Dylan Amirio, Jakarta – Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi revealed that her ministry had approved eight applications for foreign journalistic visits to resource-rich Papua in the past six months.

In 2014, similar approval was given to 22 requests and only five were turned down.

"The refusals in 2014 were made because of incomplete procedures or warnings regarding the security situation in the areas in Papua where they wanted to go. Otherwise, from the data we have, there have been no deliberate actions to restrict foreign journalists' access into the province," Retno said in a hearing with the House's Commission I on information, defense and foreign affairs at the House compound on Monday.

She explained that she has already conveyed the specific procedures for how the restrictions will be eased.

Head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) Marciano Norman said the government's move to ease foreign media's access to the country's easternmost province would be beneficial for Indonesia in international eyes.

However, he said the Papua coverage should be conducted responsibly and fairly. "It (the policy) is actually beneficial for us because their reports can help us see where we need to improve the development in the region. However, they must be responsible and give fair and balanced coverage," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/22/govt-approves-8-permits-foreign-journos-visit-papua.html

West Papua leader still doesn't know why he's blocked from US

Radio New Zealand International - June 22, 2015

The West Papuan independence leader, Benny Wenda, says he has still not heard why he was blocked from travelling to the United States a month ago.

In May Mr Wenda was checking in at London's Heathrow Airport when he was taken in for questioning by an official from the US Homeland Security Department, who then revoked his 10-year business visa.

He says he was told to contact the US Embassy which said he would have to wait five working days to find out what happened, but a month on, he still hasn't heard.

"I don't know what reason they took my visa but there's been no explanation at all. Until today, I'm still waiting, so it's very difficult."

Benny Wenda says he's certain he was prevented from travelling to the US because of his West Papua work.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/276878/west-papua-leader-still-doesn't-know-why-he's-blocked-from-us

Government approved 22 foreigner applications to Papua in 2014

Jakarta Post - June 22, 2015

Dylan Amirio, Jakarta – Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said the Jokowi government never restricted foreign visitors or journalists from visiting Papua, with 22 foreign applications granted in 2014 alone.

She said that the government had more or less never refused foreign entry into the region and that refusals that were made were usually done because of incomplete administrative procedures or due to unconducive security situations.

"We practically never refused entry unless it was because of incomplete procedures or due to the uncertain security conditions at one time," Retno told reporters at the House of Representatives complex on Monday.

She and several other Foreign Ministry officials held a closed meeting on Monday with House of Representatives' Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs, Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel and the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) leadership. They discussed matters related to Papua.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo declared that the government would revoke the strict restrictions that prevented journalists from covering Papua earlier in May. (hhr)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/22/govt-approved-22-foreigner-applications-papua-2014.html

West Papuans hope unity will guarantee MSG membership

Islands Business - June 21, 2015

Nic Maclellan, Honiara – Indonesian officials are lobbying for an upgrade to associate membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), while a renewed membership application by a united West Papuan coalition will be discussed at this week's MSG leaders' summit in Solomon Islands.

Papua New Guinea and Fiji have expressed their opposition to the bid for full MSG membership by the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP), a coalition of groups opposed to Indonesian rule in the western half of the island of New Guinea. In contrast, MSG members Vanuatu and New Caledonia's FLNKS independence movement have expressed solidarity with the West Papuan nationalist movement and their membership application.

Summit host Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, who takes over as MSG chair for the next two years, must forge a consensus between these divergent positions. Despite these differences, the MSG's new engagement on the West Papua issue contrasts with the silence of the regional Pacific Islands Forum – there has been no mention of West Papua in Forum communiques since 2006.

Membership bid

In March 2013, the Port Vila-based West Papua National Council for Liberation (WPNCL) lodged a formal membership application to join the MSG. The application was deferred at the last MSG summit, held in Noumea in 2013, to allow a Foreign Ministers mission to visit Indonesia. A special MSG leaders' summit in Port Moresby in June 2014 again deferred the WPNCL application and agreed "to invite all groups to form an inclusive and united umbrella group in consultation with Indonesia to work on submitting a fresh application."

West Papuan representatives are in Honiara this week, lobbying MSG officials and leaders and stressing that they have responded to the call for unity expressed in 2014.

The Vanuatu government hosted a December 2014 meeting to bring together Jayapura-based activists and exiled campaigners, forming a united front between competing groups. The newly created United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) unites different strands of the West Papuan nationalist movement: the West Papua National Council for Liberation (WPNCL), Federal Republic of West Papua (FRWP) and the National Parliament of West Papua (NPWP), which incorporates the National Committee for West Papua (KPNB).

Today, the ULM secretariat includes Secretary General Octo Mote, spokesperson Benny Wenda and executive officers Rex Rumakiek, Jacob Rumbiak and Leonie Tanggahma. These exiled ULM executive members have been joined in Honiara by a range of leaders from inside West Papua, including Edison Maromi of the Federal Republic of West Papua and Dominikus Surabut, the chair of Lapago region of the Papuan Customary Council (Dewan Adat Papua).

ULM Executive officer Jacob Rumbiak stressed that while some leaders were living in exile, the movement's decision making was taking place amongst political parties and civic movements inside West Papua.

Speaking through a translator, Dominikus Surabut agreed that there was unprecedented co-ordination amongst different strands of the West Papua nationalist movement.

"Our experience over the last 53 years is that there's been a history of disunity in the struggle, with competing claims for leadership," said Surabut. "So this opportunity that has been created through the creation of the United Liberation Movement, is really an excellent solution for the people of West Papua."

Edison Waromi told Islands Business that MSG governments had forced groups in the independence movement to better co-ordinate their efforts.

"The birth of the ULMWP is actually a direct result of the challenge put forward by the MSG leaders," said Waromi. "After the previous application in 2013 and 2014, the MSG leaders said it wasn't fully representative. They challenged us to resubmit another application from a more unified group. So the ULMWP was formed in response to this challenge and through great effort, we feel that we have successfully responded to this challenge. Indonesia is scared of us, now that we're united."

Waromi is quick to deny that there are competing applications for membership from different parts of the movement: "I want to state clearly that the Federal Republic of West Papua gives their full and unequivocal support to the United Liberation Movement and its application for MSG membership."

Maintaining Vanuatu's support

Vanuatu has long supported the West Papuan nationalist movement with practical and diplomatic aid. Port Vila hosts an office for the WPNCL, which has lobbied for MSG membership in line with the precedent set by the Kanak independence movement (the FLNKS, rather than the Government of New Caledonia, represents New Caledonia in the MSG).

However the recent no-confidence motion that saw the defeat of Prime Minister Joe Natuman's government raised concern that Vanuatu's long-standing commitment on West Papua might be affected.

Over the weekend, ULM Secretary General Octo Mote travelled from Honiara to Port Vila, to lock in support from the new government led by Prime Minister Sato Kilman and Deputy Prime Minister Moana Carcasses Kalosil (who arrived in Honiara on Sunday).

"From my trip, I must say that Vanuatu's support is still there," Mote told Islands Business from Port Vila. "Nothing has changed on West Papua. There are differences in approach between the old government and new, but it's not political parties that support us, it's the nation, the Vanuatu people." Mote re-iterated that his delegation was still seeking full MSG membership, but acknowledged recent statements by the Solomon Islands government, calling on MSG leaders to consider observer status rather that full membership.

"Of course we are still pressing for full membership, but if the MSG leaders offer observer status, I'll take it," said Mote. "West Papua is now a Melanesian issue. Some people at home who are hoping for full MSG membership will be upset, but it's important we sit down equally with the Indonesians. If Indonesia are MSG observers, and we are observers, why not?"

Mote added: "For myself, it's important for us to sit down equally with the Indonesians, to talk together. If the Kanaks can sit down to create the Noumea Accord with the French, why can't we create a similar agreement?"

Indonesian concessions

Despite this call for dialogue, West Papuan leaders in Honiara are critical of recent initiatives by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who visited West Papua in May 2015. Since his election, Jokowi has promised new dialogue on West Papua, and granted concessions such as the release of five political prisoners and an announcement that international media would have free access to West Papua.

At a press conference in Merauke last month, Jokowi stated: "Starting from today, foreign journalists are allowed and free to come to Papua, just as they can [visit] other regions."

This pledge was immediately undercut by his Minister for Political, Legal and Security affairs Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, who confirmed that foreign journalists would still be screened and must obtain permission from the security forces s to travel to the highlands: "We'll allow it, on condition that they report on what they see, not go around looking for facts that aren't true from armed groups... There's a lot of news out there that makes it look like [human rights] violations are taking place here all the time, but I don't think that's the case."

For ULM representatives lobbying in Honiara, these concessions do not address the core issues, and are simply designed to blunt this momentum of the West Papuan nationalist movement.

According to ULM Executive officer Rex Rumakiek, "while we would welcome greater media access to report what is really going on, the real question is to allow freedom of expression for the people of West Papua. The prisoners who have been released are not criminals, but acted politically to support human rights."

Despite Jokowi's call for dialogue, Indonesian security forces have continued to crack down on dissent. Rumakiek noted: "In the last month, nearly 500 people have been arrested demonstrating in support of the MSG membership application."

Customary chief Dominikus Surabut told Islands Business that now was the time for action by Pacific leaders: "If the leaders of the Melanesian countries really want to save us as fellow Melanesians of the same race, as fellow kin, then we ask them to receive us as members of the same family. Those of us who are leaders of the struggle, feel that in order to resolve the conflict in West Papua, then we have to become a member of MSG."

Source: http://www.islandsbusiness.com/news/melanesian-spearhead-group/6667/west-papuans-hope-unity-will-guarantee-msg-members/

ULMWP brings petition from 150,000 West Papuans for prime minister

Vanuatu Daily Post - June 20, 2015

Jonas Cullwick – The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP)'s Ambassador to the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Secretariat, Amatus Douw, is in Port Vila with a petition containing the signatures of 150,000 people of West Papua to present to the Vanuatu Prime Minister, Sato Kilman.

Douw says the petition is asking the Prime Minister of Vanuatu to support ULMWP to become a full member of the MSG.

The Vanuatu Prime Minister is to join other MSG member prime ministers at their Leaders' Summit in Honiara, Solomon Islands next week during which a vote is expected to be taken on the ULMWP's application for full membership of the MSG.

"I would like to present this petition to the new government of Prime Minister Sato Kilman, the Deputy Prime Minister, Moana Carcasses, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Serge Vohor to ask for Vanuatu's support at the Honiara Leaders' Summit vote on the application from ULMWP for full membership of MSG," ULMWP Ambassador Douw told the Daily Post Friday.

He said he had met with the DPM Moana Carcasses on Friday morning who expressed his strong support for West Papuan membership of MSG and that he promised to coordinate a meeting for him to visit the Prime Minister to present the petition containing the signatures of 150,000 people.

Douw confirmed he met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Serge Vohor, at 2pm Friday and he also confirmed his backing for the West Papuan application.

As of Friday evening Daily Posts understood the West Papuan leader was still awaiting confirmation of an appointment to meet with Prime Minister Kilman.

"In the Solomon Islands next week, the people of West Papua give their full trust to the Government of Vanuatu, for the longstanding support, for their full membership, so that West Papua can be brought back to the home of Melanesia which is MSG," he appealed to the Government of Vanuatu.

"We cannot go away to seek support from other regions except Melanesian leaders who are the beacon of hope for West Papua," he added.

The petition and the signatures are contained in two bound books each weighing about 16kg, and ULMWP Ambassador Amatus Douw says it is their intention that each of the leaders of the MSG members will receive a copy of the petition contained in the two books ahead of the Leaders' Summit.

A full official commitment of continued strong support for West Papua's full membership of MSG from the new government is still forthcoming, but sources close to the government say the Government will vote for West Papua.

Many people in Vanuatu want the Government to continue the leadership role the country has been taking on the West Papua issue including the vote for full membership for West Papua in MSG. And they are watching to see if this Government will continue this position at next week's crucial vote.

Source: http://www.dailypost.vu/news/article_66ca6ba8-f646-539e-80e5-0a6d675963b9.html

Question over promotion of Indonesia within MSG

Radio New Zealand International - June 19, 2015

A Solomon Islands MP has questioned the government's announcement about exploring greater representation of Indonesia in the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

The Manasseh Sogavare-led government, which hosts the MSG Leaders summit next week, says it will not back the United Liberation Movement for West Papua as a full member of the MSG, but would endorse West Papua to be an observer, "only to one united group".

It says that any bid for full membership representing Melanesians throughout Indonesia must be united and done in consultation with Jakarta.

The West Makira MP, Derrick Manuari, says given the strong public support for the West Papuans, the announcement is a sign of weak decision-making.

"The decision by the government of Solomon Islands is not good enough. It misrepresents the public opinion of Solomon Islanders and the very people whom they represent in government. The government is actually using rhetoric to continue their vagueness on the position on the West Papua issue."

The Solomon islands government also urges the MSG to continue looking at ways to make Indonesia an associate member of the MSG. Mr Manuari says these moves to promote the representation of Indonesia within the group go against the founding spirit of the MSG.

"The Melanesian Spearhead Group is a body that was established to promote the solidarity and the rights of Melanesian states and territories. And that is the very reason why the FLNKS (Kanak movement of New Caledonia) was admitted into the group and not France, for that matter. And in this case, they are promoting an elevation of Indonesia's membership."

Meanwhile, the Solomon Islands Solidarity for West Papua Freedom movement plans to rally in Honiara today to show support for the West Papuan MSG membership push.

Leading members of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua are already in the Solomon Islands capital, ahead of the Leaders Summit which is expected to focus on a decision on the membership bid.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/276686/question-over-promotion-of-indonesia-within-msg

Hundreds join Solomon Islands West Papua rally

Radio New Zealand International - June 19, 2015

About 200 people gathered at a rally in the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara, this afternoon calling on the government to support full membership for West Papua in the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

The Solomon Islands will next week host the MSG leaders' summit, where a decision will be made on whether to accept West Papua into the subregional group.

Last night, the Solomon Islands government announced that it will not back the United Liberation Movement for West Papua as a full member, but will endorse West Papua to be an observer.

The executive director of the ULMWP, Jacob Rumbiak, who was at the protest, says while observer status is better than nothing, the protesters wanted to send a message that West Papua deserves full membership.

"It really was calling for the government of Solomon Islands to make the right decision based on the basic standing of why the MSG was born. That's about the struggle of people of Melanesia for independence because the MSG was born to support Kanak and West Papua independence."

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/276719/hundreds-join-solomon-islands-west-papua-rally

Papua exports jump nearly 96 percent

Tabloid JUBI - June 18, 2015

Jayapura, Jubi – Exports from Papua nearly doubled in May, compared to the previous month, the head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of Papua Province Didiek Koesbianto said.

"In May, Papua exports increased by 95.99 percent compared to the previous month's total exports, from 106.44 million dollar to 208.61 dollar rupiah," he said in Jayapura on Wednesday (17/6/2015).

Cumulatively, he added, the value of exports in 2015 (January to May) was 668.96 million US dollars, nearly tripled that from last year.

"The cumulative export value from January to May 2015 was 668.96 million or 259.67 percent more than the same cumulative total exports in 2014 only reached 185.99 million US dollars," he said.

Papua entire export value in the period, he added, comes from Copper Ore and Concentrates (HS26), which is valued at 208.61 million dollars.

"This value is higher compared to 123.77 percent in value in April 2015. In May 2015, was not recorded for exports of wooden category (HS44), Fish and Other Water Animals categories (HS03) and other non-oil category," he said.

He added cumulative export of HS26 from January to May 2015 increased 508.70 million US dollars, amounted to 456.49 percent due to higher volume of exports by 661.96 percent.

Other non-oil export group increased 0.22 million US dollars. Conversely export value HS44 and HS 03 group actually decreased, respectively by 8.40 million US dollars and 17.55 million US dollars.

Source: http://tabloidjubi.com/en/2015/06/18/papua-exports-jump-nearly-96-percent/

Solomons against full West Papua MSG membership

Radio New Zealand International - June 18, 2015

The Solomon Islands Government says it will not back the United Liberation Movement for West Papua as a full member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. But it says it will back observer status to one united group.

In a statement issued this evening, the Government, which hosts the MSG summit next week, says it would agree that any submission for full membership by a group representing Melanesians throughout Indonesia if it is united and done in consultation with Indonesia.

It says it also wants the MSG to continue looking at ways to make Indonesia an associate member of the MSG.

The Government says it has made its decisions to enhance Melanesian solidarity, values, continuity and maintain good neighbourliness.

The New Caledonia FLNKS and Vanuatu have traditionally backed West Papua's push to join the MSG, but Port Vila's position is unclear after the toppling of the Natuman Government.

Fiji has been strongly backing the Jakarta position and the leadership in Papua New Guinea has been ambivalent on the issue.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/276636/solomons-against-full-west-papua-msg-membership

Dutch journo attests to huge West Papuan support for MSG bid

Radio New Zealand International - June 18, 2015

A Dutch journalist who has been travelling in Indonesia's Papua region says the depth of local support for a West Papuan application to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group is huge.

MSG leaders are due in Honiara next week when they are expected to make a decision on a membership bid by the United Liberation Movement of West Papua, an organisation of leading West Papuan representative groups.

Reporting undercover from Papua, Rohan Radheya says recently there have been many demonstrations in support of the bid.

"All the people I talk to, they are very optimistic that their Melanesian brothers and sisters will vote in their favour. They are hopeful but they're also very afraid... sort of: what next, after that, if we are abandoned again? That would be such a hard blow for them because they have worked for this MSG membership for such a long time. And if they get rejected that would definitely be a knockout blow for them."

Mr Radheya says many Papuans who demonstrate support of the MSG bid have been taken in by Indonesia's security forces.

He says foreign media outlets interested in covering this region should engage more with local journalists. He says the plight of West Papuan journalists tends to be ignored in the growing commentary about access to Papua for foreign media.

Mr Radheya says despite the Indonesian president's recent claim that the ban on foreign journalists in Papua was being lifted, he doesn't believe the heavy restrictions are being lifted at all.

"But the point is there are so many local journalists here who face threats and intimidation daily by Indonesian forces. They are good journalists, they have a good network and some of the guys I met, they have bullet holes, they have been stabbed by forces, and they continue to wake up in the morning and just go about and do their jobs."

Mr Radheya says local journalists would be more than willing to contibute to foreign media outlets.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/276604/dutch-journo-attests-to-huge-west-papuan-support-for-msg-bid

Papua military court jails two soldiers for selling ammo to OPM

Jakarta Globe - June 17, 2015

Robert Isidorus, Jayapura – A military court in Papua on Wednesday discharged two soldiers and ordered them imprisoned after they were found to have sold ammunition to a separatist militia.

Chief Sgt. Ikrom and Sgt. Maj. Supriadi were sentenced to 10 and 12 years in prison respectively after they were arrested by Papua Police on Jan. 28 for allegedly selling 500 rounds of ammunition worth Rp 450,000 ($33) to members of the Free Papua Organization (OPM).

"The officers were involved in violating the use of ammunition," Col. Sus Priyo Mustiko, presiding in the court martial, ruled on Wednesday.

Ikrom and Supriadi were among five soldiers apprehended in the bust that led to the recovery of 1,000 rounds of ammunition from the suspected separatists in Jayapura. The remaining three soldiers are scheduled to hear their verdicts in the court martial on Thursday.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/papua-military-court-jails-two-soldiers-selling-ammo-opm/

Fiji PM: Indonesia, we're with you

Fiji Sun - June 17, 2015

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says Fiji will stand with Indonesia on the West Papua issue. "My stance on West Papua has never changed," he said.

He said that West Papua was under the sovereignty of Indonesia. "We feel for the sovereignty of the people of West Papua but we must also remember that it is under the sovereignty of Indonesia."

West Papua will top the agenda when the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) meets in Honiara on Wednesday next week. The MSG will hear an application for membership from the West Papua separatist movement. A similar bid was knocked back at last year's MSG leader's summit in New Caledonia.

Mr Bainimarama said: "For West Papua to become an MSG member, it would depend on our meeting in Honiara."

Separatist Papuan groups are hoping that the recognition of their identity would come from MSG and they will be accepted as a member. For decades, some have been fighting for independence from Indonesia.

Acting Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Esala Nayasi said from Honiara yesterday that West Papua was among the 19 regional issues that would be discussed. Other issues will include the future of the Pacific Islands Forum, the Pacific Islands Development Forum and climate change.

Mr Bainimarama will lead the Fijian delegation. He will be leaving Fiji next Tuesday. Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, will leave for Honiara on Saturday.

Source: http://Fijisun.Com.Fj/2015/06/17/Pm-Indonesia-Were-With-You/

Samoa looks into supporting West Papua

Radio New Zealand International - June 17, 2015

Samoa says it will be looking into supporting a West Papua request for membership in the Pacific Islands Forum.

The Samoa Observer reports that Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi made the assurances to the general secretary of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, Octovianus Mote last week.

Mr Mote who the Observer reports is in Fiji this week to lobby for support ahead of West Papua's upcoming bid for membership to the Melanesian Spearhead Group also met with Tautua leaders and the Council of Churches in Samoa who also expressed their full support for West Papua.

According to Mr Mote, when West Papua gained independence in 1961, Samoa was one of the few countries represented at the celebrations.

Speaking to the Observer, Mr Mote said that the population of indigenous West Papuans, which was once 1.5 million, is down by 48 percent and his people are a minority in their our land.

He said should the trend continue, in 2020, the population will be less than 23 percent.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/276548/samoa-looks-into-supporting-west-papua

Papuans face ignorance, corruption and racism from Jakarta

The Interpreter - June 26, 2015 (Part 7)

After new Indonesian president Joko Widodo appointed his self-consciously titled 'working cabinet' late last year, activist Andreas Harsono from Human Rights Watch took calls from no fewer than nine of Jokowi's ministers or their staff. All of them had listened to Jokowi's promises during the election campaign to pay more attention to Papua and West Papua, and wanted to learn more.

Harsono was just one of what he says was a number of sources for these ministers, yet the level of ignorance they displayed in these conversations was acute.

Only weeks later, they proved it in spades. In late October, the Minister for Development of Disadvantaged Regions Marwan Jafar blundered into one of the most sensitive issues in Papua – the influx of non-Papuans – by announcing there was 'still a lot of land in Papua' and that he wanted to encourage many more Javanese people to migrate there as happy 'homesteaders'.

Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo followed the next day, saying his 'priority' was to split the half-island into even smaller administrative units. Tjahjo is a loyalist of Jokowi's patron, Megawati Sukarnoputri, and it was her decision as president in 2003 to split the province into three (later revised to two, Papua and West Papua). Her military intelligence gurus had told her it would weaken the independence movement and make it more difficult for foreign invaders to occupy.

Tjahjo said his proposed split would also be for security reasons, to guard this 'huge area' against 'foreign intervention'.

The influence of Megawati's dead hand was also quickly evident in Jokowi's appointment of former general Ryamizard Ryacudu, Megawati's ally, as defence minister. Ryamizard in 2001 had praised the killing of a key ethnic Papuan politician Theys Eluay, saying the Indonesian soldiers who murdered him were 'heroes because the person they killed was a rebel leader'.

In December, Jokowi himself also stumbled when he failed to comment, or to order an independent inquiry, into the killing of four young highland protesters by soldiers. It took three weeks, and a threat by churches to boycott his Christmas trip to the province, before he spoke up.

To the extent that Indonesians think of Papua at all, they think of a huge, rich, empty land mass that's vulnerable to exploitation and interference from foreign powers. The blame, they believe, rests with 'ABDA': Americans, British, Dutch and Australians. Australia, thanks to perceptions of its role in East Timor's independence, and the noisy pro-Papua activist movement it hosts, is especially suspicious.

How do Indonesians regard Papuans? They are broadly thought of as greedy, corrupt drunkards who need a good dose of Javanese sophistication. Racism is rife. Many sincerely believe that Papuans remain cannibals. Jakarta- based newspapers, even the English language ones, use the words 'stone-age' and 'backward' when referring to them. At soccer matches, according to jailed independence activist Filep Karma, Indonesian crowds make noises like monkeys in the direction of the Papuan team and throw bananas onto the field.

Australian lawyer and Aboriginal activist Noel Pearson said 'Only those who have known discrimination truly know its evil'. At all levels, discrimination is what Papuans face.

Two questions confront Indonesia when it comes to its easternmost provinces: economic rights and political rights.

Successive Indonesian presidents including Jokowi have emphasised economic empowerment, but the brief Abdurrahman Wahid-era experiment at more political empowerment (the so-called 'Papuan Spring') was quickly squashed by Megawati and her advisers. Papua now has 'special autonomy' status in Indonesia under which its local political elite (Papuans, to a man) are funded richly by Jakarta to govern it as part of the Indonesian system. The money is routinely rorted. But the other symbols and attributes of an independent state – the right to tax, to display flags or to sing anthems of independence – are denied.

