Denpasar Indonesian students and a sister community in Melbourne, Australia, staged a rally in support of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) at Federation Square in Denpasar on Sunday.
During the demonstration, students voiced anger toward suspects in a Koran procurement case who allegedly received kickbacks totaling Rp 4 billion ($428,000) for two projects of the Religious Affairs Ministry between 2011 and 2012.
"We demand that the KPK take the strongest possible action against those who are responsible in the corruption case in Indonesia," rally coordinator Aminudin M. Ramdha said.
The demonstrators demanded that all public institutions in Indonesia actively participate in efforts to create a country free of corruption. "We also call on all law enforcement institutions to fully support the corruption eradication effort indiscriminately," Aminudin said.
Protestors also signed a banner that read "Voice from Melbourne: Indonesia without Corruption!," which they said would be submitted to an Indonesian representatives office in Melbourne.
Jakarta Hundreds of farmers from the Indonesian Tobacco Growers Association (APTI) rallied against a draft regulation on tobacco on Tuesday, further fouling congestion in several areas in Jakarta.
The protesters, who came from various cities in Central Java, rallied in front of the Health Ministry on Jl. H.R Rasuna Said in South Jakarta and in front of the Office of the Coordinating People's Welfare Minister on Jl. Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta.
The protesters said that if the bill was passed, it would threaten their jobs.
Police officers rerouted traffic to reduce congestion attributed to the protests. Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said that around 250 police officers were deployed to maintain order at the demonstrations.
Yogyakarta Scores of activists from the Yogyakarta Women's Network (JPY) in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta demonstrated at the regional police headquarters on Tuesday July 3.
They were expressing their disappointment with the Yogyakarta police's failure to take action against several mass organisations that forcibly broke up a discussion of a book by Irshad Manji on May 9 at the offices of the Institute for Islamic and Social Studies (LKIS).
The JPY's attorney from the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH), Hamzal Wahyudin, said that exactly one day after the anarchistic incident the JPY and the LBH reported the case to the Yogyakarta police. They also presented five witnesses complete with evidence such as video recordings of the incident, photographs and media reports.
"We have now provided three additional witnesses. Yet why are the police instead asking us to cite who the perpetrators are. That should be the police's job", he said.
JPY representative Ika Yuni said that the forced breakup of the book discussion by Canadian author Irshad Manji occurred 50 days ago, yet the police have still not been unable to arrest the perpetrators. "We expect the Yogyakarta regional police to have the genuine will to fully investigate this case, particularly the intellectual actors behind the attack", she said.
According to the head the sub-district I Yogyakarta regional police criminal investigation bureau for state security, Deputy Senior Commissioner Djuhamdani, the Yogyakarta regional police have twice summoned witnesses over incident but they failed to turn up. "As long as no witnesses report [the incident], we can't process it", he explained.
Nevertheless, said Djuhamdani, the Yogyakarta police have a strong commitment to fully resolve the case.
Several members of the mass organisations that were involved have been questioned by police. They are members of several different groups including the Kabah Youth Movement (GPK, an Islamic group affiliated with United Development Party), the Anti-Maksiat Movement (Movement against Immorality/Violation of God's law, GAM) and the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI).
Tri Wahyu from the Yogyakarta People's Alliance against Violence (Aman Tenan) said that the forced breakup of the Irshad Manji book discussion was a simple case. Nevertheless, the police are giving the impression that they are reluctant to resolve the case.
"The police have proven themselves capable of uncovering terrorism cases that are far more complex. Meanwhile they have been slow in cracking this simple case. Yet there is an abundance of evidence and witnesses", he said. (ABK)
Bandung Dozens of university students in Bandung, West Java, staged a rally against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whom they accused of failing to eradicate corruption.
The students, who were members of the Indonesian Muslim Students Action Front (KAMMI), called on Yudhoyono to focus on solving major corruption cases, including the Bank Century bailout and the Hambalang sports complex scandal that involved members of his own Democratic Party.
The students also deplored Yudhoyono's visit to the city, which was aimed at inaugurating a luxurious hotel built by a company owned by his political ally, Chairul Tanjung.
"The construction of Trans Hotel had to be rejected because it had dried up the water supply of the local community here," one of the protesters said as quoted by tempo.co.
The students were later involved in a clash with riot police who tried to break them up. Eight students were injured in the scuffle and were rushed to a local hospital. Members of the Indonesian Military (TNI) were also involved in the clash.
Elections in Puncak Jaya district in Papua must be repeated in six villages in Mewoluk subdistrict after allegations of vote-rigging were upheld by the Constitutional Court on Friday.
Fresh votes in the villages of Glible, Gumbru, Kililumo, Lumo, Mewoluk and Mewud will be held to elect a district head and deputy.
Three sets of candidates will run in the new poll. Incumbents Henok Ibo and Yustus Wonda will be joined on the ballot by Sendius Wonda and Yorin Karoba; and Agus Kogoya and Yakon Enumbi.
Hendok and Yustus were accused of manufacturing the results of the first poll in the six villages. Despite voting booths being set up, opponents alleged polling cards were filled out by Hendok's supporters.
The Constitutional Court's website on Friday said the court "orders the General Election Commission for the Puncak Jaya district to conduct a repeat vote for the Puncak Jaya district elections in six villages in the Mewoluk subdistricts."
The repeat vote must be held within 90 days of the order being issued, but considerations will be made for difficulties encountered in organizing a vote at short notice in a region that has seen an upsurge in unrest in recent months.
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura Three more people one soldier and two civilians were killed on Saturday in the latest bloody incident in Papua at a time when the authorities have been unable to identify the perpetrators behind the killings of three other men earlier this month.
The latest killings took place at Ndeotadi village in Bogobaida district, Paniai regency; the three victims have been identified as Chief Warrant Officer Sunaryo, 51, a member of Paniai Military District Command; Rosmini, 28, and Aco, 18.
"They were found dead with wounds all over their bodies," Paniai Police chief, Adj. Sr. Comr. Anthon Diance, said by phone on Saturday.
The police as usual are still in the dark over the motive and the perpetrators behind the brutal killings, and according to Diance, the case is still being investigated.
The three bodies were flown to Nabire aboard a Gatari Air Service plane and were immediately rushed to Nabire General Hospital for post mortems. Diance confirmed that the three were discovered at Sunaryo's kiosk, which was also his home.
"Usually, the kiosk opened at 6 a.m., but that day it still hadn't opened by 8 a.m. Local residents who had arrived to buy staples knocked on the door but there was no response. They then reported the case to a nearby police post," Diance said.
Officers later forceably opened the door and found the three victims dead, covered in severe wounds. "The police are currently investigating the case. The victims' family members have been making funeral arrangements," he added.
Previously, Papua caretaker governor, Syamsul Arief Rivai, lamented the spate of unsolved killings allegedly carried out by armed secessionists in the province.
Yohanus Yanufrom, head of Sawio Tami village, was reportedly shot dead by a group of 20-30 armed people while riding a motorcycle from his village to Workwana on July 1.
The group also targeted a military motorcade, with Col. Indarto, the head of the 431/Kostrad (Army Strategic Reserves Command) battalion, having his car strafed with gunshots. Bullets smashed the car's windows, injuring his driver.
Syamsul appealed to the police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) to deal thoroughly with the incident, saying that justice must be done in order to retain public trust in the security apparatus.
He also called for all community elements to help preserve security. "If security prevails, people in Papua will feel safe," he said.
A civilian was killed and another wounded on Wednesday (July 4) by an unidentified group of assailants in Siepkosi village, Walelagama district, Jayawijaya regency.
Ahmad Zaini, a 35-year-old ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver, was fatally stabbed at around 10 a.m., while another ojek driver, Salahudin, 38, was injured in the indiscriminate attack.
Arientha Primanita President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has told Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard that Papua is an integral part of Indonesia as his administration continues to receive heavy criticism for its inability to resolve the violence plaguing its easternmost province.
Australian civil society groups staged a rally outside the building where the leaders met in Darwin on Tuesday, demanding Gillard pressure Yudhoyono to prosecute those behind recent deadly shootings in Papua and end a ban on international media reporting from the region.
Yudhoyono said on Wednesday that Gillard and Paul Henderson, the head of the Northern Territory, which Darwin is the capital of, expressed their full support for Indonesia's territorial integrity.
"I told them Papua is Indonesia's legal territory and that we will continue to do everything we can to bring prosperity and justice to Papuans," he was quoted as saying by www.setkab.go.id, the official website of the cabinet.
"Their response was clear. Both of them support Indonesia's territorial sovereignty," the president said before leaving the Australian city for Sumba Island in East Nusa Tenggara.
He said Indonesian diplomacy in the Pacific would always be geared toward seeking support for the country's territorial integrity from countries in the region.
Under the Lombok Treaty signed by Jakarta and Canberra in 2006, the Australian government acknowledged Indonesia's territorial integrity. Rights activists and opposition groups in Australia have continued to support the independence of Papua from Indonesia.
A recent spate of shootings in Papua that have left dozens of civilians dead have put Yudhoyono's administration under more pressure from the international community, Indonesian civil society groups and Papuan church leaders.
Observers said that Australia's support on the issue would help Yudhoyono fend off further demands to allow Papua to break away from Indonesia.
Hariyadi Wirawan, an international relations expert from the University of Indonesia, said Indonesia and Australia needed each other to solve their problems.
Australia, he said, will want Indonesia's cooperation in stopping the influx of asylum seekers, while Indonesia will seek assurances that Australia will not change its policy of supporting Indonesia's claim over its restive regions.
"Yudhoyono will ask for more ... investment and support on Papua while Gillard will ask Indonesia to help stop boat people," Hariyadi said.
Australia has been trying to find a way to deal with people smugglers who bring asylum seekers to Australia. Most refugee boats depart from Indonesia.
A civilian was killed and another wounded on Wednesday by an unidentified group of people in Siepkosi village, Walelagama district, Jayawijaya regency.
Ahmad Zaini, a 35-year-old ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver, was fatally stabbed at about 10 a.m., while another ojek driver, Salahudin, 38, was injured in the indiscriminate attack.
"The body of Ahmad Zaini was flown to his hometown in Probolinggo, East Java, for burial," city police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Johannes Nugroho said.
Salahudin fled from the attackers and was rescued by locals before being rushed to Wamena Regional Hospital, where he was undergoing treatment, Johannes said.
Johannes said that Zaini and Salahudin were stopped by four people on the street in Siepkosi and were suddenly attacked.
Zaini died at the scene due to critical wounds all over his body, while Salahudin suffered only bruises on his right shoulder after being hit with a dagger.
"We are still investigating the motive behind the assault. We have observed the crime scene and also questioned Salahudin, who in this case is a victim and witness," Johannes said.
Bung Wir, Bandung Representatives of the Papuan people from the group National Papuan Solidarity (NAPAS) held a protest action at the Merdeka Building on Jl. Asia-Afrika in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung on Wednesday July 5.
During the action they said that Indonesian government is creating space and providing a place to resolve the Palestine problem, meanwhile the conflict in Papua continues to this day and receives no attention.
According to national public relations officer of NAPAS, Frans Tomoki, in the 50 years since West Papua became a part of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), carnage, murder and terror has been continuously launched against the Papuan people, simply in the economic and political interests of liberalism and capitalism that seeks to exploit Papua's riches.
According to Amnesty International, two million Papuan people have perished at the hands of the Indonesian military, and efforts at dialogue by Papuan social figures have invariably been rejected by the regime of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono, on various grounds.
The prolonged conflict that is taking place has resulted in a humanitarian crisis in West Papua. As a result the Papuan people have remained poor compared with the Indonesian people outside of Papua.
The Indonesian delegation taking part in the International Conference For The Freedom of Al Quds and Palestine, which is being held in Bandung on July 4-5 and attended by representatives from 135 countries, supported and recommended Palestinian independence from Israel.
Meanwhile, the West Papuan people's fate has been the same as the Palestinian people, who are oppressed by Israel. The Papuan people have been oppressed since the New Order regime of former President Suharto until now under the Yudhoyono regime and the impression is that Papua is being allowed, even being turned into a map of conflict.
"Our struggle is indeed different from the people of Palestine, we are struggling through demonstrations while in Palestine they struggle by taking up arms", said Tomoki.
Because of this therefore, we are demanding that the participants of the conference seek a resolution to the conflict in Papua [by calling on] the Indonesian government to withdraw all organic and non-organic troops and the international community to pay attention to the fate of the Papuan people. (bung wir/den)
Jakarta The Free Papua Movement (OPM) has announced its readiness to call a cease fire and end the violent conflict in the province if the Indonesian government holds an international meeting with the involvement of the United Nations.
"At that meeting, we will ask the Indonesian government about the status of Papua [as a military operation zone]. If that status is lifted, we will call a cease fire," OPM commander Lambert Pekikir said on Wednesday as quoted by tempo.co.
However, before the meeting, Lambert said the OPM would still remain as a movement in Papua, but he promised that the OPM would not shoot civilians.
"We will maintain our actions. OPM members are not afraid of being apprehended by the police. There will be casualties in any struggle. If they [police] are brave enough, they can come to our quarters," Lambert said.
Meanwhile, Papua Police chief, Insp. Gen. Bigman L. Tobing, has pledged to dismantle armed forces threatening the sovereignty of Indonesia.
"There is no place for separatist groups in Papua," Tobing said. "For the media, don't give too much coverage to these people; don't let them exist here. If they hold a press conference, invite us along as well so we can address them all at the time," he said. (fzm/iwa)
Banjir Ambarita, Made Arya Kencana & Farouk Arnaz Armed resistance group the Free Papua Organization on Monday claimed responsibility for Sunday's ambush of soldiers who were trying to seize the banned Morning Star flag from protestors.
Lambert Pekikir, commander of the group known as the OPM for Keerom, said his men attacked an Army vehicle on patrol near Sawiyatami village in Keerom, near the border with Papua New Guinea.
"We conducted the shooting as a form of retaliation against the Indonesian military, which often prohibits the OPM's democratic rights of expressing our political aspirations peacefully," Lambert said by phone from Jayapura.
The soldiers were thought to have been searching for the Morning Star flag, a symbol of Papuan independence, during the 47th anniversary of the OPM's founding on Sunday. Displaying independence symbols is considered an act of treason by Jakarta and several Papuans are serving 20-year jail terms for the deed.
During the ambush, local tribal leader Johanes Yanufrom was reportedly shot and killed. The military claimed the OPM members were responsible. Lambert denied that Johanes had been deliberately targeted.
"We are still trying to determine whose bullets killed Johanes Yanufrom," the rebel leader said. "We are equally shocked to hear [Johanes] died because my men knew him very well."
National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said police were pursuing Lambert's fighters, adding that they may have crossed into Papua New Guinea. Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Bigman L. Tobing said Lambert was wanted for "terrorizing civilians."
Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi reiterated what President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Saturday that discussing independence for the resource-rich province was out of the question. "We have earmarked more money to Papua compared to other regions," he said.
Jakarta refuses to revisit the 1969 UN-backed "Act of Free Choice" vote, the basis for its claim over Papua. The poll, often inaccurately called a "referendum," consisted of Jakarta hand-picking 1,026 people to vote for all Papuans.
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura A leader of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) admitted to having fired gunshots at a military motorcade but denied any role in the latest civilian death.
"If this is about the shooting of the battalion commander of the 431/Kostrad [Col. Indarto]... yes, my men spied on him since dawn and shot him before they retreated," Lambert Peukikir told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Tuesday.
Indarto was on his way back from inspecting his soldiers when his car became the target of a barrage of gunfire on Sunday. He escaped the attack, but his driver sustained an injury from the car's broken window.
Some 300 meters behind them, Yohanes Yanafrom, the head of Sawoi Tami village, Keerom regency, lay dead with local authorities blaming the secessionist movement under Lambert's command.
Lambert denied responsibility for Yohanes' shooting, claiming that the deceased was an OPM member. He said that on June 29, Yohanes came to see him at the group's headquarters and handed Rp 300,000 (US$33), which Lambert later used to buy some things, including phone credits.
