Jakarta – Deputy Education and Culture Minister for Culture Wiendu Nuryanti is lambasting the nation's film industry for making horror movies and comedies that tarnish the nation's image abroad.

"Those movies make other countries perceive our country as an uncivilized nation because of our inability to produce good movies," she told reporters at a press conference in Jakarta on Friday.

According to Nunus Supardi, the deputy chairman of the Film Censorship Board (LSF), Indonesian cinema was in a poor state due to the miniscule number of local movies that were made based on the richness of the nation's local and traditional cultures.

"We should learn from other countries such as India with Bollywood, the US with Hollywood and even Nigeria, with its burgeoning Nollywood," he said.

Nunus said that 56 percent of the movies produced by those three nations used local languages and portrayed local cultures.

To encourage the production of "quality" Indonesian film, the ministry is holding its Indonesian Film Appreciation (AFI) competition, Wiendu said as quoted by kompas.com on Saturday.

"We want the AFI to become an arena for filmmakers to tell stories that promote tolerance, diversity, local wisdom and nationalism," he said. Filmmakers can submit their films and scripts that were completed within the last two years. (han/swd)

Legislator blasts 'narcissistic' use of SBY song at state event

Jakarta Globe - October 2, 2012

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – A veteran opposition legislator has lashed out at the singing of a song composed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a ceremony on Monday to mark the 47th anniversary of the purported communist coup attempt.

Tubagus Hasanuddin, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- P), said the decision to get the military choir to sing Yudhoyono's "Kuyakin Sampai di Sana" ("I'm Sure We'll Make It There") was inappropriate.

The former two-star military general said that at all such events, there was a strict set of protocols that should be followed, including a list of the songs to be sung.

Those songs, he went on, have always been common patriotic songs. "You can't just throw in a privately penned song, even if it was written by a president or an emperor," Tubagus said. "And if it's a commercial song, then that's just distasteful."

The song performed on Monday at the Lubang Buaya Monument in East Jakarta was taken from Yudhoyono's album of the same name, released in 2010. It was the third of the president's four albums.

Tubagus said it appeared inappropriate and even narcissistic for the president to have one of his own songs included in the official protocol for a state event. "A leader must be able to differentiate between respecting state protocol and stroking his own ego," he said.

Tubagus, the deputy chairman of House of Representatives Commission I, which oversees defense and foreign affairs, said his objections to the incident did not stem from him being an opposition legislator, but were founded in concerns about maintaining the dignity of state events.

"Would it be appropriate for a me to have a jaipongan dance that I choreographed performed at an official state ceremony? Of course not," he said.

Monday's event was held to mark Pancasila Sanctity Day, in remembrance of the failed coup attempt in 1965 blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). The event was not the first time that Yudhoyono's song was performed at an official function. The song has been used several times during meetings of the president's Democratic Party.

West Papua

TPN denies involvement in 'unknown persons' terror plot in Wamena

West Papua Media - October 4, 2012

A commander from the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN) has categorically denied any responsibility or involvement in an alleged bombing campaign against security force targets in Wamena and Jayapura, joining a chorus of Papua observers raising doubts about the Indonesian police allegations against pro-independence activists

Troops from the Indonesian army (TNI) and Australian-trained Detachment 88 counter-terror unit conducted a violent raid on September 29 against activists from the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) in Wamena, arresting 8. The eight have been charged with various offences, including possession of explosive devices and Makar (treason).

Citizen journalists from SuaraPapua.com made contact with the Commander of the Kodap (Liberation Command Area) I of TPN, Colonel David Darko on Tuesday (2/10) afternoon, who confirmed the bombs in Jayapura, Wamena and throughout Papua, had no connection to the TPN OPM.

"So (the) TPN OPM states assertively, that we are not responsible for any action with bombs, because OPM is not a terrorist organisation, but an organisations of national struggle for Papua, (and for) basic rights to self-determination as any other nation on earth," Darko told SP.

He said it was a struggle for the liberation of the people, and "The struggle by TPN-OPM is dignified and with full responsibility for the rights of the national struggle," he said. This unequivocal statement, according to David Darko, is to give notice to all parties not to associate the OPM with bombs or terror.

The non-violent activists were allegedly arrested in connection with a small bomb blast at a Wamena police station. Detachment 88 anti-terror police claim they found explosive materials at the KNPB offices, but human rights observers across Papua have suggested the police themselves planted the materials and questioned the truthfulness of police claims.

Ferry Marisan, the director of the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy in Papua (Elsham) told the Jakarta Globe, "It [the evidence] must have been fabricated by police, they placed the explosives in the office so the police would have a reason to arrest them."

Victor Yeimo, the international spokesperson for KNPB currently in hiding after threats of arrest for subversion, ridiculed the police assertion that the arrested activists were involved in the attack on the police station, or in making or using bombs, or engaging in acts of terror.

"West Papuan people are not involved with these bombs, and still do not know how to make bombs," Yeimo told West Papua Media on September 30. KNPB has previously and publicly pledged its commitment to non-violence, saying that it is committed to the use of "civil power"

Members of the KNPB have also been subject to an escalating wave of repression by Indonesian security forces across Papua, since the beginning of an anti-violence civil resistance campaign earlier in 2012, in response to a series on mysterious "unknown persons" (OTK) shootings that had killed over 20 people since 2011.

These shootings, widely believed across Papuan civil society to be the work of Kopassus Indonesian special forces creating violence to be used as a pretext for a declaration of martial law, peaked with the brazen daylight execution by Detachment 88 officers of KNPB Jayapura Chairman Mako Tabuni on June 6 this year.

Papuan civil society sources have claimed by SMS and email to West Papua Media that the current campaign of bombings and explosions is connected to the October visit of Indonesian President, General Yudhoyhono, to the UK. SBY, as the president is known, is believed to be signing off on major defence deals with UK arms corporations, and will be pressing for increased anti-terror cooperation.

SBY is also being targeted currently by human rights activists connected with the KNPB in the UK, who have offered a GBP#50,000 bounty for a citizen's arrest of the Indonesian President for Crimes Against Humanity. Civil society sources believe that the campaign of crackdown of KNPB activists accused of terror acts is being orchestrated to shut down Papua rights campaigning in the UK.

The TPN Commander Darko stated that the TPN was not allied with the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) in any political or organisational sense. "We also had nothing to do with the Committee at all as we are different from them," Darko told SP.

The new Papua Police Chief, Inspector General Tito Karnavian – the former head of Detachment 88, conceded the TPN-OPM claim to not engage in terrorist bombings, but said to wait for the court process.

"This case is being handled, and let us see it in court. Whether they are involved or not. Let the court decide, " he said. Honesty awaited the court because the reverse case would cause turmoil with the grassroots people of Papua, Karnavian explained to assembled journalists.

However, with Papua still closed to international journalists or independent human rights observers, few West Papuan activists believe that the flawed court system in Papua will be able to deliver a legitimate and fair trial.

Bashir calls Papua bomb plot charges unfair, 'attack on Islam'

Jakarta Globe - October 4, 2012

Farouk Arnaz – Convicted terrorist Abu Bakar Bashir has blasted the police's "lenient" action against members of a Papuan pro-independence group allegedly plotting a coordinated bombing attack, calling it proof that the government was waging war against Islam.

Hasyim Abdullah, a lawyer for the firebrand cleric, said on Tuesday that Bashir was outraged at the "unfairness" between his treatment by the authorities and the handling of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) members who were reportedly planning a series of bombings in the restive province last week.

"This is proof that the police have acted unfairly [toward Bashir]," he said at the National Police headquarters.

"If it was Muslims arrested plotting that kind of thing, they would be branded terrorists and charged under the Anti-Terrorism Law. But because they're not Muslims, they aren't called terrorists and they don't face terrorism charges."

The nine KNPB members arrested last Saturday have all been charged with the illegal possession of firearms and explosives under the 1951 Emergency Law. They are alleged to have been behind a foiled scheme to bomb several key government targets in Wamena, Jayawijaya district, last Friday.

The reported targets included the municipal police station, two military bases, a ward office next to the district police headquarters, and the Baliem Bridge.

During the operations to scupper the coordinated attack and arrest the alleged perpetrators, police seized plastic explosives, pipe bombs, detonators, Molotov cocktails and gasoline.

They also found Rp 13.6 million ($1,400) in cash and the banned Morning Star flag used by separatist groups.

A human rights group doubted the veracity of the police report, calling the evidence "fabricated." The KNPB has historically been considered a peaceful pro-independence group.

But Hasyim said that Bashir believed the wealth of evidence warranted far more serious charges than those under the Emergency Law.

"It's simply not fair. The war on terror that is being waged by the government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is nothing less than an attack on Islam," he said. "If the perpetrators aren't Muslim, the punishment is very different."

Bashir is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence handed down last year for his role in raising funds for a militant training camp in Aceh.

The alleged spiritual head of Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, Bashir has also been linked to the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005 and the Christmas Eve church bombings of 2000.

Police have played down the cleric's latest outburst, saying his claims of unfair treatment are unfounded. Sr. Comr. Agus Rianto, a National Police spokesman, said Bashir was labeled a terrorist because the cases for which he was convicted were terrorist acts.

He added it was still too early in the investigation into the Wamena case to be able to classify it as either a terrorist incident or a separatist incident.

Police fire shots, tear gas after Morning Star flags flown Manokwari

West Papua Media - October 4, 2012

WPM and local sources – Over a thousand people who had gathered in Manokwari on Tuesday (2/10) to demonstrate in support of the independence movement in Papua were attacked by police who fired tear gas and live ammunition in the air, after hundreds of banned Morning Star independence flags were unfurled.

The rally, called by the West Papua National Authority (WPNA) under the auspices of the national Federal Republic of West Papua (NRF-PB), was to show support for an observer mission to the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York by WPNA diplomat Herman Wainggai, and to reject the failed implementation of Special Autonomy (OTSUS) in West Papua.

A pamphlet released by the WPNA Governor Markus Yenu explained that the rally was to "address the increase in OTSUS presence and UP4B as a form of "development", which only extends Papua Political Status by affecting (increasing) marginalization and duping people of Papua, in all aspects of life on the land of Papua." It also said that "Papuan People should be sold on (support) the terms of independence and sovereignty (as per the) results at the KRP III (3rd Papuan People's Congress of 2011)."

The rally was held at Sanggeng sports stadium from about 10 am local time, where about 700 people were joined by a long march of about 300 demonstrators who proceeded towards the town. Banned Morning Star flags, which were hidden whilst the rally was under guard at Sanggeng stadium, were provocatively unfurled in their hundreds during the march, and police reacted quickly and brutally at 1039 local time.

West Papua Media stringers at the rally reported that Brimob paramilitary police stormed the gathering, firing their weapons both in the air allegedly with live ammunition and at rally participants with rubber bullets. Three tear gas canisters were also fired into the crowd to disperse them, and police conducted a baton charge at around 1045am. Witnesses however claimed that security forces, including soldiers from the Indonesian army (TNI) were firing indiscriminately, however no live gunshot wounds have so far been reported. However, several live bullet casings were recovered by West Papua Media stringers.

Scores of demonstrators were savagely beaten, with several reportedly seriously injured by Brimob police who were seizing the 150 Morning Star flags. Several of these included elderly people, who tried to intervene whilst Police were brutally beating a speaker named Zet Tata. Ibu Pendeta (a Priest's wife) Mathelda Maniani – one of the rally speakers -, Ibu Anis (75 years old), Petu Worabay, Vebi Wanma and Edo Kamesfle were all beaten by police. Zet Tata reportedly sustained serious injuries but his condition in currently unknown.

Three rally participants remain unaccounted for, though sources on the ground have unverified reports that they were taken by Police, and grave concerns are held by WPNA activists for their safety. The names of those disappeared are unknown at this stage.

After the brutal intervention by police to seize the Morning Star flags, demonstrators dispersed, but regrouped to hold another long march in defiance of police and close the rally peacefully at 1pm.

West Papua arrests highlight Australian Detachment 88 links

ABC 7.30 Report - October 4, 2012

An Australian-funded police unit in West Papua has again been implicated in a crackdown on the region's independence movement.

Leigh Sales, presenter: An Australian funded counter-terrorism unit in West Papua is facing new accusations of abusing its power in the troubled Indonesian province.

The notorious squad known as Detachment 88 has launched a fresh crackdown on independence activists, in the wake of an expose by this program in August.

Eight men have been detained and accused of bomb-making. Separatist leaders claim the explosives were planted and they've been framed to justify the squad's activities.

Hayden Cooper has this report.

Hayden Cooper, reporter: Jayapura, West Papua is a city marred by violence and tension, where independence leaders have been arrested, beaten, killed. And where police have been confronted by unruly and angry demonstrations.

When 7.30 travelled to the province in August, the crackdown on the independence movement was already severe, resulting in several deaths, including of this man, independence leader Mako Tabuni, shot in this street, witnesses say, by the Australian trained and funded police unit Detachment 88.

Erson Wenda, relative (last month, voiceover translation): Clearly, it was them who killed him because we saw them shoot him and take him to their hospital.

Hayden Cooper: Since then, the crackdown has worsened. Victor Yeimo succeeded Tabuni as leader of the West Papuan National Committee, KNPB. This week, he sent this video to 7.30.

Victor Yeimo, Chairman, KNPB: We are the non-violent activists in West Papua. We will fight for our right of freedom according to the peaceful means in West Papua. We demand our right of self-determination to a referendum to be held in West Papua by UN peacefully and democratically.

Hayden Cooper: But the Indonesian authorities don't believe his claim of non-violence and they're pursuing KMPB like never before. In June, Indonesian soldiers went on a rampage in the highlands town and KNPB stronghold of Wamena, and now in a new development, police have raided the homes and offices of KNPB members in the area. Last weekend eight were arrested and witnesses say once again Detachment 88 was involved.

Victor Yeimo: When they arrest the KNPB brothers in Wamena, we saw Detachment 88 with one car, and another car with police, joined in by TNI.

Hayden Cooper: Indonesian police accuse the eight KNPB members arrested of making bombs and claim to have found explosives during the raid. Victor Yeimo rejects that and says his group is being framed as terrorists to justify Detachment 88's presence.

Victor Yeimo: This is how Indonesia is now making a scenario with the terrorist issue in West Papua. As you know that in West Papua we never know how to make a bomb, how to create bomb.

Hayden Cooper: Some international observers and West Papuan advocates back that view

Cammi Webb-Gannon, Sydney Uni: I don't think that the KNPB has any reason to be making bombs because they believe in a peaceful approach to pursuing independence. They want a referendum on independence in West Papua.

Hayden Cooper: In West Papua the Institute for Human Rights Advocacy, known as ELSHAM, has studied the arrests and suspects the explosives recovered by police were part of an elaborate set-up.

Cammi Webb-Gannon: They don't have the capacity to gain the materials, so ELSHAM has actually said that the materials were probably planted in the KMPB members' houses where they found the explosives and that's not an unusual thing for security forces to do.

Hayden Cooper: The weekend raids follow the appointment of a new police chief in Papua, Brigadier General Tito Karnavian. His background as the former head of Detachment 88 generates serious unease among some Papuans, despite his assurances of a new inclusive approach.

Cammi Webb-Gannon: They will be opposed to his former role as the head of Densus 88, and as a police chief this just – it doesn't seem to mesh with his new approach of working – to win the hearts and minds of Papuans.

Ronny Kareni, West Papuan expatriate: I have no doubt there'll be definitely more crackdowns on KNPB members and those who are very active and very vocal in pursuing and calling for independence for West Papua, and that is for sure, that that's one thing that Jakarta is aiming to shutting down political activists in West Papua.

Hayden Cooper: Ronny Kareni is one of many West Papuans living in Australia. He uses music to promote the independence cause on behalf of his friends at home.

Ronny Kareni: Every day, like, I got SMS coming through my phone and then the information is that their lives are under intimidation and they always live in state of fear and they're being followed and it's sad, but this is the reality in West Papua.

Hayden Cooper: 7.30 put several questions to the Indonesian Government but received no reply. Attempts to contact the new Papuan police chief were also unsuccessful.

As for Victor Yeimo, he is pushing for the release of the eight activists arrested on the weekend, and with his supporters here, he's pressuring Australia to rethink its funding for Detachment 88.

Ronny Kareni: The Papuans will be pretty much living like prisoners in our own land where our movement, what we do, will be censored, will be monitored, will be followed, and as I said, there's no room for democracy at all.

Leigh Sales: Hayden Cooper reporting.

House bangs drum of war in Papua

Jakarta Post - October 4, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The House of Representatives has urged the government to take concrete actions to stem the burgeoning support for the separatist movement in Papua.

The House Commission I overseeing defense has also pushed the government and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to endorse any efforts by the Indonesian Military (TNI) to deal with the separatist movement in the country's resource rich easternmost province.

"The law on the TNI mandates the institution to conduct military operations in times of war and at other times when terrorism or separatist movements occur. It is clear that the TNI could have legal justification to deal with separatist movement in Papua and in other parts of the country," Tubagus Hasanuddin Commission I deputy chairman said during a meeting on Wednesday.

Tubagus said that the House was yet to give political support for any TNI offensive against the separatist movement in Papua, but it would not hesitate to back it if the occasion demanded.

"To keep Papua integrated with the country we must encourage the TNI to do what they have to do in Papua, by showing our political support," said Tubagus of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in a meeting between the Attorney General's Office (AGO), Commission I and officials from the TNI, the Home Ministry, the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) and the National Police.

Article 7 of the Law No. 34/2004 on the TNI stipulates that the military is responsible to defend the sovereignty and integrity of the nation, as well as to protect its people, through military and non-military operations.

The article also stipulates that military operations are only allowed in times of war, whereas non-military campaigns are possible in dealing with an armed separatist movement, armed rebellion, terrorism and border security.

Tubagus said that the separatist movement are now gaining ground in Papua and abroad. "Certain pro-independence figures, who are living overseas, use this opportunity to nurture opposition against the government. The people have obviously welcomed [the idea of independence]. Therefore, we must seriously do something about it," Tubagus said.

The government denied that there was an escalation of tension in Papua. Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi claimed that the government could maintain peace in Papua, while continuously conducting a "constructive dialogue" with many elements in the Papuan community.

Gamawan said that the government is treading a fine line between respecting human rights and maintaining security and sovereignty in Papua.

"The government bases efforts to reach any solutions to conflicts on principles that promotes the sovereignty of the nation, affirmative and non-violent policies and human rights," Gamawan said.

Separately, Free Papua Movement (OPM) leader Lambertus Pekikir said that the central government had failed in its effort to bring peace in Papua. Lambertus said that Indonesian government had been imposing its will on Papua and refused to acknowledge that efforts for a peaceful resolutions had failed.

He said that one of examples of the government's lapse was its refusal to acknowledge on-going violence in Papua, which has been put into the spotlight by the international community.

"Having said that, all of us must sit down and talk seriously and honestly about what has been happening here. Give us a chance to tell our version of the story. People say that Indonesia is a democratic country. Please let democracy prevail in Papua," he said.

Rights group doubts KNPB connection in alleged Papua bomb plot

Jakarta Globe - October 1, 2012

Farouk Arnaz & Jonathan Vit – Papua Police arrested seven members of the pro-independence West Papua National Committee (KNPB) on Saturday in connection with an alleged bomb plot that has human rights advocates crying foul.

Police reportedly discovered white powder, homemade explosives and a detonator in a house in Wamena, West Papua. The home's owner Pilemon Esolak was arrested in connection with the bombs, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said.

Pilemon allegedly told police that he received the explosives from a man identified by police as "L.H." and was told to blow up the police station, military office, Baliem bridge and urban ward office in Wamena.

Papua Police conducted a search of KNPB homes and posts in three villages on Saturday. They reportedly uncovered additional bombmaking evidence.

"There were [other] explosives kept in three posts of the KNPB in Abusan village, Elabukama village and Honailama village," Boy said. "After getting the information, a special team with Mobile Brigade [BriMob] bomb squad unit and a police dog searched the secretariat office of KNPB."

At the office, police allegedly found two bombs, three bows, one airgun, eight machetes, two axes, a compact disc about Papuan independence and a Morning Star flag.

"Both bombs have been defused by the bomb squad," Boy said. "The location has been secured by Jawi police and witnesses are still [being] questioned to find the suspect. The situation is conducive."

But the Papua branch of the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy (Elsham) doubted the veracity of the police reports.

"It [the evidence] must have been fabricated by police, they placed the explosives in the office so the police would have a reason to arrest them," said Ferry Marisan, director of the Papua branch of Elsham.

The West Papua National Committee has historically been considered a peaceful pro-independence organization. "If we observed their activities in Papua until the death of Mako Tabuni, they never staged violent acts, let alone kept firearms or explosives," Ferry said.

Mako was killed in June in what the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) called a police hit. Police said Mako was resisting arrest when he was fatally shot and was wanted in connection with a series of seemingly random shootings in and around Jayapura.

The killing has attracted ire from Australian activists over the alleged involvement of the Australian-trained anti-terrorism squad Densus 88.

Ferry called the Mako killing, and this recent string of arrests, a common practice in Papua.

"It is the same case with Mako Tabuni," Ferry said. "They said Mako was shot because he was trying to fight back with his weapon. Witness told me that he did not even carry weapon. "Fabricating such things is not new while Papua fights for human rights."

The recently sworn in Papua Police chief vowed to take a grassroots approach to policing the restive province during his swearing in ceremony in Jakarta on Sept. 21. "This is a matter of hearts that we have to touch," Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian said.

Tito was the former head of Densus 88 from 2004 to 2011. He was briefly appointed as deputy chief of the recently formed National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) before taking over the Papua Police.

PNG Prime Minister to raise West Papua concerns with Indonesia

EMTV - October 1, 2012

Scott Waide – After decades of maintaining a relatively neutral stance, the Papua New Guinea Government will finally be making a strong representation to Indonesia to raise concerns over human rights abuses committed by the Indonesian Military in West Papua.

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said in an interview with EMTV late Friday that the Foreign Affairs Department will deliver a diplomatic note expressing the concerns of Papua New Guinea citizens to the Indonesian government.

The response comes days after representatives of more than 4000 Lutheran women called on Peter O'Neill to look into the difficulties faced by West Papuans.

The public appeal for government attention to the West Papuan cause was made by Rose Muingepe, a Lutheran Women's representative who was attending a conference in Mumeng outside of Lae City.

"We are asking the government to raise the plight of the West Papuans on the floor of parliament. We know that women are being raped, men are being tortured and we want our government to pay attention to the issue."

Late Friday, the Prime Minister O'Neill, said a diplomatic note will be passed on to the Indonesian government through PNG's Jakarta embassy.

"We need to respect international conventions made in organizations like the United Nations. We also need to respect that Indonesia is a part of those organizations.

