Jakarta – Protesters from the People's Movement for Direct Elections (Gerpala) held a long-march from the TVRI building in Central Jakarta to the House of Representatives (DPR) building on Thursday September 25.

The action by the Gerpala protesters disrupted the flow to traffic. Upon arriving at the DPR building, they could be seen removing all of the banners supporting the election of regional heads by Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD) [instead of directly] that had been put up along the toll road fence and in front of the DPR.

After removing the banners, the demonstrators set fire to them. Another group of demonstrators could be seen sticking up banners and the flags of the organisations that joined the action.

A short interval later police officers arrived and put out the fires before they became too large. "We reject the election of regional heads by the DPRD. Sovereignty should be in our hands, all of the people", said one of the speakers from atop the command vehicle.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service.]

Source: https://id.berita.yahoo.com/massa-gerpala-bakar-spanduk-pro-pilkada-lewat-dprd-073603463.html

Protest in Jakarta against anti-democratic electoral law ends in clash

Tempo.co - September 25, 2014

Persiana Galih, Jakarta – A protest action at the entrance to the House of Representatives (DPR) building in Central Jakarta opposing the Draft Law on Regional Elections (RUU Pilkada) ended in chaos. Hundreds of workers and students clashed with police after they blockaded Jl. Gatot Subroto on Thursday September 25.

"They forcibly broke up the rally because they said that we did not have a permit", said action coordinator Komeng. The protesters blockaded the road because not one DPR member was prepared to meet with them. Since 2pm they had been asking for assurances from the DPR that the RUU Pilkada [that would see the end to the direct election of regional heads] would not be ratified.

The blockade started at 2.30pm. Hundreds of protesters and a pickup truck took up the entire road so no vehicles were able to pass. The action continued for around 15 minutes up until the clash broke out.

The clash between the students and police occurred in the middle of the crowd and became increasingly chaotic after police deployed hundreds of officers to drive back the demonstrators. The protesters who initially blockaded the road were gradually forced beck in the direction of Grogol, West Jakarta.

"The police attacked first. I saw that this was the root cause of the clash", said Komeng. According to Tempo's observations, the demonstrators pelted the police with bamboo sticks and rocks, which forced the police to stop the flow of passing vehicles.

The clash ended at around 5.15pm after the action coordinator called on the protesters to follow police orders. After disbanding, several demonstrators were still furious, shouting and giving the police the fingers up.

Jakarta Metro district police chief Senior Commissioner Hendro Pandowo said that the protesters had to be forced back because they were obstructing the flow of traffic. "It was clearly a violation because they disturbed public order", he said.

According to Pandowo, police repeatedly asked the action coordinator to disband the demonstration by 5pm at the latest but they tried to argue for more time. "We have regulations, protest actions are not allowed after 6pm", he said. A request by the demonstrators to spend the night in front of the DPR building was also refused.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service.]

Source: http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2014/09/25/078609696/Unjuk-Rasa-RUU-Pilkada-di-DPR-Ricuh

West Papua

Blacksteel Group developing three malls in West Papua, at a cost of Rp 600b

Jakarta Globe - September 26, 2014

Edo Rusyanto, Jakarta – The Blacksteel Group, a property developer, is developing three malls in Sorong regent, West Papua, at a total investment of Rp 600 billion ($50 million), the company's chief operating officer said in Jakarta recently.

"The first project is to build The Plaza Sorong [mall], which is targeted to be completed by end of 2014," Isaac Bliss Tanihaha, the COO of Blacksteel Group, told Investor Daily.

Isaac, who founded the Blacksteel Group, said that The Plaza Sorong will have the tallest high-rise building in Sorong, at 14 stories. The mall will be supported by Siloam Hospital, retailer Hypermart and a hotel.

The second mall being built is Sorong City Center and another mall is also located in Sorong regent. The three malls had commenced construction in 2013, Isaac added.

"We are cooperating with the Lippo Group. We hope this project will stimulate the economy in the local area," said Isaac, who is a brother-in- law of Michael Riady.

Michael serves as chief executive of the Blacksteel Group, which is independent from the Lippo Group. In May Michael had said the company plans to build 17 malls in the next five years and is targeting its development in remote areas of Indonesia.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/blacksteel-group-developing-three-malls-west-papua-cost-rp-600b/

Call to lift restrictions on foreign journalists in Papua

Radio New Zealand International - September 26, 2014

The Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club is calling on the incoming administration of Joko Widodo to immediately lift all restrictions on foreign journalists travelling to the Papua region.

It says it's concerned by the continued detention without charge of French journalists Valentine Bourrat and Thomas Dandois.

The pair were arrested in August in Wamena, and remain detained in Jayapura by Indonesian police, accused of violating their visas.

The Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club says indications that the pair could face a five-year prison sentence for a visa violation, or even a much more serious charge of sedition, are of particular concern.

It says the larger issue is the continuation of restrictive state policies on journalists reporting in the Papua region and wants all restrictions on foreign journalists travelling to the region lifted.

The club says these restrictions only harm Indonesia's international reputation as a country that values press freedom, and encourages inaccurate and simplistic reporting of the issues in the region.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/255546/call-to-lift-restrictions-on-foreign-journalists-in-papua

West Papua meeting confirmed for December

Radio New Zealand International - September 26, 2014

Vanuatu's West Papua Unification Committee has confirmed its conference in Port Vila will now be held from the 4th of December following the National Day and flag raising ceremony on the first.

The chairman of the committee Pastor Allan Nafuki says the delay will allow the 80 invited West Papuan delegates to raise funds and prepare their travel documentation to ensure maximum attendance.

He says the conference is to provide an avenue for the different groupings in West Papua to come to an agreement on a unified bid for membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

A formal membership application by the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation was knocked back by the MSG earlier this year, whose leaders called for a more representative bid.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/255544/west-papua-meeting-confirmed-for-december

Indonesian soldier killed in Papua market ambush

Jakarta Globe - September 25, 2014

Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – An Indonesian soldier was killed following an armed attack at a market in Puncak Jaya Regency in Papua on Thursday.

Spokesman for the Papua military command Lt. Col. Rikas Hidayatullah told the Jakarta Globe that four members of the Indonesian Military (TNI) were ambushed at a traditional market in Ilaga on Sept. 25.

The soldiers, who were picking up supplies for the inauguration of Ilaga district's new chief, were fired at by a group of 10 men, he said.

A soldier identified as Second Private Abraham was reportedly shot in the head. The attackers then snatched Abraham's weapon before fleeing into the jungle. No other soldiers were injured.

The attack followed a similar incident in July, where three soldiers suffered gunshot injuries during an assault on a military outpost in the Tingginambut area of Puncak Jaya.

The men were reportedly on patrol near the post when a group of armed men attacked the post, leading to an exchange of fire that eventually forced the attackers back into a nearby forest.

Puncak Jaya has been the scene of a number of attacks on Indonesian military personnel. The Free Papua Organization (OPM), which has waged a decades-long fight for the independence of Papua and West Papua from Indonesia, is active in the area.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesian-soldier-killed-papua-market-ambush/

Papua conference in Vanuatu delayed

Radio New Zealand International - September 25, 2014

The West Papua conference that was expected to open in Vanuatu next week has been postponed.

The West Papua Reunification Committee's chairman, Pastor Alan Nafuki, says the meeting will now take place from October the 30th.

Pastor Nafuki explained that they have sent invitations to 80 West Papuan representatives, but so far, they have received only about 20 confirmations because of fundraising and visa problems.

"So we decided that it is best that we postpone the meeting to give chances to everyone to fundraise or to fix their visa up, or other problems that they're facing, because at the end of the day, we want to get everybody to this meeting in Vanuatu."

Pastor Alan Nafuki says the conference is to provide an avenue for the different groupings in West Papua to come to an agreement on a unified bid for membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

A formal membership application by the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation was knocked back by the MSG earlier this year, whose leaders called for a more representative bid.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/255479/papua-conference-in-vanuatu-delayed

Unions say prime minister must pressure Jakarta to release journalists

Pacific Media Centre - September 25, 2014

Auckland (Pacific Media Watch/The Fiji Times) – The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) has called on Prime Minister John Key to pressure Indonesian President Joko Widodo to release two French journalists and a West Papuan indigenous leader from prison.

The NZCTU joined groups, including West Papua Action Auckland, representatives of the Melanesian community and the Green Party in demanding that the National Party government act on behalf of journalists Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat and West Papuan indigenous leader Areki Wanimbo, who was arrested after giving Dandois and Bourrat an interview.

In an open letter to Key, the organisations said the NZ government must make "strong representations to the President of Indonesia and his government for their release".

"Indonesia imposes media censorship by barring all but a select few journalists from obtaining an official journalist permit to visit West Papua. Dandois and Bourrat are following the honourable path set by the brave journalists who took risks and broke rules to ensure we knew about the tragedy in East Timor under brutal Indonesian occupation," said NZCTU president Helen Kelly.

Kelly, and Nicky Spicer and Maire Leadbeater of West Papua Action Auckland said Key must "call upon Widodo to commit to genuine media freedom in West Papua including the right of local and international journalists to report on the political situation there without risk of imprisonment or harassment by the Indonesian state".

Meanwhile in Suva, Fiji's NGO Coalition of Human Rights said it would pressure the newly elected Bainimarama government to support West Papua.

"Leading human rights activist Shamima Ali in an interview yesterday said it was important [that] Fiji, being a Pacific brother, took a role in the fight against torture and human rights violations in West Papua", the Fiji Times reported.

Source: http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/nz-unions-say-prime-minister-must-pressure-jakarta-release-journalists-8992

At a protest for two French journalists jailed in West Papua

Vice - September 24, 2014

Alison Bevege – A face frowned through the glass at a bright banner waving on a fishing rod below the consulate window. 15 years in an Indonesian jail can be the penalty for flying the Morningstar flag, symbol of the West Papuan independence movement. But Jakarta's little patch of Sydney lay 50 cm away, separated from Australian soil by a stern metal fence. There was nothing they could do.

A tiny pod of protesters had prisons in mind as they gathered on the Maroubra footpath outside the Indonesian consulate yesterday. They held up candles in glass lanterns for two French journalists who have been trapped in a West Papuan jail for more than 40 days. Depending on how things pan out they could face 20 years behind bars.

This reporter helped organise the vigil because Valentine Bourrat, 29, and Thomas Dandois, 40 have little prospect of seeing freedom any time soon unless the Indonesian Government relents and lets them go. The journalists went to the secretive region, annexed by Indonesia in 1969, to make a documentary for Arte TV in France. They wanted to report on the independence movement which began fighting after a disputed vote called the "Act of Free Choice" handed the fertile western half of New Guinea to Jakarta.

The lure of the story is strong for Western media. Some highland tribes have had little contact with the modern world. Remote areas are almost first contact regions.

A demographic genocide has unfurled since Indonesia took over according to the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, which has reported that migrants outnumber native West Papuans after less than 50 years of occupation. Endangered tribes may vanish before their unique existence is even recorded.

Independence fighters hiding in caves have fought the Indonesian military with bows and arrows, and relic World War II rifles found in the forest. Over the years the military has responded with napalm, cluster bombs and aerial strafing.

Indonesia promises to bring greater economic development to the region which contains the world's richest goldmine as well as valuable timber and agricultural land. But Jakarta is highly sensitive about any hints that West Papuans aspire to separate and has gone to great lengths to silence independence leaders – including putting an international arrest warrant out for Benny Wenda on bogus accusations of terrorism in 2011. Interpol dropped the red notice after finding it had been politically motivated.

This sensitivity makes interviewing the armed independence movement, the OPM, an extremely difficult task, not least because of the logistical difficulties of finding them and the expense of getting there.

It is a story coveted by journalists who are proud of their craft and are keen to tell the little-known stories of the region. Indonesia's supporters have said it is easy to get a foreign journalist's visa through the right channels, but reporters say that in practice they have found the reverse to be true.

Gold Walkley-winning journalist Mark Davis was recently granted a pass to produce a Dateline story for Australian TV station SBS which aired on June 3. But he was openly followed through the streets by Indonesians who filmed him as he went. That kind of attention makes it difficult for reporters to do their jobs because West Papuans can be afraid to tell their stories even when a potential informer isn't hovering.

Ms Bourrat and Mr Dandois did what others have done before them. They went in on a tourist visa, and they got caught. The usual penalty is to be deported, but Indonesian authorities have instead responded with a severity that has shocked the media industry.

Indonesian police told Fairfax Media reporter Michael Bachelard that the pair were being investigated for criminal subversion after communicating with independence leaders. If they are charged they could face 20 years in prison. The pair could get the maximum five years' jail for the visa breach alone. The Immigration Office in Papua told Fairfax Media that they want the journalists to get the maximum penalty.

The International Federation of Journalists and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance have both called for Ms Bourrat and Mr Dandois to be freed. "MEAA condemns the ongoing detention of the pair and urges Indonesian authorities to free Dandois and Bourrat and drop all charges against them," the journalist's union said in a statement.

In New Zealand a lunchtime vigil was held at the central Auckland city church of St Matthews where Vicar Helen Jacobi prayed for the pair. A rally was held in Wellington on the steps of Parliament calling on the NZ Government to help the journalists.

In Sydney, supporters held candles at the gates of the Indonesian consulate and gave flowers to passers-by before writing letters of support to send the journalists. There were more police than protesters there, perhaps because the FaceBook event page registered 100 people as attending. Many without the ability to attend had registered their support from far-away places by clicking they were "going".

Indonesian President-elect Joko Widodo has said he wants to open up West Papua to foreign media, address corruption and improve human rights across the archipelago. Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono said he will have to battle forces that don't want change both in West Papua and in his own coalition. When asked how Australia can help, Mr Harsono said: "criticise". When the rest of the world makes it clear that violating human rights is not acceptable it helps Jokowi to overcome opposition, he said.

His first test is now laid before him. The Indonesian Embassy was contacted for a response. Police Attache Mr Nazluddin referred questions to police in Indonesia who have all the details of the case. Mr Nazluddin said that if people want to know how authorities respond in West Papua, then they should go themselves to the region and gather their own information.

Source: http://www.vice.com/en_au/read/some-australians-and-new-zealanders-protested-the-jailing-of-two-french-journalists-in-west-papua

Calls for media freedom in West Papua

Radio New Zealand International - September 24, 2014

A Green Party MP has urged the returning government in New Zealand to make good on the recently passed parliament resolution to press for media freedom in West Papua.

Catherine Delahunty was one of the speakers at a rally held on Tuesday outside New Zealand's parliament calling for media freedom in West Papua and the release of two French journalists detained by Indonesian police in Jayapura for seven weeks.

There have been ongoing calls by international rights and media groups for Indonesia to release the pair. Ms Delahunty says the New Zealand government must act on the resolution.

"To actually say to Indonesia and its new President who is coming in to power shortly, that they must ensure there is genuine media freedom and safety for people in West Papua and to free these French journalists. If you have nothing to hide, what is it that you fear? You fear the light of day, you fear the truth."

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/255350/calls-for-media-freedom-in-west-papua

Ramping up trade relations, South Africa ignores rights violations in Papua

All Africa - September 23, 2014

Anna Majavu – The visit by the South African government and 17 unnamed South African companies to Indonesia last week has thrown into stark relief the ANC government's hypocrisy in its international relations with countries that are guilty of human rights abuses.

Indonesia ended its brutal military occupation of East Timor in 2002 but continues an equally merciless military occupation of West Papua.

Somehow this doesn't appear to have pricked the consciences of our government officials or the companies who went on a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) business junket to Indonesia, even though South Africa, as a UN member state, has just adopted the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People flowing from the first ever United Nations World Conference on Indigenous Peoples this week. West Papuans are, after all, an indigenous people in the Pacific whose human rights are being violated by Indonesia.

The declaration adopted by the UN this week calls for "control by indigenous peoples over developments affecting them and their lands, territories and resources" and the "demilitarization of the lands and territories of indigenous peoples". It also says that indigenous peoples should have the right to self-determination through self-governance.

But indigenous rights appear to be trumped by commercial imperatives. According to the DTI, South Africa is Indonesia's largest trade partner in Africa. The department of international relations and co-operation has previously listed some of the companies doing business with Indonesia as DigiCore, Murray & Roberts, Skyriders, Fresh World, Explochem, Denel, and AEL.

West Papua was colonised by the Netherlands in 1898 and eventually handed over in 1962 to the United Nations. While preparing for their independence following 160 years of colonisation, Indonesia invaded West Papua and later cut a deal with the United Nations. This deal involved a sham election in which only 1026 handpicked West Papuans – out of a population of one million – were allowed to vote for or against continued colonisation by Indonesia. After receiving death threats, all voted for colonisation.

Since 1962, Indonesia has banned all forms of freedom of expression and association in West Papua, as it did in East Timor before it was liberated. Since 1962, Indonesia has killed almost half a million West Papuans and driven thousands into exile.

The ANC government is aware of this, as it was of the history of East Timor (now Timor-Leste), which was colonized first by Portugal, then invaded by Japan, before being occupied by Indonesia's military dictator at the time, Suharto, who carried out a genocide until he lost power in 1998.

The mass killings, tortures and other atrocities carried out by the Indonesian military in East Timor prior to its liberation in 2002 were overlooked first by Nelson Mandela during his presidency, and then by president Thabo Mbeki.

Indonesia supported the struggle against apartheid, cutting diplomatic and commercial relations with South Africa and refusing to allow South African ships to dock at its ports from 1963. And so in 1997 when then Indonesian dictator Suharto visited parliament, not only did Mandela literally roll out the red carpet for him, but the few dozen officials from Cosatu- affiliated unions who hurriedly cobbled together a protest outside were arrested before Suharto could see them.

Mandela was said to have a "special affection for Indonesia", visiting the country four times between 1990 and 2002. This is particularly heinous given that Suharto, who took power in a coup and held onto power for 31 years, was Indonesia's unelected dictator for three of those visits.

Mbeki then kept up the good relationship, paying homage during a visit to Indonesia in 2005 to the Indonesians who had been forced into slavery by South Africa's colonisers in the seventeenth century.

Mbeki also waxed lyrical about a partnership between the Pretoria zoo and Indonesia's Surabaya zoo while failing even once to mention Indonesia's brutal genocide in West Papua. Also under Mbeki's presidency, a "strategic partnership joint declaration" was signed between Indonesia and South Africa, apparently "elevating the long-standing relations between the two countries to a new level".

Given that South Africa's indigenous people suffered similar genocidal massacres for hundreds of years, one would expect the ANC to stand with the people of West Papua. Instead, the ANC government appears to have no relations at all with West Papua, only with Indonesia – the colonial power – and neighbouring Papua New Guinea.

President Jacob Zuma is clearly following in the footsteps of his predecessors, favouring strong trade and diplomatic ties with Indonesia over freedom for the indigenous Black citizens of West Papua.

Ironically, the digital age and the advent of social media have led to greater exposure of the Indonesian killings in West Papua because of a macabre "trophy" practice by Indonesian soldiers and intelligence agents. They photograph the dead bodies of West Papuan activists after killing them, in order to win praise from their military superiors. These digital photographs and videos are circulated widely and quite quickly end up being publicly available on social media. The brutality of Indonesia's colonisation is also currently in the world news because seven weeks ago, two high profile French journalists were arrested in West Papua for the crime of political reporting while travelling on tourists' visas.

Indonesia has effectively barred foreign journalists from reporting on human rights abuses in West Papua, insisting on a special "journalist visa" which is granted only to those pursuing anthropological stories. All story proposals must be submitted to Indonesian intelligence in Jakarta before the visa is granted, making it impossible for a human rights story to pass muster.

The French journalists, Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat, now face a five-year prison term for violating their visas. Their West Papuan contacts have not been so lucky.

West Papuan liberation movement regional leader, Martinus Yohame of the West Papua National Committee, was assassinated a few days after meeting with Dandois and Bourrat. And another liberation movement leader, Areki Wanimbo, was arrested a day after granting the journalists an interview and remains in prison.

With trade that has steadily risen over the years and which now stands at over US$2 billion per year, it is clear that the ANC is placing the business of local South African capital before justice for the indigenous West Papuans.

Indonesia has a new president, Joko Widodo, and this should present an opportunity for the ANC government to press for freedom for West Papua. West Papuan activist and exile, Paula Makabory made the point in a recent seminar that West Papua has vast resources of nickel, copper, oil, gas and timber and so Indonesia is not likely to grant West Papua its freedom without huge international pressure being brought to bear.

The ANC failed to support the people of Timor-Leste, but it is not too late for them to help bring about freedom for the people of West Papua.

Majavu is a writer concentrating on the rights of workers, oppressed people, the environment, anti-militarism and what makes a better world. She is currently studying for a Masters Degree in New Zealand.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201409231726.html?viewall=1

NZ: Freedom call for Papua imprisoned journalists and their sources

Pacific Media Centre - September 23, 2014

Auckland (Pacific Media Watch) – The New Zealand government and the French Embassy in Wellington were today called on at a vigil to put pressure on Indonesia to free two French journalists and their sources imprisoned in West Papua.

The vigil, organised by West Papua Action Auckland, said that journalists Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat and a West Papuan human rights defender who was jailed after granting them an interview, Areki Wanimbo, were being subjected to "incredibly draconian" threats of a trial.

Dandois and Bourrat were jailed seven weeks ago by Indonesian authorities for allegedly breaching their tourist visas through reporting on human rights abuses in West Papua.

Maire Leadbeater of West Papua Action Auckland said the only way journalists could get stories out of West Papua was by bending the rules. Leadbeater spoke out against the "intense interrogation" that West Papuan activists who met with Dandois and Bourrat had been subjected to by the Indonesian military.

The organisation was very grateful to the journalists and their sources for putting themselves at risk in order to get information out into the world, she said.

Activist Margaret Taylor spoke out against an attack this week on Anum Siregar, the lawyer representing Wanimbo. "It does seem at the moment that there is an increase in attacks," she said.

Anita Rosentreter of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), which organises journalists, said her union had formed a New Zealand media freedom network which would take up the cause of the journalists and Wanimbo.

New Zealand journalist members of the network believed that any one of them could end up in the same situation if they went to West Papua, Rosentreter said.

Sydney-based journalists would also be holding a vigil today and in Wellington, New Zealand, Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty was set to hold a solidarity meeting for the journalists and their sources on the steps of Parliament.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports that Dandois and Bourrat have been detained in West Papua longer than any other foreign journalists previously. "None since Oswald Iten of the Swiss daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung, who was jailed for 12 days in Jayapura in 2000, have been detained for anywhere near as long," the news site reported today.

Source: http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/nz-freedom-call-papua-imprisoned-journalists-and-their-sources-8988

Aceh

New Aceh law punishes gay and extramarital sex with 100 lashes

Sydney Morning Herald - September 28, 2014

Michael Bachelard, Jakarta – Gay sex and sex outside marriage in the Indonesian province of Aceh will be punishable by 100 lashes of the cane under new laws passed by the local parliament.

Even non-Muslim tourists to Indonesia's westernmost province are subject to the sharia law penalty in a step rights groups have described as an "enormous step backwards".

The Aceh Islamic Criminal Code is a by-law of the provincial parliament – the only district of Indonesia with authority to enact sharia provisions in the criminal law.

It now explicitly makes it a criminal act for men to have anal sex with each other, and for women to "rub together body parts for stimulation". Being alone with someone of the opposite sex who is neither a marriage partner nor a relative is also punishable by caning.

Party Aceh, the dominant political movement that sprung from the former separatist army of Aceh, backed the sharia law, saying ordinary people in the province were calling for it.

It is the same province where woman are punished for not wearing headscarves, and where, in some areas, they are required to ride side- saddle on motorcycles.

It's also the province where a vigilante group of eight local men and boys earlier this year allegedly gang-raped a woman they accused of having sex with a married man, then presented her to the sharia police for further punishment.

The sharia police investigated her "crime" before dropping the charges. The alleged rapists will face criminal sanction through the secular courts for their actions.

Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Director Richard Bennett said Aceh's new laws, passed on Saturday, would be used "disproportionately to police and punish women's choices". "They also act as a deterrent to women reporting rape and sexual violence who may fear being accused of sex outside marriage," he said.

Indonesia more broadly does not criminalise homosexuality, he said, but Aceh's new law was a "huge blow for equality" and would "add to the climate of homophobia, fear and harassment many in Aceh are already facing".

Aceh has caned 156 people in public ceremonies – usually after Friday prayers – since 2010. Most are punished for gambling and drinking, but others have been punished for "khalwat", or consorting with members of the opposite sex.

Sharia law was introduced in Aceh, which is known as the "verandah of Mecca", in 2001, as the central government tried to co-opt religious leaders in the fight against the separatist insurgency. That insurgency only ended in a 2005 agreement, the year after the Boxing Day tsunami devastated the region in 2004.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/new-aceh-law-punishes-gay-and-extramarital-sex-with-100-lashes-20140928-10n6xd.html

Aceh approves lashes for homosexual sex

Agence France Presse - September 27, 2014

Indonesia's conservative Aceh province passed a law on Saturday making gay sex punishable by 100 lashes of the cane, in a decision described by rights activists as "an enormous step backwards".

Aceh, the only part of the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation that is allowed to implement Islamic sharia law, already carries out public canings for gambling, drinking alcohol and fraternising with the opposite sex outside of marriage.

Lawmakers began deliberations on Friday night and unanimously agreed in the early hours of Saturday to pass the law. The law explicitly outlaws anal sex between men and "the rubbing of body parts between women for stimulation", making homosexuality technically illegal for the first time in Aceh.

Gay sex is not illegal in the rest of the country, which mainly follows a criminal code from the Netherlands, Indonesia's former colonial ruler.

Amnesty International, which has called for an end to caning in Aceh, asked that the bylaw be immediately repealed. "The criminalisation of individuals based on their sexual orientation is a huge blow for equality in Indonesia," said Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director Richard Bennett, who added that it would increase "the climate of homophobia, fear and harassment many in Aceh are already facing".

Chika Noya, an independent activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Indonesia said the law was "as if we're going back hundreds of years".

Aceh, which lies on the westernmost tip of the vast Indonesian archipelago, gained a degree of autonomy in 2001 in a deal with Jakarta aimed at quelling a decades-long separatist movement, and has been slowly implementing sharia law ever since.

