"We sent invitations to a thousand people but 1,700 came. We started the event at 7 p.m. and knocked off at 5 a.m.," hotel official Anton said. Organized by Fashion TV at the Lagoi tourism area, the event featured models clad in bikinis and lingerie.

The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) opposed the event.

"We had five people observing and documenting the event. We will report it to [FPI chair] Habib Rizieq in Jakarta for possible investigation. If we find the event violated the anti-pornography law, we will file suit with the police," Riau FPI member Edwin Nasution said.

Abdurrahman, a local PKS official, criticized the local authorities for allowing the event to take place.

Government plans to sell citizen's electronic ID data

Jakarta Post - May 18, 2011

Jakarta – The government plans to sell the citizen database enclosed in the electronic identification cards (e-KTP) system for business interests, an official says.

Reydonnyzar Moenek, Home Ministry spokesman, told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the data could be used for business interests but only to see the distribution of certain characteristics of the Indonesian population.

"For example, if a milk brand needs data about infant distribution in Indonesia for marketing purposes, they can use the data. But we won't disclose private information," he said, adding that the government would charge those who were interested in using the data.

"We will discuss the mechanism further, but if it happens, the income from selling the database will be categorized as non-tax income," he added.

The database, Reydonnyzar continued, would not be disclosed without the central government's permission because the source code and the property rights belonged to them.

The Home Ministry intended to create a database tracking 27 different pieces of personal information including addresses, family members, birth dates, employment and education information.

The project requires Rp 5.9 trillion (US$690 million). The database will contain up-to-date information that is verified when citizens record their fingerprints at the subdistrict level, where they will be asked to check the accuracy of their personal data.

"With this system, every Indonesian citizen will only have one single identification number from when they are born until they die," Reydonnyzar said.

The government has been aiming to employ a single identification number for citizens to avoid inconsistent database issues that ministries often encounter.

A problem in the data inconsistency can be found in the number of low- income people in which the Health Ministry uses to budget Jamkesmas, the free health provision for low-income people. The government has allocated the program to 76.4 million people while the Central Statistics Board reported that the number dropped to 60.5 million.

Reydonnyzar said the single identification number could also hinder someone from possessing a double or fake ID card. "In the way, there is no way a terrorist can attain a fake ID with alias names," he said.

Reydonnyzar said the system could also prevent electorate manipulation. Targeting project completion by 2012, Reydonnyzar suggested that all citizens report to the neighborhood unit's leader as soon as possible to update their family certificate and get a single identification number, which is required to process an e-KTP.

Digital forensic expert Ruby Alamsyah said the government had to audit IT security first before implementing the system.

"The audit functions to find the system's vulnerability and then fix it, and repeat the audit process all over again to recheck. There's no such thing as a perfect IT system, but at least we can choose the system with lesser weaknesses," Ruby told the Post.

Ruby said the government had to use the latest technology to prevent identity theft or other possible crimes. "If we use old technology, especially technology that has been used in other countries before, there's a chance that a criminal already knows patterns and weaknesses," he said. (swd)

Actions, demos, protests...

Residents protest arrest of sex workers, violence by public order officers

Yogya Tribune - May 19, 2011

Bakti Buwono Budiastyo, Bantul – Scores of people from Parangkusumo beach in Bantul district, south of the Central Java city of Yogyakarta, besieged the Bantul regent's office on the early hours of Thursday May 19. At around 1.30am they gave speeches and conveyed their demands in front of the office of the Number 1 person in Bantul.

"We [are] here to demand that the eight residents of Parangkusumo who were arrested by public order agency officers (Satpol PP) must be released immediately", shouted the coordinator of the action from Free Women (Perempuan Mahardika) and the Parangtritis People's Alliance Against Evictions (ARMP), Aslihul Fahmi Alia.

The action was marred by tensions when the demonstrators tried to force they way through the entrance gate guarded by PP Satpol officers. The attempt stopped when several local residents, who had been disturbed by the action which had being going on since early morning, arrived unexpectedly and approached the protesters.

The angry residents told the demonstrators to disburse. "[You're] disturbing us, why [are you] demonstrating for middle of the night. Don't [you] know the regulations", shouted a Wintolo (40), a resident of Purahan (sic), Krajan, Bantul. The altercation lasted for around 30 minutes after which local residents made the protesters disburse and return to Parangkusumo.

The protest action was linked to a raid on commercial sex workers (PSK) by Satpol PP officers on Wednesday May 15 at 10pm in Parangkusumo. During the raid, local people resisted with several residents waylaying a Satpol PP vehicle.

Of the 10 sex workers netted in the raid, two were rescued from the Satpol PP officers by the crowd. According to Aslihul, the Satpol PP officers acted in an anarchic manner, injuring several local people who tried to block their way.

"Several of the victims who were injured have already reported to the police (Kretek sectoral police - Ed.)", she said. Watin, another Parangkusumo resident, they would be coordinating again with their colleagues to decide on what follow up action to take.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Aceh

Indonesia faces international pressure to repeal caning in Aceh

Jakarta Post - May 23, 2011

Jakarta – Amnesty International urged Indonesia to repeal laws in Aceh that allow the use of caning as a punishment as it violates international human rights law, just after Indonesia was re-elected into the UN Human Rights Council.

"Victims of caning experience pain, fear and humiliation, and it caning can cause long-term or permanent injuries," Amnesty International's Asia- Pacific director Sam Zarifi said.

Caning is a product of Aceh's implementation of the sharia law and is handed down as punishment for violating certain bylaws. It was introduced as a punishment carried out by Islamic courts for offences that include adultery, consumption of alcohol, unmarried adult couples meeting alone in isolation (khalwat) and for Muslims eating, drinking or selling food during daylight hours in the fasting month of Ramadan.

Amnesty reported that as of May 12, 21 people were publicly caned for violating an Aceh bylaw (qanun) prohibiting gambling and were given six lashes each as hundreds of people looked on. In 2010, reports said at least 16 men and women were also caned.

"It seems that Aceh's authorities are increasingly resorting to public caning in violation of international law," Zarifi said. "The Indonesian government must act to stop these punishments, which constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and often amount to torture."

He said the special autonomy granted to Aceh in 2001 was misused as it led to the issuance of a series of bylaws governing the implementation of sharia (Islamic jurisprudence).

"Indonesia's decentralization process and regional autonomy were supposed to be about empowering local populations and should not come at the expense of their human rights," Zarifi said.

The calls for human rights attention in Aceh coincides with Indonesia's third election into the UN Human Rights Council on Friday (Saturday in Jakarta).

National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) chief Ifdhal Kasim concurred with Amnesty, saying regional laws should still comply with national laws.

"Caning is a deviation from the national legal system. Criminal law in Indonesia applies nationally and we do not recognize corporal punishment," Kasim said.

"The Home Ministry must highlight regional laws that are not in line with the Constitution, and the Law and Human Rights Ministry must align existing regional laws with national laws as well as international conventions," Kasim said.

He added that caning violates the UN Convention Against Torture, which Indonesia ratified in 1998.

However, Aceh cleric Imam Suja said caning did not violate human rights as it was permitted by sharia. "Religion is a rule, and human rights only interferes with it." (awd)

Aceh clerics hit back at Amnesty International's statement

Jakarta Globe - May 23, 2011

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Acehnese clerics have criticized Amnesty International's call for the Indonesian government to repeal a bylaw that allowed caning, arguing that the practice did not violate any regulation in the world.

In a statement released on Sunday, Amnesty said that caning violated the UN Convention Against Torture, which Indonesia ratified in 1998, and urged central government to review the bylaw to conform with international and national human rights laws and standards.

Clerics in Banda Aceh, however, dismissed the criticism, saying it originated from an ignorance of Shariah law, Islam and Indonesia.

"It is their right to criticize," said Teungku Muslim Ibrahim, head of the province's Consultative Assembly of Ulema (MPU) and a professor at Aceh's State Islamic Institute (IAIN). "But as long as they do not seek to understand Shariah, they will continue to criticize something they know little about."

He said the regulation governing caning as judicial punishment was in line with the country's laws and did "not violate any regulation in the world."

Caning adopted partial Shariah Law in 2001 as part of an autonomy package aimed at quelling separatist sentiment. Caning carried out there is mainly aimed at causing shame rather than injury. It is also used as a mandatory punishment for certain crimes in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

"People criticize because they don't understand. The rules in Aceh are clear," Muslim said. "The Koran says that those who believe in Allah and Rasulullah Muhammad Sallalaahu Alaihi Wassalam must not abide by laws other than the ones determined by their God."

He added that caning did not violate the UN Convention on Human Rights because the convention respected compromises made by a community, big or small.

"Moreover, the Islamic community in Aceh is a majority. Caning is only applied to Islamic followers," Muslim said, adding that regulations applied to the size and length of the cane as well as the distance between the Shariah violator and punishment executor.

Teungku Faisal Ali, the head of the Aceh chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said those who criticized caning in Aceh tended to "dislike" Islam.

"Why didn't they criticize caning in Singapore? Why didn't they protest the banning of the head scarf in France? Why didn't they protest Israel, which keeps on violating the UN resolutions?" said Faisal, who is also the secretary of Aceh's Dayah Ulama Association (Huda), an organization comprised of the province's traditional ulema.

"I think Amnesty International doesn't have to intervene the application of Islamic Shariah in Aceh," he added.

"Tell me, what law is violated in Aceh's application of Shariah? What we apply in Aceh is a national law, which has been acknowledged as part of Aceh's special autonomy. Everyone must respect Islamic Shariah in Aceh," he said.

14 people caned in East Aceh for playing games of chance

Jakarta Globe - May 20, 2011

Nurdin Hasan – Fourteen people convicted of violating Aceh's strict Islamic code on gambling were publicly caned in Langsa, East Aceh, a prosecutor said on Friday.

Irvon, who heads the general crimes division at the Langsa Prosecutors Office, said each of the 14 offenders received six lashes within the grounds of the Darul Falah Mosque on Thursday.

A 2003 qanun, or Islamic bylaw, on gambling carries a maximum punishment of 12 lashes and a minimum of six.

"In court, all of the 14 suspects accepted the Shariah ruling to be caned six times. So, that very afternoon, they were punished," Irvon told the Jakarta Globe over the phone.

He said the offenders had been arrested by police in different locations across the district for playing judi toto gelap, a lottery game that is called togel in other parts of the country. Irvon said at least seven other people who had also violated the ban on gambling were caned on May 12.

Other cases, including that of four public officials from Aceh Besar who were arrested in January for gambling, were still pending due to appeals at the provincial Shariah Court, he said. Although the four officials have been convicted, their punishment has been postponed while the appeals are being processed.

Shariah law was first implemented in Aceh in August 2003 after the province was granted partial autonomy as part of a deal to ease the separatist conflict there. However, the system has been dogged by criticism over perceived double standards that target women and minority groups.

West Papua

Papuan footballer demands answers after alleged attack by soldier

Jakarta Globe - May 19, 2011

A member of a high-profile Indonesian football team, Persipura Jayapura, is demanding answers for what he says was an unprovoked attack by a knife- wielding soldier on Wednesday night.

Persipura midfielder Gerald Pangkali said he was riding a motorcycle past the headquarters of the Papua military command in Padang Bulan at 10:20 p.m. when a soldier began chasing him and "tried to stab me."

The 28-year-old footballer told state news agency Antara that he was able to avoid serious injury after abandoning his motorcycle and fleeing on foot.

Gerald said he required treatment for a centimeter-long wound to his back but did not need to spend the night in hospital.

He said he lodged a complaint with Papua Military Police on Thursday morning. "I demand the Military Police investigate this thoroughly."

The Army is yet to comment on the incident in the province, where alleged abuses by members of the security forces are commonplace.

Persipura, which in the last 16 of the Asian Champions League, currently leads the Indonesian Super League with 48 points after 22 matches. (Antara/JG)

Papuan civilian dead after reported clash with soldiers

Jakarta Post - May 18, 2011

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – A fight involving Indonesian Military (TNI) forces allegedly killed a civilian, according to reports. The victim was identified as Derek Adii, 26, from Manokwari regency, West Papua.

In a news release, the Papuan KINGMI church synod for justice and peace said the incident erupted as a passenger ferry was about to leave the Samubase Port in Nabire.

Derek was among the passengers squeezing on to the packed ferry. He allegedly saw soldiers whom he thought were blocking the way and warned them to step aside. Some children had reportedly even fallen and been trampled by other passengers.

"But the soldiers scolded him and said they were the ones to bring order to the passengers and not the other way round," said the release signed by coordinator Yones Douw.

Reportedly because they were offended, the soldiers, who were part of the Nabire Military Command, allegedly assaulted him. "One of the soldiers, Chief Sergeant Hans Aru, drew his bayonet and stabbed Derek in the eye and he died. His body was later thrown overboard," said Yones.

Residents held up the ferry before letting it go after Derek's body was found 8:15 a.m. the next day. When asked for confirmation, Nabire Military commander Lt. Col. Tatang Suyatna denied the reports. "It's slander," Tatang said.

He explained that the soldiers were securing the ferry while the KM Labobar was docking at the Samabusa Port when the incident took place. He added that the victim was fighting with other passengers who had accused him of stealing.

The victim turned on the soldiers as they separated the fight and fell to the sea by accident. "He could have been injured when he was falling overboard. It's untrue that my men were involved in murder. It's slander and we also have witnesses at the port," he said.

However, Tatang said the rumor that the man was killed by soldiers quickly spread and a crowd set Hans Aru's parents' house on fire. Derek's body would be airlifted to Manokwari while Hans, if guilty, would face customary sanctions.

Military denies officer killed Papuan passenger

Jakarta Globe - May 18, 2011

Banjir Ambarita – The military in Papua has denied that an officer stabbed a civilian, leading to his death, on board a passenger ship heading from Nabire to Manokwari on Sunday.

The dead man's mother, however, claims the officer stabbed him during an argument, causing him to fall overboard.

Spokesman Lt. Col. Ali Hamdan Bogra on Monday said that investigations into Chief Sgt. Hans Aru were under way in connection with the suspicious death of Derek Adii, a civilian who was traveling on the ship, Labobar. Derek's corpse was found floating near the Sambusa seaport in Nabire.

"It is not true that Derek died because he was stabbed by our officers," Ali Hamdan said. "Derek died after he fell from the ship's upper deck, and straight into the sea. He was drunk. Indeed he had been involved in an argument with our officers on board that ship. But it is not true that he was stabbed."

After hearing of the incident, members of Mee ethnic group in Manokwari – to which Derek had belonged – held the ship for several hours when it reached its destination and prevented it from continuing its journey.

"We are investigating and interrogating Chief Sgt. Hans Aru. [But] it is not true that Derek's death was caused by a stabbing," the spokesman said. "Manokwari itself is now secure."

Derek and his mother were heading home to Manokwari on the Labobar when Derek got involved in an altercation with a group of military officers.

According to Derek's mother, the argument ended in a fight, during which one of the military men stabbed him. Derek then fell into the water, but the ship continued toward Manokwari.

Papuan killed by six members of the security forces

Tabloid JUBI - May 16, 2011

According to information from the Justice and Peace Secretariat of the Kingmi Church, Papua, a man called Derek Adii who had just completed his application for appointment as a civil servant in the sub-district of Deiyai, was maltreated by six members of the armed forces in the Nabire port area on Saturday 14 May. He was beaten and stabbed and died as a result.

According to the SKP report, the victim was attacked as he was boarding the ship, KM Labobar, when a neighbour of the victim from Manokwari pulled out a bayonet and struck the victim in the forehead, and then went on to throw his body into the sea.

"Six people were involved in the attack, all members of the Indonesian army, and after stabbing him, they threw his body into the sea," said Yones Douw, SKP co-ordinator of SKP in Nabire.

The incident started when the 26-year old man asked members of the army at the Nabire port to help organise the passengers as they were boarding the KM Labobar. In response to the request, the victim was subjected to maltreatment; he was stabbed with bayonets and died on the spot.

Several people nearby, angered by the attack, started to protest but they were dispersed by the security forces.

The brother of the victim, Martinus Adii, who lives in Amban, Manokwari was shocked when he heard of the death of his brother and demanded information about the killing of his brother. "What wrong did my brother do that led to his being killed? Are you human beings or not? Why were his words responded to by an act of violence?"

Martinus said that members of the family were planning to return to Manokwari after gathering together the victims application papers to become a member of the civil service.

In protest against the incident, hundreds of students and members of the public, armed with tradional weapons such as arrows, choppers and spears, occupied the port of Manokwari on Sunday afternoon. They vented their anger by smashing the windows of the waiting room in the harbour, but fortunately, this action calmed down after members of the security forces took control of the situation.

[Translated by TAPOL.]

Reformasi & democracy

Government failures drive Suharto nostalgia

Jakarta Globe - May 17, 2011

Camelia Pasandaran – The government's failure to deliver on promised reforms has led many people to yearn for the days of former President Suharto, analysts said.

Constitutional Court justice Akil Mochtar said on Tuesday that the results of a recent poll by research company Indo Barometer were not surprising.

The survey showed 40.9 percent of 1,200 respondents believed conditions were better under Suharto's New Order regime, while only 22.8 percent believed otherwise. Most respondents also said that politics, the economy, security and social welfare were better under the former strongman's rule, but they conceded that the legal sector had improved since his downfall in 1998.

"It is normal as the government has not been able to meet people's expectation of big change following reforms, and because the government has been too busy with its election victory and has forgotten the people's needs," Akil said.

Suharto was the most popular president among those surveyed, with 36.5 percent support. Current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was second, with 20.9 percent, followed by founding father Sukarno at 9.8 percent.

Akil pointed to continuing high unemployment, a disregard for the poor, the high cost of education and health care, rising prices of essential items and security issues such as terrorism as creating the rosy picture of Suharto's autocratic rule.

"People compare things to that of the old regime and they come to the conclusion that life was better with the old regime," he said. "The government should take urgent action and find solutions to improve the welfare of the poor, who constitute the majority of the nation, if it doesn't want to lose its legitimacy."

Isbodroini Suyanto, a political expert from the University of Indonesia, said the survey reflected people's disappointment with Yudhoyono.

"They long for a return to the Suharto era, even though he was authoritarian," she said. "Most Indonesians don't know what authoritarian means. They only know they could fill their bellies when Suharto was in charge."

Moreover, Isbodroini said Yudhoyono's Democratic Party should brace itself for a possible voter backlash in the 2014 election if the poor's economic situation continued to worsen.

"It could affect the party negatively as there's also negative news coverage about its members being involved in the athletes' village corruption case in Palembang," she said.

Roy Valiant Salomo, a public policy expert from the University of Indonesia, said the government's decentralization program was also widely viewed as a failure. "It failed because the central government gave too much authority to the regions, which has led to bureaucracies becoming very sick," he said.

Roy said the reform program should be followed up by improvements in public services and pro-people programs.

"People have been frustrated that decentralization has led to them being worse off," he said. "People aren't seeing what they expected to come from the reform era, such as legal certainty, better welfare, corruption eradication and firm leadership."

Bima Arya, chairman of political consulting firm Charta Politika, said the survey showed many people had forgotten the New Order also had weaknesses.

"People tend to appreciate the old era while ignoring the negatives of the past," he said. "People should not forget that in Suharto's time our rights were abused, the military was all-powerful and there were also wide gaps in the economy. "The survey reflects the low political education of the Indonesian people."

Indonesians prefer Suharto to Yudhoyono: Poll

Jakarta Globe - May 16, 2011

Arientha Primanita – The common refrain of "things were better under Suharto" has been given credence in a new survey that shows the former strongman's rule is widely preferred to the current civilian administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The results of the poll, released on Sunday by Indo Barometer, showed that 40.9 percent of the 1,200 people surveyed believed that conditions were better under Suharto's New Order regime, while only 22.8 percent believed otherwise.

Muhammad Qodari, executive director of the polling firm, said the preference was more marked among urban residents than rural ones, with 47.7 of city dwellers holding the New Order in high regard compared with 35.7 percent people in the countryside.

Most respondents also believed that politics, the economy, security and social welfare were better during Suharto's time, but conceded that the legal sector had improved since his downfall in 1998.

In all, 55.5 percent of respondents, polled between April 25 and May 4, were dissatisfied with the reform era. "It's ironic to see that the regime that people wanted changed is now considered to have been better," Qodari said at a discussion of the poll results.

"It's also a blow to everyone who thought that the onset of reform would lead to sweeping improvements."