Papua also has Indonesia's largest and most uneasy Indonesian military and police presence, edgy young men living far from home in a place they fear. Institutionally, the police and military are desperate to maintain their outsized presence because their control of the fuel- and timber-smuggling trades, as well as the trade in drugs and prostitutes, is so lucrative.

In his conversations with Jokowi's ministers, Harsono had three suggestions to make to improve the situation in Papua. Firstly, open it up to international monitors, including the Western media; secondly, release the political prisoners; and thirdly, throw some kind of bone to the military – perhaps a grace period to wind up their financial affairs and improve their performance.

In May, 2015, Jokowi, visiting the province for the second time in six months, made a start. He announced the release of five prisoners and said Western journalists would be allowed free transit to and within Papua. Both measures, however, were immediately watered down. The fate of dozens of other political prisoners, including the iconic Filep Karma, who has grown old in prison after serving 10 years of a 15-year sentence for raising the banned Morning Star flag, was left unclear. Karma has refused to be released unless he is fully exonerated and declared innocent.

And the head of the Indonesian armed forces, General Moeldoko, also began immediately placing conditions on journalists' access. Officials have since confirmed that the old media registration and permission process will remain, more or less intact. I told Andreas Harsono what journalist Victor Mambor had told me: that whatever Jokowi's heart said about developing Papua, he would fail because the old guard that surrounds him would not allow him to succeed.

'I'm afraid I agree,' Harsono said. 'He's got the right intentions, but he's just surrounded by hardliners.'

Source: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2015/06/26/Papuans-face-ignorance-corruption-and-racism-from-Jakarta.aspx

For Papua's independence activists struggle is about more than human rights

The Interpreter - June 25, 2015 (Part 6)

Michael Bachelard's – On a sunlit afternoon in the tiny village of Lolat, I ask a local school teacher, Natani Kobak, what subject he teaches. 'Pancasila,' he replies: the five-point Indonesian state ideology. 'I teach it for the students, but deep down I am not so happy about it'.

That relatively mild exchange causes a stir among the young men listening to Kobak's answer, who worry that I might go away ignorant of the true depth of their feelings regarding the Indonesian state. So, after sunset, they ask me to join them in a small room lit by battery-powered lamps in an otherwise darkened hut.

My Indonesian assistant, Runi, is banished to the verandah (they are suspicious because she's a 'straight hair' from Jakarta) and I am introduced to Justinus Balingga, from the neighbouring village of Bunahaik. He's from KNPB, one of the more active of Papua's independence groups, and third in charge in this region, Yahukimo.

KNPB is a legal organisation, so strictly speaking I was not breaching my commitment to the Indonesian Government, made when I sought permission to come to Papua, not to talk to 'separatists'. But this is clearly what Balingga is.

He starts by, in his words, 'disproving' Pancasila, one clause at a time, so far as it relates to Papuans. They believe in a different God, he says, are not subject to a just and civilised state; and do not partake in Indonesian unity, democracy or social justice. 'All of them are untrue for us.'

Then he spells out the heart of what these men see as an open-and-shut case for why Papua needs to be independent: 'My religion is Christian. My hair is curly. My skin is black. My culture is different... that is what motivates us, and we'll never change'.

'We don't feel welcome in Indonesia,' adds Balingga's friend, Javed Bahabol. 'We don't feel real freedom; we feel the force of Islam coming in.'

The Indonesian history in this part of the highlands has been short (it began in the 1960s) and violent. In 1977, more than 4000 people died in and around nearby Wamena from military aerial bombardments, indiscriminate shootings and gross acts of torture.

Balingga says, to the agreement of the room, that events like this can never be forgotten. There is zero military presence in Lolat today – the army only occasionally ventures outside the larger towns – so the locals point more to the lack of an Indonesian state to make their point.

The corrupted and useless education, health and economic systems do not suit Papuan needs, and never will, they believe, despite the promises of successive presidents. Indonesians 'just drop the money in,' Balingga says, 'they know we can't handle it and it just makes a mess'.

These men reject the notion that problems of service delivery are about Indonesian state incompetence. They believe it's the result of discrimination, a policy of 'keeping us down'. They also believe Indonesia takes Papua's mineral wealth and gives little back, though Vice-President Jusuf Kalla has said in recent times that Papua gets back more in funding than it contributes in taxes.

Balingga says there are nine groups of 'freedom fighters' in Papua and neighbouring West Papua. The KNPB is organised like an army, though it does not have weapons, 'because we can't get them'. (A leaked Indonesian military document suggested there were fewer than 200 guns in the hands of independence activists across the two provinces.)

But these activists insist armed conflict is not their preferred option: 'The other options, the legal, political, advocacy for a referendum, are all ongoing,' Bahabol says. They appeal to nations around the world, particularly 'Christian nations', for help.

Papua, though, has changed since the 1960s. Perhaps 50% of its population originally comes from other islands in Indonesia, some under a Suharto-era policy of 'transmigration,' with the intention of swamping the troublesome ethnic Melanesian majority. More recently, migration has been a spontaneous movement of individuals and families from other poor parts of Indonesia in search of economic opportunity.

If race and religion are the main motivations for seeking independence, it raises the question: what would happen in an independent Papua to all these recent migrants? Bahabol said it was 'not decided yet... We'd have to consider these things, but perhaps they'd have to go back home.'

The men in this darkened room know that their cause is supported by many Western activists, as well as a broader Papuan diaspora. But Balingga is frustrated that these people too often focus on human rights issues to drive their cause.

'The main picture that gets out internationally is that people get killed and that is why we should have freedom. But that is not the true reason in our hearts,' Balingga insists. 'It's much bigger than just killing people. We want our own country because we're different.'

http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2015/06/25/For-Papuas-independence- activists-struggle-is-about-more-than-human-rights.aspx

Papua's journalists tell hard truths about local cronyism and violence

The Interpreter - June 25, 2015 (Part 5)

Michael Bachelard – Few work harder to advocate for the Papuan people than Victor Mambor. The son of John Mambor, who was a powerful independence leader, Victor has established himself as a robustly independent journalist, the editor of the newspaper Tabloid Jubi, based in coastal city of Jayapura, the capital of Papua province.

His newspaper is often the first to report news of arrests or killings. When four (originally reported as five) protesters were shot dead by soldiers in the highlands town of Enarotali in December 2014, it was Tabloid Jubi with the most credible and timely information.

But the situation Mambor sees and reports is much murkier and more complex than the binary story – Indonesian oppressors and Papuan victims – that some activists promote in both Papua and the West.

Killings by the Indonesian state are still going on, particularly as palm oil plantation companies turn their attention to vast, forested lowlands, and start alienating traditional owners. Dozens of independence activists remain imprisoned by the Indonesian state, despite the promise of President Joko Widodo to release them, some for simply raising the banned Morning Star independence flag.

And Mambor tells of the brutal indignities meted out by soldiers and the increasingly powerful police, including one story of students being tortured in police custody and, allegedly, by doctors at the police hospital.

Mambor himself is often stopped by a suspicious Indonesian military who remember his father's political activities and assume the son is the same. The night I meet him for dinner at a barbeque fish restaurant on the shore of Sentani in Jayapura, he rejects one restaurant after another because they are full of Indonesian military figures, and he does not want to be overheard.

But Mambor does not shy away from the untold story of Papua – the corruption and cronyism rife in the native Papuan political elite, and the tribal divisions and violence (including family violence) which kills far more people here than the Indonesian military or police.

There has been a spate of killings in the highland region of Tolikara, he tells me, because the mining giant Freeport is exploring there. The killings are not carried out by a rapacious foreign company, nor the security forces acting in concert with them, but by local tribes. 'It's about money: who can own the land and has the right to sell it. There is so much killing there,' Mambor says.

He says soldiers sell bullets to independence activists to make money and perpetuate the conflict. The going rate, he says is 1 million rupiah (about $105) per bullet, and 26 million ($2740) per gun, 'paid with (illegally mined) gold'.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who has shown a genuine interest in Papua, will try his best to improve welfare in the province, Mambor says, but the hardliners in the police and military would 'try to keep this land as a conflict zone – they'll do their best.'

'And the hardliners are more powerful than him' he continued.

The only answer he can see is the elevation of the Papuan people through 'better education and better health'. The real tragedy, then, is the local corruption that steals any chance of progress. So many Papuans are dependent on government cash from Jakarta – either through village welfare schemes or public sector salaries for no-show jobs – while everyone mouths the rhetoric of independence.

The current crop of local leaders, Mambor believes, is 'not fighting for indigenous people's rights, but for bad strategy, violence, the wrong story, lies... West Papuan people are living in a dream. We want all freedom of course, but we cannot work together' he said.

Oktavianus Pogau is another journalist, the chief editor of newspaper Suara Papua. After the presidential election last year, he tried to draw attention to the massive irregularities and ballot box stuffing that delivered counts in some places of 100% for Joko Widodo. In most Papuan districts, there was no ballot box at all, but every man and woman miraculously managed to vote. He accuses politicised electoral commission officials, not Joko's party, of wrongdoing.

In the remote village of Lolat the fact that a ballot box never appeared for the election makes people feel they have no stake in the outcome. Asked about the promises of Joko Widodo, a young woman in Lolat says: 'We didn't actually elect him so why should he listen to what we say?'

Victor Mambor remembers the struggle he and his siblings faced just to be educated while their father spent long years in prison. Papua has to struggle again, he says, to fight for an education system worth its name, and a health system that does not kill its own people. Like almost all Papuans, he also wants freedom from Indonesia, 'and I believe it will come, but not yet. First we need to prepare.'

Source: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2015/06/24/Papuas-journalists-tell-hard-truths-about-local-cronyism-and-violence.aspx?COLLCC=1777137038&

In Papua's health centres, a glimpse of dysfunction and corruption

The Interpreter - June 23, 2015 (Part 4)

Michael Bachelard – 'In June last year, seven doctors were sent to this town, but five didn't want to come. In September they tried to send another four and all four went back to Jakarta.'

Dr Poby Kamendra is the head doctor at the puskesmas (local health centre) in Bokondini, a town that once served as a Dutch colonial administrative centre in the highlands of Indonesia's Papua. He is from Sumatra, sent by the Indonesian health ministry for a two-year stint as part of a program to service the outer islands.

Poor education in Papua means there are few locally trained doctors. But not many from outside Papua want to stay in these hard postings with their thorny health problems.

One young physician arrived for his two-year stint in a taxi via the bumpy road from Wamena. He got out and looked around, then climbed back into the same taxi, returned to town and was never seen again.

Dr Poby, by contrast, finds the work satisfying. On the desk in the consulting room are testing kits for patients diagnosed that day with tuberculosis which, along with HIV/AIDS, is in epidemic proportions here. In the eleven months to November 2014, he diagnosed 26 new cases of HIV and three of AIDS.

Dr Poby has educated many people about how to take the HIV medication. It's provided free under an Indonesian Government program, but village people find it difficult to stick to the schedule for taking it. He's introduced an immunisation program, particularly for tetanus, which is common but for which patients previously had to find their way to Wamena. He has also trained health kaders, or village-level honourary providers. In mid-2015, Dr Poby's tour ends and he will go back home.

Bokondini's health centre is part of a network of 25 in the local region. But only two of these centres (the other is in the capital, Tolikara) are operational; the remote centres remain empty, their staff absent. Even in Bokondini, most of the local staff don't turn up, though they are punctilious about collecting their salaries. Dr Poby points to a roster behind him that contains more than 20 names, but he, an assistant and a nurse (who is also from outside Papua) are the only ones on duty when I call.

The money to run the centre, buy medications and do outreach in the hills is rorted long before it gets to the front line. 'The allocated budget for this centre is 100 million rupiah (about $A10,500) for three months operation. But we only get 65 million,' Dr Poby says. 'In 2013, from an allocated budget for outreach (visits to remote villages) we only got 15 million ($A1580). It was supposed to be 125 million ($A13,200). So what can you do?... I don't know where the money went; it went missing before it got to the puskesmas.'

Prior to Dr Poby's arrival, it is said, the head of the health clinic herself would wait for the fresh medicine to arrive, then board the truck, drive it back to Wamena and sell it to the pharmacy there.

There are also racial problems – the ethnic Papuan patients do not always trust the Malay-Indonesian doctors. 'People will say "those straight hairs are always trying to kill us, poison us, giving us the wrong medicine"', says veteran Wamena-based missionary Sue Trenear. 'If someone dies there has to be a reason. Someone has cursed them, given us the wrong medicine.'

Up at Lolat, an even more remote village, the head of the health centre, Elsona, a local man, actually lives in Wamena, and so the Indonesian-built health centre never opens. Honourary kaders, women from the village who learned their skills from the missionaries decades ago, have built their own consulting room with local materials.

Their leader, Lea Sobolim, learned what to do from the missionaries. On the day I visited, she treated ten people using medicine brought by a local NGO, Yasumat. The local government, recently formed after a split from a larger administrative area, has no distribution method. 'If patients come they'll get medicine if they are sick, but the other facilities are not there, like towels, heating water,' Sobolim tells me. 'In the missionaries' time those things were basics'.

Sobolim, limping up and down muddy paths, gives off an air of maternal competence. She can administer almost all medicines, she boasts: 'Injections, depending on the illness. If the patients have malaria, they have to go to Wamena. If they are wounded from being cut, I'll treat them.'

Stitches? 'I can do them.' Broken bones? 'Yes.'

Service delivery to remote regions is a tricky affair even in a rich country such as Australia. But in Papua, with HIV/AIDS on the move, life expectancy at about 50 years, and no apparent plan to address the problem, the need for a better solution is acute.

Source: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2015/06/23/In-Papuas-health-centres-a-glimpse-of-dysfunction-and-corruption.aspx

Papua's education malaise

The Interpreter - June 22, 2015 (Part 3)

One sunny November school day at a school in Tagime, hundreds of primary and secondary students are outside having a whale of a time. They're playing soccer – a game that ranges over acres and lasts for hours because there's nothing else to do.

The school is well furnished with buildings – a brand new brick one is under construction – but inside, the classrooms are derelict and have no electricity. There are few books and, on the day I visit, only two teachers for 600 students. 'Many new buildings, too few teachers,' observes Nus Gombo, one of the two.

Politicians in the Indonesian province of Papua – most of them local Papuans – can make good money out of 'projects' such as new school buildings. They let contracts to clan or family members and receive a fat bribe in return. But the hard work of making sure the teachers turn up to instruct students in literacy and numeracy is, apparently, beyond them.

All over the highlands, it's the teachers who wag school. Buildings pop up in every tiny village, but the teachers' salaries are paid in the capital. Rather than flying to and from to collect their pay, many teachers simply stay in the capital.

Operational funds are rorted by officials. What remains finds its way through to the schools, but 'These funds are, in the majority of cases, used for personal use and not for equipping schools,' according to a 2009 report from a local non-government organisation, Yasumat. The report continues, 'This also results in families that cannot afford books and pencils not sending their children to school or only sending one. In these cases it is generally the girls that get left behind.'

Teachers can be relied upon, however, to turn up once a year to administer the exam. 'At the exam, the student has to bring a pig or chicken to give to the teachers so they will graduate you,' says Ones Wenda, who is now a teacher himself at a highland school called Ob Anggen. Exams also involve industrial-scale cheating.

Wenda and his fellow teachers recently took the Ob Anggen students to the three-day national exams. Ob Anggen founder Benjamin Wisely, an American former development worker, said that repeatedly during the three days, administrators, principals and teachers from other schools tried to convince his teachers to 'help' the kids by filling in the answers for them, or writing the answers on the chalk board at the front of the room. 'If kids fail it reflects poorly on the rayon (district), and the parents will be angry and come burn something down or threaten,' Wisely said.

Pieter van der Wilt, a Dutch missionary, works at a teacher training college in the highlands capital of Wamena called STKIP. He thinks he gets the best high school graduates from the area, but when they arrive: 'On a skills test ranked from zero to 100, they score 30 to 35.

'They have only basic maths and basic language. They are 18, 19 years old... These students are not necessarily lazy or stupid, they are just victims of a broken system.' The result of all this, in Indonesia's poorest province, is an epidemic of illiteracy and innumeracy – and the numbers are actually worsening over time.

Otniel Elopere, the head of the Ob Anggen campus at tiny highlands town of Eragayam, is scathing: 'Our system (of) education and our system (of) government, every system doesn't work. I think we are killing ourselves'.

The problem is not just with the administrators. Ob Anggen is funded not by government but by fees and donations, and the school is fighting an uphill battle against some parents, and the culturally important uncles, who can't understand why children need to spend so much time in classrooms to attain certificates which, at other schools, can simply be bought or cheated.

'We lose five or six students per year because the uncles and the mothers pull them out,' says Ob Anggen teacher Adit Zakharia Primaditya. 'Parents want them to get a certificate ASAP because it represents status, and because then the students can do the civil service test'.

Despite the fierce desire for political independence from Jakarta, the greatest possible attainment in the highlands is to join the civil service (including becoming a teacher) and pick up a government salary, whether or not that means actually turning up to work.

Wenda, the principal at Ob Anggen's Dogobak Campus in Bokondini, says the situation is getting 'worse, much worse'. As the school system disintegrates, government officials and tribal leaders with money have abandoned it, sending their own children, from the age of five, to boarding schools near the coast.

At STKIP, the teacher's college, the message has got through to the prospective educators. 'Education is freedom,' says STKIP trainee Roy Kombian. 'Freedom from Indonesia is our dream. But not right now.'

Source: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2015/06/22/Papuas-education-malaise.aspx?COLLCC=64643846&COLLCC=2802447702&

How government is failing the people of Papua

The Interpreter - June 19, 2015 (Part 2)

Gaad Piranid Tabuni grew up in a village in the Papuan highlands of Indonesia too remote for any government – colonial Dutch or Indonesian – to maintain a presence. But missionaries lived there, and Tabuni, now one of the most senior public servants in the region, say they made him the man he is.

'I went to missionary schools, grew up in their environment... Their struggle was very tough. They are tough people, so we learned from them. They taught us how to read from scratch... gave us clothes and taught us to wear them'.

A condition imposed by the Indonesian foreign ministry on my trip to the Papuan highlands in November 2014 was that I speak to a government official.

Tabuni, an ethnic Papuan like most of the political leaders and public servants here, was the one who gave me the time. Unlike others, he was at work when I called. But if Jakarta expected him to feed me the central government line – that development in Papua is proceeding well – they would have been sorely disappointed.

'If the missionaries say it's A, then it's A; and if it's B, it's B. The Indonesian mentality is different,' Tabuni says. He believes, as do most of his countrypeople, that Jakarta is trying to 'Islamise' and 'Indonesianise' Papua. Papuans, he complained, were not 'strong in our culture' enough to resist.

Indonesia came to Papua in 1963, and had its takeover given a gloss of legitimacy in 1969 in a misnamed 'Act of Free Choice' under the auspices of the UN.

In the 1980s, as well as a heavy handed military presence, the state began a series of ill-conceived agricultural construction projects. People were encouraged to grow carrot and sawee (Chinese cabbage) – one hectare each – 'but they didn't teach us how to do in a modern way, so we did it in our own way'.

'It was too much. We couldn't cope, because the education was not enough; the human resources,' Tabuni says.

Come harvest, there was no market for the produce in Wamena, and no way to transport fresh vegetables to the capital, Jayapura – there is still no road, and air freight is punishingly expensive. There have been further attempts to build economic infrastructure over the years, but it's marred by poor quality and the theft of funds.

'The quality of the Indonesian projects is bad. They only last one year,' Tabuni says.

It's not uncommon around Wamena to see road-working equipment rusting in the long grass beside a half-finished highway repair job. 'The planning is always good but in the implementation, it's 70% different from the plans because the money goes missing,' Tabuni says.

Papua's poverty is not for want of money. I repeatedly heard the complaint from Papuans that Jakarta steals the funds generated by the giant Freeport gold and copper mine near Timika. It's Indonesia's largest single taxpayer, returning about $US1.5 billion in revenue last year.

But Vice-President Jusuf Kalla said in January that significantly more money is pumped back into Papua than the mine provides. Much of this is doled out in cash through two welfare packages 'Respek' and PNPM, which spring from Papua's 'special autonomy' from Indonesia, a status granted in 2001.

The rest goes to fund local government administrative areas called 'kabupaten'. To maximise these funds, members of the Papuan elite are continually pressing Jakarta to subdivide kabupaten into smaller and smaller administrative districts in a virtually viral process called 'pemekaran'.

They argue it will get government closer to the people, but the effect is to dilute even further the meagre political talent and administrative oversight, and to open regions to the Indonesian disease of corruption, compounded by a strong Melanesian obligation to share wealth within clan and tribal groups.

'What I'm afraid of is that in five to ten years time, all the Bupatis (local area governors) in Papua will go to jail,' Tabuni observes.

The competition for government jobs is intense. But once a job is secured, many public servants – from teachers and health workers to government officials – take their salaries and do not turn up to work.

Tabuni's ultimate message may well please Jakarta: Papua is not ready for independence. 'Independence means we do things for ourselves and not waiting for people to come and give us money. We build things with our own hands'.

In Tabuni's view, the Indonesian Government filched something along the way to incorporation into the unitary republic: 'We lost this high integrity, sense of responsibility that the missionaries taught us. It's almost gone. We don't have a high spirit of hard work.'

Instead, his people have become obsessed by politics, including the politics of independence. 'Now the people who join political parties, go into politics, they have high social status. But for me they are fake leaders... How can we have an independent state with these two problems? We would die. This is my view from the cultural aspect,' Tabuni says.

'The greatest problem is the mental problem... People think they can live by politics alone'.

Source: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2015/06/19/how-Government-is-failing-people-of-papua.aspx

The stories we never hear from Papua

The Interpreter - June 17, 2015 (Part 1)

Michael Bachelard – Thanks to a brutal history, an Indonesian Government that restricts journalistic access, and a group of committed activists in Australia and New Zealand, most people only ever hear one story about Indonesia's Papua and West Papua provinces.

Over coming days, Interpreter readers will see a seven-part series about that story and what I saw in Papua as Indonesia correspondent for Fairfax Media between 2012 and 2014.

It's a story about a 'slow motion genocide'; about the greed of foreign miners and an Indonesian military occupation without scrutiny or accountability. It's about a proud people desperate for freedom from a repressive, extractive state.

When that story is told in Australia, it reminds people of the long struggle of the East Timorese. In Indonesia, the similarity between the two poisons the relationship with Australia. The Indonesian elite is encouraged in the false view that Australia has a secret plan to also take this province away from them.

But it's a half-story. The real story is much more complex. As Fairfax Media's correspondent, I wanted to see for myself. I made two trips into Papua, both into the highlands and the lowlands. To get there legally, the Indonesian Government put me through an application process that involved spelling out what stories I wanted to write, and precisely who I wanted to meet. My application was endorsed by civilian and military leaders.

Both times I was granted permission. Both times I strayed from the government-imposed reservation to fill out a more complete picture.

What I found in Papua was grief at dispossession and anger at Indonesia's repressive colonial occupation. I found an independence movement fueled by a strong belief in religious and cultural differences.

But I also found ordinary people sick, impoverished and frustrated by the public sector dysfunction and local corruption that is mostly driven by ethnic Papuan elites. And I found fear – not only of Indonesia, but fear that an independent Papuan state, which all said they fervently hoped for, may descend into tribalism and chaos.

Few would say that they were better off as part of Indonesia, but a number paraphrased St Augustine's infamous plea, saying: 'Please grant us independence from Indonesia, but not yet'.

Source: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2015/06/17/stories-we-never-hear-from-papua.aspx

Police investigate burning down of Papua church

Jakarta Globe - June 16, 2015

Roberth Isidorus, Jayapura – An evangelical church in Yambi, in Papua's Puncak Jaya district, was burned down by group of unknown attackers on Monday.

The local military commander, Lt. Col. Bayu Sudarmanto, confirmed the incident.

Residents heard gunshots and then saw smoke coming from the GIDI church building, after which they tried to extinguish the flames, Bayu said.

The building was destroyed in the flames, but nobody was hurt. Police are investigating, the military commander said, adding that residents believed a local group to be behind the arson attack.

"This is the first time a church is burned down in the Central Mountains [of Papua]," said Dainus Game, GIDI chairman in Puncak Jaya. "It is a sad development for everybody, big and small, that this house of God could be burned down."

Asked who might be responsible for the arson attack, Dainus said he suspected local supporters of the Papua Freedom Organization (OPM).

"Generally the perpetrators [of attacks like these] are from the TPN-OPM, but we don't know yet who the main perpetrators are [in this case]," he said, referring to the armed wing of the OPM.

Dainus said the attack took place at around 2:15 p.m. "I feel they [the attackers] oppose development," he added. "[They oppose] the government, the church – this community even fights against God."

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/police-investigate-burning-papua-church/

Free condoms at 180 sites in Jayapura

Jakarta Post - June 16, 2015

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Around 100 volunteers and social workers have been deployed to distribute free condoms in 180 known areas for sex transactions such as hotels, dormitories, rental rooms and on the streets in their efforts to slow down the rapid spreading of HIV/AIDS in the provincial capital and surrounding areas.

