Another regional chapter of the country's highest Islamic authority has taken issue with the hosting of the Miss World pageant in Bogor later this year, adding to the outcry by conservatives against the event.

The East Java branch of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) said on Sunday that it would send a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to demand that the beauty pageant, to be held at the Sentul International Convention Center on Sept. 28, be scrapped.

"Indonesia shouldn't have anything to do with such an event," Abdusommad Bukhori, the provincial MUI chief, said as quoted by Detik.com. "We want to advise the president not to allow it. The MUI's rejection [of the pageant] has been echoed by other Islamic organizations in East Java."

He argued that although the pageant would take place in West Java, the East Java MUI still felt compelled to speak out against it.

"Indonesia is a Muslim country [sic], and the event is meant to be held in Bogor, which has a lot of Islamic schools that have already voiced their rejection of it," Abdusommad said. "We have a hard time nurturing Muslims to become better people, and now everything's being mixed up."

He also hinted at a violent response to the event if the organizers proceeded to host it in Bogor.

"We want to build a country of morals, not one of hedonism," he said. "Don't let there be conflict arising from this. End it now while there's still time."

The East Java MUI's call echoes that by the West Java chapter of the clerical council, which earlier this month claimed that the pageant would "certainly hurt and sully Indonesia's Muslim community."

Mukri Aji, the provincial MUI chairman, said the beauty contest was just an excuse to flaunt body parts that should remain covered, adding that it was also impolite and against local religious norms.

The Bogor chapter of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, a hard-line Islamic group, also voiced its opposition to the pageant and called for it to be moved elsewhere.

West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan, who enjoys strong backing from the province's conservative Islamic groups, has countered that the show should go ahead, as long as there is no bikini category.

"This Miss World event is different with other similar events as during the grand final [the finalists] won't wear a bikini," Ahmad said in early April as quoted by Antaranews.com. "God willing, it will be more polite."

In 2007, an Islamic fundamentalist group in Bandung forced a Miss Universe pageant winner to call off a charity event there. The protesters argued that the beauty queen, Japanese national Riyo Mori, went "against Shariah" law and was a "symbol of the world's adultery and pornography."

An organizer of the charity event said that Mori suffered "psychological stress following a strong protest and decided to stay in her hotel" where the event was supposed to take place.

Liliana Tanoesoedibjo, the chairwoman of the Miss Indonesia organization, said it had taken three years of intense lobbying to convince the Miss World management to choose Indonesia as a host.

While the grand final will take place in Sentul, participants will also take part in activities around Jakarta and Bali.

Basuki denies calling Pluit residents 'communists'

Jakarta Globe - April 26, 2013

Lenny Tristia Tambun – Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has denied allegations made by a non-government organization that he labelled residents living alongside the Pluit dam as communists.

"I did not scold them and I certainly did not call them communists," Basuki said on Friday.

Basuki recently said that during a visit from an NGO, the organization had demanded the city give land to people living near the dam, which burst in January causing heavy flooding in the area. But Basuki said the city administration could not give away the land because it belonged to the state.

"The organization said people had the right to get the land and I told them that if they were behaving like communists, they might as well take over the city hall and the national monument," he explained.

Basuki said he was not afraid of the NGO's threats to file a report to the court, calling their demands to get the land as unconstitutional.

The deputy governor added that he would not apologize to Pluit residents because the communist remark was not directed at them, adding that the city administration had already allocated a big budget to help the flood victims in the area. "Why should I apologize? I did not call Pluit residents communists," he said.

Basuki, who denied to name the NGO that threatened him, said that the organization was just trying to stir problems between him and Pluit residents.

Jakarta officials have been trying to get the people who live around the overflowing Pluit polder to move into subsidized low-cost apartments, with the city administration offering to move the residents to the Marunda tenement blocks in North Jakarta.

For the initial phase, the administration will move 240 households to the apartments. But through Wednesday, only 67 households, or 234 people, had taken up the offer. There are about 7,000 households, or 17,000 people, who live around the polder.

The city has provided household items, including TV sets, tables and chairs, two mattresses, pillows and bedsheets, refrigerators, gas stoves and canisters, glasses and plates, bathroom necessities, rice and vegetables, for each apartment.

To ease the flood victims' burden, the administration has promised to waive rent and electricity charges for the first month of their occupation. After that, each family will be charged just Rp 371,000 ($38.16) a month for rent and Rp 200,000 a month for electricity.

Several tenement blocks in North Jakarta, such as in Marunda and Muara Baru, are ready for use. Each tenement consists of 200 apartments. The city administration is planning to increase the number of such apartments next year.

Dahlan considers development of marijuana farms

Jakarta Post - April 25, 2013

Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta – State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan has made another controversial move by considering an offer to develop marijuana farms for medicinal purposes.

Dahlan, a media tycoon and potential presidential candidate, said on Tuesday that a pharmacist had suggested he get involved in this agricultural business.

"A pharmacist suggested that state-owned enterprises [SOEs] should develop marijuana fields for the production of medications," he said in Jakarta as quoted by Antara.

"Why do state-owned enterprises not consider the possibility of developing cannabis farmland as an alternative to medication, instead of just burning the cannabis?" Dahlan asked.

According to Dahlan, the pharmacist said that marijuana leaves and seeds could cure heart disease and cancer. Moreover, the pharmacist believed that Indonesia's climate and land were ideal for marijuana planting, he said.

"He has given me complete references for that. I am still studying them. But, if a state-owned enterprise had marijuana fields, there would surely be an uproar," Dahlan said.

Law enforcers were quick to dismiss Dahlan's idea. National Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Agus Rianto indicated that it was unlikely the ministry would get involved in the controversial agricultural enterprise.

"We have a clear regulation on that. So, anyone who wants to plant [cannabis] needs to comply with the applicable law. If not, he will have violated the law," Agus said on Wednesday.

Agus was referring to the 2009 Narcotics Law that categorizes all parts of the marijuana plant as narcotics type I. Article 8 (1) of the law stipulates that type I narcotics are prohibited from being used for medical purposes.

Agus' statement was echoed by National Narcotics Agency (BNN) spokesman Sr. Comr. Sumirat. "The law prohibits the distribution and misuse of marijuana. It can only be used for science and research purposes," he said on Wednesday.

Article 8 (2) stipulates that, "In a limited amount, type I narcotics can be used for science and technology-development purposes, and diagnostic and laboratory reagents after gaining approval from the [health] minister and head of the Food and Drug Supervision Agency."

When The Jakarta Post sought confirmation, an aide to Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi said that the minister would not make an immediate statement.

According to Article 111 of the law, anyone who, without permission, plants or keeps narcotics type I faces a maximum penalty of 12 years' imprisonment and an Rp 8 billion (US$823,000) fine.

Although marijuana is widely known as an illegal and dangerous substance in Indonesia, a group called Lingkar Ganja Nusantara (the Nusantara Marijuana Network) has been trying to eradicate misconceptions about marijuana.

Established in 2008, the network has organized campaigns and discussions about the positive uses of marijuana, and has called on the government to legalize it.

Lingkar Ganja Nusantara chairman Irwan Syarif said that marijuana contained a chemical compound known as cannabinoid, which could be used as an effective painkiller to control nausea and to stimulate a person's appetite.

For industrial purposes, he said that the fiber from hemp, a type of cannabis plant, could be used as raw material in the production of rope, pulp, oil and food.

Long before marijuana was deemed an illegal substance, some communities in Indonesia used it as a spice for traditional cuisine.

West Papua

'Autonomy Plus' to tackle issues plaguing Papua

Jakarta Globe - April 30, 2013

Ezra Sihite & Robertus Wardi – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called for increased autonomy for Papua province to address the host of development and security problems there, an official said on Monday.

Lukas Enembe, the recently inaugurated governor of the country's easternmost province, said following a meeting with Yudhoyono at the State Palace in Jakarta that the president had expressed his desire to have a solution for the problems in sight before leaving office in 2014.

He added that the president, through the Home Affairs Ministry, had proposed the concept of "Special Autonomy Plus" for the Papua administration, which is already one of just four provinces in the country that enjoys special autonomy.

"Our hope is that the draft on the Special Autonomy Plus policy is completed by August, because the idea is to address the problems endemic to Papua," Lukas said. "All these problems must be dealt with before Yudhoyono's term in office ends, so there's another year and a half left to go."

Under the terms of the expanded autonomy, the provincial administration will have more freedom to engage in dialogue with leaders of the Free Papua Organization (OPM), an outlawed separatist group that had been waging a low-level armed insurgency against security forces for nearly half a century.

Lukas said this move toward engagement was part of Yudhoyono's call for "development with compassion" rather than suppression of separatist sentiment.

He added that his own administration was calling for the OPM to contribute to policies for the development of the province and improved welfare for its people.

"There's no denying that a lot of our brethren are on the other [separatist] side, but they're people too, and as long as we can communicate with one another, we should keep doing so," the governor said. "With the right approach, I believe they will be willing to listen."

He also said that separatist sentiment was waning across much of the province, and that elements of the OPM still holding out for secession from Indonesia would gradually realize that both they and the provincial administration shared the same goal of boosting development for the region's people.

Papua, which was annexed by Indonesia on May 1, 1963, was granted special autonomy by Jakarta in 2001 in an attempt to address social grievances and a poverty rate that remains among the highest in the country despite the region's immense wealth of natural resources.

The central government has poured trillions of rupiah into the region over the past decade as part of the autonomy push. However, with 31 percent of the population still living below the poverty line, critics say the huge funds have not been allocated effectively and that the special autonomy status has failed to achieve its objective.

Lukas, who won a long-delayed election in February with 52 percent of votes, said he was confident that under his leadership, and with the extended autonomy policy in the works, there would be progress made toward resolving the problems in the province.

Speaking shortly after his election victory, Lukas said Papua's problems were so complex that it would take more than just special autonomy to frame a solution.

He said the central government's development policy was often not in line with regional implementation and the will of the Papuan people, and called on the government to monitor development in the province more closely.

"So many policies have been implemented, yet they are still not what the Papuans want or hope for," he said.

Indonesia told 'free political prisoners'

Bangkok Post - April 30, 2013

The Indonesian government has been accused of detaining more than 400 political prisoners from West Papua, despite official claims that every inmate in the country's jails has broken criminal law.

According to a report by UK-based human rights charity Tapol, at least 210 political activists were arrested in West Papua last year, in 28 separate incidents. But it warns the true number of arrests is likely to be far higher, since a number go unreported or cannot be confirmed.

No political prisoners?

The suppression of political protest in West Papua, documents the cases of 40 detainees who were known to be in prison at the end of March 2013.

It is based on research and interviews conducted by Tapol, and data from Papuans Behind Bars, a project initiated by civil society groups in West Papua and launched in the provincial capital, Jayapura, earlier this month.

According to figures from Papuans Behind Bars, there were at least 403 political prisoners in jail in West Papua as at 31 March 2013.

Of the 210 political arrests documented in 2012, the report claims more than half took place at peaceful demonstrations. In total, 60 of those arrested were apparently members of the West Papua National Committee, which is campaigning for a referendum on independence for the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua.

Of those arrested, 134 were released and 45 were charged, while the fate of the remainder remains unknown. Of the 45 charged, 20 were accused of treason under Article 106 of the Indonesian Criminal Code.

The report claims to have identified 28 cases of torture or ill treatment on arrest and in detention, in addition to seven cases of forced confessions. It also says that at least four political activists were shot by police while allegedly resisting arrest - two of them fatally.

Paul Barber, coordinator of Tapol, urged Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to promote democracy in West Papua and order the release of all those jailed for expressing "legitimate opinions and aspirations".

He added that Indonesia's progress on civil and political rights will be in the spotlight later this year, when the UN Human Rights Committee will consider the country's first report on its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

"Papua's political prisoners are not mythical characters – they are real men and women whose existence must be recognised," he said. "If the government wants peace in West Papua, it should be talking to political leaders, not locking them up. Allowing Papuans the right to express themselves like any other citizen is a basic first step towards resolving the conflict."

One woman interviewed in the report described the effect on her children when she was jailed for what she says was peaceful political activity. "While I was in jail my kids were like street children," she said.

Separatist-linked man nabbed in cop-killing

Jakarta Globe - April 29, 2013

Robert Isidorus & Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – Police in the restive province of Papua have arrested a man suspected of taking part in an attack at a police residential compound in the Yapen Islands district on Saturday that left an officer dead.

Sr. Comr. Gede Sumerta, a spokesman for the provincial police, said in a statement on Sunday that the suspect, identified as Yahya Bonai, 20, was believed to be part of a criminal gang known for carrying out extortion rackets against local businesses in Serui, the district capital.

The attack at the home of Chief Brig. Jefri Sesa, an officer from the Angkaisera subprecinct police station, occurred at 4:20 a.m. on Saturday when dozens of men stormed the house in a compound for police officers. The group assaulted Jefri's in-laws and his wife before stabbing the police officer to death.

They then stole a gun from his house and shot at the home of another police officer. The officer in question, Brig. Lamber Matui, fired back at them, forcing the attackers to flee into the cover of the forest.

Sumerta said that the Yapen Police arrested Yahya shortly after the attack, based on statements from Jefri's family.

Yahya's gang is alleged to have ties to a militant separatist group led by Ruddy Orarey. The group has been implicated in several attacks in the region, most recently on March 13, also targeting police.

The Ruddy Orarey group reportedly has ties to the armed Free Papua Organization (OPM), which has been waging a low-level separatist insurgency against Indonesian security forces for decades.

The police have declined to speculate on the motive for Saturday's attack, but acknowledged that the Yapen Islands district remains a hotbed for insurgent activity.

The attack comes ahead of the 50th anniversary of Indonesia's annexation on May 1, 1963, of the then Netherlands New Guinea. It also comes nearly a year after police in the Yapen Islands uncovered an OPM training camp.

The camp was discovered on May 29, 2012. Ten days later, suspected separatists shot at the Angkaisera police station, wounding an officer.

The same police station was the target of an arson attack by a mob on Dec. 20, 2011. After setting the building on fire, the attackers then hoisted the Morning Star flag, a banned separatist standard, from the flagpole in the front yard.

The station was also the scene of another attack in June 2009, when a group of unidentified people set two police motorcycles on fire.

Papua police officer killed in home invasion

Jakarta Globe - April 27, 2013

Banjir Ambarita – A police officer was fatally stabbed in an early morning home invasion in Yapen Serui Island, Papua, police said on Saturday.

Brig. Jerfi Sesa, of the Yapen Police, was stabbed in the chest by a group of assailants with alleged ties to the militant Ruddy Orarey separatist group, Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Gede Sumerta Jaya said.

Dozens of men stormed the officers home at 4:20 a.m. local time. The group assaulted Jerfi's in-laws and slapped his wife before killing the police officer.

They then used a gun stolen from his house to shoot at the home of another police officer before fleeing into the forest.

Yapen police have arrested one man allegedly behind the attacks. Yahya Bonai, 20, is currently being questioned by police. Jerfi's remains were sent to a hospital in Serui.

The Ruddy Orarey group has been implicated in several attacks in the region, including a March 13, 2013 attack targeting police. The organization allegedly has ties with the armed Free Papua Movement (OPM).

Aceh

Aceh performs worst in forestry protection: UNDP

Jakarta Post - April 30, 2013

Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta – The latest study from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Indonesia found that the local administration in Aceh is the worst performer when it comes to protecting the country's remaining forests.

Of the country's top 10 provinces with the largest forest area Aceh scored the lowest on the UNDP's forest government index.

The index measures the performance of each local administration in its spatial planning, forest regulation and protection, and its participation on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). Under the REDD+ scheme, Norway allocated up to US$1 billion over seven or eight years to finance Indonesia's emission reduction programs.

Recently, the provincial government in Aceh proposed a new spatial planning bylaw that would allow for the conversion of protected forests into non- forest zones.

The Coalition of Aceh Rainforest Movements claimed that the bylaw would change the status of around 1.2 million hectares of Aceh's existing 3.78 million hectares of protected forest into non-forest areas. The converted land could be used for palm oil plantations and logging concessions. The Forestry Ministry has defended the move saying that Aceh would only convert 119,000 hectares of forest.

The UNDP survey, conducted last June shows that South Sumatra, Riau and newly-established West Papua also got low scores for their forest management.

The survey put West and Central Kalimantan at the top of the list. "These provinces are relatively good, although their scores are still low," Abdul Wahib Situmorang, a project manager of UNDP Indonesia, said in Jakarta on Monday.

He said that none of the 10 provinces surveyed had achieved the ideal score of 3.5 out of a maximum 5 points.

The UNDP found that most of the provinces were consistently unable to protect their forests from illegal logging due to weak law enforcement and the high cost of getting forest concession permits. "Because local administrations charge a high price for concession permits, some companies decide to engage in illegal logging," Abdul said.

Last year, the country's law enforcement agencies only solved six of 128 forest crime cases.

Aside from improving transparency, Abdul suggested that local administrations give a greater role for civil society organizations (CSOs) and indigenous communities in the planning stage of forest protection action. "We must ensure that the public can participate in spatial forest planning. The administrations are obliged to provide capacity building for citizen involvement in spatial planning," Abdul said.

Marthe Hotvedt, Forest and Climate Counselor of the Royal Norwegian Embassy, said that Indonesia should extend the moratorium on forest clearance, which will expire on May 20, considering its key role in protecting the country's forests.

"The moratorium has been an important initiative for improving management of forest resources by 'pausing' business-as-usual patterns in order to give more time to establishing adequate regulation and the proper institutions for efficient control and enforcement," she said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is considering extending the moratorium, which was issued after Indonesia and Norway agreed the REDD+ scheme.