The poll also showed Suharto was the most popular president, with 36.5 percent of respondents putting him on top. Yudhoyono came second, with 20.9 percent, followed by founding father Sukarno at 9.8 percent.

Ray Rangkuti, director of the Indonesian Civic Network (LIMA), said the results of the survey should not be seen as a desire to bring back authoritarian rule.

"The respondents don't necessarily admire Suharto," he said. "This is just criticism of the pace of reforms being conducted by the current batch of politicians and government officials."

He added the House of Representatives saw the biggest transformation of the reform era, hence its lag in heeding criticism on a range of issues, which has served to undermine perceptions about improvements after Suharto's rule.

Ray said it was important for all stakeholders to return to the spirit of reform, and urged House legislators and government officials to improve their act.

"Don't flaunt your wealth, and follow the people's words," he said. "The House has showcased only its vanity and power, while the executive branch has dealt in lies and broken promises with no real [achievements]."

He added that bureaucratic reform was "the most important element of the reform era."

Human rights & democracy

UN Human Rights Council seat seen as impetus to improve record

Jakarta Globe - May 23, 2011

Ulma Haryanto – Activists have urged the government to improve the country's questionable rights record in the wake of its selection for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council.

"We welcome the result, but we also see this as momentum or a trigger to now follow up on a number of unresolved human rights cases," Ifdhal Kasim, chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

Ifdhal cited cases such as the May 1998 tragedy in which more than 1,000 people were killed in the chaos leading up to the resignation of President Suharto.

Despite findings from Komnas HAM that serious human rights violations had occurred, the government has failed to take meaningful action to bring those responsible to justice.

Indonesia on Friday was among 15 countries elected for three-year terms on the Human Rights Council. This is the country's third term since the council was established in 2006. The election took place during the 65th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Saturday that the country's selection reaffirmed it was making progress in ensuring human rights and democratization.

"This is a reflection of the international community's appreciation of Indonesia's role and leadership in spearheading human rights issues in regional and global forums," Marty said in a statement.

Indonesia received the highest number of votes compared to any other Asian nation nominated for the four seats open to the region this year, garnering support from 184 of the 191 countries with voting rights.

"This shows Indonesia's consistency in including human rights issues as part of its agenda and priorities for its foreign policy over the past decade," the foreign minister added.

Haris Azhar, national executive director of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), questioned just how big an accomplishment the election was for Indonesia.

"It is quite surprising when Indonesia is elected for the third time," he said. "It might be that Indonesia was voted for by undemocratic countries, though Indonesia does fare better compared to other Asean or Arabic countries.

"There are different countries and different interests. It's possible that the votes were made based not on objective considerations but political ones, which is why the UN, although it is a powerful body, is not really the best mechanism for advocating for human rights."

Haris said the council seat would put added pressure on Indonesia to stand up for human rights, particularly in regional neighbor Burma.

"Furthermore, can Indonesia promote constructive solutions to problems such as Ahmadiyah? Can Indonesia be a model of democratization for countries such as China?" he said.

He said Amnesty International's 2011 annual report showed the country needed to address a litany of issues such as maternal deaths, persecution of minorities and abuse of political prisoners.

Indonesia elected to UN rights panel despite concerns

Jakarta Globe - May 21, 2011

Indonesia was among 15 nations elected on Friday to the UN Human Rights Council, despite a human rights watchdog earlier stating the country had questionable qualifications for membership.

In a General Assembly vote, Indonesia was elected along with India, the Philippines, and Kuwait, on a clean or uncontested, slate of Asian nations for three-year council terms.

Kuwait stepped into the race last week after Western countries persuaded Arab states that Syria was not a suitable candidate.

Africa and Western Europe also presented clean slates on Friday, but there were contested votes for Eastern Europe – where the Czech Republic and Romania defeated Georgia – and Latin America, where Chile and Costa Rica edged out Nicaragua.

The 47-nation Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, is the main UN body charged with monitoring member states' compliance with international rights norms.

On Thursday, UN Watch listed Indonesia, along with the Philippines, India and Burkina Faso, has having questionable qualifications, while the advocacy group said Kuwait, Nicuargua and the Congo were unqualified to sit on the UN's top human rights body.

"Unfortunately, some of the worst violators of human rights get elected" to the body, Hillel Neur, the head of UN Watch said at UN headquarters on Thursday, on the eve of the vote.

The Geneva-based advocacy group assessed the qualifications of the countries using information from international nongovernmental organizations, including Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House.

In a recent interview with the Jakarta Globe, a spokesman for the Asian Human Rights Commission said religious conflict and continuing military impunity in some regions, including in Papua, were marring Indonesia's reputation.

"Despite many positive steps forward in the last 13 years of reforms, these problems, in particular the lack of accountability and climate of impunity for past abuses, seriously tarnish Indonesia's human rights record," Michael Anthony said.

The country, he said, has yet to overcome its military past. "The military remains a key power holder in politics and economics and is not just an instrument of security for the state," he said. "This needs to be addressed as a priority for the many positive steps forward on paper to become a fruitful reality."

Anthony added the commission regarded President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's human rights record as "mixed."

"While he openly supports human rights groups and has shown himself to be approachable on the subject of human rights, which is positive, he has failed on key issues and decision points to back up his words with action," he said. "He has usually responded to some of the easier demands without leading to real accountability concerning human rights abuses."

Yudhoyono, he said, has not responded strongly enough to cases of religious violence and has tolerated violent pressure by radical Islamic groups. "His failure to take a strong stand in support of the Constitution during the recent wave of religious violence in the last months and years speaks to this," he said.

Anthony added the House of Representatives was also dragging its feet in terms of human rights-related legislation.

Of key concern to the AHRC is a review of military law to ensure crimes committed against civilians by soldiers are tried in civilian criminal courts and reform of the penal code to bring it in line with the international treaties Indonesia has ratified.

The Attorney General's Office is one of the major obstacles for the effective prosecution of human rights violations, Anthony said. The president, he said, needs to ensure the AGO starts full and genuine investigations into all cases submitted to the courts by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). (With Reuters & Associated Press)

Election to UN panel reaffirms Indonesia's progress: Marty

Jakarta Globe - May 21, 2011

Ismira Lutfia – Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa on Saturday said the election of Indonesia to the UN Human Rights Council on Friday reaffirmed the country was making progress in human rights and democratization.

"This is a reflection of the international community's appreciation of Indonesia's role and leadership in spearheading human rights issues in regional and global forums," Marty said in a statement.

Indonesia was among 15 countries elected for three-year council terms. It is Indonesia's third term since the council was established in 2006.

Indonesia received the highest number of votes from the UN General Assembly than any other Asian nation nominated, garnering 184 votes out of the 191 countries with voting rights.

"This shows Indonesia's consistency to include human rights issues as part of its agenda and priority of its foreign policies that has been going for more than a decade now," the foreign minister said.

Freedom of expression & press

New terrorism bill 'threatens the press'

Jakarta Post - May 21, 2011

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The new anti-terror bill, set to enter deliberation this year, provides stronger prevention measures, but contains articles that potentially threaten freedom of expression and speech, activists and experts say.

At least two articles within the bill, set to replace the 2003 Anti- Terrorism Law, could hinder freedom of expression, said activist Al Araf from human rights NGO Imparsial.

Article 13A of the bill, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post, stipulates that anybody having knowledge of a planned act of terrorism without informing the authorities could be jailed for a term of up to seven years.

Article 13B stipulates that anybody deliberately spreading hate or hostility that could trigger or influence people or stimulate an act of terrorism is subject to a prison term of between three to 15 years.

"The absence of a clear definition of terrorism in this bill would make it a new threat to press freedom," Bambang Harymurti, deputy chair of the Press Council, told the Post.

Article 13A might see an investigative journalist as a terrorist suspect if he or she interviews members of terrorist groups but does not inform the police due to the code of ethics which guarantees journalists' protection for their sources' identities.

Bambang suggested that the term "terrorism" in the article be changed to "actions that, if ignored, would without doubt kill people or cause severe devastation of public facilities".

On article 13B, Bambang expressed his concern on the use of "could", which he said was "dangerous to press freedom". He said that the article was supposed to address "clear and present danger".

With no specific definition of terrorism, the article might be interpreted freely, he said. "Who would determine that somebody has made an action that 'stimulates' terrorism?" he said.

Al Araf cited an example of a news report on the burning of Koran by a priest in the US. "If you published the report, you could be a subject of the article because the report might 'influence' people to commit terrorism," he said.

Human rights activist Hendardi from the Setara Institute shared Al Araf and Bambang's opinion, saying that "unclear and biased articles could potentially disrupt civilian rights".

"Terrorism is a peak of intolerance and intolerance is the starting point of terrorism. But never assume that intolerance is always part of terrorism," Hendardi said in a statement.

He said he always supported the efforts to strengthen preventive measures against terrorism. "However, the bill contains articles that might criminalize innocent civilians," he said.

Al Araf cited another article stipulating that a person could be jailed for up to 15 years for "being a member of an organization or group which clearly aims to commit an act of terrorism". Another article says those who ask or borrow money or goods from those terrorist-affiliated organizations are also subject to imprisonment.

"An organization could be linked with terrorism, but not all of its members know or realize it. We know that most of the groups have never publicly announced that they want to commit terrorism," he said.

Al Araf cited the Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), a hard-line organization founded by terrorist defendant Abu Bakar Ba'asyir. "Since the leader is a terrorist suspect, should all JAT members go to jail too?"

The bill is set to allow law enforcement officials to detain anyone suspected of involvement in terrorism for a month, up from seven days under the current law.

National Antiterrorism Agency chief Ansyaad Mbai said the new bill was expected to give "broader room" for law enforcement officials "to proactively take action against terrorist suspects before acts of terror take place". "Intelligence has always been blamed for late response. It was because of the lack of 'authorities' given by the current law," he said.

Politics & political parties

Democrats move to salvage image

Jakarta Globe - May 23, 2011

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Ulma Haryanto – After weeks of being dogged by graft allegations, Muhammad Nazaruddin has been dismissed as treasurer of the ruling Democratic Party, a senior party official has confirmed.

"We have decided to dismiss – or relieve – Nazaruddin of his duties as general treasurer," Amir Syamsuddin, secretary of the party's ethics council, told a media conference on Monday night.

"If he's not the general treasurer, then he can't do any more damage to the [party's] image and will be able to concentrate on defending himself."

However, Nazaruddin will stay on as a Democrat lawmaker at the House of Representatives, he added. Amir said the fact that Nazaruddin was embroiled in legal and ethical issues mostly related to money conflicted with his position as party treasurer.

Recent media reports about the scandals linked to Nazaruddin "have put the Democratic Party in a disadvantageous position and have hindered him from performing his tasks," he said.

However, Amir said that the lawmaker should still be presumed innocent until he was proven otherwise. He also said the party was not in a hurry to pick a replacement for him.

Nazaruddin, who has already been linked to a graft scandal surrounding a construction project for the upcoming Southeast Asian Games, was accused by Constitutional Court Chief Mahfud M.D. on Friday of giving an "unsolicited payment" in September of 120,000 Singapore dollars ($96,000) to the court's secretary general, Janedjri M. Gaffar, which was subsequently returned.

Political observers have previously said the Democrats appeared to be at a loss over what to do with Nazaruddin.

A Democratic source told the Jakarta Globe over the weekend that the ruling party was struggling to find the best way to deal with Nazaruddin, who had rejected calls to step down as treasurer and had allegedly threatened to release sensitive information he had on the party if he was forced to resign.

Janedjri said on Monday that he had reported the alleged payment to Mahfud immediately after returning the money.

Mahfud has said he wrote a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono about the incident shortly after Nazaruddin was accused of accepting Rp 25 billion ($2.9 million) from a company contracted to build the athletes' village in Palembang, South Sumatra, for November's Southeast Asian Games.

Janedjri also said he often met with lawmakers from House Commission III for legal affairs, of which Nazaruddin was a former member, to discuss the court's budget.

Monday's announcement was not attended by party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, who is considered close to Nazaruddin. Amir said the decision on Nazaruddin was final and "it was us three who were tasked with announcing it." He addressed the conference accompanied by two other party officials.

Police involved in PPP leadership fiasco

Jakarta Globe - May 23, 2011

Farouk Arnaz – A disagreement over who was elected chairman of the United Development Party's Papua branch at a meeting last weekend was brought to the attention of the police on Monday.

Muchdi Purwoprandjono, who claimed he won the chairmanship for the 2011- 2016 period at last Saturday's meeting, lodged an official police report against party chairman and religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali, deputy secretary general Romahurmuzy and board members Emron Pangkapi and Husnan Bey Fananie.

Suryadharma announced last week that Muchdi's rival, Bachtiar Gaffar, had won the vote after receiving the backing of 13 district branches, against nine for Muchdi, while Muchdi was adamant that he had won the post.

"Police should charge [Suryadharma] under the criminal code for libel, defamation and unpleasant conduct," said Muchdi's lawyer, Eggi Sudjana.

Eggi alleged that Suryadharma had denied Muchdi's victory in Papua because he was concerned about Muchdi's reported ambition to lead the party, known as the PPP.

Last week, Muchdi demanded that Suryadharma issue a formal decision recognizing him as the Papua chairman of the party. But Suryadharma said his decision was final.

Muchdi left the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) in February to join the Islamist PPP. A former deputy head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), he was acquitted of the murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib in 2009.

SBY signs new coalition deal with partner parties

Jakarta Globe - May 23, 2011

Camelia Pasandaran – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono finally signed a long-awaited new agreement Monday with members of his sometimes-frayed ruling coalition.

"This morning, the coalition parties met with a single agenda – to sign an enhanced and renewed agreement," Yudhoyono said prior to a cabinet meeting at the presidential office.

"Praise Allah, the rearrangement of the coalition has been done, including an agreement to improve it. I hope it can be more effective so the government's work can be done better for the benefit of the people."

All coalition parties had agreed to sign the deal earlier except for the often-wayward Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). It finally signed, leaving it nominally within the government camp.

Golkar Chairman Aburizal Bakrie, however, did not attend the meeting; coordinating minister for people's welfare Agung Laksono signed on behalf of Golkar.

One change in the coalition structure is that Aburizal is no longer the formal managing chairman of the group, a position he assumed in 2010 after former Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stepped down following a bitter battle with Golkar and others, including the PKS, over the 2008 Bank Century bailout. Yudhoyono remains the overall head of the coalition.

Coordinating economic minister Hatta Rajasa said parties will take turns in the position of managing chairman.

The new deal is intended to calm the waters for a ruling coalition that appears dominant on paper, since it contains the top two parties, Yudhoyono's Democratic Party and Golkar, as well as PKS plus the smaller National Mandate Party (PAN), United Development Party (PPP) and National Awakening Party (PKB).

In practice, since taking office in late 2009, Golkar and PKS have frequently gone their own way on a number of issues, including the Bank Century bailout and a controversial recent move to call a special House investigation of the so-called tax mafia case.The rumor mill has been rife for months that PKS might leave the coalition.

With an election looming in 2014 and intense politicking already underway behind the scenes, it remains to be seen how long the coalition can hold together in the face of ambitions to succeed Yudhoyono, who is barred from standing for a third term.

"The main point is that there's still room for democracy," Agung said. "We agreed that strategic things should be done both by government and parliament, but only strategic things. However, for technical matters, such as ministerial policy, there's room for discussion, so there's still democracy."

The problems in the coalition led Yudhoyono to meet in recent months face to face with all party chairpersons, except PKS. There had been speculation that the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) party led by retired Suharto- era General Prabowo Subianto would replace PKS in the coalition and a possible cabinet reshuffle.

"We agreed through a process of discussion about what should be done [by coalition members]," Agung said. "[Sanctions] might be brought against those who after some effort could not agree. That party could withdraw from the coalition."

He said the new agreement does not imply that disagreements will result in a cabinet reshuffle. However, Julian Pasha, the president's spokesperson, said a cabinet reshuffle is still possible despite the new agreement.

Scandals leave Democrats in a corner: Experts

Jakarta Globe - May 23, 2011

Anita Rachman & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The Democratic Party seems to be at a loss in the face of the ever-widening scandal its treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin is entangled in, political analysts and insiders say.

Siti Zuhro, an analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), says that given the potential damage the scandals can create to the party, the Democrats should immediately decide what to do with Nazaruddin, who is also a lawmaker. But sanctioning or firing their treasurer may not be that simple.

Yunarto Wijaya, an analyst from Charta Politika, said there were two possible reasons for the party's apparent fence-sitting. First, he said that Nazaruddin might be holding a trump card that, if leaked, could endanger the party as a whole or some of its officials.

A Democratic source told the Jakarta Globe over the weekend that the ruling party was indeed struggling to find the best way to deal with Nazaruddin, who has rejected calls to step down as treasurer and has threatened to publicize information he has on the party if he is forced to leave.

Besides this, Yunarto said there was the matter of internal party politics. He said certain factions within the party seem to be backing Nazaruddin, while others are trying to corner him – a development that could relate to "financial benefits in the future if you'd bear in mind the 2014 polls."

For instance, party spokesman and member of the investigation team Ruhut Sitompul on Sunday defended Nazaruddin against Constitutional Court Chief Mahfud M.D.'s allegation that the treasurer tried to bribe the court with 120,000 Singapore dollars ($10,000). He said he had talked to Nazaruddin and believed the claims were false.

On the other hand, party deputy chairman Max Sopacua said there were just two possible conclusions to this scandal – for Nazaruddin to resign or for him to be dismissed.

The split in the party was also evident from a statement by the Democrats' secretary general, Edhie Baskoro, on Sunday. The president's son said he hoped the internal polemics would not grow as this would only distract the party from solving its problems, including the Southeast Asia Games graft scandal in which Nazaruddin was also implicated. Edhie said the case should be left to law enforcers.

Yunarto also warned that allowing the construction kickback scandal to go on unresolved could taint the party's image. "People are already skeptical about political parties, but they still see the Democrats as a party concerned with corruption cases." Max said the decision on Nazaruddin would be made "early this week."

PPP shoots down former intelligence chief's designs on Papuan leadership

Jakarta Globe - May 19, 2011

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The United Development Party on Thursday quashed a controversial former intelligence official's claim to the chairmanship of the party's Papua branch, but insisted he would not be punished for the stunt.

Suryadharma Ali, religious affairs minister and chairman of the party known as the PPP, said Bachtiar Gaffar had been recognized as the official head of its Papua branch after receiving the backing of 13 district branches, against nine for rival Muchdi Purwoprandjono.

"We support the candidate supported by the majority of our party's district leaders," Suryadharma said, stressing the decision was final and must be applied immediately.

Romahurmuzy, a deputy secretary general at the PPP, said that while Muchdi was adamant he had won the post, the party would not seek any punishment for his insubordination.

"Although his statement goes against the decision of the PPP's central board, we still respect this debate as part of democracy," he said. "Any difference of opinion among us doesn't violate our regulations."

Muchdi, a former deputy head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) who was acquitted of the murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib, said on Thursday that he had demanded Suryadharma issue a formal decision recognizing him as the head of the PPP in Papua.

"I'm considering filing a legal complaint with the Constitutional Court about this matter if the decision isn't forthcoming," he said.

The disagreement stems from Saturday's meeting by the Papua office to determine its new leader for the 2011-2016 period.

At the meeting, outgoing head Reba Dwiseno Pontoh argued that Muchdi should be allowed to run, but 13 PPP district branch heads staged a walkout in protest, according to Emron Pangkappi, a member of the party's central board. The remaining nine district branch heads then voted to elect Muchdi as the new provincial branch chief.

However, Somali, one of Muchdi's supporters in the provincial PPP office, claimed that only nine had walked out while 13 had stayed on to vote for Muchdi.

"It was only nine district leaders who walked out, not what Emron claimed," he said.He added that he and several supporters had applied to the central board to officially instate Muchdi as the PPP's Papua chairman. "I hope the request can be approved immediately," Somali said.

In February, Muchdi announced that he was abandoning the nationalist Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) he co-founded to join the Islamist PPP.

Ever since he made the move, observers have speculated that Muchdi has designs on the PPP chairmanship. Publicly, PPP leaders have welcomed Muchdi, but insiders close to Suryadarma say he is privately worried about Muchdi's reported ambitions to lead the party.

Elections

New group nominates Sri Mulyani for president

Jakarta Post - May 19, 2011

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – The newly founded Indonesian Solidarity Society for Justice (SMIK) has named former finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati as its presidential candidate for the 2014 election.

