly the election of the group's next chairman.

The organization does not elect its chairman directly, but rather elects a 13-member executive board that then selects the chairman to a five-year term.

"I suspect that the interference will at most amount to attempts to prevent certain candidates from running for chairman," Din said. "I believe the organization will be fairly resistant to such moves, but we'll find out in 10 days' time. Nothing's certain in this era in which money holds sway."

Slamet Effendi Yusuf, a senior member of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Islamic organization with an estimated 40 million members, said his group and Muhammadiyah had always held a "very seductive" appeal for political parties and those in power.

"Anyone in a position of power would want to get their hands on the huge masses that we represent," he said.

Slamet pointed out, however, that not all political parties were guilty of coveting, citing the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) as a notable exception.

Former NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi, who now serves on the group's legal advisory board, said it was difficult to tell if there had been outside interference at the NU caucus in March. "My view would be deemed subjective, so I'll let others judge for themselves," he said.

He lauded Muhammadiyah's Din for recognizing the threat of outside interference and vowing to stamp it out, saying this type of meddling would only benefit a handful within the organization while leaving the vast majority with nothing.

At its caucus in Makassar, South Sulawesi, NU's newly elected chairman, Said Aqil Siradj, vowed to keep the group out of politics. However, he caused a stir when he went on to appoint As'ad Said Ali, former deputy chairman of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), as his deputy.

PPP may lose its 'modern Islam' wing

Jakarta Post - June 26, 2010

Jakarta – The future of the United Development Party (PPP), once the only channel for political Islam in the country, is in jeopardy with one of its affiliated organizations threatening to leave the party.

Indonesian Muslims Association (Parmusi) chairman Bachtiar Chamsyah met with Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie on Thursday night, suggesting the organization's plan to leave the PPP and join its erstwhile rival in the Soeharto era.

Parmusi was initially the Indonesian Muslims Party, which was established by former members and supporters of Masyumi, the biggest Islamic party that was second only to Sukarno's Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI) during the 1955 election.

Masyumi and the Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI) were later disbanded by Sukarno after some of their leaders were involved in the separatist PRRI movement. In 1973, under Soeharto's orders, Parmusi, Nahdlatul Ulama, the Party of Indonesian Islamic Union (PSSI) and Perti were merged into the PPP.

"It is historically quite unimaginable for Parmusi to leave the PPP," Muslim scholar Fachry Ali told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The organization, he said, used to represent the modern Muslim element within the political party. "They are mostly intellectuals, whose role in the party was very much valued because it showed that it had the support of the intelligentsia."

Bachtiar, a former social welfare minister, said he had not decided whether Parmusi would join Golkar, but made clear that he shared the party's ideas on public welfare. "If one day we have to make a decision, the bright cadres of Parmusi will make the right one," he was quoted as saying by Antara news agency.

Bachtiar had reportedly been at odds with PPP chairman Suryadharma Ali. There is speculation that Parmusi and other affiliated organizations plan to abandon the party.

Aburizal, who chairs the ruling coalition's joint secretariat, said his party would welcome Parmusi. "Talks (between the two sides) will go on," he said.

It is difficult to measure the political cost the PPP would suffer should Parmusi defect to Golkar, Fachry said. "But given the party's current state, it would be a heavy toll," he added.

The PPP, which once defeated Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) – the precursor to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) – in Jakarta during the 1977 election, is struggling to keep its constituents after Seoharto's downfall.

During the 1999 election, the party garnered 10.7 percent of the votes and finished third behind the PDI-P and Golkar. In 2004, this figure declined to 8.8 percent before plunging to 6.6 percent in 2009, when it ranked sixth, behind the National Mandate Party (PAN, 7.7 percent) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS, 10.2 percent).

The PKS is now the biggest Islamic party and has ambitious targets for the 2014 election. The PPP, on the other hand, is still mired in internal conflict and lacks the strategy to regain its former constituents, who have turned to PAN or even the Democratic Party, Fachry said.

PPP secretary-general Irgan Chairul Mahfidz played down rumors that Parmusi would leave the party for Golkar. "Parmusi will lose its identity if it joins Golkar," he said, referring to the organization's traditional rivalry with Golkar, which was once seen as a symbol of Soeharto's rule.

Golkar: Parmusi not insurance vs National Dems

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2010

Armando Siahaan – A top Golkar Party official has denied that a possible tie-up with a conservative Muslim group was aimed at diversifying the party's voter base in light of a perceived threat from the fledgling National Democrats social organization.

Speculation about an alliance with the Indonesian Muslim Brotherhood (Parmusi) emerged after Thursday's meeting between Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie and his Parmusi counterpart, Bachtiar Chamsyah.

"If Parmusi wants to join Golkar, we welcome it with open arms," Aburizal said, as quoted by Antara. He added that his party was still in talks with the group, which actually forms one of the largest factions within the conservative United Development Party (PPP).

The meeting came amid signs of panic from the Golkar ranks about a possible challenge posed by the National Democrats, which has hinted at its ambitions to mobilize as a political party in time to contest the 2014 elections.

On Wednesday, Golkar secretary general Idrus Marham called on all party members to distance themselves from the group, which was founded by media magnate and former Golkar heavyweight Surya Paloh shortly after his loss last year to Aburizal for the chairmanship of the party.

But on Friday, Nurul Arifin, Golkar's deputy secretary general, said the perceived alliance with Parmusi was not an effort to shore up support ahead of a potential onslaught from the National Democrats, with whom it would share a common voter base.

"[Engaging with Parmusi] is linked to the discourse on increasing the legislative threshold," Nurul said. "It has nothing to do [with the National Democrats]."

She added most major parties traditionally surrounded themselves with a rainbow coalition of smaller fringe political groups, with the latter benefiting from the increased exposure.

Parmusi's Bachtiar said the meeting with Aburizal came about because both leaders shared common ideas about improving public welfare. He played down talk that an alliance was imminent.

"We can't rush things," he said. "We need to study the idea first. This meeting was just an introductory one, which is common in politics."

Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, executive board head of the PPP, said on Friday that it was unlikely that Parmusi would leave the party to join Golkar, a secular-nationalist party. "That's impossible," he said. "Parmusi is one of the founding institutions of the PPP, one of its main support pillars."

He added both were mutually reliant on the another – with the PPP relying on Parmusi to secure grassroots votes, and Parmusi gaining access to the national political stage through the PPP.

Lukman also denied speculation that Bachtiar was leading a Parmusi mutiny over disagreements with the PPP leadership.

Bachtiar has been named a suspect for embezzling funds from the import of livestock during his stint as social affairs minister, and is alleged to be involved in a second graft scandal centering around the procurement of clothes.

He has been vocal about what he calls the PPP's lack of legal advocacy on his behalf during investigations into him.

[Additional reporting by Antara.]

Golkar bans members from joining National Democrat

Jakarta Post - June 23, 2010

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – Golkar Party secretary general Idrus Marham urges all of his party members not to get involved in the National Democrat mass organization.

"For those who are already involved, we ask them to resign [from National Democrat] for consolidation," Idrus told a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday. "It is very clear that Nasdem [National Democrat] is aiming to become a political party," he added.

Idrus also said that he suspected the mass organization was established as nothing but a tool to serve the political grudge of some party members.

The National Democrat was founded by Surya Paloh, who lost the latest Golkar chairmanship race to Aburizal Bakrie.

Freedom of expression & press

Police plan lawsuit over 'Tempo' corrupt cop story

Jakarta Post - June 30, 2010

Jakarta – The National Police said it is planning to file lawsuits over Tempo magazine's latest edition, which featured a cover story on the enormous wealth of several senior police officers.