Aceh legislative candidates take Koran test

Jakarta Post - April 30, 2013

Banda Aceh – As many as 1,231 legislative candidates from across Aceh will take a Koran recital test organized by the Aceh Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIP) as part of a requirement for every person contesting the 2014 election.

"As a province that is prepared to enforce Islamic law, Aceh requires every legislative candidate to be tested for their skill in reciting the Koran," said Aceh KIP Koran Recital Test working unit head Akmal Abzal.

Akmal said the test was mandatory for prospective provincial, regental and municipal legislators in the province, but not compulsory for Provincial Representatives Council (DPD) and House of Representatives (DPR) candidates.

"The Koran recital test is required by Provincial Bylaw (Qanun) No. 3/2008 on provincial, regental and mayoralty general election candidates from local political parties," said Akmal.

Aceh KIP has set three standards for the Koran test and issued Decree No. 2/2008 on Koran recital technical guidelines for provincial, regental and mayoralty legislative candidates based on correct Koranic recitals.

Candidates need to achieve a minimum score of 50 or be disqualified. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that requires legislative candidates to take a Koran recital test. The requirement also applies to prospective agency heads and gubernatorial candidates.

Former GAM, PNA member murdered in Aceh

Jakarta Globe - April 28, 2013

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police in Aceh suspect a political motive is behind the murder of a local politician who was gunned down by unknown assailants on Friday morning.

Muhammad bin Zainal Abidin, 33, a member of the Aceh National Party (PNA), was shot twice in the back of the head after his Toyota Avanza MPV was reportedly hijacked.

His lifeless body was discovered inside the car that had plunged into a river near the village of Blang Beureueh in the district of Pidie at 7 a.m. on Friday.

"The victim had two shot wounds in the back of his head. One [bullet] exited through his right cheek and the other dislodged [inside the head] with a depth of 2 centimeters," Pidie district police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Dumadi said.

The officer said that police were still examining the crime scene, adding that the bullets have not been found. There were no witnesses to the incident, Dumadi said, adding that the scene of the crime is mostly a farming area and far from people's homes. Dumadi said politics is the likely motive behind the murder.

Before joining the PNA, Muhammad was a member of the Aceh Party, a party comprised of mainly former militiamen from the now disbanded Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

According to M. Zaini, chairman of the Pidie chapter of PNA, Muhammad was loyal to former governor Irwandi Yusuf, another former Aceh Party politician.

When the Aceh Party decided not to support Irwandi for his reelection bid and instead nominate the current governor, Zaini Abdullah, Muhammad joined Irwandi, who resigned from the Aceh Party and established his own party, the PNA, last year.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) recently recognized the PNA as one of three local parties in Aceh competing in next year's legislative election. Aceh, with its special autonomous status granted by the central government in 2006, is the only province allowed to have local parties.

PNA's Zaini said that Muhammad was likely kidnapped before he was executed saying that he normally drives his own car. "When [rescuers] pulled the body from the river, the victim's body was not in the driver's seat but in the back seat," he told the Jakarta Globe on Friday. "We condemn this cowardly act."

Party chairman Irwansyah urged the police to bring Zainal's killers to justice. "We should not be afraid of political thuggery," Irwansyah said. "All party cadres should unite and be solid against this political thuggery."

Aceh was the scene of a bloody civil war that lasted nearly three decades before it ended with a peace treaty with the Indonesian government in 2005.

But ever since, Aceh has been home to politically charged violence that plagued the resource-rich province during the 2009 legislative election and the 2012 gubernatorial election.

With the legislative election just 13 months away, Destika Gilang Lestari, coordinator of the Aceh branch of human rights group Kontras, said "there are symptoms that a string violence will appear again."

Muhammad's death came after a PNA legislative candidate named Zuhra claimed that she has been receiving death threats from an Aceh Party politician who called her "a traitor."

Destika called on law enforcers to bring the people behind the violence to justice, saying that such cases will hurt democracy and could destabilize Aceh after eight years of peace.

20,000 condemn Aceh deforestation

Jakarta Post - April 27, 2013

Jakarta – An online petition against forest clearance in Aceh has the support of 20,000 netizens.

As of Friday, the petition at http://change.org/selamatkanAceh, had drawn 20,200 signatories both from Indonesia and abroad.

A team led by Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan is currently discussing the forest conversion proposals. The government via the ministry's secretary general, Hadi Daryanto, denies that it has given approval for the conversion of 1.2 million hectares of protected areas stipulated in the draft Aceh spatial planning bylaw.

A signatory to the petition, Muhammad Fathahillah Zuhri, said, "Tanah Naggroe is not our 'endatu' (ancestor)'s heritage. It belongs to future generations and we have to protect its balance."

Kadek Wahyu Adi Pratama said, "The forest is our future. There are so many lives that depend on forests. They are human beings, animals, plants, and many more."

Change.org communication director, Arief Aziz, said it was now one of the biggest petitions they had ever had. "The petitioners also plan to meet either Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan or the Aceh governor," said Arief, on Friday. (ebf)

Aceh legislative candidates to be quizzed on Koran

Jakarta Globe - April 23, 2013

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – All candidates contesting next year's legislative elections in Aceh will be required to take a Koran proficiency test, a member of the province's electoral body said on Tuesday.

"It is stipulated in a qanun [Islamic bylaw] that every candidate running in Aceh must be able to recite the Koran. This has been the case since Aceh implemented Shariah law in 2011," Akmal Abzal, an official with the Independent Election Commission (KIP), told the Jakarta Globe.

He said that contenders at all levels will be tested on their knowledge, pronunciation and recitation of the Muslim holy book. A team of Koran recitalists will judge who is eligible to run.

"If the candidate scores higher than a 50, he will be able to run for office," Akmal explained. "However, if he scores below a 50, he will be ousted."

He stated that Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah ordered district heads and mayors in the province to prepare the budget for the proceedings. "The money will be used to pay the jury, as well as other needs," he said. "Every region will be given between Rp 20 million and Rp 40 million."

Several political parties in Aceh, including the Aceh Peace Party (PDA), the Aceh National Party (PNA) and the Aceh Party (PA), already conduct internal Koran proficiency exams before registering their candidates.

PDA Secretary Khaidir Rizal said that all candidates from his party are able to recite the Koran since all of them are ulema and graduates of Islamic boarding schools.

Irwansyah, the chairman of the PNA, revealed that his party's candidates were already tested by the best Koran recitalists.

Human rights & justice

Four people shot dead as Musi Rawas protest turns violent

Jakarta Globe - April 30, 2013

Farouk Arnaz – Four civilians were killed and 15 members of the police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) were injured after a demonstration in South Sumatra in favor of the creation of a new district, North Musi Rawas, turned violent, a police officer said on Tuesday.

"A clash erupted, even though the demands of the mob were accommodated. They have been blocking the road since Monday at 10 a.m.," South Sumatra Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. R. Djarod Padakova told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.

"Their demand that a new district be formed was obliged by the police chief. He conducted a discussion at the local councillor office and agreed to send a letter to the governor and the home affairs minister [regarding the issue]."

Despite this, a mob of a thousand people blocked the Trans-Sumatra Highway Monday morning, paralyzing transport in the area. At 9:30 p.m. Monday, police officers attempted to dissolve the mob, but the mob reacted violently. The crowd proceeded to burn two patrol cars and set the Rupit police office ablaze.

Djarod noted that law enforcers acted in accordance with police regulations while dealing with the protesters. "Warning shots were fired, but the situation quickly turned chaotic. People were throwing things, and some residents even brought sharp weapons."

Tribunnews.com reported that besides the four civilian casualties, five residents suffered from gunshot wounds. "We are still investigating the cause of death of the victims," Djarod said. "There are still some mobs of people gathered at some points, and we are currently monitoring them."

As of Tuesday, protesters are still carrying out a roadblock, and they stated that they would continue to obstruct access to the road until someone claims responsibility for the deaths.

Residents block Trans-Sumatra highway after bloody clashes with police

Jakarta Post - April 30, 2013

Ansyor Idrus, Palembang – Residents from Muara Rupit district, Musi Rawas regency in South Sumatra were continuing to block the Trans-Sumatra Highway on Tuesday following bloody clashes with the police, in which four people were shot dead.

Clashes were sparked on Monday by the road blockade, which was held in protest over the absence of a clear program on the government's plan to establish a new regency – North Musi Rawas. Their action caused severe traffic jams along the highway, which links South Sumatra and Jambi.

The clashes broke out at around 8:30 p.m. on Monday evening when the police tried to open the blockade. Some angry protesters pelted police officers with rocks and the police responded by shooting at them with live ammunition.

The four protesters killed during the confrontation have been identified as Fadila, 45; Suharto, 17; Matdo, 50; and Rinto, 17. Scores of others were injured and are being treated at local hospitals.

One of the Muara Rupit residents, M Suud, said many more locals had come from several villages in the district vowing to continue to block the road in protest at the police's brutal handling of the incident.

"We are still blocking the highway, although only to buses and trucks; private cars are allowed to go through," Suud said as quoted by Antara news agency.

He added that they would not become anarchic or violent (during the blockade) [...] they merely expected the police to take responsibility for the deaths they had caused. (nai)

Media urged to help uncover past human rights abuses

Jakarta Post - April 29, 2013

Jakarta – Media watchdogs say that the press must be at the forefront of preserving the public's collective memory of human rights abuses and pushing the Indonesian government to resolve these cases.

Maria Hartiningsih, a senior journalist from Kompas daily, said that the press was quite powerful in that it could help human rights activists accomplish that goal.

She cited the weekly silent protest called Kamisan – an Indonesian language reference for Thursday – in which a group of people, dressed in black with black umbrellas, stand in front of the State Palace every Thursday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. to demand that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono resolve past abuses.

Victims of human rights violations, activists and supporters alike have held these protests since Jan. 8, 2007. This Thursday is their 303rd week of struggling to "fight against political amnesia and have justice served".

However, Maria Catarina Sumarsih, the mother of BR Norma Irawan, a university student who was killed in the Semanggi tragedy, lamented that fewer reporters were now coming to cover the vigil compared to in 2007.

"Nowadays, only photographers come to cover our silent protest. I guess the journalists have reduced their coverage because of the government's sluggishness in responding to our demands. So far there has been no concrete milestone that they can write about," Sumarsih said.

Maria compared the Kamisan effort with that of the Mothers of Plasa de Mayo in Argentina, who were finally able to topple a military junta due to intensive press coverage that caught the world's attention.

"These women struggled for 36 years before the government bowed to their demands. Change was accomplished thanks to journalistic reports that fascinated the world with the story about women who were transformed from housewives to human rights activists due to violence," Maria said.

"Kamisan protests can actually accomplish a similar change if they are supported by the media. Reporters have to go back to the essence of journalism, which is to advocate for those who are marginalized," Maria added.

However, Dandhy D. Leksono from the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) said the media did not live up to activists' expectations.

"In the past, journalism was equal to activism. But today, the mass media has become an industry. It does not give sufficient space to stories concerning human rights issues because these are not profitable," Dandhy said.

"The media caters to the public's thirst for political infotainment. And journalists do not seem to have enough skill to connect political stories to human rights issues," Dandhy added.

Dandhy also said the demand for newspaper journalists to produce stories with new angles and perspectives every day had caused them to abandon human rights issues such as Kamisan.

"After six years of action, there has been no progress. These people are standing in front of the State Palace and nothing ever happens. The pressure on journalists to always come up with something novel and unusual has caused them to stop covering the Kamisan protest," Dandhy said. (ogi)

Women's rights

Bad Math: Parties meet female quotas, but where are all the women?

Jakarta Globe - April 29, 2013

Rizky Amelia – Political parties have met a requirement that women should account for at least 30 percent of their candidates in next year's legislative election, but some appear to be fudging the numbers, a watchdog says.

The group Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi) said on Sunday that of the 6,576 candidates nominated by the 12 eligible parties, 2,434 of them, or 37 percent, were women.

Sebastian Salang, the Formappi executive director, said the National Democrat Party (NasDem), which will be contesting its maiden election in 2014, had the most female candidates, at nearly 40 percent, or 223 out of its 560 candidates. The Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI) had the least number of women in its list, with 186 female candidates.

Sebastian said that while on the whole the parties appeared to have complied with the 30 percent quota, some of the parties only appeared to have met the minimum, which also applies to each constituency, through circumvention.

He said this was apparent in the fact that at least three parties had nominated some of their female candidates to stand for multiple constituencies. These included nine candidates from the National Awakening Party (PKB), three from the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and one from the PKPI.

Sebastian said that fledgling parties like the PKPI and conservative Islamic ones like the PKB and the PBB traditionally tended not to appeal to women, thus the parties may have found it difficult to meet the quota at the constituency levels without the duplication.

He said the biggest offender was the PKB, which nominated eight of its female candidates for two constituencies each, and one for three constituencies.

"For the parties, this is a strategy to make it appear as though they've nominated a lot of women in order to fulfill the quota in the constituencies in question," Sebastian said.

Female legislator candidates hits quota, says activist

Jakarta Post - April 28, 2013

Jakarta – An activist praised the fact that there are 2,434 female legislator candidates listed in the temporary legislator list, which is equal to 37.01 percent of 6,576 people listed.

"It means that these parties have kept their promise to fill 30 percent of their legislator quota with female candidates," he said on Sunday as quoted by kompas.com.

The NasDem Party had the biggest number of female candidates with 223 out of 560 people. However, the names of some of the candidates occurred on several parties' lists, this could be a potential problem and would need to be addressed.

The 30 percent quota was requested by feminists and activists to address the lack of attention toward women and children's issues.

The 12 political parties that will compete on next year General Elections are the Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Justice and Prosperous Party (PKS), the Moon and Crescent Party (PBB), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Democratic Party, the People Conscience Party (Hanura), the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI). (dic)

Law continues to treat women as objects

Jakarta Post - April 27, 2013

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – With no strict provisions on female representation, legislation often overlooks the rights of women, according to expert witnesses at a judicial review of the 2012 Legislative Election Law at the Constitutional Court on Thursday.

Rocky Gerung, a philosophy lecturer at University of Indonesia, cited the plan by Lhokseumawe administration in Aceh to ban women from straddling motorcycles as an example of legislation that did not side with women.

According to the National Commission on Violence against Women, there were 282 new bylaws enacted in 2012 that discriminated against women. The figure rose from 207 in 2011, 189 in 2010 and 154 in 2009.

Rocky and former member of United Nations Committee of the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Sjamsiah Achmad were presented as witnesses by the Women's Coalition, which is requesting the Court to annul what it calls discriminatory provisions in the law.

Sjamsiah told the bench that policy makers did not understand that "equality between men and women does not mean that one controls the other, but to share the same responsible in maintaining the continuity of human life".

"We still have to improve the understanding of policy makers in the House and in the executive branch, as well as the courts," she said.

Sjamsiah drew the court's attention to Article 4 Paragraph 1 of CEDAW which was ratified by Indonesia in 1984. "CEDAW aims to speed up the realization of substantive equality of women and men, and to correct things that do not support such equality, including policies, budgets, and programs," she said.

Sjamsiah argued synergy between women and men was important and that the 30 percent quota stipulated in the law is actually one of the strategies to optimize it. She said she was concerned that the 2012 Law failed to specify sanctions or enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance with the policy.

According to the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) 2013 Human Development Report, Indonesia lags behind even Laos and Vietnam in terms of women's presence in lawmaking bodies.

Based on the World Bank 2012 data, women constitute 50.1 percent of Indonesia's total population of 244 million, but they occupy only 18.2 seats in the House of Representatives, much below even the quota of 30 percent set by the General Elections Commission in line with the 2012 Law.

Rocky said as long as there was no commitment, policy would still be biased. "If there is no serious affirmative action, bylaws and policies will be formulated based on the perspective of men where women are regarded as objects," he said.

The coalition argues the law does not side with women by not strictly requiring political parties to ensure that at least 30 percent of their executives are females.

They also say that a phrase "by considering" the representation of women if there are two or more legislative candidates who meet the requirements the most votes as stipulated in the Article 215 (b) was open to various interpretations and would only close women's access to politics.

Representatives of the government and the House of Representatives told the court last week that the law did not sideline women and was devised to empower them politically.

Sexual & domestic violence

Tangerang Koran teacher accused of raping child

Jakarta Globe - April 26, 2013

Police are searching on Friday for a Koran teacher who allegedly raped or molested three children in Ciputat, South Tangerang.

The man, identified as Muhammad Firman, 25, worked as Koran teacher at a Tangerang mosque. He reportedly invited a 14-year-old girl to his house in the Bukit Modern Hill housing complex last January. He allegedly raped the girl and threatened her, telling the girl not to tell anyone, police said.

Firman reportedly continued to rape the girl until the abuse was discovered by the girl's older sister. The sister read the girl's diary and discovered an entry detailing the rape. The family then reported Firman to the police and took their daughter in for medical tests on April 2, 2013. The doctor's examination confirmed the rape, according to reports in the Indonesian newspaper Tempo.

"There was an indication of sexual violence," South Jakarta Police spokesman Comr. Aswin told Tempo.co.

The girl's family told the newspaper there were more victims. "Beside my daughter, there are at least three other victims," the girl's father said. "They said that were groped and kissed by him."

Firman saw hundreds of students for Koran study. Three have come forward with allegations that the teacher sexually abused them.

Firman fled when police began to close in. He is believed to have run to Wonosobo, Central Java, Aswin said. "We're still hunting the suspect and we're waiting for the reports of other victims," he said.

After the allegations surfaced, local residents searched the man's room, discovering "magical" talisman, three pornographic videos, anti-pregnancy pills and one of the girl's outfits, police said.

Labour & migrant workers

Migrant workers unaware of their rights, say activists

Jakarta Post - April 27, 2013

Jakarta – Labor watchdogs say limited access to information on the rights and protection of migrant workers is one of the reasons behind the rampant exploitation and marginalization that workers face.