The SMIK, which is not yet a political party, was established to groom a national leader who is honest, decisive, capable and courageous, communications expert Wimar Witoelar said at the declaration event in Bandarlampung on Wednesday.

"We believe Ibu Sri Mulyani Indrawati is a figure with integrity. She has been able to maintain the principles of public ethics in managing the country. She also remained true to her conscience and has never been involved in a conflict of interest, including the Bank Century case," Wimar said in his address.

Critics have demanded that Sri Mulyani be held responsible for her actions as finance minister in bailing out Bank Century, although the SMIK's declaration was evidence that, for some, her popularity was not tarnished by the bailout.

"We see those qualities in Ibu Sri Mulyani Indrawati. We are no longer hesitant to support her in the presidential election in 2014," Wimar, who was the spokesman for former president Abdurrachman "Gus Dur" Wahid, said.

Despite the nomination, Wimar said that the SMIK, which has offices only in Jakarta and Bandarlampung, had not yet registered as a political party.

"Lampung is the second province to have backed the establishment of the SMIK. We will work as a modern organization and provide political education to people as well as promote public ethics. The SMIK will also organize the political environment to create a quality leader," Wimar said.

University of Indonesia's philosophy lecturer Rocky Gerung said Indonesian women had always been marginalized, especially in politics, and that only through hard work would their condition improve.

"The existence of women in Indonesia is less recognized. They are in a marginal position and are still being marginalized," Gerung said.

SMIK co-founder Robertus Robert, also a philosopher, said that Mulyani had proven that she was able to overcome all accusations directed at her from the agents of neo-liberalism about her involvement in the Bank Century case.

"She is one of those figures who is able to promote public ethics for the sake of the people's interests. She has high integrity and was not easily pressured or agitated by the political interests around her at that time. That is the basis for the establishment of the SMIK," Robertus said.

Another Lampung SMIK initiator, Ahmad Yulden Erwin, said Lampung had emotional ties with Mulyani, so the SMIK was quick to establish a branch in Lampung.

"Ibu Sri Mulyani grew up and went to school in Lampung city. The people of Lampung recognize her as a native Lampung resident," Erwin said.

Erwin claimed several anticorruption activists and NGOs supported the SMIK's vision. "We definitely don't want a person whose integrity is doubted. We believe Ibu Sri Mulyani is still on the same path as we are, which is to defend the rights of the people by upholding public ethics," Erwin said.

Labour & migrant workers

VP says no to decreasing wages

Jakarta Post - May 20, 2011

Jakarta – Vice President Boediono reprimanded stakeholders, and especially the Remuneration Council, that they should not consider decreasing wages in a bid to increase investment.

"Don't follow the paradigm that low wages will attract investment, that's not it. I don't approve," Boediono said when opening the Council's Consolidation Forum on Thursday.

He said there were many ways to attract investment without decreasing wages, such as improving infrastructure and the business climate as well as speeding up the business permit process.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said that the minimum wage in Indonesia still used a safety net standard. "There are minimum wages that are below decent. We keep raising the bar so that businessmen do not use the standard but must pay above it," he said.

Indonesian maid influx expected

Straits Times - May 16, 2011

Kuala Lumpur – Indonesian labour agents expect to dispatch 1,000 maids to Malaysia every month after Jakarta lifts a two-year moratorium later this month.

Recruitment agencies in Indonesia have been training workers over the past two months in anticipation of the lifting of the ban, Association of Indonesian Labour Exporters chairman Yunus Yamani told The Star.

In 2009, Indonesia imposed a freeze on its citizens working as maids in Malaysia following allegations of abuse and non-payment of salary by employers.

A memorandum of understanding between Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta on the employment of maids is expected to be signed later this month, ending the freeze.

A joint working task force has been set up to address four main issues – a day's rest every week, handling of maids' passports according to immigration laws, the structure of fees charged by recruiting agents and runaway maids.

Many Indonesian maids prefer to work in Malaysia because of language and cultural similarities, and were waiting for the ban to end, Mr Yunus said in Jakarta.

"Some (workers) went to Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but ended up returning to their villages to wait for the ban (on Malaysia to be lifted) or to find work nearer home."

Maid agencies in Malaysia have been struggling to fill the void left by the Indonesian domestic workers since the freeze. They have about 35,000 families on their waiting lists.

About 3,000 maids arrived from Indonesia each month before the freeze. Last year, Saudi Arabia overtook Malaysia as the country with the largest number of Indonesian migrant workers.

Migrant labors live in 'havoc'

Jakarta Post - May 16, 2011

Tifa Asrianti, Jakarta – Lack of transparency in labor recruitment and placement overseas has hindered justice and the protection of migrant workers' basic rights, the Supreme Audit Agency reveals.

Its report shows unclear policies give way to various forms of violation in almost all stages of the process, "From recruitment, training and health checks to document processing, placement and even the homecoming procedure". The agency examined the performance of placement and protection of migrant workers in 2010's second semester report.

Five institutions are involved in the placement and protection of migrant workers: The Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Overseas Labor (BNP2TKI), Immigration directorate general, Indonesian embassies and manpower agencies in the municipality and regency level.

The number of migrant workers placed in 46 countries over the last five years reached 3 million, which contributed an increase of US$4.37 billion in foreign exchange each year.

The workers were from 19 provinces and 156 municipalities or regencies across Indonesia. Regions with the most Indonesian workers are the Asia Pacific and Middle East.

The agency gave 14 recommendations, including that the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry and BNP2TKI conduct a comprehensive evaluation on laws and policies, and the system and mechanism of migrant worker placement and protection.

BNP2TKI head Jumhur Hidayat said his office and the ministry had made steps to meet the agency's recommendations.

He said his office had formed with House Commission IX overseeing the Manpower and Transmigration and Foreign ministries, a comprehensive evaluation on laws, policies, and the placement and protection system of migrant workers.

"The ministry and us have prepared a positional letter to the joint team on the mechanism and procedure for the moratorium of migrant worker placement in a country. We have also complied problems in countries whose laws do not protect migrant workers and which have yet to sign an MoU with Indonesia," Jumhur said.

He said the ministry and his office also discussed the cost structure for migrant worker's placement for several countries and that would become a ministerial decision.

On the agency's recommendation to create a standard for the migrant worker recruitment system, Jumhur said his office had improved and restricted the placement service for the informal sector by applying for the online system, which involved related stakeholders.

"We postpone service for private stakeholders, such as the employment recruitment agency and Profession Certification Institution that violated the regulation. We also put the future migrant worker data system online from the municipality/regency level to see the supply data. In the future, we will build a recruitment system between work and countries," he said.

Anis Hidayah from Migrant Care said that since the Supreme Audit Agency's report was legitimate, the ministry and BNP2TKI should clean up mess surrounding migrant worker issues.

"They should involve the Corruption Eradication Commission and civil society groups that care about migrant worker issues. They should also create an instrument to regulate the placement and protection system on migrant workers," Anis said.

She suggested the ministry and BNP2TKI enforce harsher punishment on stakeholders that violate the regulation in a bid to deter others.

Environment & natural disasters

Miners say protected forests fair game

Jakarta Globe - May 23, 2011

Fidelis E. Satriastanti – The mining industry pointed out on Sunday that a much ballyhooed presidential decree allowing geothermal exploration in protected forests also allowed underground mining, including delving for minerals and coal.

Irwandy Arif, chairman of the Indonesian Mining Professionals Association, said that the decree signed by the president on Thursday referred to underground exploration, which could extend to resource mining.

"We've been waiting for this presidential regulation, especially for mining lead in Dairi, North Sumatra," he said. He added the country's open-pit mines were increasingly exhausted, so there was little choice but for miners to go deeper.

"The regulation gives legal certainty and will attract miners to invest more in silver, lead and gold mining," said Irwandy, who helped draft the presidential decree over the past three years.

Under the decree, signed on Thursday by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, resource exploitation in protected forests is allowed as long as it is underground, it did not change the general use and purpose of the area, and the operators include infrastructure that supports production activities in the protected areas.

To qualify for a permit, applicants must provide as compensation land that is twice the area of the concession they are seeking to exploit. They are also obliged to replant and rehabilitate affected river catchment areas of the same size as their concession. The permits are valid for 20 years and may be extended.

Irwandy said that while 90 percent of mining in Indonesia was of the open- pit variety, there were already several underground mines in operation, such as gold mines run by state-owned miner Antam in Pongkor, West Java, and Cibaliung, Banten.

"There's also an underground coal mine run by Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam in Sawahlunto, West Sumatra, while Freeport is also carrying out underground mining," he said. "Newmont has said it too will conduct underground mining."

Hadi Daryanto, the Forestry Ministry's secretary general, said underground mining resulted in less environmental degradation than open-pit mining, adding that while there would be some damage but it would be strictly controlled.

He said permission for underground mining would only be given in the case of protected forests, and not for conservation forests, national parks or nature reserves.

However, Abadi Purnomo, chairman of the Indonesian Geothermal Association (API), said 30 percent of the country's geothermal reserves were found in nature reserves, while another 30 percent was in protected forests.

"For protected forests, there are already several regulations stating that exploration is allowed as long as it's not open-pit mining, but not for nature reserves, national parks and conservation areas," he said.

He added that geothermal exploration should not be considered mining because "it's actually just extracting heat from groundwater, which is different from digging for mineral resources such as gold."

"It's also environmentally safe because we need trees to maintain the heat sources [to preserve the groundwater], and we only use up 0.001 percent of the total forest area just to install the pipes and infrastructure," Abadi said.

2009 quake victims still waiting to be relocated

Jakarta Post - May 23, 2011

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, Padang – As many as 1,903 families displaced by a landslide following the 2009 earthquake in West Sumatra continue to wait for direction before they are relocated under the government's transmigration program.

It has been two years since the plan was first drafted, but the expected realization by the local government is still on the horizon.

Most displaced people are now staying either at shelters or with relatives after their homes were leveled by the 7.9 magnitude quake on Sept. 30, 2009. The government has since declared the quake area a "red zone".

The evacuating shelters are located in several regencies and cities. Agam, Padang Pariaman and West Pasaman regencies are home to 793, 478 and 469 families respectively, while another 163 families are taking refuge in Padang municipality.

Five locations in three regencies have been designated for the victims' new homes, but the labor and transmigration agency says it can't yet ensure when construction work will begin. "We are still waiting for a permit from the Forestry Ministry to release between 4,500 and 5,000 hectares of forest, which will be converted into dwelling area. We don't know yet when the permit will be granted. We only hope that the process is not too bureaucratic," Labor and Transmigration Agency head Sofyan told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

Although the relocation plan is designed to assist disaster victims, Sofyan said that proposals for the permit must follow procedure, just as in any normal business proposal.

While the number of families to be relocated is not yet fixed in certain regencies and municipalities still verifying data, the government has determined that each family will acquire two hectares of land for the new residential area, which will be equipped with public facilities.

"We hope to make final verification soon with regard that priority will be given to families whose homes and farmland were completely destroyed and those who are still staying at shelters," Sofyan said.

The quake killed 1,117 people, injured more than 2,500 others and damaged 135,448 homes.

Hopes for swift government action on transmigration plans have also come from Tanjung Sani district, Agam regency.

"The victims want assurance from the government over their homes after their residential area was designated as red zone. They feel uncertain about the future. They wish not to wait any longer," Tanjung Sani district head Satria said.

The district, located near Lake Maninjau, is home to 609 displaced families. As many as 175 are staying at shelters, while the remaining people are staying with relatives.

"They are still living on local government aid to meet their needs for rice and health services," he said.

A councilor called for ad hoc regulations to enable a shortcut in bureaucratic procedures.

Government 'bows down' to planters, forest moratorium 'means little'

Jakarta Post - May 21, 2011

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Protection of the country's threatened forest areas remains weak despite a moratorium on new conversion permits as most of the forests covered by the moratorium are legally protected anyway, activists and expert argued.

They said terms such as primary and secondary forests used in a presidential decree on the moratorium were kept vague to give concessions to businesses to continue exploiting forests.

Activists said the government had bowed down to pressure from the palm plantation lobbyists. "There was lots of pressure on the Indonesian government from the palm oil industry about this ban since we bring in significant investments. Today's final details show that agreeable concessions have been made," a Malaysian planter, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

Greenpeace activist Yuyun Indradi said the decree would not address deforestation and curb emissions because the primary forests stipulated in the decree were located mostly in areas already protected by law.

"It's business as usual. Even without the decree, it is impossible to issue conversion permits for protected and conservation forests," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Greenpeace says the moratorium should cover 104.8 million hectares of forests. "With only 64 million hectares [covered by the moratorium], there would be about 39 percent [some 40 million hectares] of forest destroyed," it said in a statement.

After a five-month delay, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed into decree a moratorium on new permits on Thursday that would cover primary forests and peatland.

The decree allows for several exemptions that have been criticized by activists as proof of the government's pandering to the plantation industry. The decree allows the conversion of primary forest for geothermal projects, rice and sugar plantations and ecosystem restoration projects.

Businesses that secured "principal permits" before the decree would be allowed to continue exploiting forests. The decree also allows the Forestry Ministry to revise a map of protected forest areas every six months.

The program manager for Forest and Climate at the Indonesian Center for Environment Law (ICEL), Giorgio Budi Indrarto, said the decree failed to regulate much-needed law enforcement to address massive forest crimes. "Yudhoyono lied again not only to the people [through the moratorium] but also to the international community," he said.

Reuters reported that Norway's environment ministry declined to comment on the moratorium as officials were still studying the details.

Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) forestry expert Hariadi Kartodiharjo said the decree did not adhere to the government's goal of reducing deforestation triggered mainly by massive expansion of oil palm plantations and mining.

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), however, praised the decree as a positive development in protecting forests. Industry lobby group the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) also praised the moratorium, as it targets an annual 10 percent increases in "green" palm supplies.

"It is a [positive] step in the right direction that upholds the integrity of sustainable practices towards the production of palm oil, and reaffirms the country's commitment in this area," RSPO secretary-general Darrel Webber said in a statement.

Activists cry foul as 35% of forests avoid permits freeze

Jakarta Globe - May 21, 2011

Fidelis E Satriastanti – Sighs of relief from activists on Thursday that a long-awaited two-year moratorium on forest clearance permits had finally been signed were drowned out on Friday after it emerged that more than a third of Indonesia's forest area will not be covered.

"The announcement is a far cry from the commitment made by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono related to forest protection and leads to big questions on its implementation," said Bustar Maitar, a Greenpeace forest campaigner.

A presidential adviser on climate change on Thursday said that Yudhoyono had finally signed the two-year moratorium that had been scheduled to have come into effect in January. But after details of the moratorium were released at a news conference on Friday, discontent was on the rise.

Bustar voiced anger that the moratorium only covered primary forests and peatland, which were already protected by the law. "[There are] still millions of hectares of Indonesia's forests that will be destroyed," he said.

A map attached to the moratorium documents shows that 64.2 million hectares of primary forest and 31.9 million hectares of peatland were covered, but not 36.6 million hectares of secondary forest. Primary forest is untouched by agriculture or industry, secondary forest is part of areas that have been partially cleared for agricultural or industrial use.

"Greenpeace has estimated that 104.8 million hectares of forest should be included in the moratorium," Bustar added.

Giorgio Budi Indrarto, program manager for forest and climate at the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law, said the moratorium was inadequate. "The primary forests in Indonesia are declining, but the total area [covered by them] is open to question. [Areas] called primary forest include the national parks. So, what's the use of the permit moratorium if it only covers primary forests [as these are mostly protected already]?" he said.

The 1999 Forestry Law, Giorgio said, did not contain any reference to primary forest and instead used the terms protected forest, conservation forest and production forest to describe areas where varying degrees of human activity were allowed.

"How is it that something that did not [legally] exist suddenly becomes recognized?" he said, noting that the government was not consistent in its use of legal terms.

Teguh Surya, head of climate justice at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said the term had no prior legal basis. "It is only a technical definition which is only used to define the levels of forest degradation and should not be put into context of policy or issuing permits," Teguh said.

He also said the moratorium should not have been issued in the form of a presidential instruction [Inpres]. "A presidential instruction is only the president's instruction to individual government officials" and therefore lacks the authority of, for instance, a full-blown law, he said.

Giorgio said there was also the problem of companies eying underground mining concessions in protected forests that already received a "permit in principle" from the Forestry Ministry and would thus not be covered by the moratorium. He pointed out these were not actual permits, suggesting there should be a possibility to not grant such companies permission to advance.

"In the past, a decision approved 'in principle' could always be changed," Giorgio said. He also said that the moratorium contained no instruction to law enforcers, "as if all the complexity of forest issues in the country can be solved by administrative means only."

Indonesia forest moratorium a 'bitter disappointment': Greenpeace

Reuters - May 20, 2011

Olivia Rondonuwu & Michael Taylor – Indonesia revealed a long list of exemptions on Friday to a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear forest, a concession to the hard-lobbying plantation industry in the world's top palm oil producing nation but vexed some green groups.

Shares of Indonesia-listed plantation firms mostly rose on Friday to outperform a steady Jakarta index.

The moratorium, taking effect on Friday after a five-month delay, will exempt permits already given in principle by the forestry ministry and extensions of existing permits, as well as projects to develop supplies of energy, rice and sugar.

The exemptions were wider than expected after pressure from firms worried about expansion and a forestry ministry concerned about losing billions each year in revenue from chopping down forests in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

"There were lots of pressure on the Indonesian government from the palm oil industry about this ban since we bring in significant investments. Today's final details show that agreeable concessions have been made," said a Malaysian planter with assets in Indonesia, who declined to be identified.

However, the moratorium will not provide compensation for firms unable to expand into protected land.

The moratorium ordered a freeze on new permits to log or convert 64 million hectares of primary forests and peatlands. This is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation under a $1 billion climate deal with Norway, but the final version was a let down for environmentalists hoping for wider protection of carbon-rich peat and endemic wildlife.

"This is a bitter disappointment. It will do little to protect Indonesia's forests and peatlands. Seventy-five percent of the forests purportedly protected by this moratorium are already protected under existing Indonesian law, and the numerous exemptions further erode any environmental benefits," said Paul Winn of Greenpeace Australia-Pacific.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday also signed a decree to allow underground mining activities in protected forests for 20 years, provided conditions such as an environmental assessment have been met, likely to further upset green groups but provide relief for miners such as Newmont, Eramet and Bumi Resources.

Yudhoyono's adviser on climate change, Agus Purnomo, said the forest moratorium would not hinder planters' expansion.

"There is no limitation for those who want to develop business-based plantations. We are not banning firms for palm oil expansion. We are just advising them to do so on secondary forests," Purnomo told a news conference.

Joko Supriyono, secretary general at the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki), told Reuters that uncertainty over the plan had slowed expansion last year to 300,000 hectares of palm oil plantations, from a minimum 500,000 hectares in recent years.

"It won't put a lot of downward pressure on the (palm oil) sector. There is plenty of land available to plant palm oil or other crops. The land is there – you can plant plantations in environmentally agreeable areas assuming there is access to infrastructure," said Andreas Bokkenheuser, Singapore-based commodities analyst at UBS.

Indonesia-listed plantation firm Astra Agro Lestari was up 0.8 percent and SMART climbed 6.3 percent, though Gozco fell 1.3 percent. Gozco's palm oil production is expected to rise more than 30 percent this year and it has permits for 56 percent of its landbank, but expansion in the rest could be hit by the moratorium, an executive told Reuters on Thursday.

The forestry ministry has defined primary forest as forest that has grown naturally for hundreds of years, of which there is estimated to be around 44 million hectares in a sprawling tropical archipelago where illegal logging is common.

The exclusion of rice, sugar, oil, gas and power plant projects shows the importance of food and energy security to the government of the G20 member, aiming to feed the world's fourth-largest population and fuel GDP growth of more than 6 percent.

Indonesia exports most of its palm oil but the former OPEC member is struggling to maintain energy supplies amid growing domestic demand. The country's efforts to achieve self-sufficiency served it well in the financial crisis, since a lack of reliance on exports – unlike many Asian countries – kept its economy growing and led to it becoming an investor darling on the brink of a coveted sovereign investment grade rating.

The country still surprised markets with bumper rice imports early this year, and relies on sugar imports. Firms such as top listed palm oil planter Wilmar and investment firm Rajawali Group are planning to grow sugar plantations in the lushly forested eastern Papua province.