The secretary of the Papua AIDS Prevention Commission, Constant Karma, said in Jayapura on Tuesday that the move was aimed at moving condoms closer to where they are needed.

He said the volunteers and social workers have never forced but only offered condoms and the decision remained with sex consumers on whether or not to use them.

"The condoms are offered only to those exposed to a high risk of HIV infection because this is the only way to suppress the rapid spreading of the fatal disease in the province," he said.

Constant, also a former deputy governor of Papua, revealed that the total number of people infected with AIDS in the province has reached around 19,000 since the virus was first detected in Merauke in 1992.

Separately, the head of the AIDS, TB and Malaria technical unit at the Papua Health Agency, Ni Nyoman Sri Antara, said that his office would involve both informal and religious leaders in their campaign for HIV/AIDS prevention in the province.

"Informal and religious leaders will be asked to play an active role in the campaign because most people, mostly those living in rural areas, have yet to learn about the fatal disease," he said.

He said that based on a survey conducted in 2013, only nine out of every 100 people had a comprehensive understanding of the disease, how it is transmitted and how to prevent it.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/16/free-condoms-180-sites-jayapura.html

Human rights & justice

Jokowi urged to make political move to settle past rights abuses

Jakarta Post - June 22, 2015

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has called on President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to issue a presidential decree to officially set up an ad hoc commission assigned to seek comprehensive resolutions to unresolved past cases of human rights violations.

A presidential decree is needed to set up the ad hoc commission, the establishment of which is included in the National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), in order to speed up an ongoing process jointly being carried out by relevant state institutions that has been harshly criticized by human rights campaigners and victims of past rights abuses due to foreseeable unaccountability.

The state institutions are Komnas HAM, the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister, the Law and Human Rights Ministry, the Attorney General's Office, the National Police and the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).

According to the RPJMN, the ad hoc commission is to be under the direct supervision of Jokowi to facilitate efforts to thoroughly reveal cases of past rights abuses in order to finally find solutions to resolve them.

"The ongoing process can move faster if the President makes a political move and issues a decree to set up the ad hoc commission," Komnas HAM deputy chief, who also leads Komnas HAM's team on the settlement of past human rights abuses, Roichatul Aswidah, told The Jakarta Post.

Roichatul suggested that the ad hoc commission could not only work faster but also more effectively as long as it involved various elements representing all stakeholders, particularly victims who suffered abuses in the past or their relatives.

"We, as a nation, can thus move forward from officially acknowledging the dark past to taking measures to restoring the rights of the victims," Roichatul added.

Komnas HAM and the state institutions have been conducting meetings to discuss resolutions to past rights abuses, the settlement of which has been in limbo for years despite campaign promises by former presidents and more recently by Jokowi.

In a move to show that he is different from his predecessors, Jokowi has repeatedly reiterated his commitment to settling past rights abuses, which have been declared gross human rights violations by Komnas HAM.

During his term in office, Jokowi has assigned officials to be responsible for the issue, including Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly, Attorney General M. Prasetyo, National Police chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, to work together with Komnas HAM to find the best solutions to the cases.

The unresolved cases consist of the 1989 massacre in Talangsari, Lampung, the forced disappearance of anti-Soeharto activists in 1997 and 1998, the 1998 Trisakti University shootings, the Semanggi I and Semanggi II student shootings in 1998 and 1999, the mysterious killings of alleged criminals in the 1980s, the communist purges of 1965 and various abuses that took place in Wasior and Wamena in Papua in 2001 and 2003, respectively.

In addition to assigning those institutions to find solutions, the government has also initiated a bill on Truth and Reconciliation (KKR) to the House of Representatives, which is apparently an alternative way in case government officials fail to find the best solutions for all.

Minister Yasonna told lawmakers in a hearing last week that the government would prioritize its team, which is led by Komnas HAM, in searching for possible solutions to best settle cases of past abuses instead of discussing the KKR bill.

"We might put the [KKR] bill on hold to allow the government's team to work first," Yasonna told the House's Legislation Body (Baleg) when asked for a draft bill as well as an academic paper on the KKR because although the KKR bill was one of the priority bills in the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas), the government was yet to submit the draft to the House.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/22/jokowi-urged-make-political-move-settle-past-rights-abuses.html

Labour & migrant workers

Rising unemployment piles up problems for Indonesian president

Reuters - June 22, 2015

Eveline Danubrata & Cindy Silviana, Jakarta – Indonesian companies are shedding jobs as they grapple with the weakest economic growth in six years, adding to the troubles facing President Joko Widodo, who was elected last year on pledges to dig the country out of a rut.

Government data might suggest no cause for alarm – unemployment was 5.81 percent in February, up only slightly from 5.70 percent a year earlier – but the official numbers are notoriously unreliable and don't adequately cover the informal sector, which is two-thirds of Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

Recent reports of heavy layoffs across the country paint a bleaker picture, and business executives, recruitment firms and jobseekers say it is getting worse.

Young people are being hit hardest; the International Labor Organization estimated the youth jobless rate was more than 20 percent in 2013, and economists believe it is higher now.

About a third of the workforce is aged 15 to 29, a youth bulge that could bring Indonesia, a country of 250 million people, the sort of demographic dividend China and South Korea enjoyed a generation ago – but only if there are jobs for the 2 million people joining the workforce every year.

"The government doesn't have a blueprint for labor absorption," said property businessman Hariyadi Sukamdani, chairman of the Indonesian employers' association.

"If this condition is allowed to continue, what we would get is not a demographic bonus, but a demographic disaster. There could be social turmoil and higher crime rates."

When he took office eight months ago, Widodo said he would pour billions of dollars into infrastructure and foster growth in manufacturing.

But the promised splurge on roads, power plants and ports has not materialized, largely because of bureaucratic hold-ups and land disputes, and a shortage of skilled labor is holding back growth in value-added industries.

Miners have been hammered by a double whammy: a ban on mineral ore exports and a sharp drop in commodity prices.

Meanwhile, labor-intensive industries such as textiles and manufacturing have been hit by the rupiah's slide to a 17-year-low, which has raised the cost of imported raw materials.

Hundreds of redundant garment factory workers protested for hours this week in the financial district of Jakarta, the capital, after their company was declared bankrupt and its assets seized by two banks.

Unemployment in turn is hitting consumption, which makes up more than half of Indonesia's economy. Automobile sales in May fell 18.4 percent from a year earlier, the ninth decline in a row.

"Stocks are piling up because nobody is buying. The people's purchasing power is weak," said Ade Sudrajat, head of Indonesia's textile association. "This has never happened before in the last 45 years."

Arif Budimanta, adviser to the finance minister, said the government was introducing measures such as halving lending rates for small businesses and exempting most goods from a luxury tax to stimulate consumption.

At job fairs in Jakarta the gloom is palpable. Naomi Octiva Naibaho, a manager at the Kompaskarier.com portal that ran one such fair recently, said about 6,000 jobseekers turned up every day, roughly triple the number of positions on offer.

Gita Harahap, 26, has been sending resumes for weeks since the bank where she worked as a teller started a round of layoffs, but she has had no luck. "No one has called me back," she said. "The competition is tighter."

In the first five months of this year, 79 companies approached Universitas Indonesia for potential recruitment, down from 110 over the same period of 2014, said Sandra Fikawati, head of the university's career development center.

The slowdown is also affecting higher-paid jobs, including in financial services, said Rob Bryson, Indonesia country manager for recruitment firm Robert Walters.

From mid-2013 to late last year, the number of foreigners holding work permits in Indonesia is estimated to have dropped 20 percent to around 62,000, partly because expatriate jobseekers saw more opportunities in Western countries, he said.

"Companies here are looking to increase productivity," Bryson said. "They will happily hire one person and let go of two in many circumstances, so that adds pressure to the employment scene."

Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/asia/rising-unemployment-piles-up-problems-for-indonesian-president.html

Indonesia's maid ban said to increase human trafficking risk

Thomson Reuters Foundation - June 18, 2015

Astrid Zweynert, Hong Kong – Indonesia's proposed ban on sending domestic workers to the Middle East will force women seeking an escape from poverty to migrate illegally, and put them at greater risk of human trafficking, a rights campaigner said on Wednesday.

President Joko Widodo announced in May that Indonesia would stop sending new domestic workers to 21 Middle Eastern countries after Saudi Arabia executed two Indonesian maids, local media reported.

Eni Lestari, chairwoman of the International Migrants' Alliance comprising more than 120 member organisations, said Indonesians would continue to seek work overseas unless the government did more to tackle poverty.

"This moratorium makes women more vulnerable because they will migrate anyway," Eni told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"It's not about protecting migrant workers – on the contrary, it increases the risk that they are trafficked because they will be illegal migrants and have no protection at home and in their destination countries," she said.

Eni was speaking on the sidelines of Trust Forum Asia, a conference co- hosted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation that aims to tackle modern day slavery.

There are 53 million domestic workers worldwide, more than 80 percent of them are women, according to the International Labor Organization.

Domestic workers are among the most exploited people in the world, with the ILO estimating that private households save $8 billion a year by not paying or under-paying domestic workers.

Inequality, corruption

An estimated 600,000 Indonesians work in the Middle East, mostly as domestic workers.

Indonesia's proposed ban, which is expected to come into effect later this year, affects Saudi Arabia – a major destination for Indonesian domestic workers – the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Egypt among other countries.

Despite Indonesia's success in more than halving the poverty rate since 1999, some 28 million Indonesians in a country of 252 million still live below the poverty line.

"Without making more of an effort to tackle poverty, inequality and corruption in our country, people will be forced to leave Indonesia because we cannot make a decent living at home," Eni said.

The government's practice of issuing licenses to private agencies to organise "the export of migrant workers" had resulted in widespread exploitation and abuse, she added.

Eni said before coming to Hong Kong as a domestic worker 15 years ago, she was trained over several months to cook, baby sit and speak basic Cantonese. However, workers still do not receive adequate training or information to prepare them for their new life abroad, she said.

"There is no training on understanding what legal rights you may have as a migrant worker, no advice on what to do if you're abused, other than to say, 'Call your agency.' But they are often abusive themselves," Eni said.

Previous bans in Indonesia and other countries, such as Malaysia, had not reduced domestic worker abuse, according to evidence collected by advocacy groups.

If governments want to make a real difference they should legislate to guarantee employment contracts of migrant workers to avoid them being exploited by recruitment agencies and employers, Eni said.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/indonesias-maid-ban-said-increase-human-trafficking-risk/

Political parties & elections

Not many independents to run in elections

Jakarta Post - June 17, 2015

Ruslan Sangadji and Apriadi Gunawan, Palu/Medan – The nationwide simultaneous regional elections scheduled for December this year are unlikely to see much participation by independent candidates.

It has been confirmed there will be no independent mayor or deputy mayor candidates in Palu, Central Sulawesi, in the mayoral election slated for Dec. 9.

The confirmation came after registration for the race closed on Monday, the deadline for the candidacy registration. "No independent candidates have submitted supporting documents for the 2015-2020 term election," Palu election body (KPUD) chairman Marwan P. Angku said on Tuesday.

Marwan said the fact that no independent candidate would be in the race was due to the strict requirements for registration.

A candidate, he said, needed to be able to garner the endorsement of 30,000 voters by means of copies of the voters' respective ID cards. At the same time, a voter who previously granted support could also withdraw that support at any time.

"That's what might have been the consideration of independent candidates," Marwan said, confirming that candidates in the upcoming Palu election would all be nominated by political parties.

Similarly in North Sumatra, of the 23 regencies/cities to hold elections on Dec. 9 most will do so without the participation of independent candidates.

In Medan, the provincial capital, as of Monday afternoon no independent candidates had registered to run in the mayoral election with the local KPUD.

KPUD Medan commissioner Pandapotan Tamba said that from the opening of registration for candidates on June 11 until the deadline on Monday, no independent candidate had submitted supporting documents to the election body.

"An independent candidate did come to this office today but only to submit a letter stating their inability to meet with the required number of supporters in the relatively short time period," Pandapotan said on Monday afternoon.

Chairman of KPUD Binjai, Herry Dani, also told the same story. He said no independent candidates had registered for participation in the election, although a day before a candidate had said he would participate.

Darma Malem, one of the potential candidates to register for an independent candidacy in Binjai election, said that he had changed his mind after communicating with several political parties.

"Initially I wanted to register as an independent candidate. Furthermore I had collected the required support. However, after reconsidering, I decided that it would be better for me to register through a political party's nomination," Darma told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Meanwhile in West Pasaman, West Sumatra, the Zulkenedi Said-Zainir pair who had previously been expected to register as independent candidates had not shown up at the local KPUD office for registration as of Monday afternoon.

"We were informed that the pair did not register because they failed to collect the support of 36,112 voters as required," West Pasaman KPUD chairman Syafrinaldi said, confirming that no independent candidate would run in the upcoming election in the region.

However, independent candidates did register in the Solok, West Sumatra, regency election. Three pairs of candidates registered with the local KPUD just an hour before the registration officially closed on Monday at 4 p.m. local time. The first pair of candidates to register was Zulherman-Syafri Datuk Siri Marajo who registered at 3:15 p.m., followed by Lukman-Adriwal at 3:30 p.m. and Wahidup-Mefrizal some fifteen minutes later.

[Syofiardi Bachyul Jb in Padang contributed to this story.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/17/not-many-independents-run-elections.html

Environment & natural disasters

Indonesia largest exporter of shark fins: Conservationists

Jakarta Post - June 22, 2015

Suherdjoko, Semarang – Conservation group Save Sharks Indonesia has said Indonesia is the largest supplier of shark fins in the international market, and this has led to an increase in shark fishing among local fishermen, which puts the species at risk of extinction due to overfishing.

"Currently, Indonesia is at the top of the 20 largest shark fishing countries in the world," Save Sharks Indonesia campaign director Riyanni Djangkaru said in a discussion on shark conservation in Semarang recently.

Green Peace Indonesia data show the country produces at least 486 tons of dried shark fins. Meanwhile, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says at least 1.1 million tons of shark products are traded globally every year, although shark is a species that faces high risk of extinction due to overfishing, coupled with their slow reproduction.

Riyanni said a jump in demand for shark fins and other products had triggered an increase in shark fishing and this was partly because of the absence of regulations on shark fishing in Indonesia. Growing baby shark sales in supermarkets aggravated the situation.

Riyanni said uncontrolled shark fishing would affect sea ecosystems: most sharks are apex predators, which means they control the populations of their prey animals. If there are no sharks, prey populations explode disproportionately. With rampant fishing for adult shark fins and baby shark meat, the population of the species often called the "sea doctor" is becoming seriously threatened.

Green Peace Indonesia representative Afif Saputra said Indonesian fishermen caught sharks only for the fins as they were among the most expensive seafood products. "Dried shark fins are selling at various prices, starting from Rp 1 million (US$75) to Rp 4 million per kilogram in Tanjung Aan, Lombok. The prices are much more expensive in the export market," he said.

Afif said all related stakeholders in Indonesia must take concrete measures to save sharks from extinction.

Save Sharks Indonesia says it has also targeted seafood product consumers in its conservation campaigns.

"It's not only the government, as the regulation maker, and the fishermen, as the product suppliers, that have become our [campaign] targets. Shark fin consumers have also become our targets because all this time, their roles as triggers for the overfishing of sharks have received less attention," said Riyanni. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/22/ri-largest-exporter-shark-fins-conservationists.html

Health & education

70% of smokers are teenagers: Expert

Jakarta Post - June 20, 2015

Jakarta – Seventy percent of Indonesian smokers are teenagers, an expert said on Friday.

"The majority of Indonesian smokers are between the ages of 16 and 25," said Hasbullah Thabrani, an expert in tobacco consumption, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Hasbullah also said cigarette consumption increased every year and it had brought bad health impacts on people during their productive age. "According to data, cigarette consumption increases by 20 percent every year in Indonesia," he said.

The data also showed that the majority of smokers were from the lower middle class, as rich people were already aware of the dangers of smoking.

Hasbullah hoped that the government would take action to control the increasing rate of cigarette consumption. "The one and only way is by increasing cigarette taxes, which will also protect farmers and producers from bankruptcy," he argued. (ika)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/20/national-scene-70-smokers-are-teenagers-expert.html

Marriage & polygamy

Rights activists pan court ruling refusing to sanction interfaith marriages

Jakarta Globe - June 19, 2015

Kennial Laia, Basten Gokkon & Erwin Sihombing, Jakarta – Human rights activists have lambasted the Constitutional Court for rejecting a judicial review calling for official recognition of interfaith marriages, saying the ruling failed to protect the rights of those wishing to marry someone of a different religion.

Poengky Indarti, the executive director of the rights watchdog Imparsial, said that with the ruling handed down on Thursday, the government would continue to have free rein in interfering with individual privacy. She said that by not granting the judicial review of the 1974 Marriage Law, the court had deprived mixed-faith couples of the right to have their union sanctioned by the state.

"The marriage law should have been formulated to provide a solution for couples with cultural and religious differences, and even different citizenships," Poengky told the Jakarta Globe on Friday.

"The country shouldn't limit its citizens' choice to marry based on a religion sanctioned by the state. With this rejection, the government will continue to not accommodate interfaith marriage. The government will not legitimize the rights of those who want to marry a partner from a different religious background. This is not fair," Poengky said.

She said many couples were compelled not to marry, or to undergo often disingenuous religious conversions in order to register their marriage with the government's Religious Affairs Office. Others who can afford to choose to get married overseas and then have their foreign marriage certificate notarized once they get back.

Hendardi, the chairman of the Setara Institute, a rights and democracy watchdog, called Thursday's ruliing discriminatory and said other means must be found to ease the burden of interfaith couples who face difficulty trying to register their marriage with the state.

"Because the country has refused to legalize interfaith marriage, there should be other mechanisms that can make it possible. Otherwhise people will continue to be discriminated against in this regard," he said.

De facto ban

The ruling was the culmination of a judicial review process begun last year when a group of five petitioners sought to challenge Article 2 of the 1974 Marriage Law, which states that a marriage is only considered legitimate by the state if conducted according to the religious traditions and beliefs of the bride and groom.

The article has long been considered a de facto, if not explicit, ban on interfaith marriages, given that wedding rites vary among different religious beliefs, thus making it impossible for a mixed-faith couple to fulfill the requirement of the article.

The Constitutional Court, however, ruled that the article should stand. "The court rules that the petitioners' request does not have a legal basis and therefore rejects the appeal for a judicial review," Chief Justice Arief Hidayat said.

The court did not consider the clause that effectively outlaws interfaith marriage a violation of the Constitution, Arief said, because marriage does not only include formal aspects, but also "spiritual and social" aspects.

The court stated that religion was an important platform for individuals and communities when they establish a marriage, and that the state must provide legal certainty and protection for nuptials.

The court also rejected the petitioners' request to raise the legal age for marriage to 18 years from 16 at present, based on recommendations from the Women's Health Foundation (YKP) and the Child Rights Monitoring Foundation (YPHA).

The court said that raising the legal age for a marriage would not guarantee a decrease in the number of women potentially at risk of reproductive health problems, adding that the law as it stood already took into consideration all health, social and financial aspects when stipulating a minimum age of 16.

The petitioners had argued that the current legal age also violated girls' right to complete their education and could lead to a higher maternal mortality rate. Indonesia already has the highest maternal mortality rate in Southeast Asia.

The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) welcomed the ruling as "in line with all religions". "Besides, there's no religion that encourages its congregation to mary a person of a different faith," MUI secretary general Tengku Zulkarnain said on Friday as quoted by Republika Online.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/rights-activists-pan-court-ruling-refusing-sanction-interfaith-marriages/

Court upholds status quo in marriage law

Jakarta Post - June 19, 2015

Jakarta – The Constitutional Court (MK) on Tuesday rejected a judicial review of two articles in the Marriage Law, maintaining its current provisions on the minimum age requirement and interfaith marriage.

The court maintains the law's Article 7 that sets 16 years as the minimum age of marriage for women on the grounds that there is no guarantee that if the age requirement was increased to 18, as demanded by the petitioners, it would reduce divorce rates and solve health and social problems.

"All the problems, social, health and economic problems, are not merely caused by the minimum age limit as set by the Constitution," said court chief justice Arief Hidayat while delivering the verdict.

"It also doesn't mean that [by maintaining the current minimum age] we will not prevent child marriage, which brings social, health and economic problems."

The petitioners, the Women's Health Foundation (Yayasan Kesehatan Perempuan) and a coalition of five concerned women and children rights activists and organizations, were disappointed with the ruling, arguing that women under 18 years old were still considered children.

"The verdict shows that Indonesia still allows under-18-year-old children to get married. This also means allowing women to die and suffer health problem as an impact of giving birth at a child's age," the NGOs coalition on children's and women's rights said in a statement. "This country allows children to have children."

The petitioners, in their lawsuit, said that the article contradicts the Child Protection Law, which stipulates that a child is anyone less than 18 years of age. According to them, 16 years is too young for a girl to get married. They said if girls marry at that age, they might suffer health, social and economic problems because they are not psychologically ready to be mothers.

The court rejected another judicial review on the law, filed by University of Indonesia law students, concerning Article 2, which regulates interfaith marriages.

"A citizen should abide with a limit set by the Constitution when exercising his or her liberty and rights. This is done in respect and recognition of other's rights and liberty. This is also done to fulfill justice, which fits moral and religious values, security and public order in a democratic country," said Arief, who is presiding judge for the hearing.

The court also rebuffed the petitioners' argument that the article forces people to choose a specific religion as a basis of their marriage. "The law on marriage was created to regulate and defend citizens' rights and obligations in marriage," Arief said.

The law students challenged the article, which stipulates that a marriage can only be considered legitimate if it is conducted in line with the rituals of a religion to which both the bride and groom adhere.

According to the petitioners, the article is contradictory to Article 28 Point E of the Constitution, which says that everyone has the liberty to worship and practice their religion of choice. The petitioners said that the verdict means that the state would continue to deprive citizens of their rights and liberty to choose whether or not to apply provisions of religion in their marriage. "We will see more victims of the law," said Damian Agata Yuvens, one of the petitioners. (saf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/19/court-upholds-status-quo-marriage-law.html

Interfaith marriages still unsanctioned as court rejects judicial review

Jakarta Globe - June 18, 2015

Erwin Sihombing, Jakarta – Indonesia's Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected a petition for a judicial review of Indonesia's law on marriages, which, among other things, does not recognize interfaith unions.

Last September, five people submitted a motion for a judicial review of the 1974 Marriage Law, which requires all marriages in Indonesia to be conducted "in accordance with the respective religious beliefs of the bride and groom." The petitioners argued the law violated the Constitution and state ideology of Pancasila. On Thursday, however, the petition was turned down.

"The court rules that the petitioners' request does not have a legal basis and therefore rejects the appeal for a judicial review," Chief Justice Arief Hidayat said.

The court did not consider the clause that effectively outlaws interfaith marriage as a violation of the Constitution, Arief said, because marriage does not only include formal aspects, but also "spiritual and social" aspects.

The court stated that religion was an important platform for individuals and communities when they establish a marriage, and that the state must provide legal certainty and protection for nuptials.

"We definitely respect the court's decision, but we will study the verdict and consider all options before deciding our next move," Damian Agata Yuvens, one of the petitioners, told reporters after the ruling.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/interfaith-marriages-still-unsanctioned-court-rejects-judicial-review/

Laws 'unfair' to spouses of foreigners

Jakarta Post - June 18, 2015

Jakarta – A group that advocates for the rights of mixed-nationality couples is filing a judicial review on the Marriage Law and the Agriculture Law, arguing that both are discriminatory to Indonesians who marry foreign nationals.

The Indonesian Mixed-Marriage Society (PerCa), which is currently challenging the Marriage Law and the Agriculture Law at court, on Wednesday lambasted the two laws for failing to regulate property rights for Indonesians in mixed marriages.

"The two laws have hindered mixed-marriage Indonesians from owning property in their own country," a member of the group, Ike Farida, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday in Central Jakarta. "Those articles are used by certain parties to limit the rights of mixed-marriage Indonesians to own property."

Articles 21 and 36 of the Agriculture Law stipulate that only Indonesian citizens may own property in Indonesia, while articles 29 and 35 of the Marriage Law regulate marriage contracts and mutual belongings.

"The two articles of the Marriage Law require mixed-marriage Indonesians to provide prenuptial contracts to buy and own property," Ike explained.

"But in most cases, marriages take place without this contract. Most people don't consider getting one unless they're rich or own many properties," she said.

Ike cited her own experience as an example of the difficulties faced by mixed-marriage Indonesians in purchasing and owning property. As she had a Japanese husband, one developer refused to allow Ike to buy a house.

"I had paid all the installments, but the developer did not give me the certificate because I had a foreign husband," she said, recounting her experience three years ago.

