Dwi Lusiana, Malang, East Java – A Malang man who says he was attacked by two people in military and police uniforms near a hotel where President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was staying on Wednesday night has been arrested.

The injured man, Sulung Hadi Sukmawan, 25, was reportedly traveling with his friend Slamet by motorcycle on Wednesday night when they were intercepted by two officers. According to his lawyer, Sulung was struck with an iron bar.

"After being beaten, the victim fell unconscious and was taken to the nearest hospital," lawyer Rony Dwi Sulistiawan said on Thursday. "The victim is suffering serious injuries in the mouth and one arm."

A spokesman for Yudhoyono, Julian Aldrin Pasha, denied any involvement by presidential security officers. However, Julian said police would investigate and take action if necessary.

"The police will look into it," he said. "If any officers took action outside procedures or abused anyone, there will be sanctions. Clearly they are not members of the presidential guard."

Sulung – who lost six teeth and broke his left hand – had been named a suspect for trespassing and causing a traffic accident. The charges carry a maximum sentence of four years in jail.

Malang Police chief Adj. Comr. Fahri Siregar told the Jakarta Globe that Sulung was racing his motorcycle on the streets when he hit a bench set up by the police to block the area where the president was staying. Sulung was launched into the air as his bike fell and skidded along the street, the officer said.

"There was never any beating. This is purely an accident. [Sulung] was violating the traffic regulations and safety. It is clear that the injury was caused by the collision," he said.

The police officer said the bike hit a bystander named Slamet Haryadi who was injured in his left leg and right arm, adding that police had questioned witnesses who could verify Fahri's version of events.

Sulung denied he was speeding, saying that he was only going 40 to 50 kilometers an hour. "I was just riding my motorcycle that night and officers suddenly beat me up," he said.

MUI declares on-street religious services as haram

Jakarta Globe - January 10, 2013

Lenny Tristia Tambun – The Indonesian Ulema Council wants to prevent mass services from taking pla on public streets, calling the practice disruptive and haram, or forbidden, under Islam.

"Conducting tabligh akbar [mass sermon] by closing a street causes loss for other people," Syamsul Ma'arif, the secretary general of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), said on Thursday.

"For instance you want to take your wife to the hospital as she needs to be treated immediately, but you can't do that because the road was closed. It is a public order disturbance by religious figure. Provincial government should be strict on this, don't be selective."

A mosque on Jalan Raya Pasar Minggu and on Jalan Mampang Prapatan, South Jakarta, often conduct mass services on the street.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said that the Jakarta government would support the MUI's edict by relaying the message through mass media and advertisement boards on Jakarta buildings.

"We have to inform the edict so people could read and see it, especially the organizers of religious services that often use and close the street that causes difficulties for people to go to their destination," Basuki said.

Basuki said that the Jakarta government would build integrated market buildings, with the first and second storey to be used for the market, the third storey to be used as a multifunction hall, and the final storey to be used as a public health center, kindergarten and flats.

"Main roads should not be used by people for personal usage," he said. "Main roads should not be used without permit. But they did it because there is no big multifunction room, so they block the road. But with the concept of an integrated market, they can use the multifunction hall."

West Papua

Police seen as worst torturers in Papua

Jakarta Globe - January 14, 2012

Agus Triyono – A survey carried out by nongovernmental organizations between July and September last year showed there is a widespread belief among Papuans that the police committed most of the torture in the province.

For the survey, the Jakarta and Papua offices of the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) spoke to 205 respondents from various fields, including the police, prosecutors, customary and tribal leaders, commentators, criminal suspects and inmates at Abepura Prison in Jayapura, the provincial capital.

Respondents identified several institutions they believed were engaging in torture. These were the police, which 61 percent identified, prosecutors (31 percent) and prison officials (8 percent).

The findings echo the results of an earlier survey by LBH Jakarta, in which respondents identified the police as the main perpetrators of torture among all branches of law enforcement.

"The Papua survey confirms our earlier findings, with more than 60 percent of respondents identifying the police as being engaged in torture," LBH researcher Laode M. Syarif said at the announcement of the survey results in Jakarta on Friday.

He said respondents to the survey also identified the three main methods of torture employed by law enforcement officials against suspects and inmates in Abepura: physical, psychological and sexual violence.

"Physical violence includes such acts as grabbing, dragging hitting and crippling," he said. "Psychological torture includes threatening people at gunpoint, while sexual violence includes disrobing suspects, photographing them in forced intimate poses, groping and forcing them to perform oral sex on each other."

He said the police employed these extreme measures because they were incapable of getting the information they wanted any other way. "It's the easiest way to get a confession," he said.

"These practices are carried out in defiance of a directive issued by the National Police chief in 2009 on implementing human rights standards and principles during the course of an investigation," Syarif said.

He said the survey also indicated key differences in the way well-educated suspects were treated by the police. Suspects who had received a secondary education or higher, he said, were more likely to be tortured.

"There are also indications that suspects with an income of at least Rp 3 million [$325] are less likely to be tortured than lower-income suspects," he said.

At the end of 2010, an investigation by LBH Jakarta in Surabaya, Jakarta, Makassar and the Acehnese towns of Banda Aceh and Lhokseumawe uncovered proof that the police were engaged in acts of torture.

The study found that Surabaya was perceived as having the highest rates of torture, with 93.8 percent of 96 suspects and inmates claiming torture was most widely carried out by police forces.

Police responded coolly. National Police spokesman Saud Usman Nasution said the police "respected the LBH's opinion" and would look into the matter. However, he questioned the methods used by the LBH in conducting the survey.

[Additional reporting by Keyko Ranti Ramadhani & Carla Isati Octama.]

Indonesian abuse in Papua highlighted by media freedom group

Radio New Zealand International - January 14, 2013

The group, Pacific Freedom Forum, says the killing, beating, abducting and jailing of journalists in Indonesia's West Papua region remains the most immediate issue in regional affairs.

The group says ongoing suppression of freedom of expression under Indonesian rule often involves violence against news media.

The Pacific Freedom Forum's chair, Titi Gabi, says well documented allegations of killings and torture depict medieval levels of brutality by Indonesian security and ad-hoc militia forces in West Papua.

Ms Gabi says the ongoing violence against citizens makes a mockery of Indonesia pretensions towards democracy, adherence to international law, and the peaceful majority of the world's biggest Muslim nation.

She says there is also concern over Indonesia security forces infiltrating Papua newsrooms and planting fake stories.

Reporters Without Borders ranks Indonesia in terms of press freedom in 146th place on a list of 179 nations.

Indonesia brutality towards West Papua 'medieval'

Pacific Freedom Forum - January 14, 2013

PFF, Rarotonga, Cook Islands – Killing, beating, abducting and jailing journalists in West Papua remains the most immediate issue in regional affairs, states the Pacific Freedom Forum.

Wrapping up its fourth year of advocacy, PFF chairs said that ongoing suppression of freedom of expression under Indonesian rule often involves violence against news media.

"Well documented allegations of killings and torture depict medieval levels of brutality by Indonesian security and ad-hoc militia forces in West Papua", says PFF chair Titi Gabi.

"Ongoing violence against citizens makes a mockery of Indonesia pretensions towards democracy, adherence to international law, and the peaceful majority of the world's biggest Muslim nation."

"There is also concern over Indonesia security forces infiltrating Papua newsrooms and planting fake stories".

PFF endorses calls from October by the Pantau Foundation and the Southeast Asian Press Alliance for Indonesia to uphold the right of citizens to freedoms of speech, to end violence against journalists and to prosecute those responsible for violence.

In November, PFF joined IFEX, International Freedom of Expression Exchange, in a 23 day campaign against a "culture of impunity" surrounding those in authority across the region.PFF co-chair Monica Miller said concerns also include a "culture of silence among partner news media across the islands, as well as Australia and New Zealand, when it comes to sensitive issues like West Papua."

Miller praised an upturn this last year in media attention on West Papua, notably via state broadcasters like Radio New Zealand International and Radio Australia.

"After a decade or two of focusing mostly on Fiji, it is welcome to see metropolitan media including newspapers address much bigger concerns in West Papua," says Miller.

"Yet many articles lament the lack of public awareness about serious events happening on our own doorstep. Clearly there is much more that could be done, including not bowing to political sensitivities that deem West Papua to be outside the Pacific Islands region and of concern only to Indonesia."

Reporters Sans Frontiers ranks Indonesia at 146th place, on a list of 179 nations followed by the press freedom body. PFF also expressed concern about assaults and threats against journalists in Papua New Guinea and other states across the region.

Established in Apia, Samoa in August 2008, PFF has issued 143 statements on freedom of expression issues facing the Pacific Islands. An online forum has generated hundreds of topics and thousands of discussions.

Serviceman shot, civilian killed in Papua marketplace on Friday

Jakarta Globe - January 12, 2013

Farouk Arnaz & Banjir Ambarita – A gunman shot at a member of the Indonesian Armed Forces and a civilian at a market in Puncak Jaya, Papua, on Thursday, killing the civilian and seriously wounding the soldier, police said on Friday.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar described the suspect as being Papuan and standing about 160 centimeters tall. "It happened while it was raining," Boy said. "An investigation is ongoing, including forensic testing."

The wounded soldier, identified as Private Specialist Hasan, a member of the Nabire 752 Battallion, was on guard duty at theKota Lama Market when he was shot from behind.

As the gunman was trying to get away, he shot Abbas Hadis, a civilian who was standing in front of his own house. Abbas was hit on the right side of the chest and died a short time later. "The assailant then ran toward the mountain and we are still hunting him down," Boy said.

In Jayapura, Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Carnavian said that his detectives were still searching for the perpetrator. We have some leads. Hopefully, we can catch him," he said.

The Puncak Jaya district, a separatist stronghold, has seen its share of violence over the past year when several policeman and civilians were killed.

Gun attacks are not uncommon in Papua in Indonesia's extreme east, where separatist groups have for decades fought a low-level insurgency on behalf of the mostly ethnic Melanesian population.

One killed, one injured in Papua gun attack: Police

Agence France Presse - January 10, 2013

Timika – An unidentified gunman shot dead a civilian and seriously injured a soldier in Indonesia's restive Papua province on Thursday, a local military official said.

"A gunman shot dead a man after he attacked our military member, who is now being treated in hospital for a serious gunshot wound on his back," Papua province's military spokesman Jansen Simanjutak told AFP. "We haven't identified the perpetrator," he said.

The incident occurred in the Puncak Jaya district, which is believed to be a separatist center.

Gun attacks are not uncommon in Papua in Indonesia's extreme east, where poorly-armed separatist groups have for decades fought a low-level insurgency on behalf of the mostly ethnic Melanesian population.

Aceh

Rights groups call on women to ignore Aceh straddle ban

Jakarta Globe - January 12, 2013

A network of women's and human rights organizations has called upon women living in the Aceh city of Lhokseumawe to ignore a bylaw banning female passengers from straddling motorcycles.

"We ask the people of Lhokseumawe not to abide by the regulation so that the local government learns a lesson on how to make wise directives," Affan Ramli, a spokesman for the Care for Shariah Civil Society Network (JMSPS), said on Friday, as quoted by Antaranews.com.

The ban is deceiving to the public, according to the JMSPS, because neither Shariah law or precedents set in the development of Islamic jurisprudence deal with the prohibition of women sitting astride on motorcycles.

"None of Aceh's traditional or local laws forbid women from straddling motorcycles," Affan said. "In the history of Aceh, sitting manners have never been stipulated by the government. It was fully created from education and habit."

Suaidi Yahya, the mayor of Lhokseumawe, recently told the Jakarta Globe that he wanted to introduce the bylaw because he had seen people's behavior and morals straying too far from Aceh's Islamic cultural values.

"We want to save women from things that will cause them to violate Shariah law," he said. "We wish to honor women with this ban, because they are delicate creatures."

Despite facing widespread criticism over the bylaw, the government in Lhokseumawe on Monday started enforcing the regulation, though only for civil servants.

The local government circulated a letter explaining the need for women to side-saddle motorcycles while in the passenger's seat in order to prevent immoral acts. The letter also proposed banning men and women from hugging or holding hands while on vehicles.

"We will impose sanctions on [those who break the law]. We will shame them, warn them or fire them," Dasni Yuzar, the secretary of the Lhokseumawe administration, said, as quoted by KBR68h.com.

Human rights & justice

Rights body leaders squabble over privileges

Jakarta Post - January 12, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Less than two months after it selected its chairman, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) is plagued by internal conflict, apparently centering on rivalries among members to control the rights body.

Several fellow commission members have tried to oust Otto Nur Abdullah who was selected as chairman on Nov. 26. Otto had reportedly planned to investigate human rights abuses in the country.

Certain politicians, who are often linked to human rights abuses and plan to run in the 2014 presidential election, are anxious about his program. Speculation is rife that worried politicians have put pressure on the rights body to cancel its investigation's.

On Friday, Otto revealed that the majority of his colleagues supported the idea to elect a new leader annually until their term ends in 2017. This means his chairmanship would be cut short from two and a half years to one year.

"A meeting [last Monday] concluded that there is a need to redefine the meaning of collective collegial leadership in this institution. Most of us believe that a consequence of this would be the shortening of the chairmanship term, from two and a half years to one year," Otto said on Friday.

Otto made the revelation only after rights activists pushed him to clarify rumors of rivalries within the body.

Komnas HAM's commissioners, especially those who supported the plan, failed to convince their audience of the importance of electing a new chairman every year. Rights activists said the reasons voiced by the commissioners were "illogical" and "unreasonable".

Commissioner Ansori Sinungan, a former official at the Law and Human Rights Ministry said that an extended period of leadership would not guarantee the success of a program, citing his experience as a former government official participating in carrying out the then New Order's Five-Year Development Plans (Repelita).

"Repelita could not be successfully done in five years, let alone in two and a half years," Ansori said, which was immediately followed by shouts and boos from the audience, who claimed Ansori had applied "reverse logic". Exclamations heard from the audience included: "Let alone a year! What can you do in one year?"

The meeting on Friday neglected to respond to activists calls for Komnas HAM to cancel the plan and focus on its work.

Haris Azhar, chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said that changing Komnas HAM's leadership was unnecessary as it would distract the institution from its core responsibility – to resolve nationwide human rights abuses.

"I find it suspicious that you discuss the idea after appointing a new chairman. Why not discuss everything – including the terms of the chairman – beforehand? I think it is better to focus on the cases you have now instead of wasting time and energy to bicker about the right person to chair," he said.

Meanwhile, executive director of the human rights watchdog Indri Saptaningrum warned that many groups wanted to weaken Komnas HAM, particularly as it had previously announced it would continue to focus on the investigation of three serious cases.

Women's rights

Coalition demands longer prison sentences for rapists

Jakarta Post - January 14, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – A coalition of children and women's rights groups staged a rally at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle on Sunday calling for more severe punishments for child abusers.

Participants at the rally, most of whom were women and children, also called for more support for victims of sexual abuse.