"At that moment, I told Pak Yohanes to stay behind closed doors on July 1 because I had made plans to go into action that day," he said.
On Friday morning, Lambert said, his men snuck into the street between Sawoi Tami and Workwana village. Yohanes happened to be on the road at around 9 a.m. on his way from Sawoi Tami to Workmana.
Lambert's men stopped him and urged him to go back to his village. "My men knew him because they were in the same troop," he said.
Several minutes later, Col. Indarto came down the street and his car was strafed with gunfire. "Five minutes later, we heard that Pak Yohanes was gunned down. But the question is who shot him?" Lambert said.
According to an informant, Lambert continued, there was another car following Indarto's car. He suspected that the police had targeted Yohanes because he was a member of OPM.
"Every Papuan wants freedom. So did Yohanes, but he was too scared to express his feelings. Therefore, even though he was a village head, he was still a member of OPM," said Lambert.
In a bid to uncover the truth, Lambert encouraged the formation of an independent team to conduct an investigation, instead on playing the blame game. "If they do not make a move, people will continue blaming OPM.
Lambert pledged to continue fighting until a dialogue was initiated, mediated by an international body, between the government and the Papuans. Ruben Magai, the speaker of Papuan Legislative Council (DPRP) said that the accusations against TPN/OPM over the shooting would have to be proven in order to ensure that people were not misled.
"We have heard so much on the news that the perpetrators are members of OPM or unidentified people. There has been such a stigma against OPM. It is time to prove it to ensure trust among people," he said.
Oktovianus Pogau, Jakarta Scores of youths and students from the group Papuan National Solidarity (NAPAS) held a peaceful action in front of the Indonesian national police headquarters and the State Palace in Jakarta on the afternoon of Monday July 2 in protest against the spate of recent shootings in West Papua.
The 25 or so demonstrators, who arrived at the police headquarters in a Kopaja bus at around 11am, brought posters and unfurled two large banners about human rights violations.
Taking turns, the protesters gave speeches saying that the police are the actors behind and the ones responsible for the human rights violations in West Papua, particularly the spate shootings that have been taking place over the last few months.
Action coordinator Frans Tomoki said in a speech that the spate of recent shootings in West Papua is just a plot by the Indonesian government, specifically the police, to scapegoat the pro-democracy movement in West Papua.
"This [year's] national police anniversary is smeared in the blood of Papuan people. KNPB [West Papua National Committee] deputy chairperson Mako Tabuni was shot dead without any clear grounds. When there are shooting incidents, the security forces always cite unknown persons (OTK). The police must back this up, and take responsibility, and immediately put a stop to the spate of shooting cases that have been taking place in the land of Papua", said Tomoki.
Tomoki added that the presence of large numbers of TNI (Indonesian military) and police in West Papua is not to safeguard, protect and watch over the Papuan people, but rather to murder and commit gross human rights violations against civilians.
Surya Anta from the People's Liberation Party (PPR) called for an immediate end to human rights violations in West Papua and for [an investigation] to find out who is behind the shootings.
At around 12.30pm the demonstrators headed towards the bus to continue the action at the Presidential Palace in Central Jakarta. Before the protesters set out for the Palace, staff from the police headquarters requested that representatives from the demonstrators meet with them to discuss the aims of the action so that it can be followed up. Tomoki however refused to meet with police.
"We've already met with them many times, but not one demand has been addressed. They consider our voices to be rubbish, so it's preferable for us not to meet with them again", Tomoki told Suara Papua during a break in the action.
The demonstrators arrived at the State Palace at 1pm precisely. Scores of police in full uniform as well as dozens of police 'thugs' in civilian clothing were on alert to secure the action.
Otis Tipagau, the chairperson of the Semarang Papua Student Communication Forum (FKMP-S) called on the TNI and police to take responsibility for the spate of shootings in West Papua. "The national police are celebrating their anniversary here in Jakarta, but in Papua security forces continue to conduct brutal shootings and commit gross human rights violations", shouted Tipagau.
Satisfied after giving speeches, NAPAS coordinator Marten Goo read out a statement by NAPAS to coincide with 66th national police anniversary, saying the police are still committing humanitarian crimes in the land of Papua.
In the statement NAPAS demanded: First, that the police immediately end the stigmatisation and scapegoating of the Papuan people and activists; second, that the police immediately and unconditionally release Bucthar Tabuni and other political prisoners; third that the police immediately and transparently uncover who is behind the OTK shootings; fourth that the police immediately stop sending additional police to West Papua and withdraw Densus 88 (the counter-terrorist unit Detachment 88) from West Papua; fifth that the police immediately arrest the soldiers are carrying out the shooting of Papuan people; sixth, that those responsible for shooting Mako Musa Tabuni be brought to trial immediately; seventh, put an end to all forms of military businesses in West and; eighth, stop sending 'invisible' troops to West Papua.
After reading out the statement, the protesters then disbanded in an orderly fashion. The action was also attended by Papuan student representatives from Semarang (Central Java), Bogor (West Java), Salatiga (Central Java) and Jakarta.
Jayapura A village chief was shot dead in Indonesia's restive Papua province on Sunday, Indonesian military said, blaming separatists who are celebrating the founding of an independence movement.
Up to 30 gunmen had fired shots at village chief Johanes Yanafrom, who was riding a motorcycle in Keerom district outside the provincial capital Jayapura, Erwin Syafitri, commander of the Cendrawasih Military Command that oversees military operations in Papua, told reporters. "He died on the spot after he was hit in the head and chest," he said.
Indonesian military (TNI) were quick to blame rebels from the pro- independence Free Papua Movement (OPM), which celebrated its 47th anniversary on Sunday, for the latest attack.
"The group comprised of 20 to 30 people and they were all armed with rifles. They are from the OPM led by Lambert Pekikir. We believe they have escaped to the mountains and we are chasing after them," he added. Pekikir is the OPM commander in Keerom district.
Syafitri said the group also fired shots at a military patrol car, hitting the roof and side window and injuring a soldier.
The OPM separatists had also raised four banned Morning Star flags in Jayapura and Wamena districts, he said. The OPM had called on their supporters to raise the Papuan flag as part of the anniversary celebrations.
Displaying separatist symbols such as the Morning Star is considered an act of treason in Indonesia under the criminal code and several perpetrators are serving 20-year jail terms for the offense.
Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto condemned Sunday's attacks and urged the security forces to arrest the perpetrators.
Gun attacks are not uncommon in the Papua region in the resource-rich region, where poorly-armed separatist groups have for decades fought a low-level insurgency for the mostly ethnic Melanesian population.
Since a German tourist was shot and wounded on a Papuan beach on May 29 by suspected separatists, seven civilians and a soldier have died in shootings and other violence, according to the human rights group Kontras.
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura Papuan leaders have applauded President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's open-handed stance for dialogue over Papuan issues and urged him to put the statement into action.
Taha Al Hamid, the secretary-general of the Papuan Council Presidium (PDP) called for the establishment of a team to facilitate a dialogue between the central government and Papua administrations.
Neles Tebay, the chairman of the Papua Peace Network, pointed out the need to appoint figures with credibility acclaimed by international peers and integrity trusted by Papuan people.
"The team's members should not necessarily be those from government institutions, bureaucracy or the Papuan Consultative Assembly (MRP). They must be figures with credibility and integrity," Neles said in Jayapura on Saturday.
The team is expected to draw up the format, aims and mechanisms of the dialogue. "The team will have to formulate what will be discussed in the dialogue. They must be proactive in efforts to represent aspiration from Papua and ensure Jakarta's commitment," Neles, who also serves as the rector of the Fajar Timur philosophy school in Abepura, said.
During his visit to the Indonesian Military Command Institute in Bandung on Friday, President Yudhoyono said he would welcome any initiative for a dialogue except those that intended to push for a referendum on independence.
"We can engage in dialogue to achieve progress on development, people's welfare and justice. But there is no room for discussion about an [independence] referendum or the like," he said in response to a question from a military cadet.
Neles said the president's statement in Bandung augured well for dialogue on issues of development and social welfare. "The President's statement shows that a dialogue will be very likely. We have to appreciate the government's open-handedness for any dialogue sought by Papuans," he added.
Taha said that the government should show its political willingness to engage in dialogue. "The mechanism of dialogue should be arranged, and only then should we talk about the discussion points in the dialogue," he said.
In a bid to pursue accelerated development in the easternmost island, the government granted special autonomy status in 2001 to Papua, which later divided into the provinces of Papua and West Papua.
However, the effectiveness of special autonomy status has since been criticized as Papuans lag behind in many development areas and as deadly violence continues to haunt everyday citizens.
Neles and Taha agreed that the government should be seriousness in its inclination to participate in a dialogue, in order to restore trust in the government among Papuans.
Meanwhile, Indonesian human rights monitor Imparsial lamented the president's statement on the referendum issue. "Shutting the door to a dialogue on a referendum is akin to shutting the door to peace in Papua," Imparsial's Poengky Indarti said.
She said stigmatizing opposition groups as "separatists" had allowed the military to justify their repressive measures.
Angela Dewan A spate of shootings in Papua over the past month is fueling charges that trigger-happy Indonesian soldiers are only exacerbating unrest and pro-independence sentiment in the resource-rich region.
Indonesia has maintained a strong military presence since it annexed the former Dutch colony in 1969, despite granting it more autonomy in 2001. Some estimates suggest that more than 14,000 troops patrol the restive province.
"Special autonomy isn't working because Jakarta has failed to win the hearts of Papuans," said Socratez Sofyan Yoman, a Baptist minister and pro-independence activist. "Their military and police treat us like animals. So we're seeking better dialogue and an end to the intimidation," he said.
Part of the movement to escape Indonesia's grasp is to claim more benefits from a wealth of natural resources in Papua, which has attracted foreign giants such as BP and US miner Freeport McMoRan.
Violence occurs regularly at Freeport's massive gold and copper mine, a symbol of the Papuan struggle, with many claiming a spiritual attachment to nature and resenting outsiders who they say strip the land bare of resources.
Since a German tourist was shot and wounded on a Papuan beach on May 29 by suspected separatists, seven civilians and a soldier have died in shootings and other violence, according to the human rights group Kontras.
Police have tended to blame the pro-independence Free Papua Movement (OPM), which celebrated its 47th anniversary on Sunday. It urged Papuans to raise its banned Morning Star flag for the occasion. But police now suspect that the National Committee for West Papua (KNPB), a separatist youth group, is behind some of the violence.
KNPB representatives, however, say the group is unarmed and accuse police of trying to orchestrate violence to blacken the independence movement and of covering up investigations into fatal shootings committed by its officers.
They point to the shooting and killing of KNPB vice chairman Mako Tabuni last month, an incident that led infuriated pro-independence activists to demand a full explanation from the national parliament.
"We came to Jakarta to ask the president for a new approach," Septer Manufandu of the Papuan NGOs Cooperation Forum said. "They say they want dialogue with us, but they continue their intimidation through their soldiers and police," he said.
Police claimed Tabuni was armed and resisted arrest before they shot him, but activist groups quoted witnesses as saying he was shot by men in plainclothes from a passing car.
Activists also claimed that soldiers acted with impunity on June 6 when they opened fire on the town of Wamena, shooting 17 people, killing one and torching 87 homes in response to the murder of a soldier by someone in the community. Police said the soldier had been stabbed after he knocked down a child while riding a motorcycle. But information is hard to verify because foreign journalists are de facto barred from the region.
The Reverend Benny Giay, a prominent activist, said Jakarta needed to ask why there was such strong pro-independence sentiment in Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province, which occupies half of the island of New Guinea. "It's because we are treated like animals, like nothing, on our own land. Our sentiments didn't just fall from the sky," he said.
However, Jakarta refuses to revisit the 1969 UN-backed "Act of Free Choice" referendum that validated its claim to Papua. The referendum was widely seen a sham, with Jakarta hand-picking 1,026 people to vote on behalf of all Papuans.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Friday that there would be "no discussion or dialogue about the separation of Papua" and that Indonesia's sovereignty over Papua was "legal and final."
The government has tried to engage local leaders in dialogue to implement policies that suit both sides, but Papuans are growing weary of the process, analyst Muridan Widjojo from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences told AFP.
"It's a little contradictory Jakarta wants to take a dialogue approach at the same time it takes a militaristic approach, so it has lost the trust of the people," he said.
Indonesian and Australian leaders have signed deals on defence cooperation this week and Australia has given Indonesia four refurbished heavy transport aircraft.
While Australia and Indonesia are strengthening their military ties, other nations, such as the Dutch are concerned by the Indonesian military's dismal human rights track record.
But as Australia's military ties with Indonesia grow stronger, other western nations are keeping their distance.
Indonesia has had to pull out of a $280 million deal to buy 100 battle tanks from the Netherlands after waiting several months for the Dutch parliament to approve the sale. Dutch media reports that the majority of parties in the Dutch parliament opposed the deal because of Jakarta's poor human rights record.
Peter King, a research associate in international relations from the University of Sydney, spoke to Radio Australia's Connect Asia. He says that the Dutch's concern with human rights in Indonesia harks back to their historical relationship with the region.
"Well the Dutch have been very sensitive to human rights violations in Jakarta. I think there is a historical reason for that." he said. "They themselves mucked up the whole West Papua issue during their own colonial administration, they held it back from Indonesia and then in the end had to give in to international pressure."
"So they compensate that by kind of indicating that being forced to hand West Papua to Indonesia, even in this post Suharto democratic period has been a risky business because the army continues to dominate affairs so much in West Papua.
The United States and the European Union have similarly imposed military embargoes on Indonesia, says Peter King, for example, those imposed after massacres committed by the Indonesian military in 1991 and 1991. The US reinstated military sales to Indonesia in 2006, supported by Australia.
"It wasn't a very good idea because the army has continued to abusive, particularly in Aceh for a time, but Aceh got autonomy and a proper peace deal in 2005. In West Papua the human rights violations by the military and the police have continued."
Australia has pursued a strategy of working with the Indonesian military with the hope of improving its record on human rights issues that way. But Mr King says the continuing power of the military in Indonesia is a danger to its democracy.
"I think it is long term danger for Indonesian democracy that the military hasn't been brought in to line on these human rights issues, particularly in West Papua now," he said.
"The government has just been too reluctant to give up its use of military force to get its way in West Papua. It needs to negotiate with the West Papuans rather than use the so-called security approach."
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday proposed joint military disaster exercises with Australia and the United States in a sign of easing concerns in Jakarta over American troop deployments to northern Australia.
Under US President Barack Obama's "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific, the US will rotate 2,500 Marines through a base near the northern Australian city of Darwin in a decision which Indonesia initially said created tension and mistrust.
During a two-day visit to Darwin, Yudhoyono made no mention of the US deployment, but suggested countries in the region, including China, could join the United States in planning for disaster relief operations.
"We hope that the United States, China, and also other countries will also join us in facing possible natural disasters," Yudhoyono said through a translator after bilateral talks with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. "It can engage the militaries of each of the countries in our region," he added.
Australia has promoted the US Marines' presence and Darwin's proximity to Indonesia, as being useful for emergency relief for future disasters or emergencies, such as the 2002 Bali bombings or the deadly 2004 tsunami.
Beijing, however, is wary of Washington's intentions in the Asia-Pacific, with more hawkish voices in the PLA saying that the United States is bent on encircling China and frustrating its rise.
Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro and his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith signed deals on defense cooperation in Darwin, Australia, on Monday, including a grant of four refurbished heavy transport aircraft from the Australian government.
Purnomo was part of the delegation led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that left Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base in Jakarta for the Australian city on Monday.
The main item on the agenda for Yudhoyono's state visit is the second Indonesia-Australia Annual Leaders' Meeting, where he hold bilateral talks with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Tuesday.
"With Gillard, we have a priority agenda that we will focus on, particularly on the economy, which includes cooperation in the cattle farming sector and infrastructure development," Yudhoyono told reporters at a press conference before leaving for Australia.