"Through those conventions we will deliver a diplomatic note raising the concerns of our citizens over some of the reports that we are getting from West Papua on human rights abuses."

This is the first time, in years, that a Papua New Guinea Prime Minister has acknowledged human rights abuses in Papua.

Prime Minster O'Neill will also be bringing the West Papua issue to the attention of the Indonesian President in an upcoming democracy conference in Bali later this year.

Aceh

Three men publicly flogged for gambling in Aceh

Jakarta Globe - October 5, 2012

Banda Aceh – Three men accused of violating Shariah law were flogged on Friday at Al-Munawwarah Mosque in the Aceh district of Aceh Besar.

The three men, identified as Z. A., 43 years old, M. S., 42, and Al, 40, reportedly received the punishment for gambling.

They were put on a stage in the front yard of the mosque shortly after the Friday prayer, after which officers whipped each of them seven times on their backs. The spectacle drew a crowd and medical personnel immediately checked on the three men's conditions after the flogging concluded.

Commenting on the punishment meted out, the secretary general of the Aceh Ulema Association (HUDA), Faisal Ali, said he hoped Aceh would remain consistent in implementing Shariah law, and that the implementation would continually improve.

"The whipping punishment is meant to make the perpetrators learn their lesson, so that they won't do such forbidden things again in the future," Faisal said, as quoted by the Indonesian news portal republika.co.id.

Human rights & justice

All eyes on SBY to uphold justice for past human rights abuses

Jakarta Post - October 6, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Several lawmakers have joined in calling for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice.

They said the President should set up an ad hoc human rights tribunal to process those involved in human rights abuses. In June, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) declared the 1965 purge a gross human rights violation. Komnas HAM recommended that the government set up a truth and reconciliation committee to settle the case.

It also asked the government to start a reconciliation process and make a public apology to survivors and families of the victims. More than three months after the recommendations, the President has yet to take any action.

Indeed, the government sent negative signals with an "irritating" remark from Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto who said the killings in 1965-1966 were "justified".

According to lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari from House Commission III on human rights, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) had not followed up Komnas HAM's recommendations because there was no court for such proceedings.

"All investigations into human rights violations will lead nowhere unless the President sets up [an ad hoc] court," she said.

"This is a challenge to the President's commitment to uphold and protect human rights in our country. Moreover, this is also a challenge for Indonesia's commitment as a country that has ratified the United Nations' [UN] convention on human rights," the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician added.

Separately, Deputy House speaker Priyo Budi Santosa highlighted the importance of forgiveness to begin "the long process of reconciliation" and enable Indonesia to move on from "the painful past".

"We must admit that the incident claimed the lives of innocent people. Therefore, we must sit together as a nation to forgive each other for what happened. [There is] no need to blame the perpetrators," Priyo said. He added that the government must set up a reconciliation committee in order to "heal" the nation.

Meanwhile, human rights activists from various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also urged Yudhoyono to set up the ad hoc human rights court to resolve all cases of past human rights violations.

"The government still turns a blind eye to the horrific reality of 1965. Now, whether or not he wants to finish this case, the ball is in SBY's court," Hendardi from the rights watchdog Setara Institute said.

Another activist, Catholic Priest Franz Magnis-Suseno said that Djoko's statement about the justifications of mass killings for the sake of the country was baseless. "There were never legal cause for the killings. Many were killed without reason," Franz said, adding that the killings were evil conduct.

The government should not murder and prosecute former members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) if they were already stripped from their power after September 1965, he said.

The official number of those slain during the 1965 purge were never recorded. Yet, various sources say the number ranges from 78,000 to 500,000. In addition, millions were believed to have been imprisoned without trial and enslaved in remote islands across the country.

"If the number of the slain people indeed reaches 500,000 people, then Indonesia has secured its place in the list of countries that have committed genocide in the 20th century," Franz said. (riz)

House to begin selection for Komnas HAM commissioners

Jakarta Post - October 3, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The House of Representatives is expected to begin the selection process for new commissioners for National Commission on Human Rights' (Komnas HAM) this week.

After several delays, House Commission III, on law and human rights, has finally decided to hold a fit and proper test for the 30 candidates chosen by a committee in early June.

"All factions at Commission III have agreed to continue the selection process. We hope to complete the process by the end of this session [on Oct.28]," Commission Chairman I Gede Pasek Suardika said on Wednesday.

The commission halted the selection process after a lawsuit was filed by one of Komnas HAM commissioners, Syafruddin Ngulma Simeulue, challenging the legality of the process.

However, Central Jakarta Court annulled the lawsuit in an interim decision on Tuesday.(iwa)

1965 survivors condemn Djoko's remark on PKI

Jakarta Post - October 3, 2012

Jakarta – Survivors of the 1965 anti-communist purge have deplored Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto's statement that the mass killings were justified to save the country from communism.

One of the survivors of the atrocity, Slamet Sudarno, said that the government was insensitive toward the feelings of those who suffered injustice in the tragedy.

"The Dutch government has apologized for killing innocent people in Rawagede. Now, why won't our own government apologize to its own people?" Slamet said, referring to the Dutch government's decision to compensate the families of men massacred by Dutch colonial forces on Dec. 9, 1947 in Rawagede village in Bekasi, West Java.

Slamet said that he was not affiliated with the communist party but he was tortured by security officials to extract a confession that he was a communist.

"I was arrested in Pekalongan before being put behind bars for 14 years in Buru Island, Maluku without trial. Police accused me of murdering a general in Jakarta," Slamet said.

Another survivor, Djayusman, said that in spite of Djoko's refusal to apologize, he expected that the Attorney General's Office would soon follow up on the report from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) that found a gross violation of human rights did take place in the 1965 purge.

"This could all be over if the government had the will to resolve it," said Djayusman, who now lives in Sleman, Yogyakarta.

Djayusman said he was detained in 1965 for a week and was released after security authorities found no evidence to back up a claim that he was a communist. But in 1969, he was imprisoned because he had befriended a neighbor who was a communist.

On Monday, responding to queries whether the government should deliver an apology to survivors of the mass killings, Djoko said the killings were justified as they were aimed at protecting the country. "This country would not be what it is today if it didn't happen," Djoko said.

Djoko added that the government could not set up a truth and reconciliation commission to address the grievances of purge survivors. "We can't do that because the Constitutional Court repealed the law on truth and reconciliation," he said.

Contacted separately, chairman of Komnas HAM Ifdhal Kasim said that with Djoko's statement, the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had appeared to turn the clock back to when the New Order regime of president Soeharto was at the peak of its power.

"The current government is no different from the New Order regime because they want to perpetuate the latter's version of the 1965 purge," Ifdhal said. Ifdhal urged Yudhoyono to follow the global trend of governments apologizing for past misconduct.

In 2008, for instance, the Australian government apologized for past mistreatment of Aboriginal natives.

In 2010, UK Prime Minister David Cameron apologized for the 1972 killings by British troops of 13 unarmed protesters on Northern Ireland's Bloody Sunday after a long-awaited report vindicated those who were killed. (riz)

Little government remorse evident over Indonesia's 1965 killings

Jakarta Globe - October 2, 2012

Ezra Sihite – Calls for the national government to apologize and make reparations for the 1965 communist purge, in which up to two million people were killed, continue to fall on deaf ears.

Djoko Suyanto, the coordinating minister for political and security affairs, said an apology for one of the nation's bloodiest episodes by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was not a simple matter.

Many members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and their families, were believed to have been murdered in the aftermath of a power struggle between the party and military, which resulted in the Sept. 30, 1965, killing of several army generals.

The incident brought Suharto to power and ended Sukarno's reign. During Suharto's rule, many people accused of being PKI members or sympathizers faced jail terms and their families faced discrimination in employment and education.

"Look at it in a wider perspective," Djoko said. "We can't just apologize without looking at what really happened in the 1965 incident. If we want to look at history, for example the 1965 [incident], we have to look at it based on the perspective in 1965."

But the government appears to have shown little interest in considering the matter further.

Djoko's remarks were in response to recommendations regarding the bloody incident by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) earlier this year. Komnas HAM recommended that the government settle the cases of human rights violations that occurred during that period, and for the president to apologize.

"The Act of Killing," a film that shows the confessions of people who slaughtered PKI members with government approval, screened last month at the Toronto Film Festival. One of the supposed killers was Anwar Congo, who was ordered to kill PKI members in North Sumatra.

The film, directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, may get a wider international release, again putting the spotlight on Indonesia's dark past. Djoko said he had not seen the film and would therefore not comment on its content. "How can I comment if I haven't seen it?" he said.

Desmond Mahesa, who was kidnapped during the 1998 uprising and is now a Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) legislator, urged the government to confront acts of violence through history. "It's not just the 1965 incident. The state must also settle many other kidnapping and human rights violation cases. We're talking about the scars on our citizens," he said.

He added that he could not erase the memory of being kidnapped as an activist in 1998, and added that he still felt pain over the killing of his colleagues just ahead of the reform movement that ousted Suharto. He said the government had not responded to calls to resolve cases involving the kidnapping of activists.

"A recommendation was made almost four years ago and we are pinning too much hope on the government now," Desmond said. "I doubt it will happen. The problem is that no matter how hard we cry out, it means nothing to the government because it's too busy with its own affairs."

Estimates of the number killed in the 1965 violence range from 500,000 to two million.

Government denies 1965 rights abuses happened

Jakarta Post - October 2, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang – The government has rejected the findings of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) declaring the 1965 communist purge a gross human rights violation and has refused to apologize for the victims of the atrocity.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto rejected the Komnas HAM conclusion and insisted that the mass killings, which were state-sponsored according to the rights body, were justified to save the country from communists.

"Define gross human rights violation! Against whom? What if it had happened the other way around?" Djoko said on the sidelines of a meeting with the House of Representatives' budget committee on Monday.

Djoko indicated that the mass killings during the communist purge were justified as they were aimed at protecting the country. "This country would not be what it is today if it didn't happen. Of course there were victims [during the purge], and we are investigating them," Djoko added.

After a thorough investigation lasting nearly four years, Komnas HAM finally declared the killings in the 1965 purge a state-sponsored gross human rights violation.

The investigation found that widespread mass killings had occurred during the period and featured similar patterns, starting with victims being arrested and detained in military camps, where they were interrogated, tortured, raped or murdered.

Following its investigation, Komnas HAM recommended the government set up a reconciliation and truth committee, and that a presidential apology be made to the families of victims as well as to survivors.

However, according to Djoko, such a recommendation was unreasonable due to the lack a legal basis. "We can't do that because the Constitutional Court has repealed the law on truth and reconciliation," he said.

Djoko said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should not make an official apology for the atrocity, arguing that the killings should be seen in an historical context.

"We must look at what happened comprehensively. Mutiny against the state was planned by the communists. Immediate action was needed to protect the country against such a threat. Don't force the government to apologize," Djoko said.

Separately, Indonesian Military (TNI) Comr. Adm. Agus Suhartono shared Djoko's conviction, saying that the TNI would not deliver an apology.

"We will, of course, punish any members proven to have played roles in the incident. But, why bother doling out punishment when the Attorney General's Office would certainly say that the soldiers were not guilty," Agus said on the sidelines of an annual function to commemorate the 1965 failed coup at the Lubang Buaya Museum in East Jakarta, a monument built to strengthen the New Order's version of the failed Sept. 30 coup, which was blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

The somber mood of the annual function was broken when organizers of the event played Yudhoyono-penned song "Ku Yakin Sampai Di Sana" (I Know I Will Get There) as the opening song for the ceremony.

Yudhoyono served as a leader at the function, which was held to honor TNI officers who perished in the bloody 1965 incident.

Will Indonesia's history repeat itself? Breaking the silence around 1965

Jakarta Globe - October 1, 2012

Ronna Nirmala & Bayu Marhaenjati – Indonesia emerged from the chaos of the 1965 communist purge, and survived the turbulence of the 1998 reformation, but the two events showed that the country failed to be honest to its own history, activists and experts say.

Several experts suggest that it was only the tightly-held commitment to Pancasila as a national ideology that allowed the country to survive both of the historical ructions. Today is Pancasila Sanctity Day, on which the founding document in honored.

Syahganda Nainggolan of the Sabang-Merauke Circle said the country must renew its commitment to practice the principles enshrined in Pancasila – which include ethnic and religious tolerance as well as unity in diversity – because the nation's trust in the ideology saved the nation during the political chaos of 1965.

He said the commemoration of Pancasila as the nation's savior from division and collapse in 1965 and 1998 should prevent people from being swayed by other ideologies. "Pancasila has united us all so we must continue to stick with its principles," Syahganda said.

But many have expressed a lingering fear that the historical tragedies could repeat themselves unless the government steps up and admits the nation's past mistakes.

The power struggle between the military and the now-disbanded Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) peaked in the killing of several army generals on Sept. 30, 47 years ago.

The incident sparked the mass hunt of PKI members, resulting in the massacre of between 500,000 and two million people, and bringing in Suharto as the country's ruler while ending the reign of Sukarno.

The killings were followed by arbitrary arrests and imprisonment. During the New Order era, millions of the family members and relatives of alleged PKI members suffered discrimination, being denied jobs and education.

"We know now that many innocent people were killed and sent to prison without due legal process," said Aleksius Jemadu, dean of Pelita Harapan University's School of Social and Political Sciences, as the families of thousands of 1965 victims across the country commemorated the incident on Sunday.

The academic said that as a big nation, Indonesia should admit its past mistakes, express remorse and publicly apologize to the victims while reinstating the good names of the victims' families. "Only then we can move on as a stronger nation without having to worry each year about the case," Aleksius said.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) announced in July that it has found evidence of widespread gross human rights violations nationwide during the purges.

The report, released after the issue was swept under the rug for nearly 50 years and based on a three-year investigation and the testimony of 349 witnesses, urged that military officers be brought to trial for crimes that include murder, slavery, forced evictions, torture and mass rape.

The report demanded that the government issue an apology and compensate victims and their families.

However, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has yet to follow the Komnas HAM recommendation, with many saying that he is facing fierce resistance from retired military commanders, lawmakers from Suharto's Golkar Party and several members of Nahdlatul Ulama, the nation's largest Islamic organization. Many members of these institutions were accused of taking part in the massacre.

Hesti Armiwulan, a Komnas HAM official, said the Attorney General's Office has yet to respond with an investigation into the commission's recommendations. She said the AGO was hiding behind the excuse that it cannot investigate before the House of Representatives establishes a tribunal.

But many people said that a political struggle at the House will prevent the establishment of the tribunal. "We have finished our task, and we have concluded that there were gross human rights violations in the incident. Now it's up to the AGO to follow up on our findings," Hesti said.

Haris Azhar of the Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said the president must act to give justice to the victims. "The president could make a political decision to solve the problem. Hundreds of thousands of victims are still waiting to have their dignity and good names back," he said.

Aleksius, however, warned that history repeated itself in the 1998 incident because the nation failed to learn from the 1965 massacre. Heavy human rights violations were committed during 1998, with many people being kidnapped, killed and raped in the chaos that brought down Suharto.

So far, nobody has been held accountable for those human rights violations. "We don't want similar incidents to happen again," Aleksius said. "We should end the impunity that plagues the country."

1965 mass killings justified: Minister

Jakarta Post - October 1, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto has rejected the findings by the National Commission on Human Rights' (Komnas HAM) investigative team that the 1965 purge was a gross human rights violation.

"Define gross human rights violation! Against whom? What if it happened the other way around?" Djoko said on the sidelines of a meeting with the House of Representatives' Budget Committee on Monday.

Djoko indicated that the mass killing during the anti-communist purge was justified as it was aimed at saving the country. "This country would not be what it is today if it didn't happen. Of course there were victims [during the purge], and we are investigating them," Djoko added.

After a thorough investigation over nearly four years, Komnas HAM finally declared the killings in the 1965 purge a state-sponsored gross human rights violation.

Following its investigation, Komnas HAM recommended the government set up a committee for Reconciliation and Truth, apart from a presidential apology to families of victims as well as the survivors.

However, according to Djoko, such a recommendation was unreasonable due to the lack of a legal basis. "We can't do that because the Constitutional Court has revoked the law on truth and reconciliation," he said.(iwa)

Human rights watchdog urges Indonesia to confront its 'demons'

Jakarta Post - October 1, 2012

Jakarta, Indonesia – TAPOL, a UK-based human rights watchdog, has urged Indonesia to address the 1965 Communist purge, as failure to do so would result in continued community divisions, fuel conflict and lead to further atrocities in the country.

The organization recently released a report titled "Indonesia's unresolved mass murders: undermining democracy" prior to the 47th commemoration of the September 30 movement that set off a chain of violent reactions, including a massacre of suspected communists reportedly led by the Army.

The report said that victims of the tragedy and their families continued to be treated as second-class citizens and experience economic and social discrimination. "While the victims are demonized, the perpetrators are treated as heroes and allowed total impunity for some of the last century's worst atrocities," says Paul Barber, coordinator of TAPOL in a press release received by The Jakarta Post on Monday.

The impunity enjoyed by those responsible for the massacres had facilitated human rights violations in East Timor, Aceh and Papua and threatened Indonesia's progress as a democratic nation, the report warned.

In order to maintain its progress toward sustainable democracy, Indonesia needs to conduct a truth-seeking process, official historical clarification and a genuine reconciliation process through judicial proceedings, reparations and rehabilitation for victims, the report says.

The report followed an investigation on the massacre by Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) released on July 23, which found evidence of crimes against humanity committed during the Communist purge.

The commission ultimately declared the systematic prosecution of alleged members of the PKI after the failed 1965 coup as a gross human rights violation.

Komnas HAM, however, said that the biggest obstacle for the institution to finalize its findings was the absence of concrete evidence, such as weapons and bullets used to execute the victims. The commission can do little and has called on the Attorney General's Office to follow through with its findings.

TAPOL also urged the attorney general to act upon Komnas HAM's report and recommended that the commission increase its reconciliation activities within communities to help people reassess their perceptions of the past.

TAPOL's report also called on the Indonesian government to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, an end to the censorship of information on the massacre and New Order atrocities and the revision of school textbooks. (han/iwa)

History may be rewritten but no rehabilitation yet for PKI victims

Jakarta Post - October 1, 2012

Jakarta – In spite of new evidence that the prosecution of alleged members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) after the failed 1965 coup was a gross human rights violation, survivors from the tragedy do not hope that justice will be served anytime soon.

Historian Asvi Warman Adam said that the 1965 anticommunist purge, just like every other gross violation of human rights in the country, remains an unsolved mystery because of governmental inaction.

"Looking back at the long list of human rights violations in Indonesia, the buck stops at the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and none of the perpetrators were ever brought to court. The government failed to punish them," Asvi told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Asvi, a historian with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that survivors from the tragedy could take solace from the fact the Komnas HAM had declared the purge a gross violation of human rights. In late July, Komnas HAM declared in its findings that the systematic prosecution of alleged members of the PKI after the failed 1965 coup was a gross human rights violation. The commission urged that military officials involved in the purge be brought to trial.

"It is very important for the history of our country that in 2012 Komnas HAM officially declared the 1965 purge to be gross violation of human rights. It was an official statement by a government institution, based on the commission's thorough investigation in all provinces in Indonesia," Asvi said.

Asvi said that the ball is now in the court of the Attorney General's Office (AGO), a government institution with a long history of failure to prosecute cases of human rights violations.

Chairman of Komnas HAM Ifdhal Kasim said that the biggest obstacle for the institution to finalize its findings was the absence of concrete evidence such as weapons and bullets that were used to execute the victims.

"The events happened long time ago and it is difficult to obtain such evidence. Komnas HAM only collected information and testimonials from victims, former members of the security agencies and forensic evidence from the crime scenes," Ifdhal said.

Ifdhal said that Komnas HAM could do little but call on the AGO to follow through its findings. "It is really up to the AGO whether it will prosecute the case. What they should do is focus the investigation on one crime scene as a sample of other sites where the crime happened," he added.

Even if the AGO finally decided to pursue the case it would need political support from both the government and the House of Representatives, which has been lacking so far. "Those who were alive in the 1960s, including members of the House of Representatives should be more knowledgeable about how important the case is. But they appear to be reluctant to change their views on the 1965 coup," Ifdhal said.

One survivor from the anti-communist witch hunt Mudjayin, 82, said that he, and fellow survivors, are determined to continue fighting to have their reputation rehabilitated by the government. Mudjayin, a former journalist, was detained for 14 years including a spell on Buru Island, without trial.

"The Supreme Court and the House of Representatives have issued a recommendation to the President to rehabilitate our rights, but I've heard nothing from them since," Mudjayin told The Jakarta Post.

Mudjayin said that the Komnas HAM recommendation had in fact done much to clear their names. "The statement of gross violation of human rights by Komnas HAM has at least banished the stigma attached to the victims although I still don't know on what grounds the authorities put me in jail," he said.

The government says it supports, Komnas HAM's recommendation that the 1965 communist purge was a gross human rights violation, saying that this is the state's obligation.

After the Sept. 30, 1965 movement, thousands of people – some estimate as more than 500,000 – suspected of being PKI members and sympathizers, were killed. Many more were imprisoned for years without charge. (nad)

Political parties & elections

Retired generals line up before 2014 presidential election

Jakarta Globe - October 7, 2012

The presidential election is still far away, but at least five military generals – mostly retired but still influential – have come forward as potential candidates to replace Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2014.

Political analysts say that the emergence of these military patrons on the democratic stage is a loud confirmation of political parties' failure to groom civilian leaders to run for top office.

Those yet to be officially nominated as presidential candidates include chairman of the House of Regional Representatives (DPD) Irman Gusman; chairman of the Constitutional Court Mahfud MD; and former coordinating minister of the economy Rizal Ramli.

Irman has reportedly been approached by the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), which wants to pair him with chief of the Army's Strategic Command Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto. Irman is also being supported by the extended family of the military through its Communication Forum for Children of Retired Police and Military Officers, or FKPPI.

The ruling Democratic Party is preparing at least two candidates for the post – Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Air Chief Marshal Djoko Suyanto, and Army Commander Gen. Pramono Edhie Wibowo.

The People's Conscience Party (Hanura) is determined to send former military commander and coordinating minister for politics and security Gen. (ret) Wiranto. Hanura chairman Yuddy Chrisnandy said that Wiranto is the right man to replace Yudhoyono because of his statesmanship.

Gerindra is determined to nominate former commander of the Army's elite force Kopassus and Prabowo, whose popularity is rising fast these days and has performed well in several opinion polls.

A fifth military patron ready to contest presidential election is former commander of the military Gen. (ret) Endriartono Sutarto who resurfaced only recently when he joined National Democrat (NasDem) Party and announced his readiness to join the race.

Of these five military patrons, only Wiranto and Djoko have occupied ministerial positions. Wiranto was commander in chief of the military during the transition from Suharto to Habibie and served as coordinating minister for politics and security during the reign of president Abdurrahman Wahid.

