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Indonesia News Digest 21 – June 1-8, 2011

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News & issues

Tommy enters online media business

Jakarta Globe - June 8, 2011

Ronna Nirmala – Hutomo Mandala Putra, the youngest son of former President Suharto, announced his first foray into the media industry with an undisclosed investment to launch a news portal.

Tommy, as the businessman is known, said at the launch of the Web site, pelitaonline.com, on Tuesday that he hoped the portal would become "part of the independent mainstream media" within a year.

Sulastomo, the Web site's chairman, said it was the online version of the Indonesian-language daily Harian Pelita and would be free of all interests, including those of its owners.

"Pelita Online will not be a vehicle for anyone," he said. "It is an independent media company, including with respect to its owners." He said Tommy was the majority shareholder in the portal, but declined to discuss the size of his stake.

The site's launch comes just days after Tommy won a controversial lawsuit against Garuda Indonesia over an article published in its in-flight magazine in 2009. Tommy was awarded Rp 12.5 billion ($1.5 million) in damages after a court ruled that the magazine had defamed the businessman when it referred to him as a convicted murderer.

In 2002, Tommy was jailed for 15 years for ordering the July 2001 murder of Supreme Court Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, who convicted him of fraud in 2000. The fraud conviction was overturned and he was freed after serving just four years of his murder sentence.

Nezar Patria, chairman of the Association of Independent Journalists (AJI), meanwhile, said the sizeable market for online news would have proved tempting for Tommy, whose auto firm Timor Putra Nasional, which was founded with massive state subsidies when his father was still in power, collapsed in 1999 with debts of Rp 4.05 trillion.

"Considering the growing number of people getting their news through online portals, I can understand why Tommy is thinking of getting into the business," Nezar said.

Alwi Dahlan, a media analyst, warned that Tommy should tread carefully with his latest business venture.

"News portals aren't like fashion," he said. "Over the past 15 years, many people have failed in this kind of business because they didn't have good plans – not just to build the business but also to map out survival strategies."

[Additional reporting from Antara.]

Military plans to rid Central Jakarta park of transvestites

Jakarta Globe - June 8, 2011

Jayakarta Regional Military Command on Wednesday announced a plan to clear Taman Lawang, a public park on Jalan Latuharhary in Central Jakarta, of transvestites.

"I will instruct Central Jakarta's Military District Command to clear Taman Lawang of transvestites," said the head of Jayakarta Regional Military Command, Maj. Gen. Waris, as quoted by Detik.com.

He said that the action was necessary because Jakarta, as the capital, was the "display window" of Indonesia. "Do we really want foreign tourists seeing those [transvestites] when they visit the country?" Waris said.

He said the transvestites would receive training to improve their skills.

"I hope they will be taught new skills so they will be able to find work," Waris said. "There's a building in Thailand where all of the employees are transvestites and they work according to their skills."

Drink-driving cases on the rise in Indonesia

Straits Times Indonesia - June 6, 2011

Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja – Soft drinks vendor Sutarto was shocked when he saw a sedan drive into a fountain and tip over with a loud splash last month.

The incident, which occurred at the iconic Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in downtown Jakarta, took place in the wee hours of a weekday. Said Sutarto, 40: "It didn't look like an accident. I thought people were making a film, especially when the driver stumbled out of the car without injuries."

As it turns out, police investigations revealed the driver was drunk. It was the sixth time this year that drunk drivers had plunged their vehicles into the fountain. The vehicles included a Porsche Boxster sports car.

In all cases, the drivers – both Indonesians and expatriates – were uninjured. Among the photos that ran in local newspapers was one of three men looking confused and standing on the roof of the submerged car.

The incidents highlight the trend of rising alcohol consumption in Indonesia, despite some 80 per cent of the 238 million population identifying themselves as Muslim. Drinking alcohol is forbidden in Islam.

According to the World Health Organization, drinkers in Indonesia consumed on average 16.5 litters in 2005, compared to 30.3 liters in Malaysia, where about 60 per cent of the population are Muslim.

There are no recent figures available but anecdotal evidence suggests Indonesians are drinking more today. This is especially so in the capital Jakarta, where middle-class incomes are rising and going out to nightclubs and wine bars is becoming the norm for young working professionals.

Three nightspot owners interviewed by The Straits Times confirmed that they are selling more beer and cocktails compared to five years ago, even though high taxes are levied on alcohol.

A nightspot owner – – who declined to be named – said the tax on a bottle of wine was around 400 per cent, with a bottle of basic table wine costing around Rp 300,000 ($35.40). Cocktails average around Rp 110,000, while a can of the locally brewed Bintang beer costs around Rp 12,000 at a minimart.

Alcohol was not available in Jakarta's supermarkets and mini-markets up until 2006, but beer is now a staple even in suburban minimarts, and wine has started making an appearance in upscale supermarket chains.

An employee at Iguana Dangdut Bar in Menteng, Central Jakarta, said sales of beer have gone up in the past three years and Bintang beer is the most favored.

The legal drinking age in Indonesia is 21. More people are also driving drunk.

Last week, four people were killed and three wounded when a sport utility vehicle plunged into a river beside a West Jakarta road at around 4 a.m. Police suspected the driver was under the influence of alcohol.

Late last month, Jakarta police said they would step up sobriety checks and breathalyzer tests on motorists traveling through main thoroughfares.

"Deterrent measures are important so they won't do it again next time," Colonel Royke Lumowa, Jakarta police director in charge of traffic management, told news portal Kompas.com.

Colonel Royke confirmed that the accidents at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle were linked to drink driving, saying police would put illuminated signs at the circle to alert drivers.

Indonesian law does not dictate a maximum blood alcohol concentration limit, but drivers who are found by a police officer to be under the influence of alcohol can end up being heavily fined.

Those who cannot afford to go out for drinks are making their own alcohol, said sociologist Otto Hernowohadi. At least a dozen people have died this year from drinking homemade moonshine, according to media reports.

"People are getting more permissive about drinking alcohol nowadays. And merchants don't always ask for identification cards, allowing minors to purchase alcoholic drinks," said Otto, who teaches urban sociology at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta.

He said that many people were also buying illegally imported liquor, where tax is not paid on the bottles.

Jakarta government spokesman Cucu Ahmad Kurnia said this was one reason alcohol was so widely available. While the central government has imposed a high punitive tax on it, smuggling means that even warungs, or family-owned restaurants, can secretly sell alcoholic drinks. Some of these are known to be fake products.

"This is not easy to monitor, but we are sure police always try to get rid of these. We support them," Cucu told The Straits Times. "What we can do, to help ease this problem of higher consumption and also drunk driving, is to make sure merchants ask everyone for their ID cards," he said.

Asean drinkers

Per capita consumption of alcohol, among drinkers in 2005.

Source: World Health Organization

FPI tries to break into alcohol shop

Antara News - June 5, 2011

Garut – About 500 members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front attempted to force their way into a shop selling alcohol in Garut district, West Java, over the weekend.

"Our target is [to limit] the spread of alcohol and prostitution in Garut," said Roni Fatahilah, a field coordinator for the group known as the FPI.

Police officers were ready at the scene, and were able to prevent demonstrators from breaking down the door of the shop, Ek Bouw, which was closed. The FPI demanded that the shop be shut down, or its license canceled.

Sr. Adj. Comr. Irfan, from the Garut Police, said officers would convey the FPI's demands to the government, as only the regional administration had the authority to cancel the license.

West Papua

Churches call for revision of contract with Freeport

Bintang Papua - June 8, 2011

The Alliance of Churches in the Land of Papua, PGGP, has called on the government to revise the work contract concluded with the mining company, Freeport.

"The presence of this foreign company in the district of Mimika has not resulted in any improvements in the conditions of the local people," said Wiem Maury, secretary of the PGGP. He said that in addition to this, the very presence of Freeport in the area has always been a very serious problem for the people.

"The welfare of the people who are the true owners of the rich natural resource continue to be a matter of great concern. Nor is there any guarantee about security in the area either," he added.

He said that the call for a revision of the contract was one of 22 recommendations agreed at the Papuan Transformation Conference that took place from 3-5 June this year.

He said that a representative of the government had attended the conference, along with representatives of all the different Christian denominations that are present in both Papua and West Papua.

The purpose of the conference was to try to reach a common perception between church leaders and the government on the crucial issues of empowerment of the community, education and spiritual attitudes.

"The conference also sought to reach a common position between Papuans with regard to the substance of the special autonomy concerning the issue of taking the side of the local communities, their protectiona and empowerment,' he said.

Another aim was to reach a common approach between the churches and the government, as the centre as well as in the regions.

According to Victor Abraham Abaidata, the secretary of the organising committee of the conference, a decision was taken to set up a team composed of a representative of the government, representatives of all the churches in Papua as well as a representative of the church at the national level.

"We have already presented the 22 recommendations to the provincial governments and will soon present them to the central governmentl," he said.

Papuan economy down 8.6 percent in Q1

Jakarta Post - June 4, 2011

Jakarta - Papua's economy contracted by 8.6 percent in the first quarter of 2011, compared with the figure from the same period last year.

The economic downturn affected a wide range of sectors, including the processing industry, trade, hotels and restaurants, transportation, communication, mining and services.

The agricultural sector, along with the energy and clean water sectors, were among the few that recorded positive growth.

"The agricultural sector grew by 1.11 percent, and the energy and clean water sectors 0.004 percent," head of the Papuan office of the Central Statistics Agency, Djarot Soetanto, said in Jayapura on Saturday.

Compared with the fourth quarter of 2010, however, the province's economy grew by 12.6 percent, Djarot added as quoted by Antara news agency.

Security approach triggering widespread rights violations in Papua

Kompas - June 3, 2011

Jakarta – The government is still dealing with problems by military means (securitisation, use of extraordinary means in the name of security) in attempting to overcome problems in Papua. But instead of resolving the Papua problem, securitisation is instead the trigger for even more widespread human rights violations. Ironically, despite the securitisation that is taking place in Papua, its status is not one of martial law or civil or civil emergency.

Securitisation is an assessment of a situation or problem where the state uses the military to resolve a problem. "There is a bias towards using the military. As if by using the military, the Papua problem will be resolved", said Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) Program Director Al Araf in Jakarta on Thursday June 2.

According to Al Araf, the indications of securitisation taking place in the handling of the Papua problems can be seen, at the very least, from several issues including the continued use of the security policies that involve the military in Papua, the continuation of military operations such as in the case of Puncak Jaya, and the continued dispatch of non-organic troops to Papua. Securitisation can also be clearly seen from the military's policy of establishing posts in civilian population settlements and the use of military operational budgets that originate from state, regional and private sector budgets.

Imparsial Executive Director Poengky Indarti said that Imparsial has conducted eight months of research on the implication of security policies in Papua on human rights. According to Poengky, the government's policy towards Papuan has not changed significantly. The government still tends to use the security approach in resolving the Papua problem.

Poengky also said that the central government in Jakarta is reproducing the threat of separatism as a legitimisation for the TNI's (Indonesian military) continued role in Papua. Yet if compared with other military forces that have rebelled against the government, such as Fretilin in East Timor or the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Aceh, the force identified as the Free Papua Movement (OPM) is far smaller.

"The weapons they are using are World War II leftovers. Their forces are small, thinly spread and unorganised. One OPM leaders do not have a chain of coordination with each other", said Poengky.

Because of this, said Poengky, the question is why does the government always prioritise a military approach in dealing with the Papuan problem. "The Papuan people actually want to hold a dialogue with Jakarta", he said. (BIL)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Violence reinforces merdeka aspirations

Bintang Papua - June 2, 2011

NII actions were clearly subversive but were not handled with violence as was happening in Papua.

According to the three Papuan church leaders, Rev. Benny Giay of the GKI, Rev Socrates Sofyan Yoman of the Papuan Alliance of Baptist Churches and Pastor Elly Doirebo, the acts of violence being continually committed by the security forces are a deliberate tactic to radicalise Papuan people and reinforce the freedom aspirations of the Papuan people.

They mentioned several recent incidents such as the raising of a banner with the words "Papua, a Land of Peace", by the TNI/Polri (army and police) on 1 June. Things like this are happening time and again. "It's as if the security forces have been given a blank cheque, for these actions that are completely outside our control", they said in a press conference.

Yet, when there was a meeting attended by the bishops and all the church leaders, to launch the book "Mission of the Church and the Culture of Violence in Papua", in 2006, some good ideas were formulated about giving space to our congregations, to our flock, to discuss Papua as a Land of Peace, they have never responded to these ideas.

Pastor Elly Doirebo said they were discussing these matters because conditions in Papua have indeed been peaceful for many years... The indigenous Papuan community was living peacefully. "We Papuans are living within the framework of the special autonomy law, OTSUS, but Indonesians see us in a different light," he said. At Easter time, we ask all people to think about these acts of violence.

From 30 May – 2 June, three Papuans, Anggen Pugu, Tunaliwor Kiwo and Telengga Gire were tortured by members of the TNI at Kwanggok Nalime in the district of Tingginambut.

On 15 September 2010, a member of Brimob shot two civilians, Naftali Kwan, 50 yrs, and Sapinus Kwan, 40 yrs who were injured when they fell into a ditch while fleeing from the security forces.

Then there was the murder of Derek Adii in Nabire on 14 May, 2011, and the stabbing of Gerald Pangkali outside the Korem command by two members of the army, and acts of violence in Abepura and the unfurling of the banners referred to above, with many false public statements.being made by the authorities.

"We see all these actions as an attempt by the state apparatus to radicalise the Papuan people and inflame the Papuan people's aspirations, which they can then use to arrest or murder our people".

They inflame these actions and then they are the ones to reap the harvest. They are sowing the seeds of hatred so as to be able to give themselves licence to conduct security operations, as well as to promote themselves and raise their ranks.

When asked what the churches were doing to try to prevent such things from happening, Rev Benny Giay said they were trying hard to raise people's consciousness because as things stand at present, we feel we are not in control of the situation. "These acts of violence foster yet more acts of violence."

Rev Socrates said that the people want dialogue. Our problems cannot be solved with the use of arms and spreading violence was just a waste of energy.

He said that the Indonesian government was discriminating between different movements. Why for instance was the NII (an Islamic movement) which was clearly a subversive movement being allowed to continue with their activities without being handled with violence.

He also said that Indonesia was pursuing economic interests and security interests, with the Papuan people being the victims. The church leaders used the occasion of Easter to follow the call of Jesus Christ and his message of peace.

[Much abridged in translation by TAPOL.]

More talk, less military needed in Papua: Activists

Jakarta Globe - June 1, 2011

Arientha Primanita – There can be no development in Papua unless it is demilitarized, human rights watchdog Imparsial said on Tuesday as it launched a new report on the impact of the military presence in the restive province.

The report, "Human Rights Implications of the Military Presence in Papua From the Old Order to the Reform Era," was based on research carried out from September 2010 to May 2011. It includes interviews with residents of Papua, officials and high-ranking military officers assigned to the province.

A book on the topic will be published by the end of this month and policy recommendations will be presented to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"Imparsial is urging the de-militarization of Papua to be conducted soon because the military approach only brings human rights violations," said Al Araf, program director of Imparsial. Since the country's so-called reform era, he added, human rights conditions in the region had been marked by intimidation, torture and sexual violence.

He said the handling of conflicts in Papua – home to a low-level but persistent insurgency by the Free Papua Organization (OPM), which has been active since the 1960s – had not changed even though the leadership of the republic did change several times.

"In general, the security approach in Papua has not shifted. The government still uses the military approach as the main instrument to prevent conflicts in Papua," Al Araf said.

The special autonomy given to Papua in 2001 is largely seen as not having the desired effect, he added, with no direct benefits felt by the majority of the people there.

In January, for example, more than a thousand activists, students and church leaders protested in front of the local legislature in Jayapura, the capital of Papua. They carried a wooden coffin covered with a black cloth that said: "Special Autonomy Is Dead in Papua."

"The government," Al Araf said, "must evaluate the special autonomy because it has been unable to stem the security problems still taking place there."

Poengky Indarti, the executive director of Imparsial, said the military presence was serving as a psychological obstacle for Papua's development. "For Papua to develop, the government needs to treat it properly, like any other region, so the development can be effective and efficient," she said.

"The policy in Papua is a reflection of the policy in Jakarta. The military officials assigned there only follow orders from their superiors in the central government" she said. To solve the problems in Papua, a reform of the security and military approach is paramount, Poengky said.

She also suggested improving the welfare of military personnel, pointing to persistent claims that soldiers in Papua get involved in the private security business in the province to make extra money.

Human rights education for military officers is also important, she said. But it is crucial that the military presence, currently numbering 15,000, is reduced, Poengky said. And to resolve the conflict peacefully, there should be a dialogue between Jakarta and Papua, she added.

Another recommendation by Imparsial is to make sure that human rights violations do not go unpunished. The government must also arrange human rights trials to settle the many violations in Papua, the organization said.

One example of relative impunity is a case of torture of two civilians in Papua last year by soldiers. The perpetrators were court-martialed but given sentences of less than a year.

Poengky also suggested strengthening civil authority and public monitoring, and urged the House of Representatives and the administration to evaluate the present security policy in Papua, including the budget for military operations.

"Civil participation must also be encouraged in the security policy to uphold human rights in Papua," she said. She also said that there had to be a fair approach to law enforcement.

Ardimanto, a researcher with Imparsial, said there was a long history of distrust between Jakarta and Papua.

The central government, he said, focuses on separatists in Papua, while local officials there have the perception that Jakarta doesn't care about the development of the province. There has been a serious lack of mutual understanding, Ardimanto said.

"Military officers do not know the local culture in Papua. For example, if they see indigenous people walking around with bows and arrows for hunting, officers immediately assume they belong to the OPM," he said.

Dorkas first woman chief of Papuan People's Assembly

Jakarta Post - June 1, 2011

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Dorkas Dwaramuri has been elected chairwoman of the Papua People's Council (MRP) for the period 2011-2016 – she was the first woman ever appointed to the position.

In the MRP leadership election at Hotel Matoa in Jayapura on Monday evening, Dorkas won 48 votes, beating out opponents Herman Saud from the religious element with 29 votes and Timotius Murib from the traditional element with 28 votes. Herman was named MRP deputy and Timotius vice- deputy.

Dorkas said the election result would be conveyed to the Papua and West Papua governors and later to the home minister for approval.

"The election was run in a very democratic manner, and the men of Papua have placed their trust in a women to lead the council. This is something sincere, and I personally respect their choice," Dorkas told The Jakarta Post.

Dorkas said on Tuesday that she was happy to have been chosen to lead the cultural institution. She said she was confident that despite the heavy task of leading the assembly, she would receive assistance from all MRP members in the struggle to uphold the rights of the Papuan people.

A political observer and law lecturer at Cenderawasih University, Yusak Reba, said he was hopeful that the MRP would not get involved in politics in the future, but return to its core authority as regulated by Law No. 21/2001 on Papua Special Autonomy and Government Regulation No. 54 on the MRP.

"They shouldn't involve themselves in matters beyond their duties," he told the Post in Jayapura on Tuesday.

To meet its objectives over the next five years, Yusak said, the MRP should have a clear working agenda to avoid being labeled as reactive. "It should not function only when a new problem arises, but it should have its own agenda to follow for the next five years," he said.

