"You can't be inaugurated now, improve your ability to read the Koran, then I will install [you to your post]," the mayor told the official during the Koran recital test, prior to the inauguration ceremony, on Thursday in Gorontalo, North Sulawesi.

Adhan gave the official two months to improve their skills in reading the Muslim holy book. Muslim government officials of the city are obliged to have superior skills in reading the scripture.

"It [the obligation to have Koran reading skills] has been stipulated in regional regulations, as the city is dubbed the veranda of Madina and the city of Madrasah [Islamic schools]," he said, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Separately, the officer reasoned that they were nervous during the recital test. (yps/iwa)

Minister Dahlan 'wipes the floor' with airport operator over dirty toilet

Jakarta Globe - August 30, 2012

Soekarno-Hatta airport operator Angkasa Pura II was recently reprimanded by government officials after State-Owned Enterprise Minister Dahlan Iskan showed up to the airport and shamed the company publicly by stumbling upon a filthy toilet in terminal 2F and proceeding to clean it himself.

On Wednesday, the Director general of Air Transportation, Herry Gumay, said that he had warned Angkasa Pura II to improve its service, especially concerning the sanitation of its toilets. "There are many people who get off the plane and want to use the restroom," Herry told Tempo.co.

The warning was issued after news of Dahlan cleaning the toilet himself before his departure to Surabaya, East Java on Tuesday spread. He was reportedly outraged when he found the toilet grimy and smelly and decided to take matters into his own hands.

"Dahlan helped clean the floor of the bathroom in Terminal 2F of Soekarno- Hatta airport before he left for Surabaya," Faisal Halimi, spokesman of the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprise, said, adding that the cleaning service of the airport later helped Dahlan. "He saw it was dirty and fixed it. Cleaning service officers finally helped him because they felt ashamed."

Deputy senior general manager of Angkasa Pura II, Bram Broto Tjiptadi, admitted that their cleaning service may not pay attention to that specific toilet. "We will evaluate it," Bram told Tempo.co.

A day before Dahlan cleaned the toilet, an official of Angkasa Pura II claimed that 323 toilets in Soekarno-Hatta airport were spotless clean after they were renovated. He claimed that every three months the management evaluates the performance of the cleaning service, which is also assessed by the Indonesian Toilet Association and the Indonesian Consumer Foundation.

"There is not a single piece of paper or cigarette butt anymore. We have changed [cleaning service] providers for the bathrooms in every terminal," Mulya told Tempo.co. "Even if a person is holding his or nose, they can smell the fragrance."

Dahlan has a history of publicly disciplining state-owned enterprises that are not functioning properly. Last March, he was heading to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport when his car was stopped in a line of approximately 30 vehicles at a tollgate in the Semanggi area of Central Jakarta.

Clearly annoyed at the blockage, the minister got out of his car and went to the front of the line, where he found that only two of the four booths had attendants working.

He threw a chair from one of the vacant booths, lifted the barrier blocking the way and gestured for drivers to pass through without paying.

Children 'take a nap' during President's speech

Jakarta Post - August 29, 2012

Jakarta, Indonesia – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono requires full attention from his audiences, regardless their position or age. After a regional leader dozed off during one of his speeches in 2008, similar incident occurred on Wednesday.

The president paused in the middle of his address after spotting two children "taking a nap" during his speech to mark National Children's day at the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) amusement park in East Jakarta.

In front of about 700 participants, who were mostly children, Yudhoyono told audience to wake the sleeping kids, kompas.com reported. "Please wake the ones who have fallen asleep, maybe one or two people there," the President said during the event, organized under the theme "Unite to Create a Child-friendly Indonesia".

After making sure that all eyes were on him, Yudhoyono resumed his speech with a promise that government would increase the quality of education and health services for children. "The government will provide wider room for innovative programs that can raise our children's intelligence, fitness and prosperity," he added.

In 2008, the President also roused a regional official, who had apparently dozed off during a leadership workshop at the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas).

"How could a leader fall asleep while I am talking about how to develop our nation? You should be ashamed of the people who have elected you their leader," he said at the time.

Yudhoyono went so far as to ask the Institute not to pass the official for failing to live up to his leadership standards, which included the ability to withstand sleepiness. (yps/iwa)

West Papua

Papuans rally in Central Java against violence

Jakarta Post - August 31, 2012

Dozens of Papuans in Semarang and Salatiga in Central Java and Yogyakarta rallied in front of Semarang Police headquarters on Thursday, urging the government to take steps to stop violence in Papua.

The Papuans, grouped under the aegis of National Solidarity of Papua (Napas), urged the government to withdraw Indonesian Military (TNI) troops from the province, set up a dialogue between Papuan leaders and the central government and form a team to investigate the violence.

"There have been some shootings in Papua. We are worried for the safety of our friends and relatives safety," Otis, the coordinator of the rally, said on Thursday.

Four people, including police officer Brig. Yohan Kisiwaitoi, were killed during recent attacks by unidentified perpetrators in Papua. "We are afraid that all the attacks are just parts of the strategy of some people who want to tear us Papuans apart," Otis added.

Similar protests also occurred in some other cities such as Jakarta; Bandung and Bogor, West Java; and Malang and Surabaya, East Java.

Protest action in Semarang calls for end to violence in West Papua

Republika.com - August 30, 2012

Afriza Hanifa, Semarang – Scores of Papuan protesters from Papua National Solidarity (NAPAS) held an action in front of the East Java regional police headquarters in the provincial capital of Semarang on Thursday August 30.

The demonstrators called on the Indonesian government to resolve the problem of violence in West Papua, which according to the group has been on-going since Papua became part of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).

The protesters, who shouted demands calling for and end to violence in Papua, brought a variety of posters and banners with demands such as, "End the violence in Papua", "End military businesses in Papua" and "Provide a chance for democracy in Papua".

Following the action on the grounds of the East Java police headquarters, the protesters, who came from Semarang and the Central Java cities of Salatiga and Yogyakarta, then held a long-march towards Jl. Pahlawan, the location of the regional police office complex and the offices of the East Java governor.

Action coordinator Otis (20) said that the Papuan people have been beset by violence since Papua became part of NKRI. On August 23, a shooting took place in the Paniai-Dogiyai district, which resulted in the death of a police officer, and to this day the perpetrator remains unknown.

"The problem has continued unabated for years and years. This [protest] is so that follow up action is taken by those in authority", he said. Otis added that simultaneous actions are also being held in Jakarta, the West Java cities of Bandung and Bogor, and the East Java cities of Surabaya and Malang. Their demands are the same, the liberation of Papua from violence.

"NAPAS is demanding that the SBY-Boediono [President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono] regime take responsibility for the mysterious shootings in the land of Papua, end all forms of terror and violence against the Papuan people. Third, immediately form a national independent investigation team and provide space for an international investigation team to investigate the mysterious shootings in the land of Papua. Then, put an end to and evaluate the organic and non-organic military presence [in Papua]. Along with opening up democratic space and release all Papuan political prisoners in order resolve Papua's social- political problems", read their demands.

Action coordinator Gabi (26) said that NAPAS hopes that these demands can be acted upon, and if they are not fulfilled they will continue to hold protest actions. "If they are not fulfilled, we will continue to take to the streets to press [our demands]. The regional police should be able to discuss this with the TNI [Indonesian military] and the national police", said Gabi.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Indonesia rebukes Carr over West Papua call

Sydney Morning Herald - August 30, 2012

Michael Bachelard – A senior Indonesian legislator has hit out at Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr for having "double standards" after he called for an inquiry into the police killing of a West Papuan independence leader.

Mr Carr called for the inquiry after allegations that officers of the Australian-trained Indonesian anti-terror unit, Detachment 88, were involved in the killing of leader Mako Tabuni in June. Mr Tabuni, the deputy chairman of the independence group the National Committee for West Papua, was gunned down in the street by police who were trying to arrest him.

In an interview with The Age, the head of Indonesia's parliamentary commission for security, Mahfudz Siddiq, seemed to confirm that Detachment 88 was present in West Papua, partly because, he alleged, Mr Tabuni was "one of the actors behind a series of violent actions" there.

"That makes the presence of Detachment 88 and its involvement in some cases in West Papua as being very much about doing their job. Several cases in West Papua at that time were already seen as terror," Mr Mahfudz said.

Independence activists have denied that Mr Tabuni was involved in a series of killings in the lead-up to his death.

Mr Mahfudz also chided Mr Carr because he said he had never heard Australian politicians complaining about Detachment 88 killing Muslim terror suspects.

"In my opinion, it is too far for Bob Carr to mention human rights training to Detachment 88. Did Australia give any comment when Islamic activists got killed or injured by Detachment 88 while the anti-terror squad was raiding a house?" Mr Mahfudz said.

"I think Australia must be careful about these statements because they could be seen as having double standards."

Mr Mahfudz is a member of the PKS party, which is strongly Islamic, and part of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's governing coalition.

Detachment 88 has been trained by Australia and other countries for counterterrorism operations, but its use in the long-running independence struggle in West Papua is highly controversial.

While some rebel groups in West Papua are armed, activists say Mr Tabuni's group used purely political means to agitate for independence.

ABC allegations prompt call for Forum to push West Papua mission

Pacific Scoop - August 29, 2012

Alex Perrottet – Fresh allegations of human rights violations in West Papua implicating Australian military training on ABC's 7:30 Report this week have prompted calls for leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum in the Cook Islands to seek a fact-finding mission.

As new reports have emerged from West Papua Media Alerts of new violence at a school dormitory in Abepura, the 7:30 Report series – screened on Monday and Tuesday nights – exposed the ongoing accusation that the Australian government is responsible for the training and financing of the anti- terrorist group Detachment 88, or Densus 88, as it is known in Indonesia.

The group was originally trained to combat terrorism in Indonesia following the deadly bombing in Bali in October 2002, which claimed 88 Australian lives.

But in recent months media reports have spread, mainly from West Papua Media Alerts, that the anti-terrorist group was being deployed in the provinces of Papua and West Papua, supressing insurgents as well as peaceful demonstrators.

Presence confirmed

The ABC interviewed Constant Karma, who is the secretary of the province of Papua. He said: "I don't really know about West Papua but in the Papuan Police (Polda Papua) there [is] also Detachment 88 on duty."

Apart from the reports from within West Papua by reporters Hayden Cooper and Lisa Main, ABC presenter Leigh Sales put questions to Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr, who confirmed the Australian government had raised its concerns with human rights abuses in the two West Papuan regional provinces as recently as earlier this month.

Senator Carr said the Australian training included training in respecting human rights, but the ABC reports featured a number of eye-witnesses to violence in West Papua at the hands of police as well as Detachment 88 troops, including in the recent killing of independence leader Mako Tabuni.

Senator Carr told the ABC: "We train Indonesians in counter-terrorism. We do that because it's in Australia's interest. We do it because we want the Indonesians to have a strong, a formidable, anti-terrorist capacity. It is absolutely in Australia's interests that we have this relationship. "But we don't train them in counter-insurgency - it's counter-terrorism."

'No distinction'

However, the ABC also sought comment from the Australian Federal Police, which made this admission in their responses:

"Detachment 88 is a specialist counter terrorism unit within the Indonesian National Police, however it should be noted that Indonesian law does not differentiate between terrorism, separatism and insurgency."

In response to the reports, political parties and human rights groups have released statements urging leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum to take notice. The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation, based in Vanuatu, said the violence was nothing new.

"Violence has always been Indonesia's policy regarding the land of Papua over the past 49 years. Being an occupying power, violence is their only means of enforcing their authority in the Papuan society," said spokespeople Rex Rumakiek, Dr John Ondowame and Andy Ayamiseba.

"For almost half a century since Indonesia annexed West Papua, our people have been subjected to terror and trauma."

Political reaction

The Democratic Labor Party in Australia said the situation was "genocide happening on our doorstep". Senator John Madigan and Democratic Labor Party federal secretary Mark Farrell said: "Indonesia is not being transparent with the Australian people or the Australian government.

"It is difficult to understand how the government of a democratic country like Australia can ignore the oppressive behaviour of a neighbouring country."

The Green Party of Australia also voiced its concern, with Senator Richard Di Natale drawing comparisons with East Timor.

"Australians are now becoming more aware of these atrocities being committed on their doorstep," he said. "They know what happened in East Timor under Indonesian rule and they know that we, as a nation, cannot sit idly by while it occurs again in West Papua."

Joe Collins of the Australian West Papua Association said the PIF should take up the Indonesian government's offer to encourage research and balanced journalism by sending a fact-finding mission from the Forum.

He also encouraged Pacific leaders to raise the matter with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

"The Leaders' retreat is supposed to provide an opportunity for private and frank discussions at the highest level and we hope that the PIF leaders will question Julia Gillard on Australia's involvement in the training of Detachment 88 which is accused of targeting West Papuan activists," he said. "We also hope that concern for the situation in West Papua will be mentioned in the official Forum communique".

The Democratic Labor Party statement also argued for observers to visit. "If Indonesia is seriously expecting us to believe it is not engaged in the oppression of the West Papuan people then they must allow human rights observers and international journalists in to the country."

The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation is pushing for more, calling on the Melanesian Spearhead Group, the PIF, as well as the US, the UK, the European Union and others "to sponsor a resolution at the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) to re-inscribe West Papua on the UN List for Decolonisation.

"We also call on MSG and PIF to admit the West Papuan Independence Movement as an observer of these bodies as a sure way of encouraging peaceful solution to the conflict."

One confirmed dead

The violence in Abepura yesterday was confirmed by West Papua Media Alerts, who reported one student being killed, and others badly wounded.

The news agency said the violence was carried out at the Liborang Asrama (dormitory) by a joint force of Army (TNI) and Police. "The students were allegedly targeted because they come from the same tribal group as many members of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), who have been consistently engaging in peaceful civil resistance in protest at the increasing terror tactics of the Indonesian security forces, which has escalated significantly since May 2012."

West Papua Media Alerts confirmed today that 35 people had been arrested and 11 remained in custody after being subjected to beatings and torture.

The Indonesian Embassy in Canberra, in response to questions from the ABC, said the government was taking action.

The statement said the loss of life "is regrettable and is receiving attention from the Indonesian people, the media, and the President of the Republic of Indonesia himself". "The Indonesian government has taken steps to restore law-enforcement in the Papuan provinces."

Just how it is doing that is the focus of the media attention that West Papua is receiving. The Pacific Islands Forum, as in previous years, has so far remained silent on the issue.

Government urged to act on Papuan death squad claims

ABC News - August 29, 2012

The Human Rights Law Centre is trying to pressure the Federal Government to act on allegations of torture and killings by an Australian-trained counter-terrorism group.

The ABC's 7.30 program has been told the group, known as Detachment 88, has been involved in attacks on independence leaders in the province of Papua. Detachment 88, receives training, supplies and extensive operational support from the Australian Federal Police.

In a letter to United Nations experts, the human rights centre's executive director, Philip Lynch, has urged them to pressure the Government to act on the allegations. He says the group has been implicated in similar attacks before.

"This letter is an urgent appeal to the UN special rapporteurs on torture and on extrajudicial killings, to bring to the attention of those independent experts," he said. "The fact that Australia has provided support for an Indonesian counter-terror unit implicated in very serious human rights abuses."

Mr Lynch says Australia should immediately suspend its support for the Indonesian group, pending a full investigation. "These are not the first reports of Detachment 88 being involved in serious human rights violations," he said.

"Previous reports have been made an verified by organisations such as Human Rights Watch and also acknowledged by Indonesia itself through the prosecution of some members of the Indonesian National Police."

Trained in forensics, intelligence gathering, surveillance and law enforcement by officials from the US, the UK and Australia, the Detachment 88 unit was established in the wake of the Bali bombings and has played a crucial role in Indonesia's counter-terrorism efforts.

The police are ruthless, often killing suspects, and their anti-terrorism mandate is now creeping into other areas like policing West Papuan separatists.

On June 14, popular independence leader Mako Tabuni was gunned down as he fled from police on a quiet street in the Papuan capital. The men who killed Mr Tabuni, who was deputy chairman of the National Committee for West Papua (KNPB), were allegedly part of Detachment 88.

And in December 2010, Detachment 88 killed militant Papuan activist Kelly Kwalik. Mr Kwalik was a leader from the Free Papua Movement (OPM), a violent independence group with a record of attacking military and civilians, and Detachment 88 publically claimed responsibility.

Police torture students after brutal attack on Abepura university dormitory

West Papua Media - August 28, 2012

Jayapura – Brutal scenes occurred at a highland students dormitory in Abepura early on Sunday night (26 August) as a massive assault was carried out on students from the Liborang Asrama (dormitory) by a joint force of Army (TNI) and Police.

The students were allegedly targeted because they come from the same tribal group as many members of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), who have been consistently engaging in peaceful civil resistance in protest at the increasing terror tactics of the Indonesian security forces, which has escalated significantly since May 2012.

Three people have been independently confirmed by West Papua Media sources as killed, with at least two dying from torture wounds inflicted in custody by police, according to human rights sources. 35 people were arrested, and 11 people remain in custody at time of writing undergoing significant and brutal beatings, and acts of torture.

Independent human rights sources have alleged that the torture has been carried out by members of Detachment 88, the counter-terror unit funded, armed and trained by the Australian Government, however West Papua Media has not been able to verify this, although D88 has been present at every other dormitory raid this year.

According to credible witnesses the trouble began when a man named Yalli Walilo (26) was calling a friend in front of a shop and the Indonesian transmigrant owner of the shop came and angry him. Walilo replied to the colonist "what is my problem, I just want to buy (a) cigarette". He then sought refuge at the house of Ms. Nehemia Mabel, a member of the Majelis Rakyat Papua (Papuan People's Assembly), 5 metres from the shop. Walilo then tried to go home, when he was brutally set upon by a group of Indonesian transmigrants with one killing him, and more people again came to kick him until he was dead.

The exact circumstances of how police came to be involved is still unclear, but after Walilio's killing, the Kepala Desa (neighbourhood chief) came and took his body to the Limborang dormitory. Police were alerted by the Kepala Desa amid confusing allegations surround the death of an elderly man who died from a heart attack. It is unconfirmed if these deaths were related.

At around 10 pm, Some of Walilo's friends at the dormitory went to investigate the commotions at the shop, but were ambushed by the large group of transmigrants outside the shop. The students retreated to their dormitory, known also as the Yakuhimo Asrama as large numbers of Yakuhimo highland students live there.

One hour later, Police and many troops arrived en masse at the dorm and attacked boarders without negotiations, and also severely beat of minors. Independent witnesses have claimed that men in masks were also present.

Victor Yeimo, KNPB Chairman, told West Papua Media that many students in Asrama Liborang had "already been killed, intimidated and terrorised under Indonesian police troops yesterday (27/08). This morning, I have been in the place and I found how Indonesian police kill and intimidate them. I was there while some of them arrived from Papua Police in Jayapura and we have interview some victims and the chief (spokesperson) of the Students".

According to Yeimo many police and troops began attacking the Asrama Liborang with tear gas and water cannon inside at 11.00 PM on Sunday night. Police stormed the building and smashed up facilities inside and arrested, and tormented the students, according to both Yeimo and other independent witnesses.

Yeimo alleged that the "Police talked to them and relate them (make threats to them) about the killing of Mako Tabuni (on June 14). Police blamed them as being friends of Mako Tabuni."

On Tuesday evening, Australian ABC television program "7.30 Report" aired an investigation into Mako Tabuni's killing by Detachment 88, and the intensifying repression of peaceful political free expression by West Papuan activists seek an end to violence and impunity, and a referendum on the disputed territory's future. The Australian Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, has conceded Detachment 88 is being used on non-violent activists, and has claimed it is acting outside its mandate.

The victims names (at time of writing) are confirmed as:

1. Alex Sambom (Fractured Skull by police. Strangled around neck with metal chains. and repeatedly electrocuted in custody, in critical condition)

2. Usman Ambolon (Killed after beatings in the head with lacerations and severe contusion)

3. Petru Lintamon (Police kicked his eyes and head, shot dead with gun)

4. Yaton Lintamon (Police beat him to death with rubber mallet)

5. Septinus Kabak (Fingernails removed with pliers at the police office)

6. Orgenes Kabak (Beaten severely in stomach, internal injuriess)

7. Awan Kabak (Police stabbed him with bayonets in the leg and thigh)

8. Other Victims to still be identified

More photos, video and information as it becomes processed/translated and available.

Australia presses Indonesia on Papua killing

Agence France Presse - August 28, 2012

Canberra called on Wednesday for an Indonesian inquiry into the killing of a Papuan independence leader but could not say whether Australian-trained counter-terrorism police were involved in the death.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said senior Australian officials had pressed Indonesia on the death in June of Mako Tabuni, a leader in Papua's fight for independence from Jakarta allegedly killed by Indonesia's anti- extremist squad.

Tabuni's supporters told Australian media he was gunned down by plain- clothes officers from Detachment 88, a counter-terrorism squad formed after the 2002 Bali bombings and partly trained and resourced by Australia.

Carr said Australian police included human rights training in their work with the Indonesian police but "we don't run the counter-terrorism forces" and there was a limit to Canberra's responsibility for their activities.

He could not confirm whether Detachment 88 had been involved in Tabuni's death but said several top-level representations had been made to Jakarta calling for a "full and open" investigation into the shooting.

"We think the best way of clarifying the situation is for an inquiry," Carr told ABC Television. "We think it would be in the interest of Indonesia in particular and in the interest of their human rights record in the Papuan provinces."

Carr stressed that the calls came "in the context of us consistently recognising Indonesian sovereignty over Papua, and at the same time asserting our right as a friend and a neighbour to raise human rights issues".

"Even when they're dealing with people who may have used violent means, who are accused of using violent means, our strong position with Indonesia is that the legal process should be open and that the people accused of these offences should be treated with due process," he said.

Carr said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa had been "very responsive".

Australian police said it only provided funding to the Indonesian forces for specific counter-terrorism initiatives, though it had "gifted" cars, telecoms and computer equipment worth Aus$314,500 (US$325,810) over two years.

"The Australian Federal Police is not aware, nor been informed, that Detachment 88 is specifically targeting independence leaders in Papua and West Papua," it said in a statement.

Papuans claim Australian link to death squad

ABC 7.30 Report - August 27, 2012

Hayden Cooper and Lisa Main – An elite counter-terrorism unit trained and supplied by Australia is being accused of acting as a death squad in Indonesia's troubled West Papua region.

The group, known as Detachment 88, receives training, supplies and extensive operational support from the Australian Federal Police.

But there is growing evidence the squad is involved in torture and extra- judicial killings as part of efforts by Indonesian authorities to crush the separatist movement in West Papua.

The ABC's Hayden Cooper and Lisa Main went undercover in the restive Indonesian provinces to meet with many who say an Australian Government- funded anti-terrorist team is waging a bloody campaign against activists.

On June 14, popular independence leader Mako Tabuni was gunned down as he fled from police on a quiet street in the Papuan capital. The men who killed Mr Tabuni allegedly are part of Detachment 88, which was established in the wake of the Bali bombings.

Trained in forensics, intelligence gathering, surveillance and law enforcement by officials from the US, the UK and Australia, they have played a crucial role in Indonesia's counter-terrorism efforts.

They are ruthless, often killing suspects, and their anti-terrorism mandate is now creeping into other areas like policing West Papuan separatists.

In December 2010, Detachment 88 killed militant Papuan activist Kelly Kwalik. Mr Kwalik was a leader from the Free Papua Movement (OPM), a violent independence group with a record of attacking military and civilians, and Detachment 88 publically claimed responsibility.

'Gentle way'

But KNBP's current leader, Victor Yeimo, say unlike OPM, KNBP is non- violent and instead pursues a political solution.

"Mako was a good man. If someone was angry, Mako wouldn't answer them," he said.

"Even if people were angry, if he was being questioned by the police, they'd speak to him but he'd just laugh.

"His way of fighting back was by doing interviews and press conferences, it was gentle.

"People say he had weapons and so on but I was often at his house and I never saw a pistol and nor did my friends."

According to eyewitnesses, after being approached by plain-clothed police in unmarked cars, Mr Tabuni attempted to flee.

The witness said police opened fire on the activist as he ran down the road.

"He got free, he ran across the road, he ran about two metres alongside the taxi rank," one witness said.

"He ran along the taxi rank and tried to climb down into a gully, a drain, under the bridge.

"He was shot in the leg, he was shot but still tried to escape, then they shot him in the torso."

Bleeding heavily, Mr Tabuni was taken not to the nearby Catholic hospital, but to a police hospital at least 20 minutes away where another witness saw the authorities bring him in.

"When he came in, I was shocked. I didn't know what had happened and it was a shock," he said.

"They brought him in and all they did was wash off the blood." 'No evidence'

The man says the police were from Detachment 88 based on their distinctive masks often worn in operation.

"I could tell just from the way they looked. And when they brought him in, the people carrying him were wearing masks," he said.

Gustaf Kawer, Mr Tabuni's lawyer, also believes Detachment 88 was involved.

"They used an ordinary car and also a ute. Usually, when the police make an official arrest they wear police uniforms and use police vehicles," he said.

"But they acted as if this was not an ordinary case, as if they were dealing with terrorists."

The Indonesian police report claims Mr Tabuni had a gun when he was shot and that he grabbed another weapon off one of the officers.

They also claim he was involved in seven violent offences before his shooting.

But Mr Kawer, who is respected internationally, says there is no evidence for any of the claims.

"I think it's all a scenario created by the security forces so they could shoot him," he said.

"At the present time the police are only holding two of the people who are alleged to be involved with him. They're still being held by the police.

"Witness testimony points to their being involved but there's not enough evidence against Mako."

The activist's death is just one of many examples of Detachment 88 operating with impunity. A leaked video surfaced last year showing Indonesian police after they had reclaimed a remote airstrip from militant separatists.

The trophy video taken on a mobile phone by the police identifies Detachment 88 officers, who are often embedded with other units, and dead Papuans lying on the ground, including pictures of teenagers tied up with ropes.

And witnesses say Detachment 88 was among the security forces that opened fire on civilians at the Papuan National Congress last October.

To Papuan activists like Mr Yeimo, Australia's support and training for Detachment 88 is galling.

"You give money for Indonesia to kill people in West Papua – you are the perpetrators of violence in West Papua," he said.

"[The] Australian Government and American government, they are actors of violence in West Papua.

"Because they find them, they train them and then with the gun they kill people, they kill us like animals."

Mr Tabuni's death has sparked the attention of the Australian Government, with diplomats in Jakarta raising concerns about the killing with Indonesia on August 7.

And the Federal Government says it is asked Indonesia to conduct inquiries into human rights abuses and killings in the province of Papua.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr says he does not know if the reports are true, but he says he has spoken with his Indonesian counterpart, Marty Natalegawa, about the issue.

"Well we think the best way of clarifying the situation is for an inquiry. We've never hesitated to raise human rights issues in the two Papuan provinces and we'll continue to do it," he said.

But Australia's response is little comfort to the independence leaders in the divided and dangerous region.

Mr Yeimo says his people have little faith that the world really cares about their plight.

"The world is behind Indonesia now, it means they all compromise with Indonesia to kill West Papuan people," he said.

And he knows that he too is now in the firing line.

"The three days after Mako Tabuni was killed by Indonesia, they sent a text message to me, they said to me that 'after Mako Tabuni's dead, you'll be next'."

Response to 7.30 from the Australian Federal Police

How much money does the AFP provide annually for Detachment 88 – either through training or other measures?

The AFP does not provide a regular and ongoing annual funding allocation to Detachment 88 or the Indonesian National Police (INP).

Any allocations we do make to the INP are solely intended to increase the capacity for counter terrorism purposes.

Between 2010 and 2012, in support of Detachment 88 counter terrorism efforts, the AFP has gifted assets including motor vehicles, office and telecommunication supplies and computer equipment. The value of these assets is $314,500.

Exactly, what training does the AFP provide Detachment 88?

The AFP provides capacity building assistance in support of the Indonesian National Police (INP), including Detachment 88.

This capacity building includes the provision of support to a range of INP initiatives implemented by the AFP, such as investigations support and forensic assistance including post bomb-blast analysis.

The AFP has also supported the INP in establishing and developing forensic and bomb data centres, the introduction of a Case Management and Intelligence System database and the provision of equipment in support of counter terrorism operations.

The AFP is not involved in INP counter terrorism tactical resolutions. AFP engagement with Detachment 88 is undertaken with its Executive and headquarters members in Jakarta, Indonesia.

We understand that Detachment 88 is involved in targeting independence leaders in Papua and West Papua. Is this a concern to the AFP? If so what measures has the AFP taken to investigate the allegations.

Detachment 88 is a specialist counter terrorism unit within the Indonesian National Police, however it should be noted that Indonesian law does not differentiate between terrorism, separatism and insurgency.

The AFP is not aware, nor been informed, that Detachment 88 is specifically targeting independence leaders in Papua and West Papua.

The AFP is aware of media reports which allege human rights abuses have been perpetrated by Detachment 88 members.

While the AFP is unable to comment directly on the recent allegations, it should be noted that human rights allegations have been made against Detachment 88 members previously, some of which have been unfounded or misreported.

The AFP does not have a mandate to investigate allegations made in relation to the conduct of foreign police forces in a foreign, sovereign country.

Will the AFP question the Indonesian Police on the activities Detachment 88 undertakes in Papua and West Papua?

The AFP has no mandate to investigate the conduct of police forces in a foreign country.

Further, the AFP does not have a mandate to question the operational taskings of the INP. Any investigation into the conduct of INP or Detachment 88 officers is a matter for the Indonesian authorities.

Further information: Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation (JCLEC)

The JCLEC is an academic training facility, through which operational support and capacity building assistance including training to regional law enforcement agencies and non-government agencies in responding to transnational crime, including terrorism is undertaken.

To date the JCLEC has provided training to over 12,000 regional law enforcement students, from 55 countries who have participated in over 498 training programs.

The JCLEC training undertaken by the Detachment 88 members has included crime investigation, response to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear events and post bomb-blast management.

The principles of human rights are embedded in JCLEC programs and police accountability is incorporated into scenario-based activities.

Response to 7.30 from the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra

The recent unrest in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua – especially the loss of life – is regrettable and is receiving attention from the Indonesian people, the media, and the President of the Republic of Indonesia himself. The Indonesian Government has taken steps to restore law-enforcement in the Papuan provinces.

There are several points to remember while peace is being restored to the Papuan provinces: Firstly, that Indonesia's sovereignty and territorial integrity should not be called into question. The world, including Australia, has acknowledged support for Indonesia's territorial integrity.

Secondly, it is every country's right to create and maintain peace within its own borders within the basic principles of Human Rights. In this regard, the Indonesian Government deploys law-enforcement officials in all parts of Indonesia, including the Papuan provinces, to ensure stability and peace in all aspects of public life.

Thirdly, every excessive use of violence by authorities is processed according to the prevailing laws. Previous cases have seen Indonesian law- enforcement personnel demoted or imprisoned for breaches of human rights, including in cases that were not covered by the media.

Fourthly, every country has procedures in place regarding foreign journalists wanting to visit to produce a program, so countries including Australia and Indonesia reserve the right to determine entry by foreigners into its own territory, whether they are tourists or asylum-seekers or journalists.