Whether these retired generals can be acceptable to voters remains to be seen. But according to presidential election law, any of them must be supported by a political party or coalition of parties that wins 25 percent of the popular vote in a legislative election or controls 20 percent of legislative seats. By law Yudhonoyo may only serve two consecutive terms as president.

Prabowo still keen on presidency despite problems

Jakarta Globe - October 6, 2012

Arientha Primanita, Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Lenny Tristia Tambun – Retired army general Prabowo Subianto on Friday said he would not back down in his bid for the presidency, despite a fracturing of relations with his party's likely coalition partner and his influence in the military appearing to wane.

Prabowo's Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) was initially planning to declare him its presidential candidate this month but decided to postpone the announcement.

Speaking at the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) 67th anniversary at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta on Friday, the retired general said the declaration was merely ceremonial.

The former commander of the TNI's special forces unit Kopassus said the large number of candidates expected to run for the presidency in 2014 was healthy because it would give the public a variety of options. "Democracy is good, it gives the people a range of choices," he said.

Speculation has recently arisen that the coalition between Gerindra and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in place for last month's Jakarta gubernatorial election was already at risk of collapsing. But PDI-P deputy chairwoman Puan Maharani on Friday said the coalition was never intended to be permanent.

Puan said the coalition was intended only for the capital's provincial election – which their endorsed candidate Joko Widido went on to win – and that no decision had been made on whether it would continue through to the 2014 presidential election.

"In politics, there are no permanent coalitions. Let us see whether in the 2014 presidential elections we will still be together or with others," Puan said at the national legislative building in Jakarta.

A recent survey reportedly showed that Gerindra received the biggest boost from the Jakarta election coalition. Puan played down the survey's significance and focused on the public benefit of the Jakarta result.

"This win is actually for the people of Jakarta. We only hope that our cadre will be able to bring changes to benefit the residents of Jakarta," she said.

She declined to comment on speculation that Prabowo was using the Jakarta election as a stepping stone for the 2014 presidential ballot. "What is certain for us is that the victory of Jokowi and Basuki is the victory of the people," she said, referring to PDI-P's Joko and his Gerindra-backed deputy, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama.

For 2014, Puan said the PDI-P was keen for a member from its own ranks to stand for the presidency. She said the decision would be made by a party congress and party chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri (who is Puan's mother).

On Tuesday, several serving and former military generals who graduated in 1970 gathered for a book launch, but Prabowo was not invited. "There's no problem about not being invited. It's just normal. It's the [event of the] 1970 generation," he told reporters.

Prabowo graduated in 1974. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was the keynote speaker at the event, despite not being a 1970 graduate. "Pak S.B.Y. attended as president," Prabowo said.

Military analyst Salim Said said most people at the event were 1970 graduates, but others were also invited, such as Sutarto, because he was a former military commander, and Tri Sutrisno, who is considered a military elder.

"I was invited to the event as a military analyst to review the book before the audience. I don't think there's any specific reason that Prabowo wasn't invited," Salim told BeritaSatu.com on Thursday.

Regarding retired general Luhut Panjaitan's statement at the event that the public should not elect a presidential candidate with a "dark history," Salim said there were several possible interpretations. He said that many people at the event considered it a signal from Luhut to retired generals to intervene in Prabowo's presidential bid.

"It's true that many people there interpreted the statement about the presidential candidate with a 'dark history' as a reference to Prabowo. But then again it's just an interpretation. Luhut himself was not specific about the person," he said.

Salim denied that the book launch event was intended to build military support to stop Prabowo from running in 2014.

Yudhoyono wants former generals to play by the rules

Jakarta Post - October 4, 2012

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on retired Indonesian Military (TNI) generals looking to join the 2014 presidential election race to uphold democratic values while contesting the country's highest office.

Yudhoyono told the gathering of the Military Academy alumni on Tuesday night that the country's democracy was irreversible and that to run for office, retired military generals must stay within those rules.

"We now use a multiparty democracy. Some of us join and struggle within political parties. Some even set up their own political parties," Yudhoyono said as quoted by Antara.

Yudhoyono also said that former military members must adapt to the new situation. "Indonesia is undergoing a transformation and we should all adapt to new changes. We don't want to live in a dinosaur scenario, where everything around us changes but we remain the same," he said.

Later on in the event, a representative from the alumni, Gen. (ret) Luhut Pandjaitan, a former trade minister under the administration of president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, proposed that Yudhoyono could help choose candidates most suited to succeed him in 2014, for the sake of continuity.

Luhut proposed that one of the main criteria for running in the 2014 presidential election was that the candidate ought to have a good track record, which was apparently a veiled reference to chief patron of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Soebianto. Prabowo himself was absent.

Former senior TNI officials who were present at the meeting were former TNI commander Gen. (ret) Endriartono Sutarto, former TNI chief Gen. (ret) Tyasno Sudarto and former National Police chief Gen. Suroyo Bimantoro.

Luhut said that Prabowo was not invited to the meeting due to logistical problems. "We don't have enough space," he said.

Luhut said that Yudhoyono's message about playing fair in the 2014 presidential election would still apply to Prabowo in spite of his no-show at the gathering.

A number of former generals are expected to join the 2014 race, including Prabowo, chairman of the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) Gen. (ret) Wiranto, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto and Endriartono, who was said to be joining the National Democratic Party.

Prabowo is expected to be the most popular candidate in the poll but his presidential ambitions have been met with resistance by rival political parties considering him too "dangerous".

Major political factions have agreed not to challenge or amend a law that sets a high threshold for parties to nominate a candidate for the presidency.

Major political parties in the House of Representatives agreed that only parties or coalitions holding at least 20 percent of the seats in the House, or who garnered at least 25 percent of the popular vote, could nominate candidates.

The leadership of the Democratic Party had said that it would only nominate somebody from within the party and that Yudhoyono would have the final say.

Wiranto prospects are likely dim, with his political party struggling to meet the parliamentary threshold and his single digit favorability rating.

A recent survey by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) revealed that 4.1 percent of respondent would vote for Wiranto, against Prabowo's 17.9 percent.

Gerindra slows Prabowo bid

Jakarta Post - October 2, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party says it will delay naming a presidential candidate, throwing a wrench into the plans of party leader Prabowo Subianto.

Gerindra has canceled a national convention slated for later this month to declare Prabowo's candidacy, citing administrative reasons.

"We must concentrate on the [official] political party verification process, which will take up most of our energy. For this reason alone, we have canceled several party events, including one expected to be a declaration of Pak Prabowo's candidacy," Gerindra secretary-general Ahmad Muzani said on Monday.

Gerindra announced the decision following a move from rival political parties, who agreed not to challenge or amend a law that sets a high threshold for parties to nominate a candidate for the presidency.

Major political parties in the House of Representatives agreed that only parties or coalitions holding at least 20 percent of the seats in the House or who garnered at least 25 percent of the popular vote could nominate candidates.

The move makes it unlikely that Gerindra can nominate a candidate without forming a coalition with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- P) the Golkar Party or the Democratic Party.

Muzani, however, said that Gerindra politicians would negotiate with other parties in the House to lower the threshold to open the race to alternative candidates. He also said Gerindra had filed a judicial review of the 2008 Presidential Election Law to challenge the threshold.

"Article 6(a) of the Constitution only stipulates that presidential candidates and their running mates need only be nominated by political parties. This is our argument to challenge the Presidential Election Law," Muzani said.

Four senior members of Gerindra, Habiburokhman, Adhe Dwi Kurnia, M. Said Bakhri and Munathsir Mustaman, filed the review with the Constitutional Court on Monday.

Muzani described the case review, which can be dropped before the court issues a decision, as Gerindra's final option if the major parties decline to lower the threshold.

Gerindra was suspicious of moves to block Prabowo's bid for the nation's top job, Muzani said.

"We suspect that there are some quarters, including political parties and groups outside the legislative body, that are trying to block Pak Prabowo's aspiration to run for president because of his popularity in a large number of the opinion polls," Muzani said.

The leader of Democratic Party lawmakers in the House, Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, previously said that her party would stick with the current threshold. Nurhayati's comments received support on Monday from Democratic Party deputy-secretary-general Ramadhan Pohan.

"The Presidential Election Law can perfectly accommodate all issues, so we will not support any attempts at a revision," Pohan said. "We can't arbitrarily amend the law just to satisfy the demands of a certain party. If Prabowo is confident enough to run in the upcoming presidential election, just do it and stop whining."

Separately, National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Hatta Rajasa, who is also the coordinating economic minister, told reporters that PAN also wanted to let the Presidential Election Law stand due to time constraints.

"We don't need to change it. There isn't enough time. Let's just use the old one," Hatta said on the sidelines of a meeting with the House's budget committee on Monday. Hatta, however, declined to comment on his party's plans to forward him as a presidential candidate.

Previously, the Missing Persons Association (IKOHI) said that it would challenge the candidacy of Prabowo, a retired lieutenant general, for what they called his poor human rights records when commander of the Army's elite Special Forces Command (Kopassus).

Mugiyanto, the chairman of IKOHI and a survivor of an abduction he attributed to Prabowo, said that families of victims of the disappearances would contest Prabowo's candidacy in court.

The delay follows statements from Gerindra's allies in the PDI-P that the party might rethink a coalition to nominate a presidential candidate in 2014.

Golkar, PKS lash out at release of political party graft list

Jakarta Post - October 1, 2012

Jakarta – The Golkar Party has lashed out at Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam for releasing a list of the country's most corrupt political parties and putting Golkar at the top of the list.

Deputy secretary general of Golkar Nurul Arifin said that Dipo had acted in an unethical manner and that he had gone beyond his authority by releasing the data.

"It is not his role or authority. This is also unethical because only the Home Ministry has that authority," Nurul said over the weekend, as quoted by tribunnews.com. Nurul said that even the Home Ministry never made an attempt to associate corrupt officials with political parties to which they belonged.

Late last week, Dipo released data on a list of government officials and members of local legislative councils that had been implicated in graft cases throughout the President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's two terms, the first of which started in 2004.

Dipo based his findings on 176 letters that Yudhoyono issued to allow legal enforcement agencies to investigate the involvement of government officials in alleged graft cases and other criminal charges.

Data from the State Secretariat said that 131 individuals, or 74.43 percent, were investigated for alleged roles in graft and 25.29 percent for roles in regular criminal cases.

The State Secretariat further revealed that 64 officials, or 36.36 percent, being investigated came from Golkar. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) came in second with 32 individuals or 18.18 percent and the Democratic Party came in third with 20 individuals or 11.36 percent.

The list also revealed that politicians from almost all major political parties were implicated in graft cases. Four Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politicians, for instance, were being investigated in graft cases, according to the list.

Dipo said the list showed that there were parties that were more corrupt that Yudhoyono's Democratic Party. "This is the reality. So is it fair if we are deemed as the most corrupt political parties while others are considered clean?" he asked.

Dipo apparently made the list as a follow-up to a statement made by Yudhoyono in July, who accused state officials and politicians of being involved in graft cases.

"If you are aware that your subordinates have misappropriated or misused the state budget in connivance with politicians, but do nothing to stop or prevent it, you must share the guilt," the President told a Cabinet meeting at the Presidential Office on June 19.

"Such actions are conspiratorial. I have credible information but I want to leave it for the law enforcement bodies, especially the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] to handle," Yudhoyono added.

PKS lawmaker Indra said that Dipo had made the wrong move by releasing the data. "This gives the impression that this government institution is a non-governmental organization or graft watchdog," he said.

Labour & migrant workers

Workers demand release of terror suspect

Jakarta Post - October 6, 2012

Jakarta – Workers of shoe factory PT Panarub Dwikarya marched to the Tangerang Women's Penitentiary on Friday, demanding the release of fellow worker Omih, 28, who was detained for being an alleged terrorist.

Omih was arrested on Sept. 29 following accusations of spreading terror through text messages as reported by the company management.

"Since her detention at the Penitentiary, none of her family members and colleagues were allowed to visit her," said Rudi HB Daman, chairman of the Indonesian Labor Association Movement (GSBI) that organized the rally.

Rudi said that Omih had long been disappointed in regards to the company's policies. She blamed the company for her daughter's death and not approving her request for leave to take care of the ill 2-year-old girl.

On Sept. 14, she sent a text message to the company's human resources manager Edy Suryono and production manager Guan An saying that a bomb was being assembled to be exploded at the factory the next day. The police did not find any evidence during a search at Omih's home, but they detained her.

House of Representatives' member Ribka Tjiptaning, who visited Omih at the Penitentiary on Friday said that she and other legislators would file a request to the Tangerang Police for her release. "She is not a terrorist who might endanger the lives of others. So, there is no reason to lock her up. I also told her that she is a warrior, not a terrorist."

Strike was a warning, say Indonesian unions

Straits Times - October 5, 2012

Zubaidah Nazeer, Jakarta – Indonesian unions vowed to step up pressure on employers to refrain from using contract labor, a day after an unprecedented nationwide strike shut thousands of factories in Asean's largest economy and caused an estimated 1 trillion rupiah ($104 million) in production losses.

"This was a warning," said Said Iqbal, chairman of the Indonesian Metal Workers Federation. "We have given the government two weeks to hold a dialogue with employers and labor associations. Then we'll see if the results are satisfactory."

Both President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa agreed to look into improving workers' welfare and benefits, and especially their demands over outsourcing – the practice of using contract workers who do not enjoy any basic benefits.

The vigor of the protests, which closed more than 5,000 factories across 12 provinces, has stunned a region that has seen the sprawling archipelago become an island of growth amid the slowing giant economies of China, Japan and India. The Indonesian economy grew 6.5 percent last year, on robust exports and an expanding middle class that is driving domestic consumption.

As employers totaled up their losses, Sofyan Wanandi, chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), told The Straits Times: "We estimate about 1 trillion rupiah in losses from interrupted production. At least 5,000 factories in Tangerang, Batam, Medan, Bekasi and Surabaya (were affected)."

Though the workers have since returned to work, employees at state-owned oil company Pertamina reportedly blocked access to its refinery in the Indramayu district in West Java.

The massive strike, which hit most industrial estates, has raised concerns that investors may be put off from investing money in Indonesia at a time when infrastructure development is crucial. Observers say the strikes are an indication of the increasing power of unions.

Said Iqbal's union is one of three belonging to an alliance under the Indonesian Council of Workers. The alliance boasts nearly five million members.

While Indonesian labor laws allow outsourcing, this is restricted to certain jobs. But many companies flout this regulation by offering contract terms to workers doing other jobs.

According to Rekson Silaban, chief of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Welfare Unions, nearly half of the 41 million formal workers are on such contract terms.

Both union leaders and Apindo say they will hold a meeting next week to discuss the issue. Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said: "We ask for more time – six months to a year – to meet all parties and resolve this."

Threat of gridlock, violence fizzles as unions keep rallies under control

Jakarta Globe - October 4, 2012

Fears of massive traffic gridlock across Jakarta because of a labor demonstration failed to materialize on Wednesday as unions and police ensured that the rallies did not spread beyond the industrial estates on the capital's outskirts.

Sr. Comr. Rikwanto, a spokesman for the Jakarta Police, said the rallies by the striking workers were conducted peacefully and there were no major security concerns.

"We had prepared a joint police-military force of 15,000 personnel in anticipation of events turning rowdy, but in general it all proceeded peacefully," he said.

He added that by the police's count, there were around 50,000 workers participating in the rallies in Bekasi, Tangerang and Depok, but all of them had dispersed by 4 p.m., thus preventing the rush-hour gridlock that many commuters had been dreading.

Sr. Comr. Chairul Nur Alamsyah, the Jakarta Police's head of operations, said there was only one reported incident of violence on the day.

"The incident occurred in Tanjung Priok, when some demonstrators broke the wing mirror on a container truck," he said. "But the local police and the workers' unions have sorted the matter out and everything's settled. No one will be arrested over it."

On Tuesday, unions said they were planning to mobilize up to 23,000 demonstrators for rallies in Jakarta, but on Wednesday they said they had decided to focus their demonstrations in the outlying industrial estates.

Andi Gani, president of the Confederation of All-Indonesia Workers Unions (KSPSI), said none of the unions affiliated with his organization had planned rallies in the city center. "We won't mobilize the masses in Jakarta. We're concentrating in the areas around the workers' workplaces," he said.

Small groups of a few hundred people each picketed the House of Representatives and the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry. He also apologized to the general public for any inconvenience that the rallies caused.

"We apologize for the traffic jams as a result of our actions and we hope the public can understand that this is about workers demanding an end to the outsourcing system and low wages," he said.

Later in the day, Andi persuaded thousands of demonstrators to drop their threat to block the West Cikarang toll road, the main artery to the industrial estates in Bekasi, Cikarang, Karawang and Cikampek.

"There is no sense in breaching the toll road, and no call for workers to turn to anarchy," he told demonstrators at the EJIP industrial estate in Cikarang.

Elsewhere around the country, though, the rallies were not as orderly. Unions said they mobilized more than two million workers nationwide for protests at 80 industrial estates.

In Bogor, Surabaya and Medan, the rallies caused severe traffic jams as the workers took to the streets there, while in Batam a group of 25,000 workers picketed the mayor's office. (JG/AP)

Indonesian workers demand an end to outsourcing

Jakarta Globe - October 4, 2012

SP/Fuska Sani Evani, Bayu Marhaenjati & Arientha Primanita – Around two million workers took to the streets across Indonesia on Wednesday, demanding that the outsourcing employment system be abolished and for companies to guarantee that all workers receive benefits.

Questions, though, linger over the fate of the current 16 million outsourced workers.

According to some industry players and analysts, outsourcing has enabled them to cut labor costs while benefiting the country as a whole, including the laborers themselves. They point to the system that has employed 16 million people, creating a multiplier effect by boosting consumption and production levels in Southeast Asia's largest economy.

They believe outsourcing has become a necessary global trend for companies, including those in Indonesia, to survive current economic challenges. Outsourcing refers to the hiring of workers on a contractual basis through a provider. The workers are usually hired on short-term contracts and paid a daily wage, without fringe benefits.

Instead of abolishing outsourcing, which could result in the layoffs of millions of workers, business players said the government must guarantee that workers get fringe benefits, including health insurance, even as outsourced and contract laborers.

"The source of all these strikes and demonstrations is the labor law and the government's inability to monitor and implement the law," said Sofjan Wanandi, chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo). "Outsourcing is allowed and regulated by law, but there have been many violations in its implementation."

Edimon Ginting, the Asian Development Bank's senior economist for Indonesia, agreed that outsourcing is not necessarily bad, as other countries such as India and the Philippines have been using it to create new jobs.

"Today, for instance, call centers worldwide are dominated by the Philippines and India, since both countries excel in English," Edimon said.

The rejection of the outsourcing system in Indonesia, he said, stemmed from obscure regulations, particularly in labor law, that prompt both employers and employees to interpret the law based on their respective interests.

According to government data, Indonesia has 16 million outsourced workers, or roughly 40 percent of the country's formal labor force of 41 million.

Under the 2003 labor law, companies are not allowed to outsource core jobs and can only outsource five types of peripheral work, namely cleaning services, security, driving, catering and work relating to support mining.

However, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar admitted that many companies outsourced most of the workers, including for their core business.

"We will verify each outsourcing company to determine whether they violate the law. If we find violations, we will revoke their permits. We have asked governors and district heads to verify all the outsourcing companies in their respective areas," he said.

Regarding labor's demand for benefits, Muhaimin said that his office will mediate meetings between employers and labor unions to solve the issue.

Analysts and business players, however, said that the country cannot solve its labor problems without fixing its labor law, which from the beginning has invited a string of criticism, with some calling it a stumbling block in the country's ambition to attract more investment, create more jobs and become one of the world's 10 biggest economies by 2025.

Foreign businesses and officials have complained that the law is too strict and does not allow flexibility for either employees or employers to end employment contracts, a main obstacle for manufacturers and other foreign direct investors to increase their investments.

They said the law requires high severance pay and makes it difficult to fire staff, pushing many of them to choose outsourcing and contract systems. "The outsourcing system enables companies to be efficient. Many just cannot afford to have permanent employees," said Edimon.

Fahmi Idris, advisory board chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said that changing the labor law would attract more investments while allowing companies to gradually hire well-performing contract workers as permanent staff, which would guarantee fringe benefits.

"They don't have to worry about costs and difficulties in hiring and ending employment agreements. So, while business is good they can hire more and when it slows down they can make themselves more efficient," he said.

Mooryati Soedibyo, a member of Kadin's advisory board, said that the government catering to the interests of both employers and employees should be balanced.

"Let's create a win-win solution, where businesspeople can be given room to do business. Please, don't just push around the businesspeople. I think we can realize [the workers'] demands to increase their welfare," she said.

Strike-hit Indonesia to improve labour conditions

Reuters - October 4, 2012

Rieka Rahadiana and Matthew Bigg, Jakarta – Indonesia said on Thursday it would improve worker pay and restrict the use of temporary contracts in the face of a vow by union leaders, who staged a national strike this week, to press ahead with industrial action.

Chief Economics Minister Hatta Rajasa said the government would draft a regulation to increase worker pay and would quickly implement rules to improve conditions for workers not on fixed contracts. He gave no details of the pay increase. "Our workers must get decent and reasonable pay," Rajasa told reporters.

Indonesia's booming economy and sustained annual growth of more than 6 percent has contributed to a rise in union militancy as workers seek a larger share of the cake in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

Union influence could grow in the run-up to an election in 2014 when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono steps down after two terms and as politicians from all parties become wary of falling afoul of labour.

Police said hundreds of thousands of people went on strike on Wednesday in the world's fourth most populous nation. Union leaders said two million workers took to the streets in cities across the archipelago.

The main union grievance is so-called outsourcing, the practice of using contract workers with no non-financial benefits to do jobs that otherwise could be done by staff. There are 16 million outsourced workers, according to media estimates.

"If the new regulation fails to address our demands then we will strike again," said Obon Tabroni, an official for the metal union in Southeast Asia's biggest industrial park in Bekasi on the outskirts of Jakarta. "Yesterday was only a foretaste," said Tabroni, vowing more workers would be involved next time.

Last year, workers at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold's Indonesia unit staged a three-month strike at its mine in eastern Indonesia to demand better pay and conditions. That triggered greater labour assertiveness across the country.

Watching carefully

Indonesia's labour laws mean retrenched staff get high severance pay, which business leaders say restricts employment and leads to the use of contractors.

Contractors are allowed in the resource sector but are otherwise only meant to be used for support services such as transport and cleaning, not for core business functions.

"I would expect the unions to watch very carefully for any failure on the part of business to start implementing the changes," said Keith Loveard, head of political risk at Jakarta-based Concord Consulting.

