Robert Matau – The Melanesian Spearhead Group heads into further talks this month to seek more answers from the MSG mission that failed to meet indigenous West Papuan leaders in West Papua last month.

Whilst new MSG chairman Victor Tutugoro who is also spokesperson for the Front de Liberation Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) in New Caledonia has not revealed the agenda he has called for the meeting days after the delegation returned from the mission. Tutugoro says the meeting will take place in Port Vila in the middle of this month (February).

The MSG delegation to Indonesia was represented by Fiji's Foreign Affairs Minister, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola; Papua New Guinea's Foreign Affairs Minister, Rimbink Pato; Solomon Islands Foreign Affairs Minister, Soalaoi Clay Forau; and FLNKS representative, Yvonne Faua.

Vanuatu's foreign minister, Edward Natapei, withdrew from the mission because the itinerary excluded meetings with groups concerned about alleged human rights abuses in West Papua.

West Papua snub

West Papuan leaders have expressed disappointment towards the apparent snub from the MSG mission.

What had begun as a desire to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), as per their request at the MSG summit in Noumea last year, was snuffed out by Indonesia's refusal to let the MSG leaders meet indigenous West Papuan leaders last month. It looks like attempts to accommodate West Papua's request to join the MSG club may look remote.

The West Papua National Council for Liberation was invited to the MSG summit in Noumea last year where they sought to become a member of the MSG. However, it seems economic development and bilateral ties took precedence over the MSG membership and other concerns of West Papuans.

A group of West Papuan protestors staged a small but aggressive protest on January 16, at the hotel where MSG leaders were staying. West Papuan Kilion Wenda sent Islands Business youtube links of the protests showing them shouting down the motorcade of Melanesian leaders.

The MSG leaders were stopped by a group of 20 West Papuan protestors at the entrance of Borobudur Hotel in Jakarta where the MSG leaders were staying. Hotel security personnel, some armed with iron baseball bats tried to ward off the protestors with little effect.

"The protestors shouted at the MSG delegation and the Indonesian officials raising their concerns at the failure of the delegation to meet West Papuan leaders," Wenda said.

All eyes are now on the upcoming MSG meeting where the West Papuans are hoping they will get another chance to present their case to the MSG.

Bloody clash in Timika: One dead, 28 injured

Jakarta Post - February 12, 2014

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – A bloody clash between two groups in Timika, Papua, has claimed one life and severely injured 28 others. The clash lasted two days.

The police said the situation remained critical as there were no signs of peace from the conflicting parties.

"We are still trying to resolve the conflict between the two groups. We have invited traditional and religious figures to work hand-in-hand with us in solving this problem," Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Pudjo Sulistyo said on Wednesday.

He said back-up personnel from the police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) in Kotaraja, Jayapura regency, had been deployed to help safeguard the city.

The dead man was identified as Pieter Fautngil, who died after being stabbed in the stomach and head. Timika has been described as being like a ghost town since the fighting broke out.

One local resident, Simsone, acknowledged he had no reason to stay out late. He said that during the clash, most residents went home early.(dic)

Separatist flag raiser sentenced to three years

Antara News - February 11, 2014

Biak, Papua – The district court of Biak, Papua sentenced Oktavianus Warnares, defendant in the separatist "Morning Star" flag raising case in Biak Timur, Papua, on May 1, 2013, to three years imprisonment, here on Tuesday.

Chief Judge Demon Sembiring stated, while reading the verdict, that the defendant was legitimately found guilty of violating Article 106 in conjunction with Criminal Code Article 110 in conjunction with Law Number 1 of 1951 as well as Article 55 of the Criminal Code.

Upon hearing the verdict, the defendant, flanked by lawyers Gustaf Kawer and Olga Hamadi, clarified that he would think about whether or not to appeal.

Prosecutor Leni Silaban, meanwhile, noted that she will appeal the verdict. Earlier Markus Sawian, a defendant on the same case, had been sentenced to two years in jail, while first defendant George Simyapen 2.6 years, second defendant Yosef Wamaer two years and Yosef Arwakom 1.8 years, in jail.

The dossier of defendant Johanis Boserem, meanwhile, had been returned to the prosecutor because the defendant was proven to be mentally disturbed.

In their consideration, the judges stated that their activities had threatened the existence of the Unitary State of Indonesia.

The judges meanwhile had ordered the eradication of pieces of evidence including a Morning Star flag, a revolver, a military costume, 39 bullets, self-made bomb and several others.

West Papua legislators found guilty of graft

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2014

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The Jayapura Corruption Court sentenced on Monday former West Papua Legislative Council (DPRD) speaker Yosef Yohan Auri to 15 months in jail and fined him Rp 50 million (US$4,100) for misappropriating Rp 22 billion that initially came from the West Papua provincial budget in 2010.

The funds had been allocated to provincial-owned enterprise PT Padoma Doberai Mandiri (PT Padoma) as capital. Judge Khairul Fuad, who is also head of the Jayapura District Court, presided over the trial, in which all 44 members of the West Papua DPRD had been implicated.

The verdict was similar to that handed to former West Papua DPRD deputy speaker Robert Melianus Nauw and former West Papua provincial secretary Marthen Luter Rumadas, while West Papua DPRD deputy speaker Jimmy Demianus Idjie and PT Padoma managing director Mamad Suhadi were sentenced to 12 months and fined Rp 50 million each.

The five defendants were proven guilty of violating the Corruption Law. They received different sentences despite the fact that prosecutors earlier sought 18-month sentences and Rp 50 million fines for all of them. According to Khairul, they played different roles in the case.

"Three of the defendants were sentenced to 15 months because they initiated the crime, while the other two executed the plan hatched by the others," said Khairul.

Their lawyer, Piet Ell, said he supported the rulings but would strive to get his clients released. "This should be a civil case because it was a matter of loaning money. The money has been returned, so I believe my clients should be acquitted," said Piet.

Yosef said he would appeal the sentence, adding that the state had not suffered losses as the borrowed money had been returned. Prosecutor Frenkie Son said he would consider whether to appeal against the ruling.

In previous hearings, it was revealed that the Rp 22 billion was part of capital allocated to PT Padoma by the provincial administration for a program on natural resources management, development, trade and industry and services.

PT Padoma was established in 2009, with capital of Rp 100 billion injected by the provincial administration. The 44 councilors allegedly borrowed Rp 22 billion from the company in September 2010 to pay for personal assets, such as houses and cars, as well as to cover personal expenses.

Law observer Gustav Kawer criticized the ruling, saying that sentences of slightly more than one year for graft was an indication that the "judicial mafia" had played a role in the court's decision.

"Corruption cases are considered special and those involved should be punished harshly, but instead judges at the Jayapura Corruption Court handed down light sentences," said Gustav.

Special MSG meeting on West Papua put back two weeks

Radio New Zealand International - February 10, 2014

The chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, Victor Tutugoro, says the group's special meeting to discuss the outcome of a visit to Indonesia's West Papua has been put off until the end of this month.

The trip, which was boycotted by Vanuatu, was meant to discover more about the West Papuan National Coalition for Liberation, which is seeking MSG membership.

The meeting had been scheduled for this week but Islands Business reported last week that Fiji was unhappy Vanuatu was to host the meeting.

Mr Tutugoro, who represents the New Caledonian Kanak group on the MSG, has not explained the reasons for the delay but he says the meeting will be held on the island of Santo in Vanuatu's north, rather than at the MSG.

Five Papua fishermen missing after PNG military allegedly sets boat on fire

Jakarta Globe - February 9, 2014

Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – Five Indonesian fishermen remained missing as of Sunday after military officers in neighboring Papua New Guinea allegedly told them to jump off their boat before setting it on fire.

A total of 10 fishermen from the Papua district of Merauke were on board a fishing boat searching for sea cucumbers in waters off Merauke, near the border between Indonesia and PNG, on Thursday, when they were accused of breaching the border.

Dozens of PNG military soldiers stopped the boat, and brought the men on board the military ship, before setting the boat – along with its load – on fire.

The 10 Indonesian fishermen were then told to jump into waters approximately 5 kilometers away from Merauke's coast, Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Pujo Sulistyo said.

"Five of them survived. They were able to reach an [Indonesian Navy] post... in Merauke," Pujo said on Saturday. "But the whereabouts of five others are unknown."

On Sunday, a joint team from the Indonesian Navy, the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) and local volunteers continued the search for the five missing fishermen.

Brig. Gen. (Marine) Buyung Lalana, the commander of the Indonesian Navy's Merauke office, said the Navy ship KRI BOA was ready to be dispatched if the search yielded no results.

He added the Indonesian Navy was investigating the matter. "We will hold a meeting this afternoon to hear directly the chronology of the incident," Buyung said on Sunday, according to Indonesian news portal republika.co.id.

Aceh

Sharia should not apply for non-Muslims: Aceh ulema

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2014

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Imposing sharia on non-Muslims is inappropriate as Islamic law only regulates matters relevant to Islam and to do so tarnishes the image of the faith and thus harms it, says an Acehnese cleric.

"It is impossible for Islamic law to regulate the lives of non-Muslims, since they do not adhere to Islam," said Aceh Clerics Association secretary-general Faisal Ali.

The Aceh Legislative Council recently passed the Qanun Acara Jinayat, a sharia-based criminal procedures code, which applies rules and punishments governing behavior in Islamic law to everyone in the province, including non-Muslims.

Faisal called the measure a form of coercion and carelessness on the part of the legislature. "This definitely is connected with this year's legislative and presidential elections," said Faisal.

According to him, the passage of this qanun (bylaw) was a ploy by Aceh's lawmakers and reflected a poor understanding of religion and law. "It would be very difficult to apply such a qanun in Aceh because not all of the residents in Aceh are Muslim," said Faisal.

On Thursday, in announcing the Qanun Acara Jinayat, councilor Abdullah Saleh said: "The qanun does indeed oblige everyone in Aceh to follow sharia without exception."

Article 5 of the Qanun Acara Jinayat states that bylaws governing behavior that is illegal under sharia would be applied to everyone in Aceh.

The head of legal affairs at the Aceh provincial secretariat, Edrian, confirmed that the Qanun Acara Jinayat, which was passed by the Aceh legislature and then approved by Governor Zaini Abdullah on Dec. 13, 2013, had been submitted to the Home Ministry on Feb. 2 this year.

"We are still waiting for the Home Ministry to verify and revise the qanun, which can take 60 days. Hopefully the ministry will immediately respond to the matter so it can be immediately enacted," said Edrian.

In anticipation of its enactment, on Wednesday sharia police pulled over female motorists in Banda Aceh who were not wearing a headscarf. Non-Muslim motorists were allowed to go with a warning to start covering their heads in public. Male motorists wearing shorts were also pulled over and told to start exclusively wearing pants outside their homes.

Head of the Aceh Provincial Sharia Enforcement Office Samuddin said three- time violators – Muslim or not – of sharia could be publicly caned.

Non-Muslim residents in Aceh have expressed their objections. "It's weird. A far as I know, a headscarf is just for Muslim women, right?" said a Buddhist who refused to give his name.

The Qanun Acara Jinayat was first proposed in 2009 but it was nixed by then governor Irwandi Yusuf amid loud criticism from human rights activists.

Meanwhile, Edrian said Aceh had four sharia-based criminal bylaws that have been enforced in the province since 2003. They are Qanun No. 11/2002 on religious affairs, worship and religious symbols, Qanun No. 12/2003 on khamar (consumption of alcohol), Qanun No. 13/2003 on gambling and Qanun No. 14/2003 on khalwat (affectionate contact between an unmarried couple).

"The four qanun are part of the sharia-based criminal code, which will be regulated and implemented via the recently approved Qanun Acara Jinayat," said Edrian on Friday.

According to Edrian, in the future, the Aceh administration and legislature would seek to implement a more comprehensive sharia-based criminal code that went beyond the four qanun currently enforced in the province.

He said, however, that in later practice, there was a possibility that sharia would not actually apply to non-Muslim citizens. He did not give details on what might exempt someone from sharia.

Aceh sets example for Indonesia in addressing crimes of the past

Jakarta Globe - February 8, 2014

Isabelle Arradon – It is always difficult to say when an armed conflict is truly "over".

Even after the guns have stopped firing and the casualties have stopped piling up, wounds still linger – family members do not know what has happened to their loved ones, perpetrators of horrific crimes escape justice, and survivors struggle through lost homes and livelihood. This is true all over the world, and no less in Indonesia.

The devastating Aceh conflict may officially have ended with the 2005 peace accord between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the government, but victims and communities there are still living with the consequences today.

Fifteen years ago – on Feb. 3, 1999 – one of the conflict's worst massacres took place. Just past midnight, a military unit opened indiscriminate fire on thousands of people who were returning home after attending a rally at the Matang Ulim village in Idi Cut, East Aceh – ostensibly a revenge attack for the nearby kidnapping and killing of ten army personnel a month before. At least seven people were killed that night and dozens wounded. To cover their tracks, soldiers reportedly tied the bodies with barbed wire, put them into sacks and dumped them in a nearby river.

Fifteen years later, no one has yet been held to account for the killings in Idi Cut – this is sadly emblematic of the Aceh conflict as whole, and of many other of Indonesia's past conflicts. In Aceh, the conflict remains an open wound – the fate of many of those killed is still unknown, perpetrators of human rights abuses walk free, and governments' attempts to provide reparations to those affected by the conflict have been piecemeal and limited at best. This is a situation Amnesty International highlighted in a report last year – Time to Face the Past – that examined the government's failure to provide the justice, truth and reparations victims of human rights abuses during the Aceh conflict are entitled to under international law.

It has been an uphill struggle for the many human rights groups and activists who have been fighting for the rights of the tens of thousands of victims and their family members. There has been a blatant lack of political will to tackle crimes of the past.

On the national stage, there has been a lack of progress in addressing past abuses, in particular during President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's two terms in office ending this year. The central government has failed to enact a new national truth commission law, after it was struck down by the Constitutional Court in 2006, and there has yet to be a comprehensive reparation program specifically aimed at addressing the harm suffered by victims and families of crimes under international law over the last decades.

Furthermore, many victims in Aceh feel they have been abandoned by the international community, especially the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, who played a key role in the peace process.

But in December 2013, there was a historic breakthrough. The Aceh House of People's Representatives passed the Aceh Truth and Reconciliation bylaw on Dec. 27 that calls for the establishment of a truth commission. Although the bill is far from perfect, it shows that through political will, in this case Acehnese legislators, there can be concrete steps to address the past.

This Aceh truth commission could go a long way toward understanding the circumstances that led to past violations, learning from the past to ensure that such crimes will not be committed again, and ensuring that shared experiences are acknowledged, known and preserved. It is now up to the Acehnese and central governments to ensure that the bylaw is implemented at the earliest opportunity and that the commission operates in line with international standards.

The Acehnese legislature has set an example that the rest of Indonesia should take note of. A national truth and reconciliation law should be top of the political agenda. Hundreds of thousands are still waiting for truth and justice from Indonesia's many past conflicts – such as during the events of 1965-66, the May 1998 riots, and the conflicts in Papua and Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor).

Addressing these past crimes would not only contribute to healing the open wounds of the civilian population, it would also go a long way toward ending the general mistrust people across the country will feel towards authorities and the judiciary, as long as the complete impunity for serious human rights violations remains.

In April and July, Indonesians will be electing a new legislature and president – but while campaigning is already underway, addressing crimes of the past has disappointingly largely been absent. This is not an issue that should be swept under the carpet, but one that should take front and center stage in the debate. The Acehnese legislature has shown what is possible – it is time for the rest of Indonesia to follow suit.

[Isabelle Arradon is Amnesty International's deputy Asia-Pacific director.]

Sexual & domestic violence

Police urged to take perspective of rape victims

Jakarta Post - February 10, 2014

Jakarta – Almost all rape cases could be brought to justice if the government revised the Criminal Code and changed its perspective to match that of victims, and if the police improved their professionalism when carrying out field and forensic investigations with forensic experts, two criminal law experts say.

Yesmil Anwar of Padjadjaran University in Bandung and Iva Kasuma of the University of Indonesia's School of Law share the opinion that visum et repertum and expert witnesses – instead of five pieces of evidence, as required by the Criminal Code – are enough to bring alleged rapists to justice.

The three other pieces of evidence are eyewitness testimonies, field investigation results and suspect admissions.

"If the two pieces of evidences were strong enough, then there would be no reason for the police to delay processing the rape cases that are piling up," Yesmil told The Jakarta Post by phone on Saturday.

He added many reports of rape or other violence against women and children were not processed as victims usually could not present a witness to give testimony.

Many alleged rapists have hidden behind the required presence of witnesses and the police have done the same because they are not as qualified as police in the United States, he said.

The bill on the revision of the Criminal Code was submitted by the government to the House of Representatives last year but there has been no political signal that it would be deliberated in the immediate future because there are too many crucial issues requiring review.

Iva said the government and the police should try to understand the perspective of victims of violence by giving special treatment to them in handling their cases.

Iva Kasuma, who also took part in the rally to demand that police carry out thorough investigations into rape cases, said the police should improve their professionalism in investigating cases and should give special treatment to victims, because they have been trained on an annual basis to handle violence against women and children.

According to Iva, the presence of eyewitnesses is less relevant in processing rape cases when the police and forensic experts were adequately qualified to conduct forensic examinations.

On Saturday morning, 30 members of the Jakarta Volunteers against Sexual Violence group staged a demonstration in front of the National Police Headquarters, demanding that police carry out thorough investigations into rape cases, including the recent case involving Sitok Srengenge, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia.

The protesters, mostly women, shouted statements that the police and other stakeholders should change the Criminal Code and change their mind-set when handling the increasing number of rape cases in the country.

According to them, almost 35 rape cases occur across Indonesia every day, but most cases cannot be processed – mostly because of the absence of eyewitnesses.

Meanwhile, Metro Kebayoran Baru police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Anom Setyadji said that the police responded to the protest quickly and would channel the protesters' messages to the relevant division.

Anom added that, as the father of a daughter, he personally agreed with the demonstrators and their demands. "A tragedy like [rape] could happen to anyone, including me. As investigators, we have an obligation [to resolve the cases]," he said. (ask)

Labour & migrant workers

Indonesia's protection of domestic workers 'shameful': Amnesty

Agence France Presse - February 14, 2014

Jakarta – Amnesty International condemned Indonesia's parliament Friday for "dragging its feet" on the protection of domestic workers, despite the recent brutal abuse of an Indonesian maid in Hong Kong.

