A nine-year-old girl died in Harapan Kita Hospital on Thursday after she was unable to receive immediate treatment in a ward being used by a film crew to shoot an Indonesian soap opera.

Ayu Tria Desiani was admitted to the West Jakarta hospital's emergency room on Wednesday afternoon with severe diarrhea. She had been previously diagnosed with leukemia and was a regular patient of the hospital.

Doctors then discovered Ayu had a burst blood vessel and was in need of treatment in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit. The girl was admitted to the ICU, but her care was delayed as a crew continued to shoot a scene for SCTV's sinetron "Love in Paris" in the ward, her father said.

The film crew continued to walk through the room as his daughter waited for treatment, father Kurnianto Ahmad Syaiful, 47, told the Indonesian news portal detik.com. The hallway leading to the ICU was crowded with film equipment, making it hard for patients and doctors to reach the ward, he added.

"People were told to use a side entrance instead," he said. Ayu died at 2:30 a.m. on Thursday. Her father didn't blame the hospital, but said he was disappointed in the service his daughter received.

Harapan Kita Hospital officials denied the shoot prevented Ayu from being treated, explaining that the film crew was working in a separate room that was removed from the patient area.

"It's not true we abandoned a patient," hospital spokesman Ida said. "It was only that room and a hall [used for the shoot]. The shooting was very quick, only two minutes."

Ida said a doctor stood by Ayu the entire time she was in the ICU. "We already treated her at the ICU... she wasn't abandoned and was immediately admitted to the ICU. There was always a doctor on guard," Ida said.

The child did have to wait before she was admitted to the ICU, Ida said, but it was unrelated to the film shoot. "It did take quite some time before she was admitted [to the ICU], but it was because [there was] a long process to find a bed and replace the old one," she said.

A scene for the SCTV sinetron portraying an actor being treated for leukemia was being shot in the ICU area, Ida said. The sinetron series stars senior actor Mathias Muchus, actor Surya Saputra, and actress Ira Wibowo. Co-director Irawan Tanu said the hospital had offered the use of the ICU, which they claimed was broken and not in use.

"I know hospital rules," Irawan told Merdeka.com. "I only followed the direction of the hospital."

Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi threatened to sanction the hospital if the staff was found guilty of neglecting patient care for "commercial purposes." "Surely there will be sanctions," she said. "I will first check, [and] after I find the truth, I'll tell you the sanctions."

The House of Representatives' Commission IX, which oversees health issues, said it would summon the Health Minister to question her about the incident.

"If necessary, we will go straight to the hospital and use our supervisory rights," lawmaker Aditya Didi Moha told republika.co.id.

Indonesian shoe company withdraws pig skin products from market

Jakarta Globe - December 25, 2012

A shoe producer, who allegedly attached halal stickers to shoes which contained leather made from pig's skin, said on Tuesday that all such items had been withdrawn from the market.

"We admit to the mistake and apologize," said Ikhsan Abdullah on Tuesday, the lawyer for Mahkota Petriedo Indoperkasa – the producer of Kickers shoes.

"We have realized that halal labeling should be for food and beverage products only. We apologize for this misunderstanding," he added, according to Indonesian news portal antaranews.com.

Ikhsan said the halal stickers attached to the shoes that had "pig-skin lining" printed on their tags, was just a misunderstanding. He did not elaborate with his explanation.

A 48-year-old customer, Winarno, reported the Mahkota director, Sentosa Wijaya, to Jakarta Police on Dec. 19 after he bought two pairs of Kickers shoes at the Sogo department store in Plaza Senayan, South Jakarta.

He said he bought the shoes because of the halal label, but then noticed the "pig-skin lining" on their tags. Winarno then contacted the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) to ask about the halal certification.

"As it turned out, the MUI asked for the 'K' shoes to be withdrawn from the market," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said last week. Rikwanto said Sentosa could be charged for violating the consumer protection law.

MUI nixes Christmas for SBY

Jakarta Post - December 24, 2012

Rabby Pramudatama, Jakarta – Conservative Muslim leaders are not stopping with edicts forbidding Muslims from wishing Christians a Merry Christmas. Now they want the President not to attend any observation of the holiday in an official or personal capacity.

A representative of the Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI) renewed on Sunday an edict (fatwa) forbidding Muslims from extending holiday greetings to Christians and said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had to skip a national Christmas celebration scheduled for Dec. 27.

"If you talk about the MUI edict, it forbids attendance at the [Christmas] rituals. A Muslim should not attend the ritual, because it is a part of worship activities that should only be attended by Christians," Ma'ruf Amin, the council's deputy chairman, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Ma'ruf said that Yudhoyono, as a Muslim, should not attend the national Christmas celebration, which he said would contain a Christian religious element.

Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono, who is also a Muslim, are among the top officials who are scheduled to attend the national Christmas celebration. Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali joined the President and Vice President during a similar national observance in 2011.

Several Muslim organizations have echoed the MUI's call. The United Indonesian Muslims (Persis), for example, said that it was inappropriate for the President to attend the national Christmas celebration.

"Even though they are the country's leaders, they are forbidden to attend such Christmas celebrations," Persis chairman Maman Abdurrahman said, as quoted by the website of conservative Muslim organization Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia's (HTI).

Maman said that Yudhoyono and Boediono should instead order officials from the Religious Ministry's Protestant and Catholic directorate to come to attend the event on their behalf.

Separately, the infamous hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI) said that Yudhoyono and Boediono would "undermine" Islam if they decided to attend the celebration.

Muchsin Ahmad Alatas, the head of the FPI's campaign division, advised the President and Vice President not to attend the celebration. "They decided to attend the program because they don't have sufficient understanding of Islam," Muchsin said. "They should have consulted with people who understand Islam better before making their decision."

Muchsin said that Yudhoyono should ignore Christians in favor of the nation's Muslims. "People will understand his decision, because he will have respected the feelings of the [nation's] majority-Muslim population. If the President shows up, it means that state affairs take precedence over his faith," he said.

However, representatives of several moderate Muslim groups have disagreed with the conservative groups. "Wishing Christians a merry Christmas is one form of tolerance between people of different faiths," Salahuddin Wahid, a noted leader of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the nation's largest Muslim social organization, said as quoted tempo.co.

Salahuddin said that an interfaith exchange of Christmas greetings was similar to saying "Happy Birthday" or "Happy New Year" – neither of which was forbidden by Islam, according to Salahuddin.

Din Syamsuddin, the chairman of Muhammadiyah, the nation's second-largest Muslim social organization, agreed, previously saying that he regularly exchanged Christmas wishes with Christian friends, which he considered only greetings.

While conservative Muslims in Indonesia have attempted to make interfaith Christmas greetings an issue for several years, Muslims in other nations no longer have such concerns.

In some parts of the Islamic world, Muslims say "Merry Christmas" and join celebrations. Some Muslim political leaders have even attended Christmas services to strengthen interfaith ties.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, for instance, regularly joins annual Christmas services in Bethlehem, while the leaders and the rank-and-file members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood joined annual Christmas services at a Coptic Christian church in Cairo in 2011.

Ma'aruf, however, said that Indonesian Muslims should not say Merry Christmas. "It is still a debate. They would be better of not doing that." (riz)

2012 in review

Indonesian stories that raised eyebrows in 2012

Jakarta Globe - December 31, 2012

Possessed students, cross-species sexual encounters and a girl with "emerald tears"; 2012 was a typically bizarre year in Indonesia as stories stocked with strange twists, trickster spirits and animal addictions grabbed headlines. Here is a selection of some of the oddest stories to come across the Jakarta Globe news desk in 2012.

Students show school spirit(s)

When 11 students burst into screaming fits during a study session at SMU 2 in Tanjungpinang, Riau Islands, the teachers weren't shocked.

By early October, these 11 students had routinely been possessed by spirits or, as one teacher put it, "a genie." The teachers just stopped class and took the students to a local mosque. "The voices coming out of the students were the voices of a genie," said teacher Edi Efendi, who claimed the spirits usually followed a strict schedule. "Usually possessions in this school happened after they happened in SMU 5 and SMU 4."

Edi said spirits first visited the school three years ago. Since then, spirit possession became as regular a fixture as science and social studies classes – or at least until Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh decided to change the curriculum.

In West Jakarta, 20 students freaked out after they reportedly saw the ghost of an old man in the building's motorcycle parking lot. The elderly ghost was seemingly young in spirit as he ran amok in the school, scaring one student unconscious and possessing numerous others.

"There were more than 20 students suffering a mass possession," a gym teacher at SMP 229 in the Kebon Jeruk neighborhood told Antara news agency at the time. "At 11 a.m. recess, there was someone who shouted hysterically and cried. Others got panicked and were possessed."

In Bali, teachers called in a psychic after spirits allegedly possessed more than a dozen students for the third time.

In Mataram, Vice President Boediono's visit to a local Family Day celebration took a ghastly turn as students began to scream and faint in the hot sun. About 500 students were made to stand under the afternoon sun and perform traditional dances for the assembled crowd.

But when they began to yell and pass out, fearful local residents decided they had a mass spirit possession on their hands. Teachers panicked as students were taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for possession.

"They're just tired because they had to wait for too long [in the sun]," West Nusa Tenggara Health Agency head Ismail said at the time.

An orangutan with an addiction

If 2011 was the year of the smoking baby, 2012 was the year of the puffing orangutan as Solo's cigarette-packing great ape Tori smoked her way into the nation's heart.

Visitors to Solo's Taru Jurung zoo supported Tori's habit by throwing cigarettes into her pen. The 14-year-old orangutan began her habit by puffing away on discarded butts as she mimicked zoogoers.

By July, Tori had developed a habit and a hand gesture when she wanted another cigarette – two fingers in the air – said Daniek Hendarto, coordinator of the Center for Orangutan Protection.

Daniek worried that Tori's mate, Didik, would also become addicted if the orangutans were left in their existing habitat.

In late July, zoo staff moved Tori and Didik to an isolated island in the middle of a lake so she could kick the habit. Two months later, Tori had something else to hold in her hands: a fuzzy newborn baby named Jokowi.

Small crimes, big penalties

A Lombok man was jailed for theft after picking five small coconuts from a tree he reportedly planted on his family's property years ago. An illiterate farmer was detained after selling a single branch from a teak tree he found laying on the ground at a Central Java plantation.

A 15-year-old boy faced five years in prison after allegedly stealing a policeman's sandals worth Rp 30,000 ($3.30) in Central Sulawesi. The boy escaped jail time as the court found him guilty, but free to go.

Petty crimes still called for big punishment under Indonesia's outdated Criminal Code. The laws, which were passed in the 1960s, classified the theft of anything more expensive than Rp 250 a serious offense.

The Supreme Court changed the statute in February amid public outcry over a series of highly publicized cases of courts seemingly going after the young, the poor and the elderly. Under the new guidelines, the theft of anything less than Rp 2.5 million is considered a petty crime and doesn't require the defendant to be detained for months before a trial.

But change didn't come fast enough for 41-year-old Rosidi, who was arrested weeks before the law changed, for the theft of a piece of teak worth Rp 600,000. Rosidi faced 10 years in prison and Rp 10 billion in fines if convicted.

To put it into context, that's twice as long as the sentence handed down to former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin. Nazaruddin was found guilty of accepting Rp 4.6 billion in bribes and it's 10 times what Mindo Rosalina Manulang served before her release.

Chickens; a man mistaken for a monkey

A 16-year-old boy in Bali said a spirit magically turned a chicken into a beautiful woman one October day.

He had earlier been caught having sex with a dead chicken by local residents. Witnesses turned the boy over to police. Officers questioned him, but decided there was little they could do.

"He committed no crime; he only committed an ethics violation. We have decided to let the local residents handle the problem," Karangasem Police chief Comr. Putu Wijaya Arsa said.

Local residents said they had previously caught the boy having his way with their cattle. His parents suspected it was the work of an evil spirit and hired a psychic to cure their son.

The Bali office of the Child and Women's Protection Group (KPPA) took the boy to see a psychiatrist.

The boy made out better than the last man reportedly tricked by a spirit into having sex with livestock in Bali. In June of 2010, 18-year-old Ngurah Alit was caught standing stark naked behind a cow in the seaside village of Yeh Embang, in Jembrana.

Alit said a spirit made him think the cow was a beautiful woman. He was forced to marry the cow before it was pushed into the sea to drown in a local cleansing ritual.

In Malaysia, an alleged case of mistaken identity took a terrible turn when an Indonesian migrant worker was shot dead by his employer after the man mistook the worker for a pig-tailed macaque.

The 71-year-old employer reportedly saw a mango tree shaking near his home and opened fire, thinking a monkey was trying to steal his fruit. He fatally shot 39-year-old Kaniseus Leu, a palm oil plantation worker from East Nusa Tenggara.

The man was detained by police while workers' rights groups called on the Indonesian government to better protect migrant workers. "This is not funny at all, not a joke. This is about life," said Retno Dewi, head of the Indonesian Workers Association (ATKI). "The Indonesian government should be more strict and have better bargaining power for the welfare of migrant workers."

Bizarre 'tears' of Tina Agustina

A teenager from Bandung became a minor YouTube celebrity this year after posting videos of her strange claim to fame: emerald tears.

Tina Agustina claimed to have extracted 126 small polished gems from her eyes since September of 2011. She told doctors and reporters that she produced the tiny gems when she cried.

Doctors examined the girl and declared her perfectly normal. They sent her collection of gems to a geology lab for testing. The multi-colored gems appeared cut and polished when Tina removed them from her eyelids in numerous YouTube videos.

It is unknown what happened to Tina, but there hasn't been a new YouTube video posted in six months.

Odds and ends

There were a handful of stories that could have made it on this list if, sadly, they weren't all too common.

The House of Representatives earmarked Rp 12 billion for snack food in an early version of the budget.

Another toddler developed a cigarette addiction and then added a regular cup of coffee to his routine.

And the state railway company Kereta Api Indonesia picked a deadly solution for a dangerous problem when they installed rows of hanging concrete balls in an effort to deter roof riders.

Power plays and reversals of fortune in 2012

Jakarta Globe - December 27, 2012

Hayat Indriyatno – The past year was one of inspired figures, graft allegations and political bickering. As we look ahead to 2013, the Jakarta Globe takes you back to the individuals and groups who, for better or worse, captured the headlines throughout 2012. Here they are, in no particular order:

Joko Widodo

The most electrifying figure in the news this year was arguably Joko Widodo, the mayor of the Central Java city of Solo who went on to win the election for governor of Jakarta.

Previously recognized by the Home Affairs Ministry as the best mayor in the nation, and in the running this year for best mayor in the world for his work in Solo, Joko was a last-minute pick for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in naming its ticket ahead of the poll in July.

He started out the year well, earning praise for his backing of a vocational school in Solo that had produced its own car. By March, he was officially on the PDI-P's ticket with Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a former district head from Bangka-Belitung renowned for his pioneering efforts at transparency.

The pair's humble origins, grass-roots approach and promises of meaningful reform in the city's staid bureaucracy won over voters. The checkered shirt sported by Joko and Basuki throughout the campaigning also helped them to stand out against the five other tickets, while a viral fan music video cemented their populist credentials.

Despite all this, opinion polls ahead of the election in July consistently gave the incumbent, Fauzi Bowo, the lead. So when Joko emerged the winner, albeit without enough of a lead to avoid a runoff, it came as a huge surprise to analysts.

Campaigning by Fauzi's team turned ugly ahead of the runoff vote in September, with religious and ethnic slurs made against Basuki. However, Joko's team took it all in stride and went on to win the second round of balloting comfortably.

The new governor's popularity continued to rise even after taking office, as he embarked on regular visits to slums and kampungs and promised a raft of sweeping changes to urban planning, transportation and flood control.

But analysts say the honeymoon may be coming to a close as the intensifying rainy season causes widespread flooding and traffic chaos, with the administration appearing to have done little to prevent or mitigate the problem.

Next year, though, will be Joko's true litmus test as governor, when a series of major programs is set to kick off, including the construction of the long-awaited mass rapid transit rail line.