Yudhoyono and First Lady Ani Yudhoyono were welcomed by Gillard at the Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF) Base Darwin after a four-hour flight from Jakarta, according to releases from the Office of the President.
Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Primo Alui Joelianto and Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Greg Moriarty were also on hand to welcome Yudhoyono.
According to the President, the defense deals to be signed include those covering law enforcement and disaster mitigation, trans-national crime, terrorism and peacekeeping.
The C-130H planes, granted to Indonesia in prime condition, are being decommissioned by the Australian government, as the RAAF has purchased the latest model of the Hercules, the C-130J, and six C-17 Globemaster III large transports. Yudhoyono said Indonesia would pay some money for the US-made planes. "This is half-grant, half-purchase."
Also in the President's delegation were Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto, Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa, State Secretary Sudi Silalahi, Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Adm. Agus Suhartono, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan.
Four governors were also in the delegation: Made Mangku Pastika of Bali, Frans Lebu Raya of East Nusa Tenggara, Zainul Majdi of West Nusa Tenggara and Abraham Oktavianus Atururi of West Papua. "I invited the governors to come with me because, in the future, provinces in eastern Indonesia will have stronger cooperative ties with Australia," Yudhoyono said.
Meanwhile, Tubagus Hasan-uddin, the deputy chairman of House Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs, said that Yudhoyono must use the bilateral talks to get the most benefit for Indonesia.
Jakarta The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Families of Missing Persons Association (IKOHI) demanded that the Indonesian Ombudsman remind President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to take action on the disappearances of activists in 1997-1998.
"We are urging the Ombudsman to push the matter forward by sending another request for clarification to the President," said IKOHI chairman Mugiyanto, a former activist, and one of the nine 1998 kidnapping victims who was released alive.
The Ombudsman, a state body monitoring violations by state authorities, sent a request for an explanation to the President on May 15. The letter warned him not to ignore the recommendation by the House of Representatives to establish an ad hoc Human Right Court to deal with the violations.
The President forwarded the letter to the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Ministry on May 24.
According to head of Kontras' spokesman Yati Andriyani, the President should have taken direct action to resolve this matter and not just passed it onto the ministry.
"We are very disappointed that the President decided to forward the letter to the ministry and not issue a presidential decree," said Yati. "By forwarding the letter, it looks like SBY is trying to avoid the problem. We expect to see a president who obeys the law," she added.
Mugiyanto said that the President appeared to be unwilling to find the missing victims despite the existence of documents which could assist him in the matter.
"I don't think it would be difficult for SBY to find the missing persons as he was one of the members of the Officers Honor Council [DKP] who investigated the Indonesian Military's Special Forces [Kopassus] members, including Prabowo Subianto, in 1999," Mugiyanto told The Jakarta Post.
The DKP proved that the abduction of 23 activists was committed by the Kopassus with the help of several military institutions and the police. In February 1999, 11 Kopasssus soldiers were sentenced to between 12 and 24 months in prison for their alleged roles in the disappearances.
Prabowo Subianto has also admitted that he gave orders to kidnap nine activists after misunderstanding instructions from the operational control. However, he remains free and has established a political party the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra).
"We hope that during the last moments of his service period, SBY will take concrete action to solve this problem, as we haven't seen anything done so far," Yati said.
Nine of the victims were released alive, one victim was found dead, and 13 victims are still missing, including Petrus Bima Anugrah, Herman Hendrawan, Suyat, Wiji Thukul, Yani Afri, Sonny, Dedi Hamdun, Noval Al Katiri, Ismail, Ucok Siahaan, Hendra Hambali, Yadin Muhidin and Abdun Nasser. (nad)
Freedom of speech & expression
Ulma Haryanto The Sampang prosecutors office in East Java on Wednesday demanded a four-year prison term for a local leader of the Shiite branch of Islam, on charges of blasphemy.
"This morning prosecutors read their demand at Sampang District Court; they asked for four years under the charges of Article 156, Paragraph A of the Criminal Code," Akhol Firdaus, spokesman for the Center for Marginalized Community Studies (CMARS), which is monitoring the trial, told the Jakarta Globe.
The article Akhol referred to considers blasphemy a criminal offense against the public and is punishable with up to five years in prison.
Tajul Muluk from Sampang, a district in East Java's island of Madura, has been detained since April following an investigation by East Java Police that ultimately charged him with blasphemy and committing "offensive action."
Human rights activists condemned the arrest, as local authorities seemed to overlook the fact that more than 300 members of Tajul's Shiite community were displaced when a mob of 500 people attacked and burned houses, a boarding school and a place of worship in December.
Requests by legal organizations for the trial to be moved to Jakarta, where there would be more advocacy groups, media and nongovernmental organizations to monitor the case, were also denied by police.
According to Akhol, Tajul has received intimidation and threats during his detention, mostly by fellow inmates. "They know who he is and they often gave him verbal threats that they were going to kill him; they also throw things at him," he said.
In their indictment, prosecutors accuse Tajul of telling his students that the Koran, as they knew it, was not the original sacred text.
Indonesia's Shiite community fell victim to 15 incidents of religious violence and discrimination in the first six months of 2012, according to the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy, ranking it third after Christians and violations against individuals.
In 2011, violations against the group totaled only 10 incidents for the whole year. "This number will grow," said Andreas Harsono from Human Rights Watch, citing discriminative regulation and lax punishment for rights violators as the main causes.
Earlier this year, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali proclaimed Shia a deviant sect, a declaration that was followed by a similar edict from the East Java branch of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI).
Shiite followers have also faced discrimination in other instances, such as being denied medical treatment at a health center (Puskesmas) in Sampang, and forced eviction in Ternate, North Maluku.
Jakarta Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie made a show of strength after securing his party's nomination for the 2014 presidential election.
In a well-choreographed ceremony at the Sentul International Convention Center in Bogor, West Java, the Golkar Party leadership meeting officially endorsed Aburizal as the only candidate from the party to contest the 2014 presidential election.
The endorsement was made after the party's central board issued a warning against former vice president Jusuf Kalla, an active Golkar member and its former chairman, that it could expel him from the party if he sought a presidential nomination from another political party, a move that could deal a blow to Aburizal's electability in the poll.
Kalla was not seen at the venue throughout the national leadership meeting.
The announcement was also staged to impress upon Golkar Party members that Aburizal was in control of the party, especially given the presence of former party chairman Akbar Tandjung, who until days before Sunday's announcement had challenged Aburizal's nomination.
Also present at the ceremony was embattled Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, which sent a mixed message on the stance of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's party toward Aburizal's candidacy.
Soon after securing the nomination, Aburizal delivered an hour-long speech that confidently outlined his program if he was elected president, called "Catur Sukses" (four points for success).
"I offer this concept, which has proven to be successful, called the 'Development Trilogy' and have added the idea of Indonesian nationalism," Aburizal said, referring to the slogan of the New Order regime of former president Soeharto, which promoted the trio of steady economic growth, development equity and stability.
Aburizal set out that it was possible for the country to grow by 10 percent and that equitable development was possible only with the infusion of capital to small- and medium-scale enterprises, while stability could be achieved only through democracy.
On the issue of nationalism, Aburizal said that Indonesia could embrace the outside world only if it had confidence and dignity to do so.
Analysts, however, warned that the road to the country's presidency would be a rocky one for Aburizal, who has long been dogged by the Lapindo mud flow disaster and a low approval rating among the electorate.
Political observer from Jakarta-based think tank Charta Politika Yunarto Wijaya said that the odds were stacked against Aburizal's election in 2014. Yunarto said that Aburizal's reputation as a shrewd businessman would not help him during the election.
"People know Bakrie as a businessman and not a politician, with questionable political leadership qualities. On top of that, he received intensive media scrutiny over the handling of the Lapindo mud flow problem and rumors of several tax problems," he said.
He also said that the fact that Aburizal was not Javanese would also count against his candidacy. Aburizal hails from Lampung and comes from Malayan stock.
The Golkar chairman also had to face up to the fact that the party has never won a presidential election in the post-New Order period.
"Golkar has the tremendous task of winning the presidential election because candidates from Golkar have never won the presidential election in the reform era," Yunarto said, adding that in 2014 Golkar also faced an uphill battle to win legislative elections after losing the top spot to the Democratic Party in 2009.
Yunarto also said that Golkar had to deal with consolidating factions in the party, which had splintered in the period leading up to Aburizal's nomination.
"This early nomination is aimed at consolidating opinion within the party and I doubt that it can be completed in the next two years," Yunarto said, adding that the party would also not be able to improve Aburizal's standing among voters in the next two years.
University of Indonesia's political analyst Fachry Ali said that the early nomination of Aburizal was aimed at raising the popularity of the Golkar chairman among the majority of Javanese voters, as his chances of securing votes from them was relatively low.
"I suspect that Golkar is trying to direct public opinion with this early nomination, as the biggest obstacle Aburizal is facing right now is how he has to win the hearts of the majority Javanese population," Fachry told The Jakarta Post on Sunday. (aml)
Jakarta The National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) is having to abandon most of its programs due to steep budget cuts.
"We cannot even provide basic services due to the lack of funds," commissioner Sri Nurherwati said as quoted by tempo.co.
The commission had its budget reduced by 85 percent this year, receiving only Rp 600 million (US$63,410) from an expected Rp 3.9 billion. The reduction was caused primarily by the government's increasing burden of providing fuel subsidies.
Sri said that 40 percent of the commission's funding came from the state budget, with the remainder provided by donations. Now, however, the institution had to rely entirely on donations, she added. "Ideally, we should receive all our funding from the state," Sri said.
Besides Komnas Perempuan, two other state commissions have also had their funding reduced by the government.
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) are both facing 30 percent budget cuts this year. (fzm/iwa)
One of the country's largest labor unions rejected on Monday the government's "inconsequential" proposed revisions to the Reasonable Living Cost Index (KHL), and threatened to hold mass protests on July 12 if it isn't resolved.
The KHL, on which the minimum wage is based on, considers 46 components of living costs, including rice and other basic needs. The Confederation of Indonesian Labor Unions (KSPI), in a written statement, said that it rejected the four components to be added to the list socks, belt, clothing iron and deodorants.
"The addition of the four items will only result in an addition of Rp 15,000 to Rp 20,000 per month [$1.50-$2]," the statement said. KSPI also said the survey carried out by the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration to determine this only covered 3,000 of the country's 30 million formal workers and excluded industrial areas such as Batam, Tangerang and Bekasi.
"This means that for industry intensive areas such as Bekasi and Tangerang, next year's wages will effectively get no increase," KSPI said.
The existing 46 components in the KHL already failed to reflect actual needs since even single workers have to borrow money to meet their daily needs, the statement added.
"We demand the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy and the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry to revise Ministerial Regulation No. 17 of 2005, so that the 46 components are increased to 86 to 122 components," the statement said.
KSPI said workers in Indonesia, with a gross domestic product of Rp 6,000 trillion in 2011 and a $3,600 per capita income, were only paid $120 per month, much lower than the $250 in the Philippines, $350 in Malaysia, $450 in Singapore and $500 in Brunei.
The union also called on the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry to come out with the revision in July in line with the promises made at the House of Representatives.
It said that along with other labor federations and confederations, KSPI plans to hold a "national action" on July 12 to push for the revision.
It said the action would involve some 70,000 workers and would be held at the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, the Presidential Palace and the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration. "It will also be held simultaneously in 15 provinces across Indonesia," the statement said.
Environment & natural disasters
Michael Bachelard The carbon-rich peat forests of northern Sumatra are burning again as palm oil companies break Indonesian law to clear the land for their plantations.
Environmental groups have warned that the local population of critically endangered orang-utans are "doomed" unless the fires are stopped.
Also, smoke from the burning is at times engulfing cities in Malaysia and Thailand, prompting doctors in Kuala Lumpur recently to warn residents with respiratory problems to wear masks.
Photographs from the Tripa peat forest in Aceh show widespread burning, which the head investigator of the Indonesian environment ministry, Syarifudin Akbar, estimates now covers almost 2000 hectares. "This is a criminal case because the law says it's a crime to open a land by burning," Mr Akbar told the Herald.
Local environmentalists say the fires are lit by palm oil companies and threaten a population of about 200 orang-utans in this area one of the densest populations in the world.
More than 3000 of the great apes once lived in the area that is being cleared. Now just 7000 live on the whole island of Sumatra, which has been hit in recent years with uncontrolled clearing of primary forests for palm oil plantations.
The latest fires were detected by satellites monitoring fire activity last week, and confirmed by field staff from local environmental groups.
The environment department, the national police and the government's Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) taskforce are investigating. A spokesman for the REDD taskforce, Achmad Santosa, agreed the forest burning was "an issue of law enforcement" and that it was "exactly the job of the REDD taskforce, that is to ensure the enforcement of the law".
The head of the REDD taskforce, Kuntoro, visited Aceh yesterday to speak to the governor and check the situation on the ground.
But Kamaruddin, a lawyer for the Tripa community, said the investigations now under way were "proving to be too little too late", and called for the President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to get involved.
"These companies simply have to be ordered to stop [clearing] immediately and that order to be strictly enforced, otherwise the peat forests and inhabitants of Tripa will be lost forever," he said.
Dr Yudhoyono has won global applause for pro-conservation statements, the most recent at the Rio+20 summit, where he said: "deforestation is a thing of the past" and that "losing our tropical rainforests would constitute the ultimate national, global and planetary disaster".
But this has not stopped the annual "burning season" of forests in Borneo and Sumatra nor the smoke haze over Asia as companies take advantage of dry weather to prepare the ground for new plantations.
"Despite all these words and statements and speeches about conserving orang-utans and peat lands and reducing carbon emissions... the evidence is there has been no change," said the director of conservation at the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program, Ian Singleton.
Part of the area being burnt is owned by the palm oil company PT Kallista Allam, which was granted a concession now under challenge in the Indonesian courts. The former Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf said he had granted the concession as a wake-up call to the international community over its inaction on a carbon pricing mechanism in Indonesian forests.
However, a company spokesman told the Herald that the fire had blown into their area from a neighbouring concession. The owner of that land, PT Agro Maju Raya, could not be contacted.
Pekanbaru Indonesia has the worst drinking water in Southeast Asia, a freshwater researcher at the Indonesian Research Institute (LIPI) said on Wednesday.
"Only 30 percent [of city residents] have access to clean water," Ignasius DA Sutapa, a fresh water researcher at LIPI said in Bengkalis, Riau. "[That number] drops to only ten percent in villages."
Indonesia needs to ensure that 50 percent of the population has access to clean drinking water if the nation hopes to meet the targets set by the United Nations' (UN) Millennium Development Goals. Participating countries have committed to improving their overall health, environment and quality of life focusing on eight targets addressing issues like poverty, malaria, HIV and hunger.
Reaching Indonesia's clean water target it too large a goal for the state- owned water company PDAM to meet alone, Ignasius said.
The government should focus on building more peat water processing plants in peatland-heavy areas like Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua, he said. "In those peatland areas, the water is not safe enough to be consumed," Ignasius said.
A peat water filtration program running in Tanjung Leban village, in Bengkalis, Riau has successfully provided local residents with clean drinking water, he said. The government should fund the development of additional processing plants, Ignasius added.
Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta Despite its stated commitment to supporting the UN Population Fund's (UNFPA) reproductive health programs, the government is making little effort to promote young people's access to quality sexual and reproductive health services.
Nisrina Nadhifah Rahman, a member of the UNFPA's Youth Advisory Panel, said the government had made little progress in protecting and promoting young people's rights to control their sexuality, free from violence, discrimination and coercion.
"Its [government] obligations are still far from being realized," she told The Jakarta Post recently
Citing examples, she said 25 percent of, or about 7 million, adult women in Indonesia have visited clinics, including illegal ones, for abortions. Subsequently suffering from various complications after unsafe abortions, 42,000 of them died, according to a 2008 survey by the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI).
Despite the fact that many women visited abortion clinics, the government insists that only married couples are eligible to gain access to reproductive health services.
