Ronna Nirmala – The projected national population of about 275 million a decade from now could place serious strains on the country, leading to higher levels of poverty, an expert on demographics warned on Wednesday.

Sonny Harry B. Harmadi, head of the Institute of Demography, said that estimates that the country's population could rise from the current 231 million to 275 million by 2025 held serious implications for major urban centers such as Jakarta.

Rapid population growth could lead to higher competition for jobs in the national capital, particularly among people between the ages of 15 and 64, he said at a seminar on poverty and population this week.

Kartomo Wirosuhardjo, one of the founders of the institute, said the expected population increase could pose serious problems. "If the number of people of productive age increases but they can't get jobs, the unemployment rate will rise," Kartomo said. High unemployment rates are associated with high levels of poverty.

The country grappled with rapid population growth in the 1970s, but conditions could become much more serious by 2025, he said.

There are currently 157 million Indonesians between the productive ages of 15 to 64 years, but that number could increase to 188 million people by 2025. According to the National Development Planning Board's (Bappenas) projections, population growth rate will actually decelerate from 1.49 percent in the 1990s to 0.92 percent by 2020 as a result of slowing birth rates. Despite this, Indonesia would still have 273.1 million people by 2025.

Haryono Suyono, head of the Dana Mandiri Foundation, said that by that year, death rates would likely be lower, partly due to improving living standards, leading to a larger number of elderly people, which could place serious strains on the economy.

Bappenas projections show that life expectancy for Indonesians would increase from 67.8 years in 2000 to 73.6 years in 2025.

Haryono emphasized the importance of making sure job creation kept pace with population growth. He said it was important for the private and public sectors to work together to create more employment opportunities, but added that regional authorities should exert more effort to generate jobs at the local level.

At the same time, Haryono said younger people should be encouraged to be engage in entrepreneurial activities. Otherwise, he said the country could fail to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

"The government is trying to eliminate poverty in line with the Millennium Development Goals, but this simply will not happen if it fails to address the problems posed by rapid population growth and poor family planning," Haryono said.

Domestic violence and infidelity fuel rising divorce

Jakarta Globe - August 17, 2009

Dessy Sagita – Domestic violence and extramarital affairs are the top causes of divorce in the country, with new figures indicating the rate of broken marriages jumped 40 percent compared to five years ago, a senior official from the Ministry of Religious Affairs said on Monday.

"There are at least 13 different reasons why people got divorced in that period, but mostly it was because of domestic violence and extramarital affairs," the ministry's director general of religious guidance, Nasaruddin Umar, told the Jakarta Globe.

Other reasons include polygamy and financial problems. He said a law meant to curb domestic violence enacted five years ago has not been effective.

Umar said that roughly 200,000 couples get divorced annually – equivalent to 10 percent of all couples who tie the knot each year.

He said the high divorce rate could have a dramatic effect on the country's youth. "Most of the drug users in Indonesia are young people and many of them have mentioned that their parents' divorces have caused them to turn to drugs," Umar said.

Dadang Hawari, a prominent psychiatrist turned marriage counselor, said the rising divorce rate was caused in part by a shift away from traditional roles in which women remain isolated in the home.

"Women go to work, they have more interaction with men and they also no longer tolerate domestic violence because they know more about their rights," he said.

Dadang said pre-marriage counseling was a key tool for curbing the rate of divorce.

"We need to teach the young people that perfection doesn't exist. They need to accept their partners for who they are, but at the same time we need to tell them that domestic violence is intolerable, no matter the circumstance," he said.

Actions, demos, protests...

Forced from their land, villagers seek SBY's help

Jakarta Globe - August 19, 2009

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Dozens of villagers from North Sumatra appealed on Wednesday to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to help them reclaim land that they claim was stolen from them.

The villagers, from the subdistrict of Sirandourung in Central Tapanuli district, held a peaceful rally in front of the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration in Jakarta.

They asked Yudhoyono to intervene after they claim their land was annexed by the subdistrict administration and a plantation company.

In a news conference at the offices of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Rantinus, a Catholic priest and spokesman for the villagers, asked Yudhoyono to look into the claims of the 839 families.

"The government should protect us and guarantee that we will have our land returned to us," Rantinus said.

He said that since 1983 the families had been living in the area and cultivating 1,143 hectares of land, which they had been given a permit to as part of the government's transmigration program.

The dispute emerged in 2004 when PT Nauli Sawit announced plans to turn the land into a plantation. In June of that year, it began growing oil palms, without securing a permit from the local government or the villagers already working the land.

Nauli Sawit is believed to be owned by businessman Adelin Lis, who has been linked to illegal logging cases in North Sumatra and is wanted on suspicion of money laundering.

Another spokesman for the villagers, Ustadz Sodikin Lubis, said the head of Central Tapanuli, Tuani Lumbantobing, issued a permit to the company in December 2004 without compensating the villagers. He said the local legislative council declared the permit illegal and asked the police to investigate the district head, but no action was taken.

Usman Hamid, the coordinator of Kontras, said some villagers who opposed the company's operations had been subject to intimidation. He claimed that one villager, Partahian Simanungkalit, died after allegedly being tortured by company workers in December 2005.

He said the company brought 10 villagers to court for setting fire to the company's office in 2008. After several trials, which Usman described as "strange" because even the prosecutors could find no evidence for the indictment, the Central Tapanuli District Court and the North Sumatra High Court handed out jail terms.

"The judges failed to consider that no one witnessed the villagers burn the office," Usman said. "We filed a complaint with the Judicial Commission and asked that it investigate the judges."

Usman also asked Yudhoyono to honor his promise in 2008 to implement land reform. "If the president is serious about land reform, he must order the return of the land to the villagers or relocate them to new land," he said.

Students burn photos of Noordin in showing of nationalism

Antara News - August 17, 2009

University students in Makassar, South Sulawesi, burned photos of fugitive terror suspect Noordin M Top to demonstrate their nationalism on Sunday night, the eve of Indonesian Independence Day.

The students also conducted a procession carrying 64 torches, marking the 64th Indonesian anniversary of independence.

"Setting fire to the picture of Noordin M Top was a symbol of our efforts to destroy the terrorist and separatist movement. Hopefully, the anniversary of the country's independence can provide momentum to eradicate terrorism," one of the students shouted.

West Papua

Independence aspirations persist despite autonomy

Jakarta Post - August 22, 2009

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The granting of special autonomy to the Papua region has not proven sufficient enough to quell the ongoing internal struggle of its people for independence and separation from Indonesia.

"The root of the problem is Papua's political status, which is not recognized by Indonesia or the world.

This in turn means Papua is not recognized as a sovereign country, so we will continue to demand independence at all costs," said Zadrak Taime, secretary of the Sentani-Sarmi traditional organization.

Zadrak was representing the organization at a meeting between the Papua Traditional Council (DAP) and the Keerom community with the Home Ministry's Sociopolitical Affairs Director General, Ahmad Tanribali Lamo, deputy at the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Maj. Gen. Karseno, and director of conflict mitigation at the Sociopolitical Affairs Directorate General, Sr. Comr. Widiyanto, in Jayapura on Thursday.

Apart from political issues, the participants at the meeting discussed the growing social gap between state officials and people at a grassroots level since the implementation of special autonomy.

"Special autonomy funds have been distributed to Papuans, but officials are the only ones who have benefited from them.

We don't know where the funds have gone to, but we can see that officials are getting richer, their homes are becoming more lavish and some own three private cars," said Zone V DAP head, Hubertus Kwambrey.

"We demand the government stop stigmatizing the Papuans who desire independence as separatists. Please stop using that term and look at the root of the problem," said Markus Haluk, who spoke for DAP head Forkorus Yoboisembut. Forkorus was ill and could not attend the meeting.

Tanribali said such comments should be directed to the Home Minister. He said the government had paid serious attention to development in Papua.

No International Red Cross return for Papua

Jakarta Globe - August 21, 2009

Ismira Lutfia & Putri Prameshwari – The Indonesian government on Friday reiterated its position that the International Committee of the Red Cross would not be allowed to open an office in Papua, despite the Australian Senate's motion urging the government to allow the Red Cross unfettered access to the troubled region.

The motion, introduced by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, was supported by the Senate, including members of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government.

Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said the Red Cross has no mandate under any bilateral agreements between Indonesia and Australia to open a branch office in the province. "It's not easy for an international organization to open a branch office anywhere they want to across Indonesia," he said.

Faizasyah said the Red Cross may send its employees from its office in Jakarta to Papua, but it would not be allowed to open an office there.

The Red Cross was forced to shut its office and leave Papua in April after its representatives visited prisoners there, including alleged separatist rebels.

At the time, the Foreign Affairs Ministry denied that the closure of the Red Cross office was connected to the prison visits, saying the Red Cross was operating illegally.

In April, Faizasyah said two deals signed by the Red Cross and the government in 1977 and 1987 did not permit the organization to open offices in Aceh or Papua.

Papua attacks aim to provoke rights abuses, military says

Jakarta Globe - August 21, 2009

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The recent attacks in Papua, especially those around the Freeport mining complex, were aimed at provoking the military into committing human rights violations that would grab the attention of the international community, a military spokesman said on Tuesday.

Armed Forces (TNI) spokesman Brig. Gen. Christian Zebua said the perpetrators – who he referred to by the military's code name, the Security Disturbance Movement, rather than by the official name, the Free Papua Movement (OPM) – were setting up a scenario whereby the country's security personnel would be dragged into a deeper conflict that could result in them committing rights abuses, which would then make news internationally.

"They would applaud if we took strong action against them. So we must be careful not to get trapped in that scenario," Zebua said.

He said there were still many guerilla units in the area, including Goliath Tabuni's group and Kelly Kwalik's group, which were always ready to run with such a scenario, adding that some former local government officials, disappointed because they could not take part in running the bureaucracy, were also part of the movement.

Unfortunately, he said, a number of foreign countries are also involved in the conflict. "Why do they operate in Indonesia? Because of our rich natural resources. In Papua, we have the Freeport mine," Zebua said, declining to name the countries.

Speaking in Jakarta, Choirul Anam from the group Human Rights Watch said that government authorities too often approached Papua solely as a security problem involving separatist aspirations. "While, on the other hand, the people of Papua also need justice, access to welfare and identity recognition," Choirul said.

He cited past cases of human rights violations in Papua that had yet to be addressed by the government. He pointed to the Wasior Wamena case, where a National Human Rights Commission investigation had found rights violations, but the Attorney General's Office decided not to bring the case to court.

Choirul also said the government and the military always reacted in anger when Papuans raised the Morning Star flag, which would be better seen as an expression of local culture.

He said the current government should look back to when former President Abdurrahman Wahid visited Papua and accepted the raising of the Morning Star Flag together with the national flag. "So, we must be look for the real problems in Papua, only then will we get down to some real problem solving," he said.

A series of violent attacks since July 11 close to PT Indonesia Freeport's Grasberg mine have left three dead and 13 injured. Freeport's operations and staff members have been the targets of blockades, bomb attacks and arson since production began at the mine in the 1970s.

The company is also a frequent target of demonstrations by locals, who argue that the spoils from exploiting Papua's vast resources have been distributed unfairly.

Australian Senate calls for Red Cross return to Papua

Jakarta Globe - August 21, 2009

The Australian upper house has supported a motion to urge for the International Red Cross to be granted full access to Indonesia's restive Papua province.

The motion, put forward by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young on Thursday morning, was supported by the country's Senate, including members of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government.

The Red Cross was forced to shut its office and leave Papua in April after it made visits to jailed separatists. At the time, Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that orders to close the office were connected to prison visits, but said the ban was because the Red Cross was operating in West Papua illegally.

Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told the Jakarta Globe in April that the agreements governing Red Cross operations in the country did not cover the troubled province.

Senator Hanson-Young said that it was vital for members of the Australian government to raise the issue with their Indonesian counterparts.

"The access to the region from the International Red Cross is paramount to ensuring that we have transparency," she said during an interview with Radio Australia on Friday.

"We know that the best way of achieving stability and peace in a region is to ensure that we have transparency. Its a request that various other countries have made to Indonesia and from much further away. The UK Parliament has moved a similar motion."

The Rudd government has been accused of being "too soft" with Indonesia on transparency and human rights in Papua province by some Australian opposition parties and activist groups.

The issue of alleged human rights abuses has long caused tension between the two nations. In 2006, the Australian government granted temporary protection visas to 42 West Papuan asylum seekers, sparking a diplomatic furore over Australia's alleged lack of acceptance of Indonesia's sovereignty in the province.

Australian senators call for Red Cross access to Papua

Radio Australia - August 21, 2009

Australia's government has sent a quiet signal to Indonesia about mounting concern over human rights conditions in Indonesia's restive Papua region The Rudd government – facing accusations it's too quite on the issue – has allowed its Senators to support a motion in Parliament's upper house that calls for pressure from Canberra on Indonesia to allow the return of the International Red Cross to West Papua.

Presenter: Linda Mottram

Speakers: Sarah Hanson-Young, Australian Greens party Senator; Septer Manufandu, director, Papua NGO's Co-operation Forum.

Mottram: During his visit to Canberra, Septer Manufandu has spoken before the Australian Parliament's human rights committee. And he's held talks with Greens party Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who followed up with a motion in Parliament's upper house.

Hanson-Young: (senate audio)

Mottram: The motion calls on the Australian government to urge Indonesia to allow the International Red Cross full and unfettered access in West Papua. The Red Cross was forced to leave Papua in April after it made visits to jailed Papuan separatists. Indonesia claims the Red Cross operation in Papua breached its agreement with Jakarta. In the Australian upper house, Senators were not required to register a vote on Senator Hanson-Young's motion. But Senator Hanson-Young says Rudd government officials notified her that the government would support the motion. She's very pleased.

Hanson-Young: The access to the region from the International Red Cross is paramount to ensuring that we have transparency. We know that the best way of achieving stability and peace in a region is to ensure that we have transparency. Its a request that various other countries have made to Indonesia and from much further away. The UK Parliament has moved a similar motion. Their foreign affairs department continues to raise this as an issue of concern with Indonesia and we need to make sure that the Australian government does as well.

Mottram: Human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the US Congress say elements of the Indonesian military continue a campaign of intimidation and violence against the indigenous population of Papua – the western half of New Guinea island where the indigenous population is ethnically distinct from its Indonesian rulers and has for decades agitated for independence. The region is also mineral rich and recently attacks against workers – including killings near a massive gold and copper mine have refocussed attention on the issues.

Septer Manufandu – the visiting Papuan NGO leader – says Australia has been too quiet with Indonesia over Papua.

Manufandu: Yeah, I think so (laughs).

Mottram: Particularly on human rights?

Manufandu: Yeah, particularly human rights. Because I think we have the Indonesia government and Australian government has experience in Timor Leste.

Mottram: And Timor Leste, East Timor, which broke away from Indonesia, should be a kind of model, he says, but the kind of model Indonesia emphatically opposes for Papua. Septer Manufandu says its peace and justice Papuans want... and rights to their land, the forests and the areas rich resources.

Manufandu: When Papuan got special autonomy law, 2001, we think this is opportunity to improve our capacity, manage our land, our natural resources.

Mottram: But he says that hasn't happened and he blames Jakarta for seeing Papua with strictly political eyes – eyes that observers say fear the fragmentation of the Indonesian state. Septer Manufandu is happy the Australian Senate has raised a voice on his people's issues.

In the face of accusations of being too timid on the issue, the Australian government has repeatedly said it raises Papua with the Indonesian government at every opportunity. Senator Hanson- Young takes some encouragement about the government's plans on the issue from the Senate vote on her motion.

Hanson-Young: I took from today's passing of the motion and support from the Government Senators that the government is not convinced that things are A-OK, as the Indonesian government would like us to believe. The best way of getting to the bottom of that is opening up those restrictions, allowing the International Red Cross in and I think the next step is to really be urging free media access to the region as well.

Mottram: And in the processes of the Australian Parliament, Senator Hanson-Young says she will be following up and checking whether the Rudd government has taken any new action on Papua, particularly on the International Red Cross access, when later this year key Senate committees get to scrutinise the actions of government departments and their ministers.

Police identify suppliers of ammunition used in Freeport attacks

Jakarta Post - August 19, 2009

Papua police have identified a group suspected of supplying the ammunition used in a number of armed attacks against US-based gold miner PT Freeport Indonesia in the past month, an officer says.

Spokesman for the police, Sr. Comr. Agus Rianto, said Wednesday that investigators had also identified those allegedly responsible for the shooting incidents, which left three people dead.

"We have traced the supply line of the ammunition and identified the groups involved. Let's wait and see," Agus said to tempointeraktif.com.

Through investigations the police have concluded that the gunmen fired bullets produced by the Army-run arms producer PT Pindad in Bandung in the attacks.

"We have listed several individuals who are suspected of masterminding these acts of violence and we will hunt them down," Agus said.

The gunmen launched their latest attack Sunday, targeting a convoy of buses carrying Freeport employees. Five employees were injured by shattered glass.

Conflicting claims about plight of Papuan political prisoner

Radio New Zealand International - August 20, 2009

The Organisation for Solidarity with Human Rights Victims in Papua claims a political prisoner is in intensive care after prison authorities in Indonesia ignored his requests for treatment for a chronic health problem.

Members of the Organisation have visited Filep Karma in the intensive care ward at Jayapura's Dok Dua Hospital where he was transferred this week from Abepura Prison after a week of intense bladder pain.

They claim Karma's condition was ignored by the prison director and personnel, although he reported that he was having problems repeatedly.

It was only after getting word to a local journalist about his condition this week that the prisoner was taken to hospital where he is being guarded by three prison officers.

Karma, unable to move from his bed, is serving a 15-year sentence for unfurling a Morning Star flag in 2004.

The prison director, Anthonius Ayorbaba, has rejected the complaint that prison authorities ignored Karma's condition. He said that the prisoner failed to properly inform the prison authorities about his condition.

Flag incidents a 'form of disappointment'

Jakarta Post - August 19, 2009

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The widespread raising of the outlawed separatist Bintang Kejora flag in Papua, even during Monday's Independence Day celebrations, was branded as a form of discontent voiced by the local people over the "unfair and ineffective development" in their restive province.

Papuan community leaders said the development programs had failed to directly affect local people's lives.

"It expressed the people's disappointment, because they are aware of the large special autonomy funds, but fail to see any development, or, (they see) development is not proportional to the amount of funds received," said respected Papua communal leader Fadal Al Hamid, adding the Bintang Kejora flag-hoisting incidents were common during the special autonomy era.

Law enforcement against people raising the Bintang Kejora, or the morning star flag, said Fadal, was ineffective because despite the 20-year stiff sentence given to Yusak Pakage and Filep Karma, such incidents still prevailed. "The government should look at the core issue and avoid punishing people," he asserted.

The core of the problem, said Fadal, was the people's welfare, and the special autonomy status which was also aimed at improving the people's wellbeing, but ended up stifling the demands for independence.

However, the people at large have never enjoyed the positive effects of special autonomy despite being implemented for the past eight years. "The outlawed flag-raising is just the tip of the iceberg, not the essence of the problem," he said.

Fadal urged the administrations, from the regency and provincial to central levels, to give room to dialogue by heeding the basic aspirations of Papuans.

"The government should try to solve the problem at its core, if the flag-raising incidents continue, and for example hold a dialogue with the people. It should stop saying that raising the flag is a matter of national security that should be handled by security forces," he said.

Fadal commended Vice Regent Keerom Wagfir Kosasih who said he would hold a dialogue with local figures over the Bintang Kejora flag-raising incident in Wembi in July. "As long as people remain poor and they know special autonomy funds are abundant, such incidents will prevail," said Fadal.

The special autonomy funds for Papua, he added, went toward projects focusing on the interest of a number of people. Papua will always be regarded as unsafe, and thus will be allocated funds for security, if the flag-raising incidents continue.

A 2001 law on special autonomy in Papua has been implemented since 2001, followed by the disbursement of special autonomy funds, equivalent to 2 percent of the national general allocation funds (DAU). Papua has received Rp 18.7 trillion (US$1.8 billion) in special autonomy funds as of this year.

Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu's efforts to improve the rural people's welfare includes the provision of Rp 100 million in Respek funds to each village. As much as Rp 320 billion from this year's budget has been channeled to 320 villages as of now.

Mimika allots Rp 200 billion to separate from Papua province

Jakarta Post - August 19, 2009

Jakarta – The Mimika regency administration has alloted funds of Rp 200 billion (US$20 million) to establish its own Central Papua province, separate from Papua province.

Mimika Legislative Council (DPRD) spokesman Yosep Yopi Kilangin said Wednesday the DPRD had approved the Rp 200 billion budget.

"We all support the creation of Central Papua with Timika as the capital city," he said as quoted by Antara news agency. "We hope we can have our own province in three years."

Mimika regent Klemen Tinal has issued a ruling on the Central Papua establishment committee, chaired by Andreas Anggaibak, former Mimika DPRD spokesman.

If approved, Central Papua will consist of 10 regencies: Mimika, Deyai, Dogiyai, Nabire, Yapen, Waropen, Biak, Numfor, Supiori, and Intan Jaya.

Military, police to take 'action' against Papuan flag wavers

Jakarta Post - August 17, 2009

Erwida Maulia – Indonesian Military Chief Gen. Djoko Santoso said the military would be taking action against any members of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) who wave the Morning Star flag in Papua at any point on Indonesia's 64th Independence Day on Monday.

It is illegal to fly the flag under Indonesian law, as it is seen as the symbol of separatism in the eastern provinces of Papua and West Papua.

Djoko told journalists following the Independence Day ceremony at Merdeka State Palace that the military was boosting coordination with the National Police to prepare for any rebellious activities by the OPM, including waving the flag, though said the situation was still "conducive" at present.

"We will take legal action against any party trying to disrupt [the security]," Djoko said. National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said Papuan police would 'take action' against any-body bearing the flag.

At least one Morning Star flag was reportedly seen in Abepura, Papua, early Monday morning. The Abepura police precinct quickly removed the flag.

Papuans detained over Timika killings at last get lawyers

Radio New Zealand International - August 17, 2009

Indonesia's Human Rights Watch group says eight Papuans detained by police in Timika in connection to last month's deadly shootings near the massive Grasberg mine are unlikely to be involved.

This comes as police in Timika increase security in the area after continued shooting attacks along the main road to the mine operated by US mining giant Freeport.

Last month, three people were killed in a series of attacks along the road.

Human Rights Watch's Andreas Harsono says the eight Papuans detained since last month are ordinary civilians who have no access to weapons. He says while questioning has been ongoing, the detainees only had access to legal representation last week.

"They initially tried to get lawyers to help them, the police also tried to get lawyers for them. But there were no lawyers available in Timika. They had to be flown from Jayapura. It's just illogical for these civilians to be involved in the shootings. They have no weapon training at all."

Gunmen fire at bus at US mine in Indonesia

Agence France Presse - August 16, 2009

Jakarta – Gunmen fired Sunday at a bus carrying employees of US mining giant Freeport in eastern Indonesia, injuring five, a report said.

The official Antara news agency said the bus was attacked as it transported workers to the world's largest gold mine in Papua province. It said the five were hurt by broken glass.

Papua police spokesman Lt. Col. Agus Rianto confirmed the shooting but said he had no information about injuries. A Freeport spokesman could not immediately be reached.

Gunmen fired at another bus in a similar attack Wednesday just after it dropped off Freeport employees. No one was hurt.