Yusak said he hoped the MRP's women members and members from traditional organizations would heed the aspirations of the people from their respective communities and include them in the assembly's five-year working agenda.

Yusak also said that Dorkas' appointment as MRP chairwomen constituted a progression of the mind-sets of the current MRP members, because this was the first time a woman had been elected chair.

"It is mature thinking on the part of the MRP members that a leader should not always be a man but anyone who is capable, and they put their trust in a woman who they feel has the capacity to lead the assembly for the next five years. This is a rare occurrence in Papua," he said.

"In the Papuan community so far, men have always been the leaders and have ignored women's capabilities, but something new is happening in the MRP, whereby men have agreed to appoint a woman as their leader," Yusak said.

Human rights & democracy

Munir's killer says Muchdi acquittal should clear him

Jakarta Globe - June 8, 2011

Agus Triyono & Ulma Haryanto – Claiming to have new evidence that could overturn his sentence, the convicted murderer of rights campaigner Munir Said Thalib on Tuesday registered a case review with the Central Jakarta District Court.

The lawyer of Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who is serving 20 years for the September 2004 murder, claimed the acquittal of the man who allegedly masterminded the murder, Muchdi Purwoprandjono, should in turn clear Pollycarpus of charges.

"The acquittal of Muchdi is now final and binding at the Supreme Court, so it's reasonable that we use it as new evidence," said Muhammad Assegaf, an attorney for the convict.

Prosecutors have claimed that Muchdi, the former deputy head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), and Pollycarpus communicated before and after the murder.

"Muchdi was acquitted because the purported conversations couldn't be proved in the court, so that's our new evidence," Assegaf said.

The district court will examine the case review documents before sending them to the Supreme Court, which will then decide whether to accept them or not.

Assegaf claimed he had two new witnesses who would testify for Pollycarpus but declined to identify them for safety reasons. He said the Supreme Court judges who convicted his client had made a "fatal mistake" concerning the crime scene.

"Pollycarpus was accused of poisoning Munir with arsenic during a Jakarta- Singapore flight, meaning that the crime scene was inside the plane," he said. "But [the verdict] was different, it said the poisoning occurred at Changi Airport in Singapore."

Pollycarpus, who was an off-duty pilot for Garuda Indonesia during the time of the murder, has maintained his innocence.

A group of Munir's supporters, the Committee of Action and Solidarity for Munir (Kasum), immediately called on the Supreme Court to turn down the case review request.

"During the court hearings, either as a defendant or witness, Pollycarpus showed he was a man with low credibility," Kasum said in a statement. "His testimonies and admissions were conflicting."

In a recent interview, Choirul Anam, director of Human Rights Working Group in Indonesia, said prosecutors and police had the recorded conversation between Pollycarpus and Muchdi, which could also serve as new evidence.

"Bambang Hendarso Danuri, then-chief of detectives, told us in person that the recording did exist," Choirul said. "A prosecutor familiar with the case said the same thing. We recorded their statements on that issue, so we are wondering why prosecutors do not request a case review into the Muchdi case."

Muchdi is now a member of the Islam-based United Development Party (PPP).

Pollycarpus duped by Supreme Court: lawyer

Jakarta Post - June 7, 2011

Jakarta – The lawyer of Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, the man convicted of murdering human rights activist Munir, says the Supreme Court was wrong to hear an appeal filed by prosecutors in his client's case.

"The Criminal Code strictly stipulates that only the defendant and her or his heirs have the right to file a case review petition. Thus by all means the Supreme Court justices should have ignored the prosecutors' attempt from the very beginning," lawyer Muhammad Assegaf said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

Muhammad alleged that Bagir Manan, then the Supreme Court's chief justice, had questionable motivations in approving the case review. "That is why we are picking up on the momentum today, since Bagir Manan is no longer chief, to file the case review petition," he said.

The current case review asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its previous ruling sentencing Pollycarpus to 20 years' imprisonment for premeditated murder.

Pollycarpus was initially sentenced to 14 years imprisonment by the Central Jakarta District Court for murdering Munir using arsenic poison. The Supreme Court later overturned the verdict, finding Pollycarpus guilty of only falsifying documents and reducing his sentence to two years' imprisonment.

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) then asked the Supreme Court to review its decision, which the court did in 2008, eventually finding the former pilot guilty of premeditated murder and again sentencing him to 20 years' imprisonment.

Critics have alleged that the case review of was part of plot to exonerate the people responsible for the death of Munir, who died aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight en route to Amsterdam in 2004.

Munir's murderer must not get case review: Activist

Jakarta Globe - June 6, 2011

Heru Andriyanto – The Supreme Court should reject any request for a case review by the pilot convicted of the murder of Munir Said Thalib because it would have no legal standing, a rights activist said on Sunday.

Now serving a 20-year-jail term for the murder of the human rights campaigner, former Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, 50, has said he planned to request a review of his case.

But Choirul Anam, director of the Human Rights Working Group, said the Supreme Court had already granted a review request made by the prosecution, and in 2008 the court increased his initial 14-year-jail term to 20 years.

"Legally, in our justice system, you cannot have a review of a Supreme Court verdict on a judicial review," said Choirul, who is also a member of the Committee of Action and Solidarity for Munir (Kasum).

"The Supreme Court has already issued a circular which states clearly that a case review cannot be requested on a ruling stemming from a judicial review," he said. "Any case review request made by Pollycarpus needs to be dismissed over this technicality."

Choirul's remarks were made on the heels of statements issued by Muhammad Assegaf, a lawyer for Pollycarpus, who claimed he had new evidence that could serve as the basis for a review. The attorney was not immediately available for comment on Sunday.

Appealing a Supreme Court ruling through a case review is an extraordinary legal move and is considered the final level of appeal, with the requirement that new evidence must be submitted.

In 2005, Pollycarpus was sentenced to 14 years in jail by a lower district court in Jakarta for the 2004 murder of Munir, but the murder conviction was quashed via a Supreme Court appeal.

In early 2008, the Supreme Court accepted a case review by the prosecution and changed its verdict, sentencing Pollycarpus to 20 years in jail, adding the additional charge of document forgery.

Pollycarpus was found guilty of administering a fatal dose of arsenic into Munir's drink during a stopover on an Amsterdam-bound flight in 2004. The activist died on Sept. 7 of that year.

The ruling said Pollycarpus falsified documents so he was allowed to join the flight as an in-flight security officer although he was originally assigned for other duty on the same day.

Prosecutors won the case against Pollycarpus after they presented wiretapped phone conversations between him and then Garuda president Indra Setiawan.

In the taped recordings, Pollycarpus described former Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan as "our man" and compared then-Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh to Petruk, a clown servant in Javanese wayang puppet performances.

Choirul pointed out that it was also a technicality that prompted the Supreme Court to reject a case review by the three Bali bombers, militants who were later executed by a firing squad for their role in the October 2002 bombings.

The trio – Amrozi, Ali Ghufron and Imam Samudera – had their case review request rejected ahead of their execution in November 2008, because a similar request to the Supreme Court had been turned down before, and the Supreme Court only allows one request.

While Pollycarpus has been convicted for his role in Munir's murder, rights groups have long said that others, including senior intelligence figure Muchdi Purwopranjono, should also be held to account.

Munir defenders fume over convict's case review plan

Jakarta Post - June 6, 2011

Jakarta – A solidarity group for murdered human rights activist Munir Said Thalib called on the Supreme Court to reject a case review petition filed by Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, the only suspect convicted for the murder of the iconic activist.

The group said this could be part of a plot to exonerate people responsible for the death of Munir, who died aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight on route to Amsterdam in 2004.

"The Supreme Court has to reject, or at least postpone, the case review because this is a threat to efforts finding justice for Munir. Until now, the case remains unclear," Choirul Anam, the executive secretary of the Solidarity Action Committee for Munir, also known as KASUM, told reporters on Sunday.

A team of lawyers representing Pollycarpus filed the case review petition to the Central Jakarta District Court two weeks ago. The first hearing session to process the petition will begin on Tuesday.

Former Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus was initially sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Central Jakarta District Court for killing Munir by poisoning him with arsenic. The Supreme Court overturned the verdict, finding him guilty of only falsifying documents and reducing his sentence to two years in jail.

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) then filed a case review petition to overturn Pollycarpus' acquittal. The Supreme Court granted the petition in 2008, finding the former pilot guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced him to 20 years' imprisonment.

Activists welcomed the ruling, though they acknowledged that it was not common for the AGO to file a case review petition – a right usually used by a defendant.

Pollycarpus decided to challenge the ruling on the AGO's case review following the acquittal of former top National Intelligence Agency (BIN) officer Muchdi Purwopranjono, the other suspect in the case. Muchdi was cleared of all charges by the South Jakarta District Court in 2008 and the Supreme Court rejected the AGO's appeal on the verdict.

"The Attorney General's promise to file a request for a case review [was filed] to overturn Muchdi's acquittal, but it never happened and this has made the situation even worse," Anam said.

Anam also said that Pollycarpus had given contradictory testimony, which could disrupt the judicial process. "With such a track record, we must be suspicious of facts that will be presented to support his claim in the case review hearing. The evidence could be fabricated."

Attorney Muhammad Assegaf said the inconsistency regrading the charges imposed on his client Pollycarpus was one of the main reasons why he should not be put behind bars.

"The attorney charged Pollycarpus for poisoning Munir, in collaboration with two other stewardesses, with arsenic en route from Jakarta to Singapore, but the judge said that Munir was poisoned in Coffee Bean in Changi Airport, Singapore. Secondly, the attorney also charged Pollycarpus with slipping arsenic into Munir's noodles, but the judge said that the arsenic was put into Munir's orange juice," Assegaf told The Jakarta Post. "Both the crime scene and the chronology appeared to have changed. Based on these differences, the Criminal Law would have stated him not guilty and there is no reason for the judge to punish [Pollycarpus]," Assegaf said.

Assegaf also said that his client would submit new evidence to the panel of judges, but refused to elaborate. "You can find out the novum at Tuesday's hearing," he said. (swd)

Politics & political parties

Factions threaten to walk out of parliamentary threshold discussions

Jakarta Globe - June 7, 2011

Anita Rachman – Debate over the percentage of votes in the legislative election required for a political party to hold a seat at the House of Representatives has again caused a furor, with three parties threatening to walk out of the discussion if the bigger parties insisted on pushing for a higher margin.

The United Development Party (PPP), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) argued that the House must stick to the April agreement in which all parties agreed to set the threshold at 3 percent. The three factions refused to name another possible number to be written on the draft.

"We previously agreed, all factions, to increase the threshold to 3 percent," said Syarifuddin Sudding, from Hanura. "If they put another number, we will walk out of the discussion."

On April 4, factions at the House Legislation Body agreed to raise the threshold from the current 2.5 percent to 3 percent. The threshold is the minimum percent of votes a party must receive in legislative elections in order to win seats in the House of Representatives.

Golkar and the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) – the second and third-biggest factions at the House – are seeking to double the current threshold from 2.5 percent to 5 percent. The ruling Democratic Party wants it to be set at 4 percent, while the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) is pushing for between 3 and 4 percent. The five smaller parties all want it to stay at 2.5 percent.

Legislation Body chairman Ignatius Mulyono said the House had two options – stay at 3 percent or increase it to 5 percent. The latter option will get strong reactions from the three parties.

Ignatius said the factions still had time to reach an agreement on the issue, with the deadline for drafting the policy set at the end of June.

"If [the three parties] choose to walk out, we cannot do anything. The process will still go on. It could only be stopped if 50 percent of the forum walks out."

Dems warned to come clean on mysterious Mr. A

Jakarta Globe - June 4, 2011

Anita Rachman – Is the Democratic Party attempting to direct the public spotlight away from Muhammad Nazaruddin? Political analysts say that since the former party treasurer left the country, the Democrats have been in damage-control mode and the recent "revelations" about a certain Mr. A could be part of these efforts.

A text message that began circulating not long after Nazaruddin flew to Singapore – a day before the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) requested, and received, a travel ban against him – lashed out at leading Democrats. Among other things, it suggested that the party's advisory board chairman, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was guilty of inappropriate behavior.

Yudhoyono went out of his way to very publicly and very firmly deny the claims. And in the past few days, Democrats have hinted that a politician they would "only identify as Mr. A" was possibly behind the text message, as well as other efforts to rip the party apart.

Ever since, news portals and television stations have been trying to figure out the identity of Mr. A.

Political analyst Yunarto Wijaya, from Charta Politika, said if the Democrats failed to reveal the identify of Mr. A, it would leave the party open to criticism that it was attempting to draw attention from its own problems by calling into question the behavior of its political opponents.

"If the Democrats fail to tell the public what their accusations are really about, then it is clear that they only want to divert attention from the graft scandal faced by one of their leaders, Nazaruddin," he said on Friday.

Already implicated in a graft scandal involving the construction of an athletes' village for November's Southeast Asian Games, Nazaruddin was recently accused by the head of the Constitutional Court, Mahfud M.D., of making an "unsolicited payment" of 120,000 Singapore dollars ($97,000) to the court's secretary general, Janedjri M. Gaffar.

Ramadhan Pohan, deputy secretary general of the Democratic Party, has said that Mr. A is not a Democrat but that the party knows him. "Mr. A is a politician," he said. "We never suspected that he harbored such a desire to destroy the party."

Widespread rumors that Mr. A is in fact Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie have been vehemently denied by Golkar officials. Golkar lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo said the Democrats needed to give their findings to the authorities if they were certain there was a Mr. A.

"The Democrats are attempting to divert attention away from the real issue, by spreading slanderous statements against those politicians whose first name happens to begin with the letter A," Bambang said. "What the Democratic Party is facing is an internal problem. They should keep it that way."

J. Kristiadi, a political analyst from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Jakarta Globe that people should not buy the story about Mr. A.

"The Democratic Party is destroying itself," he said. "The party is trying to divert attention away from the real issue and find something else [to distract the public]."

Kristiadi said the Democrats should focus on what they campaigned on: fighting graft. "They should drag Nazaruddin out of Singapore and focus on their administration for the sake of the people," he said.

Ahmad Mubarok, a member of the Democrats' advisory board, denied the party was trying to divert attention. He echoed Ramadhan in saying Mr. A was an outsider who was attempting to destroy the Democratic Party.

"But let me tell you something, that will never work," Mubarok said. "The president warned us that [party] leaders need to be careful, because forces outside the party are trying to target it."

He also said that Nazaruddin's main reason for traveling to Singapore was not to seek medical advice and treatment, as he had claimed. "That was a secondary reason. The primary one was to avoid being chased by reporters," he said.

[Additional reporting by Amir Tejo and Markus Junianto Sihaloho.]

Ruling party scandal hits Indonesia

Asia Sentinel - June 1, 2011

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is faced with a simmering scandal at the heart of the Democratic Party that he heads, threatening its unity just as jockeying is underway ahead of national elections due in 2014.

On Monday, the president exploded at reporters, denouncing the media and users of social networking sites for spreading what he called false allegations, and saying that "Two days ago there was someone who slandered me from a dark place with a dark heart. This was outrageous slander including personal insults. I say openly they are irresponsible, ignoble and cowardly."

The president is apparently enraged at suggestions made on social media sites that he or members of his family might eventually be ensnared by a spreading mess involving the Democratic Party's former treasurer, Muhammad Nazaruddin, who fled to Singapore last week ahead of questioning by anti- corruption investigators over charges that he was involved in a series of scandals, including one related to extorting money from contractors working on the construction of the athletes' village for the 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Palembang, South Sumatra.

A flock of officials, including Sports Ministry Secretary Wafid Muharam and others, have been arrested for taking bribes to build the athletes' village for the games, scheduled for September. Nazaruddin also faces claims that he offered a "friendship gift" of $96,000 to the secretary general of Indonesia's Constitutional Court for unknown reasons.

On Saturday, Yudhoyono met with party officials to try to find a way to bring the errant politician back to Jakarta to face questioning by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). After first insisting Nazaruddin was allowed to go to Singapore for medical treatment, by Sunday the Democratic Party was in damage control mode, saying it would send a delegation to Singapore to bring him home.

After his name crept into the scandal charges, Nazaruddin began telling reporters by phone and text message that he would expose a number of allegedly dirty Democratic politicians, but he stopped short of naming names. His threats, however, seemed to be enough to get the rumor mill working overtime in Jakarta and to expose deep divisions in the ruling party

The rift is significant because although the Democrats are the largest party in the House of Representatives, known here as the DPR, they hold only 148 of the 560 seats. Golkar, the party headed by tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, holds 106 and the Indonesian Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, holds 94. In addition, with Yudhoyono's second term ending in 2014, he cannot run again and there is no odds-on favorite from inside the party to run for president.

"None of this is unusual," said one seasoned political reporter and editor. "All of our political parties raise money illegally. What is unusual is the president's reaction."

The reaction could be explained by the fact that the scandal appears to be touching Yudhoyono's own family, with Twitter and Facebook messages suggesting that the president's son, Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono, a first-term lawmaker, is somehow involved.

Originally elected in 2004 as a reformer, Yudhoyono was reelected resoundingly in 2009. However, since his reelection he has taken a repeated beating from reformers who charge he is ignoring widespread graft and corruption. He has repeatedly demanded that various cases be investigated, only to back off later.

The talk in Jakarta political circles is that it was more than graft that upended Nazaruddin.

Rather, there is a major three-way split for leadership of the party and Nazaruddin picked the wrong side. Nazaruddin is said to be close to party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, or maybe was, primarily built on his ability to raise funds when Anas ran for the party's top post, beating out Youth and Sports Minister Andi Malarangeng and House Speaker Marzuki Alie, who is already in trouble over a US$130 million legislative office tower project that he approved and had to back away from in the face of public hostility.

"The rumor is that somebody put this report out there [on Nazaruddin] and the fur began flying," a source told Asia Sentinel.

At first the Democrats seemed to think they could hush it all up. Once Nazaruddin's name surfaced, along with another lawmaker, Angelina Sondakh, the party quickly moved to declare that the two were innocent after an "internal investigation" in early May.

But by then the KPK was getting involved, other politicians were stirring the pot and the public was also reminded that Nazaruddin had been accused by a tabloid newspaper of raping a young woman who was working as a "sales promotion girl" at the party's national congress a year ago. No charges were filed in the case.

After he was dismissed as treasure last week, Nazaruddin laid it all to politics, telling reporters his firing had been orchestrated by Amir Syamsuddin, secretary of the party's ethics council, and Malarangeng.

Nazaruddin defended his trip to Singapore by pleading illness, telling local reporters by phone that he had gone for a medical checkup. It appeared that someone in the country's labyrinthine justice machinery had tipped him to the fact that KPK was requesting an official travel ban that would have prevented him from leaving the country.

Although Nazaruddin said he had approval from the party to go to Singapore, it seems clear that he is now on the outs with Yudhoyono. Party officials told reporters Nazaruddin tried to defend himself to the president personally, naming five other party members he believed were corrupt. The president was said to have cleared them all, however, firing Nazaruddin himself.

The KPK, meanwhile, played down Nazaruddin's departure. "You can't say he's running away, because what is he running away from?" KPK spokesman Johan Budi said last week. "It's his right to travel abroad before we impose a travel ban."