"If they are excluded from the moratorium it means they will just continue to deforest, doesn't it?" said Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services in Sydney.

However, he said it was a step in the right direction for efforts to develop projects to cut emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases from deforestation, in the absence of agreement on a new global climate pact following years of troubled UN talks.

"There are a lot exclusions there but there is a conscience. It gives the basis from which they can build on to reduce their emissions," Barratt added.

Lapindo told to shell out for mudflow before drilling again

Jakarta Globe - May 21, 2011

Amir Tejo, Surabaya – East Java Governor Soekarwo said on Friday that Lapindo Brantas, blamed for triggering a devastating mudflow in Sidoarjo, could only resume drilling operations there if it paid outstanding damages to residents.

"There are some overdue payments and this has to be paid if they want to drill again. This is in line with a sense of justice," Soekarwo said.

He said the oil and gas drilling firm, which is part of the Bakrie Group, still owed victims of the 2006 disaster Rp 452 billion ($52.9 million) in compensation after the May 15 deadline set by the company to settle all payments lapsed.

Though the government had set a later deadline – by the end of 2012 – for indemnities, Soekarwo said the company should "accelerate the payments". "And even then, it would still depend on whether the local community would allow them [to drill for oil and gas]," he said.

But company spokesman Diaz Raichan said the drilling project in Kalidawir village, Tanggulangin subdistrict – an area close to Porong subdistrict, where the mudflow occurred – had to push through. "What is clear is that the city gas program should continue to run because this is a project of the central government," he said.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources launched the gas program last year for Surabaya and surrounding areas. Under the program, Lapindo will provide gas to the area from one of the its wells in Kalidawir.

"All will be taken from the Kalidawir well. We deem it enough to meet the gas demand for Surabaya," Diaz said. "There are five wells in Kalidawir, although only two are in operation."

Diaz added that only upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas had the authority to allow or restrict the company from pushing through with the project. He said BPMigas had issued a permit for drilling operations until 2020 in Sidoarjo, where Lapindo operates several wells.

However, officials in Tanggulangin had refused to approve the permit, saying the company had to consult with villagers first. "The authority lays with BPMigas but we will continue to work together with the regional administration because the location [of the drilling project] is close to settlements," Diaz said.

He added that the company would be able to complete payments this year to residents in 12 villages of Porong subdistrict, which had been swamped in mud following a blowout of one of Lapindo's natural gas wells in May 2006. Mud is expected to continue gushing until at least 2037.

Indonesia denies NGO allegations of dolphin, whale hunting

Jakarta Globe - May 18, 2011

Fidelis E. Satriastanti – Environment officials came out on Wednesday to deny accusations that whales and dolphins were being actively killed and hunted down in Indonesian waters, despite laws prohibiting the activity.

The statement was made in response to a video and photos posted online by US-based nongovernmental organization Earth Island Institute alleging they were evidence of the killing of whales and dolphins in Indonesia.

"It is not true. How could that be? I have never heard of dolphins being hunted before," Agus Apun Budhiman, director of fish resources at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

"Local people consider them [dolphins] as man's best friends, so they would not go after them, let alone eat or use their meat as bait," he added. If ever there were any whales or dolphins captured, Agus said, it would have been accidental, not deliberate.

The video posted on the NGO's Web site showed an interview with a local fisherman in Flores describing how dolphins are captured using home-made bombs. He said the captured dolphins were then killed to be used as bait to catch sharks for their fins.

"They use dynamite placed in beer bottles and throw them at dolphins. After dolphins got too weak, they captured them and tied their tails. They use them as baits for sharks as they needed [shark's] fins that could be worth Rp 1 million [$117] for one kilogram," the fisherman said in the interview.

The site also posted a picture of people surrounding a killer whale (Orcinus orca) on shore, claiming the picture showed the animal being butchered in Lamalera village, Lembata Island, Flores. Lamalera is known for its tradition of whaling.

Another two photos showed a pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps), which the site claimed had been pregnant when it was slaughtered in Lamalera.

The site also said the photos, shot from 2010 to 2011, were meant to be evidence to persuade responsible companies, such as tuna importers, to put pressure on the government. The ministry's Agus said this wasn't the first time such allegations had been made.

"[NGOs] presented us with similar videos on how dolphins are captured and used as bait at the Cites [Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species] meeting in Doha in 2010," he said. "At the time we asked whether they were sure the images came from Indonesia, because it could be from somewhere else.

"It came as a surprise to us because we had never heard of such before. We are aware of shark killings and are collecting data on it and trying to control it."

Indonesia bans the hunting of dolphins as they are protected, but not all shark species are safe from hunters.

During the Cites meeting in Doha, Indonesia supported big importing countries such as Japan, China and Singapore in voting down proposals to add four species of shark with great commercial value – the scalloped hammerhead, oceanic whitetip, porbeagle and spiny dogfish – to the Cites list of species with second-level protection.

Femke den Haas, founder of the Jakarta Animal Aid Network, the local partner of Earth Island Institute, acknowledged the whaling that had long been practiced in Lamalera, which sees villagers go out in traditional canoes to hunt the marine mammals.

"However, the capture of dolphins and orcas with the use of motorboats has nothing to do with tradition," Femke said. She added that the photos and the video did not indict just Lamalera.

"Indonesia is fast losing its shark population and dolphins are getting killed in the process too," she said. "Many other countries worldwide have banned it. Now Indonesia is being overwhelmed with fishing boats looking for sharks and using dolphins and whatever they get their hands on as bait. Sharks in Indonesian waters should be protected."

Furthermore, she said the meat from the hunted whales was no longer limited to consumption in the village, but was even sold on other islands.

"If it's the traditional way of hunting whales for local consumption, we can't have any objection. But the villagers started to use motorboats since 10 years ago and now so many dolphins are being captured and this is not part of tradition anymore."

Health & education

Don't let religion stop AIDS prevention: Officials

Jakarta Globe - May 19, 2011

Dessy Sagita – Efforts to curb HIV/AIDS transmission in the country are often hampered by religious leaders' lack of support and poor awareness of the disease, an official from the National AIDS Commission said.

"The prevention program among intravenous drug users has been quite successful, while transmission because of unsafe sex is increasing rapidly, partly because the religious community strongly rejects condom use," Nafsiah Mboi, the secretary of the National AIDS Commission (KPAN), said at a news conference on Wednesday.

She was speaking after the joint declaration with religious groups to support the government's efforts to curb HIV/AIDS transmission.

Religious leaders from the Protestant Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), Supreme Council for Confucian Religion in Indonesia (Matakin), Nahdlatul Ulama National Board (PBNU) and Muhammadiyah attended the declaration.

Yanto, head of the East Java chapter of KPAN and who is also the head of East Java Mosques Council, said that most Islamic leaders in the province have poor knowledge about HIV, hence the strong rejection and stigma against people living with the virus.

"They don't know how it spreads. Once we taught them, they became more open and promised to stop treating people living with HIV and AIDS unfairly," he said. Yanto said his group plans to educate more religious communities about the disease.

Efforts to promote condom use have been strongly rejected by religious communities and their leaders. A few years ago, a program initiated by the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN) to promote condom use in Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara by providing condom vending machines was scrapped after being rejected by religious society.

Sahawiah Abdullah, of the Ministry of Social Affairs, said the ministry has been receiving demands from religious leaders to shut down red-light districts.

"They didn't realize it's not that we are legalizing prostitution, but with red-light districts we can make it easier to control the spread of the disease. If they were closed down, prostitution would spread to regular community and be harder to control," she said.

Syafiq Mughni, head of health, social, and disaster for Muhammadiyah, said different approaches were required for those who were religious and those who were not to curb transmission.

"For those who are religious, we can use religious approach by telling them to stay away from sinful behaviors. For non-believers we should use a scientific approach and explain the danger of this disease," he said.

Students, teachers hail new system, but challenges remain

Jakarta Post - May 18, 2011

Jakarta – Clad in uniforms sprayed with various colors, high school seniors paraded around throughout the country on Monday to celebrate passing the national exam this year.

From sharia-governed Lhokseumawe, Aceh, to artsy Yogyakarta, seniors exploded with jubilation after the anxiety of preparations and the test- taking days last month.

"All of the students at my school graduated. We are very happy after the hard time with so many extra lessons for the exam," former student of vocational school SMK 60 in West Jakarta and now proud graduate, Yuliana, said. She said the results were a major relief after this year's tight supervision, with CCTVs monitoring the exams.

Following years of criticism for its punitive nature of failing students, the National Education Ministry introduced significant reforms to the national exam this year, with new criteria for graduation and tougher security measures.

The exam is no longer the sole factor for a student to graduate. A student's final grade is now determined by their school's final exams and the national exam.

The results this year for senior high and Islamic school students increased to 99.22 percent, from 99.04 percent last year. Bali had the highest passing rate of 99.96 percent, whereas East Nusa Tenggara scored the lowest with 94.43.

Teachers said that the new formula was very helpful. "There is a student who scored below 4.00 in the national exam, but after calculating the school's grades, the student fulfilled the requisites to graduate," state high school SMA 65 in Jakarta principal Danimar said.

Indonesian Teachers Association research and development division head Mohammad Abduhzen said he doubted the credibility of school grades.

"I would be very glad if the passing rate was calculated only from the national exam score. But, in fact, it is not as it includes school grades, which are very high. I myself do not believe that 90 percent of students nationwide have school grades above seven," he said. "Of course, there are many students who have good grades, but the percentage couldn't be that high," Abduhzen said.

According to figures released Friday by the National Education Ministry, almost all grade averages of national exams in provinces are lower than the regions' school exams. In the case of East Kalimantan, the region had an average grade of 8.05 while the national exam scores were 6.90.

Education expert Hamid Hasan said that this year's passing rate percentage could not be considered an achievement as it was the first time the new system was implemented.

The changes also did not resolve the persistent quality gaps across regions, he said. "Many areas need improvement in education, including services in poor provinces where the national exam passing rates are low from year to year."

For example, East Nusa Tenggara, which had notably bad performances from 2008 to 2010, still remained at the bottom for all seniors this year. East Nusa Tenggara is not alone, however. Thirteen other provinces also fell behind the national rate of senior high and Islamic schools.

Hamid said that the fact that more than half of the 33 provinces were behind the national rate was because of a lack of quality education. "There is the issue of fairness here. Some of the children of our nation receive a good education, but others have no access to the standard education set by the government. We have to fix this," he said.

Gender & sexual orientation

Gay community looks to media to spread message of acceptance

Jakarta Globe - May 18, 2011

Elisabeth Oktofani – Wary of past attacks by hard-liners, the country's gay and lesbian community chose to mark International Day Against Homophobia on Tuesday quietly, with a view to raise awareness and acceptance through the media.

Hartoyo, general secretary of Ourvoice, a Jakarta-based gay rights group, told the Jakarta Globe that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (LGBTIQ) believed a media campaign was the best way to address growing homophobia.

"Learning from our previous experiences – where LGBTIQ events were attacked by intolerant groups – we now prefer to do a media campaign to introduce the diversity of sexual orientation to the wider community," he said.

He said the media wielded enormous influence in shaping public opinion, but in the past had often been used to discriminate against marginalized social groups such as the LGBTIQ.

Homosexuality, he said, had often been portrayed as a sexual aberration or deviant behavior, labels used to denounce the LGBTIQ directly and indirectly. "So we need to work together with a smart media to introduce people to and educate them about what the LGBT community really is about," he said.

Hartoyo added that the government needed to respect and provide full protection for all citizens regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Dede Oetomo, founder of the country's first gay group, Gaya Nusantara, said the rise in homophobia had been a recent phenomenon. "Homosexuality is actually part of Indonesia's history and diversity but, unfortunately, it is not recognized anymore by society because of modernization," he said.

"It is OK to disagree about things, but it is very important that we respect each other's beliefs, including on gender and sexual orientation."

Meanwhile, to prevent a repeat of the imposter "wife" case that shocked a Bekasi community last month, the government is mulling a requirement that couples undergo physical examinations before being married.

Rohadi Abdul Fatah, director for Islam and Shariah law at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, said the requirement was being considered because of the scandal surrounding Rahmat Sulistyo, aka Fransiska Annastasya Oktaviany, who allegedly posed as a woman to dupe a visually-impaired man into marrying him. The marriage has since been declared invalid and Rahmat is being investigated by police.

Rohadi said the physical checkup idea would be proposed to the minister and, if accepted, would become one of the requirements for Muslim weddings. "This policy will only be implemented in Islamic weddings, with brides being checked by female officials and grooms checked by male officials at the Religious Affairs Office," he said.

[Additional reporting by Antara.]

Graft & corruption

Conspiracy talk adds intrigue to court payment claims

Jakarta Globe - May 23, 2011

Ulma Haryanto, Anita Rachman & Antara – An unsolicited payment to a Constitutional Court official from Democratic Party legislator Muhammad Nazaruddin might have been an attempt to discredit the court, its chief justice said on Sunday.

"It could be a conspiracy whereby sometime in the future this man could disclose that [the court] wasn't clean and that its chief could be bribed," Mahfud M.D. said of an alleged attempt in September to give court secretary Janedjri M. Gaffar two envelopes containing a total of 120,000 Singapore dollars ($97,000).

He said the payment could have been an attempt to destroy the Constitutional Court's reputation as one of the last bastions of integrity in the country, or as leverage in future cases brought before the court.

"For instance, if he brokered a case for a district head, he could say that he already had the court in his pocket," he said. Mahfud added, however, that there were currently no cases before the court that were linked to Nazaruddin, who is also the Democrats' treasurer.

The chief justice revealed the alleged incident on Friday in a joint media conference with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Democratic Party's founder and chairman of its advisory board.

Mahfud said he had written to Yudhoyono in November regarding the case, but had agreed to stay silent on the issue if the president took action against Nazaruddin over the alleged incident.

"I didn't go to the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] because there was no evidence of bribery," he said.

"Besides, the president and I are friends. I deemed it necessary to tell him about the matter directly so that it could be solved internally. But the KPK has since called me to ask about the matter. I told them to go ahead and investigate it."

But KPK deputy chairman M. Jasin said his office would need more evidence than just Mahfud's report before it could summon anyone for questioning. "As it looks now, we don't know for sure if the money was given in relation to a [government] project, a criminal case or some other issue," he said.

He added the allegations did not prove that Janedjri and Nazaruddin had struck any sort of deal, and therefore the case could not be classified as bribery. "Besides, the money was already returned," he said. "But the KPK will investigate further."

Refly Harun, a legal expert who in the past has accused Constitutional Court judges of accepting bribes, said Mahfud might have made the comments as part of a personal agenda. He added that it was unlikely the chief justice had come forward simply for the sake of law enforcement.

Mahfud, however, denied the assertion, saying in an interview on Metro TV that he had only intended to encourage Yudhoyono to look into the case. "I didn't even go to the palace [on Friday] with the express purpose of reporting the case," he said. "We were discussing things and that's how it ended up."

Yunarto Wijaya, an analyst from political consultancy Charta Politika, said Mahfud should have done something more substantive than just report the case to the president.

SBY issues another 'paper tiger' to fight graft

Jakarta Post - May 16, 2011

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued an instruction comprising action plans to eradicate and mitigate corruption, which was met with criticism given the increasing number of graft cases in his administration.

A presidential instruction signed by Yudhoyono last week ordered all state elements – especially the National Police, the Attorney General's Office, the Law and Human Rights Ministry, the Finance Ministry, and the presidential Judicial Mafia Taskforce – to speed up investigations into corruption and intensify measures to prevent corruption practices.

Zainal Arifin Muchtar, the director of Gadjah Mada University's Center for Anticorruption Studies expressed concerns that this could be another "paper tiger". "A series of instructions have been released but the government has failed to publicly present the results of previous instructions," he added.

This is the third presidential instruction on corruption issued by the President this year, part of a long series of regulations, instructions and decrees he has issued since coming to power in his first term in 2004.

In January, Yudhoyono signed a presidential instruction focusing on accelerating investigations of tax fraud cases and corruption at the tax office. It was issued in the wake of a highly publicized tax graft case centering on former tax official Gayus H. Tambunan, which implicated law enforcement officials, a judge and senior tax officials.

Vice President Boediono, appointed to lead and monitor the implementation of both instructions, claimed the instructions were concrete developments of the government's efforts to curb corruption.

Supporters claim this latest instruction expands on the country's 2006 ratification of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

"We don't want to focus only on cases. These instructions are aimed at addressing more fundamental aspects in order to create systematic measures. The government wants to stop corruption at its roots," Boediono said in a statement.

He acknowledged that the instructions focused on prevention rather than enforcement, "to address the root problems in order to establish a cleaner government".

The latest instruction contains 102 action plan points addressing six areas: prevention, enforcement, harmonizing law and regulation, recovery of assets from acts of corruption, international cooperation and coordination mechanisms.

Indonesia scored 2.8 out of 10 on Transparency International's latest Corruption Perception Index. The survey ranked Indonesia 110th out of 178 countries in 2010.

Vice presidential spokesman Yopie Hidayat said the series of presidential instructions would help the government reach its target of scoring 3 next year and 4.8 by 2014.

An increasing number of graft cases, however, have grabbed headlines and are under investigation by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), triggering criticism of the government's claims. Some of the cases implicate key figures are close to those in power.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator Danang Widoyoko said the 2005 National Action Plans on Corruption Eradication failed to curb corruption and warned the government not to repeat such failures.

"[New regulations] contain more or less similar content to older ones, which lacked a strong and clear enforcement and monitoring mechanism," he said. "Commitment is the most essential element to implementing the rules, otherwise these instructions are merely political tools to make Yudhoyono look good."

New anti-graft bill empowers KPK: Team

Jakarta Post - May 16, 2011

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – A new draft revision to the corruption law will strengthen the country's fight against widespread corruption, a member of the team tasked with drafting the bill claims.

The new draft amendment is currently being reviewed and redrafted by a special Law and Human Rights Ministry team. It will replace the previous draft revision, which has been rebuked for being soft on corrupt officials and allegedly trying to limit the role of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). That draft, which had been submitted to the House of Representatives for deliberation, was withdrawn.

"The new team will ensure that the draft will only reinforce the fight against corruption and rearm the KPK with a new authority," law expert Romli Atmasasmita, a team member, told The Jakarta Post at the International Conference on Foreign Bribery hosted by the KPK in Nusa Dua, Bali, recently.

He emphasized that the new draft would be more in line with the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). Indonesia ratified UNCAC in 2006, but has failed to adopt some critical provisions, including the authority to probe foreign bribery cases, recover stolen assets from overseas and illicit enrichment, into law.

One "standout improvement" the team was discussing was the authority to probe and prosecute foreign public officials – including state officials, the public agency and public enterprises – and private sectors.

"We have to be fair in terms of enforcing the law. Bribery does not merely affect the public sector; it also impairs the private sector," said Romli, also a participant at the conference. "And both public and private sectors involve foreign players."

With this authority, the KPK can probe and prosecute foreign players bribing Indonesian officials. "And vice versa, foreign law enforcements can probe our officials," he said. "The mechanism used is an MLA [mutual legal assistance], just like UNCAC."

Under the new draft, private companies that violate the law are subjected to fines, while their officials are to criminal charges, he said.

A passage on asset forfeiture and foreign asset recovery, which Romli said was crucial to protecting the state fund, will be removed in the new draft. "The passage will be incorporated in the asset forfeiture law that will be enacted soon," he said.

He said the bill would allow the state and local budget to misuse a criminal offense to address rampant corruption in the regions. "This action has caused state losses."

The new draft law, however, rules out a regulation that makes illicit enrichment an offense as proposed by the KPK. The commission requested that the concept be incorporated in the draft revision to charge officials who failed to explain the significant increase in their assets in relation to their declared income.

"It is better to postpone this mechanism until the KPK is ready with an excellent mechanism and database of state officials' wealth reports," he said. "It is difficult to prove illicit enrichment. And without a good database, it could be misused."

However, KPK deputy chief Mochammad Jasin begged to differ, saying that it must put it into the revision or people will never regard it as corruption. He further argued that since proving illicit enrichment was difficult, it should be clearly regulated in the law.

The team, Romli said, also revoked a previously censured provision in the controversial draft that suspects in a less than Rp 25 million graft case can escape prosecution if they plead guilty and return the money to the states.

Romli said the team, comprised of KPK deputy chief Chandra M. Hamzah, Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes Muhammad Amari, and representations from the Law and Human Rights Ministry, would start discussions on the penalty and jail term. "The draft is expected to be ready by June."