A series of ambushes near the mine since July 8 have left three dead. Police have arrested nine suspects, including two Freeport employees, who face charges of premeditated murder and illegal weapons possession.

The mine is a source of tension in Papua, a remote and underdeveloped region that is also home to a low-level insurgency seeking independence from the government thousands of miles (kilometers) away in the capital, Jakarta.

It is unclear if the rebels, who have been implicated in attacks in the past, were involved in the latest shootings.

The company has been regularly targeted by arson and roadside bombs since production began in the 1970s. It is also the focus of regular protests by local residents who feel they are not benefiting from the depletion of Papua's natural resources.

It is difficult to get accurate information out of Papua, a remote and highly militarized area that is off limits to foreign journalists.

Human rights/law

Government accused of dragging its heels on state secrecy bill

Jakarta Globe - August 23, 2009

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – A lawmaker taking part in the discussion on the state secrecy bill urged the government on Sunday to pass the bill before the current House of Representative terms expire in October.

Dedy Djamaluddin Malik, from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said that a working committee for the bill's deliberation had met in Puncak, West Java, from Aug. 18 to 20 to discuss the remaining contentious articles of the bill.

Several government representatives also attended the meeting, he said. However, only 18 of about 70 contentious articles of the bill were settled at the meeting, he said.

"I think we should rely on our previous plan – settle all the problems and endorse it next month," Dedy said.

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono had earlier said that his ministry and the House of Representatives had agreed to finalize a drafting process of the bill next month.

During the Puncak meeting, Dedy explained that the delay was caused by the government, whom he accused of rejecting suggestions from several NGOs to clearly define the concept of state secrecy. "I assure you that the House will fight to produce a state secrecy law of the highest quality," he said.

Dedy added that all of the lawmakers who had attended the bill drafting process would meet again in Jakarta this week.

Meanwhile, Andi Widjajanto, a lecturer at the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Indonesia, said last week that the public should pay attention to the bill drafting process, "because some of its articles show potential for a new authoritarian rule."

He said that the bill should clearly stipulate the mechanism for defining what is classified as a state secret.

"Attention must be paid to the drafting process. There are articles in there that threaten press freedom," Andi said. "The principle matter is that the bill must guarantee public access to its articles."

Calls to delay passing the controversial bill are increasing from a range of sectors, including the media and a number of NGOs that fear press freedom would be threatened by the government's move to curb access to information.

The bill has so far defined a state secret as any information that has been officially declared confidential by the president, or a ministry acting on the authority of the president, as the dissemination of such information could threaten the sovereignty or safety of the state. State secrets would fall into three categories: "top secret," "secret" and "limited secret."

Under the current draft bill, those who reveal state secrets face up to 20 years in jail and a fine of up to Rp 1 billion ($100,000). In times of war, any violation could result in the death penalty.

However, despite criticizing some articles with "authoritarian elements," Andi said that the bill should not be postponed any further. He said the law must also provide clauses on the Freedom of Information Law, to prevent the government from limiting access to information.

"It is more dangerous if we let the government get into in such a position," Andi said. "So it is better for us to urge the government complete the bill soon."

Bill 'opens loopholes' for rights abusers, corrupt officials

Jakarta Post - August 21, 2009

Jakarta – If passed into law, the state secrecy bill could lead to abuses of power by unscrupulous government officials, activists and experts warn.

"The bill goes against the protection of human rights," Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial) external relations officer Poengky Indarti said.

The bill stipulates that state secrets can only be used as evidence to charge people leaking such information. However, if such information implicates a government official it can not be used to send them to court.

State secrets include information, items and activities that the President has deemed necessary to be kept secret from the public.

The bill also stipulates that anyone involved in activities of state secrecy can not be charged in court for their activity, except for major human rights violations and corruption cases. However, since the disclosure of state secrets can only take place between five and 30 years after the event, it is almost impossible to reopen cases based on the declassification of state secrets, Poengky said.

"Within those years, evidence regarding the violations would most likely have disappear or change. The perpetrators may have gone overseas or, if they are government officials, obtain high positions, making them harder to investigate," she said.

A.C. Manullang, an intelligence expert, said human rights violators should not be given protection through the bill.

"I agree that some information is better kept secret from the public, but information about human rights abuses must be disclosed. The state should not give government officials a means to cover up their criminal actions," Manullang, who is also a former director of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), told The Jakarta Post.

Many lawmakers in the House of Representatives do not really understand what should be categorized as a state secret, Manullang said.

"I am worried that this bill will serve political party interests more than national interests," he said. Manullang also said the bill provides loopholes for corruption.

According to the bill, state secrecy covers "any information related to budgeting and spending allocations and government assets for the purpose of national security" as well as "the salary amounts of military staff".

This was unfair because the public has the right to know what their taxes are being used for, he said.

"Surely people do not want the state budget used to finance criminal activities. People also do not want corrupt officials embezzling budgets, under the guise of state secrecy," he said.

Poengky questioned the importance of keeping military officials' salaries a secret.

"I'm afraid it will allow military officials to receive bribes undetected. No one can tell if they are corrupt if they do not even know the amounts of their salaries," she said. (mrs)

Human rights defenders at risk: Imparsial

Jakarta Post - August 18, 2009

Jakarta – The Indonesian Human Rights Monitor, Imparsial, said the lack of recognition and protection was endangering human rights defenders in Indonesia.

"Everyone in the legislative, executive, and judicial bodies have said over and over that they want to protect human rights," said Poengky Indarti, Imparsial's External Relations Director.

"If that is true then they should first protect human rights defenders who have the same purpose as them."

Poengky said Indonesia has already ratified the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which pronounces that the state would do its best to protect human rights and defenders of rights.

The country has also shown improvement in human rights protection at the normative level, she added. "In the past five years the country has ratified many international human rights agreements," Pongky said.

She cited the Law on Public Information as one example of the improvement.

"Though there is improvement on the normative level, the implementation of human rights protection is still disappointing. Even the case of the human rights champion Munir known as 'the test of our history' has not been solved."

She stressed that not only had the state failed to give real protection, state officials had even become the perpetrators of violations against human rights defenders.

Voicing the same opinion, a research staff member from Imparsial, Al-araf, said police officials are among the main perpetrators of violence against human right defenders, with military officials and thugs following in the second and third position.

In its report regarding violations against human rights defenders from 2005 to 2009, Imparsial said there have been at least 96 cases.

The report defined a human rights defender as a person who acts to address any human rights on behalf of individuals or groups.

"The data on the violations have been acquired from our networks. However, it is most likely that the real number is far higher," Al-araf said.

According to Imparsial's report, student activists were highest on the list of defenders whose rights have been violated.

About 129 students activists have suffered arbitrary arrest and detention and even been tortured in the last five years. Farmers followed in the second position. About 111 farmers have been tortured, arrested and have even lost their land.

Journalists, in their efforts to write news, followed in the third position. About 45 journalists have been tortured, have had their journalistic equipment destroyed, and even been killed in the last five years.

In February 2009, a reporter from Radar Bali, Anak Agung Prabangsa was killed. Many believed that his death was connected with a corruption story that he was working on.

Even when Special Representative from the UN, Huna Jilani, came to examine the situation of human rights defenders in 2007, some of the local defenders she met with came under threat.

Imparsial said it was possible that the threats were connected with Jilani's coming. Albert Rumbekwan, at that time the head of Human Right Commission in Papua, was one of the defenders who received threats. (mrs)

Labour/migrant workers

Saudi chaos as Indonesian workers beg to be deported

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2009

Ismira Lutfia – For hundreds of Indonesians in Saudi Arabia, being locked up and deported back home holds its own attraction.

Some 1,000 Indonesian overstayers, mostly workers who do not hold proper documents, have been detained at a Saudi immigration detention center to await deportation, the foreign ministry said on Friday.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said 568 of the 1,028 Indonesians now in detention, had been nabbed after conducting a protest in front of the Indonesian consulate general in Jeddah late on Wednesday.

The rally, he said, quoting the consulate's report, had been organized to demand the consulate and the Saudi authorities accord them some attention and assistance in returning home.

"There were 360 women and 208 men taken into detention following the rally," Faizasyah said, adding that as soon as the news reached the other overstayers, 500 more people staged a rally in the hopes that they too would be detained and repatriated.

He said the protesters were undocumented migrant workers who had remained in Saudi Arabia after they performed the minor hajj pilgrimage, or umrah, and workers who had fled from their employers.

Faizasyah said they were stranded in Saudi Arabia because they refused to pay fines for overstaying and were now trying to find a way home without having to pay. He added that he thought their actions were disgraceful.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said in July that he had personally witnessed Indonesians trying to get themselves arrested in Saudi Arabia. "This is not about citizen protection anymore but a misdeed committed by our own citizens," he said.

Faizasyah said that the Indonesian government had formed an interdepartmental team to meet with their Saudi counterparts to seek a comprehensive solutions to the problem.

Meanwhile, labor activist Anis Hidayah, who is the director of Migrant Care, disagreed that the overstayers were acting out in a bid to get a free flight home.

She said the consulate general had refused to acknowledge the protesters' situation and infrequently monitored the condition of migrant workers there.

"Most of them came to work legally but they were abused and weren't paid, so they ran away from their employers," Anis said, adding that they were undocumented because their employers had retained their passports.

"Some of them are also victims of trafficking and got lured to work there by using visas issued for the umrah," she said.

Such trafficking, Anis said, was made possible because some of the migration agencies sending Indonesian workers overseas also organized umrah and hajj tours for pilgrims.

"We should see them as victims," Anis said. "None of them would deliberately give up like that to leave."

She said that the government should not generalize the overstayers as being illegal because the government also shared part of the blame for their ordeal, adding that the lengthy and costly process for becoming a migrant worker was the main reason behind unscrupulous migration brokers offering easier and faster, albeit illegal, ways for Indonesians to find jobs overseas.

"Even if they do go through the legal procedures, it does not necessarily guarantee that they will be protected," Anis said.

Officials figures put the number of Indonesian migrant workers overseas at some 4.3 million, but it is estimated that about 4 million more are unregistered and went abroad through unofficial channels.

Many state firms fail to properly protect workers

Jakarta Post - August 21, 2009

Jakarta – Secretary of the state enterprises ministry, Said Didu, has expressed concern that many state enterprises are yet to provide protection for their employees as required by the 2003 Labor Law.

Speaking before unionists from state enterprises in Jakarta on Thursday, he said that from a legal perspective, state-owned enterprises should play a lead role in providing protection for their workers and should set a good example by implementing the labor law.

State enterprises have been urged to promote efficiency and increase their professionalism and productivity to improve the social welfare of almost one million workers employed in 149 state enterprises nationwide, he said.

Hotbonar Sinaga, president director of the state-owned insurance company PT Jamsostek, said the state-owned power company PT PLN had not yet registered its employees with Jamsostek and many other companies had not reported all employees and their basic salaries, leaving thousands of workers unprotected.

"The Manpower and Transmigration Ministry should take harsh action against state-owned companies violating both the labor law and the 1992 Social Security Programs Law, otherwise we will bring the cases to the police and the Attorney General's Office," he said.

The law requires that all companies employing 10 or more workers, or paying Rp 1 million or more in monthly wages, must register workers in social security programs, including health care, occupational health and safety, as well as death and pension benefit schemes. Both employers and workers pay up to 11.7 percent of their gross monthly wages cumulatively for the four programs.

"Unfortunately, contract-based workers and employees recruited and paid by outsourcing companies have not been registered with Jamsostek.

"The law requires employers to register their workers, including both permanent and contract employees," he said.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Federation of the State-owned Workers Union (FSP BUMN), Abdul Latief Algaf, said his side would campaign for social security programs among unionists and companies at the company level as company management had been frequently unclear about social security programs.

"Unionists will encourage management at the company level to ensure the participation of all workers, including the registration of all contract-based employees with Jamsostek," he said.

The FSP BUMN said it would also approach other labor unions in the private sector to lobby the House of Representatives on a proposed review of the social security laws as the current system had been ineffective in protecting workers.

"Jamsostek should be given full authority to run social security," he said.

Minimum wages not enough for textile workers

Jakarta Post - August 21, 2009

Jakarta – The minimum wages set by the government in 2009 met an average of 64 percent of the basic needs of workers employed in the textiles and garments sector, a recent survey found.

The survey was jointly conducted by the National Workers Union (SPN), the Garment and Textile Workers Union Federation (Garteks) and AKATIGA, a center for social analysis supported by German- based NGO Frederich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and the Asian Textile Workers Union (TWARO), in Banten, Jakarta, West and Central Java, in March and April, 2009.

A report on the findings recommends wage improvements for low- income workers, which it argues would also improve productivity.

Under Indonesian law, minimum wages are set based on workers' physical living needs and capacity to save.

SPN chairman Bambang Wirayoso who presented the survey' findings at a discussion here Thursday, said the minimum wages for the sector (averaging at around Rp 1 million per month) should be increased to Rp 4 million for married workers and Rp 2.4 million for single workers.

The report also recommends the government, in its capacity as regulator and social security provider, revise the remuneration system.

The low wages had also meant workers received less financial benefits from social security programs, Bambang said.

A long and dangerous journey to a better life

Jakarta Globe - August 20, 2009

Dewi Kurniawati – On a recent morning at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, about 100 women are sitting on the floor of the international departure terminal. They all share two features: Muslim jilbabs and anxious looks on their faces.

These women are migrant workers waiting nervously for their flights to the unknown. Wherever they go, even to the toilet, they do so in groups.

One solitary figure among them is Tawinih Binti Wanda Timur, from Indramayu, West Java. Although she looks young enough to be in her early 20s, her passport says she was born in May 1979.

Tawinih is leaving her three children and husband, who earns Rp 5,000 (50 cents) a day as a fisherman, to work as a domestic helper in Abu Dhabi. Her eyes sweep her surroundings restlessly. She doesn't know any of the other women in the group. "I just know they are fellow migrant workers," she says.

When asked if she worries about traveling thousands of miles away from Indonesia, she says firmly, "I've got Allah. Allah knows I am just a poor woman trying to make a living.

"Hopefully Allah will give me a nice employer," she adds, but her fingers belie her anxiety as they fuss with her salmon-colored jilbab. Tawinih normally doesn't cover her head but must now do so in order to work in the United Arab Emirates.

God is probably the best hope for Tawinih and many Indonesian migrant workers during their long journey. Their struggle to earn a living is hazardous. Their future is totally dependent on the mercy of their employers.

The numbers game

According to the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesia Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI), since the 1970s between six million and eight million Indonesians have left home to become migrant workers. However, only 4.3 million were officially recorded.

In 2008, the board recorded that 748,825 people went abroad to work, but only 36 percent of them worked in formal sectors, such as factories or plantations. The remainder, like Tawinih, go to work in private homes.

"We don't know what kind of employer we'll get," Tawinih says. "There is no pride in being a migrant worker. As a domestic helper, we are considered dirty."

Yet she keeps going back. Today's flight will be her fourth trip to the Middle East to work as a domestic helper. She first worked in Qatar, and then twice in Saudi Arabia. While in Qatar, she ran away from an abusive employer after 10 days and was forced to seek refuge at an Indonesian Embassy shelter.

"Being a migrant worker means you have to be ready to be treated as if you are a commodity. You're going to be pushed around," Tawinih says. "I have to do this even though it is not the best option. There are no jobs in my village and I have to support my kids," she adds.

Tawinih has been promised a salary of Rp 1.7 million ($170) a month. She says her future employer in Abu Dhabi paid Rp 20 million to an agency there to acquire her. "I just have to fly there. Everything has been prepared by my agency here," she says.

A man from the agency has bought her ticket, filled out the immigration documentation and slipped the immigration officer a bribe, saying, "Thank you for keeping an eye on her."

The officer has turned a blind eye and allowed Tawinih to leave from the regular departure terminal, instead of the special terminal for migrant workers.

Tawinih is probably one of the lucky Indonesian migrant workers as she has always arrived in her destination country and found the work she was promised. Others are not so fortunate.

Wanti Binti Asman, 38, a migrant worker from Subang, West Java, has arrived back in Jakarta from Kuala Lumpur. "I had to spend $300 out of my own pocket to fly home," she says angrily.

She had been led to believe that her employer in Damascus, Syria, had already paid for a round-trip ticket from there to Jakarta.

"The agency in Damascus cheated on me," she says. "It's OK, as long as I get home safely, I am thankful to God."

She says her Syrian employer treated her kindly, gave her one day off a week, and that she plans to go back to her job as a domestic helper. "I've got friends who have bad employers – they are all abused and beaten. So, I am better off," Wanti says.

Broken promises

The Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration says that more than half of all Indonesian domestic helpers working overseas have only a primary school education and that they frequently run into trouble.

Although migrant workers have struggled with problems for decades, the central government seems clueless as to how to tackle the issues. Indeed, various government ministries and agencies spend most of their time trying to shirk responsibility.

While they play the blame game, horrific stories arise on a daily basis, such as the case of six Indonesian women who in December 2008 were trafficked as sex workers in Kuala Lumpur.

The women, ranging from 19 to 23 years old and from different regions of the country, were lured by local agents to work in a restaurant and promised monthly salaries of 800 Malaysian ringgit ($225). Sadly, none of the women ever got to wait on tables or wash dishes.

"We never even saw the sun. We were kept in a guarded house for two weeks and forced to work as prostitutes until the police stormed in and freed us," says 19-year-old "Shinta," from Subang, West Java.

She and the other five women are now staying at a safe house in East Jakarta run by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

"We are all devastated," one tells the Jakarta Globe. "When I left Indonesia, I had a dream of bringing back a lot of money for my parents and of building a house for them. But I can't fulfill that dream now," Shinta says. "My parents don't even know what has happened to me. I don't want to make them sad. I'll tell them the whole story after I come home."

After being freed by the Malaysian police, the women were forced to stay in a safe house in Kuala Lumpur for six months and testify as witnesses in a trial against their former pimp.

"We were all interrogated for three to four hours a day by the police. We had to go back and forth for the trials. The whole process was so exhausting," says "Yulia," another of the victims.

The Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur didn't send a single representative to assist the women during the six-month process. After the trials were over, they stayed at an embassy shelter in Kuala Lumpur for two weeks while waiting to leave the country.

Although they are now back in Indonesia, they're still enduring a long process of health check-ups and educational training by the Social Affairs Ministry to prepare them for life after their ordeal, as well as the possible trial of the local agents who sold them to the agency in Malaysia.

"We don't care about justice anymore," the women say, angrily requesting that the next victim to arrive at the shelter should also go through the legal process. "We all just want to go home."

Human traffic proves lucrative for Blitar's experts in export

Jakarta Globe - August 20, 2009

Hera Diani, Blitar (East Java) – In late June and early July, before the new school year begins, commercials for schools begin popping up on the radio. The advertisements follow a predictable pattern, with one student typically persuading another to register at a particular school.

In the small East Java town of Blitar, some 170 kilometers southeast of Surabaya, these kinds of ads run all year long. But instead of schools, job recruitment agencies dominate the airwaves, with ads targeting teenagers looking for work in foreign countries.

"Wow, she's so well off after working abroad. I want to be like her!" says a voice on the radio.

Booming business

Blitar sends more workers overseas than any other district in East Java, with 5,384 people leaving the city to work abroad in 2007, 3,705 in 2008 and 947 as of May this year, out of a population of about 1.2 million. These people are looking for better income, which sadly cannot be found at home, where jobs are limited, particularly for women.

The local economy is stagnant, except for handicrafts, small- scale farming and tourism – founding President Sukarno was born and buried in Blitar.

In this low-growth environment, however, skilled labor has become a valuable commodity. Migrant workers sent back Rp 119.1 billion ($11.8 million) in remittances to Blitar in 2007 and Rp 76.02 billion in 2008. By May of this year, overseas remittances to Blitar reached Rp 89.97 billion, according to the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

"Migrant workers move the economy here," said Hadin Arif, who returned to open two grocery stores in Blitar after working in a factory in Seoul, South Korea. "In addition to remittances, they also open shops and businesses, creating jobs for locals."

Success stories like Hadin's are encouraging more people in Blitar to work abroad. The "tradition" is even passed on by parents whose children also become migrant workers. However, instead of a better life, many of them end up in a menacing maze of debt, blackmail and abuse that can even lead to death.

There have been many reports of abuse, suicide and missing people in the Blitar area over the years. One of the more recent cases is Sumasri, 45, who returned home from Malaysia in mid-May with severe physical and emotional scars. Her employer allegedly poured boiling water on her and refused to pay her for two years. Sumasri's family and local aid workers say she has fallen into a deep depression.

Exploited workers

Poorly educated workers are vulnerable to exploitation, due to the high demand for cheap labor. Middlemen working for legal and illegal recruitment agencies attract potential workers by offering gifts such as television sets and cash loans.

Mawana, 60, is one such intermediary, recruiting about 10 workers per year. She said that she earns between Rp 2 million and Rp 2.5 million for each candidate she recruits.

"I deal with a person at an agency in Jakarta who knew me when I worked in Saudi Arabia back in the early 1990s," said Mawana, whose daughter works in Taiwan. "The agency keeps changing its name, but the person is still the same."

There are a number of different recruiting scams, said Suryo Sumpeno, legal coordinator for the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (SBMI). Suryo is based in nearby Malang, where Blitar migrant workers must go to process their immigration documents.

"Anybody can become a middleman, from housewives to language teachers to police officers," Suryo said. "Recruitment agencies really depend on these people because they can reach potential workers in villages and remote areas. Sometimes the middlemen even force people to work overseas by threatening them, or persuade them with incentives such as television sets and motorcycles."

Local governments remain largely clueless about how many workers are actually being sent abroad by recruitment agencies.

"The Manpower Ministry asks district offices to accumulate data on migrant workers from village heads," Suryo said. "But village heads can't keep tabs on every villager, so the official data isn't always accurate."

Fresh recruits are often brought to walled compounds owned by the agencies, where they supposedly take language classes and training courses related to their jobs for about three months. Few agencies actually provide any real training, however, and most just hold the candidates, sometimes for weeks, until jobs open up in foreign markets.

Highly rated agencies such as PT ASA Jaya have good facilities, language resources, kitchens and rooms for workers to practice skills such as cooking, washing, baby-sitting and care-giving.

Other agencies, such as PT AAD Pratama Karya, are less reputable. AAD Pratama Karya's offices are in an old school, with one classroom containing bunk beds for workers. In the afternoon, the workers often have little to do, because there are no training facilities.

"Most of the workers are kept here for three to four months," AAD Pratama Karya director Siti Mutiin said. "If it's longer than that, we send them home while we look for work for them. We send about 40 people abroad every month."

Many illegal agencies use phony businesses such as car showrooms as fronts. At these operations, people are often simply locked up while waiting for overseas jobs to pop up. Labor activists say many workers at these shady agencies are vulnerable to physical abuse and sexual harassment.

These kinds of agencies start breaking the law during the recruitment phase, by falsifying immigration documents for underage workers. In Indonesia, you must be at least 18 years old to go to Malaysia and the Middle East, and 21 for other countries. The maximum age is 35. Workers are given aliases, fake identification, phony language qualifications and bogus medical test results.

"It's mafia work, really," Suryo said. "And many government offices conspire with them, from manpower to immigration."

Siti Masrurah, 25, passed through Surabaya to illegally work at a plywood factory in Malaysia in 1999. She was only 15 and had little choice, because her family was too poor to send her to school.