"We will file criminal lawsuit for defamation and also a civil lawsuit over immaterial losses toward 400,000 police members," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang told tempinteraktif.com on Wednesday. Edward, however, did not specify when the suits would be filed.

Edward said the magazine story had damaged the police corps reputation because it portrayed police members as rolling in money.

The magazine's latest edition ran stories covering suspicious bank accounts of high-ranking police officers as its cover story, a controversial issue that has been in the spotlight for quite some time.

The magazine reported that at least seven high-ranking police officers were hoarding billions of rupiah in their bank accounts, transferred from third parties.

Vanished magazines mere 'marketing tactic' by Tempo, police say

Jakarta Globe - June 29, 2010

Farouk Arnaz, Nurfika Osman & Nivell Rayda – The case of the disappearing magazines led police on Tuesday to accuse Tempo of making up the tale of having some 30,000 copies of this week's edition snatched off the streets by mystery buyers as a publicity stunt.

"It is only a marketing tactic," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said in response to allegations that police had snapped up the copies early on Monday in an attempt to prevent a damaging cover story on police generals from circulating in the Jakarta area.

"It's bull&$#& that we bought all the copies. Where would the money come from and for what reason? We know we cannot stop the information."

The latest issue of Tempo features a cover story that investigates how a number of police generals allegedly came to be in possession of private bank accounts totaling many millions of dollars.

Edward did not comment directly on the allegations in the story, but he noted that making reports from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) public is illegal. The agency tracks suspicious bank accounts and reports its findings to the police.

Edward said police had looked into 1,100 suspicious transactions found by the PPATK from 2005 to 2010, and launched full investigations into 800 of them. "From these 800 transactions, we found 20 related to police officials."

The magazine itself stopped short of directly accusing the police of trying to stifle distribution, but editor in chief Wahyu Muryadi said: "Logically, it must be people who have an interest in the issue, those who are trying to hide their misdemeanors."

The magazine has reprinted the missing issues for the Greater Jakarta area.

Meanwhile, Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force chairman Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said his team would not directly investigate the allegations surrounding the bank accounts but would supervise the proceedings.

"The National Police have already launched an internal probe. It is only fair to give them time to conclude their investigation," he said.

Kuntoro said the task force would coordinate with the PPATK to submit their findings on the accounts to the National Police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Emerson Yuntho, chairman of Indonesia Corruption Watch, which earlier passed on allegations against one of the generals, said the KPK should take the lead, "because what the National Police have done so far is only make clarifications about the officials identified."

The magazine named six police generals as having suspiciously large bank accounts with mysterious transactions: East Kalimantan Police Chief Insp. Gen. Mathius Salempang; Insp. Gen. Sylvanus Yulian Wenas, head of the elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob); Insp. Gen. Budi Gunawan, the head of internal affairs; Insp. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, the head of the legal division; Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, former chief of detectives; and Insp. Gen. Bambang Suparno, a tutor at the National Police School for Senior Officers. Asked to respond by the magazine, the generals all seemed dumbfounded. "I only heard it from you," Mathius said when asked about his alleged Rp 8,553,417,116 ($945,000) account.

Brimob head Sylvanus told the magazine, "The money was not mine," when asked about a 2005 transfer of Rp 10 billion.

'Tempo' corrupt cop story prompts dubious sellout

Jakarta Post - June 29, 2010

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – It was still 2:30 a.m. when a group of 10 men arrived at a major magazine and newspaper distribution outlet in Harmoni, Central Jakarta, on Monday.

"We want to buy all copies of this magazine," one of them said, pointing at a copy of Tempo weekly newsmagazine with the cover story, "Police officers' fat bank accounts".

The men ended buying 2,425 copies of the magazine. "They were policemen. They insisted on buying our entire stock, no matter what the price," Rozak, one of the sellers, said.

Rozak inflated the price to Rp 40,000 (US$4.44) from the regular Rp 27,000 per copy. "They paid almost Rp 100 million in cash," Rozak told news portal tempointeraktif.com.

Another distributor in Senen, also in Central Jakarta, told a similar story. "A man bought 1,200 copies of Tempo magazine here. That's all I had. He came in on a bajaj [three-wheeled taxi] very early this morning. I saw he had a gun," a vendor was quoted as saying by news portal detik.com.

Reports say other distribution centers outside Jakarta were also running out of copies of the magazine. A distributor in Bandung, West Java, reported that all the 1,100 copies of Tempo he had were sold out before 9 a.m.

The magazine ran stories covering suspicious bank accounts of high-ranking police officers as its cover story, a controversial issue that has been in the spotlight for quite some time.

The magazine reported that at least seven high-ranking police officers were hoarding billions of rupiah in their bank accounts, transferred from third parties.

The seven officers include Insp. Gen. Budi Gunawan, the head of the police internal affairs division and a former adjutant to the president during Megawati Soekarnoputri's administration, East Kalimantan Police chief Insp. Gen. Mathius Salempang, former police Mobile Brigade chief Insp. Gen. Sylvanus Yulian Wenas and police School for Leadership (Sespim) lecturer Insp. Gen. Bambang Suparno.

Semarang Police chief and former West Jakarta Police chief, Sr. Comr. Edward Syah Pernong, and the former section head of the vehicle registration (STNK) department of the Makasar Police, Sr. Comr. (ret.) Umar Leha, as well as troubled former National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji are also on the list.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang denied the police had bought the magazine. "We have 406,000 personnel nationwide, why should we be bothered by such a potboiler?" he told The Jakarta Post.

Edward said he had read the magazine and found nothing to worry about. "My question is where did they get the data from? If it is from the PPATK [Financial Transaction Analysis and Report Center], it would be illegal, because PPATK data is confidential."

A document said to be released by the PPATK and obtained by the Post stated 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 said.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Haryono Umar said the commission was also investigating Budi's bank accounts.

"We will seek clarification of Budi Gunawan's wealth disclosure report," Haryono said, adding that there was huge disparity between Budi's wealth declaration and the accounts.

Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) chairman Neta S. Pane, meanwhile, said the revelation of bank accounts allegedly belonging to high-ranking officers was linked to the "competition for the National Police chief post".

"I see a motive to tarnish the image of certain figures. We know that some officers whose bank accounts are listed in the magazine are also potential candidates for National Police chief," he said.

National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri ends his tenure in October. (ipa)

Controversial Tempo magazine issue hits newsstands

Jakarta Globe - June 29, 2010

Jakarta Globe – The news magazine that police allegedly did not want people to see hit newsstands in Jakarta on Tuesday, a day after mystery men reportedly purchased 30,000 copies of the magazine in a clumsy and failed attempt to prevent its distribution.

The latest issue of weekly magazine Tempo features a cover article titled "Rekening Gendut Perwira Polisi" ("Fat Bank Accounts of Police Officers"), which investigates how a number of police generals came to be in possession of private bank accounts totaling many millions of dollars.

Tempo outlines the identities of several generals and alleged details of their suspicious bank accounts:

East Kalimantan Police Chief Insp. Gen. Mathius Salempang, Assets: Rp 8,553,417,116 ($945,076) and US$59,842 as of May 22, 2009

He is accused of having been paid Rp 2,088,000,000 from unknown sources. On July 29, 2005 the account was closed and Mathius transferred Rp 2 billion to an account belonging to an unknown person. Two days later, the money was withdrawn and deposited in a time deposit account belonging to Mathius. The allegation, however, was apparently news to Mathius, who told Tempo that it was the first he had heard of it. "I only heard it from you," he said.