Dahlan Iskan

Before Joko Widodo rose to prominence, Dahlan Iskan was the public figure electrifying people with his hands-on, reformist and often unorthodox leadership.

In March, the state enterprises minister won praise from commuters and criticism from politicians when he threw an angry fit at a toll gate in Jakarta after finding that only two of the four booths were operating, resulting in a long tailback. He then opened one of the boom gates, allowing around 100 cars through without paying.

Despite being criticized for acting rashly, Dahlan went on to do the same thing at another toll gate in April – only to apologize afterward when he found out that it was operated by a private company and not an SOE.

The minister has also championed plans to overhaul Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, including building a rail line from Jakarta to the airport next year.

He made his biggest splash in October, though, with allegations that legislators had shaken down executives at various SOEs for kickbacks in exchange for approving their funding requests.

The allegations prompted the House of Representatives' Ethics Council to launch an inquiry, which is still ongoing. In the process, some of those named by Dahlan were subsequently cleared, and the minister has since publicly apologized for implicating them.

Dahlan, like Constitutional Court chairman Mahfud M.D. and, to a lesser extent, Joko, is among the favorites to get a presidential or vice presidential ticket in the 2014 election. He has not ruled out the prospect of contesting the poll.

Marty Natalegawa

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa kept a relatively low profile throughout 2012 but still had a major impact on current issues, particularly in helping ease tensions over conflicting claims to territory in the South China Sea.

In January, the minister confirmed that Indonesia would send observers to a disputed area on the Thai-Cambodia border, in a sign of Indonesia's growing diplomatic clout in the region.

He was also vocal in urging long-awaited democratic reforms in Myanmar, which this year held a by-election that saw junta critic and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi win a seat in parliament.

Though the Foreign Ministry took a lot of flak for failing to protect Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and other countries, Marty made the protection of workers a top priority in his bilateral talks with officials from those countries.

His biggest coup came in July, after a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations failed for the first time in the bloc's 45-year history to present a joint statement because of the ongoing South China Sea disputes.

A flurry of diplomacy saw Marty visit his counterparts in Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia to finally wrangle consensus on the issue.

But the minister has not stopped there. He continues to urge regional leaders to work toward a permanent solution to the disputes, leveraging Indonesia's own lack of claims in the matter to maximize Jakarta's diplomatic push.

Mahfud M.D.

Mahfud has since 2008 helmed the Constitutional Court, one of the few perceived bastions of integrity in the country, and earned both praise and criticism for the institution's rulings.

The past year was not much different. In January, his court helped bring a long-running series of politically motivated attacks in Aceh to an end when it ordered the provincial polling authorities to register candidates who had previously missed the registration deadline for the gubernatorial election there.

In February, the court made a landmark ruling that gave children born out of wedlock full inheritance rights to their fathers' estates. Prior to this, such children had no legally recognized ties to their fathers.

In April, the court caught flak for annulling an article on smoking from the 2009 Health Law, effectively allowing managers of office and commercial buildings to allow smoking facilities on their premises. This scuppered a Jakarta bylaw that completely barred smoking from all such buildings by stipulating that smoking areas should be located outside the premises.

In August, Mahfud ruled that the General Elections Commission (KPU) should carry out a verification process for all parties seeking to contest the 2014 elections, and not just the new parties or those without seats in the House of Representatives. The move was welcomed by the smaller parties, who argued that the larger, more established parties had previously been given an advantage by not having to undergo verification.

Mahfud's most controversial decision came in November, when he declared upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas defunct. The ruling sent shockwaves through the business community and raised questions about the fate of existing oil and gas contracts.

The government, however, was quick to establish a new oversight agency and made assurances that existing and future contracts would not be impacted by the ruling.

With his retirement looming next April, Mahfud is widely speculated to be seeking a stab at the presidency or vice presidency in 2014.

The National Awakening Party (PKB) says it is currently considering nominating him, but most analysts have linked him to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.

Aburizal Bakrie

Business tycoon and Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie appeared headed for a good year when in February it was announced that a spat with British banking scion Nathaniel Rothschild over their joint London-listed mining company, Bumi Plc, had been resolved.

By September, however, the delicate truce was broken as Rothschild ordered an investigation into Bumi's Indonesian operations. Since then, both sides have threatened to buy the other out of the partnership. Rothschild has suggested that the Bakries lack the capital for such a move.

The Bakrie Group has been busy selling assets, including its toll road operations, to pay mounting debt, which is tied to the falling Bumi stock.

On the political front, Aburizal was officially nominated by his party in July as its presidential candidate for 2014. However, the decision to not consider any other candidates prompted protest from Akbar Tandjung, the venerated former chairman and current head of Golkar's advisory board.

This fueled speculation that Golkar was not as united as it appeared to be on an Aburizal candidacy, with talk that another ex-chairman, Jusuf Kalla, should have been given the nod.

In December, a letter from Akbar, warning that Aburizal's poll numbers were too low with less than two years until the election, revived talk of a high-level rift.

Analysts have argued that Aburizal's consistently low poll numbers, especially when compared to Kalla, should prompt a rethink by the party's central executive board about who it should ultimately nominate. But supporters of the chairman insist that there is enough time to win over voters.

The party, though, has not ruled out a final re-evaluation of its decision, which will come during a national caucus next year.

Bang Haji

Rhoma Irama, the country's self-styled king of dangdut, had for years been out of the public limelight. In 2012, though, he made a comeback in fiery fashion.

In July, during campaigning ahead of the second round of voting in the Jakarta gubernatorial election, he was captured on video giving a sermon to Muslim followers in which he urged them not to vote for a non-Muslim leader – an indirect reference to Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the Christian running mate of front-runner Joko Widodo.

Rhoma, who was one of the celebrity backers of Fauzi Bowo, the incumbent governor, argued that he was simply parlaying a message that was in the Koran and that his sermon did not constitute a racial slur.

The uproar that followed, as well as the series of copycat sermons given by other conservative Muslim clerics, forced Fauzi's campaign on the defensive. Rhoma was reported to the authorities but escaped punishment.

But the dangdut king would not remain out of sight for very long. In November, he popped up again, this time with the announcement that he had a calling to run for president in the 2014 election.

Several senior politicians argued that he had the popularity to mount an effective bid, and the National Awakening Party (PKB) even hinted that he was one of the potential candidates that it intended to nominate.

However, others have taken the prospect of a Rhoma candidacy less seriously. Fellow dangdut singer Inul Daratista, with whom Rhoma has long been on hostile terms, joked that if he ran, she would volunteer to be his running mate.

The Democratic Party

The past year is likely one that the ruling Democratic Party will want to put behind it. Already reeling from a raft of corruption allegations leveled by its former treasurer, Muhammad Nazaruddin, the party began 2012 trying to contain the fallout.

The revelations from Nazaruddin's trial led to one of the parties most high-profile figures, deputy secretary general and former Miss Indonesia Angelina Sondakh, being named a suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in February. She faces 12 years in prison on bid-rigging charges. A verdict is expected early next year.

For his part, Nazaruddin was convicted in a separate bid-rigging case in April and sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

Another top Democrat to fall from grace was Siti Hartati Murdaya, a member of the party's board of patrons and a key financier of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's 2009 re-election bid. In August, she was also named a graft suspect by the KPK over allegations that her palm oil companies bribed a district head in Central Sulawesi to issue them operating permits.

But the biggest scalp claimed was that of Andi Mallarangeng, the sports minister and a close Yudhoyono protege. After months of being implicated in mishandling a Rp 2.5 trillion sports center project, he was named a suspect by the KPK in early December. In a rare move for a top official accused of wrongdoing, he immediately resigned from the cabinet.

The probe into the sports center could extend even higher. Democrat chairman Anas Urbaningrum and his wife have been repeatedly accused by Nazaruddin of involvement in the case. And in an eye-catching revelation, the disgraced ex-treasurer has also pointed the finger at Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono, the party's secretary general and youngest son of the president.

KPK

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) started out the year with a new leadership helmed by Abraham Samad, a brash lawyer who promised significant progress during his time in charge.

The public did not have long to wait. In January, the KPK named Miranda Goeltom, the former senior deputy governor of Bank Indonesia, a suspect for bribing legislators.

Previous KPK leaders had for years failed to bring charges against Miranda in connection with a case in 2004 in which dozens of legislators were bribed to vote Miranda into the second-highest post in the central bank.

In February, the KPK struck again, naming Democratic Party legislator Angelina Sondakh a suspect in a bid-rigging case. Other senior Democrats would follow later in the year, namely financier Siti Hartati Murdaya and Andi Mallarangeng, the former sports minister.

Andi's case marked the first time that a serving minister had been named a graft suspect, and signaled that the KPK would not be swayed by rank or party.

In another landmark case, the KPK named two police generals suspects in July in relation to an equipment procurement case at the National Police's traffic division.

The move prompted a backlash by the police, who initially tried to prevent KPK investigators seizing any documents as evidence. Police then ordered the recall of several officers on loan to the KPK as investigators. When some of them balked, the police revived a closed case of abuse of power dating back to 2008 against one of the officers. However, this measure fell short.

In response to public indignation at the police's behavior, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the force to allow the KPK to carry out its investigation and questioned the revival of the 2008 case.

The KPK will be hard-pressed to top its 2012 feats next year, but with several high-profile graft cases still unfolding, more heads are bound to roll.

Football

Indonesian football continued to be plagued by off-the-field disputes that resulted in a tragic loss of life this year.

At the end of February, the national team suffered a historic 10-0 loss to Bahrain during qualifying for the 2014 World Cup. The margin of victory and the fact that Bahrain needed to overhaul a nine-goal deficit on rival Qatar immediately prompted widespread speculation about match-fixing. A FIFA probe later dismissed the notion.

The defeat, though, highlighted the poor state of the national team, which was cobbled together from mostly inexperienced players from the league sanctioned by the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI). Most of the regular national team players were considered ineligible because they played in a league run by the breakaway Indonesian Football Savior Committee (KPSI).

In June, the PSSI and KPSI signed a truce in Kuala Lumpur, but were soon at loggerheads again over the selection of players for the AFC U-22 Cup in 2013.

In the AFF Suzuki Cup in November, a competition in which Indonesia reached the final in 2010, the national team failed to make it out of the group stage.

In November, Paraguayan footballer Diego Mendieta died destitute and alone in a hospital in Solo, Central Java, after being denied four months' wages by his club Persis Solo. His death fueled public indignation at how clubs in the country were being run as a result of the split between the PSSI and KPSI.

Things got worse when, facing suspension by FIFA in mid-December, the PSSI and KPSI failed to resolve their dispute. However, in what FIFA president Sepp Blatter called an early Christmas gift to the country, FIFA extended the deadline to March 30.

Regional heads

Mayors, district heads and governors have long had a poor reputation for integrity, and events throughout 2012 demonstrated why.

In January, the Supreme Court overturned an acquittal for Agusrin Najamuddin, the suspended governor of Bengkulu, in a Rp 20.1 billion embezzlement case. However, Agusrin refused to start serving his four-year sentence, instead turning to Islamic studies as an excuse. He was finally jailed in April.

But he was far from the only dirty official turned belligerent in 2012. Also in January, Basyrah Lubis, the head of Padang Lawas district in North Sumatra, was given a six-month suspended sentence for graft; in February, Eep Hidayat of Subang district in West Java was sentenced to five years; in March, Bekasi mayor Mochtar Muhammad got six years for graft; and in May, Timur Satono, the East Lampung district chief, was slapped with 15 years. All these officials defied the verdicts. Eep only went to jail after a month; Mochtar went on the run and was arrested hiding out in Bali in March; Basyrah challenged his dismissal, preventing district authorities from inaugurating a new chief; while Satono remains at large.

In December, Aceng Fikri put his West Java district of Garut on the national radar when it was revealed that he had earlier in the year married a 17-year-old girl and subsequently divorced her by text message – on the pretext that she was not a virgin when they wed.

The case caused a nationwide uproar and even caught the attention of the likes of the BBC and CNN. To add to the matter of personal indiscretion, Aceng now stands accused by a Garut resident of alleged fraud linked to the offer of the vacant post of deputy district head.

The district legislature has since voted overwhelmingly to have him removed from office, although he continues to defy calls to step down.

Crashes, crime, Joko leave marks on 2012

Jakarta Globe - December 26, 2012

From gang-related violence, to the uphill battle against drugs, and up through the gubernatorial election in Jakarta, the Jakarta Globe is taking a look back at five big issues that spent most of 2012 grabbing nationwide attention and making headlines on our pages.

Against all odds

Smear campaigns and religious and ethnic slurs marred an otherwise peaceful and dignified gubernatorial election in Jakarta this year, one which also saw an underdog triumph against the more politically connected incumbent.

It was a long and arduous battle for small-town Mayor Joko Widodo before he eventually secured the post of leader of Indonesia's capital, and its biggest and wealthiest city.

The year started with Joko being the relatively unknown, partnering with the even lesser-known lawmaker Basuki Tjahaja Purnama.

But after a series of campaign visits to Jakarta's slums as well as the use of his iconic madras shirt, Joko was able to win the hearts of many, and came out on top of the first leg of the election in July, silencing political experts and survey groups who earlier predicted an easy win for Fauzi Bowo.

But the road to governorship for Joko proved to be a hard one as his opponents began attacking his running mate's religion and Chinese ethnicity through sermons, advertisements and pamphlets. Fauzi even threatened not to assist a group of people who lost their home to a fire if they didn't vote for him.

But even with great power and large financial and political support at his disposal, Fauzi could do little to stop Joko's growing popularity and lost.

Aviation safety

A five-year effort to improve the country's aviation safety was nearly shattered on May 9, when a Sukhoi Superjet passenger aircraft crashed into a dormant volcano south of Jakarta during a demonstration flight.

A total of 45 people, which include Russian crew members, airline officials and journalists, were killed that day.

The National Committee for Transportation Safety (KNKT) last week concluded its seven-month investigation, concluding that the pilot ignored the plane's warning system and descended to 6,000 feet in a mountainous region more than 8,000 feet high.

Last month, the Transportation Ministry validated a certificate for the aircraft to be used as a passenger jet in Indonesia but many said the certificate would not be enough to regain people's confidence on the aircraft.

There would be several more incidents after the Sukhoi crash including one where an army aircraft crashed into a military housing complex in Jakarta, killing all seven crew members and three civilians in June.

But questions about Indonesia's seriousness in improving aviation safety peaked this month when Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's radar system was disrupted in a blackout.

The outage caused two Lion Air planes to nearly collide in midair as they were approaching Indonesia's largest airport. The two aircraft were diverted to Semarang, Central Java, as officials rushed to get the radar working again.

Gangs of Jakarta

In January, Jakarta was shocked by the murder of 50-year-old businessman Tan Hari Tantono, also known as Ayung, who was found with stab wounds on his neck and stomach at the Swiss-Belhotel in Central Jakarta.

Police soon learned that this was no "ordinary" murder case. Caught by the surveillance camera was John Refra Kei, a notorious gang leader convicted many times for murder and racketeering.

Police said John was hired by Ayung's longtime rival to kill Ayung over a business dispute. Five of John's henchmen were later arrested, including two who surrendered voluntarily, but it took more to take the infamous gang leader.

Police said they had to shoot John in the thigh as he tried to attack police officers who were trying to arrest him at a hotel on Feb. 17. After a long investigation and trial, prosecutors sought a 14-year prison term for John in December.

In February, a group of 10 mourners at Gatot Subroto Army Hospital was attacked by a rival gang of 50 people, leaving two people dead and four injured. Eight people were later arrested, including Edward Tupessy, also known as Edo Kiting, a suspected drug kingpin. Police said the attack was linked to a drug transaction debt of Rp 320 million ($33,000).

Politicians and city officials were horrified that such a brutal attack could occur at a hospital owned by the army, saying that it showed that thugs in Jakarta had no fear of the authorities or law enforcers.

Fight against drugs

Indonesia's battle against drugs saw major achievements and stumbles this year.

In June, authorities conducted one of the biggest drug busts in recent years with the discovery of a container filled with 351 kilograms of methamphetamine, with an estimated street value of Rp 702 billion, as it left North Jakarta's Tanjung Priok Port.

