Dessy Aswim – The credibility and accuracy of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's recent claim to have lifted nine million people out of poverty in the past five years has left some skeptical, with an expert saying the figures cited warrant deeper analysis.

Revrisond Baswir, an economics analyst at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, said on Thursday that the government employed a two-tiered definition of poverty that distinguished the extremely poor from the moderately poor, and that any claim to lifting people out of poverty could be interpreted as simply taking them from the lower sub-category to the upper one.

"The poverty line drawn by our government is very low," he said. "We have the extremely poor becoming moderately poor, and at any given time it is easy for the moderately poor to go back to square one."

He added that when Yudhoyono claimed success in eradicating poverty, "that doesn't necessarily mean that poverty is out of the context." "Maybe the extremely poor have now become moderately poor, but they're still far from prosperous," Revrisond said.

Speaking on Monday at the opening of the Southeast Asia office of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Lab (J-PAL) in Jakarta, Yudhoyono noted that the number of Indonesians classified as poor had declined from 16.58 percent in 2007 to 11.66 percent in 2012, and credited his administration's Master Plan for the Acceleration of Expansion and Economic Development in Indonesia (MP3EI) as a key program in eradicating poverty.

Revrisond said it was also possible that the data was skewed by not including poor families who were recipient of various forms of government aid.

The government has embarked on yet another handout program that will see Rp 9.3 trillion ($937 million) distributed to 15.5 million households over the next four months to offset the impact of a recent fuel price hike.

"It's right to make a claim about lifting people out of poverty, because it probably did happen, but it's a pretty short-sighted claim because the poor only stopped being poor for that period [when they were getting handouts]," Revrisond said. "But beyond that, who knows?"

He also played down Yudhoyono's aim to lift another six million people out of poverty in the next five years as an overly ambitious as well as unrealistic plan. He also questioned the poverty-eradication merits of the MP3EI, saying it did little more than impose more dependency on foreign investors.

"More jobs can be created, but that can only happen if we open our doors wide for foreigners. When we factor in Indonesians, it results in Indonesians becoming slaves in their own country. We're a nation of slaves," Revrisond said.

Fachry Ali, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), argued that Yudhoyono's claim might not be entirely untrue, given the country's stable economic performance since 2006.

"Realistically, there are those living on or near the poverty line, and those living below it. Maybe [the president] was referring to those living below the poverty line," Fachry said.

He also defended the cash handout scheme as an important element in boosting the economy, and said the MP3EI would provide solid growth through major infrastructure projects.

"When the MP3EI is completed, the flow of commodities will be smoother and that will bring down production costs for goods as well as living costs," Fachry said.

Hercules jail time request shocks police

Jakarta Globe - June 26, 2013

Police on Tuesday expressed surprise that prosecutors only demanded a six- month prison sentence for gang leader Hercules Rozario Marshall despite him being charged with three crimes with a maximum possible punishment of nine years.

West Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Fadil Imran shook his head in disbelief when hearing the sentence demand. "It's unbelievable the prosecutors only demanded the low sentence. In fact, he should get the maximum punishment," he told reporters on Tuesday.

In their dossier, police charged Hercules with violent conduct, attacking police officers and leading other people to commit a crime. On Monday, prosecutors at the West Jakarta court only demanded a six-month prison sentence.

"By paying attention to the related laws, [we] demand the judge finds Hercules guilty and that he serve six months in jail not including time served," presiding prosecutor Fajar Aris Setiawan said, as quoted by Kompas.com on Monday.

Hercules, a prominent supporter of he Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and party chairman Prabowo Subianto's presidential bid, was arrested by police in March after he smashed store windows in Kembangan, West Jakarta, following a police order to rid the neighborhood of gang activity.

Police were sent to patrol Kembangan as part of an effort to clamp down on Hercules' Gerakan Rakyat Indonesia Baru civil-society organization, a group they accuse of using intimidation to run an extortion ring in the area. Hercules denied the accusation that his cohorts dealt in extortion, instead claiming they were employed with monthly salaries of Rp 2 million ($202).

Hercules said he had not decided whether he would object to the indictment, indicating he would continue to consult with his lawyers.

Class action can proceed on water privatization

Jakarta Post - June 26, 2013

Corry Elyda, Jakarta – Central Jakarta District Court decided on Tuesday to proceed with the class-action lawsuit over the privatization of the city water supply by PAM Jaya and its two foreign partners.

Presiding judge Nawawi Pomulangu said on Tuesday that the judges had rejected the objection of PAM Jaya and its two partners PT Pam Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) and PT Aetra Air Jakarta as defendants in the case, saying their objection was not strong enough to stop the trial.

Nawawi said the exception of the defendants was mainly about the annulment of gubernatorial and Finance Ministy decrees in the form of supporting letters that legitimized the partnership.

"The annulment of the supporting letters is only a minor charge, not the main one. Hence, the trial will continue to the substance of the charges," he said.

The defendants previously argued that the Central Jakarta District Court was not authorized to try the lawsuit.

They said that if the plaintiff, the Coalition of Jakarta Residents Opposing Water Privatization (KMMSAJ), wanted to annul the supporting letters, the trial should be handled by the State Administrative Court (PTUN) as they were issued the government.

KMMSAJ lawyer Arif Maulana said after the hearing that the annulment of the supporting letters was indeed a small part of the lawsuit.

"What we are trying to do is prove that the partnership has violated many laws and regulations that has violated the right of citizens to access to clean water," he said.

If the partnership is annulled, all decrees about the partnership, including the support letters, would automatically be annulled. KMMSAJ is filing a lawsuit against parties who legalized the privatization of Jakarta's water to Palyja and Aetra in 1997.

The lawsuit came about through the failure of the two firms to supply adequate clean water during 16 years of operation. The plaintiffs want to annul the agreement between PAM Jaya and the two foreign companies, with a final goal that city will take over the operation.

Besides having failed to provide clean water, especially to low-income households, both Palyja and Aetra have caused the city to be deep in debt with dual financing programs that differentiates between the price which PAM Jaya pays operators to supply water to households and prices imposed on customers, allowing the firms to book huge profits by overcharging.

PAM Jaya lawyer Abdul Fickar Hadjar said the company was looking forward to the result of the trial and admitted that the partnership was unfair. "The partnership has caused PAM Jaya a debt of at least Rp 590 billion [US$59 million]," he said.

Arif said if they won, the contract with PAM Jaya and its foreign partners would be terminated without any penalties.

Hercules' charges slashed significantly

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2013

Fikri Zaki Muhammadi, Jakarta – Prosecutors on Monday demanded a six-month prison term for former gang lord Hercules Rozario Marshal despite the nine-year jail sentence he faced initially.

Prosecutor Fajar Aris Setiawan said that based on the juridical analysis, only Article 214 of the Criminal Code applied to Hercules' altercation with police officers in March in West Jakarta.

The article stipulates a maximum seven years in prison for obstructing the work of law enforcers under the threat of violence.

Prosecutors had previously charged Hercules with multiple articles, including instigation of crime, vandalism, obstruction of justice and extortion, which carried a maximum prison term of 18 years.

"Considering testimony from witnesses so far, we concluded that only Article 214 will be used against defendant Hercules Rozario Marshal," Fajar said. "We demand that the court sentence him to six months in prison, less his detention period," he added.

Hercules has already spent over three months in detention.

The prosecutor explained that Hercules threatened resisting arrest on March 8, and took out his artificial eye and threw it at officers while saying, "That thing has been hit by a bullet!" It was also alleged that Hercules banged on a police car and ordered police to disperse.

Fajar told the West Jakarta Court that Hercules had said, "I am Hercules, and this is my home. I feel disturbed by your presence. Disperse! "I'm a veteran. If I were to hit you, you would all die by one punch."

Police deployed 187 personnel, a water canon vehicle and an armored tank to safeguard the trial, according to the West Jakarta Police.

Police named Hercules and 49 of his associates as suspects in March for their alleged involvement in a fight with police in Kebon Jeruk Indah, West Jakarta.

Police said the clash started when the suspects provoked police personnel dispatched to guard the area following reports that Hercules and his men were engaged in extortion there.

After the arrest, detectives raided Hercules' house and confiscated evidence, including two replica guns, an FN pistol, 27 bullets and two magazines. Presiding judge Kemal Tampubolon adjourned the court session until Thursday.

West Papua

No separatist flag on July 1

Jakarta Post - June 27, 2013

Lambertus Pekikir, the leader of Free Papua Movement's (OPM) military wing, the Papua Liberation Army Front (TPN) said that the organization will unilaterally proclaim the independence of Papua on July 1.

Lambertus said, however, the occasion would be celebrated solemnly. "There will be no flag hoisting ceremony only mass prayers and a gathering at our headquarters," Lambertus said as quoted by tempo.co.

He said that if any Morning Star flag, the symbol of the separatist movement, is visible in and around the capital of Papua, Jayapura, none of his men would be responsible for the consequences.

Traditionally, the Morning Star flag is hoisted during the anniversary of the OPM on Dec. 1 every year.

OPM claims responsibility for fatal shooting of TNI soldier in Papua

Jakarta Globe - June 26, 2013

Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – The Free Papua Movement (OPM) has claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of an Indonesian Military (TNI) soldier, which also left a civilian dead in the Papua district of Puncak Jaya on Tuesday.

Second Lt. I Wayan Sukarta, the head of the TNI station in Puncak Jaya's Ilu subdistrict, was traveling in a car along with two lower-rank soldiers when a group of armed men attacked them with rifles in Jigonikme village in Ilu.

They managed to contact the station for help, but Sukarta and the civilian driver of the car, who has been identified as Tono, were already dead as more soldiers arrived in the location on Tuesday afternoon.

"There were, more or less, seven attackers who carried riffles," Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Gede Sumerta Jaya said on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Goliath Tabuni, the commander of the OPM's National Liberation Army (TPN), claimed responsibility for the attack.

"The shooting was done by my members, on my order," Goliath told Suara Pembaruan. "If the TNI and the National Police wish to hunt for the shooters, then come look for me or my members, not Papua civilians."

But he denied that his members had killed a civilian in the attack. "My members wouldn't recklessly shoot civilians. If the media say a civilian has been a victim, that's a lie. The TNI may have shot civilians in this region and even throughout Papua, but we don't randomly shoot [civilians]."

Goliath added his group had taken some guns belonging to the soldiers they attacked on Tuesday, saying, "We're getting stronger."

In Jakarta, TNI commander Adm. Agus Suharto said the military together with police were hunting for the perpetrators, but no additional force would be sent to Papua.

"I am concerned. We've lost another TNI member. This shows that although we have tried to reach out to them with welfare approach, they keep committing violence. That needs to be underlined," Agus said. "We will evaluate our activities there".

Rights group Imparsial, meanwhile, warned the TNI against retaliating with more violence, saying the government needed to establish dialogue with separatist groups in order to end conflict in the restive region.

"Imparsial urges police to arrest the attackers... but hopes that the government won't use the violence to justify deployment of more troops to Papua," Imparsial executive director Poengki Indarti said on Wednesday.

"To end violence in Papua, it is time for the government to begin preparing dialogue with groups considered to oppose the government. The government shouldn't have a phobia for dialogue because peaceful dialogue will inspire trust between each other and disentangle the problem." (JG, Suara Pembaruan)

West Papuan independence fighter claims he killed Indonesian soldiers

Radio New Zealand International - June 26, 2013

A West Papua rebel leader has claimed responsibility for the killing of three Indonesian soldiers.

The claim was made by a General of the National Liberation Army of West Papua, Goliath Tabuni. The rebel group says General Tabuni gave the command to his forces to shoot two members of the military, or TNI, in the remote Ilu district in Puncak Jaya.

The attack happened yesterday and initial reports said a civilian taxi driver was also killed.

General Tabuni says the man was not a taxi driver but a military intelligence officer. He says he is publicly admitting the action after Indonesian police and military accused Papuan civilians of being armed and violent in that area.

He says there are no armed civilians and the authorities should pursue him and his men, not the villagers. There have been reports of a massacre of about 40 civilians by Indonesian military in the regency of Puncak Jaya.

MSG move seen as internationalisation of West Papua issue

Radio New Zealand International - June 25, 2013

The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation says the decision by the Melanesian Spearhead Group to retain its application for MSG membership is a major boost to efforts to bring the West Papua issue into the United Nations.

The WPNCL has released a statement on the decision by MSG leaders at their summit last week to approve a roadmap on which the application can be considered.

At the Noumea summit, MSG leaders officially addressed the sensitive issue of human rights violations in Indonesia's Papua region for the first time.

The MSG agreed to send a delegation to Indonesia this year to discuss West Papua, paving the way for a subsequent decision on the membership bid.

The WPNCL's Andy Ayamiseba says movement on the issue at MSG level is significant. "It is a clear indication that the case of West Papua is out of Indonesia's hands. It is no longer a domestic issue or internal matter but it's not become a regional issue, an international issue."

Freeport to resume open-pit operation

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2013

Jakarta – Mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia will resume operations in its open-pit with government permission after being idle for more than a month following a fatal tunnel collapse.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has allowed the United States- based gold and copper producer to resume production only in the open-pit and to commence milling in Papua.

"[Freeport] expresses its appreciation to the government for the approval and thoroughness of its ongoing investigations and recommendations related to the underground accident," the company, a subsidiary of Arizona-based Freeport- McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc., said in a press statement released on Saturday.

"It will continue to support the government's special investigation team in its investigation and is working cooperatively with government authorities to resume underground operations as soon as practicable."

Minister Jero Wacik said earlier on Tuesday that the Grasberg opencast mine, 2.7 kilometers from the scene of the tragedy, was "safe" based on a report by the ministry's investigators. The investigators, however, are yet to allow the company to restart underground operations.

A number of investigations, including one by the Papua Police and one by the ministry, have been carried out since the May 14 collapse killed 28 workers and injured 10 others at an underground training facility. The ministry ordered the company to shut down its entire activities following the collapse.

The investigation team has found that ground movement resulting from erosion was the cause of the cave-in. The team is led by Ridho Wattimena, head of the mining engineering graduate program at Bandung Institute of Technology in Bandung, West Java.

"The sudden and unexpected ground failure in such a long-standing excavated area is highly unusual," said Freeport Indonesia president director Rozik Soetjipto. The company claims it will "renew the commitment to take all actions required for our workers' safety".

The Grasberg open-pit contributes 140,000 tons of ore per day, or 64 percent of Freeport's daily production, while the Deep Ore Zone mine, an underground block a few kilometers from Grasberg, which remains closed, contributes the rest.

Freeport has lost an estimated US$18 million from the shutdown, and will probably not reach its production target of 1.3 million troy ounces of gold by the end of the year, 44 percent up on last year.

The government has lost $1.82 million every day from one of the country's biggest taxpayers during the suspension of operations.

Freeport planned to invest $15 billion to develop another mine at the Grasberg site, the world's largest gold mine, before the incident.

The company planned to start operating the new site, called the Grasberg block cave mine, in 2017, as operations at the open-pit mine are due to end in 2016. Freeport estimated that the new site would produce 160,000 tons of ore per day at full capacity. The DOZ mine and the planned Grasberg block cave mine could produce up to 240,000 tons of ore per day.

There has been no further explanation about that plan after the incident, however. (nai)

PNG opposition blasts extradition treaty with Indonesia

Australian Associated Press - June 24, 2013

Eoin Blackwell, Papua New Guinea – Papua New Guinea's opposition has launched a broadside against Prime Minister Peter O'Neill over his government's recent signing of an extradition treaty with Indonesia.

Opposition leader Belden Namah says the treaty will be used to expel thousands of West Papuans who have crossed the 760km land border into PNG to escape Indonesian rule.

"The West Papuans are our stalk and creed," he said in a weekend statement. "We share the same island and we were one before colonial rule divided us. We should be the last country and people to speak against their struggle for self determination."

He said the Indonesian government was most likely to use the treaty to seek the extradition of West Papuan activists who have fled Indonesia in fear of reprisals.

The O'Neill government last week signed an extradition treaty and a raft of commercial and other civil agreements with Indonesia during a three-day state visit to Jakarta.

Also agreed by both countries is a "softer border" policy aimed at increasing cultural and economic ties between West Papua and PNG. Since 1986 PNG has officially maintained West Papua is an integral part of Indonesia.

Mr Namah says the government has let down the people of West Papua. "Peter O'Neill is not a Melanesian," Mr Namah said in a statement over the weekend.

"If he is Melanesian, he will feel the pain and the suffering of the West Papuans." At its annual meeting in New Caledonia last week, the Melanesian Spearhead Group agreed to delay a vote to admit West Papua by six months, despite intense lobbying by the Free West Papua movement.

West Papuans welcome Melanesian support

ABC Radio Australia - June 24, 2013

The Melanesian Spearhead Group says it "fully supports" the right of West Papuans to self determination.

Presenter: Geraldine Coutts

Speaker: Sean Dorney, Pacific correspondent for the Australia Network

Dorney: It said that they noted a road map in relation to the application for membership and that that road map should be based on clear and achievable time lines. There is no decision yet on this application, but the application is still alive as it were.

What was interesting, I think, is that the very first line of the decisions in relation to the membership was an endorsement that the Melanesian Spearhead Group fully supports the inalienable rights of the people of West Papua towards self-determination. They said this is provided for under the preamble of the MSG Constitution.

And the West Papuans were very happy with that commitment to supporting their rights for self-determination. The second point was that they endorsed the concerns of the Melanesian Spearhead Group regarding human rights violations and other forms of atrocities relating to the West Papuan people and that these be raised with the government of Indonesia bilaterally and as a group. That's another one that the West Papuans were very pleased to see. I think it's the first time that the word "atrocities" has appeared in an MSG communique in relation to West Papua.

But then it goes on to say that this Ministerial mission at the invitation of Indonesia is going to be going to Jakarta and West Papua sometime later this year and that it's going to be led by Fiji's Foreign Minister, Ratu Inoke Kumumbola and that the outcome of the West Papuan National Coalition for Liberation's application will be subject to a report of that Foreign Minister's mission.

So the West Papuans are fairly happy about that. They're concerned, they tell me, about this trip. They want it to be very open. They're also wanting journalists to be allowed to travel with the foreign ministers, to journalists from the Pacific, to travel with the ministers and when they get to West Papua, they not just go to Jayapura – They'd be allowed to travel around the two provinces there, Papua and West Papua.

Coutts: How much support did that get having a media tag along Sean. We know that Fiji probably wouldn't be enamoured of that?

Dorney: Well, I did have a quiet chat to Ratu Inoke, and he suggested that yes, he wouldn't be opposed to media going on that trip. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

The Indonesian delegation, the spokesman in English for Indonesian delegation turned out to be Frans Albert Joku and Frans Albert is saying that this delegation will be taken to the province and see things.

He also said there were two very strong statements at the plenary session, a particularly strong statement from Vanuatu's Prime Minister, Moana Carcasses, but also Gordon Darcy Lilo was quite strong in his comments and what they said was in quite contrast to what Papua New Guinea's Deputy Prime Minister said where he apologised for the fact that Peter O'Neill had not turned up and then went on to say that the Papua New Guinea Prime Minister was not there, because he was in Indonesia.

And then later on in his address, he said that Papua New Guinea recognised that West Papua was an integral part of the nation of Indonesia. So Papua New Guinea didn't give the West Papuans much hope, but there were very strong statements as I say from Vanuatu and the Solomons in support of the West Papuans. And it's my understanding that these fairly strong words in the final communique came as a result of those two Prime Ministers wanting they're to be a major statement of support for the West Papuans in this final communique.

Coutts: And is that the reason that the application for the MSG membership for West Papua was accepted before the delegation as was...?

Dorney: No, well that's, the Foreign Ministers had also agreed with that. The Foreign Ministers' decision was at the consideration of the application be deferred. The Foreign Ministers hadn't recommended that the application be thrown out. The Foreign Ministers had said let's have this visit that the Indonesians have invited us to, to West Papua, so I don't think the application was going to be rejected straight off anyway.

Coutts: All right. Well, West Papua obviously dominated a lot of the proceedings. The chairmanship was handed over. But what other noticeable business took place?

Dorney: Well, there were quite a number of other decisions made. But I suppose one of the more interesting things towards the end of the whole affair, the three day meeting, was that on Friday evening, at the centre, the leaders were to sign a re-endorsement of the support of the Melanesian Spearhead Group for the independence of the Kanak people of New Caledonia and surprisingly, although Sir Michael Somare was there, as one of the founding members of the leaders of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. Papua New Guinea did not turn up, did not sign that final endorsement of support for the FLNKS, which caused a bit of consternation.

Sir Michael Somare himself was quite furious that Papua New Guinea wasn't there. I understand Papua New Guinea's Deputy Prime Minister, Leo Dion, was ill and didn't turn up, but nobody else did as well. So that support for the FLNKS has been signed by all the other members, but not at that very crucial final meeting by Papua New Guinea.

And after that, the leaders went down to a social function, but at that social function, they had five cakes with five candles on each of the cakes to mark the 25th. anniversary of the formation of the MSG and because there was no representative of the Papua New Guinea government there, Sir Michael Somare actually lined up to blow out the candles on the cake for Papua New Guinea.

Coutts: All right Sean. And, have we actually got travel dates yet for the Ministerial meeting?

Dorney: No, the West Papuans were telling me yesterday, they did not want it to be at the same time as Indonesia's celebration of its independence anniversary, because they said West Papua would be covered in Indonesian flags at that time, that they didn't think that was an appropriate time for the delegation to go, but we do not have an exact time. No, the invitation is coming from the Indonesians and Ratu Anoke and the MSG Secretariat are waiting upon that invitation.

Decolonisation and self-determination to the forefront at MSG summit

Radio New Zealand International - June 24, 2013

Issues of decolonisation and self-determination took centre stage at the just-completed 19th Melanesian Spearhead Group Leaders Summit in New Caledonia.