Elections

PKB working to meet requirements for 2014 polls, but party row lingers

Jakarta Globe - June 6, 2011

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The National Awakening Party said on Sunday that it was in the process of finalizing its registration in the 2014 elections, but one party leader said her unresolved dispute with the faction could hamper the process.

Imam Nahrawi, secretary general of the party known as the PKB, said they were verifying the membership of party members as required by the law. Once completed, he said the PKB's application would be submitted to the Justice and Human Rights Ministry as soon as possible to meet the July deadline.

Under the revised law on political parties, those intending to run in the national polls must prove they have almost 1,000 members spread throughout the country's 33 provinces. Parties previously needed only 50 members to win official recognition.

"We hope in the next few weeks, all the data can be collected and we will take it to the Justice and Human Rights Ministry for registration," Imam said.

The party is holding a national coordination meeting this week in Bandung, attracting hundreds of party leaders from all around Indonesia. Imam said the event would make it easier to collect the required data.

However, Lily Chadijah Wahid, a PKB lawmaker who recently sued the party for expelling her and another lawmaker, Effendy Choirie, from the legislature, said the matter between them and PKB has not yet been settled.

The party claims the pair was recalled for neglecting their duties, but they argue that it was because they failed to toe the party line by signing a petition in the House of Representatives backing an inquiry into corruption at the tax office.

Although the Central Jakarta District Court recently rejected her case, Lily said she and Effendy would appeal the verdict at the Supreme Court. "We have 14 days to appeal, and that is what we will do," Lily said.

As long as the matter isn't settled, she suggested, the PKB could not officially be declared a participant in the election.

Lily also claimed that some of the branch offices of the party at provincial and district levels had unresolved disputes with the national leadership.

"The ministry must pay attention to this matter and should not OK [the data submitted by the party]," she said.

Imam, however, dismissed Lily's statements as nothing more than those of an angry and impatient person.

"Let her say whatever she wants to say. The PKB will move on. I hope she prays to God more to be given patience," he said. "But if she does something that could harm our party's credibility, we will sue her," he added.

Senior Democrat wants Sri Mulyani to represent party in 2014 race

Jakarta Globe - June 4, 2011

Amir Tejo – A senior Democratic Party official said on Friday that former Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati would make an ideal presidential candidate in 2014.

Achmad Mubarok, a member of the party's advisory board, said the current batch of Democratic hopefuls were all "old faces" and stressed the need for the party to put forward a fresh figure.

"I believe Sri Mulyani is an asset," he said during a seminar at Surabaya's Airlangga University. "However, it's not a given that the Democrats will nominate her."

He added that she was worthy of a presidential nod because of her extensive macroeconomic knowledge. All that was needed to round out the ticket, Achmad said, was to find a running mate who was well-versed in microeconomic affairs.

He also said Mahfud M.D., the highly regarded chief justice of the Constitutional Court, was possible presidential material. However, Achmad added that while the justice was "truly a great figure," he tended to "talk too much."

"As a law enforcement figure, he should be [recognized as] a legal saint," he said. "Yet he fell for Ruhut's baiting," he said, referring to Ruhut Sitompul, a notoriously outspoken Democrat who recently questioned Mahfud's motives for bringing up allegations of attempted bribery by former party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin. "Maybe Mahfud can still change," Achmad said.

He denied speculation that Ani Yudhoyono, the first lady, was eyeing a presidential run once her husband's term was up. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, currently serving his second term in office, is prohibited by term limits from seeking re- election in 2014.

"There won't be a dynasty forming after Yudhoyono," Achmad said. "The new candidate can come from inside the party or outside. It just depends on the relevance of their platform to the national agenda at the time."

While the ruling Democrats juggle potential presidential candidates, the Golkar Party, the country's second-largest, said it would decide on its candidate after conducting a survey of its constituents.

Idrus Marham, the party's secretary general, said at the Airlangga seminar that Golkar would "depend heavily on the results of the survey" to pick its candidate.

He said an earlier meeting of the party's regional heads agreed that party chairman Aburizal Bakrie would make the best candidate.

"He has recommended that we go ahead with the survey anyway," Idrus said. "He doesn't want the decision to be based on the fact that he's the chairman and hence should advance."

Idrus added that while in theory anyone from Golkar could be in the running, the realistic choice was Aburizal. "He's got the biggest chance of [winning the election] because he's got the widest communications reach," he said.

He added that the use of a survey to select the preferred candidate would also be extended to decide on the party's entries in elections for governor, mayor and district heads across the country.

Labour & migrant workers

Labor groups call for end to union busting

Jakarta Post - June 3, 2011

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – More Indonesian workers will suffer from unfair working environments if the government does not stop businesses from trying to dissolve labor unions, labor activists say.

Maruli Rajagukguk, an activist from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, said on Monday that despite improved labor laws, many workers were being illegally laid off for their involvement in labor unions.

"They have been unfairly and illegally laid off by their employers after they allied themselves with unions to protest poor working conditions at their workplaces," Maruli said during a two-day rally in front of the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry that ended Tuesday.

The rally involved labor union members from several companies and organizations, including Londre laundry outlet, state-electricity company PT PLN Tbk., Tony Jack's, Swadeshi Bank and the British International School.

Union busting, which comprises a range of activities undertaken by employers to prevent the formation or expansion of labor unions, is on the increase despite that labor unions are protected by Law No.21/2000.

While they should be protected by the state, more and more workers are being threatened by union busting activities, including sowing discord among union members, attacks on strikes, intimidation and physical abuse.

Maruli said Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar must do more to prevent union busting. "We need no false promises," he said, referring to a minister's statement saying that he would work faster to resolve union busting.

During the first five months of the year, the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute received five separate union busting cases, up from seven cases in all of 2010 and six in 2009. In Greater Jakarta, 49 cases of union busting have been filed since the issuance of the 2000 Law on Labor Unions.

Maruli said workers had tried to encourage the government to talk about how to resolve their problems, but had not received positive responses. "It seems that the government's officials are not prepared to do what is right and necessary to resolve problems in industrial relations."

Many workers have chosen to bypass the government altogether, opting instead to engage in direct negotiations with employers instead.

In the absence of strong protection from the government, more and more workers have been threatened by arbitrariness from their employers, such as intimidation and illegal layoffs.

In 2009, about 500 workers of Tony Jack's, a fast-food restaurant, were reportedly laid off without severance pay, and about 200 workers of PT Siliwangi were also laid off without compensation.

In a separate case, about 250 employees of PT Micro Garment were laid off after staging a strike to protest poor working conditions at their company. The ministry has not been seen to crack down on such arbitrary actions.

Agreement fails to shield migrants: Activists

Jakarta Globe - June 1, 2011

Ismira Lutfia – The newly signed amendment to the Indonesia-Malaysia migrant workers agreement may give Indonesians working in the neighboring country more benefits, but labor activists said it still wasn't enough when it comes to providing protection.

Under the terms of the amended memorandum of understanding signed on Monday by the labor ministers of both countries, Indonesian migrant workers will have the right to retain their passports, a weekly day off as well as paid annual leave and access to communications.

The newly signed amendment also resolved the thorny issue of the minimum wage – that it not be lower than in Indonesia – and provides for overtime pay.

Ali Akbar, a program manager on migrant worker issues for the non-profit Human Rights Working Group, said that such provisions should not be deemed as achievements for the governments in ensuring workers' rights.

"Those are normative rights that should have been embedded in the first place without having to have them ensured by the MoU, since those rights are guaranteed in the UN Convention on the Protection of Migrant Workers" he said.

He also said the negotiation for amending the MoU should have been focused on more essential issues to ensure the workers' protection, such as how to prevent them from being abused by their employers or securing Malaysia's commitment for a pro-protection policy towards undocumented migrant workers.

Other more essential clauses that should have been included, Ali said, were how to ensure that the workers' rights were upheld when they found themselves dealing with the legal system.

"And ensuring that Malaysia would not be discriminative in legal processes when addressing disputes between employers and their workers," he said on the sidelines of a discussion on statelessness organized by the UNHCR Indonesia.

The initial MoU was signed in 2006 and was scheduled to expire this May, but it was suspended in 2009 in the wake of complaints of abuse of Indonesian workers by Malaysian employers. The amended agreement has formally lifted the ban on sending domestic workers to Malaysia.

Nurharsono, coordinator for the advocacy division at non-profit Migrant Care, concurred that the points mentioned by the ministry should not be seen as breakthroughs.

"There are many things that are more substantial left unaddressed, such as the possibility of being deported for undocumented workers and what actions would be taken against employers who hire undocumented workers.

"I wonder if the MoU also included provisions on any reprimands for employers who insist on retaining their workers' passport," he said, adding that there should a mechanism to verify that the workers can really keep their own passport at all times.

"Overall, the amendments do not cover much on the workers' protection," he said. He added that the governments had never invited migrant worker stakeholders into the negotiation process. "It shows again that the government failed to protect the workers' normative rights," Nurharsono said.

Thousands rally across Indonesia on May Day

Direct Action - June-July 2011

James Balowski, in Jakarta – May Day was commemorated across Indonesia by thousands of workers, students, women activists and NGOs. Despite large turnouts in most cities, this year's demands were less militant, with a major focus on the Social Insurance Management Agency (BPJS) law being deliberated by the House of Representatives (DPR). Contract labour and outsourcing, union-bashing and wage increases amid tougher working conditions and spiralling living costs were major themes.

In Indonesia's northern-most province of Aceh, scores of mass media workers demonstrated in the capital, Banda Aceh, condemning attacks on journalists and demanding better safety guarantees and welfare. Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) chairperson Mukhtaruddin Yakob said violence is a major problem. The AJI recorded 66 cases of violence against journalists in 2010, and the Committee to Protect Journalists lists Indonesia as a country where journalists are at risk.

Contract labour

In Bali, students groups and the People's Alliance for Democracy and Human Rights marched through Denpasar saying that labour laws have marginalised workers by allowing the use of contract labour and outsourcing. They also condemned the government for failing to pay attention to migrant workers. Around 6 million Indonesians work overseas in menial jobs. Despite contributing around US$6 billion (compared with US$4 billion in foreign direct investment) in foreign exchange annually, they suffer widespread abuse and receive little or no protection from the government.

In Bandung, hundreds of students and workers from the People's Struggle Front (FPR) protested at the West Java government offices, demanding welfare improvements for farm and plantation labourers, factory workers, the unemployed and students. "We have land, our land is stolen. We work hard and our wages are cut. Our young people have no jobs", said one protester. They also lamented the lack of a National Social Security Program (SJSN) and called on the DPR to ratify the BPJS law immediately.

The provincial government was targeted by around 500 workers from the Indonesian Trade Union Congress Alliance (KASBI), who also held a theatrical action depicting the oppression of workers. They raised women workers' rights, Enung Wiwin from KASBI saying that it is time for women workers to take the lead. While conceding that some gains have been made, Wiwin said that women at her factory have still not won the right to breastfeed at work.

In Boyolali, Central Java, hundreds of workers from the National Trade Union (SPN) held a motorbike rally around the city, ending at the local labour office, where they called for revisions to the laws on workers' insurance and the settlement of industrial disputes, rejected contract labour and called for women workers' rights.

Although the 2003 labour law requires companies to provide severance pay to permanent employees – which is critical for workers when there is no social security net – employers are circumventing this by exploiting a section in the law that allows contract labour and outsourcing, progressively replacing permanent workers with contract labour. Of the 33 million workers in the formal sector, only 35% are now permanent, a decline from 76% prior to the law coming into effect. The remaining 70% of the workforce is employed in the informal sector, with little or no job security.

Jakarta

Jakarta had the largest mobilisations. Workers travelled to the capital from outlying industrial areas and the satellite cities of Bekasi, Tangerang and Depok. Most of the rallies centred on the State Palace in Central Jakarta, where thousands of workers from different organisations had gathered after marching from the nearby Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.

Prominent at the Jakarta protests was the Indonesian People's United Resistance (PPRI), an alliance of around 30 trade unions, student, women activists and social and political organisations. Formed in March specifically for May Day, PPRI includes the leftist Political Union of the Poor, the left-wing trade union United Indonesian Labour Movement, KASBI sectoral unions, the Indonesian Transportation Trade Union of Struggle, the Indonesian Labour Forum of Struggle, the Association of Independent Trade Unions, the Indonesian Labour Union Confederation, the Association of Indonesian Plantation Entrepreneurs, the Awakening Trade Union, the Greater Jakarta Trade Union, Indonesian Trade Union Jakarta, sectoral unions belonging to the All-Indonesia Workers Union Federation, as well as AJI and youth organisations such as the Indonesian Youth Front for Struggle and the Indonesian Student Union.

In speeches and leaflets handed out at the rally, the PPRI said the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is a capitalist regime that fails to bring prosperity to the ordinary people, particularly the working class. The PPRI raised three main demands: a 50% minimum wage rise; the abolition of contract labour and outsourcing; and social security and the full right to form trade unions.

Yudhoyono meanwhile – who for the last three years has stayed well away from the Palace on May 1 – spent the day visiting factories in Bogor, West Java, accompanied by former labour activist and People's Democratic Party (PRD) leader Dita Indah Sari, who is now the spokesperson for labour and transmigration minister Muhaimin Iskandar. Sari was earlier criticised by union leaders for defending Iskandar after Labour Department officials were accused of giving 300 trade unionists 110,000 rupiah (US$13) and a hamper of food and cooking oil to stop them protesting on May Day.

Free trade agreement

Also in Jakarta, workers from the SPN protested at the DPR, demanding the cancellation of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA), which they said is "paralysing the people's economy in all sectors". They also called for immediate ratification of the BPJS law and the eradication of the judicial mafia, particularly in relation to industrial relations.

The ACFTA, which came in to full effect last year, has resulted in a deluge of Chinese products into domestic markets, threatening local industries. According to a recent survey by the Ministry of Industry, the ACFTA has brought a sharp increase in raw material imports, a decrease in domestic product sales, a decline in producers' profits and declining employment. The most affected industrial sectors were textiles, furniture, metals, machinery and electronics.

Protesters from the SPN and the Trade Union Association also rallied at the Department of Labour and Transmigration, where they rejected outsourcing and called for the ratification of the SJSN law.

A rally by the Indonesian People's Opposition Front (FORI) clashed with police who prevented workers from entering the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Unable to break through the police blockade, protesters gave speeches at the airport entrance rejecting contract labour and outsourcing.

Provincial actions

In the Lampung capital of Bandar Lampung, hundreds of workers and activists took to the streets on May 1. In the first of two actions, around 500 protesters from an NGO alliance called the Lampung People's Struggle protested at a major shopping centre demanding more attention to workers' welfare and labour rights, which they said were being "trampled on by the hegemony of power". In another part of the city, the Bandar Lampung AJI called for safety guarantees and higher wages.

In the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, around 1000 protesters from FORI scuffled with police when they tried to force their way through a blockade and enter the Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport. The workers said that they had planned to occupy the airport because they were tired of demonstrating at the Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) and the governor's office, where they were ignored. Another group of workers held an action at a Makassar industrial zone.

Around 150 people from the FPR demonstrated in Purwokerto, Central Java, and held a "sleep-in" in front of the city's main square. In speeches, workers demanded reasonable wages, the abolition of contract labour, protection for migrant workers and the annulment of laws that "smack of neo-liberalism".

Hundreds of people from the SPN and the PPRI marched through the Central Java capital of Semarang. One of the PPRI activists, Rendra, said that the government does not side with workers but with capitalists. "We are demanding three things: the nationalisation of state assets for the people's welfare, building a people-based national industry and genuine agrarian reform."

Two protests were held in the Central Java city of Solo. The first, led by students from the Surakarta (Solo) Muhammadiyah University and the Solo Solidarity Trade Union Federation, condemned the government and employers for failing to pay heed to workers, called for an end to outsourcing and for wage rises in line with the cost of living. A scuffle broke out when police tried to intervene in a theatrical action depicting workers "destroying the walls of capital". Around 50 workers from the SPN rallied in the city centre, rejecting outsourcing and calling for a reasonable wage and labour law revisions.

In Sukabumi, West Java, hundreds of workers from the SPN were prevented from entering the grounds of the regional government office by police and military personnel. In addition to raising concerns over workers' welfare and health care, the protesters also complained that employers were not allowing them time to perform ritual prayers.

May Day in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta was commemorated by several actions. The Yogyakarta AJI held a long-march from the DPRD building to the governor's office. A second demonstration by the Yogyakarta Labour Alliance demanded the immediate ratification of the SJSN law and rejected contract labour.

A short distance away, the Kulonprogo branch of the Volunteers of Democracy in Struggle demonstrated against low wages and outsourcing. Hundreds of people from the Yogyakarta Solidarity Committee Federation of Indonesian Independent Workers also held a long march to the Yogyakarta DPRD rejecting low wages and outsourcing and calling for companies violating the 2003 labour law to be punished.

A protest in the city centre by the Carrefour Indonesia Trade Union and the KASBI blocked the entire road and unfurled red banners with demands such as "Reject outsourcing labour systems" and "Reject neoliberalism". Students from the Yogyakarta Student Union also held a sit-in at the provincial government office.

Environment & natural disasters

Greenpeace says Barbie doll is vandal of Indonesian forests

Agence France Presse - June 8, 2011

Greenpeace on Wednesday accused Mattel, the US maker of Barbie dolls, of contributing to the wanton destruction of carbon-rich Indonesian forests and habitats of endangered species like Sumatran tigers.

The environmental group said packaging used in Barbie and Ken boxes contained timber products from Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which it described as a "notorious" destroyer of Indonesia's dwindling natural forests.

"Barbie destroys natural forests and pushes rare species such as tigers to the brink of extinction," Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner Bustar Maitar said. "Mattel, which makes Barbie, must stop wrapping the world's most famous toy in rainforest destruction."

He said APP was a "notorious rainforest destroyer which has been exposed many times for wrecking Indonesia's rainforests to make throw-away packaging".

"APP is bad news for Indonesia's forests. It treats Indonesia as nothing more than a vast disposable asset, grabbing rainforests that are vital to forest communities," Maitar said.

"Mattel and other toy companies like Disney have a responsibility to support clean, low carbon development. They should drop APP right now and instead support responsible Indonesian producers."

APP, a subsidiary of paper and palm oil giant Sinar Mas, said it was "shocked" by the allegations and denied that its activities posed any threat to endangered species or forests.

"I was quite shocked that they attacked us. We are proud to use recycled paper and we are trying to promote the use of recycled paper," APP managing director for sustainability Aida Greenbury said.

'Disgraceful' enforcement of clean-up laws

Jakarta Post - June 4, 2011

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Activists say that Indonesia's environment is at risk due to the government's failure to enforce reclamation and post-mining rehabilitation regulations on the nation's mining companies.

"We've seen poor awareness on the needs and the importance of reclamation and post-mining rehabilitation despite existing rules on mandatory activities to repair the environmental impacts of mining," Dyah Paramita, a researcher from Indonesia Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), said.

The government has not fully enforced two rules that oblige companies to reclaim and rehabilitate abandoned mines: the 2009 Law on Mineral and Coal Mining and a 2010 government regulation on reclamation and post-mining rehabilitation.

In Samarinda, East Kalimantan, for example, nine companies with mining exploration licenses, two companies with exploration concessions and eight companies with exploitation concessions were given a green light despite their failure to pay reclamation fees.

