Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – The Papuan government has prepared Rp 380 billion ($31 million) to build houses and train and educate hundreds of members of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) who opt to reconcile with the government and put down their arms.

"The Papuan government welcomes the return of opposition groups to [become] part of our society," Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said on Saturday. "This is the result of steps which have been taken by both the district [Puncak Jaya] government and the provincial government."

Lukas said that the government has prepared the reconciliation fund for OPM members who are willing to come down from the mountain. "The funds will be disbursed through housing and training programs," he said.

He added that if other regions in Papua could influence OPM members to reconcile with the local government, the provincial administration would also disburse money to those districts.

Some former OPM members have already decided to rejoin society, the governor said, because there have been productive communication between rebels and the province's government. "They are aware that their struggle is fruitless," he said, adding that he expected all people to welcome them back as Indonesian citizens.

He said that hundreds of Goliat Tabuni's OPM faction who had climbed down the mountain would return to school, with some others returning to work as civil servants and at the Public Order Agency. "They want to be empowered members of this country," Lukas said. "They're our brothers, so we should treat them well and accept them."

Indonesian armed forces have fought a low-scale insurgency in Papua since the province was annexed into the nation in a 1969 vote widely seen as a sham by international monitors.

Indonesia: Media misrepresents human rights campaign for West Papua

Asian Human Rights Commission - December 20, 2013

[An interview with Jeremy Bally, Pedalling for Papua campaigner, published by the Asian Human Rights Commission.]

Jeremy Bally, (26), is a Canadian activist campaigning on human rights issues in West Papua. He has recently finished his Pedalling for Papua campaign in which he rode his bicycle through seven different countries in the last six months, to spread the words about the ongoing human rights abuses in West Papua. He spoke to the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on his campaign and experience of being misrepresented by the Indonesian media.

Can you tell us about the campaign? What is it actually about and where did you get the idea?

The idea came up almost four years ago now after I learned about West Papua from a friend in Canada. I just got into biking anyway and what I learned about seemed like a story that really needed to be told, seemed to be an intriguing story to tell. Last year I rolled across Canada and after that one I thought it will be worthwhile to do it again. So this past six months, almost seven months, since I left actually, I've ridden my bicycle through seven countries and covered about 12,000 kilometres, and done around 70 awareness-raising events about West Papua.

How did the people you met during the tour and the people who attended your presentations take the message you're trying to convey?

It was 99% positive. I had a few presentations in the Netherlands and New Zealand where some Indonesian students, who I think were coming with a mandate from the Embassy while they are on scholarships from the government, to come to Papuan events and speak negatively about it. But other than those, very, very few cases, people were really intrigued to learn about something they have had not known before because for the most part there were people that had never heard of West Papua. I tried to deliver the message in sort of artistic, engaging, theatrical way because I think it's just sort of more memorable for people to hear it like that. And yes, there was really, really positive reception throughout.

How did the Indonesian students take your presentation?

I'm not really sure exactly what the mandate these students had from the embassy. The presentation I did in The Hague, in the Netherlands, is a pretty good example. Basically, the guy afterwards asked a question by way of making a very long statement about how things in West Papua are fine and the claims of human rights abuses are very exaggerated, not the kind of things which you'd be very familiar with. And afterwards I was talking to some of the people who were helping me to organise the event and they said that it was pretty much word for word what other Indonesians students have said when they came out to these things. So I think the students are coming, perhaps, with like a strong belief that what they say is accurate, but they all have a really, really specific mandate from the embassy to talk about it in those kind of ways.

You recently met with the Papua political prisoners in Abepura prison. How is the condition of the political prisoners there?

The day that I saw them, they were all in very good spirits. I was really happy to meet them. So there was an air of it being good the day that I was there. But that is absolutely not the case in general for the prisoners there. A lot of these guys have been subjected to torture when they were arrested, they are isolated regularly. Sort of the bottom line is they are in prison for raising the flag, speaking at a rally, speaking up peacefully, doing things that according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which Indonesia is a signatory to is just not acceptable. Their criminal code is completely contrary to their international obligation. These prisoners are victims of this discrepancy. To say that their conditions are OK is kind of crazy. They were again in good spirits on that day but I think it's because they were receiving this message of solidarity I was bringing in, and getting a sense of the international recognition of what they are going through.

But in some media in Indonesia – the Jakarta Post, the Jakarta Globe and Okezone – wrote that you've said the political prisoners are "healthy and have no problems. I'm sure that officers in the prison have treated them well"? They also reported that you've said "it turned out that Papua is not like what I have heard". Have they misquoted you?

It was not even a misquote, it was just a lie. It was just putting words in my mouth completely. It was frustrating. It was actually infuriating to be subjected into that kind of propaganda. This campaign, so many people working hard to make it actually happens and I've been used for Indonesian propaganda so it was infuriating.

Did you complain to these media?

I complained to the Jakarta Globe and I have been cleared up. So they replaced their article with another one which is good and I'm totally happy with. As with the Jakarta Post, I came to their office and spoke with the Editor for the Archipelago division, which I guess covers Papua stuff. And told him what my issues are with the article. He basically chalked it up to mistranslation or something that has been lost in translation, which could not be possibly the case because I never said anything that even close to that. So I'm quite convinced that it's a politically motivated article. I've written a letter to the Editor and sent that to him. I also commented on the bottom part of the article on the website. I've got a member of my team who supports us internationally who also wrote to the editor. Just to make sure it's well known that it's insulting to me, to the campaign, to the cause, for the prisoners to be misrepresented and to be used for propaganda like that.

Has there been any response from the Editor of Jakarta Post at all?

No, not yet. I'm going to call him again later tonight and tomorrow to follow up if I don't hear from him. I'm going to keep on that one. But if that one does not change, I'm going to be writing an article when I get back home just to sum it up for the Canadian and international media. I'll use it as an example how the Indonesian media can be used to betray Papua in a negative or misleading light, which is how a lot of Indonesians are given the wrong impression about what is going on in Papua.

Who were the journalists present during your visit to Abepura prison? Do you remember from what newspaper or media are they?

I can't remember his name but there was one with the Associated Free Press, and their article is actually quite good. I can't remember all the names but I do have some of their business cards. But I haven't seen their contents come out yet. So whoever it was from the Jakarta Post – I don't remember anyone there from the Jakarta Post – either they got their files from someone else or they lied about where they were coming from.

What is the human rights situation like in Papua these days, in your observation?

I have met unofficially with the human rights activists in Papua as they were helping me to organise the meeting with the political prisoners. I cannot tell you who have helped me to organise it as the situation in Papua is so volatile so for people on the ground to have their names exposed. It exposes them to the risk of becoming political prisoners themselves. One of the guys I met, Victor Yeimo, who is the General Secretary of the West Papua National Committee, he was arrested this year for political reason, because he is heading this Commission which held a lot of demonstration asking for referendum for Papua. Few months ago, the report of his arrest said that he and his party were beaten with rattan canes and kicked when they were arrested and his sentence is three times longer than what was actually handed down to him. So these are just examples of what have been going on. On December 1st there was a rally in Jayapura that was apparently not approved by the military or security forces. To break it up, the security forces fired live rounds at the crowd, a lot of people were injured, and one person was reported dead. So it's kind of the same as it been, it's just not getting better. But I think the movement within Papua and outside Papua is not cooling down the Indonesian strategy about cooling this thing down is not working at all, I don't know why they are not really catching onto the fact that violence is not going to work for either side. I feel the situation is the way it has been in the last ten years and before that. They need to start looking into different solutions.

Now that you have spread the word about human rights issues in West Papua in seven countries, you also have met with the political prisoners. What is next?

I'm going back to Canada and take a rest for a while because I haven't had rest for a while. I'm quite keen to go to law school and sort of to expand my own capacity to be able to support the West Papua cause. I've been an activist for a long time but it has been in my personal capacity. I want to do it in my professional capacity in order to be able to support the cause.

What do the young people around the world like you can do to help to improve the human rights situation in Papua better?

I think it's very important for young people to do two things. One is to talk about it. I mean the goal of my campaign is to make Papua into a household topic. More specifically, I think it's very important to lobby the members of parliament, the members of local government to be able talk about it in the house of parliament, in many government houses around the world because right now West Papua is a domestic issue for Indonesia. If it remains a domestic issue, nothing is going to change as there is no incentive for Jakarta for there to be movement if it's just a domestic issue. But if it becomes an international issue then there will be more leverage that the activists can use to be able to open dialogue with Jakarta and make some demands to Jakarta, "if this doesn't change then you're going to be facing some sanction", perhaps? The capacity to be able to talk about it is so much greater if it's an international issue. So I think these two things are really essential (Photo: Jeremy with the political prisoners in Abepura prison. Courtesy of Pedalling for Papua)

[The AHRC is not responsible for the views shared in this article, which do not necessarily reflect its own.]

OPM fighters 'tired of living in the jungle' Papua district head claims

Jakarta Globe - December 19, 2013

Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – The head of Papua's Puncak Jaya district claimed on Thursday that the majority of the members of the local Free Papua Movement (OPM) faction – known as the National Liberation Army and led by Goliath Tabuni – have decided to leave the group and return to their villages.

"According to the confessions of underlings of Goliath Tabuni, they've grown very tired of living in the jungle for years," district head Henock Ibo told local journalists in the Wamena district center on Wednesday. "They've gotten very, very tired."

The OPM is an an outlawed militant separatist organization. Henock said that as many as 100 of Goliath's men had participated in a Dec. 11 Christmas celebration in Puncak Jaya, along with local officials and residents. He said his administration had invited Goliath to join in the event, which also marked the district head's one-year anniversary in office, but the separatist leader refused to show up.

Henock said that those 100 men had returned to their villages and were learning to live like the other villagers.

He said his administration would train them to become members of the local public order agency (Satpol PP) and would build 100 homes for them. "The Papua governor is also helping to build habitable houses for them," Henock said, according tolocal media site bintangpapua.com.

Ferry Marisan, director of Papua-based rights group Elsham, expressed doubts over Henock's claim.

No media reports have quoted any of the supposed former OPM member, Ferry said. "That's a one-party claim by the district head," he told the Jakarta Globe. "We cannot be sure of that yet."

With 100 member gone, Henock said, Goliath's OPM group would consists of only 15 members. "I think the [security] situation will improve now," he said

The Papua Legislative Council in Jayapura said they welcomed the news and praised officials in Puncak Jaya for their work.

"We need to appreciate the Puncak Jaya district head for continually establishing communications with [the OPM members], so that they have now chosen to return among the people," council deputy speaker Yunus Wonda said on Thursday.

He said the government needed to continue to direct attention toward the former OPM members so that they would not return to the separatist group.

Yunus urged Indonesian security personnel to make efforts to understand local culture and the character of the Papuan people in dealing with separatist movements.

"We wish for synergy to be built and, more importantly, [there should be] no suspicion of one another," Yunus said. "Don't focus on power. If there's a problem, settle it well by building communications."

The OPM, which fights for the independence of Papua and West Papua from Indonesia, is divided into factions, including one led by Goliath, which Indonesian security personnel have accused of being responsible for a string of attacks against police and soldiers over the past few years.

ICJ calls for official inquiry into Biak massacre

Radio New Zealand International - December 19, 2013

The Australian president of the International Commission of Jurists is calling for the Indonesian Government to hold an inquiry into the massacre on the West Papuan island of Biak 15 years ago.

In July 1998, Indonesian soldiers launched a dawn attack on Papuans who had staged a peaceful demonstration, calling for independence.

The University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies hosted a citizens' tribunal in July and has now released its findings, saying scores of unarmed civilians were killed, buried in mass graves, or dumped at sea.

It also found people were beaten, tortured, arbitrarily detained and sexually abused. The tribunal's presiding jurist, John Dowd, says the Indonesian Government should hold an independent judicial inquiry.

"There has clearly been a policy of cover up and cover up does not help anybody including the Indonesian military. We want them to know that this sort of conduct cannot occur in the future and that's why we want proper penalties, proper hearings, to see that justice is done."

John Dowd says the people responsible for the massacre should face criminal proceedings.

Accusations Indonesia interfered with the autopsy of Papuan rebel leader

ABC News - December 18, 2013

The family of a one-legged West Papuan rebel who died in Papua New Guinea at the weekend has accused the Indonesian consulate of interfering with his planned autopsy.

The Free Papua Movement (OPM) regional commander Danny Kogoya died on Sunday in the north-west town of Vanimo, where he has been hiding since fleeing the threat of arrest in Indonesia earlier this year. The cause of his death is not yet clear.

The OPM is a group fighting for West Papuan independence from Indonesia and Danny Kogoya was the group's commander for the Jayapura region.

Mr Kogoya was shot by Indonesian security forces during an arrest last year and later had his leg amputated while in custody. In July, Mr Kogoya spoke to the ABC after his leg had been amputated, where he vowed to return to the jungle to fight against Indonesian rule.

He told the ABC he was unarmed and surrendering when police shot him below the knee and his leg was amputated without his permission while he was jailed on manslaughter charges.

"This leg was amputated for the Free Papua Movement. I am asking for independence... I am asking for West Papua to exit the Republic of Indonesia," he said. At the time Mr Kogoya said he need further surgery to remove bullet fragments from the stump of his leg.

Questions over death

Initial reports blamed infection as the cause of death, but a doctor at Vanimo Hospital says Mr Kogoya was being treated for liver failure when he died.

A spokesman for Danny Kogoya's family, Jeffrey Bomanak, has accused the Indonesian consul-general of interfering with plans to carry out an autopsy at Vanimo Hospital. He alleges the consul-general, who is based in Vanimo, asked the hospital to not go ahead with the post mortem.

"[The] Indonesian consulate disturbed that process. I don't know what reason, [it's] not clear the reason. Because he wanted to disturb the process about operation, even to check the full report of hospital," Mr Bomanak said.

The ABC has been unable to reach the consulate or the consul-general for comment. But the emergency department registrar at Vanimo Hospital, Dr Kennan Witari, claims the Indonesian consul-general was involved.

"I'm not really sure why he's following this thing like this, to this extent. But I heard that probably the consulate wants the body for some legal reasons and the family wants the body too, so they're still going to and fro," Dr Kennan Witari said.

Family spokesman Jeffrey Bomanak says he suspects foul play and wants an autopsy to take place in the coming days.

Danny Kogoya's family then wants to take the body back to Jayapura for it to be buried in the same place as his amputated leg. "Half [his] leg is already planted [buried] there, in West Papua. So we cannot plant [bury] the body here... that is a big wrong," Mr Bomanak said.

Further discussions between Mr Kogoya's family, the Indonesian consulate and the hospital about a post mortem are expected. Preparations for a funeral or burial have not yet been confirmed.

Decades-old fight

Since the 1960s, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement has conducted a low-level insurgency within Indonesia.

Allegations of atrocities committed by Indonesian forces within Papua and West Papua province are difficult to confirm because the international media is kept out.

It is also hard to get a real sense of the strength of the West Papuan militants. Mr Kogoya told the ABC in July he commanded a standby army of 7,000 men, with around 200 active fighters, but those figures cannot be verified.

Eastern Indonesia expected to yield more gas, oil

Jakarta Post - December 18, 2013

Raras Cahyafitri, Sorong, West Papua – Resource-rich areas in eastern Indonesia, particularly Maluku and Papua, are expected to produce more oil and gas and contribute to the national output next year despite some hurdles including hard terrain and lack of infrastructure.

Both Maluku and Papua are expected to record 2,323 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) this year, or equal to 26.2 percent of the country's national production. Meanwhile, oil production is expected to reach 16,408 barrels of oil per day (bopd), or about 1.9 percent of national production.

"The volume of production must increase next year," the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force's (SKKMigas) chief for representative office for Papua and Maluku areas Enrico Ngantung said on Tuesday without providing details.

Currently, there are 46 contracts and joint operations in the area. The biggest contributors to oil and gas production in Papua and Maluku are Tangguh field operated by BP Indonesia, the Kepala Burung field by Petrochina International (Bermuda), joint operation body of Pertamina and Petrochina at Salawati field, Klamono of Pertamina EP Field Papua, Kalrez and Citic Seram.

"There are many explorations in the eastern part of the country. Some contractors have not been able to discover oil and gas sources. However, we are thankful that KKKS [the oil and gas cooperation contracts] Genting Oil was successfully found abundant gas reserves and Petrochina also found prospective hydrocarbon," Enrico said.

The eastern part of the country is seen as a challenging area for oil and gas operations. Several giant companies, for example the US-based Exxon Mobil and Norway's Statoil, decided earlier this year to return their blocks to the government after years of unprofitable exploration.

There are some successful players, such as the Abadi field in the Masela Block operated by Japan's Inpex, which is estimated to have 18.47 trillion cubic feet of proved and probable gas reserves.

SKKMigas Jakarta office deputy for business support Sampe L Purba said several issues made oil and gas business in the area challenging. They include the topography of the areas, lack of geological information, poor infrastructure and the additional task of disbursing information to local communities about oil and gas exploration and exploitation.

"Special policies or incentives are necessary. Fiscal incentives can vary from more attractive profit sharing to tax cuts or easier permit issuance. Also, to support big investment, we also need stability and law enforcement," he said.

Stefanus Malak, the regent of Sorong, one of the significant oil and gas producing areas in West Papua, said that his administration has been trying to accelerate permit issuances for investors interested in putting money into his regency.

The central government is also encouraging a faster process for issuing permits to lure investors. "One week is the longest period for issuing permits at this point," he said.

Sorong is currently one of the oil and gas producing areas in West Papua, along with Raja Ampat and Teluk Bintuni.