The coalition, led by the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA), urged the government and the House of Representatives to improve child protection measures, for example by amending Law No. 23/2002 on child protection to set a minimum prison sentence of 20 years for child abuse.

"The current law only stipulates between three and 10 years' imprisonment for child sex abusers. This is unreasonable. Perpetrators should be sentenced to at least 20 years for the suffering they cause to victims," Arist Merdeka Sirait of Komnas PA said.

Arist added that his commission and other rights watchdogs would forward this proposal to House Commission III on laws and human rights, as well as to relevant government ministries.

"Other than suitable legal protection, the government must also create a comprehensive system to prevent future sexual abuse against all children in the country. We don't want the same fate as Indonesia's to befall other children here," Arist said, referring to an 11-year-old girl who died last week after suffering severe vaginal and rectal injuries apparently due to repeated sexual assaults.

Participating in the rally on Sunday was Permadi Ramono, a lawyer for Indonesia's family, who said his team would be filing a lawsuit against the perpetrator. "The perpetrator is guilty of rape as well as of violating a child. My team and I are still working on the case," he said.

When asked about the ongoing police investigation, Permadi said that only one man, who was close to the victim's family and who was identified only by the initial R, was being questioned.

The coalition also said that there had been an increase in the number of sexual abuse cases, especially among the country's impoverished population.

Data from the coalition shows that in 2010, there were 2,426 child abuse cases, of which 42 percent involved sexual violence. The figure rose to 2,509 in 2011, 58 percent of which were sexual.

Looking at the trajectory, the coalition has declared 2013 as a year of emergency regarding sexual crimes. "It is high time to create a system to protect Indonesian children and afford solidarity among victims of sexual abuse," the coalition said in a statement.

The death of Indonesia marks only the latest case of child rape that may well have resulted in no legal action being brought against the perpetrator.

In October last year, a teenager in Depok, West Java, who was reportedly kidnapped and repeatedly raped by a Facebook "friend", was expelled from school,

The 14-year-old girl, identified only as SAS, returned for classes at her school after a one-month absence following her traumatic ordeal, only to be told to return home as the school "could no longer accept a student that has tarnished the school's image".

In September, a female passenger RS, 27, was gang-raped when traveling at night on a KWK D-02 minivan plying the Ciputat-Pondok Labu route.

Two weeks later, the victim managed to spot one of the rapists and tipped off police who then arrested him.

Would-be judge would go easy on rapists

Jakarta Post - January 15, 2013

Jakarta – A candidate Supreme Court justice told members of the House of Representatives that some rape cases might involve consensual sex and require more lenient sentences.

"Both the victims of rape and the rapist might have enjoyed their intercourse together, so we should think twice before handing down the death penalty," Daming Sunusi told lawmakers on House Commission III on law and human rights on Monday.

While rape carries a maximum penalty of 12 years' imprisonment under Indonesian law, Daming might have been referring to recent cases involving rape and murder. Daming's comments were greeted with laughter from lawmakers overseeing his "fit-and-proper" hearing.

Democratic Party lawmaker Himmatul Aliya Setiawati, for example, she had no problems with Daming. "He has met the criteria from the answers he gave us. Other factions have said that they won't vote for him, but we will look at his overall score," Himmatul told reporters.

However, lawmaker Pramono Anung Wibowo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said that his party would vote to reject Daming, a career judge from Banjarmasin, East Kalimantan.

This is not the first time, a public official made a statement which blames the victims of rape.

Last year, Former Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo advised women against wearing provocative clothes while riding public transportation in order to avoid being raped.

His statement came after recent gang rape cases on public minivans, including the rape of a Binus University student who was subsequently killed.

On Sunday, A coalition of children and women's rights groups staged a rally at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle on Sunday calling for more severe punishments for child abusers.

Labour & migrant workers

Indonesian Nike workers 'denied pay rise'

Jakarta Globe - January 15, 2013

Rebecca Lake – Indonesia's Nike factories have sought to deny their staff the new minimum wage by pressuring them to sign an agreement forfeiting their right to the pay increase, according to workers union leaders and a labor rights organization.

A trio of groups – Educating for Justice, a US-based group focused on Nike workers' rights; the Alliance for Labor Unions in Indonesia (MPBI); and the Trade Union Rights Center – revealed on Monday the findings of a recent investigation into several Nike factories.

EFJ said that one significant finding involved Nike's Pratama factory in Sukabumi, 80 kilometers south of Jakarta, where local management had allegedly engaged in fraud to secure an exemption from paying the West Java city's new minimum wage of Rp 2.2 million ($228), matching that of Jakarta.

EFJ director Jim Keady said that 18 trade union officials from Nike's Pratama plant were deceived into signing an agreement to exempt the employer from paying the new minimum wage.

"The unionists were invited to lunch [on Dec. 20] and when they arrived they were asked to sign what they believed was a sign-in sheet for the luncheon," the director said.

Keady added that reports from the unionists claim the sign-in sheet was then "fraudulently attached to a document that stated the signatories agree to the factory management's requests to be exempt from the new minimum wage."

This document was then submitted to the Regional Wage Council in Bandung, Keady said. After hearing of the submission, the trade union then formally rejected the management proposal for the wage exemption on Dec. 24.

However, according to the EFJ investigative team, this action by the Pratama workers union was over-ridden by the plant's management, who approached workers on the factory floor and asked them to sign the wage agreement.

This action was caught on video and shown to Keady, who said: "There didn't seem to be in any of the video footage I saw an explanation to the workers of implications to what they were signing."

But what the activist believed to be of "greater concern" was that high- ranking members of the Indonesian military accompanied the managers as they asked for signatures, in what looked to be means of intimidating the workers to comply.

On Sunday, as a result of the salary agreement signed by more than 500 workers, the provincial wage council granted Nike's Pratama exemption from the minimum wage.

Nike spokesman Greg Rossiter said that company representatives are investigating EFJ's claims and Nike is aware that measures are being taken to negotiate exemptions to the minimum wage at local plants.

"We understand that some factories within the Nike contract supply chain in Indonesia have chosen to engage with their local governments to discuss the new wage levels and their implementation. We expect such conversations to take place within the provisions of the legal framework in Indonesia," he said.

Nike workers win battle for wages

Jakarta Globe - January 15, 2013

Rebecca Lake – An Indonesian factory that produces apparel for Nike has revoked its application to be exempt from the minimum wage on Tuesday, after accusations arose that factory managers were pressuring workers to sign an agreement forfeiting their right to the pay increase, a workers rights group has reported.

Jim Keady, the director of Educating for Justice, a US-based group focused on workers' rights at Nike's suppliers, confirmed on Tuesday that the factory in Sukabumi, 80 kilometers south of Jakarta, had agreed to pay the full minimum wage.

"I'm very happy for the workers in the factory. They are getting the justice they deserve," he said. "Now we have to move forward case by case, factory by factory and make sure that in all 40 [Indonesian] Nike factories, the 171,000 workers get what they deserve."

Keady said he spent Tuesday investigating another factory making Nike products in Serang, Banten province, for labor rights abuses that include avoiding payment of the minimum wage and intimidation against its workers.

The EFJ investigative team estimates that six to eight factories are seeking exemption from the minimum wage. So far, the group has only investigated shoe manufacturing plants, but it said it suspects the majority of Nike apparel factories will also be trying to avoid paying the new minimum wage.

"What I plan to do over the course of the next two to four weeks is work with my contacts and just methodically go through the list of all of Nike's factories here and make contact with all of the trade unions at each one of the factories to find out if they are being paid the minimum wage," he said.

In response to the recent wage allegations, Nike spokesman Greg Rossiter reiterated that Nike's code of conduct was "very clear" on treatment of workers.

"Nike expects contract factory workers to be paid at least the minimum wage required by country law and provide legally mandated benefits, including holidays and leaves, and statutory severance when employment ends," Rossiter said. He added that Nike representatives were now investigating the claims of worker intimidation.

Keady, a former professional football player who turned activist 15 years ago after being distraught by sweatshop practices in the early '90s, said that even after the recent achievement, there was still a long road ahead.

"I think that there will be a battle. Personally I would love it to be as easy as a domino effect, but having been at this for 15 years, I know we are going to have to scratch our way to each victory," he said.

Nike workers claim military paid to intimidate them

ABC News - January 15, 2013

George Roberts, Indonesia – Workers at a Nike shoe factory in Indonesia say the factory paid military personnel to intimidate them into working for less than the minimum wage.

After millions of workers went on strike last year in Indonesia over low pay and cost of living increases, the government lifted wage rates. But workers at the Nike factory in the west Java city of Sukabumi say they were made to sign a petition supporting the factory's claim to be exempt from paying the new wage.

In mobile phone footage of the factory, shown to the ABC, a man standing over workers can be heard telling them, "you all have to sign it". The woman who took the footage does not want to be named, but says she and other workers tried to reject the pay restriction.

"We got summoned by military personnel that the company hired to interrogate us and they intimidated us," she said.

"The first thing that scared me was his high tone of voice and he banged the table. And also he said that inside the factory there were a lot of military intelligence officers. That scared me."

Unions in Indonesia say at least six Nike-contracted factories have applied to be exempt from paying the increased rate. The Trade Union Rights Centre's Surya Tjandra says there is a loophole to get an exemption.

"You have to provide financial conditions of the company in the last two years which show some not profit, and then you have to accept some consent from the workers directly, which is not that easy because for the workers, the new wages is actually better and fairer," he said.

If the factory gets an exemption, the employees will get paid $3.70 a day instead of $4. Activists say that after rent and transport to work, it is only enough to afford one meal.

One activist, Jim Keady, runs an American non-governmental organisation called Educating for Justice. "I would say it is a clear violation of Nike's code of conduct and in a more general sense, the minimum wage is a poverty wage alone," he said.

"To pay less than the minimum wage I just think absolutely runs counter to Nike's public claims that they care about the welfare of their workers and they want to see them have decent lives."

Nike investigating

In a statement, a spokesman for Nike said the company is investigating. "Nike expects contract factory workers to be paid at least the minimum wage required by country law and provide legally mandated benefits, including holidays and leave, and statutory severance when employment ends," the statement said.

The ABC asked Nike headquarters if the company is aware of the allegations about the use of military personnel and the intimidation of workers into accepting a lower than minimum wage. After a pause, the spokesman said he would not get into details but that the company was investigating.

Mr Keady says the situation would be easy to fix. "You really have to break it down in human terms," he said.

"Somebody like Phil Knight, the founder of Nike. The guy is worth $10.3 billion. How much more do you need? If you made a billion less you could lift millions of people out of poverty.

"I'm not asking for charity – I don't want him to just give his money away. I'm talking about justice. Pay the people what they deserve. They've earned it. Give them a decent wage."

He says Nike made $2.2 billion in profits last year and it would cost $1 extra per pair of shoes to pay the minimum wage.

Freedom of information & the press

Information ministry denies 'Act of Killing' website censorship

Jakarta Globe - January 14, 2013

Ethan Harfenist – The website for the controversial documentary "The Act of Killing" was offline over the weekend, prompting accusations of censorship from activists and questions from the film's director.

Joshua Oppenheimer, one of the film's creators, tweeted on January 11: "It seems that jagalfilm.com & theactofkilling.com can longer be accessed from Indonesia. Who did this?"

Attempts to access the sites on computers at The Jakarta Globe were unsuccessful on Monday morning. Both websites were accessible outside of Indonesia and back online in the archipelago Monday afternoon.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology denied blocking the website, explaining that they would have announced the ban publicly.

"We have gotten a lot of complaints about it, but in this case, it is not our authority," ministry spokesman Gatot S. Dewabroto told the Jakarta Globe in a phone call on Monday. "We had to check internally to make sure. We have to inform the public [since] this is not because of the ministry – we didn't block the website."

The Internet transparency organization Indonesia Online Advocacy (IDOLA) created an online petition demanding the government address the alleged ban.

"There are suspicions that the two sites have been blocked by several Internet Service Providers," founder Megi Margiyono said. "The websites cannot be accessed from Indonesia. The problem is that there is no transparency about [Internet censorship] in Indonesia, so the public does not know which sites are actually being blocked."

However, Megi tweeted from his personal account on Monday that "Pak Tif [Minister Tifatul Sembiring] has never made any announcements about Indonesia applying political filtering, so there are no sites blocked due to their political content."

Indonesia's Twitter community voiced concern over the website's unavailability, with some users asking Tifatul Sembiring, the Minister of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo), why the site was offline.

"Hey Mr. @tifsembiring, why can't the website of the act of killing be opened? What's wrong? Is this on purpose?" tweeted one supporter.

Since its debut at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival, "The Act of Killing" has received critical acclaim for its disturbing surrealism and its fresh insight into an era of Indonesian history that is shrouded in secrecy.

Shot over the course of seven years, the movie tells the stories of Anwar Congo and Adi Zulkadry, two Medan-based gangsters, or "premen," by detailing their participation in the 1965-1966 anti-communist mass killings that help bring about the rise of the Suharto regime.

The film has been viewed in other countries and also in Indonesia at "secret" invitational screenings.

Mayor says paper can't report on him

Jakarta Post - January 9, 2013

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – Bandarlampung Mayor Herman HN has banned Tribun Lampung from covering his activities, claiming he was humiliated by the newspaper's coverage.

Herman said that the newspaper, which is published by the Kompas Gramedia media group, had humiliated him by falsely reporting that the mayor had cut the incentive allowances of the employees of the Lampung Revenue Office.

"If you didn't steal but you were reported to have stolen, wouldn't you be angry?" Herman said on Tuesday. "Tribun Lampung has continually attacked me. Furthermore, they published news without asking for confirmation from me."

Herman said that the ban would not prevent Tribun Lampung journalists from seeking information from other administration units within the mayor's office or from Bandarlampung municipal agencies.

Herman hotly defended his ban. "I'm a native of Lampung. When it comes to self-respect, let's fight until someone dies. I'm ready to die. I'm not afraid. At most, I'll be imprisoned," he said.

The ban was rejected by the Lampung office of the Central Information Commission (KIP) and by local journalists.

Wakos Reza Gautama, who leads the Bandarlampung chapter of the Independent Journalists Alliance (AJI), said that the ban threatened the freedom of the press in Lampung. Wakos said that Herman should rescind the ban and seek redress by filing a formal complaint with the Press Council.

Herman, however, rejected the proposal. "What's the use of using the right to reply and report to the Press Council if my self-respect is in tatters? It's no use," Herman said.

Lampung Central Information Commission head Juniardi said that the ban imposed by Herman was illegal and violated the Press Law and the Freedom of Information Law.

"I suggest that Tribun Lampung to go through legal means. The mayor's move has threatened press freedom in Lampung. The media will be afraid to report on corruption cases involving public officials," Juniardi said.

In several reports published at the end of December, the Tribun Lampung alleged that Herman cut civil servant incentive funds by Rp 2 billion (US$222,000) when he was head of the Lampung Revenue Office in 2008.

