As Indonesia and other countries with Chinese diasporas welcome the Year of the Snake, some Islamic leaders have ignited a religious row by declaring the celebrations "haram" and off limits for Muslims.

After decades of repression under the dictatorship of Suharto, who rose to power after a bloody purge of communists and Chinese in the late 1960s, Chinese-Indonesians are now accepted in mainstream society of the largely Muslim nation. Lunar New Year is also now a public holiday in Indonesia, where it is known as "Imlek."

But a local leader of the country's top Muslim clerical body has declared the celebration "haram" (forbidden), saying its rituals are tied up with Buddhist practices, particularly those that take place in temples.

"We cannot separate religion from culture, so we're being cautious," Zainal Arifin, head of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) in the city of Solo, told AFP. "And if it's part of a religious ritual, we must not celebrate it. It's the same case with Christmas and other religious celebrations."

The hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) said clerics would spread the message to Muslims through mosque loudspeakers, and warn Chinese- Indonesians not to invite Muslims to celebrations.

But ethnic Chinese leaders say such comments about a traditional festival are illogical and a sign of outdated thinking in some Islamic organizations.

"Chinese New Year is not a religious celebration and it's especially not a Buddhist celebration," said Andrew Susanto, president of the Chinese- Indonesian Youth Association.

He said marking the Lunar New Year was no different to celebrating the new year in other cultures. "I don't think that's what most Indonesians think," he said, adding the festivities have over time become an Indonesian tradition.

Despite the cleric's comments, a Javanese-style Lunar New Year celebration was held in Solo last week, with thousands joining a procession akin to those commemorating Islamic holidays. Local monks released 888 songbirds and catfish – eight being a lucky Chinese number – and distributed cakes to the jovial crowd.

Chinese-Indonesians make up around nine million of the nation's 240 million people, most practicing Christianity, Buddhism or Confucianism.

Suharto, who ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for more than three decades until 1998, banned Chinese languages and symbols, and forced Chinese- Indonesians to change their names.

His rule began after an anti-Communist purge in 1965-1966, in which at least 500,000 people considered communists or sympathizers – many Chinese – were killed and others tortured. Rights activists say two million perished.

Abdurrahman Wahid, an Islamic religious leader and politician who became the first elected president after Suharto stepped down, lifted the ban on Chinese culture in 2000, allowing ethnic Chinese to once again openly celebrate Lunar New Year.

In Glodok – Jakarta's Chinatown which was reduced to rubble in the 1998 riots at the end of Suharto's rule – two Muslim women wearing Islamic headscarves soaked up the atmosphere, as vendors sold traditional red money envelopes and cobra oil to mark the Year of the Snake.

"I'm Muslim, so I don't myself take part in celebrations," said one of the women, Widi Astudi, 37, as she visited a Buddhist temple Friday. "But Indonesia is a tolerant country, and the Chinese here are Indonesians, so there's no harm in visiting the temples and appreciating how they celebrate."

Slank challenges national police law

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2013

Jakarta – Members of veteran rock band Slank have turned to the Constitutional Court (MK) to exercise their constitutional rights after the police banned the band from performing on several occasions.

On Wednesday, the band filed a request for a judicial review against Article 15 paragraph 2 of the 2002 National Police Law, in conjunction with Article 510 of the Criminal Code, which grants the police authority to give permission to public festivities, as well as to monitor them.

"Since 2008, they have banned our gigs several times, but last year they canceled us over and over again, citing various reasons," Slank guitarist Abdee Negara said on Wednesday. "In some places, we can go to our gigs, but in others its uncertain. It violates our rights to freedom of expression."

In November, the police banned the band from performing in the Soundrenaline 2012 concert at BSD City in South Tangerang, citing Slank's "bad record" during performances that saw "many fans get involved in riots."

Yet, other bands were allowed to perform at the concert. Abdee added that other concerts, including dangdut, could result in violence. A lawyer who represents Slank, Andi Muttaqien of the rights watchdog Elsam, said the article gave rise to legal uncertainties as "it provided no clear definition of activities involving a crowd."

"If the police aren't happy with the concert, they won't give permission, it's as simple as that," he said. "In some cases, national security was used as a reason [for not allowing the band to perform]. This is just illogical," Andi added.

West Papua

NZ FM McCully snubs West Papuan, points to relationship with Indonesia

New Zealand Herald - February 12, 2013

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully will not meet a West Papuan freedom fighter who was refused a public forum at Parliament.

He confirmed that he did not plan to speak with exiled West Papuan Benny Wenda, despite calls from the Opposition for the National-led Government to pay greater attention to indigenous peoples in Indonesia. Mr Wenda met Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFAT) officials instead.

The New Zealand Embassy in Jakarta had recommended a meeting take place if Mr Wenda requested it.

Mr McCully earlier revealed that he had advised two National MPs against hosting the independence leader after they had proposed co-sponsoring the West Papuan in a public forum at Parliament Buildings.

He said New Zealand had a constructive relationship with Indonesia, and Government MPs hosting a member of the independence movement was not a "good fit" with this relationship. Speaker David Carter later refused permission for Mr Wenda to speak at a function at Parliament.

The Green Party felt Government was more interested in protecting its $1 billion trade agreement with Indonesia than seriously confronting its human rights breaches.

Mr McCully said he met a wide range of people "from within and outside" the Indonesian Government. He always engaged Indonesian ministers and senior officials on the issue of human rights in West Papua.

"The background to human rights matters in West Papua is not a good one. While the Indonesian Government has worked very hard in recent years to improve the human rights position, it is fair to say that even they would agree that the position is far from perfect."

The minister also noted that New Zealand gave the region $5 million in aid each year. But Mr Wenda claimed this aid did not help West Papua's indigenous people.

Speaking at a Victoria University building next to Parliament yesterday, he said the money was siphoned off by the Indonesian military. Asked about this claim, Mr McCully said there was no credible evidence that aid had been misdirected in the region.

Mr Wenda is in New Zealand as part of a tour to promote self-determination of West Papua, which is under Indonesian control. He spoke of horrific abuses at the hands of the military, including the rape of two family members.

The freedom fighter was accompanied by human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson, a legal adviser for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Ms Robinson told media that she and Mr Wenda were used to being censored, but not in a free and democratic country. The Speaker's office decided not to allow them a public forum under direction from Parliamentary Relations, which had advice from MFAT.

The guidelines for use of Parliamentary facilities said that when events had party political connotations, they would be considered on a case-by- case basis.

Breaking the AIDS curse

Sydney Morning Herald - February 9, 2013

Michael Bachelard – AIDS was slow to arrive in the remote central highlands of the Indonesian province of Papua. It was not until 1996 that eight people tested positive in Wamena, the region's capital. By that time, the world had been dealing with this deadly disease for a decade. And yet, in Papua, precisely nothing happened.

"There was no real action," concedes Daulat, the secretary of Wamena's AIDS Commission. "They only started handling these cases intensively in 2006." In the decade of silence, AIDS took a grip. And now it's ravaging the place.

In the West, decades of public awareness campaigns, diagnosis and treatment mean we could almost be considered post-AIDS. Those infected with HIV can live for years with what's now considered a chronic disease not a death sentence.

Papua's epidemic is not in the same league as southern Africa's, but authorities in both places are still playing catch-up to a runaway infection rate, and contracting HIV is still too often fatal.

Papua is a rugged half-island at the extreme east of Indonesia. Its stunning landscapes house a poor and poorly educated population of 2.5 million. Almost 3 per cent are infected with HIV or AIDS – what the United Nations describes as a "general population epidemic" – at a rate 18 times higher than in the rest of Indonesia.

The vast bulk of infections come, as they do in Africa, from heterosexual sex. As many women suffer from it as men, more housewives than prostitutes, and more have full-blown AIDS than its precursor virus, HIV.

Doctors, donors and officials here are at last mounting a serious effort to curb AIDS, but they confront a culture where free sex is considered part of traditional practice, where witchcraft and black magic, not a virus, are often blamed, and where tribal remedies are the first treatments sought.

Recently, Fairfax Media was allowed by the Indonesian government, which keeps a tight rein on Western journalists entering the restive province, a rare opportunity to report on the epidemic.

We found its sufferers everywhere. In Papua's thriving capital, Jayapura, we see Victoria, a dull-eyed two-year-old girl coughing her lungs out with tuberculosis, fighting for her life before the AIDS she was born with can be treated. Her father died without telling her mother, Yolanda, he was sick. Since our visit, Victoria has died.

In Timika we meet Julie Arip, who walks the garbage-strewn streets earning a pittance selling sex to the miners, the chancers and the hangers-on near Freeport's Grasberg, the world's richest goldmine.

And in Wamena, a regional capital where supplies must be flown in over high mountains, we meet the Tabuni family, whose AIDS-infected son, Penias, has buried two wives killed by the disease, and whose daughter, Yeni, is perhaps 19 and already a widow.

In Papua, almost everyone is in a high-risk group. Police chiefs and teachers, housewives and school students are infected. For too many, even the marriage bed is not safe.

Jackson, 30, is tall and wafer thin with haunted eyes. He's from a village near Wamena, but is staying in the "Suryah Kasih" (Light of Love) Catholic clinic in the big smoke, Jayapura, receiving the anti-retroviral treatment he needs to survive. He was infected by his late wife.

"In my village a lot of people are infected but they didn't know about it," Jackson says. "They thought it was a curse."

Then he talks about a village culture of free sex. "There are youngsters' parties, for ages 15 to 20. And when night comes we blow out the candles and then we just have sex with each other... At weddings, after it gets late, then the guests have sex, not necessarily between husband and wife, it can be between any partner."

During the bow-and-arrow wars that still break out between tribes here, at night in the traditional honai (village house), people have sex as part of "tukar gelang," or fund-raising ceremonies. Jackson's friend Umbo Wonda, from Mulia, also in Papua's highlands, confirms that these practices continue, though they are becoming rarer.

Commercial sex also plays a prominent role in spreading the disease and Timika, a mining town, is at the centre of Papua's paid sex industry. The demands of a male-dominated population create a three-level service to cater to any budget.

The cheap option is on Timika's rubbish-strewn streets and highways, where some indigenous women sell sex for whatever price the market will bear. Julie Arip confesses that she goes out "meeting friends at night", for "drinks and sex". "They pay?" I ask. 'Yes," she whispers.

Julie says she is 20, but she looks 40. As she talks she holds her left arm, which is covered in a forest of parallel scars. "I cut myself when I'm drunk."

Julie insists she has tested clean, but says, "Many, many of my friends have got AIDS". They continue to have unprotected sex but, asked why, Julie shrugs: "I can't speak for them, that is their own decision."

Arti and Nuriati are a step up-market. Both are 37, Javanese (the most desirable ethnicity here), and have worked at Timika's dusty brothel for five years. Brothel work is legal and regulated, and they are tested regularly and supplied with condoms, which are compulsory.

"Honestly, though, not all customers want to use condoms," Arti admits. "We try to persuade them. Most of the time it works. But if it doesn't, well, it's our fate. We just pray that it [AIDS] won't happen to us."

Faced with a client demanding no condom, the brothel workers have little bargaining power. The secretary of the Timika AIDS Commission, Reynold Ubra, says Papua is a "place of prostitution garbage" where older women come after they "don't sell well any more in Java or Jakarta".

Keen to seal the deal, they are seven times more likely to agree to a no- condom service than are their younger, more marketable sisters working on the highest rung of the sex industry ladder, in the bars and karaoke joints.

But Timika is also an example of how the effort to combat AIDS in Papua is starting to get it right. All legal sex workers are tested and their pimps fined if they are positive. New prostitutes are checked on arrival and the ones with the virus sent home at their pimp's expense. The employees of mining giant Freeport and members of the army receive regular tests, and the AIDS commission is trying to negotiate the same deal with police.

Governments and donors such as the Australian government's AusAID are now working throughout Papua to reduce the human cost of this disease. AusAID has recently announced a huge funding boost, and will spend $25 million over four years to increase diagnosis, treatment and care.

In Wamena, armed with new funding, Yoram Yogobi, the head of local NGO Yukemdi, is doubling his staff. They work to encourage people to seek treatment and, in a strong oral tradition, they spend most of their time talking.

"It's very difficult, though. We started in 2006 telling them about the virus – that it was inside you and transmitted when you had sex – and it's only in the past three years we've seen a result."

The barriers are immense. The biggest is remoteness. Some villages in the misty highlands are five days' walk away, along perilous paths.

Another is a strong belief here that "you are only sick if you cannot do anything any more – if you can't get out of bed", Yogobi says. This explains why more people in Papua have full-blown AIDS than HIV.

"Sometimes they come and, in three days they just die," says Dr Anty at Wamena's overworked health agency.

There is also a sometimes violent stigma against AIDS sufferers. As recently as 2000, several people in the highlands were burnt alive in their houses. Menius Wenda, a public servant, feels the threatened rejection keenly in a culture where men are physically close to their friends, often holding hands as they walk.

"I'm afraid my friends will stay away from me and say bad things about me... because the disease is fatal and they won't want to be around me."

He admits he himself felt that way before being diagnosed. Between them, these factors suggest that the already high rate of HIV/AIDS in Papua well understates the real size of the problem.

Getting good treatment to where it's needed can also be tough. In Papua, Christianity dominates Islam in the competition for souls, but, either way, many are still deeply attached to their "adat", or traditional practices.

Wenius Alua, 25, is from Kurulu village, 17 kilometres from Wamena. He was a university student and swears he only ever had sex with one woman – Mary, the girl he wanted to marry. She was 15 at the time. At 19, she died of AIDS. This is an educated young man being treated with anti-retroviral drugs in a Catholic clinic, but still he believes he was infected "because we had sex outside the house and... all of what we did came out of our bodies and into nature".

So, before seeking medical help, he tried "wangko", one of an array of traditional remedies, which involves sitting on the grass roof of a house while inside his family lit a wood fire.

"The smoke comes out to the sick person on the roof... and the person must say his name, then the girlfriend's name, and the tribe of both as the smoke goes into his body."

He sought medical help when "wangko" didn't work, but for others traditional treatments can cause fatal delays.

Anti-retroviral drugs are provided free by the Indonesian government. For those with access to them, they are a life-saver. In 2008, Kiptea Rahayan and husband Johanes lost their three-month-old baby without even knowing all three of them had AIDS. After two years of treatment, they are now almost well enough to try for another.

But expecting a remote tribal villager without clothes, much less a watch, to take two pills a day, at 8am and 8pm, and to come to town regularly for new supplies, remains a huge task.

Huge, too, is the infrastructure required to deal with this disease. The success of organisations such as Yukemdi in bringing people forward to be tested has highlighted an emerging shortage of doctors and hospitals.

"The hospitals tell me they can only handle 15 people maximum, but then 23 to 28 people come," Anty says. "So patients have no choice – they just have to go back to their kampungs [villages]."

Unfortunately in Papua, none of this happens in a political vacuum. Amid a continuing military crackdown on separatist sentiment, some indigenous Papuans believe AIDS is just another of the weapons arrayed against them by the powers in Java.

"We always feel abandoned," says Yukemdi's leader, Yoram Yogobi. "The slowness of the reaction, the slow recruitment of health workers when they know we have a serious problem – it's not surprising that some think being independent [from Indonesia] is an option."

Indonesian navy to establish primary base in Papua

Antara News - February 8, 2013

Jayapura – The Indonesian Navy is to enhance the monitoring on maritime defense by establish Navy Primary Base in Papua region.

"We will establish the twelfth Indonesian Navy Primary Base in Sorong, Papua," said the Fifth Primary Base Commander of Jayapura Brigade General Putu Wijamahaadi here on Friday.

According to him the Primary Base will be commanding several Navy Bases in the west of Papua waters include fasharkan Manokwari. He added the establishment of the Twelfth Navy Primary Base will increase the total Navy Base in Papua to three locations.

"The three bases are located in Navy Base X Jayapura, Navy Base XI Merauke and yet Navy Base XII in Sorong," said Wijamahaadi.

The Commander said that the current process of Navy Base construction is on equipping the facilities and infrastructures. "We cannot ensure the time of inauguration as the base still completing supported facilities," said Brigadier General Wijamahaadi.

He expected by the addition of Navy Base in Papua can decrease the violations on maritime law in the area. "Moreover, the waters in the area of the Twelfth Navy Base are prone to illegal fishing action," said Wijamahaadi.

Human rights & justice

Lawmakers to appoint Komnas HAM chair if dispute continues

Jakarta Globe - February 12, 2013

SP/Carlos Paath & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The House of Representatives has threatened to take over the country's main human rights body unless it can resolve a deeply polarizing internal dispute.

Aziz Syamsuddin, a deputy chairman of House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, revealed on Tuesday that the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) had been given until mid-March to resolve the spat or be taken over by the House.

The dispute at Komnas HAM revolves around the length of the term served by the chairman, which the House has proposed should be cut from the current two and a half years to just one year. Four of the organization's 13 commissioners, including Otto Nur Abdullah, the chairman, have opposed the move, but the nine other commissioners have sided with the proposal.

The split became apparent in early January when the commissioners met to vote on the proposal. The heated argument that followed the vote devolved into recriminations about the unfairness of the chairman getting a Toyota Camry for the length of his tenure while the other commissioners received less luxurious cars.

Otto and his two deputies, Sandrayati Moniaga and Muhammad Nurkhoiron, resigned from their posts last week, leaving Komnas HAM leaderless. Almuzzammil Yusuf, another House Commission III deputy chairman, said Komnas HAM had been given a month to sort out the issue.

"If they can't, then House Commission III will regard the Komnas HAM leadership as being unable to perform," he said. He added that the House would then take over the rights body and prepare to hold a fresh selection for commissioners.

Otto, who was only appointed chairman last November, said he was hopeful that Komnas HAM would be able to resolve the dispute by early March. "I'm optimistic that we can come to an agreement because we've got a plenary meeting coming up in early March when we can discuss the matter," he said.

Ahmad Yani, a Commission III legislator, said the House was partly to blame for the dispute because it had "chosen the wrong people" when carrying out the vetting process for the new Komnas HAM commissioners last year.