Insp. Gen. Sylvanus Yulian Wenas, head of National Police's elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob). Assets: Rp 6,535,536,503 as of August 25, 2005

He is accused of transferring Rp 10,007,939,259 to a person claimed to be the director of PT Hinroyal Golden Wing. It consisted of Rp 3 billion and $100,000 on July 27, 2005, and another US$670,031 on Aug. 9, 2005. "The money was not mine," Sylvanus told Tempo on June 24.

Insp. Gen. Budi Gunawan, the head of Internal Affairs at the National Police. Assets: Rp 4,684,153,542 as of Aug. 19, 2008.

He was accused of undertaking large transactions that did not match his financial profile. Budi and his child had opened bank accounts and deposited Rp 29 billion and Rp 25 billion respectively. "The news is not true at all," Budi Gunawan told Tempo on June 25, 2010.

Insp. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, the head of the National Police's Legal Division. Assets: Rp 2,090,126,258 and $4,000 as of March 24, 2008.

He was accused of buying a Rp 1.1 billion insurance plan from PT Prudential Life Assurance. The money came from a third party. He withdrew Rp 700 million and received routine monthly transfers. "Only the National Police chief of detectives has the authority," Badrodin told the magazine.

Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, former National Police chief of detectives. Assets: Rp 1,587,812,155 as of 2008

He was accused of receiving a Rp 2.62 billion transfer from a lawyer and another transfer from a businessman. The total amount of money transferred to his account was Rp 3.97 billion. "We never discuss suspicious transactions," Susno's lawyer, M Assegaf, told Tempo.

Insp. Gen. Bambang Suparno, a tutor at the National Police's School of Senior Officers. Assets: unknown.

He was accused of buying a Rp 250 million insurance plan in May, 2006. There was a total of Rp 11.4 billion transferred to his account from January 2006 to August 2007. He withdrew Rp 3 billion in November 2006. "There is nothing wrong with those transactions. All of them took place when I was still in Aceh," Bambang Suparno told Tempo.

Latest Tempo magazines mysteriously disappear from newsstands

Jakarta Globe - June 28, 2010

Nurfika Osman – Tens of thousands of copies of the latest edition of Tempo magazine were purchased by mystery buyers early on Monday morning.

The issue features an investigative look at a senior police officer with a bank account alleged to contain $10.45 million.

Saragih, a Tempo agent in Pramuka, East Jakarta, was quoted by the magazine's Web site, Tempointeraktif.com, as saying that a group of people bought his entire stock of 700 copies at 4 a.m. "At dawn, the magazines were bought by people who looked like police. But they weren't wearing uniforms," Saragih told Tempo.

Tempo's main story for this week's edition is titled "Rekening Gendut Perwira Polisi" ("Fat Bank Account of a Police Officer").

The story is a look at the suspiciously hefty bank accounts of police generals. The story is illustrated by a picture of a police officer being led by three leashed piggy banks.

Windalaksana, Tempo's head of circulation and distribution, told the Web site that tens of thousands of copies had been purchased since dawn. A magazine spokesperson said Tempo editors were currently in a meeting.

"We are aware that the magazine is missing from the market but we can't give any comments because the editors are holding an internal meeting," she said.

Armed forces & defense

Public still anxious about giving voting rights to the TNI

Kompas - June 28, 2010

Toto Suryaningtyas – Efforts by certain politicians to pull the military back into the political arena has tended to receive little public agreement. This disagreement however has in fact been expressed at time when the public's sense of satisfaction with the performance of the Indonesian military (TNI) has improved.

Viewing the character of the military as an organisation that is professional and safeguards the ordinary people is one thing, but involving the military in the domain of political power is a different matter. These two view points, which post the abolition of ABRI's (the Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia, the TNI's former name) dual social and political function, which has further separated the military from civil power, are still held quite strongly by the public.

The results of a Kompas survey indicate that the proportion of the public that disagrees with the military returning to politics is quite large, as many as 65.5 percent of respondents, while only 29.7 percent agree. This proportion does not change significantly with regard to giving military personnel the right to vote with as many as 61.1 percent opposing this while only 35.7 percent agree.

If explored in more detail, the difference in respondents' social backgrounds do not appear to greatly influence these different assessments of the TNI's right to vote. Nevertheless, the indication is that the higher the level of respondents' education, the larger the proportion of respondents that disagree with the military having a practical political role or giving voting rights to the military.

On the other hand however, the results of several surveys indicate that the public's tendency to oppose the entry of the military into the political domain appears to be quite dynamic in character, changing over time along with the military's behaviour and the country's political situation at a given time. In addition to this, the public's opposition to the inclusion of the military in the political domain itself tends also to depend on situation and whether it is individual officers or the military as an institution that enters the civil political domain.

In a situation of crisis for example, when the security aspect becomes a crucial issue, such as the conflict that occurred as a result of the South Sulawesi Gubernatorial election or other horizontal conflicts (Ambon, Poso and Aceh), military leadership is more acceptable than civilian. A January 2008 survey indicated that the majority of respondents (71.7 percent) agreed that the regional head of area hit by conflict should be a military officer. One of the main effects hoped for by the public from the placement of a military officer in a conflict area is the restoration of security in a region.

Conversely, the majority of respondents are not convinced that the placement of a military officer will bring with it opportunities for improvements, particularly economic improvements, in regions that are not effected by conflict. In peaceful or normal situations, the public prefers to elect civilian bureaucrats rather than military officers. According the survey conducted in early 2008, more than half of the respondents (53.6 percent) elected civilian bureaucrats compared with one- third of respondents (37.7 percent) that elected officials from the military.

The military's political role in Indonesia's political history is often stated as being a call to respond to the political conditions that exist during a given period. It began with those military circles that were anxiously looking at the atmosphere of the 1950s parliamentary governments, which was unstable and ridden with infighting. The political parties and politicians were unable to prevent fights between each other and taking turns at bringing the government down.

In this situation, Armed Forces Chief General Nasution raised the concept of a "middle road" with the TNI taking an active role in helping the nation. The TNI would avoid both the political style of the military in Latin America, which became involved directly as an active political force as well as the West European style where the military acted passively to maintain the status quo, simply representing a "tool of power" for the government in power. Clearly, the TNI would not act politically by launching a coup, but it would also not simply become a spectator in the political arena.

It was this concept that in coming days became the precursor to ABRI's dual function. Later, as a consequence of the military as an institution being ensnared as a tool of power by Suharto's New Order regime, the excesses from the military's political role that were initially "well" intended, slowly but surely became a parasite that undermined the life of the nation and state. ABRI's dual function became a symbol of the repression of authoritarian power that perpetuated its power through political power and military arms.

President Suharto's resignation and the collapse of the New Order brought about fundamental changes to the military's position in the political structure of the state. After the TNI was separated from the National Police through People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Decree Number VI/MPR/2000, the paradigm of the TNI's role as the guardian of state security and its separation from sociopolitical affairs became more clear cut.

The position and function of the TNI as an institution was further regulated through MPR Decree Number VII/MPR/2000, which regulated the TNI's neutral position in the political life of the state. Finally, through legislation, particularly Law Number 34/2004 on the TNI, the stipulation that TNI would not have a political role was spelled out again more clearly. And it was not just that the military were not permitted to become involved in practical politics or become members of political parties (Article 39), but it also affirmed the military's respect for and acknowledgement of democracy, human rights, the laws of the state and even civil supremacy (Article 2).

On the one hand, there appeared to be a clear desire on the part of legislators and reformist circles within the TNI to turn the Indonesian military into a professional military force that stands above all groups and factions in the paradigm of safeguarding the country's interests, the final bastion of the state. Within such a format, the dynamics and chessboard of domestic politics was surrendered to civil groups.

