Jakarta There are thirteen rallies scheduled in Greater Jakarta today, according to Jakarta Police Traffic Management Centre (TMC).
Three rallies are expected to start from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in front of the West Jakarta District Court on Jl. S. Parman, at the Health Ministry on Jl. H. R. Rasuna Said, South Jakarta and in front of the Presidential Palace on Jl. Merdeka Utara, Central Jakarta.
At 9 a.m., two demonstrations are expected at PT. Barito Pacific Timber (Wisma Barito Pacific Tower Jakarta), on Jl. S. Parman Kav. 62-63, West Jakarta, and at the State Enterprises Ministry on Jl. Merdeka Selatan, Central Jakarta.
At 10 a.m., three rallies will be staged in front of the Depok Legislative Council, in front of the City Hall on Jl. Merdeka Selatan Central Jakarta, and in front of Savage Building, PT. Palyja on Jl. Penjemihan Pejompongan, Central Jakarta.
Three groups of people will hold protests starting at 10 a.m. in front of the Corruption Eradication Commission office on Jl. H. R. Rasuna Said, at the National Police headquarters on Jl. Trunojoyo and at the National Police Commission office) on Jl. Tirtayasa VII, South Jakarta.
A protest is scheduled for 10.30 a.m. at PT. Gema Karya Abadi on Jl. Imam Bonjol KM. 44. 2 Sukadanau Cikarang Barat, Bekasi. From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., a rally will take place at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle on Jl. M. H. Thamrin Central Jakarta.
Banyumas, Central Java Around 1,500 village representatives from 310 villages in Banyumas regency left for Jakarta on Tuesday to join a rally to demand employment status promotions.
In Jakarta they merged with fellow village representatives from across the country demanding to be recognized as civil servants. The group called themselves members of Indonesia Village Apparatus Association.
Group leader Sudarko said the 2004 Law on regional autonomy carried contradictory content on village apparatus. According to Sudarko, an article stipulates village administrators are village heads while another article says the village apparatus also includes the village secretary.
"Another article says a village secretary is occupied by either a civil servant or an appointee. That causes jealousy within the village apparatus," he said.
The protesters demanded the revised bill currently being drafted by the Home Ministry be immediately submitted to the House of Representatives for enforcement.
Fitri R., West Lombok Around 700 people from five villages in West Lombok district rallied outside the West Nusa Tenggara governor's office on Thursday to protest the administration's plan to turn Sesaot forest into a conservation park.
Rusmayadi, the protest coordinator, said more than 6,000 families from the five villages located inside the 3,672-hectare forest stood to be evicted if the plan was enforced.
"We'll be forced to leave this forest that we've managed and lived off for decades, to make way for animals," he said. "Where can we go when we've lived there so long?"
He accused the administration and the forestry agency of sidelining the interests of the forest dwellers.
The protest's leader later held talks with administration spokesman M. Faizal. In their defense, they cited a 2010 study by the central government that recommended that the forest remain under the stewardship of the villagers.
Sesaot forest has since 1986 been managed under a community forestry license, which allows the families to grow crops and do logging in limited quantities.
The provincial administration first raised the idea of granting the forest conservation status in 1999, but was roundly opposed by residents, who said it would cost them their livelihoods.
In 2009, the administration went ahead with its plan and officially decreed the forest a conservation park, effectively stripping the residents of their right to manage the forest. However, it has not yet enforced the decree.
Hartina, head of the provincial forestry agency, said his office would recommend that the conservation status for the forest remain in place, but that the residents be allowed to continue their subsistence farming and logging.
The rebuilding of Aceh from the enormous destruction of the 2004 tsunami has been impressive, but the province continues to lag behind the rest of the nation in terms of poverty, life expectancy and other quality of life indicators, the UN said in its first Aceh Human Development Report released today.
Requested by the Aceh government, the report marks the first time the UN Development Program has conducted a comprehensive human development study at the provincial level in Indonesia. It is based on data from 2008, the latest year for which figures are available.
"Since the tsunami six years ago and the peace accords that followed a year later, the people of Aceh have achieved remarkable progress in the physical rebuilding of their communities, yet similar advances in key human development indicators remain elusive," the agency said.
"Long years of military and political struggle, coupled with changing economic conditions and continuing natural disasters, have left Aceh today as one of the poorest provinces in Indonesia," the report notes.
As a result, the agency's Human Development Indicators for Aceh rank it 29th out of the country's 33 provinces. The report also says that measures of health and empowerment for women in the region "reveal discouraging trends over the period 1996 through 2008."
"Aceh faces five major challenges: to improve security; to expand efforts to mitigate future natural disasters; to reduce poverty; to reverse the downward trend in women's well-being; and to redress inequalities in less developed areas of the province," the report points out.
Women, the study says, "are still largely under-represented in decision- making at the community level. Domestic violence perpetuated by men toward women is also still a major concern within Acehnese families."
Among its findings, the report said life expectancy in Aceh was 68.5 years, up from 67.7 years in 2002, compared with a national average of 71.5 years in 2010.
Poverty in the province has declined to 22 percent of the populace from a peak of 30 percent in 2002, at the height of the conflict between separatist rebels and the central government, "but remains well above the 14 percent for Indonesia as a whole."
"Health indicators show that Aceh still ranks in the bottom third or quarter of all provinces," the report states, noting that health and poverty problems are particularly severe in the province's west and south. In terms of schooling, however, Aceh is outperforming the national average, with 8.6 years compared with 7.6 years.
"This does not necessarily translate, however, into better educated children," the report finds, "due to the uneven quality of teaching and school facilities."
The report praises the province's efforts to empower more people to participate in the development of the education system, but notes that many relatively well-schooled people remain mired in poverty due to the lack of employment opportunities a situation that has been aggravated by the withdrawal of many aid agencies since the physical reconstruction of the province has been largely completed.
"Aceh, along with the rest of the country, has shown impressive gains in participation in the political arena and in community development," the report says. It adds that the main platform to progress in human development in Aceh consists of empowering people to make their own decisions regarding development priorities and the use of resources.
Christen Broecker When President Obama went to Indonesia last month, he lauded its embrace of democracy in a speech at the University of Indonesia but made clear that equality was essential to its success.
"It will be the rights of citizens that will stitch together this remarkable Nusantara [archipelago]... an insistence that every child born in this country should be treated equally, whether they come from Java or Aceh; from Bali or Papua," he said.
His words played well in Jakarta, but there are serious assaults on equality in Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province. There, the application of a local law ostensibly inspired by Islam is systematically denying people of the same right to freedom of association and privacy that all Indonesians are supposed to enjoy, along with physical integrity and protection from violence by the state.
On Sept. 17, less than two months before Mr. Obama's comments, local media in Aceh reported that a young widow and a male friend, both in their 20s, had been attacked violently by a group of local residents in Banda Aceh.
The group broke into the man's souvenir shop, found the couple together on the second floor, seized them, dumped sewer water on them and turned them over to the Shariah police. The Shariah police, in turn, accused the couple of breaking the law and promptly offered them a choice: marry or face a criminal process that could lead to eight lashes with a cane. The man told authorities he would rather be caned than marry, and the woman, in tears, replied, "I would rather commit suicide."
Such an incident would be unthinkable in Jakarta, Surabaya or many other cities throughout the archipelago. So how is it that in today's Indonesia whose "spirit of tolerance" Mr. Obama recalled fondly in his speech two adults capable of making decisions about how to conduct their own lives could be subjected to such state-tolerated violence, humiliation and deprivation of their privacy and freedom for engaging in peaceful, consensual and private activity?
In Aceh, under the so-called Seclusion Law, it is a crime for an unmarried man and woman who are not related by blood to associate in an "isolated place." Since 1999, Indonesia's national government has explicitly permitted Aceh alone to become a territory that implements Shariah laws, or laws derived from the teachings of Islam, that carry criminal penalties.
This was an effort to curry popular support in a territory that had been embroiled in a separatist struggle with Jakarta for decades. The Seclusion Law has been in place since 2003. By 2005, the members of Aceh's newly created Shariah police force had begun conducting surveillance and arresting, investigating and recommending suspected violators for prosecution before Aceh's Shariah courts. In 2009 alone, the Shariah police in Aceh recorded 836 violations of the law prohibiting "seclusion," which doesn't include many enforcement actions by the regular police or by private individuals.
In Aceh, I spoke with a number of people who had been accused of violating the Seclusion Law and had suffered violence, humiliation and abuse at the hands of Aceh's Shariah police force, the regular police or private citizens, who are encouraged under local laws to take enforcement into their own hands.
Government officials in Aceh and Jakarta have largely ignored reports of abuse, but repeated reports of violent "seclusion" apprehensions featured in the Acehnese media demonstrate that such abuse will go on unless and until officials address the problem.
Aceh's governor, Irwandi Yusuf, has sought during the past year to prevent even more repressive laws from entering into force. But both Mr. Irwandi and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono need to take concrete steps to secure the repeal or judicial invalidation of fundamentally flawed laws like the law on seclusion, to radically alter the mandate of the abusive Shariah police force and to crack down on private violence committed in the name of morality.
Mr. Obama and leaders of other governments concerned with maintaining and strengthening Indonesia's democratic transition should make it clear that such fundamentally repressive laws have no place in a rights-respecting democracy. The decades since Mr. Obama's boyhood may have brought many benefits to the people of Indonesia, but for the vast majority of Aceh's nearly 4.5 million people, equal recognition and protection of the fundamental human rights to privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of religion are not among them.
[Christen Broecker is a fellow at Human Rights Watch and the author of a new Human Rights Watch report, "Policing Morality.".]
Nurfika Osman, Jayapura While Papua has long had a reputation among many Indonesians for being inhospitable to outsiders, a small island there is proving naysayers wrong.
Kosong, or Empty, Island is just a 10-minute boat ride from Jayapura, the provincial capital, and has since 1968 been home to a small fishing community from Southeast Sulawesi.
Muhammad Angga, originally from Buton Island in South Sulawesi, says Kosong Island used to belong to the Papuan clans of Jouwe, Sibi, Hai and Soro.
"Our ancestors made a deal with them years ago [to buy the island]," he says. "There have been times when the government has wanted to move us to other areas, most recently two years ago, but this is our ancestral land now."
He adds this claim to the land has been strengthened by intermarriages between the fishing community and members of the Serui tribe, one of the many indigenous Papuan groups living on the island.
However, the community's claim to the land is not officially recognized by the government, hence the welfare of the island dwellers has largely been overlooked by public officials.
"We don't have any schools here for our children," Angga says. "All the schools are on the mainland."
The children have to take the boat ride to the mainland every school day. "Once they reach the shore, the students then have to take public transportation to get to their schools."
He adds each student must pay Rp 2,000 for a single crossing, while adults must pay Rp 5,000. Angga says it would save the students and their parents a lot of money if the government provided them with a boat.
"We want our children to keep going to school to continue their education because we want them to have a better future than us."
Laode Arifin, head of a community learning center, agrees that the government should provide special transportation to take the children to school. "We're going to propose to the government that they provide one or two boats to take the students to the mainland for free," he says.
Angga says another hardship for the islanders is obtaining diesel for their fishing boats.
"Fuel for boats is very expensive in Papua," he says. "Each fisherman needs Rp 200,000 [$22] worth of fuel each day to go out fishing."
The National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said the government needs to address the problem of reclaiming ancestral land.
"It's a tough job because there needs to be intense dialogue with the people if the government wants to take over their land," says Nurkholis, deputy chairman of the organization.
He adds the private sector and the government tend to ignore ancestral claims to such land, "which is not correct." He points out that land disputes account for 30 percent of human rights violations in the country, just behind police and military brutality at 35 percent.
Back on Kosong Island, Angga says that while the community does not possess any title deed to their land, "Papua has long been part of us". "We hope the government can understand what this land means to the Buton people and to the Papuans," he says.
Jayapura Andi Rahmat Faisal was found dead on Wednesday, bringing to four the total number of shooting victims in the past three weeks in Jayapura regency.
"He was found at 1 o'clock and we believe he was killed a few days before. He had a gunshot wound to his left eye," Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Wachyono told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Andi worked as a collections agent for a cellphone retailer in Sentani. "He was shot on his way home to Sentani after collecting money, and Rp 40 million has been reported missing," Wachyono said.
Recent shooting deaths include Riswandi Yusuf, who was shot dead on Nov. 28, and Miron Wetipo and Muhammad Amas, who were killed this week.
Miron was shot dead on Dec. 3, reportedly by a police officer who was chasing armed civilians in Abepura. The following day, police found the Amas' body in Mulia, Puncak Jaya.
Jakarta The central government must remove their security forces from Papua and West Papua provinces and communicate better with residents in order to reduce tensions in the region, a legislator says.
Legislator Mahfudz Siddiq from the House of Representatives Commission I on foreign affairs said trust in the government would wither if President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono continued to maintain the same policies in the region.
"The government should end the security force presence in the region for a start," he said.
The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) legislator said the government had allocated more than Rp 30 trillion (US$3.33 billion) to implement special status for the two provinces, and the Papua and West Papua administrations had absorbed the money.
But, life expectancy for Papuans continues to decrease. The life expectancy of Papuans is now 48 years. Before the special status, it was 50.
Special status for the two provinces began in 2001. It included the requirement that only Papuans can occupy strategic positions in local administrations.
Muridan S. Widjojo of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences said things have not changed in decades, with army members beating residents, burning villages and exchanging fire with resistance groups. "Some are arrested for political reasons. It's impossible for local people to be free from fear as our constitution guarantees," he said.
Seventeen exchanges of fire took place this year, with residents and army officers suffering casualties. The most recent exchange occurred in Jayapura, Papua, on Nov. 28. In October, NGOs released a video showing army members abusing local men.
Muridan, who has led a team creating a road map for improving conditions in Papua since 2004, said the government has started to take issues in the regions seriously.
Muridan cited a speech the President made and two visits, to Wasior in West Papua and to Jayapura, as evidence. On Aug. 16, Yudhoyono said in a speech that he would foster constructive communication to settle issues in the region.
Muridan said the government has taken interest in the matter because of pressure from groups that brought to light human rights violations against Papuans in international forums. "That surely humiliated the country as a sovereign state that is committed to supporting human rights," he said.
US President Barack Obama said in a speech during his recent visit to Indonesia that all citizens, including Papuans, deserved the same rights.
The Indonesian representative for the Southeast Asia Human Rights Commission Refendi Djamin agreed that the country was pressured diplomatically because of the issue.
"As long as the government does not have a good policy for handling domestic affairs, our diplomats will never have a good position in their diplomatic efforts," Refendi said.
Although violence against Papuans still occurs, he praised ruling governments in the reformation period for leaving behind the culture of denial. Rafendi said the government should be focusing on guaranteeing at least the two most basic rights, freedom from fear and freedom to be a political entity, instead of recklessly building infrastructure in the name of Papuan welfare.
Home Affairs Ministry director general of regional autonomy Djohermansyah Djohan said the government was currently preparing a new plan to guard special status so it would benefit Papuans.
"We are planning to establish a special agency to handle and observe the implementation because now we have different agencies handling the matter, which makes everything more confused and complicated," he said.
He said the plan included the stipulation that the special agency would be led by someone in authority like the Vice President, so the agency would have greater legitimacy. (rch)
Philip Dorling and Nick McKenzie Indonesia threatened to derail a visit to Jakarta by President Barack Obama this year unless he overturned the US ban on training the controversial Kopassus army special forces.
Leaked US State Department cables reveal that the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, privately told the Americans that continuing the ban introduced in 1999 because of Kopassus's appalling human rights record was the "litmus test of the bilateral relationship" between the US and Indonesia.
Six months later the US agreed to resume ties with Kopassus, despite fierce criticism from some human rights groups and American politicians about Jakarta's failure to hold officers to account for their role in atrocities.
The cables, made available exclusively to the Herald by WikiLeaks, detail US concerns about Indonesia's failure to prosecute the military personnel responsible for murder and torture during the conflicts in East Timor and Aceh.
But they also reveal that US diplomats in Jakarta believed that Dr Yudhoyono's demands should be met to ensure that Indonesia's military and security services would protect US interests in the region, including co- operation in the fight against terrorism. It was also argued that closer military ties would encourage further reform of Indonesia's military.
The Indonesian leader's call to lift the Kopassus training ban is described in a January cable from the US embassy in Jakarta.
"President Yudhoyono (SBY) and other senior Indonesian officials have made it clear to us that SBY views the issue of Army Special Forces (Kopassus) training as a litmus test of the bilateral relationship and that he believes the... visit of President Obama will not be successful unless this issue is resolved in advance of the visit."
The US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, said in July that the US needed to renew links with Kopassus "as a result of Indonesian military reforms over the past decade, the ongoing professionalisation of the TNI [army], and recent actions taken by the Ministry of Defence to address human rights issues".
An expert on the Indonesian military, the Australian Defence Force Academy associate professor Clinton Fernandes, said the cables appeared to show that members of Congress such as Patrick Leahy author of the 1999 ban on training with Kopassus "have not been told the real reason for Mr Obama's decision, which was to provide photo opportunities for the President".
"The decision to renew links shows contempt not only to the victims of gross human rights violations but to members of the US Congress," Professor Fernandes said.
US diplomatic cables from the past four years reveal that Jakarta's intense lobbying to lift the Kopassus ban was largely supported by the US embassy in Jakarta, which cited the Australian military's ties with Kopassus as a reason to lift the ban. An April 2007 cable says that "our Australian counterparts often encourage us to resume training for Kopassus".
But numerous cables also detail serious US concerns about resuming ties. In October 2007, the embassy told Washington that "Indonesia has not prosecuted past human rights violations in any consistent manner.
"While we need to keep Indonesia mindful of the consequences of inaction on TNI accountability, Indonesia is unlikely to abandon its approach. We need therefore to encourage the Indonesian government to take alternative steps to demonstrate accountability."
Another 2007 cable details US concern about the appearance at a Kopassus anniversary celebration of Tommy Suharto, the notorious son of the former president who served several years in prison for arranging the killing of a judge who convicted him of fraud.
In May 2008 the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, was briefed by US diplomats that "the key impediment to expanded engagement remains the failure of the GOI [Indonesia] to press for accountability for past human rights abuses by security forces".
The cable welcomes Indonesia's continuing military reforms but noted they were not "the same as putting generals behind bars for past human rights abuses".
Last last year, about six months before the US lifted its Kopassus ban, a senior US official, Bill Burns, told Indonesian counterparts that "engagement with Kopassus continued to be a difficult and complex issue, particularly as there remained many in Washington, including in Congress, with serious concerns about accountability for past Kopassus actions".
But the US cables also reveal the Jakarta embassy's efforts to water down the background screening that Indonesian military officers must undergo if they undertake training in the US.
The US embassy is also revealed in another cable as heavily playing down a report by Human Rights Watch last year that alleged Kopassus soldiers had committed recent human rights abuses in Papua. The embassy calls the report unbalanced and unconfirmed and says the abuses detailed do not appear to "meet the standard of gross violation of human rights".
Jakarta The Indonesian government downplayed a leaked US embassy cable that said Jakarta used the recent state visit by President Barack Obama as a bargaining tool to force Washington to lift a 12-year-old ban on training a special army unit blamed for human rights abuses.
"We never did such a thing," Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro was quoted as saying Friday at the Presidential Palace by news portal tempointeraktif.com.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported Friday that Indonesia "threatened to derail a visit to Jakarta by President Barack Obama" unless he overturned the US ban on training Kopassus. The newspaper obtained exclusive information from WikiLeaks, a whistle-blower website that has leaked about 250,000 US embassy cables.
The Foreign Ministry told The Jakarta Post on Friday that it would not comment on any diplomatic cables revealed by WikiLeaks.
Human rights activists said they doubted that Indonesia's threat to derail Obama's visit last November was the real reason behind the lifting of the ban, but added that they suspected more diplomatic cables were to come from WikiLeaks to explain the reasons behind the lifting of the ban.
"I don't think the US lifted the embargo on training the Army Special Forces [Kopassus] based on that alone," Haris Azhar from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said.
The US administration placed the ban in 1999 due to gross human rights violations, including murder and torture during conflicts in Timor Leste and Aceh.
"The agreement to provide military aid was probably the last piece of negotiation before the visit," Haris said, adding that Obama could have canceled the trip if the US administration did not agree to the demand of the Indonesian government.
Obama canceled visits in March and June due to pressing issues before finally making his long-awaited visit in November.
Haris said the leaked cables were just "one of many parts" and stronger reasons behind the lifting of the ban would surface as WikiLeaks continued to release the remaining cables in its cache.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is now embroiled in a legal battle, threatened that key parts of the entire archive of 251,287 cables would be released automatically if something should happen, as reported by The New York Times.