"How dare they deny my right to possess the house? I am still an Indonesian and I should have had the right," she said, adding that the "unfortunate experience" had forced her and her friends in the group to file a judicial review challenging the two laws at the Constitutional Court last month.

"It's not just about me. Many Indonesians might have had the same experience. This is a call for social justice," she said.

Arguing that Article 21 of the Agriculture Law failed to give legal certainty, PerCa demanded that the court include "all Indonesian citizens without exception" in the article, which currently only stipulates "Indonesian citizens".

PerCa is now waiting for the second hearing to be conducted on June 24. PerCa head Juliani Luthan said the group needed support from more people to sign petitions to be brought to the court.

"We need more people to support us. We need them to sign petitions to have a legal standing," Juliani told the Post, adding that support could be given through the PerCa website.

On Thursday, the court is scheduled to deliver rulings on other review cases on the Marriage Law, concerning the legal minimum marrying age for women and an ambiguous provision that can hinder interfaith marriages.

Court chief justice Arief Hidayat said recently that the bench needed more time to deliberate rulings on the intricate and high-profile cases.

"These difficult cases need time as we need to consider several aspects, for example, legal facts, scientific studies and the Constitution. We are very careful in handling such cases," he said. (saf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/18/laws-unfair-spouses-foreigners.html

Refugees & asylum seekers

People smuggler cash: Boat captain speaks

Sydney Morning Herald - June 17, 2015

Jewel Topsfield and Amilia Rosa – The asylum seeker boat captain has spoken publicly for the first time, confirming he received a cash payment from an Australian official on the condition he never people smuggle again.

Yohanis Humiang said an Australian official called Agus paid him and five other crew members between $US6000 and $US5000 each after he begged for help to earn a living.

In an extensive interview, conducted in front of media by Nusa Tenggara Timur police chief Endang Sunjaya, Mr Yohanis claimed Agus initially promised to fly the crew back to Indonesia.

Instead, they were "shocked" to be told to take the 65 asylum seekers back on two small wooden boats, Jasmine and Kanak.

Mr Yohanis said the boats were unseaworthy, had limited fuel, no toilets and no navigational system other than a GPS, which was "of no help because it won't tell reef conditions".

The interview took place under oath on Rote island on Wednesday.

Mr Yohanis also claimed the Australian authorities "didn't care" when one of the wooden boats, Jasmine, ran out of fuel on the way back to Indonesia.

"Panic ensued among the passengers onboard, it was like in an emergency situation, they were going to kill each other," Mr Yohanis said. "At the time I was scared: What to do?"

General Endang asked Mr Yohanis if the Australian Navy and customs ships were still there when Jasmine's engine stopped.

"They were in the back, they already said: 'OK you just head [to Rote Island]," Mr Yohanis said.

"So they ignored you?" General Endang asked. "Yes, after we were let go, they don't care any more," Mr Yohanis said.

Mr Yohanis said he was offered 150 million rupiah ($AUD15,000) by a people smuggling agent to take 65 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar to New Zealand.

The Navy warship HMAS Wollongong and an Australian Customs ship intercepted the asylum seeker boat, the Andika, on about May 19.

Mr Yohanis told the Australian official, Agus, they had no right to stop the boat, which had just passed Timor Leste, because it was still in international waters. "I said: 'Sir, our situation, we are trying to earn a living, as crew, we have nothing. If you take us, we don't have any money," Mr Yohanis said.

"At the time he [Agus] looked stumped, he said: 'We will save you from the [bad] weather.' But I said: 'We can still make it', because our journey would've taken us past Papua New Guinea borders."

He said Agus – whose "face shows he's Australian mixed with Indonesian" – interrogated him on board an Australian customs ship with the captain, after an identity check and full body search.

"We were interrogated: Who recruited us? Who was the agent?" Mr Yohanis said.

Mr Yohanis said the Australian officials promised to return the crew by plane, something he was inclined to acquiesce to after 15 tiring days at sea.

He told Agus he had no option if the Australian authorities insisted on taking them but they had no right to do so because the boat was on international waters.

"With that, I begged him: 'Sir, we are trying to earn a living, what can you help us with?' I also said: 'We need money to return to our wife and kids.' Agus said: 'OK, we will help.' I was going to be given $US6000, the crew $US5000."

After Mr Yohanis agreed to the deal, the Australian ships escorted the Andika to Greenhill Island in the Northern Territory. On arrival, all the asylum seekers had their photos taken and identities recorded.

"Agus then came from the navy ship and told us, to our surprise, that we have to go back by boat to Indonesia," Mr Yohanis said. "We were very scared, some of the crew said they can't do it, and I said I can't work alone, I can't do it, we can't do it. But he said there's no other option, you have to go back. Mentally we were so helpless, we can't do anything else."

Mr Yohanis said the crew were paid and then the Andika was escorted to Pulau Pasir (Sand Island), the Indonesian name for Ashmore Reef. They then spent a night on board the customs ship.

"It's like we were in jail. We can't go out, at all. In the morning, suddenly, unknowingly, we were told that we will be returning with the two wooden boats, Jasmine and Kanak."

When the Jasmine ran out of fuel, all 65 asylum seekers and six crew members transferred to the Kanak. The Kanak was stranded on a reef off Landu island, West Rote, on May 31, and the asylum seekers were rescued and sheltered by villagers.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/people-smuggler-cash-boat-captain-speaks-20150617-ghprpi.html

Documents detail boat turn-back, alleged payments to people smuggling crew

ABC Radio Australia - June 17, 2015

George Roberts, Indonesia – Indonesian police have provided new details about how Australian authorities allegedly intercepted an asylum seeker boat, transferred the passengers onto two boats and sent them back to Indonesia.

One of the boats provided by Australia allegedly ran out of fuel during the journey and the asylum seekers had to climb onto the other boat which later crashed onto a reef.

The documents, provided to the ABC by local police deputy chief commissioner Ronalzie Agus, detailed the journey of the asylum seekers from West Java to the waters off East Timor and back to Indonesia.

In their investigation into the turn-back operation and the allegations that Australia paid money to the crew, Indonesian police have interviewed six witnesses as well as the captain and crew of the boat.

Some of the passengers have also reported that an Australian Customs official paid money to the crew of the asylum seeker boat.

The police document about the initial findings of the investigation is in the form of a PowerPoint presentation and put the amount of money paid at more than $US30,000.

It detailed how the boat was allegedly intercepted by Australian authorities twice and taken to Australian waters before the 65 passengers and six crew were sent back to Indonesia. En route they ran aground on a reef and had to be rescued by local villagers.

Indonesian police have also provided the ABC with photos of the thousands of dollars the crew were allegedly paid, as well as a stricken wooden boat provided by Australia in order to get the asylum seekers back to Indonesia. Indonesia reacts angrily to claims of payments

The head of Indonesia's military (TNI), General Moeldoko, has reportedly described the tactic as unethical.

"That conduct was inappropriate. That's my view, but I would not give comment on the political context of a relation[ship] between two countries," he said.

General Moeldoko also defended Indonesia's ability to adequately patrol its vast waterways. "Our sea border is so long – 81,000 kilometres – with our current military power, with its insufficient navy capabilities... some sectors were sometimes missed," he was reported as saying.

The chairman of the country's parliamentary commission that covers foreign affairs, Commission One, told reporters at the national parliament that Indonesia and Australia needed to work together diplomatically.

Mahfudz Sidiq also hit out at the tactic of paying the boat crew as dishonourable.

"They bribed fishermen," he said. "They knew exactly that our fishermen are needy and they bribed them. The conduct done by Australia toward Indonesian civilians... was dishonour[able]."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott was asked about the reports by Opposition leader Bill Shorten in Question Time.

"We adhere to Australian law and we stop the boats. That is what we do," Mr Abbott said.

"We will do whatever is necessary, within the law and in accordance with our values as a decent and humane society, to stop the boats and to ensure that they stay stopped.

"Not only is what this Government has done legal, it is moral, it is absolutely moral because the most moral thing to do is to stop the boats and save the lives."

Chronology of the boat's journey

The document provided to the ABC is in the form of an internal police slide presentation and said the five crew from Manado in North Sulawesi and one from Jakarta were recruited by people smugglers in early April.

The men were enlisted by someone identified by the initials AJ in Jakarta to work on a fishing boat with a promise of wages of about 150 million rupiah ($14,000).

On April 16 they gathered at Cempaka Hotel where they stayed for two nights before being bussed to Tegal on the north coast of Java.

They stayed at a hotel in Tegal while looking for a suitable boat. Once a boat was found, the crew travelled by sea to Cidaun beach on the south coast of West Java.

About 2:00am on May 5, the 65 asylum seekers began being delivered to the boat. The passengers included 10 Bangladeshis, 54 Sri Lankans and one person from Myanmar. Among them were three children and four women, one of whom was pregnant.

A man identified as AY, who had also been involved with providing accommodation for the crew, told them that the 65 people should be taken to New Zealand.

Around 4:00am the boat departed towards New Zealand through the Java Sea. The police document said the boat passed Bali and continued further east past West Timor.

Crew warned by Australian Customs boat

Near East Timor the boat was allegedly crossing international waters when an Australian Customs ship stopped it.

Customs explained to them that their boat could not enter Australian waters and warning cards were distributed, saying: "Without a visa you cannot enter Australia."

After Customs gave a warning to the crew and the asylum seekers, they were released and continued towards Australian waters for about four days.

They were stopped again and detained by personnel from a Customs boat and Australian Navy ship, allegedly in international waters.

Then the captain, Yohanis Humiang, allegedly went to the Customs ship, was interrogated, and told the boat could not reach New Zealand because of the boat's condition and the waves.

The Indonesian police document alleges there was a deal between Australian Customs and Yohanis Humiang that the asylum seeker boat would be secured and escorted to Australian waters by Customs and the Navy – a trip that took four days.

When they arrived in the area they were registered and identified by the Customs officials.

After their details were taken, some of the asylum seekers asked to board to the Customs ship but some stayed on the boat captained by Yohanis Humiang.

The boat was then taken back towards Australia's Ashmore Reef and anchored there for two days The crew of the boat and the rest of the asylum seekers then asked to go on board the Navy ship.

Two wooden boats belonging to Australia, called Jasmine and Kanak, were then provided and the group split in two, with 32 passengers transferred to one boat, 33 asylum seekers put on the other and three crew transferred to each boat.

They were given lifejackets, a map and directions to Rote Island. The ABC has previously reported that food and other supplies were also provided to those on board.

It was at this point that the captain was allegedly given as much as $US6,000 while the crew were given $US5,000 each, bringing the total paid to $US31,000.

The crew then took the asylum seekers towards Indonesian waters and Rote Island, a voyage that took about eight hours.

When they approached Rote Island, Jasmine ran out of fuel and Kanak had to take the passengers on board, meaning all 71 people were on board the one boat.

Indonesian police were told some asylum seekers then started getting angry, began fighting with each other and also threatened the crew because they wanted to go to New Zealand.

About 5:00pm on May 31, Kanak crashed onto a reef at Landu Island, near Rote Island, which is off West Timor. Some people jumped from the boat and made it to the nearest village. Locals then helped to evacuate the rest of the asylum seekers from the stricken boat.

The document said the boat crew hired a small canoe to take themselves to land, understood to be Rote Island.

One of the villagers called local police, telling them that an asylum seeker boat had crashed on Landu Island. The southwest Rote police chief went to Landu Island to "secure" the asylum seekers and search for the crew.

According to the locals, cited by the document, the crew fled to Rote Island but around 9:00pm police arrested the six crew members. They remain in custody and could each face a maximum of 15 years in jail and up to 1.5 billion rupiah ($145,000) in fines.

Immigration authorities are holding the 65 asylum seekers at a hotel in Kupang, West Timor.

Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2015-06-17/indonesian-police-documents-detail-boat-turnback-and-alleged-payments-to-people-smuggling-crew/1459312

Stacks police say were paid to send asylum seekers on a 'suicide mission'

Sydney Morning Herald - June 16, 2015

Jewel Topsfield and Amilia Rosa, Kupang, Indonesia – Photographs of thousands of US dollars handed to six people smugglers, which Indonesian police say is proof of bribery by Australian officials, have been provided to Fairfax Media,

"We have given you the evidence," said General Endang Sunjaya, the police chief of Nusa Tenggara Timur province. "It's now up to you and other organisations to demand an answer from the Australian government."

And in a blistering attack, the head of the people smuggling division of Nusa Tenggara Timur province, Ibrahim, said sending 65 asylum seekers back to Indonesia on two boats with just a drum of fuel each was akin to "a suicide mission", asking: "Where is the humanity?"

He said the boat had hit a reef and been stranded off Landu island, and if it had been high tide it would have been too dangerous for the local villagers to rescue the asylum seekers.

In other revelations, the police officers told Fairfax Media the asylum seeker boat was intercepted by the navy warship HMAS Wollongong and an Australian customs boat in international waters.

However, they say the payments to the six crew allegedly made by an Australian official, Agus, took place on Andika near Greenhill Island in the Northern Territory. This could potentially make the payments subject to Australian law.

General Endang said the six crew members had all sworn under oath they received about $US5000 ($A6460) from an Australian official to return to Indonesia. Their accounts were corroborated by asylum seekers who were separately interrogated.

"We believe the payments happened," said General Endang. "They all said the same thing: they were paid by Australian officials to return to Indonesia."

General Endang said the alleged payments could trigger a new kind of crime, where people smuggling syndicates would put fake asylum seekers on a boat in order to extract money from the Australian government. "The money is now being kept as evidence that this was not a made-up story," said General Endang. "This is very unexpected. If it happened in Indonesia it would constitute a bribe."

General Endang said he had now handed the police investigation report to the National Police headquarters in Jakarta. "It is now up to HQ what to do next. It is out of our jurisdiction."

General Endang showed Fairfax Media the photographs of the cash, but they were provided for publication from another source.

Mr Ibrahim, who interrogated the crew members until 2am on Saturday morning, said the captain, Yohanis Humiang, initially refused to return to Indonesia because the crew would not be paid by a people-smuggling agent until the boat reached New Zealand.

The crew had been told they would be paid between 100 and 150 million rupiah ($A10,000 and $A15,000) when the 65 asylum seekers from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka landed in New Zealand.

The revelation sheds light on a possible motivation for the controversial alleged payments by Australia to six people smugglers.

Mr Ibrahim said the Andika had just passed Timor-Leste when it was intercepted. The crew members claimed Andika was blocked in international waters by HMAS Wollongong 92 and an Australian customs ship in a stand-off lasting several hours.

Mr Yohanis, an experienced sailor, said Australian authorities could not arrest them because they were in international waters.

He insisted Andika could make it to New Zealand, a journey he calculated would take 22 days from Pelabuhan Ratu in Indonesia to New Zealand if they travelled at a speed of eight knots. However, Australian officials said they were heading into bad weather and would be in danger if they proceeded.

Eventually the crew agreed to be escorted to Greenhill Island in the Northern Territory, a two-day journey in which the Andika was sandwiched between the two Australian ships.

Mr Ibrahim said it was here, on board the HMAS Wollongong, that the deal was struck. "Yohanis and the crew were insisting on continuing their journey to New Zealand or they wouldn't get paid," he said.

Following negotiations with Agus, the crew reportedly agreed to a $US5000 payment each if they returned to Indonesian, he said.

"The money was given with one condition: they go back to Indonesia, use the money for business and never do that kind of work ever again," Mr Ibrahim said.

He said the crew and Agus also agreed the Australian ships would guide the Andika back to the Java Sea so they could return to Pelabuhan Ratu.

Once the agreement was reached the crew members returned to the Andika, he said, and Agus followed in a speed boat. He handed the crew their money in envelopes on the Andika, he said, an exchange that was witnessed by some of the asylum seekers.

Nazmul Hassan, a Bangladeshi, told Fairfax Media he saw the captain put money in his pocket. Mr Hassan said the crew initially told Australian officials they couldn't go back to Indonesia because they could be jailed for people smuggling.

But he said after the meeting, Yohanis told them: "We have to go back. Australia want to pay for us." "After the meeting, everyone looked happy and they agreed to the proposal," Mr Hassan said.

However, Mr Ibrahim said the Australians reneged on part of their deal and instead of taking the Andika to the Java Sea they went to Ashmore Reef. The asylum seekers were then transferred to the HMAS Wollongong and customs ship for two days.

However, instead of returning them to the Andika, the asylum seekers were then transferred to two wooden boats, Jasmine and Kanak. Each boat was supplied with a drum of fuel (200 litres), limited food and water and a laminated google map of Rote island in Indonesia.

Mr Ibrahim said: "Yohanis protested, 'That was not the deal'; 200 litres isn't sufficient to even reach Rote island. "But Agus said, 'Agreement off, they have to head to Rote island.'"

The two boats were released at the Indonesian border. "The immigrants then fought with the crew. They wanted to continue to New Zealand," Mr Ibrahim said.

Several hours later the Jasmine ran out of fuel. The asylum seekers transferred to the Kanak, which hit a reef near Landu island, in West Rote, where they were rescued by villagers.

Village chief Semuel Messak told Fairfax Media he had asked his wife to cook for the people. "The police officer asked me, 'Will it cost you a lot to feed all these people?' I said, 'It's my money. If I let these people go looking cold and hungry, God will not see me in a good light.'"

Mr Ibrahim is incredulous that a wealthy country such as Australia would push back boats with desperate asylum seekers to Indonesia, a country many considered Third World.

He said Indonesia was doing its bit to fight people smuggling, with those found guilty facing sentences of 15 years' jail.

"We always co-operate with Australia, we process the arrests," he said. "Despite everything, this happens. Why can't Australians deal with [asylum seekers] like they are supposed to?

"They are humans, they have problems with their country. Why can't Australia either deport them or detain them until they are accepted by other countries the way Indonesia does?"

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/people-smuggler-cash-stacks-police-say-were-paid-to-send-asylum-seekers-on-a-suicide-mission-20150616-ghpa36.html

Australia's boat payment policy four years old

Jakarta Post - June 16, 2015

Jakarta – The Australian government has paid thousands of dollars to turn back boats of asylum seekers for at least four years, a document reveals.

An exclusive report by Australian media group Fairfax states that the policy, called boat payment, has been in force for some time, including under the former Labor government.

Quoting multiple sources, the report reveals that the practice has existed since 2010 under the Rudd government.

The practice involves intelligence officers paying members of Indonesian people-smuggling rings for information about their operations or to discourage them from operating the boats, the report states.

The practice emerged in the media last week when the captain and five crew members of a boat carrying 65 asylum seekers told local police on Rote Island in East Nusa Tenggara that they were each paid US$5,000 by an Australian official to return to Indonesia.

The revelation has soured relations between Jakarta and Canberra, with the Indonesian government demanding confirmation from Tony Abbott's administration. Australian media have reported that the opposition has attacked Abbott for this policy. Yet, the report finds at least one former Labor immigration minister was aware of this practice during his tenure. (ika)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/16/australia-s-boat-payment-policy-four-years-old.html

Graft & corruption

Musi Banyuasin arrests prove KPK's surveillance prowess

Jakarta Post - June 22, 2015

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has pointed out that surveillance played a significant role in its recent arrests of politicians suspected of accepting bribes in Musi Banyasin regency, South Sumatra.

Interim KPK deputy chairman Indriyanto Seno Adji said on Sunday that surveillance was the most important tool the antigraft body had. As such, he said, the House of Representatives' plan to amend the 2002 KPK law, including removing its wiretapping authority, should be removed from this year's House priority list, or Prolegnas.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration, which had earlier supported the House's plan, withdrew its support for the legislation on Friday, saying it would the meet with the House to discuss the change of heart.

"The South Sumatra operation is strong evidence that surveillance, including wiretapping activities, is an integral part of the KPK," Indriyanto said.

Following the sting operation in Musi Banyuasin, the KPK on Saturday declared four people suspects: local councilors Bambang Karyanto of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Adam Munandar of the Gerindra Party, as well as local bureaucrats Syamsuddin Fei and Faisyar, after arresting them on Friday night. The KPK had wiretapped the suspects since January.

The arrests came just two months after the KPK caught PDI-P lawmaker Adriansyah red-handed accepting a bribe from a businessman on the sidelines of the party's national congress in Bali, where Jokowi and party chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri were present, similarly thanks to wiretapping.

The KPK has in total prosecuted 36 lawmakers, six of whom, including Adriansyah, were arrested for allegedly accepting bribes from businessmen. Other former sitting lawmakers include Al Amin Nasution of the United Development Party (PPP), Bulyan Royan of the Reformation Star Party (PBR), Abdul Hadi Djamal of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Chairun Nisa of the Golkar Party and former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq.

The KPK also caught red-handed then Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar and then Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKK Migas) chief Rudi Rubiandini accepting bribes in 2013.

The House's plan also involves revoking the KPK's authority to prosecute by forcing it to hand over its investigation dossiers to the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to bring any indictment to trial.

In spite of Jokowi's stance, House of Representatives deputy speaker Fadli Zon of Gerindra hinted that the House would press ahead with its plan, arguing that the existing law had a number of weaknesses.

"I believe that the KPK law should, without doubt, be amended because it is already on the Prolegnas list," he said, adding that the House would start deliberating the amendment soon. "It will be done this year or in the coming years [...] I believe the sooner the better, since the government also plans to revise the Criminal Law Procedures Code [KUHAP]."

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) on Sunday called on Jokowi to ensure that the plan was dropped from the Prolegnas list.

"The House should also cancel its plan to revise a number of articles in the KUHAP and the KUHAP amendment bills [already listed in the Prolegnas], which could potentially weaken the KPK," Lalola Ester of ICW said on Sunday.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/22/musi-banyuasin-arrests-prove-KPK-s-surveillance-prowess.html

Jokowi rejects House plan for KPK law

Jakarta Post - June 20, 2015

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has rejected a plan by the House of Representatives to amend the 2002 Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law, saying that the government has no intention of undermining the work of the antigraft body.

The decision was one of among many other points announced by Jokowi during a limited Cabinet meeting held on Friday to specifically discuss a national strategy on the eradication and prevention of graft.

KPK interim chairman Taufiequrrachman Ruki, National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti and Attorney General Basrief Arief also joined the meeting, but Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly, who has expressed his support for the House's plan, was absent because of illness.

The plan to revise the KPK Law was a House initiative aimed at limiting the antigraft body's power to investigate and prosecute graft cases and had been included in the 2015 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas). The Prolegnas is a list of law deliberation targets set by the lawmakers and the government.

"The government now has made it clear. The President does not want it to be revised. Therefore, it has to be removed from the Prolegnas," presidential communications team member Teten Masduki said on Friday after the meeting.

He said that the President would not approve any amendments as they would only weaken the KPK. "There is no reason to revise it [now] because it will only weaken the KPK," he said.

Ruki, who several times expressed his support for the House's plan in spite of rejections by his fellow commissioners at the antigraft body, praised Jokowi's move. "We are grateful the President said he has no intention to weaken the KPK [...]. We will continue working based on the existing law," Ruki said.

Ruki also said that in the meeting Jokowi again instructed the KPK, the police and the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to collaborate more in the fight against corruption.

Both Yasonna and State Secretary Pratikno would now follow up on the decision and strike a new deal with the House, said Teten.

In spite of Jokowi's rejection, House of Representatives deputy speaker Fadli Zon of the Gerindra Party hinted that the House would press ahead with its plan, arguing that the existing law had a number of weaknesses.

"I believe that the KPK Law should, without doubt, be amended because it is already on the Prolegnas list," he said on Friday evening.

Fadli also said that the House would start deliberating the amendment plan sooner. "Whether it is done this year or in the coming years [...] I believe the sooner the better since the government has also planned to revise the Criminal Law Procedures Code [KUHAP]."

He also maintained the House's plan was not an effort to undermine the KPK. "In fact, we don't want the KPK to be a political tool, nor prone to abuse of power."

Under the House's plan, the lawmakers seek to prohibit the KPK from conducting any wiretapping activities during the preliminary phase of an investigation, thus preventing sting operations aimed at catching in the act individuals who are suspected of receiving bribes.

The lawmakers also want to revoke the KPK's authority to prosecute by forcing it to hand over its investigation dossiers to the AGO to bring any indictment to trial.

As stipulated in the existing KPK Law, the antigraft body has integrated investigation and indictment powers with no obligation to involve the AGO in graft trials.

In his speech while opening the meeting, Jokowi emphasized that the government should "improve [its efforts to] eradicate and prevent [corruption] so that planned economic growth targets can be met".

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/20/jokowi-rejects-house-plan-KPK-law.html

KPK urges House to drop revisions

Jakarta Post - June 19, 2015

Tama Salim and Dylan Amirio, Jakarta – Faced with the prospect of its authority being stripped by the House of Representatives, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) called on lawmakers to amend the 2002 KPK Law together with other laws that could strengthen the country's anticorruption campaign.

