Bagus BT Saragih and Ina Parlina, Jakarta – More state leaders that had initially confirmed their attendance at the 60th anniversary of the Asian- African Conference have canceled their visits to Indonesia, including those from Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which were among the original sponsors of the 1955 conference.

Leaders of Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Burma (now Myanmar) and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) met in December 1954, agreeing that they would jointly propose the conference stand against colonialism in the midst of the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, who had initially confirmed his participation, canceled his trip a day before the main event, the Asian African Summit, kicks off. An official at the ministerial level has reportedly departed to replace him.

Similarly, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also canceled his participation, Indonesian officials confirmed on Tuesday.

The Indian government announced a week before the event that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not be able to attend the conference due to ongoing parliamentary sessions.

Indonesia Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir confirmed Sri Lanka and Pakistan had sent notifications regarding the cancellations.

"Sri Lanka cited domestic issues related to the parliament as the reason. Pakistan also cited domestic matters." Arrmanatha, however, said that the absence of three 1955 conference sponsors would not affect the objectives of the event.

"The spirit is still strong, as seen in the atmosphere during the ministerial meeting yesterday [Monday]," he said.

The spirit of the event would not be affected by the absence of certain countries, Arrmanatha added. "Besides, we believe that the countries that have canceled have other important commitments. During the preliminary meetings in New York they were very active," he said.

Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa, announced on Saturday that he had canceled his state visit to Indonesia. The president decided to stay at home to address the ongoing xenophobic violence in the country's two biggest cities, Johannesburg and Durban.

South Africa has been considered a crucial part of the conference as it co-hosted the 50th anniversary in 2005 with Indonesia.

Arrmanatha also confirmed that Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al- Bashir, who was wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged atrocities committed in West Africa, had also canceled his participation in the commemoration.

According to him, Bashir failed to get clearance to fly in airspace controlled by certain countries.

The spokesman also said that some state leaders might skip the commemoration ceremony in Bandung on Friday. Among them were Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and Jordanian King Abdullah II.

The government previously said that at least 77 countries would attend the 60th anniversary, with 34 having planned to send their heads of state and government. With the last minute cancellations, the number of heads of state/government could be fewer than 30.

In 2005, when Indonesia hosted the conference's 50th anniversary, about 89 countries sent representatives. More than 50 of them sent their heads of state or government.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/22/conference-loses-flare-with-many-no-shows.html

18 arrested during protest in Jakarta against Asia-Africa Conference

MRB Media - April 20, 2015

Jakarta – As many as 18 people from the People's Struggle Front (FPR) were arrested by the Metro Jaya police at a protest action in front of the US Embassy in Gambir, Central Jakarta.

The arrests were made after scores of demonstrators from the FPR opposed the 60th Asia-Africa Conference (KAA) being held in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung saying it has deviated from the principal ideals of the founding conference in 1955 that opposed all forms of domination and colonialism.

The FPR said that the KKA is now no more that a ceremonial even and is ridden with political interests seeking to consolidate countries under the domination of US imperialism. The KAA no longer has any sensitivity towards of the suffering of the ordinary people in colonised and semi-colonised countries in Asia and Africa, which have simply become cash cows for other countries.

People's Movement Alliance for Agrarian Reform (AGRA) secretary general Rahmat Ajiguna stated that the arrest of the FPR activists is an anti- democratic act by the administration of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

"Jokowi is blocking the Indonesian people's democratic movement, expressing an opinion is a right and the state is obliged to protect it, but in fact it is instead muzzling it just because we are opposing foreign domination of Indonesia", he said when MRB contacted him by phone.

FPR coordination Rudi HB Daman meanwhile stated that they would defend and advocate for the arrested protesters. Daman also said that "Jokowi has shown that his government places more importance on investment than people's development and the KAA is only a stage for Jokowi to further promote Indonesia to investors".

The KAA is indeed take place at the same times as the World Economic Forum that will be held at the Shangri-la Hotel in Jakarta.

As of going to print, all of the arrested protesters were still being held by the Metro Jaya regional police.

The following is a list of those arrested by police: Ali Paganum, Marjenab, Wahyu, Rendy, Harto, La Ode Nuralim, Yopihari, Aswin, Juned, M Saiful, Juyun, Ujang Abdul Gafur, Arif Triyamayadi, Siti Habibah, Azwin, Unai Sugiarto and Helda Prasetya. (MRB)

Notes

The first Asia-Africa Conference was held in Bandung in 1955 by Indonesia's first president Sukarno and led to the birth of the Non-Aligned Movement.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "18 Orang ditangkap Polda Metro Jaya, Dilarang Aksi Menentang KAA".]

Source: http://mrb-media.com/index.php/politik/537-18-orang-ditangkap-polda-metro-jaya-dilarang-aksi-menentang-kaa

West Papua

Rights monitors decry arrest of Papuans on spurious 'treason' charges

UCA News - April 22, 2015

Ryan Dagur, Jakarta – Rights monitors on Wednesday slammed police for last week's arrest of five indigenous Papuans who stand accused of treason, saying the arrests painted a bleak portrait of freedom of expression in the archipelago's easternmost province.

Lawrence Mehue, Don Flassy, Mas John, Ebieb Suebu and Banundi Ones were arrested on April 14.

Chrisbiantoro, deputy coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS), told ucanews.com Wednesday that the arrests took place after the men had traveled back to Papua following meetings in Jakarta with government officials.

"While in Jakarta, they met with the Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu. During the meeting, they discussed the current problems in Papua," he said.

The meeting, according to Chrisbiantoro, was facilitated by Heni Tan Fere of the National Unity and Politics office in Papua's provincial government.

"So they should not be arrested, because the meeting was facilitated by the government's own staff and carried out by government officials," he said.

During the meeting, Minister Ryamizard requested that the central government and the community in Papua continue to build communication, Chrisbiantoro said.

However, when the Papuans returned to their home province they were immediately arrested by Jayapura police and accused of violating Article 106 of the Criminal Code relating to the act of treason. The accused could face life imprisonment or a minimum 20-year sentence.

The actions of the suspects leads us to believe they want "to secede from the unity of the Republic of Indonesia," Patrige Renwerin, Papua Police spokesman, told ucanews.com.

He added that police had seized evidence in the form of documents related to the meeting with the defense minister including a copy of the Federal Republic of West Papua's (NRFPB) "declaration of independence" from Indonesia.

The NRFPB movement was formed in 2011 during the Third Papuan People's Congress in Jayapura, where representatives read out a "declaration of independence" from Indonesia.

However, Chrisbiantoro said it was not unusual for Papuan representatives to talk about the NRFPB with central government officials.

"Previously, there are also Papuans who talked about the same thing with former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and President Joko Widodo," he said.

Chrisbiantoro said the fact that the men were not arrested until they returned to their home province also raised suspicions about local police employing intimidation tactics against Papuans.

"Why were they not arrested in Jakarta if they are accused of treason, but were arrested in Papua?" he said.

Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said "it's a shame that the Indonesian police cannot differentiate between free expression and criminal activities".

"The police have no reason to detain those five Papuan men," he said. "They will become the laughing stock among law enforcement officers."

Natalis Pigai from the government body the National Commission for Human Rights said the charges against the men were spurious.

"Political choice is a part of human rights," he said. "They had good intentions, [and] met with the government. They did not do violence."

Minister Ryamizard could not be reached for comment.

Source: http://www.ucanews.com/news/rights-monitors-decry-arrest-of-papuans-on-spurious-treason-charges/73438

West Papua: Mining in an occupation forgotten by the world

Equal Times - April 21, 2015

Nithin Coca – It is a region rich in natural resources, the biggest source of tax revenue for the fourth most populous country in the world and, under de-facto military rule, it is a place where activists are jailed, tortured, disappeared and assassinated.

So why doesn't the world know more about West Papua? Quite simply, because Indonesia's restive, easternmost region is home to "one of the least covered armed conflicts in the world," said Bob Dietz, Asia-Pacific director for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), of the more than 50-year conflict.

There are no official statistics but estimates put the number of Papuans killed by Indonesian authorities at anywhere between 100,000 and 500,000 people.

Four decades of heavy restrictions on media and human rights groups' access to West Papua has resulted in a near media blackout.

Linked to all this is a United States-based mining giant, Freeport-McMoRan. Though its Phoenix, Arizona headquarters is almost 15,000 kilometres away from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, it is the country's largest taxpayer.

In 2014, Freeport contributed a massive US$1.5 billion to the Indonesian state coffers. Not surprisingly, a huge percentage of its profits and revenue depends on its Papua operations – and this has wider implications.

"Freeport needs a lot of government security support to operate," said Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher with Human Rights Watch. "In remote areas like Papua, this means less monitoring and more potential rights abuses taking place in their mining operations."

In fact, national police and military are in charge of 'maintaining order' so that copper and gold can be safely extracted, and tax revenues can flow into Jakarta.

Freeport's massive Grasberg mine – one of the largest open-pit mines in the world, with a minority stake held by global mining giant Rio Tinto – is essentially closed off to outside access.

"I like to joke that even if Jesus Christ wanted to visit [West] Papua, I don't think he would get a permit," said Harsono, noting that official permission requires signatures from 18 separate ministries and security agencies – an impossible task.

"Any bureaucracy that requires so many signatures to get a permit means there must be something terribly wrong in the area they want to enter."

A history of oppression

West Papua (known by the Jakarta administration simply as Papua) forms the western half of the island of New Guinea (the eastern half being the independent nation of Papua New Guinea) and has long been a crown jewel for aspiring global powers.

It has, at various times, been controlled by Germany, The Netherlands and Australia, before it was annexed by Indonesia in 1969 in a military-run election in which about 1,000 hand-picked representatives were forced to vote for ascension.

West Papua was then ruled with the strongest of iron fists during Indonesia's 'New Order' era under General Suharto.

"Suharto was a brutal dictator who savagely treated Papuans like animals and ordered many bombings and massacres in West Papua," Benny Wenda, leader of the Free West Papua campaign told Equal Times.

These attacks were aimed chiefly at destroying the region's independence aspirations and forcing its people to become Indonesians.

Wenda currently lives in exile in the United Kingdom, travelling around the world to raise awareness of the brutal atrocities committed by Indonesia against his people.

He witnessed this personally, when, as a child, the Indonesian military bombed his village and killed members of his family.

Natural resources have played a crucial role in the trajectory of Papuan history. Just four years after its annexation, Freeport arrived, marking the beginning of a long relationship which has proved prosperous for the company, the Indonesian government and few others. Meanwhile, the people of West Papua have endured great pain and suffering.

There was hope when Suharto's dictatorship fell in 1998, bringing free elections to the archipelago, and even an independence referendum in East Timor, which was itself invaded and annexed by Indonesia in 1975, and faced similar, bloody oppression. It turned out to be false hope for West Papua.

"It looked as though an independence referendum was imminent but the new Indonesian government became incredibly scared of losing West Papua," said Wenda.

"So [Papuan independence leader] Theys Eluay was murdered by the Indonesian authorities, and ever since then, the situation in West Papua has only declined. There have been no real attempts to help with human rights or self-determination from any Indonesian government since."

What has changed, however, has been an even greater investment in resource development, and the continued inflow of migrants from Java and Sumatra, Indonesia's two most populous islands, into West Papua to manage resource development.

"Indonesia's in-country migration is coming close to making Papuans a minority in their traditional homeland," said Dietz.

Of a population of 3.5 million, only about half are from the hundreds of Melanesian Papuan ethnic groups, with the remainder of the population coming from Javanese, Sundanese, Malay and Madurese migrants, nearly all of whom have arrived since 1969.

Moreover, Indonesia plans to further exploit Papua by expanding palm oil plantations into traditionally-held forested land, and increasing downstream mining revenue by building smelters and other industrial facilities along the coast.

"I'm concerned with how the government uses [all this] tax money," said Eric Samudra, a Jakarta-based governance researcher. "Is it being used for the good of the people, especially Papuans? The answer, obviously, is no."

Disengaged public

Despite the news of police killing four protesters in December, many Indonesians remain silent on their government's occupation of a minority, mostly non-Islamic people who have been waging a low-level insurgency for freedom and justice.

"The problem is most people choose not to do anything about it, while some others believe that nothing can be done," said Samudra.

However, recent documentaries such as the Oscar-nominated The Act of Killing are slowly opening Indonesians eyes to the country's troubled past, which includes a bloody repression of its nascent Communist Party in the 1960s.

John M. Miller, the National Coordinator of the East Timor & Indonesia Action Network, who publishes a monthly update on the situation in West Papua, believes that while public awareness is growing, it still has a long way to go before real change can occur. "The silence is beginning to be broken, but a broad understanding isn't there yet."

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo promised to bring greater development and autonomy to Indonesia's outer islands, and the December killings brought Papua to the forefront of his administration's efforts. But questions remain about whether he will really be able to change the Papua situation.

"We believe President Jokowi would like to make a difference in Papua, and he has already made some moves to do that," said Harsono, pointing to the president's pledge to visit Papua frequently and listen to local concerns. "But moving the security and civilian bureaucracy over [West] Papua is not easy."

That is one reason why many Papuan activists, including Wenda, are tired of empty words and want a referendum. "We do not believe that any outcome other than full independence for West Papua can ever be a solution."

On the ground, government policy seems to be going in the opposite direction.

A case in point: the recently-announced smelter, to be operated by Freeport and an Indonesian partner, will be built on traditional Kamoro lands in the Arafura coast, south of Freeport's existing mining operations in the region.

The smelter was negotiated directly between the Indonesian government and Freeport, with no say or consultation from the local people.

Not surprisingly, locals groups oppose the smelter, which they fear will further pollute their lands and destroy their traditional way of living. If plans move forward, tensions will likely rise.

Dominikus Mitoro, acting chair of the Kamoro indigenous consultative organisation leadership council, stated publicly that "Freeport or any other investor will encounter endless problems," and that "no business will run smoothly until it leaves [our lands]."

According to activists, now more than ever, media access to West Papua is crucial in order to bring global attention to the planned smelter, and to give the world a true understanding of the human rights situation in the region – and Freeport's role in it.

But that access seems unlikely for now. "Indonesia's leaders appear determined not to lose another part of its far-flung archipelago by having troublesome reporters, international or Indonesian, expose what is happening in Papua," said Dietz.

Freeport McMoRan declined to comment on this story.

Source: http://www.equaltimes.org/west-papua-mining-in-an-occupation#.VTa-DkvZFZg

Jakarta embassy no priority for Vanuatu

Fiji Times - April 21, 2015

Vanuatu's prime minister has downplayed the suggestion made by the foreign minister that it was poised to open an embassy in Indonesia.

Joe Natuman says there is no such policy direction at present as his government has more pressing issues to attend to right now. The statement follows reports from Jakarta that the visiting foreign minister, Sato Kilman, indicated that Vanuatu wanted to open a mission as soon as possible to strengthen co-operation between the two countries.

But Mr Natuman says given Vanuatu's firm position on West Papua and its stance against alleged human rights abuses there, Vanuatu will need to weigh up all sides before taking its diplomatic relations with Indonesia to the next level.

Melanesian countries will consider a bid from West Papua to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group, when it meets in July.

Meanwhile, Fiji has invited the Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi to the August summit of the Pacific Islands Development Forum in Fiji. She last visited Fiji three months ago as part of a regional tour.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/271745/jakarta-embassy-no-priority-for-vanuatu

West Papuan leader visits Solomon Islands

Radio New Zealand International - April 21, 2015

The general secretary of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua has been in Solomon Islands to lobby support for his organisation's bid to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

The movement has lodged its membership application to the MSG, which will be deliberated on when MSG leaders meet at their summit in Honiara in July this year.

The Solomon Star reports that Octo Mote met civil society groups, West Papua sympathisers and political leaders, telling them that the support of everyone is important for advancing the MSG bid.

One of those who met with Mr Mote was the West Makira MP, Derick Manu'ari, an advocate for West Papuan independence.

Mr Manu'ari says that he's intending to move a motion on the floor of parliament seeking support from national leaders for the West Papuan self- determination cause.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/271697/west-papuan-leader-visits-solomon-islands

Ro Teimumu: Show support for West Papuans

Fiji Times - April 21, 2015

Siteri Sauvakacolo – Opposition leader Ro Teimumu Kepa has called on all Fijians to show their support towards their Melanesian brothers and sisters from West Papua who have been suffering for the last 50 years.

The call came after the launch of a major campaign in the UK over the weekend where advocates called on all their Melanesian and Pan-Pacific brothers and sisters to unite hand in hand to bring West Papua back to the Pacific family.

The march was led by exiled West Papuan pro-independence leader Benny Wenda where they also launched the Free West Papua campaign protest.

"What we have been saying all along is that we support West Papua, we know the indigenous issues that they have to deal with in terms of a government that is not supportive of their cause," Ro Teimumu said.

"So we very much support them in this regard, we hope the MSG will try and be more proactive in terms of the assistance and the lobbying they can do with our brothers and sisters in West Papua. We ask all Fijians to keep them in their prayers because they really need our spiritual support since we cannot be there with them physically."

The official website of the Office of Benny Wenda stated that the West Papuans are calling on all their Melanesian and Pan-Pacific brothers and sisters to unite to bring West Papua back to the Pacific family.

"We as West Papuan Melanesians want to survive, to be safe and to be free in our own country and therefore, we cannot continue to live with Indonesia where we are not safe and where there is only killing and imprisonment for us," Mr Wenda said.