In response to the ABC's 7.30 program (27 August 2012), it should be known that Australian journalists and production crews have been officially visiting the Papuan provinces in the last few years. Additionally, Red Cross offices are always located in each host country's capital city, while the host country opens branches in the regions, as does the Indonesian Red Cross in the provinces of Papua and West Papua.Thank you for your continued interest in Indonesia. As is expected of Indonesia's vibrant journalistic media, we also invite more researched and balanced reporting by Australian media.

Video: Australian-funded unit accused of activist's assassination (7.30) http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-28/australia-faces-link-to-west-papua- torture/4229022

Video: Rare look inside West Papua independence movement (7.30) http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-27/rare-look-inside-west-papua- independence-movement/4226314

Video: Foreign Minister responds to West Papua accusations (7.30) http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-28/foreign-minister-responds-to-west- papua-accusations/4229024

West Papua resistance losing fight for freedom

ABC News - August 27, 2012

Hayden Cooper and Lisa Main – Resistance leaders in the restive Indonesian region of West Papua say they are losing their struggle for independence as authorities step up a decades-long campaign of abuse and intimidation.

After almost 50 years of Indonesian rule, the reins of control are being pulled tighter than ever, with human rights groups saying the frequency and ferocity of abuse is on the rise.

There are even claims that an elite counter-terrorism unit, one that has been funded and trained by Australia, is operating in West Papua where it is accused of targeting and killing independence leaders.

The ABC's Hayden Cooper went undercover in the secretive Indonesian provinces, where he discovered a police state operating with impunity.

The sheer scale of the police and military presence is obvious from the moment of arrival in the ruggedly beautiful region – a treasure trove of mineral wealth and a place where two vibrant cultures meet and struggle for the right to rule.

Police and military outposts dotting roads at almost every kilometre are augmented by an unmarked, plain-clothed brigade of motorbikes – many of them allegedly police – and a coordinated web of police informants.

Mostly Indonesians, the informants could be shop owners, taxi drivers, hotel workers who watch the independence groups and pass information back up the chain to police for money.

Andreas Harsono, from Human Rights Watch, says West Papuans live in a constant state of fear. "The Papuan people live in fear, in a constant fear, because of how many human rights abuses they suffered over the past five decades," he said.

And the heavy security presence keeps the closest eye on the independence leaders, including Victor Yeimo, the chairman of the West Papua national committee (KNBP).

Speaking from a safe-house in the capital, Mr Yeimo told 7.30 his organisation was peaceful and simply pushing for a referendum on Papuan sovereignty.

"No we don't use violence. We believe that in the open era, we believe one of the best methods we have to use is civil power now," he said.

"I don't think about how Indonesian they will attack me or target me, I don't feel about that – I don't think about it. What I'm thinking is how I can bring my people to freedom."

But the Indonesian security forces are determined to crush that struggle. At the Papuan National Congress last October, Indonesian forces took the extraordinary step of opening fire on the gathering, killing three people.

Human rights activists say the security forces responsible for abuses like these included the elite counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, a unit funded and trained by Australia. It is now operating in West Papua, where it is accused of targeting and killing independence leaders.

Violence like this stretches back to the 1960s, when the Dutch colonial rulers pulled out. At the time Papuans faced a choice – independence or Indonesia – and amid widespread reports of beatings and intimidation, 1,000 elders specially selected by Jakarta voted for the latter.

To this day Papuans consider it a travesty, and they have fought to overturn it, with Amnesty International estimating that at least 100,000 Papuans have been killed since the 1960s.

Extra-judicial killings in Papua still happen frequently – in 2010 alone, the Asian Human Rights Commission reported a dozen cases, and video of torture and abuse at the hands of Indonesian forces is common.

Death toll

The death toll from the past three months alone speaks for itself, with five KNBP activists targetted and killed by police or military forces. And just eight weeks ago the Indonesian army went on a violent rampage, attacking a town near Wamena in the country's Highlands.

"That day the army soldiers came and punished us," one witness said. "I got beaten and had to have six stitches in my hand and also 20 stitches in my head. They beat me in the legs and now it is hard to walk. That's how they punished us."

The witnesses say 300 soldiers destroyed the village in retaliation for the death of one of their own, injuring dozens of villagers, killing one man and burning down 87 houses.

"My house was burnt down by the battalion and I have still haven't been compensated," another witness said. "This house was built when I was a child. Now we are living in huts, in tents." Struggle for freedom

Andreas Harsono sees it as an all-too-common example of the military acting without boundary. "The army says they are investigating the soldiers," he said.

"But from what I know, the witnesses, survivors, the people whose houses were burnt, none of them, especially the prominent ones, the most articulate ones, none of them say they have ever been questioned by military police over the rampage. So these are things happening over and over again in Papua."

Despite the overwhelming odds, Mr Yeimo says he is determined to keep fighting, even if it means his name could soon be added to the list of the dead. "That is the consequence of the struggle," he said.

"We know that we will die, we will shot by them. It's not a new thing, it's not a new story, we have been killed by them – many of our elder have already been killed by Indonesia.

"But we will struggle for freedom because if not me, who? There's no way – we will struggle, we will fight or we will be lost from this country. We know it."

Paniai district under curfew after shooting

Jakarta Globe - August 24, 2012

Banjir Ambarita & Arientha Primanita – Authorities in the Paniai district of Papua have imposed a curfew after a police officer was shot and killed this week, bringing a fresh wave of violence in the resource-rich province.

"We have imposed a curfew from 6 p.m. until early in the morning. We feel there is potential for violence at those hours so we advise people not to leave their homes," Paniai district police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Anton Diance said on Thursday.

"We are not forbidding people to go out at those hours, but it is advised that they stay at home if they don't have real emergencies because it is risky."

A separatist group, the Free Papua Organization (OPM), has claimed responsibility for the shooting of Police Brig. Yohan Kisiwaito.

Yohan, 29, was shot at the Enarotali Airport on Tuesday morning as he was washing a car at the end of the runway. He died several hours later in hospital. Anton said police were tracking down the shooter, who escaped in a speed boat on Paniai Lake.

Pro-independence activists in Paniai on Wednesday reported that police responded by raiding people's home and arbitrarily arresting innocent civilians. At least five homes were torched by police officers, the activists claimed, and at least 15 civilians were tortured.

Anton denied the allegations. "There was no torture, no torching. Police are in pursuit [of the suspects] according to procedures," the officer said.

Police are pursuing a band of rebels operating in the district led by OPM leader John Yogi, but Anton added that his office had limited manpower. "This precinct is overseeing three districts: Intan Jaya, Paniai and Deiyai with six sub-precincts. Our entire force is just 270, so we are very understaffed," he said.

Yogi's band of rebels, he claimed, was also expanding its territory into the two other districts. "They are now everywhere, spreading their reign of terror. They often extort a number of gold panning operations," the officer said. Intan Jaya and Deiyai are breakaway districts of Paniai.

This incident adds to the list of attacks by unidentified gunmen in the restive district, which has seen an influx of violence after police stormed an OPM hideout at Eduda Hill in December.

The raid was carried out by the police's special tactical unit, the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) from Jakarta, and killed 14 guerilla fighters. But that reportedly sparked the OPM to retaliate, particularly after 481 Brimob officers were withdrawn from Papua in January.

Last month, three people were found stabbed to death in Ndeotadi, Paniai district of Papua, including a member of the Armed Forces (TNI).

In a statement, the OPM said that police only had themselves to blame, saying that their presence had led to ongoing repression and rampant violence targeted at innocent civilians.

In May, Brimob officers shot five locals at a Ndeotadi billiard hall after an alleged altercation, killing two. The incident was never investigated.

Coordinating Minister for Security and Legal Affairs Djoko Suyanto said police would not tolerate the ongoing violence launched by suspected rebels in Papua.

"If we have not arrested [the rebels], that means we are still pursuing them," he said. "It is not easy to locate these criminals although they are the same people wearing the same disguises."

Only one shooting case has been solved so far. It involved the death of a German tourist.

Corruption contributes to growing separatism in Papua: Legislator

Antara News - August 25, 2012

Mimika, Papua – A senior member of the Mimika Legislative Council called on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to investigate the "rampant" corruption present in Papua, claiming that fraudulence has contributed to the growing separatist sentiment of Indonesia's easternmost province.

"People are frustrated seeing corrupters walk free in Papua," Athanasius Allo Rafra, the head of the council's Commission A, said on Saturday.

He added that corrupt officials have siphoned much of the regional budget fund into their own pockets, leaving little money over to help bolster the region's economy.

Unchecked corruption has contributed to the growing calls for an independent Papua, an area that has long been a center of conflict for Indonesia, he said.

"The people of Papua have complained of rampant corruption in the region, but Jakarta seems to show no concern. The KPK has arrested corruption suspects in other areas of the nation, but almost none in Papua," he remarked.

If Jakarta is serious about developing Papua and maintaining national integration, law enforcement has to be firmly upheld in Papua, he said.

Athanasius added that the KPK could save tens of trillions of rupiahs every year by tackling corruption. The money could be used for the welfare of the people, especially in interior areas.

"I think the KPK has received piles of reports about corruption in Papua. The KPK has even sent team of investigators to Papua but few cases have gone to court," he said.

Government to take all necessary measures on Papua violence

Jakarta Post - August 24, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The government has warned it will take all necessary measures to locate those responsible for the recent shootings in Papua.

Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto said on Thursday that the government's heavy-handed response to the recent shootings in Papua should not be misconstrued as a human rights violation, as it was a risk that had to be taken in locating the perpetrators.

"The government has been working hard to uphold peace in Papua, but all of our efforts in the land have been destroyed by these unidentified shooters. We will chase and arrest those responsible for the incidents," said Djoko.

"We will take all necessary action to track them down, so don't blame us for any human rights violations, because they are the human rights violators who terrorize members of the security forces and the people of the land," Djoko said at his ministry, after a coordination meeting with the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Lt. Gen. Marciano Norman, National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo, and Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Adm. Agus Suhartono on Thursday.

However, he did not specify who the suspects were, arguing that the government was having difficulties in carrying out the investigation due to Papua's challenging topography.

BIN chief Marciano Norman suspected that the violence in Papua likely related to groups that had received funds from foreign companies operating in Papua.

"We are still investigating this possibility. It is important for all foreign companies operating in Papua to communicate with us in regard to making donations, so that the money is not misused, for instance, to fund separatist movements," Marciano said.

Four people, including police officer Brig. Yohan Kisiwaitoi, and head of the Forestry Department of Sarmi regency, Ayub Natanubun, were killed during recent attacks by unidentified perpetrators in Papua.

Yohan Kisiwaitoi was shot dead in Paniai regency on Tuesday by an unidentified gunman, who reportedly escaped with the victim's weapon.

Two staff members of contractor company PT Putra Dua were also killed during an attack by unidentified perpetrators in a camp belonging to the company on Wednesday. The attack also severely injured two other staff members who were also at the camp.

Earlier on Saturday, Ayub Natanubun, who led the Forestry Department of the Sarmi Regency in northern Papua, was reportedly shot dead by another unidentified gunman while crossing the border between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Separately, Poengky Indarti of human rights watchdog Imparsial, decried the government's approach to the violence in Papua.

"I think this is the best time for the government to prove its commitment to a peaceful dialogue with Papuans, as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has continuously said that his government is open to such a dialogue with all stakeholders in Papua," said Poengky.

"A security approach will result in nothing but deeper terror for the Papuans, which will persuade them that separation from Indonesia is the best solution to become free from the government's oppressive approach," Poengky told The Jakarta Post.

She cited the example of the government forcefully arresting 60 people during a sweeping operation in several villages in Paniai regency in 2010, in order to search for suspects responsible for a series of shootings in the province.

She reminded the government to faithfully apply appropriate standard operating procedures (SOPs) in upholding the law in Papua, as the watchdog recorded several cases where the government violated the SOPs in relation to locating alleged perpetrators of violence.

"The government will usually deploy the police's Mobile Brigade [Brimob] or the Densus 88 counterterrorism unit in trying to solve mysterious shootings in Papua, an assignment that is usually handled by the police in other parts of this country. This is just not right," Poengky said. (png)

KNPB: Buchtar Tabuni should be transferred to hospital for treatment

Bintang Papua - August 23, 2012

The National Committee for West Papua (KNPB) has urged the police authorities in West Papua to agree to the transfer of Buchtar Tabuni who is now in custody and on trial to the special prison for narcotics offences in order to ensure that he receives the necessary treatment for a stomach complaint and low blood pressure.

Spokesman for the KNPB, Wim R. Medlama said that if he remains in a police cell, there is no guarantee that he will be able to get proper medical treatment.

The same matter was raised previously by Buchtar Tabuni during a court hearing in his own trial, shortly before Lebaran, the final days of Ramadhan.

The chairman of the panel of judges at the trial said this was a matter for the police and the prosecutor who are still engaged in getting him convicted of involvement in activities to cause damage to facilities in the prison where he was held.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Paniai branch of the KNPB strongly condemned the security forces, the TNI (army) and the police, for having conducted operations against the chairman of the KNPB, hunting down and arresting its members and urging that such operations should be immediately halted.

These shootings were taking place because Papuans continue to uphold the opinions they have held since 1961.

All the efforts being made such as the setting up a development agency known as the UP4B to improve the standard of living of the Papuan people will never halt the resistance of the Papuan people.

"The Papuan people will continue to wage resistance and the only way to end this is by holding a referendum in Papua," he said.

[Translated by TAPOL.]

NAPAS calls for Paniai police chief, military commander to be sacked

Kompas.com - August 23, 2012

Aditya Revianur, Jakarta – Speaking at a press conference in Jakarta, Papua National Solidarity (NAPAS) coordinator Martheen Goo called for the Panai district police chief and district military commander to be removed from their posts.

The call came following sweep operations by security forces in Paniai regency, West Papua, that have left the region in the grip of fear.

"The Paniai district police chief and the district military commander should be sacked because they have failed to maintain a peaceful situation", said Goo at the offices of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) in Central Jakarta on Thursday August 23.

Goo explained that Paniai is in the grip of fear following the security sweeps, which have resulted in a series of arrests and the victimisation of ordinary civilians. The security forces should be conducting sweeps in the hills in order to catch the perpetrators of a spate of recent shootings, which according to officials are from the National Liberation Army (TPN), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM).

The district police chief and district military commander, he continued, have failed and should be removed because conducting sweeps in city areas has resulted in damage to facilities. Security forces have even conducted sweeps on patients at the Paniai public hospital.

Even worse, explained Goo, they have reason to believe that when questioned by security forces in Paniai, civilians have been assaulted. "Yet the perpetrators are supposedly the TPN, not civilians who are then stigmatised by the security forces as if they are armed. The terrible thing is that security forces stigmatise [all] Papuan people as OPM, this is excessive", he said.

Goo explained that based on the facts on the ground, the justification for the arrest of civilians in Paniai is unclear. Security forces have used armed force to conduct sweeps against and to arrest civilians. This has added to the already muddy situation in Paniai with many ordinary people increasingly afraid to carry out their normal activities.

The security forces, continued Goo, should be maintaining a favourable situation in Paniai and not be conducting security sweeps. Goo appealed to the TNI and police leadership to support peace in Papua by putting an end to the security sweeps within the city and adopting prudent measures to prevent incidents of violence. Ordinary civilians should not be victimised because the security forces are incompetent and unable to catch the perpetrators.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Talks to alter Freeport pact at a standstill, NGO claims

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2012

Rangga Prakoso & Tito Summa Siahaan – Little progress has been made in attempts by the government to renegotiate the mining contract held by Freeport Indonesia in an effort to improve the welfare of Papuans, a nongovernmental organization claims.

A national government minister last month said the miner, which runs an enormous copper mine on Papua, had expressed a willingness to renegotiate its contract, providing a sign of progress after months of discussions.

But the Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice (IHCS), which itself is in the midst of legal action against Freeport, was skeptical that substantive progress had been made by the government.

"'Contract regeneration' was merely statements to the media. We see no realization since we filed a suit [against Freeport] in April last year," IHCS secretary general Gunawan said on Monday. IHCS's suit, filed in the South Jakarta District Court, is against Freeport, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, and the House of Representatives, and alleges infringements in the royalty payments.

The activist group argued that the 1 percent royalty paid by Freeport was lower than the 3.75 percent rate for gold mining required under the 2003 government regulation on non-tax state revenue. The group demanded the miner's contract to be revoked and Freeport pay $254 million in compensation.

"If both the government and Freeport are really serious in renegotiating the contract, we should see significant progress in the mediation [for the legal preceding], but we see none of that," Gunawan said. Gunawan said the trial is scheduled to conclude next Tuesday.

Last month, Hatta Rajasa, the coordinating minister for the economy, said Freeport was willing to build a smelter to comply with the government requirement to process ore minerals locally.

He also said the mining giant was willing to give up some of its land due to a reevaluation of its mining concession area and increase the participation of the local government and regional companies.

These go some way toward addressing the key demands of the government, which include compulsory divestment of a stake to local owners, trimming the size of mining concession and requiring the use of local content in operations.

OPM blamed for Papua police shooting

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2012

The district police chief in Paniai, Papua, on Wednesday said investigators had narrowed their search for suspects after the fatal shooting of a police officer at a local airport, a report said.

Paniai Police chief Adj. Sri. Comr. Anthon Diantje said the police believed the attack was carried out by a Free Papua Organization (OPM) group led by John Yogi, Antara state news agency reported.

The attack occurred on Tuesday morning when Brig. Yohan Kasiwaitouw was fatally shot by an unidentified assailant at West Papua's Enarotali Airport in Paniai. Although the police suggested the Free Papua Organization (OPM) could be behind the attack, they had not previously mentioned a specific group.

Anthon Diantje told Antara that the OPM group led by John Yogi, the son of pro-independence leader Tadeus Yogi, had shot Yohan and fled with his firearm. He added that the group was believed to be in possession of some 20 firearms.

"Without enough ammunition, the OPM can't survive and continue conducting armed attacks," Anthon said, as quoted by Antara. He added that the police were combing an area around the town of Enarotali in Paniai where they suspected the armed group was hiding.

Yohan was shot while washing a car at the end the runway at around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday. The assailants came and left on a speedboat, as the airport borders the sea. Yohan is scheduled to arrive in the provincial capital of Jayapura on Thursday for burial by his family.

Papua has seen a low-level pro-independence insurgency since the 1960s. Social and economic injustice as well as human rights abuses by the military and the police have increasingly fueled pro-independence sentiments in the region.

Papuan patience worn thin

Straits Times - August 22, 2012

John Mcbeth – German biologist Pieter Helmut and his wife were walking up the beach after swimming near the Papua provincial capital of Jayapura when a bearded gunman suddenly got out of a van and opened fire.

Helmut, 54, had emergency surgery for life-threatening bullet wounds to the stomach and thigh. He was lucky to survive the May 29 attack, unusual even by Papuan standards.

He was among the victims of a spate of random shootings in and around Jayapura in May and June which left six people dead, including a 16-year- old student. Indonesia's Papua province was once again in the headlines and back on the Cabinet agenda.

With government hardliners in the ascendency, there is now every sign that youthful Papuan militants, only loosely affiliated to the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM), have lost patience with the dialogue process and are taking the fight to urban areas.

"Everything suggests that there is going to be more trouble in Papua unless the government can produce a policy that will have an immediate and visible impact on how ordinary Papuans are treated," the International Crisis Group warned in a recent report.

It said the recent violence has exposed the lack of a coherent government strategy to address the many dimensions of conflict in Papua, with well- meant programs falling victim to security imperatives or rent-seeking by police or soldiers in resource-rich areas.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono seems to be playing both sides, telling Papuan leaders in private that he supports talks to resolve Papua's many problems, and then saying publicly that there is no need for talks at all, as he did in a major July speech.

At the same time, the Unit for the Accelerated Development of Papua and West Papua (UP4B), which was widely seen as laying the groundwork for a prospective dialogue when it was created last November, has now been told to stay away from politics.

UP4B head Bambang Darmono, a retired two-star general who played a crucial role in the 2005 Aceh peace process, told foreign journalists recently that his job was simply to "coordinate and facilitate" government development programs.

Papua's political leaders consider the territory's 2001 Special Autonomy Law to be a failure, not necessarily because it doesn't hit the right notes, but because it was hurriedly enacted without consultation with the Papuans.

Likewise the UP4B. Despite the need for vastly improved governance and an end to endemic corruption, the unit and other central government interventions are regarded as efforts by Jakarta to decentralize.

While Darmono agrees that the security situation "doesn't look comfortable," he and other senior officials fail to see the irony in their criticism of international news reports when foreign reporters are banned from Papua and have to rely on often biased accounts from both sides.

The sharp increase in bloodshed has not been confined to Jayapura – At least 16 civilians, including a village headman, and eight soldiers and policemen, have been killed across Papua and neighboring West Papua province over the past three months.

Two weeks after Helmut was wounded, patrolmen shot dead wanted activist Mako Tabuni, a member of the supposedly non-violent West Papua National Committee (KNPB), set up four years ago to campaign for a referendum on Papuan independence.

The KNPB was at the center of a row in early 2010 when Western and Papuan rights groups challenged an International Crisis Group report asserting that the committee was part of a growing "radicalization" of the Papua resistance movement.

Whether "radical" is the appropriate word or not, police claim to have telephone intercepts and forensic evidence showing that Mako, KNPB leader Buchtar Tabuni, Maluk Tabuni and three other suspects were responsible for the Jayapura shooting spree.

Police insist Mako was killed while trying to escape, but such is the level of mutual distrust, they will have a hard job convincing anyone of that. There have been far too many other cases with a similar disregard for Papuan lives.

Tabuni is a common name, but Mako and Buchtar were cousins and the KNPB is believed to have links to Goliat Tabuni, leader of one of the OPM's most active guerilla groups in the mountainous Puncak Raya region far to the west.

The violence is taking place in a political vacuum, with the Supreme Court hearing Papua governor Barnabas Suebu's claim that he is entitled to a third term and the Constitutional Court soon to rule on whether only indigenous Papuans can run for public office.

The government supports the view that candidates must be Melanesians. But for all of Papua's special autonomy status, that would set a troubling precedent, and ignores the fact that non-indigenous people now comprise half of Papua's population.

Some officials believe separatists are using the long delay in holding local elections to fuel communal tensions and create the impression of rising instability in a troubled territory.

President Yudhoyono bizarrely sought to play down the level of violence to journalists in early June, saying the prolonged low-intensity conflict could not compare with Afghanistan and Syria.

Complaining about what he called "cause and effect," he referred to a June 6 incident in the highland town of Wamena. Rioting soldiers killed one man and wounded 15 others after a soldier was stabbed to death for running his motorcycle over a boy .

Yudhoyono said the OPM wants to provoke an over-reaction to attract global attention, a frank admission that security forces still lacked the discipline and training required in a such a highly charged environment.

Human rights & justice

Human rights commission chiefs kept in office by SBY

Jakarta Post - August 31, 2012

Bagus BT Saragih and Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono extended the tenures of 11 commissioners of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) after lawmakers did not select replacements on schedule.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said that Yudhoyono signed a presidential decree extending the commissioners' appointments on Wednesday night, hours before they were set to expire.

"The decree was issued after the President received a letter from the leaders of the DPR [House of Representatives]. It is effective today until new commissioners are elected. The decree is aimed at preventing the Komnas HAM from ceasing operations," Julian said on Thursday.

In its letter to the President, the House requested that the appointments be extended until it could select new leaders for the commission.

State Secretary Sudi Silalahi said that the Presidential Office prepared the draft decree soon after the letter arrived. "Moments after the draft was done, the President signed it. The processes took only a matter of minutes," Sudi told reporters.

Rights groups have lambasted lawmakers for dragging their feet in selecting the new commissioners.

House's Commission III overseeing legal affairs and human rights was not able to interview the 30 candidates under consideration, although the short listed was developed early June. The groups, however, praised Yudhoyono for salvaging the situation at the 11th hour.

Hendardi, the chairman of the Setara Institute, a human rights watchdog, said that issuing the decree improved Yudhoyono's image, which has been marred by several incidents of religious violence throughout the nation. "The President deserves applause, although he has only capitalized on the negligence of lawmakers."

Deputy House speaker Pramono Anung of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), meanwhile, said that the government-sanctioned team tasked with vetting candidates had been very late in submitting its list of candidates for House consideration.

"We told them [the team] that the House would be in recess for a month. The team should have adjusted their schedule to ours," Pramono said.

It was not until Aug. 27 that House members returned to work after a one- month recess and the Idul Fitri holiday.

However, the head of the team, the nation's most prominent jurist and the former chief justice of the Constitutional, Jimmly Asshiddiqie said that his team finished work on time on June 11. "We had asked for a meeting with them to discuss our list, but we got no response," Jimmly said.

Outgoing Komnas HAM chairman Ifdhal Kasim said that he hoped that the extension would grant the commissioners more time to follow up on some findings, such as its report on the 1965 communist purge.

[Arya Dipa contributed reporting from Bandung, West Java.]

National police top list of public reports on human rights violations

Jakarta Globe - August 30, 2012

Ismira Lutfia – According to data collected by the National Commission on Human rights from 2007-2012, the National Police tops the list for public reports on human rights abuses in Indonesia.

"The data never changes," one of the commissioners, Nur Kholis, said at a press conference on Thursday. "The institution most frequently reported is the police, with an average of 1,000 reports per year."

Kholis added that the police's tendency towards [human rights violations] is rising due to their separation from the military. After becoming two separate institutions, the police have gained more authority than they had previous to the split

During 2010, the commission received 1,503 reports on human rights violations by the police. In 2011, the amount increased to 1,839. During the first half of 2012, the commission has been sent 873 reports.

Based on data from 2011, most of the reports filed dealt with arresting procedures, discrimination and abuses during investigations, shootings and violence.

Commissioner Syafruddin Ngulma Simeulue noted that the military was not reported nearly as frequently as the police was. However, there were many complaints filed against the army concerning land disputes between the army and the people.

"There should be an audit on the land that is owned by TNI and it should be ensured that the land they use is solely for defense," Syafruddin said.

Ranking just below the police at number two and number three on the commission's list were private companies and regional governments, respectively. The Indonesian government has been planning on summoning the National Police and the National Commission on Human Rights over recent violence and conflicts involving police.

"It is an important moment for us, to once again remind the National Police to reform itself," Nudirman Munir, a member of House Commission III, said previously.

The police have been accused of serious human rights violations in a series of recent fatal incidents during land dispute protests across the country.

Komnas HAM commissioners get tenure extensions

Jakarta Post - August 30, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – State Secretary Sudi Silalahi announced on Thursday that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had signed a presidential decree extending the tenures of the 11 leaders of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) until new commissioners were elected.

The House of Representatives, which failed to appoint the new Komnas HAM commissioners on time due to their recess, sent the extension proposal to the President on Wednesday. Sudi said the President signed the decree the same day.

Sudi added that the incumbent commissioners could continue to serve in their posts until the new selection process was completed. "The decree was signed to avoid a power vacuum in the rights body," he said as quoted by kompas.com.

Deputy House Speaker Pramono Anung in turn blamed the delay on the selection team, which is chaired by former Constitutional Court chief Jimmly Asshiddiqie, for submitting the names of the 30 commissioner candidates too late.

"We had already informed [the selection team] that the House would be in recess for one month. The team should have adjusted its schedule with ours," he said.

It was not until Aug. 27 that House members returned to work again after a one-month recess and Idul Fitri holiday. Originally, the current commissioners' tenures were due to end on Aug. 30.

Komnas HAM chief Ifdhal Kasim, however, refuted the House's accusation, saying that the commission had submitted the names of the candidates on June 11.

"We had requested discussions with the House leaders on several occasions, but all our requests were unanswered. The House only talked to us on Aug. 16," he said.

Ifdhal hoped that the extension would allow the commissioners to have more time to follow up on its findings on the 1965 purge, the unsolved shootings between 1982 and 1985, and the Lapindo mudflow, which have all been categorized as human rights violations.

"We are also dealing with human rights violations perpetrated against the followers of the Islamic Shia community," he said. (riz/lfr)

Golkar takes jab at 1965 massacre survivors

Jakarta Globe - August 23, 2012

Ezra Sihite – One month after Golkar Party deputy chairman Priyo Budi Santoso stirred controversy by asking the nation to forget the 1965 massacre, senior party official Leo Nababan called upon victims of the violence to stop seeking justice.

In July, after a four-year investigation, the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) labeled as a serious human rights violation and a crime against humanity the orgy of violence that shook the country in 1965 following a failed coup attempt blamed on the communists.

It is thought that up to 500,000 people died in the purge targeting the left, sparked by an attempt to overthrow the country's founding President Sukarno.

In the immediate aftermath of the coup attempt, Maj. Gen. Suharto mobilized his force and effectively took control of the country. He eventually became president and served for more than 30 years.

The commission called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to take over the case and provide justice to the survivors, while demanding the attorney general investigate the case so that it can be brought to the court.

But Leo, Golkar's deputy secretary general, said that as long as a 1966 decree by People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) banning all communist teachings was in effect, there was no need for the state agency to follow up Komnas HAM's findings.

He said many "nationalist organizations" joined together in the Front Pancasila will reject any attempts to advance the legal case. "Front Pancasila is ready to block efforts to bring the case to the court," Leo said.

According to Leo, the 1965 massacre victims and their family members already had their political rights restored. "What else do they want? It's enough," Leo said.

Leo's statement quickly drew anger from human rights activists. Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation chairman Alvon Kurnia Palmasaid said Golkar was trying to protect Suharto and his cronies.

"It's very clear that gross human rights violations have been committed. We should never stop seeking justice for the victims," Alvon said on Wednesday.

Golkar, which has been strongly associated with Suharto and played a role in establishing his regime, has been aggressive in stopping any move to bring the massacre to the surface.

In response to Komnas HAM's findings, Priyo, who is also House of Representatives deputy speaker, said that Indonesia should put the events of 1965 behind it. "I was just giving my opinion that we should look to the future," he said.

Human rights activists lambasted Priyo's remarks. The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), victims, and families of victims of the 1965 massacre and other tragedies reported Priyo to the House Ethics Council over his statement.

"He said it's not important to bring up the past," said Haris Azhar, a coordinator for the rights group. "This kind of statement is very inappropriate."

While the Ethics Council has yet to conduct a hearing into Priyo's conduct, Kontras reiterated on Wednesday its claim that the deputy speaker had violated the House's code of ethics, including the failure to carry out the people's mandate and not respecting democracy and human rights.

"Under the law, the government has the responsibility to solve cases of human rights violations," Haris said. "And it's Priyo's duty to supervise the solving of the human rights cases."

Kontras asked the Ethics Council to investigate the political motives behind Priyo's statement. "Golkar, with its background as the party that benefited from the New Order regime, might be afraid about what the case will unveil," Haris said. "In the future, we must think of punishing Golkar to prevent its members from issuing counterproductive statements."

Pudjo Untung, 70, one of the victims of the 1965 violence, said recently that Priyo did not understand that the historical scars had yet to heal. "Komnas HAM has issued a recommendation that the incident was a serious human rights violation and Priyo should have represented the people. What Priyo did showed that he really doesn't understand history," Pudjo said.

In the decades since the anti-left violence, the atrocities had been covered up and obscured by the authorities, but now Indonesians must come to terms with the past, he added. "History was kept in the dark and as long as it's kept in the dark, the problem is still not solved, and we'll still be discriminated against," he said.