"The reality, of course, is businesses are unlikely to suddenly run off and employ everyone on a permanent basis because of the costs that would involve."

Business leaders said more flexible labour laws would foster job creation. At the same time, they say labour unrest makes Indonesia a less attractive investment destination because it exacerbates concern about the rule of law and uncertainty over government regulation.

The country regained investment grade status from two ratings agencies in December and January and is a favourite of emerging market investors because of its large domestic market, stable public finances and low debt.

Under the new rules, temporary workers who move to a different company will be able to count their total period of employment cumulatively if they are dismissed, said Dita Indah Sari, spokeswoman at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry.

"I hope the regulation can be issued this week or next week at the latest. We have to be careful on this issue since we want to protect labour as well as medium-size companies," she said.

[Additional reporting by Adriana Nina Kusuma and Neil Chatterjee.]

Workers comb plants as strike begins

Jakarta Post - October 4, 2012

Ridwan Max Sjabat, Jakarta – Thousands of blue-collar workers across the nation began on Wednesday a massive strike they said would last for weeks should the government fail to grant their demands: ending outsourcing practices and cheap labor policies, and providing greater access to health care.

The rallies passed off peacefully in most areas, though there were reports of labor unions conducting combings of factories, including in Tangerang where protesters pelted rocks at a security guard post at a factory belonging to PT LG Indonesia. The protesters were angry about the company's alleged refusal to allow all its employees to skip work, permitting only 200 of them to join the protest.

Activities on more than 60 industrial estates in Riau Islands and West Java were suspended when around a million workers in Batam, Bekasi and Cikarang left their workplaces and took part in the strike.

Johannes Kennedy Aritonang, who chairs the Riau Island chapter of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said investors lost more than US$10 million from the work suspension across more than 20 industrial estates in Batam.

The labor unrest manifested amid global labor-intensive manufacturers looking to invest in Indonesia, whose labor is cheaper than other countries, including Thailand and Vietnam. Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest electronics manufacturer, recently announced that it would spend up to $10 billion over the next five years to set up manufacturing centers in the country.

The rallies did not trigger massive congestion in Jakarta as most workers decided to stage their protests in industrial areas. Several major thoroughfares in the capital were virtually empty as many motorists, too, decided to avoid the roads, fearing the protests would cause gridlock.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said most of the estimated 20,000 workers who joined the rallies were concentrated near their workplaces, such as Gambir in Central Jakarta, and Pulo Gadung, Cakung and Pasar Rebo in East Jakarta. In Bekasi, thousands of workers staged rallies at the MM2100 Industrial Area.

The strike was organized by the Indonesian Workers Assembly (MPBI) and the Indonesian Metal Workers Federation (FSPMI), who initially claimed that some 500,000 workers would participate in the protest.

"We will continue the national strike for up to one week. If there is still no response [from the government], we will continue the rallies for a month," said the FSPMI's Saiful Bahri, one of the strike coordinators.

Chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), Sofjan Wanandi, questioned the authorities' failure to prevent workers from conducting sweeps, claiming he was told that the majority of workers in industrial areas wanted to keep working.

"Many investors have reported on the loss of millions of working hours and today I received a number of international calls questioning the investment climate and legal certainty in the country," he said.

Chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union (KSPI), Said Iqbal, however, accused employers of deploying armed security personnel to prevent workers from joining the strike.

"Most workers in North Sumatra, West Java, Banten, Central and East Java and South Sulawesi are not taking part in the strike because they are scared," he said.

The Jakarta Police readied 10,000 officers from police precincts and Mobile Brigade (Brimob) units and 5,000 military personnel to safeguard industrial areas in Bekasi, Depok, Jakarta and Tangerang, and to secure vital buildings and public facilities including toll roads during the strike. More than 2,000 officers were deployed to guard the Presidential Palace and the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar has vowed to facilitate tripartite dialogues to seek win-win solutions to the crucial labor issues.

He said he would end the abuses of the outsourcing system and the cheap labor policy in accordance with the law so that the country would be a better place for both the nation's workforce and foreign investors.

"Outsourcing will be restored to its initial concept as stipulated in the law, and I will facilitate dialogues with employers and labor unions regarding a fair and decent wage," he said. (aml/fzm)

West Java governor imposes moratorium on outsourcing

Jakarta Post - October 3, 2012

Arya Dipa, Bandung – West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan issued on Wednesday a moratorium on outsourcing following massive labor rallies across the country on the same day.

The governor announced the news, which he called a win-win solution for all parties, before thousands of workers protesting in front of the Gedung Sate gubernatorial office in Bandung. Heryawan said the decision was made in support of workers in West Java.

"I cc-ed the coordinating people's welfare minister, the manpower and transmigration minister, the West Java Manpower and Transmigration Agency, the West Java Employers Association and the West Java Workers Association," Heryawan said in Bandung, West Java, on Wednesday.

The governor said he realized there were many problems with the outsourcing system widely practiced in the country and therefore, "we need to amend the implementation of the system and so need a moratorium on it".

He also encouraged that posts be established in every regency and city in West Java for workers to lodge complaints. Heryawan pledged to maintain harmonious relations between businesses and workers in his region because "both parties depend on each other".

Millions of workers across the country demonstrated on Wednesday to demand the government bring the outsourcing regime to an end. They also demanded a pay increase and other benefits. (swd)

Workers plan strike in protest against salary and outsourcing

Jakarta Post - October 3, 2012

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Around 2.8 million workers in 24 cities and on 80 industrial estates nationwide will go on strike in protest against outsourcing practices, a cheap labor policy and the planned gradual implementation of the national health care for all program.

Chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union (KSPI) Said Iqbal, said Wednesday's rally would be the first in a series of protests and it would only be a warm-up to remind relevant parties and the public of their seriousness.

He said most workers on industrial estates would not go to work so that their employers would see a massive loss in production.

"We are serious about holding strikes until the government listens to our demands. We are waiting for immediate solutions to the chronic issues," he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Workers in urban areas have been asked to stage demonstrations outside local legislature compounds to convey their demands to their representatives in provincial and regental legislatures. They were told not to stage mass rallies and long marches, he added.

Chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (KSBSI), Mudhofir, said that the strike was "unavoidable" as the government had breached the Sept. 15 deadline to review outsourcing practices and revise the remuneration system. "We have waited long enough for solutions, but nothing has been done," she said.

Said and Mudhofir confirmed that they had met with Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar and Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa at the latter's office on Tuesday, and they agreed to avoid any deadlocks in further discussions regarding outsourcing, cheap labor and social security issues.

They said they were still optimistic that the government would review rampant outsourcing malpractice and review the newly issued ministerial decree on wage components.

Both labor leaders also said that Muhaimin had agreed to review Ministerial Decree No. 13/2012 on Decent Pay to partly accommodate workers' aspirations on 80 wage components to create a win-win solution with employers.

Employers played down the national strike, which they said was no more than a bluff to scatter employers and relevant authorities, because according to their monitoring on Tuesday, all workers on the 80 industrial estates planned to work on Wednesday as usual.

"Besides closely monitoring the situation, we continue to coordinate with Yorris Raweyai's camp of the Confederation of All-Indonesian Workers Union, who have found no signs of a national strike tomorrow," said Sofjan Wanandi, chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo).

Sofjan admitted that many small and mid-scale enterprises had misused the outsourcing system since the law allowed misinterpretations, but the government should repair it and take action against companies declining to comply with the law.

He warned that foreign investors would likely decline to invest in Indonesia or that existing investors would relocate their business to other countries because of the unconducive business climate and overburdening labor issues.

"Many companies have planned to replace their outsourced workers with machines for efficiency, but Apindo asked them to suspend those plans to help ease unemployment. Several Japanese businesspeople even plan to relocate to Myanmar," he said.

Asked about the cheap labor policy, Sofjan said that the government should make separate regulations on remuneration for big, mid-scale, and small businesses.

Workers to stage one month rally if demands not met

Jakarta Post - October 3, 2012

Bekasi, West Java – Workers of the Indonesian Metal Workers Federation (FSPMI) say they will continue to occupy roads in Greater Jakarta if the government does not meet their demands.

"We will continue the national strike for up to one month if our requests are not granted," said Saiful Bahri, field coordinator of the rally, in a speech on Wednesday.

Thousands of FSPI workers staged a protest on Wednesday in various locations around Jakarta and Bekasi, with the MM2100 industrial town in Cibitung, Bekasi, as the center, urging the government to stop outsourcing and immediately implement the social security law.

Saiful said that the government was planning to put off the social security law until 2019. "We will keep urging the government to implement the law by 2014. We have a permit for a week of protest," he told The Jakarta Post.

Only a few police were on guard at the in front of the PT Astra Honda Motors building.

At 11.30 a.m. few workers were at the strike locations, with others having lunch break and some performing afternoon prayers. Saiful said all workers were obliged to come back at 1p.m. (fzm/iwa)

More than 2 million workers strike in Indonesia

Jakarta Globe - October 3, 2012

Indonesian unions say more than 2 million factory workers have gone on a one-day strike across the country to call for higher wages and protest the hiring of contract workers.

National police spokesman Col. Agus Rianto says hundreds of thousands of laborers from more than 700 companies at 80 industrial estates took to the streets in protest Wednesday.

Yoris Raweyai, chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers' Union, says workers want the government to revise a law allowing companies to hire temporary workers on one-year contracts without benefits – a practice called "outsourcing" in Indonesia.

Indonesia's Constitutional Court ruled in January that the hiring practice is unconstitutional and violates workers' rights.

"The [protest's] agenda is to ask for the abolition of the outsourcing system in recruiting workers, [and demand a] pay hike and health security for all workers [by] 2014, instead of 2019 as planned by the government," Said Iqbal, chairman of the Indonesian Labor Assembly (MPBI) said.

About 23,000 workers planned to march in Jakarta on Wednesday afternoon, and some 15,000 police were expected to be deployed to safeguard the rally. In Jakarta, workers on strike conducted sweeps of factories throughout the metro area, pulling other workers to the protest lines. Most companies in greater Jakarta were forced to close on Wednesday.

More than 2,000 protestors rallied in front of the Jakarta Legislative Council (DPRD) in Kebon Sirih, as traffic ground to a halt in many Central and South Jakarta neighborhoods. Additional protests took place at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, at the National Monument (Monas) and outside the offices of the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration and the Ministry of Health. Other protests included demonstrations in Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Cilegon, Karawang, Sukabumi, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Sidoarjo, Batam, Medan and Makassar.

Protestors in Makassar likened contract work to modern-day slavery. "[The] system causes big losses to the workers," said Andi Mallanti, of the South Sulawesi chapter of the Indonesian Workers Welfare Union (SBSI). "The workers are not known by the company, they work through a third party [and can] be fired without compensation."

In Batam, some 25,000 workers surrounded the Batam mayor's office in protest. In Bekasi, demonstrators caused police to close the toll road exit in West Cikarang. "We're not robots that they can treat the way they like," Ralenti, one of the protesters, said. "Treat us like a humans, give us proper wages and health insurance."

In Depok, protestors caused gridlock along Jalan Raya Bogor. In Bandung, they sung Dangdut and Sundanese songs and danced during the demonstration.

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (KADIN) urged the government to stand with local business leaders, explaining that contract workers are necessary part of doing business in Indonesia.

"There are many big banks such as Bank Mandiri, BRI or Citibank that implement outsourcing but never had problem with it," Fahmi Idris, advisory board chairman of KADIN, said. "After the contract ends, the worker returns to the outsourcing company as permanent employee. They are misunderstanding the outsourcing practice and I think it is inappropriate to ban it."

Businesswoman Mooryati Soedibyo, also a member of the KADIN advisory board, said the government needed to listen to both sides.

"Let's create win-win solution," she said. "Business people should be given easy access in doing business, while workers' demands for welfare improvement should also be implemented." (JG/AP)

Government should curb rowdy labor unrest, groups say

Jakarta Globe - October 2, 2012

Tito Summa Siahaan – A group of 10 business associations called on the government to stand firm to curb "excessive behavior" in labor protests. The group said the spate of labor rallies has turned into a serious criminal offense and is hurting the country's business climate.

Franky Sibarani, the secretary general of the Indonesian Food and Beverage Association (Gapmmi), a member of the group, said that several labor unions have threatened to stage a rally that could disrupt factory production and public facilities.

He was making his comments in reference to plans by All Indonesian Workers Union (KSPSI) and the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Unions (KSPI) to stage a strike and a large-scale rally on Oct. 3, demanding that the government end outsourcing practices and increase wages.

"Such things have occurred in the past, which is a cause for concern. So far there has been no firm action from the government," Franky added. He said that due to the spate of labor disputes, many companies have halted their investments or put expansion plans on hold.

He also claimed that business owners have followed the government's regulations in providing a better wages and living conditions for workers. "There are few chances for business-owners to break the rules because there are many labor unions following their every step," he added.

KSPI president, Said Iqbal, claimed that about 2.8 million workers are expected to join the street-protest and will close industry centers by force if needed.

Suryadi Sasmita, secretary general of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), said that recent developments in the labor situation in Indonesia have prompted several foreign investors from Japan and South Korea to put their investment plans on hold. "Although it does not necessarily mean that they will cancel their plans here in Indonesia," he added.

Labor disputes have become a recurring issues amid Indonesia's robust economic development. Last week, some 10,000 workers staged a rally against outsourcing practices. The demonstration, though, was small compared to the January rally when thousands of workers occupied a toll-road in Cibitung, Bekasi over a wage dispute.

Health & education

Religious affairs minister wants more hours for religious classes

Jakarta Globe - October 1, 2012

Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said on Monday that he would raise the idea of adding hours for religious lessons in schools with the education minister.

"I'll talk to him about increasing religious lessons," Suryadharma said, referring to Education and Culture Minister Muhammad Nuh. He was speaking after attending the commemoration of Pancasila Sanctity Day in Lubang Buaya on Monday.

"It could be integrated in the school curriculum or offered as extra lessons outside regular school hours," he added.

Suryadharma said the students needed more lesson on values and morality, primarily to prevent them from turning to bad behaviors such as violence, vandalism and using illegal drugs.

"We want parents and teachers to pay more attention to the development of students," he said, adding that teachers should search students' bags to check for weapons, rocks or other illegal stuffs.

Last week, two students died in a brawl between senior high schools SMU 6 and SMU 70 in Bulungan, South Jakarta, and between SMU Kartika Zeini and SMU Yayasan Karya 66 in Manggarai.

Police have arrested the alleged perpetrators for both incidents. One of them, a student with the initial A.D., told police he felt satisfied that he was able to retaliate.

The Ministry of Education and Culture on Thursday said that science and social science will be taken out of the elementary school's curriculum next year to provide children with less school time.

The ministry said that the new curriculum would emphasize basic mathematics, the Indonesian language, religious studies and patriotism.

Graft & corruption

SBY silent over KPK-police rift

Jakarta Post - October 7, 2012

Semarang – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono remains silent after the latest showdown between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police.

KPK chairman Abraham Samad said on Saturday the police's attempt to arrest a KPK investigator on Friday night – just hours after the commission interrogated a police general – was intentionally aimed at weakening the commission.

"The President should lend a helping hand against any parties attempting to disrupt the work of the KPK," Abraham said after speaking at an anticorruption discussion in Semarang, Central Java.

The latest in a long series of showdowns between the law enforcement agencies began on Friday evening, when dozens of police officers tried to enter the KPK headquarters to arrest Comr. Novel Baswedan, a police officer seconded to the commission as an investigator, for shooting robbery suspects in 2004.

The move is thought to be prompted by Novel's key role in the investigation of Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo in the scandal surrounding the Rp 200 billion (US$21.2 million) procurement of vehicle simulators at the National Police Traffic Corps (Korlantas).

The police withdrew from the KPK on Friday only after Deputy Law and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana and prominent anticorruption activists came to stop the arrest. The incident has inspired another "Save the KPK" campaign, including a planned rally on Sunday morning at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.

The police and the KPK squared off in July over the case after Djoko became the first active-duty police general to be named a suspect. As the KPK proceeded with its investigation of Djoko, the police announced they would withdraw 20 officers seconded to the commission as investigators. Five of them have defied orders.

Abraham said he had filed reports with State Secretary Sudi Silalahi and Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto about the incident.

Meanwhile, the National Police's Criminal Investigation Division chief, Comr. Gen. Sutarman, denied officers attempted to arrest Novel in retaliation for the commission's investigation, saying they only tried to "coordinate" with KPK officials on the case implicating Novel.

"If we are in process of enforcing the law, don't take it as if we're criminalizing him [Novel]," Sutarman, the nation's top detective, said during a television interview. Sutarman said Novel, who was previously the Bengkulu Police detective unit chief, shot and killed one robber and injured five more in February 2004.

Meanwhile KPK deputy chief Bambang Widjojanto said Novel did not shoot the men and the case had been closed years ago.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher, Ade Irawan described the attempt to arrest Novel as a "huge" setback for the nation's fight against corruption and recommended that the President intervene.

Agreeing with Ade, an executive of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Bima Arya Sugiarto, said the ongoing conflict between KPK and the police was a test for Yudhoyono.

Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam, however, said the President would not make any move until the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister reported to him.

"There is no omission, I am sure. I know the President. There is no omission of the KPK's issue. We will use the system. Why do things have to be rushed?" Dipo said after a talk show in Jakarta.

Following a late-night vigil by activists on Friday, the National Police dispatched a platoon of officers to KPK headquarters.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said on Saturday that sending the platoon was not done to interfere with or to intimidate the KPK but to guard the area in anticipation of other rallies. (yps/aml/han)

Where is SBY?

Jakarta Post - October 7, 2012

Jakarta – Hundreds of people held a peaceful rally in Jakarta on Sunday, calling for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to prove his commitment to corruption eradication. The President has remained silent over the escalating standoff between the National Police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

"People have been waiting for the President's statement on the police-KPK showdown since Friday evening," human rights activist Usman Hamid said on the sidelines of the rally at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.

On Friday evening, officers from the Bengkulu Police and the Jakarta Police went to the KPK headquarters in Kuningan, South Jakarta, in an attempt to arrest KPK investigator Comr, Novel Baswedan for the alleged abuse of criminal suspects in 2004.

Their attempt failed as hundreds of activists, journalists, experts and university students flocked to the KPK building to defend Novel, a prominent investigator in major corruption cases, against his fellow police officers. Deputy Law and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana also appeared at the headquarters.

Novel is currently investigating irregularities surrounding the procurement of driving simulators by the National Police Traffic Corps, in which Ins. Gen. Djoko Susilo has been named the main suspect.

One of Yudhoyono's aides said that the President would deliver a statement on the standoff on Monday.

However, University of Indonesia political observer Effendi Ghazali said that Monday would be too late as people were tired of waiting. "Why should [he wait to] make a comment on Monday? Don't we have a President on Saturday and Sunday?" he said.

According to Effendi, people expected the president to show concern and take decisive action. "The President will disappoint his people even more if he only says, 'I'm concerned about this issue' in his awaited speech on Monday," he said.

Sunday's rally was held during the Car Free Day event. Several singers, including soloist Once, band Efek Rumah Kaca and Simponi performed during the rally. (riz/lfr)

SBY delays commenting on attempt to arrest KPK investigator

Jakarta Post - October 6, 2012

Jakarta – Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam said on Saturday that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would wait until he received a direct report from Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto before responding to the police's attempt to arrest a Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator on Friday.

"There is no omission [regarding the conflict], I am sure. I know the President and there will be no omission regarding KPK issues. There are procedures. What's the rush?" he said after a talk in Jakarta on Saturday.

Dipo added that he believed National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo's denial that he did not order the arrest of Comr. Novel Baswedan, a KPK investigator and police officer.

"Why should we call the National Police chief? We always [discuss with him] in regular meetings. He didn't order [the apprehension]. I will not believe [otherwise] until proven," he said.

On the same occasion, Bima Arya Sugiarto, an executive of the National Mandate Party [PAN], urged the President to take necessary measures to avoid public assumption that the government was neglecting efforts to fight malfeasance.

"The President once said that he wanted to lead efforts in eradicating corruption. This is a time where we must wait to see how our commander reacts, and what steps should be taken [by all involved parties]," he said.

Bima added that the President should immediately ease tensions between the police and the KPK, since it had reached a critical stage.

An Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher, Ade Irawan, viewed Friday's stand off as a huge setback and recommended the President intervene. "The conflict between the KPK and the police is a drawback [for the country]. It is benefiting the perpetrators. We are now in a state of precariousness," the source said.

Meanwhile, University of Indonesia political analyst Arbi Sanit suggested that the KPK be given its own investigators to prevent the prolonged stand off from continuing.

The National Police previously said they would withdraw 20 investigators who had been assigned to the commission. However, five of the investigators have opted to stay with the KPK. The National Police's decision was made shortly after Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, former chief of the National Police Traffic Corps, was declared a suspect in the driving simulator procurement scandal. (yps/swd)

Police deploy officers to 'safeguard' KPK

Jakarta Post - October 6, 2012

Jakarta – The National Police have dispatched a platoon of officers to the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) headquarters following a night- long protest by activists.

The activists staged a vigil after police officers arrived at the KPK on Friday evening to arrest a police officer seconded to the commission as an investigator.

The officers on Friday arrived just hours after the KPK interrogated Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo as a suspect in a bribery scandal.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said on Saturday that sending the platoon was not interfere with or trying to intimidate the KPK.

"Please don't get it wrong when seeing so many cops around the building. We deployed the officers to guard the area in anticipation of other rallies," Rikwanto said.

"This is just an ordinary measure we take to guard a vital place. We don't want the possible rallies to end in riots or to cause severe traffic congestion."

Djoko, the first active duty police general to be named a suspect by the KPK, was questioned for the first time by the KPK on Friday in connection with the scandal surrounding the procurement of vehicle simulators for the National Police traffic Corps. (aml/swd)

Police storms KPK's HQ

Jakarta Post - October 6, 2012

Jakarta – In a controversial move, tens of police officers, dressed in uniforms and civilians' outfits, stormed the office of the Corruption Eradication Commission on Jl. Rasuna Said in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Friday evening.

Bengkulu Police detective chief, Sr. Comr. Dedy Rianto, told the press on early Saturday that the police were visiting the KPK to coordinate with the heads of the commission regarding a crime allegedly committed by Comr. Novel Baswedan.

Novel is one of the commission's investigators who handles the case of Ins. Gen. Djoko Susilo, the main suspect in the Police Traffic Corps driving simulators procurement graft scandal.

"We came to Jakarta to coordinate (with the KPK) that we are currently investigating a crime occurred in 2004 committed by Novel," Dedy said, adding that he also visited the Jakarta Police to tell them about the investigation.

According to Dedy, Novel, who used to be the head of the criminal unit in Bengkulu Police, is suspected to shoot six robbers back in 2004, which resulted in the death of one of the robbers.