"It is disgraceful to see our government give its approval to mining companies to start their activities even in the absence of completely fulfilled requirements," Dyah said, adding that as of May, the East Kalimantan administration issued mining licenses for 65 areas comprising about 80 percent of Samarinda.

Two local regulations explicitly described the rules for reclamation.

"It is clear that mining companies must first deal with the requirements on reclamation before starting their activities," Carolus Tuah, an activist from Samarinda-based Pokja 30, said, adding that most mining companies could negotiate compliance with the administration.

"It seems that it is getting easier to obtain a mining license in Samarinda," Tuah said, citing as example the local administration's issuance of 38 mining licenses between 2006- 2008, up from 16 between 2001 and 2006.

"Many miners claimed that they have 'reclaimed' the mines by reconfiguring the abandoned mine pits as fishing ponds, or other such irrelevant activities. Post-mining rehabilitation means revegetation," Tuah said.

Amid lax enforcement, environmental damage in Samarinda continues to worsen. Floods have become commonplace as mining has led to erosion and large-scale flooding.

Tuah said mining companies in Samarinda had burdened the local administration instead of providing a significant financial contribution to the local budget. "We have to spend a lot of money to mitigate the impact, including floods, caused by the mining activities, which has created a local budget deficit during the last two periods," Tuah said. "Massive mining in Samarinda has not significantly contributed to the sustainable prosperity of its people."

A recent ICEL report said that reclamation fees were the only requirement imposed by the Indonesian government on mining companies to ensure a responsible approach was taken to preserve the environment and to replace soil damaged during their work.

The study added that mining companies should pay "reasonable" attention to reclamation and post-mining rehabilitation so abandoned mines might be made usable again.

Local mining companies, the report said, paid little attention to post-mining rehabilitation, leaving a huge amount of environmental damage in the wake of their work.

"It is funny to see how we can hear and see the damage resulting from mining but we cannot get the names of those who were really responsible," Dyah said.

Abandoned mine reclamation funds were one initiative that might be developed.

"Mining companies operating in Indonesia should be more responsible for post-mining rehabilitation by allocating a significant amount of funds, taken from their revenue, for abandoned mine reclamation," Dyah said.

The government would then have more money for things such as healthcare and education, since it would not have to pay to mitigate the damage caused by private mining companies, Dyah said.

Greens blast 'hidden mining' decree

Jakarta Globe - June 1, 2011

Fidelis E. Satriastanti – Activists have blasted a presidential decree that allows underground mining in protected areas, saying it will result in the exploitation of forest ecosystems.

Hendrik Siregar, a campaigner with the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), said on Tuesday that the decree signed last month went against the government's commitment to protecting the environment.

"[Forests] need to be guarded because of their ecological value. No kind of mining, no matter the method, should be taking place in protected areas," he said.

Under the decree, resource exploitation in protected forests is allowed as long as it is done underground and does not violate the terms of use on the land. The regulation also requires operators to build infrastructure that supports production activities in the protected area.

To qualify for a permit, applicants must compensate the government with land that is twice the area of the concession they are seeking to mine. They are also obliged to replant trees and rehabilitate river catchment areas of the same size as their concession. The permits are valid for 20 years and can be extended.

Hendrik said that while the government had touted the geothermal power industry as one of the beneficiaries of this decree, there were no provisions in it specifically mentioning anything about geothermal exploitation.

Dyah Paramita, a researcher with the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law, said the decree allowed miners to bypass existing prohibitions against mining in protected areas defined by the Forestry Ministry.

"It sets no environmental standards for underground mining," she said. "This decree wasn't well thought out. It's as if the government said, 'Let's just put this thing out there first, then we'll think about the impact to the environment later.'?"

Dyah also said that with few miners now meeting their obligations to rehabilitate land, there was no guarantee that underground miners would leave forests intact.

She said: "Let's be frank here – we're still having difficulties with rehabilitation from surface mining, so how do you expect it to go with underground mining?

"It's truly regrettable that this decree was issued because protected areas serve a crucial function as catchments of underground water," Dyah said. "How do we know that underground mining won't affect these water reserves? We can't even fully monitor the impacts of surface mining, so how do you monitor something hidden?"

Miners failing at cleanup efforts: Study

Jakarta Globe - June 1, 2011

Fidelis E. Satriastanti – Mine operators across the country are failing to make amends for the environmental destruction that they wreak, according to a study released on Tuesday.

The Indonesian Center for Environmental Law said its study showed that miners largely lacked commitment in carrying out the mandatory rehabilitation of mined land and mitigation efforts to address the environmental and social impact from their operations.

Using the province of East Kalimantan as a case study, ICEL showed that 11,500 of the 20,500 hectares of mining concessions in the area had not been rehabilitated by the concession holders.

It also showed that 19 holders of the last 76 mining permits issued there had not set up mandatory funds for rehabilitation and post-mining mitigation efforts.

"These funds actually serve as indicators of each company's commitment to the environment," said Dyah Paramita, a researcher with ICEL. "This funding is also meant to ease the burden on the local administration and central government in the event of any [impact] from the mining activities."

Dyah said ICEL's study compared Indonesian mining regulations to those in the United States. She added the findings did not reflect well on Indonesia, highlighting the lack of public involvement and transparency in the issue.

"We're having difficulty finding the exact amount of money allocated for rehabilitation because the local administrations refuse to disclose the figures," Dyah said.

"In the United States, however, you can use the Internet to track down the allocation of the money, the amount and even the areas designated for rehabilitation and post-mining practices."

She said the US government had also set up an Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund that taxed mining companies 35 cents per ton of coal from open-pit mines and 15 cents from underground seams.

"The AMRF serves as backup funding to rehabilitate abandoned or degraded land, instead of using federal or state budgets," Dyah said. "That's different from here, where we use the state budget to rehabilitate previously mined land."

Carolus Tuah, coordinator of Pokja 30 Samarinda, a civil society based in the East Kalimantan capital, said the rehabilitation programs carried out by miners there were of questionable merit.

"For instance, they fill up a mine shaft with water, toss in a few fish spawn and then call it a fish pond," he said. "Or they'll build entertainment facilities in areas that used to be mining sites," he added. "These very dangerous areas then become popular tourist sites. It should be about rehabilitating the land, they should be planting trees there."

Health & education

Competitiveness report puts spotlight on Indonesia's poor health

Jakarta Globe - June 8, 2011

Faisal Maliki Baskoro & Ismira Lutfia – For all the talk of poor infrastructure and rampant corruption holding Indonesia back from its full potential, experts said, health is an equally important and largely overlooked area of concern.

In a global competitiveness index report released on Wednesday, the World Economic Forum said health care could become a major pitfall in Indonesia's push for economic development.

"A high infant mortality rate, the burden of communicable diseases and the prevalence of malnutrition highlight the worrisome situation," the WEF's executive summary said. The report ranked Indonesia 99th in health out of 139 countries assessed by the Switzerland-based international organization.

Hasbullah Thabrany, a health expert and professor at University of Indonesia, said a decrease in people's health was looming as the government only spent 1.1 percent of estimated gross domestic product for this year on public health care. That compares to spending 2.8 percent of GDP on subsidies, which stood at Rp 187.62 trillion ($21.9 billion) in this year's state budget.

The 2011 state budget estimates the nominal value of Indonesia's GDP at Rp 7,019.9 trillion.

"How can they work hard and be productive when they are not fit and healthy?" he said, adding that with the country's current economic condition, ideal health care spending should be at least 4 percent of the GDP.

He also pointed to poor awareness of the need to pay attention to one's health. Indonesians only spend $52 per capita annually on health care, he said, well behind the $300 per capita spending in neighboring Malaysia.

"It's more about ignorance of health problems. The government should also provide a budget to educate the people that taking good care of their health is a big investment for the future," Hasbullah said.

Indonesia came in 44th overall in the WEF report, moving up 10 places since 2005, the best progress among G-20 nations.

However, Sofyan Wanandi, the chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), said he did not see any major improvement in the country's competitiveness during the past decade. Rather, he said the situation was getting worse.

"I am more skeptical about our condition. Natural resource-based industries may feel an improvement, but the manufacturing sector is struggling," he said.

Indonesia came in above Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, Vietnam and the Philippines but behind Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

"I don't quite agree that we are more competitive than India and Vietnam. They are two of our biggest competitors, along with China and Malaysia," Sofyan said. He said local businesses, especially manufacturers, fell behind because of poor energy supply and high logistic costs, he said.

"What Indonesia needs to improve its competitiveness are only two things, infrastructure and legal certainty in land. Infrastructure is vital because we will enter the Asean Economic Community in 2014. Without it, we can't compete," he said.

Indonesia was 82nd in infrastructure. "Despite notable improvements, its roads and railroads are in poor condition, and the capacity of seaports remains limited. Energy infrastructure is of major concern, as well," the report said. In contrast, Singapore was fifth and Malaysia 30th.

Bylaws ineffective at curbing infection, says observer

Jakarta Post - June 8, 2011

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – The increasing number of bylaws on HIV/AIDS prevention in Indonesia is apparently ineffective at curbing the spread of the disease among society, an observer says.

Having reviewed 42 of the 47 bylaws on HIV/AIDS prevention issued by provincial administrations and legislatures across the country, Syaiful Harahap found that much of the content was in fact counterproductive to HIV/AIDS prevention due to ambiguous terms, confusing moral considerations and ineffective programs.

"The bylaws in Indonesia are all ineffective and empty. None of the articles address prevention and mitigation methods to prevent the rapid pace of infection in a concrete manner," Syaiful said, giving input on the HIV/AIDS prevention draft ordinance initiated by the West Java legislative council at the Gedung Sate gubernatorial office in Bandung on Monday.

He added that the HIV/AIDS prevention bylaw in Bekasi municipality, issued in 2009, stipulated that prevention efforts were aimed at preventing a person from becoming infected with HIV but did not clearly outline prevention methods such as campaigns on condom use and warnings against sharing needles.

He said the infusion of morality and religious norms resulted in biased implementation, which instead caused stigma and discrimination against infected people.

Many of the bylaws also reportedly failed to clearly identify brothels. That failure, he said, brought pitfalls to the campaigns as regarding condom use, which did not reach the targeted recipients because local administrations closed down red-light districts such as Kramat Tunggak in Jakarta and Saritem in Bandung.

The eradication of brothels has made it difficult to localize sex workers, he said.

The West Java AIDS Prevention Commission (KPA) secretary, Uche Sastradipoera, said that the input from the hearing would be crucial to efforts in revising the HIV/AIDS provincial draft bylaws. As of March this year, the KPA detected 5,709 people living with HIV/AIDS in West Java, 3,537 cases of HIV and 2,172 cases of AIDS infection.

Women & gender

Deal pledges 'safe havens,' support for domestic abuse victims

Jakarta Globe - June 8, 2011

Elisabeth Oktofani – The Social Affairs Ministry and the Witness and Victim Protection Agency on Tuesday announced they were teaming up to provide safe havens for domestic abuse victims and others vulnerable to abuse.

Harry Hikmat, the ministry's director of children's services, told the Jakarta Globe that his office had signed an agreement with the agency, as known as the LPSK, on Monday to provide social services for witnesses and victims of certain crimes.

"We need each other to implement social rehabilitation for victims and witnesses of certain criminal acts such as domestic violence," he said. "The ministry can provide the facilities such as rehabilitation centers, while the LPSK has a stronger legal basis to provide protection."

Harry acknowledged that the ministry's own mandate to offer protection to victims and witnesses was weak.

"Although the 2004 Law on the Elimination of Domestic Abuse allows for us to offer temporary protection for up to seven days, sometimes family members of the victim or witness refuse to allow government to get involved," he said.

"Therefore the LPSK's involvement will be much needed." He said that victims of domestic violence would be placed in protection centers provided by the ministry.

"Female victims will be placed in the women's protection center, while children will be placed in the juvenile protection center," he said.

"Juvenile victims will also get psychological and physical check-ups, then we'll follow up with a case discussion and protection plan, including the issue of custody and education, because we don't want the children to have their studies disrupted."

Harry added that during their stay in the protection centers, the adult victims and witnesses would get skills training.

"The government will also give them start-up capital of Rp 5 million to Rp 10 million [$585 to $1,170], depending on their skills," he said. "Once they're ready to go back into society, their skills will allow them to create their own jobs and be financially independent."

There were more than 105,000 reports of abuse of women last year, according to the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) and its partners nationwide, 96 percent of which were incidents of domestic violence.

Sri Nurherawati, a commissioner in charge of recovery, said the government must make sure there is strong legal protection for victims of domestic violence under the terms of the new MoU.

"The implementation of the MoU will be successful only if the victims' rights can be fully respected, be it the right to the truth, to rehabilitation or to justice," she said.

"They must be free from any abuse and terror before and after the legal process is done, and they must be allowed to go back into society without any stigma for being victims of domestic violence. They must be entitled to their full social, cultural and economic rights."

'Obedient wives club' eyes Jakarta chapter

Jakarta Globe - June 7, 2011

Nurfika Osman – A controversial group calling itself the "Obedient Wives Club" may open a branch in Jakarta this month.

According to a report by the New Straits Times, a third branch of the group, which urges members to be "a first-class prostitute" and obey their husbands to curb social ills such as divorce and domestic violence, plans to open in Jakarta on June 19.

Global Ikhwan is the same group behind the Malaysian Global Ikhwan Polygamy Club, which opened a branch in Bandung in October 2009.

"A good wife is perceived to be prim and proper – you just take care of the children – – but not much is emphasized on fulfilling sexual needs of the husband. If he needs sex, obey him," Rohaya Mohamad, the group's vice president, was quoted as saying over the weekend during the club's inaugural meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

Attempts to reach the group were unsuccessful on Monday. Indonesian women's rights groups told the Jakarta Globe they had never met anyone from the Bandung polygamy club. Moreover, if the group did open a branch in Jakarta, activists said it would be yet another indication of backward treatment toward women.

"This is a violation of women because women have the right to be independent and to be respected as human beings," said Husein Muhammad, a theologian who is also a commissioner of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan). "I see this as a new style of slavery, and sadly, they do this in the name of religion."

Husein said people who treated women that way did not know how to interpret the meaning of Islam. "I am more disappointed because Indonesia also has discriminatory bylaws," he said.

Based on Komnas Perempuan data in 2010, there are currently 189 discriminatory bylaws in the country, including one in the South Pesisir district of West Sumatra that demands female employees and high school girls wear Islamic clothing, and one in Tangerang that states women caught in public after midnight are considered prostitutes and may be arrested by authorities.

"This is happening because the nation ignores the rights of the women,. This is against the national constitution," he said. However, Husein said it was better to ignore the group.

"We do not have to give publication space to a group like this," he said. "I also do not see this group as a threat. Their existence will not affect other people to create the same group."

Graft & corruption

Ary Muladi sentenced to 5 years for attempted bribery

Jakarta Globe - June 7, 2011

Rizky Amelia – Case broker Ary Muladi on Tuesday was sentenced to five years in prison for attempting to bribe Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leaders and the obstruction of justice.

The Anti-Corruption Court also slapped Ary with a Rp 250 million ($29,250) fine in lieu of an additional six months in jail.

Ary was convicted of attempting to bribe KPK deputy chairmen Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Riyanto with Rp 5.1 billion to get the KPK to drop an investigation into Anggodo's brother, Anggoro Widjojo, and his company, Masaro Radiokom. The panel of judges also convicted Ary of the obstruction of justice.

The court said that Ary's false claim that Chandra and Bibit had actually received the bribe had put the KPK leaders in legal trouble as they were named as suspects, hence, hampering the investigation into the case. (Beritasatu.com)

In courts, money does the talking

Jakarta Globe - June 6, 2011

Heru Andriyanto – The recent arrest of a judge for bribe-taking shows Indonesia should start putting in place firm antigraft measures across the country's courts, especially as the practice could be more common than most think.

A leading antigraft organization pointed out on Sunday that established patterns of courtroom corruption, which follows set methods of bribery, exist all over the country. It involves not only judges, it said, but prosecutors and defense lawyers as well.

"It is quite easy to detect how this mafia works. For instance, [fixing of the case] is probably what happened when court verdicts are handed down very shortly after prosecutors have made a sentencing demand. Or the opposite, when it takes weeks between the sentencing demand and the reading of the verdict," said Hifdzil Alim from Gadjah Mada University's Antigraft Study Center, or Pukat UGM.

Hifdzil was referring to vigorous negotiating by lawyers in the second scenario, aimed at bringing down the number of years spent behind bars.

"It depends on the rate. How much are you willing to pay for an acquittal, or for [lighter] sentencing? It's no secret that defendants know beforehand how many years they will get," he said.

Defense lawyers, Hifdzil said, will negotiate initially with the prosecution to secure a lenient sentencing demand before approaching the judges to discuss the price for either a lenient ruling or an acquittal.

"The only difference is the amount involved. At district courts in remote areas, it may range from a couple to tens of millions of rupiah. However, in big cities like Jakarta, you can expect prices from hundreds of millions to billions of rupiah, like in the case of Syarifuddin," Hifdzil said.

The researcher referred to the Central Jakarta District Court judge who was recently arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for alleged bribery. Bundles of money in various currencies and at least Rp 250 million ($29,000) were seized.

A Supreme Court spokesman said on Sunday that Syarifuddin would soon be suspended. "The letter will be issued on Monday," he said. Whether such a sanction will make a difference is anybody's guess, though.

Pukat UGM has been monitoring trials across several provinces for years through a number of interviews with defendants.

"Many of them have come to us after losing a case and they tell us they made payments [to secure favorable outcomes] sometimes without the desired effect," Hifdzil said, adding that the group also questioned prosecutors and police officers.

"The bribe is far bigger in civil cases than in criminal cases on average because civil cases often involve wealthy corporate clients whose assets and businesses are put at risk, should they lose in court," Hifdzil said.

"So you can imagine what it's like to have a civil case tried in Jakarta by the Supreme Court. If we are to clean our courts, we must start there."

Among the defendants acquitted of corruption charges by Syarifuddin is Bengkulu Governor Agusrin Najamuddin.

According to Hendra Hasanuddin from the Bengkulu Legal Aid Office, another way to find out whether money has changed hands in the courts is just keeping one's ears open for boasts.

Hendra said that a month before the verdict was delivered, Agusrin's younger brother repeatedly boasted that he knew for sure the governor would be acquitted of all charges.

Non-governmental group Indonesia Corruption Watch has presented several facts that indicated case-fixing in the trial of Agusrin, who is from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.

A former Bengkulu government official, Chaerudin, had been convicted earlier of embezzling land and building tax revenues in a case linked to Agusrin, but the verdict was not taken into consideration by Syarifuddin, the group said in a statement.

"Witnesses who testified against Agusrin were often pressured and cornered by the judge during the court hearing... evidence examination by the prosecution was often interrupted by the angry and loud words from the judge," ICW said.

Syarifuddin is the third judge to face corruption charges in 15 months' time. Last year, the chief of the Tangerang court, Muhtadi Asnin, was arrested for taking a bribe from disgraced taxman Gayus Tambunan, whom he acquitted from charges concerning his large assets. Muhtadi was sentenced to two years in jail.

The KPK arrested State Administrative Court judge Ibrahim last March after he took Rp 300 billion in bribes from a lawyer. He was sentenced to six years in jail.

