Ezra Sihite – Red tape, it turns out, can stick. House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso warned State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan not to get ahead of himself with his decision to bypass the bureaucracy at his ministry, as lawmakers petitioned to formally question the minister about his plan.

"I will say it again, because it can't be overstated: Don't get too creative when it comes to the law," Priyo said at the House on Friday.

Dahlan had wanted to streamline the chain of command at his ministry by ministerial decree, boosting efficiency by allowing his staff to make decisions without having to get his approval for every little thing. Lawmakers, however, called the decree illegal and potentially dangerous if it meant subordinates were given the authority to sell state assets.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie supported the petition to question Dahlan. "The way I look at it, it's a rational thought," he said. "I understand my colleagues' good intention to straighten this out and it's not meant to pester Pak Dahlan."

Marzuki said a minister did not have the authority to cut bureaucracy by delegating his work. "It's dangerous, especially the authority to sell state assets. It turns out many state assets have been sold by the [state enterprises] ministry and that's very dangerous," he said.

Arya Bima, deputy chairman of House Commission VI, which oversees state enterprises, initiated the petition and accused Dahlan of violating state finance laws, state enterprise laws, state treasury laws and more.

He said Dahlan had been reminded to adhere to procedures during a previous hearing with lawmakers, but the call seemed to have fallen on deaf ears.

Priyo said lawmakers respected Dahlan's initiatives to boost efficiency, but that bureaucratic procedures had to be followed. The petition, he said, will be followed up after lawmakers returned from recess.

No political motive behind cheap housing for journalists

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2012

Hans David Tampubolon – Public Housing Minister Djan Faridz says that there is no political motive behind his ministry's recent plan to develop cheap housing for journalists.

"The program was launched because journalists at the Public Housing Ministry and eventually, in Indonesia, wanted to have houses," he said. Djan added that at least 1,000 journalists in the Jakarta region had submitted a request to own the cheap houses.

Djan had earlier issued a press release that said the ministry planned to develop 1,000 houses for journalists in Citayam, Depok, just south of Jakarta. He said it was a request from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a show of appreciation for journalists who have worked hard but still could not afford a house.

According to the minister, each house would be sold for Rp 45 million (US$4,900), with a 10 percent down payment and up to Rp 400,000 in monthly installments. State worker's insurance firm PT Jamsostek could cover the down payments. The housing development is expected to be completed within six months.

The Public Housing Ministry said it would also cooperate with the State- Owned Enterprises Ministry to allot their corporate social responsibility funds to refurbish the houses. (nvn)

Actions, demos, protests...

Depok elementary students demand redevelopment of their schools

Jakarta Post - April 12, 2012

Jakarta – In democracy, everyone has the right to speak out, including elementary students.

Students of Cipayung, Sukmajaya III, and Mekarjaya XXX state-run elementary schools, rallied in front of the Depok Regional Council building on Wednesday demanding that rebuilding work on their schools be started soon.

The students bore banners with pictures showing debris of their schools, and sang a popular dangdut song, Alamat Palsu (Wrong Address), but changed the original lyrics of "where can I find my lover" into "where are our schools" during the demonstration.

Their schools, which are located on Jl. Tole Iskandar, Sukmajaya, Depok, West Java, were demolished for total renovation in October 2011, but the redevelopment project has yet to be kicked off.

"No construction work has been seen so far," Sukmajaya III principal Amaliah said as quoted by tempo.co on Thursday. Around 761 students from the two schools are now studying at other schools.

Head of the infrastructure unit at the Education Agency, Indah Lestari, said the project had been hampered by lack of funding. However, she promised the schools' redevelopment would be completed by the end of this year as the Depok administration had allotted almost Rp 1.2 billion (US$130,694) to the project. (iwa)

Demonstrators throw tomatoes, water bottles at Newmont office

Jakarta Globe - April 10, 2012

Dozens of student demonstrators pelted the office of gold miner Newmont Nusa Tenggara on Monday over a recent court ruling allowing it to continue dumping tailings in Senunu Bay in West Sumbawa district.

The protesters from the West Nusa Tenggara chapter of the National Student League for Democracy (LMND-NTB) threw rotten tomatoes and bottled water at NNT's representative office in Mataram, the provincial capital. Police and NNT security guards did not respond to the pelting.

Andra Ashad, the LMND-NTB chairman, said NNT should be forced to cease operating its Batu Hijau mine and leave the province. "There is no alternative but for us to kick Newmont out of West Nusa Tenggara," Andra said.

West Papua

Police told to investigate fatal shootings in Papua

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2012

Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta – Several unexplained cases of violence involving mysterious snipers are heightening insecurity in Papua, the national rights body has said.

Chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), Ifdhal Kasim, said Friday police should thoroughly investigate the incidents. The latest incident was the shooting at a Twin Otter aircraft operated by Trigana Air Services, which killed one passenger and injured four others at Mulia Airport in Puncak Jaya regency on Sunday.

"The distance of the shooter to the aircraft was around 50 meters. Imagine the potential danger to other aircraft and people," commissioner Yoseph Adi Prasetya said.

Komnas HAM commissioners returning from Papua could only establish that the shooters were highly trained, and were suspected not to be regular police or military personnel. They could not establish, however, whether the Free Papua Movement (OPM) was involved.

"Various forms of violence constitute an increasing number of records piling up from year to year, without clarity on the identity of perpetrators or the masterminds behind these attacks, which have robbed many people of their lives and injured scores of others," Ifdhal told a press conference.

Ifdahl and Yoseph recently visited Papua's provincial capital, Jayapura. The commissioners said they suspected the latest incident targeting the Trigana aircraft was related to the local election, in which many people had voiced their rejection of the appointment of an acting regional leader.

However, they said this was just one of several unresolved incidents. "Also, many security personnel have not been reporting to their units and this should immediately be looked into," another commissioner, Ridha Saleh, said.

Jayapura rally supports 'New Guinea Council: First Steps' conference

West Papua Media - April 11, 2012

Demonstrations were held in Jayapura on April 5 in support of a groundbreaking conference held in The Hague, The Netherlands, to examine pathways to the reinstatement of the New Guinea Council or Nieuw-Guinea Raad, the original Parliament of West Papua from 1961 until Indonesia's invasion.

Jayapura was again brought to a standstill by the demonstration organised by the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), where several thousand people gathered hear speeches and to voice their solidarity with the "Nieuw-Guinea Raad: the First Steps" Conference.

Indonesian security forces were in attendance in large numbers at the rally, but no act of violence or provocation were reported by rally organisers.

In The Hague, speakers at the conference organised by the International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP) and held at the Dutch Parliament, included exiled UK-based independence figure Benny Wenda, Dutch Parliamentarians including Harry van Bommel, Cees van der Staaij, and Wim Kortenoeven, International Lawyers for West Papua (IPWP) Co-ordinator and international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson also spoke, demanding The Netherlands honour its "sacred trust" of its promise of independence for the West Papuan people, and assist West Papuan to fulfil their human right to self-determination.

The New Guinea Council (Nieuw-Guinea Raad) was established on April 5 1961 whilst under Dutch administration as the concept of a more democratic mode of administration started to develop, as a body that was to be the basis for a independent West Papuan parliament.

According to the International Parliamentarians for West Papua, "The establishment of regional councils came from the requirement that the Charter of the United Nations imposed on the Netherlands: that the interests of the inhabitants of Dutch New Guinea had to be paramount."

"The Netherlands was to respect the right to self-rule and had to take the political aspirations of the indigenous people into account. They were also meant to support the Papuan people with the gradual development of their own political institutions. There are documents. We are not speaking of vague promises, but we are speaking of real firm commitments for the independence of the West Papuan people," explained a spokesperson for IPWP.

"Unfortunately by signing the New York Agreement (1962) the Dutch governments abandoned the West Papuan people," the spokesperson said.

Shameless Cameron's hypocrisy in arms peddling

Morning Star - April 11, 2012

Rory MacKinnon – David Cameron may have once been a West Papuan hero but activists poured scorn on the PM on Wednesday after he promised their Indonesian oppressors "the best defence equipment in the world."

The PM arrived with an entourage of arms dealers in Jakarta, praising his hosts as a land of "great opportunities" – despite its lengthy record of human rights abuses by both police and the military.

Mr Cameron told Indonesia's Kompas newspaper that Britain had one of the most rigorous and careful export licence schemes in the world.

"But at the same time we believe that democratic and responsible countries like Indonesia have a right to defend themselves and to buy the equipment needed to do so.

"Britain makes some of the best defence equipment in the world and it is right that it's available to Indonesia, under the very same criteria that we apply to all our partners around the world," he said.

But while his comments curried favour among the Indonesian elite, West Papuan activists voiced outrage. Annexed by the Suharto dictatorship in 1969, the region has seen decades of human rights abuses including arson, torture and massacres at the hands of Indonesian forces.

As recently as October, three people were killed and 90 injured after police in armoured carriers opened fire on peaceful protesters, while just last month five men were jailed for three years on charges of treason for organising the event.

But the outcry over Mr Cameron's comments was personal as much as political. Mr Cameron became an unlikely celebrity among West Papuans on the 2010 campaign trail, when he said exiles in his electorate had described a "terrible situation."

The comment, coupled with a meeting with exiled separatist leader Benny Wenda, sparked celebrations across West Papua as news spread of the coalition's election win.

Villagers gathered to wave pictures of Mr Cameron before reporters, while political prisoners Buchtar Tabuni and Victor Yiemo were pictured holding a "Congratulations David Cameron" placard – against the bars of their cell.

The Free West Papua Campaign described the PM's sales pitch as "one of the worst outcomes imaginable.

"How can David Cameron meet Benny Wenda and describe the situation in West Papua as 'terrible' when it was Benny's village that was bombed by British-made BAE Systems Hawk jets which continue to be sold to Indonesia? This really is one of the worst outcomes imaginable of David Cameron talking about Indonesia."

Campaign Against The Arms Trade co-ordinator Kaye Stearman said Britain had a "terrible record" in the wake of the Hawk jets. Britain had already approved #48m worth of Indonesian sales since 2008, including #33m in parts for aircraft, helicopters and drones.

"Now Cameron is to sell even more weaponry to a country which, although ostensibly a democracy, is still prosecuting a largely hidden war."

Mr Cameron's press office had not returned requests for comment at the time of print.

Papua shooters OPM, not us: TNI

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2012

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – A top military officer was quick on Wednesday to blame the Free Papua Movement (OPM) for a recent shooting at an airport in Papua that killed one and injured four even though the investigation into the incident has not concluded.

"Of course the suspect were OPM members, who else?" the Indonesian Army chief of staff, Gen. Pramono Edhie Wibowo, told reporters at Merdeka Palace before attending a State Ceremony to welcome British Prime Minister David Cameron.

He was responding to questions regarding the shooting of a Twin Otter plane operated by privately run Trigana Air. The small aircraft was shot at on Sunday morning shortly after it touched down at Mulia Airport in the Puncak Jaya regency.

A journalist was killed and four other people onboard, including the pilot and first officer, were injured. The pilot lost control and the plane hit a nearby warehouse.

Pramono was quick to deny any involvement of TNI members in the recent string of violence in Papua.

"To be honest, I think those who accuse the TNI do not have hearts," the brother-in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said. "We are working together with the police to probe the incident."

Puncak Jaya regency is known as the "red zone" for its record of numerous attacks by unidentified perpetrators.

Numerous attacks in Indonesia's easternmost province, which have killed dozens of civilians, remain unresolved. This has resulted in speculation that the attacks were part of intelligence or military operations.

Pramono said cracking down on armed groups in Papua would not be easy given the region's deep forest and mountainous area. "The region is difficult. Maybe I should ask journalists to come along sometime so you learn how tough the area is," he said. (nvn)

Papua shooters' identity is already known: BIN

Jakarta Globe - April 11, 2012

Banjir Ambarita, Arientha Primanita & Farouk Arnaz – The identity of the gunmen who on Sunday fired machine guns at a commercial plane in Papua may already be known by authorities.

The chief of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), Lt. Gen. Marciano Norman, on Wednesday told journalists: "The position of this group has already been identified. They are currently being pursued."

Speaking to journalists at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Marciano declined to give further details, only saying that the hunt for the attackers was now focused on the location of the shooting in Mulia, the district town in Puncak Jaya, on the western coast of Papua.

Meanwhile, military leader Maj. Gen. M. Erwin Safitri said that the separatist Free Papua Organization (OPM) was behind the shooting of the airplane in Mulia, which caused the death of one of the passengers on board the Trigana Air aircraft.

"This was an act of the OPM. No other group in Papua has caused chaos there, and this has happened several times before," Erwin said.

He said that while elsewhere in Papua the military have prioritized peaceful dialogue, Puncak Jaya was an exception, and "even more so since Goliath Tabuni [the local OPM chief] is still conducting a guerrilla campaign in the forests there," he said.

National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said that police were coordinating with the local authorities to safeguard the area. "We have coordinated with the administration in Puncak Jaya and all security personnel there," Timur said.

Indonesian Armed Forces Commander Adm. Agus Suhartono said that the military was ready to assist the police in securing the area and both forces were coordinating well in Papua. "We will provide the back up and we already have troops there," he said.

Papua Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Johannes Nugroho Wicaksono said the Mulia airstrip will be operational today after local authorities agreed to increase the security presence in the area.

The airstrip has been the site of several shootings in recent years. Last year, a local police chief was ambushed and gunned down.

Yudhoyono demands quick justice in Papua attack

Jakarta Globe - April 10, 2012

Arientha Primanita, Farouk Arnaz & Ismira Lutfia – Soldiers may be deployed in Papua to assist the police in the search for the gunmen responsible for Sunday's attack on a commercial airplane, as the president demands swift justice.

The attack left one person dead and has raised fears that separatist rebels are becoming more brazen and could further undermine the fragile peace in the province.

"This must be solved quickly," presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said on Monday. "Those responsible should be brought to justice. This is totally unacceptable."

Julian said the president was concerned about the psychological effect the incident could have on residents, leaving them fearful and unable to function normally. "This is proof that the situation in Papua is not yet secure and there are still many armed groups there," he said.

Julian said security personnel in Papua were doing everything they could to solve the case and catch the assailants.

The president, Julian said, has also issued instructions that there should be no lack of personnel to assure security in Papua and that the military might be deployed to reinforce the police.

A group of armed men opened fire on a Twin Otter airplane operated by Trigana Air that had just landed at the airport in Mulia, in Puncak Jaya district.

The aircraft careered off the runway and into a warehouse. One passenger, a journalist, died after being shot in the neck. The pilot, co-pilot and a mother and her 4-year-old son were injured in the attack. National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said the police believed those responsible for Sunday's attack had carried out previous attacks in the area.

"We suspect the perpetrators have carried out previous attacks," he said. "They control the field there. Our team is working hard to investigate the attack and go after them." He said the attackers were part of an "armed civilian group" but gave no details.

Another National Police spokesman, Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution, said the difficult terrain in the area would make it difficult for the authorities to hunt down the attackers. Mulia is in a mountainous area and the airport is hemmed in by peaks.

"This could happen again... it is really difficult," the spokesman said. "The district police can ask for reinforcements from the Papua Police. If the Papua Police ask us for reinforcements, we will send them, whatever they need."

He said so far the police had only been able to estimate that the shooters opened fire from about 50 meters away, he said.

Meanwhile, the Alliance of Independent Journalists is urging the National Police to quickly locate the shooters. The journalist killed in the attack was Leiron Kogoya, 35, who was a reporter for Papua Pos, a local newspaper.

The airport has experienced several recent attacks, including one in October that saw the local police chief shot and killed. Mulia has also been the scene of a string of unsolved shootings targeting both civilians and security personnel.

[Additional reporting by Anita Rachman and Markus Junianto Sihaloho.]

Hunt begins for gunmen who machine-gunned plane in Papua

Jakarta Globe - April 9, 2012

Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – Police and soldiers of the Indonesian Armed Forces are combing the hills in Mulia, Papua, after gunmen sprayed an incoming commercial flight with bullets, killing one passenger and wounding four people on Sunday.

"Joint personnel from the police and Armed Forces [TNI] are going after the perpetrators, who ran into the mountains around the airport," Papua Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Yohanes said.

The search team included members of the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) paramilitary police unit from the Puncak Jaya district police as well as soldiers from Batallion 7534 AVT based in Nabire.

Yohanes said a group of at least five men fired on a Trigana Air Twin Otter that had flown from Nabire and was about to land at the airport in Mulia town in Puncak Jaya district at around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday.

"The pilot panicked and could not control the airplane so that it veered off the runway and hit a building," Johanes said, adding that the plane struck a warehouse.

He said one person died in the incident while four others, including the pilot of the flight, Captain Beby Astek, were wounded during the crash. The sole fatality was Leiron Kogoya, a journalist working for Papua Pos, who was shot in the neck.

"Leiron Kogoya was our journalist who had worked in Puncak Jaya. He had been assigned there for a year," said Angel Berta Sinaga, the chief editor of the Papua Pos.

Angel also said that Leiron was a native of Puncak Jaya and added that his family had already claimed the body. Yohanes said that other injuries were sustained by co-pilot Willy Resumun, a 4-year-old boy and the boy's mother.

The spokesman also said police were combing the airport for clues and evidence, adding that the airport was not closed since it did not have that many flights to begin with.

"The airplane's fuel tank was hit by a bullet but did not explode," said a Trigana Air employee who refused to be identified.

The wounded pilot and co-pilot were flown to Jayapura with the help of another Trigana Air Twin Otter plane, said Bustomi, who heads the Jayapura office of the airline. They were transported to the Dian Harapan Waena hospital, he said, adding that the wounds did not appear to be too serious.

"We are temporarily halting all flights to and from Mulia, and we will wait for the situation to become more conducive to everyone's safety," Bustomi said/ He also called for better security at the airport, especially since the town was dependent on flights for needed supplies.

The airport has experienced several recent shootings, the last one injuring the local police chief in October.

After plane attack, SBY tightens security in Papua

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2012

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered security forces to intensify and heighten security measures in Papua following the attack on a commercial aircraft by an armed gang at an airport in the country's easternmost province.

"The Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister [Djoko Suyanto] has reported the incident to the President who was shocked by the report. The attack proved the situation in the region was still unsafe and thus requires a special approach by security authorities," Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha told reporters at the Presidential Office on Monday.

A Twin Otter plane operated by privately run Trigana Air was attacked on Sunday morning shortly after it touched down at Mulia Airport in the Puncak Jaya regency, killing a journalist and injuring several other people onboard including the pilot and first officer. The pilot lost control and the plane hit a warehouse.

"We are dealing with armed groups so the security measures must be 'special'," Julian said. "Attacks on commercial aircraft are a serious threat," he added.

Doubts grow of OPM responsibility for Puncak Jaya aircraft shooting

West Papua Media - April 9, 2012

Nick Chesterfield – Concern is mounting in Puncak Jaya that an Indonesian military unit of "unknown persons" seeking to create a security crisis in Puncak Jaya may be behind the April 8 shooting attack on a Trigana Air Twin Otter aircraft in which a Papua Post journalist was killed.

Civil Society representatives, media sources and representatives from the rebel TPN (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional or National Liberation Army) have all cast significant doubt on the Indonesian military claim that Papuan guerrillas were responsible for opening fire on the aircraft.

The aircraft came under accurate small arms fire as it was approaching from the Noble airfield in Mulia, Puncak Jaya, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. Leiron Kogoya, 35, the Puncak Jaya correspondent covering local elections for the Nabire-based Papua Post, was fatally injured by a gunshot to his neck.

During the landing the injured pilot panicked, according to local media sources, and crashed the plane into the terminal building (shed). Four people sustained injuries from bullet fragments. A child, Pako Korwa, was wounded in the left finger, Jackie Korwa (mother) was wounded in the right shoulder; Dedy or Beby (pilot), was hit in the left ankle, and Willy Resubun (copilot) injured his right hand and fingers.

Papua Police's public relations head, Commander Yohanes Nugroho Wicaksono, told Tempointeractif.com that the shooters were hiding in the hills 50 metres from the airport. Police had been unable to identify the perpetrators or the guns used in the incident. Yohanes guessed the shooter had used a M-16 or SS1 – the standard issue weapon for the TNI. "We're still studying what particular type of gun was used," he said.

Djoko Suyanto, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Justice and Security Affairs condemned the attack and demanded security forces immediately capture the perpetrators, but admitted that the case would likely remain unsolved. "Their actions must be stopped although it is difficult to do this because of the hills and dense forests," Suyanto said.

A joint team of the Australian-created Detachment 88 counter-terrorism unit, Brimob snipers and members of the notorious Nabire-based Indonesian army (TNI) Battalion 753 AVT gave chase to the shooters – according to the police statement – but failed to locate the shooters.

Perpetrators for "unknown persons" shootings are rarely located by police in Papua, despite significant intelligence resources and funding provided to the counter-terror units by the Australian Government.

A West Papua rights activist and former political prisoner Sebby Sambon has told Tabloid Jubi that the work is not that of the TPN, and was far from the areas of operation for troops of TPN leader Goliat Tabuni. "If it occurred near the TPN-OPM headquarters in Tingginambut, then accusations (that TPN may be involved) may make sense," he said.

However, according to Sambon, TPN/OPM will not shoot civilians. "TPN/OPM (is there) to fight for the people. Period. It is not possible to shoot people."

Sambon, who is in regular contact through the underground network with Tabuni's men, said there is a group that was playing at Noble. "There is a play, therefore, forged evidence. TPN/OPM has made no orders to shoot civilian aircraft, Sambon explained.

Police have accused TPN of involvement without any evidence, according to Sambon. "Is it the TPN/OPM purely firing, or other parties who deliberately do this to create a 'project' in Papua?". "For every event at Noble (field), legal facts have never been substantiated," said Sambon.

Indonesian press outlets are reporting that Indonesian police have conceded that the shooting is the work of "Unknown persons", Polri Public Information Bureau chief Brigadier-General M Taufik told Vivanews.com that the police could not confirm whether the shooting was carried out by the Free Papua Movement (OPM). "So far we have not been able to ascertain whether or not they are the OPM, and we suspect they are a bunch of strangers," he told Vivanews.com.

Yet a senior media source told West Papua Media on condition of anonymity, that both Police and military intelligence officers have been sending contradictory SMS messages about the shooting to journalists across Papua. "Two SMS messages about Trigana shooting were received from ASINTEL (Assistant Intelligence Commander of the Cenderawasih military district) and two from Kadivhumas (Public Affairs) Police."

"Asintel told me that the shooter is OPM, but Kadivhumas Police told me that the shooter were "unknown persons". This is common habits among journalists in Papua. TNI (Indonesian military) will send SMS to journalists to told them that the shooter is OPM. But the police already know who actually did the shooting in the Puncak Jaya and Freeport area. You know, TNI also has many groups that conducted operations in Papua," the source told West Papua Media.

In a statement obtained by West Papua Media, Indonesian human rights organisation Imparsial suggested that the shootings were carried out as an "outrageous act" by elements that want to destabilize the security situation in Puncak Jaya and take advantage of the chaos. "Shoot civilian aircraft on the holy day of Easter, there are casualties. I guess there is a deliberate manufacture of the situation in Mulia, (so the area) seems to be harboring terrorists," said the Executive Director of Imparsial, Poengki Indarti.