"I apologize because the House played a role in short-listing the wrong people, who have since turned out to be in it just for the job perks," he said. "They're just after the material benefits. Imagine that, squabbling over the chairperson's Camry. This is very embarrassing for all of us."

However, independent human rights groups have blasted the House for sparking the discontent in Komnas HAM with its proposal to cut the chairperson's term. The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) urged the human rights body to settle the dispute before the 2014 election.

"In the upcoming election, Komnas HAM should be ready to make 'moral callings,' including urging the General Election Commission (KPU) to not allow candidates who have committed gross human rights violations in the past to run," Haris Azhar, coordinator for Kontras.

Tribunal may aim at Prabowo

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – After more than four years, the government is pushing for the establishment of an ad hoc human rights tribunal to hear cases of gross human rights violations that took place during the May 1998 riots.

The move could become a stumbling block to Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party chief patron Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto's presidential aspirations.

No action had been taken following a recommendation issued by the House of Representatives in September 2009 for the establishment of such a tribunal, until Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto held a meeting with the House leadership late last month to arrange a consultative meeting between the House and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to discuss the issue, slated for Feb. 18.

Although Djoko declined to confirm whether the meeting with the House leaders was specifically aimed to go over the plans for a rights tribunal, information from the House secretary general said that it did concern the establishment of the ad hoc human rights tribunal.

"I didn't come here to discuss it. My discussion with the House's leaders was to arrange a meeting with the President on Feb. 18 to talk about many issues, such as the special autonomy in Aceh and Papua and the national legislative program, which some have said covers too many bills," Djoko said.

He later added that the planned meeting could also discuss the ad hoc tribunal. "A discussion on the human rights tribunal is also likely to be brought up during the meeting because it has been recommended by the House," he said.

The House has responded to the initiative with caution. Late last week, deputy speaker of the House Priyo Budi Santoso of the Golkar Party said lawmakers and the government had yet to reach a deal on the details of the planned tribunal.

"The House has yet to formally discuss the issue. Why don't we just look to the future?" Priyo said, without elaborating.

Separately, leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction at the House, Puan Maharani said political factions in the House had not made any decision about moving forward with the ad hoc tribunal plan.

"It's not about putting an end to the presidential ambitions of certain figures," Puan said. Puan said that the rights tribunal was a sensitive issue as it concerned the country's global standing.

"It will undoubtedly impact on Indonesia's image in the global community. Thus, the PDI-P in particular is still considering the potential impact of any decision," Puan told The Jakarta Post late last week.

A report published by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) in 2003 alleged that Prabowo, then commander of the Army's once notorious Special Forces Command (Kopassus), was responsible for gross human rights violations that occurred during the extensive rioting in Jakarta in 1998, which preceded the end of former president Soeharto's long regime.

The investigation found that "security authorities at that time failed to curb the widespread riots that took place simultaneously."

The Komnas HAM team concluded that the riots erupted as a result of a specific policy based on the "similar pattern at almost all places where the riots took place, which began with provocation, followed by an attack on civilians".

Other leading military figures implicated in the rights abuses include then Army commander Gen. (ret) Wiranto, who now chairs the People's Conscience Party (Hanura). Hanura has nominated Wiranto to run in the 2014 presidential election.

Komnas HAM chairman Otto Nur Abdullah said that the rights body would endorse the establishment of the ad hoc tribunal, regardless of the politics behind it.

"Komnas HAM, as well as the public, will fully support the government in its plan. Any political motivation behind the initiative is beyond the remit of Komnas HAM," he told the Post.

NGOs call Komnas HAM turnover 'suspicious'

Jakarta Post - February 9, 2013

Jakarta – Human rights activists have slammed the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) for deciding to shorten the commission's chairmanship term from two-and-a-half years to one year, accusing the newly-appointed commissioners of having a secret agenda behind its controversial decision.

Komnas HAM had revealed earlier that the commissioners' decided to elect a new leader annually until their terms end in 2017.

The decision sparked protests from a coalition of human rights watchdogs including the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) and Imparsial.

"The coalition rejects the one-year term for Komnas HAM chairmanship and the commission's new code of conduct," the coalition said in a written statement. "We urge the House of Representatives to take an action and summon Komnas HAM commissioners to explain to the public about the new chairmanship term."

Kontras chairman Haris Azhar said on Friday that the decision to cut the chairmanship was suspicious. "The decision to cut the chairmanship [term] indicates that each commissioner carries a political agenda," he told The Jakarta Post.

He suspected that the decision was the result of a political bargaining process between the commissioners and powerful people who were linked to human rights abuse cases, including cases that related to the deprivation of economic rights or gross violations of human rights.

The commission chairmanship is currently held by Otto Nur Abdullah, who was appointed on Nov. 26 last year. Otto had previously explained that there was a need to redefine the meaning of collective collegial leadership in the institution, which many of the commissioners believed was best achieved by shortening the chairmanship term.

One of the commissioners, Dianto Bachriadi, denied accusations of political bargaining, saying that there were problems within the institution's bureaucracy that needed to be fixed.

"There is no such thing as hidden agenda, especially a political agenda behind the decision. The only agenda we have is to fix the chairmanship within the institutions," he told the Post. "We guarantee that our task to defend human rights will not be obstructed even though the chairmanship term is shortened."

Haris said that the argument indicated that the commissioners were not unified and carrying forward their own interests. "It was wrong in the first place to choose these new commissioners who are basically representing different interests. Some of them have no track record in defending human rights," he said. "The commissioners should have been chosen based on their competence."

According to Haris, the new rotation was a waste of time. "The commissioners should spend their time by solving human rights cases, not by hassling themselves by selecting the chairman every year," he said.

The House of Representatives' Commission III on law and human rights is expected to summon Komnas HAM commissioners on Monday. "We will discuss several issues, including the completion of human rights cases over the past months and the change in the commission's code of conducts," Dianto said. (nad)

Sexual & domestic violence

One Billion Rising dance action in Surabaya protests violence against women

Merdeka.com - February 14, 2013

Moch. Andriansyah – Hundreds of young people from the One Billion Rising (OBR) community held huge street dance at the Bungku Park in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya in an action protesting violence against women on Valentine's Day.

OBR Surabaya OBR chairperson Meilinda said that the action was a form of concern and a campaign opposing violence against the women of the world.

"This represents an international campaign with the aim of wishing to articulate the hopes of the 1 million women that have to suffer violence or rape in their lives", she said on Thursday February 14.

According to Meilinda, mass dance actions have not just been held in Surabaya, but simultaneously in 201 countries around the world.

"They want to support fellow women so that they are not afraid and able to respect themselves. In addition to this, the action is also a tangible way to celebrate the attractiveness and beauty of women as well as to build awareness in society without lecturing people", she said.

Meilinda said there were as many as 24,555 cases of violence against women in East Java in 2011. This figure places East Java as the province with the second highest number of cases after Central Java with 25,628 cases.

"We obtained this data from the Komnas Perempuan (National Commission on Violence Against Women)", she said. In third place meanwhile is West Java with 17,720 cases, followed by Jakarta with 11,289 cases.

Melinda said that the most common type of violence against women is domestic violence (KDRT), which stood at 113,878 cases, 110,468 of which were cases where women (housewives) experienced violence. "Meanwhile the remainder was dating violence", she said.

Melinda said that violence against women is not just experienced physically. Data from Komnas Perempuan found that women are still venerable to psychological violence.

"The figure stands at 103,691 cases, with 3,222 cases of economic violence, 2,790 cases of physical violence and 1,398 cases of sexual violence. The Komnas Perempuan also recorded 289 cases of trafficking, 105 cases of violence against migrant workers and 43 cases of violence in the workplace. Hopefully the data that emerged in 2012 will show a steady decline this year", she said. (dan)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

V Day action in Semarang calls for end to violence against women

Kompas - February 14, 2013

Puji Utami, Semarang – Scores of activists from the Legal Resources Center for Gender Justice and Human Rights (LRC-KJHAM) along with a number of Central Java women's organisations in the provincial capital of Semarang held a protest action to stop violence against women.

The action, which was held in conjunction with Valentine's Day, was held in the vicinity of the Simpanglima traffic circle and Jl. Pahlawan on Thursday February 14.

The activists, most of which were women, among which were several foreign nationals, sang and danced together. Similar actions were held throughout the world to commemorate "V Day 1 Billion Rising". As well as bringing banners with messages such as "stop violence", the protesters also handed out leaflets with similar messages.

Action coordinator Witi Muntari said that the activities were a creative action designed to convey a message, including among other things to raise awareness among all groups to abolish violence, particularly violence against women and children.

"This action is an expression of concern and to call attention to the consequence of the many women and children that have been victims of violence", she said.

Based on the LRC-KJHAM's data in Central Java, in 2012 there were 407 cases of violence against women. Of these cases, 407 (sic) of these were woman, 26 of which died. Three died after being raped, five as a result of domestic violence (KDRT), nine while working as migrant workers and eight died as a result of dating violence.

Through this action, said Muntari, there is also a message for the government to concretely uphold its commitment in efforts to prevent and abolish violence through public awareness raising. They also called on both the central and regional governments to provide and facilitate access for complaints, the handling of reports, victim recovery and clear mechanisms of liability for perpetrators.

"We hope that what we are doing on this day of love can arouse all parties to together abolish violence against women and children", she asserted.

The creative action, which was accompanied with music, was watched over by only a small number of police officers. The activists also invited pedestrians to take part in singing and dancing as a creative form of concern to convey a message of anti-violence.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

One Billion Rising activists in Yogya to dance against rape and violence

Kompas.com - February 13, 2013

Wijaya Kusuma, Yogyakarta – One Billion Rising (OBR) rising activist in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta (Yogya) will hold a dance action as a form of opposition to and concern over the widespread acts of violence and rape against women.

The action, which is also to commemorate the 15th Vagina Day, will be held along the length of the Jl. Malioboro shopping district in the centre of the city

OBR itself was first conceived by the author of a dramatic theater titled the "Vagina Monologues", Eva Ensier in 1998 as a stand against victims of rape and violence against women.

"Silence is not the right choice when you see the high number of rapes and cases of violence against women. It is because of this that we will hold the action in the context of commemorating Vagina Day tomorrow on February 14. This commemoration is an expression of our condemnation of violence against women", said Yogyakarta OBR chairperson Ryan Kobari on Wednesday February 13.

In commemorating Vagina Day, OBR Yogyakarta is inviting all elements of society to dance and act in solidarity with the victims of sexual violence. The dance, which has been given the title "Rally V-Dance", will be held between 3-4.45pm along Jl. Malioboro, starting at the Inna Garuda Hotel and ending at the zero kilometer point at the central post office.

"We invite everyone who cares to rise up and demand an end to rape and violence against women by dancing along the length of Jl. Malioboro", she explained. Kobari explained further that OBR Yogyakarta is part of a movement that will hold similar actions in 210 countries around the world. "Dancing together is evidence that all individuals have authority over themselves, and can work together to fight violence", she asserted.

The commemoration of Vagina Day this year will reject violence against women and children that is considered something preordained. "Rape and violence are not preordained! We refuse to be silent", asserted Kobari.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Labour & migrant workers

900,000 workers to lose jobs

Jakarta Post - February 14, 2013

Nurfika Osman, Jakarta – Industry Minister MS Hidayat warned on Wednesday of massive layoffs in April if relevant authorities failed to postpone the recent rise in the minimum regional wage for labor-intensive industries.

Around 900,000 workers employed by at least 1,320 companies in the food and beverage, tobacco, textile, footwear and leather, toy and furniture sectors were set to lose their jobs, according to Hidayat.

"Businesses cannot bear the costs incurred by the new minimum wage, which has increased by an average of 43 percent," said Hidayat. He added that companies faced difficulties, however, in cutting the number of workers to compensate for the wage rise as severance costs for dismissed workers were extremely expensive.

Regional administrations agreed to increase the 2013 minimum wage late last year by between 30 and 40 percent, mostly due to pressure from striking workers. The figures were well beyond the 15 percent average rise proposed by businesses.

In response to complaints from businesses, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono agreed late last year to exempt labor-intensive sectors from complying with the policy. Labor-intensive companies need to register with the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry to receive the wage-freeze facility.

However, Hidayat blamed the manpower ministry for not taking the matter seriously as it had failed to immediately process applications from businesses requesting the facility.

One contentious issue, according to Hidayat, was a 2003 manpower ministerial decree that did not permit companies to obtain a wage freeze unless they had suffered financial losses for two consecutive years.

"We need to review the decree because we are in an emergency situation. This is a special case where we need to prevent massive layoffs and save these businesses," said Hidayat. "I will be talking to the manpower and transmigration minister very soon to find a solution to the wage freeze holdups."

In response to the issue, Manpower and Transmigration Ministry spokesman Suhartono said the ministry was in the process of revising the decree as demanded by businesses and relevant ministries.

He added that the ministry was currently in talks with regional administrations, the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) and workers' unions over the revision.

Suhartono also claimed that, as of Wednesday, the ministry had approved 50 percent of wage-freeze applications filed by 946 labor-intensive companies. "We have to admit that we cannot approve all the applications. This is not an easy situation," he said.

Although Indonesia's economy grew by more than 6 percent during the past couple of years, concerns over high levels of unemployment remain.

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), around 41.4 million people, or 35 percent of the country's workforce, are categorized as either open (unemployed) or half-unemployed (a few hours of paid work per week).

A worsening jobless rate would undermine the growth in domestic consumerism, which is a key variable and has been the biggest driver of Indonesia's economic growth since 1999.

Bank Indonesia (BI) had already signaled its concerns over future employment opportunities in its December consumer confidence index (CCI), an important economic indicator in a consumer-reliant economy.

According to the survey, Indonesians remained confident about their country's economic outlook, but continued to worry about employment opportunities.

Apindo chairman Sofjan Wanandi estimated that 15,000 people in Greater Jakarta had lost their jobs in the past few months because of the new wage policy. "I am afraid we are going to see more layoffs in the next few months as many companies have stated that they can only survive until March," Sofjan said.

More than 10 foreign companies, mostly from South Korea and India, have relocated their businesses to other Asian countries, according to Apindo.

Government has no right to ban women from working abroad

Antara News - February 12, 2013

Jakarta – The government has no right to ban Indonesian women from working abroad but rather it must protect them against any work risk wherever they are employed, according to the Indonesian Migrant Workers Placement Agencies Association (Himsataki).

The ILO Convention on Migrant Workers rules that anybody has the right to work everywhere in the world, Himsataki Deputy Chairman for Ethics Rusdi Basalamah said here on Monday.

"On the other hand, the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry must provide maximum protection to every citizen employed abroad," he said.

The government should not ban women from seeking overseas employment merely because of its incapability to protect them maximally, he said. "The ban is a discriminatory act and violates human rights," he said.

Separately, on Monday, Executive Director of Migrant Care Anis Hidayah said banning women from working abroad is unconstitutional. "Every citizen has the right to get a proper job," he said. It is for the government to guarantee the right so that they will get proper jobs abroad, he said.

Earlier, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said the government prohibits female Indonesians to work in the informal sector in a number of Middle Eastern countries, namely Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Kuwait to which Indonesia is applying a moratorium on the dispatch of female migrant workers.

"I should like to affirm a ban on the dispatch of female Indonesian migrant workers to countries subjected to the moratorium. The ban remains in place to protect our female migrant workers abroad," he said in a press statement released on Monday.

The moratorium will continue to take effect until the recipient countries can guarantee legal protection and basic rights of Indonesian migrant workers, he said.

He said the moratorium is aimed at improving the placement of Indonesian migrant workers abroad. "But the problem is that there has been no concrete effort on the part of the government to do so," he said.

Political parties & elections

PKS installs new House deputy speaker after graft scandal

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang and Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – As a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician joined the leadership of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, new revelations emerged relating to the alleged involvement of the Islamist party's politicians in a graft case surrounding the importation of beef.

The PKS has officially appointed lawmaker Mohamad Sohibul Iman to replace Anis Matta, who resigned from his position as the House deputy speaker earlier this month.

Anis took over the party leadership from Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq, who was named a suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in a bribery case.

The leader of the PKS faction at the House, Hidayat Nur Wahid, told reporters on Tuesday that the party was convinced Sohibul was the right man to replace Anis as the individual in charge of economic issues at the House.

Hidayat also said that Sohibul had the task of improving the party's tarnished image. "He [Sohibul] has the task of improving the party's image as well as the House's in order to win back public support. We want him to fight corruption and collusion to ensure that the state budget is well allocated," Hidayat said.

Sohibul earlier served as a member of House Commission VI overseeing trade, industry and investment and was formerly head of the party's department of economy, finance, industry and technology.

The party also tasked Sohibul with closely monitoring ongoing investigations into the Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) case and the Bank Century bailout, causing state losses of over Rp 6.7 trillion.

Sohibul received his doctoral degree from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) and a Masters Degree in engineering from Tokyo's Takushoku University.

Prior to his stint as a lawmaker, he served as rector of the Jakarta-based Paramadina University from 2005 to 2007. Sohibul said he would work to improve transparency at the House.

"We need to be more transparent about what we are doing so that the public can have access to our work. Transparency is one of the issues I will focus on. It's a way of ensuring the public that we do actually work here," he added.

Meanwhile, Luthfi underwent another round of questioning at the KPK's headquarters on Tuesday. Luthfi's lawyer Mohammad Assegaf confirmed that his client had conversations with Agriculture Minister Suswono, also a PKS politician, concerning the quota for the importation of meat.

"There had been talk [between Luthfi and Suswono] on the importance of seminars on the meat import quota issue because there was discrepancy in the information that Suswono had with the data provided by the association of meat importers," said Assegaf on Tuesday.

Although Luthfi was not a member of House Commission IV overseeing agriculture, he was convinced that he could give his opinion on the issue, given his previous position as party chairman, Assegaf said.

PPP reaches pact with PKNU in bid to build Islamic party alliance

Jakarta Globe - February 12, 2013

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – After declaring an alliance with the Ulema National Awakening Party, the United Development Party said it was now seeking to establish a broader coalition of Islam-based political parties.

