The Solomon Islands representative in Geneva, Switzerland, has repeated calls for Indonesia to allow a UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression to visit West Papua and Papua Provinces.

Minister Councilor at the Solomon Islands Mission in Geneva, Switzerland, Barrett Salato made the call at the start of the 33rd Human Rights Council Meeting in Geneva on Monday this week.

Mr. Salato highlighted a "worrying trend by the Member States resisting human rights scrutiny by the work of the Council."

"More unsettling is the fact that some large democracies who profess to uphold universal human rights values are evading scrutiny on their domestic human rights practices by shielding such practices behind the principle of non-interference."

Mr Salato says that the Solomon Islands share the view that protecting human rights of all people requires collective responsibilities and continues to condemn violations of human rights whenever it occurs.

Source: http://www.solomontimes.com/news/solomon-islands-repeats-call-for-independent-assessment-of-west-papua/8570

Solomon's urges Indonesia to allow Papua scrutiny

Radio New Zealand International - September 21, 2016

Solomon Islands has again called on Indonesia to cooperate with the United Nations Human Rights Council to allow a UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression to visit its Papua region.

The call was made by a Solomons official Barrett Salato at the Human Rights Council Meeting in Geneva. Mr Salato said there was a worrying trend by member states resisting human rights scrutiny by the Council.

He said some large democracies professed to uphold universal human rights values but evaded scrutiny of their domestic practices by claiming non-interference in their sovereign affairs.

Mr Salato said Solomon Islands had consistently raised its concerns about human rights violations in West Papua and called for independent investigations of the reports.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/313863/solomons-urges-indonesia-to-allow-papua-scrutiny

West Papua rally: 'We want to be free people!'

Asia Pacific Report - September 20, 2016

TJ Aumua – Thousands of people have rallied across West Papua this week demanding independence and their right to self-determination.

The Free West Papua Campaign (FWPC) stated those that took part in the peaceful demonstrations marched with a clear message: "We want to be free people".

People of West Papua are calling on the United Nations to support their fundamental right to self-determination and a resolution for an internationally supervised vote for independence.

FWPC reported that some demonstrations around the country were blocked by the Indonesian police and 68 peaceful protestors were arrested in Merauke, West Papua.

A day before the demonstrations 21 women, men and children were arrested for distributing leaflets for the rally. More details here.

'Forgotten struggle'

Last week West Papuan leader Benny Wenda, who lives exiled in London, was interviewed by TeleSUR on 'West Papua's forgotten struggle for independence'.

In the interview Wenda said people in West Papua sacrifice their lives by protesting and Indonesia continues to get away with "impunity".

"Indonesia is able to massacre my people. Almost 500,000 men and women have been killed. While I'm speaking, there are arrests and intimidations and imprisonments still going on in West Papua," Wenda said.

He said the Indonesian government has banned journalists from entering the country for the past 50-years which is part of the reason West Papua's struggle remains largely unknown. West Papuans are left to turn to social media to get their struggle out to the world.

"I am really confident that people in the Pacific, particularly across the Micronesia, Polynesia and Melanesia, the governments and the ordinary people are in support, including New Zealand and Australia. Ordinary people are always with us."

Source: http://asiapacificreport.nz/2016/09/20/west-papua-rally-we-want-to-be-free-people/

Restrictions for foreign journalists in Papua questioned

Jakarta Post - September 20, 2016

Area Dipa Tangerang, Banten – The Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), an international network of media assistance groups, is drawing attention to the Indonesian government's policy to restrict foreign journalists from covering Papua. This concern is related to Indonesia's appointment as the host country for World Press Freedom Day in 2017.

"Papua is actually one of the issues that is on the list of issues that could be addressed, in which all access of foreign reporters should be better. Actually, it's very interesting that local authorities are more nervous about journalism than authorities at the central government," GFMD chairman Leon Willems said after the opening of the 2016 Jakarta World Forum for Media Development at the Nusantara Multimedia University in South Tangerang, Banten, on Tuesday.

He said the presence of journalists in a country or area is important to help the public in carrying out social control. In a democratic system, public control through media is a fundamental prerequisite, he went on.

Speaking on restrictions for the presence of journalists in a country or area, Willems said: "[With such restrictions] you cannot have accountability, you cannot have human rights, press freedom, freedom of expression or citizen rights to express themselves."

Willems further said international cooperation and pressures against restrictions of journalists to ruling governments could become an important part of efforts to realize the freedom of the press.

He referred to the arrest of Khadija Ismayilova, a Free Europe Radio journalist who also worked for Azerbaijan Liberty Radio. She was arrested by her country's government in December 2014 for airing corruption-related news involving Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev's family. Since her release in the middle of 2016, Ismayilova had not been permitted to travel abroad until today.

"If people are held in custody for their opinion, because they research stories that the government was corrupt or that the government does not respond to the corruption but acts against the messenger, this is where I think the issues of justice for journalists are extremely important. If you encourage journalists, you also encourage human rights," said Willems.

In the event, Indonesian Press Council chairman Yoseph "Stanley" Adi Prasetyo said the organizing of the 2016 Jakarta World Forum for Media Development, which was attended by at least 300 international guests, was a preparation ahead of the celebration of the 2017 World Press Freedom Day.

"Journalists from several countries have found it's not easy for them to enter Indonesia. If they can now enter countries like Ukraine, Pakistan and Nigeria, which were previously quite restrictive, it shows that Indonesia is currently carrying out open politics," said Stanley. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/20/restrictions-for-foreign-journalists-in-papua-questioned.html

Papuan rallies across Indonesia stopped by police

Radio New Zealand International - September 20, 2016

Thousands of Papuans rallying yesterday across Indonesia were reportedly dispersed by police and at least 75 were arrested.

The rallies were in support of the Pacific Coalition on West Papua's bid to make a call at the UN General Assembly for an intervention into human rights abuses in West Papua.

Translated reports from various Papuan news sites paint a sketchy picture of arbitrary arrests carried out by authorities over the weekend leading up to Monday's demonstrations.

In the regency of Yakuhimo, rally coordinator Yallenang Wakla said security forces were out even before people were able to gather, and their attempts to march were blocked at every turn.

Mr Wakla said in the end organisers were given only 35 minutes to make a speech before the gathering was dispersed by authorities.

However, Yakuhimo police chief Anthony Maring said they had already rejected an application for the demonstration, because of previous incidents where things got out of hand.

Mr Maring said he simply wanted to avoid any unrest, and he did not condone involving minors in such rallies, especially when they did not understand what it was about.

But the chairman of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) Agus Kossay said the clampdown and arrests of Papuans across Indonesia was because they supported Pacific countries raising the issue of West Papua at the UN General Assembly this week.

Mr Kossay said the people of West Papua support the Pacific Coalition on West Papua at the UN General Assembly, and also support a call for an indpendence referndum for West Papua.

[According to the Free West Papua Campaign, the initial members of the Pacific Coalition on West Papua were Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) of Kanaky/New Caledonia and the United Liberation Movement of West Papua as well as the Pacific Islands Alliance of Non-Governmental Organisations (PIANGO). The two new members are the governments of Tuvalu and the Republic of Nauru and the two nations expressing their support are Tonga and the Marshall Islands.]

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/313775/papuan-rallies-across-indonesia-stopped-by-police

More arrests of Papuans planning to rally

Radio New Zealand International - September 19, 2016

Thousands of Papuans rallying yesterday across Indonesia were reportedly dispersed by police and at least 75 were arrested.

The rallies were in support of the Pacific Coalition on West Papua's bid to make a call at the UN General Assembly for an intervention into human rights abuses in West Papua.

Translated reports from various Papuan news sites paint a sketchy picture of arbitrary arrests carried out by authorities over the weekend leading up to Monday's demonstrations.

In the regency of Yakuhimo, rally coordinator Yallenang Wakla said security forces were out even before people were able to gather, and their attempts to march were blocked at every turn.

Mr Wakla said in the end organiseres were given only 35 minutes to make a speech before the gathering was dispersed by authorities.

However, Yakuhimo police chief Anthony Maring said they had already rejected an application for the demonstration, because of previous incidents where things got out of hand.

Mr Maring said he simply wanted to avoid any unrest, and he did not condone involving minors in such rallies, especially when they did not understand what it was about.

Mr Kossay said the people of West Papua support the Pacific Coalition on West Papua at the UN General Assembly, and also support a call for an indpendence referendum for West Papua.

According to the FreeWest Papua Campaign, the initial members of the Pacific Coalition on West Papua were Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) of Kanaky/New Caledonia and the United Liberation Movement of West Papua as well as the Pacific Islands Alliance of Non-Governmental Organisations (PIANGO). The two new members are the governments of Tuvalu and the Republic of Nauru and the two nations expressing their support are Tonga and the Marshall Islands.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/313683/more-arrests-of-papuans-planning-to-rally

Government seen not serious in addressing Papua human rights issue

Tabloid JUBI - September 19, 2016

Sorong, Jubi – The Central Government has not been serious in resolving the allegations of human rights violations in Papua up to the mid September and towards the end of 2016, said the director of Study, Research and Legal Aid Institute (LP3BH) Manokwari, Yan Christian Warinussy

A country based on the rule of law, Indonesia has legal instruments such as the Law No 39 Year 1999 on the human rights and the Law No. 26 Year 2000 on the Human Rights Court, Warinussy said.

"President Joko Widodo in one part of his speech in the national Christmas event on 26 December 2014 in Mandala Stadium has stated that he personally would solve the human rights violations in Papua, but up to now, those cases are apparently stagnant," he told Jubi by phone in Sorong, Sunday (18/9/2016).

According to him, in turn this lack of seriousness showed by Widodo's administrative would affect to a number of the world's leaders who would give their speech in front of the 77th UN General Assembly Plenary Meeting in New York, the United States and raise a topic of allegation of the severe human rights in West Papua.

"This must increasingly put the position of the Indonesian Government in the international spotlight as one of the countries which allegedly accused as perpetrator of the crime against humanity in the world, in particular in Papua for more than the last 50 years," he said.

He even mentioned the works of the official institutions such as the National Human Rights Commission that has not yet showed any progress in the investigation of the cases of the alleged human rights violation in Papua. For example, there are the cases of Wasior (2001), Wamena (2003) and Enarotali-Paniai (8 December 2014).

Therefore it could be said that the human rights settlement in Papua in the era of Joko Widodo to the end of 2016 is actually 'dead'.

The human right activist from Fakfak, Papua Barat, Fredi Warpopor also has similar opinion that the settlement of human rights violation is stagnant. "The settlement of sexual harassment against children that occurred in the Fakfak Police Headquarter is also not clear until now. "It seems the case was drowned; it needs a more serous study," he said. (*/rom)

Source: http://tabloidjubi.com/eng/government-seen-not-serious-addressing-papua-human-rights-issue/

Teachers condemn West Papua injustices

Cook Island News - September 19, 2016

Florence Syme-Buchanan – The Cook Islands Teachers Institute has initiated strong condemnation by regional educators of atrocities reportedly committed by the Indonesian government in West Papua.

The formal stance was adopted at the recent 21st Council of Pacific Education Conference (COPE) held in Fiji by CITI representatives, president Thomas Taurongo Wynn and executive member Apii Napa.

CITI is understood to be the first national organisation to independently make a formal submission at regional level regarding the West Papua situation and for that submission to be unanimously endorsed by 12 Pacific nations.

Taurongo Wynn says COPE has formally denounced the atrocities committed by the Indonesian government against the indigenous people of West Papua and that "... we stand in solidarity with all educators, education staff and students affected."

"We are very proud of our efforts as one of the smaller teacher unions to raise the issues surrounding the plight of the people of West Papua and to stand together unanimously as Pasifika people and teacher unions to condemn what are outright atrocities being committed on our very doorstep."

Taurongo Wynn adds: "As Pasifika Teacher Unions, we would encourage the governments of all our Pasifika nations, union bodies and NGO's to do the same. We can't afford in our view to be silent on this matter or ignore the growing political and social outcry of what is happening in West Papua."

He says CITI was prompted to champion the cause because, "social injustice can never be justified, be it social issues in our own communities, or those communities in countries we are in partnership with, anywhere for that matter, we must speak and make a stand or by our silence condemn those to the treatment they face at the hands of their oppressors. Silence is not an option in my view."

Taurongo Wynn says it is becoming increasingly apparent that West Papua teachers, students and schools are suffering under the Indonesian regime and "...we must stand in solidarity with them."

"They must know that they are not suffering in silence and that we as a union and hopefully as a country and region will stand with them and call it for what it is. As president of the CITI we were morally bound to say something. Silence on this matter was really not an option, and I was confident that our fellow Pacific Union members would be in agreeance."

For over 50 years, indigenous West Papuans have been struggling for independence from Indonesia and an end to Indonesian military occupation. An estimated 500,000 Papuans have been reportedly been killed by Indonesian troops, with many of those horrific images posted on social media.

Pacific Islands Forum countries resolved at their most recent summit that "... concerns about alleged human rights abuses by Indonesia in Papua should be discussed with Jakarta," reported Radio NZ.

The Radio NZ report said the summit's outcome on Papua was "largely a disappointment to the United Liberation Movement for West Papua which was seeking membership in the Forum."

The movement sought Forum action on pursuing Papua human rights issues and the Papuan self-determination struggle at the United Nations."

The movement's ambassador for the Pacific Islands region, Amatus Douw, said Forum leaders could do more to push for Papua's reinscription on the UN decolonisation list. Douw has expressed doubt whether the Forum would have meaningful dialogue with Indonesia regarding the serious human rights issues facing West Papuans.

Taurongo Wynn says he and Napa did not have to lobby other national teachers' organisations for support, as all were "unanimous in their condemnation of what could only be described as atrocities to the indigenous people of West Papua."

"Social media has been awash with information, so it has hardly been out of the view of the worlds media, and the media in the Pacific."

He admitted failing to understand "how silence on this issue can be an option and we do encourage all and sundry to join with us in this stand. People are suffering in West Papua, teachers and children are suffering and we need to be their voice."

He added with so little being said regionally or locally about this travesty for the people of West Papua, given the opportunity to raise this issue at a multi-national level with so many Pacific Nations present, was an opportunity that could not be missed by the Cook Islands teachers union.

With over 300 members, CITI was formed in 1978. Taurongo Wynn said over the years under the leadership of women teachers like Tiraa Anguna, Teina Etches and Nga Charlie, a strong women's network the Association of Women Teachers was formed. Regional and global membership has since been achieved as a teachers union.

Another first that CITI can lay claim to is being the only union to have taken industrial action in the Cook Islands since independence.

This occurred in 1997 due to the economic melt-down here that resulted in teacher' s salaries undergoing huge cuts. CITI took industrial action and went on strike for five days. The issue this was subsequently settled in court.

Taurongo Wynn confirms they will be assisting the new COPE executive to continue to apply pressure about West Papua and the resolution will be progressing to Education International next August.

Source: http://www.cookislandsnews.com/national/local/item/60771-teachers-condemn-west-papua-injustices

FLJS policy brief calls on UK to end political conflict in West Papua

Tabloid JUBI - September 17, 2016

Jayapura, Jubi – The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society is pleased to announce the publication of a Policy Brief in conjunction with the University of Warwick Politics of Papua Project, which presents 14 recommendations for the United Kingdom to help bring an end to the political and constitutional conflict in the West Papua Region of Indonesia.

Since West Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, it has been de facto controlled by the Indonesian military, and Papuans have been subject to a number of human rights violations, including arrests for peaceful protests against Indonesian rule. Government restrictions have been imposed on access to West Papua by the foreign media, international observers, and NGOs, and a number of political prisoners remain behind bars.

The policy brief, entitled "Political and Constitutional Conflict in the West Papua Region of Indonesia: Overview and Recommendations for the UK and the International Community", calls on the UK government to leverage its strong economic and political ties with Indonesia to play a more active role in the solution of the conflict in West Papua. Among a number of recommendations made by the authors, the policy brief calls for:

The release of all political prisoners in West Papua;
Free access of media, NGOs, foreign academics, and foreign observers in West Papua;
An end to all UK military training and equipment to Indonesian military and police forces until reliable mechanisms are put in place to verify their adherence to human rights standards; and
Measures to encourage key Indonesian political and economic actors to engage in an open discussion to peacefully resolve the situation in West Papua.

The policy brief is drawn from a full-length report published by the University of Warwick Politics of Papua Project, which was presented in Parliament earlier this year and endorsed by Jeremy Corbyn.

Associate Professor Keith Hyams, who leads the Politics of Papua Project, said, "We are delighted that the Oxford Foundation for Law, Justice and Society is releasing this summary of our work on the politics of West Papua. Our original report, which was released in the House of Commons in May 2016, has now been downloaded over 20,000 times and has been endorsed by a number of prominent politicians, including Jeremy Corbyn, who committed to make the issues raised in the report 'central to the [Labour] party's policies in the future'".

This new summary by FLJS will allow these crucial issues to reach an even wider audience and help to ensure that the ongoing conflict and human rights abuses in West Papua receive the attention of policymakers that they so urgently require.'

The FLJS policy brief provides a summary of the 14 key recommendations and highlights the unique position of the United Kingdom to take effective leadership to resolve the conflict in West Papua. Britain provides training and delivery of military equipment to Indonesian forces, including units deployed in West Papua. The UK has also granted asylum to Benny Wenda, current spokesperson for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.

The policy brief is published by the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, an institution affiliated with the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies and Wolfson College at the University of Oxford, as part of its mission to bridge the gap between academia and policymaking and to promote an understanding of the role of law in society. (*)

Source: http://tabloidjubi.com/eng/fljs-policy-brief-calls-uk-end-political-conflict-west-papua/

Forum's ability to dialogue with Jakarta questioned

Radio New Zealand International - September 16, 2016

A West Papuan leader has questioned whether the Pacific Islands Forum will hold constructive dialogue with Indonesia about Papua.

Forum leaders at their summit in Pohnpei last week resolved that concerns about alleged human rights abuses by Indonesia in Papua should be discussed with Jakarta.

The summit's outcome on Papua was however largely a disappointment to the United Liberation Movement for West Papua which was seeking membership in the Forum. It also sought Forum action on pursuing Papua human rights issues and the Papuan self-determination struggle at the United Nations.

The Movement's ambassador for the Pacific Islands region, Amatus Douw, said Forum leaders could do more to push for Papua's reinscription on the UN decolonisation list.

Mr Douw also said he doubted whether the Forum and Jakarta would have meaningful dialogue to help address the serious problems facing West Papuans.

He explained that despite Papua being raised at the Forum many times, the organisation had repeatedly proved unable to forge a constructive dialogue with Jakarta.

The comments come as civil society has criticised the Forum for a lack of substantial action on Papua at the latest summit.

The Pohnpei meeting had come off the back of a surge of regional submissions identifying Papua as a priority issue for their leaders to address at the Forum. Mr Douw described the fact that West Papuans were still not members of the Forum as "painful" because they always identify as being Pacific peoples.

But he indicated the Liberation Movement was delighted that the Forum accepted two French Pacific territories New Caledonia and French Polynesia as members. "This is positive commitment by leaders and it is encouraging us that we still have a hope," he said.

However, the Forum needed to take up the Papua issue as the UN General Assembly, according to Mr Douw. However, since the Pohnpei summit, Vanuatu's prime minister has indicated that the Forum resolved for those regional governments concerned about Papua to take it up at the UN.

Charlot Salwai said there were at least five Forum member governments supporting the call for West Papuan self-determination. Mr Salwai said he is going to raise the issue of alleged human rights abuses in West Papua at this month's UN General Assembly in New York.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/313469/forum's-ability-to-dialogue-with-jakarta-questioned

Locals under threat from armed groups in Papua

Jakarta Post - September 16, 2016

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Security is still a major concern in the country's easternmost region with many civilian groups and security officers participating in fatal shootings.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said on Thursday that so long as criminals in Puncak Jaya, Puncak and Lanny Jaya possessed guns, security in the region would remain fragile

The commission's Papua chapter head Frits Ramandey conveyed the message in Jayapura in response to the increasing number of civilians being shot and killed in the region.