The rights organisation called on Indonesia's parliament to pass a bill on the protection of domestic workers that was drafted in 2010 before the legislative's term expires in September, saying it was "shameful" the bill had been ignored.

The case of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, who was allegedly scalded and beaten repeatedly over an eight-month period by her Hong Kong employer, caused ire in Indonesia, a source country for maids in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and the Middle East.

But Amnesty International said in a statement that abuse was also common in Indonesia, where millions of domestic workers live in "legal limbo" and are not granted the same protections as other workers.

"They often live on pitiful salaries in poor conditions, and are blocked from challenging abuse by their employers," the statement said.

"Millions of them, the vast majority women or girls, are at risk of exploitation and many are abused, but have no legal means of improving their own situation," said the organisation's Indonesia researcher Papang Hidayat, adding the workers remained "second-class citizens".

A series of dramatic cases in the past year have highlighted the vulnerable situation of domestic workers across Indonesia.

The case of Siti Nur Amalah emerged in December, when the domestic worker accused her Jakarta employer of starving, beating and sexually abusing her over a four-month period the previous year.

She said the abuse left her blind, after which her employer returned her to an employment agency and instructed her to not report the abuse.

Sulistyaningsih left hospital earlier this month after being treated for burns and head injuries, tearfully expressing hope that her case would prevent future abuse of "small people like us".

She had heavy support from fellow domestic workers in the country, some of whom took to the streets demanding their rights.

Amnesty International in November also condemned the "slavery-like" conditions faced by thousands of Indonesian domestic helpers in Hong Kong and accused authorities of "inexcusable" inaction.

Workers protest outsourcing

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2014

Tangerang – Workers from car component producer PT Putra Bangun Reberindo in Cikupa Industrial Estate went on strike Wednesday to protest outsourcing at the company.

"We oppose the outsourcing system and we demand the management pay workers in accordance with the minimum wage," said Muis, chairman of the All- Indonesian Workers Union (KSPSI), who led the industrial strike.

Muis revealed that 200 workers had been recruited and employed on the basis of a contract that had to be renewed annually and only 40 have had their permanent status.

Ten of the contract-based workers would be dismissed because their contract had been already extended twice (the maximum). "We oppose the outsourcing system because it offers no job security," he said.

Former water firm workers stage rally for jobs

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2014

Jakarta – Hundreds of ex-workers of Tangerang tap water company (PDAM) Tirta Benteng staged a rally in front of the Tangerang Administration Office on Monday demanding their jobs back.

The workers also demanded that the company fire its general director,Tony Wismantoro, for firing hundreds of contract workers. "[PDAM Tangerang] fired 212 out 275 contract workers," said the rally's coordinator, Hamdan Supriadi.

He said the company's management announced on Jan. 24 that it would carry out reselection for contract workers on Jan. 26.

Tony Wismantoro said that he had to reselect workers because the company was overstaffed and caused the budget for wages to increase. The ballooning budget resulted in the company receiving disclaimer status from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), he said.

"Before the reselection, there were 464 PDAM workers, 189 permanent and 275 contract. The recruitment regulation states that for every 1,000 customers, the company needs six workers. We have 27,000 customers now, meaning the ideal number of workers is 257," he said.

Freedom of speech & expression

After Surabaya ban, lively Tan Malaka book discussion held in Kediri

Tribune News - February 9, 2014

Surya Didik Mashudi, Kediri – A "Tan Malaka" book dissertation in Surabaya was closed down by protesters from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). But a similar event in Kediri took place in a lively atmosphere.

More then 100 students took part in the book discussion "Tan Malaka" at the PGRI Nusantara University in the East Java city of Kediri on Saturday February 8.

The book's author, renowned Dutch historian Harry A Poeze had earlier been scheduled to be the speaker at a book dissertation at the C-20 Library in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya, but police and the Indonesian military (TNI) arrived at the venue before the discussion took place and announced that the FPI protesters would close down the event.

Because of concerns that it would cause difficulties, Poeze then cancelled the discussion. That evening, around 30 FPI members arrived at the library building only to find that the event had been cancelled.

Meanwhile a Tan Malaka book discussion with Poeze in Kediri took place in a lively atmosphere with many students enthusiastically taking part in the course of the discussion until the end. The book went down well and was bought in large numbers by students. Following the discussion, the students also asked for Poeze to sign the books.

Poeze himself admitted to being shocked that the Surabaya event was able to be closed down by the FPI. However he suspects that the FPI misunderstood because the discussion was a scholarly forum and not a training course in the ideas of communism.

"There were soldiers and police officers that announced the discussion [had to be] cancelled because FPI protesters would demonstrate. They weren't happy accusing our discussion of being a course in communism", said Poeze.

In fact the discussion of the book "Tan Malaka, Left Wing Movement, and the Indonesian Revolution" was a scholarly meeting. "The FPI people are of the view that Tan Malaka is a communist", he said.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Surabaya police bans 'communist' book talk on Tan Malaka after FPI protest

Jakarta Globe - February 8, 2014

Jakarta – Surabaya police refused to issue a permit for a book discussion on independence fighter Tan Malaka after Islamic groups, including the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), rallied in front of the venue in Surabaya on Friday.

The reading group was supposed to begin at 6:30 p.m. on Friday to discuss a book on philosopher and former exile Tan Malaka by renowned Dutch historian Harry A. Poeze. However, Poeze's publisher, Obor, posted a notice ouside the C20 library saying it had no choice but to cancel the event.

Tan Malaka was a member of Indonesia's communist party and a proponent of a syncretism between Islam and communism. He was executed by Indonesian military forces in 1949.

Indonesian news magazine Tempo reported that several dozen members of hard-line Islamist group the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) under the umbrella of United Islamic People Movement (GUIB) picketed the library in attempt to prevent the talk.

Chaidar Al Hamid, chairman of the FPI's East Java branch said his organization had recommended to police that the discussion be banned on the grounds that the reading group was in fact a communist political meeting.

"It is a meeting of members of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in Surabaya," he said as quoted by local news portal suarasurabaya.net, adding that communist ideology was against Islamic teaching, Pancasila and, therefore, the Constitution.

The FPI, through its twitter handle @DPP_FPI, called for Indonesians to oppose similar Marxist events. "Don't be fooled by agents of the foreigners who want this nation to acknowledge #communist!. Let's hastag: #IndonesiaWithoutCommunist," the organization tweeted on Friday.

The lead monitor of human rights organization Kontras Surabaya condemned the police decision to not allow the talk to go ahead. "The police should not be afraid of the threats from these mass organizations," Fatkhul Khoir said on Friday, as quoted by news portal Merdeka.com. "It's their job to secure the event, instead of banning it."

Political parties & elections

Gerindra considers Prabowo-Hatta ticket

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2014

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party is mulling whether to pair chief patron Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto with National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman and Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa, to run in the upcoming presidential race.

Lawmaker Martin Hutabarat, a member of Gerindra's board of patrons, said on Wednesday that the party considered Hatta to be an excellent running mate for Prabowo in the elections. "PAN chairman Hatta Rajasa is among individuals we are considering as vice-presidential candidates for Prabowo," Martin said.

According to Martin, the pairing of Prabowo with his Javanese and military background and Hatta's non-Javanese, civilian, background would make a perfect combination, although the final decision will be determined by the result of the legislative election in April.

"Gerindra is working on raising public support so that we will have enough votes in the legislative election in order to nominate Prabowo as our presidential candidate," Martin, a lawmaker from the House of Representatives Commission III overseeing law and human rights, said.

The discussion on a possible match between Prabowo and Hatta in the elections was sparked after they held a meeting last February, which quickly led to speculation that the two party leaders were working on a deal that would pave the way for a coalition in the 2014 presidential election.

The speculation about a possible coalition of the two parties continued after the Jakarta-based pollster Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) released its study revealing Hatta as the most favored vice-presidential candidate.

The pollster said, therefore, that a pairing of Prabowo and Hatta would be possible. PAN officially nominated Hatta as their presidential candidate during the party's national meeting in 2011.

Commenting on the matter, PAN deputy chairman Drajad Wibowo agreed that a Prabowo-Hatta ticket in the election was an option. However, Drajad said that PAN had also prepared two other possibilities.

"A Prabowo-Hatta ticket is possible. But don't forget that there is also the option of a Mega-Hatta or Jokowi-Hatta ticket," Drajad said as quoted by news portal kompas.com, referring to chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and former president, Megawati Soekarnoputri, and Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who is also a member of the PDI-P, respectively.

Drajad explained that although PAN had officially nominated Hatta as its presidential candidate, the latter had yet to officially announce his decision whether to run or not. Thus, Drajad said, the final decision would greatly depend on the result of the legislative election.

Hatta would run for the presidency if PAN garnered significant votes in that election and would pair with a candidate from any cultural or professional background, Drajad said.

More Islamic parties hit by graft scandals ahead of polls

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2014

Haeril Halim, Nurfika Osman and Margareth Aritonang, Jakarta – The electoral prospects of the nation's official Islamic parties have taken a turn for the worse with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) now investigating two separate graft scandals that may implicate the leaderships of the United Development Party (PPP) and the Crescent Star Party (PBB).

Along with the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), whose former leader was jailed for 16 years for his role in the infamous beef graft scandal last year, the PPP and the PBB are the only three parties that are officially based on Islam.

With less than two months to go until the legislative election, the KPK announced on Tuesday that it had issued a travel ban on PBB chairman MS Kaban in connection with a graft scandal centering on the 2007 procurement of an integrated radio communications system (SKRT) at the Forestry Ministry. Kaban was forestry minister from 2004 until 2009.

The investigation into the case was revived recently following the arrest of graft fugitive Anggoro Widjojo, the owner of PT Masaro Radiokom, who was accused of bribing several lawmakers and ministry officials to secure the Rp 180 billion (US$14.9 million) project.

Previously, the antigraft body said it had launched an investigation into alleged corruption in the management of the haj pilgrimage, which is under the supervision of the Religious Affairs Ministry, now led by PPP chairman and presidential hopeful Suryadharma Ali.

The KPK is focusing on the procurement of haj services in 2012 and 2013, which are reported to have been worth more than Rp 100 billion. KPK spokesman Johan Budi said his office would summons Suryadharma should the investigators feel the need to question him.

Executive director of Jakarta-based pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia, Burhanuddin Muhtadi, said the scandals would make it even more difficult for the PPP and PBB to pass the legislative threshold, as the two parties were currently struggling to improve their electability.

He said that before the two investigations made headlines recently, the level of support for the PPP was around 1 percent and PBB's support had stabilized at around 4-5 percent. The Legislative Election Law sets the threshold at 3.5 percent.

"Not only will the PPP and PBB suffer but all Islamic-based parties will suffer greatly from the two recent investigations ahead of the general election," he said, adding that while the nationalist parties were also entangled in arguably bigger graft scandals, voters would punish the Islamic parties more severely as they expected better from them.

PBB chief patron Yusril Ihza Mahendra, however, said that the KPK's investigation into Kaban would not affect the electability of the party nor disrupt the activity of its legislative candidates during the upcoming election. "The [travel ban] is a normal investigative procedure and it will not have any affect on the party. We are going to continue our work ahead of the election," Yusril told The Jakarta Post.

PPP deputy secretary-general Arwani Thomafi was also confident the KPK probe would not hurt his party. "I believe the public know well that the Religious Affairs Ministry is not related to the PPP. Moreover, Pak Suryadharma has already said he will support the KPK's investigation," Arwani said on Wednesday.

"We are confident that none of our members are involved in any corruption whatsoever, and we will work hard to convince our voters nationwide about this," Arwani added.

Last year, the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) found that if the general election were to take place at the time of the survey, the PKS, the PBB and the PPP, as well as the National Mandate Party (PAN) and National Awakening Party (PKB) which are regarded as appealing to Muslim voters, would all get less than 5 percent of the vote each and collectively would only garner 21.1 percent of the popular vote, lower than the combined 30 percent they received in the 2009 election.

Jakartans want Jokowi to stay: Survey

Jakarta Post - February 10, 2014

Jakarta – A new public opinion poll has found the majority of Jakartans are not in favor of Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's presidential nomination.

The Jakarta-based National Survey Institute (LSN) found that 72.2 percent of respondents disapproved of Jokowi's running in the 2014 presidential election. The LSN interviewed 790 respondents between Jan. 10 and 24 in Jakarta's five municipalities and regencies for the survey.

LSN senior researcher Gema Nusantara said the majority of respondents wanted Jokowi to remain in Jakarta as governor and tackle the capital's multiple problems. "More than 32 percent of the respondents said they wanted Jokowi to prove himself here until his first term expires in 2017," Gema said.

The survey also found that most Jakartans were dissatisfied with Jokowi's performance so far. In October 2013, the LSN reported that most Jakartans were satisfied with the job the governor was doing in tackling flooding and traffic congestion. His job-approval rating dropped in the latest survey, however.

On the issue of flooding, three months ago, 59.7 percent of Jakarta's residents said they were satisfied with Jokowi's performance but now, that figure had dropped to only 24.8 percent. Regarding traffic jams, 52.7 percent of Jakartans surveyed three months ago approved the governor's approach in City Hall but currently, just 34.6 percent of people were satisfied, according to the LSN.

Numerous public opinion surveys have predicted that Jokowi would win the presidential election if it were to take place today.

Last week, a survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) found that if the presidential election were to take place today, Jokowi would receive between 22.3 and 35.6 percent of the vote, as opposed to Prabowo Subianto, who would garner between 12.6 and 19.7 percent.

The survey estimated the higher number of votes gained by both Jokowi and Prabowo could only materialize if undecided voters – who account for 30 percent of the electorate – made up their minds.

The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) predicted in December last year that 34.7 percent of respondents would vote for Jokowi if an election had taken place then.

Jokowi's candidacy, however, rests solely with Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri.

So far, Megawati has been reluctant to comment on the party's presidential nomination. She has only said the party's presidential candidate will be announced after the legislative election, which is set to take place on April 9.

PPP cancels expected nomination of Suryadharma for 2014 race

Jakarta Globe - February 10, 2014

Robertus Wardi, Jakarta – The United Development Party (PPP) on Sunday announced that it would postpone the nomination of a candidate for the 2014 presidential election until after the legislative elections, effectively canceling its expected plan to nominate Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali.

"It would be an embarrassment for the PPP to put forth a candidate and later receive an insufficient amount of votes to [run]," said Ahmad Yani, a secretary with the party's central executive board.

The news was also confirmed by PPP deputy chairman Suharso Monoarfa, who said it was impossible to nominate a canidate without also declaring a vice presidential candidate. "The declaration has to be in pairs – who would be the running mate?" Suharso said on Saturday, as quoted by Vivanews.com.

Suharso said that the party's working assembly in Bandung, West Java, on Sunday was simply an event to commemorate the PPP's 41st anniversary and conclude the two-day conference.

Party officials in the past indicated that the PPP would nominate Suryadharma at the end of the Bandung assembly. That plan, however, was rejected on Sunday by at least 26 of the party's regional leaders.

"We do not want there to be any declaration of a presidential candidate before the legislative elections, so that those in the party's regional offices could move more freely in anticipating the legislative elections," said Evi Suherman, the PPP's Jambi regional office chairman.

On Saturday, the PPP's communications and media chief, Arwani Thomafi, said internal support for Suryadharma was solid but that the party will continue to field other suggestions for potential candidates.

Arwani emphasized, though, that Suryadharma was a figure with strong ties to Indonesia's Islamic leaders and teachers. "Within the PPP and in Islamic boarding schools, Suryadharma has the capacity to become a presidential candidate for 2014," he said.

Responding to the cancellation, Suryadharma underlined that the national working assembly was a legitimate forum for making strategic decisions for the party and that he would respect any decision agreed upon by its participants. "If such is the decision that has been taken, then I will respect it," Suryadharma said.

Evi added that despite opposing the declaration, the 26 regional offices agreed that the PPP should put together a list of at least nine names for the election in order to enhance the party's electability.

Fadly Nursal, chairman of the party's North Sumatra office, said that the regional offices also suggested that the party should be open to presidential candidates from outside the party. He said that Suryadharma should remain on the list as a candidate but that the eight other names should be people from outside the party.

Among the names are former Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, former Constitutional Court chiefs Mahfud MD and Jimly Asshidiqie, and National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Yenny Wahid.

House approves no pay for poll observers

Jakarta Post - February 10, 2014

Jakarta – The House of Representatives said that it would back the government's plan to scrap payment for election observers in the 2014 legislative election.

Chairman of the House Commission II overseeing regional administration, Agun Gunandjar, said that lawmakers had no problem with the new plan.

"The plan comes from the government so, if they decide to drop [the payment], we're fine with it – as long as they are aware of the importance of monitoring the balloting process," Agun said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Activists have lambasted the government's initial decision to pay observers – who represent political parties at every polling station across the country – during the election using taxpayers' money.

The Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) said that the cost of paying election observers from political parties was an unnecessary burden for the government.

The cost of paying thousands of observers across at least 545,778 polling stations nationwide would be Rp 660 billion [US$54.35 million].

Abstention is not a crime: Activists

Jakarta Post - February 10, 2014

Hans Nicholas Jong – An election watchdog has slammed the General Elections Commission's (KPU) plan to criminalize campaigning for abstention from voting ahead of the 2014 poll.

Chairman of the Indonesian Civil Society Circle, Ray Rangkuti, said the KPU's plan, which treats abstention as a crime, could be seen as a source of trepidation for the public. "The KPU's statement is a new threat for Indonesian people," he said.

Ray was responding to a statement by KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik who said that there should be punishment for those who persuade others not to vote in the 2014 elections. Ray said that Legislative Election Law No. 8/2012 did not have any articles explicitly banning abstention.

He said that Husni could have based his statement on articles 292 and 308 of the 2012 law, which stipulates that a person who intentionally persuades others to forgo their voting right or uses violence to obstruct other people from voting could be punished for committing a crime.

"But if you look at the two articles closely, they don't explicitly say that campaigning or persuading someone not to vote is a crime," he said.

In fact, the articles stipulate that campaigners can only be punished if they use violence to encourage abstention or to obstruct the ballot. "First and foremost, abstention is not a crime. Therefore, people should not be punished for not voting," said Ray.

A researcher with election watchdog the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), Veri Junaidi, said that the KPU had gone too far by threatening to criminalize abstention.

"[It's] because voting is a right, not an obligation," he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. "Even if someone does not vote [after being persuaded], it could have been the result of [something other than] other people's persuasion," he said.