Commenting on why the police has just investigated the case now, Dedy said that there had been requests as well as new reports brought to light by the public and non-governmental organizations.

KPK deputy chief Bambang Widjojanto, meanwhile, denied the allegation by Dedy, saying that Novel was not the one who committed the crime and that the case had been cleared by authorities in 2004. "The one who did the shooting was one of Novel's men," he said. "And Novel had taken the responsibility of his man and had received a stern warning."

The disparity between Dedy and Bambang's statements does not end there. Bambang claimed that Dedy stormed the office of the KPK without a legal warrant to arrest Novel since the letter had not been approved by the court and did not even have a number on it.

Dedy, meanwhile, denied the allegation. "[The documents] are very complete," he said while showing a bunch of papers with signatures on them to the camera during an interview with a local TV station.

Dedy also said that he only brought seven officers, combining forces from Bengkulu Police and Jakarta Police. "From those seven, only five entered the KPK's building," he said, adding that there were no personnel from the Jakarta Police Densus 88 counterterrorism unit involved as rumored.

Bambang said that the police also stormed Novel's house in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. Dedy once again denied the allegation.

Bambang added that National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo asked two officers, identified only by their initials AA and AD, to pick up Novel to meet Timur's aide, Sr. Comr. Yazid Fanani on Thursday evening.

KPK deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas, however, did not give Novel the permission to leave, according to Bambang.

The storming has lead many to speculate that National Police was behind the move to hinder the investigation of the driving simulators procurement graft. (han/swd)

Police attempt to arrest KPK investigator

Jakarta Post - October 6, 2012

Jakarta – Police officers tried to enter the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) late on Friday in an attempt to arrest an investigator of the antigraft body, heightening tensions between the two bodies triggered by an investigation into a corruption case linked to a senior police officer.

Dozens of policemen, including from Internal Affairs, were seen outside the KPK building on Jl. HR Rasuna Said, South Jakarta at 10 p.m.

As soon as the news broke across social media websites, activists, journalists, prominent figures – including Deputy Law and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana and Paramadina University rector Anies Baswedan – and ordinary civilians immediately flocked to the headquarters building to show their support for the antigraft commission. They spontaneously joined hands to make a barrier encircling the KPK building.

"Save KPK" quickly became one of the most popular hashtags on Twitter.

Several police officers were seen trying to forcibly enter the KPK building despite the reluctance by the KPK's security officers to permit them to do so. The police said they were attempting to arrest one of the commission's investigators, identified as Novel Baswedan.

Novel has been involved in several high-profile investigations at the KPK including the alleged corruption case surrounding the procurement of driving simulators, which implicated former National Police Traffic Corps. chief Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo who was subsequently named a suspect. Djoko was questioned by the KPK earlier on Friday after previously failing to answer the commission's first summons.

Tempo.co reported that Novel was accused of committing a crime back in 2004 when he was stationed in Bengkulu. "There are police officers already standing by downstairs [to arrest me]," he said.

Earlier on Friday, National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Nanan Sukarna said the police were preparing "a move" to retrieve their five of 20 investigators, who had expressed a wish to remain with the commission. "You can consider us like a father who wants to bring his disobedient children back home," Nanan said.

Following the investigation on the driving simulator procurement, police announced they would be withdrawing 20 investigators that they had seconded to the commission. Five of them opted to resign from the force and stay at the KPK.

Transportation, trade ministries praised in anticorruption report

Jakarta Post - October 5, 2012

Rabby Pramudatama, Jakarta – The Transportation and Trade Ministries are among the few state institutions with the most effective corruption prevention programs, according to a recent assessment by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

The Anticorruption Initiative Assessment (PIAK) held between Jan. 15 and Oct. 4 was conducted to establish whether preventive measures at state institutions were effective.

"Corruption has been thriving in many government institutions, not only in the central government but also in local administrations. To prevent the trend from increasing, we initiated this PIAK program," KPK deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas told a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

This year, the KPK assessed a total of 36 institutions, which included 18 ministries, three agencies, the Supreme Court, the House of Representative's secretariat and dozens of city administrations.

Through this annual program, Busyro said, the KPK has witnessed impressive progress in many government institutions, especially in public services provided by government offices involved in the program.

Among all participating government institutions, the Transportation Ministry received 7.65 points (on scale of 10), while the Trade Ministry obtained 7.49 points.

Indicators in the assessment included having a code of ethics, transparency in procurement, transparency in human resources management, a mechanism to deal with public complaints, public access to information and implementation of improvement recommendations from the KPK and the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and anticorruption measures.

Transportation Ministry inspector-general Iskandar Abubakar said his institution had implemented all initiatives set out as indicators, but most importantly it had implemented an electronic procurement system that greatly reduced the possibility of corruption in the institution.

Meanwhile, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said on Thursday 285 cases of corruption had taken place in the country within the first half of this year. Altogether, those graft cases could potentially cause Rp 1.22 trillion (US$127.21 million) in state losses.

"We compared the data to the first half of 2010 and found more cases, but the amount of state losses was smaller," said ICW investigative head Agus Sunaryanto at a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

In the first half of 2010, the watchdog found 176 cases with a combined state loss of Rp 2.1 trillion. In comparison, a similar value was recorded for the whole of 2011, with 436 cases.

"Infrastructure regained its status as the most corrupt sector, replacing the education sector," said ICW activist Tama S. Langkun.

As many as 87 corruption cases were recorded in several infrastructure projects. Government budgetary and education sectors followed with 50 cases and 29 cases, respectively.

"The three top positions have always been occupied by these sectors. These means that corruption eradication efforts haven't made a significant impact," he explained.

Local prosecutors' offices handled the highest number of cases at 168, followed by the police with 99 cases and the KPK with 18 cases.

Agus said that even though the KPK recorded fewer cases, the anti-graft body had investigated the cases with the highest potential losses, Rp. 1.5 trillion in total.

"We appreciate that the AGO has started to reveal corruption in the natural resources sector, which might have resulted in huge financial losses," he said. (yps)

More lawmakers' names emerge in graft case

Jakarta Post - October 5, 2012

Rabby Pramudatama and Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – A key witness in the graft trial of suspended Democratic Party lawmaker Angelina Sondakh revealed on Thursday that more lawmakers allegedly received money as kickbacks that were wired to numerous bank accounts.

In her testimony before the Corruption Court with former lawmaker Angelina Sondakh as defendant on Tuesday, Yulianis mentioned the names I Wayan Koster, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- P), and Azis Syamsuddin and Zulkarnaen Djabar from the Golkar Party as having been involved in "schemes" to benefit the company owned by former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazarudin.

Yulianis also said that she also wired money in 14 transactions to all those politicians.

"I also disbursed money for Azis Syamsuddin for [helping] a project at the Attorney General's Office, and Zulkarnain Djabar, Said Abdullah and Abdul Kadir Karding for a project at the Religious Affairs Ministry," she said, referring to three other members of House Commission VII overseeing religious affairs.

These individuals, according to Yulianis, often attended internal meetings [with the company officials] related to projects the company was eyeing.

Yulianis could not recall the name of the lawmaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) whom she said was involved in a project with the Health Ministry.

Yulianis is a key witness in Angelina's graft trial. Yulianis is a former deputy financial director at the holding company, PT Permai Group, which is owned by former Democratic Party treasurer M. Nazaruddin.

Nazaruddin is believed to have run dozens of companies under the group proxy to bid for government projects that were then subcontracted to larger companies in exchange for money.

Angelina herself stands trial for allegedly having received kickbacks from Nazaruddin's company for the construction of the SEA Games athletes' village in South Sumatra, and a project with the Education and Culture Ministry.

Angelina is standing trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court for allegedly accepting a total of Rp 34.9 billion (US$3.6 million) in kickbacks from Permai Group.

According to her dossier, Angelina, who was a member of House's budget committee, had received kickbacks for securing government-funded projects, the SEA Games athletes' village construction project at the Youth and Sports Ministry and laboratory equipment procurement projects for several universities at the Education and Culture Ministry.

Contacted separately, lawmaker Olly Dondokambey denied that he had a role in the schemes. "It's all lies. I have never heard anything about the company or Yulianis," Olly told reporters on Thursday.

Olly claimed that the House's budget committee discussed only general policies and laws, and never went into details regarding procurement projects, as was accused by Yulianis. "How could I start any discussion on the projects when we never talked about any of them in the committee?" he said.

28 police investigators now permanent KPK employees

Jakarta Post - October 4, 2012

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has promoted 28 National Police personnel, who were working as KPK investigators, to permanent employees, KPK deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas said.

Busyro said on Thursday that the commissioners had issued a decision letter and had informed the National Police regarding the promotions. Busyro said the 28 investigators' promotions complied with Government Regulation No. 63/2005 on the Management of KPK Human Resources.

"The KPK is allowed to appoint its own investigators, so the law enforcement agencies must acknowledge the legality," he said as quoted by kompas.com.

The commission was now considering the right mechanism to allow the investigators to resign from their previous institution, Busryo said.

According to the regulation, KPK employees are also able to request to become permanent staff by resigning from their previous positions after working for the commission for eight years.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi had previously said that five of the 20 police investigators who had been withdrawn by the National police would become permanent employees of the commission.

The antigraft commission is now also recruiting investigators from its own staffers after the police recalled 20 investigators who were handling cases in September.

The KPK has only 78 investigators, far fewer than the 300 targeted in 2010. The commission depends on other state institutions, including the National Police, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), the government-backed Finance Development Comptroller (BPKP) and the Attorney General's Office (AGO), to recruit investigators. (cor/swd)

Witness reveals more lawmakers implicated in graft-ridden projects

Jakarta Post - October 4, 2012

Jakarta – Former deputy financial director at the problematic firm Permai Group, Yulianis, revealed the names of a number of lawmakers who she says were involved in "schemes" benefiting the company owned by graft convict Muhammad Nasaruddin.

Those people, according to Yulianis, often attended internal meetings [with the company officials] related to projects the company was eyeing.

She also mentioned lawmakers from Commission VIII overseeing religious affairs, Abdul Kadir Karding from the National Awakening party, Said Abdullah from PDI-P, and deputy head of the budgetary commission Olly Dondokambey, also from PDI-P.

She accused those people of being involved in conspiracy to benefit the firm in attaining projects in the Attorney General's Office and the Religious Affairs Ministry.

Yulianis could not recall a name of the lawmaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) whom she said was involved in a project with the Health Ministry, kompas.com reported on Thursday.

As former Permai Group's financial director, Yulianis is a key witness with regards to the company's cash flow.

Angelina herself stands trial for allegedly having received kickbacks from Nazaruddin's company for the construction of SEA Games athletes village in South Sumatra and a project with the Education and Culture Ministry.(iwa)

Corruption cases surge, but record lower potential state losses: Watchdog

Jakarta Post - October 4, 2012

Jakarta – Indonesia recorded 285 corruption cases unearthed in the first half of this year, with a combined potential loss to the state of Rp 1.22 trillion, the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) says.

"We compared these numbers to the first half of 2010 and found more cases but a lesser value of corrupted funds," said ICW investigation division chief, Agus Sunaryanto, during a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

From January to July 2010 the watchdog found 176 cases with a combined state loss of Rp 2.1 trillion, in comparison, a similar value was recorded for the whole of 2011, with 436 cases.

"Infrastructure regained its status as the most corrupted sector, replacing the education sector," said an ICW investigator Tama S. Langkun. As many as 87 corruption cases allegedly occurred in some infrastructure projects. Government budgetary and education sectors followed with 50 cases and 29 cases, respectively.

"Three top positions have always been placed by these sectors. These means that the corruption eradication efforts haven't made a significant impact," he explained.

Attorney offices became the law enforcer body that handled the highest number of cases (168), followed by the police with 99 cases and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) with 18 cases.

Agus said that even though the KPK recorded fewer cases, the anti-graft body investigated cases with the highest potential losses of Rp. 1.5 trillion in total. Tama added, that "we appreciated that the Attorney General's Office (AGO) has started to reveal corruption in the natural resources sector, which might have resulted in huge financial losses".

Of over 200 cases, the biggest case was an alleged corruption case implicating US-based energy company PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia and upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas.

According to AGO's investigation, up to Rp 200 billion (US$23.4 billion) from the state budget has been allegedly disbursed by BPMigas to Chevron for the company's bioremediation program from 2003 to 2011. The program was said to be fictitious. (yps/iwa)

Angelina suspended from the House

Jakarta Post - October 3, 2012

Jakarta – The House of Representatives has officially suspended Democratic Party politician Angelina Sondakh from her position as lawmaker.

Deputy chairman of the House Ethics Council Siswono Yudhohusodo said in his report to a plenary session on Tuesday that Angelina was suspended because she is now a defendant in a graft case.

The former Democratic Party deputy secretary-general was named a suspect on Feb. 3 in a graft case surrounding the construction of the SEA Games athletes' village in South Sumatra. She was also named a suspect in a case related to fraudulent budget allocations for the Education and Culture Ministry.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) charged Angelina with accepting gratuities or bribes, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment and a Rp 1 billion (US$105,367) fine. According to the testimony of graft convict M. Nazaruddin, Angelina accepted billions of rupiah in kickbacks in both projects.

Golkar condemns KPK law about-face

Jakarta Globe - October 3, 2012

Ezra Sihite – Golkar Party legislators have lashed out at their colleagues from other parties as hypocrites for appearing to publicly oppose moves to curb the antigraft agency's powers while officially supporting the bid.

Aziz Syamsuddin, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives' Commission III, overseeing legal affairs, said on Tuesday that seven of the nine parties in the commission agreed to amend the law on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

"My colleagues said one thing at a plenary meeting, and something else in the media, so it's not clear which one is correct. It's mind-boggling," he said. He added that the draft amendment would not have made it to the House Legislative Body for deliberation if it lacked widespread support among legislators.

Bambang Soesatyo, another Commission III member, identified the ruling Democratic Party as the draft's key backer, and expressed surprise that the party's members were the most outspoken public critics of the revision.

"If there are parties or individual legislators from House Commission III who claim they are unaware of the proposed amendment or oppose it, I find that very odd," he said. "If anything, they probably skipped a lot of meetings at the commission and aren't aware of their party's decisions."

Bambang added that the legislators now rejecting the proposed changes were the ones who were most vocal in pushing for the law to be revised in the first place.

Minutes from the plenary session that approved the draft amendment for deliberation show that only the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) were against revising the law.

The PDI-P's argument was that the KPK was functioning well and there was no need to change how it worked, while the PKS said it had consistently refused to take a stance on the issue.

The planned amendments include revoking the KPK's authority to prosecute corruption suspects, and imposing restrictions on its power to tap phone lines without a court warrant.

Bambang hinted that the Democrats were leading the charge to curtail the KPK's powers after several of the party's members were either charged or implicated in corruption cases.

"We all know that these decisions are signed off by the commission chairman, and the Commission III chairman is not from Golkar," he said. The legal affairs commission is headed by the Democrats' Gede Pasek Suardika.

Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, the Democrat chairwoman at the House, claimed that her party had initially supported the bid to amend the KPK law, but changed its mind because it believed the move was aimed at undermining the antigraft body.

House aborts plan on KPK law

Jakarta Post - October 3, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang and Rabby Pramudatama, Jakarta – Caving in to public pressure, political factions at the House of Representatives have dropped their plan to amend the 2002 Law on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which many believe was a move to weaken the country's antigraft body.

The House factions made an about-face turn on Tuesday, leaving the Golkar Party as the only party carrying the can for a move that was initially backed by all major factions.

Democratic Party faction leader Nurhayati Ali Assegaf said that her party had initially supported the amendment, believing it would protect and strengthen the KPK.

"But because the public believes the amendment will weaken the KPK, we will certainly revoke our decision. We will send a letter to the House leadership today to let them know about our change in position," Nurhayati said on Tuesday, on the sidelines of a House plenary session.

Tjatur Sapto Edy of the National Awakening Party (PAN) had earlier said that the party was opposed to any amendment if it was meant to weaken the KPK.

Chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction, Hidayat Nur Wahid, said his party would never accede to a plan to weaken the KPK. "We never had any intention to approve an initiative on amending the KPK law," Hidayat said.

Golkar lawmaker Nudirman Munir said that an amendment was possible only if it empowered the KPK. "We approve an amendment because we believe it will strengthen the commission's authority," he said.

The PKS, PAN, Golkar and Democratic Party are among a number of factions that earlier formally endorsed amending the KPK law. Others included the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and the United Development Party (PPP).

The factions' collective U-turn has put Golkar in a difficult position, as its politician Aziz Syamsuddin, deputy chairman of House Commission III overseeing laws and human rights, had signed a letter sent to the House's Legislation Body (Baleg) on July 3, informing the body that the commission had agreed to revise the Law on the KPK.

Azis' role in the planned amendment led many to speculate that Golkar was behind the move in order to undermine the KPK.

The State Secretariat released new data last week showing that Golkar was the most corrupt of all the country's political parties. The data stated that of 131 individuals investigated for their alleged roles in graft cases, 64 officials, or 36.36 percent, were Golkar members.

Azis, however, defended the move as being a collective decision. "The decision was made during an official meeting at Commission III. We would not have sent a letter to Baleg unless it had been agreed on by all the commission members," Aziz told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting on Tuesday.

An early draft for the amended law shows that the KPK would indeed be a weakened institution if the House were to approve the revision.

According to the draft, the House proposed the scrapping of articles 51 and 52, which give sole authority to the KPK to prosecute corruption cases. The House also sought to strip the commission of its wiretapping privilege. In the draft amendment, the House proposes that the KPK would require approval from court judges on a case-by-case basis in order to exercise this privilege.

Separately, KPK deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas lashed out at the lawmakers for their amendment plan. "I don't believe that they [the House of Representatives] want to amend the KPK law to strengthen the commission; I don't believe it at all. We have never been invited to present our opinion on the plan," he said

Busyro said the planned KPK law amendment would only serve to further damage the House's credibility and that it had been made purely for political maneuvering ahead of the 2014 general elections.

"I believe talk of revising the anticorruption law is nothing more than a political game to attract public attention to see who can defend the KPK the hardest," he said.

House urged to drop plan for anti-graft law amendment

Jakarta Post - October 1, 2012

Jakarta – Anti-graft watchdogs have called on the House of Representatives to drop its plan to amend the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law No. 30/2002, saying that the move is aimed at weakening the anti-graft body.

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) activist Apung Widadi said it was obvious the House intended to systematically strip the KPK of its authority.

Apung said that in the draft of the amendment, the House proposed the scrapping of articles 51 and 52, which give authority to the KPK as the sole institution responsible for prosecuting corruption cases.

"The lawmakers are trying to turn the KPK into regular law enforcement agency akin to the National Police, with prosecutorial authority being handed over to the Attorney General's Office [AGO]," he said. The House has also sought to strip the KPK of its wiretapping privilege.

In the draft bill, the House proposes that the KPK should require approval from court judges to exercise this privilege.

It also plans to establish an independent oversight body for the KPK, allowing it to have a mechanism to issue warrants to cease investigations (SP3), a mechanism that is also used by the police and prosecutors.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said that the plan to scrap the KPK's authority to prosecute graft cases would defeat the whole purpose of setting up an anti-graft body.

"The KPK is set up to handle extraordinary crimes. Turning the KPK into a regular law enforcement agency shows that corruption isn't considered an extraordinary crime anymore," Johan said over the weekend.

Johan also questioned the urgency of amending the KPK law because the anti-graft body considered that the law was as relevant as ever in the fight against graft.

Data from ICW shows that the Golkar Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN) have already given their approval to the draft, arguing that it would in fact strengthen the anti-graft body.

Four factions; the Democratic Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party and the Great Indonesian Movement (Gerindra) Party stand against the draft.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the National Awakening Party, and the People's Conscience Party are yet to make their stance on the planned amendment known.

Transparency International Indonesia legal analyst Reza Syawawi said that his organization was concerned with the plan to scrap the KPK's wiretapping authority, given its effectiveness in nabbing graft suspects.

"Many corruption cases begin through wiretapped conversations," he said.

Reza also said that by allowing the KPK to issue an SP3, the House would reduce the anti-graft body to a powerless institution.

Reza explained that the absence of SP3 had prompted the KPK to work extra hard to build a case which would likely bring conviction.

KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjajanto recently questioned whether the KPK would need an oversight body.

"The National Police have 420,000 personnel and the AGO has 23,000 employees, while the KPK has only around 700 people, he stated.

"Monitoring the performance of 700 employees is good but we need to ask if it is really urgent," he said. (cor)

Supreme Court refuses to weigh in on KPK-national police feud

Jakarta Globe - October 1, 2012

Rizky Amelia – The Supreme Court refused to intervene in a row between the National Police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Monday, declining to issue an edict determining which body has the right to investigate police corruption.

The court received a request from former Traffic Corps head and corruption suspect Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo's legal team. But a panel of judges determined that only state bodies – not individuals – can file requests with the Supreme Court.

"If it is requested by lawyers, for an ongoing case, it would not be granted," spokesman of Supreme Court Djoko Sarwoko said on Monday.

The two organizations have been feuding since the KPK began its investigation into allegations of tender-rigging in the Traffic Corp's Rp 198 billion ($21 million) purchase of driving simulators.

Djoko allegedly received a Rp 2 billion kickback to award the contract to an unqualified metal company acting as a middleman.

But as KPK investigators began looking into the allegations, the National Police have resisted, keeping evidence under lock and key, recalling 20 investigators from KPK ranks and now fighting the antigraft body's right to investigate a case they say is already being handled internally.

The KPK issued a summons for Djoko to appear for questioning on Friday. But the graft suspect refused to comply, explaining that it was still unclear which organization was investigating the corruption claims.

"We're waiting for Supreme Court edict on its opinion on driving simulator problem and who has the authority," Juniver Gersang, Djoko's lawyer, said on Friday. "If two institutions investigate the case, there is no legal certainty."

The lawyers said they were waiting for the Supreme Court to issue this verdict.

The KPK said that Djoko will be issued another summons this week. If he refuses the summons again, the KPK plans to "take him by force."

Government okays appointment of ex-graft convict in Riau

Jakarta Post - October 1, 2012

Fadli, Batam – A visiting Cabinet minister on Monday gave a green light to the controversial appointment of a former corruption convict to head the maritime resources and fishery office in Riau provincial administration.

According to Administrative Reforms Minister Azwar Abubakar, the promotion of Azirwan does not violate Law No. 43/1999 on the Principles of Civil Service.

"If (Azirwan was still) a convict, then it wouldn't be permitted (to appoint him). But if he has served his sentence, then there is no problem, right?" he told The Jakarta Post on the sideline of a workshop on bureaucratic reform in Batam, Riau Islands.