Sorong regency currently hosts six producing contracts, which are owned by JOB Pertamina and Petrochina on Salawati, Petrochina International Bermuda, Pertamina Area Papua, Pertamina EP TAC IBN Holdico, Pertamina EP TAC Intermega Sabaku and Pertamina TAC Intermega Salawati.

The regency is estimating to see oil production of 3.1 million barrels and gas production of 4,158 million British thermal units (mmbtu) this year.

One-legged military commander Danny Kogoya dies in PNG

ABC News - December 18, 2013

Liam Cochrane – Free Papua Movement (OPM) military commander Danny Kogoya has died in Papua New Guinea, his family says.

Mr Kogoya was shot by Indonesian security forces during an arrest last year and later had his leg amputated while in custody. He was released, but then threatened with re-arrest and had been hiding in north-west PNG.

A family spokesman says he died on Sunday and the cause is not yet known, and a family friend said his mother and sister have travelled to the town of Vanimo.

They want to bury his body at the same place his amputated leg is buried, within Indonesian-controlled Papua province.

The OPM is a group fighting for West Papuan independence from Indonesia. In July Mr Kogoya spoke to the ABC after his leg had been amputated, where he vowed to return to the jungle to fight against Indonesian rule.

He told the ABC he was unarmed and surrendering when police shot him below the knee last year, and his leg was amputated without his permission while he was jailed on manslaughter charges.

"This leg was amputated for the Free Papua Movement. I am asking for independence... I am asking for West Papua to exit the Republic of Indonesia," he said.

Since the 1960s, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement has conducted a low-level insurgency within Indonesia. Allegations of atrocities committed by Indonesian forces within Papua and West Papua province are difficult to check because the international media is kept out.

Cyclist says misrepresented by Indonesian media on West Papua

Radio New Zealand International - December 18, 2013

A Canadian man who cycled around the world to raise awareness of human rights abuses in West Papua says Indonesian media outlets have insulted him by distorting comments he made about prisoners' conditions.

Jeremy Bally completed his 12,000 kilometre cycling trip this month and is soon to fly out of Jakarta to return home.

Mr Bally says The Jakarta Globe and the Jakarta Post both misquoted him about his recent visit to West Papua to meet political prisioners. He says the news articles reported him as saying the prisoners were treated well and had no problems.

"It's extremely insulting to me to be characterised in that way and to the efforts of the prisoners, first of all, and to everyone who helped organise this action to have it just so blatantly distorted in the media. So I am going to make a callout to my network today to write letters to the editor to the Jakarta Post to make sure that it is well known that this is unacceptable."

Jeremy Bally says the Jakarta Globe has now removed the inaccurate comments.

Mr Bally says West Papuan political prisoners are regularly subject to torture, poor living conditions and poor medical care.

Papua Pedaler: Canadian delivers messages to political prisoners

Jakarta Globe - December 17, 2013

Nivell Rayda – Jeremy Bally was pedaling his bike across Vancouver, British Columbia, when he was struck with an awe-inspiring idea: he would cycle the globe – 12,000 kilometers in all – to raise awareness about the situation in Papua, Indonesia.

The campaign was the perfect combination of two interests, bike riding and political activism, he said. "So I thought why not combine the two together," Bally said in interview with the Jakarta Globe during his short stop to Jakarta.

The 26-year-old sketched out a route and a goal: ride his bike across seven countries, making stops to speak about the situation in Papua and collect postcards and video recordings expressing support for the restive province's political prisoners. If Bally was successful, Papua would be one step closer to becoming a household name, he explained.

The journey began in 2012 as Bally cycled across Canada, traveling to dozens of cities and town on an awareness-building roadshow. Bally's presentation touched on several issues facing the resource-rich province, including human rights violations, environmental destruction and political pressures in a place where a low-level insurgency for independence has simmered for decades.

"I try to attach a lot of different themes to this whole campaign like ukulele, bicycling, environment," he said. "That way there's a lot of different angles that people can pick up from."

But holding talks in Canada wasn't enough for Bally. He continued on to the United States, pedaling from city to city as the tour entered its second country. Six months later, Bally had cycled his way to a country half-way around the globe, hopping from the United Kingdom to Europe to New Zealand before landing in Australia.

There was much work to be done, Bally explained. While Papua has become something of a cause celebre in certain activist circles, the province has yet to grab global attention.

"I'm surprised how little people know about Papua, even in Australia which has close proximity and so much more politically relevant," Bally said. "That's where the bicycle part came in, it draws people's attention and curiosity to what I'm campaigning about."

The 26-year-old became interested in Papua during his time as a human rights campaigner with a youth organization. Bally met with several Papuan refugees in Canada and was put in touch with several other Papuans in exile via Skype.

"And I discovered that Papua is shockingly beautiful and it is the gem of biodiversity," he said. "I became obsessed about Papua and the stories about Papua."

Bally's route included detours for Papuan communities abroad. He stopped in each location, listening to stories of violence and oppression they faced back home in Indonesia. Some told Bally how their family members were killed by the Indonesian military, which still maintains a huge presence in Papua despite Jakarta's promise for greater autonomy and political freedom.

These stories were recorded and layered under an animated video that is project at each stop of the roadshow. In each city, the words of Papuan refugees played to a crowd as Bally strummed his ukelele and performed shadow puppetry and spoken word poetry.

"It turned more into a performance," he said. "That's what I wanted to do. I wanted it to be engaging so that people are curious about this place called Papua."

Curiosity, he hoped, would eventually lead people to be engaged, educated and inspired to participate in building a peaceful future for Papua. And there's a huge sense of curiosity from the people who attended Bally's presentation even when seeing him riding on his bicycle covering huge distances and obstacles.

The general reaction was shock, he said, knowing that Papua have vast mineral wealth and yet access to health care and education is scarce. They were also concerns about the world second largest rainforest and Papua's bio-diverse marine ecosystem which are slowly being lost to logging, mining, fishing and environmental pollution.

Bally said what he hoped for is dialog adding that he believed that international attention and pressure is key to resolving the decades old conflict plaguing this region.

On Monday, Bally landed in Jayapura and mounted his bicycle to hand-deliver 40 postcards written to Papuan political prisoners at the Abepura Prison. The postcards, collected from those he met along the way, expressed support and solidarity with the prisoners – many who were arrested for their participation in peaceful protests on charges of treason. There are currently 67 political prisoners in Papua, according to the website Papuans Behind Bars.

"Also a lot of the people who I met wanted to make video greetings to the prisoners and so I have them recorded on my iPhone," he said. I think that would give a huge moral boost to [the prisoners]."

As for the cycling part, it proves to be one of the hardest part of his campaign. "There were days where I was just blown away by the beauty of where I'm going through. It is an amazing way to travel," he said. "But there are other days where my butt just hurts."

West Papuan 'massacre': investigating lawyers ask what Australia knew

The Guardian (Australia) - December 17, 2013

Marni Cordell – Two high-profile lawyers involved in a "citizens' tribunal" that found Indonesian security forces tortured and killed unarmed civilians in West Papua 15 years ago have questioned what the Australian government knew about the incident.

Scores of people on the West Papuan island of Biak were killed, mutilated and tortured by Indonesian security personnel on 6 July, 1998, the Biak Massacre Citizens Tribunal found this week.

The former NSW director of public prosecutions Nick Cowdery, who acted as counsel assisting to the Sydney tribunal, said it was difficult to believe that news of a well-planned attack had not reached Australia via defence intelligence in the days beforehand.

The tribunal found the Indonesian military had co-ordinated with the police, navy, and local and regional officials to plan a violent rampage against demonstrators for West Papuan independence.

"This was not something that suddenly happened on one day, it was something that built over a period of days," Cowdery said at the launch of the tribunal's findings on Monday night. "It's impossible to think that the [planning of the attack] was not more widely known at that time."

The Australian president of the International Commission of Jurists, John Dowd, who was presiding jurist at the tribunal, said it was clear from a previous investigation into the deaths of five journalists at Balibo in East Timor in 1975 that Australian intelligence had long monitored communications of the Indonesian military. In his role at the ICJ, Dowd was part of the investigation that led to an Australian coronial inquest into the deaths of the Balibo five.

"We know from our investigation into the Balibo deaths that the Australian Signals Directorate were listening in," he said.

Dowd said evidence heard at the tribunal from victims of mutilation was some of the most horrific testimony he had encountered in his career.

Cowdery said: "People were murdered in cold blood, scores of them, if not hundreds. [The victims] have been living with it for 15 years. Their families have been torn apart, their society has been torn apart."

The tribunal is demanding that Indonesia undertakes an independent investigation and prosecute those responsible. Dowd said the findings would be formally presented to the Indonesian ambassador to Australia and to the Abbott government.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to say whether the Australian government had known the Indonesian military was planning an attack.

"When the Australian government became aware of the reports of violence in Biak on 6 July, 1998, we raised our concerns directly with the Indonesian government. This included high-level representations by then foreign minister Downer during his visit to Jakarta on 8-10 July 1998, with then Indonesian foreign minister [Mr Alatas] and then commander of the Indonesian armed forces [General Wiranto]," the spokesperson said.

Canadian activist visits Papuan political prisoners

Jakarta Post - December 16, 2013

Jeremy Bally, 26, an environmental activist from Canada, visited Abepura Penitentiary in Jayapura, on Monday, to meet Papuan political prisoners and detainees.

Bally's visit was aimed at distributing 40 postcards from activists in seven countries to show their support of their struggle.

Among those he met were Dominikus Serabut, Forkorus Yoboisembut, Philep Karma, Selpius Bobii and Viktor Yeimo. "They are healthy and have no problems. I'm sure that officers in the prison have treated them well," Bally told journalists in Jayapura after the visit.

Bally said he collected the postcards from Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK, and the US – and his home country, Canada.

Bally said shortly after he arrived in Papua that the situation was different to what many people had expected: An unsafe and terrifying place.

"I'm glad that I can convey the postcards. Papua's condition is in fact different to what I've heard," said Bally, who returns to Canada on Tuesday. (ebf)

Citizen's tribunal calls for Indonesia to investigate Biak slaughter

ABC News - December 16, 2013

Matt Peacock – Indonesia is facing calls to investigate the killing, raping, and torture of more than 150 civilians on the West Papuan island of Biak 15 years ago.

A Sydney University citizen's tribunal presided over by former NSW attorney-general John Dowd, now the president of the International Commission of Jurists, today found that "large numbers" of West Papuans had been tortured and mutilated. The tribunal urged Indonesia to bring those responsible for the "crimes against humanity" to justice.

It is estimated more than 150 people were killed and their bodies dumped at sea after a West Papuan protest which raised the banned West Papuan Morning Star in Biak in June, 1998.

Indonesia has never admitted the massacre, claiming only one person was killed, and blaming the bodies washed ashore on a subsequent tsunami. The action was strongly supported by the then-head of Indonesia's military, General Wiranto.

'I saw many killed by the military' says young refugee

Yudha Korwa, who was 17 at the time of the massacre, was at the protest with a friend. He has since been granted political asylum after escaping to Australia on a wooden boat six years ago.

"I saw so many people getting killed by the military. I saw little boy killed, old people, pregnant women and the little girl," he said. "One of the army hit me with a gun and my face filled with blood and I was really sacred so I pretend to die. [I heard] people yelling 'Help me, help me'."

His skull cracked and stabbed, Mr Korwa was one of the few to escape. He limped away and hid for two days in a road culvert.

UNSW anthropologist Dr Eben Kirksey was a young American undergraduate then passing through Biak.

"As everyone was singing the troops started shooting into the crowds and in those initial moments people were mowed down, started falling – others started running," he said.

"The people who survived were herded onto the harbour and as they were put on ships they could see the dead and dying from initial assault were being loaded onto trucks."

Woman raped, mutilated after seeing friend beheaded

Earlier this year at the University of Sydney, a citizen's tribunal took evidence of what happened at Biak 15 years ago. Testifying for the first time, Tineke Rumakabu said she saw her friend beheaded. She herself was tortured horribly.

Former NSW crown prosecutor Nicholas Cowdery was Counsel Assisting at the tribunal. "She was burnt, she was mutilated – genitally mutilated – raped, treated in the most brutal and degrading fashion by Indonesian police," he said of Ms Rumakabu.

"The specific mutilations of the females was a specific terror policy. It's hard to believe human beings can behave like these soldiers."

Tribunal calls for action and says Australia should demand answers

A few months later Indonesia launched a military crackdown in East Timor – one that ultimately failed, despite similar proven atrocities against unarmed civilians.

But while world attention focused on East Timor, the Biak attack was never investigated. The tribunal has now called on Indonesia to do just that.

"We want those that are responsible to be brought to justice," Mr Dowd said. "We want an investigation, we want criminal prosecutions, and we want people to pay a penalty for what they did to these wonderful people.

"There are investigations that can be conducted by an independent judicial body in Indonesia. There is the opportunity for a special prosecutor to conduct investigations in Indonesia, there is the opportunity for Indonesians to provide compensation to people."

Indonesia has refused to comment on the citizen's tribunal, which has also called on Australia take action. "The Australian Government has a duty to the people who died and their families to expose what happened to stop it happening again," Mr Dowd said.

Aceh

Aceh ulema ban Christmas wish, again

Jakarta Post - December 20, 2013

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Banda Aceh Ulema Consultative Assembly (MPU) has once again prohibited Muslims in the city from extending Christmas wishes and celebrating New Year's Eve.

The ban, written in an edict, or fatwa, was conveyed by the MPU as it deemed wishing those celebrating Christmas and celebrating New Year's Eve to be against Islamic teachings.

"This is not a question of tolerance, it concerns the Islamic religion, which forbids followers from celebrating Christmas," said Banda Aceh MPU head A. Karim Syeikh.

The fatwa prohibiting Muslims from wishing Christians a "merry Christmas" was issued because Christmas is regarded a Christian ritual. If Muslims wish Christians "merry Christmas", then they are also celebrating it.

"Engaging in Christmas events and rituals, which do not comply with Islamic culture is forbidden, including wishing 'merry Christmas' to Christians," said Karim.

Banda Aceh is one of the largest cities in Aceh, the only province to implement sharia in Indonesia. As the biggest city in Aceh, Banda Aceh is also home to non-Muslims, which make up 0.1 percent of its population.

Banda Aceh is home to four churches, three Buddhist temples and one Hindu temple. The pluralistic population enlivens the city's atmosphere during New Year's Eve with firework displays in virtually every corner of the city.

"This is why we have issued a fatwa prohibiting residents in Banda Aceh from celebrating New Year's Eve because it is a celebration that is not suitable to Islam," said Karim.

To keep residents in Banda Aceh from celebrating New Year's Eve, the MPU will work with the Banda Aceh administration to conduct campaigns and post sharia police members at various locations at the turn of the year.

"We have coordinated with the municipality to place personnel at the city center and public places to prevent people from celebrating the occasion," said Karim.

Banda Aceh resident Munawardi Ismail said he had no reservations in wishing "merry Christmas" to his Christian friends.

"If we wish 'merry Christmas' in the context of social relation, then actually there's no problem. Humans are social beings and mingle with each other. By wishing 'merry Christmas', we maintain our social ties with other communities," said Munawardi.

Regarding the fatwa issued by the MPU, Munawardi perceived the clerics' decision to be informed by their own perspectives of the religious teachings. He added they might have a different perspective from the public in general.

Since the implementation of sharia, the MPU has repeatedly banned New Year's Eve celebrations in any form including fireworks, open-air concerts or trumpet blowing. Many residents, however, do not take the ban seriously, saying that blowing trumpets was not against Islamic law.

New Year's no more: Banda Aceh Muslims asked to abstain from holiday

Jakarta Globe - December 17, 2013

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Muslim residents of the capital of Aceh province may have to roll back their New Year's festivities this year.

"Christmas greetings by Muslim are clearly haram, because they're a kind of acknowledgment," Abdul Karim Syeikh – head of Banda Aceh's Ulama Consultative Council (MPU), an official body that advises the local government on Islamic affairs – told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.

The council issued a fatwa on Nov. 12 banning both Christmas and New Year's greetings and celebrations for Muslims in the provincial capital. The council's rulings are not legally binding but they do hold a strong sway in the conservative province – the only in Indonesia to enforce Shariah law.

The edict, like those issued by other Islamic authorities in Indonesia, is not legally biding and acts to serve as a suggestion for Indonesian Muslims.

Nationwide, the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) issued a fatwa against Christmas celebrations in 1981. The issue has attracted controversy in pluralistic Indonesia, where select religious holidays from all six recognized religions are public holidays.

In Banda Aceh, New Year's is typically a time of celebration. Residents take to the streets, blowing trumpets and setting off fireworks before the start of the next year.

But this year, the streets may look different. The MPU has called for the government to shut down public New Year's parties, including those held in cafes, hotels and entertainment venues.

"[Christian] New Year celebrations are not in Islamic teachings, as we have our own new year to celebrate: Hijriyah new year, which is celebrated on the first day of Muharram," Karim said.

The Christian world began recognizing January 1 as the first day of the year several centuries ago, but it has since become a worldwide day of secular festivities.

Karim said non-Muslims could celebrate Christmas and New Year, but that they should do so in a way that maintained good relations with the Muslim residents of Banda Aceh.

"This is matter of Islamic teaching, not about tolerance," he told the Jakarta Globe. "We say, 'oakum dinukum waliyadin' [for you, your religion; for me, my religion]." He said Muslims and non-Muslims get along well in the semi-autonomous province.