The bylaw will also be the first in Aceh to be applied to non-Muslims, both Indonesians and foreigners. The law also makes adultery punishable by 100 lashes, and reiterates that displays of affection outside of marriage are outlawed, and is also punishable by caning. Canings – which are carried out with thin rattan sticks in public and are aimed at humiliating, rather than causing physical pain – can be substituted with payments of pure gold or jail time.

The law must also be approved by the home affairs ministry in Jakarta, which indicated last week it may overturn the law on rights concerns. But Ramli Sulaiman, a local lawmaker who heads the commission that drafted the bill, said all relevant agencies in Jakarta had given it the green light.

Spokesman for the leading Aceh Party, Muhammad Harun, said the bylaw made sharia law in Aceh more complete. "This bylaw has been highly anticipated by the people of Aceh, who have long wanted to see complete Islamic law on the veranda of Mecca," he said after the session, using a description often used for the province.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/aceh-approves-lashes-homosexual-sex/

Aceh's non-Muslims voice opposition to shariah law

Jakarta Globe - September 25, 2014

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Aceh provincial administration's plan to impose Shariah on non-Muslims has met a chorus of disapproval from the province's minority religious groups.

Lawmakers in the Aceh Legislative Council (DPRA) plan to pass a bylaw on Friday that would impose a Shariah-based criminal code on both Muslims and non-Muslims, with offenders facing lengthy caning sessions or jail terms for acts that are legal elsewhere in Indonesia.

Speaking to the Jakarta Globe on Thursday, three prominent figures from the province's minority religious groups – a Christian, Catholic and Buddhist – all expressed concern about the bylaw, known as qanun jinayat.

"Basically I disagree because there are already positive laws in Indonesia," an Aceh Catholic figure, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Jakarta Globe.

A prominent Christian who has lived in Aceh for more than 35 years – and also spoke anonymously – said he disapproved. He said the province's 50,000 Christians, who were unfamiliar with Shariah laws, could be caught out unfairly.

A draft of the local criminal code includes a clause that stipulates that a non-Muslim caught violating Shariah would be given the option of being tried at a Shariah court or at a regular court, based on the national criminal code.

However, if the act is considered a crime under Shariah but not under the national criminal code, even non-Muslim violators would be tried based on the regulations stipulated in the qanun. The maximum punishment under the Shariah-based code is 200 strokes of the cane, a fine worth the price of 2 kilograms of gold or 200 months in jail.

The Catholic figure said that non-Muslims, who were not invited to speak during the draft discussions of the law at the DPRA, should have been given consideration. "For non-Muslims, it is better for crimes to be charged under the KUHP [national criminal code]," he said.

Ramli Sulaiman, head of Commission G at the DPRA – which drafted the new code – admitted the legislative council did not invite non-Muslims to give their view in two years of discussion about the law. However, Ramli said there were no obligations or regulations that required it. "But we will release information through mass media stating that the qanun will also be imposed on them," he said.

Among doubts relayed to the Jakarta Globe, the minority leaders expressed concern about how the bylaw would affect the application of their own religious laws.

"My fear is if it is imposed... The violators will say, 'I have been punished with shariah law, why would I be punished again by the church and by Catholic regulations?' There will be overlapping [issues]," the Catholic leader said.

The Christian figure said: "We have our own regulation and we comply with the Criminal Code. There is no caning in Christianity." The Catholic leader said non-Muslims respected the province's right to apply Sharia law, but requested the "wisdom" of minority voices be heard too.

A Buddhist from Aceh asked why the law should be applied to non-Muslims, but he said if the bylaw was passed, he hoped there would not be any discrimination. There are an estimated 90,000 non-Muslims in country's westernmost province.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/acehs-non-muslims-voice-opposition-shariah-law/

Aceh Lawmaker: Activists shouldn't make fuss about shariah for non-Muslims

Jakarta Globe - September 24, 2014

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Human rights activists' criticism of the plan to impose a Shariah-inspired criminal code on non-Muslims in Aceh is uncalled-for, a legislator said on Wednesday, adding that the new regulation would be more lenient than the actual law of God.

"They have to understand that compared with God's laws, it's very light. When drafting the Qanun [Qanun Jinayat, the local criminal code], we took human rights into consideration. With their criticism they're just dramatizing things," Ramli Sulaiman, head of Commission G of the Aceh Legislative Council (DPRA), which drafted the new code, said on Wednesday.

The DPRA plans to pass the Qanun Jinayat on Friday. "If we let the violations [of Shariah] happen, it's not good for Aceh," Ramli said. "Therefore it's better for us to put some of God's laws [into the criminal code], and this has really been something the Acehnese have looked forward to."

Ramli added that human rights activists should not make a fuss, as he claimed that Aceh had every right to implement a more comprehensive version of Shariah law. "I'm sure that if true Islam is fully implemented, the world will be safe because God created the law before creating humans," Ramli said.

The lawmaker also said that non-Muslims and tourists should not hesitate to visit Aceh, as along as they abide by the new criminal code, which would go into effect a year after passage by the DPRA.

"This is actually meant to treat the Acehnese fairly," he said. "The main point is they [violators] should not be allowed to go unpunished. This is in line with the Aceh Government Law." He was referring to the 2006 Aceh Government Law, which stipulates that non-Muslims can be charged for violating Shariah laws.

A draft of the Qanun Jinayat obtained by the Jakarta Globe includes a clause that stipulates that a non-Muslim caught violating Shariah would be given the option of being tried at a Shariah court or at a regular court, based on the KUHP. However, if the act is considered a crime under Shariah but not under the KUHP, even non-Muslim violators would be tried based on the regulations stipulated in the Qanun Jinayat.

The maximum punishment under the Shariah-based code is 200 strokes of the cane, a fine worth the price of 2 kilograms of gold or 200 months in jail. Convicted child rapists, for instance, would face punishment of 150-200 strokes of the cane or a fine of between 1.5kg and 2kg of gold or a prison sentence of 150 to 200 months. Engaging in homosexual acts – which is not a crime under the national criminal code – would fall under the category of unlawful sexual intercourse, or zina, which is punishable by a maximum of 100 lashes, a kilogram of gold or 100 months in jail.

"Everyone should respect Aceh's laws," Ramli said. "We should not receive guests who abide by their own law. If we go to Europe, we are also subject to the laws of Europe."

Activists have been complaining about the bylaw, which they say could violate human rights. Domidoyo Ratupenu, a priest and Aceh-based interfaith activist, for instance, said the bylaw does not take into account Indonesia's pluralistic character.

He said that in his capacity as an interfaith activist, he was once invited by the DPRA to present his views on the bylaw. "But it was only a formality, they did not really listen," he said.

But Ramli denied that. He said that as far as he knew, no representatives of Aceh's 90,000-strong community of non-Muslims had been heard during the two years it took the DPRA to draft the bylaw.

"According to the regulations, there's no obligation for us to invite non- Muslims to a public hearing. But we have informed people through mass media that this Qanun will be imposed on them," Ramli said. "But it is clear that we can't force them to practice Islam, as there is a saying in Islam: 'Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.' "

Ramli said he was sure that all factions in the DPRA would agree to pass the bylaw this week, and he also claimed that the council had discussed its plans with the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, the Home Affairs Ministry, the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Supreme Court. "I don't think there's any other problem," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/aceh-lawmaker-activists-shouldnt-make-fuss-shariah-non-muslims/

Human rights & justice

For victims of 1965 communist purge, no anger, but the suffering lingers

Jakarta Globe - September 30, 2014

Kennial Caroline Laia, Yogyakarta – The group of women greeted each other warmly at the house in Yogyakarta that Sunday afternoon. They exchanged smiles and shook hands, before sitting down on a mat and continuing their chatter.

Then they began handing over money, Rp 10,000 (82 US cents) each, to a woman appointed the treasurer of the group.

These women regularly meet for arisan, a gathering among friends, family or neighbors, typically held once a month, where participants contribute to a pot that one lucky winner takes that day.

While arisan is a common pastime for women in Indonesia, for these old women, it is about more than just socializing or winning the draw.

These women are members of Kiper, a portmanteau of Kiprah Perempuan, or Women's Movement, a support group set up in 2005 for survivors of the government's anti-communist purge of 1965-1966 that left an estimated half million Indonesians dead.

Speaking up

"We set up this group to support to each other, because most of the victims don't have the guts to speak up about their experiences, unless it's with people who experienced the same thing," says Kiper coordinator Erlin Agus Sudadi.

Millions of Indonesians were rounded up, detained, tortured or killed in the aftermath of an alleged coup attempt blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party, or PKI, on Sept. 30, 1965.

The crackdown on the party and its supposed sympathizers was led by Suharto, then an Army general, and the whole communist coup malarkey has widely come to be acknowledged as a pretext for the military to unseat then-president Sukarno.

"It's important to speak about the wounds they suffered during their imprisonment," Erlin says of the survivors. "It won't erase the scars, but at least they have a place full of friends who won't judge them, but instead support them. Even though most of the members are already old, they are very enthusiastic about attending our meetings."

Kiper holds one meeting every two months, attended by members from Yogyakarta and neighboring cities in Central Java.

"Currently Kiper has around 40 members, but we can't always gather altogether because sometimes they fall ill," Erlin says, noting that most are over the age of 60.

When the Jakarta Globe visited last week, only 25 members were present. The women talk not just about the past at these meetings, but also about their daily lives.

Erlin says that they also take up a collection, Rp 5,000 per member, and the money collected is given to the member who needs it the most at that time. She then repays it simply by continuing to attend the meetings and paying her dues.

Stories of suffering

At 49, Erlin is too young to remember that dark period of history, but her life has been irrevocably shaped by it – her parents were among those arrested and jailed in 1965.

But a woman who does remember is Endang Lestari, who was a 20-year-old university student when she was arrested at home by the military without any warrant.

She was accused of being a PKI sympathizer because of her membership in the Unified Movement of Students of Indonesia, or CGMI, an organization with ties to the communist party. That tenuous link saw her thrown into the notorious Plantungan prison in Kendal, Central Java, where she remained for the next 14 years.

"When I was young, I was idealistic and brave. I was independent. I had a dream to pursue," Endang tells the Globe. "But after being imprisoned for 14 years, something is lost inside of me."

She says she continues to suffer from an unexplainable dread. "Sometimes, when I'm out on the street, I feel anxious for no reason. I get so anxious that I can't breathe," she says.

"After I joined Kiper, the frequency [of the panic attacks] has gradually decreased. Here, with other victims, I can talk about my fears, and apparently they also feel the same way as I do." But she won't speak of her experiences in jail.

For Sri Muhayati, 73, one of Kiper's founders, her arrest in 1965 ended her dream of becoming a doctor. But more importantly, her status as a political prisoner had major repercussions on her family, particularly her siblings.

"When I was in jail, what hurt me the most was the fact that my family was stigmatized by the community," she tells the Globe, her eyes watering.

"My sisters and brothers were called 'PKI minions.' My younger sister couldn't even be with her boyfriend because of me. I didn't experience physical or sexual violence during my five-year imprisonment in Yogyakarta because I helped the officers take care of the sick prisoners in jail," adds Sri, who dropped out from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University (UGM)'s medical school, or UGM.

"I was useful, so they didn't bother to lay their hands on me. But the fact that my imprisonment had many bad effects to my family scarred me for years. They couldn't get jobs in governmental offices. They had difficulty attending public schools.

"So when I got out of jail, I decided to remove my name from the family certificate. I didn't want to be a burden on my sisters' and brothers' future. I didn't want my past to haunt them," she finishes, sobbing by now.

Real nightmare

Christina Sumarmiyati, now 69, was the daughter of the chairman of the Indonesian Peasants Front, or BTI, who since high school had nurtured an interest in teaching illiterate people in her village in Yogyakarta's Sleman district how to read and write.

She joined the Indonesian Youth and Student Association, or IPPI, in 1962, an organization with the aim of educating rural communities by encouraging people to read good books.

"I remember Sukarno once said that to improve the nation's quality, we should motivate the young generation to read good-quality books," she tells the Globe at her house in Yogyakarta. "I loved to teach and I loved to help people in my village to become literate like me."

But in late December 1965, Christina was arrested, also without a warrant. She was held without charge in Sleman's Cebongan Prison with 500 other prisoners until April 1966, when she was released with no explanation. For months afterward she had to report twice a week to the warden's office.

"But in April 1968, I knew that the starting point of my real nightmare had just begun when I was rearrested by soldiers who broke into my dormitory room in Yogyakarta," Christina says.

"They accused me of joining Gerwani, which they said had killed those six generals at Lubang Buaya [in Jakarta]," she adds, referring to the Indonesian Women's Movement – closely linked with the PKI, and the now- debunked propaganda that it was involved in the torture and murder of top Army officers kidnapped by the communist party at the start of the "coup."

"I was a student at the UGM teaching department. I was a private teacher too. I was a part of a student organization at the university. I was not, and I am not now, part of Gerwani," she says emphatically.

"But they kept forcing me to admit to a crime I didn't commit. I was sexually abused. I was physically tortured. I was mentally abused. All just to make me say what they wanted me to say. But I was unmoved, so they continued to inflict their cruelty on me."

Christina says some of the other prisoners at Plantungan underwent the same ordeal. "Some of the prisoners I knew got pregnant in jail, probably by the [prison] guards," she says.

Sense of relief

Although sharing her experiences with other Kiper members has helped Sri Wahyuni, 80, ease the burden she has had to carry for nearly half a century now, she has never truly forgotten her traumatic experiences.

"It's not that I hold a grudge. It's just the pain won't leave every time I remember it. It's become a part of me," says Sri, who now walks on crutches. Sri was a member of Gerwani. She was arrested in 1965 and released in 1971.

"I was sexually abused in jail. One time, the officers even beat me until I couldn't move," she says, adding that her disability is the result of the physical abuse she suffered in jail.

With Kiper, she says, she has the support of friends. "I feel happy and at peace. But sometimes I still cry," Sri says.

Erlin says she can relate to the feeling. "As a child of my parents, I feel a sense of relief being among the women in this community. But I don't want to pass down this pain to my children, or my future grandchildren. I don't want them to know about the bitter fact that their grandparents were once imprisoned," she says.

Kiper counselor Pipit Ambariah says that the organization, established with the help of Syarikat Indonesia, a Yogyakarta-based Islamic group, serves as more than just an arisan community for its members.

Having partnered with local and international nongovernmental organizations, Kiper has held, among other activities, a trauma-healing program as well as workshops on women's empowerment and entrepreneurship for its members.

"The last organization we cooperated with was Asia Justice and Rights, for a trauma-healing program," says Pipit, 33, whose parents were among the victims of the crackdown.

Kiper members have also pushed to meet with government officials, and in April this year they got the chance to meet with officials from district officials in Yogyakarta.

"Through that meeting, the [local] governments eventually learned about the victims' existence and have offered assistance. They said they could provide funds for us," Pipit says. "But for us to be able to access those funds, they require that we establish ourselves as a chartered organization first."

And that's what Kiper is working on at the moment. "Today we invited a lawyer to explain to our members the importance of being chartered. So you can see that with every meeting, our members have something new to learn," Pipit says.

She adds that for all the stigma that still continues to surround anyone remotely linked, even falsely, to the PKI, Kiper has not elicited any negative responses from the local community.

"Most of the challenges come from the members themselves, especially in engaging their families to join us. Some are afraid to tell the truth to their families, so their families don't know about Kiper. Some have children who don't care one bit," Pipit says.

Bring a light

Recent developments have given encouraging indications that Indonesia may finally be ready to tackle that dark period of its history and make amends to the victims, if not bring the perpetrators to justice.

The National Commission for Human Rights, or Komnas HAM, published a landmark report in 2012 in which, for the first time, it officially acknowledged that the 1965-1966 anti-communist pogrom constituted a gross violation of human rights. However, its repeated attempts since then to get the Attorney General's Office to launch an inquiry have met with rejection.

Critics have long doubted that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will do anything meaningful in terms of addressing this past atrocity, pointing out that his father-in-law was the late Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, the Army general who spearheaded the killings and arrests.

The year 2012 also saw the release of the Academy Award-nominated documentary "The Act of Killing" by the US director Joshua Oppenheimer, which described the atrocities through the eyes of the killers. Oppenheimer released a follow-up this year, "The Look of Silence," told this time by a survivor of the purge.

And in July this year, Indonesia voted for Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo as president, picking a leader who, for the first time since Suharto's fall in 1998, has no ties to the late dictator.

Joko, with his close links to Sukarno's daughter, Megawati Soekarnoputri, has been seized on as the right person to call for an inquiry into the purge.

"I'm hoping Joko can bring us a light to ease our past burdens," Christina says. "While I'm not 100 percent certain that he'll be able to reveal this nation's dark past, I hope the next government will at least recognize the victims of 1965."

Sri says she no longer harbors any anger. "I want nothing but the government's willingness to recognize our existence as part of the history of this nation. For people like us, having our names cleared is worth more than money," she says.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/victims-65-purge-anger-suffering-lingers/

Sexual & domestic violence

Police 'reluctant' to investigate Solo king rape accusation

Jakarta Globe - September 23, 2014

Jakarta – The lawyer of a student who claims she was raped by Pakubuwono XIII is accusing police of looking for excuses to avoid implicating the king of Solo.

"Police act as if they don't trust the victim," Iwan Pangka, a lawyer for the 15-year-old alleged rape victim, was quoted as saying by news portal Detik.

om on Tuesday. "Police are trying to find excuses that would not lead them in the direction of the king of Solo, such as the possibility that the [person] in the car [who allegedly drugged the girl] was not the king... but his driver."

The victim, a vocational high school student, filed a police report in July, four months after the incident. The family decided to report the case to police because the girl is pregnant and discussions with the royal family to find a solution did not lead to an agreement.

Iwan said that the victim had been shown a picture of Pakubuwono XIII and confirmed that he was the one who raped her in a hotel in March.

The victim claims to have been introduced to the king after she talked to her friend, identified as Y.S.F., about not being able to pay her school fees. Y.S.F. then allegedly introduced her to a certain W.T., who offered "easy" but well-paid "work."

Ultimately, the victim ended up in a car and was given a candy on the way to a hotel in Sukoharjo district. After eating the candy, the victim said she passed out. She then woke up naked in the hotel and says she was given Rp 2 million ($170) by the king.

"In the hotel, our client was raped by the perpetrator," Asri Purwanti, another of the girl's lawyers, was quoted as saying in the Detik report, adding that her client was ready to have her child undergo a DNA test after birth, to establish paternity.

Pakubuwono XIII's spokesman, Bambang Ary Wibowo, told Detik.com that he could not comment on the case, because he had not discussed it with the royal. The king's brother, Suryowicaksono, said that he was shocked to hear the report, but that he would wait for the results of the police investigation.

"As a relative I am concerned. The palace has suffered many problems. [Pakubowono XIII] should realize that as a king, he should... set an example for others," Suryowicaksono said, as quoted by Detik.com. Police have yet to comment on the case.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/police-reluctant-investigate-solo-king-rape-accusation/

Labour & migrant workers

Workers to rally for higher wages

Jakarta Post - September 26, 2014

Jakarta – Around 100,000 workers will hold demonstrations in several cities across Indonesia on Oct. 2 to demand a 30 percent increase in the minimum wage, the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Unions (KSPI) has said.

Aside from demanding the minimum wage rise, KSPI head Said Iqbal said that the marching workers would demand more generous health and pension rates, adjustments to the basic commodities index and the rejection of the government's plan to raise fuel prices.

"There will be a total of 100,000 workers protesting in 20 cities. About 50,000 of them will come from the Greater Jakarta area," Said said on Friday as quoted by kompas.com.

October 2 will see demonstrators gather in front of City Hall, the Presidential Palace and the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry.

Said revealed that a number of demonstrators would also protest in front of the House of Representatives as a "gift" to the new government, added that if lawmakers did not comply with the workers' demands, they would hold a national strike in November.

"If the government is to take part in the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, they have to raise the minimum wage rates of workers outside of the Greater Jakarta area. You cannot compare the rates with those in Cambodia or Vietnam," he added.

The minimum wage for workers in Jakarta is currently Rp 2.4 million (US$199.8) a month. Jakarta Governor and president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo raised the minimum wage to Rp 2.4 million from Rp 2.2 million earlier this year.

However, workers in Sukabumi, West Java and Boyolali, Central Jakarta, earn a minimum of only Rp 900,000 and Rp 800,000, respectively. (dyl/nfo)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/26/workers-rally-higher-wages.html

Political parties & elections

Protestors dub SBY 'Mr. Anti-Democracy'

Jakarta Post - September 30, 2014

Jakarta – Dozens of individuals from the volunteer group Bara JP held a rally outside the Presidential Palace on Tuesday, protesting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's failure to demand that the Democratic Party faction vote to keep the direct election of regional heads.

Demonstrators then called Yudhoyono "Mr. Anti-Democracy" and presented a trophy inscribed with the words, "Mr. Anti-Democracy Award", to one of the participants who wore a Yudhoyono mask.

Rally coordinator Syafti Hidayat said that he spoke for the entire nation when he said that he rejected indirect elections for regional heads, be them for governors, mayors or regents.

"We appreciate Yudhoyono's way of handling the law's amendment. That is why he deserves this award more than anyone else," Syafti said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

Syafti added that by letting a bill that revests the power to choose regional leaders back with Regional Legislative Councils (DPRDs), Yudhoyono would leave office after 10 years on a sour note, having let the Indonesian people down. (dyl/dic)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/30/protestors-dub-sby-mr-anti-democracy.html

Local elections ploy seen as a setup for presidential vote

Jakarta Globe - September 30, 2014

Adelia Anjani Putri, Erwida Maulia & Yustinus Paat, Jakarta – If Indonesians thought the abolishment last week of their right to elect regional heads was the end of the country's dalliance with democracy, then a far nastier surprise awaits in new developments that potentially threaten to end direct presidential elections.

Analysts have expressed concern that the Red-and-White coalition of losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, which voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill abolishing direct regional elections, is aiming for control of more than just the country's provinces, districts and cities.

"The end goal of the Red-and-White coalition is not only [control over] regional elections but also the presidential election," said Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a political expert at the Indonesia Institute of Sciences, or LIPI.

The incoming House of Representatives, set to be inaugurated this week, will see the Red-and-White coalition, also known as the KMP, take control of 353 of the 560 House seats, against 207 seats to be held by the parties backing President-elect Joko Widodo.

With a majority in the House, the KMP can easily amend the 2008 Presidential Election Law and the Constitution to allow the People's Consultative Assembly, or MPR, of which the House forms the bulk, to appoint the president, as it did during the late Suharto's 32-year dictatorship, Ikrar said.

"Prabowo and the KMP leaders realize they can't win a direct election. But if the president is chosen by the MPR, there's a chance that Prabowo might win," he said.

Aleksius Jemadu, the dean of the School of Social and Political Studies at Pelita Harapan University, said separately that such a scenario was feasible.

"If the Red-and-White coalition can't contain their ambition and they see the opportunity, it's not impossible that they will move in that direction," he said. "The coalition's confidence is at a high after they managed to pass the local elections bill, so they're confident that they can make the change."

Others pointed to the KMP's success in passing the law on legislative bodies, known as the MD3 law, a day before the July 9 election, with key changes that deprive Joko's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, from privileges previously enjoyed by the party that wins the most votes in the legislative election.

This includes the right to the House speaker's post, which will now be decided in a vote that will almost certainly be won by the KMP. A source in the coalition says the KMP leaders have agreed to put forward veteran Golkar Party politician Setya Novanto for the speaker's post.

A bid by the PDI-P to have the changes to the MD3 law struck down was rejected on Monday by the Constitutional Court.

Power up

Control of the House translates into control of the MPR, which is made up of the House and the 136-seat Regional Representatives Council, or DPD – whose members ostensibly have no party affiliations but in reality have strong party links.

The MPR is the only body in the country with the power to amend the Constitution and to impeach the president.

Senior officials from the KMP have made no secret of their dislike for presidential elections, with Prabowo himself saying before last July's ballot that he did not believe direct elections were compatible with Indonesia's style of democracy.

Herman Kadir, a deputy secretary general of the National Mandate Party, or PAN, whose chairman, Hatta Rajasa, was Prabowo's running mate, was quoted by Tempo.co on Sunday as saying that direct presidential elections "should be scrapped."

He argued that the concept was "a product of the West" and had given rise to hostilities among Indonesians. "If need be, the president should again be selected through the MPR," he said.

The Democratic Party, which is also a member of the KMP even if its chairman, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, claims otherwise, confirmed that the coalition planned to take over the presidency by scrapping direct presidential elections.

"The door for the president to be appointed by the MPR is wide open following the passage of the regional elections law," said Hayono Isman, a senior Democrat. "The KMP will have power over everything: the House, the regional legislatures, as well as regional leaders."

Serious impact

Setara's Ismail said the idea of returning to the system of presidential appointment by the MPR was not based on the people's best interest but instead "driven by the KMP's political lust for power."

He noted that all the laws that the KMP had endorsed were "typical of the New Order regime where political elites control the entire political process."

If the regional elections law stands, the KMP will have control of 31 of 33 provincial legislatures, with the PDI-P enjoying a majority in only the Bali and West Kalimantan legislatures.

Analysts believe that regional councilors in these 31 provinces could appoint governors opposed to Joko, rendering the incoming president's key programs and policies useless.

"This will have a serious impact on Joko's leadership," said political expert Gun Gun Heryanto. "Joko will face serious opposition as now he's facing a group of parties that have a long-term agenda. The coalition may tackle Joko's good programs through policy making."

But whether the KMP, which has struggled to stay united since its inception after the election, can stick out long enough to see this long-term scenario through is debatable, analysts argue.

"There is a potential that [KMP] parties will clash when deciding who gets to be regional leaders," said Ray Rangkuti, the director of the Indonesian Civil Circle, or LIMA, a voter advocacy group. "Second, the regional chapters of each party may have their own agendas to pursue."

That view is shared by Zainuddin Amali, one of 11 Golkar legislators who broke with the party line and voted against the regional elections law last week. Zainuddin predicted the KMP coalition would collapse after Joko was inaugurated.