Indarti says that serious investigation must occur into events surrounding the shootings in Puncak Jaya. "I hope the government and security forces act seriously, because Papuans don't want to dirty their hands with blood of others on Easter Sunday," she said. "This act was orchestrated to make Mulia a (place) of terrorists, but it is not at all, "said Indarti again. Imparsial urged the police to immediately identify the imposters with sophisticated intelligence sent to Puncak Jaya.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists Papua Branch has also called for Kogoya's death to be properly investigated by police, and for them not to fall back on the usual defence of "unknown persons".

In a statement, the Chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists Jayapura, Victor Mambor said "The incident is very regrettable. Leiron Kogoya was confirmed as the journalist for Pacific and Papua Post Nabire, and was commissioned by the editors to cover the phase of the elections in Puncak Jaya district."

"It is clear that Leiron Kogoya was killed while on journalistic assignment, because he flew on the plane ordered by the editors to cover the phases of elections in Puncak Jaya," said Mambor. According to AJI Jayapura, the police are supposed to ensure the safety of civilians, including journalists carrying out their journalistic duty.

"To his fellow journalists in Papua, (this is a renewed warning) to always be alert and careful in carrying out journalistic duties, since the recent intimidation and violence against journalists in Papua is increasing in intensity." said Mambor. Victor Mambor is also is editor in chief of tabloidjubi.com.

Journalists in Papua are regularly subjected to violence and intimidation by Indonesian security forces, including direct monitoring by intelligence officers in newsrooms. The Pacific Media Freedom Report 2011 documented cases where at least two journalists have been killed in West Papua, five abducted and 18 assaulted in 2011.

Aceh

Police bust alleged leaders of Aceh pre-election attacks

Jakarta Globe - April 15, 2012

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police have arrested two former Free Aceh Movement members for allegedly masterminding a string of armed attacks in Aceh ahead of the province's recently-completed elections.

A team comprising of members of the Aceh Police and the National Police Densus 88 anti-terrorism unit arrested Vikram, also known as Ayah Banta, and Joni in two separate locations early on Saturday.

"A.B. is the mastermind of a string of shootings in Aceh that happened recently," Aceh Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Gustav Leo said on Sunday. Vikram was arrested in Lhok Beuringen and Joni in Matang Drien, both located in Tanah Jambo Aye part of North Aceh.

Gustav declined to reveal more information on the men but local residents told the Jakarta Globe that Vikram was a former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) official for North Aceh while Joni was a local member.

"A.B. was hiding in his family's home when he was nabbed, while J. was hiding in the home of a North Aceh legislator from the Aceh Party," said a local resident who declined to be identified.

Fachrul Razi, a spokesman for the GAM-affiliated Aceh Party, confirmed that Vikram was one of the party's cadres. "But he's not in the Aceh Party's [organizational] structure," Fachrul said. "He is, however, an official in the Aceh Transition Committee [KPA] overseeing financial matters."

The two were arrested based on information police received from eight suspects who had been detained for their connection to a string of pre- election attacks that started in October and left eight dead.

The violence included an attack on a car belonging to the campaign team of Governor Irwandi Yusuf, and seven other cars belonging to the campaign teams of various gubernatorial candidates in last Monday's poll.

The string of attacks are believed to have stemmed from the killing of a former GAM member who was also KPA chairman – Bireuen Amiruddin Husen, also known as Saiful Cagee. Bireuen was said to be opposed to the candidacy of Zaini Abdullah and Muzakir Manaf for governor and deputy governor. Both were members of the Aceh Party.

KPA was formed to accommodate former GAM guerillas after a peace agreement was reached with the national government in 2005.

The two suspects were taken to the Aceh Police office for questioning, but Gustav said there is a possibility that the two will be taken to National Police headquarters in Jakarta as an investigation into their roles as terrorists continues.

National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) chairman Ansyaad Mbai was quoted in the media as saying Vikram was involved in the 2004 bombings of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport near Jakarta, the Wisma Bhayangkari building, the parliament building and the UNDP office in Jakarta, but Gustav refused to comment on that aspect of the investigation.

Thousands of Banda Acehnese didn't vote, an official says

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2012

Jakarta – More than 69,000 registered voters in the capital of Aceh province, Banda Aceh, did not cast their votes in the April 9 regional elections (pilkada), according to an Aceh official on Friday.

Banda Aceh's Independent Election Commission (KIP) public relations chief, Munawar Syah, said that only 89,421 out of 158,454 registered and eligible voters went to polling booths to vote, Antara news agency reported.

Munawar said the reason for the low turnout was probably due to shifts in the timing and stages of the regional elections. Besides that, he said, a lot of people probably preferred to use their voting day holiday for recreation rather than voting.

"The rate of people leaving Banda Aceh [that day] was much higher compared to other areas," Munawar said. Munawar lamented the fact that many residents hadn't used their voting rights to choose a governor and a mayor for the 2012-2017 period.

Munawar said the KIP had tried to work together with the Banda Aceh administration, as well as with the media, to disseminate information as best they could in all regions. (png/swd)

Aceh sees disasters as sign of God's wrath

Sydney Morning Herald - April 14, 2012

Michael Bachelard – When pentecostal pastor Danny Nalliah thundered that the 2009 Victorian bushfires were caused by God's wrath at that state's decision to decriminalise abortion, he was an outlier even among radical Christians.

But in Aceh, Indonesia's most devout province (and its most disaster prone), it's not just common but mainstream to believe that Wednesday's terrifying earthquake, like the tsunami before it, was a messages from Allah that people were not taking their religion seriously enough.

Like many, Acehnese man Rizni Aulia's suffering from the 2004 tsunami was profound. Of his family, only he and his wife survived the wave. Together they watched from the second storey of their house as their three-year-old daughter and many other family members drowned outside, trapped in the family car.

The horror of that day came alive again on Wednesday as an earthquake shook the region, prompting fears of another deadly wave.

Mr Rizni, like thousands of other Acehnese, took refuge at the mosque. "Some people went to the mosque because it is quite high, 16 metres," Mr Rizni, 32, said yesterday. "But it's true that during the afternoon and the evening prayers, they all prayed, through all the aftershocks, they stayed there, some praying, some reading the Koran, all the mothers looking after the children."

In Islam, he believes, natural disasters are "little doomsdays". "It's about warnings from God to his people about the mistakes they have committed, the wrongdoing they have committed," he said.

Imam Nurcholis Muhammad Yunus, of the Al Kawa Kib village mosque, on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, is by no means a radical preacher. He is not surprised that people flocked to places of worship to find safety. "Since we were kids our parents taught us that the biggest protector is Allah and the mosque is Allah's house on earth," he said.

But, as well as faith, he said, good sense intervened. Nobody came to his mosque because it is built on a low, flat piece of land that is only protected from the sea by high walls. "We don't blindly believe things. We also use logic," he says.

He believes the 2004 tsunami and Wednesday's earthquake were God's comment on the lifestyles of the people of Aceh. "We have the rooms of some very respected clerics here, sacred people... but despite that, people here were drunk and had drugs and women, and so that is why... God was angry," Mr Nurcholis said.

"Now with the earthquake, the same thing has happened again, because only a few people implemented Islamic sharia."

Of all places to attract God's wrath, Aceh is perhaps the least likely. It's Indonesia's most devout province, known as the verandah of Mecca, and the only place in this moderate Muslim country to practice sharia. Offences such as drinking, gambling and unmarried people being close to one another are punished by caning.

But Mr Rizni says most of his friends and most of the people in Aceh agree with the Imam. They are not angry with God for the tsunami or the earthquake. Rather, they try to accept its lessons.

"I am becoming more devout compared with the way I was before the tsunami of 2004, because I believe things happen for a reason," Mr Rizni says. "I think God wants us to be stronger."

In Aceh Party victory, some see intimidation, others good politics

Jakarta Globe - April 11, 2012

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The ruling Aceh Party is expected to win the gubernatorial, mayoral and district head polls due to the party's strong structure of command right down to the village level, analysts said on Tuesday.

But an electoral official said the convincing result followed widespread intimidation of voters as they cast their ballots on Monday. Quick counts from two survey institutes soon confirmed that Aceh Party candidates secured clear victories.

According to a quick count from the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI), Zaini Abdullah and his running mate, Muzakir Manaf, who are backed by the Aceh Party, had received 54 percent of the vote while the incumbent governor, Irwandi Yusuf, and his running mate, Muhyan Yunan, were a distant second with 29 percent.

In third place was the former deputy governor, Muhammad Nazar, and Nova Iriansyah with 8 percent of the vote.

Teuku Ardiansyah, a security analyst from the Katahati Institute, said that Zaini and Muzakir benefitted from the support of the Aceh Party, which was established by former guerrillas of the now-outlawed Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Zaini is a former foreign minister of the GAM government in exile, while Muzakir was its former top military commander.

"They have a clear chain of command right down to the village level. The party members work together to promote their candidates even in remote areas. The other candidates just didn't have as good a campaigning method," Teuku told the Jakarta Globe in Banda Aceh on Tuesday.

Commenting on the quick count results, Muzakir said the Aceh Party's candidates should have received more votes. "I told the press earlier that we would get 80 percent of the votes. So, the results are far from what we expected," he told the Globe.

Muzakir said that according to the Aceh Party's quick count, the party's 17 candidates for mayors and district heads have all won their races.

Separately, Aceh Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) chairman Nyak Arief Fadhillah Syah said that the Aceh Party intimidated voters in almost all regions, coercing them to vote for the party's candidates. "They threatened votes away from other candidates and stood near the ballot boxes to make sure residents voted for their own candidates," he said.

Nyak Arief said in former GAM strongholds such as Pidie, Pidie Jaya, North Aceh, Lhokseumawe, East Aceh, Bireuen and Langsa, the intimidation was very blatant.

"We have reports of intimidation from almost all areas. In Pidie, for instance, a polling station official cast his vote three times. We are still gathering more evidence to support our claims that the scale of intimidation was massive," he said.

Muzakir said that he would welcome other candidates reporting any allegations to the Constitutional Court, a body authorized to review election results. "We are ready. Even if we have to repeat the election, we are ready," he said.

Monday marked the second set of simultaneous elections in Aceh, following ballots in 2007 that came after the 2005 peace pact signed by GAM and the Indonesian government.

Aceh election office attacked amid claims of vote buying

Jakarta Globe - April 11, 2012

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Just a day after Monday's largely peaceful elections, protests flared up in Aceh over allegations of cheating.

In Gayo Lues district, one of 13 districts and four cities where voters turned out to choose a leader, some 3,000 people loyal to district head candidates Irmawan and Abdul Karim pelted the local office of the Aceh Independent Elections Commission (KIP) with rocks on Tuesday night.

They demanded the vote counting stop, claiming massive vote buying and cheating by the camp of the incumbent district head, Ibnu Hasyim. "They damaged the fence and shattered all the windows at the office," Alfin Anhar, the Gayo Lues KIP head, said on Wednesday. "They also burned down one of our cars, and torched five other cars and several motorcycles parked nearby."

He added that although there was a heavy police and military presence at the office, the officers failed to prevent the attack because of the sheer number of people in the mob.

No official figures are available for the vote count in Gayo Lues, but Ibnu, backed by a broad coalition of parties, is widely reported to be ahead in the count. Monday's elections were also held to choose a governor for Aceh.

Iskandar, the coordinator behind Tuesday night's attack, said the mob was disappointed with the KIP for continuing to count the votes despite what he called cheating by Ibnu's camp.

"The election in Gayo Lues was marred by cheating, vote buying and intimidation by the [incumbent]," he said. "We demand a new election in which Ibnu is disqualified." He did not elaborate on the cheating claims.

Similar accusations were raised in Central Aceh district on Tuesday afternoon, where hundreds of supporters of 10 candidates rallied outside the office of the incumbent, Nasaruddin.

Local polling monitors promised to look into the allegations against Nasaruddin, backed by the Democratic Party.

In North Aceh district, nine candidates voiced their rejection of local poll results because of "the widespread threats and intimidation" by supporters of Muhammad Thaib, the candidate from the Aceh Party.

Interim results give Thaib 64 percent of the vote, with the second-placed candidate far behind with just 7.5 percent.

In a joint statement, the nine candidates, including incumbent district head Ilyas A. Hamid, said they had been subjected to threats since long before the polls. These included attempted bombings at certain candidates' homes, arson attacks on their campaign vehicles and threats via text message.

Observers from the Asian Network for Free Elections (Anfrel) said the text message threats had been reported to poll monitors in Pidie, Pidie Jaya, Bireuen, Lhokseumawe and North Aceh, but there had been no follow-up.

Damaso Magbual, the Anfrel chairman, said there were also several irregularities during polling day, including one incident in which a local legislator arrived at a polling station and told voters to pick a certain candidate.

He added that at another polling station, poll workers were seen entering polling booths and coaching the voters on which candidates to choose.

Aceh's love hotel gives sharia the cold shoulder

Sydney Morning Herald - April 9, 2012

Michael Bachelard – By western standards, the rooms are dingy, but Aceh's love hotel is doing a roaring trade.

"Fauzi", 45, who regularly brings his 25-year-old girlfriend to this motel-style hideaway in the suburbs of Banda Aceh, says he's not interested in luxury anyway. "All I need is a bed, air conditioning and a toilet."

And it also has the benefit of being safe. "The military owns it," Fauzi says, "so the sharia police never disturb you here."

Aceh is the only province of Indonesia where sharia (Islamic law) is imposed. It was put in place under a special deal with Jakarta in 2001 as the central government tried to placate a violent rebellion in its westernmost province.

In practice, the law focuses on criminalising three infractions: drinking, gambling and unmarried couples being in "close proximity". Each is punishable by caning, a big fine or even imprisonment and the law is patrolled by a special force of moral police in uniforms.

But an attempt two years ago to extend it so adulterers could be stoned to death faltered because governor Irwandi Yusuf refused to sign the law. Campaigns by the sharia police to prevent women wearing tight jeans come and go. Under these restrictive circumstances, a discrete place for unmarried sex is in hot demand.

Fauzi says he will continue coming here until his divorce is finalised and he can marry his girlfriend and move in with her. "Everyone comes here," he says. "Married, not married, military, police, civilians," he says.

A prayer mat is in the cupboard to cater for the devout. On our brief visit, several couples were coming in and out of rooms. The car park was full, its attendant busy.

All around Aceh, which goes to the polls today, are the signs of the restrictions of Islamic law. Almost every woman wears a jilbab – an open- faced hair covering. In public places where young people gather signs warn them to behave.

"No dating," says a crudely painted one at a favourite fishing spot. "Those who are not husband and wife are not permitted to sit together. Those who break this rule will face the risk," reads another.

But all around this city is evidence of people slyly subverting the rules. Young women grip their young men slightly too fervently as they sit on the back of their motorcycles; watchful couples hold hands or cuddle in the half dark of the beachfront at Ulele.

Rahman, 23, and Juniar, 21, unlike many couples on Banda Aceh's waterfront, are engaged, and their parents approve of their liaison. But even so they were moved on by a sharia policeman a few months ago.

"I said to him, 'What business do you have asking us to leave'?" Juniar recalls. "He said, 'You are my business'."

They, like all their friends, are keenly aware of where the boundaries lie and what they can get away with. Nobody wants the shame of a public caning. Some who have been punished are forced to move away from their village.

Fauzi says that if you polled the public, only 10 per cent would say they wanted sharia, "and they would all be over 50".

Islamic police hold sway in Indonesia's Aceh

Agence France Presse - April 9, 2012

Arlina Arshad – In Indonesia's only province ruled by strict Islamic law, the sight of the "morals police" prompts women to quickly adjust their headscarves and male and female companions to move apart.

In Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra island, it is the job of the 1,000- strong Wilayatul Hisbah, or Islamic police, to enforce sharia laws that mandate public modesty for women, and forbid unmarried couples from socialising.

In the capital Banda Aceh last week, a woman peeled away from her husband, reached for a scarf and quickly wrapped it around her head as a patrol approached; a petrified couple hopped on a motorcycle and fled. But another pair hiding behind a large rock on the beach were not so lucky.

"Are you married?" roared a burly officer, wearing a khaki uniform and sporting a thick moustache, as he approached the cringing couple who shook their heads. "This is unacceptable in Aceh, we have sharia laws here. Go along now, go home," he said, after examining their identity cards.

Because small violations earn usually no more than a reprimand, it is not uncommon to spot women without headscarves, or couples together in cafes or other public places.

Nevertheless Aceh, an autonomous region on the western edge of the scattered Indonesian archipelago, remains an anomaly in a country where most of the 240 million people practise a moderate form of Islam.

Alcohol is freely sold in the rest of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, but it is banned in Aceh. In some of the province's regions, women are forbidden from wearing tight trousers.

Gamblers and imbibers are publicly caned. Debate still churns in Aceh over whether adulterers should continue to be publicly flogged, or stoned to death.

In elections Monday to pick a governor and 17 district heads and deputies, voters will decide whether they want leaders who advocate stricter sharia laws.

They are Aceh's second polls since the province was devastated by a tsunami in 2004 that killed 170,000 people in the province and the end in 2005 of a 30-year separatist war against Indonesian rule that claimed 15,000 lives.

Incumbent governor Irwandi Yusuf, who supports sharia but rejects stricter laws including stoning, will face contenders such as Teungku Ahmad Tajuddin, a cleric who will not say outright whether he backs stiffer laws but opposes Yusuf for rejecting them.

The regular patrols by the Islamic police, which critics say infringe civil liberties, are embraced for the most part by the fervently religious population of five million.

"The sharia police are working for the good of Aceh and I support them," said Andara, a 27-year-old woman who works as a restaurant cashier, and like many Indonesians goes by one name. "If nobody controls the people, they will do and wear as they please and what will happen to the Islamic sharia we have for so long defended?"

In this conservative outpost, children are educated about sharia laws in elementary school. In December, 64 male and female punk-rock fans picked up at a concert in Banda Aceh were "morally rehabilitated" by the Islamic police – they were forced to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change their clothes and pray.

Extreme views are rife in the province where there are no cinemas, music concerts are few, and billboards depict females in headscarves.

"Women who don't wear headscarves are inviting men to touch their breasts," said 47-year-old teacher Tarmizi Mohammad. "I think we should enforce sharia laws further and stone adulterers and chop off the hands of thieves," he added.

But the morals police faced a setback in 2010 after two officers were jailed for gang-raping a woman in custody. Sharia police chief Khalidin Loong said that recruitment regulations had been tightened since then, and defended stiff punishments. "The lashings are symbolic, to cause more shame than pain," he said.

Not everyone in the province likes the sharia police, however, and some refuse to live according to sharia law – even if it gets them into trouble.

"People called me a dog, the bringer of disasters, the inviter of the next tsunami. I have been picked up by the sharia police many times," said 20- year-old student Dila, who defiantly walks around in miniskirts and without a headscarf.

Wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and without a headscarf, 22-year-old Dia Fatiya said the people of Aceh accepted the way she dressed and it was only the sharia police that protested.

"The Acehnese people have become more open-minded and they never fuss over whether I am dressed properly or not," she said. "I dislike the sharia police. I hope they will disappear," she added, between puffs on a cigarette at a cafe.

Democracy & reformasi

'Indonesia can lead world,' British PM Cameron says

Jakarta Globe - April 13, 2012

Dion Bisara & Ulma Haryanto – British Prime Minister David Cameron praised Indonesia's political and economic transformation on a visit to Jakarta on Thursday, citing it as a model of democracy that other countries can emulate.

"In just over a decade you have begun a transformation that has taken my country and many others several centuries, forging an inspirational path from dictatorship to democracy," he said in a speech delivered at the Al Azhar University on his third and final day in Jakarta.

"Saya salut dengan Anda [I salute you]," he said. Cameron added that Indonesia has shown that it is possible to develop democracy and a modern economy that neither compromises people's security nor their ability to practice their religion.

"Indeed, far from endangering safety, prosperity and religious identity, it is democracy that ensures them," he said. "And this has huge implications for others seeking the same fundamental freedoms in places like Egypt, Iran and Syria."

Cameron said that "Indonesia mampu memimpin dunia" ("Indonesia can lead the world") on overcoming threats to democracy, including authoritarianism, corrupt elites, extremism and tribalism, and discrimination on the basis of background, race, ethnicity or religion.

"Here in Indonesia too, you have enshrined the rights of all individuals in your Constitution. This reflects the vital importance in standing up against the despicable violence and persecution of minorities – whether Christians, Ahmadis or others," he said on the subject of extremists.

"So we applaud the steps that Indonesia continues to take to guard against ethnic discrimination and conflict, especially in Aceh," he said.

Ismail Hasani of the Setara Institute of Peace and Democracy, a staunch advocate of pluralism and monitor of incidents of intolerance in Indonesia, said he understood where Cameron's speech was coming from.

"Of course it was lip service, they know Indonesia's reputation on human rights. It was just common courtesy for official visits, mentioning Indonesia's progress," he said.

The world is not blind to the repression suffered by religious minorities in Indonesia, he added, referring to the cases of Ahmadiyah, Shiite Muslims in East Java, and the struggles of Christian congregations to build churches.

"But it is true that Indonesia has had relatively more success in democracy compared to Central Asia and Middle East," he added. "In terms of political liberties, we are doing OK, but our civil liberties are going nowhere." Fajar Riza Ul Haq, executive director of the Maarif Institute, says that Indonesia did have something to be proud of: its ability to suppress local extreme groups. "England has its own problem with extremists so maybe they can also learn from Indonesia's experience," Fajar said.

Indonesian democracy deserves closer scrutiny, David Cameron

The Guardian (UK) - April 12, 2012

John Sidel – Speaking at an Islamic university in Jakarta, David Cameron hailed Indonesia as a model democracy to be celebrated and emulated by countries across the Muslim world. The nation, Cameron claimed, showed that democracy could ensure prosperity, security and religious freedom, as an "alternative to the dead-end choice of dictatorship or extremism".

At first glance, the prime minister's comments deserve commendation, especially in light of the Arab spring. The success of parties representing the Muslim Brotherhood and puritanical Salafi Islam in Egypt's parliamentary elections, for instance, has produced an alarmist response in some parts of Washington DC, London and other western capitals. Islamism now haunts discussions of Egypt's future; fears of sharia law being extended, Coptic Christians facing state persecution, and the abrogation of the peace treaty with Israel are frequently cited alongside the suggestion that military rule would be a preferable alternative to democracy in Egypt. In fact, it is now often suggested that enthusiasm for democracy in the Muslim world should be tempered by concerns about "extremism" and threats to security and religious freedom.

Against this backdrop, Indonesia's transformation into a consolidated democracy does, as Cameron suggests, offer a salutary lesson. When Indonesia's long-time military strongman-president Suharto fell in 1998, his successor was the leader of a prominent Islamic association. New Islamic parties won unprecedented influence in the new parliament elected in 1999; inter-religious violence between Christians and Muslims claimed hundreds of casualties and led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands more in 1999-2001; and the Islamist paramilitary group Laskar Jihad emerged. By 2002, a shadowy network identified as Jemaah Islamiyah had initiated a terrorist bombing campaign that went on to claim hundreds of lives in Bali and Jakarta.