"We do not want us West Papuan Melanesians to be wiped out from the face of the earth. Therefore, now is the time to bring West Papua back home before it is too late, back to our roots and back to our family within the Melanesian Spearhead Group and as part of the wider Pacific family."

Foreign Affairs Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola did not respond to queries on the subject sent via email but he told Parliament last month he could not confirm Fiji's position on the issue.

Responding to questions raised by Opposition member Ratu Isoa Tikoca, Ratu Inoke said processes had to be followed before a decision could be made.

"The application will be considered by the senior officials of the MSG and then it goes up to the foreign ministers and then to the MSG leaders," he said.

"This meeting will take place in July in Honiara this year. So we have to follow that process. So madam speaker I cannot confirm if Fiji will support the application of West Papua."

Source: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=302847

Indonesia steps up efforts to woo MSG members

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2015

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi utilized the opening of the 60th Asian-African Conference Commemoration on Sunday to continue her diplomatic efforts toward Pacific nations, which will soon hold a high-ranking meeting to discuss a membership application of a West Papuan group.

Retno had bilateral meetings with her seven counterparts on Sunday, with four of them from members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) who would attend the conference as observers.

The four Pacific ministers are Solomon Islands' Foreign Minister Milner Tozaka, Fiji's Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, Vanuatu's Sato Kilman and Papua New Guinea's Rimbink Pato.

"The number of Melanesians in Indonesia is higher than all of the Melanesian population in the Pacific. If you talk about Melanesia, you talk about Indonesia. If you talk about Indonesia, you talk about Melanesia," Retno said after her meeting with Kilman.

The Vanuatuan minister confirmed that the issue concerning the United Liberation Movement of West Papua's (ULMWP) full membership application, which was submitted to MSG's headquarters in Port Vila, Vanuatu, last month, had also been discussed.

"Yes, I confirmed with her the application has come with the MSG," Kilman told The Jakarta Post.

The ULMWP is a grouping of three West Papuan groups, namely the Federal Republic of West Papua, the West Papua National Parliament and the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL). The MSG Leaders' Summit in Port Moresby last year rejected WPNCL's membership application.

"Last year, MSG leaders made a decision on the first application which was seen that they were not united, so they first need unity. So, we asked them to reapply," he added.

MSG leaders are expected to meet and discuss this new application in the Solomon Islands around July. Retno is expected to attend the MSG Summit as an observer.

Papua New Guinea's Pato, however, suggested taking a different stance on the issue.

"On the application, the leaders of the MSG think that, should there be an application, they must represent all Melanesians living here in Indonesia. And the application must have the full endorsement of the government of Indonesia," he said after his meeting with Retno, without elaborating.

Retno also extended invitations to all four Pacific ministers to take part in the Melanesian Art and Culture festival in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, scheduled for October.

The other three foreign ministers to have bilateral meetings with Retno were South Africa's Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Iraq's Ibrahim Abdulkarim Hamza Al-Jafari and Nepal's Mahendra Bahadur Pandey.

Maite reiterated regret over South African President Jacob Zuma's last- minute cancellation to attend the summit due to the spreading xenophobic attacks in the country's two big cities, Johannesburg and Durban, in which six lives had been claimed.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/21/ri-steps-efforts-woo-msg-members.html

Local support for West Papua gaining force

Solomon Star - April 19, 2015

Bradford Theonomi – A West Papua independence leader was in the country for the past week rallying support for his home country to be part of the Melanesia Spearhead Group (MSG).

Octovianus Mote, an exiled West Papuan who now lives in the United States, is the general secretary of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).

The movement has lodged its membership application to the MSG, which will be deliberated on when MSG leaders meet during their summit in Honiara in July this year.

While here, he met civil society groups, West Papua sympathisers, and prominent leaders.

Mote told the Sunday Star every single person is needed to support West Papua's application to the MSG and their fight for freedom. West Papua, whose people are Melanesians, was being ruled by Indonesia for the last 53 years.

"Of course, there are many ways to support West Papua's freedom, especially our application to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group, which is the main focus and objective for now," Mote said.

"Solomon Islands citizens you are our wantok, your support in whatever form in the social media or whatever platform to mobilise information," he added.

Mote said for the last 53 years, West Papuans have suffered under the brutal occupation of their land by the Indonesian government.

"What you can do is simply rally behind us as Melanesians; we want to be part of that MSG as brothers and sister with Melanesian heritage. It's no use proclaiming your support, but did not cast papers into supporting West Papua's application for MSG membership."

He said other regional organisations have pledged their support for the West Papuan cause.

Mote also met West Makira MP Derick Manu'ari, a staunch advocator for the West Papuan independence cause. Manu'ari said like most groups or movements supporting West Papua, "we all want West Papua to be granted MSG full membership status".

"It is important to take note of upcoming events and make sure the rally and support we give our brothers and sisters are effective," the West Makira MP said.

"Solidarity amongst such movements regionally is important, especially amongst the Melanesian countries," he added. Manu'ari said he's intending to move a motion on the floor of parliament seeking support for the West Papuan cause from national leaders.

Source: http://www.solomonstarnews.com/news/national/6697-local-support-for-west-papua-gaining-force

Police name five treason suspects in Papua

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2015

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Papua Police detectives have named five people as treason suspects for their alleged involvement in activities aimed at separation from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.

The five were charged with violations against articles 106, 108 (2), 53 (1) and 55 (1) of the Criminal Code on treason, which carry a penalty of life imprisonment, or 20 years in prison at the minimum.

The five were identified only by the initials of EA, who is the chief of the so-called West Papua Federal Republic (NFRPB) police; MJS, the commander of the Papua task force's Sentani region and secretary of the Papuan Independence Committee (KIP); DF, the spokesperson of the KIP; LM, the chairman of the KIP; and OB, the spokesperson of the NFRPB.

"After an investigation was conducted, the five were considered to have committed treason," Papua Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Rudolf Patrick said in Jayapura, Papua, on Thursday. All five suspects were detained at the Papua Police's headquarters.

From the suspects, the police also seized NFRPB police uniforms and documents on a meeting between the KIP and the Indonesian defense minister. The meeting was said to be a follow-up to a negotiation offer between the Indonesian and NFRPB governments.

"The KIP itself was established by NRFPB president Forkorus Yoboisembut," Rudolf said, adding that the five suspects conducted activities on behalf of the NFRPB.

The five suspects were arrested at the Theys Hiyo Eluay hall in Sentani on Tuesday, moments after they arrived from Jakarta on board a Batik Air flight. They were about to give a press briefing when they were arrested.

The KIP, according to Rudolf, was tasked with negotiating with the Indonesian government with regard to offers as mentioned in the documents seized by the police.

The NFRPB was declared on Oct. 19, 2011 during the Papua People's Congress (KRP) III held at Zakheus Abepura Square, Papua, in which Forkorus was elected as president and Edison Waromi as prime minister.

The KRP III ended in a riot, killing six people. At least 51 other people were arrested by the Papua Police, which dispersed the meeting citing treason in proclaiming a country in a country.

Separately, Eni Tan, who was among the delegation in Jakarta, said that in Jakarta, the KIP team met with Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu on April 10.

Eni, who was also the facilitator of the meeting, said that the Defense Ministry paid for the team's transport and accommodation while in the capital. She also said the team handed over a document to the defense minister and that both agreed to have further meetings.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/17/police-name-five-treason-suspects-papua.html

Civil society organisations outraged

The Jet - April 17, 2015

Civil Society Organisations are outraged at the escalation of brutal attacks and arbitrary killings of West Papuan people by the Indonesian security forces, as a result of the growing support for West Papua's independence around the Pacific Region.

This after Indonesian police opened fire on a group of people gathering to fundraise for Vanuatu victims of Cyclone Pam in Yahukimo, West Papua, killing one and injuring others, including a separate incident where a 17 year old West Papuan activist was allegedly tortured and killed by Indonesian Special Forces.

"Since Indonesia secured control of West Papua over 50 years ago, the West Papuan people have lived in fear in their own land, deprived of their right to self-determination and subjected to systematic genocidal acts of terror," said Shamima Ali, Coordinator for the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre.

"In the lead up to the next Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Leaders meeting which will determine West Papuan membership to the MSG, it is crucial that our MSG governments and international community make a concerted effort to strongly denounce these human rights abuses including the unrelenting oppression of the West Papuans by the Indonesian government security forces," said Ali.

Ali further added that given the impending political decision by MSG on West Papua it is crucial that the UN appoints a special envoy for West Papua.

Recent media reports revealed Indonesia's plan to form a Melanesian region in Indonesia by combining five of its provinces – Papua, West Papua, Moluccas, North Moluccas and East Nusa Tenggara. It is reported that Indonesia's President, Widodo and Moluccas Governor, Assagaff are eager to establish the Melanesian-Indonesian region which would apply for full membership to the MSG.

"Currently, Indonesia holds an 'observer' status on the MSG. However, the fact that Indonesia will now be seen as a Melanesian state will only guarantee their legitimacy and allow them equal access into the MSG as other Melanesian countries. It has been alleged by certain Papuan officials that this is a strategy by Indonesia to sabotage West Papua's chances of becoming a full member of the MSG and with it the hopes and aspirations of a people to their right to self-determine themselves."

"Our government leaders must be alerted to the fact that there are adverse implications on West Papua and its people, if Fiji continues to strengthen their economic, trade and military relations with Indonesia, while ignoring the escalating violence perpetrated by the Indonesian government on the people of West Papua."

"In light of Prime Minister Bainimarama's campaign to dispense with colonial symbols from our national flag for a truly independent Fiji, it would be encouraging to see the Fiji government lead the way in supporting other nations notably West Papua, who are struggling to free themselves from foreign control."

Source: http://www.thejetnewspaper.com/2015/04/17/civil-society-organisations-outraged/

West Papuan delegates arrested after Jakarta meeting

Radio New Zealand International - April 16, 2015

A delegation of West Papuan representatives has been arrested after claiming they were told by an Indonesian minister that it is time for negotiation about West Papua.

Tabloid Jubi reports that the six Papuans, including members of the Papua Customary Council, or KIP, went to Jakarta and met informally with the Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu.

However the KIP delegates were then arrested on treason charges after holding a press conference upon their return to Papua's provincial capital Jayapura.

A police spokesman said the arrests follow instruction from Papua's Police Chief to deal strictly with organisations which threaten Indonesia's sovereignty.

Earlier, according to KIP delegate Don Flassy, the Minister had told them that there should be no more talk about Free Papua, but instead, negotiation.

The reason for the KIP trip was to follow up on letters sent to Indonesia's President by the President of the so-called Federal Republic of West Papua, Forkorus Yaboisembut, regarding his organisation's declaration of independence for West Papua.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/271400/west-papuan-delegates-arrested-after-jakarta-meeting

Government to revive food estate project in Papua

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2015

Linda Yulisman – With its high food self-sufficiency target, the government is considering reviving the stalled "food estate" program of the prior administration by involving private and state-owned companies.

The extensive commercial farming will focus on rice, corn and soybean – all are food crops laid out in the self-sufficiency goal, according to State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno. "We will synergize the whole processes from seeding to fertilizing," she said.

State-owned enterprises, such as fertilizer producer PT Pupuk Indonesia Holding Company, seedling company PT Sang Hyang Sri and agribusiness firm PT Pertani, will take the lead in the projects, Rini said.

Designed in the early days of Yudhoyono's administration in 2009, the project was meant to integrate farming and food-based energy generation to replicate the success story of Brazil's large-scale agricultural projects. The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) program in Papua is expected to cover a 1.6 million hectare area. It has attracted dozens of investors, including Wilmar International, Artha Graha and Medco Group, that are interested in growing a wide array of food crops, including rice, corn, soybean, sugar cane and palm oil.

Similar to the food sovereignty agenda formulated by President Jokowi's administration, the former government also underlined the need of attaining self-sufficiency in key corps and beef by 2014, which, in fact, it failed to achieve.

MIFEE has proven to be a tough project to implement, particularly because of land issues, as the multi-billion project threatens conservation areas, such as virgin forests and water catchment areas, as well as the habitat of indigenous peoples in Papua.

Concerns over human rights abuses, including violations of land rights and of the requirement to obtain free, prior and informed consent, and also over the displacement of local people by inflows of workers from outside the region have also lingered.

By last year progress had stagnated in the completion of an environmental analysis (Amdel) and in provincial spatial planning, Agriculture Ministry's director general for agriculture infrastructure and facilities Gatot Irianto told The Jakarta Post.

"The stocktaking of customary land is a difficult thing and this must be endorsed further," he said, adding that he viewed the need to make the planned food estate a special economic zone to enjoy special treatment to enable implementation.

Despite the snail-paced progress in the past, Minister Ferry said the planned project could, nevertheless, begin as soon as the second half of this year.

"We have already secured some potential plots of land to commence the project," he told the Post, adding that some areas in Kalimantan were also under assessment as alternatives.

With the strategic location of Merauke near the sea, it will be easy to transport the output to other areas once seaports are established, according to Ferry.

Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) chief Franky Sibarani said the broader Indonesian food sector might receive investments this year, notably from foreign companies. "We've heard about interest by American and Japanese firms to invest in growing corn and cassava," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/16/govt-revive-food-estate-project-papua.html

Five people suspected of conducting separatist activities

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2015

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Papua Police investigators have named five people as suspects for allegedly taking arms against the government with an aim to separate Papua from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.

The five people identified only with their initials are EA, the self- declared West Papua Federal Republic Police chief, MJS, the Sentani-chapter Papua Task Force commander and Papuan Independence Committee (KIP) secretary, DF, the KIP spokesperson, LM, the KIP chairman, and OB, the spokesperson of the so-called West Papua Federal Republic (NFRPB).

"After conducting a case presentation, police investigators concluded that activities conducted by the five people had met elements of separatism," Papua Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Rudolf Patrick said in Jayapura on Thursday.

He said the police's conclusion was supported by evidence that includes NFRPB Police documents and papers from a meeting between KIP officials and the Indonesian defense minister.

The meeting was reported as a follow-up of negotiation offers between the Indonesian government and the NFRPB administration. The KIP was reportedly established by NFRPB president Forkorus Yoboisembut.

Rudolf said if proven guilty the five people could each face minimum sentences of 20 years in prison. "Our country is the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia and there is no other. However, these five people were conducting activities on behalf the NFRPB," he said.

Rudolf said the police arrested the five people at the Theys Hiyo Eluay hall in Sentani, on Tuesday, shortly after they arrived from Jakarta. They were scheduled to hold a press conference about their visit to Jakarta, but Jayapura Police officers detained them before it took place.

The NFRPB was declared on Oct. 19, 2011, during the third Papuan People's Congress (KRP) at Zakheus Square in Abepura, Papua. The congress elected Forkorus as NFRPB president and Edison Waromi as prime minister.

The KRP ended with a riot that killed six people. At least 51 people allegedly involved in the riot were taken into custody by the Papua Police. Security authorities dissolved the congress, saying that it was aimed to declare the independence of Papua from Indonesia. The KIP was assigned to carry out negotiations with the government.

Eni Tan, one of the members of the delegation to Jakarta, said KIP officials met with Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu on April 10. The five people are currently detained at the Papua Police headquarters. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/16/five-people-suspected-conducting-separatist-activities.html

Human rights & justice

Rights abuse task force to be set up

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2015

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – The administration of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo says it will establish a task force to seek resolutions to past human rights abuses, including the communist purge of 1965 that led to the deaths of thousands of alleged supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno announced the plan on Tuesday after a two-hour meeting with Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly, Attorney General M. Prasetyo, National Police chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, National Intelligence Agency (BIN) director Marciano Norman, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Moeldoko and National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) commissioners Nur Kholis and Roichatul Aswidah.

"We have agreed it [the establishment of a task force] is the best solution and I will immediately report this to the President," Tedjo told a press conference after the meeting.

Prasetyo said the task force – comprising officials from the Attorney General's Office (AGO), Komnas HAM, BIN, the police, the TNI and civil society organizations – would focus on seven cases of alleged gross violations of human rights that Komnas HAM had investigated since 2008.

"They are the [1989] Talangsari incident [in Central Lampung], the [2001 and 2003] Wamena and Wasior incidents [in Papua], various forced disappearances, Petrus [unsolved killings in the 1980s], G30S PKI [the purge following the Sept. 30, 1965, attempted coup] and the May 1998 riots," he said.

The most notorious case to be handled by the team will be the 1965 communist purge, in which thousands of victims were murdered and many thousands more were arrested and detained in military camps, where they were interrogated and often tortured and raped.

Successive governments have denied allegations of human rights abuse and have justified the purge by claiming it was necessary to save the country from communism.

"We'll try to resolve the cases through either judicial or non-judicial means. However, since they are between 16 and 50 years old, it may be difficult to find evidence, witnesses and suspects to take the cases to court," Prasetyo said.

He also argued that since ad hoc tribunals to hear cases of past human rights violations did not exist, it was difficult to get warrants to start investigations into the alleged rights abuses.

Prasetyo said the prospect remained for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR), as stipulated by the 2000 Human Rights Trials Law, which ruled that gross human rights violations that took place before the passage of the law should be resolved through a KKR.

A draft bill on the establishment of a KKR has been submitted to the House of Representatives to give a nine-member commission four years to investigate the cases that Komnas HAM declared gross human rights violations and to find the most appropriate way of restoring the rights of the victims and to seek reconciliation.

The bill does not allow for the establishment of ad hoc tribunals and stipulates that any decision made by the KKR would be legally binding and not subject to legal challenge.