NGOs call for probe into judge's cases

Jakarta Globe - June 4, 2011

Agus Triyono & Arientha Primanita – The arrest of Syarifuddin Umar, a judge caught allegedly accepting bribes in a bankruptcy case, has prompted calls for a review of the cases he had handled, especially where the defendants were acquitted.

A group calling itself the Bengkulu Legal Aid Office (KBHB) on Friday claimed the judge might have taken Rp 5 billion ($585,000) when he presided over the graft trial of Bengkulu Governor Agusrin Najamuddin, who is also a senior politician with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.

The governor was accused of embezzling Rp 22 billion from Bengkulu province's land and building tax revenues. The court acquitted him of the charges last month.

"The Rp 5 billion bribery rumor has been circulating around Bengkulu for a long time," said Hendra Hasanuddin, the head of KBHB's investigation unit. "It's the job of KPK to investigate," he said, referring to the Corruption Eradication Commission.

There was a strong indication of foul play in the Agusrin trial as the judge was visibly biased during the hearings, he said.

"He put the pressure on nearly all witnesses who testified against Agusrin," Hendra said. "It seemed as though he was trying to keep Agusrin from receiving a guilty verdict."

Indonesia Corruption Watch also urged the antigraft commission to extend its probe to the other cases that were handled by Syarifuddin – including the trial of Agusrin.

The KPK is investigating Syarifuddin for accepting a bribe from a curator in the bankruptcy ruling against private firm Skycamping Indonesia. Syarifuddin was arrested at his home on Thursday after the KPK claimed to have caught him taking Rp 250 million in cash related to the case. The curator, Puguh Wiryawan, was also arrested and declared a suspect in the case.

Emerson Yuntho, a senior ICW member, estimated that in the past few years, the judge had acquitted at least 39 graft defendants while serving in the Makassar and Central Jakarta courts.

The judge was once reported to the court watchdog, the Judicial Commission (KY), for his handling of a graft trial involving dozens of district councilors from Luwu, South Sulawesi.

Syarifuddin was nominated as a judge for the antigraft court in 2009, but his appointment was canceled because "the Supreme Court received mounting criticism [about Syarifuddin]," Emerson said.

Marthen Pongrekun, an attorney for Syarifuddin, said there was nothing suspicious with the Agusrin's acquittal and slammed the bribery allegations as slanderous.

"It is clear that in the trial, which was recorded by the KPK and KY, no single testimony implied that Agusrin was guilty," Marthen said.

"Even Chaerudin [the former head of the regional revenue office] admitted that he initiated the crime and took sole responsibility."

Syarifuddin is the third judge to be arrested in the last 15 months. In March last year, the antigraft commission arrested Ibrahim for taking bribe from a lawyer. Two months later, the National Police detained Muhtadi Asnun for taking a bribe from notorious graft convict Gayus Tambunan. Both judges were convicted of corruption.

Judge Syarifuddin had acquitted 39 defendants in corruption cases

Jakarta Globe - June 3, 2011

The arrest of Judge Syarifuddin Umar by the Corruption Eradication Commission received praise from anti-corruption activists. Up until his capture, Syarifuddin's track record reflected a feeble effort to eradicate corruption, Indonesian Corruption Watch said.

Syarifuddin was named a suspect on Thursday night after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) claimed to have caught him red-handed taking cash related to a bankruptcy case.

The judge was caught accepting Rp 250 million (USD$29,000) from Puguh Wirayawan, a curator of Skycamping Indonesia, Johan Budi, a KPK spokesman, said on Thursday.

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) highlighted events from the Syarifuddin's past to show that he has been a weak instrument in the fight against corruption.

First, the ICW pinpointed that his appointment to the Anti-Corruption Court in 2009 was canceled due to an onslaught of criticism from the media, academicians, law practitioners and various non-governmental organizations.

The ICW also pointed out that he has acquitted 39 corruption case defendants while serving as a judge of the Makassar and Central Jakarta District Courts. The last defendant he acquitted was Agusrin Najamuddin (the non-active governor of Bengkulu).

Additionally, the ICW said, Syarifuddin was monitored by the Judicial Commission during the corruption trial of Agusrin Najamuddin, in which Agusrin was acquitted of the charges. There was suspicion that the judge received bribe money in return for a favorable verdict.

Lastly, the ICW noted the judge was reported to the Judicial Commission for acquitting a former lawmaker from the South Sulawesi Legislative Council in an alleged corruption and bribery case.

"The KPK should handle the bribery case involving Judge Syarifuddin Umar to speed up the process," Emerson Yuntho, an ICW activist, told news portal Detik.com. "It will also close any possible collusion in the case handling."

ICW: Judges accept bribes out of greed, not need

Jakarta Post - June 3, 2011

Jakarta – Greed, not necessity, is the motivating factor behind judges' acceptance of bribes in cases they handle, says a member of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW).

"[Accepting] bribes these days is not based on necessity, but greed," ICW member Tama S. Langkun said Friday.

Tama made the comments after Central Jakarta District Court judge Syarifuddin was arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Wednesday for allegedly accepting a Rp 250 million bribe from Punguh Wirawan, a curator from PT Skycamping Indonesia (PT SCI).

Tama added that the increase in judges' salaries needed be accompanied with a strengthening of internal and external monitoring mechanisms, as well as reward and punishment mechanisms.

The Syarifuddin case further mars the image of Indonesia's notoriously corrupt judicial system.

Tama further said that Syarifuddin should be punished seriously if found guilty of graft. "This will serve as a lesson and 'shock therapy' for other judges," he added, as reported by tribunnews.com.

Government system needs 'total overhaul'

Jakarta Post - June 1, 2011

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Frequent corruption cases in government procurement projects prove that recent corrections made to the system, including introducing an online tender system, have not significantly improved matters.

Agus Rahardjo, the head of the government procurement regulatory body (LKPP), said that clean procurement procedures needed time to work. "The current procurement procedures, which are, to some extent, prone to corruption have already been there for years," Agus told The Jakarta Post.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) recorded that most corruption cases in the government were related to goods and services procurement, including 86 cases from 2004 to 2010. The graft cases involved officials inflating prices, directly appointing a company to deliver a project, or accepting bribes.

"Sometimes [corruption cases] were the result of politics. Politics are costly; and some pay off debts by cheating the procurement process," Agus said. He said 35 to 40 percent of the state budget is spent on procurement.

"Therefore, an important solution is the commitment of the leaders of all stakeholders," he said, adding that many subordinates responsible for procurement in many institutions were afraid of disobeying instructions from their seniors to engage in wrongdoing.

The government has tried to improve the system by holding online tenders for several projects and providing information about the projects to mass media. The online bidding system, known as e-procurement, must be adopted by all state-owned companies, governmental institutions, ministries and local administration by 2012.

But old habits die hard. Transparency International Indonesia procurement specialist Heni Yulianto told the Post that arisan procurement practices were common. The term refers to procurements that involve bribery, fixed bids, mark-ups, and "budget trading". "And people know the usual suspects are those exposed to high political costs."

He cited a recent bribery case centering on the construction of a SEA Games athletes' dormitory implicating an official at the Youth and Sports Ministry who is alleged of having acted as a middleman between a legislator and the company that won the bid.

He also criticized e-procurement as lacking transparency because it did not involve the public. "It lacks a public complaint procedure; and who would follow up the complaints anyway?" he said.

War on terror

Bashir denies terrorism charges, rejects legal process outside Islamic law

Associated Press - June 6, 2011

Jakarta, Indonesia – A radical Indonesian cleric facing life in prison on terrorism charges professed his innocence Monday and rejected the trial as outside Islamic law in a final court appearance before judges announce a verdict.

Abu Bakar Bashir is accused of helping to set up and fund a terror training camp in Aceh province for a group that allegedly planned attacks on foreigners and assassinations of moderate Muslim leaders such as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Prosecutors have sought a life sentence for Bashir, who co-founded the al- Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network, which is blamed for some of Indonesia's deadliest suicide bombings.

Bashir, 72, denies involvement with the training camp but has repeatedly defended it as legal under Islam.

The white-bearded cleric told a Jakarta court that the case against him was fabricated and witnesses that testified by teleconference were doing so under pressure. "Therefore their testimonies could not be trusted," he said.

Citing verses from the Quran, Bashir said he rejected the trial as counter to Islam.

Indonesia, a secular nation of 237 million with more Muslims than any other in the world, has made strides in fighting terrorism since the first Jemaah Islamiyah-linked attack on Bali island in 2002. More than 260 people have died altogether, many of them Western tourists.

But the country still faces pockets of radicalized Islamists, and a small but increasingly vocal hard-line fringe has carried out violent attacks in recent months on minorities and police.

A panel of five judges is to announce its verdict on June 16. The maximum penalty for the terror charges is death. Prosecutors say testimony from dozens of witnesses at Bashir's trial proved he not only incited others but played an active role in terrorist activities.

In a court appearance last month, the fiery cleric called Osama bin Laden a "warrior" who will be rewarded in heaven for the "great sacrifices" he made for Islam.

The Aceh-based training camp, raided by an anti-terror squad early last year, was organized by a new terror cell allegedly planning Mumbai-style attacks.

It's not the first time Bashir has faced terrorism charges or spent time in detention. He was arrested almost immediately after the Bali bombings, but prosecutors were unable to prove a string of terrorism-related allegations and reduced his four-year prison sentence to 18 months for immigration violations.

Soon after his release, he was re-arrested and sentenced to 2 1/2 years, this time for inciting the Bali blasts, a charge that was overturned on appeal. He was freed in 2006.

State ideology & pancasila

Islamic schools in a bind for waving away flag decree

Jakarta Globe - June 8, 2011

Candra Malik& Hangga Brata – A Central Java official has threatened to shut down two Islamic schools where the principals refuse to hold flag- raising ceremonies, saying the practice conflicts with their faith.

Karanganyar district chief Rina Iriani accused Al Irshad Al Islamiyyah junior high and Al Bani primary school of violating a ministerial decree that required students to salute the flag and sing the national anthem.

"I will give them until the end of June," Rina said on Tuesday. "If they fail to follow the regulation, I will order the shutdown of these schools."

She said officials had been monitoring the schools since February to ensure that they complied with a 2008 decree from the Education Ministry requiring schools to hold flag-raising ceremonies on Mondays and national holidays.

Rina said the officials had forced the schools to comply for several weeks, but the schools stopped raising the flag when they went unsupervised.

The district chief said she was worried that the students in these schools were not being taught Pancasila, the state ideology promoting national unity.

By not learning to sing "Indonesia Raya" ("Great Indonesia"), the national anthem, she said the children would grow up without learning to love their country. But Sutardi, the principal of Al Irshad in Tawangmangu subdistrict, insisted that saluting the flag was against his Islamic beliefs.

"I do not want to be punished by God and be considered an idolator," he said, adding that he respected the flag despite his stance. "Aside from being deemed a heretic act, this was never done by the Prophet Muhammad," Sutardi added.

"Saluting the flag is shirking one's duties to God. Doing it could sully my status as a Muslim," the principal said. Sutardi also said salutations to the flag were similar to i'tidal, a practice in which Muslims stand upright while praying – but he argued that only Allah deserved such homage.

"That's why teachers [at Al Irshad] do not teach [salutes to the flag] to students," the principal said. "We teach students not to give love, loyalty and respect to inanimate objects."

Heru Ichwanuddin, the head of Al Bani primary school in Matesih subdistrict, said forcing students to respect the flag constituted a violation of the freedom of expression and religion.

"Respecting the flag is an individual right. It should not and cannot be forced by the state," he said on Tuesday. "As an institution, we adhere to government regulations. However, we are concerned that this goes against human rights. We will not impose on others to respect the flag," he added.

However, Rina, the district head, criticized both schoolmasters for allegedly teaching their students to "dishonor their country and its ideals."

"We will not tolerate such efforts to defy the rules of this country," she said. "If these two schools cannot be reformed, then they will be closed and teachers will be blacklisted."

"Since [both schools] have not shown good faith in following the rules, I have instructed officers from the subdistrict office, district police and the military command to monitor these two schools and work toward getting them to hold regular flag-raising ceremonies," Rina added.

Juhdi Amin, head of Karanganyar's religious affairs office, said he would enlist the help of the country's top clerical body, Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), to correct the principals' "wrong notions."

Juhdi said clerics could teach students that honoring the flag and singing the anthem would not violate Islamic teachings or human rights.

Government won't adopt ideology based on religion: SBY

Jakarta Globe - June 1, 2011

Camelia Pasandaran – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday said that he would not let a ideology based on religion replace the current national ideology of Pancasila.

"To movements that force their ideologies, based on religion or other ideologies, as the head of the state and government, I have to strictly say that such a political will is against our will to build that nation with Pancasila as the foundation," Yudhoyono said during the Pancasila Day commemoration at the House of Representatives.

"It is not sustainable for our nation. If such a movement is against the law, we should not let it happen."

Yudhoyono's address came after the speech of former Indonesian president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie at the same event. Habibie said that reformation and democratization would enliven Pancasila in the daily life of those living within the plural nation.

"The re-actualization of Pancasila finds its relevance amid strong radicalism, and the risk of religious-based fanaticism and violence recently," Habibie said.

"During the consolidation of democracy infrastructure, the intolerance and the tendency to use violence as a way to solve differences, especially in the name of religion, is counterproductive for this multicultural nation."

The phenomenon, Habibie said, has showed that the obsession to build civilized and ethical democracy, which uphold difference and a respect to diversity, was still far from the reality.

The plan to set different national ideology might have recently rose again with the reappearance of Indonesian Islamic State (NII) that had planned string of bomb attacks.

Yudhoyono reminded that since the establishment of the nation, the founding fathers have had fundamental consensus that though Indonesia is a country that respects religion, it is not religious-based nation.

"I have observed many unrest and fears over the phenomenon and the reality that in the era of democratization, reformation and globalization some groups might be attracted to push for other ideology," Yudhoyono said. "There is also fear that some might plan to relive the thought of a religious-based nation."

Survey finds 80% of people still find Pancasila relevant

Jakarta Globe - June 1, 2011

Elisabeth Oktofani & Camelia Pasandaran – Most people still see Pancasila as relevant and believe there is a need to apply the values of the state ideology in their daily lives, a survey released on Tuesday shows.

For three decades under the iron-fisted rule of President Suharto, the teaching of the state ideology was obligatory at all schools, but once he stepped down in 1998, the compulsory nature was dropped.

But a recent survey by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) found that most people long for a return to the days when the ideology was taught in all schools, across the country, giving it equal footing with the state's six recognized religions.

"About 80 percent see Pancasila as something that is still needed," BPS chairman Rusman Heriawan said at the State Palace before reporting the results of the survey to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The survey, conducted from May 27-29, questioned 12,000 randomly selected people from various backgrounds throughout the country, asking for their opinion of and understanding of the state ideology.

"This [the result] might be in response to growing incidents of unrest," Rusman said, referring to the mounting number of recent cases of religious-based violence around the country.

The survey also revealed that most respondents had hopes that Pancasila would be returned to school curricula. "They feel a lack of implementation [of Pancasila] in their daily lives," Rusman said.

Pancasila, which means five tenets, was used by Suharto's New Order regime to keep religious extremism at bay, including by demanding that all political parties and mass organizations adhere to the ideology.

In a private discussion, "Tolerance in Spiritual Lives and a Pluralistic Country," which was held in Jakarta on Tuesday, religious leaders called on the government to protect both the Constitution and Pancasila.

Speaking at the event, Andreas A. Yewangoe, chairman of the Indonesian Protestant Church Union (PGI), said the country needed to be brought back to Pancasila before other ideologies could destroy it.

"It needs to be understood that we, the religious leaders, are not contemptuous of all government policies or actions, but we just criticize what it has been doing, with the government slowly leaving Pancasila behind," he said.

Yewangoe cited the Islamic Awards granted by the minister of religious affair to governors, district heads and mayors deemed to "explicitly include Islamic education in regional bylaws."

"It is not a picture of Pancasila at all, which has values of tolerance and mutual respect, because those district heads and mayors are actually discriminating with the decrees they issue to govern their areas," he said.

Yewangoe added that Pancasila was the ideal ideology to keep multifaceted Indonesia united. "The government and all the Indonesian people need to seriously implement Pancasila in their daily lives, including when they make regulations or policy," he said.

Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah, the country's second-largest Islamic organization, said Pancasila was the best ideology to sustain the country. "Indonesia is a Pancasila country, where we must be tolerant and respect each other," he said.

He said that to get the values of Pancasila reflected in the nation's daily life, those who supported the ideology should persuade everyone in the country to embrace its tenets.

Din said the government should also intervene whenever there was a problem of intolerance, and that there was also a need to build common ethical values across religions. "It is very important that we share common ethical values among the followers of the various faiths," he said.

Ursula McLackland, regional secretary general of the Universal Peace Federation-Asia, a network that advocates global peace, said the country's Constitution, which guaranteed freedom of worship, was a good model but its implementation in daily life still needed to be more effective.

Freedom of religion & worship

Light sentence demanded for alleged religious riot leader

Jakarta Globe - June 1, 2011

Candra Malik, Semarang – Prosecutors sought a mere one-year sentence on Tuesday for the alleged ringleader of a mob that burned down two churches as part of a wider rampage after a blasphemy trial in February.

Lead prosecutor Sugeng told the Semarang District Court that Syihabuddin, a local Islamic scholar, had riled up the crowd in the Feb. 8 incident in which a mob angered by a sentence handed down in a blasphemy trial attacked two churches and a Christian school in Temanggung, Central Java.

"The defendant brought a megaphone [to the courthouse] to address the crowd," Sugeng said. "He even supplied food to the people who came to the courthouse. We demand that he be sentenced to a year in prison for the crimes attributed to him."

The charge of incitement that Syihabuddin faces stipulates a maximum sentence of six years in prison. A second charge of mob violence stipulates a maximum seven years in prison.

Sugeng said the mitigating circumstances in favor of a lighter sentence included the fact that Syihabuddin had no prior convictions and that "he runs an Islamic boarding school."

Despite apparently getting a break from prosecutors, Syihabuddin railed against the charges. "I was originally asked by the police to help secure the blasphemy trial, so I don't understand why I've been indicted like this," he said. "The sentence demand is unfair. I hope all who blame me get cursed by God."

His tirade was cut short by Judge Edy Tjahjono, who told the religious leader he would have his turn to present his defense in two weeks' time. "Whatever it is you have to say, say it then. Don't scream now," he said.

The judge also ordered dozens of the defendant's supporters to be barred from attending the hearing. However, they could be heard shouting outside the courtroom before dispersing.

After the hearing, Widyopramono, Central Java's chief prosecutor, denied that prosecutors had gone soft on Syihabuddin, saying they were "acting independently" and not being influenced by the sensitive nature of the case.

Previously, prosecutors sought light sentences for six of the 25 people standing trial for the rioting, recommending only eight months' incarceration while the charges stipulated a maximum sentence of seven years.

In the riot, roving mobs of Muslims attacked and vandalized five buildings in Temanggung following the sentencing of Antonius Richmord Bawengan, a Christian, for blaspheming 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. Nine people were injured in the violence, most of them from rocks thrown by the rioters.

Antonius was 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.