The alarmism turned out to be ill-founded. Islamic parties were drawn into the parliamentary process and soon abandoned calls for sharia to be inserted into the constitution, while inter-religious violence died out by the end of 2001, with the annual terrorist bombings of 2002-05 becoming increasingly infrequent and unsuccessful. Today, Indonesia, a vast, sprawling archipelago with a huge and diverse population, is a stable democracy.

Yet Cameron's shining example is hardly problem-free. The shift from centralised authoritarian rule to decentralised democracy in Indonesia saw businessmen, gangsters and corrupt politicians become entrenched in parliament and regional assemblies, which scholars have described as an oligarchy represented through "money politics" and "party cartels". Centralised corruption and cronyism, therefore, were only replaced by more decentralised corruption and cronyism, as countless reports by Transparency International have shown.

Religious freedom, human rights and civilian control over the military are not perfect either. Belief in a single deity is enshrined in the Indonesian constitution and all citizens are required to avow faith in one of the six recognised religions. Atheism is simply not allowed. And while Muslim- Christian violence and terrorist bombings have faded, the small Ahmadiyya minority has faced a sustained campaign of persecution.

In fact, Indonesia's trajectory might suggest a rather different message – and likely outcome – for countries like Egypt than that suggested in Cameron's speech. The Indonesian National Armed Forces has relinquished some of its considerable powers over internal security, but this has led to large-scale "judicial mafias" and rising human rights abuses by the police, as Amnesty International has documented, rather than effective democratic control over law enforcement.

The president is a retired army general; many other former military officers occupy powerful positions in the government and in parliament; and the army continues to enjoy impunity for human rights abuses (most notably in connection with counterinsurgency in West Papua). The National Armed Forces has resisted pressure to divest itself from its diverse legal business interests, and has retained considerable discretion over a military budget largely free from parliamentary and public scrutiny.

Indonesia is in the midst of a massive military spending spree, with $1.4 billion allocated for major arms purchases through 2014. According to former defence minister Juwono Sudarsono (previously Indonesia's ambassador to the UK), military officers may be pocketing as much as 30-40% of the procurement costs in "mark-up fees". Perhaps this is the real context in which we should understand Cameron's glowing account of Indonesia's "inspiring" democracy, delivered against the backdrop of recent multimillion-pound deals for the Eads company Airbus, including a contract signed in February to supply military aircraft to the National Armed Forces.

Perhaps the lessons of Indonesian democracy should be viewed more critically and realistically, whether from Jakarta, London or Cairo.

Human rights & justice

Gay activist moves to the next step of selection

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2012

Jakarta – Gay activist Dede Oetomo has made it to the latest screening phase for members of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

Meanwhile, transgender campaigner Yulianus Rettoblaut failed in her second attempt to lead the national rights body.

Selection committee chairman Jimly Asshiddiqie said Friday the committee had received a "strong reaction" from some members of the public regarding the candidacy of both Dede and Yulianus, known as "Mami Yuli". "Nonetheless, Dede's qualification enabled him to move on to the next stage," Jimly told The Jakarta Post.

The committee announced on Friday 60 candidates short-listed from the previous 120 candidates to become human rights commissioners. The contenders will undergo further screening processes including psychological tests, interviews and a public dialogue before a final list is submitted to the legislature for final approval.

Jimly explained that Dede made it through the next round after the committee screened candidates through an examination of their resumes, health tests, essay writing and a personality test.

"The public's disapproval [of Dede and Yuli] reflects that society is not yet prepared to accept [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT] people. However, the committee must remain unbiased... For political considerations, just leave it to lawmakers," said Jimly, the former Constitutional Court chief.

Dede, founder of human rights group GAYa Nusantara, said he was "very happy" for his success so far, but added that he expected "condemnation" of his candidacy was because "many people still underestimate the LGBT people". "However, I am ready to promote human rights [for all people] with the other commissioners once elected," he said in a text message to the Post.

Separately, Yuli, chairperson of Indonesia Transgender Forum, said that she was "proud" of reaching the third phase of the selection, saying it was already "progress for this country's human rights concerns". "I will support Pak Dede from now on," she said.

The other candidates include activist and land issue researcher Sandra Moniaga, human rights figure I. Sandyawan Sumardi and former law and human rights director general Hafid Abbas.

Out of six incumbent commissioners who initially applied, three of them made it to the fourth stage. They are Johny Nelson Simajuntak, Nur Kholis and Yoseph Adi Prasetyo.(asa)

Court drops lawsuit by Sukarno Palace dancer

Jakarta Globe - April 12, 2012

Anita Rachman – The Central Jakarta District Court refused on Wednesday to hear a lawsuit filed against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono by a former palace dancer who was arrested during the bloody aftermath of the 1965 coup attempt.

Judge Amin Ismanto, who presided over the proceedings, said the court was "not authorized to examine and rule on the case." He said the plaintiff, Nani Nurani, should take her case to the State Administrative Court (PTUN).

The 71-year-old was seeking Rp 7.76 billion ($845,000) in damages from the government, represented by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as the head of state, for unlawful detention and the stigma Nani says she has suffered since her arrest without trial in 1968.

The former palace singer and dancer during the rule of the founding president, Sukarno, spent seven years in prison and was interrogated for a crime she said "had nothing to do" with her.

The New Order regime that came to power after the failed coup, led by Suharto, blamed the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) for the deaths of seven generals. PKI members, or anyone with the faintest link to the party, faced detention or execution.

Artists and performers were targeted since the PKI was known to support local culture and art.

Speaking after the hearing, Nani said she was disappointed but would continue to fight. "Rulers are always above the law," she said. "I will appeal. I will not rest. I'll keep on fighting."

Nani said she hoped her case would encourage other victims of the communist purge to speak out and demand justice.

Alex Argo Hernowo, from the Legal Aid Foundation, which has been representing Nani, said the lawsuit was within the jurisdiction of the district court.

"The PTUN can only change or revoke [a government policy]. Compensation requires a ruling from a [regular] court," he said. "This is just an excuse. The court is afraid to make a just ruling."

Alex said the judiciary was worried the case would have a domino effect, exposing many more cases of arbitrary arrests, tortures and killings.

He said that they would appeal Wednesday's decision to the Jakarta High Court. "If justice is not served then, we will go all the way to the Supreme Court," he said.

AI pushes ministry to investigate torture

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2012

Rabby Pramudatama, Jakarta – Amnesty International has called on the Law and Human Rights Ministry to investigate alleged torture by National Police officers and bring any perpetrators to justice.

In an open letter sent to the ministry on April 4, the London-based human rights group also presented reports of several incidents of police brutality throughout 2011, including two young brothers who were found dead at a police detention cell in West Sumatra.

"We believe that one of the reasons why cases of torture and other ill- treatment continue to occur in the country is because of the failure to revise the existing Criminal Code," the letter says.

Ministry spokesman Robby Leo said his office would study the letter and would comment soon.

Meanwhile, Ridha Saleh, deputy chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), which also received the letter, said the commission received many reports of torture allegedly committed by police.

He said state institutions needed to prioritize efforts to curb human rights violations. "The Law and Human Rights Ministry should follow up the letter. Indeed, with or without pressure from Amnesty, such cases of rights abuse should be a priority," he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

He said the problem had always been about coordination between the ministry and police institutions. "The ministry rarely responds to such reports. The death of the two brothers became a national story after their family alleged the boys were tortured to death by officers who then fabricated their suicides," he said.

The brothers, Faisal, 14, and Budri, 17, were detained by police in Sijunjung, West Sumatra, for allegedly stealing a motor bike and a mosque donation box, in December 2011.

Both boys were later found hanging in the bathroom of their detention cell. However, the family of the victims suspect that they were beaten to death by the detention officers.

Based on such cases, Amnesty asked the Indonesian authorities, especially the Law and Human Rights Ministry, to ensure independent investigation of all reports of torture and other ill-treatment by police.

Political parties & elections

Golkar Party pouts as parties settle on 3.5% threshold

Jakarta Globe - April 15, 2012

Ezra Sihite, Agus Triyono, Robertus Wardi & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Despite more than two years of lobbying and backroom deals, the only significant difference between the 2009 election law and the new bill is the increase of the legislative threshold from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent.

The new threshold means a party needs to secure at least 3.5 percent of the total national vote in order to gain a place in the House of Representatives.

While the Golkar and Democratic Parties failed in their attempt to institute a higher threshold, analysts agree that a 3.5 percent threshold will maintain the number of factions in the House, repeating the same lengthy lobbying and pork barrel transactions people have seen during the last five years.

The threshold for the 2009 elections was set at 2.5 percent, allowing nine parties to gain seats in the House. "There could be eight or nine factions in the House," said Sebastian Salang, executive director of the Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi).

The House passed on Thursday the 2012 election law, maintaining the adoption of an open electoral system and the method for using all votes in electoral areas.

Sebastian said the 3.5 percent threshold, coupled with pure quota vote allocation, was a victory for small parties in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's coalition, such as the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB), and small opposition parties like the Greater Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura).

With the PPP garnering 5.32 percent of the national vote, the PKB 4.94 percent, Gerindra 4.6 percent and Hanura 3.77 percent in the 2009 election, a higher threshold could wash them out of the House as there is no guarantee they will be able maintain those percentages in 2014.

Meanwhile, the pure quota aspect means that whatever votes a party gets at an electoral area will be used in that area. For example, if Golkar gets 300,000 votes in a specific electoral area and Hanura gets 60,000 votes in the same area, Golkar will get one seat by virtue of the divisor number of 250,000 votes.

That would leave Golkar with 50,000 extra votes. Since Hanura's 60,000 votes are more than Golkar's extra votes, Hanura would get the second seat in that district. Golkar would then lose those 50,000 excess votes.

That's why Golkar, a member of the coalition, wanted a 4 percent threshold from the start, along with the flexibility to reallocate those votes to other candidates in other areas. That would have, in effect, helped reduce the number of factions while minimizing lost votes.

Golkar's deputy secretary general Nurul Arifin expressed her disappointment after the law was passed, claiming that the method was unfair. "This is corruption," Nurul said. "They get a seat without having to have enough votes."

The Democrats initially wanted a higher threshold while supporting Golkar's position in the allocation of votes. Many said this was an attempt to get rid of small but persistent opposition parties such as Gerindra and Hanura.

But the Democrats wavered, giving in to pressure from the small parties in the coalition. "For the sake togetherness, we agreed on 3.5 percent. We are doing our best for the people," senior Democratic Party politician Syarief Hasan said before voting.

Nurul accused the Democrats of turning their backs on their earlier agreement. She said on Friday that two years had been wasted in an attempt to simplify the system.

[With reporting by Suara Pembaruan.]

Aburizal reaffirms presidential bid

Jakarta Post - April 15, 2012

Jakarta – With the presidential election only two years away, Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie has demonstrated his strong intention to become the party's presidential aspirant through maneuvers that some feel could irk others in his party.

Aburizal has rejected the idea of holding a convention that would pave the way for other party members to compete to be named the party's presidential candidate for the 2014 election.

Instead, he chose to organize a National Leadership Meeting (Rapimnas), which is easier to control. The meeting is slated to be held in July, three months ahead of the original date set.

Aburizal denied that the leadership meeting was a ploy to thwart the candidacy of former party chairmen Jusuf Kalla and Akbar Tandjung – two Golkar politicians that many feel are more popular than he is.

"We will give equal chance for all. But if the national leadership meeting has made a decision, be it Akbar Tandjung, myself or Jusuf Kalla, we all have to go with the decision," Aburizal said before a meeting attended by Golkar members who hold executive posts in the regions, in Jakarta on Saturday.

Separately, Golkar deputy chairman Fadel Muhammad said that Aburizal would be named Golkar's only candidate because no other person had stepped up to be nominated. "So far, there is only Aburizal and he is our strong candidate," he said on Saturday.

Fadel dismissed rumors that the decision to bring forward the leadership meeting from October to July was aimed at preventing other members, including Jusuf Kalla, from being nominated as the party's presidential aspirant.

"We just want to have a presidential aspirant by August, when it's the fasting month of Ramadhan. And we will not hold a convention to select our presidential aspirant because that mechanism was dropped during Jusuf Kalla's term as Golkar's chairman," he told The Jakarta Post.

Golkar lawmaker Nurul Arifin said that 26 of Golkar's 33 regional branches had pledged their support for Aburizal as the party's presidential aspirant. "The party will make its final decision during the Rapimnas," she said.

On Saturday, the party held a meeting at its headquarters in Jakarta, which was attended by its members who hold power in regional and local administrations. The members pledged that they would pave the way for Aburizal to become Indonesia's next president.

In the meeting, Aburizal said that Golkar's popularity continued to rise in the country. "We aim to gain 30 percent of the votes in 2014," he said, prompting thundering applause from the Golkar members.

He urged Golkar's members to regularly meet with their constituents ahead of the 2014 legislative elections to ensure their success during the elections.

Aburizal has attended a series of road shows that have visited many regencies and cities in Indonesia. He visited Sukabumi and Cianjur in West Java early this month.

Previously, the Indonesian Survey Institute revealed that Aburizal was less popular than both Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri and Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party chairman Prabowo Subianto.

Another survey conducted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) placed Aburizal in fourth place in terms of popularity after Megawati, Prabowo and Jusuf Kalla. (tas)

Gerindra and Hanura shoot down talks of joining government coalition

Jakarta Globe - April 14, 2012

Ezra Sihite & Arientha Primanita – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party appears keen to have two opposition parties join the government coalition, despite the pair flatly dismissing the possibility.

The speculation arose after both the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) threw their support behind the Democrats on the contentious election law.

Both parties even attended the ruling coalition's discussion on the subject, when coalition member the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Golkar Party were nowhere to be seen.

Some Democratic officials welcomed the suggestion that Gerindra and Hanura will replace PKS in the coalition and cabinet.

"Serious ties are beginning to be formed. Be positive. This is good for the people and government stability," said Ramadhan Pohan, the Democrats' deputy secretary general.

He said it was the second time that the Democrats and Gerindra have shared the same stance. Both Gerindra, which was founded by Prabowo Subianto, and Hanura, which has Wiranto as its leader, have fiercely opposed many Yudhoyono policies. Both Prabowo and Wiranto have strong links to the Indonesian military.

Meanwhile, relations between Yudhoyono and the PKS turned sour after the party openly rejected the government's plan to increase the price of fuel to cut subsidies, igniting speculation that the Islamic party will soon be kicked out from the coalition and cabinet.

Many said that Yudhoyono, who is known for prioritizing stability in his coalition, is waiting for the green light from other parties before replacing PKS. However, both Gerindra and Hanura have flatly denied speculation they wanted to align with the governing parties.

"We don't want to join the coalition," said Saleh Husin, Hanura's faction secretary at the House of Representatives, adding that Hanura's stance on the election law was only to defend the people's interest, not that of the Democrats.

Gerindra's deputy chairman Fadli Zon also denied speculation that its party would join the coalition. "We have no intention to join them," he said.

Indonesia president unlikely to kick PKS out of government coalition

Straits Times - April 14, 2012

Zakir Hussain – When The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) opposed cuts to fuel subsidies by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government, fellow coalition members angrily called for the party to be kicked out.

But the President looks set to retain the often uncooperative and underperforming coalition member, for pragmatic reasons.

Keeping the PKS on board means the government will retain power should Golkar, a bigger partner in the coalition, ever defect. It also lets the government burnish its Islamic credentials, as PKS is the largest Muslim- based party.

"For the meantime, SBY [Yudhoyono] needs PKS and PKS still needs SBY," said political scientist Burhanuddin Muhtadi of the State Islamic University in Jakarta.

PKS leaders appear to know that. Communication and information minister Tifatul Sembiring, a former PKS president, told The Straits Times that the "PKS remains in the coalition."

"The problem is one of miscommunication," he said. "PKS has been with the President from the start," he added, referring to how the party and smaller partners backed Yudhoyono in the 2009 presidential election.

Golkar had initially backed former vice-president Jusuf Kalla, and joined the coalition only after Yudhoyono won with 60 per cent of the vote.

Many Democrat ministers and coalition party leaders had expressed their unhappiness with the PKS for breaking ranks with the government decision to reduce fuel subsidies on April 1. But few expressed open disdain for Golkar, which at a late hour forced the cut to be delayed.

PKS was not invited to a meeting of coalition leaders to discuss its fate, and its flag was taken down from outside the coalition headquarters in central Jakarta. Yudhoyono has yet to make a statement on the matter, but it now looks increasingly unlikely that the PKS will be expelled.

The loss of PKS' 57 seats in Parliament would hardly cause a dent in the workings of government. But there is no ruling out that despite assurances of loyalty, leading coalition member Golkar with its 106 seats may break ranks, leading to the scenario where the current administration may lose its majority in Parliament before its term runs out in 2014, politicians and analysts say.

Having PKS stay in will lessen the blow of a Golkar breakoff. Golkar officials have said they are committed to the coalition. But many note that Golkar's actions have been aimed at boosting its image to be in pole position at the next election.

Said a coalition insider: "Golkar's position is on the rise, and they are ruling the roost. We know they are not the good guys."

PKS' three ministers are continuing their work as usual. Just this week, Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri announced assistance for earthquake victims in Sumatra.

The Democrat-led coalition has three other members, all Muslim-based parties with 112 seats between them. But PKS commands a significant middle-class support base in urban areas, and is able to rapidly mobilise supporters for various causes, which is why it remains valuable to the ruling coalition.

Observers note that Dr Yudhoyono is also on amicable terms with many of the party's religious leaders.

Several researchers have also found that the PKS has managed to keep many young Indonesian Muslims away from radical groups, and continues to be a valuable partner to government.

As Dr Farish Noor of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies noted in a recent paper, PKS "does seek to ensure that members of the party do not veer too far off the track and engage in the sort of violent, radical, anti-state activities that are associated with some of the more violent and radical Islamist groups in the country."

Ruling coalition's seats of power

Indonesia's six-party ruling coalition commands a comfortable majority with 423 seats in the 560-seat Parliament.

The Democrats hold 148 seats, Golkar has 106 and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) 57. The National Mandate Party (PAN) has 46 seats, while the United Development Party (PPP) has 38 and the National Awakening Party (PKB) 28.

So even if the PKS were to leave, the coalition would be left with a comfortable 366 seats.

But strategists note that having the PKS out could well put the ruling coalition in a precarious position over the next two years. For if Golkar were to then ditch the government, the coalition would be left with a minority of 260 seats, effectively bringing the administration to an end.

On the other hand, if just Golkar leaves, the coalition would still hold 317 seats, enough to see it through to 2014.

Calls mount for review of election law

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Just a day after the House of Representatives passed the amended election law, calls have been mounting to challenge some articles and bring them for a judicial review.

Regional Representatives Council (DPD) member I Wayan Sudirta from Bali has encouraged fellow lawmakers to unite and to file for judicial review because the law contravenes regional autonomy.

"I encourage lawmakers in the regions to fight against the mandatory 3.5 percent legislative threshold because it negates the regions's votes. It's unfair as it will negate votes gathered all around the regions when they fail to fulfill the minimum percentage. It will also drive minor parties out of the country's political system," he said Friday during a discussion at the House.

Article 208 of the newly amended election law mandates political parties contesting the election to meet a legislative threshold of 3.5 percent nationwide in order to secure seats at the House and local councils (DPRD) at the provincial and municipal level.

Sudirta said Article 131, which regulates campaign finance, was also subject to judicial review because it could be used for money laundering. The article limits individual campaign donations to Rp 1 billion (US$109,000), and organizational donations, including corporations and nongovernmental institutions to no more than Rp 7.5 billion.

"For me, the article could lead to money laundering. Individual contributions should've been lower, just like at regional councils that allow a maximum of Rp 250 million," Sudirta said, adding that lawmakers were still studying the entire law to collect all "problematic" articles to be challenged.

Sudirta said he had spoken with several lawmakers, including Arief Wibowo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Nurul Arifin from the Golkar Party, about the issue.

Arief Wibowo, who chaired the committee that deliberated the amended election law, expressed his disappointment over the adoption of the open- list system, the 3.5 percent legislative threshold nationwide, the selection of a pure quota vote counting mechanism, also known as the Hare system.

"Such a mechanism might not only disadvantage nonlegislative parties, but also minor parties in the legislature. The approved open-list system might also result in poor-quality leaders as it will only favor either rich or well-known candidates," he said after the session.

Arief's concern about the possibility of an open-list system encouraging "lower quality" candidates has been supported as celebrities have started to contact political parties to apply to be cadres.

"Two celebrities have contacted me to promote themselves," Martin Hutabarat from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) said, refusing to disclose their names.

"I believe more celebrities will follow because of such an electoral system. I assume things will get worse because rich people might join the trend," he said.

Echoing her fellow legislators, Nurul Arifin of the Golkar Party has also expressed her disappointment over the new law saying the 1.5 years the committee spent on the bill's deliberation was useless as the new election law offers no significant changes from the old one, which was used as the basis for the 2009 legislative and presidential elections.

"I am so disappointed. Therefore, I do hope there will be movement to file a judicial review and I will support the movement. It will be very difficult for a political party to initiate such a movement though," she said at a discussion.

According to political analyst Burhanuddin Muhtadi, the amended election bill will not offer any progressive measures for Indonesia's political system.

"It's obvious that parties care about nothing but their own interests in the country's political arena, because the protracted debate during the deliberation of the bill did not discuss anything that will directly impact the lives of the people. The newly amended law doesn't regulate campaign spending, which will be the source of political corruption and will likely cost the state budget. The law has obviously neglected the public's interests," he said.

New election commissioners sworn in

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2012

Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono swore in on Thursday new members of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Monitoring Body (Bawaslu) for the 2012-2017 term.

The KPU and Bawaslu members were elected earlier this month by 53 members of the House Commission II overseeing domestic governance, regional autonomy, state institutions and agrarian affairs.

From the legislators who voted, Sigit Pamungkas and Ida Budhiati won 45 votes each, Arif Budiman (43 votes), Husni Kamil Manik (39 votes), Ferry Kurnia Rizkiyansyah and Hadar Nafis Gumay (35 votes each) and Juri Ardiantoro (34 votes) to sit on the KPU.

House members had also voted for Muhammad (45 votes), Nasrullah (36 votes), Endang Wihdatiningtyas (35 votes), Daniel Zuchron (24 votes) and Nelson Simanjuntak (24 votes) to be in charge of the election monitoring body.

Poll watchdogs have lauded the new KPU lineup saying that it could perform better than the last batch of politically connected commissioners.

The outgoing KPU members have been criticized for their chaotic management of legislative elections in 2009 and for their ties to political parties.

Former KPU member Andi Nurpati, for example, resigned as a commissioner in 2010 and joined the Democratic Party as its communications chief soon thereafter.

Indonesia's lawmakers put party's interests above people's

Suara Pembaruan - April 13, 2012

Robertus Wardi – Lawmakers at the House of Representatives only work earnestly when the issue at hand affects their parties' hold on power, an activist said on Thursday.

Lusius Karus, a member of the Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi), was speaking after lawmakers finally passed a bill that lays down the rules for the 2014 elections, following a missed deadline and prolonged debate.