"First we went to Tulungagung, then Surabaya," said Masrurah, who now works as a seamstress in Ngandengan, a village just outside of Blitar. "From Surabaya, we went by boat to Nunukan in Kalimantan for four nights, and then another one-day boat trip to Tawaw, at the Malaysian border."

Former migrant worker Aangvina, 44, said that she passed through Banyumas in Central Java, then on to Jakarta and Batam before heading to her first destination country. She worked in Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong and Taiwan before her family insisted that she return to Blitar because of the abuse she had suffered.

Migrant workers need to pay for insurance and certain documents, but the amounts vary. If they don't have any money, the middlemen or the agencies pay up-front and the money is then deducted from the workers' paychecks while they work overseas.

"But in some cases, the parents and families have to pay," Aangvina said. "A neighbor once fainted when a middleman asked her to pay Rp 8 million for her daughter's flight and other expenses before she went to work."

The abuse suffered by untrained workers placed in unfamiliar foreign environments has been well documented, but the lasting emotional problems that migrants face when they return home are less well known.

"Many migrant workers face culture shock and spend their money on unimportant stuff," said Hadin, the former Seoul factory worker, adding that migrant workers should take courses in financial management. "When their money runs out, they have to go overseas again."

Jamsostek criticized for being ineffective

Jakarta Post - August 19, 2009

Jakarta – The 17-year social security program for workers (Jamsostek) has been criticized for being ineffective as calls increase for an immediate review of the 1992 Jamsostek Law.

Speaking at a seminar on social security programs here on Tuesday, workers, employers and representatives from PT Jamsostek expressed deep concern over the low level of participation in the program and the scant benefits it provides to the country's workers.

Indonesia first adopted the social security program in 1987, making it mandatory in 1992. However, only 8.2 million of the 33 million Indonesians employed in the formal sector have been registered for it.

A small number of the 60 million workers in the informal sector have joined the occupational accident and healthcare benefit programs only.

Jamsostek has managed to collect Rp 70 trillion (US$7 billion) from workers and employees for its pension benefit program. This works out to an average payment of just Rp 8 million per person upon retirement.

Labor unions have lambasted the government and employers for their lack of willingness to protect workers, saying that under the 1945 Constitution and 2004 National Social Security System Law, both the government and employers have to put money into the programs to protect workers and that sanctions must be imposed on employers who violate the 1992 law.

"Many employers have registered only a part of their work force or reported only a fraction of their employees monthly salaries to reduce the amount they have to pay into the program," said Bambang Wirahyoso, chairman of the National Workers Union (SPN).

Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo), Djimanto, admitted that many employers had provided false information on their work force, blaming the global economic downturn.

"And under the difficult conditions, the government should bail out troubled small- and middle-scale companies since they and their workers have paid taxes to the state," he said.

President director of PT Jamsostek, Hotbonar Sinaga, said that despite the repressive approach, the current system was not effective because of technical and administrative hurdles and the low participation of workers in unions.

He said that as in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines, PT Jamsostek should have the full authority to enforce the law, inspect employers and bring violating companies to court.

"The law is not a holy bible but a public policy that should be reviewed so that workers can be better protected. Jamsostek is ready to fully implement the law and run the social security programs professionally," he said, adding that Jamsostek should be made a trust fund and not obligated to pay dividends to the government, which is currently the main stakeholder in the company.

Hotbonar also said that the government and the House of Representatives should revise the low payroll to allow it to provide maximum benefits and services to workers.

Workers and their employers pay up to 11 percent of their monthly salaries to receive healthcare, occupational accident, death and pension benefits.

Workers and employers in Singapore and Malaysia pay up to 48 percent of their monthly salaries in exchange for financial security upon retirement.

The misery of Indonesia's migrant workers

Jakarta Globe - August 19, 2009

Dewi Kurniawati & Hera Diani, Kuala Lumpur – Siti Hajar forced her face, a mass of scarring from years of abuse, into a smile.

The 33-year-old West Java native made headlines in Indonesia in May this year when it was revealed she had been beaten and tortured for three years by her Malaysian employer, who had also refused to pay her salary for the 34 months she spent as a domestic worker.

Now living at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, she told the Jakarta Globe in an interview last month that her life was ruined. Her trembling hands betrayed her painful journey. "When I left home, my dream was to earn enough money to send my child to school," she said.

During the interview, Siti sat next to another abused domestic worker, Modesta Rengga Kaka, from East Nusa Tenggara. Modesta's ears were battered from the daily abuse she received over the past two years. Both workers' employers are now on trial in Malaysian courts, but the women can't return home to Indonesia until their cases are resolved.

Siti and Modesta are just two of the millions of Indonesians who have seen their dreams shattered after traveling abroad to work. Since the 1970s, tens of millions of Indonesians have left the country to work as maids, nannies, drivers and laborers in hope of a better life.

Some make it. But many do not, returning home with no money, beaten, depressed or, at worst, in a coffin. As many as 60 percent of Indonesians who travel overseas to work face serious problems, ranging from physical abuse to not being paid and as far as being killed on the job or committing suicide out of despair. Foreign Ministry records show that on average a shocking six Indonesian migrants die daily – mostly migrant workers.

It shouldn't be this way, of course. Workers enter the host countries legally with proper work documents but they are often treated like dirt. Governments are known to turn a blind eye to reports of physical and sexual abuse, refusal to pay salaries or provide leave, or to provide health care and vacations, among other common migrant issues.

These inconvenient truths tarnish the label of "state revenue heroes" bestowed upon Indonesia's migrant workers. In 2008, they remitted $8.2 billion to families in cities, towns and villages across the country.

In the wake of Siti Hajar's case, the central government suspended sending new female domestic workers to Malaysia, which hosts the largest population of Indonesian migrant workers. About two million Indonesians work on construction sites, at palm oil plantations and in the houses and apartments of the country's affluent.

Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur are negotiating a new memorandum of understanding that would include higher basic salaries, one day off per week and annual home leave for Indonesian workers. An agreement has not yet been reached.

Critics argue that the ban was a politically reactive response by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government to the shocking and publicly embarrassing television images of Siti Hajar being sheltered at the Indonesian Embassy. However, experts say the problems that 80 percent of migrant workers face abroad actually begin at home: No training, forged documents, a lack of mental preparedness and an inability to speak the language of their hosts.

The first major exodus of Indonesian workers began in the 1970s. Today, 4.3 million Indonesians are working in 42 countries, according to the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Overseas Labor (BNP2TKI). This doesn't include an additional two million to four million illegal workers, according to BNP2TKI estimates.

Most of these masses – larger than the entire population of Singapore – work as domestic employees or in factories and plantations: Jobs seen as dirty, difficult, dangerous and demeaning. But the workers have little choice given their limited education and access to jobs back home.

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia has more than 113 million workers, but it also has around nine million unemployed, or an unemployment rate of 8.14 percent.

Experts say the country's economy must grow by at least 7 percent annually to absorb new entries into the workforce – but GDP has not experienced that sort of growth since the mid-1990s.

Therefore, many people have little choice but to seek work overseas. Given the prevalence of problems for migrant workers, especially domestic staff, their plight is dire.

"Over 50 percent of the country's workforce [only] has a primary education... [leading] them to seek work as domestic helpers overseas," said I Gusti Made Arka, director general of labor inspection at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

Unfortunately, the means to produce and protect quality migrant workers are few. The recruitment process is handled by middlemen preying on rural villagers, mostly from Java.

Recruits are kept in compounds and just over half receive minimal training. There are 506 overseas employment agencies in Indonesia, but only 350 have training facilities, according to Mohammad Jumhur Hidayat, chairman of the BNP2TKI.

Grimly, he said that it's only logical that employers in foreign countries look down on Indonesia's "unreliable" and "incompetent" migrant workers. "We trade our human resources. We hand over the destiny of migrant workers to an [unregulated] market mechanism, but a market mechanism only works well in a good market," Jumhur said.

A former labor activist who joined the agency when it was established in 2007, Jumhur conceded that it would not be easy to clean up a mess that began piling up three decades ago and involves the exchange of trillions of rupiah.

"Migrant workers are turned into cash cows from the moment they're recruited to the point when they return home," he said.

To solve some of the problems, Jumhur said the central government has begun forming community-based training centers in 20 villages in Java. "Hopefully they will soon reach 500 villages all over the country," he said.

However, a lack of law enforcement has enabled rampant illegal recruitment that doesn't offer such luxuries as training.

"This country is so big and law enforcement is poor. Illegal migration can occur via many routes on land, sea and air, supported by trafficking syndicates," said Anis Hidayah, chairwoman of Migrant Care, a Jakarta-based nongovernmental organization.

It wasn't until 2007 that the Foreign Ministry established one- stop citizen service centers at embassies in six countries – Singapore, Brunei, South Korea, Qatar, Syria and Jordan. Previously, the service was the same as back home: lengthy and bureaucratic.

The rising number of problems involving migrant workers forced the ministry to open more citizen centers in 2008 in embassies and consulates in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru and Kinabalu in Malaysia; Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia; Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates; Hong Kong and Kuwait.

Nine more are scheduled to open this year in New York City and Los Angeles; Darwin, Perth and Sydney; Osaka and Tokyo; and Malaysia's Penang and Kuching.

"Why only now? Because we didn't have enough personnel or a budget large enough before," said Endang Kuswaya of the Foreign Ministry, echoing a familiar bureaucratic complaint.

Indonesian embassies are overflowing with thousands of workers seeking refuge, he said, even in embassies that don't officially have shelters, such as in Dubai. He said it was unfair to blame the embassies for what happens to unfortunate Indonesian migrant workers.

"Monitoring domestic helpers is not easy because they work in private areas. Houses in Middle Eastern countries, for example, are surrounded with high fences, and even police officers have trouble getting in," Endang said, adding that it's even more difficult to monitor illegal workers.

Albert Bonasahat, national project coordinator on forced labor and trafficking at the International Labor Organization, said Indonesian embassies could work with foreign governments to set up immigration counters at their airports that migrant workers could report to when arriving in the country.

"Upon their arrival in the destination countries, migrant workers are usually picked up by agents and employers, and afterward they do not usually have any opportunity to file a report on their existence with the local embassy," he said. However, Endang reiterated that limited budgets and a personnel shortage were obstacles to this plan.

Part of the reason migrant worker problems remain unresolved is that Indonesian government agencies are too busy blaming each other to sit down and map out solutions.

The migrant worker board, BNP2TKI, blames the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry for failing to create standard recruitment procedures and to eliminate the problem of middlemen. The ministry in turn blames national and local police departments for not cracking down on illegal worker-recruitment agencies. They also blame immigration officials, as well as the countries hosting migrant workers.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry blames just about every government institution – except itself. "It's not possible that the Foreign Affairs Ministry can solve this problem by itself," Endang said. "The problem is back home. All related parties should sit together and find a solution."

Sadly, some prefer to play the blame game. Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno suggested that because the abuse occurred overseas, those countries should be held accountable. "We are still in tough, ongoing discussions with Malaysia," he said.

Erman also said the problems with middlemen and substandard recruitment agencies were the responsibilities of local police and governments. His suggestion was puzzling, as recruitment agencies are licensed by his own ministry, rather than provincial and district manpower offices.

Made Arka, meanwhile, not only blamed international trafficking syndicates, but also various government institutions, including the directorate general of immigration and the Ministry of Health, for issuing passports and medical certificates without examinations.

He also blamed the media, saying they were exaggerating the problem of migrant worker abuse. "The number of abuse cases is actually quite small," he said, brushing aside government statistics.

The bickering government officials agree on at least some things, such as having a dedicated airport terminal and special passports for migrant workers, and warning them of the perils of taking jobs as domestic staff. "If they want to work as a domestic helper, why don't they just work in their own country?" Erman asked.

Labor activists say that Terminal TKI at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is an infamous black hole of corruption, extortion and robbery of migrant workers returning home from abroad.

Returning workers must pay exorbitant rates for minivans to get home as they are not allowed to be picked up by family members. Sometimes the minivan drivers will rob the passengers, who are carrying months of salary, and leave them stranded on the side of road.

"The special airport terminal and the pick-up rule were created because previously the situation was much worse, with many workers robbed and killed," Jumhur said, defending Terminal TKI. "The system is not perfect now, but it has significantly reduced the crime rate."

Labor activists have also complained of discrimination in the issuing of special passports for migrant workers, which are only valid for three years and differentiate them from regular Indonesians traveling abroad.

The ILO's Bonasahat said the central government appeared to be in denial of the fact that most migrant workers are undereducated women who have little choice but to go abroad to work as domestic employees because of the lack of jobs at home.

"The government said they would encourage migrant workers not to work in the informal sector. We should be realistic instead of being embarrassed and thinking that migrant workers are creating a bad image and loads of problems," Bonasahat said.

There should be an established system to help migrant workers, he said, including a pre-departure briefing, monitoring their well- being while they are overseas and a reintegration program once they return home. "The predeparture program should also include financial management lessons and psychological consultations on what they will face," Bonasahat said.

"Financial lessons would teach them how to manage their money, so they would not fall into poverty again and be forced to continue as migrant workers," he said. "Scholarships for workers' children and loans would also help the families. There should be special banking services that cater to migrant workers."

"The problem with domestic workers is that they work in a private realm, so it's not easy to check on [them]. But I think random checks by police would be possible. The Indonesian government needs to improve the capacity of its embassies to make sure that migrant workers are monitored," he said.

Meanwhile, the government should boost diplomacy to persuade host countries to ratify a labor convention. "These solutions cannot be done partially. There has to be an overhaul of the entire system," Bonasahat said.

Migrant Care's Anis said recruitment rules should be changed to provide more protection for the workers. "We need to amend the law... because it only focuses on recruitment agencies, but gives little stipulation to the rights and protection of migrant workers," she said.

Mother and child – Sriatun, 40, former migrant worker, in Sutojayan, East Java

"I worked in several countries for about 10 years. Now my daughter is in the process of doing the same.

"She wants to go to Hong Kong. She said it's difficult to find a job here for a high school graduate like her.

"She is 19 years old, so the agency faked her age to 22 years old. She can pass for 22 because she is a bit overweight.

"Am I worried that my only daughter is leaving? Well, yes. But she insists on going."

Worker to broker – Harjo Wijaya, migration broker

"I worked as a construction worker in Malaysia for five years. I don't feel like going anymore. My wife is working in Taiwan now, it's her turn to work while I take care of our children.

"I have been a middleman for 10 years now. I get Rp 2 million per person, which is actually not much. Now, it is difficult to find people aged 21 and above as most of them have become migrant workers already. I don't dare get teenagers to become migrant workers."

Worlds apart – Anita Asmadiani, migrant worker from Trenggalek, East Java

"I worked in Kuwait for a year in 2006, just two years after junior high school. I paid Rp 1.5 million to work there and was trained to speak Arabic for 28 days.

"I was a maid in a six-story house with two others. On religious holidays we'd barely sleep due to the endless cleaning and serving guests. I went back for a year, then worked in Singapore for two years and it was better. I have holidays every other week. I'm now waiting for a job order from Hong Kong."

Environment/natural disasters

Water crisis will deepen in the country, activists warn

Jakarta Post - August 21, 2009

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – The booming business of bottled water and its privatization will further block people from accessing cheap and clean water resources, threatening millions with a serious water crisis, warn activists.

Activists from the Committee of Saving State Assets, the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) and the Indonesian Farmer Union renewed their calls on the government to review the 2007 law on water resources, which allows private companies to manage piped water.

"Water privatization must end. There must be review of articles in the 2007 law on water resources," the coordinator of the Committee of Saving State Assets, Marwan Batubara, who is also a member of the Regional Representatives Council, told a dialogue Thursday.

He said the government needed to shift its focus to providing access to clean water for everyone. Currently, only 28 percent of the country's population, mostly in urban areas, has access to piped water.

Indonesia, one of the signatory members of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), is required to give 65 percent of the population access to piped water.

The government has blamed financial problems as the main obstacle to meeting this target, saying it would need about Rp 80 trillion to provide access to piped water to 10 million households.

Walhi's executive director, Berry Forqan, said the government's poor control of bottled water companies had blocked people's access to their own water resources. "However, it seems the government is yet to open their eyes to this problem," he said.

He said the recent rejection of a bottled water company to operate in Curung Goong village, Banten, by local residents, should highlight the public's concern of access to water resources.

According to Walhi, there are 246 water companies operating in the country that produced 4.2 billion liters of bottled water in 2001. Of those companies, about 65percent of the bottled water in the country was produced by two foreign companies, the Aqua brand, by the Danone group and Ades, by the Coca-Cola company.

Business expert Erwin Ramedhan said the government needed to investigate the bottled water companies to ensure their production was equal to their business permits.

"The government needs to audit the companies to evaluate the number of water springs they exploit to get the water," he said.

The country has long been under pressure to deal with poor water management, which causes floods in the rainy seasons and severe water crises during drought periods. Aside from the water supply, the government has also failed to improve the quality of clean water.

A 2008 report by the state environment ministry revealed that the qualities of water in rivers, basins and lakes continued to be heavily polluted by domestic and industrial waste.

Foreign expert slams halt to mudflow investigation

Jakarta Globe - August 18, 2009

Fidelis E. Satriastanti – A British geologist has criticized the East Java Police for stopping its investigation into the mudflow disaster in the district of Sidoarjo.

In March 2006, mud began spewing from a crack near a gas drilling well operated by PT Lapindo Brantas, a company that is part of the Bakrie Group controlled by the family of Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie.

The government has blamed the mudflow on negligence during the drilling, but the company says the incident stemmed from a strong earthquake in Yogyakarta, hundreds of kilometers southwest of from Sidoarjo, two days before the mudflow started.

In dropping the case, prosecutors cited an absence of "visual proof" to indicate the drilling activities had caused the eruption, meaning they wanted concrete representation of the link between the well and the mud geyser.

Richard Davies, an expert on mud volcanoes that has been studying the Sidoarjo phenomenon since 2006, said he was surprised police dropped the case due to a lack of evidence.

"This question depends on what you deem to be 'proof.' In my opinion, the amount of evidence from the drilling site is sufficient that we can say that beyond all reasonable doubt drilling was the trigger," Davies said.

"We're 99 percent confident that drilling was the cause. Whether this is sufficient to bring prosecution is a question for the Indonesian legal system."

During three years of legal battles over the disaster, police have submitted their case documents four times to East Java prosecutors, but each time the dossier was returned due to insufficient physical evidence to establish a link between the drilling and the eruption.

Davies said key data comes from daily reports during the company's drilling operation. He added that no useful information would be available from the site after the eruption.

He said research has been conducted on the earthquake that occurred on 27th of May in Yogyakarta, but "it was too small and too far away to trigger" the eruption, he said. "The effect of Yogyakarta's earthquake is the same as changes in weather conditions: too tiny."

Rudi Rubiandini, a drilling expert from the Bandung Institute of Technology who was also an expert witness for the case, said there should be no need to visually examine the site because all the information needed would be contained in the drilling reports.

"It's just like an airplane crash. We cannot possibly see what happened other than to find the black box and read from it. This is the same thing with drilling activities. The black box is the daily drilling reports," he said.

Meanwhile, Ipung Mohammad Nizar, one of the victims, said police failed to asked local or international experts to support their investigation. "I don't think they have asked all the experts in this case, especially international experts," he said.

Davies was not asked to testify in the case, despite urging to do so from nongovernmental groups.

Indonesia tight-lipped as SE Asia braces for worsening haze

Reuters - August 19, 2009

Singapore – Indonesia appeared to bat away offers from other Southeast Asian countries to help stop haze pollution on Wednesday, leaving the region facing worsening skies as a result of a brewing El Nino weather pattern.

Worried about the potential impact, environment ministers of the region met on Wednesday in Singapore to discuss ways to mitigate the haze, which cost over $9 billion in damage to the region's tourism, transport and farming during an El Nino weather pattern in 1997/98.

"Recognising the situation will be drier than normal, the ministers now agree that: 'Let us prepare for the worst, do what we can,'" Singapore Environment Minister Yaacob Ibrahim told a news conference after the one-day meeting in the city-state.

Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand offered help to Jakarta to combat outbreaks of fire, but gave no details of concrete funding or measures such as providing fire-fighters.

Asked at a news conference if other Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) members had offered Indonesia help in fighting the fires, Indonesian State Minister for Environment Rachmat Witoelar did not respond.

But Singapore's Yaacob said there had been such a discussion. "Indonesia has expressed gratitude for that and we will wait for Indonesia as and when to mobilise," he said.

Ministers and senior officials from the five countries agreed to ban all open burning and to suspend permits for burning in fire- prone areas, but the region's track record in combating fires that lead to international pollution has been weak.

Regional grouping ASEAN has a policy of non-interference in its members' domestic affairs and is seen by some as a talking shop.

Forest fires are a regular occurrence during the dry season in Indonesian regions such as Sumatra and Borneo, but the situation has been aggravated in recent decades as farmers, paper and palm oil plantation firms start fires to clear land.

The result is smog-like haze in cities such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Thailand's Hat Yai, reducing visibility and increasing health problems. The ministers said Indonesia had made progress in the past three years to reduce fires.

Indonesian environmental groups said the government of President-elect Yudhoyono should put forest protection at the top of its agenda, ahead of a international meeting in Copenhagen in December to agree action against climate change.

"Every day more precious forest and peatland is being destroyed, burnt and cleared by climate and forest criminals... leading to an exponential increase in greenhouse gas emissions that is causing climate change," Greenpeace said in a statement.

[Reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan; Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Jeremy Laurence.]

Women & gender

Women's groups report threats

Jakarta Globe - August 20, 2009

Ismira Lutfia – Women's rights activists have complained they are frequently subject to intimidation and harassment for counseling the victims of physical and sexual abuse.

According to the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), there were 54,425 cases of abuse involving women reported to the police in 2008.

Some regions across the country are beginning to provide recovery services for victims, but most have not, typically citing financial constraints.

A national forum for women's advocacy groups in Jakarta said it was high time the government set up regulations protecting women's rights defenders.

Yeni Roslaini Izi, the director of the Women's Crisis Center in Palembang, South Sumatra, was nearly jailed for doing her job. In 2001, the Palembang District Court found Yeni guilty of defaming a wealthy man accused of raping a 15-year-old girl.

"I was sued by the alleged rapist for defamation while his trial was ongoing and I was found guilty," she said.

Yeni was sentenced to two months in jail, a verdict that was eventually lifted after a lengthy legal ordeal. The alleged rapist was sentenced to six months in jail for attempting to "abscond with a minor."

"I lodged an appeal to the Supreme Court but had to wait for seven years until the court finally declared me free from all charges in 2008," she said.

The abused girl blamed herself for Yeni's legal struggle. "It took time to convince her it was not her fault," Yeni said.

Beauty Erawati, from the Women's Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Apik) in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, said she had been physically threatened during the course of her work.

"I once had a sickle put around my neck, and there were men who came to our office threatening to burn it down," she said.

Beauty said her branch of the organization received many threats from local people who believed the abuse of women should not be made public.

"Local societies still think that if a victim speaks openly about the abuse she experienced, she is airing her family's dirty laundry in public," she said.

Health & education

AIDS budget not fair for all: Forum

Jakarta Globe - August 21, 2009

Dessy Sagita – An uneven HIV/AIDS budget that favors preventive measures over treatment programs, and an inability to involve civil society in the policy-making process have contributed to the deaths of people infected with AIDS, a public discussion was told on Thursday.

"Most of the budget goes to the National Narcotics Agency and barely covers the treatment for those who are already infected," said Yenny Sucipto, a researcher from the National Secretariat of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency.