Former GAM chief inaugurated as Aceh's 'supreme leader'

Jakarta Globe - December 17, 2013

Nurdin Hasan & SP/Muhammad Hamzah, Banda Aceh – Aceh installed on Monday a former separatist leader as the autonomous province's Wali Nanggroe – a "guardian of the state" who will oversee a bureaucracy tasked with safeguarding Acehnese culture and values.

Malik Mahmud Al-Haythar, 72, a former prime minister of the now-disbanded Free Aceh Movement (GAM), a separatist group, was installed in a lavish inauguration ceremony in Banda Aceh that cost the province Rp 2.5 billion ($208,000).

He was sworn in at a plenary session of the provincial legislature, or DPRA, as more than 1,000 guests, mostly local officials, looked on.

Indonesia's state administrative minister, the Aceh Police chief and the provincial military commander were in attendance, according to local media reports.

"This is a very touching, heroic moment because today we're installing the Wali Nanggroe to keep us connected with our past traditions and at the same time develop Acehnese culture and values to be in line with the universal context," legislative speaker Hasbi Abdullah said in a speech at the ceremony.

In his inaugural speech, Singapore-born Malik cited the challenges he saw for the province, including economic and social disparities among the people and the threat of globalization to local culture.

He also said he would work to improve education in the province. "We need a revolution in education, in line with the ongoing transformation of knowledge in Aceh," he said.

"We want education to not only produce civil servants... but also to support a culture of innovation and creativity in the management of human resources, to allow Acehnese children to develop the capacity to compete and create jobs, as well as to develop Acehnese culture and make it part of the world's culture."

The appointment of the Wali Nanggroe was set in motion last year under the terms of a bylaw that defined the Wali as a "cultural leader who will unite the people; independent and dignified, with an authority to educate and oversee the work of cultural institutions, the use of [traditional] languages and the organization of traditional ceremonies."

The bylaw, the legislature has argued, was a mandate of the Helsinki Agreement, signed by the GAM and the Indonesian government in 2005 to end decades of bloody insurgency in Indonesia's westernmost province, where a local version of Islamic shariah law is now enforced. Malik was reportedly one of the GAM's main negotiators in Helsinki.

The central government rejected an earlier version of the bylaw that would have granted the Wali Nanggroe supreme authority in the province, including the ability to overrule the provincial legislature and the president of Indonesia.

Only after the revisions were completed could the inauguration ceremony, originally scheduled for September, take place.

Malik was unofficially named the ninth Wali Nanggroe by former GAM members, replacing former leader Hasan Tiro, who died in 2010, according to the BBC. The office of the Wali Nanggroe is a tradition that dates back to the Dutch colonial era.

Thousands of residents who were not admitted to the ceremony gathered outside the DPRA offices.

Effendi, 24, said he was disappointed that he and 40 other people from his village in the Aceh district of Pidie were not allowed in. Nevertheless, he said he had high hopes for the new leader.

"I do hope that peace in Aceh will last eternally," Effendi said. "Hopefully with a Wali Nanggroe, prosperity will be enjoyed by people throughout Aceh."

Not all Acehnese were happy with Malik, however. Protests were held in a number of regions, and critics have expressed disappointment at the Aceh Party, the ruling party in the province made up mostly of former GAM members, for selecting the Wali from among their own.

The Home Affairs Ministry did not respond to requests for comment on its stance on the appointment.

Inauguration crowd besieges Aceh TNI compound after flag seizures

Jakarta Globe - December 16, 2013

An ongoing dispute over Aceh's star and crescent flag came to a head on Monday as thousands of local residents surrounded an Indonesian Military (TNI) compound after soldiers confiscated dozens of the flags during an inaugural celebration for the autonomous region's newly elected Wali Nanggroe, or guardian of the state.

The crowd was traveling in convoy from the offices of the Aceh Legislative Council (DPRA) to the Aceh Raya Mosque in Banda Aceh when the seizures occurred, upon which the festivities ceased and the crowd changed course for the Kodim 0101 compound in Aceh Besar, the region just outside the provincial capital, Indonesian news portal liputan6.com reported.

The Aceh provincial legislature on March 25 adopted a regulation that made the banner of the disbanded separatist Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM), or the Free Aceh Movement, the province's official flag, putting Partai Aceh – the political party set up by the former rebels which now dominates the political landscape in Aceh – at direct odds with the central government and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration.

Malik Mahmud Al-Haytar, the Wali Nanggroe as of today, will oversee a new bureaucracy set up to safeguard Acehnese culture and values, although some critics have said his authority in the province will approach that of a monarch.

Outside the military compound, the crowd threw stones and briefly held a passing police officer captive, undeterred by warning shots. The soldiers decided to return the flags, but some members of the crowd remained. At the time of writing, the siege continues.

Additional security personnel, both military and police, have been dispatched to the location to keep the peace. At minimum, a streetlight and a glass ATM box in the compound have been damaged.

The DPRA, many of which are former GAM rebels, has held firm on its decision to make the star and crescent banner Aceh's official flag, but the central government has insisted that the flag violates a law banning separatist symbols.

"This dispute is about much more than whether the flag constitutes a separatist symbol. It is about where Aceh is headed and what its relations with Jakarta will be," Sidney Jones, an International Crisis Group senior Asia advisor, said in a statement in May. "It is also about what the implications are for other areas, such as Papua, where rising a pro- independence flag has been the iconic act of political resistance."

The installment of the Wali Nanggroe itself is a subject of controversy because he is expected to act as a supreme leader of sorts, whose authority in the region may surpass that of the governor of Aceh and may equal that of the Indonesian president. Malik, the Wali Nanggroe, is reportedly a former leader of GAM.

Women's rights

Sisterhood needed to implement 'gender quota' in DPR

Jakarta Post - December 21, 2013

Arya Dipa, Bandung – A member of the Consortium for Women in West Java, Fridolin Berek, said female legislative candidates needed to create a joint working network, saying that unity among women would be effective in realizing a gender quota in the House of Representatives (DPR).

"The 'sisterhood' does not aim to remove the roles of political parties but is needed to strengthen ties among women who work across parties and organizations to fight for a shared mission: realizing a gender quota in the legislature," said Fridolin in a discussion in Bandung on Saturday.

The network, she said, could be used to share funding responsibilities and strategies in their efforts to achieve the 30 percent gender quota in the House.

"The funds jointly collected could be used to hold public discussions. These methods could be effective to implement the 30 percent gender quota not only for candidate lists but also legislative seats," said Fridolin, who explained the idea in front of legislative candidates.

Women currently hold an average of 25 percent of total 100 seats in the West Java Legislative Council.

Fridolin said the General Elections Commission had issued a regulation requiring each political party to uphold the 30 percent gender quota in their legislative candidate lists.

"The regulation has been fulfilled, but the most important thing is how we can ensure the percentage that has exceeded 30 percent can be maintained until after the election," she said. (ebf)

Labour & migrant workers

Outsourced state workers to take to the streets

Jakarta Post - December 16, 2013

Jakarta – At least 5,000 outsourced workers from various state-owned companies (BUMN) plan to stage a rally in Jakarta on Monday to demand that their companies promote them to permanent staff.

The workers are on contract at state-owned enterprises in Greater Jakarta, West Java, Central Java and Lampung, said Alliance of State Companies Workers (Geber BUMN) coordinator Ais on Saturday.

"We expect 5,000 to 10,000 people to take part in the rally," he said at a press conference at the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta).

Ais said the workers were employed by different state companies, in particular "strategic ones that need attention like [electricity company] PT PLN, [oil and gas company] PT Pertamina, [telecommunication operator] PT Telkom and flag carrier Garuda Airlines".

Protesters will start rallying in front of the House of Representatives (DPR) building on Jl. Gatot Subroto, Central Jakarta, and march to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle and then to the Presidential Palace.

The workers will demand that state companies promote them to permanent workers following a recommendation by legislators in October. Earlier, House Commission IX on manpower issued a recommendation that outsourcing be eliminated at all state-owned companies.

"It's been 10 months since the House formed a working committee to eliminate outsourcing, but there has been no clear action regarding our status," said Ais. He said that workers demanded that the government form a task force to make sure the companies followed through on the House recommendation.

"[State Enterprises Minister] Dahlan Iskan lied publicly when he told the media that the companies had promoted tens of thousands of outsourced workers to permanent staff. The truth is that none of our friends have been hired permanently," said Ais, adding that some outsourced workers were given multi-year contracts instead.

The workers will also demand that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono remove Dahlan from his post for lying. In November, Dahlan told reporter that several state companies, such as Pertamina, PLN and Telkom, had made 37,000 outsourced workers permanent staff and that more would follow.

Besides Monday's rally, a strike is planned for Dec. 31 if the demand remains unfulfilled, said Ais. "Outsourced workers will stop working on the day," he said. (nai)

Political parties & elections

Calls mount for Mega to curb her ambitions

Jakarta Post - December 20, 2013

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – Amid reports that Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri has begun resisting attempts to nominate Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo for the 2014 presidential election, calls have mounted for her to rein in her ambitions.

On Thursday, Megawati's younger brother Guruh Soekarnoputra called on the PDI-P chair to drop her putative plan to run again, saying that it could backfire.

"Her moment has passed. The time is not right for her anymore," Guruh told reporters on the sidelines of a House of Representatives plenary meeting on Thursday as quoted by kontan.com.

In spite of Jokowi's popularity, Megawati is said to be weighing the option of running in the 2014 presidential poll with the popular Jakarta governor as her running mate.

PDI-P deputy secretary-general Hasto Kristianto said that an internal survey of party members revealed that the possible ticket had received a warm welcome.

Media reports have suggested that Megawati has issued an order telling party members not to talk about the presidential ticket as she will be the one making the decision. A PDI-P national convention granted Megawati the prerogative of naming the party's presidential candidate for the 2014 elections.

Analysts have warned the PDI-P that failure to nominate Jokowi will deal a severe blow to the party. Executive director of the Poll Tracking Institute, Hanta Yuda, said on Thursday that if the PDI-P failed to nominate Jokowi, it would disappoint its supporters who might then leave the party in droves. "Jokowi is a magnet," Hanta said.

Hanta said that the PDI-P leadership well understood the positive effect that Jokowi could have on the party and as long as Jokowi was associated with the PDI-P, the party would benefit. "It's possible the public might be satisfied with Jokowi being vice president, but most likely they wouldn't be," Hanta said.

The latest public opinion poll conducted by Poll Tracking revealed that the PDI-P would come out on top in the 2014 legislative election by garnering 18.5 percent of the vote. Golkar comes in second place with 16.9 percent of the vote.

In its most recent poll, the Jakarta-based think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) showed that if a presidential election took place today, the PDI-P would get 29.9 percent of the vote if the party nominated Jokowi for the 2014 presidential election.

Meanwhile, PDI-P politicians brushed off reports that Megawati had made attempts to silence opposition to her ongoing presidential ambitions.

Lawmaker Rieke Diah Pitaloka said that Megawati's instruction to party members to not be preoccupied with finding a presidential candidate, was her attempt to implement the party mandate. "This was the mandate from the convention that we all should focus on the legislative election, because our target is quite high," she said.

Rieke said that only by achieving at least 27 percent of the popular vote, could the PDI-P nominate its own presidential ticket. "We don't want to be taken hostage by other political parties when it comes to fulfilling people's basic rights," Rieke said.

Hanta predicted that to achieve the legislative target, the PDI-P would likely announce its presidential candidate prior to the legislative election. "Until then, the PDI-P will try to keep the positive sentiment going," he added. (asw)

Golkar braces for poll fallout over Banten scandal

Jakarta Globe - December 19, 2013

Carlos Paath & Rizky Amelia – The naming of Ratu Atut Chosiyah, the governor of Banten and a Golkar Party stalwart, as a suspect in at least two corruption cases could change the political map of the province, long under the control of the country's grand old party.

Karyono WIbowo, an analyst with the Indonesian Public Institute, a think tank, said on Jakarta on Wednesday that with Ratu Atut now charged, it was just a matter of time before the dynasty that she had built up across Banten would start crumbling, leading to the dawn of "a new political constellation."

"The allegations of bribery involving Ratu Atut could impact the Golkar Party's image," he said, adding that other parties would be poised to take advantage of the power shift, especially with the legislative elections beckoning next April.

Siti Zuhro, a political analyst with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), agreed that the case would weaken Golkar's standing in the polls next year. "With another member of the party being named a suspect, the public's trust in Golkar will be affected," she said.

"It's this level of trust that will determine the legitimacy and therefore the electability of the party, so like it or not, Golkar will have to deal with the consequences of this case in the 2014 legislative election." Siti suggested that the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the country's main opposition party, stood to gain the most from the anticipated decline in Golkar's poll numbers.

Rano Karno, the Banten deputy governor who is poised to take over the province's top seat once Ratu Atut stands trial, is a PDI-P member. The PDI-P also has in its advantage the fact that Rano and Ratu Atut failed to see eye-to-eye on a host of issues, with Rano even considering quitting at one point shortly before the corruption scandal broke.

Recent surveys indicate the two parties are the most popular among voters, with Golkar carrying a slight edge over the PDI-P. Both have benefited as a result of the litany of graft cases that have hammered the ruling Democratic Party, by far the most popular in the 2009 elections, and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), currently the biggest Islamic-based party in the country.

A survey in May by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) showed that Golkar would win the most votes, 13.2 percent, if the election were held at that time, with the PDI-P a close second with 12.7 percent.

Siti said the PDI-P could easily overtake Golkar as the Ratu Atut investigation played out in the run-up to the election. "Golkar's image hasn't been too positive because of the corruption issue," she said.

"During the upcoming campaign period, other parties can take advantage [of the situation] to win more votes in the legislative election. Parties that are not mired in corruption cases can start promoting themselves to the detriment of those that are currently implicated in graft issues."

Priyo Budi Santoso, a senior Golkar politician and a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, said separately that Ratu Atut's case might have negative repercussions on the party, but stressed that the alleged transgressions of an individual party member should not reflect on Golkar as a whole.

"This is a big blow to us, to be sure, but we should not lose heart," he said. "We are sure the KPK" – the Corruption Eradication Commission – "will act professionally and according to the law in its investigation."

Others within the party have also sought to distance Golkar from Ratu Atut's actions. Ace Hasan, the secretary general of Golkar's central executive board, said the party's Banten chapter had never really been heavily dependent on the governor, whose late husband was the chapter leader and a Golkar House legislator.

"As a party that implements a well-structured membership system, Golkar doesn't solely depend on one figure. There are other members of the party with much potential and roots," he said, citing other leading party members in the province such as Tangerang district chief Zaki Iskandar and Cilegon Mayor Tubagus Iman Aryadi.

"There are also party members in the local legislatures who are working intensively with the community, and of course the party's structure remains solid in facing the 2014 general election."

Several Golkar officials have called for the government to immediately dismiss Ratu Atut, the country's only female governor, from her seat. The Home Affairs Ministry's policy in such cases is not to act until the individual has been indicted, in which case they are suspended. An elected official may only be formally dismissed once convicted.

"The president and the Home Affairs Ministry should go ahead" and remove Ratu Atut from office, Priyo said. "As for Golkar, the party will soon be taking strict action about this, just you wait and see."

He declined to say what the party would do about the suspect's position in Golkar, where she serves as a deputy treasurer – a position typically reserved for those able to raise funds for their parties.

Akbar Tanjung, Golkar's chief patron and arguably its most influential and respected official, said in Surabaya that he had called on chairman Aburizal Bakrie to "take a stance" by immediately dismissing Ratu Atut from the party, to minimize the fallout to Golkar from her case.

Akbar, a former Golkar chairman, also denied speculation that some of the trillions of rupiah that the governor and her family are accused of having embezzled over the years made its way into the party's coffers.

Alternative candidates proposed for 2014 race

Jakarta Post - December 19, 2013

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The so-called "People's Convention" initiated by some of the country's top activists and religious figures has named seven presidential candidates, spanning from a prominent former minister to an obscure academic.

Salahuddin "Gus Solah" Wahid, head of the convention's committee, said the seven people had gone through a tight selection processes, with criteria such as leadership skill and experience, integrity, commitment and the promotion of human rights.

"The next stage is open debates and then they will be surveyed through a public poll organized by a reputable pollster, expectably around February [next year]," Gus Solah told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The seven presidential hopefuls are former Justice and Human Rights Minister and Crescent Star Party (PBB) chief adviser Yusril Ihza Mahendra; outspoken government critic and former finance minister Rizal Ramli; Netherlands-based Islamic law professor Sofjan Siregar; Japan-based writer and Pusjuki (Center of Japanese Studies for Indonesia's Improvement) president Anni Iwasaki; businessman Ricky Sutanto; East Kutai Regent, from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, Isran Noor; and former Islamic activist Tony Ardi.

"We want to promote public figures who are capable of leading this nation but have not been exposed, so the public will have alternative options," Gus Solah said.

He said the overseas-based candidates were selected because they had exceptional experiences and skills. "For instance, they are knowledge about the system in the Netherlands and Japan and could apply the best aspects of it to Indonesia," he said.

Gus Solah, who is also the brother of late former president Abdurrahamn "Gus Dur" Wahid, is a prominent Islamic figure. In 2004, he was nominated by the Golkar Party as a vice presidential candidate with running mate former Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. (ret.) Wiranto.

The public debates will be held from December to January next year, in the six major cities of (in chronological order) Medan in North Sumatra; Balikpapan, East Kalimantan; Surabaya, East Java; Makassar, South Sulawesi; Bandung, West Java; and Jakarta.