Nurkholis, who headed the Komnas HAM investigation team, said the preliminary findings indicated incidents of murder, extermination, slavery, forced eviction, deprivation of freedom, torture, rape and abuse.

Komnas HAM has identified some of those responsible for the violence, he said. Although he declined to provide names, the group did not hesitate to point its finger at the Command for the Restoration of Security and Public Order (Kopkamtib), the pervasive security network set up by Suharto following the 1965 coup attempt.

The Komnas HAM investigation team, which was established on June 1, 2008, and worked until April 30, 2012, questioned 349 witnesses who either heard about incidents during the violence or experienced it firsthand.

Leo said the violence at the time was justified because Indonesia was at risk of falling under the rule of communism.

127 anti-communist groups ready to fight if 1965 case goes to court

Inilah.com - August 22, 2012

Agus Rahmat, Jakarta – One of the Golkar Party's mass organisations, Kosgoro 1975 (Mutual Assistance Cooperative) is opposing the recommendation by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) that the government apologise to the families of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Kosgoro believes that such an apology would again give rise to horizontal conflicts.

This was conveyed by the chairperson of Kosgoro's 1957 central leadership board Leo Nababan. Nababan even emphasised that Kosgoro is ready to back GP Ansor (Ansor Youth Movement, the youth wing of the Islamic mass organisation Nahdlatul Ulama), which have said they will be on guard against such a move.

"The 127 anti-communist mass organisation supporters of Pancasila in 1965 that are part of the Pancasila Front are ready to block, particularly [our] youth generation allies in Ansor Nahdlatul Ulama if for example there are calls for the case to go to court. Once again don't go too far", said Nababan in a press release received by Inilah.com on Wednesday August 22.

Nababan, who is also the Deputy General Secretary of the Golkar Party, stated that the regulations on the PKI are still enshrined in a People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decree. This being the case, Komnas HAM cannot all of a sudden recommend that the Indonesian government apologies to the families of the PKI. "The TAP MPRS No. XXX/1996 on communist teachings has not been revoked", he said.

For Nababan, this is still a very sensitive issue. He is concerned that horizontal conflicts could erupt within society. According to Nababan, at present the lives of the families of former PKI members are quite good, particularly with the restoration of their political rights".

"And I don't want NKRI [the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia] to collapse and be full of blood again if a horizontal conflict occurs. Right now the lives of the PKI families are adequate. It is sufficient that their political rights have been restored", he asserted. (bay)

Notes:

1. Tap MPRS XXV/1966: Provisional People's Consultative Assembly Decree Number XXV/1966 on the Dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist and Communist Teachings.

2. Former PKI members and others accused of involvement in the alleged 1965 coup suffered decades of stigmatisation and discrimination. They were not allowed to become civil servants, military or police officers, teachers, preachers or legislators and their IDs were labelled with "ET" (ex- political prisoner). Following a Constitutional Court ruling in 2004 former PKI members were allowed to contest elections and in 2006 the government deleted the ET label on IDs.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Pancasila Front opposes any follow up on 1965 rights commission report

Berita Satu - August 22, 2012

Ezra Sihite/Wisnu Cipto – Mass organisations (Ormas) that are part of the Pancasila Front are ready to oppose any follow up on the recommendations by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) on the 1965 killings.

Golkar Party Deputy General Secretary Leo Nababan is urging for an end to calls for a restoration of the political rights of the victims and the families of the 1965 affair. According to Nababan, Komnas HAM's recommendation, which stated that gross human rights violations occurred during the affair, do not need to be taken to an ad hoc human rights court.

Nababan argues that the existing 1996 MPRS decree on communist teachings has not been revoked and this is a basis for anti-communism in Indonesia. He added that the mass organisations in the Pancasila Front are ready to oppose any follow up to Komnas HAM's recommendations.

"The Pancasila Front will be ready to block it, particularly [our] youth generation allies in Anshor NU [Anshor Youth Movement, Nahdlatul Ulama's youth wing] if for example the affair goes to court", said Nababan in an email sent to journalists today.

The chairperson of the Mutual Assistance Cooperative (Kosgoro, Golkar affiliated youth group) in the 1957 era stated that the victims and the families of the 1965/1966 affair who are linked with communists do not need to seek further redress. "It is enough that their political rights have been restored", asserted Nababan.

Komnas HAM's recommendations on the 1965 affair have indeed been controversial. Komnas HAM proposed several options that could be taken by the government, one of which is reconciliation by means of a presidential apology. One month after the recommendation however, the government is yet to take a position on the matter.

Notes:

2. Former PKI members and others accused of involvement in the alleged 1965 coup suffered decades of stigmatisation and discrimination. They were not allowed to become civil servants, military or police officers, teachers, preachers or legislators and their IDs were labelled with "ET" (ex-political prisoner). Following a Constitutional Court ruling in 2004 former PKI members were allowed to contest elections and in 2006 the government deleted the ET label on IDs.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Political parties & elections

Court's political party ruling leaves winners, losers

Jakarta Globe - August 31, 2012

Ezra Sihite – Political parties are greeting with mixed reactions the Constitutional Court's revision of the elections law.

Lawmakers passed a bill believing the article that set the legislative threshold could be applied to legislative elections at all levels, but the court on Wednesday ruled it would not be fair for regional elections.

The legislative threshold – the total national vote percentage required for parties to take a seat in the House of Representatives – was set at 2.5 percent in the 2009 election, while for the upcoming 2014 election it is set at 3.5 percent. The Constitutional Court decided the threshold should be applied to national elections only.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) hailed the ruling as "a fair middle ground."

"Even if a political party already passed the threshold [in 2009], that would not guarantee that they fare better [at the next election] with newly established parties," PDI-P senior politician and House of Representatives deputy speaker Pramono Anung said on Thursday.

Pramono said the verdict was greatly anticipated, given the heated debate that took place during the law's deliberation. "What is important is that the simplification of political parties needs to proceed," he said.

PDI-P is the third-biggest party in the House today and recent surveys suggest it could come out as winner of the 2014 elections.

United Development Party (PPP) politician Hazrul Azwar aired his disappointment, saying the ruling had tarnished hours of work deliberating the contentious law.

"We are disappointed at Mahfud [M.D.], Akil Mochtar and Hamdan [Zoelfa]," Hazrul said in reference to the top Constitutional Court judges who issued the ruling. "They were lawmakers and know very well how tough it is bargaining [during deliberation]. Where is the logic of the court?"

The court ruling came as a huge blow for smaller parties, which hoped that the 3.5 percent threshold would be scrapped by the court altogether.

Besides the threshold revision, the court ruled that all parties planning to register for the 2014 election must be verified by the General Election Commission (KPU).

"I'm dissatisfied," said Sutiyoso, former Jakarta governor and current leader of the United Justice Indonesian Party. "Getting verified is very difficult. I'm sure there won't be many parties that can pass the verification given the criteria."

More political parties look to contest polls

Jakarta Post - August 31, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – More political parties will likely compete in the 2014 elections after the Constitutional Court (MK) annulled the 3.5 percent parliamentary threshold set out in the election law endorsed just four months ago.

The parliamentary threshold was intended to bar political parties with no seats in the House of Representatives from contesting elections. With the MK ruling, small parties can contest the polls as long as they pass the verification process with the General Elections Commission (KPU) soon.

MK also ruled that all political parties need to undergo the verification process with the KPU, dropping the privileges given to parties, which have seats in the House to contest the poll without being verified.

"Newly-established political parties must not be treated differently, as their rights are also guaranteed by the Constitution," Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mahfud MD said on Wednesday.

The Court issued the ruling after requests from politicians to review stipulations in the law.

Article 8 of the election law states that political parties that secured the parliamentary threshold in the 2009 election can skip verification and can compete in the approaching election. It further stipulates, among others, that political parties must have at least 1,000 members and have a minimum number of branches nationwide.

Meanwhile, article 208 of the law stipulates that political parties must secure a national parliamentary threshold of 3.5 percent to be given seats in the House, and Provincial or Regional Councils.

Seventeen parties, including former Jakarta governor Sutiyoso's Indonesian Party for Unity and Justice (PKPI), filed a judicial review with the MK over these stipulations, arguing that they were discriminatory and thus would prevent them from competing against more established parties at the regional level.

The MK ruling has disappointed party factions in the House who said that it tainted their efforts to create an effective and empowering political system.

"We want to build a strong and effective presidential system through such electoral requirements. We required the minimum threshold to be implemented nationwide because we aimed to endorse efficiency in regional administrations. The Constitutional Court's new ruling will potentially ruin the efforts we made to simplify confusion that might appear in the regions at the election," lawmaker Saan Mustofa from the Democratic Party told reporters on Thursday.

Separately, Pramono Anung from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said that his party had expected the ruling after the criticism leveled at the House shortly after it endorsed the bill in April.

"I can understand that the Constitutional Court based its ruling on legal equality. However, we must understand that parliament is a political institution," he said, adding that the PDI-P would obey the ruling and apply for verification with the KPU.

Lawmakers from other party factions said that the ruling would have little impact on them as they were prepared for it.

"We actually have a similar stance to the non-parliament parties. For us, the national threshold did not empower political parties in the country. We gladly welcome the ruling and we are ready to undergo verification as mandated," Marwan Jafar from the National Awakening Party (PKB) said.

Other small parties in the House, such as the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and the Great Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) have echoed Marwan as a reduced minimum requirement will benefit them.

Most people have no bond with political parties: Survey

Jakarta Post - August 31, 2012

Jakarta – A survey has revealed that more than half of its respondents have no inclination toward or bond with the political parties that they vote for, indicating that voters are likely to change their preferences at the polls.

According to the survey by Charta Politika research center, 76 percent of respondents said they had no bond with the political party they voted for.

"This shows that political parties do not play any important role in society," Charta Politika political analyst Yunarto Wijaya said on Thursday.

According to Yunarto, the low level of inclination toward political parties was alarming compared to previous years. "In the last three years, the percentage of the country's party identification still reached around 20 percent, while according to this survey, party identification reached only 14 percent. This is a sign that our political system is still primitive and political parties are still unable to impress their image rationally on their constituents," he said.

Moreover, Yunarto added that the political parties in developed countries were voted for mostly because they had a more focused agenda that served their constituents.

"In the US, businessmen will vote for the Republicans because they want better taxes. In Australia, the working class will vote for Labor Party because they are assured that their welfare will be well-maintained. The values offered by the parties match with the needs of voters, unlike the political parties in Indonesia," Yunarto said.

Golkar Party secretary-general Idrus Marham said that the code of ethics of the country's political parties did not place ideology as a main consideration to garner public support.

"The top five political parties are nationalist parties that roughly have the same values to offer and the public vote based on their rationality. Party identity is low in Indonesia," Idrus said.

The survey, which was conducted nationally on July 8-22, also revealed that 59.6 percent of the respondents said they voted for famous figures rather than the party itself.

"Prominent figures still play an important role in the upcoming election, because again the political party itself has no certain agenda and the people depend only on a famous figure rather than on whether their needs or interests would be fulfilled by the party they choose," he said.

According to Democratic Party deputy secretary general Saan Mustopa, the fact that the voters were still voting for figures rather than for parties was encouraging for some parties.

"The public are more interested in legislator candidates. This will, of course, have an impact on the number of votes for those parties with prominent figures," Saan said.

Yunarto added that the behavior of the voters had stagnated, as there were no significant changes in the electability levels of political parties, which was led by Golkar with 18 percent, followed by the Democratic Party with 12.5 percent and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with 10.8 percent.

However, the majority of voters – 34.4 percent – were undecided, nearly twice the percentage of Golkar voters, said the survey.

According to this result, the approval rating of the public toward religious-based political parties was low, with a percentage of less than 4 percent for parties like the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). (nad)

All political parties, old and new, should be verified: Court

Jakarta Globe - August 30, 2012

Yanshinto Sembiring & Pamudji Slamet – The Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that the all political parties that plan to register for the 2014 election should be verified by the General Election Commission.

"All political parties should be required to have verification – both existing parties that have or don't have seats in parliament as well as new parties, for the sake of justice," Mahfud MD, chief of the Constitutional Court, said on Wednesday.

Judge Fadlil Sumadi said that article 8 of the 2012 Law on Legislative Elections has been annulled by the court due to its applying different requirements for different political parties joining the election.

"It is not fair if political parties that participated in the 2009 election do not need to be verified again for the 2014 election if new political parties are obliged to do so," Fadlil said. "At the same time, political parties that do not meet the parliamentary threshold should need heavier requirements."

Article 8 of the law stated that verification was mandatory for both political parties that did not pass the parliamentary threshold in the previous election and for new parties, as well.

Besides ruling that all parties need verification, the Constitutional Court also revised article 208 of the law regarding the parliamentary threshold. While the lawmakers believed that the article could be applied to legislative elections at all levels, the court deemed it would not be fair for regional elections.

The parliamentary threshold in the 2009 election was set at 2.5 percent, while for the upcoming 2014 election it is set at 3.5 percent of the total national votes. The Constitutional Court decided that the 3.5 percent parliamentary threshold should be applied to national elections only.

The requirements to join the 2014 election are quite difficult to complete. Parties must have at least 1,000 members spread throughout the country's 33 provinces. They must have at least 30 registered members in each province, and it is also necessary for them to maintain permanent offices and members in 75 percent of all districts and half of all subdistricts.

Small political parties, including Yusril Ihza Mahendra's party, the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS), filed a judicial review with the court in hopes that the court would annul the requirement for verification so it would be easier for small parties to take part in the election. The court did not invalidate the verification process.

"I'm dissatisfied," former Jakarta governor and current leader of the United Justice Indonesian Party, Sutiyoso, said. "Getting verified is very difficult. I'm sure there won't be many parties that can pass the verification given the criteria."

Faction head and deputy chairman of the United Development Party Hazrul Azwar said that he was dismayed with the decision of the Constitutional Court.

"We worked day and night without feeling tired, but now [the law] has been annulled by only nine justices," Hazrul said. "We are disappointed mainly with Mahfud, Akil and Hamdan. They were lawmakers and know very well how tough it is bargaining [during deliberation]. Where is the logic of the court?"

House set to force Sultan to resign from Golkar

Jakarta Post - August 28, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – A bill expected to be endorsed by the House of Representatives this week will force Sultan Hamengkubuwono X to resign from the Golkar Party if he wishes to remain governor of Yogyakarta.

"All House parties have agreed to Article 16 of the bill, which stipulates that Yogyakarta's governor must be unaffiliated with any political party," Abdul Malik Haramain, the lawmaker who chairs the House committee deliberating the bill, said in Jakarta on Monday.

The bill, which will also apply to Yogyakarta Vice Governor Sri Pakualam IX, stipulates that, as a condition of continuing their customary appointments as the province's chief executives, the heads of Yogyakarta's two monarchies must not hold positions at any state or private company that is likely to financially benefit others.

"Such a requirement is needed in order to ensure that the Sultan can lead his people, with equality," Malik, a lawmaker from the National Awakening Party (PKB), said.

Several Golkar politicians have decried the bill, arguing that it violates the political rights of Hamengkubuwono.

"It's discrimination against the rights of the Sultan," Golkar lawmaker Firman Subagyo said. "However, if the requirement is based on the consideration of non-partisan leadership, it must also be imposed on our future president and ministers," he added.

Senior Golkar politician Akbar Tandjung echoed Firman's statements, saying that democracy guaranteed the right of every person to join a political party. Akbar said that Golkar would accede to Hamengkubuwono's resignation for the greater good.

"The Sultan is a very important figure in Yogyakarta – He is expected to embrace all of the people, regardless of their political stance, and therefore he must be non-partisan to be able to do it," Akbar said.

"It is not a problem for us to let him [Hamengkubuwono] go because we still have other members in the province who will help us nurture support for the 2014 legislative election," Akbar added.

Hamengkubuwono and the Pakualam will be reappointed as the province's chief executives in October after the House endorses the bill.

The pair inherited their gubernatorial positions from their fathers, who were directly appointed to their posts at the head of the administration by the central government in recognition of the support given by their kingdoms for the nascent republic during the War of Independence against the Dutch.

The Yogyakarta Special Status Bill, now under deliberation, was introduced by the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, which proposed ending the customary appointments of the revered and immensely popular governor and deputy governor.

Yudhoyono extended their appointments in October 2011, as lawmakers deliberated on the central government proposal to end the system and introduce direct elections.

All factions in the House, however, eventually rejected the election proposal, choosing to acknowledge the special status Yogyakarta was given under the Constitution. The government eventually backed down in July.

Separately, Ari Dwipayana, a political observer from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, said that the debate on Hamengkubuwono's non-partisan status had raised the idea of introducing a similar system for all office holders.

"We must have a system that requires the president, the vice president, and all of the ministers to be free from political parties to ensure fair leadership," Ari said.

Ari added that the President and many of his Cabinet ministers were key figures in political parties, something that he said contributed to bias when officials took stances on questions of the public interest.

"In the future, they must be required to leave their parties so that they can be critical toward officials from parties and their interests that might put the public good at stake," he said.

PKS to build contact with Rohingya

Jakarta Post - August 28, 2012

Jakarta – The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) says it will continue building solidarity with Rohingya refugees in Myanmar through humanitarian NGOs.

"The PKS is doing its best [to help Myanmar's refugees] not only through a parliamentary delegation but by bolstering solidarity among humanitarian NGOs. We hope we can obtain direct access to the victims," PKS legislator Hidayat Nur Wahid was quoted by Suryama M. Sastra, an expert on the staff of the social affairs minister, as saying in Yangon on Sunday.

Suryama, together with staff member Sapto Waluyo, joined the legislators' delegation of the PKS faction of the House of Representatives to Myanmar.

The Indonesian delegation was received by Myanmarese Minister for Social Assistance and Resettlement Affairs U Aung Kyi, Antara news agency reported. Minister U Aung Kyi told Nur Wahid that the Myanmarese government had responded quickly to safeguard the victims of conflict in Rakhine State.

According to the Myanmarese government, about 64,000 refugees are being accommodated in 61 camps in Sittwe and Maungdaw as a result of the conflict early last June. A total of 88 people were killed, consisting of 57 Rohingya Muslims and 31 Rakhine Buddhists. A total of 87 people were injured and 4,800 buildings were destroyed.

Accountability stumbles as political corruption soars

Jakarta Post - August 27, 2012

Dicky Christanto – Loopholes in budgeting laws and the national political system are blamed for the lack of political accountability among members of the House of Representatives.

The House's budgetary powers, which are overwhelmingly broad and lack any check-and-balance mechanism, have often been misused by legislators to accumulate financial resources for the benefit of their parties.

These expanded budgetary powers were a result of the 1998 reform movement, which sought to reverse the executive-heavy system that had relegated the House as a mere "rubber stamp" for nearly all budget items proposed by the government.

Members of the House's budget committee are now allowed to intervene in the details of state-funded projects, locally known as satuan tiga, which identify and allocate funding to the smallest units of organization in the bureaucracy.

Such mechanisms and rights are rarely found in developed democracies, in which the budgetary role of the legislature is limited to general priorities, and to whether or not certain public projects are responsive to public interests.

The committee's right to withhold budget approval until certain conditions in the proposed projects are met, has provided leeway for members to negotiate with bureaucrats, agency and regional leaders and private contractors to seek kick-backs in return for approval.

The recent graft cases involving the procurement of copies of the Koran by the Religious Affairs Ministry, the construction of the Hambalang sports compound in Bogor, West Java, by the Youth and Sports Ministry, the disbursement of regional infrastructure funds, and the National Games venue in Riau have utilized this loophole.

Several legislators from different parties have been dragged down by these cases.

The most notable case revolves around the disbursement of regional infrastructure funds, in which budget committee member and a suspect in the case, Wa Ode Nurhayati, testified about the involvement of nearly all 85 of her fellow committee members. Her trial is currently ongoing.

Despite numerous cases of graft, little has been done to improve check-and-balance mechanisms at the House, where it is becoming increasingly complicated to discharge corrupt members. The House ethics committee, which was not formed until 2009 to internally handle recalcitrant legislators, has yet to function as expected.

If a particular representative is convicted of an ethical breech, for example, follow-up on the ethics council's ruling depends entirely on the decision of the representative's respective party leadership.

Party leaders have often refused to comply with ethics council verdicts in what seems to be tacit approval of politicians who seek political donations from state-funded projects.

The lack of regulations on political party financing and money-politics is often used as the excuse for tolerating such practices.

Director of Gadjah Mada University's Anticorruption Studies Center Zainal Mochtar Arifin said the political parties should reform the way they go about raising funds. "Stricter parameters regarding financing models should be applied in order uphold a high degree of accountability," he said.

Under the national political system, House members are also in a very strong position where nobody can file motions against them. Even President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has a strong popular mandate, does not hold the right to veto House decisions.

This situation has left law enforcement agencies on the forefront of the battle to root out graft in the House.

However, as reform in such agencies remains sluggish, with many judges, police officers and prosecutors having been implicated in graft cases, the outcome has been less than expected.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is probably the only institution that has aggressively pursued corrupt politicians.

Big cases such as the Koran procurement, the construction of the Hambalang sports compound, the disbursement of regional infrastructure funds, and the National Games venue are all being handled by KPK.

Legislator Eva Kusuma Sundari of the House's Commission III on law and security affairs said that there was so much to be done to improve the check-and-balance mechanisms in the House that relying only on the KPK and other law enforcement agencies would not be effective in the long term.

"There's an absence of institutionalized political accountability. This has led many politicians to act shamefully," she said.

"The massive mentality of corruption has spread widely among lawmakers in the absence of serious monitoring efforts and firm punishments for those who have been proven guilty."

With great power comes a great chance to steal

Jakarta Post - August 27, 2012

It has been 14 years since Soeharto was ousted, ending 32 years of corrupt, authoritarian rule. Indonesia, while now a democracy, remains mired in corruption that has deep roots in every political party, both inside and outside President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's ruling coalition. The Jakarta Post's Dicky Christanto explores how far the nation's political leaders have strayed from the ideals of reform and 1998:

Siti Hartati Murdaya and Izedrik Emir Moeis come from political parties on opposite sides of the fence in contemporary Indonesian politics. The pair have one thing in common, however: They are the latest political movers and shakers to be implicated in high-level graft scandals.

When it comes to deep pockets, Hartati is undoubtedly the favorite of the leaders of Yudhoyono's Democratic Party. The tycoon, one of Asia's wealthiest people and a member of the Democratic Party's patron board, is one of several businesspeople who helped bankroll Yudhoyono's first presidential campaign in 2004.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) recently named Hartati a suspect for allegedly bribing Buol Regent Amran Batalipu to issue a permit for her firm in Central Sulawesi.

Meanwhile, Emir has been key financier that keeps the wheels greased for the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P). The PDI-P, led by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, who herself ran against Yudhoyono in 2004 and 2009, is the principal opponent of the President's ruling coalition.

Unlike Hartati, Emir, a lawmaker, has made his "fortune" by leading several commissions at the House of Representatives. He once led Commission VII overseeing energy and mining and the House budget committee. Emir currently chairs Commission XI, overseeing financial affairs.

The lawmaker was named a suspect by the KPK for allegedly accepting a bribe to award a contract to build a power plant in Tarahan, Lampung, to PT Alstom Indonesia in 2004.

Emir and Hartati join 28 other politicians who have been implicated in graft scandals since 2009, according to the Indonesian Budget Center (IBC).

According to the organization, 46 politicians were sentenced to prison between 2004 and 2009. More than half were lawmakers who were convicted of accepting bribes to back the appointment of Miranda S. Goeltom as a Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor.

The high costs of running a political party coupled with a lack of oversight of political party finances and legislative elections have been widely cited by anti-corruption activists as the catalysts for political corruption.

Unlike their peers in more developed democracies that rely on rank and file members for donations, political parties in Indonesia are mostly financed directly by members who are politicians, ministers and wealthy businesspeople.

Some businesspeople back a party in hopes of influencing policy makers to streamline things for their business endeavors or to win government contracts. Others, apparently, expect not to be prosecuted for violating the law.

"Abusing authority has become an eternal temptation for politicians, regardless of background. The bigger the party, the bigger the temptations," Effendy Choirie, a lawmaker from the National Awakening Party (PKB) since 1999, recently said.

Effendi, a member of House Commission I overseeing defense, intelligence and foreign affairs, said aggressive anti-graft measures have not discouraged corrupt politicians.

According to several lawmakers who declined to be named, the most common offense was the misuse of lawmakers' budget powers over government agencies and local administrations and for state projects.

The recent graft scandal involving the procurement of Korans by the Religious Affairs Ministry that implicated Golkar Party lawmaker Zulkarnain Djabar is among many examples.

The KPK has been investigating whether Zulkarnain asked the ministry to award the Koran contract to a specific firm in a quid-pro-quo deal for the House's endorsement of the Rp 400 billion (US$42.5 million) budget for the project.

The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) also recently advised the KPK that several House budget committee lawmakers had bank accounts with "unusually large" balances of over Rp 2 trillion. A lawmaker's monthly salary starts at around Rp 30 million.

According to the PPATK, there were several "suspicious" and "implausible" transactions in the accounts of several budget committee leaders, including Melchias Marcus Mekeng (Golkar) Mirwan Amir (Democratic Party), Olly Dondokambey (PDI-P) and Tamsil Linrung (Prosperous Justice Party, or PKS).

Budget committee members Wa Ode Nurhayati (National Mandate Party, or PAN) and Max Sopacua (Democratic Party) have also come under scrutiny.

Nurhayati is currently on trial for bribery and money laundering surrounding deliberations on the 2011 regional infrastructure fund. At trial, Nurhayati implicated several of her colleagues in the scandal, including Melchias, Olly, Tamsil, and House Speaker Marzuki Alie (Democratic Party), all of whom denied complicity.

During other graft trials involving politicians, witnesses have often testified that politicians have often solicited kickbacks, asking directly how much money they could be given for approving a budget expenditure.

"Of course you are fully aware that our support isn't free" is a commonly heard phrase outside House meeting rooms when lawmakers discuss budgets. So is "You will get our support – under certain conditions".

Five-star hotels and fancy restaurants are also favorite locations for such discussions.

Sebastian Salang from Parliament Watchdog Forum has been concerned about the deliberations. "It will need serious investigation by the KPK to uncover budget manipulation practices."

Other quid-pro-quo have reportedly been proffered during the selection process for top jobs at government agencies and the central bank.

By law, legislators have the final decision on selecting officials to fill strategic posts, including Bank Indonesia's governor and deputy positions as well as the appointment of the leaders of the Financial Service Authority (OJK) that will oversees banks, capital market and financial institutions.

Foreshadowing a repeat of the Miranda Goeltom case, several politicians have said that third parties have "sponsored" the appointment of candidates for the House to consider for OJK positions.

The man selected to be OJK chairman, Muliaman Hadad, has denied such allegations, saying that there were no sponsors.

Legislators also have the final decision on the selection of the Supreme Court judges, Constitutional Court judges, Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) members, KPK chairmen and ambassadors. Many Constitutional Court judges, BPK executives and, to some extent, Supreme Court judges, have affiliations with political parties.

The Indonesian Science Institution (LIPI) researcher Siti Zuhroh said that unless there was an overhaul in the nation's political system, parties would be used solely as a tool to seek political power at any cost.

"Politicians have been taught for years that the ultimate goal in politics is having superior power. They are less taught on adhering to integrity and to be responsible to constituents," she said.

How politicians pool 'resources'

Asking for kickbacks from procurements undertaken by ministries, agencies and state institutions, or when approving annual budgets.

Demanding cuts from funds allocated to regional administrations.

Asking for kickbacks to support specific candidates for government agencies and state institutions.

Asking for kickbacks during the legislative process to insert favored clauses into bills.

Arranging overseas junkets, typically without clear objectives or funding transparency.

Manipulating financial schemes designed for social purposes - Using third-party companies to benefit from state-funded procurements.

Criticizing ministries, agencies or state institutions with an expectation of receiving a kickbacks for silence.

Collecting private donations beyond legal limits.

Seeking kickbacks for proposing higher budget allocations.

Kalla's revival, Prabowo's rise muddy 2014 presidential picture

Jakarta Globe - August 24, 2012

Ezra Sihite – From defending the rising political star of Solo Mayor Joko Widodo for next month's Jakarta gubernatorial election to easing the Rohingya's plight in Myanmar, former Vice President Jusuf Kalla has been making headlines in the last several weeks.

Many politicians praised the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) chief as a strong presidential candidate as analysts heralded the beginning of political fight for the country's top job with the election less than two years away.

Several political parties already said they had considered backing Kalla as their presidential candidate, while others lauded him as a skillful politician for jumping on Joko's bandwagon.

Kalla, a businessman from Bugis, South Sulawesi, could become popular among Javanese voters, the majority of the Indonesian population. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was forced to acknowledge Kalla's role in mediating conflicts as he personally asked his former vice president to become the country's special envoy to help solve the Rohingya issue.

The up-and-coming National Democrat Party (Nasdem) has announced that Kalla is one of the figures it is considering as a presidential candidate. "Kalla is a person to consider," Nasdem chairman Patrice Rio Capella said on Thursday.

Previously, the United Development Party (PPP) also aired support for the former Golkar Party chairman to run for the country's top job. Kalla himself has repeatedly stated that he is ready to run.

However, rising support for Kalla could threaten the chances of current Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, who has already been picked as that party's candidate. Analysts have said that Kalla's decision to run will divide Golkar and its supporters.

Indra J. Piliang, the chairman of Golkar's research and development division, has admitted that Kalla has a bigger stronghold in eastern Indonesia, compared to Aburizal.

Golkar deputy secretary general Nurul Arifin and spokesman Tantowi Yahya have expressed how proud they are of their former chairman. "Aburizal's chances, which are already slim, will be further hit if Kalla runs," said Siti Zuhro, a political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

Several analysts agreed, however, that no matter how popular Kalla was, the front-runner would be former general Prabowo Subianto, the founder of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra).

In most surveys taken during the last several months, Prabowo topped Kalla and other figures, including former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, the chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Many said Prabowo boosted his popularity when he persuaded Megawati to support Joko, known as Jokowi, in the Jakarta gubernatorial election. "If Jokowi wins Jakarta's top job, Prabowo will feel that he can show the country that he controls the capital," said Fachry Ali, another analyst from LIPI.

The main problem for Prabowo is to find major political parties to support him because the law states that only a party or a coalition of parties with 20 percent of the vote in the legislative election can nominate a presidential candidate.

He has been trying to convince Megawati and the PDI-P, or Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party, to support him. He's still waiting, however, despite a recent meeting with Yudhoyono and a coalition with the PDI-P to support Jokowi.

"Yudhoyono will make sure that he only supports the winning candidate, and Prabowo has not convinced him yet," said Aleksius Jemadu, the dean of the Pelita Harapan University's School of Social and Political Sciences. "Prabowo will compete with Aburizal and Golkar to attract Yudhoyono's support."

Fachry and Aleksius agree that the mystery for 2014 is if Megawati will run. "If Megawati runs or nominates someone else, then it will be a game- changer as it can dash Prabowo's hopes," Aleksius said.

Fachry said that if Jokowi won the Jakarta gubernatorial election, then the PDI-P had no choice but to pick him as its presidential candidate for 2014. "All indicators suggest that Jokowi can win the country's top job," he said.