Veri said that Husni's statement could be seen as a call for the public to refrain from using violence or coercion to force others not to vote. "For example, a boss ordering a subordinate not to vote, or not to giving the opportunity to his or her employees to exercise their voting rights, would then be criminal acts," he said.

According to the Election Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu), the number of abstainers, locally known as golput, is expected to reach 30 million. Most of the abstainers are young people, aged between 17 and 29, who are entitled to vote in the 2014 elections.

For the 2014 general election, the KPU has estimated that there will be between 53 and 60 million young voters. Late last year, Bawaslu said that it would dispatch 1 million volunteers to campaign against absenteeism.

Separately, KPU commissioner Ferry Kurnia Rizkiyansyah said that punishment would be given to those who campaigned for abstention, even those who did not use violence or threats. "Persuasion could be conducted through verbal and non-verbal means," he said.

Ferry said that, in fact, an abstention campaign could be political. "In some ways, a campaign for abstention could even be a political move aimed at convincing people that the election has no meaning," he said.

Graft allegations engineered to undermine Golkar, Aburizal says

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2014

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Golkar Party chairman and presidential candidate Aburizal Bakrie said on Friday that a slew of a graft allegations leveled against the party's top brass were engineered to undermine the party.

"Golkar and the PDI-P [Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle] are now on the rise. Everything that is considered too high is now being cut down. The PDI-P and Golkar must be targeted to be cut down," Aburizal told The Jakarta Post in an exclusive interview on Friday.

Two high-ranking Golkar executives, secretary-general Idrus Marham and chief treasurer Setya Novanto, have been dragged into the high-profile graft case implicating former Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar.

The fresh allegations against Setya and Idrus came in the wake of the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) move to detain suspended Banten governor and Golkar executive Ratu Atut Chosiyah on corruption charges.

Atut is accused of abusing her power as Banten governor to benefit her family members, many of whom controlled strategic political posts in the province.

Aburizal also said that the party would not seek clarification from Idrus and Setya. "We don't believe the allegations," he said. Both Idrus and Setya have been quizzed by the KPK and denied they had colluded with Akil.

Previously, some media outlets reported on a transcribed Blackberry Messenger conversation – believed to have been made around October last year – that detailed the roles of the two senior politicians in the illicit arrangements of the court hearing taking place at the time on the East Java gubernatorial election disputes.

The election saw the Soekarwo-Saifullah Yusuf ticket win the poll but the decision was challenged in court by losing candidates.

Tempo.co quoted a conversation between Akil, who is also a former Golkar politician, and Golkar lawmaker Zainuddin Amali, which suggested that Akil had been upset about the amount of "bribes" sent by Idrus.

"I'm intending to rule a cancellation of the East Java election. It's a headache. Tell them to prepare 10 billion [rupiah] if they want to be safe," Akil told Zainuddin, according to the transcription.

"Your secretary-general [Idrus] was just playing around with me. I heard [Setya] Novanto and Nirwan [Bakrie] were willing to pay. But the secretary-general suggested that I had only deserved [a] small [amount of money]. Did he think that I was merely a legislator?" the disgraced former justice went on. Zainuddin replied, "Noted. I will coordinate with the East Java team."

But Aburizal brushed off the allegations, saying that they could have been targeted because of Golkar's increasing likelihood of being elected. "Golkar is now being searched for its wrongdoings because of our high electability," he said.

Many pollsters listed PDI-P and Golkar respectively as the top two preferred political parties ahead of the April 9 legislative election, with around 15 to 20 percent of respondents saying they would vote for either party.

Idrus, after facing KPK questioning last month, told reporters that he had never received money in connection to the alleged bribery.

Zainuddin himself has also been implicated in the alleged extortion of the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas). When facing KPK questioning two weeks ago, Zainuddin denied the allegations.

Environment & natural disasters

Riau is burning... again

Jakarta Globe - February 12, 2014

Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – Brushfires continued to rage on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday, blanketing the troubled Riau province in heavy haze and prompting calls of concern in Singapore as officials braced for the possible return of what is fast becoming an annual problem.

Local officials first reported hazy conditions in Riau last week as the province's yearly brushfires tore through parched forests and scrubland after weeks of little rain. On Feb. 6, climate and disaster officials reported some 109 "hotspots" across Riau, placing the blame on local farmers' use of a traditional method to clear covered farmland: setting the offending foliage alight.

By Monday the Riau Disaster Mitigation Agency counted some 187 hotspots on satellite imagery provided to Indonesian officials by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). One day later that number had jumped to 458 hotspots throughout Sumatra, Riau disaster agency head Said Saqlul Amri told the state-run Antara News Agency. More than half of the fires were in Riau, predominately concentrated in the districts of Bengkalis, Rokan Hilir and Siak, he said.

"The number of hotspot in Riau is 244, an increase from 55 hotspots a day before," he said.

Air quality hit hazardous levels in Dumai and Siak districts on Tuesday, measuring 400 API on the Pollutant Standards Index. In Bengkalis and the provincial capital of Pekanbaru the air quality measured in excess of 100 API – "unhealthy" on the scale.

Some 1,493 people suffered respiratory illness in Dumai and Siak, the only districts to report cases to the local Health Agency. Officials worry the number will climb as additional reports roll in.

"At the moment, we only have reports from the two districts about the number of people suffering [upper respiratory tract infections] because of the haze in Riau," Diwani, head of Riau Health Agency told the local news portal goriau.com on Tuesday.

The agency has distributed hundreds of masks in affected areas, and warned residents to remain indoors until the haze recedes. In Siak elementary and high schools have been temporarily closed since Tuesday to prevent students from falling ill.

"There are 210 schools are closed because the haze is getting thicker and dangerous especially for the children," Siak education agency Kadri Yafis told the Indonesian news portal Liputan6.com.

Four flights were cancelled because of poor visibility at Riau's Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport on Wednesday. Several other planes were able to land safely at the airport despite visibility dropping to as little as 200 meters. The airport's staff has warned pilots to remain alert and is prepared to divert planes to nearby airports if visibility drops further.

A hot-button issue

The fires are already garnering a reaction in Singapore, where officials, already exasperated with Indonesia over the decision to name a naval vessel after two men responsible for a deadly 1965 bombing of an Orchard Road office building, were quick to express further disappointment in their neighbor.

"Hot spots increasing dramatically in Sumatra, with 458 visible today," the city-state's environment minister Vivian Balakhrisnan wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. "Haze may worsen when the winds weaken next week. Some rain expected, but not enough to douse the fires.

"We will try to encourage them to take action – but we all know the welfare of close neighbors is not their priority."

Air quality in Singapore measured a healthy 35 API on Wednesday, according to the city-state's National Environmental Agency.

Last year's brushfires, which blanketed Singapore and Malaysia in a thick blanket of hazardous haze, resulted in weeks of finger-pointing and name calling between the neighboring nations. Indonesian officials accused Singapore of "behaving like a child," while others accused Singaporean companies of setting the fires.

Many of the companies involved in agri-business in Indonesia are registered in Singapore, but were founded and are still run by Indonesian moguls – a fact that makes such criticisms moot.

Officials in Singapore and Malaysia accused Indonesia of failing to curb what has long been an annual problem. Air quality in Singapore dropped to the worst levels in more than a decade last year, prompting the adoption of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) agreement on a transnational haze monitoring system.

One Ministry of Forestry official said the central government was concerned about the potential impact in Singapore and Malaysia.

"For sure, our government is prioritizing our own country [right now] as it's not their country which is affected by the smoke at the moment, but us," Raffles Panjaitan, the director of forestry investigations and observation at the Ministry of Forestry, told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday. "We never intend to send smoke [to Singapore], but the wind might be heading there. We are concerned about this."

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in an effort to prevent further strains on cross-border relations, ordered all disaster mitigation officers to do everything in their power to prevent the spread of haze to neighboring countries.

"Our officers have carried out efforts to prevent and handle the fires," Raffles said.

'An old tradition'

The Indonesian government has blamed this year's haze on the actions of small-scale farmers – a claim that diverts the blame from large international agricultural commodity companies but underscores the hurdles the country faces in curbing an illegal practice in a place where enforcement is often lax and corruption is endemic.

"From initial information, the cause of the fire was local people who were used to clearing the land by burning it," Raffles said. "It is an old tradition."

A new crop of farmers from the neighboring province of North Sumatra were to blame for the fires, Raffles said. The farmers had moved in to concessions already granted to large agricultural firms, setting the existing cover on fire in an attempt to divert the blame and later use the land themselves, he explained.

"They wanted to imply that the companies were the ones who are burning the forests," Raffles said. "Police have launched investigation into this case."

This year's early dry season in Riau has compounded matters, he said. The dry land has made containing the blaze difficult, Raffles admitted. "Although it's wet in Jakarta and most of Java, Riau and West Kalimantan have not seen rain for a month," he said.

Local residents also set fires of their own during the dry season, torching roadside forests and wooded areas near residential neighborhoods, National Disaster and Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

"These [dry] conditions trigger people to burn the forest," Sutopo told the Indonesian news portal kompas.com. "Most of the hotspots are located near the streets or residential areas."

Little progress on a government solution

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) placed the blame on the shoulders of the central government, arguing that the ministries had a track record of favoring large palm and pulp companies known for environmentally destructive practices.

"It's the mistake of the Indonesian government." Zenzi Suhadi, a campaigner at Walhi, said on Wednesday. "When they issue a land concession, they failed to consider the environment and the rights of the local people. So it's normal that after the environment has been badly damaged, that there would be consequences like forest fires and floods."

The organization urged the government to review the contracts of any company caught burning to clear land. "They should review the concessions given to companies which illegally clear the land," Zenzi said.

The campaigner pointed to a disputed concession in Meranti owned by Nasional Sagu Prima, a sago palm plantation company. The land was long used as a sago plantation, but local farmers had always planted the trees amid the existing forest, he said.

When the company was awarded the land by the central government, it clear- cut the forest and planted a large 21,000-hectare sago plantation, Zenzi said. When the plantation caught fire, it quickly spread to land owned by local, small-scale farmers, he explained.

"Recently their plantation was on fire and it spread to people's plantations," he said. While the company was able to douse the flames, the damage was already done to several local farms, Zenzi said.

"They cleared the forest," he said. "They made the problem and the local people have become the victims. It's the mistake of the government."

The central government has to stop protecting big companies and reduce the environmental impact of unsustainable practices in places like Riau, he explained. "The only way to stop [the fires] is by limiting the issuance of concessions for the plantation companies, especially those who have been illegally clearing the forest," he said.

The government, though, has its own plan. Local officials need to continue their work to convince farmers to not set fire to existing vegetation.

"We do try to change their practices," Raffles said. "Officers from the central government, the provincial to district level, have tried to inform and educate them about this. But they can't be changed automatically. It takes time."

Extraordinary status declared as forest, land fires rage in Riau

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2014

Rizal Harahap and Jon Afrizal, Pekanbaru/Jambi – The regency administration of Meranti Islands, Riau province, has declared the forest and field fires in the region as an extraordinary situation (KLB), with the flames becoming increasingly difficult to control.

Meranti Islands Regent Irwan Nasir said the fires now covered 16 subdistricts in the districts of Rangsang, Rangsang Pesisir, Tasik Putri Puyu and West Tebing Tinggi, burning over 2,000 hectares of forests as well as rubber and sago plantations.

"It's really severe. We are overwhelmed, no longer capable of handling it," Irwan said. He said his administration continued trying to extinguish the fires but had technically already surrendered due to limited equipment, human resources and nature.

He also said he had coordinated with the provincial administration and central government to send help to modify the weather. The fire brigades – including the one deployed by PT National Sago Prima (NSP) – were working at the maximum but the fires continued to spread. "Our only hope is artificial rain," Irwan said.

PT NSP spokesperson Setio Budi Utomo said his company would rent a helicopter to water bomb and help extinguish the fires. "We're really overwhelmed. The 100 firefighters and 20 water sprayers are unable to halt the fires," he said.

Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) Riau branch executive director Riko Kurniawan blamed the fires on the negligence of PT NSP, a subsidiary of the Sampoerna Agro Group.

He said based on Walhi's investigation, the fires in the area belonging to PT NSP started with a small fire at K 26 block in Kepau Baru, East Tebing Tinggi on Jan. 31.

Separately, acting Riau Governor Djohermansyah Djohan said his administration had sent 100 personnel with firefighting equipment to help extinguish the fires in Meranti.

He added the provincial administration had declared emergency standby status for haze to intensify the handling of forest and land fires in the region. "We've prepared Rp 10 billion (US$822,000) for disaster mitigation purposes, including for floods and haze," he said.

Meanwhile in Jambi, haze has covered the city as forest and field fires in neighboring provinces expand. The local office of the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) reported that visibility on Friday was at only two meters.

There were only two hot spots in Jambi, according to the BMKG, but hundreds of others were seen in the neighboring provinces of Riau, South Sumatra and West Sumatra.

On Thursday, Jambi Deputy Governor Fachrori Umar received the visit of Singaporean consul for Indonesia Mark Low and Singaporean Ministry of Environment representative Tay Romire to discuss handling the haze.

Tay Romire said he was satisfied with the meeting and hoped cooperation between the Singaporean government and Jambi administration could be increased in the future.

Haze has also been thickening in Pontianak City, West Kalimantan. The head of the Supadio Meteorology Station, Bambang Hargiyono, said haze had disturbed flight activities for the last three days.

"Visibility is only 200 meters in the morning while for take-off and landing purposes visibility needs to be 1,000 meters at the minimum," Bambang said.

West Kalimantan Forestry Agency secretary Lazarus Marpaung said although haze had worsened in Pontianak, no hot spots were found in the city. He predicted that the haze had come from the 100 hot spots detected in neighboring Kubu Raya regency.

Central Java floods cause Rp 1 trillion losses, says government

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2014

Suherdjoko, Semarang – Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo said the floods, land subsidence and landslides seen in many places in the province had lead to Rp 1 trillion (US$82 million) in losses.

Ganjar said he had requested the central government's assistance to cope with the problem. "I personally made a request to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during his recent visit to Pekalongan," he said.

Ganjar also acknowledged that in some regions, residents had not received proper assistance from the local administration. He said he was aware of the situation as many of the flood victims had informed him.

The governor then asked all officials to make emergency telephone numbers better known to the public so that people knew who to call in an emergency.(dic)

Health & education

Children with HIV/AIDS denied by hospitals

Jakarta Post - February 12, 2014

Jakarta – Two of three children with HIV/AIDS in Tanah Sereal, Tambora, had to be treated at house while the other child, a 6-year-old, who was in critical condition was treated at the city-owned hospital in Cengkareng, West Jakarta.

The first two, a 12-year-old and a 4-year-old, were taken back home on Tuesday after they were denied treatment at Cengkareng Hospital and Tarakan General Hospital in Central Jakarta.

Women from a neighborhood in the subdistrict took the three children to the city-owned hospitals as they were orphans and had no one to take care of them, but the first two were denied as they were not registered with the free healthcare program (KJS).

"We initially took NS to Tarakan hospital, but the hospital was full. So we went to Cengkareng Hospital," Tanah Sereal community unit (RW) 09 head Tontowi said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

He added that the two children were taken back home after the hospital refused to admit them. The three children were infected by their mother, who recently died.

Sex workers & prostitution

Malang sex worker raid highlights Dolly fallout

Jakarta Globe - February 13, 2014

Dyah Ayu Pitaloka & Tunggadewa Mattangkilang, Malang – Security officers in the East Java town of Malang rounded up 13 commercial sex workers during a raid on Tuesday night, highlighting a growing prostitution problem linked to the closure of a red-light district in neighboring Surabaya.

M. Yusuf, an investigator with the Malang Public Order Agency, or Satpol PP, said on Wednesday that his office had received an increasing number of complaints from the public about prostitutes operating throughout the town.

"It seems like the number of sex workers has increased," he said. "Last year, most of our raids ended with no arrests. But in just two raids so far this year, we've already arrested dozens of prostitutes, some of them twice."

Those netted in Tuesday's raid were found along a number of busy thoroughfares close to the town center. They were jailed overnight and taken before a court on Wednesday morning, where they were ordered to pay token fines of Rp 30,000 ($2.49) each and released into the custody of their families.

Under the Criminal Code, they could have faced a jail sentence of up to three months and fines of up to Rp 10 million.

One of the women caught in the raid, Mistini, 23, said she had worked as a prostitute for three years and had noticed an increase in the number of sex workers in Malang, most of them coming from Surabaya, where the city administration has shut down the Dolly red-light district – for years notorious as the biggest in Southeast Asia.

The Malang-based Paramitra Institute, which focuses on economic empowerment and public health, said it was inevitable that prostitutes would flock to Malang, a popular weekend destination for visitors from Surabaya, following the closure of Dolly and red-light districts in neighboring Kediri and Tulungangung districts.

Sudarsono, the head of a community organization in Dolly working to provide vocational training to the prostitutes, said that officials had always assumed that with Dolly shut last year they would simply return to their homes. But with the city not providing them with jobs, they simply plied their trade elsewhere, he said.

Yoga Ardianto, a spokesman for the Paramitra Institute, said that rather than crack down on the prostitutes in Malang, the authorities should try to educate and empower them so that they could find other jobs.

"We find law enforcement's handling of the prostitution problem careless and inhumane," he said. "By not providing appropriate health counseling [for the prostitutes], they could be exposed to the possibility of HIV transmission and we are worried that this may then be passed on to their children since many of the sex workers are single parents."

In East Kalimantan, meanwhile, authorities in the provincial capital Samarinda say they plan to shut down a red-light district there that is home to some 250 sex workers by July.

The Loa Hui red-light district is the latest being targeted under an increasingly conservative administration, which has already shut down two other prostitution areas in Balikpapan, the province's biggest city, and several smaller ones in Kuta Kartanegara district.

The bid to close the Samarinda red-light district is being led by Islamic clerics, who complain that it is located within half a kilometer of an Islamic boarding school, built after the district was established.

Refugees & asylum seekers

'Sovereign Borders' not helping: Analysts

Jakarta Globe - February 14, 2014

Harriet Conron & Kennial Caroline Laia – Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa reiterated on Thursday that Australia's "Operation Sovereign Borders" policy, under which asylum-seeker boats from Indonesia are turned back mid-ocean, will not help bilateral relations that have been strained by spying revelations.