War on terror

Cirebon terrorists thugs, not jihadists: Police source

Jakarta Globe - May 22, 2011

Farouk Arnaz – The country is dealing with a new breed of terrorists, different not only in terms of tactics and targets but in terms of religious fervor, counterterrorism police say.

Indonesian terrorists had often been characterized by a radical interpretation and fierce observance of conservative Islam but a police source said the group of suspects believed to be behind the Cirebon bombing did not fit this mold.

"Three of the 13 suspects we have been detained even have tattoos on their bodies, which is prohibited in Islam," the source told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

All three, namely Mushola, Andri Siswanto alias Hasyim, and Edy Triwiyanto, were former preman, or thugs, recruited by Sigit Qurdowi, the suspected mastermind behind the group, the source added. He was killed in Sukoharjo, Central Java, last week.

"They were former preman, even though they don't have any criminal record. We tested them by asking them to recite the Koran. They passed the test but they didn't know what it meant," the source said, drawing a comparison with the first generation of Indonesian jihadists, such as Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron alias Mukhlas.

The two, who were executed for their involvement in the 2002 Bali Bombing, were graduates from the mujahideen military camps in Afghanistan, had a good understanding of the Koran and even spoke Arabic.

"It seems the motive of this group was not to wage jihad based on what they believe in but terror because of disappointment with the current economic and political situation," the source said.

Police have alleged that this group was behind the suicide bombing of a police mosque in Cirebon in April, as well as the six pipe bombs found in a river, are connected to Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid, a radical Islamic group founded by cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is now on trial in connection to the Aceh militant camp discovered last year.

Brig. Gen. Muhammad Syafii, who heads the National Police's elite counterterrorism unit, Densus 88, confirmed that some of the Cirebon suspects likely were ex-hoodlums.

"If we fail to stop this, the situation can evolve into what happened in Poso, Central Sulawesi, where former preman were recruited to wage jihad," Syafii said. "It should be stopped but it's not only up to the police to stop it."

Dramatized coverage turning terrorists into heroes, experts warn

Jakarta Globe - May 20, 2011

Ismira Lutfia & Nurfika Osman – News coverage and analysis of terrorism should not be allowed to become a platform for extremists to get their message across to the public, media experts said on Thursday.

Umar Idris, secretary of the Jakarta chapter of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), said that while the media had a duty to present the terrorists' side of the story, they should be careful about opening up the chance for the terrorists to disseminate their ideology to the public.

"Confirmation and clarification are always obligatory, but in this case it should be done in a neutral way without dramatizing the issue," he said.

He added that media reports should not campaign on behalf of the terrorists, even implicitly. "The problem in reporting on terrorism often arises when confirming and clarifying the news; that's when the reports often become dramatized."

Umar also said the media should not rely solely on official sources such as the police and should look to other sources to provide different perspectives on the issue. "Otherwise they'll fail to satisfy the audience's curiosity," he explained.

This is where it becomes important to equip journalists with the necessary skills to do research and collect data, he said, to allow them to take control of an interview session and avoid being manipulated to get a certain message across. "That way, the journalist can ask the terrorists or suspects more critical questions," Umar said.

He conceded that in some ways, the media had served to further the terrorist cause by raising public fears through unnecessary dramatization of their news reports. "There's no need for hours of live television reporting on a police raid, for instance," he said.

He argued this kind of fear-mongering could be easily avoided if media outlets adhered strictly to the journalistic code of ethics and if broadcasters abided by the programming standards and broadcasting code of conduct (P3SPS) set out by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI).

What media outlets could do instead of sensationalized coverage, Umar suggested, was to cover the human interest side of terrorism by exploring the suffering experienced by members of the immediate family of terrorists and terror suspects.

"It could have a touchy yet critical angle, that as a result of these individuals' terror acts, there are losses that their families have to endure," he said. "That would be a way of educating the public about the price that these terrorists' families have to pay for their acts."

Noor Huda Ismail, a security analyst from the International Peace Building Institute, agreed there needed to be a change in the way that Indonesian media outlets covered terrorism stories. He said the current coverage tended to be a one-track narrative from the terrorists' point of view.

"The media needs to change its approach," he said. "We need to cover both sides and we have to be more on the side of the victims of terrorism – those who were killed and their families – instead of putting more emphasis on the terrorists' perspective."

He added that the media and terrorism had the same basic purpose of getting a message out to the public, and as such there was the danger of unwanted overlap.

"Indonesian media tend to love putting a lot of drama in their stories, such as by quoting terrorists who shout 'I want to die as a martyr' or 'I want to kill,' " the analyst said.

"The media shouldn't be the agents communicating what the terrorists want. We need to stop picturing terrorists as celebrities. When we classify them as 'wanted,' that is turning them into celebrities."

Noor said the coverage in print media remained largely balanced and objective, but the real problem was with television coverage. "Dramatized television coverage of terrorism is dangerous for society," he said.

Cirebon group planned to target military, police: Official

Jakarta Post - May 20, 2011

Dicky Christanto, Cirebon, West Java – Members of the recently discovered terrorist group in Cirebon planned to attack military and police targets, according to a counterterrorism operative.

"They planned to attack a mosque in a military compound and also several police stations," a field operative from Detachment 88, the National Police's counterterrorism unit, said on Thursday. "They believe that the administration is a true supporter of devilish ideology... and are infidels."

The officer, who requested anonymity, alleged that the terrorists had planned to make an larger explosion than the one triggered by Muhammad Syarif.

Syarif was the member of the group who killed himself while detonating a bomb in a packed mosque in the Cirebon Police compound in April. "They wanted the [next] blast to injure as many infidels as possible," he said.

Separately, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said at a briefing on Thursday that investigators have recovered dozens of videos of Syarif. "We have managed to save the memory card in Syarif's cellular phone, even though it was thrown into Soka River and was there for a week," Anton said.

National Police digital forensic expert Comr. Alexander Sabar, also at the briefing, said it would take all his skills to recover the complete contents of the memory card. "We were lucky enough to have been able to recover 36 video recordings from the cellular phone," Alexander said.

In one video recording screened during the press conference, Syarif said he was ready to die as a martyr.

"I was dreaming I met the late [terrorist kingpin] Noordin M. Top and he asked me to join his army later on in heaven. I also have another dream where I ran into Osama bin Laden. I am now so excited to become a martyr in the name of God," Syarif said.

The police have linked Syarif to Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the firebrand cleric who is currently on trial at the South Jakarta District Court on terrorism charges.

"Syarif was sworn in by Ba'asyir in 2008 in Tasikmalaya with 10 other people. He was a member of Ba'asyir's Ansharut Tauhid Congregation [JAT] ever since," Anton told journalists. Syarif's brother, Basuki, was a member of the same congregation.

Ba'asyir previously rejected any connection to Syarif's group, alleging that he did not know who Syarif was.

Anton alleged that Syarif was encouraged to blow up the mosque in Cirebon by Oman Abdulrahman, another reputed terrorist leader, now held in detention in an isolation cell by the West Jakarta Police.

The police continued their search 15 additional pipe bombs the group claimed to be hiding. "We managed to find seven hidden in the Soka River. The other 15 are still missing," Anton said.

According to the Detachment 88 source, the pipe bombs were likely in the possession of Beni Asri.

Beni is one of five other terrorist suspects currently sought by the police. The other suspects include Yadi alias Hasan alias Abu Fatih alias Vijay, Ahmad Yosep Hayat alias Ahmad Abu Daud alias Raharjo, Nanang Irawan Alias Nang Ndut alias Gendut alias Rian and Heru Komarudin.

"According to the suspects, Hayat is another potential suicide bomber. Hayat has also been named as the person who formulated the Cirebon bomb plot," Anton said.

The Detachment 88 source said that Basuki, currently in police custody, had wanted to join his brother in the suicide attack. "We don't know why [Basuki] didn't do it at the time."

The police have detained 13 people and killed two in raids connected to the Cirebon group. Investigators have also confiscated dozens of bullets, two hand grenades, dozens of books and DVDs on jihad issues and several pornographic video CDs.

Mosque suicide bomber linked to Abu Bakar Bashir

Jakarta Globe - May 19, 2011

Farouk Arnaz – National Police have officially confirmed that a suspected terrorist group behind the suicide bombing attack at Cirebon Police mosque is directly linked to hard-line Islamic group Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid founded by Abu Bakar Bashir.

"Even Muhammad Syarif, the suicide bomber, was a member of JAT in Cirebon. He was directly sworn in by Abu Bakar Bashir together with nine people at Tasikmalaya, West Java," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said at a press conference on Thursday. "They wanted Shariah law to be implemented here," Anton said.

Police on Thursday announced that they were on the hunt for five fugitives in connection with the attack – identified as Achmad Yosepa Hayat, who is thought to be the next suicide bomber; Beni Asri, who is wanted for sheltering a police fugitive; bomb maker Heru Komaruddin; bomb instructor Nanang Irawan, alias Ndut; and Yadi, alias Hasan.

The police also showed a video recorded by Syarif on his cellphone, showing him assembling with the bomb while delivering his last message. Syarif had said that he would continue to engage in jihad to fight the infidels. Police had recovered the video from Syarif's cellphone, which had been dumped in a nearby river.

Police on Thursday also presented the 10 terror suspects arrested in connection with the April 15 suicide attack.

"We have brought all the suspects here for reporters [to see] before we transfer them to Jakarta for further investigations," National Police spokesman Chief Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said.

Among the suspects were suicide bomber Muhammad Syarif's younger brother, Ahmad Basuki, and his colleague, Arif Budiman. Another suspect, Mushola, is believed to have provided shelter two of the five fugitives and disposed of six pipe bombs in Soka River.

Police said the pipe bombs were intended for at least six similar attacks elsewhere, but that the group disposed of them when police began investigating and arresting their members.

This group is also connected to a terrorist network led by Hery "Sogir" Sigo Samboja. Sogir was convicted last month for his involvement in a militant network in Aceh and sentenced to eight years in prison.

The network was said to be planning Mumbai-style attacks, as well as simultaneous attacks on several police offices, including the headquarters in Jakarta, on July 1, Police Anniversary Day.

Sogir is thought to have learned how to make bombs from Azahari Husin, the Malaysian bomb-maker who was slain in a police raid on his hideout in Batu, East Java, in November 2005.

Terrorist network thriving in Indonesian prison

The Australian - May 19, 2011

Jihadists in jail: Radicalisation and the Indonesian prison experience – Australian Strategic Policy Institute. May 19, 2011

Greg Sheridan – Terrorists have set up shadow governments in Indonesian prisons, recruiting members, sending money from jail to jail and, at least once, coordinating an attack outside.

They run businesses, use mobile phones to preach sermons to followers outside and dominate prison mosques, says a report released last night by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

In Jihadists in Jail, Carl Ungerer paints a picture of terrorists manipulating the prison system and displaying a disturbing degree of freedom of movement.

This has substantial operational consequences that have strengthened the terrorist threat, producing friendships and alliances among terrorists that cross over traditional organisational lines.

For example, members of previously hostile groups, such as Jemaah Islamiah and Darul Islam, are co-operating with each other in the pursuit of jihad.

Dr Ungerer's research is based on extensive interviews conducted on his behalf with more than 30 militants either in prison or police detention.

In his report, he writes that terrorists "run small businesses in prison, from selling top-up cards for mobile phones to setting up food stalls selling rice, cooking oil and sugar".

Inmates of Cipinang prison in Jakarta have sent money to their comrades in Batu Prison on the island of Nusakambangan, which is known as the Alcatraz of Indonesia. Mobile phones and other contraband are readily smuggled into terrorist prisoners.

In the worst case, a warder at Keborokan Jail, Benni Irawan, in 2005 smuggled a laptop in to Bali bomber Imam Samudra, who was on death row. "It was subsequently revealed that the laptop was used by Samudra to chat with other militants and help plan the second Bali bombing," the report says.

Samudra and fellow conspirators Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron were executed by firing squad on Nusakambangan on November 9, 2008. The report finds prison is not an effective deterrent and has not succeeded in changing the attitude of many convicted terrorists towards jihadist violence.

"The prestige of terrorist convicts also helps boost their reputation and influence in prison," the report says.

"Those convicted on terrorism charges are usually regarded by everyone around them as pious men willing to lay down their lives for their religion and, as such, find themselves accorded great respect. Further enhancing the standing of the terrorist convicts is their reputation of being dangerous."

One of the key concerns to emerge in the report is the role of prison mosques. "Being active in the mosque is one the ways convicts can secure their release based on good behaviour," the ASPI report says.

Convicted terrorists dominate the prison mosques by holding Koranic discussion groups and preaching to each other and fellow inmates.

Indonesia has arrested nearly 700 people over the past decade on terrorist charges and more than 200 are behind bars.

The report notes that the majority of the released prisoners have not re- offended, but that much recent terrorist activity – directed at police and at Christian and other non-Muslim groups – has been led by former convicts and recidivism rates are increasing. Some were completely unrepentant.

Fajar Taslam, convicted of killing a Christian teacher in 2005 and attempting to kill a Catholic priest in 2007, said that "if he were released today he would bomb the US embassy in Jakarta".

Sonhadi, convicted for harbouring JI bombmaker Noordin Top, said that ex- prisoners "hold an elevated status in society after serving time behind bars".

Others have marriages arranged for them while in jail.

Indonesian prison de-radicalisation programs have been ineffective. The report finds many prisoners had not being exposed to them, others say they were "just talk" and still others resist involvement in them altogether.

While Australia did not work on recidivism programs, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said Australian officials worked with the Indonesian Directorate General of Corrections to assist more generally in prison reform.

Terror fight shifting from 'pesantren' to campus

Jakarta Post - May 18, 2011

Nani Afrida, Jakarta – Indonesia may encounter different terrorist foes in the future as universities are increasingly turning into a fertile ground for breeding sympathizers of violence and intolerance.

Hard-line organizations, including the outlawed Islamic State of Indonesia (NII) movement, the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), Jihadi and Ikhwanul Muslimin (IM) have expanded their clout and are now cajoling support from university students.

The trend is more alarming in the wake of official impotence in preventing the proliferation of radical teachings at the nation's institutes of higher learning.

"Radicalism on campus has entered an alarming stage," National Anti- Terrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Ansyaad Mbai said recently. "We can only wait and see. We don't have any legal umbrella to stop radical movements on campus," he said.

Ansyaad has every reason to worry. The recent distribution of book bombs to several noted figures in Jakarta and the attempted bombing of a church in Serpong, Banten, were the alleged handiwork of five university graduates.

The cases follow the conviction of two college students and one college graduate in August 2010 on terror-related charges.

The trio were sentenced to four years' imprisonment for harboring the men who organized the bombings of the J.W. Mariott and Ritz- Carlton hotels in Jakarta in 2009 that killed seven people and injured 50.

Around two weeks ago, the police arrested two students from 11 Maret University (UNS) in Surakarta, Central Java, for their alleged role as master recruiters for the NII.

"Terrorism is seemingly attracting an increasing number of creative and intellectual university graduates who differ from its stereotypical adherents of Islamic boarding school [pesantren] students and preachers," said Ansyaad.

Islamic studies expert Yon Machmudi of the University of Indonesa said that students might be easily lured into radical movements for several reasons, including a lack of critical thinking that should be nurtured at school and by families.

"A student gets information mostly from the Internet. And they don't try to critically review the content," Yon said.

Terrorism expert Noor Huda Ismail, who is also the executive director of the Prasasti Perdamaian Foundation that facilitates rehabilitation efforts for terrorist-linked inmates, called on the government to immediately keep close watch over the nation's youth from being lured into radical movement.

"The emergence of young radicals was in some part inspired by books from the Middle East promoting radicalism and widely circulated on radical websites and through hard-line publishing companies," he said.

Why students are vulnerable to radical recruitment

Students are less critical.
Some Islamic organizations operate informally and off campus, and are thus difficult to control.
Students tend to accept information from questionable sources on the Internet.
Students do not compare and contrast information sources, accepting only one point of view.
Students live far from their families, making parental supervision and instruction in Islam's true nature difficult.
Indonesia has no regulations curbing radicalism on campus.

Komnas HAM to examine police raid' civil casualty

Jakarta Post - May 16, 2011

Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has announced plans to investigate the death of Nur Iman, a food stall vendor who was shot to dead in a shootout between two alleged terrorists and police in Sukoharjo, Central Java, on Saturday.

"[The commission] will visit the site to investigate the incident in Sukoharjo. Some witnesses have said he was killed by a bullet shot by the terrorists, not [police]," Komnas HAM Monitoring and Investigation team member Kabul Supriyadi said Monday, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Earlier, police announced that Nur was killed by a bullet from the gun of the alleged terrorist. According to Kabul, Komnas HAM would send at least four officials to carry out the investigation.

While waiting for the results of a ballistics investigation of the bullet that allegedly killed Nur, the commission will also be seeking information from witnesses regarding the shooting positions of the alleged terrorists, members of the National Police counterterrorism unit (Densus 88) and Nur Iman at the time of his deat.

On Sunday, an eyewitness named Gunawan said Nur Iman was a victim of a stray bullet. When the gunfight took place, Gunawan had been standing around 25 meters away.

Gunawan said at least eight armed officers took part in the incident and the alleged terrorists had been positioned with their backs facing the small shop belonging to Nur.

Radicalism & religious extremism

Hundreds of Indonesian clerics to fight radicalism

Straits Times - May 20, 2011

Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja – Indonesia's largest Islamic organization is enlisting hundreds of religious teachers to fight the spread of radicalism in high schools and universities.

The Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which has about 40 million members, will train the teachers to use knowledge and reasoning to convince their students not to join any terrorist group.

Umaruddin Masdar, who is heading the initiative, said the group would start in Java, home to around 60 percent of Indonesia's population of 238 million.

Last weekend, some 250 clerics and 20 students attended the first NU workshops in Yogyakarta – by understanding the rationale behind Islamic teachings, they will hopefully be able to promote peaceful Islam with confidence.

"Many local clerics were outsmarted by militant intellectuals who descended on their villages and spread radical ideology," Umaruddin said.

The militant clerics come armed with college degrees and argue convincingly. The village clerics, who are usually less learned, are often no match, Mr Umaruddin told The Straits Times. "We can no longer afford to be sporadic in our efforts," he said.

For example, clerics and community leaders need to be able to explain why killing innocent people, even non-believers, is wrong. "In war," Umaruddin said, "Prophet Muhammad forbids his followers to kill enemies who are cornered and helpless."

The NU has the support of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Professor Abdurahman Mas'ud, who heads the ministry's research department, said developing a culture of peace and promoting citizens' love of their country were important ways to fight radicalism.

This concerted move by the NU follows worrying reports that small radical cells are infiltrating college campuses and recruiting high-school science students to help them make bombs. The militants have proved highly organized, even sending out questionnaires to students.

They "tend to choose students who are weak in religious knowledge and whose ideology can be bent," said Broto Wardoyo, who manages a terrorism study program at the University of Indonesia.

A recent series of book bombs distributed to well-known figures in Jakarta was allegedly the work of former journalist Pepi Fernando and his one-time college mates. An 18-year-old high-school graduate was recruited to be the suicide bomber in one of the attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta in July 2009.

Indonesian counterterrorism forces have made great strides in cracking down on large terrorist groups, including South-east Asia's Jemaah Islamiah. The organization masterminded attacks such as the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali, which killed 202 people.

However, other, disparate cells continue to thrive. "Everyone must get involved. Schools and universities must have better curricula to nurture greater feelings of nationalism," Broto said.

Tifatul plays down police web site attack, says hacks common

Jakarta Globe - May 19, 2011

Arientha Primanita & Farouk Arnaz – Indonesian Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring is playing down the hacking of the National Police Web site by an apparent Islamic extremist, saying the incident had been over-hyped.

Tifatul said it was only the "wallpaper" of the police's Web site that had been targeted. "Why did it become big news?" he asked journalists on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the National Police Cyber Crime unit told the Jakarta Globe that they were investigating who was behind the attack on www.polri.go.id, after it was defaced with a message urging Islamic warriors to "rise up."

Another message read: "There is no God except Allah. Muhammad's servant and messenger of God." It also urged to beware those who were against Islam and the interpretation of Islam.

Tifitul would not say that the security of Indonesian government Web sites was weak but did admit there had been numerous hacking or hacking attempts previously.