Religion and race still key to Indonesian presidency

Straits Times - August 22, 2012

Salim Osman – The polemic over a non-Muslim candidate ahead of next month's Jakarta governorship face-off election has rekindled the age-old interest in having a non-Muslim as president of Muslim-majority Indonesia.

The idea itself may seem far-fetched but given the political strides made by non-Muslims either as lawmakers or as regional heads, it may not be long before one of them is bold enough to seek the top job in the land.

Such an interest had been repressed for fear of offending the Muslims and for a lack of confidence in getting Muslim backing.

It first appeared in 1988. The then military commander Benny Murdani, a Javanese Catholic, was rumored to be keen to either succeed then president Suharto or become his deputy. The idea was quashed by Suharto.

A plan in 2004 to field a pastor and a Chinese Christian businessman failed because of internal squabbling among the parties, and not the fear of a Muslim backlash.

The interest is being revived following the emergence of two challengers to Governor Fauzi Bowo in the Jakarta election.

Surakarta mayor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and his Chinese Christian running mate Basuki "Ahok" Tjahja Purnama made waves in the capital after the team won in the first round of the election last month. None of the six pairs of challengers garnered 50 percent of the vote so the top two contenders will face off next month.

Foreign investors and local businessmen are closely watching this second round in Jakarta. If the Jokowi-Ahok team trounce the incumbent, they could emerge as a formidable pair to take a shot at the presidency in 2014 or beyond, making it tough for presidential hopefuls who are holdovers of the Suharto era.

But how ready is Indonesia to see a non-Muslim candidate vying for the presidency or the No. 2?

Academic Mujar Ibnu Syarif, of the Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah in Jakarta, studied the issue in 2009 when the idea of a non- Muslim candidate contesting was swirling. He found Muslim scholars' views divided – for and against.

The first view held that the top job must be held by a Muslim, since Indonesian society is 88 percent Muslim. This is based on verses in the Quran and the Sunnah (prophetic tradition) which command Muslims to choose only leaders who share the same faith. In addition, an unwritten convention held that he must also be Javanese to reflect their political dominance in Indonesia.

The second view emerged in recent years, propagated by liberal scholars who see the ban on electing non-Muslims as discriminatory and against the democratic rights of the minorities.

They said earlier Quranic revelations in Mecca emphasized equal status for women and non-Muslims. This view resonates with liberal Muslims who reject all forms of discrimination, observes Mujar in a paper published in Jurnal Syariah.

Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chief Amidhan Shaberah recently weighed in, "If the (non-Muslim) candidate has been proven to be a just person, then (Muslims) can vote for a non-Muslim. Indonesia is a democratic nation, not an Islamic nation." He appears to be bucking the trend of conservatives who oppose non-Muslims as leaders.

His remarks could mean an endorsement of non-Muslim participation in regional elections for the post of governor, deputy governor, regent and mayor. It may also mean that a window of opportunity is now open to a non- Muslim candidate's entry in the presidential contest.

But despite the rhetoric, ethnic and religious representation still counts highly. The Constitution does not stipulate the race and religion of the presidential aspirant, but it is unlikely that the Muslim majority will give their votes to a non-Muslim and a non-Javanese in the race for the presidency.

Labour & migrant workers

Workers end strike after deal with Malaysian employer

Jakarta Post - August 30, 2012

Fadli, Batam – After going on strike for more than two weeks, nearly 700 workers at a Malaysia-owned cable and wire manufacturer, PT Ho Wah Genting in Batam, Riau Islands, went back to work on Wednesday after reaching an agreement with management.

The agreement was signed on Tuesday after a tripartite negotiation, in which the management agreed to meet all of the workers' demands regarding the ceasing of employee outsourcing, head of the Batam chapter of the Indonesian Metal Workers Federation (FSPMI) Electronic Workers Union Suprapto said.

Four points were agreed upon, namely: verification to be conducted by the management on employment supervision; recruitment of outsourced workers whose contracts as staff members expire; verification of problematic contracts by the manpower office; and disbursement of payment for striking workers, Suprapto said. "The strike has ended and all the demands have been met," he said.

Previously, the 700 workers threatened to go on strike for two months if their demands were not met.

The company's FSPMI Electronic Workers Union unit head Effendi Parsaoran Sinaga said earlier that there were six outsourcing companies working with the company, which produces extension cords and cables.

The contractual workers do the same work as the permanent workers, whereas in fact the manpower law stipulates that a company can only outsource for jobs outside of the main work of the company.

"We want the contracts of all the outsourcing companies to be terminated. We demand contractual workers be appointed as permanent workers. If our demands are not met, we will strike for the next two months, or until Oct. 14," said Effendi.

A worker, Raras, said he had worked for the company since 2004. He was recruited through PT Global Area Batam, one of the outsourcing companies affiliated with PT Ho Wah Genting. He has worked for Ho Wah Genting for nearly eight years, but his status is an outsource worker at PT Global Area Batam.

"The conditions that I get are different to those of permanent workers, such as transport and meal allowances. This is not fair," said Raras, a father of two.

Ho Wah Genting human resource development manager Jonathan Sinaga said talks between the management and workers had been underway since early June. Company management allowed workers to strike for two months, in accordance with their rights. The company currently employs 1,200 workers, 700 of them contractual workers and 500 permanent workers.

"Impacts from the strike against company operations are huge. We are forced to turn down orders and reduce production capacity," said Jonathan.

Environment & natural disasters

Official laments shortage of investigators to handle environmental crimes

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2012

Fidelis E. Satriastanti – The relative infrequency of indictments in forest fire cases highlights an acute shortage of investigators to probe environmental violations, an official said on Tuesday.

"The speed of law enforcement seems slow because of the number of available civilian investigators. For the Environment Ministry, the [number of] law enforcement officials can be counted on the hands," said Sudariyono, the deputy for environmental compliance at the Environment Ministry.

Sudariyono added that those few officials dedicated to environmental law enforcement had to deal with a diverse caseload across the entirety of the archipelago.

"Ideally, there should be investigators in the region as the frontrunners, so that there is no dependence on investigators from the central government only. These can provide guidance," he said.

However, he said central government personnel were preferred because they were seen as having fewer potential conflicts of interest in regional cases and immune to some of the pressures a local investigator might face.

In a bid to address the shortage, the ministry reached a cooperative agreement with judges and prosecutors. "The joint agreement is to prevent dossiers from going back and forth. If necessary, prosecutors can also be present when witnesses are questioned, so as to save time," he said.

Ministry data as of November 2010 show that there were a total of 554 civilian investigators in the civil service across the country, only 398 of whom were still active.

"By active I mean that they are assigned to environmental agencies in the region. Efforts to increase their number cannot produce more than 40 [annually] because of the limited capacity available," Sudariyono said, referring to budgetary constraints. He said that in 2011, only 36 new civilian investigators were appointed.

Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya earlier said that the country needed 1,600 additional civilian investigators. "In some provinces, there is only one civilian investigator, making law enforcement difficult," Balthasar said.

In an effort to draw talented civilian investigator recruits, the ministry has agreed with the National Civil Service Agency (BKN) to provide more "functional allowance" to those who take up the calling.

The ministry said it would also seek to prevent the transfer of existing civilian investigators to other posts unrelated to environmental law enforcement.

Health & education

Indonesian universities the weak link in booming economy

Agence France Presse - August 29, 2012

Arlina Arshad – Indonesia's creaking university system is failing to keep pace with its booming economy, struggling to produce graduates equipped for modern working life in the Southeast Asian nation.

Investors have flocked to the fast-modernizing country of 240 million people, attracted by its huge domestic market, rich natural resources and relatively low labor costs.

But badly resourced universities mean quality graduates are a rare commodity in Indonesia, where companies find it difficult to recruit people who can think critically and make a smooth transition into employment.

"University graduates often lack the necessary skills employers need," the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a recent report on education.

The report observed gaps in "thinking, technical and behavioral skills," based on a World Bank survey of employers, which found 20 to 25 percent of graduates needed retraining on the job.

Indonesian universities are "lagging behind" those of other nations and lack global competitiveness, the OECD report said, in contrast to nations such as India that produce doctors, engineers and scientists whose skills are in demand worldwide.

None of Indonesia's 92 public universities or around 3,000 private colleges appeared among the world's top 400 tertiary institutions in the latest Times Higher Education rankings, seen as one of the world's most authoritative sources of higher education information.

This is despite the fact that Indonesia is often placed on the same rung of development as BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – all of which made the list.

Headhunter Lina Marianti, who works for JAC Recruitment in Jakarta, said foreign employers reject more than half the graduates she recommends for corporate positions.

"We provide the best graduates, but even our best are unable to meet employers' expectations," Marianti told AFP. "They complain that local graduates are not able to apply theory to practice. They lack analytical and leadership skills, and they have poor command of English and product knowledge."

'Many expect to be spoon-fed'

Rina, a human resources manager for a foreign-based chemicals company, said that many students graduate in Indonesia without a positive work ethic.

"It's hard to believe some of these young professionals are graduates. They send blank emails with no cover letters to apply for jobs, don't turn up for interviews and resign via text message," said Rina, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. "Many expect to be spoon-fed. They constantly need to be told what to do on the job."

Many affluent Indonesians circumvent the problems by going abroad to study and some win coveted scholarships, with more than 32,000 enrolled in overseas universities and colleges in 2009, according to UNESCO's most recent figures.

High-ranking officials and successful businesspeople often have at least one degree from a foreign university on their CVs, with Australia, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands among the top destinations.

Indonesian International Education Consultants Association chairman Sumarjono Suwito said Indonesia was going in the right direction, but suffered in comparison with its Asian rivals.

"Countries like China, India, Singapore, Malaysia and most recently Thailand have focused on education or have allocated ample funds to it," he said. "In the last five years, Indonesia has been doing a lot of catching up, but progress is still slow."

The education sector is also hobbled by the corruption that is rife at all levels in the country. Funds are siphoned off, poorly maintained school buildings collapse with sometimes fatal consequences and there is a widespread culture of cheating by school students just to get into tertiary education.

The frustrations are felt by students in the system, who complain their universities' facilities and lecturers are under par. "Some of my lecturers postpone lessons and just don't turn up without letting anyone know," said University of Indonesia health administration student Lentari Pancar Wengi, 19.

Wiyogo Prio Wicaksono, 21, a third-year chemistry student at the same university, in Jakarta, said he devotes time to extra-curricular activities after lessons to develop non-academic skills and network with industry players.

"My friends who keep their jobs are often those who got mediocre results at university, but they know the who's who of the industry. I guess that's more important and useful than what you learn at university," he said.

In Indonesia, Big Tobacco hasn't got a worry

Sydney Morning Herald - August 23, 2012

Michael Bachelard and Jill Stark – Many people have seen the smoking baby on YouTube – the chubby, cheerful two-year-old from Sumatra with a pack-a-day habit. But Ardi Rizal was not a one-off curiosity. In the land of the child smoker, he is one of scores of toddlers and preschoolers addicted to nicotine.

Muhammad Dihan Awalidan is one. He's four years old, smoked his first cigarette at 2-and-a-half, and gets through a pack of 25 a day. He started when he stole one of his father's cigarettes and lit it on the kitchen stove.

His parents, Iyan Ansori and mother Sulawati, are farmers from a hillside village in West Java. They know their son's habit is unhealthy, but feel powerless to stop him. He walks down to the local warung, or cafe, to buy his own cigarettes, sometimes staying for a coffee as well. If he's denied, "it's like he's possessed, he really wants it", says Iyan, who smokes a few cigarettes a day himself.

While the cigarette industry is beginning to lose its grip in developed nations – the federal government's victory on plain packaging legislation was hailed as an international breakthrough – health experts warn of a humanitarian disaster looming in poorer countries, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

"They [cigarette companies] are just wilfully imposing a pandemic on developing countries," says Professor Mike Daube, a World Health Organisation tobacco control adviser and president of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health. "They've known for more than 60 years that smoking kills. This is going to cause far more deaths than any wars we've ever seen."

Dihan does not play much with other children, and doesn't say much to strangers. But when asked what smoking is like, he says "enak" – an Indonesian word which in this context means both "delicious" and "it makes me feel good".

Australia's northern neighbour is the wild west of tobacco. It's one of the few countries that has not signed the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which means there are few restrictions on advertising, warnings or smoking indoors. Outdoor cigarette advertising, footnoted by the mildest of warnings, assaults you wherever you go.

About 90 per cent of smokers here favour "kretek", clove cigarettes that are an Indonesian product and regarded by some with nationalistic fervour. They can be high in tar (39 milligrams compared with 16 milligrams for the strongest cigarette in Australia) and are sold in packets or by the stick. Some stalls set up outside schools to attract students.

Despite the preference for kretek, the Marlboro man – literally and figuratively dead in the West – is also alive in Indonesia. Global giants Philip Morris and British American Tobacco have moved in to Indonesia in the past 10 years, attracted by sales of a massive volume of cigarettes – 270 billion a year, and growing fast.

About two-thirds of men smoke either cigarettes or some form of tobacco, vastly outnumbering women because of cultural taboos. But young, smart, city women are now appearing in smoking ads, and some are beginning to break with tradition in pursuit of what Andika Priyono, an official from the country's child protection agency, calls the "three Bs" of modern success. "BlackBerry, braces and black menthol [cigarettes]," she told the Jakarta Globe newspaper recently.

Smokers in Indonesia are also getting younger. The University of Indonesia's Demographic Institute found that 71,000 Indonesians aged 10 to 14 were smokers in 1995. By 2010, there were 426,000 at least. Local cigarettes often have sweetened tips, making them taste like sweets.

The child protection agency, Komnas Anak, gave The Sunday Age a list of 10 smoking children whose names and histories it could confirm. It says almost 2 per cent of Indonesian smokers start at the age of four – a number that's rising. Even for the poor it's affordable, with a pack of 20 cigarettes starting at about 90".

Sandi Adi Susanto has been smoking since he was 18 months old. Every morning he asks for a coffee and a cigarette. He drinks alcohol too, if he can get it, and his parents believe he is possessed by the hard-bitten spirit of his late grandmother.

Reno Ardiansyah has been smoking since he was 14 months old; Aldi Ilham is only eight, but has already been smoking for four years; and Falen is two and does not speak much but can distinguish between different brands of cigarettes. All of them, like Dihan, are surrounded by a culture steeped in tobacco.

"I think it's because of the environment," says father Iyan, "because the village people always sit around together and he saw people smoking and wanted to try it."

Dihan's fellow villagers, and his family, farm tobacco, among other things. But he shows no interest in the local product. What he likes is Sampoerna A, a smooth-tasting machine-made brand of kretek owned since 2005 by Philip Morris.

Philip Morris identifies Indonesia as its biggest growth market. At its results presentation on July 19, chief financial officer Hermann G. Waldemer boasted that Sampoerna A was the fastest-growing brand in Indonesia, up 1.2 points to be 13.1 per cent of the market. The company's other brands, including Marlboro, are also growing.

"We're just doing extremely well," Waldemer told analysts. "The elements are all there for a very positive performance to continue in the Indonesian market."

Part of the quality of tobacco companies' performance is that Indonesia's politicians are unwilling to take on the might of Big Tobacco. A law proposed in 2009 tried to limit smoking and its promotion. If passed, it would empower local governments to designate and control smoke-free zones, limit advertising and include graphic pictorial warnings on cigarette packets.

But lobbying by the tobacco industry has left it on the backburner for three years because, according to Ignatius Mulyono, chairman of the House of Representatives' legislative body, it was "very biased towards the anti-tobacco lobby".

Human Rights Watch Indonesian representative Andreas Harsono says politicians do not want to take on the industry. Only 20 to 30 per cent of the industry's costs are in making cigarettes, he says, "the rest goes to sponsoring, advertising and lobbying". There are no electoral disclosure laws in Indonesia, but Harsono believes if there were, it would show money from tobacco flowing into the campaigns of politicians.

Sponsorship, particularly of sport and education, is another big part of the industry's influence. A recent survey showed tobacco companies sponsored 1042 events in Indonesia between 2009 and 2011. The Djarum Foundation, run by a private cigarette company, has given educational scholarships to more than 7000 university students since 1984.

Everything from badminton matches to schools themselves are sponsored – one public high school in East Java uses a tobacco company foundation logo as its school badge, says child protection commission spokeswoman Lisda Sundari.

These activities have made tobacco a powerful lobby, and highly resistant to the message from health practitioners. A recent book, Killing Indonesia: Global Conspiracy to Destroy Kretek, paints smoking almost as a nationalist requirement, and the health lobby as a conspiracy by American interests to kill the clove industry.

A community group, Komunitas Kretek, says the traditional cigarette, and Indonesia's sovereignty itself, is under threat both from "white cigarettes" (the non-clove variety pushed by the multinational companies) and the health lobby.

The group's national co-ordinator, Abhisan Demosa Makahekum, says cloves are good for health: "People in Papua use clove to cure their toothache, in Kudus [Central Java] it is used to cure coughing."

For Indonesians, the result of the cigarette epidemic is tragic, with 200,000 people dying every year, including 25,000 from passive smoking. And because they start smoking so young, they are dying younger.

Persahabatan Hospital is the national referral hospital for cancer. Specialist Dr Elisna Syahruddin says one-fifth of her patients are under 40. In the United States, by contrast, just 2.3 per cent of lung cancer cases occur in people under 44 years, and the median age for diagnosis is 72.

"I am very worried," Dr Syahruddin says. Kretek are actually worse than "white cigarettes", she says, because the cloves anaesthetise the throat, allowing smokers to draw deeper. The cancers she sees are at the further reaches of the lungs.

One of her patients, Rambe Partogi, is 31. She has fourth-stage lung cancer, and only a 50 per cent chance of surviving more than nine months.

He started smoking when he was 12 because all the men in his family smoked, and his friends too. "It's a normal condition," he said. At 15, he changed to Marlboro after he won a competition and became part of the Marlboro Adventure Team, hiking and doing other activities in Yogyakarta.

"It wasn't about marketing and promotion, it was just about adventure," Rambe says. "They didn't give us cigarettes, but then the program committee, they did smoke and of course we smoked too."

His friends, still smokers, have come to visit him in hospital. "I say to them: smoke and go to hell," Rambe says. "Sometimes they listen."

Another of Dr Syahruddin's patients, Dewi Husmawati, never smoked, but worked in an advertising office with 11 men who did.

"In Indonesia it's very difficult to make a definition of a passive smoker because smoke is everywhere – the office, stations, houses, restaurants," Dr Syahruddin says.

She allowed The Sunday Age carte blanche to tour the hospital, film her patients and ask questions because she is sick of waiting for the government to respond to what she sees as a crisis. "If the politicians won't help," she says, "maybe the media can."

Children & domestic violence

Koran teacher admits molesting 13 students over last two years

Jakarta Globe - August 27, 2012

Vento Saudale, Bogor – The police arrested a Koran recitation teacher in Wanaherang village in Bogor after he admitted to having sexually molested 13 of his students over the course of two years.

The case was revealed after the parents of a 9-year-old child reported the teacher, Nana Suryana, 47, to the police. The mother said she learned about the alleged molestation from the child's younger sister.

"She first heard about it from the sister, then she talked to the alleged victim for confirmation," First Insp. FX Suyadi said in Bogor on Saturday. "Then she reported the teacher to the police."

"[Nana] admitted to molesting 13 children during the past two years, with the ages of the victims ranging from 5 to 9 years old."

In the case of the 9-year-old child, Nana reportedly offered Rp 2,000 (20 cents) after the act. "He also threatened her, warning her not to tell anybody about it," the police officer said.

He said Nana was being detained at Bogor Police headquarters and would be charged with violating two articles of the 2002 Law on Child Protection. The maximum sentence is 15 years in jail.

A number of Islamic religious teachers have been arrested for sexually abusing their students in recent years in different areas of the country.

In May, the police in Nganjuk, East Java, arrested a 27-year-old Koran recital teacher who had allegedly raped several of his students. The teacher was nearly killed by residents after they heard what he had done.

Last April, the police in South Sulawesi's Gowa district arrested two Koran recital teachers for allegedly sodomizing an 8-year-old student. The suspects are alleged to have been caught by a resident in the act of removing the boy's trousers in their room on the second floor of a mosque.

The two teachers were able to escape from a mob of residents and ran to the nearest police station for protection. They were taken into protective custody and later transferred to Gowa Police headquarters, where they reportedly confessed to having sodomized the boy on at least six separate occasions.

The case mirrors another one earlier this month in the same province. In that case, an Islamic teacher was arrested in Bulukumba district for allegedly molesting a female student.

Also, a teacher at a state junior high school was arrested on April 12 while trying to flee the area, after the girl's father reportedly threatened to kill him.

Last year, the police arrested a Koran teacher who was also a civil worker in the Bogor city administration for allegedly sexually abusing eight boys who were also his students.

Bogor police arrest Koran teacher who allegedly molested 13 kids

Jakarta Globe - August 25, 2012

Vento Saudale, Bogor, West Java – Police have arrested a Koran recitation teacher in the Wanaherang village in Gunung Putri, Bogor, after he admitted to having sexually molested 13 of his students over the course of two years.

The case was revealed after the parents of one of the kids, nine-year-old Bunga (who has chosen to go by an alias), reported the teacher, Nana Suryana, 47, to police. Bunga's mother, Suwarti (also going by an alias) said she had learned about the alleged molestation from Bunga's younger sister.

"Suwarti first heard about it from [Bunga's sister], and then she asked Bunga for confirmation, after which she reported Nana to the police," the head of Bogor Police's child protection unit, First Insp. F. X. Suyadi, said in Bogor on Saturday.

"[Nana] admitted to molesting 13 children during the past two years, with the ages of the victims ranging from five to nine years old," he added.

In Bunga's case, Suyadi said, Nana had given the child Rp 2,000 (21 US cents) after he committed the act. "He also threatened her, warning her not to tell anybody about it."

He added that Nana was now detained in the Bogor Police station and would be charged with violating two articles of the 2002 Law on Child Protection, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in jail.

Refugees & asylum seekers

Military to probe claims officers extorted cash from asylum-seekers

Jakarta Globe - August 30, 2012

Fitri R., Mataram – Authorities are investigating claims that soldiers have been involved in extorting money from aspiring refugees after the military in West Nusa Tenggara intercepted 71 asylum-seekers from Afghanistan and Iraq who were reportedly en route to Australia.

While the military has claimed that they secured the asylum-seekers, several asylum-seekers have given the Jakarta Globe a different account of events.

One of the asylum-seekers, Rajib Rahimi, said that five minutes before they arrived at a hotel where they were to be held, a person in a military uniform stepped onto the bus and asked for money.

"Our friends were [asked] for money in different amounts – between $500 to $3,000 per person," Rajib said, showing that she only had Rp 21,000 ($2.20) left in her wallet.

Rajib said that she left her country three years ago, and was jailed in Malaysia as an illegal immigrant.

Abdul Latif, a man from Afghanistan who paid $4,500 to be taken to Australia, also said someone in a military uniform had tried to extort him. After being asked for money, Abdul said he gave all the cash he had, and said the other asylum-seekers experienced the same treatment. Col. (Inf.) Zulfardi Junin, a member of the regional military command, said on Wednesday that he was looking into the extortion charge.

"We're still investigating whether [military] officers were involved," Zulfardi said. "We will take strict action if it is proven."

Separately, an asylum-seeker boat carrying an estimated 150 people was sinking in the Sunda Strait, the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) said on Wednesday.

Basarnas received an alert from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority at around 1:30 a.m. that a boat was in distress between Java and Sumatra.

"We received a fax from Australia in the early morning saying there was boat sinking in the Sunda Strait," Basarnas officer-on-duty Yopi Haryadi said. "We sent two 36-meter police rescue boats at around five in the morning, and two helicopters at around 9:30, but so far there is no sign of the vessel or any survivors."

Haryadi said the boat sent a distress signal 220 nautical miles from the Australian Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island.

[Additional reporting from AFP.]

Graft & corruption

National Police thumb their nose at KPK in graft investigation

Jakarta Post - August 31, 2012

Jakarta – The National Police appear to have once again obstructed the investigation into the vehicle simulators graft case when a number of officers declined to answer summonses from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said on Thursday that four officers, who were expected to testify for Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, the main suspect in the multibillion rupiah graft case, failed to show up for questioning.

"The police told us that the officers didn't show up because we'd written their names and ranks incorrectly," Johan told reporters. Johan said that the KPK had sent the summonses on Aug. 15 but only received a response on Tuesday, a day before the questioning was due to take place.

National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said that the four officers refused to meet the summons because of administrative errors. "According to information that I got from chief of the National Police Traffic Corps [Korlantas], their names were misspelled," he told reporters in Bandung, West Java.

The KPK had summonsed four officers, Adj. Comr. Wisnu Budhhaya, Adj. Comr. Wandi Rustiwan, Comr. Endah Purwaningsih and Comr. Ni Nyoman Sumartini.

A statement from the National Police said that the correct names and ranks were Adj. Comr. Wisnu Budhhaya, Adj. Sr. Comr. Wandy Rustiwan, Adj. Sr. Comr. Endah Purwaningsih and Comr. Ni Nyoman Suartini. Timur, however, said that the police would continue collaborating with the KPK in the investigation of the case.

Earlier in the investigation, police officers had refused to allow KPK investigators who raided the Korlantas headquarters in South Jakarta to leave the building and later the police launched their own probe into the graft case.

The National Police Criminal Investigation Directorate (Bareskrim) has named four officers, including Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, a former Korlantas chief who had also been named suspect by the KPK, and three others – National Police Traffic Corps deputy chief Brig. Gen. Didik Purnomo, Adj. Sr. Comr. Teddy Rusmawan, the head of the procurement project and Traffic Corps treasurer Comr. Legimo, for their alleged roles in the scandal involving the of procurement of vehicle simulators worth Rp 198.7 billion (US$21.06 million) by Korlantas.

KPK chairman Abraham Samad said that he was confident that the police officers would eventually answer the summons. "They are law enforcers, so I am sure they will abide by the law," he said.

Abraham said the KPK and the police had come close to a new consensus in the handling of the case. "I sense that they're starting to understand and want to fully support the KPK. They have just not been open about it," he said.

It has emerged that on Thursday, another police officer, Adj. Sr. Comr. Heru Trisasono, who was scheduled to testify for suspect Djoko, also failed to show up.

Emerson Yuntho of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said the no-shows demonstrated that the police were once again stonewalling the probe.

"Misspelled names and ranks are trivial. If the police really want to help, their officers would come to the KPK and fix them," he said. Emerson said that the police would exploit any legal loopholes to win their fight against the KPK. "Now the KPK's position is difficult because it faces the law enforcement agency itself," he said. (cor)

KPK probe widens in judicial bribery case

Jakarta Globe - August 24, 2012

Rizky Amelia – Corruption Eradication Commission investigators looking into the alleged bribery of two Anti-Corruption Court judges are widening their net to see if other members of the judiciary are involved.

"We will investigate whether there were only two. Everyone will be evaluated to find out whether only two or more were involved," Bambang Widjojanto, deputy chairman of the agency known as the KPK, said on Thursday.

The antigraft body caught two ad hoc Anti-Corruption Court judges red- handed as they were allegedly receiving bribes in Semarang, Central Java, last week.

The two judges were identified as Kartini Marpaung, a judge with the Semarang Anti-Corruption Court, and Heru Kusbandono, a judge with the Pontianak Anti-Corruption Court. The judges were arrested while receiving at least Rp 100 million ($10,500) from an alleged middleman, identified as Sri Dartuti, in the parking lot of the Semarang District Court.

"We caught red-handed three persons, including S. D., and are now questioning them," Bambang said at the time, adding that the KPK cooperated with the Supreme Court in making the arrest.

The bribery is allegedly related to an investigation into a graft case implicating a senior local official.

The Supreme Court's deputy chief Djoko Sarwoko said it would evaluate the work of the two Anti-Corruption Courts following the arrest. "This incident gives bad name to the institutions, the Anti-Corruption Courts, which are tasked with heavy responsibilities," Djoko said.

Kartini, one of the judges caught, said she was suffering from gout, prompting the KPK to seek medical assistance to check on her condition.

A doctor and a nurse arrived at the KPK building on Wednesday morning. "We were asked to check on a detainee at the KPK's detention house," Dr. Suryoprayitno said on Wednesday.

The KPK has named the two judges as bribery suspects in relation to the graft case involving the car maintenance budget of the Grobogan Legislative Council (DPRD) in Central Java.

The Semarang Anti-Corruption Court was handling the car maintenance budget case, in which M. Yaeni, the speaker of DPRD Grobogan, was a suspect. Dartuti allegedly acted as an intermediary between Yaeni and the judges.

House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie last week said the case showed a need to increase judges' salaries.

KPK to use financial 'weapon'

Jakarta Post - August 24, 2012

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has said it plans to use data about the bank accounts of the senior police officers implicated in a procurement scandal as part of its investigation, sending a clear message to the generals at National Police headquarters that the commission has knowledge about the personal wealth of other high-ranking police officers.

KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto revealed the plan, which will focus the investigation upon the state officials' wealth disclosure forms (LHKPN), to reporters at his office on Thursday. The law requires state officials, including police and military officers, to report their wealth before, during and after carrying out their state duties.

"Next week, we will launch an operation related to the LHKPN. This will be interesting, because we will be using a different approach," Bambang said, without disclosing further details about the operation.

Earlier this month, Muhammad Yusuf, the head of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), confirmed that he had handed the results of a PPATK investigation into the bank accounts of those implicated in the graft case to the KPK.

"There were suspicious cash flows worth more than Rp 10 billion [US$1.06 million] in a bank account belonging to one of the suspects in the case," Yusuf said.

The law mandates the KPK to prosecute cases of corruption of state funds, but in the case of alleged corruption surrounding the Rp 200 billion procurement of driving simulators for the National Traffic Police Corps headquarters, the police have insisted on investigating the case themselves, refusing to hand it over to the KPK. There is concern among the public at large, however, that the police will not follow up the case at the highest levels at police headquarters.

The commission named former National Traffic Police Corps chief, Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, a suspect on Aug. 1, after previously naming the National Traffic Police Corps deputy chief, Brig. Gen. Didik Purnomo; the director of PT Inovasi Teknologi Indonesia, Sukotjo S. Bambang; and the director of PT Cipta Mandiri Metalindo Abadi, Budi Santoso, as suspects for their involvement in the procurement of simulators.

According to Bambang, the commission is scheduled to summon Djoko next week. However, the commission has not yet sent a summons to the former traffic corps chief.

Another KPK deputy chairman, Zulkarnain, said the KPK did not need to obtain permission from the National Police chief to summon his officers. "We will send a formal letter of intent to the police chief. [We will] not be asking for permission," Zulkarnain said.

KPK chief Abraham Samad recently told Antara news agency that the commission could use force to question the suspects if they declined to appear after being summoned three times. He added that coordination with the National Police was still ongoing regarding the investigation of this case.

Separately, the National Police spokesman announced on Thursday that Djoko was scheduled to be questioned as a witness at the National Police Criminal Investigation Directorate (Bareskrim) on Friday.