He criticized the policy as denying rescue and protection of asylum seekers. "Instead of saving and protecting the asylum seekers and then process them together with the UNHCR, the Australian government just pushed back the refugees to Indonesian waters," he said at a press conference in Jakarta.

Marty also said that Australia's insistence on pushing through this hard- line asylum policy had stalled the next step of a road map by the two countries for a code of conduct on future relations.

The six-step road map was proposed late last year by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to fix bilateral relations following Indonesia's decision to recall its ambassador from Canberra in the wake of revelations that Australia intelligence services had eavesdropped on him, his wife and other senior Indonesian government officials.

In an indication that it was amenable to the road map, Australia sent its foreign minister, Julie Bishop, to Jakarta to hold talks on fixing the relationship.

"This [handling of the asylum-seeker issue] is not helping at all in creating a situation conducive for a discussion of the code of conduct between Indonesia and Australia," Marty said. He added that relations could still be fixed if there was more trust between the two governments.

Analysts from both countries have echoed Jakarta's doubts about the effectiveness of "Operation Sovereign Borders," saying it is unlikely to stop people from trying to make the risky journey to Australia by boat in the long term.

"I think it might be effective for short-term purposes, but how long is Australia going to use this method?" said Professor Aleksius Jemadu, dean of Pelita Harapan University's School of Social and Political Sciences.

Antje Missbach, from the University of Melbourne, agreed that the Conservative government's strategy would not succeed past the immediate future.

"I guess it won't last very long," said Missbach, a McKenzie post-doctoral fellow at Melbourne Law School's Asian Law Center, who has studied the experiences of transit migrants in Indonesia.

She likened "Operation Sovereign Borders" to the harsh measures the European Union adopted to reduce asylum seeker numbers in the early 2000s.

Despite an initial period of success, asylum application numbers in the EU have risen consistently since 2005, and asylum seekers are increasingly dependent on people-smuggling syndicates to gain entry into the region.

"No fence is high enough, no trench is deep enough, that asylum seekers won't find a way around as they are fighting for their lives," Missbach said. Australia's immigration policy must take broader perspectives into account if it wants to work with Indonesia to stop people smuggling, she said.

"If you don't understand how a transit country reacts and treats these groups of people, it's going to be very difficult to come up with strategies to collaborate with those countries," she said.

Aleksius said Australia's cooperation with the Asia-Pacific region was essential to combatting people smuggling.

"It is the nature of transnational crime like this that it requires a comprehensive solution at the bilateral level, if not regional level with Asean," he said. "It would be far better if Australia could go the extra mile to invite Indonesia's full engagement in resolving the issue."

Erica Feller, the former assistant high commissioner for protection at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, called for a global solution to people smuggling in an essay published late last year.

"The boat problem is a shared problem, it has a very important international dimension, which is too often under appreciated or downplayed in national policy responses," she said. Instead of spending money on punitive measures, Feller advised governments to work together to collaboratively manage this multidimensional problem.

Paul Power, chief executive of the Refugee Council of Australia, agreed that cooperation between countries was the best way to combat people smuggling. He also favored improving refugee protection in Asia over policies that deterred people from seeking asylum.

The council's 10-point plan reflects this; it calls for action to address the situation of asylum seekers in countries like Indonesia, who are denied access to the UNHCR and domestic asylum systems. Aleksius agreed that Australia's failure to engage in bilateral cooperation was not helpful for the global problem, or for its own interests.

"If Australia continues to push back these boats into Indonesian territory, it will end up with even more enemies," he said. "It is going to damage Australia's credibility as a nation that has a tradition of respecting human rights, not to mention the fact that Australia is a party to the UN convention on refugees."

Missbach said that returning asylum seekers to places that were not safe for them would have a significant impact on Australia's relations with its neighbors.

"Australia has managed to ruin its international reputation by repeatedly breaking international law," she said. "Neighboring countries especially see Australia's recent political moves as a form of hypocrisy, talking about [respecting] human rights but putting vulnerable people at risk at sea."

Aleksius said Australia's attempts to engage other countries in seeking a solution to the problem of people smuggling was a mitigating factor. "Australia's initiative to establish wider international cooperation in dealing with this issue can at least be used as a disclaimer that will minimize the damage to its credibility," he said.

But he said he could not see a simple solution to the problem on the horizon. "The comprehensive solution might not be easy," Aleksius said. "But a mechanism to make a distinction between refugees and non-refugees should be there so that Australia can defend its standing as a committed party to the UN convention."

Australian navy went into Indonesian waters 'too easily' and 'often'

The Guardian (Australia) - February 14, 2014

Kate Lamb in Jakarta and Oliver Laughland in Sydney – Australian naval ships entered Indonesian territorial waters often and with ease before the incursions sparked a diplomatic incident in January, according to a leaked Indonesian navy report, and an Indonesian navy spokesman reiterated that the 6 January incursion was a knowing and intentional breach.

The dossier, signed off by a senior naval commander in eastern Indonesia, is an official report into the boat that landed on remote Rote island on 6 January after being turned back by the Australian navy. The report suggests three Australian naval vessels had entered Indonesian territorial waters and implies the incursion may have been intentional.

"It was too easy for the Australian warships to enter Republic of Indonesia territorial waters without detection," the report says.

The same boat was the subject of allegations that asylum seekers on board had their hands burned by naval personnel. The report, parts of which have been seen by Guardian Australia, also contains further details on those allegations.

The report says incursions were becoming more regular: "In anticipation of the entry of Australian warships (foreign war vessels) into Indonesian territorial waters, already occurring more and more often, it is necessary to increase Indonesian sovereignty in carrying out more patrols in and around the waters of Rote Ndao and Dana Island, so that foreign warships do not enter Indonesian territorial waters again," it says.

The document provides the first official documentation that an Australian naval incursion had occurred, and shows that Indonesian agencies were aware the incursions were continuing.

Previously, Operation Sovereign Borders commander, Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, had admitted to unintentional territorial breaches on "several occasions" but would not say where or when they had taken place and how many vessels had been involved. Recent reports have indicated that about five incursions occurred between December and January.

An asylum seeker aboard the boat, Yousif Ibrahim Fasher, who detailed allegations of the burned hands to Fairfax media, also said that the accompanying Australian naval vessels had turned their lights off during the last two nights of the journey on 4 and 5 January. His account also suggests that only two Australian naval vessels had accompanied the asylum seekers.

On Friday, Indonesian navy spokesman Commodore Untung Suropati told Guardian Australia the 6 January incursion was a knowing and intentional breach by the Australian navy.

Suropati said Indonesian naval intelligence showed that the Australian vessels had come within seven miles (11km) of the shore on Rote island. Indonesia's territorial waters extend to 12 nautical miles (22km).

"In the current era, navigation equipment to determine the position of a ship is very advanced. Therefore, it is not reasonable if it is said to be unintentional or not knowing," Suropati added.

"This is not only the view of Indonesian navy, but is also shared with all other institutions and our stakeholders, especially those operating in sea, that the Australian navy has violated Indonesian territory," Suropati told Guardian Australia via email.

While the Indonesian government seeks further clarification, Suropati says the navy has already moved to boost patrols, relocating warships, including torpedo and missile craft, to prevent further incursions.

The movement of Indonesian vessels to the southern border was widely reported in the context of incursions in January.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, reiterated that the incursions occurred "unintentionally and without knowledge or sanction by the Australian government".

On Thursday night, Australian Customs chief Michael Pezzullo also repeated that the incursions were "thoroughly inadvertent", having read a detailed report into the incidents, which seems unlikely to be publicly released.

Morrison's spokeswoman told Guardian Australia the government would "advise Indonesia on the results of the joint [Defence and Customs] review undertaken into these incidents". Commanders had "taken operational steps to ensure there is no recurrence of these incidents", she said.

The Indonesian report also shows that the asylum seekers aboard made allegations of "acts of violence from the Australian navy" and includes more photographs of the injuries they allegedly sustained.

One photograph documents, "burn wounds on the right hand of an immigrant resulting from being forced to hold onto the ship's engine, which was hot, by the Australian navy".

Another shows a young female woman who, according to the image caption, was "pushed by the Australian navy resulting in a sprained ankle". Another image is captioned: "Right thigh of immigrant bruised as a result of being trodden on by the Australian navy."

The report also contains the first images of the landing of the asylum seeker boat, which is described as "struck by waves on to the coral reef". It shows a picture of the damage sustained to the hull.

The photographs relate to the widely reported allegations that a number of the asylum seekers aboard the boat were assaulted by Australian naval personnel, with three allegedly having their hands burned on the motor of the boat.

These allegations have been consistently denied by Scott Morrison and the prime minister, Tony Abbott, who said there was "absolutely no evidence for them".

Morrison's spokeswoman told Guardian Australia on Friday: "The repetition of unsubstantiated and wild allegations doesn't make those claims any more credible or deserving of further review.

"The minister has been advised there has been no request for assistance or request for information in relation to this matter from Indonesian authorities or any non-government organisation."

The government has been under pressure to mount an investigation into the claims.

Suropati told Guardian Australia the Indonesian navy's investigation with the Indonesian police had "strengthened the existence of [evidence of] physical violence which were experienced by some asylum seekers. And this is a fact that happened." He said he could not comment on the status of Indonesian police inquiries.

Stuck in the middle, asylum seekers hold on to their dreams

Jakarta Globe - February 12, 2014

Kate Davidson & Poppy Saker-Norrish, Jakarta – One young man wakes up each day in Jakarta wondering if his family members in Quetta, Pakistan, have been murdered because they belong to the Hazara ethnic group.

Hamzad, not his real name, fled Pakistan searching for a life in a country where he could find peace and safety from those trying to destroy his people.

He survived a bomb attack in Quetta, was nearly killed while trying to return to his father's homeland in Afghanistan, and fled to Indonesia to try to reach Australia when the boat he was on capsized.

He clung to life for over 40 hours until he was pulled from the water with harrowing memories of others who perished around him. And he has not yet reached 20.

He is an asylum seeker. A young man fleeing persecution looking for place of peace and safety – which is within his legal rights under international law.

He is one of many Hazara who have fled Pakistan. Since the turn of the century, Sunni terrorist groups in Pakistan have openly waged war against Hazaras, killing them unmercifully and openly admitting it without fear of retribution or justice.

Hamzad's family first fled Afghanistan in 1998 after his father was killed by the Taliban. His uncle took his family to Quetta where a large Hazara community lives. It was after he survived the bomb attack, left unconscious and scarred on one arm, that his family realized they could no longer stay under the constant threat of death.

For Hamzad there was only one option: To travel south and try make it to Australia, despite the risks. "We don't know when they will attack our homes. We are facing death," he says. "If we die [on the journey] we can still say we tried to live peacefully, we tried to go a country to live peacefully there."

No hope to return

At first he and his mother thought it might be possible to return to the land they had left behind in Afghanistan. Hamzad and his uncle reached their former village, but were awoken that night by armed, masked men pounding on the doors. They escaped through a barn and were forced to return to Pakistan. Their land had been claimed by others and there was no hope for a return.

He sold the family jewels and despite not speaking a word of Indonesian, contacted a smuggler and flew to Indonesia. He was put in contact with another smuggler, paid $5,000 in cash and in 2012 joined a group of refugees on a boat hoping to reach Australia. He took along an inner tube, having heard of boats sinking during the deadly crossing.

He estimates there were 170 on board when his boat went down. Only 55 would be pulled from the water alive. He watched helplessly as new friends and children died around him.

As they waited in the waters, the surviving refugees tried to keep themselves sane as they were deprived of food and fresh drinking water. After 40 hours, Hamzad and the others were pulled from the water by the Australian navy, which took them back to the south coast of Java. From there he was put up in a hotel in Bandung for a month.

Unaccompanied minor

Back on dry land, Hamzad was allowed to call his family just once, just for a minute to let them know he was alive. He was then placed in detention for 11 months.

At the time he was a minor, but like many others was crammed in with adults. While Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it is a party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, under which the country is obliged to provide unaccompanied children with guardians. Human Rights Watch has criticized the Indonesian government for failing to do so as without guardians children have to stay in detention, unable to be released without a carer.

Hamzad questions why minors are not given separate accommodation when they are threatened by adults.

"It was not good for us," he says shaking his head. "We have to face the same food every day: rice, rice, rice. Every day when we awake also we see the cell. We just feel that we are inside a prison."

He says the minors asked for separate accommodation but were ignored. "Many times we sent a letter to organizations to take us out of the detention center or at least give us another room so we could at least protect ourselves," he says. "There was no response."

He got through by teaching English. Others were not so lucky. He says some boys would cower in the corner, crying with no family or support. They needed protection, support and education.

"We had many problems with the adults there because they did not respect us," he says. "You are a child, a minor, so they can defeat us. They are using their powers in a bad way for many of us."

'We did nothing'

As Hamzad talks of the injustice he has seen, his frustration spills out. "We did nothing. For nothing we are just spending our lives inside a prison. For nothing. Just because we are asylum seekers and we want peace we have to be put in prison. It's really hard," he says.

He finds it difficult to understand the differences in waiting time for visa approval while watching his friends struggle for months in detention.

But in the past two years, with a substantial increase in the number of asylum seekers in Indonesia, the time taken to finalize refugee status for each person has been longer and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has had to prioritize the most vulnerable groups, such as women, children, the elderly and the disabled.

After 11 months, Hamzad was released into the community. Now, awaiting resettlement in a third country, he spends his time studying Indonesian, which he speaks fluently, and is working toward his English teaching certificate.

The young refugee is brave and determined. When asked how he manages to deal with so much hardship and trauma at such a young age, he replies that his struggle is part of an Afghani's life from birth.

"For us, from childhood to now we are just passing many problems, many problems. We have seen people dying, they are killing our people in front of us," he says. "We cannot do anything about this. Many problems we have faced like this so now our bodies have become like stone. We have to. We cannot do anything."

There are moments when the pain is reflected in his eyes. He says often he wishes his father was still alive, that he was like other young people. "I was looking at these boys going to university in their cars with their mom and dad and I dream for this, but I knew it would never happen," Hamzad says.

He has a younger brother, two sisters in their early twenties, and his mother. His love and concern for his family is apparent. They knew the journey to Australia was risky, but he could not put his loved ones through it. He went first in the hope of establishing himself and then arranging for them to come over legally.

He says countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States know the plight of the Hazara but choose to ignore it. "They are using their politics. They are not sympathetic to asylum seekers and immigrants," Hamzad says.

"We have a lot of problems, but we have to face them because we don't have any other solutions. We have to wait and see the policy of the countries and see if they are taking us. We have to wait."

Hamzad has no expectations of the Indonesian government and feels no resentment toward it. It is a country with many of its own challenges. "What can you expect from this government? Many of the people you see are poor. They cannot help their own people so how can they help us?" he points out.

He makes it clear he is not an economic refugee, as some Australian politicians have labeled those seeking asylum. He had enough food and work in Quetta; the community supported each other. The problem was security – he survived the bomb attack while working in the bazaar. "There is no peace because they [terrorists] are killing us, how can we live there?"

His brother dresses as a Pashtun when he leaves his home for work, concealing his identity to avoid being targeted.

"Sometimes I get angry with God and no one else because no one can help me. I ask 'Why did you let me come to this world? If you allowed me to come in this world, why have you given me such a life?' I did nothing and I have to be in prison."

For multilingual Hamzad "the best solution for life is to get an education." He hopes to study IT when he reaches his destination country.

He is a young man of potential. If he had been born in the right country, he would be fulfilling that potential now. He was just unlucky to born at the wrong time in the wrong place, unlucky not to have the choices others take for granted. "We don't have the choice of where we can go. We just want peace. We just want to live peacefully," he says.

Problem growing

Hamzad's story is far from unique. Increasingly, the tales of migrant and asylum seeker children in Indonesia include cases of extensive detention, abusive conditions and neglect.

And the problem is growing. The number of asylum-seeker cases crossing the desk of the UNHCR in Indonesia has increased 2,000 percent since 2008. In 2012 alone, 1,178 unaccompanied children entered the country.

But this figure includes only those who chose to register with the UNHCR. The actual number is likely much higher, with many opting to try their luck on a perilous boat journey rather than face interminable waits that are inescapable in the current system.

Many of these children – primarily from Afghanistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Myanmar – are detained in Indonesia for months or even years. Conditions have in some cases proved fatal. Children often face physical abuse at the hands of the guards or the unrelated adults with whom they are forced to share living space.

The food is monotonous and lacks the nutrition needed by the growing. Many institutions lack water and basic sanitation, and adequate bedding is a rarity.

Faced with this trauma at such a young age, there are increasing reports of post-traumatic stress disorder and generally deteriorating mental health linked to prolonged detention.

But with limited access to sufficient health care – or even a phone to communicate with family – many of these children fall into heavy depression.

Indonesia is duty-bound under the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child to provide unaccompanied children with guardians. However, a government entity has yet to be assigned the task. Without a guardian, these children are defenseless and risk remaining in these toxic conditions for up to 10 years without judicial review.

Those living on the street are in constant fear of arrest or rearrest. Education options are limited, and with no official legal status, it is impossible to work and earn a living. As a result, they are highly vulnerable to exploitation by smugglers.

Like Hamzad, the majority of these children are not leaving home purely to better their economic situation. They are escaping because they have no choice. They are victims, now trapped in a dangerous limbo where they feel there is more certainty in a dangerous boat trip than in a future in Indonesia.

Asylum seekers accuse Australia navy of abuse as boat towed to Indonesia

Reuters - February 10, 2014

Aubrey Belford, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara – On New Year's day, 45 asylum seekers in a ramshackle wooden boat slid ashore on a small island off the Australian city of Darwin. Four others had been swept overboard that morning in rough seas and were believed dead.

The survivors, from Africa and the Middle East, stumbled onto the beach, thankful to find refuge on Australian soil. Or so they thought.

Within an hour, an Australian warship and other vessels arrived. Military personnel forced the asylum seekers back onto their wooden boat and towed it out to sea. Their destination: Indonesia.

Determining precisely what happened is difficult. But interviews with five of the passengers reconstructs a journey they say was marked by physical and verbal abuse.

Their accounts highlight just how far the newly elected conservative government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott is going to meet his election promise to "stop the boats" – a policy which involves towing vessels back to Indonesia, the main departure point for people-smuggling boats.

In a statement in response to questions on the accusations from the five asylum seekers, Immigration and Border Protection Minister Scott Morrison said he did not give "credibility to malicious and unfounded slurs."