The law stipulates that a civil servant can be discharged honorably or dishonorably if he or she has been sentenced to prison for a period of four years or more. The law, however, does not stipulate whether an ex-convict can have a position in an administration or not.

Azirwan was sentenced to two-and-a-half-years imprisonment in 2009 for a bribe case involving the conversion of 8,000 hectares of protected forest in Bintan into a business zone. The prosecutors sought a four-year jail term for him.

While Azirwan's promotion may not violate the law, it highlights the rampant practice of corruption, collusion and nepotism in the province, according to Ahars Sulaiman of the Riau Islands Legislative Council.

He urged the government to limit the number of corruptors in the administration.

"There are indeed no rules forbidding a governor from appointing an ex- convict (into the administration). Azirwan's promotion, however, is unethical," he said. "Personally I'm baffled by the promotion. People receiving a mandate should have had no problems (with the law)."

Riau Islands Governor Muhammad Sani, meanwhile, said that the allegation that he was being insensitive to the country's attempts to eradicate corruption by promoting Azirwan was unfounded.

"The law has been upheld. Azirwan has been punished. We will constantly supervise him," Sani said. He said that he appointed Azirwan because the ex-graft convict was competent and capable of holding the position. (han)

Terrorism & religious extremism

Terror convict Bashir transferred to 'Alcatraz of Indonesia'

Jakarta Globe - October 6, 2012

Farouk Arnaz – Indonesia's infamous firebrand cleric and convicted terrorist Abu Bakar Bashir has been transferred to the high-security prison island of Nusa Kambangan, for a reason not yet disclosed by police.

Bashir's assistant Hasyim Abdullah, who visited the 74-year-old every day at the National Police headquarters' detention center in Jakarta to take care of his needs, said the transfer was sudden.

"He was moved at 10:45 p.m. on Friday but only got told of it at 9 p.m. I had already gone home, so I returned [to the detention center] to take care of Ustad [Bashir's] belongings after he called me using a cell phone owned by a member of the Densus 88 anti-terrorism unit," Hasyim said on Saturday morning.

He said Bashir, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison last year, would be incarcerated at Batu Penitentiary on Nusa Kambangan, dubbed the "Alcatraz of Indonesia" due to its high security.

Convicted murderers, terrorists, drug dealers and those found guilty in high-profile corruption cases are commonly shipped to the island, off the southern coast of the Central Java town of Cilacap.

Batu Penitentiary hosted the infamous Bali bomber trio – Amrozi, Imam Samudera and Mukhlas – who were executed in 2008 for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings.

Hasyim said the Muslim Lawyers Team (TPM), which often represents defendants charged with terrorism at trial, would consider Bashir's sudden relocation a problem.

"The transfer was carried out without any letter; there was only a spoken notice. The Muslim Lawyers Team will question this," he said. "I still don't know the reason for the transfer."

Meanwhile, Indonesian news portal detik.com reported that Bashir arrived at Wijayapura Port in Cilacap at about 9 a.m. on Saturday, with a heavy security presence in tow.

An entourage of five vehicles carrying heavily armed members of the National Police's anti-terror detachment, Densus 88, and a Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit escorted Bashir to the port, where they immediately boarded a boat for Nusa Kambangan.

The head of Batu Penitentiary, Hermawan Yunianto, said Bashir would be placed in a cell already inhabited by three aging inmates.

"This is so that doctors can continually monitor his health, because he's already old," Hermawan said. He added that along with Bashir, Nusa Kambangan received five other inmates transferred from Jakarta on Saturday.

The transfer was carried out just a few days after Bashir slammed Indonesian law enforcers' "lenient" action against members of the Papuan pro-independence group West Papua National Committee (KNPB), who allegedly planned a series of bombings in the restive province of West Papua last week.

Quoting Bashir, Hasyim said on Tuesday that Bashir was outraged at the "unfairness" of his treatment by authorities when compared with the handling of the KNPB members.

Hard-line & vigilante groups

FPI shut down South Kalimantan nightclub

Jakarta Globe - October 1, 2012

Banjarmasin – The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) raided a South Kalimantan nightclub early Sunday morning, shouting "get out of this immoral place" as police officers watched from outside.

Dozens of members of the Banjarmasin chapter of the FPI stormed through the front door of the Banjarmasin Onestop Entertainment Club at 2 a.m. on Sunday. The action forced hundreds of clubgoers to flee the premises as the hard-line Islamists forced the nightclub to close.

Local FPI head Abdurrahman al Bahasyim said the organization raided the nightclub because many of the patrons were Muslim and should not have been drinking at the club.

"We will not only do this one time," he said. "We will keep on asking nightclubs to abide with Banjarmasin's bylaw by shutting the club down [at 2 a.m.] according to operational hours stipulated by the bylaw."

Abdurrahman then threatened to return to the nightclub with more FPI members. Local police responded to the scene but remained outside, explaining that they were only there to prevent a possible outbreak of violence.

The FPI left the area at 3 a.m. The nightclub remained closed.

Freedom of religion & worship

Still unable to worship, GKI Yasmin church laments government inaction

Jakarta Globe - October 6, 2012

Firdha Novialita – The representative of a Bogor church whose congregation has been blocked from attending services has lambasted the national government and law enforcers for their sluggishness in resolving cases of religious intolerance across the country.

Jayadi Damanik from the GKI Yasmin Church said no lasting solution had been found to the impasse in which the West Java church has been sealed off on the orders of local officials.

He said he had attempted to use legal tools and out-of-court settlements with the support of human rights activists, but had failed to achieve a breakthrough. But he said officials had promised him a resolution this year.

"The central government, [the] provincial government, directors general, [the] home affairs minister said they would settle it before Christmas," Jayadi told a forum in Jakarta on Friday.

Jayadi said that during the ordeal he had heard many "lies" – promises from the central and provincial governments that fail to materialize. "Why are they doing [this] to GKI Yasmin followers? What did they do wrong to be treated like [this]? Nobody could give an answer," he said.

Jayadi criticized the police and law enforcers who failed to protect religious freedom. "If [you] cannot settle it, then get mediation. If it's still not settled, then take it to court. "Many reports to the police were not followed up. Legal processes in other places also don't run well," he added.

Jayadi said that he and other Yasmin Church followers did not want religiously intolerant people to be punished severely, but that they wanted justice to be served.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Anshor, the human rights director at the Home Affairs Ministry, described the case as multidimensional, involving not only the law enforcement apparatus but also sociology, politics and religion.

"Everyone must look at it realistically and pragmatically. Who is it that's been stirring it up, the locals or people from the outside? How should the process go, how should it be solved and which aspect can strengthen it?" Anshor asked.

He lamented the fact that many people had drawn conclusions about the case without fully understanding it.

"Let's think about what we can contribute to offer solutions and our thoughts," he said. "Everyone has an interest, it's no longer black or white now. Everyone must take a realistic and pragmatic approach to it."

The case has drawn widespread condemnation, particularly after the Supreme Court ruled that the church closure was illegal and ordered it reopened. However, the Bogor authorities and the central government have refused to enforce the ruling by the country's highest court.

GKI Yasmin seeks permanent solution

Jakarta Post - October 6, 2012

The congregation of the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin in Bogor, West Java is still being forced to worship in a haphazard fashion and is becoming restless to be allowed to freely hold services at their church.

"We regret the fact that none of the recommendations made by several authorities have been heeded by the Bogor administration," a member of the beleaguered church's legal team, Jayadi Damanik, said in Jakarta on Friday.

Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto, who sealed the church in 2010, defied a Supreme Court ruling ordering him to reopen the house of worship. Diani's stance is supported by a group of intolerant locals.

The mayor also ignored solutions brokered by the National Defense Council and the Presidential Advisory Board, which suggested the establishment of another house of worship, such as a mosque, adjacent to the church.

Meanwhile, executive director of the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), Rafendi Djamin, said the central government had the power and legal basis to bring an end to the Yasmin saga once and for all. "However, it seems our government is reluctant to do so," Rafendi said.

Indonesia, he said, had ratified various international laws that legally bound the government to guarantee its people's religious freedom. These laws include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which was ratified by Indonesia in 2005.

He added that the central government also had the power to cancel policies administered by local administrations, if necessary. "The government is probably afraid that if they favor the minority, they will lose political support among the majority," he said.

Extinction of 60 faith groups blamed on government

Jakarta Post - October 1, 2012

Ainur Rohmah, Semarang – The Social and Religious Study Institute (eLSA) in Semarang, Central Java, has blamed the government and particular segments of society for the disappearance of 60 faith groups across the province this year.

The institute's director Tedi Kholiluddin said that some of the groups disappeared because they had no generations to continue. "Some others, however, vanished because they were banned by the government or particular groups of community," Tedi told The Jakarta Post in Semarang on Sunday.

He was responding to a previous statement by head of the provincial Community Faith Monitoring Agency (Pakem), Heffinur, saying that 60 faith groups had disappeared from the province this year.

Heffinur said the disappearance was due to lack of regeneration or conversion to other faiths. "Many of them were managed by elderly people," said Heffinur, who is also intelligence assistant to the Central Java Higher Prosecutor's Office, during a Pakem coordination meeting last week.

Tedi, however, said that apart from internal causes including lack of regeneration, external causes such as forced liquidation also often accounted for such disappearances.

He said there were still beliefs among the community that faiths were not religions and therefore were considered as deviant and must be disbanded. Data at eLSA, he added, showed a number of conflicts involving faiths groups in the province in 2012.

Other cases included the four-year sentence to Amanat Keagungan Ilahi (AKI) Klaten leader Andreas Guntur, people's refusal of the development of Sapto Darmo workshop in Rembang, the demolition of Ngesthi Kasampurnan workshop in Semarang regency and the dissolution of Sheh Abas Maulana Malik Ibrahim faith in Temanggung.

He offered suggestions to non-religion-based faith groups to avoid conflict by firmly declaring themselves as having no religious basis and therefore they could leave the religion column at their respective ID cards empty. "They have to be firm with their existence constitutionally because they deserve protection," Tedi said.

Gunretno, a follower of Sedulur Sikep faith group, said he did not care about the government's recognition of his faith but the way the government gave him freedom to practice his faith in reality instead. "The government has to provide equal public service," he said.

Faith groups are differentiated into two categories: cultural- or spiritual based and mystical-based. Both, according to Heffinur, required different monitoring mechanism.

Indonesia is home to over 1,515 different faith groups, 245 have management executive boards up to the national level. They account for some 10 millions of followers nationwide.

In Central Java there are currently 336 faith organizations, a decrease by 60 from previously 396. Regions considered to be strongholds of faith groups in the province include Karanganyar (29), Semarang regency (23), Surakarta (20), Ambarawa (18) and Cilacap (16).

The 60 faith groups that are currently no longer in existence were previously found in the 11 regions of Semarang regency (7), Kudus (3), Blora (5), Brebes (3), Slawi (6), Purworejo (8), Wonosobo (6), Mungkid (2), Surakarta (4), Klaten (11) and Wonogiri (5).

Parliament & legislation

Attention all lawmakers: Get your fingers out!

Jakarta Post - October 2, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta, Indonesia – On Tuesday, the House of Representative launched a fingerprint scanner system to record the attendance of lawmakers.

Nine scanners, one for each party faction, are tidily arranged on tables at the House's plenary room to register lawmakers attending meetings. Although some lawmakers applauded the use of such scanners, some others object the use of Rp 279 million (US$29,295) worth machines.

Lawmaker Saleh Husein from the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), for example, said that he felt that he was being treated like a factory laborer. "But, I must submit to it because the House as an institution has agreed to implement such policy," he said.

Tubagus Hasanuddin from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) on the other hand applauded the use of finger prints saying that it would force lawmakers to come to office.

However, the House must publicly announce the presence of lawmakers to give "social punishment" for those who are lazy, he said.

"To force lawmakers to come [to the office] with the scanners is one thing. To educate them with self discipline and responsibility is another thing," he said. (iwa)

Jakarta & urban life

Jakarta tops Indonesia's provinces for squandering state money

Jakarta Globe - October 2, 2012

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Findings by the Supreme Audit Agency show that Jakarta tops the list of provinces responsible for the biggest losses in state funds, a leading budget watchdog revealed on Monday.

Citing audits from the second half of 2011 by the audit board known as the BPK, the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) said there were 751 irregularities in the Jakarta administration's finances, resulting in losses of Rp 721.5 billion ($75.3 million) in state money.

In second place nationwide was Aceh, with 629 irregularities resulting in losses of Rp 669.8 billion.

North Sumatra was next on the list with 334 cases of shady accounting totaling Rp 515.5 billion, followed by Papua with 281 cases worth Rp 476.9 billion.

West Kalimantan accounted for 334 incidents worth Rp 289.8 billion in losses, while West Papua had 514 cases and lost Rp 169 billion. South Sulawesi recorded 589 cases and lost Rp 157.7 billion.

Following them were Riau, Bengkulu, North Maluku, East Kalimantan, South Sumatra, West Nusa Tenggara, Central Sulawesi and Bangka-Belitung.

The total losses for the whole of Indonesia were valued at Rp 4.1 trillion, according to the BPK.

Uchok Sky Khadafi, Fitra's coordinator of investigations, said that the losses could be traced back to 2008.

"The provincial administrations are no longer afraid of the results of the BPK's audits. Since 2008 they have made no efforts to make up for their losses by paying back the state treasury," he said.

He added that Fitra was now urging Jakarta's governor-elect, Joko Widodo, who takes office this Sunday, to work to clean up the city's bureaucracy within his first 100 days in office.

"Just hand over the bureaucrats involved in these state loses to law enforcement agencies," Uchok said. "If Joko can't clean up the bureaucracy, there will be a huge loss of the public trust that has currently given him the legitimacy to run the city."

Armed forces & defense

Yudhoyono signs two key military laws

Jakarta Globe - October 6, 2012

Arientha Primanita – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday enacted two key laws deemed vital for the nation's military as the Armed Forces celebrated its 67th anniversary.

In his address at the ceremony, staged at the Halim Perdanakusuma military airbase in East Jakarta, he noted his passages.

"Today, I signed the Law on the Defense Industry and the Law on Veterans," the president said, adding that the laws were dedicated to the services the military, known as the TNI, had given the nation.

Analysts say that the Law on the Defense Industry will provide the framework for the country to revamp its ailing munitions business, obliging the TNI to purchase the majority of its weaponry locally. The government would also gain a key legal basis needed to provide fiscal incentives, guaranteed financing and tax exemptions to weapons producers and their supporting industries.

"I say that the TNI is the primary component [of] the country's defense system. Our priority is to maintain and protect the sovereignty of our state and war is always the last resort. 'Peace-Loving Indonesia' is our motto, but Indonesia loves its independence even more," Yudhoyono said.

The president said modernizing Indonesia's weaponry was not intended for aggressive purposes.

"It is part of efforts to build a minimum essential force," he said. "I have often said in various international forums that we have no intention whatsoever to conduct an arms race nor an aggression toward another country militarily.

"We are conducting the modernization of [our] weapons solely for safeguarding and defending our sovereignty and territorial integrity," Yudhoyono added.

The president said that the military would soon have modern equipment in its arsenal. Indonesia has recently been in talks with Germany over the purchase of Leopard tanks and with the United States about the acquisition of Apache helicopters.

Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro also said the Law on the Defense Industry was vital for the country. "The law is important to realize an effective defense industry and to produce defense and security equipment," he said.

Yudhoyono also added that the government planned to build large scale housing for TNI soldiers in the next two years. "For its implementation, I ask the defense minister, the TNI chief and the Army, Navy and Air Force chiefs of staff to build synergy and cooperate with each other to help realize the housing project for soldiers," he said.

Yudhoyono said the military should also utilize its logistics and military engineering units to provide soldiers with houses which they can own after their retirement. Military housing complexes have been the source of conflicts for years, with retirees or heirs to deceased officers refusing to leave the homes that formally belong to the military.

The president, however, warned that there would be no more tolerance for such escapades once the housing project was under way. "In the future, I hope that the regulation is clear and firm in order to avoid conflicts over the right to use TNI official houses, as has frequently happened," he said.

The president pointed out that the government would continue to improve the welfare of TNI soldiers in line with its efforts to step up the prosperity of all people in the country.

[Additional reporting from Antara.]

As TNI day nears, old weapons bemoaned

Jakarta Post - October 5, 2012

Bagus BT Saragih and Novan Imam Santosa, Jakarta – On the eve of the 67th anniversary of the Indonesian Military (TNI), the nation's top soldier says there is an urgent need to replace outdated weapon systems that are hindering military operations.

"We, for example, only have light tanks, while our neighbors already have main battle tanks," Army chief Gen. Pramono Edhie Wibowo told reporters at a press conference.

Pramono, who is the brother-in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also said that the Army has been using anti-aircraft guns manufactured in the 1960s. The TNI would continue to modernize its weapon systems, he said.

Waxing poetic, Pramono dismissed concerns of the high price tag associated with new military procurements. "Beautiful women are expensive. Handsome men are also expensive – and so are our weapon systems."

The Army has embarked on a modernization program that includes the purchase of German-made Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks, Marder infantry fighting vehicles and Mistral surface-to-air missiles. The Army has also recently received deliveries of Brazillian-made Avibras Astross multiple-launch rocket systems.

As part of its public accountability program, the Army plans to hold an exhibition of its weapons systems to mark the TNI's anniversary at National Monument (Monas) square from Saturday to Monday.

Separately, the Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU) received on Thursday two CN- 295 medium transport aircraft to replace aging aircraft. The CN-295s are the first of a US$325 million procurement of nine medium transport aircraft produced by Spain's Airbus Military and state-owned aircraft integrator PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI).

Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said that Indonesia needed transport aircraft for peacetime and wartime operations. "We face the threat of natural disasters. Such aircraft can be used for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief," Purnomo said.

Separately, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) recorded at least 81 cases of violence allegedly perpetrated by TNI troops between October 2011 and September 2012.

"In Papua alone, we recorded that five people were killed and 39 others seriously injured in numerous military operations," Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar said.

Gufron Mabruri from human rights watchdog Imparsial accused the TNI of non-transparency in its procurement of big-ticket items, such as Russian- made Sukhoi jet fighters.

"There are indications that the prices of the Sukhois are irregular, which is very likely caused by the government's insistence to use a broker in the procurement," Gufron said.

House endorses bill on defense industry

Jakarta Post - October 3, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The House of Representatives passed a national defense industry bill on Tuesday, a new regulation designed to improve the country's struggling defense industry.

Provisions in the bill will allow for innovation in the country's defense firms, be they state-run or privately owned, with the ultimate goal of independently producing primary defense equipment.

The bill welcomes cooperation between privately owned and state-run firms, but it mandates state-owned firms, such as state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI), state-owned shipbuilder PT PAL, and defense company PT Pindad as the main contractors in the defense industry.

"We can do a lot more with what we have now. We have the potential. And we will save so much in the state budget by not procuring weapons from overseas, possibly between Rp 30 trillion [US$3.12 billion] to Rp 35 trillion," said Tubagus Hasanuddin,deputy chairman of the House of Representatives Commission I, which oversees defense and foreign affairs.

He said that the bill would help the local defense industry make a leap in technology by 2017, as foreign firms working with local defense companies are required to transfer their technology to their local partners.

"We can still purchase defense equipment from abroad only if there are no domestic firms that can provide them. If we are forced to do so, foreign firms are required to work fully with us in the production," Tubagus said.

Article 48 of the bill stipulates that the defense industry is open for foreign partnerships, regionally, bilaterally, and multilaterally, with a permit from the Defense Industry Policy Committee (KKIP), if it prioritizes national interests.

The article also requires foreign defense firms to provide education, training and transfer of technology in order to participate in improving the capabilities of domestic companies.

"Endorsing the bill is a strategic move for our defense industry because it [the bill] promotes efficiency in producing defense and security equipment," Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro told reporters on Tuesday prior to the plenary session.

Purnomo said that the bill provides a roadmap for the KKIP in empowering an independent and sustainable domestic defense industry.

The KKIP, which is chaired by the President, has members from several relevant ministries including the Defense Ministry, Law and Human Rights Ministry, Industry Ministry, Finance Ministry, State-Owned Enterprises Ministry and the Research and Technology Ministry.

Article 18 of the bill says that the President sets up the KKIP to coordinate policies in planning, formulating, implementing, controlling, synchronizing and evaluating the country's defense industry. An early draft of the bill had provisions that said all forces in the Indonesian Military must use weapons produced by local defense firms, or face a minimum of five years imprisonment and pay a maximum of Rp 500 billion in fines. The House scrapped the provision in the final draft.

Indonesia arms itself with defense law

Jakarta Globe - October 3, 2012

Pitan Daslani & Ezra Sihite – The House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously passed the Defense Industry Law, setting the stage for Indonesia to independently modernize its weaponry by empowering its strategic industries to develop military hardware after more than 20 years of dormancy.

The law stipulates that primary defense industries that produce weaponry and strategic defense equipment shall come under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense while supporting industries shall be under the Ministry of State Enterprises.

Strategic state enterprises include Pindad, PAL, Dirgantara Indonesia, Dahana, LEN, Boma Bisma Indra, Inti, Barata Indonesia, Krakatau Steel and Telkom.

Currently, Pindad produces firearms and tanks, PAL makes warships, and Dirgantara manufactures jet fighters and other airplanes. Dahana makes explosives while LEN produces defense electronics, railways, and navigation equipment.

Boma Bisma Indra is capable of building supporting equipment, such as steam boilers, power generators, and earth-moving machinery, and Barata makes heavy equipment, including port-handling machinery and condensers. Krakatau is Indonesia's main steel producer while Inti and Telkom are telecommunications companies.

With this law in place, Indonesia will no longer import military hardware unless purchases are authorized by the House of Representatives.

This includes military hardware that cannot be produced locally. In these cases, foreign manufacturers must cooperate with Indonesian defense companies by ensuring that at least 25 percent of the products are made from local supplies.

Improving standards

The aim of the overall policy is to ensure efficiency, punctuality of delivery, cohesiveness with domestic defense systems, secrecy of technological and engineering formulas, the transfer of technology and self-sufficiency.

Supporting industries are defined as enterprises where at least 60 percent of the shares are owned by the state either by capital placement or through state-fund injection.

The law stipulates that such companies are not allowed to take part in the production of weapons but can participate in producing command and telecommunications equipment, computers, intelligence, surveillance and sensing tools, logistics, and basic materials for ammunition.

The development and utilization of defense industries can also be conducted through cooperation with national private companies in areas like education and training, technology, research and development, engineering, production, marketing, and financing.

The selection of national private companies for the purpose will be done by the Committee for Defense Industry Policy (KKIP), which is chaired by the president.

The law also states that primary strategic industries can be partly privatized once they are self-sufficient, but in such cases the government shall retain 75 percent of the ownership. It must be approved by the House of Representatives.