Even a slight miscalculation could result in their parties suffering a disadvantage in the future, Lusius said. Therefore they were being very meticulous, although usually that wasn't the case, he added.

"The election draft law is one that will determine the fate of political parties in the 2014 elections," Lusius said. "Because it was the fate of the parties that was at stake, the DPR [House] was in no hurry to pass that law."

He said the politicians improperly put their own interests ahead of those they were supposed to serve.

"Members of the House are required to prioritize the people's interests," he said. The poor job they were doing made them overly concerned with manipulating the mechanisms of power to maintain their hold on it, Lusius said, adding that they should instead focus exclusively on their constituents.

"These politicians' fear of losing future elections is the result of their inability to do their jobs," he said. "Their fear that not enough people will vote for them is a reflection of their failure to answer the people's mandate."

Lawmakers' most recent plenary meetings, including the one two weeks ago where they decided to postpone raising the price of subsidized fuel, clearly showed their priorities were their image and the future of their parties, Lusius said. The legislators were out of touch, he added.

"When the nation is fearing a crisis because of natural disaster, when people are panicking amid fears of another tsunami, the lawmakers go about in their air-conditioned hall, busy making moves to save their parties in the upcoming elections," he said. "The party elites trade in legislative thresholds while people in Sumatra face a threat to their lives."

The election law's long saga finally reached a conclusion on Thursday afternoon. House party factions had been in disagreement over several issues that would have affected how elections were conducted.

The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), whose future in the pro-government coalition is a stake following its opposition to the government's proposed fuel price hike, on Thursday was again criticized, this time for taking the side of the ruling Democratic Party in one of the issues pertaining to the elections bill.

New election law makes no progress: Critics

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2012

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The newly-endorsed Legislative Elections Law will make no significant changes for better elections and democracy in the future because it is purely based on pragmatic political interests of the nine parties at the House of Representatives, according to critics.

Regional Representatives Council (DPD) Speaker Irman Gusman criticized the House's plenary session, which reduced the election bill's substance to the four crucial issues on the legislative threshold, electoral system, electoral districts' magnitude and vote counting method, which he said had no direct relation or benefits for the people, a fair legislative election and a better democracy in the future.

"The televised plenary session where the four crucial issues are settled by voting becomes a political stage, which is not good to be watched by the wider public precisely because the four issues are really interests of the political elites and their parties, and that is why the plenary session turns into a political transaction," he said in a roundtable discussion on the legislative election bill here on Thursday.

Executive director of the Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi) Sebastian Salang regretted the energy and the huge budget allotted by the House in the past two years to review the 2008 legislative election law because the reviewed law did not make changes to improve democracy.

"Giving to much attention to the parties' four crucial interests, basic issues on how the voter roll should be professionally compiled, how education for voters should be conducted and how election conflicts and disputes should be anticipated are not well regulated in the law," he said, adding parties were only one of numerous stakeholders that should be regulated in details in the law.

He called on new and small parties to bring the new law to the Constitutional Court for review because the nine parties in the House would be directly accepted as contestants in 2014 without having to undergo any verification as to whether they truly met the electoral threshold. "I am sure the nine parties have lost a part of their functionaries in provinces, regencies and municipalities."

Constitutional law expert Irman Putra Sidin said the House should make a quality law to gradually repair the quality of general elections and make regulations and a technical procedure that attract voters to improve their participation in the democratic process.

"Under the new law, the 2014 legislative election will likely turn chaotic as it happened in 2009, discourage more voters not to use their voting rights and will produce rich but unqualified lawmakers, while the House's quality will remain as poor as it is now," he said.

Revised law may doom small parties

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – After a protracted debate, the House of Representatives passed an amended election law on Thursday, mandating that the 2014 election be conducted with an open-list electoral system with a 3.5 percent legislative threshold.

The amended law also authorizes the implementation of a pure quota vote- counting mechanism to transform votes into seats both in the House and the Regional House of Representatives (DPRD), a mechanism deemed less favorable to major political parties.

The law also established an open-list electoral system that will allow voters to cast their ballots for individual candidates rather than political parties.

However, contradicting a pure quota vote-counting mechanism, which will improve access for minor political parties to legislative seats, a 3.5- percent legislative threshold applied nationally will likely drive minor parties out of the country's political system.

"The newly approved bill doesn't bring about any significant changes compared to the old one. Therefore, it will not create an effective, simple, and multi-party presidential system – the exact reason why we drew up this new bill in the first place," said lawmaker Arief Wibowo, who chaired the House's committee to deliberate the bill.

Arief said the open-list system would likely fail to promote quality political candidates because the mechanism would only favor either rich or well-known candidates.

"The open-list system will also encourage money politics because there will be uncontrollable campaign spending, which potentially will cost the state budget. I predict that this will also intensify internal conflicts within parties. But the House has approved the bill and I must respect the decision," said Arief of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- P).

The PDI-P, together with the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Awakening Party (PKB), proposed a closed-list system for future elections, arguing that it would give incentives to produce quality leaders as it would allow voters to pick from a list of political parties, which would later be entrusted to select their best candidates for the legislative seats.

Other factions, the Democratic Party, the Golkar Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP), the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) had jointly promoted an open-list system.

A late-night lobbying session on Wednesday brought all factions to agreement on an open-list system and a 3.5 percent legislative threshold. The session, however, failed to reach a conclusion on to which vote- counting mechanism should be used in future elections.

House political factions finally agreed to bring the last contentious issue to a vote in the Tuesday plenary session. In the voting session, lawmakers had to choose between the pure quota vote-counting system, which will be advantageous for smaller parties, or a Webster vote-counting system.

In the voting session, 342 lawmakers, 140 from the Democratic Party, 54 from PKS, 42 from PAN, 37 from PPP, 28 from PKB, 24 from Gerindra, and 17 from Hanura, voted for the pure quota system.

Only 188 lawmakers, 97 from the Golkar Party and 91 from the PDI-P faction endorsed the alternative. The Democratic Party had expected that Golkar, one of members of the ruling coalition, would vote for the pure quota system.

PKS executives denied that their support for a pure quota system was aimed at mending its strained relationship with the Democratic Party following the its decision to stand against the fuel-price hike.

"Our choices have nothing to do with the coalition. We don't aim to win back the coalition's trust. Our decision reflects our concern for the country's politics, which undoubtedly will have impacts on people's lives," PKS president Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq said.

Key articles of revised election law

Article 5:

The election will apply an open-list system to vote for legislators at the House of Representatives (DPR) and local councils (DPRD) at the provincial and municipal level. <

Article 6:

a. The General Elections Commission (KPU) is authorized to organize the election.

b. The Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) is authorized to monitor the electoral process.

Article 22:

A requirement of between three and 10 seats within a district is mandatory to secure seats at the DPR.

Article 24:

A requirement of between three and 12 seats within a district is mandatory to secure seats in the DPRD.

Article 208:

Political parties participating in the election must meet a legislative threshold at 3.5 percent nationwide in order to secure seats at the DPR and the DPRD.

Article 209:

Political parties will be eliminated from the list if they fail to secure the minimum percentage of votes.

Yudhoyono accuses Golkar of 'betrayal' in leaked speech

Jakarta Globe - April 12, 2012

Ezra Sihite – A leaked speech by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from a Democratic Party meeting on April 1 seems to counter suggestions that the president followed the Golkar Party's lead in the decision to delay the price of subsidized fuel.

While the leak has the appearance of a deliberate attempt to counter suggestions that Yudhoyono is a lame-duck president dictated to by his coalition partners, it has raised new criticisms of the president as obsessed over his image.

Opposition parties were quick to accuse Yudhoyono of leaking the speech intentionally to make himself look good. "The government only cares about its public image," Akbar Faisal, a lawmaker from the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), said on Wednesday.

The House of Representatives on March 31 rejected the government's plan to raise the price of Premium subsidized fuel from Rp 4,500 to Rp 6,000 a liter beginning in April.

But in the revised state budget law passed in the early hours of March 31, it says the government can raise the fuel price if the average of the Indonesian Crude Price in the previous six months is 15 percent above $105 per barrel, the assumption set in the budget, or goes beyond $120.75 per barrel.

Yudhoyono's Democrats were the only member of the government coalition to hold steady to the original plan to raise the price of subsidized fuel by 33 percent.

Four other members of the coalition demanded a higher ICP threshold as a requirement for the increase, and another member, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), rejected the proposal entirely, as did three opposition parties.

Golkar's proposal of a 15 percent ICP threshold was eventually accepted by the other coalition members, leading to suggestions that Golkar was running the show and that Yudhoyono had become a lame-duck president.

In his speech to Democrats on April 1, however, Yudhoyono claimed he had proposed the 10 percent to 15 percent threshold long before Golkar. "The 15 percent threshold was our idea, my idea," Yudhoyono was quoted as saying in the April 1 speech, a recording of which was obtained and published by Tempo magazine on Wednesday.

"Actually, Golkar has promised me it would stop at 10 percent, but again they betrayed us," the president continued.

The Democratic Party has played down the speech and denied it had been deliberately leaked. Saan Mustopa, the party's deputy secretary general, said nothing major was revealed in the speech, but they would still investigate.

"We'll follow up on this," he said. "That meeting was supposed to be internal. We want to know if it was leaked, who leaked it. We won't blow this out of proportion, but we regret this incident."

Democratic Party plays down leaked SBY fuel speech

Jakarta Globe - April 11, 2012

Ezra Sihite – The Democratic Party played down media reports of a leaked speech by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during an internal party meeting on April 1, but said it would investigate who released the speech.

Yudhoyono, the chief patron of the party, shared his anger with party cadres over other parties' disagreement with the government's proposal to raise subsidized fuel prices on April 1.

The Democratic Party was the only member of the government coalition to hold steady to the original plan to raise prices by 33 percent, from Rp 4,500 (50 cents) to Rp 6,000 per liter.

Four other members of the coalition demanded a higher Indonesian Crude Price (ICP) threshold as a requirement for the hikes, and another member, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), rejected the proposal entirely, following the moves of three opposition parties.

The House of Representatives plenary session discussed the proposal until early morning on March 31 and decided to delay the planned hikes.

"[The rejection of the proposal] yesterday was very alarming. We may collapse. The [rejection] is not on behalf of people, but is aimed at bringing down SBY, the government and the Democratic Party," Yudhoyono was quoted as saying in the April 1 speech, a recording of which was obtained and then published by Tempo magazine on Wednesday.

"They said they wanted this and that, but the point is they want the government to quickly collapse. Surely no president wants to be treated like that, and there's no way we shouldn't fight over this," he added.

Deputy secretary-general of the Democratic Party, Saan Mustopa, said there should be no worries about the reportedly-leaked speech, adding the party would immediately investigate whether it was really Yudhoyono's speech quoted in the media.

"They were ordinary directives. Pak SBY only briefed us on some background information; there was nothing extraordinary, no intention to split [the coalition]. We have no worries about the possible impact if [the speech] was indeed leaked," Saan said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

"We'll follow-up on this. That meeting was supposed to be internal. We want to know if it's leaked, who has leaked it. We won't respond to this exaggeratedly, but we regret this incident." (BeritaSatu/JG)

Bakrie more suitable as kingmaker than contender: Taufik Kiemas

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2012

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Similar to former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, Golkar Party Chairman Aburizal "Ical" Bakrie has a strategic role to play as kingmaker in the 2014 presidential race, according to People's Consultative Assembly Chairman Taufik Kiemas.

Taufik said he respected Bakrie's rights to run for president but he should bear in mind numerous factors, including his age, which could hamper him from winning the race while the party had younger and more talented cadre to be nominated.

"Ical and his predecessor Jusuf Kalla are both too old for the presidential job in 2014. What will they look for with the No. 1 position as they have gotten many, including ministerial posts, in the government?" he said here on Monday.

Bakrie was born in 1946, while Kalla in 1942, making them 68 and 72 years old, respectively, in 2014. Winning increasing support from the party's provincial chapters last week, Bakrie said he would hold a special party congress ahead of schedule this June aimed at officially nominating himself as the party's presidential candidate in 2014. Kalla has already announced his readiness to be nominated by the party to contend the presidential race.

According to Bakrie, he should play his role as one of the party's best cadres in a role that will give him a special position and respect in the future if his party wins the race.

"Like the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Golkar has many young and talented cadres who are marketable and have potential to develop the country in the future," Taufik said, citing as examples Deputy House Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso and Golkar Secretary General Idrus Marham, his own daughter Puan Maharani and PDI-P lawmaker Gandjar Pranowo.

Separately, University of Indonesia political analyst Iberamsyah warned Bakrie of considering his personal capacity, saying that if he went ahead he would face stronger rivals from other parties expected to nominate young and talented hopefuls.

"Ical takes no consideration of his personal capacity and capability. He has received his nomination only for his personal obsessions and ambitions," he said, adding his nomination would likely meet opposition from certain party elites and their supporters in regional branches and at the grass roots level.

Golkar lawmakers to spend 10 million each on Bakrie-branded campaign merch

Berita Satu - April 9, 2012

Ezra Sihite – Golkar Party lawmakers will have to spend Rp 10 million ($1,090) each on merchandise emblazoned with party chairman Aburizal Bakrie's face as part of his 2014 presidential campaign, a party member said on Monday.

The purchase – which is mandatory for party members – is proof of politicians' loyalty to the party, Golkar Party lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo said. "We all support this move... We're even ready to give more than Rp 10 million," he added.

The packages – each consisting of 1,000 bags and banners – will be distributed to electoral districts in the coming weeks, explained Nurul Arifin, another party lawmaker.

Nurul said that party members were happy to purchase the goods. "It is mandatory [to purchase] it. But, members basically don't mind because it is part of our contribution to the party," Nurul said.

The merchandise is part of efforts to drum up early support for the business tycoon's 2014 presidential bid, she added.

Women's rights

Power of men blamed for death of women in labor in Indonesia

Jakarta Globe - April 12, 2012

Dessy Sagita – The strong prevailing patriarchal culture is being blamed for the country's high maternal death rate, with some pregnant women missing out on urgent medical care because of a need for consent from a male relative.

Wendy Hartanto, the deputy chief for population control at the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN), said that many pregnant women who needed emergency assistance did not receive help because they could not get approval from their husband or father fast enough.

"The problem is that when these women arrive at the health centers, it is often already too late," Wendy said.

He said that women should be given full rights to make their own decisions during emergency situation. "Most mothers died through loss of blood, and in many cases this is preventable and measures would have been taken had the decisions been made fast enough," he said.

He said that in the regions, local culture usually dictates that injured women delegate important decisions to men – husbands and fathers, including whether to seek medical treatment in cases of a problematic pregnancy.

Wendy also said that the bad conditions of local infrastructure, such as bad roads, and difficulties in accessing medical services in regional areas were also to blame for the high death rate among pregnant women. Indonesia has one of the worst maternal death rates in Southeast Asia – even more so than Thailand and Vietnam, he said.

Gender inequality in the region could also affect the education of women in regional areas. "Most often, in a family, the ones prioritized for education are the boys, and girls are usually sidestepped as they are usually designated to provide domestic roles in the kitchen," he said.

Wendy also made the point that by 2020 or 2030, the country's workforce would be so large that the younger generation will have a much more difficult time finding work.

"If this growing demographic change is not accompanied by better standards of productivity and equality, it will become a demographic disaster and an additional burden," he said.

He added that in the labor market, it may become five times more difficult for the younger generation to find work than their older rivals. Data from the BKKBN showed that unemployment among those aged 15 to 29 was at 19.9 percent, higher than the 17.9 percent in Sri Lanka and the 16.2 percent in the Philippines.

Wendy said that 5.3 percent of the unemployed youths were university graduates, while high school graduates accounted for 30 percent and those with a maximum of a junior high school education accounted for 50 percent.

Women struggle to survive sexual violence in Indonesia

IRIN - April 10, 2012

Survivors of sexual violence in Indonesia face an uphill battle in recovery as a result of an inadequate legal system, police inaction and prevailing societal attitudes that tend to be suspicious of victims, activists say.

Survivors are often reluctant to come forward because of attitudes within the family. Herna (not her real name), 27, was abused by her mother's partner between the ages of 9 and 16 but her family did not fully understand her trauma.

"I knew that what had happened to me was wrong," she said. "I asked my stepfather for an apology, but he never gave it. Instead, my mother said to me that not everyone was perfect. After that, I left home for good."

Santi (not her real name), 28, was molested by her swimming instructor when she was 14 years old.

"I didn't say anything because I thought people would blame me if I reported it," she said. "Maybe they would say I shouldn't have been in the pool with that man. I never sought help. For years I didn't even acknowledge that it had happened to me and I had serious problems in relationships afterwards."

Indonesia is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which aims to strengthen the human rights of women, but the National Commission on Violence Against Women notes that between 1998 and 2010 there were close to 94,000 cases of sexual violence reported against women, including rape, trafficking of women for sexual purposes, sexual harassment, sexual torture and sexual exploitation.

The commission also highlighted that 20 Indonesian women a day experienced sexual violence, and in its annual notes, released in March 2012, reported some 4,335 cases of sexual violence in 2011 alone.

According to the Jakarta Police, in 2011 there were 1,787 cases of sexual violence across Indonesia, around 2,500 cases less than those recorded by the commission.

'Archaic' criminal code

The reasons for these numbers vary. In an October 2011 report submitted to the UN CEDAW committee, the commission said sexual violence experienced by women had yet to be fully recognized, and had not been given the handling and attention victims required.

Andy Yentriani, an official of the commission, said the Indonesian criminal code was archaic and could not properly deal with sexual violence.

"It's based on a system that is four centuries old," Yentriani said. "Rape is only understood as the insertion of male genitalia into female genitalia. Oral sex or anal sex are off the radar. The law also does not recognize that rape can be experienced by adult males."

Barriers to reporting

Wulan Danoekoesoemo, the founder of Lentera Indonesia, an NGO survivor support group based in the capital, Jakarta, spoke of the challenges faced by survivors when reporting their ordeal.

"There's very little immediate medical assistance for women in this country," she said. "Rape survivors... may want to get themselves medically checked within 24 hours to provide physical evidence, but that's a challenge due to bureaucracy, and because hospitals aren't sensitive to the concerns of rape survivors."

'Insensitive' authorities

Police spokesman Senior Commissioner Rikwanto explained how the police were tackling the problem of sexual violence against women. "We're patrolling in the evening when workers are returning home and appealing to women to wear polite and proper clothing in public."

Neta Pane, coordinator of Indonesian Police Watch (IPW), an independent police monitoring organization, said this attitude was undermining efforts to help survivors.

"Women are being asked not to provoke sexual violence," he said. "So if something does happen, it's the fault of the woman for not dressing properly." Pane pointed out that the maximum punishment for rape was 12 years, but perpetrators mostly received sentences under a year.

Vitria Lazzarini, executive coordinator of the Pulih Foundation, a women's crisis centre in south Jakarta, said police attitudes toward survivors lacked sensitivity.

"They ask whether she enjoyed it, what she was wearing at the time, and what she was doing outside at that time of night. It's completely inappropriate for a woman who is suffering substantial trauma," Lazzarini said.

"Women are also worried that police won't believe their claims, and will make them public," said IPW coordinator Pane. "They are afraid that once people know of their experience, they will be shunned. It's a fear that we particularly see in rural areas."

'Re-occurring theme'

Activists point to the need of a change in culture in Indonesia, and a shift in the way men view and treat women.

Commission official Andy Yentriani said current attitudes were partly the result of violence committed against women during Indonesia's past conflicts in Timor, Papua and Aceh, and in the widespread societal violence in 1998. This was largely being ignored which had led to the image of women being tarnished.

"Violations against women are a re-occurring theme in Indonesia", said Yentriani. "Today they are not even mentioned in the national curriculum."

Labour & migrant workers

Indonesia ratifies convention on migrant workers

Agence France Presse - April 12, 2012

Indonesia's parliament ratified on Thursday a UN convention on the protection of migrant workers in a move that will offer greater rights to millions of Indonesians working abroad.

"The next step is to align national legislation with the standards already set," lawmaker Rieke Diah Pitaloka said in a statement.

Indonesia had in 2004 signed but not ratified the UN's 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

Ratification obliges countries to ensure workers' basic human rights, as well as the right to return to their home countries, the right to be informed of conditions before taking up employment, and the right to form trade unions.

Indonesia's foreign ministry estimates that at least three million Indonesians work abroad, but poor documentation suggests the true number is likely much higher.

Indonesian migrant workers are typically maids in neighboring Asian countries or in the Middle East, where domestic workers often have little legal protection.

The government placed a moratorium on sending migrant workers to Saudi Arabia last year after an Indonesian maid was beheaded after being convicted of killing her Saudi employer. Saudi Arabia last week allowed 22 Indonesian maids on death row to be repatriated, while 25 still face execution there.

Indonesia in December lifted a 2009 ban on sending maids to Malaysia, imposed after a rash of abuse cases were reported in the country, where around 300,000 Indonesian maids had worked.

Indonesian organization Migrant Care welcomed parliament's ratification as "an extremely positive development."

"The government has now taken an important step toward the comprehensive changes that could really make a difference in migrants' lives, and the challenge for them will be to follow through on the commitments they are making today," Migrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah said in a statement.

Hidayah said migrant workers were often "cheated by recruiters, exploited by employers, and neglected by the government authorities who are supposed to protect them."

Environment & natural disasters

Get tough on forest graft, Riau activists urge KPK

Jakarta Globe - April 15, 2012

Rizky Amelia – Activists in the Sumatran province of Riau on Sunday called on the antigraft body to go after corporations that engaged in corruption in the forestry sector.

Susanto Kurniawan from the Forest Network Rescue Riau (Jikalahari) said the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) needed to be more aggressive in policing shady behavior in the sector, suggesting its efforts so far had been half-hearted. "The problem is, does the KPK genuinely intend to catch these corporations?" Susanto asked.

While much corruption in the sector involves corporate dealings with government on the issuance of timber forest exploitation permits, the activist said it was company officials rather than bureaucrats who needed to be investigated. "The ones enjoying the benefit from state losses are those corporations," Susanto said.

As an example, he cited the case of former Pelalawan district chief Tengku Azmun Jaafar, who was convicted of corruption was jailed for 11 years.

At the trial, Susanto said, evidence was presented that 15 corporations had funded the issuance of their own permits. "That is a faulty process," the activist said.

Susanto said the trial provided sufficient grounds for the prosecution of companies involved. "The Azmun case is clear. He issued 15 permits that were not proper, that violated the law. But after that was declared so, the permits continued to be valid and this, we think, is unfair law enforcement," he said.

Susanto also said that in such a case, the companies should either have their permits rescinded or should be obliged to return money to the state. In Riau alone, there are at least 17 suppliers involved in illegal logging, he said.

Emerson Yuntho from Indonesia Corruption Watch backed Jikalahari's call, saying the KPK should reinvestigate all those suspected of corruption in the forestry sector. "We recommend that the KPK conduct a reinvestigation of all sides suspected of being involved in corruption in the forestry sector," Emerson said.

He added that the KPK had already investigated and taken to court 21 cases of suspected graft in the forestry sector, but there were many others that had not reached court.

"There are at least 10 people and one corporation that are strongly suspected of involvement in corruption in the forestry sector, but they are now still mere witnesses and have not been taken to court," Emerson said.