"I know and trust that our Navy and Customs and Border Protection Service act in accordance with their training and lawful orders and would only use force where necessary," he said. The navy refers all questions about the operations to Morrison's office.

About 16,000 asylum seekers came on 220 boats to Australia in the first seven months of last year. The government has said that since mid-December, not a single boat has arrived.

In separate interviews, the five asylum seekers all said their vessel landed on the island – raising questions about what Canberra means when it says no boats have arrived. One of the men said he had carried a Global Positioning System (GPS) device that showed Darwin was roughly 35 km (22 miles) away.

They also gave multiple accounts of military personnel using plastic zip ties and pepper spray to restrain asylum seekers. Passengers were denied proper access to food, water, medical treatment and toilets, they added.

Reuters was given permission by Indonesian immigration authorities to interview the five men, who were detained when their boat arrived back in Indonesia. Four were interviewed in person in the city of Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara and the other by telephone.

Towed out to sea

Tensions flared as soon as the Australian military personnel arrived on the island off Darwin, said Yousif Ibrahim Fasher, an English-speaker from Sudan's Darfur region. He said he told the Australians that four men had been swept overboard.

"We told them: 'that direction, we lost people.' We told them everything. They said: 'No, you go back to the boat.' We refused, and then they used force," Fasher said.

Men who resisted were picked up by their arms and legs and dumped in the boat, the asylum seekers said. Fasher said he saw military personnel kick and use zip ties to handcuff one man who tried to flee. The boat, its engine crippled after men sabotaged the motor on arrival, was tethered to a navy speedboat and towed back to sea.

Morrison said claims of four people falling overboard had been investigated and that he was confident they were not true.

Abbott came to power last September partly because of his tough stance on asylum seekers, an issue that has polarized Australia since the first boats from Vietnam came in the 1970s.

The government has offshore detention centers in the impoverished South Pacific nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru capable of holding thousands. He has likened the battle to stop the boats as a war, insisting secrecy is important to prevent "the enemy" receiving information.

The UN refugee agency has warned that Australia could be breaking its obligation under the UN Refugee Convention by failing to hear asylum seekers' claims.

Not quite Australian soil

Standing on the beach that New Year morning, Mansoor Ali, a former sailor in the Eritrean Navy, stared at his GPS device.

His reading suggested the boat had landed on one of several islands north of Darwin in Australian territorial waters, a former Australian Navy officer with experience in intercepting asylum seeker boats told Reuters. But unbeknown to Ali, the sand beneath his feet was not as Australian as he assumed.

In 2001, then Prime Minister John Howard made it harder for asylum seekers by removing the right of unauthorized boat arrivals to apply for a visa on landing in several territories, such as Christmas Island, that were popular due to their proximity to Indonesia.

Under pressure from then-opposition leader Abbott over a surge in asylum seekers, the previous Labor government last year expanded this to include all of Australia's coastline. For Ali and the others, the result was immediate: an armed escort back to where they came from.

Tensions build

Once out to sea, the asylum seekers were guarded by 10 personnel from the warship HMAS Parramatta, according to witness recollections of its hull number. Shifts changed every four hours. Some of the guards called asylum seekers "monkeys" and told them they were not wanted in Australia, Fasher said.

Guards imposed strict discipline on the cramped, roughly 10-meter-long boat. Food and water were insufficient and some requests for medical help went unheeded, the asylum seekers said.

The greatest tension built towards the back of the craft, in a room below deck where Australian engineers struggled to repair the engine. The room was the only route to the toilet.

Fearing someone would break the engine once it had been fixed, the Australians instituted a rule: one visit to the toilet per day for men, and only night visits for women.

"I remember they used to stop us going to the bathroom. Forbidden to stand, forbidden to speak, forbidden to raise your voice," said Bakil Abdul Hamid, a 28-year-old Yemeni, who said his brother Mohammad was one of the four swept to their deaths on Jan. 1.

As the trip wore on, hope dwindled. After several days, unrest broke out. Taking the opportunity with the boat stationary as Australian engineers again tinkered with the engine, the asylum seekers launched a desperate protest.

Ali was the first to hurl himself into the water, three asylum seekers said. At least 10 others jumped in. Guards began tackling, pepper-spraying and zip-tying people in an effort to stop more following. Some of those pulled from the water said they were then pepper-sprayed in the face.

"We were suffering. People did not prefer life to death," said Faisal Salaad, a 33-year-old who said he watched the scuffle as he floated in the sea.

Back in Indonesia

The following day, as the boat continued its journey, violence broke out again. Around midday four men, angered by the toilet curbs, went into the engine room.

The first through the door, Bobies Ibrahim Nooris, 20, was pepper sprayed in the eyes, he recalled, causing him to stumble into an engine exhaust and seriously burn his hand. Fasher was the only passenger spoken to by Reuters who claims to have seen what happened next.

Military personnel grabbed the hands of the other three men and forced them onto the exhaust as punishment, he said. These accusations, already made in the Indonesian and Australian media, have been denied by the Australian government.

No other passengers could corroborate Fasher's account. In the early hours of Jan. 6, the guards changed shifts. As the asylum seekers dozed, the Australians slipped away leaving behind a small supply of food and water, and just enough fuel to reach Indonesia.

Deflated and exhausted, the asylum seekers sailed for about two hours to Rote, Indonesia's southernmost island. Locals called the police, who put them in detention.

Graft & corruption

KPK seeks big fish

Bloomberg - February 13, 2014

Neil Chatterjee – Indonesia's anti-corruption agency predicted an increase in graft in the run-up to elections this year, with its vice chairman anticipating the rise will land major cases on the authority's books.

Corruption usually escalates around elections as officials take advantage of their posts by trading favors and candidates seek to fund campaigns, Adnan Pandu Praja, vice chairman at the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, said in an interview in Jakarta yesterday.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled for April and a presidential ballot in July. The KPK, which has already caught government ministers, chief executives and central bankers, is still scratching the surface of the 7,000 reports of graft it gets from across the archipelago of the world's fourth-most populous nation each year, Praja said.

Indonesia ranked 114th among 177 countries in a 2013 Transparency International survey on corruption perceptions, undermining the country's investment appeal.

"There will be a big fish in the pipeline," Praja said, with several others in the "tank" to be announced in the next six months. Praja did not give specifics, citing the sensitivity of the KPK's investigations. "Corruption runs from the east to the west, from the west to the east."

The agency has prosecuted 72 members of parliament, eight government ministers, six central bankers, four judges and dozens of CEOs in the decade since it was formed in 2003 and boasts a 100 percent conviction rate.

Red-handed

The agency has convicted three foreigners, one from Japan and two from Malaysia.

This number is low partly because overseas executives are worried about strict US and British laws on graft overseas, which can land them in jail, and also because foreigners avoid giving bribes directly, he said. "They have a strategy to avoid the act, by using a third party to do it," Praja said.

The KPK's strategy is to tap suspects' phones and follow the money trail to try to catch people red-handed, Praja said. The agency's efforts have made people more careful and secretive about being corrupt, he said. The agency will focus on tackling graft in government revenue, energy and food security this year, Praja said.

The KPK has done a good job in arresting officials with limited resources, said Fauzi Ichsan, a managing director and head of government relations at Standard Chartered Plc in Jakarta.

Companies selling goods and services, such as autos and banking, can operate cleanly, while energy and mining are industries where graft is common, he said.

Rigged system

"The system is rigged to the extent that the opportunities for corruption are pretty widespread," Ichsan said in an interview yesterday. For investors, projects can be stopped by requests for bribes coming from many people, even when they don't necessarily get things done, he said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is ineligible to run after his second term ends this year, was re-elected in 2009 on a platform to fight corruption.

The KPK will urge presidential candidates in June to have an anti-graft vision and develop a cleaner government as part of their campaign promises in an effort to make them more accountable, Praja said. "All political parties seem involved," Praja said. "There's always money involved when they make campaigns."

A strong president is also needed to curb corruption among lawmakers, who have in the past opposed efforts by the KPK, he said. "If the executive has enough confidence to fight against parliamentary pressure, then bit by bit parliament will learn."

The KPK plans to initiate discussions on avoiding graft in each parliamentary commission, where bills are debated, after the April elections, Praja said.

New generation

Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, who has not announced whether he will run for president, topped a poll by the Indonesian Survey Circle carried out in January, attracting as much as 35.6 percent support from respondents.

Coal tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, of the Golkar party, was second with 20.1 percent and the Gerindra party's Prabowo Subianto, a former army general, was third with 19.7 percent support.

Praja said regional mayors emerging on the national scene are supporting the fight against corruption, including Widodo and Tri Rismaharini, the mayor of Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city.

Widodo's efforts to take on parliament over the administration's budget were "inspiring," he said. Widodo said in an interview last month that he has moved budget procurement and tax collection online in an effort to cut graft.

Ministries suspected of misusing social aid funds

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2014

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The Election Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu) is due to summon officials from 10 ministries over allegations of the misuse of social aid funds for election campaigning.

Bawaslu commissioner Daniel Zuchron said on Tuesday night that Bawaslu had resorted to summoning the officials as they had ignored previous requests to provide data on their social aid spending.

"Bawaslu has asked for data and information on the allocation of social aid funds in 2012 and 2013, as well as the 2014 plans for each regency or city and a list of civil society organizations that have received the funds from the 10 ministries," he said.

The ministries in question are the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry; the Transportation Ministry; the Youth and Sports Ministry; the Law and Human Rights Ministry; the Agriculture Ministry; the Communications and Information Ministry; the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry; the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry; the Disadvantaged Regions Ministry, and the Forestry Ministry.

According to Daniel, Bawaslu initially sent letters requesting the data on Nov. 19 last year. "Only four ministries submitted their data," he said. Bawaslu sent another request to the six remaining ministries on Dec. 10, Daniel added. "Through Feb. 10, the only ministry that had not submitted any data or documentation, despite two requests, was the Forestry Ministry," he said.

While only one ministry has failed to submit its data, Bawaslu deems the remaining ministries as being uncooperative as most of them did not submit the list of civil society groups that had and/or would receive social aid funds.

Four ministries – the transportation, law and human rights, communications and information, and energy and mineral resources ministries – claim they do not have social aid funds to be distributed to the public, according to Daniel.

The Youth and Sports Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry and the Disadvantaged Regions Ministry, meanwhile, failed to include the list of civil society groups that had and would receive social aid funds on the documents that they submitted to the KPU.

Daniel said Bawaslu was conducting an investigation as it was tasked with monitoring all election processes, including campaigning. "One of the focuses of our monitoring is the ministers who have become legislative candidates," he said.

Currently, 10 ministers are aiming to contest legislative seats during the 2014 general election. Five of them come from the ruling Democratic Party, while the others come from the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

According to Daniel, the social aid program was prone to abuse. "First, the social aid program has become a populist policy in that it directly touches people's needs and problems," Daniel said.

He added that often, political party paraphernalia were included with the disbursement of social aid funds, which were given to supporters of particular parties.

"Moreover, the disbursement usually coincides with political party events," he said. "Ministers have tremendous authority to determine the general guidelines for the management of the social aid funds."

The portion from the 2013 state budget for social aid funds totaled Rp 69.5 trillion (US$5.76 billion).

Religious Affairs Ministry defends haj fund

Jakarta Post - February 10, 2014

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali has denied that corruption had taken place in the management of the haj pilgrimage fund and that his ministry had introduced reforms to prevent graft and irregularities.

The minister claimed that the management of the haj fund during his tenure was "far better" than it had been under his predecessors.

Last week, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) announced it had launched a preliminary investigation into alleged irregularities in the ministry's management of the haj pilgrimage fund from 2012 to 2013.

Suryadharma said that he was caught off guard by the KPK's announcement. "To be honest, I don't know what [the KPK meant] by [the alleged] irregularities. We have carried out internal reforms within the ministry until now," Suryadharma said over the weekend.

He also lashed out at the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK), whose reports in January 2013 alleged that over the last eight years there were extensive irregularities in the fund holding the deposits of prospective pilgrims. Suryadharma challenged the PPATK to back up its claim.

"The PPATK report said that there were suspicious transactions totaling Rp 230 billion during 2004-2012. I urge the PPATK to make the report publicly available to avoid speculations that could tarnish the image of the ministry," he said.

Data from the PPATK showed the ministry had managed Rp 80 trillion (US$6.5 billion) in haj funds with Rp 2.3 trillion interest from 2004-2012.

Each pilgrim is required to pay a deposit of Rp 25 million to be registered on the waiting list for the pilgrimage. Those payments are stored and managed by the ministry. Currently, there are nearly 2 million people who are on the waiting list. Last year, around 168,800 people went to Mecca for the haj.

Suryadharma urged the KPK to expedite its preliminary investigation to prove the allegation. The United Development Party (PPP) chairman also said that he would be ready to meet the KPK summons.

He also denied allegations that the ministry was not transparent in handling the haj fund. He said that details of haj fees, including the passport fee of Rp 225,000, insurance of Rp 100,000, and accommodation expenses while in Jeddah, Arafat and Medina, had also been published online.

The ministry's director general for the haj and minor haj, Anggito Abimanyu, said that the chances of the haj fund being misused were small, as it was kept in sharia-based banks protected by the Deposit Insurance Corporation (LPS). "We have transparent reports and also the haj fund is protected by the LPS. We've also recruited skilled human resources," he went on.

Last year, Anggito said that the government was considering placing haj funds in US dollar-denominated government sukuk (sharia bonds) to safeguard pilgrims' money against the risk of currency mismatch, as well as to boost the development of the country's Islamic financing.

The KPK so far has questioned two lawmakers – Hasrul Azwar and Jazuli Juwaini – in connection to the alleged irregularities. Hasrul, who currently sits on House of Representatives Commission VIII overseeing religious affairs, is a PPP politician and Jazuli, who is former deputy chairman of Commission VIII, is with the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

The Religious Affairs Ministry currently manages around Rp 60 trillion (US$4.9 billion) in haj funds collected from potential pilgrims across Indonesia, which has the world's highest Muslim population.

Of the total, Rp 31 trillion is placed in sharia-compliant debt papers, with the remaining funds are invested as deposits in local sharia banks, such as Bank Syariah Mandiri and Bank Muamalat.

Freedom of religion & worship

Religious affairs ministry mulls special agency for Confucianism

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2014

Jakarta – The Religious Affairs Ministry is considering the creation of a directorate general for Confucianism, a Chinese philosophy that was banned during the New Order era and was only recognized as one of the nation's official religions eight years ago.

Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, a presidential hopeful from the United Development Party (PPP), said he would follow up on a proposal from the High Council of Confucianism in Indonesia (Matakin) in which the ministry was asked to create a special directorate to cater to the needs of Indonesian Confucians.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono responded positively to the suggestion in a speech he delivered during the 2565 Kongzili National Chinese New Year celebration at the Jakarta Convention Center on Friday.

Yudhoyono said that he had discussed the matter with Coordinating People's Welfare Minister Agung Laksono and had told the local Chinese community that a directorate general for Confucianism at the Religious Affairs Ministry would be established soon. "Anything that constrains Confucians should be set aside," the President said.

Suryadharma said his ministry was now looking into whether the proposal was viable. "We will study this further to see whether its viable as there are minimum requirements that should be met."

Confucian activities are currently managed by the Center of Religious Harmony (PKUB), an agency under the auspices of the Religious Affairs Ministry that deals with creating harmony by promoting interfaith dialogue. The agency is now led by H. Mubarok, a Muslim. The other five religions – Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism and Buddhism – have their own directorate generals.

Ministry spokesman Zubaidi said that the ministry did not oppose the plan, saying that with a special directorate general, adherents of Confucianism would be able to play a bigger role in society. He added, however, that doing so would take time.

"Other parties will be involved in the process, not just the Religious Affairs Ministry. For example, we must get approval from the Administrative Reforms Ministry. We will also have to prepare the financial division and also involve the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) to realize it as soon as possible."

According to the 2010 census, there are 111,091 Confucians in the country, or 0.5 percent of the total population. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) also recorded 552 klenteng (temples) in Indonesia.

Following the 1965 tragedy, which was blamed on the Chinese-backed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), many Indonesians of Chinese-descent experienced discrimination and converted to the other five religions recognized by the state.

In 1979, former president Soeharto issued a decree to de-recognize Confucianism, which had been recognized as one the official religions by former president Sukarno.

Confucianism was recognized as an official religion again in 2006, five years after former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, an icon of pluralism, issued a decree that rescinded Soeharto's 1967 presidential instruction that banned the public display of Chinese symbols and customary practices.

Things have changed in the past few years, with Chinese culture and symbols openly displayed in public spaces, such as in malls and offices, while many Chinese businessmen are now entering the political stage.

The government, however, still does not recognize indigenous religions and their adherents are still barred from stating their beliefs on their ID cards. This policy has led to various kinds of discrimination and human rights activists have called on the government to repeal it. (fss)

Islamic law & morality

No free love: Muslim groups reject Valentine's Day

Jakarta Globe - February 14, 2014

Jakarta – As couples the world over celebrated Valentine's Day on Friday, vocal opposition to the holiday mounted in Indonesia over concerns of morality and religion, as it does every year.

In Bandung, West Java, at least 20 activists with the Indonesian Muslim Student Action Union (Kammi) urged Indonesian Muslims to avoid celebrating Valentine's Day.

"Valentine's Day should be strictly rejected and [not] celebrated by young people by committing immoral deeds such as premarital sex," Jabar Zurniawati, the head of Kammi's women's empowerment division, said on the sidelines of the rally, as quoted by news portal Detik.com.

Considering the majority of Indonesians are Muslims, she said, young people should maintain more Eastern traditions and reject Western celebrations of love like Valentine's Day.

Various branches of the Indonesia Council of Ulema (MUI) called on Muslims to forgo Valentine's Day celebrations. On Saturday, the South Sumatra branch of the MUI banned Muslims from celebrating the holiday, saying that the holiday is antithetical to Islam.

"Valentine's Day is not in Islamic culture, and celebrating it causes more harm than benefits," Sodikun, the chairman of the South Sumatra MUI, said as quoted by Merdeka.com.

He added that even though Islam teaches its adherents to respect other cultures, those cultures must be consistent with Islamic teachings. "A culture that clearly violates religious norms [should not be tolerated]," he said. "That should not be."

On Thursday, Tengku Zulkarnain, the MUI's vice secretary general, emphatically denounced the day, echoing the sentiment that Valentine's Day is inherently Western and therefore must be prevented at all costs.