Haris said the cables showed that human rights took a back seat to other interests since human rights "was not really the main principal in carrying out diplomacy".
"Human rights are non-negotiable between any two countries," he added. "No government should give aid to the Indonesian Military before the units make efforts to supporting human rights and carry out reforms."
The Herald reported that the US embassy in Jakarta supported the lifting of the ban, citing the Australian military's ties with Kopassus as a reason. An April 2007 cable revealed said that "our Australian counterparts often encourage us to resume training for Kopassus". (gzl)
Jakarta Leaked US State Department cables, made available to the Sydney Morning Herald by WikiLeaks, showed that the US was concerned about "the appearance of Tommy Soeharto at a Kopassus [Army Special Force] anniversary celebration."
Tommy, the youngest son of the former president Soeharto served several years in prison for arranging the killing of a judge who convicted him of fraud.
The Supreme Court judge, Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, was killed in gang-style shooting on July 26, 2001. He was the judge who sentenced Tommy to 18 months in prison for land-swap deal involving Tommy's company PT Goro Batara Sakti and the State Logistics Agency, or Bulog.
Tommy was arrested in November 2001 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison for arranging the murder. He was released on parole in October 2006.
The 'incident' referred to by WikiLeaks took place in 2007 when the then Kopassus' general commander, Maj. Gen. Rasyid Aquary bowed to Tommy. The US government, through the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill, officially questioned then Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono about it.
David Danzig Among the handful of bombshells one can find in the cables that went back and forth between the US State Department and embassy staff in Jakarta is this: the US is apparently aware of evidence linking a high level Indonesian security official to the assassination of Munir Said Thalib, one of Indonesia's most outspoken human rights activists.
Munir was poisoned in 2004 as he flew from Jakarta to Amsterdam. While a handful of people thought to be responsible for the murder have been charged in his death, the "masterminds" as the cables refer to them of the assassination are not in prison.
According to reports about the cables, recently released by Wikileaks, Indonesian police have a witness who claims that, "former [Indonesian Intelligence] chief Hendropriyono chaired two meetings at which Munir's assassination was planned."
A witness at those meetings told Indonesian police that "only the time and method of the murder changed from the plans he heard discussed; original plans were to kill Munir in his office."
But as the cables make clear, the witness like others with first-hand knowledge of the killing is unwilling to testify in the case because he fears for his safety.
"A breakthrough on who ordered the murder would presumably require someone with inside information to take an extraordinary risk in testifying, and would require protection," the cables say. "Nonetheless, the police seem to have been given orders to show progress on the case, likely due to international attention."
Separate cables also detail the backroom discussions that led to the recent resumption of US military assistance to Kopassus, the Indonesian special forces who are alleged to have committed serious human rights violations in Aceh, Papua, East Timor, Jakarta and elsewhere.
The cables lay out an argument for re-engaging with the special ops community despite their rights record, by suggesting that closer military ties would encourage further reform of Indonesia's military.
The cables also report that Indonesian officials threatened to derail President Obama's November, 2010 visit to Indonesia if the ties to Kopassus were not renewed. (Indonesian officials vehemently deny that this threat was ever made.)
But taken as a complete body of work, the cables make clear that Washington is keen to make more friends than enemies in Jakarta.
State Department officials devote the majority of their key strokes to considerations such as: "US economic interests" in a country that has grown the largest economy in Southeast Asia; "counter-terrorism cooperation" in a country where Islamic extremists have found refuge and carried out attacks; and the relationship between Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Chinese, who are also investing heavily in their ties to Indonesia.
All this suggests that activists who want to see accountability for Munir's death are going to have to continue to pressure officials in Jakarta and Washington for further action on the case. Now that there is public evidence that the Indonesians (and the Americans) are aware of evidence against Hendropriyono, it has become even harder for officials to close the books on this tragic killing.
Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta Reports that Jakarta threatened to derail US President Barack Obama's visit to the country unless the ban on military training for the Indonesian special forces was lifted have been denied by the government.
Based on US diplomatic cables made available by WikiLeaks, the Melbourne Age newspaper reported that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono privately told US officials the training ban was the "litmus test" of ties between the United States and Indonesia.
The ban was imposed in 1999 because of a long record of human rights abuses attributed to the special forces, or Kopassus, including killings in East Timor and Papua.
"President Yudhoyono and other senior Indonesian officials have made it clear to us that SBY views the issue of Army Special Forces training as a litmus test of the bilateral relationship and that he believes the... visit of President Obama will not be successful unless this issue is resolved in advance of the visit," the US cable reportedly said.
Six months after the January cable, the United States agreed to resume ties with Kopassus, despite objections from human rights groups.
In July, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States felt the time had come to renew links with Kopassus "as a result of Indonesian military reforms over the past decade, the ongoing professionalization of the TNI and recent actions taken by the Ministry of Defense to address human rights issues."
Leaked cable correspondence reveals that US diplomats in Jakarta believed Yudhoyono's demands needed to be met to ensure that Indonesia's military would protect US interests in the region, including cooperation in the war on terror. The diplomats argued that closer ties would lead to greater reform in the Indonesian military.
"There is no such thing, really there is nothing [to the reports]," Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said of the report before a cabinet meeting at the presidential palace. "In the agreement that we signed [on ties with Kopassus], Indonesia and the US had the same position. We did not force them," he added.
Presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah also dismissed the matter. "We don't want to respond to whatever WikiLeaks says from time to time," he said. "First of all, what the cables say does not make any sense."
In other reports, US officials also expressed concern over Indonesia's failure to successfully prosecute soldiers accused of torture and murder during the conflicts in East Timor and Aceh.
In October 2007, the embassy told Washington in a cable that "Indonesia has not prosecuted past human rights violations in any consistent manner."
Another cable cited by The Age noted that around the same time, several high-ranking Indonesian officers had been promoted, despite questions about their involvement in past atrocities.
The cable said Indonesian military reforms were encouraging, but noted they were not "the same as putting generals behind bars for past human rights abuses."
There are reportedly around 3,000 leaked US diplomatic cables involving Indonesia waiting to be released by WikiLeaks. Friday's report in The Age is one of the first involving those cables.
Jakarta Documents reportedly released by WikiLeaks quote a senior Chinese government official as saying that he was "not impressed" with Indonesia's presidents after the downfall of Suharto other than Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The documents, classified by David Samuel Sedney, who served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Beijing from 2004-2007, were transmitted after talks on Southeast Asia between an American official and two of China's assistant ministers of foreign affairs, Cui Tian-kai and Hu Zhengyue.
"Beijing was 'not impressed' with the presidents who led Indonesia the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s, but has been pleased with President Yudhoyono's progress since taking power in 2004, DG Hu said," the leaked cable says.
The cables also quote Hu as accepting that China can influence "the general direction" of development in Indonesia, though he cautioned that Beijing must be "sensitive to the political reality of a significant ethnic Chinese population in Indonesia."
Hu, according to the documents published on the Web site of Danish newspaper Politiken, noted growing ethnic and religious tensions in Indonesia.
"Jakarta faces the challenge of decreasing the influence of the military and promoting democracy, while simultaneously responding to growing ethnic and religious tension. Beijing seeks to promote secular Islam in Indonesia by encouraging interaction with China's 20 million Muslims.
"In recent years, the United States and China have coordinated in providing assistance to Indonesia following natural disasters. Beijing sees such cooperation as a model for further such regional cooperation, DG Hu said."
The American official, identified only as DAS John, was quoted as telling Hu that "the United States and China must work together to promote democratization, economic growth and counter-terrorism in Indonesia."
"While President Susilo Yudhoyono has taken positive steps, we must encourage further transparency, accountability and military reform. Beijing should join Washington in pressing for better governance and accountability in the military, the Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI). Transparency in the TNI would reinforce and encourage transparency in Indonesia's government and public affairs in general, essential to attracting much-needed foreign investment.
"We must also press for reforms in labor and investment laws, as well as judicious enforcement of those laws, DAS John urged DG Hu."
Nurdin Hasan & Ismira Lutfia, Banda Aceh An Indonesian military tribunal on Friday began the trial of a former intelligence officer who allegedly attacked a journalist and threatened to kill him and his family in Aceh.
Military prosecutor Maj. Jamingun told the Iskandar Muda tribunal hearing that First Lt. Faizal Amin was facing charges that carried a maximum of five years in prison for the attack on Ahmadi, a reporter for Harian Aceh.
Jamingun said the defendant had been indicted for inflicting a grievous assault on the victim as well as property damage in May.
The defendant allegedly kicked and punched Ahmadi before threatening to kill him and his family if he continued to report on the role the Indonesian Armed Forces [TNI] played in illegal logging in Simeulue.
"He has been removed from his post within the military intelligence division for the actions he took against Ahmadi in May," Jamingun told the hearing, which was presided over by Judge CHK Waluyo.
Ahmadi, who was working at Sinabang in Simeulue, discovered illegally felled timber in the mountainous region of Seraton, the prosecutor said. "According to the interviews he conducted in the area, the logs belonged to a military official," Jamingun said.
Ahmadi sought to clarify the issue with the military command in Simeulue district. He was informed that the commander was unavailable and was instead pointed in the direction of Faizal, Jamingun said.
"Ahmadi met with Faizal, who requested he not report on the matter because it was going to be dealt with internally by the military," Jamingun said.
"But Ahmadi insisted on reporting on the case. Faizal told Ahmadi that if he did report on the case, then he was not to mention the TNI in the story," Jamingun said, reading from the indictment.
"The victim promised the defendant that he would not link the illegal logging to the TNI. However, a story turned up on page nine of Harian Aceh in May this year linking a military official to illegal logging activities in Simeulue," Jamingun said.
He said that upon learning of the coverage, Faizal instructed his men to look for Ahmadi. When Ahmadi was found, he was allegedly dragged to the district military command's shooting range.
"His laptop bag was taken and thrown on the street; his cellular phone was dumped in a ditch. He was then slapped, punched and kicked by the defendant," the prosecutor said. "The defendant then took out his gun and fired it twice in the air, near the left and right shoulders of the victim.
This man can no longer be trusted to responsibly use state [weapons]," Jamingun added. Following Friday's hearing, Ahmadi told reporters: "I was terrified. [Faizal] even threatened to finish off my entire family."
The trial was adjourned until Thursday to hear witness testimonies.
In an unrelated development, journalists in Maluku united under the Maluku Media Center were due to meet with the regional police chief today, following the suspicious death of Alfrets Mirulewan, editor in chief of Pelangi Weekly in the province.
Alfrets was found dead on Friday morning after being missing for three days. Prior to his death, the editor had been working on an investigative report on illegal gasoline trading on Kisar Island.
Insany Syahbarwaty, coordinator of the Maluku Media Center, said on Monday that regional lawmakers in Maluku had agreed to facilitate the meeting after a rally held by the journalists in Ambon.
"We also asked them to put pressure on the police chief to seriously probe Alfrets's death and form a special committee to investigate the illegal trading of gasoline in Maluku," she said.
However, Maluku Police Chief Brig. Gen. Syarif Gunawan said he was not aware of the meeting. He added that he had already asked the journalists to meet him on Saturday morning but they had refused.
Insany said that following the death of Alfrets, the journalists had urged lawmakers to demand police provide protection for two of their colleagues in hiding on Kisar Island.
One of the pair is Leksi Kikilay, from the Lensa Maluku tabloid, who had been working with Alfrets on the investigative report.
Syarief said the local police in Kisar Island have questioned 16 witnesses in relation to the discovery of Alfrets's body, but he could not yet disclose further details in the case.
Jakarta Alfrets Mirulewan, chief editor of Pelangi Weekly in Maluku, was found dead with bruises on a large part of his body on Thursday evening.
"The body was discovered by locals on the beach of Kisar Island. There were bruises and wounds on his body," Insany Syahbarwaty, coordinator of the Maluku Media Center, was quoted as saying by news portal Detik.com.
Alfrets's body has been taken by the police to Kisar Public Health Clinic for autopsy.
Alfrets had gone missing on Tuesday, Insany said. He was conducting an investigative report on illegal gasoline businesses. "He was tailing a car which allegedly belonged to the people involved in the illegal transaction," Insany said.
The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Press Council are to investigate the death. "We are still checking the chronology of his whereabouts before he went missing," AJI's chairman Nezar Patria said, adding that the AJI will demand a full police investigation if evidence shows that Alfrets was murdered.
Meanwhile, the Press Council said they would hand the murder investigation over to news organization Maluku Media Center.
"We will provide assistance in any way possible, we will soon send a team to Maluku. Quick response is called for in this case," the council's deputy chairman Bambang Harymurti said.
Bagus BT Saragih The ruling coalition will likely still be mired in bickering and internal friction next year, with a member party threatening to coalesce with the opposition to rival what it says was a possible exclusive alliance of the two largest parties in the coalition to win the 2014 polls.
In the strongest statement against the Democratic Party and the Golkar Party's domination of the coalition, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) on Tuesday called on smaller coalition parties to form an alliance with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to challenge the two major parties in the upcoming elections.
"The ruling coalition has largely been driven by its two biggest members. The situation has left smaller partners cornered," PKS deputy secretary- general Mahfudz Siddiq said, referring to the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the United Development Party (PPP).
He said the Democratic Party and Golkar may use the coalition as a political vehicle to secure their own interests ahead of the 2014 general elections. "I think this is the time for the other parties to consolidate and discuss our position in the coalition as we have so far been marginalized," he said.
The PAN and PPP responded coolly to PKS calls to join the PDI-P, but they expressed the same concerns over the Democratic Party and Golkar domination of the coalition.
The PPP's M. Romahurmuziy said the coalition had been ineffective due to the "lack of transparency and dishonesty of Golkar and the Democratic Party". The PAN's Teguh Juwarno said many decisions were arbitrarily made by the two parties without the consent of other parties in the coalition. "We are just notified afterward," he said.
Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum denied his party and Golkar undermined other coalition partners. "There is no dominant player in the coalition. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and leaders of other coalition parties agreed to support the government together," he was quoted as saying by news portal detik.com.
PDI-P secretary-general Tjahjo Kumolo played down the PKS' offer to collaborate. "Do I deign dignify that with a comment? They ask for our help but yet they still have ministers in the Cabinet. If you really want to politically negotiate, leave the government and the coalition first," he said.
Amir Tejo & Anita Rachman The deeply divided National Awakening Party (PKB) seemed far from reuniting, as factions in the party failed to find middle ground ahead of the 2014 election.
One faction in the party, led by Yeni Wahid, daughter of former PKB chairman Abdurrachman Wahid, plans to hold a PKB congress in Surabaya on Dec. 26-27.
Yeni suggested to party chairman Muhaimin Iskandar that the event be used as a forum to formalise the reunification of the party. There are two factions within the party, one loyal to the late Wahid and the other to his nephew, Muhaimin.
"There is now some sort of euphoria among the congress participants from the Wahid faction this is the first time the party has attempted to reunite," said Imron Rosadi, congress organiser.
An invitation has been extended to Muhaimin's side, he said, and they are waiting for confirmation whether or not he will attend the event. "The most important agenda is to bring the two factions back together again," he said.
Abdul Kadir Karding, the head of the PKB executive board from Muhaimin's camp, stated that a national congress could only be held under certain conditions. Attendees must be representatives from the party's branches from all regions in the country, he said
He added that the party holding the congress must also be legally recognized. If a party doesn't meet the qualifications, "it's not a congress, it's just a gathering. A mere political drama," Abdul said.
He denied that Muhaimin would attend the congress. "Why must he come? It's just a fake congress. "If Yeni wants a reconciliation, she must come to Muhaimin, not the other way around," Abdul said. The PKB suffered significant losses as Yeni campaigned for the newly established Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) in the last election, Abdul claimed. "She is the one who has been deflating the party."
Hariyadi, a political analyst from Airlangga University, said the party would have better leverage in the 2014 election if they put more effort in unifying the party.
The political party bill currently being deliberated is likely to increase the parliamentary threshold from the current 2.5 percent to either 5 or 7 percent. Even smaller parties are taking the matter very seriously as their future was under threat by the proposed rules, he said.
"Maintaining egos will be at the cost of PKB's survival," he said. "Reuniting PKB will be the momentum for the party and the Wahid family to be able to survive politically," Hariyadi said.
Anita Rachman, Jakarta Budget watchdogs aired their concerns on Sunday over the newly revised Law on Political Parties that has significantly raised the ceiling for companies' donations to political parties.
Critics fear the that lifting the amount that a corporation can contribute to a party by 67 percent to Rp 7.5 billion ($830,000) will tighten ties between commercial enterprises and politicians, making it more likely for parties to lean in the favor of big business. The revised law was passed on Thursday.
Yuna Farhan, secretary general of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), told the Jakarta Globe the scheme would benefit the donors and limit the independence of parties, jeopardizing the public interest.
"It will only tighten the oligarchic mutualism between businessmen and political parties," Yuna said. "Political parties will become dependent, and pay special [attention] to certain [companies'] interests."
The law also regulates other sources of funding, allowing individual to donate a maximum of Rp 1 billion per year. The law requires all contributions to be voluntary and transparent.
Abdul Malik Haramain from the National Awakening Party (PKB) and a member of House Commission II, which deliberated the law, said that the main argument for the raise was to enhance parties' grass-roots capabilities. He specifically cited the need for education of the people before implementing the change.
However, Yuna said the revised law does not provide measures to ensure transparency and proper auditing of the donations. There is no way to make sure, he said, that businessmen did not use several of their own companies to donate more than what was allowed.
"There is no regulation for that, so several branches of certain companies could donate at the same time," he said. "And according to our study of BPK [the Supreme Audit Agency] reports, donations received by political parties are prone to misappropriation."
Speaking separately, Roy Salam, a researcher from the Indonesian Budget Center, expressed similar concerns.
"We already have a situation where the government tends to go soft on companies," he said. "Companies are given access to natural resources and state budgets. They also benefit from a poor law-enforcement system that offers protection for corrupt businessmen."
Allowing an increase in donations is dangerous and raises the possibility that political parties in the future will no longer work for the people, but for companies, Roy added.
"This particular article [about the limit for donations] is pretty surprising, because so far the public did not know anything about it," he said, adding that the origin of the money donated by companies would never be questioned by political parties and could easily come from illegal sources.
Roy said the General Elections Commission (KPU) and Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) should watch parties closely and press parties that contest elections to fully disclose their sources of funding.
Chairuman Harahap, chairman of Commission II, in responding to critics said the important thing was there was still a clearly defined limit to donations, adding that the law would encourage parties to work with independent auditors to disclose their financial statements to the public. "We haven't even started why [are people] so suspicious?" he said.
The Golkar Party lawmaker further said it is impossible to involve the BPK because that agency only audits government budgets.
Nurul Arifin, another Commission II member, also from Golkar, said parties would not risk their credibility by accepting money from obscure sources. "Let the public and the media become the watchdogs," she added.
Amir Tejo, Surabaya Although the 2014 presidential elections are still a few years away, names of possible candidates were already emerging over the weekend.
The Nahdlatul Ulama Savior Movement (GPNU), linked to the country's largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), is calling on NU-affiliated political parties to support the presidential candidacy of Mahfud MD, chairman of the Constitutional Court (MK).
"Since Abdurrahman Wahid passed away, NU has been lost without a leading figure of firm and open statesmanship," GPNU chairman Khoirul Rijal said.
"Mahfud MD's controversial calls for corruption within the Constitutional Court to be publicly unraveled is proof that he is a true reformist just what the country needs these days."
One month ago, legal expert Refly Harun published an opinion piece in the Kompas daily alleging that certain plaintiffs had paid for the Constitutional Court to rule in their favor during an electoral dispute.
Mahfud invited the lawyer to assemble an investigative team to follow up on his allegations. The team found that family members of one of the court's nine judges and a court clerk may have received money from a plaintiff.
Khoirul called on all NU-affiliated political parties, such as the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Ulema National Awakening Party (PKNU) and the United Development Party (PPP) to nominate Mahfud as their candidate for the 2014 election. "We shouldn't let him be nominated by non-NU parties," Khoiral said.
While the various NU-affiliated political parties have generally remained divided and disparate, the presidential election would be a good occasion for these parties to unite, he said, "including by jointly promoting Mahmud MD for the presidency."
He added that NU should not lag behind the other parties and should nominate its presidential candidate early.
Prabowo Subianto, founder of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), has once again announced his intention to run for the presidency.
In his opening address to a regional coordination meeting of the party in Surabaya over the weekend, Prabowo said his bid for the presidency was not based out of an egotistical pursuit.
"What would be the purpose of becoming president just for the sake of being praised? My intentions are pure, to bring changes to this country and to defend the Indonesian people," Prabowo said.
He said that as president, and with the full support of the House of Representatives (DPR), "it will be easy for me to do the best for this nation and state."