Law No. 14/2008 on the freedom of information stipulates the public has the right to access information from the government.

However, Muhammad Irsyadul Ibad, the executive director of the Institute for Education Development, Social, Religious and Cultural Studies, said that migrant workers did not have the most basic information related to their livelihoods. "They don't even know about the amount of salary that their employees are obliged to give," Muhammad said.

"The BNP2TKI [National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Overseas Labor] has never informed these workers of their rights to be protected by the state, let alone the mechanism of migrant worker protection," he added.

Anwar Ma'arif from the Assembly of Indonesian Migrant Workers said the government was also reluctant to disclose documents on the use of the budget for worker protection programs. "The Manpower and Transmigration Ministry has never responded to our requests. When we call them, they always say they have sent the documents by mail. But we've never received the documents," Anwar said.

"The government has a huge budget for the protection of migrant workers yet we continue to witness abuse," Anwar added. This year, the ministry allocated Rp 200 billion (US$20,6 million) to the protection of workers. "We suspect that this budget has been misused," Anwar said.

Anies Hidayah of Migrant Care, an NGO that focuses on migrant labor issues, said that on many occasions, the Indonesian consulate generals did not maintain communication with migrant workers.

"Because of this, they are often too late in solving the workers' problems. Due to this sluggishness, workers face numerous problems, like the case of Fatimah, who faced capital punishment in Saudi Arabia in 2011," Anies said.

Because of the lack of communication signified by a lack of access to information, migrant workers are prone to even more exploitation overseas.

Muhammad said workers often did not know what to do in the face of problems. "How can they solve their problems when they do not have access to clear information about the rights they are entitled to?" he said.

Muhammad cited the problems workers faced in relation to overseas employment cards (KTKLN). "They won't be able to return home if they fail to show the KTKLN in the immigration office or at the airport. Sometimes, these workers have decided not to come home at all because they don't have the KTKLN and don't know how to get the card issued," Muhammad said. (ogi)

Tangerang workers 'warm up' for May Day

Jakarta Post - April 25, 2013

Hundreds of factory workers grouped under the Alliance of Greater Tangerang Residents (Altar) rallied in Tangerang regency on Wednesday, calling for an end to "oppression" in the workplace.

They said the rally, which began in Curug district and ended in Cikupa, was a "warm-up" ahead of the commemoration of May Day on May 1. "We handed out a written statement to workers in seven industrial areas between Curug and Cikupa," said rally coordinator Koswara.

He said oppression by employers appeared in many forms, including underpayment, banning workers' unions and the dismissal of unionized employees, and added that things could get worse for workers if the government raised fuel prices.

"Workers will stage a massive rally in protest against the government's plan to raise fuel prices. We also demand the government eliminate the outsourcing recruitment system," he said.

Trade union calls on workers to abandon elite, establish new party

Kompas.com - April 25, 2013

Suhartono, Jakarta – The Labour Secretariat (Sekber Buruh) in Jakarta and the satellite cities of Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi is calling on the thousands of workers planning to hold actions on May Day to establish a people's party, that is truly of the people and for the people themselves.

"It's time for workers to abandon the current elite [political] parties that are established for their own interests, namely a handful of the elite", said Sekber Buruh Greater Jakarta activist Budi Wardoyo in Jakarta on Thursday April 25.

According to Wardoyo, ordinary Indonesians must establish their own political party that is not controlled by a handful of the elite and only for the interest of the elite, but for the interests of the ordinary people instead. "We are calling on all workers to jointly mobilise and abandon the elite parties", said Wardoyo.

Related to the commemoration of Labour Day on May 1, Sekber Buruh is also inviting workers to besiege the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the State Palace to call on the government and the KPU to hold legitimate and honest general elections so that a people's party can take part in the elections unhindered.

"We will also hold a convoy of 500 motorcycles that will travel around Jakarta distributing leaflets and putting up banners at various key points in the city stating that the workers' struggle for prosperity is not yet finished", said Wardoyo.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Security guards expected to spare May Day

Jakarta Post - April 24, 2013

The Jakarta Police appealed to employers to have security guards stationed at their posts during May Day, as they expect around 200,000 workers attending planned protests on May 1.

"We encourage security guards in Jakarta to not take part in the May Day protests, but to maintain security at their offices where they work during the day," Jakarta Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Sudjarno told reporters on Tuesday after a meeting between Jakarta Police executives and representatives of Security Service Providers Association (BUJP).

Sudjarno said that workers must not block toll roads or force coworkers to take part in the protests. The meeting was meant to organize preventive action ahead of the 2013 May Day protests.

The police also asked employers to set up a peaceful celebration of May Day, such as a shadow puppet performance, to prevent their workers from joining the protests.

BUJP chief Sutjipto said the National Police had told him earlier that security guards, whose main job is to maintain security in offices, were not allowed to join the protests.

Hospital workers protest dismissal

Jakarta Post - April 23, 2013

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – Dozens of Bintaro Premier Hospital employees rallied in front of the hospital in Bintaro, Pondok Aren, South Tangerang municipality, on Monday to protest the recent dismissal of eight employees.

Bambang Suheri, coordinator of the rally, said the eight employees were dismissed arbitrarily and without severance pay even though some of them had worked at the hospital for eight years. "They were recruited to work for the hospital, but were dismissed two months ago for no clear reason," he said.

According to Bambang, the dismissed workers tried to negotiate with the hospital management to discuss severance pay, but at the last meeting they were only offered one-month salary as severance pay.

As of Monday evening, there had been no clarification from the hospital management.

Political parties & elections

Incumbents fill provisional candidate list for House races

Jakarta Post - April 29, 2013

Ina Parlina – Political parties are reaping the benefit of incumbency, nominating almost all their currently serving lawmakers for reelection to the House of Representatives in 2014, a watchdog group has said.

A report released by the Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi) on Sunday said that 90.5 percent of the 560 incumbent lawmakers from nine major political parties were nominated for reelection.

Formappi released its report after reviewing the provisional lists of candidates for all 560 House races that were submitted to the General Elections Commission (KPU) by 12 political parties last week.

According to the report, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's ruling Democratic Party, tainted by a series of corruption scandals implicating its lawmakers, nominated 133 of its 148 incumbent House members for reelection.

Meanwhile, the Golkar Party nominated 92 of 106 incumbent lawmakers, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) nominated 84 of 94 lawmakers and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) nominated all 57 of its incumbent House members.

The report also said that 42 of 46 incumbent lawmakers from the National Mandate Party (PAN) were nominated for reelection, while the Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP) nominated 33 of its 38 incumbents, with its new candidates principally comprising celebrities.

Rounding off the list were the National Awakening Party (PKB), which nominated 26 of its 28 incumbents for reelection; the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, 24 of 26 and the People's Conscience (Hanura) Party, 16 of 17.

The executive director of Formappi, Sebastian Salang, said the ubiquity of incumbents on the provisional list indicated that political parties had failed to introduce a system of rewards and punishments for their politicians.

"They should punish their members who are not serious about doing their jobs as lawmakers by not allowing them to run again," Sebastian said on Sunday.

Formappi previously criticized the House for passing only one of 10 bills given priority on the legislative agenda for 2012.

Some of the major political parties have also nominated incumbents for reelection despite their implication in graft cases.

The Democratic Party, for example, has nominated lawmaker and party deputy executive chairman Max Sopacua for reelection.

Max Sopacua was questioned by investigators at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) after former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin, himself a lawmaker who was expelled from the House after his graft conviction, alleged that Max accepted funds embezzled from a state- funded construction project. Incumbent lawmakers endorsed by the Golkar Party for reelection included Setya Novanto and Kahar Muzakir, both of whom have been implicated in the National Games (PON) graft scandal.

The KPU has said that there was little that the commission could do to block the reelection bids of lawmakers implicated in graft scandals, as the commission, as stipulated by law, could not deny people the opportunity to register as candidates before they were proven guilty.

Separately, Ronald Rofiandri of the Center for Legal and Policy Studies (PSHK) said that the nomination of so many incumbents for the House races showed that parties have been growing more rapacious in their behavior.

Ronald said that the parties evinced few intentions to improve the performance of the nation's legislature.

"It is true that political parties have the privilege to nominate their own candidates, but at least they could make some effort to make themselves accountable to public scrutiny," Ronald told The Jakarta Post.

A political analyst from Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University, Arie Sudjito, said that the drive of politicians to clean up the act of the nation's parties had faltered.

"There has been no real reform inside the parties. They have no real commitment and now the public has no options but to vote for those incumbents," Arie said.

House seats don't come cheap

Jakarta Globe - April 26, 2013

Carlos Paath – Winning public office in Indonesia is a costly proposition, and the longer-than-usual campaign period ahead of the 2014 legislative election will require successful candidates to spend big, according to seasoned politicians.

"The internal and external competition and a longer campaign period of one year compared to the 2009 election, which only took a few months, will force legislative candidates to dig deeper into their pockets," Bambang Soesatyo, the Golkar Party's deputy treasurer, said on Tuesday as quoted by Antaranews.com.

Bambang said that serious legislative candidates, or their financial supporters, needed to prepare at least Rp 1 billion for their campaign. That money, he explained, would be required for several trips per month to visit the constituencies they were contesting during internal party pre- selection, followed by a more intensive, and hence expensive, campaign proper from January to April 2014.

Candidates should stay in their constituencies during the three months before the legislative election takes place, Bambang added.

Money is needed for logistics such as T-shirts, banners, calendars, advertisements in local media, and activities designed to build the candidates' profile. Politicians also curry favor with voters by repairing mosques, churches, village roads and other public facilities, he said.

Martin Hutabarat, a legislator from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), said he spent about Rp 1.5 billion for the 2009 legislative election.

He said that much of the money went on paying witnesses to scrutinize vote counting at every polling station. Witnesses are paid about Rp 50,000 to Rp 100,000 each, he said, adding Gerindra would employ more than a million of them in 2014.

Legislative candidates need at least Rp 1 billion to run in election: Priyo

Jakarta Globe - April 26, 2013

SP/Carlos Paath – Candidates running in Indonesia's legislative elections must be prepared to spend at least Rp 1 billion ($103,000), a legislator said on Tuesday.

"The internal and external competition for the 2014 election will be tighter than in 2009 and the campaign period is longer, whether they like it or the legislative candidates will have to dig in their pockets deeper," Priyo Budi Santoso, the House of Representatives deputy speaker, told Indonesian news agency Antara on Tuesday.

Priyo said serious candidates would have to spend at least Rp 1 billion if they wanted to run in the election, as they would need sufficient capital to operate a successful team and to pay for their campaign. The senior Golkar Party member added that a candidate would also have to spend money to visit their constituent base at least twice a month ahead of the election.

"Three months before the election they will to spend more money on logistics like T-shirts, banners, calendars, billboards and advertisements," Priyo explained, adding that candidates would also have to pay for witnesses at each polling station.

Martin Hutabarat, a legislator from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), said that during the 2009 elections he had to spend Rp 1.5 billion for his campaign.

He said that most of the money was spent on paying witnesses at polling stations. Martin said he had not calculated how much he would allocate this year as Gerindra had enforced a regulation that witness fees would be the party's responsibility.

Martin said Gerindra had prepared 1.2 million witnesses across the country to watch the election.

"Our witnesses are well trained and most of them are still young," he said.

Gerindra charges candidates Rp 300 million

Jakarta Post - April 25, 2013

The Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party is charging its legislative candidates Rp 300 million (US$30,9000) to pay for logistical expenses during the balloting process.

Gerindra deputy chairman Fadli Zon said the money would be used by the party to pay fees for witnesses deployed at the polling stations on balloting days, as well as for the purchase of campaign paraphernalia.

"Elections are a costly business and we've asked for contributions from each individual candidate," Fadli said as quoted by kompas.com in Semarang, Central Java on Wednesday.

Fadli said that by asking candidates to pay for their own expenses, Gerindra expected they would not resort to graft when they were elected for office.

He said the party did not want political candidates to be bankrolled by businesspeople who would then demand a return for their money. "This is like a cross-subsidy. Candidates with capacity and influence but with little money can get the subsidy," Fadli said.

In its recent survey, Transparency International Indonesia (TII) found Gerindra to be the most transparent political party in the country.

The party scored 3.74 on a scale of 4 by being transparent in the management of its finances, including the full disclosure of its donors, reporting party assets and other book keeping details.

Parties deny hunting for famous figures

Jakarta Globe - April 24, 2013

Carlos Paath – Indonesian political party officials are publicly adamant that TV stars' ready-made public profiles have nothing to do with their selection as legislative candidates.

Just ask Eriko Sotarduga, deputy secretary general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). "We preselect celebrities not because of their high profile or popularity, but because they're already coming up through the party ranks and are actively involved in party activities," Eriko said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

"Not only that, but the results of interviews and psychological testing has to show they're a good fit with the electorate they'll be standing in, that's an important consideration," he said.

Himself a member of the House of Representatives, Eriko added that all would-be candidates had to undergo the same selection process, "whether they're actors, youth activists, businesspeople or whatever their backgrounds may be."

The Golkar Party also denied it was currying favor with the electorate by choosing popular celebrities.

"It's the same for everyone. Any actors we put forward have to undergo orientation training that includes studying the party ideology, organizational skills, political issues, branding, communications and campaign strategy," said Golkar deputy secretary general Nurul Arifin.

Golkar has had garnered votes in the past by filling ballot papers with celebrity names including Charles Bonar Sirait, Nurul Arifin, Tantowi Yahya and Tetty Kadi Bawono. Not to be outdone, the Democratic Party has nominated Dede Yusuf, Yenny Rahman, Anwar Fuady, Inggrid Kansil, Venna Melinda and Nurul Qomar. Meanwhile, the PDI-P's stables house singer Edo Kondolongit, TV presenters Niko Siahaan and Sonny Tulung, film star Yessy Gusman and TV star Rieke Dyah Pitaloka.

Rieke is perhaps the exception to many in the previous list who seem to have scant qualifications as legislators – far from the clueless character she played in a popular TV sitcom, Rieke holds two undergraduate degrees and a master's degree in philosophy, and before taking up public office had become a published author.

Sutan Bhatoegana, a Democrat legislator, conceded that his party viewed celebrities as crucial in bringing in the vote. "But besides their vote- gathering capabilities, we also want them because they are public figures," he said.

The Democrats lost two celebrity legislators last year: singer Theresia "Tere" Pardede, who quit for family reasons, and Angelina Sondakh, a former Miss Indonesia pageant winner, who was convicted in a corruption case.

Activists join celebrities in legislative race

Jakarta Post - April 23, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – It appears that the House of Representatives will still be dominated by celebrities and the same old politicians we love to hate, but several parties are giving the chance for activists to run in the 2014 race.

Former leader of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) Faisol Riza, who was kidnapped for two months during the upheavals of May 1998, will be among the rights activists who will compete in the 2014 legislative election if the General Elections Commission (KPU) verifies their eligibility.

Faisol told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that he had decided to join the Islamic-based National Awakening Party (PKB) in order to boost efforts to search for the whereabouts of missing fellow activists.

"I hope I can speed up the search for my fellow activists who are still missing. I'm aiming to promote policies that will make this possible as well as other policies that will further uphold human rights in this country," Faisol said at KPU headquarters on Monday.

Faisol is not alone. Other noted 1998 activists have followed suit, including, among others, Aan Rusdianto from the Families of Missing Persons Association (IKOHI), who has been nominated as a legislative candidate by the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, and Miksil Mina Munir from the City Forum (Forkot), who is registered with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Other than activists from the 1998 movement, who are credited with helping to overthrow former president Soeharto, other rights defenders have also been recruited to run in the election next April.

They include Agung Putri, a former member of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) and Yulianti Ratnaningsih, former member of the Surabaya-based Pro-Democracy Women's Group (KPPD). They will run on PDI-P tickets.

"The participation of activists will undoubtedly help the party to reach out to the people and promote their rights through more public policies that the PDI-P will fight for in the House," PDI-P secretary-general Tjahjo Kumolo said after handing the list of the party's 560 potential legislative candidates to the KPU on Monday.

The PDI-P is the party that has recruited most rights activists in addition to several incumbents from the same background, such as Budiman Sudjatmiko, who founded the PRD in 1996 and led street demonstrations in Jakarta during the events of 1998. Budiman is currently a member of the House's Commission II overseeing domestic governance.

Monday was the deadline for political parties to submit their provisional lists of legislative candidates. Not all parties managed to nominate enough candidates to compete for the 560 seats in the House. The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) submitted 492 names, the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI) 512 names and the Crescent Star Party (PBB) 552 names.

KPU chairman Husni Kamil Malik said the commission had received documents on 6,576 candidates; 2,434 of whom are women.

The poll body will scrutinize all of the documents to verify the candidates' eligibility. The KPU is expected to officially announce the final results in early June.

All parties, he said, managed to fulfill the 30 percent quota for women as required by the 2012 Legislative Election Law.

Most political parties are still relying on celebrities – singers, actresses, sportsmen – to boost their votes in the upcoming elections.

They are also still giving chances to members implicated in graft scandals to seek reelection. The Golkar Party, for instance, is nominating Setya Novanto and Kahar Muzakir, who are both implicated in the National Games (PON) graft scandal.

Several parties such as the NasDem Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN) claimed that they only endorsed young legislative hopefuls. PAN's youngest legislative candidate is 21 years old.

Others boasted of having recruited candidates with doctoral degrees. Golkar has 44 candidates with doctoral degrees; the United Development Party (PPP) and the PKB has 14 and 15, respectively.

Political dynasties produce negative consequences: Observers

Jakarta Post - April 23, 2013

Jakarta – Soon after the country decided that regional heads should be democratically elected, local political dynasties emerged as a new political force.