For the summit's hosts and incoming chair of the MSG, New Caledonia's FLNKS movement, the gathering was a strong endorsement of their preparation for possible independence from France.

However for the West Papuans of Indonesia, their bid to join the MSG and further their own struggle for self-determination, the summit was not all that they had hoped for.

Johnny Blades reports from Noumea:

The theme of Melanesian solidarity is central to all MSG summits. Much is made of how the group was set up to break the shackles of colonialism and support freedom for all Melanesian people. But beneath the celebrations, disquiet lurks over the long-running struggle for self-determination of the West Papuans of Indonesia's heavily militarised eastern region. A formal bid for MSG membership by the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation, whose leadership has lived in exile for many years, was the most anticipated discussion item at this summit. Vanuatu's Prime Minister Moana Carcasses told the plenary session that the MSG must support the cause because continued denial of self-determination for West Papuans is unacceptable.

"Moana Carcasses: We are aware of the human rights violation and atrocities being committed against West Papuans in their motherland. And so, therefore, I'm calling for an end to the abuse of human rights. We move that any continuation or abuse of human rights should be immediately brought to the attention of the international communities. Never let our desire for freedom be extinguished by the power of money."

Among the five members of the MSG, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and the FLNKS were in support of the West Papuan membership bid. But Papua New Guinea and Fiji – two countries who have in recent months forged closer ties with Indonesia – were uncomfortable with it. Earlier, the issue was debated at length by senior officials, with the leaders ultimately declaring that a decision on the West Papua application would be deferred until after a MSG mission had visited Indonesia to discuss West Papua more closely with Jakarta some time this year. PNG's deputy Prime Minister Leo Dion – at the summit on behalf of Prime Minister Peter O'Neill who had opted to make a state visit to Jakarta with a huge business delegation instead – made clear that his country fully supports Indonesia's territorial control of West Papua.

"Leo dion: I think the main thing that this conference has made is to the MSG members to be invited by the Indonesian government to go and dialogue with them. And I think that's our greatest step forward."

The secretary-general of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation was disappointed that the membership application had been deferred. But Rex Rumakiek is encouraged that there seems to be some movement on the issue.

"Rex Rumakiek: Finally, our issue has been taken up by the Melanesian Spearhead Group, 'cause we have been trying for a long time. The very interesting thing here is that since they are now recognising, visually recognising the issue, and, collectively, they want to do something about. That's the most important thing."

However he is weary of delay tactics by opponents of West Papuan self- determination and says the mission to Indonesia could be open to manipulation.

"Rex Rumakiek: It's better to make it an decision now than wasting their time to go over there. 'Cause you won't see anything new. Most likely, they'll make sure that your mission fails to get whatever you want to see."

But the incoming chairman of the MSG – the FLNKS's Victor Tutugoro – insists the ministerial mission to Indonesia will proceed with eyes wide open.

"Victor Tutugoro (through translator): Yeah, we know what's happening there. We see the actualities. We are conscious that maybe through this visit they will show us something else. We will see regarding our own decision, for the FLNKS."

"Johnny blades: Wouldn't giving them membership now be the most help to them?"

"Victor Tutugoro (through translator): We cannot break the MSG cohesion. This issue can break the cohesion of the MSG."

Meanwhile, MSG Leaders declared commitment and direct assistance to the FLNKS' independence cause. For the veteran FLNKS leader and former MSG chair, Roch Wamytan, assuming the chairmanship now is very important for New Caledonia's Kanaks as they enter the final phase of the Noumea Accord which provides for a possible referendum on independence between next year and 2018.

"Roch Wamytan: We are in the process, in the process of the Noumea Accord's emancipation and decolonisation process. And I think it's very important, as well, to be supported by the MSG for us to achieve our independence in the few years coming."

There are few stauncher supporters of decolonisation in the Pacific than French Polynesia's Oscar Temaru. A special guest at the MSG summit, Mr Temaru recently lost the Presidency of French Polynesia to the pro-France veteran leader Gaston Flosse, but the same week he succeeded in getting French Polynesia re-inscribed on the UN Decolonisation list.

"Oscar Temaru: We lost that battle, but I think we won the war – the goal of our fight for 35 years. We got our country back on the list, and I can see a new blood, a new force, in our struggle for the sovereignty of our country in the future."

MSG countries were instrumental in lobbying support for French Polynesia's reinscription. But the issue of West Papua remains a sensitive one in the MSG. Fiji's Foreign Minister, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, was centrally involved in Indonesia gaining observer status in the MSG two years ago and now with securing an invitation for the MSG to visit:

"Ratu Inoke Kubuabola: Yeah. We need to recognise the fact that our administrative power is Indonesia. And we need to work with Indonesia, with Jakarta."

But many in the MSG framework, such as Roch Wamytan, don't agree with the Leaders' direction on this issue.

"Roch Wamytan: The opportunity to obtain a status of full member, it will be a good thing for West Papua. But we know Papua New Guinea and Fiji, they are not really on this process."

For the West Papuan activist Paula Makabory, MSG leaders have West Papuan lives in their hands:

"Paula Makabory: If the Melanesian leaders decided something just to appease Indonesian governments because of the relationships, in this state they are choosing to kill their own brothers and sisters in West Papua under Indonesian occupation. So they will create more human rights violence in West Papua. We have been facing the questions of genocide in West Papua."

The MSG has grown in cohesion in recent years, becoming the Pacific islands region's most powerful political and economic bloc. However that cohesion may face its biggest test from the creeping divisions over the West Papua issue.

Labour & migrant workers

Apindo won't increase wage this year

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2013

Jakarta – Despite the recent increase of fuel prices and inflation on the horizon, the Employers Association (Apindo) indicated there will be no wage increase this year.

Labor associations vowed to push for a wage increase in July to counteract the fuel price changes that became effective last Saturday.

Apindo chairman Sofjan Wanandi said companies are welcome to "adjust" transportation allowance for their employees. According to Sofjan, any policies regarding wage rises need a joint assessment through talks between workers, businesses and the government.

"The National Wage Council [DPN] will first do a survey through the tripartite arrangement, which will then be negotiated upon, and a decision made next year," Sofjan said on Monday, acknowledging that the association has neither a plan nor any specific policy to increase wages.

"If increasing travel allowances is necessary so workers can live at the same standard they are used to, then please do so," he said, adding that any policies to increase allowances for are a matter for the companies concerned.

Apindo has no plan to increase wages partly because of the increase in the minimum wage this year. Based on his personal observations, Sofjan has not seen any evidence that the increase in minimum wage to boosted the productivity of workers.

"How can this be so? If this is the way things are, maybe we better use more machines and fewer workers?" Sofjan said. "They make all sorts of demands, but do nothing to improve themselves," he added.

Muhamad Rusdi, secretary-general of the Confederation of Labor Unions (KSPI), said this organizations members would push for wage increases of at least 30 percent this July.

"First of all, we are still opposed to the new fuel prices. We insist on increased wages because fuel prices have been increased," he said in a telephone interview.

Aside from the fuel-price rise, Rusdi said manual and unskilled workers everywhere would also feel the pinch with the early increase in prices of food stuffs.

Prices normally rises at the beginning of Ramadhan; this year in the first week of July. Fasting month always has the highest monthly inflation rates as many people decide to significantly up their household spending.

"Fuel prices increased by around 40 percent and of course this will be followed by the increases in transportation tariffs and rent," Rusdi said, referring to workers who mostly live in rented houses near their place of work.

The labor activist also said the unions would demand wage increases of 50 percent next year in relation to the introduction of ASEAN Economic Community or "single market", which is scheduled for 2015.

Jaya Sentosa, chairman of the Labor Unions Association (ASPEK), said the association would keep their attention on the 30 percent increase of minimum wages this July instead.

"As for the wage increases next year, it can wait until October when laborers begin their campaign to demand it. But for now, let us focus on increasing the minimum wage before the Idul Fitri celebrations," he said. (asw)

[Amahl S. Azwar also contributed to the story.]

Political parties & elections

SBY's brother-in-law joins Dems, raises speculation

Jakarta Post - June 30, 2013

Jakarta – The Democratic Party has approved the membership of former Indonesian Army chief Gen. (ret.) Pramono Edhie Wibowo, who is also the brother-in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a move which could pave the way for him to be nominated as the party's presidential candidate.

The party's central executive board chairman EE Mangindaan said on Saturday that Pramono, who had been on the board for only four days, could be a strong figure for the party given his extensive experience in the army.

"We haven't discussed who will be on our presidential candidate list. We are very open to anyone and I think Pramono is a very good figure who can contribute a lot of ideas to the party and maintain our political values," Mangindaan told reporters on the sidelines of a national party meeting on Saturday.

It has been speculated that Pramono, the younger brother of First Lady Ani Yudhoyono, was being groomed by Yudhoyono to succeed him as part of the President's efforts to secure his and his family's interests after his second term in office ends in 2014.

Pramono, who retired from his military career in May, previously said he would spend more time with his family.

The former army chief, however, first has to compete in a presidential primary, which is slated for September at the latest. He will have to compete against other prominent figures who have conveyed an interest in participating in the primary. Among them are Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan, former constitutional court chief justice Mahfud MD and Regional Representatives Council (DPD) chairman Irman Gusman.

House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie, who is also the deputy chairman of the party's supreme assembly, has announced he will not join the race in the primary.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party executive chairman Syarief Hasan said the conditions and requirements for individuals wishing to join the primary had not yet been decided and the Saturday meeting barely discussed the primary.

"The President, as the party chairman, will announce the requirements for the would-be candidates next week, maybe in the next two days. One of the requirements, I think, would be that he or she must be a popular figure and has served as a minister or other position at a similar level," he said.

The national meeting, which was attended by hundreds of the party's delegations from across the country, was aimed to discuss strategies to win the 2014 legislative election.

A number of pollsters have predicted the Democratic Party will suffer a slump in the 2014 election, due to the graft allegations leveled against its politicians. The party leadership, however, is upbeat over the future.

"What we have and other parties do not have is President Yudhoyono. What we have been doing is for the people. With the issues facing us now, we target to achieve 15 percent of votes in the next legislative election," said the party's secretary-general Edhie "Ibas" Baskoro Yudhoyono.

Based on recent surveys conducted by the state-run Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) among 1,799 voters nationwide, the party, which won the 2009 legislative election, is losing its popularity among voters. The party only recorded 11.1 percent of the total 1,799 pollsters, lower than the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) with 14.9 percent and Golkar party with 14.5 percent. (koi)

Slew of polls show public view of president deteriorating

Jakarta Globe - June 28, 2013

More than half of Indonesians say they are unhappy with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's leadership performance, adding to the weight of evidence that the leader has lost his touch in the twilight of his decade in office.

In a Indonesia Research Center survey, 57 percent of respondents said they were not satisfied with Yudhoyono's presidency, nearly nine years since he was first elected, IRC director Agus Sudibyo told a news conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

Agus said the survey also found that 72 percent of people did not believe that Yudhoyono could overcome the country's problems.

Topping the list of issues on which people expressed dissatisfaction was unemployment (16.4 percent), followed by the price of staple goods (15.9 percent), poor standards of education (11.5 percent) and poor quality health services (10 percent).

IRC also reported that 6.9 percent respondents were not happy with the government's performance on infrastructure, 6.6 percent on crime and 5.7 percent on corruption, followed by 5.7 percent on environmental issues, 3.4 percent on poverty, 0.8 percent on clean water, 0.3 percent on Indonesian migrant workers and 0.2 percent on traffic problems.

The research, conducted in May, had a 2.3 percent margin of error.

The high level of dissatisfaction with the president follows earlier research by the National Survey Institute (LSN) that also suggested perceptions of decline.

In its survey, released on Sunday, 30 percent of respondents said the country was in a worse condition during Yudhoyono's second term than during his first, while only 19 percent said it was in a better condition. Some 49 percent of people said conditions had not changed significantly.

The May survey had 1,230 respondents and had a 2.8 percent margin of error.

Another survey, this one carried out by Indonesia Survey Circle (LSI), found that 45 percent of people believe that Yudhoyono is most responsible for this month's increase in the subsidized fuel price.

"The president's efforts to shift the burden to the parliament failed and the president didn't make the announcement in person for the sake of [his] image, but it turns out he's still being blamed for it," LSI researcher Adjie Alfaraby said in Jakarta on Sunday.

The LSI survey also found that the Democratic Party received the most blame for the subsidized fuel price hike.

"Although the other parties in the ruling coalition, minus the Prosperous Justice Party [PKS], supported the subsidized fuel price hike, the public is angry with the Democratic Party," Adjie said.

It was not clear what proportion of people held the rise in the global price of oil responsible for the increase in fuel prices, which have taken place in most countries around the world.

PKS official Indra said the survey justified PKS's opposition to the fuel price policy. "The people will be miserable with the subsidized fuel price hike. With the increase in the subsidized fuel price, prices also surged by around 40-50 percent," he said, providing no evidence for his claim.

PKS faces electoral extinction

Jakarta Post - June 28, 2013

Nadya Natahadibrata, Jakarta – An new opinion poll by the state-run Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) has found that the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) could suffer virtual annihilation in the 2014 legislative election.

Firestorms of graft scandals have assailed the Muslim party's leaders. If the election was to take place today, according to the survey, the PKS would pick up a measly 2.6 percent of the vote, far below the current 3.5 percent electoral threshold.

The survey found that the PKS trailed even the Great Indonesian Movement (Gerindra) Party at 7.4 percent and lags behind the diminutive United Development Party (PPP) who would take only 2.9 percent of the vote.

Syamsudin Haris, LIPI senior political analyst, believes the bribery scandal that implicates former chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq, party supremo Hilmi Aminuddin and current chairman Anis Matta, has more or less destroyed the party's electability. "This means that the mechanism of punishment by the public is working, as shown by the survey result," Syamsudin said.

A number of pollsters have previously forecast declining popularity for Islamic parties in 2014 with major parties like the PKS and PPP involved in corruption scandals and the National Awakening Party (PKB) split by a power struggle.

A poll by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), released last month, showed the PKS with only 2.7 percent of votes.

Another study by the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) found that if the election had to been held in October 2012, Muslim-based parties – including the PKS, the PKB, PAN and the PPP – would have collectively taken 21.1 percent of the vote.

Having enough "beefs" on their plate already, the PKS is undaunted by the survey. On Thursday, the party even switched its position on the plan to amend the Presidential Election Law.

Convinced that the PKS would get at least 20 percent of the vote in 2014, leaders of the party decided to support major political parties like the Democratic Party, Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in rejecting an amendment to lower the presidential threshold from the current 20 percent of the popular vote and 25 percent of seats in the House.

PKS politician Indra, said the party's crumbling prospects did not match with the political reality on the ground.

"We won West Java gubernatorial election, even after Pak Luthfi's profile rose in the media. This means, we still have public trust regardless of the graft case," he said, referring to the victory of Ahmad Heryawan and Deddy Mizwar in the West Java gubernatorial election.

The party earlier won the same election in North Sumatra, where its candidate Gatot Pujo Nugroho got 33 percent of the vote. Last week, PKS- backed candidate Ridwan Kamil, a popular architect, won the mayoral election in Bandung, West Java.

Indra said that predictions of a PKS collapse could in fact motivate party members to buff up the party's grubby image. "Prior to the 2009 general elections, almost all opinion polls predicted that we wouldn't make the electoral threshold. The results proved the naysayers wrong and we succeeded in getting 8 percent of vote," Indra said.

The LIPI survey also predicted a poor showing for the once mighty Democratic Party in 2014. If the election was to take place today, the ruling party would only get 11 percent of the vote. The CSIS poll showed an even more dismal performance, predicting only 7.1 percent of votes for all the President's men and women.

"This could mean that SBY's decision to take over leadership of the party has positively affected their electability, even though the increase is not great, considering that they won the last election," Syamsudin said.

The survey also found that the PDI-P would win the 2014 legislative election albeit with only 14.9 percent of the vote.

The survey was conducted between 10 and 31 May in 31 provinces. LIPI interviewed 1,799 voters. The margin of error is 2.31 percent.

Lunch with Prabowo Subianto

The Financial Times (UK) - June 28, 2013

Ben Bland – Lunch with Prabowo Subianto, the former special forces commander who is running to be president of Indonesia, was never destined to be straightforward. An encounter earlier this year at his heavily guarded mountaintop ranch outside Jakarta ended in frustration: the general, regularly described as a "military strongman", was too anxious to engage in an on-the-record interview with the FT.

Now on our second meeting, in Jakarta on the neutral territory of the Four Seasons Hotel, he still looks fidgety, despite being accompanied by his billionaire brother Hashim, an American investor friend and a small battalion of aides.

Reflecting his putative transformation from soldier to statesman, Prabowo takes his wardrobe seriously. A trim-looking 61-year-old with a mop of improbably black hair, he has discarded the trademark dictator-chic safari suit he wears on the rural campaign trail in favour of a double-breasted blue blazer, white monogrammed shirt and ruby red tie. After exchanging pleasantries, we walk up the marble stairs to a private room at the Lai Ching, a Chinese restaurant that, it turns out, is a regular haunt of his. Taped birdsong plays, rather too loudly, in the background.

Prabowo can trace his lineage back to the sultans of Mataram, the last Javanese rulers to fall to the Dutch East India Company in the 18th century. His father and grandfather were leaders in the Indonesian national revolution that led to the expulsion of the Dutch in 1949. Prabowo himself married the daughter of Suharto, the former president and dictator toppled by a popular revolt in 1998 at the height of the Asian financial crisis. Suharto's fall was spectacular but so was that of Prabowo: one of his top generals, he was dismissed from the army following an internal investigation into his role in the kidnapping of anti-Suharto activists, amid claims that he was plotting a coup at the time of his father-in-law's abrupt demise. He remains banned from entering the US because of a wide range of allegations by activists and NGOs.

So there is plenty to probe about Prabowo's suitability for high office. But first I ask him why he wants to become president next year, when the present incumbent – Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – steps down. "We have great potential, great wealth," says Prabowo, speaking fluent English, "but we have not managed our wealth wisely. There's too much corruption, too much inefficiency and a lack of wisdom and statesmanship. I'm very worried that, if we don't manage this transition wisely, we could end up as a failed state."

Just in time to avert the apocalypse, a studiously deferential waiter arrives with elaborate menus. Prabowo confesses he is not very hungry, having eaten a pre-lunch snack while on a flight from Malaysia that morning. His brother Hashim takes charge and orders for everyone: fried vegetables, prawns, fried grouper, hot and sour soup and an assortment of other Cantonese dishes.

Full disclosure, my own personal entourage – in the shape of Lionel Barber, FT editor, who is on self-assignment in Indonesia and Myanmar – is hors de combat, a victim of Jakarta tummy, an occupational hazard in a city where skyscrapers and slums stand side by side.

As the shared dishes are laid out, Prabowo clicks his fingers to summon an aide. "This is my secret weapon," he says, picking up a silver object that resembles a small artillery shell. To our visible relief, the object turns out to be a Thermos flask of iced coffee that the former general takes with him wherever he goes. "I will not divulge the recipe. But with this I can speak without notes for five hours."

Prabowo says he first decided to run for the Indonesian presidency in 2002. The general had been living in self-imposed exile in Jordan as a guest of the young King Abdullah when Hashim was jailed on what his brother calls "trumped-up charges" of failing to repay a debt of $200,000. As the general ruefully admits, these were tough times for one of Indonesia's most celebrated families. "I thought, 'This is the height of injustice. We are becoming a banana republic.'"

In 2004, however, he failed to win nomination as the presidential candidate for the Golkar party, Suharto's former electoral machine which had been retooled for the new democratic era. And so in 2008, with financial backing from Hashim, Prabowo set up his own political party, the Great Indonesia Movement Party, known locally as Gerindra.

Today it is true that some Indonesians, frustrated by what they see as President Yudhoyono's failure to live up to his corruption-busting rhetoric, hanker for the certainties of the Suharto era. "You only needed to pay off one person to get things done back then," they joke. But the country, which suffered a near-death experience in 1998 with the collapse of its currency, has rebounded and experienced an economic and political miracle. Defying predictions that it would become a Balkanised refuge for Islamic terrorism, the densely populated island archipelago has instead turned into one of Asia's hottest emerging markets – and a functioning, if sometimes chaotic, democracy. So the question arises: does Indonesia need saving from itself, as Prabowo argues. Or does it need saving from him, as his many detractors counter?

I ask him if he believes he was born to govern. "Not born to rule but born to serve," he responds, with a well-rehearsed line of the kind used by George C Scott playing General Patton. I take a different tack. Which leaders does Prabowo most admire? His choice of Asian role models is revealing, among them is India's Jawaharlal Nehru, who "came from a wealthy family but always defended the poor", as well as southeast Asian strongmen such as Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad and Thailand's Thaksin Shinawatra.

Like Prabowo, the latter has been accused of human rights violations and spent time in self-imposed exile. Though Prabowo concedes, albeit euphemistically, that Thaksin, who was overthrown in a military coup in 2006 and subsequently convicted in absentia of abusing his power, was "a bit abrasive, divisive yes". But, he adds, in what is perhaps a hint at his own political leanings and future campaign strategy: "He got things done and the poor love him."

Initially reticent, Prabowo is now in full flow, whole sentences exploding as he practises his stump speech on the future of Indonesia, anti- corruption tactics and the need for the firm smack of leadership. "If you want to lead a political party that claims to be clean, claims to be anti- corruption, claims to be a force for change, you must give the example. You must be squeaky clean," he says.

Throughout the main courses, I notice that he consumes only three forkfuls of sauteed water spinach. I joke about him needing to eat to maintain his energy. "I am trying to lose weight," he replies. "And you guys are keeping me busy. Your questions are quite challenging. I have to think about my answers."