"It's important for the government to show concrete action in meeting young people's need for reproductive health services, information and education," Nisrina added.
In addition, public health expert Endang L. Achadi of the University of Indonesia (UI) said young people needed access to sexual and reproductive health information and services to allow them to be well-informed about healthy sex.
"It's important for women and girls to be able to make their own decisions regarding their reproductive health," Endang told a media workshop on sexual and reproductive health rights, held by the UNFPA ahead of World Population Day, which falls on July 11.
The UNFPA has picked "Universal Access to Reproductive Health Services" as the theme for this year's celebration. Unlike in previous years, the Health Ministry will take a lead on the commemoration as this year's celebration will be more related to technical aspects of health.
Endang said it was necessary to ensure that young people gained access not only to information but also to a wide range of services covering prevention, diagnosis, counseling, treatment and care.
According to the 1994 International Conference on Population Development's (ICPD) Plan of Action, sexual and reproductive health is defined as the ability of all women and men to exercise control over their sexual and reproductive health, including being able to determine freely and responsibly the number of children they want and when to have them, and to have the requisite information and education to make those decisions.
UNFPA's Indonesia representative, Jose Ferraris, said sexual and reproductive health was a central component of general health and a prerequisite for social, economic and human development.
"This is confirmed by the fact that the leading cause of ill-health and deaths among women during their reproductive years, namely women aged between 15 and 49, is related to reproductive health problems," he said, adding that reproductive morbidity and mortality rates were at a critical level, not only in Indonesia but all over the world.
Jakarta After previously insisting that vasectomies were banned under Islamic law, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has softened its stance on the matter, saying vasectomies are allowed so long as they are carried out in accordance with Islamic Sharia.
"As long as the vasectomy is done according to Sharia, then it is mubah (allowed)," the secretary of MUI's Central Java branch, Ahmad Rofiq, said Wednesday as quoted by tempo.co.
He said the decision was made during the MUI fatwa commission's congress, held from June 29 to July 2 at the Cipasung Islamic boarding school in Tasikmalaya, West Java.
However there were some requirements for a vasectomy to be allowed, Ahmad said. These include the intention that the vasectomy would not be permanent; that a man undergoing the procedure was 50 years old or older; that permission was sought from and granted by the subject's wife; and that the procedure was not carried out for immoral purposes.
He added that the MUI had previously banned vasectomies due to concerns that men who underwent the proceudre would be permanently sterile, which is not allowed in Islam.
However with the advance of technology, vasectomies are no longer permanent and can be reversed. Ahmad said the MUI had received information from men who had previously had vasectomies who had gone on later to have children.
Islam, he said, allowed contraception for postponing further births in families who already had children, but without removing the opportunity for reproduction. (iwa)
The number of asylum seekers entering Indonesia has drastically increased by 800 percent, an expert has said.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Indonesia's office recorded that there was significant rise in the number of refugees from only 389 in 2008 to 3,230 people in 2009.
"There is an increasing trend in the number of both refugees and asylum seekers coming into Indonesia," said Mitra Salima Suryono of UNHCR Indonesia during a media gathering at the Bali Rani Hotel in Kuta on Friday.
Thousands of refugees and asylum seekers try to flee their homes to several countries to avoid wars and conflicts. "The number of people coming to Indonesia as refugees and asylum seekers is still small when compared with those heading to Pakistan and other Asian countries and Australia," Mitra said.
Pakistan received 1 million refugees; Iran had 800,000; Thailand had 100,000; Malaysia had 98,000 and Australia had 29,000.
Michael Bachelard, Daniel Flitton A senior Indonesian official has confirmed Indonesia would object strongly to the Coalition's policy of forcing asylum boats back into Indonesian waters.
"It's exactly like you going to someone else's house and throwing dirt there," the official said, on the condition of anonymity. "Why would we take something that is not our property?"
There are also practical problems with the turn-around policy, the official said. Unless the boats were to be abandoned on the high seas, or handed over to the Indonesian navy mid-ocean, they would need to be towed to land.
But there is no safe port on Java's southern shore because the seas are too high and dangerous. This would mean the Australian navy towing an asylum boat to Tanjung Priok, Jakarta's commercial and military port, which is many hours' sail away on Java's northern shore.
The source said the Australian navy would never be given permission for this kind of incursion into Indonesian waters. "It's impossible for a military ship to get security clearance and border clearance," the source said.
On the face of it, the boat that signalled its distress last Wednesday would have been a candidate for tow-back. It was clearly within Indonesian waters, and the Indonesian search and rescue agency, Basarnas, was in charge of the rescue.
Communications between the Australian Rescue Coordination Centre and Basarnas reveal the Australians initially asked Basarnas to "advise which Indonesian port is being prepared to receive survivors".
But an Australian vessel, HMAS Wollongong, reached the area first, and the asylum seekers refused to return to Indonesia. They were therefore accompanied to Christmas Island.
A Basarnas spokesman, Gagah Prakoso, said this was standard procedure in search and rescue. "The implicit understanding is that whoever helps the boat will take it to their country, not get the boat and take it to another country," he said. Mr Prakoso would not comment on the Coalition policy.
However, Basarnas has now committed to buying a fast, ocean-going catamaran to help its rescue efforts. The 60-metre vessel, which will supplement its smaller 36-metre fibreglass-bottomed boats, will be able to effect rescues in open ocean for the first time, Mr Prakoso said.
The head of Basarnas admitted last month that it was ill-equipped to respond to vessels in distress in the often rough seas off Indonesia's southern coast.
Nevertheless, the new boat, which is to be bought from Singapore, will be based in Jakarta's port, which means it will be 11 hours sailing, in good conditions (and 20 hours in bad conditions) from the mid-point of Java and Christmas Island.
Meanwhile, boat interceptions continued. Australian authorities last night boarded a boat believed to be carrying 31 people west of Christmas Island.
And police in Sri Lanka stopped 41 people setting out on a treacherous 3000-kilometre journey across open waters to Australia only days after the country complained it was being exploited as a "transit point" for smuggling. (with AAP)
Bayu Marhaenjati With the continued flood of high-profile corruption cases rippling through branches of the government, the spokesman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said on Saturday that Indonesia's most successful generation, has been the "corrupter generation."
"Gayus [Tambunan] and [Muhammad] Nazaruddin are the models for the corrupter generation... they are still young, but have billions of Rupiah," Johan Budi of the KPK said at a seminar on corruption on Saturday.
Graft convicts Gayus and Nazaruddin are both in their early 30s; Gayus thickened his pockets through bribes received from his clients while serving as an official at the tax office, and is now serving 30 years in prison. Former Democratic Party Treasurer Nazaruddin is serving seven years for rigging tenders from various construction projects.
In a stark warning, Johan said that Indonesia's development funds currently total some Rp 1,937 trillion ($205 billion), but estimated that 30 percent of that sum would not be used for the welfare of the nation, but rather, would find its way into corrupt official's pockets.
"And I'm sure that amount now might have reached 50 percent," he said. "When there's a budget request to be approved by the House of Representatives, there is a fee to pay. When it's returned back to the ministry and the project is granted to a company, there's usually a 10 percent cut, and so on.
"So don't be amazed if there's a newly constructed road that's damaged after a year or two, as well as bridges," Johan added.
At a seminar about the endemic problem of corruption in Indonesia, academic Nace Permana said graft is not only enjoyed as "low risk/high revenue activity" but has deep roots in the culture of the Indonesian government.
"Even the Religious Affairs Ministry, which should be the last shield to eradicate corruption with moral campaigns, is not free from the practice of corruption," Nace said. "[Corruption] needs serious and joint efforts to solve it."
Ezra Sihite While the government struggles to fund economic development and cover growing fuel subsidy spending, lawmakers, business leaders and bureaucrats continue to steal the public's money out of greed, anti- corruption activists say.
According to Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo, the 2012 state budget had a deficit of Rp 36.1 trillion ($3.8 billion) in the first half of this year, largely due to the growing fuel subsidy. He said on Thursday that revenue reached Rp 593.3 trillion but spending hit Rp 629.4 trillion by July.
Activists said on Friday that the high spending was also caused by rampant corruption in procurement projects as lawmakers, officials and business leaders worked together to steal public money earmarked for development.
Firdaus Ilyas, a senior researcher at Indonesia Corruption Watch, said trillions of rupiah had been siphoned off from hundreds of projects, from Rp 100 billion in the Koran procurement project to Rp 2.5 trillion in the Hambalang sport center case and Rp 7 trillion from regional infrastructure projects. "The cases continue every day. It seems like all government projects have corruption," he said.
The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) has estimated that about Rp 200 trillion is embezzled every year through rigged bids.
KPPU member M. Nawir Messi said last month that roughly 40 percent, or around Rp 650 trillion, was spent every year on projects offered through bids. Of the Rp 650 trillion, 30 percent was lost on "markups."
Subsequently, State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan also claimed that 70 percent of state companies won project tenders through corruption.
Uchok Sky Khadafi, from the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), said that while the dispersal of funds from regional offices was slow, a significant amount of the money so far agreed to be disbursed for projects this year had already been expropriated.
Jakarta The Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said on Friday that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) should expand its list of suspects in the Religious Affairs Ministry's graft-ridden Koran procurement scandal to include more politicians who may have used the funds for their political parties.
"Looking at parallels from similar corruption scandals in the past, we have reason to believe that the money wasn't just used to enrich the pockets of alleged suspects," ICW political corruption researcher Ade Irawan said. "We think the money was also used to empower political parties."
These past scandals, he said, included the Regional Infrastructure Adjustment Fund (DPID) money-laundering case and the SEA Games athletes' village bribery project, both from 2011. Ade said that suspects in both cases and others similar to it didn't only use the money they pilfered to line their own pockets.
"They also used the money to fund political campaigns, like when [former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad] Nazaruddin said that graft money was used to fund [Democratic Party chairman] Anas Urbaningrum's campaign to become party chairman [during the 2010 Democratic Party congress in Bandung]," Ade said.
Ade hopes that examples such as these will spur on the KPK to take their investigations beyond the two suspects in the Rp 55 billion (US$5.88 million) Koran scandal who have already been identified.
The two are Golkar Party lawmaker Zulkarnaen Djabar and his son, Dendi Prasetya. Zulkarnaen is reported to have gained Rp 4 billion (US$424,000) after his son's printing firm, PT KSAI, won the procurement tender.
"The KPK should open itself to all possibilities. We have reason to believe that even the ministerial elite and bureaucracy are involved," he said. Ade said that corruption involving such a wide range of actors occurred because of the way politicians conceived political parties.
"For some politicians, political parties are like corporations. They're tools for profit. If the parties are the corporations, then the politicians are the stock owners," he said.
"The more money they channel into their 'corporations', the more powerful their 'investments' become. The more powerful the corporation, the more money these politicians can make in the future."
Ade said this view was a far cry from the way such institutions were theoretically envisioned. "Political parties have to answer to their constituents, the people. They have to respond to the public's problems and desires," he said.
Aside from the fraudulent Koran procurement, the Religious Affairs Ministry is also reported to have allegedly misused Rp 18 billion out of an approximate Rp 30 billion that was allotted to procure computers for laboratories at Madrassa Tsanawiyah (junior Islamic high schools) last year.
An official with the ministry's religious education division, Sastra Juanda, admitted that the ministry had planned to spend the money on upgrading all laboratories at all public Islamic high schools, adding that the ministry would arrange a similar procurement worth Rp 50 billion this year. (png)
Markus Junianto Sihaloho The Finance Ministry admitted that they have funds deposited in an account designated for "unplanned programs," which was the alleged source of funding for a number of high-profile graft cases including the avian flu vaccine factory and Hambalang Sport Complex.
But officials insist that the account called Bank Account 99 is a common and legitimate vehicle for funding government programs, and said accessing the account still requires approval by the Budget Committee.
"[Bank Account 99] is the budget provided by the government and approved by the House to be used by programs that have not been allocated by ministries or [state] institutions," Herry Purnomo, the Finance Ministry's director general, said on Thursday.
Herry, who was reportedly uneasy when asked about the suspicious bank account (and told journalists not to question him like they were prosecutors), did not offer details on how much money is deposited in the account. He said the money was not from the previous year's unused budget.
Herry said that to use the money, the government still needs approval from the House Budget Committee. "Of course the Budget Committee knows this we discuss it with the committee," he said.
Several graft cases in recent years centered around mysterious funding that lawmakers claimed was not approved through normal channels. The funding for the graft-tainted avian flu vaccine factory and Hambalang Sport Complex was brought into question by Head of House Commission IX Ribka Tjiptaning.
Ribka said that the budget for the bird flu vaccine factory was not taken from the Health Ministry budget, and said House Commission IX never discussed or approved the project. But the construction was still funded by graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin companies Anak Negeri and Anugrah Nusantara.
In a similar case, House of Representative members claim that they never discussed or approved the inflated budget for the Hambalang Sports Facility.
"I was informed that [the bird flu vaccine factory] was not using the Health Ministry budget, but Account 99 of the Finance Ministry," Ribka said. "The funding method is similar with the Hambalang project."
While the initial budget was taken from the Bank Account 99, the Health Ministry later requested a budget allocation from the 2010 Revised State Budget to continue the unfinished project, costing some Rp 490 billion ($52 million) which was eventually approved by the House.
Hadiyanto, the finance ministry's director general for state assets, said that a special bank account like Account 99 was not unique to the Finance Ministry, and said most ministries and state institutions typically have access such "motherless" accounts.
"They can be used," he said. "But if it is program of Health Ministry, it should be allocated in Health Ministry account."
Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta With the controversy over the 2011 Koran procurement project barely over, the House of Representatives said it had approved a request to double the budget for procurement of the holy book for 2012.
Lawmaker Muhammad Baghowi of House Commission VIII overseeing religious and social affairs said that the House had approved the Religious Affairs Ministry's budget proposal for Rp 110 billion (US$11.77 million) for the 2012 Koran procurement project.
Baghowi, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party, said Commission VIII had agreed to double the budget from 2011's Rp 55 billion as part of its support to strengthen the faith of Muslims.
"We discussed it [the budget increase], with the Religious Affairs Ministry, and agreed to the proposal because we felt that morality in society has deteriorated rapidly," Baghowi said, adding that one of the indications of such moral decline was the frequency of street brawls.
Baghowi, however, admitted that the Religious Affairs Ministry had kept lawmakers in dark over how much each Koran would cost taxpayers, as the ministry gave no details about the project when they convened for budget deliberations last year.
Members of Commission VIII have given conflicting statements over how much the Koran procurement project would cost taxpayers.
Jazuli Juwaini of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), for instance, said that Commission VIII approved around Rp 22 billion for the procurement project, while Inggrid Kansil of the Democratic Party said the House had put the project's price tag at Rp 50 billion, with each Koran costing Rp 1 million.
Commission VIII deputy chairperson Chairunissa of the Golkar Party, who claimed that she signed off on the budget proposal, told reporters that the Religious Affairs Ministry initially requested Rp 70 billion for the project.
"We only approved Rp 55 billion due to budget constraints," she said. Chairunnisa said that details of the project, including the price of each Koran and which printing companies had been appointed for the project were not divulged by the ministry.
Chairunnisa also said that she was not responsible for rigging the tender project in favor of PT KSAI, a printing firm owned by the son of Commission VIII lawmaker Zulkarnaen Djabar. "None of us [on Commission VIII] were allowed to interfere with the decision on which companies won the project," she said.
Zulkarnaen and his son Dendi Prasetya have been named suspects for their roles in the Koran procurement project by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
The graft-ridden project will likely implicate Zulkarnaen's colleagues from Commission VIII as a majority of them were reported to have accepted hundreds of Korans to later distributed to their constituents.
Some of the lawmakers denied that the Koran handouts constituted graft, arguing instead that considered the action a part of combating Muslim fundamentalism in the country.
"We are accountable for the free Koran distribution. It is part of the Religious Affairs Ministry's efforts to strengthen the faith of Muslims and to tackle growing radicalism. It's just an issue of distributing the holy books. We are helping the ministry by accepting the Korans to be distributed to the voters in our electoral districts. Holy books are holy books no matter what," Jazuli said.