"The PPP continues to build intensive communications with several Islam- based political parties," the party's secretary general, Romahurmuzy, said in Jakarta on Monday, referring to the party by its acronym.

"This includes the PPP encouraging the establishment of a coalition with medium-sized parties, which happen to be dominated by Islam-based parties."

He explained that the party had so far held four meetings, with the next meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

Regarding the alliance with the Ulema National Awakening Party (PKNU), Romahurmuzy said the two parties would work together to recruit candidates for elections in 2014, but that the PKNU would remain a separate party.

"The PKNU will still exist as a political party because there will still be 143 more regional elections to be held before 2014. The PKNU still needs to exist. The alliance is just on the individual level," Romahurmuzy explained.

He said the united front would boost votes for the PPP. In exchange, the party has agreed to select some PKNU members to run as PPP legislative candidates. However the coalition will not be permanent, he said.

The PKNU is a breakaway party of the National Awakening Party (PKB), which was founded by the late Abdurrahman Wahid, a former president and ex-leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia.

Several Islam-based parties failed to qualify for next year's election, and the PPP alliance with the PKNU appears to be the party's first move to absorb some of those parties ahead of 2014.

The PPP is also mulling a coalition with the Crescent Star Party (PBB), another Islamic-based party that last secured a parliamentary seat in 2004 and failed to qualify for the next election.

The announcement comes amid a decline in the popularity of Islamic-based parties in recent surveys.

Most notably, the country's largest Islamic-based party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), has faced a fall in popularity since its former chairman was embroiled in a corruption scandal.

The PPP has faced its own problems. Last month Maiyasyak Johan, a prominent party legislator, resigned from the party to join the National Democratic Party (NasDem).

However Maiyasyak has since reconsidered his decision to join NasDem, saying he now feels he will be better off joining Golkar instead.

"I was just testing the waters. But now I want to choose a party with a strong political culture," Maiyasyak said in response to accusations that he was an opportunist.

Alie: SBY power play aimed to save 'poor Anas' from media onslaught

Jakarta Globe - February 11, 2013

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie says President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took over the ruling party not merely due to Democrats' sinking popularity, but also in an effort to ease the chairman's burden amid withering media scrutiny of late.

"The High Council got involved because of the overloaded burden of the [Democratic Party] chairman," Marzuki said on Monday, referring to Anas Urbaningrum. "It is because media keep on attacking Anas. Poor Anas, he's innocent but continues to be attacked."

Yudhoyono recently said in a press conference that he would assume leadership of the Democratic Party, asking Anas to concentrate on his legal standing amid graft allegations and ongoing corruption probes to which he has been linked.

Some senior party members had urged Anas to step down and asked Yudhoyono to take concrete action to save the party after polls showed the popularity of the ruling party had sunk below that of the coalition partner Golkar Party and the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Marzuki said the High Council, in asking Anas to concentrate on his graft woes, did not intend to give credence to the notion of his guilt, but instead wanted to give the embattled chairman the opportunity to be proactive in clearing his name.

"That's why SBY asked him to actively respond, so there won't be any confirmation [of the accusations]," Marzuki said, adding that Yudhoyono will stay at the helm until the party can regain the public's trust.

Marzuki said Yudhoyono expected to solve the problem this year, ahead of the 2014 legislative and presidential elections.

SBY's party takeover gets mixed reviews

Jakarta Globe - February 11, 2013

Markus J. Sihaloho, Carlos Paath, Anastasia W. Riesardhy, & Erwin Cristianson – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's decision to take over the Democratic Party's leadership while chairman Anas Urbaningrum faces a graft probe has received a mixed reaction from political analysts.

Anas may be facing legal action in the Hambalang sports center graft case, but M. Qodari, a political analyst from Indo Barometer, said that the president's move could prove a fatal political blunder.

"If he is not careful, it could become a political blunder because SBY [Yudhoyono] can't concentrate on running the government. The government's performance could further flop and if this happens, it will further drag the party's popularity down," Qodari said in Jakarta on Sunday.

"We don't want to see the state sinking because [he] wanted to rescue the party."

Barkah Pattimahu, a political analyst from the Indonesian Survey Circle [LSI], saw the move as Yudhoyono's reaction to concern over Anas, who has been named a suspect linked to the Hambalang sports center project, which has cost the state an estimated Rp 243.6 billion ($25 million) in losses.

Barkah said he considered the move as evidence of Yudhoyono's much criticized political ambivalence. On the one hand, Barkah said, the president has asked his ministers to improve their performance and to abstain from political matters, but on the other, he has decided to engage himself in the party's political affairs.

Ray Rangkuti, an analyst from the Indonesian Civic Network (LIMA), said that the president was making a mistake by planning to focus on party issues. "As the president, the head of state and the head of the government, SBY has undermined himself because he's thinking more about the party, not the people," Ray said.

Ray said that Yudhoyono could have delegated the job to someone in the party, including several of his relatives who were already active in the party such as his son, Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono, who is the party's secretary general, and party treasurer Sartono Hutomo,

Ray said that the president was entitled to worry about the problems engulfing the Democratic Party, but he that he should have assigned a trusted ally to handle the problems.

"SBY only had to issue a command for all cadres to solidly consolidate so there was no need to take over and make a speech as if the party's problem was the people's problem," he said.

However, Yudi Latif, an analyst from Padjajaran University, said he believed Yudhoyono was taking a safe path and by using himself, trying to create a positive image for his embattled party.

"That's why he created a cure to keep distance between the Democrats and Anas Urbaningrum, but at the same time, SBY didn't have the nerve to immediately dismiss Anas," Yudi said on Sunday.

Yudi added that if the KPK could not prove Anas's guilt, Yudhoyono could then claim Anas was only replaced temporarily. That explains why he did not dismiss Anas, as many had expected.

Yudhoyono's move to take on party leadership may set a precedent of cabinet members taking a more active role in their political party's internal issues, some analysts are saying.

Golkar Party lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo said that while Yudhoyono's decision would benefit his party, it posed a serious threat to the effectiveness of his administration as a whole.

"Now that the president is busy taking care of the Democrats, it's feared that the ministers will also follow suit by taking care of their own. It's most likely that this will happen since all the political parties eligible for the 2014 general elections have to prepare," Bambang said.

"If that's the case, how can the cabinet focus 100 percent on running the government and handling the people's problems?"

Bambang speculated that the government's effectiveness in the coming months would be limited and likely disappointing for Yudhoyono, who is trying to cement his legacy before leaving office.

Speaking at a press conference at his home in Cikeas, Bogor, late on Friday, the president said that a meeting of the party's high council had agreed that Anas, while nominally remaining as chairman, should tend to the legal case that had been distracting him for months.

SBY takes over Dems leadership

Jakarta Post - February 9, 2013

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Democratic Party chief patron Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday took over leadership of the ruling party, which has been ravaged by internal conflicts and a slew of graft scandals involving many of its top brass, including party chairman Anas Urbaningrum.

In a press conference held in Cikeas, Bogor, West Java, late on Friday, Yudhoyono announced eight emergency policies and eight priority policies to salvage the party from its worst crisis since its establishment in 2003.

The President said that as the chairman of the party's general assembly, he was now leading what he called an initiative to salvage and consolidate the party. "The chairman of the party's assembly is responsible for leading the initiative to save and consolidate the party," Yudhoyono said.

He said the party would focus on purging negative elements before preparing itself to compete in the 2014 elections. The President did not officially dismiss Anas as party chairman or as the deputy of the assembly, but Yudhoyono relieved him of his duties to allow the embattled politician time to focus on his legal quagmire. The party, Yudhoyono said, would provide Anas with legal assistance.

He went on to say he would assume full control of the party until its reputation had been restored. All policies and strategic decisions would be decided by the assembly, he said.

"This decision is a must. Those who do not comply will face strict punishment. Those who are not comfortable with the Democratic Party's declining electability or those who do not like the rescue plan can leave the party," Yudhoyono said.

The statement was made after members of the party's assembly – Jero Wacik, Max Sopacua, Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, Johnny Allen Marbun, Edhie "Ibas" Baskoro, Marzuki Alie, TB Silalahi and Toto Riyanto, as well as Anas – gathered at Yudhoyono's residence in Cikeas on Friday evening.

The meeting was held to discuss the fate of the party, which has seen its electability rate slide to a new low of 8 percent from 32 percent at the height of the party's popularity in December 2009, according to Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting (SMRC).

A recent SMRC survey found that while Yudhoyono's public approval rating remained above 50 percent, it failed to buoy the popularity of the party – suggesting that internal conflicts and graft cases involving its members, including Anas, were to blame for its decline.

An SMRC survey in June 2012 showed 44.8 percent of respondents believed the Democratic Party was the most corrupt political party. The Golkar Party trailed in second place at 6.5 percent of respondents and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) came in third at 2.4 percent.

Friday's was the second meeting Yudhoyono held since his return from the Middle East on Thursday. On Thursday night, the President summoned four party members within his Cabinet: Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Syariefuddin Hasan, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik, Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsudin and Youth and Sports Minister Roy Suryo.

Anas was left out of Thursday's meeting, fueling speculation that his ouster was imminent.

Jero and Syarief were among leading voices in the party in calling for Yudhoyono to take emergency measures to salvage the party, which many have seen as a call for the party's chief patron to remove Anas.

Anas has rejected claims that he was responsible for the problems ailing the party, saying that removing him from his position would not save the ruling party. His defiance led to an open conflict between his supporters and those calling for his ouster.

On Friday, rumors circulated that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had named Anas a suspect in the Hambalang graft case. Though the KPK quashed those rumors in a press conference, such charges could be used by Anas' party rivals to dismiss him without having to convene an emergency congress.

West Java gubernatorial hopefuls set tall order with lofty promises

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2013

Arya Dipa, Bandung – As the campaign season kicked off on Thursday, ahead of the upcoming West Java gubernatorial election, the five candidate pairs have begun making "10,000 promises" in an attempt to lure voters.

The gubernatorial candidates will campaign for the next 14 days to win the hearts of the people ahead of the Feb. 24 ballot.

Before wandering across the province to charm potential voters, the candidates tried to impress councilors, and 650 guests, with their missions and visions in a special plenary meeting at the provincial legislative council (DPRD).

Each candidate pair was given 20 minutes to project their visions to the audience. Only incumbent governor Ahmad Heryawan and running mate, actor Deddy Mizwar, were bold enough to flaunt their promises, including the exemption of education fees for all students in West Java up to senior high school.

"We will also build 20,000 new classrooms," Deddy said, adding that they would provide scholarships for youths, medical workers and families of promising athletes as well as incentives for integrated health post volunteers. "We will also create 100,000 new entrepreneurs as well as 2 million jobs."

In an effort to prevent further urban expansion, the pair – nominated by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) along with the United Development Party (PPP) – said they would earmark Rp 4 trillion (US$440 million) for rural infrastructure development. "We will also renovate the homes of 100,000 underprivileged families," Deddy said.

The event became animated when candidates Rieke Diah Pitaloka, a House of Representatives legislator, and Teten Masduki arrived on stage with two bags, one containing groundnuts and the other rice.

"This [holding up the bag of rice] is a hybrid of Cirendah and Dayang Rindu rice. It can be harvested between 105 and 115 days and [the plant] can grow up to 135 centimeters. It has a potential of 12 hectares per ton," said Rieke.

The food resilience enhancement program, she said, is crucial for residents in West Java, a province inhabited by up to 46 million people. "West Java should not only be able to supply rice to other provinces but also improve the welfare of its farmers," she added.

Incumbent deputy governor Dede Yusuf Macan Effendi and Lex Laksamana said they would provide residents with the Tribhakti health card, which covered nine of their flagship programs, including free marriage, free 12-year education, scholarships for gifted students up to the university level and legal advocacy for underprivileged residents. "We cannot carry it out by ourselves. All the programs need the support of the people," said Dede.

Two other candidate pairs – former South Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Dikdik Mulyana Arief Mansyur and his running mate former Indramayu regency secretary Cecep Nana Surya; and former Indramayu regent Irianto MS Syafiuddin and former Tasikmalaya regent Tatang Farhanul Hakim – only expressed their rationales.

Dikdik said if he were elected, he would develop West Java from the rural level. "Currently, residents are only spectators of development activities. They should become the beneficiaries," he said.

Irianto said, if elected, he would set aside Rp 500 million for each village to "stimulate development in rural areas because one of the most pressing issues in West Java is the rapid growth of its population."

Media & journalism

Press in danger of politicians' control ahead of election

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2013

Hans Nicholas Jong and Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta/Manado – As the Indonesian media celebrated National Press Day over the weekend, calls mounted for it to remain independent amid efforts to control it for political purposes.

The country's third president, BJ Habibie, credited for lifting the curb on press freedom imposed by the New Order regime, called on media barons to stop the abuse of their media outlets for personal and political interests.

"Our press is now free from government intervention, but has it been liberated from political interests? If owners of media companies suddenly nominate themselves to become leader of the country, how can they can produce objective news?" Habibie said in his address to media executives on Saturday.

Later on Saturday, Habibie received the Press Independence Gold award from the Indonesian Journalist Association (PWI). The PWI was the only journalistic organization allowed to operate under the New Order regime.

Habibie received the award for his policies that freed the media from government intervention in the late 1990s, following the downfall of president Soeharto.

Habibie also called on owners of media companies to shift their focus to improving the welfare and professionalism of their journalists.

Numerous media outlets in the country are now controlled by politicians, whose parties will contest the 2014 election. The new chairman of the NasDem party, Surya Paloh, is the owner of Metro TV news channel and Media Indonesia daily.

Politicians with their fingers in the media pie include Golkar Party chairman and presidential candidate Aburizal Bakrie, who runs news channel TVOne, ANTV and the Vivanews online news portal and Hary Tanoesoedibjo, who controls the country's largest media network PT Media Nusantara Citra (MNC).

Hary recently parted company with NasDem and is expected to join another established political party.

Chairman of the Press Council Bagir Manan said politicians' control of the media could not do much harm to the country's fledgling democracy.

"Let's say we have five media outlets with their own political agendas and 500 others that are not controlled by politicians. Why worry? The audience play a crucial role in controlling the mass media. They will leave media outlets that put political interests over the public interests," he said.

Bagir also said that the Press Council could do little to prevent abuse of the media by political interests.

"If we come up with a regulation, what penalties we can apply? If a media outlet publishes an editorial criticizing the government, do we need to put them behind bars? This will be against press freedom," Bagir, a former Supreme Court chief justice, said.

Separately, Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring said politicians' control over broadcasting media was a result of the weak power wielded by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI).

He said the commission lacked the authority to punish those who violated the broadcasting law. "Media owners can fight lawsuits launched by the KPI," he said.

To address the situation, the ministry plans to draft a regulation that could guarantee harsh punishment, including the revocation of broadcasting licences for errant media outlets.

Journalists tested on knowledge of Islam

Jakarta Post - February 10, 2013

Severianus Endi, Pontianak – A survey conducted by Pantau Foundation in 2012 reveals that religious intolerance among Indonesian journalists remains high, underlining the need for access to adequate knowledge of Islam, survey coordinator says.

Pantau Foundation survey coordinator, Imam Shofwan, said on Sunday that after the reform era, the phenomenon of religious intolerance perpetrated by Islamic radicals continued to increase.

"From my perception, our journalists' account of religious-related events is still tendentious. From this survey, we saw intolerance among journalists to be strong," said Imam at a workshop to disseminate the results of the Islam and Journalism survey.

The survey, which took place from March to May, involved 600 print and broadcast journalists from 16 provinces. During the survey, they answered around 100 questions relating to issues on Islam and journalism.

The 2012 survey revealed that 46 percent of respondents said Islamic law (sharia) should not be implemented in Indonesia, down from 47 percent in the previous survey in 2009. Meanwhile, 45 percent of respondents say Indonesia needs to implement the Islamic law, up from 37.5 percent from the 2009 study.

"The survey's results show that a lack of professionalism and poor journalism ethic appear to be two biggest challenges the Indonesian journalists must deal with in covering religion-related issues," said Imam.

Citing an example, he said it seemed that many respondents agreed with thoughts of Ahmadiyah as a heresy. In the 2009 survey, 29.7 percent of the respondents "quite agreed" with the local joint decision (SKB) that outlawed the Ahmadiyah sect. But in the 2012 survey, the figure increased to 30.2 percent. (ebf)

Environment & natural disasters

SBY orders Lapindo to fully compensate mudflow victims

Jakarta Globe - February 14, 2013

Ezra Sihite – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday strongly criticized Lapindo Brantas, the oil and gas company that some scientists blame for the Sidoarjo mudflow disaster, for not fulfilling its obligation to compensate the victims.

"I got a report that Lapindo still has not completed its responsibility and Rp 800 billion ($83 million) is still not paid," Yudhoyono said on Thursday.

Yudhoyono expressed his concern after receiving reports that the area inundated by the mudflow was also threatened by the impact of recent heavy rains. "I have heard reports saying that there are some unfinished matters that disrupted our efforts to contain the Sidoarjo mudflow," he said.

Yudhoyono urged Lapindo Brantas, a company partly owned by presidential hopeful and Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, to honor its pledge. "Please convey this message to Lapindo: that they should keep their promise. If you play around with people you will carry the sins to the afterlife, tell them that," he said.

Golkar leadership board chairman Hadjriyanto Thohari said he rejected speculation that Yudhoyono's criticism was a political shot at his party.

"I don't think it was an attack against Golkar because structurally there is no connection between Lapindo and the party," said Hadjriyanto, who is also a deputy speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Agung Laksono, the coordinating minister for people's welfare and a Golkar deputy chairman, also denied that Yudhoyono's Lapindo critique was politically motivated. "It was in line with the discussion with the minister of public works, so it was not political at all," he said.

Agung said Lapindo had paid Rp 3 trillion in compensation to the mudflow victims thus far. "It's true that the payment has not been completed, but it doesn't mean they haven't paid at all, let's just wait," he said.

The Sidoardjo mudflow in East Java – which began in May 2006 after a blowout at one of Lapindo's natural gas wells – destroyed hundreds of homes, swamped 720 hectares of land and displaced thousands of people.