The National Police, like the KPK, have named four suspects in this case, three of whom are the same as those announced by the commission, namely Didik, Budi Santoso and Sukotjo. However, police are currently only naming Djoko a witness. (cor/nad)

Probe of police general case in go-slow mode

Jakarta Post - August 22, 2012

Jakarta – Despite its earlier plan to summon graft suspect Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo after Ramadhan, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is unlikely to question the police general within the next few days.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said that although the antigraft body had planned to summon Djoko by now, the commission had not yet sent a summons to the two-star general. "We planned to summon him after Lebaran but it definitely won't be this week," Johan told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Separately, Djoko, a former Police Traffic Corps chief, said he was ready to face questions as soon as the antigraft body sent the summons. Although the two-star general has expressed his readiness to meet KPK investigators, it is the police investigators who will likely lead on the investigation.

Djoko had reportedly received a summons from police investigators for questioning. But he will be questioned only as a witness in the driving- simulator graft case.

Previously, it had been reported that the KPK had planned to summon Djoko following Idul Fitri after he was named a suspect along with three other people – National Police Traffic Corps deputy chief Brig. Gen. Didik Purnomo; director of PT Inovasi Teknologi Indonesia, Sukotjo S. Bambang; and director of PT Cipta Mandiri Metalindo Abadi, Budi Santoso.

All four men were allegedly involved in the Rp 200 billion (US$21.2 million) procurement of driving simulators at the National Traffic Police Corps headquarters.

Djoko's lawyer, Juniver Girsang, said on Tuesday that his client had not received any letter from the commission to attend questioning after the Idul Fitri holidays.

"But if the KPK summons Djoko, he will definitely turn up on condition that the summons complies with existing rules and regulations," he said, denying that his client had already refused to attend a summons as reported in the media.

He added that Djoko was baffled over the KPK declaring him a suspect, considering the commission had not previously questioned him. "Why was it so sudden? The KPK used to question an individual first as a witness before declaring them a suspect," Juniver said.

Besides preparing for the case, Djoko's lawyers, who were appointed by the National Police, are examining the KPK's authority to handle the case as, according to Juniver, the police had begun investigating the case prior to the commission.

"We held a meeting with legal experts including Yusril [Ihza] Mahendra to analyze the law and determine who has the authority to investigate the case," he said.

Tension arose between the KPK and the National Police following the former's decision to name two high-ranking police officers, Djoko and Didik, as suspects in the graft case as well as confiscating documents during an overnight raid on the Police Traffic Corps headquarters in South Jakarta on July 30. The raid ended in a standoff, with KPK investigators being prevented from leaving the building by police officers.

Johan added, however, that the KPK had allowed the police to conduct their own investigation. Johan said the antigraft body had no issue with the police hiring lawyers to deal with the case, nor with their using lawyers to deal with the rift between the two institutions.

"Hiring lawyers when you deal with legal problems is normal," he said, adding that the KPK chairman, Abraham Samad, and National Police chief Timur Pradopo were still communicating with each other to find the best solution in resolving the case.

Johan also explained that the naming of Djoko as a suspect was in accordance with procedures. "We don't have to summon an individual first to name him a suspect," he said, adding that the KPK had adequate evidence to name him. (cor)

Freedom of religion & worship

Komnas HAM says 70 still missing following attack on Shiites in East Java

Jakarta Globe - August 30, 2012

The National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) announced on Thursday that as many as 70 members of a Shiite community in Sampang, East Java are still missing since an attack on Sunday that left two dead and several people badly injured. Another organization said that dozens of people are hiding in the jungle near Sampang.

"Some 24 families have disappeared. If each family consists of three persons, then at least 70 people are missing," Komnas HAM commissioner Hesti Armiwuland said in Jakarta on Thursday, as quoted by Indonesian news portal tempo.co.

Hesti also criticized what she called the government's slow response to the problem, adding it remained unclear how they planned to deal with the situation.

She added that some 340 Shiites seeking refuge at Sampang's Wijaya Kusuma Stadium were living in squalid conditions, with poor sanitation and food. "They are packed like sardines, without a divider between the men and the women," Hesti said. "I've also received reports of spoiled rice."

A mob of some 500 Sunni Muslims attacked Nangkernang village inhabited by a Shiite community in the subdistrict of Omben in Sampang on Sunday. Two Shiites were killed, while dozens of others were injured, including seven that are still in critical condition, according to the latest reports. The attackers also set dozens of houses on fire.

Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Coordinator Fatkhul Khoir also said on Thursday that some of the Shiite followers had fled to jungle near Sampang after the attack, putting the number near 50.

NU chief renounces Shiite persecution in Sampang

Jakarta Globe - August 29, 2012

Arientha Primanita, Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Ezra Sihite – The chairman of the country's largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, on Tuesday distanced his group from the recent deadly violence against members of the Shia community in Sampang, East Java.

"Shia is not a deviant sect, it is only different from us," NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj said after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the presidential office in Jakarta.

He said Shia followers had been around for centuries and were only believers in a different school of Islam, adding that differences in the religion's interpretation were part of the dynamics of Islamic life. "This cannot be made into a reason for attacking each other and for conflict," he said.

He said those behind an attack on a busload of Shia students in Sampang on Sunday, which left two adults who were accompanying them dead, and the torching of 35 houses owned by Shiites, were not acting in the name of the organization, which has a strong influence in the region. NU, he said, did not tolerate violence, whatever the reason.

Said's statement stood in contrast to that of the head of the East Java chapter of NU, Mutawakkil Alallah, who said Shia was in violation of human rights because it had shown contempt for Islam.

"The solution is we will not ban it, but ask Shiites to avoid activities in public," Mutawakkil said on Tuesday, according to the state Antara news agency. "If they limit their activities from the public sphere or only within their families, they will of course be safe."

He said that the conflict involving Shiites in Sampang had been settled at the district level and through East Java gubernatorial decree No. 55 of 2012, but there had been a violation of that agreement, leading to a re- eruption of the conflict. The decree ordered Shiites to keep their activities out of the public.

Mutawakkil said the NU was at peace with other religious communities, but the conflict with the Shiites came from their violation of the agreement and decree.

Mutawakkil, who heads the Zainul Hasan Muslim boarding house in Probolinggo, said the head of the Shiite Muslim boarding school in Sampang, Tajul Muluk, had created controversy by speaking blasphemously against the three leaders of Islam that followed the Prophet Muhammad.

The question of who were the rightful leaders of Islam following the prophet's death is a major source of tension between the two sects.

"Tajul Muluk also does not recognize the Koran as having 30 letters and does not recognize the hadiths of Bukhari-Muslim and only recognizes Shia hadiths. They also refuse to recognize imams other than Sayidina Ali, so that they cannot accept the leadership of the president, the governor, the district head and mayor and others," Mutawakkil said.

Hadiths are Muhammad's acts and statements, spread by his relatives or friends and written by following generations of clerics. They are considered a main source of Islamic law alongside the Koran, with the Bukhari-Muslim version being considered by Sunni, the majority in Indonesia, as the most authoritative source.

Mutawakkil said prohibiting Shiites from conducting their religious activities in public was much better than banning them, as is the case in countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia.

Said Aqil said that he had also asked NU deputy chairman Saifullah Yusuf, who is also deputy governor of East Java, to go to Sampang and mediate peace.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi also said the Sampang incident was purely a criminal case that originated from a family feud between two brothers, Tajul and Roisul Hukama, dating back to 2004.

"It just so happen that the two were of different sects, one Shia and the other Sunni," Gamawan said. "They also each have many followers and the problem started here. It is not a religious problem but a personal problem between the two."

Gamawan spoke after a two-hour closed-door meeting on the Sampang problem between him, top officials from the East Java government, the justice and human rights minister, the religious affairs minister, the head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), the chief of the armed forces (TNI) and the head of the National Police.

Also on Tuesday, the chairman of House of Representatives Commission III on legal affairs, Gde Pasek Suardika, said the commission would send a fact- finding team to Sampang at the end of the month and after that would seek clarification from National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo.

"The dimensions [of the conflict] could be multilevel, and therefore we will first look for the facts. After that we will summon the National Police chief to clarify and ask about the security policies so that a solution can be obtained," Pasek said.

Aziz Syamsuddin, the deputy chairman of the commission, said each House faction would be represented by one member from Commission III.

Meanwhile, Syatibi Hambali, the chairman of the Lebak district chapter of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), said the Sampang incident was evidence of the weak sense of brotherhood and nationalism prevalent in the country, making it easy for the population to be provoked and to engage in horizontal conflicts.

"We are concerned with the Sampang incident that has claimed lives.... Islam prioritizes peaceful ways and not violence," Syatibi said.

Police in East Java are planning to slap multiple charges against Tajul's brother, who is suspected of inciting people to violence, leading to the deadly bus attack. East Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Hilman Thayib said Roisul, an ulema in Nangerkang hamlet in Sampang, would face charges of premeditated murder and inciting mob violence.

"There are gunny sacks of evidence. All equipment and goods used as a means to kill and maim, such as blades and stones," he said. "There is also the testimony of our own man at the location at the time who said that [Roisul] was actively provoking the masses over mosque loudspeakers."

[Additional reporting from Antara.]

Regional police can't touch masterminds of Shiite attack: Watchdog

Jakarta Post - August 29, 2012

Jakarta, Indonesia – A watchdog group accuses Shiite attackers have close ties to local leaders and police officials, creating resistance among authorities to reveal the masterminds of the Sunday attack in Sampang, East Java.

The Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) indicated six masterminds on the assault, most of whom are local figures who have ties with officials of the East Java Police, the Sampang Police and local administrations. None of them have been probed by police.

"It is impossible to create such huge attack without people's mobilization, coordination, and fund supports," HRWG deputy director Choirul Anam told The Jakarta Post Digital.

Eight detained perpetrators, he said, were only executors. "Authorities may repeat mistakes they made in December, where they jailed only one perpetrator for less than three months," he said, referring to the first attack on a Shiite compound in Sampang.

The human rights watchdog demanded the government to dismiss East Java Police chief and Sampang Police chief, and to let the National Police to handle the case, to ensure the investigation's independency.

Moreover, Choirul doubted a remark made by Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, in which he blamed a family feud as the trigger of the deadly melee.

The attack, the minister said, was the outgrowth of sibling rivalry between incarcerated Shia leader Tajul Muluk and Roisul "Rois" Hukuma, a Sunni follower who has been named as a suspect. "Ustad [cleric] Rois is only a perpetrator. We believe there are parties who back his action," he added.

Another watchdog group, Amnesty International, is skeptical that authorities can solve the Sunday attack given its failure to adequately deal with first assault against Shiites in December.

"[The failure] raises serious questions about its willingness to ensure that the suspected perpetrators of the Sampang attack are brought to justice, to provide the victims with reparations, and to prevent further attacks on minority groups," Amnesty International stated in a release obtained by the Post on Wednesday. (yps/iwa)

East Java police release seven men detained in Sampang Shiite attack

Jakarta Globe - August 29, 2012

Farouk Arnaz – Seven people detained in the wake of a deadly mob attack on Shia Muslims in Sampang, East Java, were released on Wednesday due to a lack of evidence or witnesses, East Java Police said.

Eight people were arrested in connection with Sunday's violent attack by Sunni Muslims on members of the local Shiite minority. Some 500 residents of Sampang attacked local Shiites with machetes and swords on Sunday, setting homes alight during a rampage that left two dead and seven injured.

"Seven of them have returned home because of a lack of witnesses and evidence," East Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Hilman Thayib said on Wednesday.

Only Roisul Hukama, a key member of the local chapter of the Nadhlatul Ulama Islamic organization, was charged in connection with the violent attack. Roisul allegedly urged local Sunnis to attack Shiite men over a mosque loudspeaker before Sunday's incident, the latest in a long series of violent confrontations between Sampang's Sunnis – led by Roisul – and the region's Shiites – who are led by Roisul's brother Tajul Muluk.

Roisul was charged with committing premeditated murder, participating in a mob attack, suggesting others commit a violent crime, assisting them as they commit a crime and assault that resulted in someone's death. He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted.

The brothers, both heads of rival Islamic boarding schools, began feuding in 2004 after Roisul lost a woman he planned to marry to a man from Tajul's school, according to Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi. Fauzi called the attack a family dispute, not another incident of anti-Shiite violence.

"The Sampang incident is a purely criminal case that developed out of a family conflict and later gained momentum within the local community," Gawaman told Antara news agency on Monday night. "It is not an anti-Shiite situation."

Sampang's Sunnis and Shiites have a long, and often violent, history. Roisul reported his brother to the police for blasphemy in April after Tajul reportedly told students that the Koran was not the direct word of god, that Muslims don't have to pray five times a day and that the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) was not obligatory. Tajul was sentenced to two years in jail after being found guilty of committing blasphemy and causing public anxiety.

On Dec. 29, Shiites in Sampang's Nangkernang village were attacked by hard-line Muslim groups, who set fire to hundreds of homes and a Shia Islamic school. Five hundred Shiites were displaced from their village after the attack.

The 30 Shiites targeted in the latest attack were traveling from Nangkernang village on the island of Madura to nearby Bangil. They were visiting Sampang to celebrate Idul Fitri with their families when they were surrounded by a mob of 500 armed men, many who were reportedly followers of Roisul.

The mob attacked the traveling Shiites, killing two men – Hamama and Tohir – as they reportedly attempted to protect the group's women and children, according to a witness.

"When the incident happened, there weren't any police officers. The mob had swords and machetes, and they attacked all of the adult males who were trying to protect the women and children," Umi Kulsum said.

Umi, Tajul's wife, said she earlier reported the planned attack to local police, who failed to take action. Chairman of the Nadhlatul Ulama's East Java chapter, Mutawakkil Alallah, defended the attackers.

"Shiism is against human rights and they despise Islam," Mutawakkil said. "Banning them is not the solution, but we want Shiites to avoid worshiping publicly. If they do not enter the public sphere and keep [their religious activity] within their own home, they will be safer."

More than 230 Shiites have sought shelter at the Sampang sports center in the wake of the attack.

Shiites represent a small portion of Indonesia's 220 million Muslims. Some one million Shiites call Indonesian home, according to estimates. Shiites represent less than one percent of Indonesia's Muslim population, according to the US-based Pew Forum. The rest practice a form of Sunni Islam.

Instances of intimidation and attacks on Shiites have also been recorded in Pasuruan and Bangil, both in East Java. Other religious minorities – – including Christians and members of the Ahmadiyah sect – have also been targets of recent attacks and acts of intimidation.

Shia followers hide in hunger

Jakarta Post - August 28, 2012

Indra Harsaputra and Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Jakarta – Followers of Tajul Muluk, the Shiite cleric sentenced to two years for blasphemy by Sampang District Court in July this year, fled in panic after an anti-Shia group attacked their settlement in Sampang, Madura, East Java at around 9:30 p.m. local time on Aug. 26.

A Tajul Muluk follower, Kiswoto, 35, said many children and adults were hiding along the river to avoid attack. "We have been hungry since yesterday. After our village was attacked, we immediately fled to safety," he said.

Though it was not the first time Kiswanto had experienced such violence, he said, he would never change his faith.

The first attack took place on Dec. 29, 2011. In the aftermath, a Tajul Muluk follower Mochamad Kosim, 50, was hacked to death. The mob also attacked and wounded three members of the Shia community and set fire to 37 homes.

After the attack, 250 of the 500 members of the Shia community were evacuated more than 8 kilometers from their village, while hundreds of armed personnel from the police and Indonesian Military (TNI) scoured the area for Tajul Muluk followers still in hiding.

Convicted of blasphemy, Tajul Muluk, 39, was proven guilty of spreading religious teachings deemed deviant by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), such as three prayers daily, using an invalid Koran, considering Prophet Muhammad's companions infidels, allowing siri marriage and the denial of the haj pilgrimage to Mecca.

Religious figures and clerics in Sampang have urged the Shia community and Tajul Muluk followers to return to Sunni teachings, as a prerequisite to resolution of the conflict.

Sampang MUI head Buchori Maksum said the conflict would not be resolved while the Shia community in Sampang remained loyal to Tajul Muluk.

"According to them [anti-Shia group], this is not the end. It's like oil and water that cannot mix. I cannot promise the conflict will end," Buchori told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Tajul Muluk has been held at Sampang prison since April 12. An attacker who set fire to three homes and a Shia mosque, Maskirah, was only sentenced to five months.

East Java Governor Soekarwo said eight people arrested during the latest attack would be prosecuted according to existing laws.

East Java chapter the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Andy Irfan said this was unfair law enforcement on the part of the state. When Tajul Muluk was sentenced, the issue should have been resolved, but in reality it was not.

"Police were too slow to prevent the riot escalating. The Sampang Police chief promised a shoot-on-sight policy if the riot recurred, but in reality the police were not present. The two or three platoons that were dispatched to the scene at around 12:30 p.m. were obviously insufficient, compared to the crowd of thousands," said Andy.

According to Kontras, concrete effort is necessary to protect the minority Shia community and their rights.

"There is no firm and clear solution. The government allows the conflict to continue. Regional officials allow measures taken by the anti-Shia group. Facts in the field show efforts to evict Shia followers from Sampang," said Andy.

Surabaya's Sunan Ampel State Islamic Institute (IAIN) rector Abdul A'la said the riot in the name of religion in Sampang was connected to heated political conditions in Sampang ahead of the regional leadership election slated for Dec. 12. "Other regency candidates wish to topple the administration currently headed by Regent Noer Tjahja of the Democratic Party," he said.

Only one named as a suspect in attack against Shiites

Jakarta Globe - August 28, 2012

Surabaya – The National Police have only named one suspect out of hundreds of people that participated in an attack on a group of Shiites in Sampang, East Java on Sunday.

"Out of the eight people that have been investigated, one person, whose first initial is 'R,' has been declared a suspect," National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said on Monday night, as quoted by Antara news agency. "The other seven are still being questioned."

His most recent statement amended an earlier announcement that seven people had been named as suspects in the case. Timur said that the number of suspects may increase if the police are able to uncover new evidence.

On Sunday morning, a mob consisting of 500 Sunni Muslims attacked a group of Shiite students and teachers with swords and machetes in Sampang. Two Shiites died in the attacks while seven more were injured. The mob also torched dozens of homes belonging to the Shiite community.

The wife of Shiite leader Tajul Muluk, Umi Kulsum, who was present at the scene of the unrest, said that she recognized some of the attackers as friends of Roisul Hukama, a key member of the Nangkernang village chapter of the Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama.

Roisul is the brother of Tajul, who was convicted of tainting Islam after Roisul reported him to the police. It is not clear whether or not "R" is Roisul.

On Tuesday, the chairman of the Nadhlatul Ulama branch in East Java, Mutawakkil Alallah, defended the attackers.

He claimed that the people of the Nahdlatul Ulama in Sampang have been living in harmony with members of another Islamic sect, the Muhammadiyah, as well as with other religions, including Christians and Buddhists.

The East Java governor has issued a governor's decree on "Religious Life Guidance and Heresy." "If the decree is implemented, Shiites in Indonesia will be safe," Mutawakkil said, citing that the decree would ban heretical teachings to be spread in public areas.

Mutawakkil claims that Shiites have always rejected the idea of participating in an open dialogue with Sunni Muslims.

Two dead in Sunni-Shiite mayhem in Madura

Jakarta Post - August 27, 2012

Wahyoe Boediwardhana and Sita W. Dewi, Jakarta/Sampang – Two Shiite followers were killed in the latest religious violence involving Shia community members and an anti-Shia group in Sampang regency in Madura, East Java, on Sunday.

The victims have been identified as Mochamad Kosim, 50, and his brother Tohir, 46. They died of machete wounds. At least four other Shiites were injured during the attack.

At the height of the violence, the mob also set alight dozens of houses belonging to Shiite members in Nangkernang hamlet, Karang Gayam village, in Sampang.

The majority of Indonesians are Sunni Muslims. Kulsum, the wife of incarcerated Shiite leader Tajul Muluk, confirmed that one Shiite follower was hacked to death and, according to reports from human right activists on the scene, another man, identified as Tohir, was also killed.

"One man died after being attacked with a machete, while all I knew at the time was that Tohir was dying. I haven't heard if he eventually died because I am now separated from the others," Kulsum said.

Kulsum and some 40 Shiite followers are currently sheltered inside an elementary school east of Nangkernang village, where the Shiite community lives. "I don't know the whereabouts of the other members. There were around 500 of us. We were being chased, so we ran for our lives," Kulsum said.

Nia Syarifudin of the Bhinneka Tunggal Ika National Alliance Forum (ANBTI) claimed that the violence was triggered by the anti-Shia group, which tried to stop a number of Shiite students from returning to their boarding school in Bangil, East Java, on Sunday after spending their Idul Fitri holidays at home, on Sunday morning.

"The children later reported the threatening behavior to police, and the anti-Shia group responded by coming to the Shiite village and setting it ablaze," Nia said.

Insp. Gen. Bambang Suparno, an official with the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister, confirmed that nearly 1,000 people took part in the destruction of property belonging to the Shiite community. "A local police chief also sustained a head injury as the mob started throwing stones," he said.

Hendardi, the chairman of human rights watchdog the Setara Institute, said what happened in Sampang was not a conflict but a systematic attack that was planned beforehand. "It has become yet another appalling example of the lack of freedom of religion in this country," he said.

According to Hendardi, the East Java Police chief should be removed for his inability to maintain security. Having failed to protect people in the area, he added, the National Police chief should immediately step in to deal with the extremists who had repeatedly committed attacks against the Shiites.

Meanwhile, the executive director of the Ma'arif Institute, Fajar Riza Ulhaq, said the attacks against the Shiite community in Sampang were criminal acts against a minority group.

"We have to act against the increasing acts of terror being meted out to minority groups. It reflects the escalating terror tactics being used against people of different faiths," he said in a statement. Hostility against minority groups would flare up unless the government took stern action against the perpetrators, Fajar added.

Kulsum's husband, Tajul Muluk, was sentenced by Sampang District Court on July 12, after presiding judge Purnomo Amin Tjahjo declared him guilty of blaspheming Islam.

Tajul, whose house and pesantren (Islamic boarding school) were burned down by an angry mob in December, was accused of preaching to his followers that the Koran was not the original scripture, and that the true version of the Holy Book would only be revealed to Imam Mahdi. (png)

[Margareth S. Aritonang and Apriadi Gunawan contributed reporting.]

Two Killed as hard-liners attack Shia school group

Jakarta Globe - August 27, 2012

Dessy Sagita, Amir Tejo & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Two people were killed and five were injured in an attack on a group of Shia students and teachers in Sampang, East Java, on Sunday.

Around 30 Shiites, most of them children, were traveling from Nangkernang village on the island of Madura, bound for Bangil in East Java.

Shortly into their trip, they were stopped by about 500 men from mainstream Muslim groups, preventing them from continuing, said Umi Kulsum, who was at the scene. "Two people died, Hamama and Tohir," she said. "Five were wounded as they were trying to protect the women and children. I was petrified.

The children in the group studied at a Shia boarding school in Bangil and had returned to Sampang, their hometown, to celebrate Idul Fitri with their families. The mob then torched four homes belonging to the Shiite community, including one belonging to Umi and her husband, Shia cleric Tajul Muluk.

The Shia community in Sampang has been the target of violent attacks and incidents of intimidation in the past.

On Dec. 29, Shiites in Nangkernang was attacked by hard-line Muslim groups, who set fire to hundreds of homes and a Shia Islamic school, displacing 500 Shiites from their village.

Police instead charged Tajul with blasphemy, and the Ministry of Religious Affairs office in Sampang said it would "supervise" hundreds of Shia to learn Sunni Islam.

Last month, a district court in East Java sentenced the Shia cleric to two years in prison for blasphemy after reportedly telling students that the Koran was not the original holy text for Muslims, an allegation Tajul's legal team repeatedly denied.

According to Tajul's lawyers, the prosecutors in the case portrayed the Shiite faith as subservient to the Sunni majority, helping to raise the religious tensions during the proceedings.

New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the government to drop all charges against Tajul and demanded that it amend or repeal its blasphemy law.

With the ongoing tension and intimidation against the group, Umi said she had requested police come to ensure a safe passage for the convoy of children, but police never came. Hours after the incident, eight police officers arrived at the scene.

East Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Hilman Thayib said police deployed 300 officers from precincts across Madura to Nangkernang, as well as one company from the East Java Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit to prevent violence.

Umi identified the attackers as followers of Roisul Hukama, a local Nahdlatul Ulama leader who has been fanning hatred toward the local Shia community.

"How many lives must fall until police and the government intervene?" Umi asked. "Our children have stopped going to school for five months. My husband is in jail, and my whole life is under terror."

House of Representatives member Eva Kusuma Sundari, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), condemned the attack. "There must not be anymore victims," she said. "Police must move quickly and safeguard the security and safety of the people attacked."

Of the 220 million Muslims in the country, there are only around one million Shiites, according to estimates. Most of the rest practice some form of Sunni Islam.

The Freedom of Religion and Faith Advocacy Working Group (AKBB) said that Sunnis and Shiites follow different interpretations of Islam that have been accepted by Muslim groups around the globe since the beginning of the religion in the eighth century.

Intimidation toward and attacks on Shiites have also been recorded in Pasuruan and Bangil, both in East Java.

Two Shia followers reportedly killed in Sampang melee

Jakarta Post - August 26, 2012

Sita W. Dewi, Jakarta – Two Shia followers were reportedly killed in a melee involving Shia community members and an anti-Shia group in Sampang regency, East Java, on Sunday.

Kulsum, the wife of incarcerated Shia leader Tajul Muluk, said that one Shia follower, identified as Hamamah, 39, was stabbed to death, and according to reports from human right activists on the scene, another man, identified as Tohir, was also killed.

"Hamamah died after he was stabbed, while all I know is that Tohir was dying. I haven't heard if he eventually died because I am now separated from the others," Kulsum told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.

Kulsum added that seven people were severely injured and at least 10 homes set ablaze by the anti-Shia group.

At the time of interview, Kulsum and some 40 followers were inside an elementary school building east off the Nangkernang village where the Shia community live. "I don't know the whereabouts of the other members. There were around 500 of us. We were chased so we ran for our lives," Kulsum said.

Nia Syarifudin of the Bhinneka Tunggal Ika National Alliance Forum (ANBTI) claimed that the incident was triggered by the anti-Shia group, who tried to stop a number of Shia students en route to their boarding school in Bangil, East Java, after spending their Idul Fitri holidays at home, on Sunday morning.

"They later reported the threat to the police, and the anti-Shia group responded by coming to the Shia village and setting it ablaze," Nia said.

The East Java Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) coordinator, Andy Irfan, was quoted as saying by tempo.co that clash between the anti-Shia group members and the Shia students, who were trying to protect Tajul's family, was inevitable.

Kulsum's husband, Tajul Muluk, was sentenced by the Sampang District court on July 12, after presiding judge Purnomo Amin Tjahjo declared him guilty of blasphemy against Islam.

Tajul, whose house and pesantren (boarding school) were burned down by an angry mob in December last year, was accused of preaching to his followers that the Koran was not the original scripture and the true version of the Holy Book will only be revealed to Imam Mahdi.

'Misguided' sect returns to 'true' Islam after alleged killing: MUI

Jakarta Globe - August 24, 2012

Sukabumi, West Java – Indonesia's highest clerical body says more than 100 followers of a minority Islamic sect in Sukabumi have apologized for their "misguided" religious practices, following the alleged killing of a mainstream Muslim cleric and the arrest of the sect's leader.

The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) said on Friday that 123 members of the Tijaniyah Mutlak Cimahi sect had submitted a written promise to abandon the sect and its practices.

"They declared remorse under no force, and they have really abandoned the misguided teachings," said Zezen Zainal Abidin, head of the MUI's chapter in Sukabumi, adding that MUI officials and the local consultative leadership board (Muspida) witnessed the followers write the statement.

Zezen said the sect, led by a man named Sumarna, prayed only four times daily, rather than the five times required in mainstream Islam. He also said Sumarna claimed to be a prophet who received divine revelations through his dreams and taught that doomsday would fall on Aug. 17.

"The 123 followers of the misguided sect led by Sumarna have declared remorse for practicing Sumarna's teachings, as well as their return to true Islamic teachings," Zezen said.

The MUI official said the 123 followers included men, women and children, and that the MUI would offer them religious guidance. He also clarified that the name of Sumarna's sect was not Thoriqoh Tijaniyah, as the media has widely reported.

"Tijaniyah Mutlak Cimahi's teachings are misguided, different from those of Thoriqoh Tijaniyah, which is legal and recognized in Indonesia," said Zezen.

Sumarna's sect came under the spotlight after houses belonging to some of its members in Cisalopa village, Sukabumi, were allegedly attacked on Sunday by mainstream Muslims. The attack followed the disappearance of a local mainstream cleric, 34-year-old Ustadz Edin, on Aug. 14.

Edin was reportedly a tough opponent of Sumarna, frequently asking the sect leader to disband his group and return to "true Islamic teachings." After his disappearance, local residents became suspicious that he had been murdered by members of the minority sect.

After the houses were attacked on Sunday, the police discovered Edin's body buried in Sumarna's backyard in Cisalopa.

The police said Edin visited Sumarna's house on Aug. 14 in his latest attempt to persuade the sect leader to return to traditional beliefs. They added that they had arrested 14 suspects in the alleged killing, including Sumarna.

"I admit the teachings that I've spread are misguided," Sumarna said in his police cell in Sukabumi. "I intentionally taught them to others because of internal urges. I realize I have to alter my religious practices."

"I have developed the teaching since 2010, and I required each of my followers to pay Rp 1 million ($105) in dues," he added. (Antara, JG)

Stop religious violence in West Java, lawmakers tell police

Jakarta Globe - August 23, 2012

Ezra Sihite – Lawmakers on Wednesday called upon police to be extra vigilant in some districts in West Java, a province with increased incidents of religious violence, after residents attacked a sect leader in Sukabumi over the weekend.

Eva Kusuma Sundari, of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that data from government and civil society groups have shown that the province topped other regions in religious-related violence.

"Police should prioritize monitoring districts in West Java because in the last several years, the province has the most violence conducted by radical groups there," she said.

On Sunday, angry Sukabumi residents who suspected the sect's involvement in the disappearance of cleric Ustadz Edin destroyed homes belonging to Sumarna, the head of Sukabumi's branch of Toriqoh Atijani, and his followers. Police later arrested Sumarna after they found a body buried in the backyard of the sect leader's home.

Police are waiting for test results to determine the identity of the body. "We suspect that it is Ustadz Edin's body," West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Martinus Sitompul said on Tuesday. "However, we still have to perform a DNA test. We arrested Sumarna and his followers. For now, we are accusing them of killing the cleric."

The violence at the Toriqoh Atijani complex occurred when about 1,000 residents gathered while looking for Sumarna on Sunday. They were unaware that police had arrested Sumarna, and the gathering turned violent.

"The PDI-P is concerned that many people are very easily persuaded to commit violence and kill others. We demand the government to take action against those groups that take the law in their own hands," Eva said.

The Indonesian Council of Ulema said that the Toriqoh Atijani sect itself is not heretical, pointing the finger at Sumarna. "Toriqoh Atijani is an order that complies with true Islamic teachings," council member Zezen Zainal Abidin said on Wednesday.

Sect evacuated, leader arrested after Sukabumi mayhem

Jakarta Post - August 23, 2012

Jakarta – The police have arrested the leader of the At Tijaniyah sect and evacuated 138 of its members following attacks on the group on Sunday in Cisalopa village in Sukabumi, West Java.