"[It is a] cultural bandwagon that is irrational and preventable," he said according to Republika.com. He explained that in Islam, there is no single day that goes by without a demonstration of compassion. "The Prophet Muhammad once said, 'Anyone who does not have compassion will not have mercy,'" he said.

He argued that Valentine's Day was still being celebrated in Indonesia because many are not in tune with their religious beliefs. Society, he said, especially teenagers, don't have a proper understanding of Valentine's Day's background.

Hundreds of members of the hard-line Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) gathered in front of the city hall in Mojokerto, East Java, on Thursday took it a step further and demanded that the local government ban the holiday all together, arguing that it is directly responsible for the spread of promiscuity.

Men, women and children were involved in the demonstration, brandishing posters, banners, flags and loudspeakers. "Valentine's Day should be removed," Indra Darmawan, the chairman of the local branch of the HTI, said according to Detik. "It causes the onset of promiscuity in Mojokerto."

Indra said that he plans to hold meetings with the city's education department on the issue. "We hope that there is a common understanding with the government," he said. "So we can agree to ban the celebration of Valentine's Day."

He voiced concern over the prevalence of free sex among students in the city. "Although the MUI issued a fatwa on Valentine's Day, it has not suppressed free sex in Mojokerto," he said. "If there is a call from the local government, law enforcement can take action because it has a clear legal basis."

Bengkulu mayor criticized for rewarded-prayer scheme

Jakarta Globe - February 10, 2014

The head of the Indonesian Council of Ulema's (MUI) branch in Bengkulu has warned the city's mayor that his pray-for-rewards program is in danger of propagating discrimination and gender biases.

"The mayor has good intentions. However, religious equality should be taken into consideration – such as people who follow different religions." Rohimin, the council's branch leader in Bengkulu, said at the National Islamic Religion Institute (IAIN) on Monday, as quoted by news portal Kompas.com. "There should be a solution to avoid potential discrimination."

Bengkulu Mayor Helmi Hasan last Friday offered an array of rewards – including free hajj and umrah pilgrimages, as well as his private Toyota Innova – to local residents who avidly perform dzuhur (mid-day) congregational prayers at the At-Taqwa Grand Mosque every Wednesday.

"I am providing motivation so that the mosque will be more frequently visited," Helmi said as quoted by Indonesian news portal Tribunnews.com. "[I'm] hoping the Bengkulu residents who perform dzuhur prayers diligently will receive a cost-free umrah and hajj [trip], as well as the bonus of one Toyota Innova, my own private vehicle."

The offer is conditional on the terms that citizens must pray 42 times consecutively during the stated time at the mosque in order to qualify for the free umrah, and 52 times in a row for a free hajj journey.

One hundred people will be shortlisted to be given the prizes. As for the Toyota Innova, it will be given to one lucky resident who performs the congregational prayers consistently.

According to Helmi, this program was implemented to achieve one of the mayor's eight ambitions for the city: "Religious Bengkulu." The local government has allocated fund of Rp 2.3 billion ($188,600) for the program from the 2014 regional budget.

However, Rohimin asserts that these requirements could result in unfairness to women, as they will not be able to perform the prayers consistently due to menstruation.

"This is what we call equality bias or gender bias," Rohimin said. "There is no exception in Islam about it. Thus, there should be a special consideration for women, that we cannot apply the rules generally both to women and men."

The mayor's incentive program would encourage citizens' to pray with the hopes of material rewards, not to be a better Muslim, Rohimin said. "The value of religion is a deeper sense of understanding [not] being driven by rewards," he said.

Jakarta & urban life

Joko swings axe on top officials

Jakarta Post - February 13, 2014

Lenny Tristia Tambun & Hotman Siregar – Twenty-six high-ranking bureaucrats in the Jakarta administration were removed from office and replaced on Wednesday as part of a sweeping reshuffle ordered by Governor Joko Widodo amid widely publicized shortcomings.

Among the top officials stripped of their posts were Udar Pristono, the head of the Jakarta Transportation Office; Taufik Yudi Mulyanto, the head of the education office; and Unu Nurdin, the head of the city sanitation agency. Others were West Jakarta Mayor Fatahillah and Sugiyanta, the head of the city communications and information technology office.

Joko said the decision to move so many officials to new positions was because their offices were not delivering.

"Ideally, [a government] office or working unit shouldn't be manned for only a year or two," he said at City Hall on Wednesday following the announcement of the reshuffle. "They should be in place for three or four years so that the city leaders can understand the issues."

He said the individuals affected had failed to follow through with their programs and plans, and that many of the activities implemented under their watch were merely ceremonial, with no tangible outcome.

"Their programs, even after receiving orders, wouldn't go as planned. Their work was merely ceremonial, done simply to please the boss," Joko said.

The lack of any real outcome from city officials comes at a time when plenty is expected of the city administration from its people, the governor said. "What is needed of us is real work with real results – work that is real and tangible, that can be physically proven, touched and seen," he said.

Public policy expert Agus Pambagio said Joko's announcement only confirmed the failings of top administration officials, and called on Joko and Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama not to protect such officials.

"I don't get why those problematic officials are being retained when not only are they disrupting the work of their agencies, but they're making the administration look bad," he said.

He cited the case of Udar, now relieved of the post of transportation chief, as a prime example of an official who had failed to perform his duty.

Udar's office, long blamed for Jakarta's worsening traffic and inadequate public transportation system, has come under fire this past week over revelations that a batch of ostensibly new buses bought from China for the TransJakarta network and a new line of feeder routes, known as BKTB, had broken components are were even found to be rusting.

Problems included malfunctioning power steering, rusted frames, dashboard instruments that were unscrewed, and moldy air-conditioning units.

Joko said earlier this week that he had already ordered an investigation into the matter. "Someone has to be held responsible for this. Who? I think we already know," he said on Monday.

Basuki on Wednesday raised the possibility that the tender for the procurement of the buses had been rigged. He said that to prevent similar fiascoes in future, he had asked the city inspectorate to monitor all projects to procurement of goods and services by the various city agencies.

The city administration has decided to suspend the remaining payment, Rp 600 billion ($49.8 million), of the total Rp 1 trillion owed to the suppliers after the inspectorate determined that the buses were not roadworthy.

"We've called [the inspectorate] and it is true that the items are unfit for use, which is why we've decided not to pay. If they insist, then we will take this to court," Basuki said.

"That is why we need experts to prove that the specifications of the buses are below the standards determined by the BPPT [Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology]."

Udar said he had no objections to Joko's decision to remove him from his post. "I am a civil servant, a staff to the governor and deputy governor, so I am ready to be placed anywhere," he said. "Reshuffles are normal, and God willing, I am ready for any task the governor may give me."

Another city official under intense public criticism recently but not included in Wednesday's reshuffle was Manggas Rudy Siahaan, the head of the Jakarta Public Works Office.

His agency has become the target of graft allegations linked to the contracts to build and maintain the city's roads, following extensive flood damage that has left entire streets cratered with potholes.

Official data show that damage to roads in the last two weeks has increased by 133.6 percent. Some 3,903 damaged sites needed to be repaired, up from 2,234 a month ago. It is likely that there are cases of road damage that have not made it into the official count.

The Jakarta administration, which last December conceded that its "zero hole" program to fix all potholed roads had failed, said it would roll out the program again this year.

Soegeng Purnomo, an expert on road construction with the Indonesia Transportation Society, recently said contractors hired by the city to repair the damage had failed to properly carry out their work and instead strayed from the guidelines set up by the government.

"The quality of the roads in Jakarta are simply woeful," he said. "And to make matters worse, the process of fixing them is just as bad."

Workers rarely follow proper procedures when patching potholes, he argued. The substandard work is little more than a temporary fix for what quickly becomes a reoccurring problem.

"So you have a case where the mix of materials in the hot-mix isn't even up to standard, and then it's being poured at a much lower temperature than required, usually less than 100 degrees Celsius," Soegeng said. "So obviously you end up with a stretch of road that will easily become potholed again."

Jakarta floods cost businesses Rp 300 billion: Kadin

Jakarta Globe - February 10, 2014

Edi Hardum, Jakarta – Unrelenting rains in Jakarta, which have been continuing for weeks since the beginning of January, have caused businesses in the capital to lose as much as Rp 300 billion ($24.6 million) per day, the deputy chairman at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) said on Monday.

Flooding in the capital affected the transportation of goods from Tanjung Priok Port, in North Jakarta, causing shipping delays and major losses for vendors. Even when the floods receded, damaged roads still halted the transfer of products.

"The buyers issued penalties on [distributors] because goods arrived behind schedule," Kadin deputy chairman Natsir Mansur said.

Inundated routes have also caused a backup for transporting cargo to the port – as a result, goods prepped for export missed their shipping schedules, causing further losses. "We had to spend extra money to pay for the leftover cargo at the port," Natsir said. "The letter of credit could not be disbursed."

According to Natsir, 40 percent of roads in the country have suffered some sort of damage due to flooding during the rainy season, and he suggested that Indonesia begin paving its roads with concrete rather than asphalt to mitigate further harm. "Asphalt gets easily damaged, especially in conditions with high precipitation like Indonesia," he said.

Natsir added that constructing roads with concrete would lead to a 25 percent decrease in the budget. "Roads covered with asphalt will be likely damaged in a year, while concrete lasts longer – approximately five years," he said.

Joko urges investigation into Busway lemon procurement

Jakarta Globe - February 10, 2014

Deti Mega & Lenny Tristia Tambun, Jakarta – After several supposedly new buses purchased for use on the TransJakarta Busway and the Integrated City Busway (BKTB) were proven to be unfit for use, Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo urged his administration to find who was responsible for allowing the purchase of the lemons to go through.

"Someone has to be held responsible for this. Who? I think we already know," Joko said on Monday, implying the city's transportation agency's involvement in the case.

Five new TransJakarta buses and eight new BKTB buses were found to be damaged despite being bought from China a few weeks ago. Some of the buses' components – such as their power steering functions, oil valves and air filters – were not functioning properly. Furthermore, the buses' frames were rusted, the dashboard instruments unscrewed and the air conditioner compressors molded.

Despite his insinuation, Joko said that an investigation report hasn't been handed over to him yet. "We will check it again today," he said. "We will question the inspectorate. The investigation has been conducted, but I have no heard the results yet. I also want to check with the procurement team."

Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama also pushed for further inquiry into the matter. "If the new vehicles are already rusted, they will break down in no time," he said. "We will investigate this, especially because the handover has been done."

Basuki questioned why workers with the Jakarta Transportation Agency had not checked the vehicles thoroughly when they arrived from China.

"Logically, you have to check on the things you've bought. Nobody wants to get rusty goods," he said. "And if the agency knew that the vehicles were indeed damaged, they had the right to return them to the producer, but they chose to use them anyway."

Basuki said that the producer, suppliers and buyers were being investigated for possible graft, adding that he would seek to put those responsible for the purchase of the vehicles in prison. "All of them should be jailed as a lesson for others who think they can give wrecked goods to the Jakarta administration," he said.

Udar Pristono, the head of the Jakarta Transportation Agency, on the other hand, claimed that the procurement followed city regulations.

"We will sort this out, please don't generalize everything," he said, as quoted by Detik.com on Monday. "We had an open tender and the Chinese producer won it. "The buses can't be old. They were made per our requests."

He also said that the agency has only put down 20 percent of the total cost for the vehicles and replacements could be ordered. "We haven't paid in full, so do not worry, we can fix this," he said.

In the past few weeks, the Jakarta Administration has begun using 90 of the 310 newly bought buses and 18 of the 346 newly purchased BKTB buses. The administration paid Rp 3.7 billion ($303,400) for the vehicles.

Armed forces & defense

House prepares bill on TNI judicial reform

Jakarta Post - February 12, 2014

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The House of Representatives and the government have agreed to reform the Indonesian Military (TNI) by amending the 1997 Law on Disciplinary Principles for Members of the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI), the former name of the TNI.

A House plenary meeting on Tuesday approved a draft bill on the discipline of TNI soldiers, which contrary to the existing law, would give access to external oversight initiatives, guaranteeing that errant soldiers would be properly punished.

The external oversight would be made possible with the establishment of an honorary council comprising members of the TNI, retired soldiers and academics.

"This bill is expected to make sure that all soldiers comply with disciplinary principles. It will set strict rules for what could be seen as conduct and misconduct within military institutions and in public," said Mahfudz Siddiq, chairman of House Commission I overseeing defense, foreign affairs and information on Tuesday.

Mahfudz said that the bill, if approved, could pave the way for members of the military to be tried in civil courts.

"The deliberation of the bill is the first step toward improving the existing Military Judicial Law, which would make it possible for soldiers to face civil court for their crimes," said Mahfud, a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician.

Provisions in the bill would allow for civilians to air their complaints about the alleged misconduct of military personnel.

Articles 33 and 34 of the bill mandates the establishment of an honorary council that would record public complaints about the alleged misconduct of soldiers. The council would also have the authority to launch a probe into the alleged misconduct.

The draft bill also guarantees the rights of soldiers. Article 34 would allow soldiers to file complaints against unfair treatment by their superiors.

The bill also makes it difficult for superiors to avoid taking responsibility for a crime committed by their soldiers. Article 24 of the bill stipulates that superiors would take responsibility for every order given to their men. Article 29 stipulates that soldiers could file a complaint on orders deemed problematic.

The decision to amend existing Law No. 26/1997 on Military Discipline was prompted by concerns over murders committed by soldiers, particularly the killing of police detainees by a group of the Armys Special Forces (Kopassus) soldiers at Cebongan Penitentiary in Sleman, Yogyakarta, last year.

A military tribunal in Yogyakarta sentenced the 11 commandos from the Kartasura, Surakarta-based Kopassus Group 2 to between six and 11 years in prison. The lack of transparency in the trial prompted many to demand a trial in a civil court for the Kopassus soldiers.

Deputy chairman of Commission Tubagus Hasanuddin said that the bill, if endorsed, could prevent soldiers from committing such a crime. "The bill has set strict restrictions for soldiers with the hope of improving the discipline of soldiers. We expect cases like Cebongan, or other disciplinary problems, to not recur in the future," Tubagus said.

Tubagus, a politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said that the bill would include a provision that would allow for dismissal as the most severe punishment. The current law allows soldiers to remain in the corps in spite of their imprisonment.

Commission I will officially start deliberation next week and expects to endorse the bill before the term for the current House ends in October.

Deputy Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said that the Defense Ministry applauded the House initiative. "The draft bill will convince the public that the TNI abides by the rules and regulations set both for civilians and the military," Sjafrie said last year during a hearing with Commission I.

Military personnel might be involved in attacks: Police

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2014

Jakarta – The Jakarta Police have said that a preliminary investigation into an attack at a police post near the National Police headquarters has revealed that military personnel might be behind the attack.

Spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said on Monday that the police had questioned five eyewitnesses of an attack at a police post on Jl. Trunojoyo in South Jakarta, just a few meters away from police headquarters, but had yet to make any arrests.

He said that the Trunojoyo attack, which took place at around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, had involved dozens of people riding on motorcycles who threw stones at the police post, damaging its windows. Shattered glass injured four of the five witnesses, who were street vendors, he said.

He said the perpetrators also attacked a police post near the Senayan traffic circle in South Jakarta. The traffic circle is about 500 meters to the north of police headquarters. Rikwanto said that according to eyewitnesses, the perpetrators had crew cuts like military personnel.

"If indications lead to the alleged involvement of some oknum [members] of the Indonesian Military [TNI] or National Police, we will involve those parties in the investigation," he said. Oknum is a term often associated with state officials, including TNI and police personnel.

Rikwanto said that according to the preliminary investigation, the incident was related to a scuffle between two motorcyclists and two traffic police officers at an intersection in Kuningan, South Jakarta just a few hours earlier, at about 9:30 p.m. last Saturday.

The scuffle occurred after the motorcyclists disobeyed the police's instruction to stop to make way for Vice President Boediono's convoy. After the altercation ended, the riders said that they were offended and that they would come back with members of their squad, he said. "The two motorcyclists had crew cuts, wore shorts and were rude," he said. "Neither were wearing helmets."

Rikwanto explained that later on, at 11 p.m., traffic police officers patrolling in Setiabudi, Central Jakarta, saw at least 20 motorcyclists surrounding an Avanza car. As the policemen got closer to see what was going on, the motorcyclists starting throwing rocks at the policemen's car. The policemen then dispersed them by firing warning shots.

Military and police personnel have frequently gotten into altercations, mostly when military personnel try to dodge regulations.

Rikwanto said that the Trunojoyo and Setiabudi incidents were not connected to the Transjakarta bus shooting that took place in Pancoran at 11 p.m. on Sunday. The bus was shot at on its left side, leaving bullet holes on its body and broken windows.

He said the police had questioned the bus driver, Jonni Marasih Siregar, as a witness, but had yet to identify the shooter due to a lack of evidence.

The investigators, he said, had concluded that the shooter was the same person who fired shots at the Transjakarta bus stop on Jl. Otto Iskandar Dinata in East Jakarta in August 2012. (ask)

Judicial & legal system

Constitutional Court strikes down SBY's law on Constitutional Court

Jakarta Globe - February 14, 2014

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The Constitutional Court on Thursday overturned President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's October 2013 regulation in lieu of a law, or Perppu, which was directed toward the court itself – flying in the face of the President's measures to reign the court in after public confidence in the body was shaken by the jarring detention of former Chief Justice Akil Mochtar on graft charges.

The regulation, which increased oversight and put in place steeper requirements for joining the Court, was "against the 1945 Constitution and is not legally binding," Chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva said at the ruling. The decision was the result of a request for judicial review filed by a group of lawyers and legal experts.

Under Indonesian law, a Perppu, which has the same legal standing as a law passed by the House of Representatives, may be issued in response to an emergency in order to justify bypassing the normal legislative process. Any Indonesian citizen may, however, submit any regulation to the Constitution Court for review and the court is free to revoke it or issue clarifications.

The regulation, which was approved by the House of Representatives in December 2013 – despite opposition from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) – stipulated that a judicial candidate must not have been a member of a political party for at least seven years before becoming a justice, called for the creation of a panel to vet Constitutional Court candidates, established a permanent body tasked with monitoring judicial conduct and required that all future Constitutional Court candidates to have earned doctorates.

Akil, who stands accused of accepting bribes in connection to two regional election disputes, joined the court in 2009 – the same year he stepped down from his position as a Golkar party lawmaker, which he had held for a decade.

