Marni Cordell – West Papuan political leaders who met a boatload of Australian and West Papuan activists across the Indonesian sea border could face interrogation or torture at the hands of Indonesian authorities, a spokesperson claims.

The activists – calling themselves and their boats the West Papuan Freedom Flotilla – had planned to sail from Australia into the Indonesian port of Merauke to raise awareness about human rights abuses in West Papua, but changed their plans after the Indonesian navy said it would not rule out using lethal force against them in response.

Instead, a group of West Papuans met the flotilla of activists at sea earlier this week, apparently off the coast of Papua New Guinea, not far from the Indonesian border.

Freedom flotilla spokesperson and participant Ronny Kareni, himself a West Papuan refugee, said he was concerned about the group of West Papuans, which included at least two West Papuan political leaders.

"If they got intercepted [on their return] then most likely they'll be taken for interrogation and possible torture," he said.

Kareni said he had received information from Merauke "that there are still helicopters in use, and some navy boats" patrolling the Indonesian coast. "They have been stopping all the locals who have been travelling in and out on the traditional path, checking everyone every day," he said.

The meeting of boats was the culmination of a 5,000km journey from Lake Eyre in South Australia to "reconnect the indigenous peoples of Australia and West Papua". According to organisers, Indigenous elder Kevin Buzzacott handed over "the sacred water from the mound springs of Lake Eyre, along with ashes from the Aboriginal tent embassies around the country, to senior West Papuan leaders".

But the protest is not over yet. A number of flotilla participants are still at sea, according to Kareni, who has since returned to his home in Melbourne. He says he is trying to contact Indonesian authorities to request permission for the group to land at Merauke.

Flotilla participant Izzy Brown told Guardian Australia on Thursday night, via satellite phone from the flotilla's flagship the Pog, that she was 24 nautical miles from Indonesian territory.

Merauke locals are still planning to welcome the flotilla to land with a ceremony. Organiser John Wog told Guardian Australia this week: "We have formed a traditional welcoming committee for the arrival of the freedom flotilla and have written to the local government [and military commanders]... informing them that at the time the boats arrive we from the traditional community will meet them with traditional dances and wreaths of flowers.

"This isn't a political matter but rather a visit from the traditional Aboriginal community... of Australia. They want to ask the Indonesian government to straighten up the real history between the [people] of Australia and Papua.

"The plan has been that we would carry out the welcome at the Merauke harbour, but the Indonesian military has already closed the harbour off. There's really a lot of military units there on guard," he said.

Freedom Flotilla makes Papua connection, organisers claim

Sydney Morning Herald - September 13, 2013

Michael Bachelard, Jakarta – One Freedom Flotilla protest vessel has completed its ceremonial mission, meeting activists from West Papua in secret and under the noses of the Indonesian armed forces, while another acted as a decoy, organisers have claimed.

Australian organisers of the pro-West Papuan separatist protest have released a statement saying one "tiny" boat from either country met "near the Australian-Indonesian border" to exchange symbolic items – water from Lake Eyre, and ash from the fires of Aboriginal tent embassies around Australia.

The Australians are protesting against Indonesian actions in West Papua. A group of protesters – including at least one indigenous West Papuan man who was accepted as a refugee in Australia in 2006 – had earlier planned to make landfall on the Indonesian territory.

However, Flotilla member Ronny Kareni said they had decided against it in light of Indonesian military threats.

"Evading the Indonesian navy, two tiny boats met near the Australia- Indonesia border to ceremonially reconnect the indigenous peoples of Australia and West Papua," the group said in a press statement.

"While the Freedom Flotilla's flagship the Pog sailed towards West Papua, the world watched its progress via a live satellite tracker onboard the vessel, providing a much needed distraction for the clandestine ceremony to take place in an undisclosed location off the south coast of Papua."

Photographs provided by organisers shows some participants' faces blurred out, but also land in the background.

Mr Kareni later clarified that "the meeting took place near the PNG-West Papua border, on the PNG side," citing a fear of Indonesian patrol boats as a reason for not crossing the territorial waters. "This had to be done in a clandestine manner. "We know the ashes and the sacred water will arrive in West Papua," he said.

However, Mr Kareni said the decoy vessel, the Pog, would not give up trying to make landfall in West Papua. His group is trying to contact Indonesian military figures in Papua to "arrange safe passage to the controversial territory".

Indonesian navy spokesman Untung Surapati had earlier said armed forces headquarters in Jakarta had issued an instruction: "Don't let the Freedom Flotilla enter Indonesia". (with Colin Cosier)

Cultural ceremony marks pinnacle of Freedom Flotilla's West Papua mission

ABC Radio Australia - September 13, 2013

Monique Ross – Activists on a flotilla which left Australia last month have completed their mission to present water and ashes to leaders of Indonesia's disputed Papua region.

Activists on a flotilla which left Australia last month have completed their mission to present water and ashes to leaders of Indonesia's disputed Papua region.

The so-called Freedom Flotilla crossed Indonesia's marine border last night after a 5,000-kilometre journey which aimed to highlight the need for peace and stability in the area.

A ceremony has now taken place in waters off the south coast of Papua, with the exact location kept secret to lessen the risk of the protesters being intercepted by authorities.

Aboriginal elder Uncle Kevin Buzzacott presented water from the mound springs of Lake Eyre and ashes from several tent embassies to West Papuan leaders – a symbolic exchange designed to connect the two Indigenous peoples. Protest organiser Izzy Brown attended the ceremony and says it was an emotional moment.

"For Uncle Kevin it was an incredibly emotional time, and it was an emotional time for the West Papuans as well," she told ABC News Online from on board the flotilla's flagship.

"It was a long time in the planning and a long time in the coming – definitely a little bit of history in the making.

"The fact that it made it all the way to the West Papuan leaders is a really amazing completion of a really epic mission that probably started many millions of years ago.

"We had numerous contingency plans, we didn't know what would work, and I think fate and faith pulled that one off." Flotilla hoping to dock in Indonesian port of Merauke

The flotilla group comprises about 30 Australian and West Papuan activists, film-makers and Aboriginal elders.

Its next move remains unclear. The group is hoping to dock in the Indonesian port of Merauke ahead of a planned welcoming ceremony on Saturday, but Ms Brown says Indonesian authorities have not yet been willing to communicate.

"We've been attempting to contact the Indonesian military," she said.

"We just tried three times to call on sat phone to the captain in Merauke and also the navy spokesman.

"But they're not answering their phones and they've hung up three times.

"We're attempting to communicate with them by radio also, but they're not communicating with us whatsoever.

"We're really hoping they will talk to us before they act.

"The way they're behaving towards us is just an example of what people in West Papua are facing every day."

Indonesian police have previously said the group risks being detained and possibly arrested, and warned demonstrators could face up to five years in prison for violating immigration laws.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has also warned the group that should they be arrested, consular officials cannot intervene in the court process.

Four West Papuan community leaders who attended a church meeting to pray for the activists are expected to be charged with treason. Papuans have been fighting for independence from Indonesia for the past 50 years.

Freedom flotilla will be turned back

Australian Associated Press - September 12, 2013

An Australian boat carrying pro-independence activists to Indonesian Papua will be turned around, the head of the military in the province's port city of Merauke says.

The so-called Freedom Flotilla was expected to cross into Indonesian waters on Thursday afternoon local time despite warnings from Jakarta as well as the Australian government that the activists should abandon their mission.

The commander of the Indonesian forces in Merauke, Brigadier General Edi Rahmayadi, on Thursday repeated previous warnings that the group would be turned around, saying there would be "no compromise".

"They cannot enter sovereign territory of our country as long as they don't have cleared document," Brig Gen Rahmayadi told AAP.

"They will not be taken to land. They will be expelled while they're on the sea. No compromise on that. They'll definitely not be taken to the land first."

The group is making the journey to support the struggle for Papuan independence from Indonesia and alleged violence by authorities.

The Freedom Flotilla was initially made up of three boats with about 20 Australians and West Papuans aboard, and set sail from Cairns last month bound for Papua. But due to mechanical problems just six activists aboard one boat, the Pog, are sailing the final leg of the journey.

The group's spokeswoman Izzy Brown, who is on board the boat, says the Freedom Flotilla is a peaceful mission and the activists pose no threat. None of those on board the Pog, including an Australian, a New Zealander, a Kenyan and a West Papuan, have permission to enter Indonesian waters.

'Freedom Flotilla' approaches Indonesia's marine border

ABC Radio Australia - September 11, 2013

The flotilla making its way from Australia towards Papua is expected to cross Indonesia's marine border today.

Organisers of the "Freedom Flotilla" say they aim to let the world know about human rights abuses in the country's disputed Papua region.

The group of around 20 people embarked on their journey last month. The crew includes Aboriginal elders, West Papuan refugees, filmmakers and other activists. On Monday the group left Horn Island in the Torres Strait.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has warned the group that they will not receive any extra consular assistance if they are arrested or detained by Indonesian police.

Organiser Lizzy Brown spoke to Radio Australia's Pacific Beat from on board the flotilla's flagship vessel.

"Today we've been really contemplating the whole auspicious occasion of being September 11 and the whole thing of anti-terrorism," she said. "And that I guess Australia's been training Indonesian troops like Detachment 88 to wreak havoc and terror on West Papuan people."

Responding to suggestions by the Indonesian Navy that the yacht may potentially be armed, Ms Brown said they "come in peace, bearing no arms."

"We have been absolutely clear about this from the beginning of our journey at the sacred mound springs of Lake Eyre in Arabunna country," she said in a statement. "We are letting them know our location via our satellite tracker which is available for the world to see up on our website."

Deputy chief of Papuan police Paulus Waterpauw says unauthorised boat arrivals will be intercepted by the navy and probably detained by immigration authorities.

Papua activists risk years in jail

The Australian - September 10, 2013

Joe Magarey – Activists of the "Freedom Flotilla" left Thursday Island yesterday bound for disputed waters off West Papua and a probable ocean confrontation with Indonesian forces, defying a "final warning" that they could be jailed in Indonesia for 20 years.

The six sailors who will take the final, perilous leg of the journey expect to reach Indonesian waters within two to five days, as reports emerge of increased troop movements and vessel interceptions at their destination port.

The venture looms as an early test for foreign minister designate Julie Bishop, who last night called for a "proportionate response" from Indonesia after accusations she had potentially put "Australian lives in danger" with earlier comments.

An Australian government official at a Thursday Island Customs office delivered a high-level government warning that the activists could face 20-year jail terms in Indonesia.

The official said the activists could be jailed for five years if charged for not having correct visas or permits or for the longer terms if prosecuted for "crimes against the security of the (Indonesian) state".

Greens senator Richard Di Natale has released a scathing letter to Ms Bishop in which he claimed comments by her that Indonesia was "entitled to use whatever means it wishes" in responding to the activists had potentially put their lives in danger.

Last night, Ms Bishop said while the protesters planned to "deliberately breach Indonesia's territorial sovereignty", she "would urge Indonesian authorities to respond proportionately".

West Papuans talk justice on election day

New Matilda - September 9, 2013

On Election Day, West Papuan activists spread a message of hope and freedom in Melbourne to raise awareness of the Freedom Flotilla, writes Jenny Denton.

"Why are we making boats?" four-year-old Lamech asks his mum. "Because your dad and I came here on a boat," she tells him as she wrestles with a double page of Saturday's Age and a sheet of origami instructions. He seems satisfied with the answer and races off, paper-boat hat on head, clutching a model of a Sea Shepherd pirate ship someone has brought along.

A small group of supporters of the Freedom Flotilla to West Papua set up their banner at the St Mark's church polling booth in Fitzroy on Saturday afternoon to fold boats, pose for photos and hand out pamphlets to any voters drawn by the "Free West Papua" message.

"The Freedom Flotilla is preparing to cross the Torres Strait," said spokesperson Ruben Blake, "and we wanted to show our support for the people who are on the water and also for all the people who are crossing by boat into Australia as refugees. We strongly believe that refugees fleeing from persecution shouldn't be treated as criminals, that seeking asylum is not a crime".

The heart of the West Papuan community in Australia basically arrived as refugees in one boat. In January 2006, 43 people left Merauke, in the south-east of West Papua, on a 25-metre traditional wooden canoe. After four days without food and water they arrived at Cape York, where a group swam to shore.

The Papuans spent three and a half months at Christmas Island detention centre before they were released on temporary protection visas. They have since been granted permanent residency and most have settled in Melbourne.

"I feel so happy," says Lamech's dad, Adolf Mora, who was on the boat. "I enjoy my life and I've got my little family. My little boy he really amaze me all the time. And for me to find a real job here in Australia, I can do that. Back in West Papua we indigenous West Papuans just end up as a fisherman or farmer.

"But because I came as a refugee I got a lot of stuff I need to do in the West Papuan community and for people back home. I'm not just coming to find a job and working every day and be happy".

While his parents and siblings are safe and healthy at home Adolf worries about his community and friends. "They live in danger right now. That's why I still can't say I'm happy to live in Australia. I just think about them."

Another refugee involved with the Freedom Flotilla is organiser Ronny Kareni, who grew up in Wewak, in Papua New Guinea. His family was part of an exodus from West Papua in the 1980s of more than 10,000 people, who fled across the border.

The UNHCR estimated last year more than 9000 West Papuan refugees were living in PNG, many of whom had been there for over three decades. The majority live outside official refugee areas and are not eligible for permits that entitle them to travel, work and access services.

Given this situation, Ruben Blake argues, the Australian government can't justify plans to settle boat-arriving asylum seekers in its former colony.

"The Australian government and the PNG government need to be addressing the major challenges of providing security of life in PNG before saying they want to resettle people from all around the world there," Blake said.

The Flotilla, which had put out a call on social media for people to "vote for boats" and then fold their how-to-vote cards into them at Saturday's election, received photos of results from around the country.

The Freedom Flotilla is a group of Papuan, Aboriginal and non-indigenous activists from Australia who are attempting to sail to the Indonesian- controlled territory of West Papua. The lead yacht is leaving Horn Island, north of Cape York today, headed for Merauke, in Indonesia, where reports suggest a military build-up awaits it.

Jailed West Papuan leader seeks Tony Abbott's support

Radio New Zealand International - September 9, 2013

The jailed leader of the self-proclaimed republic of West Papua Fokorus Yaboisembut has written to the Australian Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott to congratulate him and seek support.

Mr Yaboisembut was named president of the two remote Indonesian provinces by separatist groups nearly two years ago.

Mr Yaboisembut asked Mr Abbott to help him address alleged human rights abuses in the provinces and to push Indonesia to allow foreign journalists and human rights defenders to visit.

He also asked Mr Abbott to help the Freedom Flotilla Peace and Justice's activists who have sailed from Australia to West Papua, and are due to arrive in Merauke this week.

The activists say 2500 troops arrived in Merauke late last month to bolster numbers at the Indonesian border.

'Flotilla' of one boat bound for West Papua

Melbourne Age - September 9, 2013

Michael Bachelard – The "Freedom Flotilla" of Australian protesters set sail from far north Queensland on Monday bound for the province of West Papua, where the Indonesian military stands ready to repel it.

The flotilla once had three boats, but is now down to one, the Pog, which carries just six people, after other boats broke down and could not be repaired.

None of the indigenous Australian protesters who have travelled with the flotilla remain aboard, and Amos Wanggai, who fled Indonesia's restive province in 2006 and was granted refugee status in Australia, is the only West Papuan.

Flotilla leader Jacob Rumbiak is "still on Thursday Island and is available for talking and negotiating with the Indonesian military", a spokesman said.

Earlier plans to stop off in Papua New Guinea have also been abandoned due to a threat from local police to arrest them. The Pog is expected to take two to five days to reach West Papua.

But Indonesian navy spokesman Untung Surapati said armed forces headquarters in Jakarta had issued an instruction: "Don't let the Freedom Flotilla enter Indonesia. So as long as the order still stands, we keep our alertness high," he said.

Captain Goeroeh Ardianto, an Indonesian navy spokesman at Merauke, West Papua, where the boat is heading, said if the protesters were armed "we have to be extra careful in handling them".

"But if they are not, we'll try to have some dialogue with them. If they insist on illegally crossing the maritime border and we are forced to take strong action, we will."

The navy had not beefed up its forces, and only its normal sea patrol was operating in the area, Captain Ardianto said. This includes the KRI Mulga warship and three small patrol boats.