Gus Solah acknowledged the convention was not affiliated to any political parties and laws only allow political parties to nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates.

"We will hold talks with political parties to negotiate the winner of this convention to be nominated by the parties," he said, adding that they would prioritize parties that had not yet named their candidates.

Beside Gus Solah, other members of the committee included former chairman of the Indonesian Communion of Churches Natan Setiabudi, noted philosopher and Catholic priest Franz-Magnis Suseno, senior journalist Aristides Katoppo, Gadjah Mada University political expert Ichlasul Amal and noted lawyer and anti-corruption activist Adnan Buyung Nasution.

Gus Solah refused to disclose the amount of money needed to finance the convention or its sources. "The funds were donated by people with no tied agreements," he said.

Some politicians, however, were skeptical of the convention. United Development Party (PPP) chairman, who is also Religious Affairs Minister, Suryadharma Ali, for example, called the convention "useless".

"I just feel pity for them. They don't have any political vehicles. They are just wasting energy, if not merely looking for sensation," he said at the State Palace, recently.

An Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) executive, Puan Maharani, said it would not be easy for the convention to have its winner nominated by a political party. "As an idea, it is good. But political parties, like the PDI-P, have their own mechanism," she said.

Secular parties to benefit from Muslim vote

Jakarta Post - December 18, 2013

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – Analysts have said secular political parties are now vying to woo Muslim voters who were unlikely to vote for Islamic parties given corrupt practices tarnishing the parties' reputations.

Data shows that after the reform era, Islamic political parties gained a 36.3 percent share of the vote in the 1999 general election and this rose to 41 percent in 2004. The figures, however, plunged to only 29.2 percent in 2009 with only four Islamic parties passing the threshold. Recent pollsters predicted that a further slump in the popularity of Islamic parties in the 2014 general election would be unavoidable.

Ahmad Fuad Fanani of the Maarif Institute for Culture and Humanity said that as Muslims made up the majority of the population, the declining electability of Islamic-based political parties would be a boon for secular parties.

He said that secular political parties were now scrambling to accommodate the aspirations of Muslim voters. Ahmad said that among the efforts was the support for the establishment of Sharia law in a number of regions as well as nationalist parties' support for the pornography and alms laws.

"Secular parties want to portray themselves as accommodating. The ruling Democratic Party [PD] for example chaired the Pornography Law task force. The Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle [PDI-P] also support the establishment of Sharia law in a number of regions, although the PDI-P also has a firm stance against the policy to criminalize the Ahmadiyah," Ahmad said in a discussion held at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) on Tuesday.

"They simply don't want to be judged as anti-Islam by rejecting the pornography and Sharia laws," he said.

A political analyst and executive director of Jakarta-based pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia, Burhanuddin Muhtadi, said that the declining electability of Islamic political parties was the result of efforts by secular parties to embrace Muslim voters.

He said that secular parties had set up departments that catered to the needs of Muslims. "[Even] the PDI-P has the Baitul Muslimin," he said, referring to a wing within the PDI-P to promote the interests of its Muslim members.

He said secular political parties were competing to set up Islamic wing organizations to attract Muslim voters. The Golkar Party's Islamic wing organization is called Majelis Dakwah Islamiyah.

Burhanuddin said that Islamic parties had a tough competition ahead. "If the votes for Islamic parties decline, it means that their targeted voters chose to secular parties. But, if secular parties see a decline in their votes, it means that their targeted voters chose another secular party," Burhanuddin said.

Senior Golkar Party politician Hajriyanto Y. Thohari said that many voters were tired of campaigns dominated by "Islamic symbolism". He said that Islamic parties had not gone beyond the promotion of superficial issues like hijab or the recital of verses from the Koran during their campaigns.

"Before they campaign they make sure that they are wearing Muslim attire and when they greet the crowd it is with the Muslim greeting as-salaam alaikum: making sure their pronunciation is perfect," he said.

Responding to the slumping popularity of Islamic parties, United Development Party (PPP) secretary-general Mochammad Romahurmuziy said it was too early to announce the death of Muslim politics.

"Surveys show the declining electability of Islamic parties. It means that people are talking about the parties and are wondering if their electability could improve. It implicitly means they care about Islamic political parties," he said.

He warned that the disappearance of Islamic parties from the country's political scene could be dangerous. "It would encourage vigilante groups to deliver their violent aspirations without a political channel," he said.

Third time lucky for Megawati?

Jakarta Globe - December 17, 2013

Carlos Paath – Senior officials from country's main opposition party have suggested that former president and two-time losing presidential candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri may have another run at office next year, ahead of Joko Widodo, the poll-topping governor of Jakarta.

Olly Dondokambey, the treasurer of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said on Monday that Megawati, the party chairwoman, was best qualified to be its presidential candidate in 2014, with Joko as her running mate.

"She's the chairwoman and she's had experience as the president before," he said at the House of Representatives. "With the situation that the country is in today, we need a leader with experience."

Olly said there had been calls lately for Joko, who leads most opinion polls of potential presidential candidates, to take the party's vice presidential nomination rather than the top spot, as most analysts and observers outside the party have suggested.

He added that Megawati's relatively low poll numbers should not be a major consideration, and cited Joko's own poor showing in surveys before last year's gubernatorial election in Jakarta, which he went on to win by a convincing margin.

"Sure, the numbers are low. But if we were to go by just the surveys, then Joko would never have become the governor. The surveys are just part of the process," Olly said.

"Personally, I'd like to see a Mega-Joko ticket," he added, emphasizing that no decision had been made and that the final call would be Megawati's to make.

Eriko Sotarduga, a PDI-P deputy secretary general, said separately on Monday that a Megawati-Joko ticket for the presidential election in July "makes perfect sense," but that the party was now focusing on the legislative election next April.

"We haven't actually spoken about who will be our presidential or vice presidential candidate, whether at official or unofficial discussions within the party," he said. "But if people inside and outside the party want to see Megawati and Joko running together, that makes perfect sense."

Tubagus Hasanuddin, a veteran PDI-P legislator and head of the party's West Java chapter, said there were actually three possibilities being considered for the presidential ticket, with Joko featuring in each one of them. "The first one is Megawati as the candidate and Joko as her running mate," he said at the House.

"The second is Joko as the candidate and another PDI-P member as his running mate. The third possibility is if we form a coalition with another party, with Joko to be the presidential candidate. "There's a groundswell of support for Joko to run for president, but Megawati hasn't decided yet."

Hasto Kristiyanto, a PDI-P deputy secretary general, concurred separately that Joko was an integral part of the party's plans for the election, but stressed that Megawati was just as important. He said that as a seasoned politician, the PDI-P chairwoman could help the relatively inexperienced Joko deal with "the political attacks that have already begun."

Neither Joko nor Megawati have publicly stated their intention to run, with the Jakarta governor repeatedly deferring the decision to the former president. Analysts say that while he may harbor presidential intentions, Joko must be seen as being gifted the nomination rather than taking it, because he otherwise risks making Megawati lose face.

$8.3 million poll security budget raises eyebrows

Jakarta Globe - December 17, 2013

Carlos Paath – A democracy watchdog has called into question the government's approval of a Rp 100 billion ($8.3 million) budget allocation for security measures by the military for next year's elections, saying such matters should be handled by the police, a civilian security force.

"The TNI [Indonesian Military] can indeed be involved in helping safeguard elections, but only at the request of the National Police," Said Salahuddin, coordinator of the People's Synergy for Democracy in Indonesia (Sigma), said in Jakarta on Monday.

"So the security funds for the elections should be under the police, not distributed to different institutions. That way it will be easier to control."

He added that distributing funds to multiple institutions ahead of the elections could open the door to the money being embezzled or misused. "We appreciate the military's involvement in securing the general elections. But that doesn't mean we have to spend public money on it," he said.

The budget allocation was confirmed last Friday by Mahfudz Siddiq, the chairman of the House of Representatives' Commission I, which oversees security and defense affairs.

However, Mahfudz said the budget still had to get final approval from the Finance Ministry because it fell outside the Rp 83 trillion budget allocated to the Defense Ministry for next year.

The National Police have proposed a Rp 3.5 trillion budget to secure the elections, an amount that Indonesia Police Watch, a nongovernmental organization, has backed as realistic.

"Looking at the range of tasks for the police and the size of the population, the Rp 3.5 trillion budget is not too big," IPW chairman Neta S. Pane said on Monday as quoted by Sindonews.com. He cautioned that with such a huge sum, there would need to be stringent oversight to ensure it was spent properly.

Sex, lies and beef: racy scandal hits Indonesia's Islamic parties

Agence France Presse - December 15, 2013

Clandestine hotel room sex, money laundering and huge bribes to import beef evokes a seedy, criminal underworld rather than conservative politicians in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation.

But they all feature in a racy scandal that has shattered the clean image of Indonesia's biggest Islamic party and could further damage already- unpopular Muslim parties at national polls next year.

"The scandal... has given Islamic parties as a whole a bad image," said Umar S. Bakry, from pollster Lembaga Survei Nasional.

The controversy that has shocked the country peaked last week when an anti-corruption court sentenced the disgraced former president of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) to 16 years in jail.

Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq was found guilty of bribery and money laundering after accepting kickbacks from firm Indoguna Utama in return for pressing the PKS-controlled agriculture ministry to increase the company's beef import quota.

Two executives from the company had earlier been jailed over the case, dubbed "Beefgate" by local media, which has given blanket coverage to a scandal of enormous proportions even by the standards of graft-ridden Indonesia.

Ishaaq, who resigned as president of ruling coalition member PKS when the scandal emerged, has said he will appeal the guilty verdict against him.

During their probe, anti-graft investigators uncovered juicy details that tarnished the clean, pious image the PKS has sought to cultivate.

They seized six cars from Ishaaq and prosecutors accused the 52-year-old of trying to hide his marriage to one of his three wives, whom he wed last year when she was still a teenager.

But an arguably bigger figure in the scandal is Luthfi's close aide Ahmad Fathanah, jailed for 14 years in November, who was a key middleman in efforts to get Indoguna's quota increased.

His arrest in January kicked the scandal off in dramatic fashion – anti- corruption agents caught the married man in a raid in a Jakarta hotel with a naked college student. Fathanah had just collected bribe money and the student later admitted he paid her for sex.

He was found to have laundered his bribe money by giving gifts, including cars and diamonds, to 45 women, including an adult magazine model and several celebrities.

The PKS plays down the scandal and insists it is still on track for a strong result at legislative elections in April. But independent polls in recent months show the party is receiving far below the almost eight percent it garnered at elections in 2009, and there is much public anger towards it.

"PKS is such an absolute disgrace, anyone who votes for or supports this party must be either totally delusional or incapable of independent thought," said a recent comment on the website of the Jakarta Globe.

"Beefgate" has scotched the party's recent efforts to reinvent itself by moving away from a purist Islamic agenda and presenting itself as a clean organization as others were battered by graft allegations – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party in particular.

And the controversy risks affecting all Indonesia's Islamic parties, which were already struggling, analysts warn.

The five main Islamic parties, including the PKS, won a combined total of more than 25 percent at the 2009 legislative elections. They range from moderate groups to more extreme ones that want to introduce Islamic Shariah laws.

While the parties expected their share of the vote to continue the same downward trend of recent years, the PKS scandal means the fall is likely to be steeper and swifter, said Bakry from the Lembaga Survei Nasional.

He cited a recent LSN survey in which 42.8 percent of respondents said they expected the groups' popularity to fall and only 21.6 percent said they expected them to win more votes.

It is just another sad chapter in the history of political Islam in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.

Islamic parties have seen their support erode gradually in recent years due to their own shortcomings and the greater appeal of the major, secular- nationalist parties, such the Democratic Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.

Experts point to poor organization, infighting, previous corruption scandals, and a feeling among even conservative Muslims there is no longer an obligation to vote for a party describing itself as "Islamic".

"Years ago if you were a pious Muslim you voted for an Islamic party but now it's not the case," said Greg Fealy, an Indonesia expert at the Australian National University. Most voters, he added, now opted for parties with a solid track record of running the country.

Surveys & opinion polls

Joko candidacy can lift any party: Survey

Jakarta Globe - December 16, 2013

Yeremia Sukoyo – Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo would likely be able to increase the electability of any political party, even those with only a slight chance of meeting the parliamentary threshold, a new survey has found.

Surveys conducted by Cyrus Network showed that Joko could make any party become a winner in the upcoming general election.

"Jokowi could even make the Crescent Star Party [PBB], the National Democrat Party [NasDem], and even the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party [PKPI] become the winner in the legislative election if he joined one of them," Cyrus Network research director Eko Dafid Afianto said on Sunday.

Eko said Joko could potentially lift those parties' electability to the highest level of more than 40 percent and lift the electability of his own party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to 60 percent. The potential level could be achieved provided that the party made it clear that it was the only one that supported Joko as a presidential candidate.

The survey said Joko could boost the electability of Golkar Party to the highest potential level of 53 percent and the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) to 48 percent. "This proves that Jokowi is a presidential candidate [considered as] a 'demigod,'?" Eko said.

Cyrus Network conducted the survey in two stages. The first stage was held between Aug. 21-27 and the second between Sept. 13-17. The surveys concluded that Joko did not have to worry about his party because he could easily move to another and help the new party win the 2014 general election.

A different survey by Indo Barometer found that many young voters, aged between 17 and 30 years, wanted Joko to become Indonesia's next president. "Joko Widodo garnered the highest support of 39.2 percent," Indo Barometer executive director M. Qodari said in a discussion last Wednesday.

Qodari said the question asked of respondents was: "If the general election was held today, which of these 13 names would you vote for as the president?" He said the number of people who chose Joko as president far exceeded those who chose other candidates who currently hold high positions in their respective political parties.

Gerindra's founder and chief patron Prabowo Subianto gained the second- highest support with 12.8 percent of respondents choosing him, followed by Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie (12.1 percent), PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri (8.7 percent), People's Conscience Party (Hanura) chairman Wiranto (5.9 percent), National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Muhaimin Iskandar (0.8 percent), National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Hatta Rajasa (0.4 percent), PBB's chairman Yusril Ihza Mahendra (0.3 percent), and NasDem's chairman Surya Paloh (0.3 percent).

Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Anis Matta only gained 0.3 percent support, Democratic Party advisor Pramono Edhie Wibowo (0.2 percent), United Development Party chairman Suryadharma Ali (0.1 percent), and PKPI chairman Sutiyoso received none.

Qodari said 14.2 percent of the 1,200 respondents had yet to decide who to vote for, 1.8 percent refused to say, 0.2 percent said they would not vote, and 2.9 percent did not know who to vote for or did not answer. The survey was conducted between Nov. 12-23.

Qodari said Joko's high electability was due to his closeness to the people. "The reasons young voters choose a presidential candidate is because of his or her attention or closeness to the people (30.5 percent), firmness (18.4 percent), and for his stance against practices of corruption, collusion and nepotism (8 percent)," Qodari said.

Environment & natural disasters

Government plan to lift ban on log exports questioned

Jakarta Post - December 16, 2013

After a decade-long fight against illegal logging, the idea of resuming log exports is heating up following a recent proposal by the Forestry Ministry.

Under the proposal, logs sourced from productive forests, either community plantation forests (HTR) or industrial forest concessions (HTI), by firms holding certificates under the timber legality verification system (SVLK) can be shipped overseas.

"The exports will be limited to companies fulfilling the certification requirement, thereby it will not happen on a massive scale," Forestry Ministry's secretary-general Hadi Daryanto told The Jakarta Post. No quota would be imposed and the log trading would be mainly driven by market demand, he added.

The proposal came up as a follow up to a demand from the Association of Indonesian Forest Concessionaires (APHI) for better prices and wider market access. Domestic sales alone have so far led to lower prices and in turn, have resulted in weakening the upstream industry. At present, logs taken from local industrial forests only sell for US$30 per cubic meter, almost one-third less than the regional price of $80 per cubic meter, the industry group has claimed.

Indonesia, the world's largest log exporter since the 1970s, has had its ups and downs in its fight to combat illegal logging. Home to the world's third-biggest tropical rain forest after the Amazon and Congo basins, it has been a center of attention of global environmental groups due to rampant illegal logging that has caused not only expansive deforestation, but also losses in biodiversity and harmful smog caused by the burning of vegetation.

Massive exports of logs occurred between 1998 and 2001 when Indonesia substantially reduced export taxes on logs from 200 percent to 10 percent. The relaxation of log exports, which was part of a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reform its ailing economy for a sizeable bailout package, encouraged loggers to ship their logs overseas to obtain hard currency, while the weak regulations resulted excessive illegal logging.

Over the past decade, the country has been struggling to address this concern. At the end of 2001, the country banned all log exports and later in 2003, it introduced the SVLK certification to ensure the legality of traded timber, which became mandatory in 2010. Environmental activists maintain that resuming the log exports will provide a way for uncontrollable illegal logging to resume, a view shared by a downstream industry group.

"This is one step back. While in the past the government has halted log exports to avert environmental damage, it now wants to bring added value and develop the downstream industry," said Soewarni, the chairwoman of the Indonesian Sawmill and Wood Working Association (ISWA).

"If we resume the exports, who will be able to guarantee an end to illegal log exports?" she questioned, citing poor supervision and legal enforcement despite the planned limited exit gates for log exports. The legal shipments as well as potential smuggling of logs can be a threat to the domestic processing industry as they will cut the available local supply, according to Soewarni.

Despite its seemingly hard efforts to reform its forestry policies, which the government touts as a model for sustainable "green growth", corruption and mismanagement are still plaguing Indonesia's forestry sector with serious impacts on human rights and the environment.