"This is not the first time – based on our calculations, [government] Web sites have been hacked for 3 million times," he said. Previous hacking attacks on the police's Web sites have lambasted the institution for corruption.

In 2008, the Jakarta Police's Traffic Management Center Web site was hacked. One of the messages read: "The National Police was the third most corrupt organization in 2005, second most in 2006, and the most corrupt organization in 2007. Where is the justice? Today, all Indonesian Police websites are OWNED!"

NII: The father of modern radical Islam

Jakarta Post - May 19, 2011

Nani Afrida – Understanding the country's violent jihadist movements that have triggered a string of terrorist attacks may not be possible without studying the outlawed Islamic State of Indonesia movement, known locally as Negara Islam Indonesia (NII).

The NII, founded by charismatic ulema Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosoewirjo in August, 1949, is a political movement intent on turning Indonesia into an Islamic state, and fully implementing sharia law.

Although Kartosoewirjo was executed by the military in 1962 for propagating separatism, his ideas and teachings remain alive today, and continue to inspire thousands of Muslims across the archipelago to dream of an Islamic caliphate.

The military has since Kartosoewirjo's death handed down amnesties to NII's subsequent leaders in the hopes that they would cooperate and relinquish their hard-line ideology.

But NII's followers remained united albeit loosely by forging enduring personal relationships throughout the archipelago, and passing on their teachings, albeit straying from Kartosoewirjo's vision in the process.

Many children of NII leaders and stout followers of the organization's early days are still in close contact with one another.

NII's founding ideology has spawned a range of terrorist network, including Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), and a number of hard-line underground organizations.

The father of chief patron of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Hilmi Aminuddin, was one of the NII's top leaders in its early days.

Alleged terrorist mastermind Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who cofounded the JI with his senior, Abdullah Sungkar, was profoundly inspired by the NII movement.

The bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004 and the forming of a terrorist training camp in Aceh in 2010, for example, were masterminded by a team comprising of JI and NII members, according to police reports.

The NII splinters, however, have also turned into merely profit-oriented groups, including the notorious NII KW9, which is widely believed to be led by Panji Gumilang, also known as Abu Toto.

Panji is the founder of Al-Zaytun boarding school in Indramayu, West Java – Southeast Asia's largest Islamic boarding school. Panji repeatedly denied his role in the organization.

But many experts believe his followers have been using hypnotism to recruit new members, who would later be extorted by their leaders.

"If you talk about the NII, most people associate the movement with the KW9 faction, with its scary stories of brainwashing members," terrorism expert Al Chaidar of the University of Indonesia said.

"But the NII has other factions that propagate violence and are more dangerous compared to the KW9," he said.

According to Al Chaidar, who is also a former NII member, there are now 14 NII splinter factions operating throughout the country, with several members linked to terrorism.

Half of the factions are categorized as violent with involvement in terrorism. The latest one includes the Tahmid Rahmad faction in Malangbong, Aceh, which was allegedly behind the recruitment of university graduate Pepi Fernando.

The police have alleged that Pepi, along with four other graduates, masterminded the recent distribution of book bombs to several noted figures in Jakarta, and a thwarted attempt to bomb a church in Serpong, Banten, during Easter.

Several of the NII non-violent factions are believed to have been neutralized by the intelligence community as tools to help neutralize the NII radical ideology as well as to minimize the ideology distribution of communism during the Cold War, according to Al Chaidar.

"NII has a long history, and we're still at war with its seemingly proliferating ideology. It'll be a long fight until we can win," Al Chaidar said.

Hard-liner groups on shopping spree at campuses

Jakarta Post - May 19, 2011

Nani Afrida – The tranquility of secular Sebelas Maret University (UNS) in Surakarta, Central Java, was shaken recently when the police sniffed out underground activities tied to an attempt to form an Islamic state.

"We heard later that two of the university students were arrested for their roles in the NII (Islamic State of Indonesia) movement," Berry Nur Arif, a student, said recently.

The police arrested Ervin Setiawan and Mike Vera Susanti – both part of the university's teacher training faculty – in nearby Yogyakarta for allegedly recruiting students to the NII.

The NII, founded by charismatic ulema Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosoewirjo in August, 1949, is a political movement to turn Indonesia into an Islamic state with a full implementation of sharia law.

Although Kartosoewirjo was executed by the military in 1962 for propagating separatism, his ideas and teachings remained alive and well today, and inspired thousands of Muslims across the archipelago to dream of an Islamic caliphate.

Thirteen years since the fall of the authoritarian Soeharto regime, the influence of NII teachings and of other hard-line groups has increasingly taken hold on campuses.

Based on The Jakarta Post's observations at several universities, the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), the Ikhwanul Muslimin (IM), the Salafy, the Jihadi and the Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) have also been gaining student support.

These hard-liners can now step up to compete for recruits with the long- standing moderate groups such as the Indonesian Muslim Students Action Front (KAMMI), the Association of Islamic Students (HMI) and the Muhammadiyah Students Association (IMM).

National Anti-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Ansyaad Mbai said he received reports from high-ranking university officials three years ago that students were increasingly lured to hard-line groups rather than moderate ones.

"Such a phenomenon has ignited concern that these hard-line groups have been cajoling students into supporting future violence and intolerance," he said.

The police have recently detained five graduates for masterminding the distribution of mail bombs and plotting an attack on a church in Serpong, Banten. According to Ansyaad, their leader, Pepi Fernando, became radicalized after joining a prayer group organized by NII supporters.

The recent incidents mark the second time university graduates have been connected to a terrorist ring. The first was in mid 2010 when a graduate and two students of the prestigious Syarief Hidayatullah National Islamic University were convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for harboring the masterminds behind the JW Mariott and Ritz Carlton hotel bombings in 2009.

Terrorist attacks in Indonesia have generally been masterminded and executed by alumni of Islamic boarding schools, known locally as pesantren.

Lia Marlia (not her real name), a recent graduate of the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) said hard-line groups had flourished on campus for the past three years. She said the groups penetrated student activities without flag waving, blending in through preaching and discussion.

"I was a member of one of those groups. They have something in common, purifying Islamic principles through sharia. But they are all operating in discreet," she said.

She also said there were many supporters of the terrorist network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) and its above-ground affiliation Jamaah Ansharud Tauhid (JAT) actively trying to inspire students to join their fight. "We usually just met [members of the hard-line groups] during discussions or street rallies," she said.

UNS student Berry could not single out the presence of such groups at his campus, saying that, aside from the NII supporters, there were others actively propelling the HTI and the FPI.

The university's vice rector for student affairs, Dwi Triyanto, said such organizations operated underground and were not easy to detect.

Central Java, East Java, Yogyakarta and Jakarta are among the hotbeds of NII followers. JI co-founder Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who resides in Surakarta and is facing trial in Jakarta for terrorism, was inspired by the NII.

According to Ken Setiawan, the founder of the NII Crisis Centre, there have been approximately 400 reports this year of people involved in the NII, mostly university students and workers. "The reports are generally from Surakarta, Yogyakarta and Jakarta," said Ken, a former NII member.

Lecturer Yon Machmudi, of the University of Indonesia, who is also an expert in Islamic student movements, said the NII and other hard-line groups entered campuses through informal means. "For example, besides the NII, the university also has HTI and the IM operating to lure students."

According to Yon, the university authorities have found that the HTI and the IM are "safe" organizations for students, meaning they don't condone violence.

"Previously, the HTI had a minor problem with university authorities when it refused to accept the existing system and insisted on adopting pure Islamic principles," he said.

HTI spokesman Muhammad Ismail Yusanto said the HTI had been on campuses for a long time and rejected allegations it was attempting to radicalize students.

"The HTI is similar with the HMI and the KAMMI, which grow from student communities. People know we exist, as we are not sneaking to campus looking for new cadres," Ismail said. "And, more importantly, we are not hard- liners, we are straight-liners."

While many experts have pointed out the hard-line groups operating on campuses, questions arose to what actually inspired the students to joining such groups?

Terrorist expert Noor Huda Ismail said he was not surprised by the phenomenon, as 50 percent of the world's population were young people who see some problems differently than older generations. "Teenagers are exposed to many resources around them which can influence them to be radical and finally to be terrorists," he said.

He also said many students usually sought Islamic organizations suitable to them. "Today, formal organizations cannot answer the challenges, so students require other alternatives to settle on. This is when small and radical groups such as the NII get their opportunity."

Ansyaad Mbai believed the student motives to join hard-line movements might need a more complex understanding of conditions within society where religious leaders failed to live up to their ideals and more often than not incited hatred.

"Students joining the radical groups may be triggered by frustration in dealing with their daily lives, hatred for the protracted global injustice or even by a penchant to copycat, inspired by previous terrorist attacks," he said.

Violent jihad gaining ground on campus

Jakarta Post - May 19, 2011

Nani Afrida – Louis, not his real name, has no physical traits of the stereotypical hard-liner Muslim student: Bearded with a prayer cap and dressed in Muslim attire with trousers sometimes cut off above the ankle.

But Louis is among several students at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UINSH) who is profoundly inspired by the violent jihad movement advocated by hard-liner sympathizers possibly linked to the existing terrorism ring.

"Students joining prayer groups run by the [violent] jihadist sympathizers are not yet at the stage of masterminding attacks. But they are being fed violent jihad teachings," said Louis, who is taking a master's degree in Islamic law at the university.

"The sympathizers are making persuasive moves to ignite our self- consciousness to conduct violent acts."

With scores of students and university graduates recently mired in terrorism, concerns are rife over a possible move by terrorist sympathizers to recruit students or graduates to propel their fight in converting Indonesia into a caliphate nation with the full implementation of sharia law.

Based on The Jakarta Post's observations at several campuses, the violent jihadist groups regularly recruit students who are devoted to Islam, but have social difficulties. These students were easily lured into joining exclusive prayer groups or religion discussions outside the campuses.

Discussions were mostly centered around the ideology of violent jihad to regain the glory of Islam, in manipulative ways. More often, the students attended three or four discussion sessions prior to accepting the violent ideology.

"There are not many group members, less than ten. They are mostly very introverted, but can stand up voluntarily to take a role in a violent movement," said Louis. However, despite this attitude, such students are academic achievers and show no sign of radicalism.

While most Islamic student activists on campus wear a veil or turban, dressed in Muslim attire, most students recruited by the violent jihadist sympathizers wear jeans and T-shirts. "It is difficult to know them if you are not close to them. And besides, they are not popular students," said Louis.

UINSH has seen two of its students and a graduate involved in a terrorism ring, harboring terrorist masterminds behind the JW Marriott and Ritz- Carlton hotels bombings in mid-2009.

Alleged terrorist mastermind Pepi Fernando, who is behind the distribution of book bombs to several noted figures and a failed attempt to bomb a church in Serpong, Banten, is also a UINSH graduate.

The university rector Komaruddin Hidayat acknowledged receiving reports of a violent jihadist movement at his campus. "But it is difficult to uncover it. Although, because the public knows about their existence, we expect they will gain less support," he said.

Aside from UINSH, the violent jihadist movement has also infiltrated secular universities, including the secular University of Indonesia (UI) where members of Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), a hard-line organization founded by alleged terrorist mastermind Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, may have gained ground.

UI spokesman Vishnu Juwono believes the group will attempt to penetrate the university, given the fact it was the biggest campus in Indonesia and the birthplace of many national leaders.

"We know about their efforts, especially during the intake of new students. We know they want to indoctrinate our students with their jihadist agenda, but we are confident it will be difficult for them to do this," he said.

UI has been presenting information to new students on extreme ideologies, Vishnu said.

The terrorist network has also vied to recruit students from National University, Bina Sarana Informatika College, Gunadarma University all in Jakarta, the Bogor Institute of Agriculture and Sebelas Maret University in Surakarta, Central Java, according to a jihadist group member.

Some students of these universities are even active as JAT members, while others joined the Arrahmah prayer club, founded by young and energetic cleric Muhammad Jibril, who is currently serving five years in prison for harboring terrorist masterminds in 2009.

JAT leader Mochammad Achwan, 62, confirmed that many university students were lured into joining the organization.

"Several students, housewives and people from all walks of life attend our preaches," he said. "We regularly holds discussions with many students, and we are invited to come to universities to pray."

Achwan, who was involved in the bombing of the Borobudur Buddhist temple complex in Magelang, Central Java, in 1985, said the students were inspired by JAT because the organization was not merely just talking, but providing an example of "concrete achievements".

Terrorism expert Noor Huda Ismail said hard-line groups were in a better position to recruit members than moderate Islamic organizations. "Such groups are strongly pushing the issue of global injustice, including on how the US as the infidels committed atrocities in Iraq and Libya," he said.

But the violent jihad movement on campuses may have also stemmed from a growing trend of self-radicalization, in which students are exposed to books and Internet resources depicting violent jihad doctrines.

"I believe recruiting students is not a priority for violent jihadist groups. Students can easily become radicals just by reading books and surfing the web," said Yon Machmudi, a UI expert on the Islamic student movement.

"But whatever the causes are that pull students into supporting the radical movement, a violent ideology among the youth is increasing at an alarming rate," he said.

Densus 26 formed as NU seeks to counter radicalism

Jakarta Post - May 18, 2011

Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta – Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which claims to be the largest Muslim organization in the country, has announced that it established a special detachment to counter radicalism.

Called a special detachment, or Densus 26, in a nod to the police's counterterrorism unit, Densus 88, the new unit will not carry weapons but use persuasion and scientific debate to prevent people from following radical teachings.

"Our weapon is religious science," program initiator Umaruddin Masdar said during the weekend. He said the unit would be given additional training on negating the logic that radicalism supporters have been using in their movements.

Speaking on the sidelines of a two-day training session for Densus 26 member candidates in Pleret, Bantul, Yogyakarta, Umaruddin said Densus 26, which comprises ulema and preachers, was tasked with correcting deviant Islamic teaching and radicalism. The 26 in the name refers to 1926, the birth year of the NU.

Some 250 local ulemas and preachers from across the country joined the training in which they held intensive preaching activities and studies on relevant subjects. Present at the opening of the training was NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj.

The established of Densus 26 came in the wake of escalating suspicions that Islamic State of Indonesia (NII) movement had adopted radical methods in soliciting new members for the movement.

"What the ulema and preachers need are knowledge that will make them more courageous to speak up based on the correct religious arguments to prevent the spread of radicalism," Umaruddin said.

He added that the NU had a wide network of ulema and preachers nationwide, but they lacked science and strategy to prevent the growth of radicalism.

"We are not fighting against but straightening radicalism, which has emerged because its supporters perceive the religion instantly and partially," he said. He added that the NU planned to develop Densus 26 in Java before expanding it across the country.

Basuki, a participant from Pajangan, Bantul, welcomed the initiative, saying that the two-day activity made him more confident in preaching. He said the NU network of ulemas and preachers had much potential to help stifle terrorism and the spread of deviant religious understanding.

Freedom of religion & worship

Legal activists want charges dropped against Ahmadi nearly killed by mob

Jakarta Globe - May 23, 2011

Ulma Haryanto – A coalition of civil society organizations have demanded that prosecutors drop charges against an Ahmadi man who was critically injured in the deadly February attack on members of the beleaguered sect in Cikeusik, Banten.

Deden Sujana, head of security for the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI), was detained on Friday at a prison in Serang for allegedly inciting violence and disobeying authorities in connection with the Feb. 6 attack, Erna Ratnaningsih, chairwoman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), said on Sunday.

In that attack, three Ahmadis were killed by a mob of 1,500. Deden nearly lost his right arm defending himself from a machete-wielding assailant.

Deden is allegedly seen in a video circulating on the Internet of the attack asking a police officer to let the assault take place. Police had said in the immediate wake of the attack that no Ahmadis were being considered as suspects in the case.

Erna said that Deden's arrest was baseless since he had always been cooperative in answering police summonses. "Besides, if they want to have him detained, the prosecutors should have sufficient reason that Deden would tamper with evidence or try to escape, which is not the case," she added.

Erna said he could face trial in approximately two weeks, but vowed that when that happened, he would be represented by a team of attorneys from the YLBHI, the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH), the Human Rights Watch Group and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

"Deden is one of the victims," Erna said. "His physical condition, and especially psychological condition, was not taken into consideration when the prosecutors decided to detain him."

Twelve men linked to the mob that attacked the group of 25 Ahmadis are on trial at the Serang District Court. If found guilty, they could receive punishment ranging from 12 years in prison to death by firing squad.

But Erna on Sunday pointed to what she claimed was a disturbing precedent set in previous trials involving attacks on Ahmadis. "From previous cases, the attackers received the minimum sentence while the victims received longer sentences. This happened during the Cisalada hearing," she said.

In that case, an Ahmadi man was sentenced to nine months in jail for stabbing a teenager who was part of a mob of hard-line Muslims who attacked an Ahmadiyah community in Cisalada, Bogor, in October. The attackers were given a year's probation.

Temanggung rioters could get slap on wrist

Jakarta Globe - May 20, 2011

Candra Malik, Semarang, Central Java – Six of the 25 men standing trial for burning down churches last February could get away with serving less than an eighth of the prescribed sentence after prosecutors sought unusually light punishment.

Lead prosecutor Gindara told the Semarang District Court that while the six were involved in the riot on Feb. 8 in which an Islamic mob burned down two churches and a Christian school in Temanggung, Central Java, the state was only seeking eight-month sentences for each of them.

The demand falls far short of the five-and-a-half to seven years stipulated for mob violence under Article 170 of the Criminal Code. Gindara reasoned that the punishment demanded should be "commensurate with what they've done."

However, Eko Surwarni, a spokeswoman for the Central Java Prosecutors' Office, said she was surprised by the exceedingly light demand. "Article 170 of the Criminal Code clearly states that if such a criminal act of violence results in injuries or damage to property, then the perpetrators may be subject to up to seven years in prison," she said.

She added that her office would haul Gindara in to explain why he had demanded such a light sentence. "We don't have the right to intervene in the independence of prosecutors to demand sentences, but because the Temanggung riot is a very sensitive case, we need to hear what the prosecutor has to say for himself," Eko said.

She pointed out that the six defendants in question had already been in detention for three months, and if the court went on to convict them and sentence them to eight months, then they would only have to serve another five months.

Nuryono, a lawyer for the six men, claimed the mitigating factors in their favor included the fact that they had no prior convictions, had expressed remorse for their actions and "had only gone along with the mob."

He also claimed that the eight months sought by prosecutors was "too heavy for them. We'll appeal to the judge to lighten the punishment."

Catur Sulistyo, a member of the Church of St. Peter and Paul, which was one of those damaged in the riot, said the light sentence demand was regrettable.

"However, we can't say anything about it because we're still gripped by fear," he said. "For us, the unrest is not something we can easily forget. We're still traumatized by it."

In the incident, roving mobs of Muslims attacked and vandalized five buildings in Temanggung following the sentencing of Antonius Richmord Bawengan, a Christian, for blaspheming against Islam.

The rioters were incensed at the five-year sentence handed down to Antonius, which they deemed too lenient, thus setting off the spasm of violence.

Two churches, a Christian school and two police stations were vandalized by the mob, while several cars and motorcycles were also set on fire. Nine people were injured in the violence, most of them from rocks thrown by the rioters.

Antonius had been convicted of distributing a book that claimed some of Islam's holiest shrines were symbols of genitalia, as well as pamphlets describing the religion as a violent one.

UN 'disturbed' by Indonesia's religious violence

Jakarta Globe - May 17, 2011

Camelia Pasandaran & Cameron Bates – The United Nations has written to the Indonesian government expressing "concern" about the increasing number of reports about violence committed against religious minorities.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, says it is yet to receive a copy of the letter, dated April 26, 2011, from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay. The letter was also copied to the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and a number of other Indonesia institutions.

Pillay also reveals a proposed visit by the UN's special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief to visit Indonesia this year to investigate the allegations.

In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Jakarta Globe on Sunday, Pillay says she is writing to the Indonesian government to "express my concern over the large number of letters and reports I have received in recent months concerning violence against members of religious minorities in Indonesia."

"I have been particularly disturbed by the widespread violence and discrimination reported against the [Ahmadiyah] community, which has included the state-sanctioned closing of Ahmadi mosques, the burning of homes and places of worship, and even physical violence and murder."

Pillay said that since the violent attack that left three Ahmadi dead in Cikeusik, West Java, on Feb. 6, several government authorities had responded by issuing new regulations and decrees that allowed "further acts of harassment and violence" to occur.