Agriculture & food security

Indonesia must diversify to ward off rice crisis: NGOs

Jakarta Globe - June 2, 2011

Fidelis E. Satriastanti – In the face of increasing food scarcity, Indonesia has no choice but to reduce its dependence on rice, according to nongovernmental organizations.

According to a report released by British aid group Oxfam on Wednesday, "Growing a Better Future," the prices of staple foods such as rice and maize are likely to increase by up to 80 percent by 2030.

If the effects of climate change are factored in, prices could skyrocket by up to 180 percent in less than two decades. This could affect Indonesia more than other countries, activists said, because of its dependence on rice.

"If you look at rice-consuming countries, Indonesia consumes up to 139 kilograms of rice per person per year. Compare that with Japan, which only consumes 60 kilograms per person per year or Thailand's 90 kilograms per person per year," Tejo Wahyu Djatmiko, coordinator of the Alliance for Prosperous Villages, said during the release of the Oxfam report in Jakarta on Wednesday.

But diversifying Indonesia's diet is not that easy, he said, especially after three decades under the New Order regime where rice was the priority food crop. To deal with food scarcity, Tejo said the government needed to start paying more attention to food producers – the farmers.

"Indonesia's farmers often work on small plots of land, they have little formal education and they use up to 85 percent of their own money to manage the land," he said.

In addition, according to recent data from the UN Millennium Development Goals, about half of Indonesia's small-scale farming households suffered from undernourishment.

"So, there's injustice in the distribution because the ones producing these staple foods don't get to eat the staple foods," said Roysepta Abimanyu, Oxfam Indonesia's policy advocacy campaign manager.

He said that at the start of the year, there were 925 million hungry people worldwide, and by the end of the year, extreme weather and rising food prices would likely drive up that number to one billion. This means one out of every seven people worldwide go hungry, Roysepta said.

But Haryono, head of the research agency at the Agriculture Ministry, said Indonesia was not at great risk when it came to food scarcity.

"I wouldn't worry too much about the [Oxfam] research because we're in the safe zone for [rice] paddies. In addition, we have already implemented food diversification, which means growing other crops besides [rice]," Haryono said.

He said that the government had been raising awareness about the need to shift from rice to other crops.

"We have officials at the provincial and district levels who have been campaigning about the shift and it's going remarkably," he said. "But why isn't it showing results? Because it takes time to turn it into a movement. For instance, we also need to move businesspeople and society."

However, he said he was convinced that the campaign would produce results within the next 5 to 10 years.

Land disputes & evictions

Farmers protest eviction

Jakarta Post - June 7, 2011

Bandung – Dozens of farmers from Pangalengan, West Java, staged a rally at the West Java gubernatorial office in Bandung on Monday, asking the government to mediate their land disputes with the province-owned company.

Asep Indra, one of the protesters, said the farmers in Margamekar in Pengalengan had been intimidated since 2005, when the company intended to retake lands it had neglected for years.

The firm was granted the right to rent 134 hectares of land from the provincial administration in 1970. However, as the company was on the brink of bankruptcy, it neglected the land that, since 2003, had been used by the 1,500 farmers to grow vegetables and food crops.

"There are 30 hoodlums who frequently come and frighten the farmers. They ask us to sign letters of land transfer," Asep said.

Legislation & parliament

House puts overseas trips on hold

Jakarta Globe - June 7, 2011

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – A deputy speaker of the House of Representatives said today that House leaders had agreed to impose a moratorium on overseas trips to help expedite bill deliberations.

"The House leadership has agreed to temporarily stop all lawmakers' overseas trips and comparative studies," said Pramono Anung, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

He said the moratorium was signed on May 30 after House Speaker Marzuki Alie and his deputies agreed to have all house commissions prioritize deliberations on bills.

Pramono said there are seven bills that need to be passed urgently, such as those pertaining to the constitutional court, the legal system's treatment of children and the Financial Services Supervisory Authority (OJK).

Separately, House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso, a lawmaker from the Golkar Party, said the moratorium does not affect trips relating to interparliamentary duties.

Priyo said the House is obligated to maintain good diplomatic relationship with other countries.

Armed forces & defense

Defense Ministry proposes Rp 80 trillion budget for 2012

Jakarta Post - June 1, 2011

Dina Indirasafitri, Jakarta – The Defense Ministry is planning to request Rp 80 trillion (US$8.5 billion) in its budget for 2012, a ministry official says.

Defense Ministry Defense Planning Director General Air Vice Marshall Bonggas S. Silaen said Wednesday that the government currently allocated 0.69 percent of the Gross Domestic Product to the nation's defenses.

He said the preparedness rate for the nation's weaponry was on average below 30 percent. "If the budget could be increased to between 1.8 percent and 2.2 percent of the GDP, the preparedness could be improved between 80 and 90 percent," Bonggas said.

He said he hoped the projected defense budget for the coming two to three years would be above 1 percent of GDP and increase in phases within the next 10 years.

Police & law enforcement

Police officers to wear yellow pins to combat corruption

Jakarta Globe - June 6, 2011

Farouk Arnaz – The National Police's detectives unit has a new policy aimed at combating corruption – by requiring its members and visitors to wear an anti-corruption pins whenever they step into the unit's building.

Mathius Salempang, the deputy chief of the unit, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday that the unit's officers were required to were yellow-colored pin on their chest that says "Anti KKN [Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism] and gratification", while visitors to the unit were required to wear a blue pin saying "Guests: Do not intervene and bribe."

"This is one of our efforts to eradicate corruption and collusion within the detectives unit," Mathius said. "From the chest, we hope that it goes down into the heart.

"This also applies to the civil servants working here," he said, adding that the National Police aimed to implement the policy at all levels nationwide.

Last week, National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Nanan Soekarna announced that police would restrict access to the National Police headquarters by limiting entry to just one point, so it could be recorded who entered and exited the building.

"We're not robocops or angels. Journalists, plaintiffs and legal advisors, don't tempt our officers with bribery," he said.

Concern over rising cases of violence against police

Jakarta Post - June 4, 2011

Jakarta – As they struggle to restore the tarnished image of their institution, police officers now face increasingly higher risks of violence while on duty.

National Police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam told The Jakarta Post on Friday that the National Police were concerned about rising violence against law enforcement officers.

"We are currently analyzing and evaluating the situation," he said when asked about whether the National Police have become more concerned about potential attacks on officers and what measures will be taken to improve the safety of on-duty police officers while preventing similar attacks from recurring.

The National Police have reportedly ordered regional police headquarters, particularly in areas that are prone to crime and violence, to intensify firearm raids.

Police watchdog Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) has also raised concerns about the issue, highlighting the fact that the targets of attacks were mostly low-ranking officers.

"There were 15 police offices that had been attacked and set on fire by mobs in 2010. Between 2010 and 2011, eight traffic policemen were hit while they were on duty. In 2011, at least eight policemen were attacked, seven of them were shot by criminals while another officer was hacked by a knife-wielding theif," IPW chairman Neta S. Pane told the Post.

"Usually, a criminal would just shoot and run, but what has happened recently is different. The perpetrators have attacked the police. It is alarming," he said.

According to Neta, there has been a change in bandit behavior, which is to hurt the police while carrying their operations. This, he added, showed that there were groups of people who harbored accumulated anger toward police and planned retaliation.

"This could be because of the unsympathetic actions by the police, particularly [the National anti-terror elite unit] Densus 88, during terrorist raids. When the police act brutally, people become even more brutal," he said, adding that the recent bombing in a mosque at police headquarters area of Cirebon, West Java, was one example.

Neta said that this new phenomenon also required additional homework for National Police chief Timur Pradopo. "The National Police chief has to evaluate police performance and improve professionalism and awareness," he said.

He emphasized the importance of the police extending friendship and sympathy towards civilians, adding that Densus 88 also has to avoid executing terrorists during terrorist raids.

Police were able to apprehend terrorists without killing them during investigations and raids following the Bali Bombings, so they should also be capable of doing so now, he said. (swd)

Attacks on police in 2011

June 2: Thousands of people from three villages in South Sulawesi attacked and tore down the Uluere District Police office in Bantaeng, South Sulawesi. According to one of the village leaders, the attack was triggered by a previous incident during which a police officer shot civilians who were allegedly involved in a burglary.

June 1: Second Adj. Insp. Sugiyantoro was shot after approaching a Kijang Innova automobile during a regular patrol because he was suspicious about why the occupied automobile was parked in front of a shop in Bekasi, West Java.

May 25: Second Brig. Januar Yudhistira Pranata and Second Brig. Andi Irbar Prawira were shot dead when they were on guard at Bank Central Asia (BCA) on Jl. Emy Saelan in Palu, Central Sulawesi. Second Brigadier Deddy Edward Undusten was shot in the thigh, but survived.

May 2: First Adj. Insp. Iwan Junawan was hacked by a machete- wielding thief while he was guarding an employee of a Jatiluhur gasoline station in the process of preparing a money transfer to a bank in Bekasi.

Feb. 11: A member of the East Jakarta Police, First Brigadier SP, was found dead in a car near a gasoline station in Cipayung. On the same day, First Brigadier Taufik Asril was shot dead by a thief in Bandung, West Java.

Feb. 4: Second Adj. Insp. Andi Syahrul Rizal was found dead at his house in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Jan. 17: First Brigadier Marry Amara was shot dead by a burglar attempting to rob his house in Bogor, West Java.

Intelligence & state security

Wrong approach stalls intelligence bill: Hendropriyono

Jakarta Globe - June 8, 2011

Ismira Lutfia – A legislative bill giving intelligence agents authority to preemptively arrest suspected terrorists is still fiercely debated by opposing factions in the House of Representatives with no end in sight, even a year after it was first proposed.

Rights groups and lawmakers criticize the bill saying it gives too much power to intelligence agents. They fear such wide-reaching powers will lead to abuse, such as arresting individuals based on suspicion alone.

A.M. Hendropriyono, former chief of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), speaking on the sidelines of a radicalism seminar hosted by the Ministry of Defense, emphasized intelligence agents are not law enforcers – their task is preemption not prosecution.

Unlike other law enforcement laws, which authorize detention of a suspect after a criminal offense, he said intelligence law should authorize actions to prevent terrorist attacks and protects citizens from becoming victims of attacks.

"[Prosecution] is not the intelligence agency's domain," he said. "It works to carry out preemptive efforts and to advise what can and cannot be done."

Hendropriyono added intelligence law should be able to provide legal basis for intelligence operations to prevent terrorist attacks.

"But the problem [with the bill] is that it is turning into a bill about BIN," he said, "but [intelligence efforts] are also the responsibility of other government institutions, such as the Attorney General Office or immigration."

BIN bill lacks safeguards: Activists

Jakarta Globe - June 1, 2011

Camelia Pasandaran – Human rights activists have called on legislators to ensure that a bill on intelligence includes adequate provisions holding the State Intelligence Agency to account for its actions.

Hendardi, chairman of the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, said on Tuesday that in its current form, the bill lacked such provisions to rein in the agency, also known as BIN.

"The new bill fails to provide an adequate mechanism for accountability," he said. "If there is abuse, can we demand that intelligence agents be held legally responsible? The bill should clearly address the possibility of human rights abuses."

He also proposed the establishment of an external body empowered with full authority to supervise the agency. "The body should have the ability to investigate BIN's activities and report its results to the House of Representatives and the public," he said. "It should even have access to classified information."

He said the country's intelligence activities had never been made transparent or accountable. He cited the example of the National Police's counterterrorism unit, Densus 88, which has been accused of the extrajudicial killings of suspects and civilians.

Hendardi said internal codes of conduct at agencies such as BIN were insufficient to prevent its members from violating human rights. Such codes, he said, are geared toward protecting their own and therefore foster a culture of impunity.

The intelligence bill, which is being deliberated by House Commission I, which oversees defense, foreign and political affairs, lists three possible methods for ensuring accountability.

The first is for BIN to report its activities to the president through a proposed coordinating body on state intelligence. The second is for the establishment of an ethics council to hear allegations of violations. The third method, meanwhile, is for the House to play a supervisory role.

However, Mulyana Kusuma, director of Seven Strategic Studies, a social research group, said only the third method would provide any real semblance of supervision for BIN. "There are no specific provisions on internal supervision, executive supervision or legal supervision," he said.

Abdul Malik Haramain, a member of House Commission II overseeing state apparatus, said that given the greater powers to be vested in BIN through the passage of the bill, it was also necessary to strengthen the supervision of the agency.

"A special team should be set up in the House that would have the right to retain expert advisers to help supervise the agency closely," the National Awakening Party (PKB) lawmaker said. "That way, we'll know who's doing the monitoring."

Foreign affairs & trade

Singapore clarifies it has already signed extradition treaty

Jakarta Globe - June 6, 2011

The Singapore Embassy in Jakarta on Monday clarified that, contrary to recent reports, the Singaporean government had already signed an extradition treaty with Indonesia and that this treaty was yet to be ratified by the House of Representatives.

Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mahfud M.D. on Friday said the government should push Singapore to sign an extradition treaty by making the treaty a requirement for the bilateral relationship between the two countries to continue.

But according to Herman Loh, from the Singapore Embassy in Jakarta, "Indonesia and Singapore have already signed an [extradition treaty] and the Defense Cooperation Agreement on April 27, 2007 in Bali in the presence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

"Singapore remains fully committed to the agreements and we look forward to their ratification by Indonesia," he said in a letter sent to the Jakarta Globe. Mahfud was quoted by Vivanews.com as admitting that he had made a mistake and in turn was asking the Indonesian government to ratify the agreement.

The two heads of state negotiated the extradition deal along with a defense cooperation agreement in October 2005. The House of Representatives refused to ratify them because of a clause that would allow Singapore to conduct military exercises in Sumatra.

New rules on cattle for Indonesia

Melbourne Age - June 6, 2011

Tom Allard, Jakarta, and Richard Willingham – The live cattle trade to Indonesia will be dramatically restricted under a plan being considered by the Australian and Indonesian governments, with exports permitted to only a handful of feedlots and slaughterhouses.

The measures, to be announced as early as today, follow widespread outrage in Australia after the broadcast of disturbing footage of the brutal treatment of cattle in Indonesia taken by animal welfare group Animals Australia.

Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig announced a ban on exporting to 12 abattoirs that took effect on Friday. But the ban has been panned as both unenforceable and inadequate, given that Australian cattle are slaughtered at more than 100 abattoirs in Indonesia. Demand for a total suspension of trade remains strong and a serious option for the government, at least until the new arrangement is in place.

Under the new proposal, The Age has learned that export permits would only be issued for Australian cattle sent to as few as 10 Indonesian abattoirs, deemed class A facilities, using modern restraining boxes and stunning to render an animal unconscious before it is killed.

It also calls for animal welfare officers to be permanently placed at slaughterhouses, as well as a strict accreditation regime for Indonesian feedlots and the introduction "as soon as practicable" of an electronic monitoring system of Australian cattle.

The new regime follows an audit of Indonesian abattoirs by industry and government inspectors, part of a crisis response that began before ABC TV's Four Corners aired the footage last Monday.

According to the audit, a further 15 or so Indonesian slaughterhouses were deemed class B facilities. They meet standards laid down by the World Organisation for Animal Health and have clean facilities and trained staff. But they don't have stunning and some use restraint boxes provided by Meat and Livestock Australia that have been criticised for causing distress to the cattle.

While the industry is keen for these abattoirs to be accredited, it is understood that only class A slaughterhouses will be certified in the short term. The class B abattoirs may be certified later after an assessment by an independent expert, assistance to improve their restraint boxes and encouragement to adopt stun guns. The remaining abattoirs would be encouraged to raise standards with funding and training from Australia. Indonesia, which relies on Australia for 25 per cent of its beef and is anxious to avoid a long-term ban, has been informed of the proposed new restrictions and plans for significant Australian investment in its abattoirs.

According to industry sources, the new restrictions are likely to slash the number of Australian cattle going to Indonesia, hitting the $300 million industry hard. The new regime will be costly and will have to be funded predominantly by industry. Indonesia requires all exported cattle to be fattened at its feedlots before slaughter. So ensuring that feedlot operators not only provide good facilities but can track where cattle are being slaughtered will be critical to improving animal welfare.

Under the proposed scheme, export permits will only be issued to Australian cattle producers if they sell to accredited feedlots, which will be subject to ongoing monitoring. Any failure to ensure cattle are killed at the designated abattoir would see the certification revoked.

Electronic tagging will be introduced. Cattle will have barcoded ear tags, so they can be tracked from the farm to the slaughterhouse. Some Indonesian feedlots already use the system, but it is not mandatory.

A spokesman for Mr Ludwig said the minister was considering "all regulatory and legislative options" and that "further bans and suspensions to facilities have not been ruled out".

Indonesia must push Singapore to sign extradition treaty

Berita Satu - June 3, 2011

Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mahfud M.D. on Friday said the government should push Singapore to sign an extradition treaty by making the treaty a requirement for the bilateral relationship between the two countries to continue.

"From the time I joined House Commission I [overseeing defense and foreign and political affairs] until today, there has been no clear agenda [with Singapore]," said Mahfud, who was a member of House Commission I from 2008 until 2010, when he succeeded Jimly Asshiddiqie as chief justice of the Constitutional Court.

Mahfud said that Indonesia has the upper hand in the matter of pushing Singapore to sign an extradition treaty. He said that in terms of security and economy, Singapore is very dependent on Indonesia. But in the absence of an extradition treaty, Singapore has been reaping the benefits of ill- gotten money from Indonesia being spent in the country, Mahfud said.

Meanwhile, Johan Budi, a spokesman for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), said that graft investigators have not scheduled any investigation into the dismissed treasurer of the Democratic Party, Muhammad Nazaruddin, who is now in Singapore.

"At present, investigators have not yet determined the investigation schedule for Nazaruddin, but it is definite that he will be investigated," Johan said.

Nazaruddin's connection to an unsolicited payment made to Janedjri M. Gaffar, secretary general of the Constitutional Court, as reported to the KPK by Mahfud, will also be investigated, Johan said.

In that case, the KPK has already taken statements from Mahfud, Janedjri and other members of staff at the Constitutional Court. KPK investigators have already visited the Constitutional Court in relation to the case, "But we are still at the stage of gathering information and evidence," Johan said.

Concerning the status of high-profile corruption suspect Nunun Nurbaeti, Johan said the KPK investigation teams flown to Singapore and Thailand to search for the fugitive have not been successful. Nunun, who allegedly distributed checks to lawmakers involved in a bribery case that led to the appointment of Miranda Gultom as senior deputy governor of the Central Bank in 2004, has been repeatedly summonsed by the KPK. "The investigation teams will return to Indonesia today, but without Nunun," Johan said.

Although Indonesia does not have an extradition treaty with Singapore, the KPK has in fact formed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore's Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau. "While it is not an extradition treaty, it is still a government-to-government agreement," Johan said.

Surplus falls due to record-high imports

Jakarta Post - June 3, 2011

Linda YulismanJ, Jakarta – Indonesia's trade surplus fell further in April as imports reached an all-time high during April thanks to the appreciation of the rupiah against the US dollar, which helped cut the cost of imports, latest trade data shows.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported on Wednesday that the trade surplus fell to US$1.63 billion in April from $1.81 billion in March and $2.4 billion in February due to the surge in imports.