The evacuation was carried out by police officers and Indonesian Military (TNI) troops, West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Martinus Sitompul confirmed on Wednesday.

Police evacuated members of the minority Muslim group after local residents attacked them and burned down their homes in apparent retaliation for the death of Edin, a leader of a local mass organization, who was allegedly killed by the sect's leader, Sumarna.

Religious Affairs Ministry spokesman Zainuddin Daulay said on Wednesday that officials were still on vacation for Idul Fitri and had not had a chance to investigate the violence.

Zainuddin said that the ministry would turn the case over to external experts, such as the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), if the conflict stemmed from a religious cause, as the ministry did not evaluate religious doctrine.

"The [external] leaders will then determine whether the teachings are in accordance with the mainstream or not," Zainuddin said. The ministry would be ready to "guide" those who were found deviating from mainstream Islam, he added.

Separately, MUI chairman Amidhan said the council had not declared At Tijaniyah a heretical sect, although its Sukabumi branch had previously done so.

"If it is true that the sect has been teaching its followers to not perform dawn prayers and Friday prayers, then the sect meets the criteria for a heretical sect that were set by the council. According to mainstream Islamic teachings those prayers are mandatory," Amidhan told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The council would investigate the sect and any heretics would be "guided" toward mainstream Islamic teachings, Amidhan said. "The MUI is obliged to state whether a sect is heretical or not, to prevent it from being followed by other Muslims in the country," he said.

Contacted separately, Hendardi, the chairman of the Setara Institute, a human rights watchdog, said that the violence directed at minority groups has been triggered by the government's unwillingness to guarantee freedom of religion. "Indonesia has thousands of sects and religions" and the majority had no right to condemn others, he said.

Zainuddin said that if the attacks were motivated by the death of Edin, then the ministry would coordinate with the police to determine who had the authority to resolve the conflict. Amidhan said that those who committed violence had to be prosecuted, calling on the police to stop local residents from assaulting the sect.

A survey compiled by the Setara Institute showed that there were 244 cases of religious violence in the nation in 2011, most of which targeted minority groups such as Ahmadis, Shiites and Christians. This year alone, there were 129 cases of violence against minority groups.

Hendardi said that minority groups could be protected if President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono showed leadership.

"He usually only expresses his concern but never undertakes any significant action to guarantee the freedom of expression in this country," Hendardi said. "A weak government causes certain groups to think that they are more powerful and righteous and that they have the right to attack other group that have different opinions than theirs," he said.

Lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) was concerned about the attacks on the sect. Eva said that the nation's largest Islamic organizations, including the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, should build a bridge between all Muslims in Indonesia to spare them from victimization at the hands of extremists. (cor/nad)

14 arrested after suspected murder of Indonesian cleric in West Java

Jakarta Globe - August 23, 2012

Ezra Sihite – The police have arrested 14 people allegedly involved in the killing of a Muslim cleric that triggered a recent attack on a minority Islamic sect in Sukabumi, West Java, a minister said on Thursday.

The cleric, identified only as 34-year-old Ustadz Edin, went missing on Aug. 14, and local residents became suspicions he had been murdered by members of the minority Tarekat At Tijaniyah sect.

Fueled by their suspicions, a mob of about 1,000 residents attacked and burned houses on Sunday belonging to Tarekat At Tijaniyah members in the village of Cisalopa in Sukabumi. The police discovered Edin's body later that day buried in the back yard of the sect's leader, Sumarna.

"The Sukabumi Police have so far detained 14 suspects in the killing of Ustadz Edin," Djoko Suyanto, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, said in Jakarta on Thursday. "They are intensively investigating this case."

Djoko said dozens of police officers and Armed Forces (TNI) soldiers had been dispatched to the village to prevent future attacks. He added that the government had also held talks with local leaders to address the issue.

Several residents said Edin was a tough opponent of Sumarna's teachings, frequently asking the sect leader to disband his group and return to "true Islamic teachings."

The police said that on Aug. 14, Edin visited Sumarna's house in his latest attempt to persuade the sect leader to return to traditional beliefs. Edin was the leader of a local chapter of the Islamic Reform Movement (Garis). (BeritaSatu/JG)

Governance & legislation

Transparency drives bureaucracy reforms

Jakarta Post - August 30, 2012

Jakarta – The lack of government transparency on bureaucratic reform has left the media unable to access information on the issue and the subject is underreported. There are, however, very few success stories on the matter to report.

Eko Maryadi, chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), said on Wednesday that the government's openness to the media is an indicator of bureaucrats transparency to the public.

"If bureaucrats are reluctant to give information to the press, how can they be transparent to the public?" Eko said on the third day of the Bureaucracy Reform Conference, Exhibition and Stakeholders Meeting in Jakarta. He added that bureaucratic reform itself can be measured by how a government gradually shifts from being concealed to being transparent to the media.

"The Freedom of Information Law [UU KIP] was initiated in 1999 but it was endorsed only in 2008. The law became effective in 2010 but up until now implementation is only around 30 percent. The government is moving very slowly in ensuring accessible information for public," Eko told The Jakarta Post.

Imam Prakoso of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) also said that the media play a great role as a voice of the people.

"The people feel more at ease voicing their complaints through the media, as it gives them distance from the institutions they are filing the complaints against," Imam said. "Therefore the media must ensure that the public has their voice heard," he added.

Herry Abdul Aziz, the Communication and Information Ministry's E-Government director, argued that the government still has to regulate the accessibility of data which may harm the governmental institutions themselves.

"Accessibility of data is a matter of perception: the government still has to follow procedure. While some people might think that waiting two weeks for data is a very long time, for others it's a matter of procedure," Herry told the Post.

Meanwhile, Dadan Suharmawijaya of the Jawa Pos Institute of Pro-Otonomi (JPIP) said that the media should not only focus on "bad news" but also good news in the reform process.

"The media should not only be a tool to criticize but encourage government institutions by covering success stories of reform," Dadan said.

According to Eko of AJI, what the journalists see in the field is no different from what the public see. He said that the substance of the news itself is not important, as long as the news is accurate and ethical."The main task of journalists is controlling and supervising the government," Eko said. (nad)

Celebrating anniversary, nearly half of lawmakers absent during session

Jakarta Globe - August 29, 2012

Ezra Sihite – About half of the members of the House of Representatives were absent during a plenary meeting celebrating the 67th anniversary of the legislative body on Wednesday. Only 315 out of 560 members were present during the assembly led by House speaker Marzuki Alie.

Only 98 of 148 lawmakers from the Democratic party, 69 out of 106 lawmakers from the Golkar party, 45 out of 94 lawmakers from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and 36 out of 57 from the Prosperous Justice Party were in attendance.

Though a few lawmakers continued entering after the plenary meeting, some members were seen leaving the room before Marzuki finished his speech.

The head of the House Honorary Council, M. Prakosa, said that the council would minimize absence and improve the discipline of its legislators by implementing a finger print attendance system. "We hope in the future it will make the [House] members be more orderly," Prakosa said.

He said that the finger print system would prevent a previous problem in which lawmakers signed in as present but later left the meeting. "They might have signed in, but they would leave the room," Prakosa said. "We will fix this with finger printing."

Besides a lack of discipline, lawmakers have been criticized for a string of recent sex scandals, wasting money on foreign trips and corruption. Deputy speaker Anis Matta of the Prosperous Justice Party said that the institution itself is good, while only some members are irresponsible.

"The criticism [of the House of Representatives] is actually targeted toward individuals, not institutions," Anis said. "Many seminal laws were born here that have changed the face of the nation."

Another legislator, Saan Mustopa, admitted that the image and credibility of lawmakers is declining. "The attitude and poor performance of the House of Representative has made the public dissatisfied with the institution," Saan said. "It is important for lawmakers to improve their behavior."

Advocacy director at the Center for Law and Policy Studies (PSHK) Ronald Rofiandri added that the negative perception of the House of Representatives is not baseless.

"Their performance of their three main functions [managing the budget, legislation and being a government watchdog] is still bad, plus their lack of discipline makes abusing power with regard to the budget even worse," Ronald said in a release sent to the Jakarta Globe.

Government bureaucratic reform initiative stalling: Experts

Jakarta Post - August 29, 2012

Jakarta – Experts say that the government has made little progress, if any at all, in its efforts to reform the bureaucracy 14 years after the start of the reform movement.

They also warned that nothing will have been achieved by the end of the year when the government's two-year plan to accelerate bureaucratic reform expires.

"The 1998 reform movement started 14 years ago but the bureaucratic reform has not run its course as it should have done. What we have now is far from good enough," Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the head of the Presidential Working Unit for Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4) said on Tuesday.

Kuntoro said that the complacency and inertia that especially plagued some ministries had contributed to the setback in the process of reform.

"The fact of the matter is that some bureaucrats have stayed in their ministries for far too long and this has delayed reform plans that have been laid out in the 2025 grand design for bureaucratic reform."

He said that the bureaucratic reform had failed to achieve progress in three areas; oversight of political leaders, control of budget disbursement and the creation of an open government.

Kuntoro gave as an example one of the biggest problems plaguing most ministries; the fact that they do not even know how to monitor their own budgets.

"Our efforts are aimed at providing them with a better understanding of the importance of budget monitoring as part of reforming the bureaucracy," he said.

Earlier, Administrative Reforms Minister Azwar Abubakar said that inefficient management, a sluggish culture and corruption were among the challenges faced by the Indonesian government in launching bureaucratic reform.

"An efficient bureaucracy can support the infrastructure development in this country, therefore bureaucratic reform is very important," he said in his speech to open the Bureaucratic Reform Conference, Exhibition and Stakeholder Meeting on Monday.

Sofian Effendi, a former head of the State Personnel Administration Body (BAKN), said that the government could be faulted for the lack of progress in bureaucratic reform as it had adopted the wrong strategy in pursuing its goals.

"Most of the ministries think that bureaucratic reform means reform of the remuneration system of government employees. In fact this has nothing to do with building the capacity of the human resources," he said.

Sofian said that the ministries' preoccupation with a better remuneration system had only aggravated the problem. "This step only creates a very high-cost bureaucracy with a very low productivity, and this will soon bankrupt the country," he added.

Sofian said that by 2019 there would be a total of 4.7 million civil servant retirees who would cost the government Rp 168 trillion (US$17.6 billion) in pensions.

"Expenditure on paying the salaries of civil servants makes up 40 percent of the state budget and 65 percent of the local budget. There is so little left for public services and capital expenditure," he said.

Sofian said that the government could renew its efforts on reforming the bureaucracy by making drastic changes. "What the government could do is to change the performance culture, implement organizational streamlining, deal with bottlenecks in the drafting of regulation and simplify management procedures," he said.

Kuntoro said that in spite of all the problems plaguing the bureaucracy, bureaucratic reform could still have the chance to succeed.

"We can see the agents of change everywhere, one of the examples is the Traffic Management Center [TMC] by the Jakarta Police which can provide real-time information on the traffic situation on the social media. It may be a very small step in improving public services, but it means we still have hope," he said. (nad)

Many obstacles to bureaucratic reform

Jakarta Post - August 28, 2012

Jakarta – Inefficient management, a sluggish culture and corruption are among the challenges faced by the Indonesian government in launching bureaucratic reform, says a senior minister.

"An efficient bureaucracy can support the infrastructure development in this country, therefore bureaucratic reform is very important," Administrative Reforms Minister Azwar Abubakar said at the Bureaucracy Reform Conference, Exhibition and Stakeholder Meeting on Monday.

Indonesia Ombudsman chairman Danang Girindrawardana concurred, saying that transparency in the state's agencies was essential in creating an efficient bureaucracy.

"The government and the public have different perspectives regarding bureaucratic reform. The government still thinks that the bureaucrats are the consumers when in fact the actual consumer is the public," Danang said during the conference.

"Public participation in putting pressure on state officials plays a great role in ensuring transparency. Therefore, bureaucratic reform should not only be a discourse among government officials but also a way for the public to claim their rights," he added.

According to Danang, the Ombudsman and the ministry are currently preparing a public service unit that will be placed in all ministries and government bodies to deal with public complaints. "We have to make sure that the complaints are followed up," he said.

Eko Prasojo, the Administrative Reforms deputy minister, said that the government would start to implement the public service complaint units nationally by next year, including appointing an official to handle complaints.

He added that in the short term the ministry would focus on the units dealing with public complaints at government institutions directly involved with the public such as tax offices, customs and the National Land Agency to make sure that the public saw an immediate improvement in quality.

"Government bodies that are reluctant to set up public complaints units will receive either administrative or criminal sanctions," Eko said without going into details. According to Eko, support from the public and donors to accelerate reform was essential.

The Bureaucracy Reform Conference, Exhibition and Stakeholder Meeting was organized by the ministry in collaboration with the Institute of State Administration (LAN), the University of Indonesia, Paramadina University, Canberra University and the Australian government overseas aid program AusAID.

The conference and exhibition is being held at Hotel Bidakara in Jakarta and open to the public from Aug. 27 through 29. "This conference and exhibition aims to develop a multi-stakeholder partnership in order to assist us to implement bureaucratic reform," Eko said.

Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Greg Moriarty said that Australia through AusAID was ready to assist Indonesia in reforming its public sector, as anticorruption and good governance work was a key focus of AusAID's Rp 5.37 trillion (US$564.3 million) annual program in Indonesia.

"Indonesia has very significant infrastructure, health and education challenges but progress is being made and there are many people in the government who are committed to bureaucratic reform and committed to reducing corruption. I'm very optimistic and I'm also realistic that this will be a long process and difficult and challenging," Moriarty said.

"I think there are some areas where we can share experience. The first important step is getting people and citizens feeling empowered to complain when they don't get good service and when they are faced with corruption," he added. (nad)

Lawmakers criticized for billion-rupiah junket to Brazil

Jakarta Post - August 27, 2012

Jakarta – A government watchdog is criticizing lawmakers from the House of Representatives (DPR) for a Rp 1.6 billion (US$168,332) junket to Brazil to research village administration.

According to Uchok Sky Khadafi, the coordinator for the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA), said that the lawmakers were travelling to the other side of the globe to observe a Brazilian variation of a system that was currently implemented in Indonesia.

"By visiting Brazil, the committee wants to learn about 'participatory budgeting' – a budgeting process that allows villagers to join budget allocation talks. The move is way too late, because the government has implemented this system with its Musrenbang program," Uchok told The Jakarta Post on Sunday, referring to the development planning meeting program.

"The legislators did not check directly in the field whether the system has been implemented here or not. They simply want to spend money for trips abroad."

On Saturday, 16 members of the House's committee deliberating a bill to revise the Village Administration Law departed for seven days for a trip to South America.

The visit, led by committee deputy chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko, a lawmaker from Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), is a continuation of the lawmakers' last junket, a research trip to China from July 6 to 12.

Several members of the committee deliberating the bill to revise the Regional Administration Law, most of whom are on the village bill committee, are also slated for another junket: five days in Germany, scheduled to start on Sept. 23.

Uchok said that the proposed German junket would also have a price tag greater than a billion rupiah, according to FITRA's calculation.

"Even though the German government will pay for accommodation for nine legislators for the trip, the cost will still reach Rp 1.2 billion, based on the flights, food allowances and accommodations for seven other legislators who will join the trip," Uchok said. The estimate did not reflect per diem for the lawmakers, he added. "We calculated the budget based on state budget standards."

Uchok said that the House needed to develop less expensive alternatives to research bills under deliberation, such as by inviting foreign experts to Indonesia, he said.

Ari Dwipayana, a political analyst from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, echoed Uchok's sentiments. Sending lawmakers on junkets to complete comparative studies was a questionable practice that legislators were loathe to abandon, Ari said.

"It doesn't matter whether it is financed by the government of the country they are visiting or not. The point is whether the visit is relevant or not and whether it will contribute to the drafting of the bill or not," Ari told the Post on Sunday.

Separately, one of the lawmakers on the Brazilian junket, Khatibul Umam Wiranu, said that the need for a comparative study was urgent and necessary.

"FITRA's statement is not true. It was very subjective and they published it only to provoke public fury toward the House of Representatives," Umam said.

"I have checked the actual amount and what FITRA said in its statement was not in line with the data we have," he said, declining to discuss specific figures.

"The trip has been long discussed by the government and was made with the permission of the leader of the House of Representatives; therefore its urgency should not be in question," he told the Post on Sunday. (nad)

Weak governance blamed for Indonesia's corruption costs

Jakarta Globe - August 26, 2012

Viriya Paramita – A noted legal expert has said that the hugely increased state budget allocation for the legal sector indicates the government's inability to clean up and strengthen its bureaucracy.

Frans Hendra Winata from the National Law Commission said that corruption has not yet been abolished because the systems to control and monitor it in government are too weak. He added that people are not afraid of getting caught in cases of corruption because they know that the punishment will not follow them through the remainder of their lives.

In neighboring countries such as Singapore, he said, people are afraid to get involved in corruption because they know that they will be severely punished. He suggested that an ideal solution would be better promotion of good governance in all segments of the bureaucracy.

"The root of the problem is the weak control system applied by the government, especially in the financing, supervision and management of projects. The problem lies in the lack of discipline of civil servants – so many of them are corrupt. The system is there, but supervision is very weak," Frans said. "It matters a great deal now because the public discourse on the need to establish clean government has remained on paper. Why is it that Singapore can clean its bureaucracy and we can't?

"Everything is in disarray because the authority of the law is not being upheld, even though we know that social engineering should start from there," he said.

Frans made the comments on Saturday, in response to a recent remark by Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo that the government had prepared Rp 201.5 trillion ($21.2 billion), $361.68 million and 1.1 million euros – a total of almost $22 billion – in standby funds in the event that it would have to pay fines in relation to the 20 ministries and non-ministerial state institutions now involved in legal battles against various domestic and foreign parties.

That allocation for 2013 also includes funding for the Corruption Eradication Commission and for financing activities of the ad hoc Corruption Court. "Corruption steals too much from our hard-earned resources," Frans said.

He lamented the government often failing to win legal battles against foreign parties because of a lack of preparation and a shortage of local legal professionals who can fight for the country's interests in the international arena.

Former vice president and current chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross Jusuf Kalla said that "tolerating transgression of law would be dangerous" for the country's future.

"There is a fact that makes me feel unease today that is the emergence of the 'law of the jungle,' where people are taking law into their own hands and the government is not doing enough to stop it," Kalla said.

Government sets aside Rp205 trillion for potential legal payout bill

Jakarta Globe - August 24, 2012

Dion Bisara – The government has been forced to set aside hundreds of trillions of rupiah from an already-strained state budget to prepare for a slew of lawsuits.

Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said on Thursday that so far this year the government had estimated Rp 205 trillion ($21.6 billion) was needed in reserve for expenses associated with the resolution of legal cases.

The expenses include costs associated with the settlement of legal disputes, potential losses of state assets and potential losses of tax, fee and royalty revenue. The potential liability equals 2.2 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

It consists of Rp 201.5 trillion in the local currency, with the remainder in US dollars and British pounds, according to a proposed 2013 state budget. The total was more than triple the amount the government faced last year and substantially ahead of the 2010 figure as well. The potential liabilities exceed next year's forecast budget deficit of Rp 150.2 trillion and Rp 194 trillion in fuel subsidies.

Agus said the amount the government was ultimately required to pay could be lower than the estimate, depending on court verdicts in outstanding cases.

"Still, we have to pay for disputes that have been decided by courts in a final and in-force ruling," Agus told reporters, without providing further details. "The details will be discussed with the House of Representatives."

The government submitted its proposed 2013 state budget to legislators on Aug. 16. Ministers and legislators are slated to discuss it in coming months.

Neither Bambang Brodjonegoro, the head of the Fiscal Management Office at the Finance Ministry, nor Herry Purnomo, director general of state budget at the ministry, responded to requests from the Jakarta Globe for details on the lawsuits.

Analysts said the spike in government lawsuit liability highlighted the state's weakness in planning, formulating and executing policy and thoroughly considering legal implications.

"Besides, there's growing awareness among Indonesians about the law – that government is not always right," said Ahmad Erani Yustika, an economist at think tank the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance.

Overlapping regulations may also spark confusion among central and regional authorities on how to implement policies, leading to legal loopholes that can be exploited by other parties, Erani said.

Still, despite the size of the potential legal liability, Erani said he expected the impact of the lawsuits on next year's budget to be limited, because legal processes will likely take several years to resolve. That means the risk of paying the liabilities will be spread over several years.

"Moreover, it's not likely that the government will lose all of the lawsuits," the economist said.

Poor administration coupled with Indonesia's weak legal system has been blamed as one of the main culprits in the disputes. Foreign investors in the oil and gas sector have been involved in legal disputes with the central government, with many cases involving the terms of mining licenses.

One recent case is a $2 billion legal suit by Britain's Churchill Mining, in which Indonesia faces a high-profile arbitration in an international court.

On May 22, the coal miner sought arbitration against the government at the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, claiming the regional government in East Kutai, East Kalimantan, seized its assets without proper compensation.

East Kurtai district head Isran Noor claimed that Ridlatama Group, Churchill's local partner, had falsely obtained permits for the mines and the mines overlapped with a forest conservation area. Isran said the lawsuit should have been directed at Ridlatama.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has also weighed in on the Churchill issue, saying he believed the district administration had done nothing wrong, and asked all government officials to fight against foreign corporations.

The government has appointed Amir Syamsudin to handle the Churchill case in the international court.

Accounting practices require potential future liabilities, including legal payouts, to be identified and budgeted.

Government targets 824 bylaws for amendment, annulment

Jakarta Post - August 24, 2012

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi said on Thursday that his ministry had recommended local administrations to repeal 824 bylaws considered to be flawed and contrary to national laws, and planned to evaluate 1,500 more.

"Our ministry has reviewed 13,520 bylaws issued by regional administrations across the country. Of that number, 824 should be amended or even annulled," Gamawan told reporters at the State Palace.

The minister said the central government did not have the authority to directly annul the problematic bylaws. "We have returned them to their respective local administrations so that they can work together with councillors to revise or revoke the bylaws," Gamawan said, adding that the evaluation of a further 1,500 bylaws should be completed by the end of 2013.

Most of the problematic bylaws concerned levies, and have been subject to complaints from business communities. Religious bylaws, which could possibly affect tolerance and pluralism, were also on the list, Gamawan said.

"Regarding levies, we have the 2009 Regional Tax and Levies Law, which acts as a guideline for local leaders when issuing levies. The law sets permissible levels of regional taxes and levies that regional administrations can impose. Every tax and levy has different thresholds, which must not be exceeded by bylaws," the minister said.

Gamawan cited, by way of example, a case in which a region set fuel tax at 12 percent, exceeding the maximum of 10 percent as stipulated in the 2009 law.

Implemented in 2001, regional autonomy legislation has been hailed as one of the by-products of Indonesia's growing reform. It grants mayors and regents significantly more power over various sectors and provides more room for regional administrations to issue as many bylaws as they think necessary to manage their regions.

But many see regional autonomy as a paradox, given the fact that hundreds of bylaws contravene national laws and even, in some cases, the 1945 Constitution. According to Home Ministry data, there are 499 regencies and 98 municipalities across Indonesia.

In his Aug. 17 state speech, to commemorate Indonesia's 67th anniversary of independence, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono raised concerns about this issue.

"There are complaints over the fact that problems often come from the regional level, not the central government," the President said. "These aspects have the potential to create uncertainty, high costs to the economy and the loss of opportunities to achieve higher and more qualified growth," Yudhoyono added.

While businesspeople have been at the forefront in protesting bylaws pertaining to taxes and levies, human rights and pluralism activists have opposed religious bylaws, such as Sharia bylaws in Aceh and religious bylaws used in other regions to, for example, regulate the distribution of alcoholic beverages.

The Finance Ministry had previously recommended that the Home Ministry revoke 4,885 bylaws because they contravened national laws and could damage the investment climate.

Petty squabbles impede law-making

Jakarta Post - August 24, 2012

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Parliament watchdog, Formappi, has criticized the national legislation program set by the government and the House of Representatives, saying it lacks clear objectives that can produce quality laws.

According to Formappi executive director Sebastian Salang, the lawmakers need to sit together and talk about ways to improve the legislative program and law-making process.

Sebastian said that at each session, lawmakers promise to complete deliberation of particular bills, then fail to meet legislation targets because of conflicting interests among themselves.

"The government and the House annually set a target to pass around 70 bills. But in reality, only around 10-15 percent are endorsed into law. This is not just a result of conflicting interests between the government and House, but also differing interests among lawmakers," Sebastian told The Jakarta Post.

He cited that only eight, just over 10 percent, of the 79 prioritized bills had passed into law in the 2011-2012 legislative period that ended in July. To make it worse, several long-awaited bills, including draft laws on bureaucratic reform and local elections, were on hold.

Meanwhile, numerous laws, including the law on legislative elections, have come before the Constitutional Court for judicial review, due to their multitudinous flaws.

Sebastian said that while the legislative body was a political institution it should consolidate views from all fractions and stay out of short-term political wrangling. Synergy with the executive body in policy making is essential.

"The national legislation program must be based on wide public interests; the executive's strategic plans and programs; aimed at significant progress in all sectors and benefit the majority people," he added.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie admitted recently to the President, ministers and foreign diplomats that the House's underperformance was caused by sharply differing political stands between the government and the House, and among House fractions.

Separately, Gandjar Pranowo, deputy chairman of Commission II on home affairs, said the absence of any political concord within the House had obstructed the legislation program and hindered his commission's efforts on several important bills.

Nurul Arifin of the Golkar Party suggested the House cut the annual legislation target by 50 percent to make it more realistic.

Eva Kusuma Sundari of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said her commission would continue its efforts to reform the judicial system and support the effective eradication of corruption.

Jakarta & urban life

Wealth gap, not religion, divides Jakartans: Analyst

Jakarta Post - August 30, 2012

Andreas D. Arditya, Jakarta – As racial and religious tensions escalate ahead of the second-round election for Jakarta governor, an analyst says it is unlikely that voters will take the issue of race and religion into consideration in deciding whom to support in the poll.

Tamrin Amal Tomagola, a sociologist from the Jakarta-based University of Indonesia, said that the capital had always been made up of migrants from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. "Clear separation between groups of different religions and ethnicities in the city did exist, but it is long-gone," Tamrin said at a discussion recently.

The sociologist explained that in the early years of Indonesian independence in the 1950s, migrants from both outside and from within Java Island began flocking to the capital.

Initial moves to Jakarta triggered a chain of migration, in which families, friends and relatives soon followed their more pioneering acquaintances. The migration resulted in members of the same ethnic groups residing within the same areas.

"Tied into ethnicity are similarities of religious identity. Those coming from Manado and Ambon, for example, were mostly Christian," Tamrin said.

The partition and the sentiment that went with it, however, fell apart during the New Order era, which saw rapid economic and infrastructure growth.

Members of different religious and ethnic backgrounds were blended and later segregated into economic classes. "What we see today in Jakarta is a society that's divided based on socioeconomic class, and on purchasing power," Tamrin said.

Jakarta will hold a runoff election in September between incumbent Governor Fauzi Bowo and out-of-towner Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. Jokowi finished first in the initial round of the election held on July 11, while Fauzi came in second.

Jokowi's running mate Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian of Chinese descent, has been targeted by a barrage of racial and religious slurs.

Jeirry Sumampouw, an election observer from the Indonesian Election Committee (TePI), said that issues relating to ethnicity, religion, race and intergroup relations, locally referred to as SARA, did not surface prior to the July 11 election. "The fact that SARA surfaced after the July 11 election can be seen as a part of political tactics," Jeirry said.

An exit poll conducted by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) showed Jokowi was supported by 39 percent of Muslim voters, while Fauzi was backed by 35 percent.

Jokowi also won the majority of Christian voters's support at 76 percent, while 16 percent still believed in Fauzi.

The same poll showed Jokowi led his runoff opponent by 3.2 percentage points among the city's low-income voters, as well as among middle- and upper-class voters at 9.2 points and 19.1 points, respectively.

Jakarta election officials told to get active on slurs

Jakarta Globe - August 27, 2012

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Democracy activists have lambasted the Jakarta's election authorities over their inaction in the face of the rampant use of religious and ethnic slurs ahead of next month's Jakarta gubernatorial election.

Ray Rangkuti, director of the Indonesian Civic Network (LIMA), expressed concern over the wide and blatant use of the tactics, saying they pose a threat to the nation's democracy and unity.

"This is all happening because there have been condonation. [Panwaslu, the Jakarta Elections Supervisory Committee] is too busy defining and exploring each event from a non-partisan perspective in the name of fair election. But there is little effort unravel who is behind these SARA issues," Ray said on Saturday.

SARA refers to divisive issues and exploitation of ethnic, religious and social backgrounds.

Ray noted that intimidation based on SARA has been on the rise since July 11, when Joko Widodo and Basuki Tjahaja Purnomo bagged 43 percent of the vote against incumbent Fauzi Bowo and Nachrowi Ramli, who won 34 percent. The pairings face a runoff ballot on Sept. 20.

The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD), he added, is caught up in the technical aspects of the election without looking at what he said was a more pressing problem.

"The election could be meaningless, because in this circumstance, it is those with muscles who will prevail. They, in name of democracy, will do anything using their muscles. Democracy is being hijacked by thugs," he said.

Political observer Gun Gun Haryanto said that recent developments have shown that the use of SARA has turned from propaganda to intimidation.

Gun Gun is concerned about a YouTube video that claimed a repeat of the racially-charged violence that swept the capital in 1998 could reoccur if Jakarta were to elect officials from certain ethnic minorities. The Chinese were a major target during the 1998 riots, which prompted the resignation of then-President Suharto.

The video targets Joko's running mate Basuki, a Christian of Chinese descent, who has been the prey of smear campaigns using ethnic and religious slurs.

National Coordinating Minister for Security and Legal Affairs Djoko Suyanto urged people not to be provoked by the two-minute video, which has been removed by YouTube. Several clerics have also called on Muslims to "vote only for Muslim leaders," a direct attack, analysts say, on Basuki.

Despite the ethnic campaigning being unambiguously captured on video, both Panwaslu and the KPUD have not imposed any sanction or put an end to these sermons.

The simmering tensions between political elites, Gun Gun said, could pave the way for conflict between different social and ethnic groups. "One of the consequences of these candidates' strategies is friction among supporters. Starting with the 'soft' friction to the 'hard' friction," he said.

Gun Gun pointed to a recent incident involving Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Rieke Diah Pitaloka, when she visited the victims of a devastating fire in Pondok Bambu, East Jakarta.

Rieke, whose party supports Joko this election, was abruptly evicted by members of Muslim hard-line groups. "This is what is called 'fear arousal' tactics, spreading fear to the opponent's elite circle so they cannot penetrate to voters' stronghold," Gun Gun said.

Campaigns get nastier in gubernatorial poll

Jakarta Post - August 25, 2012

Andreas D. Arditya and Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Political campaigns in the race for the governor of Jakarta are turning nastier, as contenders strive to attract voters in an election that has captivated the whole nation, and which is said will serve as a prelude to the 2014 presidential election.

In the past few weeks, supporters of both candidates, Fauzi Bowo and Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, have engaged in mudslinging campaigns, for which the two camps claim they are not responsible.