For the past month, two civilians have been killed by armed civilian groups. Simon Arukbaru, 36, an employee of PT As Jaya, was shot while working on a road construction site in Kome subdistrict, Malagaineri district, Lanny Jaya, on Aug. 22, while Ezra Patatang, 27, a teacher at Dondon Baga elementary school in Mulia Puncak Jaya, was shot on Sept. 12.

"The shootings were pure crimes. They have nothing to do with the Papua separatist movement," Frits said, adding that firm legal action needed to be taken to deal with the cases.

He said the Puncak Jaya administration had on several occasions held ceremonial events to reduce the presence of armed civilian groups in the region by asking them to embrace regency development. However, they have been unable to stop violence involving guns.

Frits also expressed concern over the situation ahead of regional elections to be held in Puncak Jaya in February 2017. "The guns could be used to intimidate civilians ahead of the election," he said.

Separately, social and political observer Marinus Yaung of Cenderawasih University said the shooting of the teacher in Puncak Jaya had suffocated Papuan civilization as teachers traveled to Papua expressly to educate Papuans.

"If teachers are killed, can parents teach their children on their own?" Marinus said, adding that teachers and other humanitarian workers visited the region to help break down the isolation of the area.

In a separate case, five members of the Papua Police's mobile brigade (Brimob) have been detained by the police's internal affairs division in regards to the death last month of Otianus Sondegau, 15. Otianus was allegedly shot by police officers.

Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Paulus Waterpauw said the five were detained because they were the officers who had rifles that could shoot from a distance. "Otianus was killed by a long-distance gunshot," he said.

Paulus said that a day after the shooting, Papua Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Rudolf Rodja had directly led a team to Sugapa to investigate the case. The team found indications that the victim had been shot from a distance with a rifle.

Frits, who was also commanded to investigate the Sugapa incident, found indications of violations of human rights because the five Brimob members carrying the rifles committed the shooting under command.

Frits said that during a semi-reconstruction process, Komnas HAM found that the group commander was with the five Brimob members during the shooting, meaning that the shooting was committed with the commander's knowledge.

He said his side had been pushing the police to conduct a ballistics tests to ascertain where the bullet that hit Otianus had come from, arguing that the semi-reconstruction suggested two suspects.

Other discoveries, he said, included the burning of the Sugapa Police precinct following the shooting of Otianus and the fact that before the shooting had been committed, the victim and his friends, who were under the influence of alcohol at the time, had blocked a road and asked for money from passersby.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/16/locals-under-threat-armed-groups-papua.html

Aceh

Blast in car of regional politician kills two in Aceh

Jakarta Post - September 19, 2016

Jakarta – Two people have been killed in a blast believed to stem from a grenade detonating inside a car owned by a member of the Bener Meriah Legislative Council in Aceh on Saturday.

The incident took place at around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, while the car, belonging to Mansyur Ismail, was passing through the village of Alur Punti in Pintu Rime Gayo subdistrict, Bener Meriah regency.

A five-year-old child named Nana Kibi died in the explosion, while the driver, Aulia Fahmi, succumbed to his wounds in hospital on Sunday. Another five passengers sustained injuries in the blast and were admitted to the hospital.

Bener Meriah Police chief Adj. Sr. Cmr. Deden Soemantri said that based on the initial investigation, the blast originated inside the vehicle.

"We can see that the inside of the car is badly damaged, while the outer part is not. So our preliminary conclusion is that the explosive device, probably a grenade, detonated inside the car," he said as reported by Kompas.com on Sunday.

The explosion caused heavy damage to the car's interior, broke windows and left holes in the doors and the roof. (rin)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/19/blast-in-car-of-regional-politician-kills-two-in-aceh.html

Aceh authorities shut down two beaches prone to sharia violations

Jakarta Post - September 16, 2016

Jakarta – Several village chiefs in Seunuddon subdistrict of North Aceh in Aceh shut down Bantayan and Ulee Matang beaches in the past week, following reports of visitors violating Islamic sharia law.

Local authorities opened the two beaches last year as sharia-based tourism beaches. However, those who are not muhrim (lawful spouses or close relatives) are forbidden to get in the water together, essentially separating males and females, where only married couples can be together.

"We agreed to close the beaches because holidayers who were not muhrim got together at the beaches," Ule Rubek Timu village chief Asnawi said on Friday as reported by kompas.com.

West Ulee Rubek village chief Badlisyah Yahya echoed Asnawi's sentiment. The decision was made after a joint meeting attended by a local consultative forum and local clerics last week.

"Just recently locals caught two people acting indecently at the beach. Our people cannot monitor [visitors] all the time. So, to prevent immoral acts, we agreed to close the beaches," he said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Meanwhile, Seunuddon Police chief Adj. Comr. M. Ridwan said police personnel would conduct patrols at the two beaches following the decision. The patrol aimed to prevent unwanted conflict between visitors and locals, who had closed access to the beaches.

Tribunnews.com also reported last week that locals prevented visitors heading to the beach. They told visitors, who were mostly youths, that the beaches were closed for tourism and asked them to return home.

Aceh, a special autonomous region, is the only province in Indonesia currently living in accordance to sharia law. Thus, Aceh's local administrations are able to impose Islamic-based bylaws.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/16/aceh-authorities-shut-down-two-beaches-prone-to-sharia-violations.html

1965 anti-communist purge

Activists, victims lash out as government stalls on 1965-1966 mass graves

Jakarta Globe - September 22, 2016

Jakarta – Activists have lashed out at the government's "lack of seriousness" in settling past cases of human rights abuses after President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration rejected their request for a joint hearing on the progress of the cases.

Rights activists and the families of the rights abuse victims received a series of rejection letters from the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security a week after they filed the hearing requests earlier this month.

The hearing would have shown the progress of the government's investigation into human rights abuse cases which happened during the anticommunist purge in 1965-66. The ministry is led by General Wiranto, a Suharto-era military strongman, who himself has been accused of numerous human rights abuses.

The ministry was supposed to verify reports of mass graves containing the bodies of PKI – the banned Indonesian Communist Party – members and sympathizers in many parts of the country. Wiranto's predecessor Luhut Pandjaitan earlier said his office had formed a special team to investigate the mass graves.

The reason behind last week's rejection remains unclear but the rejection letters stated that "data on the mass graves are currently still being discussed by a coordinating team under the ministry."

"The statement does not tell us anything," Research Foundation for Murder Victims of 1965-66 (YPKP) head Bedjo Untung said in a statement released on Wednesday (21/09). The statement was also signed by the '65 Forum and the '65 International People's Tribunal.

The latter declared two months ago that the Indonesian state should be held responsible for a wide range of human rights abuses during the 1965-66 massacres.

The government-sponsored and military-backed killings resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of alleged sympathizers of the now-defunct PKI and saw millions more imprisoned without trial.

"The verification results are urgently needed as supporting evidence in these cases," Bedjo said. "We demand transparency from this so-called special team."

The government did promise to settle the 1965-66 abuse cases, with their latest move being the staging of a national symposium earlier this year on what observers have called the worst mass killings of the 20th century.

The event gathered hundreds of senior government officials, retired generals, human rights activists, academics as well as survivors of the massacres. Recommendations from the symposium have been handed over to Wiranto's office.

"We are the people who are most affected by these abuse cases. We have the right to know what the government has done, if anything, with the symposium recommendations," Bedjo said.

After years of investigation, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) had come up with a long list of gross human rights violations for which the state is partly or wholly responsible, including the 1965-66 massacres.

The findings had been submitted to the Attorney General's Office (AGO) for further investigation but nothing has been achieved so far apart from a long-drawn debate over technical issues.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/activists-victims-lash-govt-stalls-1965-1966-mass-graves-investigation/

Activists plan to bring up 1965 purge to UN special rapporteur

Jakarta Post - September 22, 2016

Jakarta – Activists have planned to bring up the settlement of the 1965 mass killings case to a UN special rapporteur, amid uncertainties on whether the government would push for concrete solutions to resolve the country's dark past.

Harry Wibowo of the International People's Tribunal on the 1965 Crimes against Humanity (IPT 1965) said they would report all judicial and non-judicial measures that they had taken through the years in efforts to push the country to settle the past abuse.

If the government does not show further will to follow-up the result of all investigations conducted by numerous Indonesian rights groups, including the findings of mass graves of the 1965 communist purge located in at least 122 spots across the country, the 1965 victims and investigators have any rights to push it to UN special rapporteurs who have the authority to probe, Harry said.

"Today we consider that all judicial and non-judicial processes that we have pushed to settle the 1965 tragedy are already exhausted and therefore we can report this to the UN rights mechanism," Harry said on Wednesday.

In accordance with the mechanisms, a UN special rapporteur would follow-up the report by studying the findings as well as meeting the related parties to verify the reports, including the investigators, victims and survivors, as well as the government, Harry said.

However, since the UN rights experts' visit to the country is an official one, the settlement process would also depend on the government's willingness to allow the special rapporteur entry to the country. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/22/activists-plan-to-bring-up-1965-purge-to-un-special-rapporteur.html

Rights group to highlight RI genocide at UN

Jakarta Post - September 16, 2016

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The International People's Tribunal on the 1965 Crimes against Humanity (IPT 1965) plans to recommend to the UN that the Indonesian government be considered responsible for acts of genocide during the 1965 communist purge in an attempt to press the current government into resolving the issue.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo made the resolution of past human rights abuse cases one of his campaign promises but so far he has made no effort to act on his promises.

Following the non-binding verdict reached by the IPT 1965, then coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister Luhut Pandjaitan said Indonesia had its own legal system and no external party could dictate the way the nation solved its problems.

IPT 1965 coordinator Nursyahbani Katjasungkana said her team was preparing to take its verdict to the UN Human Rights Council's (UNHRC) upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

"We have met many officials to present our findings. But no one takes any action. This shows that the government is unable and unwilling to resolve the prolonged injustice surrounding this crime against humanity," Nursyahbani said. "We will present our consolidated data before the international human rights meeting. It is time to solve this case once and for all."

The Indonesian government is scheduled to give a presentation on the actions it is taking to protect and promote human rights at home during a UPR session in April and May next year. As a member of the UN, Indonesia will have to sit through a review during the quadrennial meeting.

Nursyahbani said the IPT 1965 would present its findings during that session in order to counter reports prepared by the government, which will likely exclude details on the violence that erupted in 1965.

International law expert Jaka Triyana believes the UPR is the right mechanism through which rights groups can put political pressure on governments that lack the commitment to solve past human rights abuse cases. "We need to keep doing this kind of advocacy work so that it will continue to resonate with people," he said.

The IPT 1965 also plans to make its case to the OHCHR in an effort to build an international movement that will force the Indonesian government to resolve the case.

Nursyahbani said the IPT 1965 had been emboldened in their efforts after meeting with members of the Presidential Advisory Board (Wantimpres), who told them bluntly that the President would focus his attention on the economy and infrastructure.

The group was dealt another setback following Jokowi's decision to name former Indonesian Military commander Wiranto as coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister. Wiranto has declined to meet with a group known as YPKP 65, a group of survivors from the 1965 communist purge.

As a last resort, Nursyahbani said the IPT 1965 would take the case to the UN Security Council (UNSC). "It is part of the plan. But it may take a long while to do this because in order to eventually see them, the UNSC must deem that the purge was an extraordinary crime. We need to gather political support from other countries," Nursyahbani said.

She said a country need not be a member of the UNSC to call for an extraordinary court. However, membership of the UNSC, something which Indonesia is currently seeking, would help her cause.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/16/rights-group-to-highlight-ri-genocide-at-un.html

Sexual & domestic violence

Man publicly humiliated for sexual assault

Jakarta Post - September 17, 2016

Jakarta – Rizky Azmi, 24, was publicly humiliated recently after allegedly being caught sexually assaulting a female passenger on a commuter line (KRL) train traveling from Duri Station, West Jakarta, to Manggarai Station, South Jakarta.

Rizky had to stand holding a sign saying "I am a sex pest on KRL" for two hours under the supervision of a security guard in Manggarai Station. Before the punishment, he had his face slapped by his alleged victim.

"The victim took the train from Duri on Thursday evening. At the time, she had to stand. The suspect got on the train at the next station, Tanah Abang, and stood behind the victim," said Manggarai Station Police officer Riki Ricad on Friday as quoted by Kompas.com.

Initially, the suspect touched the victim's breasts but she tolerated it, thinking that it might have been done unintentionally. However, when Rizky did it again for a second time she began to scream and slapped his face.

Train security staff immediately seized the suspect before he was beaten by angry passengers.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/17/greater-jakarta-man-publicly-humiliated-sexual-assault.html

Labour & migrant workers

Listen to us; Indonesian migrant worker calls on UN members

Jakarta Post - September 21, 2016

Liza Yosephine, Jakarta – Indonesian migrant worker Eni Lestari called on the international community to include migrant workers in the discussion to shape policies and improve conditions for migrant workers during her address at the UN General Assembly on Monday.

"We have a clear message: listen to us. Don't talk about us without us," Eni said with booming confidence in her voice during her remarks in the first ever summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants attended by leaders from the 193 member states.

Eni further went on to criticize the existing exploitative system that does not value the rights and dignity of migrant workers, in a speech which can be viewed on the UN Web TV website, webtv.un.org.

She expressed gratitude for being given a chance to speak on behalf of 244 million migrants from all over the world and called for equality, protection and humane treatment for all migrant members.

Cheap labor

In addressing the heads of states, she stressed that migrant workers are not just cheap labor or commodities. "We are the people who have been denied the future, the rights and the dreams we used to imagine," said Eni, who is also the chairperson of the International Migrant Alliance in Indonesia.

Speaking of her experience, Eni said she dreamed of obtaining higher education. However, these dreams were pushed aside as she was left no choice but to pursue work abroad as a migrant domestic worker due to economic hardship resulting from the financial crisis which engulfed Indonesia in 1997-1998.

Eni noted that many migrant workers risk falling into worse conditions as they are trafficked, tricked into slavery, have their basic rights denied and become vulnerable to abuses.

She called on for the document to be produced at the summit and to be implemented into action, instead of being left as a set of agreements remaining only on paper. Originally from Kediri, East Java, Eni has been a migrant worker in Hong Kong since 1999. (ags)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/21/listen-to-us-indonesian-migrant-worker-calls-on-un-members.html

Most wage violations against domestic workers 'done by expats'

Jakarta Post - September 17, 2016

Marguerite Afra Sapiie, Jakarta – At least 70 percent of the total number of reported cases of economic mistreatment of domestic workers in Jakarta, including uncertain payment and unpaid wages, are committed by expatriates from numerous countries who employ Indonesian maids in their domiciles, the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT) says.

This year's data submitted by Jala PRT to the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) revealed that among 74 cases of economic mistreatment against domestic workers reported from January to mid-September this year, about 70 percent of them were committed by expatriates from South Korea, China, Malaysia, Europe, Japan, the US and Australia.

They work as staff in foreign embassies and as teachers at international schools, Lita Anggraini, Jala PRT national coordinator, said Thursday at a press conference in Komnas Perempuan.

Jala PRT in total received 217 reports of mistreatment during the period, ranging from physical, mental, as well as sexual abuses. The highest number, 102, concerned physical abuse, isolation and human trafficking committed by mostly Indonesians. The remaining 41 cases are multiple abuses: psychological, physical, economic and sexual, the data say.

"When [the expatriates] realize that Indonesia does not have laws that rule employment of domestic workers, they start to neglect wage payments as well as health and social insurance. Some even fire their housemaids nearing the Idul Fitri holiday so that they don't have to pay the bonus," Lita told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

In some cases, the employers initially paid their domestic workers more than Rp 2 million per month, but then they reduced the amount after about three months. They also initially agreed to an overtime rate of Rp 40,000 per hour, but then unilaterally reduced it to Rp 10,000 per hour. If the housemaids refused to accept the payment, the employers would fire them and look for other housemaids and thus the cycle would keep going, Lita said.

Ludiyah, a domestic worker belonging to the Sapu Lidi Domestic Worker Association, who once got fired by her expatriate boss without being fully paid, said many of her friends worked for periods of time ranging from several months to two years at foreigners' houses without being paid at all.

Some housemaids got their cases settled through the help of Jala PRT and public lawyers from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institution (LBH Jakarta), but there were also some who could not get a response from their former employers and they therefore had their right of receiving payment for their work violated. (evi)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/17/most-wage-violations-against-domestic-workers-done-by-expats.html

Most domestic worker abuse cases aren't taken seriously, activist says

Jakarta Post - September 16, 2016

Marguerite Afra Sapiie, Jakarta – At least 80 percent of domestic worker mistreatment cases reported to law enforcement in Jakarta this year do not enter legal processing as they are discontinued by police, the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT) has said.

In a report submitted to the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), Jala PRT revealed that from 217 cases of mistreatment against housemaids up to mid-September, only seven cases had successfully begun legal processing until reaching court, while the 210 other cases remained unsolved.

The 217 cases included 41 cases of multiple rights violations, namely a combination of physical, mental, economic and sexual abuse; 102 cases of physical abuse such as beating, isolation and trafficking; and also 74 cases of wages being unpaid including bonuses, Jala PRT national coordinator Lita Anggraini said.

"We have tried to resolve the issue together and report the cases to the police, however, because they [the police] believe we don't have enough evidence [most of the time], they don't initiate investigations into the cases, where about 80 percent have been dropped," Lita said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Komnas Perempuan commissioner Magdalena Sitorus said the nation's laws had yet given sufficient protection for domestic workers' rights.

Therefore, Magdalena said, the country should accommodate domestic workers' pleas for protection by taking proactive measures to legislate the domestic worker protection draft bill and ratify ILO Convention No. 189 on decent work for domestic workers. (dmr)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/16/most-domestic-worker-abuse-cases-arent-taken-seriously-activist-says.html

Freedom of speech & expression

Indonesia faces real threats on free speech rights

Jakarta Post - September 17, 2016

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Indonesia is internationally recognized as the world's third-largest democracy after India and the US. A regional NGO, however, has warned the nation of the return of restrictive practices massively implemented during Soeharto's era.

According to data compiled from January 2015 to May 2016 by the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFENET), there has been an increasing number of crackdowns on freedom of expression in both real life and on the internet.

Starting from 2016, there have been at least four violations of freedom of expression each month, the data showed.

Meanwhile, in 2015, there were usually less than four violations each month. In total, there were 50 violations from January 2015 to May 2016. The highest increase occurred in May 2016, when as many as 14 violations were recorded.

"It was probably caused by lots of events held [in that month], such as the commemoration of the Papua referendum, May Day, World Press Freedom Day and 1998 May Tragedy Commemoration Day," SAFENET said.

According to the data, the violations came mostly in the form of the banning of film screenings, comprising 38 percent of the violations, followed by bannings of discussions or seminars at 30 percent.

Movies that got negative reactions were Senyap (Silent) with 10 bannings, Pulau Buru Tanah Air Beta with five, Alkinemokiye and Samin vs Semen, both with one. These movies were mostly banned when they were about to be screened on campuses.

Senyap, a groundbreaking documentary on the 1965 communist purge, created controversy after the Film Censorship Institute (LSF) banned the public screening of the movie, reasoning that it would lead viewers to sympathize with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and communism in December 2014.

According to the data, Yogyakarta experienced the largest number of violations of freedom of expression with 28 percent, tainting the city's reputation as Indonesia's melting pot, where people from all ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds live in harmony. There were only 12 cases in Jakarta.

Since its passing in 2008, the Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law, which mandates criminal punishment for anyone who purposely and without authority distributes electronic information or documents with libelous or defamatory content, has criminalized 200 people.

The number of people criminalized has exploded in recent years, reaching 62 people in 2015, compared to just two in 2008, the data showed. 90 percent of the cases were defamation cases.

"We believe that what's happening online is related to the repression happening in our daily lives," SAFENET regional coordinator Damar Juniarto told The Jakarta Post.

The state-sanctioned National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) played down the report, arguing Indonesia is much freer and more democratic now compared to the old era.

Komnas HAM chairman Imdadun Rahmat said the state of freedom of expression in Indonesia in general is now much better compared to the New Order.