Yenny said the majority of the money for HIV/AIDS programs was spent on preventive measures, especially those aimed at reducing the number of intravenous drug users, while other high-risk populations, such as men and women involved in prostitution and housewives with high-risk husbands, received very little of the national budget.

She also said that those who were already infected received very little money compared to intravenous drug users.

"The budget and the programs are too focused on preventive measures, while those who are already infected don't receive proper treatment and are left to die," she said.

Hartoyo, a researcher with Our Voice, a gay rights organization that focuses on HIV/AIDS issues, said the government's efforts to curb the spread of AIDS were ineffective because there were too many regional bylaws that hampered work to stop the transmission of the virus.

"The programs won't work as long as discriminatory bylaws related to criminalizing drug use and prostitution are still applied," Hartoyo said.

Eva Sundari, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that anyone who wished to criticize how the budget was used should take it up with the government.

"The House of Representatives' authority is mostly limited to working with numbers, while the policy making comes under the government's jurisdiction," she said.

Eva said that to challenge the government's policies, the NGOs and other civil groups should have concrete proposals that they could present to the government.

"If you want to criticize the government, please come up with solutions that can be recommended instead of merely looking for flaws," she said.

Budi Hermanto, an official with the Indonesian AIDS Commission (KPA), said it was understandable that the majority of the AIDS budget went to preventive programs.

"The bigger the budget for preventive measures the better, because buying antiretroviral drugs to treat those already infected is extremely expensive," he said.

Budi also said the budget for intravenous drug users was so large because they accounted for the biggest number of new HIV/AIDS infections.

However, he also denied that other high-risk populations were being ignored.

Budi also denied that NGOs and the public were not involved in policy making.

"We always ask for their opinions and recommendations in all of our programs," he said.

More women become 'fashion victims' as eating disorders spread

Jakarta Globe - August 18, 2009

Dessy Sagita – Indonesia may consider itself up-to-date with regard to global fashion trends, but when it comes to awareness of the disorder widely associated with the industry, the country is only beginning to catch up.

"I remember 10 years ago, when people first began hearing the term 'eating disorder,' they thought it was very strange," said Gregorius Pandu Setiawan, chairman of Indonesian Mental Health Network. "They knew about mental disorders, but when they heard the term, they said 'Huh? Disorders about eating habits?'?"

Anorexia nervosa and its close relative, bulimia nervosa, began receiving widespread Western media attention decades ago with high-profile incidents such as the self-starvation death of singer Karen Carpenter in 1983.

But Setiawan said the term "eating disorder" has only been in widespread use in Indonesia for about a decade, and the number afflicted by them has escalated over that time, though he could not cite exact figures.

He said the increase in number of patients diagnosed was due in part to higher awareness of the disorders, but also because of the increasing pressure to be thin brought about by greater access to media, such as fashion magazines that present unreasonable notions of ideal body image.

In 2006, tabloid media intensively covered the death of two young female models, bringing another wave of awareness about the disorders across the globe, including Indonesia.

Uruguayan Luisel Ramos, who was 22 years old, died of a heart attack after starving herself for months, subsisting only on lettuce and soda. A few months later, Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston died at the age of 21 due to multiple infections. She reportedly ate only tomatoes and apples for weeks. Ramos and Reston both died with their weight far below the normal body mass index. Experts in Indonesia say the incidents were an important wake-up call for women here who idolized thin bodies.

Such obsessive "dieting," fasting or excessive exercise have long been known to be symptoms of anorexia nervosa, usually shortened to "anorexia" in popular media though the latter is more broadly applied by heath care professionals to mean any lack of appetite among patients.

"Women are more concerned about body image and people's opinion of them compared to men, and unfortunately many people believe that beauty means a skinny body," Setiawan said, adding that more than 90 percent of those who suffer eating disorders are women.

"The strong demand to have a perfect figure combined with low self-esteem could trigger eating disorders that could literally kill people, mostly women in these cases," Samuel Oentoro, a clinical nutritionist, told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.

Researchers say anorexia can stem from psychological causes like an unreasonable fear of gaining weight or a displaced need for control. Bulimia, in which people may eat normally or overeat and then purge afterward by stimulating the vomit reflex, is also said to be a symptom of deeper psychological problems.

"Anorexic people don't want to eat or only eat a little but bulimic people often stick their fingers in their throats to induce vomiting and erase their guilt after eating," Oentoro said.

He said the two disorders presented dire health threats. "Anorexic people don't get sufficient nutrition and their body weight will continue to decline, while bulimic people lose their bodies' electrolytes and minerals due to the vomiting, which causes imbalance in the body," he said. Most people diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia, he said, suffer unusual insecurity about their body image. "They will always think they are too fat and need to lose some weight no matter how skinny they are," he said.

Oentoro said most anorexic people were underweight, while bulimic people do not necessarily lose their weight quickly, yet they remain emotionally vulnerable due to fits of guilt after eating.

Corruption & graft

New group seeks to defend KPK

Jakarta Post - August 22, 2009

Jakarta – Dozens of anti-corruption activists in South Sulawesi on Thursday launched a movement to defend the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which they said was in danger.

The Love Indonesia, Love the KPK (Cicak) movement aims to rally public support for the anti-graft body amid political manoeuvring to undermine its fight against corruption, activists said.

One of the movement's initiators, Adnan Buyung Azis, said the slow deliberations of the corruption court bill were among moves to weaken the KPK.

"In the absence of the Corruption Court, all graft cases will be handed by the KPK to state prosecutors and will be heard at district courts. Everybody knows the track record of state prosecutors and district courts," Adnan said.

Graft fight may be threatened by House delays

Jakarta Globe - August 21, 2009

Abe Silangit & Camelia Pasandaran – The graft eradication fight in Indonesia may be weakened by the hesitancy of the House of Representatives to pass the Anti-Corruption Court Bill in time, a watchdog said on Friday.

Illian Deta Artasari, law and political coordinator at Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), said that lawmakers are not serious about passing the bill and have given unreasonable excuses to delay it.

These half-hearted moves by the House may threaten the the effort to eradicate corruption, she said.

Lili Romli, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), also recently criticized the House for having no serious commitment to eradicate corruption.

"House members should have passed the bill on time, and if possible in this term," he said in a discussion conducted by the Constitutional Court.

"Delaying the passage of the bill only shows that they don't care about eradicating corruption."

The Constitutional Court ruled that the new Anti-Corruption Court Bill should be passed by December 2009 at the latest.

Commenting on the criticism, Dewi Asmara, a member of the House's special committee on the bill, said on Friday that if the House could not meet the deadline, corruption cases may be handled by the state court.

Illian said that the plan to temporarily return corruption cases to the state court is against the spirit of fighting graft.

"According to research conducted by Transparency International Indonesia, the state court is one of the most corrupt institutions in Indonesia," Illian said. "How they are going to handle corruption cases?"

Dewi said that the bad reputation of some state court judges should not taint the whole institution.

"We can intensify the supervision of the judges," she said.

Mahfud MD, the chief of the Constitutional Court, recently said that limited time should not be the reason for the House to delay passing the bill.

"If lawmakers work seriously, they can pass it in a few days only," Mahfud said. "It is simple actually."

Mahfud said that if the House members could not finish it on time, the government could issue a regulation in lieu of law, or Perppu.

"The president could release a Perppu on the bill before the current presidential term is over this coming October," he said. "With a Perppu, the bill could be passed directly in the next House term."

Dewi said that there is no need for the government to issue a Perppu.

"There is no law absentia nor urgent condition that requires the government to issue a Perppu," she said.

Illian said that the House's low commitment to passing the bill and its rejection of the idea of a Perppu is further proof that the House has no desire to combat corruption.

ICW reports dubious judges to Judicial Commission

Jakarta Post - August 20, 2009

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) filed a report with the Judicial Commission on Wednesday that singled out 221 judges for often freeing corruption defendants of all charges. The judges are from 57 district courts, 3 high courts and the Supreme Court.

"We did some research from 2005 to July 2009 and found that out of the 1,643 corruption defendants handled at various levels of the judiciary, 812 of them were freed and the rest were only given a light sentence, while the rest were even put on probation," ICW legal researcher Febri Diansyah said, when meeting with member of Judicial Commission Soekotjo at the commission's office.

He said there was nothing wrong with judges freeing defendants of all charges, "the question is whether such verdicts have a strong basis".

"We are concerned with the high level of corruption defendants walking away without being charged or punished, and question whether career judges at district courts are committed to eradicate corruption." Illian Deta Arta Sari, an ICW coordinator, said ICW was suspicious of certain judges who often freed defendants. "There is also favoritism when it comes to which judges will handle the cases," she said.

Therefore they asked the commission to evaluate the judges. If the commission found ethical code violations or irregularities behind the judges' verdicts, they expected the commission to recommend that the Supreme Court fire the judges.

District courts have long been under the spotlight for alleged corrupt practices among officials, including judges expected to uphold justice.

"We expect to see the Judicial Commission place itself in a dominant position to fight against corruption in the judiciary," ICW's investigation division Tama Satria Langkun said.

Soekotjo said he would bring the report to the commission's plenary meeting for discussion.

Febri said the report played an important part in presenting the perspective of most career judges when fighting against corruption.

"We can see that in the latest draft of the Corruption Court bill, the number of ad hoc judges will be reduced and therefore the number of career judges will increase," he said.

Febri was concerned that if that was the case, the spirit to eradicate corruption would fade away.

Supreme Court spokesman Nurhadi said that since ICW had exposed problems with certain judges to the media first, they in turn would use the media to address "the accusation".

"The number [of free-of-charge verdicts] presented by ICW is invalid, we don't handle that many corruption cases," he said. He could not comment further as they were still gathering data to counter ICW's accusation.

Constitutional court chief calls for more scrutiny of judges

Jakarta Globe - August 20, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran – The Constitutional Court chief said on Wednesday that he is concerned about the absence of a supervisory board for judges at the court.

"I worry about this current situation where the Constitutional Court judges are not included among the judges that are under the supervision of the Judicial Commission," Mahfud said.

Mahfud said that the current batch of judges have good reputation, but issues of integrity may be raised in the future.

"As we are further distanced from the history [of the court], people tend to lose idealism," he said. "I'm afraid that Constitutional Court judges in the future will go the wrong way."

"Current judges now have high quality and morality. A watchdog will keep the quality high."

Mahfud said that the best way to establish a watchdog is to amend the Constitution to allow the Judicial Commission to have the right to also supervise Constitutional Court judges.

Besides strategic plans to amend the law, Mahfud said that he had also proposed a tactical plan where the court judges would not be selected by lawmakers, but by an independent body.

"This way, the judges will not be part of any political conspiracies in the House [of Representatives]," he said.

Lili Romli, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI), said that the Constitutional Court is currently one of the only bodies in the country that is well respected by the public.

"The public now have high expectations of the Constitutional Court," he said.

War on terror

Backlash over plan to spy on mosques

Jakarta Globe - August 23, 2009

Heru Andriyanto – Religious leaders are warning that the National Police's plan to monitor sermons during Ramadan to prevent the spread of extremism will offend and anger Muslims, and be viewed as a repeat of tactics employed during the Suharto regime.

The plan could also further increase tensions between security forces and the public after some local airports recently began conducting extra security checks of passengers wearing Muslim robes and veils.

Suhal Mahfudh, the chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), criticized the police plan as counterproductive.

"If implemented, the surveillance could incite hatred among Muslim communities toward the police," he said on Sunday.

"The number of radical groups is very small. Police cannot put the blame on all Muslim communities and put all Muslim boarding schools on their radar. Monitoring religious gatherings implies that the police are suspicious of all Muslim citizens. This can be considered offensive."

The National Police announced on Friday that it planned special surveillance of religious speeches during Ramadan to prevent hard-line Islamist groups from using the fasting month ceremonies to spread radical views and provoke congregations into carrying out terrorist acts.

The plan was formed in reaction to the July 17 twin suicide bombings at two upscale Jakarta hotels. The MUI and other groups are considering lodging an official protest with the National Police, though none had done so as of Sunday.

"I remember when Suharto was in power, and police used students to monitor speeches on campuses," said Ismail Yusanto, a spokesman for the ultraconservative Muslim group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia.

"The police bought the recorded speech from students for Rp 25,000 [$2.50] per cassette, and if they found something suspicious, the cassette would then be used as evidence against the speaker."

Ismail also warned of a public backlash. He noted a news report that a traveling family wearing Muslim garb "were interrogated like criminals in [the Banten town of] Balaraja just because they went the wrong way going home and [stopped to] rest in a mosque."

The National Police should be aware that using repressive means against suspected "state enemies" as during the Suharto era is no longer acceptable, said Tifatul Sembiring, chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), an Islam-based party.

"When police make arrests, they must have sufficient reasons and a strong legal basis, unlike during the New Order regime," he said. "Police need to avoid bombastic measures like those of [former US President] George W. Bush. Our justice system has already adopted laws against inciting hatred, so police must act according to the law."

Tifatul also expressed concern about the Balaraja incident, in which local residents interrogated the parents and their children and hauled them to the police station as suspected terrorists.

"The police's recent counter-terrorism measures have encouraged our own people to be suspicious of those in Muslim dress – that's what I mean when I say the police must act extra cautiously in handling this [policy]," he said.

TNI's role 'must be closely monitored'

Jakarta Post - August 22, 2009

Jakarta – The proposed involvement of the Indonesian Military (TNI) in the ongoing war on terrorism has to be closely monitored and based on a clear-cut job description with the National Police to avoid the abuse of human rights and power, says the House of Representatives.

Several members of the House's Commission I on information, defense and foreign affairs agreed that the recent statement by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the necessary involvement of the TNI in the fight against terrorism had to be implemented cautiously to avoid the rise of militarism that was used in the New Order era.

"The law on the TNI stipulates that there is a possibility for the military to contribute its resources to help the police fight against terrorism," Effendi Choirie, a member of the commission and a legislator from the National Awakening Party (PKB) told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Friday.

"However, the law does not clarify this in further detail, such as whether the TNI has the authority to arrest people or not. Therefore, it is very important that the government issue a regulation, which will detail the stipulation. The House will then monitor the process of the regulation deliberation," he added.

Human rights activists, such as Poengky Indarti from Imparsial Human Rights Watch, recently expressed concern about Yudhoyono's statement saying the statement could mean the TNI would regain its power to interfere in both civilian and political domains, just like during the New Order Era.

During the 32 years of Soeharto's New Order dictatorship, the military was given authority to arrest and process anybody accused of subversion against the state.

Thousands of people were arrested or abducted by the military without any proper processing of law during that time. After Soeharto's downfall in 1998, the TNI then reformed, but its authority was then limited to defense issues, not civilian and political issues.

Andreas Pareira, another commission member from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that he fully understood that it was not easy for activists to get over the traumatic scars caused by the military's vast authoritarian regime in the past.

"We must not revert to the past. However, it is also an undeniable fact that the TNI has a very big potential when it comes to fighting terrorism, but what happens now is that the military seems to be "waiting for orders" due to the unclear definition of the assisting role stipulated in the law.

"So, I also believe the government needs to issue a regulation detailing the TNI's role in counterterrorism measures," he said.

Happy Bone, another member of the commission from the Golkar Party, said that he would welcome the possibility to give the TNI a more active role in combating terrorism.

"In the past, the TNI with its Army Special Force [Kopasssus] recorded many successes in dealing with terrorism. If only the TNI was given more authority in dealing with terrorism earlier, then Noordin M. Top may have been captured by now," he said.

However, Happy also said that the authority given to the TNI had to be tightly monitored by both the House and the public. "The decision to further empower the TNI is a political issue. Therefore, the House, as a political institution, has the obligation to closely monitor the future development on that issue," he said.

Andreas said the first step of the monitoring process would begin on Monday. "We will raise this issue during a meeting with the political and security affairs ministry," he said. (hdt)

Indonesia to curb militant clerics

Straits Times - August 22, 2009

Salim Osman and Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja – Indonesian police will start clamping down on Islamic clerics who are suspected of having links to militant groups, in a reversal of its past policy of leaving them alone to avoid accusations of repressing Muslims.

From the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan today, the movements of all clerics will be closely monitored and their speeches at religious lectures and sermons recorded on tape by the police, said national police spokesman Nanan Sukarna yesterday (August 21).

"If any preacher is found to have uttered provocative words or broken the law (by preaching hatred), we will definitely take action against him," he told reporters. "We won't hinder dakwah, the spread of Islamic message, but we will try to be embedded there, be more transparent and do direct monitoring," he said.

But he was quick to add: "We are just stepping up surveillance all over the country because the threat of terrorism remains real and frightening."

Inspector-General Nanan did not say what action the police would take against the clerics. But Indonesian criminal law confers powers on the police to charge anyone who is found to have committed criminal agitation or incitement. Offenders face six years in prison if convicted.

The new stance by the police came hot on the heels of the manhunt for suspects in connection with the twin bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta that killed nine, including two suicide bombers, and injured more than 50 people on July 17.

The attacks, which ended almost four years of lull in terrorist bombings, raised concerns over the activities of some Islamic preachers who could be fanning extremism among youths through their misguided interpretation of the concept of jihad or war, analysts say.

One of the four wanted men involved in the twin bombings of the Jakarta hotels is a preacher, Syaifudin Zuhri Djaelani Irsyad, who taught at a mosque in Bogor, West Java.

Police believe he recruited Dani Dwi Permana, 18, from among a group of teenagers in his religious class, to be the suicide bomber who struck the JW Marriott. Dani had just completed secondary school.

Police also say that Syaifudin recruited the suicide bomber at the Ritz-Carlton, 28-year-old Ikhwan Maulana, a mosque activist from Banten province, which is near Jakarta.

In the past, police had exercised restraint in clamping down on the activities of clerics, even radical ones, lest they be accused of repressing Muslims as had happened during the authoritarian rule of former president Suharto.

Separately, Inspector-General Nanan yesterday (August 21) declined to comment on a report quoting an analyst as saying that police probes had shown militants planning to use snipers to attack US President Barack Obama's convoy when he visits Indonesia.

"You should ask the analyst how he got such information. Police have not said that," he said. However, he added that police investigators would not ignore any possibility of such an attack on the US President during his planned visit here in November.

Intelligence analyst Dynno Chressbon told Reuters this week that the militants planned to attack the US presidential convoy using MK-IIIs, a type of Russian-made sniper rifle that he said was used by the Taleban in Afghanistan and also in Muslim conflict areas in the Philippines.

Not much is known about Mr Chressbon and his outfit, the Centre for Intelligence and National Security, but he has been widely sought by the local media for quotes on terrorism since the July 17 bombings.

Indonesia's ex-terrorists should be closely watched, say analysts

Jakarta Globe - August 21, 2009

Nivell Rayda – Terrorism experts on Friday urged Indonesia to increase its monitoring of convicted terrorists who had been released from jail.

The experts are concerned that several convicts might be returning to their old ways after police announced on Wednesday that Bagus Budi Santoso, who was jailed in 2005 for hiding fugitive terrorist Noordin M. Top after the first JW Marriott hotel bombing in 2004, is believed to have played a bigger role in the July 17 bombings of the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels.

"The government should keep a special watch on terror convicts and prevent them from returning to extremism," said Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group. "First, the government must screen out those with the potential to return to extremism. Even in other countries, the correctional facility system can only rehabilitate up to 80 percent of its inmates."

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Andi Mattalata said on Friday that the ministry always alerted the police's Densus 88 antiterror unit whenever a terrorism convict was released.

"Once they are out of the prison system, they are the police's business," the minister said. "We have done everything that we could to rehabilitate them and deter them from terrorism."

However, terrorism expert Noor Huda Ismail said the government needed to do more to keep released convicts from returning to extremism.

"The government is simply sending clerics to talk to them and explain to them that terrorism is not Islam," Ismail said. "If they are talking to someone who believe that they are doing jihad [religious duty], then there's an endless discussion about who is right."

Ismail added that the government needed a softer approach in dealing with convicted terrorists. "The key is compassion and trust," he said. "If the ex-convicts feel accepted then they will open up to new ideas and new perspectives about Islam."

He also suggested that terror convicts should be separated from other inmates to prevent prisons from being used as recruitment centers. Ismail said a prison guard in Porong, East Java, named Asep Jaja was recruited into a terrorist cells.

Asep, who spent months in terrorist training camps here and in the Philippines, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 2006 ethnic and religious violence in Maluku.

Military authorized to aid police in antiterror effort

Jakarta Globe - August 21, 2009

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The Defense Ministry said on Thursday that the military had the authority to take action against terror suspects.

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said that although there was no special decree for the military's involvement in the fight against terrorism, the police and the military had already established a tradition of understanding and cooperation with regards to antiterror efforts in the field.

"The military can take action against terrorists, but only after a request from the police," Juwono said.

A military spokesman had earlier said the government needed to issue a decree clarifying its powers to fight extremist violence. A decree, the unnamed official said, would empower the military to arrest and take strong action against terror suspects.

Several nongovernmental organizations criticized the demand for a decree, however, saying such involvement would only confuse the roles of the military and police.

National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said on Thursday that cooperation between the police and the military remained positive.

He said special regulations were needed to clarify the military's role in the antiterror fight, but only in the future. "It's better to maintain the current situation now," Bambang said.

He said that joint military-police exercises would be held in October to allow both sides to evaluate their cooperation. "The focus of our cooperation in the future will be how to strengthen the role of each side to prevent terror," Bambang said.

Meanwhile, Army Chief Gen. Agustadi Sasongko Purnomo said on Thursday that cooperation between the military and police on matters such as antiterrorism efforts should be coordinated under a special council.

"The council would decide how both institutions would cooperate," Agustadi said. "I think the national security bill draft would regulate the need to establish such a council."

Maj. Gen. Pramono Edi Wibowo, the commander of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus), said on Thursday that the antiterror unit of the Kopassus was always ready to be deployed to help the police if necessary.

He said some of his officers had already helped the police arrest terror suspects, but did not reveal further details. "We always help the police on request," he said.

Army's terror role not a worry: Yudhoyono

Jakarta Globe - August 21, 2009

Febriamy Hutapea & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday hit back at critics of his decision to give the Armed Forces an increased role in fighting terrorism, saying the move was not counter to the country's principles of democracy.

Although the National Police by law have primary responsibility for counterterrorism operations, Yudhoyono, speaking after receiving an Honor Command medal from the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) in Jakarta, said that Law No. 34/2004 on the Indonesian Military stipulated that the military could also take part.

He said that in times of peace, the military was required to stop antiseparatist movements, armed rebellions and terrorism.

"So if someone says that military involvement in counterterrorism efforts decreases our democracy, I can't understand that. I think it's the wrong perception," Yudhoyono said. "It's the law that recognizes the military's role in counterterrorism."

He said that while the National Police force still headed counterterrorism efforts, the Armed Forces needed to be involved to handle certain unique challenges posed by the threat of terrorism.

Following the twin suicide bombings at Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels last month, Yudhoyono ordered the military to deploy 40,000 personnel across the nation to monitor village- level activity and prevent more attacks. The military also plans to establish counterterrorism desks in all of its regional command centers.

National Police officials have not publicly complained about the increased military involvement and have been coordinating with the Armed Forces on operations.

Still, some nongovernmental organizations are skeptical about involving the armed forces in the antiterror fight, saying it would mix the roles of the military and police.