Illegal logging and forest-sector mismanagement caused $7 billion in losses of state revenue from 2007 to 2011, according to a report recently released by the Human Rights Watch. The ongoing debate on the possibility of resuming log exports probably still has a long way to go before a compromise can be reached.

Orangutans fight for survival as thirst for palm oil devastates rainforests

The Observer - December 15, 2013

Gethin Chamberlain – Even in the first light of dawn in the Tripa swamp forest of Sumatra it is clear that something is terribly wrong. Where there should be lush foliage stretching away towards the horizon, there are only the skeletons of trees. Smoke drifts across a scene of devastation.

Tripa is part of the Leuser Ecosystem, one of the world's most ecologically important rainforests and once home to its densest population of Sumatran orangutans.

As recently as 1990, there were 60,000 hectares of swamp forest in Tripa: now just 10,000 remain, the rest grubbed up to make way for palm oil plantations servicing the needs of some of the world's biggest brands. Over the same period, the population of 2,000 orangutans has dwindled to just 200. In the face of international protests, Indonesia banned any fresh felling of forests two years ago, but battles continue in the courts over existing plantation concessions.

Here, on the edge of one of the remaining stands of forest, it is clear that the destruction is continuing.

Deep trenches have been driven through the peat, draining away the water, killing the trees, which have been burnt and bulldozed. The smell of wood smoke is everywhere. But of the orangutans who once lived here, there is not a trace.

This is the tough physical landscape in which environmental campaigners fighting to save the last of the orangutans are taking on the plantation companies, trying to keep track of what is happening on the ground so that they can intervene to rescue apes stranded by the destruction.

But physically entering the plantations is dangerous and often impractical; where the water has not been drained away, the ground is a swamp, inhabited by crocodiles. Where canals have been cut to drain away the water, the dried peat is thick and crumbly and it is easy to sink up to the knees. Walking even short distances away from the roads is physically draining and the network of wide canals has to be bridged with logs. The plantations do not welcome visitors and the Observer had to evade security guards to gain entrance.

To overcome these problems, campaigners have turned to a technology that has become controversial for its military usage but that in this case could help to save the orangutans and their forest: drones.

Graham Usher, from the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme, produces a large flight case and starts to unpack his prized possession, a polystyrene Raptor aircraft with a two-metre wingspan and cameras facing forward and down.

The #2,000 drone can fly for more than half an hour over a range of 30- 40km, controlled by a computer, recording the extent of the destruction of the forest. "The main use of it is to get real time data on forest loss and confirm what's going on with fires," he says.

They can also use the drone to track animals that have been fitted with radio collars. Graham opens his computer and clicks on a video. Immediately, the screen fills with an aerial view of forest, then a cleared patch of land and then new plantation as the drone passes overhead. "We are getting very powerful images of what is going on in the field," he says.

The footage is helping them to establish where new burning is taking place and which plantations are potentially breaking the law. Areas of forest where the peat is deeper than three metres should be protected – the peat is a carbon trap – but in practice many plantations do not measure the depth.

"They shouldn't be developing it but the power of commerce and capital subverts all legislation in this country. There is no law enforcement or rule of law," says Usher.

The battle to save the orangutans is not helped by the readiness of multinational corporations to use palm oil from unverified sources. Hundreds of products on UK supermarket shelves are made with palm oil or its derivatives sourced from plantations on land that was once home to Sumatran orangutans.

Environmental campaigners say that the complex nature of the palm oil supply chain makes it uniquely difficult for companies to ensure that the oil they use has been produced ethically and sustainably.

"One of the big issues is that we simply don't know where the palm oil used in products on UK supermarket shelves comes from. It may well be that it came from Tripa," says Usher.

In October, the Rainforest Foundation UK singled out Superdrug and Procter and Gamble (particularly its Head and Shoulders, Pantene and Herbal Essences hair products) for criticism over the use of unsustainable palm oil. A traffic light system produced using the companies' responses to questions from the Ethical Consumer group also placed Imperial Leather, Original Source and Estee Lauder hair products in the red-light category.

A separate report by Greenpeace, also issued in October into Sumatran palm oil production, accused Procter and Gamble and Mondelez International (formerly Kraft) of using "dirty" palm oil. The group called on the brands to recognise the environmental cost of "irresponsible palm oil production".

According to the Rainforest Foundation's executive director, Simon Counsell, part of the problem is that even companies that do sign up to ethical schemes, such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, cannot be certain that all the oil they receive is ethically produced because of the way oil from different plantations is mixed at processing plants.

"The smaller companies sell to bigger companies and it all gets mixed. Even those companies making some effort cannot be certain that what they are getting is what they have paid for," he said.

Driving out of Tripa, the whole area appears to have been given over to palm oil plantations; some long-established, 20-25ft tall trees in regimented rows, others recently planted. Every now and again there is a digger, driving a new road into what little forest remains, the first stage of the process that will end with the forest burned and gone and replaced with young oil palms.

There is a steady flow of lorries loaded with palm fruits, heading for the processing plant not far from the town of Meulaboh. From there, tankers take the oil to the city of Medan for shipping onwards.

It is outside Medan that the orangutan victims of clearances are taken to recover, at the SOCP's quarantine centre. These are the animals rescued from isolated stands of forest or from captivity. Those that can be will eventually be released back into another part of the island.

Anto, a local orangutan expert, says the spread of the plantations is fragmenting the remaining forest and isolating the orangutans.

"Then people are poaching the orangutans because it is easy to catch them," he says. "People isolate them in a tree and then they cut the tree or they make the orangutan so afraid that it climbs down and is caught. After that they can kill it and sometimes eat it. Or they can trade it."

This is what happened to Gokong Puntung and his mother. The one-year-old ape – now recovering with the help of SOCP – was rescued from Sidojadi village in February. He had been captured a month earlier in the Tripa forest.

A group of fishermen spotted Gokong Puntung and his mother trapped in a single tree and unable to reach the rest of the forest without coming down. The men apparently decided to try to grab the baby in the hope of selling it. One climbed the tree, forcing the mother to fall to the ground, where another man set about her and beat her with a length of timber. In the confusion, mother and baby became separated and the fishermen were able to get away. They sold the animal for less than #6 to a plantation worker.

"We got information from people who heard an orangutan crying in one house," says SOCP vet Yenny Saraswati. "They went in the house and found the baby orangutan in a chicken cage. The owner said he had bought it from people who had taken it from the plantation."

It was a very unusual case: more often, the mother is killed. "They are very good mothers – better than humans," she says. "A lot of human mothers don't care for their babies, but I have never seen an orangutan leave its baby. They always hug them and don't let them cry."

That's why poachers tend to kill the mothers, says Anto. "They hit it with sticks. One person uses a forked stick to hold its head and the others hit it and beat it to death. But the young orangutans they sell."

The effect on Tripa's orangutans has been disastrous. Cut off from the population on the rest of the island, they teeter on the brink of viability; experts say they really need a population of about 250 to survive long term and, because orangutans produce offspring only once every six or seven years, it takes a long time to replenish a depleted population.

Those that remain in the forest face other dangers. Some die when the forest is burned, others starve to death as their food supply is destroyed.

If the orangutans did not already have it tough, there may yet be worse to come: gold has been found in Aceh's remaining forests and mining is starting.

"If there is no government effort to protect the remaining area, we will never know the orangutans here again," says Anto. "If this continues they will be gone within 10 years."

In response to the criticism over its use of unsustainable palm oil, Superdrug said it "is aware of the complex issues surrounding palm oil and its derivatives, which are currently used in some of its own-brand products, and is committed to working with its suppliers to use sustainable alternatives when they become widely available."

Estee Lauder Companies, which makes Aveda hair products, said: "We share the concern about the potential environmental effects of palm oil plantations, including deforestation and the destruction of biodiversity and habitats."

The statement said that its palm oil (made from the pulped fruit) came from sustainable sources. But the company said the majority of its brands used palm kernel oil (from the crushed palm fruit kernels) and that it was working to develop sustainable supplies.

"We are committed to acting responsibly and will continue to work with our suppliers to find the best ways to encourage and support the development of sustainable palm kernel oil sources."

PZ Cussons, which makes Original Source and Imperial Leather products, along with the Sanctuary SPA range, said it was committed to using raw materials from sustainable and environmentally friendly sources wherever possible.

The company said it had "embarked on a sustainability journey" and was working with other producers to gain a better understanding of the supply chain and "to promote the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products". Mondelez International (formerly Kraft) said it wanted to eliminate unethical plantations from its supply chain by 2020.

"We fully share concerns about the environmental impacts of palm oil production, including deforestation. As a final buyer, engaging our supply chain is the most meaningful action we can take to ensure palm oil is grown sustainably," said a spokesman.

"Palm oil should be produced on legally held land, protecting tropical forests and peat land, respecting human rights, including land rights, and without forced or child labour.

"We expect palm oil suppliers to provide us transparency on the proportion of their supplies traceable to plantations meeting these principles by the end of 2013 and to eliminate supplies that do not meet these criteria by 2020."

Procter & Gamble, which makes Head and Shoulders, Herbal Essences and Pantene products, said it was "strongly opposed to irresponsible deforestation practices and our position on the sustainable sourcing of palm oil is consistent with our corporate sustainability principles and guidelines.

"We are committed to the sustainable sourcing of palm oil and have set a public target that, by 2015, we will only purchase palm oil from sources where sustainable and responsible production has been confirmed."

Fight for existence

Orangutans are facing extinction as their habitats are becoming fragmented and agricultural production expands. Populations of orangutans have been broken up into groups and this is causing a problem for the survival of the species.

The WWF estimates that a century ago there were more than 230,000 orangutans living in the wild, now they think there are only 41,000 in Borneo and 7,500 in Sumatra. Others put the figures at 54,000 in Borneo and 6,600 in Sumatra.

Some conservationists predict that orangutans could disappear in as little as 20 to 30 years, others think it could happen in a few hundred years. Orangutans share 96.4% of their genes with humans.

Health & education

Private hospitals fret about public healthcare plan returns

Jakarta Globe - December 19, 2013

Kennial Caroline Laia – State-owned health insurance firm Askes says it is ready to roll out Indonesia's first national health care insurance scheme early next month.

Fajriadinur, director of services for Askes, said that 99.99 percent of the preparations for the scheme, known as JKN, are in place and the scheme is set to be introduced.

"Up until now we have 110 million JKN participants; 86.4 percent from community health protection scheme [known as Jamkesmas], 6.5 percent from the state worker insurance agency [Jamsostek], and 16.5 percent from the state sector, including police and military personnel," Fajriadinur said during a discussion on Wednesday.

"Everyone will be registered by the time the program begins. Around 12,000 public health centers are working with us and that number is expected to reach 15,869 by the time the scheme kicks in," Fajriadinur added.

Despite Fajriadinur's optimism, there are many challenges waiting once the scheme is implemented, academics and doctors said at the same discussion.

Hasbullah Thabrany, a public health professor at University Indonesia, pointed at the reluctance of private hospitals in Indonesia to join the scheme because of the low payments they stand to receive if they treat JKN members.

"So far private hospitals are not fully involved. They are standing on the sidelines, adopting a wait-and-see attitude," Hasbullah said, adding that private hospitals needed some time to consider their options and future plans before committing themselves to the scheme.

As of now, there are 1,040 hospitals signed up to the program, but not a single private one. "Private hospitals need to evaluate just what the costs would be in treating those covered by the scheme and how much of that cost they would be able to claim back," Hasbullah said.

He went on to say the reluctance shown by private hospitals was understandable given they were run along commercial lines and they could not be forced to join JKN.

Hasbullah called on the government to make the program more attractive to the private sector. "It is the government's task to get them [private hospitals] involved," Hasbullah said.

He went on to say that given the scale of the program, all related government offices and officials should be transparent about the budget provided for the program to avoid suspicion.

Teens must learn about sex in school: Activists

Jakarta Post - December 19, 2013

Indah Setiawati, Jakarta – Regina Tantri Tionaomi is among the many Jakarta teenagers who have never been taught about sexual and reproductive health.

The 12th grader in senior high school SMA 106 in East Jakarta said she and her peers usually found the answers by themselves to their questions about pregnancy and secondary sexual characteristics.

"A friend shared her anxiety over her small breasts and that she was too ashamed to talk about it with her parents. Others were curious whether someone could really get pregnant through unsafe sexual intercourse," she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Regina, a member of the Independent Youth Alliance (ARI), said they could barely find sufficient information on the Internet which often directed them to porn sites.

"The teachers always blush when we ask them, which is unnecessary. It is important for us, teenagers, to know about our own reproductive systems and health so we will not abuse them."

Jakarta already has Gubernatorial Decree No. 31/2013 on reproductive health for teenagers which allows teenagers to receive education and services on reproductive health. However, the implementation of the policy in schools is still deficient.

Wahyu Murniningsih, deputy headmaster of SMA 42 in East Jakarta, said reproductive health education was integrated into biology, sociology and religion. Students could also learn about it in extracurricular courses from their counseling and guidance teachers.

"The material in biology class is limited to the basic competence as regulated in the curriculum. While in sociology teachers only give introduction on societal and moral and norms and sexual deviancies," she said.

She said it would be helpful if teachers could get comprehensive teaching material and guidance about sexual and reproductive health, so they could be more open when delivering the topic.

Activists voiced the urgent need to provide education on sexual and reproductive health to teenagers during a seminar held by the Women's Research Institute (WRI) in Kemang, South Jakarta, on Wednesday.

WRI executive director Sita Aripurnami said the high mortality rate of teen pregnancies called for the dissemination of sex and reproductive health education. She cited data from the Health Ministry in 2010 that teenagers accounted for 30 percent of unwanted pregnancies and abortions nationwide.

This knowledge, she said, would help teenagers, who amount to 33 percent of the population, to make the right decisions about their future. "Sex education does not encourage premarital sex, but explains the reproductive functions and how to stay healthy. Clueless teenagers can become teenaged mothers who are not ready for the responsibility," she said.

Sita said the struggle to get the topic onto the curriculum was still a long one, so her organization tried to focus on empowering groups of teenagers, so they could provide peer consultation and take part in forums and the National Development Planning Meeting (Musrembang). The organization is also working on producing educational material about sexual and reproductive health for teenagers.

Faiqoh, the national coordinator of ARI, said it was important to provide teens with comprehensive sexual education that included life skills and behavior that were necessary to protect their future. "For example, students should be taught to say no if their boyfriends force them to have sex and children should know that other people should not touch their genitals," she said.

Taufiq Rohman, an official with the Jakarta Education Agency, said that his office had worked with NGOs that provide counseling at several junior and senior high schools.

"We also work together with community health centers [Puskesmas] and school clinics to inform students about reproductive health."

Graft & corruption

Jakarta High Court sentences Djoko Susilo to 18 years in prison

Jakarta Globe - December 19, 2013

Rizky Amelia – The Jakarta High Court has handed down a heftier sentence to corruption convict Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, ordering him to serve 18 years in prison and refund the state Rp 32 billion ($2,624,000) for his involvement in the graft-ridden procurement of driving simulators.

According to the court's official website, the panel of judges, led by Roki Panjaitan, stated that the former traffic police chief was proven guilty of corruption and money laundering during his verdict trial on Wednesday.

"The defendant is being sentenced to 18 years in prison and being fined Rp 1 billion, with one year cut [for time already served]," the verdict, published on Thursday, read.

Djoko was previously sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay Rp 500 million in fines on Sept. 3 by the Jakarta Anti-Corruption court for his participation in a case that cost the state some Rp 121 billion in losses.

Both Djoko and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) filed an appeal to the Jakarta High Court over the initial verdict. However, the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court in its first ruling ordered the confiscation of the two-star police general's assets, totaling roughly Rp 200 billion.

During the appeals trial – not attended by Djoko – the High Court demanded that Djoko return Rp 32 billion to the state over the case. Additionally, the court also ordered that more of his assets, including a 377-square-meter house in Tanjung Barat, South Jakarta, and two Toyota Avanzas, be seized.

The court also stripped Djoko of his voting rights and has prevented him from running for public office in the future.

The High Court's verdict is similar to what prosecutor's had sought at the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court. The commission's deputy chief, Bambang Widjojanto, welcomed the court's decision.

"The verdict has issued a strong signal that the court has become firmer and cannot be played with by corruptors," he told the Jakarta Globe via text message on Thursday. He added that the ruling was a belated "gift" for all corruptors in celebration of International Anti-Corruption Day, which was celebrated on Dec. 9.

This latest ruling follows a trend of heavier appeal sentences being handed down by the nation's judiciary. On Nov. 21, the Supreme Court sentenced disgraced lawmaker Angelina Sondakh to an additional eight years imprisonment tripling her jail term and matching prosecutors' initial demands following an appeal from the KPK.

Angelina, who was found guilty in January of systematically rigging government contracts, was also ordered to pay back the state Rp 3.42 million on top of Rp 500 million in fines.

In Ratu Atut's fall, hope for a wider purge

Jakarta Globe - December 18, 2013

Rizky Amelia & Carlos Paath – The decision late on Monday by the national antigraft commission to finally charge Ratu Atut Chosiyah, the governor of Banten province, with corruption could mark an important milestone in the war to eliminate the corruption inherent in the political dynasties being built up in regions throughout the country.

Hidayat Nur Wahid, a former president of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), welcomed the arrest of Ratu Atut, a member of the Golkar Party, and urged the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to go after other regional leaders.