Lapindo Brantas has long denied it was the cause of the mudflow, instead blaming an earthquake in Yogyakarta, hundreds of kilometers to the west. The company only agreed to compensate victims within the boundaries of the affected area.

Aceh governor wants to allow more logging in protected forests: Report

Jakarta Globe - February 13, 2013

Hayat Indriyatno – Spatial zoning proposals for Aceh indicate that the province's governor is seeking to open up more than 52,000 hectares of protected forest there to logging, a conservation group warns.

In a report published on Tuesday, the group Greenomics Indonesia found that the spatial plans proposed by Governor Zaini Abdullah would change the status of vast tracts of protected forest to production forest.

"The report reveals that there are five large blocks of [protected] forest – each more than 2,000 hectares in area – that have been identified for the sole purpose of felling so as to meet timber needs of more than 21,000 hectares, equivalent to 30 percent of the total area of Singapore," the report said.

"In addition the report reveals that there are two blocks of [protected] forest that are also relatively large which have been proposed for conversion into production forest. The principal function of production forest is to produce timber, which is of course done through logging... These two blocks extend to more than 31,000 hectares."

Satellite image analysis shows that all the affected blocks, spanning the districts of Gayo Lues, Southwest Aceh, Aceh Jaya and Nagan Raya, currently enjoy good forest cover, which Greenomics noted was the obvious reason that they were being targeted for logging.

However, the group also noted that the spatial zoning proposals were subject to approval by the central government, and called on authorities in Jakarta to reject the plans.

"The motivation needs to be quickly nipped in the bud by the Forestry Ministry. Otherwise it could lead to the legalization of destructive practices in the protection forests of Aceh," the report said.

Elfian Effendi, the Greenomics executive director, contrasted Zaini's proposals with a speech given by the governor in December in which he stated that the "greediness of humans destroys forests... so it destroys the balance of nature."

"However, after seeing the proposals sent by the governor of Aceh, I have no option but to conclude that what he said was nothing more than empty rhetoric, rather than a commitment to protecting Aceh's forests," Elfian said.

"If the governor is sincere about protecting the province's forests, then he will withdraw his destructive proposals immediately."

Greenomics acknowledged that its report only focused on the impact of the spatial planning proposals on large tracts of forest of more than 1,000 hectares. Smaller blocks are also thought to be affected, given that the Aceh legislature proposed last month the conversion of nearly 72,000 hectares of protected forest for logging, plantation and mining concessions.

Aceh's forests, which make up 55 percent of the province's land area, are home to critically endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger and Sumatran orangutan, and include large tracts of peatland whose destruction would result in the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Marriage & polygamy

As Anis packs, House leaders talk polygamy

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – On his last day as deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, newly appointed Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Anis Matta shared a light moment with his colleagues, saying they agreed on almost every issue, except polygamy.

"I do apologize to all the leaders of the House. All of us always get along each other except about polygamy," he said, jokingly.

His comments drew laughter from the audience and from fellow leaders – Marzuki Alie of the Democratic Party; Priyo Budi Santoso of the Golkar Party; Pramono Anung of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Taufik Kurniawan of the National Mandate Party (PAN).

Anis will be succeeded by Shohibul Iman, a PKS lawmaker from the House's Commission VI overseeing trade and state-owned enterprises.

Responding to his remarks on polygamy, House speaker Marzuki chuckled that the other leaders "should begin to consider practicing polygamy". His statement quickly drew a comment from Priyo, who said that "only the House speaker had an intention of doing so".

"As men, we all must admit that we desire to engage in polygamy but we do not dare to do it because we're afraid of our wives and children," said Marzuki.

Earlier before the meeting, while packing his things at his office at the House, Anis told reporters that he currently had two wives and nine children.

"This is my first wife and our seven children," he said pointing to a family picture on the wall. "I haven't got a picture of my second family here. I have two children with my second wife. A third one is on the way," he added.

Although a number of PKS politicians practice polygamy, not all party members support the practice. Most Muslims in Indonesia are monogamous, even though polygamous marriage is still tolerated.

A group of activists, however, have called on the government to revise the 1974 Marriage Law to better protect women from unfair practices in a polygamous marriage.

"The government has failed to understand that this law is very discriminatory," National Commission on Violence against Women member Andy Yentriyani said on Wednesday. "There is no such thing as a polygamous marriage that benefits women."

"If we support a second wife, for example, the first wife will lose, and vice versa. There is no benefit to be gained by women in a polygamous marriage," Andy said. "We are against polygamous marriage and urge the government to revise the law."

After Aceng scandal, calls to revise laws on polygamy

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2013

Jakarta – The National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) wants the government to revise Law No. 1/1974 on marriage, which legalizes polygamy, to protect women.

"The government has failed to understand that this law is very discriminatory," Komnas Perempuan commissioner Andy Yentriyani said on Wednesday told reporters. "There is no such thing as a polygamous marriage that benefits women."

A move to revise the 1974 marriage law has been gaining momentum after Garut Regent Aceng Fikri took as his second wife a 17-year-old girl, Fani Oktora, in an unregistered Muslim ceremony (siri), divorcing her by SMS four days later.

Another commissioner, Sri Nurherwati, said that Article 279 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) provided for a maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment for men who failed to meet the legal requirements for a polygamous marriage as stipulated in the Marriage law.

She questioned provisions of the law that stipulate that polygamous marriages are allowed if a wife is infertile, disabled, has an incurable disease or did not fulfill her spousal responsibilities.

"These requirements raise questions. What is a wife's responsibility, to be exact? It's very unclear."

The law also stipulated that a polygamous husband must treat his wives fairly, must be able to support his family financially and receive the permission of his first wife before marrying multiple wives.

"If one of the requirements mentioned is not fulfilled, then it's a form of legal violation," Sri Nurherwati said. "However, no firm action has ever been taken against a man that didn't fulfill those requirements."

The commission recorded 96 martial-related crimes in 2012, including 41 cases of adultery and 20 cases of polygamous marriage without the first wife's permission, that have caused physical and mental sufferings and financial hardships.

As previously reported, the commission also said that domestic violence comprised 95 percent of 119,107 cases of violence against women recorded in 2011.

Commissioner Ninik Rahayu attributed the high incidence of domestic violence to a large number of polygamous and siri marriages, saying that half of the nation's marriages had not been registered with local Religious Affairs Offices (KUA), as required by law.

"This indicates that a lot of women are still unaware of the importance of registering their marriages, which could in fact protect them should any crimes take place within the marriage," she said.

According to Andy, another loophole in the Marriage Law allows girls over 16 to marry, while the 2002 Child Protection Law states that anyone below 18 is a minor. "Law enforcement has been weakened due to the legal irregularities," Andy said, referring to the case of Aceng.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is currently considering a legal request to impeach Aceng. (nad)

Refugees & asylum seekers

Indonesian official accuses Australia of human rights abuses

ABC ABC Radio Australia - February 12, 2013

Indonesia's Child Protection Commissioner has accused Australia of human rights abuses. Commissioner Apong Herlina is also publicly backing claims for compensation from Australia by teenagers who were jailed for working on asylum seeker boats.

Almost 50 boys have been returned to Indonesia and 23 of them are preparing to sue the Australian Government. Their lawyers say they were locked up in adult prisons despite telling Australian authorities they were underage.

Presenter: George Roberts, Indonesia Correspondent

Speakers: Lisa Hiarej, lawyer; Apong Herlina, Indonesia's Child Protection Commissioner

George Roberts: Outside Indonesia's Child Protection Commission, one of boys' lawyers, Lisa Hiarej, is happy about the boost in support.

Lisa Hiarej (translation): When they heard that I was the lawyer for the 23 children, they called me and asked me what they could do, and I told them all about it and they got together to support me.

They invited the National Commission of Human Rights. They also called a committee of the parliament, and we sat together and they said they are going to support them.

George Roberts: Indonesia's Child Protection Commissioner Apong Herlina has slammed Australia for locking up Indonesian teenagers in adult prisons.

Apong Herlina (translation): I think Australia is famous for respecting human rights, so we were taken by surprise when these human rights violations occurred – especially against children.

And I think it's very embarrassing for the Australian Government that they committed this kind of human rights violation.

George Roberts: Two of the boys who've been returned to Indonesia say they were sexually taunted in Sydney's Silverwater prison and were scared by violence and drug use by the other inmates.

Lisa Hiarej says they tried to explain they're not adults, but at the time the Government was using wrist x-rays to claim the teenagers were grown men.

Lisa Hiarej (translation): They shouldn't have just used the x-rays. They could have used other methods, like birth certificates, school records, or baptism certificates for the Christians – and for the Muslims, a letter from the head of the village.

George Roberts: In Indonesia, where half the population lives on $2 or less per day, the lure of a paying job on a boat can turn out as too good to be true. Crew members often claim they not told their cargo would be asylum seekers and their destination Australia.

Commissioner Apong Herlina says the Australian Government's breached its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, by imprisoning the underage deckhands. She says there should be an apology and compensation.

Apong Herlina (translation): Compensation doesn't necessarily mean cash or money but we would like for it to be more in the form of empowerment of these children, upgrading their quality of life, such as putting them through schools, or giving them some kind of capital.

Because these kids are from poor backgrounds and it's very hard for them to gather capital for them to be able to survive.

George Roberts: Australia's Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus wasn't available for comment. But in a statement, a spokesman for the Department said:

"The Government has not received any formal notification of this claim. Where it is considered that such claims do not have merit, the Australian Government will defend them."

Lawyers for the boys in Australia and Indonesia have spent 10 months already preparing their cases and expect to lodge the claims in the coming months.

Indonesian youths to sue Australia for illegal detention

Agence France Presse - February 12, 2013

Twenty-three Indonesian youths plan to sue Australia for illegal detention after being jailed in adult prisons for people-smuggling when they were minors, a child rights agency said on Tuesday.

Australian authorities detained the boys as adults between 2008 and 2011, following wrist X-ray tests to determine they were over 18 years old – a method which has been criticized by some experts as outdated and unreliable.

"The plaintiffs are looking for compensation and an apology from Australia so they can receive an education and live normal lives," Indonesia's National Commission for Child Protection deputy chief Apong Herlina told AFP.

The commission is working on the case with an Indonesian and an Australian lawyer to file the civil suit in an Australian court.

Indonesian lawyer Lisa Hiariej told AFP that she was also investigating claims by two of the plaintiffs that they had been sexually harassed by adult male prisoners in Sydney's Silverwater jail.

"The prisoners never touched the boys with their hands but showed them [their genitals]," Hiariej said. "They were shown how to do sex with body language."

Australia's human rights commission reported last year that 180 Indonesians in Australia suspected of people-smuggling claimed to be minors, some of whom were obviously children and were immediately repatriated.

But 48 boys – aged 14 to 17 – were jailed with adults based on the wrist test and had therefore been illegally detained, the report said.

Herlina said many of the boys appeared to be older according to the X-ray test because daily laborious work as fishermen had made their wrists "more developed".

A spokesperson from the Australian Attorney-General's Department said the government had not received any formal notification of the claim.

Indonesia has long been a transit country for illegal migration to Australia. Crew that take rickety boats out on the perilous journey often come from poor fishing communities.

Graft & corruption

Indonesia beef imports rife with corruption

Straits Times - February 14, 2013

Zubaidah Nazeer & Ashleigh Stewart – When Indonesia slashed quotas on beef imports in 2011, the goal was to boost domestic production. But the ensuing shortage has pushed prices skyward, and fed a corrupt system where quotas go to the highest bidder.

Several unscrupulous meatball producers were even caught secretly mixing pork with beef to keep costs low.

An ongoing investigation by the anti-corruption commission (KPK) has toppled the president of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), who resigned after being accused of receiving kickbacks from executives of a major meat importer, Indoguna.

Industry players said that endemic graft worsened after the government slashed import quotas in 2011 from 100,000 tones a year in 2011 to 40,000 tones last year and 32,000 tones this year. Some beef importers began bribing officials to get a share of the pie, and smuggled beef into the country.

Indonesian Meat Importers Association executive director Thomas Sembiring told The Straits Times that so long as meat import quotas are imposed and enforcement is "not transparent", graft will remain a problem. "Bribery, corruption – it's already in their bone marrow. You have to cut down maybe two generations to get rid [of it]."

The big problem, said Franky Sibarani, deputy secretary-general of the Indonesian employers association Apindo, is that there are no good numbers on demand and supply "and therefore, lack of enforcement of the quota."

Late last month, PKS president Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq resigned and was detained after his aide Ahmad Fathanah was caught with one billion rupiah ($103,000). The money was allegedly a bribe from Indoguna directors to Luthfi, who has influence with officials at the Agriculture Ministry led by fellow PKS member Suswono.

Days after his arrest, Customs officers found 1.7 tones of undeclared wagyu beef in a raid at Jakarta's Tanjong Priok port, brought in by Indoguna.

Importers said the process of securing a share of these quotas is opaque and open to abuse at various levels of government.

Investigative magazine Tempo, which broke the story on corrupt practices in beef imports in 2011, reported last week that a businessman had been offered a slice of the quota if he was willing to pay 10,000 rupiah a kilo in bribes.

Since quotas were slashed two years ago, the price of beef for the public has more than doubled, on average, to hit some 100,000 rupiah a kilo.

In December, consumers were outraged when police and agriculture officials, acting on a tip-off, raided a factory in South Jakarta and found workers had mixed beef with pork, which is much cheaper, to make meatballs.

Ultimately, critics said, the quotas should be reconsidered as local production is a long way off from meeting rising consumption.

"Indonesia cannot produce live cattle in time to cater to rising consumption from a growing middle-income group, foreign workers and tourists," Siswono Yudhohusodo, who is in the parliamentary committee on agriculture, told reporters. "The government needs to rethink its agrarian policy."

KPK finds irregularities in all provinces

Jakarta Post - February 14, 2013

In collaboration with the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP), the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has found that irregularities are rampant in government agencies in all the country's 33 provinces.

The joint investigation was to monitor three areas of work: regional budget planning, public services and the procurement of goods and services, said KPK deputy chairman Adnan Pandu Praja. Adnan said the investigation was part of the KPK's preventive measures.

"This serves as an early warning system in corruption prevention. So the KPK does not only fight corruption, but we also fix the system," he told a press conference at the KPK's headquarters in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

BPKP chairman Mardiasmo said that most irregularities were found in the budgeting process, the procurement of low quality goods and in the providing of public services.

The KPK and the BPKP would forward the report from the survey as a recommendation to the government.

Antigraft commission cracks under powerful political pressure

Jakarta Post - February 14, 2013

Hans Nicholas Jong and Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – A rift within the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) leadership has widened with commissioners making contradictory statements on a document that names Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum a graft suspect.

Only one day after the KPK formed a team to investigate the leak, KPK commissioner Adnan Pandu Praja made a surprise announcement that the document was authentic. On Wednesday, Adnan said that he had signed the draft of a letter resembling the leaked document, ordering the start of the investigation into Anas' role in a graft case.

A copy of the document obtained by The Jakarta Post, shows Adnan was indeed one of three KPK commissioners to sign it, along with KPK chairman Abraham Samad and deputy chair Zulkarnain. Spaces for the signatures of deputy chairs Bambang Widjojanto and Busyro Muqoddas remained blank.

The document states that Anas is named a suspect for receiving a gratuity in the form of a Toyota Harrier while still a member of the House of Representatives.

Graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin claims that the car was a gift from PT Adhi Karya to Anas when it won the tender for the construction of the Rp 1.17 trillion (US$121.4 million) Hambalang sports complex.

While Adnan did not comment on the authenticity of the leaked document, he said that the draft letter he signed was an official document. "The draft was on my desk late on Thursday, stating that there had been a case presentation on a certain date," he said.

"But I withdrew my signature on Friday morning after finding out that the KPK had not in fact held a case presentation attended by all the commissioners, as required."

A source within the KPK said that there had actually been a case presentation on Thursday last week but only in the presence of three commissioners: Abraham, Adnan and Zulkarnain. Bambang said earlier this week that the presentation would only take place next Monday.

"The amount of the gratuity was too small for the KPK to handle. We need heavier charges for Anas. We need to dig deeper," Adnan said. A brand new Toyota Harrier starts at Rp 735 million. The Corruption Law only allows the KPK to investigate cases worth more than Rp 1 billion.

Speculation is rife that the letter was leaked to put pressure on the KPK to move swiftly against Anas. On the day the letter was leaked, Democratic Party chief patron Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono relieved Anas of his day-to-day duties. Yudhoyono responded on Wednesday to the allegation that his inner circle was behind the leak.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said, "For the sake of truth and justice, as well as to uphold the dignity of the palace and the KPK, the President sincerely hopes that the KPK will conduct a transparent, serious and thorough investigation into the leak," Julian said. "They should cooperate with the police, if necessary."

KPK in difficult position over Anas, following leak

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2013

Bagus BT Saragih and Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has set up a team to investigate the leaking of a document that named Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum a suspect in a graft case.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said the primary objective of the probe was to determine the authenticity of the document. "The investigative team will be able to conclude whether or not the document originated in the KPK," he said in a press conference on Tuesday.

Johan maintained that the document, which has been widely circulated since late last week, was not a letter giving the green light to an investigation but only a draft, as indicated by the signatures of only three of the KPK's commissioners on the letter, rather than the requisite five.

Nevertheless, the letter puts renewed pressure on the KPK to move swiftly against Anas, but the commission does not want to be perceived as acting on behalf of Anas' rivals within the Democratic Party, who have been clamoring for his departure from the party.

A source within the KPK said that the antigraft body did not hold a case presentation last week, a regular procedure before naming a suspect in a graft case. The lack of a presentation on Anas' case was an indication, therefore, that the leaked document was not authentic.

Johan said the draft was only accessible to a few officers and directors at the enforcement unit, as well as their deputies and the KPK commissioners.

Separately, KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto said the case presentation would be conducted next week, increasing speculation that Anas has less than a week before being named a suspect.

Anas will likely be charged with accepting a luxurious car, a Toyota Harrier, which according to fellow Democratic Party politician Muhammad Nazaruddin, was a gift by PT Adhi Karya after the company won the Hambalang tender.