A troop carrier with about 1500 soldiers landed in Merauke in late August, prompting fears from the protesters that troops were reinforcements sent to intercept them. But Captain Ardianto said it was just the normal rotation of troops to the area being replaced.

The expedition is designed to highlight the suppression of political rights in West Papua and to express solidarity between the indigenous people of Australia and West Papua.

Despite comments from outgoing foreign minister Bob Carr that the protesters would receive no consular assistance at all, the Australian Foreign Affairs ministry has offered normal consular help if they are arrested in Indonesia.

Coalition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said Indonesia is entitled to use "whatever means it wishes to protect" its territorial integrity, and that "Indonesia is within its rights to turn these boats around where it is safe to do so".

Public forum in PNG's capital for West Papuan MSG membership

Radio New Zealand International - September 8, 2013

Today in Papua New Guineas capital, the Melanesian Unified Front for West Papuan Self-Determination, or WUF, is to host a public forum on the West Papuan bid for membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

The forum, at the Port Moresby campus of the University of PNG, is jointly arranged by the Universitys West Papuan Students Association.

WUF says its initiating a series of activities to promote awareness about West Papuans in the neighbouring Indonesian territory and their bid for self-determination.

The MSG is currently considering a membership application by the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation.

WUF is urging Papua New Guineans to support the unconditional inclusion of West Papua within the MSG forum, which it says is long-overdue.

The group says it is now a matter of utmost urgency that the heritage and identity of West Papuans as a Melanesian people is promoted within the forum of the MSG.

Aceh

Bomb explodes at tabloid office in Aceh

Jakarta Post - September 8, 2013

Indonesia – A bomb exploded at the offices of local tabloid Modus in Banda Aceh on Saturday morning, but no injuries have been reported. The bomb damaged the entrance door into the weekly tabloid's premises.

The police have deployed a team of investigators to determine who was behind the terror attack.

"At first, we and our neighbors thought the blast originated from a damaged power outlet," Dadang, a Modus journalist, said as quoted by kompas.com on Saturday.

Modus' editor-in-chief, Muhammad Saleh, said the incident occurred just a few days after he had received a threat. He added, therefore, that he expected the police to be able to arrest the mastermind.

"I received a threat on my cell phone from an unknown person. It was related to some of our stories," he said.

He then mentioned several stories that the paper had published recently regarding the development of the Wali Nanggroe office and non-performing loans belonging to a Bireun businessman.

Aceh Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Gustav Leo said the police would go all-out in investigating the case.

Human rights & justice

Netherlands apologizes for Indonesian colonial killings

Jakarta Globe - September 12, 2013

Bastiaan Scherpen – Almost 67 years after thousands of Indonesian men were summarily executed in South Sulawesi as part of a ruthless campaign to crush a rebellion against Dutch colonial rule, the Netherlands on Thursday officially apologized and announced a proposal to compensate victims of similar "excesses."

Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia Tjeerd de Zwaan spoke at the Dutch embassy compound in South Jakarta on Thursday morning, addressing an assembled crowd of reporters and relatives of those killed in the aftermath of Indonesia's declaration of independence on Aug. 17, 1945.

"The... violence claimed many innocent victims on both sides and resulted in suffering that is still felt today in both Indonesia and the Netherlands," he said.

Present at the ceremony were five relatives of South Sulawesi women whose husbands were executed – the women themselves did not attend.

Their lawyer, Liesbeth Zegveld, earlier said in a press statement that the women, aged 90-100, had asked Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans to make the apology in South Sulawesi, as they were "too old" to travel to Jakarta, 1,400 kilometers away.

"Making an apology implies that you go and meet somebody, not ask the person to come to you," Zegveld said. The ambassador said on Thursday that he would shortly travel to Makassar in the hope of meeting with the widows.

The Dutch state reached a legal settlement this year with 10 women from South Sulawesi after a similar case in 2011 was won by victims of the 1947 Rawagede massacre. An official apology and 20,000 euros ($26,000) in compensation were part of the settlements in both cases.

In his statement on Thursday, De Zwaan said that the Dutch government was "aware that it bears a special responsibility in respect of Indonesian widows of victims of summary executions comparable to those carried out by Dutch troops in what was then South Celebes [Sulawesi] and Rawagede [now Balongsari, West Java]."

"On behalf of the Dutch government, I apologize for these excesses," the ambassador said in English before repeating his words in Indonesian.

Asked whether the planned visit to Indonesia by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in November would also address the colonial past, the Dutch ambassador told the Jakarta Globe that although it is sometimes important to look back, Rutte's visit would primarily be focusing on the future.

"This is an important visit and a big delegation will accompany the prime minister," De Zwaan said, adding that both countries have a lot to offer each other and are eager to look forward.

Rutte is scheduled to visit Indonesia on Nov. 20-22 to further boost political and economic ties between the two nations. He will meet with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and will be accompanied by representatives of the Dutch business community.

The massacres in Sulawesi were part of a 1946-47 campaign in which the controversial Dutch Capt. Raymond Westerling played an important role. As the commander of the Special Forces unit Depot Speciale Troepen, Westerling was called upon to "pacify" South Sulawesi.

The so-called "Westerling Method" entailed summary executions of people suspected to be involved in any anti-Dutch activity and other harsh counter-insurgency tactics.

Estimates vary widely, but historian Jaap de Moor, a Dutch expert on Westerling, has put the death toll as a direct result of the actions by the Special Forces in South Sulawesi at around 1,500, with regular units being responsible for many other killings in the region. The Indonesian government at the time put the number of victims in Sulawesi at 40,000.

An announcement in the Dutch government gazette Staatscourant on Tuesday outlines requirements that other victims of atrocities committed by Dutch soldiers during Indonesia's war of independence must meet to file a successful claim for monetary compensation. Involvement of the courts is not necessary, the government says.

The requirements include: the claimant must have been married to a person summarily executed by Dutch soldiers, the execution in question must have been of a similar nature as those in Rawagede and South Sulawesi, and the execution must have already been mentioned in a publication. Statements of witnesses will be accepted as proof of the fact that the deceased husband was indeed summarily executed. Claims will be accepted until Sept. 11, 2015, the announcement reads.

Embassy spokesman Nico Schermers told the Globe that the Dutch government has no estimates of how many people are likely to seek compensation through the scheme.

Women's rights

Tackling the barriers women face

Jakarta Globe - September 9, 2013

Rebecca Lake, Nusa Dua, Bali – Indonesian delegates have come away with new approaches to women's economic empowerment after first-day discussions at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Women and the Economy wrapped up in Bali on Friday.

Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar, the minister for women's empowerment and child protection in Indonesia, officially opened the forum, where an estimated 800 delegates from 21 economies have gathered to participate in the three- day event, announcing "Women as Economic Drivers" as the theme for 2013.

Structural reform, women and information-communication technologies as well as infrastructure and human capital are the three sub-themes that will be discussed by representatives from government, the private sector and non- government organizations, Linda said.

Linda praised the APEC region for the advances it has made in women's empowerment but said there were still many barriers to overcome, which will be part of the discussions during the forum.

"In this 2013 meeting we need to discuss and explore further the discriminatory labor and regulatory systems and banking practices that can inhibit women's access to capital and assets," she said.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be a focus during the forum, Linda said, because throughout all APEC economies they make "a significant contribution to development and the creation of employment opportunity."

Speaking on a special panel focusing on structural reform at the forum, Shinta W. Kamdani, the vice chairwoman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), emphasized the importance of an informational exchange between the 21 participating economies. "We need to inspire each other," she said.

"When we see what is happening in other parts of the world we are jealous," Shinta said, adding that Indonesian women face several barriers at increasing their participation in the economy.

The major barriers that Indonesian women must overcome include access to capital and the cultural expectation that they are solely responsible for childraising and household work, she said. In order to break these barriers down, Shinta called for more cooperation from the government and the private sector.

"Government really needs to engage all the stakeholders and try to have one common goal in terms nurturing entrepreneurship," she said.

Contributing to the forum was Elena Fedyashina, who is part of a group dedicated at helping Russian businesswomen increase their success and recognition.

"We are not representing the interests of any particular organization, but we are just for people to make their lives better," Elena said of the initiative, which helps to advise the government on how it can best support women in the workplace as well as provide mentoring and training programs to businesswomen.

The initiative was well-received by delegates and Indonesian members of the panel including Desi Anwar, a senior Indonesian journalist and panel moderator who suggested Indonesia take a similar approach to Russia in order to break down the barriers that prevent women from participating in the cash economy.

Nenny Kencanawati, head of women's empowerment, child protection, population control and family planning for West Java, said she was looking forward to implementing some of the policy suggestions covered on Friday in an effort to combat human trafficking.

By facilitating women's participation in the cash economy, through education and assisting them with capital to start small enterprises, human trafficking will decrease significantly as it will eliminate pressure for women to leave the region in search of work, she said.

Sexual & domestic violence

6.6% of Jakartan men admit to forced sex

Jakarta Globe - September 12, 2013

Anushka Shahjahan – Indonesian men were among the most likely to admit to rape – up to 16.6 percent in some places – according to a UN study of six Asian countries published in the Lancet on Tuesday.

The study interviewed 10,178 men across nine locations in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka. A total of 2,535 men were interviewed in Jakarta, rural Java and Jayapura.

Jayapura (16.6 percent) and Jakarta (6.6 percent) ranked as two of the top three places in which men most frequently admitted to forcing sex on a woman, second only to Bougainville, Papua New Guinea (26.6 percent). Rural Java, at 4.3 percent, was on par with places in Asia.

The word "rape" was not used in the study's questionnaire; rather, interviewers asked men about specific acts, as well as how often and why they did them.

Three quarters of Indonesian men who admitted to rape of a non-partner said they did so because they wanted to and felt entitled to do so.

"Entertainment seeking" accounted for 55 percent of Indonesian men who admitted to raping a non-partner ("I wanted to have fun" or "I was bored"), while 30 percent cited reasons of "anger and punishment." Thirty five percent of Indonesian men who forced sex on woman did so after drinking.

The study was conducted in Indonesia by P4P, a group of UN agencies comprising UN Women, the UN Population Fund, UNDP and UN Volunteers.

It's the culture

Arimbi Heroepoetri, a member of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), said cultural ideologies in which wives are seen as possessions contribute to Indonesian men's sense of entitlement.

"The patriarchal perspective in Indonesia... is mixed with beliefs and culture, even religious traditions," she told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday

Arimbi said spousal rape was a major issue in the country, yet seldom brought to light. Laws and social mores only worsened the problem by neglecting it, she said.

"Spousal rape is not considered rape even by the wives themselves, because they believe that once a man marries, he has ownership of the wife and can do whatever he wants with her," she said.

"We've advocated for legislation to protect women against domestic violence. But the House of Representatives has refused to pass it."

National survey

No reliable data exists on the prevalence of violence against women in Indonesia; there has never been a valid national study to measure it.

While the 2006 National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas) included questions about violence, women were only interviewed in the presence of their husbands. The interviewers were mostly men with little additional training.

Unsurprisingly, it found the prevalence of violence against women in Indonesia at just 3 percent – significantly lower than neighbors in the Asia and Pacific region.

The Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection has scheduled a national survey on violence against women for early 2014 that will use a well-regarded methodology.

The fate of the survey remains unclear, however, due to a budget shortfall in the Ministry. Papua problem The high prevalence of rape found in Jayapura and Papua New Guinea raises questions about a possible link to previous conflict in these areas.

But this link is unclear, the Lancet authors say, and may be more likely related to "aspects of culture related to sexual entitlement and sex relations" evidenced in reasons the interviewees' acknowledged by their own admission. The effect on women is clear, however, say those familiar with the problem.

"In Papua, aspects such as poverty and violence make women more vulnerable," Frederika Korain, a researcher on violence against women currently based in Jayapura told the Jakarta Globe. "Papuan people live in violence, so they think violence is the only way to solve problems."

'Tip of the iceberg'

Of the 400,939 rape cases reported in 2011 to Komnas Perempuan, 70,115 were committed by a close family member of the survivor, such as a spouse or guardian.

A 1984 law bans discrimination against women while a 2004 law criminalizes domestic violence. However, only 20 percent of the Indonesian men who admitted to raping a woman were arrested, and even fewer – 14 percent – were sent to prison, according to the UN study.

"The number of cases people put forward to the police is very low," Frederika said.

The social stigma of being a rape survivor and the community's tacit condonement of the justification for sexual assault have also hamper law enforcement.

M asruchah, the deputy chairwoman of Komnas Perempuan, said Indonesian women perceive it to be a personal matter. "Many victims choose not to report because of family pressure, and sometimes because communities put the blame on them," she said.

"Police often have to release perpetrators of sexual violence at the request of their wives and partners. Law enforcers also apply an outdated definition of rape requiring evidence such as blood and semen," she added.

The UN study said poverty was not a factor related to rape in the six Asian countries surveyed, but a personal history of victimization and alcohol misuse were.

Indonesian men, however, confounded the study's results. Compared with peers in other Asian countries, researchers found fewer concomitant factors linked to rape. Indonesian men were most likely to admit to rape if they also admitted to engaging a sex worker (67 percent). Other factors included involvement in gangs, fights with weapons and alcohol abuse.

The Lancet study's authors say childhood and adolescent intervention is essential. The majority of men surveyed, said they first raped when they were between 15 and 19 years old.

Arimbi said a key step forward was to get the issue into the public consciousness by discussing it, rather than sweeping it under the rug.

"We now need to move toward a culture of preventing the perpetration of rape from ever occurring, rather than relying on prevention through responses."

[Additional reporting from IRIN.]

Labour & migrant workers

Transjakarta drivers go on strike

Jakarta Post - September 14, 2013

Drivers of Transjakarta buses serving Corridors IX in Pinang Ranti and X in Cililitan, both in East Jakarta, refused to man their buses in protest of bus operator PT Trans Mayapada's decision to cut their weekly meal allowances from the current Rp 55,000 (US$4.83) to Rp 40.000.

Transjakarta's Pinang Ranti corridor ticketing staffer, Fuad Hasan, confirmed that dozens of drivers from the corridor walked out on Friday morning. "We opened our corridor at 5 a.m. but had to close it after our passengers were left standing due to the strike," he said as quoted by tempo.com.

However, the corridor opened again at 9 a.m. after the corridor received additional buses from Transjakarta management (BLU). "BLU sent nine additional articulated buses to serve our corridor and seven others to Corridor X so we still provided a public service despite the protest," he said.

Sura, a driver serving Corridor IX, said that around 60 drivers walked out in protest at the management's decision. "We used to receive Rp 55,000 in meal allowances each week but last week they cut it by Rp 15,000," he said as quoted by kompas.com.

Child domestic worker laws unenforced: Malang study

Jakarta Globe - September 11, 2013

Dyah Ayu Pitaloka, Malang – Demand for underage domestic workers is high in Malang, East Java because they can be paid less than adults, and employers do not fear getting caught.

The government classifies child domestic labor as one of the "worst forms of child labor" according to Indonesia's National Action Plan Against Child Labor.

Child domestic workers are paid between Rp 300,000 and Rp 500,000 ($26-$43) per month, according to a Malang Community and Development Studies Institute (LPKP) survey from October to December 2011.

The survey found child domestic workers isolated and barred from socializing. Young girls often worked long hours, sometimes without rest days or holidays. Child domestics were also at risk of mental, physical and sexual abuse.

"Child laborers are vulnerable to violence, especially when they are isolated in the house. Cases of abuse often emerge only after the child got out of the house or after they quit the job," Anwar Solihin, head of LPKP's advocacy division in Malang, said on Tuesday.

Domestic work is illegal under age 15, and domestic workers ages 15 through 17 are prohibited from hazardous activities, according to Ministry for Women's Empowerment and Child Protection guidelines.

Nonetheless, ILO studies have demonstrated that approximately 35 percent of Indonesia's domestic workers are under the age of 18. "Based on the information we gathered, several elite residential areas in Malang hire more child domestic workers under the age of 17. But access to them is difficult because they are often closed in and isolated," Anwar said.

The LKPK is urging the government to enforce existing laws protecting child domestics, and to further expand laws on child labor generally.

"We are also providing skills training for child domestics and giving their families capital to stop the children becoming domestic helpers," Anwar said.