Acting chairman of the East Java chapter of Gerindra, Supriyatno, said it was still unclear who Prabowo's vice presidential candidate would be.
In the 2009 presidential election, Prabowo ran as the vice presidential candidate to Megawati Sukarnoputri, chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), at the last minute, but the duo lost to the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Boediono ticket.
Anita Rachman, Jakarta The chairman of the Democratic Party said on Sunday that despite competing interests within its ranks, the joint secretariat had "performed well" this year and could last until the next polls.
Anas Urbaningrum said the secretariat, established in May by the ruling coalition to unify pro-administration parties at the House of Representatives, had served its purpose.
"There have been differences in our political stance, but as for strategic issues, we are all the same [in terms of goals]," he said.
The joint secretariat headed by managing chairman Aburizal Bakrie of the Golkar Party and secretary Syarif Hassan of the Democratic Party was reputedly set up to "facilitate better communication" among the Democrats and their allies.
Others, however, saw the move as a way to consolidate power and ensure the loyalty of allied factions, many of which opposed the Democratic Party's move to stop investigations into the 2008 Bank Century bailout.
Lawmakers had said the Rp 6.7 trillion ($744 million) rescue for the troubled lender was unjustified and the distribution of funds anomalous.
Political experts had raised doubts about the success of launching a joint secretariat, saying political infighting would tear the coalition apart. Anas, however, said the secretariat could survive at least until the 2014 elections.
He said around this time, coalition members would start to put their political survival ahead of other interests including their support of the Democratic Party. "And that [behavior] is very normal because parties will consider their own political expectations," Anas said. "But I am sure [the secretariat] would survive until 2014."
Similarly, Aburizal, chairman of the Golkar Party, said on Sunday that the coalition would be "solid, God willing."
But Airlangga Pribadi, a political analyst from Surabaya's Airlangga University, said the joint secretariat would likely not feel cracks within its coalition until the middle of next year.
He said the alliance was shaky at best, as its experience this year showed the government was "held hostage" by the interests of coalition members, many of whom had competing agendas and failed to cooperate with each other in line with the ruling coalition's goals.
Airlangga also said the joint secretariat sometimes doubled as a venue where powerful parties could push for policies, thus overlapping with the Cabinet's functions. "Because then there's a question whether the policies are actually issued within the secretariat or the cabinet," he said.
M. Romahurmuziy, the deputy secretary general of United Development Party (PPP) and a member of the joint secretariat, said the setup had weaknesses. This year, the secretariat was unable to work effectively, he said, "because there has been dishonesty inside it."
He said the secretariat had turned into a venue for bickering among rival factions, which hindered the coalition from coming up with united stands on certain issues affecting the public and the government.
"When we have agreed on certain thing, then members must not make some maneuvers [counter to that]," the lawmaker said. "Also, when we [obviously] have different opinions on certain issues, then we shouldn't tell the public that the secretariat has only one voice."
Anas, however, said the secretariat was still young and that there were "still many strategic agendas" to thresh out within the coalition.
Anita Rachman An election watchdog has raised concerns about the quality of regional polls, painting a picture of an anything-goes attitude as candidates take advantage of a lack of oversight by organizers.
The Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) said on Wednesday that 1,767 violations had been reported in 154 district and municipal elections, and seven gubernatorial polls this year. There are 244 regional elections scheduled for this year.
"Our regional elections are unsatisfactory," said Nur Hidayat Sardini, the board's chairman. "It all goes back to the quality of election organizers how they prepare for the polls, the regulatory issues and so on."
He added that of the recorded violations, 1,179 were categorized as administrative in nature, 572 criminal and 16 as covering ethical issues.
Common violations that could be attributed to poor preparations by regional polling commissions included multiple voter registrations and the failure to update voter lists.
Unqualified candidates with some having criminal records have been allowed to run, and there have been instances of ballot boxes lacking seals.
The criminal violations centered largely on allegations of vote-buying or unlawful campaigning by incumbents.
Wirdyaningsih, a Bawaslu member, said her office had reported 95 percent of the violations to the national-level General Elections Commission (KPU), but that it had only followed up on 27 cases.
Of the 532 criminal complaints that Bawaslu forwarded to the police this year, only 168 have been processed. "Our reports were barely tou ched," she said.
Bambang Eka Cahya Widodo, another Bawaslu member, said regional police officials were often the allies of incumbent officials, and could hardly be expected to act on reported violations by the ruling administration.
Bambang added the Bawaslu's authority was limited to reporting violations to the KPU or the police, as the body lacked any power to prosecute cases.
But Syamsul Bahri, a KPU member, said the commission always followed up on the reports it received from Bawaslu.
He said the KPU needed time to verify the reports before taking any action on them. The commission, he added, communicated intensively with Bawaslu over its reports.
He also dismissed Nur's claim that the poor quality of the elections was the fault of the KPUDs, which are the regional offices of the KPU.
"We haven't conducted our annual evaluation yet, but I'm sure the people know how we've performed," Syamsul said. "Let's not forget that organizing elections isn't the exclusive domain of the KPU. It involves other stakeholders, including political parties."
Jakarta Great Indonesian Movement (Gerindra) Party patron and former vice presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto says he is ready to run for president in 2014.
"Yes, that's right. I want to be president. But, I need the full support of the House of Representatives. I don't want to get rich or popular by becoming president, I just want to dedicate myself to developing this country," Prabowo said on Saturday, as quoted by tribunenews.com.
Gerindra was established to enact change, which requires power, Prabowo said. "The power will come if people give us a mandate through a democratic election," he said.
Gerindra is currently creating a 10-party coalition to run in the 2014 elections.
Anita Rachman Officials at regional branches of Indonesia's main electoral watchdog are struggling to perform their monitoring duties because of difficulties in obtaining operational funds from local governments, a report issued by the organization said on Monday.
The Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) this year formulated 876 local election supervisory committees (Panwaslu) to work on elections in 237 districts and municipalities across seven provinces.
However, many of them could not work effectively because they did not receive their operational funds as they should have, the report said. Some had to use their own money, with some even going into debt to finance their monitoring activities.
Bawaslu member Agustiani Tio Fridelina Sitorus said the problem was in the fact that the local election supervisory committees had to derive their funds from the local budget.
Local governments, which may not be keen on being monitored, were intentionally late in the disbursement of funds, she said. If they were distributed, they were often withheld until the last minute, she added.
Another Bawaslu member, Wahidah Suaib, said the organization believed that local governments deliberately held on to the funds to hamper Bawaslu's work.
She cited a regional election in West Halmahera district, where only Rp 1.2 billion ($133,000) of the allocated Rp 3 billion in supervisory funds were disbursed before the campaign period, with another Rp 250 million released on the eve of election day.
"Can you imagine the budget arriving only a day prior to election day? The supervisors need the money to conduct evaluations in the period leading up to the elections, especially in the geographically challenging areas of West Halmahera," Wahidah said.
"How can they conduct tight supervision with limited funds?" she added. The practice was not restricted to poor regions of the country, Wahidah said.
The watchdog also noted that problems in budget disbursement were mostly found in areas where the incumbent was running for his or her second term. The report stated that Panwaslu members believed they were being intentionally weakened by the budgetary constraints so that they would not be able to supervise elections.
Bawaslu chairman Nur Hidayat Sardini said the budget for Panwaslu in regional elections differed between regions but was clearly less than what was allocated for monitoring legislative and presidential elections.
In Melawai district, West Kalimantan, Rp 100 million was set aside for supervision of the local district elections, he said. "For the presidential elections they allocate up to Rp 1 billion," he explained.
Nur said the only solution to the problem was a revision of the law on election organizers, shifting the burden of budget allocation for electoral supervision from local governments to the central government.
While waiting for the House of Representatives to deliberate the bill, Bawaslu will talk to leaders in the regions, including governors, mayors and district heads, and push them for a more timely distribution of operational funds, Nur said.
"We will also talk to the [Regional] Legislative Councils. They should understand that supervision is very important," he said.
Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta The government said on Friday that it would begin verifying the eligibility of political parties to contest elections under tough new requirements in mid-January.
"The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights will open registration for verification on January 17, 2011," Justice Minister Patrialis Akbar said before a cabinet meeting at the president's office. He said the process would be completed by July.
The revised law on political parties, passed late on Thursday, tightens the requirements for political parties to contest elections. The most significant change is that parties intending to run in the 2014 polls now have six months to prove they have almost 1,000 members spread throughout the country's 33 provinces. Parties previously only needed 50 members to be officially recognized.
The amended law requires parties to have at least 30 registered members married or at least 21 years of age in each of the 33 provinces, or a total of 990 individual members.
Parties must also have representatives in each of the provinces, in 75 percent of the districts and in half of the subdistricts, along with permanent offices at each level.
Parties that fail to meet the six-month deadline can still be officially registered but will be unable to run in the 2014 elections, and will have to wait for the 2019 polls.
Patrialis said the verification process would cover both new and existing parties, regardless of their size. He said parties meeting the requirements would be officially validated by the ministry.
"Verification will depend on the political parties' initiative to establish offices in every district, to declare themselves to local governments and to receive acknowledgement of their party from the district head up to the governor level," Patrialis said.
"It was our political decision [to make these stipulations], so we should not question whether they burden the parties."
Patrialis further suggested the establishment of a court for dealing with verification appeals. "Political parties should have a court to settle problems. They can call it the political party court or whatever they like," he said. "The method of recruiting the court's members should also be transparent."
Markus Junianto Sihaloho The Democratic Party on Friday eased up on its demand to double the legislative threshold to 5 percent, conceding that it would be content with 4 percent to appease smaller parties concerned about not making the cut.
The threshold is the minimum percentage of votes a party must receive in national elections to qualify for a seat at the House of Representatives. It does not apply in regional polls.
The four biggest parties at the House, including the Democrats, had backed calls for the threshold to be doubled from its current level of 2.5 percent.
Anas Urbaningrum, the Democratic chairman, said the threshold should motivate parties to work harder to win votes.
"We believe it should be raised, but not to 5 percent," he said. "We'll propose 4 percent, but we want it implemented both for the national legislative elections and for regional elections."
He said smaller parties had no reason to fear an increased threshold because of the likelihood of "major shifts at the time of the 2014 elections, where small parties might win because citizens' wishes are so dynamic."
However, he said not all members of his party agreed to the proposal, and hence the Democrats' final stance was still open to change.
The party previously indicated it would be happy with a threshold of less than 5 percent, which it said was "just a ceiling figure."
"We'll gladly settle for a lower figure, just as long as it's higher than the current 2.5 percent," Saan Mustopha, deputy secretary general of the party, said in August.
However, Hakam Naja, from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said on Friday that any proposal for an increase in the threshold should be carefully considered because it was likely to shut out smaller parties from the political stage.
He added it was too soon to raise the threshold, arguing that smaller parties needed time to consolidate and grow. "We think it's better to do it step by step," Hakam said.
Roy B.B. Janis, chairman of the Democratic Renewal Party (PDP), which is not represented at the House, said all small parties opposed any increase in the threshold because it would be unconstitutional.
"[The debate shouldn't be] about chiseling it down from 5 percent to 4 percent," he said. "The threshold goes against democracy and the Constitution. With this requirement, minorities would no longer have the right to participate in the political process."
Roy said that with the threshold in place for last year's elections, millions of votes already went to waste.
He cited the Christian-based Prosperous Peace Party (PDS), which notched up more than 1.5 million votes nationwide but was denied representation at the House because it failed to meet the threshold.
"It's unfair and it's killing the minorities," Roy said. "There's a hidden purpose behind the election bill, which is being employed to strengthen the tyranny of the majority, allowing only the majority and the rich to get a House seat."
Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta The Indonesian electoral system should be changed in such a way that qualified candidates, including women, are more likely to end up in the legislature instead of only the rich and famous, a women's activist said on Wednesday.
To achieve this, Fernita Darwis, from the Movement for the Empowerment of the Women's Voice (GPSP), proposed the application of a "mixed proportional system" that would include a "direct list" and an "indirect list."
Under the proposed system, half of the total legislative seats, or around 280 seats, would be open for individual contests: the direct list. For the other half of the seats, people would vote not for individual lawmakers but for a political party: the indirect list.
It would be up to the respective parties to fill the number of seats awarded by voters with highly qualified candidates, of which at least 30 percent should be female, Fernita said.
The activist put forward the idea at a meeting with the House of Representatives' Legislative Body, which is working on an amendment to the election bill.
Fernita explained that the 2009 electoral system was entirely proportional, with only a direct list: those candidates receiving the highest number of votes became legislators.
That system, she said, made it possible for the House to now be filled with people whose popularity depended solely on television appearances. However, such popularity does not make someone a good politician, she added.
According to Fernita, the only ones able to compete with celebrities were those rich enough to afford elaborate advertising campaigns for their candidacy. "This basically closes the door for political experts, NGO activists and women," she said.
Fernita's proposal would entail a ballot paper consisting of two rows of images: one row with pictures of "qualified" candidates [academics and experts in particular fields] and another with political parties' symbols.
"This system would guarantee legislative seats for qualified candidates, including women. And for the already popular candidates, just let them compete in the direct list section," she said.
However, Hakam Naja, a lawmaker from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said the proposal would be a step backward for the national electoral system.
"We already have a direct system, which allows only candidates with the highest number of votes to be successful," he said. "That would be impossible [with the indirect system]."
Lawmaker Ida Fauziah, chairwoman of the task force drafting the amendment, said committee members had agreed that there should be no major changes in the current electoral system.
She also said the committee intended to retain the system that was used in the last elections. "We have agreed to stick to the direct system. And I don't think we will change our minds," Ida said.
She added that the major change suggested by GPSP, and also by election observers earlier, would only cause confusion among the public and most of the political stakeholders.
Ida also said the committee was still working out some controversial articles of the draft bill, including the complex issues of doubling the legislative threshold and vote-counting methods.
From 1999 until 2009, the electoral system has already seen drastic changes, she said. "So we now want to make only minor modifications to the system. I think we should try a system for at least two elections," she said.
Jakarta Activists warn that Indonesian migrant workers will still be highly susceptible to violent treatment without significant improvement in legal protection provided by the government.
"Adequate legal protection is the only key to protecting our migrant workers seriously affected by difficult situations," Sringatin, a domestic helper in Hong Kong, told a discussion celebrating the 20th International Migrant Day over the weekend.
Unfortunately, it always seemed the Indonesian government was not ready to introduce such legal protection, she said. "Many workers, wherever they go, are still facing cruel treatment from their employers," she said, adding that many migrant workers in Hong Kong were facing tough problems.
Having established legal protection for migrant workers, Hong Kong emerged as the most popular destination country for many job seekers from throughout the Southeast Asian region.
As of July, documented Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong reached 134,000, increasing from 129,612 in 2009. According to a recent World Bank survey, in 2010 Indonesian workers in Hong Kong delivered remittances totalling more than US$7 million each month.
This productive remittance needs to be balanced with adequate protection provided by the Indonesian government for its workers, but many workers suffer from cruel treatment due to lack of such protection, activists said.
Poor compensation is one of most common problems affecting Indonesian workers in Hong Kong, especially domestic helpers. Citing a 2010 Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (IMWU) survey, Sringatin said that about 38 percent of Indonesian domestic workers are underpaid, receiving a monthly salary of HK$1,800, or between US$230 and US$256.
"This clearly violates the Hong Kong administration's rules that stipulate a monthly minimum wage of [US$458] for domestic helpers," said Sringatin, who is also an IMWU activist.
Apart from wage problems, many workers had faced heavy financial burdens caused by, among others, excessively expensive placement fees, she said. The Manpower Ministry stipulates that worker placement fees cost Rp 15.6 million (US$1,733) per individual, when in fact, this placement fee costs up to HK$21,000, or about Rp 26 million. Workers must settle this payment within the first seven months after their placement period has commenced.
"This is a modern slavery practice legalized by our own country," Sringatin said, adding that about 73 percent of Indonesian workers had to pay more than Rp 20 million for the placement fee.
The Hong Kong administration has clearly stipulated that, on average, a worker placement should cost no more than 10 percent of a first month salary.
Sringatin was one of the migrant workers who celebrated the 20th anniversary of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families. This convention has great significance for Indonesia as one of countries with the highest number of migrant workers.
"Ratifying this convention is a must. The government should not delay the ratification any longer," said Migrant Care director Anis Hidayah.
In 2010, Migrant Care recorded 89,544 cases of alleged abuse of migrant workers in 42 destination countries, including 1,075 deaths caused by various abuses.
Anis said the Indonesian government should soon ratify the 1990 UN Convention on migrant workers and their families and implement it on the countries' policies and mechanisms on migrant workers, starting from recruitment processes through placement in receiving countries.
Instead of providing cellular phones and micro-credit (KUR) for migrant workers, the government should be able to provide real protection to its people who work abroad, she said. "In the absence of legal protection, micro-credit can be seen as financing for modern slavery."
Indonesian migrant workers need significant capital to obtain required documents, such as passports and visas, but also to cover the daily needs of their families left in their hometowns. Many migrant workers often have to borrow money at unreasonable interest rates from contractors assigned to provide the documents.
As a result, some workers do not receive wages for the first three months while working abroad because their debt obligations are automatically withheld. Some migrant workers reportedly sell their property to cover their financial needs.
Micro-credit plans are part of government efforts to tackle prolonged financial problems confronting migrant workers. (ebf)
Environment & natural disasters
Bengkulu A leading Indonesian environmental group has protested a plan to build a road through Kerinci Seblat National Park, the biggest reserve on Sumatra Island.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has denounced the project as possibly paving the way for illegal logging and deforestation in the park.
"The plan to build a road goes against the preservation of the environment in the Kerinci Seblat National Park, which must be protected," Barlian, a board member of the forum's Bengkulu branch, said on Monday.
The nature reserve straddles the provinces of Jambi, Bengkulu, South Sumatra and West Sumatra, and covers 13,791 square kilometers.
The proposed 40-km road would link the districts of Mukomuko, Bengkulu, to Kerinci, Jambi, and was first proposed by the district administrations in 2007.
The Forestry Ministry rejected the proposal at the time. Recently, the administrations have begun airing the idea once again, although they still require approval from the ministry.
Barlian said that one of the major problems of the road was that it would make it easier for illegal loggers to fell and remove trees. He also said it would allow people to clear more forest land for agriculture.
Barlian argued that any economic benefit that the road was expected to bring to the people of Mukomuko and Kerinci would be far outweighed by the damage it would cause to the environment.
"Moreover, the geographic landscapes of the two districts are also different," he said. "Kerinci district is a highland region, a producer of food crops, whereas Mukomuko is primarily a rubber and palm oil producer. So the argument that the road will improve their economies is not a sound one."
Barlian added that when the plan was revived by the regional administrations, it prompted people living close to the proposed route to begin clearing forest land for agriculture inside the national park.
Authorities in both districts have already formed a special committee to supervise the road construction project.
Badri Rusli, a member of the committee, said the road would be a much shorter route between the two districts because the current road was 100 km long.
The park is home to more than 4,000 plant species, including the world's largest flower, the Rafflesia arnoldii, also known as the corpse flower. It also hosts considerable populations of Sumatran tigers, rhinos and elephants, as well as Bornean clouded leopard and 370 bird species.
The park also boasts Mount Kerinci, at 3,805 meters the highest peak in Sumatra.
Shari Nijman As the United Nation's International Year of Biodiversity draws to a close, Indonesia, home to some of the earth's richest ecosystems, still struggles to protect some of its most vulnerable creatures.
Indonesia is considered a "megadiverse" country because of its wide variety of ecosystems. It has the largest number of mammal species in the world and the third-largest number of reptiles.
"There is an amazing concentration of species in Indonesia," said Endang Sukara, vice chairman of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). "In some places, we've found well over 200 different organisms wider or taller than 10 centimeters wide in an area of only 0.2 hectares."
However, Endang warned that protecting our biological resources was not high on Indonesia's list of priorities. "Biodiversity is not on the national agenda right now, with such a fast developing economy," he said.
Chris Shepherd, senior program officer at Traffic Southeast Asia, a wildlife trade monitoring network, said the list of animals in Indonesia "that are in big trouble" is becoming pretty long.
"Both of the rhino species in Indonesia will be gone soon, just like the tigers," he said. "And many species of snakes, turtles and birds are threatened with extinction in the near future."
The illegal pet trade is the biggest enemy of many of Indonesia's animals. Unfortunately, Indonesian animals are often charming or interesting enough to be popular as pets both within the country and overseas.
"Indonesia is one of the last countries to still have open markets where illegal wildlife is traded," Shepherd said.
The slow loris, a tiny, innocent-looking primate found in various regions across Indonesia and the rest of Asia, is extremely vulnerable to illegal pet traders because of its enchanting looks. With its big curious eyes and soft fur, it seems like the perfect pet and is popular with families.