Unfortunately, the enticements of political power, just as they were in the past, are not something easily abandoned. One piece of evidence for this is the TNI's involvement as an institution or individual members in many business interests. Likewise the involvement of retired TNI officers – although they are permitted under law – in earlier rounds of regional elections. Out of the 179 regional elections held in 2005-2006, more than 3.4 percent of candidates who won had a military background. This figure is far greater if it includes a calculation of the candidates that registered. It is estimated that this proportion will grow in the final round of regional elections this year.

Increasing appreciation

Concerns about the military's return to dominating the arena of civil power, just as occurred in the past, are the main reason for the public's concerns about the military. It appears that for the public it is not very important to distinguish whether a person is an active or retired member of the TNI. The experience of past human right violations, enforced ideological indoctrination and the corrupt control of the administrative structure, carries too much of a risk to allow it to reoccur. In a succession of surveys on the TNI over the last four years, the indecisive picture given with regard to the return of military officers into the civil political chessboard indicates a relatively fixed pattern: with respondents on the one hand rejecting this, but able to accept certain aspects of it. The results of a survey in September 2008 indicated that 69.6 percent of respondents are of the view that over the 10 years of reformasi or political reform (since 1998) the TNI has not yet been able to keep its promise to reform itself and has tended to return to politics.

A note of concern over a return to military domination was articulated by more than half of respondents (in the latest survey the proportion was greater again). On the other hand, a survey in January 2009 found that the public tended to strongly agree with certain aspects of military leadership: discipline, competence, obedience, good organisation, in plunging into activity in the political parties or parliament in the midst of the confusing and disturbing behaviour of civilian politicians.

Uniquely, some of these concerns and the conditional acceptance of the TNI's role in politics have occurred in relatively peaceful situations, where both external as well as horizontal conflicts have been relatively quiescent. Likewise also when there have been few upheavals within the TNI itself and it has been relatively free from frictions internally or with other institutions. Under such a situation, the public's assessment of the TNI tends towards a normative institutional function with regard to the state.

It is because of this therefore that is not strange that in the midst of the disagreements in the discourse over the TNI's political rights, the public's appreciation of the behaviour and image of the TNI as an institution has in fact risen sharply. Based on Kompas' data, the TNI's image in the eyes of the public has reached the highest level of appreciation since 1998, as high as 71.5 percent. Not only that, from the aspect of the general level of satisfaction with the TNI's performance, over the last three years this has risen by up to one point per year (this week reaching 73.3 percent of respondents who said they were satisfied).

In terms of political momentum, the highest point of the public's appreciation of the military coincided with the abolition of the TNI's political role in practical politics, the end of its representation in the parliament and MPR, and the increasing clarity of its role as a profession military. Without downplaying the need to pay attention to improving the welfare of TNI members and eradicating corruption, collusion and nepotism within the TNI as an institution, it is fitting to question whether there is a need to again tinker around with the TNI's political rights at a time when it has achieved such appreciation in the public's eye. (Kompas Research and Development)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Several conditions need to be met for TNI to vote, backers say

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2010

Armando Siahaan – Even supporters of the controversial idea to allow armed forces personnel to vote say that if the right were to be returned, certain conditions would have to be met.

Nurul Arifin, the deputy secretary general of Golkar Party, which supports the idea, said there would need to be a massive re- education campaign within both the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the public.

"The TNI by nature runs on a strict chain of command, with no room for dissension," she said in a dialogue with reporters on Friday. "That in itself runs counter to the principles of democracy."

As such, she went on, the TNI top brass would need to acknowledge that it could not dictate how the rank and file should vote in a democratic election, in effect suspending the chain of command.

"No soldier should ever be ordered how to vote," Nurul stressed. She also warned of the risk of vote-buying targeted at low-paid soldiers.

Nurul said the issue also required a shift in the public's perception of the TNI when it came to politics, which has long been informed by suspicion over the New Order regime's use of the armed forces to consolidate its hold on power.

"The public needs to drop its preconceptions about the TNI because they're a more professional unit now," she said, adding that the onus would be on the TNI to prove it could be a neutral and independent participant in the democratic process.

Agus Purnomo, a top executive of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said while his party supported suffrage for soldiers, it was important to ensure the TNI would not get involved in campaigning ahead of elections. He said that if it did, it would debunk any notion that the institution was neutral or capable of maintaining security for the polls.

Agus also pointed out that the TNI's vast intelligence-gathering capacity could allow it to influence poll results, which could be misused by outsiders or TNI insiders with vested interests.

Others, however, remained staunchly against the idea of returning the vote to soldiers. Achmad Muzani, secretary general of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), said suffrage was simply not a priority for the military.

He said it would be more pertinent for the government to address the issue of soldiers' welfare, including possible salary increases.

Abdillah Fauzi Achmad, chairman of the opposition People's Conscience Party (Hanura) at the House or Representatives, agreed, adding that soldiers' votes would have little bearing on the overall political landscape anyway.

He pointed out there were a combined one million personnel in the TNI and police, who are also not allowed to vote, which would be insufficient to sway support for any party looking for a seat in the House.

Abdillah also warned of the risk of armed conflict breaking out within the ranks over rival political preferences.

University of Indonesia political analyst Irman Putra Sidin said the TNI had shown the most improvement among all the state institutions since the advent of the reform era, and thrusting it back into politics now would only disrupt the internal progress and stability it had achieved.

Politicians speak out against granting voting rights to TNI

Jakarta Globe - June 24, 2010

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – A group of legislators and political leaders on Wednesday warned of the dangers of allowing soldiers to vote in elections, saying it could lead to the bloc voting and violence that was common in the New Order era.

AM Fatwa, a Regional Representatives Council (DPD) member, said that before granting voting rights to the Indonesian Military (TNI) or the police, who also do not have the right to vote, the government must be able to vouch for their professionalism and neutrality. The military's strict chain of command, he said, could be exploited to support a particular party.

Arief Mudatsir Mandan, an official from the United Development Party (PPP), said the problem was that there was no concept of democracy in the military's chain of command. "They're combatants without the right to vote, while politics is part of civil society," he said.

Amien Rais, the advisory board chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and former People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker, said it was simply too dangerous to bring soldiers into politics.

"They have guns, a strong structural chain and many ways to solve problems," he said, an apparent reference to the threat that the military could use its power to force soldiers and civilians to vote a certain way.

The right of soldiers to vote was removed by the late former President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid after the fall of President Suharto, to prevent rifts forming within the armed forces and to ensure the military did not wield the same influence as it did under the New Order regime.

The debate over the issue was ignited last week after Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Toisutta, said the armed forces should be granted the right to vote.

Supporters say the country's roughly 450,000 soldiers are also citizens entitled to suffrage, while others are worried about the implications of such a move.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has reportedly called for an end to the debate, saying people should wait for the deliberation of the new elections bill.

Fatwa said that political parties could also take advantage of military voting rights. "We should ask political party members if they are confident enough to contest elections without trying to pull the military to vote for them," he said.

Democratic Party legislator Chotibul Umam Wiranu claimed some parties, such as the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), were supporting the idea in an effort to win votes from military families.

"It's part of their strategy to cozy up to the military," he said, citing a statement by PKS secretary general Anis Matta that the party would support the return of the right to vote for soldiers.

TNI neutral, for now: Defense minister

Jakarta Post - June 24, 2010

Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro says up to this date the Indonesian Military (TNI) has remained neutral in politics because the law has commanded them to do so. For the right to vote in elections, he said, the current 2004 law on the Indonesian Military must be revised.

Purnomo was commenting amid debate about granting individual military personnel the right to vote in general elections. The law revision is among 247 laws slated in the legislation period of 2010 to 2014. However, the law is not slated for deliberation this year.