Golkar, the biggest party by far in the coalition, is already riven over chairman Aburizal Bakrie's failure to ensure that the party, which has never been out of the ruling bloc, backed the winning side in this year's election. Analysts say that Joko's choice of former Golkar chairman Jusuf Kalla as his running mate will prevent Golkar from ever fully uniting behind KMP policies.

The Democrats, under Yudhoyono, have also been blatantly hedging their bets in a ploy for cabinet seats, while the United Development Party, or PPP, appears increasingly likely to break from the KMP in favor of Joko's coalition.

Ray said the KMP leadership had failed to anticipate these problems because it was "too busy taking revenge" over its loss in the presidential election. "It hasn't occurred to them that they will be fighting among themselves [and] that reaching a consensus to appoint regional leaders will be hard to achieve," he said.

Charta Politika's Yunarto agreed on the likelihood of some KMP parties switching sides. "The PPP is going to hold a congress, Golkar is preparing to hold a national meeting – even the Democrats may change their position," he said.

"Will the Red-and-White coalition become more powerful? I don't think so. I think that Joko [is inaugurated], things will change."

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/local-elections-ploy-seen-setup-presidential-vote/

Fears Prabowo coalition will abolish direct election of president

Sydney Morning Herald - September 30, 2014

Michael Bachelard, Jakarta – Fears are growing in Indonesia that the coalition of losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto intends to mess further with the country's democracy.

Having last week abolished the direct election of regional, local and provincial governors, parties loyal to the former army strongman are now said to want to abolish the direct election of the country's president.

Instead, the president would be appointed by a body called the MPR – a joint sitting of the country's upper and lower houses. The system harks back to the days of Suharto and would put the power back in the hands of the country's oligarchs.

Mr Prabowo is also said to be seeking changes to the rules governing presidential impeachment, to enable him to directly attack the winner of the July poll, Joko Widodo.

If this is Mr Prabowo's desire, he is in a strong position to enact it. Parties supporting him, known as the Red and White Coalition, enjoy a majority in both the outgoing national parliament and the new one being sworn in on Wednesday.

Herman Kadir, a politician from the coalition-member party PAN, said the direct election of a president was a Western concept that "promotes conflict, and I think it should be abolished".

Deputy Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who quit Mr Prabowo's Gerindra Party over the regional elections law, said he believed the directly elected president was the next target: "It surely is," he said.

However, members of the Red and White Coalition have ridiculed the idea. An MP from pro-Muslim PKS party, Hidayat Nur Wahid said, "we... are still reasonable", and one from Mr Prabowo's party, Gerindra, said "there are no thoughts about that".

Buoyed by their victory in the regional elections debate, the Red and White Coalition is talking about changing 122 laws governing business and mining which were "too liberal", as well as some relating to culture and religion.

Businessman and leader of the powerful Golkar Party, Aburizal Bakrie, said he wanted to "change the Indonesian democracy into Pancasila", referring to the state ideology which, in the hands of Suharto, created an authoritarian state.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/fears-prabowo-coalition-will-abolish-direct-election-of-president-20140930-10o7ic.html

Leaked document alleges Prabowo promised MPR leadership to Democrats

Solo Post - September 29, 2014

Solo – A document detailing the division of parliamentary leadership positions allegedly agreed to by members of Prabowo Subianto's Red and White coalition and the Democrat Party has been circulating on Twitter. The upload of the photographed document reveals that the Democrats will be given the leadership of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR, upper house).

A posting on Monday morning, September 29 by an account belonging to 'buzzer' @PartaiSocmed shows a document signed by senior leaders of the political parties that make up the Red and White Coalition. The document shows the signatures of parliamentary faction leaders from the Golkar Party, the United Development Party (PPP), the Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS), the National Mandate Party (PAN) [and Prabowo's Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) – JB].

Visible at the end of the document are the signatures of M. Hidayat Nur Wahid from the PKS, Setya Novanto from Golkar, H. Ahmad Muzani from Gerindra, Tjatur Sapto Edy from PAN [and the leader of the PPP faction, presumably Hasrul Azwar as only the signature is visible – JB]. The document includes a number of interesting agreements, including Point 5 that reads:

"In the event that the Prabowo-Hatta presidential ticket wins [the July 9 presidential election], then the RED AND WHITE COALITION approves, [and] agrees to give support to the Democrat Party to fill the leadership post in the People's Consultative Assembly and other leadership positions proportionally including 1 [Democrat Party] leader from the DPD [Regional Representatives Council]".

Much of the document is difficult to read. Meanwhile the account explains that distribution of leadership position mentioned in the document include:

Golkar: DPR (House of Representatives) speaker, 5 chairs and 15 deputy chairs on DPR commissions (auxiliary bodies)
Gerindra: DPR deputy speaker, 4 chairs and 12 deputy chairs on DPR commissions
PAN: DPR deputy speaker, 3 chairs and 8 deputy chairs on DPR commissions
PKS: DPR deputy speaker, 2 chairs and 7 deputy chairs on DPR commissions
PPP: DPR deputy speaker, 2 chairs and 6 deputy chairs on DPR commissions
Democrat: MPR speaker.

The account notes that the MPR will be strengthened or returned to its function as the institution that elects the president.

The document closes with the sentence: "This mutual agreement is a political document that is binding on the respective parties", and is dated July 2014.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service.]

Source: http://www.solopos.com/2014/09/29/pilkada-langsung-berakhir-beredar-dokumen-bancakan-parlemen-demokrat-disebut-dapat-jatah-ketua-mpr-540129

A judicial review called for local poll elimination

Jakarta Globe - September 29, 2014

Erwida Maulia & Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – Election watchdogs and a lawyer association are among a string of different organizations planning to file a judicial review to the Constitutional Court against a recently passed controversial law that abolishes direct elections of regional leaders.

The Indonesian Voter Committee, or Tepi Indonesia, is among the organizations that have announced the review, said the regional election law, passed by the House of Representatives in the wee hours of Friday morning, to the anger of the Indonesian public, is against the Constitution.

Tepi coordinator Jerry Sumampouw said the law, which hands over the right to elect regional heads to regional legislative councils, is against Article 18 of the Constitution, which rules on regional administrations and regional autonomy.

"Article 18 treats regional heads and councils as equals," Jerry told the Jakarta Globe. "Regional heads should not answer to councils, but directly to the people."

Regional leaders will now be elected by, and report to regional councils, as specified in the new law, Jerry said.

Article 18 was included in the Constitution during its second amendment in 2000, in order to uphold the spirit of decentralization and regional autonomy brought about by the reforms era, following the fall of Suharto and his New Order regime in 1998.

Jerry said the 2004 Regional Governance Law, which ruled on direct elections of regional leaders before it was later scrapped with the passage of the new law on Friday, had been issued in order to carry the mandate of the article.

By scrapping direct votes, outcomes of regional elections in councils will be very much controlled by political party elites in Jakarta, as politicians at regional levels are only subordinates of the executives of the central party boards, Jerry said.

"That is against the spirit of regional autonomy as clearly stated in Article 18," Jerry said, adding that the third issue was people's sovereignty.

"Our Constitution, our democracy are clearly all about the sovereignty of the people. Handing over the elections of regional leaders to regional councils is a revocation of this sovereignty."

Jerry admitted there were many flaws in the organization of direct elections of regional leaders in Indonesia. But he said that rather than cancel the whole system, the new law should have improved it.

He added that Tepi was in the process of collecting as much supports as possible from the public before filing the judicial review to the court.

Jerry said he was optimistic that justices at the court would approve the lawsuit and annul the new law because of its inconsistency with the Constitution.

"The public's rejection of the law during the past two days is massive. I'm sure the justices will hear their voices," he added.

Joining in

The Association of Lawyers and Guards of the Constitution, or APPK, on Sunday also announced its plan to file an identical judicial review against the law to the Constitutional Court.

"The regional election law is unconstitutional. There is no clear clause in the Constitution instructing indirect regional elections through councils," APPK spokesman Ridwan Darmawan said in Jakarta.

He added the new law would also create a dilemma because another law regulating legislative bodies, known as the MD3 law, mentioned nothing about councils' right to elect regional leaders. The MD3 law, passed in July, has also spurred a controversy, although for different reasons, and is currently being reviewed at the Constitutional Court.

The People's Voter Education Network (JPPR), the Indonesian Civil Circle (Lima), the Association of Regional Administrations (Apeksi) and the Association of District Administrations (Apkasi) are among other organizations saying they are planning to file a judicial review against the regional election law.

JPPR deputy head Masykurudin Hafidz said his organization would form a coalition with as many as 24 other organizations from across the country to fight against the new law at the Indonesian Constitutional Court.

"We will ask the court to cancel the regional election law and to place a moratorium on regional elections throughout Indonesia until the Constitutional Court issues its verdict on this matter," said Ray Rangkuti, the director of Lima, also a member of the coalition.

"The law is clearly against the Constitution and Pancasila [Indonesia's five founding principles]," he added.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, after being widely condemned for letting his Democratic Party walk out of the House plenary session that ended with the passage of the controversial law, also has said he will file a judicial review against it. The party, which holds 148 out of 560 House seats, could have easily turned the legislative voting result on Friday and retained direct elections. Instead, it insisted that its so-called 10-point conditions for the elections must be met and walked out of the plenary session when those were not immediately met, allowing the controversial bill to be passed.

"In Jokowi's era I will fight for a system of direct regional elections, but with the improvements. That's my promise," Yudhoyono said from Washington DC on Saturday (Sunday in Jakarta).

"It's hard for me to sign the law on regional elections by regional councils when it fundamentally still conflicts with other laws, such as the law on regional administrations. Another law regulating the regional councils also doesn't authorize the councils to elect regional leaders."

Political analysts, including Ray, are highly skeptical of Yudhoyono's motive. "So [Yudhoyono] wants to file a judicial review? What is the drama he's playing this time?" Ray said. "If he wants to support [direct elections], he shouldn't have staged a political play with that walkout [in the House] by the Democrats."

Constitutional Court Chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva said the court would process reviews if filed. "We will treat [judicial reviews against the regional election] the same way we treat other judicial reviews," he said in a text message on Friday.

The Twitter drama

The hashtag #ShameOnYouSBY topped the global trending topic on Twitter for two days after the controversial passage of the law, and following the publication of the Jakarta Globe's editorial titled "Shame on SBY and His Non-Democrats" on its website shortly after the law's passage in the early hours of Friday morning.

By Saturday night, though, after the hashtag had been used in more than 250,000 tweets, Indonesian netizens questioned its sudden disappearance from the global trending topics list, when many of them were still using the hashtag in their tweets – related to the regional election law or otherwise – to criticize Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party.

The bill, after all, was submitted by Yudhoyono's administration to the House of Representatives in late 2011, before the start of deliberations the following year.

The hashtag has been replaced with #ShamedByYou, trending only locally.

"#ShameOnYouSBY disappeared, then: #ShameOnYouTwitter ???!!! Twitter is now anti-democracy???" Twitter used @karaniya wrote on Sunday night.

"We're only regular staff doing our duties. Let SBY himself selling his face at the international stages. #ShameByYou," tweeted @elvitria, who appears to be an Indonesian Foreign Ministry employee.

Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring denied the government has anything to do with the hashtag's disappearance from the trending topics list, but his "dubious" tweets raised suspicion.

"Some countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt once shut Twitter. Indonesia has never shut Twitter. Would anyone suggest that?" Tifatul tweeted on Sunday. In the evening he tweeted, "I reiterate once more, it's not true that Twitter will be shut in Indonesia."

Twitter's explanation on trending topics is that "[our] algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help you discover the hottest emerging topics of discussion."

Thousands of Indonesians, mainly activists and students, continued to stage protests against the regional election law in a number of regions on Sunday. Dozens of Indonesians also staged a protest outside Yudhoyono's hotel in Washington.

[Additional reporting by Novy Lumanauw & Nurjoni.]

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/judicial-review-local-poll-elimination/

Public unites against regional elections law

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2014

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – Anger turned into activism as hundreds of concerned citizens took to the streets on Sunday to stage peaceful protests throughout the country to mobilize support to challenge the newly passed amendment to the Regional Elections Law at the Constitutional Court.

In Jakarta, the protesters, who called themselves "Direct Elections Defenders", staged a protest at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, which was also aimed at obtaining copies of identity cards from at least 1,000 people, the minimum requirement to be able to file a judicial review.

"We're happy to see that the public agrees with us that the bill kills their right to vote for their local leaders. Now we're ready to challenge the law at the Constitutional Court," Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) executive director Titi Anggraini said during the Sunday protest.

Early on Friday, the House of Representatives passed an amendment to the law by a vote of 226 to 135 to reinstate the mechanism that had been used during former president Soeharto's New Order era.

The new law was passed after the majority of Democratic Party lawmakers walked out of the plenary session, effectively handing victory to the Red- and-White Coalition that backed the proposal.

"We're currently preparing all necessary documents to file a judicial review and we hope that next week we will have submitted our petition to the court. We're deeply disappointed by the Democratic Party's decision to walk out of the plenary session on Friday," Titi said.

She said members of the public should get over their anger at the scrapping of direct elections and should now start organizing themselves to challenge the new law.

"There's no need to condemn the bill now as it's been passed by the House. What we need to do now is focus on the next legal battle and challenging the law at the court," Titi added.

The move to challenge the law at the court has garnered support from Indonesians living and studying abroad.

The UK branch of the Indonesian Students Association (PPI) said in a statement that the law was a setback for Indonesian democracy, adding that it would shut the door on potential regional leaders becoming national leaders, like president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

"In indirect systems, regional leaders will become the political 'hostages' of politicians in local councils," PPI UK head Faldo Maldini said.

Meanwhile, in Washington DC on Saturday, scores of Indonesian citizens took to the street in front of the Willar InterContinental Hotel, where President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was staying during his visit to attend the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly.

The protesters brought with them banners condemning Yudhoyono. Some of the banners read "RIP Indonesia Democracy", "Shame on SBY and his Non- Democrats", and "Mr. President betrays the public trust",

Responding to the public outcry, Yudhoyono, in his capacity as Democratic Party chairman, has ordered an inquiry into who instructed all Democratic Party lawmakers to walkout of the House plenary meeting

Yudhoyono said he was disappointed with how things had turned out during the plenary session.

"I'm disappointed with the results of the political process at the House although I, as a democrat, respect the process. Again, I am disappointed with the results and the process," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/29/public-unites-against-regional-elections-law.html

'#ShameOnYouSBY' sees Twitter abuzz

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2014

Jakarta – In their anger at the decision of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to allow his Democratic Party lawmakers to walk out of a crucial vote to scrap the direct election of local leaders, Indonesians took to popular microblogging website Twitter, setting it abuzz with a hashtag that became a worldwide trending topic over the weekend.

Indonesians sent more than 250,000 tweets with the hashtag #ShameOnYouSBY over the weekend, making it the number one trending topic worldwide before it mysteriously disappeared on Saturday evening.

Its disappearance further lit up Twitter, with many blaming the site for its for its content withholding policy, which can only be applied in response to an official request filed by a government or law enforcement institution.

"From being the top trending topic, #ShameOnYouSBY has now gone. You can remove a hashtag but you can never remove how you made your people feel," said Twitter user Denny Dharma, who used @denny_dj-nguk as his handle.

Political activist and local Twitter celebrity Fadjroel Rachman, described the government's alleged actions as embarrassing. "It's really shameful if the Indonesian government has asked Twitter to remove the hashtag," Fadjroel said from his Twitter account @Fadjroel.

Twitter has yet to respond to the allegation that the removal of #ShameOnYouSBY from the list of worldwide trending topics was based on a formal request from the Indonesian government, but has said: "Twitter does not comment on rumors or speculation".

Twitter, in its official statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Sunday, also said that during the first half of 2014, the Indonesian government had made zero requests for account information and zero requests for content removal.

Not long after #ShameOnYouSBY disappeared from the trending topic list, Twitter users responded by creating the new hashtag #ShamedByYou, which soon became another trending topic early on Sunday.

To lend credence to the speculation that the Indonesian government had intervened, Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring made a controversial statement on Sunday, implying that the government had the authority to block Twitter from the country.

"Some countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have shut down Twitter in their country. So far Indonesia has never done such a thing, any suggestions?" Tifatul said on his Twitter account @tifsembiring. The statement saw many condemn Tifatul appearing to propose such a ban.

One Twitter user, known by his handle @barcelonabryan, became an instant Twitter celebrity for a snarky comment to response to Tifatul's tweet on the possibility of blocking Twitter.

"Countries like China, Pakistan and North Korea have also forced their ministers to end their lives. Indonesia so far has not done it. Any suggestions?" said the Twitter user, who had 2,447 followers.

The statement had been retweeted 190 times as of Sunday evening. Tifatul later clarified that his ministry had no plan to block Twitter. (idb)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/29/shameonyousby-sees-twitter-abuzz.html

Democratic Party in spotlight over walkout plot

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2014

Bagus BT Saragih and Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Despite President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's public statement of regret that the House of Representatives has put an end to the direct elections of local leaders, the public is growing sceptical of his true intentions as more details emerge that indicate the Democratic Party may have engineered the move.

Yudhoyono posted a statement on YouTube over the weekend, saying he was disappointed with the House's decision to pass the law and reiterating his support for direct regional elections.

"Our proposal for a better direct election mechanism failed to gain political support at the House. Neither available option explicitly accommodated our proposal. It was difficult to vote for either of the two," Yudhoyono said.

The statement has instead caused further embarrassment, with the President being accused of harboring an ulterior motive. Numerous politicians from political parties have confirmed that a Democratic Party plan to walk out of the crucial vote if its proposal failed had been long in the making.

Many believed the plan was hatched to maintain political deals with the Red-and-White Coalition consisting of parties supporting the losing presidential ticket of Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa, while at the same time, helping to save the image of Yudhoyono, who wanted to maintain his image as a "true democrat".

United Development Party (PPP) secretary-general M. Romahurmuziy, whose party is a member of the coalition, claimed "the scenario was prepared from the very beginning". "Yudhoyono's statement of disappointment was part of a political gimmick," he said on Sunday.

A document believed to be a political agreement between members of the Red-and-White Coalition has been circulating, stating that the coalition had agreed to give the speaker's position in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to the Democratic Party.

Other points in the document also indicate "distributions" of chair and deputy chair positions on House commissions to members of the coalition.

Democratic Party deputy secretary general Ramadhan Pohan acknowledged that his party had been promised the MPR speaker position but claimed it had nothing to do with the decision to walk out of the plenary session. "The position is not a 'reward' for our decision [to walk out]," he said.

Hours before the plenary meeting kicked off last Thursday, rumors swirled that the leader of the Golkar Party faction, Setyo Novanto, was ready to pay between Rp 100 million (US$8,316) and Rp 150 million to each of the 148 Democratic Party lawmakers in exchange for their backing to abolish direct elections by abstaining in the vote.

Golkar deputy secretary-general Tantowi Yahya gave his assurances that such an offer was impossible, while Democratic Party deputy chairman Max Sopacua said "none of us took bribes from anybody".

Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, the head of the Democratic Party faction at the House, has taken the blame for the decision of the party's lawmakers to walk out during the crucial vote.

Nurhayati, a member of Yudhoyono's inner circle, has acknowledged she ordered all Democratic Party lawmakers attending the plenary session at the House to leave the chamber.

"There is no need to investigate who was the mastermind because I am the one who was responsible for the decision. I have apologized to our chairman [Yudhoyono] as well," the former aide of First Lady Ani Yudhoyono said.

Yudhoyono had earlier ordered Democratic Party ethics council head Amir Syamsuddin to lead an inquiry into the fiasco.

Six out of 129 Democratic Party lawmakers attending the session refused to obey Nurhayati's order. They sided with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Hanura Party in voting for direct elections.

Previously, Yudhoyono stated that he wanted to maintain direct regional elections but with additional provisions to curb the shortcomings demonstrated during the implementations of the system since 2005.

Nurhayati argued that the party's efforts to pass Yudhoyono's proposal had been blocked by all the other factions. She claimed that last-minute statements made by lawmakers from the PDI-P, the PKB and Hanura to endorse the proposal were "only aimed at deceiving the public".

She also appealed to the public not to blame Yudhoyono. "I've always asked [Yudhoyono] for guidance. But at the time, he was far away in the US, so I had to make a decision that I thought was best," she said.

Pol-Tracking Institute executive director Hanta Yuda speculated that Yudhoyono's decision to allow the scrapping of direct elections resulted from his strained relationship with PDI-P chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri.

"The 10 additional points proposed by Yudhoyono to improve direct regional elections may have been just an attempt to improve his bargaining position. It could have been something to do with his efforts to secure his post- presidency agenda," he said.

Some have also speculated that the Red-and-White Coalition offered something more to the Democratic Party in the form of a safety net from legal prosecution for Yudhoyono and his family after he leaves on office Oct. 20.

Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a researcher at the National Institute of Sciences' (LIPI) Center for Political Studies, said Yudhoyono's support for direct elections was "not sincere" as it was made at the last minute,while the bill had been deliberated for over two years.

How direct elections evolved

2004: The administration of then-president Megawati Soekarnoputri passes Law No. 32/2004 on regional administrations, which paves the way for the direct election of governors, mayors and regents.

2005: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issues a government regulation on the implementation of regional direct regional elections.

2005: The first direct regional election is held in Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan, on June 1.

2007: The Constitutional Court issues a verdict allowing independent candidates to run in the elections.

2008: Law No. 32/2004 is revised to accommodate independent candidates.

2014: The House of Representatives endorses a new law on Sept. 26 which puts an end to direct regional elections, on Sept. 26.

How indirect elections for governors, mayors and regents work

1. Regional legislative councils (DPRDs) form a selection committee (Panlih) consisting of several councilors to short-list potential candidates for local leaders.

2. A separate, independent team set up by DPRDs evaluates the candidates. The team consists of three academics and two local figures.

3. The results of the evaluations are given to the DPRDs.

4. The DPRDs make a final selection of the eligible candidates to officially register them for the election.

5. The registered candidates are required to detail their visions in a DPRD plenary meeting, during which they will be questioned by legislators.

6. Following such question-and-answer sessions, DPRD members will vote for their preferred candidates.

7. Candidates with the majority of votes will be elected regional leaders. 8. Governor-elects will be inaugurated by the president, while regent- elects and mayor-elects will be inaugurated by the home minister.

9. Once inaugurated, governors will propose a maximum of three names for their deputies to the president for approval, while proposals from regents and mayors are submitted to the home minister.

The entire election process takes five months.

Other requirements:

Regional elections take place simultaneously once every five years.
A political faction or a coalition of political parties accumulating 20 percent of seats at a DPRD or 25 percent of the popular vote in an electoral area is eligible to nominate three candidates.
Independent gubernatorial candidates can enter a race only if they are endorsed by at least 3 percent of the total population in an electoral area with a population of more than 12 million; 4 percent in an area with a population between 6 and 12 million; 5 percent in an area with a population between 2 and 6 million; and 6.5 percent in an area with a population of less than 2 million.
Independent candidates to compete for regental and mayoral positions must secure at least 6.5 percent of the vote in an area with a population of 250,000; 5 percent in an area of 500,000 people; 4 percent in an area with a population between 500,000 and 1 million; and 3 percent in an area with a population of more than 1 million.
Provincial DPRDs are authorized to propose the appointment or dismissal of a governor and/or deputy governor to the president via the home minister for approval.
Regency and municipal DPRDs are authorized to propose the appointment or dismissal of regents and/or deputy regents as well as mayors and/or deputy mayors to the home minister through governors for approval.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/29/democratic-party-spotlight-over-walkout-plot.html

Next threat: Scrapping direct presidential polls

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2014

Bagus BT Saragih and Margareth Aritonang, Jakarta – Indonesia's hard-won democracy, which emerged from the bloody reform movement of 1998 that ended Soeharto's three decades of dictatorship, has never faced a critical challenge – until today.

After snatching the people's right to elect their local leaders through a controversial Regional Elections Law passed on Friday, the coalition of losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto is suspected of planning an even more sinister plot.

This time around, the Red-and-White Coalition is seeking to scrap direct presidential elections and transfer the people's political right to elect their national leader to the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Presidential elections carried out by political and group representatives in the MPR will resemble those practiced during Soeharto's New Order era.

The coalition, which will hold the majority of seats in the next composition of the House of Representatives, will do so by amending the 1945 Constitution. The plan to strengthen the MPR as well as to amend the Constitution was officially announced during a House plenary meeting last week.

Puan Maharani, who leads the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- P) faction in the House, confirmed Prabowo's supporters were ready to mobilize the plan.

"The demise of direct regional elections may lead to indirect presidential elections. But we don't want that to happen, do we?" the daughter of PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri said.

Puan also said that she had heard rumors of a plan to revise the MPR's internal regulation, to allow the assembly to impeach president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

A document, believed to be a draft amendment to the MPR regulation, was circulating over the weekend. Several lawmakers who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue confirmed the validity of the document.

The draft contains revisions to articles 99, 105, 110 and 112, which detail the necessary procedures to impeach a president upon the recommendation of the House.

Article 99, for example, stipulates that the MPR can impeach a president based on a recommendation from the House, if the Constitutional Court rules that the president has committed a crime such as treason, corruption or other serious misconduct. A president can also be impeached if he or she is deemed "unfit to carry out the duties of his/her office".

Articles 105 to 112 elaborate upon the mechanism to appoint the vice president to assume the presidency following the president's impeachment.

Lawmakers from the coalition that endorsed the Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla presidential ticket raised their concerns about such a possibility, as the MPR is currently revising its internal regulation as mandated by the newly passed Legislative Institutions Law (MD3).

Such a revision would restore the MPR to its historic position as the most-powerful state institution, invested with the authority to "review" the performance of leaders of inferior state institutions, including the office of the president.

Hayono Isman, a member of the patron council in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, said the possibility of the next president being elected indirectly via the MPR was growing.

"If the Red-and-White Coalition controls the MPR, it will be easy for them to amend the 1945 Constitution. The public can be bullied by the MPR," he said on Saturday.