At the International Animal Rescue center in the forests of Ciapus, near Bogor, animal care specialists do their best to repopulate Javanese forests with the endangered primates. Slow lorises that have been saved from a life in captivity are kept in the wildlife center while being prepared for release into the wild.
Not all of the lorises can be released, said Sharmini Paramasivam, veterinarian at the IAR. "When lorises are caught, their teeth are usually clipped. This leads to terrible injuries in their mouth and some of the lorises can't eat their natural food."
She said that, depending on the state of their teeth, some of them will never be able to return to the wild. For the slow lorises that do make it back into the Javanese wilderness, their chances of survival are slim.
"We released 11 lorises last year, and only two are still alive," Paramasivam said. "We hope to learn from those who didn't make it, so we have more success in the future."
Paramasivam said that, despite the high fatality rate, it is still worth trying to get the primates back into the wild. "Slow lorises are a seriously endangered species and fewer are found in the wild each year. If we don't put them back, the only remaining lorises will all be living in captivity in a few years."
Illegally captured animals are traded across Indonesia's border in large quantities. One way to get the animals exported is to label wild species as captive-bred and apply for a license to trade them.
According to Shepherd, "This makes it the Indonesian government's responsibility to look into the licensed traders and see if they're exporting what they say they are. If someone has one registered turtle and manages to export 400 offspring, you know there is a problem," he said.
Earlier this month, a man was caught in Abu Dhabi, en route from Jakarta, with two snakes, two parrots and a squirrel in his hand luggage. The man continued his journey, while the animals were confiscated.
Shepherd explained how the man was able to get through security and board his flight in Indonesia with five live animals in his suitcase.
"Security at airports is simply not set up for wildlife, it isn't a priority. They are set up to detect metal, explosives and drugs, but not wild animals," he said.
Animal traffickers and traders often get away with a warning or a "slap on the wrist," Shepherd said. At best, the animals are confiscated and the traffickers lose their merchandise. "It's not really a loss to them," Shepherd said. "It wasn't their animal in the first place."
The problem is "good laws, bad enforcement," said Paramasivam, adding that animal traffickers in Indonesia often face no consequences for their actions. "It's illegal to catch and sell slow lorises in Indonesia, but if you go to a pet market, you'll find them any day of the week."
Shepherd also thinks that Indonesia has good laws, at least on paper. But the enforcement of those laws is an issue of political will.
"We have never met a dealer who didn't know that the animals he was trading were illegal," he said. "The key is improved and increased enforcement and prosecution levels. Serious jail time, not a slap on the wrist or a warning every time."
Just last week, researchers at the IAR discovered 18 slow lorises held captive at the Jatinegara bird and pet market in Jakarta, according to Paramasivam.
Shepherd said this was not an exceptional case. "There have been countless reports about illegal animals being held at these markets. I'm completely at a loss why they don't just shut them down."
Endang said Indonesia should not only try to protect its natural biodiversity, but "link it to the prosperity and livelihood of the people."
He said that Indonesia's biodiversity can teach people a lot about sustainable development. "What an orangutan eats, we can often eat as well, or use for medication or as a source of carbohydrates. Their eating habits are a valuable source of information."
Endang believes that, with increased research, over 40 percent of plants found in Indonesia could be used as food sources.
"But don't ever convert a forest into something like a monoculture. When forests are lost, they are lost forever. There isn't a technology in the world that can replace the biodiversity of a forest."
The same could perhaps be said of all of our nation's fragile biodiversity. It's irreplaceable.
Fidelis E. Satriastanti, Jakarta Environmental groups on Wednesday accused one of Indonesia's largest pulp and paper companies of logging in national parks and threatening both indigenous people and wildlife.
An investigation by nongovernmental groups based in Sumatra found that since 2004, companies affiliated with Asia Pulp and Paper and its parent company, the Sinar Mas Group, had systematically sought out inactive selective logging concessions on densely forested land in the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, straddling the provinces of Riau and Jambi.
"Despite APP's claims that it doesn't pulp high-quality forest, our investigation found that in the last six years, the company in this [area] alone contributed to the loss of about 60,000 hectares of high-carbon and high-value conservation forest without appropriate professional assessment or stakeholder consultation," said Susanto Kurniawan of Eyes of the Forests, a coalition of green groups based in Riau.
The coalition's study shows the companies obtained government licenses to switch the land status to industrial timber plantation concessions, which allows for clear-cutting and replacing the natural forest with commercial plantations.
The NGOs also claim that two firms linked to APP/SMG Artelindo Wiratama and Tebo Multiagro Corporation continued to clear Bukit Tigapuluh's natural forest in 2010, while SMG's Rimba Hutani Mas was planning to clear close to 43,000 hectares of natural forest.
They add that Lestari Asri Jaya, owned by the Barito Pacific Group, could soon begin clearing 36,000 hectares of dense natural forest in its newest industrial timber plantation concessions to supply wood to APP/SMG.
Aida Greenbury, managing director of sustainability at the APP Group, said the company would review the reports in detail to determine if there was any evidence that an APP pulpwood supplier was operating outside of areas defined by Indonesian spatial planning for pulpwood concessions.
"At this point we strongly believe the allegations are completely baseless," she said. "All concessions managed by APP pulpwood suppliers are developed in full compliance with Indonesian spatial planning and permit requirements."
Funding for such programs, she said, came from public-private partnerships, community stakeholders and NGOs closest to the people.
Bukit Tigapuluh spans almost 320,000 hectares of natural forest and is home to two indigenous tribes, the Orang Rimba and the Talang Mamak, who number less than a thousand combined. The forest also houses an estimated 30 critically endangered Sumatran tigers, as well as 150 Sumutran elephants and 130 orangutans that had been released back into the wild.
Aditya Bayunanda of WWF Indonesia said the protection of Bukit Tigapuluh would be a major test of Indonesia's climate change mitigation agreement with Norway.
Jakarta Indonesia is getting healthier on the whole, but major concerns remain over poor access to healthcare in remote areas and the persistence of several deadly diseases, the latest national health report shows.
The report shows Indonesia is on track to meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but malnutrition among children, a higher tuberculosis rate triggered by an increase in HIV/AIDS cases and the country's still high infant mortality rate were today's major concerns, Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said Monday during the launch of the 2010 Basic Health Research.
The government, she said, would pay more attention to reducing malnutrition, reducing the child mortality rate, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases, and increasing access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Citing the latest triennial report, Endang said 17.9 percent of Indonesians were undernourished in 2010, a significant decrease from 31 percent in 1989.
The percentage of undernourished people had decreased to 4.9 percent this year from 12.8 percent in 1995, she said. "I'm optimistic about meeting our MDG target to reduce malnutrition," she said. To meet the targets, Indonesia's undernourishment rate must dip below 15 percent, and the malnutrition rate below 3.5 percent by 2015.
There are still sharp provincial disparities in Indonesia's prevalence of undernourishment and malnutrition, the ministry said.
Eight provinces have a prevalence of undernourishment of less than 15 percent, which is in line with the government's target. However, many provinces still have far higher prevalences of undernourishment and malnutrition.
The report shows the country's infant mortality rate has improved. However, from 1997-2007, the infant mortality rate decreased at a slightly slower rate. From 2002 to 2007, the infant mortality rate improved to 34 per 1,000 live births, from 35 per 1,000 live births.
Indonesia's maternal mortality rate, which stands at 228 per 1,000 live births this year, was a cause for concern, the ministry said. "This rate is quite high," Endang said.
In response to this high mortality rate, the government plans to launch a childbirth insurance package called Jaminan Persalinan, or Jampersal, next year.
The Health Ministry mapped out both health achievements and obstacles in the recently launched 2010 Basic Health Research report.
The head of ministry's Health Research and Development Agency, Triono Soendoro, said the report had been conducted to provide a better understanding of the country's progress toward achieving the MDGs.
"This report gives a comprehensive picture of our progress in meeting our MDGs targets," he said.
Endang said the government would put more effort into combating malaria, one of several diseases that still posed a major health threat in Indonesia.
"We are targeting to reduce malarial cases to one per 1,000 people from two per 1,000 people," she said, adding that three regions Bali, Batam, and Jakarta were projected to be free from malaria by the end of this year.
She said the government had been able to significantly reduce malaria in Java and Bali, but that it remained widespread in the eastern parts of Indonesia, including Papua and West Papua. (ebf)
Nurfika Osman Bunga, a 32-year-old housewife from East Jakarta, has used skin-lightening products since 2006.
She says she once had a darker complexion, but since using the Taiwan-made products she buys in Mangga Dua her skin has become much fairer, and her husband has praised the change.
"The fairer my skin, the more beautiful I feel, just like those celebrities on television," she said. "I want to cover up my ugliness. White is better."
Bunga said when she first started using the products, her skin began to peel off but she stuck with the treatment after the vendor told her it was a natural reaction for anyone using bleaching products.
"I've heard from some of my neighbors that the creams I'm using can be dangerous because you don't really know what they put in there," she said.
But Bunga is not concerned about the risk. "Not all smokers die from lung cancer or heart disease. It's basically about immunity," she said.
The obsession among many Indonesian women for fairer skin has led to widespread disregard of the negative health impacts of skin-bleaching products.
Titi Moertolo, a Jakarta-based dermatologist, said many consumers were sold on the promise of instant results, and used dangerous products without being aware of the risks.
"They're just after rapid results," she said. "But given the growing level of access to the Internet, they should be able to research the product before buying it, including looking up any harmful ingredients."
Titi warned that many of the skin-lightening products on the market contained hazardous chemicals, even some that were banned for use in topical medication. The worst of these is mercury, a substance that can be deadly.
"Products containing mercury are still widely found across the country, even though its use has been banned in every country in the world," Titi said.
"The government should be strict about enforcing the ban because this chemical is very harmful. People shouldn't take the risk." The immediate effects of mercury poisoning include rashes and skin irritation, according to the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM).
Long-term symptoms can be impossible to reverse, including brain damage, kidney problems, speech and hearing impediments, damage to the nervous system and skin cancer.
However, such warnings have done little to deter women intent on lightening their skin in an attempt to conform to the widely held belief that women with fair skin are more beautiful.
Kartini is a 27-year-old engineer who must work outdoors, but is desperate not to develop a tan, despite it being a natural consequence of her job. "I don't want to turn dark and have dull skin through prolonged exposure to sunlight," she said.
She added that she used a whitening facial cream made by a friend who used to work for a cosmetics company. "I don't know what ingredients she uses, but she says it's safe," Kartini said.
She also said she used commercially available skin-lightening products for her body. "Body lotions and hand creams with whitening agents are available in every supermarket," she said. "And they're all good for my skin."
But Titi disagrees. She pointed out that many of the commercially available products contained hydroquinone, a chemical substance that works by reducing the production of melanin, the pigment that gives the skin its color.
Titi warned that inhibiting the production of melanin stripped the skin of its natural protection against ultraviolet rays, thus increasing the risk of skin cancer.
Another substance that often features in skin-bleaching products is azelaic acid, which also reduces pigmentation and has antibacterial properties. Titi said while its health effects were still being debated, there was a consensus that in high enough concentrations, it could cause cancer.
She said that even though the three dangerous substances were banned for use in topical medication, lax enforcement had allowed products containing them to remain on the market. Corruption is also an issue in quality control, meaning that even state-approved products may be unsafe.
"The producers can bribe BPOM officials to give their product the all- clear," Titi said.
But Bunga, the housewife, summed up the popular attitude to skin-bleaching products: "As long as I can have whiter skin, I don't care about the hazards."
Nurfika Osman Despite widespread criticism, the number of discriminatory bylaws continues to increase across the country, a leading women's rights group said on Tuesday.
The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) said that 35 such bylaws had gone into force this year, bringing the total to 189. Yuniyanti Chuzaifah, the organization's chairwoman, said 80 of these bylaws limit women's rights to free expression and gainful employment.
"In the name of morality, women's rights are being sidelined in a country that is ostensibly governed by a spirit of democracy and humanism," she told the Jakarta Globe.
"This figure is concrete proof of the fact that the Constitution has pushed women to the periphery of society."
For example, a bylaw in the South Pesisir district of West Sumatra demands female employees and high school girls wear Islamic clothing. In Tangerang, women caught in public places after midnight are considered prostitutes and rounded up by the authorities.
What was exacerbating the rise in such bylaws was the fact that women were increasingly being left out of the policy-making process, Yuniyanti said. "This is sad because women and minority groups have the same rights as other citizens of this country," she said.
Indonesian women, she said, were also prevented from taking a united stand against this trend, having been divided into distinct groups by social mores. Women from the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect, for instance, suffer a far higher degree of oppression than those from officially recognized religions, she said.
"Legal certainty, equality and democracy are at stake if we keep allowing discriminatory bylaws to flourish in our country," Yuniyanti said.
Queen Hemas of the Yogyakarta Sultanate said this worrying trend was a threat to the country's cherished motto of "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika," or "Unity in Diversity."
"We can't violate this fundamental basis for our everyday lives," she said. "Discriminatory bylaws also have a great potential to increase intolerance and can cause national disintegration."
She added that the discriminatory bylaws took a patriarchal view of women as the source of the problems they were ostensibly trying to address.
"It seems to me these bylaws have no place in our Constitution," Hemas said. The main problem in stemming their rise, she said, was the fact that not enough people speak out against them. "The silent majority is failing to stand up for human rights, especially when it comes to minority groups," she said.
Sasmita, the Justice and Human Rights Ministry's director for bylaws, told the Globe that the concept of regional autonomy had rendered his office powerless to amend or repeal discriminative bylaws.
"The 2004 Law on Bylaws states that the ministry can only fine-tune laws issued at the national level, not bylaws issued at the regional level," he said. But he said the ministry would keep educating its officials at the regional level on human rights and gender equality.
In the UNDP Gender-Related Development Index, released in March, Indonesia ranked 96th out of 109 countries.
As the world's largest Muslim majority nation, Indonesia has long been on the road to embrace tolerance particularly tolerance of its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The Jakarta Post's Arghea Desafti Hapsari explores how employers are accommodating LGBT employees.
Adiguna Arvi (not his real name), a 25-year-old media relations executive for one of the country's largest cigarette producers, walked into the men's room at his office in Central Jakarta.
After he washed his hands and groomed his hair, a colleague walked in, stared and said: "You look fabulously beautiful."
Although Arvi has always been openly gay to people at his office, he has to bear the brunt of remarks that poke fun at his sexual orientation.
"I'm sure that my colleagues are open-minded about homosexuality, but still there are times when they make these surly comments," he said, adding the comments, though obviously made with no ill intention, irritated him at some point.
Ienes Angela has spent more than a year working for an organization focusing on people with HIV/AIDS. The 37-year-old transgender person said she still suffered discrimination on a daily basis.
"I have no problem with my colleagues as they are mostly gay. But there are people in my office building who chafe at my appearance as I walk past them, although I've tried to act tough," she said.
Traditional mores that discriminate against LGBT people and a lack of legal protection have exposed Jakarta's sexual minorities to prejudice and sexual harassment at the workplace.
Despite increasing inclusiveness and recognition of gays notwithstanding offenses perpetrated by small groups of Islamic radicals the pleas made by LGBT people for equal treatment have largely gone ignored.
The LGBT community are forced to cope with discrimination such as those experienced by Arvi and Ienes and also challenges in finding work as civil servants, Indonesian Military members, police officers and athletes.
It is mostly due to such impediments, the community is most visible in the private sector, such as in the mass media, public relations, entertainment, beauty and the creative industry.
Irwan Hidayana, an expert on gender and sexuality from the University of Indonesia, said sexual minorities faced an uphill battle when it came to ensuring their rights were respected.
"Indonesia still has a long way to go. We have laws on human rights but not a single law on [LGBT rights]," he said. "What's more troubling is that some bylaws even criminalize homosexuality."
Indonesia's criminal code does not prohibit homosexual relations between consenting adults. But the 1945 Constitution does not explicitly protect sexual identity rights.
The country also has no law governing same-sex marriages, civil unions, domestic partnerships or the adoption of children by gays. Protection from sexual harassment by members of the same sex is also not covered under Indonesian law.
The absence of such a legal framework has led to the denial of regular benefits to LGBT employees, such as income tax cuts, shared health insurance or retirement benefits.
"There are already some countries which legally recognize homosexual cohabitation. Therefore a homosexual life partner of a worker is entitled to all the standard benefits," Irwan said.
It was important for companies to treat LGBT employees like other employees, Irwan added.
But Arvi and Ienes do not care much about employment benefits for the time being.
"If I can have an enjoyable working atmosphere, with colleagues who respect me for what I am and what I can achieve, then it's all fine by me," Arvi said. "I don't have a life partner anyway, and I don't intend to marry anyone soon."
Irwan said the weak legal framework protecting gays had led companies to address the rights of LGBT employees in regulations or codes of conduct in a lackluster manner.
Few companies have regulations governing discrimination against LGBT employees. Arvi's company has a regulation that encourages workers to report verbal or physical sexual harassment regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
Arvi did just that. He reported his colleague's sexual comments and eventually the abuse stopped.
According to the Women's Empowerment and Children Protection Ministry, there are at least three million LGBTs in Indonesia, most of whom keep their sexual orientation secret out of fear of public persecution.
Jerry Winata, 27, is among a few white-collar LGBT workers who came out of the closet, a move that eventually granted him a benefit.
"I was once hired by an affluent advertising company in Jakarta because its client had specifically asked for a gay to work on a project developing campaign materials targeting MSM," he said, referring to men who have sex with men.
"One of the executives for the company knew about my sexual orientation and asked me to apply for the position."
Jerry now works for the local office of an international financial institution. Every now and then, he said, one of his colleagues would joke about his sexuality. "I just take it lightly. They don't mean any harm," he said.
Jerry and Arvi share the same idea when it comes to being open about their sexuality. As Jerry put it: "I will not lie to people but I will not advertise it nor go around proclaiming my gayness. I don't let the gay thing define me."
Leny, 34, a human resources worker for an oil service company in South Jakarta, said joking of any kind about her sexuality was unacceptable.
For years, she has been tight-lipped about being a lesbian for fear that people might talk behind her back, or worse, confront her directly. "My worst fear is to have an uncomfortable working environment," she said.
She said she was also worried that coming out in the workplace might cost her a promotion if her employer was homophobic.
According to Irwan, lesbians were more reserved and discreet when it came to expressing their sexuality. "It has much to do with the gender roles. Females are raised to believe that they should never express their sexual desires," said Irwan.
"This is, of course, different from men, who are used to expressing their desires. It's a social construction. It's even more rigid for lesbians although there are more lesbian groups and communities today."
Arghea Desafti Hapsari "Dorian", a 30-year-old brand manager for one of the nation's largest consumer goods companies does not sport the stereotypical attributes of a person with his sexual orientation.
He wears no fashionable sweater or nose ring, makes no effeminate hand gestures and does not continually spout sexual innuendos. "I know many gays who are very open about their sexuality. I'm not like that," said Dorian.
He keeps quiet whenever someone asks if he is gay. "I just ask them 'What do you think?' and never give an answer to their question."
Dorian has gone from one job to another since he graduated from university. Around a month ago, he landed his current job at a company whose products can be found in nearly every Indonesian home. Never once has Dorian told his colleagues about his sexual orientation.
"What's the good in it for me?" He said he always found it more convenient not to talk about his sexuality. "I think it would do me much more harm than good if people knew. They would definitely talk about me behind my back, and I would hate that."
He recalled a conversation with colleagues from his previous office revolving around lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
"There was this guy who people thought was gay. One day at lunch, some people started to say funny things about him. I didn't really know this guy but there I was, hearing all sorts of things about him. It really annoyed me," he said. "If they knew about me, I'm sure they would bad mouthing me as well."
Dorian did not believe that he would have been stripped of his promotion opportunities if he had come out of the closet at work. "My previous job with a banking institution was very specific and I was the only person who could do it. I don't think they would have fired me because of my sexual orientation," he said.
Dorian said while the company he currently worked for was open to gay employees, "I will never tell anyone at all about me being like that."
Leny, 34, has spent nine months working as a human resources employee for an oil service company. She said she had often tried to talk about LGBT issues with her colleagues.
"They are vehemently anti-LGBT. They tell me it's a sin, abnormal or disgusting to be a homosexual," she said. "They have a very old-fashioned way of thinking. Most of them look at it from a religious point of view."
Leny, like Dorian, said there was no way she would ever tell any of her colleagues that she was a lesbian. "If they found out, it would most probably mar the workplace environment."
While white-collar workers have largely declined to reveal their sexual orientation in the workplace, the younger generation of LGBT people are more confident.
Hartoyo, the secretary-general of Our Voice a local education and advocacy organization for gay and bisexual men said there was a trend among the younger gay generation to be more candid about their sexuality, especially at work.