Herman was mentioned in a report filed by Agusman, the lawyer of former Lampung Revenue Office head Risman Sesunan, who has been named as suspect in a separate criminal case and is currently in detention at Way Hui penitentiary in Bandarlampung.

The mayor denied that he had ordered the incentive fund cut. "If the Tribun Lampung journalist could not confirm the matter with me, then they could still cross check the report with employees at the Lampung Revenue Office as to whether or not I had cut the funds," Herman said.

Separately, Tribun Lampung editor-in-chief Uki M. Kurdi said that the newspaper would continue to report on corruption, despite the ban. Uki added that Tribun Lampung would not apologize to the mayor.

"We will keep fulfilling the rights of the public in Bandarlampung to get information. There's no room for compromise and to stop reporting," he said.

Political parties & elections

Ten Indonesian parties receive ballot numbers for 2014 race

Jakarta Globe - January 14, 2013

Ezra Sihite – Ten political parties that qualified to run in the 2014 legislative elections obtained their ballot numbers on Monday.

The numbers, which will represent each party throughout the elections, were assigned during a plenary session of the General Elections Commission (KPU) in Jakarta. Each party was represented by its chairman and secretary- general during the draw.

The KPU announced last week that only 10 parties were eligible to contest in the 2014 race, disqualifying 24 others who also registered.

Nine of the parties participated in the 2009 elections, and only the National Democratic (Nasdem) Party, founded by media mogul Surya Paloh following a split with the Golkar Party, is a new contender.

The ballot numbers of the 10 parties are as follows:

1. The Nasdem Party 2. The National Awakening Party (PKB) 3. The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) 4. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) 5. The Golkar Party 6. The Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party 7. The Democratic Party 8. The National Mandate Party (PAN) 9. The United Development Party (PPP) 10. The People's Conscience (Hanura) Party

The KPU is set to later in the day conduct a draw for three local parties in Aceh that have been declared qualified to participate in the 2014 elections at the provincial and municipal/district levels.

The three parties – the Aceh Party, the Aceh Peace Party and the Aceh Nationalism Party – will draw for numbers 11 to 13.

Gerindra advertises for 2014 legislative candidates

Jakarta Globe - January 14, 2013

Ezra Sihite – Thinking of a career in the legislature? Gerindra Party announced on Monday that it was looking for candidates seeking to contest the 2014 legislative elections.

The secretary of the Gerindra faction at the House of Representatives, Edhy Prabowo, said they had vacancies for candidates from the central to the municipal/district level.

"Anyone is welcome to distribute this information to anyone who has the potential to join and develop Gerindra Party," Edhy said in a press statement. "Today we announce the opening of the recruitment for legislative candidates in all national newspapers and online media," he added.

Deputy chairman Fadli Zon earlier said Gerindra would not exclusively support party cadres in Indonesia's legislative elections, and that the positions for Gerindra-backed legislative candidates would be open to anyone.

Fadli said those eying seats at the House can register at the party's central office in Jakarta, while those wishing to join provincial or municipal/district legislative councils can apply at Gerindra's regional branches.

Edhy said short-listed candidates would be quarantined, during which they were expected to take part in training and education programs hosted by Gerindra to prepare them for the 2014 legislative races.

Rights commission should name candidates that have violated human rights

Kompas.com - January 12, 2013

Aditya Revianur, Jakarta – The coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Haris Ashar says that the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) should issue a list of 2014 presidential (capres) and legislative (caleg) candidates that have committed crimes against humanity.

The aim of this would be so that the General Elections Commission (KPU) could be more selecting in accepting candidates from certain political parties.

"The KPU accepts capres and caleg from the political parties right. Komnas HAM should release a checklist of capres and caleg that includes human rights violators, both minor and serious", said Ashar speaking at the Kontras offices in Jakarta on Saturday January 12.

Ashar explained that the list would be useful since 'rotten' politicians can no longer nominate themselves for the 2014 elections. According to Ashar, Komnas HAM has the authority to provide a detailed list of politicians that have violated human rights. These violators, he explained, should not just be restricted to militaristic crimes, but also corporate crimes against humanity.

"Imagine if half of the Lapindo management nominated themselves. The implication of this would be to obstruct democracy. In addition it would also smooth the way for a totalitarian regime in Indonesia", he asserted.

Ashar added that several presidential candidates from military circles would be blocked by this. One of the examples being the presidential candidate from the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), former army special forces (Kopassus) commander General Prabowo Subianto, who was the mastermind behind the abduction of activists in 1997-98 and the May 1998 riots in Jakarta.

Aside from Subianto, the presidential candidate from the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), namely former Armed Forces chief General Wiranto cannot be released from responsibly for gross human rights violations. According to Ashar, Wiranto is responsible for the Semanggi I and II fatal shooting of student protesters in Jakarta in 1998 and for crimes committed in East Timor.

In addition to Subianto and Wiranto, the presidential candidate from the Golkar Party, namely party chairperson Aburizal Bakrie or 'Ical' also cannot be released from responsibility for human rights violations.

According to Ashar Ical is responsible for the Lapindo mudflow disaster in East java. "If the regime changes for the worse, Komnas HAM would find it even harder. Increasingly blocked in carrying out its mandate", concluded Ashar.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

PKS punishes its cadre for unregistered polygamy

Jakarta Post - January 11, 2013

Ainur Rohmah, Semarang – The Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), publicly perceived as tolerant to polygamy, sacked one of its provincial legislators for not registering his second marriage with a colleague from a different party at the Central Java Legislative Council.

Wahid Ahmadi handed over his seat to Bambang Sutopo on Thursday after revealing his siri (unregistered) marriage with fellow councilor Haritsah. Bambang was sworn in at the council building in a plenary session in Semarang. Bambang will serve until the end of the council term in 2014.

The council's deputy speaker, Fikri Faqih, however, said that an interim replacement was decided on following a resignation letter sent by Wahid to the council two months ago. "The reason was not mentioned in detail," Fikri said after the plenary session.

Bambang Sutopo garnered the second most votes in the Central Java electoral district (Dapil) VIII, which covers Banyumas and Cilacap.

At the time of Wahid's marriage to Haritsah, he was already married to another woman while she was a widow. Wahid said that he did not register his second marriage to the Religious Affairs Office because the marriage was hastily arranged. Wahid made their love affair public in April last year.

As a consequence, PKS suspended Wahid from his structural position in the party as well as from his post in the legislative council. Wahid was a staff member in the party's community supervision division and a member of the council's budget agency and special committee.

An official statement issued by PKS' Central Java branch stated that a legislative council member could be replaced if they engaged in an unofficial marriage.

In Wahid's case, he was considered to have violated the law and the code of ethics because as a public official, he was required to officially register his second marriage.

Fikri, who is also chairman of PKS's Central Java branch, denied accusations that his party pushed Wahid to resign for the sake of the party's popularity. "Why would he want to resign if he was pressed to do so?" he said.

He added that the replacement could take place because all the requirements to remove Wahid had been fulfilled, including an approval letter from the Home Ministry.

Fikri said the case was closed and the party suggested that Wahid should make his second marriage official. "We have handed over the case to the party's organizational discipline upholder agency [BPOD]. We have no idea how the case is going to be followed up."

Separately, Wahid said that he was not surprised by the recall. He said he voluntarily resigned to maintain the party's good name. He also admitted that his unofficial marriage was one of the reasons why the interim replacement was made. He said that he accepted the party's decision.

"Now I will concentrate on earning a living to support my wives and kids," he said.

Major parties look to ally with those disqualified by KPU

Jakarta Post - January 11, 2013

KPU Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Representatives of major political parties that have passed verification by the General Election Commission (KPU) for the 2014 legislative election say they are ready to join forces with disqualified parties.

Martin Hutabarat, a member of the Great Indonesia Movement Party's (Gerindra) patron board, for example, said that at least 10 parties have proposed forming a coalition with Gerindra.

"Leaders of those parties have called us to show us that they have a similar vision to ours in developing the country" Martin told reporters. "They also convinced us that their large number of supporters could help us in the election"

Martin declined to name the smaller parties, saying that he would take the offers seriously to improve Gerindra's standing. "With a large number of parties coming to us, it shows that we are, without a doubt, one of the most popular parties nowadays," he said.

Meanwhile, representatives of the other eight parties that passed muster with the KPU have also made similar claims.

Golkar deputy secretary-general Nurul Arifin said on Thursday that Golkar was currently in talks with three smaller political parties to form a coalition.

Proving that politics makes strange bedfellows, Nurul said that the parties were, ironically, those that had previously evinced a pronounced animosity to Golkar.

Nurul had a caveat for the smaller parties: "They should not cause problems with other parties who wish to ally with us. If they can agree to this, we will seriously consider their offer," she told reporters.

Senior executives of the Democratic Party and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), meanwhile, also claimed that the parties had their eyes set on forming coalitions with the disqualified parties.

However enthusiastic the KPU-approved parties may be for new alliances, it will be some times before such dreams can be realized, as 15 of the 18 parties that were disqualified by the KPU are said to be preparing lawsuits contesting the commission's decision.

The disqualified parties have accused the KPU of favoring previously qualified parties and of manipulating the verification process.

For example, Sahat Sinaga, the secretary general of the Christian-based Prosperous Peace Party (PDS), said that the PDS and 14 other disqualified parties have filed a complaint against the KPU with the Election Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu).

"Bawaslu asked us to complete some more paperwork. We will then file the suit with the PTUN [Jakarta State Administrative Court]," Sahat said. "We will not give up until justice is served.

The PDS leader accused the KPU of failing to perform its job, claiming that during the factual verification process, commission officials failed to make physical inspections of the PDS' regional offices, particularly those in the predominantly Muslim regions, such as Aceh and Muara Enim, South Sumatra.

"We found out that the KPU didn't check on our branches in five districts in Aceh. The provincial KPU in Aceh told us that they did not do it since the [national] KPU didn't send our documents to them. The same thing also happened in Muara Enim," Sahat said.

The PDS and the Crescent Star Party (PBB), the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI), and the National Unity Party (PPN), all disqualified by the KPU, are also said to be compiling evidence to support their lawsuits.

Same old story in 2014 elections

Jakarta Post - January 9, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – With only a small number of political parties contesting the 2014 legislative election, there will only be minor changes in the country's future political landscape, predicts political analyst.

Responding to the General Election Commission's (KPU) decision to allow only 10 political parties to compete in the 2014 legislative election, University of Indonesia (UI) political analyst Andrinof Chaniago predicted that the country's political landscape would remain unchanged as the major players in the next election would maintain their entrenched interests.

Andrinof said that none of the political parties – including the newly admitted National Democratic (NasDem) Party – offer a fresh perspective on public policy and would only be preoccupied with petty politics.

"I don't think that those parties are policy oriented. They are busy trying to gain more power for their respective parties and the future of democracy in the country will still be dominated by conflict between politicians who fight over political and economic influence," Andrinof said.

The KPU announced early on Tuesday that of the 10 political parties were eligible to contest the 2014 legislative election nine are established parties that already had seats in the House of Representatives and one is new. The sole new political party declared eligible, NasDem, will join the nine existing parties in the election.

Parties that failed the verification process – and will therefore be ineligible to participate in the 2014 election – include the Star Crescent Party (PBB), the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI), the National Unity Party (PPN) and the National Care for People's Party (PPRN).

The presence of NasDem on the list also raised the potential of media wars ahead and during the 2014 election.

National coordinator of the National Voters Committee (KPI) Jeirry Sumampow warned about possible biased reporting during the campaign period as several parties are linked to media companies such as Media Nusantara Citra (MNC) and Metro TV, which are tied to NasDem.

MNC's president director Hary Tanoesodibjo is a member of NasDem's central board, while Metro TV owner, media baron Surya Paloh is a founding member of the same party. Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie meanwhile controls news channel TVOne and ANTV.

Jeirry called on media authorities to closely watch outlets controlled by the politically-connected individuals.

"Although the public is becoming more critical, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission [KPI] and the Indonesian Press Council must closely monitor the impartiality of the media, especially those with close links to any of the parties," Jeirry said.

Jeirry said that the small number of parties would help voters make their choice. He said that the 2014 election would be more cost-effective as the KPU could save money by printing smaller-sized ballots. Thirty-four parties participated in 2009 election and 24 parties in 2004.

Executive director of the Associations for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) Titi Anggraini said that with the news media controlled by politicians, voter education would play a more critical role. "Poll watchdogs should not only concentrate on ballot details, but they should also help voters identify good candidates and programs," she said.

A number of pollsters have predicted that secular political parties would dominate the 2014 election, with Golkar expected to come out on top. With the Democratic Party currently being battered by graft scandals, pollsters predict that its supporters would opt for NasDem, further boosting the popularity of the new party.

All major Islam-based political parties are expected attain less than 5 percent, and collectively would only garner 20.1 percent of the votes.

Health & education

HIV/AIDS activist fighting for care and justice in Indonesia

Jakarta Globe - January 13, 2013

Charlotte Greenfield – Baby Rivona is a 45-year-old mother of two who lives in Jakarta. She is a busy woman. As well as caring for her 3-year-old son, her role as the head of a nationwide advocacy group requires her to communicate with members from around Indonesia, meet with government departments and travel around the world to consult with international organizations such as the United Nations.

Ten years ago, Baby was diagnosed with HIV during a routine test required by her Malaysia visa. Her work permit was revoked and Baby returned to Jakarta with little money and no job. As she sat in a hospital waiting room for treatment, Baby looked around at fellow HIV and AIDS patients. Observing that many of them looked sick and gaunt, Baby told herself, "I don't want to be like them."

After reading every piece of information she could find on her condition and ensuring she received adequate medical care, Baby is now able to manage her condition so that she can lead a healthy life. As the national coordinator of the Indonesian Positive Women Network (IPPI), she is painfully aware that not all HIV-positive women in Indonesia are as informed and empowered to fight the disease as she is.

"We're talking about people like me who can read the documents in English on ARV [antiretroviral] treatment and everything, but what about people who don't know a word of English? The counsellors and the doctors do not always update their skills. How can they give their patients the current information?" Baby says.

She adds, "So people living with HIV think treatment is useless, they think you will die. The demand [for ARVs] is still not strong enough, because the information is not there."

Around 24,000 people are taking antiretroviral drugs in Indonesia, which help to keep people with HIV healthy and reduce the risk of transmitting the disease. The Ministry of Health estimates this figure accounts for only 40 percent of those who need the medication.

Baby says that in spite of the government's policy of providing ARV medication free of charge, "fees" or bribes are regularly charged for patients trying to access treatment. "If you want the services, you pay," she says.

Aditya Wardhana, the coordinator of the Indonesian AIDS Coalition, adds that receiving any kind of medical treatment is made more difficult for people who are HIV positive because of discrimination within the health care system.

"We have 250 AIDS hospitals in Indonesia. And that's sometimes an obstacle because when people [with HIV/AIDS] try to access treatment outside the AIDS hospital they get refused. The provider will say, 'You should go to the other hospital,' but maybe they don't need any specific treatment," Aditya says.