Political parties & elections

Dems ban members from joining Anas' organization

Jakarta Post - September 15, 2013

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The Democratic Party (PD) has banned its members from joining the Indonesian Movement Association (PPI), a mass organization said to be the new political vehicle of the party's ousted chairman, Anas Urbaningrum.

PD executive chairman Syarief Hasan said on Saturday that all party members should focus on boosting the party's electability ahead of the 2014 elections, adding that their involvement in Anas' organization would undermine that effort. "We fear that our concentration will be divided [if they join the mass organization]," he told The Jakarta Post.

Anas is slated to launch the PPI at his home in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta, on Sunday. Many of Anas' loyalists, including those from the Democratic Party and the powerful Islamic Students Association (HMI) are expected to attend the organization's launch, according to Anas' aide, former Cilacap Democratic Party head Tridianto.

Anas is a former chairman of the HMI, deemed the country's most powerful students' organization.

Syarief said the party did not forbid PD members from attending the PPI's event, but made it clear they should not be active in the organization. "The aim of the party is to accommodate Anas' friends and loyalists who are now in disarray after his resignation," he said.

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political analyst Siti Zuhro believes Anas has a grander plan aside from simply accommodating his friends with the new organization. "He has an obsession [about politics]. There's no way a politician who made his way to the top [of a political party] wouldn't have an obsession. So it hasn't been completely buried yet," she said.

Siti also pointed out Anas' relatively young age of 44 as well as his past experience as chairman of both the HMI and the PD as the driving force behind his ambition in the political world.

She said it was likely Anas' end goal was his own political party. "If someone wants to gain power then he or she has to have a political party because our laws don't accommodate potential leaders through alternative means," Siti said.

Siti also said the new organization could pose a threat to the PD, as there were still many Anas loyalists within the party thanks to his grassroots campaigning methods.

Despite being a threat to the PD, Anas' new organization would eventually benefit the political situation in the country, Siti said, reasoning that a little competition never hurt anyone.

Anas has been charged with corruption for his alleged role in the Hambalang sports complex scandal. His attempt to return to politics could end as soon as it begins as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has said it would detain him after it received a Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) report outlining the state losses in the Hambalang project.

Presidential threshold likely here to stay

Jakarta Globe - September 13, 2013

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Despite initial demands for the law to be changed, the House of Representatives looks set on keeping the 2009 Presidential Election Law – including the 20 percent threshold for nominating a candidate.

Legislators do not have the will to make changes and talks surrounding the law's potential revision have closed, several lawmakers have said.

"If we look at the developments, I have to honestly say it is very likely the old Presidential Election Law will be used. I don't see any strong will from the House of Representatives to make the changes," House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung Wibowo said in Jakarta on Thursday.

The House was divided earlier this year as legislators debated the possibility of making amendments to the current law in a bid to ease regulations surrounding presidential nominations.

The 20 percent presidential nomination threshold became a special focus in the debate, with some dubbing the policy trivial and unnecessary.

Under the current law, political parties must have at least 20 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives or win 25 percent of the votes in the legislative election in order to be eligible to nominate a presidential candidate.

According to Pramono, the current presidential election law remains relevant and will be used ahead of next year's election. Political parties should factor in the 20 percent presidential nomination threshold in preparing themselves for the race.

"Let's look at things positively. The 20 percent presidential threshold is part of political parties' preparations ahead of the legislative and presidential elections. So let's just see how things develop in the future," Pramono said.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie backed Pramono's statements, saying faction leaders in the House agreed to put an end to the discussions in a closed meeting several months ago.

"We have agreed not to make changes [to the presidential election law]," Marzuki said on Thursday. "So the draft bill will be put to rest."

With the threshold staying at 20 percent, next year's presidential election will likely see a small pool of candidates, several legislators said.

"If the presidential threshold remains at 20 percent, there may only be three presidential candidates," House Legislative Body (Baleg) chairman and Democratic Party lawmaker Ignatius Mulyono said.

"The three presidential candidates will be proposed by big parties, while others will have to make coalitions," he said as quoted by Suara Karya.

Tantowi Yahya, the deputy secretary general of Golkar's central executive board, made similar predictions, saying only three candidates will likely be running for president next year, namely Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) founder Prabowo Subianto and Joko Widodo, who is widely predicted to be nominated by his party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Golkar earlier announced its goal to earn 30 percent in the legislative election next year, while Gerindra and PDI-P have set targets of 20 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, which supports the presidential threshold system, said it remains optimistic it will earn enough seats in the House next year to nominate a candidate for president.

"The Democratic Party did not want it [a revision of the presidential election law] because it is optimistic it will pass the 20 percent threshold," said Saan Mustopa, deputy secretary general of the Democratic Party central executive board.

Saan said he was aware that his party's electability has been on an inevitable decline since being mired in a spate of corruption cases that have seen some of its high-ranking members dragged to court, including the party's former general chairman Anas Urbaningrum.

However, he said the party has entered a period of recovery and things are likely to improve towards the election.

"Our target is [to achieve] at least the same numbers as we did in the 2009 general elections. There are fewer political parties this time," Saan said, referring to the 20.85 percent it won in the 2009 legislative elections.

As its convention kicked off, the Democratic Party has tried to distance itself from the ongoing corruption cases and focus instead on selecting a presidential candidate for next year's race.

The party also hopes the convention will help increase its less-than- satisfactory electability ratings, revealed in a series of public surveys.

However, some remain skeptical as to whether the Democratic Party's will succeed in its efforts to get back in the public's good graces, saying whoever wins the convention may have to settle for being a vice presidential candidate in a coalition.

"If the winner of the convention does not manage to improve his electability, then he will have to agree to a lower position, such as being a vice presidential candidate, and joining a coalition with another party," Slamet Effendy Yusuf, former chief of the Golkar Party convention committee in 2004, said last month.

The Golkar Party has on several occasions expressed an interest in pairing up with the winner of the Democratic Party's convention, especially if it is former general Pramono Edhie Wibowo, who is a participant in the convention.

"Pramono Edhie is among those we have included in the list of potential vice presidents to pair with Aburizal," Nurul Arifin said in July.

Meanwhile, in August, Aburizal himself publicly expressed the possibility of pairing up with the winner of the Democratic Party's convention.

"Golkar Party's presidential candidate will have one more interesting competitor, or maybe even an interesting partner to work together with," he said in late August in reference to the Democratic Party's convention, as quoted by Inilah.com.

According to Tantowi, Golkar was interested in pairing with a Javanese candidate to fill in the gap as Aburizal is from Sumatra.

"People have been making it into a controversy [Aburizal not being Javanese], and we do not want to dichotomize people from Java or Sumatra, because anyone of any race has the right to become president," he said, a quoted by Kompas.com. "However, that discussion has continued to develop among the public."

He expressed hope that whoever would be Aburizal's partner would be able to fill in such a gap in a bid to anticipate issues that may surface closer towards the election. "Instead of letting it be a problem, it should be covered with a vice presidential candidate," Tantowi said.

Islamic parties losing popularity, electability

Jakarta Globe - September 12, 2013

A new survey on the popularity and electability of political parties in the country showed that more and more people were losing faith in Islamic parties.

Out of five Islam-based political parties in a survey by the Alvara Research Center conducted in July and August, none made it to the top five parties in the country in terms of popularity and electability.

"They are in the bottom of the list. Islamic parties are very weak and they continue to weaken," said Hasanuddin Ali, founder and president director of Alvara, in a press conference on Wednesday.

Hasanuddin attributed the low popularity and electability to several corruption cases implicating Islamic party figures and leaders, which caused voters from the middle-income group to lose confidence in religion- based parties.

"The track record and capacity of Muslim figures is also still low. No figure is considered eligible yet," Hasanuddin said.

The survey said the Prosperous Justice Party's (PKS) electability was 3.4 percent, the United Development Party (PPP) 2.2 percent, the National Mandate Party (PAN) 2.1 percent, the National Awakening Party (PKB) 1.7 percent and the Crescent Star Party (PBB) 0.1 percent.

Only former Supreme Court chief justice Mahfud MD, a member of the PKB, was eligible in terms of electability as a presidential candidate. Nonetheless, Mahfud has an eligibility rate of only 3.4 percent and electability of only 4 percent.

Siti Zuhro, an analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that while an Islamic-based coalition would be a considerable force to be reckoned with, it would likely never materialize. "They just don't have a history of joining forces and standing behind a common candidate," she said.

More democrats throw support behind Pramono

Jakarta Post - September 9, 2013

Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta – Two top Democratic Party (PD) executives declared their support for former Indonesian Army chief Gen. (ret) Pramono Edhie Wibowo in the party's presidential convention, fueling speculation that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's brother-in-law could end up winning the race.

On Sunday, Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, leader of the PD political faction at the House of Representatives, and PD deputy secretary general Saan Mustopa joined a campaign event hosted by Pramono in Karawang, West Java.

Saan, a close confidant of former PD chairman Anas Urbaningrum, called on his supporters to support Pramono. "We have a special guest today – Pramono Edhie – who is joining the Democratic Party's presidential convention [...] Remember his name and his face," he told the crowd.

Meanwhile, Nurhayati, who is a confidant of First Lady Ani Yudhoyono, referred to Pramono as the party's presidential candidate: "Who is our presidential candidate? Mas Edhie Wibowo," she said.

Despite her public support for Pramono, Nurhayati claimed she remained neutral. "I came here not as a campaign member for Pak Pramono. I am concentrating on my goal: to have 148 Democratic Party lawmakers reelected [in the 2014 general election]," she said.

Nurhayati said that only by securing the reelection, the party could nominate its presidential candidate. "If our lawmakers are not reelected, the Democratic Party can't nominate its own presidential candidate," she said.

Saan and Nurhayati's show of support for Pramono only reinforced speculation that Pramono received special treatment at the party's presidential convention. Pramono said there would be no preferential treatment at the convention.

"Some say that I am a member of Cikeas family," he said, referring to Yudhoyono's residential estate in Bogor, West Java. "[However,] I am participating in the primary just like any other candidate. I do not want [you] to have the perception that I receive special treatment from the President," Pramono said during the event.

The independent committee for the PD's presidential primary announced that 11 prospective candidates could advance to the next stage of the primary.

The candidates are Indonesian Ambassador to the United States Dino Patti Djalal; Paramadina University Rector Anis R. Baswedan; former military commander Gen. (ret) Endriartono Sutarto; member of the PD's advisory board, Hayono Isman; chairman of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), Irman Gusman; Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan; former Army chief of staff Gen. (ret) Pramono Edhie Wibowo; North Sulawesi Governor Sinyo Harry Saroendajang; Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) deputy head Ali Masykur Musa; and House Speaker Marzuki Alie, who is also deputy chair of the PD's Supreme Council.

Speculation is rife, however, that the PD convention is merely just smoke and mirrors before the party goes ahead and appoints Pramono Edhie Wibowo, Yudhoyono's brother-in-law, as its candidate. Many have said he was preferred by the First Family and that the convention was staged to grant him the nomination.

Endriartono, one of the convention candidates, said he remained upbeat despite the party's growing support for Pramono. "[Pramono] Edhie is a Democratic Party member. It is natural for the party's executives to support him," he said on Sunday.

Endriartono, who left the Nasdem Party to join the convention, said he would focus on winning support from the public, rather than PD politicians.

The presidential candidate will be chosen based on public opinion polls. Thus, what matters most is people's voice, not that of party bigwigs," he continued.

Mega holds key to nomination

Jakarta Post - September 9, 2013

Bagus BT Saragih and Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Despite a groundswell of support for popular Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi' Widodo, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) three-day national meeting wrapped up on Sunday with the decision that party leader Megawati Soekarnoputri would have the final say on its presidential candidate.

In the 17-point recommendation, endorsed by Megawati, there was no reference to the party's possible presidential pick.

"We recommend that the party chairperson decides when to announce the presidential candidate, taking in to consideration the political dynamics [of the situation], the party's preparedness and our ideological interests," senior PDI-P executive – who is also Megawati's daughter – Puan Maharani, read from the 17-point recommendation.

This statement reiterated the decision made during the party's national congress in Bali in 2011.

Other points on the recommendation included a target of 27 percent of the vote, or 152 out of 560 House of Representatives seats secured in the 2014 legislative election. At the 2009 elections, the PDI-P garnered 16.5 percent, or 95 seats.

Other party executives also talked of regaining the position as a ruling party after next year's election. "We will be a ruling party in 2014. We are tired of being the opposition," PDI-P outspoken lawmaker Maruarar Sirait said.

During the meeting, Megawati also hinted that the PDI-P could be left in the hands of those who were not part of the Sukarno clan.

Megawati is Sukarno's daughter and the party has been seen as a political legacy of the country's first president. It has been widely reported that Megawati and her inner circle wanted the party leadership and future presidential candidates to come from Sukarno's bloodline.

"Jokowi has a Sukarno vibe. He has the capacity to maintain Sukarno's legacy but other potential young members also have a similar capacity," Megawati said. "I can't live with people saying the PDI-P is a dynasty party. Democracy recognizes people based on their competence and ability, not on their bloodline."

Her statement could be seen as a sign that she has finally bowed to the growing pressure for the party to support Jokowi as a presidential candidate.

Political analyst Boni Hargens said that no decision had been made on Jokowi's candidacy.

"There are party executives, at the central level, who still insist that the PDI-P must name a Sukarno family member as its candidate, be they Megawati or Puan. These so-called 'Sukarnoists' are not many but they remain at the executive level."

"Megawati now faces a difficult job consolidating both major internal divisions and seeking a compromise. This will take time," he said.

The grassroots level, however, seemed to have warmed to the idea of Jokowi's candidacy. During the three-day meeting, Jokowi continued to cast his spell on party members with any mention of his name drawing thunderous applause.

"Jokowi's speech yesterday touched and inspired us. Our members in Sulawesi called me and told me that this might be the time," Zainal Basri Palaguna, head of PDI-P South Sulawesi chapter said before the forum. He represented all the party chapters in Sulawesi.

Almost all heads of party regional chapters expressed their support of Jokowi as the party's sole presidential candidate except representatives from Central Java, Yogyakarta, and East Java, who supported both Megawati and Jokowi; and those from Bali, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara, who deferred the decision to name a presidential candidate to Megawati.

PDI-P deputy secretary general Hasto Kristiyanto, said that the delay in naming a presidential candidate did not result from the party's on-going negotiation with the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, PDI-P's ally in the 2009 race.

Speculation abounds that Gerindra demanded that the PDI-P supported its patron Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto as the presidential candidate in return for Gerindra's support for Megawati in 2009 and Prabowo's backing in Jokowi's Jakarta gubernatorial bid in 2012.

Jokowi's rising star causes Mega's to fade

Jakarta Post - September 8, 2013

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The cult of personality surrounding Megawati Soekarnoputri and making her the most powerful figure in the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is gradually fading with the rise of populist Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

For decades, PDI-P members saw Megawati as the political heir of the country's first president, Sukarno, her father. The party has even bestowed on her almost absolute authority, including the nominating of a presidential candidate.

Her political clout, however, has begun to fade, with the party seemingly wanting her to hang up her cleats and let the younger generation lead – thanks mainly to the rising popularity of Jokowi, pegged as the front- runner in the 2014 presidential election.

On Saturday, when the party was holding its national meeting in Ancol, North Jakarta, as many as four banners with a picture of Jokowi's face and writing saying, "Jokowi Yes, Megawati No," were found hanging on major streets in East Jakarta, including on Jl. Matraman and Jl. Pramuka, as well as in Kampung Melayu. It remained unknown who had hung the banners.

PDI-P executive Puan Maharani told journalists that there had been no instruction from the party to hang up the banners.

"There was no instruction because the party has not discussed the issue [of presidential nomination]," she said. The party's central executive board, she added, had ordered an investigation into the incident. "We are seeking to find out if the perpetrator is from inside or outside the party," she said.

Party executive and meeting steering committee member Andreas Hugo Pareira said the banners "definitely did not come from the party's members". "Just look at the ambience today," he added.

He said it could be a negative campaign launched by other political parties, stressing that vetting Jokowi and Megawati "was not taboo [for them], but the PDI-P would not buy it."

Jokowi, meanwhile, continued to gain endorsements for a possible presidential run. During Saturday's closed-door meeting aimed at hearing the aspirations of local party chapters, five out of eight party chapter teams from across the country expressed support for Jokowi's bid. Two teams said they were open to the nomination of Jokowi, Megawati or Puan.