"I believe that the straightforward nature of young people in general today accounts, in part, for this new-found openness. "Another factor is the development of information technology that allows people to be more expressive," he said.
Among the many gay social networking sites and forums in the nation is the Gay Indo Forum, which has recorded more than 28,500 users after its launch in October 2008.
"Our most active members are teenagers or in their early 20s. Those over 30 are not as active as the younger people because they have jobs and less time to go online.
"They have a different lifestyle when compared to younger people, who are more expressive," said a forum administrator who asked to be identified as A Shen.
Indonesia's LGBT social network stretches back to the early 1980s with the establishment of the nation's first LGBT rights organization, Lambda Indonesia, which became Gaya Nusantara in the early 1990s.
The organization was founded by noted Indonesian gay activist Dede Oetomo, who was a lecturer at Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java, from 1984 and 2003.
As another token of the inclusiveness, Jakarta has also seen the introduction of several sprawling LGBT nightclubs in recent years, luring crowds from Singapore and Malaysia to party during the weekend.
Compared its neighbors, Indonesia is deemed friendlier in its treatment of the LGBT community.
Among the nightclubs targeting gay consumers are ML Disco on Jl. Hayam Wuruk in West Jakarta, Centro and Heaven in Dharmawangsa Square on Jl. Dharmawangsa 4 in South Jakarta, and Apollo Bar & Lounge at the Bellagio Mall in Mega Kuningan, South Jakarta.
Arghea Desafti Hapsari Unlike their US counterparts, Indonesian Military (TNI) members and National Police officers have no official don't-ask-don't-tell (DADT) policy that restricts attempts to reveal the sexual orientation of gay personnel or applicants.
Stories of TNI members or police officers engaging in gay sex in conflict areas in the archipelago have become public knowledge despite intense denials from the authorities.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) Indonesians have traditionally been labelled as handicapped; openly gay people have been banned from serving in the TNI and the police.
Both institutions place a premium on martial virtues such as physical and moral strength, discipline and loyalty. Although without legal justification, the institutions discriminate against the rights of gays by banning them from public service.
"Everyone is 'normal'. There's not a single one of us who is different," said National Police deputy spokesman Brig. Gen. I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana in an interview over the telephone before he hastily hung up. "We only accept men or women as our personnel, nothing in between."
Hartoyo of the gay advocacy and education group Our Voice said the police and the TNI knew very well that they had many gay people serving.
"The generals in the police have often told me about their members who are gay. Mostly they see gay men as not macho and imperfect," he said, adding that those who were unmarried found promotion difficult.
National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said homosexuality was an issue of morality and religion.
"It comes back to each person's choice and decision. The police force has yet to have a regulation that firmly controls homosexuality. We hold to the principle that if one violates decency norms, no matter straight or gay, one can face punishment," he said.
He also said there was a disciplinary tribunal in place that could recommend the dismissal of an officer discovered to violate the norms.
"Anyone can hide their sexual orientation. But if they are proven to have violated decency norms as stipulated by the Criminal Code and the police's disciplinary regulations and code of ethics, they have to face the consequences," he said. He added that the National Police had a great respect for individual privacy and human rights.
The TNI has a slightly different policy. Although gay soldiers are believed to have existed as early as the fourth century within ancient Greece's Sacred Band of Thebes, Indonesia remains in denial of the existence of gays in the TNI.
TNI spokesman Col. Cpl. Minulyo Suprapto said there had never been a known gay or lesbian TNI member. "So I cannot say if they have been discharged from the TNI," he said.
"I don't recall if there has ever been any discussion on regulating homosexuality in the Indonesian Military," he said. He added the TNI, nevertheless, had never explicitly banned LGBT members or applicants.
Most gay people would find it hard to try to join the TNI, with or without legal protection.
"Gay soldiers are likely to be challenged when told to draw up in line or to stand straight," Minulyo said. "In the initial selection of soldiers we have medical tests, which also include psychology assessments. Through those tests, we hope to eliminate [homosexuals]."
Eddy Pratama & Heru Andriyanto In a surprise ruling, the Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it had upheld an appeal by former Justice Ministry official Romli Atmasasmita and overturned his guilty verdict in a corruption scandal involving a fraudulent online corporate registration service.
The top court had earlier declared another defendant in the same case, Yohanes Waworuntu, guilty of corruption and even raised his jail term to five years.
The three-member panel in the Supreme Court were unanimous in deciding that Romli did not make any personal gain from the Web site, that his actions caused no loss to the state and that the online service had continued to work normally. "Romli simply cannot be sentenced," said Achmad Taufik, one of the panel of judges.
By contrast, Yohanes was earlier ordered to return around Rp 370 billion ($41 million) in stolen state money by a separate panel.
Romli was sentenced to two years in jail by a district court in Jakarta in September 2009 for initiating the online service that came under prosecutor's scrutiny for allowing disproportionate revenue sharing with its private provider and making illegal payments to ministry officials using its proceeds.
The Web site was set up to allow notarial offices across the country to register their corporate clients with the government.
Yohanes was the director of PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika, which was the sole provider of the service. The company was founded by business tycoon Hartono Tanoesoedibjo, currently awaiting trial for the same case.
Prosecutors accused Sarana of charging customers as much as Rp 1.3 million to use the service, far above the stipulated government fee of Rp 200,000.
The Attorney General's Office, which began its probe into the scandal in November 2008, said on Wednesday it was waiting for copies of the ruling before commenting.
"We first need to learn the content of the verdict before we deliver our response," said Babul Khoir Harahap, an AGO spokesman. "We need to know what considerations were made by the panel in reaching the verdict."
The remaining legal avenue to challenge a Supreme Court verdict is asking for a case review but that requires new evidence. A debate has also developed about whether prosecutors can ask for a case review, a move usually reserved for convicts or their families.
The ruling could also come as good news to former Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra, also a suspect in the case.
Yusril has repeatedly said government projects, including the Web service that operated between 2001 and 2008, were allowed to receive private funding and that there was no law stating that the entire revenue from the Web site must go to state coffers.
Erwida Maulia, Jakarta While new Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leader Busyro Muqoddas was taking his oath to chair the anti-graft body for the coming year, groups were filing a request for a judicial review in order to extend his tenure.
Activists from the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) and Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said that a misinterpretation of articles in the 2002 Law on the KPK had allowed frequent changes of leadership, and could have the potential to weaken the graft busting body.
"This is our effort to fight the judicial mafia and corruptors who have breached law enforcement institutions like the KPK," YLBHI deputy chair Alvon Kurnia Palma told The Jakarta Post.
Alvon said Busyro's appointment at the House of Representatives and the decision to inaugurate him for only one year had wasted state money.
The 2002 Law on the KPK mandated four-year terms for five KPK leaders, but failed to clearly specify the term for a replacement leader.
Legislators appointed Busyro last month to fill the empty KPK chair's seat after its former leader Antasari Azhar was put on trial for murder. Antasari was convicted in 2009.
The House did not fill the empty seat with another KPK leader as that was deemed to violate government regulations.
President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono inaugurated Busyro on Monday as the new KPK leader, along with seven newly elected members of the Judicial Commission. Busyro said he would not get involved in politics, including any State Palace interests.
"The parameters [of a case] are actually very simple. If there is enough evidence, then we prosecute. There will be no political agenda from me or my colleagues at the State Palace," he said after his inauguration.
Busyro said his success at eradicating corruption would also depend on other parties, including his colleagues at the KPK, the media and the public.
The terms of office of the other four KPK leaders Chandra M. Hamzah, Bibit Samad Rianto, Mochammad Jasin and Haryono Umar will end on Dec. 18, 2011.
Chandra and Bibit had been involved in an alleged corruption case, but the Attorney General's Office recently announced the case's dismissal. Speculation was rife that the case was also an attempt to weaken the KPK by corrupt political elites.
Long before the House voted to elect the new KPK leader to take over Antasari's remaining term, many argued it would be better to elect a new KPK leader for a full four-year term.
Alvon said House members should not have based their judgments on a "collective and collegial" approach. As stipulated in one of the articles in the KPK law, the four deputy KPK leaders and one chairman should work collectively.
"But, their decision to have a one-year tenure also contradicts their 'collective and collegial' approach because the mechanism will not be concurrent with the current tenure for the other four leaders," he said.
Alvon said the same thing would also happen with four-year tenure, although it is more effective in combating corruption.
Emerson Yuntho from the ICW said there would be potential conflicts from such a misnomer. "False interpretations of articles of the law possibly violate the Constitution," he said.
Emerson said the Constitutional Court should decide soon on how to interpret KPK leaders' terms of office.
"The Constitutional Court must be rigid in this matter because the selection process has used up a lot of money," he said.
Alvon added the judicial review they filed was not in vain. "Don't worry. A judicial review like this is not a waste of time," he said, adding that it was part of a long-term investment in fighting corruption. (ipa)
Anita Rachman In response to a legal motion filed by Indonesia Corruption Watch, lawmakers have defended their decision to only allow a one-year term for new antigraft chief Busyro Muqoddas.
Busyro was selected as the chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Nov. 25 and was inaugurated on Monday by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Although the position is usually held for a term of four years, House Commission III lawmakers ruled that Busyro would only be given one year in office to complete the tenure of former chairman Antasari Azhar who is now in jail for murder.
Debates have raged over whether the new chairman should serve a full term, or whether he should serve the remainder of his predecessor's term.
Prominent national corruption watchdog ICW filed a judicial review to the Constitutional Court on Monday, accusing the House of Representatives of trying to weaken the country's corruption eradication efforts by insisting on the one-year term.
"What can Busyro do in a year?" asked Emerson Yunto, vice coordinator of ICW. "He needs more time to be able to make progress. With only a one-year office term, I don't see how he can optimize the KPK's work."
However, deputy chairman of Commission III, Tjatur Sapto Edy from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said the lawmakers' decision was correct. "House legislators are given the task of deliberating laws because they are the ones who understand the law best," he said.
But Emerson disagreed. "According to the law, the House's task is only to select the KPK commissioner, not decide how long they should stay in office," he said.
"[Furthermore,] the House has vested interests in this decision since 36 of the House's [former] members have been named as corruption suspects."
Through filing a judicial review, the corruption watchdog has asked the Constitutional Court to provide its interpretation of the 2002 KPK law on the agency chief's office term, to decide whether Busyro should serve a full four-year term or only one year as dictated by the House of Representatives.
Following his inauguration, the new KPK chief is expected to immediately tackle some high-profile cases such as the tax mafia case that implicated former tax official Gayus Tambunan as well as the Bank Century bailout case.
Another member of Commission III, Gayus Lumbuun from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the ICW's move to file a legal motion is not in line with existing law. Only state institutions are eligible to file a motion, he said, and the ICW is a nongovernmental organization.
Gayus added that article 34 of the KPK law, the basis of ICW's legal motion, is open to interpretation as the article only states that the KPK commissioner is to serve a four-year term.
However, he said, since Antasari was prosecuted for murder in the middle of his term, the House has the task of approving a replacement an incident that had yet to be regulated in the 2002 law regarding KPK leadership. "Of course anyone could try their luck at the Constitutional Court," Gayus commented.
Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta Incoming antigraft czar Busyro Muqoddas started his first day on the job on Monday with a pledge to tackle problem cases that have led to charges that the country's fight against corruption has stalled.
As he was sworn in at the State Palace by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, however, one question on observers' minds was whether he could achieve much in a term of just one year. After the ceremony, a confident Busyro promised that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) would pursue all pending cases thoroughly.
"I envision the KPK, along with the press and other institutions, starting a tradition of transparency," he said. "Transparency means honesty. We must respect each institution's authority, including the KPK's."
Also on his agenda, as he agreed in response to a question from a reporter, are the tax scandal involving Gayus Tambunan and the lingering Bank Century bailout mess. "As long as the evidence is sufficient, we will [investigate]. God willing, I'd like to tell the public that I do not have any political agenda," he said.
Busyro will have his hands full regaining the people's trust in a once- respected agency that had seen its last chairman convicted of murder and a number of high-profile cases languish due to an internal leadership crisis.
And unless the rules are changed, he has only a year to get it done before he would have to undergo a new election to his post. "Busyro has no time for anything else, he must begin work on his first visit to the agency as chairman," legal expert Todung Mulya Lubis said on Monday.
As a member of the selection committee for the antigraft agency, Todung said he was confident that Busyro had what it took to lead, but he regretted the decision by the House of Representatives to limit Busyro's tenure to just the remaining term of the sitting commissioners, which will expire next year.
"It's now up to Busyro. If he can prove that he is a competent leader in just a year, there will be a good chance for him to be re-elected and to lead the agency for a full term of four years," Todung said.
"He must go directly after the big fish, the high-profile cases that the KPK has avoided so far. I know Busyro has the commitment to combating corruption without fear, so I think he will get the job done."
Busyro, the former head of the Judicial Commission, could win popularity by meeting public demands for the KPK to take over the tax mafia scandal involving Gayus or the Bank Century bailout saga from police and prosecutors, Todung added.
But taking over either of those complex cases would be hard as legal proceedings have long been under way, with several suspects already convicted and sentenced. "Besides, handling just the many abandoned cases already facing the KPK might consume more than a year," Todung said.
Busyro won by a landslide in the head-to-head House selection against human rights activist and renowned lawyer Bambang Widjajanto. Lawmakers then selected from among the commissioners for the new chairman and again he won a majority of votes over four deputies of the KPK.
"The prospect that Busyro can lead next year's selection doesn't make things better," said Danang Widoyoko, chairman of non-governmental group Indonesia Corruption Watch.
"He will have to prepare application documents again in May or June next year, attend interviews with lawmakers, undergo a health examination and so on. That could significantly reduce his available work hours."
Also on Monday, ICW filed a motion with the Constitutional Court challenging the House limitation on his term and demanding that Busyro be allowed to serve for four years, through 2014.
"One year is just too short for the massive work facing a KPK leader," Danang said. "Let's say that Busyro would take KPK into the Gayus saga. As police and prosecutors are prosecuting Gayus for bribery and mishandling corporate taxpayers, the KPK could launch a probe into another aspect of the case, namely the source of Gayus's suspicious bank accounts. This will surely take longer than a year," Danang added.
Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta A businessman and a lawyer are the latest to be convicted for their roles in the bribery scandal involving rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan.
Andi Kosasih, a businessman from South Sulawesi, was on Monday convicted by the South Jakarta District Court on one count each of corruption and money-laundering, and was handed a six-year sentence. His accomplice, attorney Lambertus Palang Ama, received a three-year term.
Andi's is the heaviest sentence thus far in the scandal, in which at least 10 people have been tried or are standing trial, including Gayus.
The court ruled that Andi broke the law when he made a false agreement with Gayus to make it appear as though he had entrusted $2.8 million to the taxman to buy land and build a shop in Jakarta. The bogus deal was made in August 2009, around the same time Gayus was being investigated for having roughly the same amount in his bank accounts.
Judge Prasetyo Ibnu Asmara ruled that the agreement had been doctored with an earlier date of May 26, 2008, with both Gayus and Andi signing receipts to support their claim.
That ruse, the judge said, led the police to lift a freeze on Gayus's suspicious accounts. Around five months after the deal was made, Gayus was acquitted of all charges by the Tangerang District Court in March.
Prasetyo also fined Andi Rp 4 billion ($400,00), adding that failure to pay would see him serve an extra four months behind bars. The sentence was lighter than the prosecutors' demand of 10 years' imprisonment and Rp 6 billion in fines.
The judge said mitigating factors were that this was Andi's first conviction and that he had willingly admitted to the crime. Andi being the sole breadwinner for his family was another consideration.
Andi was defiant upon hearing the verdict. "I will appeal until the end," he said. "Those who have tyrannized me will pay for this." He declined to identify whom he was referring to.
Meanwhile, lawyer Lambertus was sentenced to three years for drafting the bogus agreement between Prasetyo and Gayus. Sunardi also fined him Rp 150 million, with failure to pay punishable by an additional month in prison. The sentence fell short of the five-year term demanded by prosecutors.
Monday's convictions bring to six the number of those jailed in the fallout from revelations that Gayus had allegedly amassed a fortune in bribes from corporate taxpayers and had bought his acquittal at the Tangerang Court.
Those convicted were Arafat Enanie and Sri Sumartini, the police investigators found to have taken kickbacks to tone down the list of charges against Gayus and Muhtadi Asnun, the presiding judge in the Tangerang trial. Alif Kuncoro, a middleman who bribed the investigators to leave him out of the case, was another. All four have been sentenced to between 18 months and five years in prison.
Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, who blew the lid on the case, is standing trial for allegedly taking a bribe from former diplomat Sjahril Djohan as well as for embezzling regional funds while still chief of the West Java Police. Djohan himself was found guilty of bribing Susno, the former National Police chief of detectives.
Gayus is standing trial for purportedly bribing law enforcers and for abusing his authority to help companies evade taxes. He may also face charges for buying his way out a police jail cell.
Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta A senior Golkar Party lawmaker said on Wednesday that he would support a proposal to hand the tax mafia case of Gayus Tambunan over to the antigraft agency, and set up a special committee in the House of Representatives to investigate the main actors.
Priyo Budi Santoso, a deputy speaker of the House and Golkar member, said he would sign off on both proposals provided they were approved by the House legal commission.
"If House Commission III agrees to let the KPK take over the case from the police, I will give my approval," he said, adding that such a transfer would set a precedent, and appeared especially unlikely given how far the police had already progressed with their investigation.
Golkar has been trying to distance itself from Gayus's case. The rogue taxman has repeatedly said in his testimony that he received Rp 35 billion ($3.9 million) in bribes from three mining companies under the Bakrie Group Kaltim Prima Coal, Bumi Resources and Arutmin Indonesia. The Bakrie Group is controlled by the family of Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie.
However, Gayus is now on trial for allegedly helping a little-known company, Surya Alam Tunggal, receive a state refund worth Rp 570 million using false claims while he was still a mid-level tax official.
The proposal to push the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to take over the case was first aired by Democratic Party legislator Benny K.Harman, who also heads the House legal commission.
Benny said the KPK was the only credible institution to handle the case, adding that Gayus was a minor player, and that it was the companies that made huge profits and evaded taxes that authorities should be going after.
Ganjar Pranowo, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said his party backed the proposal to let the KPK in on the probe.
"If the investigation just focuses on the Rp 570 million, then we will never uncover the mafia in the tax office," Ganjar said. "So we will support the proposal to set up a special committee in the House that will help to uncover the practices of the tax mafia," he said.
However, Ray Rangkuti, a political analyst and director of the Indonesian Civic Network (LIMA), said the Gayus case was being politicized by both Democrats and Golkar for political gain. "Golkar usually counterattacks Democrats by raising questions about the efficiency and function of the presidential task force for judicial mafia," he said.
Jakarta Attorney General Basrief Arief made clear Wednesday that he would not prosecute two KPK deputies charged with extorting a graft suspect, defying the lawmakers' recommendation that the pair be brought to court.
In an about-face, Basrief who previously told legislators that he would review his predecessor's decision to invoke a legal principle of deponeering to halt the prosecution against two Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairmen, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah said the AGO would certainly apply the controversial legal principle to clear the two of charges despite the House of Representatives' objection.
"We actually haven't received a formal answer [from the House], but whether they've decided to approve it or not, we will invoke deponeering for sure," Basrief told reporters on Wednesday.
The 2004 law on the Attorney General's Office (AGO) states that the attorney general has the privilege to execute the Dutch-adaptation legal principle of deponeering in halting a case for the sake of public interest, but it also stipulates that prosecutors should consult the move with other institutions, including the House, the President and the Supreme Court.
The AGO announced the dismissal of the proceedings in the KPK deputies' case in October under the leadership of acting attorney general Darmono.
The House's commission overseeing legal affairs decided to reject the AGO's move, saying that Bibit and Chandra should stand trial to prove their innocence. "We [the House speakers] have decided to accept it and will send a formal letter to the AGO within one or two days," House deputy speaker Priyo Budi Santoso said.
The commission's chairman, Benny K. Harman, said the attorney general failed to give clear reasons why the AGO was invoking deponeering. Though the recommendation is legally binding, Benny added, it still had "strong political and legal weight".
Political analyst Burhanuddin Muhtadi of the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) said if legislators continued forcing their recommendation on the AGO, they would only attract criticism from the public.
Many, including political and legal experts, believe that Bibit and Chandra's case was part of an organized attempt to weaken the KPK, likely seen as a major threat to corrupt political elites.
They said it was critical to immediately end the case plaguing the KPK deputies, arguing that Anggodo Widjojo, who made the allegations against the two, failed to prove his allegations in a trial in which he was convicted of attempted bribery.
Burhanuddin suspected that the AGO wanted to mend its image, which was heavily tainted when it decided to probe Bibit and Chandra.