"There are many other political dynasties. The KPK should go all the way," he said on Tuesday. "This effort to look into the political dynasty, hegemony and monopoly of power in Banten should be appreciated."

Hidayat said political dynasties in Indonesia served a "vicious circle," and that Ratu Atut's case should be seen as a warning for the public to be more careful about the leaders they elected into office.

Banten has long had a reputation of being firmly in the grip of Ratu Atut and her extended family. The governor, 50, served a five-year term as deputy governor before being elected governor. She is now in her second term as the governor, and is the only woman in Indonesia to have ever reached that position.

Her son, Andika Hazrumy, is a member of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) from Banten, while her late husband, Hikmat Tomet, was a Golkar legislator at the House of Representatives. Ratu Atut's sister-in- law, Airin Rachmy Diani, is the mayor of South Tangerang, also in Banten, while her half-brother, Tubagus Haerul Jaman, is the mayor of Serang, the provincial capital.

In total, there are up to 11 individuals within the family with positions of power in cities and districts throughout Banten.

Ratu Atut was on Tuesday named a suspect, though not arrested, in connection with corruption in the procurement of medical equipment for public hospitals in South Tangerang and Banten, and in connection with the bribery of the Constitutional Court's chief justice to influence the result of an election in Banten's Lebak district earlier this year.

The judge in question, Akil Mochtar, was arrested by the KPK in October, along with Ratu Atut's brother, Tubagus "Wawan" Chaeri Wardana, who was believed to have arranged the bribe on orders from the governor.

Earlier this month, KPK chairman Abraham Samad said that allowing political dynasties to flourish left plenty of room for corruption, and cited Atut's regime in Banten as a focal point of his office's investigation into such practices. "There's a family crime happening in Banten," he said in Jakarta on Dec. 5.

However, Ratu Atut's family is not the only dynasty monopolizing power in its respective region.

The family of South Sulawesi Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo has also long been criticized for building its own political empire, with members in the regional government, regional legislatures and the House of Representatives.

Jimly Asshiddiqie, a former chief justice of the Constitutional Court, said in Jakarta last Friday that decentralization of power away from Jakarta over the past 15 years had given rise to the abuse of political power across Indonesia.

"Political dynasties have created political disparities, further expanding the gap between the rich and the poor. For 15 years they have enjoyed freedom for their own good," he said.

Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said in July that a total of 298 governors, district heads and mayors had been jailed, nearly all of them for corruption, since regional autonomy was introduced in 1999.

Separate figures from Kompas in October said 57 regional heads and deputy heads enjoyed the support of family members in their regional political scene.

The officials in question are reportedly spread across 15 provinces, including Banten, Lampung, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Java, Yogyakarta and East Java.

The matter of political dynasties and their proclivity for corruption and abuse of power was the subject of national debate earlier this year, when Home Affairs Minister Gamawan proposed in October that the government draft legislation to prevent powerful families from establishing political empires at the regional level.

The regulation, the minister said, should prohibit the spouse, offspring or siblings of any individual who has one who has served as a regional head, be it as mayor, district head or governor, from running for regional office within five years of the individual leaving office.

Gamawan called for the prohibition to be included in a packet of proposed amendments to the regional elections law, currently being deliberated at the House.

Indonesia Corruption Watch, a nongovernmental organization, called on the KPK in the wake of Ratu Atut being named a suspect to broaden the scope of its investigation in Banten.

"Besides the cases [for which Ratu Atut has been charged], there are many other cases and other people involved who remain untouched, both from Ratu Atut's family and from outside," Ade Irawan, an ICW activist, said on Tuesday.

The watchdog previously revealed that between 2011 and 2013, companies linked to the governor and members of her family and cronies were awarded 175 government contracts worth a total of Rp 1,148 trillion.

"The ease with which the governor and her family manipulated various projects in Banten to be awarded to companies that they controlled would never have been possible without the complicity of the bureaucracy and the local legislatures," Ade said. "As the vehicles and supporters of these illegal practices for many years, these [officials and legislators] must have benefited from the family as well."

The KPK's decision to name Ratu Atut a suspect in the medical equipment procurement scandal is seen by many as a natural progression in the case that began with the arrest of her brother, Wawan, for bribing the Constitutional Court's Akil.

Upon investigating Wawan's activities further, KPK investigators tied him to the procurement project that also implicates his wife, South Tangerang Mayor Airin.

There is mounting speculation that the mayor will be the next domino to fall in what antigraft activists have hailed as the unraveling of Indonesia's most entrenched and corrupt dynasty.

KPK integrity survey reveals improvement in public services

Jakarta Post - December 17, 2013

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) released its 2013 integrity survey on Monday, with the Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency (BPOM) receiving the highest score for public services.

The BPOM scored 7.69 percent in the integrity index, above the average national index of 6.80 percent. The Environment Ministry was second with 7.64 percent, followed by Fatmawati Hospital with 7.58 percent.

Also receiving favorable scores were the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) with 7.57 percent; the Agriculture Ministry with 7.49 percent; the Education and Culture Ministry with 7.46 percent; Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital with 7.45 percent; the Health Ministry with 7.41 percent; the Communications and Information Ministry with 7.41 percent; and the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry with 7.40 percent.

Three state institutions receiving the lowest score were the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry with 7.12 percent, the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) with 7.09 percent and the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry with 6.88 percent.

KPK deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas said the scores of some government institutions indicated public services had improved.

"The 2013 survey shows public services are getting better as all institutions received higher scores than the standard set by the KPK at 6 percent," Busyro said.

"The improvement shows the seriousness of state institutions in fighting corruption. I hope this can be a motivation for all to improve public services in the future," Busyro said.

The KPK, which conducted the survey between May to September 2013, also found that central government agencies on average scored higher, with an average score of 7.37 percent, than local government agencies, which scored an average of 6.82 percent. Three local administrations receiving the highest scores were Pare-Pare municipality in South Sulawesi with 7.71 percent, Surabaya municipality in East Java with 7.61 percent and Bitung municipality in North Sulawesi.

Administrations receiving the lowest scores were Bengkulu, Palangkaraya and Jayapura with 6.04 percent, 5.97 percent and 5.68 percent, respectively.

The KPK surveyed 85 state institutions, including 20 at national level and 60 at local level, while interviewing 15,000 respondents.

KPK director of research and development division Roni Dwi Susanto said among the targets of the survey was the procurement of goods and services. "In previous years, corrupt practices were dominant in goods procurement and that's why we decided to survey the sector this year," Roni said.

In the 2012 survey, 10 state institutions receiving the highest scores were PT Jamsostek with 7.49 percent; the Education and Culture Ministry with 7.43 percent; the BKPM with 7.29 percent; the BPOM with 7.24 percent; the Health Ministry with 7.07 percent; the National Nuclear Energy Agency with 7.03 percent; the Trade Ministry with 7.03 percent; the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry with 6.97 percent; the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry with 6.89 percent; and PT Angkasa Pura II with 6.98 percent.

The three state intuitions that received the lowest scores were the Communications and Information Ministry with 6.48 percent; PT Pelindo II with 6.34 percent and the Forestry Ministry with 5.55 percent.

The 2012 survey, conducted from June to October 2012, revealed that the central government agencies on average scored 6.86 percent, while local administrations scored 6.32 percent.

House stalls new law that prevents money laundering

Jakarta Globe - December 16, 2013

Novianti Setuningsih – The deliberation of the draft bill, which is aimed at limiting cash transactions and preventing corruption practices ahead of next year's general elections, has stalled in the House of Representatives.

"We hope it can be deliberated soon and that it can be included in the National Legislation Program [Prolegnas] because it doesn't contain many articles. We hope it can be finalized before the 2014 general elections," Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) deputy chairman Agus Santoso said in Jakarta on Saturday.

Agus said the law, which limits cash transactions, was needed to create a clean general election because it is believed that cash flow ahead of the elections would be high.

But so far, the deliberation process of the bill at the parliament was still slow because the draft has not been harmonized with the academic documents.

Agus said the PPATK was seeking to implement the International Fund Transfer Instruction (IFTI) reporting system so that the PPATK could obtain the database of all bank customers. Such move is considered important to prevent any money-laundering practices.

"So that we can trace the donations to certain people from financial service providers such as banks, non-banks, and capital markets. All this time we don't have a database, we only have transaction reports. Hopefully [the new system] can be implemented by Feb. 14, 2014," he said.

Agus said the PPATK was also waiting for a follow up on a memorandum of understanding it signed with the General Elections Committee (KPU) that would require political parties and legislative candidates to submit their campaign fund reports to the PPATK.

Latest corruption index shows most graft committed by lawmakers: KPK

Jakarta Globe - December 16, 2013

Noviani Setuningsih – The latest Corruption Perception Index has revealed that most incidences of corruption in Indonesia are committed by lawmakers.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Adnan Pandu Praja noted during the announcement of winners of the Anti-Corruption Film Festival (ACCFF) in Jakarta on Saturday that Indonesia has topped the list of corrupt countries in the last four years.

Adnan said such practices involved groups as was evident in the distribution of travelers checks to several members of House Commission XI by Miranda Goeltom, who paid to secure a position as Bank Indonesia's senior deputy governor in 2004. She, along with 25 other lawmakers, has been convicted.

Adnan said group corruption also involved entire families such as in the Koran procurement graft case at the Religious Affairs Ministry, where lawmaker Zulkarnaen Djabbar involved his son Dendy Prasetya. Both have also been convicted.

Adnan said corrupt practices in Asean countries were growing in numbers as reflected in the CPI, which gave Indonesia a score of 32 out of 100 – putting the country in the 114th position out of 177 countries. The score was the same in 2012.

Adnan also expressed his concerns about the revision of the anti-corruption law where the government is considering declassifying corruption as an extraordinary crime.

Adnan said he hoped lawmakers would reject the proposal ahead of the major holidays and appreciated the Anti-Corruption Court's tough sentencing on those who were found guilty, saying the court treated corruption as an extraordinary crime and imposed severe penalties. "The latest development is encouraging and it needs to be maintained," he added.

The Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court sentenced former National Police Traffic Corps chief Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo to 10 years in prison for graft and money laundering in a driving simulator project.

It also sentenced businessman Ahmad Fathanah to 14 years in prison for graft and corruption in a beef import quota case at the Agriculture Ministry and former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq to 16 years in prison in the same case.

The Supreme Court has also taken a tougher move against corruptors with its recent decision to almost triple the sentence of former lawmaker Angelina Sondakh to 12 years prison from only four and a half years handed down by the Anti-Corruption Court and ordered her to repay close to Rp 40 billion ($3.3 million) in state losses.

KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto said the KPK continued to face challenges in its attempt to freeze assets from corporations that are believed to be linked to corruption or money laundering.

Indonesia does not have a precedent in that case thereby making it difficult for the anti-graft body to make the move, according to Bambang. Bambang said the KPK hopes to resolve the situation by studying the methodologies employed in other countries that have frozen cooperations or charged them for corruption.

Bambang acknowledged that the anti-corruption law did not have the weight needed to charge cooperations who have committed corruption practices by corporations was stipulated under the anti-corruption law but the law was not comprehensive enough to charge corporations.

Indonesia performed worse than the Philippines this year – which ranked 105th – a country it has beaten in previous years' rankings.

Former democrat said she got cash, phone

Jakarta Globe - December 15, 2013

Rizky Amelia & Noviani Setuningsih – A former Democratic Party politician admitted that money was distributed to several party members during the party's national congress in 2010.

"There was money distributed [during the congress], but I don't know where the money came from," the former head of the Gorontalo chapter of the party, Ismiyati Saidi, said before she was grilled by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators on Friday.

Ismiyati claimed she received Rp 100 million ($8,250) from the campaign team of the Democrat's ousted chairman, Anas Urbaningrum.

Ismiyati, who also admitted to receiving a Blackberry, said she would not return the money or the gadget because they were given to her as an allowance for the congress, which was held in Bandung, West Java in May 2010. Ismiyati said the money was given to her by Umar Arsal, a member of Anas's campaign team.

She was summoned by the KPK along with Diana Maringka, former head of the Democratic Party's Southeast Minahasa chapter. Previously, the KPK also grilled the team leader, Ahmad Mubarok, as a witness in the graft-ridden Hambalang Sports Center construction.

Mubarok denied the team had distributed money and cellular phones to politicians attending the congress in favor of Anas's victory as the party's chairman.

He claimed the team only distributed a transportation allowance and that the distribution was approved by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as the party's advisory board chief. "We only distributed the transport allowance and it is completely legal, it was acknowledged and consented to by the advisory board chief," he said.

The Democratic Party's deputy chairman, Max Sopacua, denied Mubarok's statement that Yudhoyono knew anything about the money distributed during the 2010 congress. Max said neither he nor Yudhoyono was informed about the distribution of transport money to the party's members.

The allegation emerged when Sutan Bhatoegana, a member of the Democrats' central leadership board, said money was distributed in Bandung to the delegates from the party's regional offices.

He added he had heard rumors about the bribes but stressed he was not among those who received any of the money. Sutan also claimed not to know which of the regional delegates received the money from Anas's campaign team.

He said all he knew was that the team had handed out cash and brand new cellphones to the delegates so that they could communicate with them without anyone from the teams of the rival candidates finding out.

With regards to the hosting of the congress itself, Sutan said that he was convinced that the event was not funded with money obtained through corruption or bribery.

Disgraced lawmaker and graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin accused Anas of buying votes in his bid to secure the Democratic Party chairmanship during the party's 2010 congress.

Nazaruddin, the former Democratic Party treasurer who was jailed in 2012 for accepting bribes, has said the Aston Hotel was where $5 million and Rp 35 billion ($2.9 million) was allegedly dropped off and distributed.

Sutan, who is also a legislator, said he had tried to warn Muhammad Nazaruddin, the party's treasurer at the time and a close confidant to Anas, against the cash-for-votes ploy, but Nazaruddin had insisted that the other candidates for the party's chairmanship were doing the same.

Freedom of religion & worship

Dayak people reject FPI anti-corruption wing in Central Kalimantan

Jakarta Globe - December 21, 2013

The Dayak people of Central Kalimantan have expressed their strong opposition to the establishment of an anti-corruption center by the local branch of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) in the province.

Yansen Binti, the chief of the Dayak Indigenous Peoples Movement's (Gerdayak) Central Kalimantan chapter, said that even though the tribe was not against anti-corruption efforts, the group did not want the LAKI P45 (Foundation of Anti-Corruption Fighers 45), an organization affiliated with the FPI, to open its doors in Central Kalimantan.

"Central Kalimantan residents from various backgrounds do not want any intervention from an organization related to the FPI," Yansen said on Thursday as quoted by Tribunnews.com. "We support the existence of anti- corruption organizations, but we don't want anarchy, and the FPI's figures are in the LAKI P45 organization."

On Thursday, thousands of Dayak demonstrators banged gongs and shouted out battle cries at the Tijilik Riwut airport in Palangkaraya after hearing that Muchsin Al Atas, a leader with the FPI, was to arrive and inaugurate board members for LAKI P45. After a few hours, though, the group checked with Lion Air, who said that the Muchsin was not among the listed passengers on the flight to the airport.

"We have the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission], the Attorney General and a police force – why do we need LAKI P45?" Bani Mahyuddin, a representative of the Sundanese people who live in Palangkaraya, said as quoted by Tribunnews. "We fear that they will act the same way they do in Java."

Suwido Limin, a local scientist from Palangkaraya University, said that despite its never being officially declared, LAKI P45 had already began working.

I Nyoman, an official representative for Balinese people living in the area, also rejected the establishment of LAKI P45. He said that he didn't want the presence of the FPI to tarnish tolerance in South Kalimantan.

"We consistently support the plan to reject the FPI because South Kalimantan has agreed to uphold the Huma Betang system [a philosophy dealing with religious diversity]," Nyoman said as quoted by kaltengpos.com.

Muslim figure Muhammad Rahdi also echoed this sentiment, saying that Muslims may be degraded if they are associated with the FPI. "Central Kalimantan doesn't need the FPI," he said. "Let us secure our own region."

FPI spokesman Munarman could not be contacted to confirm the presence of LAKI P45 in the area. This is the second time the people of Central Kalimantan have taken a stand against FPI activity in the province.

In February 2012, the Dayak tribe protested at Tijilik Ruwut to stop members of the FPI from arriving to attend the opening of a branch office in Central Kalimantan. Around 800 people gathered, brandishing traditional weapons and wearing red scarves.

Airport authorities eventually redirected the plane carrying FPI leader Habib Rizieq Syihab and his entourage to an alternate location.

Cases of hate against religious minorities rampant in 2013

Jakarta Post - December 21, 2013

Ainur Rohmah, Semarang – There were at least six alleged violations of religious freedom and seven cases of religious intolerance committed across Central Java in the period of 2012 to 2013, researchers say.

Teddy Kholiluddin, a researcher at the Religious and Social Study Institute (eLSA) in Semarang, Central Java, said that the six violation cases included the ban on the establishment of a Ahmadiyah house of worship in Boyolali; a ban on the development of a rectory in Klaten; the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) conflict in Kendal; and the demolition of an Islamic boarding school in Sragen.

"A man called Suparno was murdered in December last year for converting to another religion," Teddy said.

Religious intolerance cases included efforts to disrupt Christmas celebrations; accusations that the teachings of Jamaatul Islamiyah in Karanganyar and the teachings of Mbah Surodari in Brebes were deviant; and the ban on Majelis Tafsir Al-Qur'an (MTA) in Grobogan.