On Friday, Governor Fauzi was forced to dismiss allegations that a spike in fire incidents in the capital during the Idul Fitri holiday was in any way related to his reelection bid. "Please do not link [the incidents] with the election. Do not politicize it. It has nothing to do with it," he told reporters.

The city has seen an average of 70 fires each month between January and June, rising to 115 in July and 109 in August. This is hardly surprising, as many densely populated residential areas in the capital are deemed highly prone to fire due to rampant electricity theft and poor urban planning. The likelihood of fires is also higher during the Idul Fitri holiday, when Jakartans leave their houses empty to spend the holiday in their hometowns.

But a text message has been circulating on the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service suggesting that the fires were engineered to target areas where out-of-towner Jokowi won the majority of votes in the July 11 election. The Jokowi camp has demanded that the police investigate the incidents.

Fauzi refused to comment further on the smear campaign against him, saying: "Let's not bring politics into this. Let's just wait for the results of the police investigation."

Meanwhile, racial tensions continue to simmer in the first gubernatorial election involving a Christian of Chinese descent after the 1998 anti- Chinese riots in Jakarta.

A video emerged on YouTube showing threats of violence toward locals of Chinese descent who wish to cast their votes in the upcoming election runoff. In the video, a man with a blurred face and a raspy voice says, "We, the citizens and young saviors of Jakarta, are giving an ultimatum to residents of [a certain] descent, not to vote in the gubernatorial election or else...."

The man was shown brandishing a bladed weapon in the video. It was not immediately clear which residents the man was referring to, but the video was plastered with a small watermark that read "anti-Chinese". The speech is then followed by footage from the May 1998 riots across Jakarta, when anti-Chinese violence became widespread in the city and resulted in the massive exodus of locals of Chinese descent, many of whom never returned.

Many deemed the video an attack against deputy gubernatorial candidate Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who is of Chinese descent.

The police downplayed rumors that the video's uploader might have been connected to either one of the two candidate pairs in the upcoming runoff. "We cannot assume that the uploader was connected to either pair. What's clear is that there are some parties who would like to muddy the waters," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said.

Separately, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto urged people not to be easily incited by such hatemongering on the Internet. "This misuse of technology with the single purpose to incite hatred and to threaten others is not beneficial for our democracy," he told a press conference. "I hope that nobody will be provoked by these irresponsible individuals and that they maintain peace in our diverse society."

Jeirry Sumampouw, an election observer from the Indonesian Election Committee (TePI), called on Jakarta's Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) to take stern action against the "nasty" campaigns. "Panwaslu must not make the same mistake it made in the Rhoma case. The committee did not hand down any punishment in the case," Jeirry said. Panwaslu's weak move, he said, had not helped to curb the escalating racial and religious tensions.

Last month, dangdut singer and Muslim preacher Rhoma Irama was questioned by Panwaslu after delivering an allegedly derogatory and politically charged sermon during prayers at a mosque in Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta, while Fauzi was in attendance. He was cleared of alleged campaign regulation violations.

On July 11, Jokowi finished first after winning 1,847,157 votes, or 42.6 percent of the 4,336,486 valid votes in the election. Fauzi came second with 1,476,648, or 34.05 percent of the vote. The two will face each other in the runoff vote on Sept. 20.

Smear campaigns in Jakarta election

In a sermon at Al Isra Mosque in Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta, Rhoma Irama warned Muslims in Jakarta about the dangers of electing Jokowi, whose mother he labeled a Christian, and Ahok, a Chinese-Indonesian and a Christian.

A YouTube video of Fauzi's visit to victims of the fire in Karet Tengsin, Central Jakarta, sees him questioning their choices in the election: "Now, who will you choose? If [you] choose Jokowi, you'd better build [your homes] in Surakarta."

A circulated text message accusing Fauzi of masterminding the recent fire incidents across Jakarta.

Banners stating "Jokowi Menang Mega Presiden" (Jokowi Wins, Mega the President) were spotted in several areas.

A YouTube video threatening the Chinese not to vote in the runoff election.

Pamphlets describing Jokowi as a Zionist in West Jakarta.

Elections committee investigates mosque for Fauzi promotion

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2012

Febriamy Hutapea & Ronna Nirmala – Despite a prohibition against political campaigning at houses of worship, a mosque near Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo's house has posted a leaflet urging Muslims to vote for the incumbent in the upcoming gubernatorial election.

The leaflet, titled "Guidance to Vote for Jakarta's Leader," was the result of a meeting of Muslim clerics, the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) and 500 congregation members at Ahmad Yani Mosque in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

It encouraged Muslims to vote for the candidate who will benefit Jakarta residents and who has more political experience and knowledge in the fields of religion and science. The group claimed Fauzi satisfied those requirements more than his opponent, Solo Mayor Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi.

Fauzi, the group said, was religious and had close ties to the ulema, or Islamic leaders, as well as a doctorate degree in city planning from Germany and 30 years of experience in Jakarta.

"We want Muslims in Jakarta to be religiously responsible by casting their votes for Fauzi Bowo and [his running mate] Nachrowi Ramli during the second round of the gubernatorial election," the leaflet said. The leaflet was signed by MUI chairmen Ma'ruf Amin and Umar Shihab as well as Noor Ahmad, the council's deputy secretary general.

The leaflet comes after former Vice President Jusuf Kalla, chairman of the Indonesian Mosques Council (DMI), urged people not to campaign at mosques, which he said would taint their status as holy places of worship.

The Jakarta Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu Jakarta), which has prohibited political campaigning at mosques, said it would investigate the leaflet.

"Ulema might be in favor of a certain candidate – that's their right," said Ramdansyah, head of Panwaslu Jakarta. "They're even allowed to be involved in the election, or to join a campaign team, but there is a regulation [against campaigning at the mosques]."

Ramdansyah said campaign leaflets were allowed if they did not promote or disparage a particular candidate. He also said a leaflet should not be distributed beyond the community, such as the MUI, that wrote it.

"If it was made by the Jakarta Ulema Forum, it should only be distributed among them, in that community, but not in a public area," he said. "It might make other religious believers upset, and besides, this isn't campaign time [at mosques]."

Fauzi's campaign team said it did not know about the leaflet. "We didn't want it; we didn't even know about it," secretary of the team, Budi Siswanto, said on Wednesday.

However, he said it was normal for a community to show its trust and support for Fauzi. "The regulation is clear: Anyone can declare their support as long as it's in accordance with the regulation, and not containing defamation against an ethnicity, religion, race or society group."

Transport & communication

Idul Fitri fatalities nearly double from last year

Jakarta Globe - August 27, 2012

The number of fatal traffic accidents during this year's Idul Fitri exodus nearly doubled, according to the latest statistics.

"Boy rafli Amar said that during the Ketupat operation, there were 5634 motorcycle accidents, 1188 private car accidents, 276 bus accidents, 658 cargo vehicle accidents and 104 non motor vehicles accidents [which include bicycles, becaks and delmans]. The total accidents was 7,870," spokesman of the National Police Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said on Monday.

"From that figure, 908 people died." By contrast, there were 490 fatal accidents last year. Boy said the main factors behind the accidents were driver negligence, speeding, slippery roads and recklessness when passing other vehicles. Boy also said 69 percent of all accidents involved motorcycles.

Traffic accidents this year caused an estimated 1,505 people to suffer serious injuries, while 5,139 sustained minor injuries. The material losses caused by the accidents during the 16 days exodus an estimated Rp 11.8 billion ($1.2 million).

"There were 227 traffic accidents on Aug. 26 with 39 dead, 67 people heavily injured and 226 suffering minor injuries, with material losses of [approximately] Rp 383,000,000."

Most of the accidents occurred in Central Java, East Java, West Java, Jakarta and Bali, Boy said.

"Recklessness, weak physical condition and long distances have also influenced [the accidents]," Boy said. "Hopefully people will keep being careful, and learn from their experiences."

Deputy speaker of the House of Representative Pramono Anung criticized the government for the high number of fatalities. "The government should have implemented annual exodus traffic management," Pramono said.

Saleh Husin, a member of House Commission V that oversees transportation, said the commission would summon the Transportation Ministry, the Public Works Ministry, the police and public transportation companies to discuss this year's deadly exodus, or mudik. The Ministry of Health will also evaluate the high number of casualties during annual exodus this year.

"We're really concerned, as it happens every year," Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi said on Monday. "We have been doing some improvements, including driver health checks of blood pressure and whether they use stimulant medicines – but the traffic accidents increased compared to last year."

Nafsiah said she would also evaluate whether the casualties died at the scene of the accidents, in transit to the hospital or at the hospital. "We have been told that many victims were 'undisciplined' motorcyclists," she said. "But we still have to evaluate this in a systematical way."

No new roads to worsen gridlock

Jakarta Post - August 27, 2012

Jakarta – Any expectations of immediate measures to build new national roads have been put on the back burner, at least until 2014, despite crumbling infrastructure that has created high costs for the economy and logistical uncertainty.

Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto told The Jakarta Post recently that the government saw no immediate need to build new national roads, even for the commodity powerhouses of Sumatra, Sulawesi and Kalimantan,

"Existing national roads are sufficient. There is no rush to create new ones," he said. "Our immediate strategy is to raise road capacity by gradually ensuring all of our national roads have four lanes."

Problems in land acquisition, particularly in Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi, is cited by Djoko as the main reason discouraging the construction of new roads.

"We hope the new presidential regulation on land acquisition will create opportunities to buy land for public infrastructure, including expansion of national roads," said Djoko.

National roads, managed by central government, exclude privately managed toll roads and regional roads. The Public Works Ministry has earmarked Rp 34 trillion (US$3.57 billion) of its Rp 69 trillion budget next year for maintenance and expansion of existing roads.

The budget for roads is lower than the Rp 41.7 trillion allocated to the Religious Affairs Ministry, which is mostly used to buy copies of the Koran, prayer equipment and maintain religious schools.

"The government's ambition on infrastructure development is not in line with its budgetary policy," said the deputy chairman of House Commission V overseeing infrastructure and transportation, Muhidin Mohamad Said. "The budget for infrastructure development is only 2.5 percent of the total the state budget for 2013," he said.

In its quarterly report published in July, the World Bank said that investment in new national road construction with appropriate standards was essential, given growth in traffic and medium term development targets.

National road conditions have improved in recent years, with about 86 percent currently in good condition – well above the developing country average of 70 percent – but there has been only a marginal increase in new road construction.

"As a result, there is a strong concentration of traffic in urban centers and on regional roads. Road travel speeds are consequently relatively low," the report said.

Road vehicles are the predominant mode of transport in Indonesia, accounting for 70 percent of freight ton-km and 82 percent of passenger-km, according to the report.

National roads have the highest network utilization at 34 percent, although they represent only 8.8 percent (38,570 kilometers) of the total road network.

The number of passenger cars, buses, and trucks grew at above 20 percent a year between 2005 and 2010, however, the national road network only grew by a quarter during the same period, according to the World Bank.

Between 2005 and 2011, the national road network was extended mostly through minor widening to improve sub-standard roads considered strategically important.

However, the World Bank believes there was 'inefficiency' in maintenance costs with unit costs, benchmarked against international norms, relatively high.

Toll-road development, expected to handle the rise in volume, has also been exceedingly slow. By 2010, only 742 kilometers of toll roads had become operational even though the first development was back in 1978.

That is less than a third of the estimated need of 2,400 kilometers according to the Public Works Ministry's strategic plan, and lags well behind several countries in the region in terms of expressway density.

It is not surprising that average transport cost in Indonesia is high compared to Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, according to the World Bank.

"I am particularly worried about the state of our infrastructure in the short term. Unless there is a sense of urgency to resolve it, I am afraid the economy will be in gridlock soon," said University of Indonesia economist Mohamad Ikhsan, also a special advisor to Vice President Boediono. (aml)

686 killed in motorcycle, car crashes during Idul Fitri: Police

Jakarta Post - August 24, 2012

Jakarta – Police say 686 people were killed in 3,927 traffic accidents during this year's Idul Fitri holiday exodus between Aug. 11 and Aug. 21.

"We saw an increase in the number of dead this year compared to last year. And 75.5 percent of the casualties, or 518 people killed in the accidents, were traveling by motorcycles," National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.

According to Boy, the 686 traffic deaths recorded during the 2012 exodus was up 10.29 percent from 622 recorded during the same period last year, while the total number of accidents was up 3.97 percent from 3,777 in 2011.

The number of people who were severely injured in traffic accidents during this year's exodus stood at 1,093, according to Boy, while those with minor injuries numbered around 3,750. "Approximately 69.5 percent of the total number of accidents during the exodus involved motorcycles," Boy added.

Separately, the governor of East Java said that local officials would monitor motorcycle use as travelers returned home this weekend and might provide motorcyclists with alternate forms of transportation.

"There will surely be evaluation and realignment, especially for holiday makers traveling by motorcycle. We don't want to see the number of traffic accidents, which has been dominated by motorcycles, rise again," East Java Governor Soekarwo said in Surabaya, the provincial capital, as reported by Antara news agency.

Soekarwo said he was also concerned about the increased number of traffic accidents recorded in the province during the holiday exodus.

The East Java Police traffic directorate said that 836 traffic accidents were recorded between Aug. 10 to Aug. 22 in the province, up from 652 during last year's holiday season.

The police also recorded that 97 people were killed in Idul Fitri traffic accidents in East Java in 2012, up from 87 during the 2011 season; while 70 people were severely injured, up from 12; and 843 people had minor injuries, up from 471.

Soekarwo said that 70 percent of the accidents this year involved motorcyclists. "Transportation observers said that motorcycles were created not to transport more than two people and a large quantity of goods," he said.

One alternative under consideration as people begin to make the journey home, according to Soekarwo, would be to use trucks to transport motorcycles, while their owners would be offered free transport by bus to their destinations.

In Medan, North Sumatra; police reported that 61 people were killed during the exodus in the province, while 161 people were severely injured and 274 people suffered minor injuries.

North Sumatra Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Heru Prakoso said that most of the 210 traffic accidents recorded in the province during the holiday exodus involved motorcycles. (nad)

[Apriadi Gunawan contributed reporting from Medan.]

Film & television

Ramadan-themed TV shows showered with complaints: KPI

Jakarta Globe - August 28, 2012

Viriya Paramita – The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) says it has received hundreds of complaints on Ramadan-themed programs broadcast by local TV stations during the Islamic fasting month, and has sent a number of warnings about the shows.

KPI deputy head Nina Mutmainna Armando said on Tuesday that the complaints and warnings were mostly addressed to live comedy shows intended to attract an audience during the sahur, or predawn meal.

"It's relatively the same as last years violations. For example, they ridiculed physical defects, bucktoothed people, short and fat people, or people with certain sexual orientation and gender," Nina told a discussion at the KPI office in Central Jakarta.

She said the KPI received a total of 565 complaints from viewers during the fasting month, and that Trans TV's "Waktunya Kita Sahur" ("It's Sahur Time"), a comedy show broadcast live during Ramadan, received the most complaints, totaling 66.

The KPI has sent two written warnings to Trans TV regarding the show, Nina said. She added the KPI also sent two warnings each for "Kampung Sahur Bejo" ("Bejo's Sahur Kampong"), broadcast by RCTI, and "Sabarrr Tingkat 2" ("Level 2 Patience"), by SCTV, as they didn't heed the first warnings.

Four other shows, namely "Sahur Bersama Srimulat" ("Sahur with Srimulat"), broadcast by Indosiar, Trans TV's "Ngabuburit" ("Hanging Out Before Breaking the Fast"), Trans 7's "John Lenong" and SCTV's "Inbox" all received a warning each.

Nina further added that some of the shows also violated rules on ratings and norms of politeness, as well as the child protection law.

"There was a program that alternately changed its rating between R [teen] and SU [all ages], but it actually had adult content as it talked about intimate relationships for adults," Nina said.

She suggested TV stations reduce live comedy shows, as they were most prone to violations.

Indonesia has a thing for TV preachers

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2012

Ulma Haryanto – She's eight years old, but Anita Nurhasanah is small for her age. With her tiny, squeaky voice, the little girl from Yogyakarta could easily pass for a kindergartner.

Don't be fooled. When Anita starts her sermon, her childish demeanor gives way to an adult-like seriousness. Evangelizing on various children- appropriate topics, she tosses in Koranic verses and hadith quotations.

A year ago, Anita placed third in a television show called "Pildacil," short for "Pemilihan Da'i Cilik," or "junior preacher's competition." Competing in the youngest group of participants, which includes kids aged 7 to 12, Anita won a Rp 25 million ($2,600) cash prize. The show was produced by ANTV.

Back home, Anita became a local celebrity. Her schedule for this year's fasting month filled up quickly, as people sought her out to give sermons for children and adults alike.

The show, which ended last October, as well as a second program for participants aged 17 to 25, was a hit, network spokeswoman Frisanti Karlina told the Jakarta Globe. The station is now in talks to prepare new seasons of each of them.

Children's advocates like Seto Mulyadi, a child psychologist and chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak), have expressed concern over these kinds of commercial competitions involving children. But Pildacil's Facebook page was still full of messages from people asking for next auditions to begin.

In the world's most populous Muslim country, there seems an unquenchable demand for preachers, or da'i, in all sizes and styles.

Preaching for the masses

The 1990s and early 2000s saw the rise and fall of mass preachers like Zainuddin Muhammad Zain, known as Zainuddin MZ, and Abdullah Gymnastiar, or AA Gym, both of whom coupled their religious teachings with light humor.

"But after Zainuddin and AA Gym's stars began to fade, people, especially TV stations, realized there weren't a lot of candidates out there to replace them," said Asrori Karni, a journalist and editor at the current affairs magazine Gatra. Asrori, who has been monitoring Islamic culture in Indonesia for the past decade, was speaking at a public forum at Salihara cultural center earlier this month.

Zainuddin MZ was once known as "the million-follower preacher," but he lost his mass appeal when he became involved in politics and then in a rape scandal. He was also accused of having an affair with dangdut singer Aida Saskia.

AA Gym rose to fame in the wake of Zainuddin's decline, but his time in the spotlight lasted less than a decade. His fall from grace came when his marriage to a second wife was made public.

"His followers were mostly women and housewives. They quickly denounced him," Asrori said. "At his height, AA Gym's sermons were often relayed by different TV stations at the same time," Asrori added. "His name alone could guarantee high ratings."

The rise of 'Dakhwatainment'

A lack of suitable replacements for the so-called mass preachers meant that television stations had to compete against one another to find the next "preaching sensation." Hence the public auditions to find new talent.

"But television is its own industry, and its culture relies on being instant, superficial and entertaining," said Yasraf Amir Piliang, a cultural studies lecturer from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

Yasraf mentioned some of today's most popular clerics: Soleh Mahmud, known as Ustad Solmed, who started out as an actor in a religious-themed soap opera; and Muhammad Nur Maulana, or Ustad Maulana, whose sermons hinge on delivering one catchphrase after another.

Another name was Jeffry Al Buchori, or Ustad Uje, a celebrity-cum-cleric who uses slang words during his sermons.

Cleric Luthfi Fathallah, one of the judges for ANTV's "Da'i Muda," the show for young adult preachers, said that for the television audience, preachers had to consider the entertainment factor. "They have to offer something unique, and the more interesting the better," Luthfi said.

That formula was evidently used by Faisal Sofyan, 24, who showed up to his audition in silver, high-heeled boots. The part-time radio DJ from Ciamis, West Java, tried to impress the judges by singing his sermons.

"I can also use puppets, like ventriloquist," he said. The gimmicks worked, as the judges put Faisal through to the next round.

Gone too far?

The lack of "qualified" religious shows was evident during the recent Muslim fasting month. Most television stations air comedy and variety shows with occasional appearances by popular preachers during sahur, or the predawn meal, and in the moments approaching sunrise, when people break their fasts.

"This year is a culmination of the decline in sermon quality we get on television," Asrori said.

Earlier in the month, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) issued seven television shows with warnings for inappropriate content, he said. "In two of the seven [shows], it was the preachers themselves who were censored," Asrori said.

Solmed committed multiple offenses when he discussed Islam and marital sexual relations in detail during his 4 a.m. show on Global TV last month. In another episode, Solmed insulted a comedian on a different show, saying, "If the devil was created to tempt men... then Narji was created to be reviled by men."

Another popular preacher, Ustad Taufiqurrahman, who is famous for his rhyming skills, earned a warning for making up degrading poems about transgender people. He also got one for his attempt at a humorous analogy on the sexual relations of married couples during Ramadan.

The seemingly unstoppable torrent lewd jokes by comedians and preachers that continually make their way into Indonesian families' living rooms also enraged the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), which has demanded a boycott of shows that offend.

"MUI urges people to boycott programs that use the name of Ramadan but feature content that is far from the spirit of Ramadan," Sinansari Encip, the head of MUI's information and communication commission, said earlier this month. "Ironically, some religious figures who appear [in the shows] get carried away with the mean spirit of comedy shows," he said.

According to KPI data, during the first week of Ramadan alone, 31 shows were reported for inappropriate content.

Better than extremism?

"Popular religious shows do not always have a negative effect," Asrori said. "It provides an alternative and certainly a bigger appeal than extreme or hard-line teachings."

He also said that nowadays it was easier to apply public control over popular preachers who were out of line.

"Look at AA Gym or Zainuddin, each of whom lost his charm as soon as he did something that was deemed unfavorable by the public," he said. "Compare that to clerics at the local level who abuse their authority and allegedly become child molesters, for example," Asrori added.

He mentioned Habib Hasan bin Jafar Assegaf, the leader of Nurul Mustofha Assembly in Jakarta, and Sheikh Puji from Central Java.

Saidiman Ahmad from the Liberal Islam Network (JIL) added that the multitude of clerics would only enrich Indonesia's pluralistic Islamic culture.

"Besides, in the beginning religions are spread using easy-to-understand and popular manners," he said. "If these popular clerics do not exist then it is possible that sooner or later people will abandon religion."

Armed forces & defense

TNI expects stronger navy fleet by 2024

Jakarta Post - August 30, 2012

Jakarta – Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Wednesday that the government was expecting to procure a dozen submarines to augment Indonesia's existing fleet by 2024.

Purnomo said that a deal to purchase three of these submarines was signed in December 2011. The submarines are being built in cooperation with South Korea. He said that the joint-production program will transfer South Korea's technological knowledge of submarines to Indonesia.

The first submarine will be entirely the product of South Korea while the second will be built together with Indonesian workers. Purnomo expressed hope that Indonesia would have learned enough about submarines to be able to build the third independently.

"By the third, we hope to be able to build our own submarines. They will be built in Indonesia, by Indonesians." Purnomo said at a press conference, after a meeting of the Defense Industry Policy Committee (KKIP).

The Indonesian Defense Ministry and Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering (DSME) signed a contract in December last year to build the three submarines.

The contract was signed by the ministry's Defense Facilities Agency chief, Maj. Gen. Ediwan Prabowo, and DSME president and CEO Nam Tae-sang.

Under the contract, two submarines will be built in South Korea in cooperation with state-owned shipbuilder PT PAL, while the third submarine will be built at PT PAL's facility in Surabaya.

The submarines will weigh 1,400 tons and be 61.3 meters long. Each will carry up to 40 crew members and have eight tubes for torpedoes and other weapons.

The KKIP had its seventh meeting on Wednesday since it was established in 2010 based on Presidential Regulation No.42/2010 regarding technological research and development in defense and industry.

The meeting mapped out the government's plan to coordinate various sectors of the economy so the country can build the third submarine by itself.

Under the plan, the Education and Culture Ministry will facilitate the nation's arms independence by training and providing human resources in weapons manufacturing.

More importantly, the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry will be playing a key role in Indonesia's submarine-building project.

The ministry controls state-owned shipyard company PT PAL which will acquire knowledge on South Korea's submarine technology. The knowledge will allow Indonesia to create a maintenance and overhaul center for submarines.

PT PAL has dispatched technician to observe construction of the first ship, and will have gained sufficient knowledge by the end to be able to build the third in Indonesia.

Purnomo said that the strengthened fleet would better protect Indonesia. "Based on our calculations, two-thirds of our country is water. We need at least 10 submarines to protect it," Purnomo said. "We hope to be able to achieve this goal by 2024," Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Adm. Agus Suhartono added.

In 2024, Indonesia expects to have reached the country's minimum essential force requirement. Some Rp 150 trillion (US$15.8 billion) will have been spent to pay for the modernization of the nation's weapons-defense system between 2010 and 2014.

Indonesia to buy air-to-surface missiles from the United States

Jakarta Globe - August 27, 2012

Ismira Lutfia – Indonesia is taking advantage of a scramble by major powers to boost their influence in the Asia Pacific to build its defense capabilities, analysts said.

After Russia sold Sukhoi jet fighters to Indonesia and Jakarta announced plans to jointly produce C-705 antiship missiles with Beijing, Washington says it will sell air-to-surface guided missiles to equip Indonesia's growing fleet of US-built F-16 fighter aircraft.

"Our F-16 fighters must be equipped with the most sophisticated weapons," said Brig. Gen. Hartind Asrin, an Indonesian defense industry spokesman. "That's standard for a jet fighter such as the F-16."

He said Indonesia's purchase of the missiles, which have a target range of up to 22 kilometers, would not worry neighboring countries because Jakarta only wanted to modernize its defense capabilities and had no intention of attacking another country.

"In peacetime, the system aims to create a deterrent," he said. "This deal is only to safeguard our territorial sovereignty. It is not for offensive purposes, as is clearly enshrined in our Constitution."

Reuters reported from Washington, DC, on Friday that President Barack Obama's administration had proposed selling air-to-surface guided missiles and related gear to equip Indonesia's fleet of F-16 aircraft.

The sale, valued at $25 million, would be the latest US move to boost security ties with friends and allies in a region that has been stirred by China's growing military clout and territorial assertiveness.

Indonesia has requested 18 AGM-65K2 Maverick All-Up-Round missiles, 36 "captive air training missiles" and three maintenance training missiles, plus spares, test equipment and personnel training, the administration told US Congress in a notice dated last Wednesday.

The AGM-65 Maverick, built by Raytheon, is designed to attack a wide range of tactical targets, including armor, air defenses, ships, ground transportation and fuel storage facilities.

"The Indonesian Air Force needs these missiles to train its F-16 pilots in basic air-to-ground weapons employment," the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in the notice to lawmakers.

The security agency added that the arms sale would contribute to making Indonesia "a more valuable regional partner in an important area of the world."

Defense relations between Indonesia and the United States returned to normal conditions in 2010 when the US military renewed its relations with Kopassus, Indonesia's special forces.

Many saw the normalization of defense ties as a demonstration of significant US re-engagement in the region as China continues to increase its defense spending. Reopening the US arms markets to Indonesia is a natural next step in maturing military-to-military relations.

Indonesia's move to buy the missiles comes after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced last week that the country's defense budget for next year would increase to Rp 77.7 trillion ($8.2 billion), from Rp 61.5 trillion this year.

The defense budget is still less than 10 percent of China's, which stood at $89.8 billion last year. The United States topped the world in defense spending last year, with a $739.3 billion budget.

In the region, Singapore and Malaysia have defense budgets of $9.7 billion and $4.8 billion, respectively, this year.

Indonesia has 10 F-16s, and after a meeting between Obama and Yudhoyono last November, the United States announced that it was giving, not selling, Jakarta another two dozen secondhand F-16C/D fighter planes to strengthen bilateral ties and foster what the Pentagon has called a "much-needed" capability to protect Indonesian airspace.

The number of missiles being sought by Indonesia would support both the existing fleet and the 24 planes being provided as US surplus, the notice to Congress said.

Connie Rahakundini Bakrie, a defense expert from the Institute of Defense and Securities Studies, said Indonesia was in a strategic position in the rivalry between China and the United States, as well as in the South China Sea dispute, and should be able to use its bargaining chips against the major powers to boost its defense capability.

[Additional reporting from Reuters.]

Indonesia hikes defense budget, forges ties with Beijing and Washington

Straits Times - August 24, 2012

Zakir Hussain, Jakarta – Indonesia's defense spending will once again top that for all government agencies, spiking to a record 77.7 trillion rupiah (US$8 billion) next year.

The new budget is 6.6 percent higher than this year's and comes as Southeast Asia's largest country seeks to leverage its growing economy to overhaul its aging military hardware.

But unlike some of its neighbors whose beefing up of their armies comes amid growing wariness of China's military build-up, Jakarta's plans involve jointly producing C-705 anti-ship missiles with Beijing.

The move has raised eyebrows, but officials say it is all about cooperating with a range of countries so that the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI), which have 400,000 active-duty soldiers, get the best deal for weapons and defense systems, and the domestic defense industry gets a boost.

"This is part of our effort to achieve a minimum essential force by 2024," Defense Ministry spokesman Hartind Asrin told The Straits Times Thursday, using a term that refers to the bare minimum needed to safeguard Indonesia's borders and maintain a professional and capable military.

Brigadier-General Hartind said the two sides aim to agree on quantity and specifications by the year end, so that a deal to develop the missiles here can be inked next March. The two sides had discussed the deal at the first Indonesia-China defense industry cooperation meeting here last month.

The naval missiles, which have a range of 135km, have been test-fired in the Sunda Strait.

He stressed that the plans are unrelated to and unaffected by rising tensions in the South China Sea over territories claimed by China and four Asean states. However, Indonesia's closer cooperation with China has been followed by an offer of further cooperation from the US.

Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said last week the US had offered additional F-16 fighter jets on top of the 24 the TNI will soon receive on a grant agreed on late last year.

The latest offer from Washington comes amid closer military ties between Jakarta and Beijing. Last month, Indonesian special forces troops held a joint exercise with their Chinese counterparts in Shandong, and China has offered to train Indonesian air force pilots using a Sukhoi simulator.

Both foreign ministers also agreed to boost defense ties when they met here earlier this month.

"There is wide recognition that it is time for Indonesia to seek alternative resources for its defense needs, and China is an important partner," Bantarto Bandoro of the Indonesian Defense University said. China is more willing to share and transfer technology and "does not impose conditions."

Apart from China, Indonesia is also working with South Korea to produce jet fighters and submarines, and with Spain to build medium-range transport aircraft.

Bantarto said Washington probably made the offer of additional F-16s because it did not want the balance to be tilted too much by closer Indonesia-China military ties.

The Defense Ministry says it is happy to work closely with both sides, a posture mirroring that of the Foreign Ministry that eschews taking sides even as it seeks to carve out a middleman role for the country amid renewed great power interest in the region.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said last week the budget increase is "aimed at improving the readiness and reliability of the TNI in safeguarding (our) territorial sovereignty, in executing defensive tasks of the state during peace-time, and in participating in the maintenance of world peace."

Members of Parliament have voiced support for the increased spending.

Parahyangan Catholic University academic Mira Permatasari said there is growing recognition that security and social development needs can be mutually reinforcing. The two, just like stronger defense links with both China and the US, are not a zero-sum game, she added.

Some items on the way:

Navy

C-705 anti-ship missiles produced jointly with China
Eleven anti-submarine helicopters
Three submarines produced jointly with South Korea
Eight corvettes produced jointly with Dutch shipbuilder Damen Schelde

Air Force

Eight light attack A-29 Super Tucano aircraft from Brazil
Up to 34 F-16s from the US on a grant
Six C-130H heavy transport aircraft from Australia, plus four C-130s on a grant
KFX/IFX fighter jets jointly produced with South Korea

Army

100 Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks from Germany

Lawmakers ponder military service

Jakarta Post - August 24, 2012

The House of Representatives Commission I on defense affairs has supported the government's initiative to require all Indonesian men aged 18 years and over to serve in the military.