"Recent surveys show that the institution had lost its credibility in the eyes of the people," he said, adding that it was also possible that the AGO's move was aimed at further weakening the KPK by "giving" freedom to its leaders.
Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta Children's magazine subscriptions and a luxury bag are just a few of the purchases made by Indonesian diplomats overseas and paid for by public funds, according to a recent audit.
Already given access to first-class facilities financed by the state budget while overseas, Indonesian diplomats have claimed benefits at taxpayer expense.
An audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) of Indonesia's embassies in Singapore and Rabat, Morocco and its consulate in Frankfurt, Germany, revealed a long list of personal expenses allegedly paid for by state funds.
The audit, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post, covered the posts' finances for 2008 and 2009.
The BPK's random audit of official payment receipts collected by the embassy in Singapore unearthed personal charges for a S$23.95 (US$17.60) tank-top dress, a S$219 Braun Buffel bag and S$47 subscription payments for Bobo and Donald Duck magazines and Nova women's tabloid all imported from Indonesia.
"There has been a tendency for technical attaches or home staff [in Singapore] to process all bills as official expenditures without evaluating whether or not some of them were actually for personal expenses," the report said.
The consulate in Frankfurt spent $77,005 ($102,416) to pay the mission's cellular phone bills while there was no mechanism to ensure the phones were used for official busines only, according to the report.
According to the BPK, paying the phone bills violated several regulations, including a 1983 Foreign Ministry internal decree that requires diplomats to log long distance and international calls.
A 2008 diplomatic cable sent by the Foreign Ministry's general secretary instructed overseas representative offices to temporarily terminate claims for such bills until it issued a standard operating procedure for cellular phone use.
In Rabat, the BPK said Indonesia's ambassador to Morocco had spent $25,419 from the embassy's budget on non-existent "representation activities".
Diplomat are entitled to representation funds to finance activities related to diplomatic functions, such as dinner receptions and other networking events. The ambassador could not provide guests lists for dinner receptions he claimed he held, according to the BPK.
The BPK also could not find the ambassador's name in the guest book of the venues that he claimed held the receptions.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kusuma Habir confirmed receipt of the BPK's audit but not of the detailed version detailing the alleged misuse of state finds.
"We are very sure that our employees have not been using the state budget for personal expenses," she said, adding that overseas staff received several benefits, including payment of telecommunication expenses.
The take-home pay for Indonesian diplomats ranges from $3,000 and $10,000, excluding benefits. Critics regard the Foreign Ministry as one the nation's most corrupt institutions.
In August, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) detained former Indonesian ambassador to the US Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat after he was named a suspect in a graft case related to the renovation of the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore in 2003. Sudjadnan was at that time the Foreign Ministry secretary-general.
In July, prosecutors named several ministry officials as suspects for allegedly inflating airfare costs for diplomats returning to Jakarta. Former foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda and current Indonesian ambassador to China Imron Cotan have also been implicated in the case.
Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta Legislators lambasted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday for stalling the inauguration of the incoming chairman of the antigraft commission, Busyro Muqoddas, who was elected by the House of Representatives nearly a month ago.
Nasir Djamil, a member of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs, said on Wednesday that Yudhoyono should be criticized for "not immediately inaugurating Busyro without giving a clear explanation to the public".
"I don't understand why he has been so unresponsive. The Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK], as well as any other corruption-related matters, are considered as sensitive issues by the public these days," he told The Jakarta Post, adding that this would create the impression that the President has deliberately tried to undermine the KPK.
Nasir is a politician from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which is a member of the ruling coalition led by Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.
Legislator Gayus Lumbuun from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) also lashed out at Yudhoyono, whom he said had been very lethargic when it came to fighting graft.
"Yudhoyono is burdening the KPK by delaying the inauguration. The anti- graft body already has so many cases to handle and yet their incoming chairman has still not been installed," Gayus said.
Busyro, who still chairs the Judicial Commission, garnered the most votes from House Commission III members on Nov. 25, edging out his sole competitor, attorney and anti-graft advocate Bambang Widjojanto.
The House also decided that Busyro's term will end in 2011 along with the terms of other KPK leaders elected in 2007. The move has drawn criticism from graft watchdogs who expected Yudhoyono would extend Busyro's term until 2014.
His election coincided with the appointment of Basrief Arief as the new Attorney General. Yudhoyono inaugurated Basrief on Nov. 26 only a day after announcing that he tapped the veteran prosecutor to lead the Attorney General's Office.
Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said the President had planned to swear in Busyro this week. "Hopefully, next week the new KPK chairman will be installed."
Busyro said he would not push the government to inaugurate him as soon as possible. "I am not in the position [to push]. I don't want to have negative thoughts about this. I am still the Judicial Commission chairman today and there are still so many things to do. I would prefer to focus on my current job here," he said.
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) also voiced disappointment on Yudhoyono's indecisiveness. ICW's Emerson Yuntho urged Yudhoyono to sign the 2010-2025 National Strategy and Action Plans on Corruption Eradication developed by the National Development Planning Agency.
"The document has been on Yudhoyono's desk for months, but he has not signed it yet," he said, adding that the document was very important to provide a road map and ground strategy for the country's efforts to fight corruption.
"It will significantly help the government to be more focused and precise in terms of curbing corruption. It's important for Yudhoyono to sign and take it into full force, rather than just grumbling about corruption or playing guitar and composing songs," Emerson said.
Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta A court on Thursday sentenced two foreigners in absentia to 15 years of prison each for having looted Bank Century, while an order was issued to seize the overseas assets of their Indonesian co- owner, who is already behind bars.
The Central Jakarta District Court handed down the sentences to Hesham al Warraq, 52, a Saudi Arabian citizen, and Rafat Ali Rizvi, 50, of Britain.
"The two defendants are proven to have enriched themselves," presiding Judge Masrudin Nainggolan said. "The state loss according to the Supreme Audit Agency [BPK] amounts to Rp 3.1 trillion [$344 million]."
As co-owners of Bank Century, both were declared guilty of the "double criminality" of corruption and money-laundering, stealing from their own bank and benefiting from the government's bailout.
Both men who were declared fugitives by the police last year sold fraudulent bonds through Bank CIC International, Bank Pikko and Bank Danpac, which later merged to form Bank Century, which absorbed the financial burden. When the investors wanted payment on the bonds, Warraq and Rizvi put up Bank Century shares as collateral, leading to the bailout and resulting state losses.
"They were involved in a blatant conspiracy to perform fraudulent bank practices of bond trading in violation to the banking law, and then fled the legal proceedings," Masrudin said.
"The defendants must return Rp 3.1 trillion to the state within a month, or prosecutors will seize their personal assets". Any failure to repay would lead to an additional term of five years, he added.
In a surprising twist in the verdict, the panel also ordered the seizure of personal assets in foreign countries belonging to the third owner of Bank Century, Robert Tantular. Tantular was earlier convicted of bank fraud, jailed and fined Rp 50 billion.
The seizure covers four insurance policies in the name of Tantular's wife, Tan Chia Fang, and his investments in Jersey and Guernsey, tax havens in Britain. The amounts were not specified in the ruling.
Tantular has appeared in the trial several times as a witness. His liability, however, was also underscored in the verdict because as the major shareholder in Bank Century, "he and the two defendants signed the letter of commitment agreeing to repay the losses from the fraudulent bond trades," the panel said.
"This is robbery," said Triyanto, an attorney for Tantular. "This trial is being held against two other men, but not Tantular. And certainly his wife's insurance policies have nothing to do with this," the attorney said angrily shortly after the hearing.
Tantular, who was originally sentenced to a four-year jail term in 2009, is now serving nine years behind bars for bank fraud based on a ruling issued by the Supreme Court in May.
The panel also ordered the seizure of $155 million in the name of Telltop Holdings Limited kept in a Swiss bank, more than $130 million of Rizvi's funds in Hong Kong and around 20 bank accounts under the control of the two fugitives.
Prosecutor Victor Antonius, who had earlier demanded 20 years for the two defendants, said he would accept the verdict.
Anita Rachman, Jakarta Legislators have blamed the lack of prosecution in the Bank Century bailout on the refusal of law-enforcement agencies to act on recommendations offered by the House of Representatives.
Mahfudz Siddiq, a spokesman for the House team monitoring the three separate probes by the National Police, the Attorney General's Office and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), said the authorities had only looked into the possibility of general crime, fraud, embezzlement and money-laundering.
"But the follow-up into the corruption angle by the KPK has not been done optimally," he said on Thursday. "As such, the corruption aspect will get our attention in the next monitoring period."
Also on Thursday, the House agreed to extend the team's mandate for another year. The team was set up in March to keep tabs on the probes into the Rp 6.7 trillion ($744 million) bailout of the bank in 2008, following a resolution adopted by the House that the bailout was unjustified and its mechanism flawed.
Mahfudz said even after 29 meetings in the past seven months with the police, AGO and KPK, the results of the investigation were "still less than agreeable."
"The law-enforcement process is slow and stagnant," he said. "Even after summoning 137 witnesses, the KPK has yet to do a follow-up. There has yet to be a legal conclusion."
Mahfudz, from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), also criticized the authorities' efforts to recover assets embezzled by Century executives and stashed overseas. He added that in the future, the House and the government must set up a clear system and timetable for how to go about recovering such assets.
He also said future House monitoring teams should be privy to forensic audits commissioned by the government in similar cases. "After the long inquiry process, voting on a resolution and now seven months of monitoring the investigation, I think we have the right to feel disappointed."
Pramono Anung, a House deputy speaker from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that of the three agencies probing the case, the police and the AGO had done a good job, "but not the KPK."
He said the House had identified at least 40 irregularities in the bailout, yet the KPK had claimed not to have found any indication of corruption in it. "We put hopes in the new KPK chairman to resolve the case," he said.
All three agencies have new leaders in the form of National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo, Attorney General Basrief Arief and KPK Chairman Busyro Muqoddas, who were all appointed to their posts over the past three months.
While most of the parties at the House back the probe, the ruling Democratic Party has defended the bailout and opposed any move to probe it.
Jafar Hafsah, the House Democrat chairman, said he believed the monitoring team should have been disbanded by now. However, he said that if the House believed the probes have to be further monitored, "we will follow what they say."
Mahfudz said the team would only call it quits once the KPK had issued its final report in the case. "Whether or not there was corruption in the bailout, the case will be closed," he said.
Adhe Bakti, Jakarta A district court on Monday handed out sentences of between seven and nine years in prison for six men involved in an outlawed armed group that conducted military training in Aceh.
The six men were divided into three separate trials heard by the same panel of judges at the West Jakarta District Court.
The discovery of the Aceh training camp by police in February raised fresh concerns that terrorist cells in Indonesia had regrouped under the auspices of, or emulating, Al-Qaeda. Radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is currently facing charges of being the mastermind of the Aceh camp.
Rohman, who also uses the names Aman Abdurrahman and Abu Sulaiman, was sentenced to nine years, three years less than what prosecutors had recommended.
"The defendant was found guilty of providing monetary assistance in the form of Rp 20 million [$2,220] and $100 to Dulmatin for military training in Aceh," Judge Mutarto said.
Dulmatin, believed to be one of the masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings, was suspected of organizing the training in Aceh and providing firearms for the group. He was shot dead in a police raid in Tangerang in March.
"The defendant [Rohman] had also given a sermon and seen off two participants in the military training, Agus Kasianto and Laode Afif," the judge added.
At a separate trial, the same judge sentenced three men to eight years in prison and another to seven years.
Mutarto said that defendants Adi Munadi, Deni Suhendra and Ade Miroz were each given eight year sentences for illegally using firearms during the training in Aceh.
Abu Rimba, who was said to have acted as a guide for the group, was given seven years. Prosecutors had recommended 12 years each for the first three and 10 years for Abu Rimba. All the defendants and prosecutors demanded time to decide whether to appeal.
At the third trial, Ismarwan, also known as Ismail, was given an eight year prison sentence, four years less than what prosecutors had sought, for taking part in acts of terrorism.
The court was told that the defendant had assisted two other men, Tengku Muktar and Andri Marlan, in terrorist activities.
He had led them to the location of their attacks, which included a grenade attack on the Unicef of fice in Banda Aceh, and shooting at the house of two American nationals in the same city. Muktar and Andri were tried separately.
The six defendants are part of a group of 51 terror suspects linked to the Aceh group currently on trial. They have been divided into 32 separate trials.
Officials have dubbed the group conducting armed paramilitary training as "Al-Qaeda in Aceh" and said they were plotting to kill Westerners, including United States aid workers, businessmen and tourists.
The National Police on Tuesday accused Bashir of being the figurehead of the budding Al-Qaeda-style terrorist network.
Jakarta Incidents of religious intolerance are on the rise this year - and vigilantes are behind many of the episodes, according to two recently released reports.
According to the Moderate Muslim Society's (MMS) report, there were 81 cases of religious intolerance in 2010, up from 59 cases in 2009. Sixty- three cases, or about 80 percent of the total, involved the attack or destruction of houses of worship across the nation.
A report released by the Wahid Institute on Tuesday recorded 133 challenges to religious freedom in 13 provinces across the nation. More than 80 percent of those cases were perpetrated by vigilantes from mass organizations, organized masses or individuals, according to the report.
The Islam Defenders Front (FPI) were near the top of both reports' lists of perpetrators.
The Wahid Institute and the MMS reported that West Java was the province with the most cases of religious intolerance. The MMS said 49 cases of religious intolerance, 61 percent of the total, occurred in West Java in 2010, up from 13 cases in 2009.
Both reports said Ahmadiyah congregations and Christians comprised the majority of victims.
In the latest incident of intolerance, a group calling itself the Reformist Islamic Movement barged into a religious service of the HKBP Bethania church in Bandung on Dec. 12, forcing the congregation to disperse.
The MMS and other NGOs had submitted their previous reports to the government, but the figures for religious intolerance had not changed much, according to MMS.
"Our findings show that such events have taken place because the government, which should be upholding the Constitution in guaranteeing its citizens' most basic rights, has been reluctant and even an actor in incidents of intolerance," MMS chairman Zuhairi Misrawi said.
According to the MMS' report, which was compiled from media reports, NGO research and government information, about 30 percent of the cases involved local administrations and regional law enforcement agencies.
Unknown assailants and hard-line mass organizations were allegedly responsible for 69 percent of the incidents recorded by the MMS.
Under the current government, which he characterized as cowardly, hardliners had leeway to spread hatred in several regions, Zuhairi said. Hatred was often spread through sermons at mosques, Zuhairi said: 80 percent of the sermons reviewed by the report taught intolerance of other religions.
Catholic priest the Rev. Benny Susetyo of the human rights watchdog Setara Institute said a similar pattern of escalation had also been noted by researchers at Setara and Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.
A 30 percent increase was a signal that law enforcement officials were not doing their jobs as they let hard-line groups act without fear of the legal consequences, Benny said. Under such conditions, he added, congregations were forced to pay ever-higher fees to street thugs for protection.
Benny said the government's proposed religious harmony bill would carry new problems as it could be manipulated to bring up the issue of majority versus minority. Benny and Zuhairi opposed the idea that a majority should have more privileges than the minority for the sake of harmony. (rch)
Oktofani Elisabeth Indonesia, long considered a bastion of religious tolerance, is increasingly reverting to fundamentalism and intolerance, a non-governmental organization observed in its annual report on Tuesday.
Yenny Zanuba Wahid, the executive director of The Wahid Institute, said the organization recorded 196 cases of violence based on religious discrimination and intolerance in Indonesia during 2010. The figure was up from the 134 cases recorded in 2009.
"Violent acts that go against people's right to freedom of religion are not only committed by the public or members of large civil society organizations, but also by the state through its regulations, and by local governments and police officers," said Yenny.
The Wahid Institute's annual report found that 72 percent of actors in cases of religious violence were from local governments, legislative councils, the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and the police.
"The environment of increasing religious intolerance and discrimination in Indonesia is caused by unclear regulations," Yenny said. "Decentralization has allowed the state to become more repressive. There has been a decentralization of violence and intolerance," she added.
Nurkholis, the deputy chairman of the National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said the institution had recorded a record number of human right violations caused by police officers.
"The problem with the police officers is that sometimes they forget about the human aspect of their duty." said Nurkholis. "In many cases of religion-based violence, police bring in the victims for questioning first, rather than immediately going after the perpetrators," Yenny said.
National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said there are certain legal procedures that must be observed when dealing with violent incidents. He said victims of violence were examined first because they were usually in a weaker position and needed to be protected. "That's due legal process," he said.
The Wahid Institute found that restrictions on freedom of religion and the complex regulations related to building houses of worship were responsible for the most cases of religious violence, at 44 cases.
The institute found of 133 cases of intolerance without violence, 83 percent involved civilian groups, which were responsible for 94 of the cases. These organizations use religious jargon to justify their actions, Yenny said.
The institute's research showed that the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and even the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) were the main culprits behind religious intolerance and discrimination across the country, she added.
Yenny said that victims of religious intolerance included individuals, church congregations, community groups and minority sects.
The Wahid Institute also monitored both government and society efforts to protect freedom of religion. The report found West Java was the country's most intolerant region, followed by East Java.
Jakarta Almost half of Jakartans object to the establishment of other religions' houses of worship in their neighborhoods, an NGO survey revealed.
"49.5 percent of our respondents disagreed with the establishment of other religions' houses of worship. That percentage is quite high for plural Indonesia. Meanwhile, 45 percent had no problem accepting them and the remaining 5.5 percent did not answer or did not know," Setara Institute researcher Ismail Hasani said Wednesday.
For Central Jakarta, Tangerang, Depok, Bogor and Bekasi, the percentage of those who disagreed with other religions' houses of worship was between 62 and 74 percent, while other parts of Jakarta were between 51 and 60.5 percent.
The Setara survey was conducted between September and October 2010, with 1,200 respondents. 89.2 percent of the respondents were Muslim, 5.2 percent were Christian, 3.7 percent were Catholic, 0.2 percent were Hindu, 1.2 percent were Buddhist and 0.1 percent Confucian.
Most Jakartans also thought the regulation of places of worship should not be done solely by the government or religious leaders. "53.4 percent of respondents said the establishment of houses of worship must be regulated in accordance with collective agreements between the government and religious leaders," Ismail said.
He said the that finding was in accord with the Interfaith Communication Forum (FKUB), in which governments and communities decide together on the establishment of houses of worship.
"Residents hoped this could help increase tolerance when building houses of worship, even though the ministerial decree is still discriminative," Ismail said.
A 2006 joint ministerial decree on places of worship stipulated that a new house of worship must obtain a recommendation letter from the provincial religious affairs office and the FKUB before gaining final approval from the local administration.
Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta The Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) and the Indonesian Bishop's Conference (KWI) said on Wednesday the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) had not spoken to them about its plan to help guard churches during Christmas.
The PGI and the KWI denied they had had any contact with the FPI. "We never made any agreement with the FPI. We never even communicate with them," PGI chairman Andreas Anangguru Yewangoe said.
Benny Susetyo, KWI Secretary for Interfaith Relations, who learned about the FPI initiative from newspapers, said he was puzzled by the news as KWI had not had any contact with the FPI.
"Besides, we are not in charge of security. This is handled by archdioceses, which have their own security measures. KWI is a separate organization," he said. Benny said churches had their own security arrangements, in which local parishes usually liaised with local police.
On Tuesday, FPI leader Rizieq Shihab went to the Jakarta Police headquarters to offer the police his help in safeguarding Christmas celebrations at churches.
Responding to the FPI plan, Christians in the city showed signs of being uneasy with the prospect of performing Christmas services under the watchful eyes of FPI members.
A number of Christians said they would likely feel intimidated by the presence of FPI members in the vicinity of their churches.
"To tell you the truth, I won't feel safe being guarded by the FPI considering the way they have treated Christians in the past," said Agung Pambudi, a member of St. Matius Church in Bintaro, South Tangerang.
He respected the good intentions of the FPI though, as they would set an example of religious harmony. "If they are sincere, we will have no problem accepting their offer. But police and the church community should keep an eye on them."
Lusiana Diah Ningsih, a member of the St. Matias Rasul congregation in Kosambi, West Jakarta, did not want to have FPI members around her church, especially if they were dressed in strict Islamic garb, saying "it was very intimidating".
In a move that would raise the eyebrows of both its critics and supporters, the hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI), a group notorious for attacking minority groups, said Tuesday it would help guard churches during Christmas.
On Tuesday, FPI leader Rizieq Shihab went to Jakarta Police headquarters to offer the police his help in safeguarding Christmas celebrations at churches.
"We hope Christians can peacefully revel in Christmas. They have the right [to celebrate Christmas] and we have to respect that," Rizieq said after meeting with Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Sutarman.
He claimed that the FPI was working with the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) and the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) on the initiative.