"We want several regulations to be amended and synchronized [in order to support our work]," acting KPK chairman Taufiequrrachman Ruki said during a meeting with House Commission III overseeing legal affairs in Jakarta, on Thursday.

Ruki said he wanted the work to amend the KPK Law to be done concurrently with a number of other pieces of legislation, including the outdated Criminal Code (KUHP), the Criminal Procedures Code (KUHAP) and Law No. 43/1999 on Graft-free State Administrators Law, among others.

He said that if the House pressed ahead with its amendment plan, lawmakers should begin their work on the KPK Law only after revisions on other relevant pieces of legislation were complete. "I agree with a revision as long as it does not serve to weaken the KPK," Ruki said.

Ruki also called on the House to only amend specific aspects of the law, in order to better reconcile and synchronize anticorruption efforts with the existing regulations, including granting the KPK authority to appoint its own investigators.

He also wanted lawmakers to include a provision that would sanction the establishment of an oversight body that could monitor the work of the antigraft body's leaders.

Furthermore, Ruki said the KPK Law should also be amended to allow the antigraft body to halt an investigation into graft suspects by issuing a warrant known as an SP3.

Meanwhile, acting KPK commissioner Johan Budi balked at Ruki's proposal, saying that leaders of the antigraft body should not be given the right to issue orders to halt a graft probe.

"We have to understand why the KPK was established without the ability to issue an SP3. At that time, it was thought imperative that graft suspects should not be treated like automated teller machines. The KPK has to be very careful before naming people suspects," he said on the sidelines of the meeting on Thursday.

Ruki's statement, said Johan, was a personal opinion and did not reflect the stance of the KPK leadership. Johan also rejected the plan to revise the KPK Law, saying that the commission would be weakened by the plan.

In the meeting, lawmaker Benny K. Harman of the Democratic Party, the deputy chairman of House Commission III, said his commission expected the KPK to elaborate on the points of revisions that it suggested would strengthen the antigraft body's authority.

On behalf of the commission, Benny urged the KPK to clearly lay out to the House the standard operational procedures it used to conduct its job. Benny also called on the KPK to improve its internal monitoring system to avoid abuses of power.

Commission III also urged the KPK to establish a more systematic corruption prevention mechanism that would apply to all ministries, government institutions and regional administrations, so as to reduce corrupt practices.

Benny said that during the meeting the antigraft body had essentially assented to the House's plan to revise the 2002 KPK Law.

Meanwhile, House deputy chairman Taufik Kurniawan said he personally wanted the antigraft body to be strengthened, but maintained that the KPK Law was due for an amendment to keep it more relevant with current conditions.

Taufik also said that the House had yet to decide on when it would start its work on the amendment plan, as the draft was still being discussed at the Legislation Body (Baleg) and by Commission III leaders. "The point is that with this amendment the KPK can retain its integrity and be loved by the public," he said. (alm)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/19/KPK-urges-house-drop-revisions.html

Brouhaha over bill to weaken KPK carries PDI-P's hallmarks

Jakarta Globe - June 19, 2015

Jakarta – A bill submitted to parliament and aimed at defanging the national antigraft commission has served to highlight the growing rift between President Joko Widodo and his political backers.

Officials at the State Palace insisted on Thursday that the president had no plans whatsoever to revise the law on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) by including it in this year's docket of priority legislation, or Prolegnas.

"The government never proposed any amendments to the KPK law," Andi Wdjajanto, the cabinet secretary, told reporters in Jakarta. "There are 37 bills included in the 2015 Prolegnas, 10 of them submitted by the government. The KPK law isn't among them."

Pratikno, the state secretary, said separately that "the president has no intention of revising the KPK law" this year.

He also confirmed that Joko had summoned Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly to the State Palace on Wednesday over the minister's decision to submit the bill to the House of Representatives, but declined to elaborate on the outcome of the meeting. The minister later denied having submitted the bill, claiming it was the House's initiative to include it in the docket.

Yasonna, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which nominated Joko for president in last year's election, previously said it was necessary to amend the existing law on the KPK to give the antigraft body's activities a sound legal basis.

He said the most pressing matter was to define the extent of the KPK's wiretapping powers – something that legislators have repeatedly tried to curtail in the past, to no avail. The KPK's success rate in going after corruption suspects has been attributed in part to its ability to listen in on suspects' phone calls without the need to obtain a warrant from Indonesia's notoriously corrupt judiciary.

Yasonna also said there needed to be a "standardization" of the KPK's prosecutorial powers with those of the Attorney General's Office. The KPK is currently the only body apart from the AGO authorized to prosecute corruption cases, and boasts a near-100 percent conviction rate.

In a hearing with legislators on Thursday, antigraft commissioners called for the KPK law to be taken out of this year's Prolegnas, arguing that several other related statutes, such as the Criminal Code and the law on money laundering, needed to be revised before any changes could be made to the KPK law.

Taufiequrachman Ruki, the interim KPK chairman, also urged that no attempt be made to weaken the commission, particularly with regard to its wiretapping powers.

"Our principle is that we don't agree with any revision aimed at weakening the KPK. Whatever the proposed amendment, if its intention is to undermine the fight against corruption, we will reject it," he told legislators.

Most corrupt party in the land

The controversy over the bill's submission to the House has led to calls for Yasonna to be fired from the cabinet.

"He's made frequent blunders in the campaign against corruption," Donal Fariz, a researcher with Indonesia Corruption Watch, said at a public discussion on Wednesday.

The minister, whose party holds the dubious distinction of having the most members of any party prosecuted and jailed by the KPK, has appeared to take a much softer line on corruption than his predecessors.

In March, he drew widespread condemnation for arguing against restrictions on corruption convicts being awarded sentence cuts. The previous justice minister, Amir Syamsuddin, had instated tight controls on remissions for graft convicts, and a moratorium on granting them early release, but Yasonna said he would seek to roll these back.

Yasonna was also vocal in his support of Budi Gunawan being sworn in as the police chief, after the KPK had charged the three-star general with bribery and money laundering in January, in connection with millions of dollars' worth of unexplained transactions passing through his personal bank accounts.

Joko eventually relented to the public outcry and dropped Budi as his candidate; the officer later won a dubious court ruling quashing the charges against him, and went on to be appointed the deputy to a police chief, Badrodin Haiti, who retires early next year.

Budi is a close associate of PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, having served as her security aide during her presidency, and his initial nomination was widely seen as a concession by Joko to his political patron.

The ideological differences between the president and his party have grown more apparent since the Budi fiasco, with PDI-P officials publicly branding Cabinet Secretary Andi, one of Joko's closest aides, a traitor for steering him away from the party line.

Earlier this month, Megawati's son released a song with his rock band, titled "Traitor," that party insiders say is aimed squarely at Andi and Rini Soemarno, the minister for state-owned enterprises who is also said to have the president's ear and is shielding him from the PDI-P's overbearing influence.

The party is also among the most vocal in calling for a cabinet reshuffle, with analysts saying it feels short-changed that it was given only four seats in the cabinet last October – no more than any of the other parties in Joko's coalition.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/brouhaha-bill-weaken-KPK-carries-pdi-ps-hallmarks/

House makes first move to emasculate KPK

Jakarta Post - June 18, 2015

Haeril Halim and Tama Salim, Jakarta – Efforts to weaken the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) continued apace with the House of Representatives announcing its plan to revise the 2002 Corruption Eradication Law, aimed at limiting the anti-graft body's power to investigate and prosecute graft cases.

The House's plan seeks to prohibit the KPK from conducting any surveillances or wiretapping activities during the preliminary phase of investigations, thus preventing sting operations aimed at catching individuals suspected of receiving bribes red-handed.

The administration of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has openly backed the House's initiative.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly, a politician with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said on Wednesday that the wiretapping clause in the 2002 law could be modified to protect citizens from human rights violations resulting from surveillance operations.

"The bottom line is we need clear guidelines on wiretapping operations," Yasonna told reporters.

Senior KPK officials lambasted the plan. "The planned revision will all but cripple the KPK, including its authority to launch sting operations," said acting KPK commissioner Indriyanto Seno Adji, who is also a prominent legal expert, on Wednesday.

Under the House's plan, lawmakers are also expected to revoke the KPK's authority to prosecute by forcing it to hand over its investigation dossiers to the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to bring any indictment to trial.

As stipulated in the existing KPK law, the antigraft body has integrated investigation and indictment powers with no obligation to involve the AGO in graft trials. Under the current system, where the KPK has its own prosecutors, the anti graft body has maintained a 100 percent conviction rate at the Jakarta Corruption Court.

"If the revision goes ahead with its plan to scrap the indictment and wiretapping authorities then the public can judge for themselves whether it is a systematic attempt to weaken the KPK. I am sure that President Jokowi will not violate his campaign pledges to strengthen the KPK," another KPK commissioner Johan Budi said.

Acting KPK chairman Taufiequrachman Ruki, however, supported the House's planned revisions especially the initiative to form a supervisory council, adding that if approved the council should be given the authority to recommend KPK leaders drop a graft probe, something that is strictly prohibited by the current law.

"KPK leaders currently can't order an investigation to be stopped, but in an emergency case, for the sake of the law, such an option should be available but it must be approved by the council in the first place. Of course, it should come with specific requirements," said Ruki, who is a retired police general.

Secretary-general of Transparency International Indonesia Dadang Trisasongko slammed Ruki for supporting a plan that he claimed would reduce the KPK to an insignificant agency.

"If the House approves the bill then it will turn the KPK into an institution no different from any other existing law enforcement institution. If KPK leaders have the right to halt an investigation, we will likely see more abuses of power," Dadang said.

Despite mounting criticism, the House defended its plan saying it was well intended. "The planned amendment is nothing but a fairly normal procedure to modify legislation to correspond with changing realities and developments in the field," said House Deputy Speaker Taufik Kurniawan of the National Mandate Party (PAN).

Meanwhile, Yasonna said the government would first wait for the House to complete its version of the draft amendment before deciding on whether to scrap controversial provisions.

"We will first wait for the draft," he told reporters at the State Palace, insisting that the plan was a House initiative and had been included in the 2015 House priority bills.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/18/house-makes-first-move-emasculate-KPK.html

KPK law prone to abuse of power: Lawmaker

Jakarta Post - June 17, 2015

Dylan Amirio, Jakarta – House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon said that revising the 2002 Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law was necessary to prevent the antigraft body's leaders from abusing their power.

The Gerindra Party lawmaker said KPK leaders must avoid abuse of authorities due to the sheer influence and size of the graft cases the body was dealing with.

Fadli said that among some elements of the KPK law that should be changed were the wiretapping clause, which he said was a blatant violation of human rights.

"KPK is a super body that is prone to distraction. Wiretapping a person without permission is a human rights violation and by having this in the law, the KPK could use it to their own advantage. That is why we must revise the law to prevent this distraction from happening," he told reporters at the House complex on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly pushed for the inclusion of the KPK law revision in the 2015 National Legislation Program. He said the law needed to be immediately revised to strengthen the KPK's anti-corruption efforts. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/17/KPK-law-prone-abuse-power-lawmaker.html

Freedom of religion & worship

Groups question government's lack of actions on Shiite, Ahmadiyah

Jakarta Globe - June 21, 2015

Jakarta – A coalition of rights groups are urging President Joko Widodo to stay true to his campaign promises to protect minority groups and ensure the safe return of a Shiite community to their home village on Madura island, East Java, nearly three years after their forced eviction.

In a joint statement released on Saturday, the coalition of local and international NGOs criticized the Indonesian government's lack of actions to allow at least 300 members of the displaced Shiite Muslim community to return safely to their home village in Sampang district, Madura.

They were forced to abandon their homes after an anti-Shiite mob attacked their village in August 2012, with their leader Tajul Muluk convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to four years' imprisonment.

Ten months later, in June 2013, the local authorities forcibly evicted the Shiites from a sports complex that was used as a temporary shelter for refugees in Sampang, to another refugee facility in Sidoarjo, another East Java district.

The Shiites have been denied many of their rights during their lives as refugees, according to the statement.

Most of the adults are tobacco farmers who lost their farms following the eviction, which directly impacted their families' livelihoods. The Shiites have also been denied access to a range of essential services, which activists say is contrary to Indonesia's obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

"Without acknowledgment of their residential status, many families are unable to apply for identity and family cards, which are required to access social and health services, as well as to marry and obtain birth certificates," the statement says.

"The forced evictions have also had a dire impact on education for children in the community," it adds, citing an example how the local government has provided only two rooms for classes in the housing facility for at least 50 children between five and 11 years old, with teachers visiting only intermittently.

The joint statement was issued by Amnesty International, the Surabaya office of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), Paramadina University's Center for the Study of Religion and Democracy and the Indonesian chapter of the Asian Muslim Action Network.

The groups "urge" the government to take immediate steps to ensure the "safe, voluntary and dignified return" of the community to their homes, adding that local authorities' precondition that the Shiites must first convert to Sunni Islam before they can return is out of the question.

"Such pressure amounts to coercion which violates their freedom to have or adopt a religion of their choice, contrary to Article 18[2] of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR], of which Indonesia is a State Party," the groups say.

"The Indonesian authorities must ensure that all religious minorities are protected and allowed to practice their faith free from fear, intimidation and attack."

The groups remind Joko of his campaign promises, which include protecting the rights of marginalized communities and the principles of pluralism and diversity. "[The president's] words have failed to translate to tangible results. The community remains in limbo, uncertain of their future."

The Shiite community from Sampang is among a slew of displaced minority groups, whose future remains in limbo.

Another rights group, Jakarta-based Setara Institute, last week raised the issue of members of the minority Islamic sect Ahmadiyah in West Nusa Tenggara, who had been forced to leave their homes nine years ago and have been living in a refugee facility in Mataram ever since.

"The Setara Institute urges both the local and central governments to take immediate action that would return the Ahmadi and Shiite refugees to their homes," Setara deputy chairman Bonar Tigor Naipospos said in a press statement last week.

Setara also pointed out that several Ahmadiyah places of worship have been forcibly shuttered by religious hardliners, including three mosques in the West Java town of Tasikmalaya and two others in Jakarta.

The group urges the government to remove the seals and allow the Ahmadis to perform their religious rituals in peace, especially now that Muslims around the world are observing the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

Setara research director Ismail Hasani has called the government's lack of action a "serious stagnation'. "There has been no meaningful progress whatsoever in terms of improving and advancing religious freedom," Ismail said.

He added that he understood Joko and Vice President Jusuf Kalla had only been in office for less than a year, but the public's high expectations for them to resolve issues related to religious intolerance had begun to wane, with no solution in sight for any major cases of intolerance the previous administration was unable to settle.

"The public is actually beginning to feel angry, but they have decided to wait and see. However, if [the government's inaction] continues, it may turn into a dangerous situation," Ismail said.

Intolerant sentiments have also been brewing among the Sunni community, which makes up the majority of Muslims in Indonesia.

Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin's recent call for mutual respect and understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims during Ramadan, for example, has been met with criticism from conservative politicians and clerics.

Lukman, in a series of tweets earlier this month, urged followers not to compel street-side food stalls, known as warungs, to close during the 30- day fasting period.

"There is no need to force any warung to close during the fasting month. If there are those who close their warung voluntarily, we of course respect that. But good Muslims don't force others to give up their source of livelihood," he said through his Twitter account @lukmansaifuddin.

"We are obliged to respect the right of those who are not fasting because they are not Muslim. We must also respect the right of Muslims who are not fasting because of [certain] conditions."

But even a politician from his own party, the Islamic-based United Development Party (PPP), said the minister's appeal has "hurt the faithful and had a [negative] impact on the PPP."

"We have received quite a number of messages from clerics asking us to address this issue," Fernita Darwis said. "The minister must immediately cease taking positions that hurt the Muslim faith and cause negative stigma in the community."

Both Joko and Kalla, meanwhile, seem to be playing ignorant of the situation while continuing to tout Indonesia's brand of Islam as a tolerant one.

Comparing the situation in the archipelago with conflict-ridden Middle Eastern nations such as Yemen, Syria and Iran, Joko told a forum in Jakarta last week that "Ours [Indonesia's] is an Islam that is polite, full of courtesy and tolerance."

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/groups-question-governments-lack-actions-shiite-ahmadiyah/

Police guard Ahmadi Friday prayer in Jakarta

Jakarta Post - June 20, 2015

Indra Budiari, Jakarta – A week after being blocked from their Friday prayers in the An Nur Mosque in Bukit Duri Tanjakan, Tebet, South Jakarta, around 50 members of the Bukit Duri Ahmadi congregation held peaceful Friday prayers inside their mosque with a number of police officers standing guard to secure the area.

Located less than 100 meters from another mosque, the Ahmadi members finished their Friday prayers around 12:45 p.m. without any disturbance or threat, despite an incident that took place on June 12 when dozens of people prevented them from performing their prayers.

Aryudi Prastowo, head of the Bukit Duri branch of the Ahmadis, said Friday he had asked for assistance from the Tebet Police and the South Jakarta Police to protect them from the possibility of an escalated incident.

"I am glad that we could carry out today's prayers peacefully. We believe that the previous incident was provoked by someone who feels threatened by our religious activity," he said in a house that was also used as a mosque by the congregation members.

Laik, 17, who had just finished his prayers at the An Nur Mosque with his father, said the previous incident forced him and his father to be more careful when they came to Bukit Duri. "We have been praying here for years; we don't want to make any incident with the locals," he said.

The Ahmadis' Friday prayers, however, were marred by preaching from the other mosque that was located less than 100 meters away, in which the sermon called on the local residents not to join the Ahmadis or open their website.

"I know that the Ahmadis can write beautiful words on their website to attract people to join them. I urge you not to open the website if you don't want to become their followers," said the preacher, delivering his speech loudly through speakers.

Aryudi said that prior to last week's incident, the Bukit Duri Ahmadis had never been involved in any conflict with other local residents since it was established. "I hope [preacher] Syakir could let us perform our prayers as we have no intention to disrupt theirs."

Last week, dozens of people, led by local religious figure Ustadz Ahmad Syakir, blocked a group of Ahmadis from performing their Friday prayers at their An Nur Mosque.

The Ahmadis were forced to fulfill their religious obligations on the street in front of the mosque under the threatening gaze of the group members. Only after making sure that the Ahmadis would not use the mosque again, did the protesters leave the premises to go pray in a nearby mosque.

Speaking to the The Jakarta Post, Syakir said on Friday the incident on June 12 was caused by local residents who were concerned about the Ahmadis' religious activities in their area. He emphasized that prior to the incident, he and several local figures politely asked the Ahmadis to join them instead of keeping their distance.

"I don't have any problem if they want to live here, but I cannot let them hold their religious activities and call themselves Muslim. By claiming themselves as Muslim, they have committed blasphemy," Syakir said.

According to Syakir, the incident last week was not the first altercation that happened between the two congregations.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/20/police-guard-ahmadi-friday-prayer-jakarta.html

Religious conflict worsens with regulation on houses of worship

Jakarta Post - June 18, 2015

Arya Dipa, Bandung – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) says the current regulation on building houses of worship contributes to religious conflict.

Komnas HAM Freedom of Religion and Faith desk coordinator Jayadi Damanik said the commission recorded 81 cases of violence and intimidation related to freedom of religion and faith in West Java last year. "Most of the cases are related to the construction of houses of worship," said Jayadi on Tuesday evening.

To prevent further conflict, he said Komnas HAM conducted a special survey on the draft law in line with a request from the religious affairs minister.

The bill is expected to be a better reference on regulations for building houses of worship, and should foster a greater compliance with international human rights norms.

"However, articles 12 to 20 of the bill on the protection of religious communities is just copied and pasted from the joint ministerial decree on the building of houses of worship. Should the bill pass into law with its contents neither improved nor revised, the weaknesses of the joint ministerial regulation would simply be passed into the law," said Jayadi.

The regulation stipulates that before establishing a house of worship a recommendation is needed from the local Interfaith Communication Forum (FKUB). Komnas HAM received information that the institution instead often served as a brokerage in the construction of houses of worship.

"Moreover, applying for permits for the establishment of houses of worship is very bureaucratic, involving the neighborhood unit, community unit, FKUB and regional head," said Jayadi.

Komnas HAM commissioner M. Imdadun Rahmat said freedom to choose, embrace and believe in a religion or faith was the right of every citizen and should not be infringed upon in any circumstances.

"Non-discrimination must be applied and there should be no limit to the right to practice a religion. The state should support them all," added Imdadun.

Meanwhile, Ajat S. Natalegawa, a representative of the Bandung National Unity, Politics and Community Protection Agency, said his agency was currently handling five cases involving the construction of houses of worship. "We won't hamper the projects as long as the rules are followed," said Ajat.

He said the municipality had also approved applications for 26 houses of worship: 24 churches and two temples in compliance with the joint ministerial regulation.

"Among the problems we encountered in the field were applicants who delegated the permit application process to other people who might not report the real situation," said Ajat.

Meanwhile, Overlin Hia from the Cianjur Church Cooperation Agency said the ministerial regulation caused trouble for seven churches.

"For example, a church established in 1997, was later closed. Permits for five churches have not yet been issued since [the application process began in] 2013," said Overlin.

According to the Wahid Institute's annual report last year, West Java ranked first for intolerance and violation of religious freedom. The GKI Yasmin church in Bogor, the Filadelfia church in Bekasi, as well as violence against Ahmadiyah followers in several places in the province, were among unsettled problems that put West Java in first place for religious intolerance.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/18/religious-conflict-worsens-with-regulation-houses-worship.html

Minister's call for mutual respect during Ramadan elicits backlash

Jakarta Globe - June 16, 2015

Jakarta – Conservative politicians and clerics have lashed out at Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin over his seemingly benign call for mutual respect and understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan.

Fernita Darwis, a senior member of a splinter faction of Lukman's own party, the United Development Party (PPP), said the minister's appeal to Muslims not to force food vendors to close during Ramadan, which starts this week, had "hurt the faithful and had a [negative] impact on the PPP."

"We've had a lot of messages from clerics asking us to address this issue," she said. "The minister must immediately cease taking positions that hurt the Muslim faithful and cause negative stigma in the community."

Lukman, in a Twitter message on June 5, urged followers not to compel streetside food stalls, or warung, to close during Ramadan, when Muslims are obliged to fast during daylight hours. "We have to respect the rights of those who are not required to or are not fasting," he wrote.

In a series of follow-up tweets three days later, the minister sought to clarify his earlier remark.

"There were two things that I wanted to get across with that tweet. First, there is no need to force any warung to close during the fasting month," he wrote.

"If there are those who close their warung voluntarily, we of course respect that. But good Muslims don't force others to give up their source of livelihood."

The second point, Lukman went on, was the need for mutual respect and understanding for those who were not fasting.

"We are obliged to respect the right (to access to food/drink) of those who are not fasting because they are not Muslim," he wrote.

"We must also respect the right of Muslims who are not fasting because of [certain] conditions (traveling, illness, menstruating, pregnant, nursing)."

Lukman, who took office in June last year, has earned a reputation as being far more progressive and inclusive than his predecessors – a distinction that has drawn criticism from conservatives.

Khatibul Umam Wiranu, a member of the Democratic Party, accused Lukman of trying to curry popular support through the media through statements like his call for mutual respect.

"The way I see it, Lukman is frightened of being replaced in a reshuffle. And the only thing he can do is use the media to build up his popularity," Khatibul said. "His performance, meanwhile, has been very unsatisfactory."

Jazuli Jawani, a legislator from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said Lukman's call for those who were fasting to respect those who were not was highly regrettable. "His statement is just going to cause problems. He shouldn't be stirring up a row in the community," he said.

Jazuli argued that it was only natural for those "carrying out the faith" to be granted greater respect than those who were not.

"The minister's logic is backward and he's giving the impression that he doesn't understand how to promote tolerance," he said. "When Muslims are fasting, it's customary for followers of other religions or for Muslims who are not fasting to pay them their due respect."

Clerics have also piled in on the issue, with one writing off the minister's statement as "nonsense."

"Why should the majority respect the minority?" Ali Badri Zaini, the head of the East Java chapter of the Islamic Dakwah Forum, said in Surabaya as quoted by Metrotvnews.com. "The minority should respect the majority. The minister is [talking] nonsense. The Islamic faithful in East Java will never do as he instructs."

He said it was considered customary for all warung to at least close off their facade with a tarp so as not to tempt those who were fasting. "If this rule is overturned by the minister, then it underlines that the minister is taking sides," Zaini said.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/ministers-call-mutual-respect-ramadan-elicits-conservative-backlash/

Islamic law & morality

To curb spread of HIV, Bengkulu may limit condom sales

Jakarta Globe - June 18, 2015

Usmin, Bengkulu – Concerned about the spread of HIV and AIDS, lawmakers in Bengkulu are working on a directive to limit the sale of condoms and other contraceptives, arguing that the availability of such items leads to higher rates of pre- and extramarital sex.