Only one team, comprised of party chapters from Bali, East Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara, said they left the decision completely in Megawati's hands.

As for local support for Jokowi's bid, Andreas said all local aspirations had been brought to the floor and would be weighed and considered.

In terms of timing, Andreas said, making a last-minute decision on a candidate would not be beneficial as the party needed to promote the candidate to the public. He went on to say that the majority of the party members were now aiming to win the legislative election first before deciding who would be the presidential candidate.

Megawati has been ruling the party since 1993, back when it was still named the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). Under her leadership, the party was able to win the large number of seats in the House of Representatives in 1999, with 151 seats.

She, however, failed to win the presidency after she was beaten by former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid through a voting mechanism at the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), relegating her to become vice president.

Megawati, then, took over the country's top post when the MPR revoked Gus Dur's appointment as president in 2001. After three years ruling the country, Megawati attempted to run for a second term only to lose to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Since then, Megawati has appeared to bear a grudge against the President, going so far as banning all PDI-P members from becoming ministers in Yudhoyono's administration.

Her tough stance reportedly created a rift in 2009 between her and her husband, Taufiq Kiemas, former MPR speaker and a senior PDI-P politician, who passed away earlier this year. While Megawati was adamant the PDI-P should stay to its core an opposition party, Taufiq said that it was okay for party members to work with Yudhoyono since it was for the good of the country.

Surveys & opinion polls

Survey shows Joko is ahead of Prabowo

Jakarta Globe - September 12, 2013

A new survey on potential candidates for the 2014 presidential election has once again affirmed Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo's strategic position over Great Indonesia Movement Party founder Prabowo Subianto as the candidate most eligible and electable among the public.

In a survey by the Alvara Research Center, conducted throughout July and August, Joko earned 24.8 percent in eligibility and 22.1 percent in electability, while Prabowo had 18.8 percent in eligibility and 17 percent in electability. Respondents were allowed to choose more than one candidate per question. Other candidates included in the survey earned less than 10 percent.

"The 2014 presidential election will see Prabowo and Joko Widodo go head-to-head. Other figures will have a very small chance as they have become figures of the past," Alvara chief Hasanuddin Ali said.

According to him, other politicians such as Golkar Party chairman and presidential candidate Aburizal Bakrie, Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairman and former president of Indonesia Megawati Soekarnoputri and National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa acted merely as fillers in the race.

Despite being most electable and eligible, Joko's popularity remained overshadowed by other senior politicians, only ranking fifth on the list with 70.5 percent. Prabowo was the most popular among general voters with 92.4 percent.

"To go against Joko, Prabowo will have to pair up with somebody like Joko, such as [State Enterprises Minister] Dahlan Iskan, [former Constitutional Court Chief Judge] Mahfud MD or [former Vice President] Jusuf Kalla," Hasanuddin said.

Meanwhile, in the same survey, Golkar's presidential candidate Aburizal Bakrie has emerged as the most popular among middle class voters, which Hasanuddin said plays an important role in the 2014 elections due to their ability to influence other voters from both the upper class and lower class.

"They are the most rational," he said, adding that the middle class had also dominated several regional elections in recent years. A mong this group, Aburizal earned 69 percent in eligibility, although in the overall class of voters he came one step behind Prabowo.

Despite his popularity, Hasanuddin doubted Aburizal's chances in winning the presidential race, as he earned merely 6.3 percent and 6.2 percent in electability and eligibility as president, respectively.

"He is popular, but he isn't seen as fitting to be president," Hasanuddin said. He added that Aburizal seems to have been categorized as an icon from an older political era and that he did not have the character sought in a leader.

The survey was conducted via random face-to-face interview with 1,532 respondents aged 20 to 54 years old in six big cities, namely Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Makassar, Bandung and Semarang.

First Lady most untrustworthy: Survey

Jakarta Post - September 9, 2013

Jakarta – A survey has shown that First Lady Ani Yudhoyono tops the list of the most untrustworthy potential candidates in the 2014 presidential election.

The pollster, Indonesian Voters Institute (LPI) found that Ani got the lowest score in the public perception of trustworthiness.

Ani appeared at the bottom of the list with a score of 2.7, below politicians like Speaker of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) Irman Gusman who received a score of 2.9, Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan with 3 and Speaker of the House of Representatives Marzuki Alie with 3.1.

For the survey, LPI conducted a focus group discussion involving opinion makers and news reporters.

Popular Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo came out on top with a score of 8.6. Coming in second position was former vice president Jusuf Kalla, with a score of 6.8.

Environment & natural disasters

Lawmaker accuses WWF of instigating Harrison Ford ministry row

Jakarta Globe - September 11, 2013

The fallout over pointed questions about the government's inability to tackle illegal logging in a protected forest has continued with a legislator calling for the banishment of a leading environmental group.

Firman Subagyo, a deputy chairman of the House of Representatives' Commission IV, which oversees forestry affairs, demanded on Tuesday that the World Wide Fund for Nature be removed from its forest conservation role in the Tesso Nilo National Park in Sumatra's Riau province.

"They've been in Tesso Nilo since 2000 and there have been no changes. If anything, the condition of the park has only gotten worse," Firman said as quoted by Antara, the state news agency.

He called for it to be replaced by a local group, saying the latter would better understand the character and culture of the local community, making it public advocacy against illegal logging and other forestry crimes more effective.

"The WWF's activities are just [cosmetic], to serve their global environmental campaign and raise funds, rather than for sustainable development," he said.

His remarks came on the same day that Andi Arief, a presidential adviser, lashed out at Hollywood star Harrison Ford for asking tough questions of Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan a day earlier about the lack of enforcement against illegal logging in Tesso Nilo.

He accused Ford, who was in the country to film part of his upcoming climate change-themed documentary "Years of Living Dangerously," of "harassing state institutions" and "attacking the minister with questions."

"His crew and those who were helping him in Indonesia must be questioned to find out their motives for harassing a state institution. If necessary, we will deport him," Arief said.

Firman echoed the recrimination, saying that the actor should have "been more polite and not direct" when interviewing the minister on Monday. "This is proof of WWF's underhanded tricks by accusing the government of being inept," he said.

This is not the first time authorities have attacked WWF's work in Tesso Nilo, where it is engaged in helping slow the rate of deforestation.

In March, the Forestry Ministry threatened to terminate the government's partnership with the group because of what it called a lack of progress. However, the WWF has argued that without it, the entire national park would have been razed by 2007.

SBY faces class-action lawsuit over 'climate change effects'

Jakarta Post - September 11, 2013

Jakarta – Environmental activists have submitted a class-action lawsuit against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over the claim he has failed to protect people in Riau province from the effects of climate change.

The lawsuit was also aimed at Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan, Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya and Riau Governor Rusli Zainal, who is now detained by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on graft charges.

"We filed this lawsuit to press President SBY to take action against his two ministers, whom we see as having no willingness to protect the public, especially the people of Riau province, from the effects of climate change," Civil Society Forum for Climate Justice coordinator Mida Saragih told The Jakarta Post after filing the lawsuit at the Central Jakarta District Court on Monday.

Mida said the activists filed the lawsuit against the president because the people of Riau province were suffering from the effects of climate change, despite the President's pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020.

She said according to Law No. 32/2009 on environmental protection and management, the government had to provide a healthy environment. "But we still see unsustainable development practices in Riau province," she said.

Mida said climate change had caused the people of Riau to suffer from floods, droughts and acute respiratory infections. In July this year, Indragiri Hulu regency recorded an estimated 10,382 residents as suffering from such infections. The citizens also had to endure high temperatures.

"Temperatures reached as high as 37 degrees Celcius in Riau, the highest in the last 30 years."

Mida added Riau had experienced massive land destruction caused by forest conversion from peatland into large-scale units of palm and timber plantations. "The condition was exacerbated by illegal logging and slash- and-burn clearing activities," she said.

The group slammed the forestry minister for issuing permits allowing business on peatland. "Peatland is protected. One cannot open plantations in those areas because it can cause environmental damage," Mida said.

According to 2013 data from environmental NGO Jikilahari Riau Forest Rescue Working Network, the provincial administration had issued 61 business licenses as of September 2013, allowing businesses to develop plantations on peatland. "This action is against Law No. 32/2009," she said.

They accused the environment minister of violating Presidential Regulation No. 71/2001 on the implementation of a national greenhouse gas inventory. "The environment minister has not provided any guidance on regional action plans for greenhouse gasses. Provincial administrations need these guidances to do something," Mida said.

Resa Radityo from the Indonesian Center of Environmental Law (ICEL) said the activists, as well as the people of Riau, hoped the government could put more effort into tackling the environmental impact of climate change.

"We hope the government does not only create new councils on environmental affairs, but implements actions to handle environmental problems," he said. (tam)

Harrison Ford shocks Indonesian minister with heated climate interview

Agence France Presse - September 10, 2013

Indonesia's forestry minister has accused Hollywood star Harrison Ford of subjecting him to a rude interview on climate change that left him "shocked", an official said.

The Indiana Jones and Star Wars actor, who is making part of an environmental documentary in Indonesia, attacked the minister with questions during the encounter on Monday, presidential adviser Andi Arief said.

The adviser accused Ford and his crew of "harassing state institutions" and said the 71-year-old could even be deported – although he was due to leave Indonesia later on Tuesday anyway.

Forestry minister Zulkifli Hasan told reporters that he had been angered by Ford's approach during the interview in Jakarta.

"His emotions were running very high," the minister was quoted as saying by the state-run Antara news agency. "I understand the American man just came here to see Tesso Nilo (a national park on Sumatra island) and wanted violators to be caught the same day."

The minister added he was not given the chance to explain the challenges of catching people who break the law in Indonesia's sprawling rainforests, where illegal logging is rampant. "I was only given the opportunity to say one or two sentences during the interview," he said.

Mr Arief said the minister thought there would have been some time to discuss the interview before it began. But in the event he was "shocked that as soon as his (Ford's) crew came in, they started filming and interviewing him... and attacking him with questions".

"There's no privilege for him although he is a great a actor," he said. "His crew and those who were helping him in Indonesia must be questioned to find out their motives for harassing a state institution. If necessary, we will deport him."

Ford, who has supported numerous environmental causes in recent years, has travelled to several places in Indonesia to make part of a series on climate change called Years of Living Dangerously for US television network Showtime. He also met with president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday.

As south-east Asia's largest economy grows rapidly, swathes of biodiverse forests across the archipelago of 17,000 islands have been cleared to make way for paper and palm oil plantations, as well as for mining and agriculture.

Health & education

Students use Car Free Day to protest school virginity tests

Liputan 6 - September 15, 2013

Ahmad Romadoni, Jakarta – The momentum of Car Free Day along the length of Jl. Sudirman-Thamrin in Central Jakarta on Sunday September 15 was used by scores of students to call for actions rejecting the planned virginity test for high-school students that have been making the rounds of late.

The students, who came from the Women's Action Committee (KAP) started the action by marching around the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle and putting up banners rejecting the test.

This was followed by speeches in front of the Grand Indonesia shopping complex. The calls of opposition to the test attracted the attention of local people who were enjoying a Sunday out in and around the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle with many taking time out to watch and take photographs of the action, which was dominated by women activists.

Action coordinator Ara Koswara said that the action was prompted by feelings of concern about the virginity test as a condition for being eligible for education, which they deemed to be another form of discrimination against women, specifically teenage women.

"Women in Indonesia are still very much at the bottom and kept down, ridden by discrimination, sold, including teenage women. Many rogue elements take advantage of and exploit teenage women", said Koswara during a break in the action.

The group also said that the virginity test is a trick because not all women who are not virgins are so because of their own misconduct.

"Virginity tests have been carried out several times around the country. A women's virginity is tested, it turns out she's not a virgin, they she can't get an education. Yet, not being a virgin may well be because she is a victim of a crimes such as rape, for example. This is a trick", said Koswara.

Koswara said that in addition to the action at the Hotel Indonesia, actions rejecting the test have also been held at several schools. Concerned students have invited their friends to be more concerned about themselves.

"They the students are also continuing to campaign against the virginity test. But [also] supporting a curriculum that teaches reproductive health. This is not to teach something that is wrong, but to teach teenagers to be concerned about their reproductive health and concerned about themselves", asserted Koswara.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Children overly exposed to cigarette ads

Jakarta Post - September 14, 2013

Jakarta – A survey conducted by the National Commission on Child Protection (KPAI) has found that at least one in 10 Indonesian children decided to smoke after being exposed to tobacco advertisements, which the commission said should be totally banned.

The KPAI questioned 10,000 students aged between 13 and 15 in 10 provinces: Bali, Bandar Lampung, Central Sulawesi, East Java, Jakarta, North Sumatra, South Kalimantan West Java, West Nusa Tenggara and West Sumatra.

The survey, conducted in April, found that 96 percent of the students said they received extensive and rapid information about smoking from advertisements.

According to the survey, 15 percent of those exposed to tobacco ads decided to light up because of the ads. Some of them said they tried smoking when attending music concerts or watching sports or even participating in educational events sponsored by tobacco companies. "Cigarette ads are everywhere," KPAI chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait said at the launch of the survey on Thursday.

Most students said that they had seen a lot of cigarette advertisements on electronic media, outdoor billboards as well as at activities sponsored by tobacco companies, the KPAI said. According to the survey, 90 percent of respondents said they knew about cigarettes from television, 50 percent from billboards, 38 percent from pamphlets displayed on cigarette kiosks and five percent from radio.

Arist said that the government had actually issued a regulation limiting tobacco ads on TV – they may only be aired between 9.30 p.m. and 5 a.m. – but the regulation was hardly effective.. "The survey shows that television is still the main media by which students get information about cigarettes firsthand despite the restrictions," he said.

The other problem, the KPAI said, was that many students often participated in activities sponsored by tobacco companies.

The survey found that corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities by the tobacco companies had changed the students' perception of cigarettes. Ninety-three percent of them said they had positive perceptions about tobacco companies after taking part in their events.

The male students said that they were attracted by discounts offered by the companies for buying their products on the spot, and also by sales promotion girls.

Meanwhile, the female students said they were impressed by the tobacco companies' concern for the environment and social welfare. "Tobacco companies have succeeded in creating a positive image with these students so that they are more interested in smoking," said Aang Sutrisna, a researcher for health issues at the Vice Presidential secretariat.

Arist urged tobacco producers to abide by the existing regulations and the government to totally ban cigarette advertizing to protect the country's children. (tam)

Government to evaluate genitalia checks after uproar

Jakarta Post - September 9, 2013

Jakarta – The Health Minister will reevaluate its policy of requiring high school students to record the shape and size of their genitalia for their health status reports following a public outcry.

"We will evaluate the genitalia health check for students and consult with academics and also children's rights activists," Health Ministry director of children's health Elizabeth Jane Soepardi said on Saturday.

Elizabeth said that the ministry was surprised at the public's hostile reaction to the program, which had been in place since 2010. She said that the plan was part of a program to record reproductive health status during adolescent years by providing questionnaire, that had pictures of genitalia to students.

"The questionnaires not only have genitalia pictures but also other information related to student health, lifestyle and family health history," she said.

Elizabeth said such information was crucial given that during puberty teenagers experienced biological changes of which many were unaware.

"Teenagers will have lots of questions about their bodies and they will experience serious emotional changes during this transition period. That's why we need to help them with knowledge on healthy habits, including the introduction of sexual and reproductive issues," she said.

A 2012 report from the Health Ministry showed a nationwide increase in high-risk behavior including smoking, drinking and sexual activity among adolescents, which could lead to health problems like HIV/AIDS.

"Teenagers could be prone to HIV/AIDS without sufficient information on sexual and reproductive health," Elizabeth said. She added that the country also has a serious problem with early marriages, which could contribute to an increase in infant mortality rates.

Data from the 2012 Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey shows that the age-specific fertility rate for women aged 15 to 19 years old was 48, which decreases only five points within five years.

"It's a slow progress. So, we need to step it up through an improved national school health program, one of which is by educating junior and high school students to know their bodies well through questionnaires," she said.

Separately, the Indonesian Teachers Association's (PGRI) chairman, Sulistyo praised the Ministry of Health's move to promote a healthy lifestyle among students.