"[Since the draft bill is still under deliberation] we offer this solution to victims or their descendants if we find it difficult to find evidence to support their cases," Prasetyo said.

Komnas HAM chairman Nur Kholis supported the government's plan for the establishment of the task force to promote reconciliation while awaiting the endorsement of the KKR bill at the House.

"This task force is the proof of our commitment to resolve all the cases we have investigated," he said.

Rights campaigners, however, criticized the planned task force. Feri Kusuma, an activist with the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) dismissed the task force as a "sham".

"This seems more like a publicity stunt for the attorney general, who is responsible for and has the authority to investigate and bring to trial perpetrators of gross human rights abuses. Instead, he is offering reconciliation as a solution, even though Komnas HAM has already compiled a lot of evidence," he said.

Feri also criticized the involvement of BIN, the TNI and the National Police in the planned task force, as these organizations had long been accused of perpetrating rights abuses.

"It would be traumatic for the victims and they would not come forward. This seems more like a means to cover up the cases than to resolve them," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/22/rights-abuse-task-force-be-set.html

Labour & migrant workers

Activists to Joko: Speak up on beheadings

Jakarta Globe - April 17, 2015

Natasia Christy Wahyuni, Jakarta – Activists on Friday criticized President Joko Widodo's silence on the beheading of two migrant workers in Saudi Arabia this week, arguing that his resumption of the death penalty at home was undermining attempts to rescue Indonesian citizens on death row overseas.

Karni Binti Medi Tarsim was beheaded on Thursday, just two days after the execution of another Indonesian migrant worker, Siti Zaenab, who was sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1999 murder of her employer.

Migrant Care coordinator Anis Hidayah criticized Joko for not speaking out in public on the matter, neither condemning the execution nor extend his condolences to the families of the workers.

"President Jokowi, please don't stay quiet, and stop the back-to-back executions of Indonesian migrant workers," she said on Friday.

Haris Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) issued a similar call, asking, "Is the Indonesian government serious about protecting Indonesians [abroad]?"

The government has expressed regret over Saudi Arabia's decision to execute Karni and Siti, arguing that the Indonesian Embassy there had not been given prior notice on both occasions.

"We have done our best to ensure the judicial process was followed and that she received her rights, but the victim's family could not forgive what she had done," Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said on Friday of Karni's execution.

Retno said the Indonesian government had exhausted all avenues in seeking clemency for both Karni and Siti Zaenab.

Representatives from the Indonesian Consulate General in Jeddah met with Karni 33 times from September 2012 until her death. The 37-year-old Central Java native was found guilty of murdering her employer's 4-year-old child and given the death penalty in January last year.

Both former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and President Joko sent letters to the Saudi king for clemency, leading to the postponement of the execution.

Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, the Foreign Ministry's director of consular and legal affairs, said Indonesian diplomats last met Karni in prison on Wednesday, a day before she was beheaded.

"During the one-and-a-half-hour visit, prison authorities never informed us that Karni would be executed the following day," he said. "We will file a protest to the Saudi Arabian government. Though we knew [the execution would happen], we were never informed when and where. This goes against common practice in international diplomacy."

Rights activists called the execution "sad and cruel," but they also blamed the double standard of Joko's government on the death penalty for costing it any moral leverage it may have had in trying to stay Siti's execution.

"This is a lesson for the president, the foreign minister, the Attorney General's Office and other relevant parties not to use double standards, so that our diplomatic approaches to rescue Indonesian migrant workers on death row will be fruitful," Haris said.

Indonesia is poised to execute 10 convicts, of whom all but one are foreigners.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/activists-joko-speak-beheadings/

Freedom of speech & expression

Prostitution next target in Indonesia's web censorship

Jakarta Globe - April 20, 2015

Jakarta – The National Police say they are going to work with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to block Indonesia-based websites facilitating prostitution. "We will come up with a list of websites... and hand it over to the ministry, which will then block the sites," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan told state-owned news agency Antara on Monday.

Police say blocking websites where sexual services are offered can be a challenging task. "It will be difficult, since a website might appear under a new guise even after we've blocked it," Anton said.

Authorities have launched a crackdown on online prostitution after a young woman was found dead in her rented room in Tebet, South Jakarta, on April 11, sparking a social media frenzy.

The victim was found with a wire around her neck and a sock in her mouth. Police declined to elaborate on the victim's profession, but her Twitter account indicated she was likely working in the sex industry.

The government has recently been trying to start blocking websites spreading radical Islamic ideology, leading to protests from both Islamic organizations and rights activists.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/online-prostitution-is-next-target-for-indonesias-web-censorship/

Political parties & elections

Golkar, PPP risk being left out in local elections

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2015

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – With two major political parties currently embroiled in legal battles over leadership issues and local election organizers running on shoestring budgets, the General Elections Commission (KPU) officially kickstarted the 2015 concurrent regional elections on Friday.

In the ceremony, the central KPU handed over the latest population data for the district levels (DAK2) to the Regional General Elections Commission (KPUD).

"This year's DAK2 is different from previous years. Now, the data is sorted based on names and addresses. Earlier, the data came from estimates and censuses," KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik said. The KPU only got the data from the Home Ministry early on Friday.

With the ceremony, political parties are now able to start registering themselves to join the regional elections, which are expected to take place in 269 regions simultaneously in December.

However, questions remain over whether the Golkar Party and the United Development Party (PPP) will be able to participate in the elections, as the two parties are now torn by rifts that have split each party into two factions.

KPU commissioner Ida Budhiati said that the commission had drafted a regulation which that prevent political parties experiencing legal uncertainty from participating in the elections.

"During last week's meeting with the House of Representatives, we presented a scenario in which a political party is undergoing a trial at the state administrative court and the court freezes the Law and Human Rights Ministry's decree [on the party's leadership]; then we said in our regulation that the party's participation in the poll could not be allowed," she said on Thursday.

Ida added that the KPU would only accept a party with a singular and legal leadership and, thus, the rival factions within Golkar and the PPP would have to reconcile their differences.

Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo, meanwhile, said that the ministry and the KPU had agreed not to meddle in the conflicts.

"I am pretty optimistic that the Golkar Party and the PPP will be able to resolve their problems soon so that they can take part in the political process in the regions, especially so they can decide on who they will be nominating," Tjahjo said on Friday.

In spite of the official launch of the regional election process, a number of KPUDs are currently dealing with budget problems. According to data from the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), at least 127 of the 183 KPUDs were experiencing budget problems as of March this year.

Out of the 127 problematic regions, 78 had already secured budgets for the elections, although they were not sufficient, while 49 had not yet been given guarantees over the disbursement of their budgets. The central KPU refused to disclose the number of regions with budget problems.

Meanwhile, data from the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) shows that 114 regions have problems with their budgets – 68 of them had initially expected to hold regional elections in 2017 only to find out later that they have to hold them in 2015 instead.

The government and the House of Representatives are still at loggerheads over the solution to the budget woes, with the former suggesting any budget shortfall should be met from extra funds, such as emergency funds, in the local budgets (APBD).

House Commission II overseeing governance and regional autonomy, meanwhile, rejected the idea, saying that it would be prone to corruption.

The KPU has been frustrated with the rejection. "If the budget is not available, then what? Do we and the Bawaslu, as election organizers, have to pitch in money?" Husni asked during the meeting with the House on Thursday.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/18/golkar-ppp-risk-being-left-out-local-elections.html

Police vs KPK

Budi Gunawan inaugurated as national police deputy chief

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2015

Farouk Arnaz & Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – In a low-profile ceremony on Wednesday afternoon, Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan was inaugurated as the deputy chief of Indonesia's National Police, despite a public outcry his alleged involvement in a graft case.

"Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan was just inaugurated," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan said. "He was not secretly inaugurated, it was just a private National Police matter."

National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said on Wednesday ahead of the inauguration that an eight-member police committee known that vets candidates for senior positions – the Wanjakti – had unanimously agreed last Friday to appoint Budi as the nation's No. 2 cop.

Badrodin added that he had sent a notification letter to the State Palace to inform President Joko Widodo of the Wanjakti's decision. "The Wanjakti believes it's the best decision," Badrodin said.

Badrodin dismissed opinions that Budi's appointment would spark a leadership crisis. "There is no such thing – I am the chief and I am the one in command, everybody answers to me," he said.

Budi was first nominated for the top police job by Joko, but that decision was reversed – and Badrodin appointed instead – after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named the commissioner general a graft suspect, sparking a massive public outcry.

A court later ruled, on a technicality, that the KPK had overstepped its authority by naming the candidate a suspect. The case has since been taken over by the National Police's criminal investigation division.

Badrodin on Wednesday refused to comment on Budi's legal case. "Regarding that matter, you should ask the detectives unit," he said.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/budi-gunawan-inaugurated-national-police-deputy-chief/

Jokowi, House move too fast against KPK

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2015

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has lambasted the government and House of Representatives' plan to expedite the termination of terms of the antigraft body's current commissioners.

The KPK said the government and House should abide by Presidential Regulation No. 72/2011, issued by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, which authorized the third batch of KPK leaders, including Abraham Samad, Bambang Widjojanto, Zulkarnen and Adnan Pandu Praja, to remain in their positions until December 2015.

Both Samad and Bambang have been dismissed by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, in a move that many said was a punishment for the two commissioners' combative style.

Law and Human Rights Ministry Yasonna H. Laoly said that the tenure of the current commissioners, including the three acting commissioners appointed in February to replace Bambang and Samad, would expire soon and that a new batch of commissioners would be installed in September at the latest.

Yasonna said that the ministry would soon set up a committee to commence the selection of new KPK commissioners.

KPK commissioner Zulkarnaen said on Tuesday that President Jokowi and the House must honor the 2011 presidential regulation. "I think the plan is amiss. The tenure of the current leaders will expire on Dec. 16, 2015," Zulkarnaen told reporters at the KPK headquarters on Tuesday.

Zulkarnain said that the KPK welcomed the ministry's plan to establish the selection committee, given the arduous task it would face, but the government should allow the current KPK commissioners to remain in office until December.

"Selection will take a while, thus, it is better to be prepared from now. The process includes establishing the selection team, screening prospective candidates before handing the names of selected candidates to the House for screening," Zulkarnaen said.

Separately, Transparency International Indonesia (TII) secretary-general Dadang Trisasongko said that instead of hastily selecting new candidates, the government should first pick the right candidates for the selection team. "Members of the selection team must be individuals who are committed to strengthening the KPK," Dadang said on Tuesday.

Dadang was responding to speculation that the Law and Human Rights Ministry, which is now led by Yasona, a politician with the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), was considering recommending one-time graft convict and Padjajaran University law expert Romli Atmasasmita as the chairman of the selection team to Jokowi.

In a hearing for a pretrial petition filed by former National Police chief candidate Comr. Budi Gunawan, who was named a bribery suspect by the KPK in January, Romli took the witness stand only to criticise the antigraft body.

As the KPK is currently investigating the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) case, which could have links to PDI-P chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri in her capacity as president between 2001 and 2004, many were concerned that the selection process could be used as a gateway to include candidates who would stop the probe if elected.

Meanwhile, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Emerson Yuntho suspected that the plan to immediately end the term of the current KPK leadership was another plot to weaken the KPK after the success in installing Taufiequrachman Ruki as KPK chairman.

Just weeks after being inaugurated by Jokowi, Ruki made a controversial decision to hand over Budi's graft case to the Attorney General's Office (AGO), which finally transferred the investigation to the National Police.

"Allowing figures with dubious reputations on the selection team could water down the future KPK. We fear that this is part of a scheme to hijack KPK leadership through the installment of controversial figures to select KPK new commissioners," Emerson said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/22/jokowi-house-move-too-fast-against-KPK.html

Government tweaked law to appoint KPK chief Ruki

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2015

Jakarta – The government has eliminated the age requirements for Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leaders in a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) issued by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to replace the 2002 Law on the KPK following the recent conflict between the antigraft body and the National Police.

During a hearing at the House of Representatives Commission III overseeing law and legal affairs on Monday, it was revealed that while drafting articles regulating the emergency appointment of KPK leaders in the Perppu, the government had removed an article on the age requirement.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly admitted to removing the article after the government appointed Taufiequrachman Ruki, a former KPK chief, as the acting chairman to replace Abraham Samad, who has been named a suspect in a document forgery case.

He said the government had issued the Perppu because it felt it was urgent to settle the police-KPK dispute. Also, there was an urgency to fill the vacuum of leadership in the long-trusted public institution.

"We were very concerned about solving the problem [of a leadership vacuum at the KPK]. We needed an experienced figure who had previously worked there," Yasonna explained during Monday's hearing.

As a pioneer in the antigraft body and a former policeman, Ruki was seen as a figure that could bridge the rift between the two institutions.

The Perppu, dated Feb. 15, was issued amid the heated conflict between the police and the KPK following the nomination of Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan as National Police chief.

The police reacted with anger after the KPK named Budi a suspect in a bribery case and the force subsequently named two of the antigraft body's commissioners, Abraham and Bambang Widjojanto, suspects in two separate cases.

The police also resurrected an investigation into KPK investigator Novel Baswedan, in a case that had lain dormant following former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's instruction to stop the investigation.

Article 29 of the existing KPK Law stipulates that KPK commissioners should be at least 40 years old and no older than 60.

On Feb. 20, President Jokowi appointed Ruki, who is 68 years old, along with two other new commissioners, Johan Budi and Indriyanto Senoadji, to replace Abraham, Bambang and Busyro Muqoddas, whose term ended last year.

Ruki retired from the KPK in 2012 when he reached the maximum age for KPK commissioner.

Yasonna added that the government could not wait for the selection process at the House. "The law on the selection of the KPK chief at the House takes too much time. If we are not quick on this, it will further damage the image of Indonesia in combating corruption," he said.

During Monday's meeting, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), some of whose legislators have been arrested by the KPK, rejected the new regulation and indeed questioned the need for the KPK.

"We propose a rethink on the existence of the KPK through the restoration of police trust," said PKS legislator, Nasir Djamil.

The Democratic Party and the National Awakening Party (PKB) accepted the need for the new regulation. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Gerindra, Golkar and the United Development Party (PPP) adopted a wait-and-see approach to how the new selection process unfolds.

The four party factions agreed with the reasoning behind the government issuing the new regulation, but they said it should go through proper procedures. They added that the KPK chief selection committee should ensure that they select a wise and proper leader for the KPK. (saf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/21/govt-tweaked-law-appoint-KPK-chief-ruki.html

Badrodin to end KPK standoff

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2015

Ina Parlina and Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo installed on Friday Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti as the new National Police chief, effectively ending a months-long standoff that resulted in the weakening of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and threatened to derail part of the newly elected President's agenda.

The selection for a new police chief has been marred with controversy since Jokowi nominated in January Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, a confidant of the chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Megawati Soekarnoputri, a move that many saw as a result of Jokowi bowing to political pressure.

The KPK named Budi a graft suspect shortly after Jokowi announced his nomination. The National Police retaliated by naming then KPK chairman Bambang Widjojanto a suspect in a perjury case. The police later moved against KPK chairman Abraham Samad by naming him a suspect in a document forgery case.

Senior officials in Jokowi's administration expressed hope that Badrodin could mend the strained relationship between the police and the KPK.

"The [inauguration of the] new police chief has brought an end to the vacuum within the force. Now he can start working to improve the police," Coordinating Legal, Political and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno said after Badrodin's inauguration at the State Palace.

The House of Representatives, which endorsed Budi's nomination in January, was initially reluctant to back Jokowi's move to appoint Badrodin.

But after weeks of vacillating, the House on Thursday unanimously endorsed Badrodin after undergoing a brief confirmation hearing. A House plenary session only lasted half an hour before declaring him as having passed the screening held earlier in the day.

Although some saw Badrodin's nomination as a compromise, State Secretary Pratikno said Jokowi picked the right person to lead the police, deeming him as "being able to transform the police into a respectable, dignified and trusted legal institution".

"The President also wants the police to be able to cooperate with the KPK, the Attorney General's Office [AGO] and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre [PPATK] in eradicating corruption," Pratikno said, adding that Jokowi had also ordered Badrodin to take stern action to reform the police.

Both Attorney General HM Prasetyo and KPK interim commissioner Johan Budi expressed similar hope that Badrodin could build synergy with other law enforcement agencies.

Shortly after his inauguration, Badrodin reiterated his pledge to bring solidarity to the police and build a better relationship with other law enforcement agencies, including the KPK and the AGO.

"We [the police] must unite and be ready to face future challenges," Badrodin said at the State Palace. "I will also make an effort to work with other state institutions, including other law enforcement agencies."

With the top-cop position filled, many have begun to speculate as to who will be named deputy police chief.

Speculation is rife that Budi Gunawan is among the candidates tapped for the deputy police chief position. Badrodin, however, declined to confirm whether Budi was still in the running for the deputy chief position.

"It is only a suggestion. There are considerations, not only public opinion but also other elements that we need to consider, including internal dynamics [within the force]".

Badrodin said the police's committee on the officers' Rank and Promotion Council for High-Ranking Officers (Wanjakti) would not hold a hearing until next week to decide which of the eight remaining three-star generals would be fit to become the deputy police chief.

"Right now the position is vacant and all three-star generals will be assessed [by Wanjakti]," he said later on Friday at the National Police headquarters. "Anyone could be a good candidate. He [Budi] could be a good candidate."

The deputy police chief position is considered crucial as Badrodin is expected to retire in a little over a year.