The former commander of the fearsome Kopassus special forces is not without a caring side, insisting politely but firmly that the editor take tea with honey to settle his stomach. The editor agrees but draws the line at charcoal pills, a popular local remedy. Prabowo laughs uproariously; his guests follow on cue.

It is time, however, to explore some of the darker aspects of the man who wants to be president, and I am a little nervous. He has, after all, been accused of directing the killing of separatists in East Timor during the 1970s and 1980s; of kidnapping student dissidents and orchestrating riots against the ethnic Chinese to deflect growing public anger at Suharto's autocratic rule in 1998. The widespread allegations of human rights violations committed during the Suharto era have never been fully investigated in Indonesia. Many claims have not been substantiated.

Prabowo is also said to have an uncontrollable temper and to have whipped out swords and pistols when pushed too far by reporters or political rivals. "I do have a temper but is it terrible or not?" he says, with a not entirely convincing laugh. "My whole life, I've been serving in combat units. I think I managed to lead under very critical and stressful situations and when we came out, most of our operations were successful."

I ask him about one particularly controversial mission, in 1996, in the remote jungles of Papua, when he was accused of improperly using the Red Cross insignia on a combat helicopter during a raid to free a group of European hostages. "I should be given a knighthood by your government," he says, dismissing the claim. "I saved your citizens, I put my own life at risk and my soldiers were killed."

For one brief shining moment, he is back on the battlefield. "I was in the helicopter. I, as a one-star brigadier general, was in the assault move element. I took part in the landing. And I was berated by some of my seniors, 'What the hell are you doing, you are a general leading 40 soldiers?' I said, 'I have to give an example to my men.'"

As he speaks, a waiter is methodically cutting a Peking duck in the background, using surgical gloves and an extremely sharp carving knife – precisely the sort of incisive military operation of which the general would approve. I reflect that Prabowo's taste for Chinese food might seem ironic given accusations that he fomented anti-Chinese riots some 15 years ago.

Prabowo rejects any culpability. "I was a serving officer under one political regime, and that regime changed, and, after that, some of the operations were considered illegal, criminal. They had to have a fall guy, somebody to take responsibility." Indeed, far from expressing regret, he is philosophical about his fate. "If you saw the Shah in Iran, when he lost power, many of his generals were shot."

Today, thanks to financial aid from his brother and some of his own dealmaking, Prabowo has all the trappings of the Indonesian business elite: plantations, a pulp mill, a helicopter, an interest in politics and a bitter dispute with western investors (in his case, London-listed Churchill Mining).

Nor is he the only rich businessmen in the presidential race: also running is his bitter rival Aburizal Bakrie, patriarch of the family conglomerate engaged in a ferocious dispute with the British financier Nat Rothschild over Bumi, the London-listed coal mining company both parties created in 2011 before quickly falling out.

Though some early polls show Prabowo in the lead, his party faces an uphill struggle to meet the high threshold to nominate a presidential candidate: 20 per cent of seats in parliament or 25 per cent of the popular vote. (In 2009, his party won just under 5 per cent of the popular seats and the vote.) He believes other, more established parties are trying to manipulate the electoral system to thwart his ambitions. "Politics can be very demeaning, very demoralising," he says.

As the waiter brings out almond pudding with lychees and strawberries – Prabowo's favourite dessert – I recall our earlielier meeting at his mountaintop retreat, where his preferred company consists of dogs, thoroughbred horses and a falcon. Having watched him summon the bird of prey and tenderly feed it dried fish, I asked why he loves animals.

"When we grow up and see human nature, there's betrayal, perfidy, lying," he said. "But some of these animals are very basic. You give love to them, they give love back. You are loyal to them. They are loyal to you."

Politics is not nearly so straightforward – and certainly not in Indonesia. Despite his improbable post-Suharto comeback, Prabowo might seem like a man whose time has come – and passed. Yet he persists in his pursuit of the presidency.

Lunch is at an end and, having prevailed in an earlier struggle over who would pay, it is time for the FT party to pick up the rather hefty tab. It turns out that, in addition to his brother and the investor friend, Prabowo's entourage of young aides sitting outside have also been having lunch – not so much with the FT as on the FT.

As Prabowo rushes off to his next meeting, well-fed acolytes in tow, I remember something else he said at his retreat. That he could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who had never betrayed him. I am left wondering whether this was the moment of revelation or a shot across the bows.

[Ben Bland is the FT's Indonesia correspondent.]

Joko Widodo will be tough to beat in 2014: Analysts

Jakarta Globe - June 27, 2013

SP/Robertus Wardi – With his popularity steadily skyrocketing, political analysts have said that Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo is considered the man to beat in the 2014 presidential election, though only if he chooses to run for office.

Adjie Alfaraby of the Indonesia Survey Circle (LSI) said that Joko, more famously known as Jokowi, would be a tough candidate to defeat if he wound up running for president next year. His popularity, Adjie said, could eliminate other competitors like Golkar Party Chairman Aburizal Bakrie and Great Indonesia Movement party (Gerindra) founder Prabowo Subianto.

"Jakartans are not the only people who like Jokowi – he is popular across the country. He can pair up with anyone, and his partner's popularity will only enhance Joko's appeal," he said.

Adjie said that the only way Joko wouldn't win is if he is not nominated. He said that the issue is whether or not Joko's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), will nominate him as a candidate. PDI-P chairwoman and former Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri is still considering making a run for the top office.

"There are two groups in the PDI-P: the first wants Megawati to be president and the other is encouraging other figures like Joko to run for president. This internal division has resulted in the PDI-P's inability to nominate someone for president," he said.

Speaking generally about the election process, Lusius Karus from the Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi), an election watchdog, said that the upcoming 2014 election will highlight new voting trends in the country, as people will focus more on presidential candidates as individuals rather than the goals of political parties.

It seems that voters now tend to focus on a candidate's integrity and not about the supporting parties. Joko and his deputy Basuki Tjahaja Purnama's victory in the Jakarta gubernatorial race proved this, Lusius said.

Additionally, he said that voters like leaders who are able to reform and whose image is not too polished. Voters also tend to gravitate toward younger leaders that have yet to invest themselves in the corrupt governmental system.

"These views easily point to names that represent reformation and novelty in the political sector, such as Joko Widodo and Gita Wirjawan, as both have relatively young political careers," he said.

The likelihood of a reformer being elected, Lusius said, is gaining traction in Indonesia, as the public seems to be drawn to the idea of a change in the country's political order.

"The transformation can only happen if the leader is someone who purely works for the country and not for the agendas of political parties," he said.

Indonesian political system controlled by capitalist oligarchy

Kompas - June 26, 2013

Jakarta – The political system in Indonesia is controlled by a capitalist oligarchy. This group represents a handful of individuals who use material power to determine political policies and the election of public officials.

Among all the sources of political power in Indonesia, material power is the most concentrated and has the least obstacles. Based on data from Forbes for the year 2011, the wealth of 40 Indonesian oligarchies is 630 times more than the income of an average Indonesian. The total assets controlled by these 40 people is as much as 10 percent of the country's income.

"[This] high level of material inequality also produces an extreme political inequality, both in a democratic and authoritarian system", said Northwestern University political science professor Jeffrey Winters in a seminar titled "The Oligarchy, Media and Democracy in the 2013 Elections", which was organised by the Jakarta Atma Jaya Catholic University on Tuesday June 25.

According to Winters, the increasing inequality of wealth distribution will have a huge influence on the oligarchy in achieving their political motives and aims. "Although there are other sources of power under the Indonesian democratic system, namely one person one vote, the overwhelming domination of material power is able to distort the political system in general", he said.

Winters added that the mass media in Indonesia has the potential to become a pillar of democracy. The mass media however still tends to be a tool of the oligarchy. "Don't expect the oligarchy to regulate themselves. It is only civil society that is capable of bringing about reform", he said.

Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) senior researcher Burhanuddin Muhtadi said through its influence the capitalist oligarchy is able to control the democratic system in Indonesia. "This can be seen from the growing power of internal [political] party decision, both in decision making and the nomination of regional heads that are determined by a handful of the political elite", said Muhtadi.

Muhtadi also explained that most of the political elite who barter their power do so with injections of funds from capitalist forces that have certain economic interests.

According to Muhtadi, the best solution to limit the power of the oligarchies is to create a low-cost and credible political system. "The more costly and non-transparent a political system, the greater the dependence of our political actors on the capitalist oligarchy", he said.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

SBY's lack of action over PKS fuel-price rebellion could 'destroy' Dems

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2013

Carlos Paath – The fact the country's biggest Islamic party remains in the ruling coalition despite its opposition to a fuel price hike signals the increasingly tenuous grip that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has on his government, an analyst says.

Wara Sinuhaji, a political expert at North Sumatra University, said in Medan on Monday by failing to punish the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) for openly defying the coalition's stance on the fuel policy, Yudhoyono was only setting the stage for more "rebellions" to come in the final year of his presidency.

"The lack of stringent punishment from SBY will have a negative impact on the government that he's trying to build," Wara said. "It allows room for other coalition parties to do the same kind of thing that the PKS did."

He added it was crucial for the president to be seen to take a tough stance on the PKS by firing the three PKS ministers in the cabinet.

"Otherwise the public will see the president as too soft. Even the president's own Democratic Party and the other coalition partners are calling for the PKS ministers to be axed," he said.

Wara argued the dissent within the coalition was "an indictment of Yudhoyono's failure" to build a wide-ranging coalition by allying his nationalist Democrats with the conservative PKS. "This decision will come back to bite the Democrats. It could destroy them," Wara said.

Calls for the PKS to be removed have mounted in recent weeks following the party's decision to oppose raising the price of subsidized fuel, which went ahead last week despite its efforts.

The party also went against the coalition when it successfully scuppered an identical bid last year to hike the fuel price. However, the PKS insists that despite its stance on key issues, it remains a committed member of the coalition.

Mardani Ali Sera, a member of the party's central leadership board, said on Monday that while Yudhoyono had "every right to replace the three PKS ministers in the cabinet, it must be noted that our ministers have been crucial to the success of government programs."

"The PKS is still in the coalition. There have been no decisions otherwise by either side," he said.

He also said that senior PKS officials had met privately with Yudhoyono to explain the party's stance on the fuel issue, and both sides had "plenty to communicate about."

"We pointed out that we've been with the government since 2004, and so our contribution shouldn't be based on what's happened in 2013 alone," Mardani said.

"We want our role to be put into a fair perspective. We hope following this communication that the relationship between the PKS and the rest of the coalition will continue to improve."

Mahfudz Siddiq, a PKS deputy secretary general, said separately that the other parties calling for the PKS to be dropped from the coalition were partly to blame for the current controversy.

"If they understood that only the president has the power to determine who stays in the coalition and who doesn't, they would see that there's no need for all these calls to push us out," he said.

"If they're still talking, it's because of their insatiable political lust. But that's their own problem." He added it was clear that some parties only wanted the PKS out so they could take over the cabinet seats currently controlled by the party.

Syarif Hasan, the Democrats' managing chairman, said on Monday that a decision on the PKS's future in the cabinet would come in "the next week or two."

Women show better chances for 2014 legislative election

Jakarta Post - June 24, 2013

Jakarta – Not only are political parties nominating more female candidates for the 2014 legislative election but some are placing 10 at the top of their candidate lists, a study has shown.

The Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi) found in its study that female legislative candidate numbers had hit an average of above 30 percent for each political party. Formappi based its study on data provided by the General Elections Commission (KPU).

"This is a good sign. It shows that each party is trying to fulfill KPU's regulation, and it is time for women to get equal treatment in politics," Formappi chairman Sebastian Salang said.

Issued by the KPU, Regulation No. 7/2013 stipulates that parties participating in legislative elections must enlist at least 30 percent women as their prospective candidates in each electoral district and must place them on the first to third priority lists. The regulation clearly stipulates that parties can be eliminated from the electoral process if they fail to meet the requirements.

According to a KPU report published on April 28, female candidates accounted for 37.01 percent out of a total 6,576 candidates. Following the verification of legal documents submitted by the participating parties, women now account for 37.36 percent out of a total 6,550 candidates.

New political party the National Democratic (NasDem) party has recorded the highest percentage of female participation as more than 40 percent of its total 560 candidates are women.

Meanwhile, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) recorded the second and third highest percentages, with 39.39 percent and 39.14 percent, respectively.

Female candidates are also getting more recognition from parties with top position placement.

According to the Formappi study, all electoral districts have female candidates in the first and second listings except for Aceh I, which covers: Southeast Aceh, West Aceh, Greater Aceh, Piddie, Simeulue, Aceh Singkil, Northwest Aceh, Gayo Lues, Aceh Jaya, Nagan Raya, Pidie Jaya, Banda Aceh, Sabang and Subulussalam.

Sebastian said that putting female candidates on first and second lists on the ballots showed good progress as these levels had been dominated by male candidates in the past.

"It's good that women are in the first and second listings as they will have more chances to win. Most candidates on the first and second listings in the 2009 legislative election are currently members of the House of Representatives," he added.

However, despite the good progress, Formappi said that the KPU still needs to work on some issues, particularly regarding candidates who are listed on the rosters of more than one party.

"We expect the KPU to open up access so that the public can know the content of prospective candidate lists so that they can file complaints should there be irregularities. On the other hand, political parties should also clarify the problems that are causing complaints," Sebastian said.

Meanwhile, KPU commissioner Ferry Kurnia Rizkiyansyah said that the KPU would only change the current prospective candidates lists if candidates died, resigned or if people filed complaints. (koi)

Poor turnout leaves Ridwan-Oded leading Bandung mayoral race

Jakarta Post - June 24, 2013

Arya Dipa, Bandung – Quick count results show only some 57 percent of voters in Bandung turned up to vote in the mayoral election as Ridwan Kamil and his running mate lead the count on Sunday.

The Indonesian Vote Network (JSI) deputy executive director, Fajar S. Tamim revealed that the results were based on quick count at 270 out of 4,118 polling stations.

The Bandung City General Elections Commission (KPU) chief, Apipudin admitted that he was disappointed with the quick count result showing that there was a low voter turnout.

He said the voting day on Sunday had been well prepared because it was not early in the month. "So there should have been no sociological excuse that residents are going out on Sunday. We believe the election day is already appropriate," he said.

Besides, he added, the KPUD had spread the word on voting day by spending Rp 3.8 billion (US$380,000) from the total election budget of Rp 39 billion.

JSI found that Ridwan and his running mate M. Oded Dahnial gained 27,776 votes or 44.5 percent of 62,531 eligible votes. Ridwan and Oded were nominated by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party.

The Edi Siswadi and Erwan Setiawan ticket, supported by the Democrat Party (PD), Star and Crescent Party (PBB), the United Development Party (PPP) and the People's Conscience (Hanura) Party is second with 10,991 (17.6 percent). Edi was city secretary while Erwan is the city council speaker.

Ayi Vivananda and Nani Suryani are third with 9,590 votes (15.4 percent). This ticket was proposed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).

Independent Wahyudin Karnadinata and Tonny Appriliani received 5,023 votes, higher than the 4,938 votes acquired by the Golkar Party's candidates. Three other independent tickets received much smaller votes of under 3 percent.

Fajar said Ridwan and Oded enjoyed a rapid growth of recognizability from the public, possibly thanks to publicity regarding the beef graft case and the PKS stance on fuel prices, and due to further graft cases in the city featuring numerous city officials.

Three months before the election, a JSI survey showed that Ayi and Nani had the highest recognizability at more than 60 percent.

"The survey was conducted before graft cases handled by the KPK were revealed. Maybe this is why they suffered from such a huge degradation," said Fajar, pointing to a number of Bandung city administration officials who had been named suspects and questioned by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Nani is the wife of Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada, who has been questioned by the KPK. The quick count used the multistage random sampling of 62,531 respondents with a sampling error of about 1 percent.

Mass organisations & NGOs

House urged to not pass mass organizations bill

Jakarta Post - June 30, 2013

Jakarta – Antigraft activists are urging the House of Representatives to not pass the mass organizations bill into law as it would limit people's freedom of of expression.

The House is slated to pass the bill in a plenary session on July 2. These activists, instead, are urging the House to assist in government efforts to eradicate graft.

"The thinking that Indonesia needs this law is just bulk nonsense," Erwin Natosmal Oemar, a researcher at the Indonesian Legal Roundtable, told a press conference on Saturday as quoted by Tribunnews.com.

According to Erwin, the bill contains more political hidden agenda than transparent regulation. He added that the government and the House wanted to go back to the New Order era where political stability meant everything and that those who were critical of the government would be sent to prison. These activists have long suspected that this mass organizations bill was nothing but a means to demolish democracy.

Echoing Erwin, Hifazil Alim, a researcher at the Center for Anticorruption Studies (Pukat) at Gajah Mada University (UGM) said that corruption eradication would be slowly put to rest if people did nothing to stop efforts to pass the bill into law.

"Many activists have been very critical of corruption eradication in the country. We cannot expect to do more if this bill passed into law." (hrl/dic)

Critics of mass organizations bill don't love Indonesia: House speaker

Jakarta Post - June 28, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The bill on mass organizations was vital to protect Indonesia from foreign intervention, House of Representatives' Speaker Marzuki Alie said on Friday.

According to the Democratic Party politician, Indonesians who loved the country and wanted to see unity prevail would support the bill, the endorsement of which has been delayed twice due to massive protests from various groups.

"Do we really care about this country? Do we want to have an independent and powerful government that is free from foreign intervention?" asked Marzuki.

He added that "the bill will be an instrument to trace espionage activities by foreign countries through their partnerships with Indonesian mass groups".

"I've received around 200 text messages, including from abroad, calling for the bill to be dropped. I must firmly say: 'Don't intervene'," Marzuki emphasized.

House postpones contentious bill yet again

Jakarta Post - June 26, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – For the second time in a row, the House of Representatives on Tuesday failed to endorse the controversial mass organizations bill, following a mass protest from some of the country's largest organizations, including Muhammadiyah.

A House plenary meeting on Tuesday agreed to put off the endorsement of the bill until next week so a special committee tasked to deliberate the bill could convince critics about the urgency of the bill.

"All party factions have basically approved the content of the bill, but some of them think that today is not the right moment to pass the bill as many groups remain unconvinced," House Deputy Speaker Taufik Kurniawan said. Taufik said that in the next week, the House would step up its public relation campaign for the bill.

"We will use the remaining week time to promote the bill to the public. At the same time, leaders of each party faction are responsible to inform all members about the content of the bill," said Taufik, a member of the National Mandate Party (PAN).

Before announcing the decision, Taufik adjourned the plenary meeting for two hours to allow party faction leaders to conduct lobbying after a number of factions withdrew their support at the last minute.

Leader of the People's Conscience (Hanura) Party faction, Syarifuddin Suding, said the latest draft bill had nebulous articles. Syarifuddin said he was concerned with Article 53, which put a limit on what foreign groups could do in the country.

The article stipulates that foreign-based mass organizations are banned from conducting activities that could threatened the integrity of the nation or interfere with the country's diplomatic relationships with other nations.

It further stipulates that foreign mass organizations are not allowed to conduct intelligence and political activities nor use state-owned facilities and infrastructure. "This article could have so many interpretations; while a law should not be so," Syarifuddin said.

The Great Indonesian Movement (Gerindra) Party also withdrew its support for the bill and urged the House to hold comprehensive talks with leaders of mass organizations, particularly Nahdatul Ulama and the Muhammadiyah.

"It's obvious these groups are concerned with the possible impact of the bill. We must delay the endorsement of this bill and consult them," Gerindra faction leader Ahmad Muzani said.

The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party (PPP) and the Golkar Party factions also withdrew their support at the last minutes.

While lawmakers were holding political talks on the bill in the plenary hall, activists from rights groups including the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Imparsial, the Indonesian Labor Union Confederation, Setara and the Civil Society Alliance for Democracy (Yappika) staged a protest in front of the House compound.

These groups called on the House to drop the bill for good because, once endorsed, it would only restrict freedom of association. The coalition said it would file a judicial review to the Constitutional Court if lawmaker pressed ahead with the endorsement of the bill.

Muhammadiyah also pledged that it would blacklist party factions that endorsed the bill and would order its members to not vote for incumbent legislative candidates in the legislative election in April next year.

House delays passage of mass organization bill

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2013

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & SP/Carlos Paath – The House of Representatives decided to postpone the passage of the highly-debated mass organizations bill on Tuesday after several political factions and human rights organizations voiced their opposition to the draft revision of the law.

"It's been temporarily delayed. That's what was agreed upon," Saleh, the secretary of the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), said on Tuesday.

The House of Representatives was scheduled to pass the bill on Tuesday, but several factions, including Hanura, the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the United Development Party (PPP), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN) demanded that the House postpone its ratification.

Saleh said that the House and the special committee assigned to the bill would meet with prominent figures from mass organizations to discuss its statutes this week. "They will be briefed on the contents of the bill," Saleh said.

The House has not decided when it will schedule its next plenary meeting to pass the bill into law.

Fahri Hamzah, a lawmaker with the PKS, said that delaying the bill's passage will provide more time for lawmakers to go over its controversial articles.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Muzani, the head of Gerindra faction at the House of Representatives, said that the postponement was requested so lawmakers could talk over the contents of the bill further with leaders of mass organizations.

"It would be a waste of time to pass the bill today only to have some mass organizations file a judicial review with the Constitutional Court to annul some of its articles," Muzani said.

Ahmad Yani, a lawmaker with the PPP, said that the special committee should work further on the draft law. "We should not rush to pass the bill. We have to check every single article. We want it to be delayed," he said.

Meanwhile, Achmad Rubaei, a member of the PAN, said that his faction wanted to delay the bill since there was still resistance to it. "A good bill should be widely supported," Rubaei said.

WALHI objects to mass organization bill ratification

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2013

Jakarta – The Indonesian Forum for the Environment, or Walhi, objects to the House of Representative's plan to ratify the mass organization bill since it would threaten the freedom of the people to conduct organizational activities.