"We need to tell our government that every hospital should be ready to treat people with HIV. Because besides the ART [antiretroviral therapy] and diagnostic tests, they don't need any specific treatment."

General hospitals that do treat those with AIDS often require HIV-positive patients to wait in special "isolation rooms" where they often have to wait longer than other patients to see a doctor, according to complaints received by the Indonesian AIDS Coalition and the IPPI.

Over the past few years examples of human rights abuses in the health care system have come to light with reports of the forced sterilization of HIV positive women.

"We began to hear of the situations in 2006," Baby says, "but we did not really understand yet. Then in 2008 we started to understand why: some women living with HIV were saying when they were using the health services they had to undergo sterilization. We did a study. We talked to the then minister of health and we protested at the National AIDS Summit in Yogyakarta."

Any medical procedure conducted without consent is considered a violation of human rights conventions that Indonesia has ratified, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) that have been adopted in Indonesia recommend ARV treatment and, in some cases, a caesarean delivery as the best practices to prevent the likelihood of transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies. Such methods reduce the chance of a baby contracting HIV from its mother to below 5 percent, according to the WHO.

A report released last year by the Women of the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS surveyed 109 HIV-positive Indonesian women in 2011. Just over 40 percent had been asked, usually by a medical professional, to undergo sterilization and five women reported they did not have the option to decline the procedure.

Baby says improvements have been made, with the help of the current health minister, Nafsiah Mboi, who discouraged sterilization and reminds health workers of the WHO guidelines. "We know they don't force sterilization anymore," Baby says, "but they still ask women many, many times to do the procedure."

Nafsiah, who used to be the head of the National AIDS Commission, is described by those in the AIDS advocacy community as a strong leader willing to take action on HIV and AIDS. The minister believes a holistic approach is needed to combat the disease

"We are working on very comprehensive efforts to tackle all the problems," Nafsiah says. "But first we must educate the youth about religion, morals, reproductive health and how to avoid drug addiction. We have too many young people engaging in risky behaviors, especially unsafe sex. The number of abortions is increasing."

This can be made difficult by concerns among some religious communities over sex education. While last year's National AIDS Commission report says that the Nahdlatul Ulama have assisted with outreach services to treat those with HIV and AIDS, another Islamic group, the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), is less supportive of some efforts to prevent HIV.

The chairman of MUI, Amidhan Shaberah, told the Jakarta Globe, "We reject the use of condoms outside of marriage." He explained that until now the MUI had not supported sex education but that its members were now trying to agree on requirements to decide whether a curriculum that met its guidelines would be permissible.

Aditya says that while views such as the MUI's do make HIV prevention more difficult, organizations targeted toward specific communities affected by HIV and AIDS are able to operate effectively. More difficult, he says, is reaching out to members of the general population.

"The problem is, the epidemic is already broader than we thought. Right now, we know that many housewives are infected. As the numbers increase, we don't have any programs for them."

Nafsiah agrees, saying, "What's terrifying is the fact that more and more housewives are getting infected, mostly from their husbands, and these women could transmit their disease to their babies. We can save the babies from being infected if we can catch the infection early and put the mother on antiretroviral treatment immediately. Next year we plan to perform HIV tests on all pregnant women."

Over 8,000 pregnant women are estimated to be infected with HIV/AIDS, based on 2011 Ministry of Health figures. The number of Indonesians living with HIV was around 370,000 in 2011, according to UNAIDS.

Around $69 million was spent in 2010 to prevent and treat AIDS, according to the National AIDS Commission, an increase of around 13 million since 2006. More than half of that comes from international funds.

Baby says that while more funding is always helpful, addressing HIV and AIDS in Indonesia is as much about attitude as it is about money.

"This is still a patriarchal culture. There's discrimination, stigma, financial issues and a lack of knowledge that are causing this. The discrimination in the health system has gotten better over the past few years, but we want more. We want people with HIV to be treated like any other people. I used to wonder why God gave me HIV, but I think maybe it is so I can be a role model and fight for women on these issues."

Activists call for immediate implementation of regulation

Jakarta Post - January 12, 2013

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jayapura – Consumer protection activists have pushed the government to immediately require cigarette manufacturers to put pictorial warnings on their packaging portraying the danger of smoking.

Based on the recently-issued tobacco regulation, cigarette manufacturers have been given 18 months to comply with the obligation to use 40 percent of cigarette packaging for text and pictorial warnings.

Tulus Abadi of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) said the timeframe for the full implementation of the regulation was too long. "I think we should not give them such a long time to put pictorial warnings on the tobacco packages. In fact, Indonesian tobacco manufactures already put pictorial health warnings on all packaging of tobacco products exported to other countries," he said.

"If they can obey regulations in other countries, why are they so reluctant to include pictorial warnings on packaging sold in the local market?" asked Tulus.

Meanwhile, the government have considered a set of five pictorial warnings describing the harmful effects of smoking for cigarette products. Three of the five pictures show a diseased lung, mouth and throat or larynx while the two other pictures visualize people exposed to secondhand smoke.

The warnings should amount to 40 percent of the principal display areas both on the front and back of the packaging.

Widyastuti Soerojo, the Southeast Asia Initiative on Tobacco Tax (SITT)'s Indonesia pack-project coordinator, said on Friday that the set of five pictorial warnings were selected based on study conducted by her institution in 2007.

"We took the pictures chosen by our respondents during the survey. They picked the pictures based on their own various reasons. This survey involved smokers and non-smokers who lived in both urban and rural areas as respondents," she told a press conference held by the National Commission on Tobacco Control at the Yayasan Jantung Indonesia office.

Health warnings to be displayed on the cigarette packages are required to be full-color, high resolution pictures. "The five pictures will be in the form of mock up and CD so no one can change them," said Widyastuti, adding that the Health Ministry's health promotion center was now in charge in preparing the pictorial warnings.

The inclusion of pictorial health warnings on cigarette packaging is one of two main issues, the other being the designation of smoke-free zones to protect people from secondhand smoke, that PP No.109/2012 on tobacco control now regulates.

PP 109 which contains 8 chapters and 65 articles is the implementing regulation of Law No.36/2009 on health. Under the regulation, tobacco packaging should also carry text that discloses the tar and nicotine levels and warn that cigarettes contain more than 4,000 dangerous chemical substances and more than 43 carcinogenic chemicals.

The warning notices should also include the prohibition of cigarette sales to children under the age of 18 years and pregnant women.

Once PP 109 comes into effect, Indonesia will be the fifth ASEAN member country to require pictorial warnings on tobacco packaging after Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei.

"Despite loopholes, through the issuance of PP 109, the government has tried its best to respect and fulfill the right of poor and uneducated marginal members of the community to have clear information about the dangerous effects of smoking cigarettes," said Widyastuti.

New tobacco regulation in Indonesia will be 'ineffective'

Jakarta Post - January 10, 2013

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Anti-tobacco organizations have expressed concern that the tobacco control regulation will do little to wean the country off its cigarette addiction.

Many anti-tobacco campaigners also claim that provisions in the new regulation clearly favor cigarette makers.

"We knew that the slow pace in the drafting of the new regulation meant that the industry was persistent in negotiating details of the regulation," Tulus Abadi of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) said on Wednesday.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a new tobacco control regulation on Dec. 24 last year, but details of the new rules were only available yesterday when the State Secretariat uploaded the regulation in its entirety onto its website.

One controversial article stipulates that cigarette manufacturers be given an 18-month deadline to comply with the obligation to use 40 percent of cigarette packaging for text and pictorial warnings about the dangers of smoking.

Other controversial provisions include a ban on cigarette makers using misleading promotional terms. Among such terms cited by the regulation are "Light", "Mild", "Low Tar", "Slim", "Special" and "Premium", which have been widely used by cigarette makers on many of their popular brands like "Star Mild", "A-Mild", "LA Light" and "Wismilak Slim".

Anti-tobacco activists say that several provisions in the regulation have been compromised to favor the tobacco industry, which according to some estimates employs some 6 million workers in the country.

Tulus said that the 18-month deadline was too long. "Six months would be enough for the industry to fully comply with the new regulation. It could have something to do with the stockpiles of cigarettes sitting in their warehouses. They might also want to buy some time because the deadline will coincide with the start of the 2014 elections when the political hullaballoo could become an excuse to extend the deadline," Tulus said.

Prijo Sidipratomo, the chairman of the National Commission of Tobacco Control who earlier served as chairman of the Indonesian Doctors' Association (IDI), said that the 40 percent of cigarette packaging reserved for health warnings would be too small to depict pictorial messages about the dangers of smoking.

"Compared with other Southeast Asian countries that have implemented similar regulations, 40 percent is the smallest in the region," he said.

Another problematic provision is that allowing cigarette makers to run excessive outdoor campaigns including billboards of up to 72 square meters in size. "It does not make any sense at all. The size is about as large as a volleyball field. Can you imagine a cigarette advert that size being erected on the roadside?" he asked.

The Indonesian Tobacco Growers Association (APTI) and the Indonesian Cigarette Producers Association (Gappri) have expressed their disappointment over the new regulation. Gappri secretary general Hasan Aoni Aziz said the regulation would burden already struggling medium and small cigarette companies.

"For example, the obligation to provide the pictorial messages will mean extra costs for small businesses. The demise of medium and small companies will only benefit big cigarette makers and this will trigger a greater flow of imported cigarettes," he said.

APTI chairman Nurtanio Wisnu Brata, meanwhile, said that the new regulation could deal a blow to millions of employees working for cigarette companies as well as tobacco farmers.

"The government should accommodate demands from of all sides not only from supporters of tobacco control but also those who are against it," Nurtanio said in a statement.

Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi said in a statement that the government had no intention of putting pressure on tobacco farmers and workers. "The regulation is aimed at protecting the public," she said.

Court rules international-standard schools illegal for unequal access

Jakarta Post - January 9, 2013

Ina Parlina and Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that the international standard pilot-project schools (RSBI) and international-standard schools (SBI) are illegal, arguing that they provided unequal access to quality education.

The Court's Chief Justice Mahfud MD said in the court ruling that Article 50 (3) of the National Educational System Law, which regulates the program, was unconstitutional. "The provision raises issues on the public's access to education," Mahfud said during the court hearing on Tuesday.

The court also concluded that provisions in the article were in violation of the State Constitution, which stipulated that education should be the responsibility of the state.

The Constitutional Court also said that RSBI and SBI students were expected to pay more fees than their peers at regular public schools.

The court concluded that the extra fees have "led to the commercialization of the education sector". "Quality education would become an expensive item that only the rich could afford," Mahfud said.

Civil society members had filed a judicial review for provisions to the Education Law, which provided the legal basis for the RSBI and SBI.

In their argument, the plaintiffs, consisting mostly of education experts, non-governmental organizations, parents of students as well as the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), deemed the program unfair as the government has spent more on the RSBI and SBI. The plaintiffs also said that program spending was also prone to corruption.

Members of the group also presented several documents to support their allegations.

The government has argued that the RSBI and SBI were intended to be the center of the country's educational excellence, as well as serving as a role model for other schools in the country.

In its ruling, the panel of judges said that they could see how the program was intended to improve the quality of education in the country. The court reprimanded the government, stating that such an effort should not contradict the State Constitution, which guarantees equal access to education.

"If the state wants to improve the quality of the public schools, the state must treat schools equally by improving their facilities and infrastructure, as well as providing more funds for all public schools," Mahfud said. "That [equal treatment] will remove the differences in the quality of our schools."

Constitutional Court Justice Achmad Sodiki is the only judge who raised a dissenting opinion. Sodiki said that the scrapping of the RSBI and SBI would be a major blow to efforts to provide better education for the country's citizens.

"RSBI and SBI are still concept schools, their dissolution will mean a waste of funds, which have already been used in the pilot project," he said. "It will also thwart government efforts to improve the quality of education."

Education and Culture Minister Muhammad Nuh said that the Constitutional Court ruling would not mean the dissolution of existing international- standard schools. "One thing is certain. The schools will not be shut down," Nuh said in a press conference.

The House of Representatives' deputy speaker overseeing social welfare Taufik Kurniawan said that he applauded the ruling. "I have heard lots of criticism toward the program alleging that technical irregularities in the program's implementation have occurred."

Graft & corruption

Troubled general named suspect for money laundering

Jakarta Post - January 14, 2013

Jakarta – Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, the main suspect in a graft case centering on a driving simulators procurement project, has been named a suspect for money laundering by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

"The KPK upgraded the status of its investigation into Djoko's alleged money laundering to a fully fledged investigation last week," KPK spokesman Johan Budi said Monday as quoted by kompas.com.

On Monday, the KPK questioned Djoko, the former chief of the National Police Traffic Corps, regarding the money laundering allegations.

The KPK will charge him under Article 3 and Article 4 of the 2010 Money Laundering Law. Djoko is alleged to have covered up and hidden the assets he obtained from the driving simulators procurement budget, which caused up to Rp 200 billion (US$21.2 million) in state losses.

Based on the Money Laundering Law, judges can order defendants to provide evidence that their wealth was acquired through honest means. (swd)

More criticism over Angie's light sentence

Jakarta Globe - January 13, 2013

SP/Anastasia Winanti Riesardhy – The lenient punishment handed down on former ruling-party politician Angelina Sondakh has drawn criticism from corruption watchdogs who want the public prosecutor and the judges to be investigated regarding the actual motives of the verdict.

Angie received only a 4.5-year jail term, which includes her six-month detention period, and a Rp 250 million ($26,000) fine in the verdict handed down this week for her involvement in a graft case related to the Ministry of Education and Culture.

In September last year, however, public prosecutor Agus Salim demand that Angie be sentenced to 12 years in jail and pay a fine of Rp 500 million, as the prosecutor believed Angie had received Rp 12.58 billion and $2.35 million in compensation from the Permai Group through its marketing director, Mindo Rosalina Manulang.

The fee was to compensate for Angie's service in lobbying the Youth and Sport Ministry as well as the Ministry of Education and Culture so that projects in those ministries would be implemented in ways that were in line with the agenda of Permai Group. Permai is owned by now-jailed former treasurer of the ruling party, Muhammad Nazaruddin.

Emerson Yuntho of Indonesia Corruption Watch said on Saturday that the court had once again demonstrated how weak the legal system is in tackling corruption issues. There are at least 15 other high-profile graft cases that have ended with weak sentences.

"There must be a special examination to determine the reasons for this weak punishment against Angie. A thorough investigation into this verdict-making process is absolutely necessary," he said.

Emerson said ICW would not swallow the theory presented in the verdict at the antigraft court that Angie's jail term must be lighter than was demanded by the prosecutor because after winning the Miss Indonesia crown she had become Indonesia's pro-orangutan campaigner, an ambassador of science as appointed by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), a campaigner for promoting reading, a batik ambassador and so forth.

The inclusion of such attributions in the verdict against Angie has only tarnished Indonesia's image as a country that is serious about eradicating its culture of corruption, Emerson said, "because with all those proud attributions, why would she get involved in corruption in the first place?"