Others said that they had good intentions to help the ministry. "We are willing to participate in the distribution [of the Korans] to help the ministry reach out to Muslims, who could live far from our electoral districts," said Chairunnisa.
Some, however, were furious with the Koran procurement scandal. "Those involved in the Koran graft are worse than Satan," said Commission VIII member Ali Maschan Musa of the National Awakening Party (PKB), who received 18 boxes of the holy books.
Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Rizky Amelia All nine parties at the House of Representatives have rejected the Corruption Eradication Commission's plan to build a new office building, a senior legislator revealed on Monday.
Azis Syamsuddin, deputy chairman of House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, said he had received formal notification from each party at the House about the Rp 166 billion ($17.7 million) budget proposed by the antigraft agency, known as the KPK.
"All nine parties proposed coordinating with the Finance Ministry on optimizing the use of the existing [KPK] building," Azis said.
The announcement means that no political parties are supporting the KPK's plan to build new facilities, including the ruling Democratic Party, which boasted of its antigraft drive during the 2009 legislative election and claimed it backed the KPK's request.
The KPK has been arguing that its existing office in Kuningan, South Jakarta, can no longer house its 700 employees. The KPK also plans to expand its own detention facilities and recruit more staff to handle the many corruption cases it currently handles.
Azis admitted that several legislators had expressed their support for the KPK's plan but added that the parties' official stances suggested otherwise. "According to [House] mechanism, each party's views must be expressed in writing. So as far as the House commission leaders are concerned, the written stances serve as the basis [for the next step]," he said.
The House has been stalling deliberation for the KPK's budget request since 2008, which activists and analysts believe is an attempt to undermine the KPK's success in probing corruption cases that involve current and former legislators.
The protracted deliberation process at the House has prompted massive outrage not only from antigraft activists but also from ordinary citizens, who have started collecting money for the KPK project.
On Monday, a woman by the name of Rosalia Indah, from Solo, Central Java, donated iron bars for the KPK. The bars arrived at the KPK office in a truck.
Illian Deta Artasari, an activist with Indonesia Corruption Watch, which is coordinating the drive to support the KPK, said the donor wanted the bars to be used to build jail cells for the new KPK building. "This is the first of its kind," Illian said.
The movement has generated Rp 132.5 million in donations as of Monday afternoon, the ICW activist said on her twitter account, @illiandeta.
Although still Rp 165.9 billion short, the drive has become a national movement, with students and activists from across the nation collecting donations and busking on the streets. In Makassar, students even collected bricks for the KPK's project.
Bambang Widjojanto, a KPK deputy chairman, said his office had not yet decided whether to accept the money. "The KPK is grateful for the public's participation," he said recently. "But [we] have to analyze, and consider government and expert opinions on how to manage public donations."
Bayu Marhaenjati & Zaky Pawas Police have named an official from a leading state high school in Jakarta a suspect for libel after he accused the principal of corruption in a blog post.
Musni Umar, the former chairman of the school committee at State Senior High School (SMAN) No. 70 in Bulungan, South Jakarta, was interrogated by police investigators on Monday in relation to his claim that principal Pernon Akbar was embezzling Rp 20 million ($2,100) a month from the school.
Febri Hendri of Indonesia Corruption Watch questioned why the police were not focusing on the graft allegation and said his organization would back Musni. "We've seen evidence that the school principal received monthly payments of Rp 20 million outside of his salary," he said.
"There are receipts issued by the school committee attesting to this. By law, however, civil servants are prohibited from receiving any payment outside their salary and the school committee has no obligation to pay any money."
Also backing Musni is the Federation of Indonesian Teachers Unions (FSGI), which joined ICW in accompanying the former SMAN 70 official to the Jakarta Police headquarters for questioning.
Musni, who chaired the school committee from 2009 to 2012, was reported to the authorities by Ricky Agusyady, the current committee chairman, over his blog post in which he said that principal Pernon "deserves to be investigated for allowing corruption at SMAN 70 in order to enrich himself."
Musni wrote that the school, one of the handful of state schools running an international-standard curriculum (RSBI) had an annual budget of Rp 15 billion, but there was no transparency or accountability in how the money was spent.
Of that amount, only Rp 4.7 million came from the government, with the rest coming from fees paid by the students' parents. Musni also accused Pernon of amassing Rp 1.2 billion in his personal bank account.
"The way we see it, it's very suspicious that a school principal who is a civil servant should get Rp 20 million a month in addition to his salary," Febri said. "What needs to be investigated is whether this was a bribe or not. We'll collect all the necessary data and file our own police report."
He called on the police to drop their libel investigation of Musni, arguing that he was only trying to reveal possible corruption at the school. "They shouldn't have processed this report of libel because it's essentially an effort by the current school committee to gag [Musni], and we don't want that," Febri said.
Musni, who is also a member of the group Parents Concerned About Education (APPI), had previously drawn attention to the unusually high salaries paid to teachers at RSBI schools as an indication of questionable fiscal management.
"Some of them receive Rp 35 million a month, which does not make any sense," he said last year. "How much must parents be paying in school fees to provide that kind of salary [for the principals]?"
RSBI schools, unlike other public schools, are permitted to charge fees of any amount, but they have come under scrutiny for their lack of fiscal accountability and transparency.
Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta In spite of public support for a new building for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), lawmakers are sticking to their guns in their refusal to budget money for the project.
Aziz Syamsuddin, the Golkar Party lawmaker who is deputy chairman of House Commission III overseeing law and human rights, said on Monday that commission lawmakers from nine political parties had not made any decision on the new building, telling the KPK to rent additional space instead.
"None of the nine parties have agreed to remove the asterisk on the budget proposal," Aziz said, referring to the hold lawmakers have placed on finalizing the KPK's budget request.
Azis said that commission lawmakers from all nine parties had suggested that the Finance Ministry rent vacant buildings for the KPK and for all other state bodies without state-owned headquarters, including the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN).
The KPK proposed a budget of Rp 225.712 billion (US$24.15 million) for a new headquarters in 2008, saying that its current building on Jl. Rasuna Said in Kuningan, South Jakarta, was over capacity.
The 31-year-old building formerly the headquarters of Bank Papan Sejahtera, which was liquidated by the government in 1999 was designed to host 350. The KPK's current staff tops 752 employees and officials seconded from other agencies.
Responding to the House's intransigence, the KPK's leaders devised a public donation initiative, which has so far raised Rp 100 million.
Several Commission III lawmakers, including Didi Irawadi Syamsuddin from the Democratic Party and Martin Hutabarat from the Great Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra), have privately supported funding a new headquarters for the KPK. Aziz, however, said that the personal opinions of lawmakers were irrelevant unless their parties endorsed their views.
"We have a procedure here. We previously accepted an official statement from each party on their rejection [of the KPK's proposal] and nothing will change unless the parties make official written statements to change their decisions, which we must discuss in a plenary session," Aziz said.
Commission III is expected to make its final decision on the budget for the KPK headquarters on Tuesday.
Separately, Bertrand de Speville, the former commissioner of Hong Kong's Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC), said that the KPK's request for a new, state-funded building was justified.
Hong Kong, with a population of 7 million people, had 1,300 employees on its antigraft task force, de Speville said. He drew a contrast with Indonesia, which has a population of 238 million and around 470,000 police officers. "It is not enough," de Speville said.
The KPK would definitely need a new building before it could add more staffers, de Speville added. "They [KPK] haven't got enough people. They need more people. But people need office space to work because the current one seems to be too small," de Speville said.
"They need sufficient room. Whether it is a new separate building or an additional rented premises. The important thing is that they should have a bit of space for an office, and Jakarta has a lot," de Speville told reporters on the sidelines of a closed-door meeting with lawmakers on Commission III.
De Speville also said that he was heartened to see the massive public support evinced for the KPK. "Public support is a very valuable asset to eradicate corruption. The government and the KPK must not waste the strong support from the public. You cannot win the fight [against corruption] unless you get and maintain public support," he said.
Rizky Amelia & Rahmat The Corruption Eradication Commission has picked up another big-name supporter in its campaign for a new headquarters, with Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD giving his blessing to the public donation drive.
Donations continue to pour in from the public to help pay for a new KPK building, with Mahfud calling the movement a show of moral support for the antigraft body.
"This fund-raising is a moral movement and a peaceful protest on the part of the people against the government's indifference toward the KPK," Mahfud said in Semarang on Friday as quoted by state-run news agency Antara.
Mahfud also gave his legal blessing to the donations. He agreed with former Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh that the money being donated by the public for the building fund could not be considered illegal gratifications.
"The finance minister has said that the donations for the KPK are a grant of the kind the country has received for a long time," said Mahfud, a former National Awakening Party (PKB). "The Aceh people, for instance, donated Seulawah aircraft to the government."
Although he supports the donation movement, Mahfud said he was worried no one was overseeing the drive to ensure the money ended up where it was intended.
"The fund-raising drive needs to be handled by people with credibility and accountability," he said. "We don't want anyone to use this as a tool to amass wealth for themselves."
A small post was opened in front of the antigraft body's South Jakarta headquarters on Friday to support the fund-raising drive. There was a table, two chairs, some anti-corruption posters and a glass case for donations.
According to beritasatu.com, a check for Rp 5 million ($535) and a brown envelope stuffed with money were visible inside the case. Former Industry Minister Fahmi Idris also donated a check for Rp 5 million.
"I support the construction of a new building and this is [a way to show] my disappointment with the House of Representatives," Fahmi said. "This check is from me personally," he said, adding that he would also ask members of his family to make donations.
Sosiologist Thamrin Amal Tamagola donated Rp 100,000, Fahmi Idris's daughter, Fahira Idris, donated Rp 5 million and political analyst Fadjroel Rachman added Rp 225,700.
Illian Deta Arta Sari, a coordinator for the coalition behind the KPK building donation drive, said they would not send people out into the street to raise money.
"If you see anyone on the street, they're not with us, but of course we can't forbid them [from asking for donations]," he said. "We appreciate the people's efforts to support and raise funds but we hope that they contact the coalition for KPK donations [and do it through us]."
The coalition, he said, might be a better option to prevent fraudulent collectors from stealing money.
KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto first floated the idea of raising money for the building through public donations. The idea prompted a group of integrity activists to seek public donations for the popular antigraft body, raising more than Rp 50 million in less than two days.
The KPK has been looking for a bigger headquarters to accommodate its more than 650 employees. The lack of space in the current building, which was meant to accommodate 350 people, has forced the KPK to rent space at the Ombudsman Commission building and the State Secretariat office.
House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, did not approve the KPK's request for money for a new building four years ago, suggesting the commission ask the government for an unused building.
In Makassar, South Sulawesi, antigraft activists and students vowed to collect one million bricks as a symbol of support for the KPK.
"The House's rejection of a budget for a new building is irrational," said Anwar Lasape, the coordinator of the movement. "It seems like they just want to disrupt the KPK's efforts to fight corruption."
Jakarta Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators need to show the public that recent investigations into graft cases allegedly involving the country's top politicians are free from political pressure, analysts say.
While the public still views the KPK as being on the right track in combating corruption, some speculate that the antigraft body can be influenced by certain political groups.
"The KPK just needs to do more and talk less. The more they reveal cases, particularly big cases, the public would respect them even more," Indo Barometer executive director Muhammad Qodari told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
For the past few months, the KPK has been investigating graft cases allegedly involving politicians from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.
In April, the KPK detained party lawmaker Angelina Sondakh for her role in a bribery scandal involving the construction of the SEA Games' athletes' village in South Sumatra. Angelina, a former beauty queen, is currently in KPK custody.
The antigraft body also questioned other party officials, such as party chairman Anas Urbaningrum and Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng. Former party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin was convicted of receiving Rp 4.6 billion (US$506,000) in illegal gratuities.
On Friday, as the Golkar Party wrapped up its leadership meeting in Bogor, West Java, the KPK named one of its politicians a suspect in a graft scandal and questioned two others in connection with a separate corruption case.
Golkar lawmaker Zulkarnaen Djabar was declared a suspect as party leaders assembled to support the nomination of chairman Aburizal Bakrie as the party's presidential candidate.
KPK investigators raided Zulkarnaen's office at the House of Representatives (DPR). The commission also summoned the chairman of Golkar's House faction, Setya Novanto, and fellow lawmaker Kahar Muzakir as witnesses in a bribery case surrounding the National Games (PON).
Speculation has surfaced that the KPK's swing from investigating graft scandals allegedly involving Democratic Party to inquiries involving Golkar politicians is a result of political pressures.
Qodari said, however, graft cases were always close to positions of power in both the government and the legislature. Because the Democratic Party and Golkar were currently in those positions, he said, it was normal for the KPK to focus on them.
"So, such speculation is too early. Only one party official had been named a suspect, and the other is still a witness. Let's just wait and see what happens next and not jump to conclusions just yet," he said.
Qodari, however, expressed concerns that the KPK was too slow in handling the cases involving Anas Urbaningrum and Andi. "I'd say the Commission should have already named suspects in their cases, unlike Nazaruddin's case, which is clearly bigger," he said.
Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), a local corruption watchdog, echoed Qodari's sentiments, saying that the supposed shift in the KPK's investigative focus was more of a coincidence.
"That speculation is too far [from reality]. What the KPK did was all about the evidence that they have gathered. I find it to be more of a coincidence," said Emerson Yuntho of ICW, referring to the coincidence between the timing of the Golkar leadership conference and the KPK's investigation into Golkar politicians.
Emerson said that Golkar should instead thank the KPK for its findings because it would help the party to clean out corrupters within the party.
Emerson went on to suggest that the public wanted the KPK do its homework, and continue investigations into the controversial Bank Century bailout, the use of Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) and many more nearly forgotten cases.(fzm)
Terrorism & religious extremism
Jakarta The House of Representatives has appointed a former National Police deputy chief to chair the deliberation of another bill on terrorism amid concerns from some groups, including a senior military intelligence officer, that the new bill might overlap and even contradict prevailing laws on the gross crime.
Comr. Gen. (ret) Adang Daradjatun, who holds the position as the chairman of the House's special committee overseeing the draft, insisted that the Bill on Prevention and Eradication of Terrorism Finance would be instrumental in boosting the government's power in combating terrorism because it would provide clearer and more substantial legal certainties.
"We have seen an increase in the number of terrorist attacks in the country. The terrorists were able to carry out their operations because certain individuals or groups had supported them financially. We believe that cutting the flow of this financial assistance will help us put an end to terrorism," the legislator from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said on Sunday.
Adang added the Indonesian government should issue a separate law to monitor the fund-raising aspects of terrorism because the current Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism did not address this issue in detail.
Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsudin, who acknowledged that he had not yet analyzed the draft thoroughly, stressed that drafting a new law was important because the current laws on terrorism and money laundering were not enough to tackle terrorism in Indonesia.
"The success of terrorists also depends on their financial aspects. This is what the draft targets. Moreover, we already ratified the UN convention and therefore must take an additional act," he told The Jakarta Post.
However, University of Indonesia (UI) law expert Hikmahanto Juwana said the new anti-terrorism financing bill would overlap or even contradict existing laws that touched on terrorism, such as Law No. 25/2003 on money laundering and Law No. 8/2010 on the prevention of money laundering.
Meanwhile, Eva Kusuma Sundari, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician who also sits on the special committee, criticized the draft, saying that the government's move was mainly triggered by the critical report of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Indonesia in February and June this year.
FATF, a Paris-based international money-laundering watchdog, announced on its official website that Indonesia had not made sufficient progress in implementing its plan on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorist activities, and certain strategic deficiencies remained.
Adang's statement resonates with recent warnings issued by counterterrorism officials that terrorist groups have developed new ways to operate, including establishing alliances with drug syndicates and hacking foreign exchange websites to finance terrorist attacks.
The content of the anti-terrorism financing draft centers on illegal and suspicious financial activities carried out by any individuals or corporations, and emphasizes the role of the Financial Transactions Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK).