"We see the ratification of the bill as the signal of an end for the democratic system in our country," Walhi executive director Abetnego Tarigan said in Jakarta on Tuesday, as quoted by Antara News Agency.

As a part of the Coalition on Freedom of Association, Walhi added that the bill was intended as a tool to control civil society by constraining the capacity to associate freely and to express opinions.

According to Abetnego, the bill will eliminate criticism against government policy by civil society organizations.

"This bill must be understood within the context of Indonesia political and economic situation in which investment hinges on security," he explained.

"The bill emerged when farmers, fishermen and indigenous people were staging mass protests against foreign investment since they believed it would endanger the natural resources in their areas," he said.

According to Abetnego, the bill must not be passed because it also contradicts Law No. 32/2009 on Environmental Protection and Management, which provides a space for the civil society to actively play a role in saving the environment.

"As a matter of course, the state should strengthen the civil society's role in managing natural resources," he said.

"The bill actually limits the role of mass organizations and even threats to eliminate critical input from communities that are struggling to get the rights over their environment," he added. (fan)

House set to endorse mass organizations bill, again

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Rights groups agreed to file a judicial review to the Constitutional Court, if the House of Representatives presses ahead with its plan to approve the controversial mass organizations bill.

The groups, which include the country's second-largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah, said they would reject the bill and were not swayed by the House's move to amend the draft bill, which was dropped in a plenary session last April.

Those apposed to the bill argued that if endorsed it would threaten "freedom of expression and association".

"Discussions with lawmakers, as well as government officials, convinced us that there is something suspicious behind the plan to endorse this bill because it is obviously aimed at those that are critical of the government's policies," Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin told a press conference on Monday.

Din said the was bill antithetical to the State Constitution as it would endanger the freedom of association, which is guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution.

The bill, if endorsed, could impose administrative requirements on all mass organizations – registered and unregistered – and could grant the government the authority to control their activities.

Imparsial; Setara Institute; Kontras (the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence); Elsam (the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy); the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW); the Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (PSHK); as well as Greenpeace and the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) all aired similar grievances.

These groups argued that the draft bill contained loopholes that could enable "unfair subjective interpretation that would legitimize oppression toward undisciplined organizations".

The rights groups are particularly concerned with Article 60 of the bill, which stipulates that mass organizations are banned from conducting hostile acts against ethnic, religious, racial and interest groups.

The article also stipulates a ban on blasphemy against established religions by mass organizations; activities that promote separatism; and disruption of public order.

"The article doesn't provide clear definitions of the actions that it targets. Therefore, it will only encourage subjective interpretation, which I think will eventually revive the New Order's authoritarian leadership," Poengky said.

Poengky said the bill, once enacted, would only target those critical of the government or business including human rights, antigraft and labor groups.

Critics of the bill are expected to stage a rally in front of the House complex today (Tuesday), to put pressure on lawmakers to drop the bill for good.

Muhammadiyah said it would blacklist party factions that endorsed the bill back in April and would order its members to not vote for the bill. Eight of the total nine factions have given the latest draft of the bill their seal of approval.

The only opposition of the bill is from the National Mandate Party (PAN), which is yet to approve the bill despite agreeing to its substance. Ahmad Rubai, a PAN member of the House committee deliberating the bill, said PAN was still trying to convince critics the importance of the bill.

"The bill will have an impact on all mass organizations, so it's very important to convince them it won't be repressive and will actually empower them," he said.

Chairman of the House committee tasked to deliberate the bill Abdul Malik Haramain said the committee had done its best to accommodate critics. "We have told them [the critics] many times that the government could not arbitrarily dissolve groups because the decision would be made with the consent of the Supreme Court," he said.

Media & journalism

Attempts to 'buy' journalists ahead of 2014

Jakarta Post - June 27, 2013

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) warns of politicians bribing journalists ahead of the 2014 general elections to write favorable stories.

Umar Idris, chairman of AJI, said that politicians and political parties would start to nurture relationships with journalists and give them cash in the months leading to the general elections.

"Journalists will be tempted by so many things, including cash," he said as quoted by kompas.com.

In May, AJI released a survey which found that the majority of journalists in Jakarta are underpaid, a condition that could have an adverse impact on independent reporting especially ahead of the 2014 elections.

Environment & natural disasters

Police arrest 18 firestarters in Riau but find no company ties

Jakarta Globe - June 28, 2013

Dessy Sagita – Police in Riau say they have arrested a total of 18 people for starting fires in Riau that led to the worst air pollution in the region since 1997.

"We have 18 people in custody," Riau Police spokesman SR.Comr. Agus Rianto told the Jakarta Globe on Friday. "They are all local farmers."

When asked what links the 18 had to palm companies, Agus emphasized that police had not connected the farmers to any concession holders, either domestic or international.

"What we know for now is that they were working individually to clear the land," he said. "We haven't found anything that could connect them to any plantation company."

Agus said that the 18 in custody had viewed slash-and-burn clearing as unproblematic, a practice that had long been carried out in the region.

"Many of them thought there wouldn't be any problem if they put out the fires after they were done," Agus said. "They didn't realize that in peatlands, the fire could happen underground and it could easily spread."

Agus said the number of suspects could grow as the investigation progressed. "Our priority for now is putting out the fires but, rest assured, we will find the perpetrators who have caused this disaster," he said.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said that some of the suspects in Rokan Hilir district poured gasoline on land to start fires. "Hundreds of people were also forced to evacuate because of what the suspects have done," BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Friday.

Walhi slams SBY for Ronaldo Forest stunt

Jakarta Globe - June 27, 2013

Diska Putri Pamungkas – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's much- publicized tree-planting campaign in a Bali mangrove forest on Wednesday was nothing more than hollow posturing to burnish his green credentials, a leading environmental group says.

Yudhoyono took part in the event at the Ngurah Rai mangrove forest in Badung district as part of the "Save Mangrove, Save Earth" campaign, alongside international football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, where he also pledged to protect the country's remaining 3.7 million hectares of mangrove forests.

However, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has slammed the event as a deeply ironic publicity stunt, given that under the Yudhoyono administration's own conflicting policies, the entire Ngurah Rai forest could be cleared to make way for tourist development projects.

Wayan Gendo Suardana, the head of the Bali chapter of Walhi, said that the tree-planting event "is irrelevant if you know the true story behind the forest and the changing conservation policies."

"The president is shameless, it's all pure preening on his part," he told the Jakarta Globe by phone.

He said that although the Yudhoyono administration moved in 2011 to protect the 1,373-hectare mangrove forest from development by including it in a moratorium on issuing new forest-clearing permits, it changed tack soon after.

In 2012, a presidential decree was issued authorizing the construction of the Nusa Dua-Ngurah Rai-Tanjung Benoa toll road, to be built for the upcoming APEC summit and cutting straight through the mangrove forest.

That effectively changed the land-use status of most of the blocks in the forest from conservation blocks to exploitation blocks, thus permitting the clearing and commercial development of large swaths of the forest.

Gendo pointed out that the same patch of forest where Yudhoyono and Ronaldo planted mangrove saplings earlier in the day was one of those that had been turned into an exploitation block.

"You can't see SBY's statements as anything other than image-building," he said. "The place where he planted the mangroves is close to the toll road and is actually one of the conservation blocks that was changed into an exploitation block."

He added that other threats loomed over the forest beyond just the toll road. "According to Walhi's investigations, there are several big projects proposed for this area, including a university campus, a hospital and marine tourism developments," Gendo said. "We can't see how these projects could be possible without reclamation of the [mangrove swamp]."

The developments have been proposed based on a decree issued last year by the provincial forestry office that expands the total amount of exploitation blocks in the forest from 400 hectares to 700 hectares.

Gendo said the biggest threat of all, which could see the entire Ngurah Rai forest wiped out, came from a proposal from Roy Suryo, the sports minister from Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, to build a Formula 1 race track in the scenic Tanjung Benoa bay, near the toll road.

"That can't happen without destroying the remaining conservation blocks," he said. He added that Walhi deplored the disconnect between the president's rhetoric on environmental conservation and his actual policies.

At the tree-planting event, meanwhile, Yudhoyono said it was important to make the younger generation more aware of the need to protect the country's remaining 3.7 million hectares of mangrove forests. He also lauded Bali residents and officials for what he called their strong commitment to environmental conservation.

"I salute you for taking care of your environment, even as other parts of the country struggle with the problem of forest fires," he said, referring to the scores of hot spots in Sumatra that have blanketed the region and neighboring countries in a choking haze.

Indonesia arrests 8 in fires causing choking haze

Associated Press - June 26, 2013

Kasparman Piliang, Pekanbaru, Indonesia – Indonesian authorities have arrested eight farmers for setting illegal fires on Sumatra island to clear land after numerous blazes created a thick haze choking parts of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, police said Tuesday.

The farmers were arrested Monday and Tuesday after being caught "red- handed," said local police spokesman Lt. Col. Hermansyah. He did not say whether they were employed by some companies that have been accused of deliberately starting the fires.

About 1,100 residents were forced to flee Rantau Bais and Bangko Pusako villages in Riau province Tuesday as acrid smoke from nearby burning peat swamps and palm oil plantations made breathing difficult, Hermansyah said.

"The smoke has hurt their throats and eyes," said Hermansyah, who like many Indonesians uses one name. "Visibility there is really bad."

A day after apologizing to neighboring Singapore and Malaysia, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono deployed 2,000 additional personnel Tuesday to fight the fires that have affected air quality and caused respiratory problems among some people. He has called for an investigation, but said it appeared the fires were being caused by natural and human factors.

Indonesia's environmental minister, Balthasar Kambuaya, told reporters Sunday that authorities were investigating eight plantation companies that may have started the fires. Riau forestry official Ahmad Saeroji estimated the burned area was around 2,000 hectares (4,942 acres). Satellite pictures have detected about 200 fires on plantations in the area.

Authorities warned motorists and fishermen in parts of the province to stay home this week due to poor visibility from the haze. However, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency reported Tuesday that it was raining in the provincial capital of Pekanbaru and in several hotspots after the government deployed aircraft for cloud seeding.

Each year, forest fires on Sumatra and Borneo islands smother parts of nearby Singapore and Malaysia in haze. The Indonesian government usually blames plantation owners and traditional farmers for illegally setting fires as a cheap way to clear land.

Smoking gun in Malaysian hands

Jakarta Post - June 23, 2013

Rizal Harahap and Nurfika Osman, Pekanbaru – Preliminary investigations have singled out eight plantation companies owned by Malaysian investors as the source of forest fires in Riau that have caused Southeast Asia's worst ever air pollution crisis.

The fires have started a diplomatic war of words between Indonesia, as the source of the problem, and Singapore and Malaysia, as the countries receiving the brunt of the smog.

Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya suggested on Saturday that the eight palm-oil companies were using illegal slash-and-burn methods as the cheapest way to clear land for cultivation.

"The ministry is still gathering more evidence and verification in the field. The fires are, for sure, on their concessions," said Balthasar, in Riau's capital Pekanbaru.

"I will immediately meet my Malaysian counterpart to inform him of the findings and seek ways to resolve the current issue and stop recurrence in the future," he said. The allegations will be followed up by Riau Police.

The companies in question are PT Langgam Inti Hibrida, PT Bumi Reksa Nusa Sejati, PT Tunggal Mitra Plantation, PT Udaya Loh Denawi, PT Adei Plantation, PT Jatim Jaya Perkasa, PT Multi Gambut Industri, and PT Mustika Agro Lestari.

Tunggal Mitra is a unit of Minamas Plantation, subsidiary of Malaysia-based Sime Darby Plantations, while Adei Plantation is owned by Kepong Berhard. The Jakarta Post's emails for clarification to these companies have gone unanswered.

The Environment Ministry's deputy for environmental degradation and climate change, Arief Yuwono, said that under the environment law, the penalties for causing illegal forest fires are a maximum of 10 years in prison and fines of up to 5 billion rupiah (US$504,000).

Six other companies are also involved, but Balthasar refused to name them.

Plantation companies have often ordered local people to burn forest or peatland near their concessions, hoping that the fire will spread onto their land.

"Once the fire takes hold of their concessions, the companies shift the blame onto the local residents as if the fire had accidentally and spread to their land," the Minister said.

In the past week, smog from the fires has brought misery to Singapore and western part of Malaysia. Air quality in Singapore improved drastically to "moderate" on Saturday from life-threatening levels on Friday afternoon, after the Indonesian government declared a state of emergency in Riau, the source of most of the smoke.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) sent two helicopters for water bombing on Friday. Cassa and Hercules aircraft from the Air Force are ready for cloud seeding over the next month.

As the haze obscures visibility and provokes numerous coughing fits in Singapore, there has been a 22 percent increase in outbound flight searches this week, compared to the previous week, according to global travel search site Skyscanner. Bali, Bangkok and Hong Kong topped the searched destinations.

Chairman of the Indonesian Travel and Tour Companies Association (ASITA) Asnawi Bahar, however, said there had been no indication of a rise in the number of tourists from Singapore, or cancellations of visits by Indonesians to Singapore.

"We have not seen any impact of haze. Demand from both inbound and outbound tourists between the two countries remain shealthy," said Asnawi.

"But we're going to have a meeting on June 28th to update and review the problem because if the haze continues in the next few months, it will severely impact the travel industry."

Smailing Tour spokesman Wisnu Wardhana said the agency had not seen any decrease in demand to Singapore.

"There have been no cancellations for packages that include visits to Marina Bay Sands, Raffless, Merlion Park or Universal Studios. We just sent 7 groups of travelers to Singapore, and we are going to send another group next week," he said.

Around 1.5 million Indonesian visited Singapore every year, accounting for around 15 percent of total tourist arrivals in Singapore. (asw)

Health & education

Graft suspected in tobacco bill deliberation

Jakarta Post - June 29, 2013

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The National Commission on Tobacco Control (KNPT) alleged on Friday that the deliberation of the tobacco bill at the House of Representatives' Legislative Body (Baleg) was tainted by corruption.

Oil baron and member of the KNPT Arifin Panigoro reported the allegation to the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) on Friday. "We suspect the Legislative Body was involved [in the graft]," he told reporters. "We will definitely report anything related to bribery."

Arifin declined to single out the members of Baleg suspected of corrupt activities, or amount of bribery money involved. "Don't ask me, I'm just reporting [the case to the KPK]. I don't know the details. Ask KPK spokesperson Johan Budi," he said.

Johan declined to disclose many details preferring to only confirm that KPK investigators would be looking into the allegations. He said the KPK had not summoned any lawmakers for questioning.

Contacted separately, Baleg deputy chairperson Anna Muawanah said the report was baseless and accused the move as being politically-motivated.

"I don't think it is right to attack the House every time someone feels their interest was compromised," she told The Jakarta Post. Anna demanded that the KNPT back up their allegation with real proof.

Besides filing the report the KNPT also lambasted the House's decision to include the draft bill in the 2013 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas). The House argued that the decision to deliberate the bill in 2013 was to improve the welfare of tobacco farmers in the country.

"The Health Law already regulates health issues. As tobacco contains nicotine, which is addictive, a specific regulation [is needed]," Anna said.

Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi said the House was being pushed by cigarette makers to deliberate the bill to mitigate the effect caused by the Government Regulation (PP) No. 109/2012 on tobacco control.

The regulation, issued by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last year, placed tighter restrictions on tobacco advertising. Under the regulation, cigarette makers can still advertise outdoors but adverts cannot be larger than 72 square meters.

Other restrictions include a ban against tobacco adverts alongside main roads. Cigarette brands are not allowed to place ads on the front page of publications and they are not allowed to advertise next to food and beverage adverts. In addition, television adverts may only be aired between 9:30 p.m. and 5 a.m.

The Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI) also lambasted the bill, saying it was aimed to counteract the law on health by eliminating an article that classed tobacco as an additive.

Responding to Nafsiah's comment, Anna said that she regretted the fact that a minister could make such a statement.

"If she talked like that, then it means that she could not educate the public [on the danger of tobacco]," she said. "She should have participated in the bill's deliberation, instead of looking at the matter from one side only."

Indonesia kicks off 12-year compulsory education program

Jakarta Post - June 26, 2013

Nadya Natahadibrata, Jakarta – The Education and Culture Ministry launched the 12-year compulsory education program on Tuesday, officially named the Universal Secondary Education (Pendidikan Menengah Universal), to give equal access to education for people between 16 and 18 years old.

The program will phase out the previous nine-year compulsory education program launched in 1994. The 12-year program will officially kick off this new school year in July. Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh said the program was in response to the changing demographic.

He said the education system needed to adapt to the reality that the country will see an increase in the number of productive-aged youths until 2035 and reap the benefits from them.

"The three major factors to improve the country's human development index are education, health and income per capita. Education is the engine to improve health and income per capita," Nuh told a press conference on Tuesday.

Nuh said the program is a continuation of the initial 9-year compulsory education program. However, since Law No. 20/2003 on the national education system did not specifically recognize a 12-year compulsory education program, the ministry adopted a universal secondary education program moniker instead.

Ministry data shows that 98.11 percent of children aged between 13 and 15 years old received junior high school education in 2009. Currently, only 78.7 percent of over 12.6 million young people aged between 16 and 18 are enrolled in high schools.

Nuh said the ministry aimed to increase the percentage of high school students to 97 percent in 2020, with a target of enrolling around 400,000 new students every year.

For the 12-year compulsory education program, the ministry set aside Rp 1 million (US$100) in school operational assistance (BOS) for every high school student.

The ministry also allocated funding to finance scholarships for the poor (BSM), ensuring that 1.7 million high school youngsters will get Rp 1 million every year.

Nuh said to accommodate the increasing school participation target, the ministry would improve school infrastructure by building more schools, reconstructing classrooms and facilities, as well as improving equipment.

"We will also increase the number of school teachers, particularly vocational school teachers, as we are still short of them," he said.

Separately, Hamid Muhammad, the Education and Culture Ministry's director general for secondary education, said the ministry had earmarked Rp 11 trillion in 2013 to mainly finance the 12-year compulsory education program.

He said 50 percent of the funds would come from the state budget and the rest would be covered by the regional budget.

Hamid said around Rp 4.6 trillion of the budget would be used to finance the BOS scheme while another Rp 3 trillion would be spent on the construction of new school buildings as the improvement of existing facilities. Another Rp 2.3 trillion would be allocated to cover teacher's allowance.

For the 12-year universal education program, the ministry plans to build 260 new schools and 5,000 new classrooms this year.

"Our target next year is to build 500 new schools; 300 vocational schools and 200 regular high schools, which will be equal to around 10,000 classrooms," Hamid said.

"We would prefer to increase the number of vocational school in the country as we intend to direct students, who are unlikely to continue their study in university, to these institutions and equip them with specific skills," Hamid said.

Gender & sexual orientation

Leading a double life in Indonesia

Sydney Morning Herald - June 28, 2013

Michael Bachelard, Jakarta – Ardy Laplante had his first sexual thoughts as a 12-year-old boy watching a shirtless man cleaning the mosque near his house.

At 13, Ardy was sent to a pesantren, an all-male Islamic boarding school, and was quickly initiated into homosexual sex. Eventually his boarding- house exploits became too much for the school.

"They kicked me from the pesantren because many people loved to play with me," says Ardy (not his real name). "The teachers told my mother that I'm sick." But he insisted to his parents that he was not gay, and to date, he says, "they still trust me".

While many Western countries adopt, or inch towards, gay marriage, in a largely Muslim country, being gay or lesbian remains fraught. Being homosexual is not illegal, but the social taboos remain strong. Political and religious authorities view it as "haram" – forbidden or unholy. It's considered a Western import, a sign of deviance, loose morals.

A Pew Research Centre survey reported 93 per cent of Indonesians felt homosexuality should be rejected. Only 3 per cent accepted it. As a result, the lives of sexual minorities are hedged about by lies and deception.

ong-time activist Dede Oetomo, says his friends' behaviour is governed by the word "diskret" – discretion. Few have the courage to tell family or employer.

Ardy, now 23, is typical. At several clubs in Jakarta he can dress, dance and kiss as he wants as the drag queens and "go-go boys" gyrate on the stage. He finds one-night stands on the ubiquitous BlackBerry messenger service and through social media.

But Ardy maintains a facade. He has a girlfriend (who does not know his sexual orientation); he says he will "turn straight" in his 30s, get married and have children. Most importantly his family treats him as a good Muslim boy. "Perhaps they can read that I am gay, but they don't want to know," he says.

There are small but surprising exceptions to "diskret" behaviour. The creative professions are relatively open and drag shows are surprisingly mainstream.

"Samantha Fox" – real name Samuel Sanderkan – has made a part-time living since he was 14 performing as a drag queen. He earns about 500,000 rupiah ($55) for a show. He is bold – accepting dares from his friends to go as a woman to straight-only nightclubs; walking in the streets to see how many straight men ask his price.

Once, performing in Makassar, Samantha's show was shut down and he was arrested for the "vulgar" display of female flesh. "But when they found out I was not a real girl, it was OK."

Cross-dressing and homosexuality have deep resonance in some Javanese cultures and Samantha has performed at weddings, parties and corporate events as Lady Gaga and Kylie Minogue.

The official take of Indonesian Islam towards homosexuality and cross- dressing is unforgiving. "It goes against nature," says Ma'ruf Amin, an official with the government's Muslim advisory body, MUI. He says homosexuals can be "cured by being prayed for, or by receiving psychological and spiritual advice".

Munarman, the spokesman for the Islamic Defenders Front, one of a growing number of thuggish mass Muslim organisations, blames an alleged moral decline on "cross-dressers, adulterers, homosexuals, lesbians, people who like to show off their genitals".