He cited former Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban, who he said was involved in a graft case linked to a radio communication system used by the ministry, as well as land conversion.

Emerson also cited the ongoing case involving Riau Governor Rusli Zainal in the issuance of timber forest product exploitation permits (IUPHHK-HT) for 15 companies.

He said the former head of the Riau forestry office, Syuhada Tasman, had in January said at the Anti-Corruption Court that Rusli had approved six annual working plans for IUPHHK-HT.

Emerson said that in the case, four members of the House of Representatives had received money from a land conversion project involving 7,300 hectares of protected forest on Riau's Bintan Island.

The lawmakers, he said, received between Rp 5 million and Rp 50 million ($550 and $5,500) from another lawmaker who acted as a go-between with the company that illegally developed the protected forest.

Emerson said the corporations involved in the corruption in the forestry sector should not only be pursued under the anti-corruption law, but also the law on money laundering.

December data from a national government-appointed task force said corruption in the forestry sector in Riau had cost the state Rp 73 trillion.

Indonesia's tsunami warning system stripped, sold for parts

Jakarta Globe - April 13, 2012

Nurdin Hasan & Antara – Days after Aceh dodged a bullet when two massive earthquakes failed to trigger a potentially devastating tsunami, it emerged that the country's tsunami early warning system has been compromised by scavengers stealing and selling its parts.

Research and Technology Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said some of the instruments from the system had parts missing, while other instruments had just disappeared. He said people were stealing the parts and then selling them. "There are a lot of people stealing parts from the tsunami early warning system, leading the device to malfunction," he said.

The system includes buoys off the coast of Sumatra with sensors that can detect an approaching tsunami. Gusti said the government was working with the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) and the US government to develop submerged devices.

"We hope that it will be safer this way. People will no longer be able to steal the parts," he said. "We are also going to educate people about the equipment because it is essential to detect a tsunami early, and have the equipment working."

A tsunami warning was issued on Wednesday after two powerful earthquakes jolted the Indian Ocean off the coast of Aceh. They were centered on the same fault line as the 2004 quake that triggered the tsunami that killed 220,000 people in the region. About 170,000 of the deaths were reported in Aceh.

The trauma of the tsunami more than seven years ago sent residents in Aceh scrambling for their lives on Wednesday, even after the tsunami warning was lifted hours later.

Vice President Boediono, who visited Aceh to assess the aftermath of the quakes, said the government was intent on creating a better tsunami warning system. The one set up after the 2004 quake was paid for by donors.

"I still hear of a number of problems, like the sirens not working and buoys that are not connected to the satellites. These need to be fixed," he said on Friday. "I hope other areas, like Mentawai and Padang, can also be alert."

The Mentawai island chain was ravaged by a tsunami in 2010 while Padang suffered heavy damage in a 2009 earthquake.

Five elderly people died in the aftermath of Wednesday's quakes, reportedly from shock or heart attacks, according to the Aceh Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD)

Amid the ensuing panic and tsunami scare, 63 prisoners escaped Sigli prison in Pidie district but 31 were recaptured. Sigli warden Djoko Budi Setianto said three more were arrested on Friday and that the remaining 29 were still on the run.

"Prisoners and detainees who have not returned are being treated as fugitives," he said.

Law enforcers told to investigate light sentence for orangutan killers

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2012

Jakarta – Activists rallied before the Attorney General's Office (AGO) on Friday, urging an investigation into what they called "light charges" for alleged orangutan killers.

The rally was organized following the trial of four PT Khaleda Agroprima Malindo employees who have been charged with capturing and killing orangutans at an oil-palm plantation in Kutai Kertanegara regency. PT Khaleda Agroprima Malindo is a branch of the Malaysia-based Metro Kajang Holdings Bhd.

"Prosecutors at the Tenggarong District Court only called for each defendant to be imprisoned for one year and a Rp50 million (US$5,453) fine," said Daniek Hendarto from the Center for Orangutan Protection (COP).

"We consider the prosecutors' sentence demands too light and they would set a bad precedent." He added that the defendants should be sentenced up to five years in jail with a Rp100 million fine based on the 1990 Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystems Law.

According to the organization, the killings were the result of company policy, which deemed the orangutans as "pests" to the oil-palm plantation.

Widyoyoko, the AGO's head of legal counseling, said that his team had received the reports from the protesters. The senior prosecutor added that his office will send letters to the Junior Attorney General for Intelligence and Junior Attorney General for Supervision for further examination.

"We might summon the chief of Tenggarong's Prosecutor's Office to Jakarta to get his account," he said. (asa/dic)

Obscure forest policies creating conflict: Walhi

Jakarta Globe - April 13, 2012

Tunggadewa Mattangkilang, Balikpapan, East Kalimantan – The obscure legal framework governing the management of the country's forests has given rise to hundreds of sometimes deadly conflicts between rural communities and forestry and plantation companies, an environmentalist said on Thursday.

Berry Nahdian Furqon, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said at least 12 people had been killed and 69 arrested as a result of these conflicts in the past two years.

"The trigger for these conflicts is the government's policy on forest zoning, which doesn't take into account the people who live there," he said at a Walhi summit in Balikpapan. "In these cases, those with traditional claims to the forest are always seen as being at fault."

Prevailing government policy on forests identifies four types of zones where commercial logging and planting is prohibited, but where Berry said the practice was still rife. These are protected forests, national parks, nature reserves and conservation forests, which host some 24,500 villages nationwide.

Berry said the continued practice by provincial and regional authorities to grant logging, planting and mining concessions in these areas had since 2009 given rise to hundreds of conflicts pitting the concession holders against the local communities.

Thirty-eight of those conflicts involved plantation companies, 120 involved mines and 127 involved loggers, he said. Berry also blamed the lack of a clear forest policy for the high deforestation rate.

Of the country's total forested area of 130.5 million hectares, only 60 million remain, he said, warning that the figure will diminish as palm oil companies exploit the 26.7 million hectares awarded to them nationwide. The companies have to date cleared 9.1 million hectares. The total figure also includes 3.1 million hectares of peat forests.

"At least 340 large-scale palm oil companies have operations in deep peat swamps, even though this is prohibited under a 2009 Agriculture Ministry regulation," Berry said.

Riza Indra Riadi, head of the East Kalimantan Environmental Agency (BLH), said 60 to 70 percent of the 8.1 million hectares of forested area deemed in critical condition in the province had been cleared for oil palm plantations and housing.

The rest were degraded due to mining operations. He added the BLH was investigating the permits of the companies involved with a view to revoking them outright if necessary.

In Jambi, authorities are warning that the province's remaining 1.2 million hectares of forested area could vanish within the next two years unless serious protective measures are taken.

[Additional reporting from Antara.]

Banda Aceh on edge in aftermath of quake

Sydney Morning Herald - April 13, 2012

Michael Bachelard, Banda Aceh – Some of the tsunami alert sirens that are supposed to protect the city of Banda Aceh failed as an earthquake shook the city.

Outside the city, however, the two sirens placed in tsunami-prone villages on the coast did sound, according to the head of Aceh's Disaster Mitigation Agency, Asmadi Syam.

At a magnitude of 8.6, the first of the two quakes that hit on Wednesday was the 10th strongest recorded in the past hundred years – all the others produced deadly tsunamis. It was followed by an 8.2 magnitude aftershock. Wednesday's quake was also felt as far away as Thailand, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Reunion Island, Sri Lanka, and Burma.

The country's National Disaster Mitigation Agency said five people had died during the earthquake, and one was in a critical condition, but heart attacks attributed to the stress were the dominant cause of death.

After the 2004 earthquake and tsunami, which killed 170,000 people here, six sirens were installed across Aceh to provide an early warning. Yesterday, two failed. The cause is a mystery to Mr Asmadi, whose agency is responsible for their upkeep.

"I don't know why," he told The Age. "I have called the meteorology agency because they are the ones who understand it." Mr Asmadi said the alarms were checked every two months and "every time we checked they were good".

However, the checks did not involve switching them on. "No, we just do some visual checks, things looked good, so we only knew it yesterday that two of the sirens didn't work," he said.

Mr Asmadi agreed it was lucky that the earthquake did not cause a tsunami, but said people in Aceh "already have the idea of what to do". He agreed that if a tsunami came while people slept, as it did in 2004, the lack of sirens would be more concerning.

A survivor of the 2004 tsunami who lives in Banda Aceh, Putri Utami, said she had heard a siren, near Banda Aceh's Blang Padang Park, and it was even more effective than the earthquake in prompting people to evacuate the area. "I just heard it, and a lot of people after they heard the siren, they tried to run and get away," she said last night.

The sirens were initially administered by the Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, but in 2008 responsibility for their upkeep fell to the local and regional government.

Survivors of the tsunami said some people had lapsed into unconsciousness when the earthquake began because they feared another tsunami.

Nurjani Rashid said it had been much more violent than the tremor that caused the tsunami – so rough that it was impossible to stand, and people were forced to sit.

"Nobody thought yesterday that the tsunami wouldn't come – everyone thought it would come," said Leli Ana, who survived the 2004 tsunami by clinging to the dome of a mosque.

She said many people had not gone to sleep on Wednesday night, choosing instead to gather in mosques, even though the warning was lifted by 8.30pm local time.

Ms Rashid said people gathered at the mosques partly because they were solid buildings, but also because they hoped God would protect them there. "We are Muslim and we believe it's a safe place for us," she said.

Nural Hayati, 38, lost most of her family in 2004, including her mother, though her father survived. She clung to the dome of a mosque until the water receded.

After the tsunami, Ms Nural said she had rebuilt her house in the place close to the ocean where her family had died, saying she had little choice. "What can I do? It's the only piece of land we have," she said.

When the earth began shaking, she said it was "like it was repeating and happening again".

The trauma is clear from her face, which crumbles into tears at the memory. "I was so afraid. I just remembered my family and my mum," she said.

Her father did not run to the hills, like so many others in Banda Aceh, and neither did she.

They both returned to the house to guard it from looters and hope the water would not return. "What will be will be," she said.

Magnitude 8.8 aftershock hits Sumatera as fears of a large tsunami recede

Jakarta Globe - April 11, 2012

An aftershock measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale struck Sumatera mere hours after a powerful quake sent residents running for higher ground in Banda Aceh after a tsunami warning was issued for western Indonesia on Wednesday.

The aftershock, the latest in a series of quakes, struck Sumatera at 5:43 p.m., the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) reported. The region was placed on tsunami alert after a magnitude 8.5 earthquake struck some two hours earlier 500 km southwest of the city of Banda Aceh, on the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, at a depth of 33 km, the US Geological survey said.

Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) issued a tsunami warning for Aceh, West Sumatra, North Sumatra, Lampung and Bengkulu immediately after the quake was reported.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a tsunami watch was in effect for the entire Indian Ocean. It later said the threat of a big tsunami had receded, although the warning remained in place.

"It doesn't look like a major tsunami. But we are still monitoring as tsunamis come in waves," Victor Sardina, a geophysicist on duty at the Hawaii-based institute, told Reuters. The BMKG reported that small tsunami waves hit the coasts of Sabang and Meulaboh, in Aceh. The waves measured between 10 and 80 centimeters in height.

"The potentials for a tsunami is not as big as in 2004," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

Tsunami warnings would stay in effect for Indonesia. "The tsunami warnings along the western coasts of Aceh and North Sumatra will last for about an hour, in West Sumatra for about one-and-a-half hours and in Lampung between two and two-and-a-half hours," Sutopo said Wednesday afternoon.

Sutopo said power was down in Aceh province and people were gathering on high ground as sirens warned of the danger. "The electricity is down, there are traffic jams to access higher ground. Sirens and Koran recitals from mosques are everywhere," he said.

Residents in Banda Aceh reported the ground shaking violently. "It began as a mild tremor and then got stronger," an AFP correspondent in Banda Aceh said. He said the ground shook for about five minutes, and telephone connections went down briefly.

"There are people trying to evacuate, some are praying and children at a school were panicking as teachers tried to get them out," he said. "There are traffic jams everywhere as people are trying to get away from the coast – many are on motorcycles," the correspondent said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage in Aceh, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a speech from the Presidential Palace in Jakarta.

"There is no tsunami threat although we are on alert," said he said at a joint news conference with visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron, who said Britain was standing ready to help if needed. "The situation in Aceh is under control, there's a little bit of panic but people can go to higher ground," Yudhoyono added.

He said he had ordered a disaster relief team to fly to Aceh, which was devastated by the 9.1 magnitude 2004 quake, which sent huge tsunami waves crashing into Sumatra, where 170,000 people were killed, and across the Indian Ocean. In all, the 2004 tsunami killed about 230,000 people in 13 Indian Ocean countries, including Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.

'horizontal shift'

Wednesday's quake was felt as far away as the Thai capital, Bangkok, and in southern India, residents said. Hundreds of office workers in the Indian city of Bangalore left their buildings while the Indian port of Chennai closed down because of the danger of a tsunami, the port said.

The quake was in roughly in the same area as the 2004 quake which was at a depth of 18 miles (30 km) along a fault line running under the Indian Ocean, off western Indonesia and up into the Bay of Bengal. One expert told the BBC the Wednesday quake was a "strike-slip" fault, meaning a more horizontal shift of the ground under the sea as opposed to a sudden vertical shift, and less risk of a large displacement of water triggering a tsunami.

The quake was also felt in Sri Lanka, where office workers in the capital, Colombo, fled their offices, and in Phuket, both of which were hit hard by the 2004 tsunami.

Mahinda Amaraweera, Sri Lanka's minister for disaster management, called for calm while advising people near the coast to seek safety.

"I urge the people not to panic. We have time if there is a tsunami going to come. So please evacuate if you are in the coastal area and move to safer places," Amaraweera told a private television channel.

In Bangladesh, where two tremors were felt, authorities said there appeared to be no threat of a tsunami. Australia also said there was no threat of a tsunami there.

Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.

A giant 9.1-magnitude quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, nearly three quarter of them in Aceh. (JG/Retuers/AFP)

Health & education

Pregnant student exam 'ban' provokes outrage

Jakarta Globe - April 14, 2012

Amir Tejo, Surabaya – Activists on Friday demanded that East Java education office chief Harun revoke his statement that pregnant students would be barred from participating in next week's national exams.

"As a public servant, what [Harun] said will of course be followed by his subordinates. Therefore we demand [Harun] to withdraw his statement," said Sinung Kristato, coordinator of the East Java Network Concerned about Education, an umbrella group of 25 nongovernmental organizations in the province.

Barring students from participating in the exam, he said, would violate children's constitutional right to receive an education, as well as violate Indonesia's National Education Law and the Law on Child Protection.

"Besides violating the law, this policy is also discriminatory. Is it true that because [a student] is pregnant her morality is questionable?" he continued.

"In most cases, they are victims of rape. The restriction on pregnant student taking the test will only encourage them to get abortions to avoid detection. This will create more problems."

According to the Surabaya education office, there are two pregnant high school students and one in junior high school who are preparing for the exams.

Isa Anshori of the National Education Council, a government body with oversight on education, said the national government was happy for the three to take the test. "But after this statement [from Harun] they became worried," she said.

Isa said the council assured the students that it will fight for their rights and that the three have continued to prepare for their exams.

The students' respective schools, Isa said, had agreed to disregard Harun's remarks and follow the national-level policy of allowing all students to sit the test. "The schools have agreed to cooperate, despite the remarks from the education office chief," she said.

On Friday, Harun tried to diffuse the situation, saying that no damage had been done since the statement was oral and not a written instruction to schools.

"I have never issued a written instruction to education officials at the district or city levels," he said. "The national exam has its own technical guidelines. There are no such restrictions."

Sinung, who also chairs the East Java Children's Protection Organization, said that although Harun had not issued an official regulation barring pregnant students from taking the test, a compulsory requirement to graduate from school, his oral statement on the matter was highly inappropriate.

Sinung highlighted several media reports carrying Harun's statements, in which the official failed to clarify his position.

College bill is pro-poor, anti-privatization: Lawmakers

Jakarta Post - April 10, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Critics are doubting claims made by lawmakers that more poor people will be able to go to college if the House passes its bill on higher education later this week.

A group of education watchdogs and university students have been campaigning for the House to reject the bill, claiming that it would "aggressively" promote the privatization of higher education and deny poor people access to college.

The bill currently under consideration resembled the Educational Legal Entities Law, which it was designed to replace after the law was struck down by the Constitutional court for promoting aggressive privatization, they said. A member of the House of Representatives Commission X overseeing education denied such claims saying that the bill, once enacted, would grant access to higher education to the poor.

"We don't know why some quarters, including university students, are against the bill, because contrary to what they've said about the bill, it will in fact guarantee access to bright students from poor families who want to get a college education," lawmaker Dedi Gumelar, a member of the working group overseeing deliberations on the bill, said.

Dedi, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that the bill would mandate the government to financially support research at all universities in the nation, including private institutions.

Several articles in the bill guaranteed the poor access to higher education, he said, such as Article 76, which mandated that the government pay the registration fees of students who pass university entrance tests.

Meanwhile, Article 77 would oblige the government to allocate 20 percent of seats at state universities for poor students, whom the government would have to support financially, he said.

Article 93 would require the government to allocate 30 percent of national education operational funds, currently 2.5 percent of the state budget for education, for research, he added.

"There will be no reason for the government to not fulfill its responsibility to support research at our universities. Hopefully this will gradually improve the quality of research at Indonesian universities," Dedi said.

United Development Party (PPP) legislator Reni Marlinawati shared Didi's view, saying that the bill will adopt a populist stance on education.

"I believe those who are rejecting the bill haven't read the draft carefully. Or perhaps they only have an old draft and forget that the old one has been revised several times. Early drafts did have provisions that might have led to the privatization of universities, as many activists had assumed, but the later versions have omitted such provisions. I can guarantee that this one, which will be passed during a House plenary session scheduled for Wednesday, will side with the poor and will adopt a stance against state universities being turned into commercial institutions," she said.

Reni added that the bill also had provisions that would guarantee jobs for Indonesian educators at foreign universities in Indonesia.

"This is guaranteed by Article 50 of the bill, which requires foreign universities operating in Indonesia to hire Indonesian lecturers and staff members," Reni said.

Gender & sexual orientation

Minister says no to same-sex marriage

Jakarta Post - April 12, 2012

Rabby Pramudatama, Jakarta – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said that the government would not submit to a demand to legalize same-sex marriages in the country.

Suryadharma said that the government would defend the definition of marriage in the 1974 Marriage Law as a union between men and women and denied that the law was discriminatory toward certain groups in society.

"These groups said that the Marriage Law is discriminatory toward them. But [their] freedom should not violate existing norms and regulations," Suryadharma told reporters in Bogor, West Java on Wednesday.

Suryadharma said that in principle same-sex marriages contradicted basic Islamic teachings.

Earlier on Tuesday, Suryadharma said that there had been movement from certain groups to push for the amendment of the Marriage Law to accommodate same-sex marriages.

"These groups considered that the Marriage Law stood in the way of same-sex marriages and this was a violation of basic human rights. This is their idealism," Suryadharma said as quoted by Antara news agency in Bandung, West Java.

He said that these groups should consider existing norms adopted by society before making demands for same-sex marriages.

"One should not act freely based only on human rights norms, while ignoring other norms existing in the country," Suryadharma said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Indonesian Islamic Propagation Institute (LDII) national meeting in Bogor, West Java.

Suryadharma claimed that he had never met with groups fighting for same-sex marriages, but had relayed the information on the proposal to the community of Muslim clerics so that the latter could be vigilant on the issue.

He said that these groups were emboldened by the success of plaintiffs who filed a judicial review to the Constitutional Court against articles in the 1974 Marriage Law, claiming that those articles were discriminatory toward children born out of wedlock.

The ruling, which took place in late February, stipulated the civil rights of children born out of wedlock should be recognized by their biological fathers.

Conservative groups have denounced the ruling, saying the court condoned adultery. The court has denied this, saying that the ruling should only be interpreted regarding the rights of children born out of wedlock.

Separately, the Indonesian Ulema Council's (MUI) West Java chapter asserted that gay marriage would still be considered a deviant act.

"There is no room for same-sex marriages in Indonesia. It is not only Islam that forbids the act but also all religions," the council's secretary- general Rafani Achyar said on Wednesday.

He said that the MUI's provincial branch had made efforts to prevent gay marriage, and added that the local MUI would also reject any effort to insert provisions that would allow gay marriage in the gender equality bill currently under discussion at the House of Representatives.

"We reject the discussion about gay marriage in the context of the bill. We reject it even if it's only a discourse," he said.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) made a measured statement concerning the gay marriage issue. Abdul Munir Mulkhan of Komnas HAM's research and development division said that was the rights of all individuals to express their sexual orientation but that they also had to respect the country's socio-cultural condition.

"Everybody has their own perspectives depending on their needs. Now it all depends on the state to accommodate and protect the rights of its citizens," he told The Jakarta Post.

He said Suryadharma should accommodate aspirations from those who want to legalize same-sex marriage in his capacity as a government official. "That is the primary function of the state," added Munir.

Refugees & asylum seekers

60 asylum seekers in hiding in Indonesia after bid for Australia fails

Agence France Presse - April 14, 2012

Mataram, Indonesia – Indonesian authorities said Saturday they had found a boat reported missing en route to Australia and that the dozens of asylum seekers it was carrying were believed to have fled.

Authorities had been searching for the boat since the mostly Afghan asylum seekers on board made a distress call to Australia on Wednesday, saying they were in rough seas and their boat was sinking.

Refugee advocates who said 60 asylum seekers were on board alerted Australian authorities, who passed on the information to Indonesian officials.

Indonesian authorities said they had located the missing vessel late on Friday on Lombok island, which lies just east of the popular resort island of Bali, although residents said they spotted the asylum seekers on Wednesday.

"People in Lombok informed us that they saw the boat arrive on the shore on Wednesday, and that people came ashore and ran off," Nanang Sigit, a search and rescue official in West Nusa Tenggara province said

"We were not alerted immediately, so we only found the boat Friday night. We're now working with police and are conducting a search on the island."

Ian Rintoul of Brisbane-based Refugee Action Network told AFP he believed the vessel was still out at sea as late as Friday, when he last spoke to the asylum seekers via mobile phone. "If they found a boat on the island Wednesday, then it's not the right boat," he said.

"When I spoke to them last, I could hear the wind and water in the background. They said the boat had taken a lot of water." Indonesian officials said they were calling off the search for the vessel, apparently satisfied they had found the right boat.

"Residents told us they saw more than 50 people of Afghan appearance get off the boat and run, so we decided to stop searching the sea," Sigit said.

An AFP correspondent saw the boat on Bumbangku beach in southern Lombok, saying the 10-metre (yard) long wooden vessel had a fine crack about seven meters long along its floor, and that water had seeped through. The boat was full of empty instant noodle packets and water bottles.

Each year thousands of refugees – many in recent months from Afghanistan – try to make the perilous journey through Indonesian waters in hopes of seeking asylum in Australia.

"Asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat face very real risks and we need to work together now to prevent another tragedy from occurring," Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said.

Many of the overloaded and rickety boats used by people smugglers for the journey do not make it.