Since the nation embarked on the reform movement 18 years ago, the government has taken several steps to uphold the freedom of speech and democracy, including through the implementation of the 1999 Press Law, the 1999 Human Rights Law, an amendment to the human rights provision in the Constitution and the ratifications of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

"However, there are still some problems, especially related to minority groups, including those from different religions, beliefs, sexual orientation and political groups," Imdadun told the Post.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/17/indonesia-faces-real-threats-free-speech-rights.html

Political parties & elections

Local polls to see dynastic, fractured coalitions

Jakarta Post - September 22, 2016

Syamsul Huda M.Suhari and Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, Gorontalo/Banjarnegara/Jayapura/Padang – Despite campaigning for reforms, political parties keep sustaining political dynasties in the country with party elites continuing to nominate spouses or relatives of former local leaders to run for top positions in provinces, cities and regencies.

Such practices are happening in Gorontalo with the candidacy of Hannah Hasanah, the wife of former Gorontalo governor Fadel Muhammad, in the province's upcoming gubernatorial election.

Gorontalo's General Elections Commission (KPUD) chairman Muhammad N. Tuli said Wednesday four pairs of candidates would run for the local election. He confirmed that Hannah would register with her running mate Tony Yunus on Friday afternoon.

Currently, Hannah is a member of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), whose speaker Irman Gusman was arrested by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators for alleged bribery. Meanwhile, Tony is a former deputy regent of Gorontalo.

The Hannah-Tony pair was nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Islamic-leaning United Development Party (PPP). Incumbent Rusli Habibie and running mate Idris Rahim, nominated by the Golkar Party, are expected to register their candidacy on Friday morning.

Aside from the political dynasties' issue, the upcoming regional elections are also seeing candidates ignore political ethics as with incumbent Mentawai Islands deputy regent Rijel Samaloisa, who has left office to challenge his boss, incumbent regent Yudas Sabaggalet, in the February election.

A similar contest will occur in Payakumbuh with Payakumbuh deputy mayor Suwandel Muchtar challenging his senior, incumbent mayor Riza Falepi, in the polls. They are scheduled to register their candidacies at the local KPUD on Friday at the latest.

Mentawai Islands KPUD technical division member Bastian Sirirui told The Jakarta Post only two pairs, Yudas Sabaggalet-Kortanius Sabaggalet and Rijel Samaloisa-Binsar Saleleubaja, would register for the polls. "No independent candidates have registered," he told the Post on Wednesday.

Mentawai Islands chapter of the PDI-P chairman Jan Winnen Sipayung said the party endorsed the Yudas-Kortanius candidacy. The PDI-P has managed to retain regents from the party for the past three terms and Jan expresses optimism the pair will also be able to win the election.

"I don't know the main reason behind the incumbent [and deputy] no longer wishing to continue their duet. Anyhow, based on our internal selection, the party's central board [DPP] eventually decided that Yudas, a PDI-P member, be paired with Mentawai Islands Golkar Party chairman Kortanius Sabaggalet," said Jan on Wednesday.

In Banjarnegara, Central Java, Chinese-Indonesian businessperson Budi Sarwono and his running mate Syamsuddin registered with the KPUD to contest the February election. The pair was endorsed by the Golkar, PPP and Democratic parties.

Budi, who is in the construction sector, and Syamsuddin went to the KPUD office on a steamroller. Before reaching the office, the pair staged an act of public service by mending potholes on Jl. Selamanik in the city.

Banjarnegara KPUD chairman Gugus Risdaryanto said the Budi-Syamsuddin pairing was the first to register for the election. "I have checked their documents and they're eligible [to contest the election]," he told the press.

Separately, the KPUD in Jayapura welcomed two candidate pairings Abisai Rollo-Dipo Wibowo and Benhur Tommy Mano-Haji Rustan Saru for registration. Both pairs claimed to have been endorsed by Golkar.

Jayapura KPUD chairman Jeremias Numberi said his team would check the validity of the party's endorsements for the candidates. "We will check if the party's endorsement is valid, as the Golkar Party can only endorse one candidate," he added.

[Agus Maryono and Nethy Dharma Somba contributed to this reporting.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/22/local-polls-see-dynastic-fractured-coalitions.html

KPU challenges regional election law

Jakarta Post - September 22, 2016

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – For months, the General Elections Commission (KPU) has been fighting a losing battle in challenging the House of Representatives' decisions during the deliberation of a series of KPU regulations for the upcoming regional elections.

Under the Regional Elections Law, enacted on June 2, the KPU is required to consult the House and the government before issuing election regulations or suspension of debt payment obligations (PKPU). The KPU has argued against the policy, claiming that the policy compromises its independence.

Now that the deliberation for all PKPUs within House Commission II, overseeing home affairs, have been completed, the KPU is seeking to regain its independence by challenging the Regional Elections Law at the Constitutional Court.

The KPU will challenge Article 9 on the law that requires it to consult with the House and the government when drafting PKPUs. The same article also stipulates that the decisions made by the House and the government in the hearings with the KPU are final and binding. "We plan to file for a judicial review this week," KPU chairman Juri Ardiantoro said.

The KPU actually planned to file the judicial review when the House passed the law but had to postpone it because it needed to immediately draft a PKPU in time for the regional elections. The KPU said it had strong grounding to file a judicial review request against the law.

Last week, the House finished the PKPU under which convicts on probation are allowed to run in the upcoming regional elections. The KPU protested this during the hearings. The Regional Elections Law does not allow all convicts to be the candidates in the elections. It only allows ex-convicts.

However, Commission II chairman Rambe Kamarul Zaman of the Golkar Party insisted on passing the PKPU, despite the KPU's objection. The KPU had no choice but to accept the House's decision.

"Since the start of deliberation, the KPU never agreed that ex-convicts should be allowed to run in the elections, but the PKPU has been passed. There is nothing we can do," Juri said.

The Constitutional Court's ruling does not carry retroactive principles, meaning that the ruling will not affect the PKPU for the 2017 regional elections. It can only be applied on the revision of the PKPU for the 2018 regional elections.

Meanwhile, Rambe said that it was the KPU's right to file for judicial review, but he expected it would not do so as it could negatively affect the regional elections. "It's inappropriate for the KPU to challenge the law because they are an executive body," Rambe said.

He added that the article was in line with the Legislative Institutions (MD3) Law, which stipulates that all House hearing results are binding.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/22/kpu-challenges-regional-election-law.html

Parties forge flexible coalitions for regional elections

Jakarta Post - September 21, 2016

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani and Safrin La Batu, Jakarta – As the government has consolidated support among its political allies at a national level, the opposition camp is now striving to form alliances to fight the simultaneous local elections next year.

Aside from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the government's coalition includes the NasDem, Hanura and Golkar parties. They have united in Jakarta to nominate Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama to run in the gubernatorial election in February next year.

Responding to the "ruling coalition" in Jakarta, the opposition Gerindra Party and Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) have signaled they will forge a coalition, although they have not made an official announcement. Gerindra deputy chairman Fadli Zon said the party would make a decision about the coalition on Wednesday.

Other Islamic-leaning parties – the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) – along with the Democratic Party, are also preparing for a coalition as a so-called "third axis".

The coalition-building is a strategy designed to meet the challenges of the upcoming simultaneous regional elections in seven provinces, 76 regencies and 18 municipalities.

Despite the variety of battlegrounds, observers have mostly been paying attention to rivalries in the capital city, in which Ahok is currently the candidate to beat.

Meanwhile, the third axis will probably unite to nominate their own candidate as they have no wish to join the PDI-P-led Jakarta coalition, which they have called their "common enemy".

"From head to toe, it's impossible for PAN to endorse Ahok. We will also announce a surprising pair [of candidates]," PAN party patron Amien Rais said on Tuesday.

As such coalitions have formed in Jakarta, the political bellwether of the country, speculation has arisen that other regions may follow suit.

In Bekasi, West Java, Gerindra and the PKS, along with the Democrats and Hanura have formed a coalition to nominate PKS member Sa'duddin as regent candidate and musician Ahmad Dhani as his running mate. Dhani is endorsed by Gerindra.

Fadli said there was no fixed pattern for the party in nominating candidates in other regions. The party would focus on the quality of the candidate rather than the coalition.

"In other regions, it depends on the figures. All parties tend to be more open to joining coalitions with other parties. Political dynamics in the regions are very local and focus on the personality of the candidates," Fadli said.

To maintain voter support, the party was focused on selecting candidates who were capable and qualified, because in the end, voters would see the candidates, not the parties, Fadli added.

PPP secretary-general Arsul Sani emphasized that in other regions, the party would consider the aspects of political closeness in forming coalitions or nominating candidates.

"There's no particular pattern. In Banten, for example, the PPP has formed a coalition with the PDI-P, also in Bangka Belitung we've joined with the Democratic Party. It depends on the needs of the regions," Arsul said.

For the Jakarta election, Arsul said there was still a possibility that the party might join the Gerindra coalition.

Democratic Party deputy chairman Syarifudin Hasan said the party would stick with the third axis in the Jakarta election.

Along with the nomination of Ahok-Djarot, the PDI-P also announced its support for Rano Karno in the Banten gubernatorial election and Hana Hasanah Fadel Muhammad in Gorontalo.

Candidate registration for the elections will be open from Wednesday to Friday, and the elections will take place in February next year. (adt/win)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/21/parties-forge-flexible-coalitions-regional-elections.html

Parties slam Golkar for supporting convicts in elections

Jakarta Post - September 20, 2016

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – The debate over a planned election regulation (PKPU) that will allow convicts to run in regional elections has split political parties at the House of Representatives, with five factions pushing to scrap the proposal.

The factions – ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Democratic Party, National Mandate Party (PAN), Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and NasDem party – rallied on Monday against the proposal that would give chances for convicts placed in probation to run in regional elections and slammed Rambe Kamarulzaman, the chairman of House Commission II overseeing home affairs, for arbitrarily making a decision on the matter.

All of them accused Rambe of the Golkar Party of forcing the PKPU regulation's passage for the sake of his party's interests.

Supported by Lukman Edy of the National Awakening Party (PKB) and Ahmad Riza Patria of the Gerindra Party, Rambe struck his gavel last week to officially end deliberation of the PKPU and signed that Commission II, along with the General Elections Commission (KPU), had agreed with the decision.

Under the regulation, convicts on probation are allowed to become regional electoral candidates, such as in the upcoming regional elections slated for February 2017. The Regional Election Law currently stipulates that no convict is allowed to run in regional elections.

The decision has also received mounting protests from election watchdogs because the provision will open the door for candidates with criminal records to become regional leaders.

PAN lawmaker Yandri Susanto said on Monday on the sidelines of a hearing between Commission II and the Home Ministry that his faction demanded that the provision be deliberated again, although the KPU said the PKPU had been published on its official website.

"We had not agreed with the decision from the beginning, but the chairman claimed on behalf of the commission [that it supported the PKPU]. It means he manipulated the hearing result," Yandri said.

PDI-P lawmaker Arif Wibowo said the party would push to continue deliberations and annul the hearing decision. "We don't see the decision as final. The problematic provision needs to be discussed further," Arif said.

Another PDI-P politician Arteria Dahlan argued that the decision was forced because Golkar aimed to clear a path for one of its member on probation to join an election race.

Golkar member Rusli Habibie, the Gorontalo governor, plans to run in the province's upcoming election as an incumbent candidate. However, the governor was sued by National Narcotics Agency (BNN) chief Budi Waseso for defamation three years ago when Budi was still the Gorontalo Police chief.

In October 2015, the Gorontalo State Court ruled that Rusli was guilty and sentenced him to eight month's jail. However, judges spared him from jail as the Criminal Code deems sentences under one year as probation.

Golkar lawmaker Tantowi Yahya did not deny that his party had a member on probation who was looking to run in a regional election, but Tantowi refused to mention a name. "We have a member who is a convict on probation. But he has a chance to win. We should not restrict his political rights," he said.

Meanwhile, Rambe insisted that he would not hold any more discussions about the PKPU and asked the objecting factions to file a judicial review to the Supreme Court.

The government signaled that it might be impossible to repeat the deliberation as the registration date for the candidates from political parties was just two days away.

"As long as the PKPU doesn't violate the law, we should follow it. If it violates the law, the KPU may file a judicial review. But the case is no longer in the government's domain," Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/20/parties-slam-golkar-supporting-convicts-elections.html

Political parties advised not to nominate ex-convicts

Jakarta Post - September 20, 2016

Jakarta – A senior analyst has warned political parties against nominating former convicts as candidates in a host of regional elections to be held simultaneously on Feb. 15, 2017, arguing such candidates could still be embroiled in criminal cases once elected.

"Political parties must listen to the public voice on this matter. They must be wise in nominating candidates for regional posts," Siti Zuhro, a researcher with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said.

She was commenting on the new General Election Commission Regulation (PKPU), which allows probation convicts to run for regional office, despite strong public opposition to the idea. Former convicts, she added, no matter what case they had been involved in, carried a stigma from their past.

The other way to try to prevent former convicts from being nominated as regional candidate heads was filing for a judicial review of the regulation with the Constitutional Court, she said. But she added that the first option was the most effective, as the elections would be held already in February. (wnd/bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/20/political-parties-advised-not-to-nominate-ex-convicts.html

Political parties seek to regain supremacy

Jakarta Post - September 19, 2016

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – When popular Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama announced his now-canceled independent bid for the city's upcoming gubernatorial election, analysts asked if the end was nigh for political parties.

Megawati Soekarnoputri, leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the nation's largest party, was alarmed by Ahok's move, and ordered her party's rank and file to fight deparpolisasi, a term referring to efforts to minimize or eliminate the roles of political parties in democracy.

Megawati was not being paranoid. The rise of Ahok came after the country elected Joko "Jokowi" Widodo as president. Jokowi was an obscure PDI-P member from Surakarta who many believe has become more powerful than his own party and whose popularity has inspired the creation of volunteer groups across the country. Moreover, the party now has little control over Jokowi as its own member, even after Megawati called him a "party officer".

The PDI-P and other political parties have been maneuvering to regain their supremacy. The parties, for example, managed to insert provisions into the newly passed Regional Elections Law that force the election organizer and monitoring body to bow to whatever they say about election rules.

Article 9 of the law stipulates that the General Elections Commission (KPU) is obliged to consult with the House of Representatives through a hearing in drafting KPU regulations and guidelines (PKPU). The hearing result is final and binding for the commission. Meanwhile, Article 22 requires the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) to do the same in drafting its regulations.

The KPU and Bawaslu have claimed they were not informed about the two articles during deliberations of the law, enacted on June 2. Critics say the provisions could undermine the election bodies' independency, and could lead to the issuance of election regulations that disadvantage voters.

The House, for instance, recently agreed to a PKPU stating that convicts placed in probation are allowed to run in regional elections. The lawmakers ignored the KPU's argument during hearings that the 2016 Regional Elections Law clearly prohibits all convicts from running in elections. But the same law also says the KPU cannot challenge the House's decision.

The House also ignored the KPU's recommendation that people who have yet to register for electronic identification cards (e-KTP) should still be allowed to vote in the 2017 regional elections. As the e-KTP project has been plagued with glitches, the House's move could leave millions of people disenfranchised.

Now that the government is set to submit the much-awaited election bill, political parties are looking to have a stronger grip on the country's political system. The government, supported by the majority of parties at the House, has proposed that the current electoral system be changed from the open-list proportional system to an "open-limited" system, which grants political parties the final say over who will get a seat in the House after the legislative election. The system is closer to the closed-list proportional representation system.

Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) executive director Titi Anggraini said political parties' maneuvers showed they were not ready to hold clean and democratic elections.

"Political parties seem to feel threatened by the independence of election organizers like the KPU and Bawaslu. They may also see that the cadres voted for by the people are those who can't promote the interest of the parties, so they need to intervene in the determination of elected candidates," Titi said.

PDI-P faction deputy chairman Hendrawan Soepratikno, however, argued that as election participants were political parties, the parties' sovereignty must be set out first. In the legislative election, he said, voters should vote for parties only, because parties knew best about which candidates were qualified.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/19/political-parties-seek-regain-supremacy.html

Gerindra remains consistent despite grim survey result

Jakarta Post - September 19, 2016

Margareth S. Aritonang and Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The Gerindra Party is taking seriously grim findings of a recent study but remains true to its opposition stance at a time when most major political parties have thrown their support behind the administration of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

The survey by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which mainly focuses on how the public assess Jokowi's performance, found falling approval ratings for Gerindra and its patron Prabowo Subianto two years after the presidential race.

The study results, announced on Tuesday, indicated a decrease of 3 percent per year in electoral votes as Gerindra would only secure 14.3 percent of the vote if an election were held in August, when the survey was conducted. The same CSIS survey last year put Gerindra in second place, after the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with 17.3 percent.

By contrast, the Golkar Party has gained support, with a new approval rating of 14.1 percent, up from 11.4 percent, due to "their support for Jokowi", the survey found.

The survey found that one factor for Gerindra's decreasing popularity was the grim electability of Prabowo, with only 24.3 percent of 1,000 respondents saying they would vote for Prabowo. That is down from 28 percent backing for Prabowo measured by CSIS in October last year.

Gerindra and Prabowo were tough competitors in the 2014 elections. In the legislative election, Gerindra came third after securing 11.81 percent of the vote and Golkar came in second place with 14.75 percent.

In the presidential race, held three months after the legislative election, the Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla ticket beat Prabowo, who had been paired with Hatta Rajasa, by a slim margin, with 53.1 percent versus 46.8 percent.

"We appreciate the CSIS for its study. It reminds us to be careful and most importantly to work harder to improve our electoral votes," Gerindra deputy chairman Desmond J. Mahesa told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Desmond however questioned the motive of CSIS in conducting its study, especially when it found that a majority of 66.5 percent of the public were satisfied with the work of Jokowi's administration.

"Because we witnessed some shortcomings here and there. Some of the government's policies are controversial and questionable," he said. "However, we understand the position of CSIS, as it has always backed the government. No matter what, we still appreciate its findings regarding Gerindra as well as Prabowo. We have to work even harder".

Unlike Jokowi's predecessor, Democratic Party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who frequently criticized Jokowi's policies though not actually positioning his party in opposition to Jokowi's administration, Prabowo seemed to remain mum all this time.

Desmond, however, assured that Gerindra would remain critical to the government even though that was not an easy stance to adopt these days, with most political factions having joined the government's ship. He added the party would also still nominate Prabowo for the 2019 election.

"Many things can happen in three years. We are consistent. And consistency is a rare thing amid the country's political dynamics these days," he said.

A survey, however, remained a survey, said senior political analyst Siti Zuhro. Therefore, it was better to wait for the results of the legislative elections or the upcoming local elections as electability did not simply translate into surveys.

"Electability can only be proven by the elections," Siti said, adding that many factors played parts in parties' electability, such as whether or not they were seen to be embroiled in internal spats.

CSIS is not the only pollster to find declining approval for Prabowo; a public opinion poll by Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) found a similar trend of decreasing public support for Prabowo this year.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/19/gerindra-remains-consistent-despite-grim-survey-result.html

With Jokowi's charm, Golkar set to compete in 2019 poll

Jakarta Post - September 17, 2016

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – As the nation's oldest political party and one that has survived historic tribulations, including the downfall of its chief patron, Soeharto, in 1998, the Golkar Party seems to have a flair for overcoming any crisis.

Soon after losing the presidential election in 2014, the party was hit by the worst internal strife since its establishment in 1964. After decades of staunchly supporting the government, the grand old party suddenly found itself on the other end of the political pendulum.

The identity crisis led to a power struggle between Golkar stalwarts Aburizal Bakrie, who wanted the party to stay with the Red and White Coalition led by Prabowo Subianto, and Agung Laksono, who believed that the party would be better off joining the pro-goverment coalition.

That strife took a toll on the party's electability, Golkar chairman Setya Novanto said during a visit to The Jakarta Post office on Friday.

The former House of Representatives speaker said that his main task was to unify the party after the strife between Agung and Aburizal, which had divided party members. It has not been an easy task as Setya has had to deal with party bigwigs, including Akbar Tanjung.

"It requires skill to understand my seniors. I must stay humble and take a friendly approach with each of them to take action for the sake of the party," he said.