Chapter 3, Article 4 of the draft says that any individual proven to have provided or collected funds willfully, directly or indirectly, with the intention that the funds should be used to carry out terrorist acts, will face a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment and a Rp 1 billion (US$107,000) fine.
Article 8 of the draft states that if the violation is committed by a company, it faces a maximum penalty of Rp 100 million and is at risk of losing its operational license and assets.
Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism, on the other hand, contains two articles that regulate terrorism financing and they carry a maximum penalty of 15 years' imprisonment for anyone proven to have provided financial assistance for terrorist acts.
Adang said that the future anti-terrorism financing act was important because it would also function as the legal umbrella for the United Nations International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, ratified by the Indonesian government in 2006.
But Hikmahanto disagreed. "This is a common misconception among lawmakers and government officials. What we have to do is examine the content of the current laws to find out whether or not they comply with the convention," he said on Saturday.
Rr. Adm. Soleman B. Ponto, chief of the Indonesian Military's Strategic Intelligence (BAIS), shared the concern of a possible overlapping in the bill. He added that, to him, it was not the funding that mattered, but the use of the funds.
"What if an alleged terrorist group transferred $1 million to my bank account and I used the money to play golf? It wouldn't be wrong, would it?" he told the Post after a hearing at the House. (tas)
Camelia Pasandaran & Farouk Arnaz The National Police chief has responded to the president's call to crack down on vigilante hard-line groups by insisting that other institutions besides the police force should be responsible for the job.
Gen. Timur Pradopo, the National Police chief, said on Monday that the police were committed to getting groups like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) back in line, but there also needed to be guidance from other institutions in addition to enforcement from the police.
"I believe security disruptions can be minimized, but it's not just the police that must take action," he said.
"If we're talking about preventive measures, then of course other stakeholders must be involved. Supervision can't just come from the police, it also has to come from the Religious Affairs Ministry and other ministries, so that if we can handle the cases early enough, we can minimize the potential for security disruptions."
Timur was responding to a call by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Sunday that he would no longer tolerate hard-line groups that disregarded the rule of law.
"Take firm action against groups that force their own will and violate the constitutional rights of others," he said at an event to mark the 66th anniversary of the founding of the police force.
The statement came just hours after the FPI ransacked a police station in the West Java city of Tasikmalaya. Police said that the attack stemmed from a brawl that broke out between the FPI and a local youth group, Karang Taruna, after the Islamists tried to stop a dangdut concert.
Three FPI members were beaten by the youths. When police broke up the fight and arrested those involved, the FPI turned its fury on the local police station and pelted it with rocks.
FPI spokesman Munarman denied the report, saying that "thugs" burned the motorcycles of five FPI members. "There was no attack on the police station," Munarman said in a text message. "What did take place is that five motorcycles belonging to our men were torched by thugs backed by the local police. One of my men is still missing."
Munarman did not detail who the police were or why the motorcycles were attacked.
Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi, who previously threatened to ban the FPI if the organization attacked another public institution after the hard-liners pelted the Home Affairs Ministry with stones, said the group was one warning away from being dissolved.
"I told [FPI chairman Rizieq Shihab] 'It has happened twice. If it happens for a third time, I'm going to dismiss your organization,' " he said.
He added that the first warning came after an attack on religious freedom advocates at the National Monument (Monas) in Jakarta in June 2008, with the second after the FPI stoned the Home Affairs Ministry building in January this year.
The FPI is notorious for its vigilante raids and acts of violence against groups it considers "un-Islamic," including nightclubs, stores selling alcohol and musical and dance performances.
Bayu Marhaenjati A simmering turf war exploded again late on Sunday when a Pancasila Youth post in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, was attacked by suspected members of a rival group, leaving one person injured.
A convoy of motorcycles surrounded the post on Jalan Bangun Nusa Raya at 9:45 p.m. on Sunday and about 20 people vandalized the building and injured the guard, 25-year-old Pancasila Youth member Arif Hidayat. Arif was struck with blunt objects but his current condition is unknown.
"Arif Hidayat was the lone victim," Cengkareng Police Chief Comr. Rudy Reinewald said on Monday. He would not speculate about the possible identity or motives of the attackers.
The attack came days after the murder of 36-year-old Muhidin, a member of the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR), at the FBR headquarters in Ciputat, Tangerang.
The Jakarta Police said on Friday that they wanted to talk to a local Pancasila Youth leader, Riki Oktario, and eight other people about Muhidin's murder.
Clashes between Pancasila Youth and the FBR are common and often involve control of turf and illegal parking areas. Last August, dozens of FBR members clashed with Pancasila Youth members on Jalan Margonda Raya, which dissects South Jakarta and Depok.
There have been reports that the FBR has been involved in a series of retaliatory attacks on people believed to be connected to Pancasila Youth following Muhidin's murder. Hundreds of alleged FBR members armed with Molotov cocktails and other weapons last week burned down the house of Tangerang councilor Karnadi, a Pancasila Youth supporter.
Tensions between the groups could escalate in the run-up to Jakarta's gubernatorial election on July 11. The FBR is backing the current governor, Fauzi Bowo.
Pancasila Youth is headed by Yapto Soerjosumarno, a family friend of the late President Suharto, a Golkar Party figure. Golkar has nominated South Sumatra Governor Alex Noerdin as its candidate for the Jakarta election.
Jakarta Jakarta is home to hundreds of civil society organizations whose activities range from community empowerment to disturbance of the peace. On paper, the visions, missions and purposes of the various organizations some of which are registered clearly set them apart from street gangs. However, the behavior of these organizations on the street blurs the line between activism and thuggery.
These organizations often have their own turf, where they illegally control parking areas and collect "security fees" from street vendors. Their competition frequently leads to clashes, which cause material losses and even claim lives.
The latest incident was marked by the brawl between the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) and Pemuda Pancasila (PP) on Monday, leaving one man injured, just a week after another confrontation resulted in the death of one man and serious injuries to several others.
While weary Jakartans blamed the absence of tough law enforcement for this escalation of thuggery and violence, most of the candidates vying for the gubernatorial post in the July 11 voting day believe that poverty is the root of the trouble.
Independent candidates Faisal Basri and Hendardji Soepandji and South Sumatra Governor Alex Noerdin of the Golkar party, as well as Surakarta Mayor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo of Gerindra and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) share the opinion that creating job opportunities will curtail thuggery.
"One of our main programs is providing job opportunities for productive age residents through informal sectors. We will boost small- and medium-scaled enterprises that will employ people with only junior and senior high school education." said Azman Muchtar, the deputy manager of Faisal's campaign team. Hendardji widens his solution to the problem by including programs aimed at improving education levels.
Alex Noerdin's campaign spokesman, Suharso Monoarfa, said that his candidate would map out the real problems first. "We will study the real problems and try to accommodate the needs of all parties," he said, adding that economic motives would be the strongest.
Jokowi has introduced the concept of social intervention to solve the problem. "I will pursue both individual and communal approaches to civil society organizations to bring them to a better place," he said.
Meanwhile, Hidayat Nur Wahid and incumbent Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo consider dialogues among organizations' leaders the key solution. "We will ask organizations' leaders to participate in handling community problems, including security," Hidayat said, adding that he also would allocate a budget for the organizations so they could run positive programs.
None of the candidates see dispersing the organizations as a solution. However, if any member of the organizations gets involved in criminal acts, all of the candidates urge police to take stern action.
"We can disperse illegal organizations but not the legal ones. We have to provide opportunities for them and guide them to do positive things," said Hendardji whose running mate, Ahmad Riza Patria, is a member of the PP.
Nachrowi Ramli, who is the leader of the city-funded Betawi Consultative Forum (Bamus) and the running mate of Fauzi, said that getting the worrying groups together to talk was vital. Bamus is the umbrella organization of dozens of civil society organizations, including the FBR.
As each organizations has its own strongholds in the society, the need to gain their support is unavoidable for the candidates.
Hidayat got Islam Defenders Front (FPI) patron Rizieq Syihab to pray for his victory, while Jokowi got support from former gang leader Hercules Rozario Marshal, who now chairs the New Indonesian People's Movement (GRIB).
University of Indonesia sociologist Ricardi S Adnan said that the problems of thuggery within civil society organizations escalated with the reform era, starting in 1998. "The main reason for these troubling organizations is the lack of job opportunities," he said.
He emphasized the importance of law enforcement. "Law enforcement in this city is so weak. The administration and police don't have any authority," he said, adding that the civil society groups have taken over control. (cor)
Farouk Arnaz A police station and local office of a youth organization were allegedly vandalized by members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) on Sunday after the hard-line Islamists were attacked by youths while trying to shut down a dangdut performance in Ciawi, Tasikmalaya, West Java, police said.
A brawl broke out between members of the FPI and the local Karang Taruna youth organization Saturday night. The Islamist organization known for conducting violent raids on events deemed immoral tried to shut down a dangdut concert, but were met with resistance from members of the local youth organization. The youths reportedly beat three members of the FPI after the failed raid.
Local police, stationed in a subdistrict office next door, arrested those involved in the brawl, West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Martinus Sitompul said. The FPI then allegedly turned on the police and busted the windows out of the police station, Martinus said.
"There was this brawl between the FPI and a members of the local Karang Taruna," he said. "We arrested those involved in the brawl, but the FPI were not satisfied and pelted the subdistrict police station with stones." The police spokesman was unable to say whether officers made further arrests after the attack.
The FPI's spokesman denied the report, saying that "thugs" burned the motorcycles of five FPI members. "There was no attack on the police station," Munarman said in a text message. "What did take place is that five motorcycles belonging to our men were torched by thugs backed by the local police. Up to now, one of my men is still missing."
Munarman did not detail who the police were or why the motorcycles were attacked.
Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi previously threatened to ban the FPI if the organization attacked another public institution after the hard-liners pelted the Home Affairs Ministry with stones. "I told Habib [Rizieq] 'it has happened twice. If it happens for the third time, I'm going to dismiss your organization.'" Gamawan said.
But the minister said that Sunday's alleged incident was too local to prompt action from the ministry.
"I haven't head about the attack in Ciawi, but if the local FPI did that, the governor and district head should do something about them," Gamawan said. "I have sent letters to al governors in Indonesia as well as the district heads and mayors on this matter. "If it happens at the central level, then it is my authority."
Ulma Haryanto The government needs to take back its statement boasting about Indonesia being a tolerant country after a recently released report suggests that cases of intolerance are on the rise, a prominent rights activist said on Wednesday.
"I've read the report and was not surprised by its content," Human Rights Watch consultant Andreas Harsono said. Andreas referred to a study that was released on Monday by religious freedom advocacy group the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy.
Setara recorded 129 incidents of violence and 179 violations of religious freedom from January through June this year. The numbers are already more than half of last year's total, which had 244 incidents and 299 violations.
"The government and those who said that recent incidents were not [acts of] intolerance are delusional," Andreas said.
The HRW consultant was referring to statements made by Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Hasyim Muzadi, which were backed by Muhammadiyah's Din Syamsuddin last month. Both are Islamic groups. Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali in May called Indonesia "the most tolerant country in the world."
Andreas said the bleak numbers would continue to grow because Indonesia still enforced discriminative regulations, handed out light sentences to perpetrators of intolerance and had a government that constantly denied what was happening within its borders.
According to Setara, Christians have replaced the Islamic minority sect Ahmadiyah as the group whose religious freedoms has been violated the most. The advocacy group also cited the government particularly local governments as the worst offender and said most administrations were guilty of sealing off and prohibiting entry into places of worship.
Gomar Gultom, the secretary general of the Indonesian Council of Churches (PGI), said there was a growing frustration from Christians who were denied their rights to build a place of worship.
"The governments always said that they denied [minority groups] the right to build a place of worship because they didn't want to offend the majority," Gomar said. "Can't they see that it shows how intolerant the people really are? We don't know what else to do. It is hopeless to wait for the government, and a class-action suit might be futile."
Gomar referred to the GKI Yasmin congregation in Bogor, which is still being denied entry into its own church by local officials despite having a Supreme Court ruling in its favor.
Setara also recorded 20 violations directed toward individuals, compared to seven from last year. Among the most notable were Alexander Aan, who was sentenced to more than two years in jail for posting "God does not exist" on Facebook, and attacks during Canadian author Irshad Manji's visit to Indonesia.
Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) deputy chairman Ma'ruf Amin refused to acknowledge the incidents as reported by Setara as discrimination, claiming a "different perspective of human rights."
"They have secular views on human rights, which of course will always be different from ours," Ma'ruf said. "The MUI's human rights are according to the Constitution; it has limits. It's not secular like Setara, where everything falls under the category of a human right."
Jakarta A survey by human rights watchdog Setara Institute found that although the number of instances of religious violence this year had dropped, there is still a worrying trend that attacks could become even more widespread.
Setara recorded that between January and June of this year, religious attacks and violence was no longer inflicted upon minority groups such as Ahmadiyah, Shia, Christians, but also on pluralism activists, publishing companies and students.
In the report, Setara said there were 129 cases of religious attacks in the country during the first semester of this year, dropping slightly from 140 over the same period last year. Setara recorded a total of 244 religious attacks throughout 2011.
The report for the first semester of 2012 found that radical groups continue to inflict violence on their traditional targets; Ahmadiyah was attacked 12 times, Christians 39 times, private citizens 20 times, the Shia community 15, but the group also broadened their attacks on book publishers, pluralism activists and students, each category with five cases.
The attacks on private citizens include Alexander Aan, 32, a Minang civil servant who was arrested for blasphemy after he declared himself an atheist on a social media web site. He was sentenced to two years and six months' imprisonment and a Rp 100 million (US$10,600) fine by the Negeri Muaro District Court in West Sumatra in mid-June.
The report also recorded attacks against members of the media and teachers. "The opposition toward Irshad Manji and the attack on a publishing company after publishing a book that allegedly 'defamed Islam', were few of the examples of how this situation is becoming worse compared to last year, as these people and institutions were not being targeted last year," said Setara chairman Hendardi in a press briefing on Monday.
The discussion on Manji's book, Allah, Liberty and Love in Jakarta and Yogyakarta was disrupted by members of radical groups who tried to break up the meeting. The groups said that Manji was promoting lesbianism among youths.
Hard-liner group Islam Defenders Front (FPI) also succeeded in pushing publishing giant Gramedia Pustaka Utama to recall a book titled Lima Kota Paling Berpengaruh di Dunia (Five Cities that Ruled the World) but also to burn the books in stocks last month after the group found that book has cited Prophet Muhammad as a thief and a pirate.
Last year, Setara Institute recorded that 244 attacks were made against minority groups, including Ahmadiyah being attacked 144 times, Christians attacked 54 times, minority Islamic sects 38 times, regular Muslims attacked 12 times and Shia Muslims attacked 10 times. Setara deputy chairman Bonar Tigor Naipospos said that the worst attacks were against the Minang Atheist.
Bonar also said some members of the minority groups were also to blame for the attack. "Teachers of Geeta International School in Cirebon who rejected students for wearing jilbab earlier this year are also one of the examples of attacks against the basic rights of students," Bonar told The Jakarta Post.
The survey also found that non-state actors were responsible for the majority of attacks against minority groups. Civil organizations, including educational institutions, were responsible for 111 attacks on minorities, while officials at the local government were responsible for 44 attacks and members of the National Police for 24 violations.
"From 68 acts of violations conducted by the states, 16 attacks were possible because of omission by the police," said Hendardi. "This more widespread violence against religious freedom was of course triggered by the lack of a deterrent effect due to the ignorance of the authorities."
Bayu Marhaenjati & Febriamy Hutapea Aside from a spending spree on campaign ads, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo is splashing the cash in an attempt to gain support for a second term.
The incumbent known as Foke recently gave Rp 3 billion ($318,000) to popular football club Persija Jakarta, even though Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) rules prohibit local administrations from giving money to clubs.