Nazaruddin, former Democratic Party treasurer who was indicted for his role in the Hambalang case, also accused Anas of swindling Rp 100 billion (US$10.3 million) from the Hambalang sports center construction funds, money that he would later use to finance his campaign for the party chairmanship during the Democratic Party congress in Bandung in 2010.

Bambang said the commissioners had agreed to hold a meeting on Monday next week, at which all the KPK's senior officials would be present, to hear a presentation on Anas' graft case.

"If next week all the officials are in attendance, then we will conduct the case presentation," he said as quoted by tempo.co. The KPK has repeatedly rejected criticism that it would meddle in politics to shape political dynamics ahead of the 2014 election.

On the same day that the investigation letter was leaked, Democratic Party chief patron Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono relieved Anas of his day-to-day duties within the party.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha denied that anyone close to the President had leaked the document, saying that the State Palace would never interfere with the KPK's work.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Yudhoyono continued to take back complete control of the party from Anas. Yudhoyono is set to hold a meeting this weekend with hundreds of leaders from the party's local branches.

The party's deputy chairman, Max Sopacua, said that more than 500 local branch leaders had confirmed their attendance for the National Leadership Meeting (Rapimnas), which is scheduled for Sunday.

"Yudhoyono, as head of the party's general assembly, will address the local party leaders to prevent deepening rifts," Max said.

[Ina Parlina contributes to this story.]

Three KPK commissioners sign draft naming Anas a suspect, says official

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2013

Hans Nicholas Jong and Dicky Christanto Wulandaru, Jakarta – The deputy head of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Adnan Pandu Praja, confirmed that he, along with KPK chairman Abraham Samad and deputy chairman Zulkarnain, had signed a document authorizing KPK investigators to begin investigations that will see Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum be named a graft suspect.

Signatures from the KPK leaders are needed by investigators to start an investigation. "But it didn't last long because I revoked my signature just the day after the signing as there had been no case presentation conducted before the signing," he said.

A case presentation is usually organized by investigators once they have enough evidence to pass on to the KPK commissioners. The KPK commissioners would then sign a document allowing the investigators to start an investigation.

Commenting on this, legal expert Chairul Huda said the KPK had thrown confusion over the issue of how this case should be tackled by failing to announce who had leaked the document that had been signed by the three KPK commissioners.

"I wonder what is it that they're trying to hide from the public. Why is so difficult for them to talk in a straightforward way to the public?" he asked.

He said the way the commission handled this case would determine how people viewed the KPK in the future. Currently, the document's authenticity remains unknown. KPK spokesman Johan Budi has stated that the KPK would establish a special team to investigate the document's validity.

Pork and rat meat, not beef, discussed by Luthfi and Minister: Lawyer

Jakarta Globe - February 12, 2013

SP/Novianti Setuningsih & Rizky Amelia – Pork and rat meat were the focus of a discussion between former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq and the minister of agriculture, the graft suspect's lawyer said on Tuesday.

The Corruption Eradication Commission plans to question Agriculture Minister and PKS member Suswono about his relationship with Luthfi, a former party chairman charged with reportedly accepting Rp 1 billion ($103,000) in bribes from a beef import company.

Attorney M. Assegaf said that his client spoke with Suswono on a regular basis, but the conversations mainly focused on the party or on concerns over the spread of unsafe or non-Halal meat in Indonesia. They once spoke about the beef import quota, but only to compare information, the lawyer said.

"[They] once talked about holding a seminar or discussion related to the beef import quota," Assegaf said. "It was because the information received by Suswono from the [beef] business association was different [from the information Luthfi had]."

Luthfi and his aid were among those charged with reportedly attempting to rig Indonesia's beef import quota. Importer Indoguna Utama allegedly promised the former PKS chairman a kickback of Rp 5,000 per kilogram if they were awarded 50 percent of the new beef quota. The Rp 1 billion was allegedly a downpayment on that promise.

Although the KPK arrested four people in connection with cash-for-beef scandal, none of those charged have direct control over setting or awarding contracts to import beef. The Ministry of Agriculture is in charge of setting the nation's import quotas and awarding contracts to interested companies.

Assegaf denied there was any connection between the minister and the corruption case. "He [Luthfi] is not a lawmaker in the commission which corresponds with the Agriculture Ministry," Assegaf said.

The KPK questioned Syukur Iwantoro, the ministry's director general of livestock and animal health services, as a witness on Tuesday. The questions allegedly centered on Luthfi, Indoguna Utama executives and ministry officials. The commission will also question Luthfi and his assistant Ahmad Fathanah.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is seeking a full explanation from the agriculture minister regarding the graft allegations but the plan been sidelined for the moment. Julian Aldrin Pasha, a spokesman for the president, said Yudhoyono "will definitely call [Suswono] in. Just wait and see."

Suswono has not been named a suspect but the KPK is set to question Suswono as a witness. The KPK recently raided the Ministry of Agriculture's offices.

Beef import scam involved 12 companies, Rp 546b in state losses: Dradjad

Jakarta Globe - February 11, 2013

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Rizky Amelia – Twelve beef import companies, including Indoguna Utama, teamed up to evade tax payments and use the funds saved to bribe lawmakers and customs and excise officials, according to a private investigation carried out by a rival of a politician allegedly caught in the case.

Indoguna Utama directors were last month caught paying bribes allegedly intended for former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq.

Dradjad Wibowo, an economist who is also the deputy chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), said he conducted his investigation based on unpublished data from state institutions.

Dradjad said most of the 12 companies involved in the practice were new players in the beef import industry. "By using all sorts of excuses, the import 'mafia' was able to enjoy a VAT [value-added tax] exemption for the beef import," he said.

"As a result, the state incurred Rp 546 billion [$56.5 million] in VAT losses from beef and gizzards for the January 2010-July 2011 period." The amount of VAT that should have been paid was Rp 548.8 billion, he said.

"Out of that figure, only Rp 2.8 billion was paid to the state. The remaining Rp 546 billion was exempted, which means the importers received an additional profit," Dradjad said.

The exempted VAT amount matched the fee the importers paid to the people who "helped" them. Dradjad said the fee reached Rp 5,000 per kilogram for beef and Rp 2,000 per kilogram for gizzards. "If you multiply the import data, you will reach Rp 452.5 billion, plus Rp 99 billion, for [a total of] Rp 551.5 billion," he said.

"In other words, you could say that the fees or bribes paid to political parties and non-party political people were paid from the exempted VAT. "The law enforcers should start investigating... the VAT exemption."

The second source of funds used to pay the fee was said to be from changing the classification of the meat into gizzards, he said. Dradjad said that based on regulations, importers have to pay import duty of 5 percent of the customs value of the imported good.

The customs value is calculated based on the cost price, insurance and freight (CIF), or a benchmark value set by the Directorate General of Customs and Excise. Since the CIF of gizzards is cheaper than that of beef, recalcitrant importers allegedly reported that they were importing gizzards instead of beef.

This mode of operation was used by four importers – identified as I.G.U., I.P., S.L.P. and B.M.A. – which Dradjad said he found after comparing the import data from the Directorate Customs and Excise and the data from the Agriculture Ministry's Agricultural Quarantine Agency (Barantan).

Data from Customs and Excise showed that the four companies imported 13.5 million kilograms of beef for the January 2010-June 2011 period. Data at Barantan showed that they actually imported 28.3 million kilograms of beef in the same period.

"This means the beef import data at the Customs and Excise office was 14.8 million kilograms lower than the data at Barantan," said Dradjad. Customs and Excise data showed 31.0 million kilograms of gizzards were imported, but Barantan data showed only 7.8 kilograms, a gap of 23.2 million kilograms.

"Based on the documents that I obtained, the state incurred potential losses from import duty income, VAT and income tax of Rp 48.5 billion from that practice. And that's just a figure from four importers," Dradjad said.

He called on law enforcers to pursue the case beyond the allegations levelled at Luthfi and the directors at a single company. He said they should also take action against corrupt officials, saying that the practice could not have been possible if staff at the Customs and Excise office had not played a role.

KPK leaves Anas in limbo

Jakarta Post - February 9, 2013

Hans Nicholas Jong and Sita W. Dewi, Jakarta – Despite a variety of incriminating testimony, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said on Friday that Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum had not been charged with graft.

The KPK was forced to rebuff rumors that Anas had been named a suspect in a multi billion rupiah corruption case surrounding the construction of the Hambalang sports complex.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi told a press conference on Friday that any information from anywhere but the mouths of KPK officials should be taken with a pinch of salt. "As long as there is no official statement [from the KPK], then it is still a rumor," the spokesman said. The antigraft commission had not even imposed a travel ban on him, Johan added.

KPK chairman Abraham Samad said the KPK officials still had to discuss matters related to the case before declaring Anas a suspect. "There are still a lot of things that have to be discussed," he said

When asked if the KPK had prepared an investigation letter for Anas but had yet to sign it, Abraham refused to answer the question directly, and instead just replied with a laugh and a nod.

Rumors that Anas had being officially declared a graft suspect emerged after Democratic Party chief patron Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked the KPK to decide immediately if Anas was involved in the Hambalang graft case.

Anas' political rivals within the party claimed that his involvement in graft had caused the party's electability rate to fall and called for his ouster. The party, however, can only unseat Anas if he is officially named a criminal suspect.

On Friday morning, before the KPK held a press conference to snub the rumors surrounding Anas, an investigator with the KPK who declined to be named, said the Democratic Party chairman had in fact been named a suspect.

"Yes, [Anas] has been named a suspect," the source said in a text message to The Jakarta Post. His statement fueled the rumors and later triggered allegations that political interests had interfered with the KPK investigation.

Abraham was quick to dismiss the allegations, saying that the antigraft body served no political interests, including those of the president.

Likewise, KPK spokesperson Johan stressed that the commission could not name someone a suspect just because the president urged the antigraft body to do so, adding that the commission's domain was the law, not politics.

The Hambalang case centers on financial misappropriation related to the construction of the Rp 1.17 trillion (US$120.72 million) Hambalang sports complex in Bogor, West Java.

Muhammad Nazaruddin, the former Democratic Party treasurer who was indicted for his role in the case, has repeatedly accused Anas of illicitly using up to Rp 100 billion from the project's budget to finance his bid for the party chairmanship in 2010. Anas' name has also surfaced in the testimony of other witnesses in the case.

Ismiyati Saidi, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party's Gorontalo branch, for example, testified during Nazaruddin's trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court that she and several other local party leaders received Rp 15 million ($1,635) in return for their votes in favor of Anas at the 2010 national congress in Bandung, West Java.

Democratic Party lawmaker Ignatius Mulyono, a member of the House of Representatives' Commission II which oversees the National Land Agency (BPN), meanwhile, claimed that he received orders to secure the land-use certificate for the Hambalang project from Anas.

Anas, however, has vehemently denied the accusations, going as far as to declare that he was ready to face the death penalty if he was proven guilty of corruption.

"If I am [proven] corrupt in the athlete's village and Hambalang graft cases, even if it's for only Rp 1, I am willing to be shot dead or hung at Monas [National Monument]. But what about the people who make slanderous accusations?" Anas said via his Twitter account in March last year.

Terrorism & religious extremism

Indonesia passes law to stop terrorism funding

Jakarta Globe - February 12, 2013

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Indonesia tightened its grip on financial transactions on Tuesday as the nation introduced its first law aimed at choking off funding for radical organizations, marking what supporters called a key step in combatting domestic terrorism.

The House of Representatives passed the bill into law on Tuesday, introducing harsh penalties for individuals and companies convicted of funding terrorist activity. Supporters called the bill a crucial component in the nation's ongoing battle against terrorism.

"[This law] will strengthen our international cooperation when cracking down on terrorism funding [from overseas]," Justice and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin said.

Indonesia, which has increased efforts to combat domestic terrorism in recent years, hasn't suffered a large-scale attack since the 2009 twin bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels in Jakarta.

But in the past year, the nation has witnessed a surge in terrorist plots aimed at law enforcement as suicide bombers and gunmen attacked police officers in towns in Java, Sulawesi and Papua. Other groups targeted locations in Jakarta and Depok in unsuccessful bomb plots.

Adang Daradjatun, the committee chairman, said the law allows law enforcement to flag the bank accounts and freeze the assets of those suspected of funding terrorism in Indonesia and abroad. The bill, while allowing the government to tighten its grip on money transfers, won't affect the average citizen, he said.

"The idea is that while this legislation calls for tighter supervision of financial transactions, it won't inconvenience the general public, but only those who are involved in terrorist activities," Adang said.

Adang, a former deputy chief of the National Police, said his committee had scrutinized the bill to ensure that it did not infringe on civil or human rights.

"It provides legal protection to citizens, so that in the event that their bank accounts are blocked on suspicion of terrorism-related funding or they are blacklisted as suspected terrorists, both of which require the authorities to obtain court warrants, the individuals in question can go to court to challenge the decisions," he said.

Among the key provisions in the new law is an article stipulating a maximum prison sentence of 15 years for anyone convicted of funding or attempting to fund terrorist activity, while conspiring with others to fund terrorist activity carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Companies convicted of similar offenses face fines of up to Rp 100 billion ($10.4 million) as well as the possibility of having their assets seized by the state, their permits rescinded or even of being dissolved.

The law also requires banks and other financial services providers, as well as the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), the government's anti-money-laundering watchdog, to be more thorough about analyzing and flagging suspicious transactions. Foreign governments can also ask Indonesian authorities to freeze the accounts of foreign individuals or companies suspected of involvement in terrorist activities.

The bill was passed into law one day after a House special committee agreed to bring it before Tuesday's session. Indonesia was one of two G-20 nations without a law preventing the funding of terrorist activities.

Terrorists seeking to break army-police unity

Antara News - February 9, 2013

Palu, Central Sulawesi – The chief of the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT), Ansyaad Mbai, said terrorists were seeking to break the military-police unity to weaken the power of law enforcers.

After closing an anti-terrorism exercise here on Saturday Mbai said that terrorists had stated that their only enemy was Polri (police) or Densus 88 (police anti-terrorist unit) and asked the military (TNI) to stay away.

He said "terrorists are the enemy of the state and so they cannot be dealt with by one institution."

He said what they said was only a tactic to break the state's power. In view of that he hoped all institutions including Polri, TNI and the government would unity to eradicate terrorism in the country.

In the past week BNPT has staged a an anti-terrorism joint exercise in Palu attended by hundreds of TNI and Polri members to increase coordination and capabilities.

The exercise included fight in an open field, defusing explosives, releasing hostages, handling victims and onlookers in an anti-terrorist operation. Code-named "Latin III" the exercise was the first held outside Java.

Sulawesi has been considered vulnerable to terrorism such as in Poso district and Makassar city. Mbai hoped through the exercise forces could get a clearer picture of various aspects in terrorism fight for finding the best method to deal with it.

Ex-BIN chief denies CIA torture link

Jakarta Post - February 9, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Former State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief AM Hendropriyono has admitted to handing over three suspected terrorists to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but said he had no knowledge of US secret operations to detain and torture suspected terrorists worldwide, in the latter's battle against terrorism.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post on Thursday, Hendropriyono said the suspected terrorists were arrested in Poso, Central Sulawesi, in 2002. The operation in Poso had nothing to do with the CIA, he said.

"We didn't get the order from the CIA. I remember that we arrested three foreign nationals who had evidently masterminded conflicts between Christians and Muslims in Poso around 2002. I finally decided to transfer the three suspects to the CIA because our own authorities, including the National Police and the House of Representatives, rejected our findings, even though we forwarded all the necessary evidence," Hendropriyono said.

A 213-page report by the New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) revealed that since 2002, Hendropriyono had aided the CIA in arresting three suspected terrorists, namely Muhammed Saad Iqbal Madni, Omar al-Faruq and Salah Nasir Salim Ali Qaru (Marwan al-Adeni), which were later transferred to other countries to be secretly detained and tortured.

Hendropriyono said that following the rejection of BIN's findings, he informed foreign intelligence agencies, including the CIA, about the arrests of the three militants. The US intelligence agency later asked BIN to extradite the suspects as they were on its wanted list.

"We didn't team up with the CIA to arrest the suspects. Each of us had our own operation. I knew that the suspects would likely walk free so I handed them to the CIA as they should've been held responsible for what they did in Poso," he said.

According to the report titled "Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition", Indonesia is one of 54 foreign governments that reportedly participated in the CIA's covert operations in which terrorist suspects were held in secret prisons and tortured during interrogation.

The countries were involved in various ways, including by hosting CIA prisons on their territories; detaining, interrogating, torturing and abusing individuals; assisting in the capture and transport of detainees; and interrogating individuals who were secretly being held in the custody of other governments.

Hendropriyono is mentioned in the report. On Jan. 9, 2002 he is said to have arrested a Pakistani-Egyptian national – Madni – in Jakarta, after Indonesian intelligence officials informed the CIA that the suspect intended to share his bomb-making skills with others.

Hendropriyono reportedly allowed Madni to be extraordinarily rendered by the CIA to Egypt, where the latter suffered torture from Egyptian interrogators.

House to summon BIN over CIA cooperation

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang and Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The House of Representatives said it would question the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) next week over a report saying Indonesia was complicit in the US Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) secret operation to detain and torture suspected terrorists worldwide following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"The publication of the report has apparently gained public attention. Thus, we will ask the BIN for explanation in a hearing slated for next week," Mahfudz Siddiq, the chairman of the House's Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs, said on Thursday.

Mahfudz said the nation's spy agency had yet to inform the commission about such a partnership with the CIA.

"We want to know details about the engagement of our intelligence body with the CIA operation because although BIN can work together with foreign agencies in a covert operation, it's wrong to torture as we have ratified the UN Convention Against Torture," Mahfudz of the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said.

Indonesia ratified the UN Convention Against Torture in October 1998, an international human rights instrument that prohibits the direct use of torture as well as the deportation of people to countries where they will evidently be tortured.

BIN Spokesperson Ruminta did not respond to The Jakarta Post's text messages or phone calls for comment.

The 213-page report by New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) showed that Indonesia had aided the CIA by arresting suspected terrorists to be extraordinarily rendered under the agency's secret detention program in the years following the 9/11 attacks.