After recovering from the crisis, Golkar is now focusing on solidifying the party's rank and file and boosting its electability ahead of the regional elections in 2017 and 2018 and the general election in 2019.

With none of Golkar's candidates winning any the previous three presidential elections, the party has learned its lesson: It does not have a political figure popular enough to win the race for the nation's top spot. It therefore decided to endorse President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo as its presidential candidate and launched an aggressive campaign to associate Jokowi with the party.

"I have traveled across the country and found that Pak Jokowi is still very popular in the regions," he said. "People, especially those from the middle and low classes, are still very enthusiastic about his leadership. They still greatly support him."

The President's face is featured on party banners set up everywhere. His picture is next to party candidates contesting the upcoming regional elections. And above all, Golkar has become Jokowi's number one defender, with the party backing all of the government's policies.

Other than preventing more friction over who will be the party's presidential candidate, endorsing Jokowi has proven to be a strategic move as the party has seen improving electability within a year.

Setya said that when Jokowi attended the party's national leadership meeting in July the party's electability had risen to 14 percent from less than 10 percent at the previous meeting. According to Setya, the party's electability stands at 16 percent today.

Studies by different pollsters have confirmed that Golkar's association with Jokowi has fuelled the party's rocketing performance.

A recent survey by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found that Golkar had achieved a 3 percent electability increase following the party's pledge of support for Jokowi. Golkar's electability stands at 14.1 percent this year.

Another survey by Indikator Politik Indonesia found that Golkar's electability stood at 16 percent only few days after the party stated its official support for the President.

"It is really important for Golkar to ensure Jokowi's programs run well because we no longer have another scenario in 2019. We will win the 2019 election if Jokowi successfully runs his administration now," Golkar secretary general Idrus Marham said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/17/with-jokowis-charm-golkar-set-to-compete-in-2019-poll.html

Environment & natural disasters

Floods, landslides leave 23 dead

Jakarta Post - September 22, 2016

Ina Parlina, Agus Maryono and Rizal Harahap, Jakarta/Cilacap/Pekanbaru – Heavy rains, arguably caused by the La Nina weather phenomenon that increases precipitation, have wreaked havoc in two regencies in West Java, leaving at least 23 people dead from rapid flooding and landslides in the past two days.

A flash flood struck Bayongbong, Karangpawitan, Garut regency, in the early hours of Wednesday after heavy rainfall hit the area starting on Tuesday evening and caused the Cimanuk and Cikamuri rivers to overflow.

At least 20 people were found dead and 14 others, including four children, were still missing as of Wednesday afternoon. Hundreds of people have had to leave their homes, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

Meanwhile, in Sumedang regency, landslides buried three houses in Ciherang village and two houses in Cimareme village, killing three people.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo ordered on Wednesday Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa, as well as other relevant officials, to undertake immediate efforts to help the affected residents in Garut and Sumedang, as he extended condolences to the families of the victims.

"The President also wants people to raise their alertness in dealing with weather conditions, whether it is floods or landslides," said presidential spokesperson Johan Budi on Wednesday.

Amid ongoing search and rescue efforts, BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho warned people across the country of the increasing rainfall caused by La Nina.

A BNPB quick response team and the West Java Natural Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), as well as the military, have deployed personnel to help search for the missing victims and to assist the Garut BPBD and the Sumendang BPBD.

"Rainfall will continue to increase until it reaches its peak in January 2017," Sutopo said. "That [La Nina] will bring more rainfall, heavier than normal, and therefore it can also trigger floods and landslides."

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar has also instructed the ministry's secretary-general to study what environmental factors, like soil conditions and its geomorphology process, actually caused the landslides in Garut.

"There are many aspects that have to be resolved," said Siti. "The problem is that [...] letting many houses be built in a disaster-prone area will also cause [such problems when disasters occur]."

Intense rain over the past three days has also caused flooding in a number of areas in Central Java, especially in Banyumas and Cilacap regencies where dozens of houses and hundreds of hectares of rice fields were inundated – causing possible crop failure.

Hundreds of people have been relocated to safer places because of the floods caused by a number of overflowing rivers, which was the result of continuous heavy rains in the southern part of Central Java.

The floods in the western part of Cilacap regency, which initially hit only Sidareja district, have now reached two other districts, Kedungreja and Gandrungmangu, engulfing about 600 houses with up to 1 meter of floodwater, said Cilacap BPBD.

In another part of the regency, two people in Kroya district were killed in floods that occurred over the past three days.

"If rain continues for the next couple of days, floods would definitely hit us as we are subject to flooding every rainy season," said 43-year-old Saridin, a local resident of Sumpiuh district in Banyumas.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/22/floods-landslides-leave-23-dead.html

Indonesia dismisses study showing forest fire haze killed more than 100,000

Associated Press - September 21, 2016

Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean authorities have dismissed research that suggested smoky haze from catastrophic forest fires in Indonesia last year caused 100,000 deaths. Some even contend the haze caused no serious health problems, but experts say those assertions contradict well-established science.

Last year's fires in Sumatra and the Indonesian part of Borneo were the worst since 1997, burning about 261,000 hectares of forests and peatland and sending haze across the region for weeks. Many were deliberately set by companies to clear land for palm oil and pulpwood plantations.

The study in the journal Environmental Research Letters by Harvard and Columbia researchers estimated the amount of health-threatening fine particles, often referred to as PM2.5, released by the fires that burned from July to October and tracked their spread across south-east Asia using satellite observations.

In Indonesia, a spokesman for the country's disaster mitigation agency said the research "could be baseless or they have the wrong information". Indonesia officially counted 24 deaths from the haze including people killed fighting the fires.

Singapore's Ministry of Health said short-term exposure to haze will generally not cause serious health problems. The study was "not reflective of the actual situation", it said, and the overall death rate hadn't changed last year.

In Malaysia, health minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said officials are still studying the research, which is "computer-generated, not based on hard data".

"People have died but to what extent the haze contributed to it, it's hard to say," he said. "If an 80-year-old fellow with high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problem and exposure to haze died, what did he die of? This is a hell of a difficult question to answer."

The dry season fires are an annual irritant in Indonesia's relations with its neighbours Singapore and Malaysia and the finding of a huge public health burden has the potential to worsen those strains. The 2015 burning season, which was worsened by El Nino's dry conditions, also tainted Indonesia's reputation globally by releasing a vast amount of atmosphere-warming carbon.

The Indonesian government has stepped up efforts to prosecute companies and individuals who set fires and also strengthened its fire-fighting response. This year's fires have affected a smaller area in large part due to unseasonal rains.

Jamal Hisham Hashim, research fellow with the International Institute for Global Health in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said governments should not dismiss the study even if the estimated deaths are arguable.

He said decades of air pollution research that followed London's killer smog in 1952 has established the relationship between fine particulate matter and premature deaths, particularly in people with existing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

"The pollution level that occurred during the haze is severe enough to cause premature deaths. That is indisputable," he said. "The study is a wake-up call. We need to be shaken; we have become too complacent with the haze."

Joel Schwartz, an author of the study who is regarded by his peers as one of the world's top experts on the health effects of air pollution, said authorities in the affected countries have not offered any details of how they reached conclusions critical of the study.

During the haze, Malaysia suffered air pollution at 10 times the level that the World Health Organization says causes premature deaths, he said, while Singapore's claim that short-term exposure does not have serious effects is factually incorrect.

The Singaporean statement that its death rate was unchanged from 2014 did not demonstrate anything, Schwartz said, due to a worldwide trend for declining mortality. The study's premise is that deaths are higher than what they would be without the haze rather than a comparison to a particular year, he said.

Separately, Singapore's health ministry did not respond to a question on why heart disease and pneumonia, both of which can be brought to fatal conclusion by fine particle exposure, had increased as a percentage of deaths in 2015.

Malaysia, meanwhile, does not measure PM2.5 in its air pollution index but has been planning to from next year.

Half a dozen scientists with expertise in air pollution who reviewed the study for the Associated Press said its methodology was sound and its conclusions reasonable. Some cautioned that the estimates of 91,600 deaths in Indonesia, another 6,500 in Malaysia and 2,200 in Singapore are invariably uncertain because aspects of the modelling rely on assumptions and the actual figures could be higher or lower.

The study considered only the health impact on adults and restricts itself to the effects of fine particles rather than all toxins that would be in the smoke.

Philip Hopke, director of the Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science at New York state's Clarkson University, said air pollution studies have to overcome several challenges because "no one who gets sick or dies comes to the doctor or hospital with a clear label that says airborne particles or ozone did this."

Another problem is the studies typically assume that fine particles are the sole cause of illness or death but smoke from fires contains ozone and a variety of volatile compounds that would also affect health.

"A major event like occurred here is extremely likely to have caused adverse health outcomes in terms of both sickness and deaths," he said.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/21/indonesia-dismisses-study-showing-forest-fire-haze-killed-more-than-100000-people

Two die, hundreds of homes damaged as floods hit regions

Jakarta Post - September 21, 2016

Agus Maryono and Rizal Harahap, Cilacap/Pekanbaru – Two people have died in floods in Cilacap regency, Central Java, over the past three days. The victims were residents of Mujur village in Kroya district and Kalisabuk village in Kesugihan district, respectively.

"Both of them were swept away and drowned when crossing floodwater around their houses. We found their bodies and handed them to their families," Cilacap Search and Rescue Agency member Gunawan told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

At least 300 houses in Central Java, largely in Banyumas and Cilacap regencies, were engulfed by up to 1 meter of floodwater triggered by constant downpours over the past two days. No fatalities were reported, but hundreds of people have been evacuated to safety.

Cilacap Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) head Tri Komara Sidhy said the floods were caused by a number of overflowing rivers due to continuous heavy rains in the southern part of Central Java.

"Around 150 residents in Sidareja district, Cilacap, took refuge in mosques and village meeting halls," Tri said on Monday.

Rains continue to pour over some parts of Central Java and could cause extended floods. Floods inundated several villages in Patimuan district, where hundreds of hectares of rice fields were engulfed, putting them at risk of crop failure.

Floods in Cilacap also swamped several villages in Kroya district. In Banyumas regency, flooding hit Tambak and Sumpiuh districts where dozens of houses and hundreds of hectares of rice fields were inundated.

"If rain continues for the next couple of days, floods will definitely hit us as we are subject to flooding every rainy season," said Sumpiuh resident Saridin, 43.

The northern parts of Riau's eastern coast have been hit by tidal flooding since Sunday, when thousands of homes and public facilities were engulfed by water.

In Dumai, Riau, floods hit the three districts of West, South and East Dumai. The flooding is the most severe in five years, with the water level in a number of places reaching more than 50 centimeters.

"Tidal flooding is actually commonplace in coastal areas such as Dumai, but usually floods only submerge the streets, but only now seawater got into our house," Buluh Kasap subdistrict resident Dewi Purwanti said on Tuesday.

As the area had not been hit by floods in previous years, she said she was at a loss as to how to salvage her household items.

"For the time being, I have placed them at my parents' house which is two stories and safe from flooding, because the flooding occurs twice a day – in the morning at around 6:30 a.m. which subsides before noon, and again in the evening," she said.

A number of streets, such as Jl. Budi Kemuliaan, Jl. Cempedak, Jl. Ombak and Jl. Sultan Syarif Kasim, were impassable to traffic due to deep puddles. On Jl. Cempedak, residents placed a barricade to prevent motorists from passing.

Floods also prompted elementary school SDN Rimba Sekampung 01 in the city to send home pupils early.

On Monday, first, second and sixth graders only attended school until 9 a.m. as lessons were stopped when water continued rising. On Tuesday, first and second graders were given the day off while sixth graders studied for a while with their shoes off.

Dumai Health Office's disease control and environmental health affairs head Romauli warned that people were prone to contracting various diseases during tidal floods, especially children.

"They are most vulnerable to skin diseases, diarrhea and rat-borne ordi rodentia. That's why residents are urged not to let children bathe in pools of sea water, and well water that has been contaminated by floods should not be used anymore," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/21/two-die-hundreds-homes-damaged-floods-hit-regions.html

Haze from Indonesian fires may have killed more than 100,000 people – study

The Guardian (Australia) - September 19, 2016

A smog outbreak in Southeast Asia last year may have caused over 100,000 premature deaths, according to a new study released Monday that triggered calls for action to tackle the "killer haze".

Researchers from Harvard and Columbia universities in the US estimated there were more than 90,000 early deaths in Indonesia in areas closest to haze-belching fires, and several thousand more in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.

The new estimate, reached using a complex analytical model, is far higher than the previous official death toll given by authorities of just 19 deaths in Indonesia.

"If nothing changes, this killer haze will carry on taking a terrible toll, year after year," said Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaign Yuyun Indradi. "Failure to act immediately to stem the loss of life would be a crime."

A spokesman for Indonesia's environment ministry did not immediately have any comment.

Indonesian authorities have previously insisted they are stepping up haze-fighting efforts, through such actions as banning the granting of new land for palm oil plantations and establishing an agency to restore devastated peatlands.

The haze is an annual problem caused by fires set in forest and on carbon-rich peatland in Indonesia to quickly and cheaply clear land for palm oil and pulpwood plantations.

The blazes occur mainly on Indonesia's western Sumatra island and the Indonesian part of Borneo, with monsoon winds typically blowing the haze over Singapore and Malaysia.

But last year's fires were among the worst in memory and cloaked large parts of the region in choking smog for weeks, causing huge numbers to fall ill and sending diplomatic tensions soaring.

The new study to be published in journal Environmental Research Letters, which combined satellite data with models of health impacts from smoke exposure and readings from pollution monitoring stations, estimated that 100,300 had died prematurely due to last year's fires across the three countries.

They estimated there were 91,600 deaths in Indonesia, 6,500 in Malaysia and 2,200 in Singapore.

Greenpeace hailed a "groundbreaking" study they said for the first time gave a detailed breakdown of deaths from last year's fires, but cautioned that the figure was a "conservative estimate".

It only looked at health impacts on adults and the effect of dangerous fine-particulate matter, known as PM 2.5. It did not examine the effect on youngsters or of the other toxins produced by the blazes.

In reality, infants are some of the most at risk from the haze, said Nursyam Ibrahim, from the West Kalimantan province branch of the Indonesian Medical Association on Borneo.

"We are the doctors who care for the vulnerable groups exposed to toxic smoke in every medical centre, and we know how awful it is to see the disease symptoms experienced by babies and children in our care," said Ibrahim.

The study found an increase in the number of fires in peatland and in timber concessions in 2015, compared to the last haze outbreak considered major, in 2006, and that the number of fires in palm oil plantations fell.

Shannon Koplitz, a Harvard scientist who worked on the study, said she also hoped the model they had developed could help those involved with tackling the annual blazes make quick decisions "as extreme haze events are unfolding".

Last year's haze outbreak was the worst since 1997 due to a strong El Nino weather system, which created tinder-dry conditions in Indonesia and made peatland and forests more vulnerable to going up in flames.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/19/haze-indonesia-forest-fires-killed-100000-people-harvard-study

Health & education

Stopping the spread

New Mandala - September 22, 2016

Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat & Media Wahyudi Askar – New data shows the alarming spread of HIV and AIDS in Indonesia. The government must act quickly and decisively if it is to avert a new epidemic.

"We never had a medical check-up and don't know how to avoid HIV/AIDS. The only thing we know is that we should use a condom. But often, they (customers) refuse to wear them."

This is an excerpt from a conversation with a sex worker that one of us had a few years ago while working at a mining area in Indonesia.

It was a very emotional interview because many of the prostitute's customers were employees of the mining company. It highlights the complexity of HIV/AIDS in Indonesia.

However, it would seem the majority of Indonesians have little, if any, idea about the dangers and the spread of HIV.

Recently, the Indonesian Ministry of Health released a shocking report that the number of people with HIV/AIDS in Indonesia had increased significantly.

At least 13,319 people have died as a result of HIV/AIDS over the past three decades, with the number of cases reaching 268,185. Currently, an estimated 690,000 people in the country are infected with HIV/AIDS. This figure makes Indonesia the country with the fastest growing HIV/AIDS rates in Southeast Asia.

What is worse is that currently, people with HIV/AIDS who recognise that they are infected comprise only 20 per cent of cases. In other words, eight out of 10 people do not know that they are infected with the virus. It can therefore be estimated that the actual number of HIV/AIDS cases is much greater than reported.

According to the data provided by the Ministry of Health, two main factors contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Indonesia. The first is heterosexuals engaging in unsafe sex. This accounts for 46.2 per cent cases. In Indonesia, unprotected sex is caused by rampant sexual promiscuity and widespread prostitution.

The issue is further complicated because the prostitution industry in Indonesia also has a strong connection with poverty. The lack of knowledge concerning HIV/AIDS means sex workers are more vulnerable to contracting the virus.

The impacts of this issue are unfortunately not only suffered by commercial sex workers and their customers, but also endured by mothers, and even in some cases their unborn children, when their husbands use prostitution services. This can be seen in the province of North Sulawesi where the number of sex workers with HIV/AIDS is only about 5.4 per cent, while the vast majority of people with HIV/AIDS are homemakers.

Based on the data supplied by the Ministry of Health, the second factor contributing to the rising number of HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia is man-to-man sexual intercourse (24.4 per cent of cases). Among these are included men are married to women, with some of them saying that they only want to have sex with other men as a way to experiment and explore.

The growth of social media has also made it easier to find sexual partners, and hence increase the risk of unprotected sex an the spread of HIV/AIDS.

With the massive spread of HIV/AIDS, the Indonesian government needs to exert serious efforts to tackle the problem, especially by formulating appropriate policy objectives.

Firstly, as much as possible, the government should increase knowledge among sex workers about the dangers of HIV/AIDS and how to avoid it. The more progressive step that can be taken is closing commercial sex areas, as achieved by the Mayor of Surabaya, Tri Rismaharini, who successfully shut down Gang Dolly, Southeast Asia's largest red-light district.

This closure ensured that former sex workers were humanised and empowered. They were given training to improve their skills to acquire more decent employment, become more financially independent, and eventually escape their lives of poverty.

Another effort that needs to be made by the government is to control the widespread sex businesses around mining areas. This is particularly urgent when it is considered that there have been notable increases in HIV/AIDS cases in the areas surrounding mines, including the largest gold mine in Indonesia, Freeport in West Papua.

For example, Yayasan Peduli Aids (YPA), an organisation focusing on the spread of HIV/AIDS in Papua, has reported increased rates of HIV/AIDS in Papua, where an estimated number of 40,000 people have been infected.

Besides local solutions, subsequent efforts should be made within the LGBT community, and particularly among men who have sex with other men, as they represent the second biggest cases of the high rates of HIV in Indonesia.

This, however, is not an easy task given the fact that men who have sex with other men tend to be secret.

In addition, the increasing number of sexual relations among the LGBT community is inseparable from the growing campaigns in favour of LGBT rights in Indonesia, and calls for greater acceptance of this group.

Above all, it is clear that HIV/AIDS is a major issue that must be resolved in Indonesia. If not, the worst likelihood is an explosion in the number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country. With a population of 250 million people, Indonesia could potentially be the largest contributor to HIV/AIDS rates in the world.

[Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat is a PhD scholar at the University of Manchester. Media Wahyudi Askar is a PhD scholar at the University of Manchester and the President of Indonesian Student Association in the UK.]

Source: http://www.newmandala.org/stopping-the-spread/

Indonesia takes pains to stop excessive use of antibiotics

Jakarta Post - September 21, 2016

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – In developing countries, it is a problem decades old but the rising antimicrobial resistance in Indonesia has rarely been raised in a public awareness campaign – even though the government has quietly been putting in a great deal of effort to reverse the trend.

Few people may have even heard that the Health Ministry runs a task force called the Antimicrobial Resistance Control Committee, or KPRA. To support the antimicrobial resistance campaign, the task force has been commissioned to draft a national action plan.

The basic concern over antibiotic resistance is that it can reverse decades of advances in medicine, bringing the world back to an age before the discovery of antibiotics, in 1928, when millions of people died from infections that could have been prevented today.

In Indonesia, doctors now already have to prescribe new types of antibiotics or higher dosages of current medicines because the bacteria are getting stronger.