But antidrug activists believe that the record bust also indicates that drug abuses are becoming more and more rampant in Indonesia, with drug smugglers bringing in bigger and bigger shipments from overseas.

The National Narcotics Agency (BNN), said recently that Indonesia's illicit drug trade has reached staggering levels, with the latest measurements putting the industry's annual value at Rp 42.8 trillion.

Police also said that they have been investigating a record number of drug-related cases across the country this year with more than 32,000 suspects charged.

Politicians and activists believed that the fight against drugs was being undermined by none other than President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was providing clemency to a number of drug convicts on death row.

The criticism peaked in November when authorities learned that Meirika Franola, whose sentence was reduced to life in prison on Sept. 26, was reportedly caught running her drug business from behind bars.

Subsidized fuel

The proposal was simple and based on a solid argument: with international oil prices soaring, Indonesia needs to cut down its fuel subsidy to save the country from a swelling budget.

But getting that message across to millions of protesting Indonesians and members of the legislature was not so simple.

The House of Representatives rejected the plan to increase the price of subsidized fuel from Rp 4,500 to Rp 6,000 per liter on March 31. That rejection opened up a floodgate of other problems including on how to preserve the year's subsidized fuel quota of 44 million kiloliters.

Provinces like East Kalimantan were the first to experience fuel shortage and the problem gradually started to affect major cities like Jakarta, which exhausted its subsidized fuel quota recently, leading to fuel scarcity across the capital.

The House, however, blamed the government for the scarcity instead of pointing fingers at itself for rejecting plans to slash fuel subsidy.

The government has tried to cut down on the consumption of subsidized fuel by banning its use for vehicles owned by government offices and state owned companies, but enforcement of the measure is rare if not non-existent.

Politically, the House decision also led to pressures from inside Yudhoyono's coalition to oust the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), a coalition member that took the opposition role in the fuel price hike plan.

Although the party has withdrawn from the ruling coalition, three PKS politicians are still a member of Yudhoyono's cabinet.

West Papua

Police kidnap pro-democracy activist in Biak: Reports

West Papua Media - December 29, 2012

Unconfirmed Reports have emerged from Biak that Indonesian armed police have disappeared local Papuan pro-democracy activist Anthon Kafiar.

At 15:00 local time on December 28, 2012, outside the offices of the Supiori Regent, several heavily armed police officers used pistols to accost and bundle Anthon Kafiar into a Four Wheel Drive Vehicle Type Avanza, numberplate DS 900 DD. The vehicle then drove off, and Kafiar's whereabouts remain unknown, according to local human rights worker Dorus Wakum, from NGO Kampak Papua.

It is not yet known if the police were local police officers, or roaming members from the Australian-funded special anti-terror Detachment 88 unit, whose members have engaged in a campaign of kidnappings and shootings against Papuan pro-democracy activists since the appointment of new Papua Police Chief Tito Karnavian, the former commander of Densus 88.

According to the NGO, Biak citizens and witnesses visited the Kapolres (local Police Chief), the Supiori Regent and Supiori Council members to demand that Kafiar be immediately found and released.

[From human rights workers in Biak.]

Seven Papuan fisherman shot by the TNI

Bintang Papua - December 28, 2012

Seven Papuan fisherman were shot by members of the TNI (Indonesian army) near Pulau Papan district, Misol Perairan Raja Apat, West Papua. It is not clear why they were shot, but one TNI soldier is now being questioned by POM, the military police in Puncak Rafidin.

The commander of 1704/Sorong, Lieut-Col. Rachman Zulkarnain refused to make any comment about the incident but he did not deny that a TNI solider was being interrogated by the military police. They were still trying to find out more about those responsible for the shooting. "I want the process to continue, until we can decide who should be charged for the incident," said Zulkarnain.

A spokesman for the Cenderawasih XVII military command also said that a member of the army is being interrogated intensively by POM. The matter must be handled through legal channels, he said. He said that the commander would ensure that the person responsible would be firmly dealt with.

The spokesman also said that the person who did the shooting was thought to be a member of Babinsa Koramil (low level military command personnel) and one of those responsible has been identified as Praka BJ.

Head of public relations of the military command, I Gede Sumerta Jaja told the press that the case was still being investigated, while attention was at present concentrated on finding one of the victims.

One of the victims is at present being treated at Sorong Hospital but he is not yet fit enough to be asked to make a statement. "We must respect his rights and not try to force him to make a statement," he said.

The bodies of four of the victims were discovered in a state of decomposition on Wednesday, La Nuni, 55, La Jaka, 30, La Edi, 20 and La Diri, 20. A fifth victim, La Ful, 13 is still being sought by a TNI/Police unit. The bodies were under water for almost a week but officials were able to identify them when they were found.

Two other fisherman have also been found alive and are now being treated in hospital.

A representative of the military police met the families of the victims and members of South Sulawesi Families Association to continue with the process of identifying all the victims to finalise the process of identification and then moving them away from the area.

The Association has called on the military command to make a statement, following information that indicated that the military and police were responsible for the shooting but the military have as yet failed to clarify the case. A spokesman of the Association said that they were still trying find other victims of the shooting.

[Translated by TAPOL.]

Papua Police investigate attack on journalist

Antara News - December 28, 2012

Jayapura, Papua – Papua Police are investigating an attack on a journalist in Sorong, West Papua.

"My officers in Sorong, West Papua, have received the report about the incident and are now investigating it," the Papua regional police command spokesman, Adjunct Senior Commissioner I Gede Sumerta, said here on Friday.

The attack on journalist Resnal Umpain occurred at around 10.20pm at Jalan Rumberpon in Sorong. Resnal, a resident of Jalan Viktori Belakang Yon 752 in Sorong, was beaten up by a 20-year-old man, identified as WL, while the journalist was in a car.

"According to the victim, WL came up to him and hit him without any provocation," Sumerta said. He stated that the police would soon summon witnesses in order to solve the case.

Meanwhile, the chief of the Jayapura chapter of Aliansi Jurnalis Indonesia (AJI), Victor Mambor, noted that 12 cases of attacks on journalists in Papua and West Papua provinces had been recorded so far this year.

He told ANTARA here on Friday that four of the cases took place in West Papua, while the rest happened in Papua.

"Most of the attacks were in the form of verbal and physical intimidation, including threats, insults, pelting stones, chasing and hitting," Victor explained. "AJI Jayapura has received two reports of threats sent through SMS and by phone from Manokwari and Sorong in West Papua," he added.

Meanwhile, the head of Tabloidjubi.com said the perpetrators were "either from the police force, like in the 2010-11 incidents, or are simply demonstrators".

"AJI Jayapura has recorded two cases that have the potential to disrupt press freedom, namely the death of Leiron Kogoya and the deportation of Petr Zamenick, a Czech national who claimed to be a journalist, in February," he noted.

"However, the two cases are yet to be confirmed as acts of violence against journalists, due to confusion over whether the victims were really journalists and whether the incidents occurred while they were on duty," Tabloidjubi.com added.

Violence and intimidation of journalists in Papua in 2012

Tabloid JUBI - December 27, 2012

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) has recorded twelve cases of violence and intimidation against journalists Papua during 2012, which is a significant increase as compared with 2011, when there were seven cases.

The first case was violence and intimidation against journalists in Papua and West Papua wanting to cover the trial of Forkorus Yaboisembut and his colleagues at the district court in Jayapura on 8 February when they were physically intimidated, pulled and pushed as they were entering the courtroom.

Those responsible were members of the police force in Jayapura. The victims were Katerina Litha of Radio KBR 68 H Jakarta, Robert Vanwi of Suara Pemnaharuan, Jakarta, Josrul Sattuan of TV One, Irfan of Bintang Papua, and Cunding Levi of Tempo.

The second case was against Radang Sorong, a journalist with Cahaja Papua and Paskalis of Media Papua, from February until May in West Papua by the police chief of Manokwari, who were preventing journalists from reporting expressions of support for dialogue and a referendum in Papua.

Three local journalists said that they had been under pressure while writing critical reports about political matters, law and human rights violations and political prisoners. One of the journalists from Manokwari was instructed to restrict his reporting about political, legal matters and human rights violations.

The third case was in Abepura on 20 March when Josrul from TV One, Marcel from Media Indonesia, Irfan from Bintang Papua and Andi Irfan of Radio KBR 68 H Jakarta were attacked by members of KNPB, the National Committee of West Papua who were involved in an action outside the Post Office in Abepura.

On a separate occasion, outside Polimak, Jayapura, Timbar Gultom of Papua Pos was ordered to identify himself. When he replied that he was from Papua Pos, the people did not believe him and started chasing him. He was able to hide in a house nearby.

The fifth case was when three journalists in the district of Jayapura, Yance of Radio Kenambai Ombar, Putu of KBR 68 H Jakarta and Suparti of Cenderawasih Pos were verbally intimidated and chased by some members of the KNPB on 20 March.

The sixth case was when a journalist from TV One, Josrul Sattuan was beaten by an unidentified person when he was trying to report on the situation in Jayapura following a series of violent incidents and shooting incidents that occurred in various in places in Jayapura – The physical attack occurred at Abepura Circle on Thursday evening on 7th June.

The seventh case was when a journalist from Metro TV, Abdul Muin who was in Manokwari was attacked by someone from the Fishing Service in who intimidated him with an air gun. The victim told JUBI that the incident started when a member of the Fishing Service sent him a brief message on 8th June asking him and other journalists to cover an incident of bombing a hoard of fish by a group of people who were being held in the Manokwari Prison.

The eighth case occurred in Timika on 20 September. The victim was Mohammad Yamin, a contributor to RCTI, Simson Sambuari of Metro TV, Husyen Opa of Salam Papua and the photographer for Antara News Agency, and David Lalang of Salam Papua. They were prevented from recording some events in the Pamako Harbour.

The ninth case involved Oktavianus Pogau of suarapua.com and stringer for Jakarta Globe. This occurred in Manokwari on 22 October. Okto were beaten up by several members of the police force, some in uniforms and others not wearing their uniforms, who were battling with members of the KNPB in Manokwari. The victims was thought to be part of a crowd of people involved in a demonstration, even though they had clearly identified themselves.

The tenth case was when Sayied Syech Boften of Papua Barat Pos was attacked on 1 November by a person who identified himself as a member of the local legislative assembly, Hendrik G. Wairara.

The victim was threatened and intimidated among others things by phone. The victim was warned to stop reporting about corruption in a project involving the extension of the electrification system and the maintenance of BBM machinery in Raja Ampat District. On the same day, the assistant of the chairman of the the local DPRD flew into a rage while he was at the editorial office of Papua Barat Pos.

The eleventh case occurred on 8 November when Esau Miram of Cenderawasih Pos was intimidated as he was reporting on a gathering at the office of the Commander of the XVII Nilitary Command and all the heads of departments in Papua.They were accused of being terrorists even though Esau had shown his identity card as a journalist.

The twelfth case occurred on 1 December when Benny Mawel of JUBI was interrogated by members of the police force near Abepura Circle for reporting about a large crowd of people who were carrying banners while marching from Abepura to Waena. Benny showed his journalist identity card, but a group of around ten people accused him of not being a journalist. As he was travelling on his motorbike towards a repair centre, he was followed by some people there who starting asking whether he knew where Benny was.

Victor Mambor added the following: AJI reported two cases, the shooting of a Twin Otter plane belonging to Trigana Air by an unidantified person in Mulia Airfield, Puncak Jaya on 8th April which killed Leiron Kogoya who was first said to be a journalist of Papua Pos, Nabire and then the arrest and deportation of a Czech man, Petra Zamencnik who identified himself as a journalist with finecentrum.com. On 9 February, there was inconsistently about the status of the victim, whether he was a journalist or not, or whether he was involved in journalistic activities.

Suroso also confirmed that when the identity of Leiron was checked, it turns out that he was not at the time engaged in journalistic activities.but had gone to Mulia for personal reasons. Leiron had not registered himself as a journalist of Papua Pos Nabire. As regards Petr Zamencnik. he was unable to prove that he was a journalist. AJI Jayapura sought confirmation with finecentrum.com about his status and he was described as being the editor for financial affairs in the Czech Republic.

[Translated by TAPOL.]

Aceh

Aceh's Christians hope for a Christmas miracle

Jakarta Globe - December 23, 2012

Nurdin Hasan – Religious tolerance for all in Aceh is still a pipe dream for most minority groups living there, despite the peaceful everyday social interactions between people of all religions there.

Underneath the calm surface, there is religious strife in the province. A priest and human rights activist said that the move by law enforcers to shut down their places of worship was a form of human rights violation.

"Acehese people has been known as a tolerant people towards non-Muslim group, and also in terms of worship. So, the development in the recent years is very strange," said Zulkifar Muhammad, an executive director of human rights non-governmental organization coalition in Aceh.

"The new laws don't seem to be in line with the tolerance displayd by the people of Aceh. There was no conflict between religious communities in Aceh. It's because from the past, Acehese people are known as people who accept diversity," he added.

According to Zulkifar, worshiping or gathering to worship based on someone's belief is a basic right that is bestowed on a person since birth and cannot be infringed or taken away. A ruling which limits someone's basic right is a form of human rights violation.

"Nowadays, the state makes a mistake by limiting people's basic right to worship comfortably in whatever their religion is," Zulkifar said.

Last October, the Aceh provincial government closed nine churches and six Buddhist temples, saying the congregation did not secure permits. As a result, some no longer have a place of worship.

"The one who insisted on upholding that regulation was Deputy Mayor Ibu Illiza Sa'aduddin Djamal, while Mayor Mawardy Nurdin did nothing related to Shariah law," Zulkifar said.

"Illiza's action showed that she did not respect the freedom of religion. The place that was shut down merely a three-level store that was used as a place of worship once a week. But the government demanded a permit because it was not a formal place of worship."

Zulkifar continued: "I assume this is an attempt to benefit politically for the 2014 general election. It's like politicizing Shariah because Illiza is from Islamic-based United Development Party (PPP). Shariah has been used as a ploy to grab the votes of the conservative Muslims in Aceh," he said.

Nico Tarigan, a priest of Indonesian Bethel Church (GBI), which was shut down by the Aceh government, said that his congregation has not been able to return to the church after it church was sealed by the local government on Oct. 25.

"Since that day, we could only worship in our own houses because we follow the regulation, but we can't accept it," he said.

It is now just a few days before Christmas but about 90 GBI members are not making any preparations. "Because we are not allowed to gather for worship," Nico said.

Nico, who has lived in Banda Aceh for eight years, said that Acehese people is pretty tolerant in terms of social interaction with non-Muslim groups. But, the local government is the one who is displaying discrimination by making non-Muslim groups obtain permits to designate official places of worship.

Not letting non-Muslim groups worship or hold Sunday services does not give a chance for them to worship or hold a Sunday service, saying they had not obtained permission to hold mass in the store.

"Before the shutdown, we also got many threats through SMS from irresponsible people. To avoid a further anarchy action, we accept the decision of shutting down [the church] with a heavy heart," he said, saying he hoped there is a solution soon given by Banda Aceh government.

Domidoyo Ratupenu, a priest from Indonesian Presbyterian Church in Western Indonesia (GPIB) Banda Aceh, said that he and 200 congregations are still preparing for a simple Christmas celebration by prioritizing unity, togetherness, and peace. He admitted the tolerance of Aceh people is still exist despite the shutdown of churches.

"If we see from human rights perspective, of course it's [the shutdown of churches] a violation because we need a place of worship. That move has hurt human rights principal because the government always said we don't have the permit," he said.

"The government often hides from the regulation itself. If we want to be fair, that regulation is not fair at all because it has crossed the basic right of human to worship based on each belief. So, it seems that government is being ignorant about the fairness for its own citizens," he explained.

Domidoyo also refused the option offered by Banda Aceh government that ordered Christians to only worship in the certified churches in Banda Aceh.

"Some Christians have different way to worship. Some are clapping their hands to express their worship, but some don't. How come the government forces them to be the same. It must be uncomfortable for them too," said Domidoyo, who has only moved to Banda Aceh a year ago.

"The government should learn the problem and provide protection to all citizens by allowing them to worship comfortably," he added.