The report, titled "Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition", revealed that the former chief of BIN, AM Hendropriyono, arrested three suspected terrorists since 2002, and allowed them to be transferred to other countries to be secretly detained and tortured.

The first known report of such a practice was on Jan. 9, 2002, when Hendropriyono allegedly arrested Muhammed Saad Iqbal Madni, a Pakistani- Egyptian national in Jakarta, after Indonesian intelligence officials passed on information to the CIA that he allegedly told members of an Indonesian Islamic group that he knew how to make a shoe bomb, an allegation he subsequently denied.

Hendropriyono also reportedly allowed Madni to be subsequently extraordinarily rendered by the CIA to Egypt, where he was held in a six-by-four foot cell and tortured by Egyptian interrogators using electric shocks. Hendropriyono was not available for comment on Thursday.

Omar al-Faruq, an al-Qaeda representative in Southeast Asia who reportedly married an Indonesian woman, was also arrested in Bogor, West Java, in 2002, and subsequently subjected to secret CIA detention at Bagram Airfield, one of the largest US military bases in Afghanistan.

The report also mentioned that Salah Nasir Salim Ali Qaru (Marwan al-Adeni) was arrested and detained in 2003 and transferred without the permission of a court or legal authority from Indonesia to Jordan, where he was tortured by Jordanian intelligence services.

Besides Indonesia, the report also revealed other 53 other foreign governments reportedly participated in these operations in various ways, including by hosting CIA prisons on their territories; detaining, interrogating, torturing and abusing individuals; assisting in the capture and transport of detainees; and interrogating individuals who were secretly being held in the custody of other governments.

In the report, the human rights watchdog also lambasted the inhumane practices, saying that torture is not only illegal and immoral but also ineffective in producing reliable intelligence.

The report cited numerous professional US interrogators who have confirmed that torture did not produce reliable intelligence, and that rapport- building techniques were far more effective in eliciting such intelligence.

Rise of the women radicals in Indonesia

Straits Times - February 8, 2013

Zubaidah Nazeer – Some Muslim women in Indonesia are stepping up to a more active role in radicalism as the country's terror cells regroup, with analysts warning the authorities to strengthen anti-terrorism measures.

Discarding their erstwhile background supporting role to the men, these women have taken to promoting pro-radical narratives online, and even offering shelter to the families of jailed terrorists, analysts say.

Radical Indonesian women have interviewed the wives of convicted terrorists, including the wife of a British Muslim extremist, and these interviews are posted on extremist websites.

The interviews were done to encourage "support for terrorist activities and raising funds," said Taufik Andrie, a researcher at the Institute for International Peace Building (YPP), who has been monitoring their activities.

One of these women writers uses the pen name "Ummu Fauzi". In an interview with the wife of Abdullah Sonata, an Indonesian jailed for 10 years for planning mass attacks targeting foreigners and high-profile targets, Ummu Fauzi wrote that her objective was to highlight the "bravery" of these wives.

Such examples show how, despite Indonesia's success in cracking down on terrorists, radical groups are finding new ways to advance their cause.

To prevent the radicals from portraying the families of convicted terrorists as suffering heroes, observers urge the authorities to include these wives and other family members in deradicalization programs. They should be provided with welfare support to break the circle of radicalism.

Taufik also came across advertisements on a radical website put up by women offering to rent out their homes to those serving the mujahideen (Islamic warriors) cause.

The International Crisis Group's senior adviser, Sidney Jones, said the Internet has helped to broadcast other roles women can play. "In general, the Internet has become a medium where women who have been restricted in other forms before can actively play a much more prominent role."

While Indonesia's counterterrorism efforts have been lauded – more than 820 terrorists captured, 80 killed to date and no major attacks since 2009 – the emergence of lone rangers and smaller home-grown groups with loose affiliations to one another have proved deadly.

These have exposed the weakness of the state's deradicalization program and lack of tougher laws to counter radical groups.

Noor Huda Ismail, a terrorism analyst and founder of the YPP, said the authorities are often too caught up with tracking the leaders of terror networks.

They forget that the groups' couriers or the wives also can play an important role. "They are the dot-connectors who play a crucial role to keep the networks going."

Voices of radical women

Ummu Fauzi, who interviewed the wives of convicted terrorists, said she did so to make radical women "realize there are other women out there who have made the sacrifice and pledge in the name of jihad."

The original interviews were done in Arabic and translated into Bahasa Indonesia before being posted on extremist Indonesian websites. Some of her interviews were with:

Madam Nusaibah, wife of Abdullah Sonata, a terrorist jailed for 10 years for planning mass attacks. "When my children see reports on their father on television, which say that their father is a terrorist, they say (while pointing to the screen), 'You are the terrorist!' to the picture of the policemen," Nusaibah said.

Madam Ruhban, another wife of Abdullah Sonata, asks radical women to "always remain firm in your support for your husband to uphold our cause."

Madam Osama, wife of Sheikh Omar Bakri, leader of a banned radical group in Britain which has ties to Al-Qaeda and who fled to Lebanon in 2005.

Freedom of religion & worship

Bekasi government targets Al-Misbah mosque in Ahmadiyah crackdown

Jakarta Globe - February 14, 2013

Camelia Pasandaran – Indonesia's beleaguered Ahmadiyah sect suffered another blow on Thursday as Bekasi's mayor announced plans to shutdown a Pondok Gede mosque as part of a city-wide crackdown on what Islamic officials have branded a "deviant" branch of Islam.

"It has been banned." Mayor Rahmat Effendi said of the sect. "We want to... prevent social clashes that will cause losses on all sides. The government needed to make a decision and stop it."

The 70-member Al-Misbah mosque, on Jalan Pangrango Terusan, has held regular prayers since it opened as Bekasi's first and only Ahmadiyah mosque in 1998. The small community had a good relationship with residents in Pondok Gede for more than a decade and continued to operate without issue after the ban was put in place more than a year ago, Imam Rahmat Rahmadijaya told the Jakarta Globe. The mosque now faces closure.

The mayor said the decision to shutdown the Ahmadiyah mosque was made to prevent future bloodshed. But Ahmadiyah officials argued that the city only took action after Islamic hard-liners announced plans to open a branch in Pondok Gede.

"The police told us that the local government wants to seal the mosque because the Islamic Defenders' Front's (FPI) Pondok Gede chapter will officially open on Friday," Rahmadijaya said.

"Their office is near our mosque. The FPI will conduct a 'tabligh akbar' [mass sermon] and then demonstrate against us to demand they close our mosque. The police told us the government wants to prevent a clash between the FPI and the Ahmadiyah."

Effendi denied the allegations. He said the city was acting in accordance with local regulations. Bekasi banned the Ahmadiyah in 2011 after receiving numerous complaints from the public, he said. "The government asked them to stop their activities, but they ignored us," he said.

Bekasi Police were standing guard outside the mosque Thursday morning. The Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) has been tasked with stopping any Ahmadiyah prayers. The mosque will remain open, Effendi said, but the Ahmadiyah can only pray there if they follow the rules of mainstream Islam and abandon their beliefs.

"They can pray," he said, "but it should be done according to [Islamic] Shariah." Rahmadijaya said the community plans to ignore the government and will reopen the mosque once the FPI leaves.

The Bekasi Police were standing by to secure the area on Thursday, intelligence division head Comr. Rully Indra said.

The Indonesian Ahmadiyah Indonesian Congregation (JAI) said the FPI set their sights on the Al-Misbah mosque a long time ago.

"After the Cikeusik attack, the Ahmadiyah mosque in Bekasi have been harassed by the FPI's East Jakarta branch," JAI spokesman Firdaus Mubarik said. "And now, they open new branch near to the mosque. I don't understand why the Bekasi government is over-reacting to the FPI's threats."

FPI spokesman Munarman could not be contacted for comment.

Two more churches hit in Makassar molotov cocktail attacks

Jakarta Globe - February 14, 2013

Farouk Arnaz – Police in Makassar, South Sulawesi, are standing guard outside churches after would-be arsonists hit two more churches in a second wave of attacks early Thursday morning.

Unknown assailants hurled homemade molotov cocktails at the South Sulawesi Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) and the Toraja Klassis Makassar Church Panakkukang Congregation in a pair of coordinated 4 a.m. attacks. Both churches suffered fire damage in the attempted firebombings, police said.

Witnesses quickly worked to extinguish the flames, but were unable to get a clear look at the perpetrators, South Sulawesi Police Spokesman Snr. Comr. Endi Sutendi said.

Investigators were gathering evidence at both locations Thursday morning. The pieces of a shattered bottle of Bintang beer police said was used in the attack was recovered at the Toraja Klassis Church. A similar bottle was found at the Indonesian Christian Church, police said.

Thursday's attempted church burnings were the second such attack in the past week. Police are now on high alert as officers search for those behind the attacks.

"We will guard all the churches in Makassar," South Sulawesi Police Chief Insp. Gen. Mudji Waluyo told the Jakarta Globe. "There are at least two officers from Sabhara [the police public order unit] openly guarding each church while another keeps a discreet eye on it. We will also install CCTV at each church."

Mudji said police will not tolerate such attacks. Police believe this second wave of attempted church burnings are related to last week's attacks.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said the attacks were likely meant to stir religious controversy in South Sulawesi. Investigators didn't find any evidence linking the attacks to known terrorist groups operating in either Poso or South Sulawesi.

Indonesia church officials face violence, jail time for conducting services

Jakarta Globe - February 14, 2013

Rebecca Lake, Sandra Siagian & Abdul Qowi Bastian – The wife of a church minister who was jailed two weeks ago for allegedly conducting a service without a permit also faces arrest for defying an order from local authorities to stop holding services at a church in Sumedang, West Java.

Minister Bernhard Maukar and his wife, Corry, were holding a service at their Pentecostal church (GPdI) in Mekargalih village, Jatinangor subdistrict, on Jan. 27, when it was attacked by members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), who claimed that the church did not have a valid permit to operate.

CCTV footage obtained by the Jakarta Globe shows details of the attack where a gang of about 50 members from the hard-line organization scaled the gates of the religious facility, caused havoc and destruction within the place of worship and physically threatened the minister – at one point using Bernhard's necktie to strangle him.

Bernhard was arrested by officials from the Sumedang Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) two days later for continuing to hold services without a valid permit, which breaks a 2005 local government law.

The minister is currently serving a three-month sentence at the Sumedang prison as he could not pay the Rp 25 million ($2,600) fine ordered by the district court.

Corry said this is the third major act of violence the FPI has inflicted upon them in the past two years.

The grandmother explained that the latest attack on the church, which has been running for 26 years, had significantly traumatized the 400-member congregation, many of whom are now too afraid to return. The FPI did not respond to the Globe's request for comments.

The arrest and imprisonment of the priest, and the final warning delivered to his wife on Tuesday, comes after countless attempts by the church to obtain the permit required to continue offering services to its congregation.

According to Corry, the church has applied for the permit and has invested a large amount of funds in the process. However, Arief Saefulloh, the Mekargalih village chief who oversees the approval of permits, claims to have lost the paperwork, Corry explained.

When the Globe contacted Arief, he reiterated that the church in question should not be considered a house of worship. "This is not a church, this is a house that is being used as a church," Arief said.

Under the 2006 joint ministerial decree, Article 28 stipulates that local leaders must help facilitate the process to obtain a permit for a house of worship. Meanwhile, Article 14 states that the religious organization requires formal support from at least 60 people from the local community.

While Corry said that the community in general supports the church, she believes that many locals are intimidated by the FPI. However, Arief claims that the local community is not behind the church.

Hafiz Utsman, the head of the West Java chapter of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), the country's highest Islamic authority, said the organization does not encourage violent attacks.

"Of course we do not condone [violent attacks]," Hafiz said, adding that he was not aware of the recent attack against Bernhard's church or of his imprisonment. "If there is a church without a permit then it's not our concern, it's the [legal] authorities' concern."

According to Human Rights Watch, which will be releasing a three-year study on religious intolerance at the end of this month, these types of inter- religious conflicts have been significantly increasing, especially on the island of Java.

Andreas Harsono, the Indonesia researcher for HRW, says the solution to such cases of violence lies in the hands of Indonesia's government and the country's lawmakers.

"The short-term solution [to the conflict] is that the government should impose a zero-tolerance policy against violence in the name of religion," Andreas said. However, according to the activist, the government has continued to ignore the issue and has failed to "respect of the rule of law in Indonesia."

Makassar church attacks meant to ignite religious tensions: Police

Jakarta Globe - February 12, 2013

Farouk Arnaz – The attempted firebombing of two Makassar churches was likely part of an attempt to spark religious tensions in South Sulawesi, the National Police said on Tuesday.

Police are searching for three men allegedly behind the attacks on two churches in Makassar early Sunday morning. The would-be arsonists threw homemade molotov cocktails at the Tiatira Malengkeri Church and the Toraja Mamasa Church of Jordan Congregation, but failed to cause any significant damage.

The front door and sign of the Toraja Mamasa Church of Jordan Congregation was burned in the attack. The Tiatira Malengkeri Church survived the attempt unscathed.

Police said the attacks were likely meant to stir religious controversy in South Sulawesi. Investigators didn't find any evidence linking the attacks to known terrorist groups operating in either Poso or South Sulawesi, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said.

"They want to pit the Christians against other groups in order to make an inconvenient situation in the society," Boy said. "This could be a horizontal conflict because they want to encourage hatred and suspicion among the people."

Boy urged local residents to avoid the temptation to point fingers and remain calm as police investigated the incidents.

Sunday's attacks came on the heels of a recent string suspected terrorist activity in Makassar – An ATM machine was torched on Jan. 20 by unknown assailants on Jalan Gunung Latimojong, in Makassar.

Days later, two terrorism suspects were gunned down during a firefight with Densus 88 members at Makassar's Wahidin Hospital. The men, Ahmad Khalil and Syamsudin HG, were allegedly involved in several other terrorist attacks in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

Church leaders thank SBY for 'religious liberty'

Jakarta Post - February 12, 2013

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won praise from worldwide leaders of the Seventh Day Adventist church who thanked him for providing "wonderful religious liberty" amid the unresolved intolerance that has plagued parts of the country.

"I specifically thank the President of Indonesia for the wonderful religious liberty that is provided to groups who live in Indonesia and we are grateful for that," Ted Wilson, the president of the general conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, told journalists after a meeting with Yudhoyono.

The meeting took place at the Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force base in East Jakarta, shortly after Yudhoyono and his delegation arrived from attending the National Press Day ceremony in Manado, North Sulawesi.

Wilson said his delegation and the President had not discussed intolerant acts and persecution that have affected minority groups in Indonesia. "We focused on trying to help in various ways without involving the church in political activities. We'd like to support the communities, the government, and specially the people, in every way that we can," said Wilson.

The Seventh Day Adventist church's South Asia Pacific president Alberto Gulfan, president for Western Indonesia Syukur Peranginangin, and president for Eastern Indonesia Noldy Sakul also attended the meeting. Yudhoyono's close aide, and senior member of his Democratic Party, TB Silalahi was also among those who attended the meeting.

During the discussion with the press, Wilson also prayed for the journalists who, he said, bore a heavy responsibility in carrying out their journalistic duties and thus needed "special wisdom from God".

"Our Father, I just ask You to give special wisdom and guidance to my journalist friends here. Give them wisdom to know how to do things in the right way and give them the capacity to accomplish their work in journalism. Thank you for their talent. Bless each of them, bless their families, and bless Indonesia. Amen," he said in the prayer.

Indonesia has witnessed numerous intolerant acts against minority religious groups such as the Ahmadiyah and Shia. The congregation of the GKI Yasmin church in Bogor, West Java, for example, has long been struggling to regain their right to use their own church which has been forcefully closed down by the local administration and Islamic radicals.

Two churches attacked in South Sulawesi

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2013

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – Religious intolerance continues to cast its dark shadow over the country as two churches in Makassar, South Sulawesi, were attacked with Molotov cocktails on Sunday morning, only a few hours before regular Sunday services commenced.

The attack on the Tiatira Church, located on Jl. Masjid Muhajirin, occurred at around 3 a.m. local time. The attack caused no damage. Meanwhile, the Toraja Mamasa Church (GTM), on Jl. Dirgantara, suffered damage to its gate and name board after unidentified people threw two Molotov cocktails at the building at around 4:15 a.m.

South Sulawesi Police spokesman Endi Sutendi said the police were seeking the perpetrators as well as the motive behind the attacks. "We are currently investigating the case. We have questioned witnesses," said Endi on Sunday, adding that no casualties were reported.

Some residents living near Tiatira Church reportedly heard an explosion, but only discovered the cause when Moses, a janitor at the church, was about to clean the church in the morning. No one appears to have seen the perpetrators.

As for the attack on Toraja Mamasa, it is reported that two witnesses saw the attack. The witnesses, Jordi and Gamaliel, said that three men rode up on motorcycles and threw Molotov cocktails at the church.

Jordi and Gamaliel called for help when the makeshift bomb set fire to the church gate and its name board. Local residents were able to put out the fire within a few minutes. "This is clearly an act of terror conducted by a number of people who intend to cause fear among residents," said Endi.

Despite the security threat, the congregations of both churches apparently remained calm as they were seen attending the Sunday services as usual.

Makassar Mayor Ilham Arief Sirajuddin and Makassar Legislative Council (DPRD) speaker Farouk Daeng Beta condemned the incidents. "These people [the perpetrators] were out to destroy the peace of Makassar for their own vested interests," said Ilham.

Farouk agreed. "The police have to immediately solve this crime before this case turns into a bigger conflict [involving religion, race and societal groups]," he said, calling on Makassar people, especially Christians, not to be easily provoked following the attacks.

Ilham urged the police to beef up the security at places of worship in anticipation of any possible security threats.

In the past few years, a number of cities throughout the country have seen bomb attacks on places of worship.

In December, 2012, a homemade bomb, that reportedly contained 500 grams of nails, was found in the backyard of Salaon Toba Catholic Church in Samosir Island, while in September 2011, 22 people were injured when a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside Sepenuh Injil Bethel Church (GBIS) in Surakarta, Central Java.