Take Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah, for example, whose family members hold key political posts in the province.

Her sister-in-law, Airin Rachmi Diany, is South Tangerang mayor. Her daughter-in-law, Adde Khairunnisa, is the deputy speaker of Serang Legislative Council, her stepsister, Ratu Tatu Chasanah, is Serang deputy regent and her stepbrother Tb. Chaerul Jaman is now Serang mayor. Her eldest son, Andika Hazrumy, is reportedly considering running for mayor of Tangerang in this year's election.

Pundits have now begun to ponder whether such a trend is good or bad for Indonesian politics.

Titi Anggraeni, the executive director of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) is concerned that political dynasties might have negative consequences.

Titi defined a political dynasty as when members of a certain family dominate a country's legislative and executive seats. Political dynasties come about through a phenomenon known political scientists as the "coattail effect".

"The coattail effect occurs when positive public appraisal of prominent politicians lifts the popularity of their close friends or family members," Titi said.

"Because the politician is seen as capable, then the public tends to believe in the competence of his or her inner circle," Titi added.

Perludem chairman Didik Supriyanto said that political dynasties did not always bring negative consequences. "Political dynasties are common. In the US, we have the Kennedy and Clinton dynasty," Didik said.

In the context of Indonesia's immature democracy, political dynasties could have negative consequences. "The political dynasties can hinder fair competition. A lot of political parties in Indonesia are still very elitist. Because of their closed selection process, favoritism toward family members of the party's chairman can easily set in when they select party executives," Didik said.

Didik is afraid that political dynasties encourage politicians to embezzle taxpayer's money to finance the campaigns of their family members.

"Party executives might abuse their power to get financial support for their family. They might misuse public facilities for campaigning purposes," Didik said.

Titi mentioned several "risk factors" that might cause political dynasties to turn corrupt.

"Prosecutors tend to give lenient sentences to corrupt politicians which might encourage graft to buy popularity for family members," Titi said. "The permissive attitude towards corruption will cause them to tolerate corrupt financing of campaigns for family members. They think it's okay for politicians to use public facilities and taxpayers' money, when in fact these practices are not proper," she added.

The House of Representatives has deliberated a bill on regional elections, which prohibits family members to run for the incumbent's seat until someone else serves that function for at least one year.

Titi believes the regulation deprives citizens of their constitutional rights. "The constitution guarantees equal rights for all citizens to run for office. A person can file a lawsuit if he or she is deprived of that right," Titi said.

Titi believes the rule will not discourage corrupt dynasties since it does not solve the root causes of the problem. "This regulation is a shortcut. They have not made sufficient effort to prevent the possibility of power abuse holistically," Titi said.

"To prevent power abuse, legislators need to focus on a few things. First, they need to increase transparency in executive selection processes. Second, prosecutors should hand corrupt politicians heavy punishments. Third, they should pay serious attention to bureaucratic reform," Titin added. (ogi)

Surveys & opinion polls

Prabowo, Wiranto compete to be most electable in 2014

Jakarta Post - April 29, 2013

Jakarta – A new survey has found that chief patron of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto and chairman of the People's Conscience (Hanura) Party Gen. (ret) Wiranto finished first and second in a list of the most preferable candidates for the 2014 presidential election.

The survey, conducted by a think tank called the Political Climatology Institute (LKP), found that if a presidential election were to take place today, Prabowo and Wiranto would receive 19.8 percent and 15.4 percent of the vote, respectively.

The survey highlights that the impressive showing of the two politicians was helped by the fact that their political parties were newcomers and had yet to become entangled in corruption.

"Both Gerindra and Hanura are outside the system and this has helped them get recognition from voters for a good cause. Both parties are not yet involved in corruption and other problems," chief executive officer of the LKP Usman Rachman said in a press briefing on Sunday.

Usman added the two politicians also benefitted from the fact that they were former Army generals who were considered to have the pedigrees to become strong leaders.

"Both are generals who are deemed to have knowledge of the country's territorial condition. They are also considered able to be tough leaders," Usman said.

For the survey, the LPK interviewed 1,225 respondents in the country's 33 provinces between 20 March and 30 March. The margin of error in the survey was 2.8 percent.

The survey also found that chairman of the Golkar Party Aburizal Bakrie was more popular than the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri. More than 14 percent of the survey's respondents said they would vote for Aburizal if a presidential poll were to take place today, against 13.3 percent who said they would vote for Megawati.

Other pollsters recently found that Megawati's electability rating continued to improve while that of Aburizal hovered in single digits.

Analysts said Aburizal's shot at the presidency would continue to be dogged by the involvement of his company in the Lapindo mudflow incident and tax evasion charges.

The LPK survey also showed that other politicians such as Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Radjasa and First Lady Ani Yudhoyono continued to register low electability ratings.

Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo remained a popular candidate. More than 24 percent of respondents said they would vote for Jokowi as a vice presidential candidate.

Young voters dissatisfied with SBY

Jakarta Post - April 26, 2013

A survey conducted by pollster Indo-Barometer shows that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's approval rating is very low among young voters in the country.

Indo-Barometer found that 59.1 percent of its 1,200 respondents across the country's 33 provinces were of the opinion that Yudhoyono's administration had done a poor job. The approval rating for the President's Cabinet was even lower, with 64.5 percent of respondents saying they were dissatisfied by how ministers handled their jobs.

The lowest approval rating was registered for Vice President Boediono with only 27.5 percent of respondents saying that he had done a good job.

For the survey, which had a margin of error of 3 percent, Indo-Barometer interviewed young people between the ages of 16 and 30.

Public dubious about NGOs: Survey

Jakarta Post - April 26, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – A survey published on Thursday revealed that the public has grown suspicious of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) active in the country.

The survey, jointly conducted by public relations firm Edelman Trust Barometer in collaboration with the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), shows that steadily declining public trust in NGOs has reached "an unusually low level".

In the survey, conducted between October and November last year, Edelman found that only 51 percent of 1,200 respondents said they trusted NGOs operating in the country. The figure was a drop from last year's 53 percent and 2011's 61 percent.

The study also concluded that the level of public trust in NGOs in the country is below the global level of 63 percent. NGO's in the country's closest neighbor Malaysia, registered an approval rating of 76 percent, while in China the figure stands at a staggering 81 percent.

Edelman Indonesia vice chairman and head of consulting Bambang Chriswanto said factors contributing to the low public support for the NGOs included poor internal management and lack of capacity-building among not-for-profit organizations.

"A lot of these organizations have shown great progress in transforming their organizations, but the challenge is that many of them are unable to articulate their narrative about their policies and actions – in such critical areas as employee relations, ethics or governance – as well as they should to their stakeholders here in Indonesia," Bambang said Thursday.

Bambang added that most of the respondents, even those who were well- educated and had access to information, had little knowledge of NGO programs or their benefactors.

Several respondents also expressed concern that some NGO activists had failed to live up to the values promoted by their organizations.

The survey also found that the public put more trust in the media and businesses, which registered approval ratings of 77 percent and 74 percent respectively.

Contacted separately, executive director for human rights watchdog Imparsial Poengky Indarti said she could understand if people had grown wary of NGOs.

"I can understand if many of the respondents are unaware of the contributions NGOs have made to the country's development. But some stakeholders in these organizations, including victims of rights abuses, will certainly have a different opinion about this," Poengky told The Jakarta Post.

Poengky said that the survey's findings should serve as a wake-up call for NGOs operating in the country to make improvements.

Chief of the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan), Yuniyanti Chuzaifah said the criticism of the country's NGOs was unfair.

"Some of these NGOs are well trusted by members of the community. They have faithfully served the people regardless of whether they get recognition or not. I wonder which NGOs the survey referred to because not all groups are part of the genuine civil society movement," Yuniyanti said.

Environment & natural disasters

With or without moratorium, Indonesia forests still under threat

Jakarta Post - April 25, 2013

Nadya Natahadibrata, Jakarta – The Forestry Ministry has failed to show its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation despite its support for the extension of the moratorium on forest clearance, activists claim.

They accuse the ministry of getting around the moratorium by rezoning forest areas into non-forest areas through spatial planning bylaws and ministerial decrees.

Forestry Ministry secretary-general Hadi Daryanto has said that the ministry would approve the new spatial planning bylaw proposed by the Aceh administration that allows for conversion of protected forests into non- forest zones.

Data from the Coalition of Aceh Rainforest Movements shows that the new spatial planning would allow the conversion of around 1.2 million hectares of Aceh's existing 3.78 million hectares of protected forest into non- forest areas.

Under the draft bylaw, Governor Zaini Abdullah is planning to reduce forest land from 68 percent to 45 percent, paving the way for palm oil plantations and logging concessions, the coalition claims.

Hadi said that the central government would soon finalize the draft, as the total area of forest that would be converted to non-forest was not as high as was claimed by the activists.

"According to the Aceh governor, the actual forest area that will be converted under the new spatial planning bylaw is not 1.2 million hectares, but only 119,000 hectares," Hadi said on Tuesday.

"The draft will soon be finalized, but it will not be as damaging as reported in the media. The rezoning plan is actually being issued for the sake of Aceh's development," he added.

Nabiha Shahab, REDD+ Aceh Initiative Coordinator said that the Aceh administration should be transparent and publish the content of the new spatial planning bylaw and the total affected forest areas to avoid misunderstanding.

"The public and NGOs are now collecting their information from whatever sources they have, when it is actually the administration that should explain it to the public," Nabiha said.

"It is stipulated in the law that local administrations should take the public's views into consideration," Nabiha said. "And good development can be achieved without harming the forest," she added.

Meanwhile, the Association for Community and Ecology-Based Law Reform (Huma) program coordinator Anggalia Putri said the moratorium was the nation's last hope to halt further deforestation.

Presidential Instruction No. 10/2011 authorizing the moratorium was issued after Indonesia and Norway signed a US$1 billion deal to help Indonesia reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation.

The moratorium prohibits the issuance of new licenses for the conversion of primary forests and peatland in both protected forest and productive forest.

Anggalia said that should the ministry approve the new Aceh spatial planning bylaw, the protected forests downgraded to non-forest areas could not be saved by the moratorium, however the moratorium would prevent further damage to the country's forests.

"The local administration should have considered the moratorium. However the presidential instruction is not legally binding as it is only an internal policy," he said.

In August last year, the ministry issued Ministerial Decree No. 458/2012 under which around 800,000 hectares of forest in Papua, including protected forest, would be converted into productive forest and other utilization areas.

Log exports threaten Indonesia forests

Jakarta Post - April 24, 2013

Nadya Natahadibrata and Anggi M. Lubis, Jakarta – The government's plan to extend the moratorium on forest clearance may prove pointless as it also plans to restart log exports, a move activists say will only make illegal logging more rampant.

Forestry Ministry secretary-general Hadi Daryanto said on Tuesday that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was considering extending the moratorium, which will expire on May 20.

"Without the moratorium, our forests are actually protected under the law. However, despite the existing law, we've still found illegal activities that have been damaging our protected forests. The moratorium adds another layer of forest protection," he said.

Presidential Instruction No. 10/2011 on the moratorium was issued after Indonesia and Norway signed a US$1 billion deal to help Indonesia reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation. Data from the ministry shows that from 1996 to 2003, deforestation in the country reached 3.5 million hectares per year.

Since the log export ban was enacted in 2001 and the forest clearance moratorium, which prohibits the issuance of new licenses for the conversion of primary forests and peatlands in both protected forest and productive forest, was introduced, the country saw only 450 hectares of deforestation per year.

The ministry, however, is now mulling a plan to lift the ban on log exports, saying that the development of industrial forests is sluggish due to low prices; therefore, the ministry needs to open the export market to boost it.

Logs from industrial forests are currently priced at $30 per cubic meter – compared to the regional price of $80 per cubic meter – as local production only circulates in the domestic market, reducing the price.

Environmental activists expressed their concerns over the reopening of the log export trade, as it could trigger massive deforestation and encourage illegal logging.

"The ministry had actually taken a good step in supporting the extension of the moratorium. It was in line with our goal to protect the forests. However, their plan to lift the log export ban is counter-productive and will definitely affect the moratorium itself," Kiki Taufik from Greenpeace Indonesia told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Kiki said that restarting log exports would open the door to illegal logging that was rampant from 1998 until 2001, when the ban on exporting logs was imposed. "This will almost certainly further damage forests in Kalimantan and Papua, the main target of illegal logging, and the deforestation will be as damaging as in the late 1990s after the reformation era," he said.

According to Hadi, the ministry was aware of the possibility of illegal logging, and that it would undergo long discussions before it would decide to restart log exports. He added that the ministry would only select a few seaports as export gates and closely monitor them in order to avoid illegal logging.

"We can also engage in bilateral agreements on log exports. For instance, if we choose to supply the demand for logs in China we would choose a particular seaport as the export gate," he said.

Greenpeace activist Yuyun Indradi said that the government's scheme to restart log exports would not benefit the nation. "They should add value to the logs before exporting them, to provide jobs for the people. This is definitely contrary to its [the government's] declaration of pro-growth and pro-job development," he said.

Hadi said that lifting the export ban would not interfere with the local labor-intensive furniture industry. "For example, we might only allow [exporters] to export acacia and eucalyptus, which has high demand in the pulp and paper industry. This regulation might raise the public's interest in planting eucalyptus and acacia, because the demand is high," he said. "And at the same time, it wouldn't obstruct our furniture industry," he said.

Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) forest campaigner Zenzi Suhadi said that Indonesia had just recovered from the trauma of deforestation caused by illegal logging, which was nowadays replaced by mining and plantation.

"The international market favors logs from Malaysia because they are certified," Zenzi said. "When in fact those logs have been taken illegally from our forests, mainly from Kalimantan and are processed in Malaysian factories and become legal when they export them," he said. "This will restart a forest-destroying machine that has long been inactive," Zenzi told the Post on Tuesday.

Gapki says 'no' to moratorium extension

Jakarta Post - April 24, 2013

Anggi M. Lubis, Jakarta – The Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki) has opposed the government's plan to prolong a two-year forest moratorium, slated to end in May, saying that such an extension would only hamper the expansion of the country's palm oil sector.

Indonesia, through Presidential Instruction No. 10/2011, had set a two-year moratorium to halt the commercial use of a total 65.2 million hectares of primary forests and peatland in an attempt to curtail deforestation and reduce greenhouse gases.

The moratorium, which resulted from an Indonesia-Norway bilateral agreement with a US$1 billion potential carbon transaction, will expire on May 20.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan has declared the moratorium a success, saying that the move has slowed the country's deforestation rate to 450 hectares per year during 2010-2011 from 3.5 million hectares per year in the period of 1999-2002.

Indonesia has pledged to cut back its carbon emissions by 26 percent from the current 2.1 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by 2020, and by 2012 Indonesia had cut 489 billion tons of CO2e or 16.57 percent of the target.

"Such progress shows that the country needs to continue the forest moratorium," Zulkifli said in a speech read during a national seminar held in Jakarta on Tuesday, further emphasizing the government's plan to go on with the moratorium.

A two-year moratorium was enough to curb deforestation and to lower carbon emissions, but an extension would only incur losses to palm plantation companies that had contributed much to the state income, Gapki's director of law and advocacy Tungkot Sipayung said.

Tungkot said that the government should focus on protecting primary and conservation forests, and let loose the usage of peatland deemed as prospective palm plantation land.

"The moratorium will limit the opportunity to develop our country's palm oil production. We already have a 1999 Forestry Law to monitor the matter, therefore a longer forest moratorium is not needed," he said, adding that data gathered from various sources showed that peatland planted with palm could reduce carbon emissions more than peatland left dormant.

Gapki's data is in contrast with research reports from various international institutions and environmental organizations that say emissions from logging and drainage on peatland have contributed significantly to Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions, including methane. Palm plantation expansion has long been blamed for rampant deforestation, while high demand for palm oil has driven rapid forest loss in several areas such as in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Indonesia, the world's largest palm oil producer with an annual output of over 26 million tons, has been expanding its oil palm estates by 200,000 hectares a year, which are mostly developed by large companies.

Tungkot said that the extended moratorium would only generate losses to the country as it limited development of labor-intensive palm plantations and palm processing sectors, that absorbed 6.7 million workers and had contributed Rp 30.73 trillion (US$3.16 billion) to state income in 2006- 2012 from crude palm oil (CPO) alone.

Palm oil players have strongly opposed the moratorium since it commenced two years ago, saying that it contradicted the government's plan to reach 40 million tons of CPO production in 2020.

Zulkifli, however, said that the moratorium would not affect the country's economy. "Many businessmen protested the moratorium before it was launched in 2011 saying that it would hamper investment. But our country, in contrast, recorded 6.3 percent economic growth in 2012," Zulkifli said.

Governmental institutions involved in illegal logging, mining: Commission

Jakarta Post - April 23, 2013

Jakarta – Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas said a study on corruption conducted by the commission found that illegal logging and mining practices in Indonesia had involved at least 12 ministries and/or non-ministry governmental institutions.

Busyro went on to say that forest crimes occurred because the government conspired with perpetrators in forest areas used for intransparent business.

"Perpetrators of forest crimes are often called 'unidentified officials', however they commit the crime collectively," said Busyro in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He made the statements in a discussion, on Monday, held by Change.org in cooperation with Public Virtue Institute, End of the Icons, and Humanitarian Forums Indonesia at Muhammadiyah Central Board office to commemorate Earth Day which fell on April 22.

A researcher from ICW's law and monitoring division, Donald Fariz, said the forestry sector had been marred by corrupt practices that included chaotic permit issuance procedures.