He also noticed although there was a new model of conflict such as hate crime, 90 percent of the cases occurred in Central Java were repetitions of old conflict patterns. "Suparno's murder so far was a shocking case of a new pattern of conflict in the province," Teddy said.

Teddy said that there had been a decrease in instances of religious intolerance and violations against religious freedom. "Repeat incidents continue to occur. We should detect them as early as possible," he said.

Separately, Semarang Legal Aid Institute (LBH) said 10 religious-related incidents occurred across the province in 2012. Among those in conflict were the Tauhid Indonesia Foundation (Yatain) in Surakarta and Karanganyar with Laskar Umat Islam Surakarta (LUIS).

Conflicts, Andiyono of Semarang LBH, went on, had occurred between local administrations and minorities, for example, the children of Saminists, also known as Sedulur Sikep, in Kudus, were told Islamic studies at school was compulsory. Saminists do not believe in the existence of Allah, heaven or hell.

Other conflicts include the ongoing refusal by locals for the establishment of a workshop by the followers of Sapta Darma in Rembang. Sapta Darma is a school of mysticism, which literally means seven (sapta) sacred obligations (dharma); the burning of an Islamic boarding school in Sragen; and a brawl between locals and the FPI in Kendal.

According to Semarang LBH, three potentials for conflict had been identified: The judgement that particular sects were deviant; the establishment of houses of worship; and social conflict.

Indonesian laws and the Constitution guarantee freedom of religion and faith as well as human rights. "The legal umbrella is there. It's now a matter of how the government upholds and functions the umbrella," Andiyono said.

Despite the rampant cases of religious intolerance, Teddy said that there were also aspects that should be lauded, including the reopening of the Gereja Injili di Tanah Jawa (GITJ) church in Jepara after 12 years.

Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo is committed to not issuing regulation on the banning of Ahmadiyah, while Wonosobo Regent Kholiq Arief has also made a commitment to ensure pluralism in his region. Teddy also noted that Shia communities were able to celebrate Ashura Day solemnly.

Agriculture & rural life

New law allows direct cash payment to villages

Jakarta Post - December 19, 2013

Ina Parlina and Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Village Law, a new regulation that, the government claims, will improve the welfare of people living in the country's 73,000 villages.

Under the new law, which was unanimously approved by all political factions in the House during a plenary session Wednesday, 72,999 villages in the country will share funds equal to 10 percent of the state budget earmarked for regional administration.

"The 10 percent budget allocation for villages will be withdrawn from state expenditures, not from the budget's regional allocation. All programs related to villages in relevant ministries will now be cut," chairman of village bill special committee Budiman Sudjatmiko of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said on Wednesday.

He said of the total Rp 1,800 trillion (US$150 billion) earmarked for the 2014 state budget, Rp 592 trillion would be allocated to regional administrations. "Ten percent would be Rp 5.92 trillion. This means each of village will receive around Rp 850 million per year," Budiman said.

Other than the cash transfer, villages are also allowed to get funds from other sources," he added, adding that the amount of budget received by each village would vary depending on population, size, poverty rate and geographic location.

Other sources of funding could include village income; revenue from levies contributed by regencies and municipalities; financial aid from provinces, regencies and municipalities; as well as aid from legal sources.

The law also stipulates that village heads will stay in office for six years and can be reelected for no more than three consecutive terms.

Commenting on the new law, Golkar lawmaker Nudirman Munir said it should firmly define "village", given the variety of definitions that constitute a village.

"Please note that in Indonesia we have the term nagari [an administrative system in West Sumatra equal to village in Java], which consists of a number of smaller villages. How will the law treat nagari? It should be clearly stated in the law," he said.

Earlier on Wednesday and shortly before the bill's endorsement, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the new regulation could empower the country's villages as well as people living in them.

"The bill was the government's initiative as we understand the important role they play in this, our, country. If, in the near future, the House, as well as the government, agree and endorse the bill, I will also sign it as soon as possible so that it can take immediate effect," Yudhoyono said at the Presidential Office.

Yudhoyono also called on village heads to spend the money wisely and ordered governors, mayors and regents, as well as ministries, to monitor its use. Data from the Home Ministry shows that only 22 percent of regional governments are performing well while the remaining 78 percent are failing.

A similar cash handout program was also proposed by chief patron of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto in October.

Prabowo promised that if he was elected president he would hand out cash to all the villages in the country, in a move believed to be aimed at winning back lower- and middle-class voters who had recently swung in the direction of popular Jakarta Govenor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

Prabowo, who said such a program would not breed corruption as "villagers don't practice corruption, city folks do", won support from a number of mass organizations that had complained about the government's failure to introduce progress in the country's villages.

Village heads warn of election boycott

Jakarta Post - December 18, 2013

Jakarta – Village heads threatened to boycott the 2014 presidential and legislative elections during a mass rally held in front of the House of Representatives, Jakarta, on Wednesday, if legislators failed to pass a draft bill on villages.

"We won't vote for our legislative candidates if the House refuses to pass the draft bill. We will also tell our people to do the same because such a refusal [by the House] means they do not care about villages," said Village Reform Forum (FPD) spokesperson Sugeng Wiyono in Jakarta on Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

Other rally orators also threatened to boycott the legislative election and presidential elections if the House refused to pass the village bill. "We will boycott the elections in every village," said one of the orators.

Other speakers said that they could not guarantee village polling stations (TPS) if the House refused to pass the draft bill. "I can guarantee you there will be no polling stations in villages during elections," said the orator.

Village heads and other village officials from across the country participated in the rally, which began Wednesday morning. The rally was peaceful. (ebf)

Civil service & bureaucracy

House approves new civil service bill

Jakarta Globe - December 21, 2013

Anastrasia Winanti & Carlos Paath – The House of Representatives on Friday passed the civil service bill, designed to ensure that public servants perform to high standards, or else face dismissal.

"The law on the administrative reform is a benchmark for the long history of administrative reform in this country," Azwar Abubakar, the administrative reform minister, said on Friday.

The new civil service law is set to replace the 1999 and 1974 laws on the civil service. Azwar said with the new law, public servants would be judged on merit and competence. He said it would minimize the potential of corrupt practices commonly occurring among public servants.

The law will set performance targets for state institutions, and public servants who fail to perform over a three-year period will face dismissal.

Andrinof Chaniago, a public policy expert from the University of Indonesia, said while the newly passed law had been drafted well to accommodate a clean bureaucracy, it was crucial for the government to ensure it was enforced properly.

"Substantially, the law was very well written – the content should be sufficient to reform a messy bureaucracy – but it is the implementation of the law that I am afraid of, too many experiences have taught us that weak implementation will ruin everything," he said.

Andrinof said the key to successful implementation was ensuring that the public knew their rights and obligations.

"Take some of the most important points and launch an aggressive campaign to inform the public, especially the parts that stipulate their rights as citizens. Only then can they be involved in monitoring the implementation of the law," he said.

Andrinof said the government should also explain the new law to public servants on a continuous basis to prevent misunderstandings. Most new laws fail to work properly, he said, due to poor public awareness and participation in upholding them.

The government has announced a plan to add 17,000 new state employees by the end of this year. Andrinof said rather than increasing the number of public servants, the government should trim the number as they have become a burden on the state budget.

The Indonesian civil service has long been regarded as corrupt and inefficient, sapping at least a third of the total state budget every year just to cover the salaries of government workers.

To reduce the bloat, the government instated a moratorium on the recruiting of new public servants in September 2011, but lifted it in December last year.

In October 2011, a month after the moratorium went into force, the country had 4.64 million civil servants, according to the Civil Service Administration Board.

At the end of 2012, after it was lifted, the number was down slightly to 4.46 million as a result of older bureaucrats retiring and no new ones being brought in.

Eko Prasojo, the deputy minister for state administrative reform, previously said it would take five years before the benefits of ongoing reforms in the bureaucracy would become apparent, given the mismanagement in the current system.

The government has drafted a master plan for bureaucracy reform composed of nine elements, including improving the structure of the bureaucracy; improving the quantity, distribution and quality of civil servants; and ensuring a transparent selection process and system of merit-based promotion.

Other programs include developing an online system for public administration and registration services, dubbed an e-government; simplifying the procedures for businesses applying for permits; requiring civil servants to submit wealth reports; improving the benefits for civil servants and ensuring efficiency in the use of facilities and infrastructure.

The government has committed to improving the quality of bureaucracy by 2025, part of its goal in maintaining economic growth at above 6 percent per year.

Eko said that should Indonesia fail to improve the quality of its bureaucracy, investment would dwindle and public trust would deteriorate.

A poor-quality bureaucracy is often identified as a hurdle to foreign investment in Indonesia. More than a decade of decentralization has shifted many responsibilities to underskilled local governments.

The government is also seeking to ensure civil servants are placed based on competency and to establish supervisory bodies for state institutions, as well as to restructure government ministries and institutions and improve budget efficiency, as well as integrity enforcement.

Eko said the problems in the bureaucracy were complex as they involved a huge number of people, and changing attitudes and mind-sets would not be easy.

He said the success of the bureaucratic reform effort could be gauged through public satisfaction and corruption perception indices. The government is aiming for a public satisfaction score of 85.5 by 2014, on a scale of 0 to 100. It was 76.6 last year.

Jakarta & urban life

Joko intent on discouraging cars

Jakarta Globe - December 18, 2013

Muhammad Al Azhari – Jakarta will push for policies and efforts to discourage people from using private vehicles next year, Governor Joko Widodo said in an interview on Monday.

"The ERP [electronic road pricing] scheme will be implemented next year. A higher parking tariff will also be in place," said Joko, who admitted he still disliked the central government's so-called low-cost green car policy to make cars more affordable for the burgeoning middle class.

Joko did not specify a specific time frame for his new policies or how much it would cost car drivers or the city government.

Udar Pristono, the Jakarta Transportation Office head, said in October that the ERP scheme, in which a series of gantries set up along key thoroughfares will remotely charge motorists with a paired receiving device for entering certain downtown areas, would come into force in the first quarter of 2014. He said the ERP would also target motorcyclists, so there was no way to avoid the congestion charge.

Joko said that as part of its push for better public transportation, the city administration would procure up to 4,000 buses. The governor said that procuring the city's first batch of 700 buses cost more than Rp 1 trillion ($82 million); next year, the city has allocated around Rp 5 trillion to buy 3,300 more.

The budget covers the purchase of an additional 1,000 buses for the TransJakarta fleet and 3,000 medium-sized buses. The Jakarta provincial budget – Indonesia's largest – for next year is estimated to be Rp 67 trillion, up from this year's revised Rp 50.1 trillion budget.

Joko also said that the bulk of spending would be dedicated to tackling traffic and flood problems. "We are racing against time for those two problems [traffic and floods]. Things could get worse if we don't act quickly. The two big transportation projects under my close watch are the Jakarta monorail and the MRT [mass rapid transit rail line]," he said, adding that he also planned to accelerate the development of flood management infrastructure.

The monorail is a $1.3 billion public-private partnership project. It was stalled for nearly six years before Joko revived the project shortly after taking office last year, with funding pledged from the Singapore-based investment company Ortus Holdings. The company has taken a near-90 percent stake in the monorail project.

The new elevated rail system will include two monorail lines: one linking downtown Jakarta with the city's western area, running 14.3 kilometers; and another linking the eastern subdistrict of Kampung Melayu to Taman Anggrek in the west of the city, running 13.7 kilometers. Construction of the two lines is expected to be completed in four years.

In October this year, Joko initiated the first phase of construction of the city's MRT line at Dukuh Atas in Central Jakarta. The long-awaited project will cost $1.5 billion and involve building a 15.7-kilometer railway line, part of it running on an elevated line and the rest underground, from Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta.

Joko is probably the most watched figure in Indonesian politics in the run-up to the 2014 elections, with his name topping several opinion polls of potential presidential candidates.

One of the latest is a poll by the United Data Center (PDB), which in October announced that 36 percent of those polled considered Joko their top candidate. Asked by the Jakarta Globe whether he has ambitions to become president, Joko only smiled and responded diplomatically.

"My main agenda right now is of course Jakarta. As you know, I have lots of work to do, lots of lists," he said.

Armed forces & defense

TNI to buy 24 F-16 fighters from US

Jakarta Post - December 20, 2013

Surakarta – Air Force chief of staff Air Marshall Ida Bagus Putu Dunia said the Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU) would purchase 24 F-16 fighter jets from the US to modernize the country's primary weapons defense system (Alutsista).

"The procurement is a continuation of previous armament procurement programs," he said at the commencement of 149 Air Force officers at Adi Soemarmo Air Force Base in Surakarta on Friday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Putu Dunia said the first of the F-16 fighter jets would be procured in 2014. "It is hoped that in 2014 we can outfit our air defense system with eight new F-16 fighter planes while the remainder will be procured in the following year," he said.

Apart from F-16 fighters, the TNI-AU will also purchase a Hercules and CN2 9,000 aircraft and four radars. "We will adjust to the TNI commander's policy. We will get new aircraft and we are ready to deploy them at anytime on the command of our leaders," said Putu Dunia.

He said the TNI-AU was entering a crucial phase of the 21st century; therefore, his body would modernize its primary weapons defense system and operational infrastructure. "We will also improve doctrines and increase personnel skills to face the challenges of modern war," said Putu Dunia. (ebf)

Judicial & legal system

Houses endorses SBY's MK reform plan

Jakarta Post - December 20, 2013

Haeril Halim and Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The House of Representatives endorsed on Thursday President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's plan to reform the graft-tainted Constitutional Court (MK).

In spite of opposition from a number of House members who deemed the plan "unconstitutional", the majority of lawmakers voted to pass a regulation in lieu of law, locally known as Perppu, issued by Yudhoyono in November to reform the court.

Lawmakers gave their final approval of the Perppu during a plenary session on Thursday after members of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs failed to reach am agreement on the new regulation in a closed-door session on Wednesday.

In the plenary session, 221 lawmakers supported the Perppu while only 148 rejected it. Supporters of the Perppu were lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party (PD), the Golkar Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB). The Muslim-based PPP rejected the Perppu during the closed-door session on Wednesday.

Opposition to the Perppu came from lawmakers from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party and the People's Conscience (Hanura) Party.

Yudhoyono signed the Perppu following the arrest of former Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar on bribery allegations in November.

The new regulation will improve the selection process of justices and create a permanent ethics body to supervise the court. Under the Perppu, a Constitutional Court justice is not to have had links to a political party for at least seven years.

Justice candidates will also have to undergo screening by an independent selection panel comprising seven people nominated by the Supreme Court, the House of Representatives, the government and the Judicial Commission.

A permanent ethics committee will monitor the court, whose office will be located in the Judicial Commission building.

A Perppu is as powerful as a law and can become effective immediately after the President signs it. The regulation has to undergo a review at the House in the current sitting session, after which lawmakers will decide whether to endorse or reject it.

Constitutional Court justices were reported to have resented the President's plan and had made moves to curtail it.

Unconfirmed reports have said that in retaliation for what they deem as Yudhoyono's meddling in the courts' internal mechanisms, justices are expected to grant a judicial review request to lower the presidential election threshold, a decision that the President would frown upon given its potential to change the political landscape in 2014.

Responding to the endorsement of the Perppu, Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin praised the House for making a "crucially important" move for the country's democracy ahead of the 2014 general election.

"With the 2014 general election approaching, we need swift and constitutional efforts to restore the public's trust in the court and its justices. I really appreciate the House passing the Perppu," he said.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto also praised the move, saying that the Perppu would be essential to rid the court of corruption. He also said that with the Perppu, the court could return to its role of adjudicating election disputes.

"If they agree, it shows that there is a mutual goal to restore the image of the court, which is the sole adjudicator of disputes on the interpretation of national laws over the Constitution, as well as the adjudicator of election disputes," he said after a Cabinet plenary meeting at the Presidential Office on Thursday.

Lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari from the PDI-P deplored the passing of the Perppu given its lack of constitutional basis. "We must reject the Perppu as there are no academic and legal arguments to justify it. Constitutional and legal truths have to be sacrificed this time," she said.

Eva said that the Perppu was in fact an effort to delegitimize the House. "How can court justices, who have passed the selection process at the House, be examined again by a panel of experts?" she said referring to one of provisions in the Perppu.

Foreign affairs & trade

Indonesia sees no early end to spy row

Sydney Morning Herald - December 17, 2013

Jeffrey Hutton, Jakarta – Indonesian Vice-President Boediono has quashed hopes of an early end to the standoff between Canberra and his country in the wake of Indonesia's decision to suspend military and anti-people smuggling assistance following a spy scandal.

While sounding a conciliatory tone following Prime Minister Tony Abbott's comments at the weekend that the Indonesian response to the spy row was "singularly unhelpful", Dr Boediono indicated Australia ought to agree to new intelligence-gathering protocols between the two countries before normal relations could resume.

"We have asked our Minister of Foreign Affairs [Marty Natalegawa] to work together with his colleagues in Australia to chart the steps toward a good solution," Dr Boediono said.

"We have to stay on the agreed steps to find a good solution. We are working along the correct line between our two countries to increase mutual respect between us again after the issue of spying and so on." The comments are the latest in a growing war of words after allegations emerged last month of electronic eavesdropping on Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and his inner circle.

But as more vessels carrying asylum seekers arrive in Australian territory, Indonesia's government appears to be unmoved, undermining Mr Abbott's comments on Monday that assistance ought to be restored "well before" midyear, when Indonesia will elect a successor to Dr Yudhoyono.

"We could and we should do better. Let's work with what we've agreed," Dr Boediono said, declining to comment directly on Mr Abbott's remarks. "It helps not to be distracted by what is hoped for in the midterm."