Another church under permit pressure in Indonesia

Jakarta Globe - February 11, 2013

Mikael Niman – A Christian congregation in Bekasi district has become the latest in West Java province to face opposition from local hard-line Muslims on the grounds that it lacks the necessary permit to congregate.

Some 200 people calling themselves the Tamansari Islamic People's Forum (FUIT) rallied outside the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Setu subdistrict on Sunday to block churchgoers from entering the house of worship.

The congregation was forced to hold its Sunday service on the street 30 meters away from its church, which was built in 1999.

Mela Mustofa, the FUIT chairman, said that the congregation did not have a building permit for their church and therefore should not be allowed to worship there.

He added that church officials had signed an agreement with local residents and Islamic groups last month that they would not worship at their church until they had obtained a building permit.

Authorities were on hand to keep the protest peaceful, but they did not try to disperse the hard-liners or the worshipers.

Dikdik Jasmeldi, the head of the Bekasi Public Order Agency (Satpol PP), said that his office had already issued a warning letter to the congregation for having built their church without a building permit.

"If the building doesn't have the required permit, then it's violating the regulations," he said. "At this point we can't take any action against them. We'll have to issue two more warnings before we can take action."

However, church officials argued that they had applied for a permit from the authorities since 2011, but to no avail.

"We've complied with all the requirements for the process, from the neighborhood up to the subdistrict level," said Leonard Nababan, the HKBP Setu pastor. "In fact, the local residents have even signed their approval for us to get the permit."

He called on the authorities to resolve the matter by quickly issuing the permit needed by the congregation.

Benny Saputra, the subdistrict chief, promised to decide on whether to issue the permit by the end of this month.

The HKBP Setu congregation is the latest Christian group in West Java to face opposition from locals over their presence in largely Muslim communities.

Also in Bekasi, the HKBP Filadelfia congregation has since 2007 been forced to worship on the street outside its church or in members' homes as the district administration continues to deny it a permit.

The congregation has taken the matter to the West Java State Administrative Court and the Supreme Court, both of which ordered district authorities to issue the permit and reopen the church. But the authorities have refused to comply, citing residents' opposition to the presence of the church in their midst.

In Bogor city, the GKI Yasmin congregation faces a similar pr0blem, although in its case it was awarded a permit that was promptly revoked by municipal authorities in 2006. Authorities there have also flouted two Supreme Court orders to allow the congregation to worship in its church.

In neighboring Bogor district, the St. Johannes Baptista Catholic congregation has been barred since last August from worshiping in its empty lot. Members have held services there since 2006 because local authorities have still not issued them a building permit that they applied for in 2000.

Makassar church targeted in firebomb attempt

Jakarta Globe - February 10, 2013

Farouk Arnaz – Police are investigating a Sunday morning arson attempt on a church in Makassar, South Sulawesi, after three people hurled molotov cocktails at the facade in a botched attack, police said.

Portions of Toraja Mamasa Church of Jordan Congregation, in Panakukkang, Makassar, caught fire early Sunday morning. The church's sign and front door were damaged in the attack.

"The witnesses... saw three people riding on two motorcycles come from the north," National Police Spokesman Insp. Gen. Suhardi Alius said. "They stopped in front of the church and threw two molotov cocktails before they fled the scene to the south."

Panakkukang Police recovered the remains of the molotov cocktails, Suhardi said. Several police officers remained on location Sunday afternoon.

Suhardi declined to say whether this case was connected to other recent acts of terrorism in Makassar.

An ATM machine was torched on Jan. 20 by unknown assailants on Jalan Gunung Latimojong, in Makassar – Two other terrorism suspects were gunned down during a January firefight with Densus 88 members at Makassar's Wahidin Hospital.

The men, Ahmad Khalil and Syamsudin HG, were allegedly involved in several other terrorist attacks in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

Shariah law & morality

Police turn up the heat on immoral behavior in pre-Valentine's day raids

Jakarta Globe - February 14, 2013

Couples across Indonesia had their pre-Valentine's Day plans interrupted on Wednesday as police and public order officers raided parks, hotel rooms and cemeteries in a campaign against immoral activity.

Late-night lovers were sent scrambling for their motorbikes in Bogor, West Java, after the local Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) raided eight parks, according to reports on Okezone.com. The couples were charged with disturbing public order and causing societal unrest before they were taken to the Bogor social agency for education, Bogor Satpol PP chief Hendi Iskandar said.

The teens were released to their parents' custody. "Some were sent back to their parents," Hendi told Sindonews.com. "The rest were taken to a rehabilitation house." Officers also arrested several prostitutes in the raids, he added.

In Bojonegoro, East Java, police raided every hotel room in the city, arresting eight couples accused of adultery, according to Bharatanews.com. The officers reportedly barged in on the couples as they were engaged in "amorous encounters."

A 25-year-old prison warden was arrested and charged with committing adultery with a 19-year-old woman in a rented house. A civil servant was also nabbed in the raid when police caught the 37-year-old with a woman in a hotel room. He allegedly told police the woman was his sister, but they didn't believe him.

The couples were taken to the police station and ordered to write a statement promising they wouldn't do it again. Adultery is illegal under Article 284 of the Criminal Code and is punishable by a maximum of nine months in jail.

In Kendiri, East Java, the military joined the police and Satpol PP on the raids, scouring a Chinese cemetery, a sports center and the hillside for amorous couples, according to reports on Inilah.com.

"There is also a new place for late-night trysts," the Kendiri Satpol PP's Djati Utomo explained. "The Sumber Jiput [water resevior] in the Ngronggo urban ward."

Students in Solo, Riau say 'No' to Valentine's Day

Jakarta Post - February 14, 2013

Kusumasari Ayuningtyas, Surakarta – Nearly 500 elementary school students in Surakarta, Central Java, joined a march to the city's Manahan Stadium on Wednesday in protest against Muslim youths partaking in Valentine's Day celebrations, arguing that doing so was against Islamic teaching.

Some 30 teachers accompanied the students at the rally in the city, which is also known as Solo. The students ranged from first to sixth graders of Al Fattah Islamic elementary school.

They stopped at the southern gate of the stadium where some of the fifth and sixth graders gave speeches while younger students colored papers bearing messages saying "no" to Valentine's Day, which is celebrated every Feb. 14.

"We took the students to join the rally in a bid to remind them not to fall into Valentine's Day moments," one of the teachers, Setiyatno, said on the sidelines of the march.

He said that the Valentine's Day tradition among youths was no longer just about giving away chocolates but had gone further, despite the fact that they were unmarried couples.

This, according to Setiyatno, could damage the morality of Muslim youths, especially if they wanted to physically express their feelings toward each other.

"What we see in reality is that youths increasingly have no limits when celebrating Valentine's Day," said Setiyatno who teaches Islam at the school.

The rally was the fourth held in Surakarta and had in the past been conducted as a reminder for students not to practice something that brought more bad things than good, Setiyatno went on.

"We deliberately give them an early warning so that they will not be plunged into non-Islamic traditions in the future," he said.

Fifth grader Khodir, who delivered a speech during the event, said that Valentine's Day must not be celebrated by Muslims because according to Islamic teaching, unmarried couples were not even allowed to touch each other.

In his speech, Khodir said that Valentine's Day not a day of celebration for Muslims.

Separately in Pekanbaru, Riau Islands, Mayor Ayat Cahyadi instructed all schools in his jurisdiction to apply tight controls and to ban their students from celebrating Valentine's Day.

"The young generation must be protected so that its does not fall into promiscuity and vice," Ayat said on Wednesday.

Valentine's Day, according to Ayat, was in contrast to the culture of people from the east. He said the eve of Valentine's Day was always celebrated with negative activities. "Don't get influenced by a culture that is not ours," he said.

He also called on parents to control their childrens' social relationships and to teach them that love was sacred and holy. "Showing love does not necessarily have to be done only on Feb. 14," he said.

Ayat also asked the city's public order officers (Satpol PP) to cooperate with local police to keep an eye on hotels in Pekanbaru on the eve of Valentine's Day.

The move received support from the chairman of the local Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Ilyas Husti, who said that Islamic teaching forbade promiscuity and out of wedlock relationships. "It's haram," he said.

He added that Islamic teaching did not forbid affection as long as it did not violate sharia law. "Valentine's Day celebrations have led to the channeling of lust between unmarried couples," Ilyas said.

Promiscuity, he said, could lead to unwanted pregnancies out of wedlock. "The impact will not just be on them but also on the whole community," he said.

As Valentine's Day returns, so does resistance

Jakarta Globe - February 13, 2013

SP/Lawrence Dami – The deputy mayor of Depok has called on residents, especially younger people, to not celebrate Valentine's Day on Thursday, as he believed people misinterpret the meaning of the celebration.

"Many people translate Valentine's Day as expressing [love] to their lover," Idrus Abdul Somad said on Tuesday as quoted by Tempo.co. "Therefore please forbid your children from celebrating Valentine's Day."

Idris said that parents should instead take their children to religious events during Valentine's Day such as celebrating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. "Those who love the disciple are good people," Idrus added.

Raden Salamun Adiningrat, the secretary of the Depok chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Islamic organization, also called on Muslims to not celebrate the day. "Valentine's Day is often misunderstood by teenagers as the moment to express love and affection which ends up to a sex party," Raden explained.

On Tuesday, dozens of youth from the Gempita Indonesian Young Counsellor Association rallied against the celebration of Valentine's Day in Serang in the Banten province. The protestors called the celebration a chance for students to misuse the day to have sex.

"We firmly reject Valentine's Day," said Taufik El-Bantani, coordinator of the rally, in Serang on Tuesday. The group also collected 1,000 signatures from students and teenagers who rejected the celebration.

"We are really concerned because one out of four teenagers in Indonesia commit to premarital sex. That proves 62.7 percent of female teenagers have lost their virginity," Taufik said. "On Feb. 14, which is known as Valentine's day, we advise teenagers not to celebrate it, because many teenagers have sex during that day."

Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), the country's highest Islamic authority, last year declared that celebrating Valentine's Day was haram, or forbidden, under Islam.

"Valentine's Day is a western culture and against Muslim culture," said Amidhan, the head of the MUI. "Islam teaches people to maintain communication and affection to others all days, not necessarily on Valentine's Day."

Edicts issued by the MUI carry no legal authority whatsoever and are generally meant as a form of public guidance.

Land & agrarian conflicts

Indonesia pushes for amendment addressing land disputes

Jakarta Globe - February 14, 2013

The House of Representatives is pushing for an amendment to the 43-year-old Agrarian Law, saying that the regulation is no longer relevant and has paved the way for numerous civilian conflicts linked to land disputes.

Abdul Hakam Naja, deputy chairman of House Commission II, which overseas home and agrarian affairs, said that one crucial issue that needs to be updated in the 1960 law is the mechanism for land dispute resolutions.

"The agrarian bill is the initiative of the Commission II and has been formulated since 2012. The bill, if passed into law, will replace as well as update the 1960 Agrarian Law, which is no longer relevant to solving the land issues of today," he said.

Land disputes in Indonesia often take a violent turn resulting in bloody clashes between civilians and law enforcers. The Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) earlier reported that there were 198 conflicts linked to land disputes last year, resulting in at least 25 farmers being shot and three killed.

Abdul said the proposed amendment also needs to be in line with related laws passed after the Agrarian Law, like the laws on agriculture, forestry, mining and land provision for state infrastructure projects.

"There are many conflicts linked to land disputes in a number of areas and these usually involve the local communities and plantation owners, mining concession holders or other institutions," the National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker said.

"There needs to be an agrarian law which offers solutions to these kinds of situations. The [proposed] Agrarian Law will function as a bridge linking these sectorial laws, especially on land-related issues."

The House is also seeking more proportionate land use in the concessions given to companies and local communities with the proposed amendment in the hopes it will stem future violence as well as help further the development of local economies.

"This is what we are trying to formulate in our deliberation of the bill, so there will be regulatory uniformity on all concessions. In the future, [concessions] will not be given just based on a ministerial decree," he said.

"By just relying on a ministerial decree, the rules can easily be bent. If a minister is given full authority to manage concessions, private companies may end up controlling hundreds of thousands of hectares of land. This is against the principles of justice."

But the bill will give the government authority to take over abandoned or neglected properties and convert them to housing projects for low income families.

"With the new agrarian bill we will ensure that farmers and local communities can optimize the use of their own land," he said.

Earlier some academics warned that land disputes will again be rampant as next year's election draws near.

"The easiest way to get money for elections is by granting licenses without control," said Myrna A. Safitri, executive director of forest research group the Epistema Institute.

"We know that one of the bad consequences of granting these licenses is that they don't do private consultation and don't act with the consent of the communities."

The academics petitioned President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to review all laws and regulations pertaining to the use of natural resources, and for the head of the National Land Agency to reassess the legitimacy of land rights granted to enterprises now in conflict with local communities.

Land Acquisition Law in line with the Constitution: Court

Jakarta Post - February 14, 2013

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The Constitutional Court upheld on Wednesday the 2011 Land Acquisition Law, which is seen as crucial to removing hurdles that have long impeded key infrastructure projects.

The law, passed in December 2011, was expected to resolve conflicts that have often delayed public infrastructure projects.

The court ruled that the law did not violate the Constitution or the rights of the public. "The court rejects the request," presiding justice Achmad Sodiki said when delivering the ruling on Wednesday.

The judicial review request was filed by the Coalition of People Against Land Acquisition, which consists of 14 civil society groups, including the Indonesian Farmers Association (SPI), the Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice and the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).

The plaintiffs requested that the court annul nine articles of the law they said would allow the government to seize people's land in the name of public interests, while in fact, the move only catered to business interests.

They argued that the law did not provide a clear definition of public interest, which opened the law to abuse and showed that the law was "never intended to put land reform forward as a public interest".

The coalition claimed the law accommodated the interests of the government and businesspeople, without necessarily reflecting the interest of the people. They said toll roads, luxury housing and mines were only accessible to and for the benefit of a group of businesspeople.

The court however disagreed. "Toll roads are made to smooth the transportation of people and goods. Although, according to the plaintiffs, those cannot be accessed by some, the entire community will eventually enjoy the benefit, directly or indirectly," justice Harjono said.

He added that the government could serve the public interest with its policies, such as fixing the rates for the toll roads.

The court also concluded that the law indeed protected the public interest as it stipulated stages and processes for taking over the use of land from the public or the owners.

The plaintiffs previously argued that under the law, the government did not involve the public or the party entitled to the land in the land acquisition planning process, saying they only involved the parties that sought to take over the land.

The court rejected the plaintiffs' argument that there was no clear definition of public interest in Article 9 Paragraph 1 of the law.

The court, however, argued that such ambiguity could be overcome by issuing supporting regulations to provide a clearer definition to ensure that it would not be used to cater the interests of the few.

The law aims to speed up the settlement of legal problems resulting from land acquisition. Under the law, all legal proceedings pertinent to land acquisition for a government-commissioned infrastructure project should be completed within 436 working days at the most.

The law, however, also allows a more democratic process by providing a 60- day public consultation period before acquiring land.

If members of the public disagree with the proposed land acquisition plan, they can appeal to the State Administrative Court (PTUN), which is then required to issue a ruling in no more than 30 days. Should the public remain dissatisfied with the ruling, there is a 14-day period to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Academics urge SBY to resolve agrarian conflicts

Jakarta Globe - February 8, 2013

Hayley Davis – Academics have called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to resolve agrarian conflicts and prevent indigenous land rights being compromised by upcoming elections.

An expert group of researchers, policy makers and scientists have presented a petition directly to the president in what they are calling "An Academic Movement on Agrarian Justice."

The petition included recommendations for stricter regulation of licensing, immediate action to resolve land disputes and the direct involvement of relevant ministers in the administration of land tenure and resource-use laws.

Speaking at an forum hosted by forest research group the Epistema Institute on Thursday, the group's executive director Myrna A. Safitri said indigenous communities were particularly vulnerable during election campaigns as political parties vie for support from big businesses.

"The easiest way to get money for elections is by granting licenses without control," she said. "We know that one of the bad consequences of granting these licenses is that they don't do private consultation and don't act with the consent of the communities."

The petition, signed by over 100 academics and professors from universities across Indonesia, asked the president to observe Decree No. 9, passed by the People's Consultative Assembly in 2001, that committed the government to agrarian reform.

The group also requested that the president order the justice and human rights minister to review all laws and regulations pertaining to the use of natural resources, and that the head of the National Land Agency reassess the legitimacy of land rights granted to enterprises now in conflict with local communities.

Myrna, speaking on behalf of the group, said the recent presidential decree on the handling of internal conflicts did not adequately protect land owners and fishermen and that the superior powers the decree grants the military and police in these situations could obstruct the administration of justice.

"This instruction is not focused on land disputes and there isn't a desire for corrective action addressing the roots of the conflicts," she said. "It doesn't involve the ministers related to land, energy or natural resources. We also ask the president to instruct the head of police and the head of the military to go through due process when dealing with violent incidents."

Soeryo Adiwibowo, the chair of the department of community development at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, said the government should consider the issue in light of sustainable development.

"Investors now realize land rights are insecure in Indonesia," he said. "This isn't good news for investors who are wanting to do business here for the next 30 years if the land at the basis of their investment is insecure."

The Consortium for Agrarian Reform reported that 156 farmers had been arrested for protesting without any investigation into their disputes, while 25 farmers were shot and three killed across Indonesia as a result of agrarian violence.

Parliament & legislation

Ibas in a spot over attendance

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang and Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – After getting away with skipping House of Representatives' sessions, Democratic Party lawmaker and a son of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Edhie "Ibas" Baskoro Yudhoyono, has finally been caught out for his absence from the House.

Ibas' failure to appear for a plenary session on Tuesday caused an uproar as it blatantly showed his disregard for his House duties.

Poor attendance by lawmakers is one of several problems that the House struggles with, in addition to poor legislative performance and overseas visits that are considered unnecessary. It is common practice among lawmakers to sign the list of attendance but remain absent from House sessions.

During Tuesday's plenary meeting, for instance, the list of attendance recorded 327 of the total 560 lawmakers, but no more than 250 lawmakers could be counted in the hall.