"We still don't know whether the law's revision will be discussed next year as well. Thus the TNI will obey the current law," Purnomo said.

The law does not clearly stipulate members of the military are not allowed to vote. But Article 39 says members are not allowed to get involved in political practices, join political parties or run for legislature or any other political positions.

The idea came last week when the TNI chief Gen. Djoko Santoso said his institution was mulling the matter. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono later gave his support to the idea.

Debates have since emerged, with proponents saying the idea was in line with democracy.

Human rights watchdog Imparsial supported the idea, provided the military finish reform programs, especially regarding the military tribunal, which has so far given the military an extent of immunity in civil courts.

Opponents, however, raised various concerns, from power abuse to hierarchical order in the institution, where superiors could order subordinates to favor certain parties. They also called into question the motives of supporters from political parties.

Purnomo, however, said TNI personnel, numbering 400,000 across the country, would not boost voter participation that much. Indonesia's number of eligible voters is about 120 to 130 million.

Purnomo said that even if the soldiers were granted their political rights, it would be one to vote, not one to run for any political positions. "We still expect every military member to resign from their position before he or she enters politics," he said.

Former military commander Gen. (ret.) Endriartono Sutarto supported the idea of giving the military their right to vote, saying that the military had reached maturity so they would not easily be led in the wrong direction. "We have seen military reform since 1999, now is the time to give them their right to vote," he said.

Commenting on this, lawyer cum human rights activist Adnan Buyung Nasution said many political experiments granting the military full access to politics in the past only proved that they were as corrupt as those in the past. "I will do my best to keep TNI away from politics," he said.

Sharing Buyung's stance, lawmaker Chotibul Umam Wiranu from the Democratic Party said the military institution might be corrupted by political motives. "Once the military graze with political parties, it will likely create an unhealthy atmosphere," he said.

Political observer Ikrar Nusa Bakti from Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said the TNI was not ready to exercise that right in the upcoming election in 2014.

"I'd prefer 2019, when the reform era has reached the age of 21. By then, I hope the 'military strong-men' will have resigned from politics," he said, as quoted by kompas.com.

Opponents have cast doubt over the progress of the TNI reform as a prerequisite of TNI's right to vote.

Human rights watchdog supports military vote

Jakarta Post - June 23, 2010

Dicky Christanto and Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – Human rights monitor Imparsial says it supports the military members' right to vote as early as the 2014 election, provided the military reform its tribunal system to prevent abuse of power.

Al-Araf, Imparsial's program director, said Tuesday that before the state granted the military members the right to vote, it would have to ensure they were bound by civil law like any other citizen.

"For instance, if military members carry out violent actions against civilians, they will have to be tried at a civil court, not the military court," he told reporters at the Imparsial office in Jakarta.

He added that the current military court system was prone to abuse of power because all legal processes, from investigation to trial, were carried out by military officers. He said that the military tribunals were the source of the military's impunity in the face of any charges of wrongdoing under the law.

"The effort to reform the military court system has stagnated. The Justice and Human Rights Ministry has not even included the amendment of the military tribunal law into this year's national legislation program," Al-Araf said.

He said that the Indonesian Military also needed to encourage political and democratic education in all its institutions to properly perform the right.

Imparsial managing director Poengky Indarti said that the organization suggested three other preconditions for the state to consider before granting military members the right to vote.

"Firstly, there has to be a clear mechanism on how military members use their voting rights in the general election to ensure their independence," she said.

She continued that the second precondition required was the state should consider the level of military members' maturity in understanding different political choices among members, so that difference would not be the source of internal conflict after the general election ended. "Third, the military should remain bound to civil authority," she said.

Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum said the next election would be the right time to return the right to vote to all military members as long as it adhered to democratic principles and mechanisms. "I think the time has come for all military members to use their right to vote in a mature way," he said.

However, he said that the House of Representatives and the government would need to ask the military chief for confirmation about the readiness of his institution to use the voting right. "If the chief said they were ready to vote, we can include that in the next amendment of the general election law," said Anas.

Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. I Wayan Midhio said he appreciated the recent attempt to give the right to vote at the upcoming 2014 general elections for the Indonesian Military.

"We have entered the world of democracy, therefore this is the perfect moment to give the opportunity to soldiers to exercise their rights at the upcoming general elections. There is no need to be afraid," he said.

He then highlighted the need to deliberate specific yet firm regulations regarding this to avoid any unexpected situation. "We expect that the upcoming regulation, which will allow military members to vote, is thoroughly deliberated and does make room for interpretation,"

he said, adding that firm regulation would make the military even easier to catch up and not be manipulated. (rdf)

Police & law enforcement

Continued injustices show police reforms have failed, NGOs say

Jakarta Globe - June 29, 2010

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Farouk Arnaz – Dozens of cases of abuse of power by police officers over the past two years is proof that the National Police has yet to implement thorough reform a decade after its separation from the military, NGOs said on Tuesday.

Indria Fernida, from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said over the past two years it had documented various cases of alleged abuse of power involving the police such as torture, wrongful arrests, persecution, wrongful shootings and the deaths of suspects during investigations.

In the 12 months preceding June 2009, 39 cases of police abuse of power were recorded, she said, and in the year since then just 19 cases. Indria said that while the number of cases had declined, there were still too many irregularities for a law-enforcement body.

"It's very clear to us that many police officers still do not understand the principles of human rights or how to implement [those principles] in their job," she said. "And the new issue now is the practice of corruption among police officers. It's more evidence of the failure to reform."

Erwin Usman, from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said the police were still regularly involved in conflicts with farmers. He said Walhi had recorded 317 such cases since 2005.

"There have been 86 civilian victims as a result of the conflicts, with the latest being the farmers who were shot in Kuantan Singingi, Riau province," Erwin said. "The police always work hard in the interest of rich investors but not for the common people. This must be given special attention."

Papang Hidayat, head of research at Kontras, said the police needed to step up their reform effort to regain the public's trust.

He said that according to data from the Police College (PTIK), only 20 percent of the public trusted the police. "Through better reform, we hope the police can achieve its target of raising public trust to 60 percent."

In 2000, the late former President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid separated the police from the military, ending a system that had been in place for 42 years.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Marwoto Soeto said they were grateful for the criticism because it would help to bring about improvements.

"I admit that we are not perfect, but the most important thing is we realize this and we keep changing and improving our performance," he said. "It takes time and it's not a magical process in which everything can become better overnight."

The police, Marwoto said, belong to the people. "We exist to serve and protect the people, and improvement is a never-ending process. Once again, thanks for the criticism, and please trust us that we always take firm action against any of our officers who commit a crime."

A corrupt police force leads to human rights abuse say NGOs

Jakarta Post - June 29, 2010

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – A series of alleged human rights abuses by police officers across Indonesia are a result of a corrupt system implemented by the police, causing the force to side with businesspeople, activists say.

When police and big companies were on the same side, police could be "used to protect the companies' interests, even if it required clashes with civilians," Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) regional empowerment division chief Erwin Usman said Tuesday.

He added that most bloody clashes between police officers and civilians had involved high-profile companies. "Most of the incidents that took place in Sumatra, Sulawesi and Kalimantan, for example, involved plantations, logging and mining companies," Erwin said.

The most recent alleged human rights abuse by the police was a clash between hundreds of Mobile Police Brigade officers and palm oil farmers in Kuantan Senggigi, Riau, on June 8.

Yusniar, a 45-year-old mother and palm oil farmer, was shot dead by police, while Disman, another farmer, is still in a critical condition after being shot by police.