Human rights & justice

Indonesia receives mixed review from advocates

Jakarta Globe - December 30, 2012

Antonia Timmerman & SP/Erwin Cristianson – Rights advocates on Saturday gave a poor review of Indonesia's performance in 2012 in terms of tackling corruption and securing human rights and press freedom.

The Indonesian Advocates Association (Ikadin) and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) both expressed disappointment with the government's efforts in these areas in the past year.

Prominent lawyer Taufik Basari said on behalf of Ikadin that while the quantity of corruption cases addressed had increased, the quality of the handling of such cases had not improved.

"In terms of quality, there is still room for improvement. The KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission], police and judiciary still have an important role to play in probing, investigating and capturing big cases that harm state finances," Taufik said on Saturday.

Taufik blamed corruption, a lack of cooperation and professionalism, and the infiltration of a "legal mafia" into the justice system for its failings in 2012.

"It is only rational to demand inter-institutional professionalism and cooperation in enforcing the law when it comes to corruption, including the eradication of corrupt practices and disbanding the legal mafia, which includes members of the judiciary itself," he said.

In its end-of-year report for 2012, Ikadin recommended focusing on these areas to improve the justice system in the coming year. If the current failings are not addressed, Taufik said, public trust in the justice system will be affected.

"Public trust in the law and the justice system has still not been restored," he said. "Speedy and optimal reform of the justice system is the main task of the Supreme Court in 2013."

Taufik added that tackling cases involving human rights violations is also crucial in restoring public faith in the courts.

"Look at the issues that have happened in various areas of Papua, Lampung, Poso and so on," Taufik said. "These must receive special attention when it comes to resolving cases [of human rights violations] and creating preventative measures."

According to data from Ikadin, instances of public intolerance increased in 2012. The association highlighted cases of intimidation, discrimination and violence related to ethnic, religious and social issues that occurred in many places in Indonesia.

"This country has not yet been able to overcome [intolerance], and provide a sense of security for all its citizens," Taufik said. "If it continues, this failing will destroy the very fabric of the nation."

Meanwhile, instances of violence against journalists dropped in 2012 despite several high-profile abuse allegations levied against the Indonesian Military (TNI) and government officials this year, according to an (AJI) report.

The press freedom organization recorded some 56 cases where journalists were attacked, verbally threatened or had their equipment destroyed in 2012. Last year, the Legal Aid Foundation for the Press (LBH Pers) reported 96 acts of violence against journalists.

The AJI report documented 18 instances of physical abuse, 15 reports of verbal threats and 10 cases of reporters having their equipment damaged. AJI also included instances where journalists were prevented from covering certain stories or protests, censorship of the media and the banning of websites.

There were an additional 12 instances of violence directed at journalists working in Papua, including an attack on Oktovianus Pogau, a freelance reporter who contributes to the Jakarta Globe.

Despite the drop in numbers, AJI chairman Eko Maryadi warned that any blows to press freedom were worrying.

In recent months, several high-profile attacks on the press grabbed headlines in Indonesia. In mid-October, a member of the Indonesian Air Force, Lt. Col. Robert Simanjuntak, was caught on video kicking and choking journalists trying to shoot photos of a downed military plane in Pekanbaru, Riau.

One month later, journalists in Palembang claimed that members of the Indonesian Air Force smashed their equipment and choked another reporter at a demonstration in Sukarmi, Palembang – The reporters were allegedly documenting scenes of soldiers attacking protestors.

In East Nusa Tenggara, a local government official threatened to kill a journalist over a story detailing his expense claims.

All of the incidents were common stories in Indonesia, where the TNI and the government routinely rank as the top abusers of the press, Eko said on Friday.

Abused journalists also have little hope of seeing their attackers brought to justice, Eko added. "So far there have been only seven cases handled by the police," he said. "The rest were not investigated and the perpetrators were not caught."

Eko called on the Manado Police to finish their investigation into the stabbing death of AJI member Aryono Linggotu. Aryono, a Metro Manado journalist, was killed during an argument about his motorcycle's loud exhaust in November.

His alleged murderer was arrested by police in late November, but progress on the case is slow, Eko said, adding that the AJI is taking steps to push for a faster investigation into Aryono's death.

"He was brutally murdered and had been stabbed 14 times, and to this day, his case, which is being handled by Manado Police, has progressed really slow," Eko said.

The report also found that gender-based discrimination was still a significant issue in Indonesian newsrooms, including instances of sexual assaults and rules prohibiting women from covering criminal cases or fires.

AGO 'hesitant' to probe rights abuses

Jakarta Post - December 29, 2012

Jakarta – Investigations into past human rights abuses are unlikely to be launched in the near future as the Attorney General's Office (AGO) continues to debate technicalities in the preliminary report by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

On Friday, the AGO claimed that Komnas HAM had misinterpreted its request to complete the report on alleged human rights abuses in 1965-1966.

"Komnas HAM has not followed the directives from our investigators. Instead, it made its own arguments," Junior Attorney General for Special Crime Andhi Nirwanto said in Jakarta.

According to Andhi, the preliminary report by Komnas HAM is still under review by the AGO, once completed the review will be followed up by an investigation, Antara news agency reported.

The rights body submitted its report months ago but the AGO returned it and asked Komnas HAM to make the document similar to the AGO's own report style.

Komnas HAM investigated the alleged past human rights abuses for four years – the report could be used as a preliminary document by the AGO.

Freedom of information & the press

Attacks against the press still a problem in Indonesia: AJI report

Jakarta Globe - December 29, 2012

Antonia Timmerman – Instances of violence against journalists dropped in 2012 despite several high-profile abuse allegations levied against the Indonesian Military (TNI) and government officials this year, according to an Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) report.

The report documented 18 instances of physical abuse, 15 reports of verbal threats and ten cases of reporters having their equipment smashed. AJI also included instances where journalists were prevented from covering certain stories or protests, censorship of the media and the banning of websites.

There were an additional 12 instances of violence directed at journalists working in Papua, including an attack on Oktovianus Pogau, a freelance reporter who contributes to the Jakarta Globe.

Despite the drop in numbers, AJI chairman Eko Maryadi warned that any blows to press freedom were worrying.

In East Nusa Tenggara, a local government official threatened to kill a journalist over a story detailing his expense claims. The 25-member Lembata District Legislative Council had spent some Rp 2.8 billion ($290,000) on travel expenses in 2012, the Pos Kupang newspaper had reported.

The story reportedly angered deputy chairman Yoseph Meran Lagaur enough to shout "You dare to challenge me in Lembata? I could get crazier and I will kill you," three times during a confrontation with a reporter at a local World AIDS Day event.

All of the incidents were common stories in Indonesia, where the TNI and the government routinely rank as the top abusers of the press, Eko said on Friday.

Abused journalists also have little hope of seeing their attackers brought to justice, Eko said. "So far there have been only seven cases handled by the police," he said. "The rest were not investigated and the perpetrators were not caught."

Eko called on the Manado Police to finish their investigation into the stabbing death of AJI member Aryono Linggotu. Aryono, a Metro Manado journalist, was stabbed to death during an argument about his motorcycle's loud exhaust in November. His alleged murderer was arrested by police in late November, but progress on the case is slow, Eko said.

"He was brutally murdered and had been stabbed 14 times, and, until today, his case, which is being handled by Manado Police, has progressed real slow," Eko said. The AJI is taking steps to push for a faster investigation into Aryono's death.

Political parties & elections

Political graft expected to increase in 2013

Jakarta Globe - December 31, 2012

Ezra Sihite & SP/Erwin Cristianson – The scale of corruption involving political parties is only expected to increase in 2013 as parties rely on officials in elected positions nationwide to raise funds for the 2014 elections, an observer says.

Syamsuddin Haris, a political analyst with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said at a discussion on Saturday that he saw no chance of decline in corruption next year.

"The extent of the corruption committed by party officials will not decrease in 2013. If anything, it will increase as we get close to the elections," he said.

The analyst warned that the country should brace itself for corruption allegations as politicians and candidates seek all kinds of ways to raise money for their parties ahead of campaigning in 2014.

"It's well known that one of the primary sources for funding that political parties rely on is money embezzled by their members in public posts, by ministers, governors, legislators or others," Syamsuddin said.

He added that with polls already showing low public trust in political parties, the increase in scandals next year could ultimately push the public to the brink of political apathy, thereby impacting the turnout in the legislative and presidential elections in 2014.

However, he said that even the threat of low voter turnout would not discourage parties from continuing to rake in funding from questionable sources. "Political parties have never had a serious agenda with regard to corruption eradication," he said.

The Clean Indonesia Movement (GIB), an antigraft advocacy group, said it would ramp up its efforts next year to highlight party corruption, in a bid to make voters aware of the track records of parties contesting the elections.

"In 2013 we will see a movement against corrupt parties so that voters in 2014 will know which parties they shouldn't pick," Adhie Massardi, the GIB chairman, said on Sunday.

"So which are the corrupt parties? All those named by the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono," Adhie said, referring to a report issued earlier this year by Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam.

In the report, it was revealed that seven of the nine parties in the House of Representatives, including all six in the ruling coalition, had members who had been charged with or convicted of corruption between October 2004 and September of this year.

The parties not named were the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), which are relatively new and only joined the House in 2009. However, Adhie said this did not guarantee they were clean.

West Java governor reported for alleged campaign violations

Jakarta Globe - December 29, 2012

Incumbent West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan was reported to the local election board for alleged campaign violations after the governor reportedly asked local village chiefs for their support and promised them Rp 100 million ($10,376) each if he was re-elected, a spokesman for a rival candidate said on Friday.

The campaign team for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) gubernatorial candidate Rieke Dyah Pitaloka reported Ahmad to the West Java's Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) on Friday for his alleged remarks at a gathering of 320 village heads in the Cirebon district.

Ahmad reportedly asked the local leaders for their support in his re- election bid during the Wednesday meeting. He had allegedly asked the village heads to meet for the event and promised them each money upon his victory at the polls, said Abdi Yuhana, spokesman for Rieke's campaign.

"There is a conflict of interest between [Ahmad] Heryawan as a governor and a gubernatorial candidate," Abdi told the Indonesian news portal tempo.co.

The official campaign season is scheduled to begin on Feb, 7 and run to Feb. 20. The election will be held on Feb. 24. It is a violation of campaign rules to stump before the official session.

But Ahmad said he didn't break the rules. "I respect those who filed the report, but I think there was no violation," he said. Ahmad said he met with the village chiefs as the current governor. "As a governor, I recounted work programs, in the past and for the future," he said.

West Java Panwaslu chairman Ihat Subihat said he would look over the report before taking any further action.

This is Ahmad's second bid for governor of West Java. He is running with veteran actor Deddy Mizwar and is backed by the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party (PPP) and the Hanura Party.

Rieke, a lawmaker and former actress, is running with antigraft activist Teten Masduki on the PDI-P's ticket. The election is currently split between five pairs of candidates.

Incumbent Deputy Governor Dede Yusuf split from Ahmad and is running with Lex Laksmana on the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN) tickets. The head of the West Java chapter of the Golkar Party, Irianto MS Syafiuddin, is running with Tatang Farhanul Hakim. And on the independent ticket former South Sumatra Police chief Dikdik Mulyana Arief Mansur is running with Cecep NS Toyib.

The West Java election is widely seen as a bellwether for the 2014 presidential election.

Political corruption to boom

Jakarta Post - December 29, 2012

Rabby Pramudatama, Jakarta – As the 2014 general election draws near, graft watchdog Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) has warned about the possible flourishing of political corruption in 2013.

ICW researcher Apung Widadi said on Friday that due to poor political party finance regulations and weak implementation, almost all parties would seek campaign funds from illicit sources, including by tapping governmental budget allocations.

"If we observe this year's [2012] trends, most corruption cases were rooted in government budget allocations as well as the disbursement of social assistance funds [Bansos]," he told a press conference.

He said 52 political parties' members were implicated in graft cases this year. Their positions range from active minister to lawmaker, councillor and regent. Abdullah Dahlan, ICW's political corruption researcher, said the weak political party financing system was another aspect that indicate political corruption would thrive in 2013, a year ahead of the election.

"There are only a few political parties that have an independent financing system. This prompts most party cadres to gather as much campaign funding as they can from many sources," he said.

Abdullah said ICW had requested financial reports from nine political parties this year, but none of them responded well.

Only the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party responded to ICW's request although they refused to disclose their financial reports, he added.

Based on its research, ICW found that Golkar had the most cadres implicated in corruption cases, followed by the Democratic Party.

Apung said the Buol regency bribery case was the most notable one as it allegedly involved businesswoman and Democratic Party patron Siti Hartati Murdaya and Buol Regent Amran Batalipu. The two are currently on trial.

Meanwhile, Transparency International Indonesia (TII) project coordinator Ibrahim Fahmy Badoh said there were loopholes in the monitoring of the state budget. "The planning of the budget leaves loopholes that make it easy for state officials to misuse the budget," he said, as quoted by Antara news agency.

PDI-P lawmaker Ganjar Pranowo supported ICW's finding, saying there was a huge possibility that political corruption would increase in 2013.

"Similar to ICW's finding, we have also predicted that the [corruption] cases would increase. It is due to most people's mind-set that if someone wants to win a seat in the House, he should have a huge amount of money," he explained.

Most importantly, Ganjar added, lawmakers and journalists should monitor the general election process. He also urged law enforcers to be more proactive in tackling corruption cases.

Democratic Party patron Achmad Mubarok disputed ICW's analysis. He said: "Only crazy [people] still dare to get involved in political corruption.

"I think in the future, there will be fewer chances to commit corruption because all graft cases involving political parties have been unveiled," he told The Jakarta Post over the phone.

Mubarok said he believed the recent corruption cases were the acts of individuals, including the case involving former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin.

"Did you know that the party's treasury was empty when he [Nazaruddin] left the party? He took all the money for himself," he said.

"I think only individual cadres who have ambitions to secure a seat in the House of Representatives are prone to corruption. In fact, from all parties' members at the House, only those sitting on the budget committee have the chance to commit corruption," Achmad said.

Dems supports Puan as new sports minister

Jakarta Post - December 28, 2012

Jakarta – The Democratic Party says it will support Puan Maharani, the daughter of former President Megawati Soekarnoputri, to replace Andi Mallarangeng as the next Youth and Sports Minister.

"The Democratic Party will fully support the President [if he appointed Puan]," said the party's deputy general secretary Nurhayati Ali Assegaf on Friday.

Nurhayati, who is also the Democratic Party faction leader at the House of Representatives, said that Puan deserves the position. "She has the quality to be the minister. The Democratic Party supports her," she said as quoted by Antara news wire.

Puan, who graduated from the University of Indonesia, is currently the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction leader at the House and member of the House's Commission VI overseeing the state-owned firms.

Nurhayati, however, said that the appointment of new minister remains the President's prerogative. "It is the President's choice," Nurhayati said, "but the new minister does not have to come from the Democratic Party".

Andi Mallarangeng, one of the key figures in the ruling Democratic Party, resigned his position after becoming a suspect in the Hambalang sports complex graft case. His post is temporarily handled by Coordinating Peoples Welfare Minister Agung Laksono.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is reportedly selecting several names, including Puan, as candidates.

Puan and her father Taufiq Kiemas, PDI-P figure and the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, visited Yudhoyono to personally give Taufiq's biography on Wednesday.

More than a book-giving meeting, the visit could be seen as a further conciliatory gesture between Yudhoyono, the patron of the Democratic Party, and the opposition PDI-P ahead of the 2014 general election.

The relationship between Yudhoyono and Megawati reportedly turned sour when Yudhoyono, who was one of Megawati's most trusted aides, decided to compete head to head with her in 2004 presidential election using the newly founded Democratic Party as his political base. (cor/lfr)

Democrats quash talk of party split

Straits Times - December 27, 2012

Zakir Hussain, Jakarta – Leaders of Indonesia's ruling Democrat Party are seeking to quash talk of a split in their ranks, days after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned them to be mentally prepared to lose the top spot in the 2014 elections.