Aburizal Bakrie, chairman of the Golkar Party, the biggest member of the Red-and-White Coalition, acknowledged the plan. Aburizal even stated that the coalition planned to revise 122 laws. "We must revise the laws to bring them in line with the plan to amend the Constitution," he said.

Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a political researcher at the National Science Institute, said reinstating indirect presidential elections was almost certainly Prabowo's ultimate goal.

"Prabowo must have realized that it would be difficult for him to win via a direct election. So, he will forcibly destroy the system and return it to the New Order style," he said.

Indonesia has enjoyed direct presidential elections since 2004, when Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was elected president in a popular vote.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/29/next-threat-scrapping-direct-presidential-polls.html

Prabowo's coalition proposes end to direct election of president

Tempo.co - September 29, 2014

Tri Susanto Setiawan, Febriana Firdaus, Prihandoko, Jakarta – After abolishing the direct election of regional heads by the people, Prabowo Subianto's Red and White Coalition has initiated a discourse on returning to a system by which the president is elected by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR, upper-house).

National Mandate Party (PAN) secretary general Herman Kadir argues that the direct election of the president by the people creates social disunity. "If direct presidential elections give rise to conflicts, I think they should be abolished", said Kadir when contacted on Monday September 28.

Kadir has said in the past that direct elections are a Western product. According to Kadir, democracy in Indonesia is represented through the parliament. "If necessary, the president could be elected again by the MPR", said the House of Representatives (DPR) lawmaker on September 12.

In the DPR, he once proposed an amendment to the 1945 Constitution so that the election of the president would be done through the MPR. "I was one of strongest proponents, but it got no agreement", he said. At the time, said Kadir, other DPR members rejected the proposal because it could become a 'blunder'. "It would be hard for us to put into practice", said Kadir quoting his colleagues.

Hayono Isman, a member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democrat Party, believes that the chances of the president again being elected by the MPR are wide open. "If the Red and White Coalition can control the DPRDs [regional legislative councils] and regional heads, they could also control the MPR. So, making an amendment [to the Constitution] would be easy", said Isman on Saturday.

Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) political observer Ikrar Nusa Bakti says that Isman's analysis makes sense. He added that the Democrats, along with the coalition of parties that backed Prabowo's failed presidential bid, control at least 352 votes in the MPR – more that half of the 592 seats. "It's not impossible that the mechanism for electing the president will be changed, because Prabowo knows all too well, that it would be difficult for him to be elected in a direct election by the people", said Bakti.

Golkar Party general chairperson Aburizal Bakrie asserts that the Red and White Coalition – which is made up of Golkar, Prabowo's Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the United Development Party (PPP), PAN and the Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) – was not just formed to back the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa ticket in the July 9 presidential elections. One of its other roles is that the coalition aims to become counter to the government.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service.]

Source: http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2014/09/29/078610474/Koalisi-Prabowo-Usulkan-Pilpres-oleh-MPR-Lagi

PPP dispute continues after protest ends Makassar meeting

Jakarta Globe - September 28, 2014

Muhammad Kiblat, Makassar – The leadership crisis plaguing the United Development Party (PPP) broke down further at the weekend after two factions faced off at a meeting to declare a replacement for ousted chairman Suryadharma Ali.

Members of the PPP's South Sulawesi chapter – loyal to secretary general M. Romahurmuziy and acting chairman Emron Pangkapi – barged into a meeting held by Suryadharma's supporters in Hotel Singgasana, Makassar, on Saturday.

Suryadharma's camp, including deputy chairman Dimyati Natakusuma and deputy Secretary General Yunus Razak, had convened at the hotel to declare former Public Housing Minister Djan Faridz as the new chairman.

However, local party members put an end to the declaration, which they described as "illegal" and "unethical", after they stormed into the meeting room and shut it down.

PPP South Sulawesi chapter chief Amir Uskara said Suryadharma did not have authority to hold the meeting in the party's name, especially as his backers had not informed local PPP leaders.

Amir said all members of the party's South Sulawesi chapter supported acting chairman Emron Pangkapi.

"Emron is the most suitable member to replace SDA [Suryadharma]... You can hold an event, but not here in South Sulawesi," he said.

The dispute is the latest in the party rift, which followed the dismissal of Suryadharma after he was named a graft suspect by the country's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

It is alleged Suryadharma, as minister of religious affairs, embezzled funds for the hajj, the annual pilgrimage that Muslims are required to undertake to Mecca.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/ppp-dispute-continues-protest-ends-makassar-meeting/

Dems scramble to stop walkout fallout

Jakarta Post - September 28, 2014

Ina Parlina and Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Amid public pressure, the Democratic Party is launching a probe into the decision made by its lawmakers to walk out during a crucial vote on the Regional Election Law at the House of Representatives.

The decision by Democratic Party lawmakers, who comprise the largest faction in the House, during early Friday's plenary meeting, led to the victory of the Red-and-White Coalition, which backed the representative- based election mechanism through Regional Legislative Councils (DPRDs).

People have responded angrily to the move, including Twitter users in the country who came up with the hashtag #shameonyouSBY – which became the world's trending topic on Twitter over the weekend – blaming President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for failing to ensure that his party members rejected the proposed bill.

There is speculation that the Red-and-White Coalition, which nominated losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, offered the speaker's position in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to the Democratic Party in exchange for its abstention.

To limit damage to its image, the party has called for an investigation into Friday's incident, with the party's central board appointing ethics council head Amir Syamsuddin to lead the inquiry.

Amir said on Saturday that what transpired earlier was "a betrayal to what the party stood for and contradicted Yudhoyono's directive, which supported direct elections with 10 improvements".

"We are also confused about why it happened, although they [the 10 proposed improvements] won the support of another [three parties]." Amir, who is also the law and human rights minister, declined to comment on the claim that the Democrats were offered an incentive to abstain.

Yudhoyono, who was on an official visit to Washington DC Thursday when the voting took place, expressed disappointment with the scrapping of the direct-elections bill.

Democratic Party lawmaker Ruhut Sitompul as well as United Development Party (PPP) secretary-general Romahurmuziy have both hinted that the decision to abandon the vote was part of an elaborate scheme.

Ruhut said the Dems' deputy chairman, Max Sopacua, and House-faction leader Nurhayati Ali Assegaf told them to walk out on the vote after the two received an instruction from Yudhoyono via text messages.

Ruhut claimed that Yudhoyono made the instruction because his 10 proposed improvements had been rejected by the House. Romahurmuziy said Yudhoyono's quick response after the vote was a political gambit to win back public trust.

Meanwhile, Democratic Party deputy secretary-general Ramadhan Pohan denied that the party was offered the MPR leadership in exchange for not voting. "At no time were we promised a reward. We thought that direct local elections could be improved with the 10-point plan," he said on Saturday.

During the plenary, the Democrats insisted the House approve a "third option" as a compromise between the two extreme positions, namely the adoption of its 10 improvements to the direct-election mechanism, which included giving DPRDs the authority to control public reviews.

Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi has said the government initially proposed that the representative-based mechanism should be applied only to gubernatorial elections. However, the government later bowed to lawmakers' demands by offering the option to uphold the direct mechanism for all types of local elections or to introduce the indirect mechanism.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/28/dems-scramble-stop-walkout-fallout.html

Dems keep options open with walkout

Jakarta Post - September 27, 2014

Yuliasri Perdani and Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Critics have suggested that the irresolute stance of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party in the deliberation of the controversial regional elections (Pilkada) law reflects the party's moves to secure its position in the future House of Representatives.

In the early hours of Friday lawmakers at the House passed the law, which restores the power to select local leaders to regional legislatures, by a vote of 226 to 135. The law was supported mainly by lawmakers from the Red-and-White Coalition led by losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.

The Dems who were expected to help the coalition of president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to maintain direct elections, abruptly walked out of the session after the House rejected its proposed list of amendments to the direct-election system.

The Democrats' move paved the way for indirect elections to be reinstated, in spite of Yudhoyono's pledge that his party would side with the public's aspirations for direct elections.

Chrisbiantoro from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) suggested that the Democrats were seeking to preserve its position within the Red-and-White Coalition, which will dominate the next House, scheduled for inauguration on Oct. 1.

"It appears the Democratic Party does not want to oppose its coalition, but at the same time it still wants to have a good relationship with Jokowi's camp," he said on Friday.

"It is likely that the party is seeking to secure the leadership of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and also looking for seats in Jokowi's Cabinet," he said.

Under the newly passed Legislative Institution Law, known as MD3, the Red- and-White Coalition, which will control 60 percent of House seats, will determine the next House leadership. Reports have suggested that the coalition promised the Democrats the chairmanship of the MPR.

Charta Politika political analyst Yunarto Wijaya suggested that Yudhoyono might not have been involved in the deal. "A rumor circulating suggests that the deal was between the coalition and Nurhayati Assegaf [chairperson of the Dems faction at the House]," Yunarto said.

Although the Dems' walkout ran contrary to Yudhoyono's stance, some Democratic Party lawmakers claim they left the House after receiving a directive from Yudhoyono. "Max Sopacua [deputy party chairman] and Nurhayati claimed to have received the text message from SBY. What can I say?" said lawmaker Ruhut Sitompul.

I Gede Pasek Suardika, one of six Democrat lawmakers who refused to walk out, raised the suspicion that some senior party members lied about the text message.

"If it turns out that the walkout was initiated by senior members, our chairman [Yudhoyono] must treat this seriously [...] they have betrayed SBY, who supported direct elections," he said.

Yunarto warned the apparent insubordination might risk the party's future. "The party is on the brink of collapse if it turns out that some members defied Yudhoyono's direction," he said.

Vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla has suggested that Jokowi's coalition still held an open door for the party to join. "We will asses [a possible partnership] based on the existing situation," he said, as quoted by kompas.

om. Kalla's view was supported by Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician, Maruarar Sirait. "It is still in the communication phase. We want to build a partnership based on mutual vision, mission and trust," Maruarar said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/27/dems-keep-options-open-with-walkout.html

House, SBY face public wrath

Jakarta Post - September 27, 2014

Yuliasri Perdani, Bambang Muryanto and Ainur Rohmah, Jakarta/Yogyakarta/Semarang – The House of Representatives' decision to scrap direct elections of regional heads has sparked widespread public outrage, with civil rights groups and members of the public saying that the move was a rollback to Soeharto's New Order era.

Human rights watchdog Imparsial executive director Poengky Indarti said the newly passed regional elections law was a setback for democracy in the country.

"The reform era allowed for people to directly elect regional heads. Now, we have restored those rights to the regional legislative councils [DPRDs]. We are going back to the New Order era," she said on Friday.

Chrisbiantoro from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) suggested that the introduction of the law, which is supported by the Red-and-White Coalition of losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, was merely a political move to undermine president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. "The political maneuver of Prabowo's coalition has tarnished our democracy," he said.

Prabowo's coalition argued that the direct-election system must be scrapped as it was rife with vote-buying. Yogyakarta's Kulon Progo regent, Hasto Wardoyo, rejected the suggestion. "The decision to take part in transactional politics is determined by candidates individually. If they don't offer money to the public, then the public will let their conscience dictate who they vote for," he said.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto suggested that regional elections through DPRDs would instead open the door to vote-buying practices among politicians.

He cited data from the Home Ministry's directorate general for regional autonomy stipulating that there were 290 regional heads implicated in various graft cases between 2004 and 2014, while 2,960 legislative candidates were implicated during the same period.

KPK suggests law opens door to vote-buying among politicians Bandung mayor says candidates will be controlled by Jakarta

"The figure tells us how dangerous it [indirect elections] is. We know that direct elections are prone to vote-buying, but that only involves petty cash, while regional elections through DPRDs would be prone to vote-buying involving large sums of money," Bambang said.

Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil, whose nomination was backed by Prabowo's Gerindra Party, said that indirect elections would reinstate legislatures' control over future governors, mayors and regents.

"With indirect regional elections, candidates in the regions will be practically controlled by elites in Jakarta," he wrote via his Twitter account @ridwankamil.

Citizens have also expressed their frustration over the law through social media, with many of them blaming President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for failing to keep his promise to maintain direct elections. #ShameOnYouSBY topped Twitter's worldwide trending topics list on Friday.

"I voted for you @SBYudhoyono to take Indonesia to the next level, not to kill democracy. #ShameOn-YouSBY," a Twitter user, Chrisma Albandjar, said via his account@chrisleft.

Philip J. Vermonte from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) shared the view of the netizens. "SBY won our first direct election in 2004. If we didn't implement direct elections at the time, SBY wouldn't have won as his Democratic Party only garnered 7 percent of the vote in the legislative election. By restoring indirect elections, he is going against the spirit of democracy," he said.

Kontras, along with several NGOs, are urging members of the public to join them in filing a judicial review on the controversial law with the Constitutional Court. Those who wish to join can send their identity details to cell phone number 082217770002.

An online petition on change.org titled "Membatalkan UU Pilkada oleh DPRD", which urges the court to annul the law, had garnered 10,063 signatories as of Friday evening.

Meanwhile, Central Java Governor and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Ganjar Pranowo pointed out that with the indirect-election system, his chance for reelection was slim considering that the local legislature was controlled by Prabowo's coalition.

"It would be impossible for me to be reelected through the system. It would be better for me to retire if the system is implemented," he said. (idb)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/27/house-sby-face-public-wrath.html

Political parties seize control

Jakarta Post - September 27, 2014

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Political parties appeared to have secured a lock on regional administrations following the passage of the regional elections (Pilkada) law, which will vest Regional Legislative Councils (DPRDs) with the power to appoint local leaders.

In the early hours of Friday morning the House of Representatives passed the law by a vote of 226 to 135 to reinstate the mechanism that had been used during former president Soeharto's New Order era.

Under the revived election mechanism political parties, through their representatives in the DPRDs, now have the mandate to form election committees (Panlih) that will initially select potential candidates.

The committees will later appoint an independent panel, comprising three academicians and two public figures, that will hold a public review, a mechanism that could be subject to control by the DPRD. Those who have passed the panel's public review will then be eligible for "election" at the DPRD.

The law, which is slated to become effective in October 2015, also allows independent gubernatorial candidates to enter a race only if they are endorsed by at least 3 percent of the total population in an electoral area with a population of more than 12 million, 4 percent in an area with a population between 6 and 12 million, 5 percent of a population between 2 and 6 million and 6.5 percent in an area with a population less than 2 million.

Another article of the law states that elections will be held every five years concurrently across the country, while another stipulates that an election dispute must now be brought to local courts or the Supreme Court, automatically stripping the authority from the Constitutional Court, which is currently mandated to settle local-election disputes.

Lawmaker Hakam Naja, who chairs House Commission II overseeing regional administrations, argued that the new law would not be a stumbling block to public aspirations, saying that it had been drawn up in the best interests of the people, rather than to fulfil the ambitions of political parties.

"Public aspirations will now be channeled through the DPRDs. Under this law, we can build a better democratic culture by urging the public to be more serious in engaging in legislative elections," he said.

Andi Asrun, a lawyer who represented the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in a judicial review related to House-leadership voting mechanisms, said on Friday that he would challenge the Pilkada law at the Constitutional Court, arguing the new election mechanism denied the people their right to vote.

Representing several individuals – including regents and workers – and survey organizations, Andi said he would file the case next Monday.

In Washington DC, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was quoted by the Cabinet secretariat website as saying "I am disappointed with the result and the political process at the House, although I respect the process as a Democrat [Democratic Party chairman]. But, once again, I am disappointed with the process and the result."

Less than 24 hours after they passed the Pilkada bill, the House also scrapped an article that barred a political party chairman from becoming a local leader in an amendment to the 2004 law on regional administrations, a move seen as an effort to strengthen the new indirect-election mechanism.

Perhaps surprisingly, the proposal was raised during the deliberation by politicians from two parties that had previously backed direct local elections, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the PDI-P.

PKB lawmaker Abdul Kadir Karding, an executive on the PKB central board, said the issue should be an internal party matter. "The democratic system that we are building, like it or not, is actually a regime of political parties," he said. "[Therefore] we must strengthen the parties."

Arif Wibowo of the PDI-P said "We should give the same opportunity for everyone, including party executives [although] of course [we] hope that [he or she] will work for the best interests of the people and not to conduct wrongdoing."

The new regional administration law clearly gives the authority to DPRDs to elect and authorizes local heads to choose their deputies using the election mechanism laid down in the controversial new Pilkada law.

Unlike the Pilkada law, the regional administration law – which also grants the government the authority to take back power from local administrations – won unanimous support from lawmakers, although only around 60 lawmakers attended Friday's deliberation session.

Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi told the plenary session after the deliberation that the law was a joint effort of both the government and the House to improve governance.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/27/political-parties-seize-control.html

SBY: 'I won't sign elections law', experts: 'Too late, doesn't matter'

Jakarta Globe - September 26, 2014

Kennial Caroline Laia, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's statement that he would refuse to sign the law that scraps direct regional elections has no constitutional basis or legal consequence, experts said.

Yudhoyono has said he will not sign the law that scraps direct regional elections, and instead will file, alongside the Democratic Party, a petition for judicial review at the Constitutional Court.

Democratic Party lawmakers walked out of the House of Representatives during its plenary session on Friday morning – sending what most charitably may be interpreted as an ambiguous signal of support for such a petition, since the walkout removed the only remaining obstacle for the bill's subsequent passage.

Bambang Eka Cahyana, former member of the Elections Supervisory Committee, or Bawaslu, said Yudhoyono's statement has no significant implications for the new law's validity.

"We all know that the law was an initiative from his own government. So why would he refuse to sign and to file [a judicial review] against his own initiative?" Bambang told the Jakarta Globe on Friday.

"In addition, regardless of whether he will or will not affix his signature, the law still comes into effect within the next 30 days," Bambang said.

Legal expert Refly Harun from the University of Indonesia agreed. "If Yudhoyono wants to refuse the law, he should have done it when the bill was still being deliberated at the House. Now, it is too late for him," Refly said.

Yudhoyono has argued that the newly passed law is not consistent with other laws such as the Law on Regional Representatives Councils and the Law on the Jakarta Special Administrative Region, which do not stipulate that regional legislatures have the mandate to directly appoint regional leaders.

But Refly said there is a provision in the newly enacted law that supersedes conflicting laws. Bambang said the Democratic Party should restrain itself from filing for judicial review, since the party controls the ruling government that first proposed the bill.

"It's better for him to let other factions take care of this matter," Bambang said, adding that civil society organizations that wish to file for judicial review have strong arguments and standing, since the law inhibits Indonesians' political rights.

Several such organizations have emerged already, such as the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Association of Indonesian District Leaders (Apkasi) and the Association of Indonesian City Leaders (Apeksi).

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/sby-wont-sign-elections-law-experts-late-doesnt-matter/

Indirect election fiasco tarnishes SBY's legacy: Analysts

Jakarta Globe - September 26, 2014

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Ezra Sihite, Jakarta – The decision of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party to walk away from direct local elections is a terrible departing gift from a leader and party that have led Indonesia for the past decade, political analysts say.

Ray Rangkuti, director of the Indonesian Civil Circle (LIMA), said the part played by Yudhoyono and Democratic lawmakers in passing the Regional Elections Bill early on Friday was "irresponsible" and "regrettable."

The House of Representatives voted 226-135 in favor of passing the bill, which takes away people's right to vote for mayors, district heads and governors, and gives it instead to regional legislatures. Yudhoyono's Democratic Party walked out on the plenary session, effectively sealing the bill's fate.

"It is unfortunate that at the end of Yudhoyono and the Democratic Party's term they gave an unwanted present to the almost 80 percent of Indonesians that supported direct local elections," Ray said.

Although Yudhoyono expressed his disappointment with the legislature's passing of the law at a press conference in the United States, Ray said the Democrats' decision to walk away from the session was predictable.

The party's issuing of a conditional 10-point list of measures for improving the administration of regional elections – 10 days before the vote on the bill – was a clear indication the party, and Yudhoyono, was against direct elections, he said.

Just hours after Indonesians woke to find their right to vote for regional leaders had been scrapped, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was being feted in Washington DC.

Yudhoyono, who leaves office next month, was hosted at a special event held by United States-Indonesia Society (USINDO) on Thursday, and awarded for his contribution to strengthening the relationship between the two nations.

However, Ray said the president's stand on the bill, as the Democratic Party chairman, was a poor example of democracy in practice.

Yudhoyono's position on democracy was contrary to the image he was cultivating internationally, he said. "He has received so many democracy developments rewards. But he is returning [Indonesia's politics] to the New Order..."

President-elect Joko Widodo also expressed his disappointment in lawmakers who helped pass the bill and urged Indonesians not to forget the parties responsible.

"People must make a note, which political parties have robbed them of their political rights, people must write them down," Joko, the departing Jakarta governor, said on Friday.

Budi Arie Setiadi, chairman of Joko's volunteer group, Projo, said Yudhoyono's administration had showed its true face. "The future of democracy is seriously threatened. How could people remember him as a democratic figure?"

Ari Junaedi, a political analyst from the University of Indonesia (UI), said the vote would leave a negative legacy for Yudhoyono's 10-year administration.

However, he said the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) seemed to be caught off guard. "The PDI-P should have been able to predict the Democrats' chameleon-like attitude. They pretended to support direct local elections but the fact is they stabbed the [PDI-P] in the back."

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/indirect-election-fiasco-tarnishes-sbys-legacy-analysts/

Council rules Suryadharma must remain PPP chief

Jakarta Post - September 26, 2014

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – An internal council within the United Development Party (PPP) has decided to maintain the leadership of party chairman Suryadharma Ali, following attempts to unseat him after he was named a graft suspect.

Council head Chozin Chumaidy said Suryadharma's ousting was unconstitutional. "The members of the PPP's central executive board are the same ones who were established at the seventh national congress in Bandung, West Java, in 2011," he said in a press statement, referring to the current committee led by Suryadharma. Therefore, Chozin added, there would be no leadership change.

Earlier this month, Suryadharma was unseated at an executive meeting, in which PPP secretary-general Romahurmuziy said Suryadharma was no longer fit to lead the party after being declared a suspect in a graft case relating to the mismanagement of funds in the country's haj program. Suryadharma was advised to focus on his legal case and hand the party's chairmanship to his deputy, Emron Pangkapi.

Within days of his dismissal, Suryadharma hit back by dismissing all the PPP officials that had stood against him. They were Romahurmuziy and Emron, together with two other party deputies, Lukman Hakim Syaifuddin and Suharso Monoarfa.

Suryadharma reasoned that what his secretary-general and deputies had done to him was akin to ministers impeaching a president.

With the council's ruling, Romahurmuziy will be reinstated as the party's secretary-general along with the other deputies that Suryadharma had dismissed.

Chozin said the ruling would remain in effect until the PPP held its next national congress. Ahead of the congress, the two opposing camps have been told to settle their differences.

The council had also asked both camps to refrain from any party-related activities other than those approved by the central executive board, he added.

The ruling was made following last week's legal move by Romahurmuziy, who filed a report with the Jakarta Police against Suryadharma and party member Sofyan Usman for trying to seize control of the party's headquarters.

Romahurmuziy said that as a result of Suryadharma's decision to seal the PPP's headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta, party members were unable to gain access to the building.

PPP deputy secretary-general Hasan Husaeri Lubis said on Thursday that Emron's camp would abide the decision. "The ruling is binding as stipulated by the Political Parties Law," he told The Jakarta Post.

Hasan, who spoke on Emron's behalf, said that although he and his supporters were disappointed with the council's ruling, they would accept it. He added, however, that it was a shame that the council had issued the ruling as Suryadharma's dismissal had been an appropriate step and in accordance with the PPP's ethics code.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/26/council-rules-suryadharma-must-remain-ppp-chief.html

Indonesians take to social media to vent on regional elections law

Jakarta Globe - September 26, 2014

Adelia Anjani Putri, Jakarta – Indonesians took to social media on Friday to channel their anger and disappointment at the House of Representatives' decision to scrap direct elections of regional leaders.

Just hours after lawmakers voted 226-135 in favor of the bill in the early hours of Friday, Indonesians started to flood Twitter with messages.

"Lawmakers elected through a transactional process voted for appointment of local leaders through a transactional process = poverty and the death of the people," recently ousted PAN politician Wanda Hamidah said through her account @wanda_hamidah.

Another user, Erros Chandika (@dikanchut), expressed his disappointment: "SBY said that he wants to leave a good legacy for the country, but he couldn't even do anything when his party walked out."

By mid-morning the hashtag #ShameOnYouSBY was trending – a dig at President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party, which walked out on the plenary session, effectively sealing the bill's fate.

Iman Syafei, using the @imanlagi Twitter handle, asked his followers to popularize #ShameOnYouSBY in a bid to derail Yudhoyono's attempt to score a job at the UN. It, along with others like #RIPDemokrasi, are now topping trending lists.

About 81 percent of Indonesians are in favor of being allowed to vote directly for regional leaders, according to the results of a recent poll by the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI), but unease about the bill's passing wasn't just limited to the general public. Many political figures also turned to Twitter.

Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil said: "This country's democracy has experienced a setback. Your kids, grandchildren, all of us, can no longer choose their local leaders directly. Do you know that with this indirect election the fate of the future leaders in the regions will be on the elites' hands?"

He also said he – with other local leaders – would file an appeal to the Constitutional Court for a judicial review. "As we committed before, all mayors and regents in the APEKSI and APKASI forum will file for a judicial review to the Constitutional Court. May God be with us."

Many Twitter users, keen to see the bill overturned, have already started pinning their hopes on Constitutional Court Chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva.

Didik Prasetiyono (@didonkz) tweeted: "In @hamdanzoelva we trust," along with a picture of the chief in a meme saying, "calm down, it's my turn."

Comedian Ernest Prakasa (@ernestprakasa) asked the judge to, "Do your thing, save the day once again. While Asnanto (@asnanto1) tweeted: "For Mr. Hamdan Zoelva and colleagues, you're our last hope for the better future of Indonesia. Please be The Avengers once again!" referring to the Marvel Comics' superheroes.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesians-take-social-media-vent-regional-elections-law/

Gerindra calls passage of regional elections bill a victory for Indonesians

Jakarta Globe - September 26, 2014

Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – Amid the public anger and harsh criticism, the Great Indonesia Movement Party, or Gerindra, defended the House of Representatives' decision to end direct regional elections, calling it a victory for Indonesians.