"Many illegal logging activities are supported by security officers. I also think there was corruption in the revision process of Aceh's spatial planning bylaw (RTRW)," he said. During the discussion, all participants urged the government to extend a moratorium that banned the issuance of new permits in natural forests and peat lands, which will expire on May 20.

They also urged the government to halt the revision process of Aceh's RTRW, which has the potential to reduce protected forests in Aceh, including a tropical forest acclaimed by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a "World Heritage" site. (ebf)

Health & education

Indonesia child vaccination drive faces challenges

Jakarta Post - April 30, 2013

Nadya Natahadibrata, Jakarta – The Health Ministry said Maluku, North Maluku, Papua and West Papua had the lowest rate of vaccination and births without the assistance of health workers.

"The vaccination rate is under 50 percent in these provinces. We need to work harder to involve local health agencies to increase their vaccination coverage," Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi said.

Nafsiah said that vaccinating children under five years old can prevent communicable disease that can cause disabilities or even death, including tetanus, polio and measles.

Vaccinations reduced the country's infant mortality rate from 46 per 1,000 infants in 1990 to 35 per 1,000 in 2012. The mortality rate of children under five had also decreased from 58 per 1,000 in 1997 to 40 per 1,000 last year.

UNICEF said that Indonesia was on track to reduce its infant mortality rate to 34 per 1,000 live births, which is the number set by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Health Ministry, however, said that of the 24 million children in Indonesia, 3 million had not been vaccinated and as a result were at risk.

"In Indonesia, only 86.8 percent of infants received universal child immunization. There are around 13 percent of infants that still haven't been vaccinated," Nafsiah said, explaining that the ministry faced numerous challenges in its drive to reach all recipients, including remote communities and local norms; in urban areas – especially in the slums – most parents are wary of vaccinations.

Beffa Yigibalom, regent of Lani Jaya, Papua, reiterated the ministry's findings and explained that the high mortality rates in his regency were likely caused by the low rate of vaccination coverage and childbirth without the assistance of health workers, however, the regency had yet to collect maternal and infant mortality data.

"A lot of women give birth without any help from health workers, due to the regency's difficult terrain," Beffa said, adding that there were only 10 doctors and 100 midwives for 160,000 residents in the regency.

"Our regency is probably the only one in the country without a family planning program. Apparently the death rate here is higher than the birth rate," he said.

Calls mount for education and culture minister to resign

Jakarta Post - April 29, 2013

Nadya Natahadibrata, Jakarta – A coalition of educators and antigraft activists have called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to sack his Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh for the latter's incompetence in organizing this year's national examination, which resulted in a delay of the exams in 11 provinces.

The coalition also said that Nuh did not deserve the ministerial post he currently held due to his failure to come up with strategies to improve the country's education, as indicated by his ministry's failure to produce a decent curriculum for the 2013 school year.

"If Mohammad Nuh refuses to step down, we will strongly urge the President to fire him," said Indonesian Teachers Unions Federation (FSGI) secretary- general Retno Listyarti on Sunday.

Education activist Bambang Wisudo of Sekolah Tanpa Batas (Schools Without Borders), a non-governmental organization promoting creative and critical education, said the chaos in this year's national exam was the culmination of a series of management blunders within the Education and Culture Ministry under Nuh's leadership.

"He can't even organize the national exam. How can he produce a new curriculum that was only prepared in less than a year," Bambang said.

He said that if Nuh had his way with the new curriculum the state of the country's education could take a further turn for the worse. "The curriculum will not improve the quality of education in the country, but will instead make it worse. We urge the minister to immediately step down," he added.

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) accused Nuh of overseeing irregularities in the preparation of logistics for the 2013 national exam.

ICW researcher Ade Irawan said Nuh was the most responsible official for the national exam fiasco, as he held the highest authority to plan the budget and organize the tender for the printing and distribution of exam materials. "Based on ICW findings, corruption practices mostly occurred during budget planning," Ade said.

ICW suspected this year's unorganized national exam could be related to a plan to collect funds for the election. "Approaching the general elections, the massive budget managed by the ministry could likely be channeled to accommodate political interests," Ade said.

As previously reported, the ministry disbursed Rp 644.24 billion (US$66.29 million) for the national exams, with a total of Rp 120.59 billion allocated for the printing and distribution of exam materials for both junior and senior high schools, and Rp 85.57 billion for elementary school exams.

The Finance Ministry had blocked the budget for the exam, as the initial budget – as stated with Presidential Decree No. 37/2012 – was Rp 544 billion, with 14.08 million participating students and a unit cost of Rp 39,000 per student.

However, the version of the budget as proposed by the Education and Culture Ministry was approved by the House of Representatives. The approved budget, Rp 644 billion, was earmarked for 12.23 million students with a unit cost of Rp 53,000 per student.

The Finance Ministry finally decided to disburse the fund in March, following the finalization of contracts to print the materials.

"The difference in the number of students participating in the exams and the unit cost raises so many questions. There should be an investigation into this and not only into irregularities involving the printing company," Ade said.

The coalition also called for the removal of the national exam from the country's education system.

Retno regretted that state universities backed the ministry by allowing the result of this year's national exam to be used as one of the requirements for high school students to apply to state universities through the merit- based selection process.

Head of the government committee tasked with organizing the state universities national entrance test, Akhmaloka, said this year's national exam results would remain the requirement for the selection process formerly known as PMDK and now renamed SNMPTN.

Nuh balked at the call for him to resign, saying that only Yudhoyono could decide his fate in the Cabinet. "I was assigned by the President, not by others. Whether I am deemed a failure depends on those who assess me," Nuh told reporters in Surabaya on Sunday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Stressful religious lessons to blame for 'blasphemous' video: Komnas PA

Jakarta Globe - April 25, 2013

Camelia Pasandaran – The National Commission on Child Protection (Komnas PA) said that the blame for a "blasphemous" video of five students dancing and praying should be put on school officials and teachers for failing to educate them properly.

"They [the school] should consult with ulema and religious figures, and study [the students'] behavior first [before declaring them blasphemous]," Seto Mulyadi, a child psychologist and chairman of the Komnas PA board of advisers, told Jakarta Globe on Thursday.

"Did they do it intentionally, or was it only a result of a religious lesson that was not optimal so these children decided to mock their religion?"

Seto said that the lack of respect for religion some say was exhibited in the video may not have been the students' fault, and instead could be blamed on the failure of teachers and parents to educate them properly. "If religious lessons are seen as a stressful burden, it can be counterproductive to the students," Seto said.

Five high school students in Tolitoli, Central Sulawesi, who recorded themselves dancing to a song by US band Maroon 5 and praying, were expelled from school and face time in juvenile detention for blaspheming religion after the video surfaced on the Internet. They were also prohibited from taking the national exam last week, which accounts for 60 percent of a student's grade to graduate high school.

The girls told police they were trying to kill time between an hours-long break from classes in the afternoon of March 9 when they made the video. The headmaster of the school, Muallimin, decided to report the students to the police after consulting with the Indonesian Ulema Council's (MUI) Tolitoli branch and the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).

Adj. Comr. Alhajat, the Tolitoli Police chief of detectives, said that the five students were charged with tainting religion under Article 156 of the Criminal Code.

Seto said that the school had failed to acknowledge that they're just kids who can't be held responsible for the crime they've been charged with.

"They're not adults, they need guidance and correction," Seto said. "Prohibiting them from taking the national exam is a violation of the children's rights. It should be separated between the mistake that needs to be fixed and their right to a future. In this case, these children have not been convicted, so why was their right to education violated?"

Seto also said that the students have not yet been proven guilty of tainting religion, so religious groups should not criticize them.

The police should discuss the case with a diverse group of people, he said, rather than charging the students with blasphemy based on the testimony of just a few groups.

"This is a law-based nation, all considerations should be taken into account," Seto said. "The most important is the educators should reflect on their religious lessons and how they teach ethics to the students. If the teachers are grumpy, the children may dislike the lessons."

Seto said that school officials should take the blame for the video since it happened at the school property.

Expulsion of Tolitoli students unwise: MUI

Jakarta Post - April 24, 2013

Ruslan Sangadji, Palu – The public in Tolitoli, Central Sulawesi, was shocked in March by a video of five female students from State Senior High School 2 who were seen mixing Islamic prayer movements with dancing.

The video was widely circulated via cell phones among the general public on March 29, when residents at the Tambun Market in Tolitoli crowded round to watch the video. They recognized the girls in the video as they were attending additional tuition sessions to prepare for the national examinations (UN).

The school authorities were immediately notified and they took firm action by expelling AR, RM, YL, MR and SI from the school and barring them from taking the exams.

"The case is being dealt with by the police and the girls could be charged with violating the Blasphemy Law," said the school's principal Muallimin. The Tolitoli Police have named them suspects.

The chairman of the Central Sulawesi chapter of the Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI), Ali Muhammad Aljufri, said, however, that the expulsions were carried out too hastily without any consideration for the girls' futures.

"They are still young and need guidance from their parents and teachers. Expelling them is not a good example of guidance. The school authorities should instead be punished for their action," said Ali who is also chief caretaker at the Alkhairaat Islamic boarding school. The children, he added, were probably unaware of their wrongdoing.

"We also fear that other delinquencies could arise due to the depression they may suffer," he said, adding that they should be offered guidance and provided with religious knowledge to face the consequences of their deeds.

"The video showed that those involved in educating them, be their parents and teachers, as well as the MUI, should be more active in teaching the teenagers moral values in accordance with religious teachings," Ali said.

In the video, which lasted five-and-a-half minutes, the girls displayed prayer movements combined with music from the Maroon 5 band. Allegedly, they committed their act due to the popularity of the Harlem Shake flash mobs.

Muallimin acknowledged the school authorities were confused as to what action to take. He added that they felt forced to expel the students to prevent a public outcry.

"The public, especially the Muslim community, was angry; they could not accept the act," he said. Ali said the community was currently in an unhealthy condition. Children who should be guided are instead treated mercilessly by the community.

"What if their children are treated in a similar way? In my view, the children are not wrong; their parents and teachers are wrong," said Ali, a graduate from Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

He urged the police to close the case and return the children to their parents. He also urged relevant agencies to provide emotional guidance for them to prevent mental distress after being ostracized by locals.

"The MUI also expects them to be allowed to immediately take their UN. Should the school authorities have any qualms about the case, they could send the girls to Palu to sit the UN at Alkhairaat," said Ali.

Alkhairaat Teachers Association (PGA) chairman Mansur A. Baba said youngsters who mocked prayer movements by dancing indicated the poor guidance being carried out in schools. He urged the school principal, the students' counselor and teachers to retract their decision and revoke the police report.

Students kicked out of school for having 'Moves Like Jagger'

Jakarta Globe - April 23, 2013

Five high school students in Tolitoli, Central Sulawesi, who recorded themselves dancing to a Maroon 5 song and praying, have been expelled from school and face time in juvenile detention for "tainting religion" after the video surfaced on the Internet.

The five girls were trying to kill time between an hours-long break from classes in the afternoon of March 9 when they made the video.

In a long explanation sent to Detik.com, the headmaster of the school, Muallimin, said he decided to report the students to the police after consulting with the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).

"The students were performing Sholat [prayer] movement with dancing while alternately reciting [the] Koran and turning on 'One More Night' music," Muallimin said, referring to the Maroon 5 song. "The activity was recorded with a mobile phone of one of the students and they forced other student to hold the phone for a duration of five to six minutes."

The students have been expelled from school and were forbidden from taking last week's high school national exam, which counts for 60 percent of a student's final mark to determine whether they will graduate from high school. The expulsion was approved by the FPI Tolitoli branch head, local Youth and Sports Agency, Tolitoli Religious Affairs Ministry and the MUI.

The students were questioned for the first time by police on April 3. Adj. Comr. Alhajat, the Tolitoli Police chief of detectives, said that the five students were charged with blasphemy against religion under article 156 of the Criminal Code.

"Temporarily we use this law, but there's a possibility that we'll charge them with other articles during the process," Alhajat said, as quoted by JPNN.com.

Tolitoli Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Rudy Mulyanto said that the five have not been detained because they are children, but the legal proceeding would continue.

Minister of Education Muhammad Nuh said that the school had reacted disproportionately to the student's video. "Even students in [juvenile detention] were allowed to join national exam," Nuh said on Tuesday, as quoted by Detik.com.

On March 29, a man told his wife, a teacher at the school, the he saw people watching the video at a market. She later reported the case to the school. It was not clear who uploaded the video to YouTube.

Refugees & asylum seekers

Activist calls for updated laws on immigrants passing through Indonesia

Jakarta Globe - April 23, 2013

Rizky Amelia – Indonesia's role as a transit country for immigrants from conflict-torn countries seeking to go to Australia has highlighted the dearth of legislation to deal with the issue here, an activist says.

Ali Akbar Tanjung, from the Human Rights Working Group, said prevailing immigration laws only touched briefly on the matter of refugees. "What Indonesia needs to do is draw up a set of rules for how to properly process immigrants," he said.

He argued that a law specifically addressing this issue would improve and standardize handling of immigrants, and shift the sole burden of responsibility from the Justice and Human Rights Ministry's Directorate General of Immigration and farm it out to other government agencies, such as the Foreign Ministry and the Social Affairs Ministry.

Ali said a key point that could be addressed in such a law would be the placement of immigrants pending a response to applications to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration for placement in a third country.

He noted that currently large groups of immigrants were held at immigration detention centers across the country, but said such facilities were inappropriate because they were designed for foreigners accused of immigration offenses.

Such placement has prompted criticism over the crowded conditions and inadequate facilities. Earlier t his month, eight Myanmar Buddhists were killed at a packed detention center in a clash with members of the country's Rohingya ethnic group.

He also emphasized the need for greater dialogue with destination countries to take immigrants who had already been granted refugee status but for whom the UNHCR had still not found a willing host country.

"Our position as a transit country doesn't allow us to sit still and do nothing. We're not a destination country. That's why we need to improve communications with the countries that are," Ali said.

Ida Bagus Adniyadna, the immigration office's director of investigations, said a new law was not needed for the issue of dealing with immigrants, but acknowledged that the Foreign Ministry had raised the point.

Graft & corruption

PKS member named suspect in investment scam

Jakarta Post - April 30, 2013

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Depok – Depok police have arrested a man identified as Purwandriono over a Rp 43.9 billion (U$4.51 million) investment scam. Purwandriono, who is also a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) member, was arrested at his home following reports made by victims from Jakarta and Depok.

"We are still pursuing the man who orchestrated the whole scam," Depok criminal investigation unit head Comr. Ronald A Purba said on Monday. He said the police had also confiscated three cars and a truck from the suspect's house as evidence.

Head of PKS Depok Regional Board Supariyono confirmed that Purwandriono was a PKS member but then stated that the allegations were Purwandriono's private business and did not involve the party. "We at the party have no knowledge of the scam and therefore it is his responsibility to answer the police during the investigation," he said.

Sukmajaya Police office head Comr. Fitria Mega said the arrest was a follow-up to a report made by a Sukmajaya resident identified only as AA who claimed to have lost Rp 538 million invested in a cooperative providing office supplies for schools in Jakarta.

He said the police then discovered 70 more people with a minimum investment of Rp 100 million who, following a preliminary investigation, also appeared to be victims of the scam. (asw/dic)

Rising campaign costs could mean more corruption: Activist group

Jakarta Globe - April 29, 2013

SP/Carlos Paath – Increasing campaign costs could spur greater corruption after next year's elections as politicians try to recoup their money, an activist group says.

Sebastian Salang, executive director of the Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi), said he feared there will be more political corruption cases after the 2014 election because campaign costs, which are largely unregulated, keep growing.

"I suspect that corruption post-2014 general elections will be increased because selected lawmakers would try to recoup the money they have spent on campaigns," Sebastian said in a discussion titled "Preventing Foreign and Illegitimate Funds in 2014 Elections" on Monday.

He said that if lawmakers earn Rp 60 million ($6,173) per month, for example, in salary and expense allowances, their five-year earnings will not compare to the cost of their campaigns. Since political costs are growing, he suspected that some lawmakers would try to bring in extra money in other ways, which could result in corruption.

"The current trend is that political parties look for wealthy people to support for the candidacy. There are even businessmen who admitted they paid the costs for legislative candidates with an agreement that once they were elected, they would secure the businessmen's interests," Sebastian said.

He added that this type of lobbying is not in the best interest of the country. "If power is being bought, then this nation is just waiting for the bankruptcy," Sebastian said.

The arrangement of funding for political parties is outlined in the 2008 and 2011 Laws on Political Parties, which regulate funding to members' contributions, lawful donations and support from the budgets at the state and regional levels.

He said it was unlikely that the General Elections Commission (KPU) and Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) could verify the sources of political funds.

Ray Rangkuti, from the Indonesian Civic Network (LIMA), said that there have not been any regulations on campaign funds. He said the need for large campaign budgets pushes political parties to seek money from illegitimate and foreign sources.

"This political design does not arrange at all about the political parties funds especially for campaigns. The methodology that is often found is using political power to rob state and regional budgets," he said.

KPK widens investigation into graft-ridden Hambalang project

Jakarta Post - April 27, 2013

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has decided to expand its probe into the graft-ridden Hambalang sports complex construction case by investigating the procurement of equipment in the project.

"Previously we investigated the construction process of the sports complex, now we are also investigating the equipment procurement process," KPK spokesperson Johan Budi told a press conference at the KPK headquarters in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Friday.

He said the KPK had begun its investigation of the Hambalang equipment procurement process a while ago and that it had questioned several people involved. According to Johan, the antigraft body suspected the procurement process was also rife with irregularities.

A source within the KPK said the antigraft body was suspicious about the equipment procurement process because it started well before the construction of the sports center was even finished.