As chief of the party's advisory board, the President has also set cadres a target of 15 percent of parliamentary seats. This is well below the party's 21 percent in 2009, but higher than what several recent opinion polls put its support at.

Observers say the sombre warning is at odds with party chairman Anas Urbaningrum's optimism that the Democrats may have lost the battle for the airwaves, but remain strong on the ground.

Anas, for his part, said the party's fortunes are also tied to the government's performance in the months to come.

What all sides agree on, however, is that the Democrats face a rocky year ahead. "There is no split in the party," senior advisory board member Achmad Mubarok said in an interview with The Straits Times.

"The President was being realistic. His larger message is that we have to press on and give our best, while being mindful that we may also have to accept defeat."

Party members were clear where the chief of their 11-year-old party was coming from: A spate of high-profile corruption cases this year has all but dragged the party down from the pedestal of clean government that it had touted in the past two elections that propelled it to power.

The last straw came two weeks ago, when promising Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng, who was close to Yudhoyono, resigned after being named as a graft suspect by the authorities in an ongoing investigation into the Hambalang sports complex project in West Java.

He had first been fingered by former party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin, who was sentenced to nearly five years' jail for graft in April. Nazaruddin had also fingered Anas, who maintains his innocence, but that has not stopped speculation that he could be the next to fall.

Anas, a former student leader, has in fact consolidated his support in the party, displacing vocal critic and lawmaker Ruhut Sitompul from the leadership board last week. Ruhut had led members in calling for Anas to resign, saying such a move will help lift the party's fortunes, a claim others deem questionable.

Yudhoyono has publicly stayed above the fray, calling for members to wait for the law to take its course. "We have to be honest that we have many shortcomings and failings," he said at the party meeting. "But these don't just affect the Democrat Party. Other political parties around for decades are not free from wrongs either."

Political scientist Ari Dwipayana from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta says that with elections for Parliament just 15 months away and aspiring legislators clamoring to be on shortlists, a rise in intra-party conflict is inevitable.

But given how the scandals affecting party members have pushed political rivals Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) and Golkar ahead of the Democrats' sliding opinion poll numbers, he feels party elders are consciously avoiding open conflict to stem a further dip.

"This is all the more necessary as unlike the PDI-P or Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), they are far behind in mobilizing support on the ground," he said. "They have been helped by the party's link with government, but that is now not so advantageous."

Observers, however, say the advantage of incumbency cannot be underestimated. Burhanuddin Muhtadi of the Jakarta State Islamic University noted that although Yudhoyono cannot run again by law, he will still be president during the 2014 elections, and can time populist policies in the lead up to voting.

Dwipayana added that the government is already starting to trumpet its achievements in alleviating poverty and improving the welfare of Indonesians, and publicizing its plans to do more on this front for the coming year.

Yudhoyono has yet to name a successor, and indications are that he is likely to wait till the later half of next year, at the earliest.

But possible nominees include Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto, a former armed forces chief, as well as current army chief of staff Pramono Edhie Wibowo, who is Yudhoyono's brother-in-law. If it helps, neither is a party member at present.

Violations common in parties' verification

Jakarta Post - December 27, 2012

Jakarta – Activists with the People's Voter Education Network (JPPR) have found 13 categories of violations by political parties during the factual verification process at provincial and regency levels.

JPPR monitoring manager Masykurudin Hafidz said here on Wednesday most of the violations relate to the executive boards of the political parties' regional chapters.

Among the findings by the JPPR are a dead man listed as an executive member, a dismissed member who is still listed, fake lists of executive members and some of executive members are active police or military personnel.

"Most of the violations relate to women's representation." Masykurudin said, referring to the requirement for political parties to allocate 30 percent of executive board seats for female politicians.

In addition, the JPPR also found that the address of several political parties' headquarters mentioned in their documents turn out to be different from their real location, Antara news agency reported.

Masykurudin did not reveal the identity of the political parties, saying he hopes they will soon improve the documentation to meet the factual verification process.

Surveys & opinion polls

Economic optimism on the rise in Indonesia: Survey

Jakarta Globe - December 26, 2012

Nearly half of the Indonesians questioned about the nation's economy believe things are looking good, according to a survey released this month.

Indonesia's optimism bucked global trends as economic sentiment dropped to 36 percent, the lowest point since the 2008/2009 economic crash, according to a survey conducted by French marketing research firm Ipsos.

Forty-six percent of those surveyed assessed Indonesia's current economic situation as "good," a six percentage point rise over last year's results, the report read. It was the second largest improvement recorded this year.

Indonesia's economy grew by 6.5 percent last year, the fastest rate since 1996, on the back of a robust domestic market, large development projects and a healthy investor appetite.

But more than half of those surveyed still described the currently economy as bad and said it was going to get worse. Fifty-four respondents from a wide-range of socioeconomic backgrounds told Ipsos they thought the economy was heading downhill.

Optimistic responses skewed toward business owners, senior executives and other top-level businessmen, the report read. Thirty-four percent of businessmen questioned predicted the economy would improve in the next six months.

Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said they expect the economy to remain the same. Thirty-six percent of all those surveyed expected it to improve.

Ipsos polled some 18,500 people in 24 countries on the state of their domestic economies. Nearly every geographic region expressed concern and doubt about the economy.

Citizens of Saudi Arabia topped the list, with 79 percent of those surveyed indicating that their economy looked good. Sweden, Canada, China and Australia rounded out the top five. Spain, Hungary, Italy, France and Japan scored lowest.

Indonesia more tolerant than perceived: LSI

Jakarta Post - December 24, 2012

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – A new survey conducted by the Indonesia Survey Circle (LSI) found that the majority of people are tolerant and concerned about worsening discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities.

According to the survey, conducted between Dec. 14 and 17, only 10 percent of respondents condoned discrimination against minority groups in the country and insisted that minority groups should submit to the wishes of the majority.

LSI, however, found that although intolerant people were few in number, they were opinion setters who wielded influence in their communities. The survey outfit found that intolerant groups could inflict violence on a regular basis because of lax law enforcement.

"These groups include, among others, members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI). These people are very vocal and actively reach out to society declaring that they represent the majority of the population to legitimize their violent actions [against members of minority groups]. We now know that they are the minority," LSI researcher Adjie Alfaraby said in a press briefing on Sunday.

He said that radical groups could freely commit violence because of the inaction of moderate groups. "These people would not dare impose their will if the majority Indonesians were united in rejecting their arbitrary actions. It would also help if the government enforced the law strictly when there are violent acts," he added.

In its latest survey, LSI interviewed 440 respondents from around the country in focus group discussions. Field workers also had in-depth interviews with the respondents over the country's diversity.

In the survey, 88.84 percent of the respondents favored equality among all religious groups, and only 9.15 percent insisted that the government should favor members of the majority religion.

When asked about ethnicity issues, 93.04 percent of the respondents were of the opinion that ethnic identity should not determine treatment toward others. Only 5.22 percent wanted special treatment for those of the ethnic majority.

LSI found that in spite of the spirit of tolerance among members of the community, politics made it difficult to promote respect for those of other faiths and ethnicity.

"Politicians will capture members of this small, powerful group to get support for their political interests. We, for example, identified that violent attacks by such groups tend to escalate during certain periods," Novriantoni Kahar from nonprofit group Denny JA Foundation said.

Novriantoni said that religious clashes tended to happen, both at local and national levels, at around the time of elections.

Although the majority of the respondents accepted differences, only half of them said they would accept leaders, particularly at the local administration level, of different faiths and ethnicity.

Of six minority categories given as options, women were the most welcomed to lead in local government, with homosexuals being the most frowned upon. Other categories included atheists, Ahmadis, Shiites and adherents to different faiths.

"This reflects the condition of our society. People would tend to vote for female candidates rather than male Ahmadis or Shiites, for example," LSI researcher Adjie said. The finding also confirmed LSI's study released in October citing gays and lesbians as the group most likely to face the highest level of hostility.

According to the survey, rejection of having gay or lesbian neighbors had increased significantly since 2005 as Indonesians would prefer to live next door to people of other faiths, even with those they deem deviant like Shia or Ahmadiyah.

"However, having seen that the majority of Indonesians in fact embrace differences, we want to encourage leaders of this country to promote and protect these differences. We also want to suggest that candidates running in the 2014 presidential election not be afraid to advocate differences over the fear of losing votes," Adjie added.

Women's rights

Government urged to clarify minimum age for marriage

Jakarta Post - December 27, 2012

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Activists with women's advocacy groups have called on the government to clarify stipulations on the minimum age for women to marry, saying different clauses in two existing laws have led to confusion.

The 1974 Marriage Law stipulates that the minimum age for a woman to marry is 16 years old. However, the 2002 Child Protection Law states anyone below the age of 18 is considered a minor.

The arguments on this issue relate to the controversy surrounding the marriage of Garut Regent Aceng Fikri, 40, to a 17-year-old girl identified as FO in July in an unregistered Islamic nuptial ceremony.

Aceng divorced the teenager via text message four days after their marriage, saying he was disappointed to learn that FO was not a virgin as he had expected.

Asnifriyanti Damanik from the Legal Aid Institute of the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (LBH APIK) told a discussion on Wednesday that the debate on the minimum age for women to marry should have already been settled, saying that people should abide by the latest legislation.

"We should use the new provision in the 2002 law, not the one in the 1974 law," she said, calling for revision of the 1974 Marriage Law.

She later lamented that many people were unaware of the two laws and hid behind religion to justify child marriage as well as unregistered marriages.

According to her, child marriages were mostly unregistered because the local religious affairs office could only validate marriages if the bride had reached the minimum age of 16 as stipulated in the 1974 law. "Many officials know about this, but they turn a blind eye," she said.

A 2012 survey by the Empowerment of Female Heads of Households Program (Pekka) shows that nearly 25 percent of marriages in 111 villages in 17 provinces in 2012 were unregistered.

Around 50 percent of marriages were unregistered in East Nusa Tenggara, 54 percent in West Nusa Tenggara and 78 percent in Banten. Women's activists suspect that the brides in those unregistered marriages are mostly minors.

Kustini of the Religious Affairs Ministry's research and development division stated that officials could not simply refuse to register marriages if the bride was still a minor. "Registering marriages is important. Imposing sanctions is essential for those who fail to register their marriages," Asnifriyanti added.

Andy Yentriyani of the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) said that the state was responsible for ensuring the rights of women and children. "Child marriage violates the rights of children to grow up," she said. "It is against our Constitution."

Machasin, the head of the ministry's research and development division, argued that society needed more "social movements to raise awareness instead", saying that the problem was rooted in a lack of education and economic factors. He added that the 1974 Marriage Law was actually "good enough, even though it still has loopholes".

Parties still discriminating against women, says study

Jakarta Post - December 27, 2012

Jakarta – Despite numerous rules and regulations requiring political parties to promote gender equality, a recent study by the University of Indonesia has found that parties in the country have continued with discriminatory policies against women.

The study found that gender equality remained a non-issue for the country's major political parties.

Reports from the study entitled "Political parties and half-hearted gender strategies" said that the three major political parties surveyed – the Democratic Party, the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) – deliberately slighted the interests of women in politics.

The authors of the report, Ani W Soetjipto and Shelly Adelina said that the three major political parties only accommodated demands for gender equality by setting up an ad-hoc department or division to deal with women's issues.

The 2002 Election Law requires that women make up 30 percent of each political party's legislative candidates and that in order to meet that objective, political parties must set up departments to empower their female members.

The ruling Democratic Party has created a women empowerment department while the Golkar Party has set up a Caucus for Women (KPPG). The PDI-P has a similar creation – the women and children empowerment department.

The study, however, found that despite the presence of such departments, gender equality issues remained on the back burner, with women rarely finding themselves in decision-making positions.

It also found that high ranking officials in three major political parties had a superficial understanding of gender issues.

"These people think that gender issues are simply the result of differences of sex, the function of a division between male and female. They fail to see that gender is a social construction that can give rise to many problems," Ani said.

Syamsuddin Haris, a senior political analyst with the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) reaffirmed the survey findings, saying that none of the major political parties in the country had a clear platform on how to empower women. "All they have is a blurry mix of ideas," he said.

Syamsuddin said most political parties tended to accommodate demands from society that adopted a mainstream, patriarchal way of thinking, with politicians drafting regulations discriminating against women as a result.

As of August 2012, the National Commission on Violence against Women recorded that there were 282 bylaws that victimized women, including some that detailed the way women should dress.

Burhanuddin Muhtadi, political analyst with the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) said that parties were motivated by votes and would do just about anything to win elections even if it meant trumping the rights of women.

Burhanuddin also blamed female voters for not having enough understanding on women's issues. "The government and political parties themselves need to educate female voters about the importance of gender issues," he said.

A survey released by LIPI late last month found that local values impeded women's progression and participation in the country's politics.

In Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, for instance, women were found to be discouraged from entering politics and becoming community leaders because of local conservative Islamic values.

Aceh is one of the provinces with the lowest number of women at the local council level, with only four out of 69 council members being women.

Government told to stop female circumcision

Jakarta Post - December 23, 2012

Jakarta – As the United Nations has adopted a resolution urging member states to ban female genital mutilation, the government has been told it has no choice but to revoke a Health Ministry regulation issued in 2010 that condones female circumcision.

National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) deputy chairwoman Masruchah said that the 2010 ministerial regulation runs counter to the UN resolution because it legalizes a practice that is harmful to the sexual and reproductive health of women.

The UN General Assembly unanimously approved the resolution, which is not legally binding, on Thursday, urging its 193 member states to enforce legislation that prohibits female genital circumcision.

The 2010 Health Ministry regulation stipulates that female circumcision is allowed as long as it is performed by licensed doctors, nurses or midwives.

"We have consistently pushed the ministry to revoke that regulation because it abuses the reproductive rights of women. This practice stems from the erroneous interpretation of cultural and religious teachings," Masruchah told The Jakarta Post.

Many Indonesians, she said, believed that female circumcision could control the sexual desires of girls. Instead of providing health benefits, female genital mutilation can cause severe bleeding, urination problems and can lead to complications during childbirth, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Health Ministry website claims that female circumcision, as stipulated in the regulation, cannot be categorized as female genital mutilation. The regulation stipulates that "female circumcision is an action of incising the skin that covers the front part of clitoris, without harming the clitoris".

The Indonesian Doctors Association chairman, Zaenal Abidin, said that the association would study the UN resolution and that they would issue a recommendation related to female circumcision.

"The association cannot make any recommendations unilaterally. We will involve religious scholars and communities in the deliberations. We will also study the suggestions from the WHO and international doctors' associations," he said.

Zaenal said, for now, doctors had the freedom to perform female circumcisions. "Our association has not regulated this practice," Zaenal said, while declining to state his own medical recommendations on female circumcision.

Indonesian General Practitioners Association member Enrico Renaldi, who believes that female circumcision is unnecessary and harmful, said that medical practitioners in the country were facing challenges in preventing the practice.

"It is hard for doctors to be agents of change. There are strong pros and cons in the matter. Indonesians, particularly those in rural areas, see female circumcision as a necessity," Enrico said.

Iffah Ainur Rochmah, the spokesperson for the Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), rebuffed the negative assumptions about female circumcision practices in Indonesia.

"This is a part of our culture rooted in Islamic teachings. The practice should be carried out through procedures that will not cause health implications," she said.

Iffah called on the global community, including the UN, to not liken Islamic female circumcision with the unhygienic and inhumane practice of female genital mutilation.

She explained that Islam teachings regulated female circumcision as a minor incision of the skin that covers the front part of the clitoris. "Some ulemas view the practice as sunnah [recommended], while others say it is mubah [neither forbidden nor recommended]," she added. (yps)

Health & education

Home births still common practice for Indonesians

Jakarta Globe - December 28, 2012

Dessy Sagita – Almost half of pregnant Indonesian women chose to give birth at home in 2012 rather than at health facilities that could help minimize infection risks, according to the Health Ministry.

Health Ministry data reveal that 55.4 percent of births in Indonesia occurred at health facilities, while the remainder took place at home.