The program is designed to prepare them for a war situation and possible attack against the country. Due to complexity of the issue, the House needs more time for discussion before bringing the subject into legislation.

"It would be a very important bill. It would provide a legal instrument for a military program involving civilians. However, we must carefully and thoroughly discuss the draft. Additionally, we must involve the public in discussions due to the complexity of the issue," lawmaker Hayono Isman from the Democratic Party said on Thursday.

Separately, Commission I deputy chairman TB Hasanuddin said his commission would only start deliberating the bill when lawmakers complete deliberations of the National Security Bill.

Police & law enforcement

Indonesian government to call police over violent incidents

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2012

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The House of Representatives Commission III, the body that oversees legal affairs, is planning to summon the National Police and the National Commission on Human Rights over recent violence and conflicts involving police, a lawmaker said on Tuesday.

"In connection to the cases in Ogan Ilir, Mesuji, Pasaman, Maligi, Bima and others, it is an important moment for us, to once again remind the National Police to reform itself," said Nudirman Munir, a member of House Commission III.

Nudirman was referring to several cases involving locals protesting against companies in their areas, mostly over land disputes, where police intervention resulted in injuries and sometimes death. Nudirman said there were indications of human rights violations by the police in these cases.

Police have been accused of serious human rights violations in a series of recent fatal incidents during land dispute protests across the country.

A child was shot by police during a protest over a land dispute in South Sumatra's Ogan Ilir district last month. Police reportedly fired live ammunition into a crowd of villagers protesting the presence of a sugar cane plantation and sugar factory in their area.

In late December, three civilians were killed in a clash with security forces during a protest over gold prospecting in West Nusa Tenggara's Bima district.

Earlier that month, farmers from Mesuji district in Lampung presented a video to legislators in Jakarta that they claimed showed security forces murdering residents in order to evict them.

Observers, activists and lawmakers have said the shooting should be used as a wake up call for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Hendarman Supandji, the new land agency chief, to immediately review all cases that have the potential to turn into deadly violence.

Ifdal Kasim, chairman of the rights agency known as Komnas HAM, has demanded that Yudhoyono form a special team to handle each land dispute across the country.

"The team should comprise representatives of all the relevant offices and have the authority to directly deal with the problems and overcome barriers in the central and local bureaucracies," he said. "The land agency by itself will not be able to solve all of the problems."

Police under investigation after allegedly beating innocent man in Java

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2012

Kediri, East Java – Eight police officers who allegedly beat an innocent man by mistake are under investigation in East Java, a police chief said on Wednesday.

"We have started to [legally] process them," said Adj. Sr. Comr. Kasero Menggolo, the police chief in Kediri, East Java, adding that they were being investigated by the bureau of Police Professionalism and Security Affairs (Propam).

The eight officers allegedly beat Mintoro on Sunday after breaking down the door to his house in a raid for narcotics. The officers, who believed Mintoro was hiding drugs, asked him to reveal his hiding place.

Shocked at their search, Mintoro asked the police to tell him the name of their suspect. The officers ignored his question, and one of them allegedly hit him in the face, knocking out two of his teeth. They also allegedly pointed a gun at Mintoro, who was still recovering after undergoing appendix surgery.

Mintoro's neighbors heard the chaos and called the neighborhood unit chief, who arrived and again asked the police who they were searching for.

The police said they were looking for a drug lord named Heru, whose house is 50 meters away from Mintoro's house. They realized they had the wrong man when Mintoro showed them his identity card.

Mintoro was hospitalized for two days at Bhayangkara Hospital. Kasero said the incident was a mistake, claiming another drug suspect had given the police "the wrong address" for Heru.

"We did a survey before the raid, and we did the raid according to standard operational procedures," the police chief said, adding that the police officers beat Mintoro because they were too enthusiastic about the prospect of arresting Heru.

Kasero, who apologized to Mintoro and the public, said the police would cover all the losses, including paying for Mintoro's medical treatment and repairs for his house. Mintoro said he had forgiven the officers but added that they should be charged.

Infrastructure & investment

Government still sings the infrastructure blues

Jakarta Post - August 29, 2012

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono boasted about his administration's awareness of the importance of infrastructure development in his speech at the 2012 Indonesian International Infrastructure Conference and Exhibition in Jakarta on Tuesday.

However, the country's leader did not provide a clear solution to the protracted problems that have often hindered the country's major infrastructure projects.

"Infrastructure, other than being a pillar of the economy and being a crucial component of sustainable growth, is also an important factor to establishing solid domestic connectivity," Yudhoyono said.

He said that the government had done its best to implement the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia's Economic Development (MP3EI).

"Under this master plan, as many as 135 infrastructure development and real sector projects have been launched with a total investment worth more than Rp 490 trillion [US$51.45 billion]."

To reaffirm the government's commitment to the master plan, Yudhoyono said that his administration planned to allocate around $20 billion for infrastructure spending next year.

"We want to expand our 4,278-kilometer national road capacity. We also plan to build new roads, stretching 559 kilometers in total, 380 kilometers of new railways and 15 new airports," Yudhoyono said.

He added that the government was also committed to accelerating the completion of the 10,000-megawatt power plant development program next year.

At a glance, Yudhoyono might have depicted ambitious and courageous governance, attempting to weather the economic storm through accelerated infrastructure development. But adopting a deeper, historical perspective highlights most of the projects Yudhoyono refers to as either old or guilty of missing their target completion dates.

For example, the development of the 2,500-kilometer Trans-Sumatra Highway project has not been initiated, let alone completed, despite the fact that this project was initially set to begin in 2005. The Trans-Sumatra Highway is intended to connect Lampung in South Sumatra and Aceh, which is located in the northern part of the island.

Industry Minister MS Hidayat said that the issues hindering infrastructure development had always been the same.

"I have now participated in three infrastructure summits and the problem in our infrastructure development has always been about regulatory issues. I do not know whether the regulatory issues that were brought into our attention in the previous two summits have been properly resolved or not," Hidayat explained.

Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa also could not provide a concrete strategy as to how the government could immediately resolve problems plaguing the infrastructure construction. "We'll continue improving bureaucracy and resolves all problems that have created bottleneck in the infrastructure development," he said.

The country's budget allocation for infrastructure development has been criticized by economists and industrial players. The government might plan to increase infrastructure spending by 7 percent to Rp 180 trillion next year but the increase is still far lower than the increase in energy subsidy spending, which has been set to increase by 18 percent to Rp 316.09 trillion.

Critics believe that massive subsidy spending shows the government's tendency to put political popularity ahead of sustainable economic development due to the fact that the country will have general elections in 2014.

Deputy Finance Minister Mahendra Siregar said that the country would never be able to fulfill its infrastructure development funding with the current budget allocation.

Government readies to tout same infrastructure projects, again

Jakarta Post - August 28, 2012

Hans David Tampubolon and Nurfika Osman, Jakarta – Despite unresolved problems that continue to deter investment in local infrastructure projects, the government is gearing up for another major pitch session.

Although several conferences over the past seven years have failed to result in the deals that are needed to drastically increase the nation's infrastructure capacity, the government plans to hold the Indonesia International Infrastructure Conference and Exhibition at the Jakarta Convention Center from Aug. 28 to Aug. 30.

According to the Committee for the Expansion and Acceleration of Indonesian Economic Growth (KP3EI), which works under the coordinating economic minister, the focus of the conference will be implementing the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia's Economic Development (MP3EI).

The MP3EI, introduced in 2011, aims to significantly improve connectivity throughout the archipelago through creating a host of "corridors", or areas earmarked for industry-specific economic development. The government hopes that implementing the plan will make Indonesia one of the top five global economic forces by 2025.

During the conference, officials from 33 provinces will again present investment opportunities to lure investors to back infrastructure projects. The government has identified 774 infrastructure projects under the aegis of the MP3EI with a total price tag of US$240 billion.

The government plans to provide 32 percent of the funding for certain projects, with the remainder slated for funding under public-private partnership (PPP) schemes.

Realizing this, however, will be difficult. Projects slated for development under PPP schemes continue to face challenges from a complex land acquisition process, weak preparation and selection procedures and the absence of a viable gap funding mechanism.

"The government needs to know the real goal of MP3EI projects and should be more focused on fixing weaknesses in some regulations and policies to help smooth the execution of the projects," Lin Che Wei, the founder of Independent Research and Advisory Indonesia (IRAI), said.

"The PPP scheme, for instance, is lacking any elaboration in regulation, which has led to confusion in its implementation," Lin said.

According to the KP3EI, after the MP3EI was launched in 2011, the government broke the ground on 99 projects worth Rp 356 trillion, or 87 percent of 114 targeted projects budgeted at Rp 420 trillion. Progress remains sluggish. Overlapping regulations have impeded the projects, according to the KP3EI.

"It can be concluded that the performance of the economic corridor working team has not been optimal, especially in terms of problem solving," the KP3EI said in its report.

Separately, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan said on Monday that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono previously ordered him to involve all state-owned enterprises (SOE) in the MP3EI to compensate for a lack of private investors to ensure progress before Yudhoyono leaves office in 2014.

"The President told me last week that he wanted to discuss a number of projects that should be finished before his leadership ends with all SOE executives," he said.

Indonesian government to give tax break to textile equipment manufacturers

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2012

Ivan Dasa Saputra – The Indonesian government is set to provide tax incentives to textile machinery industries next year as part of a move to boost the ailing textile sector, Industry Minister M.S. Hidayat said late last week.

The minister said the textile industry needed at least 500 pieces of new equipment next year to revive the sector. Hidayat said that such machines should be produced in Indonesia, and that a tax holiday was planned to reduce imports.

Many machines currently used by the sector were produced overseas, often at high cost, damaging the competitiveness of the country's textile industry.

"We have to do that to help cut the import of textile machines in the next two years," Hidayat told reporters in Jakarta on Friday during a press conference to discuss the 2013 state budget. The minister was not specific on the nature of the planned tax incentives.

Hidayat said the country's upstream textile industry – machinery, much of which is outdated and in need of upgrades to boost efficiency – remained weak. "The tax holiday is meant so that there will be growth in investment in textile machines," Hidayat said.

Separately, Imron Cotan, Indonesia's ambassador to China, said in Beijing on Tuesday that two Chinese textile companies were considering relocating their plants to Indonesia to benefit from the growing economy and favorable business environment.

"The investment climate in Indonesia remains conducive, and a growing economy will lure Chinese investors to relocate their textile plants to Indonesia," Imron was quoted as saying by Antara news agency. Imron did not name the Chinese investors.

The ambassador said that Indonesia was attractive to Chinese investors because of low labor costs, a conducive political environment and recent investment grade assessments by rating agencies.

Fitch Ratings raised Indonesia's sovereign debt rating to investment grade last December and Moody's Investors Service raised its assessment early this year.

Imron said various policies in Indonesia coupled with stable political conditions had enticed many foreign investors, including from China. "Indonesia remains the target of investment," Imron said.

The diplomat said that several potential investors from China and neighboring countries will visit Jakarta next month to explore business opportunities in Indonesia.

[Additional reporting from Antara.]

Analysis & opinion

Minority rights and the Indonesian diaspora

Jakarta Post - August 29, 2012

Calvin Sidjaya, Jakarta – Early last month, the Indonesian government held its first ever congress of Indonesian diaspora in Los Angeles. With the rising importance of Indonesia in international relations, engaging its citizens overseas is one logical way to increase the country's soft power and culture abroad.

The 2010 census revealed there were about 63,000 Indonesians registered in the United States, making them the 15th largest Asian minority after the Myanmarese.

Human rights, however, may foil Indonesia's bid to achieve the goal of increasing power and culture aborad, as it has been experiencing a brain drain during its modern history due to persecutions which mostly remain unresolved.

In 1945, the Dutch Indonesians became the target of persecution during the Bersiap anti-Dutch movement, triggering flight from the capital of the new republic to the Netherlands, which only ceased in 1963. Due to various issues, such as an inability to adapt to the climate, as well as economic problem in the Netherlands, many then opted to migrate to the United States.

However until this day, Dutch Indonesians remain the most underrepresented minority in modern Indonesia.

Their history was erased from school history books, and Bersiap is not recognized as a part of Indonesia's collective memory, even though they could be considered Indonesians, at least technically.

Another brain drain occurred in 1998, when Chinese Indonesians fled overseas due to rise of violence targeting the ethnic minority, and accusations of their role in the country's economic crisis. Many were traumatized and too afraid to return to their country of origin.

A similar experience occurred in 2012 when about 70 Chinese Indonesians living in New Jersey received a deportation warning from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Many are afraid to returning due to fear of facing persecution in Indonesia. While it might sound like an overstatement from the government's point of view, the fact illustrate otherwise.

Indonesia's pluralism is now facing a serious threat.

The intrusion of radical ideologies has polarized and segregated society. This is quite evident in the Jakarta gubernatorial elections, where several prominent public figures have openly attacked candidates on basis of their religion and ethnicity.

Indonesia has been long heralded as a role model of how Islam and democracy is compatible. Dubbed the third largest democracy in the world, the country has a long tradition that promotes diversity in terms of ethnicity, race and language. It is the Indonesian language that united Indonesians.

Minorities are an irreplaceable part of our country which contribute to public opinion of, and in, Indonesia. The Chinese Indonesians living overseas have legitimate reasons to be afraid of returning to Indonesia, as the government has been continuously failing to protect the rights of various minorities.

The recent attack on the Shia community in Madura just after the Idul Fitri holiday celebrations, which claimed two lives and displaced hundreds, is just one of many examples of persecution against minorities.

With many politicians trying to build a positive image of themselves in front of their Muslim voters at the expense of minorities, these sentiments and actions of persecution will most likely last until the 2014 elections.

The government has also brought the atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and signed a declaration in support of Palestine's bid to become a United Nations member. But nothing has been done to address Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin or the closure of churches.

The denial of Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa's entry to Ramallah by Israel mirrored the situation in Papua, where the government closes the door for humanitarian agencies and human right watchdogs.

It is quite ironic that the government boasts its defense of human rights in international forums, but is turning a blind eye to the mess in its own yard.

The government should practice zero tolerance in relation to human rights violations if it wants to engage its citizen overseas, including minority groups.

There should be protection of, and an improvement to, human rights record at home, starting with such basics as issuing a formal apology to the victims of past persecutions, or ratifying the Rome Statute so as to eliminate acts of violence perpetrated by security forces. The government should also proactively protect its citizens, and ensure the laws are enforced against radical groups that threaten pluralism.

If the government can only sit idly and watch violence against minorities continue, it is time to cast doubt over the longevity of Indonesia's pluralism. Or it may end up as a myth.

[The writer is a researcher at Royston Advisory. The views expressed are his own.]

A problem of religion and the state in the Sampang tragedy

Jakarta Post - August 29, 2012

Tobias Basuki, Jakarta – The country's top officials have finally paid attention to the brutal attack on the Shia community in Sampang, East Java, which not only claimed two lives and damaged dozens of houses, but has also forced hundreds of people to live in fear.

Sadly, however, when it comes to trying to understand why the attack was not prevented, buck-passing and finger-pointing ensues.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono faulted the intelligence agencies for their failure to anticipate the assault, the chairman of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs I Gede Pasek Suardika lamented the police's inability to prevent the violence, while Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto defended the police and cast responsibility on local public figures and the ulema, for failing to soothe and enlighten their followers and constituents. It will come as no surprise if the victims themselves are eventually blamed, as has been the case in the past.

Worse still, deputy chairman of the Commission III, Nasir Djamil, speculated on a conspiracy behind the violence against Shia followers. The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician said he suspected "foreign scenarios" of disrupting the religious harmony in Indonesia.

Perhaps only aliens and supernatural powers are the ones still left to blame.

Every government official and politician added their perfunctory condemnation of the violence against the Shiites, including Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, who in January, right after the first Sampang attacks, publicly stated that Shia beliefs "are heretical and against Islam".

While every politician denounced the attacks, who or what is really to blame?

The most obvious and commonly cited problem is poor law enforcement, but the cause is something much deeper and wider than that. At the local judiciary level, we have witnessed unfair and preposterous rulings in cases of religious violence.

It needs to be highlighted that the violence in Sampang is something that has been going on with impunity for a while. This is not the first time that Nangkernang village has come under attack.

On Dec. 29, 2011, a mob ransacked the village and burned down the house and pesantren (Islamic boarding school) of Tajul Muluk, the leader of the Shia community there. Ironically, the Sampang District Court sentenced him to two years' imprisonment for blasphemy, while only one perpetrator of the attack was convicted, and was jailed for less than three months.

This kind of absurdity is not new. One should not forget the ruthless killing of three Ahmadiyah members at Cikeusik, Banten in February 2011. Each of the killers were only sentenced to between three to six months' imprisonment, while Deden Sudjana, the Ahmadiyah security coordinator and primary victim who almost lost his hand, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for incitement.

The government's response has generally been weak against perpetrators who commit violence under the pretext of religious values and beliefs.

The finger-pointing illustrated above indicates a shared responsibility of all. A common thread linking them is the conceptual confusion of the relationship between religion and the state, by the administration and politicians alike.

There are violations of principles differentiating the sphere of religion and the state with regard to democracy in Indonesia. One indicator is the continued existence of the 1965 Blasphemy Law. The law is not a framework guaranteeing religious harmony, as espoused by its proponents.

On the contrary, it evidently creates more victims instead of preventing conflict. It not only became a tool to legally punish those considered "heretic", as in the case of Tajul Muluk and Deden Sudjana.

Moreover, the radical groups consider it a source of political and legal justification to attack individuals and groups they deem "blasphemous".

This is a clear violation of the proper role and sphere of the state in a democratic system. The state should not interfere and adjudicate matters of religion in the form of legislation or statements by officials of the state.

The second violation is in the religious sphere. The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) is increasingly becoming entrenched in matters of the state. Although it has no legal powers, its role and perception as an extension of the state is very problematic.

MUI is often considered the highest authority on Islam in the country. Although not endorsed by the central branch, the fatwa (edict) of the East Java branch of the MUI, which asserted in May that the Shia was heretical, definitely had much traction in the region.

These two examples of violations of each sphere of the state and of religion are the foundations for both the lax response of the government, and also the catalyst bolstering mob violence under the pretext of religion.

The existence of the blasphemy law, and personal statements by state officials such as Suryadharma, give political legal weight to the casting of the Ahmadiyah and Shia victims as "criminals". This in turn creates the illusion and reinforces the feeling held by the radical mobs that they are also "enforcers of the law".

The East Java MUI fatwa of local religious leaders bequeaths spiritual legal credence to these vicious acts. Law enforcement agencies and officials hesitate to act against "spiritual and divine" edicts, and this further justifies their failure in enforcing and protecting the rights of the victims.

The President's reaction is laudable. We certainly hope that the overdue response will ensure some concrete results.

Beyond an immediate practical solution to the violence in Sampang, there also needs to be a deeper overhaul in the conceptual understanding of the proper role of religion and the state by our public servants.

[The writer is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and a lecturer at Pelita Harapan University, Tangerang.]

A rising call for alternative candidates in 2014 election

Jakarta Globe - August 26, 2012

Pitan Daslani – A powerful wave of aspiration for a total overhaul of the presidential election system has begun to take shape over the past month following appeals by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and People's Consultative Assembly Chairman Taufik Kiemas for better candidates to contest the 2014 election.

This was initiated by Taufik, who has since last year proposed that "new faces" be allowed to run for the nation's top office, because older generation candidates – including his own wife Megawati Sukarnoputri and leaders of other major political parties – are "too old to fit" the changing landscape of the country.

This appeal was endorsed by Yudhoyono during a fast-breaking gathering with mass media leaders earlier this month, that the media should provide "wider room for potential candidates to get their ideas known to the public."

Yudhoyono's remark represented a subtle reference to alternative presidential candidates, because he suggested that in the next election voters "should be educated" to "vote rationally" based on their comprehension of the candidates' ideas and capabilities. What he means, in essence, is that voters should not pick presidential candidates merely because of their popularity or because of transactional engineering by political parties.

Radar Panca Dahana, an expert on Javanese culture, told the Jakarta Globe that the president has conveyed this message in the strongest manner possible. This clearly indicates that as a head of state who cannot be elected for another term, Yudhoyono actually wants to make sure that the next president "should not be any of the senior leaders already known to the public," Radar said.

This is because they will either be too old to fit the rapidly changing society's aspirations, or they will lack the kind of qualities needed to lead a country where the middle class is expanding much faster than the bureaucracy's ability to keep up with them.

Following Yudhoyono's appeal, two important developments have taken place. MetroTV's website has been attracting online voters to participate in an "alternative presidential candidates" poll, while newspapers have intensified publication of stories and commentaries about the need to appoint candidates other than the politicians already on stage.

Surprisingly, the online poll shows that political figures who topped the list were not the ones perceived so far as the best potential candidates. As of this week, Golkar politician Priyo Budi Santoso ranked highest with 21.34 percent of the vote, followed by Puan Maharani from Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with 16.56 percent. PDI-P secretary general Pramono Anung got 12.76 percent, businessman Sandiaga Uno secured 11.25 percent, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan got 11.20 percent and Constitutional Court Chairman Mahfud M.D. received 10.46 percent of the vote.

Jakarta gubernatorial candidate Joko Widodo was also on the list with 4.47 percent and Paramadina University rector Anies Baswedan got 4.11 percent – much higher than World Bank Managing Director Sri Mulyani's 2.2 percent. Validity of the online polling aside, this shows that even the media is fed up with the handful of old candidates that are still ambitiously maneuvering for the 2014 election.

Meanwhile, in the print media, the past month has seen local newspapers running a series of commentaries on the need to appoint such "new faces" as Irman Gusman, chairman of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD); the Constitutional Court's Mahfud; and Abraham Samad, chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

There was also a report that the Great Indonesia Party (Gerindra) has approached Irman in a likely bid to pair him with its chairman, Prabowo Subianto, for the next presidential election. Analysts say an alliance between the two would be formidable given the influential political machines and social networks behind both of them.

But millions of Indonesian voters are already fed up with the old faces. In 2014 there will be a huge number of new voters, including approximately 30 million university and high school students, who would prefer to pick candidates that are closer in age to their generation. These young, idealistic voters belong to the anti-status-quo generation, and they are likely to vote for candidates based on their perceived ability to effect real and concrete change.

The rising sentiment against politicians pushing the old status quo was discussed extensively during a recent episode of Metro TV's "Today's Dialog" talk show.

The panel of guests included by Irman of the DPD; House Speaker Marzuki Alie; Ryaas Rasyid, an expert on state administration and member of the Presidential Advisory Council; and Hamdi Moeloek, an expert on political psychology from the University of Indonesia.

During the show, Marzuki even mentioned the name of Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo as a likely candidate, given his credibility and integrity. The finance minister recently blocked implementation of a presidential decree for realization of Rp 200 trillion ($21 billion) for the Sunda Strait bridge project that some critics said solely benefit certain private companies.

Ryaas emphasized that before talking about who should be the next president, one needs to map out the problems the nation will face in the next 10 years, establish criteria to determine what skills would be needed by the next president, and then allow as many potential candidates as possible to contest the race.

But the first thing to do, according to Ryaas, is to define clearly what is meant by "alternative presidential candidates," because this can be interpreted differently. Political parties will say this refers to party members who have not had a chance to join the race. Reformers will say this must be defined as potential candidates outside the domain of the political parties.

Irman emphasized that the nation must make room for potential candidates from every realm to present themselves and show their qualities so that voters will have enough options to choose from. He also called for a revision to the presidential election draft law to allow for more potential candidates to emerge. His name has in the past six months been cited frequently in the media as one of the alternative candidates with the most potential.

The House is preparing to deliberate on an election bill that will determine a new threshold for electing the president. Right now only political parties that win 20 percent of the popular vote or a coalition of parties that control 25 percent of legislative seats can nominate presidential candidates. But the law dictates that potential candidates other than those from political parties do not have a chance to contest the election.

Nevertheless, the new wave of aspirations being promulgated by the mass media is expected to culminate in public demand for political parties to nominate presidential candidates based on their integrity and capability, instead of their mere links to or positions in political parties.

The trouble with Indonesia today is that only the leaders of political parties – who also are the financiers – can be nominated for presidency, despite so much noise about democracy and equal opportunity. Party convention and by-election systems are considered to be a threat to advocates of the status quo.

Indonesia's search for a quality candidate

Jakarta Globe - August 26, 2012

Pitan Daslani – The biggest difficulty in Indonesia today is finding capable democratic leaders with statesman qualities. Strangely, this is the result of the reform process that started 14 years ago with the intention to develop a democratic culture.

Reform and democracy have produced an unprecedented paradox: Political parties are mandated by law to produce capable leaders recognized for their quality and integrity, but instead are producing popularity-based transactional ones.

As a result, Indonesia does not have enough capable candidates for the 2014 legislative and presidential elections.

And this is another strange paradox, because outside of political parties, a lot of qualified candidates, including professionals from a number of fields, are willing and able but not given a chance.

It could be said that the country has too many leaders, but at the same time not enough. Too many because there is hardly a leadership chair vacant in the government. But not enough because there are hardly any qualified candidates who resemble statesmen. A statesman thinks about the next generation, a politician the next election.

The limiting factors

The core of the problem is that competition among political parties is not based on political ideology, but on the popularity of the candidates. As a result, voting is based on personal preference.

This system ushers in three related problems. First, legislative candidates will do anything to advertise themselves and to be seen by voters. Many of these methods are expensive – billboards, print advertising, TV spots and so on – so they must find a sponsor.

But the sponsors might want to be paid back in cash or with policy compensation later on. This is where a huge breeding ground for corruption and collusion is created.

Once elected, either as legislators or as executive leaders, the politician's first obligation is to find enough money to settle their campaign-related debts.

Inflating project figures and embezzling state funds are popular methods of finding money. This is why House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie claimed that 70 percent of the 560 house members were "carriers of disaster."

Politicians who are not required to pay cash back usually compensate sponsors' generosity by ensuring that their business interests are secured and spoken for in the legislation process.

This is one of the reasons why at least 57 laws passed by the House of Representatives over the past year were canceled by the Constitutional Court, according to the court's chairman, Mahfud M.D.

Second, the popularity-based member recruitment philosophy reinforces the perception that only politicians with strong financial backing can survive on the national political stage.

As a result, money politics becomes a necessity, satisfying thousands of functionaries who will not bite the hands that feed them. Political recruitment is not based on electability, capability, statesmanship and political leadership traits, but rather on campaign funds.

This is the reason why top leaders of political parties cannot be challenged by better-suited candidates in the 2014 presidential election – the leaders are also the financiers.

The third problem is also money-related. Climbing the party leadership ladder is determined by one's closeness to the financiers, rather than by merit. This is the reason why every party has a shortage of candidates.

Nobody in Golkar would dare to challenge its chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, who has announced his presidential candidacy. Nobody in the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) has the guts to run against Prabowo Subianto. And nobody in the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) can stop Megawati Sukarnoputri from running for the post.

The direction of the future

From the perspective of creating a healthy democratic system, senior leaders need to preserve their statesmanship posture by allowing alternative candidates to replace them. Until then, there is little reason to applaud them as role models, because their insistence on being candidates denies their parties the chance to evolve and establish a mechanism for political succession.

Another unresolved issue is the acceptability of the so-called independent candidates. On the district, mayoralty and provincial levels, independent candidates are allowed to participate. But independent candidates are not allowed in the presidential election because the law says that a candidate can only be proposed by a political party that wins 25 percent of a popular vote, or controls 20 percent of parliamentary seats.

Potential candidates outside of major political parties won't have a chance to lead the nation unless they not only become party members but make it to the highest levels of party leadership.

There is a far less cumbersome option: Amend the Constitution's provisions on presidential elections. But again, this is not easy because it needs approval from the House, an institution that is submerged in a pool of vested interests.

There is, nevertheless, one last option left: To get the public to demand an overhaul of the system. The public needs to demand an establishment of a national coalition of parties, mass organizations, professional associations and universities to propose alternative candidates to the ones already identified.

The most urgent need of the country today is not where to find somebody significantly better than President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, because the country has no one at the moment. Instead, the necessary political infrastructure needs to be created to encourage potential alternative and independent candidates to appear on stage.

Die another holiday

Jakarta Post Editorial - August 24, 2012

The death toll from traffic accidents involving holiday revelers traveling to and from their hometowns for Idul Fitri had reached a staggering 574 as of Tuesday, with the police predicting the worst was yet to come as the reverse flow of the exodus will only conclude this weekend.

As usual, north and south coast roads along Java and alternative routes popular among the holidaymakers traveling across the densely populated island contributed the most to the number of accidents with 1,732 out of 3,291 cases. National Police data shows 220 were killed on the busy routes.

Fatal road accidents have always plagued the annual exodus. Last year, the government recorded 4,259 traffic accidents that claimed 710 lives, compared with 3,010 crashes and 746 deaths in 2010.

The police data also revealed that motorcycle riders have consistently been more vulnerable to the accidents over the past few years. Around 70 percent of the accidents involved two-wheel vehicles, which have become the preferred mode of transportation among lower income families as they could not afford to buy bus or train tickets.

A number of corporations, government institutions and political parties provided free buses and the Navy operated its vessels without charge, but they were far from enough to accommodate all the impoverished families.

Looking beyond the statistics, the road accidents should provide the nation with cause for concern, not only because of the loss of so many lives, but also their real impact on the economy. Thousands of children will lose breadwinners, putting their education and, hence, their futures at risk.

The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) estimated in 2010 that traffic accidents cut the country's gross domestic product (GDP) by more than Rp 200 trillion (US$21.3 billion) a year.

Doubts cast by the chairman of the Indonesian Transportation Community (MTI), Danang Parikesit, over the government's commitment to the safety of holidaymakers rings true and begs a concrete response.

Although compliance with traffic regulations play a major part in the traffic accidents and human fatalities caused, the government's failure to uphold the Traffic Law has exacerbated the problem, according to Danang. The spectacle of a family of four traveling on a motorbike carrying luggage has become commonplace despite the fact that the Traffic Law bans this type of dangerous riding.

The government has predicted that 2.5 million motorcycles carrying 4 million holiday revelers roam mostly across Java prior to and after Idul Fitri.

Strict enforcement of the Traffic Law against high-risk motorcycle rides will require the government to provide more fleets of cheap modes of mass transportation, be it trains, buses or ferries which, of course, will sap more state money. While allowing more buses to transport the holidaymakers will only worsen traffic gridlock, allocating more budget funds to operate more trains and vessels looks more feasible.

The Transportation Ministry predicted a 16 percent surge in the number of passengers to 2.21 million during this year's Idul Fitri vacation compared with last year. Transportation infrastructure projects to complete double- track railways connecting the western and eastern tips of Java will help to move people from buses, cars and motorcycles onto trains during future Idul Fitri festivities.

All the government needs to do in order to reduce road accidents, not only during Idul Fitri but year round, is to have the will to spend more on mass transportation. This will keep those who safely reached home during this year's Idul Fitri from dying on another holiday.