The ICW executive also questioned the motives behind Angie's refusal to reveal the real actors in the graft, as if she had been instructed to absorb all the blame for the sake of concealing the identity of the real actors in this high-profile case.

Emerson said lenient punishment for corruptors and bribe-takers means that people won't be afraid to get involved in graft, knowing that they could easily conceal the money somewhere in order to avoid detection. Then, after going ahead and taking the short jail terms, they could return, enjoying the money for the rest of their lives.

Political psychology expert Hamdi Muluk said that such weak punishments have spoiled people's sense of justice, because in society everybody wants wrong-doers to be punished accordingly.

He said if this tendency is not corrected, "people would think it is better to become corrupt but rich than fight corruption and remain poor. And who doesn't want to be rich in that manner?"

In a related development, Didi Irawadi Syamsudin, chairman of the antigraft department of the ruling Democratic Party, said his party was ready to increase the punishment for corrupters if society demanded it.

"Everything depends on the prerogative of the judges. But if society rejects such a lenient verdict for Angie, the court must listen to [society's] aspirations and so does the KPK, the Corruption Eradication Commission."

Former antigraft judge Asep Iwan Iriawan said the trouble with the antigraft court is that prosecutors and judges are free to interpret what part of the anticorruption code is violated.

"If there is a big corruption case, they would use chapter 12 of the code, which spells up to 20 years in jail for the corrupter. But if there is a special deal, then chapter 5 is used with a jail term of five years. They should have just used chapter 12 of the code consistently," Asep said.

But in Angie's case the judges eventually decided that Angie did not cause any losses to the state treasury so there was no corruption – that is why the court did not order her wealth to be confiscated.

That is also the reason why the court only decided that Angie was guilty of receiving bribes for projects related to the Education Ministry. The court said that she influenced the ministry on matters related to projects in 2011. But it stopped short of mentioning who would benefit from Angie's maneuvers.

Asep also charged that the prosecutor did not have the courage to prove that all the Permai Group money actually came from the state treasury.

Angelina's sentence won't deter others: Analyst

Jakarta Globe - January 12, 2013

Ezra Sihite & SP/Lona Olivia – The relatively light jail sentence for graft convict Angelina Sondakh was a slap on the wrist that will set a bad precedent and will not serve as a deterrent for corrupt politicians, an analyst says.

"The light sentence will not teach anybody a good lesson, especially when everybody knows that these were major offenses," Saleh Daulay, a political analyst from State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah, said on Friday.

Saleh said it was not surprising to see many people questioning the 4.5- year jail sentence and the Rp 250 million ($26,000) fine – a far cry from the 12-year sentence and the Rp 32.5 billion compensation sought by prosecutors.

The former deputy secretary general of the Democratic Party was found guilty over her role in two corruption cases, believed to have cost the state $3.6 million in losses.

"The judges seem to have bowed to political pressure and handed down a light sentence against Angie," Saleh said, referring to Angelina by her nickname.

He added that the light sentence could also reduce public confidence in corruption courts especially since Angelina wasn't cooperative during her trial. "The main goal in handing out a sentence is that it should serve as a deterrent to both the defendant and [others]."

Meanwhile, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also chairman of the Democratic Party's board of advisers, said he respected the court ruling. Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said that the president also hoped that Angelina would accept the sentence.

Democrat lawmaker Nurhayati Ali Assegaf also asked the public to respect the court decision. "The media have made it seem like Angie has done something terrible. But legal facts are more important," Nurhayati said in Jakarta on Friday.

Nurhayati said she considered the sentence as just. "We must believe [in the court], we want to uphold the law, but through legal facts," she said.

Nurhayati said that Democratic lawmakers are planning to visit Angelina in jail to lend her moral support. "Hopefully she can get through this," she said.

Despite being handed a 4.5-year sentence, the House of Representatives' Ethics Council (BK) cannot yet dismiss Angelina permanently as a lawmaker. BK chairman M. Prakosa said that it would only be able to dismiss the former beauty queen after the finalization of the entire legal process.

Prakosa said that Angelina can still appeal her sentence and that if she did, the BK would have to wait for the court's verdict before it could dismiss her.

Angelina was accused of taking about Rp 12.5 billion in kickbacks from disgraced Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin's Permai Group to steer a host of contracts to Nazaruddin's shell companies. She was also accused of receiving $2.3 million in a separate graft case involving the National Education Ministry.

Angelina, who looked glum in her previous court appearances, looked relaxed and relieved with her verdict on Thursday. Her lawyer, Teuku Nasrullah, said that his client was relieved that judges handed down a comparatively light sentence.

Angelina, who had previously asked to be placed under house arrest so that she could take care of her children, claimed in an earlier hearing that she was merely the victim of an elaborate and vicious scheme.

"I am the victim of a grand scenario with me as the scapegoat, which was conducted through someone or several conspirators who were hiding behind the guise of justice collaborators," she said, referring to Mindo Rosalina Manulang, a fixer convicted in a bid-rigging case at the Sports Ministry who has since agreed to act as a key witness in multiple bribery scandals.

Angelina claimed that Rosalina was not a genuine informant who wanted to cooperate with the authorities. She accused Rosalina of withholding key facts in exchange for payment from certain parties.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) spokesman Johan Budi said the verdict against Angelina could serve as a base for the antigraft body to develop the graft cases pertaining to the Palembang athletes' village construction project and the Education Ministry.

He said that the cases will remain open because the KPK can still develop and validate key claims with the testimonies from witnesses and defendants.

In regard to the judges' decision to drop an additional graft charge against Angelina in the Education Ministry procurement project that could have forced her to pay back the state losses, Johan said the KPK respected the decision.

"Article 18 is actually the KPK's effort to recover the state's money from the alleged kickbacks received by the corruptor. But the judges ignored this," Johan said. He added that the KPK has not decided whether it will accept the verdict or appeal.

Angelina's lenient sentence shows antigraft body's failure

Jakarta Post - January 12, 2013

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Antigraft activists decried the lenient jail sentence given to Democratic Party lawmaker Angelina Sondakh, saying the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) needs to strengthen cases against defendants and ensure those convicted of graft get the maximum jail sentence.

The activists lamented the failure of the KPK prosecutors to pursuade the judges to hand down a severe punishment to Angelina.

The KPK prosecutors previously indicted Angelina with three alternative charges, two of which were bribery charges that carry a maximum sentence of five years each and another charge with a 20-year maximum prison term.

The prosecutors deemed Angelina guilty of receiving Rp 12.58 billion (US$1.3 million) and $2.35 million in kickbacks from the Permai Group, a holding company belonging to former Democratic Party treasurer M. Nazaruddin, which won the tender to build the Jakabaring Athletes' Village in Palembang, South Sumatra.

The prosecutors had also demanded that Angelina return all the money she had received from Permai Group to the state

Using Article 12 and 18 of the Corruption Law, prosecutors sought a 12-year sentence for the former beauty queen. However, on Thursday Angelina received a lenient prison sentence of only four years and six months as the Jakarta Corruption Court concluded that Angelina had violated Article 11 of the 1999 Corruption Law, which carries a maximum five years prison sentence.

The court also turned down demands by the prosecutors to order Angelina to return her ill gotten gains to the state, saying that as the bribes of Rp 2.5 billion and $1.2 million came from a private company they were not state money.

As prosecutors failed to present a strong case, the judges argued that they could not determine how much money Angelina actually enjoyed. The judges also concluded that budget allocation was a collective authority of the budget committee and was not Angelina's exclusive authority.

Anticorruption observer Jamil Mubarok of the Indonesia Transparency Society (MTI) said that strong investigations would not work without strong cases.

"The KPK must improve the way they build the case. They must learn how to construct a good indictment and how to present the case before the court," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Legal observer Hendra Setiawan condemned the KPK for not using the Money Laundering Law against Angelina in the first place. "It's not all the judges' fault. The KPK's case did not seem prepared. If they were confident with the case, why didn't they just charge Angelina with money laundering?" he told the Post.

The KPK refused to be blamed for its own defeat and responded by slamming the judges. "The lenient verdict, which had no proper legal standing, indicates that the judges have failed to put weight on the fact that Angelina was a lawmaker who was supposed to represent the public. Instead, she stole from the public," KPK deputy chief Busyro Muqoddas said.

Anticorruption activist Emerson Yuntho of the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) agreed with Busyro, saying that corruption court judges "have the tendency to seek lighter sentences".

Judicial Commission spokesman Asep Rahmat Fajar said his office monitored Angelina's trial since it started in early September 2012. "We are still reviewing it," he added.

Asep said the Judicial Commission would follow up should there be a report about the trial, "that will also include if KPK files a report regarding the trial to us."

Angie gets light jail sentence

Jakarta Post - January 11, 2013

Ina Parlina and Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – In an anticlimactic end to a graft trial, the Jakarta Corruption Court on Thursday sentenced Democratic Party lawmaker Angelina "Angie" Sondakh to four-and-a-half-years in jail and ordered her to pay a fine of Rp 250 million (US$26,000) for corruption.

The panel of judges found the former beauty queen guilty of accepting Rp 2.5 billion and $1.2 million from the Permai Group, a holding company owned by Muhammad Nazaruddin, a former Democratic Party treasurer.

"It has been proven that [the defendant] received Rp 2.5 billion and $1.2 million. The money, from the Permai Group, was paid to secure budget allocation at the Education and Culture Ministry," presiding Judge Sudjatmiko said, reading out the verdict.

The verdict was far more lenient than the sentence demanded by the prosecutors who sought 12 years for Angelina, a member of the House of Representatives (DPR) budgetary committee.

In an earlier trial, prosecutors accused her of accepting a total of Rp 33 billion – comprising Rp 12.58 billion and $2.35 million, paid in several installments – from the Permai Group to secure its budget allocation for projects at the Education and Culture Ministry and the Youth and Sports Ministry.

On Thursday, the court found Angelina guilty of directly and indirectly accepting only Rp 2.5 billion and $1.2 million.

In addition, the judges did not order Angelina to return even one rupiah to the state, saying that the bribes "were not state money as they came from the Permai Group [a private company]."

Regarding the amount mentioned in the previous session, the prosecutors had failed to prove how much money she received, Judge Marsuddin Nainggolan said.

"Budget allocation is not Angelina's exclusive authority. It is the collective authority of the budget committee," he concluded. "Budget committee [members] cannot stand alone."

When presiding Judge Sudjatmiko handed down the verdict, Angelina burst into tears. But, this time she looked relieved. Angelina's emotional closing statement in a previous hearing apparently worked well as the judges saw her achievements as mitigating factors.

Last week, Angelina begged the court not seize her house, saying that it belonged to her fatherless children. She also highlighted her achievements, including singing, speech-writing and science during her childhood and pointed out the titles that she had won in a number of beauty contests, including Miss North Sulawesi and Miss Puteri Indonesia.

She also relayed to the judges her achievements as a representative at a Harvard University conference on orangutans and the Asia-Pacific Women's Parliament.

She even tried to create drama in the courtroom by introducing the judges to her two stepdaughters – a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old – who were sitting near her at the visitors' bench.

The two stepchildren did not appear in the courtroom yesterday but their birth mother, pop singer Reza Artamevia – once married to Angelina's late husband – came to the trial to show her support.

The demand for a 12-year sentence was unfair as Angelina did not ask for bribes, said her lawyer, Teuku Nasrullah, in his closing argument last week, adding that prosecutors had failed to prove that Angelina had accepted the Rp 33 billion in bribes.

Despite the defeat, the KPK said they appreciated the sentencing and would use it to inform investigations into the case.

"Although the judges used Article 11, the judges still found Angelina guilty of accepting money, which was in line with our allegations against her," KPK spokesperson Johan Budi said at his office after the trial. "We will find other players."

He declined to mention one name in particular. Facts had emerged in previous trial sessions that indicated Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle lawmaker I Wayan Koster had also accepted money.

Separately, Democratic Party deputy secretary-general Saan Mustopa said that the party would welcome Angelina back despite the latter's earlier bitter statement regarding her experience in politics.

Angelina Sondakh: Case time line

Feb. 3, 2012: Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) names Angelina a suspect in the SEA Games scandal, asks for travel ban on lawmaker.

Apr. 27, 2012: KPK detains Angelina after hours of questioning

Sep. 6, 2012: Angelina's trial begins for graft involving budget allocations at two ministries.

Dec. 20, 2012: Prosecutors demand that Angelina be sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and return billions of rupiah in alleged bribes.

Jan. 10, 2013: Corruption Court finds Angelina guilty, sentencing the lawmaker to four-and-a-half-years imprisonment and to pay a Rp 250 million fine.

Related verdicts in Angelina scandal

Mohamad El Idris, marketing manager of PT DGI. Verdict: 2 years imprisonment, Rp 150 million fine

Mindo Rosalina Manulang, marketing director of PT Anak Negeri. Verdict: 30 months imprisonment, Rp 200 million fine

Wafid Muharam, Youth and Sports Ministry secretary-general. Verdict: 3 years imprisonment, Rp 150 million fine

Muhammad Nazaruddin. Verdict: 58 months' imprisonment, Rp 200 million fine

Who might be next?

Andi Mallarangeng, Democratic Party politician (suspect)

Angelina gets four-and-a-half -year prison sentence

Jakarta Post - January 10, 2013

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Former beauty queen-turned-politician Angelina Sondakh received only a four-and-a-half-year jail term thanks to achievements she boasted in her plea.

Angelina has been found guilty of accepted more than Rp 34,90 billion (US$3,6 million) in kickbacks from Permai Group, a holding company belonging to convict M. Nazaruddin in exchange for projects run by the Youth and Sports Ministry (the construction of athletes' village for last year's SEA Games in Palembang, South Sumatra) and the Education and Culture Ministry (projects in 16 state universities).

She has also been ordered to pay Rp 250 million (US$25,906) in fines or serve six additional months in prison should she fail to pay the fine.

The panel of judges considered her achievements including some titles she won in a number of beauty contests she read out in her plea as mitigating factors that influenced the lower than 12-year sentence demanded by the prosecutors.

Angelina's legal team and the prosecuting team said they wanted to use the seven-day period to consider whether or not to file an appeal.

KPK to battle sexual gratuities

Jakarta Post - January 9, 2013

Jakarta – In a bid to combat the practice of bribing in the form of sex, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) plans to formulate a rule to regulate such a practice.

Currently there is no regulation that specifies what constitutes sexual gratification and how to punish those involved in such practices, KPK deputy chairman Adnan Pandu Praja said on Tuesday. "We will create a detailed regulation so that it is easier to understand," Adnan said as quoted by kompas.com.

Due to the lack of regulation, many institutions are in doubt of whether sexual favors constitute bribery because the 2001 law on corruption eradication only mentions bribery of monetary value, he said. The KPK, therefore, had not received a single report related to sexual gratification since its establishment, Adnan added.

The KPK's director for gratuities, Adnan Pandupraja, meanwhile, said that Indonesia could learn from neighboring country Singapore, which saw its former Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) chief Ng Boon Gay charged for using his position to obtain sexual gratification.