To improve discipline among lawmakers, the House installed fingerprint scanners worth Rp 279 million (US$29,295) last year to help prevent absenteeism. In spite of the scanners, however, the House's secretariat general still requires lawmakers to sign the attendance list to improve their discipline.

On Tuesday, Ibas duly arrived at the House compound but the presidential guards fetched the list of attendance, allowing him to sign it outside without going through the door where the list is usually signed.

Unlike most lawmakers, who enter the plenary hall by the front entrance and sign the attendance list, Ibas was spotted cautiously arriving from behind the plenary room with his aides and presidential guards at around 10:30 a.m., 30 minutes before the session was due to begin.

While waiting for the attendance list to be brought to him, Ibas was spotted waiting near an elevator at the left wing of the plenary hall. Ibas left shortly after signing the attendance list and giving a brief response to questions from journalists.

Responding to the incident, House ethics committee chairman M. Prakosa said a probe would be launched to determine whether Ibas had broken any rules or regulations.

"It's unethical for him to do something like that. It's also wrong for anybody to assist him with an irregular registration process. We provide room for members to register themselves. We'll look further into the matter," he said.

Democratic Party executives defended Ibas, the party's secretary-general, arguing that he should be allowed to circumvent House rules given his many duties as a senior party official. Democratic Party deputy chairman Max Sopacua, blamed the media for "sensationalizing" their reports of the incident.

"I think we don't need to criticize it too much. He is a secretary-general and a member of the high council [of the Democratic Party]. He has a lot of things to do. He called me earlier this morning to ask me to join him to prepare a national meeting for the party's leaders," Max said.

This is not the first time Ibas has skipped House sessions. He has rarely been seen at meetings of House Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs, for which he is a registered member.

The leader of the Democratic Party faction at the House, Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, said the House had no procedures on how lawmakers should register themselves for a session. Nurhayati merely pointed out that Ibas was not the only lawmaker who often missed sessions.

"Don't judge him [based on one incident]. What about the other lawmakers who have done the same thing? You have to be fair. Don't blow this out of proportion just because he's Ibas," Nurhayati said.

Separately, David Christian, one of Ibas' aides, said that "there has been misunderstanding" and that Ibas had not flouted any rules. "Mas Ibas attended a plenary session last week. We must also keep in mind that attendance at House plenary meetings is recorded by finger print scanners," David said in a statement.

Judicial review seeks to end house role

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2013

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Activists and legal analysts grouped under the Civil Society Coalition for a Professional Judiciary filed a judicial review with the Constitutional Court on Tuesday to scrap the House of Representatives' role in the selection process of Supreme Court justices.

The coalition filed for a review of Article 8 paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the 2009 Supreme Court Law, as well as Article 18 paragraph 4 and Article 19 paragraph 1 of the 2011 Judicial Commission Law.

The articles set the ratio of three justice candidates for each post and gives authority to the House to select the justices instead of simply giving them the role of approving or rejecting candidates on the list.

Under the 2011 Law, the Judicial Commission is tasked with assessing, selecting and later forwarding the quota of candidates to the House.

"The Judicial Commission is bound to meet the ratio [three candidates per position] as stipulated in that provision [in the 2011 Judicial Commission Law]," Erwin Natosmal Oemar of the coalition said on Tuesday.

"And later, the quota chosen gives options to the House to choose one from each of the three candidates nominated by the commission."

Refki Saputra of the Indonesian Legal Roundtable said the current justice selection mechanism violated the independence of the judiciary.

"The Constitution stipulates that the House has the authority only to approve the recommended candidates instead of selecting from them," he said, referring to Article 24 A Paragraph 3 which stipulates that justice candidates are recommended by the commission to the House for approval.

He said the House modelled their role on the mechanism for selecting the Bank Indonesia governor, the National Police chief and the Indonesian Military chief.

"The main problem is that the role of the House is still vital here. We believe it could easily lead to politicization of the selection, which could result in the selection of poor quality justices," he added.

The coalition however rejected criticism that the new mechanism they were proposing would be worse as it would abolish the role of the House as the final gatekeeper in the process.

Refki argued that under the proposed mechanism, the House could reject a candidate proposed by the commission, but only if they had sufficient grounds.

Commission spokesman Asep Rahmat Fajar said the Judicial Commission would respect the outcome of the judicial review whatever it might be. Asep said the commission appreciated the efforts of the coalition to improve the selection mechanism.

Asep said the commission, which has admitted it had made a mistake in selecting Muhammad Daming Sunusi, a candidate who joked about rape during the House selection process, was troubled by the existing rules.

"With the 3:1 ratio, it's hard to get good candidates. As we all know several times we have been unable to meet the quota required by the Supreme Court as we have chosen instead to focus on candidate quality rather than trying to meet the quota," Asep said.

Asep added that the Judicial Commission would also be prepared to appear at the Constitutional Court hearing.

Social security & welfare

Stakeholders at odds over premiums for social security

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2013

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Stakeholders of the social security scheme are at odds over the amount of insurance premium contributions they should pay for the five mandatory national social security programs, expected to take effect by January 2014.

Details from the draft regulations prepared by the government and the National Social Security Board (DJSN) have included a proposal for premiums of 23.7 percent to be paid jointly by workers and their employers for the five mandatory programs while state-owned insurance company PT Jamsostek, which is mandated to carry out the four labor social security programs, proposed a 25 percent joint contribution from workers and their employers.

Employers and workers have voiced their differences over the amount of premiums proposed by the government. Employers insisted they could only pay less than the amount stated while labor unions are yet to reach a decision on the amount they are willing to contribute.

The Confederation of All-Indonesian Workers Union (KSPSI), Confederation of Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (KSBSI) and a splinter camp of the KSPSI have made the demand for premiums to be paid by employers.

Muchtar Luthfie, secretary-general of the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry tasked to draw up government and presidential regulations on the four labor social security schemes, said the differences in demands from multiple stakeholders had caused confusion.

"Several tripartite meetings held in the past few months have failed to agree to a compromise and whatever the government decides – it will be met with strong protests," Muchtar said recently.

He said that all government and presidential regulations mandated by the Social Security System Law and insurers law must be ready this month, before endorsement in October.

Jamsostek's director Elvyn G. Masassya said both employers and workers must pay more for the old-age risk and pension scheme premium.

Elvyn said that the proposal was made after consulting International Labor Organization conventions as well looking at other countries like the Philippines, South Korea, Malaysia and Germany.

He also said that Jamsostek would provide a fixed amount of benefits on the occupational accident and death schemes 'as the current insurance provider'. Workers would also receive the old-age risk and pension benefits plus yields from their deposit investment.

"We will also provide additional benefits such as mortgage credits, low- cost flats and scholarships," he said. He also said Jamsostek would set up three additional main branch offices in three provinces to improve its service for workers.

Currently, the company operates branch offices in 497 regencies and municipalities and desks in industrial areas. Elvyn said he is convinced that with the existing resources Jamsosek would be prepared to provide world-class social security services.

A member of DJSN, Djoko Heryono, said vulnerable groups, including the poor, would not be registered for the four occupational social security programs relating to financial difficulties.

Djoko said that under Government Regulation No. 101/2012 on cash aid recipients, vulnerable groups would be registered for the national healthcare program to be paid for by the government. The government has proposed Rp 22,500 (US$2.2) as minimum premium for the vulnerable group's healthcare program under which they would be eligible to receive Grade III medicare services at general hospitals appointed by the government.

As for workers in the informal sector, the government has proposed premiums ranging from Rp 27,000 for Grade III health service, Rp 40,000 for Class II service and Rp 50,000 for Class I service.

Intelligence & state security

New security regulation gives TNI greater role in regional politics

Kompas - February 13, 2013

Jakarta – Presidential Instruction Number 2/2013 on The Handling of Domestic Security Disturbances is easily subject to misuse by regional heads for their own political interests. This is because regional governments themselves are often the cause of horizontal conflicts.

This view was conveyed by Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace researcher Abdul Khoir in Jakarta on Tuesday February 12. Khoir said that protected behind the predicate that a region is experiencing a domestic disturbance, regional heads can mobilise the national police and the TNI (Indonesian military).

During the election of regional heads for example, candidates who are currently in power or incumbents could use the presidential instruction (inpres) as legal justification to mobilise the police and military for their political interests.

In addition to this, said Khoir, regional governments are often the cause and contribute to social conflicts. "Like the Indonesian Christian Church case [in Bogor] for example, the regional head has openly refused to follow a Supreme Court decision [allowing the congregation to build a church]", he said.

Setara Institute chairperson Hendardi said that the inpres gives the TNI a much greater role in handling regional conflicts. This is of concern because there are many rogue military officers who are part of conflicts, such as when they are employed as security personnel at plantations and mine sites. "Before it wasn't official, with this inpres it becomes legitimate", said Hendardi.

Both Hendardi and Setara Institute deputy chairperson Bonar Tigor Naipospos doubt the effectiveness of the inpres. The reason being, according to Hendardi, because it fails to address the substance of conflicts, namely the problem of legal process and the government's failure to support religious freedom and traditional land rights.

The Coordinating Minister for Politics, Legal and Security Affairs, Djoko Suyanto, has stated that there are no grounds for it to be said that the inpres provides an opportunity for the TNI to enter the domain of civil life, or provide the TNI with unlimited powers, let alone have the potential to cause massive human rights violations.

The inpres was issued in order to safeguard the creation of favourable social, legal and security conditions domestically in order to support the continuity of national development.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Djoko Suyanto issues circular on regional security teams

Jakarta Globe - February 8, 2013

Ezra Sihite – Following up on a presidential instruction issued last month on the handling of domestic security disturbances, a minister said on Friday that he had issued a circular mandating the establishment of regional security teams across the country.

"As coordinating minister, I have already sent circulars to heads of regions to form an integrated team in their respective regions," said Djoko Suyanto, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs.

The minister said he would leave the composition of the teams to regional heads to decide, since the nature of the security environment varied from region to region.

The teams would give primary command to local authorities in the region and would coordinate with police and the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI).

Djoko said the circulars were sent last weekend and added that next week, a team from his ministry would tour the regions to see that the instructions were being implemented. "The instruction was only circulated last week, we certainly need to socialize it," Djoko said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Jan. 28 issued an executive order allowing for closer cooperation between TNI, police and local officials to prevent and manage communal conflicts. It was followed briefly thereafter by an agreement between TNI and police officials that allows military personnel to deploy to conflict-prone areas without the consent of police or civilian authorities.

The agreement between TNI and police reportedly allows military personnel deployed for internal security purposes to act independently of civilian authority, giving rise to worries that it could roll back more than a decade of reforms to the military aimed at bringing it under civilian control.

Yudhoyono has defended the executive order as a tool for addressing the series of social conflicts and communal violence that has plagued the country. The government has been criticized for failing to properly handle security in several such incidents.

Mining & energy

Indonesia's dream for more oil refineries hits government intransigence

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2013

Amahl S. Azwar, Jakarta – Indonesia needs to build more oil refineries to ensure its future energy security. However, the government has yet to provide fiscal incentives to woo foreign investors to jump-start the construction of fuel processing plants.

Pertamina president director Karen Agustiawan said on Tuesday that the state-run oil and gas firm was still waiting for the government to approve requests from its two partners, Kuwait Petroleum and Saudi Aramco, over incentives for two refinery projects.

"The problem lies with the feasibility studies from the third parties on fiscal incentives. We have presented the proposals to the government and we are still awaiting approval," she said.

In collaboration with its two respective partners, Pertamina plans to build two fuel refineries, each with a production capacity of 300,000 barrels per day (bpd). Both refineries, requiring a combined investment of around US$20 billion, are expected to boost refined fuel supplies in the country.

Pertamina and Kuwait Petroleum's joint refinery will be built in Balongan, West Java, near the former company's existing refinery. In 2011, the two firms signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to build the fuel refinery, the crude oil of which will be provided by Kuwait Petroleum.

Meanwhile, the refinery to be built in cooperation with Saudi Aramco will be located in Tuban, East Java.

According to the latest report, however, Pertamina might move the location of the refineries to Bontang, East Kalimantan, due to land acquisition difficulties.

Both the foreign firms have demanded incentives in the form of an increase in the price of crude oil supplied to the refineries by 15 percent from the benchmark price provided by Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), as well as the import duty on their oil supply.

The latter means that both investors rejected the idea of having other oil producers supplying crude oil to their respective fuel refineries.

In an interview with The Jakarta Post last December, Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said his office was preparing to provide incentives for investment in sectors such as basic metal processing or smelters, renewable energy and refineries. He said the incentives would take the form of tax holidays.

The Finance Ministry's interim fiscal agency chief Bambang Brodjonegoro said on Tuesday that the ministry was still studying the proposals from both Kuwait Petroleum and Saudi Aramco.

Oil and gas players in general perceive the sizeable investment needed to build refineries will not meet their desired internal rate of return (IRR). At present, the average IRR in the refinery business is 10 percent.

Indonesia has not built a new refinery since 1994, when Pertamina built a refinery in Balongan, West Java. Pertamina currently has six refineries across the country that produce between 600,000 and 700,000 bpd of refined fuels. These refineries are located in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan; Balongan, West Java; Cilacap, Central Java; Dumai, Riau; Kasim, West Papua; and Plaju, South Sumatra.

Indonesia, which resigned from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2008 after becoming a net oil importer, imports around 60 percent of its total fuel supplies to meet the daily demand of 1.3 million bpd.

This situation affects the country's state budget as the lack of capacity of domestic refineries to process crude oil means the country must import both refined fuels and crude oil.

Separately, the deputy director of Jakarta-based energy sector think tank ReforMiner Institute, Komaidi Notonegoro, criticized the Finance Ministry for prolonging the process, adding that one of the keys to cutting fuel imports was to encourage the construction of new refineries.

"On the one hand, the Finance Ministry whines about the fact that we keep on importing fuel, but on the other it doesn't provide incentives to woo investors," he said.

Economy & investment

Indonesia's 2012 current account deficit at 2.7% of GDP

Reuters - February 13, 2013

Jakarta – Indonesia's current account deficit in 2012 was 2.7 percent of gross domestic product, wider than the initial target of 2.4 percent, the central bank said on Wednesday.

The full year's current account deficit was $24.18 billion, compared with a surplus of $1.7 billion in 2011, as exports from Southeast Asia's largest economy fell while imports surged, giving the country its first-ever trade deficit.

The current account deficit in the fourth quarter was $7.76 billion, Bank Indonesia said, which it said was equivalent to 3.6 percent of GDP.

Worries about trade and current account deficits have raised concerns among investors and pressured the rupiah, making it the worst performing emerging Asian market currency last year.

Bank Indonesia said the country's balance of payments in 2012 had a surplus of $165 million, down from $11.9 billion the previous year. In the fourth quarter, the balance of payments had a $3.2 billion surplus.

The central bank said this week it expects the current account to improve in the first quarter of this year, as exports are seen picking up with an economic recovery in major markets such as China and the United States.

Indonesia News Digest 6 – February 8-14, 2013

Indonesia Islam leaders stir row over Chinese New Year

Agence France Presse - February 10, 2013

Slank challenges national police law

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2013

NZ FM McCully snubs West Papuan, points to relationship with Indonesia

New Zealand Herald - February 12, 2013

Breaking the AIDS curse

Sydney Morning Herald - February 9, 2013

Indonesian navy to establish primary base in Papua

Antara News - February 8, 2013

Lawmakers to appoint Komnas HAM chair if dispute continues

Jakarta Globe - February 12, 2013

Tribunal may aim at Prabowo

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2013

NGOs call Komnas HAM turnover 'suspicious'

Jakarta Post - February 9, 2013

One Billion Rising dance action in Surabaya protests violence against women

Merdeka.com - February 14, 2013

[Translated by James Balowski.]

V Day action in Semarang calls for end to violence against women

Kompas - February 14, 2013

[Translated by James Balowski.]

One Billion Rising activists in Yogya to dance against rape and violence

Kompas.com - February 13, 2013

[Translated by James Balowski.]

900,000 workers to lose jobs

Jakarta Post - February 14, 2013

Government has no right to ban women from working abroad

Antara News - February 12, 2013

PKS installs new House deputy speaker after graft scandal

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2013

PPP reaches pact with PKNU in bid to build Islamic party alliance

Jakarta Globe - February 12, 2013

Alie: SBY power play aimed to save 'poor Anas' from media onslaught

Jakarta Globe - February 11, 2013

SBY's party takeover gets mixed reviews

Jakarta Globe - February 11, 2013

SBY takes over Dems leadership

Jakarta Post - February 9, 2013

West Java gubernatorial hopefuls set tall order with lofty promises

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2013

Press in danger of politicians' control ahead of election

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2013

Journalists tested on knowledge of Islam

Jakarta Post - February 10, 2013

SBY orders Lapindo to fully compensate mudflow victims

Jakarta Globe - February 14, 2013

Aceh governor wants to allow more logging in protected forests: Report

Jakarta Globe - February 13, 2013

As Anis packs, House leaders talk polygamy

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2013

After Aceng scandal, calls to revise laws on polygamy

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2013

Indonesian official accuses Australia of human rights abuses

ABC ABC Radio Australia - February 12, 2013

Indonesian youths to sue Australia for illegal detention

Agence France Presse - February 12, 2013

Indonesia beef imports rife with corruption

Straits Times - February 14, 2013

KPK finds irregularities in all provinces

Jakarta Post - February 14, 2013

Antigraft commission cracks under powerful political pressure

Jakarta Post - February 14, 2013

More questions than answers from 'Prince of Cikeas' business interests

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2013

KPK in difficult position over Anas, following leak

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2013

[Ina Parlina contributes to this story.]

Three KPK commissioners sign draft naming Anas a suspect, says official

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2013

Pork and rat meat, not beef, discussed by Luthfi and Minister: Lawyer

Jakarta Globe - February 12, 2013

Beef import scam involved 12 companies, Rp 546b in state losses: Dradjad

Jakarta Globe - February 11, 2013

KPK leaves Anas in limbo

Jakarta Post - February 9, 2013

Indonesia passes law to stop terrorism funding

Jakarta Globe - February 12, 2013

Terrorists seeking to break army-police unity