Pillay also noted a number of other reported incidences of religious intolerance, including the ongoing stand-off between the Bogor government and the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin.

"Christian groups have reportedly been attacked and Christian churches have reportedly been burned in Gebyog, Klaten and Tegal in Central Java. In North Sumatra, a Buddhist community was ordered to dismantle a Buddha statue at a temple that was considered by some to be a challenge to Islam in that area."

The commissioner said the incidents put at risk the human rights guaranteed in the Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Indonesia is a signatory.

"The General Assembly and Human Rights Council have repeatedly urges States to take all necessary and appropriate actions, in conformity with international human rights standards, to combat hatred, discrimination, intolerance and acts of violence, intimidation and coercion motivated by intolerance based on religion or belief, as well as incitement to hostility and violence, with particular regard to members of religious minorities."

Pillay said she understood that discussions were ongoing between the government, Komnas HAM, civil society and religious groups concerning the issue.

"I encourage the government of Indonesia to take this opportunity to support reflection and action at various levels to address the broader issues behind religious intolerance and discrimination."

She said that laws that restricted religious expression and practise "must be reviewed to ensure they comply with these standards" and well as ensuring that justice was upheld against those found to have committed wrongdoing.

Pillay also "strongly encouraged" the government to accept a proposed visit by the United Nation's special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief to visit Indonesia this year.

Rev. Ujang Tanusaputra of GKI Yasmin said the letter was "a bad assessment of Indonesia in the context of religious freedom."

"As a nation that is based on [the state ideology] Pancasila with its motto Unity in Diversity, the government should uphold and implement the pillars of Indonesia."

Survivors recount violence in Cikeusik

Jakarta Globe - May 16, 2011

Ulma Haryanto – Ahmad Masihuddin, Irwan and Bebi are the lucky ones. Ahmad recalls the moment when a man attempted to mutilate his genitals, while Irwan has developed an intense fear of water. Bebi cannot speak, due to a dislocated jaw, and must eat through a straw.

Despite the fear of reprisals, two of these three men – Ahmad and Irwan – met with the Jakarta Globe over the weekend to recount their memories of the bloody attack against a small group of Amhadiyah sect members in the village of Cikeusik, Banten, on Feb. 6.

On that day, three Ahmadis – Roni Pasaroni, Warsono and Tubagus Chandra – were killed by a 1,500-strong mob. Much of the violence was captured on video, and footage of Ahmadi men stripped of their clothes and being brutally beaten with stones and bamboo sticks can be seen on YouTube.

Twelve men are facing charges in relation to the attack. If found guilty their maximum sentences could range from 12 years in jail to the death penalty.

But Irwan and Ahmad say that even the harshest of punishments for those 12 men will not blot out the acts of cruelty they witnessed and endured on that day. Nor will guilty verdicts dampen the attendant rage and frustration they feel at a police force that is widely seen as having stood by and allowing the violence to unfold.

"Police pronounced me dead when my muddy, naked body was thrown into a police truck," Ahmad said. "If I did not use the martial arts knowledge I learned through the years, I'd be among the dead."

The police had collected Ahmad's battered body after he had been dragged through the dirt by a group of enraged attackers. "Along the way, people slashed me with machetes, and threw rocks and bamboo poles at me. I lost consciousness. I believed I had died."

Unguarded

Irwan, Roni and Warsono had left for Cikeusik from Jakarta on the night of Feb. 5. Irwan told the Globe that they had traveled to Cikeusik to provide security for a demonstration that the village's Ahmadiyah community was planning on staging the next day.

"I was at our regular Koran recital meeting in Petojo [Central Jakarta]. Roni came to me and asked if I wanted to come along with him to Cikeusik," Irwan said. "I asked him what for. He told me to guard a demonstration."

They arrived around 10 p.m. on Saturday night, and were met by Deden Sujana, head of security for the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI). The next day, Deden would almost lose his right arm to a machete attack, and police would later name him as a suspect for triggering the violence.

Ahmad, who lives in Kalideres, West Jakarta, had likewise gone to Cikeusik to provide security for the demonstration.

"Eki, a colleague of mine at JAI, was on holiday and asked me to replace him to guard an Ahmadi home in Cikeusik. Without thinking it over, I agreed," he said.

"I was in the same car as [Tubagus] Chandra and Diaz [Ferdiaz Muhammad, an Ahmadi who survived the incident]. Chandra was driving, we arrived at Serang at 3 a.m. and picked up five more Ahmadis."

Ahmad had prior experience protecting sect members. In 2008 he had guarded an Ahmadi school in Parung, Bogor, that had come under attack, and he had been on hand with the now-deceased Tubagus when one of the sect's orphanages in Tasikmalaya, West Java, was sealed by local authorities last December.

Ahmad worked in the administrations division at JAI, while Tubagus worked for the security division with Deden. Ahmad, however, was well trained in self-defense. He had earned a black belt in Taekwondo at the age of 15, and was instructing others in Muay Thai at 18.

As Ahmad and his friends pulled into Cikeusik, he was relieved to see some dozens of police officers standing watch over both ends of the road where the house of local Ahmadiyah cleric Ismail Suparman was located. "I texted my parents so that they didn't have to worry. The police were here," Ahmad said.

"Suddenly, the wife of the Cikeusik village head, Inayah, ran toward us screaming. She told all of us to leave immediately, because it seemed thousands of people were marching to Cikeusik to slaughter us. Deden told her, 'Don't worry. We have Pak Hasan [Cikeusik Police chief of general crimes unit] here.' "

However, video footage posted on YouTube clearly showed the police running away when the mob attacked.

Tired from their late-night journey, Ahmad said he and his friends laid down to rest. They awoke around 10:30 a.m., he said, to loud chants of "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and "Ahmadiyah infidels" mixed in with the sound of stones hitting the house.

To Ahmad's ears, it sounded as if thousands of people were outside Ismail's home. It was then, Ahmad said, that Deden rushed outside, and attempted to hit a man in a black jacket who seemed to be leading the mob.

"This man was Idris Mahdani," Ahmad said. "He is from Banyu Mundu village [40 kilometers away from Cikeusik]. After he was hit by Deden, he retreated several steps back before taking out his machete and waved it in the air as the villagers pelted the Ahmadis with rocks."

Vicious beatings

Following Deden's lead, Ahmad said he went outside and starting throwing stones back at the mob, but realizing that they were vastly outnumbered, he and some of the other sect members tried to escape out the back door of Ismail's house. "We ended up stuck in knee-high mud at the paddy fields. We could not run. The drive to Cikeusik was taxing and we were exhausted," he said.

The group of Ahmadis parted then, he said. Some sought cover in a patch of jungle while others headed to a nearby river. Irwan and Ahmad fled to the river. Irwan slipped and fell in. Ahmad stumbled and was caught by the mob.

"I had with me about Rp 2 million ($235) for food and accommodation, and my BlackBerry. The mob greedily took it. But they still did not spare me."

It was then that he saw Roni trying to go to the defense of their friend Bebi, who was on the ground being kicked by members of the mob. Someone would drop a heavy stone on Bebi's face, but he would survive, largely because of Roni's help.

Roni, who declined to talk to the Globe, would suffer a dislocated jaw in the attack. In the meantime, Ahmad was fighting for his own life.

"I saw Irwan slip and fall into the river. I had 10 men on top of me trying to hit me with sticks and stones and they stabbed me with their machetes," he said. Ahmad said he was dragged 500 meters back to Ismail's house, and viciously beaten the whole way. He said he saw Roni being stabbed with a bamboo spear.

"They stripped me," Ahmad said. "They were about to cut my genitals. I shoved the man and shouted 'You guys have to have limits!' Another man hit me on the side but the impact also knocked away the guy who tried to mutilate my genitals."

Ahmad said that he tried to retain his focus and stay calm during the beating, protecting his head and neck in particular to avoid being fatally wounded by the mob.

"I turned on my side and let it take the beatings. I did not want to give them my neck." He said that he still felt a numbness in his neck from the injuries he sustained during the prolonged beating. "Part of my body went to sleep, as if struck by a stroke." At some point, Ahmad said, he lost consciousness.

"The police thought I was dead; they threw me into the car just like that. But I gained consciousness and started to ask for water. I was extremely dehydrated," he said.

While Ahmad was struggling to survive the mob's anger, Irwan was struggling to stay afloat in the river while also dodging a hail of rocks being thrown at him.

"I could barely swim," Irwan said. "I was dragged by the current as I tried to stay afloat. In the meantime the mob was still trying to hit me with rocks," he said.

At one point, he went under, and lost track of the time. He said he had no idea how long he was submerged, but remembered being pulled from the river.

"At one point it was all dark. But then I heard a voice calling me. It was Yadi, another Ahmadi" Irwan said. Yadi had swum against the current to rescue Irwan, dragging him to the shore.

Shirt for a bandage

For Ahmad, the trip from Cikeusik to Malingping hospital, 10 kilometers away, took one and a half hours. He said the police gave him a shirt with which to stem the bleeding from a gash on his head.

"I met Deden in the hospital, he was holding his right hand, I saw Bebi vomiting blood, Ferdiaz put me on his lap and started giving me water, he was also injured," he said.

Deden was taken to Pertamina hospital in Jakarta. The other men were transferred to Serang hospital, six hours away. In Serang, their fresh stitches had to be removed because they crusted with dirt.

Although Irwan did not sustain any serious injuries, he said he was now terrified of water, and had trouble recounting the details of the attack.

"I am undergoing counseling for my trauma. My therapist said that I had to think of water as my savior. If the river current didn't carry me away, I might be one of the casualties," he said.

Ahmad, however, said he was consumed with rage whenever he saw police officers or fundamentalist Muslims in white robes.

"Once I wanted to go to Senen, I passed the National Monument and at that time there was a demonstration on Libya and Ahmadiyah. All of a sudden I started shouting to the driver, 'Just hit them! Hit them! Why should they make a fuss over another country when their own is still in a mess,'?" he said.

Ahmad also said he suffered from vertigo and severe headaches after the beating, and had just recently recovered the ability to speak.

"Previously, I found it almost impossible to talk," he said. "Once I was in Citraland [West Jakarta mall] and saw a police officer. I went to him and screamed at him, 'What are you doing here? You're doing nothing! Just like in Cikeusik! Officers only watch and do nothing!'"

Sex & pornography

Wrong people fall foul of porn law: Activists

Jakarta Globe - May 20, 2011

Nurfika Osman – Activists on Thursday denounced the Anti-Pornography Law, saying it had been far too harsh on Peterpan frontman Nazril "Ariel" Irham and others like him, but too lenient on offenders such as disgraced lawmaker Arifinto.

"Ariel was jailed, as were 10 strippers in Bandung for [violating] the law," said Gadis Arivia, a feminism and philosophy teacher at University of Indonesia.

"But Arifinto is at large and nobody's going after him. It's clear that this law is only targeting [undeserving] people, not at legislators or politicians or senior officials."

Such arbitrary enforcement, she added, set a poor precedent for the country's legislative and judicial systems.

Nazril was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in January for distributing pornography online, just months after videos of him having sex with his celebrity girlfriends were leaked onto the Internet.

Arifinto, a former member of the staunchly conservative Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) who helped pass the law, was caught watching an adult video during a House of Representatives plenary session, but escaped with a slap on the wrist. He vowed to resign in the wake of the scandal, but has continued to show up for work at the House.

"It's not the citizens who need to be protected from porn, but the legislators and politicians," Gadis said. "This law is like a comedy film, where the ending was just like what we saw in Arifinto's case, one of the legislators who supported the law [violated it]."

Gadis said Islamic groups, women's groups and the Indonesian Commission for Child Protection (KPAI) had also been vocal in their support of the law but silent on Arifinto's offense.

Thamrin Amal Tamagola, a gender expert and sociologist at UI, said the biggest problem with the 2008 Anti-Pornography Law was how it was applied, which depended largely on how pornography was defined.

"This is a hard task for the police in interpreting what cases are subject to charges under the law," he said, adding the police tended to arrest the wrong people.

Neng Dara Affiah, from the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), said among those "unfairly targeted" were artists such as West Java's Jaipong dancers for their provocative routines. "Even though traditional arts and culture are exempt from the law, their practitioners remain a target," she said.

Komnas Perempuan published the book "Sexuality and Democracy" on Thursday to mark the anniversary of the law's passage, which Neng said would serve to highlight its failings. Gadis said the law hampered sexual freedom, which she said was regarded as a "state enemy."

Agriculture & food security

Bali's farmers fast disappearing as tourism gobbles up land

Jakarta Globe - May 20, 2011

Made Arya Kencana & Camelia Pasandaran, Denpasar – New data shows that Bali's farmers are steadily being squeezed out as agricultural lands are increasingly converted for use in the island's lucrative tourism industry.

The Bali branch of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said on Thursday that 643,029 farmers remained in the province, which has a population of some 3.8 million, and that number was expected to decline even further.

"Last year, the number of farmers was still at 673,928," said BPS's Bali director, Gde Suarsa.

He said farming accounted for 28.4 percent of Bali's labor force and was concentrated in several rice-producing centers around the province, especially in Tabanan district in the island's south.

Suarsa said land conversion, with farms being redeveloped to make way for hotels and restaurants, was forcing farmers to change professions. "The number of workers in the accommodation and restaurant sector is now 620,045, which is up compared to the 472,840 counted in 2010," he said.

Bali's Agricultural Office, meanwhile, reported that the land used to cultivate rice had decreased by 6,479 hectares in 2010 to 143,804 hectares. "The impact of land conversion is that rice production weakened, from 878,000 tons to 846,000 tons" that year, said Made Putra Suryawan, the office's chief.

Jeffrey Kairupan, director of the central bank's Denpasar branch, said the province's agricultural sector only absorbed 1.7 percent of the Rp 24 trillion ($2.81 billion) in banking credit available in Bali last year.

In a presidential lecture at the State Palace on Thursday, a leading economics professor from Cambridge University, Ha-Joon Chang, said it was critical for Indonesia to continue to improve its productivity, particularly in its agricultural sector.

Chang cited the examples of the Netherlands and Denmark, countries that had limited land resources but were still major agricultural exporters because they applied advanced technology.

He said the government should work with the private sector, rather than completely dominating it. Protectionist policies were helpful so long as they ensured higher productivity, he said.

"You need to make sure protection translates into productivity goals," Chang said. "The government needs to discipline its support by reducing or withdrawing it from poor performers."

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Indonesia had to determine its own policies to help boost productivity, but he agreed with Chang on the need to develop all sectors of the economy.

"Remember, a T-shirt doesn't fit all," he said. "But we need to develop our technology and our innovation capabilities. Without that, we will not achieve the higher productivity that we need in developing our economy."

Legislation & parliament

House suspends new building project

Jakarta Globe - May 23, 2011

Anita Rachman – House Speaker Marzuki Alie announced on Monday that the House of Representatives was suspending all ongoing activities related to the construction of the controversial new office building.

Results of the tender pre-qualification phase would also be canceled, the speaker said in a press conference after meeting with Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto.

The ministry has recommended that the building be scaled back from the original 36-story design to just 26, slashing the budget from Rp 1.13 trillion to Rp 777 billion.

According to the ministry, 26 stories should be enough to accommodate lawmakers' needs, in addition to maximizing the use of Nusantara I, the office building currently used by lawmakers. Marzuki said he had been surprised to hear that a 26-story structure would suffice.

"How come there are these two different calculations?" he asked. "We must find out who calculated this. If it's from the Public Works Ministry then [they] should be sanctioned if they're trying to play games [with the House]. The same thing also goes for lawmakers and consultants."

He also pointed out the possibility of some mark-ups. Because of these, Marzuki said the House was officially suspending the construction process and canceling all tender results.

However, Marzuki said it would still take a Household Affairs Committee (BURT) meeting to decide on whether the House would completely drop the project. "I cannot answer that. Let's wait," he said.

Budget watchdog refuses to apologize over house allegations

Jakarta Globe - May 17, 2011

The head of an Indonesian budget watchdog said today his NGO would not make a public apology to the House of Representatives, as demanded by the House secretary general Nining Indra Saleh.

On Friday, Nining demanded that the Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) take back its statements about the House communication budget and publicly apologize in the national media.

Fitra had stated that, based on the House of Representatives' 2011 budget implementation documents (DIPA), the House allocated Rp 151 billion ($18 million) to lawmakers as an "intensive communications allowance," which covers a wide range of services but primarily means cellphone use.

Fitra claimed they received the DIPA data from the House Secretariat. But Nining said there is no communication budget in 2011 DIPA, meaning Fitra's statement is misleading.

"Fitra's release is not only capable of misleading public opinion, it is also a violation of the press code of ethics and universal human rights – in this case the rights of lawmakers," she said in a press statement. "If they don't carry out our request in three days, we will make it a legal matter."

But Fitra's secretary-general, Yuna Farhan, said the watchdog group wouldn't back down. "We won't apologize and won't take back our media release [about the budget]," Yuna said in a press conference on Tuesday, as quoted by news portal Okezone.com.

Fitra, Yuna said, especially questioned the double budget allowances lawmaker were said to be receiving – Rp 14 million monthly for 'intensive communications allowance,' and another 'intensive communications allowance' of Rp 8.5 million.

"There has been no explanation as to what the allowances are for or what the differences are between the two allowances," he said. "The House Secretariat became panicked. Why? It shows that the House Secretariat is the one with the most responsibility for budget management," he said.

Intelligence & state security

In Medan, Komnas HAM critiques spy bill

Jakarta Post - May 23, 2011

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – The National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) is asking for a period of public comment on the bill reforming the nation's intelligence community that is currently under deliberation at the House of Representatives.

"The intelligence bill will define strategic policy for the administration, but carries with it problems. That's why [the House] should allow ample time for discussion," Komnas HAM chairman Ifdhal Kasim said over the weekend in Medan, North Sumatra.

Ifdhal said the discussion on the intelligence bill should allow for public comment and stipulate a deadline for enacting the oft-delayed bill into law.

The bill, which the House promised to pass in July, would grant the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) wide-ranging authority to intercept private communications.

The government previously said that intelligence and law enforcement agencies needed the authority to monitor private communications to tackle radicals and terrorists.

Ifdhal, however, said that the bill evoked the authoritarian practices of the New Order and that there was a potential for BIN to abuse its arrest authority under the bill.

"This is a heritage from the past. It appears that we have difficulty in disengaging ourselves from the old regime when people were arrested without due process," Ifdhal said.

The bill must ensure that the nation's intelligence agencies operated democratically so that the people would not again be abused by members of the intelligence community, he said. "To place intelligence in the framework of democracy, we must uphold human rights."

The government has proposed that the BIN be allowed to intercept the communications of anyone deemed a threat to state security without prior court approval, including telephone calls, text messages, faxes, emails and social networking postings.

Intelligence officers would also be allowed to conduct "intensive questioning" of anyone suspected of engaging in terrorism, separatism, espionage, subversion, sabotage or other threats to national security.

Ifdhal said only the police should have arrest authority while wiretap approvals should be approved by the courts.

Safeguard BIN's autonomy: Lawmakers

Jakarta Globe - May 19, 2011

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Anita Rachman – Legislators deliberating the intelligence bill warned on Thursday that a proposal to classify the main intelligence agency as a government body could leave it open to misuse.

Gamari Sutrisno, from the House of Representatives Commission I overseeing defense affairs, said defining the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) as a government body rather than a state institution would limit its independence and allow ruling government officials to use the BIN for their own ends.

"We demand it be changed [in Article 2 of the bill] to 'state institution,'" said Gamari, from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). "Without this, there is a danger that the intelligence agency could be used for the interests of those in power."

Teguh Juwarno, from the National Mandate Party (PAN), agreed the wording should be changed and warned that deliberations could otherwise stall.

"There will likely be a raft of new powers vested in the BIN through this bill, so it would be dangerous if in the end it could be misused by certain politicians for their own interests," he said.

Effendy Choirie, from the National Awakening Party (PKB), also stressed the importance of distinguishing the BIN as a state institution, like the National Police and the Armed Forces (TNI).

"If we want the intelligence agency to be part of the national security and defense architecture, then it must be clearly defined as a state institution," he said.

However, Patrialis Akbar, the justice and human rights minister, told the House hearing that there was nothing wrong with categorizing the BIN as a government body.

He said the Constitution recognized seven state institutions, including the House and the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), therefore the need to include the BIN should be carefully considered.

He also argued that even without formal recognition as a state institution, the BIN would enjoy considerable independence from the government through the other articles in the bill.