Pratikno said he believed that "Badrodin and the Wanjakti will select a clean and professional deputy police chief". He also said that Jokowi had yet to receive a recommendation from the Wanjakti.

Police expert Bambang Widodo Umar said putting Budi Gunawan in the deputy police chief position could reignite friction between the police and the KPK.

"Internally, it would probably be accepted, especially seeing the way officers reacted to the pretrial ruling at the South Jakarta District Court. But he could spark new conflict [with the KPK]," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/18/badrodin-end-KPK-standoff.html

Badrodin Haiti inaugurated as nation's new top cop

Jakarta Globe - April 17, 2015

Novy Lumanauw, Jakarta – President Joko Widodo officially inaugurated Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti as the new chief of National Police on Friday.

Badrodin previously served as the National Police's deputy chief and, with the inauguration, has also become a four-star general.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto, People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Zulkifli Hasan, Regional Representatives Council (DPD) speaker Irman Gusman, among other senior officials, attended the inauguration.

The president withdrew his previous candidate, Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, amid public outcry as the latter was named a graft suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) just days after being nominated for the nation's top police posting.

In February, Joko sent a letter to the House in which he nominated Badrodin instead.

Badrodin's nomination was approved by acclamation at the House on Thursday, with all ten parties represented giving the green light after a fit-and- proper test with Commission III earlier in the day.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/badrodin-haiti-to-be-inaugurated-as-top-cop-today/

House approves Badrodin as police chief

Jakarta Globe - April 16, 2015

Hizbul Ridho & Hotman Siregar, Jakarta – The House of Representatives on Thursday endorsed the nomination of Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti as the new National Police chief, citing statements from the Corruption Eradication Commission, known as the KPK, and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center, or PPATK, that he was clean of graft – squashing speculation to the contrary.

Badrodin's nomination was unanimously voted on by the 283 lawmakers present at Thursday's plenary session.

He currently serves as both the deputy police chief and the acting chief. President Joko Widodo in February sent a letter to the House indicating Badrodin as his sole nominee for police chief.

The president withdrew his previous candidate, Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, the month before following bribery allegations and an ensuing public outcry.

The plenary session on Thursday afternoon went smoothly after all 10 parties at the House approved Badrodin's nomination. The session took only half of an hour to conclude after the House's legal affairs commission declared him as having passed the fit-and-proper test held earlier in the day.

"Commission III requests the annulment of the nomination of Budi Gunawan as the National Police chief candidate, and approves Badrodin Haiti as the selected candidate, with hopes that he will truly enhance the image of the National Police, enforce the law and protect the public," said Aziz Syamsuddin, the head of House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs and human rights.

Legislators did not immediately approve Joko's mid-March withdrawal of Budi's nomination, summoning the president to discuss it last week.

Budi was red-flagged by the government's PPATK in 2010 for suspiciously hefty amounts in his personal bank accounts. The KPK named him a bribery suspect mid-January, just a few days after Joko submitted his nomination to the House.

The suspect status, though, was later overthrown by the South Jakarta District Court in a controversial ruling after Budi filed a pretrial motion against the KPK over the charges.

Badrodin was implicated in the same "fat accounts" scandal as Budi, which was unearthed in 2010.

PPATK chief M. Yusuf said in a hearing with legislators last week that Badrodin was indeed among a group of police generals that the anti-money- laundering agency reported to the National Police's detectives' unit at the time over hefty bank accounts.

He added, though, that the allegation against Badrodin had since been cleared after he was able to sufficiently explain a Rp 3 billion ($233,000) transaction through his bank account.

State-run news agency Antara in a January report cited data from the KPK that said Badrodin's wealth amounted to nearly $650,000 as of May 2014, when he was appointed the police deputy chief.

Half of the figure came from property assets scattered in Jakarta, Bekasi, Depok, as well as Semarang, Central Java, and Pandeglang, Banten.

Yusuf, though, declared Badrodin clean from corruption. "We've clarified that we've found no suspicious transactions involving [Badrodin]," he said during the hearing with Commission III members last week.

Acting KPK chief Taufiequrrahman Ruki also cleared Badrodin of any indication of corruption. "B.H. [Badrodin] is a person who obediently reports his wealth regularly," he testified at the same hearing before the House. "Since the beginning, he has always updated his wealth reports."

Badrodin, while presenting his platform during the fit-and-proper test on Thursday, called on legislators to create a regulation that would help curb the flow of Indonesian sympathizers of the extremist jihadist group Islamic State to Syria and Iraq.

"The National Police have stated several times that although ISIS is supposed to be banned here there is no regulation for it," he said, referring to Islamic State by one of its acronyms.

"We cannot simply forbid people from traveling to Syria without clear reasons; because it is not against the law," he said.

"This whole time we've been able to make [IS-related] arrests only when they concern other crimes – such as [passport] forgery and [terrorism] funding."

Another priority focus will be to secure industrial activities from "thuggery and anarchic labor strikes," including labor activists' common practice of forcing other workers to join their strikes, Badrodin said.

"Thuggery by individuals and groups are problems for investment in the country," he said.

"Forcing or pressuring industries [to do things] can destabilize the investment climate. Therefore, it will be among the National Police's priorities to protect industrial zones.

"Labor activists may express their opinions, but they cannot force other laborers to join their strikes," he added.

Badrodin said structural reforms, anti-corruption programs and improving the welfare of police personnel would be among his other priorities during his 15 months in office.

Badrodin, 56, is due to enter retirement in July next year. Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Badrodin would probably be sworn in as the police chief at an inauguration ceremony at the State Palace in Central Jakarta today.

House Speaker Setya Novanto said the House's endorsement of Badrodin was expected to ease the work of the police in securing the upcoming 60th anniversary commemorations of the Asian-African Conference in Jakarta and Bandung next week, which more than 30 world leaders and more than 60 foreign delegations are expected to attend.

Badrodin's appointment will officially end a three-month-long period of a police force without a chief after Joko removed Gen. Sutarman from office on Jan. 16, despite his not being due for retirement until October.

Indonesia Corruption Watch researcher Emerson Yuntho on Thursday expressed concern that the appointment of Badrodin, seen by many to be close to the ousted nominee Budi, would pave the way for the latter to become the deputy police chief – although public resistance to him remains high.

The police chief has the authority to appoint his own deputy, not needing approval from either the president or the House. If Budi is appointed his deputy, he will be able to assume the position of police chief, again without House vetting, when Badrodin's term ends.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/house-approves-badrodin-police-chief/

Top cop candidate lives life of rich and famous

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2015

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – Like many police generals, the candidate for the next top cop, Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, likes to keep a comfortable and spacious home and his house in Jagakarsa, on the outskirts of South Jakarta, certainly fits the bill.

Built on more than 1,900 square meters of land, the two-story house, which has a sizable garden and a swimming pool, certainly gives Badrodin more than enough comfort so that he only infrequently stays at his official residence on Jl. Panglima Polim in South Jakarta.

It was at this private residence that 30 lawmakers from House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal affairs visited Badrodin on Wednesday to look into his personal lifestyle before grilling him in a confirmation hearing on Thursday.

After the informal meeting, Commission III chairman Aziz Syamsuddin said the lawmakers got interesting details about Badrodin's life from his wife and two sons, one a police officer and the other a pharmacy student at the University of Indonesia (UI).

"We came to meet with [Badrodin's] family and heard many interesting things about his personal life and all 10 factions expressed their concerns during the meeting. We will hear the rest of what he has to say at the confirmation hearing tomorrow [Thursday] morning," the Golkar Party lawmaker said.

One of the personal stories was that of Fakhri Subhana Haiti, Badrodin's youngest son, who said he wanted to study pharmacy after his mother, Tejaningsih Haiti, was diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome in 2008.

Badrodin, dressed in a yellow and brown batik shirt, said he appreciated the visit and hoped that his confirmation would run smoothly.

"I have already made sufficient preparations on the details of my plan [as police chief] for the confirmation hearing," said Badrodin, whose current take-home pay amounts to less than Rp 25 million (US$1,930) a month.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo nominated Badrodin after his first pick for the job, Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, was deemed unfit to serve in the position as he was named a suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in a graft case.

Although the South Jakarta District Court ruled in a pretrial hearing that the KPK had made an erroneous decision in naming him a suspect, Jokowi declined to proceed with the nomination of Budi and called on the House to proceed with Badrodin's nomination.

Badrodin's nomination is not without controversy. Leaked data from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) said that Badrodin was among 23 police generals who kept suspiciously inflated bank balances.

It was reported in 2010 that Badrodin owned an insurance policy worth Rp 1.1 billion ($84,995) which was paid for by a third party. Between January 2004 and July 2005, Badrodin allegedly received money transfers of Rp 50 million per month and his bank account accepted transfers ranging from Rp 120 million to Rp 343 million.

An internal investigation conducted by the National Police headquarters claimed that 17 out of 23 accounts, including those of Badrodin and Budi, were clean. According to a wealth report submitted by Badrodin to the KPK last year, he claimed to have a total wealth of Rp 8.2 billion and $4,000.

Meanwhile his wealth report submitted in 2008 revealed that he claimed to have a total of Rp 2.9 billion and $4,000.

Human rights activists had previously accused Badrodin of committing human rights violations during his tenure as the Central Sulawesi Police chief, when he ordered an antiterrorist raid in Tanah Runtuh, Poso, Central Sulawesi, in 2007 that left 17 people dead.

In an interview with The Jakarta Post after the lawmakers' visit, Badrodin acknowledged that public trust in the police force was at one of the lowest points in the country's history and that his first priority as National Police chief would be to improve the quality of police personnel.

"We can improve the quality first by more actively recruiting candidates because we have been very passive when it comes to recruitment. We have to go to schools more and actively motivate young people to join the force," he told the Post.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/16/top-cop-candidate-lives-life-rich-and-famous.html

Surveys & opinion polls

Jokowi-Kalla popularity slumps deeper

Jakarta Post - April 20, 2015

Hasyim Widhiarto, National – A survey released by the Jakarta-based Pol- Tracking Institute has shown that public approval of the Joko "Jokowi" Widodo-Jusuf Kalla administration has plunged below 50 percent just five months after the pair assumed the country's leadership.

Conducted from March 23 to 31, the survey, published on Sunday, found that the public satisfaction rating of the Jokowi-Kalla administration stood at only 44 percent. While 48.5 percent of the survey's 1,200 respondents said they were dissatisfied with the government's performance, the remaining 7.5 percent did not answer or were undecided.

"The level of public dissatisfaction is higher than the satisfaction rating. That should sound the alarms for Jokowi and Kalla to immediately improve the performance of their administration," Pol-Tracking executive director Hanta Yuda said.

The survey – held in 33 of the country's 34 provinces with a margin of error of 2.9 percent and a confidence level of 95 percent – also found that the respondents considered the economy to be the new government's worst-performing sector, with only 28.7 percent satisfied with the government's performance in that sector.

Among the five sectors assessed in the survey – the economy, justice and corruption eradication, security, education and health – only the last two received a public satisfaction rating of above 50 percent, with health scoring 52.7 percent and education scoring 51.4 percent.

"The high level of public dissatisfaction in the economic sector is primarily down to skyrocketing prices of staple foodstuffs, gas and electricity, and the fluctuation of fuel prices in recent months," Hanta said, referring to one of the survey's findings that revealed that 55 percent of the respondents identified the soaring prices of basic staple needs as the nation's most pressing problem currently.

Jokowi and Kalla were inaugurated as President and Vice President on Oct. 20 after winning last year's presidential election. The pair garnered 53.15 percent of votes, beating Gerindra Party chief patron Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Hatta Rajasa, who won 46.85 percent.

Despite his narrow victory, Jokowi failed to secure majority support in the House of Representatives after five political parties supporting Prabowo- Hatta presidential nomination formed a coalition in the legislative body, which resulted in months of infighting between the ruling and opposition coalitions over leadership of the House.

The President has also struggled to exert control over law enforcers, as shown by the recent controversy regarding the nomination as National Police chief of Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, a confidant of the chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Megawati Soekarnoputri, who endorsed Jokowi as the party's presidential candidate.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named Budi a graft suspect shortly after Jokowi announced his nomination in January. The National Police retaliated by naming then KPK commissioner Bambang Widjojanto a suspect in a perjury case. The police later moved against then KPK chairman Abraham Samad, naming him a suspect in a document forgery case.

A survey released earlier this month by Indo Barometer found that the satisfaction rating for the Jokowi-Kalla administration stood at 57.5 percent.

PDI-P lawmaker Hendrawan Supratikno, who also chairs the party's economic body, said the relatively low public satisfaction in the new administration was to be expected given the limited time it had and the political turbulence that had hampered the government's efforts to consolidate power and resources to implement new policies.

"Five or six months is clearly too short a time for the new government to bring about significant economic improvement," he argued.

"Many people currently feel the burden of fuel price increases. But three years from now, they will start to see the benefits of the reallocation of fuel subsidies to infrastructure development."

Gerindra lawmaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, meanwhile, argued that the poor public opinion of the government in the legal sector was due to the months-long standoff between the KPK and the police.

Dasco, however, expressed optimism that the new police chief, Gen. Badrodin Haiti, who was installed by President Jokowi on Friday after receiving unanimous endorsement from the House, would help the government improve its performance in the sector.

"There had been some uncertainties within the police force after months without a definitive leadership. The installment of the new police chief will encourage officers to focus on their duties, including cracking down on rampant criminal activities, like human trafficking or violent motorcycle thefts committed by begal [muggers]," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/20/jokowi-kalla-popularity-slumps-deeper.html

Environment & natural disasters

Peat fires in Riau continue despite conversion moratorium

Jakarta Post - April 20, 2015

Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru – A moratorium on land conversion begun during former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration in 2011 has not yet been effective to save peat forests in Riau, as slash and burn practices to clear areas for plantations in the province have continued to occur.

In Sumber Jaya village, Siak Kecil district, Bengkalis regency, more than 100 hectares of peat forests included in the moratorium area have been set on fire in the last three months. Tarpan, 59, a Sumber Jaya villager, said some of the burned peat forests had been cleared a few years ago.

"During the last three months, our village has had rain only three times. Peatlands are really dry and they burn easily," he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Tarpan said a joint team comprising Society Concerned about Fires (MPA) volunteers and fire officers from an industrial forest permit (HTI) holder operating in the area had once managed to extinguish fires in peat forests located around 4.5 kilometers from people's settlements.

"But within only days, they burned again. It seemed that the fires had continued to spread under the soil surface," he said.

According to Tarpan, burned peat forests in Sumber Jaya are part of 6,000 hectares of land allocated for 700 households that participated in transmigration programs in 1980. Many families lost their land ownership letters when a huge flood hit the village in 1984, however.

"Working with officials in the Bengkalis regency administration, many village officials took advantage of the situation and illegally confiscated land initially allocated for the transmigrants. They sold the land to plantation businessmen and this was the beginning of a situation where land fires were able to easily occur here," said Tarpan.

The Bengkalis Police were reported to have apprehended three Sumber Jaya village officials for their alleged involvement in land clearing and burning.

Illegal land buying and selling practices as well as excessive conversion triggering fires in peat forests listed as moratorium areas have also occurred in Tanjung Layang, Tanjung Kuras village, Sungai Apit district, Siak regency.

Concerning the situation, Greenpeace SEA Indonesia's forest political campaigner, M. Teguh Surya, urged President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to take action to stop deforestation in primary forests and peatlands included in the moratorium area.

He said Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 6/2013 on a moratorium on the issuance of new conversion permits on primary forests and peatlands, which would expire on May 13, must be extended and strengthened.

"After its four-year implementation, Jokowi should be able to read what are the weaknesses and loopholes of Inpres No. 6," said Teguh. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/20/peat-fires-riau-continue-despite-conversion-moratorium.html

Health & education

Civil groups make case for sex education in schools

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2015

Kennial Caroline Laia, Jakarta – A national adolescent sexual and reproductive health conference hosted by five civil society organizations hopes to be the start of a movement educating Indonesia's youth about the importance of staying sexually safe and healthy.

"Raising awareness and boosting knowledge about sexual and reproduction health among the country's young people is urgent and extremely important," said Yuli Evina Bhara, a member of the organizing committee.

Social groups including Yogyakarta-based Seperlima, Hivos, PKBI, Pamplet and the University of Indonesia (UI)'s Gender Studies Center all took part in the conference, which was supported by the Norwegian Embassy in Jakarta.

The conference was opened by Hasto Wardoyo, the head of Yogyakarta's Kulon Progo district, and was attended by 100 youths from several districts across Indonesia.

Participants from Timor-Leste and Vietnam also took part to share their experiences and views on sexual health awareness throughout the region.

The conference suggested that sexual violence toward teenagers could be prevented by equipping them with a comprehensive and credible education of reproductive health as part of the school curriculum. It also emphasized that sex education was important during the transition from childhood to becoming healthy, informed young adults.

Going beyond maintaining sexual health and avoiding infection and disease, the conference touched on the psychological aspects of sexual relationships, empowerment and anti-violence skills.

Separately, Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said sexual and reproductive education should be taught in Indonesia's schools.

"There should a subject containing reproductive health lessons to educate students at school once a week," she said on Sunday as quoted by Liputan6.com. "Here, the teacher could give comprehensive information to students."

The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) has reported victims of sexual violence in Indonesia grow younger each year.