Septi Yuslinah, a member of the provincial legislature, said that 600 people are currently known to live with HIV or AIDS in Bengkulu, and that this number is rising.

Extramarital sex and drug abuse are the main factors behind the spread of HIV, she said.

In order the halt the deadly virus, the Bengkulu legislative council (DPRD) is currently drafting a bill that would limit the sale of contraceptives to pharmacies and other stores licensed to sell medicines.

Septi explained that the measure was aimed at making it more difficult for people, especially youngsters, to acquire the means to avoid pregnancy during pre- or extramarital escapades. The hope is that without access to such means, more young people would remain sexually abstinent until they get married.

For the same reason, pharmacies will also be urged to be selective in selling contraceptives. "This is done purely to curb the steady rise in HIV/AIDS sufferers in Bengkulu," Septi said. "We need to regulate the sale of contraceptives in society."

The head of the provincial health agency, Amin Kurnia, said he agreed with the plan. "We highly appreciate the Bengkulu DPRD for drafting a bill to prevent HIV and AIDS," Amin said. "This proves that the council members are very concerned about HIV and AIDS."

Amin added that he hoped the bill would be quickly passed into law, so that his agency could start educating people in Bengkulu about why contraceptives should not be readily available at convenience stores and other such places.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/bengkulu-may-limit-condom-sales-to-curb-spread-of-hiv/

FPI promise reprimands for food vendors operating during fasting hours

Jakarta Globe - June 17, 2015

Jakarta – Indonesia's most notorious hard-line Islamic group says its members will give a strong reprimand to streetside food vendors who remain open for business during daylight hours of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Muchsin Alatas, the chairman of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), said the organization had instructed members to confront any food stalls, locally known as warung, if they don't close down their business as Muslims are fasting.

Muchsin added that the group would report food sellers to the authorities for the violation. "If anyone from our group sees an open warung, report them or directly scold them. This is to remind them about moral violation, [but] not law abuse," Muchsin told CNN Indonesia on Wednesday.

Muchsin said all warung must at least cover their facade so as not to tempt those who were fasting, if they wished to remain open during Ramadan.

Meanwhile, Religious Affair Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin and Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama have called on Muslims to not force food vendors to close during Ramadan, which starts on Thursday.

"If there are those who close their warung voluntarily, we of course respect that. But good Muslims don't force others to give up their source of livelihood," the minister wrote on his official Twitter account.

The Jakarta Police have also urged all community organizations not to conduct raids for any reason, adding that only authorized officials, such as the police, are allowed to do so.

During the 30-day holy month of Ramadan, Muslims must refrain from consuming food, drinking liquids, smoking and also engaging in sexual activities from dawn until sunset.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/jakarta/fpi-promise-reprimands-food-vendors-operating-fasting-hours/

Religious teaching blamed for diphtheria outbreaks

Jakarta Post - June 17, 2015

Hans Nicholas Jong and Ina Parlina, Jakarta – With faith-based opposition to vaccination drives having contributed to outbreaks of diphtheria in some provinces, physicians are calling on parents to prioritize the health of their children over dogmatic adherence to religious teachings.

The Indonesian Pediatrics Association (IDAI) said on Tuesday that Muslim communities in some province had resisted vaccination, as they believed that the program was a conspiracy and that the materials used in the vaccine were not halal.

"There have been many negative responses to vaccination since 2012. Social media makes it easier to spread doubt. In Muslim communities, some believe that vaccination is part of a Jewish conspiracy and that it is haram," IDAI secretary Piprim Basarah Yanuarso said on Tuesday.

Opposition to vaccination had resulted in diphtheria outbreaks in Padang, West Sumatra, and Aceh, he said, claiming the lives of at least four children. Padang and Aceh are home to majority Muslim populations.

In Padang, 62 people are suspected to be infected, with six diagnosed positive and two dead, while in Aceh, 16 are infected and two have died from the disease. The city of Padang has declared the outbreak of diphtheria a public health emergency.

"When we traveled to Padang [during the outbreak], officials from the local health agency explained that there had been growing opposition to vaccination. People there deemed vaccines haram after hearing certain people saying so at the mosque. In strongly religious regions, these rumors are quite effective in turning people against immunization," Piprim said.

Data from the West Sumatra health agency show the immunization level of the province plunged to 35 percent in 2013, down from 93 percent in 1992. Meanwhile, in Aceh, the IDAI found that only two in 10 mothers wanted their babies vaccinated.

There were 432 cases of diphtheria reported in Indonesia in 2006. By 2014, the figure was down by 8.7 percent to 394 cases, 74 percent of which involved children under 15.

"The immunization level only needed to take a small hit, such as from 80 percent to 60 percent, for an outbreak to happen, as has happened in Padang and Aceh," Piprim said.

Diphtheria, like polio, had successfully been eradicated in the country before the outbreak in Aceh and Padang.

The Health Ministry's director general for disease control and environmental health, HM Subuh, called on people to lower the tone of religious teachings. "People should prioritize the safety of our children rather than getting bogged down in questions of halal or haram," he said.

In 2008, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) declared a GlaxoSmithKline vaccine used by pilgrims to avoid meningitis to be haram, as it contained swine enzymes.

In 2010, the MUI defended its fatwa, declaring that two other brands of the meningitis vaccine were halal, and dismissing experts' claims that no vaccines for the disease were porcine-free.

Besides meningitis, two other vaccines contain swine enzymes, polio and rotavirus, the most common cause of severe diarrhea, according to Piprim, the founder of a medical facility offering affordable immunization.

MUI chairman Din Syamsuddin said on Tuesday that he stood by the fatwa. "The MUI has long been dealing with the issue. Therefore, we expect, through MUI's fatwa, that vaccines containing swine elements will no longer be used, except in an emergency," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/17/religious-teaching-blamed-diphtheria-outbreaks.html

Booze targeted as authorities carry out pre-Ramadan raids

Jakarta Globe - June 16, 2015

Bengkulu/Makassar – As many as 5,500 bottles of liquor seized in Bengkulu were destroyed on Tuesday under the watchful eye of local administrators and police and military commanders, as authorities across the country held pre-Ramadan raids targeting various social vices.

Apart from the liquor, Bengkulu authorities also seized pornographic VCDs, one kilogram of marijuana, 24 jars of glue (presumably used for sniffing) and about a hundred boxes of traditional medicine that had expired.

"Plagues such as these will never be completely wiped out, but this is not just the responsibility of the police, it is our shared responsibility to deal with this," said Brig. Gen. M. Ghufron, the chief of Bengkulu Police.

Ghufron added that authorities had joined hands with the local branch of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) to educate the people about the dangers of substance abuse.

Meanwhile, in Makassar, the local Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) raided boarding houses, cheap hotels and other establishments looking for people selling alcohol illegally and rooms being rented by unmarried couples.

The raids resulted in thousands of bottles of liquor being confiscated, and later destroyed at Makassar City Hall on Tuesday.

"We had to carry out this operation to create a conducive atmosphere ahead of Ramadan," said Moh. Ramdhan Pomanto, the mayor of the South Sulawesi capital. "Stalls, karaoke venues and other entertainment spots that sell liquor have to be disciplined."

A few unmarried couples found to be sharing a room were given "guidance," officials said.

A local member of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), which is known for its sometimes violent raids on establishments it considers in violation of the values the organization claims to represent, praised Makassar authorities for targeting the sale of alcohol.

"If the Satpol PP raid isn't sufficient, we'll carry out our own," the FPI member said.

Night clubs closed

Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month, starts on Thursday in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. During this period, observant Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual intercourse from dawn until sunset.

The Jakarta government previously said it would force hundreds of night clubs and massage parlors to close during the Islamic holy month, although certain entertainment centers would be allowed to open at night.

The restrictions are set to go into force on Wednesday and will affect 371 entertainment businesses throughout the city.

"We will closely monitor the businesses from the provincial level all the way down to the urban wards," said Purba Hutapea, from Jakarta's tourism and culture promotion agency.

Ramadan has in the passed seen instances of hard-line Muslim groups like the FPI going through neighborhoods and forcibly closing night clubs and bars with threats of violence, often leading to vandalism and fights, but the Jakarta government says it will not tolerate such raids.

"No more raids with violence," Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat said last week. "This is the capital, a heterogeneous city. Leave it to the law enforcers."

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/booze-targeted-as-authorities-carry-out-pre-ramadan-raids/

Language & culture

Two local languages in Papua on the brink of extinction

Tabloid JUBI - June 17, 2015

Bengkulu, Jubi – Two Papuan indigenous languages, Saponi and Mapia, are among 14 Indonesian tongues that have gone extinct.

"There are 14 local languages that have already gone extinct because their speakers no longer exist," said Aziz Qahar Mudzakkar, the Commission III member of Regional Representative Council of the House of Representative at Bengkulu Provincial Language Office in Kota Bengkulu on Tuesday (16/6/2015).

Others include 10 local languages of Maluku Province: Hoti, Hukumina, Hulung, Serua, Te'un, Palumata, Loun, Moksela, Naka'eka and Nila languages; and two local languages of North Maluku Province: Ternateno and Ibu languages.

According to UNESCO, there are more than 740 local languages in the Indonesian archipelago. However, 136 languages are in category of endangered. Aziz said there are 13 languages that are still being used by more than one million people: Acehnese, Batak, Malay, Minangkabau, Rejau, Lampung, Sunda, Java, Madura, Bali, Sasak, Makassar and Bugis.

The visit was to collect some data and documents concerning to the preparation of draft Law on Regional Language that would be endorsed by the Indonesian House of Representative as part of national legislation program in 2016.

Source: http://tabloidjubi.com/en/2015/06/17/two-local-languages-in-papua-on-the-brink-of-extinction/

Parliament & legislation

House divided over constituency funds

Jakarta Post - June 19, 2015

Tama Salim and Dylan Amirio, Jakarta – The House of Representatives is divided over the so-called constituency funds as the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has indicated its support for the plan.

The PDI-P has hinted that it would support the plan by including provisions on the constituency funds into a revision of the Legislative Institution (MD3) Law.

PDI-P politician Hasto Kristiyanto said the faction could support the plan if the legislative body agreed to maintain the current method of electing candidates to seats in the House.

According to Hasto, the proposal for constituency funds was motivated by the "very liberal" method of a direct legislative election, referring to the mixed open proportional method under which voters are expected to elect individual party candidates instead of giving their vote to the political party itself.

"When lawmakers promise to give something to their constituents, they should have the option of fulfilling these [political promises] not only through budgets from the government, but also through the budgeting authority that the House possesses," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Hasto maintained that lawmakers should have the option to propose programs for their constituencies both through government mechanisms and their legislative functions.

He said this could be achieved if the current direct election system was changed. "We previously failed to push through the use of the closed proportional system of elections. If that was put in place, I'm sure that there would be no need for the constituency funds," he explained.

Last week, the House budget committee proposed a budget ceiling of Rp 20 billion per lawmaker or a total of Rp 11.2 trillion for the constituency funds planned for the 2016 state budget.

Lawmakers decided to put a definitive number on the constituency funds starting next year in order to make it easier for House members to secure funding to develop their voting areas through the regional budgets (APBD).

This would allow lawmakers to consult with their constituents to propose regional development projects and meet their demands.

Meanwhile, the People's Conscience (Hanura) Party rejected the plan on Thursday. Hanura party faction head Nurdin Tampubolon said that it was not the job of the House to handle and control funding for regional development.

Nurdin said that lawmakers should stick to their job of conveying the aspirations of the voters they represented to the government, he insisted.

"We at the Hanura Party don't want to participate in any tasks that are beyond the House's functions. Right now, we see that this program is not urgent enough to be implemented. We would rather focus on more pressing issues, such as the slumping economy," Nurdin told reporters during a press conference at the House complex on Thursday.

Hanura is the second faction that has made its stance on the proposal public. Earlier this week, the NasDem Party faction officially opposed the plan, saying that it had no strong legal ground.

Separately, Golkar Party politician Misbakhun defended the constituency funds proposal, saying that it could help bridge the gaps between regions in the country.

He said the mechanism was needed to address the unequal distribution of development initiatives nationwide. "We're speaking of a discrepancy [in development] for 77 constituencies [around the country]," he told reporters in a press briefing.

Also on Thursday, antigraft activists staged a rally in front of the House compound to reject the constituency funds proposal.

The coalition, represented by Apung Widadi from the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA), lambasted the House's decision to amend the MD3 Law to include the constituency funds provision.

"There is the problem of potential corruption, misuse and complacency among legislators in fulfilling their duties," Apung said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/19/house-divided-over-constituency-funds.html

SBY speaks out against pork barrel scheme as Jokowi stays silent

Jakarta Globe - June 16, 2015

Jakarta – A bid by Indonesian politicians to channel Rp 20 billion ($1.5 million) in pork-barrel funds to every national legislator has met its most powerful detractor yet in former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, even as his successor remains silent on the hugely controversial issue.

In a series of Twitter messages on Monday, Yudhoyono laid out his arguments against such a scheme and reminded the public that he had opposed a similar attempt by the House of Representatives during his own presidency.

He acknowledged that while the intention of the so-called "aspiration fund" was to boost regional development, the proposed mechanism went against the prevailing system for allocating development funds.

"If members of the House have the 'allocation and authority' to determine projects and funding on their own, what's the difference between the executive and legislative [branches of government]?" Yudhoyono asked in a tweet carrying the *SBY* tag that indicates it was written by the former president and not one of his aides.

He also questioned how the House members would be held to account for the money, and how the public could be sure that it was not being held by the legislators.

Another argument against the scheme, Yudhoyono said, was the role of regional councilors with a better understanding than the House members of local issues.

"If every House member is to get aspirational funds, what about provincial, district and municipal councilors who are considered to know more about and be closer to the constituency?" he wrote.

"How complicated is development planning going to be when everyone has their own wants and plans?

"During the administration that I led, I rejected the use of such aspiration funds because of these [questions] that remain unclear," he added.

"I urge the House and the government to be diligent and not hasty in reaching a decision. Don't make a mistake and ruin the system," he concluded.

"Shouldn't the focus and priority of the House and the government at this time be on addressing the economic slowdown and its impact on the lives of the people?"

Yudhoyono's unequivocal opposition to the scheme comes in stark contrast to the lack of response from his successor, President Joko Widodo, on an issue that has garnered widespread public opposition. Cabinet Secretary Andi Widjajanto, a close aide to the president, said Joko would likely comment on it once the House had fleshed out its plan.

Legislators are pushing the government to include Rp 11.2 trillion in pork-barrel funds, which they are calling the "Electoral Region Development Fund" or UP2DP, in next year's state budget.

The proposed fund is to be distributed among all 560 House members and used for any development project of their choosing in their respective electoral districts. A House team working on the details of the plan says there will be "no special supervision" of the use of the funds.

Critics have rounded on the plan, calling it unconstitutional and prone to misuse.

The National Democrat Party (NasDem), which is part of Joko's ruling coalition, said its legislators would oppose any bid by the House to push the plan through. However, Joko's own Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), says such a scheme is necessary to bypass the tangle of bureaucracy that typically holds up the distribution of regional development funds from the central government.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/sby-speaks-pork-barrel-scheme-jokowi-stays-silent/

Criminal justice & prison system

Observers warn of renewed backlash following death row clemency rejection

Jakarta Globe - June 22, 2015

Andreyka Natalegawa & Kennial Caroline Laia, Jakarta – Human rights activists and legal experts have again called on President Joko Widodo to halt the execution of drug traffickers following the rejection of a French national's last-ditch appeal against the death sentence on Monday.

Joko's tough stance against drug trafficking has seen a total of 14 people – mostly foreigners – executed in the first six months of his term.

Haris Azhar, coordinator at the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS), said the rejection of Serge Atlaoui's appeal was predictable.

"We doubt that this matter is a purely intented for enforcing our law or sovereignty," Haris told the Jakarta Globe on Monday. "Instead, we believe that the government intends to establish popularity by implementing capital punishment."

Atlaoui was arrested in 2005 for allegedly working in a factory producing ecstasy pills on the outskirts of Jakarta. He has been on death row since he was convicted not long after.

The Frenchman was one of eight individuals scheduled to be executed at Indonesia's notorious Nusakambangan prison in April, but was granted a last minute reprieve by the Attorney General's Office (AGO). Atlaoui has maintained his innocence throughout his time on death row.

"From the beginning, we have known that he didn't do anything wrong," said Atlaoui's lawyer Nancy Yuliana Sunjoto on Monday. "He didn't know anything about the chemicals. He's just a welding technician," Sunjoto added.

In a letter sent to Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi in April, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that Atlaoui was the victim of a hasty trial and was sentenced "in a ruling containing erroneous statements."

"The eventual execution of Mr. Atlaoui would be even more incomprehensible to the government and French people as, due to serious dysfunction in the Indonesian legal system, he did not benefit from his due rights," wrote Fabius.

Representatives from the French Embassy in Jakarta could not be reached to provide a statement on Monday.

Imparsial's executive director Poengky Indarti regretted Joko's poor commitment to human rights, which contradicted his campaign promises during 2014 presidential election.

"It is very disappointing to see Joko's administration making mistakes over and over again regarding this issue," Poengky said.

The April executions of four Nigerians, two Australians and one Brazilian was condemned by the international community. A similar diplomatic backlash occurred in January, when an Indonesian firing squad executed five foreigners and an Indonesian woman convicted on drug trafficking charges.

A spokesman for the AGO said a date for Atlaoui's execution had not yet been set, but added it would not occur during the holy month of Ramadan.

On presidential orders

Joko has made a stand against drug addiction and trafficking, and it was his decision to resume executions of convicted drug traffickers after a four-year gap.

His stance has contrasted with that of former president Suslio Bambang Yudhoyono. After three men convicted of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings were executed in 2008, Yudhoyono introduced an informal moratorium on capital punishment.

Yohanes Sulaiman, a lecturer at the Indonesian National Defense University, believed economic concerns could prevent the execution process from moving ahead.

"I don't think he wants to risk another international backlash, especially if it ends in a boycott of Indonesia," Yohanes said on Monday. "But of course, this is Jokowi, so nothing can be certain," he added, referring to the President by his popular nickname.

The April executions of Australian drug convicts Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran resulted in significant cuts in foreign aid to Indonesia. Australian aid to Indonesia was slashed by almost AU$219.5 million, a cut of nearly 40 percent.

Joko's decision to continue with drug-related executions has also come under criticism from human rights activists and prominent academics, who note that involuntary rehabilitation and capital punishment are not effective methods of curbing national drug use.

In an open letter to President Joko Widodo, published in the June 6 edition of the British health journal The Lancet, a group of academics and experts called for the discontinuation of the executions, saying alternative means were necessary to deal with drug use in Indonesia.

"A close examination of the nature and extent of drug use in Indonesia reveals substantial gaps in knowledge and a scarcity of evidence to support forced rehabilitation and the punitive, law enforcement-led approach favored by the government," the letter said.

The letter stated that there was "evidence that criminalization of people who use drugs and punitive law-enforcement approaches have failed to reduce the prevalence of drug use and are fueling the HIV epidemic."

Yohanes questioned whether the government would follow through with more executions. "I don't think they have the stomach to go through another international problem," Yohanes concluded.

Double standard

The recent spate of death sentences handed down to foreign nationals for drug-related crimes has come as a shock to observers, especially when compared with the light sentences handed down for Indonesians.

The court's rejection of Atlaoui's appeal follows a series of high-profile arrests of law enforcement officials involved in drug production and trafficking.

In early June, Dedy Romadi, a guard at Bandung's Banceuy Penitentiary, was caught allegedly trafficking 16 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine.

Dedy walked away from the scandal relatively unscathed, subject to little more than an "honorable discharge" from his position. Under the conditions of his termination, Dedy will be entitled to full benefits as a civil servant, including a lifetime pension and health insurance.

Meanwhile, an East Java police officer identified by the initials "A.L." was arrested in a drug bust that netted 13 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine.

East Java provincial police chief, Insp. Gen. Anas Yusuf, said in a statement to Tempo on June 10th, that A.L. will only face dismissal from the police force "once there is legal certainty" – meaning a conviction.

In a similar case, prison guard Bayu Anggit Permana was arrested in May while attempting to smuggle approximately 27 packets of crystal methamphetamine weighing 13.5 grams each.

Bayu, who police say will be charged with a drug dealing sentence of between 12 and 20 years of imprisonment, was a guard at Nusakambangan prison, where less than a month earlier the government executed eight men for the similar offenses.

A fourth officer, Imron, was arrested in April for allegedly dealing crystal methamphetamine as part of a trafficking ring run by death-row inmate and notorious drug trafficker Freddy Budiman at Jakarta's Cipinang Penitentiary.

Imron, however, was symbolically stripped of his uniform in dishonorable discharge by Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly, precluding him from accessing the same benefits as other officers involved in similar cases.

Perspective change and alternative punishments

Haris, of KontraS, said Joko should change his perspective. "This matter depends on president's understanding if human right principles," Haris said.

"The president seems to think that the death sentence is not a human rights abuse but a mere law enforcement. The president needs to change his perspective. He needs to understand that revoking the death sentence doesn't mean that the convicts are fully freed from punishment."

Hendardi, executive director at Setara Institute, said the government should consider other punishment, such as life sentences, to punish drugs convicts. He also suggested the government issue a moratorium on the death penalty.

"Moreover, the president should stop rejecting clemency," Hendardi said on Monday. "Joko must look thoroughly through clemencies proposed to him because every clemency has different case and background. He cannot just reject it because it relates to drugs."

Andreas Harsono, a Jakarta-based researcher with Human Rights Watch, agreed that the fate of Serge Atlaoui now rests with the president. "He will decide whether he is going to give clemency or not," Andreas said, calling on the president to halt executions in Indonesia.

Andreas said that Indonesia's stance on capital punishment for drug traffickers contravenes international law, noting that "drug trafficking is not in the category of tolerable death sentences, according to the UN.

"The death sentence is only tolerable when it is put against those who have committed multiple serious crimes, like several murders."

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/jakarta/observers-warn-renewed-backlash-following-death-row-clemency-rejection/

Intelligence & state security

Incoming BIN chief 'ready' for what Joko promised him

Jakarta Globe - June 21, 2015

Jakarta – The incoming head of Indonesia's intelligence body has admitted that his appointment was a political favor from President Joko Widodo, who his party endorsed in last year's election.

Sutiyoso, the chairman of the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party, or PKPI, also boasted to reporters on Saturday about not needing to prepare for his confirmation hearing at the House of Representatives at the end of the month.

Asked whether he expected his party to get seats in a potential cabinet reshuffle, after being left out of the inaugural lineup last October, Sutiyoso said his nomination to head the State Intelligence Agency, or BIN, was a political concession by Joko.

"I've already got a seat, right? One is enough for now," he said. "That's what politics is like. The other parties get ministerial [posts], and so do I. I went seven months without getting anything, but I didn't complain."

Sutiyoso, a retired Army general and former governor of Jakarta, said there was nothing wrong with the president farming out key posts to political allies, as long as they were capable of the job.

He also made light of his upcoming confirmation hearing with legislators, which is expected to take place between June 28 and 30. "I'm ready for it. I've prepared by sleeping a lot," Sutiyoso said.

He added he expected to face a grilling from legislators, some of whom have criticized Joko for his controversial selection of a political backer rather than an experienced professional to serve as the country's intelligence chief. "It wouldn't be fun if there wasn't some opposition," he said.

Joko's nomination of Sutiyoso is the latest in a list of questionable appointments, all seemingly politically motivated, that the president has made since taking office last October.

In January, he drew the ire of antigraft activists, and the attention of the national anti-corruption commission, by nominating Budi Gunawan, a close aide to Megawati Soekarnoputri, his political patron, as the next chief of police. Joko later withdrew the nomination in the wake of a public outcry, but did nothing to stop Budi being appointed the deputy to a police chief, Badrodin Haiti, who retires early next year.

The president also courted controversy with his pick of H.M. Prasetyo, of the National Democrat Party (NasDem), another member of his coalition, as the country's attorney general. Prasetyo has since become the internationally reviled face of Indonesia's widely condemned execution of foreign drug convicts, including Rodrigo Gularte, a mentally disabled Brazilian, and Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who were praised as model reformed prisoners and who were helping other inmates turn a new leaf through vocational and arts classes and prayer groups.

Joko's ministerial picks have also grated with the public for the large number of party officials and politically connected individuals in the cabinet after he expressly declared during campaigning that his would be a cabinet not beholden to party interests.

Among those who have come in for criticism are Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly, from Joko and Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), who has pushed a series of policies seen as undermining the fight against corruption; Megawati's daughter, Puan Maharani, the chief welfare minister, who publicly belittled the president as just another party flunky and answerable to her mother; and the manpower minister, Hanif Dhakiri of the National Awakening Party (PKB), who publicly contradicted the president by ruling out Joko's promise to end to the controversial transmigration policy for Papua province.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/incoming-bin-chief-ready-joko-promised/

Political parties to monitor spy agency

Jakarta Post - June 16, 2015

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The National Intelligence Agency (BIN) will have difficulty maintaining its independence while carrying out spying activities due to close monitoring by a team of lawmakers that will be established soon.