However, the government needed to consult teachers, parents and students before the program kicked off, he said. "We have discussed the program with teachers and most of them had no information about these questionnaires. I'm afraid that the lack of information will only cause confusion among students," he said.

Lidia, a teacher from junior high school SMP 2 Bawang in Banjarnegara, Central Java said the majority of schools already had sexual and reproductive health lessons. "These questionnaires are redundant," she said. (tam)

Refugees & asylum seekers

New Australian FM firm on Indonesia refugee plans

Agence France Presse - September 15, 2013

Australia's incoming foreign minister Julie Bishop said Sunday that the new conservative government would work with Indonesia "where we need to" but it was not seeking permission to implement controversial refugee policies.

Bishop, prime minister-elect Tony Abbott's nominee for top diplomat, said Australia respected Indonesia's sovereignty but it would forge ahead with sensitive plans to combat people-smuggling that were met with a cool response in the Southeast Asian nation during the election campaign.

Abbott plans to tow back asylum-seeker boats from Indonesia in a military response codenamed Operation Sovereign Borders, while buying up fishing boats to keep them from the hands of people-smugglers, embedding Australian police in villages and paying locals for intelligence.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Jakarta would reject the plans as not in the spirit of partnership between the two countries last week, adding that the issue would be a top priority for talks with Abbott ahead of next month's APEC summit.

But Bishop insisted that the policies would be implemented in a television interview on Sunday.

"Over the next few days and weeks we will be working cooperatively with Indonesia. But I point out we're not seeking Indonesia's permission to implement our policies, we're seeking their understanding," Bishop told Meet the Press. "We will work cooperatively with Indonesia, where we need to," she added.

Bishop said Australia respected Indonesian sovereignty and defended on-the-ground intelligence operations and payment of bounties.

"The IOM [International Organization for Migration] is already operating in Indonesia collecting intelligence. And the idea of financial rewards, for example, for information, is hardly novel. The United States has been doing it for decades," she said.

"We have policies that we wish to implement as soon as we're sworn in, and we will be working with Indonesia through a series of bilateral meetings and broader meetings that will occur as soon as I'm sworn in," added Bishop.

Abbott's Liberal-National coalition ended six years of center-left Labor rule with an emphatic election win last weekend. A "Stop the Boats" plan was a central plank of his campaign strategy.

Asylum-seekers arriving in Australia on unseaworthy, overcrowded vessels from Indonesia are a sensitive political issue, despite their relatively small numbers by global standards, with both Abbott and Labor incumbent Kevin Rudd making hardline promises in a bid to win votes.

Along with his Indonesian activities Abbott plans to put all asylum-seekers arriving by boat – including those already in Australia awaiting processing – onto temporary three-year visas and strip them of appeal, family reunion or permanent residency rights as well as access to legal assistance. They will be forced onto work-for-welfare programs.

Graft & corruption

Sitorus paid off 33 National Police officials: IPW

Jakarta Post - September 15, 2013

Jakarta – Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) chairperson Neta S. Pane said 33 officials of the National Police allegedly received money from Chief Brig. Labora Sitorus, a suspect in a variety of illegal logging, fuel smuggling and money laundering cases. He added that the officials had not yet been questioned regarding the illicit flows of money.

According to Neta, this contradicts statements made by the chief of the National Police's Criminal Investigation Directorate (Bareskrim), Comr. Gen. Sutarman, on May 20, who confirmed that anyone who received money from the non-commissioned officer (Bintara) in the Papua Police would face criminal sanctions. Only Sitorus has so far been questioned in the cases.

"In fact, Sutarman's promises are simply hollow. Many officials who allegedly received the money still sleep well," said Neta.

He said five months after Sitorus' case first came to public attention, there had been no signs that the 33 National Police officials, who allegedly received money from the graft suspect, would be questioned; therefore, the police's commitment to completely investigating the case remained in question.

Data obtained by the IPW shows that from January 2012 to March 2013, Sitorus gave money to 33 National Police officials, including police post chiefs; heads of sub-precinct and precinct police stations; the police's Internal Affairs Division (Propam) officials; directors at the Papua Police; the Papua Police chief and his staffers, and officials at the National Police headquarters.

In 15 months, the total amount of Sitorus' money which was disbursed to National Police officials, in the form of bank transfers and cash, amounted to Rp 10.9 billion (US$955,302).

"IPW urges the National Police headquarters to be consistent in investigating anyone who received money from Chief Brig.Labora Sitorus," said Neta. (ebf)

KPK warns house budget committee is prone to graft

Jakarta Globe - September 11, 2013

Rizky Amelia – The country's antigraft body has urged the leadership of the House of Representatives to keep a close eye on the legislative process, saying that it was highly vulnerable to corrupt intervention.

Leading lawmakers who visited the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for a briefing on Tuesday were told the House Budget Committee was prone to corrupt practices.

"One of the key areas to watch is the process of deliberation on draft laws," said House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung, when asked what advice the KPK had passed on during the joint meeting.

Pramono said corruption during the legislative process was possible at any stage, from compiling recommendations, undertaking deliberations on drafts through to final approval of bills.

Pramono said the KPK planned to submit recommendations on procedures for draft bill deliberations, in order to curb the House's role in corruption.

"We asked the KPK, especially its research and development division, to submit its recommendations by November because the House will soon enter the general elections period and many legislators will return to their respective constituencies," Pramono said.

Indonesia's House of Representatives has been rocked by a series of corruption cases. In 2011, 40 lawmakers were imprisoned for graft.

Police to crack down on officers' suspicious bank accounts

Jakarta Post - September 10, 2013

Jakarta – Deputy National Police chief Comr. Gen. Oegroseno said on Tuesday that his force was ready to follow up information from the National Police Commission (Kompolnas) about three National Police chief candidates believed to have suspiciously-fat bank accounts.

Oegroseno said that the police took the information seriously as it was from Kompolnas, the National Police's closest sentinel. "We will hold coordination meetings to decide what accounts should be checked," he said in Jakarta as quoted by kompas.com.

Oegroseno also thanked Kompolnas for its information as it showed the success of external supervision. "It is also time for young police graduates to report their wealth. Let's be open, there's no need to fear being rich," he said.

Previously, Kompolnas commissioner Adrianus Meliala disclosed that three National Police chief candidates were believed to have suspicious bank balances. He made the remarks before handing over reports on the wealth of the state apparatuses to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Adrianus said that the information, compiled from the public, had been reported to the Coordinating Politics, Legal and Security Affairs Ministry and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would also be informed.

Adrianus further said that Kompolnas had met with the three high-ranking officers for talks but did not elaborate further. (apt)

Corruption the cause of Rp 3.3 trillion in state losses in first 7 months

Jakarta Post - September 10, 2013

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – The Anti-Corruption Study Center (PUKAT) at Gadjah Mada University revealed on Monday that Indonesia has lost Rp 3.3 trillion (US$289.88 million) due to corrupt practices in the first seven months of 2013.

"We also recorded that the Corruption Court has been handing down light sentences," PUKAT executive director Hasrul Halili said when releasing the January-July 2013 Trend Corruption Report (TCR) at PUKAT's office on Monday.

He also deplored the 10-year prison sentence handed down to Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo in a driving simulator procurement case that caused Rp 32 billion in state losses.

Based on PUKAT research, there were 42 corruption verdicts from January to July with 18 defendants receiving under-three-year prison terms, while only five defendants were sentenced to more than 10 years.

The study found that nine defendants were sentenced to between three years and five years' in prison while another 10 defendants received between five years and 10 years behind bars. "The Judicial Commission should be serious when monitoring judges who are assigned to the Corruption Court." Hasrul said.

PUKAT researcher Fariz Fachryan said the TCR was formulated based on corruption news in both the national and local media. In the seven-month period, there were 88 corruption cases involving 143 defendants.

"The most corrupt actors were regional administration officials with 39 defendants, followed by the private sector with 36 defendants and central government officials at 16," he said.

Corrupt sectors have increased from the eight recorded in the July-December 2012 TCR to 17. The most corrupt sector was sports, education and religious with 17 cases; procurement of goods and services with 12 cases; while there were 10 cases in state and regional income sectors as well as agriculture, plantation, fishery and forestry sectors.

Fariz said there were five modes of corruption: causing losses to state finance or power abuse, bribery, embezzlement, gratification and extortion.

Causing losses to state finance or power abuse was the most used mode with 70 cases, followed by bribery in a distant second with 12 cases. "There were two cases each for embezzlement, gratification and extortion," said Fariz.

Another PUKAT researcher, Hifdzil Alim, said there were three strategic corruption cases: the Hambalang sports center in West Java; cases at the Supreme Court (MA), such as the arrest of lawyer Mario C. Bernado and the acquittal of the former president director of PT Bahana Pembinaan Usaha Indonesia (BPUI) Sudjiono Timan; and former Bantul regent Idham Samawi, who has been named a suspect in a case involving a Rp 12.5 billion grant for the Bantul branch of the Indonesian Sports Committee (KONI).

"These cases are strategic because the state losses were above Rp 1 billion, conducted by state officials and consumed the public interests," Hifdzil said. He added that Idham was also included due to PUKAT's proximity to the crime scene.

Meanwhile, former justice Sahlan Said said the MA's decision to acquit Sudjiono in a Rp 2.1 trillion case was unacceptable. The decision was made after Sudjiono's wife filed a case review as Sudjiono's inheritor.

"Sudjiono's wife is not an inheritor because he is still alive. Based on Criminal Code Procedures, the term inheritor is only applicable when Sudjiono is dead," Sahlan said. Only a convict or his or her inheritor can file a case review.

Freedom of religion & worship

Victim not surprised by light sentence

Jakarta Globe - September 13, 2013

Mikael Niman & Camelia Pasandaran, Bekasi – The Bekasi district court on Thursday sentenced a man who threatened a Batak Protestant Congregation (HKBP) church pastor Palti Panjaitan, to two months in jail and six months probation.

Abdul Aziz bin Naimun was charged with unpleasant conduct after demonstrations outside the HKBP Filadelfia church in Bekasi.

"The defendant has been proven validly and convincingly guilty of a crime under Article 335 Sub-article 1," presiding judge Wasdi Permana said on Thursday. The judge also ordered him to pay a Rp 2,000 ($0.18).

"The defendant will not be detained," Wasdi said. "Under the terms of the six month probation period, he should be careful not to be involved in any criminal activity."

The sentence generally met prosecutor demands for three months in prison, six months probation and Rp 2,000 in fines. Both the prosecutor and the defendant, Palti, told the court they hadn't decided whether to file an appeal or not.

In a separate interview, Palti told the Jakarta Globe that he personally accepted the judge's decision. "Whatever is decided by the judges is the best for me," Palti said. "But I will discuss with my lawyers if they want to file an appeal over the coming days."

Palti said he had not expected the court to send Aziz to jail. "I only want to deter other people not to repeat what he did," Palti explained.

Judianto Simanjuntak, Palti's lawyer, said he did not blame the court for what he considered an unfair ruling.

"This has been wrong since the start," Judianto said. "We wanted the police to charge him with two main offences, the hampering of a religious service and a threat to commit murder, as well as an additional charge of unpleasant conduct. But the police only charged him with Article 335 on unpleasant conduct in the indictment."

The maximum sentence for unpleasant conduct is a year in jail while a murder threat, as stipulated in Article 336 of the Criminal Code, carries up to two years and eight months. For hampering religious services, the maximum sentence is a year and four months.

"These legal enforcers failed to see the case from the perspective of the victim," Judianto said. "This is a serious threat to religious freedom, not only a conflict between two individuals."

Bonar Tigor Naipospos, deputy director of the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, a nongovernmental organization, told the Jakarta Globe that such sentences would not be effective deterrents.

"Probation means he won't be jailed [for long] and that's too light to deter him or others like him," Bonar said. "His motive is discrimination and intolerance, in the end, he will be praised as a hero by the intolerant group he belongs to and will feel justified carrying on with his religious discrimination and intolerance."

According to witnesses, Abdul told the pastor, "Palti, I'm going to cut your throat," while swiping his finger across his neck as hard-liners hurled rotten eggs and cow feces at churchgoers during a tense Easter protest outside the shuttered church.

Abdul told the court that he did not know he had violated the law by threatening Palti, and he only wanted to deter the congregation from worshipping at their sealed church.

The two men have been entwined in a separate legal cases since Christmas Eve of 2011. Aziz filed a complaint with police claiming he was pushed during a protest. Bonar said that it is common in Indonesia that a victim is being victimized for second time by police, such as in the Ahmadiyah case in Sampang.

Attacker of Bekasi churchgoers walks free on probation

Jakarta Post - September 13, 2013

Bekasi – Bekasi District Court handed down a suspended sentence to Abdul Azis, who was found guilty of assaulting members of the Toba Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) congregation last year.

Presiding judge Wasdi Permana said in a court session on Thursday that the defendant was guilty but he would be required to serve jail time only if he committed any crimes in the next six months. "The panel of judges sentences the defendant to two months' imprisonment suspended for six months," he said.

Abdul was charged with violating Article 335 of the Criminal Code on offensive behavior, prosecutors had sought a three-month jail sentence.

The attack occurred on April 15, 2012 when Abdul and others threw stones at members of the congregation after they completed their Sunday service and threatened church minister Palti Panjaitan with death if the congregation continued worshipping on the sidewalk in the Filadelfia housing compound.

Although the church had an official permit from the local authority the church building had been sealed up by local fundamentalists.

The Bekasi regency administration offered a vacant building at the Griya Prima housing compound and another one belonging to the local chapter of the Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) in Tambun, but the congregation rejected the offers.

Since the church closure, the congregation has joined members of the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin in Bogor to hold services almost every Sunday in front of the Presidential Palace in protest at the absence of religious freedom in the country.

The presiding judge said that all seven witnesses who testified in court said the defendant committed the crimes alleged against him.

He added that a video showing the defendant and his colleagues launching the attack and the intimidation was authentic and could be accepted as evidence. The video clip was taken by Lexi Santosa, a reporter with Pantau Online.

"The video shows the defendant saying, 'If your congregation holds another service in this village, I will finish you off, Palti,' while moving his index finger horizontally across his throat mimicking the slaughter of an animal," he said.

The church reported the incident to the Bekasi police office on May 19 and they later charged Abdul. On Dec. 25, 2012, Abdul reported Palti to the police for assault and the minister was arrested. In his report to the police, Abdul claimed he was beaten by Palti during an altercation while the congregation held its Christmas service on the sidewalk.

Neither Abdul or Palti have been detained and Palti's case has yet to be brought to court.

According to the panel of judges, the light sentence was given because the defendant was a local religious leader and he vowed not to reoffend. Several people in the courtroom, including members of a hard-liner group, yelled "Allahu Akbar [God is Great]" after the presiding judge read the verdict.

Judianto Simanjuntak, a lawyer for the congregation, said he was disappointed by the trial as the panel of judges had not tried Abdul for all his alleged crimes.

"It was not a fair trial because it only heard the offensive behavior allegation while the congregation reported three violations to the police," he said, alleging that the defendant had committed two other serious crimes, namely using force to prevent others performing their prayers and intimidation, which contravened the 1945 Constitution. (ogi)

Islamic law & morality

Hard-line group continues opposition to Miss World

Jakarta Post - September 14, 2013

Jember – Hundreds of members of hard-line group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia in Jember, East Java, on Saturday continued to express their anger at the 63rd Miss World pageant, despite the fact the event had officially opened on Sunday after receiving the go-ahead from the central government.

The members took to the streets in central Jember for 30 minutes then marched to the traffic circle next to the local lawmakers' office and to Jember University to voice their protests.

They claimed that the event would degrade the morality of Indonesian youth. They also accused the event of merely being a tool for developed countries to exploit Indonesia for their own benefits.

"The event is no more than a parade of women's bodies and, as such, is strictly prohibited by Islamic teachings," said Abdurrahman, the coordinator of the protest.

The group also rejected the claim by the committee organizing the pageant that the event promoted Indonesia as complete nonsense and blamed the Culture and Tourism Ministry for facilitating it. "Miss World is just a pretext for a more liberal culture," Amir, one of the group members, said.

The protest was joined by hundreds of mothers who brought children to the rally. The protesters distributed pamphlets about their opposition to the Miss World event to passers-by.