Rizieq said Christmas celebrations would not be disrupted by Muslims. "Islam is not allowed to disrupt other religions' worship."
Rizieq, however, was quick to qualify his statement. "Everyone from different religion should respect each another, but Christians should not provoke us," he said.
He also reiterated the FPI's stance on rejecting pluralism. "Pluralism confounds our religious teaching," he said.
Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Baharuddin Djafar welcomed the offer. He said police were working with church youth organizations in Jakarta for Christmas celebrations. "We will have a coordination meeting this Friday," Baharuddin said.
The offer from the Jakarta branch of the FPI comes only days after members of the hard-line organization, together with other Islamist groups and public order officers, raided the homes of Christians in Rancaekek, Bandung, that the groups claimed were being used as places of worship.
Earlier this year, members of the FPI assaulted HKBP church ministers in Bekasi, West Java. Also in Bekasi, FPI members took part in a campaign to demand that a 15-meter statue designed by a Balinese sculptor be taken down, saying that it represented the Holy Trinity.
Apart from attacking religious minorities, the FPI has recently taken to conducting a campaign on "piety". Last week, the group filed a complaint to the police against rock singer Ahmad Dhani for allegedly storing nude pictures of a popular singer.
The group also campaigned to bar the entry of Japanese porn star Maria "Miyabi" Ozawa, who was invited by local film producers to star in a local horror film.
Most of the FPI's actions, although illegal, are condoned by authorities, who seem to be either powerless against or complicit with the group's campaigns. In fact, some high-ranking government officials relish the chance to be publicly associated with the hardliners.
In August, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo and Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Timur Pradopo, who is now the National Police chief, attended the 12th anniversary celebrations of the FPI at the organization's headquarters in Petamburan, Central Jakarta.
Fauzi and Timur made their attendance a day after the group offered its services to enforce a city bylaw banning some entertainment establishments from operating during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Zaky Pawas & Ulma Haryanto, Jakarta In a surprise move, the head of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front on Tuesday said Christians should be allowed to celebrate Christmas in peace and happiness.
Rizieq Shihab, who heads the organization better known as FPI that has been behind attacks on churches and minority sects in the past years, also gave the assurance that his followers would not disturb or disrupt Christmas celebrations.
"I think, let Christians celebrate Christmas in merriment and happiness. That is their right of worship, right of faith that should be respected by all of the Indonesian nation," Rizieq said at the Jakarta Police headquarters.
However, he said that guarantee of peacefulness came with the conditions that the celebrations should avoid controversy.
"As in the past years, we are calling on the Indonesian Bishop's Council and the Indonesian Church Union to celebrate Christmas according to the procedures and rules; there should nothing that invites controversy," he said without giving details.
Rizieq said the conflict between the FPI and believers of other faiths was not over acts of worship but rather had to do with the building of houses of worship that did not follow the rules.
"I call on believers of other religions not to violate the SKB," he said, referring to the joint ministerial decree that regulates the building of houses of worship.
The regulation demands that houses of worship be built in areas where their religion is the dominant one. They require a host of approvals from residents and officials.
Rights activists have lashed at the decree as being discriminative and restricting the right to worship as guaranteed by the Constitution.
Rizieq acknowledged that the Constitution guaranteed the right to worship, but added: "Do not forget that the Constitution is implemented through the SKB."
Ramlan Hutahaean, national secretary general for the Batak Christian Churches (HKBP), with which FPI has clashed, said he expected religious tolerance all the time, not only during Christmas. He also bristled at Rizieq's used of the word "controversial" during Christmas celebrations.
"I don't think there's anything controversial during Christmas. It's a celebration of peace. From his statement it seems that he simply does not want his Christian brothers to celebrate Christmas," he said.
"In this world we don't live alone. We have to sit down with others who might not have the same faith. It's the essence of living in a pluralistic society. If he can't accept someone from a different faith, that shows the quality of his own," Ramlan added.
Jakarta Police Spokesman Sr. Comr Baharudin Djafar said Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen Sutarman took the initiative to meet with the FPI at the headquarters. "This is an important form of coordination so that we can together work for a conducive situation," Baharudin said.
Between 10,000 and 20,000 police personnel would be deployed to safeguard churches during Christmas and New Year, he said.
Arlina Arshad, Indonesia To most people, Ahmad Mustofa Bisri is an influential Muslim cleric and a respected figure from the country's biggest Islamic organization, the moderate Nahdlatul Ulama.
But to his 7,000-odd followers on Twitter, the 66-year-old is Kyai Gaul, or the Trendy Cleric, who thumbs daily Islamic greetings on his iPad and BlackBerry.
Mustofa is among a growing number of Islamic leaders conservative and liberal who are turning to the Internet in the struggle for hearts and minds.
"I set up an account last month because I like to make friends with everyone. I don't position myself as a mufti, a religious authority. I only share what I know," said Mustofa, who is also known by his nickname, Gus Mus. "It's important for those who understand the faith to spread the word. Those who don't know, but say they do, may mislead."
Besides Twitter, he has also been preaching religious tolerance and moderation on Facebook, where he has 2,600 friends and 62,000 fans.
Islamists from hard-line groups like Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia and the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), however, also have a Web presence, using it to advocate ancient capital punishments like stoning for adulterers.
The battle for the country's Islamic identity is just one way the Internet is transforming public debate in a country where Web usage has exploded in the past five years.
With its booming economy and burgeoning middle class, the archipelago has rapidly become home to one of the world's biggest Twitter populations, according to online research firm comScore.
Of 41 countries surveyed, it had the highest percentage of Internet users at home and work accessing Twitter in June, or more than 20 percent of its 45 million people online, comScore said.
No one who wants to be anyone not even the stick-wielding, fringe- dwelling religious fanatics of the FPI can afford not to have a Twitter account and a Facebook page.
And almost inevitably in a country as diverse as Indonesia, questions of faith consistently top the list of trendy topics of debate.
So-called Twitter wars are being waged on a daily basis between liberals who promote pluralism and religious tolerance, and conservatives who advocate a stern interpretation of Islam and strict moral values.
But some of the old elite are uncomfortable in the brave new world of instant communication and user-generated content.
Scandalized by the release online of the Ariel-Cut Tari-Luna Maya homemade sex videos this year, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned that the Internet "frenzy" was a threat to the nation's moral fiber.
But blogger Purwaka, known online as Blontank Poer, says the free flow of information is good for a country that only emerged from the shadow of military strongman Suharto in 1998.
"Twitter wars are good wars," the 42-year-old said. "The winner is the public. They gain a better understanding of Islam and can make their own conclusion after hearing different opinions from experts on the faith."
From homosexuality to atheism and the treatment of minorities, more people are finding they can talk about subjects online that they would be reluctant to discuss in their offices, classrooms and around their kitchen tables.
Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring, a conservative Muslim, is one of the nation's most prolific and controversial tweeters, boasting 120,000 followers.
He drew international ridicule with a post describing how, as a pious Muslim, he had reluctantly shaken hands with US first lady Michelle Obama at a state reception in Jakarta last month.
One of his critics, liberal Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla, tweeted to his 35,000 followers: "Enough, enough, from now on, shaking hands with non- mahrams [those unrelated by marriage] is allowed. It's halal if it's the level of Michelle Obama," he added.
IT researcher and free-speech advocate Donny Budi Utoyo said that while Muslim leaders had different views, those engaged in social networks shared an ability to cope with criticism.
"Both the liberal and conservative leaders who have joined Twitter so far seem to be open people who know how to smile. If they're attacked, they respond in a positive manner," he said. "This reflects the maturity of mind that is needed for any process of dialogue to be effective."
Indonesia An Indonesian court on Wednesday sentenced a United States retiree to five months in jail for blasphemy for pulling the plug on a mosque's loudspeaker during a prayer reading.
The Aug. 22 incident during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan resulted in retired Californian engineer Gregory Luke, 64, needing a police escort from his home on Lombok island as a mob tore it to pieces around him.
"He was found guilty of committing blasphemy, carrying out an act of violence and hampering people in Kute village from doing their religious activities," Chief Judge Suhartoyo told a court in Praya, Lombok.
Luke had previously denied pulling the plug, but in a brief comment Wednesday said he was "satisfied" with the judges' ruling.
The verdict was two months lighter than the jail term sought by prosecutors a day earlier. The Indonesian criminal code stipulates that an act of blasphemy carries a maximum five-year jail term.
Setting out mitigating circumstances, the judge said: "The defendant has never committed a crime before, acted politely during the trial and expressed regret for his act. He also participated in promoting tourism here."
Luke, who runs a guesthouse for tourists on the islands, will get his freedom back in mid-February 2011.
Wearing a sarong, polo shirt and black Muslim hat, he said outside the courtroom that he accepted the ruling. "I'm quite satisfied with the judges' decision," he said with a smile.
Luke has previously denied pulling the plug on the loudspeakers used to broadcast the call to prayer a feature on most mosques in Indonesia.
In comments to local media, he has said he went to the mosque to ask for the volume to be turned down and was set upon by a group of local youths, who pushed him to the ground and pelted him with rocks.
A mob then chased him to his home and ransacked it as police looked on, apparently unable to intervene, he said. No one has been charged with any offence related to the mob attack on his house.
Regional autonomy & government
Nurfika Osman, Jakarta A budget watchdog has released a report claiming to show how the central government has hogged much of the state budget to the detriment of development in the regions.
Yuna Farhan, secretary general of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), said on Monday that the uneven distribution of the budget "prevented public services from being provided in the regions at an optimal level."
"The first issue is that the amount of the budget allocated to the regions is limited and does not take into account the people's welfare," he said at Fitra's year-end evaluation of government spending, under the theme "The Year of Hijacking the Regional Budget."
"Even though the government keeps saying the regions' share of the national budget is gradually increasing, the fact is that the allocated proportion has never been more than 30 percent."
He said that even then, much of the money was prone to embezzlement by government officials. "The budget for social aid is particularly susceptible to embezzlement," Yuna said.
He added Fitra had found that as much as Rp 765.3 billion ($85 million) may have been embezzled from the slice of the 2009 budget allocated to 19 provinces, including East Nusa Tenggara, one of the country's poorest.
"The budget was divided and allocated without input from any outside organizations being taken into account," Yuna said. "This indicates that funding requirements for various projects may have been falsified."
He also said part of the money allocated to the provinces was used to pay for constituency visits by top officials from the government and members of the regional representatives councils. "We also found that Rp 50.8 billion was used for trips made by government officials," he said.
The group highlighted an additional Rp 58.4 billion that had been earmarked as a spending allowance for district heads and officials, and as much as Rp 24.6 billion given to political parties.
Reydonnyzar Moenek, a spokesman for the Home Affairs Ministry, did not deny Fitra's claims. "It's true that 54 percent of the budget allocated to regions is earmarked for personnel expenses," he said.
He also confirmed that some of the money benefited parties, saying "the fund includes an allocation for political activities."
"We can't deny that political activities consume a big portion of the regional budget, because the system allows it," he added, referring to a regulation that allows district heads to allocate social aid grants to parties for political activities.
"We're going to use the findings from this study to ensure the state budget is used in a more efficient and effective way," he said.
Slamet Susanto and Sri Wahyuni, Klaten/Yogyakarta Protesters demanded on Tuesday that Surakarta's special status be restored and that the regency be separated from Central Java.
More than a hundred members of the Community for Surakarta's Special Region (KMP DIS) made their demands at ritual offering held at Prambanan temple on the border of Yogyakarta and Central Java.
The ritual was held by presenting six tumpeng (cone-shaped rice served with side dishes) to be blessed and eaten by demonstrators and passersby.
"Through this ritual we want to remind the central government to restore the special status of Surakarta," event organizer Tumenggung Hadi Nagoro said.
KMP DIS coordinator Soetardji expressed a similar sentiment, saying that their demands were not baseless. Surakarta's special status had previously been acknowledged historically and legally, he said.
Legal acknowledgment, according to Soetardji, came in the form of a Sept. 1, 1945, announcement by Surakarta Sultan Pakubuwono XII that stated that the sultanate was a special region within the Republic of Indonesia.
Additional acknowledgement, he said, was given by a Sept. 19, 1945, presidential charter affirming Pakubuwono's announcement and the Aug. 19, 1945, presidential charter proclaiming Pakubuwono and Mangkunegoro VIII the leaders of the special region.
"Surakarta played an important role in the birth of the Republic of Indonesia. It did not just sacrifice land. Pakubuwono VI even died in the war for independence," Soetardji said.
Surakarta was the first kingdom to acknowledge Indonesian independence and did so on Sept. 1, 1945 four days earlier than Yogyakarta, Soetardji said. The special status for Surakarta demanded by the group was different from that held by Yogyakarta, he said.
Yogyakarta's Sultan and Paku Alam were automatically proclaimed governor and vice governor, he said, adding that "the special status of Surakarta that we're demanding is for the authority to manage and preserve Javanese culture and to make the palace a center of Javanese culture."
Protesters also demanded that a new province be created including seven regencies that are currently part of Central Java: Surakarta (also known as Solo), Sragen, Klaten, Boyolali, Karanganyar, Sukoharjo and Wonogiri.
"We have confidence that with the authority of a separate province, we will be able to increase our wealth without leaving behind our own traditions," Soetardji said.
State administration expert A.A.G.N. Ari Dwipayana of Gadjah Mada University's School of Social and Political Sciences said he doubted that Surakarta could easily reclaim its special status.
"Constitutionally, it's possible but it would be very tough. [Surakarta] underwent a different historical process," Ari told The Jakarta Post.
Four regions were acknowledged as autonomous after Indonesian independence: Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Bone and Deli, Ari said. Surakarta, Bone and Deli had to deal with a social revolutions due to anti-feudalism and nationalist movements between 1945 and 1946, he said.
For security, a central government representative was sent to Surakarta, which was later incorporated into Central Java province.
"Only Yogyakarta did not face the same challenge thanks to the intelligence of Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX in anticipating the same movement through a democratic administration and his dynamic political role at the national level," Ari said.
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta After a year of political drama and bickering, members of the House of Representatives have proven that their voices speak louder than action after passing less than half of the bills targeted this year.
Many critical bills failed to meet the deadline due to protracted disagreements, either between parties in the House or with the government.
One of the most important bills not passed wasthe Financial Services Authority (OJK) bill, which would revise the Bank Indonesia law that stipulated that the OJK be established this year.
On Thursday, a day before the legislation period goes into recess, parties at the House could only reach an agreement to deliberate five bills next year. This means the political parties law, passed on Thursday, was the last piece of legislation for the year.
Arbi Sanit from the University of Indonesia criticized legislators for wasting too much time on tasks other not related to their legislative duties, including the protracted inquiry into the Bank Century bailout that cost Rp 5 billion (US$555,000).
"Certain parties in the House looked set to use the controversy around the bailout as political leverage against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to gain power in the executive body," he said.
By the end of the year, the House was also under fire for financing foreign trips for certain commissions and working committees for various purposes, including comparative studies, haj pilgrimage supervision and inter- parliamentary ties, all while the country was rocked by natural disasters that claimed hundreds of lives.
"The results of the trips have never been revealed and business goes on as usual," Arbi said.
The House allocated Rp 173.4 billion in its legislative budget this year and finished the year passing only 15 bills into law, carrying over another 55 bills into next year.
Legislators also managed to convince the government to expand the legislative buildings in Senayan, Central Jakarta, and alloted Rp 250 billion of state budget for its early funding, but failed to pass the housing and settlement bill that would have become the groundwork for the expansion of public housing programs.
"This year, we failed to achieve our goal because we have been involved in unnecessary political bickering," Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie said during his party's year-end meeting on Thursday.
After Golkar legislators spearheaded the Century inquiry this year, he urged legislators to discuss the essence of each bill for the sake of public welfare without being distracted by other issues he said were spread to increase distrust.
During the meeting, Golkar, the Democratic Party's main ally in the ruling coalition, also identified the bills that would cause political tension next year.
"We've identified at least five bills that will divide the House. Three of the bills are related to the general elections in 2014, one bill is on Yogyakarta's special status and another bill covers village administration," the chairman of Golkar in the House, Setya Novanto, said Thursday. (rch)
Criminal justice & prison system
Ulma Haryanto & Zaky Pawas, Jakarta Discrepancies in the sentencing of defendants in two recent cases involving a loss of life have raised questions regarding the sense of justice among the nation's judges.
On Monday, the South Jakarta District Court sentenced four men to eight years in jail for their role in a brawl at the Blowfish nightclub that killed two people.
Meanwhile, three defendants charged with criminal negligence that caused the deaths of four people and injured 13 others were given a one year probation by the Central Jakarta District Court. Their negligence had caused a building extension at the Metro Tanah Abang mall to collapse.
"In Indonesia there is no standard punishment for a crime. Although we have a set law, bartering and negotiating punishment are still very common," said Nurkholis Hidayat, director of the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH).
The possibility of negotiating a punishment automatically places those who are defenseless, such as the poor, in the most powerless position, he said.
The family members of the workers killed and injured in the Tanah Abang incident were all from a low socioeconomic bracket. Judges said the families were satisfied by the fact that the defendants had pleaded guilty and that compensation had been paid.
"[The defendants] also presented statements to the court from survivors and family members of the victims indicating that they had made peace with one another," said Judge Dehel Sandah last week as he read out the verdict for the case.
Criminologist Mohammad Irvan Olii said the harshness of a penalty depends mainly on the prosecutors, who can be easily influenced by one of the affected parties. "Judges can only sentence someone based on the prosecution's advice. They cannot give a sentence that is heavier than requested," he said.
In the case of Blowfish, a high-end nightclub, the incident may have caused the club to lose business or profit and therefore "put greater pressure on the prosecution to appease these parties, unlike in the case of Tanah Abang."
In a separate case, motorcycle taxi driver Suprihatin, 27, was sentenced to four years in jail and fined Rp 800 million ($88,800) by the East Jakarta court for the possession of a mere 0.06 grams of marijuana.
The severity of his sentence compared to that handed down in the Tanah Abang case highlights the discrepancy in sentencing that has been criticized by observers.
Another unduly heavy penalty was requested in the case of Rasimah, an illiterate 55-year-old woman who allegedly stole six plates and 1.5 kilograms of ox tail, an ingredient used to make a traditional soup. Prosecutors at a Tangerang district court recently sought a five month jail term for her crimes.
Ganda Upaya, a sociologist from the University of Indonesia, said that justice in court trials often depends on the socioeconomic status of the actors involved.
He commented that Suprihatin received a heavier sentence for his crime than a corruptor who had caused billions of rupiah of state loss is likely to have received. "In this country, the law is only enforced for those who have the capital," he said.
Ririn Radiawati Kusuma, Jakarta In its continuing efforts to boost infrastructure development, the government is offering three projects on Java Island to foreign and domestic investors at a total combined investment value of around $4 billion.
"I think we can offer the projects by the first half of 2011 so we can start building the projects by the end of 2011," Gita Wirjawan, chief of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), said on Monday.
The projects include a 35-kilometer railway linking Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and Manggarai in South Jakarta that is valued at $735 million.
The government also invited investors to build the Umbulan reservoir in Pasuruan, East Java, worth $200 million and a 3,000 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Pemalang, Central Java, worth $3 billion.
It offered the projects under the so-called public-private partnership program it initiated in 2006.
Gita said the government would discuss the PPP regulations at the vice president's office on Tuesday. "We don't have the candidates yet, but we prefer domestic investors," he said, declining to mention possible names.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has so far pledged $140 billion of investment in infrastructure, including roads, ports and power plants, to boost economic growth through 2014, the end of this second-five year term.
Gita said the government had failed to build five infrastructure projects this year, citing procedural hitches as the cause. Among those projects are the Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal in Bali ($30 million) and the Medan- Kualanamu toll road in North Sumatra ($475 million).
He said he hoped the government, which has upwards of 100 projects it wants to offer to private investors, could offer those two projects after 2011.
Separately, Gita said total foreign and domestic investment would reach Rp 200 trillion ($22.2 billion) this year. Domestic investment will account for 30 percent of that value while foreign direct investment will account for the rest.
Olivia Rondonuwu & Neil Chatterjee, Jakarta Indonesia's selection of less aggressive candidates to head antigraft institutions and failure to make progress on big corruption cases show its drive to reduce graft has faltered but that is doing little to deter foreign investors.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono attracted voter support and increased investor confidence last year on hopes he would make further progress in his second term in reforming graft-ridden institutions in one of Asia's most corrupt countries.
But the continued depth of the problem has been highlighted in recent months by the success of vested interests in weakening Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), and by revelations of allegedly corrupt tax official Gayus Tambunan who bribed his way his way out of prison.
Analysts say Yudhoyono is unlikely to achieve much reform of corrupt legal or tax systems that increase risk for investors, but impressive stability in managing Indonesia's finances and strong economic growth will draw further portfolio and foreign direct investment.