The most common ages of victims currently ranges from between 13 and 18 years old. The commission called on the community to raise awareness of the issue and pressure the government to do more to prevent violence against girls and young women. "We have to work together to solve this pressing problem," Evina said.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/civil-groups-make-case-sex-education-schools/

MK upholds patient's right to sue doctors

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2015

Jakarta – The Constitutional Court (MK) on Monday delivered a verdict securing the public's right to file complaints with law enforcement authorities over alleged criminal acts committed by doctors, rejecting a judicial review request challenging the 2004 Medical Practice Law previously filed by a doctors association.

The Indonesian Doctors Union (DIB) filed a judicial review petition in January last year with the court against Law No. 29/2004 on medical practice, claiming that Article 66 of the law had provided room for broad interpretations of malpractice.

DIB said that the interpretations could lead to legal uncertainty for the medical profession and raise fears among doctors.

"The court completely rejects the judicial review appeal," chief justice Arief Hidayat said as he read out the verdict on Monday, adding that the judicial review request had no legal grounds.

He said that filing medical complaints through criminal or civil procedures was necessary to protect the rights of patients from mistreatment by doctors. "It is aimed at securing the rights of patients," he said.

Arief further said that imposing ethical, disciplinary and legal sanctions, which had different legal consequences respectively, on doctors for a single criminal act did not mean that they were imposed with multiple sanctions.

Article 66 of the Medical Practice Law stipulates that filing complaints with the Indonesian Medical Disciplinary Council (MKDKI) does not eliminate the public's right to report alleged criminal acts to the authorities or file civil lawsuits with the court. "Each of the sanctions has a different dimension," Arief added. He said that medical mistreatment could not be solely addressed through the MKDKI, adding that doctors would be free of criminal charges if the MKDKI ruled that they were practicing in line with professional disciplines.

Agung Sapta Adi of the DIB said earlier that medical misconduct should first be proven in MKDKI court, adding that if doctors were found guilty by the MKDKI, they would face severe punishment, such as the revocation of their Practice Permit (SIP) or Register Permit (STR), either temporarily or permanently.

The judicial review petition, which was filed by doctors Agung Sapta Adi, Yadi Permana, Irwan Kreshnamurti and Eva Sri Diana, was proposed following the imprisonment of three physicians over the death of a patient.

Obstetrician-gynecologist Dewa Ayu Sasiary Prawani, Hendry Simanjuntak and Hendy Siagian were sent to prison in November 2013 after they were deemed responsible for the death of Julia Fransiska Makatey in 2010 due to a heart embolism during a C-section at Kandou Hospital in Manado, North Sulawesi.

The Supreme Court sentenced the defendants to 10 months in prison for violating Article 359 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) for negligence resulting in death. (alm)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/21/mk-upholds-patient-s-right-sue-doctors.html

Gender & sexual orientation

LGBT groups empowered by writing training

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2015

Syamsul Huda M. Suhari, Gorontalo – Dea, 32, sits in a circle with friends discussing her experience of being spurned by society. She and her colleagues discuss being harassed and mocked for their life choices, which they say society deemed deviant. Conversation eventually turned to the success of recent writing training.

"The training was very useful to us, so we know how to write well and correctly. We can voice who we really are," said Dea, a transgender woman who works as a kindergarten teacher in Gorontalo.

No less than six lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organizations from five cities in Sulawesi attended the writing class, held for three days from April 17 to 19 in Gorontalo.

The six LGBT groups involved in the training session were Sanubari in North Sulawesi; Tomohon Berdikari and Bitung Transgender and Gay Society in South Sulawesi; Maleo Palu in Central Sulawesi; and Binthe Pelangi and Indonesia Transgender Association from Gorontalo.

The writing class was initiated by the Suara Kita organization, an NGO based in Jakarta focused on sexual issues in the country.

Suara Kita director Hartoyo told The Jakarta Post that the training was technically aimed at providing basic writing skills to the participants so they would be able to communicate, on paper, their experiences during the commemoration of the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO), which will be held on May 17.

According to Hartoyo, data on violence experienced by members of the LGBT community in the country is lacking, and equipping them with writing skills, will help them report on cases of violence and harassment, as well as provide advocacy for their colleagues.

"We will also take advantage of the occasion to consolidate and strengthen the networks between organizations and LGBT groups outside Java. The training session will be followed by online mentoring," Hartoyo said.

He added that LGBT concerns, which remain controversial in Indonesia, were further hampered by the presence of the mainstream media, which used LGBT issues to raise ratings, only covering stories that involved violence against members of the LGBT community.

According to Hartoyo, stories written by members of the LGBT community themselves will capture their experiences with more accuracy. "We only wish to express that people's sexual identities vary. Every person should be respected and the state is obliged to provide protection," said Hartoyo.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/21/lgbt-groups-empowered-writing-training.html

Hard-line & vigilante groups

FPI leader sentenced to five months

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2015

Yogyakarta – The Sleman District Court on Wednesday sentenced the chairman of the Central Java and Yogyakarta chapter of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Bambang Teddy, to five months and 15 days in jail and fined him Rp 50 million (US$3,800), or another two months in prison, for fraud.

The court also sentenced Bambang's wife Sebrat Haryanti to six months probation and fined her Rp 50 million, or another two months in prison if she would or could not pay.

"Bambang Teddy and Sebrat Hariyanti were proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt to have committed fraud together," said presiding judge Rochmad on Wednesday.

As reported, Bambang was arrested by the Yogyakarta Police on Aug. 6, 2014, for fraud in the purchase of land worth Rp 11.7 billion.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/16/islands-focus-fpi-leader-sentenced-five-months.html

Islamic law & morality

Ahok to allow minimarts to sell alcohol

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2015

Dewanti Wardhani, Jakarta – Responding to the Trade Ministry's prohibition on the sale of alcohol in minimarts, Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama is considering allowing minimarts and special bottle shops to sell alcohol.

Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel recently issued Ministerial Regulation No. 6/2015 on the distribution of beverages, prohibiting supermarkets and minimarts from selling drinks containing more than five percent alcohol.

The new regulation was intended, the minister claimed, to uphold morality and culture in society and to help end the distribution of bootleg liquor that had claimed many a number of lives in recent years.

"There should be a bottle shop selling alcoholic drinks only. It's common in other countries. Anyone can buy from the bottle shop as long as they are over 21 years old," Ahok told reporters at City Hall in Central Jakarta on Wednesday.

Ahok said that such stores would not need special licenses. However, he said, the city administration would conduct an in-depth study before allowing supermarkets and minimarts to sell alcohol.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/22/ahok-allow-minimarts-sell-alcohol.html

Bali tourist areas exempt from beer ban

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2015

Ni Komang Erviani, Denpasar – The Trade Ministry's new regulation on alcoholic beverages, scheduled to take full effect on Thursday, will not be enforced on Bali as the ministry has decided that tourism areas would be exempted from the ban.

On Thursday minimarkets, small vendors and beachside beverage vendors across the country were to stop selling beer. Bali administrations, retail associations and vendors had expressed opposition against the beer ban.

Sinar Pohan, a ministry official on legal affairs, said Thursday that a ministerial guideline for the ban stipulated that regents and mayors could designate certain places as areas for selling alcoholic beverages for direct consumption by considering the local customs.

"These areas or places should be declared as tourism areas or tourism sites through a bylaw," said Sinar during an explanatory meeting in Denpasar.

The guideline stipulated that the type of alcoholic beverages that could be sold in tourism areas were only those with an alcohol content of 1 to 5 percent, type A alcoholic beverages.

"The alcoholic beverages are only to be sold in tourism areas to foreign and domestic tourists older than 21 years of age, which should be proven with an identity card," he said.

Small-scale vendors selling beer in tourism areas must be part of a cooperative, a regional administration-owned enterprise (BUMD), or a joint enterprise group sanctioned by a regent or mayor.

"The supervision of the trade in alcoholic beverages in tourism areas will be conducted by a team established by the regent or mayor," Sinar said.

The guideline was made in response to the strong opposition from Bali over the ministry's new regulation, which stipulated beverages with an alcohol content of 1 to 5 percent could only be sold in supermarkets and hypermarkets.

Based on the regulation, minimarkets, food stalls, street vendors and beachside vendors will no longer be allowed to sell beer or other beverages with an alcohol content of between 1 and 5 percent. They were already banned from selling stronger drinks.

Last week, Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel met with Bali administrations, retail associations and vendor representatives over the protest.

Also on Thursday, a member of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) from Bali, Arya Wedakarna, said he hoped that the Bali administrations could immediately follow up on the new regulation by stipulating tourism areas to be exempted.

"I hope that the trade and industrial agency can immediately notify the Bali Police about the regulation so there will no enforcement of the ban pending the bylaws," he said.

Kuta traditional village chief Wayan Swarsa conveyed his appreciation over the regulation. He said that six customary villages would establish village-owned enterprises to manage the hundreds of beachside beer vendors in his area.

Swarsa is also the chairman of the customary village council (MADP) for the Kuta subdistrict, the umbrella organization of six customary villages around Kuta, including Legian, Tuban, Kerobokan and Kedonganan. "We will establish an enterprise to follow up on the regulation," he said.

The beer ban, made in consideration of the "protection of morals and culture in society" to tighten supervision of alcoholic drink sales, has also faced protests from retailers in other parts of Indonesia.

The Association of Indonesian Retailers (Aprindo) has voiced regret, saying that the authority to allow or prohibit sales of beverages with low alcohol content should be left to regional administrations.

Minimarkets in general account for 1 or 2 percent of total beer sales, but in certain tourist areas they can account for between 10 and 20 percent of distribution, according to the business group.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/17/bali-tourist-areas-exempt-beer-ban.html

Indonesian ban on sale of alcohol at minimarkets takes effect

Jakarta Globe - April 16, 2015

Lenny Tristia Tambun & Deti Mega Purnamasari, Jakarta – Indonesia on Thursday officially banned the sale of alcoholic beverages in convenience stores and other small shops, but senior officials in the capital are already expressing fears that the nation-wide regulation could hurt tourism.

"We will comply and we'll follow the rules," Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said on Thursday as the Trade Ministry's regulation took effect.

Basuki said that he was concerned that the ban could encourage the illegal sale of alcoholic beverages in the city, but stressed he was committed to play by the rules regardless. The city's deputy governor, Djarot Saiful Hidayat, also said he was hoping the ban would not scare away foreigners.

"We can't let [the ban] kill our tourism industry – beer and other alcoholic drinks are not taboo for foreigners, they are used to it because their countries are characterized by cold temperatures," Djarot said, without elaborating on the supposed connection between alcohol consumption and the prevailing climate.

Djarot also stressed that the ban on sale of alcohol by convenience stores did not mean alcohol would not be available at all in Indonesia, as the hospitality industry and larger supermarkets across the country would not be affected.

Some areas in Indonesia do already ban alcohol consumption, such as Aceh, but this is based on regional bylaws, not national regulations. "It's a restriction, not a total ban," the Jakarta deputy governor explained.

Be that as it may, Reuters earlier this week reported that two Islamic parties have proposed legislation that would ban all consumption of alcoholic drinks and bring jail terms of up to two years for offenders.

Although it was not immediately clear how much support there would be for the bill at the House of Representatives, a lawmaker for one of the parties said it could become law as early as the end of this year, and that it was driven by concern for people's health rather than any ideological motives.

"This is not a religious or ideological issue," Abdul Hakim of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) told Reuters. "This is purely for the protection of the children of the nation."

Djarot dismissed predictions that the ban that went into effect on Thursday would cost Jakarta at least Rp 45 billion ($3.5 million) in revenue annually.

"We can't tell for sure now, because it was just a prediction. The fact is that hotels, restaurants and cafes are still [serving alcoholic beverages]," he said.

The Trade Ministry with its regulation revoked the license of convenience stores and other small shops to sell alcohol. Only restaurants, hotels and large retailers are allowed to sell beer, wines, spirits and the like.

Neneng Sri Mulyati, a spokeswoman for minimart chain 7-Eleven, said her company would comply with the regulation.

Starting on Thursday the chain run by Modern Internasional would no longer sell alcoholic beverages in any of its 172 stores across Jakarta, she stressed. "Starting today there will be no more alcohol in our stores," Neneng said.

[Additional reporting from Reuters.]

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/jakarta/indonesian-ban-sale-alcohol-minimarkets-takes-effect/

Indonesia bans sale of beer in small retailers; Bali street vendors spared

Agence France Presse - April 16, 2015

Indonesia has banned small retailers from selling beer, despite an outcry from the alcohol and tourism industries over the Muslim-majority country's latest offensive against drinking.

The ban restricts the sale of beer and pre-mixed drinks to large supermarkets only, outlawing sales in the country's 16,000 minimarts and 55,000 other small shops. Hotels, restaurants and bars are unaffected.

There had been particular anxiety about how the ban might affect tourism on the Hindu-majority resort island of Bali.

However, Indonesian trade minister Rachmat Gobel, who was shouted at during an ill-tempered meeting with community leaders in Bali last weekend, has now pledged to ease the restrictions on the island to ensure street vendors can still sell beer at the beach.

In anticipation of the ban, convenience stores in the capital Jakarta began pulling alcohol from their shelves weeks ago, replacing chilled beers and bourbon and cokes with signs apologising to customers for the inconvenience.

"I think tourists will not appreciate it. Everybody likes to have a beer," German tourist Daniel Kowalski said. "Some people may actually say 'well I can't have a beer, I'd rather go to Thailand'."

Moves towards total alcohol ban

The national ban is the latest sign that conservative forces in the country of 250 million people are pushing back against growing alcohol consumption, and comes the same week that Islamic parties in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation proposed a total ban on drinking.

The trade ministry justified the ban targeting sales at small retailers on health and moral grounds, as concerns grow that underage drinking is being fuelled by wide availability in local neighbourhoods.

Lawmaker Fahira Idris, founder of the National Anti-Alcohol Movement and a leading proponent of the measure, likened alcohol to a "machine killing our youth".

But health advocates warn it could drive more drinkers to black market spirits, high-potency concoctions sold illegally on the street that kill an untold number of drinkers every year.

"To limit the market, and to limit where you can purchase the controlled alcohol, it's just a nightmare," Australian Lhani Davies, whose 19-year-old son Liam died from methanol poisoning after being served homebrewed spirits at a bar in Indonesia, said.

The regulation may mean little to ordinary Indonesians though, who are among the lowest consumers of alcohol per capita in Southeast Asia. More than 90 per cent of the population describe themselves as Muslim, and drinking is against Islamic law.

The proposal to ban all alcohol sales has been put forward by two Islamic parties in a parliamentary bill, although previous such attempts have failed and have been viewed as an attempt to pander to conservative voters.

Major brewers unhappy with ban

The Indonesian Brewers Association, which represents the country's major beer distributors, said enforcing the ban amounted to prohibition in smaller towns where big supermarkets are scarce.

Alcohol is widely available in bigger cities and tourist areas, and industry data shows beer sales have been growing annually by roughly five per cent.

A spokeswoman for Heineken, a popular brand in Indonesia, said the ban would hurt at the local level. Multinational giant Diageo, which distributes well-known brands such as Guinness in Indonesia, called the ban "regrettable".

Very few small retailers can stock unmixed spirits and wine, meaning the regulation is viewed as a move to whittle away the availability of alcohol sales at all points.

Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2015-04-16/indonesia-bans-sale-of-beer-in-small-retailers-bali-street-vendors-spared/1437806

Parliament & legislation

House removes Agung's loyalists

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2015

Jakarta – The House of Representatives officiated on Monday a new list of assignments for Golkar Party lawmakers proposed by Aburizal Bakrie's new committee.

Benefiting from a recent court order that has reinstated his legitimacy as chairman, Aburizal has ordered the removal of lawmakers supporting a rival camp led by Agung Laksono from strategic posts in House commissions.

The letter of reassignment was signed by House speaker Setya Novanto, who is also a supporter of Aburizal.

"According to the [Legislative Institution Law], leaders of meetings or commissions can tell security officers to remove lawmakers that disrupt their activities," said Golkar lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo, who is also an Aburizal loyalist. He was referring to Agung's supporters who refuse to be removed from their previous posts.

Aburizal's camp has ordered the removal of Agung's supporters as they are on the committee he established following the government's recognition of his chairmanship.

Agung's chairmanship has been suspended as Aburizal is challenging the recognition letter from the Law and Human Rights Ministry to the Jakarta State Administrative Court.

Aburizal has removed 33 lawmakers during the reassignments, including Agung's son, Dave Laksono, and Agung's secretary-general, Zainudin Amali.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/21/national-scene-house-removes-agung-s-loyalists.html

House security plan sparks controversy

Jakarta Post - April 20, 2015

Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta – Former United Party Development (PPP) lawmaker Ahmad Yani still vividly recalls his unpleasant experience in September last year when dealing with angry protesters after a bill deliberation meeting at the legislative compound in Senayan, Central Jakarta.

Yani, who then served as a deputy head of the House's working committee to deliberate amendment of the 2003 Advocate Law, was about to leave the meeting room when suddenly dozens of people aggressively approached and scolded him.

Some of the protesters threw bottles of mineral water at Yani, forcing him to flee to the parking basement accompanied by several internal security (Pamdal) officers.

"I was shocked by the incident," Yani told The Jakarta Post on Friday. "How come the building could be so easily entered by people with the potential to harm others?"

Referring to the incident, Yani, who failed to win his reelection bid in last year's legislative election, quickly lent his support to a recent House proposal for the establishment of a special police task force to secure the compound.