According to an investigative audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), the Hambalang sports complex began as a modest single-year project with a budget of Rp 125 billion (US$12.8 million) before turning into a multi-year project worth Rp 1.2 trillion.

Adding the procurement of equipment – worth Rp 1.3 trillion – the project budget ballooned to Rp 2.5 trillion, causing massive state losses of Rp 243 billion.

Johan said the KPK would use the BPK report in its investigation. The KPK is still proceeding with its investigation into the Hambalang construction project.

The commission planned to summon former Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, who has been named a suspect for allegedly accepting kickbacks from state-owned construction company PT Adhi Karya in return for him helping the company secure the tender.

"Anas will be summoned as a witness for former youth and sports minister Andi Mallarangeng," Johan said. This will be the first time Anas is questioned as a witness over the Hambalang graft case since he was named a suspect in late February this year.

On Friday, the KPK questioned Democratic Party lawmaker Mirwan Amir, the former deputy chairman of the House of the Representatives budgetary committee, as a witness in the case.

Former Democratic Party treasurer and graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin previously accused Mirwan, along with other members of the budgetary committee, of accepting a total of Rp 20 billion from Mahfud Suroso, director of PT Duta Sari Citralaras, another subcontractor involved in the Hambalang project.

Nazaruddin also claimed that Andi and Anas received Rp 20 billion and Rp 50 billion respectively, while members of the House's Commission X overseeing education and sports received Rp 10 billion.

After being questioned for three hours, Mirwan denied all of the allegations. "I have explained to the KPK investigators that I know nothing about the project. I am not involved at all," he said.

So far, the KPK has named four suspects in the case – Dedy Kusdinar, the chief of the Youth and Sports Ministry's financial and internal affairs bureau, Teuku Bagus Mohammad Noor, the director of PT Adhi Karya, Andi and Anas.

Graft suspect promised to finance PKS campaigns

Jakarta Post - April 25, 2013

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The first trial hearing of two suspects in the beef graft scandal revealed on Wednesday that former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq may have used the alleged bribery money to finance the party's election campaign in North Sumatra.

While reading out their indictment against PT Indoguna Utama officials Juard Effendi and Arya Abdi Effendi, who stand accused of bribing Luthfi, Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors said Luthfi had allegedly asked meat import company Indoguna's president director, Maria Elizabeth Liman, to finance his campaign trip to North Sumatra.

The request was made when Ahmad Fathanah, a close aide to Luthfi, met with Maria in a restaurant in Senayan City, South Jakarta, in December last year. "The meeting was held to ask whether Maria Elizabeth was willing to finance Luthfi's campaign in Sumatra," lead prosecutor Mochamad Rum told the Jakarta Corruption Court.

Rum said that during the meeting Maria promised she would finance PKS campaigns if the party could assist her in securing a higher import quota from the Agriculture Ministry, which is led by PKS politician Suswono.

Maria, who has also been charged in the case, later instructed Arya to prepare Rp 300 million (US$30,873) for Luthfi, according to Rum.

The allegation is likely to further tarnish the reputation of the Islamic party that once touted itself as the cleanest political party in the country. The PKS, which won the election in North Sumatra, previously claimed that its victory showed that the scandal had not undermined the party's electoral prospects.

According to the indictment, Luthfi, then chairman of the PKS, played a key role in the scandal. He was the person who arranged a meeting between Maria and Suswono during the campaign in Medan. The meeting, which took place in Luthfi's room at the Aryaduta Hotel in January, was part of Luthfi's attempt to lobby Suswono to help Indoguna.

The company made several attempts to get an increased import quota of 8,000 tons in 2012, but Suswono repeatedly rejected its requests. The company later decided to ask for Luthfi's help in persuading Suswono, the prosecutors said.

Rum said that Maria had initially asked Elda Devianne Adiningrat, an alleged broker in the case, to introduce her to Luthfi's aide Ahmad, who told her how to acquire the increased quota.

"Maria instructed Juard to file a request letter to the ministry in November 2012. The letter was sent by Juard and Elda to the ministry's agricultural variety preservation head, Suharyono, who submitted it to Syukur Iwantoro, the ministry's director general for animal husbandry," Rum said.

Ahmad later met with Syukur, who introduced himself as an ustaj or a religious teacher, and asked the latter to grant Indoguna's request. "The request, however, was once again refused by the ministry as it violated the ministry's regulations," Rum said.

The company then filed another request letter in the same month but to no avail, so Maria instructed Elda to approach Luthfi.

Luthfi agreed to help Maria and set up the meeting in Medan. "He asked Maria to bring data to present to Suswono. Elda then told Maria not to tell Luthfi's staffers about the meeting," the indictment continued.

On Jan. 11, Maria met with Suswono, Luthfi, Ahmad and Soewarso, during which Maria explained the need for an increased quota in 2013. Suswono dismissed Maria's suggestion, saying that her data was invalid.

Back in Jakarta, Maria, Elda, Arya Abdi and Juard met Suswono's subordinate, Suharyono, to obtain the increased quota. Suharyono, however, declined their request, saying he had received no orders from Suswono regarding an increased quota.

Ahmad then asked Maria and Arya to come up with Rp 1 billion to be paid to Luthfi to secure the company's position with the ministry regarding the meat import quota. After Maria told Ahmad that the money was ready, he allegedly replied, "Thank you very much Ibu, I will pass on the good news to Pak Luthfi."

Ahmad subsequently informed Luthfi about the money, but the KPK arrested him before he could pass it on to Luthfi.

Beef import bribes lined pockets of PKS, says prosecutor

Jakarta Globe - April 24, 2013

SP/Novianti Setuningsih – A prosecutor with Indonesia's antigraft commission on Wednesday accused the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) of accepting bribes from Indoguna Utama, a beef import company currently embroiled in a major corruption case.

M. Rum, the prosecuting attorney with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), stated in his indictment of two Indoguna directors that Maria Elizabeth Liman, the president director of the company, agreed to funnel money to the party as long as the PKS secured Indoguna an increased import quota for 2013.

"Ahmad Fathanah [former PKS President Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq's aid], Maria Elizabeth Liman and Elda Devianne Adiningrat [a middleman] held a meeting," Rum said at the Anti-Corruption Court on Wednesday. "Fathanah told Maria that she would be allowed to import [8,000 tons] more beef, and Maria made a monetary commitment to the party."

Prior to the meeting, Rum said, Luthfi asked for money to finance the party's campaign as well as an Islamic dakwah [propagation] trip. "In December 2012, Luthfi called Elda Devianne in order to contact Maria about a beef importation quota. Additionally, he demanded her to ask Maria whether or not she wanted to help fund Luthfi's trip in Sumatra," he added.

Indoguna Utama appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture three times to up their import allowance, but the company was repeatedly rejected on the grounds that it could not meet the ministry's qualifications.

As a result, Maria attempted to sidestep the ministry by asking Luthfi directly to deal with Suswono, the Minister of Agriculture and a member of the PKS.

Maria agreed to pay Rp 300 million to Luthfi via Ahmad. Later, she gave Rp 1 billion to him through company directors Arya Abdi Effendi and Juard Effendi, as well as Ahmad.

Rum asserted that the Rp 1.3 billion in cash was part of a Rp 40 billion commitment offered by Maria in order to guarantee the quota increase.

Freedom of religion & worship

Bekasi Ahmadis remain in sealed mosque

Jakarta Post - April 28, 2013

Jakarta – Twenty Ahmadiyah followers have missed work and school, remaining holed up in the Al-Misbah Mosque in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, since local officials sealed it off on April 4.

The security coordinator for the Ahmadiyah Indonesia Congregation, Deden Sudjana, said on Saturday that the Ahmadis were in good condition and would stay in the mosque until the city administration allowed the followers of the minority Muslim sect to practice their religion and remove the fence sealing the mosque.

However, officials appear unlikely to honor that request. Deden said that Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi invited the Bekasi Ahmadiyah congregation members to a dialogue on April 11, which he said ended in deadlock and was attended by representatives of the Bekasi branch of the Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI).

The administration, according to Deden, had agreed to open the mosque only if the Ahmadis removed Islam from their congregation's name or allowed officials to arrange all services at the mosque, including deciding on its imams.

"We refused to agree to the first point because, just like other Muslims, we are Muslims, too," Deden said. "Please do not decide who will be the imam in our own mosque either."

Deden earlier said that the administration justified shutting down the mosque under the terms of a West Java gubernatorial decree and the 2008 joint ministerial decree banning members of Ahmadiyah from propagating their beliefs.

The closure drew anger from groups promoting pluralism and religious freedom, with 200 clerics in Greater Jakarta taking to the street on April 8 to criticize the government for its failure to crack down on religious intolerance.

The clerics in their cassocks, along with the representatives of Shia, Ahmadiyah and practitioners of indigenous faiths, marched from Bung Karno Stadium to the House of Representatives' compound in Senayan, Central Jakarta, calling on the government to heed the 1945 Constitution that guarantees religious freedom for minorities.

Eva Kusuma Sundari, a lawmaker on House Commission III overseeing law and human rights, met the 20 besieged Ahmadis on Saturday, saying that the Ahmadis had not met their families in 23 days.

The Ahmadis have been given food and water delivered through the fence from their fellow believers, Eva said. "I witnessed how they did it. It was inhumane and I was sad about it, but it was the only thing that they could do for their fellow believers who are fighting for their rights," the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician told The Jakarta Post.

Contacted separately, Hendardi, the chairman of the Setara Institute, which monitors religious freedom in Indonesia, said that Bekasi had a bad record on guaranteeing religious freedom for the Ahmadis and Christians.

"The administration has to protect and enforce religious freedom for minority groups, instead of being one of the actors attacking religious minority groups," Hendardi said. (hrl)

Rising trend seen in religious conflicts

Jakarta Post - April 26, 2013

Slamet Susanto and Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Religious conflict in Indonesia has begun to show a rising trend during the last five years in terms of the nature of the conflicts, according to a report by the Center for Religious and Cross Cultural Studies (CRCS) at Gadjah Mada University's (UGM) post-graduate school.

"Our report focuses on the nature and methods as opposed to the quantity [of conflicts]," CRCS director Zainal Abidin Bagir said at a presentation of the report on Thursday. Most conflicts generally related to two things: blasphemy and houses of worship.

"These have been recurring issues since the start of the 2000s and such conflicts have continued to increase through 2012, with some being marked by extreme violence, claiming lives," said Zainal, adding that religious conflicts claimed at least four lives in 2012.

Nine blasphemy cases were brought to court in the same year and were dominated by intra-Islamic cases. The scale of such conflicts also expanded to larger groups within communities regardless of location, such as the driving out of Shiite Muslims from Sampang, Madura.

On conflicts relating to houses of worship, Zainal suggested that mediation measures should be applied rather than due process as the latter allowed for wider interpretation.

Citing an example, Zainal said that in the case of the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Taman Yasmin in Bogor, West Java, the church could not be built despite winning a court ruling. "The question is, what were the years of legal wrangling for if, in the end, the ruling was not carried out?" he asked.

Researcher Rizal Panggabean from UGM's Center for Peace and Security Studies said that third-party mediation had so far been carried out in a haphazard manner without a clear mechanism on how to select the third party.

"Sometimes the third party has been a community figure, or someone from the local administration or police who knew nothing about the conflict," Rizal said.

He also blamed the government for some of these conflicts, citing the GKI Yasmin case as an example, which won its case in the courts all the way to the Supreme Court. He said the President only "urged" while ministers only reminded the administration that the decision should be carried out. "This is bad governance," he said.

He expressed his fear that religious conflicts were actually ethnic issues that could lead to larger conflicts. He cited two cases, one of which saw people in West Java rejecting the presence of a Batak church, while in Tapanuli, North Sumatra, locals refused a request by Muslims from Java to build a mosque.

"Is this a case of Tapanuli people rejecting the mosque or rejecting the Javanese? Is it Bekasi people refusing the church or refusing Batak people?" Rizal asked.

Separately, Islam researcher Martin Van Bruinessen said the development of contemporary Islam in Indonesia had shifted from a predominately "smiling" Islam that supported modernism, openness and tolerance to what was now far more conservative. With the rise in conservatism, he said on Thursday, various religious conflicts, jihadist movements and terrorist groups had emerged.

"Islamic development as represented by liberal Muslim thinkers like Nurcholis Madjid has begun to change. What we are seeing now is far from Islamic intellectualism," Bruinessen told a seminar at the Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University (UIN) in Yogyakarta.

The seminar was held to mark the launch of a book edited by Bruinessen entitled Contemporary Development in Indonesian Islam: Explaining The Conservative Turn.

Bruinessen, however, said that Indonesian Islam could not yet be considered conservative as it was so diverse. Some Muslims were conservative while others were tolerant, he explained.

He added that conservatism began to emerge in 2005 following the issuance of an edict by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) declaring pluralism, secularism and religious liberalism as haram.

Bruinessen also maintained that conservatism had begun to emerge in the country's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which had returned to the political arena since 1999, abandoning its discourses on daily problems.

Meanwhile, CRCS director Zainal who also spoke at the seminar, disagreed with Bruinessen's view that the face of the contemporary Indonesian Islam was conservative. "It's diverse but not conservative," he said.

He added that Islam in Indonesia had not in fact changed and that even in the past, conservatism existed. He argued that conservatives merely appeared more prevalent today as, since the reform era, they had the opportunity to express their opinions more openly.

Land & agrarian conflicts

Police arrest head of shrimp farming group

Jakarta Post - April 24, 2013

Oyos Saroso HN, Bandarlampung – The Lampung Police arrested Silaturahmi Forum (Forsil) leader Edi Cokro Prayitno on Monday after a meeting to resolve conflict between Forsil and PT Central Pertiwi Bahari (CPB) at the Tulangbawang Development Planning Board.

Cokro was later transferred to the Lampung Police detention center in Bandarlampung.

The arrest almost led to a riot when 599 Forsil farmers attempted to obstruct Cokro's arrest. This incident has threatened peace talks between thousands of shrimp farmers and CPB and could spark further conflict at the company's shrimp farm complex.

"Cokro was willing to negotiate with the company and the Tulangbawang regency administration due to safety assurances from the latter," said Bandarlampung Legal Aid Institute director Wahrul Fauzi Silalahi on Tuesday.

"However, when the meeting ended, Cokro was immediately arrested, despite the fact that the company said the negotiations would be valid if the Forsil leader attended. It was just a setup to arrest Cokro."

Wahrul, who legally represents Forsil, said Cokro's arrest would cause further tension.

Forsil members were involved in a clash in March with a rival fish farming group that favors the company. Three men were killed and dozens of others injured in the clash with the Pro-Partnership Farming Group (P2K).

Lampung Police spokeswoman Adj. Sr. Comr. Sulistyaningsih said Cokro was arrested because he repeatedly failed to honor a summons related to the clash.

"Cokro has been named a suspect with six other people who have been detained," said Sulistyaningsih. Forsil secretary Beni said he feared Cokro's arrest would escalate the problem.

The spokesman of PT CP Prima, PT CPB's parent company, George Basuki, said if Forsil members refused to collaborate, they could leave the shrimp farm.

"They [Forsil farmers] are the ones causing trouble. They brought in hoodlums and caused disturbances. They should be held responsible for the clash, which claimed several lives," said George.

Armed forces & defense

No more impunity: Army chief

Jakarta Post - April 29, 2013

Semarang – The Indonesian Army chief Gen. Pramono Edhie Wibowo pledged that there would no longer be impunity for members of his corps and that all personnel guilty of criminal acts would be sent to jail.

Pramono also said that all court proceedings involving members of the Army would be made transparent.

"The public will see for themselves that all violations involving members of the Indonesian Military (TNI) will be processed and the public can monitor that," Pramono said as quoted by kompas.com in Semarang, the capital city of Central Java.

He said all TNI members involved in criminal acts and violence in the past few months are now being investigated.

Pramono referred to TNI personnel involved in the attack against members of the National Police in Ogan Kemring Ulu, South Sumatra, members of the Army Special Forces (Kopassus) implicated in the execution-style murder of four detainees in Cebongan Penitentiary, Sleman Yogyakarta and members of the Army's 13th Engineering Construction Battalion (Yon Zikon 13) who attacked members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) earlier this month.

Pramono said for the attack on PDI-P members, the Military Prosecutor has charged five soldiers who would soon be tried in a military tribunal.

Military court sentences soldier to death for murdering two women

Jakarta Post - April 25, 2013

Arya Dipa and Ansyor Idrus, Bandung/Palembang – The Bandung Military Court II-09 handed down a death penalty for 23-year-old Second Pvt. Mart Azzanul Ikhwan on Wednesday for murdering a pregnant woman and her mother in Garut.

"The defendant, Mart Azzanul Ikhwan, has been found – both legally and convincingly – to have carried out premeditated murders. We hand down the death penalty," said presiding judge Lt. Col. Sugeng Sutrisno, as he read out the verdict.

The verdict was much heavier than that demanded by the oditur (military prosecutors), who recommended a 20-year jail term and a discharge from service for the soldier from the Army's Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) 303rd Infantry Battalion.

Relatives of the deceased Opon, 39, and her daughter Shinta, 19, expressed their joy at the verdict to the point where Sugeng had to calm them down.

Mart, attending the trial wearing green fatigue battle dress uniform and a green beret, was visibly shocked after hearing the verdict. Sugeng ordered two Military Police (MP) officers to flank Mart before the verdict was read out.

Sugeng then ordered Mart to return to his bench. The defendant was passive as the two MPs escorted him back to his bench. Mart said he would consider the verdict after consulting with his lawyers, while the oditur accepted the outcome.

Opon's husband, Juju, said the verdict was in line with his family's expectations. Opon's sister, Dedeh, said the family accepted the verdict. "It is all over now. The family is satisfied as it is what we want," she said.