The action plan will dictate a nationwide effort to reduce the abuse of antibiotics in human, animals and plants, as the medicines are also often misused for treatment and prevention of diseases in livestock, aquaculture, as well as crop production.

"If antibiotics are used on livestock, they will infect people who consume its products, such as meat and milk. This also applies to shrimp and fish. We also have to monitor antibiotics used on them," KPRA head Harry Parathon said.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, unchecked use of antibiotics is also rampant among farmers without them knowing it. The chemicals are found in the animals' drinking fluids and feed.

Andi Hendra Purnama, a ministry official in charge of monitoring animal feed, says some antibiotics are disguised as "feed additive" as stated in their labeling. Harry warns that excessive use of antibiotics on livestock can also adversely affect plants.

"Let's say I have a chicken farm and give antibiotics to all of my chickens. Their feces on the soil find their way into plants. As a result, the plants will absorb the antibiotics, creating a cycle."

Hence the government will adopt the "One Health" concept in its action plan. Introduced in the early 2000s, the concept assumes that human and animal health are interdependent and bound to the health of the ecosystems in which they exist.

The KPRA expects it will take a long time to draft the national action plan because it is an interdepartmental undertaking that involves such institutions as the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry.

The committee also aims to tackle other major causes of the increasing antibiotic resistance in Indonesia, like public misperception on antibiotics, unrestrained doctors' antibiotic prescriptions and easy access to antibiotics in the market.

A recent survey conducted by the Indonesian Caring Parents Foundation (YOP) with 92 doctors in Jakarta and 35 doctors in Papua found that 91 percent of the doctors always prescribe antibiotics to their patients, while 75 percent of them prescribe antibiotics for mild illnesses like the common cough and influenza.

According to the YOP survey, 85 percent of pharmacies in Jakarta sell antibiotics without prescriptions. What's more, 83 percent of them recommend that customers buy antibiotics, even when people only ask for drugs for mild ailments, like the flu.

Research by the Health Ministry in 2013 showed that only 27 percent of doctors in Indonesia had given the right dose of antibiotics and prescribed them for the right purposes.

It also gave a glimpse of how easy it was to access antibiotics in Indonesia. The survey found that 10 percent of families had antibiotics in their homes and that at least 86 percent of those obtained the drug without a prescription.

It turns out that unnecessary antibiotics are not only prescribed by doctors who open their private services, but also by hospitals, as Harry has noted.

"Patients have already developed antibiotic resistance from home. Then they are given antibiotics again at the hospital. Instead of being killed, these bacteria grow stronger. This is called healthcare associate infection. So the infection happens at hospitals," Harry said.

In response, Health Minister Nila F. Moeloek has called on doctors to exercise maximum care in prescribing antibiotics.

She specifically asked the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) to remind its members to not authorize the use of antibiotics unless it is really necessary.

IDI secretary-general Adib Khumaidi promises the association will take action against any of its members who go against the rule. "Disciplinary actions will be in the form of membership termination or suspension," he says.

But IDI doctors have an excuse. Very often, doctors prescribe antibiotics on the patient's demand although they know the medicines are unnecessary.

"Besides, patients sometimes buy antibiotics over the counter because they know the drugs. We have to stop it," Adib says.

Even worse is the fact that many people also fail to take antibiotics in the right dosage or fail to get through their prescriptions.

"Once patients begin taking antibiotics, they can't stop midway. They must finish their prescribed duration of taking the drug," Adib says.

Aside from the national action plan, the ministry actually had issued a regulation in 2011, which serves as a general guideline on antibiotic use. Then last year, it launched a campaign called "GeMa CerMat", aimed to encourage the public to wisely use antibiotics.

For a better grasp on this critical issue, the government is currently researching the level of antibiotic resistance in 18 hospitals in major cities of the country.

Currently, it is assessing how well hospitals have been implementing the antibiotic-resistant management program.

"If the prevalence of antibiotic resistance is high in a hospital, its use must be unrestrained. And that hospital might fail to get accreditation. So the assessment will become part of hospital accreditation," Harry says.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/21/indonesia-takes-pains-stop-excessive-use-antibiotics.html

Gender & sexual orientation

The end of gay social networking apps in Indonesia?

Indonesia at Melbourne - September 20, 2016

Hendri Yulius – Police jumped on the bandwagon of hate directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) Indonesians last week, following allegations of the misuse of gay social networking applications for child prostitution. Under the guise of child protection, police urged the Ministry of Communication and Information to ban gay social networking applications. Following a meeting last week, the government announced it was moving ahead with plans to block three applications – Grindr, Blued and BoyAhoy – while more than 80 other LGBT applications and websites potentially face prosecution.

In addition to reasons of child protection, Aidil Chendramata, from the Ministry of Communication, also argued that gay applications violated the 2008 Pornography Law. Like any other social media, Grindr is intended for socialising and forging friendships or relationships, and, like other social media, it also has the potential for abuse. Facebook and Twitter, for example, are rife with pornographic images and Indonesian police have previously uncovered the use of Facebook to facilitate underage (heterosexual) prostitution.

Grindr and most other gay applications restrict use to those aged 18 or over. In some countries where the "age of majority" is older, Grindr's terms of use even restrict the application to users aged 21 years and older. In Indonesia's Child Protection Law (UU No. 23/2002), children are defined as "persons below 18 years old" so, when used as intended, Grindr should not affect the rights of children.

Putting these inconsistencies aside for a moment, the bans are representative of the government's struggle to preserve power and authority in a globalised internet era. Just like many other countries, the Indonesian government in February pressed multinationals Google and Facebook to establish domestic entities (badan usaha tetap) and pay taxes to Indonesia. In addition to these economic demands, there have also been calls for multinational online companies to conform to Indonesian moral norms.

The globalised internet era has disembodied state power. In the past, power was highly centralised and top-down. These patterns have shifted dramatically – besides collapsing national boundaries, the internet has also produced virtual spaces for the transmission and circulation of knowledge, information and critical ideas. These spaces are much more difficult to control. Further, social media organisations, like Facebook, Google, and Twitter, are not only international or transnational bodies. They are sometimes also perceived as "anti-national", undermining state sovereignty, ideology, and even national security – consider how even Pokemon Go was recently viewed as a threat to national security.

In democratic Indonesia, online spaces have become arenas for political contestation. While public queer activities have often been targets of violent attacks by religious vigilante groups, online spaces have typically provided room for LGBT Indonesians to develop their community and make incremental changes through broadening awareness about sexual diversity. Online activism and platforms have (mostly) slipped under the radar of the government and conservative groups.

As LGBT politics and identities are increasingly viewed as another form of Western imperialism, virtual spaces have now become targets for surveillance by the government. Conflating child prostitution and immorality with consensual and private adult same-sex activities has allowed the government to justify further surveillance and control of private spaces.

It will be interesting to see whether Apple and Google will approve the request of the Indonesian government and remove the gay applications from their app stores. The companies are renowned champions of LGBT rights around the world and will no doubt face a dilemma over whether they protect their core values or bow to censorship requests. On Monday, it appeared that the Google Play store had blocked BoyAhoy, although others remained accessible.

The policing of these gay applications demonstrates that the rapid development of information technology does not necessarily lead to advances in freedom of expression. The malleability of concepts like porn, decency, morality, and national security allows the government to use them to exert control over certain groups. While LGBT Indonesians are the main target now, it is quite possible that a similar strategy will be applied to other minority groups. In other words, the struggle now is not only for LGBT groups. It is more than that. In a way, it is also for the protection of democracy in Indonesia.

[Hendri Yulius is a researcher and writer. He is the author of a number of books, including Coming Out, now available at Gramedia. He holds a master's degree from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.]

Source: http://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/the-end-of-gay-social-networking-apps-in-indonesia/

LGBT persecution continues with apps ban

Jakarta Post - September 17, 2016

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – In what can be seen as another attack on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community in Indonesia, the government has decided to ban apps designed for LGBT people due to allegations that they are being used to facilitate child prostitution rings.

The decision was made after a meeting between representatives from the Communications and Information Ministry, the National Police, the Religious Affairs Ministry, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and other related stakeholders on Wednesday.

The panel issued a recommendation to block three apps, namely Grindr, BoyAhoy and Blued.

"We have sent an email to Google to block Grindr, BoyAhoy and Blued because these applications promote the LGBT lifestyle and sexual deviance," Noor Iza, a spokesman from the Communications and information Ministry, said on Friday.

He added that this was just the beginning. Similar apps are currently under investigation and could be blacklisted as well.

Aidil Chendramata, director of information security for the Communications and information Ministry, said none of the participants who attended the meeting had opposed the final decision.

A surge in anti-LGBT sentiment has emerged following the discovery by the National Police of an alleged pimp identified only as AR. AR sells people – mostly children – to men for sex, and he aggressively uses apps to post pornographic pictures of the victims in a bid to lure in customers.

AR sold the victims for between Rp 1.2 million (US$91) and Rp 1.5 million each. To date, the police have arrested four suspects in the online prostitution ring. AR, arrested during a police raid in Bogor, West Java, U, a pimp, E, who helped AR recruit children, and F, who acted as a pimp and a customer.

LGBT activists argue that the government has mistakenly linked pedophilia, which AR engaged in, with the LGBT community. "They have made a false link between pedophilia and homosexuality. These two things are completely unrelated. Blocking apps for LGBT people will not solve the problem of online child prostitution," Arus Pelangi secretary Ryan Korbarri told The Jakarta Post.

As reported recently, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Press Council have explained that pedophilia is completely separate from homosexuality. The former is sexually deviant behavior that can be perpetrated by both homosexuals and heterosexuals. Meanwhile, the term "LGBT" is simply a classification of gender identity.

Teguh Iman of Suara Kita, an organization that supports the LGBT community, said that by blocking the apps, the government revealed that it was too afraid to face the social reality of Indonesia in the 21st century.

"We know that Facebook and Twitter can also be used to run online prostitution rings, but there is no discussion about blocking these apps," he said.

Teguh said Grindr and other LGBT-related apps were beneficial to LGBT people because they helped facilitate connections and friendships with those of a similar disposition.

Google Indonesia's head of communications Jason Tedjasukmana said the company would comment on the matter next week. Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFENET) regional coordinator Damar Juniarto questioned the legality of the proposal.

The ministry established panelists to provide recommendations to the government on unsavory content that should be blocked. However, the panelists' working period ended at the end of 2015.

Therefore, Damar questions whether the decision has any legal standing at all, because the panelists were in fact supposed to have been disbanded. (win)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/17/lgbt-persecution-continues-with-apps-ban.html

Graft & corruption

House urged to drop politicians in BPK race

Jakarta Post - September 20, 2016

Jakarta – The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) will likely face further criticism regarding its ability to maintain independency should lawmakers allow another politician to win an ongoing selection process to be part of the BPK's leadership, analysts have warned.

House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing finance and banking is currently selecting a new BPK member to fill a leadership position that will become vacant next month.

The screening for 24 candidates, including incumbent Bahrullah Akbar, commenced Monday and will run until Wednesday. Apart from Bahrullah, notable economist Anggito Abimanyu and Financial Services Authority (OJK) finance investigation department head Insp. Gen. Rusli Nasution, an active police general, are also among the candidates.

But activists and analyst have raised concerns over the possibility that the BPK's nine-member governing board will again have another politically-wired member, given the presence of two politicians as candidates: United Development Party (PPP) executive Ahmad Yani and Prosperous Justice Party's (PKS) Suharmanta, currently serving as a councillor in Kulonprogo regency, Yogyakarta.

"As a perennial practice, one of them [Ahmad and Suharmanta] were likely to win the election," Center For Budget Analysis director Uchok Sky Khadafi told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Current BPK chairman Harry Azhar Aziz is a former politician from Golkar Party who replaced Rizal Djalil, a former National Mandate Party (PAN) member, in 2014. Rizal still serves as one of the nine members in the current BPK leadership team.

Apart from Harry and Rizal, there are at least two BPK leaders whose political connections are apparent: Achsanul Qosasi, a former Democrate Party lawmaker, and Agung Firman Sampurna, a son of Golkar senior politician Kahar Muzakir.

Indonesian Budget Center director Roy Salam said Harry's being implicated in the Panama Papers was proof that "a politically-wired leader would not ever be good for the BPK", as the agency's integrity became tainted by the conundrum.

Harry was among 800 wealthy Indonesians listed in the Panama Papers that leaked information on more than 214,000 offshore companies associated with Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. He has played down his inclusion in the document.

Unlike other institutions, such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the General Election Commission (KPU), the BPK's leadership selection process is fully spearheaded by House Commission XI.

Commission XI lawmaker Indah Kurnia from PDI-P dismissed concerns that the BPK would become mired in political fray if the commission elect a politician as one of the agency's leaders, because the regulation requires them to disassociate themselves from their party if elected. (mos)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/20/house-urged-to-drop-politicians-in-bpk-race.html

NU urges govt to bankrupt graft convicts

Jakarta Post - September 19, 2016

Jakarta – Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) executive council chairman Robikin Emhas has urged government officials to impoverish corruptors who were arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

He was specifically referring to the case implicating Regional Representatives Council (DPD) speaker Irman Gusman, who was arrested by the KPK early on Saturday morning.

"We recommend that government officials impoverish corrupt officials, and also implement the death penalty after they are subjected to a transparent and accountable judicial process," Robikin said on Sunday as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Corruption – either on a small or big scale – would create social destruction in the long run, he said.

Irman Gusman was named a suspect in a bribery case related to sugar imports. He was arrested with two other people who were also named suspects for allegedly handing over the bribe.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/19/national-scene-nu-urges-govt-bankrupt-graft-convicts.html

KPK names DPD speaker Irman a suspect in bribery case

Jakarta Post - September 17, 2016

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Saturday named Regional Representatives Council (DPD) chief Irman Gusman a suspect in a bribery case related to sugar imports.

Irman was arrested along with two other people during a raid at Irman's house on Jl. Denpasar in South Jakarta on Friday evening, KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo said during a press conference on Saturday afternoon.

Two other people were also named as suspects for allegedly handing over the bribe – the director of CV Semesta Berjaya, identified with the initials XSS, and his wife, identified as MMI. During the operation, the KPK also arrested XSS' brother, identified as WS, although investigators have not named him a suspect.

"The KPK confiscated Rp 100 million [US$7,589] as evidence. The money was allegedly given in relation to the quota of sugar imports given to CV Semesta Berjaya for West Sumatra in 2016," Agus said.

KPK deputy chairman Laode Muhammad Syarif alleged that the money was given to Irman so that he would issue recommendations to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) for XSS' company to acquire a bigger share of the sugar import quota. "The money was allegedly accepted by Irman and was found in his bedroom by KPK investigators," Laode said.

Irman was elected as a DPD member in 2004 representing West Sumatra and served as the council's deputy speaker for five years. He was elected DPD chairman in 2009 and reelected to lead the council for a second term in 2014. (wnd/rin)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/17/KPK-names-dpd-speaker-irman-a-suspect-in-bribery-case.html

Investigations continuing into Bank Century, BLBI: KPK

Jakarta Globe - September 16, 2016

Jakarta – Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, deputy chairman Laode M Syarif was forced to deny rumors the agency was shutting down investigations into two high profile corruption cases.

Speaking in Jakarta on Thursday (15/09) Syarif confirmed investigations are continuing into the Bank Century bailout case and the alleged swindling of the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI).

Syarif said the claims are likely to have resulted from several issues in the cases, including a lack of evidence to name suspects.

"The most important issue is sufficient evidence. [The cases] have happened for quite some time, so we have to pay careful attention and study them thoroughly," Syarif said.

To date, only Budi Mulya, a former Bank Indonesia deputy governor for monetary management, has been jailed by the KPK for his involvement in the Century Bank bailout case. The Supreme Court extended his imprisonment to up to 15 years following Budi launching an appeal.

The Supreme Court also named several others who abused their authority in the case, including former BI governor and vice president of Indonesia Boediono and secretary of the Financial Stability System Committee (KSSK) Raden Pardede.

However, KPK is yet to follow up on the decision to name the two alleged suspects. Meanwhile, the BLBI case is still under investigation, which has seen several parties questioned.

Earlier this week, the Democratic Party thanked the KPK for shutting down investigations into the notorious Bank Century bailout case, with the party saying the case had no foundation.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/investigations-continuing-bank-century-blbi-KPK/

Terrorism & religious extremism

Convicted terrorists continue to resist deradicalization program

Jakarta Post - September 16, 2016

Liza Yosephine, Jakarta – It is estimated some 50 convicted terrorists continue to resist the government's prison deradicalization efforts, a top counterterrorism official has said.

"There are still 50 people who burden us. We are thinking about how psychologists and ulema [Muslim religious leaders] can reach out to them. We are also trying to find other ways of connecting with them, including by taking care of their families and children," National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Comr. Gen. Suhardi Alius said on Thursday.

Suhardi was speaking during a hearing with House Commission III overseeing law, human rights and legal affairs, about the progress of the agency's prison deradicalization program. The program was implemented in March this year after the government identified 242 convicted terrorists who continued to hold radical ideas.

The program, which extends throughout 70 prisons and two detention centers, is divided into four levels, depending on the progress of the deradicalization process, Suhardi said.

Level one means that the terrorists refuse to follow the program. The 50 convicted terrorists highlighted by Suhardi fall into this category.

Meanwhile, around 63 convicted terrorists are categorized as belonging to level two. Level two means that the terrorists meet with authorities, but refuse to engage in deradicalization.

However, Suhardi remains optimistic, noting that over 100 people have complied with the program so far.

Level three means that the terrorists cooperate with authorities, but refrain from inviting other radicals to join in the program. Level four is reserved for those who have progressed in the deradicalization process and are also open to inviting others to participate in the program, Suhardi said. (evi)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/16/convicted-terrorists-continue-to-resist-deradicalization-program.html

Freedom of religion & worship

Students surprised by religious discrimination

Jakarta Post - September 17, 2016

Sagara Kusuma, Jakarta – Whether you are Muslim, Catholic, Buddhist or an agnostic Indonesian student, today you can be a part of any clique. Barring high school drama, students now make friends and help each other out regardless of faith and religious beliefs.

At least this was the message gleaned from a discussion at the British School Jakarta on Sept. 9 at the inaugural Inspire Me conference, which featured slogans such as "internationalism through nationalism" and "nationalism and tolerance".

The students invited Yenny Wahid, daughter of former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, who quoted her father's teachings, "it does not matter what religious beliefs you hold [...] if you can do something good for everyone, no one will ask about your religion."

She also cited the nation's motto, bhinneka tunggal ika (unity in diversity) and struck a chord with students like Samantha Fitzgerald, 13, a student of SMPK2 Penabur, suggesting that the children must become "soldiers of love with bullets of compassion". Yenny questioned whether the new generation could "get rid of religious prejudice".

Samantha said she "never saw intolerance or prejudice as having a big role in [her] life," and was shocked to learn that she will later be forced to identify with a religion on her KTP (ID card).

"I never realized how big a deal the religious identification is on our KTP and passports. To be honest, I don't know what I'll do when I have to get a KTP." She said her parents encouraged her to learn the best from all faiths.

The speeches from the conference also touched on the upcoming Jakarta gubernatorial race, where opponents of the incumbent Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama say Muslims should not vote for Ahok, a Christian.

Katherine Rhone, 15, from the Jakarta Intercultural School, said she was confused as to why religion should matter to political candidates. "The religious affiliation of political leaders shouldn't matter to citizens," she said.

Aminah Shreve, 16, of the British School Jakarta said the students at her school had "tons of friends of different religions, and [they] all get along; religion doesn't get in the way of that."

Aminah said, "my generation has been more exposed to different religions through social media and news." While this younger generation has become more aware of different faiths, wide exposure has also made them "ready to ignore false information and exaggerations from people like [US presidential candidate] Donald Trump", she said.

Whether influenced by social media, the evolution of tolerance or freedom of the press, the youth today seem to "exist peacefully and contribute as much as they can to Indonesia without fear that they're going to be judged for their beliefs", Katherine said.

Indonesia's youth delegate to Unesco and the granddaughter of Mohammad Hatta, Gustika Jusuf Hatta, attended the event and said the students made her feel "very secure about Indonesia's future". She studies history and warfare at London's King's College.