"So far we've received assistance from the regional government, but it wasn't much. They gave Rp 3 billion to the club. I don't know exactly the origin of the donation, but it looks like it came personally from the governor. It's a display of a spontaneous attention to us," Larico Ranggamone, chairman of Persija supporters' group Jakmania, told Beritasatu.com.
Larico said the club had not been part of any official campaign events, though he admitted each of the six gubernatorial candidates had appealed to the 35,000 Jakmania members for their votes.
The Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR), which has expressed support for Fauzi and running mate Nachrowi Ramli, said it never received any assistance from Fauzi.
"None. We never asked for money. They came from donations from [our] members. Many FBR members are rich," said Edwan Hamidi, the forum's director for training and human resources development (Latpesdam).
Edwan admitted that Latpesdam had once invited Fauzi to attend a meeting with its members to provide guidance. "As a governor, he gave guidance through the National Unity Agency. All mass organizations get it [the guidance]," he said.
Edwan said the FBR supported Fauzi and Nachrowi because they were the right indigenous figures to lead Jakarta. "We support Fauzi Bowo and Nachrowi Ramli. Both of them are Betawi figures who we believe are capable and competent to build Jakarta," he said.
Fauzi also attended a Hutapea clan annual gathering event in April and provided Rp 50 million, which he said was a scholarship for the younger generation,
His presence during the event, which was attended by around 1,000 people from the Batak community, was criticized because some people accused him of engaging in an early campaign start.
The allegation was made because there was a banner which said that the Hutapea clan in the Greater Jakarta area supported Fauzi's re-election as Jakarta governor for the 2012-2017 period.
Janus Hutapea, the chairman of the clan in Greater Jakarta, said the Hutapea community supported Fauzi because it deemed him successful in maintaining religious harmony in the capital and in building infrastructure that was now enjoyed by the residents.
"There's no reason for the Hutapea clan not to vote for Fauzi Bowo. We will try as hard as we can to get Fauzi Bowo re-elected," Janus said, adding that there were around 2,000 Hutapeas living in Jakarta.
Aside from the Hutapea clan, Fauzi has also approached other Batak clans such Manurung and Marpaung. Fauzi donated Rp 50 million to the Manurung clan and Rp 25 million to Marpaung clan during their annual gatherings. Fauzi also donated Rp 100 million to a Batak community church recently.
Ronna Nirmala Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, who is running for a second term in office, is not worried that his decision to cut short his campaign activities from four to two days will make Jakartans shift their attention to other gubernatorial candidates.
The incumbent has been bombarding the city's streets and its airwaves with campaign posters and banners, radio jingles, and spots on television and in cinemas for two straight weeks ending today. His campaign team has created eight different campaign ads to convince voters that he is still the right man to lead the capital city.
But now this ad blitz in coming into question, with observers pointing out that the amount required for such a spending spree cannot be reconciled with Fauzi's declared campaign fund.
Ade Armando, a communications expert from the University of Indonesia said the rate for television ads was around Rp 30 million ($3,200) for 30 seconds. "The ad rates between national and local TV are definitely not the same, especially when they are aired during prime time," Ade said on Thursday.
Foke's ads have been aired 10 times a day throughout the campaign period, which means that he is spending around Rp 300 million per day, or Rp 4.2 billion throughout the two-week campaign period for a single TV station.
The ads have appeared on eight TV stations, for a total of around Rp 33.6 billion. Ade said this cost did not include the ads being run in cinemas and on radio stations, as well as the myriad banners and posters strung up throughout the city.
Other expenses include production costs for the ads, and the hiring of celebrities and public figures who were featured in the advertisements.
Some of the public figures who have been featured in Fauzi's campaign ads are former Jakarta governor Sutiyoso and dangdut musician Rhoma Irama. An anonymous source at an advertising told the Jakarta Globe that Fauzi had spent close to Rp 4 billion on producing the ads.
He hired renowned commercial director Ipang Wahid, who has also helmed political campaign ads in the past, to produce all eight of his avertisements.
Ipang was also hired to produce an ad for Jakarta's 485th anniversary this year. As a leading director, Ipang can command a fee of between Rp 100 million and Rp 125 million per day.
The source also said that Fauzi paid Rp 35 million for a 30-second advertisement slot during prime time and Rp 10 million during other times.
One day prior to the start of the campaign period, however, Fauzi's camp reported that it had only allocated Rp 27.65 billion for campaigning.
Apung, a researcher with Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), said that the amount reported by the governor's camp was much less than the amount that was actually spent.
He said that ICW had data on the actual amount of funds that Fauzi spent on campaign ads, but added that the antigraft watchdog would not announce it until after Sunday, or one day after the campaign period ends. That is when the contenders have to report their campaign funds.
"Let's not focus too much on the data provided by the candidates because the amount could have been manipulated," Apung said. He also said that it was very easy to calculate the campaign spending and that the candidates could not mask the figures.
"We can ask the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission [KPI] for a summary of how many times the ads were run throughout the campaign period, and from that we can easily calculate the amount spent by the candidates," he said.
Ipang, who is also the one who conceived Fauzi's ads, said that the ideas and concepts of Foke's campaign ads were kept very simple.
"We just started with the achievements that Fauzi has made during his term as the Jakarta governor from 2007 to 2012," Ipang said, adding that he focused on the city administration's successful programs. "We just took it from there. Where the other candidates offer promises, we provide evidence."
Ipang also said that Fauzi had benefited from the controversial tag line "Jakarta Bebas Berkumis," or "A Mustache-Free Jakarta," touted by independent candidate Hendardji Soepandji in an apparent swipe at Fauzi and his trademark facial hair. "The more they used it, the more popular we got because only the No. 1 candidate has a mustache," he said.
The slogan and several variations were coined by Hendardji, who said the word "berkumis" was actually a contraction of " berantakan, kumuh, miskin," or "messy, dirty, poor."
Ipang said the advertisement production process took more than two months to complete. "The process was gradual, but we started it about three months ago," he said. "The campaign ads were distributed evenly to private television stations with the same [airing] frequency."
The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) allows gubernatorial candidates to air their campaign ads up to 10 times a day. "As for the broadcasting frequency, we went for the maximum according to the regulation," Ipang said.
ICW on Thursday reported all six Jakarta gubernatorial candidates to the city's polling watchdog for allegedly committing campaign violations by not disclosing where their funding came from. The group said that the four party-backed candidates committed the most violations.
Ronna Nirmala The head of Jakarta's elections regulator has been found guilty of flouting an ethics code after she ignored recommendations to revise a voter list that contained a large number of ineligible and made-up voters for Wednesday's gubernatorial poll.
The Election Organizers Ethics Council (DKPP) gave Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) chairwoman Dahliah Umar a written warning and recommended that she remove ineligible names from the list.
"The defendant has abused the code of ethics of the elections organization, specifically her occupational oath and principles of professionalism and accountability," DKPP chairman Jimly Ashiddiqie said as he read out the decision at a hearing on Friday.
Jimly said Dahliah's refusal to revise the voter list despite her acknowledgment that it included thousands of ineligible or fictitious voters was in violation of the 2010 KPU regulation on the mechanisms for revising voter lists. Dahliah had previously said it would be easier to notify polling station officials about the entries in their respective districts than to overhaul the entire list.
Only four of the seven-member DKPP found Dahliah in violation of the code of ethics; three others said she was innocent.
Dahliah was reported to the DKPP by three of the six pairs of candidates running in the Jakarta election. Four pairs have also filed a report with the Jakarta Police in connection with the case.
They pointed out that the figure of seven million eligible voters identified by the KPUD was inconsistent with the Home Affairs Ministry's announcement that it would issue only 5.6 million electronic identity cards for the capital.
Only bearers of Jakarta ID cards who are aged 17 or older, are mentally fit and are not in prison are eligible to vote in the election. The incumbent governor, Fauzi Bowo, is the only candidate who has not complained about the list.
Novia D. Rulistia, Jakarta No matter who wins the gubernatorial race, voters only want a governor who can prioritize the resolution of Jakarta's transportation and flooding problems, a survey concluded.
The survey by Cirus Surveyors said that 34.25 percent of the total respondents expected the new administration to immediately fix and develop the public transportation system along with thorough road repair plans.
"While 24.38 percent of respondents say that they want the new governor to solve the flooding issue," Cirus' executive director Andrinof Chaniago said on Sunday.
Andrinof said that other issues that must be tackled immediately by the new administration included traffic congestion (at 18.38 percent), education (at 5.25 percent), the economy (at 3.5 percent) and housing (at 0.88 percent).
The survey was conducted between April 13 and April 20 by directly interviewing 800 respondents in 80 districts across Jakarta. The survey's margin of error was 3.46 percent.
In relation to a separate question on the survey, Andrinof said that, 42.11 percent of respondents also expected the newly elected governor to improve services dealing with the city's horrendous traffic congestion. Additionally, when asked, 22.68 percent of respondents said that flood prevention was a key issue.
The survey also showed that more than 50 percent of respondents believed that the habits of public transportation, always stopping to wait for passengers (known locally as ngetem), were the main causes of the city's traffic jams.
The list of causes of traffic jams in the capital was then followed by a bottleneck road system, damaged roads, puddles, the absence of pedestrian bridges that caused people choose to cross the street anywhere, the position of toll gates and the vast number of vehicles in the city.
Jakarta is home to 11.3 million motor vehicles and has an official population of 9.6 million, with the number continuing to grow. Around 1,500 new motorcycles and 500 new cars hit the roads each day.
The amount of privately owned vehicles in Jakarta outnumbers the total fleet of public transportation, which reaches only 76,000 units, most of which are taxis.
The number of private vehicles on the streets of the capital grows by 9.5 percent every year, while the road network expands only 0.01 percent per year.
Nationwide, the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers Association (Gaikindo) said that 893,420 automobile units were sold in 2011, a 17 percent increase from 764.710 units sold in 2010. It also said that most of the cars were sold in the capital.
According to a study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), there are about 1.5 million people who commute to downtown Jakarta from satellite areas every day.
More data has revealed that on average, around 20.7 million trips were made per day across the city in 2008, 15 percent more than the 17.5 million per day in 2004.
The lack of fleets in some modes of public transportation have exacerbated the transportation problem in the capital. Currently, commuter trains in Greater Jakarta and Transjakarta buses can only serve 420,000 and 250,000 passengers each day, respectively.
The city is also trying to ease the severe congestion in the capital by constructing the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system. The first phase of the MRT project is scheduled to open in 2016, and construction is slated to begin in 2013.
When it begins operating, the MRT is expected to have a passenger capacity of 212,000 people per day, which will eventually be increased to 960,000 per day. (cor)
Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta The Indonesian Army has decided to procure up to 100 refurbished Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks (MBT) worth US$280 million from Germany and ruled out previous plan to buy similar tanks from the Netherlands, Deputy Defense Minister Lt. Gen. (ret) Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said on Monday.
"We chose Germany because we can have certainties in terms of time of procurement and volume to meet our needs," Sjafrie told a press conference at his office. "We have stopped the ongoing processes with the Netherlands to let us focus on the procurement from Germany." The government would use foreign loans for the procurement, he added.
The Dutch government previously had issues with its parliament in the procurement plan, mainly considering alleged rampant human rights abuses in Indonesia.
The first 15 MBTs are expected to arrive in Indonesia in October. The remainders would gradually arrive until the middle of 2014, Sjafrie said.
The Indonesian Army said it needed to modernize its weapons systems with MBTs because it only had light tanks such as the British-made Scorpion and French-made AMX13, which weighed 8 and 14 tons respectively. The Leopard 2A6 MBT each weighs well over 60 tons. (nvn)
Criminal justice & prison system
Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta The government and the House of Representatives (DPR) have approved a bill on juvenile criminal offenders that is expected to reduce the number of children behind bars.
Drafted by the government in April 2011, the bill allows investigators, attorneys and judges to seek out-of-court settlements, with the approval of victims, for any crimes committed by minors which carry less than seven years in prison.
The bill also stipulates that minors aged from 14 to 18 can be incarcerated in detention centers if they commit a crime which carries a penalty of more than seven years in jail.
"The bill uses a restorative approach to crimes committed by children," Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Gumelar said on Tuesday.
"Such a perspective allows for a fair solution for all parties, including the perpetrators, the victims, and other related parties," Linda told reporters on the sidelines of a House plenary session.
Linda touted the out-of-court settlement provisions of the bill: "This is a more peaceful solution for children, while at the same time also upholding their rights."
Lawmakers passed the bill without objection, citing the "urgency for establishing a pro-child judiciary system."
Lawmaker Aziz Syamsuddin, deputy chairman of House Commission III overseeing law and human rights, said at the plenary session that the House would give the government five years to implement the bill.
"Commission III asked the government to start preparing necessary infrastructure and human rights resources so that the bill can be effectively implemented. Therefore, we want the government to have clear programs during the transition period," Aziz said.
Contacted separately, Apong Herlina of the Indonesian Commission for Child Protection (KPAI) welcomed the approval of the bill, saying it would reduce the number of children imprisoned for criminal convictions.
According to the KPAI, around 7,000 children were brought to court in the nation, with around 80 percent eventually convicted and incarcerated. There are currently upwards of 6,000 children in detention in the nation's prisons, according to the government. Most share cells with adult inmates.
"Allowing out-of-court settlements for child offenders is a progressive move because it will help children avoid cruel treatment from adults in penitentiaries. It is even much better as the bill stipulates punishments, of up to two years' imprisonment, for example, for authorities who fail to accommodate such settlements," Apong told The Jakarta Post.
However, Apong said that the KPAI regretted the government's insistence on creation of youth detention facilities, calling the move destined to fail to rehabilitate child offenders.
Jakarta Without internal reforms, the National Police will continue to use excessive force when dealing with demonstrations.
Sociologist Tamrin Tomagola of the University of Indonesia said the government needs to push for reform within the National Police.
"We need a statement from the President that police must stop committing violence. A firm statement from the President will end violent conduct by police officers," Tamrin said at a recent forum to coincide with the 66th anniversary of the National Police, on July 1.
So far, Tamrin said, the President had, unfortunately, only made suggestions to the police force whenever police officers committed violence.
He was responding to a sobering report released by the Indonesian Police Watch (IPW) that the police force habitually use violent measures when dealing with protests, and that police behavior and accountability has been in general decline over the last three years.
The report includes data showing that the police shot 97 innocent civilians, killing 19 of them, in separate incidents.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) researcher Jaleswari Pramodhawardani said that police action has to be seen from a historical perspective.
"We can't look at the police behavior today without putting it into the context of their military past," Jaleswari said, referring to the time when the police force was a division of the Indonesian Military until their separation in 1999.
"The numerous examples of police abuse are proof that there are still residues of military culture imprinted in the police." This cultural footprint, Jaleswari says, will take a long time to disappear.
National Police Commission (Kompolnas) leader Syafriadi Cut Ali said any violence that occurred during police contact with civilians was unintentional.
"The police are a state institution in direct contact with the public. There will always be excesses. When trouble occurs, the self-defense instincts of the police naturally come up," Syafriadi said.
National Police reform bureau head Brig. Gen. Adjaja admitted police involvement in violence. "We admit that there are violent police officers. Acts of police brutality exist. They sadden us, but they're still happening, and we can't allow it," Andjaja said.
Andjaja suggested the government strengthen tolerance and nationalism among the populace to curb the number of conflicts involving the police force.
Earlier, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said human rights abuses could be avoided if the police were fully committed to their own standard operational procedures (SOPs).
Kontras has recorded 14 incidences of torture and 11 major incidents involving excessive force. It also listed 20 arbitrary arrests and eight incidents of condoning acts of brutality by vigilante groups.
Commission coordinator Haris Azhar said police personnel employed repressive measures when dispersing demonstrators in the recent fuel-price hike demonstrations. Furthermore, police had all too frequently tolerated the use of force by religious groups. (png)
Dion Bisara Indonesia's energy subsidy costs are rising, which international rating agencies have warned about in their forecasts on the country's economy, and that will likely result in a wider budget deficit this year.