Last week, a Singapore-registered tanker rescued around 120 Australia-bound asylum seekers – all men and mostly Afghans and some Iranians – from their sinking wooden boat. They finally disembarked in Indonesia, after refusing to get off the docked tanker for two days, insisting they be allowed to continue their journey to Australia.

In December, a boat carrying around 250 mostly Afghan and Iranian asylum seekers sank in Indonesian waters on its way to Christmas Island, with only 47 surviving.

'We don't trust the police'

Sydney Morning Herald - April 10, 2012

Michael Bachelard – The 120 Afghan men and boys who were refusing to get off a ship at an Indonesian port spent last night at a hotel in the port city of Merak after being forced off by Indonesian police.

A number of men, whose wooden boat had sunk on the way to Christmas Island, were limping, many wept, and two beat their heads with steel fittings from the ship, drawing blood. One man tried to climb over the side but was held back by officers. The dramatic scenes unfolded as it became clear that police would move in at about 1.35pm local time yesterday (4.35pm AEST) and drag the men from the ship, which had rescued their sinking vessel on Sunday.

Negotiators speaking on behalf of the men, had earlier agreed that they would leave the ship in return for being taken to a hotel, not a prison, and that they would be able to make their asylum claims quickly.

But the group, which the men said included up to 20 boys under 18, including one 14-year-old, split when it came time to leave, and the majority decided to try to stay on board. A number of them linked hands and held on to the railings. "We don't trust the police," one man shouted from the side of the ship.

However, the men had had no food since Sunday, no access to a toilet, and no shelter on the deck and as police began escorting them away one by one as some went compliantly. Others struggled and cried.

Late yesterday they were driven under armed guard to the Feri Merak hotel near the port, where police had on Sunday booked 32 rooms for one week. It's unclear where they will go after the week is up.

In an earlier interview from the side of the ship, young asylum seeker Atiqullah Ameri said the group was "worried we will be taken by police and put in jail for two or three years and nobody will know where we are... if we get down [from the ship]".

Another man, Liaqat Ali Amini, told the Herald/Age that the men, all ethnic Hazaras, were afraid that the police would "take away our money and mobile phones, and put behind bars, and we have no contact with our family," Mr Amini said.

"We don't want to get off. People say we want to get to Australia, we were in international waters when we suffered a lot from this sinking boat. Our destination is not Indonesia. We came to [go to] Australia."

Mr Amini said the group had boarded the boat late on Saturday and headed for Christmas Island. But not all the engines worked. "They were broken very soon".

Australian authorities received a distress call [from a ship] which was sinking in the Sunda Strait south of Java at about 5.30am local time on Sunday. With Indonesian authorities, they called in the nearest ship, the Hermia, a Singapore-flagged tanker carrying chemicals.

Mr Amini claimed they had made it to international waters, but that, as they foundered, the wind had blown them back into Indonesian waters.

He said he came from Ghazni in the mountains of Afghanistan, and that his life had been threatened by insurgents. He had been hoping for many years to come to Australia, but had only recently raised the $US20,000 fee to pay the people smuggler, whom he identified as Haji.

He had come by plane to Bangkok, then by road and boat to Malaysia and then Indonesia. They waited for a boat for about two months in Bogor, just outside Jakarta.

Mr Amini said he had heard in Indonesia about Australia's change in detention policy, in which asylum seekers were now being kept in the community. However, his desire to come to Australia had long predated the policy change.

Another, Ali Muhammad, (sp?) said, "we are already a long way from our family, we already faced many problems in our own lives".

They confirmed that all on board were ethnic Hazaras and they said they faced daily persecution in Afghanistan. "Please, just for humanity, help us out of this problem," Muhammad said.

Graft & corruption

Regent, deputy regent inaugurated at prison

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2012

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandar Lampung – After having been delayed for six months, the inauguration of Khamanik as new Mesuji regent was held on Friday but the swearing-in ceremony took place at a prison, as deputy regent elect Ismail Ishak was serving a year behind bars for graft.

The ceremony was led by Lampung Governor Sjachroedin Z.P., in proxy for Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi at the Bawang Latak detention center in Menggala, Tulangbawang regency.

Khamanik and Ismail were elected in September 2011 but the latter's legal case in which he was convicted for fund embezzlement in 2006 caused their inauguration to stall.

Military troops were among the 750-strong security personnel guarding the ceremony. Scores of them were seen on standby at the intersection between the Sumatra trans eastern and east coast highways, around 500 meters from the Bawang Latak detention center.

In his keynote speech, Sjachroedin said he expected the new regent to seriously address issues on land disputes in the regency. "This is an inauguration without a plenary session, or prior approval from the Lampung legislature. It is unusual. Normally, an inauguration is carried out in a plenary session at the legislature. Today, the principle of discretion has been used," he said.

According to Sjachroedin, discretion was to ensure legal certainty. "The condition in Mesuji cannot drag on. The polemics should be ended, especially as the Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of Khamanik- Ismail as winners," said Sjachroedin.

Sjachroedin conveyed a message from Gamawan that Khamanik, as the new regent, should immediately consolidate and reconcile with the Mesuji regency council and organize the regional working unit (SKPD).

"The rapport with the legislature must be improved. The SKPD, which has been less efficient thus far, must be improved," Sjachroedin quoted Gamawan as saying in his message.

Khamanik faces daunting tasks alone as Ismail must serve out his year in jail. Without his deputy, Khamanik must resolve the Register 45 land dispute case, the conflict between farmers and PT Barat Selatan Makmur Investindo (PT BSMI), opposition from some legislators and the consolidation of the SKPD.

The Khamanik-Ismail pairing, nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and the National Democratic Party, gained 39.75 percent of the ballot on Sept. 29, 2011. On Nov. 15, 2011, the Menggala District Court sentenced Ismail to a year for providing capital shares from the regency budget at PT Tulangbawang Jaya in 2000. Former Mesuji joint fact-finding team member H.S. Tisnanta said Khamanik had the influence to resolve the Register 45 and PT BSMI conflicts which have become a national interest.

List of convicted regional officials sworn in:

Jefferson SM Rumajar/Tomohon mayor. Sentenced: May 10, 2011, 9 years, fined Rp 200 million. Sworn in: January 2011 by Governor Sinyo Sarundajang

Yusak Yaluwo/Boven Digul regent. Sentenced: Nov. 2, 2010, 4.5 years, fined Rp 200 million. Sworn in: March 2011 by Governor Barnabas Suebu and Rp 45.7b as restitution

Agusrin Najamuddin/suspended Bengkulu regent Jan. Sentenced: Jan 10, 2012, 4 years, fined Rp 200 million Sworn in: Nov. 29, 2010,

Ismail Ishak/Mesuji deputy regent. Sentenced: Nov. 15, 2011, 1 year, fined Rp 396 million. Sworn in: April 13, 2012, by Governor Sjachroedin Z.P.

[Source: The Jakarta Post.]

Cases against Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Hartono Tanoesoedibjo my be dropped

Jakarta Globe - April 14, 2012

Rangga Prakoso – The Attorney General's Office is mulling the possibility of stopping an investigation into a high-profile graft case after the Supreme Court reversed its conviction of earlier suspects.

On Thursday, Zulkarnaen Yunus, a former Justice Ministry director general, had his guilty verdict overturned. Last year, two other now-former suspects – former Justice Ministry official Romli Atmasasmita and businessman Yohanes Waworuntu – had their guilty verdicts quashed by the court as well.

Zulkarnaen had been sentenced to a year in prison for his role in a Rp 410 billion ($44.69 million) embezzlement case linked to a business registration Web site, later found to have had a disproportionate revenue- sharing scheme.

Attorney General Basrief Arief said Zulkarnaen's acquittal might spell the end of the investigation against the two remaining suspects – former minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra and Hartono Tanoesoedibjo, owner of a company that operates the Web site. Yusril and Hartono were charged in 2009, but their cases have yet to go to trial.

Basrief said his office was weighing whether to push on with the prosecution. "I am ordering the prosecutors [in charge of the investigation] to get a copy [of Zulkarnaen's acquittal]," he said. "Afterwards, we will swiftly evaluate."

Deputy Attorney General Darmono said there had been no official decision on the matter. "We cannot decide yet," he said. "We must wait for the complete evaluation first." Soon, he said, the AGO would hold an internal meeting to decide what to do.

Yusril, who before becoming minister was a respected lawyer and politician, said that with three suspects already acquitted, prosecutors no longer had sufficient legal grounds to pursue the case.

"There is absolutely no reason for the AGO to continue this investigation," he said. "The case has not only damaged the good names of those named as suspects and charged, but it also tarnishing the reputation of the entire prosecutor's office."

Yusril said that the case had been weak from the start. He said he suspected his political rivals had forced the AGO to push on with it.

Prosecutors have accused Yusril of appointing Sarana Rekatama Dinamika as the sole provider of the Web site, www.sisminbakum.go.id, and of being responsible for the disproportionate split of the site's profit, with 90 percent going to the company and 10 percent to the ministry's Pengayoman cooperative.

Between 2001 and 2008, Sarana is alleged to have siphoned off Rp 410 billion. The government took over the site in 2008.

Yusril said the government had yet to decide if revenue should go to the state coffers, arguing that no state losses had been incurred by the scheme.

PPATK finds 2,300 suspect bank accounts tied to officials

Jakarta Globe - April 13, 2012

Made Arya Kencana & Rizky Amelia, Denpasar – A financial transaction watchdog has found 2,300 potentially problematic bank accounts belonging to heads of regional administrations or their families, its former chairman said on Thursday.

"It is not yet known whether there are any [illegally] fat accounts among them," Yunus Husein said on the sidelines of a seminar on regional financial management in Bali.

Yunus said hundreds of the suspected problematic accounts in the names of regional heads or their families were being investigated by the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK).

Any irregularities in the accounts, he said, would be evident in the way the money was moved among them. "[The funds] are usually only moved around between the accounts of the wife, their children or other relatives," Yunus said.

He cautioned that not all of the suspicious accounts flagged necessarily involved corruption, and said the investigation would eventually make it clear which were innocent.

Meanwhile, Isran Noor, the head of the Association of Municipality Governments of Indonesia (Apkasi), said regional leaders were now concerned that they could potentially be accused of corruption because of an administrative error. He said unjustified suspicion could damage their careers even if they were eventually cleared.

"Once they have been summoned by the prosecutors' office or the police, the case gets complicated and they can no longer work comfortably," Isran said. He also objected to the PPATK's surveillance of bank accounts, arguing that bank customers had the right to privacy.

Yunus, however, said the PPATK had the legal authority to investigate suspicious accounts. He added that the PPATK never released names, and said that if any were leaked to the press, the information must have come from other sources.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Johan Budi, said the commission had not yet received any reports from the PPATK regarding the suspicious bank accounts.

He said that because the KPK was busy addressing a significant backlog of cases, the commission could not take the initiative to request a report from the PPATK.

Among the cases currently under KPK investigation are those of nine high- ranking officials at the Finance Ministry found to have unusually large balances in their bank accounts. The reports about the accounts in question also came from the PPATK.

In February, the center said more than 1,800 questionably large bank accounts had been detected since 2003. These included 707 accounts held by civil servants, 89 by police officers, 12 by prosecutors, 17 by judges, 65 by lawmakers and one by a KPK official.

Lampung district head, deputy installed in ceremony in prison

Jakarta Globe - April 13, 2012

Erwida Maulia – Lampung Governor Sjachroedin Z.P. installed the new head of the Mesuji district and his graft convict deputy in a ceremony at a local penitentiary on Friday.

The new Mesuji district head, Khamamik, and his deputy, Ismail Ishak, elected in September of last year, were inaugurated at the Bawanglatak penitentiary in the Lampung town of Tulang Bawang.

The Justice and Human Rights Ministry would not allow the ceremony to be held outside of prison, according to Home Affairs Ministry spokesman Reydonnyzar Moenek.

"The Home Affairs Minister decree on the appointment and installment of Mesuji district head Khamamik and his deputy Ismail Ishak was issued on Dec. 20," Reydonnyzar told The Jakarta Globe over the phone on Friday. "After a long and complicated process, however, the ceremony can only be held today."

Reydonnyzar said upon the installment, the ministry would soon issue an instruction for the governor to discharge Ismail from his new position. He said the ceremony should still have taken place because the ministry could only discharge officials already holding a position.

"He [Ismail] was only a deputy district head candidate before the installment. Now that he has been installed, we can soon discharge him," Reydonnyzar said. He quoted a 2005 government regulation saying convicts could not serve as regional heads.

Ismail was sentenced to one year in jail in November of last year because he was proven guilty of embezzling state funds in 2006 while serving as a member of the Tulangbawang Council.

Defense witnesses confirm Nunun-Miranda's close ties

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2012

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Lawyers for bribery defendant Nunun Nurbaeti presented before the Jakarta Corruption Court three staff members who worked for Nunun as defense witnesses to prove the suspect Miranda Goeltom's close acquaintance with their client.

The witnesses are two staff members who work at Nunun's private residence in Cipete, South Jakarta, namely driver Samid Bahruddin and Nunun's housekeeper Lini Supardi, and one catering-service owner, Rietje Slamet.

The three testified that they saw Miranda come to Nunun's house on several occasions before the central bank's vote-buying case occurred in 2004. "I saw Miranda at the house twice during social gatherings held by Ibu Nunun," Lini said.

Rietje confirmed Lini's testimony, saying that Nunun and Miranda seemed to know each other well. "Yes, they were close friends at that time," said Rietje who claimed that Nunun often used her catering service at the time.

Nunun had allegedly acted as a go-between in the bribery scheme by delivering traveler's checks worth Rp 20.85 billion (US$2.27 million) to dozens of former lawmakers to swing their votes for Miranda in the 2004 Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor election. Miranda is now a suspect.

The Rp 20.85 billion checks are part of Rp 24 billion in the form of Bank Internasional Indonesia traveler's checks purchased by small palm oil company, PT First Mujur Plantation and Industry, to pay for small plantations owned by local farmers in North Sumatra.

Previous court proceedings revealed that First Mujur used Bank Artha Graha's money to purchase the checks.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which began its investigations into the case in early 2009, has yet to uncover how the same checks ended up in lawmakers' pockets.

Previously, First Mujur officials had testified before the court that they did not understand how or why the checks were used in the bribery case.

KPK's new jail gets first inmate: Rosa

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2012

Jakarta – Graft convict Mindo "Rosa" Rosalina Manulang is the first inmate of the Corruption Eradication Commission's new prison.

Rosa was sentenced to 30 months' imprisonment for aiding Muhammad Nazaruddin, her former boss, in a scheme to rig the award of the contract to build the athletes' village for the Southeast Asian Games.

Rosa was previously placed in protective custody by the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), following receipt of a death threat after she alleged that several high-profile figures were involved in the scandal.

The KPK detained Rosa in January, before she was scheduled to testify against Nazaruddin, after she asked investigators for protection because she felt unsafe at the Pondok Bambu detention center.

LPSK commissioner Lili Pintauli Siregar confirmed that Rosa had been moved. "Yes, she is now incarcerated in the KPK's jail," Lili said on Tuesday. "However, I do not know where exactly they put her."

Rosa was in good care as the detention block was also under supervision from the Law and Human Rights Ministry, she added.

Construction of the 80-square-meter detention block started early this year and included "sophisticated security systems" to ensure that those incarcerated in the facility remained incarcerated, according to the commission.

The KPK previously said that the prisoners and detainees in its charge would not receive any privileges in their cells.

Graft convicts remain free despite verdicts

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2012

Jakarta – The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) watchdog urged the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to expedite its execution of court rulings on 49 graft suspects who remain at large.

Data from the ICW showed that as of March 2012, of the convicts who remained free, 25 individuals were suspected of having fled. The antigraft organization attributed the problem to procedural loopholes at both the Supreme Court and the AGO.

The Criminal Code Procedures (KUHAP), for example, clearly stipulates that prosecutors can only implement sentences by showing official copies of the verdicts to the convicts.

There have been occasions when convicts and prosecutor's offices colluded to arrange a delay in the delivery of copies of the verdicts. Graft convicts also at times have made efforts to slow down the execution by bribing court clerks not to deliver copies of their verdicts to the AGO.

Activist from the ICW, Emerson Yuntho, said that the AGO should at least detain graft convicts before receiving a court order for execution of sentences.

"The AGO should immediately detain the convicts. If they delay the execution of the ruling, it is possible for the convict to run away making it more difficult for the AGO to bring them to jail," Emerson said.

The ICW also reminded the AGO to abide by the Presidential Instruction No. 9/2011 about corruption eradication, which demands law enforcement agencies expedite the prosecution of graft convicts.

One of the graft convicts who remains at large is the suspended Bengkulu Governor Agusrin Maryono Najamuddin.

In May 2011, the Central Jakarta District Court acquitted Agusrin of embezzlement charges, a ruling which was overturned in January this year by the Supreme Court, which sentenced him to four years in prison.

The AGO was yet to execute the sentence when on Tuesday he turned up at the Central Jakarta District Court to have his case review heard by the judges.

He was seen having lunch at the court's cafeteria with his lawyer Yusril Ihza Mahendra after his court session wrapped up.

When asked about when he would accept the Supreme Court ruling, Agusrin said that he would turn himself in at the Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta. "I will go to the Cipinang Penitentiary all by myself, as soon as I have completed my paperwork with the court," he said.

AGO spokesman Adi Toegarisman could not be reached for comment. (fzm/asa)

Terrorism & religious extremism

Top court rejects Bashir's repeal call

Jakarta Globe - April 12, 2012

Agus Triyono – The Constitutional Court has rejected a motion by firebrand Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir to have several articles of the Criminal Procedures Code repealed.

The court ruled that Article 21.1 and Article 95.1 of the code, known as Kuhap, do not violate the Constitution.

Article 21.1 gives the police the authority to extend a suspect's detention if there is a flight risk or a risk to evidence if the suspect is released. But Bashir had argued that the law could be used by the police to arbitrarily arrest people and keep them in detention without proper grounds.

"We have rejected a similar motion against Article 21.1 before so we don't have to review it again," presiding judge Hamdan Zoelva said.

Article 95.1 deals with compensation for people mistakenly arrested or detained. The cleric had said that it was not clear who decided whether an arrest or detention had proper legal basis, creating legal uncertainty for society as a whole.

"We think the article is not against the Constitution. Therefore, we reject Bashir's motion," Hamdan said. Bashir had protested the police move to extend his detention before he was tried last year, afterwards filing a review against the 1981 law.

The cleric, who has been referred to as the father of Indonesian militant Islam and was found guilty of financially supporting the training of a militant group in Aceh, was sentenced to 15 years in prison late last year.

The Supreme Court upheld that sentence last month but Bashir has said he will file a case review against the verdict.

The militants at the Aceh training camp were allegedly planning deadly Mumbai-style terrorist attacks on Westerners and politicians before they were raided by police in early 2010.

Hard-line & vigilante groups

Three injured in attack on FPI office in Bogor

Jakarta Globe - April 9, 2012

Vento Saudale, Bogor – In a role reversal, the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front was on the receiving end of a vigilante raid.

An outpost belonging to the group known as the FPI – which is known for its penchant for violence and raids on locations it deems sinful – was attacked by dozens of unidentified men early on Sunday morning in the Sukaraja subdistrict of Bogor.

Some 20 motorcycles, each carrying two to three men, attacked the outpost at around 3:30 a.m., according to local FPI subdistrict head Syaiful. "They came from the Bogor-Jakarta highway suddenly. They kept provoking us, and they all held blades and blunt instruments," Syaiful said.

Some 20 FPI members were present at the time of the attack, he said, and three were wounded in the clash that ensued. Two of suffered head lacerations while the other was hit in the head with a blunt instrument.

Sukaraja Police chief Comr. Ipik Kusmaya said investigators had questioned three FPI members about the incident. "We are also deploying several of our personnel to monitor the area," Ipik said.

Hadi Ali, the head of the local FPI advisory board, said it was not the first time the outpost had been visited by a mob. "Not long ago, they also came to provoke us, but no clash erupted. In essence, they did not want our outpost here," Hadi said.

The outpost, he said, was built some three months ago "as part of our efforts to observes places that are usually used for vice." Hadi speculated that the attackers had come from a nearby drinking stall.

"Irresponsible people get drunk and engage in sleaze at the stall," he claimed. Ipik said police would investigate and urged the FPI "not to take matters into their own hands."

Freedom of religion & worship

Shia leader faces blasphemy charges

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2012

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – The Madurese Shia leader who became a target of arson recently in the wake of mounting suspicion by mainstream Muslims about misleading practices, is now facing prosecution in relation to religious blasphemy

Tajul Muluk was named a suspect last month and his case was handed to the Sampang prosecutor's office on Thursday afternoon.

Head of Sampang Prosecutors' Office, Danang Purwoko, said the arrest had been made for the sake of Tajul's own safety, considering that he was not accepted by the local community. The prosecutor's move, he said, was expected to put an end to the conflict in Sampang.

"We will bring Tajul's case to court as soon as possible," Danang said on Friday, adding that his office guaranteed Tajul's safety while in detention at the Sampang detention center.

His statement came following criticism from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) over alleged hostilities directed at Tajul from other detainees.

Coordinator of KontraS Surabaya, Andy Irfan, said the commission had received the complaints from Tajul's family. He said Tajul was placed in the same cell other detainees, who were mostly criminals.

"He received both life and physical threats," Andy said on Friday. KontraS condemned the arrest as violating human rights and the freedom of religion.

Tajul was named a suspect for alleged religious blasphemy as well as for public inconvenience on March 15, by the East Java Police.

His suspect status was made following a report filed in January by Tajul's brother cleric Rois Al Hukuma, who accused Tajul of tarnishing Islam. Rois made his accusation based on an edict issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council's (MUI) Sampang branch that was critical of Tajul Muluk's teaching.

The attack on his pesantren [Islamic boarding school] on Dec. 29 left a school and worship house burned down in Nangkrenang village, Sampang. The house of another Shia follower in Gadhing Laok village, Bluuran subdistrict, Karangpenang also suffered an attack from the crowd.

The attacks forced over 300 to flee for refuge at the indoor tennis court belonging to the Sampang regency administration, some 20 kilometers from their home village. A man with the initial M has been named a suspect in the attack. East Java Governor Soekarwo blamed the attack on an internal family conflict.

Commissioner Hesti Armiwulan of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) expressed surprise over the arrest of Tajul, saying the authorities would need to evaluate the case so as to prevent a human rights violation.

Komnas HAM, Hesti said, had tried to mediate the conflict but failed because the conflicting parties used religious arguments rather than digging into the core of the problem, which was rooted in the internal conflict of a family.

Chairman of the East Java Interfaith Forum, Ghazali Said, said that religious figures and the elites of religious organizations should be able to calm the emotions of their respective communities so as to prevent them from committing attacks or violence against people of different faiths.

"The Shia have been in existence in Madura for decades. Their existence has triggered conflict because religious figures and elites of religious organizations take advantage of it to benefit their own faiths," Ghazali said.

Embattled church observes Easter

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2012

Lutfi Rakhmawati, Jakarta – The embattled GKI Taman Yasmin congregation in Bogor observed Easter peacefully on Sunday as worshippers hoped for an end to their intimidation.