The House of Representatives Commission I that supervises BIN is close to establishing a team that will be granted the authority to scrutinize the work of the spy agency, which, according to the House, is needed to prevent BIN from misusing its power.

The monitoring team will be made up of representatives from each of the 10 political factions at the legislative institution in addition to the four leaders of Commission I – chairman Mahfudz Siddiq of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and his three deputies: Tantowi Yahya of the Golkar Party, Hasril Hamzah Tandjung of the Gerindra Party and Hanafi Rais of the National Mandate Party (PAN).

The establishment of the team is mandated by Law No. 17/2011 on BIN. Article 43 of that law obliges team members to take an oath to keep all information related to the activities carried out by BIN confidential.

In addition to such laws, Commission I, which oversees defense, foreign affairs and informatics, had recently completed an internal regulation that details the role of lawmakers in monitoring the work of BIN particularly regarding cases deemed vital and sensitive in the future, said Commission chief Mahfudz.

"The team will represent the public in thoroughly examining how BIN carries out its work on certain cases in the future in order to prevent the agency from making possible deviations from its function," Mahfudz told the press on Monday.

Mahfudz did not specify the category of cases in which lawmakers could be involved, citing the unresolved murder of prominent human rights defender Munir Said Thalib as an example to highlight the kinds of cases carried out by BIN that would allow for House interference.

In order to ensure politicians involved in the team uphold secrecy, Commission I will require political factions at the House propose permanent representatives that will remain in the team despite changes of their assignment until the end of the current House term in 2019.

"It is important to make sure that although the factions will reassign their respective members involved in the team among the 11 commissions at the House, they will remain members of the monitoring team until the end of their terms as lawmakers. They will also be sworn to keep whatever they learn during the job confidential," Mahfudz emphasized.

Commission I is expected to present the monitoring team, which will be the first ever in the history of BIN, in the next plenary meeting for approval, during which the House is also expected to approve the nomination of Sutiyoso as new BIN chief succeeding Lt. Gen. Marciano Norman.

Commenting on the matter, Marciano, who attended a closed-door meeting with Commission I on Monday, applauded the House's plan but called for the House to not overrule the spy agency. "No matter what, BIN must be given the independence to carry out its work," he said.

The establishment of such a monitoring team however has evinced criticism from the country's spy godfather AM Hendropriyono. "Who will supervise the monitoring body?"

Hendropriyono, a former BIN chief, further expressed his concerns over the future of BIN under the monitoring of an external party like the House, saying that "it will put the state's secrets at stake".

Former Hanura Party lawmaker and intelligence analyst Susaningtyas Kertopati concurred with Hendropriyono, adding that involving party politicians in scrutinizing BIN would jeopardize the work of the institution.

"BIN will be marred by vested interests from parties. BIN must be free from political interests," she said. (saf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/16/political-parties-monitor-spy-agency.html

Economy & investment

IMF slashes Indonesia's growth target to 4.7 percent

Jakarta Post - June 17, 2015

Tassia Sipahutar, Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed its estimate on Indonesia's economic growth to 4.7 percent for 2015, a growth revision similar to that made by the World Bank on the country's economy last week.

It is the second revision that the IMF has made this year after it cut the projection to 5.2 percent in May from its original projection of 5.5 percent, which was made in October 2014.

IMF deputy managing director Mitsuhiro Furusawa said in Jakarta on Tuesday that the country was still facing challenges that could hamper its economic progress.

"Just before my visit here, our staff had discussions with the authorities. Based on our preliminary assessment, we expect this year's growth to be at 4.7 percent, downgraded from the previous projection because there is still less demand [in economic activities]," he said during a discussion with local journalists.

The IMF's latest revised forecast came less than a week after the World Bank cut its growth forecast on Indonesia.

The World Bank has not officially announced the forecast revision but in its global outlook summary issued on June 10, its prediction on Indonesia's economic growth was lowered to 4.7 percent from its previous estimate of 5.2 percent announced in December, last year.

Among the components the IMF used for its new projection were weak trade data and the lackluster 4.7 percent growth in the first quarter. "As you know, import growth has slowed and export growth has slowed as well. We have factored that slower growth into our outlook on consumption and investment," said David G. Cowen, IMF Asia and Pacific department division chief.

Exports have indeed continued to weaken, as revealed by the May trade data. In May, exports fell 15.2 percent year-on-year to US$12.56 billion. The result brought the January-to-May export figure to $64.72 billion, which was 11.8 percent lower than recorded during the same period in 2014.

Furusawa said several causes, including falling commodity prices, had led to the poor trade data, but he maintained the fund's conviction of a moderate rebound in the second half, even though the change might not fully lift the economy.

Gundy Cahyadi, an economist at Singapore's DBS Bank, shared the IMF's view. "For now, our GDP growth is still at 5.1 percent, but yes, increasingly it looks like below 5 percent is definitely possible," he wrote in an email.

He attributed the grimmer outlook to the pace of fiscal spending that had continued to "disappoint".

"Up until May, total spending stood below 30 percent of the full-year target. At this rate, total spending for the year may only reach 70 percent of the target," he said, adding that further delays in the spending might lead to more GDP growth disappointment.

Meanwhile, Barclays economist Wai Ho Leong argued that the IMF's projection was too downbeat as the fund made the assumption that growth in the second quarter would be even weaker than the previous, despite the restart of government spending.

"It sounds like a pessimistic scenario, meant to galvanize the government into taking more decisive steps to boost growth by delivering on its infrastructure pledge," he told The Jakarta Post.

Barclays expects to soon see a change that will boost the second quarter's GDP, according to Leong. "That also means the snap back in momentum in Q3 could well be sudden and sharp, enough to take full year just above 5 percent," he added.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/17/imf-slashes-ri-s-growth-target-47-percent.html

Exports continue to weaken

Jakarta Post - June 16, 2015

Grace D. Amianti, Jakarta – Exports continue to drop in May with little sign of improvement in the future as the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) predicts less trade surplus later this year.

Indonesia posted a US$950 million trade surplus in May for the fifth straight month, producing a combined five-month surplus total of $3.75 billion.

But the surplus was not because of rising exports. It was instead backed by a faster downward trend in imports that has been largely due to Indonesia's slowing economic activity.

Exports dropped 15.24 percent year-on-year (yoy) in May to $12.56 billion as oil and gas exports slumped 42.32 percent amid low global oil prices, while non-oil and gas shipments dipped 10.07 percent.

By the end of May, overall exports declined 11.84 percent to $64.72 billion, underscoring a major challenge for the government to reach its 28 percent export growth target this year as part of its ambitious plan to triple exports within five years.

"Indonesia should build efforts to increase exports in alternative products, especially in secondary and tertiary types, because people's incomes are increasing globally," said Sasmito Hadi Wibowo (BPS deputy head for distribution and service statistics) in reference to manufactured goods and services.

BPS head Suryamin said the largest decline in non-oil and gas exports, equal to 17.54 percent month-on-month, occurred in animal fat and vegetable oil products, including palm oil.

Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports in manufacturing and minerals between January and May this year fell by 6.74 percent and 11.18 percent yoy, respectively. Meanwhile, the agriculture sector booked an increase of 1.58 percent yoy.

The US was Indonesia's top destination for exports in May with a total of $1.28 billion, followed by India ($1.15 billion) and Japan ($1.14 billion), with three of them contributing 31.94 percent to overall exports.

As for imports, they plunged 21.4 percent yoy in May to $11.6 billion, as oil and gas imports plummeted 43.87 percent and non-oil and gas deliveries fell 13.87 percent. During the month, various imported goods fell, with the biggest drop suffered by machinery and mechanical equipment that slumped by 16.53 percent month-on-month to $310 million.

From January to May, overall imports dropped 17.9 percent, with oil and gas deliveries shrinking 42.84 percent and non-oil and gas imports down 9.68 percent as weak domestic economic activities mean less demand for imported goods.

Imported consumption goods dropped 14.51 percent while raw material and capital goods declined 18.91 percent and 14.62 percent, respectively.

Indonesia's economy shrank to its lowest level in six years in the past few quarters, with the latest first quarter reading showing 4.7 percent growth, a level unseen since 2009.

But that may change soon if the government realizes its pledges to boost infrastructure projects that may start to take place later this year, which could create multiplier effects in the country's economy, including demand for imported products. "The surplus is predicted to narrow because imports will probably rise if infrastructure projects are started, especially in capital goods and raw materials," Sasmito said, signaling that exports will remain weak.

Glenn Maguire, ANZ chief economist for South Asia, ASEAN and the Pacific, said the trade balance would remain in surplus until there were signs of government spending, adding: "We were expecting to see signs of the pending investment boom in the data by now."

BCA economist David Sumual said in his report that the unusually weak imports, especially in consumer goods and raw materials, prior to the fasting month of Ramadhan, confirmed the weakness in purchasing power and the slowdown in production activities.

"The unusually weak imports strengthened our suspicion that economic growth in second quarter will remain subdued," David said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/16/exports-continue-weaken.html

Analysis & opinion

The end of the KPK?

Jakarta Post Editorial - June 22, 2015

It is under the administration of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo that the campaign against the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has gained the most momentum and looks to have reached the point of no return.

After having its leaders and investigators criminalized for their past deeds, now the KPK is facing a big, final blow that may see it stripped of the powers that corrupt individual fear the most.

Politicians at the House of Representatives from both the ruling Great Indonesia Coalition and the opposition Red and White Coalition have put their differences aside to join forces in weakening the KPK through their planned revision of Law No. 30/2002 on the KPK.

Such attempts were not unheard of during the 10-year term of Jokowi's predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but they always failed hidden partly due to public opposition and, hence, the government's reluctance.

The current government, or more specifically Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly, however, has not hid its support for the House's move. Yasonna claims the government couldn't reject the revision, which he said would provide clear guidelines on how the KPK would operate.

As in the previous efforts, the amendment will seek to restrict the KPK's wiretapping authority, which has been effective in catching fraudsters in the act. Most, if not all, of the arrests the KPK has made followed weeks or even months of surveillance that involved eavesdropping.

The politicians, however, want more. The revision is intended to deprive the KPK of its prosecution authority, which has enabled the commission to send all of its graft suspects to prison, including one who will spend the rest of his life behind bars. The conviction rate of graft cases the KPK has brought before the Jakarta Corruption Court stands at 100 percent, although on many occasions the court handed down sentences lower than those sought by KPK prosecutors.

If the revision goes unchallenged, which is very likely, the KPK will have to let the Attorney General's Office (AGO) arrange indictments, the same mechanism the National Police has to follow.

Without wiretapping and the ability to prosecute, the KPK will transform into an ordinary law enforcement agency, this despite the fact that the commission was initially set up more than 10 years ago because corruption was deemed an extraordinary crime that required extraordinary measures to eradicate. A disarmed KPK will lack the capability to carry on its war on corruption, which is far from over, let alone won.

But perhaps a KPK that cannot accomplish its mission is what the vengeful politicians eagerly seek, so that they can materialize their long-time dream of dissolving the antigraft body. Moreover, both the police and AGO are now flexing their muscles in combating graft.

The KPK has arrested dozens of lawmakers from various parties, but often party officials have openly vented their suspicion that the prosecutions were politically motivated.

The KPK must be suffering severe demoralization after a series of successful challenges by a number of graft suspects in court. Now the politicians are plotting an endgame that will harm the commission, as well as the future of our anticorruption drive.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/22/editorial-the-end-KPK.html

Constitutional Court fails to give girls better protection

Jakarta Post - June 20, 2015

Rosalia Sciortino, Bangkok – The judicial review of the proposed change to the marriageable age stated in Article 7(1) of the 1974 Marriage Law, which was filed by the Women's Health Foundation (Yayasan Kesehatan Perempuan or YKP) and, separately, by a coalition of five concerned women and children's rights activists and organizations, came to an end on Thursday.

The activists had argued for raising the minimum marriageable age for girls from 16 to 18 but their demand was ultimately rejected. Alongside changing the minimum age of marriage, other groups had demanded changes to the marriage law which would have allowed interfaith marriages and other proposed revisions.

YKP and other plaintiffs questioned the legitimacy of child marriage on various grounds. The legal argument centered on the unconstitutionality of a marriage law, seen as violating individual rights as defined in article 28B and 28C of the 1945 Constitution and as discriminating against girls by setting a different minimum age of marriage from boys.

Inconsistencies with other laws were also pointed out; foremost was Law 23/2002 on child protection, which defines a child as being below 18 while the marriage law uses 16 as an acceptable age for marriage. In 2010, 40 percent of brides were in the 15-19 age group and almost 5 percent in the 10-14 age group. These exceptions were allowed based on parental request and permission from religious leaders.

At the international level, the age clause in the marriage law contravenes the 1979 Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination against Women ratified by Indonesia.

The negative socio-economic effects of marriage at such a young age were also pointed out by plaintiff experts who brought in evidence to the Court, showing that early marriages were born out of destitution and perpetuated a vicious circle of inter-generational poverty, in which already vulnerable brides were deprived of educational and economic opportunities for them and their children.

Elevated risks of unwanted pregnancies, sexual diseases, maternal health hazards and violence were also discussed and the importance of postponing marriage to protect girls and their physical and mental well-being was stressed. This view was also supported by most religious leaders called to testify, with the well-known Muslim scholar Alwi Shihab stating that the economic, physical and mental maturity of the girl was seen as vital in Islam to a successful marriage and a harmonious family – a stand that countered interpretations previously provided by representatives of Muslim organizations in court.

Nevertheless, the court dismissed the plaintiffs' arguments as well as the presented evidence, even minimizing the negative implications of early marriages. The final decision stressed the individual right to marriage of each individual and stated that a change to the minimum age of marriage was not warranted since there "was no guarantee that with increasing the age from 16 to 18 there will be a reduction of divorce rates, health improvements and reduction of other social problems".

It further argued that to set a fixed age would restrict the state in developing policies adequate to the times and advised the plaintiffs to initiate a legislative review to establish a new minimum age for girl brides.

Of little consolation was the dissenting voice of Maria Farida Indrati, the only woman on the nine-member constitutional judge panel who supported the plaintiffs. She concluded that the current compulsory marriage age was indeed unconstitutional as it violated child rights, especially of girls, and it contravened Article 6 of the marriage law requiring a display of free will before entering into a union.

In her view, early marriage required urgent legal attention because it compromised the development and health of the child bride. Rather than recommending a lengthy legislative review process, the Constitutional Court should act, employing "law as a tool of social engineering" to bring about much needed societal change.

It is very important to stress judge Maria's last point. By opting for legalistic excuses rather than substantial arguments, the Constitutional Court has missed an opportunity to eliminate or at least reduce one of the most obvious forms of gender inequity in Indonesia.

Although legal reform is only part of the solution, changing the discriminatory clause would have contributed to a favorable environment for a comprehensive approach to address the root causes of early marriages.

Women groups, civil society, media and other concerned groups will continue to work with even greater commitment to abolish child marriages through other venues – including addressing poverty, fostering access to education, promoting sexual and reproductive health education and raising awareness among parents, local governments, religious leaders, judges and legal experts.

The court could have endorsed their important work and most importantly made a statement about the importance of girls achieving their full potential, but instead it failed to protect them and jeopardized their future contribution to the nation!

[The writer is a health and social development adviser and author of Menuju Kesehatan Madani (Toward Civic Health. She is an associate professor at Mahidol University and a visiting professor at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/20/insight-constitutional-court-fails-give-girls-better-protection.html

A hard choice, but a simple one

Pacific Policy - June 19, 2015

No matter how we slice and dice the issue of West Papuan independence, it always comes down to this: Do the indigenous peoples of a distinct and discrete land mass have the democratic right to self-determination or not?

The answer, according to international law and standards, is an unequivocal yes.

Even a cursory examination of history reveals that Indonesia has systematically ignored and subverted the desires of the people who share the island of Papua with their cultural and ethnic brethren and sistren in Papua New Guinea. They have oppressed these people using military force, and their policies in the region have from the beginning been designed to silence the voice of the indigenous people there.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo's protestations notwithstanding, there is no free press in the Papuan provinces. Police and military continue to claim in the face of incontrovertible evidence that there is no unrest. And still they claim that even advocating for independence is a crime. Attending a peaceful demonstration is considered grounds for arrest and incarceration. Political activity can get you tortured or killed. Virtually all of the independence leaders living in exile have faced systematic persecution extending across borders. After he escaped prison and fled for his life, Benny Wenda faced years of forced immobility because of a flagrantly erroneous Interpol 'red notice', which falsely accused Mr Wenda of arson and murder.

Just last month, Mr Wenda was denied entry into the United States following an interview with US Homeland Security personnel. No reason was provided at the time. Presumably, the terrorist watch-list, or a similar international mechanism, is being used to curtail his visibility on the world stage.

It needs to be said that Jokowi, and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono before him, would do more if they could. But the plain truth is that civilian rule of law does not extend to the Papuan provinces. These frontier areas are the under the hegemony of the Indonesian military. The wealth they derive from this island is such that they are content to conduct what has been characterised as a 'slow-motion genocide' in order to perpetuate their own prosperity.

It's despicable, frankly. But nobody seems to have either the power or the political will to end this tyranny. One can argue realpolitik, and claim that Indonesia is moving in the right direction, but it's clear that politicians in Jakarta allow these depredations to continue on Melanesian peoples even while they take great strides to protect their ethnically Asian populations.

In editorial pages across the region, commentators are writhing and contorting themselves to try to find a dignified, elevated expression of the pending decision: Should the Melanesian Spearhead Group recommend full membership for the United Movement for the Liberation of West Papua? Will they do it?

The answer to each question is agonisingly simple: Yes, they should; and no, they will not.

Indonesia has already won this round. They won on the day that Voreqe Bainimarama reiterated that Indonesia's territorial integrity was inviolate. They won doubly when he recommended them for associate membership in the MSG, a move that effectively kills the prospect of any dialogue concerning West Papuan independence in this forum.

The MSG operates on consensus. If there is no agreement, there is no action. Given the opposing stances that Vanuatu and Fiji have taken concerning the ULMWP, no compromise – let alone consensus – seems possible. And given the recent rise to power of Sato Kilman, widely considered to be Indonesia's cats-paw in Vanuatu, membership for Indonesia is not out of the question.

Regional commentators and political figures wax poetic about the need for dialogue and inclusion. They ignore the rather inconvenient fact that West Papua's MSG bid is a result of the fact that dialogue within Indonesia is not only impossible, it's frequently fatal to those who attempt it.

It's frankly infuriating to see the namby-pamby linguistic contortions that some of those involved have engaged in. Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare's championship-level equivocation, advocating for observer status for the ULMWP and membership for Indonesia, simply closes the coffin and hands the nails to Indonesia. PNG prime minister Peter O'Neill's ability to swallow his outrage over human rights abuses seems to increase right alongside his ability to attract Indonesian business interests.

But worst of all is Vanuatu's deputy prime minister Moana Carcasses, who only last year made history with his presentation of West Papua's plight to the United Nations. Now, he is reportedly professing that the issue is a difficult one, and that understanding and patience need to prevail.

Fiji, at least, is unapologetic, if shameless, in its stance.

The MSG cannot move out of this morass if it won't speak clearly about the situation. There is a prima facie case for West Papuan membership in the MSG. If the fact that the chair is currently held by the New Caledonian independence movement weren't evidence enough, then the words of support from MSG founding member Sir Michael Somare should suffice.

But ULMWP membership is unacceptable to Indonesia. And it has played its hand with care. Ensuring that even Australia did not remain on the sidelines, it prodded and pulled at everyone involved, and got the result that it wanted.

If the MSG is to retain even an iota of credibility, the only line that it can honestly take now is to admit that it cannot usefully function as a forum for discussions concerning Melanesian decolonialisation, because it lacks the strength to resist the overwhelming power of its neighbours.

It's a fact: Melanesia is weak. There's no shame in saying so. Indonesia is powerful – powerful enough even to give Australia pause. Indonesia has the will and the political and material resources necessary to ensure that West Papuan independence remains merely a dream for years yet to come. Likewise, armed resistance to an utterly ruthless military cannot succeed. The days of the OPM are past – if they ever existed.

The sooner we come to terms with these truths, the sooner ULMWP can begin developing effective tactics to counteract them. Those of us in Melanesia owe them at least that much.

[This was also published in a slightly different form in the weekend edition of the Vanuatu Daily Post.]

Source: http://pacificpolicy.org/2015/06/a-hard-choice-but-a-simple-one/

Sutiyoso's nomination: Questions on capacity, historical burden

Jakarta Post - June 19, 2015

Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – The country's president constitutionally has the prerogative and the liberty to nominate and appoint candidates for top posts in the government and the military, including for the post of the chief of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).

It is therefore on his own prerogative that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo recently nominated Lt. Gen. (ret) Sutiyoso for the post of BIN chief to replace Lt. Gen. (ret) Marciano Norman.

The President's official letter on Sutiyoso's nomination has been sent to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Setya Novanto. The letter would then be brought to the House's plenary session and later on be handed to the House's Commission I on information, defense and foreign affairs to hold a confirmation hearing. The House will then write back to the President regarding its position on the nomination.

Sutiyoso spent a larger part of his military career in the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus), including a few years' stint as assistant for intelligence to the Kopassus chief. He was involved in a number of military operations in the former Indonesian Timor Leste province and Aceh.

Sutiyoso's nomination has received mixed reactions, including from the country's political and security circles. Support, among others, has come from the outgoing BIN chief himself, who considers the former governor of Jakarta as a suitable successor. Opposition, meanwhile, has come from within the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the party of the President himself.

It was PDI-P lawmaker Tubagus Hasanuddin who has questioned Sutiyoso's nomination for the country's top intelligence post. Hasanuddin particularly highlights Sutiyoso's age as his main concern. "Isn't he too old for the job?" he asked.

Hasanuddin's argument was not groundless as Sutiyoso, if eventually endorsed by the House, will be the oldest officer ever to be at the helm of the country's supreme intelligence authority. Sutiyoso will turn 71 this December. The youngest ever intelligence chief was Col. Zulkifli Lubis, appointed by founding president Sukarno as chief of the then Indonesian National Secret Agency (BRANI) at the age of 22 in 1945.

Soeharto, Sukarno's successor as president, also appointed relatively young candidates for the post of chief of the State Intelligence Coordinating Board (Bakin) during his 32-year-old rule. Sutopo Yuwono was 41-years-old when he was appointed as Bakin chief. Sutopo's successor, Yoga Sugama, was 49 at the time of his appointment. Other succeeding Bakin chiefs under Soeharto – Sudibyo and Moetojib – were in their 50s when appointed.

The less-than-one-year-old presidency of BJ Habibie, however, made a drastic change when he appointed ZA Maulani as Bakin chief when the appointee was already 63-years-old. The reformasi government of president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid appointed AM Hendropriyono as BIN chief when the latter was 56-years-old. Megawati Soekarnoputri, who succeeded Gus Dur, retained Hendropriyono for the post.

The 10-year rule of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had three different BIN chiefs. First was Syamsir Siregar, who was 63 when appointed. His successor Sutanto was 59 years old when installed, while the last BIN chief appointed by Yudhoyono, Marciano Norman, was 57 when he was installed in 2011.

Frankly there were reports of dissatisfaction on the performance of intelligence chiefs, particularly those in an aging condition.

Another major concern voiced by Hasanuddin was the alleged involvement of Sutiyoso in the July 26, 1996, attack on the PDI-P's headquarters in Central Jakarta, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of party members. Sutiyoso was then Jakarta Military commander.

Sutiyoso also has a historical burden, particularly in regards with his involvement in military operations, which could disrupt his liberty to perform his tasks as BIN chief. One case is the death of five Australian journalists in Timor Leste in 1975.

As Jakarta governor, Sutiyoso visited Australia in 2007 as a guest of the New South Wales state premier to revive ties between Jakarta and the state. Sutiyoso cut short his visit there after officers from the New South Wales coroner's office forced their way into his hotel room in Sydney to deliver a summons to testify at an investigation into the Australian journalists' deaths.

Sutiyoso was the second retired Indonesian Army general targeted by the New South Wales state coroner in relation to the 1975 tragedy. The office first issued a similar warrant for Lt. Gen. (ret) Yunus Yosfiah.

Similar and even worse harassment against Sutiyoso could occur abroad in the future.

Another concern is Sutiyoso's personal capacity in regards with the latest security threats – cyber terrorism and asymmetrical warfare – that he had never encountered in his past military career, including during his terms as an intelligence officer.

Speculations tare hat his nomination is connected to his chairmanship of the Indonesian Unity and Justice Party (PKPI), among political parties grouped in the Great Indonesia Coalition that supported Jokowi's presidential campaign.