The murders took place in February after Shinta – then eight months pregnant – said Mart was the father of her child and that he should take responsibility. When Mart refused to do so, Opon threatened to file a report with his superior.

Mart then brought the two women to a vegetable orchard in Panagan hamlet, Sukawargi village, Garut regency, West Java, on a motorcycle while carrying a bayonet. Telling the women that the area could only be accessed on foot, the three set off to the orchard, with Mart killing Opon first, then Shinta, en route.

Many parties had protested the 20-year jail term requested by the oditur, saying it was too light.

Separately, in Palembang, South Sumatra, two civilians and two Air Force (TNI AU) soldiers were injured following a clash between residents and soldiers who were securing an Air Force Base. The civilians, Agung, 18, and Amiru, 22, were rushed to Muhammad Husein Hospital with gunshot wounds to the arm and chest, respectively.

They were shot by members of the Air Force Special Forces (Paskhas), who were securing heavy equipment used to clear a plot of land at the base.

Among the Paskhas soldiers, First Pvt. Astrio Windarto was shot in his chest, with the shot believed to have come from an air rifle. In addition, First Pvt. Rohmadi suffered injuries to his head from machete slashes. Both soldiers were treated at Bahayangkara Police Hospital.

The incident started when residents near the base began protesting against the TNI AU clearing a plot of disputed land. The villages were previously on a 220-hectare plot of land, while the TNI AU claimed the land based on a 1973 land certificate.

Indonesia should try abusive soldiers in civilian courts: HRW

Jakarta Globe - April 24, 2013

Military tribunals in Indonesia lack accountability, transparency and neutrality, and the central government must revise its laws and try army officials accused of human rights abuses in civilian courts, Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Wednesday.

The New York-based rights group pointed out that issues surrounding the prosecution of four members of the Army Special Forces (Kopassus) who stormed a Yogyakarta prison on March 23 and executed four men highlight the shortcomings of the military justice system.

Furthermore, the army has failed to properly investigate and prosecute alleged serious human rights abuses by members of the military, the group said in the statement.

"The Indonesian government should ensure that justice is done in human rights cases by prosecuting military suspects in civilian courts," said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "For too long Indonesia's military courts have helped foster a culture of impunity by letting abusive soldiers off with a wrist-slap – or no punishment at all."

Eleven Kopassus members were arrested on April 2 for allegedly breaking into the Cebongan prison in Yogyakarta, Central Java, and murdering four detainees awaiting trial: Hendrik Angel Sahetapi, Yohanes Juan Manbait, Gameliel Yermianto Rohi Riwu and Adrianus Candra Galaja.

Military investigators say that the Kopassus suspects, disguised with ski masks and carrying AK-47 assault rifles, forced their way into the jail, beat two guards and executed four prisoners.

Investigators said the motive for the murders was revenge for the killing three days earlier of their Kopassus colleague First Sgt. Heru Santoso, for which the four detainees had been arrested.

Santoso and the 11 suspects all served with Kopassus Group II in Kartasura, about a two-hour drive from Yogyakarta.

Despite military confirmation of Kopassus' culpability in the prison murders, senior military and government officials have publicly defended the suspects and downplayed the severity of the crime, Human Rights Watch said.

"Indonesian military and civilian authorities who proclaim the innocence of soldiers linked to serious crimes know very well they are telling the military courts how to rule on the case," Kine said.

"It's disgraceful that after a decade of so-called military reform, soldiers suspected of killing civilians reap official praise and support."

Under Indonesian law, soldiers cannot be tried in civilian courts, and only a few rare exceptions have been invoked. The 1997 Military Tribunal Law stipulates that military personnel may only be tried before a military tribunal, regardless of the nature of their offense.

During the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of Indonesia's human rights record in 2007 and 2012, the Indonesian government committed to reforming the military justice system.

Indonesia promised to reform the law by making torture and other acts of violence prosecutable offenses and ensuring that the definition of such offenses are consistent. To date, the government has not yet revised the military criminal code.

Protesters in Yogyakarta demand justice for Kopassus prison killings

KRYogya.com - April 23, 2013

Tomi Sujatmiko, Sleman – Demonstrators from the Indonesian People's Committee for Justice (KRIUK) held a protest action at the Yogyakarta regional police headquarters (Mapolda) on Tuesday April 23 demanding a resolution to cases of human rights violations, including the attack on the Cebongan prison exactly one month ago.

"The momentum in commemorating one month since the bloody Cebongan tragedy should be an impetus to reflect upon and at the same time an awakening for the people's movement to demand accountability from the state", said action coordinator Erlangga in a speech.

According to Erlangga, the Cebongan tragedy did irreparable damage to the law and disrupted [the public's] sense of security. Bearing in mind that a prison, which is supposed to provide security for detainees, became the target of a fatal attack by rogue members of the army's Special Forces Kopassus.

However, continued Erlangga, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has instead being making misleading statements on the issue saying that the 11 rogue Kopassus members are knights or protector of the people because they confessed to their actions.

Despite heavy rain that drenched the protesters halfway through the action – which was closely watched over by police – they continued giving speeches. The demonstrators disbanded after reading out a statement. (Ayu)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Soldiers who attacked PDI-P office remain free

Jakarta Post - April 23, 2013

Bagus BT Saragih and Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The 10 members of the Indonesian Military (TNI) allegedly involved in the attacks of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) headquarters in Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta, over the weekend have not been detained even though they have been officially charged.

"They have admitted their actions," the commander of the Greater Jakarta Military Command, Maj. Gen. Erwin Hudawi Lubis, said at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport on Monday.

"The suspects were not detained because their battalion commander is willing to take full responsibility," Erwin said, referring to Col. Hari Kartika, the commander of the Army's 13th Engineering Construction Battalion (Yon Zikon 13) where all the suspects came from.

He said the military police had questioned the 10 soldiers and named them suspects. He declined, however, to outline the charges.

"The military police have been interrogating them since Sunday. We will continue the legal processes until the dossiers are handed over to the military court. Such acts cannot be tolerated," Erwin said, denying that the force was reluctant to take decisive action.

When asked if Hari would face dismissal or any other kind of punishment for failing to prevent his men engaging in such unlawful activity, Erwin said, "We are not there yet".

About 15 TNI members, all low-ranking, attacked several people at the PDI-P headquarters late on Saturday, wounding at least three security officers and members of staff. Witnesses said some of the soldiers carried machetes.

The attack was reportedly ignited by PDI-P guards attempting to protect a high school student who was being hunted by the soldiers. The youth was involved in a fracas over a minor traffic incident with some of the soldiers and fled to the party's office.

"It was actually triggered by a misunderstanding following a small incident on the road between a soldier and a civilian. They never intended to attack the party. Coincidently, the incident occurred near the PDI-P office," Erwin said.

"When a traffic incident occurs, it is natural for the involved parties to argue. This particular soldier was angry and asked his colleagues to the party's office to seek clarification. The party's members, who were having a meeting at the time, tried to make peace because they did not want disruption at the office," he added.

The PDI-P chair, former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, was reportedly present at the meeting. PDI-P secretary-general Tjahjo Kumolo said the party had filed official complaints to TNI commander Adm. Agus Suhartono, Army chief of staff Gen. Pramono Edhie Wibowo and Erwin.

"We have protested to the TNI because this is about the dignity of our party, particularly given the presence of our chair in the building at the time," he said, adding that Hari had apologized for the incident.

Tjahjo said the party would not intervene with the legal process by the military police. "I am calling on the TNI to improve the discipline of its members because this is about the good name of the armed forces," he said.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has declared the first quarter of 2013 as being a "marathon of violence" by the TNI, due to a heavy number of reports the commission received on violence by TNI members.

"We have received at least 51 reports of murder, attacks, intimidation, torture and land confiscation by TNI members. The violence is on a massive scale, causing civilians great harm," said Yati Andriyani, head of Kontras' advocacy, law and human rights division.

Although violence by TNI members is common, the violence in 2013 is worse because it was carried out blatantly. "They take the law into their own hands. They use state facilities to excessively demonstrate their power over civilians while they are still in uniform. In the Cebongan case, they even attacked a state institution," Yati said.

The incident at the PDI-P headquarters comes when the military is under the spotlight for the raid on Cebongan prison, Sleman, Yogyakarta, during which a group of soldiers reportedly killed four murder suspects. The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said the raid was a violation of human rights.

Kontras chairman Haris Azhar said these cases showed the inability of TNI personnel to act proportionally and professionally. "Acting proportionally means the ability to adjust tactics and strategy based on the enemy they're fighting. Civilians are not dangerous enemies that require such excessive force," Haris said. (ogi)

Jail terms for convicted soldiers

April 2013: Three members of the Naval Base Marine Defense Battalion II of Teluk Bayur, Padang, West Sumatra, are sentenced to between eight and 11 months for assaulting journalists.
January 2013: The Denpasar Military Court sentences a military policeman, identified as Harry Mulia Simarmata, for extortion and assault.
September 2012: Second Sgt. Ilmun Said is sentenced to six years in prison by the military court in Madiun for smuggling 143 illegal migrants from the Middle East in December 2011.
2011: The Jayapura Military Court sentences three soldiers to between eight and 10 months in prison for torturing two Papuans in 2011. The soldiers are Second Sgt. Irwan Riskiyanto, the deputy commander of the Infantry Battalion's Gurate military post in Puncak Jaya and his subordinates, First Pvt. Yakson Agu and First Pvt. Thamrin Mahangiri.
2003: Seven Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) soldiers who killed Papuan provincial leader Theys Hiyo Eluay to silence his calls for independence are jailed for between 24 and 42 months.

Sources: The Jakarta Post

PDI-P has military in its sights

Jakarta Globe - April 23, 2013

Ezra Sihite & Farouk Arnaz – Days after its own headquarters were allegedly attacked by military personnel, members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle vowed to renew efforts to overcome delays to change laws that bar members of the military to be tried in civilian court.

Ten soldiers have been accused of assaulting security officers at the headquarters of the opposition party known as PDI-P in Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta, on Saturday. The men avoided detention after their battalion commander claimed responsibility for their actions.

Comr. Erwin Hudawi Lubis of a Jakarta military unit said on Monday that all of the men are being interrogated by the military police unit, a procedure that usually takes place only in cases of ill-discipline, administrative violations and insubordination.

Under the Military Tribunal Law, soldiers and other security personnel remain under the jurisdiction of military courts where proceedings are often kept secret. PDI-P lawmaker Helmy Fauzi said the soldiers should by prosecuted for criminal offenses.

"This is no longer about military discipline. This is a crime," Helmy said, adding that enacting a proposed amendment that would lead to the cases being heard in a civilian court "can no longer be delayed."

The incident comes less than a month after Army Special Forces (Kopassus) commandos raided a jail in Yogyakarta's Sleman district and summarily executed four detainees who were suspected of killing a fellow Special Forces member.

The attack sparked a national debate about the progress of military reforms and worries over the state of lawlessness in the country.

That raid came just weeks after an attack on a police station in South Sumatra's Ogan Komering Ulu district by a group of around 90 soldiers. Six people were injured in that incident, which was sparked by the shooting death of a soldier by a police officer during a traffic stop in January.

Helmy said that military officials "cannot act as they wish and break the law. There must be a deterrent for offenders. Those who commit a crime must be prosecuted in regular court."

Three security guards at the PDI-P's headquarters were attacked by the soldiers on Saturday night after one of the guards tried to mediate an argument between a soldier and a student following a minor motorcycle accident. Soldiers allegedly injured guards during a search of the party headquarters for the student.

The personal security guards of PDI-P chairwoman and former national president Megawati Sukarnoputri, who was a the headquarters that night, detained two of the soldiers during the attack.

Two of the security guards were bruised, while a third suffered a head injury when he was struck with a bayonet.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said the two soldiers were released into the custody of their battalion commander, Lt. Col. Hari Darniko, after they admitted to being soldiers.

Military chief Adm. Agus Suhartono said on Monday that the event was an isolated one and did not reflect flaws in the military itself. "The incident at the PDI-P office was a individual case," Agus said. "It is not a problem with the Army."

Erwin, from the Jakarta military unit, said the two suspects admitted under questioning that they went to the PDI-P office that night. "The case has been filed and is waiting to be processed," Erwin said. "But whether it will be handed over to a military tribunal remains to be seen."

Police & law enforcement

Police aid Susno's rebellion

Jakarta Post - April 25, 2013

Bagus BT Saragih and Arya Dipa, Jakarta, Bandung – The National Police displayed an arrogant disregard of the law by protecting graft convict and former National Police detectives chief Comr. Gen. (ret.) Susno Duadji from prosecutors, who were attempting to escort him to prison.

Following a day-long stand-off at his private residence in Cimenyan, Bandung, West Java, Susno – on an order from West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Tubagus Anis Angka Wijaya – was given safe haven at the West Java Police headquarters.

After an altercation that lasted for hours, Susno – who served as the West Java Police chief between 2008 and 2009 – was taken to the police headquarters on Wednesday afternoon to receive protection from members of his corps.

"Pak Susno contacted me asking for protection. As a citizen, he has the right to protection from prosecutors," Tubagus told reporters on Wednesday.

As the West Java Police convoy escorted Susno to their headquarters, prosecutors from the Attorney General's Office (AGO) and the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office stood powerless, unable to proceed with their plans to take the former police general to the Sukamiskin Penitentiary in Bandung.

Wednesday's incident was the second time Susno managed to evade prosecutors who wanted to make him serve his three-and-a-half year jail term.

Susno remains free despite a final and legally binding verdict issued by the Supreme Court in November last year, which declared him guilty of corruption.

The court also ordered Susno to pay Rp 200 million (US$20,582) in fines. The South Jakarta District Court found Susno guilty in March 2011 of accepting bribes and misappropriating election security funds.

These charges were leveled against him after he became a whistle-blower and leaked information about corrupt practices involving the tax office, the National Police, the Attorney General's Office and numerous domestic and foreign companies.

Concerned that Susno could once again escape detention, the AGO and the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office deployed more than 20 personnel to arrest Susno on Wednesday morning. But Susno fought back from inside his luxurious house.

Susno was briefly seen at the house's entrance engaged in a verbal exchange with some of the prosecutors.

Minutes later, more than 50 members of the Hizbullah Brigade, an Islamic organization affiliated with the Crescent Star Party (PBB), began to descend around Susno's residence to guard the compound. Susno is a legislative candidate representing the PBB from an electoral district in West Java. Soon thereafter, West Java Police officers begun to arrive.

West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Martinus Sitompul said the deployment of the police was to "prevent clashes between Susno and prosecutors".

Martinus denied that the West Java Police had provided special protection for Susno. "This is part of our service to a civilian. Every citizen deserves equal rights to police protection," he said.

"When Susno asked to be allowed to take a shower, we granted it. But he stayed in his room until the police and the protesters arrived," said one of the prosecutors, Amiryanto.

Susno also tried to drum up support through his Twitter account. "Now prosecutors want to forcefully execute a flawed court ruling. Please come to Susno's house now," Susno said via his Twitter handle @susno2g.

His lawyer, Yusril Ihza Mahendra who is also the PBB's chief patron, arrived at the scene to explain Susno's next steps. "Susno will get protection from the police and this has been coordinated with the National Police," said Yusril.

He said that the Supreme Court ruling was flawed and should be rendered void. He insisted that the ruling did not specifically order Susno's detention.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) activist Emerson Yuntho slammed the police for their public display of contempt for the law. "This is a very shameful precedent set by the National Police," he said.

Evading due process

June 26, 2012: A mob tried to prevent Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) personnel from arresting former Buol regent Amran Batalipu shortly after being caught red-handed accepting a bribe from a plantation company. A car used by KPK investigators was badly damaged during the incident.
March 14, 2012: Former Bekasi mayor Mochtar Muhammad refused to go to prison claiming that he had not received an official copy of the Supreme Court's ruling. The Supreme Court had upheld a lower court's sentencing of Mochtar to six years in prison, after finding him guilty of paying Rp 1.6 billion in bribes to local councilors and of using Rp 639 million of state funds for his personal use.
Dec. 13, 2012: Around 50 people confronted prosecutors attempting to escort Theddy Tengko, the former regent of Aru Islands in Maluku, to prison. Theddy had been sentenced to four years in prison for embezzlement.
Jan. 18, 2010: The late Lt. Gen. (ret.) Herman Sarens Soediro resisted arrest despite dozens of military policemen besieging his house. Herman was charged with corruption for illicitly owning military assets. The case had still not come to court when Herman passed away in July 2010.

Source: The Jakarta Post

Foreign affairs & trade

Government told to review fruit import regulations to stabilize prices

Jakarta Post - April 26, 2013

Anggi M. Lubis, Jakarta – The government needs to review regulations that limit the import of horticultural products as the shortage of locally grown fruits is unable to meet the high demand.

Indonesia Retailers Association (Aprindo) deputy general-secretary Satria Hamid Ahmadi said locally grown fruits – despite unpredictable supplies – could not substitute imported fruits.

"The government must review import regulations considering high demands that cannot be met by the domestic supply," Satria said. "The price of imported fruits at modern markets has doubled while the price of local fruits has increased by 10 to 20 percent in the past few months," he added.

According to Satria, due to scarcity, the price of imported apples has doubled to Rp 127,500 (US$13.12) per kilogram within the past three weeks. Meanwhile, the prices of local fruits such as mangosteen and avocado, had increased to Rp 15,000 and Rp 19,000 a kilogram, respectively, from previously Rp 13,000 and Rp 17,000.

Sobir, director of the Center for Tropical Horticulture Studies at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), said Indonesia was not ready to apply the import regulations considering growing domestic demands and insufficient local production.

"The country's domestic need for fruits is rising by up to two percent each year, in line with economic and population growth," Sobir said.