"More than 40 percent of labors in Indonesia still took place at home. That's not hygienic. Don't be surprised to see mothers' mortality [rate] still very high as the result of infection," said Slamet Riyadi Yuwono, the Health Ministry's director general for nutrition and child and maternal health, on Thursday.

Slamet said limited access to hospitals and clinics, as well as cultural beliefs contributed to the high home birth rate.

"Some of the mothers' houses are far from the health facilities or [they have] limited transportation access because they are located in remote areas. [Home births] may also have been [driven] by limited economic access, where pregnant women were worried to go to health facilities because they didn't have money," Slamet said.

Slamet added that the strong patriarchal culture in Indonesia was also a contributing factor because men often decide where pregnant women give birth. "Women have to ask the husbands or the elders if they want to give birth at the hospital," Slamet said.

To overcome the geographic challenges, the Health Ministry has required the establishment of at least one polyclinic or one health post in every village. Slamet said mothers should no longer worry about giving birth at health facilities due to money problems.

"We already have Jampersal [childbirth insurance program]. Basically we don't want to see any pregnant woman be worried about going to health facilities because they are now free of charge," he said.

Slamet said the Health Ministry had also made an effort to tamp down the cultural factors contributing to unsafe births.

Meanwhile, the ministry lamented regional governments' underpayment of midwives, saying the practice was counterproductive to efforts to reduce mothers' mortality rate, as midwives are specifically trained to help with pregnancies and labor.

"There are regional governments that pay midwives only Rp 200,000 [$21] per labor," said Slamet, adding that the central government budgeted Rp 680,000 through Jampersal for every pregnant woman, of which Rp 500,000 is allocated mainly to pay midwives.

Slamet said the low pay caused midwives to simply refer patients to hospitals when encountering difficult labors, resulting in delays for the patient and longer hospital queues.

Providing education and options to Medan's sex workers

Jakarta Globe - December 24, 2012

Zack Petersen – In Indonesia, the sex trade is a wink-and-nod industry – everyone acknowledges its existence, but refuses to talk about it openly. One group fighting a lonely battle to change all that is P3M, an independent organization based in Medan, North Sumatra.

P3M stands for Perempuan Peduli Pedila Medan, or Women Who Care For Medan's Female Sex Workers. The group was established to encourage women, who join the sex trade usually from a lack of education and options, to free themselves.

The grassroots program was started in April 2012 by two former sex workers and a former drug user. Volunteers there not only teach women and men about condoms, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, but also offer a way out of the city's massage parlors, hotels, bath houses and brothels. Free tutorial classes open up alternative career paths, such as hairdressing, sewing and cooking.

The organization, which has touched the lives of more than 400 women in Medan, was established by and for women trapped in a life of prostitution. Those who managed to break free have now dedicated their lives to helping others find a way out.

"In Medan there is a great deal of prostitution around town, with more than 50 hotspots with high rates of concentrated prostitution," said Wilda R. Wakkary, a former sex worker and one of the founders of P3M. "The women all range in age. Unsurprisingly, women in the poorest areas tend to be less concerned about how important it is to take precautions while having sex."

The workers at P3M do not narrow their eyes at the idea of the world's oldest trade, or ignore rumors that there are girls as young as 14 working on the streets in Medan. Instead of pretending that the organization can eliminate prostitution, volunteers and staff members use love and empowerment to encourage women to take a leap of faith and break free from Medan's sex industry.

Volunteers not only teach much-needed English and life skills classes throughout the week, they also readily take to the streets at night, ducking into narrow alleyways or simply showing up at prostitution hotspots in the North Sumatra capital to show women how to use condoms and encouraging them to come to free English classes or take internships as hairdressers, cooks, seamstresses or small-business owners.

Amber Pryor, an American living in Medan, has gone beyond traditional volunteering and fund-raising efforts and taken to the Internet to help shine a light on P3M and the sex trade in Medan.

Pryor created a website and a crowd-funding site that is almost midway toward its goal of raising $2,000 to help build a halfway house for the sex workers.

Pryor also hits the streets with other volunteers, handing out condoms and explaining the dangers of unprotected sex. And while some people get upset about the idea of handing out condoms and talking openly about sex, Pryor says she has never encountered anyone who disagreed with what P3M was doing.

"The times I have gone out with P3M at night, I never seen anyone get upset or anything negative really happen," Pryor said. "It's actually the opposite, people get really excited about it and want to learn about how to protect themselves. The lack of knowledge about condoms, HIV/AIDS, and STDs is unbelievable, and P3M provides them with this life-saving education. I think the prostitutes all recognize this and are thankful to P3M for caring about their lives and empowering them."

Wilda, who serves as the coordinator and linchpin of most P3M activities, explained that the reason the organization P3M has such success is that 99 percent of women the organization has come into contact with want to leave that lifestyle.

Wilda went on to say that P3M is currently trying to focus on building a home base, a house where volunteers can come and train the women in any number of skills.

The Indonesian government has also taken a strong stance against the AIDS epidemic, and is committed to helping educate and protect its citizens. Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi explained earlier this month at an event marking World AIDS Day that next year her ministry would distribute 10 million condoms to commercial sex workers.

But no matter how many condoms are handed out, if there is no support system in place and no volunteers taking to the streets to educate women about STDs, HIV/AIDS and alternatives to the sex-trade industry, prostitution will continue to run rampant.

"P3M offers Medanese the opportunity to truly fight evil in a very real way. Every day they pull those who are in darkness toward the light," said Jason Baerhold, a supporter, who teaches English in Medan.

"These are people who do not simply shake their head and 'tut, tut' at the hidden evil in the world. These are the shining souls who get up every morning and seek out the places of the deepest suffering. They face the blackest evil every day. Not for money or fame, but because someone has to do something." P3M (Perempuan Peduli Pedila Medan)

[For more information, go to www.indiegogo.com/p3m.]

Graft & corruption

'Whistle-blower' cop Susno still out despite court ruling

Jakarta Globe - December 31, 2012

The Witness and Victim Protection Agency has urged former top cop Susno Duadji to turn himself over to authorities after the Supreme Court upheld a graft conviction and three-and-a-half year sentence handed down to him last year.

Abdul Haris Semendawai, the head of the agency known as the LPSK, said on Sunday that his office had done all it could to try to minimize Susno's jail time by citing his importance as a whistle-blower shining a light on graft in the police force.

"The prosecutors wanted him to get seven years, but the Supreme Court has upheld the lower court's ruling of just half that time. The judges at both the district court and Supreme Court noted that Susno was a whistle- blower," Abdul said.

Susno, the former National Police chief of detectives, was convicted by the South Jakarta District Court in March 2011 of taking a Rp 500 million ($57,500) bribe to settle a legal dispute over the ownership of a fish farm in 2009.

The Jakarta High Court upheld the conviction and the three-and-a-half year sentence in November last year, and now the Supreme Court has also weighed in.

Despite the rulings, however, Susno remains free, having spent just 120 days in jail between his arrest and trial.

Untung Sunaryo, a lawyer for the former three-star police general, said his side had not received a copy of the Supreme Court verdict, which was handed down on Nov. 22, but added it appeared that the LPSK had not advocated strongly enough on behalf of his client.

"If there had been an official letter from the LPSK, it would have been taken into consideration by the court. But the fact remains that the sentence was not reduced," he said.

Zero tolerance for corrupt politicians: KPK

Jakarta Post - December 30, 2012

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – With more politicians potentially earning money from illicit sources ahead of the 2014 general elections, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has renewed its pledge to take preventive measures against possible acts of corruption.

"We will never tolerate these political elites who try to rob the belongings of the people and the state," KPK deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas said on Saturday. "The bigger their desire to loot, the more we will intensify our preventive and repressive [prosecution] measures."

On Friday, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) indicated there would be more political corruption in 2013 as political parties would be seeking financial resources for the 2014 general elections.

According to the corruption watchdog, political parties would mostly tap money from state budgets as a result of poor political party financial regulation and weak implementation.

Busyro emphasized political parties were the pillar of democracy that should serve to strengthen the system. "If, in fact, they take advantage of their authority and commit corrupt acts, they plow our democracy," he said.

According to him, civil society groups needed to participate more in democracy building by pushing political parties to perform well. "Civil society must be critical. It can take legal measures by requesting the Constitutional Court to disband political parties [that condone graft practices]," he said.

Responding to possibilities that political parties will try to intervene in graft cases implicating their cadres, KPK spokesperson Johan Budi said that his office could not intervene, saying that it refused to meddle in politics.

"Keep in mind, the KPK investigates persons allegedly involved in graft cases. We prosecute them as individuals, not as political parties' officials," he said. Yet, he admitted that 2013, the year prior to the country's general elections, would "likely give the commission extra pressure."

"In handling graft cases connected to politicians, the KPK is often pulled into the political sphere by these parties, as well as outsiders," he added. "Then come the allegations that the KPK is biased or that we only handle certain cases. There were even accusations that the KPK took several cases hostage."

He said that the commission was still digging deeper into cases it was handling, including the one involving Democratic Party member and former youth and sports minister Andi Mallarangeng. He added, however, that his office had not yet scheduled to detain Andi – now a suspect – neither to summon him for his first questioning session.

Separately, political analyst Yudi Latif said members of the ruling coalition would try to maintain distance from the Democratic Party, which has had several cadres named suspects in graft scandals.

"They will start building a gap with the Democratic Party because they don't want the public to consider them as corrupt as the party," he said.

To retain their clean image, Yudi said, political parties would also try to blame the Democratic Party for some of major alleged corruption issues in the government including the 2008 Bank Century bailout. (riz)

KPK to apply human rights law to graft cases

Jakarta Post - December 28, 2012

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) aims to use human rights laws when dealing with graft suspects, based on an assumption that the suspects have caused not only financial losses, but also disadvantaged the general public.

KPK commissioner Busryo Muqoddas said corruption had multiplier effects which harmed society.

"The losses are not only those that are audited by the Supreme Audit Agency [BPK] and the Development Finance Controller [BPKP] but also those calculated by other experts based on the implementation of the laws on human rights and money laundering," he said on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com.

Busyro said the commission was establishing a theoretical framework to merge relevant laws, so that the commission's efforts to eradicate fraudulent practices would create systemic improvements within the governmental institutions.

According to Busyro, no other country in the world has used human rights laws in eradicating corruption. (cor/swd)

Cooperative graft convicts eligible for sentence cuts: Deputy minister

Jakarta Globe - December 27, 2012

Rizky Amelia – Graft convicts who are cooperative in helping to uncover corruption cases are now eligible for a sentence reduction, Deputy Minister of Justice and Human Rights Denny Indrayana said on Wednesday.

Denny said that a revision of a 2006 government regulation on the matter was issued on Dec. 12 to include the new provision.

"Based on this government regulation, corruption convicts can get sentence cuts if they are willing to cooperate with law enforcers to uncover the crime they perpetrated," Denny said at his office.

The willingness of the convict should be also recorded in writing and the individuals should have already paid any fines or compensation ordered by the anti-corruption court, he said.

The ministry has been under criticism for continuing to hand out sentence cuts to corruptors and drug addicts despite a government regulation temporarily suspending such moves in an effort to deter corruption and drug violations.

Meanwhile, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is proposing that the restriction on sentence cuts for corruption and drug convicts be contained in an official law.

"There is a need for a change of regulations at the law levels in relation to the restrictions on sentence cuts. For example, it could be included in the anti-corruption law that is currently being revised," KPK spokesman Johan Budi said.

Speaking at a discussion at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, Johan said that the government regulation issued on Dec. 12 was not enough to govern the issue of sentence cuts. He added that corruption is an extraordinary crime requiring higher legislation.

"I think that the regulation that has been issued by the government on the matter is not enough," Johan said. He also said that such a law should also offer more details on the provision of legal compensation for justice collaborators and the procedure for issuing them.

He suggested that there should be a 2 percent incentive of the value of state assets saved to encourage people to report corruption cases. "So that more people report, meaning making more accurate reporting too," Johan said.

KPK still reliant on police for manpower

Jakarta Globe - December 27, 2012

Rizky Amelia – The antigraft commission will request a loan of more investigators from the National Police at the start of next year to make up for its current manpower shortage, an official said on Wednesday.

Johan Budi, a spokesman for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), said that his office was seeking an additional 30 investigators to help it work through its backlog of cases. "The KPK will file a request with the police for more investigators this coming January," he said.

He added that the two law enforcement agencies would also discuss the implementation of a recently issued government decree that increased the total length of time that an investigator could be on loan to the KPK from eight years to 10 years.

The KPK has faced a manpower shortage since October, when police abruptly ordered a recall of 20 investigators on the pretext that their career advancement prospects were being held up while they were deployed at the KPK.

However, the move was widely seen as a retaliation against the KPK for its decision to name two police generals as suspects for taking kickbacks in connection to the procurement of driving simulators for the traffic police.

Since then, several more investigators have either been recalled or left voluntarily, leaving the KPK with just 52 investigators currently, down from 83 last year.

The shortage had prompted the antigraft agency to begin a training program to develop its own internal pool of investigators from among current staff. However, Johan said that of the 65 people who took part in the training program, only 28 met the criteria to become investigators.

He added they would begin working in their new capacity at the end of January. "They're currently taking part in a training program that began at the start of December," he said.

To address the manpower shortage at the KPK, which also relies on the Attorney General's Office to provide it with prosecutors, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued a new regulation earlier this month extending the amount of time that investigators and prosecutors could serve with the commission.

Under the previous regulation, in force since 2005, the officers on loan could only stay on for a maximum of eight years and could be recalled to their original institutions at any time.

But under the terms of the new regulation, they will serve an initial term of four years with the KPK, after which the antigraft body can extend the loan period for another four years.

Once the second period is up, the KPK will be allowed a further extension of two years, Justice and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin said earlier. The regulation also forbids the police and the AGO from recalling the investigators while they are working on a case.

The KPK gave a lukewarm response to the announcement, with Johan pointing out that the commission had actually been seeking to retain the officers for up to 12 years, but had been locked out of the discussion by the government.

"Initially we were involved, but after a while the minister for state administrative reform left us out of the discussion, and the 12-year working period [request] became 10 years," he said earlier this month.

When KPK leaders met with the president in early December, they learned that the final form of the regulation would only allow them to have the investigators for a maximum of 10 years.

Johan said the initial suggestion of four years followed by two extensions of four years each was previously approved, but when the KPK leaders met with the president before the regulation was issued, they were told that it had been changed.

He added the president had to sign the regulation to prevent the KPK from losing its current batch of investigators, most of whom were recruited eight years ago.

"If the eight-year limit still stood, we would have been left with only four investigators in March, and we haven't started the process to recruit more," he said.

The new regulation was also poorly received by legal analysts, who said it failed to accommodate the KPK's interests.

Indonesia Corruption Watch warned that as long as the regulation provided no room for the KPK to recruit its own investigators, it would never be able to resolve its human resources problem thoroughly.

Terrorism & religious extremism

Catholic church receives bomb threat post Christmas

Jakarta Post - December 30, 2012

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – The North Sumatra Police's bomb squad on Saturday secured an alleged homemade bomb, that contained 500 grams of nails, which was found in the backyard of Salaon Toba Catholic Church in Samosir Island, located at the center of the renowned Lake Toba.

The church's priest, Herman Nainggolan, said the package was found following a text message received by local district head Ronggur Ni Huta at 11:11 p.m. local time on Friday that read, "There is a bomb in your jurisdiction at the Salaon Church."

The text message was promptly reported to the police, which sent a team to inspect the church. "No one had the courage to move it. It [the bomb] was secured only after the bomb squad arrived today," Nainggolan said on Saturday.

The suspicious package, which was packed in two drinking bottles, stirred panic among the congregation taking part in Christmas mass. The team arrived at the church at about 11:30 a.m. and brought the package to the Samosir Police headquarters for further examination.

Samosir Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Donny Damanik said the package had been examined and it was not a bomb. It did not contain explosive material, but it was equipped with batteries connected to the nails with cables.

"The bottle that contained batteries, cables and nails did not explode because it did not contain explosives or have a detonator," Damanik said

Donny said the police were still investigating the perpetrators of the terror act as well as the motives behind the security threat. He added that the threat was unexpected as Samosir had been secure during the Christmas holiday.