Imports rose 2.8 percent in April to reach an all-time high of US$14.89 billion as local companies purchased more foreign products to take advantage of the stronger rupiah. Imports rose 32.54 percent compared to April last year.

Monthly exports rose 0.96 percent in April to $16.52 billion from the previous month, a 37.28 percent increase from $12.05 billion in the same month last year.

"Despite still having a surplus in April, we saw a declining trend in monthly exports," BPS deputy chairman of distribution and service statistics Djamal said at a press conference Wednesday.

Standard Chartered economist Eric Sugandi, however, said the declining surplus was normal because the fall was not caused only by the decline in export volume, but was also affected by the appreciation of the rupiah.

The rupiah advanced 0.1 percent to 8,538 per dollar on Wednesday according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The currency touched 8,531 on Tuesday, the strongest level since May 12.

"We estimate that this year's trade surplus will likely further decline from last year as the rupiah continues to strengthen," Eric said.

He added that the surge in imports was not a major concern because most of the imports comprised of raw materials and intermediary goods to support the local manufacturing industry.

"Around 90 percent of imported goods are raw materials and intermediary goods as well as capital goods. It's a consequence of the country's economic growth and the inflows of investments," he said.

BPS data shows that from January to April, imports of raw materials and intermediary goods reached 74.86 percent of total imports, while imports of capital goods contributed 17.16 percent to the figure.

China, Japan and the US remain the main destinations for Indonesia's non- oil and gas exports, which were valued at $1.57 billion, $1.46 billion and $1.31 billion respectively, with a total share of 33.65 percent of total exports.

China held steady as the largest source of non-oil and gas imports, totaling $2.17 billion, or 19.71 percent of total imports. Japan was the second-largest source of imports with $1.33 billion (12.10 percent), followed by Thailand with $904.4 million (8.22 percent).

"We import rice, sugar, fruits and completely built up vehicles, such as the [Toyota] Vios and Yaris models from Thailand," Djamal said.

Indonesia suffered its biggest trade deficit with China at $602 million in April, followed by deficits with Thailand and Australia at $553 million and $166.3 million respectively, Djamal said.

Cattle ban for Indonesia 'doomed to fail'

Sydney Morning Herald - June 1, 2011

Tom Allard in Tangerang, Banten – The ban on sending Australian cattle to just 11 Indonesian abattoirs is bound to fail and a far stricter regime is required to lift standards of animal welfare in the developing country, says Bruce Warren, an Australian who has worked in the industry in Indonesia for a decade.

Mr Warren's assessment of the federal government's response to graphic evidence of brutality in the slaughtering of Australian cattle came as one of the abattoirs subject to the ban prepared to kill more than a dozen steers and cows from Australia overnight.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian government urged Australia not to overreact and ban the trade outright. More than 100 abattoirs across Indonesia slaughter some 500,000 Australian cattle each year, some using excruciatingly harsh methods.

It is a highly lucrative business that earns Australian exporters more than $300 million a year. The demand from overseas also props up the price of beef in Australia by as much as 10 cents a kilo. If the price of Australian beef falls by that amount as more cattle flood the domestic market, producers could lose up to $250 million.

"You won't be able to control it," Mr Warren said of the government's ban on the 11 abattoirs where Animals Australia filmed gross mistreatment of Australian cattle. "To suggest that Australian cattle won't end up in these abattoirs again in a couple of months... what bullshit."

Corruption and lax enforcement would ensure the abattoirs would again have easy access to Australian cattle, he said.

Mr Warren operates an abattoir in Indonesia that uses stun guns to knock cattle unconscious before they are killed, a practice that is certified as halal by the Ulemas Council of Indonesia. He says there are about 10 such modern facilities in Indonesia and Australian cattle should be sent only there.

Mr Warren's business would probably benefit financially from the more stringent ban he is advocating, but he says his interest is safeguarding the industry long-term, improving animal welfare and avoiding a total ban called for by some.

"It has to be a closed system, where you can monitor the cattle at every step and where they have systems that ensure animal welfare," he said. Computer barcodes on the ear tags of cattle can be used to track the cattle from the feedlot to the abattoir.

Efforts by Australian industry to improve animal welfare in Indonesia for more than a decade had been pursued with good intentions and achieved some good results, but were also poorly conceived and managed.

For example, there was a high turnover of workers at smaller Indonesian abattoirs, where the pay can be as little as $150 a month. "You train people and then come back two months' later and they've left, and there's someone else doing the slaughtering who has no idea and is afraid of the animals."

At the Gondrong slaughterhouse, one of the abattoirs filmed by Animals Australia, there were at least a dozen Australian cattle waiting to be slaughtered yesterday. As workers rested before the night shift, when the killing is done, none was aware of the Australian government's ban, or had been visited by Australian official or industry figures.

Australians officials warned their Indonesian counterparts more than a week ago that Four Corners would be broadcasting the footage. Indonesia's Vice- Minister for Agriculture, Bayu Krisnamurthi, said he hoped the footage would spur Indonesia to improve animal welfare.

Economy & investment

Indonesian competitiveness improving significantly, new report says

Jakarta Globe - June 8, 2011

Faisal Maliki Baskoro – Indonesia's global competitiveness has increased significantly since 2005 but work needs to be done to improve the country's public health, information technology, infrastructure and fight against corruption, a report revealed.

According to the World Economic Forum Report on Global Competitiveness Index launched on Wednesday, Indonesia ranked 44th among 139 countries, moving up 10 notches since 2005, the strongest progress among G20 countries.

"From an economic standpoint, Indonesia has done remarkably well in the past decade and has proven very resilient during the global economic crisis as reflected in the country's competitiveness performance," said Thierry Geiger, economist at the WEF and lead author of the report, on Wednesday.

The report stated, "Indonesia now compares favorably with the BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa], with the notable exception of China (27th). Indonesia precedes India (51st), South Africa (54th), Brazil (59th), Russia (63rd) and sits midway with ASEAN, well behind Singapore (3rd) and Malaysia (26th), far ahead of the Philippines (85th) and Cambodia (38th), and relatively close with Thailand (38th) and Vietnam (59th)."

Indonesia's strength, according to the report, lies in its macroeconomic environment (ranked 35th). "Debt burden has been drastically reduced, credit rating has been upgraded, and savings and investments are also increasing," the report stated.

According to the report, basic education is almost accessible to everyone (49th) but needed further improvement in secondary and tertiary education. While the efficiency of the goods market is also sound (49th), due to a competitive tax regime and intense competition, bureaucracy and trade barriers remained.

The country's large population and its growing middle class also helped improve Indonesia's competitiveness. "Indonesia should not be complacent, though, many shortcomings persist and robust growth might exacerbate them," Thierry said.

The report stated that infrastructure in Indonesia is still poor and unreliable, and the uptake of information and communication technologies remains limited. The public health is in an alarming condition. Informal employment and precarious working condition are still high. Corruption remains widespread, while greater transparency and predictability are needed in policy-making process.

The report was released ahead of the World Economic Forum on East Asia, taking place in Jakarta June 12-June 13.

Foreign oil firms don't want to rework contracts

Jakarta Globe - June 6, 2011

Ririn Radiawati Kusuma – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's push to renegotiate oil and gas contracts with foreign companies would set a bad precedent, industry players said.

Sammy Hamzah, the vice chairman of the Indonesian Petroleum Association, said the government's plan "would create negative sentiment for oil and gas investment."

The IPA, whose 52 members include oil and gas companies such as Chevron Pacific Indonesia, ConocoPhilips, Total E&P Indonesie, BP Indonesia and state oil and gas company Pertamina, has been vocal in its opposition to government plans to renegotiate contracts and amend the country's oil and gas law.

If the government is determined to renegotiate, Sammy said, it should talk to oil companies and gain investor approval.

"I think the contracts are a very sensitive problem. A bad contract or a one-sided change will scare investors away," said Sammy, who is also the president director of Ephindo, an energy company specializing oil, gas and coal. "Please be careful when talking about the contracts. It should be fair for investors."

Claiming that the country's robust economy should give it more bargaining power, Yudhoyono said last week that the government would review contracts with foreign companies in search of better terms.

Freeport Indonesia, the country's largest gold miner, said it would continue to operate in here despite the increased scrutiny of foreign firms.

"We will continue to honor and abide by the terms of our contract of work. We have successfully operated in Indonesia for over four decades and look forward to many more decades of continued success. We believe our contract is fair to all parties and results in substantial contributions to the government that compare favorably to other major international mineral producing countries," Freeport spokesman Ramdani Sirait said in a statement.

The miner has contributed more than $12 billion to the government in royalties since its current began in December 1991, Ramdani said.

But Tony Wenas, president director of International Nickel Indonesia, said he welcomed the president's proposal. "It doesn't matter as long as I can get my profit and government also gets their profit," he said.

Satya W. Yudha, a Golkar Party lawmaker and member of House of Representatives Commission VII at the House of Representatives, which oversees energy affairs, said sales contracts should be revised instead of production-sharing agreements.

"For example, the gas sales from the Tangguh plant are sold very cheaply to China. We can renegotiate that contract," he said. China signed a contract in 2002 that allowed it to buy gas from Tangguh for a relatively cheap $2.40 per million British thermal units over 25 years.

Renegotiation a hit with house, not businesses

Jakarta Globe - June 3, 2011

Faisal Maliki Baskoro & Ririn Radiawati Kusuma – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's call to renegotiate contracts with foreign companies received mixed reaction on Friday, with some industry players calling it an empty threat.

The president said in a speech on Wednesday that the government would review and rework contracts with foreign companies, claiming the country's robust economy should give it more bargaining power. Finance Minister Agus Martowardoyo later gave more specifics, saying the government would review energy contracts.

While some lawmakers lauded the speech, saying it was high time for the government to get tough with foreign firms, analysts and business players warned that the move could discourage foreign investment.

Fauzi Ichsan, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank, said Indonesia should rework its contracts in line with the agreements' existing renegotiation framework.

"If there is a clause about renegotiation, then we should go about it. If there is not, we would only lose in the arbitration," Fauzi said. "Forcibly terminating the contract would hurt the investment climate here."

Kurtubi, an economist at University of Indonesia and director of the Center for Petroleum and Energy Economic Studies, said he supported the plan to overhaul energy deals.

"I appreciate what the president said about contract renegotiation, but it's too late. He should have said that a few years ago. We have already suffered many losses, but renegotiation could offset the losses," he said.

Yudhoyono said the renegotiations should provide a "win-win solution" and benefit the country's Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia's Economic Development (MP3EI).

The government, which already has two major deals in its sights, is looking at several energy contracts in a bid to increase state revenues, create more jobs and give added value to the country's natural resources, Agus said.

One high-profile contract the government would like to wrap up is with gold miner Newmont Nusa Tenggara, which paid Rp 5.8 trillion ($678.6 million) in taxes and royalties last year. Under its 1986 working contract, US mining giant Newmont must divest 51 percent of its stake in NNT to Indonesian entities. The government and lawmakers are at odds over the fate of the final 7 percent, with the House of Representatives blocking government attempts to buy the shares earlier this week.

Another contract under scrutiny is with Indonesia Asahan Aluminum, which is majority-owned by Japan's Nippon Asahan Aluminum. The government wants to nationalize the company, but NAA wants to retain part of its stake.

Anis Matta, a deputy House speaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), welcomed the president's call to review the contracts, saying the government should have done so long ago.

"We need to start renegotiating contracts with foreign companies, especially in the energy sector. We should put up our own offers that are aimed at improving the people's welfare instead of just luring investors," he said.

Former Vice President Jusuf Kalla has also consistently voiced his concerns over bad contracts.

He has called for a renegotiation of the 2002 natural gas contract with China, which was made during President Megawati Sukarnoputri's tenure. It says Indonesia will sell gas to China for $2.40 per million British thermal units for 25 years.

Government hard-pressed to meet growth target: BI

Jakarta Post - June 3, 2011

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has only a slim chance of meeting its higher gross domestic product (GDP) growth target next year if no measures are taken to address distribution bottlenecks, the central bank warns.

Bank Indonesia Governor Darmin Nasution said Wednesday that distribution bottlenecks would remain a major obstacle to further economic growth because the existing infrastructure was already operating at nearly full capacity. He said that only a breakthrough in infrastructure development could lead to further economic growth.

"We note that [Indonesia's current infrastructure] is operating almost at full capacity, so it's not easy to improve existing growth. This is not just about the industrial sector, but about infrastructure in particular," Darmin said Wednesday after meeting with lawmakers to discuss preparations to draft the 2012 state budget.

This situation means that even an increase in investments in Indonesia would not likely do much to improve GDP growth, Darmin said. He recommended the government make a breakthrough in infrastructure development to prevent Indonesia's growth from being stunted.

"If we make a breakthrough, namely through improving strategic infrastructure, for example by improving access to Tanjung Priok [sea port], we can still [boost growth]," Darmin said.

The government forecast the economy to grow by between 6.5 and 6.9 percent in its 2012 macroeconomic assumptions submitted to the House of Representatives.

The government has also increased this year's economic growth target to 6.5 percent from 6.4 percent set earlier in the 2011 state budget amid a surge in direct invest- ment. Last year, the economy expanded 6.1 percent. In the first quarter of 2011, the economy grew by 6.5 percent.

"We tend to see that the growth range of between 6.5 and 6.9 percent remains too high. We tend to [project] a lower figure, although of course this will depend on possible strategic agreements," Darmin said at a hearing with the House budgetary body on Wednesday.

He attributed the lower growth projection partly to lower capital inflows expected for next year, led by macroeconomic improvements in the developed world.

"Next year, as [developed nations] are expected to enjoy better economic growth, we expect capital inflows won't be as high as this year, which will impact exchange rates and other areas," he said.

Despite forecasting lower capital inflows, Darmin expects a stronger rupiah against the US dollar in 2012, saying the rupiah could stand between Rp 8,600 and Rp 9,100 to a dollar – higher than the government's estimate of between Rp 9,000 and Rp 9,300 a dollar.

High inflation remains a challenge next year. The government is not likely meet its projected inflation rate estimate for 2012 unless it increased fuel prices this year, he said. The government projected inflation to fall to between 3.5 and 5.5 percent in 2012 from between 5 and 6 percent this year.

Measures by the government such as raising the price of subsidized fuel or limiting the sale of subsidized fuel only to public vehicle operators this year, would not affect the 2012 inflation target, Darmin said.

Analysis & opinion

The Big Detail: Reform? what reform?

Jakarta Globe - June 7, 2011

Nivell Rayda – It has been a year since I visited the tiny goat shed that brought the town of Karangasem, in West Java's Indramayu district to infamy. I still remember well how to get there: take Java's North Coast road and when you see the Karangasem Police subprecinct you know you're close.

I first came to the town in April last year accompanying members from the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force, generals from the National Police and top West Java officials. There was so much news about how a young cop extorted money from a murder suspect named Kadana. The officer's demand was so ruthless that his family was forced to sell all of their possessions and had to live in a goat shed for nine months.

Task force member Denny Indrayana on the team's official Web site described just how upset he was upon learning the heartlessness of the so-called judicial mafia. After listening to Kadana's ordeal, "I became enraged. Many times I clenched my fist in anger, trying hard not to show my emotion. I struggled not to break down in tears," Denny wrote. The Web entry, dated Feb. 11 this year, claimed that since taking up this particular case, the fight against corruption became a personal vendetta.

What the Web site failed to mention is that the task force was unable to keep Kadana out of jail. The rogue officer was not properly sanctioned and has in fact been reinstated. There was no legal assistance, no monitoring of the trial, just press conferences and more pledges from the task force, now credited for exposing the workings of the judicial mafia.

But not only Kadana is left stranded. Disgraced tax official Gayus Tambunan, whose case symbolizes how entrenched corruption is in the country, has said that he also felt neglected after spilling the beans to the task force.

In great detail, Gayus described how he bribed law enforcers to escape a money-laundering charge and how companies paid him off to lower their taxes. He was so convinced by the task force's pledge of protection that he came out of hiding in Singapore and returned to Indonesia.

However, when time came for him to face justice, Gayus was alone. Twice, the task force said it was too busy to provide defense witnesses to tell of mitigating circumstances in a case with an overwhelming amount of incriminating evidence.

The family of Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, the former National Police chief detective, told the same story. Without his testimony, the public would have never even heard of Gayus Tambunan. During his heyday, Susno was never afraid to speak his mind, as controversial as his opinions may have been. But when I met him at his home in March, I got a sense that there was so much that Susno wanted to say. I could tell he had more dirt to share.

"The task force can't even thoroughly investigate the information that Susno has already given," a woman close to Susno said. "Susno was never afraid of retaliation from his peers. He just wanted the task force to monitor his trial. But the task force never showed up. Denny even refused to see me. Without Susno they have nothing."

When the task force was established in December 2009, there was some suspicion that the team was set up with a political agenda, to show the press that the government was serious about fighting graft. Still, I thought that any agency tasked with eradicating corruption must have some kind of public support.

The task force is not designed as a law-enforcement agency. It is created to identify the root causes of corruption and do something about it. Its cases are just entry points toward reform, serving as stimulants to get the momentum of change going.

The Big Detail is that the task force should have protected Kadana, Gayus and Susno as well as others courageous enough to spill the beans. And with direct access to the president, who oversees the National Police and the Attorney General's Office, they could have done so.

The task force only has until December this year, after which it ceases to exist. Will the team manage to rid law-enforcement agencies of corruption once and for all? Will it at least pave the way toward that goal?

When the team was established I was also led to believe that there would be major breakthroughs in the way law-enforcement agencies operate. The task force's efforts led to the issuance of presidential decree (Inpres) No. 9 on May 12. The decree instructed all law-enforcement agencies to conduct reforms to prevent graft. The formulation of the reform plan is left to the respective agencies.

The Big Detail is that it might have been better if the president had just appointed an attorney general committed to rooting out corruption inside the AGO. And you don't need a decree if you have a credible police chief who is dedicated to reform.

The fate of TNI businesses in the reform era

Jakarta Post - June 7, 2011

Al Araf, Jakarta – The democratic transition in Indonesia is undoubtedly a complex and fragile process. It does not place the so-called reformists as a group that can easily take and affect the authority to create political change.

This happened because despite the fall of Soeharto there are still many powerful old groups that have hijacked and influenced the political transition process. The process is tainted by political negotiations between the old and new groups, blurring the line that divides them.

In this situation, the Indonesian Military's (TNI) reform agenda has been decided by power struggle between the reformist and status quo groups. One of the sticking issues in the negotiation is on acquisition of TNI businesses. Although it is part of the TNI's reform agenda, the process has remained slow if not stagnant until today, despite the fact that the 2004 TNI Law mandated the transfer of military assets by 2009.

As a part of the military reform agenda, the termination of TNI role in business is expected to help create a professional military institution that focuses on state defense. Samuel P. Huntington said that military professionalism is based on three things: expertise, or knowledge and capability; social responsibility and corporation, which includes awareness and loyalty to the group or institution and dignity for the standard competence.

The government has formed several teams to take over military businesss since the enactment of the TNI law, all of which have failed to accomplish their tasks.

The first team, the TNI Business Transfer Supervisory Team (TSTB) was established in 2005, involving the Defense Ministry, Finance Ministry, Law and Human Rights Ministry and State-Owned Enterprises Ministry, to verify all TNI businesses.