"The current security level at the compound is relatively low as it heavily relies on Pamdal officers, most of whom are hired from outsourcing [companies]," he said.

Located on a 30-hectare plot of land, the Senayan legislative compound is one of the most prominent political landmarks in the country, besides the State Palace compound, also in Central Jakarta.

With eight main buildings, the compound is the venue for activities of 560 lawmakers, 132 members of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and thousands of supporting staff.

The House currently employs 450 Pamdal officers to manage security at the compound, but regularly seeks support from the police to provide security during major events, like presidential inaugurations and other state ceremonies, or public protests, which are only allowed to take place outside the compound.

In an attempt to improve the level of security, the House revealed last week a plan to establish a special police task force, led by a one-star police general and comprising 1,194 personnel, to be stationed at its compound.

According to Golkar Party lawmaker Roem Kono, the leader of the House's Ways and Means Committee (BURT), the proposed police task force would be similar to the Presidential Security Detail (Paspampres), which has the strength of about 2,500 military personnel and is led by a two-star military general, Maj. Gen. Andika Perkasa.

Paspampres is responsible for securing not only the president and vice president, but also any visiting foreign heads of state. "[The House] must improve all aspects to become a modern legislative body," Roem said.

The proposal, however, has drawn criticism. The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA), for example, estimates that the House would need at least Rp 800 billion (US$62.5 million) to establish and equip a police task force, much more than the House's Rp 18.1 billion budget for internal security in 2015.

Uchok Sky Khadafi of the Center for Budget Analysis (CBA), also strongly criticized the proposal, saying the establishment of a police task force would potentially lead to police intervention in legislative affairs. "This is unacceptable in a democratic country," he said.

From observation, the Post found that on regular days, Pamdal officers only screened visitors entering certain House buildings.

To enter the 23-story Nusantara I building, where lawmakers' offices are located, visitors, for example, must leave their ID card at the screening gate. Some are also required to show a document confirming the purpose of their visit. However, those entering the Nusantara building, which houses meeting halls for four of the 11 House commissions, can walk in freely.

During plenary sessions, Pamdal officers thoroughly search visitors' bags for food, drinks and dangerous materials before they are granted entry to the observation balcony in the plenary hall. The same procedure, however, is not carried out during open hearings held by commissions.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/20/house-security-plan-sparks-controversy.html

Jakarta & urban life

Plan for TNI, police deployment draws criticism

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2015

Jakarta – Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama's plan to hire military and police personnel to maintain security and public order in the city has drawn strong criticism from the public.

The city is this year set to cooperate with the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police (Polri) to uphold the 5 Tertib Jakarta (5 Orderly Jakarta) program to govern Jakarta and its millions of residents.

The 5TJ consists of tertib pedagang kaki lima (orderly street vendors), tertib hunian (orderly residences), tertib buang sampah (orderly waste disposal), tertib berlalu lintas (orderly traffic) and tertib berdemo (orderly demonstrations).

TB Hasanuddin, a member of the House of Representatives Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs and a politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that the plan was bothersome for the TNI. "TNI officers trained hard to defend the country," Hasanuddin said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

The governor has issued Gubernatorial Regulation No. 138/2015 on hiring TNI and police personnel to maintain public order in Jakarta. The regulation stipulates that the city will deploy TNI and Polri officers for activities in which the city administration would need a helping hand from such officers. The kinds of activities were not described in the regulation.

Each officer would receive a total of Rp 283,000 (US$22) per day from the city administration – Rp 250,000 for their work and a Rp 38,000 meal allowance.

Many members of the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) have expressed their objection to the governor's plan to recruit military and police personnel to uphold security and public order in the city because it would take over from their daily roles.

Ahok said that the plan was part of a larger cooperation between the city administration, the TNI and the police, and that the city had "no intention of harassing the two institutions". (tya)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/21/plan-tni-police-deployment-draws-criticism.html

Expect delays: World's-worst Jakarta traffic in gridlock for another decade

Reuters - April 17, 2015

Charlotte Greenfield, Jakarta – Millions of Jakarta commuters will have to struggle through the world's most congested traffic for almost another decade, authorities believe, and they may have to wait even longer if $4 billion worth of new railway projects don't work out as planned.

Jakarta's gridlocked streets are the biggest headache for the Indonesian capital's 10 million residents and a major hindrance to economic growth, with workers stranded for hours in buses, cars and motorcycles each day.

Jakarta ranked top among 78 cities for traffic stops and starts in a study published this year by motor oil firm Castrol, with the average driver having to stop 33,240 times a year – more than twice the number in New York. New York drivers also travel twice as fast as those in Jakarta, whose average speed is a mere 8.3 kilometers per hour.

Making matters worse, at least a thousand new cars and motorbikes are added to Jakarta's roads each day, government figures show.

"Congestion in Jakarta is already at an alarming level. In the not-too- distant future, the city will be paralyzed by traffic," said Budi Edi Praitno, a Jakarta commuter who traded his motorcycle for a bicycle to trim a few minutes from his 30-kilometer commute, which still takes more than an hour.

There are hopes that a mass rapid transit (MRT) system, under construction and slated to open in 2018, will provide relief.

However, the MRT's president director Dono Boestami said its impact would be limited initially. Instead, it will take a long checklist of initiatives, including the government's new plan to build a light rail train (LRT), to see any real change.

If all goes to plan, traffic could be reduced by 30 percent, but not until 2024 at the earliest, Boestami said, and a second MRT line and inner city toll roads would also be needed.

Traffic scourge

Work on the MRT began in 2013 after decades of delays, and the Indonesian and Jakarta city governments say they are urgently seeking more solutions to the traffic scourge.

"Based on instructions from the president, all plans to develop public transportation in greater Jakarta must be conducted this year and this cannot be delayed," Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told reporters this month after a meeting with President Joko Widodo.

A consortium of Indonesian and Japanese companies, including Obayashi Corporation, Shimizu Corporation and Sumitomo Mitsui Construction, is building the MRT, which is expected to cost $3 billion.

The LRT, which is expected to stretch 30 km and cost around $720 million, will be built by a group of around seven state-owned firms, including construction companies Adhi Karya and Wijaya Karya.

For commuters, the government's plan to overhaul public transportation is long overdue.

"If the government can provide a convenient, safe and good public transportation system, I will use it for sure because commuting with a two-wheel vehicle is the last alternative," said Thomas Madya Bestari who spends more than two hours a day getting to and from his marketing job at Samsung on a motorbike.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/expect-delays-worlds-worst-jakarta-traffic-gridlock-another-decade/

Songs from the street: The underworld of Indonesian buskers

Sydney Morning Herald - April 17, 2015

Jewel Topsfield, Jakarta – Bambang "Ho" Mulyono has the languid sexiness of Bob Marley – waist-length dreads, a T-shirt that says something unintelligibly hippy-dippy and a battered guitar plastered with stickers.

He sings of Reformasi (the post-Suharto reform era in Indonesia) gone rotten, the gap between the rich and poor ("You get cheese for breakfast, I'm stuck with cassava") and the scourge of corruption.

Ho's compositions are in the tradition of Iwan Fals, the fabled Indonesian street musician, whose protest songs became anthems for students protesting Suharto's New Order regime. Fals was named a "Great Asian Hero" in 2002 by Time magazine.

But today's buskers are no folk heroes. Known as pengamen, street musicians are considered public nuisances in Jakarta. They are part of a little- understood underclass who – along with transvestites, beggars and jockeys (professional hitchhikers) – are regularly rounded up during raids and sent to social rehabilitation centres.

Ho scrapes a living by busking on the city's buses. He prefers buses to the street-side restaurants known as warungs, where people are preoccupied with food and conversation. "On a bus it feels like doing a performance, it feels like on stage, it doesn't make me feel like a beggar," he says.

Although it is usually Ministry of Social Affairs officers from whom Ho "runs like hell", he says street musicians are now also targeted by police in the lead up to the Asian-African Conference to be held in Jakarta later this month.

"They want to sterilise the streets of the buskers," Ho says, dragging on a cigarette. "They will take everyone with musical instruments they find on the street. First they will take us to the police station and if we don't have ID cards they will send us to social rehab centres."

Ho has had three stints of up to three months inside the centres, which he says are like jails. "The only activity is cleaning and that's it. Two hours' work a day and then back in a very small room with sometimes 25 people and one toilet. Sometimes the toilet doesn't work. Theoretically they have to give us vocational training, but what I experienced in 2005 and 2008? Nothing."

The Indonesian media regularly reports scores of "punkers" (street musicians in punk attire) "netted" in street sweeps and taken to shelters along with others with "social issues".

"They have made residents anxious because they often appeared intimidating," Ahmad Dumiyani, the head of a social shelter in Kedoya, West Jakarta, told beritajakarta.com in January.

Anthropologist Jeremy Wallach believes the saying Ibu tiri tak sekejam ibu kota ("A stepmother is not as cruel as the capital city") can seem an apt one for Indonesia's vast have-not majority in the "eternally traffic- choked, famously dystopic capital".

He says many commuters and passersby ignore buskers or associate them with intimidating beggars who weave their way through traffic jams, tunelessly picking at guitars.

However Wallach believes the serious street musicians are "no less than the social conscience of the nation". He says that since the Suharto era, pengamen have created a national identity through their songs, which are usually Indonesian pop, their own compositions or Iwan Fals evergreens.

"They are sort of like the radio stations of Indonesia," says Wallach, who documented the role of pengamen in his book "Modern Noise, Fluid Genres: Popular Music in Indonesia".

Curiously, they rarely perform songs in English – Wallach has heard occasional Beatles renditions in other Indonesian cities, but never in Jakarta.

"It seems to me street musicians perform a very important function in creating a social and political consciousness," Wallach says. "Whether people choose to acknowledge the music taking place or not, they are certainly exposed to it."

Titi Juwariyah is a feisty mother of four whose busking bankrolled her return to school as a mature-age student to complete her national diploma. Scarved women clap and cheer as she strums her guitar and belts out a catchy tune in a tiny warung, a bank note pinned to her forehead.

"What upsets us as buskers... is that our own friends go drinking and using drugs," Titi says. "They force passengers and drivers to give them money. Those of us who don't do anarchic things are considered to be just like them. Like it or not, we get arrested too by the police." Canadian filmmaker Daniel Ziv met Ho, Titi and another street musician, Boni, while documenting life on the margins for the urban magazine Djakarta. He was captivated by their humanity and joy despite the hardships they faced and the monotony of their existence. Ziv spent five years filming their lives.

The project initially focused on the buskers and their music but evolved into something far more ambitious – a portrait of Indonesia in the post- Suharto era. The documentary – Jalanan (Streetside) – starkly exposes the gulf between the lives of the wealthy and those who fall between the cracks.

Ho, for example, is arrested during a raid and incarcerated in a social rehabilitation centre with a rickshaw driver nabbed while picking his daughter up from school.

"The film really sets out to create awareness and expose the injustices and absurdities," Ziv says. In another scene Boni, who lives in a sewage tunnel, rides the escalators in a glitzy megamall to stave off boredom. He visits the bathroom, gleefully observing it was used by the rich and the poor: "Shit mixes together just fine. It's the people who don't like to mix."

Ironically, it was in these upmarket malls that Jalanan was screened – the first documentary ever to be granted a full cinematic release in Indonesia. Ziv deliberately modelled the movie poster on The Avengers; he wanted Ho, Boni and Titi portrayed not as victims but role models, even superheros. The trio became household names and were swamped with requests to appear on TV and radio shows.

"Because of the documentary, the social affairs office knows us better and knows the real problems on the street," Titi says.

Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as Ahok, gave the buskers his mobile phone number. He often responds to their messages.

"At least Ahok knows that people like us are sometimes locked in rooms," Ho says. "After he saw the movie he visited a rehab centre in East Jakarta and asked management to release people, including an old lady."

The documentary had other benefits. Titi and Ho have formed a duo called HoTea on the Street and are recording an album with the independent Nagaswara studio in Jakarta. "Because of the movie we can see real musicians like [legendary Indonesian rock band] Slank," Ho says. "We are the same as them, the only difference is that they are very popular and have more money."

But Jalanan has also created tension within the pengamen community. "My friends are jealous of the movie. They said: 'You are just a newcomer on the street, we've been here years longer'," Ho says.

The most disturbing thing, Titi says, is the assumption that they now have a lot of money which they are refusing to dish out. "That's not true, we still have the same money as before," she says.

Ziv wants to provide Boni, Ho and Titi with a lasting legacy, a way of leaving them with a better life after the film. Although he has provided them with financial assistance over the years, he became frustrated by the fact that they had nothing to show for it through no fault of their own.

"In working class Indonesia anyone who comes into money is under enormous pressure from their friends and family to hand it over," Ziv says. He concluded the best thing he could do was buy them a house with a legitimate land certificate, not just to provide shelter but permanent freedom from rent, debt, danger and homelessness.

Ziv says the cost of a modest one-bedroom house in a low-income part of Jakarta is about $15,000. He has set a fundraising target of $50,000, of which $37,000 has already been raised through fundraising in Indonesia and an international crowdfunding campaign.

Jalanan has now screened at 46 film festivals in 28 countries and the donations are coming from all over the world. Some of the sums have been significant but Ziv says he is just as touched when someone sends $10 to a country they have never been to as a result of seeing a documentary.

"We are getting there – I really believe that by the end of the calendar year I will be able to buy them their house."

[Jalanan will be screened at ACMI in Federation Square on April 18 as part of the 2015 Indonesian Film Festival in Melbourne. Titi, Ho and Boni will perform after the screening. To help Titi, Ho and Boni buy a house go to https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/dgEM6.]

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/songs-from-the-street-the-underworld-of-indonesian-buskers-20150417-1mk7t8.html

Armed forces & defense

Indonesia military launches anti-IS operation on eastern island

Reuters - April 21, 2015

Kanupriya Kapoor & Randy Fabri, Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces have launched a six-month anti-terrorism operation to crack down on militants with suspected links to Islamic State, the top general said on Monday, amid growing concern about military involvement in internal security.

General Moeldoko said special forces personnel and intelligence agents were helping police track down radicals in Central Sulawesi, long known to be a hotbed of militant activity.

This is Indonesia's first major military counter-terrorism operation, traditionally the domain of the police, since the aftermath of the 2009 Jakarta hotel bombings.

"The geographical terrain there makes it difficult for police to get to them," Moeldoko told Reuters at military headquarters on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta.

"Our hope is that with our troops and live ammunition, we can compel the radical groups to come out of that area. After that, it's easier for the police to arrest them."

Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, is growing increasingly concerned about the return of hundreds of its citizens that have fought for IS in Syria and Iraq.

"The military will not give any space for IS to develop or live in Indonesia," Moeldoko said.

The military's growing presence on the island of Sulawesi started last month in an exercise involving warships and military aircraft. Some troops remain in the area.

But activists have questioned the military's involvement in domestic security, pointing to its track record of rights abuses in handling internal conflicts.

"Terrorism is not war, it is criminal," said Haris Azhar, coordinator of the commission for missing persons and victims of violence. "It has to be dealt with by police, not by the military."

Moeldoko said it was the military's job to make sure Indonesians were safe. The general also raised concerns over tensions in the South China Sea, calling for a new military balance in the region.

"There are significant changes in the stable and calm conditions that existed in the region a decade ago," he said.

"So everyone has an opinion that China is a threat to the neighborhood. The region needs a new balance, which cannot be represented by just one major power."

China claims most of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, disputed in parts with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Indonesia plans to upgrade its military forces in the remote Natuna Islands and Tanjung Datu, areas near China's claims, "to deal with developments in the South China Sea," the general said.

Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/asia/indonesia-military-launches-anti-is-operation-on-eastern-island.html

Military restores security, order in restive Poso

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2015

Jakarta – The war game that involved thousands of personnel from the Army, Navy and Air Force has concluded in Poso, Central Sulawesi on Friday with the stationing of 600 personnel from the Army's Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) to maintain the restored security and order in the regency.

"The joint exercise ended today, but 600 Kostrad personnel will be stationed to help support the territorial education operation conducted by the Wirabuana Military Command," Chief of Kostrad's Division II Maj. Gen. Bambang Haryanto said during the exercise's closing ceremony in Poso on Friday.

He said the deployment of 600 Kostrad personnel in Poso was conducted at the request of local people who had feared to do their daily activities outside their homes because of security disturbances launched terrorist group led by Santoso.

"During our meeting with local officials, religious leaders and students, the military was asked to extend the exercise and station a great number of personnel to restore security and public order in the regency," he said, adding most locals were fearing the return of the dispersed terrorists to the regency.

Bambang who expressed his satisfaction with the exercise, said the three- week operation achieved its secondary objective of restoring security and order by quelling the Santoso-led terrorist group.

"No terrorists have been found in the regency and the jungle and the exercise was staged to restore security and public order and to create a safe feeling among locals," he said.

The joint exercise had a dual purpose: to train the three branches of the Military to work together and to suppress the Santoso-led terrorist group that has been held responsible for a recent bloody attack on a police office and several churches and for the killing of several farmers who were working their land.

The chief of the Wirabuana Military Command overseeing Sulawesi, Maj. Gen. Bachtiar, said his outfit would launch the territorial education operation to maintain the military's presence in the regency.

"There will be no war games, but we will carry out a civic work program to repair infrastructure such as roads, bridges, mosques and churches in the regency," he said as quoted by kompas.com. (rms)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/17/military-restores-security-order-restive-poso.html

After 63 years, notorious Kopassus learns to smile

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2015

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – To smile, greet and shake hands (3S) may seem like trivial things to civilians, but for the personnel of Kopassus, the Army's notorious special forces, they sound like backbreaking labor. In their dictionary, only three words stand out: rage, glare and punch (3M).