According to data collected by Walhi, up to 84 people nationwide have fallen victim to police criminalization and violence since January 2010, in various locations including as Ogan Komering Ilir in South Sumatra, Buton in Southeast Sulawesi, and Banggai in Central Sulawesi.

"The stories have all been similar: police have helped companies handle local civilians who they thought hampered their business," Erwin said.

National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) deputy coordinator Indria Fernida shared Erwin's views.

"Indeed, the small budget for police has become a factor triggering corruption in the force. However, money is not everything. The money can be raised but the corruption may remain if the officers don't change their morality and integrity," she said.

Police schools have no antigraft curriculum

Jakarta Post - June 28, 2010

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – As the government institution perceived to be the most corrupt, according to a survey, the police apparently have no curriculum concerning anticorruption in their training centers, a discussion heard Sunday.

Bina Nusantara University criminologist Reza Indragiri Amriel said the lack of education focusing on integrity played a significant role in the degraded service by police officers.

The police have been a target of criticism for corruption that is prevalent at all levels – from small payouts for traffic violations to a police general's Rp 95 billion (US$10.45 million) stash, allegedly sourced from illegal sources.

"I know of no serious efforts by the National Police to provide education concerning anticorruption efforts.

"In fact, the [police] education centers have acted as 'safe houses' for troubled high-ranking police officers or 'rest stops' for officers to round out their career before retiring," he said.

The police have five education centers: the State Police School, the Police Academy, School for Leadership (Sespim), Advanced School for Middle-ranking Officers (Selapa), School for High- ranking Officers (Sespati), and the Indonesian Institute of Police Science (PTIK).

Legislator Nasir Djamil of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) echoed Reza's opinion, saying a good education system would produce clean police officers.

"We can raise budgets for the police or raise their salaries, but it wouldn't be effective if they have no integrity.

"Lower-ranking officers model themselves on their direct superiors. If their bosses are corrupt, poorly-educated officers will be as well," he said.

PTIK lecturer Bambang Widodo Umar acknowledged the imperfect police education system.

He said there had been multiple attempts by police to reform, but none were successful due to the lack of seriousness.

"In 1980, under the leadership of Gen. Awaluddin Djamin, the police made significant changes in order to reform the force. But it only lasted a few years. The police today are no better than in the 1980s," Bambang said.

Economy & investment

Shop now and save later, Indonesians say

Jakarta Post - June 30, 2010

Jakarta – It is time to spend money on lifestyle and long vacations, Indonesians say, amid a positive sentiment toward the economy and a declining fear of spending, a survey says.

Most Indonesian consumers believe the country's recent positive economic growth has created stability in the job market and a propensity for increasing salaries, the Nielsen Company says.

A survey by the company showed that approximately 70 percent of Indonesian consumers described their job prospects as excellent or good, which is above the 57 percent average rating for the Asia-Pacific region.

More than half of Indonesians said the country was no longer in an economic recession, a view shared by economists, the vast majority of whom believe the country has already emerged from the global economic crisis generally unscathed.

The World Bank predicted Indonesia's economy would grow 5.6 percent in 2010, 6.2 percent in 2011 and 6 percent in 2012.

"Indonesian consumers think that now is [the right] time to buy the things they want and need," Nielsen executive director on consumer research Catherine Eddy told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Eddy said Indonesian consumers were upbeat about their income in the next 12 months. Of all respondents surveyed, 46 percent said they would spend their disposable income on goods and 39 percent say they would spend it on vacations.

"Almost the all respondents said they had spare cash to spend, only 2 percent said they didn't," Eddy said.

The survey, conducted between March 8 and March 26, 2010, tracked consumer confidence, major concerns and spending intentions among 505 Internet users in Indonesia.

"It seems Indonesian consumers are gradually loosening their purse strings as we see increases in their intention to spend on what we might call 'indulgences'" Eddy said, adding that spending on technology products, such as mobile phones and other electronic gadgets, was likely to increase.

This kind of consumer perception was very positive, she said, but was also fragile.

"Should food prices suddenly go up, the situation could change dramatically and that would have a massive impact on confidence," she said.

As Indonesians now care more about indulging themselves in consumerism, there are fewer people making efforts to secure their future financial situations.

Only 28 percent of respondents surveyed in March said they would use their disposable income to pay off debt, which is lower than the 30 percent recorded in the previous six months.

There was also a slight decrease in those investing in shares or mutual funds. Approximately 43 percent of Indonesian respondents surveyed in March said they had investments in equity as opposed to 44 percent in the previous six months. On top of that, only 10 percent of Indonesians said they had invested in retirement funds. (not)

'Hot money' seen posing bigger threat than inflation

Bloomberg - June 23, 2010

Stephanie Phang – Capital inflows pose a bigger risk to Indonesia than inflation, and may prompt the central bank to introduce more measures to reduce short-term money even as it delays interest-rate increases, Morgan Stanley says.

"Inflation has been more benign than expected because of better currency stability," analysts Chetan Ahya, Deyi Tan and Shweta Singh said in a note on Wednesday. "Bank Indonesia instead appears more concerned about the potential large capital inflows, and how they might exit the country in a disorderly fashion."

Excess liquidity in the banking system as measured by the stock of open-market operation instruments stood at $31.4 billion as of May, or 14.7 percent of bank deposits, according to Morgan Stanley. Indonesia was likely to face a "maximum challenge" if capital inflows into the region continued to rise, it said.

The central bank unveiled measures last week to encourage investors to keep their money in Southeast Asia's largest economy and reduce volatility in capital flows and the currency.

The rupiah has risen 16 percent against the dollar in the past year, the biggest gainer in Asia. Investors have been attracted to a benchmark interest rate of 6.5 percent, compared with Japan's 0.1 percent.

"With local interest-rate levels being the highest in Indonesia, the negative carry is the largest in the region," the Morgan Stanley analysts said. "As foreign exchange reserves rise further, the central bank will likely continue to initiate more measures to discourage short-term debt inflows."

Foreign exchange reserves are forecast to rise to more than $80 billion this year. The reserves fell to $74.6 billion at the end May from $78.6 billion in April.

Bank Indonesia kept its policy rate at a record-low 6.5 percent for a 10th month in June, holding out as its Asia-Pacific peers Australia, India and Malaysia have tightened monetary policy.

Consumer prices in Indonesia rose 4.16 percent in May, and the central bank this month kept its 2010 and 2011 inflation estimate at 4 percent to 6 percent.

Indonesia does not expect to change its benchmark interest rate policy this year if inflation is 5.1 percent to 5.2 percent, acting central bank Governor Darmin Nasution has said.

"We think the risks are skewed toward a further delay, with regard to [expectations of] a first rate hike in September," Morgan Stanley said. "Improved macro stability, rising foreign exchange reserves and currency stability are driving a structurally lower inflation trend."

Analysis & opinion

FPI no problem

Jakarta Post Editorial - June 30, 2010

Most urban swells seem prone to it – gang violence, mob culture and a general abandonment of the law and order. Some excuse it as street justice, others couch it as a poverty related phenomenon.

But the main difference ultimately is whether authorities, in this case the police and the city administration, actually do something about it.

Cities such as Jakarta are not on the brink of anarchy. But it has descended into a chaotic temperament of might is right and an understanding that if no one does anything about it, bedlam is permissible irrespective of rights of others.

Mobs have a long history in Indonesian politics. Most of the major socio-political organizations in this country have some form of "youth wing" in their ranks. How they choose to use them depends on the nature of the organization, circumstance and the level of political desperation on the day. These multipurpose garrisons are employed for a diverse range of activities, from social and political ones to being an intimidating deterrent.

One thing is clear, they are meant to be a tour de force of political prowess.