An Armed Forces spokesman countered by saying the criticism was partly fueled by fears that the military would revert back to its role as state-sanctioned oppressor during the Suharto regime.

Yudhoyono didn't dismiss his critics, however, urging the military to prevent repeating past human rights violations. He specifically named the shootings of thousands of alleged gang members in the 1980s, as well as the murder of prominent human rights activist Munir Said Thalib in 2004.

Retired Army Gen. Muchdi Purwoprandjono, a former commander of Kopassus, was tried and acquitted for Munir's murder earlier this year.

"We must all work together, and find the meeting point between law enforcement, national sovereignty and democratization," Yudhoyono said.

Jaleswari Pramowardhani, a military analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that while the Armed Forces had the legal authority to take part in counterterrorism operations, "we must also admit that military involvement could limit space for public activities."

Andi Widjajanto, another analyst, said Yudhoyono should end public unease by issuing a presidential decree to give political cover for military involvement in fighting terrorism. "A political decision must be issued," Andi said.

Experts tout program to fight radicalization despite shortcomings

Jakarta Globe - August 20, 2009

Farouk Arnaz – Terrorism experts defended a police program to fight radicalization on Thursday, dismissing an apparent setback and blemish to its reputation.

Two of the suspects in the July 17 hotel bombings in Jakarta had been involved in Densus 88's so-called deradicalization program following a stint in jail for terrorism-related activities.

"The rehabilitation system has been a success," said analyst Sidney Jones from the Jakarta office of the International Crisis Group. "We cannot simply say it has failed just because people like Bagus [Budi Pranoto] and Air [Setiawan] were involved again with terrorist networks after they were released."

Bagus, who was named among four new targets of a manhunt on Wednesday, was jailed in 2005 for hiding terrorist leader Noordin M Top in 2004. Air, who was killed in a recent police raid on a house in Bekasi, was detained for involvement in the Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta in 2004.

Jones said the program should adopt new strategies, such as requiring convicted terrorists to report regularly to police over a period of four to six years after they're released from jail. "We have to monitor them when they are released," she said.

Petrus Golose, the head of the National Police's cybercrime unit, said the antiterror programs also needed to be given a legal foundation to boost their effectiveness. H e was concerned that the deradicalization program remained "unofficial."

The comments were made during the launch of Petrus's book, titled "Deradicalizing Terrorists," at the University of Indonesia's Depok campus.

Petrus said Indonesia's model for fighting radicalization should employ a number of components. "The keys are: taking a humane approach and reaching out to the grass roots," Petrus said.

He said such efforts must also include good communication between law enforcement agencies, and that police needed to broaden their outreach to encompass anyone in the community who has been exposed to radicalism.

Ansyaad Mbai, the head of the antiterror desk at the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, agreed that efforts to curb radicalization needed stronger legal backing.

"It is urgent that the programs have a legal base because it has been proven that the deradicalization program worked to secure Indonesia for four years," Mbai said. He also pushed for an amendment to a 2003 law surrounding antiterrorism.

"We must review this law because it was meant to facilitate dealing with terrorist suspects. Our officers need more time to question and arrest suspects before they go to trial," he said.

Ali Fauzi, the younger brother of convicted Bali bomber Amrozi, said it was more important that the program be expanded. "After my brother's execution last November, no department of the government cared for us. They left us alone even though, as family members, we did nothing wrong."

Indonesian media coverage may aid spread of terror, say analysts

Jakarta Globe - August 20, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran – The Indonesian media's over-reporting of terrorism may aid extremists in generating fear in society, observers said on Thursday.

"With saturation coverage of terrorism, the media itself might have created terror," said Muhammad Izzul Muslimin, a member of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI).

"This way, the terrorist's plans to create fear in society have gained more support from the media. They should inform the public about terrorism, but should deliver proper coverage."

Two private television stations have been summoned by the KPI for screening the police raid on a house in Temanggung, Central Java, earlier this month. Television stations inititally reported that the man inside the house was wanted terrorist Noordin M Top, however it was later discovered that this was not correct. Izzul said that the KPI had issued a warning to the media to follow industry ethics when covering terrorism raids.

"We have warned not to overly cover terrorism," Izzul said. "The media should not show the victims in close up. We also warned them that they should not jump to conclusions when investigations are still underway. They should not lead the public with their own opinion."

Ade Armando, a communications expert at the University of Indonesia, said that the media tended to cover any news about terrorism. "It makes the media a garbage bin for any news about terrorism and the significance of the news is neglected," Ade said.

Ade, a former KPI member, said the media tends to give an incomplete picture of events by providing news that is not comprehensive and that lacks understanding of the issues. "They often accept any information from the police without questioning it and tend to be provocative with their coverage," he said.

The current behavior of some media outlets opens the possibility for them to be misled by the terrorists themselves, Ade said. "The KPI should be strong against media that violate ethics," he said. "It should be clearly stated what media can and cannot cover. There should be sanctions, not only warning after warning."

Izzul said that the KPI gives different sanctions depending on the severity of violations. "If they ignore warnings, we apply a stronger sanction," he said.

Indonesian police follow money trail from Noordin to Middle East

Sydney Morning Herald - August 19, 2009

Tom Allard Herald, Jakarta – Ties between Middle East extremists and the terrorist cell thought to be responsible for suicide attacks on two Jakarta hotels have emerged after the weekend arrest of an alleged financier of the plot, who lived for many years in Saudi Arabia.

The arrest was reportedly followed late yesterday by the detention of an alleged "money man" of Arabic descent, also in relation to the bombings. Indonesian media named him as Ali Mohammad bin Abdillah.

Seven bystanders, including three Australians, died in the co- ordinated attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels on July 17, believed to have been orchestrated by Noordin Mohammed Top.

The financial links between Noordin's cell and Middle East militants – including al-Qaeda – are being investigated by Indonesian police, according to counter-terrorism sources. If proven to be substantial, the links could herald a disturbing new wave of co-operation between Noordin and far-flung followers of violent jihad.

Al-Qaeda provided at least part of the funding for the first Bali bombings in 2002 and the first attack on the JW Marriott in 2003, both arranged by the terrorist group's point man in South-East Asia, Hambali.

But that funding appeared to dry up for the next six years, with the arrest of Hambali and his incarceration in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, along with his brother Gun Gun Rusman Gunawan and an associate, Zubair.

Yesterday an Indonesian police spokesman, Sulistyo Ishak, refused to confirm if any arrests had been made at the weekend. But counter-terrorism sources confirmed that at least one arrest was made in Kuningan, West Java.

According to Koran Tempo, the man arrested was Iwan Herdiansyah, 27, the owner of an internet cafe who had spent several years in Medina, Saudi Arabia, before returning to Indonesia 13 months ago. One of his former employees, Dian, said her former boss often warned workers not to open his private computer. "His reason was it was a bank account that no one should know about," Koran Tempo quoted her as saying.

As well as the reported arrest yesterday, there is another Arab connection to Noordin's cell.

Saifuddin Jaelani, the Islamic cleric who recruited at least one of the suicide bombers for the hotel attacks, spent four years in Yemen as a student. Al-Qaeda has had a significant presence in the country for years, and Saifuddin did not register as a student while he was there.

The Jakarta Post said Saifuddin received several big payments from Yemen before the bombings. The information could not be verified, but Indonesia's Centre for Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis believes 68 transactions from 2004 to 2009 could be linked to terrorism.

Resistance to fanaticism in the wake of Jakarta blasts

The Australian - August 17, 2009

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – When freelance advertising copywriter Glenn Marsalim went for his regular jog in Jakarta's Senayan stadium soon after the July 17 terrorist bombings he fell to chatting with a T-shirt and souvenir vendor.

Within hours of the attacks, a new kind of online resistance had sprung up to the Islamist fanaticism that produced the bombings, and Marsalim, 36, was part of it. And the humble T-shirt salesman, Yayan, was on board too.

Known as #indonesiaunite, a movement based on the social networking websites Twitter and Facebook, the loose gathering of outraged opponents to the bombing was quickly snowballing into a definite force.

Its clear rules of engagement included the fact its name was expressed in English, not Indonesian, in an attempt to show solidarity beyond the archipelago nation's endless shores.

But tweets from individual users, who within days had grown to more than 200,000 and sent the group soaring to being the highest "trending topic" on the Twitter network, often had a particularly Indonesian flavour.

Typically, they would mention regional culinary specialities as a means of exploring Indonesian-ness, such as this: "Craving for nasi warteg and pecel lele" (simple rice and spicy catfish salad).

It was a defiant attempt to say, as vice-president-elect Boediono did in his own #indonesiaunite tweet two days after the attacks: "We are angry, but we will not surrender." But for Marsalim, just talking about being Indonesian online was not enough of a fightback.

And so a related idea was hatched, as he chatted with his T-shirt vendor friend on the Senayan jogging track.

The salesman was one of many micro-entrepreneurs who had invested in producing souvenir wear for a coming Manchester United demonstration soccer match against an all-Indonesia side.

But the game had been cancelled after the attacks. The visitors were due to stay at the Ritz-Carlton and the local heroes were already in camp at the JW Marriott.

Indeed, in a claim of responsibility for the bombings posted on a website under the name of regional terror mastermind Noordin Mohammad Top, the MU visit was identified as one of the reasons for the bombings, due to the team's inclusion of Christian players.

Marsalim realised there was an opportunity to help the vendor recoup his losses and to play into the gathering Indonesian tide, so he bought up the initial stock of 100 red T-shirts, turned them inside out so the MU logo was no longer visible, had the new movement's logo stencilled and arranged to sell them at cost.

The media picked up on the theme, and a song by rapper Pandji Pragiwaksono coincidentally became a sort of anthem for #indonesiaunite.

Called Kami Tidak Takut ("We're Not Afraid"), the catchy rap was written in protest at the high profile of Bali bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra in local and international media.

Its release shortly before the July 17 bombings catapulted the 30-year-old artist into the national spotlight, and Kami Tidak Takut became both the song and the slogan for #indonesiaunite:

"Can it be that we don't want to be united?/For sure there are efforts to destroy us/The Bali bombs – one and two – and the Australian embassy/What do you think they were about?/"Admit it, they're trying to smear our nation/Can you believe even Kanye West avoided us?/He went direct from Singapore to Australia/Even though he's a fan of mine!" – Kami Tidak Takut, by Pandji Pragiwaksono.

The question now is whether #indonesiaunite continues to build beyond Twitter and Facebook and, if so, into what.

Terrorism feared, Jama'ah Tabligh members expelled

Jakarta Post - August 19, 2009

Agus Maryono, Banyumas – The current intensive police hunt for wanted terrorist Noordin M. Top and followers of his organization Jamaah Islamiyah has prompted residents to be more vigilant of Islamic groups.

Central Java residents have refused to allow members of Jama'ah Tabligh to stay at their mosque. Members of Jama'ah Tabligh, an Islamic sect originated from India, move from one mosque to another, preaching. Male members of the group usually wear Pakistani-style attire and have beards while its female members wear face veils, and thus they are often believed to be linked to radical groups, including to Noordin and his group.

The exclusion of Jama'ah Tabligh members has happened in several regencies in the province, including Purbalingga, Cilacap and Banyumas.

"Their presence made us uncomfortable. They (the members of Jama'ah Tabligh) slept, ate and took a bath in our mosque. Residents feared that they were part of a terrorist group. So we did not allow them to stay here," Rojikin, one of the mosque's board members, said Tuesday.

Rojikin said the residents reported the group members to the police because they were reluctant to leave the Nurul Huda mosque in Sidakangen village, Kalimanah district, Purbalingga. Twelve members of Jama'ah Tabligh were then taken to the Purbalingga police station.

The members, who had stayed at the mosque for two weeks, told police they had only asked the residents to perform sholat prayers, rejecting the accusation that they were a terrorist group. "We don't teach violence. We just ask people to pray together," Hamid, one of the members, said.

Police released the members, residents of Sulawesi, and asked them to move on to the group's center of operations in Purwokerto, Central Java.

The head of the Unitary Nation and People's Protection Agency in Cilacap regency, Yayan Rusiawan, said his agency had asked hundreds of Jama'ah Tabligh members to leave the regency in the past two weeks.

"Residents reported they felt uncomfortable with the presence of the group members. The members had to leave the mosques," Yayan said Tuesday.

He said the group members admitted that they came from Jakarta, Bengkulu and various West Java cities, however, some of the expelled members could still be seen in Majenang, Dayuehluhuer and Kawunganten and western Cilacap areas.

Pujiono, 40, one of the Jama'ah Tabligh activists from Purwokerto defended the group, saying they just preached from one mosque to another. "We just ask people to liven up their mosques."

He claimed many members of Jama'ah Tabligh were also members of Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, the country's two largest Muslim organizations which are known for their moderate stances. "We are not a different sect," he added.

Fighting the 'cosmic war' of terrorism

Irish Times - August 19, 2009

[Indonesian defence minister Juwono Sudarsono talks to Clifford Coonan in Jakarta.]

The team of armed police who search every inch of the taxi, and the airport-style security as you walk into the Grand Hyatt hotel in Jakarta, illustrate the high level of security alert that Indonesia finds itself in since last month's hotel attacks by Islamic extremists, which killed nine people and ended four years of calm in the world's fourth-largest country.

Indonesia is the world's most-populous Muslim country and the majority of Muslims there follow a moderate form of Islam, but the challenge facing the administration of reformist president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is countering the way radical fringe elements are gaining influence, especially among the impoverished youth in the provinces.

Defence minister Juwono Sudarsono believes that the way to stop fundamentalists gaining the upper hand is to combat poverty. "The war on poverty and the war on terror are two sides of the same coin," Sudarsono said in an interview with The Irish Times.

Sudarsono, educated at the University of Indonesia, Berkeley, and the London School of Economics, has served under the last four Indonesia leaders.

His moderate views means he has transcended the political turmoil that has rocked Indonesia in recent years, and the professor of international relations is better-qualified than most to comment on the current state of Indonesian politics.

The son of a government minister, he was a minister of state under former dictator president Suharto in 1998. Under president BJ Habibie, he was education minister, then became the first civilian in 50 years to become minister of defence under president Abdurrahman Wahid in 1999.

He followed this up with a stint as ambassador to Britain and Ireland under President Megawati Soekarnoputri in 2003-2004, and he speaks fondly of his three visits to Dublin. "A lively city," he said. He was again named minister for defence under president Yudhoyono in October 2004.

"Structurally speaking, we have to pre-empt the tendency of young Muslims who are easily attracted to radical policies. Poverty itself does not lead to terrorism, but it can be used to make the young resort to bombing," he said. "They have nothing to lose because they have nothing, that's the problem."

Sudarsono remains hopeful for the country's future because the Indonesian economy, which is largely driven by its domestic market of 226 million people, is proving resilient despite the crisis, and is expected to grow by over 4 per cent this year.

The poverty rate fell to 14.1 per cent in March, compared to 16.7 per cent in 2004, while unemployment is also falling. But beyond the numbers, Sudarsono describes efforts to combat terrorism in Indonesia as "a cosmic war".

The terror campaign in the modern era began with the Bali bombings in 2002, which killed 202 people, many of them foreigners, and 300 people have died in all. Security forces blame Malaysia-born Noordin Mohammad Top for orchestrating the campaign, heading up the violent wing of the Jemaah Islamiah network. There are also links to the al-Qaeda network.

"My problem is beyond Noordin, who is attracting downtrodden people," he said.

Martyrdom is a big factor – if Noordin is caught, then what to do? He would certainly be sentenced to death, which would create a martyr. A quick trial to show the government is serious about countering terrorism would be the ideal outcome, although Sudarsono said he was unlikely to survive once the police caught up with him.

Sudarsono said he believed that the current administration was serious about its concern for the poor. "The strongest point about president Yudhoyono is that he is genuinely concerned about the downtrodden. It's up to the other officials in government who must cope with terrorist networks using a soft but firm approach. Perception is important in politics," he said.

Much of the task of dealing with the terror issue in Indonesia has fallen to the police, who have taken on a high-profile role in the country, partially because the military needs to take a back seat due to its links to the Suharto era.

"The biggest problem is conveying to the people that this army is interested in serving the people, not like under Suharto," he said.

Sudarsono believes history will probably judge the much-reviled Suharto, who died last year, differently, as despite his harsh rule, he also transformed Indonesia into one of the Third World's success stories of the 1970s and 1980s.

But he has nailed his colours firmly to the current administration's mast. "Under Suharto, the problem was not much democracy, but lots of efficacy. Now it's the reverse – lots of democracy but not enough efficacy. He delivered at a price – the price of democracy."

Indonesia also faces the issue of managing calls for greater regional autonomy in its eastern and western extremes of Aceh and Papua, and Sudarsono acknowledged the difficulty of this problem, while saying he hoped that encouraging a sense of being Indonesian would help with this.

"International relations was my subject, but most important here is anthropology," he said.

Structural problems are hampering economic growth and also made it difficult for Indonesia to compete with China and Vietnam.

"We need institutions and we need equitable economic growth to avoid a constant crashing of gears. We have top-rate people at the upper echelons but, at other levels, it's hard to compete with places like Singapore and Thailand. "We are undermanaged," he said.

Police to target 'suspicious' people in veils in Noordin hunt

Jakarta Globe - August 18, 2009

Kinanti Pinta Karana – Police in Bekasi will approach "suspicious" people wearing Islamic veils after experts floated the possibility that terror suspect Noordin M Top could be disguising himself as a woman, the local police chief said on Tuesday.

The police will conduct a "persuasive operation" to anticipate the possibility of veil-clad terrorists, Bekasi Police Chief Commissioner Mas Guntur Laope said.

"A persuasive operation means that we will approach the suspicious person in a friendly manner and ask them questions such as where they're from, what they're doing, and so on," Guntur said.

Suspicious persons spotted by the police in public areas will be approached by female police officers and asked questions. If the person's voice "sounds like a man's," he said, the policewoman may ask the person to remove their head and face coverings.

This would happen in private and in front of a female police officer only, he added.

Guntur said the operation would only target people that looked suspicious. "We will look at the posture first and the way they carry themselves. A woman walks differently than a man so if we see a person in a veil with manly gestures, we will approach them."

Bekasi Police decided to take preventive measures after experts said that the most wanted terrorist in Indonesia, Noordin M Top, frequently disguised himself by wearing a woman's burka or a veil.

The police are cooperating with neighborhood heads around Bekasi to pay more attention to suspicious behavior after the discovery of 500 kilograms of explosives at a house in Jatiasih, Bekasi, during a police raid earlier this month.

"We took the Jatiasih case as an example," Guntur said. "When neighbors saw something suspicious, they went to the neighborhood head who then reported it to the police."

The Mayor of Bekasi, Mochtar Mohammad, has said earlier that he would support any efforts to secure Bekasi from terrorist activities as long as human rights are not violated.

Mochtar said Bekasi is often used as a place to plan acts of terrorism because it is close to the capital. "I have ordered authorities to support police's efforts including conducting searches," he said.

Nawawi Bahrudin from the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development said that the searches can only be conducted if the police already have supporting evidence from an investigation.

"Otherwise, it is feared that there will be discrimination or even prejudice against women who wear burkas and veils. Police have to find a way to maintain security that does not conflict with people's clothing choices," he said. (Additional reporting by Antara)

New recruits, funding keep Noordin, JI on the attack

Jakarta Post - August 18, 2009

Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – The country's most wanted terrorist, Noordin M. Top, and his group, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), have recruited and trained nearly 450 members for bombing operations since 2000.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Soekarna said Sunday that Noordin and JI, believed to be the regional arm of global terrorist network al-Qaeda, had provided training in bomb manufacturing, weapons handling, combat skills, recruitment techniques and suicide bombing to around 440 new recruits from across the archipelago.

"We can base these figures from [information provided by] members we have arrested and from those who have served time in jail. We have arrested and brought many of them to trial, while we continue trying to track down others," he said.

Nanan said programs to rehabilitate and monitor convicted terrorists were weak, and with around 200 released from prison since 2002, the fear was that many would rejoin their former terror networks and radical sympathizers.

Nanan said links between suspects thought responsible for the 2004 Australian Embassy attack and the recent J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotel bombings was testament to how the legal system had failed to deter future terrorist activity.

Air Setiawan and Eko Joko Sarjono, who were suspects in the 2004 bombing, blew themselves up in last month's attacks in Jakarta that left 9 dead and more than 50 injured. The fact both these bombers were teenagers also showed that extremists are able to appeal to young Muslims and convince them to commit mass murder, he said.

Nanan said JI was able to draw on hundreds of potential supporters due to the ongoing conflicts in Poso and Ambon.

A number of intelligence experts claim the terrorist network is still receiving significant funding from both local and international donors.

"They [donors] keep sending large amounts of money to the country, most of which is unfortunately sent via courier and thus very difficult to trace and stop," Mardigu, a terrorist expert, said in Jakarta on Monday.

Usually the couriers enter the country through Dumai and Batam, he said, both regions located within a half hour of Singapore and Malaysia.

Head of the Center of Financial Transaction Report and Analysis (PPATK), Yunus Husein, said his office had detected at least 68 financial transactions during the 2004 to 2009 period that were allegedly related to terrorist activities. "We have handed over that record to the police," he said.

Syaefudin Jailani, a key police target, reportedly received several payments of Rp 1 billion prior to the July 17 bombings from someone in Yemen through his neighbor's account.

Nanan Soekarna said now the police were working hard to sever the flow of funds making it to terrorists within Indonesia.

Islam/religion

Indonesia tells Muslim radicals to stop attacking nightspots

Straits Times - August 23, 2009

Jakarta – Indonesian officials have warned radical Muslim groups not to attack nightclubs and other businesses deemed sinful in Islam during the Ramadan fasting month, which started yesterday.

Nightclubs, massage parlours and saunas are normally closed for business during Ramadan, Indonesia's Antara news agency reported.

But hardline Islamic organisations, which are not banned in Indonesia, have in recent years attacked those businesses which continued to operate.

Last Thursday, a red-light district in Sumatra was attacked by radical Muslims. Many houses believed to be used for vice activities were set on fire.

Arie Budhiman, who heads the Jakarta tourism and culture office, said: "The Jakarta police chief has made it quite clear that unauthorised mass organisations are not permitted to perform supervisory functions."

Enforcement should be handled by only the police and the city government's security and order agency, and his office, he said.

He advised Muslim groups to report to the authorities any recalcitrant nightspots or other businesses that operate outside the officially permitted hours instead of taking matters into their own hands.

Arie said his office had sent notices to 1,129 bars, clubs, massage parlours, nightclubs and karaoke operators early this month, detailing which of them have to close during the fasting month, Antara reported on Friday.

All nightclubs, massage parlours and saunas are to close for the month. Karaoke and live music spots can operate only from 8.30pm to 1.30am.

Entertainment venues at star-rated hotels are allowed to remain open as they cater to the city's tourism industry.

In last Thursday's attack, hundreds of people raided and burnt down tens of houses in a red-light district in Pelalawan in the Riau regency, in Sumatra. The protesters said their action was part of an anti-vice campaign preceding the fasting month.

The attack took place after a demonstration by members of the local anti-vice movement, known as Gemas. Police were unable to stop the crowd from damaging the properties, the news agency said.

"The people have long warned red-light district operators to stop their activities but the warnings were ignored. This is the result of their arrogance," said Saidina Ali, an official of the local chapter of the Council of Ulama.