But that may soon change. In the last four months, several billboards have been installed in the force's headquarters in Cijantung, East Jakarta, advising all personnel to do the 3S and avoid doing the 3M.

Every day, during the morning command service, personnel are required to greet the public and help end the force's long-perceived intimidating appearance. "I even taught them how to smile sincerely and to get used to it," Kopassus commander Maj. Gen. Doni Monardo, 51, said recently.

Starting with the little things, Kopassus is now taking a small step that may lead to a big leap as it strives to insert a humane touch into its interactions with civilians and overcome the unit's gruesome history of extra-judicial killing and kidnapping.

Since the reform movement of 1998, the Kopassus is no longer synonymous with accomplishments.

The public has largely associated the unit with three particular incidents: the 1998 kidnapping of students and political activists, the 2001 killing of Theys Eluay, Papua's most prominent separatist leader, and the 2013 raid on Cebongan prison in Yogyakarta that resulted in the killing of four detainees suspected of murdering a Kopassus officer.

"Because of that, all of our accomplishments seemed to evaporate into thin air," said Doni, a former commander of the Presidential Security Detail (Paspampres) during the last term of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "Changes are coming and I mean it," he said.

For the first time in history, the elite unit recently opened up its doors, welcoming scores of human rights activists and journalists to its headquarters.

They were given the opportunity to interact with officers, to ask questions and debate them, including with those of Group III, the force's most clandestine unit feared by the US and its allies.

"Such a meeting is part of our commitment to be open to the public. We receive funds from the taxpayers and we realize they have the right to know what we're doing and what we'll do next," said Doni. "But, of course, details on military operations are off limits."

For Doni, his quest to improve the unit's long-tarnished image does not end with just being open. He has taken the Kopassus to the next level: embracing its former enemies and their relatives.

In its upcoming 63rd anniversary celebration on April 29 – although the force's anniversary actually falls on April 16 – the Kopassus will not merely engage in the usual parade and display of its capabilities.

The force is organizing a historic event to which it will invite more than 300 of its former enemies who used to fight for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Free Papua Movement (OPM).

Former separatist fighters from Timor Leste, a nation once part of Indonesia before it gained independence in 2002, are also on the list. "The families of Theys and Cebongan victims as well as the kidnapped activists are also invited," said Doni.

Aimed at forging reconciliation, the meeting will serve as a turning point for the Kopassus to end the cycle of vengeance and to help its campaign for the promotion of human rights.

"Appreciation should be given for the gesture of reconciliation. It's a good start for Kopassus to build the spirit of friendship," said Haris Azhar of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

"But still, all individuals who used to serve in the force and inflicted gross violations of human rights should not be forgotten. The public should always demand their accountability," he said.

Unlike his predecessors, Doni is regarded as a Kopassus commando who does not carry a past burden of human rights violations, although his tour of duties included East Timor (as Timor Leste is known) and Aceh.

"There is this consciousness among the younger officers to have a new Kopassus that distances itself from the past violations profoundly associated with the force," said Haris.

Kopassus has around 6,000 personnel, or more than 1 percent of Indonesia's 470,000 military (TNI) staff. The unit is divided mainly into Group I and Group II, whose functions include jungle warfare, unconventional warfare, counter-insurgency and special reconnaissance. Group III handles combat intelligence, while SAT-81 Gultor deals with counterterrorism.

Shortly after taking command in September 2014, Doni has made a new rule of thumb in relation to forging discipline among personnel in the wake of the Cebongan incident.

"I told them that I never want to hear the long-held creed suggesting Kopassus personnel can get away with crimes as long as they don't get caught. If you commit a crime you will be punished," said Doni in his recent remarks to staff and journalists.

While praising Doni's internal reforms and his breakthrough in improving Kopassus' interactions with the public, military expert Mufti Makarim warned that the force would always be dragged down by a string of unresolved cases.

"There are still unresolved cases that need to be pursued to uncover the real masterminds. No high-ranking officers have taken responsibility in the cases," he said. Prosecutions in regard to the incidents have only involved low- and mid-ranking officers.

Doni said he was aware that it would take quite some time for Kopassus to absolve itself of its sins, but that should not be a stumbling block to prevent the unit from doing positive work.

"If all the negatives are not countered, it will risk discouraging many potential graduates from joining the military," he said. "Can you image what will be left of the TNI in the future if all officers are of poor quality? It will increase the likelihood of them launching a military coup."

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/16/after-63-years-notorious-kopassus-learns-smile.html

Soldiers' remuneration to be raised 56-60 percent: President

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2015

Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said on Thursday that the government would improve the welfare of military personnel by raising their salaries by 56 to 60 percent.

"This morning I phoned the administrative and bureaucratic reform and finance ministers about increases in the remuneration for soldiers by 56-60 percent. Starting next month, the increased remuneration can be enjoyed by the soldiers," the President said at military headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, as quoted by Antara news agency.

According to Jokowi, political and security stability would create a climate conducive for development over the next five years and ensure that Indonesia's economic growth would improve.

"With better economic growth, there will be a bigger military budget so that both the weaponry defense system and the welfare of soldiers will be able to be improved," he said.

The President was confident that through better security, the problems of illegal fishing, illegal logging and other things could be solved for the sake of economic development. (hhr)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/16/soldiers-remuneration-be-raised-56-60-percent-president.html

Criminal justice & prison system

NGOs urge government to be merciful to elderly offenders

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2015

Jakarta – NGOs want law enforcers to take into consideration the impending revision of the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) concerning elderly lawbreakers.

The NGOs, collectively called the Committee for Criminal Law Procedures Code Reform, are advocating the consideration of the use of certain parts of the KUHAP bill and a Supreme Court regulation on misdemeanors, which they say are urgent following the recent prosecution of elderly lawbreakers.

The committee said some recent prosecutions would not have happened if law enforcers had applied a Supreme Court regulation in which a misdemeanor went through a special procedure.

"Regarding the elderly, the bill stipulates a mechanism for settling disputes outside of court, with certain conditions," said University of Indonesia law expert Evi Achjani during a discussion organized by the committee in Cikini, Central Jakarta.

"Law enforcers could proceed with this kind of process instead of following normal procedure," she added.

One such case in which normal procedure was applied to an elderly person was the prosecution of Asyani, 70, in Situbondo, East Java. Asyani was charged with stealing seven pieces of wood belonging to state company PT Perhutani. The prosecutor demanded she be sentenced to one year in jail and fined Rp 500 million (US$38,608).

Another case was Minah, 55, in Purwokerto, Central Java. She was charged with stealing three cocao plants from PT Rumpun Sari Antan (RSA). She was sentenced to one month and 15 days in jail. The judge cried when reading out the verdict.

"I think we need alternative procedures for them," Evi said. "It would not have happened if the law enforcers had considered the Supreme Court regulation," said a member of the committee, Juliando Dasdo, who is also a lawyer.

Juliando was referring to article 9 of the regulation in which a single judge presides over a case if a loss of less than Rp 2 million is inflicted. A single judge makes the legal process faster so that a defendant does not need to go through a lengthy trial.

Article 9 of the regulation stipulates that the court chief judge should choose a single judge to investigate, preside over the trial and make a ruling if the crime caused a loss of less than Rp 2 million.

It can be used instead of the prevailing law, which says that misdemeanors are crimes causing losses of less than Rp 7,500. "It's very difficult to find a crime that causes a loss of less than Rp 7,500," Evi told The Jakarta Post.

The current law put emphasis on equality before the law, which the committee warned would impact the elderly if implemented rigidly. The law, for example, gives little consideration to the weight of a crime. The legal procedures for a misdemeanor is the same as for a felony.

"Today there are corrupt people who are above 60. Corruption is an extraordinary crime that is different from a crime committed by those elderly," Evi said.

It also gives little consideration to age, particularly for the elderly with no stipulation of maximum age of a person who should go through a separate legal process. "Do we still need to prosecute the elderly if the aim of prosecution is deterrence?" Evi added.

The NGOs further want the government to refine the bill to deal in detail with the level of offenses, and to make a clear age limit of perpetrators. They also urged that the Supreme Court regulation be applied, and for the government to complete and pass the bill into law as soon as possible. (saf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/22/ngos-urge-govt-be-merciful-elderly-offenders.html

Economy & investment

Jokowi's defense of former industry criticized

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2015

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Two prominent environmentalists criticized on Thursday President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's decision to protect small and medium furniture-makers and craft-producers, a sector within which he worked before deciding to become a politician and run for the mayorship of Surakarta in Central Java in 2005.

They lambasted the government's plan to relax the use of the legality certification system (SVLK), in particular the V-Legal certificate – which confirms compliance with European Union (EU) timber regulations – in the sector.

To boost exports, the government had simplified the mandatory aspects of the SVLK, allowing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to issue supply conformity self-declarations (DE) on overseas shipments starting this year.

Indonesia Rattan Furniture and Craft Association (AMKRI) chairman Soenoto claimed the President had now agreed to exempt furniture and handicraft SMEs from the requirement.

"Finally the President has agreed for the SVLK to be non-applicable for furniture and craft products," Soenoto said after meeting Jokowi on Wednesday.

If what Soenoto said was true, it would constitute a major setback in the country's attempts to combat rampant illegal logging, Indonesian Independent Forest Monitoring Network (JPIK) national coordinator Mardi Minangsari said on Friday.

"It means that Jokowi has hurt the long participatory process of multiple stakeholders that had been building the SVLK for more than a decade, as well as having violated the government's commitment to reform the forestry and logging sector in Indonesia, which is plagued by illegality and corruption, both upstream and downstream," she said.

The government introduced the SVLK in 2010 as part of a move to curb rampant illegal logging in the country. The certification is mandatory and has been applied in industrial forest concessions (HTI), production forest concessions (HPH) and community plantation forests (HTR).

The SVLK provides Indonesian producers with greater access to the global market, as it guarantees buyers that wood and wood-based products originate from legal practices and are sourced in an environmentally friendly manner.

The SVLK also bears special significance because Indonesia signed an agreement on legal timber trade with the EU in 2011.

"If furniture is exempted, then it could damage the image of Indonesian timber as well as harm other industries that have been trying to improve their reputations. The image of Indonesian timber in the past was of illegal logs, and it's been really hard to dispel that image," Mardi commented.

Budget restraints have often hampered small-level producers from getting the SVLK, as the process was often very costly.

Jokowi, himself a furniture businessman since the 1980s, revealed last month that the obligation to obtain the SVLK made it difficult for SMEs to do business.

"The claim that the SVLK is hampering businesses should be proven with valid data, not just anecdotes or statements," said Hasbi Berliani from the Partnership for Government Reform (Kemitraan) on Friday.

Widayati Soetrisno of the Indonesian Furniture Entrepreneurs Association (Asmindo) said that without the SVLK, Indonesian furniture and crafts might not be accepted in international markets.

"I am afraid once our products arrive in Europe, they will ask for the legal certificates," she said on Friday.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said that she was not aware of the President's decision. "I don't know because I wasn't there [during the meeting between Jokowi and Soenoto]," she said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/18/jokowi-s-defense-former-industry-criticized.html

No solution for export slump

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2015

Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has expressed his concerns over the performance of the country's export sector, which continued to decline during the first quarter of this year despite the government's serious efforts to promote overseas sales.

Speaking during a meeting with economic ministers and executives from Indonesian exporters, the President said the government and the business community needed to work extra hard to revive the country's exports.

"We are committed to easing business permits and providing incentives, so please give more feedback right here to these Cabinet ministers on what the government can do for the private sector," Jokowi said during the meeting, which was held immediately after an announcement that the country posted a US$2.43 billion trade surplus in the January-March period.

Representatives from Indonesia's export-oriented industries attending the meeting included PT Astra International's Prijono Sugiarto, the chairman of the advisory council of the Indonesian Textile Association (API) Benny Sutrisno and Indonesian Furniture and Handicraft Association (AMKRI) chairman Sunoto.

The businesspeople urged the government to cut bureaucratic hurdles in the tax restitution facility, to improve business access to banks, to undertake serious efforts to improve infrastructure and to reduce logistics costs.

The first-quarter trade surplus was the largest in more than two years, but the news was overshadowed by the sluggish performance of exports.

Exports decreased by 11.67 percent to $39.13 billion in the first quarter of the year on the back of weak external demand and low commodity prices, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

Outbound shipments of two key commodities – coal and palm oil – slumped by 18.33 percent to $4.6 billion and 13.56 percent to $4.57 billion, respectively. On the manufacturing front, overseas sales of machinery and electrical appliances, the third-largest contributor to non-oil and gas exports after coal and palm oil, fell by 12.75 percent to $2.15 billion.

At the moment, resource-rich Indonesia is facing an uphill battle to boost its exports, which account for around 20 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), given weak commodity prices and the persistent slowdown in its trading partners' economies, most notably that of China.

It was announced on Wednesday that economic growth in China, Indonesia's biggest trading partner, fell to 7 percent in the first quarter, the lowest level in six years.

"As our exports to China are mostly in the form of oil, coal and gas, we are now pushing efforts to drive up our non-oil and gas exports," Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel told reporters on Wednesday.

"The job in hand for the Trade Ministry now is how to diversify our export markets, with Europe showing particular potential," he added.

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) economist Latif Adam said that such a poor export performance in the first quarter was a serious test for the government's high ambitions to boost overseas sales.

The government has set a target of 28.67 percent growth in non-oil and gas exports to $192.9 billion this year, up from $149.92 billion, the first step toward tripling exports to $458.85 billion by 2019.

"Diversion to non-commodity exports is once again the key to increasing exports," Latif said, citing textiles, footwear, electronics and the automotive sector.

The trade surplus came about only because of the plunge in quarterly imports, which fell by 15.10 percent to $36.70 billion from the same period last year as oil imports plunged by 44.53 percent to $6.10 billion, triggered primarily by lower global oil prices.

Non-oil imports also dropped by 5.05 percent to $30.60 billion along with reduced purchases of raw materials and intermediary goods as well as capital goods.

Imports of raw materials and intermediary goods, which represent 75.45 percent of total imports, slumped by 16.22 percent to $27.69 billion. Similarly, purchases of capital goods, which supplement direct investment, declined by 10.31 percent to $6.47 billion.

"The contraction in non-oil and gas imports, including capital and consumer goods, and the recent slump being seen in other frequent indicators may indicate subdued economic expansion in the first quarter of 2015," Mandiri Sekuritas analysts led by Aldian Taloputra wrote in a research note.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/16/no-solution-export-slump.html

Analysis & opinion

Shooting the messengers? Journalists and Indonesia

Canberra Times - April 19, 2015

Hamish McDonald – Here we are again, poised on the brink of another media frenzy as two Australian drug convicts come closer and closer to a firing squad in Indonesia, barring a late change of heart by President Joko Widodo.

If Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are executed, can we expect that the media, on the Australian side in particular, will once again stand accused of ignoring the Indonesian big picture for the sake of sensation and spectacle?

Fairly or not, they probably will. As Australian National University specialist on modern Indonesia Ross Tapsell concludes in a new book – "By-lines, Balibo, Bali Bombings: Australian Journalists in Indonesia" – the trend of journalism is not in the direction of measured cultural studies.

In his book, Tapsell, a researcher from the ANU School of Culture, History and Language, tells the story of Australians who have reported on Indonesia from the end of World War II until the present. "As Australian reporting of Indonesia reaches nearly 70 years, it is lamentable that the power shifts have led to greater sensationalism, distortion and spectacle in the reporting of our neighbours," Tapsell says.

These "power shifts" are economic and technological. A round-the-clock news cycle, shrinking editorial budgets, rapid "backgrounding" from the internet, wireless communications, satellite phones and cheap air fares have made this the golden age of parachute journalism.

The "Asia hand" correspondent who acted as a knowledge broker introducing the Australian public to its newly independent neighbours in the 1950s through to the 1980s is an archaic figure. Except occasionally in magazines and doco festivals, the idea of long pieces about Asia gets a yawn from Australian editors. For Indonesia's media, Australian news is Steve Irwin's bizarre death or the MKR winner.

For a correspondent who reported from Jakarta in the late 1970s, today's technology is a dream. Jakarta then had less than 50,000 landlines, scarcity pushing connection fees sky-high, and exchanges got overloaded in working hours. Knowledgeable sources would not talk on the phone anyway.

Getting a story out meant taking a typed version down to the public telecom office and handing it to a telex operator in the hope of speedy dispatch, or making a reverse-charge call from a public phone booth there to Sydney and dictating it to a copy-taker.

When we went down to the Timor border or into Kalimantan, we could be out of touch for a week or more.

The five TV newsmen killed at Balibo in October 1975 had no means of communicating with the outside world beyond messages and film reels sent by car to Dili, the film then going by air back to the television channels in Australia.

Now, we're "sabotaged by our own technology", Tapsell notes. "Today's foreign correspondents can, and often do, spend much of their time working from the office."

To be fair, Jakarta traffic also has something to do with it. Going downtown in the hope of doorstopping a minister or senior official is a gamble likely to waste half a day.

But some journalists manage to break away from Schapelle Corby, the Bali nine, and boat turnbacks. The recent Fairfax correspondent Michael Bachelard did some fine long reports from Papua. The ABC Geoff Thompson's program-long report on Prabowo Subianto?'s presidential run in 2009 was a standout.