Fairfax Media reported last week prominent people smugglers were using the deterioration in relations between the two countries to coax would-be asylum seekers to make the journey.

The arrival on Friday of another vessel, reported to be carrying about 70 asylum-seekers, brings to seven the number of boats to land since Jakarta recalled its ambassador on November 18 amid allegations that Australian intelligence officials attempted to listen in on Dr Yudhoyono's phone calls in 2009.

In recent days, Australia and Indonesia agreed to negotiate boundaries for intelligence gathering. But last Thursday, Mr Natalegawa suggested the protocol might not go into effect until the middle of next year, insisting it would need to be signed by the countries' two leaders. The next bilateral meeting is scheduled for June 2014.

Dr Boediono said the two countries had an obligation to find a solution to the growing standoff, adding the governments had a history of finding solutions to thorny issues that occasionally occurred.

"We have some things we have suggested to Australia on what we have to do to rebuild the loss of mutual trust and so on," he said. "I think we can do that."

Mining & energy

Government to utilize 'loopholes' to appease exporters

Jakarta Post - December 20, 2013

Bagus BT Saragih and Linda Yulisman – The government may provide relief for mineral exporters, who have cried foul over the policy of banning raw ore exports from next year, by utilizing "loopholes" in the 2009 law on minerals and coal mining.

Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said the government was seeking ways to allow mining companies that had concrete plans to build smelters to be able to export ore, even if their smelters were not able to process their entire output.

"For miners that clearly don't have any processing facilities, let alone plans, it will be easy for me: they will be banned from exporting. No excuses," he said.

He said he still needed to consult legal experts to ensure there would be no violations of the law, and hoped to present the conclusions to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono later this week in a planned limited Cabinet meeting. The President would have the final say on the proposal, the minister said.

The option of seeking legal avenues was taken after the House of Representatives recently rejected a proposal to exempt certain mining companies from the rule.

The law and its implementing regulations will only allow exports of ore that have been locally processed as of Jan. 12, to help develop the downstream industry and create added value.

Among miners opposed to the government's plan is PT Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of US-based Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc., which has persistently refused to build a smelter to process its gold and copper ore.

It has also warned it will have to cut its production by 60 percent, since the existing smelting plant it uses will not be able to process the company's entire ore output, thereby laying off more than half of its staff, or around 16,000 workers.

Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT), an Indonesian subsidiary of the US-based Newmont Corp., has also said that it will have to halt mining operations if the ban is imposed.

Trade Ministry director general for foreign trade Bachrul Chairi said recently that the implementation of the ore export ban would cause losses of US$7.13 billion next year.

Hatta also acknowledged that Japan's business community had tried to lobby Yudhoyono over the policy during his visit to Tokyo last week. Indonesia supplied 44 percent of Japan's nickel ore imports of 4.7 million tons last year, trade data quoted by Bloomberg shows.

Indonesia also provided more than half of China's nickel ore imports of 65 million tons in 2012, along with 47 percent of the Philippines' imports.

Didie W. Soewondho, who leads the mineral downstream task force of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said exemptions from the ban should be allowed for miners with serious intentions to build smelters locally.

In its proposal to the government, the business group requested that all holders of mining permits and special mining permits be allowed to export mineral ores. Similarly, holders of work contracts should be permitted to sell mineral concentrates during the period of construction of their smelters.

Economy & investment

New law to promote competition, downstream industries

Jakarta Post - December 20, 2013

Linda Yulisman, Jakarta – The House of Representatives on Thursday passed the industry bill into law to promote, among other things, the enhancement of downstream activities, replacing the obsolete Industry Law issued in 1984.

Officials say the new law will serve as a game changer in the country's industrial development. Once it is effective, the law is expected to help the local industry cope with new challenges resulting from rapid economic development, including globalization and trade liberalization.

"With the House's approval, the law will from now on serve as a strong legal basis to ensure the development of the domestic industry. Apart from that, it is expected to help create an independent, advanced and competitive Indonesian industry," said Erik Satrya Wardhana, who chairs the House's working committee that deliberated the bill.

The law comprises 17 chapters and 125 articles on various vital industrial issues, such as a master plan for industrial development, industrial zoning, the development of industrial resources, industry defense and safeguard and the green industry.

Industry Minister MS Hidayat said the new law would be essential for determining the direction of industrial development, highlighting programs the government was promoting, including the downstreaming of the local industry.

"The 1984 Industry Law, effective for nearly 30 years, cannot sufficiently address the problems we are facing today and the highly dynamic industrial growth. The new law will help us improve the competitiveness of our domestic industry ahead," Hidayat told reporters on the sidelines of the plenary session.

To support the full implementation of the law, the ministry would early next year work on a series of derivative regulations, Hidayat said. Another priority would be to design a long-term master plan on industrial development, he added.

"It will be a grand strategy for 20 years, of which steps will be phased in five years. It will integrate efforts that we're now carrying out sporadically," Hidayat said, underlining the similarity of the master plan with the five-year state policy guidelines the country implemented in the past for national planning.

In addition to this, the law also requires the establishment of the so- called national industry committee, which Hidayat said would be ad hoc in nature and would work in coordination with related stakeholders both within and outside the government.

The Industry Ministry's director general for international industry cooperation Agus Tjahajana said the new law provided the much-needed instruments to help the domestic industry shoulder problems created by heightened international trade in addition to trade measures such as trade remedy.

"It mandates the Industry Ministry to boost the competitiveness of our domestic industry by way of empowering existing resources, such as capital and locally-sourced raw material," Agus said.

At present, Indonesia applies an average 6.8 percent duty on imported products, much lower than other emerging economies such as China (9.6 percent), Brazil (13.7 percent) and India (13 percent). To a certain extent, that eases barriers for imports, and consequently, has posed serious challenges for the local industry, which in the past decade had struggled with deindustrialization.

Hendri Saparini, executive director of the Center of Reform on Economics (CORE), however voiced her criticism of the new law, saying that industrial policy and strategy should come before a law on industry, along with a law on trade.

"The industrial policy and strategy will serve as a reference to seek solutions to develop industry to figure out what kind of trade policies, fiscal policies and monetary policies are necessary to reach the industrial goals. Then later, we have the law as an instrument to achieve the ends," Hendri said.

Key points in industry bill:

Article 31: To increase added value of natural resources, the government pushes for the development of a domestic processing industry.
Article 44-45: The government facilitates competitive financing for industrial development through state-owned enterprises and private firms.
Article 63: In certain cases, the government pioneers the development of industrial estates.
Article 84: Strategic industry is controlled by the state.
Article 97: Industry defense measures are determined by the President with recommendations from ministers.
Article 100: The government can defend any industry that suffers losses resulting from global economic pressure through fiscal stimulus and credits.

'Unrealistic targets' prevent government addressing problems properly

Jakarta Post - December 19, 2013

Linda Yulisman, Jakarta – The government's inability to set realistic economic targets for this year has resulted in the failure to seek solutions that adequately address the current economic situation, says an economic think tank.

Hendri Saparini, executive director of the Center of Reform on Economics (CORE), said on Wednesday that the government was in constant denial throughout this year over its inability to achieve its ambitious targets amid a persistently gloomy external outlook, thereby its policy responses were not able to sufficiently solve its real problems.

In the 2013 state budget, the government set 6.8 percent economic growth and 4.9 percent inflation, which were then corrected to 6.3 percent and 7.2 percent respectively, due to various factors, including the ongoing global downturn and fuel-price increases.

However, despite the changes, the economy grew below expectations in the first three quarters at 5.8 percent, the lowest level in almost three years, on weak investment and exports, while inflation shot to 8.4 percent on a yearly basis in November.

The country's economic fundamentals were not as strong as expected, but the government still focused on high growth and investment, putting the economy at risk of overheating, marked by high inflation and a huge trade deficit, said Hendri.

"Such an economic structure should have driven the government to correct its policies, but it still aims for growth amid a widening trade deficit because it doesn't worry about our economic fundamentals," she said during a discussion on the 2013 economic review.

The government's claim that a dependence on the sizeable import of raw materials and intermediary goods was necessary to support investment and exports was false, she said, because the inflows of investment were mostly channeled to production serving the domestic market.

Spurring growth through consumer spending and investment thus posed a serious threat to the trade balance, she added.

In its review, CORE also points out policy mishaps by the government in dealing with the current situation, including raising taxes on luxury goods and opening access for food imports as wide as possible.

It says that the luxury goods tax increase will be inefficient in its attempt to overcome the trade gap through curbing the purchase of consumer goods, which only contribute to less than 10 percent of overall imports.

In addition, while easing raw food imports can serve as a short-term solution to pacify inflation, the government failed to address the root of the problem – insufficient agricultural production. "So far, there is no domestic economic reform to end the trade deficit," Hendri said.

Dwi Andreas Santosa, an agricultural expert from the Bogor Agriculture Institute, said that the government should help local farmers with much- needed subsidies to boost production.

"The subsidies on fertilizers and seeds may have proven ineffective, so maybe the government can try other forms of subsidies. For now, farmers may want subsidies dealing with price," he said.

The subsidies could be provided to enable prices to stay at appropriate levels, allowing farmers to earn profits from production. This would be an incentive for them to grow, Andreas added.

Under the recent deal agreed to during the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Bali, developing countries, including Indonesia, are allowed to breach the subsidy limit of 10 percent of national output for public stockholding for the purpose of national food security programs, without being sued by other members.

Analysis & opinion

What ever happened in Kraras, Timor Leste, 'Pak' Prabowo?

Jakarta Post - December 20, 2013

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Amsterdam – One of the most interesting – and most controversial – presidential hopefuls is, no doubt, Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto. He is among the few who have both attracted public attention and offered new ideas and policy initiatives. But he also was once closely connected with president Soeharto's family and allegedly involved in a number of human rights violations.

Yet one would be left wondering why we know little about his role in Indonesia's former 27th province, now Timor Leste, where his later military career was shaped. In the late 1970s he was proud to have eliminated Fretilin's first president Nicolau do Reis Lobato.

Prabowo's name has often been associated with a village called Kraras – the place where recently Timor Leste commemorated both the 38th anniversary of its declaration of independence and the 30th anniversary of the worst massacre in the nation's history.

Kraras, some 300 km from the capital Dili, in the district of Viqueque, is beautifully couched in a wide valley with a river near the forest. When I visited in April last year, I found it almost an empty field with a few dispersed houses containing fewer than 100 inhabitants. Friendly villagers welcomed us as we asked about the locality, its people and its history.

Nothing – except the memorial monuments – suggests it was once the locus of a bloody massacre. But in neighboring areas called Bibileo and Klalerek Mutin, one will find houses and various relics of the recent past that indicate militarization. One building, now a school, must have been a center of command with signs for the platoons once stationed there.

Some villagers even decorated their houses with wanted posters of 19 generals seen as being responsible for the country's bloody past. Among them are photographs of generals Soeharto, Benny Moerdani, Wiranto, Kiki Syahnakri and Prabowo.

With the tragedy still fresh in the area's memory, the depth of the trauma caused by the atrocities can be seen in villagers' narratives and resentments.

Unlike East Timorese elsewhere, most people here never learned Indonesian or if they have they are reluctant to use it.

The years 1983-1985 were critical. In March 1983, then Indonesian military chief Gen. M. Jusuf sent Col. Gatot Purwanto to meet with then Falintil guerilla leader Xanana Kay Rala Gusmao. In a place near Kraras the two agreed to hold a cease-fire and celebrated it with a dinner party for soldiers and guerillas.

However, the euphoria was soon dashed. The circumstances that led to renewed violence remain largely unclear.

For one thing, the expectation that the United Nations' condemnation of Indonesia's invasion would result in a negotiation toward self- determination had been frustrated all along. The diplomatic status-quo remained and tension arose despite the truce, with reportedly some shootings. The Falintil planned levatamento, a national uprising.

At the same time, the special Kopasandha military units (later named Kopassus or special forces) seemed to have been consolidated in Falintil's most important command area, the Region II (Eastern), in Viqueque, and started to recruit a greater number of Timorese.

In an oppressive conflict situation – as in later-day Aceh – it's only common that locals recruited to assist the Army covertly developed empathy with their compatriots in the resistance.

Indeed, following the invasion war (1975-1978), some guerilla units changed tactics by surrendering only to rebuild forces from within the Army. The Falintil may have planned an uprising throughout the country, but when mass desertions and guerilla attacks occurred only in Viqueque district on Aug. 8, 1983, it was not clear whether these were part of the plan, or provoked by violence against Timorese women, or both.

On that day, a deserted unit of hansip (local civil defense) led by Commandante Ular Ruhik, launched an attack and killed 16 Indonesian soldiers. One survivor – a medical officer – hiding on the top of a tree, escaped days later and reported the event.

A month later, in mid-September, an unspeakable tragedy occurred. An Army unit with hansip went to Kraras in search of the killers, burned the houses and persecuted the families and others who ran into the forest. There were several massacres at different times; at one point some 180 men were executed near Wetuku River. A priest's note listed 287 people among the dead – young and old, mostly male, and a baby. An uncounted dozens more disappeared.

It was a massacre of targeted groups of unarmed civilians – an Indonesian variant of US army reprisal killings in My Lai, Vietnam, in 1968.

The Kraras massacre, then, is only second to the most disastrous and infamous clash at Mount Matebian in the late 1970s, and, for Indonesia, the worst atrocity since independence – second only to the 1965 killings.

Strangely, however, it's not clear who the commander(s) of unit(s) involved in the massacre around Sept. 17 were, even though Prabowo's Chandraka 8 unit was seen in the region around that period.

As early as April, Col. Purwanto had warned governor Mario Carrascalao that "the peace process is already being sabotaged by Capt. Prabowo" who went in and out of Timor.

The villagers I met three decades later, mostly 1983 survivors, all had heard of Prabowo, but none said to have seen him in the area during the horrific events. But earlier witnesses, including those interviewed by UN police in the early 2000s, claimed he did command the operation.

Curiously, though, the villagers claimed two Timorese hansip leaders, generally known to have been Prabowo's loyal bodyguards, had directed the killings that turned Kraras into a village of widows. In short, sources and researchers suspect Prabowo was directly involved, although his whereabouts and exact role remain unclear.

With an international tribunal seeming unlikely in the foreseeable future, no one should wish for any hope – such as one raised by the 2008 Truth and Friendship Commission (CTF) – that the people of Timor Leste will bury and forget those painful events. Never.

It's of great importance, then, for Indonesia and its future generation to be absolutely clear about what sort of president they would have if Prabowo, given his past controversies, was elected.

Time has come to resolve the legacy of human wrongs. As exceptional the dignity of the nation may be at stake, it's important to learn and scrutinize any response he would give to the principal question that must be asked yet again.

That is: What happened in Kraras, and where were you then, Pak Prabowo?

[The writer is a journalist.]

Letter to the editor: Canadian activist clarifies

Jakarta Post - December 19, 2013

On Dec. 16, 2013, I visited Abepura Penitentiary in West Papua to deliver postcards and video bearing messages of support and solidarity to West Papuan political prisoners.

The messages were collected throughout the "Pedaling for Papua" campaign, during which I rode my bicycle 12,000 kilometers through 7 countries raising awareness about human rights issues and political imprisonment in West Papua.

On Dec. 16, The Jakarta Post wrote an article about the action at Abepura Penitentiary. I was appalled to see how this article explicitly mischaracterizes both me and the action. I am misquoted as having said, regarding the political prisoners I met that day, "They are healthy and have no problems. I'm sure that officers in the prison have treated them well."

While it was indeed the case that the prisoners I met that day, who included West Papua National Committee (KNPB) general secretary Victor Yeimo, Amnesty International prisoner of conscience Filep Karma and President of the Federated Republic of West Papua Forkorus Yaboisembut, were in good spirits, the situation of them and their colleagues at this prison and other prisons is anything but "free from problems".

Yeimo had been severely beaten with rattan canes upon his arrest and is currently serving a sentence three times longer than was originally reported by his lawyers.

Filep required a lengthy and difficult campaign by Amnesty International and other NGOs to receive critical medical care. Forkorus, at 57-years-old, was kicked and beaten after being arrested for peaceful actions in 2011. All of these men, along with the dozens of others at the prison and elsewhere, are in jail for peaceful protest, raising flags and speaking openly about their political beliefs.

The article is an insult and offense to these men, as well as all those who risked arrest and deportation to make this action happen. It is also damaging to the efforts made by Papuans Behind Bars, the "Pedaling for Papua" campaign and many other organizations and individuals who stand in solidarity with West Papuans.

Jeremy Bally
Pedaling for Papua Campaign
Jakarta

Note: Thank you for your clarification.

– Editor

Canadian activist visits Papuan political prisoners

Jakarta Post - December 16, 2013

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Jeremy Bally, 26, an environmental activist from Canada, visited Abepura Penitentiary in Jayapura, on Monday, to meet Papuan political prisoners and detainees.

Bally's visit was aimed at distributing 40 postcards from activists in seven countries to show their support of their struggle.

Among those he met were Dominikus Serabut, Forkorus Yoboisembut, Philep Karma, Selpius Bobii and Viktor Yeimo.

"They are healthy and have no problems. I'm sure that officers in the prison have treated them well," Bally told journalists in Jayapura after the visit.

Bally said he collected the postcards from Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK, and the US – and his home country, Canada.

Bally said shortly after he arrived in Papua that the situation was different to what many people had expected: An unsafe and terrifying place.

"I'm glad that I can convey the postcards. Papua's condition is in fact different to what I've heard," said Bally, who returns to Canada on Tuesday. (ebf)