"This is the first [threat] of the year. We will investigate it thoroughly," he said, adding that security measures would be tightened at all the churches in Samosir following the bomb threat. Samosir is home to some 100 churches, but only 60 are still used for religious activities.

He also said the police and the Samosir administration had agreed to distribute circulars to church boards asking them to call on their respective congregations to not feel threatened.

Nainggolan said some members of his congregation had indeed expressed worry over visiting the church in the aftermath of the threat.

In the past few years, a number of cities in the country have seen bomb threats addressed to worship places. On Sept. 25, 2011, 22 people were injured when a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside Sepenuh Injil Bethel Church (GBIS) in Surakarta, Central Java.

Indonesian police handle 14 terrorist cases with 78 suspects in 2012

Antara News - December 28, 2012

Jakarta – Police's special anti terror squad known as Densus 88, handled 14 terrorist cases with 78 suspects so far this year.

"Ten of the suspects were killed in the process of arrest and 68 went through legal process including 17 facing court of justice, two already convicted and 51 in the process of investigations, police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said in a year-end statement here on Friday.

Timur Pradopo said eight police officers were killed and nine others injured in the process of carrying out their duty. The most recent incident was an ambush by terrorists killing four police officers in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

Freedom of religion & worship

Government blamed for groundswell of religious hatred

Jakarta Post - December 29, 2012

Jakarta – The increasing religious intolerance across the nation is more than enough to show the government's failure to defend freedom of religion, according to the Wahid Institute.

In its year-end report, the institute, which promotes pluralism and peaceful Islam, reveals that religious intolerance in the country has grown steadily in the last four years.

The report shows that religious intolerance cases in 2012 stood at 274, up from 267 in 2011. In 2010, the institute recorded 184 cases and 121 cases in 2009.

"The government has failed to guarantee the constitutional rights of its citizens. There is no significant progress in our religious tolerance," Wahid Institute director Zannuba "Yenny" Wahid said on Friday.

West Java is the province with most cases, 57 cases this year. Last year, the institute also placed the province at the top of the list. West Java, the most populous province in Indonesia, is known for its deep roots of Islamic culture.

Over the years, major cases of religious intolerance have occurred there including the banning of church congregations from worshipping at the Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) in Bogor and the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Bekasi.

For years, the congregations of the two churches have been denied by intolerant locals and officials at the local administrations to worship at their rightful places in their community although they have secured all legal permits, even from the Supreme Court, to build their churches.

However, intolerant locals and top executives at Bogor and Bekasi administrations refuse to bow to the Supreme Court's ruling. The central government also seems powerless to make the lower administrations obey the highest court's decision.

"If the cases are not resolved immediately, then it is very likely that they will trigger similar cases in other areas in the country," Yenny said, referring to a recent finding by her institute about opposition to the construction of a mosque in the predominantly Christian city of Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.

Human rights activist Usman Hamid, meanwhile, stated that the government was the key to solve all of the intolerance cases.

"The government should not be afraid to enact all international laws that bind the country to guarantee practices of human rights," he said, referring to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that guarantee religious freedom. (riz)

Churches lament police inaction on intimidation

Jakarta Post - December 27, 2012

Jakarta – Members of two Christian congregations in Greater Jakarta who faced intimidation when trying to worship in their churches during Christmas have again lamented the police's failure to protect them.

The parishioners of the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Bekasi, West Java, were showered with sewage and rotten eggs by hard- line locals when approaching their half-built church on Monday, Christmas night.

The incident was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the congregation and locals who strongly object to the construction of the church, declared illegal by the Bekasi administration.

Rev. Palti Panjaitan from the HKBP church said that the police officers were reluctant to protect their constitutional right to freedom of worship and bowed to pressure from the locals.

"During the attack, Tambun Police chief Comr. Andri Ananta and North Tambun district head Suhartono did nothing," Palti said during a press conference at Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) headquarters on Wednesday.

The police have denied the accusation, saying that they had taken the necessary measures to prevent clashes between the locals and the churchgoers.

"We had made attempts to secure the area and called on the people to avoid clashes," National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Agus Rianto said as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday. He said the locals did not want parishioners to conduct services in the area as the existence of the church was legally disputed.

The Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) congregation, whose church in Bogor remains sealed, also complained about the police's inability to protect them from the intimidation by local thugs. Church spokesperson, Bona Sigalingging, suspected that the gang of hooligans had been in cahoots with police officers for years.

"According to our photo and video documentation, the same man led attacks against our congregation on Christmas Eve in two consecutive years," he said, while pointing at photos of an unidentified man in a black robe near the church. "As we can see, he is standing beside a smiling bald man who turns out to be West Java Police officer, Adj. Sr. Comr. Pria Supriadi," Bona explained.

Bona added that the local police had been leaking information about the congregation's activities to the hard-line group. "Every time we communicated about our Sunday services to the police, the thugs turn up and attacks us. Since we stopped coordinating with the police in February, we have never faced any intimidation," he said.

The intimidation reflects governmental inability to deal with intolerance. Worshippers faced Christmas with fear. Bogor and Bekasi administrations are actively involved in the intimidation," Febi Yonesta, an LBH Jakarta researcher, told journalists. (yps)

GKI Yasmin, Filadelfia churches: Another Christmas of persecution

Jakarta Post - December 26, 2012

Jakarta – Members of two Christian congregations whose churches have been forcibly closed down by local governments held a Christmas service in front of the Presidential Palace in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

Rev. Palti Panjaitan of the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Bekasi, West Java, said that his congregation held the service in front of the palace because hard-line locals blocked the way to their half-built church.

Since Christmas Eve, Panjaitan said, locals had prevented some 150 members of his church from approaching their church's site. "They showered us with rotten eggs, sewage and various nasty things. They tried to herd us away from our church," he told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta.

This is not the first time the congregation has suffered from such intimidation. Earlier in May, the locals reportedly hurled urine, sewage and frogs at the parishioners.

The HKBP church has been involved in a building permit dispute with local residents at Jejalen Jaya village, Bekasi, for years. Locals do not want a church erected in their community. Representatives of HKBP have said that they have the legal prerequisite to erect their church in the village.

In 2011, the Bandung State Administrative Court in West Java overturned a ruling by the Bekasi administration that forbade the construction of the church. However, since then, locals have prevented HKBP members from conducting Sunday services.

Police officers, Panjaitan said, had so far failed to keep them safe from the intolerant locals. He said, "Instead of protecting us, the police tell us to go home."

Panjaitan expected that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would come to the service in front of his palace to hear his congregant's stories. The President, however, failed to appear even though the congregation had prepared a VIP place for him and the first lady.

On Tuesday morning, the HKBP also held a service at Tambun Police precinct in Bekasi. One of its members claimed that the service was not without incident.

"When we held a Christmas service at the police office, we heard a loud Koran recital from a nearby mushola [prayer hall]. We never disturb our fellow Muslims when we hear the adzan [Muslim call to prayer]," said Erida Sinaga.

Sinaga said she hoped that somehow Yudhoyono would be able to restore the HKBP members' constitutional rights to freedom of worship.

Besides the HKBP members, the Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) members from Bogor, West Java, also joined the Christmas service in front of the Presidential Palace.

The congregation's spokesperson, Bona Sigalingging, said that on Tuesday morning, around 15 members of GKI Yasmin approached their church but were denied entry by city public order officers.

In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that the GKI Yasmin congregation had the right to build a church in the area. However, Bogor's mayor refused a building permit and the building was sealed in 2010.

Sigalingging said that his members would never tire of holding services in front of the Presidential Palace and would continue until their church opened.

He said that the congregation decided to hold a service on Christmas Eve in a member's house. "We chose not to tell police about our secret Christmas Eve service because they have become part of our problem," he said, referring to police who side with the majority in cases involving minority groups.

GKI Yasmin has celebrated Christmas outside their church for a couple of years. Last year, dozens of members of GKI Yasmin held mass in a house in the Taman Yasmin Housing complex after police banned them from holding mass in their sealed church nearby. (riz)

Indonesian Christians celebrate Christmas in peace

Jakarta Globe - December 25, 2012

Bayu Marhaenjati, Rachmat & Ronna Nirmala – Jakarta/Makassar – A heavy police presence at churches across the capital helped ensure that Christians in Jakarta were able to celebrate Christmas Eve mass and Christmas Day prayers in peace.

Police deployed 10 to 75 personnel each to churches throughout the city, and 100 each to the Jakarta Cathedral and Immanuel Church, the city's biggest Catholic and Protestant houses of worship.

Sr. Comr. Rikwanto, a spokesman for the city police, said the security measures also included thorough sweeps at these two places and 15 other large churches, in anticipation of possible bomb threats.

"This is the procedure that we have in place each year. We check all the pews, all the belongings that the worshipers bring into the churches," he said. "We ensure that the entire radius between the church and the nearest parking lot is completely free of anything that could constitute a security risk. That way, we hope to ensure that the worshipers can pray in peace."

As part of the National Police's Operation Candle 2012, aimed at tightening security during the Christmas and New Year period, the Jakarta Police mobilized around 6,000 personnel to guard churches and other sites deemed a potential target for a security threat.

Rikwanto said this number included personnel from the police and Mobile Brigade (Brimob) bomb squads and members of Densus 88, the National Police's elite counterterrorism squad.

"We haven't received any word of terrorist threats yet and hopefully we won't, so that the whole holiday period through to the new year can be enjoyed in peace," he said.

The Jakarta Police also enlisted the services of Banser, the security wing of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's biggest Islamic organization, to help secure churches across the capital.

"The Banser officials have already reported to us. They're providing around 1,000 to 1,500 personnel, who have been assigned to various churches throughout Jakarta," Rikwanto said.

"The community organizations that we know of who are helping out include Banser and some local community groups. All of them will be under the police's command and supervision."

Banser was also involved in helping securing churches in Makassar, South Sulawesi, where they were joined by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a notoriously hard-line group that has in the past attacked members of religious minorities.

Muchsin Al-Habsyi, head of the FPI's South Sulawesi chapter, said some 200 members of the group joined Brimob officers in guarding churches during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day worship.

"This is the first time that we've been involved in security efforts aimed at preventing terrorist incidents," he said. He added his organization was committed to ensuring that local Christians could worship in peace

Adj. Sr. Comr. Endi Sutendi, a spokesman for the provincial police, called the FPI's involvement in helping with security arrangements a "positive interaction in interreligious relations in South Sulawesi."

"We hope that this kind of initiative will continue well into the future so that whatever differences exist between both sides can be bridged," he said.

Back in Jakarta, meanwhile, Governor Joko Widodo also called for greater religious tolerance as he visited the home of his Christian deputy, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, on Christmas morning.

"I believe there's a good deal of religious tolerance, as we saw the night before with Islamic groups helping to guard churches," he said. "There's always the potential for friction, but if we act mature and respect one another, then we can avoid that friction."

GKI Yasmin denied Christmas service in Bogor church, again

Jakarta Globe - December 25, 2012

Vento Saudale – Dozens of members from the GKI Yasmin congregation were denied entry into their church in Bogor on Tuesday morning to hold a Christmas service, after local residents blocked them from entering.

The congregation gathered in front of a supermarket, around 100 meters from the church at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, but about 100 local residents, who have been rejecting their presence since the church first opened in 2006, were already there to block them from entering the church yard.

Up to 300 personnel from Jakarta's Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and police officers, as well as military members, were on site to stand guard.

Hendi Iskandar, chief of the Satpol PP team, insisted the congregation members to not hold their Christmas service in the church, adding that the building was still being disputed.

"We've provided the building [another venue to hold services] to facilitate services for three days, and we'll guarantee its safety," Hendi added, referring to a meeting hall 150 meters from the sealed church. But the congregation refused to take up the alternative option.

"This is not about where we hold services; that church is our rightful house of worship, and it should be protected by the state," congregation member Jayadi said.

The GKI Yasmin won a permit to run the church in 2006, but it was promptly revoked by the municipal administration after resistance from Muslim- majority local residents.

The Supreme Court ordered its reopening two years ago, but the local administration has refused to enforce the ruling.

Rotten egg attack mars Indonesia Christmas celebration

Agence France Presse - December 25, 2012

More than 200 Indonesian Muslims threw rotten eggs at Christians wanting to hold a Christmas mass near land outside Jakarta where they plan to build a church, police and a witness said.

Some 100 Christian worshippers intended to hold a mass near empty land where they hope to build a church, about 30-kilometers east of the capital, in a project barred by district government and community members in 2009.

Since then, worshippers from the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant have held Sunday services under scorching sun outside the property. On Tuesday, however, local community members blocked the road near the land, Andri Ananta, a local police chief on Jakarta's outskirts, told AFP.

An AFP photographer witnessed furious locals – men and women wearing Muslim headscarf, with small children in tow – physically blocking the road and throwing rotten eggs at the gathering worshippers.

Ananta said police managed to convince the Christians to drop their plan and return home. "We tried our best to avoid any clash and the Christians agreed to leave," he said, adding 380 police and military personnel including an anti-riot squad were deployed to the area.

Church leader Reverend Palti Panjaitan said the incident came after a Christmas Eve attack on Monday evening when "intolerant people" threw not only rotten eggs but plastic bags filled with urine and cow dung at them.

"Everything had happened while police were there. They were just watching without doing anything to stop them from harming us," he told AFP.

The country's high court last year overruled the district government's 2009 decision, but constant intimidation from Muslims in the area has delayed the church's construction, church officials said.

Indonesia's constitution guarantees freedom of religion but rights groups say violence against minorities including Christians and the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect has escalated since 2008.

Ninety percent of Indonesia's population of 240 million identify themselves as Muslim but the vast majority practice a moderate form of Islam.

Beleaguered churches fear intimidation on Christmas

Jakarta Post - December 24, 2012

Novia D. Rulistia and Slamet Susanto, Jakarta/Yogyakarta – The members of two besieged Christian congregations on Jakarta's outskirts are worried that hard-line groups will not let them observe Christmas in their own churches.

Rev. Palti Panjaitan of the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Bekasi, West Java, said that his congregation was again banned on Sunday from holding services in their half-built church.

"We would really love to celebrate Christmas in our own church. But we can't, since it's been sealed. We will probably hold services on the street outside our sealed church," Panjaitan said.

HKBP members have regularly been prevented from entering the church, according to the minister. "We always have to face people who block our way anytime we want to hold Sunday service. This I believe will be the same for Christmas."

Panjaitan said that the congregation was too large to hold services in one of its member's homes.

The church has been involved in a building permit dispute with local residents for years. Representatives of HKBP have said that they were given the legal authority to finish and open their church after a decision from the Bekasi administration in 2010 was overturned by the Bandung State Administrative Court in West Java in 2011.

The congregation of the Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) in Bogor, West Java, faces a similar situation. GKI Yasmin spokesperson Bona Sigalingging said that members of the congregation remained traumatized by what has happened to them over Christmas for the last two years.

"We have observed Christmas under pressure twice since 2010. We were blocked by certain groups, and were told to dismiss services. This all happened in front of the police, who did nothing," Bona said. Sigalingging said that he was afraid that the congregation would have similar problems this year.

Last year, dozens of members of GKI Yasmin held Christmas mass in a house in the Taman Yasmin Housing complex after police banned them from holding mass in their sealed church nearby.

In 2010, the Supreme Court said that the congregation had the right to build a church in the area. However, Bogor's mayor did not give a building permit to GKI Yasmin and the church building was sealed in 2010.

The Filadelfia and Yasmin congregations have taken to organizing Sunday services on the street outside the State Palace to draw the President's attention.

Meanwhile, churches across the country are under tight security in anticipation of possible disturbances. In Yogyakarta and Medan, North Sumatra, for example, churches are slated be searched on Christmas Eve by Gegana bomb squads.

The North Sumatra Police's public relation division head, Sr. Comr. Heru Prakoso, said that the inspections would be held two hours prior to Christmas celebrations using metal detectors. Individuals would also be inspected one by one as they enter the church on the Christmas Day.

Semarang City Police chief Sr. Comr. Elan Subilan said he has deployed over 3,000 personnel to secure 186 churches in the city for Christmas masses.