The congregation, whose church has been closed since 2008, decided to conduct the service clandestinely at a house of a member to prevent possible harassment, as has often happened in the past.

The worshippers spread the invitation to the service among church members and a few journalists but withheld the information from the police, whom they regard as powerless in safeguarding them.

Bona Sigalingging, the church's spokesman, said that church-goers took a lesson from last year's Christmas celebration when dozens of hard-liners came to intimidate them. "The police were there, but they did not do much to help us. Ever since then, we know that there is no point in telling the police about our activities," Bona said.

The congregration had always reported their activities, which usually served as a means to protest the injustice they have suffered, to the police to avoid intimidation, but usually ended up with radical groups finding out about their activities and holding rowdy protests.

Bona said that limiting the information only to worshippers and journalists was the best way to conduct religious activities without interruption or intimidation. "For this Easter service, we just announced the location on Saturday," he said.

Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto suspended the church's building permit in 2008, saying that its existence could disrupt religious harmony in the surrounding area.

The mayor ignored a Supreme Court ruling ordering the opening of the church and a recommendation from the National Ombudsman Commission saying that members of the GKI Yasmin congregation should be allowed to perform religious practices in their own church.

General Secretary of Indonesian Communion of Churches Rev. Gomar Gultom, who attended the Easter Mass, said that the worshippers should not lose their humanity even though they received intimidation from others.

"The church members have their right to use their own church, and I don't want them to give up struggling. Yet, I must say that praying can be done everywhere. We don't have to come to the church to pray," he said.

Gomar also said that the worshippers should not feel discouraged by harassment. "I think that Indonesia is still a pluralistic country. Such discrimination doesn't happen in all places," he said.

The Jakarta Cathedral in Central Jakarta was full for Easter Evening on Saturday. Nearly 2,500 parishioners flocked to the church for the Holy Saturday Mass.

Agriculture & food security

Fishermen hang up nets as incomes fall

Jakarta Globe - April 13, 2012

Tunggadewa Mattangkilang, Balikpapan, East Kalimantan – Millions of the country's traditional fishermen have left their jobs to become motorcycle taxi drivers, street vendors or trash pickers because they are no longer able to sustain themselves by catching fish.

A recent survey by the People's Coalition for Sea Justice (Kira) found that 116 fishermen across the archipelago change jobs every day, and in the last seven years 1.3 millions fishermen have migrated to other occupations.

The survey of thousands of fishermen across the nation earlier this last month found that their numbers dropped from four million in 2004 to 2.7 million last year, Kira chairman Reza Damanik told a national conference of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) in Balikpapan on Thursday.

Fishermen have been forced to leave their traditional occupations because marine degradation has reduced fishery stocks, while private ownership of islands has also shrunk the area in which fishing is permitted.

The government's lack of interest in providing fishermen loans to buy equipment and boats has driven them to abandon the sea and look elsewhere for ways to make a living, Reza said. "To make matters worse, extreme and unpredictable climate change has endangered their lives," he said.

Unusually rough seas last year claimed the lives of 147 fishermen, up from 84 in 2010, according to Kira's data.

Reza said that all the problems encountered by fishermen arose because there were no policies supporting them. "Fishermen's livelihoods will become worse in the coming years as millions of them will end up living in poverty due to falling incomes," he said.

The falling number of fishermen has also driven down the national fish supply, forcing the government to import fish from neighboring countries. Indonesia had to import some 300,000 tons of fish in 2011 and is projected to import some 400,000 tons this year.

Traditional fishermen contribute 92 percent of the 10 million tons of the national fish output, with commercial fisheries only contributing the remaining 8 percent, Reza said.

Budi Laksana, secretary general of the Indonesia Fishermen's Association, told the same conference that there were currently no laws protecting the country's traditional fishermen. "That's why our fishermen continue to suffer and seek other jobs to make a living. The government must do something to protect them," he said.

The government's 15-year Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia's Economic Development (MP3EI) identifies key fishing zones in the country's east, in the waters off Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua.

Indonesia beef quota threatens meatball, sausage producers

Jakarta Globe - April 14, 2012

Lenny Tristia Tambun – A national business organization has called on the government to reconsider its beef "self-sufficiency" program, which its members say has caused a scarcity of the meat.

Sarman Simanjorang, Jakarta branch chairman of the Indonesian Indigenous Entrepreneurs Association (HIPPI), said a government quota on beef imports had driven up prices to Rp 80,000 ($8.70) per kilogram, pushing meatball and sausage producers to the brink of collapse.

The price of beef is expected to reach Rp 120,000 a kilogram during the Idul Fitri, Christmas and New Year's holidays. The government cut its allotment for beef imports by 66 percent for 2012, reducing it from around 50,000 to 60,000 tons per year to 34,000 tons.

"The sharp decline has led to scarcities and soaring prices," Sarman said on Friday. "The Agriculture Ministry was convinced the shortage could be covered with local beef stock, according to a census of cattle, but the fact is there is very little stock."

Traders in East Java, traditionally a cattle supplier, are already complaining about a beef scarcity, he said. Jakarta and its surrounding areas import 80 to 90 percent of its beef.

In 2011 the government set an import quota of 100,000 tons, down from 120,000 in 2010. But Jakarta alone requires 50,000 to 60,000 tons of beef per year, Sarman said.

This year's quota is divided into two semesters, with 20,400 tons for the first semester, which runs until July, and 13,600 tons for the second. But the first semester quota was only sufficient to meet demand until April, Sarman said.

The quota for the second half is expected to meet only two months' worth of demand, which will be a disaster for religious events, he said.

He said the government needed to be realistic. "The Agriculture Ministry has failed with its beef self-sufficient program twice already: once in 2005 and the again in 2010," he said.

Sarman said he hoped the government would put in place a special quota for Jakarta by allowing the capital to get 50,000 to 60,000 tons of imported beef. That, he said, would save small industries that depend on the raw meat.

Tatat, who runs Husada Sari Rasa, a meatball business in Pulo Gadung, East Jakarta, said profits had plunged 70 percent.

"I'm struggling to keep my business afloat," said Tatat, who sells meatballs in traditional markets and supermarkets. "The price of beef has surged by 35 percent but we can't increase our meatball price by 35 percent. In the end, we had to lower quality."

He started the business in 2001, hiring 150 workers to turn 1.5 tons of meat into 400,000 meatballs per day. With meatball prices ranging from Rp 100 to Rp 400 each, he could make about Rp 160 million per day.

"Our business used to go well and the profits could be used to pay workers' salaries," he said. But since the import cap took effect, Tatat hasn't been able to get the supply he needs. Breeders he has approached have told him that they don't need the money yet or otherwise aren't selling their cattle.

With profits being squeezed, Tata was forced into a drastic downsizing. He said he had to let 100 workers go, leaving only 50 people on the payroll. Since the beginning of the year, Husada Sari Rasa has only been able to process 400 to 500 kilograms of beef into 100 to 200 meatballs every day, he said.

Tatat said the government needed to remove its cap on beef imports or ensure there was a sufficient local beef supply. He threatened to organize protests if the government failed to fix the mess it had made.

Hermanto, manager of Husada Sari Rasa, said the business was collapsing. "The government doesn't understand that we've never experienced anything this bad," he said. "Last year was not as difficult as this year. Do we have to stage a rally to get the government to allow beef imports?"

Proletarianisation of rural communities gathering pace

Kompas - April 14, 2012

Jakarta – Because the government has failed to fulfill its promise of agrarian reform, the process of rural proletarianisation continues unabated. Rural communities, the majority of whom are farmers that once owned land, have begun to loose their source of income because they no longer have control over land.

Agricultural involution, which has long been predicted, is already taking place in rural Indonesia, said Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA) General Secretary Idham Arsyad in Jakarta on Friday April 13.

"The proletarianisation of rural communities is gathering pace. People who once owned land, no longer own land, in order to eat they must sell their labour because they've lost their source of income from the land", said Arsyad.

This picture of rural proletarianisation is becoming increasingly commonplace in various parts of Indonesia. "Our rural communities are already extremely poor. Land on a massive scale is controlled by big companies. It is this that should actually be the aspect urging the need for agrarian reform", said Arsyad.

The government on the other hand, according to Arsyad, is in fact equivocating about fighting for the interests of rural communities like farmers by increasing the price of fuel (BBM) so that the subsidies can be shifted to farmers. Yet, Arsyad continued, if the government is really serious about helping farmers, all it needs to do is complete the agrarian reform program such as redistributing abandoned land to farmers.

In a situation where a proletarianisation of rural communities is taking place, agrarian conflicts, said Arsyad, will continue to occur. "The number of conflicts will increase and will certainly be bloody", he said. Arsyad gave the example of the most recent agrarian conflicts that invariably result in the loss of life such as those in Mesuji in Lampung and South Sumatra.

Moreover, just last Thursday a clash broke out between local people and company employees that was triggered by the issue of land control in Sei Mati, Medan Labuhan sub-district, Medan, North Sumatra, which resulted in the death of one person.

The chairperson of the Nusantara Fishers and Farmers Association (Astanu), Lukman Hakim, also said that a process of proletarianisation and agricultural involution is taking place in Indonesia. According to Hakim, the amount of land controlled by framers is progressively shrinking. "The current situation is that the amount of land is progressively shrinking, while farmers' need [for land] is steadily growing", said Hakim.

In the same vein as Arsyad, Astanu together with the Islamic mass organisation Nahdlatul Ulama is urging the government to immediately carry out agrarian reform in order to solve these problems.

During the land dispute in Medan Labuhan, local people clashed with employees from geo-thermal electricity operator Magma Nusantara Limited (MNL), which claimed ownership over 315 hectares of land. The local community however also made a claim over a part of this land. This was related by public information bureau chief Police Brigadier General M. Taufik in Jakarta yesterday.

As a consequence of the clash, which took place on Thursday at 5.30pm, one person was killed and eight people injured. The case is now being handled by the Labuhan district police.

According to Arsyad, aside from the fact that legislative mandates and a People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decree already exist, steps towards agrarian reform such as the redistribution of land to farmers could easily be undertaken by the government.

"[Such as] the redistribution of land owned by [the state-owned forestry company] Perhutani in Java, large plantation lands outside of Java could also be [redistributed]. In addition to this, the government could also start moving villages out of forest areas. That would be the easiest agenda for agrarian reform and a solution to resolve conflicts", he said.

Rather than the government facing public opposition to policies such as fuel price increases, said Arsyad, it would be easier for the government to help farmers realise agrarian reform. (BIL/FER)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Ethnic & social conflicts

House approves controversial social conflict management bill

Jakarta Post - April 12, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The House of Representatives passed the social conflict management bill on Wednesday following a chorus of rejection from lawmakers and NGOs who warned it could pave the way for the Indonesian Military (TNI) to enter local political issues.

The final bill featured a watered-down version of one of the more contentious articles, which would have authorized governors, regents and mayors, if backed by local military and police leaders, to deploy the TNI to resolve social conflicts – a power currently reserved for the President.

The bill endorsed by the House on Wednesday allowed only the President to have the authority to deploy the TNI to handle such conflicts, when necessary, with the approval of the House leadership.

"After comprehensively discussing input from lawmakers, particularly on Article 33 and Article 34 on the deployment of the TNI in conflict resolution, we agreed to revise both articles to mandate the President to be in charge of this," said Adang Daradjatun from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), who chaired the special committee on the bill.

"This is to avoid ambiguity over which institutions should be responsible for deploying the TNI in conflict resolutions, when needed."

In a plenary session last week, lawmakers were concerned that the articles could pave the way for TNI personnel to commit human-rights violations in domestic conflicts. The lawmakers then sent the bill back to the House committee to make revisions.

The revised version of the bill states that regional leaders need approval from the President to deploy the TNI in conflict situations. But the President himself will also need to obtain approval from House leaders in order to deploy troops in such situations, under the approved bill.

The committee has also agreed to drop an article that could allow foreign agencies to be involved in conflict resolution in Indonesia. Previously, House Commission I overseeing defense and international affairs expressed its concerns over the article.

"We decided to drop the article because activists have stated their opposition to it. We have decided not to allow foreign agencies to interfere with efforts to resolve social conflicts," Adang said.

Another senior lawmaker said that the removal of the article had helped protect the sovereignty of Indonesian. "This is important to show that we are an independent nation. We must be able to take care of ourselves, including in the management of social conflicts in the country," said TB Hasanuddin from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, who is also the deputy chairman of Commission I.

Quoting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin said that the bill would provide a legal foundation for protecting civilians in times of social conflict.

"The law will not only protect the people but also empower them during conflicts because it will uphold human rights, justice and gender equality," he said.

A group called Indonesia Damai (Peaceful Indonesia) first proposed the bill in early 2011, and the House soon started deliberating on the organization's suggestion. House Commission II overseeing domestic governance and regional autonomy deliberated on the bill with Commission III on legal affairs and Commission I.

The bill has also mandated the establishment of a Social Conflict Settlement Commission, an ad hoc body which would have the authority to conduct out-of-court settlements through mediation and reconciliation sessions.

Opposition mounts against social conflict bill

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2012

Jakarta – A coalition of NGOs called on the House of Representatives and the executive not to endorse the social conflict management bill, fearing that it would give the Indonesian Military (TNI) a free hand in politics.

The House is expected to endorse the bill on Tuesday after sending it back to committee for revisions last week. "The President should prevent the bill from being endorsed because it is his authority that is at stake," activist Al Araf from the coalition said.

Provisions in the bill stipulate that governors, regents and mayors, with the consent of local leaders, have the right to deploy the TNI to resolve social conflicts, taking away the privilege from the President, who is otherwise in charge in the deployment of TNI personnel.

A researcher of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), Wahyudi Djafar, said that the bill, once approved, could pave the way for the military to enter politics, a throwback to the country's authoritarian past.

Lawmaker Helmy Fauzi of the House of Representatives Commission I overseeing defense, intelligence and foreign affairs said that the bill contradicted the Constitution, which gives the President the right to declare a state of emergency.

"Article 12 of the 1945 State Constitution gives the President the right to declare a state of emergency. This bill will contravene the law if endorsed," said Helmy of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- P).

The chairperson of the bill's special committee, Eva Kusuma Sundari, said that the House has held public hearings to disseminate information about the bill and received complaints from some quarters, a claim that Al Araf and Wahyudi denied.

"We rejected the bill three months ago, but the House carried on with their deliberation," Al Araf said.

Contacted separately, Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said that the State Palace had yet to be briefed on the details of the bill. (fzm)

Jakarta & urban life

Residents doubt elected governor can end city's woes

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2012

Novia D. Rulistia, Jakarta – Jakarta residents are pessimistic that whoever wins the July gubernatorial election will be able to immediately solve the city's major problems, according to a survey.

The survey, conducted by the Indonesia Survey Circle (LSI) from March 26 to April 1, said that 52.6 percent of a total of 440 respondents did not believe that the future governor could make the city free from traffic congestion, flooding and waste problems.

"Most respondents want a governor who can address traffic problems along with flooding and waste. However, they don't believe that the new governor can solve it all in the next five years," director of Citra Komunikasi LSI Toto Izul Fattah said on Sunday.

Citra Komunikasi is a subsidiary of the LSI that focuses on the Jakarta gubernatorial election.

Besides the three major problems, Toto said that 18.9 percent of respondents also wanted the governor to give more attention to education, health, security and religious tolerance.

The surveyors randomly interviewed 440 respondents from across the city. The margin of error in the survey is 4.8 percent.

The survey also showed that 49 percent of respondents would choose Governor Fauzi Bowo and running mate Nachrowi Ramli in the upcoming poll, followed by incumbent Surakarta Mayor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and the former regent of East Belitung in the Bangka-Belitung Islands, Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama at 14.4 percent.

The third is Hidayat nur Wahid and Didik Rachbini with 8.3 percent, Faisal Basri and Biem Benjamin at 5.8 percent and Hendardji Soepandji and Ahmad Riza Patria at 1.2 percent.

Toto said that although Fauzi was still the most popular candidate, the respondents said they were dissatisfied with his performance over the past five years. "The report highlights that 57.3 percent of respondents say they are not satisfied with Fauzi in dealing with traffic congestion in the city. This is actually a good opportunity for his rivals to reassure public that they have the capabilities to solve this problem," he said.

Another survey released earlier by the Soegeng Sarjadi School of Government (SSSG) showed that most Jakartans preferred independent candidates over politically backed candidates.

Separately on Sunday, independent candidates retired Gen. Hendardji Soepandji and his running mate Ahmad Riza Patria, submitted nearly 30,000 supporters' ID cards to the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) to qualify.

Another independent pair of hopefuls, Faisal Basri and Biem Benyamin, also submitted more than 350,000 ID cards from 190,756 required by the KPUD.

Both candidates were given a chance to submit the rest of the required ID cards by April 9. Independent candidates have to gather signatures and copies of ID cards of at least 4 percent of Jakarta's population. (cor)

Armed forces & defense

Police implicate navy members in Jakarta biker gang attacks

Jakarta Globe - April 13, 2012

Bayu Marhaenjati – Police disclosed on Friday that members of the Indonesian Navy were allegedly involved in a string of motorcycle gang attacks in Jakarta that left two civilians dead and over a dozen others injured during the past week.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said the Navy Police, better known as Pomal, had agreed to cooperate with his office to handle the case.

"Based on testimonies from witnesses, [Navy members] were allegedly involved [in the motorcycle gang attacks]. That is why we are now cooperating with a team from Pomal to investigate this," Rikwanto said in Jakarta on Friday.

"Pomal and Jakarta Police will conduct joint patrols to prevent [other attacks] and search the perpetrators. We'll take firm action against any officers found involved [in the attacks]."

On Saturday of last week, one person was killed and three others were injured near Lake Sunter in North Jakarta, reportedly attacked by a motorcycle gang. The next day, five people were injured in another biker gang attack in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

On early Friday morning, a biker gang launched attacks in three different areas, namely Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta and Kemayoran and Salemba in Central Jakarta, leading to the death of one person. At least seven others were injured.

Police allege that the five attacks were committed by the same group in retaliation for the killing of Arifin Sirih, 25, a Navy member. Arfin was killed in an attack by a motorcycle gang in Pademangan Timur, North Jakarta, on March 31. (BeritaSatu/JG)

Judicial & legal system

Indonesian justices threaten strike for overdue pay raise

Jakarta Globe - April 10, 2012

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Agus Triyono – An outspoken legislator has taken up the cause of district court judges across the country who have threatened to go on strike unless they receive a pay raise that is four years overdue.

Bambang Soesatyo, a member of House of Representatives Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, said on Monday that the welfare of the judges needed to be addressed for the good of the wider judicial system.

"If the government is truly committed to upholding the rule of law, then the judges' grievances must be addressed," he said. "What they've managed to reveal is a fundamental weakness in the law enforcement fabric of this country."

Bambang, a member of the Golkar Party, said legislators would take the judges' demands to the Supreme Court. "No matter how high a public official's rank may be, if their standard of living is below the average, there will naturally be a push for improvement," he said.

He claimed this was forcing many judges to moonlight in other jobs and take bribes.

Bambang was speaking as judges' representatives met with Supreme Court officials in Jakarta to make their case for a pay raise.

Jauhari, a judge from the Depok District Court, said after the discussion that the judges were pushing for their first pay hike in four years and an increase in benefits for the first time in 11 years.

"The situation now is critical, particularly when you consider the threat of a strike," he said. "The problem is that for a long time there has been this significant disconnect between the image of judges and the reality, and we're now at breaking point."

On Sunday, Sunoto, a judge at the Aceh Tamiang District Court and an organizer of the pay hike protest movement, said judges at the Constitutional Court had much better working conditions than those at courts administered under the Supreme Court.

He said the judges had already tried to seek the help of the president, even sending text messages to the president's complaint line, but to no avail.

"We have been struggling to secure raises and improve our conditions for one and a half years now," Sunoto said. "We are tired of this, and up to this point the government has been unwilling to respond to our entreaties."

Lawyers called on to help 'criminalized' citizens

Jakarta Post - April 10, 2012

Severianus Endi, Pontianak – Efforts to provide people with legal assistance need to be stepped up in the wake of what many call the "gross criminalization" of communities by palm-oil companies.

"It is very important to add the number of pro-citizen lawyers to handle cases of the criminalization of traditional communities, especially because the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) and Criminal Code (KUHP) are discriminative in nature and have not accommodated customary laws," director of the Bela Banua Talino Institute (LBBT) legal resources center, Abdias Yas, said at a seminar on agricultural and forestry laws at Hotel Merpati, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, on Monday.

The seminar, organized by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and Sawit Watch, focused on strengthening the Constitutional Court's decision on agricultural and forestry laws in managing natural resources in West Kalimantan.

This is associated with the granting of a judicial review requested by the community in the court last September. The court's decision is considered as a form of recognition of traditional communities' access, control and living on land, negated by the state and capital owners.

Abdias said many KUHP articles have been exploited to implicate people defending their own rights, such as Article 335 on discontent action and Article 333 on seizing other people's freedom.

From 2008 to 2010, LBBT recorded that from the 196 palm-oil plantation permits issued in 10 regencies in West Kalimantan, 58 court cases were heard between companies and residents. That number only covered cases involving the LBBT.

Tanjungpura University Law School academic Hermansyah said the differences between state and customary laws have led to differing beliefs held by the government and traditional communities, particularly over rights and responsibilities.

"The customary community and their wisdom existed before the country was formed, so their recognition should not be symbolic in nature, but they should get legal protection over their rights," he said.

Criminal justice & prison system

98 percent of juvenile offenders tortured, shocking study finds

Jakarta Globe - April 12, 2012

Ismira Lutfia – In a study of two prison in Greater Jakarta, only 9 percent of juvenile offenders had access to lawyers, 74 percent shared their cells with adult criminals and 98 percent had reported torture, the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation says.

The foundation's study, which was released on Wednesday, drew from interviews with 100 juvenile offenders at Tangerang Penitentiary in Banten and Pondok Bambu Juvenile Penitentiary in Jakarta between January 2010 and January 2012.

"As many as 74 percent [of those surveyed] said they couldn't go to school and their education had been halted during the legal process," said Muhammad Isnur, an advocate for the foundation, known as LBH Jakarta.

Isnur said 98 percent of respondents reported enduring some form of torture while the police tried to solicit a confession or information from them.

Although Indonesia ratified a law on juvenile courts in 1997, the country lacks a justice system specifically designed for young delinquents and law enforcers often use a punitive approach for young offenders.

Indonesia's 2002 Child Protection Law stipulates that detention should only be used as a last resort and that out-of-court settlements should be prioritized.

But Isnur said that in 71 cases observed for the study, the police and prosecutors did not seek a settlement out of court. "They tend to put the priority on building a legal case [against juvenile offenders]," he said.

Studies in other countries on the prosecution of juveniles as adults have shown that youths held in adult prisons are 7.7 times more likely to commit suicide and five times more likely to be sexually assaulted than those held in juvenile detention centers.

LBH said 60 children in the study experienced ailing health during their time in custody, including some infected with HIV.

Restaria Hutabarat, an LBH Jakarta researcher, said the survey was intended to help monitor the condition of juvenile court proceedings. "We also conducted research on the condition of children prior to being brought to court. We looked at whether their rights were fulfilled, and why or why not," the researcher said.