"We have the same concept [as Singapore]. State officials and public servants are not allowed to receive favors in whatever form or value that could influence their decisions," said Adnan. (han)

Hard-line & vigilante groups

Ahmadi mosque vandal stands trial in Bandung

Jakarta Post - January 10, 2013

Bandung – Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) member Muhammad Asep Abdurahman, aka Utep, on Thursday began his trial at the Bandung District Court following his accusation on the destruction of an Ahmadiyah mosque.

State Prosecutor Agus Mujoko said that Utep had been charged with Article 170 of the Criminal Code on assault and Article 335 on offensive behavior. Violation of the articles, if proven, could result in a maximum of 5-year prison term.

Agus said that Utep had demanded the Ahmadis not to celebrate Idul Adha, Islamic day of sacrifice, in their mosque An Nasir in October last year.

"Do you want another deadly incident like Cikeusik?" Agus reiterated Utep's threat. The threat referred to a deadly attack on Ahmadis in Cikeusik, Bogor, which killed three Ahmadis.

The Ahmadis refused to heed Utep's demands and said that they would keep performing ied prayer and slaughtering animals during Idul Adha. Agus said that Utep coordinated other FPI members to attack the mosque.

"The defendant came to the mosque with around 50 other FPI members, then broke windows, lamps and a motorcycle at the mosque. The damage costs Rp 3 million (US$308)," Agus said as quoted by tempo.co.

Police finally cancelled the Idul Adha celebration at the mosque for the sake of security. (cor/lfr)

Land & agrarian conflicts

Indonesian activists seek land reform, but House has other ideas

Jakarta Globe - January 14, 2012

Anita Rachman – Despite mounting calls for an agrarian reform law, especially after the recent spate of violence over land disputes, the House of Representatives appears adamant that it isn't needed.

Activists have long been pushing for a bill that would establish and regulate an integrated system over how the country's natural resources are used by oft-conflicting parties.

They want something more substantial than the 1960 Regulation on the Basics of Agrarian Affairs which, while clearly protective of the people's rights to the land, is not substantial enough to safeguard those rights in practice.

Should they succeed, it would finally put into effect a 2001 People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decree that mandates the creation of such a law. The lack of one, activists have argued, has led to a number of land dispute cases over the years, many of them violent. However, lawmakers don't seem to agree.

Committee is enough

On Friday, a day after a massive land reform protest in front of the legislative building in Senayan, lawmakers maintained that they would not work on a new law to solve the country's numerous land disputes.

Instead, lawmakers initiated a plan to establish a special committee that would involve members from all political factions and commissions. Such a committee, in handling specific cases, would have the right to summon relevant people or institutions and come up with recommendations for officials and law enforcers.

An Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker, Budiman Sudjatmiko, who has spearheaded the new plan, said he had already collected 35 signatures from House members. He said they spanned all political factions, except the ruling Democrat Party, which is opposed to the idea.

Under House rules, a proposal to establish a special committee can be submitted to a House plenary session for approval if it has at least 25 signatures. But Budiman said he and the other initiators were shooting for at least 100 signatures from the total 560 lawmakers.

Even if the special committee isn't approved, said Hakam Naja, a National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker, House Commission II overseeing home affairs already has a working committee on land disputes.

"And we have started working," said Hakam, the deputy chairman of the commission. "There are 167 land dispute cases. We are going to work on big cases, and use the model to solve other cases too."

Chronic problems

The country's chronic land dispute problems made headlines last month when a group of farmers from Mesuji in Lampung went to the House to report the alleged massacre of farmers in their district by law enforcers and security officers working for a plantation company.

Another high-profile incident took place recently in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, when the police killed and injured protesters during a demonstration against a gold mining company.

According to Budiman, an investigation by lawmakers found that since 2004, 189 farmers have been killed for their land, with 22 in the last year alone.

The Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has said that it identified eight violent land disputes involving companies last year and that three people died in the disputes with another 56 injured. It said seven people were still being intimidated and 14 had been arbitrarily detained.

"I must say that a special committee will never solve the root of these problems," said Nurkholis Hidayat, director of the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta). "It might solve cases that are ongoing now, but not the root. If lawmakers are serious, they can work on the laws."

Contradicting laws

Indonesia, Nurkholis said, does have a solid pro-people law on agrarian affairs. The 1960 basic law clearly ensures the rights of the Indonesian people to the land, he said. But it doesn't go into detail, he added, only explaining the basic principles.

"And the sectoral laws [derived from the 1960 basic law] we see today do not follow the principles stated by the 1960 basic law," he said.

Those sectoral laws include legislation on forestry, minerals and coal mining, oil and gas, and plantations. Most have been targets of judicial review requests by various groups, assisted by LBH Jakarta, Nurkholis said. "There are so many articles that contradict the 1960 basic law. Some of them overlap as well," he said.

For instance, according to Iwan Nurdin, the deputy secretary general of the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA), Article 7 of the 1960 basic law stipulates that "to not harm public interests, excessive land ownership and control is not allowed."

Despite this, Article 9 of the Mineral and Coal Mining Law puts the sole authority for deciding how much land a company can take for mining in the hands of officials and lawmakers.

In practice, Iwan said, this means the government and House only nod when a company wants a lot of land for mining. "So a special committee cannot guarantee that problems like this will be solved," he said.

Nurkholis said that what was needed was a comprehensive amendment of all the articles in the sectoral laws that contradicted the 1960 law, and also a new integrated law to regulate the ownership of natural resources.

Iwan added that the 2001 MPR decree on agrarian reform and natural resources mandated the House to review all flawed articles in the sectoral laws and draw up the kind of law his group had been asking for.

Still, he said, the KPA would give the House's solution – the special committee – a chance. "But we are going to monitor and give them a deadline," Iwan said. "Within 100 days there should be some concrete steps taken by lawmakers to settle these problems."

Different times

PAN lawmaker Hakam Naja, however, doesn't buy the idea that the sectoral laws cited by the activists should be revised.

Hakam argued that using the 1960 basic law as the sole reference for sectoral laws did not make sense and that people should understand that a different social climate existed when that law was passed back in 1960 under President Sukarno.

"With the era of globalization and global investment, we need to understand that land has an economic value," he said. "Back then in 1960, the situation was different."

Amending the sectoral laws is possible, Hakam said, but not within one House term. And the House, he said, cannot revise all the laws at the same time.

"And there really is no need to draft and deliberate another law on natural resources," he said, referring to the MPR's 2001 decree. House Commission II's proposed committee on land disputes, he added, will help people resolve their cases immediately, without having to wait years for a revised law.

But MPR deputy chairman Hajriyanto Tohari said that lawmakers could not ignore the decree, which is binding and considered second only to the Constitution in terms of weight.

Besides, Hajriyanto said, he agreed that a new law on how the government should handle natural resources was needed. "I think the MPR must give the House of Representatives and the government a warning. Like it or not, members must follow the MPR's decree," he said.

[Additional reporting by Markus Junianto Sihaloho.]

Governance & policy

No joke, Roy will be a minister

Jakarta Post - January 12, 2013

Bagus BT Saragih and Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Many people took it as a joke when rumors began circulating that Democratic Party politician Roy Suryo Notodiprojo was among the candidates for the post of youth and sports minister.

But on Friday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made it clear. It was no joke, Roy was appointed as a minister replacing Andi Mallarangeng, who was named a suspect in the graft-ridden Hambalang sports center project.

"After receiving input and suggestions from the Vice President and other relevant officials, as well as considering the public's wishes, I have appointed Roy to serve as the youth and sports minister," Yudhoyono told a press conference at his office.

"I think Roy is competent to serve in the position. I have also taken his integrity and capacity into account."

The President's assessment was, however, different from that of the people. Comments quickly began pouring in on Thursday following rumors about Roy's candidacy, most of which questioned his competence. The Internet and social media were full of cynical comments when Roy himself hinted he was one of the best choices for Andi's replacement.

"I don't mean to underestimate Roy but his track record in sports is questionable. I don't think he had done anything in the world of sports and youth affairs," said Dedi S. Gumelar, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

The media frequently quoted Roy as a "computer expert" on digital issues such as photography and video tapes depicting sexual activities involving figures that resembled politicians, despite the fact that he has never attended any information technology-related schools.

Roy's self-claimed expertise has led him to testify in court as a digital expert, but rather than silence his critics, his testimony has only produced more controversy.

In October 2009, for example, Roy testified at a court hearing in which Prita Mulyasari, a career woman, was charged with defamation for complaining about the services of the Omni International Hospital in Tangerang, Banten, via email.

Roy said Prita could not be held responsible for the email's broader circulation as the evidence proved Prita had only sent the message to 20 addresses. "But Prita was still the trigger for the email's spread through the Internet," he added.

In December 2004, Roy told a TV show that 68 percent of all Friendster accounts were fake, claiming that he had received information from an inside source. But the social media site's management denied the statement and said that Roy had never talked to anyone at Friendster.

Roy's controversies have not been limited to issues related to the digital world. In March last year, Roy was kicked off a Lion Air flight for taking seats reserved for two other passengers. Later, Lion Air said that Roy was actually on the wrong flight.

Roy did not attempt to defend himself against the massive opposition to his appointment, simply stating instead that among the tough challenges he would face as a minister would be to prove that all the people underestimating him had been wrong in judging his competence.

"I know that the public has very low expectations of me. I am grateful for such suggestions. Instead, the low level of expectations have made me believe that this job will not be easy, particularly given that my tenure will not be long," he said.

"You know that my background has little to do with the position I will be serving. I am neither a sportsman nor a noted youth figure," he said.

When asked about public's pessimism, State Secretary Sudi Silalahi said, "Don't underestimate him nor judge him based on what meets the eye. Maybe he can perform well at the ministry," he said with laughter.

Roy Suryo Notodiprojo

Born: Yogyakarta, July 18, 1968 Education: Communication Studies at UGM, Public Health at UGM

Experience:

Guest lecturer at diploma program in communication studies at UGM
Lecturer of record media art at ISI, Yogyakarta, 1994-2004
Technology consultant at BNN

Affiliation: Secretary for member training with Democratic Party

[Source: House of Representatives profile, 2009-2014.]

Jakarta & urban life

Jokowi criticized for green lighting new toll road project

Jakarta Post - January 11, 2013

Andreas D. Arditya, Jakarta – Transportation experts and activists have attacked Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's plan to construct six new elevated inner-city toll roads across the capital.

Yoga Adiwinarto, director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) Indonesia, regretted the governor's decision.

"Toll roads are not what Jakarta needs. The city needs to prioritize on building and improving its mass transportation system," Yoga told reporters at City Hall after meeting with Deputy Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama.

Yoga said that both the governor and his deputy were not giving the impression that they have a strong vision to improve the city. "If they want to make Jakarta like international cities in Europe, then they need to focus on mass transportation," he said.

"During his run for the gubernatorial post, Jokowi was against the toll road plan. In a meeting with Jakarta Transportation Council [DTKJ], he reaffirmed his position. He is indecisive," Tulus Abadi, a member of the DTKJ, said.

Experts have vocalized their opposition to the elevated toll-road plan citing that it would have no positive effect on eradicating the city's traffic problems.

The DTKJ warned that the toll road would increase the use of private vehicles rather than public transportation, the plan would also have a number of adverse effects, including deteriorating spatial management, increased pollution and damage to the environment and public health.

On Wednesday, Jokowi announced that he had finally agreed to the plan after receiving a "thorough explanation" from the Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto.

According to the governor, the capital was in dire need of new roads to support public transportation and as such, has given the green light to the toll-road project. Jokowi said that improvement in public transportation alone would not be sufficient to tackle the crippling traffic congestion in the city.

"So there is no single solution [to the traffic problems]. We have to do both [improve public transportation and add new roads]," he said after meeting with the minister.

The governor said that he had agreed to the project on the condition that the new roads not only accommodated private vehicles but also public transportation, such as the Transjakarta Bus Rapid Transit system and public minibuses.

The elevated toll road project, estimated to cost around Rp 42 trillion (US$4.3 billion), is expected to begin next year under the auspices of PT Jakarta Tollroad Development (JTD).

JTD is a consortium of construction firms: PT Hutama Karya, PT Pembangunan Perumahan, PT Wijaya Karya, PT Adhi Karya and PT Citra Marga Nusaphala Persada. The 67-kilometer-long inner-city toll road network will connect all five of Jakarta's municipalities.

Armed forces & defense

Ministry to focus on domestic issues amid tensions

Jakarta Post - January 10, 2013

Nani Afrida, Jakarta – Amid heightened tension in the South China Sea and military build up in the region, Defense Ministry officials will concentrate on domestic issues that have little impact on the expansion of the country's military prowess.

Deputy Defense Minister Lt. Gen. (ret) Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that this year, the ministry would focus on passing several laws and regulations on domestic security.

"We will concentrate on passing bills that had been delayed with the House of Representatives. We need to focus on this now because next year we will be busy with the general election," Sjafrie said on the sidelines of an executive meeting to discuss this year's strategy at the Defense Ministry headquarters.

Indonesia is slated to hold legislative and presidential elections in 2014. "During the elections, we don't want to be bothered by unfinished regulations and laws," said Sjafrie.

According to Sjafrie, the bills include those on state secrecy, national security and civil defense. "We know that some people consider the national security bill controversial, but we will find the solution," he said, adding that the bill would be a priority in 2013.

He argued that Indonesia would need such a law to maintain security. "It's urgently needed," he said.

The national security bill has raised controversy over the involvement of the military in managing the country's security – a similar authority granted during the authoritarian rule of Soeharto. After the fall of the Soeharto regime in 1998, the police were given the sole authority to manage the country's security.

Among the bill's contentious issues is a clause that stipulates that the Indonesian Military (TNI), the National Police, the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) would have the authority to intercept communications, arrest and interrogate suspects as well as "other necessary measures".

The State secrecy bill has also ignited protests as it could jeopardize transparency and freedom of the press. Human rights activists are concerned that such bills will function as leeway for the return of an authoritarian regime.

Aside from the bills, Sjafrie also said the ministry would issue 38 Defense Ministry regulations. However, he did not specify its content.

The plan to focus on domestic issues developed amid tension between Asia powerhouse China with Indonesia's ASEAN partners over territorial disputes in the South China Sea and concerns over the US's deeper engagement in the region to counter China's domination.

Anticipating a fallout from the tension, the ministry will speed up the procurement of war equipment. "Speeding up our military buildup is possible as we have a sufficient budget to purchase the equipment needed," Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said.

The ministry has received an Rp 81.8 trillion (US$8.5 billion) budget this year, an increase from Rp 72.5 trillion in 2012. The majority of the budget will be used to finance the procurement and upgrade of military equipment.

Purnomo said that the ministry would speed up the procurement by shortening the strategic planning process.

"We are cutting down the process to just two steps. This will speed things up," said Purnomo. "We believe that by going through just two strategic planning steps, Indonesia will meet its target of attaining the minimum essential force (MEF) by 2019, instead of the original plan of 2024," he said.