Energy subsidies, which include fuel and electricity, will rise to Rp 306 trillion ($32.4 billion) this year, 51 percent more than the government's initial forecast, according to a document by the Finance Ministry presented to the House of Representatives on Thursday.
Data from the ministry showed the government had spent Rp 124.4 trillion on energy subsidies in the January-June period, equivalent to 62 percent of its full-year allocation and almost four times that of the Rp 30.6 trillion set aside for to finance infrastructure projects.
Southeast Asia's largest economy heavily subsidizes gasoline, diesel and electricity to shield the country's poor from being impacted by the global slowdown. The World Bank estimates that about half of Indonesia's 240 million population lives on less than $2 a day.
Economists and analysts in Jakarta said raising the price of subsidized fuel and electricity was politically and socially sensitive. The House rejected the government's proposal to raise subsidized fuel prices by 33 percent in late March after widespread protests across the country.
Indonesia, which became a net oil importer in 2008, pegs the subsidized gasoline price at Rp 4,500 a liter, the cheapest in the region.
Spiraling subsidy costs this year have eaten up the nation's funds, which could be used for health care as well as much-needed infrastructure projects such as seaports, airports and dams.
Andrew White, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia, said foreign investors were concerned about Indonesia's infrastructure, or more specifically lack of it.
"The deficit is relative," he said. "It's rather how the money is being spent. To the extent these subsidies divert government spending away from infrastructure improvements, there is an opportunity cost by way of suboptimal foreign investment."
Economists in Jakarta such as Juniman at Bank Internasional Indonesia shared White's point of view, saying that the government needed to improve the nation's infrastructure to remain competitive in the global economy. "The development of infrastructure is the backbone of the economy," the economist said.
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, the only major rating agency that has not upgraded Indonesia's sovereign debt rating to investment grade, warned in April about the rising costs for energy subsidies.
"If the government's subsidy spending alters the fiscal outcome or markedly deteriorates the quality of expenditure or if policy measures deter fresh foreign direct investment, then the ratings could stabilize at the current level," S&P said in its summary analysis.
"The abandonment of a planned electricity tariff rise, the inability to implement fuel subsidy cuts despite rising oil prices and a host of proposed or actual policy measures in industry and trade point to a rising level of policy uncertainty."
The rising subsidy spending will result in the budget deficit widening to the equivalent of 2.3 percent of this year's gross domestic product from the original forecast of 2.23 percent, the Finance Ministry document showed.
Still, the projected budget shortfall would be within the 3 percent limit allowed by state financial law.
Indonesia, which has been running a budget deficit since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, sells dollar- and rupiah-denominated bonds to help plug its deficit. It started selling rupiah bonds in December 2002 and dollar bonds a year later.
Aviliani, an economist at the Institute for Development of Economy and Finance, said foreign investors would demand high rates of return if the government sold debt to finance its budget. Indonesia's 10-year note currently yields 6.14 percent, according to the Indonesia Bond Pricing Agency, which compiles bond data.
"Bond investors will ask why we are borrowing the money if we just burn it like that," Aviliani said. "It will be costlier for us to borrow."
Nonetheless, the International Monetary Fund, which helped arranged billions of dollars during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, said in a statement on Friday that the government remained committed to increasing the pace and quality of economic growth in the medium term through sustained increases in infrastructure investment.
"While the overall 2012 budget stance is consistent with the government's strong commitment to fiscal sustainability and strong public finances, increasing fuel subsidies are distorting the structure of the budget," Milan Zavadjil, the senior resident representative for the IMF in Indonesia, said in a news release on Friday.
The IMF said that Indonesia should have used the funds allocated for energy subsidies on other forms of government programs and projects, namely infrastructure.
"Therefore, fiscal policy needs to be re-oriented away from poorly targeted subsidies, which could be replaced with cash transfers to the vulnerable," Zavadjil said. "This would also free up resources to increase necessary infrastructure and social spending."
Capital expenditure, consisting of funds to finance development of infrastructure, was estimated at Rp 153.4 trillion this year, down from the original forecast of Rp 168.7 trillion.
Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung The horrendous, kilometers-long traffic jams that have fouled Bakauheni and Merak ports for two days have been worsening due to vacationers looking to cross the Sunda Strait for the school holiday season.
Thousands of trucks have been parked for days outside Bakauheni Port in Lampung in Sumatra and Merak Port in Banten in Java, waiting for ferries. The congestion is expected to continue until the school holiday ends late next week.
The operations chief of the Bakauheni office of state-owned River, Lake and Crossing Transportation company PT ASDP, Heru Purwanto, attributed the long lines of cars and trucks to the sharp rise in the number of private vehicles using the crossing during the holidays.
"We have increased the number of ferries on the Merak-Bakauheni route in anticipation of a surge in the number of passengers during the holiday season from mid-June to mid-July 2012.
The number of ferries we operate reached 25, as compared to only 16 to 19 on ordinary days," Heru said on Friday. "The increase, however, has not solved the congestion problem," he added.
Trucks have been backed up for 5 kilometers outside Bakauheni Port, while the line outside Merak Port has reached a staggering 15 kilometers, Heru said.
Imron Rosadi, 36, a truck driver headed from Jakarta to Bandarlampung, said he abandoned his truck in Cikuasa Atas near Banten and decided to return home to Lampung after he ran out of money waiting for a ferry. "I left my truck after I was forced to stay for three nights without any certainty as to when my truck could cross to Lampung," Imron said.
The congestion was the worst he had ever seen at the crossing, Imron said, including the last large-scale backups in January and in 2011. Drivers and the firms that employ them have suffered financial losses due to the delays, he added.
"We suffer not only in terms of time, but also in operational expenses, as we are forced to spend more. We also frequently fall victims to shakedowns from hoods [preman] and crooked cops," Imron said.
The head of the Lampung chapter of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), Yusuf Kohar said that the central government had not been responsive in resolving the traffic jams on both sides of the Sunda Strait.
According to Kohar, if the severe congestion problem was not thoroughly solved, it would disrupt the distribution of basic commodities needed by the people.
"This has happened many times for the same reasons. The impact on the businesses has also been clear, that is, increases in the prices of major commodities and increases in operational expenses," he said.
Heru said that the number of vehicles looking to travel between Java and Sumatra to Java were typically 15 percent higher during peak seasons, such as he school holiday.
The number of private cars at the crossing, Heru said, had increased from an average of 1,800 a day to 2,350 during the peak season, while the number of buses rose from 230 a day to 500.
Passengers looking to travel to Java were planning to holiday in several cities, such as Jakarta; Bandung and Bogor in West Java; and Yogyakarta. Sumatran-bound travelers were bound for destinations in Lampung, North Sumatra and West Sumatra.
Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta Nowadays, people are witnessing the Holy Koran being corrupted not only on the interpretation of its content, but also on its procurement.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has named Golkar lawmaker Zulkarnaen Djabar a suspect in the alleged corruption of the Koran procurement project at the Religious Affairs Ministry. The scandal may implicate other lawmakers.
Last year, the KPK released a survey stating that the ministry was among the most corrupt government institutions, reminding the public of a long list of graft scandals in an institution that has repeatedly been led by so-called "devout people".
Kyais and ulemas have headed the institution, such as Wahid Hasyim, Mukti Ali, Munawir Sadzali, Tolchah Hasan, Quraish Shihab and Said Agil Husin Al Munawar.
However, the Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced Said Agil Husin Al Munawar, who is known as a hafiz (a person who has memorized the entire contents of the Koran), to five years' imprisonment in 2006 for his involvement in a graft scandal in managing the Dana Abadi Umat trust fund, or haj fund of the past.
The KPK had earlier warned the ministry over dozens of graft-rampant blackspots, including the management of the trust fund, which reached Rp 40 trillion (US$4.5 billion).
Using the bank interest from the trust fund, the ministry financed state officials and lawmakers to go to Saudi Arabia for a haj pilgrimage every year. It also used the fund for the procurement of copies of the Koran, which was then corrupted.
Criticism and regret about the Koran procurement graft scandal have come from a wide range of people. Din Syamsuddin, chairman of the country's second-largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah, deplored the scandal, saying it was a very shameful act.
Actually, corruption scandals inside the religious ministry do not surprise the public; although perhaps the Koran procurement graft is an exception. People might think if civil servants dare to corrupt the Koran, they're not liable to care much about stealing anything else.
A friend once told me a joke about why there are no pianos in a mosque. The answer? "[Cheap] sandals are stolen, why not a piano?"
The Koran procurement graft scandal will certainly tarnish the image of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration, which always portrays itself as clean and campaigns for clean government. Religious Affairs Ministry officials and the Golkar Party politician, members of Yudhoyono's coalition partner, are believed to have been involved in the scandal.
The scandal was made public at about the same time as the publication of a report in Foreign Policy magazine on a survey conducted by the Fund for Peace on the Failed States Index 2012. The survey placed Indonesia in 63rd place out of 171 surveyed countries, branding the country as "in danger" for several reasons, including its poor treatment toward minorities.
The survey must have talked about discrimination and violence against religious minorities in the country, such as Syiah and Ahmadiyah Islamic minority groups and Christian groups. Instead of protecting these groups, the government has habitually taken the side of radical groups.
Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali once said that Syiah and Ahmadiyah are heretical sects. His statement and the radical groups' actions against these minorities may lead to the conclusion that Indonesia is no longer categorized as a free and tolerant country.
If the country fails to stop violence against religious minorities, it will only speed the entry of Indonesia into the category of a failed state. Replacing the minister is one option, while improving the management of the ministry is also urgent.
People expect officials working for the ministry to be "holy men and women" since they know best what is sinful or not. Corruption in the procurement of the Koran is a crime both in this world and the akhirat (afterlife), and the perpetrators should be punished with heavy sentences.
People should also consider the Koran procurement graft as blasphemy as it corrupts noble religious values. Perhaps Islamic organizations, such as Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), could file a report against the suspects in court for defaming Islam?
Those suspects involved in the Koran procurement graft are the real blasphemers, not groups, such as Ahmadiyah and Syiah, or individuals like Alexander Aan (an atheist in West Sumatra who was recently sentenced to 2.5 years in jail for defaming Islam).
In the wake of the Koran procurement graft and other scandals, we need to question the relevance of the Religious Affairs Ministry, as it has turned out to be a symbol of hypocrisy.
If we fail to tackle the issue, people may apologetically say (while quoting a song): Rocker juga manusia (A rock singer is also human). Those officials at the ministry are human that can also do wrong. If that is the case, Indonesia will soon see itself included on the list of failed states.
Indonesia has a serious rival to the Wall of China the thicker, longer and more formidable wall of resistance against combating graft.
Part of that wall is the Religious Affairs Ministry, the state institution deemed the most corrupt in a 2011 survey by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Officials and the public expressed shock last week when the KPK announced it was beginning investigations into irregularities surrounding the ministry's procurement of millions of copies of the Koran.
The shock expressed has been greater than that conveyed regarding other graft issues, including haj management. For the latest allegations concern the holy book itself. Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population, has now gained global fame for embezzling everything, even the provision of the Koran, which is believed to contain God's words.
But then the revelations are not all that surprising. For the provision of the Koran copies ended up being only one item on a long list of procurements by the aforementioned ministry, and only one among a vast number of procurements across 34 ministries and other state institutions. The procurements at these bodies are among the main sources of corruption identified by law enforcers.
To meet the demand of at least 2 million copies a year for local religious affairs offices and Islamic schools, the ministry had to outsource the printing of Korans.
Citing KPK sources, Tempo magazine revealed on Monday the role of a Golkar politician on the House of Representatives' (DPR) budget committee, who was said to be the regular mediator between the House and the ministry.
Graft reports surrounding the Koran procurement, and also the haj management, will only mean louder calls to clean up graft at the ministry by privatizing its lucrative, graft-prone businesses or dissolving the ministry itself.
Instead of making haj management independent of the ministry, the government appointed the economist Anggito Abimanyu as the ministry's new directorate general for haj and minor pilgrimage affairs.
We hope that the former head of fiscal policy at the Finance Ministry becomes a sort of modern-day Pied Piper to lure out the graft rats, given his flute-playing skills. But it will be amazing if he can even so much as scratch the surface of that wall, which protects the interests sitting on the ministry's lucrative businesses.
Before the Koran procurement reports, the KPK also revealed irregularities in the use of interest proceeds, worth Rp 1.7 trillion (US$188 million) from the management of haj funds of Rp 32 trillion. The commission called for a moratorium on haj pilgrimage registrations, with too many candidates on the waiting list.
As the haj is obligatory for all able Muslims, millions set aside savings and wait at least three years before leaving for Mecca setting the stage for graft among greedy parties within and outside the ministry.
Protests come and go; including from Batavia Air, which voiced in April suspicions over its repeated losses in transportation tenders for the annual average departure of 200,000 pilgrims. Its suspicions of a business monopoly are as yet unproven.
But, nevertheless, we question the use of this ministry, if it can't even protect the Koran from corruption, much less millions of would-be haj pilgrims, many of whom save all their lives to meet the costs involved. As for the protection of religious minorities, we have seen how the Religious Affairs Ministry is itself part of the problem.
Oei Eng Goan The uncongenial relations between the House of Representatives and the Corruption Eradication Commission have again been in the spotlight over the last two weeks, this time concerning a funding request by the antigraft agency to build a new headquarters, which the House rejected.
Plans for the new building, estimated to cost around Rp 225 billion ($24 million), were submitted to the House in 2008, but lawmakers failed to offer their seal of approval despite repeated appeals from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), prompting Bambang Widjojanto, the deputy chairman of the antigraft body, to float the idea of raising the money through public donations.
A state institution set up in 2003 and granted extraordinary authority, the KPK has the right to question people, search the houses and offices of suspects and bug their phones as part of its crusade against corruption.
Since its establishment, the KPK has saved trillions of rupiah from being stolen and arrested a number of high-ranking officials and lawmakers and brought them to trial, resulting in numerous convictions. The KPK has earned the trust of the public and a reputation for integrity.
This explains why streams of people from street vendors and elementary school students to intellectuals and cabinet ministers support the fund-raising idea, donating money to help finance the building of the KPK's new office.
The public support for the KPK is also a show of contempt for lawmakers who readily approved trillions of rupiah for the construction of a sports center in Hambalang, Bogor, that turned out to be tainted with irregularities, but would not give the go-ahead for the KPK's new headquarters.
At the moment the KPK has around 730 employees and its current office, designed for just 350 people, already accommodates more than 600 people, forcing the institution to rent space in nearby buildings. To improve its performance, the KPK wants to hire more people, up to 1,300, still below the size of a similar anticorruption agency in Hong Kong.
It is no secret that relations between the House and the anticorruption body are strained, the result of lawmakers being summoned by the KPK and questioned over a seemingly never-ending stream of graft cases.
Not only have House members tried to dilute the authority of the antigraft body, but Speaker Marzuki Alie last year suggested the dissolution of the KPK, following bribery allegations against two of the antigraft body's executives.
In a debate on tvOne's "Indonesia Lawyers' Club" program aired last Tuesday, Abdullah Hehamahua, a KPK adviser, said the institution needed a new office with a special layout to train its "ninja-like" investigators and rooms equipped with bugging apparatus commensurate with its function and duties.
Addressing concerns raised by lawmakers that the KPK was allocated up to Rp 125 million per investigation, far higher than the Rp 40 million for the police and Rp 75 million for the Attorney General's Office, Abdullah said the money was given to the KPK on an "at-cost" basis, meaning that any unspent money is returned to the state treasury.
He also said that Bambang's appeal for public funding was just a slip of the tongue. As a state institution, the KPK cannot accept private financial assistance. Accepting such donations would be against the law, he said, because all of the needs of the antigraft body should be financed entirely by the government.
Meanwhile, the fund-raising drive for the new KPK headquarters has expanded to several cities in Java and Sumatra. The total amount of money collected as of Sunday evening was nearly Rp 100 million and counting.
All this shows that the people sincerely and strongly support the KPK and its operations. As for the money? There are plenty of ways to distribute it to the poor.