While this may be politically valid such a nomination and appointment, however, should not disregard performance-related aspects as they would ultimately determine one's success in office. And Sutiyoso should not be an exception.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/19/commentary-sutiyoso-s-nomination-questions-capacity-historical-burden.html

Death penalty in Indonesia: Unsupported by the facts, law

Jakarta Post - June 18, 2015

Leong Tsu Quin, Bangkok – From June 4 to 5, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) held a workshop with Indonesian lawyers that we would much rather not have had at all. The workshop was on how to handle death penalty cases in light of the country's resumption of executions.

Until President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo suddenly embraced the death penalty, the horrific practice seemed to be on its way out in Indonesia. Between 1999 and 2014, only 27 executions took place in the country, and in 2012 Indonesia dropped its formal opposition to a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty (Indonesia had since 2007 been voting "no"; in 2012 it abstained).

All this has changed under President Jokowi, who has allowed 14 people to be executed by firing squad since he took power in October 2014.

All those executed this year had been convicted of drug-related offenses. Indeed, President Jokowi says that the death penalty is needed to address drug use, claiming in an Al Jazeera interview this year that 4.5 million Indonesians require rehabilitation and 50 people die each day from drugs.

Even if this shocking estimate of the scale of the drug problem were accurate, any argument that the death penalty is therefore lawful and justified would be categorically wrong. But it is becoming more and more urgently clear that President Jokowi's numbers themselves are deeply flawed and simply unreliable.

A coalition of Indonesian academics and experts, writing in the world's most prominent medical journal The Lancet earlier this month, expressed "serious concerns about the validity of" the government's estimates, and called on the government to "invest in the collection of better quality data on the scale and nature of drug use in Indonesia" through a transparent, peer-reviewed process.

The flimsiness of the numbers that President Jokowi has been using to justify a growing number of executions was really brought home to us by one of the workshop participants, Claudia Stoicescu, a PhD candidate at Oxford University.

She explained that the Jokowi administration's claims were based on faulty research, reportedly a 2008 study by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and the University of Indonesia. She told us that the study had used poorly defined classifications, inappropriate recruitment methods and definitions of addiction that were inconsistent with accepted criteria for drug dependence.

The number of deaths per day, for instance, was determined by surveying 2,143 students, workers and general households who were asked questions such as: "how many of your friends use drugs" and "how many have died because of drugs", rather than the more accurate method of extrapolating based on existing mortality data on overdoses or AIDS-related deaths.

The article also called on President Jokowi to establish a drug policy based on empirical evidence, rather than resorting to forced rehabilitation and punitive measures.

According to the group, existing studies on drug policies and reform proposals show that a punitive law-enforcement approach is not effective in reducing the prevalence of drug use.

It is equally important, though, to underscore that not only do President Jokowi's arguments for the death penalty lack any reliable evidence, they are simply irrelevant to and incompatible with Indonesia's obligations under international law.

Governments, leading UN and other legal experts and civil society organizations across the world have concluded that the death penalty constitutes a denial of the right to life and is a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and is therefore never justified.

Even those who disagree accept that the death penalty is prohibited for anything other than "the most serious crimes" (murder and the like), and then only after a trial meeting the highest international standards of fairness.

In this regard, in 2013 Indonesia was reviewed by the UN Human Rights Committee, which assesses states' compliance with a key human rights treaty ratified by Indonesia, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The committee confirmed that Indonesia's use of the death penalty for drug offences violated the treaty, as such offenses do not meet the "most serious" threshold.

The committee called for a halt to all executions in Indonesia, but emphasized that the law should at least be changed to ensure that crimes involving narcotics are not punished by the death penalty.

It further urged Indonesia to consider commuting all death sentences imposed on drug convicts.

Participants in our workshop highlighted grave failings in trial processes in Indonesia, such as failures to provide interpreters to allow the accused to understand the proceedings, a fundamental requirement under the ICCPR.

Further examples of how executions in Indonesia violate human rights included authorities proceeding with executions despite the victim having been diagnosed with mental illness; and, sickeningly, that some people shot by firing squad experience minutes of pain and suffering before they die.

Indonesia is now one of only a few countries in the world that continue to apply the death penalty for drug-related offenses.

President Jokowi's stance on drug traffickers is at odds with the facts, with the law and with global trends – approximately 160 UN member states that have either abolished the death penalty or introduced moratoriums. Jokowi must immediately reverse this unlawful and ineffective approach by halting all scheduled executions and moving Indonesia back toward abolishing this dreadful practice.

[The writer is an ICJ associate international legal adviser.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/18/death-penalty-indonesia-unsupported-facts-law.html

Punishing half of Aceh

Jakarta Post - June 16, 2015

Iwan Dzulvan Amir, Jakarta – Once again, Aceh has become a national laughingstock and an international embarrassment. After various controversial bylaws, such as the prohibition an women to dance, to straddle when sitting in the back of motorcycles and to ride a motorcycle with a man who is not muhrim (related by blood), the ban of keyboard entertainment and separation of classes for male and female students in schools, now the provincial capital of Banda Aceh has issued a regulation in the form of a mayoral instruction that prohibits women from being outside their homes after 11 p.m.

The regulation aims to protect women from sexual harassment and abuse, which according to human rights groups have reached an alarming level in Aceh.

However, reacting to the rise of such abuse that annually numbers in the hundreds by punishing 2.5 million women in Aceh is extremely excessive as well as blaming the victims. There are other ways to deal with the matter, including by increasing security for women, improving rights education for men, better policing, etc.

When pressed to explain herself by the media, Mayor Illiza Saaduddin Djamal claimed to have merely implemented Gubernatorial Decree No. 2/2014 signed by Governor Zaini Abdullah on Feb. 28, 2014, which restricts nighttime activities in cafes and cybercafes.

The decree includes prohibition of late-night service for women without muhrim in these venues. Somewhere along the way, the prohibition was extended to general work and travel for women.

The gubernatorial decree itself only states that its legal basis is Bylaw (Perda) No.5/2000 on the implementation of sharia in Aceh. This bylaw – a product of pure politics during armed conflict times – has consistently become a blanket justification for all sorts of ridiculous regulations in the province.

Basically, lawmakers in Aceh can create any by-law and get away with it as long as they brand it as shari (sharia-compliant) without having to consult the proper stakeholders targeted by the by-law.

Indeed, it is unclear whether the deliberation that leads to this discriminative decree – if any – had involved enough key stakeholders or representatives of those most impacted by it, which are women.

Both national and international human rights groups have consistently decried the implementation of sharia in Aceh as discriminating against women.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a comprehensive research-based report in 2010 that condemned the sharia implementation in Aceh as an abuse against women and the poor.

Yet neither central nor provincial governments have done anything to revoke such discriminatory regulations. If anything, more have been created since then, including this latest curfew for women.

Many Acehnese love to say that their province arguably has a higher number of female national heroes than other regions. However, honoring figures like Cut Nyak Dhien, Cut Meuthia, Pocut Baren and Malahayati, to name a few, will only serve to remind us of how far the status of Acehnese women has now fallen.

Within one-and-a-half decades they have been turned from equal partners into, for lack of a better word, second-class citizens.

The reason for the central government to tolerate such abuse of Aceh's special autonomy law has been quite simple: It does not want to risk another conflict with former separatists, even if it means turning a blind eye. This may have changed, as recently Vice President Jusuf Kalla questioned the urgency for the curfew regulation.

However, Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo seemed to be dragging his feet by defending the curfew as applying only to certain sectors, as being implemented with the necessary precautions and as it will be evaluated and reconsidered every month after its implementation.

He seemed to have missed the point that regardless of safeguards, the curfew regulation and similarly abusive bylaws are discriminative and should not be tolerated.

Locally, it is unnecessary to question the motives and intentions for creating Aceh's abusive regulations since formal sharia was introduced in Aceh.

We only have to look at the main proponents of these regulations: an executive government currently dominated by an ex-armed group, provincial legislatures whose post-Reformasi female membership has consistently been below 5 percent, religious institutions whose leaderships are de facto all-male, local media which readily dismiss gender issues as not a priority and civil society organizations that – while concerned about women – are sidelined from any policy-making process.

In short, the entire current leadership of Aceh is patriarchal. As a textbook patriarchy, the leaders of Aceh always claim that their discriminative bylaws are mere extensions of local traditions and customs, which is quite a questionable excuse in today's multi-cultural and multi- religious Indonesia.

Other cultures and societies in Indonesia have gradually abandoned their gender-discriminatory customs in favor of laws that are more in-tune with modern human rights concerns. Oppressing half the population in an industrial-capitalist world where every contribution is essential for prosperity simply does not make sense. Even politically, alienating half the potential voters is tantamount to suicide.

However, these considerations simply have not sunk into the minds of Aceh's current leaders, despite the fact that the Aceh governor spent considerable time living in a liberal European country and that the Banda Aceh mayor is a woman. Everyone in Aceh's political arena is involved in the creation of these out-of-touch by-laws.

There is no way for women to challenge these bylaws using existing mechanisms in Aceh. Their only chance is at the national level. Article 235 of Law No. 11/2006 on the Governance of Aceh stated that bylaws concerning sharia implementation can only be annulled by the Supreme Court (MA). If the current punishing of half of Aceh on the back of discriminatory sharia continues, then the central government is clearly to blame.

[The writer is a researcher who has studied Aceh for more than two decades and currently resides in Jakarta.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/16/punishing-half-aceh.html

West Papua: MSG's challenge, Indonesia's Melanesian foray

Pacific Islands Reports - June 16, 2015

Dr. Tarcisius Kabutaulaka – West Papua will be the highest-profile issue at the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) leaders' summit in Honiara, Solomon Islands, on 24-26 June 2015.

The leaders will decide on the United Liberation Movement for West Papua's (ULMWP) application for membership of the MSG. This is an organization consisting of the four independent Melanesian countries – Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji – and New Caledonia's pro- independence organization, the Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS).

If the MSG admits the ULMWP, it could boost the pro-independence movement's push for self-determination and provide an international venue to highlight the Indonesian Government's human rights violations in West Papua. But, it could also have negative impacts on the Melanesian countries' relations with Indonesia. This will be particularly worrying for PNG and Fiji, which have growing economic, political and military partnerships with Jakarta. It could also setback Indonesia's bid to position itself as an emerging Asia- Pacific power.

On the other hand, if the MSG leaders deny the ULMWP membership, it could widen the rift between MSG countries, redefine Melanesia, blur the cultural and political divisions between Oceania and Southeast Asia, and see a Melanesian sub-region dominated by Indonesia.

The MSG leaders are therefore faced with the difficult task of balancing, on one hand, their moral obligation to support Melanesians in West Papua, and on the other hand, respecting Indonesia's sovereignty and maintaining their growing political and economic relations with this emerging Southeast Asian power.

This will be the second time West Papua's pro-independence movements have made a bid for MSG membership. The first was in October 2013 when an application by the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL) was unsuccessful. Part of the reason then was concerns that WPNCL did not represent all the pro-independence groups in West Papua. Since then, the West Papuans have formed the ULMWP, which they claim is more representative.

The WPNCL's application failure was also because of intense lobbying by Indonesia, which has an observer status on the MSG. In January 2014, Jakarta invited the MSG Foreign Ministers to visit Indonesia and "witness first-hand conditions in West Papua." The mission was headed the Fiji's Foreign Minister, but was boycotted by Vanuatu whose Foreign Minister Edward Natapei argued that the meeting, "was being hijacked by the government of Indonesia to work on another issue, which was to promote economic ties and development cooperation with the government of Indonesia" (Radio Australia, 16 January 2014 http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/pacific- beat/vanuatu-defends-boycott-of-msg-mission/1248756). Indeed, the MSG Foreign Ministers were given only fleeting and restricted visits to Jakarta, Bali and West Papua.

This time, it seems there will again be a split in the MSG. Vanuatu and the FLNKS are likely to support West Papua's bid for membership. Vanuatu has always been a firm supporter of West Papuan independence and the FLNKS is sympathetic, given its own struggles for independence from France. But the change of government in Port Vila last week and the election of Sato Kilman as Prime Minister casts doubts on how Vanuatu will vote. Kilman had earlier been sacked as Foreign Minister because "he misrepresented Vanuatu's position over the West Papua issue" (Radio New Zealand International, 10 June 2015 http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific- news/275896/vanuatu-pm-lays-out-concerns-with-kilman).

Solomon Islands has not made a firm commitment. Instead, Foreign Minister Milner Tozaka states that the Solomon Islands Government will "go along with a united [MSG] stand" (SIBC News, 3 June 2015 http://www.sibconline.com.sb/solomons-decided-united-stand-on-west- papuas-m-s-g-bid/). It is unclear what this means. But it is indicative of the fact that Solomon Islands has never been decisive on the West Papua issue, choosing instead the shroud of vague diplomatic language. But, it also means that Solomon Islands could hold the balance in the MSG's decision on West Papua's application for membership.

Interestingly, Solomon Islands played a leading role in pushing for French Polynesia to be re-enlisted on the UN's Decolonization List. During the UN General Assembly meeting in May 2013, the Solomon Islands' Ambassador to the UN, Collin Beck, introduced the resolution, supported by Nauru, Tuvalu, Samoa, Vanuatu and East Timor. Beck told the UN General Assembly there was "wide international support" for putting French Polynesia back on the list and that, "the map of decolonizing remains an unfinished business of the United Nations" (Solomon Times Online, 21 May 2013 http://www.solomontimes.com/news/with-solomon-islands-support-french- polynesia-back-on-the-decolonization-list/7678). Yet, Solomon Islands is reluctant to support West Papua's application for membership of the MSG.

Fiji and PNG will likely vote against ULMWP membership or attempt to water down West Papua's participation in efforts to save their relations with Indonesia. They prefer "non-interference" in Indonesia's sovereign affairs, citing West Papua as a domestic issue.

PNG shares a border with Indonesia/West Papua. And although it is directly affected by the conflicts in West Papua, PNG has always been reluctant to speak out against Indonesian occupation. In October 1986, PNG signed the "Treaty of Mutual Respect, Friendship, and Cooperation" with Indonesia, which frames the relationship between the two countries. In 1988, PNG's then Foreign Minister, Akoka Doi, said that Port Moresby recognizes West Papua as "an integral part of Indonesia." It was, in his words, a "mistake done by the colonial powers so let it stay as it is."

But more recently, it seems opinions in the haus tambaran in Waigani have changed. In February, in a carefully crafted statement, PNG's Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, expressed concern about Indonesia's human rights abuses in West Papua. He stated that, "the time has come for us to speak about [the] oppression [of] our people. Pictures of brutality of our people appear daily on social media and yet we take no notice. We have the moral obligation to speak for those who are not allowed to talk. We must be the eyes for those who are blindfolded. Again, Papua New Guinea, as a regional leader, we must lead these discussions with our friends in a mature and engaging manner" (The Interpreter, 9 February 2015. http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2015/02/09/PNG-Prime-Minister-speaks-up-on-West-Papua.aspx?COLLCC=1551706283&). This was, to date, his strongest statement on the issue, referring to the Melanesian West Papuans as "our family," "our brothers and sisters," and "our people."

But in March, O'Neill told a gathering at the Lowy Institute in Sydney that he prefers that West Papua's Provincial Governors rather than the ULMWP, represent West Papua at the MSG. In other words, he wants Indonesian government representatives to be the mouthpiece for West Papua at the MSG.

The Fiji Government has never been an advocate for West Papua. It joined the MSG in 1998 – a decade after the MSG (which was conceived in 1983) was formalized in March 1988 with the signing of the "Agreed Principles for Cooperation." Fiji joined mainly because it saw the potential benefits from the MSG Trade Agreement that PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu signed in 1993. Its first engagement with the MSG was at the Trade and Economic Officials' Meeting in Honiara in April 1997. It could therefore be argued that Fiji's membership of the MSG was driven largely by economic imperatives, rather than concerns for human rights and self-determination.

In contrast, Fiji has a longer history of flirting with Indonesia. The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1974, but became actively engaged in the late 1980s. Following Fiji's first coup, and as a result of being marginalized by traditional allies, the Sitiveni Rabuka-led government turned to Jakarta. In November 1987, a eight-member Indonesian trade mission arrived in Suva and held talks with the then Foreign Minister, Filipe Bole, offering Fiji up to 25,000 tons of rice on credit and special financial facilities as a "goodwill gesture." Along with that, the then Indonesian military boss, General Benny Murdani, expressed interests in forging military cooperation with Fiji.

The current Fiji Government continues the strong tie with Indonesia. In May 2011, Suva and Jakarta signed a Development Cooperation Agreement (DCA) that covers a wide range of sectors, including Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources, Forestry, Trade & Investments, Education, Legal & Judicial Sector, Defense, Police, Tourism etc. In March 2015, the Fijian Foreign Affairs Minister, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, met his Indonesian counterpart, Retno Marsudi, in Nadi to discuss enhancing trade cooperation in fisheries, agriculture processing and in the marketing of their various products. While Indonesia is presently not Fiji's largest trading partner, the value of trade between the two countries is significant.

It was Fiji Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, who pushed for Indonesia to become an observer on the MSG in 2011. Last month, he proposed that Indonesia be made an associate member of the MSG, adding that "Papua comes under the governance of Indonesia and if you want to do anything in Papua, the best thing to do is to bring in Indonesia, no matter what, if we bring in Papua separately, it doesn't make sense" (Pacific Islands Report, 26 May 2015 http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/2015/May/05-26-01.htm).

Bainimarama's statement ignores the fraudulent processes that led to Indonesia's annexation of West Papua, including the US-brokered New York Agreement of August 1962 that facilitated the Netherland's handover of West Papua to Indonesia. It also ignores the questionable 1969 Act of Free Choice and the human rights abuses and atrocities that Indonesia committed in the past fifty years, including the killing of about 500,000 Melanesian West Papuans. Bainimarama chose to ignore all that in favor of trade.

Given its relationship with Indonesia, it is unlikely Fiji will support West Papua's application for MSG membership. Instead, Bainimarama will use this MSG summit to seek endorsement for Fiji's political agendas, including its attempts to expel Australia and New Zealand from the Pacific Islands Forum, making them participate only as donor partners.

As the MSG prepares to discuss West Papua's application for membership, one might ask: Why should West Papua be given MSG membership? Will MSG membership help address West Papua's issues? How can the MSG countries address the West Papua issue while maintaining cordial relationships with Indonesia? There is no space here to answer these questions. But, in seeking answers, three issues are pertinent.

First, it is important to note that sovereignty is not absolute. In the past two decades, we have seen an increase in international interventions in situations where human rights have been violated and atrocities committed. The reasons for and the nature of interventions vary, but there is definitely an international willingness to "infringe" on Westphalian notions of sovereignty in order to hold states accountable to universal principles. We have seen this from East Timor to Kosovo, from Sierra Leone to Sudan, and from Angola to Afghanistan. On the other hand, the case of Rwanda demonstrates the humanitarian costs when the international community stood by and did too little, too late.

As the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in September 1999, "State sovereignty, in its most basic sense, is being redefined – not least by the forces of globalization and international cooperation. States are now widely understood to be instruments at the service of their peoples, and not vice versa. At the same time individual sovereignty – by which I mean the fundamental freedom of each individual, enshrined in the charter of the UN and subsequent international treaties – has been enhanced by a renewed and spreading consciousness of individual rights. When we read the charter today, we are more than ever conscious that its aim is to protect individual human beings, not to protect those who abuse them" (The Economist, 16 September 1999 http://www.economist.com/node/324795).

West Papua is not the same as East Timor, Sierre Leone, Sudan, Angola, Afghanistan, Kosovo, etc. But, the international community must hold the Indonesian state accountable for more than fifty years of human rights abuses and the murder of about 500,000 West Papuans – the equivalent of nearly the entire population of Solomon Islands. "Intervention" does not have to be by military force. It can be a "diplomatic intervention" that holds Indonesia accountable, reminding Jakarta that its sovereignty is not absolute.

The MSG could, and should, take on that responsibility, not only because of ethnic affinity with indigenous West Papuans, but because of universal human rights principles. It will not be easy, given Indonesia's growing economic, political and military power in Southeast Asia and its alliances with the US, Australia and other Western powers. But it is a noble and worthwhile engagement. It is time to take decisive action by admitting West Papua to the MSG.

Second, there is a need to redress the fraudulent processes that led to Indonesia's annexation of West Papua. This discussion should be taken to the United Nations. There have been suggestions for a legal approach – one that challenges the transfers of sovereignty from the Dutch to the Indonesian government. This approach is favored by the International Lawyers for West Papua and Vanuatu. In June 2010, the Vanuatu parliament unanimously passed a motion calling on the International Court of Justice (IJC) to investigate the legality of West Papua's transfer from the Dutch to Indonesia.

But, as Australian academics, Jason MacLeod and Brian Martin have pointed out, there are risks with the legal strategy. These include the fact that it would require considerable money and resources; legal strategies usually favor the powerful; it could dampen wide spread civil society activism both within and outside of West Papua; and there is the risk that the case might never be heard because of technical legal issues. And, as MacLeod and Martin state, "A failure to win the case, even on technical grounds, could undermine the cause for self-determination by giving a legal stamp of approval to the Act of Free Choice." They argue that, "The case of West Papua is essentially about power politics and vested economic interests. Therefore, winning the 'court of public opinion' (in other words, building a powerful social movement) and raising the political and economic costs of the Indonesian government's continued occupation will be more decisive than a legal victory" (Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney, Papua Paper No. 3, http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/12papuapaper.pdf). West Papua's membership in the MSG would add to Indonesia's political costs.

Third, West Papua had historical associations with Oceania prior to the Indonesian takeover. In his book, "Asia in the Pacific Islands: Replacing the West," the late Professor Ron Crocombe notes that, "Until Indonesia took over, West Papuans took part in the South Pacific Commission and its training courses and conferences, West Papua Churches participated in the Pacific church conferences, and West Papuans studied at the Central Medical School and the Pacific Theological College in Fiji, and at other PNG and regional institutions. When Indonesia took over West Papua in 1963, all West Papuan participation in regional activities was stopped." This calls for Oceanian responsibility.

The MSG should seriously consider West Papua's application for membership. The worse thing that could happen would be to admit Indonesia as an associate member. That would be an insult to West Papuans and on the original intent, impetus and spirit for establishing the MSG. It could also result in Indonesia's domination of Melanesia.

As the Melanesia's Big Men gather in Nahona Ara (Honiara), the cries and blood of West Papuans will hang heavy in the town's humid air. There is a lot at stake. West Papua is an issue that could make or break Melanesia.

[Tarcisius Kabutaulaka is an associate professor at the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He received his undergraduate and MA degrees from the University of the South Pacific, and a PhD in political science and international relations from the Australian National University. He is from Solomon Islands.]

Source: http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/2015/June/06-16-an.htm

No to pork barrel politics

Jakarta Post Editorial - June 16, 2015

As if to show their defense of people's interests, House of Representatives members have proposed a whopping budget of Rp 11.2 trillion (US$842 million) for next year to be spent on development projects requested by their constituents.

The so-called constituency funds emulates pork barrel politics, the use of public funds to benefit a group of people in return for their support for a politician. Such a practice has a long history – and has long been lambasted as a form of bribery – in democratic nations including the US.

It is difficult to justify the state budget allocation for constituency funds in Indonesia, however, not only because of the low public trust in the House, which is considered the country's most corrupt institution, but also because politicians are seen as representatives of their parties, not the people.

As in the previous polls, the 2014 legislative election returned 560 lawmakers, most of whom secured their seats because they headed candidate lists submitted by their respective political parties to the General Elections Commission. They were elected thanks to, and are therefore indebted to, the party elites.

Only a few of the current House members beat the threshold, which means the majority of the lawmakers are strangers to their own constituents. The problem is that they invested big to get elected and will need a lot more to win re-election.

Where does the money come from to fulfill their political ambition? The easiest way is tapping the state budget, the taxpayers' money.

If the proposal is approved in the House's plenary session and eventually by the government, each lawmaker will have Rp 20 billion a year at his or her disposal to treat their constituents.

In 2010, the House working committee approved the Golkar Party's proposal for constituency funds, which was intended to accelerate development in disadvantaged regions, but the bill was rejected by the government.

The same party is now reviving the old plan, citing the government's failure to realize development in remote regions. This time around, Golkar is fully supported by fellow members of the Red and White Coalition and is facing opposition from the ruling Great Indonesia Coalition.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo must be aware that the issue of constituency funds will renew conflict between the two camps, which last year caused a three-month-long stoppage to legislative activities. Jokowi, however, should not bow to pressure to approve the allocation of the funds, not only because it will overlap with government projects, as Vice President Jusuf Kalla has cautioned, but also because it will distract the House's focus from its constitutional duties.

The Constitution clearly says the House is mandated to carry out legislative, supervisory and budgetary functions. How can we trust House members to execute development projects in their respective constituencies when they continue to perform their legislative tasks so poorly?

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/16/editorial-no-pork-barrel-politics.html