In some cases, "youth wings" can be an asset primarily because their parent organization is legitimate entities that engage in the formal socio-political sector.

But when a mob culture seeps the masses, potentially productive elements become a threat. In a liberal political setting, without the patronage of a genuine organization, these groups become roving mobs that act like criminal gangs.

In brief, the culture of thuggery.

We applaud that the practice of thuggery, which has become so prominent in this metropolis, is finally being rightly vilified at the highest levels.

A multi-party coalition of legislators at the House of Representatives has condemned the actions of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), demanding that the organization should be forbidden.

A 1985 law raises the possibility of banning groups disruptive to security and public order, along with those which spread teachings in opposition to state ideology Pancasila and the Constitution.

But banning the FPI, as a matter of fact, is unimportant. Perhaps even unnecessary, especially using laws that are rather draconian and originally designed to mitigate freedom of political association.

To invoke the law now could actually open the flood gates of proscription for political motives toward legitimate groups who may be critics of the status quo.

What's in a name? Banning the FPI would only disperse membership into smaller, and even more radical gangs.

The trouble with the FPI may not even be the FPI itself.

It is the omission by the police to effectively encourage lawless activities through a "do nothing" attitude when such incidents arise. In fact, it seems almost a standard procedure to let incidents occur first, then take action once property and people's heads have been bashed away.

The police realize their duty to fight crime, but they certainly neglect a more important obligation to prevent crime.

Some have even accused people close to police sources of actually being backers of groups of street thugs as part of a wider underworld racket that includes protection money and debt collection, among others.

This habit of omission rewards anarchic behavior, empowering groups such as the FPI and a half dozen others in the capital with a sense of impunity.

Actually, we cannot blame serial thugs for their behavior. There is no point expecting the higher rules of moral civility to groups of men (and some women) who are cowards and hypocrites by preying on pacifist civilians in the name of God.

What we should condemn even more is the police and authorities who have not, and still are not, doing anything against these groups. Ultimately, they become the real brutes who decline communities and create public insecurity.

While lawmakers dawdle, torture remains

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2010

Answer Styannes – Today's UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture offers us a chance to pause and consider the stilted nature of our human rights progress in recent years.

The Indonesian government ratified the UN convention against torture in 1998, but this hasn't done much to combat the prevalence of torture in the country. Indeed, 10 years after that signing the UN Committee Against Torture expressed its concern over "numerous ongoing, credible and consistent allegations of routine and widespread use of torture and ill-treatment of suspects in police custody" in Indonesia.

To combat torture, human rights activists in Indonesia have long urged the government to take several measures, including criminalizing torture, revising the Criminal Procedure Code and ratifying the Optional Protocol of the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT). Under a draft of the penal code revision, torture is recognized as an offense. A draft of the Criminal Procedure Code further calls for a more comprehensive torture prevention mechanism. The slow pace of revision of both laws has been criticized, but we can see that the government and the House have at least made an effort at lasting change.

It is unfortunate that similar actions are missing when it comes to the government's promise to ratify the OPCAT. Under the 2004- 2009 National Human Rights Action Plan (Ranham) the government said it would ratify OPCAT by 2008 at the latest. A full year after the Ranham expired, there is still no sign of plans to ratify the OPCAT.

It is important to urge the government to fulfil its promises. And if our goal is the prevention of torture on our shores, we must recognize that much work remains even after we attain OPCAT status.

The OPCAT imposes an obligation on member nations to allow oversight bodies to visit places of detention at any time. The pressing concern of member nations is their obligation to maintain, establish and designate national preventive mechanisms (NPMs).

The question for Indonesia is just what kind of NPMs will come out of its OPCAT ratification. Considering that member nations are obligated to create a mechanism not more than one year after the ratification, Indonesia should start considering these issues now.

There are 51 countries that have ratified the OPCAT, and 32 of them have their NPMs in place. Of these 32, three offer NPM models that could provide Indonesia with some guidance.

The first involves creating a wholly new institution that would specialize in monitoring places of detention, as both France and Germany have done.

The second gives authority to an existing institution to conduct NPMs. Most of the countries using this model, such as the Maldives, entrust the authority to their national human rights commission, whereas Denmark and others use an ombudsman.

The third model is that of multiple bodies, used in New Zealand and Britain. In both countries the authority to conduct visits to places of detention is shared among several bodies who each monitor their respective area of concern. In Britain, for example, the Children's Commissioner for England has the authority and obligation to monitor places of detention for children.

These three models have their own benefits and drawbacks. And whichever path the country chooses, it must take into account mitigating factors such as budgetary constraints, geographical conditions and available resources.

Geographical and budgetary problems potentially could be solved by using the second model. The government could choose whether to give authority to conduct NPMs to the Ombudsman or National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) both of which have representative offices in several cities and are headquartered in Jakarta.

Still, since these institutions have other mandates that require attention, it might be difficult for them to adequately focus on monitoring places of detention.

The third, multiple-bodies model seems to be the most practical for Indonesia. The government could split the authority to conduct NPMs between Komnas HAM, to coordinate the whole NPM and to monitor detention places for men); the Violence against Women Commission (Komnas Perempuan), to maintain women's detention facilities; and the National Children Protection Commission (KPAI) to monitor places of detention for children.

Clearly, this is a difficult decision, and one that ought to be considered carefully when deciding what kind of NPM's will be suitable for Indonesia's current situation.

One article can't address all the issues, but it can stand as a reminder that we should not just urge the government to ratify the OPCAT, but to also consider the long road beyond.

[Answer Styannes is Indonesia Desk intern at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. She can be reached at answer.styannes@gmail.com.]

The Police priority list

Jakarta Post Editorial - June 24, 2010

Police have declared Nazriel "Ariel" Ilham, the front man of the popular Peterpan band, a suspect in a pornography case, and his two alleged sex partners in sex videos will very likely soon follow Ariel into police detention.

For his supporters, this action is strong evidence that National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri is responsive and proactive in detecting and accommodating public aspirations and unrest.

The general is also excellent in entertaining the demands of people who want this country to adopt the highest standards of morality. Bambang is also active in upholding the law and without doubt has defied public outcries questioning the urgency and relevance of such actions.

Bambang clearly pleased people who wanted harsh punishments for any acts of adultery or sex among Indonesian citizens who were not legally bound in marriage. This would explain why now police in other parts of the country have been active in raiding hotels chasing lovers committing immoral acts.

Perhaps this is also why President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has utmost trust in the general who will soon enter retirement age. Yudhoyono is apparently so satisfied with the police performance under Bambang's leadership that he has never taken action against him, no matter how furious the public was with many of the police's actions and policies.

But critical questions also arise: Why were the police so quick to arrest Ariel and in handling petty crimes when they are so extremely slow – if indeed any action is taken at all – in bringing mega-corruption cases to justice?

A brief search on Google will produce countless multi-million dollar Indonesian corruption cases or gross human rights abuses that have remain unresolved.

The following are a few examples: The National Police confirmed it had found a police general holding Rp 95 billion but insisted the general got the money from a legal business.

In another case, a national newspaper recently published a list of 17 cases involving trillions of rupiah, including the alleged abuses of one bank account at Bank Indonesia and a banking crime. None of the cases has ever gone to court.

For those who think Ariel's alleged sex acts have humiliated Indonesia as a pious nation, the police decision to arrest him – and likely Luna Maya and Cut Tari too – is very laudable, and General Bambang deserves praise.

But like the police, the very same people who want to punish any acts of sexual deceit or small gambling also seem to be blind and deaf to the fact that cases of gross corruption and abuse of power are doing far more damage to public welfare. As if a sex "crime" is more dangerous than corruptors who have stolen trillions of rupiah from the state coffers or who ruin the lives of innocent people in the name of "national interests".