In striking down the measure, the court argued that the selection process for Constitutional Court justices has been stipulated by the Constitution and therefore should not be modified.

The Court also argued that the regulation had reduced the authority Supreme Court, the House of Representatives and the President – who have the authority to select justices – by diluting that authority with an additional panel of experts.

The court argued that the stipulation mandating a seven-year gap before a politician was eligible to join the court violated the constitutional rights of Indonesian citizens and would only serve to further stigmatize public servants. The court also ruled that a Perppu was only justified in an emergency and that the Akil Mochtar scandal had not constituted an emergency.

PDI-P lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari said that she and her party supported the court's decision, but she said that justices needed to be monitored further nonetheless.

Irman Putra Sidin, a Constitution expert at Hasanudin Univeristy in Makassar, South Sulawesi, also praised the ruling, saying that it indicated an independent and impartial court, free from political pressure.

"All citizens can have the guarantee that political pressure, even massive public pressure, will not be able to influence the Constitutional Court," he said. He called the Perppu a threat to democracy, inherited from the more absolute power Indonesian leaders held in the past.

Coordinating minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto, on the other hand, said that the ruling had undermined the government's efforts to restore dignity to the court. "The law was meant to fix the court, but it has been annulled by the court," he said at a press conference.

Djoko said that the government had painstakingly drafted the Perppu with the aid of law experts and former Constitutional Court justices. He said that the government would not try to change the decision, but only because there was no legal avenue to do so – such rulings are absolute and binding under Indonesian law.

Refly Harun, a Constitution expert at the Constitutional & Electoral Reform Center in Jakarta, said that the decision would increase the likelihood that future justices would join the court with a political background, which he said was a "great threat." "The judges should be God's representatives in this world, not representing political power," he said.

Criminal justice & prison system

Islamists protest parole for Australian drug mule Corby

Agence France Presse - February 14, 2014

Jakarta – More than 100 Islamic hard-liners slammed the Indonesian government Friday for approving Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby's parole from jail, saying the convicted drug mule should receive the death penalty.

Corby, 36, was released from prison on the holiday island of Bali on Monday after a drawn-out application that took more than a year finally led to her release.

The crowd of mostly men from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and other hard-line groups gathered in the capital Jakarta demanding Corby's parole be revoked, saying the justice minister "should be ashamed" for green- lighting her freedom.

"This person brings marijuana into our country and is freed? That is simply unjust. Where are our rights?" senior FPI member Haji Awit Masyhuri told AFP at the protest.

"She should have been given the death penalty – all drug traffickers should," he said, adding that the Indonesian government had shown special treatment for Corby because she was Australian.

A speaker on a megaphone shouted that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was "bowing down to Australia" when he granted Corby a five-year sentence cut in 2012, paving the way for her eligibility for parole.

"Drugs are not our culture. That's Australia's culture. In Indonesia drugs means the death penalty – why did we free her?" the protester shouted, to which others replied "Allahu Akbar" (God is greater), before marching to the presidential palace.

The protesters also repeated past demands that the president issue a decree banning the sale of alcohol, claiming that alcohol consumption leads to increased HIV rates, crime and road accidents.

Corby was arrested in 2004 when customs officials found 4.1 kilograms of marijuana in her body board bag. She served more than nine years in prison before being granted parole and has maintained her innocence, claiming the drugs were planted.

She must serve out her sentence in Indonesia and will be free to leave in 2017 if she abides by her parole conditions.

Politicians all hot and bothered over Corby's release

Jakarta Globe - February 11, 2014

Carlos Paath & Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – When convicted drug trafficker Schapelle Corby was released on parole from a jail in Bali on Monday, it wasn't just the horde of reporters from her native Australia who went into a frenzy.

In Jakarta, politicians have been fuming at what they consider a travesty of the justice system, and are threatening to make the humdrum issue of a convict qualifying for early release a matter of national scrutiny.

Aboe Bakar Al Habsy, a member of the House of Representatives from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said on Tuesday that legislators could invoke their interpellation right on the issue – the House's standard trope for demanding an official explanation from the government on an issue of national importance.

Brushing aside criticism that such a move was overkill, Aboe Bakar said that permitting the release of Corby nine years into a 20-year sentence (reduced to just under 13 following several cuts) was a huge mistake on the government's part and sent out the wrong message about Indonesia's campaign to crack down on drug offenses.

"We'll definitely be talking about Corby's parole in House Commission III" – which oversees legal affairs – "because the government granted it knowing full well that what she did was a very serious crime," he said. "The interpellation issue is one that we still need to discuss further."

Corby was released from Bali's Kerobokan Penitentiary on Monday, following her May 2005 conviction for attempting to smuggle 4.2 kilograms of marijuana into the country in October 2004. One of the conditions of her parole is that she will not be allowed to leave Indonesia until August 2017.

Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin had announced a day earlier that she had qualified for early release, following a string of sentence cuts and based on her behavior while at Kerobokan. He stressed the government had not given her preferrential treatment and that she was part of a batch of more than 1,200 inmates nationwide granted parole.

However, House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung said the "international lobbying" in recent years by Australia to get Corby released "was plainly visible and undeniable."

"We feel that this decision fell far short of the public's sense of justice," he said on Tuesday. "The government has been duplicitous about this."

Syarifuddin Sudding, a House Commission III member from the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), proposed that a working committee be established to pursue an inquiry into why Corby had been granted early release.

"We'll discuss it immediately at an internal meeting of the commission. We've already talked about it informally," he said, adding that most legislators had expressed disappointment at the "special treatment" given to Corby.

That purported majority did not include Pieter Zulkiflie, the House Commission III chairman, who said all talk of a working committee or government interpellation was excessive.

"They can have their working committee if they want, but I feel it's just too much. We have to respect the decision by the [Justice Ministry], and I for one laud their policy," said Pieter, who, like Amir, is a member of the ruling Democratic Party.

Indonesian government forced to defend Schapelle Corby parole decision

Sydney Morning Herald - February 9, 2014

James Robertson, Tessa van der Riet – The Indonesian government has been forced to defend its decision to grant Schapelle Corby parole in the face of accusations of hypocrisy and special treatment.

Indonesian interest in the Corby case began to slowly catch up to Australia's after news of her release was made official. And it has exposed a massive gap with Australian sentiment, where an overwhelming majority of people believe she has served enough time in prison.

"We deserve an honest explanation: was this purely a legal decision, or is this pay-off for Australia?" asked the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Priyo Budi Santoso, from the opposition Golkar party.

Many observers suspected Corby would never receive parole, as the issue of granting clemency to a drug smuggler was too politically charged an issue for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who had talked tough on narcotics.

Now that the government, in the twilight of the Susilo presidency and in an election year, has made the move it has incited a wave of opposition.

"Government policy is favouring the drug mafia, including Corby," said a member of the parliament and its legal affairs committee, Ahmad Yani, from the minority Islamic PPP party, who also said Corby deserved the death penalty.

Several other members of that parliamentary committee have said they intend to invoke their powers of inquiry to force the government to provide an official explanation for Corby's release.

At Friday's press conference confirming Corby's parole Indonesia's Justice Minister went to such pains to avoid using her name as to lend proceedings a slightly farcical air.

It is now clear why. Mr Yudhoyono's conservative political opponents have gained some traction from the case, which they say makes a mockery of the President's campaigns for a drug-free Indonesia by 2015.

The government says it only granted Corby's parole because she had met objective conditions, but opponents claim the government enabled the move with a generous presidential clemency order in 2012 that shaved five years off her sentence.

"The government only dares to be tough on its own citizens" said Al Muzzammil Yusuf, a leading politician from the Islamic PKS party, which controls about 10 per cent of seats in the Indonesian lower house.

At a time when public hostility toward Australia is at a peak after revelations of wiretapping, the government will not relish being forced to deny stories that the Corby release was a diplomatic bargain.

But despite making the front page of several Saturday newspapers outside Bali the story of the "pretty Corby" has not obsessed Indonesia as it has Australia.

Many Balinese locals, such as Anto Shiotang, a bamboo artisan from central Kuta are broadly sympathetic about Corby. "I believe she's guilty," he said. "[But] if she is released it's a good thing because she's been in there for quite some time."

But even in central Kuta, among Indonesia's most progressive areas, you do not have to go far to find the opposite view.

Victor, who works in a craft store in central Kuta, likened drug smuggling to terrorism or genocide. "I totally disagree with it," he said. "Any extraordinary case should receive the heaviest punishment possible."

Foreign affairs & trade

Indonesia, US to sign two MoUs during Kerry's visit

Jakarta Post - February 14, 2014

Jakarta – In a sign of intensified relations between the two nations, Indonesia and the United States will sign two agreements during US Secretary of State's visit to Jakarta, a minister has said.

"Besides discussing several issues,Indonesia and the US will also sign two memorandum of understandings (MoUs) in two fields," said Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa on Thursday.

One of the agreements centers on the South-South Cooperation and Triangular Cooperation. "The MoUs reflect cooperation involving Indonesia and the US that are aimed at offering partnerships to the third countries in an effort to increase their capacities in certain fields, such as development, democracy and human rights," said Marty.

The second agreement focuses on wildlife conservation and the fight against illegal wildlife trafficking. "Illegal wildlife trafficking is a serious problem that has become our common concern; therefore, during Secretary of State Kerry's visit, we will sign an MoU in that area," said Marty.

Kerry will visit Indonesia from Feb. 15 until Feb. 17. The two ministers will co-chair the Joint Commission Meeting under the US-Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership. The US-Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership, under the auspices of which the two ministers will chair the Joint Commission meeting, was established in 2010.

"Comprehensive means that Indonesia-US relations cover a wide range of fields, comprising politics, economy, security and socio culture," Marty said.

During the forum, Kerry and Marty will review progress of bilateral cooperation from six working groups on security, trade and investment, climate change and the environment, education, energy and democracy and civil society. Kerry last visited Indonesia to attend the APEC Summit in Bali.

Besides bilateral issues, the two are expected to discuss regional and international issues, including issues regarding territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and East China Sea. "These have been the topics of discussion in bilateral meetings, not only with the US but also with other countries,and in other frameworks such as ASEAN, and the East Asia Summit," Marty said.

We had always highlighted the need for peaceful solutions to every conflict, through dialogue and in respect of international law. This was always the principle element among ASEAN countries through the six-point principle, Marty added.

Kerry arrived in Seoul on Thursday for discussions on North Korea's nuclear program, a day after high-level inter-Korean talks failed to resolve a row over looming South Korea-US military drills. South Korea was Kerry's first stop on his Asian tour, which also includes China.

As well as discussing efforts to rein in Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, Kerry will be briefed in Seoul on a diplomatic initiative that saw the two Koreas sit down on Wednesday for their highest-level official talks since 2007.

In Beijing, Kerry will encourage China to "use its unique set of ties and leverage" to pressure Pyongyang to prove it is serious about wanting to restart the six-party process, a US State Department official has said.

Kerry believes "the North Korean nuclear threat is not a problem that we can all admire from a distance," the official added as quoted by Agence France-Presse.

Kerry's visit comes ahead of an Asian tour in April by President Barack Obama, which will take him to Japan and South Korea. The US has also repeatedly called for the isolated North to release Kenneth Bae, a Korean- American missionary who was sentenced to 15 years' of hard labor last year on sedition charges. (ebf)

TNI warns of foreign meddling

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2014

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Moeldoko said on Monday that the nation's armed forces would intensify their vigilance amid rising tensions with Australia and Singapore, which came at a time when Indonesia was preparing for elections.

In a closed-door meeting with the House of Representatives Commission I overseeing foreign affairs and defense, Moeldoko was asked if the recent bilateral spats with Canberra and Singapore were designed by foreign powers to disrupt the elections that would be held within the next six months.

The TNI commander said he believed the incidents had nothing to do with the elections, but that he was aware that the country was now focusing on domestic security prior to the legislative election and the election to determine the successor to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "[What has happened recently] was accidental, but we will always be alert in protecting our borders," Moeldoko said.

Relations between Indonesia and Singapore turned sour recently following Jakarta's decision to name a Navy frigate after two Indonesian national heroes who were executed in the city-state in the 1960s for a bomb attack that killed three people.

Singapore has protested Indonesia's move, saying that it would open old wounds and hurt the feelings of the victims of the bombing, which took place during Indonesia's confrontation with Malaysia.

Jakarta, however, ignored Singapore's concerns, prompting the latter to cancel a bilateral meeting on the two nations' defense cooperation and the former to cancel its attendance at the Singapore Airshow.

The row with Singapore came after Jakarta and Canberra froze cooperation over the latter's alleged spying on Yudhoyono and its unilateral move to tow undocumented migrants seeking asylum in Australia back to Indonesian waters.

Moeldoko assured the commission that despite media reports about Indonesia's relationships and its neighbors, including Australia, Singapore and Papua New Guinea (PNG), over recent issues, the countries' ties in terms of defense remained conducive. "It's all about misunderstandings. Otherwise, I would not be able to reassure you now," Moeldoko said.

House Commission I chairman Mahfudz Siddiq said that it was odd that so many incidents involving the neighboring countries had occurred successively so close to the polls.

On Saturday, five Indonesian fishermen from Merauke were reported missing after their boat was destroyed by PNG naval personnel and the men were forced to swim to the shore.

The PNG personnel reportedly checked the men's documents and proceeded to confiscate a sum of money, cigarettes and two cans of fuel. The PNG sailors then set the fishermen's boat alight and ordered the 10 passengers to swim back to Merauke.

Only five fishermen managed to reach the coast off Karu, which is also in PNG territory, while the other five men remain unaccounted for. According to Moeldoko, the TNI is investigating the incident.

"Three incidents taking place one after the other. This is unusual," Mahfudz said. The commission, he added, therefore urged Moeldoko to investigate the possibility of "intentional design" by foreign agencies and to increase measures to protect the country from foreign threats while at the same time focusing on safeguarding the elections.

Several lawmakers said that the response by Singapore to the naming of the KRI Usman-Harun 359 in of honor two marines operating under the identities of Usman bin Haji Muhammad Ali and Harun bin Said was excessive. The two men were executed in Singapore in 1968 for the bombing of MacDonald House on Orchard Road, which left three dead and 33 injured.

Moeldoko himself had asked Singapore to stop calling the duo "terrorists". "I cannot accept that Usman and Harun are represented as terrorists. They were marines. They were working for the state," Moeldoko said.

Usman, whose real name was Janatin, and Harun, whose real name was Tohir bin Mandar, were tasked with infiltrating Singapore during the confrontation with newly independent Malaysia in the 1960s. (dvi)

Mining & energy

Coal-fired plant project faces local opposition

Jakarta Post - February 12, 2014

Nurfika Osman, Jakarta – Local communities in Batang, Central Java, have urged the government to drop its plan to construct a US$4 billion coal- fired power plant, saying that its environmental impact could destroy the livelihoods of more than 100,000 people in the area.

Residents near the site of the planned project said the construction of the power plant would destroy rice farming and the thriving fishery industry.

"We harvest rice three times a year to help provide staple food to the country and we catch tons of fish to feed the nation. We don't want our land to die off in the hands of investors who will destroy not only our livelihoods but also this country," said a local fisherman identifying himself as Boy, in a press conference held by Greenpeace Indonesia on Tuesday.

Boy said he was disappointed with the government as local officials appeared to ignore their complaints and did nothing when thugs started intimidating locals.

"They've recently tried to intimidate us and sometimes they use violence if we refuse to sell our land. But we are not going to give up because this is all we have," he said, adding that 50 local landowners had refused to sell 55 hectares of land for the proposed power plant.

The Japanese-backed project is expected to take up between 200 and 350 hectares of land in the area.

Karomat, another local resident from Ujung Negoro village, said if the project continued he would leave the area and lose his monthly income of Rp 3 million (US$246).

Greenpeace Indonesia said the planned 2,000 megawatt (MW) plant, dubbed the biggest coal-fired power plant project in Southeast Asia, would annually emit 226 kilograms of mercury into the neighboring Ujung Negoro-Roban regional marine protected area, damaging local fishing.

The project would also release about 10.8 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, equal to Myanmar's entire emissions throughout 2009. Greenpeace Indonesia blasted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for giving the go- ahead to the project.

"It shows the President isn't committed to reducing greenhouse emissions by 26 percent by 2020 and developing 25 percent of renewable energy by 2025. The government hasn't learned how projects can impact negatively on people," Greenpeace Indonesia climate and energy campaigner Arif Fiyanto said.

Greenpeace Indonesia previously found the newly-constructed coal-fired steam power plant (PLTU) in Cirebon, West Java, had destroyed shrimp ponds, resulting in the loss of more than 3,000 jobs.

A PLTU project in Cilacap, Central Java has seen 80 percent of local residents suffer acute respiratory ailments to black lung disease, the latter commonly found in mine workers.

Analysis & opinion

Is the Australian government engaging in piracy?

Jakarta Post - February 12, 2014

Max Lane, Melbourne – It would appear that at least three times in recent weeks, the Australian navy and also the customs service has detained Indonesian and other foreign citizens traveling on boats heading for Christmas Island, a territory under Australian sovereignty. They were people intending to claim refugee status on arrival on Australian territory, which is a right guaranteed under international law. From reports in the Australian press, the initial detentions either took place on the high seas or in Australian waters.

However, the Indonesian, Iraqi, Somalian and other citizens were then in de facto detention as they were towed back across international waters toward Indonesian waters against their will. Some of the refugees have claimed that the Australian ships turned off their lights at night, the implication being that they entered into Indonesian waters. The Australian navy has denied this.

In one case, the refugees were towed back in the boat in which they had been traveling. In two other cases, they were transferred – obviously against their will – into small lifeboats that the Australian government recently bought in Singapore and made to go back to Java in them. Two such lifeboats have now been found on the Java coast.

The Australian government denies outright and refuses to investigate allegations by some of the refugees that they were mistreated. In detailed reports published in the Australian newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald and by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), refugees allege that they had their hands held up against hot engine pipes resulting in extensive burns. Others claimed they were kicked. Still others claimed they were only allowed to urinate once per day while in detention on Australian ships. The Indonesian citizens involved – crew on the ships – have not been interviewed by the Australian reporters.

It is also reported that two refugees returned in the first lifeboat later died. Their "gifted" lifeboat landed on the Javanese coast in jungle. The refugees and Indonesian crew then had to find their way through the jungle. The Australian journalists report that they were told that two refugees drowned trying to cross a river in the jungle.