Among the landmark procurements this year, according to the ministry, is the purchase of 8 Apache helicopters from the United States. "The US congress has agreed to this, and we are now in the negotiation process," Sjafrie said.

Intelligence & state security

Komnas HAM opposes national security bill

Jakarta Post - January 15, 2013

Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has voiced opposition to the National Security bill, saying that if passed into law it could take the country back to the Soeharto era.

Commission chairman Otto Nur Abdullah said that the bill overlapped with existing laws, including the Indonesian Military Law, the Indonesian Police Law and the Defense Law. "The bill may take over the powers [of these laws]," he said as quoted by tribunnews.com on Monday.

The commission issued the statement following a meeting with a coalition of civil society groups that sought the commission's support in their fight against the controversial bill.

The groups included the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI); the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras); Human Rights Working Group (HRWG); the human rights group Imparsial; the Institute for Defense, Security and Peace Studies (IDSPS); and the Setara Institute.

Otto argued that in an emergency situation the bill could have tremendous power that may result in draconian behavior. He said that approving the bill would be akin to reviving the Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order (Kopkamtib), the highest security authority under Soeharto.

In its report, Komnas HAM said that Kopkamtib officials were responsible for a number of cases of violence against civilians linked to the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which was accused of masterminding the coup attempt against Sukarno and the grisly murder of six army generals. "In this context, [the bill] may lead to human rights violations," Otto said.

Otto said he was aware that the content of the bill, which is now under deliberation at the House of Representatives, could still be changed to accommodate public input. "We still oppose the bill," he said.

Imparsial program director Al Araf said it was Komnas HAM's duty to block the passage of the bill. "We hope the commission will continue to be at the forefront of the campaign against the bill," he said. The activist claimed that there were no significant changes in the bill, which he deemed as detrimental to democracy. "This is a threat to our freedom."

The government submitted the latest version of the bill to the House in October last year, with the claim that the latest draft would not contravene democratic principles. Speaking to lawmakers, Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro repeatedly said the new bill accommodated public input.

The government first submitted the bill in March 2011, but the lawmakers considered it to be unclear and wanted it to be revised. The House said it would continue the bill's deliberation this year.

Mining & energy

Political, shareholder woes trip up mining giant in Indonesia

Straits Times - January 15, 2013

John Mcbeth – Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold has been scrambling to reassure investors that its controversial diversification into oil and gas does not mean it is facing problems extending its four-decade-long control over Papua province's hugely profitable Grasberg copper and gold mine.

"Resource nationalism is always a concern when we operate in the countries we do," chief executive and president Richard Adkerson said in a conference call last month. "But there is no development in Indonesia or Africa that is driving us to do this."

The world's fifth biggest mining company is battling political headwinds ahead of Indonesia's 2014 elections in efforts to negotiate a 20-year extension to its contract of work, which expires in 2021.

Freeport claims it is entitled to two 10-year extensions under wording in the existing 1991 contract. But the Indonesian government is insisting that it conforms with the 2009 Mining Law by converting the contract to a business license, which does not carry the same degree of certainty.

Adding to that uncertainty, the constitutional court is hearing a challenge to the mining law by the same nationalist lobby which recently won a decision forcing Jakarta to restructure how it regulates the oil and gas industry.

Freeport has to get things settled before it dives much deeper into a US$16 billion program which will convert the Grasberg from a vast open pit into the world's biggest underground operation, with electric rail and 900 km of tunnel.

The company is already in negotiations with the government, but given the political atmosphere, it is unlikely to reach any deal until after the 2014 elections – and then with an entirely different set of ministers.

Adkerson has sought to sweeten the pot by offering to list subsidiary Freeport Indonesia on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, correctly noting that it might help to put the company in a more positive light.

The contract extension aside, the Grasberg mine has other problems. Freeport was forced to halt operations for the last three months of 2011 in the face of an unprecedented strike involving 8,000 of its workers.

With the labor agreement coming up for its biennial review in March, Freeport is now bracing itself for another round of union demands that could cause further disruptions in production.

A steady stream of foreign security experts have been advising on the best way to guard the mine, especially the 100 km road linking Grasberg to the lowland town of Timika which has been the target of frequent sniper attacks.

Because of its past association with the Suharto regime and environmental and human rights infractions, real, imagined and invented, Freeport has become the foreign company most Indonesians love to hate.

Now it is in trouble with its big shareholders as well. "This is one of the worst tele-conferences I've ever heard," snapped Evy Hambro, managing director of investment firm BlackRock, as executives sought to justify the planned acquisition of two oil exploration firms.

The uproar stems from an apparent conflict of interest in a $20 billion deal to buy McMoRan Exploration and Plains Exploration and Development, which will cost the Arizona-based mining giant about two-thirds of its market cap.

Because of the way it is structured, the deal did not need shareholder approval, an issue that infuriated BlackRock and other investors given management's financial interest in McMoRan Exploration and a 17 percent drop in the value of Freeport's stock.

McMoRan's shares plunged 35 percent last November because of problematic flow tests at its deepwater Davy Jones site in the Gulf of Mexico, which it claims has the potential of being the biggest oil discovery in a decade.

Adkerson, who is also co-chairman of McMoRan, talked about the "complexities" resulting from overlapping management, with six directors holding dual board membership in the two companies.

In essence, Freeport is going back to its roots. Co-founded by geologist James "Jim Bob" Moffett in 1969, McMoRan Oil merged with Freeport Minerals in 1981 and later sold off its oil and gas assets to help fund the development of the Grasberg mine.

New Orleans-based McMoRan was spun off in 1994, but the company continued to be run by the hard-charging Moffett, the concurrent chairman at Freeport and the guiding force behind the latest move.

Recounting the company's history of risk-taking in remote Papua, which stretches back to the late 1960s, Moffett basically asked shareholders to trust him. "We know how to swing for the fences," he rasped. "We're home- run hitters."

Described by Adkerson as the firm's "cornerstone asset", and by Moffett as "the best mine in the world", the high-altitude Grasberg mine contributes to 31 percent of Freeport's revenues – even if the strike did make 2012 an exceptionally bad year.

But that dependency is expected to drop to 23 percent as a result of a deal that Adkerson calls an "add-on and not a diversion", with 74 percent of future revenues expected to come from mining and 26 percent from what he says will be self-funding oil and gas operations.

The acquisitions create a resource conglomerate worth $60 billion, inclusive of debt, and mark a major shift in strategy for a company which used its Grasberg riches to gobble up Phelps Dodge, a firm much bigger than itself, in 2007.

With 10 operating mines in North and South America and Africa, the world's biggest copper producer and fifth biggest miner has been looking for opportunities outside its core business, worried about the lack of new world-class copper deposits.

Their eye firmly on the short term, many shareholders are clearly not convinced that getting back into oil and gas is the way to go.

Indonesia's investment for oil and gas exploration remains small

Jakarta Post - January 14, 2013

Amahl S. Azwar, Jakarta – As the government points to the rising investment in the hydrocarbon industry this year, Indonesia's future oil and gas production is still at risk as most of the funding will be spent on maintaining current outputs rather than exploration to unearth new resources.

In a speech delivered before hundreds of the country's oil and gas contractors earlier this week, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik said the total investment commitment for 2013 was expected to reach US$26.2 billion, higher than the $21.88 billion in 2012.

Jero said the increased investment showed that the investment climate in the oil and gas sector remained unharmed despite the sudden dissolution of upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas in November last year.

"With that, we are asking all contractors to implement their program as specified in their planning in order to meet this year's oil and gas output targets as well as the revenue from the sector," he said.

Out of the $26.2 billion in investment expected this year, only around 10 percent or $2.7 billion will come from 200 contractors for exploration and the drilling of 75 oil and gas exploration wells.

This year's investment by the contractors is slightly increased compared to last year's investment of $2 billion. As specified under the 2001 Oil and Gas Law, the investment from these contractors will come entirely from the firms themselves without a cost-recovery scheme. The scheme will only be applied to those firms who successfully enter a profit-making production phase.

Meanwhile, 74 oil and gas contractors who have entered production, including US-based Chevron and France-based Total, will spend $23.5 billion, higher than the $19.8 billion invested in 2012. However, only $2.3 billion of that will go to further exploration, while $14.7 billion will be used to maintain the current output.

Indonesia, which quit the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2008, has experienced a decline in oil production with output in 2012 only reaching around 870,000 barrels per day (bpd), a level much lower than the 900,000 bpd achieved in 2011.

Indonesia regularly produced around 1.3 million bpd of oil in the early 2000s. The decline in production due to aging wells means the country needs more new exploration schemes to tap into the country's undiscovered hydrocarbon reserves, particularly in the deep waters around the eastern regions.

Deep water projects are extremely expensive; it was this fact that influenced the decision by US-based oil and gas giant ExxonMobil's local subsidiary, ExxonMobil Indonesia – which was among the first to explore Indonesia's deep waters – to hand back its two oil and gas blocks in the Makassar Strait as they were considered economically unfeasible for further development.

In total, according to data from the interim upstream oil and gas regulatory task force SKMigas, around 13 working areas belonging to the oil and gas contractors – including ExxonMobil – have been returned to the government after the firms deemed reserves to be insufficient for profit making.

Separately, the executive director of the Jakarta-based energy sector think tank ReforMiner Institute, Pri Agung Rakhmanto, said that the increase in investment was due to rising production and development costs in maintaining Indonesia's aging oil wells.

"It has nothing to do with the country's improving investment climate. The maintenance costs for old oil wells are extremely high and nowadays, contractors have no other option than to sustain their existing wells," he told The Jakarta Post.

"Just look at the hard facts: declining production and minimal exploration activities. Yes, we maybe expect a rise in revenues from the sector for 2012, but that is only because of the soaring crude oil price."

According to him, the government could only claim that the sector's climate had improved if the portion of funding allocated for exploration comprised 20 percent of the total investment.

However, problems such as land acquisition and the recent decision to transform the interim SKMigas, which was formed to temporarily assume the tasks undertaken by the now-defunct BPMigas, into a special force known as SKKMigas, would create more uncertainties.

"The SKKMigas may end up just like BPMigas [disbanded by the Constitutional Court], as the transformation means the government wants SKMigas to become a permanent institution," he said.

ReforMiner's data shows that the country's current proven crude oil reserves total around 3.7 billion to 4 billion barrels, a decline of about 500 million barrels in recent years.

Supreme Court strips ministry of authority over Indonesian mining industry

Jakarta Globe - January 11, 2013

Tito Summa Siahaan – In the latest blow to the national government's push to tighten mining industry regulations, the Supreme Court announced on Thursday details of a ruling that would benefit local governments and mid- sized miners operating in Indonesia.

The court revealed the details of a November ruling that annulled several articles in the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Regulation No. 9, which was issued last year. The Supreme Court ruling stifled central government efforts to tighten raw materials exports and reorganize the mining industry.

The court annulled four articles within the ministerial regulation, including article 21, which forbids mining concession holders from exporting raw materials.

The court argued that the issue should not be regulated by the ministry because "the law clearly states that the issue should be covered by government regulations."

The court was referring to the 2009 Law on Coal and Mineral Resources, which serves as the legal basis for the ministerial regulation. The law states that mining concession holders must submit a plan to process raw minerals domestically before 2014.

The court also stripped the ministry of its authority to approve partnerships for smelting projects and appoint mining concession holders to build smelting facility by annulling the three other articles. Through its ruling, the court effectively handed authority back to local governments, in accordance with the 2009 law.

Shelby Ihsan, the chairman of the Indonesia Nickel Association, which brought the case to the court, welcomed the details of the ruling, saying it proved the association's claim.

The association was the first to reveal details on the ruling to the public last year, but details were sketchy at the time, prompting government officials and mining executives to doubt its authenticity and implications.

Shelby also argued that the ruling should lead to the annulment of other regulations, including Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation No. 11, which states that export permits should not be given without a recommendation from the minister or director general, and before miners secure a clean and clear status from the government.

The association also wants an annulment on related regulations issued by the Finance Ministry – which has imposed a 20 percent export tax on 65 types of raw minerals – and the Trade Ministry, which set a quota for export volumes. When these regulations were enacted last year, the government argued that it detected uncontrolled growth in raw minerals exports since 2009.

Natsir Mansyur, deputy chairman for trade distribution and logistics at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said the ruling should serve as a lesson from the government in making regulations without the business community's participation.

Natsir said miners suffered Rp 6.5 trillion ($673 million) in losses in the first eight months since the ministerial regulation was enacted.

Economy & investment

Government wrong on 2013 budget

Jakarta Post - January 15, 2013

Jakarta – Blaming bleak global economic prospects, Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo has thrown in the towel on the government's ambitious economic targets for this year.

Speaking before members of the House of Representatives' Commission XI for financial affairs on Monday, Agus expressed his pessimism over economic growth, the rupiah exchange rate and global oil prices.

Agus, a reform-minded minister, argued that Indonesia's economy might only expand by 6.6 percent this year, versus the initial forecast of 6.8 percent as stated in the 2013 State Budget Law.

The remark is Agus' first acknowledgement of the difficulties in meeting the highest target ever set by the government. He previously estimated that the economy grew by 6.3 percent last year, lower than the target of 6.5 percent.

"It's because of the effects of the prevailing global crisis, especially the problems stemming from [the debt crisis in] Europe and the unsolved fiscal cliff discussions in the United States, which will impact on our economy," Agus said.

A more worrying sign for the economy is Agus' forecast that the rupiah might trade as low as 9,700 per US dollar this year. This estimate is weaker than that stipulated in the 2013 state budget, which requires the currency to trade at an average of 9,300 to the greenback.

The rupiah, already the region's worst performer, dropped by 5.9 percent against the dollar last year over concerns about a widening trade deficit that may continue this year on higher imports of oil.

Agus warned that oil imports would increase this year, and energy subsidies would rise well beyond the allocated sum of Rp 274.7 trillion (US$28.6 billion). In 2012, energy subsidies hit Rp 306 trillion, or equal to 87 percent of non-tax revenue, up from around 54 percent in 2007.

Oil output is also set to average 850,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from the 900,000 bpd initially targeted.

Agus also forecast that the Indonesian crude price (ICP), an important variable that determines the country's income and expenses from oil, would hover at between $100 to $109 per barrel, substantially higher than the initial assumption of $100.

"Some of the macroeconomic assumptions, admittedly, are different [from the recent economic developments]," Agus added.

Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Darmin Nasution agreed that the economy still faced challenges stemming from the prevailing uncertainties in the global economy. Given the difficult challenges going forward, he called for an adjustment in the price of subsidized fuel by raising fuel prices.

Darmin argued that the economy was heavily burdened by the soaring fuel subsidies that would limit the government's capacity to respond to external risks. "Soaring consumption of subsidized fuel will prompt negative sentiment about our fiscal sustainability, consequently adding to pressure on the rupiah," Darmin said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has refrained from raising fuel prices over concerns about the political fallout, particularly ahead of the 2014 elections.