People turn to pawnshops to fund Ramadan revelry

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2009

Ronna Nirmala – As food prices continued to climb on the eve of Ramadan on Friday, state-owned pawnshops across the nation began to experience the seasonal surge of customers looking to unload items for a much-needed buck or two in anticipation of an expensive holy month ahead.

Zulkifli, a staff member at a pawnshop in Kebayoran, South Jakarta, said that the queue of people in front of his shop had formed even before it opened its doors at 10 a.m. and had remained constant throughout the day. He said most were pawning gold, but others were even pledging their beloved motorcycles.

People, he said, chose to deposit their wares in the pawnshops, known as pegadaian in Indonesian, because of the convenience and ease, with payments for jewelry taking about 15 minutes and for other items, including motorcycles, about an hour. Zulkifli said people were also using the loan facility, with pegadaians charging interest rates of 0.75 percent to 1.3 percent over 15- day periods for loans, depending on the amount. All loans were for at most four months.

With the price of some staple foods increasing by as much as 20 percent, Ramadan, a time of fasting and feasting with loved ones, is an expensive prospect for many struggling below or on the poverty line. But for some, it is a time to spend money and flaunt wealth, with many wanting to put their best foot forward when they return to their hometowns or villages for Idul Fitri celebrations marking the end of Ramadan.

M. Nur Chatib, a spokesman for PD Pasar Jaya, said the fasting month usually brought a 5 percent to 10 percent increase in the number of their buyers.

Nizam Yunus, an economics lecturer from the University of Indonesia, said it was called "consumption behavior" in economics and that "every community has its own particular characteristics."

"People prepare for special events each year, whether it be Ramadan, Idul Fitri, Christmas, New Year and even for the new academic year. They will do anything to make that moment as impressive as possible."

Nizam said the increased demand meant that prices rose, "but the surprise is that people don't care... because the event only happens once a year and it's the special event that people don't want to miss just because they don't have enough money."

A spokesman for PT Pegadaian, Irianto, said that in the past, people borrowed money from brokers or sold their possessions, but now they could just go to a pegadaian, where they could unload unnecessary items and buy them back in two to four months, if needed.

Jakarta warns groups against Ramadan raids

Antara News - August 22, 2009

The city warned private organizations Friday not to attack nightclubs and other controversial businesses during Ramadan.

"The Jakarta police chief has made it quite clear that unauthorized mass organizations are not permitted to perform supervisory functions," said Arid Budhiman, who heads the Jakarta tourism and culture office.

Enforcement can only be handled by police, the city government's security and order agency, and his office, Budhiman added.

"If mass organization members notice night spots that operate outside the officially permitted hours, they should report the spots to the authorities," he said.

Budhiman said his office had sent notices to 1,129 bars, clubs, massage parlors, nightclubs and karaoke operators in early August, detailing which of them have to close during the fasting month and which can operate with time limits.

Nightclubs, massage parlors and saunas are supposed to close for the month. Karaoke and live music spots may only operate from 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

Entertainment venues at star-rated hotels can stay open, however, in a nod to the city's tourism industry.

In the past, hard-line Islamic organizations have attacked such businesses for operating during Ramadan.

Riau red light district burned by protesters ahead of Ramadan

Antara News - August 21, 2009

Hundreds of people rallied and burned down tens of houses in the Sepakat red light district in Pelalawan, Riau, on Thursday as part of an anti-vice campaign ahead of Ramadan.

The destruction occurred following a demonstration by people involved with the local anti-vice movement, known as Gemas, demanding the closure of the location to respect the upcoming Islamic holy month.

Police monitoring the demonstration could not stop the crowd from damaging the properties.

Earlier, residents living around the red light district had demanded its closure, but their request was ignored, which led them to take the law into their own hands.

Initially, people were only vandalizing property in the area, but then some began setting fire to the dwellings. The fire spread quickly as most of the homes were made of wood.

The tenants in the houses attempted to extinguish the blaze and limit the damage to property, but it was too large.

"The people have long warned [red light district] operators to stop their activities but the warnings were ignored. This is the result of their arrogance," said Saidina Ali, the third chairman of the local chapter of the Council of Ulema.

He said the red light activities in the area had been going on for decades and its presence had made the local community feel uncomfortable. It was also hurting the morality of the younger generation, he added.

Elections/political parties

Murder conviction no obstacle to Tommy's Golkar aspirations

Antara News - August 21, 2009

Tommy Suharto, the controversial son of former dictator Suharto, is free to contest the chairmanship of Golkar, party deputy general chairman Agung Laksono said on Friday.

Laksono, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said the party had no restrictions on its members nominating themselves for Golkar's chairmanship, contradicting previous party statements that prospective candidates had to have held a leadership role in the former ruling party for the last five years.

"However," Laksono said, "the success of a candidate will be determined by how big the support he or she can secure from the Golkar regional branches."

Laksono said that besides the support of the regions, a candidate would also be judged on their activities within the party.

"The higher intensity of his or her activities within the party, the bigger opportunity a candidate will have to be elected as chairperson," he said, commenting on the intentions of Hutomo Mandala Putra, Tommy's formal name, to run in the Golkar general chairmanship race.

Therefore, he said, Tommy's nomination would be better if not done immediately but in times to come.

"Many many have suggested that Tommy should not nominate himself for the time being but first become a member of the executive board. After all, he is still young and has a long journey ahead."

Laksono said the presence of Tommy proved that Golkar had enough quality cadres, who could take their place on the national stage.

Tommy was convicted in 2002 of ordering the murder of Supreme Court Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita after the judge found him guilty on corruption charges. The corruption conviction was later overturned.

After being absent from the political field for 10 years, Tommy said he felt called to return to Golkar. "Until now I am still a Golkar Party member and I still have a membership card," he said. Tommy, born in 1962, said that elite party members had approached him some time ago to return to help develop the party.

KPU follows court ruling to allocate legislative seats

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran – After weeks of confusion, the General Elections Commission has finally decided on a method of allocating legislative seats based on the results of the April 9 elections, and winners could know who they are by Monday.

The commission, also known as the KPU, decided on Friday to implement the Constitutional Court ruling on seat allocations, an issue that had been muddled by a contradictory decision from the Supreme Court issued in July.

"Today [Friday], we decided to use the method that was approved by the Constitutional Court," said KPU Chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary.

"We only have four commissioners, so we will probably not be able to complete it tonight [Friday night]. We will most likely announce the official results on Monday."

Hafiz said the decision was reached after consulting with Constitutional Court Judge Abdul Mukthie Fajar on how exactly the court's ruling should be implemented.

The KPU's decision also means that the announcement of who would take their oaths as new members of the House of Representatives in October was postponed a second time. It was originally scheduled for last Tuesday, and again expected on Friday.

"The most important thing is that we have tried to correctly implement the ruling of the Constitutional Court," he said.

Members of the KPU had been split over which candidates would be allocated seats in the third phase of vote counting. Some KPU officials backed candidates who ran in the district where their party gained the most seats; others wanted the candidate with the most votes in the province to be allocated the seat. Under the Constitutional Court ruling, the former will gain seats.

Hadar Gumay, chairman of the Center of Electoral Reform (Cetro), said that the commission's decision would not change the number of seats gained by a party, but that some candidates would be affected. "Fifteen candidates will lose their seats and be replaced by other candidates," he said.

Bambang Eka Cahya Widodo, a member of the Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu), agreed that the KPU had implemented the right system.

"I'm glad that they're now using the previous method as it better represents the voters' decision and is preferable in elections that use a proportional system," he said. "I observed the decision and the KPU is on the right track."

KPU member Andi Nurpati said that there would also be another announcement concerning results for areas where vote reruns or recounts had occurred.

The Democratic Party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will still get the lion's share of seats at the House, with 148 seats.

The Golkar Party will get 106 seats, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) gets 94 seats, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) 57 seats, the National Mandate Party (PAN) 46 seats, the United Development Party (PPP) 38 seats, the National Awakening Party (PKB) 28 seats, the Great Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) 26 seats and the People Conscience Party (Hanura) 17 seats.

Golkar seniors play down impact of Tommy's bid

Jakarta Globe - August 20, 2009

Febriamy Hutapea – An 11th-hour decision by Tommy Suharto to run for chairman of the Golkar Party would not change the outcome of the upcoming election, two supporters of rival candidate Aburizal Bakrie claimed on Thursday.

Theo Sambuaga, a senior member of the party, said that Bakrie, the coordinating minister for people's welfare, had the largest support from almost all the regions.

He reiterated that the party's internal regulations required that any candidate for chairman should have been a party member for 10 years and have held a leadership position within the past five years – requirements that Tommy, whose real name is Hutomo Mandala Putra, has not met.

"Everyone who runs in the national congress should follow the party's internal rules, because these are a must," he said. "We all know that Tommy was never active in Golkar."

Theo also acknowledged that Tommy's run-in with the law would make it difficult for him to fulfill the requirements to run for party chairman.

The controversial favored son of the late dictator Suharto was convicted in 2002 of ordering the murder of Supreme Court Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita after he found him guilty on corruption charges. The corruption conviction was later overturned.

Golkar politician Priyo Budi Santoso, another Bakrie supporter, said that Tommy's candidacy would not significantly change the mapping of political support in Golkar. "It will not change anything just because one candidate joins [the congress]," he said.

"To build the image of a national figure is not an easy task. It's a long-term process," Priyo said, indicating that Tommy could not easily start his political career by gunning for the party chairmanship.

Priyo, however, said the party's internal rule could be amended during a special occasion, like the national congress scheduled for Oct. 4-7. He said that he would let the congress participants determine the fate of that internal rule. "That's the right of congress members," he said.

Priyo said that Tommy's decision to run in the congress would make the competition more interesting, though was not sure where Tommy's supporters would come from. "But, if he wants to build the Golkar Party with us together, I just can say welcome home, Mas Tommy," he said.

Other senior party members running for chairman include media mogul Surya Paloh and two up-and-coming party members, Yuddy Chrisnandi and Ferry Mursyidan Baldan.

Suharto's son wants Indonesian presidency: aide

Agence France Presse - August 20, 2009

The son of the late Indonesian dictator Suharto has launched an attempt to become president, says an aide, despite a "track record on legal matters" that includes a murder conviction.

Hutomo Mandala Putra, popularly known as Tommy Suharto, is seeking to become the next leader of the Golkar Party, his father's former political vehicle, which is in turmoil after losing recent elections.

The move on Wednesday comes 11 years after president Suharto resigned amid violent street protests against his authoritarian 32-year rule, and seven years after Tommy was found guilty of murdering a judge who had convicted him of corruption.

"He surely has ambitions of becoming Indonesian president in future. He will be as good, or even better than his father," Tommy's spokesman, Yusyafri Syafei, told AFP.

One of Suharto's six children, Tommy, 46, has a reputation as a flamboyant playboy but has kept a low profile since his release from prison in 2006 after serving just four years for murder.

He fought off a $US61 million ($73.8 million) civil corruption case in February 2008, winning $US550,000 in a countersuit, and successfully fought off a $US400 million civil corruption case earlier this year.

His father, who died last year, aged 86, allegedly pocketed billions of dollars for himself and his children during his reign.

Syafei admitted Tommy was "not clean" but said he was no different to other politicians in the country of 234 million people.

He also said ordinary Indonesians hankered after the stability of the Suharto years, in which there was strong economic growth but appalling graft and human rights abuses. "In the blood of Tommy flows the blood of Suharto. That's natural," Syafei said.

"It's an open secret that during Suharto's era, people didn't find it hard to find food to eat... He will have supporters."

The nationalist Golkar Party has never been in opposition but its fortunes have waned in recent years. It gained only 14.45 per cent of the vote in general elections in April.

Party rules, and murder, in Tommy's path

Jakarta Globe - August 19, 2009

Febriamy Hutapea – As shocked senior members of the Golkar Party weighed Tommy Suharto's announcement that he was running for party chairman, there was general agreement on Wednesday that Tommy faced a number of "obstacles" in his bid, chief among them his conviction for ordering the murder of a Supreme Court justice.

Gorontalo Governor Fadel Muhammad, a senior member of Golkar, acknowledged that he had not expected Tommy, whose full name is Hutomo Mandala Putra, to run for chairman because he was not actively involved in the party, which was the political vehicle of Tommy's father during his three-decade rule.

Fadel said Tommy might have a right to run as a citizen with political rights, but that his murder conviction would certainly hamper his candidacy.

However, he also noted that Tommy could be prevented from running for chairman by a number of party regulations, including one that stipulated candidates must have held a leadership role in the party within the past 10 years.

Fadel said Tommy's case was different than that of his older sister, Siti "Tutut" Hardiyanti Rukmana, who had been active in the Golkar leadership.

"He's a risk-taker. I could understand if Tutut runs, but him? It's very surprising for me. It's extraordinary," he said. Meanwhile, senior party member Firman Subagyo said party regulations also stipulated that chairmen needed to meet standards regarding performance, dedication, loyalty and personal background.

He said Golkar had become strict in selecting its leadership, noting that the party had prevented a number of aspiring legislative candidates who were facing legal difficulties from running in the recent elections.

"Everything can change in politics, but the internal rules can't be changed to accommodate the interests of a certain candidate," Firman said.

Golkar central board leader Andi Mattalatta noted that party regulations also required participants in the upcoming party congress, where the chairman will be elected, to have served at least five years in a leadership role. However, he said Tommy may be allowed to participate, depending on a ruling by the congress's oversight committee, which was expected to be passed on Wednesday night.

Other senior party members running for chairman include Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, advisory board chairman and media mogul Surya Paloh, and two up- and-coming party members, Yuddy Chrisnandi and Ferry Mursyidan Baldan.

Fadel, who supports Bakrie, said he doubted Tommy was a threat to Bakrie's candidacy.

Burhanudin Muhtadi, a political analyst from the Indonesian Survey Institute, said Tommy's return to politics was mainly to "disturb" Bakrie because of his close association with former party chairman Akbar Tanjung and Ginanjar Kartasasmita, both Suharto-era cabinet ministers.

"Suharto's family perceives them as the two... who helped kick Suharto from power," he said.

Tommy was convicted in 2002 of ordering the murder of Supreme Court Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita after the justice found him guilty on corruption charges. The corruption charges were later overturned.

Tommy Suharto: I want to inherit Golkar

Jakarta Globe - August 18, 2009

Febriamy Hutapea – Tommy Suharto made a dramatic return to the country's political stage on Tuesday, declaring his readiness to run for chairman of the Golkar Party, the political vehicle used by his autocrat father who ruled Indonesia for more than three decades.

Tommy, whose full name is Hutomo Mandala Putra, has kept a low public profile since being released on parole from prison in October 2006, presumably to concentrate on his business interests, but now he is professing a higher calling to return to the nationalist party once controlled by late President Suharto.

Golkar, currently in political disarray after a disappointing showing in both the legislative and presidential elections this year, will hold its national congress in Pekanbaru, Riau, from Oct. 4. The congress is crucial in deciding the party leadership for the next five years.

"This is the right time for me to return to the politics," Tommy said in a signed press release.

Although he has not been actively involved in Golkar for about 10 years, Tommy said he believed he still had a chance in the run for the party chairmanship. "I think I was called on to return to Golkar. I set my targets high, including in politics," he said.

Tommy said his eagerness to chair the party was triggered by a sense of duty and his close relationships with many senior Golkar officials. "I have a moral obligation to help advance the party, which was founded and built by my father," he said.

Ciu Syafei, a member of Tommy's campaign team, said Tommy had decided a month ago to pursue a political career. "This is really serious because Mas Tommy wants to do something more for this country," Ciu told the Jakarta Globe. "He has worked in business, but to do something bigger for the country he realizes that he needs a political vehicle."

Ciu said his team was now developing a strategy to strengthen its party networks in preparation for October's congress. "We're ready to face whoever the candidates are," he said.

More senior Golkar members have already declared their candidacies for the chairmanship: advisory board member Aburizal Bakrie, advisory board chairman Surya Paloh, and two up-and- coming young party members, Yuddy Chrisnandi and Ferry Mursyidan Baldan.

Yuddy and Ferry welcomed Tommy's announcement, saying that the 47-year-old's candidacy would make the competition more interesting. "The fact that there are many young Golkar politicians competing means that regeneration is running well within the party," Ferry said.

However, Tommy faces an immediate obstacle to his political ambitions. Golkar's internal regulations stipulate that candidates must be party members for at least 10 years and have held a leadership position within the past five years.

"He can't run to be party chairman unless the party's basic rules were amended," said Golkar's deputy secretary general, Rully Chairul Azwar.

Tommy was convicted in 2002 of ordering the murder of Supreme Court Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita after he found him guilty on corruption charges.

Yudhoyono and Boediono officially announced as election winners

Jakarta Globe - August 18, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran – The nation's election commission officially announced on Tuesday that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Boediono had been elected president and vice president of Indonesia.

Abdul Hafiz Anshary, chairman of the General Elections Commission (KPU), said that current president Yudhoyono had passed all the requirements to take a second five-year term in office following the result of the presidential election conducted on July 8, 2009.

Suripto Bambang Setiadi, Secretary General of KPU, read the decision letter. "We declare Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Boediono as the elected president and vice president from the 2009 presidential election," Bambang said.

Hafiz said that the pair had met the minimum requirement of obtaining at least 50 percent of overall votes and 20 percent of votes in at least half of Indonesia's provinces.

"Candidates Yudhoyono and Boediono gained 60.80 percent of total votes," Hafiz said. "They also gained 20 percent in all Indonesian provinces. According to the presidential election law, they have met all the requirements to be declared as the elected president and vice president."

Following the final ruling from the Constitutional Court, which rejected dispute cases from the losing presidential candidates Jusuf Kalla and Megawati Sukarnoputri, the KPU was able to proceed with the official announcement. However, the KPU has not yet announced the seat allocation for the House of Representatives following the legislative elections in April.

Burhanudin Napitupulu, a representative from the Jusuf Kalla-led Golkar party that attended the event, said that the party accepted the election result.

"We respect the KPU's decision, so we accept the result," he said. "However, we need to highlight some notes about the election process, notes about violations during the election, and we need to improve it."

Burhanudin said that the whole nation had noticed how the election was a "total mess." "Compared to the 1999 and 2004 elections, the 2009 election was the worst," he said.

Burhanudin said that Golkar has not yet decided whether to be in opposition in the next government term.

Meanwhile, representatives from the Megawati camp did not attend the result announcement.

Arif Wibowo, a senior member of Indonesian Democratic Party in Struggle (PDI-P), said that the Megawati team did not receive the invitation to attend the event. However, he said that the party accepted the result.

"The party's chief, Megawati, said previously that she accepted the Constitutional Court ruling," he said. "The KPU decision is based on the court ruling. So, we have accepted the result."

Marzuki Alie, secretary general of Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, requested all parties to accept the election result.

"The election result has been strengthened by the court ruling," Marzuki said. "It should be well accepted with an open heart."

Indonesian Elections Commission in turmoil over new challenge

Jakarta Globe - August 18, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran – Shaken by uncertainty following separate court verdicts and the threat of legal action, the General Elections Commission will delay today's scheduled announcement of members of the next House of Representatives.

Syamsul Bahri, a member of the commission, also known as the KPU, said they decided to delay the announcement until Friday at the earliest to study separate Constitutional Court and Supreme Court rulings on the allocation of House seats won in the April 9 legislative elections.

He said the KPU also needed time to prepare for an expected lawsuit by a losing Democratic Party candidate. "We will only declare the new president and vice president [tomorrow]," Syamsul said on Monday.

The situation in the legislature is far from simple. In June, the Supreme Court made a ruling on the method of allocating seats that called for 66 House posts to be taken away from smaller parties and given to larger ones, including the Democratic Party and Golkar. It also called for about 1,300 provincial legislative seats to be redistributed.

That ruling was in response to a request from a Democratic Party candidate, Zaenal Ma'arif, for a judicial review of the KPU's regulation on second-stage seat allocation. The Democratic Party stood to gain another 30 seats from the decision.

But earlier this month, the KPU said it would not retroactively apply the ruling to this year's elections, but would only apply it for the next national elections in 2014.

Then, on Aug. 7, the Constitutional Court appeared to agree with the KPU's position when it ruled in favor of four smaller political parties that had requested it review the Supreme Court ruling.

Now, Syamsul has acknowledged, the KPU has been given pause again thanks to a new threat made by Democratic Party lawyer Utomo A. Karim in the wake of the Constitutional Court's ruling. He has warned he may file a lawsuit against the KPU on behalf of 115 candidates from various parties if it doesn't immediately implement the Supreme Court ruling.

Syamsul said the KPU would now attempt to implement both courts' rulings, despite their contradictory interpretations. "We'll find a way," he said.

But Irman Putra Sidin, an administrative law expert, said that if the KPU attempted to implement both rulings, it could cause chaos within the legal system. "If there's an ongoing lawsuit, [judicial] review, complaint... to a court, we'll never come to a conclusion over the election results," he said.

Irman said the KPU should have just implemented the Constitutional Court ruling, which is based on the Constitution and has precedence over a Supreme Court ruling based on law.

Refly Harun, an administrative law expert at the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), agreed. "If there is a candidate or party that wants to sue the KPU, let them do it. It won't really influence the final ruling of the Constitutional Court."

Jeirry Sumampow, of the Indonesian Voters Committee (Tepi), said any delay in announcing the new House members would show the KPU was susceptible to political influence.

"There are so many interests in the election results, and the KPU should not be in that game," Jeirry said. "Each KPU member has different interests and opinions on the results."

Regional autonomy/separatism

Separatist government may end its independence push in Maluku

Jakarta Globe - August 19, 2009

Ismira Lutfia & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – A senior member of the self-styled separatist government of the Republic of South Maluku said on Tuesday that his movement would reconsider its aspirations for an independent state.

Speaking to the Jakarta Globe by phone from Amsterdam, John Watilette said the group, also known as the RMS, would consider backtracking from its push for independence from Indonesia if that was the will of the people of South Maluku.

"If that is the voice of the people, we should listen to it," he said, "but only if it is voiced without repression."

Watilette, who was expected to assume the RMS presidency in the coming weeks, said that the RMS government-in-exile would contact people in South Maluku to discuss the issue further.

"We want to hear it directly from the people, not from local government officials," he said, adding that the Maluku community in the Netherlands was in constant contact with their communities in Indonesia.

Watilette said that the RMS had heard a significant number of people had expressed their reluctance to continue the push for a separate state.

"However, we hear there are also many people there who are still pro-independence," he added, saying that most did not dare speak up for fear of arrest by local authorities and human rights violations in detention.

Watilette recently told the Nederlands Dagblad daily that an independent state in South Maluku was no longer a priority. In an interview with Radio Netherlands, Watilette said that the RMS would be satisfied with a form of autonomy similar to that introduced in Aceh.

The Netherlands-born Watilette was reported by the Dutch media to be the first RMS leader from the second generation of Maluku migrants who settled in the Netherlands in the 1950s, and was regarded as more pragmatic than previous leaders.

Indonesia's ambassador to the Netherlands, Junus Effendi Habibie, told Radio Netherlands after Indonesian Independence Day celebrations on Monday that he welcomed the exiled RMS government's moves to give up its separatist intentions.

A spokesman from the embassy, Firdaus Dahlan, said the ambassador had "responded positively" to the new RMS position.

He said the ambassador had also called on the Maluku community in the Netherlands to accept the system of regional autonomy, saying that special autonomy would be inappropriate because the central government had already decentralized power to the local governments.

Negotiations over the issue, the embassy said, would be out of the question since Indonesia did not recognize the RMS.