Isnur said the study recorded a rights violation because most respondents reported a lack of access to education, clean water, playgrounds or health facilities in detention.

LBH, he said, concluded that the legal process "is far from serving children's best interests, and that children should be viewed as victims rather than being prosecuted and sentenced to prison."

Sixty-three of those surveyed had already been convicted while the rest were waiting for their cases to go to trial. Forty-one of offenders were in high school.

Police & law enforcement

Police told to probe violations at fuel rallies

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2012

Jakarta – The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) has urged the National Police to look into alleged procedural violations committed by police officers during the recent fuel price rallies.

The alleged violations inflicted casualties among both the security forces and the demonstrators. KontraS said there were 241 rallies from January to March, 69 of which involved violence and human rights violations.

"We recorded 13 rallies in January, all of which weren't chaotic; 18 rallies in February with one college student beaten up by the police; and 183 rallies in March with 68 that went messy," KontraS member David Fau said.

The watchdog also stated that 533 civilians were arrested in relation to the demonstrations, while 26 police officers, 15 journalists and four Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel were injured.

David said that the police had violated Article 7 of the Police Chief Regulation No. 16/2006 on mob control. He said that the police had become irate and emotional when they were supposed to have maintained the peace.

The article stipulates that in controlling the demonstrators, the police are prohibited from throwing missiles at demonstrators, and beating demonstrators.

However, the police were seen violating the regulation by throwing stones back and beating demonstrators, as seen in various media broadcasts, the group said. David also said that the police were too heavily armed during the rallies.

The KontraS chair division for advocacy and human rights, Sinung Karto, added that the four injured TNI personnel was proof of the military's involvement in the crack down on the rallies. (/fzm)

Mining & energy

Indonesia to ban use of subsidized fuel in private cars

Jakarta Globe - April 12, 2012

Indonesia will go ahead with its plan to limit the use of subsidized fuels by private cars to meet the subsidized fuel quota target of 40 million kiloliters set in the revised 2012 state budget, an official said.

The limitation of subsidized fuel consumption would be based on the engine capacity of private cars so that not all of them would be subjected to the policy, Director General of Oil and Gas at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Evita Legowo said on Wednesday.

"The policy will be started in Java and Bali, which have necessary infrastructures," she said. She feared if subsidized fuel consumption was not controlled it would soar to 46-47 million kiloliters, well above the assumed consumption of 40 million kiloliters.

Currently, private cars consumed more subsidized premium gasoline than any other cars in the country, reaching 53 percent of the total consumption, she said. Under the policy, motorcyclists would still be allowed to use subsidized premium gasoline, she said.

The energy and mineral resources minister would soon issue a regulation which would serve as a legal basis for the limitation of subsidized fuel consumption, she said. "We hope the regulation would be issued in April or early May 2012," she said.

The regulation would be a follow-up to Presidential Regulation No. 15 of 2012 on the retail prices and consumers of certain fuels, she said adding President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed the regulation on February 7, 2012.

Economy & investment

Government 'slow' to issue land acquisition regulation

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2012

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) says that businesses are disappointed over the fact that the government has failed to issue a presidential regulation on the Land Acquisition Law on schedule.

"We expected the regulation to be issued months ago. Due to the fact that the regulation has not been issued, there are a lot of infrastructure projects that have been delayed," Kadin chairman Suryo Bambang Sulisto said during a press conference at the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister in Jakarta on Thursday.

Suryo added that the projects, mostly toll roads, were essential to resolving logistical issues caused by the current lack of transportation infrastructure.

"The longer it takes for the regulation to be issued, the more expensive the projects' cost will become because land prices continue to grow over time," he said. "Therefore, I believe it is very important and essential for the government to issue the regulation as soon as possible. Without it, the projects have no solid ground to begin on," he said.

In a highly anticipated move, the House of Representatives endorsed the long-awaited Land Acquisition Law for public development in December last year, which will ensure all legal proceedings pertinent to land acquisition for public infrastructure projects are finalized within 436 days at the latest. The government promises to implement the law within two months after the House's approval. But the regulation to implement the law has still not been issued.

The law basically stipulates all the requirements for land acquisitions conducted by the state within a shorter period of time than in the past for the sake of the development of public infrastructure.

Before the law was endorsed, public infrastructure projects in the past often faced numerous obstacles, particularly in land acquirement. There were often tensions between land owners and state officials over infrastructure projects because the government often needed at least two years to settle disputes.

The law stipulates that the process of information dissemination to the public in relation to planned land acquisitions in government-commissioned projects must take no more than 30 days and must later be followed by a 60-day public consultation period, which can be extended by a further 30 days.

If the public agrees with all the terms and conditions in the consultation, all business and legal procedures for the land acquisition will be completed within 260 days, while disputes take place, BPN had said that land acquisition process would take place within 436 days at the most or less than two years.

If the regulation is issued, then the country will have a clear standard on the technical details to properly conduct land acquisitions for infrastructure projects and will be able to lure more private investors to invest.

Luring private investors is essential for the country's infrastructure development because the state budget is not sufficient to fund major projects.

"The funding that is needed for infrastructure in Indonesia is huge, estimated at Rp 1,786 trillion, where Rp 681 trillion is required for power and energy infrastructure, Rp 339 trillion for roads, Rp 326 trillion for railway and Rp 242 trillion for information, communication and technology," Suryo said.

Land acquisitions for the sake of public infrastructure is crucial to the country's Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Economic Growth (MP3EI).

Previously, Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said that the regulation for the Land Acquisition Law would be issued in March. However, this has still not happened.

The Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister's infrastructure coordination and regional development deputy, Luky Eko Wiryanto, said that the government had not been able to issue the regulation because it contained a lot of complex issues that needed to be carefully addressed.

"We want to make sure that once the regulation is issued, it will be able to clearly regulate every single issue concerning land acquisitions for all stakeholders," he said.

Red tape, corruption lead British investors to hesitate

Jakarta Globe - April 12, 2012

Dion Bisara – Despite seeing Indonesia as a potential investment destination, British businesses appear still concerned with the country's bureaucratic hindrances.

Indonesian Industry Minister M.S. Hidayat said investors have come to understand the challenges they face, "but there are some complaints about regulations here."

Hidayat's remark came after a delegation of 30 British companies, accompanied by British Prime Minister David Cameron, met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the State Palace in Jakarta on Thursday.

Hidayat said British companies want to put money into the infrastructure, airspace, information technology, capital goods and pharmaceutical industries, but they faced hurdles.

Indonesia recently took investors by surprise with its plan to impose a 25 percent export tax on coal and base metals this year, a move that analysts say is a sign of inconsistency that hurts growth prospects in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy.

Chris Wren, executive director of the British Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia, said that red tape was as much of a concern as corruption in Indonesia. British companies, he said, want their operations around the world to be free of corruption.

United Kingdom's Bribery Act, which went into effect last year, allows individuals or companies with links to the country to be prosecuted in Britain for committing bribery, being bribed, or failing to prevent bribery. "This law could slow down investment here," Wren said, "but on the bright side it also means that working with British companies can improve."

A study from the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) last month showed that businesses in Indonesia need to set aside up to 17.4 percent of their investment for illegal fees.

The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report last September ranked Indonesia 103rd in terms of irregular payments and bribes, just ahead of other emerging countries Vietnam [104th] and Russia [115th].

Regardless, Lord Green, British minister of state for trade and investment, said that with fourth-largest population in the world, and 6.5 percent growth, Indonesia is too big to be ignored. "Our market share in the Indonesian import market is less than one percent," he said.

Analysis & opinion

A social conflict management bill is unnecessary

Jakarta Post - April 10, 2012

Al Araf and Ghufron Mabruri, Jakarta – The legislation process in the House of Representatives has always sparked controversy among society.

The public is now facing another polemic concerning the social conflict- management bill, which is currently being deliberated by a special committee and will be tabled in a House plenary session scheduled for today (April 10, 2012).

It is important to note that the formation of the bill is full of problems. That is why, even if the House pushes for the bill's endorsement, its enforcement will potentially create new problems for society.

The bill, as a new measure to solve and settle social conflicts and violence, is not the right solution. The urgency of its formation as well as its substance is questionable.

The House's intention in creating this bill must first of all be criticized for three main reasons: first, the formation process of this bill runs counter to the law regarding legislative procedures, which requires public participation and familiarization.

Despite the fact that public participation and familiarization are regulated and are one of the key principles of a democracy in order to guarantee public checks of state power, the practice was largely ignored in the discussions of the managing social conflict bill.

The deliberation lacked participation and familiarization, and the process tended to be manipulated.

Second, the urgency of the bill is neither clear nor well-argued; considering that in juridical, philosophical and sociological ways, this bill contradicts other laws and even the 1945 Constitution.

If passed, the bill will only undermine democracy and human rights. Citing the absence of law in handling conflicts as a justification for introducing the bill is inappropriate, due to the fact that there already exists a deal of regulations and legislation aimed at managing social-conflict institutions and state agencies, either to prevent or handle conflict and to implement post-conflict measures.

What is most needed is the serious implementation of the existing regulations and full support for state institutions and agencies in addressing social conflicts.

Third, in its substance, the bill contains problematic articles. The wide definition of the term "social conflict", which only invites various interpretations, and the authority to mobilize the Indonesian Military (TNI) that is invested in regional heads (governors, mayors and regents) in coping with regional and local conflict (Article 34, clauses 1 and 2) constitute a spirit of militarization. Taken together, these factors create the potential of a misuse of power.

Civil society groups, such as workers, students and farmers, who voice their rights in a given region, could be classified as groups and therefore – according to the new bill – part of the conflict, meaning that the security forces could eliminate them or silence their fight for human rights. This would obviously mark a setback for the hard-earned TNI reform.

Moreover, allowing regional heads to utilize the military is a basic violation of the 2004 TNI Law, which emphasizes that the authority to mobilize the military lies only with the President.

This provision is not only inconsistent with the agenda of security-sector reform, but is also dangerous for the reform program itself.

Another crucial issue is the authority given to regional heads to declare a state of emergency in the event of escalating conflict and to restrict a number of people's rights.

This provision is not only against the spirit of the Constitution but also the 1959 Emergency Law, which stipulates that the authority to declare a state of emergency rests with the President.

The bill also seems to reflect how the state prefers to escape from its responsibility in relation to social conflict. This can be seen from the provision in the bill that only emphasizes the use of social institutions to resolve conflicts, while ignoring existing national legislation and state agencies.

This provision is crucial because it can deny conflict victims' access to justice and fulfillment of their rights. In the case of a conflict that leads to physical violence, this provision can lead to impunity.

Beyond these particular problems, there are still other articles that are problematic and that threaten democracy and human rights. Overall, this bill contains no less than 20 problematic articles.

With the various problems the bill is facing, it is obvious that it should not be intended for deliberation, let alone passed into law.

Endorsement of a problematic bill will only create new, serious problems. In the case of social conflicts, incorrect handling will only complicate the issues and reduce the chance of resolution, especially in areas vulnerable to conflict.

The important thing now is to make full use of the existing laws and design a regulation to govern TNI assistance to the police in times of emergency, as mandated by police, TNI and defense laws.

The bill of social-conflict management is a fallacious step and will only exacerbate the problems related to conflict.

[Al Araf is program director of human rights watchdog Imparsial. Ghufron Mabruri is research coordinator at Imparsial.]

For Indonesia's democracy, time is running out

Jakarta Post - April 10, 2012

Rizal Ramli, Jakarta – When Indonesia's students took to the streets in 1998 and won their battle for the overthrow of Soeharto, there was jubilation on campuses across the country.

Not long before then, most Indonesians had difficulty imagining a time when the patriarch of the New Order would not dominate their lives.

More than a decade later, we have learned that although the so-called Smiling General is no longer with us and memories of his egregious rule have started to fade in memory, the vestiges of his regime still haunt us.

Far worse, the outlook for Indonesia becoming a well-functioning democracy is fast deteriorating. The incumbent President, who will have served 10 years by the time the 2014 election is upon us, has done little to serve the cause of improving Indonesia's hard-earned democracy.

And, if we cast our eyes upon the current playing field of presidential hopefuls, it is also apparent that the chances for real political change under a new administration are slim.

Why Indonesia continues to suffer from a dysfunctional democracy is a valid question. We are allowed to go to the polls and vote for our national and local leaders, the judiciary (at least in theory) is an independent branch of the government and, hence, should be able to instill the rule of law, and the media is able to function without political pressure or control by politicians.

Still, everybody can quite easily see that our leaders have no sense of public duty or responsibility and view their powerful positions primarily as a means to enrich themselves.

Too often, judges in our courts are swayed into making rulings based on the checkbook, not justice. Minors go to jail for minor infractions, yet if one has the good fortune to be close to the levers of power, then the law can easily be twisted to escape punishment, even for the most heinous of felonies.

The elite talk incessantly about the successes of Indonesia's economy – but who are the real beneficiaries?

Jakarta boasts of world-class shopping malls, international schools and its streets are full of imported luxury cars, but the harsh reality is that most Indonesians barely get by on their meager salaries and have few prospects for improving their lives.

The answer to why Indonesia suffers from an unjust and unfair democracy is, in fact, simple. Yes, Soeharto has long been buried, but many of his cronies and their offspring live on and thrive in the new Indonesia.

Their mindset, much like the one that prevailed under the New Order, is that the state is an instrument of power to be reserved solely for their clan and its vested interests.

In the past, Soeharto silenced his critics and aspiring reformists by throwing them into jail. Today, the new leaders who wish to fight for a better Indonesia are not behind bars, but their efforts are being severely hampered by a powerful majority who use legislation as a means of maintaining the status quo.

The most compelling example of how Indonesia's corrupt elites preserve their power is the nation's electoral laws for the presidency. At the end of the day, the person who has the potential to set the tone and pace for change is the president.

The presidential office, above all others, has the advantage of giving the nation's leader a "bully pulpit" to advocate an agenda.

Because of the prestige, stature and publicity accorded to a president, he or she has the potential to bring issues to the forefront for serious debate.

Sadly, this potential of the presidential office has either been grossly ignored or abused by Indonesia's leaders for purposes that contradict what Indonesians dream of as a better future. Now, as we look forward to the 2014 election, one can only wonder if we will continue to remain stuck in a vicious cycle of false hope espoused by jaded elites that are long on the talk of democracy, but fall remarkably short of action once they enter office.

If, indeed, the old elite is able to continue to monopolize the office of the presidency in 2014, the outlook for Indonesia's democracy is a bleak one. Counting from the year when the reform era began, we face the prospect of a lost generation in our political development.

For meaningful change to occur after 2014, we must begin now to place intense pressure on the government to amend the electoral laws.

The oligopoly of political parties that are able to dictate who can run for the presidency needs to be broken. Voters must be given a greater choice of whom they would like to become Indonesia's next president.

Of course, we cannot expect the national leadership to change the electoral laws on their own accord. They passed these laws for a reason – they know in their heart of hearts that if a wider playing field were allowed and some new faces appeared in the elections, they would run the risk of losing their coveted positions of power.

In public, they are saying that only candidates from the larger parties should be allowed to run because they are the most experienced.

In return, we should ask these same people, what type of experience are they really talking about? Experience in having learned to steal from the nation's public coffers and making backroom deals without taking into account the public interest?

The consequence of no change in our electoral laws is no change in our politics. As the largest and most influential player in Southeast Asia and one of the world's largest democracies, we need to install a new generation of leaders to prove to our people and our neighbors that democracy is truly the best form of governance to improve our livelihoods and welfare.

Without this, we will have no business calling ourselves a nation of the future.

[The writer is a former coordinating economic minister.]

Stubborn bureaucracy

Jakarta Post Editorial - April 9, 2012

The bureaucratic reform the country is undertaking is certainly more complicated and daunting than we may have thought, thanks in part to internal resistance, as the controversy centering on Deputy Law and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana has portrayed.

Pressure from the House of Representatives' lawmakers and the media for an investigation into allegations that Denny slapped a prison officer during a raid last Monday to uncover drug-trafficking practices inside the Pekanbaru Penitentiary in Riau has unfortunately obscured the main point of the operation. It is feared that the overexposure of this reported violence will shift the public's attention from the key issue of bureaucratic reform, including in the Law and Human Rights Ministry, which is far from being completed.

The damage has been done, perhaps prematurely as the probe into the case is still underway, forcing Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin to indefinitely suspend raids on jailhouses despite the fact that the shock therapy proved effective. We do not know the extent to which drug- trafficking rings operate behind bars or how many corrupt prison officers will help them take advantage of the temporary moratorium.

Since his appointment to the post, Denny has been quick to take bold measures to reform ministerial bureaucracy, including in the Directorate General of Correctional Institutions, where reports of corruption and drug trafficking involving prison wardens and officers are rampant.

At least eight wardens serving in penitentiaries across the country have been implicated in drug trafficking, including one in Pekanbaru who was arrested during a crackdown led by Denny.

Such moves have angered not only bureaucrats at the ministry, as evidenced by the public outrage displayed by the director general of penitentiaries, Sihabuddin, but also House lawmakers, who have resented Denny ever since the former anticorruption activist joined the Presidential Advisory Council in 2008.

The lawmakers reacted negatively when Denny proposed a suspension of remissions awarded to corruption and terrorism convicts last December, which directly affected several former lawmakers. Only two months later, he revealed suspicious night visits by the House's law commission member Muhammad Nasir of the Democratic Party to Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta. Nasir was once spotted meeting his brother, high-profile graft suspect Muhammad Nazaruddin, in the latter's cell outside visiting hours.

It looked as if the grudge against Denny had become personal when members of the House law commission expelled him from a hearing following an acrimonious debate over the remission moratorium in February.

While an investigation into Denny's conduct at Pekanbaru is necessary to uphold the law and to prevent the arguably noble efforts toward bureaucratic reform from justifying all and any means, the Law and Human Rights Ministry and other government institutions must not put on hold extraordinary measures to speed up the much-needed reform.

The very "un-business as usual" approach that Denny has adopted is precisely what the government needs to reform the country's stubborn bureaucracy, which has long been perceived as the stumbling block to development and, hence, the nation's endeavors to deliver welfare to all.

Many will resist reform, particularly those who financially benefit from the status quo, but that cannot act as an excuse to slow down the reform process, let alone to surrender it altogether.

Book & film reviews

LGBT communities portrayed in positive light in new Omnibus film

Jakarta Globe - April 12, 2012

Olin Monteiro – After "Jakarta Maghrib" and the horror omnibus "Hi5teria," which is still playing in cinemas, get ready for "Sanubari Jakarta" ("Jakarta Deep Down"). But this collection of movies features a far different theme than the others.

"Sanubari Jakarta," produced by Indonesian actress and director Lola Amaria and Fira Sofiana, is a collaborative effort by the Kresna Duta Foundation and the Ardhanary Institute, which is supported by Ford Foundation. The film focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities, and acts as an advocate for the human rights struggles of these groups in Jakarta.

With the tagline "10 Directors, 10 Stories, 10 Loves," "Sanubari Jakarta" was directed by a score of young, talented film directors: Tika Pramesti, Dinda Kanyadewi, Lola Amaria, Alfrits John Robert, Aline Jusrina, Adriyanto Dewo, Billy Christian, Kirana Larasati, Fira Sofiana and Sim F.

The story begins with "1/2" and a gorgeous opening shot and piece of cinematography by director Tika Pramesti. The first film of the omnibus is about a person who sees life in "blue-and-red."

The storyline reflects one of the character's views of a distinctive world where he's half-woman and half-man. In this dichotomy, women are categorized as "red" and men are stereotypically depicted in "blue." Abi pretends to be Anna, and falls in love with another man, Biyan. In a world where same-sex relationships are seen as abnormal, Abi lets his feminine side, Anna, express his feelings for Biyan, who is overtly masculine and is hesitant to profess his love to Abi.

"Malam Ini Aku Cantik" ("Tonight I'm Beautiful") examines the dark side of a transgender person named Agus, who is a sex worker in Jakarta. The cruel and dangerous world of prostitution, where unsafe sex is common, is shown bluntly in actress-turned-director Dinda Kanyadewi's debut film. Agus – and many other sex workers – must scrape by to survive and earn a meager living.

Lola Amaria's "Lumba-Lumba" ("Dolphins") strives to connect the dots between dolphins and people with the same sexual orientation in urban Jakarta. The story revolves around Adinda, a kindergarten teacher, and one of her pupil's parents, Anggya. Living in a fancy house, Anggya is married to a man who secretly has a relationship with another man. LGBT communities in Asian cultures often suffer from this obligation to marriage and convention, suppressing their freedoms, and their happiness.

One of the most entertaining films is "Kentang" ("Potato"), a lighter segment of the omnibus directed by Aline Jusrina. The film was shot entirely in a university student's rented room, as gay couple Drajat and Acel hope to make love, but are distracted by obstacle upon obstacle that halts their plans of romance. Written in a comedic tone, "Kentang" tries to show how gay teenage couples interact and converse with each other in the most accurate terms possible. Drajat and Acel debate over whether to come out of the closet, and wonder if they'll be accepted by their families and society.

With all due respect to the other directors of the omnibus, "Menunggu Warna" ("Waiting for Color") is my favorite film. A silent black-and white-film, "Menunggu Warna" is a sincere representation of LGBT communities in Indonesia. Riding his motorbike to a traffic light, Satrio waits for the lights to go green while Adam, another boy, stands a few meters away, waiting for a ride. When the light turns green, both Satrio and Adam are suddenly riding together. They become involved in a romantic relationship, until they have one too many rides. The couple is eventually at the same traffic light, but this time, the story reverts back to the opening scene, with Satrio on his bike waiting for the green light, and Adam standing on the sidewalk. But the light never turns green.

The metaphor? The LGBT community in Indonesia has never had a "green light." The escalating violence against members of the minority community only reinforces their marginalized existence.

It goes without saying that the lives of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals in Jakarta are not easy. The 10 stories in "Sanubari Jakarta" are a mix of ordinary, simple lives, hardship, longing for acceptance and basic love stories set in Jakarta, where all the characters try to survive, to be themselves and to find identity, and love.

"Sanubari Jakarta" seeks to overcome negative perceptions of non- heterosexual groups, or the beliefs that homosexuals are engaged in sinful behavior. The sexual orientations in each and every character in "Sanubari Jakarta" demands a better world, and to feel a sense of belonging in this bitter society.

At the end of the day, the film gives audiences a perspective of the beautiful and otherwise ordinary lives of the LGBT communities. Although they belong to a minority, these people are human, with all the rights and hopes of any other person. They can feel, love, dream and work – just as we all do. They should be loved as we love other people.

Go to the cinema and watch and be entertained by these people's stories. Be inspired as they struggle to find love and hope, even in the most desperate places.

"Sanubari Jakarta" has the potential to inspire viewers to appreciate and respect those with diverse sexual orientations, even to be honest with one's sexual orientation, because every person deserves to express their sexuality in an equal way.

[Olin Monteiro is a writer and feminist working in Jakarta. Sanubari Jakarta. Directed by Tika Pramesti, Dinda Kanyadewi, Lola Amaria, Alfrits John Robert, Aline Jusrina, Adriyanto Dewo, Billy Christian, Kirana Larasati, Fira Sofiana and Sim F. 100 minutes.]