Competitive pressure kept correspondents, if not office-bound, at least tied to their base long before the digital revolution. In 1965-66 travel outside Jakarta was difficult and often blocked by the military. In addition, correspondents were kept in Jakarta by their editors who saw the leadership struggle between the ailing president Sukarno and General Suharto as the overriding news interest rather than chasing rumours of mass slaughter.

The editors were not encouraged otherwise by a government that welcomed Suharto's "creeping coup" as the strategic break in what was looking like south-east Asia's steady drift into communism.

Up to then, Australia's media generally reflected government attitudes towards Indonesia. Correspondents during the 1945-49 independence struggle had ready access to Sukarno, and found the Dutch stiff and authoritarian. In the late 1950s, the wisdom of Richard Casey's support for the rebellions in Sumatra and Sulawesi was barely questioned.

But by the 1990s, Tapsell writes, "Australian journalists' ability to disrupt bilateral relations caused officials to distrust the press, and impose greater pressures on their freedoms, so much so that they began to employ similar tactics to that of the Indonesian government in attempting to influence coverage of Indonesia." When did they start to diverge? Tapsell thinks the Balibo killings were decisive, citing on one hand writer John Birmingham's observation that they "fuelled a lasting antipathy within the Australian media towards the Suharto regime and more generally towards the Indonesian state", and on the other the charge of "obsession" by exasperated officials and politicians.

But disillusionment with Indonesia and then Suharto surely started some years earlier, tracking through Confrontation, the manipulated "act of free choice" in Papua in 1969, and the crackdown on liberal critics like the editor Mochtar Lubis and lawyer Adnan Buying Nasution in 1974.

Nor has the search for the full story of Balibo been motivated by antipathy towards the whole of Indonesia. Much of it came out from investigations by journalists like David Jenkins and myself, sometimes regarded as overly forgiving of Suharto.

As much as the war crimes committed on the spot, the interest in Balibo came from piercing the veil that diplomats and intelligence agencies drew around the incident. As Jill Jolliffe wrote, there was also a sense of collegial duty: if I were killed, I would want colleagues to find out what happened.

But obsessed with it? The Australian media now has an institutional memory measured in days, if not hours, with fragments of collective memory rising like Jungian dreams.

All governments have to wrestle with such a beast. Australia experienced it in 2009 when a spate of robberies and attacks on Indian students set off a frenzy in India's new online and cable-TV media.

Is it the messenger or the message?

[Hamish McDonald is author of Suharto's Indonesia and Demokrasi: Indonesia in the 21st century, and co-author with Desmond Ball of Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra. He is journalist-in-residence at the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific.]

Source: http://www.canberratimes.com.au

After just six months on the job, president Joko Widodo's halo is slipping

Sydney Morning Herald - April 19, 2015

Jewel Topsfield – "A New Hope". The Time magazine cover on October 16, 2014 said it all. This bullish headline was emblazoned next to a portrait of Indonesian president Joko Widodo, wearing a simple batik shirt befitting a man of the people.

Here was the new face of Indonesian democracy, whose inauguration on October 20 signalled a break from the corruption-tainted past and a fresh beginning.

Six months later, Jokowi, as the president is called by just about everyone, is still making international headlines but now it's for all the wrong reasons.

Earlier this month "Joko: I don't read what I sign" became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, after the president admitted he had signed off on a controversial regulation without reading it.

The regulation would have entitled state officials, many of whom are already provided with work cars, to a 211 million rupiah ($21,000) down payment on a car. Predictably it provoked outrage.

Surely this regulation was anathema for a president who flies economy, pledged to end cronyism and ordered officials to lead simpler lives?

Jokowi quickly recanted but his plaintive excuse – "How can I be expected to read everything?" – was pilloried on Twitter, the social media platform embraced by more Jakartans than residents of any other city in the world.

Before long Jokowi was being compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Simpsons Movie, who unwittingly traps the town of Springfield under a glass dome because: "I was elected to lead, not to read".

Jokowi's gaffe seemed particularly baffling given that he told Time magazine, in that same edition proclaiming him the new hope, that it was very important to be "detail-orientated". "Check, check, check and then check again".

It's been an indisputably rocky couple of weeks for the Indonesian president. Earlier this month he received a humiliating – and very public – dressing-down from his patron, former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, who leads Jokowi's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

At the PDI-P national congress in Bali, she ordered Jokowi to toe the party line in a pointed message widely interpreted as "I'm the boss". Jokowi, who attended as an ordinary cadre wearing party colours, wasn't even invited to speak.

To top it off, Jokowi's sliding popularity in the polls has prompted calls for a cabinet reshuffle to improve the government's performance.

An Indo Barometer poll on April 6 revealed that in the first six months of Jokowi's presidency, satisfaction with his performance had slumped from 75 per cent to 60 per cent. To be fair, these are still personal approval ratings that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott could only dream about.

But it is some of Jokowi's most vocal supporters who have become the most disillusioned.

Last year, for the first time in its history, the English language Jakarta Post newspaper endorsed a candidate in the election, backing Jokowi over his hardline opponent, former military general Prabowo Subianto.

Jokowi's election "has raised hopes among people that there will be change," senior editor Endy Bayuni told Foreign Policy magazine.

But the honeymoon didn't last long. By January 25, Bayuni was tweeting: "(Former president) SBY all is forgiven. Please come back and help clear up the mess."

So what has gone wrong for the president in whom so much hope was invested?

For Yohanes Sulaiman, a political science lecturer at the Indonesian Defence University, part of the problem has been managing unrealistic expectations. Jokowi's election was seen as a definitive break from the past.

He promised nothing short of a "mental revolution"; a political system that was free of corruption and intimidation. He vowed his cabinet would be chosen on merit instead of filled with lacklustre political appointees. He would cut red tape, improve social welfare, health and education, invest in infrastructure and increase economic growth to 7 per cent by 2018.

"He was a new guy, who said: 'I am going to change everything, I'm going to make life better," Sulaiman says. "He was pretty much a blank canvas. People painted on him what they wanted him to be – a human rights advocate, an anti-corruption reformer...."

The political reality is of course much trickier. Jokowi is not the leader of his own party and therefore must pay homage to his patron, Megawati. He also has to work in a Parliament controlled by the opposing Coalition.

"I think Jokowi faces a unique challenge in the democratic era in that he is a complete newcomer to national politics and rose to power without the complete support of his own political party," says Dave McRae, a senior research fellow at Melbourne University's Asia Institute.

High expectations and realpolitik notwithstanding, many Indonesians have been bitterly disappointed by Jokowi.

For his former supporters, the nadir was his nomination of graft suspect Budi Gunawan, a former adjutant of Megawati, for the role of police chief.

Worse, Jokowi refused for weeks to withdraw Budi's nomination even after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), one of the most respected institutions in Indonesia, announced he was under investigation for accepting bribes.

"I expected that he would not be able to meet all those lofty expectations, but I didn't think he would make a blunder this bad," Sulaiman says.

This was a president whose mantra had been anti-korupsi, who had vowed during the election campaign to strengthen the role of the KPK and create a fear of corruption culture.

Jokowi also refused to defend the KPK when the police retaliated by charging three KPK commissioners, on what was widely regarded as trumped-up charges designed to intimidate the commission.

"However much we thought SBY (former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) was indecisive, at least he defended the KPK," Sulaiman says. "Jokowi seems to be like an amateur hour."

Eventually, in the face of overwhelming public anger, Jokowi withdrew Budi's nomination. However Budi was named as a possible deputy chief after he won a pre-trial motion that forced the KPK to drop the corruption charges.

"That doesn't mean he (Budi) is clean," Jakarta Post senior editor Endy Bayuni wrote in a column on April 12. "This is something we will never know unless he answers the charges in a court of law. He may have skirted the law, but the allegations will haunt him, even in his new job. What does his appointment as deputy chief, if it happens, tell us about the anti- corruption campaign?"

The legacy of the police chief debacle has been to weaken the power of the trusted anti-corruption organisation, which is believed to have never previously dropped an investigation after charging a suspect.

"Lots of people are saying on social media that the KPK doesn't even dare to go after a low level police officer anymore," Sulaiman says.

Jokowi's decision to execute 10 drug felons, nine of whom are foreigners, has not attracted the opprobrium domestically that it has in Australia and other countries.

However McRae believes his populist war-on-drugs stance is short-sighted. "When you look at the real cost of the death penalty to international relations and the distraction it has become, you have to question the thinking behind it."

Megawati once again raised suspicions that Jokowi is acting at her behest when she told an International Women's Day luncheon that drug use in Indonesia had entered a critical state and was the trigger for the spread of HIV.

"I therefore told Jokowi that those who sold drugs and who have been sentenced to death should not get their clemency pleas granted," she was quoted on Indonesian news website Kompas.

Despite the hiccups, Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Science, still gives the Jokowi administration seven out of ten after its first six months.

"We have to be fair with them," Ikrar says. "We know that this government came into existence in a completely new environment within our political system."

Ikrar believes Jokowi needs a communications manager, who can effectively explain the government's policies and decisions to the public.

He points to Jokowi's decision, soon after his inauguration last year, to slash fuel subsidies. The move was applauded by commentators but the resulting increase in fuel prices and inflation dented his popularity.

"No-one knows that the moment the subsidy stopped, the government actually saved some 240 trillion rupiah," Ikrar says. "It's huge money and to me it is such an achievement. The money can then be diverted to the poor. But people don't know about it and the government did not explain it."

People were generally also not aware that it is not until after April or May that the state budget is dispersed. "Toll road projects and sea port developments can only start providing jobs after April or May," Ikrar says.

Something for which Jokowi is famous, harking back to his days as mayor of Solo and then governor of Jakarta, is impromptu visits to construction sites, businesses and schools.

They form part of his everyman appeal but also send a strong message: he will not allow projects to stall or public servants to skive off work. But for some even these spontaneous visits – known as "blusukan" – are wearing thin.

Achmad Wijaya from the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently complained that Jokowi's ministers were too busy aping the president by engaging in blusukan. "Anyone can do blusukan," he told the Jakarta Globe newspaper. "But not everyone can form a strategy and perform."

[With Karuni Rompies.]

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/after-just-six-months-on-the-job-indonesian-president-joko-widodos-halo-is-slipping-20150419-1mn1sn.html

Clouds over Budi Gunawan

Jakarta Post Editorial - April 18, 2015

Now that Gen. Badrodin Haiti has been installed as the new National Police chief, the controversy over Comr. Gen Budi Gunawan, the former National Police chief candidate who has been tipped as Badrodin's deputy, should be resolved once and for all.

But the big clouds hanging over Budi and his integrity, which were generated by suspicious transactions worth of millions of dollars through his bank accounts and those of his son in 2010, can never be removed as long as the money-laundering allegation's are handled by the police's detective directorate alone.

The police leadership will simply repeat the mistake it made in June 2010, when police detectives hastily clarified, without the endorsement of independent examinations by tax auditors, that the huge sums of money flowing through Budi's and his son's accounts were related to legitimate businesses of Budi's family.

Budi's bribery case was referred back to the police after the South Jakarta District Court concluded in a pretrial hearing in February that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) lacked evidence to name Budi a suspect in bribery and money-laundering cases and ordered the KPK to call off its investigation into him.

This is a second chance for the National Police to resolve the case once and for all and to establish whether Budi is really clean or not.

But if Badrodin and the police are really serious about clarifying all the bribery and money-laundering allegations against Budi, the reinvestigations and clarifications should not be led by the police's chief detective but by an independent team that includes Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) analysts and tax auditors.

It would not be fair to let the allegations and suspicions continue to hang over Budi's head. Because, had it not been for the money-laundering suspicions that arose after the radar of the PPATK caught the suspicious bank transactions, Budi actually deserved the top position within the National Police, given his long career and technical competence.

Whatever clarification or clearance the police's detective directorate again issues, however many independent lawyers and analysts are involved in the reinvestigation of the money-laundering case, it would be futile to attempt to clear Budi's name and reputation if the whole process was led by the police's detective chief.

Like it or not, once a bank customer is caught in suspicious transactions by the PPATK, it is the account holder that is held responsible to clarify, with the support of all the necessary legal documents, that the transactions are legitimate and do not involve ill-gotten money.

We wonder why Budi, if he is really concerned about his integrity, did not from the outset ask tax auditors to crosscheck his annual income tax returns against the transactions through his bank accounts and the audited balance sheets of his family businesses.

Without clearance from tax auditors, no amount of explanations or clarification by the police will be effective in rehabilitating Budi's name and reputation.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/18/editorial-clouds-over-budi-gunawan.html

The 1965 controversy and need for people's tribunal

Jakarta Post - April 16, 2015

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Amsterdam – About the mass killings of alleged leftists in 1965-1966 and their aftermath in the following years, there have been a few qualifications.

Most of the political establishment and the general public today seem either publicly, sometimes loudly, to oppose any attempt to recall the issue, or consider it, out of fear, a taboo subject – a sensitive issue that they choose to ignore altogether. They thus tend to say, in today's parlance, "EGP?" (Emang gue pikirin?/Why should I care?).

Some, however, might recognize the importance of the issue for the nation but tend to take a deceitful pretext rather than one of consolation and hope, that the consequences of the human and political tragedy will somehow be resolved as we move forward with our democracy. For want of a better term, this may perhaps be called the "false optimistic" perception.

Others – the maximalists – have dubbed the unfortunate year of 1965 a "Never Ending Year" implying that the terrible psychic consequences of the massacres, incarcerations, torture, rapes, mass disappearances, forced labor, social dislocations and suffering, forced exile, stigmatization and discrimination will never be resolved – unless, that is, justice, reparation and compensation by the state are materialized.

There is nothing unique in such controversies among many nations. Unlike the Nazi crimes in Europe, which found their resolutions in the war- victors' Nurnberg Tribunal, the Armenian massacre (1915) continues to be denied while those of the Spanish Civil War (1930-1933) are only partially resolved.

Both cases missed, at some levels, a crucial political breakthrough. Some, therefore, would rely on the hope of a sort of tribunal that could lead to the South African model of truth and reconciliation.

As the 50th anniversary of the 1965 tragedy comes closer, a number of Indonesian and local researchers, activists and 1965 victims at home and in various countries in Europe have interestingly taken the initiative to pursue efforts toward that sort of tribunal.

It is called "the International People's Tribunal for the 1965 crimes against humanity" (IPT).

The idea was born two years ago as a follow up to the screening of Joshua Oppenheimer's historic and award-winning documentary film The Act of Killing, which was followed a year later by his equally successful The Look of Silence. The initiative was also encouraged by the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights' (Komnas HAM) findings on the subject and the newsweekly Tempo's special report on the perpetrators, "Jagal".

Any crime, political or otherwise, would normally be resolved at a formal state court. But when it comes to the 1965 atrocities, given the political contingencies as reflected by both the conservative "EGP" and the "false optimist" discourses indicated above, few, if any, expect the state will do the job and resolve its own "crimes".

Hence, a people's tribunal – being the only alternative, like people's tribunals on Vietnam, on Palestine and on Japanese comfort women, to mention but a few – should pursue the efforts.

International law experts have argued any indictment by such tribunals, to be credible, should name names of individual perpetrators and be supported by sound empirical evidence, which in the case of the 1965 killings and its aftermath may hardly be possible save for a few specific cases.

Justice would thus be at a loss without truth – just as truth would be meaningless without justice.

It is for these reasons that the coordinators of the IPT, human rights lawyer Nursyahbani Katjasungkana and sociologist Prof. Saskia Wieringa, supported by noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis and other experts, apparently conclude that the IPT may have to take the form of a "tribunal of inquiry" in order to find the truth and recommend steps toward reconciliation, rather than filing verdicts, and to urge the state to take on its responsibility to bring about justice, implement reparations and provide compensation.

Historic genocides and atrocities, however, will remain influential as their political consequences and moral implications will always loom.

Controversy remains in Spain on the implementation of "historical memory" laws to repair the atrocities of 70 years ago – just as fierce debate has continued on the unresolved "Armenian genocide" now approaching its symbolic centenary on April 24.

As for Indonesia's 1965, it's revealing to hear former Dutch minister of development and cooperation Jan Pronk, at the IPT seminar on April 10, expressing his sympathy for IPT efforts by reminding the public of Dutch colonial atrocities.

The Dutch enfant terrible of the 1970s, who was seen as inciting then president Soeharto's anger when he protested against the 1991 Dili killings, argued it was the Dutch colonial past as well as huge economic interests that led the Netherlands administration to remain, to this day, officially "silent on the 1965 killings".

What is more, recent local studies have demonstrated, as Dr. Martijn Eickhoff (on Semarang) and Prof. Gerry van Klinken (on West Timor) told the seminar, that local victims and their relatives' have in fact kept their memories and recollections vivid as they began to recognize the significance of "1965".

In a separate occasion, Dr. Paul Moedikdo, a former anti-communist activist in Jakarta and sociology lecturer at the University of Utrecht, cried as he now admitted that the 1965 massacres were indeed "similar to the Nazi crimes".

Yet, almost a half century on, the New Order's political and mental legacy, manifested as they are in the "EGP" and "false-optimist" mainstream discourses, are still there. Controversy thus looms, too, for whatever efforts there are toward any tribunal on Indonesia's 1965 tragedy.

[The writer is an Indonesian journalist who lives in Amsterdam.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/16/the-1965-controversy-and-need-people-s-tribunal.html