The law defines users of defense industry output as the Indonesian Military (comprising Army, Navy and Air Force), police, ministries and non- ministerial government agencies, non-structural bureaucratic agencies, state-owned enterprises, and "parties allowed by law to do so."

In order to protect local defense industries, the government will provide fiscal incentives, guarantee financing, and exempt the companies from having to pay the value-added tax.

This applies to research, development, engineering, pre-production and production of defense hardware. The government will also provide repairs and maintenance facilities for export-oriented defense products.

The minister of finance shall provide long-term funding for this development plan based on recommendations from the KKIP. That would enable Indonesia to have predictable defense capabilities because of the long-term nature of the plan.

Besides, the government will also provide a redemption guarantee for banks and non-bank institutions that help finance defense-related projects.

The government will pay up to 30 percent of the cost of any price hikes during production in order to enable defense industries to become self- sufficient.

Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said this law would be a milestone in Indonesia's defense development and would be in line with its rapid economic expansion and national interests that need to be "securely protected."

"It would benefit the government, the users, and the industrial sectors themselves," he said, adding that this law would make Indonesia "a lot more self-reliant in defense and military affairs."

Tubagus Hasanuddin, deputy chairman of House Commission I, which oversees foreign affairs and defense, said that "in the future we do not need to import any more defense hardware" and this would save the state up to Rp 35 trillion [$3.7 billion] each year.

"It is much better to spend such money locally because, for instance, with Rp 150 billion we can build a ship and provide jobs for up to 1,500 people for two years," the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker said.

International impact

Fellow Commission I member Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono – son of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – said his Democratic Party welcomed the law and hopes that there will be a constructive relationship among all stakeholders in developing the domestic defense industry.

Edhie, the secretary general of the ruling party, said the law aimed to revive patriotism. He said he was optimistic about Indonesia's ability to compete internationally in this sector, because South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and East Timor have previously purchased defense products from Indonesia.

Malaysia recently bought 32 Benz-powered Anoa battle tanks made by Pindad. South Korea, meanwhile, purchased eight CN 235 propeller planes made by Dirgantara Indonesia.

Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Hartin Asrin said that the law would prevent intermediaries in transactions that have brought huge losses to the state in the past. The ministry this year received Rp 72.5 trillion from the state budget, and in 2013 the allocation will be increased to more than Rp 77 trillion.

Military analysts have described the increase as meager given Indonesia's growing geopolitical significance. When Yudhoyono took office in 2004, the country's defense budget was Rp 21.7 trillion. It climbed to Rp 33.7 trillion in 2009.

Purnomo said the rising defense budget and adoption of the law shows that Indonesia is on track to becoming the "real Asian tiger" that former President Sukarno once spoke of – a nation that is politically sovereign, culturally dignified, and economically self-sufficient.

Given the new law focusing on sourcing defense equipment domestically, it was unclear how the status of Indonesia's ongoing negotiations with friendly countries for the purchase of various military equipment would be affected. China, Russia, and Germany are planning to supply defense hardware to Indonesia, but those plans are likely to be altered by the new law, analysts said.

Criminal justice & prison system

Life, interrupted: When children face the law

Jakarta Post - October 5, 2012

Recent brawls among high school students left two dead in separate incidents in the city, leading to an outcry on how the chronic problem might be overcome. The Jakarta Post's Prodita Sabarini filed the following reports.

In a movie plot, a murder suspect on the run being caught would be the climax of a police chase scene. But rarely is it the end of the story.

Fitra Rahmadani, 19, who police suspect to be the culprit in the death of Alawy Yusianto Putra, 15, a first-year student caught up in the decades-old warring tradition between two elite South Jakarta state schools, SMA 70 and SMA 6, last month, was arrested last Thursday.

Police found him in a rented room in Sleman, Yogyakarta – Detectives allege that Fitra stabbed Alawy with a sickle during a brawl between students of the two high schools on Sept. 24.

Two days after Alawy's death, another teenager, Deni Yanuar lost his life in a brawl in Manggarai, Jakarta, between SMK Yayasan Karya 66 and SMK Kartika Zeni vocational school students. Police have also arrested suspects in Deni's murder.

Alawy's killing has become the country's highest profile criminal case involving students. It has brought the old issue of violent high school rivalry to the fore once again.

But the deaths of Alawy and Deni and Fitra's arrest not only raise the issue of unchecked school rivalries. The police investigations, which include minors being named as witnesses and subject to police interrogation, also raise the issue of the rights of children facing the law.

Juvenile delinquency in Indonesia has continued to rise each year. The government Commission on Child Protection (KPAI) has reported that each year around 7,000 children come before the law and that 80 percent end up convicted and sentenced to prison.

The National Commission on Child Protection (Komnas PA), a non-governmental organization focusing on child's rights reported that in the first quarter of this year there were 2,008 cases of juvenile crimes. Komnas PA said that they found 2,508 cases last year, higher than the 2,413 cases in 2010.

The House of Representatives this year passed a law on juvenile justice, which aims to protect children's rights during the criminal investigation process. The new law replaces the old 1997 Law on juvenile courts and promotes restorative justice for children facing the law. The new law also rules that only children above the age of 12 can be criminally processed; but only those 14 and over can be detained.

Implementing regulations for the new law, however, have yet to be issued. Nevertheless, Indonesian children are protected by the 2002 Law on child protection. Indonesia has also ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Being 19, Fitra would not be eligible for the protections entailed in the child protection law.

Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said that anyone questioned by them had provided their own defense counsel, in line with the law that minors be accompanied by legal representatives when dealing with the authorities. The South Jakarta Police have so far questioned all of the 15 students of SMA 70 allegedly involved in the brawl.

In the absence of defense counsel during the legal processes any charges made against minors should be annulled, Komnas PA chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait said.

The high profile character of the SMA 70-SMA 6 student brawl case will almost certainly ensure public scrutiny of the police investigation process. For instance, the Jakarta Working Group on Child Protection Seto Mulyadi reportedly plans to visit Fitra.

High-profile cases where the child has access to legal representation, such as the case of A, 14, who was charged with partaking in the murder of a father and son in Bojong Gede, Bogor, could see the possibility of the child actually undertaking restorative justice. Komnas PA provided legal assistance to A during his legal process. Arist said that in the end A was sent to a rehabilitation center for seven years.

"He did not end up in prison, he can still go to school," he said. A's school was also outside the rehabilitation center, so he was not confined to a cell, Arist said.

But in smaller and less publicized cases, children are at risk of being abused and even tortured during investigations. They also face the risk of being denied their rights to a legal defense and to a fair trial.

A damning report by the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) on violations of children's rights when facing the law showed that most juvenile offenders in Greater Jakarta experienced torture by the police. LBH Jakarta carried out a survey between January 2011 to 2012 on 100 children detained at the Tangerang correctional facility for male and female juvenile offenders as well as the Pondok Bambu prison in East Jakarta.

From the findings of the survey, the LBH concluded that "torture was institutionalized", which meant that intentional acts of physical and psychological harm were carried out by state officials or under the orders of state officials, with the purpose of discrimination or extracting information or confessions.

Nearly all respondents said they experienced torture during arrest and police interrogations and more than 70 percent during incarceration.

Apart from being yelled at and being lied to, they had their hair pulled, had guns pointed at them, were burnt by cigarettes and stripped naked. One respondent said has was shot at, and six said they were electrocuted. Respondents also reported rape and other forms of sexual abuse.

"Our finding shows that the main perpetrators [of torture] are the police. The intensity of forms of torture are no different form those experienced by adults," Restaria Hutabarat, LBH Jakarta's head of research division said. LBH Jakarta has also released a report on police brutality. According to LBH data, the number of wrongful arrests and officers allegedly torturing people during questioning increased to 75 percent in 2011 from 66.7 percent in 2010.

Many of the juvenile offenders sentenced to prison come from low-income families whose parents work in the informal sector. The findings also shatter the myth that most juvenile crime is carried out by street children; Restaria said more than 90 percent of juvenile offenders were living with their parents and were still in school.

Syahri "Koko" Ramadhan, 19, was one such victim of police brutality. In 2009, when he was still 15, his neighborhood leader reported him to the police for allegedly stealing his laptop and handphone. Police arrested him and to make him confess, Koko said police beat him up. Koko only lasted three days of such interrogation. "I thought to myself, how can I make them stop? So, I made up a story and pretended that I stole the stuff," he said. Syahri was released without charge as the real perpetrator was caught and confessed that he was the thief.

Syahri's uncle Hermiansyah said that police told Koko's mother that she should provide money if she wanted her son to be released. Koko is now suing the police for torture and wrongful arrest.

Rikwanto said the police followed the laws on child protection and on juvenile courts when dealing with juvenile offenders. Commenting on the LBH's finding on police torture, he said that interrogations were standard procedures that the police carried out. He said that people might perceive the interrogation methods as harsh. "But police officers have a duty to produce dossiers," he said.

Commenting on restorative justive, where children are placed under Social Affairs Ministry monitoring or returned to their parents, Rikwanto said that it all depended on the type of crime. "If the children commit a serious crime, then they have to be prosecuted," he said.

Apong Herlina, deputy head of KPAI, however said that sending children to prison was not the answer to juvenile delinquency. She said that children's prisons should be abolished altogether and that regional administrations should be responsible for the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. "A lot of prisons in Indonesia are not child friendly. They are overcrowded, the children mix with adults, there's not much rehabilitation," said Apong, the former head of LBH Jakarta.

Arist also said imprisoning children should be the last resort. "Prisons are like a school for criminals, they learn more about crime and risk coming out of prison being proud of their status as ex-convicts".

Children risk unfair trial, torture

Jakarta Post - October 5, 2012

Prodita Sabarini – A 15-year-old boy returned home on the night of March 14 this year to find all the lights in his house in Depok, turned off. He had spent the day fishing with his friends and found the darkness of his house rather peculiar. He pushed open the creaking door and saw his mother with tears streaming down her cheek.

"Mother, what's wrong?" His mother's reply was incomprehensible: "People looking for you," "giving drugs to a girl", "taking off with her".

"What drugs? What are you talking about? I've been fishing all day". His friends backed up his story.

Adi (not his real name) decided to go to the neighborhood leader's house. They were expecting him and the father of a girl he was acquainted with was also waiting for him there.

In the two weeks preceding that night, a girl from a neighboring area had been hanging out with Adi and his friends. As they were all mostly school dropouts the girl used to skip classes and spend time with them.

On March 14, Adi called her to ask if she would like to go fishing, she refused and stayed with a friend instead. When her father came looking for her, the girl told her father that Adi had given her drugs and had sexually assaulted her.

Adi did not know that when he went to face the accusations, it would be the last time he would see his home.

The house of the neighborhood leader was packed with neighbors, as well as the police. Adi came and introduced himself to the crowd and to the father of his friend. He was met with a kick from the man and the police took him away for questioning.

The rest of the story brought Adi to where he is now. Adi is currently serving two years at Salemba prison in the children's facility. His head is shaved extremely short and his eyes often glance straight ahead when recounting his experience, as if seeing the events unfold before his eyes.

According to Adi's lawyers, from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), Adi has been a victim of an unfair trial. Under the 1997 Law on juvenile courts and 2002 Law on child protection, children's trials should be closed to the public.

Yet during Adi's trial, the father of the girl, who works as a debt collector, brought dozens of thugs to the trial. According to Arif Maulana, Adi's lawyer, the judge allowed the men to intimidate Adi and did not prevent the thugs from interrupting Adi's lawyers during the cross examination of witnesses from the attorney's side. Further, Arif said, tests showed there to be no trace of drugs in the girl and the victim report did not provide any proof of the alleged assault.

Arif said the most disturbing part of the trial was that the judges rejected the request for witnesses to be called to support Adi's innocence. Arif said they had witnesses who could testify that Adi was fishing at the time of the alleged assault and that the girl was not with him but was with another witness.

Arif said that Adi's case was not only unfair but in addition, did not consider Adi's young age. The judge has been reported to the Judicial Commission and Adi is now waiting for his appeal process to begin.

Children facing the law are vulnerable in terms of their legal rights and according to LBH Jakarta, violations occur across the whole process; arrest, interrogation, detainment and trial.

Syahri Ramadhan, 19, also endures the trauma of having to relive his own harrowing experience of being assaulted by the police as a 15-year-old boy. He is suing the police for false arrest and torture.

In 2009, he was accused of stealing his neighbor's cellular phone and a laptop. While being questioned by the police, he said that the detectives used force to make him confess to the crime. On the first day, police officers told him "just confess that you're the perpetrator." "There is no use in you denying it, I'll put you in prison," Syahri cited the officers.

"[They] started beating me the next day. Perhaps they lost their patience," Syahri said.

Syahri explains the abuse he suffered at the hands of the police, who beat him so much that the interrogation room was covered in his blood and hair. Police put a sandal inside his mouth when he cried, burnt his skin with cigarettes and pointed a gun at his stomach. Syahri lasted three days until he finally agreed to a confession. "You know, I was a kid. For a child, being beaten by his father is scary enough to make him run away, more over by [police] officers," he said.

At his trial he withdrew his confession, saying that he was under duress. The judge released him from all charges as another suspect was caught who confessed to the crime and said that Syahri had nothing to do with it.

Syahri never continued onto junior high school. He said he was embarrassed and rather than dealing with the stigma of having once been accused as a thief, he'd rather just go straight to work. He is now working as a mechanic.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said, commenting on police brutality against minors, the police follow both the child protection law and law on juvenile courts.

Maruli Rajagukguk, Syahri's lawyer, said Syahri's case was the first where the police were sued for brutality against a minor. "This could be a good precedent to show that the police can be held accountable. It will encourage police to carry out reform," he said.

Government to start funding legal aid for the needy

Jakarta Post - October 1, 2012

Jakarta, Indonesia – The Law and Human Rights Ministry is currently preparing a scheme to implement Law No. 16/2011 that will provide government-funded legal aid to low-income members of society.

"We plan to start enacting the law in January next year," the ministry's National Law Development Agency (BPHN) chief Wicipto Setiadi said on Monday, on the sidelines of a discussion about the law in Central Jakarta.

Although the law was ratified by the House of Representatives in 2011, Wicipto said, his ministry still needed to draft a ministerial decree and a government regulation that would provide details of the law's implementation.

To distribute the free legal aid, he said, the ministry would appoint a handful of accredited and verified non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which had actually been providing such a service for the needy since 1980s.

Under the law, he said, the NGOs would also receive incentives from the government He said, the ministry would allocate around Rp 50 billion (US$5.21 million) from the 2013 state budget to be disbursed to selected NGOs throughout the country.

Meanwhile, advocates of free legal aid for the needy warmly welcomed the soon-to-be implemented law. "This law indicates that finally the country is heeding the importance of free legal aid for the poor," said Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation chairman (YLBHI) Alvon Kurnia Palma.

However, he felt that the ministry should distribute more information about the law to wider society. "I have seen some officials from BPHN familiarizing Jakarta residents with the Legal Aid Law and law in general. I think the agency should send more officials to remoter areas of the country," he said. (riz/iwa)

Economy & investment

Kadin urges Indonesia to set up investment fund

Jakarta Globe - October 3, 2012

Dion Bisara – The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a strong private business lobby group, called on the government on Tuesday to establish an investment fund to be used to purchase overseas assets.

The fund, should it be established, would act like Singapore's Temasek Holdings and Malaysia's Khazanah Nasional.

Suryo Bambang Sulisto, chairman of the lobby group, which is also known as Kadin, said now is the right time for the Indonesian government to buy assets abroad, as they are relatively cheap amid the sluggish global economy and debt crisis.

Suryo suggested that the government should eliminate the ballooning fuel subsidy and "use the proceeds [from the fuel subsidy] to set up the fund."

"We don't mean that the fund would crowd out domestic investments, but rather it would be able to grab overseas investment opportunities that are strategic, relatively cheap and beneficial for the country," Suryo said when opening the Kadin 2012 National Leaders Meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday. The Kadin meeting will run until Thursday and will continue in Yogyakarta.

The investment fund, Suryo noted, would be able to help state-owned companies to venture abroad. He said he would like to see the state procurement body, Bulog, acquire soybean and sugar plantations in Brazil, or the state energy company, Pertamina, buy oil refineries. The state- controlled gold and nickel miner, Aneka Tambang, could take over smelters abroad to process their domestically mined metals, he added.

Bulog has received a mandate to stabilize domestic soybean and sugar prices after a soybean price increase in July forced tempeh and tofu producers to halt production.

Pertamina has said that it plans to buy a stake in an oil firm in Venezuela, its first overseas foray in almost a year after a failed attempt last year to buy oil assets in Angola.

Pertamina will pay Houston-based Harvest Natural Resources $725 million in cash for a 32 percent stake in Petrodelta, a joint venture between Harvest and Petroleos de Venezuela. Petrodelta holds concessions from the Venezuela government until 2027 over six oil fields with proved reserves of 195 million barrels of oil and 235 billion cubic feet of gas, according to Harvest's website.

Currently, the Indonesian government has two investment arms: the Indonesia Infrastructure Fund (IIF) and the Government Investment Center (PIP), both of which focus mainly on domestic infrastructure investments. PIP's move to purchase a 7 percent stake in gold miner Newmont Nusa Tenggara for $246.8 million was blocked by the country's legislators in early April.

Kadin's Suryo said that the government should use some of the money allocated for fuel subsidies to finance the establishment of the intended sovereign investment fund.

The government has earmarked Rp 193.8 trillion ($20 billion) for subsidized fuel in the 2013 proposed budget for next year. That would be lower than the projected Rp 207 trillion in fuel subsidy expenditures this year.

Suryo hoped that once the fund was in operation, it would be able to operate on par with the Malaysian government's investment arm Khazanah or Singapore's Temasek. "Compared to them, we are way behind," Suryo told reporters on the sidelines of the event.

He said that Indonesia has missed opportunities to acquire strategic investments abroad, while other countries acquired Indonesia's best assets including companies in banking, telecommunications, mining, plantations and the airline sector.

Temasek, the city-state's investment fund that manages around $161 billion in funds, owns a stake in Bank Danamon Indonesia. Temasek, through its subsidiary Singapore Telecommunications, or SingTel, also owns a 35 percent stake in Telkomsel, Indonesia's biggest mobile-phone operator. Meanwhile, Khazanah, with a total of $35 billion in funds, controls XL Axiata, Indonesia's No. 3 mobile-phone operator. Khazanah is also a controlling shareholder in Axiata Group.

Together, the Temasek and Khazanah funds total $196 billion, an amount larger than Indonesia's total state budget for 2013, which is $173 billion.

Reaction to the roposed fund was mixed among Indonesian economists and fund managers.

Fauzi Ichsan, economist at Standard Chartered Bank, was skeptical about the fund proposal, doubting whether the move would benefit the Indonesian public.

"If the government is to reallocate funds for fuel subsidies, it should go to those targeted by the subsidy program and to infrastructure [development], to stimulate the domestic economy," Fauzi said.

"For setting up a sovereign fund, it is better that government uses money from the undisbursed budget," he said

However, Omar S. Anwar, president of Trimegah Securities, welcomed the idea as he believed it would help the country's efforts to secure strategic assets abroad, which would otherwise take Indonesia a long time to develop, such as oil refineries or oil wells. "Acquiring energy resources overseas is the strategy long used by the Chinese to secure supplies for increasing domestic demands."

Omar, however, did raise some critical notes on the idea. "If Pertamina can lose in bidding on an Iranian oil well, how we can ensure these funds will fare better?" The other issue, he said, is governance and the wealth fund's legal standing. "It has to be accountable, but at the same time nimble enough to maneuver in often-short windows of opportunity."

Kadin's Suryo said that the trend of foreign interests acquiring domestic assets was unavoidable in a globalized era, but Indonesia can reap similar benefits as well. "We should not be spectators.... In the current weak global economy, many strategic assets in Europe, even in Asia, are very attractive for acquisition," he said.

Responding to Suryo, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the idea was "relevant and positive," and asked his minister to follow it up.

Analysis & opinion

Jihad factories: Uncovering nurseries of terrorism's next generation

Sydney Morning Herald - October 7, 2012

Michael Bachelard – Despite a highly professional anti-terrorism police unit, Indonesia is still home to some dangerous nurseries of radicalism.

In March, a group of Islamist radicals were scoping out new targets in Bali, hoping to enact their own murderous 10th anniversary of the 2002 attacks.

They had surveyed the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Kuta and the Australian- run La Vida Loca bar in Seminyak. They had chosen a suicide bomber and planned to fund the operation by robbing a money changer and a gold store.

What is not widely known is that three of the five plotters for "Bali III" – including their leader, Hilman, aka Surya – were low-level drug pushers who were radicalised in Kerobokan prison when they were locked up with the original Bali bombers in the early 2000s.

According to research by the International Crisis Group, Hilman – who was serving a seven-year sentence for marijuana possession – was the mosque functionary who came under the influence of the Bali bomber Imam Samudra. On leaving prison, he became a full-time jihadist. Another plotter shared a cell with Amrozi.

The radicalisation of their cellmates was the Bali bombers' slow-burn revenge. If an attack had overshadowed this week's 10th anniversary commemoration, they would have their last, posthumous, laugh over their jailers. (Samudra and Amrozi were executed in 2008.)

Indonesia's prisons are a breeding ground for terrorists and so are some of the Islamic boarding schools. But, despite the ever-present threat of terrorism, the Indonesian state shows little interest in tackling the issue.

After the authoritarian and secular regime of Suharto fell in 1998, many groups that were previously repressed thrived under "Reformasi", Indonesia's flowering of freedom. Among them were those groups with a radical religious agenda who wanted to replace the state of Indonesia with a caliphate under Islamist law.

Until the Bali bombing, whose death toll of 202 woke it from its torpor, the newly democratic Indonesia knew little or nothing of the growing number of deadly men in its midst.

Ten years on, Indonesian law enforcement, spearheaded by Detachment 88, the anti-terrorism police, has had great success cracking down on religiously inspired radicalism. On his recent visit to Indonesia, the Australian Defence Minister, Stephen Smith, lavished praise, saying: "There is no country in the world that is more successful in arresting and prosecuting terrorists [than Indonesia is]."

Since the first Bali attack, Indonesia has arrested 700 people for terrorism offences and prosecuted 500. For every 10 prosecuted, one suspected terrorist – including some of Asia's most dangerous men – has been killed by police on the streets.

That success story, though, contains the frightening truth that, in 10 years, Indonesia has produced 500 people with a proven link to terrorism and many more who have so far gone unnoticed.

Every few months a new plot, with a new set of plotters, is uncovered. Some, such as a recent group calling itself "al-Qaeda Indonesia", have progressed far enough to start making bombs – albeit ones that blew up by accident in the kitchen. Many now believe that law enforcement alone is not enough. They say the country's jihad factories, which still pump out recruits, must be shut down and the radicals de-radicalised.