The Australian government has not only claimed that the reports of abuse are lies, but have accused the Australian media of being unpatriotic and irresponsible in even airing the allegations. This reminds me of Soeharto- era Indonesia. All of us outside the Australian government have no way of being able to assess the refugees allegations of abuse, although the latest investigation by Michael Bachelard in the The Sydney Morning Herald (Feb. 6) is detailed and convincing.

Moreover, there was also a recently an announcement that the Australian Navy was investigating Navy personnel being members of racist Facebook groups. In another Herald article one of these personnel was quoted as saying: "I am off to deal with these f????ers today", referring abusively to refugees.

I am not an expert in international law or law of the sea but the forcible seizure of other people's boats, the detention of their crew (Indonesian citizens) and passengers (citizens of various countries), the forcible transfer of such people to other boats, and the coerced towing them to a destination not of their choice would all seem to amount to piracy.

Perhaps I am wrong on this matter of law. Morally, however, it is quite clear that these are immoral, inhumane acts. Personally, I would like to see Immigration and Border Protection Minister, Scott Morrison and the puppet General doing his work charged with piracy and criminal negligence causing death.

As with any allegations of abuse by state officials anywhere, they should be properly investigated, whether or not the Australian prime minister or others believe they are true or not. Once allegations of abuse are rejected as lies without investigation, we head toward impunity for state officials.

There is a very easy solution to the problem of the refugees in Indonesia who want to apply for refugee status in Australia.

Rather than burden Indonesian society with the problem of dealing with this and rather than spending hundreds of millions of dollars on inhumane prisons for refugees in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, the Australian government could re-direct that money to strengthen the resources of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Indonesia so that these people fleeing war, political repression and economic chaos can be quickly processed and depart by air to Australia. The reason that some are tempted to use boats is because of the very long wait for processing.

Refugees have always been welcomed by the majority of the Australian people as they start to settle, if not by consecutive inhumane Australian governments, both under the Australian Labour Party and the Liberal National Parties.

[The writer teaches politics and international studies at Victoria University, Melbourne, and has been visiting Indonesia since 1969. He is the translator of the novels of Pramoedya Ananta Toer and the plays of W.S. Rendra. He is the author of articles and books on Indonesia, including "Unfinished Nation: Indonesia before and after Suharto" (Verso).]

The political demography of conflicts in Papua

Jakarta Post - February 10, 2014

Riwanto Tirtosudarmo, Jakarta – Demography is rearing its ugly head, and as a result, political development in Papua has become convoluted. This issue was a major topic during the recent seminar on Papua organized by the Research Center of Politics at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

The convolution of demography and politics were exposed in at least two cases – the increasing number of non-Papuans and the demographic manipulation in the creation of new districts. What is worrying is the contribution of a political demographic nexus to the increasing political and communal conflicts in Papua.

The perception that in-migration to Papua has resulted in the marginalization of the indigenous population has been around since the early 1980s, when Soeharto's New Order government accelerated the relocation of people from Java and Bali under the transmigration program to Papua. The transmigration policy was criticized for endangering both the local population and the environment as new settlements destroyed the surrounding tropical forests. The transmigration program had practically ceased in the early 1990s as the financial capacity of the central government began to shrink. Yet, voluntary migration cannot be stopped, as in-migration continues to be driven by the process of equalizing economic and human resource gaps between different areas.

The last two decades of the voluntary movement from Java to other islands is perhaps a major contribution to rapid social transformation in this archipelago. As the result of 2010 population census showed, the in- migration rate to Papua and West Papua province was the highest in Indonesia. While the actual number of people who migrate to Papua might not be as high as the number of migrants who move to, say, Riau province. However, given the low population in Papua, the movement consequently has higher social, economic and political impacts than in Riau.

Since the political problems in former East Timor and Aceh have been resolved, Papua is now the most politically troubled place in the country. Bitter decolonization in the early 1960s and its aftermath were followed by grievances resulting from structural injustices committed by the Indonesian government in Papua. Papuans continued to be restless while any attempts to resolve the problem had different responses from different groups of Papuans.

The fragmentation of Papuan society, which stems from the enormous ethnic heterogeneity, constitutes the underlying factor that significantly contributed to the divisive nature of political leadership in Papua. The decentralization policy, the product of the post-Soeharto regimes, granted regional autonomy to regency and municipal level governments. An initial idea that autonomy should be given to the province was totally rejected by the military. The response by the local elites on the locus of regional autonomy at the regency level, however, is unprecedented. Expectations of fund disbursements and the opportunity to hold local power have driven the rapid creation of district governments all over the place, particularly outside Java.

In the case of Papua, apart from the establishment of special autonomy, the decision to create the second province, West Papua, was originally perceived as part of Jakarta's rule and divide policy, to weaken the potential separatist movement in Papua. Yet, as the local elites saw the economic and political benefits, the drive to create new regencies rapidly accelerated. The manipulation of demographic statistics to meet the requirements for creating new districts is therefore, uncontrollable.

The role of local political elites both in the issue of the impact of in- migration and demographic manipulation in the creation of new districts is indisputable. In the case of in-migration issues, violence usually occurs in the form of sporadic attacks by Papuan militia groups against the migrant communities.

In the case of demographic manipulation in the creation of new regencies, a study by Sidney Jones from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflicts (IPAC) shows that the direct link with the political mobilization by the local elites is driven by the need to create new regencies, and the political and communal violence in several highland districts. Jones, who presented her case at the LIPI seminar, argued that the conflicts among Papuan elites in the creation of new regencies indicated that the idea of divide-and-rule from Jakarta was no longer necessary as Papuans had now divided themselves.

The problems and the dilemmas of initiating a dialogue to find a peaceful solution for the Papuan conflicts are separate from the extreme prejudice from Jakarta toward the Papuans. As Muridan Widjojo the leader of the LIPI research group noted in the seminar, the issues were also clearly based on the fact that no single authority represented the Papuans. Muridan strongly argued that the strategy that must be adopted should not simply mirror the way Jakarta resolved the Aceh conflict. Muridan, who also leads Jaringan Damai Papua (Papua Peace Network) with Father Neles Tebay, reminded us all that we had to face a long and tedious process, just to lay the initial foundations for a dialogue to resolve the conflicts in Papua.

[The writer is a researcher at the Research Center for Society and Culture, LIPI.]

How to kill an industry in Indonesia

Asia Times - February 10, 2014

John McBeth, Jakarta – Indonesia's exports of mineral ore are now at a standstill, with unprocessed bauxite and nickel the target of an outright ban and mining companies either refusing or unable to pay the draconian new export duty on copper and the other concentrates that were given a 12th- hour three-year extension.

That's only half of the story. Far from clear is whether enforced on-shore processing of mineral ores will actually work when there are serious doubts about the economic viability of building smelters and hydrometallurgical processors in an already over-supplied global market.

The dysfunctional way in which the government has implemented the new value-added policy, with unrealistic deadlines and a clear lack of preparation or understanding of its own contracts of work (COW), has shaken the Indonesian mining industry to its core.

A government regulation extending the January 12 ban for copper giants Freeport Indonesia and Newmont Nusa Tenggara and 66 other, mostly Indonesian, mining companies was undercut the next day by the export tax, which rises from an already daunting 20-25% in the first year to a prohibitive 60% in the second half of 2016.

This year's legislative and presidential elections in April and July make it highly unlikely any relief will be forthcoming, at least to the industry's satisfaction, unless the trade deficit widens alarmingly or until a new administration is installed in October.

In the meantime, already rampant ore smuggling will likely increase dramatically and the central government may face a rising tide of resentment from provincial administrations, angry at losing a valuable source of revenue and worried about social unrest from newly-unemployed mine workers.

Trotting out fanciful figures gobbled up by a nationalist Indonesian media, officials contend the benefits from building the new plants in the next three years will more than make up for the short-term loss of tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in export revenues.

According to one optimistic forecast, the value of copper cathode and aluminum alone will have doubled by 2017, the seemingly magical year when some bureaucrats have talked grandly about finished metal contributing to a five-fold increase in national mining revenues.

But while the government claims there are 25 projects either under construction or at various stages of advanced planning, the available evidence suggests they will fall far short of filling the yawning revenue gap – even in the medium term – at a time when world mineral prices have taken a dive.

Conflicting reports show the seven projects supposedly nearing completion will refine only modest amounts of zircon, iron sand, iron ore, bauxite, manganese and nickel, with another 10 less than 50% complete.

Indosmelt's long-planned US$1.5 billion copper smelter in South Sulawesi is not among them – and, most crucially, is still awaiting financing – and the two alumina plants being built will absorb less than 20% of the 15 million tons of bauxite ore Indonesia shipped in 2011.

Alumina processing does make sense. The government recently took full control of Indonesia's sole aluminum smelter from its Japanese partners, but as it has done for the past 30 years the plant continues to use imported alumina, the product from the intermediate stage of the refining process.

Nickel doesn't look any rosier. Bintang Delepan is still in the very early stages of a $1.2 billion, 300,000-ton nickel processor in Central Sulawesi. But apart from two small Chinese-funded nickel pig iron plants, there is little else to point to that would make a dent in previous ore production.

Canada's Sherritt recently abandoned a Sulawesi nickel joint venture with Rio Tinto, and French-owned Eramet's $5 billion Weda Bay nickel project in Halmahera hangs in the balance because of pricing and regulatory uncertainties. Ominously, the company has just laid off 200 of its 700 workers.

Revenues at risk

Minerals and related products have in the past accounted for up to 20% of Indonesia's exports. Copper brought in $7.2 billion in annual receipts in 2011, followed by nickel ($3.1 billion), tin ($2.4 billion) and bauxite ($1.1 billion). So far there have been no requests for export licenses and, even if there were, the Trade Ministry is still waiting for the Mines and Energy Ministry to come up with mineral reference prices on which to base a new export duty it initially knew nothing about.

That's because of the last-minute scramble at President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's home on the evening of January 11, when officials working on the regulation, which temporarily exempts semi-processed ore from the export ban, realized the deadline was midnight, not January 12 itself.

According to sources familiar with what transpired at the meeting, Finance Minister Chatib Basri was left to tackle the tax issue – and did so the following day, apparently without conferring with Economic Coordinating Minister Hatta Rajasa or Mines and Energy Minister Jero Wacik.

It is doubtful, however, whether anything would have been different if he had. A fortnight later, Freeport executives found themselves in the extraordinary position of having to walk ministers and senior officials through the company's Contract of Work (COW), which rules out any new taxes.

Even then, Industry Minister M S Hidyat, a Golkar appointee who has taken a harder line than anyone in the cabinet on the smelter issue, has since claimed the COW – signed in 1991 – does not have the same legal standing as legislation and should be amended.

Forget the big boys for a minute. Unable to raise the money to build costly smelters or pay the export tax, scores of small domestic mining companies are shedding jobs and seeking recourse with the Supreme Court to get the ban overturned. It is hardly a good advertisement for a policy that is meant to benefit Indonesians.

Freeport and Newmont, for their part, are now reluctantly threatening international arbitration. Paying even a token duty would undercut their case. It would also allow the government to make further inroads into the sanctity of the contracts, which had previously been regarded as legally rock solid.

In demanding 99% purity for refined copper, compared to only 70% for nickel, the government has clearly made the two US-owned miners the main targets of its value-added policy, first outlined in vague "refining and processing" terms in the 2009 Mining Law.

Important for the feasibility of further processing is the fact that 96% of copper's market value is created at the mining and concentration stage. Only a marginal 4-5% is added during smelting when the metal content of the product is raised from 30% to 100% after the removal of sulfur and iron slag.

Mining officials and other critics claim companies had five years to conform with the onshore processing requirement, but it was not until the belated issuance of Regulation 7/2012 – fully three years later – that miners had any inkling of what purity was required for each mineral.

Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the head of the presidential monitoring unit and a former mines and energy minister, told this correspondent last year he had pleaded with mining officials over and over again to expedite the implementing regulations because of the looming deadline.

Blind policy

Beyond appealing to nationalist sentiments – and painting itself into a corner – the government does not appear to have done any significant research on the global processing industry and how Indonesia, with its inefficiencies and poor infrastructure, will compete on the overseas market.

Some analysts suspect it may be following the template of tin, which has been under similar export restrictions since 2002. But Indonesia controls 60% of the world's tin supply. Its share of the copper, nickel and bauxite markets is substantially less and does not provide the same leverage.

The only known comprehensive studies on the subject have been made by Washington based-consultancy Nathan Associates and Indonesia's Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), both of which expressed serious reservations about the viability of the new blanket policy.

On top of that, the process of planning and building a smelter is more likely to take five years than three when even state-owned Aneka Tambang struggled for 18 months to get government approvals to build an extension to its existing ferro-nickel smelter in Sulawesi.

Only Aneka Tambang and Brazil's Vale process their own nickel, with the latter relying on its own 350 megawatt hydro-electric plant to supply the power. The export ban will have an impact on Antam's revenues because it was still exporting substantial amounts of ore.

Finance Minister Basri, who called the export ban "a form of punishment" for companies failing to build processors, had this to say about Aneka Tambang's experience with red tape: "That's why this policy should be combined with the ease of doing business. We will do our best to reduce the bureaucratic hurdles."

How many times have international executives in Indonesia heard such empty promises? With national oil production sinking from a million barrels to just 850,000 barrels a day over the past decade, ExxonMobil has been battling licensing and land issues for most of that time to develop its Cepu oilfield in East Java.

The 165,000-a-day field is still not on stream, despite the fact that ExxonMobil's partner in Indonesia's biggest onshore discovery in 30 years is the once all-powerful Pertamina state oil company. A senior mines official explained the delay during a presentation last year: "Too much democracy."

Since the government embarked on its current mining policy, most exploration has dried up because, miners say, increasingly onerous regulatory changes have made it impossible to raise the finance needed to open any sizable mine.

In the mid-1990s, there were 150 junior exploration firms in Indonesia. Today, the number is down to five. For one of them, Kalimantan Gold, the export ban – and the subsequent loss of operating capital it was receiving from Freeport – may be the last straw.

"I gathered my staff of 100 and told them I had good news and bad news," says Australian vice-president for exploration Mansur Geiger, who has lived in Central Kalimantan for decades. "The good news was they would get a year-end bonus. The bad news was it was their severance pay."

Moreover, not one of the 111 affected mining companies met the December 31, 2013, deadline for re-negotiating adjustments to their COWs to conform with the new licensing regime prescribed under the 2009 Mining Law.

One major reason is that Ministerial Regulation 27/2013 not only increases the pace of divestment laid out in attachments to the 2009 law, but also erodes the principle of "fair market value" if the government wants to take a stake.

Arbitrary decree

Jakarta-based resource lawyer Bill Sullivan calls last September's bombshell decree a "tipping point", noting that it appears to disregard the rights of the COW holders to a degree that may invite additional arbitration.

As things stand, a lack of domestic capital means government divestment targets will be tough to meet – more so after Regulation 27 inexplicably ruled out a public listing as one way for a foreign company to meet that obligation.

As the two biggest companies on the block, Freeport and Newmont serve as trip wires for an industry still baffled by a policy that would make a lot more sense if it was applied selectively and in accordance with realistic timetables.

Newmont is in the worst position because its Batu Hijau mine on the island of Sumbawa has much lower ore grades. Executives have said the company will be forced to close and lay off its 9,000 workers if the smelting and tax requirements remain in place.

Freeport's situation may be more urgent. Indonesia's sole Mitsubishi-run smelter in Gresik, East Java, which processes 35% of the company's concentrate, is down for month-long maintenance. With its port-side warehouses likely to reach capacity in mid-February, it will have to curtail mine operations and lay off staff.

Perhaps even more concerning is the fact that the 10,000 artisanal miners panning for gold in Freeport's downstream mine waste will suddenly have their livelihoods disrupted, leaving security forces guarding the Papua mine with an unruly mob it may be unable to control.

The firm's workforce has risen from 19,000 to 30,000 in the three years since it began the $10 billion process of moving from an open pit to a wholly underground operation. Each year, it is spending $550-$600 million building a tunnel and electric rail and conveyor system that will tap into five separate ore bodies and eventually extend to a staggering 950 kilometers.

Yet with only seven years to go, Phoenix-based parent Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold still doesn't know whether the government will honor an implied pledge in its 1991 COW for two 10-year extensions – and what the terms will be if it does.

Chief executive Richard Adkerson told analysts last year the contract had "undisputed firm legal standing", apparently referring to wording which says approval for the two extensions "will not be unreasonably withheld". After what transpired during a recent trip to Jakarta, he must be feeling a lot less confident.

Given the imperatives of maintaining production at the world's most profitable mine, which has already been hit by two prolonged closures in the past two years, the country's largest single taxpayer can not just stop work and wait for that to happen.

When Hatta Rajasa met Freeport executives in 2012, he demanded the company build a smelter and associated fertilizer plant – in addition to a power station and a cement factory already on the table – as the price for a contract renewal.

Where it gets confusing is that among the minister's expert staff at subsequent sessions has been a prominent businessman with links to one of the two copper smelter projects planned by Indonesian joint ventures.

While Freeport and Newmont have always said up to now they will not invest in such a marginally profitable business, they have agreed to supply their remaining concentrate to any new smelter – as long as it is at commercial prices.

Looking at the financial track records of Freeport's own smelter in Spain and the sole Indonesian facility at Gresik, the only way to turn a profit is for the new ventures to acquire the concentrate at a cut rate. The latter facility, for example, has an operating margin of 1%, compared with 35% for the mining operation.

As it has now indicated, Freeport may end up-biting-the bullet, simply because it has too much at stake. But that would be conditional on the government dropping the export ban and entering into a public-private relationship that would carry with it the promise of incentives.

The power requirements alone for what would be a $2.7 billion smelter on the south coast of Papua would add significantly to the additional 130 megawatts it will need for its extended underground operation.

The company is working with the provincial government on a planned "run-of-the river" hydro-plant, 100 kilometers to the northwest, which it hopes will negate the need for another coal-fired station.

While its current contract frees it of any divestment requirement until it runs out in 2021, Freeport will clearly still have to make some significant concessions as the price for retaining control of the fabulously-rich Grasberg deposit it has been mining since the early 1990s.

The company continues to toy with the idea of giving a stake to Papua's provincial government. It should have been done years ago and probably would have, if a politically connected Jakarta lawyer hadn't intervened at the last minute and told the Papuans they would get a free carry if they waited a little longer.

[John McBeth-is a former correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic Review. He is currently a Jakarta-based columnist for the Straits Times of Singapore.]