"When you weigh up the risk factors, the opportunities in Indonesia are a lot greater. While there is corruption, actually there is corruption everywhere," said Julia Goh, an economist at Malaysian bank CIMB, whose Indonesian subsidiary saw third quarter profits jump 46 percent and its shares triple in 2010.
Fund managers say corporate governance is the biggest risk for equity investors, but that has not stopped a 41 percent rally in Jakarta stocks to record highs this year. An exception was top coal miner Bumi Resources, whose stock slumped about 30 percent by mid-year on concerns over governance and high debt, but that was seen as a buying opportunity despite the risks and the stock has rebounded.
"It will always be an issue. Over the last year or two markets have been less focused on the corruption issue because of the favorable environment," said Chua Hak Bin, director of global research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Singapore.
"This issue may come back to haunt it's probably a bit worrying that investors have been willing to push it aside, not just corruption but other reforms, and as valuations get higher investors may get more demanding."
While corruption acts as a drag on the economy, booming exports of commodities such as coal and rising consumer spending mean solid six percent growth is expected again next year.
For bond investors, who have piled into government debt to drive down 20- year yields by 1.45 percentage points this year, this growth plus falling government debt levels and the prospect of a ratings upgrade to investment grade status next year are likely to outweigh any graft risk.
Corruption has not stopped the government's finances from improving and so long as it does not hit the currency or lead to a political backlash, it may continue to be overlooked by investors with a short time horizon, Chua said.
Criticism of the government's progress has been rising. The Indonesian public's perception of Yudhoyono's battle on graft, on a 0-100 scale, slid to 34 in October from 84 a year earlier, a poll by the Indonesia Survey Institute showed.
The KPK, which had achieved some success and struck fear into government officials since being set up in 2003 with jail sentences for "untouchables" such as members of parliament, an in-law of the president and a former central bank governor, saw its leader convicted this year for 18 years on murder charges.
Two KPK deputies had graft charges against them dropped after evidence they were framed by police, prosecutors from the Attorney General's Office and a businessman whose brother was a KPK target, but they could still face prosecution.
The weakened body has since been aiming to take on smaller regional cases than going for big fish in Jakarta, according to anti-graft watchdog Indonesia Corruption Watch.
Campaigners hoped a new KPK chief would revitalise efforts, but the choice last month of softly spoken academic Busjro Muqoddas by the House of Represenatives (DPR) fearful of further convictions of parliamentarians left many disappointed.
This was followed up by Yudhoyono's choice of a former deputy attorney general to become a new attorney general, leading to even more dismay, as an insider from an institution widely considered corrupt was not seen as likely to clean it up.
"Indonesia has no priority nor road map, and probably doesn't want any significant change. The corruption fight is being done at the periphery to appease the public," said Teten Masduki, of anti-graft group Transparency International Indonesia.
Transparency International's 2010 corruption perception index for Indonesia stood at a score of 2.8 for 2010, the same as last year, and a worse rating in its scale of 0 to 10 than Thailand's 3.5 and Malaysia's 4.4.
"In business you need to build relationships of trust and support. But here it feels like everyone is opportunistic, trying to get something out of everything you do," said the foreign head of an IT firm. "You cannot work well like this."
The central bank told Reuters the risks for doing business were seen as the biggest obstacle to an investment grade rating.
Pessimism among the public has turned to anger after the revelations of junior tax officer Gayus Tambunan, being tried for bribing a judge to avoid charges of taking millions in payments from firms to slash their tax bills.
Photographers spotted Tambunan sporting a wig at a tennis tournament on the resort island of Bali when he was meant to be in jail. It turned out he had bribed the jail's head warden to slip out of the prison's doors more than 60 times and told a court it was a common practice his cellmates also did.
The grim picture of entrenched corruption has for years put firms off from investing directly, but FDI has grown a third to about $14 billion in 2010, from existing mining firms and manufacturing newcomers, with more seen coming from North Asia to tap buoyant consumer demand and abundant mineral resources.
While some nations may be willing to deal with graft, there are also signs more Western firms are willing to take on the risks in Indonesia, which has had success in tackling other threats such as Islamic militant groups and currency volatility.
The world's biggest food group Nestle said this month it will invest in a new plant to produce Milo to meet growing local demand, while the government says US equipment maker Caterpillar Inc is considering making Indonesia its Southeast Asian production base.
Executives said they had learned to work around the problem. "It adds time and complexity. Who needs to be paid what, it's such a complex situation. Every way you turn someone else must be paid," said a managing director of a Western software firm, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity. "Thankfully we don't deal with it directly, we use other people for that. We cannot be seen to be engaged with anything like that."
Jakarta The country's prevailing lending growth is still too low to support economic growth targets of 7 percent within the next few years, economic observers say.
University of Indonesia economist Faisal Basri and Bank Indonesia researcher Juda Agung said Thursday that the amount of disbursed loans was still too low to support the country's economy, as indicated by a lower credit-to-GDP ratio compared to neighboring countries.
"National banks' credit-to-GDP ratio currently stands at about 30 percent, while in China the ratio is at 140 percent and in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia surpasses 100 percent. That means industrial performance is weak," Faisal said at a seminar conducted by the central bank at the Intercontinental Hotel in Jakarta.
With the low growth in the country's lending, it would be difficult to achieve economic growth of more than 7 percent within the next few years, he said.
Faisal and Juda agreed the persistently high lending rate contributed to slow growth in lending because corporate borrowers still considered the loans offered by banks too expensive.
Currently, the average lending rate offered by banks lies between 13 percent and 14 percent, even though the central bank has kept the benchmark BI rate at a record low of 6.5 percent for 17 consecutive months. A fair lending rate should be between 10 percent and 11 percent.
As of Dec. 8 this year, national banks have disbursed Rp 1,700.93 trillion in loans, an 18.93 percent increase throughout the year, but lower than BI's target of 22 percent to 24 percent loan growth for the full year. The GDP stood at Rp 4,727.6 trillion as of the end of the third quarter this year.
Apart from keeping its key interest low, BI has taken steps to encourage banks to increase their lending.
BI recently, for example, required banks to have a loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) of between 78 and 100 percent starting from Mar. 1 2011, or they would be penalized through storing more minimum reserve requirements (GWM) at the central bank.
BI also plans to issue another ruling to encourage competition by requiring banks to announce their lending rates in the mass media. The regulation is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2011.
Faisal said the LDR ruling was not enough to spur lending growth, adding that the interest rates stayed higher due to structural problems in the country's banking industry such as inefficiency as well a banking oligopoly.
Faisal said a large supply of loans were still controlled by a handful of banks. He said that such structural problems should first be removed if Indonesia wanted its banking sector to operate more efficiently.
Faisal said banks should reduce operating costs to enable them to lower lending rates. Juda said the lending growth was still relatively low because many banks did not want to be "too aggressive" in order to minimize risk. (est)
Dion Bisara, Jakarta The World Bank revised down its 2010 growth forecast for Indonesia by 0.1 percentage points to 5.9 percent on Thursday.
Its quarterly report showed the country's growth softening, due mainly to domestic factors such as weather-related disruptions to agriculture and mining.
Looking toward next year, positive trends in investment and strength of private consumption are expected to continue, and the World Bank is forecasting a mild pickup in growth to 6.2 percent.
Its report highlights capital inflows, which are attracted by Indonesia's higher yields, stronger growth prospects and improving creditworthiness relative to higher-income economies, which will provide opportunities as well as will pose risks for Indonesia to manage.
"These flows bring benefits, such as lowering financing costs, but they can also raise macroeconomic and prudential policy concerns," the World Bank said in its report.
Meanwhile, demand from rapidly growing emerging markets, especially China, coupled with monetary expansion in the United States and other countries have helped drive up global prices in non-energy commodities, including food and raw materials.
Both of these global trends are supportive of Indonesia's balance of payments position, the bank said, but present risks due to potential future reversals and rising inflation, especially in food.
"The challenge is to maximize the opportunities presented by capital inflows and rising commodity prices for Indonesia while managing their risks" said Shubham Chaudhuri, the World Bank's lead economist for Indonesia.
"These include, for example, enhancing incentives for foreign direct investment to help to shift inflows toward longer-term investments."
However, the Indonesian government is standing by its prediction that the largest economy in Southeast Asia will grow by at least 6 percent this year. It says increased government spending and growing domestic demand will fuel the country's expansion.
"The World Bank has their prediction, but we are still optimistic the growth can be 6 percent this year and 6.4 percent next year," said Agus Suprijanto, interim head of Fiscal Management Office at the Finance Ministry.
"Household consumption is still strong, while government spending is expected to pick up in the fourth quarter. Investment also continues to be strong and export will be supported by high commodity prices."
Neles Tebay, Abepura, Papua The year 2010 has been very special for Papuans. It is in this year that the central government has turned its attention to Papua.
The government's attention was manifested by a historic joint visit of three coordinating ministers to Papua.
The government began to pay attention to Papua, above all, due to a symbolic protest on June 18 where demonstrators "handed back" Papua's special autonomy status to Jakarta.
Through the action Papuans conveyed a message that the government's policy of special autonomy was no longer the best or a realistic solution for the Papuan conflict. The protestors contended the autonomy law failed to bring prosperity to indigenous Papuans in the 10 years since its enactment.
Many Papuans still live under the poverty line. They are among the poorest people in Indonesia, although the province is rich in natural resources.
For 10 years, Papuans have seen that the government has never demonstrated its political will or commitment to protect and empower indigenous Papuans through consistent implementation of the autonomy law. Affirmative policies accommodated in the law went deliberately unimplemented by the central government in Jakarta.
As a result, Papuans are becoming a minority in their ancestral land due to the uncontrolled influx of migrants from other provinces. While outnumbering Papuans, migrants also dominate the overall society. It has led to the marginalization of Papuans.
One can easily see throughout Papua's towns that indigenous Papuans have been marginalized partly due to the government's failure to protect them by implementation of the autonomy law. Lacking the necessary skills to compete with the migrants, Papuans have been easily marginalized economically, politically and socially.
Due to the government's unwillingness to implement the law, Papuans have not been given protection today, nor do they have clarity about their fate and future within the Republic of Indonesia.
The government should know that the Papuans are deeply worried about their very existence.
The fundamental problem for the Papuans, then, is not about separatism, as is usually highlighted by the government and military. Instead, the threat to Papuans' survival as human beings in their ancestral lands constitutes a fundamental problem. The question should be addressed properly.
The protection and continuation of indigenous Papuan society should be the criteria used to examine any policy adopted by any institution for Papua.
The government should realize that military operations, as is clear from the past, will bring about more human rights violations and therefore put the survival of Papuans in danger.
The government has failed to implement the autonomy law and failed to protect indigenous Papuans. This failure has been one of the factors that threaten the survival of Papuans.
From 1963 until today, Papuans have never been considered agents of development and transformation in Papua. Instead, it has been the government that has decided what the Papuans must or must not do without consultation.
The government has shown little respect for the human dignity of Papuans. The Papuans were not involved in the decision-making process. Development policies are determined by the government without participation of the indigenous Papuans.
It is for the sake of indigenous Papuans' survival that the government should now change its oppressive and arrogant attitude.
The government should not issue licenses to timber or palm oil industries to exploit Papua's forests, which have sustained the lives of indigenous Papuans. Instead, the government should revoke existing licenses.
Papua's forests should be under protection of an international body to prevent them from being deforested as such attempts threaten not only the survival of the Papuans but also all of the people in the world.
The government should cancel its Merauke Integrated Food and Energy (MIFE) project, which has nothing to do with the survival of indigenous Papuans and will only speed up their marginalization.
Needless to say that the government should abandon its approach to security that for more than 40 years has brought about gross human rights violations against indigenous Papuans.
Instead the government should take a welfare approach. Consequently, the Papua Desk at the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister's Office should be transferred to the Coordinating Public Welfare Minister's Office.
Without this transfer, no one will believe that the government has changed its approach to Papua.
As the third largest democracy in the world, Indonesia should stop developing policies for Papua without consulting indigenous Papuans.
Any affirmative policy for Papua should be determined by the government of Indonesia and indigenous Papuans. The Papuans should be invited to contribute to the decision-making process.
Any affirmative policy will be rejected by indigenous Papuans unless they are fully involved and actively participate in the process of decision making.
Papuans will accept any affirmative policy that is jointly decided by the government and Papuan representatives. A constructive dialogue between the government of Indonesia and the Papuans, then, will be the most dignified means for both to jointly determine affirmative policies appropriate for Papua.
[Dr. Neles Tebay is a lecturer at the Fajar Timur School of Philosophy and Theology in Abepura, Papua.]
Peter Alford, Jakarta Densus 88, the Indonesian counter-terrorism police, used every day of the four months available to substantiate its charges against Abu Bakar Bashir before delivering him with its brief of evidence to the South Jakarta prosecutors on Monday.
The prosecutors have 60 days to finalise an indictment against the 72-year-old cleric who, if convicted, could be sentenced to death, though that penalty is highly unlikely to be imposed.
The Attorney-General's Office, however, wants Bashir in the dock as early as possible in the new year. The quicker the better, says South Jakarta chief prosecutor Mohammed Yusuf.
Nor are the authorities waiting until the trial to argue their case that Bashir was not just a religious inspiration and fundraiser for the Aceh militant training camp that was dismantled by Densus 88 in February, but the actual leader of the so-called al-Qa'ida in Aceh.
"In November 2009, Abu Tholud, with Dulmatin, Abdullah Sonata, Ubaid and Warsito agreed to increase the training in Aceh to military level and [to form] al-Qa'ida Serambi Mekah," National Police spokesman Iskandar Hasan told reporters yesterday morning.
"At this meeting they agreed that the amir [leader] was Abu Bakar Bashir. We have stated this all in his investigation report which we submitted to the prosecutors' office."
Abu Tholut, the alleged camp training co-ordinator and a Bashir acolyte, was, until his arrest on Friday morning, the only one of the senior Aceh plotters still at large. Dulmatin was killed in a Densus 88 ambush in March. The rest are in prison, at least two of them already on trial.
Immediately after yesterday's press conference, Indonesian television showed live coverage of 48-year-old Abu Tholut being brought to Jakarta under heavy security. The message from the authorities was clear: we have Abu Tholut and that proves Bashir's complicity.
Unlike Dulmatin, the preacher cannot deny knowing him. They met when both were in Cipinang prison in 2004, Abu Tholut taught at Bashir's religious boarding school near Solo, al-Mukmin, and later joined the cleric's above- ground and purportedly anti-violence organisation, Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid.
As previously in the case of the executed Bali bomber Mukhlas, Bashir's former student, the softly-spoken cleric denies knowing anything about Abu Tholut's alleged terrorist activities.
The younger man left JAT over "ideological differences", he said on Monday, adding approvingly: "Tholut is a holy warrior." On the day of Dulmatin's funeral, he said: "Dulmatin was a mujahed, even if I don't agree with his struggle and use of violence in the country in times of peace."
Of the Aceh training camp, his lawyer Luthfie Hakim said a fortnight ago the preacher denied any association with or knowledge of terrorist activities.
But once again: "According to ustad [teacher] Abu Bakar Bashir, what happened in Aceh is in line with what Islam teaches and is not a crime, not a terrorist act."
Bashir has already been tried for involvement in three of Indonesia's worst terrorist outrages of the past decade. He was found not guilty twice and convicted once, but acquitted on appeal.
In previous trials he has been able to remain mostly silent while his lawyers have exploited serious flaws and weaknesses in the prosecution's cases. He is a sinuous quarry.
The authorities' painstaking diligence before and since his August 9 arrest and now the prosecutorial urgency and public theatre underscores that for the Indonesian justice system's credibility, this will be the most important terrorism trial since at least December 2006.
That was when the Supreme Court overturned the preacher's conviction for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 88 Australians. By then he was already six months out of jail on remission.
The stakes are high not because the alleged Jemaah Islamiah co-founder is still a vanguard leader of Indonesian jihadism he clearly isn't any more, analysts say but because he still represents its ideals to millions of conservative, fundamentalist Muslims.
Bashir's trial will be a test of his own potency as a moral figurehead to those people and to mob-mobilising social extremists such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the Indonesian Mujaheddin Council (MMI), which are again sizzling with aggression against Christian churches and other "infidel" manifestations.
The stakes are high because the governments of foreign countries that lost citizens in the 2002 Bali bombings, particularly Australia and the US, which have given critical support to Indonesia's counter-terrorism programs, regard Bashir as vitally unfinished business.
Those governments continue to believe he was a key figure in the murderous conspiracy, though carefully distanced from the operation itself, as prosecutors charged in his 2004-05 trial but ultimately failed to prove.
The stakes are high because another bungled prosecution, or one in which the prosecution again succeeds with frail or discreditable evidence, would seriously harm what little remains of the judicial system's reputation.
And Bashir's public popularity, which has gradually dwindled since he walked out of prison on parole in June 2005 to a tumultuous welcome from thousands of supporters, would inevitably resurge, according to Noor Huda Ismail, once an al-Mukrim student and aspiring mujahed.
Of course Bashir knowingly supported the Aceh camp, says Noor Huda, who these days is a security-risk consultant and promoter of de-radicalisation programs to tame and turn detained Islamic militants.
"But if you know Bashir, he's the kind of person who cannot say no to his followers. If somebody told him about jihad activity, he's going to say, 'Good'.
"Because in his mind, jihad must be done, and there are many ways to do jihad. If the government fails to prove their charges against him, it will make him a hero again."
However, Noor Huda points out that Bashir faces the likelihood of conviction this time because of the relative strength of the present case. And there is no longer the solidity in militant ranks or depth of underground experience as when Jemaah Islamiah of which too Bashir, its alleged co-founder, denies any knowledge was in the ascendant before 2005.
Since then the US and Australian-trained and funded Densus 88 has been increasingly successful in splintering the militant groups and capturing, but just as often killing, the most senior active militants.
Already it appears several of the preacher's accused co-conspirators, including Ubaid and Abdul Haris, both allegedly involved in channelling funds from JAT into the camp, will testify about his direct involvement.
Al-Qa'ida in Aceh was a coalition of militant splinter groups, including Jemaah Islamiah remnants, forced by the police's relentless hounding in their Javanese haunts to to reassemble in a province where grassroots religiosity has been strongly resistant to militant extremism. Bashir, a Javanese of part-Arab descent, is alleged to have formed JI in 1993 while in exile in Malaysia from Suharto's New Order regime, when he was a bitter opponent of the president's Pancasila nationalist ideology.
He had escaped the country in 1985 while under investigation for the bombing of Borobudur, the reconstructed ancient Buddhist temple complex.
Thirteen years earlier, Bashir had founded al-Mukmin school with a group of friends including the Abdullah Sungkar, with whom he is also alleged to have established JI. Abdullah is credited by US intelligence with having made JI's original contact with Osama bin Laden and the al-Qa'ida network.
Returning to Indonesia in 1999, after Suharto's fall, Bashir re-established himself at the Solo school and as a leader of the campaign for the imposition of sharia law throughout Indonesia.
In the two years before the first Bali bombings in Kuta, Bashir was also becoming increasingly well-known for his violent rhetoric against Western influences in the country, and particularly against tourists.
It was revealed during a subsequent trial that the month before the October 2002 bombings, US officials had secretly and unsuccessfully pressed then- president Megawati Sukarnoputri to render him into American custody.
Although instantly under suspicion after the Kuta bombings, Bashir was initially charged in April 2003 with treason and other offences allegedly related to the wave of bombings on Christmas Eve 2000 that killed 18 people. He was convicted only of an immigration offence.
In October 2004, he was re-arrested and charged with complicity in the August 2003 Jakarta Marriott Hotel bombing, which killed 14 people. Bashir was in custody at the time of the attack.
For the first time, charges were also laid accusing him of conspiring in the 2002 Bali bombing. In March 2005 he was convicted of the Bali conspiracy and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail but acquitted of the Marriott charges.
With remissions for good behaviour, he was released from Cipinang prison in June 2006. Six months later, the Supreme Court overturned his Bali bombings conviction on appeal.
The nation's highest court does not enjoy a glistening reputation for jurisprudence but on that occasion it had little option but to acquit Bashir.
The South Jakarta District had convicted him on the evidence of a single witness, who testified the cleric had told the subsequently executed bomber Amrozi: "It's up to you; you know the conditions in the field."
The case being built against Bashir for when he returns to South Jakarta District Court, possibly as early as next month, appears harder to refute and it is unlikely he will be able to sit in silence this time.
So far, however, Bashir and his lawyers are playing the cleric's familiar game, refusing to cooperate in police interviews or respond to their allegations.
"The whole thing is a set-up and we choose not to respond to what they say," his lawyer Hakim said yesterday. "They have every facility they need to fabricate this case; we will see in the court what they can prove."