Jember Police said that they deployed personnel to escort the rally to prevent any untoward behavior. (hrl)

Indonesians hold 'Islam's answer to Miss World'

Agence France Presse - September 14, 2013

Indonesia will hold a pageant exclusively for Muslims, The Muslimah World contest, in rivalry to the Miss World beauty contest.

The Muslimah World contest's founder Eka Shanti says the Muslimah World contest to be held on Wednesday in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, is "Islam's answer to Miss World".

"Muslimah World is a beauty pageant but the requirements are very different from Miss World," Ms Shanti said. "You have to be pious, be a positive role model and show how you balance a life of spirituality in today's modernised world."

The 20 Muslimah World finalists were chosen from more than 500 who took part in online rounds, reciting Koranic verses and telling stories of how they came to wear the Islamic headscarf, a requirement for the pageant.

The finalists, from Iran, Malaysia, Brunei, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Indonesia, will parade Islamic fashions in what Ms Shanti says is an opportunity to show young Muslim women they do not need to show their "immodest" parts, including their hair and bare shoulders, to be beautiful.

Ms Shanti says she did not support hardliners' calls to cancel the Miss World contest, acknowledging that Indonesia was a diverse country with many faiths.

"We don't just want to shout 'no' to Miss World," Ms Shanti said. "We'd rather show our children they have choices – Do you want to be like the women in Miss World or like those in Muslimah World?"

The Muslimah World pageant is the latest backlash against Miss World, which has already dropped the bikini from its beach fashion round and has attracted more than a month of protests by Muslim hardliners demanding the show be scrapped. Radicals have set effigies of the organisers alight and deemed the contest "smut" and "pornographic".

After repeated protests, the Miss World final was moved from the outskirts of the capital Jakarta to the resort island of Bali, where the contest began last week with no opposition from the Hindu majority there.

Despite the move, protestors from the Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia demonstrated in the central Java city of Yogyakarta with its spokeswoman saying "Miss World is not welcome in Indonesia at all".

Miss World contestants were again ridiculed today with around 300 members of the radical Islamic Defenders Front gathering in the capital, holding signs that read "Miss World is a whore contest".

The decision to move the final round was the latest victory for Islamic fringe groups, who are wielding increasing power and have succeeded in getting several events they deem un-Islamic changed or cancelled in recent years.

FPI Miss World rally stopped at East Java port

Jakarta Globe - September 14, 2013

Hundreds of Bali-bound members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) found themselves stuck in Banyuwangi, East Java, on Saturday as female police officers – backed by nearly a 1,000 members of the National Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) – blockaded the entrance to the port.

The Islamist group planned to take a ferry to Bali to protest the Hindu- majority island's hosting of the controversial Miss World beauty pageant. The organization claimed the pageant, which was moved to Bali amid protests, ran counter to conservative Muslim values.

The decision to move the Miss World pageant from Bogor to Bali was seen as the latest sign of hard-line groups growing influence in Indonesia. The FPI held protests across Java on Sept. 7 to urge the government to cancel the event outright.

Miss World's organizers instead agreed to scrap the bikini contest and move the event to Bali, where foreign tourists flock to the beach in similarly skimpy bathing suits and Islamists hold little sway. But the compromise did little to appease the FPI, an organization emboldened by a successful campaign against US pop star Lady Gaga.

"Bali is part of Indonesia, and Indonesia is a Muslim-majority country," East Java FPI chair Haidar bin al-Hamid told the Indonesian newspaper Tempo.

Photos of the contestants in bikinis were still being spread online, Haidar said, accusing the event of running afoul Indonesia's strict, but sporadically enforced, anti-pornography laws. The group would mobilize 1,000 members to protest the pageant in Bali, he previously said.

Less than 200 people showed up on Saturday. Those who did arrive at the port were welcomed by nearly a thousand members of the Brimob and the East Java Police. The Islamists reportedly attempted to enter the port, but police refused to break ranks.

East Java Police declined to grant the group a protest permit. When Haidar complained, police spokesman Sr. Comr. Awi Setiyono told him to file a report with the National Police.

The hard-liners then cancelled their plans and reconvened at the Banyuwangi train station for lunch, according to reports on Kompas.com. Afterwards they piled into two buses and 17 cars and headed back home.

In Jember, East Java, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia held a rally in front of the Jember Legislative Council.

"HTI strictly rejects and condemns Miss World because the beauty contest is against Islamic culture and against Indonesian culture," Abdul Rahman, coordinator of the rally, said as quoted by the state-run Antara News Agency.

Abdul accused Miss World of damaging women's dignity by exploiting their bodies. The pageant, he said, was against Islamic teachings. "As predominantly Muslim country Indonesia has an important role in the Islamic world," he said. "Holding it here will influence the perceptions of other Muslim countries."

In Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, a local spokesman for the FPI said 5,000 hard-liners were preparing to board boats to Bali, according to reports in Tempo.

Police in Bali were unfazed on Saturday. The Miss World event will remain under heavily police protection, Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Arif Wachyunadi said. "If all the Miss World activities are conducted in Bali, we will secure all of it," he told the Indonesian news portal Merdeka.com.

Miss World opens in Indonesia after protests

Associated Press - September 9, 2013

Bali – The 63rd edition of the Miss World pageant opened Sunday after protests by Muslim hardliners confined the event to Indonesia's predominantly Hindu resort island of Bali.

The opening ceremony, which was televised to 186 countries, featured Bali's Kecak dance and a parade of all 131 contestants.

Following days of protests by Indonesian hardline Muslim groups and the rejection of the contest by a leading clerics' organization, the government announced Saturday that it was moving the Sept. 28 final round to Bali. It was initially set to be held in Sentul, on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta.

Bali is the only Hindu-dominated province in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country.

Controversy over the pageant has been mounting in Indonesia, which has a reputation as a tolerant, pluralist society that respects freedom of expression.

The Indonesia Ulema Council, the country's most influential clerics' organization, and the hardline groups Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia and Front for Islamic Defenders have urged the government to cancel the event. They have argued that the exposure of skin by women in a competition violates Muslim teachings, even after organizers agreed to cut the bikini competition and instead outfit contestants in more conservative sarongs.

The chairwoman of the Miss World Organization, Julia Morley, has promised that none of the contestants will wear a bikini. The pageant began in the 1950s, and the first winner was crowned in a two-piece bathing suit. "We only want to try to find the best way of working together," Morley told a news conference Saturday in Bali.

Most Muslims in Indonesia, a secular country of 240 million people, are moderate, but a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years.

Lady Gaga was forced to cancel her sold-out concert in Indonesia in May following threats by Islamic hardliners who called her a "devil worshipper." Jennifer Lopez toned down her sexy outfits and dance moves during a show in Jakarta last December.

Government bows to pressure, scraps Miss World event in Sentul

Jakarta Post - September 8, 2013

Desy Nurhayati, Nusa Dua – Increasing protest from hard-line groups over the 2013 Miss World beauty pageant – which is slated to be held in Bali and Sentul in West Java from Sept. 8 to 28 – has seemingly forced the government to drop Sentul as one of the event hosts.

Coordinating People's Welfare Minister Agung Laksono announced on Saturday that now all of the pageant events, from the opening ceremony to the coronation night, would be held in Bali.

However, contestants, he continued, would be allowed to visit other provinces, but not as part of the program series. "We take this decision after considering the pros and cons of the event for both the public and the organizer," Agung said.

In the initial schedule, after the first week of events came to an end in Bali, all 129 contestants from around the globe would then travel to Jakarta, where they would compete in different events culminating with the final on Sept. 28 in Sentul at the Sentul International Convention Center (SICC).

The contest, however, has drawn protests from Islamic hard-line groups across the country in the days leading up to the pageant. The groups protested the decision to host Miss World in the country, calling it as an "immoral event". The absence of a bikini round in the contest has failed to appease the hard-liners.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), for instance, has conveyed its disagreement with the event, saying that the pageant was not in line with Islamic teachings. Radical groups the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) and the Islamic People's Forum (FUI) have also demanded the government cancel the event.

Before the decision to pull Sentul as an event site, West Java Deputy Governor Deddy Mizwar said on Friday the contest should not be held in Sentul if it drew protests.

"This is controversial, isn't it? If this contest will create unsafe conditions, I think it would be better to avoid this [and cancel the event in Sentul]," he said, as quoted by Antara news agency.

West Java is a Muslim majority province, which is reported to have the highest number of cases of violence against minority religious groups.

National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo disagreed with the notion that the cancellation of the closing ceremony in Sentul was due to threats from hard-liners. To secure the event in Bali, he said the Police would cooperate with local police and residents to guarantee safety at all venues used for the event.

Tourism and Creative Economy Deputy Minister Sapta Nirwandar also said the cancellation was not related to pressure from radical groups. "There is no way that the government is afraid of any hard-liners," Sapta said.

He said the event should be seen as a good thing for Indonesia because it would help promote the country, especially Bali, to the international world.

"Just imagine all the contestants from hundreds of countries telling their families, friends and colleagues about Indonesia back home. Don't you think that it is good thing?" he said.

The sudden decision shocked the Miss World committee, as it came a few hours after the committee had held a separate press conference in Nusa Dua, Bali, where they expressed their optimism that the event would run smoothly despite mounting protests from hard-liners.

"This is an unexpected decision. Can you imagine it? It's only three weeks before the finale then suddenly there is such a change," Arief Suditomo, head of media affairs for the 2013 Miss World, told The Jakarta Post.

"This time around, we cannot release an official statement on the changes [...] But one thing is for sure: Tomorrow's event [the opening ceremony on Sunday in Bali] will be on schedule," he added.

Commenting on the protest, Julia Morley, chairwoman of the Miss World Organization, said she was convinced the organizers had no intention of offending anyone and the event would be held "with full respect to local cultures".

"They have the right to say what they want to say, but it would be very nice to talk to us first, to find out about us, because there are many beauty contests, and they might be confused," she said. "I would like them to give us the opportunity to show what we are." (koi)

Poverty & social inequity

Children left behind as Indonesia moves forward

Jakarta Globe - September 11, 2013

Anushka Shahjahan – Successful economic development in recent years has failed to lift the livelihoods of children in Indonesia, participants in a conference in Jakarta agreed on Tuesday, arguing that specific programs are needed to protect children and ensure that they benefit from economic growth.

The two-day conference began on Tuesday, with delegates from 15 countries coming together to discuss child poverty and social protection. Representatives from governments and civil society groups also shared lessons learned from successful policy changes that helped to accelerate the reduction of child poverty in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Gumelar said that while poverty reduction was Indonesia's highest development priority, many children were still denied accesses to adequate education and health care.

Linda said that while poverty was, at the moment, still "only measured by addressing economic development," it would take a holistic, integrated and child-friendly approach to develop effective social policies for dealing with issues related to children.

"The issue of development of children can't be separated from successes in women's empowerment and the achievement of gender equality in families," Linda said, adding that Indonesia aimed to bring the poverty rate, which is currently over 10 percent, down to 8 percent.

Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri agreed in his speech that an integrated child protection system was required to tackle poverty and boost child protection. An integrated system, he said, would prevent overlap between programs carried out by various stakeholders.

Angela Kearney, the Unicef representative to Indonesia, added during an interview with the Jakarta Globe on the sidelines of the event that child poverty cannot only be calculated in terms of income alone. Other parameters, such as access to sanitation facilities, must also be considered.

"Indonesia is the second ranking country in the world where 63 million people don't have toilets," she said.

Becoming a middle-income country has been a success story for Indonesia, Kearney said. "But I think the success stories do mask, a little bit, the huge disparities within the nation." Although the country has seen huge fiscal growth, "children are not getting the right attention or quality education."

She drew attention to data which shows that although poverty reduction was occurring quickly in Indonesia, poverty reduction among children has not been happening as quickly as it has in the general population.

"Children are still more disadvantaged," she continued. "We want to show the government that you can't just give national data ... you also have to give geographical data, broken into wealth distributions as well and rural compared to urban."

Tuesday's conference will help the government "prepare for the 2015 to 2019 National Medium-Term Development Plan," Minister for National Development Planning Armida S. Alisjahbana said, adding that the conference will provide "solid research about the problems of poverty, especially child poverty, something that is rarely discussed in the broader poverty eradication plan."

"The results of this conference will be used as ... input for the government to formulate the next five-year development planning agenda," said Nina Sardjunani, one of Armida's deputies.

However, concerns remain as to whether policies can be effectively implemented throughout the country and whether policy implementation can be appropriately monitored, given the administrative challenges of decentralization.

Robin Nandy, a senior health advisor at Unicef, told the Jakarta Globe, "it is good to have local decision making and control over funds, but often this money is spent on infrastructure and not on things that make immediate difference to health."

Kearney added, "you can have a presidential decree or you can have a law ... but you have to have district chiefs believe in it. The Ministry of Health can say every child needs immunization or vaccines, but unless the district heads are being held accountable, it won't work."

But Nina remains confident that with the proper procedure, a balance can be found so that the policy will be consistently implemented throughout different regions in Indonesia. She said they would make sure that "major targets [related to child poverty reduction] stipulated in the next five- year development plan are translated into the provincial districts' as well as cities' five-year development plans."

Lack of support hampers social programs: ILO

Jakarta Globe - September 10, 2013

Anushka Shahjahan – The national government has been tackling child poverty and improving social protection for citizens via several programs, but progress is hampered without the full support of the regional governments, a representative from the International Labor Organization said.

Dede Shinta, national program officer at the ILO said several issues continue to pose challenges to the government programs, holding it back from proper implementation, such as the lack of understanding or knowledge about the policies and regulations in the regional levels and the lack of commitment in provinces where child labor has not been made a priority.

Furthermore, child labor has become a major source of income for most low income families in Indonesia, while education is often neglected.

Government data from September last year showed that 28.59 million people were living in poverty, with income at less than a dollar a day.

"Children begin working and living on the street due to economic exploitation by their parents and this is allowed to happen due to the negligence of the state," said Seto Mulyadi, chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection's Board of Trustees (Komnas).

The government-established National Action Committee on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor has prepared a National Action Plan aiming to end child labor practices by 2020. It aims to take children between the ages of seven to 15 from very poor households out of the workforce.

But Seto said such efforts may not suffice in challenging the core reasons behind child labor.

"The government has a number of policies and programs being carried out but they don't address the economic roots of the problem," he said. "But street children can only be helped if their parents are helped not only by the government but also the community and international non-government organizations such as the UN," he continued.

Merry, the operational manager of Indonesian Street Children Organization (ISCO), said despite providing supporting with school fees, uniforms and text books for the street children, many of them preferred working on the streets instead of going to school.

"Every year, the number of children in ISCO programs drop by 5 to 10 percent," Merry said in a written statement to the Jakarta Globe.

ISCO is among the local non-governmental organizations that have filled in the gaps between the government's programs as it aims to prevent marginalized children from becoming street children or child laborers.

Merry emphasized that the government should take responsibility of providing financial assistance to marginalized children and provide them with basic needs like food and education. She added that monitoring the programs was as important as their implementation.

"Any program would be unsuccessful without adequate monitoring and evaluation," she said.

The Manpower Ministry earlier this year rolled out a new program aimed at providing both financial aid and monitoring in its bid to end child labor practices by 2020.

With the program, child laborers will be removed from their workplaces and temporarily placed in shelters in order to undergo a special mentoring program for four months, during which they would also receive a monthly allowance of Rp 250,000 ($23).

In addition to the ministry's program, the government itself has this year allocated Rp 287 trillion or 20 percent of the state budget on education and policies that encourage higher education.

However, while government policies may encourage more children to enter school, the Unesco report highlights that little progress has been made in reducing the rate at which children leave school.

Unicef data suggests that the number of enrolled children varies largely among regions within Indonesia, signifying a lack of balanced monitoring across the nation. World Vision has put Indonesia in 100th place out of 176 countries in a study on health inequality for children.

"The national government has improved their policies on compulsory education where students would need to complete 12 mandatory years of education. There is also a scholarship program for poor students (BSM)," Dede said.

She added that consistency of the implementation of policies throughout local regions and their effective monitoring remains one of the biggest issues.

Social protection

Aside from child protection, the government has also been rolling out social protection programs. Today, 60 percent of Indonesia's 240 million people are covered by health insurance while a government health waiver for the poor, Jamkesmas, covers 76 million people. In addition, state-run insurance companies cover another 45 million people.

Last year, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced his plan to offer universal health coverage in Indonesia beginning in 2014 and aiming for full coverage by 2019.