Other event attendees and speakers were British Ambassador to Indonesia Moazzam Malik, former foreign minister and permanent Indonesian delegate to the UN Marty Natalegawa, former military commander Gen. Moeldoko and former environment minister Nabiel Makarim.

[The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/17/students-surprised-religious-discrimination.html

Religion & morality

'Sex is a private matter', legal experts insist

Jakarta Post - September 22, 2016

Jakarta – Legal activists warned Thursday that criminalizing extramarital and gay sex, as is being sought by a conservative Islamic group, would count as a violation of the Constitution, which regards sex as every citizen's basic right.

"Sex is a private matter, not only for heterosexuals but also for homosexuals," Bahrain, director of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), said during a hearing at the Constitutional Court.

Bahrain was referring to a legal challenge filed with the court by a hard-line Islamic group called the Family Love Association (AILA) to make extramarital and gay sex crimes. AILA is concerned about what it sees as moral decadence resulting from casual sex.

The UN Declaration of Human Rights also stipulates that no one shall be subject to arbitrary interference with their privacy, family, home, or correspondence, nor be subject to attacks upon his or her honor and reputation, he added.

Voicing similar opinions, Anugerah Rizki Akbari of the Indonesian Judicial Watch Society of the University of Indonesia (MaPPI UI), said that criminalization should be the last option for solving social problems.

"We live in a nation that has a knack for punishing its citizens instead of finding a prevention strategy," Anugerah said after the hearing.

His research found that of the 1,601 crimes he recorded between 1998 and 2014, 716 were processed under new regulations; this shows that over the past 10 years the government had overly focused on criminalization.

Anugerah added that the government resorted to punishment as the easiest way to show the state was dealing with any problem. (wnd)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/22/sex-is-a-private-matter-legal-experts-insist.html

'Alcohol prohibition will be ineffective'

Jakarta Post - September 22, 2016

Liza Yosephine, Jakarta – Experts doubt an alcohol ban would result in the desired effect intended by the liquor prohibition bill and therefore they are urging lawmakers to consider alternative solutions that are in favor of consumers and producers.

Laws and regulations should keep in mind consumer rights, Indonesian Consumer Foundation member Sudaryatmo said, adding that: "If the banning of alcohol is intended for public good, lawmakers should act in perspective and emphasize the right to safety for consumers."

Meanwhile, Indonesian retailers association deputy chair Tutum Rahanta noted the complicated content of the bill, such as dividing regions into those that completely banned alcohol and those where its circulation would be regulated.

He was skeptical about the effectiveness of its implementation. "Let's see [the government] try to simulate it first, I want to see the logic in this, beginning from the production and distribution," he said.

Tutum gave an example, saying that regulations banning the sale of alcohol in mini-markets were already in place, yet smaller and unofficial markets still sold alcohol.

A ministerial decree in 2015 allowed only supermarkets and hypermarkets to sell alcohol. Sudaryatmo suggested instead a regulation should be enforced requiring companies to list the ingredients.

"It should be more informative for consumers, so they can make their own decisions about whether or not to buy something, this would also make consumers more mature," Sudaryatmo said in a discussion in Jakarta on the alcohol prohibition bill currently being deliberated. It was not necessary to ban alcohol, he added. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/22/alcohol-prohibition-will-be-ineffective.html

Alcohol prohibition bill based on exaggerated concerns: APINDO

Jakarta Post - September 22, 2016

Liza Yosephine, Jakarta – A public policy expert from the Indonesian Employers Association (APINDO) has lambasted the alcohol prohibition bill currently under discussion at the House of Representatives.

The bill was a disproportionate attempt to address a limited social concern at the national level and could affect economic growth, APINDO head of public policy Danang Girindrawardana said on Wednesday, adding that "the bill is too broad an attempt to address a specific issue."

Pointing to concerns over bootleg alcohol, he cautioned lawmakers not to overreact to a perceived crisis in alcohol consumption by drafting a law that could deter investors and was not based on appropriate data. Indonesia has the lowest alcohol consumption rate in Asia.

"The principles of public policies must be based on accurate data. When that data has been complied accurately but is [interpreted in a biased fashion], that creates the wrong public policy," Danang said during a discussion in Jakarta.

The government already had enough laws to regulate and control alcohol consumption, production and distribution, he said.

"The problem lies in the lack of law enforcement and monitoring of the existing regulations", he continued, adding that the lack of oversight resulted in a "desire to create more regulations".

Indonesia was already overregulated, Danang went on, saying this made investors hesitant about coming to Indonesia, because the country was perceived to be unpredictable in the way regulations were issued. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/22/alcohol-prohibition-bill-based-on-exaggerated-concerns-apindo.html

Agriculture & food security

Poor irrigation threatens food self-sufficiency

Jakarta Post - September 21, 2016

Ruslan Sangadji, Palu – A lack of proper irrigation systems in Central Sulawesi resulting from limited technical capabilities and budget constraints could threaten the success of the province's food self-sufficiency program and doom it to failure.

Last year, the province failed to achieve self-sufficiency due to poor irrigation and prolonged drought.

Central Sulawesi Water Resources Agency head Saliman Simanjuntak said irrigation networks in the province had been neglected for decades due to limited budgets and limited technical capabilities.

"The Malonas irrigation network has been neglected for 31 years. We keep financing its maintenance but cannot use it at its maximum level. I don't know how many hundreds of billions of rupiah have been spent, but hundreds of hectares of rice fields cannot be irrigated, even now," he said.

Saliman said the Malonas irrigation network was built in 1985 in Donggala regency under the jurisdiction of the provincial administration. The network has the potential to irrigate 1,625 hectares. However, until now, only 688 ha benefit from irrigation.

He said the irrigation network had been neglected because its tertiary canals were not integrated into a single entity with the primary and secondary canals.

"The planning and implementation of the primary and secondary canals with tertiary canals was separated. So, a lot of water cannot be funneled into the tertiary canals on farmland that should be served," he said.

Until now, he added, the construction of tertiary canals fell within the purview of farmers and farmers lacked the technical abilities and budgets to build them.

"Although certain canals are built and restored every year, the irrigation system will not be optimal because of these problems," he said. In the future, he added, irrigation network planning should properly integrate all levels, from the level of the dam up to the tertiary canal.

Besides the Malonas irrigation network, Saliman added that the condition of the Bunta irrigation network in Banggai regency, built in 1992, had the potential to irrigate 2,481 ha. However, only 1,411 ha are irrigated as of now.

The Air Terang irrigation network in Buol regency, built in 1996 and designed to irrigate 1,028 ha of rice field, is currently only able to irrigate 450 ha of farmland. "In addition to that, the Special Allocation Funds proposal we submitted has also been cut by the central government," he said.

Saliman said these conditions threatened the province's ability to achieve self-sufficiency in food. The province's program designed to achieve self-sufficiency is called Upsus Pajala. In 2015, Central Sulawesi failed to attain self-sufficiency due to prolonged drought and poor irrigation networks.

Central Sulawesi Agriculture Agency head Trie Iriani Lamakampali told The Jakarta Post that while rice production had increased by 2.5 percent in 2015, while corn and soybeans declined.

She said corn production dropped from 170,000 tons in 2014 to 137,000 tons in 2015. Corn fields cover an area of 28,700 ha. Of that area, 2,311 ha were affected by water shortages and 896 ha by crop failure.

Soybean production dropped in 2015 from 16,359 tons to only 13,000 tons. Of the targeted soybean planting area of 6,817 ha in that year, 774 ha were affected by drought and 417 ha by crop failure. "So, I must honestly say that Upsus Pajala in 2015 failed in Central Sulawesi," said Trie.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/21/poor-irrigation-threatens-food-self-sufficiency.html

Governance & administration

External debt reaches $324.2 billion in July

Jakarta Post - September 20, 2016

Ayomi Amindoni, Jakarta – Indonesia's external debt amounted to US$324.2 billion in July, a marginal increase from $323.8 billion in the previous month, according to the latest data from Bank Indonesia (BI). The country's external debt is up 6.4 percent from the same period last year.

The BI data, released Monday, show a year-on-year (yoy) decline in short-term external debt and an increase in long-term external debt, which accounts for the lion's share of total debt. While the foreign indebtedness of private companies decreased from a year ago, public sector external debt soared.

BI said it considered the development of external debt in July healthy, but added it would watch out for risks to the national economy. "Looking ahead, Bank Indonesia will continue to monitor the development of external debt, particularly private sector external debt," the release said.

The central bank said it was aiming to ensure that the external debt played an optimal role in supporting the financing of development without causing risks to macroeconomic stability.

As of July, private sector external debt amounts to $164.5 billion, or 50.7 percent of total external debt, while public sector external debt amounts $159.7 billion, or 49.3 percent of the total.

Private foreign debt is concentrated in the financial sector, manufacturing, mining and utilities, which together account for 75.7 percent of the debt.

Last year, the external indebtedness of businesses in manufacturing and utilities increased, while that of mining companies and financial institutions decreased. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/20/external-debt-reaches-324-2-billion-in-july.html

Budget deficit to soar toward legal limit

Jakarta Post - September 19, 2016

Prima Wirayani and Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Indonesia's state budget deficit is set to soar to its highest level in decades and almost reach the legally allowed limit due to massive revenue shortfalls, including that from the government's flagship tax amnesty program.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati increased once again the nation's fiscal deficit target to 2.7 percent of Indonesia's gross domestic product by year-end, due to higher revenue shortfall. The figure is just short of the legally allowed limit of 3 percent and will be the highest deficit in decades.

Since assuming office at the end of July, Sri Mulyani has risen the deficit target twice, from an initial forecast of 2.35 percent in the 2016 revised state budget, due to a multibillion dollar tax revenue shortfall that has left the budget short of cash for expansion.

"The aim [of widening the fiscal deficit] is to maintain the momentum of the government's priority programs so that they will not be disrupted [by further budget cuts]," she said after a limited Cabinet meeting with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Friday evening.

The fact that budget deficit has been increased without any spending cuts means the government remains committed to spending to boost growth in a time of need, even if it did not have enough cash, economists said.

"The government continues to push for economic growth through a higher budget deficit and without further spending cuts," Gadjah Mada University economist A. Tony Prasentiantono said on Sunday.

Japanese investment bank Nomura even expected the deficit to reach 2.9 percent, but said: "This underscores our long-held view that fiscal policy will remain supportive of growth and that weaker-than-budgeted tax collections are unlikely to result in sharp declines in infrastructure spending for the government to meet the fiscal deficit limit of 3 percent of GDP this year."

"Along with monetary policy easing and continued economic reforms, we believe this should sustain the domestic demand-led recovery," wrote Singapore-based Nomura analysts Euben Paracuelles and Lavanya Venkateswaran in a report published Friday.

In its attempt to boost economic growth from a six-year low of 4.79 percent last year, the government is facing the issue of a cash-strapped state budget due to target overshoot and a weak economy.

The Finance Ministry's fiscal policy agency head Suahasil Nazara said the widening deficit had been planned considering state revenue risks that have emerged amid an acceleration in state spending.

"[The revenue risks] come from overall taxation revenue, including that from the tax amnesty," he told The Jakarta Post.

The government expected a Rp 219 trillion (US$16.65 billion) revenue shortfall this year, causing state spending to be cut by Rp 137 trillion just weeks after Sri Mulyani took the helm of the Finance Ministry. As of early August, state revenues had only reached 46.1 percent of the target in the revised state budget of Rp 1.79 quadrillion, according to the latest data from the ministry.

Meanwhile, state revenue from the government's tax amnesty program only reached Rp 25.8 trillion as of Sunday, 15.6 percent of the Rp 165 trillion target due next December.

Exacerbating the outlook is higher-than-budgeted state spending for cost recovery, a scheme that reimburses oil companies for exploration and production costs, which also means that non-tax state revenues from natural resources will decline, Sri Mulyani said.

In addition, some ministries are likely to absorb their budgets faster due to better planning since early this year and presidential instruction to accelerate infrastructure-related spending, she went on. Government spending disbursement is expected to reach 97.1 percent, from the previous expectation of 95 percent.

Bank Mandiri senior economist Andry Asmoro suggested that the government issue Rp 24 trillion bonds to plug the higher fiscal deficit, which is considered to still be at a normal level.

"The risks would not be too big for the state budget," he added. "We have forecast that the deficit will widen because the government's budget disbursement has been much better. The problem is on the tax revenue side."

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/19/budget-deficit-to-soar-toward-legal-limit.html

Parliament & legislation

Arrest blow to DPD's bid for more power

Jakarta Post - September 20, 2016

Haeril Halim and Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – The recent arrest of Regional Representatives Council (DPD) Speaker Irman Gusman on a bribery charge may hinder the council's move to gain more legislative power as political parties could use the arrest as a pretext to reject the proposal.

House of Representatives Speaker Ade Komarudin of the Golkar Party said the arrest would negatively affect the proposal to strengthen the DPD's authority in the lawmaking process.

"I'm afraid that following the Irman case, the plan to grant the DPD more power will trigger public concern," Ade said on Monday.

As a consequence of his arrest, Irman could also lose his speaker's position as the DPD ethics council has the power to dismiss him.

DPD ethics council chairman AM Fatwa said the dismissal of Irman was justified under Article 52 of DPD internal regulations, which provides for the removal of any DPD member who is named a suspect in a criminal case.

"This case is a blow to our institution, but we must follow the regulations. I actually suggest that Irman immediately resign instead of waiting for the ethics council to dishonorably dismiss him," Fatwa said.

The arrest took place amid the DPD's effort to secure more legislative power through a constitutional amendment. As reported previously, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) plans to reinstate the former state policy guidelines to increase the DPD's influence.

The DPD, a branch of the nation's legislative body representing the provinces, has demanded equal rights to the House, another branch of the legislative body representing political parties, in formulating legislation, budgets and supervising the government.

Political parties in the House are reluctant to share power with the DPD in lawmaking, budgeting and supervision and Irman's case is likely to strengthen the House's hand.

"How can we amend [the councilors' authority] given this situation? But we agree that the case has nothing to do with the DPD's authority. It bears no relation," said Golkar politician Rambe Kamarulzaman, who is also a member of the MPR team in charge of drafting the amendment.

Deputy chairman of the NasDem Party faction, Johnny G. Plate, said Irman's graft case was a personal matter and bore no relation to the council's authority. He, however, said strengthening the DPD authority would improve nothing.

As the regional representative body, the DPD has no role in export-import policy, the issue in which Irman has been implicated.

The DPD has little authority in lawmaking, as the Constitution and Legislative Law only gives the councilors the authority to propose recommendations. They have no voice in decision-making.

However, as the leader of a public institution, Irman is regarded as an influential stakeholder.

"The DPD is one of the highest state institutions. No matter the position, it's still influential. Although the Constitution gives them limited authority, the councilors still have access and relations," said Siti Zuhro, political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

Separately, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has said it is investigating whether Irman collected bribes from agencies other than the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) in the case it is currently investigating.

Irman, who hails from West Sumatra, was allegedly caught red-handed on Saturday accepting Rp 100 million (US$7,600) from sugar-importing company CV Semesta Berjaya president director Xaveriandy Sutanto, who is also a defendant in another case, for Irman's services in helping the company get the sugar import quota allocated for West Sumatra from Bulog.

Bulog is not an agency under the supervision of the DPD and the latter has no budgetary authority such as the House has, but the KPK has accused Irman of using his influence as a DPD member representing West Sumatra to informally lobby for the sugar-importation quota from Bulog.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/20/arrest-blow-to-dpds-bid-for-more-power.html

Arrest deals further blow to legislative body

Jakarta Post - September 19, 2016

Margareth S. Aritonang and Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The weekend arrest of Regional Representatives Council (DPD) speaker Irman Gusman over alleged bribery has further tainted the image of the country's legislative branch, which has seen dozens of its members jailed for corruption in recent years.

Investigators from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested Irman in a sting operation in the early hours of Saturday at his private residence in Central Jakarta along with three other individuals: director of trading firm CV Semesta Berjaya Xaveriandy, his wife Memi and his brother Willy Sutanto.

Soon after the arrest, the KPK named Irman, a Democratic Party senior politician, a suspect for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rp 100 million (US$7,600) in return for his services in recommending an increased quota on imported sugar to West Sumatra to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to allow Xaveriandy's firm to join the import program.

"Our investigators collected solid information before we went to IG's [Irman Gusman's] house and made the arrest," KPK deputy chairman Laode Muhammad Syarif said on Sunday. Laode also said investigators had evidence that Irman had called a Bulog official to make the recommendation.

Irman is not the first head of a state institution to be nabbed by the KPK for graft. In 2013, the anticorruption body arrested then Constitutional Court chief Akil Mochtar at his private residence for accepting bribes worth S$284.050 and $22.000 to influence a legal process related to local election fraud.

As for members of legislative bodies, this year the KPK has arrested at least four lawmakers in graft cases. In June, the KPK arrested another Democratic Party politician, I Putu Sudiartana, as part of a bribery case.

Earlier this year, the antigraft body arrested Damayanti Wisnu Putranti of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction in a graft case related to a construction project.

Her colleagues at House of Representatives Commission V, namely Budi Supriyanto of the Golkar Party faction and Andi Taufan Tiro of the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction, have also been named suspects in the case.

Surveys conducted by various pollsters have found that legislative bodies, especially the DPD and the House, were the least trusted institutions in the country.

A study by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) early this month showed that both institutions were considered the most untrustworthy state institutions.

Scoring a lower satisfaction rate than the other 12 state institutions examined in the survey, almost 40 percent of the 1,000 respondents considered the DPD and House to lack integrity. Meanwhile, 67.5 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the work of legislative bodies and the House in particular.

Contacted separately, Irman's attorney Tommy Singh said his client was not a junior politician who would accept such a small amount of cash as a bribe. "The amount is too small. This is not his caliber," Tommy told reporters.

Tommy also said Irman's recommendation to Bulog was optional. "I can recommend that you stay at the Marriott Hotel, for example. It is up to you whether or not you follow up on my recommendation. It is the same thing [with this case]," he told The Jakarta Post.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/19/arrest-deals-further-blow-legislative-body.html

Jakarta & urban life

Proud slum residents fight eviction from flood-prone Ciliwung river bank

Sydney Morning Herald - September 17, 2016

Jewel Topsfield, Jakarta – In a dank slum tenement on the banks of the Ciliwung, a fecal-coloured river spewing rubbish, Kasmo stoops to pick up a squawking chicken.

Like many residents of Bukit Duri, a waterfront shanty town in South Jakarta, Kasmo slaughters chickens for a living. It's not glamorous work: squatting in the semi-darkness plucking bloody guts from a pile of corpses.

But Kasmo, who has lived here for 35 years, says residents send the money back to their villages in Java.

He boasts that there they can afford to build houses that are larger than the Jakarta home of controversial governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, or Ahok as he is better known. "That's what Ahok doesn't understand – how can people living here [in the slums] build beautiful houses in Java?"

Ahok looms large in the lives of the residents of Bukit Dari. The notoriously blunt and ruthlessly efficient governor is seeking to transform the sprawling, chaotic, flood-prone capital into an orderly city resembling Singapore.

In his sights have been so-called "illegal settlements" where the urban poor squat along the city's riverbanks, train tracks, and other areas designated as public space. According to the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) there were 113 evictions in Jakarta in 2015 alone, affecting more than 8000 families.

In February, the former red light district of Kalijodo was virtually razed overnight after Ahok decided he wanted to clean up the so-called den of vice and turn it into a park.

And now 440 households in Bukit Duri have been served with eviction notices, as part of a plan to mitigate flooding by widening the Ciliwung river.

Those facing eviction have been offered low-rent apartments known as rusunawa about 16 kilometres away in East Jakarta. But some have no desire to leave Bukit Duri, where they have lived for decades. It is the hub around which their social life and livelihoods revolve. "How can we slaughter chickens in an apartment?" Kasmo asks.

Flooding is one of the problems that bedevils Jakarta, a low-lying city that is sinking slowly into the sea. Heavy rain will inevitably bring the capital, where traffic is a nightmare at the best of times, to a grinding halt. Conservation group WWF has ranked Jakarta among the Asian coastal cities most vulnerable to climate change.