The arrest and detention of Ariel shows that many people and state officials of this nation only care about "crimes" and "violations" that do not affect them directly. If they were caught red-handed having "illegal sex" they could easily use a religious pretext to cover up their deeds.

Meanwhile many corruptors and power abusers remain untouchable because the laws are in their hands.

How should we respond when the international community laughs at our nation that for decades has remained on the list of the world's most corrupt?

Papua's separatist fires burn bright

Asia Times - June 23, 2010

Sara Schonhardt, Jakarta – Shootings, protests and violent attacks are on the rise in Indonesia's easternmost Papua province, home to a low-level separatist struggle and the operations of US mining giant Freeport McMoRan.

Security analysts warn of increased radicalization by groups that feel violence is the only way to draw international attention to their suppressed cause. At the same time, human-rights activists say arrests of pro-independence supporters have robbed the movement of moderate voices.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), a US-based rights group, says police dragnets of peaceful separatist campaigners could be setting the stage for more violence. "When you repress free speech and peaceful political campaigns, you're just driving people into the arms of radicals," he said.

HRW released a report on June 23 that condemned the Indonesian government for criminally prosecuting peaceful expression by separatists in the Moluccas and Papua, where locals have grown increasingly resentful of Jakarta's perceived as heavy-handed rule. The loss of ancestral land to centrally imposed development projects has also stoked frustration and resentment.

Displaying symbols associated with separatist movements is a treasonable offence in Indonesia; in Papua, arrest is almost guaranteed for those who dare to hoist the Morning Star flag of West Papua. Protestors often wave it at public rallies in the hope that an unreasonable police reaction will help win their movement international publicity, says Sidney Jones, a senior advisor at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG), which recently released a report on the radicalization of Papua.

HRW argues that governments can justify some restrictions on free speech when secessionist movements pose a serious threat to national security, but the rights group says that raising a separatist flag is not a direct incitement to violence and goes against legal guarantees protecting free expression in the Indonesian constitution.

In 2001, Jakarta granted Papua special autonomy status, which allowed indigenous Papuans more control over tax and other revenues derived from natural resource extraction. The central government has also committed to a program of accelerated development and has worked to replace the military with the police in handling separatist activity.

But Papuans still feel neglected, says Budi Hernawan, former director of the Office for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Church in Papua's capital, Jayapura. Around 2,000 Papuans marched there on June 18 to demand that the government revoke the special autonomy they claimed has been ineffective since local leaders remain at the mercy of Jakarta and have thus done little to alleviate poverty and unemployment.

"While autonomy laws give Papuans cash, that is different from establishing a truth and reconciliation commission that would look at the past," Jones says, referring to the four decades of mistreatment Papuans have suffered under de facto martial law.

Official sensitivities

Activists like Benny Wenda, an escaped political prisoner now based in Oxford, England, are working to highlight examples of government heavy-handedness. In 2008, Wenda helped establish International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP), a group modeled on a similar organization that helped East Timor secure independence from Indonesia. The IPWP believes international pressure could eventually move the government to address Papuans' demand for independence, and its members have provided encouragement to militant members of the separatist West Papua National Committee (Komite Nasional Papua Barat), or KNPB.

The KNPB is at the forefront of efforts to use conflict to achieve greater sovereignty. Yet the vast majority of Papuans do not support violent means, and militant groups such as the KNPB pose no immediate threat to the Indonesian state, analysts say.

However, Jones says that rising radicalization is proof of the dangers of ignoring political grievances, and it plays on government fears that international pressure could eventually annul the 1969 Act of Free Choice that led to Indonesia's original annexation of Papua. That concern would seemingly explain why security forces continue to overreact to peaceful protests, particularly when the Morning Star flag is raised.

"It's as though, after Aceh, the intelligence forces have gotten even more allergic to separatist symbols," says Jones, referring to the long-running separatist movement in north Sumatra that disbanded after separatist rebels and the central government signed a peace accord following the 2004 tsunami.

The accord dissolved the military wing of the rebel Free Aceh Movement, known as GAM, and its leaders were folded into the region's governing structures. However Jones says that the military, or TNI, believes that GAM and its supporters are still secretly working toward independence.

Papua remained under Dutch control for more than 15 years after Indonesian independence from colonial rule. When the Dutch administration agreed to support Papuan ambitions for sovereignty in 1961, Indonesia's then-president Sukarno sent troops to the island to assert Jakarta's control and ensure that Papua would not be granted separate state status.

The US sent a diplomatic delegation to the island to oversee talks between Jakarta and Papua's Dutch administrators, and in 1969 the United Nations sponsored a referendum, known as the "Act of Free Choice", to decide whether the island would become independent. Because only around 1,000 Papuans voted in the event, most Papuans feel the referendum was neither free nor representative.

However, it's not only resentment of Indonesian rule that has fueled grass roots support for armed guerrilla groups such as the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka), or OPM, and the KNPB. Many Papuans are also angry about the way the Indonesian government has annexed the island.

In particular, many deplore Freeport for exploiting the island's natural resources and allegedly leaving environmental degradation in its wake. There has also been a backlash to a scheme by Jakarta aimed at developing thousands of hectares of privately owned land as a food-for-export plantation farmed by non-Papuans.

Human-rights groups have long tried to document the litany of abuses that allegedly occur in Papua, but the government continues to prevent journalists and others from reporting on the remote island. "When it comes to politically sensitive issues, the way they [the government] approach it is not that different from the New Order regime," says Hernawan, referring to Suharto's autocratic regime.

Current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has won international kudos for presiding over the country's impressive democratic transition, but his handling of Papua represents a spot on his record. HRW's report shines new light on the deteriorating situation.

In particular, it reveals widespread abuses at Abepura prison, where an earlier visit by the Papuan arm of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) uncovered more than 20 incidents of abuse from August 2008.

In May the prison warden at Abepura was transferred to Sumatra, a move that Robertson says shows some progress. But the treatment of political prisoners still stains Indonesia's broadly improving human-rights record, he says, noting that the recent report has seen no response from Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar.

The police force in Papua, which has now taken over most of the duties once controlled by the TNI, has been working to differentiate itself from a force that has been implicated in previous human-rights abuses. But a greater police presence has also opened its officers to more criticism.

"The police's biggest problem is poor information and poor intelligence," say Jones, who gives them some credit for acting with more restraint recently. The police seem to have acknowledged that arbitrary arrests and abuse play into the hands of separatist groups, and they've started to release many of those brought in for questioning without charge.

Those who monitor Papua say that the current tension illustrates the need for more discussion between the central government and those leading the pro-independence movement. But many Papuans still view talks with the government as little more than symbolic, aimed at giving lawmakers political profile without actually producing results.

Some say reports like those issued by ICG and HRW will spark public debate and help raise the issue's profile abroad. But Hernawan contends that Yudhoyono's inaction on endorsing talks between Papuan separatists and his government sends a message that Papua is not a priority for his administration – and that provides impetus for more violence.

The daughter of Filep Karma, a separatist supporter who has served five years of a 15-year sentence for organizing a peaceful rally, has spoken out about the toll her father's imprisonment has taken on her family and his own health. He currently suffers from a prostate illness, but she says that prison authorities continue to deny him the medical treatment he needs.

That's why it's so important that these political prisoners are not forgotten, Robertson says. "It's easy to do the right thing when everybody is watching," he says. "It's harder to do it in a remote corner that is discriminated against."

[Sara Schonhardt is a freelance writer based in Jakarta, Indonesia. She has lived and worked in Southeast Asia for six years and has a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University.]