Robert Yates, a senior health economist from the World Health Organization said the program was not too farfetched.

"Yes, it [universal health coverage] is possible," said Robert Yates, a senior health economist at World Health Organization. "The government is issuing big institutional changes to try and begin to merge the different health insurance schemes."

However, Yates said it would be necessary for the level of public financing to be improved in order to achieve universal health coverage.

"Indonesia is a very low spender, using only between 1 and 1.2 percent of its GDP on health care. This needs to increase rapidly," he said.

"Indonesia spends about 3 percent of its GDP on fuel subsidies and if they cut it by a third and add it to health care, universal health coverage can become achievable," he said, referring to regional countries partaking in similar programs and their steady contribution of 2 percent of the GDP in universal health coverage.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had initially called for an initial fund of Rp 25 trillion for the implementation of the program, which aims to cover all Indonesians by the year 2019. The fund, according to the CIA Factbook, was one-fifth of 1 percent of Indonesia's GDP in 2012.

Yudhoyono said the funds needed for the Social Security Organizing Body (BPJS) was justifiable because it would ensure health coverage for all citizens.

While the universal health coverage program is not the only government health care program, the percentage of its GDP Indonesia spends on health care remains lower than that of most of the world, including Nepal and Thailand according to WHO data.

Agriculture & food security

Agriculture sector is falling behind: BPS

Jakarta Globe - September 9, 2013

Indonesia's agriculture industry has seen growing productivity over the past decade despite a decline in the number of workers, a national census shows, but the industry remains far behind neighboring countries in the Southeast Asian region, while major improvements are needed as prices continue to soar.

According to recently published data by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the number of workers in the farming sector who are over 15 years of age has declined from 40.61 million in 2003 to 38.86 million this year, but rice production in the same period has grown from 52.14 million metric tons to 69.27 million tons, indicating annual growth of 3.9 percent.

Corn production has also grown in the same period from 10.89 million tons in 2003 to 18.84 tons in 2013, representing growth of 7.16 percent annually. "This shows that productivity in the sector has been growing despite a decline in the number of workers," BPS chairman Suryamid affirmed.

The BPS collected the data in a census that is held every 10 years, which is aimed at getting a detailed and accurate picture of the country's farming industry.

Suryamin said the research this year had been conducted with a budget of Rp 1.6 trillion ($142 million), which had been allocated in the government's state budget.

Aside from workers aged 15 years or older, the number of farming households have declined by five million in the past decade to 26.13 million in 2013, the study revealed. In 2003, the island of Java was home to 17.91 million farming households, but only 13.42 million of them were recorded in the 2013 study.

Similarly, on the island of Sumatra, the number of households involved in the farming sector has decreased from 6.60 million to only 6.28 million, while Sulawesi island this year had 2.22 million households compared with the 2.41 million recorded in 2003.

Heavily dependent

Despite findings of growth in productivity, BPS officials emphasized that the country remains heavily dependent on its imported goods due to poor agricultural technology.

BPS analysis and development director Bambang Kristianto said it was very necessary for Indonesia to be able to come up with new technologies to help develop goods produced by farmers, adding that it is only then that Indonesia would be able to reduce its current dependency on imported goods.

"Indonesia is a country with the largest agricultural sector. But when we talk about technology, Indonesia is up to 10 years behind Malaysia, because Malaysia is much better in terms of their development of agricultural technologies," Bambang said.

He noted that the nation's agricultural sector contributed 15.04 percent to the GDP, even amid declining number of farmers over the past decade.

In the light of this, Bambang called on the government to focus on allocating more of its state budget for the agricultural sector as well as in improving the portion of agriculture in regional budgets across the archipelago.

He pointed out that many regions have focused greatly on their education and health sectors and undermined their agricultural potential.

"Many regions would use their annual budget for the education and health sector, while the agricultural sector would be their last priority. In the future, the budget for the sector should be increased to better our agriculture industry," Bambang said.

He added that by improving the regional government's budget for agriculture, it will subsequently be able to look into putting together a farmers bank, which he said could be key to attracting foreign investors in contributing to the development of Indonesia's agricultural technologies.

"The farmers' bank can be used as a source of finance in creating technologies for the agriculture industry," Bambang said.

Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) rector Prof. Dr. Herry Suhardiyanto, during his speech at the institution's 50th anniversary, also underlined the need for the government to make improvement of its agricultural sector a focus.

"The IPB is aware that agricultural developments have yet to be optimally carried out, which is marked by the low farming production in comparison to national demand," he said, adding that the nation's dependence on imported goods and flawed agricultural management had strongly impacted soaring commodity prices.

Moreover, Herry noted that the nation was also faced with a string of other issues related to agriculture such as poor quality of health among the people and the poor welfare of farmers, fishermen and ranchers.

"These problems and challenges can be tackled if the government is serious about prioritizing the agricultural sector fully and consistently at every level," he said.

He added that it was also necessary for stakeholders to have the same vision and partnership between every sector related to the agriculture such as the industry, finance, human resources, technology and the political sector.

Lack of government support Firman Soebagyo, head of House Commission IV, which oversees agriculture, echoed a similar concern as he conceded that the government's lack of support to the agricultural industry has contributed to the decline in farming lands in recent years.

Approximately 100,000 hectares of land has been lost to factories and the property industry since 2010, causing more challenges in fulfilling local demand for strategic commodities.

"There is no support from the government. In every region there is quite a large amount of land that has been converted. Regional autonomy has led local governments to take shortcuts which has resulted in the conversion of farming lands," the Golkar Party lawmaker said during a discussion on Saturday.

He added that autonomy has pushed regional governments to increase their locally generated revenues (PAD) by surrendering their lands to investors to be turned into factories and properties.

Referring to that, Firman questioned President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's presidential speech in which he claimed the government would be setting aside an additional 45,000 hectares of land to support food security.

Firman said that it would take a lot for the government to create such land in light of recent conversion trends. "The government needs to see how land conversion is still happening," he said.

Firman also called on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to investigate possible suspect deals between the government and certain businesses in connection to the Trade Ministry's recent move to scrap the 10 percent import tariff on soybeans to tackle higher domestic prices.

"There are irregularities here, this is an economic crime, the KPK has to intervene," he said.

According to him, the House found that approximately Rp 400 billion of potential state losses last year from the government's move to lower soybean import tariffs and with the recent scrapping of tariffs, the number could further increase, although calculations have not been done yet.

"Surely the portions have been divided. This is what the KPK needs to investigate – the deals, the regulations which only enriches themselves [importers]," he said.

The Ministry of Agriculture has come under fire due to the recent beef import scandal in which it has allegedly increased the import quota for importer Indoguna Utama. "The government's regulation in handling imports should be balanced with efforts to improve domestic productivity," he added.

Firman said he was aware that the KPK had started assessing the agriculture industry such as seeds and fertilizers, which he acknowledged as a good move.

However, he pointed out that the KPK should investigate practices of soybean cartels as he suspected that there are six big companies who were allegedly involved in the practices.

An agricultural bill was passed in July aimed at empowering the country's largely impoverished agrarian class.

Armed forces & defense

Two jet fighters arrives in Indonesia

Jakarta Post - September 13, 2013

National – Two T-50i training fighter jets ordered by the Defense Ministry from the Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) arrived at Iswahyudi Air Force base in Maospati district, Magetan regency, East Java, on Wednesday.

The aircraft were ordered to strengthen Indonesia's primary weapons defense system. "Two out of 16 aircraft ordered have arrived," said Air Force Operational Command II commander Vice Marshal Agus Supriatna in Magetan, as reported by kompas.com on Thursday.

He said the remaining 14 fighter jets would arrive in stages every two weeks. It was hoped that all T-50i Golden Eagle aircraft would arrive at Squadron 15 of Iswahyudi Air Base by the end of 2013.

According to Agus, the T-50i Golden Eagle jets will replace dozens of Hawk Mk-53 aircraft bought by the government in the 1980s, of which only two are still operating.

"The Hawk Mk-53 will not be used anymore because they are already old and it's getting difficult for us to get their spare parts. Even if available, they are very expensive," said Agus.

He said all of the T-50i Golden Eagle would be used to train fresh graduates from aviation schools before they operated fighter jets such as Sukhoi, F-16, F-5 or Hawk 100/200.

Agus further explained that the T-50i Golden Eagle aircraft were equipped with weapon systems that could be used in various missions. Among the weapons systems are AIM-9 Sidewinder, MK-82 bom, BDU-33, AGM-65 Maverick, MK-20 cluster bomb and JDAM smart bomb.

Cebongan trail fails to deliver sense of justice

Kompas Newspaper - September 10, 2013

Jakarta – The Civil Society Coalition for Security Sector Reform (KMSRSK) is calling for reform to military justice to be accelerated. The call came following the conclusion of the military tribunal hearing the case of the Cebongan prison attack in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta, which was seen as failing to fulfill a sense of justice in society.

"Military justice has failed in trying the Cebongan case. Perpetrators of premeditated murder are usually sentenced to death, but because we oppose the death penalty, they should be sentenced to life imprisonment", said Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) program director Al Araf on Monday September 9 in Jakarta.

Yesterday, a number of non-government organisations gathered at the Imparsial offices to analyse the Cebongan trial verdict. Aside from Imparsial activists, also attending were activists from the Institute for Public Research and Advocacy (Elsam) and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

Second Sergeant Ucok Tigor Simbolon for example was sentenced to 11 years in jail. Second Sergeant Sugeng Sumaryanto was sentenced to 8 years and First Corporal Kodik was sentenced to 6 years in jail. All three were dismissed from the TNI (Indonesian military). Meanwhile Sergeant Major Rokhmadi was sentenced to 4 months 20 days and immediately released from detention after being held since April 12.

According to Al Araf, sentences handed down against TNI members will always be disappointing as long as Law Number 31/1997 on Military Tribunals is used. "The government and the DPR [House of Representatives] must immediately revise the military tribunal law. It only needs to be resumed. Only six or seven articles remain for the final deliberation", he said.

Al Araf explained that the earlier deliberations on the law at the DPR were halted by the president [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono]. "Perhaps at the time, the president wanted to take part in the 2009 elections. Yet the heart of TNI reform actually lies with reform to military justice. There should be no citizens who are afforded special treatment before the law, particularly if they are members of the TNI", he said.

Elsam deputy director for the development of human rights resources, Zainal Abidin, added that the military tribunal also failed to seek accountability from the soldiers' superior offices. "A paradox emerged during the trial where the Cebongan attack was initially [portrayed] as motivated by revenge then it was [portrayed] as combating thuggery", he said.

According to Abidin, during the trial the public support for the soldiers on trial could be interpreted as support within society for the eradication of thuggery. "However the other paradox was that during the trial there was intimidation against trial observers", he said.

Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar said that the military tribunal failed to present the complete facts surrounding the attack on the Cebongan prison. "The Yogyakarta regional police chief for example was not accommodated as a witness [to testify on] the transfer of the four victims to the Cebongan prison", he said.

Accepting the verdict

Former army chief of staff retired general Pramono Edhie Wibowo [Yudhoyono's father-in-law] has stated that the Cebongan trail verdict must be accepted. He noted that only a legal institution has the authority to resolve legal cases. "There isn't anyone who can satisfy all sides. Obviously there are those that are satisfied and those that are not. It should be left up to the legal institutions and the rules", he said.

Army Special Forces (Kopassus) commander TNI Major General Agus Utomo said that they plan to pursue legal channels in addressing the verdicts handed down against the Kopassus members that attacked the Cebongan prison. Utomo conceded that they are dissatisfied with the verdicts handed down and what took place was a bitter lesion. (RYO/ATO/OSA/ONG)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

US expands arms sales to Indonesia

Red Flag - September 10, 2013

James Balowski – Human rights groups have condemned a US government decision to go ahead with the sale of eight Apache attack helicopters to Indonesia, saying they are offensive weapons likely to be employed in counterinsurgency operations in West Papua.

The US$500 million deal – the largest since Washington lifted its embargo on selling lethal arms to Indonesia in 2005 – was announced by US secretary of defense Chuck Hagel and will include pilot training, radar technologies and maintenance.

"Providing Indonesia these world-class helicopters is an example of our commitment to help build Indonesia's military capability", Hagel said in Jakarta on 26 March. A US official speaking anonymously told reporters that the gunships would strengthen Indonesia's anti-piracy operations and broaden "maritime awareness".

According to the Jakarta Globe, the deal is a culmination of more than a year's behind-the-scenes work by Indonesia, which views the helicopters as a key part of a plan to modernise its weaponry.

The sale represents the latest step in a gradual rapprochement between Washington and the Indonesian Military (TNI) in the face of opposition by human rights groups.

Real weapons, pretend reforms

In the wake of international outrage following the massacre of more than 100 peaceful protesters in East Timor in 1991, the US Congress cut off Indonesia's access to specific kinds of military training and "lethal" equipment. When TNI-backed militias rampaged through East Timor after the UN-sponsored independence referendum in 1999, President Bill Clinton severed all remaining military ties, but then quietly restored contacts the following year.

Under the 1997 Leahy law – named after its author, US Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont – the US is banned from providing training or other kinds of assistance to any foreign military unit if there is "credible evidence" that it has committed "gross violations of human rights". This can be waived if the secretary of state certifies that the relevant foreign government is "taking effective measures" to bring responsible members of the unit to justice.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 and the 2002 Bali bombing, the Bush administration attempted to circumvent these restrictions by providing assistance through a counter-terrorism program. In 2005, the administration issued a national security waiver allowing full engagement with the TNI, and abandoned the conditions for renewed cooperation, including TNI reforms and prosecution of soldiers responsible for rights violations.

Despite a complete failure to meet any of the conditions set by Congress, in July 2010 the Obama administration lifted a 12-year ban on US training of the TNI's elite Special Forces Kopassus, accused of perpetrating some of the worst crimes against the people of East Timor, Indonesia and West Papua.

Australia – which also severed military ties in 1999 – resumed cooperation with the TNI in late 2002. Canberra's resumption of cooperation with Kopassus in 2005 was cited as a justification by the US for the lifting of its training ban.

A military tribunal is currently trying 12 Kopassus soldiers accused of storming a prison in Central Java and executing four detainees who allegedly killed a former Kopassus member in a drug-related brawl in March. The incident follows a "marathon of violence" by the TNI, rights groups reporting 51 cases of murder, attacks, intimidation, torture and land confiscation by TNI members in the first quarter of 2013.

Offensive weapons

Human rights groups say that it will be impossible for the US to dictate the TNI's use of the new hardware once the sale has gone through. "The problem is that these are offensive-only weapons. Given the TNI's history, they're more likely to be used for internal repression than for external defence", East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) National Coordinator John Miller told Red Flag. "The military will use these helicopters as they want. These are weapons of war, weapons of counterinsurgency, so it would be foolish to expect that the Indonesians wouldn't use them in places like West Papua."

When it first emerged last year that Indonesia was looking to acquire the Apaches, civil society groups wrote an open letter to the US Congress warning that Indonesia's "long record of disregard for civilian casualties, corruption, human rights violations and impunity" should preclude the sale.

"These aircraft will substantially augment the [TNI's] capacity to prosecute its 'sweep operations' in West Papua, and thereby almost certainly lead to increased suffering among the civilian populations long victimised by such operations", the groups said. Organised by ETAN and the West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT), the letter was signed by 90 human rights, religious, indigenous rights, disarmament and other organisations based in 14 countries.

In a statement released on 26 April, the ETAN and the WPAT said the sale demonstrates that US concern for human rights and justice in Indonesia is nothing more than hollow rhetoric.

"The sale... ignores the appalling record of human rights violations by the Indonesian military, which will operate this deadly weapons system", the statement said. "The TNI continues to conduct military campaigns in West Papua. The military's 'sweeps' and other military operations purportedly target the few remaining, lightly-armed pro-independence guerrillas. In reality, the operations are aimed at repressing and intimidating Papuans."

The groups noted with concern a statement by Indonesian defence minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro that the deal does not include any conditions restricting the use of the weapons.

Foreign affairs & trade

Price cartels exploiting poor governance

Jakarta Globe - September 10, 2013

SP/Novianti Setuningsih & Dyah Ayu Pitaloka – The government's poor management of commodities has caused loopholes that have resulted in the creation of cartels among several groups looking to control the market, an official from the national anti corruption agency said.