Lawmakers who attended the meeting were baffled as to how the 2013 assumptions could face revision so soon, given the fact that they were only passed in October.

The possible revisions to the state budget, especially with regard to the rupiah and economic growth, showed that the government was in "panic mode" while responding to the recent issues of currency depreciation and trade deficit, said Commission XI member Arif Budimanta.

"What the market needs is confidence and optimism from the government, not the opposite. The government's stance on the issue could erode market confidence," he said.

The impending revision of the financial indicators has confirmed arguments expressed by various analysts about the ambitious targets that would be difficult to achieve.

"This will undermine the government's credibility among the public," A. Prasetyantoko, an economist from Atma Jaya Catholic University, said. "The government will face difficulties if it wants to undertake unpopular policies, such as increasing the price of subsidized fuel, as the public already has doubts regarding the credibility of the government's assumptions." (sat)

Analysis & opinion

Jokowi's confusion

Jakarta Post Editorial - January 12, 2013

Just ahead of the landmark 100th day in office, Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has proven how difficult it is to manage the metropolitan city, particularly its traffic, which for many is a source of daily frustration.

Uphill challenges, difficulties and pressure from internal and external forces should not be excuses for the governor to seek a compromise, let alone a policy turnaround – as illustrated by his recent approval of a toll road project.

After a briefing by Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto on Wednesday, Jokowi threw his weight behind the plan to construct six new elevated inner-city toll roads, a project initiated during the term of governor Sutiyoso, citing that the capital was in dire need of new roads to support public transportation.

Jokowi said he endorsed the Rp 42 trillion (US$4.3 billion) project as the toll roads would accommodate public transportation free of charge.

With construction expected to commence next year and finish in 2022 under the auspices of PT Jakarta Tollroad Development (JTD), the new toll roads will connect Semanan-Sunter (17.88 kilometers [km]), Sunter-Bekasi Raya (11 km), Duripulo-Kampung Melayu (11.38 km), Kemayoran-Kampung Melayu (9.65 km), Ulujami-Tanah Abang (8.27 km) and Pasar Minggu-Casablanca (9.56 km).

Defending his decision, Jokowi insisted that there is no single solution to the city's crippling traffic problems other than to combine public transportation improvements and the construction of new roads. His argument seems to make sense, especially given the imminent traffic standstill the city faces if no immediate solution is sought.

However, Jokowi's support for the toll road project contradicts his election promises and recent initiatives to shift people from private cars to public transportation. Jokowi has therefore sent a confusing message to the public concerning his traffic policy.

Jakarta's voters should well remember the pledge made by Jokowi and his running mate Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama's to reject toll road development schemes during the election campaign last year. They said they would focus on improving public transportation services. Sharing the view of transportation experts, they said, the construction of more roads was a solution that would encourage more people to buy and drive private cars.

Jokowi demonstrated his support for public transportation when he unveiled his proposal to improve the Transjakarta busway service, develop a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, reestablish the monorail project and most recently the odd-even license plate system to limit the use of private vehicles. The governor had intended to implement an electronic road pricing scheme before eventually opting for the odd-even license plate scheme.

For us, and probably the public, however, Jokowi's green lighting of the toll road project has cast doubts upon his championing of public transportation – which we believe is the solution to the maddening traffic problem that grips the city.

The city government may claim the plan to construct the six elevated toll roads has passed an environmental impact assessment but that is not really the case. A toll road in principle is built to serve private cars and therefore runs counter to the public transportation policy.

Governors who ruled before Jokowi initiated measures to address the traffic chaos, however, the congestion just deteriorated further. We do not expect Jokowi to emerge as the savior of the city from the traffic problems but it is feared that his inconsistency to advance our public transportation infrastructure – as a backbone of the city as in other big cities – will see only compromise.

We are afraid that Jokowi, only after three months in office, has already put his credibility at stake.

In Indonesian politics, less is less, not more

Jakarta Post - January 10, 2013

Endy Bayuni, Jakarta – People who argue that approving a smaller number of political parties to field candidates in the next election is good for democracy ought to have their heads examined.

There is no guarantee that the 10 parties that have been approved by the General Election Commission (KPU) to run in the 2014 elections will strengthen our nascent democracy.

On the contrary, if the performance of existing parties is any indication, democratic reform will likely stall, if not regress, with fewer parties. The ruling not only reduces the choices available to voters, it will also kill off political diversity and pluralism.

In Indonesian politics, less is not more. Instead, less is less. The decision smacks of conspiracy between the KPU and the nine parties represented in the House of Representatives (DPR) to keep other parties out of the electoral process.

Only one newcomer, the National Democrat Party (NasDem), passed entry barriers that have been set exceptionally high, thanks to the collusion between the KPU and the DPR. Twenty-four other parties, some representing the legitimate political aspirations of the people of this diverse nation, failed to make the list because they did not meet stringent qualification criteria.

The established parties, sensing their declining standing among voters, campaigned hard to limit the number of new political parties on the pretext of simplifying the process for voters.

They argued that 38, the number of parties that was certified in 2009, was too many and would confuse voters. In 1999, the first democratic elections post-Soeharto, 48 parties fielded candidates. In 2004, there were 24. The qualification criteria changed with each election, as parties in the DPR revised the electoral law to suit their interests and the KPU added its own regulations on top of the law.

Ten parties in 2014 may seem like a manageable number. At least it still reflects a multi-party electoral system, albeit a simpler system.

But the existing parties have failed miserably in almost every aspect of their job – from representing and fighting for the interests of people to making laws in the DPR to fighting rampant corruption. Not surprisingly, political parties and the DPR have consistently ranked among the worst performing institutions by several surveys.

A closer analysis of their platforms will also make it clear that voters will have difficulties in differentiating the parties. Real choices in 2014 will be limited. With the exception of one Islamist party, the United Development Party (PPP), the parties certified to field candidates in 2014 have no clear-cut ideology or platform.

Everyone strives to be centrist, which essentially means having no ideology as they try to please everyone. The Democratic Party won the 2009 election, Golkar in 2004 and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in 1999, as voters changed their preference from one election to the next.

In 2014, the center ground will be even more crowded with the likes of NasDem (a breakaway party formed by disgruntled Golkar members), and upstart Gerindra. Even the PKS decided to shed its Islamic platform at its congress in 2010 to become a nationalist centrist party like everybody else, as it hopes to make it into the top three parties in 2014.

In short, voters will be served a smaller menu in 2014. Given that the performance of the existing nine parties has been mediocre at best, we can expect little change in 2014 in terms of political reform. At best, we will we stagnate. At worst, we will see democracy suffering a setback.

Whatever happened to the reform spirit that allowed for the emergence of new parties, like PDI-P, PAN and the PKB in 1999? Or the spirit that allowed newcomers such as the Democratic Party and the PKS to emerge in 2004 and that opened the doors for Gerindra and Hanura in 2009?

Now that these parties have established themselves, they are seeking to close the doors on new players. If the same restrictions had been imposed in 1999, 2004 or 2009, many of these parties would not exist today.

The 2014 elections have ceased to be a forum for people to exercise their sovereignty. Not only is reform is dead, political diversity and pluralism are also in danger of disappearing.

'Ngangkang' style in Aceh

Jakarta Post - January 10, 2013

Jess Melvin, Melbourne – Since Monday (Jan. 7), women in Lhokseumawe, the once bustling oil town on Aceh's east coast, have been asked to refrain from sitting in the straddle position (mengangkang) when travelling as passengers on motorbikes.

This policy not only includes women travelling with men who are not their relatives, but also women travelling with male relatives, their husbands and even with other women.

This blanket prohibition exposes that the primary purpose of the ban, which will be effective in the next three months, is not so much to stop the "hugging" action required by a passenger to remain safely on the back of a moving motorbike; an action which is considered to be sexual when carried out between the sexes, and an intimacy which is already banned throughout Aceh for all non-related men and women.

Rather, it would appear, the primary purpose of the ban is to stop women being seen in such a "compromising" position; that is, with their legs apart in public.

Clearly, Lhokseumawe Mayor Suadi Yahya, who authorized the ban, has a very sick mind. How sitting fully clothed, with long sleeves, ankle length pants or skirt and a headscarf, as is already prescribed for Muslim women throughout Aceh, is a threat to women's "dignity" (marwah) and "values" (martabat) can only be imagined.

If the act of a fully clothed woman sitting or standing in public with her legs at more than a 45-degree angle verges on the pornographic then perhaps we can also look forward to seeing women hassled with trigonometers and measuring tapes as they sit at their desks or in cafes. Perhaps driving a motorbike will soon be deemed to be equally compromising.

Are the women of North Aceh to be condemned to shuffling around on foot for fear of spreading their legs too wide? If the act of women being seen in public with their legs apart is so offensive, perhaps there should also be a ban on women bending to tend to their crops in the rice fields and women squatting to lift up children, shopping bags and washing baskets. Perhaps Suadi should also mobilize a force of male volunteers to take over these tasks.

According to Suadi women travelling in the straddle position contravene the very fabric of "Acehnese values and culture". However, I for one don't remember seeing pictures of the Acehnese heroines Malahayati, the Acehnese Sultanas, Cut Nyak Dhien or Cut Meutia ever riding a motorbike, ngangkang style or otherwise. And I certainly don't remember seeing pictures of Free Aceh Movement's (GAM) Inong Balee sitting side-saddle and they roared off on the back of motorbikes into battle. His argument would be laughable if its consequences weren't so serious.

Suadi's ban must be opposed for restraining women's freedom of movement and ability to participate safely and without discrimination in society. Women going about their daily tasks should not be punished for the disturbing sexualization of the female body which is projected onto them, most commonly by men such as Suadi who do not have to live with similar restrictions on their own freedom of movement.

One might have hoped that the failed effort to ban women wearing pants in Meulaboh, West Aceh, and the tragic suicide of the young teenage woman in East Aceh last year after she was arrested by the province's Sharia police for being out at night without a male chaperone and accused of being a "whore" and "prostitute" could have acted as a wakeup call and prompted an important step away from such punitive restrictions on women's behavior.

Unfortunately Suadi appears determined to oversee a repeat of these mistakes and the women of Aceh must again pay the price.

[The writer is a PhD student with the school of historical and philosophical studies at the University of Melbourne. She lived in Aceh, including Lhokseumawe, between 2005- 2006, where she worked for various aid organizations.]

Straddle babble and legal tangle in Aceh

Jakarta Post - January 9, 2013

Julia Suryakusuma, Jakarta – What makes a guy horny? In Aceh, it's women straddling motorbikes!

It seems that, like psychologists, Acehnese men see motorbikes as phallic symbols. A woman sitting astride a motorbike therefore conjures mental images of being sexually straddled by women – and that makes men either feel threatened, or gets their motors revving wildly!

According to Yusuf A. Samad, a member of Lhokseumawe Legislative Council, straddling a motorbike accentuates a woman's curves, and "Showing the curves of a woman's body is against sharia" (see "Aceh City to ban women from straddling motorbikes", The Jakarta Post, Jan. 3).

To safeguard men's and women's marwah (self-respect), Lhokseumawe Mayor Suaidi Yahya therefore plans to implement a perda (regional regulation) called qanun in Aceh, banning women from straddling motorbikes when they ride pillion, to prevent men being exposed to temptation.

He can do this because "special autonomy" was granted to Aceh to prevent it from breaking away like Timor Leste did in 1999. The Acehnese have a strong local identity, of which Islam is a central part – hence self-government and sharia. Elsewhere in Indonesia, the religion power is reserved for the central government, but Aceh gets special treatment, to placate its people.

But where will it all stop? Perhaps one day the Aceh government will feel the need to pass a qanun banning women from bending over to pick up something when they're in a public place because it might make a man think that the woman is inviting him to have doggy-style sex!

I was initially relieved to read that, for once, the central government reacted quickly (see "Government nixes straddling ban in Aceh", the Post, Jan. 4). The reason? Home Ministry legal chief Zudan Arif Fakrulloh said that the qanun would infringe women's rights and also contradict national laws. Duh!

But then I read articles in other Indonesian newspapers the next day, stating that the Lhokseumawe local government would implement the anti- straddling ban immediately, despite the fact that it would only be passed into law in three months' time.

So what's going on? Certainly the Home Ministry does have the right to block the regulation, but it looks as though it hasn't actually done so yet in this case – Zudan seems to have been simply stating an intention. And even if the central government does act, local governments often ignore such interventions anyway.

Not that there are many of them. While the central government has revoked almost 1,900 regional bylaws over the past 10 years, most were financial in nature. It tends to completely ignore those discriminating against women. Even if the anti-straddling qanun is blocked, what about the one on khalwat (illegal proximity in seclusion) No. 14/2003, and the many Islamic dress requirements that apply in Aceh? These are not minor issues. In 2010, for example, a young woman was detained on suspicion of committing khalwat with her boyfriend. During her detention she was gang raped by three members of the wilayatul hisbah (sharia police). It would be ironic if it wasn't so tragic.

In this sense, the anti-straddling qanun reflects a number of problems with the politics of decentralization, none unique to Aceh: legal chaos; patriarchal and authoritarian mindsets; wrong development priorities; and (as usual) the degradation of women.

In fact, the existence of different levels of law – national, local, traditional and religious – has created much confusion right across Indonesia. Many perda are poorly drafted and unclear, and ignore pre- existing laws. Complaints are also often made about perda that impose religiously derived norms in the name of "public order" rather than improve public services. But the central government doesn't really seem to care much about any perda, unless it involves taxes etc., and reduces Jakarta's revenue stream. It therefore remains to be seen whether it will, in fact, actually stop the anti-straddling regulation in Aceh.

This is, again, ironic, as many of the "public order" and "morality" related qanun imposing restrictions on women, or other "social deviants" (e.g., punk groups, transgendered people, homosexuals) reflect a patriarchal, authoritarian and moralizing mind-set that harks back to the New Order. In this sense, qanun that discriminate against women are an expression of a moral panic, distracting from the much more serious problems that Aceh faces: poverty, unemployment, bad health and education services. So much for reformation, huh?

Ultimately, the mentality behind the anti-straddling qanun is "blame the woman" for everything, including men's lust and brutality. This is little different from the motivation driving the horrendous fatal rape of a 23- year old physical therapy student in India recently, with the ringleader of her six rapists bluntly stating she "deserved" it because she dared to stand up to him.

Acehnese women are known for their courage. Cut Nyak Dien and other Acehnese warrior women engaged in armed combat against the Dutch after their husbands died in battle. The so-called Inong Balee women did the same during the conflict between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and Indonesian troops from 1976 to 2005. Is the power of Acehnese women who fought for Acehnese identity now being stripped away by the very sharia they fought for?

So, Acehnese women, channel the spirit of Cut Nyak Dien, and fight, not against the Dutch, but against your own, silly and sex-obsessed oppressors, who have nothing better to do than to make up absurd qanun that surely defy the true meaning of Islam! Perhaps a mass motorbike-straddling rally would be a good start?