"The regional elections, through the regional council, is very democratic because it is in line with the state ideology Pancasila and the mandate of the 1945 constitution, which means the decision taken by the House of Representatives was correct," Gerindra deputy chairman Fadli Zon said on Friday.

"This is a victory of Pancasila democracy, this is also a victory for the people," he added.

Lawmakers early on Friday voted 226-135 in favor of the bill, but almost all members of the Democratic Party – who hold the largest number of seats by a party – had walked out after their set of proposals on the voting process was rejected. Twenty-two Gerindra legislators voted for the bill, while none opposed or abstained.

With the indirect regional elections, Fadli said, people would no longer be divided by conflict. He said that indirect elections would also speed up regional development, which has been hampered by regional leaders being too fixated on engaging in corruption to earn back the money they spent for their costly election campaigns.

"The era of the liberal democracy, in which the regional leaders could be chosen by vote buying, is over," he said.

Fadli said that by giving the authority to the regional legislative councils (DPRD) to elect regional leaders, the mechanism to monitor vote buying would be easier. "Anyone who takes bribes will be easily detected so that democracy can survive," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/gerindra-calls-passage-regional-elections-bill-victory-indonesians/

Indonesia's scrapping of direct elections raises fears for democracy

The Guardian (Australia) - September 26, 2014

Kate Lamb, Jakarta – Fears have been raised for Indonesia's democracy after its parliament voted to abolish direct election of local leaders, a key post-dictatorship reform credited with assisting president-elect Joko Widodo's rise to popularity as a mayor and governor before defeating a former general in July's national election.

The legislation – passed in the early hours of Friday morning after intensive lobbying – will mean provincial governors, district chiefs and mayors will now be elected by legislative bodies, rather than directly by the people.

It could also lead to Widodo's opponents in the incoming parliament – in which his coalition will hold just over a third of the seats – using its appointees to block his reforms at the local level.

Direct elections, part of the decentralisation measures implemented after the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998, have been credited with producing a handful of promising new leaders unconnected to the old elite, including president-elect Widodo.

After the tightest elections in the nation's history ran peacefully this July, the world's third-largest democracy was lauded for it political maturity and held up as an example in the region.

Raised in a riverside slum in Central Java, Widodo, known in Indonesia as Jokowi, is the first president to be elected with no direct ties to the old political and military establishment.

"The bill is a setback. A step back to a process of electing political leaders that is now in the hands of political parties," said Djayadi Hanan, a political analyst from Paramadina University in Jakarta. "It is like a comeback for the political oligarchy."

Doing away with direct elections, say analysts, will effectively stymie the emergence of a new breed of accountable, responsible leaders and entrench the old elite.

Citing a recent poll by the Indonesian Survey Circle that showed more than 80% of Indonesians opposed the bill, Hanan argued that Indonesia's political elites are trying to consolidate their loosening grip on power and in doing so acted "against the will of the people".

The bill has also been seen as attempt to even political scores, rushed through by an outgoing parliament and passed by a coalition of parties led by Prabowo Subianto, the former general who lost the July election to Jokowi.

"[The Prabowo coalition] want to humiliate Jokowi in the parliament, and this is the first battle," said Eva K Sundari, a legislator from Jokowi's Democratic party of Struggle

The ruling coalition in the incoming parliament will account for just over 36% of the seats and unless Jokowi manages to secure the support of another political party, he looks set to face a belligerent parliament after his inauguration on 20 October.

Analysts say that while he might hold power at the top, the opposition could further derail his programmes at local level following the elimination of direct elections. More than 200 new local leaders, including 11 new provincial governors, are scheduled to be appointed next year and the new bill could help consolidate power in the hands of Jokowi's opponents.

Aleksius Jemadu, the dean of political sciences at Pelita Harapan University in Jakarta, said the bill reflected an unsavoury new development in Indonesian democracy, one where the parliament "can do anything they want now because they control the majority and no one can stop them".

In the lead-up to the boisterous 12 hours of debate and lobbying that preceded the vote, it appeared the bill was likely to be quashed. But the party that held the crucial swing vote, outgoing president Yudhoyono's Democratic party, reversed its position at the eleventh hour, walking out of the plenary session and abstaining from the subsequent vote.

That decision cost Jokowi's coalition more than 100 votes and sealed an easy victory for the Prabowo-led coalition by 226 votes to 135.

Civil society groups and NGOs have vowed to challenge the new law at the constitutional court, but it is unclear whether they could win. Depending on the interpretation of the law, both direct and indirect elections are arguably constitutional.

As Prabowo's Gerindra party hailed victory, critics on social networks described the bill as the death of democracy and directed their anger toward Yudhoyono under the Twitter hashtag #ShameOnYouSBY.

At a press conference in Washington on Thursday evening, where he was on an official visit, Yudhoyono expressed his regret at the vote. He said his party was preparing a lawsuit to challenge the bill and would seek recourse at the constitutional or supreme court.

Not all political observers are convinced he is sincere. given Yudhoyono could have thrown out the draft law to begin with.

"This reflects the real face of President Yudhoyono's commitment to develop a genuine democracy," argued political observer Aleksius Jemadu, "The president was in a position to stop all this in the first place, but he didn't."

Widodo has vowed to fight against the law and on Friday said the Indonesian public should remember which "political parties have robbed them of their political rights".

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/26/indonesia-scraps-direct-elections-democracy-fears

House passes regional elections bill, scraps direct voting

Jakarta Globe - September 26, 2014

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – It was billed as a scrap that would go down to the wire, a vote to determine Indonesia's democratic credentials. In the end, it wasn't even close.

The House of Representatives voted in the early hours of Friday 226-135 in favor of passing a bill that takes away people's right to vote for mayors, district heads and governors, and gives it instead to regional legislatures.

The parties trying to retain direct elections had gone into Thursday afternoon's plenary session buoyed by statements of support from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, which, with 148 out of 560 House seats, held the balance of power.

The Democrats, though, tacked on a conditional 10-point list of measures for improving the administration of regional elections. These included a proposal to hold all regional elections concurrently, to save costs; and to make regional governments, rather than the central government, pay for them.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) agreed to the terms after four hours of intense lobbying, believing the Democrats were serious about wanting to keep direct regional elections.

Their opponents, however, kept interrupting the plenary session and argued that the 10 conditions were not in line with two options agreed on during earlier lobbying: a simple choice between keeping direct elections or having regional leaders picked by legislatures.

Dropping the bomb

The session was adjourned close to midnight, and more lobbying ensued. But when the session resumed, the Democrats dropped their bomb: they refused to take part in the vote.

"With the 10 conditions being rejected, we have decided to remain neutral," Benny K. Harman, a Democrat legislator, told the House. "We're not taking part in the vote. The Democratic Party has decided to walk out of this plenary session."

With that, the biggest party in the House abandoned what was arguably one of the most important issues to come before the legislature, and leaving its erstwhile allies, in particular the PDI-P, deeply disappointed and completely outnumbered.

Yasona Laoly, a PDI-P legislator, told the House that he believed the Democrats had never been serious about supporting direct regional elections to begin with, and only pretended to do so in order as an image-building exercise.

That chimes with independent observers' views that Yudhoyono's party, knowing that its 10-point plan would never be accepted, put it forward anyway as an "exit strategy" to mask the fact that it was the president's own administration that drafted the bill in the first place.

Despite Laoly's impassioned remonstrations, the vote went ahead, with 226 legislators in favor of the bill and 135 against. Six of the latter were Democrat legislators who chose not to walk out, including Gede Pasek Suardika, who has fallen out of favor with Yudhoyono and the other top Democrats for his close ties to Anas Urbaningrum, the former Democrat chairman whom Yudhoyono ousted last year amid corruption allegations.

Anas was on Wednesday sentenced to eight years in the corruption case, in which witnesses have also implicated Yudhoyono, his son, Edhie Baskoro, and his wife, Ani.

Also voting in favor of direct elections were 11 members of the Golkar Party, which has for several months now been riven into camps loyal to the current chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, and those supporting his predecessor, Jusuf Kalla, the vice president-elect to Joko Widodo, the president-elect from the PDI-P.

Reforms for nothing

The vote, and subsequent passage of the bill, brings to an end an experiment with democracy that began with the passage in 2004 of a bill stipulating direct elections for regional heads.

It also throws the country back to a system of choosing local leaders that prevailed under the autocratic regime of the late dictator Suharto.

Before 1974, regional leaders were appointed by the central government. In 1974, Suharto enacted a law that gave him sole authority to appoint whoever he wanted as governor, district chief or mayor, with the local legislature simply serving as a rubber stamp assembly.

In Jakarta, for instance, governors in the pre-direct election era, were always chosen from among the former commanders of the Jakarta military command. In other provinces, the posts went to former generals and members of the political elite. The entire process, from setting the criteria for nomination to appointment, was far from transparent or accountable.

Despite their bruising loss in Friday's vote, the proponents of direct elections can still challenge the newly passed law at the Constitutional Court on the grounds that giving power to local legislatures to appoint regional leaders is unconstitutional.

Several pro-democracy and anti-corruption watchdogs have already said they will immediately seek a judicial review of the legislation if passed.

Joko had earlier on Thursday the day acknowledged that while direct elections could be costly, as those in favor of the bill argued, scrapping them would be a serious setback for Indonesia's flourishing democracy.

Joko said the cost issue could be tackled through proper planning and simplified procedures. "We can stage regional elections all at once. We can conduct an audit to determine costs that can be made more efficient," he said.

Joko added he believed that the benefits of direct elections outweighed the costs. "If [regional leaders] are elected directly, they will pay more attention to the people's [aspirations]. They must ensure people's needs are met," he said.

Some 81 percent of Indonesians are in favor of being allowed to vote directly for regional leaders, according to the results of a recent poll by the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI).

Streamlining the process

Siti Zuhro, a senior political researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), conceded that giving local legislatures the power to appoint regional leaders was simpler and less costly than holding direct elections.

But she warned that the outcome would carry little legitimacy among the public and would open the floodgate for corruption and the establishment of a political oligarchy.

But Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi, whose ministry drafted the bill, argues that it is direct elections that paved the way to corruption, citing numerous cases of candidates being compelled to embezzle public funds to repay their campaign costs. Gamawan pointed out that a total of 318 regional leaders were currently behind bars, facing trial or else under investigation for corruption.

Siti agreed that direct elections may have done little to eliminate corruption in Indonesia, and even created more problems like high costs and conflicts between rival supporters, but said that they were nonetheless a step in the right direction for Indonesia's democracy. "What we need is to increase the quality of elections," she said.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/house-passes-regional-elections-bill-scraps-direct-voting/

Democrat Party lawmaker says Yudhoyono ordered walkout during crucial vote

Kompas.com - September 26, 2014

Sabrina Asril, Jakarta – Democrat Party (DP) politician and lawmaker Ruhut Sitompul claims that they decided to walkout before a vote on a draft law on regional elections after being ordered to do so by DP faction chairperson Nurhayati Ali Assegaf.

Assegaf stated that DP chairperson Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) had sent her an SMS message instructing all members of the DP faction in the parliament to leave the room.

"[I] got the an SMS from [DP deputy chairperson] Max Sopacua that was the same as Ibu Nurhayati, so yeah it was over. (She said) it was from SBY, yeah that was it. What else (could we do)?", said Sitompul at the parliamentary building complex in Senayan, Jakarta on Friday September 26.

According to Sitompul, who is known as one of Yudhoyono's loyalists, he was just following orders. He added that the six DP faction members who opposed the instruction by remaining in the room were House of Representative (DPR) members that were unelected so they did not have any kind of burden.

When asked about Yudhoyono's disappointment with the DP's decision to walkout, Sitompul claimed ignorance. He also claimed to be surprised because in addition to Assegaf, Sopacua also said the same thing, that there was an SMS send directly from Yudhoyono.

As has been reported, the Draft Law on Regional Elections (RUU Pilkada) under which regional heads would be elected by Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD) instead of directly, was ratified at a plenary meeting in the early hours of Friday morning through a vote that was won by [Prabowo Subianto's] Red and White parliamentary coalition.

Prior to the vote, DP faction members walked out of the session on the pretext that a third option, namely the direct election of regional heads but with 10 conditions, were not fully accommodated in the draft law.

Notes

According to a report by Detik.com shortly after the walkout, Sitompul said that he was surprised at the decision because they had received no directive by Yudhoyono. "So during the meeting beforehand someone said it was on the directive of Pak SBY, but I received information that [DP board of patrons member] Pak Syarief [Hassan] said there was no directive from Pak SBY". "So I sent an SMS to Pak SBY, and he said 'sorry, I'll call you later'".

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service.]

Source: http://nasional.kompas.com/read/2014/09/26/15043961/Kata.Ruhut.SBY.SMS.ke.Ketua.Fraksi.untuk.Walkout.dalam.Rapat.Paripurna.RUU.Pilkada

Prabowo's 'Neo-New Order' coalition seeking to destroy democracy

Detik News - September 26, 2014

Nala Edwin, Jakarta – Prabowo Subianto's Red and White Coalition has succeeded in returning the election of regional heads into the hands of Regional Representative Councils (DPRD) as it was under the New Order dictatorship of former President Suharto.

As conveyed by Golkar Party chairperson Aburizal Bakrie, there are signals that they want to change the Constitution back the way it was along with 22 other pieces of legislation.

Jakarta Deputy governor Basuki T. Purnama or 'Ahok' has even suggested that in the future there is concern that the Red and White Coalition will change the Constitution so that the president is again chosen by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR, upper house). What is the view of socio- political observers?

"Later their name will not be the Red and White Coalition but the Neo-New Order Coalition (neo-Orba)", said political observer Arie Sudjito from the Gadjah Mada University on Friday September 26.

Sudjito even suspects that there is a systematic effort underway by the Red and White Coalition to destroy the democratic order. An this is being motivated by purely pragmatic interests.

"If this is allowed to happen then bit by bit Indonesian politics will fall into a pattern of a new authoritarianism and be in conflict with democracy", he explained. According to Sudjito, in a situation such as this the administration of president elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo will become a pillar of and a custodian of democracy in the context of stemming the rise of the Neo-New Order.

"If the parliament is controlled by neo-Orba groups then the challenge will be how can people's power be cultivated as a pillar to overcome anti- democratic forces. This cannot be considered of no importance because the effort to enact the law on regional elections [returning authority] to the DPRD may well be followed by strengthening the MPR to become the highest state institution that can be manipulated in order to return to the president being elected by [parliamentary] representatives. If this is the direction that the neo-Orba coalition is heading then only the power of civil society can prevent it", he explained.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service.]

Source: http://news.detik.com/read/2014/09/26/182424/2702672/10/semoga-koalisi-merah-putih-tak-jadi-koalisi-neo-orba

Prabowo: Ending direct elections a victory for Pancasila

Tribune News - September 26, 2014

Dany Permana, Jakarta – Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) board of patrons chairperson Prabowo Subianto says he is grateful that the mechanism for electing regional heads through Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD) has become a reality.

According to Prabowo, what has been struggled for by Red and White Coalition political party leaders in the parliament represents an achievement. "I'm grateful, this is an achievement for us in securing our democracy", said Prabowo at the Sultan Hotel in Central Jakarta on Friday September 26.

Prabowo, a former army Special Forces (Kopassus) commander, said that up until down Indonesia has held regional elections (pilkada) in which regional heads are elected directly as if it was democratic. But in reality, according to Prabowo, direct elections destroy the principles of the Indonesian nation.

"(Direct elections) destroy the morals and mentality of the Indonesian nation. What takes place is the buying and selling of votes", he said.

Direct elections also provide an opportunity for foreign forces to infiltrate Indonesia's political life. He gave the example of how a candidate was funded by foreign interests who gave out money and basic commodities [to buy votes]. (Regional elections through the DPRD) are a victory for [the state ideology of] Pancasila", he asserted.

Prabowo admitted that he followed the deliberations ending in the enactment of the regional election law (UU Pilkada) at the House of Representatives (DPR) the night before. According to Prabowo, he watched the plenary meeting that continued into the night on television.

Prabowo said he salutes the DPR members from the Red and White Coalition that persisted in struggling for regional elections through the mechanism of the DPRD. He conceded to feeling anxious witnessing the course of the meeting but was proud of the result.

"It was quite tense and made me quite proud. I, on behalf of myself and the Gerindra greater community express a salute and the highest respect to the leaders of the Red and White Coalition in the parliament", he said.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service.]

Source: http://www.tribunnews.com/nasional/2014/09/26/pilkada-via-dprd-prabowo-ini-kemenangan-pancasila

PPP leader says Democrat walkout part of Prabowo's game plan

Tempo.co - September 26, 2014

Muhammad Muhyiddin, Jakarta – The walkout by 129 members of the Democratic Party faction just prior to the House of Representatives (DPR) vote on the Draft Law on Regional Elections (RUU Pilkada), which abolished the direct election of regional heads, appears to have been a political maneuver or game.

"The Democrat Party followed a game plan formulated by the Red and White Coalition", said United Development Party (PPP) Secretary General Muhammad Romahurmuziy when speaking with journalists during a PPP plenary meeting in Jakarta on September 26.

According to Romahurmuziy, the Democrats were playing a cunning political gimmick or maneuver so that they would not loose public sympathy.

In accordance with a design already agreed to within the Red and White Coalition of political parties that supported the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa ticket in the July 9 presidential election, the Democrat Party faction would walkout in the early hours of Friday morning just before the vote. "This is in accordance with a Democrat Party pledge right from the beginning", he said.

By that time, the DPR members were already exhausted because the session had dragged on since the Thursday afternoon, September 25. The session had also been adjourned several times because of a failure to reach a point of agreement.

Romahurmuziy explained that it could well be that the Democrat Party faction had already planned the walkout for Thursday September 25 at 7pm. Because however there was a plot or political game in play, the walkout by the party established by former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was delayed until the early hours of Friday morning.

Romahurmuziy predicts that in five years time, the Red and White Coalition will maneuver to besiege the coalition of political parties in the DPR that back president Joko Widodo and vice-president Jusuf Kalla. "Perhaps if it is linked to religious issues, the PPP will do what the Democrat Party did this time round", he said.

Democrat Party chairperson Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said that he will investigate the mastermind behind the walkout by Democrat Party members in the DPR. "This is [just] a maneuver, a component to complement the plot", said Romahurmuziy.

Romahurmuziy declined to say what kind of political agreement had been made behind the Democrat's position. Reports have been circulating that the Red and White Coalition will support Nurhayati Assegaf becoming the speaker of the DPR for the 2014-2019 period. Assegaf is the chairperson of the Democrat Party faction in the parliament who instructed Democrat members to walkout just before the vote on the RUU Pilkada.

Romahurmuziy invited journalists to ask the Democrat Party leadership about the reports, although he declined to confirm or deny their validity. "In politics there is never any verification, what exists is only reality", said the PPP politician who was a member of the Prabowo-Hatta presidential campaign team in July.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service.]

Source: http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2014/09/26/078609965/Pilkada-PPP-Demokrat-Mainkan-Skenario-Prabowo

Environment & natural disasters

LIPI warns Indonesia's bioresources at risk of excessive exploitation

Jakarta Globe - September 25, 2014

Ari Rikin, Bogor – Despite the huge benefit of biological resources for human civilization, awareness and knowledge by the Indonesian public of the country's vast bioresources remains low, according to the Indonesia Institute of Sciences, or LIPI.

Such low public awareness would put Indonesia at risk to exploitation of its bioresources (SDH) by foreign researchers, LIPI warned.

"We should be grateful to have been blessed with such vast bioresources. However, we can't avoid the globalization process that would risk our SDH to become depleted because of environmental damages and because of overexploitation of the fauna, wild flora," said LIPI chairman Lukman Hakim during the Bioresources LIPI Expo in Bogor on Wednesday.

Benyamin Lakitan, an advisor to the Assessment and Application of Technology Ministry, said that current research permits on SDH are dominated by foreign researchers and that it would be ironic to discover whether foreign researchers understand more about Indonesia's bioresources than local researchers.

Indonesia also has vast resources that come from a variety of organisms.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/lipi-warns-indonesias-bioresources-risk-excessive-exploitation/

High disaster alert as fire, haze continue to smolder across Indonesia

Jakarta Globe - September 24, 2014

Dyah Ayu Pitaloka & Jeis Montesori, Malang/Palembang – Health-threatening haze generated by forest fires hit several areas across Indonesia on Tuesday, forcing authorities to be on high disaster alert.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) raised the alert level for Central Kalimantan, saying there was a potential threat of widespread forest fires and associated haze on Tuesday.

In the last week, fire has been reported in the districts of East Kotawaringin, Palang Pisau, Kapuas and Katingan, impacting people's health in and around the area, including Palangkaraya, the provincial capital.

The BNPB urged the government to begin setting up observation posts as well as mobile health clinics to anticipate forest fires and haze-related illnesses.

Central Kalimantan Police Chief Brig. Gen. Bambang Hermanu said law enforcers were also taking measures against those setting the fires. Police have so far arrested 24 people suspected of starting fires in several areas across the province.

On Tuesday, haze continued to hit the city of Palangkaraya, limiting visibility and causing flights to be cancelled or delayed. Thick haze has also caused respiratory problems for some, including patients of the local public hospital.

Thick haze also hit several cities and districts in Sumatra's Jambi province since last week, as forest fires continued to rage in Jambi and the neighboring province of South Sumatra. The haze receded temporarily over the weekend due to rain, but was back again on Monday and Tuesday.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/high-disaster-alert-fire-haze-continue-smolder/

Environmentalists blast Jokowi's maritime plans

Jakarta Post - September 24, 2014

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – A coalition of green groups has urged president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to incorporate sustainable development into his maritime development programs, including the so-called "ocean toll road", which aims to turn the country into the world's maritime axis.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said on Tuesday that Jokowi had not yet provided enough detail as to how his maritime program would differ from that of his predecessors in terms of sustainability.

Ode Rakhman of Walhi told The Jakarta Post that after his organization had analyzed Jokowi's statements, they found that his maritime programs lacked a vision of sustainability.

Greenpeace Indonesia, meanwhile, said that Jokowi still had time to alter certain parts of his development programs so that they would not be harmful to the environment.

"If you look closely at the concept of a maritime axis, you see it only concerns the economic aspect," Greenpeace Indonesia chief Longgena Ginting said.

Longgena said that the ocean toll road would cause more harm than good if Jokowi failed to take into account environmental protection.

"Jokowi should have taken the condition of our ocean into consideration before he designed the program. He should have recognized that our ocean is in crisis," he said, explaining that the plan would increase the burden on the ocean, which has been heavily exploited for economic purposes.

"Our natural-resources economy is in fact an economy of exploitation. The ocean toll road will speed up the exploitation and destruction of our natural resources," he said.

Longgena also warned the government that the ocean toll road risked being abused by foreign companies to exploit the country's natural resources.

The planned ocean toll road is a massive, rapid sea-transportation system designed to continually transport goods from the westernmost area of the country to the less-developed eastern region.

The emphasis on transporting goods has raised concerns about the potential impact to the environment on the back of data showing the country's marine biodiversity was in peril.

Data from the Indonesian Biodiversity Research Center (IBRC) shows that more than 30 percent of Indonesian marine life has been severely damaged.

High-value fish such as tuna, shark, humphead wrasse and grouper are depleted and some species are almost extinct due to overfishing, among other causes.

In order to prevent Jokowi's maritime programs from damaging the environment, the coalition has submitted a list of recommendations, one of which is a strict limitation on the extraction and export of resources.

"If we fail to improve our monitoring efforts, our resources will be exploited," Longgena said.

A further recommendation is that the ocean toll road be restricted to environmentally friendly transportation and fuel.

Responding to the criticism, Jokowi transition team deputy Akbar Faizal said that Jokowi had no desire to damage the environment with his maritime axis project. "These NGOs have failed to understand our plan. The plan is environmentally friendly," he insisted. (idb)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/24/environmentalists-blast-jokowi-s-maritime-plans.html

International firms play false in forest issue

Jakarta Post - September 24, 2014

Kornelius Purba, New York – A senior Indonesian official warned the international community on Monday that the massive deforestation in Indonesia was partly caused by unscrupulous practices by multinational corporations.

Speaking at a panel discussion on forests and climate challenge at the Ford Foundation, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto cited how international companies, including a number of consumer-goods producers, often adopted conflicting standards in implementing their commitment not to use products derived from illegal deforestation.

"Foreign companies often adopt double standards," said the head of the Presidential Working Unit for the Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4).

The panel discussion was a part of the UN-organized World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. The two-day conference is the first-ever global forum on indigenous peoples.

Separately, Kuntoro explained the common modus operandi of foreign companies that seek to look good internationally, but which continue their old practices. The companies move their headquarters to Singapore or Hong Kong while their main operations remain in Indonesia.

In Jambi there is a major palm-oil firm that has treated indigenous people very badly in order to expand its plantations. Kuntoro said the company treated people "as if they are monkeys".

"Their behavior is zero. The companies are tricky. They have transformed, there is a holding company and there is a subsidiary. The holding company remains an international firm, while the subsidiary becomes an Indonesian firm. They continue to damage the forests, and continue to treat indigenous people badly," said Kuntoro, the former head of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) in Aceh following the 2004 tsunami.

"Eighty percent of deforestation in Indonesia is for palm oil," said Kuntoro, adding that extreme poverty also played an important role in the continuation of such bad practices.

"There are some very big companies. They are very big and smart. Their behavior is not simply restricted to Indonesia, but also in Africa and Latin America. They are experienced in dealing with countries like Indonesia," he said.

Multinational firms are partly responsible for massive deforestation The full involvement of indigenous people is necessary to protect the forest

In the discussion, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, revealed the company's sustainable-living plan (USLP) to "double the size of its business while reducing its environmental footprint and increasing its positive social impact." He said his company would completely stop the sale of products derived from illegal deforestation by 2020.

"Unilever is very proud [of its good practices]. Unilever is not a producer but an oil-palm user. It is true that they have been good but Unilever probably does not know, or has turned a blind eye [...] Such things I think need to be clarified," said Kuntoro.