Ardy remains an active Muslim, praying regularly, and tries to avoid thinking about the contradiction between faith and sexuality. "I love my God, but I'm scared with my religion because in my religion if you are gay, you will be going to hell, not heaven," he says. Ardy's answer is to "turn straight" in time to be considered for a place in heaven. When he's 32, he plans to marry and have children.

"There's almost an obsession [with getting married]," says activist Dede, founder of lobby group Gaya Nusantara. He is in his 50s and grew up under Suharto, but says that since the dictator's ouster, "Indonesia has turned very conservative".

Most find the biggest stress within their own extended family. Lesbian Ade Grande says coming out is "double, triple" as hard for lesbians as for gay men – she has to deal with the patriarchy as well as her sexuality.

Ade is only one of two in a circle of 30 lesbian friends whose family knows her sexual orientation. Twelve years ago she felt she must tell her mother, but it took months to rehearse the speech.

To Ade's surprise, her mother accepted the news. Most of her friends, though, are terrified even to have the conversation.

Despite all Samantha Fox's chutzpah, when it comes to his mother, he goes to water. "I will never tell my mum! She would go into shock and then die in the hospital. She'd kill me, then take me back to Batam Island."

Being obviously gay on the street, particularly outside the relative safety of Bali or the big Javanese cities of Jakarta, Surabaya and Yogyakarta, can also be dangerous.

"The police patrol and round people up either for public order offences or corruption," says Dede. "Release costs 50,000 rupiah ($5.50) and you usually have to do oral sex [on the policeman]."

But activist Rafael says that, if they stay "diskret", most gay men and lesbians get by.

Organising gay-themed public events, though, remains fraught. Q! Film festival organiser Meninaputri "Putri" Wismurti says it's grown worse since passage in 2008 of an anti-pornography law. Fundamentalists use the law to argue that anything "promoting" homosexuality is illegal.

In 2012, police declined a permit for the festival unless organisers could prove it was "halal" – approved by Islam. The festival went ahead regardless – they insisted they did not need a permit.

Now festival organisers aim to be "diskret". Putri says. "Every year I have people coming up to me [at the festival] and saying, 'Now I know that I'm not alone'."

But when even the gay and lesbian film festival is subject to "don't ask, don't tell", that's a difficult message to convey.

Refugees & asylum seekers

Child asylum-seekers abused in Indonesian detention: HRW

Agence France Presse - June 24, 2013

Indonesia is locking up hundreds of child asylum-seekers and migrants in squalid detention centers where they are sometimes assaulted, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

According to the rights group's new report, these children are held alongside adults in centers where detainees are tied up, gagged, beaten with sticks, burned with cigarettes and given electric shocks.

As the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, Indonesia is a common transit point for asylum seekers usually hoping to reach Australia by boat. But many are caught by the authorities. Among those who are caught are children who risk "life and limb" to flee violence and poverty from countries such as Somalia and Afghanistan, only to find themselves locked up in detention centers in Indonesia, said the rights group.

"Each year, hundreds are detained in sordid conditions, without access to lawyers, and are sometimes beaten," Human Rights Watch said. "Both adults and children described guards kicking, punching, and slapping them and other detainees."

More than 1,000 unaccompanied children arrived in Indonesia last year, the rights group said in the report, for which it interviewed 42 people who were children when they came to Indonesia, in addition to interviewing immigration officials and NGOs. While many asylum-seekers are held in detention centers, others are left on the streets with no legal or material assistance, as there is no government agency responsible for their guardianship, said the report.

The group urged Indonesia to clean up its detention facilities – which were described as overcrowded and unsanitary – and institute fair and thorough processing for those seeking asylum.

"Desperate children will keep coming to Indonesia, and the government should step up to give them decent care," said the group's children's rights researcher Alice Farmer. But Indonesian immigration official Subandriyani described the claims in the report as "untrue and baseless" and said guards would not dare abuse detainees as they would lose their jobs if discovered.

Indonesia neglects and abuses some of the world's neediest children

Koran Tempo Daily - June 23, 2013

Andreas Harsono, Jakarta – In 2012, Indonesia reached a milestone. For the first time in recent history, the number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Indonesia topped 1,000. Yet Indonesia – a country with many of its own children abroad – doesn't protect the vulnerable newcomers. Instead it detains, abuses, and neglects them.

Unaccompanied migrant children in Indonesia, who are traveling without parents or other adults to protect them, come from countries like Afghanistan, Burma, and Somalia. Because of conflicts in these places, the numbers of these children have been growing steadily over the last five years as they look for refuge, for an education, for a safe future. Many make the risky decision to move on to Australia in smugglers' boats, a trip that can be fatal.

Human Rights Watch first met "Faizullah," a 17-year-old Afghan refugee from the Hazara ethnic group, in Medan last August. Faizullah and his family were already refugees, living in Quetta, Pakistan, when harassment of Hazaras escalated there. Fearing for the boy's future, Faizullah's family scraped together $12,000 to pay smugglers to take him by plane, boat, and foot to Indonesia.

When Faizullah was arrested in Indonesia, he said, he told the police he was 17. Rather than finding some care for this boy, half a world away from home, the police arrested him. Faizullah spent the next seven-and-a-half months in a detention center in Pontianak – five of them entirely indoors. When he was finally allowed into the detention center's recreation space, he said, "How can I explain what it's like when we went out? We were like the wild, running all around. We were thinking we were alive again."

During his time in detention, the guards confined him to an overcrowded, often-flooded cell with adults he didn't know, he said, and hit him several times in the face. He described an atmosphere of routine violence, saying the guards "beat [detainees] with everything – glass, boxes, anything around."

Faizullah was eventually released – but the Indonesian government never assigned him a guardian to care for him, as international law requires. Indonesia has no asylum law, so Faizullah cannot gain legal status in the country, and he faces constant threat of re-arrest and further detention.

Indonesia is increasingly taking measures to protect Indonesians working abroad, including children, and it has ratified the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.

In sharp contrast, Indonesia does nothing to assist unaccompanied migrant children in Indonesia. The inaction amounts to neglect. Indonesia has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and so is obliged to provide unaccompanied children with guardians, but it hasn't assigned that role to any government entity.

Indonesia also ignores international legal standards that make detention of unaccompanied migrant children a last resort, keeping hundreds of children in detention in any given month. Like Faizullah, they are typically detained with unrelated adults, vulnerable to exploitation, and sometimes beaten by guards. People held for a long time in immigration detention often become depressed or even get post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly acute problems for children.

Outside detention, only a handful of unaccompanied children have the assistance they are entitled to by international law. There are places in privately-run shelters for perhaps 140 children at any time. Others live on the street or in crowded private accommodations with other migrants, at risk of exploitation, destitution, and re-arrest, as they don't have papers allowing them to be in the country. Given this toxic limbo, it's no wonder that many children make the desperate decision to get on smugglers' boats to Australia.

Assisting unaccompanied migrant children isn't just the law, it's also the right thing to do. It is relatively inexpensive to assist these children – even though their numbers are growing, the total remains quite small. Indonesia should immediately stop locking up unaccompanied migrant children, and resolve which ministry will take on guardianship responsibilities – the Ministry of Social Affairs, perhaps. With guardianship in place, the government should offer children basic shelter, food, and legal assistance. These children deserve the same care Indonesians would like to see for their own children abroad.

[Andreas Harsono is a Jakarta-based researcher for Human Rights Watch.]

Graft & corruption

ICW doubts lawmakers' commitment to curbing corruption

Jakarta Globe - June 29, 2013

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – House Speaker Marzuki Alie, the Democratic Party's Edhie Baskara Yudhoyono and the Prosperous Justice Party's (PKS) Fahri Hamzah are among 36 lawmakers accused of working against antigraft activists' efforts to end Indonesia's endemic corruption, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said.

The watchdog group released the list on Friday, inspiring claims of slander and "black campaigns" from many of the politicians named in the ICW report. The group said lawmakers were included on the list if they were mentioned in a corruption case, convicted of corruption, sanctioned by the House of Representatives Ethics Council or worked to curb the power of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's son was included on the list for reporting Anti-Corruption Court witness Yulianis to the National Police for defamation over allegations that Edhie received corruption funds from former party treasurer and graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin. The Democratic Party's Sutan Bhatoegana made the list over allegations that he received a cut from a corrupted solar panel procurement project.

Marzuki was named because of his efforts to disband the KPK, ICW said. He denied the allegations, saying ICW added his name to the report over his support of the controversial mass organization bill before he questioned the watchdog group's credibility.

"They just keep on babbling," Marzuki said. "There is no guarantee that one day if they're in power they wont been even greedier than the corruptors at the moment."

Marzuki said he supported the KPK's right to wiretap suspects. He said the list should be ignored. "What was the indicators?" he said. "[The ICW] put in names without... justification, [its] credibility can be questioned."

Fahri, a vocal opponent of the KPK, accused ICW of mounting a "black campaign" against the PKS to raise money from foreign institutions and political parties. The outspoken PKS Deputy Secretary General recently made headlines for lecturing the KPK for seven minutes in a religious-tinged speech that called wiretapping a sin, included passages from the Koran and ended with Fahri calling for the disbandment of the KPK.

He's not a fan of ICW either. "Don't they know that I and the PKS have a proposal to end all systemic corruption in a year if the people mandate it?" Fahri said. "ICW doesn't want corruption to be eradicated because it is their source of income."

Fahri accused ICW of calling any opponent a corruptor. "They're authoritarian and keep waging revenge on people with different opinions," he said. "Whoever disagrees with their ideas will be accused of being a corruptor."

The Golkar Party's Bambang Soesatyo, a figure in the Bank Century bailout scandal, accused ICW of making unfounded accusations. The group accused Bambang of accepting money from former National Police Traffics Corps. chief Djoko Susilo as part of a corrupted driving simulator procurement project.

"I can be accused of have given something to A or B, but is it the truth?" he said. "It's not the truth without formal evidence to make it a fact." Fellow Golkar member Aziz Syamsuddin faced similar accusations. Party chairman Priyo Budi Santoso was accused of accepting money in corrupt Koran and laboratory equipment procurement projects.

The Democratic Party's Sutan planned to report ICW – which he called "Isinya Cuma Waste" ("Only Containing Waste") – to the National Police. "They have spread slander," he said. "I will report them to the National Police as soon as possible. This organization is no longer credible because they have wrongly accused people."

The list:

Aziz Syamsuddin (Golkar Party)
Desmond J Mahesa (Gerindra)
Herman Hery (PDI-P)
Bambang Soesatyo (Golkar Party)
Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono (Democratic Party)
Mahyudin (Democratic Party)
I Wayan Koster (PDI-P)
Said Abdullah (PDI-P)
Mirwan Amir (Democratic Party)
Abdul Kadir Karding (PKB)
Olly Dondokambey (PDI-P)
Jhonny Allen Marbun (Democratic Party)
Ahmad Yani (PPP)
Syarifuddin Suding (Hanura)
Nasir Djamil (PKS)
Idris Laena (Golkar Party)
Achsanul Qosasih (Democratic Party)
Zulkifliemansyah (PKS)
Ignatius Mulyono (Democratic Party)
Nudirman Munir (Golkar Party)
Setya Novanto (Golkar Party) Kahar Muzakir (Golkar Party)
Adang Darajatun (PKS)
Fahri Hamzah (PKS)
Ribka Tjiptaning (PDI-P)
Pius Lustrilanang (Gerindra)
Melchiar Marcus Mekeng (Golkar)
Muhammad Nasir (Democratic Party)
Vonny Anneke Panambunan (Gerindra)
Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin (PBB)
Sutan Batugana (Democratic Party)
Marzuki Ali (Democratic Party)
Priyo Budi Santoso (Golkar Party)
Max Sopacua (Democratic Party)
Charles Jonas Mesang (Golkar Party)
H Achmad Farial (PPP)

Judiciary told to use shifting burden of proof in all courts

Jakarta Post - June 29, 2013

Jakarta – Legal experts have called on the judiciary to use the principle of shifting the burden of proof in all courts, especially for trials of corruption and money laundering.

Currently, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) shifts the burden of proof in corruption court trials by requiring that defendants prove their innocence rather than solely obligating prosecutors to produce evidence of guilt on the basis of the Corruption Law No. 20/2001 and Money Laundering Law No. 25/2003.

Article 37 of the Corruption Law, and articles 77 and 78 of the Money Laundering Law are not generally made use of in the court system.

Yunus Husein, legal expert in the Presidential Working Unit for the Supervision and Management of Development, said that the principle had been an effective tool in delivering justice.

"The principle has been successful in putting the corrupt behind bars, as in the cases of former tax officers Bahasyim Assifie and Yudi Hermawan, who were found guilty because they could not prove that their assets were legitimately obtained" he said.

Bahasyim was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined Rp 1 billion (US$100,756) (or three months in prison) by the Supreme Court last year, while Yudi was sentenced to eight years in prison by Karawang District Court in 2009.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued Presidential Instruction No. 2/2011, which urges prosecutors to shift the burden of proof during trials, particularly to accelerate the eradication of the tax mafia. Activists have criticized the principle as it has the potential to violate basic human rights. A number of regulations did not require the principle, Yunus said.

There are several principles in the criminal justice system inconsistent with the burden shifting, such as the presumption of innocence (defendants are innocent unless proven guilty), the non-self incrimination principle (allowing defendants to refrain from making damaging statements about their own activities) and the right to remain silent.

Article 66 of the Criminal Code Procedure (KUHAP) stipulates that defendants are exempted from the obligation to affirmatively prove a fact.

Yunus contends the assumption is invalid because the principle basically gives the right to defendants to prove that they were not wrong as accused by prosecutors. He also argued that the prosecutors could refer to the latest regulations, including the money laundering law and the graft law and not necessarily the KUHAP.

A researcher with the Indonesian Corruption Watch, Febri Diansyah, said that shifting the burden of proof could be the breakthrough in eradicating corruption. "We think that there have to be more trials which impose this principle to arrest more corruptors," he said.

Spokesman for the Attorney General's Office (AGO), Adi Toegarisman, questioned the efficacy of the principle, especially if both prosecutors and defendants brought strong evidence and if the defendant was a corporation. (koi)

Polygamy and graft, a most convenient marriage

Jakarta Post - June 29, 2013

Jakarta – It appears that for some suspects in high-profile graft cases, allegedly abusing their power in office runs alongside their polygamous practices at home.

In the past few months, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has brought to light the sleazy details of some high-profile graft suspects, including that they are serial polygamists.

The investigation into a bribery case involving former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq not only revealed details from the private life of his aide Ahmad Fathanah, who was found naked in a hotel room with an escort, but later found that Luthfi was married to three women, the youngest being a 19-year-old high school student.

Luthfi married his first wife Sutiana Astika in 1984 and his second wife Lusi Tiaraini Agustine in 2000. He has 12 children from his first marriage and three children from his second marriage.

Last year, Luthfi, who was 50, married Darin Mumtazah when she was 18 years old. The KPK found that Luthfi used his wives to help conceal his illicit assets by buying them houses and cars.

Last week, a trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court revealed that former chief of the National Traffic Police Corps (Korlantas) Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, hid his true identity so that he could marry his second wife, Mahdiana.

The marriage was on the verge of breaking up, with Mahdiana unable to find the true identity of her husband. Seven years after his marriage with Mahdiana, Djoko tied the knot with teenage pageant queen Dipta Anindita as his third wife, when she was only 19.

The last official found to be a polygamist by the KPK was Riau Governor Rusli Zainal, who was named a suspect in a graft case surrounding the Riau National Games (PON) and the issuance of a forestry permit.

Rusli's first wife, Septina Primawati Rusli, who is currently running for the Riau Legislative Council, was questioned by the KPK for seven hours on Monday. Rusli's second wife, Syarifah Darmiati Aida, declined to meet the KPK summons.

Intan Paramaditha, a gender expert from the University of Indonesia, said taking multiple wives among government officials had become easier following the downfall of former president Soeharto's authoritarian regime, which promoted puritanical family values.

"Polygamy is becoming more visible. Groups that were repressed under the New Order now can express their aspirations more freely, including Islam- based organizations that endorse the practice of polygamy," she said.

Intan said for practitioners of polygamy, wives only served as servants. "The number of wives that these men have indicates their power. Also, a wife is [in effect] an unpaid worker, so three wives means three unpaid workers and so on," she said.

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Ade Irawan said the graft suspects were trapped in a vicious cycle.

He said corruption lead them to become polygamous, because they had so much money to spend. Being polygamous then increased their corrupt tendencies because of more demands that came with having more people depending on them. To make matters worse, no control could be imposed on their excessive lifestyles.

"In case of Luthfi, Rusli and Djoko, I think they were involved in graft cases because they were policy makers that were not controlled by the state, business or civil society," he said.

Yenti Ganarsih, a money laundering expert, said that being polygamous served a practical purpose. She said the women were used to conceal the illegal activities of the corrupt.

"However, I don't think these women are victims because I believe they actually have knowledge or are suspicious about the source of the assets," she said. (koi)

Serial polygamists

Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq: 3 wives, 15 children
Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo: 3 wives, 5 children
Ahmad Fathanah: Divorced from second and third wives, now married to Surti Kurlianti and Septi Sanustika, 5 children
Rusli Zainal: Four wives

[Source: From various sources.]

Ministries found to have misused social aid funds for political benefit

Jakarta Globe - June 27, 2013

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Nearly $1 billion in funds intended for social aid programs was misused by just two government ministries, a government audit body has found, prompting claims on Wednesday that the funds are being used to bankroll political campaigns for next year's elections.

A Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) report attributed the misuse to several factors, according to Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) director for investigation and advocacy Uchok Sky Khadafi.

Among those factors was a lack of clear criteria for the recipients of funds. BPK said the Ministry of Home Affairs had misused Rp 8.8 trillion ($887 million) from its social aid fund (Bansos) because of vague criteria.

The fund disbursed Rp 6.8 billion for capital spending and Rp 900 million for goods and services.

Similar problems were found in the Bansos funds administered by the Ministry for the Acceleration of Development in Underdeveloped Regions, leading to Rp 50.6 billion of funds being misused.

The BPK said that some Bansos recipients had been unaccountable to the ministry, and the ministry did not try to collect fines for delayed work.

"The national secretary of Fitra is therefore asking the House of Representatives to immediately demand accountability from the ministries regarding the misuse of the Bansos," Uchok said.

Ray Rangkuti, executive director of the Indonesian Civil Circle (LIMA), said the government had spent hundreds of trillion rupiah on Bansos since 1998. He said Bansos spending rose each year but the targeted recipients and their accountability was unclear.

He said a significant chunk of Bansos funds went to ministries headed by political operatives and suspected that the funds were used to benefit political parties ahead of the 2014 general election campaign.

Ray said that up to Rp 400 trillion of Bansos funds had been channeled to 20 ministries, including 10 headed by political party representatives.

"[Many people have] good intentions to create a clean 2014 general election that is honest, fair, democratic and clean from ill-gotten money," Ray said.

"The General Elections Commission [KPU] and the Elections Supervisory Board [Bawaslu] have to account for Rp 40 trillion in election funds. If not, the KPU will not have the authority to force political parties to do the same, including account for misused Bansos at ministries headed by political party cadres."

Ray said the election funds will be rolled out when the KPU finalizes the legislative candidate list in August, adding that the KPU needs to ask all political parties to report their party and legislative candidates' campaign funds.

He added that political parties should be punished, including through disqualification from the election, if they are found to use Bansos. But firm action could only be taken if the KPU and Bawaslu can account for the Rp 40 trillion general election funds, he said.

"If not, KPU and Bawaslu will not be able to produce a clean, honest, fair and democratic legislative and presidential election," Ray said.

Roy Salam from the Indonesian Budget Center said that Bansos in regional areas had been used to advance the political interests of incumbents seeking additional terms in office.

"Aside from the regional budget [APBD], Bansos was also used to boost the electability of candidates who ran for the regional head position. The funds reached Rp 50 trillion and it reached Rp 100 trillion in Jakarta," he said.

"Meanwhile, funds to overcome social problems had not been given regularly. There's also no clear regulations [for Bansos], thus making the funds prone to being misused by parties." He added that Bansos recipients were often people who had easy access to political parties.

Meanwhile, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has opened an investigation into the alleged bribing of Bandung District Court judge Setyabudi Tedjocahyono in connection with a Bansos graft case involving the Bandung city administration.

KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto made the announcement at his office last week but declined to provide details of the new investigation. He said it was related to Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada.

A source who declined to be identified said that Dada was targeted by the KPK and may be named as a suspect in the case. "Dada is a potential suspect," the source said.

Another source said the KPK was examining Dada's alleged involvement in the case. Unconfirmed reports said the KPK had prepared a sprindik [a document to name a person as a suspect] for Dada and that it was waiting to be signed by KPK leaders. Dada's term ends this year, and Ridwan Kamil was likely elected as his successor.

KPK starts rooting out Mega's BLBI buddies

Jakarta Post - June 26, 2013

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – After busting politicians from almost every major political party for graft, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is now casting its beady little eyes upon the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

KPK prosecutors recently summoned a number of Megawati Soekarnoputri's former ministers from the PDI-P, and grilled them about their parts in the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) case.

On Tuesday, investigators spent quality time with former industry and trade minister Rini Mariani Soemarno Soewandi, a confidant of Megawati, and member of the PDI-P central executive board.

"I was questioned about the BLBI in my capacity as member of the Financial Sector Stability Committee [KSSK]," Rini said after a seven-hour grilling at the KPK headquarters.

The KSSK was established in 2008 to determine policies and deal with financial crises, such as deciding whether to provide liquidity or capital injections for banks facing problems.

Rini had nothing meaningful to say about her questioning or her knowledge of "release and discharge" letters, guaranteeing debtors who fulfilled their obligations that they would be released from legal procedures.

Obviously with important matters to deal with, she rushed to get inside her vehicle. Rini has a chummy relationship with Megawati and often travels with the former president.