"The wet season in Jakarta has become wetter and therefore the city experiences more flooding, which is compounded by clogged sewage pipes and waterways and the fact that much of the city is at or near sea level," its report, Mega-stress for mega-cities, says.

In January 2013, more than 40 people were killed and 20,000 evacuated when Jakarta experienced its worst flood in years.

Soon after Ahok was sworn in as the city's 16th governor in late 2014, he commenced plans to demolish houses and buildings along the banks of Ciliwung. This was part of a massive flood-mitigation project to widen and deepen Jakarta's largest river.

"Now, you can see which parts of the capital get inundated?," Ahok was quoted saying in the Jakarta Post in June. "South and East Jakarta. This is because the Ciliwung River overflows from the many people still occupying its banks."

In 2012, the residents of Bukit Duri invited Ahok and Joko Widodo, now the president of Indonesia, to their community house Sanggar Ciliwung. "Ahok sat there and Jokowi [the president's nickname] sat over there," says activist Sandyawan Sumardi, gesturing to low wooden platforms.

Sandyawan leads a foundation called Ciliwung Merdeka, which has been providing medical services and education to Bukit Duri slum dwellers since a major flood in 2000. With the assistance of architects and academics, Ciliwung Merdeka presented Ahok and Jokowi with an alternative solution to the city's resettlement plan.

The proposal involved building an elevated village, known as Kampung Susun, on nearby land, which would mean the people were not displaced from their economic and cultural activities. The residents would fund 30 per cent of the cost of construction, the city 50 per cent and private investors 20 per cent.

Jokowi and Ahok appeared to support the concept. "At the time the people were very happy," Sandyawan says. But later Jokowi and Ahok told them the Public Works Ministry had rejected the social housing plan because it was on the banks of the Ciliwung River.

The people of Bukit Duri are widely portrayed as illegal squatters, who are ungrateful for rejecting relatively luxurious apartments. Sandyawan resents that they have been vilified by the media and the middle class.

"It's too much if they bully us as if we are only garbage of the development of this city," Sandyawan says. "Even the governor said we are reclaiming the river."

In fact many residents do have some ownership documents, including letters issued by the Dutch government prior to Indonesian independence. But Ahok says these are not land deeds.

"Yes, they have documentation, but what sort?" he was quoted saying on beritajakarta.com. "In fact they only have bills of sale for their homes, which were built on state land."

The governor says a map made during the colonial era indicated the Ciliwung river was 60 metres wide. Today it has narrowed to five or 10 metres. "That means they reclaimed land without a permit."

Outside Kasmo's home is a painting of an ugly grey apartment block. Written in capitals below is: Beton bukan solusi!!! (Concrete is not the solution.)

The apartment complex in East Jakarta where they will be relocated is two hours away by bus. The city has said the evictees will not receive compensation because they have been living illegally on state land.

"If we move we have to pay rent for the rest of our lives, whereas here is free," Kasmo says. Living expenses are likely to jump from the equivalent of about $10 to $20 a month to $70 to $100. On top of this, many will lose their source of income in the move.

"They are saying that the people here are irrational," Sandyawan says. "But it is very logical that they refuse."

In May, Bukit Duri residents launched a class action in the Central Jakarta District Court against the city's plan to widen the Ciliwung river.

Lawyer Vera Soemarwi says the city has no more than three years to carry out infrastructure projects on land it does not own. She says the time frame for the flood mitigation project expired on October 5, 2015.

"If we win, and as a consequence the Jakarta administration must pay compensation, we will use part of the money to purchase a plot of land still within the Bukit Duri area and the rest of the money to build an elevated village," Soemarwi says.

But a class action could drag on for a year, and the city has vowed to push ahead with the evictions. "They can protest if they want, but give me another solution," Ahok was quoted saying in The Jakarta Post.

Residents have already received two of three eviction warning letters. Sandyawan says they feel betrayed because the court case is still underway. But there are some, he says, who have already dismantled their houses because of the fear of demolition.

On Wednesday, Kasmo and other residents met Hendrawan Supratikno, a senior legislator from Jokowi's PDIP political party. He was sympathetic to their plight but pointed out they would be eligible for a government health insurance scheme, education subsidies for their children and other facilities in the new apartments.

"This river normalisation program is a national program and it has to be carried out," Hendrawan says. "On the other hand we don't want to and must not kill people's source of income."

He said he had asked the Jakarta administration to look for areas where the residents could continue to work, such as a space to slaughter chickens, near the new apartments in East Jakarta. "I think we must find a win-win solution."

Meanwhile, the demolition of empty homes in Bukit Duri is expected to start next week. (With Karuni Rompies)

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/proud-slum-residents-fight-eviction-from-floodprone-ciliwung-river-bank-20160917-grhocr.html

Transport & communication

Five out of ten of the world's worst cities for driving are in Indonesia, Waze

Jakarta Globe - September 19, 2016

Jakarta – Five out of ten of the world's worst cities for driving are in Indonesia, a survey of popular navigation app Waze revealed recently.

The Waze's Driver Satisfaction Index which analyzed the driving experience of millions of monthly active Waze users in 38 countries and 235 city was released last week.

The survey aimed to create a single numeric score on driver's satisfaction which involves six qualitative and quantitative attributes: traffic, safety, driver services, road quality, social economic factors and helpfulness of the navigation app.

Bogor in West Java was the second worst city for driving with a score of 2.15 on the Waze index – 10 being "satisfying" and 1 "miserable." The only city worse than Bogor was Cebu in the Philippines which topped the worst cities for driving list with a score of 1.15.

Denpasar in Bali, Bandung in West Java and Surabaya in East Java occupied fourth to sixth place in the survey, scoring 2.89, 3.00 and 3.14 respectively. Indonesia's capital Jakarta was ranked the ninth worst city for driving with 3.39 points.

The survey also showed Jakarta is still the most dense metro for driving with a 0.54 index point that means Jakarta drivers spend a lot of time trapped in traffic jams. Denpasar and Surabaya scored 0.90 and 0.94 respectively on the traffic density indicator.

Even so, Jakarta was classified as a safe city to drive with a safety rating of 9.78, higher than the 8.8 average.

The survey listed eight cities in France and two US metros in the top-ten best cities for driving. The French cities of Valence, Tours, Lemans, Saint-Étienne, Avignon, Reims, Nimes, Douai-Lens and Orleans dominated the top ten in the list, with Grensboro and Grand Rapids in the US taking out fourth and tenth place.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/five-ten-worlds-worst-cities-driving-indonesia-waze-says/

Film & television

Ministry concerned over spread of radical ideology via television, radio

Jakarta Post - September 16, 2016

Marguerite Afra Sapiie, Jakarta – The Religious Affairs Ministry expressed concern on Thursday over the spread of radical ideologies through dakwah (religious outreach) programs aired by local television and radio stations that featured radical clerics.

Television and radio stations should conduct thorough and proper screening of religious preachers before giving them airtime because citizens often considered electronic media as a source of trustworthy information, the Ministry's secretary-general, Nur Syam, said.

"We are sometimes disappointed that figures who we know as radicals are invited [onto shows] as speakers. Television and radio stations should be aware of [the need for] conducting proper screening," Nur Syam said during a hearing at the House of Representatives.

He further urged lawmakers in the House special committee tasked with deliberating the Terrorism Law to insert articles in the terrorism bill that would give officials the authority to ban media outlets that spread radical ideologies that went against the nation's ideology.

This would include hate speech, anti-nationalism, as well as provocations to commit violence toward certain persons or community groups, he went on.

Meanwhile, special committee member Martin Hutabarat from the Gerindra party said that aside from radical dakwah circulating on television and radio stations, the government should also monitor religious outreach programs conducted in houses of worship in order to prevent the spread of radicalism. (dmr)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/16/ministry-concerned-over-spread-of-radical-ideology-via-television-radio.html

Armed forces & defense

Indonesian military trains on Australian soil for first time since Timor crisis

ABC Radio Australia - September 22, 2016

Andrew Greene – Members of Indonesia's armed forces have wrapped up their first training exercise in Australia since diplomatic relations between both countries soured over the East Timor crisis two decades ago.

For the past two weeks, Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI) soldiers have worked alongside 1st Brigade soldiers in Darwin as part of Exercise Wirra Jaya – the first joint activity on Australian soil since 1995.

Relations between the two nations collapsed four years later when the Australian-led INTERFET taskforce deployed to East Timor ahead of the territory's push for independence from Indonesia.

Two years ago the Australian Federal Police (AFP) abandoned a war crimes investigation into the TNI's killing of five Australian journalists at Balibo in East Timor in 1975.

Colonel Steve D'Arcy from the Army's 1st Brigade said the relationship between both armies continued to strengthen.

"We've worked together for a long time and every year, every time we do something like this, that relationship continues to strengthen and build, and it is a very strong relationship and it only gets better," he said.

"Our relationship with Indonesia is vitally important and to underpin that, operations or exercises like this are really important to developing those individual, team and also commander-to-commander relationships," he added.

Since September 11, elements of 5 RAR and the Indonesian Army's 203rd Mechanised Battalion have taken part in partnered combined arms training, urban operations training and a number of professional military education serials.

This morning, Indonesian and Australian soldiers exchanged parting gifts at a farewell parade at Darwin's Robertson Barracks.

Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2016-09-23/indonesian-military-trains-on-australian-soil-for-first-time-since-timor-crisis/1620222

Ryamizard appoints 124 state defense recruits

Jakarta Post - September 21, 2016

Jayapura – Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu appointed 124 school-aged youths as state defense program recruits in Skouw-Wutung, located at the Indonesia-Papua New Guinea border on Tuesday.

The appointment of the defense program recruits was made official by attaching pins on them.

"State defense awareness is very important as a state force for the sake of keeping the Republic of Indonesia intact as well as protecting the nation from threats, be they from outside or inside the country," said Ryamizard. He added that global development was increasing at a rapid and uncontrolled pace, so the young generation must be equipped with the values of nationalism and statehood.

The border area in eastern Indonesia was chosen because Jayapura is an entrance to Indonesia from the east. The government is seeking to infuse the region's young generation with a sense of nationalism to meet challenges from the outside world.

Skouw Mabo village leader Yans S. Mallo welcomed the appointment of the state defense program recruits, saying that it showed the government was paying attention to the region.

During the occasion, Ryamizard was also declared a native son, marked by Mallo placing a traditional Papuan hat on his head and Papua New Guinea's Wutung village leader Stenly Tanva placing a noken traditional bag around his neck

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/21/island-focus-ryamizard-appoints-124-state-defense-recruits.html

Criminal justice & legal system

Tragic story of death-row maid caught up in Asia's war on drugs

The Guardian (Australia) - September 17, 2016

Oliver Holmes – She has become a cause celebre in both the country of her detention and that of her birth. Condemned to death on drug-smuggling charges, she was temporarily reprieved hours before her execution, but still languishes on death row in an Indonesian prison. And last week the skies darkened again over Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino maid whose plight has captured the imagination of two populations that know all about the vulnerability of migrant workers.

After the Philippines' president, the newly installed Rodrigo Duterte, visited Jakarta, it was reported that he had given his Indonesian counterpart, Joko Widodo, the go-ahead to execute her. Duterte has begun a ferocious and bloody war on drugs in the Philippines. That change of political direction has, it seems, led to yet another twist in the tortured tale of a woman who lost control of her life from the moment she entered Indonesia in 2010, hoping, she has said, to take up a job in domestic service.

Amid public outrage in the Philippines, Widodo subsequently clarified that Duterte had said: "Please, go ahead with the process in line with the law in Indonesia," without naming Veloso. Few of her supporters were reassured. "We demand an immediate explanation from President Duterte... duty-bound to defend the rights of Filipinos overseas, especially drug-trafficking victims like Mary Jane," said Migrante International, a group that campaigns for the Veloso family.

Born to an impoverished family in the northern city of Cabanatuan, Veloso married at 17 but later separated from her husband. She moved to the United Arab Emirates in 2009 to earn money for her two young sons in the Philippines.

Veloso says that she had to flee Dubai after an attempted rape and was then duped into smuggling drugs into Indonesia. Her case has become the focus of sympathy in both the Philippines and Indonesia, where many families have loved ones working abroad, often in poor conditions with abusive employers. Before the original date set for her execution last April, more than 200,000 signatures from 127 countries were collected for a #SaveMaryJane petition.

Veloso says that a woman called Maria Kristina Sergio, the daughter of one of her godparents, told her to move to Indonesia for a maid's job in 2010. In an account that Sergio disputes, Veloso says the woman gave her new clothes and a bag that she says she was unaware had 2.6kg (5.7lb) of heroin sewn into it.

"We're poor and I wanted to change our life, but I could never commit the crime they have accused me of," Veloso wrote last year in a letter to the then president, Benigno Aquino.

Her legal team launched two appeals in Indonesia, one that argued she did not have a competent translator, and a second saying she was scammed. Both were rejected.

As her April 2015 execution date approached, protesters in the Philippines and Indonesia rallied to save her and hundreds of people held vigils outside the Indonesian embassy in Manila. Even world boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao made a public plea for her life.

Two days before Veloso's execution date, her family was allowed a visit. She explained to her sons that she would not be coming home. Her youngest child, six-year-old Mark Darren, said he would try to think that "Mama is in heaven".

Then Indonesia shot dead eight people, including two Australians, part of the Bali Nine heroin-smuggling ring, four Nigerians, a Brazilian and an Indonesian. But not Veloso, although several newspapers in the Philippines reported she was dead. The hashtag "maryjanelives" trended on Twitter across the Philippines and Indonesia.

The reprieve was down to an unexpected turn of events in her homeland. Veloso's alleged trafficker, Sergio, had handed herself in to police hours before the execution. And Aquino, invoking a regional treaty that compels nations to co-operate on transnational crime, asked Indonesia to keep Veloso alive. He said she was needed to testify in the case against Sergio and another man, now accused of trafficking, illegal recruitment and fraud.

Indonesia's president insisted that the execution was merely postponed, but the campaign for clemency had new grounds for hope.

A year on, the accession of Duterte to the presidency has again changed the dynamics of Veloso's case. Duterte's first three months in office have been dominated by a bloody crackdown that has left 3,526 drug dealers and addicts dead, most of them in extrajudicial killings by vigilante groups, actions that were publicly encouraged by Duterte before he was elected.

Senator Leila de Lima, who has been leading a senate hearing into the killings and is one of the main domestic critics of Duterte, said that she was "sad and heartbroken that the president will throw away all our efforts to save a life just like that, when it is still in his power to request the holding off of the execution".

But it was no surprise, she added, that Veloso's life might seem of no worth to an administration that had adopted judicial or extrajudicial executions as "government policy".

Even Duterte has said that fighting for Veloso's life would sit badly with his drugs crackdown. "It would have left a bad taste in the mouth to be talking about having a strong posture against drugs and here you are begging for something," he told reporters, adding that he told Widodo he supported the death penalty in Indonesia. Capital punishment was outlawed in the Philippines in 2006.

Veloso's legal team told the Observer it was very concerned. "Mary Jane is a victim of dire poverty, of lack of real opportunities for a decent job, of pernicious drug and human trafficking. The law may be the law, but it should not be blind or deaf to reality," lawyer Edre Olalia wrote in an email.

"As the leader of this nation and as the pater familias of all Filipinos, President Duterte is expected to rise to his bounden duty and fight for her, and fight hard as he does for all victims of this transnational infection."

Widodo's reported conversation with Duterte has reinvigorated public interest in Veloso's case and the office of Indonesia's attorney general said last week that she would not be killed in the next wave of executions. The judge in the case involving Sergio said that she would fly to Indonesia this month to get a deposition from Veloso in her prison cell. Veloso's supporters believe that a trial can vindicate her, if it can prove she was used as a pawn.

"Winning the case will codify Mary Jane's innocence and erase all doubts that she should be spared from execution," said Garry Martinez, chair of Migrante International.

Ruperto Santos, a prominent Roman Catholic bishop in the Philippines, said that "conflicting reports regarding the actions of President Duterte" on the Veloso case were regrettable. "Let us continue to pray for her, that her life be spared."

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/17/philippines-president-heroin-deterte-mary-jane-veloso-death-row

Police & law enforcement

AGO to follow up on police's findings

Jakarta Post - September 17, 2016

Jakarta – Attorney General M. Prasetyo has said his office will create a fact-finding team to follow up on allegations that a prosecutor had extorted money from a suspect in a drug case.

The allegations arose following one month of investigations by an independent team comprising police members and experts, who tried to find evidence that police personnel had facilitated the business of executed drug kingpin Freddy Budiman.

While the independent team did not find evidence of police personnel involved in Freddy's business, as alleged earlier by human rights activist Haris Azhar, they found indications of extortion by a prosecutor handling Freddy's case.

"With the facts found [by the police's independent team], I think [we will] establish a fact-finding team to follow up on the police's findings," Prasetyo said as quoted by kompas.com.

The prosecutor allegedly demanded a sum of money from drug convict Tedja to have his charges changed. Tedja, also known as Rudi, was Freddy's partner in distributing 1.4 million ecstasy pills.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/17/national-scene-ago-follow-police-s-findings.html

Police officers paid off by drug ring, investigators find

Jakarta Post - September 16, 2016

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – While failing to prove any collusion between police officers and executed drug kingpin Freddy Budiman, an independent team said on Thursday that it had instead found officers' involvement with another drug syndicate.

Ending one month of investigations, the fact-finding team comprising police members and experts, announced that it had not found evidence of police personnel facilitating Freddy's business, as alleged earlier by human rights activist Haris Azhar.

However, the investigation revealed transfers of more than Rp 2.5 billion (US$190,000) to certain police personnel.

Team member Effendi Ghazali said Rp 668 million had been transferred by drug convict Akiong to a middle-ranking officer identified by his initial KPS. Five separate transfers of Rp 25 million, Rp 50 million, Rp 77 million, Rp 700 million and more than Rp 1 billion to unidentified officers were also discovered. The police's Internal Affairs Division is further examining the findings.

"Indeed we did not find any transfer of money from the late Freddy Budiman to certain officials in the National Police, as he had told Haris Azhar," Effendi told a press conference on Thursday. "But don't focus on that specific case only. Our investigation has found the transfer of money [related with Akiong]".

Effendi explained that the failure to substantiate Freddy's claims was due to technical challenges, such as the limited time given to the team to carry out the investigation. He cited the long delay between the moment Freddy testified to Haris in 2014 and the time when Haris eventually posted the testimony on social media last July as one of the challenges faced by his team.

The communications expert said corruption was hampering the government's efforts to eradicate drugs in the country.

As a further indication of difficulties faced by the government in its war on drugs, Effendi presented findings on the practice of frequently changing command structures in the narcotics business. The team, he said, had found that a drug convict named Tedja had been falsely identified as someone named Rudi, who was allegedly Freddy's partner in marketing 1.4 million ecstasy pills.

Effendi said Tedja was currently on death row as he failed to pay a judge, whose identity is yet to be revealed, during his trial.

Besides Effendi, the investigation team engaged two other members from outside the police corps, including National Police Commission (Kompolnas) member Poengky Indarti, who was formerly the director of Jakarta-based human rights monitor Imparsial. The rest of the 16 team members are police officers.

The team was set up by National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian last month, not long after Haris was berated by the National Police, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) for making public testimony in which Freddy allegedly revealed support from law enforcement officials for his drugs business.

The three institutions then quickly reported the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) to the National Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) over defamation.

Haris' legal status still hangs in the balance, because police have yet to decide whether or not to proceed with the process following the conclusion of the investigation team.

National Police spokesperson Insp. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said the police would comply with the team's recommendation to set up a working team to follow up the investigation team's findings.

Contacted separately, Haris said he appreciated the work of the police's team and expected further action to cleanse the institution from corrupt practices that backed drug businesses.

"The findings can be a starting point for the police to raise public awareness on the war against drugs. If the government seriously considers drugs an extraordinary crime, then it must show serious action to prove its commitment," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/16/police-officers-paid-off-by-drug-ring-investigators-find.html

Foreign affairs & trade

Indonesia sees gloomy outlook with poor export performance

Jakarta Post - September 16, 2016

Stefani Ribka, Jakarta – Indonesia is likely to find it a challenge matching, let alone surpassing, its trade performance last year as the value of exports nosedived by double-digits during the first eight months of 2016.