Meanwhile, Abdon Nababan, the secretary-general of the Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) Indonesia, said the full involvement of the 70 million indigenous people in Indonesia was absolutely needed to protect forests as they lived in the 116.6 million hectares of forest.

"But up till now we still have not had any administrative law to implement the Constitution, which mandates the state to protect indigenous people [...] So who will protect the forests?" said Abdon.

The conference was opened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday. It will be followed by another conference on climate change.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. He arrived in New York on Sunday. Several organizations have requested the outgoing President to address the indigenous peoples' conference along with Bolivian President Evo Morales.

Yudhoyono, however, reportedly opted to skip the event because the term "indigenous people" can have a variety of interpretations, especially in regard to sensitive issues for the government, like Papua.

"The Foreign Ministry is very wary about the issue," said a government official, who knew the details of Yudhoyono's schedule during his stay in the US.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/24/international-firms-play-false-forest-issue.html

Health & education

Math problem multiplies into debate on pedagogy

Jakarta Globe - September 25, 2014

Adelia Anjani Putri, Jakarta – A seemingly simple mathematical problem has multiplied in proportion over the past few days, becoming a topic of hot debate in mass and social media alike: At issue is whether 4W6 is the same as 6W4.

Top scholars such as Yohanes Surya have weighed in alongside ordinary netizens on the computational conundrum that has evoked a variety of views from mathematical and linguistic reasoning – as well as opinions about the quality of Indonesia's pedagogical professionals.

The controversy first emerged from a Facebook post, purportedly by the mother of a second-grade student, that showed extensive corrections on her child's homework because the student wrote the terms being multiplied interchangeably – as is permitted by multiplication operator's associative property.

It's no secret that Indonesia's curriculum – and teaching methods – privilege formalism at the expense of proper reasoning and personal development. Indonesian pedagogy often relies on prescriptive, formulaic approaches to problem solving – often emphasizing trivial parts of the process rather than the underlying logic for generating the right answers.

As a result, kids are taught to memorize rather than understand the reasoning that motivates the material they study.

Mohammad Abduhzen, executive director of Paramadina University, blames the whole educational system. "The government made the system to work like that, including the national exams. The teachers are only the operators," Abduhzen said on Wednesday.

"The existing system makes the teacher work as if it's only a formal task, not an act of dedication and responsibility to educate the nation."

The low quality of Indonesia's pedagogy is also one of the main reasons why the country hasn't been able to improve its education level. "The system, then, contributes to lowering the teacher quality. The quality is so low on almost every competency aspect," Abduhzen said.

Retno Listyarti, secretary general of the Federation of Indonesian Teachers Associations, agreed. "The quality of teachers is still low, as seen from all assessments done previously," she said.

"In 2012 the World Bank took videos of teachers teaching in 12 Asian countries [to asses the quality of the teachers' pedagogical skills]. Indonesia ended up at the bottom."

Even the government's own assessments show the shortcomings of the nation's teachers. "The latest teacher competency test by the Education Ministry showed that the average score was only 4.3, while the test requires at least 7.0 to pass," Retno said. "Handling the problem requires government intervention; we can't only demand changes from teachers," she said.

The Education Ministry has taken first steps by providing free teacher certification tests throughout the country. The certification is voluntary, motivated by the presumption that teachers will want to be recognized as "qualified teachers." Teachers who fail to demonstrate their competency on the test are encouraged to study and retake the exam the following year.

Critics say the certification exam has not measurably improved teachers' pedagogical skills. "They tried to improve professionalism by setting this certification that has cost billions of rupiah. The results show that it has no implication toward teachers' performance and quality, and thus no improvement in the teaching process nor the students' achievement. It's all reported on the World Bank reports in 2009, 2010 and 2011," Abduhzen said.

"The certification might've improved the teachers' welfare, but surely not their quality," Retno adds. "What we need is training."

Reorganizing teaching schools and giving teachers recurrent professional training are what will be necessary for teachers to break the cycle of ignorance, Retno said. "The government should revamp the teaching schools. Those schools have been producing bad teachers," she said.

"And many currently practicing teachers never received any training. The FSGI conducted a survey in 29 cities and districts on elementary school teachers, and 62 percent have never received any training at all, even up to their retirement."

One teacher that the FSGI interviewed, according to Retno, was 57 years old and claimed she only had been trained once, back in 1980. That is a sad state of affairs, especially compared with Singapore, whose teachers have to undergo at least 100 hours of training per year.

"We need a systemic change. Give training to teachers continuously, not just when there's a new curriculum to introduce." Abduhzen added that such training, if done, should cover how to plan lessons and teach more effectively, using evidence-based techniques.

"[Fixing] teaching methods and approacheds are much more important than changing the curriculum. Methods are directly related to the teachers; improving the method means improving the teachers and the quality of students' education as well. That's why it's a big task that needs elaborate planning," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/math-problem-multiplies-debate-pedagogy/

Gender & sexual orientation

LGBT seminar canceled due to threats

Jakarta Post - September 24, 2014

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – The University of Sanata Dharma has decided to cancel a planned seminar on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LBGT) issues following a threat from the Islamic Society Forum (FUI).

"We have canceled the seminar," Sanata Dharma rector Johanes Eka Priyatma said on Wednesday.

The seminar, which was entitled "We are different, we are unique, we are one", was slated to be held on Sept. 27. However, last week the FUI threatened to close down the seminar by force, claiming that the subject propagated the spread of homosexuality, which, they said, violated Islamic values and social morality.

"The students were too eager to organize the seminar. They forgot that the theme could offend some groups in society," Johanes said. He added that no good could come of the university persisting with the seminar.

LGBT activist Renate Arisugiwa, meanwhile, expressed regret over the cancellation. "The police should have been able to provide protection for the people so they could better understand LGBT issues," she said.

Former director of the Indonesian Family Planning Association (PKBI) Maezur Zaky said a new perspective was needed on LGBT issues. "These issues need a new critical approach from the angle of human rights," he said.(dic)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/24/lgbt-seminar-canceled-due-threats.html-0

Graft & corruption

KPK blasts SBY over graft suspects' inauguration

Jakarta Post - September 30, 2014

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has criticized President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for failing to prevent the inauguration of three politicians implicated in graft cases in the new batch of House of Representatives lawmakers.

As of Monday, Yudhoyono had yet to respond to a letter sent by the General Elections Commission (KPU) asking whether the three politicians, one from the President's Democratic Party, would still be inaugurated on Oct. 1 despite the graft allegations.

"The inauguration is fast approaching, but we still expect the President to reply to the letter. Ethically, all letters should be answered, and especially the [KPU's] letter, which is very important," KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto said on Monday. KPK spokesman Johan Budi stressed, however, that the KPK had no authority to force Yudhoyono to reply.

"In this particular case, the KPK can only express its opinion that inaugurating graft suspects as lawmakers would be unethical," Johan said.

The three graft suspects in question are Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politicians Idham Samawi and Herdian Koosnadi and Jero Wacik of the Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Ade Irawan said that Yudhoyono's indecisiveness reflected his lack of firm opposition to corruption.

"It's clear that SBY doesn't walk the walk. In fact, we're tired of saying that he has failed to tackle corruption; his lack of response to the KPU's letter is just one more indication of this. The public is already well aware," Ade said.

Jero is one of 61 Democratic Party politicians who won enough votes to sit in the House. The former energy and mineral resources minister was recently named a graft suspect by the KPK, which alleges he embezzled Rp 9.9 billion (US$814,413) of state money from his office.

Ade said that Yudhoyono, as chairman of the Democratic Party, should have excluded Jero from the party's list of elected lawmakers to be sworn in on Oct. 1.

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) named Herdian a graft suspect in connection with the construction of health facilities in South Tangerang.

Meanwhile, Idham, the former regent of Bantul, Yogyakarta, has been named a suspect by the Yogyakarta Prosecutor's Office for allegedly embezzling budget funds for the local soccer club, Persiba Bantul.

KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik said on Monday that his office was ready to suspend the inauguration of the three politicians, but could not do so without the green light from the President, to whom the commission is directly responsible.

"We have expressed our concerns on the issue in an official letter sent to the President, but we haven't heard anything back," Husni said on Monday.

KPU commissioner Ferry Kurnia Rizkiansyah said the commission was in the dark as to why the State Palace had not responded to their request and suggested reporters ask the State Palace directly.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha, meanwhile, said he was unable to confirm if the State Palace had received the KPU's letter.

"Who signed the KPU letter? When was it sent? Who received the letter at the State Palace? We are currently in Japan after visiting the United States and Portugal. I don't know anything about this letter," Julian told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Chairman of the PDI-P's legal division Trimedya Panjaitan said last week that postponing an inauguration was impossible until the lawmaker in question had been convicted, adding that the KPU's move should be viewed as a non-legally binding recommendation.

"The inauguration can't be delayed just because he is a suspect. Such a move has no legal basis," said Trimedya, who is also chairman of the House's ethics committee.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/30/kpk-blasts-sby-over-graft-suspects-inauguration.html

Riau governor named suspect for selling off forests for palm oil

Jakarta Globe - September 26, 2014

Rizky Amelia, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Friday officially named Riau governor Annas Maamun a suspect for allegedly taking Rp 2 billion ($166,000) in kickbacks to issue a land-conversion permit.

"From our intensive investigation and the cross-examination by KPK investigators and leaders, the status of this case has been raised by declaring A.M., the Riau governor, a suspect," KPK chief Abraham Samad told a press conference on Friday.

The case relates to a permit issued to convert 140 hectares of forest in Kuantan Singingi district into a palm oil plantation. Gulat Manurung, a businessman and academic, was also arrested on suspicion of bribery.

Annas was arrested in a house in Cibubur, on the outskirts of Jakarta, along with eight other people on Thursday afternoon. Abraham said Annas was caught red-handed with S$156,000 ($125,000) and Rp 500 million in cash.

Prior to his arrest, Annas was also accused of sexual assault by Wide Wirawaty, a woman who visited the governor's residence on official business. Annas denied the allegation and reported Wide to police for defamation.

It will be grim news for Indonesia's forestry activists if graft investigators are able to prove that the governor of Riau has been selling palm oil permits to the highest bidder.

The province of Riau in the east of Sumatra is a frontline in the archipelago's battle to contain rampant deforestation. Every year fires burn in the province's peatlands as local farmers, sometimes backed by major foreign and domestic palm oil companies, try to clear forests for plantation.

As a consequence, in addition to destroying more of the country's forests, poisonous fumes are being sent over densely populated residential areas. The air quality descends into hazardous levels, short-term respiratory problems become ubiquitous and children are diagnosed with long-term illnesses including asthma.

An investigation is ongoing.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/riau-governor-named-suspect-selling-forests-palm-oil/

Anas gets away with 8 years for 'sustained corruption'

Jakarta Globe - September 24, 2014

Jakarta – Anas Urbaningrum's slow-motion fall from grace ended with a softer thud than many had expected on Wednesday, after the Jakarta Anti- Corruption Court sentenced the former Democratic Party chair to only eight years in prison.

The verdict brought an end to another act in a scandal of greed and politics almost Shakespearean in its depth – although it is likely the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will appeal the sentence.

"The defendant is proven validly and convincingly guilty of sustained corruption and repeated money laundering," the presiding judge told Anas.

The court fined Anas Rp 300 million ($25,000) and ordered him to repay Rp 57 billion. Anas could face an additional two years in prison for failing to return the stolen money to state coffers and another three months if he failed to pay the fine.

It was alleged Anas received money in exchange for handing a friendly company a contract to build an elite athletics training center in West Java. Instead the court said Anas was guilty of "sustained corruption."

Before the court session, Anas said he would use the following week to decide his next legal move but he afterwards dismissed the judges' decision.

"The charges are unfair, the demands are unfair, the verdicts are unfair. The only thing left is to ask justice from God," Anas told members of the media swarming around him outside the courtroom.

His remarks were met with cheers from the dozens of people from the Islamic Students Association (HMI) who waited outside. The HMI members also chanted prayers and shouted support for their former chairman.

KPK prosecutors had sought a 15-year sentence on grounds of corruption and money laundering. "We respect the judges' decision. We need time to examine the verdict before deciding our next move," KPK spokesman Johan Budi told BeritaSatu TV.

The judges also rejected a demand by the KPK that Anas should have his political rights revoked, meaning he can get involved in politics again. Two of the five judges had a dissenting opinion, rejecting the money laundering charges against Anas, which would allow the KPK to seize the money he had gained from corruption.

Yesril Anwar, a criminal expert from Padjadjaran University, criticized the two judges' disagreement with the money laundering charges.

"We must take [the two charges] into context. There could not be any money laundered if there is no act of corruption. [The judges] must see [the two charges] as one package," he said. "Both have legal correlations, both are extraordinary crimes. It is incorrect what the dissenting judges said."

Yesril suggested that the KPK should also level charges of tax fraud to bring Anas down, arguing that he has not paid any taxes on the illicit wealth he had amassed.

Athletes pay the price

The training center, colloquially known as Hambalang for the town in which it was supposed to be built, now lies mothballed on the West Java hillside – a white elephant of corruption in a country that punches well below its weight in sports.

At the most recent Asian Games, which were held in Guanghzou in 2010, Indonesia achieved just four gold medals – three of which were in the dragon boat event.

The world's fourth-largest country was nowhere near the top-ten in the medals table, while regional peers Malaysia and Thailand brought home double Indonesia's medal haul.

Corruption allowed the budget for Hambalang to balloon to approximately Rp 2.5 trillion, running up a loss to the public purse of Rp 470 billion in the process.

While Indonesian athletes have found their international potential frustrated by poor facilities and insufficient funding, Anas was taking delivery of snazzy cars and bags of cash for rigging tenders in a bid to bankroll his thirst for power, the court found.

Prosecutors said that Anas had used hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund his election campaign for the chairmanship of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.

Anas spent Rp 20 billion between Nov. 16, 2010, and Mar. 13, 2013 on land and houses. His salary and allowances as a lawmaker between Oct. 1, 2009, and Aug. 21, 2010, amounted to around Rp 500 million. He had no other source of declared income.

A host of accusations

Anas was not the only politician to be brought down by corruption allegations in relation to the Hambalang center. Former Youth and Sport Affairs Minister Andi Alfian Mallarangeng was sentenced to four years in jail in July. Andi was convicted of having received Rp 4 billion and $550,000 from the firm Global Daya Manunggal through his brother, Andi Zulkarnaen Mallarangeng

Anas fought the charges against him by laying the blame at the door of everyone else. He claimed to have been set up by shadowy figures. He labeled the attempt to prosecute him a conspiracy. He painted himself as a sacrificial lamb sent to slaughter while "those in power cling to that power by any means."

He attempted to buy himself time and derail court proceedings by drip- feeding sensational allegations about some of the country's most senior politicians, which were dutifully picked up and splashed by the Indonesian media.

The most serious of these insinuations were that Yudhoyono's son Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono had taken a $200,000 bribe as part of the whole affair. Anas also said Edhie "benefited" from the May 2010 party congress at which he was alleged to have used the money to buy votes in his bid for the party chair. Anas did not, however, accuse Edhie of having taken any bribes.

Instead, he questioned prosecutors' hesitancy to call Edhie to the stand, saying that as the head of the congress's steering committee, Edhie was "the one person who best understood how the election worked." This allegation has not been substantiated and no charges have been brought against Edhie.

The president's son was not the only sideshow in what has been an at times farcical trial. The court heard that Anas' foreign jaunts to Hong Kong and elsewhere were paid for by Dutasari Citralaras, where his wife used to serve on the board.

Lawmaker Nova Riyanti Yusuf filed a police report for defamation against graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin, who claimed to the court that she was Anas's second wife.

Gallows humor

Another tactic that Anas employed to try and save his neck was to volunteer to be "hanged from Monas [the National Monument in Jakarta]" if he were found to have stolen as much as Rp 1 from the Hambalang project.

KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto, who was never swayed by the protestation of innocence, reminded Anas of his promise before the verdict was announced on Wednesday.

"The KPK only wants to remind Anas of a statement about his willingness to be hanged at Monas if he stole just Rp 1, which seems to be forgotten now," Bambang said.

He said Anas came up with a political statement first, by mentioning "hanging at Monas," but said he could understand the strategy, as Anas was, after all, a politician. "KPK prosecutors are not politicians, so we won't play with political statements," Bambang said.

While Anas described the sentence as excessive, one of his former Democratic Party colleagues called it lenient. "He asked to be hanged at Monas, so [the verdict] is light," said Ruhut Sitompul, an outspoken senior Democratic Party member.

Anas made no mention of the hanging when giving his closing remarks to the court on Wednesday. "I'll need a week to think before deciding whether to file an appeal," he said.

[Additional reporting by Novianti Setuningsih.]

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/anas-gets-away-8-years-sustained-corruption/

SBY's commitment questioned as more graft inmates paroled

Jakarta Post - September 23, 2014

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – Anticorruption activists took to the streets on Monday, calling on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to revoke the decision by the Law and Human Rights Ministry to grant graft convicts parole.

The protesters staged a theatrical act in front of the ministry's headquarters on Monday, putting on masks bearing the faces of a number of graft convicts who have been released on parole.

The protesters also called on Yudhoyono to drop the ministry's plan to grant parole to more graft convicts. They also chided Yudhoyono's penchant for releasing albums while ignoring the fight against graft.

"While the public questions his commitment to eradicating graft, he is busy making music and strumming on his guitar," said Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Emerson Yuntho.

Yudhoyono released his fifth album in his 10-year presidency in August. The album is a compilation of songs and poetry, composed and written while he was in office.

ICW data said Yudhoyono's administration had released 38 graft convicts, most of whom were high profile ones with business backgrounds, including business tycoon Siti Hartati Murdaya and businessman Fahd el Fouz, even though the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had rejected the decisions.

Emerson has urged the ministry to come clean by revealing the names of all graft convicts who have been granted parole. The ICW suspects that the ministry may have kept information regarding the actual number of graft convicts who have been given parole.

The ministry is processing the parole request of Anggodo Widjojo in spite of the fact that the businessman is not yet eligible for parole. Anggodo's prison term has been increased by the Supreme Court from five years to 10.

"Anggodo was imprisoned in 2010, meaning that he is only eligible to apply for parole after serving two-thirds of his prison term in 2017. But the ministry suspiciously granted him a 29-month sentence reduction so that he could meet the two-third requirement," Emerson said.

ICW also lambasted the ministry for granting Anggodo a sentence reduction after serving six months in prison. Only convicts in non-graft cases are eligible for sentence reductions after serving six months.

A graft convict may only receive a maximum one-month remission in his first year behind bars; two months in the second year; three months in the third year and four months in the fourth year, but Anggodo has accumulated a total of 29 months in four years.

Earlier on Friday, the KPK said that it had sent a letter to the ministry recommending that it reject Anggodo's parole request as it claimed that only justice collaborators, not the main perpetrators like Anggodo, could be released on parole.

The ministry's director general of penitentiaries, Handoyo Sudrajat, said that he would ignore the KPK's recommendation and process Anggodo's request.

"We will maintain our stance and move forward with Anggodo's request. We found that he is eligible for a parole, so we have no reason to reject his request," Handoyo said.

Emerson shot back at Handoyo, saying that he had been subject to political pressure. Emerson said as a former KPK deputy for prevention, Handoyo should have been aware that granting parole to graft convicts went against Yudhoyono's commitment to eradicating graft.

"If he is being pressured by a higher up then Pak Handoyo should resign from his position," Emerson said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/23/sby-s-commitment-questioned-more-graft-inmates-paroled.html

Hard-line & vigilante groups

FPI threatens Chinese Indonesians

Jakarta Post - September 25, 2014

Sita W. Dewi, Jakarta – The hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI) launched threats against minority groups during a rally on Wednesday opposing Deputy Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, who is to replace current Governor and president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

Hundreds of FPI members marched to the City Council building on Jl. Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta, located in the same compound as City Hall, causing several hours of traffic gridlock in the area.

The group's opposition is based on Ahok's alleged insensitivity regarding issues of ethnicity, religion and race. Ahok is a Christian of Chinese descent.

While entering the City Council, one FPI member shouted "If [Ahok] dares to challenge us Betawi people even once, I will not sit still. I'll rid Jakarta of all its ethnic Chinese residents!"

Another member responded with "Kill Ahok!" During a meeting between representatives of the FPI and the City Council, FPI Jakarta chapter head Salim Al Athas, popularly known as Habib Selon, called on the City Council not to inaugurate Ahok as governor.

"Ahok does not deserve to lead Jakarta because it is a majority Muslim city. Moreover, he is arrogant. He insulted civil servants who were older than him for failing to perform well. He's the one who should be insulted," Salim told the forum.

FPI secretary-general Novel Bamu'min later read out the group's stance, which lists 20 "sins" committed by Ahok. The group takes issue with the fact that Ahok, as governor, would automatically head a number of Islamic organizations in Jakarta.

"His religion causes anxiety among Muslims [...] Ahok has used his authority to carry out Christianization through the open-call selection, whereby several Christian leaders were selected to lead Muslim-majority areas," Novel said.

City Council speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said that the Council leaders would discuss the group's complaints. Ahok played down the protest, saying "I've had enough of such remarks. Why should I care?"

When asked whether or not he suspected a particular party of backing the protest, he answered, "Ask the police to investigate who is actually sponsoring them."

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto told The Jakarta Post that the police would continue to monitor the FPI's activities in case of any violations of the law.

Rikwanto explained that the police would only take action if the FPI committed an obvious violation. Otherwise, the police would have to wait for a report to be filed. (fss)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/25/fpi-threatens-chinese-indonesians.html

FPI protest against 'infidel' Basuki

Agence France Presse - September 24, 2014

Jakarta – Hundreds of Islamic hardliners on Wednesday protested against the incoming governor of the Indonesian capital, labeling the Christian, ethnic Chinese politician an "infidel" and "the devil."

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama will be Jakarta's first leader from the tiny ethnic Chinese minority of the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, and only the second Christian governor to lead the capital.

Known by his nickname Ahok, the 48-year-old is now deputy governor and is due to automatically become leader when the current governor, Joko Widodo, steps down in the coming weeks to be sworn in as president.

Basuki's straight-talking, no-nonsense style and campaign for transparency in the graft-ridden nation has helped him win strong public support.

While many have hailed his rise as a sign of growing tolerance towards a minority that has traditionally faced discrimination in Indonesia, the country's small but vocal hardline fringe has taken issue with his appointment.

On Wednesday some 300 hardliners, mainly from group the Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI), demonstrated outside Jakarta's local parliament, singing religious songs, citing verses from the Koran, and calling Basuki an "infidel", "the devil" and a "madman."

"Get out, get out. We will drag you out of Jakarta if you ever become our governor. Never let an infidel be our leader," a protester shouted to chants of "God is great" from the crowd, who were dressed in white outfits and Muslim skullcaps.

Several representatives entered the building to meet local lawmakers and demand they reject the appointment of Basuki. The incoming governor played down the protest however, telling reporters: "They are only a small group who have yet to accept me. Everyone else has."

While the demonstration was largely peaceful, a female motorcyclist who tried to force her way through the crowd was mobbed by some protesters before others helped her to safety.

The FPI has thousands of members and is known for threatening, intimidating and physically attacking Indonesians with almost complete impunity despite repeated calls for the government to ban the organization.

The group has succeeded in getting events it deems "un-Islamic" either cancelled or changed in the past. In 2012, pop sensation Lady Gaga axed a concert in Jakarta after protests led by the FPI.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/jakarta/fpi-protest-infidel-basuki/

Islamic law & morality

Women wear Islamic head covering but show curves, so jilbab becomes jilboob

Sydney Morning Herald - September 27, 2014

Michael Bachelard, Jakarta – France bans it; Australia has occasional attacks of hysteria about it but in Muslim-majority Indonesia, the wearing of Islamic head covering has grown rapidly in recent years.

The popularity of what Indonesians call the "jilbab" – an open-faced scarf – however, does not necessarily mean universal piousness. Exhibit A: the "jilboob".

In a country where the cheeky subversion of the rules is a national pastime, young women are happily pairing the modest covering of hair with skin-tight shirts revealing proudly popping breasts.

Predictably, in a country dubbed the social media capital of the world tribute sites were quick to follow. Twitter accounts @jilboober and @jilboobmontok (buxom jilboob) exist as photographic tributes to the phenomenon. Each has 20,000 followers.

Facebook hosts a community group called simply Jilboob [contains some graphic images]. There enthusiasts make fun of the Islamic imprecation that women must obscure their aurat, or sexual body parts, to make it to heaven, clearly believing that connoisseurs of the jilboob are already there.

The reaction from Islamic authorities was swift. The Indonesian Ulema Council, the peak religious body advising the national government, issued a fatwa, or ruling, in August forbidding the use of clothing showing, ahem, curves.

"The MUI fatwa on pornography includes a prohibition on showing the forms of the body. MUI expressly forbids the wearing of slinky hijabs," said vice-chairman of the MUI, K H Ma'ruf Amin, avoiding the use of the word "breast" entirely.

A former Suharto era women's minister, Professor Tutty Alawiyah – who has no objection to Christian Papuan children being converted to Islam and then being beaten in the schools she runs – said the wearing of tight clothes would "tarnish the hijab" the wearing of which, otherwise, was "noble behaviour".

But on the streets and in the glitzy malls of Jakarta, the fatwa and Professor Tutty's tut-tutting have made little difference – the ascent of the jilboob carries on.

"I am fully aware of my femininity and sometimes it's nice to show... that I look good in the clothes that I wear," says Jakarta-based photographer Eka Nickmatulhuda.

Shesays she knows she is bending the rule of Islamic law, which is "quite strict", and sometimes she is self-conscious at the stares of both younger men and more judgmental conservatives. She will wear looser garments when she gets older and settles down, but for now: "Most women are narcissistic, they are aware of what they have, and they want to show it."

Indonesia has long had an ambivalent attitude to the veil. Secular dictator Suharto banned it in schools in 1982 as he worried about the power of political Islam. (It made a comeback a decade later as he tried to co-opt political Islam to bolster his fading popularity).

In the post-Suharto era, the social pressure to make public displays of religious conformity, such as wearing the jilbab, has grown. Even the Indonesian police force is now close to choosing for the first time a jilbab to complement the women's uniform.