The BLBI scandal revolves around the fate of Rp 702 trillion (US$71 billion) of Bank Indonesia bailout funds, during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. Misuse of the funds led to state losses of hundreds of trillions rupiah.

Following "advice" from ministers, including Laksamana Sukardi, in 2002 Megawati issued Presidential Decree No. 8/2002 which regulated these "release and discharge" letters, freeing recipients of the funds from obligation to fully pay the debts.

The KPK summoned Laksamana earlier this month. According to Laksamana, the clearance letters were perfectly legal as they had been pursuant to a decree by the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (TAP MPRS) No. 10/2000.

Laksamana claimed that the decree had ordered Megawati to provide legal certainty in the BLBI case, and required that the assets seized during the bailout be sold as soon as possible.

"So there is a decree and if she violated that decree, then she could be impeached," Laksamana said after the questioning. "The letters are products of the constitution."

He also argued that the government had no alternative but to sell the assets at a low price due to the crippling economic situation at the time. It was simply the risk that Megawati had to run to obey the decree. The decree, however, only stated that the president had to take stern action towards parties proven guilty in the BLBI case.

Recently the KPK has been able to name the creme de la creme at the top of political parties, including former party chairmen Anas Urbaningrum and Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq, as suspects in graft cases.

The pace of the progress in the BLBI case, however, has been notoriously glacial. First handled by the Attorney General's Office (AGO), before being dropped by former senior AGO prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan, who headed the investigation team, the case was eventually picked up by the KPK in 2008.

Central Bank latest target of KPK's Century probe

Jakarta Globe - June 26, 2013

Rizky Amelia – Antigraft investigators raided the central bank on Tuesday as part of a widening probe into alleged irregularities in the Rp 6.7 trillion ($677 million) bailout of Bank Century in 2008.

Johan Budi, a spokesman for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), confirmed the operation but declined to give details about what the investigators were looking for.

Bank Indonesia officials also confirmed that 45 KPK officials arrived at the central bank's office in Central Jakarta on Tuesday morning with a warrant to carry out a raid in connection with the Century case.

Difi A. Johansyah, a BI spokesman, said that the investigators had searched "several departments in connection with the Century bailout."

"They searched inside the banking supervisor's office, the bank regulator's office, the monetary policy office and in my office," he said as quoted by Kompas.com.

Peter Jacobs, another spokesman, said he did not know what documents the investigators had taken away with them. "They had a court-issued warrant with them, but we don't know what exactly they were looking for," he said.

He added that BI officials had cooperated fully during the search and that the central bank had nothing to hide.

The bailout of Century, a mid-sized lender, during the height of the global financial crisis generated immense controversy in Indonesia, with critics alleging a litany of irregularities in the decision that some say was taken to save politically connected depositors.

The House of Representatives adopted a resolution in 2010 declaring that the bailout was fundamentally flawed, which prompted the KPK, the Attorney General's Office and the police to launch parallel probes into the bailout and the subsequent flow of money.

But the law enforcement agencies have so far failed to uncover any evidence of corruption. The investigators did find evidence of banking violations, which resulted in the conviction of bank owners Robert Tantular, Hesham al Warraq and Rafat Ali Rizvi, but those offenses occurred prior to the bailout.

The KPK's raid of the central bank comes several weeks after its investigators questioned Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the finance minister at the time of the bailout, in Washington, D.C.

Sri Mulyani, who now serves as a managing director at the World Bank, has been a special focus of the House special committee overseeing the probes, who insist that she and Vice President Boediono, the former BI governor, should be investigated for their roles in approving the bailout.

Bambang Soesatyo, a Golkar Party legislator who has been outspoken about the need to go after the two officials, lauded the KPK for seizing documents and CCTV footage from BI, saying the evidence they were bound to reveal could shed a new light on the case.

He said he hoped the documents would show where all the money actually went to, insisting that "not all the money that left BI reached the Century management."

Both Sri Mulyani and Boediono have insisted that they were justified in preventing the collapse of Century, which they say would have posed a systemic threat to the wider banking sector.

Beef import quota scandal widens further

Jakarta Globe - June 25, 2013

Novianti Setuningsih – The scope of the beef import quota scandal that dragged down former Prosperous Justice Party chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq seems to have ensnared the party's chief advisor Hilmi Aminuddin also.

The indictment against Luthfi as read out by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors at the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court said Hilmi had received a car worth Rp 350 million ($35,350) and a plot of land worth Rp 1. 5 billion from Luthfi.

"In 2007, the defendant spent 350 million rupiah on a Nissan Frontier with license plate number B 9051 for Hilmi Aminuddin," prosecutor Rini Triningsih told the court on Monday.

But to cover the origin of the car, Luthfi asked a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) staff member Agus Triyono to change its ownership to his personal assistant Rantal Sikayo, the prosecutor said.

Rini added that on March 29, 2007 the defendant made a down-payment for a house for Hilmi and spent another Rp 1.5 billion buying a house in Cianjur, West Java, which was paid for in up to 29 installments.

The KPK has so far questioned Hilmi three times as a witness against Luthfi and he consistently denied his involvement in the scandal.

After a questioning session with the KPK investigators recently, Hilmi admitted he had met with Luthfi's close aide Ahmad Fathanah, a defendant in the same case.

Hilmi said he met Fathanah at a PKS event in Lembang, Bandung in West Java. Fathanah, who was not invited to the event, came along with Aksa Mahmud, former deputy speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Hilmi said KPK investigators also played a recording which allegedly involved his son Ridwan Hakim and Fathanah in which Ridwan asked Fathanah to give money to an engkong or elderly man, believed to be Hilmi.

Another KPK prosecutor, Avni Carolina, said Luthfi met with Ridwan in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to discuss the additional beef import quota request by Indoguna Utama, the granting of which is alleged to have initiated the bribery involved in this case.

In the meeting, Luthfi was accompanied by Fathanah and businesswoman Elda Devianne Adiningrat, who served as a mediator between Indoguna and the PKS officials involved in the case.

"On January 20, the defendant, together with Fathanah and Elda, met with Ridwan in Kuala Lumpur," Avni said, adding that the meeting was intended to discuss beef data submitted by Indoguna Utama president director Maria Elizabeth Liman to Soewarso, a close aide of Agriculture Minister Suswono, also a PKS cadre.

The data contained information about the sale of beef import licenses that Maria told Suswono about during a meeting in Medan, North Sumatra. It was reported that Suswono did not believe the information and asked Maria to back up her claims with evidence.

The prosecutor said Maria later handed over the data to Luthfi via Fathanah along with a request for Indoguna to get an additional beef import quota. Prosecutors also said Luthfi had admitted he was going to hand over the data to Suswono. "And the defendant was going to meet with Suswono to discuss it," Avni said.

Prosecutors believed that Luthfi was not only involved in the beef import quota scandal, but also in other Agriculture Ministry projects.

Aside from discussing the beef import data, the Kuala Lumpur meeting with Ridwan was also meant to sort out a misunderstanding between Maria and Ridwan related to other projects.

Elda previously confirmed that a meeting with Ridwan did take place in Kuala Lumpur, but failed to mention Luthfi's presence. Hilmi's attorney Zainuddin Paru had denied the Kuala Lumpur meeting ever took place.

The indictment also accused Luthfi of ordering PKS treasurer Machfud Abdurrachman to lie to KPK investigators about the ownership of his black VW Caravelle, which has been seized by investigators.

Avni said Luthfi ordered Machfud to tell KPK investigators, who came to the PKS headquarters to confiscate six cars, that the Rp 1.9 billion VW Caravelle was a PKS vehicle.

"Machfud then ordered staff member M Masyhuri to write a report declaring a 1.9 billion rupiah expenditure that would make it appear that PKS had purchased the car in 2012," Avni said.

Avni said prosecutors suspected the car was purchased with ill-gotten gains as it was never reported in Luthfi's state officials' wealth reports (Lhkpn).

Previously KPK investigators confiscated six of Luthfi's cars from the PKS headquarters. However, investigators later returned one after it learned the car was a prize Luthfi had won in a golf tournament.

Prosecutors also accused Luthfi of receiving Rp 2 billion from businessman Yudi Setiawan, said to be an Idul Fitri aid package. Avni said Luthfi received the cash through Fathanah on Aug. 24 last year. "Prior to that, the defendant called Yudi Setiawan to ask for some money as an Idul Fitri package," Avni said.

She added that Yudi immediately responded to the request by raising money from, among others, Elda's company Indoguna, because both were engaged in a joint business venture related to the procurement of corn seeds for the Agriculture Ministry.

"The money [he] raised was then kept in a briefcase and was given to the defendant through Fathanah who came to Yudi's apartment in Sudirman," the indictment stated.

The KPK said Yudi was involved in fictitious credits disbursed by Bank Jabar Banten (BJB), Bank Jatim, and Bank Kaltim, which also implicated several PKS cadres, including West Java governor Ahmad Heryawan.

Yudi is currently detained at a prison in South Kalimantan for a corruption case involving the procurement projects of an Education Agency in the region. The KPK has questioned Yudi and compiled a complete dossier on him.

In response to the prosecutors' indictments against him, Luthfi said he was only helping minister Suswono find a solution to the country's beef shortages.

"I only talked about the macro [aspect] of the beef supplies and that was because of my concerns about the soaring beef prices and the rampant distribution of meat that was not supposed to be consumed. I was morally moved to help the minister to find the right solution and I just discussed it from the macro [aspect]," Luthfi said after the trial on Monday.

"All of the things I talked about were just macro, regarding general things, discussions of beef supplies for the people."

Luthfi said he and his team of attorneys will prepare an objection related to the prosecutors' indictment. "I was indicted for the micro [aspects], I wasn't involved in the micro [aspects]," Luthfi said.

He is facing a 20-year prison term for allegedly using his influence over Agriculture Ministry officials.

"The defendant, as a lawmaker and PKS chairman, influenced officials in the Agriculture Ministry that is headed by Suswono, also a member of the PKS' board of advisors, to approve an additional quota of 10,000 tons for Indoguna for 2013, which violated his duties as a lawmaker," Avni said.

Former PKS boss stands trial for bribery

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2013

Jakarta – Former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq went on trial on Monday for his part in the imported beef bribery case.

Luthfi is accused of taking bribes from meat importing company PT Indoguna Utama as a fee for him to use his influence with his party colleague Suswono, the agriculture minister, to increase the beef importation quota.

In their 84-page indictment, the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) prosecutors also implicated a number of other key party members, notable party supremo Hilmi Aminuddin and current chairman Anis Matta.

Luthfi is charged under Law No. 31/1999, Article 12 in reference to Law No. 20/2001 on corruption and Law No. 8/2010 Article 5 on money laundering, which together could result in a total of 20 years in prison.

Luthfi is accused of lobbying Agriculture Minister Suswono to raise the beef import quota so PT Indoguna Utama could increase their share of the quota to 10,000 tons.

The former PKS chairman, who is suffering from haemorrhoids, is also charged with further money laundering during his tenure in the House of Representatives, allegedly concealing or disguising the origin of his potentially illicit assets.

"The defendant's total declared worth when he ran for office in 2003 was Rp 381 million which became Rp 2.5 billion (US$252,500) in 2009 when he was running for a second term in the House, with several suspicious assets," said KPK prosecutor Avni Carolina.

Avni said that the defendant transferred a total of Rp 1.85 billion to PKS chief patron Hilmi Aminuddin between 2007 and 2008. The money was used to purchase a Nissan Frontier SUV worth Rp 350 million and a house in Cianjur Regency, West Java worth Rp 1.5 billion. The indictment links Luthfi with other party heavyweights, including Anis.

In 2012, according to the prosecutors, Luthfi told businessman Yudi Setiawan that he could convince Anis to grant a procurement proposal for a coffee seed project if Yudi would transfer Rp 1.9 billion to Luthfi through his aide, Ahmad Fathanah.

Fathanah introduced Yudi to Luthfi the year before. Later in 2012, Yudi agreed to help the party raise Rp 2 trillion for the next general election.

The funds were to be derived from several projects, including Rp 1 trillion from the Agriculture Ministry, Rp 500 billion from the Social Affairs Ministry and Rp 500 billion from Communications and Information Ministry.

Luthfi then served as a lobbyist, approaching party members, ministries and members of the House.

During the trial session, it was apparent that the PKS had abandoned Luthfi as no officials from the party turned up to give their support. The PKS central board had earlier pledged it would provide legal assistance for its former darling.

A number of Luthfi's supporters did show up though, including his supposed father-in-law Ziad, father of schoolgirl Darin Mumtazah, said to be Luthfi's third wife.

Ziad has confirmed that Luthfi and Darin are married and that it was based on mutual love. "They got married because they love each other. But now Darin is busy with school," he said, adding that his daughter was still Jakarta.

Speaking after the trial, Luthfi told reporters that he would file an objection to the indictment. "I don't understand why they talked about money laundering too. I think it has gone beyond the context of the beef case. Besides, the indictment is wrong and my professional team will prove it wrong," he said.

Corruption hurts nation's poorest

Jakarta Globe - June 24, 2013

Novianti Setuningsih – With poverty rates still high across the nation, a budget analysis and advocacy group has reported that government officials in one of the country's least-developed regions had been embezzling funds intended for the counstruction of much-needed infrastructure to help lift the area out of poverty.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) announced on Sunday that the West Papuan administration had allegedly committed the most corruption of public facility budgets among five provinces. Fitra said corruption in those provinces have resulted in the state losing more than Rp 726 billion ($73 million).

"The budget for public facilities were allocated for the development of school buildings, community health centers, bridges, hospitals and irrigations," Maulana, Fitra's advocacy coordinator told reporters in Jakarta on Sunday.

He said West Papua topped the list of graft-ridden provinces, with 10 cases worth a combined total of Rp 86.8 billion. In East Kalimantan about Rp 29.6 billion in corruption was committed, while it was around Rp 10.8 billion in South Kalimantan, Rp 7.8 billion in Aceh and Rp 5.8 billion in North Maluku.

Fitra also identified the North Sumatran city of Tebing Tinggi as the most corrupt with around Rp 4.9 billion having been embezzled, while the figures were Rp 2.4 billion for Ambon (Maluku), Rp 2.2 billion for Denpasar (Bali), Rp 2.1 billion for Bukittinggi (West Sumatra) and Rp 2.1 billion for Prabumulih (South Sumatra).

On a district level, Fitra identified Nduga (Papua) as the most corrupt with around Rp 89.5 billion stolen. That was followed by Sula Islands (North Maluku) with Rp 55 billion; Wajo (South Sulawesi) with Rp 25.5 billion; Berau (East Kalimantan) with Rp 18.7 billion; and Kapuas (Central Kalimantan) with Rp 15.9 billion.

Maulana said the modus for corrupting the budget is conducted in various ways, such as fictitious procurement projects, the marking up of procurement budgets, and by contractors who do not complete projects.

Maulana said provincial administrations often do not follow proper procedure when selecting contractors for the projects. Provincial administrations also often prioritized spending budgets without considering the quality of the chosen contractors on the procurement of goods and service projects.

"This shows inconsistencies in the implementation of tenders for the procurement of goods and services by provincial administrations," Maulana said.

His organization has called on the Finance Ministry to limit the amount of cash transferred to the regions intended for financing the development of public facilities, especially to regions that have been proven to be prone to corruption.

Fitra made its remarks based on the findings announced by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and its own investigation of almost 240 districts and cities across the country.

Maulana said that in the second half of the BPK's 2012 report, it announced that it had found more than 1,000 cases that resulted in losses to the state of Rp 726.4 billion. He said Fitra called on the regional governments to dismiss officials in charge of these procurement projects and also those in charge of selecting unqualified contractors.

BPK has announced that it will soon conduct an audit on the special autonomy funds channeled to Indonesia's two easternmost provinces, Papua and West Papua.

The central government has disbursed more than Rp 40 trillion since the two provinces were granted special autonomy status in 2001, but since its integration into Indonesia 50 years ago both remain among the poorest and most underdeveloped regions in the country, fueling social unrest and residents' calls for secession.

"We will conduct [the audit] this year," BPK chief Hadi Purnomo said during a hearing conducted by the Regional Representatives Council late in April.

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), both provinces have high rates of unemployment with a combined total of 77,000 people of working age currently without work.

Poverty is also common, the latest BPS figures show, with 30 percent of people in resource-rich Papua and 27 percent in West Papua, which is also rich in natural gas and currently enjoying a tourism boom, living below the poverty line.

During a recent meeting with Papua Governor Lukas Enembe, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he was considering providing Papua with even greater autonomy, calling it a solution for the unique problems facing the province. Yudhoyono said the so-called "Special Autonomy Plus" would be implemented in Papua by August.

Priyo Budi Santoso, a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, said the government must first discuss the plan with legislators, adding that an amendment to the Special Autonomy Law would be needed before the proposal could be formally implemented.

Last year, it was reported that Indonesia had lost as much as Rp 2.13 trillion to corruption in 2011, with embezzlement having accounted for most of the losses.

Hard-line & vigilante groups

Activist slams water throwing incident

Jakarta Post - June 29, 2013

Jakarta – A human rights activist says that the water throwing incident that recently took place during a TV discussion was a blatant display of both personal and organizational arrogance.

"The water throwing incident has justified public assessment that both the person and the organization have presented thug-like attributes camouflaged by religion," Setara Institute chief Hendardi said in written statement on Friday.

Hendardi further suggested that the incident should be reported to the police for further investigation. He also warned the private TV station that aired the discussion to be more cautious when selecting guests to avoid similar incidents in the future.

The water throwing incident occurred when Islam Defenders Front spokesman Munarman and University of Indonesia sociologist Tamrin Amal Tomagola got into a heated debate on forcible night club closures during Ramadhan in a discussion hosted by TV One on Friday morning.

The heated debate ended in Munarman throwing a glass of water at Tamrin's face. Tamrin has stated that he would not file a report with the police. Munarman, meanwhile, has refused to apologize for the incident, insisting he committed no wrong doing.(hrl/dic)

FPI spokesman throws water over sociologist in talk show

Jakarta Post - June 28, 2013

Jakarta – Islam Defenders Front (FPI) spokesman Munarman threw water over sociologist Thamrin Amal Tamagola during a morning talk show aired by private television station TV One on Friday.

The morning talk show, which was also attended by National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Amar Rafli, was discussing the National Police's decision to prohibit mass organizations from launching raids during the Ramadhan fasting month.

During the discussion, Thamrin referred to an international award presented to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in recognition of his work to promote pluralism and human rights as a motivation to provide more protection to every citizen in the country.

Thamrin said that Munarman did not like it when he mentioned the award received by the President, even though he did not refer to any religious mass organization during the talk show.

"I never used the words 'mass organization'; when I referred to the citizens in the country, I did not mean any specific group of people," he said as quoted by tribunnews.com on Friday.

Munarman, according to Thamrin, considered all his arguments unfounded and the discussion turned into a hot debate when Munarman questioned the correlation between the topic and the award.

"He threw water at me. I kept quiet and tried not to respond to it," Thamrin said.

Thamrin said that his wife started to cry when she witnessed the incident and suggested that he file a report with the police.

"I told my wife that I wouldn't file any report. Let the public make its own judgment on the incident. I will let the police take action as the incident took place in public and Pak Boy witnessed it first-hand," he said. (hrl)

FPI spokesman throws tea at academic on live TV

Jakarta Globe - June 28, 2013

A spokesman for the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) threw a glass of tea over a fellow TV talkshow panelist on Friday morning and later said "I'm not afraid of going to jail; I'm afraid of going to hell."

FPI spokesman Munarman was debating the merit of raids on establishments serving alcohol with University of Indonesia academic Tamrin Tomagola.

Munarman initially appeared to have a relatively quiet command of his position – that raids in Papua were organized by local housewives, not the FPI – while Tamrin insisted the raids were politically motivated.

"[Thamrin's analysis] is fabricated, this news article I've brought is factual and true," Munarman said, referring to a printout of a local-media story. "Those who conducted the raid were not, as Tamrin claimed, representatives of the FPI or behaving under political motives. Such analysis is fabricated."

"You don't know, hey, listen, you don't know what I meant," Tamrin said.

"Shut up," Munarman responded. "No, you shut up," Tamrin replied.

Munarman then threw his glass of tea into Tamrin's face.

"You shut up when I'm talking. I was talking," Munarman said. "I'm not afraid of going to jail, I'm afraid going to hell," Munarman told detik.com. "He's not an intellectual, he deserved that."

Tamrin said he would not be making a complaint to the police. "Let the public judge him and give him the social punishment he deserves," Tamrin said. "I don't want to respond to a thug," he tweeted.

Freedom of religion & worship

Government denies anti-Shiite conspiracy in Sampang

Jakarta Globe - June 28, 2013

The Indonesian government denied accusations of a conspiracy to oust Shiite Muslims from the conflict-prone district of Sampang, Madura Island, following the forced relocation of 162 Shia refugees displaced by a wave of sectarian violence to low-cost apartments in Sidoarjo, East Java.

"There's no conspiracy," the National Police's Brig. Gen. Damisnur, an assistant of social harmony at the Coordinating Ministry of Political, Legal and Security Affairs, told the state-run Antara News Agency.

On June 20, a crowd of angry Sunni Muslims amassed outside the sports center following a large outdoor prayer where prominent Sunni Islam preachers decried the Shia as "heretics" before storming over to the nearby center. The crowd confronted Iklil Al Milal, a local Shia leader, and demanded the group leave the island. Local police then loaded the community onto waiting buses and trucks and drove them out of town, according to a statement by the People's Anti-Violence Network (Jamak).

It was the second forced eviction suffered by the Sampang Shia in less than a year, and a clear example of collusion between Sunni leaders and the local administration, said Akhol Firdaus, of Jamak.

Damisnur denied the allegations on Friday, claiming that the Shiite Muslims were moved to Sidoarjo for their own safety. The community now has a better place to live, he added.