On Thursday, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported that the country's exports stood at US$91.73 billion in the January-August period, down by 10.61 percent compared to the corresponding period last year. In 2015, the value of Indonesia's total exports reached $150 billion while imports stood at $142 billion.

BPS deputy head for distribution and statistics Sasmito Hadi Wibowo said Indonesia must ship goods worth an average of $15 billion overseas every month until the end of the year to achieve a similar export figure to last year. "Given the current weak conditions, it will be difficult [to reach the target]. As of now, we have only seen $12 billion of exports per month on average," he said.

Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) trade researcher Muhammad Hanif also believes it will be hard for Indonesian exports to reach beyond $150 billion, citing time constraints and weak global demand. "It's very tough to do," he said.

The global economic slowdown has led to the collapse of South Korea's biggest container line Hanjin Shipping Co., which transported an estimated 5 percent of Indonesia's exports and imports, including consumer goods, chemicals and industrial components.

Hanjin, the world's seventh-largest shipping line, filed on Aug. 31 for bankruptcy protection in the US to protect its assets from being seized by creditors. The company, which operates more than 60 vessels, reported that it had debts of $5.5 billion as of June, against a backdrop of sluggish international trade.

In a research note distributed on Thursday, Bank Central Asia (BCA), the country's largest private lender by assets, however, suggested that export activities are likely to improve by year-end, as macro stabilization in the G3 (US, eurozone and Japan) and also in China, boosts demand.

However, there might be downside risks from an anticipated move by the US Federal Reserve to increase interest rates and a lack of improvement in the crude palm oil (CPO) market outlook, all of which could suppress commodity prices.

Both Hanif and Sasmito acknowledged that the Hanjin collapse would have an impact on supply chain flow, causing delivery and production delays, as much of the products shipped include raw components for manufacturers.

However, the line's problems should not affect Indonesia's trade balance significantly as other shipping firms are waiting to step in.

To boost monthly export growth, the BPS recommends an increase in the export of processed goods. The export proportion of processed goods rose to 76.68 percent in the January-to-August period, compared to 71.67 percent in the corresponding period last year.

The processed products include palm oil with an export value of $9.2 billion; clothing, $4.2 billion; jewelry, $3.5 billion; cars and spare parts, $3.2 billion; electric devices, $2.9 billion; gold, $1.4 billion; and processed coffee beans at $359 million.

"Global demand has not recovered yet but we can create demand by offering processed goods at competitive prices and we can do that because we have a great deal of raw materials," the BPS' Sasmito said.

He gave as examples Indonesia's abundant production of rubber, CPO, coffee and chocolate, all of which can be processed.

Although a decline in total exports is expected this year, exports increased significantly by 32.54 percent to $12.63 billion in August, up from $9.53 billion in July thanks to a rebound from the previous month, during which fell the two-week Idul Fitri holiday season.

However, imports rose by 36.84 percent month-on-month (mom) to $12.34 billion last month. The import of various products ranging from mechanics and electronic devices, steels, cars, wheat, beef, sugar, corn and plastics from China, Thailand, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, Vietnam, Germany and Taiwan dragging down the trade balance.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/16/ri-sees-gloomy-outlook-with-poor-export-performance.html

Economy & investment

Government plans to boost manufacturing by 8.4%

Jakarta Post - September 21, 2016

Stefani Ribka, Jakarta – After several years of weak manufacturing industry growth, the government hopes to spur the sector through a masterplan that will shift activities from Java and prioritize specific industries.

The government has set a target of boosting manufacturing by 8.4 percent by 2019 after five years of 4 percent annual growth, well below overall economic growth, amid signs of de-industrialization.

During the 1990s, manufacturing grew at twice the pace of GDP growth, with the labor-intensive sector accounting for 30 percent of GDP, a rate that has since dropped to well below 25 percent.

"We need to improve the manufacturing sector," Industry Minister Airlangga Hartato said when opening the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (Kadin) national coordination meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday.

In doing so, the government has drafted the National Industry Development Masterplan (RIPIN), which aims to even out industrial growth nationwide, not only in Java, by providing tax incentives and improving infrastructure outside the main island by 2019. Today, 70 percent of the manufacturing sector is concentrated on Java Island.

Under RIPIN, four manufacturing sectors are being prioritized: labor-intensive (food and beverages, furniture and footwear), import substitution (chemicals and pharmaceuticals, iron and steel), export orientation (electronics, palm oil and derivatives, pulp and paper, automotive) and downstream (cacao, sugar, smelter). Oil and gas products like petrochemicals are also prioritized.

"Since 1998, we've had no newcomer in the petrochemical sector – not because there's no demand anymore, but it's being met by imports from China," Airlangga said. The government is planning to develop a petrochemical industry in Bintuni in West Papua.

Kadin vice chairman for industry Johnny Darmawan said businesspeople were discouraged from investing by the lack of infrastructure outside Java. "The government needs to act fast in disbursing funds to develop infrastructure once the budget is set," he said on the sidelines of the meeting.

High gas, electricity and logistics costs, as well as lengthy dwell times – the time taken for goods to be loaded and unloaded at ports – are also cited as impediments to growth in the manufacturing sector, industry players have said.

Unwillingness by local companies to use local products and government policy flip-flop are two others, said Kadin vice chairman for trade Benny Soetrisno and Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki) secretary general Togar Sitanggang.

Airlangga maintained that ASEAN economies, especially Indonesia as the largest, hoped to provide stable growth to the world amid China's lackluster economic performance, with the manufacturing sector poised to expand to fill the gap left by the slowdown in the commodities sector.

The government is also considering the establishment of a development bank to finance manufacturers with long-term projects, boost the participation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in production, as well as marketing value-added products and developing the digital economy to expedite business transactions.

In 2015, non-oil and gas manufacturing grew 4.61 percent. Machinery, equipment and transportation led the growth, while the biggest contributors to the sector remained food and beverages, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and traditional medicines. On the other hand, textiles, garments, rubber and plastics all suffered contractions.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/21/govt-plans-boost-manufacturing-84.html

Obstacles remain high for RI to develop manufacturing

Jakarta Post - September 17, 2016

Stefani Ribka, Jakarta – Value-added products such as processed coffee beans, chocolate, cars and spare parts are enjoying higher demand worldwide compared to raw commodities, but Indonesia is being left behind neighboring countries due to its underdeveloped manufacturing industry.

The US-Indonesia Investment Report 2016 published by the US Chamber of Commerce and American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) Indonesia emphasizes the importance of developing a viable manufacturing industry in Indonesia to balance against plunging commodity prices.

"With the decline in commodity prices, manufacturing is once again relatively attractive for investment," the report reads.

However, several issues hold back the country's manufacturing, from low labor productivity and high logistics cost due to a lack of quality infrastructure and cumbersome business regulations and tax payments.

Several business associations interviewed by the The Jakarta Post acknowledged the truths highlighted within the report.

Indonesia's labor intensive garment industry has low labor productivity compared to other countries. Textile Industry Association (API) chairman Ade Sudrajat said workers were only allowed to work 40 hours a week as stipulated by the Indonesian Labor Law. In some neighboring countries, workers can work at least 48 hours in a week.

The law also allows workers to form labor unions with just 10 members and obliges employers to provide overlapping incentives once a labor contract has ended. This motivates unions to end contracts early in order to get more benefits, claimed Ade. Meanwhile, in terms of logistics, costs have remained stubbornly high at 24 percent of total gross domestic product (GDP). Thailand, by contrast, records logistics costs at 16 percent of its GDP.

High logistics costs – stemming from a lack of infrastructure and inefficient supply chains – have posed problems for various manufacturers, with some even forced to close down operations in the face of soaring costs.

Indonesian Association of Rubber Producers (Gapkindo) advisor Daud Husni Bastari cited the collapse of a number of rubber-glove firms in North Sumatra due to high industrial gas costs, leaving investors with no choice but move to Malaysia.

Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) fisheries division chairman Thomas Darmawan also pointed to the fact that the marine processing industry was spread primarily throughout Java and in a handful of big cities outside of Java due to limited logistics facilities in other parts of the country.

"There are many fishing areas outside Java, but the fisheries industry is not well-developed due to a lack of infrastructure, from damaged roads to electricity shortages," he said.

Thomas lamented the absence of various marine manufacturing facilities, as these could potentially produce numerous value-added goods, from fish flour to skin nutrition, rather than just meat.

Tax is also a significant problem. Gapkindo's Husni said a 10 percent value-added tax (PPN) was imposed on buyers of local rubber products, while imported products enjoyed zero percent duties. "Many rubber products here are bought abroad, such as dock venders at ports and industrial conveyor belts," he said.

The extra tax burden also prevents the automotive industry from opening up more car factories as local demand differs from international demand, according to Jongkie Sugiarto, co-chairman of the Indonesian Automotive Industry Association (Gaikindo).

He said Indonesians preferred to buy multi-purpose vehicles with a lower luxury tax rate of 10 percent compared to sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and sedans with a 30 percent rate. SUVs and sedans, by contrast, are very popular worldwide.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/17/obstacles-remain-high-ri-develop-manufacturing.html

Banking & taxation

Google's Alphabet may owe over $400m for 2015 back taxes in Indonesia

Reuters - September 19, 2016

Indonesia plans to pursue Google's parent company Alphabet for five years of back taxes, meaning the search firm could face a bill of more than $400m for 2015 alone if it is found to have avoided payments, a senior government tax official has said.

Muhammad Hanif, head of the tax office's special cases branch, told Reuters its investigators went to Google's local office in Indonesia on Monday. The tax office alleges PT Google Indonesia paid less than 0.1% of the total income and value-added taxes it owed last year.

Asked to respond to Hanif's comments, Google Indonesia reiterated a statement made last week in which it said it continues to cooperate with local authorities and has paid all applicable taxes.

If found guilty, Google could have to pay fines of up to four times the amount it owed, bringing the maximum tax bill to 5.5tn rupiah ($418m) for 2015, Hanif said. He declined to provide an estimate for the five-year period.

Most of the revenue generated in the country is booked at Google's Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. Google Asia Pacific declined to be audited in June, prompting the tax office to escalate the case into a criminal one, Hanif said.

"Google's argument is that they just did tax planning," Hanif said. "Tax planning is legal, but aggressive tax planning – to the extent that the country where the revenue is made does not get anything – is not legal."

The tax office will summon directors from Google Indonesia who also hold positions at Google Asia Pacific, Hanif said, adding that it is working with the Indonesian police.

Globally, it is rare for a state investigation of corporate tax structures to be escalated into a criminal case.

It normally takes at least three years for an Indonesian court to make a decision on a criminal tax case, said Yustinus Prastowo, executive director of the Center for Indonesia Taxation Analysis.

The tax office is planning to chase back taxes from other companies that deliver content through the internet (over-the-top service providers) in Indonesia, Hanif said.

The Indonesian communication and information ministry is working on a new regulation for OTT providers, and the tax office has proposed that a company with a "network presence" in Indonesia should also be subject to taxation.

Total advertising revenue for the industry is estimated at $830m a year, with Google and Facebook accounting for about 70% of that, according to Hanif.

A joint study by Google and Singapore state investor Temasek released earlier this year, however, estimated the size of Indonesia's digital advertising market at $300m for 2015.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/19/google-alphabet-indonesia-back-taxes

Singaporean banks block tax amnesty

Jakarta Post - September 16, 2016

Singapore/Jakarta – Private banks in Singapore are sharing with local police the names of clients embracing Indonesia's tax amnesty, banking sources revealed, a move that could undermine the amnesty and damage the banks' business with their biggest client pool.

Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), a police unit that deals with financial crime, told banks last year they must file a suspicious transaction report (STR) whenever a client takes part in a tax amnesty scheme, three banking sources told Reuters.

After initial resistance from the banks, worried they might lose clients, that message was reinforced this year by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country's central bank, when Indonesia launched a tax amnesty aimed at wooing back some of the cash its wealthy citizens have stashed in Singapore, the sources said.

"We are filing the STR and hope others are doing it, too," said one senior private banker when asked about clients responding to the Indonesian amnesty. "Banks have filed STRs," said another banking source, adding that clients should not be informed about the filing.

Singapore, where Indonesians hold an estimated US$200 billion in private banking assets – 40 percent of the island's total private banking assets – made tax evasion a money-laundering offence in 2013.

It is toughening up the implementation of the law after an investigation into state-backed fund 1MDB in neighboring Malaysia exposed how some of its banks failed to impose robust controls on suspicious money flows. The STR requirement on suspected tax crimes is part of that process.

"The moment the client tells you he's participating in the amnesty, you have a suspicion that the assets with you are not compliant and so you have to report to the authorities," said a senior executive at a Singapore-based wealth manager.

"In light of the toughening regulatory environment, banks need to conduct more proactive checks on the effectiveness of their internal controls and procedures," said Wilson Ang, a partner in the Singapore office of law firm Norton Rose Fulbright.

Reuters spoke to several other senior private bank officials who confirmed the STR filing requirement, but declined to comment further.

Responding to the report, MAS said it advised banks in Singapore to encourage their clients to use the opportunities afforded by tax amnesty programs to regularize their tax affairs. In a statement quoted by Bloomberg, MAS said participation in the tax amnesty program would not attract criminal investigations in Singapore.

Contacted separately, tax office chief Ken Dwijugiasteadi said: "I haven't heard of such information, but if true, it is a matter for the Singaporean government. It becomes my matter when someone joins the tax amnesty."

Responding to the report, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said she had spoken with the Singaporean authority, including Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam to get an official explanation.

"From the Singaporean government's side, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said it advised all banks in Singapore to support or encourage their clients to use the opportunities offered by Indonesia's tax amnesty program in to improve tax management in Indonesia," she said.

She added that Singaporean banks are required to comply with the Financial Action Task Force regulation that demands them to file a report whenever they suspect that a suspicious activity takes place.

However, she said the MAS had insisted that Indonesians' participation in tax amnesty could not be considered an action that would trigger a criminal investigation.

"I reaffirm once again that we will continue to cooperate with the Singaporean government to lessen the possibilities that will prevent Indonesians from joining the tax amnesty."

Businessman Sofjan Wanandi, an adviser to Vice President Jusuf Kalla, said the Indonesian government needed to take action to respond to any efforts that threatened the country's tax amnesty program.

"This is one of ways to prevent the tax amnesty from achieving success. Don't trust [Singaporean] banks that are reluctant to have their revenues reduced," Sofjan told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Sofjan also suspected that both the Singaporean government and its banking sector harbored the intention to see Indonesia's tax amnesty program fail. "Having said that, I encourage fellow Indonesians not to use Singapore's banking industry. They should move to Indonesian banks," Sofjan said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/16/singaporean-banks-block-tax-amnesty.html

Government turns to Google as tax collection remains low

Jakarta Post - September 16, 2016

Prima Wirayani, Jakarta – The government is turning to internet giant Google, which it claims owes unpaid taxes from its advertising revenue, as the latest data show that tax collection remains pitifully low.

In a press briefing on Thursday, the head of the Taxation Directorate General's Jakarta branch Muhammad Hanif said Google had rejected a request, sent in April, for permission to examine its tax reports.

"It refused to be investigated by us. We will move forward by investigating it soon because its refusal indicates [that] a criminal act [occurred]," Hanif said, adding that the tax office would launch an investigation into Google as soon as possible.

He said that Google only allocated 4 percent of its revenues to be taxed, a figure that the tax office claims is unfair, considering that the giant receives much more from advertising income in Indonesia.

"We don't know where it gets its advice from, but it now refuses to be named as a BUT [permanent establishment]," Hanif stated, pointing to the government's requirement that global tech giants offering services in the country – such as Google, Facebook and Twitter – set up permanent entities and pay taxes or risk having their services shut down.

However, the BUT requirement itself has yet to have a legal basis because the Communications and Information Ministry is still drafting the regulation. Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara previously also promised to provide enough time for the tech giants to comply.

Meanwhile, the tax office's statement came amid the revelation that participation in the tax amnesty program remains low and nationwide tax revenue collection moves at a snail's pace.

According to data from the tax office, year-to-date collection stood at below 50 percent of its target at only Rp 656.11 trillion (US$49.74 billion) as of Sept. 13, with less than four months until year-end. However, the tax office claims that the nominal figure is still higher compared to what it booked in the same period in 2015.

"The highest growth was booked by non-oil and gas income tax, with 8.32 percent year-on-year growth," said the Taxation Directorate General's tax compliance director Yon Arsal. Value added tax (VAT) was lower compared to last year on the back of low imports, he added.

Going forward, Yon said his office would make its best effort to meet the target, even though Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has already forecast a Rp 218 trillion tax revenue shortfall for 2016.

The tax amnesty program, which the government had been promoting as a solution to plug the shortfall, has been a damp squib. The program's penalty payments only amounted to Rp 14.9 trillion as of Sept. 13 from the targeted Rp 165 trillion.

Commenting on the latest situation, Mohammad Faisal, Center for Reform in Economics (CORE) research director, said the low revenue realization increased concern that the shortfall could possibly be higher than expected. "This is caused by a too-high revenue target set by the government amid low tax potential," he said by phone.

PermataBank economist Josua Pardede shared a similar concern, saying the shortfall could be worse than the government's projection. "It will be difficult to boost the collection even with the tax amnesty," he said.

Separately, Google claims to have complied with existing government regulations. "We continue to cooperate fully with local authorities and pay all applicable taxes," a Google Indonesia spokesman said in an emailed response to questions, as reported by Reuters.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/16/govt-turns-to-google-as-tax-collection-remains-low.html

Analysis & opinion

Convicts for regional heads?

Jakarta Post Editorial - September 16, 2016

The government, House of Representatives and General Elections Commission (KPU) are testing the conscience of voters who will elect their leaders in the simultaneous regional elections scheduled for Feb. 15, 2017. The KPU, upon request, if not pressure, from both the government and lawmakers will allow convicted criminals to vie for regional head posts in seven provinces, 76 regencies and 18 municipalities in the election.

Defying public criticism, the KPU will soon issue a regulation that will exempt people who have been found guilty of petty crimes, and therefore received suspended jail terms, and political prisoners from a ban on contesting elections slapped on convicts by Article 7 of the 2016 Regional Elections Law. The article stipulates that anyone who has been convicted by a legally binding and final court verdict is not eligible to run in regional elections. A former convict is qualified but has to publicly declare his or her criminal record.

KPU commissioner Ida Budhiati refers to petty crimes as offenses committed inadvertently or without malice as often happens in traffic accidents.

This change to the rules of the game is legally flawed in more ways than one. First, the KPU regulation, if enforced, will go against the Regional Elections Law. Second, it is vulnerable to a judicial review. If such a challenge is filed at the Supreme Court it will drag the KPU into an unnecessary legal debate that will distract it from its preparations for the regional elections.

We cannot expect the government to disclose the real motive behind its controversial amendment. Whether it wants to spare certain candidates from disqualification simply because of small stains in their track record or to protect the rights of political prisoners who intend to contest local elections, only time will tell.

But the fact that the policymakers opted to pass the burden to the KPU rather than going through the normal law amendment process, which takes more time, only gives the impression that there is something fishy happening here. Worse, there has been no public consultation to measure the appropriateness of the policy.

The government and the House have simply ignored the voices of many, particularly critics, who wish to see improvements in regional elections so that they generate quality and credible leaders. For more than a decade, direct regional elections have generated many local leaders who are obsessed with their own rather than their people's welfare, as evident in the conviction of 56 regional heads for corruption.

Quality regional elections can become a reality if, among other prerequisites, only candidates with clean and clear track records contest them. In fact, many candidates with dubious credentials, such as criminal suspects have run and, sadly, won, although eventually the central government dismissed them or suspended their inauguration indefinitely.

Petty or serious, a crime is a crime. If petty crime convicts can now aspire for regional head posts, those convicted of serious crimes will later demand equal treatment too. The law always makes exceptions, but in Indonesia the exceptions are just too many.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/16/convicts-regional-heads.html