But the jilbab is no drab garment. Indonesia aspires to be an Islamic fashion tourism destination, and jilbabs are often brightly coloured and highly decorative. Women here have never adopted the starker forms of covering common in Arab countries, the niqab or burqa, which obscure the whole face.

Given the transgressive popularity of the jilboob, it's hard to imagine that reality changing any time soon.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/indonesian-women-wear-islamic-head-covering-but-show-curves-so-jilbab-becomes-jilboob-20140927-10lqlc.html

Governance & administration

State institutions fare better, lack leadership

Jakarta Post - September 25, 2014

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The Administrative Reforms Ministry announced Wednesday that state bodies had performed slightly better in this year's state institutions accountability evaluation, with no institution or ministry getting a D grade, the lowest in the annual evaluation.

However, since the performance evaluation accountability report, or AKIP, was introduced in 2009, none has achieved the highest score, "AA". Administrative Reforms Minister Azwar Abubakar said the failure was mostly due to the lack of leadership and bureaucrats' commitment.

"[The main obstruction] is either no leadership or the leaders do not care [about their own institutions]. Or, the leaders are unable to delegate [leadership and commitments] to their subordinates," Azwar said Wednesday after the event at the Vice Presidential Palace where awards were bestowed to representatives of the ministries, state institutions and provincial administrations.

"Such commitment is indeed essential. An administration should be built; it cannot run automatically," the National Mandate Party (PAN) politician added.

According to Azwar's office, the average accountability of state institutions and ministries increased by 1.04 points this year, from 62.14 points in 2013 to 63.18 points in 2014. As a comparison, in 2009, the average score was only 41.81 points.

This year's result also shows more institutions receiving better grades.

From a total of 83 state institutions surveyed by the ministry for this year's award, seven received an A grade, 43 a B grade, 32 a CC grade and 1 a C grade.

The seven institutions include six that received an A grade in 2013: the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the Finance Ministry, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), the Finance and Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP), the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry and Azwar's office.

The National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), which was graded B last year, joined the top achievers this year.

Yogyakarta and East Java administrations also got an A, while Papua and West Papua remain among the few at the bottom of the list.

The highest score possible is "AA", followed by "A" or "very good", "B" or "good", "CC" or "adequate", "C" or "slightly poor", and "D" or "poor". As a comparison, last year, from a total of 88 state institutions surveyed, six state institutions were awarded A grade, 33 B grade, 40 CC, three C and two D grade, including the Elections Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu) and the Ombudsman.

For the award, state institutions were judged on performance accountability, a concept slightly different to financial accountability. Under performance accountability, state institutions implement planning, budgetary and reporting systems.

In his speech during the event, Boediono said bureaucratic reform "is a process that takes time and continuous efforts", adding that a reward-and- punishment mechanism would boost the performance of government institutions.

Boediono added that they all should improve bureaucratic reform, saying "this is not about the ranks A, BB or C; behind the certificate [the award], there is the score."

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/25/state-institutions-fare-better-lack-leadership.html

Bill gives power back to Jakarta

Jakarta Post - September 24, 2014

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Almost drowned out by the controversies surrounding the regional elections (Pilkada) bill, the deliberation of an amendment to the 2004 law on regional administrations went almost unnoticed in spite of the possible consequences that it could bring back practices from the New Order era, during which the central government wielded ultimate control over local affairs.

Lawmaker Hakam Naja, who chairs House of Representatives Commission II overseeing regional administrations, said on Tuesday that his commission had ended discussion on the bill and expected to present it before a plenary meeting slated for Thursday along with the Pilkada bill.

However, unlike the Pilkada bill, which will require approval from the House, the regional administration bill, also known as the Pemda bill, which will grant the central government the authority to take back power from regional leaders, has apparently won unanimous support from lawmakers and is ready for formal endorsement.

"It seems that we all have the same perspective on the need to rearrange authorities wielded by the local governments through the amendment of the [2004] law," said Hakam, a politician from the National Awakening Party (PAN).

In a bid to curb the abuse of power by local heads, some of whom have become little kings ruling over fiefdoms, the revision aims to grant power to the president to severely punish local leaders who fail to perform well, as stipulated in article 5 of the latest draft bill that says, "President of the Republic of Indonesia holds the authority over the government in accordance with the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia".

The stipulation thus gives the president the mandate to dismiss regional leaders when they fail to set up efficient bureaucracies, abuse their power for personal interest or misbehave. Conditions for such dismissal are detailed in article 78 of the draft bill.

The bill, which has been discussed by the House for the past three years, will also prohibit local heads from making policies that might harm public interest, such as illegally issuing mining permits or proposals for new autonomous regions.

Bill will grant more power back to the central government and the President has the authority to dismiss regents and mayors. Yudhoyono says the bill is consistent with unitary spirit of the country.

For example, articles 33 to 43 of the draft requires an autonomous region proposal to include a comprehensive feasibility study, which will close the door to local heads making personal deals with lawmakers as the central government will conduct a final check on the process.

Article 43 further mandates the central government to annul a proposal when a region is deemed unfit to be an autonomous region.

"When implemented ideally, the amended bill will be effective in curbing corrupt practices that take place during the process of establishing new autonomous regions. Many of the existing autonomous regions are struggling to develop due to such corrupt practices," analyst Siti Zuhro from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said.

Siti also said that by giving control back to the central government, it was hoped that less controversial bylaws or ordinances would be issued by local governments.

"The central government, through the provincial government, can now closely supervise any policies planned and implemented by local leaders. It can thus ensure that all bylaws comply with the national standard," she said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the revisions were necessary to draw a clear line between the tasks of the central government and those of the local administrations, since he found that people often did not realize that there were deviations from the spirit of the unitary state of Indonesia.

Political analyst Teguh Kurniawan from the University of Indonesia, however, warned about potential abuse of power by the government.

"The public needs to constantly monitor the implementation of the bill, once endorsed, to see if central government exercises its authority proportionately," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/24/bill-gives-power-back-jakarta.html

Parliament & legislation

Court upholds MD3 Law, rejects PDI-P's judicial review request

Jakarta Post - September 30, 2014

Jakarta – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) attempt to secure the House speaker post has collapsed with the Constitutional Court's (MK) rejection of its judicial review request.

On Monday, seven Constitutional Court justices, including Chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva, rejected a request to review a number of articles of Legislative Institution Law No. 17/2014, which went into effect in July 2014.

The judicial review of the law, which is known as the MD3 Law, was filed by the PDI-P, which was represented by its chairwoman, Megawati Soekarnoputri, and secretary-general Tjahjo Kumolo.

During Monday's hearing, Constitutional Court justice Aswanto said that the 1945 Constitution did not specifically regulate the best mechanism for determining the House speaker.

"We do not apply the parliamentary system, where a House speaker should come from the winner of the legislative election. The mechanism to choose the house speaker is up to the lawmakers to decide," he said.

He added that he questioned why the PDI-P had filed the judicial review of the MD3 as it had been a part of the law's deliberation in the House of Representatives.

"The law was transparently discussed in the House and the court is sure that the PDI-P, as the judicial review applicant, was also involved in that process," Aswanto said.

The PDI-P, which won the most seats in the April legislative election, challenged the mechanism established by the MD3 Law that strips the majority party in the House of the right to appoint the speaker, allowing the House to choose the speaker through a vote.

The PDI-P demanded that the court scrap this provision, along with six others that established similar voting mechanisms for deputy speakers, leaders of the House's 11 commissions and other House bodies.

The articles challenged by the PDI-P were Article 84 on House speaker seat, Article 97 on commission heads, Article 104 on legislation body head, Article 109 on budget body head, Article 115 on House inter-parliamentary body, Article 121 on House honor tribunal head, Article 152 on head of committee in charge of household affairs and inquiry committee head.

Commenting on the verdict, Constitutional Court justice Maria Farida said that political parties should keep in mind that the MP3 was not a political tool and should be implemented to serve the interests of the people.

"The MD3 Law should have been drafted and passed long before the legislative election. This law replaced the previous Legislative Institutions Law when there was no urgent reason to do so. I believe the judicial review should have been granted," said Maria Farida, who issued a dissenting opinion.

Also on Monday, the court partially granted a separate judicial review request filed by, among other complainants, PDI-P lawmaker Rieke Diah Pitaloka and a politician from the National Awakening Party (PKB), Khofifah Indar Parawansa.

The applicants challenged the law, which they said failed to accommodate gender-based affirmative action. "Gender-based affirmative action is a serious attempt to ensure that women are proportionately represented in the House of Representatives," Constitutional Court justice Wahiduddin Adams said.

With the court's decision, a number of positions, including the leadership of House commissions and the budget committee, must take equal representation from female lawmakers into consideration.

Separately, PDI-P senior politician Effendi Simbolon said that the party could still win the House leadership race. Effendi said that the PDI-P could still strike a deal with political parties from the rival camp. "There's a big chance that the Democratic Party and the PPP [United Development Party will join our coalition," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/30/court-upholds-md3-law-rejects-pdi-p-s-judicial-review-request.html

MPR sticks to old rules amid concerns

Jakarta Post - September 30, 2014

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – A People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) plenary meeting on Monday maintained an internal regulation that makes it difficult to remove a serving president, as well as amend the 1945 Constitution.

Previous concerns from several lawmakers went unfounded as the MPR turned down a demand to revise several articles that detailed the necessary procedures to remove a president upon the recommendation of the House of Representatives.

The MPR also refused to lower its bar to accommodate demands to revise the Constitution. Many feared that lowering such requirements would pave the way for the Red-and-White Coalition, led by defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, to scrap direct presidential elections as mandated by the Constitution.

However, legal experts have voiced concerns over a stipulation in the MPR regulations that can be loosely interpreted by vested interests. The stipulation revolves around a procedure to remove a serving president.

Article 117 of the MPR regulation stipulated that "to be able to recommend a removal, the House is required to include a ruling by the Constitutional Court that proves the president or vice president has violated the law in the form of treason against the state, corruption, bribery as well as other misconduct."

Constitutional law expert Margarito Kamis said a loose definition of "other misconduct" may open up space for numerous interpretations that could be used by politicians to disturb the serving president amid a highly fragmented House.

"The lack of a definition of 'misconduct' will encourage the House to make its own definition. And such a definition can be easily endorsed by whoever gains majority support in a voting session," Margarito said. "The political situation in the House shows us who holds the power in the legislature," he added.

Margarito was referring to the Red-and-White Coalition that will control 292 of the total 560 House seats, while the coalition of president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo will hold 207 seats. The remaining 61 seats are controlled by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party. The new legislators will be sworn in on Oct. 1.

As previously reported, several legislators said that the Red-and-White Coalition was seeking to scrap direct presidential elections and transfer the people's political right to elect their national leader to the MPR.

Presidential elections carried out by the MPR would resemble those practiced during Soeharto's New Order era. The coalition would attempt to do this by amending the 1945 Constitution.

Political analyst Asep Warlan Yusuf of Parahyangan Catholic University (Unpar) believed the political dynamic in the House would influence the process in the MPR. The MPR consists of 560 House lawmakers and 132 Regional Representatives Council (DPD) members.

"As a joint session of the House and the DPD, the battle of the two coalitions will spill over into the MPR," Asep said. To prevent lawmakers abusing their authority and disrupting the government, Asep emphasized the urgent need for objective, independent and professional Constitutional Court justices.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/30/mpr-sticks-old-rules-amid-concerns.html

Revised child law increases penalties and protections

Jakarta Globe - September 26, 2014

Jakarta – Lawmakers passed the child protection bill into law after months of deliberation, delivering substantial changes to the previous law on child protection, Law 23 of 2003.

The revised law increases the maximum prison sentence for offenders convicted of sexual offenses if the perpetrator is among the people "closest" to the victim, such as a teacher or parent, by a third.

It also increases financial penalties. Previously, punishment for such offenses was three and 15 years imprisonment and a maximum fine of Rp 5 billion ($415,000).

"If the perpetrators are people close [to the child], such as parents, relatives and even teachers, the punishment will be increased by one third of the maximum sentence," Women Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar said after the bill was passed into law on Thursday.

The revised law also changes the meaning, shifting its frame of reference from "sexual violence" to "sexual crime."

The law also increases protection for children who become victims of sexual crime, are living in a terrorist network, or have been stigmatized because their parents committed crimes such as corruption and children with behavioral disorders.

The law's advocates say such protections are needed to anticipate and prevent actions that would take advantage the children and endanger their growth. Children who become victims of substance abuse such as narcotics and tobacco will also be protected under the revised law.

The law also mandates city administrations to provide protection for children through budget allocations or establishing a local women's empowerment and child protection agencies.

Because of the newly passed law's specific subject matter, its interpretive status is that of lex specialis (special law), meaning that it supersedes previous legislation and all future regulations concerning children will refer to this law.

The government said it will issue six ministerial regulations and one presidential regulation pursuant to the law.

Priyo Budi Santoso, deputy speaker in the House of Representatives, said the high prevalence of violence against children in Indonesia showed their vulnerability, which necessitated the reclassification of such offenses as extraordinary crimes.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/revised-child-law-increases-penalties-protections/

House drags feet on indigenous people's rights bill

Jakarta Post - September 25, 2014

Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta – With only two weeks remaining in the five-year term of Democratic Party lawmaker Himmatul Alyah Setiawaty, she admits there is only a slim chance that the recognition and protection of the rights of indigenous people (PPHMA) bill will be passed into law.

In a recent interview with The Jakarta Post, Himmatul, who has been leading the House of Representatives special committee (Pansus) in the bill's deliberation since last year, quickly blamed the government's lack of commitment as the reason behind her committee's slow progress.

"Honestly, I'm so disappointed with the [bill's deliberation] progress," she said. "We have had to cancel several hearings [to deliberate the bill] since the government's representatives, especially those from the Forestry Ministry, weren't able to attend due to conflicting schedules."

Although the government has already submitted the list of issues (DIM) of the bill to the committee, Himmatul said both parties had yet to arrange a follow up meeting to discuss it despite the fact that the current House would hold its last plenary meeting on Sept. 30.

Himmatul said the bill's special committee and the government's representatives would need at least two hearings to wrap up the bill before seeking lawmaker approval in the plenary meeting.

"However, should the bill fail to be passed into law during this [House] period, we can request that the lawmakers who have been reelected include the bill in next year's National Legislation Program (Prolegnas)," said Himmatul, who unfortunately failed to secure her reelection bid in the April 9 legislative election.

The PPHMA bill, which is among the House's 66 priority bills in the 2014 Prolegnas, covers, among other things, the definition of an indigenous community and the much-needed procedure to settle customary land disputes.

Once it is passed into law, the PPHMA bill, which was initially proposed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction in 2012, will provide a stronger legal basis for the settlement of rampant customary land disputes in the country.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has appointed the Forestry Ministry, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the Law and Human Rights Ministry and the Home Ministry to work alongside the House in the bill's deliberation, with the Forestry Ministry coordinating the government's representatives.

The bill, however, could also face a gloomy future after the House's Legislation Body (Baleg) chairman, Ignatius Mulyono, recently said the House would likely drop at least 40 priority bills due to the current lawmakers' limited time in office.

Meanwhile, Himmatul herself admitted that her limited knowledge about traditional communities and customary land issues had made it difficult for her to take initiative.

"As a non-Baleg member, I didn't take part in the early stage of the bill's deliberation and also missed the discussion on the bill's academic drafts," she said, adding that she had been appointed to lead the special committee promptly after joining it.

Forestry Ministry secretary-general Hadi Daryanto quickly denied that the ministry was reluctant to wrap up the bill in the near future.

"It is important for the ministry to see that customary forests stay preserved. That can be achieved through many ways, including by passing the PPHMA bill into law," he said.

Hadi, however, stressed that both lawmakers and the government were faced with the challenge of providing proper details on the bill.

"We have found at least 40 issues in the bill that need to be discussed. One of them is the important issue of how to determine the borders of customary forests since it is clear that the protection of indigenous communities must also be in line with our positive laws," he said.

In May last year, the Constitutional Court approved a judicial review filed by the Indigenous People's Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) that challenged several articles in the 1999 Forestry Law that prevent indigenous people from collectively using natural resources in their territories, saying that they contradicted the Constitution.

The court also restricted the authority of the state over customary forests, saying that they were part of indigenous rights as they were located in the territories of indigenous people.

In response to the court ruling, agrarian reform activists have demanded that the government immediately issue supporting legal framework to preserve the rights of traditional communities over their customary land.

Environmental policy expert Noer Fauzi Rachman, however, said the lawmakers' and government's lack of focus prior to the national leadership succession in October would prevent the country's indigenous people from receiving formal recognition of their right to manage customary land from the President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration.

Noer is urging the public to call on president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who will be inaugurated on Oct. 20, to immediately implement his campaign promises on the indigenous people issue, which include the passing of the PPHMA bill into law and the establishment of an independent commission to plan and oversee government efforts to protect and empower the rights of indigenous people.

"Our hopes now lie in the hands of the president- and vice president-elect since they promised that they will commit to protecting and empowering the rights of indigenous people," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/25/house-drags-feet-indigenous-people-s-rights-bill.html

House, government wants MD3 to stay

Jakarta Post - September 24, 2014

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) and the government defended the new voting mechanism for selecting House speaker during a hearing at the Constitutional Court on Tuesday in the judicial review case initiated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- P).

The PDI-P, which won the most number of seats in the April legislative election, is currently challenging the mechanism established by the just- passed Legislative Institution Law (MD3) that strips the majority party in the House of the right to appoint the speaker, making it the result of a House election.

The PDI-P has demanded that the court scrap this provision, along with six others that establish similar voting mechanisms for deputy speakers, leaders of the House's 11 commissions, as well as other House bodies.

Aziz Syamsuddin, a Golkar Party lawyer, which is one of the parties in the PDI-P's rival coalition, told the bench that the checks-and-balance system was jeopardized if House leadership was automatically given to the legislative election winner.

"A democratic selection mechanism of House speakers should reflect the will of the public and not only the interests of party," Aziz, in his capacity as a lawyer representing the House, told the panel of justices during the hearing on Tuesday. "The new provision also still grants the petitioner the opportunity to become House speaker," he added.

Aziz added that the mechanism to select House leadership should be an open procedure, but exclusive to the House. He cited examples of similar practices at other government institutions, including the Supreme Court, the Judicial Commission and the Constitutional Court itself.

Azis also argued that the PDI-P had no legal standing because the House had given the party members the opportunity to express their views during the law's deliberation.

"The House applied no discrimination during the deliberation of the law," Aziz said. "So, it is, in fact, improper to question such a mechanism after the law is enacted."

Representing the government and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Mualimin Abdi of the Law and Human Rights Ministry gave a similar argument during the hearing, saying that the disputed provision "did not rule out the possibility for the party with the most votes to propose the [winning] candidate" for House speaker.

Although he later said the government and the President would respect any decision made by the court, Mualimin argued that the country's administrative system had already undergone changes and that the new mechanism was a logical extension of them.

The law, which was enacted one day before the July 9 presidential election, was viewed by some as a preemptive strike by the Prabowo Subianto-led Red- and-White Coalition against the PDI-P-led coalition and president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

Represented by their lawyers, some lawmakers set to be inaugurated on Oct. 1 also presented arguments in favor of the new mechanism. Expecting the new provision to hold, lawmaker Fahri Hamzah of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), for example, demanded the court to announce a swift ruling before Oct. 1, when new lawmakers were expected to be inaugurated.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/24/house-govt-wants-md3-stay.html

Armed forces & police

Army chief-of-staff warns against latent threat of communism in Indonesia

Viva News - September 30, 2014

Rendra Saputra, R. Jihad Akbar – Army chief of staff (Kasad) General Gatot Nurmantyo says that communist ideas are continuing to grow in the fatherland. This, he said, is because Indonesia is going through a period of development that creates space for the spread of such ideas.

"There is a new ideology, namely neo-communism that purports to prioritise democracy in daily life. For Indonesia, communism is a latent threat and [our] mutual enemy", he asserted during a break in a joint prayer with TNI (Indonesian military) members during the commemoration of Sanctity of Pancasila Day on Tuesday September 30.

In order to contain the growth of communism in Indonesia the commemoration of Sanctity of Pancasila Day is extremely important so that historical facts are understood and instilled [in society].

"It needs to be understood and instilled as historical fact, the bloody affair [the alleged coup in 1965 – JB] by a group of communists that [tried] to erase Pancasila", he added.

Nurmantyo hopes that by holding the commemoration, the dark history of communism in Indonesia can be understood by the younger generation, so the seeds of a new communism can be cut before they grow.

The joint prayer for the heroes of the revolution is being held by all members of the religious community that exist in Indonesia, which according to Nurmantyo clearly assert that Indonesia's ideology is the state ideology of Pancasila.

"This is important not just so that the facts are not buried and perverted, [but also] so to influence the next generation so that it does not happen again", he added. (one)

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service.]

Source: http://nasional.news.viva.co.id/news/read/543605-kasad-ungkap-komunisme-terus-berkembang-di-indonesia

Batam military chief's move unrelated to clash

Jakarta Post - September 25, 2014

Fadli, Batam – A military official with the Wira Pratama Regional Military Command in Batam has said Army headquarters has decided to replace Regional Military Command chief Brig. Gen. Bujang Zuirman. Bujang, will be posted to Army headquarters. He will be replaced by Col. Eko Margiyono.

"The replacement has long been planned and it has nothing to do with the recent shootings," Wira Pratama Regional Military Command spokesman Maj. Jhoni Tambunan said Wednesday. He said the inauguration ceremony would be organized after a similar ceremony for the Bukit Barisan I Military Command chief post, which would involve current chief Maj. Gen. Istu Hari Subagyo and predecessor Maj. Gen. Winston Pardamean Simanjuntak on Sept. 26.

Separately, the Indonesian Army's spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Andika Perkasa, also gave his assurances that the tour of duty in the Regional Military Command had nothing to do with the incident between Indonesian Military (TNI) and police personnel in Batam.

Andika said the replacement was based on the TNI commander's decree dated Sept. 16 and a command letter issued by the Army chief of staff dated Sept. 19.

"It's true that the decision regarding the replacement was in place before the shooting incident involving four Army personnel on Sept. 21," Andika said in a text message.

The TNI and the National Police continue to hold different accounts regarding the cause of the incident that resulted in the shooting of four TNI personnel from Battalion 134 Tuah Sakti in Batam.

Army chief of staff Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo earlier said that members of the TNI battalion went to Brimob headquarters Sunday night to request the release of a soldier in connection with a fuel heist raid, but that they were fired at upon arriving.

The four soldiers shot in the thigh by police were Chief Pvt. Eka Basri, First Pvt. Eko, First Pvt. Ari and First Pvt. Hari.

On Tuesday, Gatot ordered 500 standard-issue rifles belonging to Tuah Sakti 134 battalion personnel to be returned to a warehouse to avoid the possibility of armed retaliation following the shooting.

Earlier, Bujang had underlined that none of his personnel had been involved in the alleged misappropriation of subsidized fuel and that the clash was caused by a misunderstanding.

National Police chief Gen. Sutarman and TNI top brass agreed to create a joint task force to investigate the Batam brawl. The investigation team is also likely to issue recommendations to help the two forces avoid future clashes.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/25/batam-military-chief-s-move-unrelated-clash.html

TNI and Police to investigate Batam 'clash'

Jakarta Globe - September 24, 2014

Jakarta – Speculation is growing that the altercation between police officers and members of the military in Batam on Sunday, which led to the wounding of four soldiers, occurred because the soldiers tried to protect the owner of an illegal fuel storage facility.

Police were raiding the storage facility in Batu Aji in Batam, Riau Islands province, on suspicion that it was being used to hoard fuel, when two soldiers who had just come from night duty got into a shouting match with police.

The police officers subsequently shot the soldiers in the legs. Two more soldiers were shot in similar fashion when they allegedly stormed into the nearby police station seeking retaliation for the earlier incident.

Neta S. Pane, the chairman of Indonesia Police Watch, attributed the altercation to unresolved conflict between the National Police and the Indonesian Military (TNI).

"The problem is also rooted in economic or financial problems. Due to rising living expenses, low-ranking TNI members and police officers are often forced to offer their services on a freelance basis to protect nightclubs, commercial and industrial areas and even illegal businesses such as those that hoard subsidized fuel. Some may even protect drug dealers," Neta said in a press release on Tuesday.

He said esprit de corps among members often played a role in the competition to win these extra jobs, with members of the police and military showing their arrogance and superiority, especially when they feel that their interests are being jeopardized.

"To overcome this problem, a policy is needed that forbids officers and members from being involved in the protection of businesses or offering security services. The institution should fire those who are involved. The consequence [of such policy] is that the state has to offer decent salaries for both TNI and police [members]," Neta said.

He said the superiors at each institution seemed permissive with regard to illegal activities and that superiors often assigned subordinates to protect entrepreneurs and then take part of the payment received by such subordinates.

Punishment

Maj. Gen. Istu Hari Subagio, commander of the Bukit Barisan territorial military command, said he will take firm action against soldiers proven guilty of protecting subsidized fuel hoarders.

"I will impose harsh sanctions on any soldiers who commit violations," Istu was quoted as saying by Antara in Medan, North Sumatra, on Monday.

Istu said he would not allow any soldier to protect owners of illicit businesses that are causing losses to the state, saying that it violates the TNI's regulations and taints the reputation of the Bukit Barisan territorial military command, which oversees North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau and the Riau Islands.

"So I will not allow soldiers under my command to commit such violations," he said, adding that he has set up a team to look into Sunday's shooting incident.

"This is to establish a clearer picture about the shooting against four Yonif 134/TS officers by the members of Riau Police's Mobile Brigade [Brimob]," said Istu, who is the former governor of the Indonesian Military Academy.

The TNI's chief spokesman Maj. Gen. M. Fuad Basya also said the military would take a firm action if the soldiers really tried to stop the raid on the illegal fuel storage facility.

"We will certainly take strict action if the TNI members really tried to intervene, or tamper with at the scene. The TNI must comply with the law," Fuad said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

However, he also reminded the National Police to check on their members and to take firm action against those who failed to follow the standard operational procedure during the raid and fired the shots.