The ministry plans to gather representatives from the two groups in a meeting with government officials.

The issue in Sampang, Rudi Setiadi, head of the Board of National Unity for Sampang District, is a lack of education and religious tolerance. The board will take steps to promote understanding among the island's two Muslim groups. "We will promote tolerance in the society," Rudi said.

Indonesian officials have repeatedly refused to classify the violence in Sampang as religiously motivated, claiming, instead, that it stemmed from a long-standing dispute between two brothers, one Sunni, one Shia, over a woman.

Rois Al-Hukama, a prominent figure in the local Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), reportedly delivered an anti-Shiite screed over a loudspeaker before the mob attack Shia villages. He was acquitted of all charges on April 16 by the Surabaya District Court.

'Foundation must review award for SBY'

Jakarta Post - June 24, 2013

Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta – Rights activists have called on the New York- based interfaith organization the Appeal of Conscience Foundation (ACF) to reconsider its decision to grant President Susilo Bambang with the World Statesman Award, following a string of attacks against religious minorities including the forced relocation of the Sampang Shia community last week.

Wahyudin Djafar of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) said on Sunday that the ACF needs to launch a probe into the eviction of the Shiites and evaluate Yudhoyono's performance in protecting minority groups.

"It is a paradox that the government sponsored the Shia community's eviction only weeks after the President received the award," Wahyudin said.

On Thursday, local officials in Sampang, Madura, used force to drive dozens of Shia members from a sports complex, where they had sought refuge for the past year, to low-cost apartments in Sidoardjo, East Java.

"The eviction shows that the government does not consistently guarantee their religious freedom or basic right to security in their hometown," Wahyudin said.

The relocation, officials said, was to prevent another clash between Shia community and the Sunni majority in Sampang. Less than a month before the relocation, Yudhoyono was given the award in recognition of his work in promoting pluralism and human rights.

Setara Institute chairman Hendardi said that Yudhoyono must prove that he deserved the award by finding a solution that would help the Shia community.

"He did not deserve the award in the first place, but he insisted on accepting it. It is time for him to demonstrate his quality before his tenure ends next year," he said.

Hendardi said that relocating the Shia members to the Sidoarjo apartments was wrong, given the fact that most of them live from farming. "It is almost impossible to create a farm around their new residences," he said.

Previously, House of Representatives' Speaker Marzuki Alie maintained that the relocation was a temporary measure until the security situation in Sampang improved. Wahyudin doubted that the government would return the Shiites to their old homes.

"How can we know that the government will keep their promise? Until now, the Ahmadiyah members are still unable to go back to Cikeusik," he said, referring to the Islamic minority sect Jamaah Ahmadiyah, who sought refuge after being attacked by local vigilante groups in Banten.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Haris Azhar said that expecting the government to solve the Shia problem would be too much.

He said that the best way to resolve the case was by involving independent groups. "We are trying to get the National Commission on Human Rights [Komnas HAM], the Ombudsman, the National Child Protection Commission [KPAI] and the Commission on Violence against Women [Komnas Perempuan] to create a fact-finding team on this case," he said.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said that the relocation was part of an effort to provide better protection for the Shia community. Julian also said that Yudhoyono deserved the World Statesman Award.

"The award was bestowed upon the President due to his commitment in maintaining diversity in the country [...] but we must remember that no country can ever be free from tensions," he told The Jakarta Post.

Another presidential spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said that the award should be perceived as "a boost to create a better Indonesia".

"As president SBY said in New York [during the award ceremony], we still have problems, including pockets of intolerance. The award is expected to be a momentum for us to continue our endeavor to achieve a more tolerant society," he said.

Agriculture & food security

Beef self-sufficiency unlikely

Jakarta Post - June 26, 2013

Tassia Sipahutar, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's ambition to make the country self-sufficient in beef, among other main commodities, will likely remain out of sight, thanks to growing beef demand, coupled with low domestic supply.

The low domestic supply is attributed to the declining local cow population, as farmers allegedly sell their cows to take profits immediately when beef prices are high, business players and officials conveyed in a seminar.

On the other hand, beef consumption will continue to increase, driven by higher income per capita and the growing middle-class, according to National Meat Processors Association (Nampa) chairman Ishana Mahisa.

"For the meat processing industry, demand grows because people now consume more processed meat, such as sausages and beef patties," he said in the seminar titled "Beef Imports: Quota Issues under the WTO" in Jakarta on Tuesday.

According to Ishana, Nampa members' demand for meat grows by about 14 percent year-on-year. In 2013, meat demand, including from chicken, is estimated to reach around 160,000 tons, about the same level as last year.

However, he said, domestic supply had not been able to meet the demand, especially since the industry required specific meat parts and quality, such as in the secondary beef cut segment, on which the government imposes an import quota.

Demand in the segment, which produces smoked beef among other products, ranges between 2,000 tons and 3,000 tons per year.

The country, which has a population of 240 million, consumes around 500,000 tons of beef every year. That is equal to about 1.8 kilograms to 2.2 kilograms per capita per year, according to Ishana.

"The total consumption can reach more than 600,000 tons when expatriates, whose consumption per capita can be 10 to 20 times higher, are accounted for," he said, adding consumption by foreign tourists also added to the figure, although it could not be estimated.

To meet growing demand and prevent price increases, the government recently appointed the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to import an additional 3,000 tons of beef, on top of this year's import quota of 80,000 tons, or around 15 percent of domestic consumption.

Beef imports accounted for 19 percent of domestic consumption last year. More than half of domestic beef consumption relied on imports in 2009.

Faiz Achmad, director for food, marine products and fishery industries at the Industry Ministry, said the secondary beef cut business alone grew between 10 and 15 percent every year, and the products continued to diversify.

"But business players in this segment are not allowed to import the raw materials even though local supply does not always meet the requirements," he said.

Faiz and Ishana insisted the government must separate the processing industry's demand from that of general consumption when calculating a beef import quota. They also said business players from that industry should be allowed to import raw materials of secondary cuts when necessary.

Meanwhile, Central Statistics Agency head Suryamin said his office noticed a declining cow population, although it was yet to conclude its assessment. The agency earlier estimated that the cow population declined by around 20 percent to about 12 million in 2012, said media reports.

"In several provinces, farmers sold their cows to slaughterhouses when beef prices skyrocketed last year," he said by phone, explaining the cause of the dwindling cow population.

The price of beef doubled during Idul Fitri last year from Rp 40,000 (US$4) to Rp 50,000 per kilogram to Rp 75,000 to Rp 80,000 per kilogram due to the lack of supply.

Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) deputy chairman Anton Supit urged the government to develop a grand design to solve the supply demand issue. "It is not fair to leave it all to farmers and breeders to reach self- sufficiency."

Muchammad Romahurmuziy, chairman of House of Representatives commission IV overseeing agriculture, said the House was now formulating a revision to the 2009 Animal Husbandry and Health Law that would help ensure supply.

He said the revision also consisted of stricter health procedures, including quarantine measures. The bill would also make it possible for the establishment of a "quarantine island". He expects that the bill would be passed into law by years-end.

The revision is being carried out following a 2010 Constitutional Court ruling that annulled several clauses and thus ordered lawmakers to revise them.

Land & agrarian conflicts

Restitution of customary forests: Not so fast

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2013

Prodita Sabarini – The government is signaling the possible restitution of customary forests to indigenous communities after the Constitutional Court annulled the government's ownership of customary forests.

Restitution, which Forestry Ministry secretary-general Hadi Dar-yanto said would be carried out by revoking business permits of companies operating in customary forests and by the reclamation of damaged areas, can start once regional administrations legally recognize customary forests on their territory. Hadi said that businesses would be driven out of customary forests, which would then be "saved".

"Even if there's a concession for an HTI [industrial forest permits] or HPH [production forest concessions], as long as there's a bylaw, then the companies will have to leave," he said. "The key lies with the regents. As long as there is no bylaw, there can be no [restitution]," he added.

There is one problem with the government's intention to rescue customary forests: as yet, no regional administration has issued a customary forest bylaw.

Moreover, only a few administrations have enacted bylaws on indigenous communities. Out of more than 30 provinces, only Central Kalimantan and West Sumatra have issued bylaws on indigenous communities living in those provinces. Meanwhile, from around 400 regencies and cities, only four regencies – Lebak in Banten; Malinau in North Kalimantan; North Luwu in South Sulawesi; and Tana Toraja in Central Sulawesi – have passed bylaws on indigenous communities in their areas.

Hadi said the Forestry Ministry was working on a draft regulation to force local administrations to acknowledge customary forests in bylaws. But he acknowledged that implementation still depended on local administrations.

"If it's election time, will they be willing to manage issues such as this? And we have 400 regencies and municipalities, that's the challenge," he said. "If the regent is accommodating, the process will be fast. Let's just be positive," he said.

Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki) executive director Fadhil Hasan said he had yet to be informed of the plan to revoke business permits following the Constitutional Court ruling. He said that Gapki members adhered to government's regulations on concessions.

Following the court ruling on customary forests, the Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) and civil society organizations signed a declaration on May 27 welcoming the ruling.

Along with the civil society organizations and individuals, including a commissioner from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), Sandra Moniaga, AMAN called for the government to resolve conflicts relating to customary forests and natural resources on customary land. They also demanded an amnesty for indigenous peoples who have been criminalized for entering protected forest areas.

Abdon Nababan, AMAN's secretary-general, also called for the central government to coordinate a mechanism for indigenous people to register their communities and map out their customary areas. At the moment, there is no official government data about the number of communities and their territories.

"President [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] should take a step toward collecting data on indigenous peoples, their customary land, and mapping out customary forests," Abdon said.

Abdon doubted the financial feasibility of relying on bylaws for the recognition of customary forests. "There can be dozens of customary forests in a single regency. In that case, would a regency introduce dozens of bylaws? The cost to issue just one regency bylaw is around Rp 400 million [US$40,302] to Rp 700 million. If, for instance, there are 10 identified customary forests, it would cost between Rp 4 billion and Rp 10 billion to recognize all the customary forests in one regency," Abdon said.

Komnas HAM commissioner Sandra Moniaga said the President should release a decree "to prevent confusion among communities".

Currently, with no official identification of indigenous communities and their territories, indigenous peoples' rights have only been nominally recognized. "The government should recognize indigenous communities in various other pieces of legislation," she said.

Currently, lawmakers are deliberating a bill on the rights of indigenous peoples.

AMAN claims Indonesia has around 40 million hectares of customary forest. So far a civil society-led mapping of indigenous land by the Indonesian Community Mapping Network (JKPP) has documented 3.9 million hectares of indigenous land, of which 3.1 million hectares are forest areas, JKPP coordinator Kasmita Widodo said.

The network has submitted its preliminary mapping of 2.4 million hectares of customary forests to the Presidential Working Unit for the Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4), which is working on an integrated map of Indonesia.

Recognition of indigenous peoples stuck in red tape

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2013

On May 16, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling favoring the country's indigenous peoples. It stated that customary forests were not state owned as earlier recognized, but belonged to local indigenous people.

It was a historic ruling, which raises questions as to the fate of businesses that have already been issued permits in such state forests, and the consequent impact on the many land conflicts across the country. The Jakarta Post's Prodita Sabarini looks at how the ruling will affect the people living in these areas.

The village of Muara Tae in Jempang, West Kutai, an East Kalimantan regency heavily dependent on mining and palm oil, is home to an indigenous tribe, the Dayak Benuaq.

For years, their customary land has been converted into open pit coal mines and palm oil plantations. Muara Tae's young leader, 28-year-old Masrani, once sued West Kutai Regent Ismael Thomas last August for drawing up a new village border to protect the last plots of their customary forests,.

The border led to them losing their forest to the next village, whose residents had agreed to let their land go for plantations. The court ruled in favor of the regent and Masrani appealed. In April this year, Masrani lost his job as village leader. Under a decree, Thomas ended Masrani's tenure.

For Indonesia, home to more than 1,000 ethnic groups, the world's largest thermal coal exporter and one of the top palm oil producers, conflicts such as this one in Muara Tae – where various interests collide – have been a common feature of business involving large tracts of land. Many concessions for mining and plantations are allocated on customary land belonging to indigenous peoples.

Meanwhile, government conservation programs relating to protected forests also involve areas considered customary forests by indigenous peoples, making these forests inaccessible to those whose livelihoods have depended on them for generations.

The Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) documented 48 conflicts between businesses, government and indigenous communities in 2011, affecting 947 families in an area of 690,558 hectares.

Erasmus Cahyadi from the organization's legal and advocacy division said that almost all the conflicts were due to the government's failure to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples over their customary land, especially customary forests.

AMAN's documentation between October 2012 and March 2013 shows that some 224 indigenous people were criminalized for taking wood from forests turned into conservation or business areas.

The recent landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court on the 1999 Forestry Law signaled the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples over their customary forests. According to the May 16 ruling, customary forests are not state forests, but "forests located in the areas of custom-based communities".

But AMAN and other civil society groups understand that resolving conflicts and fighting for restitution remains a long battle amid a complicated land policy.

Prior to the ruling, as customary forests were treated as state forests, the Forestry Ministry granted concessions to businesses on customary land. "Many indigenous peoples were shocked by the enactment of the Forestry Law," Erasmus said.

Following the Constitutional Court ruling, some 20 regional coordinators from AMAN were in Jakarta to discuss follow-up strategies with civil society organizations including the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the Indonesian Community Mapping Network (JKPP), as well as organizations specializing in land reform. Together, they organized a workshop to consolidate their strategies to push the government to implement the court's ruling.

Margaretha Seting Beraan, AMAN's East Kalimantan coordinator, was at the May 29 workshop. A high concentration of indigenous people and widespread mining and plantation activities makes her area prone to conflicts. "Many people called me, saying 'the court has ruled in our favor, so now we can have our land back?' but I had to say, 'hang on, let's not get ahead of ourselves'," Margaretha said.

The court's ruling on customary forests is unlikely to have much effect on Muara Tae, for example. Margaretha said Muara Tae's disputed forest was not part of the approximately 130 million hectares of the country's designated forests, which are under the authority of the Forestry Ministry based on the court-reviewed Forestry Law. Muara Tae's forest is instead under the authority of the West Kutai regent and is labeled, Other Usage Area (APL).

Further, despite a challenge by AMAN, the Constitutional Court ruling retained intact Article 67 of the law, stating that the recognition of customary forests was to be carried out by regional governments through bylaws. This means that for the indigenous people of Muara Tae to be recognized, the regency administration must issue a bylaw.

Contacted by phone in his village, Masrani said that whatever the status given to their customary forest "for us a forest is a condition. It's not a territory that's appointed by the government. The forest is protected by the people. It doesn't come from the government".

Ade Cholik Mutaqin, advocacy and campaigns officer with the JKPP, said the problem with customary land recognition was that several authorities governed the status of their land, but there was very little coordination between them.

The Forestry Ministry is regulated by the Forestry Law to oversee customary land within forest boundaries, while the land outside those forest boundaries is within the control of the National Land Agency (BPN) as regulated by the Agrarian Law. Further, these two institutions only recognize customary land that has been recognized through regional bylaws.

Despite the provision of customary forest recognition by regional governments in the Forestry Law, no administration has issued a bylaw on customary forests.

However, West Sumatra has released a bylaw on the indigenous Nagari people. Other regional administrations that have released bylaws on indigenous communities are Central Kalimantan province, Lebak in Banten and North Luwu in South Sulawesi.

AMAN secretary-general Abdon Nababan has called for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to establish a mechanism for indigenous peoples to register their communities and to map out their customary areas.

However, Forestry Ministry secretary-general Hadi Daryanto said that the government had yet to release official documentation on customary forests. The JKPP has mapped 3.9 million hectares of customary land, of which 3.1 million hectares is within forest areas.

According to Abdon, there is an estimated 40 million hectares of customary forests across the country.

Hadi said it was the ministry's task to draft a government regulation to force local administrations to acknowledge customary forests in bylaws.

Nirarta Samadi, the Presidential Working Unit for the Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4) deputy who chairs a task force on forest monitoring, said the Constitutional Court ruling provided a new opportunity for regional administrations to recognize indigeneous peoples.

"Now we have an opportunity for a new process," he said, referring to the court ruling. "It now feels right to use the avenue of bylaws; a political decision is indeed needed to create a positive atmosphere," he said.

NGO maps out indigenous community territories

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2013

Prodita Sabarini – Rahmat Sulaiman, information and documentation manager with the Community Mapping Network (JKPP), sat facing his laptop at his office in Bogor. He clicked his mouse, and a map of Indonesia appeared on his screen.

Another click and small red-lined areas emerged on Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Papua and Java. He clicked again and an overlay of mining concession areas covered the red-lined areas.

A final click brought another overlay showing oil palm plantation concessions. The red-lines marked the territory of mapped indigenous communities in Indonesia.

The map, which shows how business concessions overlap with customary land belonging to indigenous communities, can be accessed at geodata-cso.org.

A group of NGOs – the JKPP; the community and ecological-based Society for Legal Reform (HuMa); Sawit Watch; the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA); the Consortium in Support of a Community Forest System (KpSHK); and the Mining Advocacy Network (JATAM) – established the website to document and track land conflicts in Indonesia.

As of now, around 222 reports of land conflicts have been documented on the Geodata website. JKPP advocacy and campaigns officer Ade Cholik Mutaqin said the reports were compiled from data from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and other NGOs. Most of the conflicts are between indigenous communities and businesses and/or government.

The resource-rich Kalimantan contributed the highest number of land conflicts. According to data from Walhi's East Kalimantan branch, following the enactment of the Masterplan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI) in 2011, some 135 communities became involved in conflict with businesses. Most of the land conflicts, according to Walhi, involved palm oil plantations, followed by logging and mining firms.

Maps of indigenous communities are provided by the JKPP, which as of now has mapped 3.9 million hectares of customary land. Ade said the JKPP used a participatory method of mapping, in which the whole community held a consultation to agree to have their area mapped out. Information of the borders of customary lands were passed on mainly through storytelling from one generation to another, Ade said.

Given the absence of a national mechanism to identify and map out territory belonging to indigenous communities, AMAN, the JKPP and several other NGOs have set up the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency (BRWA) to allow indigenous communities to register their ancestral domains.

Ade said the idea behind the BRWA was to provide a map of customary land. "We wanted to be prepared for the court ruling. If it [the Constitutional Court] ruled that customary forests belonged to indigenous peoples, we wanted to be able to show where those customary forests were located," he said.

Indigenous communities set to mark out their territory

Jakarta Post - June 24, 2013

Prodita Sabarini, Jakarta – Indigenous communities will be erecting placards in their customary forests, stating that they do not belong to the state, following the Constitutional Court ruling that annulled state ownership of the areas.

During a consolidation workshop in Jakarta last month following the court ruling on customary forests, members from the Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) and other NGOs working on land reform and the environment agreed that indigenous communities should put up signs as a first step toward reclaiming their land.

The activists agreed that the move, which was cheekily dubbed "plangisasi", a made-up word that sounds like the word "rainbow" in Indonesian (pelangi) by combining plang (placard) and sasi (process), would only be carried out if all the communities agreed and if they were supported by NGOs in their areas.

Nur Amalia, from the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (APIK) who was present at the meeting, said that other civil society organizations agreed that support was a precondition for putting up the placards, so as to avoid conflict.

Some customary leaders, however, are reluctant to put placards up out of fear of triggering conflict in their area. Yohanes, 35, a village leader in Sekatak district, Bulungan regency, East Kalimantan, said he had heard about the placard suggestion but added that each village had their own considerations.

In Yohanes' village, areas of customary forest belonging to the Punan, Kenyah, Tidung, Belusu and Bulungan tribes were handed out as concessions during the Soeharto era to Intraca Wood Manufacturing, a timber producer owned by Hartati Murdaya.

Yohannes said he did not want to create conflict in his area. More than 30 people from his village have been criminalized for taking wood out of the forest.

Meanwhile, Masrani, a former village leader of Muara Tae in Jempang, West Kutai, said they had erected placards even before the Constitutional Court ruling. Masrani said he welcomed the court ruling but that the implementation of the ruling faced many obstacles.

The Indonesian Community Mapping Network (JKPP) has mapped 3.9 million hectares of customary land, of which 3.1 million lie within forest areas. According to AMAN's secretary-general, Abdon Nababan, there were an estimated 40 million hectares of customary forest in Indonesia.

Armed forces & defense

Victims' families doubt fairness of Sleman trial

Jakarta Post - June 28, 2013

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – The families of the four men, who were murdered by members of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) at Cebongan Penitentiary in Sleman, Yogyakarta, are doubtful that the legal proceedings at the Yogyakarta II-11 Military Court will be conducted fairly.

They called for the case to be heard at a civil court outside Yogyakarta. "We do not expect much from this trial, which is far from independent," spokesperson for the families, Victor Manbait, said on Thursday.

Victor's brother Yohanes Juan Manbait (Juan), a fired Yogyakarta police officer, was one of the four detainees who were killed in the execution style shooting. The other three detainees were Hendrik Angel Sahetapi (Deki), Gameliel Yermianto Rohi Riwu (Adi) and Adrianus Candra Galaja (Dedi).

Victor said supporters of the deceased has been terrorized by Kopassus supporters.

In total 12 members of Kopassus Group 2 Kandang Menjangan, Kartosuro, Central Java, are on trial for allegedly killing the four detainees.

The military prosecutors charged nine of them with premeditated murder, which carries either the death penalty, lifetime imprisonment or a minimum of 20 years' in prison. The other three were charged with not informing their superiors about the nine Kopassus absconding.

Responding to the charges, the defendants' team of lawyers presented objections and asked the panel of judges to drop the case. They said the charges were blurred and lacked details.

However, not everyone agreed with the defense team, with many calling on the judges, in the next sessions scheduled for Friday, to announce the trials will continue.