Data from the Agriculture Ministry said that Indonesia needed around 6.6 tons of fruit to meet the domestic market demand in 2010, while the country produced only 543,900 tons of fruit that year.

In 2012, the country imported 834,463 tons of fruit with a total value of $887.94 million and booked a trade deficit of 609,203 tons valued at $653.75 million.

Despite the high demands, the government has limited the import of several horticultural products, including durian, pineapple, honeydew, bananas, mangos and papayas, effective from January until June this year through a series of regulations introduced by the Agriculture Ministry and the Trade Ministry last year.

The government has also limited import gateways to only four points: Belawan Port in Medan, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya and Soekarno-Hatta Port in Makassar.

The import policies have ignited contestation from the US, which filed a consultation request with the World Trade Organization (WTO) in January for allegedly breaching the organization's anti-protectionism rules. The Indonesian government has deliberated to revise the regulations following the complaint.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Rusman Heriawan said the government would soon introduce the revisions to mitigate the import limitation, to both protect farmers and meet domestic needs under ways "that will not violate the WTO's measures".

"We will keep regulating horticulture import through the quota system in the second half of this year, but the limitations will be applied more loosely. We are also considering tariff barriers," Rusman said.

The revision, according to Agriculture Ministry acting director general for the agriculture processing and marketing, Haryono, is expected to conclude by June to ease the imports in the second half of this year.

The Trade Ministry, on the other hand, has revised Ministerial Regulation No. 60/2012 and introduced a new regulation on Monday. The new regulation excludes 18 horticultural products – including garlic, some flowers and some processed commodities – from the previous 57 products – but none of the excluded products were fresh fruit.

Mining & energy

Confusion reigns over subsidy

Jakarta Post - April 30, 2013

Ina Parlina and Tassia Sipahutar, Jakarta – After weeks of preparation to limit private cars' use of subsidized fuel, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono backtracked on Monday. The President harbored doubts of the policy's capacity to contain subsidy costs.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said the President was studying alternatives to providing subsidized fuel for only public transportation and motorcycles.

"There's a positive and negative side to all the options," said Julian after a limited Cabinet meeting on the policy. "The President wants a one- price policy for all motor vehicles," he said, adding that the President was still working on a fair distribution scheme for subsidized fuel to the poor.

Government officials had been optimistically vocal over the dual-price policy with public transportation and motorcycles still enjoying the current subsidized price of Rp 4,500 (46 US cents) per liter and private cars required to pay Rp 6,500.

State-owned energy company PT Pertamina had prepared more than 5,000 gas stations across the country to accommodate the strategy and had printed banners to raise public awareness.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik said the government had decided to make some changes to the plans after substantial opposition and doubts over the adequacy of the scheme.

"There is confusion over the policy. To make it more comprehensible, the government may decide to raise the fuel price all together. My guess is that the price will not exceed Rp 6,500," said Jero.

He also acknowledged that the dual-price policy would result in fraud and leakage as motorcycle and public transportations drivers could easily resell fuel to private car owners at a cheaper price.

Both Jero and Julian said the President was still undecided over the timing of the increase. A rise in the fuel price is always politically sensitive, often with the consequence of mass rallies that end in violence.

Protests against diesel fuel scarcity continue

Jakarta Post - April 26, 2013

Suherdjoko and Bambang Muryanto, Semarang/Yogyakarta – Protests conducted by public transportation drivers against diesel fuel scarcity as a result of the government's diesel fuel restriction policy are continuing nationwide.

In Temanggung, Central Java, dozens of public bus drivers serving Magelang, Wonosobo and Sukorejo went on strike on Thursday by marching to the Temanggung Transportation, Communication and Information Agency.

The drivers said they found it very difficult to buy diesel in the last two months. They also protested against those gas stations that allowed diesel purchases using jerry cans.

In response, agency head Dwi Cahyono said he would ban gas stations from selling diesel fuel in jerry cans. "Hopefully the scarcity will also end by Friday," he said.

Public bus drivers in Karanganyar regency, Central Java, also staged a strike, leaving thousands of passengers, including junior high school students who were on their final test day, with little options.

The situation forced local authorities, including the police, to help transport passengers using the regency's operational cars and even officials' cars.

"We've been doing what we can to help transport people since this morning," Karanganyar Transportation, Communication and Information Agency head Nunung Susanto said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, a similar strike was also held by hundreds of inter-city bus drivers serving routes connecting Yogyakarta with cities in Central Java. They demanded the government raise the price of diesel instead of limiting its supply.

"If the government can no longer afford the diesel fuel subsidy, just raise the price. Limiting its supply only gives us trouble," a protester, Jarwo Santoso, of PO Riyan and Antar Jaya bus companies, told reporters at Giwangan bus station in Yogyakarta on Wednesday.

Jarwo said that a bus was only allowed to buy 44 liters of diesel fuel worth Rp 200,000 (US$20.58) per purchase. If a bus needed more fuel, it had to queue to get another 44 liters of diesel fuel without a guarantee that it would get the fuel.

"The President [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] must have the guts to firmly come up with a policy to raise the price of diesel fuel. Don't be afraid of being unpopular just because of the upcoming [2014] general elections," Jarwo said.

Separately, external relations assistant manager Heppy Wulansari of Pertamina Marketing Operation Region I overseeing Central Java and Yogyakarta marketing offices said Pertamina had increased the supply of subsidized diesel fuel by 30 percent from 4,554 kiloliters (kl) to 5,920 kl daily since Tuesday.

In North Sumatra, Pertamina Marketing Operation Region I overseeing Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau and Riau Islands, was also said to have increased its diesel fuel supply for the area by 20 percent from the daily quota of 7,259 kl.

Customer relations officer Sonny Mirath said the increase from Wednesday was to help cut the long queues at gas stations in the region.

Long queues at gas stations were also seen in Jambi in the last two weeks, partly due to the decreasing fuel supply for the region. Pertamina Jambi's spokesman Arif Wahyu said that the supply had been cut from 13.9 kl daily last year to the current 8.4 kl.

Yet, Arif assured the decreasing quota had nothing to do with the diesel fuel scarcity in the region as it could be caused by increasing demand for the fuel.

[Jon Afrizal and Apriadi Gunawan contributed to this article from Jambi and Medan.]

Economy & investment

Government quick fixes are wilting

Jakarta Post - April 29, 2013

Anggi M. Lubis and Tassia Sipahutar, Jakarta – After years of luring domestic and overseas private investors to bid on government-run infrastructure projects, little progress has been made to get the initiatives running, pushing things to their breaking point.

Traffic in Jakarta, the nation's economic and political center, is constantly in gridlock, while the flow of goods from Tanjung Priok, the nation's main port, continually suffers from bottlenecks.

Meanwhile, airports in major cities are overcrowded, while electricity and water supplies have failed to keep pace with soaring demand.

Overall, investment in infrastructure has remained lethargic in the past decade, coming in around 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared to the period before the 1997 Asian financial crisis, when the figure stood at 7 percent of GDP, according to the Public Works Ministry.

The World Bank noted in a recent report that Indonesia's average infrastructure investment rate was well behind most of the nation's neighbors in Asia, such as China, Thailand and Vietnam, which have each averaged infrastructure investment rates above 7 percent.

One notable cause of sluggish investment rates has been a failure to mobilize needed private sector funds for the projects.

The government's medium-term development plan for 2010 to 2014, called on the private sector to contribute more than 70 percent of the needed US$150 billion investment.

The government's Masterplan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Growth (MP3EI), meanwhile, called for 51 percent of a needed $468 billion in infrastructure investment between 2011 and 2025 to come from private sources.

The lack of investor engagement has been attributed to flaws in proposed Public-Private Partnership (PPP) plans, where the government and investors sign contracts to share the risks and responsibilities for certain infrastructure projects.

The Public Works Ministry, which is responsible in part for executing PPP projects, has acknowledged the flaws, saying that the ministry was working on several breakthrough policies. "We understand that the PPP scheme is far from working. We are now trying to patch the holes," Public Works Deputy Minister Hermanto Dardak said recently.

According to Hermanto, the patches would comprise providing more incentives and increasing the state's funding of joint ventures with the private sector. "Some companies are eligible to carry out the projects, but have been reluctant to step in," Hermanto said. "We will encourage them by providing viability gap funding, in which the government covers 40 percent of the cost."

The pilot project under the scheme, according to Hermanto, would be the development of the toll road to link Kuala Namu International Airport with Medan and Tebing Tinggi in North Sumatra.

Another scheme, Hermanto said, would be the leasing of projects built by the government using state funds. "This scheme will be applied, among other projects, to the toll road heading to Tanjung Priok port."

Finance Ministry fiscal policy chief Bambang Brojonegoro said that the ministry had recently set up a unit to coordinate, monitor and finance incentives and viability gap funding to jump start the initiatives. "The unit is expected to help speed up execution of the PPP projects."

Businessmen, however, have remained unimpressed. "Problems related with land acquisition remain despite the new regulations," Erwin Aksa, whose Bosowa Group has been building toll roads and power plants, said. "Officials from the central and local administrations still cannot help clear the needed land. Poor planning and preparation in the offered projects have also become a concern."

"Take the example of toll roads. The government offers toll sections to different investors, and they are not connected. Trouble in one section can jeopardize the business plan of other investors. That's why many investors are pulling out," Erwin said.

According to a World Bank report released last year, project preparation and selection problems have led the government to issue tenders for many unfeasible or difficult projects.

In addition, a lack of coordination during the selection process among relevant agencies has led to project overlap, creating confusion for investors, the report said. "One of the factors slowing PPP implementation progress is that many PPP projects have been offered with inadequate due diligence undertaken prior to tendering," the report added.

The World Bank called for priority to be given to budget preparations and for the project selection process to be enhanced to ensure that selected projects receive high-level leadership support and risks are properly evaluated and shared.

Such problems have recently taken a toll on a PPP project to build a 2,000 megawatt coal-fired plant in Batang, Central Java – the largest project of its kind in Southeast Asia and with an estimated cost of $4 billion.

State power company PT PLN initially expected that the plant would be complete by 2016, assuming that land acquisition and permit issues would have been settled in October last year. However, problems have emerged that have kept construction on hold due to legal uncertainties and landowners who have refused to sell unless investors pay a markup.

"Indonesia already has sufficient resources to build its needed power plants, including investor availability, and abundant coal and gas to fuel the plants. All we need is firm regulations and good bureaucracy," businessman Sandiaga Uno, whose firm is involved in several power plant projects, said.

Analysis & opinion

(Un)equal before the law

Jakarta Post Editorial - April 26, 2013

The fruits of reforms, initiated almost 15 years ago, have been visible in the checks and balances that work in our political system, fairer business competition and perhaps protection of human rights. But the way a graft convict could defy the enforcement of the law against him on Wednesday and ironically receive backing from law enforcers has cast doubt over whether the much vaunted reformasi has really occurred in our justice system so that everybody stands equal before the law.

Former National Police detectives chief Comr. Gen. (ret) Susno Duadji was given shelter inside the headquarters of West Java Police, which he led for nine months in 2008. The provincial police chief, Insp. Gen. Tubagus Anis Angka Wijaya, justified the custodianship of Susno on the grounds that he was a citizen who had "the right to protection" – a stark contrast to the police's inaction when members of minority groups in the country come under attacks from hardline vigilantes despite their constitutional rights as citizens to protection.

Susno had called Tubagus to ask for shelter and was later escorted from his home in a hilly up-market housing complex north of Bandung to the police headquarters, foiling state prosecutors' attempts to take him to prison. Previously Susno had three times disobeyed the prosecutors' summons to surrender himself to serve a 3.5-year jail sentence.

The Supreme Court had turned down the appeal Susno had filed against a lower court's verdict, which found him guilty of accepting Rp 500 million (US$51,000) in bribes and misappropriating state funds allocated for election security funds.

But it was the wording of the Supreme Court's ruling that provided Susno and his lawyers with ammunition to keep on fighting. Unlike in other verdicts, the Supreme Court said nothing about the jail term Susno had to serve. Susno had challenged the Jakarta High Court's guilty verdict at the Supreme Court on an administrative error.

To the public at large the mistakes may appear honest and trivial, but for Susno and his advocates they looked like the Achilles heel that they could exploit to keep him from prison. Susno is on the list of legislative candidates submitted by the Muslim-based Crescent Star Party founded by Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who is also one of Susno's lawyers. If Susno had to serve the jail term, he would be unable to contest the legislative election which is scheduled for April next year.

The precedent for a graft convict to resist imprisonment was set with the reelected Aru regent Teddy Tengko, also a client of Yusril. Last December state prosecutors released Teddy after arresting him in Jakarta also due to legal confusion resulting from the Supreme Court's failure to order his immediate imprisonment. Until now Teddy remains in office in Maluku despite his graft conviction. Earlier this month he was elected chairman of the Golkar Party's local branch.

Yusril, a constitutional law professor, has challenged the prosecutors' attempts to enforce the Supreme Court's guilty verdicts on Susno and Teddy, referring to a judicial review he filed with the Constitutional Court against the Law on Criminal Court Procedures. While the Constitutional Court has said there is no reason for Susno, Teddy or other convicts to evade their jail terms merely because of the absence of a stipulation on jail terms, Yusril insisted that the court's verdict which was issued in March could not be enforced retroactively, in this case against his clients.

The legal dispute does indeed concern technicalities, but in law enforcement certainty counts. There have been cases of court verdicts or indictments which lacked clarity or were sloppy in their draft paving the way for a defendant's acquittal or convicts evading imprisonment.

People like Susno and Teddy are fortunate because they have access to power that enables them to seek every avenue to get justice, which sadly eludes those who are weaker and less vocal. The sooner this blatant obstruction of justice is addressed, the better.

Aceh's war survivors: Their questions won't go away

Jakarta Post - April 26, 2013

Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta – "The children never cease asking for their parents and siblings. Families continue to dig up mass graves in the search for their relatives for years."

This description was from Murtala, a resident in North Aceh who set up an organization for war survivors like himself. He was addressing the launch of a report here last Thursday on human rights abuses during armed violence in Aceh, compiled by Amnesty International. A coalition of NGOs are demanding a tribunal for rights abuses in the country's northernmost province.

Also last week, Aceh's legislative council began to hold hearings ahead of the planned drafting of a bylaw on the provincial Commission for Truth and Reconciliation. Councilors said the process had been stalled since the Constitutional Court annulled a law on the truth and reconciliation body in 2006.

Legal technicalities are one problem in addressing the needs of Aceh's people – who have experienced barely a decade of peace since the colonial wars, rebellions against Jakarta and South Asia's devastating tsunami and earthquake in 2004, which left some 150,000 dead and missing in Aceh.

The urgency to rebuild lives and infrastructure suppressed questions, such as what happened to family members who disappeared during the conflict, or how to heal the scars of war. But as Murtala said, the need to know what happened and how to come to terms with the losses still weigh heavy on people's minds. Thus, the council's efforts to encourage open discourse on how to go about addressing such needs must be supported.

The nation's leaders need to overcome hurdles expected in Jakarta and in Aceh – as debating human rights abuses inevitably touch the nerves of influential groups linked to alleged perpetrators, or which include the abusers themselves. Demands for a truth and reconciliation commission and a human rights tribunal in Aceh would raise fears among such groups of similar demands elsewhere in Indonesia – including the victims and survivors of the 1965 upheaval.

We have often seen vehement reaction against the notion of digging up past atrocities and bringing those accountable to a human rights court, or to a forum where victims could face the alleged perpetrators in public. It is, thus, no surprise that we have yet to see renewed deliberation on the law on the truth and reconciliation commission.

The absence of this law will be problematic; as the international peace agreement signed in Helsinki, Finland, on Aug. 15, 2005, stated that such a commission "would be established for Aceh by the Indonesian Commission for Truth and Reconciliation". But legal constraints would be minor compared to how victims and survivors feel their losses should be addressed and how to act on them.

Allegations of human rights abuses are potentially divisive in Aceh, as former combatants of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) also stand accused of such violations. Aspiring contenders for direct elections in Aceh have been wary of offending former fighters with discontented followers. Despite campaign promises from various aspiring regents, governors and councilors, the issue of justice in the Helsinki agreement has seen the least concrete follow-up.

Aceh councilors say establishing a truth and reconciliation commission could still refer to the Helsinki MoU and the Law on Aceh's governance. But don't expect support from Jakarta's lawmakers, for they would indignantly recall being sidestepped by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his then vice president Jusuf Kalla, in bringing enemies to the negotiating table following the tsunami.

Any mention of a human rights court risks equal resentment from the Indonesian Military (TNI) and police, who lost many of their own in the fighting. Recent incidents involving soldiers in attacks and murder of civilians raised the unresolved issue of the reformasi era on what to do with soldiers involved in crimes – let alone those involved in arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, torture and the rape of civilians.

The result: the remaining legacy of impunity, as evident time and again in the brazen, continuous incidents of soldiers taking the law into their own hands – most recently the March 23, attack and killing of detainees in the Cebongan Penitentiary in Sleman, Yogyakarta, by members of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus), and the April 20, South Jakarta attack on the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Indonesia's rare experiences with human rights courts have raised questions of credibility – the ad hoc court trying rights violations in Timor Leste ended in the acquittal of all military defendants. The only experience nearing a truth and reconciliation commission has been the Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission on Truth and Friendship. Though controversial regarding the degree of how far the commission weighed truth over friendship, it was a first step nonetheless in the nation's willingness to acknowledge wrongdoing.

In spite of all the odds, the Acehnese are determined to get on with their lives. Their elected leaders in Aceh and Jakarta must at least ensure openness and safety in proposing ways to redress the material and nonmaterial losses of civilians caught in the cross fire.