The effort so far, though, has been piecemeal and anaemic, marred by poor funding, little follow-through and an apparent lack of political will.

In Indonesian prisons, extremist preachers, terrorists and would-be jihadists are locked up with common criminals. Low-level terrorists – youngsters or those who have dabbled around the edges of a radical group – are housed with hardened jihadis, persuasive men with a seductive story to tell.

The most infamous of these men, Abu Bakar Bashir, is serving a 15-year sentence for helping set up a paramilitary training camp in Aceh in 2010. But inside, he is still surrounded by acolytes and young prisoners, and boasts in a written interview with The Sun-Herald that he is "busy spreading the word of Allah to the people".

His words remain unrepentantly full of violent jihad – ideas of noble martyrdom and the overthrow of the state of Indonesia so "that people's life may be managed by Allah's law". Bashir refers repeatedly to "evil Indonesia" and offers up a contradictory mish-mash of arguments to explain and justify the Bali bombs.

First, he asserts that the massive bombs were set by three individuals, "Mukhlas and his two friends". He calls them "mujahideen [holy warriors] who actively defended Islam" and were "slaughtered by the Jews, the US and their allies".

In the very next paragraph, he claims the bombs were part of a conspiracy, a "micro-nuclear device" planted by the US to discredit Islam. "So it was the US who essentially killed tens of Australians, not the three mujahideen," he writes. "God willing, Islam will win due to Allah's help of jihad," he writes, before exhorting Australian journalists to "convert to Islam so you will be saved".

Ask most ordinary Indonesians about Bashir and his ilk and they shake their heads and pronounce him "gila" (crazy). But his carefully cultivated look of a gentle old scholar has made his loony rhetoric surprisingly resilient, despite the patent failure of the populace of Indonesia to rise up in support of holy war after the Bali bombings.

Jemaah Islamiyah, Bashir's former terrorism vehicle, is now mistrusted in the radical community because a few of its high-profile members – notably Bali bomber Ali Imron and former senior member Nasir Abbas – "turned" and offered information to police. But a whole slew of new followers have since emerged. Bashir's new radical group, Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid, or JAT, has been involved in many of the more recent plots which police have uncovered.

As disturbing is the fact that the boarding school Bashir co-founded, and where his son (and leader of JAT) Abdul Rahim is a teacher, is still pumping out fresh-faced "martyrs". Bali bomber Idris, an old boy of Ngruki, said of his alma mater recently: "That is where jihad was taught." But suggest that al-Mukmin school in Ngruki, a suburb of Solo, might be closed down and Indonesians simply laugh.

All schools look something alike, and, apart from the enormous mosque now under construction and the separate sections for boys and girls, al-Mukmin is no exception. The classrooms have whiteboards and teachers at the front, and rowdy students in rows. In science the boys are learning about "mikroba" – microbes. Graffiti and motivational posters adorn the walls.

But in the girls' section, along with exhortations to pious (veiled) womanhood, is a noticeboard. Pinned to it is a graphic photograph of a dead man, blood fanning out from the back of his head. The man is Farhan, a young jihadist shot dead by anti-terrorist police on a Solo street two weeks before our visit.

Farhan was an alumnus of the Ngruki school and the pictures and two separate stories describing his death were downloaded from radical Islamist websites, printed out and pinned up, presumably for their educational value. Depending on how it was spoken about, the story might have been placed there in mourning or as an exhortation to righteous fury.

Asked about it, a young English and Arabic teacher, Abu Amar, airily says that the school teaches current events, just like any other. But this is not just any event. And there were no other posters on that board.

Rohim is a senior teacher at the Ngruki school his father founded. He defends the teaching of jihad saying: "More than 60 verses of the teaching of jihad are in the Koran. Should we delete those verses?"

Not all the verses are about violence or war. Some are about the struggle to be a good Muslim; others about the desirability of an Islamist state. But alumni such as Idris recall a focus, particularly in extracurricular activities, on the warlike verses. Rohim bristles at any suggestion that this school is unusual or that its curriculum is dangerous.

"Yes, some alumni of Ngruki are involved [in holy war], but you cannot put the blame on the school. It's so unfair. It's so irresponsible. It's a ridiculous way of thinking," Rohim says angrily. "For example, in your own country, if there's a thief or a rapist, would you put the blame on their school?"

However, not just one, but many terrorists have been to Ngruki, including some of the linchpins of the Bali bombings – Mukhlas, Idris, Mubarok. In a recent series of terrorism raids in Indonesia, a number of the jihadis arrested or killed were also Ngruki alumni. Rohim says when such cases come to light, the current students are taught that "it's such a wrong action".

But his words are ambivalent at best. He refuses to call the Bali bombers terrorists, saying they were, at worst, misguided "mujahid" (holy warriors). "Mujahideen can make mistakes. What they did will not reduce their status as mujahideen. They must be judged by what is their intention," he says. "I don't want to even subtly claim that they were terrorists. It's a word used by non-Muslims to corner Islam."

Asked about the recent crop of alumni involved in terrorist activities, Rohim, like his father, claims a conspiracy – they were turned to terrorism by the police to discredit Islam, he says, even though a police officer was killed in one of their attacks.

"Well, it's a conspiracy. Sometimes they are willing to sacrifice their own friends for the conspiracy ... It's a pretty normal thing for an intelligence officer to kill his own friends to cover up their own activities." Rohim boasts that the school has been continuously accredited, both by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Education for more than a decade.

Depressingly, he says demand for places grew fast in the wake of the Bali bombing and the school is still expanding. Posters around the campus show plans for new dormitories in new locations.

Once radicals graduate from school or prison, the next stage is to be invited to join a training camp or a plot. After the recent spate of arrests, there was a push for the government to establish a deradicalisation program. The Vice President, Boediono, has ordered an anti-terrorist plan to be in place by next year, and says that the fight against radical ideas had been too sporadic. "This de-radicalisation blueprint will be comprehensive and will really serve the purpose," Boediono says.

However, the director of the de-radicalisation program at the National Agency for Counter Terrorism, Irfan Idris, says the entire agency only has a budget of $9.5 million, of which only a part is set aside for the "soft approach" of deradicalisation (as distinct from hard law enforcement).

An existing program running in Indonesian prisons since 2010 applies three strategies, he says: culture (using traditional Wayang puppet shows); business (trying to establish an economic base for prisoners); and ideology (countering the radical brainwashing). But in the past two years, only 32 prisoners nationwide have completed the program and there has been no attempt to measure its success.

A psychologist working on this program and others, Professor Sarlito Wirawan, says it can take up to three years to convince someone not to act on their radical theology. At this rate, it would take decades to even talk to one year's supply of recruits from the radical boarding schools and the prisons. Asked about the radical pesantren at Ngruki, and Irfan refers me to the Religious Affairs Ministry, which keeps accrediting the school.

There are also several private-sector deradicalisation programs. A journalist and former student at Ngruki, Noor Ismail Huda, says Indonesian authorities "have been doing extremely well after the milk has been spilled".

He runs a program of "disengagement", which involves having former radicals run cafes. Here they are forced to serve customers of all cultures and religions, and they can also make money, making his program self- sustaining. "We fight terrorism with doughnuts and coffee," he says. So far, though, he has only three cafes and has helped perhaps a handful of radicals.

Another private program is the Afghan Alumni Forum, where former radicals, the hard-core who trained in Afghanistan, try to use their kudos in the jihadi community to put people on the right path.

It is led by Abu Wildan, a former senior teacher at Ngruki who was asked to join the Bali plot but refused. Abdul Rahman Ayub, Jemaah Islamiyah's former deputy in Australia, is also a key member, as is one-time Bali plotter Maskur Abdul Kadir. It holds forums in suburban function rooms under a banner that reads: "Indonesia, peace without violence, terrorism and radicalism in the name of religion".

Psychologist Sarlito works with the forum and claims an 80 per cent success rate. He says attacking the ideology head on simply did not work because the radical imams still hold such sway.

"I'm not replacing anything. I leave their beliefs, but I say don't do this and this ... don't start hurting people," he said. "Then, we bring in the wives, families, and say, 'How about helping each other?' ... It's step by step and it takes three years. It's not an easy job."

As these well-meaning efforts continue, though, schools and prisons keep churning out radicals. Australia has proscribed organisations and passed laws against hate speech. People have been jailed for preaching terrorism. Indonesia has nothing similar.

And, according to Nasir Abbas, the highest-profile reformed member of Jemaah Islamiyah, it will not develop them. "In Indonesia, it's different. They let you build whatever ideology you want, set up a school, as long as you don't do the crime ... This is what people here call reformasi," he says. "We've got freedom of speech and expression. You can't just shut down a school."

Piece of mind: In the story of the Gerwani women, truth and false memories

Jakarta Globe - October 4, 2012

Faiza Mardzoeki – Last month I visited the Monumen Pancasila Sakti at Lubang Buaya, Jakarta, for the first time.

Those two words, "Lubang Buaya" (crocodile hole), have been on my mind since I was in primary school in the 1980s, attending Pancasila morality classes and history classes, where we had to study the 30th September Movement, the so-called G30S/PKI coup attempt. This was the date the "New Order" was established, crushed by General Suharto. It began at Lubang Buaya, where seven officers were killed.

At the Lubang Buaya Monument, there stands a statue of the "Heroes of the Revolution" and a diorama depicting the historical treasons of the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party) and the alleged torture of the generals in 1965. It gives the impression that the PKI was brutal and sadistic and the armed forces heroic. I looked for any information about the Indonesian women's movement Gerwani (Gerakan Wanita Indonesia): nothing.

My impressions of those times always involved Gerwani. These immoral and devilish women, who slashed the generals' private parts and gouged out their eyes. I didn't understand that Gerwani was actually a women's organization. The words "Gerwani" or "PKI" aroused feelings of something fearful and forbidden, but the main thing was to remember the dates for school tests. The fearfulness was heightened when we were taken to the local cinema to watch the film by Arifin C. Noer, "Pengkhianatan G 30 S/PKI" ("Treason G 30 S/PKI").

That was the first time I had ever been to the cinema. There must have been tens of thousands of children throughout the country sitting, for the first time in their lives, in darkened cinemas watching the bloody, horrific scenes in the film; watching a Gerwani woman say in the most sadistic of tones: "Blood is red, General!"

By 1998, I was an adult, reading more and meeting a wide range of people. Among the women imprisoned, as a result of the events of Sept. 30, I began to understand there was another story of torture and trauma at Plantungan Women's Prison, in Central Java.

I also visited the women's prison site, where the Gerwani women were imprisoned.

Say the word "Gerwani," and it evokes the memory of those evil, torturing women. Even today, daring woman who stay out too late at night might be labeled with the term.

But why? Gerwani was the biggest women's organization in Indonesia with 1.5 million members. Its activities included literacy programs, founding kindergartens and advocating gender equality. Gerwani supported the policies of President Sukarno.

And, I later learned, the accusations of slashing privates and gouging the eyes of the generals was a total lie.

In the 1980s, the army hospital autopsy reports on the generals were found, revealing that no such torture occurred. I read the translation of each of the autopsies published in Cornell University's Indonesia journal. According to the reports, the generals had been shot, and some had minor injuries. But the alleged torture never took place. I had been lied to in school, along with millions of other children.

Instead it was the members of Gerwani, thousands of them, who were tortured and sexually abused. They were raped, beaten and forced to dance naked while being photographed by their guards.

How could it be that in Indonesia, this country I love so much, there could have been the mass killing of our own people and the vicious slander of women who were just striving for what they believed in. To disagree, to campaign against an ideology, that is a part of political life and such rights should be protected by the law. But why did some people want to carry out this sadistic mass annihilation?

A truly great nation will not only celebrate their heroes, but will also have the honesty to recognize the evil and injustice that has caused so much suffering among the people. Great people are those who can learn from their mistakes.

[Faiza Mardzoeki is an activist, playwright, theater producer and director of Institut Ungu. She can be contacted at faiza.lane@gmail.com and www.institutungu.com.]

Bali bombings as unrealized powder keg

Asia Times - October 3, 2012

Gary LaMoshi, Bali – On October 12, 2002, a ragtag gang of radicals set off a series of bombs here that left 202 people dead, mostly foreign tourists. The attack also shattered preconceptions about Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population.

Before the blasts at Paddy's Pub and the Sari Club in Kuta Beach, plus the US Consular Agency a dozen kilometers away, Indonesian Muslims were seen as moderate, disengaged bystanders in the conflicts involving the Muslim world.

The bombings prompted a closer examination of Indonesia and its longstanding struggle between secular and Islamist forces, dating back to the nation's founding in 1945. With four presidents in five years, Muslim and Christian militias clashing across the archipelago, rampant poverty and endemic corruption, Indonesia in 2002 made a credible candidate for the world's next failed state.

Tops in anti-terrorism

Ten years later, Indonesia is now solidly in the camp of the world's democracies and an anti-terrorism success story. The record on Muslim extremism, as well as corruption and poverty, is decidedly mixed, but things are far more peaceful than many could have expected in the smoldering aftermath on the Jalan Legian thoroughfare a decade ago.

"After the Bali bombing, it was clear that Indonesia did share in the problems of the South and Southwest Asia," says Greg Barton, the Herb Feith Professor for the Study of Indonesia at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. "The lesson for observers of Indonesia, certainly for Australia, was that the problems of the Middle East could reach Indonesia."

The Bali bombers were part of Jemaah Islamiyah, a group loosely affiliated with Al Qaeda and dedicated to restoration of Islamic rule across Southeast Asia. Its spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, had been jailed by the authoritarian Suharto regime and then taken refuge in Malaysia.

Barton says that Ba'asyir took advantage of the fall of Suharto in 1998 and the reformasi climate to return to Indonesia and resume his radical preaching, as did many other hard core Islamists.

Clues abound

Ahead of the Bali bombings, there were other instances of Muslim extremist violence, including the Christmas Eve bombings of churches in 2000 and Muslim militias recruited to fight Christians in Ambon and central Sulawesi. But no one then connected the dots to see a radical network capable of large scale violence.

Rohan Gunaratna of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University first sounded the alarm about Al Qaeda's "second front" after the discovery of a terrorist cell planning attacks on US military facilities there but few at the time took his warning seriously. "Gunaratna grossly overstated the threat while others understated it," Barton says.

"The 2002 Bali bombings were quite transformative," Barton notes. "It led to a series of changes." First and foremost, international assistance for anti-terrorism efforts poured into Indonesia, beginning with the bombing investigation. Within weeks, the key members of the plot were under arrest.

With Australia leading the way, the Jakarta Center for Law Enforcement was established to train Indonesia's police. The force had been split from the army after the fall of Suharto and badly needed the dose of self-esteem and professionalism that the successful bombing investigation and skill development provided. Since the Bali bombings, Indonesia has convicted more than 600 terrorists, punctuated by the execution of three of the Bali bombers.

Happiness is a warm gun

Special Detachment 88, funded and trained by US and Australian police, military and intelligence services, has since decimated Jemaah Islamiyah's leadership. In 2009, the unit culminated a lengthy manhunt with the killing of bombing expert Noordin Mohammad Top during a shootout in Central Java. Dulmartin, suspected of triggering one of the Bali bombs by mobile phone, was killed in a Jakarta firefight in 2010.

Densus 88, as it's known in Indonesian, has come under criticism for an apparent shoot-first approach that leaves many suspects dead and therefore unable to provide intelligence. It has also faced allegations of human rights abuses during its operations. Overall, though, Detachment 88 may be the world's most effective anti-terrorism force, at least among the ones known to the public.

"In light of expectations, given a police force that was undertrained and underfunded, Indonesia has done very well combating terrorism," Barton, author of "Indonesia's Struggle: Jemaah Islamiyah and the Soul of Islam", judges. "Terrorism was looked at as a law enforcement issue at first. There's a growing realization that you have to see the sociological dimension."

Although some groups that march under the Islamist banner are mere opportunistic thugs, many are true believers. Barton notes, "There was a lot of soul searching among radicals after the bombings about the sharia [law] legality of what they did. They're not as soulless as they're often portrayed."

Non-violent consensus

The smaller-scale 2005 Bali bombings proved to be a turning point. Twenty people were killed plus the three bombers; all but five of the dead were Indonesians. The attacks on a restaurant in Kuta and the popular beach dining area at Jimbaran Bay, were the first confirmed instances of suicide bombings in Indonesia.

The Kuta bomber was caught on tape and the Jimbaran aftermath included the severed head of a suspected bomber. In the wake of the bombings, a consensus emerged among religious and political leaders that, even if jihad was justified, Indonesia was not the right battlefront.

In the face of that consensus, Jemaah Islamiyah may have splintered but terrorism still hasn't disappeared in Indonesia. "Today there are lots of rapidly developing small cells with little central control or coordination," Barton says. These groups have carried out attacks such as the 2009 bombings of Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels and last year's attacks in Central Java on a police mosque and Protestant Church. Police recently claim to have uncovered an alleged plot to attack Parliament.

These terrorists are protected, according to Barton, by social networks that include family, neighbors and co-religionists. "There's a strong cultural proclivity to be part of networks," he says, noting that Indonesia has the world's second largest number of Facebook users. "While networks may have opposed attacks, there is a sense of solidarity with the brothers that protects them."

Barton, interviewed while he was in Indonesia for research and meetings last month, believes, "If radicals play their cards right, they can win support. But if they overplay their hands, they'll lose support."

Space exploration

Similar social dynamics are a key factor in intolerance toward religious minorities. "Market forces are at work," Barton says. "Contestation between advocates of secularism and Islamists has been seen throughout Indonesian history. Under Suharto, there was no space for Islamists. In the reformasi era, there's more space."

In recent years, there's been a rising tide of violence against members of minority Muslim sects, including Ahmadiyah and Shia. Church burnings have also flared up. Demonstrations featuring threats of violence and local government defiance of courts and the national constitution have led to years-long impasses over the construction of new churches, leading congregations to worship in the open under police protection. Local governments continue to pass sharia-inspired statutes in defiance of the secular charter.

What's different in the recent cases of terrorism and intolerance is the absence of a firm consensus against such acts among political and religious leaders, as happened in the aftermath of the 2005 Bali bombing.

"If there was strong political leadership drawing a line in the sand, a lot of this would go away, but they're not," Barton says. "It's the role of the government and [mainstream Muslim organizations] Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah to set limits, to say this is beyond the pale and won't be tolerated. Until they're forced, the Islamists won't stop."

[Longtime editor of award-winning investor rights advocate eRaider.com, Gary LaMoshi has written for Slate and Salon.com, and works an adviser to Writing Camp (www.writingcamp.net). He first visited Indonesia in 1994 and has been watching ever since.]

Prabowo already dressed up, but won't make it to the party

Jakarta Post - October 2, 2012

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – As an avid polo player, Prabowo Subianto, the former son-in-law of Soeharto, fully grasps the idea that one must look good when playing the sport of kings.

However, the retired special-forces general must also know that a snazzy uniform is not enough to guarantee victory. One must also tame one's horse, outmaneuver opponents and score goals.

In the past couple of days, Prabowo has been confronted by a daunting challenge to secure a horse that he can use ride into the 2014 presidential election.

Prabowo has certainly presented his best face to the public in recent days, as evidenced by his growing popularity among younger voters. Most pollsters have placed him atop their list of presidential hopefuls.

He has tried hard to overhaul his international profile by attending several prestigious events overseas to help people forget the allegations of human rights violations that surround the general for his actions during riots that saw the fall of the New Order in 1998.

All those image-boosting efforts, however, will be for naught unless Prabowo secures the support of the big parties that he needs to nominate him as a presidential candidate.

Top officials at the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), whose coattails Prabowo hopes to ride on, have recently sent clear signals that they would not forge a coalition in 2014 with his party, the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra).

Prabowo desperately needs the the PDI-P, his long-time ally, to form a coalition with Gerindra if he hopes to run for president in 2014. The law requires that coalitions or parties garner at least 20 percent of the vote in the general election to nominate a presidential candidate, something that Gerindra has failed to do on its own.

Further, several surveys have painted bleak prospects for Gerindra, tipping the party to receive less than 5 percent of the vote in 2014, despite Prabowo's skyrocketing popularity.

The PDI-P, the Golkar Party and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party are expected to be dominant; each tipped to secure more than 10 percent of the vote.

The PDI-P is unlikely to nominate Prabowo, as speculation has it that PDI-P chairwoman and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri is inching closer to a decision to run for the nation's top job in 2014. Megawati has also been placed at the top of the list of presidential hopefuls, according to pollsters.

Sources at the PDI-P and Golkar who declined to be named have said there is currently momentum building for Megawati to run on a ticket with former vice president Jusuf Kalla. Kalla, according to party sources, has been maneuvering to annul an earlier decision to name chairman Aburizal Bakrie as Golkar's candidate in 2014 and bring the party into a coalition with the PDI-P.

Aburizal and his family are currently in financial woes from mounting debts that are plaguing their business empire. It will be difficult for him to grease the party's machine and provide sufficient capital to run for president.

The handicap will likely be exploited by Kalla to steer Golkar's elite away from Aburizal and toward the PDI-P, which has also been preparing other members to step in if Megawati decides not to run.

Megawati ran unsuccessful campaigns for the presidency in 2004 and 2009 elections.

The PDI-P's maneuverings are making it more difficult for Prabowo's potential presidential bid. His only hope for forming a coalition with enough support to meet the electoral threshold is the Democratic Party, which until now has yet to name a candidate.

But that may also be complicated for Prabowo, as Yudhoyono has often said that the party's future presidential candidates will come from its younger generation of supporters.

Yudhoyono may also worry that Prabowo's track record may undermine his glittering international reputation for advocating the high standard of human rights principles. There is also a question of how much Yudhoyono trusts Prabowo, given the notorious temperament of the President's former military colleague.

Prabowo's military pal, Lt. Gen. (ret.) Muchdi PR, even left Gerindra in 2011 over what sources said was a dispute triggered by Prabowo's authoritarian management style. Muchdi, also a retired special-forces general, was acquitted of wrongdoing in the trial of the 2004 murder of human rights activist Munir.

A year after Muchdi's resignation, an internal rift rocked Gerindra. The party's founding member and deputy chairperson Halida Hatta, daughter of the country's first vice president, Mohammad Hatta, tendered her resignation.

Left with a weaker party, Prabowo must confront the irony of a campaign that promotes egalitarianism and poverty alleviation when he himself travels in private jets and plays polo using dozens of imported horses.

Should the general's luxurious lifestyle be more widely publicized, voters who have not forgotten his dark record in 1998 may well be turned off. No matter how hard Prabowo tries to create a distinctive image for himself as a man of the people, his bid for the palace rests with leaders if three political parties.