"There are two different issues. First of all there was a violation. Secondly, there were shootings. If there were any mistakes in following procedure, which led to the shootings, firm action should be taken against the members of the National Police," Fuad said.

He said investigation teams from both the TNI and the police would investigate all the crime scenes. Aside from the separate teams, a joint investigation has also been set up to clarify the results from both camps.

"The TNI has formed an investigation team, the National Police has done the same. The results will then be verified by the joint investigation team," he said.

Regarding the possibility that the TNI may file a lawsuit if there was a violation of standard operating procedure, Fuad said he was confident that the National Police would impose sanction on the officers even if the TNI did not file a lawsuit.

"We believe the National Police chief will impose firm sanctions if any mistake occurred, even if we don't file a lawsuit. Basically, we don't want the good relations between the TNI and the National Police to be marred," he said.

Fuad said TNI chief Gen. Moeldoko and National Police chief Gen. Sutarman would hold a meeting to discuss the case and to prevent a similar incident from happening in future. "A meeting will definitely take place. They have also communicated [with each other]," Fuad said.

Fuad confirmed on Monday that two of the soldiers were injured when police tried to forcibly detain them near the scene of the raid.

The spokesman, however, refused to call it a "clash" between the soldiers and members of Brimob. "It was not a clash. The information I received said the police forcibly detained the soldiers," he said.

Illegal fuel storage facility

A source within Batam Police, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Jakarta Globe that the soldiers were shot after a raid on an illegal storage facility holding diesel, which was located about 500 meters from the local military base.

Police found the facility and detained two people who claimed to be passing by during the raid, the source said. "While the police were checking out the evidence and questioning the witnesses, some men with crew cuts gathered in front of the storage facility," the source said on Monday.

More men, whom the source claimed were soldiers, arrived on the scene soon after and allegedly shouted, "Let's go to war." The police subsequently decided to wrap up the raid and leave the location, but the men allegedly tried to stop them from leaving and reportedly assaulted one of the police officers who was on a motorcycle.

The source told the Jakarta Globe that following the incident, several soldiers turned up at the police station and began shouting insults. Brimob members, who had just finished their night briefing, saw the incident and one officer fired two warning shots into the air while others chased the soldiers to a nearby bridge, the source said.

More soldiers then showed up at the police station and torched a motorcycle and a canteen owned by a Brimob member, the source said. "Then the shooting started, causing four TNI members to get shot. So it's not true that this shooting happened for no reason," the police source said. The police are denying that the soldiers were shot intentionally.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/tni-police-investigate-batam-clash/

Brawl occurs in Batam following oil-smuggling raid

Jakarta Post - September 23, 2014

The brawl between some members of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and police officers was allegedly triggered by an incident that took place during an attempt to raid a suspected illegal fuel-storage facility at a housing complex in Batam, Riau Islands.

Riau Islands Police chief Brig. Gen. Arman Depari said a group of police officers from the General Crime Directorate General asked for support from the National Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) to conduct a raid at the suspected location.

"When they arrived at the location it was crammed with residents, including members of the TNI. The police reportedly fired a warning shot when they were about to place a police line at the crime scene," he told The Jakarta Post at Embung Fatimah Hospital in Batam on Monday.

Arman was visiting four members of the Army from Battalion 134 Tuah Sakti who were shot by police during a brawl that happened after the attempted raid.

He said some Army members who were bothered by the presence of the Brimob during the raid later went to the Brimob's headquarters, which is located near Batallion 134 Tuah Sakti. The brawl occurred shortly after they arrived at Brimob headquarters.

Meanwhile, commander of Wira Pratama military command post (Korem) 033 Brig. Gen. Bujang Zuirman confirmed that the Army members were at the suspected fuel-smuggling location and that they were irked by the warning shots.

"Our members went to Brimob [headquarters] because they were offended by the warning shots. They aren't involved with oil smuggling," he said.

Bujang said the four members of Batallion 134 Tuah Sakti who were shot in their thighs during the brawl were chief Pvt. Eka Basri, First Pvt. Eko, First Pvt. Ari and First Pvt. Hari. "This [brawl] was caused by a misunderstanding," he said.

The National Police and the Army both dispatched an internal investigation team to Batam. Both pledged to take stern action against the misconduct of their members. "The team will investigate whether violations took place," Arman said.

Four Army members shot during brawl at Brimob headquarters in Batam on Sunday The police and the military deploy a joint team to investigate the brawl

According to eyewitnesses, a physical altercation occurred before the Army members were shot. An eyewitness said the situation was very tense when the shots were fired.

"I left my shop because I was afraid. The situation calmed after the military police arrived on the scene," Khatab, a stall owner, said.

The situation at Embung Fatimah Hospital was also tense as it was guarded by military personnel.

Some members of the House of Representatives also paid a visit to the Riau Islands Police headquarters to discuss the matter behind closed doors.

Arman said the police would continue investigating the oil-smuggling case although they had yet to name any suspects or confiscate any evidence in the case.

Brawls between the military and police have occurred several times in the past.

Clashes between TNI and police

Nov. 19, 2013: Soldiers from the Army Infantry Battalion (Yonif) 305 stormed members of the Brimob guarding a protest in front of the Karawang regent's office. Six Brimob personnel sustained injuries in the attack.

March 7, 2013: Almost a hundred soldiers from a training center in Baturaja, Ogan Komering Ulu (OKU), South Sumatra, attacked police offices in connection with the killing of a soldier in January. Four police officers and a janitor were injured; at least 70 motorcycles and nine cars were also damaged during the incident.

April 22, 2012: Six members of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) and two members of the National Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) are injured in a clash in Gorontalo.

Dec. 10, 2011: A soldier from the Indonesian Military (TNI) and personnel from North Sumatra Police are injured in a traffic accident.

April, 2011: Dozens of police officers clash with members of the TNI in Medan, North Sumatra, when police raid an illegal gambling den.

July 4, 2010: Two members of the police, one TNI soldier and five civilians are injured when 30 TNI members ransack three police posts in Muara Enim, South Sumatra.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/23/brawl-occurs-batam-following-oil-smuggling-raid.html

Police, army clash underlines discipline issue

Jakarta Post - September 23, 2014

Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta – The brawl between Riau Islands Police officers and soldiers from the Army's Infantry Battalion 134 Tuah Sakti in Batam on Sunday has exposed disciplinary problems among members of the two security institutions, especially regarding the use of firearms.

The brawl started when the soldiers approached the Riau Islands Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) headquarters to clarify why police officers had raided a suspected illegal fuel-storage facility located at a housing complex in Batam.

It was reported that the soldiers were offended by a warning shot fired by a police officer during the raid. The quarrel turned nasty when police officers fired their weapons at the apparently unarmed soldiers. Four soldiers sustained bullet wounds to the leg and two nearby food stalls were destroyed in the incident.

University of Indonesia criminologist Bambang Widodo Umar suggested lax discipline and a lack of external oversight had allowed members of the two institutions to behave recklessly.

"Clashes between police officers and soldiers, particularly within the rank-and-file, have been numerous. The two sides usually handle this problem by giving directives or holding joint training sessions, but they don't address the core problems, which are an excessive esprit de corps, a disproportionate use of force and the arrogance of personnel on both sides," he said on Monday.

According to Bambang, lax discipline had also allowed such personnel to engage in illicit businesses. "The police and Army leaders have failed to take action against officers, who are involved in gambling, fuel smuggling and other illegal businesses. At some point, these corrupt police officers and soldiers clash over racketeering from these illcit businesses," he said.

Bambang, a former police officer, said he was concerned that the National Police would not take stern disciplinary action against the trigger-happy officers involved in the Batam clash.

"Gun violence committed by officers will only be handled internally. The officers will be issued with lenient sanctions. The force never brings them to a civilian court," he said.

A report by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) found that between 2011 and 2013, police officers were involved in 278 shooting incidents that killed 132 people and injured 428 others. Only a handful of perpetrators have been brought to justice.

Meanwhile, Al Araf of the human rights watchdog Imparsial underlined the need for an independent investigation to establish the real culprits in the incident.

"If it's true that [the raid] was part of the police's efforts to crack down on one type of criminal activity, they retain authority to act against anyone who is implicated in crime. However, the police must act proportionately. There must be an objective investigation in the case and all parties need to restrain themselves," he said on Monday.

In the wake of the incident, the National Police and the Army have dispatched their internal investigation teams to Batam.

"The National Police will take stern action against misconduct committed by our officers, including possible gun violence," National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar told a press conference in Jakarta on Monday.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/23/police-army-clash-underlines-discipline-issue.html

Judicial & legal system

Indonesian justice still not up to scratch says study

Jakarta Post - September 23, 2014

Jakarta – The rule of law remains elusive in Indonesia, despite its comprehensive legal system, due to the lack of a thorough supervisory mechanism, a study has found.

The study, conducted by Indonesian Legal Roundtable (ILR), found that on a scale of one to 10, the country scored 5.12 in terms of the rule of law. The ILR study examined the implementation of the law, the process of lawmaking, the independence of judicial authorities, access to justice and the recognition and protection of human rights.

Of the five indicators, the implementation of the law scores the lowest with 4.61. The supervision aspects, which come under implementation of the law, scored 4.33.

For the study, the ILR surveyed documents in the country's 33 provinces as well as interviewing 193 experts, including lawyers and academics.

ILR researcher Erwin N. Oemar said that the lack of effective supervision in a number of legislative, judicial and executive sectors resulted from corruption, which, he said, was rampant in the three branches of government. As a result, the checks-and-balances system did not function in any of the three areas.

"The corruption cases of former Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar and former House of Representatives member Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq are perfect examples of this," Erwin told The Jakarta Post.

Luthfi, the former chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in a meat-import graft scandal, while Akil was sentenced to life in prison for bribery and money laundering in a case related to local elections.

ILR executive director Todung Mulya Lubis previously said, at the time of the launch of the study, entitled Indeks Negara Hukum Indonesia 2013 (Indonesian Rule of Law Index 2013), that Indonesia had descended further into corruption, to the extent that the trias politica principle (the separation of power between three branches of government) had turned into "trias corruptica", as he put it.

Erwin also said that the government had failed to grasp the meaning of the rule of law. "The government understands the meaning of the rule of law solely as issuing laws. They don't think about their implementation," he said.

In the survey, the only bright spot was the process of lawmaking, which got a score of 5.98, the highest score among the different indicators. "The ideal score should be at least 6," he said.

Last year, the ILR launched a study entitled Indonesian Law Enforcement Perception Index 2012, involving 1,220 respondents from across different elements of society. The study found that on a scale of one to 10, the country scored only 4.53 when it came to law enforcement. (ask)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/23/indonesian-justice-still-not-scratch-says-study.html

Analysis & opinion

The politics of revenge

Jakarta Post Editorial - September 30, 2014

In the space of five days, the Red-and-White Coalition has savored two consolation wins that clearly serve as a warning: that despite its failure to secure the presidency, its political clout remains and its claws will be deeply planted in the national decision-making process.

This should not be a cause for concern. Neither should it be detrimental to democracy, as it should strengthen the checks and balances mechanism. But one cannot deny that the motive behind the passing of the bill on legislative institutions that was on Monday upheld by the Constitutional Court, albeit not unanimously, and the law on regional elections (Pilkada), which will soon be challenged at the same court, was simply revenge.

The Pilkada Law will assure 32 gubernatorial posts for the Red-and-White Coalition, not to mention regency and mayoral posts in regions where it gains control. The Legislative Institution Law, popularly known by its acronym MD3, was endorsed with the absence of political parties supporting presidential candidate Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on the eve of the July 9 presidential election.

Following the Constitutional Court's verdict on the MD3 Law, the coalition that supported losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto will distribute among itself leadership seats at the House of Representatives and its commissions and supporting bodies as soon as the new House members for the 2014-2019 term are installed on Wednesday.

The Golkar Party will most likely claim the House speaker post and some Golkar leaders have confirmed the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker job will go the Democratic Party in exchange for its abstention in the Pilkada bill vote last week.

In turning down the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) motion against the MD3 Law, six of the eight Constitutional Court justices hearing the case said the mechanism to elect House leaders and House commission leaders could vary from time to time depending on the legislative body's will without contradicting the Constitution.

But justices Maria Farida Indrati and Arif Hidayat, who both dissented from the opinion of the rest of the panel, rightly stated that such changes constituted inconsistency and generated legal certainty, which clearly run counter to the law-making principles. This, sadly, was not taken into account.

Like it or not, the court's verdict has provided an incentive for the politics of revenge to continue. With the Red-and-White Coalition dominating the House, many have expressed fear that the hostile legislature will do anything to block the government's programs.

The logical consequence is political instability, which will prevent president-elect Jokowi from effectively governing the nation, let alone fulfilling his campaign promises, at the expense of the majority of Indonesian people who voted for him in July.

Or else the current political setting will force Jokowi to make one compromise after another to appease his opponents, which would violate his own pledge to avoid "transactional politics". The reform movement in 1998 allowed democracy to flourish in the country, but has at the same time let these power-hungry politicians hijack democracy.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/30/editorial-the-politics-revenge.html

Merah Putih's iron-fist master plan initiated

Jakarta Globe Editorial - September 30, 2014

Just as most Indonesians believe they had entered a new, better era after electing Joko Widodo as their president, they will wake up one of these days realizing they are living under an autocratic regime.

It is not that Joko suddenly turned into an authoritarian president. Rather, it is because he will have been removed from office by a number of politicians, and replaced by, who else but Prabowo Subianto himself.

As surreal as it sounds, this is not a joke. This is a very real possibility. As we question the sanity of the argument, Prabowo's Merah Putih coalition has executed their master plan with brutal effectiveness to lay the groundwork to achieve such a goal.

First, they have succeeded in passing the local election law, which gives local legislatures the authority to pick governors, mayors and district chiefs across Indonesia, instead of the people. As they control legislative bodies in 31 of 34 provinces, they can install their own governors in these provinces.

Should this be the case, Joko's policies could face a blockade from regional leaders, making his leadership ineffective and prone to public disappointment, with the end game being impeachment.

To prepare for the possibility of impeachment, the Merah Putih coalition made the first move by passing the controversial Law on Legislative Bodies, also known as the MD3 law. Joko's judicial review application against the MD3 law was rejected.

Controlling both bodies means they can change laws and the Constitution at will, even scrapping the direct presidential election system. This could make the People's Consultative Assembly, or MPR, the body that elects the country's president, turning the country back to a New Order era type of iron-fist regime.

Unless we fight this master plan, this nightmare scenario will happen. You have been warned.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/opinion/editorial-merah-putihs-iron-fist-master-plan-initiated/

Film exposes wounds of denial of 1965 violence

Jakarta Post - September 30, 2014

Jess Melvin, Melbourne – Joshua Oppenheimer's latest film is truly shocking. If The Act of Killing was a wild fever dream, The Look of Silence is the next morning – Indonesia and the world have woken up with a throbbing headache. Unlike The Act of Killing, in which Soeharto's killers boast unchallenged about their actions, this time the narrative of the killers is unsettled.

With no fanning ostrich feathers and makeup to disguise the truth of their actions to themselves as in the previous film, the killers become defensive and then openly threatening in their reactions.

But it is not the stories of the unending killings that are the most shocking aspect of the film. It is Adi Rukun, the younger brother of Ramli, who was killed by members of the military-sponsored Komando Aksi death squad in North Sumatra. He looks calmly into the eyes of his brother's killers, calling them mass murderers. It is shocking that it is so shocking to speak such truths.

For 49 years, Soeharto's killers have enjoyed complete impunity for their actions, used to being feared and held in awe for their participation in the killings. Amir Hasan, one of Ramli's killers, even wrote a short story about his experiences titled Embun Berdarah (Bloody Dew), which he decorated with sketches of the killings and also appears in the film.

This story includes a detailed account of how he and fellow death squad members killed Ramli, who died a slow and public death. Amir and his friends consider this a heroic story, in line with the official propaganda of the genocide taught to Indonesian children to this day.

Adi tells his mother he could forgive the killers if only they showed remorse for their actions. Instead, they become increasingly aggressive.

Amir Siahaan, the subdistrict Komando Aksi commander who oversaw the death squads at the location called Sungai Ular, tells Adi how he has been rewarded for his role in "our historic struggle".

When Adi states Amir is responsible for his brother's death, Amir gapes, explaining he was acting under military direction and government protection. "[Of] every killer I meet", Adi replies calmly, "none of them feel responsible [...] I think you're avoiding your moral responsibility."

In explicitly calling Amir a murderer Adi transgresses all norms of discourse surrounding the genocide.

"If I came to you like this during the military dictatorship what would you have done to me?" Adi asks Amir. "You can't imagine what would have happened," Amir replies very slowly.

Indonesia is a country in which the killers have won. Their continued protection is being actively facilitated by Indonesia's Attorney General.

This November will be a year since Attorney General Basrief Arief rejected the recommendation of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) that the "1965-1966 Affair" be immediately referred for investigation, merely saying the crimes as described in the report "does not meet the requirements to be considered a gross violation of human rights".

The 840-page report and 200-page executive summary, collated over four years of painstaking investigation and incorporating the testimony of 349 witnesses from around the country, was first commissioned as a result of the human rights laws of 1999 and 2000, following the 1998 fall of the New Order regime.

The regime came to power on the back of the genocide and many hoped that an investigation into the killings, believed to have claimed at least half a million lives, would bring the perpetrators to justice and allow Indonesia to move forward.

Despite intimidation aimed at halting investigations, the remarkable report proposes that in 1965-1966, "murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer of sections of the population, arbitrary imprisonment or deprivation of physical liberty, torture, rape, persecution and enforced disappearance of persons" was perpetrated against civilians accused as members or sympathizers of the Indonesia Communist Party (PKI). These are all acts of gross human rights abuse that fall under the Rome Statute and Indonesian legal definition of crimes against humanity.

The report even claims these abuses were a "result of government policy at the time to implement the annihilation of members and sympathizers of the PKI".

It names the late Soeharto, as the commander of the defunct internal security agency (Pangkopkamtib), and all regional military commanders active between 1965 and 1978 as requiring investigation for command responsibility for the violence.

A long list of military and police personnel, prison and detention center staff, village heads, civilian defense unit members and members of civilian militias are named as having been specifically identified by witnesses in the six regions covered by the report as requiring investigation as direct perpetrators of the violence.

This inexhaustive list was submitted to the Attorney General for further investigation through an ad-hoc human rights court and the mechanism of a truth and reconciliation commission, as specified by the new laws.

Basrief had taken advantage of a clause that states "if the results of the [initial] investigation are not complete enough, [the Attorney General] can return the results of the investigation [to Komnas HAM] to be completed along with advice as to what needs to be included in the report ".

This is the final legal hurdle that stands in his way of ordering a comprehensive investigation within 240 days, and could expose those named in the report, many of whom are still alive, to being served warrants and detained for investigation on charges of crimes against humanity.

There is no reason for this delay other than a lack of political will. The state's official version of events, that the killings occurred when society erupted spontaneously into a frenzy to kill communists, is crumbling, though the state and its allies in Washington, London and Canberra seem determined to cling to this interpretation.

Ironically, perpetrators such as those in the above films are perhaps doing the most damage to this official version of events. Self-assured of their own impunity, they have not realized that the propaganda is only able to function through the denial of the actual violence. Having exposed themselves as murderers they dig the hole deeper by attempting to transfer responsibility for their actions to their military commanders.

The release of the new film to coincide with the genocide's 49th anniversary is a timely reminder that the international community must also demand truth and justice for this horrific crime that has been written off as Cold War collateral damage.

We can first insist that Komnas HAM's report be accepted for formal investigation. The killers claim that opening up this past will tear open a wound that has now healed, but denial only lets the wound continue to fester.

[The writer recently completed her PhD thesis, Mechanics of Mass Murder: How the Indonesian Military initiated and implemented the Indonesian genocide, the case of Aceh, with the school of historical and philosophical studies at the University of Melbourne.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/30/film-exposes-wounds-denial-1965-violence.html

Requiem for democracy

Jakarta Post Editorial - September 27, 2014

Instead of progressing, Indonesian democracy is regressing after the House of Representatives voted early Friday to seize the right to elect regional leaders from the people and give it back to regional legislative councils (DPRDs). Sadly, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has contributed to the setback by failing to live up to his supposed support for direct elections.

Unless the Constitutional Court annuls the regional election system, our hard-won democracy will take a further dive as members of the DPRD who have the power to elect regional leaders will have to heed the wishes of their party bosses instead of the people. The nation chose the direct election of regional leaders in 2004 to acknowledge the people's right to decide their own future amid a deficit of trust in their representatives in the legislative bodies.

A number of directly elected regional heads have been implicated in, or convicted of, corruption, most recently Riau Governor Annas Maamun who was caught in the act by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Thursday night. But this should not justify the termination of direct elections because, as the KPK has warned, indirect elections will allow vote-buying to go unchecked.

Following the protracted drama, which ended in a 226-135 vote to pass the controversial bill, we fear the public's loss of confidence in politicians will loom larger than ever. Not so much because the seizure of the people's right took place in a conspiracy by a coalition of parties that lost the July presidential race but will unfortunately dominate the House in the 2014-2019 term, but especially because it happened when the nation was being lauded for its democratic practices.

That Yudhoyono was later caught on the receiving end, as evident in the #shameonyousby trending topic on Twitter, is understandable, despite his televised speech from Washington to express his "disappointment" with the Democratic Party's withdrawal from the House plenary session and his plan to seek legal ways to revive the direct regional elections.

As the powerful chairman of the party, which currently holds 148 House seats, Yudhoyono could have ordered his lawmakers not to walk out of the decision-making process merely after the party's belated attempt to have its 10 recommendations to improve the quality of regional elections accommodated by the House failed.

Questions about Yudhoyono's support for direct elections have been increasingly rife after one of his party's lawmakers, Ruhut Sitompul, said it was the party's paramount leader who ordered its legislators to walk out of the House plenary session, paving the way for the House to approve indirect regional elections.

Indonesian democracy will again rest on the conscience of Constitutional Court justices, who on Aug. 21 defied the power of the mob to uphold the people's choice of their president and vice president. Challenging a law at the Constitutional Court may incite legal uncertainty, but for sure we cannot let democracy come under threat.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/27/editorial-requiem-democracy.html

Shame on SBY and his non-Democrats

Jakarta Globe Editorial - September 26, 2014

The ugly process by which the House of Representatives reached a decision in the early hours of Friday to pass a bill that takes away from the people the right to vote for regional heads and gives it instead to regional legislatures was a blatant display of politicians riding rough-shod over the people's will.

At the heart of this massive setback to democracy is the poorly named Democratic Party, whose much-touted support for keeping direct elections was half-hearted at best and a cynical face-saving strategy at worst, given that the bill was drafted by the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Democrat chairman.

It was meant to be a simple vote: yea or nay for passing the bill. Instead, the Democrats threw in a third option: keep direct elections but tack on a 10-point list for streamlining local polls. Because the Democrats control 148 of 560 House seats and refused to budge from their position, the parties that genuinely wanted to keep direct elections had no choice but to side with them.

And then the Democrats, just like that, walked out of the plenary session, instantly handing victory to the parties in support of the bill and in one fell swoop throwing the country's democratic system back into the dark ages of the New Order regime.

Taking away the people's right to choose their leaders is a blatant betrayal of public trust and sidelines them from the democratic process altogether, rendering all the progress and costs of the last 10 years futile.

Indonesia has returned to a system of elitist democracy controlled by a handful of corrupt politicians serving only their own interests. The legislation can still be challenged through a judicial review at the Constitutional Court, which has shown it is of sounder mind than the House.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/editorial-shame-sby-non-democrats/

Corrupt batch of politicians?

Jakarta Post Editorial - September 25, 2014

Once dubbed a young, smart and promising politician with the potential to help fill the country's deficit of national leaders, Anas Urbaningrum has instead fallen from grace at just 45 years old while his peers move up the ladder or have already reached the peak of their careers.

Indeed, becoming Indonesian president was on Anas' wish list, which was why he contested and won the election for the job of Democratic Party chief in May 2010, to facilitate his bid for the top executive post. It was found later in his graft trial that Anas had committed corruption and money laundering in his attempt to realize his dreams.

On Wednesday, the Corruption Court, despite dissenting opinions from two judges, sentenced Anas to eight years in jail and fined him Rp 300 million (US$25,097) for graft and money laundering. He also has to pay Rp 57 billion in restitution to the state, or else his assets will be seized.

The prison term is far lower than the 15-year prison sentence sought by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors, but, as in previous cases, the KPK will appeal as the panel of judges failed to hand down the maximum punishment that would effectively deter potential fraudsters from committing graft.

The court found Anas guilty of receiving money from several government projects financed by the state budget, including the construction of Hambalang sports complex in Bogor, West Java. Former youth and sports minister Andi Mallarangeng and former director of state-owned construction firm PT Adhi Karya, Teuku Bagus Mohamad Noor, were among the officials sentenced in the case after former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin opened Pandora's box.

In spite of Anas' plea of innocence, the Hambalang case shows how rent- seeking practices work, in which politicians abuse their power to reap profits from projects funded by the state budget either to enrich themselves, cronies and families, or finance their personal ambitions, as in the case of Anas. The court found Anas raised campaign funds to win the party's chairmanship from fees paid to a company he set up along with Nazaruddin to harbor slush funds.

It was this political corruption that inspired the KPK prosecutors to seek the seizure of Anas' political rights in addition to the prison sentence and restitution payment. The court, however, did not fulfill the demand, but as in the case of the former president of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), we can hope the Supreme Court will finally hand down the extra punishment in the appeal hearing. Politicians who are convicted of graft do not deserve a chance to resume power because they have simply betrayed the people who voted for them.

Now that Anas has been convicted, the KPK holds the responsibility to find the missing pieces in the Hambalang puzzle so that justice is delivered to the fullest. In his trial, Anas named a number of people who he said were implicated in the case.

It is not just the family and friends of Anas who are disappointed with his conviction. The nation also regrets the fact that reformasi has given birth to a generation of politicians who justify all means, including graft, to reach their goals.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/25/editorial-corrupt-batch-politicians.html