Originally, the enterprises belonging to the TNI were to be handed over by the government and transformed into public companies, limited liability companies or holding companies.

From the beginning, the government's commitment to acquiring TNI business has sparked doubts as the President only passed a regulation as a legal umbrella for acquisition of military assets only in 2008. Under the presidential regulation, the National TNI Business Activity Acquisition Team was formed.

The belated issuance of the presidential regulation came under fire from civil society groups, who suspected the delay would only avoid takeover of TNI business. There were also concerns about the metamorphosis of the TNI business' into different corporations or the sales of the assets to a third party before the presidential regulation took effect.

Outside of this concern is the bizarre data on the number of businesses controlled by the TNI. In September 2005, the TNI inventoried 2,616 businesses, comprising 25 foundations, 916 business units and 1,071 cooperatives. In March 2006, the number fell to 1,502 units without clear documentation from the Defense Ministry.

In July 2006, the TSTB said the military's assets were worth Rp 1.5 trillion (US$136 million according to the 2006 exchange rate). The figure was much lower than the research conducted by the Ridep Institute in 2004, which valued the military business at Rp 5 trillion.

In 2008 the National TNI Business Activity Acquisition Team said the TNI owed 23 foundations that controlled 53 limited companies, operated 1,098 cooperatives that controlled two limited companies and used state assets that were managed by a third party. This team also found 1,618 plots of land covering an area of 16,544.54 hectares; 3,470 plots of land and buildings covering 8,435.81 hectares and 6,699 buildings covering 37.57 hectares.

The TNI's foundations as of 2007 controlled Rp 1.8 trillion in assets and its cooperatives controlled assets worth Rp 1.3 trillion. In total the TNI's assets were valued at Rp 3.2 trillion, with administrative obligations worth Rp 980 billion.

The team, however, did not disclose details of the companies and kinds of business owned by TNI. The team recommended that the government take over all the TNI businesses and assets, reposition all TNI foundations, cooperatives and state property, except for its primary cooperatives. State property would be returned to the Finance Ministry and state property that was managed by third parties would be restructured so as to contribute to state revenue as non-tax revenues.

Another recommendation was to reposition the military business, joint foundation and cooperatives into quasi-businessed under the Defense Ministry. The next step was a legal and financial audit of the foundations and cooperatives. In the meantime, the TNI primary cooperatives would be transformed into working units under the Defense Ministry and dedicated to soldiers' welfare.

It is important for the Defense Ministry to explain to the public and provide details about the delayed process of TNI business transfer, including which businesses have been taken over and which assets have not. Such transparency will prevent fishy business in the process.

Furthermore, the House of Representatives needs to supervise the process. The arrangement and acquisition process of TNI business has to wind up this year, otherwise it will delay completion of the TNI reform agenda.

It is also important that profits from TNI businesses go to the state coffers and are spent on improvement of soldiers' welfare equally and fairly. Consequently, better welfare will enhance the TNI's performance.

[The writer is program director of the Imparsial human rights group.]

Jakarta Journo: Media show their teeth in Nazaruddin graft saga

Jakarta Globe - June 6, 2011

Armando Siahaan – Recent political shenanigans have certainly raised questions about how much Indonesian politics have progressed since the end of the New Order regime. But the fact that news of such misdeeds has been made public marks significant progress for the nation in terms of press freedom.

The Muhammad Nazaruddin saga serves as a salient example. The name of the ruling Democratic Party's ousted treasurer first popped up due to his alleged involvement in a Rp 3.2 billion [$374,400] graft scandal surrounding the construction of the Southeast Asian Games athletes' village in Palembang – this was followed by reports of his alleged attempt to pay a 120,000 Singapore dollar [$97,000] bribe to the secretary general of the Constitutional Court.

The broad exposure of the saga, which has spread beyond the confines of the conventional media – via SMS, BlackBerry Messenger, Twitter and blogs – shows that the country has come a long way in developing the watchdog role of the media and overcoming government censorship. It is important to note that Nazaruddin is a top-ranking member of the ruling party, led by none other than President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

If such a scandal had occurred under the New Order regime, when the media was subject to draconian censorship, not a single word about the ruling party's corrupt deeds would have been made public.

The old government would have made sure that any wrongdoing, whether political or financial, perpetrated by members of the ruling party, would be swept under the rug, out of the sight of media outlets.

The mere fact that the Indonesian media are willing and able to cover scandals of the magnitude of Nazaruddin's shows that the press has embraced its role as an independent monitor of power and is no longer subject to the whims of the country's political elites.

While the media themselves do not have the power to punish those who abuse their position, they have the ability to shape public opinion in such a way as to allow the people to judge corrupt leaders for themselves.

This can only be seen as a good thing. Journalism's main purpose is, after all, to serve and protect its citizen.

Another example of how the power of the media has been used to serve the public interest can be seen in what's happened to the new House of Representatives building proposal.

The news first broke in May of last year, when lawmakers announced that the office tower would cost a staggering Rp 1.8 trillion. Not surprisingly, the proposal was met with a tidal wave of public criticism.

To give voice to the people's outrage, many media outlets deployed a blitzkrieg campaign in protest of the appalling House project.

Headlines, editorials, talk shows, radio programs – all channels were exhausted to make sure that the lawmakers would not get what they had childishly wished for.

As a result of the media's efforts, the House were forced to put the project on hold. A few months later, lawmakers agreed to cut the cost of the building to Rp 1.13 trillion.

Of course, common sense says that even that figure is ridiculous, especially considering that the request for a new building was based on nothing but lawmakers' hubris.

So the media again bombarded the legislators with criticism. The House then suggested a severely reduced budget of Rp 800 million before putting off the project indefinitely.

While this tale cannot be considered closed just yet, the cancellation of the plan is, at the very least, a testament to the fact that the media now has the power to ensure that those at the top cannot abuse their authority heedlessly. This is not to say that we have achieved complete press freedom.

In year-end review, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), a group that promotes press freedoms in Indonesia, reported that incidents of violence against journalists rose from 46, up from 37 in 2009. The severity of these attacks ranged from the ransacking of offices and the confiscation of journalist tools to assault and even murder.

Furthermore, some media organizations blatantly run stories that serve the political interests of their corporate supporters, while plenty of misbehaving reporters commit journalistic sins ranging from spinning their sources' statements to "befriending" sources for all the wrong reasons.

But today, the press does have the freedom to fulfill one of its most fundamental roles in society: to act as an independent institution that keeps an eye on those in power.

[Armando Siahaan is a reporter at the Jakarta Globe and writes a weekly column about current events.]

Rape of Kalimantan's forests continues

Asia Sentinel - June 4, 2011

Jack Hewson, Bentian Besar, East Kalimantan – At a mine-site near Sangatta in East Kalimantan, a titanic crater yawns out of the ground, its nadir filled with brown slurry.

Looking across the hinterland from its southern ridge, a dustscape stretches off towards the horizon, braided by dirt tracks and the giant dump trucks that traverse them. Their distant drone fills the air. Ten minutes down the road lies another pit, and another. It is easy to forget you are in Indonesian Borneo.

Since 1950 more than half of its ancient jungle has been felled. What remains is a patchwork of second growth and degraded forest land, palm plantations and open-cast coal mines. WWF predicts less than 30% will stand by 2020, with practically all of its most bio-diverse forests destroyed.

Due to its land use, Indonesia is the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, with 85 percent of its emissions resulting from deforestation and peat-land oxidation, a process that releases CO2.

The rapid expansion of coal mining to meet growing domestic and global energy needs is felt most acutely in East Kalimantan, where coal mining is a leading driver of deforestation. A projected 4 million hectares of additional forest land are to be given over to mining by 2030.

"Twenty years ago the water was very clean," says local journalist Masriansyah, gesturing to the River Lawa that runs in front of his home in Bentian Besar. "Without the forest, topsoil drains into the river. Now it's always brown and worse in the rainy season."

Herbicides used in palm oil cultivation and the large quantities of heavy metals released through mining are suspected to be the cause of the skin complaints that many villagers who bathe in the river have experienced.

Bentian Besar is a remote community, but its story is typical of a region whose sparse infrastructure is geared entirely around the extraction of timber and coal. Literally every major inland road in East Kalimantan was constructed as a logging route.

Over the past decade the primary economic driver in this area has been Trubaindo, a 23650 hectare mine-site operated by Thai energy corporation BANPU. Here a heavy-plant operator can earn up to US$500 per month – a good wage in Indonesia.

Many welcome the wealth that the mine generates. Workers predominantly from Java and Sulawesi come to staff the resources boom.

However competition is fierce and employment selection nepotistic: many lose out. Moreover the establishment of Trubaindo has forced many residents from their land with inadequate compensation. Masriansyah has been passed documents from a source within Trubaindo that value the land at Rp 40 million per hectare. Thus far only Rp 10 million per hectare has been paid and some have received nothing at all.

Anger and frustration spilled over into demonstrations in December 2009. Nonetheless the land has been designated for mining and ultimately the people have no choice but to sell.

Residents suspect Trubaindo to have paid off West Kutai Regency and the police force to secure their interests – a practice commonplace throughout Indonesia.

Demonstrations in East Kalimantan are often dispersed violently by police and fatalities are not uncommon.

For his coverage of these developments in the anti-corruption newspaper BUSER, Masriansyah has had his files and journalistic equipment stolen from his car and in January 2010 survived an attempt on his life.

"I was driving home on my scooter from a land-release hearing in a police meeting hall with fellow BUSER journalist Arbainah riding pillion. We heard a car coming up behind us fast. Drivers beep their horns at bikes to let them know they're here, especially at night. There was no warning and in my mirror I saw them heading straight for us. At the last minute I swerved for the bank but they hit and we were thrown from the road. They didn't stop."

His attackers drove a white Mitsubishi Strada, an expensive off- road vehicle that in Bentian Besar is used almost exclusively by mine staff. Fortunately he and Arbainah received only cuts and bruises.

Mariansyah is undeterred but recent SMS threats against his family concern him deeply. "I don't even know if it's the police who took my equipment or if the text messages are from them."

Both West Kutai Regency and BANPU declined to comment.

The situation here is echoed elsewhere. Forestry sector operations are characterized by endemic corruption, incompetence, poor productivity and a widespread disregard for permit regulations. In January, the Ministry of Forestry admitted that only 67 of 352 plantation companies and nine of 615 mine units were operating with an official permit in Central Kalimantan alone.

Coal is a major driver of deforestation in East Kalimantan but nationally the land-demands for pulp, paper and palm oil plantations are far greater.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has pledged to change the status of Indonesia's forest from that of net emitter to net sink sector by 2030. But this is expected to occur concomitantly with a projected tripling of national pulp and paper production by 2025. Further expansion is projected in agriculture, palm oil and bio-fuels. The area earmarked for this development includes 40 percent of Indonesia's forest – 37 million hectares – an area the size of Norway and Denmark combined.

Doubt remains as to how wholesale expansion of the very industries that drive deforestation is likely to safeguard Indonesia's remaining rainforest.

Pulp and paper plantations – in which trees are cropped on a 7 year rotation - are perceived to be key in facilitating the dual goals of industrial growth and emissions-reduction. But the notion that plantation establishment has a critical role to play is based on the false assumption that plantations permanently sequester significant volumes of carbon and that they will be established on degraded or low-carbon land. Harvested wood is used in products with a short life-span – cardboard, toilet rolls and news print. Therefore any carbon absorbed within the timber should be counted as emitted in the year the timber is harvested.

Plantation expansion will inevitably lead to substantial loss of natural forest and peat-land carbon. This is the Orwellian double-speak of Indonesian emissions abatement: the proposed solution may in fact be the disaster itself.

The fight for Indonesia's rainforest enters a fresh phase in 2011 with the start of REDD + (reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), a UN sponsored initiative under which the industrialized nations will effectively pay Indonesia not to chop down trees. Norway has made an initial pledge of US$1 billion, the conditions of which include a two year moratorium on fresh logging-concessions. Practices that qualify for payment include forest conservation, sustainable management and replanting.

However, many fear a return to past mismanagement. The Ministry of Forestry itself "lost" a staggering US$5.25 billion from a REDD+ predecessor scheme, the "Indonesian Reforestation Fund," between 1994 and 1998. Funds not embezzled actually incentivized forest clearance and degradation to acquire plantation subsidies. Further, 40 percent of subsidized plantations were never planted.

In September 2010 senior Ministry official Wandojo Siswanto, a key architect of the Norway-deal, was named as a suspect by the national anti-corruption agency.

Set to commence on January 1, the two year moratorium has been only recently announced but in a compromised form. The Ministry of Forestry proposes the inclusion of only primary forest and a continuation of business-as-usual practices on existing logging- concessions. The REDD+ Task Force proposes the additional inclusion of secondary forests and the transference of existing concessions to degraded land.

Perhaps more intractable than the difficulties posed by corruption to the environmental cause, are those of poverty and a lack of public education on climate change: most people do not know what it is. What political capital for carbon abatement can there be in a democracy whose constituents have little or no understanding of what carbon does? Grievances over land exploitation focus predominantly on compensation, not on environmental impact. Precious few mourn the loss of habitat or biodiversity. There is the more immediate concern of day-to-day survival: it is estimated half the population live on less than US$1 per day.

Nonetheless Indonesia is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The El Niqo years of 1997-1998 brought forest fires that left a smoke cloud over most of South-east Asia. As weather patterns change drought risks will rise and food security drops. In 2010 incidences of flooding plagued Kalimantan even in the dry season. The forests that once acted as a barrier to flood-waters are now gone.

Saving Indonesia's remaining rainforest faces many obstacles, but back in Bentian Besar, Masriansyah remains wary of the consequences of inaction. "I don't want my brothers to die," he says. "Logging and mining are killing our land. If I don't do something it's like I've poisoned myself." Hopefully his defiance will not be in vain.

[Jack Hewson is a freelance journalist who has been based in East Asia for the past four years.]

Back to Pancasila ideals: Why?

Jakarta Post - June 1, 2011

Franz Magnis-Suseno, Jakarta - June 1 is Pancasila Day in Indonesia. On that day 66 years ago, young engineer Sukarno succeeded in uniting two opposing camps in the BPUPKI (a board of Indonesians tasked by the Japanese rulers to prepare a constitution).

The dividing question was whether Islam or secular nationalism should be the basis of the new republic of Indonesia. Sukarno received unanimous applause when he proposed that Indonesia be based on five principles he called Pancasila (five principles).

It took lengthy, and sometimes stormy discussions until Pancasila got its definitive form in the preamble of the Constitution which was approved on Aug. 18, 1945 and therefore called the 1945 Constitution: Belief in one God, just and civilized humanism, Unity of Indonesia, People's power (or relatedness to the people) led by the guidance of wisdom in common deliberation/representation and social justice for the entire Indonesian people.

While foreigners sometimes wonder what was so special about those five principles, Indonesians offer a question whether Pancasila maintains its "ideological" power. But why, on the other hand, has Pancasila since a few years ago been taken up again by Indonesian intellectuals, mainstream Muslim (and other) religious leaders and even politicians.

The return to Pancasila (if that's the case) must be understood on the background of the growing worry of many Indonesians about the actual situation in the country.

At first sight this seems strange. Although not perfect the country seems to be on a solid path to success. Except for some parts of Papua you can move freely and efficiently around the whole country. Poverty is not up. And in spite of serious acts of terror, security in general is much better here than in many other countries.

But this is only the surface. Competent economists point to serious weaknesses: National economic growth comes almost exclusively from the extraction of natural resources.

There is no significant growth in industrial production, unemployment is consistently high, infrastructure is in a worrying state and almost 50 percent of the population still lives below welfare levels.

And there are two really distressing developments. The first is the all pervasive corruption involving the political elites. There are almost no politicians who do not dirty their hands on. Every month a new scandal surfaces and overshadows the previous scandals.

The popular outcry against the planned construction of 28-story building for the House members, originally projected to cost US$188 million, arose from the justified suspicion that the 560 politicians would get a significant cut from the project. It is widely known that politicians who sponsor a project in a region receive kickbacks between 7 and 13 percent. No legislation will be endorsed without the politicians being paid extra money.

Corruption is now worse than the situation under Soeharto. This means nothing else than that reformasi, the reform movement that forced Soeharto to step down, has failed to live up to eradicate corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) as expected. It also means that our state is losing its moral dignity.

It is clear that this situation gravely endangers the fruits of reform: democracy and human rights. When people perceive democracy as nothing more than a project of the political elites who reap the most out of it, democracy will be over. What would follow then is every body's guess.

At the same time, since reformasi gave us all democratic freedoms, a new hardline, extreme and exclusive religiosity is steadily infiltrating the minds and hearts especially of young students and intellectuals.

This mostly Middle East inspired religiosity pretends to offer a clear-cut, morally respectable alternative to the general trend to Western consumerism, hedonism and corruption. It means that values like "the nation" or Pancasila are left behind.

This new hardline religiosity goes together with an open contempt for religious tolerance and a growing readiness to use violence in the name of religion. At the same time the state seems to have lost the courage to enforce its constitutional duty to give zero tolerance to violence.

It is heartening to observe that mainstream religious leaders are now alerted of this danger. In this connection they bring Pancasila back into the national discourse.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe once wrote about the "two souls living in my breast". The one is the part of the heart illuminated by a deep attraction to the good, the other is a devilish abyss where evil lurks in the dark.

The same might be true for the soul of a people. Indonesians now feel as if the spell of darkness is descending on our country and the devils arise in the forms of intolerance, hatred, bloodthirstiness (imagine preachers calling on their community to "kill, kill, kill" in the name of God!), as well as greed, irresponsibility, egoistic desires and corrupt mind.

It is on the heels of the awareness of the crucial importance of Pancasila arises. Pancasila expresses the shining noble part of Indonesia's soul. It paints Indonesia as Indonesians dream how she should be, the ideal Indonesia Indonesians would be proud of, as expressed in Pancasila's beautiful five principles.

But Pancasila is more than that. Indonesians recount Aug. 18, 1945, the day when Pancasila was inaugurated, as one of Indonesia's most shining hours, the day when Indonesians, for the sake of national unity, committed themselves to accepting each other in their respective religious, cultural, ethnic and racial identity.

What happened? On the morning of Aug. 18, 1945 the constitutional assembly (PPKI) agreed unanimously to drop an addition to the first principle of Pancasila (belief in God), i.e. that Muslims were obliged to live according to the sharia. They recognized that naming one religion in the most basic philosophy of the state would make full identification of the others impossible.

Thus for the sake of national unity even the formal representatives of Islam agreed not to push for that point. As a consequence Indonesia endorsed the 1945 Constitution where the majority religion (Islam) does not get any special treatment. Many say that only the willingness of the Muslim majority not to insist on special privileges has made unity of all those different people between Aceh and Papua possible.

Thus Pancasila embodies the finest hour in the formation of the Indonesian nation. It is the documentation of the fact that Indonesians, at a decisive moment in their history, were able to overcome their respective narrow, sectarian and particular interests and prejudices in order to build one nation, united by the ideals of Pancasila, in quest for a "free, united, sovereign, just and prosperous" nation.

Now that Indonesians of different backgrounds try hard to re-actualize Pancasila, they want to bring Indonesia back to her most shining idealism.

[The writer, a Jesuit priest, is professor at Driyarkara School of Philosophy in Jakarta.]


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