[Apriadi Gunawan and Ainur Rohmah contributed reporting from Medan and Semarang.]

Governance & policy

Budget watchdog claims palace misappropriated Rp 102.5 billion

Jakarta Globe - December 31, 2012

Rizky Amelia – A leading budget watchdog has highlighted what it claims is the misuse of emergency-related funding for presidential overhead expenses.

The misappropriation is believed to amount to around Rp 102.5 billion ($10.6 million).

Uchok Sky Khadafi, the investigation and advocacy coordinator for the National Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), said on Sunday that the finding stems from an audit into funding allocation, called BA 999.08, meant specifically for "incidental and emergency" matters.

"There is an indication that the use of the BA 999.08 funds violated the state finance law and a Finance Ministry regulation on transferring already allocated funding into the funds of certain ministries or government institutions," Uchok said.

The indication of violation, Uchok continued, came from the fact that the BA 999.08 fund was used to cover the operational costs related to overseas trips by the president and his retinue, as well as working government meetings presided over by the president.

The fund, Uchok argued, was meant to be used for emergency-related matters such as disaster relief but was instead spent on overhead costs that were not considered urgent in nature and were already provided for under a separate allocation.

"Activities such as overseas visits by the president and his entourage are considered a routine expense and as such should be paid for out of the BA 007 allocation, not BA 999.08, which is for incidental or emergency matters," he said.

He added that over the past year, the State Palace had spent Rp 102.5 billion from the BA 999.08 fund. It still has another Rp 53.5 billion that it can take from the fund. The palace's total budget for the year is Rp 1.9 trillion.

Fitra blasts ministries for low spending in first half of 2012

Jakarta Globe - December 24, 2012

Rizky Amelia – Six ministries are failing to effectively implement many of their proposed programs, using less than 20 percent of their earmarked budgets in the first six months of the year, according to Indonesia's most prominent budget watchdog.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) said on Sunday that the Ministry of Public Housing had spent just 1.9 percent of its Rp 5.9 trillion ($611 million) budget from January through June this year, indicating a failure to realize many of its proposed projects.

According to the group, the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry only spent 4.2 percent of its Rp 1.7 trillion appropriation during the same period, while the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry used up just 10.8 percent of its Rp 16 trillion budget.

For the first six months of the year, Fitra said the Ministry for the Acceleration of Development in Underdeveloped Regions only spent Rp 125.8 billion of its Rp 1.15 trillion budget, while the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy spent 17 percent of its Rp 2.6 trillion budget.

The Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare fared better, absorbing 19 percent of its Rp 222 billion budget in the first six months of 2012.

The watchdog's research director, Maulana, said the figures indicated that the ministries in question were procrastinating and delaying programs' implementation, paving the way for overspending and senseless expenditures.

Maulana said the delayed spending is in defiance of a decree from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "The president's commitment is good. But it seems the president's commitment is not well executed by his cabinet members," he said.

Yudhoyono had also instructed his ministers to submit progress reports every quarter to determine whether their programs were being carried out on schedule, but Maulana said "the mechanism is not performing effectively."

The Fitra researcher criticized the ministries in light of the fact that they had sought greater funding than their 2011 appropriations during budget negotiations. "The [budget] increase is not followed by better performance," Maulana said.

Parliament & legislation

'Fat' account holders will not be summoned without more proof: Council

Jakarta Globe - December 28, 2012

Ezra Sihite – The House of Representatives Ethics Council has welcomed findings by a finance watchdog regarding suspicious "fat" bank accounts belonging to 18 House members, but the council appears in no rush to follow up on the report.

"This is just initial information and we are not yet seeing that there is a precise indication [of wrongdoing]. We will summon only after we have those indications," Ethics Council deputy chairman Siswono Yudohusodo said on Thursday.

The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) earlier in the day said it pinpointed 18 suspiciously large bank accounts belonging to House Budget Committee members.

Siswono said the council would study the findings and make sure that they concern members of the current House Budget Committee and not previous members.

"We appreciate the PPATK's research on irregular transaction flows, but we will only summon [the members] after the indications are found," he said regarding possible ethical violations.

M. Prakosa, the chairman of the Ethics Council, also welcomed the PPATK information but expressed hope that the findings were sound and reached by following pertinent rules and regulations. "It should be in line with what the affirmed rules are," he said.

Meanwhile, Indra, a member of House Commission III on legal affairs, called on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to immediately investigate the PPATK findings.

"The KPK should follow up the report from the PPATK on the 18 members of the House of Representatives with fat bank accounts," said Indra, a lawmaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

He said the KPK had the authority to ask for more detailed information on the suspected accounts, including the account holders' identities. He said the fat accounts should be suspected of having accumulated their wealth through corrupt practices.

"The legal umbrella is there, there is a law on money laundering and in an investigation, the KPK should, from early on, process it with the principle of [reverse] burden of proof," he said.

Under the principle, it is up to the suspect to prove to the court that money or assets in his or her name did not come from corruption. He also said that to deter corruption, graft convicts should be made to pay a steep financial price, adding that "the confiscation of the assets of corruptors is very important."

Poor planning slows down House

Jakarta Post - December 26, 2012

A parliament watchdog group blamed poor planning on the part of the House of Representatives as the reason for its failure to implement the National Legislative Program, or Prolegnas.

The Center for Policy and Law Studies (PSHK) said that the House passed 30 bills this year, far below the target of 69 bills. The House passed 24 bills in 2011 and 16 in 2010. PSHK said that the increasing number of bills did not translate into good quality legislation.

PSHK monitoring and advocacy director Ronald Rofiandri said that the Prolegnas planning system used by both the House and the government had been responsible for the failure in meeting the Prolegnas target. "Both the government and the House are stuck in a situation where they keep on repeating the same mistakes," he said.

Ronald said that protracted debates on technicalities could be prevented if the House and the government had enough time to prepare for the deliberation of bills.

PSHK found, for example, that during a plenary session on Dec. 4, political factions at the House requested the deliberation of the 2008 presidential election amendment bill be postponed, citing that they wanted time to reconsider whether or not a revision was needed.

Of the 30 bills endorsed in 2012, 29 were new while one was an amendment to an existing law. Eighteen bills, or 60 percent, were proposed by the House.

Armed forces & defense

Indonesia gets new Navy, Air Force chiefs

Jakarta Post - December 23, 2012

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono inaugurated Adm. Marsetyo as the new Navy chief of staff and Air Marshall Ida Bagus Putu Dunia as the new Air Force chief of staff in a ceremony at the State Palace on Monday.

Marsetyo replaces Adm. Soeparno, who will retire. Marsetyo was previously Soeparno's deputy. Ida Bagus, who formerly served as head of the Military Education and Training Command, replaces Air Marshal Imam Sufaat.

A number of Cabinet members, including Indonesian Military Commander Adm. Agus Suhartono, attended the ceremony.

Judicial & legal system

Court cracks down on crooked judges

Jakarta Post - December 28, 2012

Jakarta – As part of its house cleaning measures, the Supreme Court pledged on Thursday to step up its crackdown on corrupt judges.

Chief Justice Hatta Ali said that the Supreme Court would join the Judicial Commission's investigation into Imron Anwari and Nyak Pha, two justices who issued a controversial ruling in October to commute the death sentence of Hengky Gunawan, a drug lord.

The Supreme Court has also decided to crack down on judges who make bad judgements in their personal lives.

Hatta said that the Supreme Court had just handed down a punishment to a female judge, identified only as ADA, from the Simalungun District Court in North Sumatra for having an extramarital affair with a married man.

"The Supreme Court's oversight committee has completed the investigation. But we have yet to get convincing evidence of an extramarital affair. It is hard to find evidence in such a case," he added.

In spite of having no evidence, the Supreme Court accused the judge of misconduct and sanctioned her by cutting her monthly allowance and reprimanding her.

As for Imron and Nyak, the Supreme Court in collaboration with the Judicial Commission will hold an ethics tribunal to hear their case.

The two judges, along with Judge Ahmad Yamani, caused an uproar when they cut Hengky's sentence from life to 15 years in prison.

Hengky was arrested in 2006 with 11.1 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, locally called shabu, valued at Rp 10.8 billion (US$1.13 million) and raw materials for the drug's production. He was also suspected of operating a drug laboratory in Surabaya, East Java.

The Judicial Commission has indicated that the ruling was influenced by bribery.

"If the KY [Judicial Commission] finds that the two justices breached the code of ethics, just go ahead and summon them. I don't have a problem with that, as long as they limit their investigation to the ethics violation, not the substance of the case," Hatta said at a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

Earlier, the ethics council, consisting of Supreme Court justices and Judicial Commission members, dismissed Justice Yamani for conspiring with the court's registrar to further cut the Hengky's sentence from 15 to 12 years.

The 12-year prison term was then uploaded onto the court's official website, mahkamahagung.go.id.

Prior to the current scandal, Yamani came under fire for other controversial rulings, such as when he annulled the 17-year sentence of drug dealer Naga Sariawan Cipto Rimba, alias Liong-Liong, in May last year. He helped annul death sentences for drug convicts on at least three occasions.

At the press conference, Hatta also said the Supreme Court's oversight committee had recommended sanctions for 160 court officials, including 73 judges, between January and Dec. 26. The figure from last year was 130, including 53 judges.

Hatta, however, admitted that the Supreme Court lacked the resources to monitor all judges in the country. "The court's oversight committee, which consists of 40 judges, has to supervise over 8,000 judges and 35,000 court officials. More than 600 rulings a year need to be scrutinized," he said.

Contacted separately, Judicial Commission spokesperson Asep Rachmat Fajar said that the Supreme Court had made the right decision to punish ADA. "We have strong evidence of the judge's extramarital affair," Asep said. (yps)

Police & law enforcement

300 rogue police officers dismissed in 2012

Jakarta Globe - December 26, 2012

Farouk Arnaz – The National Police cut some 300 rogue police officers from its ranks in 2012 as part of an effort to curb corruption in the department.

The reportedly corrupt cops ran the gamut of titles and divisions, from former Traffic Corps. Chief Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo to the average trooper, Comr. Gen. Nanan Soekarna said.

This year's numbers were similar to last year's where about 300 police officers were cut from the force amid corruption allegations.

"The gist is that their naughtiness is not because they are dumb, but because of their lack of commitment," Nanan said. "[It is] because this is not in the right place," he said as he pointed to his heart.

The department recently introduced a number of policies at the National Police headquarters aimed to cut down on ethics violations, he said.

Nanan listed a new oath for high-ranking officers that required them to promise not to engage in corruption or ethical violations as one of the measures.

Lack of professionalism leads to killings

Jakarta Post - December 26, 2012

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) claims that a lack of professionalism within the National Police contributed to the deaths of 29 officers who were killed in the line of duty in 2012.

The IPW recorded that the number of slain police officers in 2012 was higher than in 2011, when 20 officers were killed on duty. Attacks by criminals also resulted in severe injuries for 14 police officers this year, according to data compiled by the police watchdog.

The latest incident where police officers were killed was on Thursday when a shootout between Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers and gunmen in Kalora village, Poso, Central Sulawesi, left four officers dead and two others severely wounded.

"At the beginning of 2012, I predicted that the police would continue to be targeted by criminals and terrorists because the force has not changed its training and education methods," IPW chairman Neta S. Pane said on Sunday.

Data from the IPW also showed that two officers were burnt to death by civilians. "Police officers being burnt to death has never happened before. This can also be seen as an indication of the police's failure to improve," Neta said.

Neta was referring to an incident in Lau Bakeri Village, Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, on Feb. 26, where Brig. Ricardo Jefry Sitorus and Brig. Cristian Markus Siregar were set on fire after being attacked by an angry mob. The murdered officers, along with three other policemen, had attempted to arrest a togel (illegal lottery) dealer who ordered the attack by calling the officers thieves.

Neta believed that low morale as well as emotional instability among police officers made them vulnerable to attacks by criminals.

It did not help that the officers lacked self-defense training in dealing with serious crimes, Neta said. "The National Police must reform their education system and look into the psychological state of officers when performing their duties," Neta said. He also suggested the National Police extend the training period for police cadets.

According to the IPW, 23 of the 29 slain officers were low-ranking personnel who received between two and five months' training at the National Police School (SPN) in Lido, Sukabumi, West Java. "New cadets should undergo training at the SPN for at least two years," he said.

The IPW also found that Papua remained the most dangerous region for the police with 10 officers being killed there in 2012. Central Sulawesi, which includes Poso, is the second-most dangerous region. Five personnel were killed in Poso in 2012.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said the IPW report would motivate the police to improve their performance. "The National Police will never stop making improvements," he said.

Economy & investment

Businesses ready to raise prices as electricity costs rocket

Jakarta Post - December 29, 2012

Amahl S. Azwar, Jakarta – As the government decides to raise electricity prices from January, businesses will plan to increase prices next year in a bid to preserve their profits amid challenges such as higher wages.

Indonesian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) chairman Suryo Bambang Sulisto said on Friday that with the government's decision to increase power prices to cut energy subsidies, businesses would undoubtedly take "adjustment measures" to handle soaring costs.

"The power price increase of 15 percent will certainly raise operational costs and force some industry players to push it onto consumers by adjusting the price of their products to cut their budgets," he told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.

Earlier this week, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik told reporters the government would increase the electricity tariff by 4.3 percent once every three months. With the price increase, the government would be expected to spend Rp 78.6 trillion (US$8.27 billion) on electricity subsidies for 2013 or Rp 14 trillion less than the Rp 92.52 trillion without any price raise.

Under the plan, the increase will not apply to small households and businesses rated to use between 450 and 900 volt-amperes (VA). The increases will apply to four categories of power users, including medium households rated to use 6,600 VA, businesses rated to use between 6,600 VA and 200 kilovolt-amperes (kVA), businesses rated to use up to 200 kVA such as malls and government offices and street lighting rated to use 6,600 VA to 200 kVA.

Commenting on this, Kadin chairman said that industries relying on electricity to drive their production such as textiles would be burdened by the scheme although the government had opted to increase power prices gradually.

"Take the textile industry for example, which will experience an increase of 15 to 18 percent of its production costs. It will most likely increase the price of their products," he said.

Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) deputy chairman Anton Supit said both the government and the House of Representatives had decided to weigh down industry in a bid to carry on "populist stances" ahead of the 2014 general election.

The government, he said, had always pushed industry to keep up with global challenges as well as providing jobs while at the same time burdening it with politically motivated policies.

Anton said the association agreed with the increase as long as it applied to all customers, and that the government should cut the subsidy for the 39 million customers in small households using 450 VA.

"We want to share the burden. The tariff for household customers should also be raised but of course the increase should be proportional in a bid to educate them to efficiently use the power consumption," he said.

Rupiah drops for second week as trade gap worsens dollar crunch

Bloomberg - December 28, 2012

Yudith Ho – Indonesia's rupiah fell for a second week on concern the local supply of dollars trails demand as exports are predicted to have dropped for an eighth month.

Overseas sales declined 7 percent in November, while imports increased 7.2 percent, according to the median estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg before data due Jan. 2. The monthly trade deficit will be $342 million, compared with $1.5 billion in October, a separate survey shows. Financial markets will be closed on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

"Rising imports and slowing exports result in scarce dollars onshore," said Rully Nova, a currency analyst at Bank Himpunan Saudara 1906 in Jakarta. "Since it is the last day of trading, we expect Bank Indonesia to limit the rupiah's losses and support it toward 9,600."

The rupiah dropped 0.2 percent this week to 9,675 per dollar as of 8:57 a.m. in Jakarta, prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg show. It declined 0.1 percent on Friday. The rupiah is the worst-performing currency this year among Asia's 10 most-active excluding the yen, falling 6.3 percent.

One-month implied volatility, a measure of expected moves in exchange rates used to price options, was steady at 5.7 percent, from 13.2 percent at the end of last year. It is poised for the biggest annual drop since 2009.

The yield on the government's 7 percent bonds due May 2022 was little changed on Friday and this week at 5.19 percent, prices from the Inter Dealer Market Association show. The yield fell 84 basis points, or 0.84 percentage point, in 2012, declining for a fourth year.