According to the UNHCR, there are about 50,000 people from Maluku currently living in the Netherlands, some of whom have taken up Dutch citizenship.

The RMS movement began in 1950 when soldiers from South Maluku that were loyal to the Dutch staged a failed revolt in favor of an independent state after the Indonesian government reverted to the unitary republic from the system of federal states.

As many as 12,000 people were temporarily resettled in the Netherlands with the hope that they would one day return to South Maluku, however, this never eventuated and in 1986, the Maluku community there was recognized by the Dutch government as a permanent feature of Dutch society.

Separatist flags hoisted in independence anniversary celebration

Jakarta Post - August 16, 2009

Flags belonging to Free Papua Organization and South Maluku Republic were hoisted on Saturday as thousands of Indonesian nationals living in the Netherlands celebrated Indonesian independence anniversary in Wassenar.

"We are telling Indonesian people and international community that Indonesian independence anniversary falls on December 27, not August 17. We do not recognize Papua's integration into Indonesia," Free West Papua coordinator R. Paphua told Antara news agency.

South Maluku Republic coordinator Frida Pasanea said Maluku had gained independence on April 25, 1950 and never been part of Indonesia since then.

"South Maluku is an independent state and has a head of state," said Frida, who works for an Islamic elementary school in Amsterdam. She accused Indonesia of discriminating against Maluku and Papuan people.

Indonesian Ambassador to the Netherlands Jusuf Effendi Habibie played down the raising of the separatist flags, saying the Dutch government had acknowledged the sovereignty of Indonesia over Maluku and Papua.

Armed forces/defense

Full transfer of TNI businesses by October: Juwono

Jakarta Globe - August 17, 2009

Febriamy Hutapea – The transfer of military-run businesses to government entities run by civil servants, as mandated by law, is expected to be completed by October, Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said.

"All the preparations are finished. God willing, by October it will be done," Juwono said.

In his State of the Nation address to the House of Representatives last Friday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he expected the transfer of military businesses to be completed within the year.

"God willing, this year we will finalize the transfer of [military] businesses to the state," he said.

The transfer of the Armed Forces's (TNI) noncore activities is seen as a way of boosting institution's image.

Yudhoyono said he hoped the transfer of military businesses would improve the TNI's professionalism and enable it to focus on protecting the country, "so they can defend every inch of our homeland."

Following the fall of the authoritarian Suharto in May 1998, the military was forced to relinquish its seats in the House and eventually to agree to hand over its lucrative business ventures to the government.

The House passed a law in 2004 requiring the government to take over all military-owned businesses by the end of 2009.

An independent team assigned to verify the military's business interests reported that after auditing 1,098 military cooperatives and 23 foundations, it had found assets totaling Rp 3.4 trillion ($312.8 million).

The team uncovered extensive real estate holdings, including shopping malls, hotels and office buildings.

The move to force the military to sell its businesses was based on concerns that a financially independent military would undermine civilian control, contributing to further abuses of power and impeding reforms.

Yudhoyono said the country's massive democratic reforms had been made possible, in part, by the reform of the TNI, including the separation of its core functions and its other traditional social and political roles.

As the country celebrated its 64th year of independence, the president said he believed that the TNI had accomplished much in implementing the principles of good governance and aggressively eradicating corruption. "In this country, no one is immune from the law," he said.

Juwono said the Defense Ministry was preparing the core concept of the presidential decree that would outline in more detail plans for the transfer of the TNI's business interests. "I hope the presidential decree can be issued before October," he said.

Economy & investment

Business community mixed on impact of new tax law

Jakarta Globe - August 18, 2009

The new law on local government taxes drew a mixed reaction from the country's business leaders on Tuesday, with some cautiously welcoming the legislation and others saying they needed to take a closer look at the law before commenting. Some businesspeople were less than pleased, however.

"I was shocked when I heard about the new taxes, especially when I heard that local tariffs for entertainment venues – including nightclubs, bars and massage parlors – could reach 75 percent of sales," said Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) treasurer Johnnie Sugiarto.

The new regulation caps "total" taxes levied on nightclubs, karaoke bars and beauty contests at 75 percent. "I don't know the details yet, but if local governments increase taxes up to 75 percent, it will be pretty insane. It will certainly mean businesses will close down."

The PHRI, he said, needs to discuss the legislation because members have not been told about the details of the new law.

A government press release on the law obtained by the Jakarta Globe does not include a detailed explanation of the new rules, which are likely to affect consumers.

Bambang Susatyo, chairman of the fiscal and monetary policy committee at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), warned that local governments should be careful about imposing the new taxes, or they could end up crippling the industries that they depend on for tax income.

He said overburdening the entertainment sector, a major source of jobs across the country, could negatively affect employment and regional incomes if businesses were forced to close.

But Erwin Aksa, president director of PT Bosowa, a diversified business group that owns a number of new car dealerships, praised the central government's move to cap taxes at the provincial and municipal level. He said the change could help to reduce illegal "ghost" taxes and levies.

"This is a positive move – hopefully, local governments will not be able to increase taxes or levies as much as they want from now on," Erwin said. "But we will have to wait for the implementing regulations before we can be certain of this."

The new law on vehicle taxes would definitely trigger a decline in car sales, he said. "But this will not be so bad if it increases government revenues," he added.

Ismanu Sumiran, chairman of the Association of Indonesian Cigarette Producers (Gappri), also praised the new law, saying it would positively impact both local governments and the cigarette industry.

"By giving cigarette revenues to local governments, it will reassure the industry that companies will be allowed to proceed smoothly," Ismanul said.

Agung Pambudhi, chairman of Regional Autonomy Watch, said that several articles in the tax law should have been dropped. "For instance, the levies on heavy motor vehicles," Agung said. "They should not be taxed to increase investment in industry."

Agung also warned about possible technical difficulties when implementing the taxes. "Regarding the progressive tax on second cars and motorbikes, the key question will be how they supervise it," he said. "Currently, it's easy to get a fake driver's licence and avoid paying the tax."

Analysis & opinion

Indonesians' love affair with rice bad for health, food security

Jakarta Globe - August 23, 2009

Teguh Prasetyo – While senior officials regularly make well- meaning noises about the need for food diversification, both experts and the food processing industry say what is really required is a much more hands-on approach by the government, as well as greater support from banks, if Indonesians are ever to be weaned away from their love affair with rice.

Overreliance on rice as a staple foodstuff not only involves questions of national food security, but also nutrition, they say.

The problem is serious. A 2006 World Food Program survey on 341 districts and cities in 30 provinces found that people in roughly half of the areas are consuming less than 1,700 calories a day, well below the international standard of 2,100 considered necessary to provide the minimum energy required for an average adult.

In addition, up to 70 percent of the country's women and children are anemic, according to a United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) study that was compiled in 2004.

The problem is not so much a lack of food, but a lack of variety. Poor people tend to substitute more expensive protein-rich foods such as meat and eggs with rice.

According to Bustanul Arifin, a senior economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance in Jakarta, the public's virtual addiction to rice is effectively a cultural barrier to food diversification. There is a misconception that rice has to be eaten every day, even if alternatives such as bread, corn, cassava or potatoes are readily available.

Bustanul said eating rice is also seen as a status symbol, while cassava is generally associated with poverty. The situation is exacerbated by regular media reports of people being "forced" to eat cassava due to the failure of a rice crop, as if cassava were something to be avoided.

Figures from the Agriculture Ministry's Directorate General of Food Crops show the country's dependence on rice is excessively high. Agribusiness concerns say this has hampered efforts to encourage the production of other crops.

Meanwhile, government attempts to encourage farmers to diversify have been hampered by inadequate support from banks, officials say. Farmers complain the government does little more than talk up alternative crops, while cutting import duties on foreign competition.

Bank financing is notoriously hard for the farming sector to obtain. Despite the existence of rural lending programs, many farmers lack even the basic documents required to secure loans.

Reliance on rice is a long-held habit, which diversification experts acknowledge will be hard to break. The country's per capita rice consumption stands at 139 kilograms per year, much higher than in other Asian countries. In Japan, the figure is 60 kilograms per capita per year, in Malaysia 63 kilograms and in China 100 kilograms. Experts say the ideal amount is 60 kilograms.

"The government has lacked seriousness in promoting food self- sufficiency and diversification, and has not given enough practical support to agribusiness concerns to help them achieve this," said Rudi Sendjaja, production director at PT Buana Agro Sukses Makmur, one of the country's main cassava processors.

And while the government has introduced a series of programs over the years – the latest based on a presidential decree issued in June – they have produced little, according to Rudi, who is also a member of the Indonesia Horticulture Board, an agricultural think tank that advises the government on how to develop the rural sector.

The June decree was issued in response to a prediction that milled rice production would fall to 38.4 million tons next year, from a previous forecast of about 40 million tons, due to the El Nino weather phenomenon, which is expected to give rise to droughts. The decree also instructed the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that lower rice production is compensated for by alternative food crops, such as corn, cassava and soybeans.

According to Rudi, the country has great potential to expand the cultivation and consumption of such crops, but this needs to be met with real action on the ground instead of the pronouncement of policies that rarely have any significance beyond the cabinet room.

"To date there have been no clear or focused targets or priorities for the development of alternative agribusiness products. This needs to be done based on comprehensive and sustainable promotion programs," Rudi said.

Not all of Indonesia has traditionally been rice-eating. Many areas, particularly in the eastern part of the country, have relied on cassava. However, with the growing influence of Jakarta and Java, many of those traditional staples have come to be seen as "inferior" by the indigenous middle classes, who often switch to rice despite the fact that sweet potatoes and cassava are more nutritious.

According to the June presidential decree, efforts will be made through the schools, media and institutes of higher education to encourage people to stick with their traditional staples.

The decree also envisages the conducting of a nationwide survey on traditional foodstuffs to identify those that are suitable for wider promotion. It calls for efforts by airlines, restaurants and hotels to popularize traditional foods.

In addition, local government leaders will be encouraged to promote the processing of traditional staples into new products.

However, Rudi said financing was a major problem for both agribusiness concerns and farmers. As a consequence, he said, the government needs to provide incentives to help farmers and businesses diversify their products.

"To date, the country lacks a bank that focuses specifically on lending to farmers. Neither are there any banks which are focused on lending to the agribusiness sector," he said.

While lending small amounts to farmers, the nation's rural banks tend to concentrate their loans on the more lucrative small- and medium-sized enterprises in local communities, he said.

Another problem, he said, is the lack of integrated marketing, distribution and transportation networks. As a result, products such as cassava and snake-skin fruit, or salak, are mostly sold locally in Java, and can be difficult to find in places such as Sulawesi.

"Similarly," Rudi added, "products such as corn and fruits from Sulawesi, for example, are not readily available in many parts of Java."

According to Indef's Bustanul, food diversity is a matter of national security for Indonesia, with its population of more than 220 million people. Other staples need to be promoted because rice supplies are likely to be pressured due to global climate change, the loss of agricultural land to development, and rising consumer demand.

Bustanul also pointed out that many alternative food crops, such as corn, cassava and soybeans, were easier to grow than rice. "These can all be easily grown in Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan, and no specific infrastructure is required, unlike irrigated rice," he said.

Another agribusiness entrepreneur, Irwan Djuwardi, the owner of PT Sinar Pematang Mulia, a tapioca starch producer, said the country had massive potential as a grower of cassava, and for processing it into derivative products such as tapioca starch and tapioca flour, both for domestic and overseas markets.

Indonesia only produces an average of 19.6 million tons of cassava per year, compared with 26.4 million in Thailand, he noted.

"Many areas of Java are suitable for cassava growing, but tapioca producers have failed to adopt modern processing technology," he said, adding that financial support from the government was also lacking.

"What we need are subsidies from the government," he said. "But they have reduced the duties to between zero and 5 percent on imported tapioca flour, soybeans, chili peppers and fruits as a result of free-trade deals."

By contrast, he said, "We urgently need to import tractors and agricultural machinery, but these are subject to import duties of between 15 to 20 percent."

Over the longer term, however, the question of food diversification may not have so much to do with falling rice production as falling international demand.

According to the International Rice Research Institute, an oversupply of rice is likely to emerge in the coming decades as consumption falls in Asian countries such as China, where increased affluence will lead to greater consumption of foods higher in protein.

As falling demand drives the price of rice lower, it may no longer be a profitable crop, and farmers will be forced by the market to turn to other crops, regardless of the lack of government intervention or subsidies.

Munir's murderer still free

Inside Indonesia - July-September 2009

Setyo Budi – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won July's election with a landslide. Amidst the general relief that Megawati and Jusuf Kalla lost – can you imagine Prabowo or Wiranto as vice-president? – one question continues to jar. Why does the brain behind Munir's murder remain at large five years later? SBY's failure on this issue hints at a darker side to his presidency. Good economic management is one thing, but maybe it is time to focus on human rights.

Munir Said Thalib was Indonesia's most famous human rights and anti-corruption activist between 1998 and 2004. He was Indonesia's Anna Politkovskaya. An assassin poisoned him with arsenic on 7 September 2004, on a Garuda plane en route to Amsterdam. Utrecht University had invited him to pursue a master's degree in international law and human rights. He died in agony somewhere over Hungary, three hours before the flight landed at Schiphol airport.

In December the then newly-elected President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appointed a fact-finding team to assist the police. He instructed all state agencies to collaborate with it. In March 2005 he said the murder investigation was a "test case for whether Indonesia has changed", presumably a reference to the impunity that military officers had long enjoyed. In June 2005 the team reported to the president that it suspected the intelligence agency BIN of having been behind the assassination. The man suspected of administering the fatal dose was Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, a Garuda Airlines pilot and part-time BIN agent. Before and after, Pollycarpus made numerous mobile telephone calls to Major General Muchdi Purwoprandjono, deputy director at BIN.

In January 2008 the Central Jakarta court sentenced Pollycarpus to 20 years imprisonment (thus overturning an earlier acquittal that followed his appeal against a 14 year sentence). The same court sentenced former Garuda executive director Indra Setiawan to a year's jail for facilitating Pollycarpus' access to Munir on the flight. Muchdi was arrested in June 2008, but acquitted in December 2008, and the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal in June 2009. The court did not refer to the Muchdi-Pollycarpus conversations. Much remains unclear about the case. The Solidarity Action Committee for Munir (Kasum), of which Munir's human rights organisation Kontras is a part, immediately protested that "the Supreme Court has abandoned justice principles... It has ignored the public interest".

Why has SBY been so weak on this? Professor Tim Lindsey, Director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, told me recently that Yudhoyono is constitutionally constrained by the separation between executive and judicial powers. But, he added, SBY has also failed to control BIN.

"Like intelligence agencies in other countries, BIN is difficult to control. It needs to be regulated, reformed and brought into line with executive and legislative bodies," Lindsey said. BIN is a heavily militarised civilian institution. Its function is to co-ordinate all intelligence institutions and produce integrated intelligence for the president and parliament.

Military establishment

A much more worrying possibility is that SBY is simply too much part of the military establishment to pursue Munir's murderers. The killing occurred two weeks before the second round of presidential elections, held on 20 September 2004.

Usman Hamid, coordinator at Kontras, told me during his visit to Melbourne last June: "The information that [the fact finding team] received suggests there was an order [to] kill Munir before the presidential elections. The political dynamics around the elections could be an important factor in the explanation of his death... In the beginning I didn't know what [the order] meant, but after comparing other facts, it became clear that his murder relates to the elections."

Munir staunchly opposed all military influence on those elections. Most candidates had some military connection. In the first round, held in July 2004, Munir's campaigning helped to narrowly eliminate retired General Wiranto. Academic Amien Rais was also eliminated. In the second round, incumbent President Megawati faced off against retired Lieutenant General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, her former coordinating minister for political and security affairs.

Among Megawati's many military supporters was retired Lieutenant General A M Hendropriyono. He had been one of her closest confidantes since the early 1990s, and when she became president in 2001 she appointed him head of BIN. Human rights activists protested the appointment. Hendropriyono was still with the infamous Kopassus special forces when, in 1989, he led an attack on a dissident Islamic farming community at Talangsari in southern Sumatra. By one account this left 246 men, women, and children dead. Hendropriyono was Muchdi's superior at the time of Munir's death.

Contrary to the popular perception of a clean officer, Yudhoyono's career is not free of human rights concerns either. In 1999 he was chief of territorial affairs at TNI headquarters, reporting directly to armed forces commander General Wiranto. He coordinated all Indonesia's territorial commands, including the Udayana Command that terrorised East Timor in 1999.

Working behind the scenes, he thus shared command responsibility for the atrocities committed against civilians after the pro- independence vote of 30 August 1999. In June 1999, according to the book Masters of Terror, he rejected the concerns of the Australian Defence Force chief, Air Marshal Doug Riding, who had come to talk about the TNI backing for the East Timor militias. Riding warned Yudhoyono and other officers that "the most significant threats to a genuinely free ballot come from the pro-integrationist militia groups, supported by TNI... This is very seriously damaging the credibility of the Indonesian Government and TNI." Yudhoyono merely remarked that disturbances to that point had been minor.

Afterwards, he defended the TNI against allegations that it had committed crimes against humanity by presenting what had happened in East Timor as far less serious than Rwanda, Bosnia or the Nazis in World War II. "There is a conspiracy, an international movement... to corner Indonesia by taking up the issue", he said. His name had earlier been linked with the military attack on Megawati's PDI-P headquarters on 27 July 1996, when he was chief of staff of the Jakarta garrison. This attack left five dead and 23 missing.

In 2004, human rights activists most feared a Wiranto presidency. But Munir did not speak out only against Wiranto. While at times appearing to endorse Yudhoyono's promise of sounder economics, Munir more often cast doubt on his human rights record. He prophetically told the Weekend Australian in June 2004 that, if elected, Yudhoyono would be likely to quash efforts to bring military offenders to justice for past atrocities. In Indonesia the president was in a "very strong position to decide whether atrocities from the past should be heard in a human rights court or not," he said. Munir also recalled Yudhoyono saying in 1997 that there was nothing wrong with Suharto's New Order regime.

Indeed, in January 2004 the state news agency Antara quoted Yudhoyono, then still the security tsar, as telling hardline military officers: "Democracy, human rights, concern for the environment and other concepts being promoted by Western countries are all good, but they cannot become absolute goals because pursuing them as such will not be good for the country."

Yudhoyono did nothing during his first term in office to dismantle the territorial system that lies at the base of the military's continuing political influence. Ever the smooth talker, SBY remarked shortly after Munir"s death: 'He was a critical, staunch figure. Sometimes his criticism made many ears redden. He criticized the Indonesian military, and, often, me. But we need a person like Munir to remind us if we stray away from democracy." An impartial observer might add: "We also need Munir's murderers prosecuted."

It is possible that Yudhoyono's massive victory at the polls – 60.8 percent in the first round of a three-horse race – will empower him to tackle the hard issues, including the Munir case. Following the April 2009 legislative elections, his Democrat Party has 150 seats in parliament – the biggest single block.

Tim Lindsey says: "There is a possibility Yudhoyono will be different in his second period as president; he will be much less cautious and take risks. With his party majority in the parliament, he will be less obliged to compromise with other parties."

It is his last chance to make a difference to human rights in Indonesia. He is constitutionally limited to just two terms. But he could also now revert to an earlier self. Veteran journalist John McBeth writes that SBY has changed over the last five years: "He listens only to a few selected people. Before, he listened to a wide range of opinions."

Besides his wife, Ani, and her mother, Sunarti Sri Hadiyah, he relies heavily on two close mates from his active service days. One is his cabinet secretary, retired Lieutenant General Sudi Silalahi; the other his head of household staff at the palace, retired Major General Setia Purwaka. His new vice-president, Boediono, is an apolitical academic who will advise rather than act independently as Jusuf Kalla did.

Unless SBY acts now, he will simply confirm the growing suspicion that, but for the two-term limit, he would not mind becoming another Suharto

All this suggests that Yudhoyono is unlikely to reopen the Munir case without stronger international pressure. Over the last few years Munir's widow Suciwati and Kontras coordinator Usman Hamid have lobbied parliamentarians overseas to do exactly that. They addressed the Australian national parliament in February 2007. The response was weak. One senator (Ruth Webber, Labor, Western Australia, since retired) wrote to the Indonesian ambassador in Canberra asking mildly for an "independent team" to investigate the murder. She issued no press release, and received no reply. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith told Sydney- based NGO Indonesia Solidarity in a March 2009 letter it was "inappropriate to comment" as it was an Indonesian affair.

Munir's ghost will continue to pursue Indonesian presidents until those who ordered his murder are brought to justice. Unless SBY acts now, he will simply confirm the growing suspicion that, but for the two-term limit, he would not mind becoming another Suharto. ii

[Setyo Budi (budi@infoxchange.net.au) is a freelance journalist in Melbourne. He was brought up in Semarang, and has focused on human rights reportage about Indonesia and East Timor.]

Our destructive ways

Sunday Star Times - August 23, 2009

Kim Knight – Felled trees, burnt stumps. Once tropical rainforest, now palm plantations spread across this Indonesian island like a plague.

We drive and drive and drive. Past broken-down machinery. Past empty fertiliser sacks, rigged for shade outside workers' huts. The heat is intense, but you can't see the sun because here in Riau province 2400 fires are burning out of control. The smoke is so thick the local airport has closed and 31,000 school children have been sent home.

It looks like Armageddon. It's just a palm plantation. Palm oil is a controversial component of everything from cosmetics to confectionery. Its use has been blamed on the destruction of tropical rainforest and habitat for the Sumatran tiger and orang-utan. Public discontent is growing. Just last week, Cadbury New Zealand announced it had shelved plans to use palm oil in its Dairy Milk chocolate.

But oil is not the only product that comes from palm. Palm kernel expeller or PKE is a product made from its crushed and processed fruit. Unlike palm oil, its use has received minimal press. Two weeks ago, the Sunday Star-Times travelled to Indonesia, with an unofficial environmental and rural sector delegation, to investigate this trade first-hand.

Why? Because last year, almost one-quarter of the world's entire palm kernel expeller was sold to New Zealand. Statistics NZ data shows it came, in almost equal measures, from Indonesia and Malaysia. And, according to the secretary-general of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, the international body set up to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil, "very little... would have been certified at all".

In fact, the Sunday Star-Times determined that even under the absolute best-case scenario, nearly 800,000 tonnes of potentially environmentally and socially unsustainable palm kernel entered New Zealand last year.

Figures from the United States Department of Agriculture put this country's demand for PKE second only to the combined 27 countries that make up the European Union (where it is also used as a fuel). "The EU remains the primary destination," says Wiliam George, USDA senior agriculture economist. "But New Zealand is the major growth market."

The 1,104,187 tonnes of PKE that entered our ports in 2008 represented more than a thousand-fold increase since 2000 and was twice that of 2007 imports. The key drivers: drought and the subsequent shortage and high price of locally grown supplementary feed, and the intensification of our dairy farms.

"The use of bought-in feed on dairy farms has increased substantially... particularly fuelled by demand as a result of drought," says the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's 2008 pastoral monitoring report. During the drought: "Many farmers lifted the PKE content to around 50% of the 12 to 14 kilograms of dry matter required for a milking cow at this time of year."

But Greenpeace NZ says the use of PKE calls into question the "clean green" claims of New Zealand farmers, and dairy giant Fonterra, which collects 90% of the country's milk production.