"The bill will also stipulate tough punishment for any intelligence personnel misusing their authority, so there's no need to be afraid," Patrialis said.

The classification issue is the latest snag to hit deliberations on the intelligence bill, which has been dogged by fears that its passage will give the BIN too far-reaching powers to arrest and interrogate civilians and carry out surveillance.

On Thursday, the human rights group Imparsial presented a list of its concerns to legislators from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Al Araf, Imparsial program director, said wiretapping, preemptive arrests and state secrecy were among the contentious issues.

"The authority to conduct a wiretap should be left to law-enforcement agencies and should be contingent on a court-issued warrant," he said, adding that the article in the bill allowing the BIN to carry out its own arrests would effectively lead to state-sanctioned kidnapping.

Imparsial called on the House not to rush the intelligence bill into passage, and instead to ask the public for feedback.

T.B. Hasanuddin, a PDI-P legislator, said his party and several others had already stated their opposition to the proposed powers of arrest, while the issue of wiretaps would be fully regulated in a bill now being drafted by the Communications and Information Technology Ministry.

Media wary about BIN's superpowers

Jakarta Post - May 16, 2011

Jakarta – Journalists and media activists said on Thursday that the intelligence bill now under deliberation may threaten the freedom of press if the House of Representatives fails to revise articles on intelligence information and the National Intelligence Agency's (BIN) authority to arrest suspects and intercept communications.

"We have to make sure that all regulations in the bill are in line with all the principles of the freedom of press and the freedom of information," deputy director of the media research company the Science Aesthetics and Technology Foundation, Agus Sudibyo, told The Jakarta Post recently.

Speaking at Warung Daun restaurant in Cikini, Central Jakarta, journalists and activists charged the bill as being "too general in formulating the definition of intelligence information and lacking in providing an adequate breakdown of explanations".

Article 24 of the bill stipulated that intelligence information covered the state intelligence system, access to intelligence activities, intelligence data on criminals, plans for crime prevention and handling, intelligence documents related to national security and intelligence personnel.

The journalists and activists said they deplored the bill for not providing more detailed explanations. "This will be problematic for journalists because they have to deal with all kinds of information all the time," Agus said. "Without more detailed explanation, the intelligence agency may be able to arrest a journalist for unknowingly accessing and releasing information that the agency deemed a state secret."

Head of the Independent Journalists Alliance, Nezar Patria, said that an article in the bill that would grant the BIN authority to intercept communications without permission from the court might also harm the freedom of press.

"The agency can abuse this article to spy on reporters and intercept their interviews, including those that should be off-the-record or that involve confidential sources," Nezar said.

"We fully support the bill as long as it is used correctly in the interests of the state in the name of national security," Nezar said. "However, we demand that the law create an intelligence agency that is accountable and under control."

Kamsul Hasan from the Indonesian Journalists Association said that, while he fully rejected the intelligence agency's authority to make arrests, he approved the authority to intercept communications as long as it is done with permission from the court.

He added, however, that the bill should also regulate the establishment of a medium for the public to report any cases of unjustified communication interception. "A violation or abuse of wiretapping authority is equal to a violation of a citizen's right to privacy," Kamsul said. "A citizen should have a right to sue the agency should such incident occur."

Kamsul also said that there should be a specific monitoring body for the intelligence agency.

Nezar supported the ideas, saying that the intelligence law should be created with the idea of preventing the intelligence agency from operating beyond its authority.

"It should be built upon the very principles of democracy and human rights," he added. (mim)

Economy & investment

Strategic economic sectors dominated by foreign interests

Kompas - May 23, 2011

Jakarta – Foreign domination of strategic economic sectors is spreading and deepening. It has been suggested that the government reorganised strategic economic development so the benefits are more evenly felt by the ordinary people and greater competitiveness in the face of global competition.

Foreign domination has become progressively stronger in strategic sectors such as energy and mineral resources, telecommunication and the plantation sector. With this kind of foreign domination, the economy often appears to have been hijacked by their interests.

As of March 2011, foreign interests controlled 50.6 percent of national banking assets. Accordingly, around 1,551 trillion rupiah of the country's total banking assets of 3,065 trillion rupiah are controlled by foreigners. Foreign ownership continues to grow slowing but surely. As of June 2008, foreign ownership was only 47.02 percent.

Only 15 banks control an 85 percent share of the market. Foreign interests already own some of these 15 banks. Out of a total of 121 commercial banks, 47 are owned by foreigners in varied portions.

And it is not just the banking. Insurance is also dominated by foreigners. Out of the 45 life insurance companies operating in Indonesia, less than half are fully owned by Indonesia. If grouped, of the life insurance companies with equities above 750 billion rupiah, all are joint venture businesses. In terms of premium earnings, the five largest are foreign companies.

This also needs to be understood in terms of government regulations that are extremely liberal, allowing foreign interests to own up to 99 percent of shares in the banking sector and 80 of shares in insurance companies.

The capital market is similar. Total foreign investor ownership is 60-70 percent and all of the company shares recorded and traded on the stock market.

This is also the case for former state-owned enterprises (SOE). Out of all the SOEs that have been privatised, foreign ownership has already reached 60 percent.

The oil and gas sector is even more tragic again. The proportion of national oil and gas operators is only around 25 percent while the remaining 75 percent is controlled by foreign interests. The government, through the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources is aiming for a 50 percent proportion to be operated by national companies by 2025.

Economic strategy

Reflecting on this situation, it is time that Indonesian's economic revival driven by its own national strengths be rethought. Strategic economic development must be reorganised so that it is more orientated toward resource empowerment and above all allocated towards the national interest.

Indonesia does not need to apply anti-foreign strategic economic development but rather the presence of foreigners being a compliment to efforts to empower and revive the national economy.

This kind of thinking was raised by a number of groups when asked for their views about the current situation and efforts to revive the Indonesian economy and in relation to the commemoration of National Awakening Day on May 20 last week. Those who were asked for their views were former Vice President Jusuf Kalla, economist Didik J. Rachbini, House of Representatives member Arif Budimanta and people from business circles.

The current economic situation in Indonesia can also be seen from the poverty rate that has tended to flatten out without any significant decline, the still high level of unemployment and the gross domestic product that is only enjoyed by and contributed to by a handful of people. The character of the Indonesian economy has also not changed greatly when compared with the Dutch colonial period. Exports are still dominated by primary commodities while the manufacturing sector is showing signs of deindustrialisation (See Deindustrialisation, Phase 2).

Reevaluation

Indonesia's strategic economic development polices do not have to be anti-foreign as is the case in Latin America. Although foreign participation to stimulate the economy is still needed, it should not dominate the economy.

Arif Budimanta believes that the government must have the courage to reevaluate economic policies as a consequence of the signing of the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1997. The banking sector must be organised more exclusively, tariffs and import duties on strategic commodities need to be revised and natural resource management work contracts renegotiated (energy and mining).

Jusuf Kalla said that said that Indonesian's economy does indeed need more clarity and direction in order for it to benefit domestic interests. This will require increasing national economic competitiveness, prioritising natural resources, particularly energy, for the national interests. Only the surplus should be exported.

He added the main steps must be begun systematically and consistently. He gave the example of rice self-sufficiency in 2008, but the following year the country was importing rice again. Likewise with military equipment, such as armoured vehicles, than can be produced domestically.

"This is because we have been inconsistent in pursuing successful policies. So, don't forget our strengths, you want the easy way, better to import rice that work hard", said Kalla.

Foreign ownership in Indonesia

Mining (2011)

National 25 percent

Foreign 75 percent

In May 2009, out of the 69.9 percent domination of the oil and gas industry, around 70 percent of this is US
In 2025 the government is aiming for a 50 percent proportion of national operators

Banking - Foreign ownership of assets totalling Rp3,065 trillion

As of June 2008	47.02 percent
As of March 2011	50.6 percent

Palm oil industry

Company Plantation area (hectares, as of 2005)

Guthri Bhd (Malaysia) 167,908

Wilmar International Group (Singapore) 85,000

Hindoli-Cargill (US) 63,455

Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (Malaysia) 45,714

SIPEF Group (Belgium) 30,952

Golden Hope Group (Malaysia) 12,810

Telecommunication

Foreign ownership Percent

SmartFren Telcom 23.91

Telkomsel 35.0

Hutchinson 60.0

Indosat 70.14

XL Axiata 80.0

Natrindo 95.0

Source: Kompas research and development, based on respective company websites, the Indonesian stock exchange, the Directorate General for Plantations, and Komaps reports.

[Abridged translated by James Balowski.]

State offers 20 energy blocks hoping to arrest fall in output

Jakarta Globe - May 21, 2011

As the government seeks to lift investment in exploration to counter slowing oil and gas output, it offered 20 blocks on Friday in the nation's first round of tenders this year, a senior official at the Energy Ministry said.

Twelve of the blocks are in Eastern Indonesia, including Semai IV and the Northeast Madura field, Evita Legowo, director general of oil and gas, said at the Indonesian Petroleum Association's 35th Oil and Gas Convention and Conference in Jakarta.

At the event, drilling rights were granted to Eni Indonesia for the Arguni I block and to Total E&P for Southwest Bird's Head block, both in West Papua, as the final round of last year's tenders was concluded. Pan Orient Energy Holding also won rights to East Jabung block in South Sumatra, according to Antara. Evita said the companies had agreed to invest $113.7 million over the next three years exploring the blocks.

Evita earlier said that the government would give contractors a bigger cut of the proceeds if they explored difficult fields, such as those in Eastern Indonesia. "We will offer 25 percent profit sharing for the contractor, and it could even be bigger," she said on Thursday.

The current production split gives contractors 15 percent of the profit with the rest government pocketing the rest. Exploration costs are also reimbursable through cost recovery.

Ron Aston, the chairman of the IPA said on Thursday that Indonesia needed to boost investment in oil and gas exploration to $23 billion by 2020 from $18.9 billion last year because it would be difficult to secure domestic supply as production declines.

Other attendees of the conference, including Philip Whittaker, a principal from Boston Consulting Group, and Vasta C. Choesin, public relations manager of Exxon Mobil Indonesia, added that on top of investment the nation must also have clear and consistent regulation to maintain a steady flow of capital to the sector.

Southeast Asia's largest crude producer is trying to draw funding for the energy sector to help stem the decline in output at aging oil fields, which led to the country withdrawing from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in 2008, as well as a slump in gas production.

Local oil producers cannot fulfil domestic demand or around 1.5 million barrels per day, meeting only 63 percent of the need, while imports cover the gap.

The government has set an ambitious target to ramp up output to 1.2 million bpd by 2014, despite missing its target last year of 965,000 bpd. This year's goal is 970,000 bpd, despite industry watchers' doubts.

The state is encouraging companies to unlock the energy potential of Eastern Indonesia. Raden Priyono, chairman of upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas, said on Thursday that there were 18 blocks throughout the archipelago, mostly offshore, that have yet to be explored. (JG & Agencies)

Analysis & opinion

Soeharto's ghost

Jakarta Post Editorial - May 21, 2011

"Everything was much better under Pak Harto," concluded an opinion generated in a recent polling which has been the hot topic these days. The sentiment of longing for the late former president is shared by more and more Indonesians.

Ironically today we celebrate the movement that forced Soeharto to end his 32-year iron-fist and corrupt rule. On May 21, 1998, we were overjoyed after Soeharto announced his resignation. We had a dream of a much better Indonesia at that time.

But is it true that the nation was much more prosperous, more secure and more peaceful under the leadership of the retired general who practically appointed himself as the Father of Development? Is the common complaint that the 13 years of reform under its four presidents, including incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has been a total failure true?

Last week a polling organizer, Indo Barometer, announced its findings that, among others, Soeharto was regarded as the favorite president above the other five – Sukarno, B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid, Megawati Soekarnoputri and Yudhoyono – because of his ability as a leader to deliver the fundamental needs of the people.

The survey taps the sentiment that the nation has achieved little in the last 13 years, despite that we have been internationally recognized as the world's third-largest democracy after India and the US.

It is natural that the biggest disappointment is aimed at President Yudhoyono. In 2004 voters overwhelmingly entrusted the retired general to lead the country to become a lovely home for all Indonesians. In 2009, Yudhoyono even won with a larger margin in a direct presidential election as we saw an encouraging development in the war against corruption, improved human rights and steady economic growth.

Let us return to the two questions of whether Indonesia was better under Soeharto, and whether we have achieved little progress in reforming and transforming Indonesia.

It is not true, and is an extreme response to the current situation. First of all we must acknowledge there is widespread dissatisfaction among Indonesians over the incompetence and inability of post-Soeharto governments to resolve the horrifying heritages from Soeharto: rampant corruption, abuse of power, poor law enforce-ment and disastrous governance. The problems have strong foundations.

Many of us would laugh at the remark that Indonesia is much better now than 13 years ago. Also when we talk to foreigners – be they investors, traders, diplomats or even journalists – we are surprised that they appreciate us. They point at the good things that perhaps we do not realize: Indonesia is a democratic nation, our press freedom is amazing and our economic fundamentals are more transparent and democratic.

For many foreigners who have experienced living in other developing countries, problems of corruption, good governance and legal uncertainty that confront Indonesia now are part of the nation's journey in transforming itself into a full-fledged democracy. They believe that once we pass the most painful part of the journey, we will see a totally new Indonesia. Hopefully this is not just a consolation.

We have achieved tremendous progress in many fundamental aspects of the nation. It is true that major problems remain. Many of our political elites are so selfish that they just want to enrich themselves at the cost of the nation. They are power and money hungry citizens. Our president is apparently satisfied with his achievements and has decided to relax because he wrongly believes that everything has been fixed and the nation is just enjoying the fruits of his hard and smart work.

But one thing is sure: We are a great nation because we have great people. We are a better nation now because of the endeavor of the citizens of this republic.

Today, while we still have to face gigantic obstacles, we need to remind ourselves that we have a better Indonesia because of the achievements of the people themselves, and not their leaders.

Suharto longing a black mark for government

Jakarta Globe Editorial - May 18, 2011

In a vibrant democracy, politics is critical to ensuring the interest of the people is not only met but enhanced through an electoral system. Citizens of a country vote their representatives into the government and the legislature in the hope that those elected will carry out their will.

Politics, therefore, must deliver a better life for the people as an important ingredient of democracy. Indonesia has received widespread international praise for the manner in which the country moved from authoritarian rule to a vibrant democracy in which both central and regional leaders are directly elected.

However, elected officials have failed to deliver on the promise of democracy, if a survey conducted by research company Indo Barometer is to be believed. The survey found that more than 40 percent of the 1,200 people surveyed thought their lives were better under the authoritarian rule of former President Suharto than under the current democratic government, while 22.8 percent believed otherwise.

If the survey is truly reflective of the general public mood, it should act as a wake-up call to those in government. Most respondents also believed that politics, the economy, security and social welfare were better during Suharto's time, but cthey onceded that the legal sector had improved since his downfall in 1998

The message is crystal clear. Strong economic growth of the past few years has not trickled down or translated into higher purchasing power, although domestic consumption has grown significantly. One reason for the generally pessimistic outlook could be relatively high unemployment and the growing income gap between the super rich and the rest of society.

The sharp rise in the cost of living, especially for the lower-income groups, could also have contributed to the surprise finding of the survey. Inflation, especially the high costs of food, education and health care, has posed a major challenge for the government.

Whatever the factors or reasons, the survey is indicative of the fact that the current political leadership in the country is not delivering on the promise of democracy. Every democratic nation will experience some ups and downs, but a longing for a return to authoritarian rule is a worrying sign.

Why the blank screens, Indonesia?

Asia Sentinel - May 17, 2011

The western movies showing in Jakarta last weekend included My Sassy Girl, released in 2008, New Daughter and Blood Creek, both released in 2009, and Source Code, released last April.

Not exactly a blockbuster weekend. "There are no new Hollywood films showing in Indonesia because of a boycott by distributors regarding a new tax. This was supposed to be 'resolved' already but it hasn't been," wrote Chris Holm, a Jakarta-based moviegoer, on Facebook. "The idiot official responsible can't be contacted, of course. Why? Because he is with a delegation attending f@#%ing Cannes."

"He" is Syamsul Lussa, the Director of Films at the Culture and Tourism Ministry. France's Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 11 to May 22 is perhaps the world's most prestigious film festival. One imagines he will be watching many western films.

Behind this odd situation is an opaque decision not unlike many opaque decisions in Indonesia. No one seems to know where it came from, why it was made or whether it has been resolved. The end result is presumably of benefit to a few officials somewhere while movie fans, the movie industry and employees of the cinemas themselves suffer.

The US Motion Picture Association stopped exporting films to Indonesia on Feb. 1 over a new royalty tax that the Indonesian Cinema Companies Union (GPBSI) said would have a "significant detrimental impact on the cost of bringing a film into Indonesia. The union says revenues are down 60 percent as a result. The government promised a resolution by the end of March but the impasse continues.

The blog Indonesian Movie Crisis started by an outraged moviegoer named Marvel Sutantio howls that the movie business "was brought down by greedy tax & customs officials," That seems about right. "These guys in the Directorate General of Customs and Excise made up a greedy rule that threatens to destroy the Indonesian movie industry. Not just for imported films, but for the national movie industry too," writes Sutantio.

"My parents went through the 1960s hell where American movies were boycotted, and only sucky Indonesian movies remain. Well I don't want history to repeat itself; I'm doing what I can to prevent that. My only hope is the news that I've translated could notify the international world about this crisis. This whole tragedy and crisis is personal, not just for me, but for the thousands of 21 Cineplex and Blitzmegaplex's employees, and their families too. So hear ye, hear ye, I got a story to tell."

Djonny Sjafruddin, the head of the GPBSI, was quoted in the Jakarta Globe saying, "Since the Motion Picture Association stopped exporting their films to Indonesia, we, the cinema industry, have begun feeling the effect, especially in small towns." In an attempt to cope, the industry has been running second-class foreign films and previously run movies.

In some ways, the situation is reminiscent of other government decisions that nobody can figure out. Restrictions on beef imports, limits on foreign express courier services, cabbotage rules that restrict shipping to Indonesian flag carriers – these are all examples of decisions taken by officials or lawmakers that disrupt a narrow sector of the economy apparently to serve a special interest group.

A few years ago, imported liquor suddenly vanished from the country, either because the government was attempting to clamp down on the black market, which was estimated at 75 percent of the total liquor brought into the country, or to stop companies from bribing their way through customs, or to placate Muslim conservatives, who frown on drinking alcohol, or for other unexplained reasons, possibly because military officials controlled the liquor trade. No one really knows.

A single legal importer was allowed to bring liquor into the country. But for months the company attempted to get the government to raise the quota to meet demand that was four times higher than the legal limit. The tourist and entertainment industry suffered for months. Then the situation was said to be solved, and then it wasn't solved. It was possible to buy liquor in certain places, and in certain places it wasn't. The situation is somewhat better now but prices remain absurdly high by regional standards and there are still occasional shortages for no apparent reason.

Similar mystery surrounds the movie situation. "The tax-scheme controversy is slowly killing the Indonesian cinema industry, while the government wants to add more screens across the nation," Sjafruddin said. "But if there is no film, what will be screened in the new screens? Indonesian films have not really been able to attract the market."

Dian Sunardi, the head of marketing at BlitzMegaplex cinemas, one of two major cinema chains in the country, testified to the decreased drawing power of the films currently on offer.

"We still receive some film stock from major studios, including from Hollywood through other distributors," Dian told the Jakarta Globe. "However, the number of visitors has dropped 15 percent to 20 percent compared with last year." The Jakarta administration also says that the city is suffering because of a steep drop in the entertainment tax usually accounted for by cinema houses.

Meanwhile, there was a big raid last week on pirated DVDs at the Plaza Semanggi shopping mall. But everyone in Jakarta knows that is pretty much for show and anyway all the other pirate DVD centers were operating as usual. Besides, where else are you going to see a current release Hollywood movie?

Company	Plantation area (hectares, as of 2005)
Guthri Bhd (Malaysia)	167,908
Wilmar International Group (Singapore)	85,000
Hindoli-Cargill (US)	63,455
Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (Malaysia)	45,714
SIPEF Group (Belgium)	30,952
Golden Hope Group (Malaysia)	12,810

Foreign ownership	Percent
SmartFren Telcom	23.91
Telkomsel	35.0
Hutchinson	60.0
Indosat	70.14
XL Axiata	80.0
Natrindo	95.0