"We agree with the military prosecutors that the judges [should] continue the case," said Sumiardi, spokesperson of the Military Court Monitoring People's Coalition.

The same call was also expressed by Indonesia Court Monitoring (ICM) coordinator Tri Wahyu KH. "The panel of judges must prioritize fairness and not focus on formalistic debates," he said.

He said if the panel of judges decided to drop the case, ICM would urge the prosecutors to appeal through the same military court, saying that Article 146 (1) of the Law on Military Court guaranteed such a move.

A member of the Witness and Victims Protection Institute (LPSK), Teguh Sudarsono, warned that if the trial was not fair, civilians could bring the case to the international human rights court.

Sleman suspects receive high-profile support

Jakarta Post - June 27, 2013

Sri Wahyuni and Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Twelve members of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) accused of killing four detainees at a Cebongan Penitentiary in Sleman, Yogyakarta, gained the support of a prominent lawyer.

OC Kaligis, the prominent lawyer, was at the trial on Wednesday. "I am here because of solidarity. This happened when law enforcers were not forceful against thugs," Kaligis told The Jakarta Post after greeting the defendants following Wednesday's trial.

He said other people, including the team of lawyers, would probably do the same if a friend of theirs had been killed by thugs.

"The law allowed [this to happen]. There are reasons for exempting [the defendants] from punishment," he said, quoting Article 49 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on self defense.

"As a lawyer, I feel that I am in the same boat with them that I want to offer help way I can," Kaligis said.

Meanwhile, the trial on Wednesday's main agendas was hearing' responses from the military prosecutors to objections presented by the defendant's team of lawyers on Monday.

The prosecutors said they were confidence that nine of the 12 members of Kopassus Group 2 Kandang Menjangan, Kartosuro, Central Java, had committed premeditated murders of the four detainees who were implicated in the murder of Chief Sgt. Heru Santosa, a former Kopassus member.

"We conclude that the reasons and basis used by the lawyers in their objections are baseless and wrong, therefore, they must be rejected," said military prosecutor Lt. Col. Budiharto in response to the lawyers' objections of charges against defendants Second Sgt. Ucok Tigor Tampubolon, Second Sgt. Sugeng Sumaryanto and First Corporal Kodik.

Budiharto said, in response to the lawyers' objections regarding premeditated murder, the matter had been explained in the charge. He also said that this particular objection should not be mentioned until the examination stage.

The military prosecutors also said that the defendants had committed violations as stipulated in articles 103 (1) and 3 of the Military Criminal Code because if they had been honest about why they were leaving the exercise ground they would not be allowed to do so.

"We ask the panel of judges to accept the prosecutors' charges and to declare that the trial can continue," Budiharto said.

Similar responses and reasoning were also cited in the trials of the other defendants. The trial was adjourned until Friday, when the judges would decide whether the trials should continue.

The 12 Kopassus members are accused of storming into a prison in Sleman on March 23 and executing four individuals; who had been incarcerated for their alleged role in the murder of killing First Sgt. Heru Santoso, at a cafe in the Sleman on March 9. It is further speculated that the attack was in response to an incident involving First Sgt. Sriyono, a former member of Kopassus.

Ucok has been fingered as the group's head honcho. Nine of the suspects were charged with premeditated murder as they had violated Article 340 of the KUHP, which carries either the death penalty, lifetime imprisonment or a minimum of 20 years' in prison.

Video link needed as Cebongan witnesses face growing intimidation: LPSK

Jakarta Post - June 24, 2013

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – The Witness and Victims Protection Agency (LPSK) has said that the latest developments in the trials of 12 of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) members, accused of killing four detainees at Cebongan Penitentiary in Sleman, Yogyakarta, highlighted the need to allow witnesses to testify via video link.

A number of people grouped under the so-called Alliance of Yogyakarta Communities Who Support Justice visited Cebongan Penitentiary at around 3:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, asking the prison's warden to present the witnesses at the trials in the Yogyakarta Military Court.

"This situation indicates the importance of allowing the witnesses to testify via video link," the LPSK's Abdul Haris Semendawai told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Members of the alliance, which comprises 14 people, visited the Cebongan prison wearing military fatigue-like clothing emblazoned with the letters FKPPI, which stand for the Communication Forum of Indonesian Veterans' Children.

They were seen attending the first hearing of the Cebongan trial at the Yogyakarta Military Court, last week, during which they voiced their full support for the Cebongan suspects.

"We vehemently reject the use of a video link. We are ready to protect the witnesses," said Agung HM, a representative of the alliance who read out a hand-written statement directed to the head of Cebongan prison.

A total of 42 people, comprising 31 inmates and 11 prison guards, are due to give testimony in connection to the killing of four inmates, allegedly perpetrated by the 12 Kopassus members on March 23.

Head of administration Aries Bimo said he would pass on the statement to the penitentiary's warden, Supriyanto. "He will make the final decision on this," Aried said. (fan/ebf)

Police & law enforcement

Incidents of torture by law enforcement agencies on the rise

Jakarta Post - June 29, 2013

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – A study by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has found that the number of cases of torture committed by members of the National Police, the Army and prison staff is on the rise.

The study found that torture and intimidation of detainees during interrogation remained common despite the legal reforms that swept the country following the downfall of the authoritarian regime of former president Soeharto.

Kontras released findings from the survey, based on a year-long study, on Friday to mark the United Nations' International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, which falls on June 26.

Kontras, which used the same assessment framework used by the Committee Against Torture and the UN Human Rights Council, uncovered 100 incidents in which 225 civilians were allegedly tortured or intimidated by law enforcers during interrogation between July 2012 and June 2013.

The number has increased from 86 incidents involving 243 victims in the same period of the previous year and 28 incidents with 49 victims between July 2010 and June 2011.

The study found that the police were involved in 14 incidents of the total 100 cases, the military in 60 incidents and prison guards in 12 incidents. Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar said the figure was likely to represent the tip of the iceberg as there was a lack of access to information and the victims often had neither the ability nor courage to report the incidents.

The practice of torture remains commonplace among law enforcers as Indonesia has no specific laws against torture.

"There has been no serious punishment meted out to law enforcers who commit acts of torture," Haris told a press conference on Friday. "The absence of laws on torture has led to apathy, if not, omission."

Often the incidents are settled through internal mechanisms that provide for only lenient disciplinary sanctions. Such internal mechanisms, Haris said, had led to impunity. "Many reports are left cold," he added.

Ruben Pata Sambo, a convict on death row for killing a family in South Sulawesi in 2006, is among Kontras' list of alleged victims.

Kontras, which has given legal assistance to Ruben, believes that the convict has been the victim of a miscarriage of justice. The commission claims he was tortured and intimidated into confessing the crime.

Recently, Kontras filed a report on Ruben's torture allegations to the National Police General Supervision Inspectorate. Ruben's death sentence became one of the most controversial issues at the recent Fifth World Congress against the Death Penalty in Madrid, Spain.

In March, Muslim groups including Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) called on the National Police to dissolve Densus 88, the country's counterterrorism unit, in the wake of allegations that it had tortured, wrongfully arrested or killed suspected terrorists.

The groups said they presented the police with video footage depicting men in Densus 88 uniforms intimidating and torturing what appeared to be a suspected terrorist.

On Friday, Kontras called for an amendment to the Criminal Code. "The revision must include specific provisions to prosecute those committing torture and those must be consistent with the definition on torture as outlined in the United Nations Convention against Torture, which was ratified by the government in 1998," Haris said.

Fuel price hike

Lawmakers accused of politicizing BLSM

Jakarta Globe - June 27, 2013

Opposition lawmakers have branded the government's temporary direct cash assistance program as mere pork barrelling, as ministers with no connection to the scheme scramble to be seen distributing largesse among voters ahead of next year's national elections.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) senior lawmaker Pramono Anung criticized Cabinet ministers who personally took part in distributing the funds, known as BLSM, intended to compensate poor households for the impact of this month's subsidized fuel price rise.

"I find it funny to see ministers who aren't related [to the program] distributing BLSM in their own constituencies," Pramono, a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, said on Monday.

Pramono accused ministers involved in distributing hand-outs of having a vested interest related to next year's election. He also claimed that several politicians running for president or the legislature next year were associating themselves with the BLSM program in an effort to gain popularity.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa and Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan, who are both thought to harbor presidential ambitions, as well as Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring have involved themselves in the distribution of the funds.

Indonesian Voter Committee Coordinator Jerry Sumampouw said the BLSM handouts may potentially sway the outcome of the 2014 elections because of a public perception that funds were preferentially channeled to constituents who voted for governing coalition parties.

Jerry claimed the BLSM program implementation had not run smoothly. "In terms of distribution, there have been many problems," he said in Jakarta on Tuesday. "These problems were actually anticipated because they also occurred ahead of the 2009 general elections."

Jerry noted that it was the second time that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had rolled out a cash aid program ahead of general elections, and said he feared it amounted to voter bribery.

"This needs further examination. In one neighborhood watch unit [RT], not all poor people were listed as BLSM recipients," he said.

"Meanwhile, there were residents with steady incomes who had been included in the list of recipients. In my opinion, they have been identified as supporters of certain political parties."

Jerry called on the public and media to monitor the distribution of BLSM from start to finish to ensure the program was not misused for political interests.

Uchok Sky Khadafi, coordinator of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), said the program was too political, especially given it is being rolled out ahead of next year's elections.

"For us, BLSM is too little to help people. BLSM has only appeared ahead of the 2014 elections, which means it was [launched] to win people over for the elections," he said.

Uchok said he based his statement on the fact the cash disbursement had characteristics that matched campaign expenditure rather than a government program.

"The characteristic of campaign spending is that it's done over a short period of time. If it was a legitimate government program, the duration would be longer," he said. "BLSM will only operate for four months, which means this is campaign spending."

Uchok said the BLSM program was more about political image-building than helping poor cope with the impact of the subsidized fuel price hike, as claimed by the government. "But if the government rejects this suggestion, then please extend the period of BLSM," he said.

The temporary cash disbursement scheme is designed to ease the burden of the fuel subsidy cut on 15.5 million poor families across the country. They will receive four monthly payments of Rp 150,000 ($15) from Pos Indonesia offices.

Nearly 80 percent of Indonesians against fuel price hike: Survey

Jakarta Globe - June 24, 2013

According to a recent survey conducted by the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI), nearly 80 percent of Indonesian citizens oppose the government's decision to increase the price of subsidized fuel.

The survey showed that 79.21 percent of Indonesians disagreed with the price hike, while 1.69 percent supported the measure and 19.1 percent didn't know whether they agreed with it or not. Twelve hundred respondents were polled, and the survey had a margin of error of 2.9 percent.

Adjie Alfaraby, a researcher with the LSI, said that 84.01 percent of villagers surveyed were against the price increase, while 75.75 of urbanites opposed the measure.

"This is normal. People who live in villages are more effected by the price hike since higher transportation tariffs cause staple food prices to skyrocket, " Adjie said as quoted by Republika.com.

On Friday, the government officially announced that the price of subsidized fuel would increase from Rp 4,500 ($0.46) per liter to Rp 6,500.

The survey also revealed that 81.20 percent of women were against the new fuel price, while 78.80 percent of men disapproved of it.

Meanwhile, 44 percent of respondents blamed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Democratic Party for the new cost of subsidized fuel.

"Although the president didn't make the announcement himself to maintain his image, he's still being blamed," Adjie said as quoted by Metrotvnews.com.

"Even though the government's coalition – minus the PKS [Prosperous Justice Party] – supported the measure, the public is upset with the Democratic Party."

Democratic Party politician Sutan Bhatoegana, however, thought the survey results were normal. "SBY is the president [of Indonesia] and the chairman of the Democratic Party, so it's normal if he's being blamed for the unpopular decision," Sutan said, referring to the president by his initials.

Police hire thugs to stop protests

Jakarta Post - June 24, 2013

Jakarta – The Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) accused the National Police of using brute force, including by hiring local thugs to harass protesters, mostly students, in street protests against fuel-price increases in East Kalimantan and South Sulawesi.

"We found indications that police paid thugs to disperse protests organized by university students," IPW chair Neta Pane said on Sunday. In Makassar, South Sulawesi, for example, police did not react when a gang attacked protesting students during a rally on June 17.

"The role of thugs in dealing with student protests could cause communal conflicts, considering that they often provoke locals to assault the students. The IPW calls on the National Police chief to ban all regional police from hiring thugs," Neta said.

The IPW recorded that 229 students have been arrested during fuel protests in 62 cities and regencies. Also, 118 students were injured during the protests, with some of them sustaining rubber-bullet injuries. The protests also left three journalists and nine police officers injured.

Cash aid distributed, grumpy residents still unsatisfied

Jakarta Post - June 24, 2013

Andi Hajramurni and Apriadi Gunawan, Makassar/Medan – The disbursement of the temporary direct cash assistance (BLSM) to low-income households began on Saturday, but grumpy residents have already complained that the amount would not be enough to cover their daily expenses.

The BLSM, which is set at Rp 150,000 (US$15) per month per household, is given as assistance for the subsidized-fuel price hike, which took effect on June 22. The government has planned to give out the BLSM continuously for four months.

"The food prices have gone up and will become more expensive during Ramadhan. So, the BLSM means nothing," said Nurliah, 40, a BLSM receiver in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

The mother of two said that her family relied on the money earned by her husband, who works as a bus driver. Her husband earns less than Rp 1 million per month.

Nursiah, 53, another BLSM receiver, shared similar thoughts. "Well, I am not directly affected by the fuel price hike because I don't have a car or a motorcycle. But living costs have increased a lot following the rise in food prices at the market," Nursiah said.

"The Rp 150,000 per month is certainly not enough to cover our living costs," she continued.

Mudjiono, a Semarang resident in Central Java, said that residents could not benefit much from BLSM since it was only a short-term aid. "The money would be used up in just a week to buy staple food," said Mudjiono, a becak (pedicab) driver, hoping that the government would provide long-term aid.

In Medan, North Sumatra, residents were left confused during the distribution of the BLSM on Saturday, due to unclear procedures and schedules.

Many of them complained that they had not received a schedule for the disbursement. This caused a chaotic situation as many of the residents arrived at the same time. Many others, who were not scheduled, also came to the Medan Post Office on Saturday.

"I was told to come here, but nobody told me the procedure [for obtaining the BLSM]," said Maysa, a resident.

A different view was seen in Semarang, where the residents confounded predictions of chaos in the distribution of the BLSM, forming orderly lines on Saturday at the post office to collect the cash.

Head of Johar central post office in Semarang, Tedi Permana, said 42,477 households in Semarang would receive payments on Saturday and Monday. "Each beneficiary receives a Rp 300,000 two-month compensation payment," said Tedi.

The BLSM distribution is centered in two places, designated post offices and in communities via local government officials, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In the initial stage, the July-August compensation payments are distributed in 15 cities: Ambon, Bandung, Banjarmasin, Bogor, Denpasar, Jakarta, Makassar, Malang, Medan, Palembang, Semarang, Sidoarjo, Surabaya, Surakarta and Yogyakarta.

It is expected that the BLSM will be completely distributed in 34 provinces on June 25 and in all regencies and municipalities as of July 1. Currently, the government has distributed 5 million of 15.5 million of social protection cards.

"In case a beneficiary is unable to come to receive the cash aid at the post office or other designated payment location, he or she can be represented by other family members by showing an ID, a family card and a letter of authority or a letter of domicile," said Tedi.

The distribution of the BLSM also ran smoothly in Makassar on Saturday, since the government had only disbursed the money for residents in one district, Ujung Pandang, with 485 households.

As many as 484,617 households across South Sulawesi are expected to receive the BLSM, while there are 44,217 low-income households in Makassar itself, according to the state-owned postal company PT Pos Indonesia's retail and property area head, Prihadi.

After months of delay, the government announced late on Friday the increase in the prices of subsidized fuels. Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik declared the new price of fuel at Rp 6,500 (65 US cents) per liter for subsidized Premium gasoline, up 44 percent, and Rp 5,500 per liter for diesel or a 22 percent increase. The rise in fuel prices will save the government Rp 37 trillion.

[Ainur Rohmah contributed to the story from Semarang.]

Economy & investment

Government promises to remove all unnecessary permits

Jakarta Post - June 29, 2013

Jakarta – The government has promised to remove all the permits deemed to have hampered investment activities both in the manufacturing sector and oil and gas sectors amid growing concerns from investors about the complicated licensing procedures in the country.

Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said that the government would soon introduce an economic policy package, which would simplify the licensing procedures to do business in trade, manufacturing, oil and gas exploration activities.

As part of the licensing simplification plan, his office would transfer the license granting authority from ministries or local governments to the single window integrated licensing service (PTSP).

Besides simplifying the licensing procedures, the government would also remove the regulations that have no legal basis and are not supported by a higher law. "For example, the regulations issued by the directorate general or ministries, which are not supported by higher law," Hatta said in his office on Thursday.

"I've given directives to all ministries to make a matrix of suggested regulations to be scrapped, which we will discuss in a coordination meeting next week," Hatta said.

Hatta said there were "thousands" of problematic permit regulations, either those issued by local governments or those issued by ministries. "For example, in order to open a gasoline station, you would need 17 different licenses. To conduct mining exploration, you'd need 25 licenses. In order to begin commercial production, you'd have to obtain another 25 permits," he said.

He said that his office would head a team that would be tasked to monitor and evaluate the process of licensing simplification. Another policy focus is to foster legal certainty by setting the number of days needed to acquire licenses, he added.

"When a business applies for a license, they need to be given a guarantee when that license would be granted," Hatta said, adding that the license simplification program should be immediately conducted to ensure that the current complicated licensing problem would not scare away investors.

According to him, the licensing problems have become the main concern of investors when they open their business in the country. "US-ASEAN Business Council, for example, said the business permit licensing process in Indonesia is too complicated," he added.

Members of the US-ASEAN Business Council met President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono along with Cabinet ministers during their Indonesian visit early this week. Besides licensing problems, lack of legal certainty and lack of transparency are specific areas which should be surmounted by the government in order to be able to attract more foreign investors.

"There's one that comes across in ASEAN where we want to see improvement, and it's that all ASEAN would benefit from more transparency in the development of policies and regulations, and better governance across the board would help a lot; making the countries stronger, but also more appealing to investment," Alexander C. Feldman, US-ASEAN Business Council President, said.

All in all, Hatta said, he hopes that the economic policy package would encourage investment, ease business, increase competitiveness and improve the economic outlook. The coordinating ministry is also prepping a Negative Investment List (DNI) which will be discussed at a coordination meeting next week. (asw)

Slowdown rings alarm for Indonesia policymakers

Jakarta Post - June 24, 2013

Satria Sambijantoro, Jakarta – All signs point to a less than rosy outlook for Indonesia, as weaker purchasing power is poised to drag down economic growth, which is already under pressure from moderating investments and slow budget disbursement.

The revised 2013 State Budget has targeted gross domestic product (GDP) growth to reach 6.3 percent this year, but analysts are skeptical about whether the government could achieve such an ambitious growth target.

The reason is mainly because of soaring inflation from the fuel price hikes. Higher inflation would put a strain on household consumption, which contributes almost 60 percent to GDP growth.

Bank Indonesia (BI), the central bank, has forecast that annual inflation might top as high as 7.65 percent following the fuel price hike. Last week, the government adjusted the price of Premium to Rp 6,500 (65 US cents) and diesel fuel to Rp 5,500, from their previous prices of Rp 4,500.

"The government's growth assumption in the revised 2013 State Budget is not realistic," said Enny Sri Hartati, a director with economic think-thank the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF).

"It's really difficult for the economy to grow above 6 percent after the increase in the price of subsidized fuels, as the policy will incite high inflation that can curb people's purchasing power."

New investment, another major growth driver, is predicted to moderate as a heated political climate ahead of the 2014 elections has prompted regulatory uncertainty, deterring potential investors.

In addition, existing companies would also think twice about increasing investments, as they will have to cope with persistently low commodity prices, as well as soaring input costs such as labor, electricity and fuel, analysts say.

"With an unhelpful coal price, moderately tighter monetary conditions and rising costs, our model suggests real investment growth will decelerate further in the second quarter and remain sluggish in the second half of the year," Credit Suisse economist Santitarn Sathiratai wrote in a research note, titled Indonesian Economy: the End of the Investment Boom.

"Looking ahead, we struggle to find positive catalysts that would enable a strong rebound in real investment growth in Indonesia," he added

With such conditions, the most realistic option for policymakers to spur growth might come from government spending, known to have huge multiplier effects in the economy. A growth target of 6.3 percent would be "sensible" to achieve if government spending can be pushed upwards, Finance Minister Chatib Basri said.

But, contribution from government spending is predicted to remain insignificant due to the persistently slow state budget disbursement. In the first six months this year, the realization of government spending only stood at 32.2 percent, or Rp 541 trillion, of total earmarked budget, lower than the 34.1 percent realization figure that the government posted in the same period last year.

Analysts have warned that an economic slowdown happening at a time when a country sees significant surge in debt – a situation that Indonesia is witnessing right now – would eventually weaken the country's external position.

"If growth slows below 5.5 percent, then debt-to-GDP profile, which has been a strong downtrend over the past decade, may start rising," Barclays Bank economist Prakriti Sofat wrote in a research note titled "Indonesia Outlook: Growth Hiccups".

Some observers, meanwhile, have expressed concerns regarding the sustainability of Indonesia's economy in the medium-run. In May, international ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded its outlook for Indonesia to "stable" from "positive", citing policymakers' failure to expedite reforms. And the situation might turn from bad to worse.

"While in the near term we do not expect any outlook changes from [international ratings agencies] Moody's or Fitch, we believe that over the next six to 12 months, the risk of an outlook revision to 'negative' from 'stable' will increase, on sustained loss in economic momentum and a possible reduction in global liquidity further exposing Indonesia's external vulnerabilities," Sofat said.