"The intensification of our dairy sector has led to a cycle that requires more and more inputs needed to boost production," says Suzette Jackson, Greenpeace communications manager. "New Zealanders should be shocked that Fonterra and our nation's dairy herd are contributing to the destruction of Indonesian and Malaysian rainforests."

Fonterra declined official comment on this story. Lachlan McKenzie, Federated Farmers dairy chairman, said: "Don't blame the customer."

McKenzie argues PKE is simply a by-product of the palm oil industry. "This is the husk that is left after the oil is taken out... let's assume we ban import of palm kernel, stop buying it full-stop, phase it out over two years or something. You think that's going to have any dent on the growing of palm oil? Not a thing. Not a dicky-die-doh."

McKenzie said that although farmers could ask questions, ultimately, it was up to importers to ensure ethical and sustainable sources. "I can't go over, as a farmer, and certify anything."

Last week, Agriculture Minister David Carter announced that the nationwide drought between spring 2007 and autumn 2008 cost the country's economy $2.8 billion. Federated Farmers grain and seed section says locally grown supplementary feeds were available during that period but agreed supply was tight, and prices high. PKE was a cheap alternative, a medium protein feed, with low starch and sugar levels and highly digestible fibre. "It's economics," says McKenzie. "In drought you couldn't have fed grain to those cows, you would have killed them, because you've got to have carbohydrates and other fibre to balance the grain. PKE... it kept them alive and they didn't get any metabolic problems."

Is McKenzie concerned about damage to New Zealand's international reputation and milk exports as a result of its high use of PKE? "It's no different to someone buying in components to put into an electronic device and then exporting the electronic device." Grass, says McKenzie, still makes up more than 95% of a dairy cow's diet.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 in response to serious concern about palm plantation practices there were instances, says the organisation, where the development of plantations had led to the conversion of high conservation value forests, forest fires and social conflict between local communities and plantation owners.

It was necessary "to develop a globally acceptable definition of sustainable palm oil production and use, as well as implement better management practices that comply with this definition".

Today, members include banks, food retailers, environmental groups and those directly involved in the growing, processing and trade of palm trees.

Speaking from Kuala Lumpur, secretary-general Dr Vengata Rao told the Sunday Star-Times that since late August last year, only 330,000 tonnes of palm kernel used in both the production of palm kernel oil and palm kernel expeller had been certified by the body. As of last week, only about half that volume (an estimated 165,000 tonnes) had actually left mills in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.

"Certainly very little expeller cake coming into New Zealand last year would have been RSPO certified at all," Rao said.

As a rough rule of thumb, said Rao, the production ratio between palm kernel oil and expeller was about 50:50 in other words, only about 80,000 tonnes of certified PKE has been on the global market between August last year and today.

In Indonesia, companies involved in palm oil and kernel production have been accused of illegal logging, burning and occupation of community land, as they prepare the land for planting. Village leaders told the Sunday Star-Times their fisheries were polluted and the smoke-choked air from plantation burn-offs was dangerous to breathe. Conservationists feared for the future of animals like the Sumatran orang-utan and tiger.

What's this got to do with New Zealand? Even if we bought every scrap of certified palm kernel expeller available last year, we are still open to criticism around the worst aspects of this trade, because we imported more than three times the world's total available certified product.

WHO IN New Zealand imports palm kernel expeller and where do they get it from? Every company contacted by the Sunday Star-Times cited commercial sensitivity and told us to talk to someone else. We know there are at least six New Zealand importers of PKE. They include RD1 (owned by Fonterra and Australia's Landmark Holdings), ABB Grain NZ, and Swap Stockfoods. Stephen Swap, director of the latter, identified those three companies as major players. Others with PKE interests included farmer fertiliser co-operative Ravensdown, Winton Stock Feed and Source NZ.

Swap says dairy farmers are his main client. He's anticipating a major drop-off in demand this year. "Last year? Half of that was driven by drought."

When we asked Swap about certification of the product he sells, he said it came from Malaysia, where, "they're not just bulldozing rainforests".

ABB Grain referred us to its Adelaide office, which promised a written answer, but then declined to comment. Earlier, a staff member had said some of its suppliers were RSPO members. When reminded membership did not equate to certification, he said: "At the end of the day that has to be initiated from their end... we can't be there policing that."

RD1's chief executive, John Lea, initially told us "almost all RD1's PKE is sourced from Malaysia. These operations have RSPO certification".

Last year, RD1 entered into a joint venture with a company called Wilmar. In a press release at the time, Lea said the venture was "partly driven by more intensive farming systems using nutritional supplements to complement pasture-based feed".

But Greenpeace says that if RD1 or Fonterra had done their homework, that deal would never have been signed, because Wilmar (which was contacted for this story but did not respond) has a less than ideal ecological reputation.

Wilmar International claims to be Asia's leading agribusiness group. Its headquarters are in Singapore, and its operations spread across more than 20 countries, with a workforce of 70,000-plus.

Figures from its recent annual report show 223,258ha of palm plantations. Almost three-quarters of those are in Indonesia. The chain of supply back to New Zealand goes like this: Dairy farmers own Fonterra, which part-owns RD1, which part-owns International Nutritionals (INL) which imports exclusively from Wilmar.

Lea says RD1's shipments via INL have been happening only since September. But Wilmar has been a player in the New Zealand market for far longer. This, from an RD1 employee quoted in the Taranaki Daily News in January: "Wilmar supplied 85% of all palm kernel imported into New Zealand in 2007."

John Lea said RD1's total PKE imports were "commercially sensitive" but the Sunday Star-Times was told by WWF Malaysia that only 27,400 tonnes of Wilmar palm kernel product could be considered RSPO-certified.

Greenpeace breaks that figure down further: "Roughly half of this amount would go to palm kernel oil, and the other half to PKE," says Jackson. "So that means only 13,700 tonnes of Wilmar's certified palm kernel is going to animal feed."

Hours before deadline, Lea slightly revised his position. "We can't guarantee every tonne sourced from RSPO sources but we have tried very hard to make sure we are sourcing from a very reputable company that was a founding member of RSPO and is actively getting its mills and plantations certified."

THE SUNDAY Star-Times spent a week in Indonesia. And another week on the phone to experts, pressure groups and industry representatives in the Netherlands, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and the United States.

Of the New Zealand PKE importers contacted, only RD1 commented in any detail. Lea noted Wilmar had achieved RSPO certification for three mills and four plantations in East Malaysia in December. He said Wilmar operated only on lands designated and licensed for agriculture development degraded and already logged forests that had lost economic and environmental values.

Indeed, Wilmar's website cites economic, social and environmental sustainability as key business drivers. It says it will not develop high conservation value forests, that it will only work degraded forest areas following environmental impact assessments, that it maintains a "zero burn" policy, and that it does not establish plantations on deep peat lands.

It says while land tenure rights remain ambiguous, "we will work to ensure all mutual agreements with communities and individuals in Indonesia are clearly defined, documented and legally established".

But reports from international environmental groups have disputed that. One, released in July 2007 by three groups including Friends of the Earth Netherlands, alleged that three Wilmar- related companies showed "evidence of illegal burning with the intention to clear land, illegal plantation development without approved Environmental Impact Assessments, land rights conflicts..."

Wilmar countered aspects of the report. But just last week, in response to complaints from the report's authors, an audit by the International Finance Corporation's own compliance arm was released. It found it had failed to apply its own environmental and social standards in a series of investments and loans to Wilmar. It criticised the exclusion of supply chain assessments and said that was "counter-productive to IFC's mission of reducing poverty and improving lives".

From Amsterdam, Environment Milieudefensie campaigner Claudia Theile told the Sunday Star-Times: "After two years of hard negotiations, two of the communities from the report got some of their land back, compensation for lost harvest and Wilmar is paying more attention to corporate social responsibility."

She said that although her organisation could see steps in the right direction: "This does not solve the urgent issues connected with palm oil expansion.

"Using large amounts of palm kernel meal to feed cows is definitely not green. The palm oil industry is rapidly expanding and destroys rainforests and indigenous people's land in places like Borneo, Papua and Sumatra. The case of Wilmar illustrates what goes wrong. New Zealand should be very careful not to feed its cows by eating into the last remains of biodiversity rich forests and by milking away local people's access to land."

Additionally, she said, Wilmar buys from companies like Duta Palma another she has concerns about.

The photograph on our cover is of a plantation which locals told the Sunday Star-Times is owned by Duta Palma company. The community leaders who provided access said they wanted New Zealanders to reconsider their use of palm products.

In a sparsely furnished room with slat windows and a coconut timber roof, village leaders put aside the sweet tea and startlingly lime green cake they have laid on for visitors.

Raja Anis, 57, is chairman of the Kulia Mulia Village Traditional Practices Association. He claims 1200ha of community land has been signed over to Duta Palma by the Indonesian government.

"Not only have they opened up palm oil plantations but they have also seized the people's fields... 90% of the people are now disappointed that the company is here. In the Kuala Mulia Village, there are roughly 75% fishermen and farmers. Now there's nothing of value any more."

He says he has complained at the highest level, but letters sent to the Indonesian president received no response. "We consider that we have been colonised by our own people... it looks like the future for all of us here is bleak."

At least three people have been jailed in this particular fight for land ownership. Through a translator, we learn a village head spent 11 days in prison, after he was accused of damaging a bridge. "They protested, and the company reported to police."

The Company. There are many operating in Indonesia, but locally, they are lumped into one. At a lunch stop, we discuss the day's activities, and are quietened by our local guide: "Many company people in this town."

In a country where, a fortnight before our visit, two hotels were bombed by terrorists, where journalists visiting on media visas are required to provide their copy to government officials, there were moments when it seemed safer to just sit in uneasy silence.

As we crossed security checks and road blocks, our cover was, variously, that of forest fire monitors, academics, and land buyers. Once, inexplicably, we become artists.

Plans to film plantations from the air were quashed. Possibly because helicopters were required for fire-fighting, but also, we were told, because police determined it was Greenpeace who wanted to hire a chopper.

Back at Anis's house, through a cloud of clove cigarette smoke, there is more talk of protest. "They are tired with negotiation," says the translator. "They are ready to face the police."

Across the room, a New Zealand farmer listens with a strained face. "Kia kaha," says Max Purnell. "Be strong."

The 59-year-old with a 40-year farming career (including five years in the dairy industry) lives in Waitakaruru, where he farms mixed dry stock. He's on the Agriculture Marketing Research and Development trust and the Waikato Community Trust.

Greenpeace have invited Purnell, as an independent observer, to take his experiences back to rural New Zealand.

"I would like the people in our communities to think about what it would be like to have their cash flow ripped from them and reduced to a subsistence existence in the back of their garden, with their rivers filled with pesticides. I'd say stop... there's some simple principles about responsible investment and this is clearly not."

It's day five of this road trip when Purnell offers his thoughts over strong coffee and the ubiquitous Indonesian breakfast of nasi goreng.

"What we have witnessed is a systematic, deliberate studied rape and desecration of land and the local people's ability to have a future with it," he says.

"A change of practice that completely destroyed the locals' ability to use their additional lands to grow and harvest food sustainably. A change to a land use that is unsustainable, for the short-term profits for others in another country, as well as adding considerably to the international problem of climate change."

Plantation ownership is as murky as some of the canals that criss-cross this converted landscape. Sumatra is home to the oldest and largest palm crops. Our group has entered two plantations on this study trip one was previously owned by the Wilmar group and was criticised in the Dutch report. In response, the company said it had sold the land further digging by NGOs alleged the purchaser was linked to Wilmar, and that the original company was still sourcing product from that plantation.

But you don't have to leave the main road to see the impact of this trade. Because, for hours and hours, and miles and miles, palm trees dominate the landscape. We travel behind dozens of trucks laden with the pineapple-looking fruit that will become stock food and oil. Once, as dusk falls, our driver looks out the window and comments with zero emotion in his voice "you used to see elephants here".

"It has hurt coming to grips with the enormity of the devastation that my country has been part of wreaking on this gently spoken, hard-working people," says Purnell.

He says Indonesia is still grappling with its independence. "A mere 60 years after 350 years of colonial rule by the Dutch. This nation needs help and co-operation, not predators." Good farmers, says Purnell, are nurturers.

"The need to keep life around you in good order transcends everything. When your cows are hungry, you feed them. When that drought was on last year, there appeared to be little alternative for many people but to use palm kernel. I, for one, did not know the consequences... the impact on the food supply, the fishing... I am confident that many of my fellow farmers will look for alternatives."

The dairy industry, he says, survived for more than 100 years without palm kernel. "It may well decide to do so again... This is behaviour we can't afford."

There is an alternative: locally grown maize. "There was a surplus of maize silage this season," said Hew Dalrymple, Federated Farmers New Zealand grain and seed section vice- chairman. And while acknowledging it was tough during last year's drought, he says there was feed available at a price.

His organisation is deeply concerned about biosecurity risks associated with the importation of PKE. Last year, it called for a ban on imports.

"There are threats from imported insects, risks from soil contamination and foot and mouth and food safety issues. And of course, there are environmental issues. It is important that we remain environmentally sustainable," Dalrymple said last week.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman expressed concern in April: "Increases in consumption of palm kernel mixtures or 'cakes' by New Zealand agriculture over the last seven years, excluding this year, would need up to 900,000 hectares of rainforest to be cleared for palm oil to meet the increased demand if new plantations were required... equivalent to clear-felling rainforest four times the size of Te Urewera National Park."

More than 240 million people live in Indonesia, a collection of 17,508 islands, rich in biodiversity. It supports the world's second-highest number of species. It is also, say scientists, the world's third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. Globally, about 20% of greenhouse emissions are caused by deforestation, because forests and their soils are huge carbon stores.

Across South-East Asia, an estimated two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide are released each year from the drainage and burning of peatland forests 90% of those, says Greenpeace, come from Indonesia.

Suzette Jackson says: "Agriculture makes up 50% of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions. This figure would skyrocket if you included the emissions from the destruction of rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia that we are part of."

It takes two hours to drive the 12km dirt track to the Frankfurt Zoological Society camp at Bukit Tigapuluh National Park. That's the way they like it it keeps the logging trucks out.

The Sumatra Orang-utan conservation project has re-released 108 orphaned animals into the wild since 2002. Funding sources include Auckland Zoo, which contributes $60,000 annually. The main threat to this "life boat" project is the pulp and paper industry, but, says director Peter Pratje, "on an island scale, palm oil is the big threat. The whole landscape here in Sumatra, it's going more and more like Malaysia, you hardly find natural trees anymore, there is huge palm oil production".

He says orang-utan, tiger and elephants need lowland forest, "and that's often the area the timber industry and plantations demand".

Night falls dark and swift in this equator-straddling archipelago. The jungle burps and farts strange noises: frogs, crickets, birds and monkeys carousing until morning.

5.30am on a New Zealand dairy farm: workers rise, boil the kettle and get ready to milk. 5.30am at an orang-utan refuge: workers rise, boil the kettle and get ready to feed their charges.

Rescued from illegal capture and trade, these orang-utans are being trained to live back in the wild. They need to know how to eat durian, jack fruit, pineapple and rambutan; that they must stay in the trees, not on the ground, to avoid parasites and predators. Conservation staff can spend up to five months tracking these animals, driving them back up trees, ensuring their safety. "If they learn good, you can go away," says Julius Siregar, the 27-year-old camp manager.

When we visit, the camp has 20 monkeys in captivity, awaiting fruit season and their release to the wild.

They stare at the human visitors, their hands reaching through the bars sometimes grabbing, and sometimes just grazing fingertips. Later, we walk through the forest, avoiding spiky rattan and trying not to think about ticks and snakes. Suddenly, in the trees, an orang-utan. And then another. A couple, says Siregar, who found each other in this refuge. This island of trees, surrounded by palms.

[Kim Knight's trip to Indonesia was funded by the Sunday Star- Times.]

The politics of the 'jilbab'

Jakarta Post - August 18, 2009

Mohamad Abdun Nasir, Mataram – The jilbab (Muslim women's headscarf) has rarely been free from political debate, and is often closely related to sharia-inspired regional ordinances.

The jilbab has multiple meanings and purposes. It may convey messages about the religiosity or piety of the wearer, but can also imply a glaring personal statement that the body is a very private domain that cannot be exposed to anyone, anywhere.

The jilbab may also be part of modern fashion trends – the choice of well-educated women studying at colleges or universities, for example. Within this view, the Islamic headscarf echoes urban lives and social classes, rather than a village phenomenon of female headscarves worn by lesser-educated people.

For women of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, the jilbab signifies their rejection of westernization and support for the restoration of a caliphate system and sharia law, and is thus a highly political symbol. In contrast, other women choose to wear the jilbab but their behavior does not necessarily conform to what others would expect from those who wear it.

In short, the jilbab hallows a wide range of symbolic meanings – from religiosity, modernity and social class, to the politics of anti-westernization.

Based on such expositions, it is perhaps no exaggeration to argue that the jilbab largely represents a cultural symbol, despite the religious elements it is associated with. From this we can infer that adopting the jilbab is not merely a religious choice, even though it is obviously part of Islamic teachings.

The fact most Muslim parties lost significant support in the last parliamentary election suggests that making religion, including its paraphernalia and symbols, the basis of our political ideology and framework is not a very successful strategy, and is less convincing for the majority Muslim constituency.

Conversely, the majority were more interested in giving their votes to parties that cogently addressed their basic needs, such as education, the economy and legal enforcement.

Why then do Muslim parties still insist on employing religion in politics? Religion should be a moral guide for politics rather than its ideology.

Here, what is difficult is not how to interpret the jilbab, but rather the consequences of the broader population wearing it. It is easy enough to buy headscarves since they are available almost anywhere at affordable prices. However, the jilbab is not easy to put on consistently since it entails lengthy psychological preparation.

Those who understand the fundamental meaning of the jilbab will not take wearing it for granted, or simply wear it to follow a meaningless trend. If a woman only wears the jilbab at certain occasions or with particular aims, for example to show her political inclinations, but not other times, this is not ideal, and can lead to hypocrisy, which all must hope to avoid.

But I am not against the headscarf. I just argue that using it as part of a political agenda or for political propagation violates the essence of it.

It is true that the commandment of this covering is sanctioned by the Islamic scriptures, such as those in the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammad. The Koran mentions three different phrases regarding Muslim female dress, namely hijab (a curtain) in Sura al-Ahzab (33):53; khumur (sing. khimar, meaning shawl), in Sura al-Nur (24):31; and jilbab (a long outer outfit) in Sura al-Ahzab (33):59. It is interesting to note how different phrases and the contexts of revelation are involved in this regard.

According to Said al-Asmawi, a former Egyptian grand judge, these various verses indicate the complexity of the issue of female covering in Islam. While believing that the veil aims to protect women's chastity, he is not trapped in the formalities of religion, spurring adoption of the jilbab but neglecting its true meaning.

For al-Asmawi, the core of Islam should not be overlooked or superseded by its formal symbolism. He contends that the essential or substantial meaning of the jilbab is to establish self-control over any religious deviations and to create a psychological barrier to avoid sacrilegious attitudes.

Unfortunately, many Muslims are more interested in the formality, as they are also more interested in the slogans of Islam such as "political Islam" and "Islamic government," without understanding the meanings or purposes of such slogans.

The wide practice of covering mentioned in the Koran indicates that this issue is not a simple matter. While interpretations vary, it is clear that no commentators connect those texts with any political context. And they certainly do not encourage women to adopt the jilbab for political purposes either.

Furthermore, in reality, the practice of Islamic female head covering might be not as simple as those texts expound. Muslim women are dynamic and active human beings, following the rhythms of changing times and space, and making their own decisions without necessarily losing their religious conviction.

[The writer is lecturer at the State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN), Mataram, and a PhD candidate at Emory University.]

The Thinker: Joesoef was right

Jakarta Globe - August 17, 2009

Max Lane – Monday was Independence Day, the anniversary of the proclamation of independence by Sukarno and Hatta and the beginning of a four-year struggle by millions of Indonesians to prevent a colonial army from seizing back the land they had plundered for 350 years. "Merdeka atau mati! " (freedom or death!) was the cry of the day, and many did die, killed by the bullets of the Dutch army. "Better to go to hell than live under colonialism again!" was the slogan written on the trams and buses of Batavia.

Merdeka. It means freedom, and that was the great victory for the Indonesian people: freedom from colonial rule. But it was not the end of the struggle for freedom in its fullest sense.

Two days before this Independence Day, one of Indonesia's most important fighters for freedom, Joesoef Isak, passed away in his home at the age of 81. He is most known as the man who, together with the late Hasyim Rachman, defied the dictator Suharto and published the works of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, which were banned under the New Order's decrees. He was probably the only man who, being freed in 1978 after 10 years in prison without trial, had to go to jail again because of his defiance of Suharto regarding Pramoedya. Again and again he published, was summonsed and interrogated, and then published again.

It is very likely that without the courage and tenacity of Joesoef and Hasyim, Pramoedya's Buru Quartet, starting with "This Earth of Mankind," would not have been published here until after the fall of Suharto. Just imagine that. These are Indonesia's greatest novels and, though still banned today, they are the best-selling serious novels in Indonesian bookshops. Indeed, if Joesoef and Hasyim and Pramoedya had not defied Suharto and the books had not come out and created such a stir at the time, perhaps they would have yet to be published in English, or perhaps only published in some expensive university version, with hundreds of footnotes, inaccessible to the ordinary reader. Instead "This Earth of Mankind" is in Penguin paperback and into its 23rd reprint.

After Suharto fell, Joesoef continued the Hasta Mitra publishing company, bringing out books on Indonesian history and politics that defied taboos and tried to return the people's history to the country. Hasta Mitra, the effort of Joesoef and his lone assistant, Bowo, published more than 80 titles: memoirs, histories, the complete collection of internal CIA documents concerning Sept. 30, 1965, and the first Indonesian version of Karl Marx's "Capital." He wrote many essays and commentaries that were published in these books. He won awards for courage in publishing from PEN USA and PEN Australia as well as winning the prestigious Dutch Wertheim Award. He was awarded the Legion of Honor from France.

Through this work he stood for something still rare: He was outspoken and firm in his support for full democracy and full freedom. He often wrote and often would say that Indonesia could never move forward while the minds of its people and its intellectuals were stuck in a false world, where ideological taboos locked them into both falsehoods and an antidemocratic straitjacket.

"If you want to attack socialism and communism, please do so. If you want to argue against these ideas, or insult them or campaign against them, you have every right to do so. But how can freedom and thinking progress when a society thinks it is OK to kill somebody just because he is a communist or a leftist, or jail them or ban them, or beat them up or torture them?" He often expressed this sentiment to me. He was moved by this not so much because he was a leftist himself, but because he was a democrat. Of course, he had lost his own freedom for 10 years, in prison from 1968 to 1978 without trial. He knew what repression was like. Some of his best friends were murdered in 1965.

But, I think, his sentiment is correct. A country is either free or it is not. It will be a test for the future to see just who, and how many people, will speak out for such freedom. During the decade or more that Pramoedya and 15,000 others were in jail, virtually none of their "fellow" intellectuals or political activists called for their release from prison. Nobody has been held to account for at least 500,000 illegal killings. Leftist ideas are still formally banned. As far as I know, the ban on Pramoedya's writings has not been formally lifted. Indeed, I think even the ban on the writings of the founding president, Sukarno, have not been lifted. It is still almost impossible to find his later speeches in a contemporary book.

"Merdeka!" Pak Joesoef.

[Max Lane is the author of "Unfinished Nation: Indonesia Before and After Suharto."]