"Bad management is evident in aspects such as poorly functioning animal slaughterhouses, inaccurate data on beef supplies and even transportation," Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chief Zulkarnain said on Monday.

Zulkarnain said the KPK was further assessing the situation across many industries to identify possible negligence or wrongdoing by major stakeholders.

"Results from the study will expose weaknesses and subsequently offer constructive feedback for the related institutions and will ultimately be for the good of the people," he said.

Beef scandals

A KPK study published in February pointed to irregularities in the beef production industry when it found that the country produced enough meat to satisfy domestic demand without having to resort to imports.

The study also found that policies surrounding the industry's trade system had failed to side with Indonesian livestock farmers and pointed to cartel practicesdirectly resulting in increased beef prices.

According to KPK deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas, the country's livestock farmers are able to fulfill the national demand for beef.

According to Busyro, there are indications that a certain group of people may have been trying to control the beef industry for their personal benefit by preventing the distribution of beef from various regions across the country into Jakarta, subsequently forcing imports to meet the capital's demand.

The beef import industry, Busyro said, was also prone to being controlled by certain political parties due to its high potential for profit.

Following the study, the KPK urged the government to focus on resolving the beef importation issue as well as other food security issues by strengthening beef farmers' associations, revitalizing livestock markets and optimizing regional governments' involvement in managing trade.

The KPK also suggested investment in better transportation facilities to ease the distribution of cattle as well as improving importation policies to make them more transparent.

The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) separately confirmed indications of ongoing cartel practices in the beef industry.

"This is an old issue that surfaced long ago. [The KPPU] is currently looking into it, but we already have strong evidence. So in about a month and a half we can make this an official case," said KPPU Commissioner Munrokhim Misanam, as quoted by Detik.com.

Hatta Rajasa, coordinating minister for the economy, had earlier asked the KPPU to investigate cartel practices in the industry as beef prices remained high despite the government importing thousands of head of cattle ready to be slaughtered.

Soybeans

A similar issue has been identified within the national soybean supply, as the KPPU and Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) started investigating the soaring price of the commodity in a meeting with numerous ministries and institutions last week.

According Munrokhim, several large soybean importers from a total of 22 in the country are allegedly involved in cartel practices. "There are some big ones such as FKS [FKS Multi Agro] and Cargill [Cargill Indonesia]. For these big ones, it is indirectly shown that they are moving towards amonopoly," he said, as quoted by news portal Tempo.co.

However, Munrokhim was at pains to emphasize that such issues were still officially only allegations and that the KPPU was still in the process of investigating it.

Munrokhim did add that examples of the monopoly include importing goods leading to prohibitive losses for otheri mporters as well as controlling commodities to achieve excessively high prices. He said such practices could lead to importers facing legal sanctions.

The KPPU will continue investigating and reviewing the situation to gather all relevant evidence prior to drawing our conclusions of cartel practices and their impact on prices.

In its meeting last week, the KPPU said it had found initial indicators that could lead to an unraveling of the cartels, namely differences in supply data submitted by several ministries as well as soybean importers and producers.

"The reported [stock] data was not the same, raising questions. For instance, if police find different answers from several individuals, of course it would indicate foul play," Murokhim said.

In the wake of the recent major hike in soybean prices, tofu and tempeh sellers under the Indonesian Association for Cooperatives of Tempeh and Tofu Producers (Gakoptindo) agreed to halt sales of the staple for many Indonesians in a three-day strike as they call on the government to stabilize soybean prices.

Mixed strike

Among areas that have seen the sudden disappearance of tofu and tempeh sellers is the famous traditional Beringharjo market in Yogyakarta in East Java, which saw prices for imported and local soybeans increasing from Rp 9,000 to Rp 9,500 (81 to 85 cents) per kilogram.

"Today they [tofu and tempeh sellers] are not selling. They said they will not be selling for three days until Wednesday," said Heri, a vendor at the market whose shop is located beside a tempeh and tofu seller named Yanto.

"On Sunday, Yanto was still selling tempeh and tofu. Today, many people also came looking for tempeh and tofu as they were unaware of the sellers' strike," he said.

Sartini, a vegetable seller at Beringharjo, also confirmed the strike as her neighbor Abdul Rohman, another tempeh and tofu seller, told her he would not be selling until Wednesday.

"Many people were disappointed to find no tempeh and tofu," she said. "The seller did not give any information. They were still selling yesterday, so it also came as a surprise for us to find they have gone on a strike."

But in Malang, East Java, sellers have continued producing and selling tempeh despite the strike as they rely on the soybean waste water to feed their cattle.

"If we don't produce tempeh, what would my cattle eat? It's hard to find grass around here and we will have to pay a large sum of money to buy [grass] from others," Yono, a tempeh seller, said on Monday.

"There will be plenty of losses if I participate in the strike. I have four workers, six cattle and many customers in the market as well as makers of tempeh crackers who need tempeh," he said.

Yono admitted that the rising prices forced him to cut down the size of the tempeh blocks he sold as well as lessening his use of soybeans to 450 kilograms from the usual of between 470 and 500 kilograms.

He has also increased his prices from Rp 12,000 to Rp 13,000 per pack. "The prices of soybeans before Idul Fitri was about Rp 7,250 per kilogram, but today it's Rp 9,100 per kilogram. It goes up by Rp 100 every day. If it keeps on increasing, then I will have to do the same."

Yogyakarta Mayor Haryadi Suyuti said he would be working with related parties to find the best solution in response to the increasing soybean prices that have taken a toll on tempeh and tofu producers.

Gakoptindo chairman Aip Syarifudin said the strike began over the weekend when tofu and tempeh makers decided not to produce their goods. "The production of tofu and tempeh takes around three days, so the absence of tempeh today means they have stopped production since Friday," Aip said, as quoted by Merdeka.com.

According to Aip there are approximately 115,000 tempeh and tofu sellers across Indonesia. "Maybe not all of them have gone on a strike, but about 99 percent have ceased production," he said.

Fauzi Bowo's nomination as envoy criticized

Jakarta Post - September 8, 2013

Jakarta – The Alliance to Save the Indonesian Embassy in Germany has criticized the government for proposing former Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo as the new envoy to Germany, Europe's largest economy.

The alliance stated that it had several strong reasons to criticize Fauzi's nomination, the most significant of which was his signal failure in his role as Jakarta governor. The alliance recorded that in contrast to Fauzi's educational background on city planning, Jakarta was seriously mismanaged under his tenure.

The alliance also referred to the black campaigning carried out by Fauzi's campaign team during the last gubernatorial election, saying that it proved Fauzi did not respect other cultures or pluralism.

"We also do not believe he will make any significant contribution to Germany and Indonesia's bilateral relationship. Indeed, it is rather ironic that someone with [a legacy of] so many problems should be elected as the new envoy to Germany," the alliance stated in a press statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Saturday.(dic)

Economy & investment

Business groups oppose plan to give more room to foreign firms

Jakarta Post - September 10, 2013

Linda Yulisman, Jakarta – Business groups have demanded the government to put local interests as their top priority when it revises the negative investment list (DNI) by giving them ample room and opportunities to grow.

In revising the list, the government plans to open 6 out of 20 sectors that are currently closed to foreign investment. It also plans to raise the percentage of foreign ownership in a wide array of sectors, including logistics, pharmacies and the tire industry.

This has met objections from local business associations. Indonesia Logistics and Forwarders Association (ALFI) executive director Theo Kumaat said he hoped the government would retain foreign ownership at 49 percent, not more.

The current rule helps local business players develop in line with the government's commitment to empowering the national logistics system (Sislognas).

"We hope logistics services that most local firms can handle, such as warehousing, will be given to domestic players," Theo told The Jakarta Post on Monday. "Foreign investment should focus more on capital-intensive, technology-intensive and labor intensive business," he said.

According to him, business players from Southeast Asia can be exempted from this regulation considering Indonesia's participation in the regional pact on liberalizing logistics services.

Under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Framework Agreement on Services, Indonesia should gradually open its logistics services sector to regional players starting this year by allowing a maximum 70 percent foreign ownership in logistics firms.

However, the commitment has yet to come into force since the technical regulation to implement it is still under deliberation.

Indonesian Pharmaceutical Association (GP Farmasi) advisory board chairman Anthony Charles Sunarjo echoed Theo's concerns, saying that the government should keep dominant local ownership in pharmaceutical firms producing generic medicines.

Currently, foreign drug makers can only acquire a 25 percent stake in domestic firms, leaving the majority share open for local players. Currently, local pharmaceutical firms control 80 percent of the overall domestic generic medicine market.

"An increase of foreign ownership may apply to pharmaceutical firms that carry out research to produce patented medicines as they require huge investment," Anthony said, adding that these firms would bring advanced technology and provide wider access to new kinds of medicines for Indonesian consumers.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Tire Producer Association (APBI) chairman Aziz Pane also raised his concerns for the further opening of the domestic crumb rubber industry.

He said the industry should be closed for new investment from both domestic and foreign investors, but this policy could be reviewed once the supply of raw material already exceeded the installed capacity of the industry.

"At present, existing producers are struggling because the raw material supply cannot meet the demand of new crumb rubber plants. An increase of plants will add to existing idle capacity," he said.

The shortage of rubber supply partly stems from the low productivity of local rubber plantations, which can only generate 1 million tons of natural rubber per hectare, compared to 1.7 million tons in Thailand and 1.5 million tons in Malaysia.

Surging rubber prices in the past few years has lured investors to invest massively in the crumb rubber plants. In 2011, there were 145 crumb rubber plants nationwide with installed capacity of 4.3 million tons, but the raw material supply totaled only 3 million tons.

It resulted in the decline of utilization of installed capacity from 73 percent in 2008 to 60 percent in 2011, leading to idle capacity that pushes up processing costs.

In response to the industry's concerns, the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) supervision and implementation deputy chairman Azhar Lubis said that in revising the list, the government already took into account input from local business players. "However, we certainly cannot accommodate all input because different business sectors may suggest different suggestions," he said in a text message.

Analysis & opinion

Abusive, inaccurate 'virginity tests' won't help, educating children will

Jakarta Globe - September 14, 2013

Aruna Kashyap – Calls for "virginity tests" for high school girls emerge regularly in Indonesia, with education officials, politicians and religious leaders proposing tests every few years.

Recent news that education officials in Prabumulih district in South Sumatra and Pamekasan in East Java are considering such tests caused an uproar. In 2010 officials from Jambi in central Sumatra proposed virginity tests for school girls to general outrage, but the idea died. Leading Indonesian rights activists and even some government officials have strongly criticized such calls, as did the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan).

So why does this dangerous and abusive practice keep returning, almost like a hydra with multiple heads that regenerate after they are cut off?

Dangerously poor information about female anatomy underlies calls for so- called virginity tests. The belief that all virgins will have intact hymens that will bleed on first intercourse is unscientific and inaccurate. Poor information has bred discriminatory traditions and practices, and violence against women not only in Indonesia but in many other societies around the world for centuries.

In India, many doctors who conduct medico-legal examinations of rape survivors note down the number of fingers that passed through the vagina, and use that to draw conclusions about whether a rape survivor is "habituated to sex." Commonly known as the "two-finger test," such observations have been condemned not only by women's rights groups but also by some doctors and the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In one rape case in India, two doctors conducted two separate gynecological exams, one suggested there was evidence of sexual assault and the other concluded that the victim was "habituated to sex," exposing the ridiculously subjective and unscientific nature of the "finger test."

The origin of such practices remains unclear, but it dates back to at least early 18th century. Wiping out misinformation inherited through centuries is an uphill task, but the tide in India is definitely turning. In March 2013, the Indian parliament introduced reforms to evidence law that disallowed any evidence about previous sexual experience, removing any scope for unscientific and degrading arguments based on a woman's "habituation to sex" during rape trials. In April, the Indian Supreme Court condemned the two-finger test saying it violated women's rights to privacy and dignity. The Indian government is modifying its medico-legal protocols for treatment and examination of rape survivors to eliminate scope for such degrading observations by doctors.

Ideas about a virgin's "intact hymen" and the "bloody-sheet" theory – that is, branding women who do not bleed after having sex for the first time as "impure" and "dishonorable" – result in humiliation and violence against women in many societies and cultures, notably in the Middle East. These include husbands divorcing wives not considered virgins, brides' families being punished through fines or being forced to return property received during the wedding, women committing suicide to escape the ignominy, and beatings and "honor" killings of "dishonorable" women. These practices violate the rights of women and girls to personal autonomy, integrity, dignity, and freedom from violence.

Increasingly, in desperate bids to avert violence after being subjected to "virginity tests," women and girls have opted for hymen reconstruction, posing ethical dilemmas for doctors. Should doctors perform such procedures and perpetuate incorrect notions around virginity or should they do everything they can to keep a woman safe? Whatever the ethical dilemmas, surgical restoration of the hymen is beyond the reach of poor women and girls – for example, one Jakarta hospital suggested that it would cost Rp 17.5 million ($1,600) – leaving them to suffer unchecked humiliation and violence.

Virginity or its lack cannot be medically certified with accuracy. Doctors from Egypt and Saudi Arabia conducted a medical literature review in 2011- 12 and concluded that it was impossible to say whether a woman or adolescent girl is a virgin through a gynecological exam. They reiterated that knowledge of the hymen anatomy and its abnormalities was essential to eliminate misconceptions about it.

Lining up adolescent girls in Indonesian schools and performing gynecological tests will have terrible consequences including the humiliation that is attached to the examination itself and any long-term psychological effects. A medical certificate alleging that a girl is "not a virgin" could mean violence and humiliation in the school, home or community.

Proponents of "virginity tests" in Indonesia have cited two concerns – commercial sexual exploitation of children and consensual sex by adolescent girls, as reasons to perform these "tests." But stigmatizing children through "virginity tests" is harming – not helping – them. The government's policies to protect children from sexual exploitation should promote the fundamental right to education by ensuring that girls remain in school rather than singling them out for traumatic and unnecessary "virginity tests."

Consensual sex by adolescent girls is a legitimate reproductive and sexual health concern. Girls have a right to protect themselves from transmission of HIV, other sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. Yet again, a "virginity test" is not the solution.

The Indonesian health minister has called for age-appropriate sex education for not just school-going girls but also boys. Indonesia has successfully piloted voluntary sex education programs to raise awareness about the health risks around sex and the government should support such programs in schools. Appropriate information, not terrorizing girls through discriminatory and degrading "virginity tests," is the best place to start.

Jakarta key to Coalition hopes

Sydney Morning Herald - September 10, 2013

Tony Abbott has backed away from his pledge to visit Indonesia in his first week in office, but the promise stands to make it his first overseas destination as prime minister.

The APEC leaders meeting will be held in Nusa Dua, Bali, in early October, so if he also travels to Jakarta before that, he will be going twice to the country in his first month in office.

Without Abbott having lifted a finger, though, economic circumstances have done him a favour. In response to a current account scare and the plunge of the rupiah, Indonesia's new finance manager has removed the quota on beef imports in the name of economic stimulus.

The Australian ban on live exports in 2011, followed by the nationalistic assertion in Indonesia that it could be self-sufficient in beef by 2014, had conspired to both damage the Northern Territory cattle industry and send Indonesian beef prices soaring. Abbott used it ruthlessly to hurt Labor.

Indonesia's abandonment of that policy during the election campaign has cleared one issue off the bilateral table at least, but Abbott cannot expect the rest of his demands of Indonesia to be settled so easily.

On asylum seekers, particularly, he has raised hackles. His boat-buying policy has been labelled "crazy", with senior parliamentarian Mahfudz Siddiq saying this week that Abbott "doesn't understand diplomacy or bilateral co-operation". His "turn back the boats" policy is also unpopular.

This is a question of sovereignty and national pride on both sides of the ocean. When Australia turns the first boat around under Operation Sovereign Borders, and it becomes the responsibility of Indonesia's anaemic search and rescue capability, or limps back to an already bursting immigration detention system, expect Indonesia to object loudly about Australian chauvinism.

At Abbott's back, though, are the expectations he himself has raised. Former Liberal foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer, for example, has argued that Australia should earn respect in Jakarta by muscling up.

Abbott, known in Indonesia as Howard's political offspring, will turn up in Indonesia promising, for the sake of domestic politics, a huge cut to foreign aid – $4.5 billion out over the next four years. The fact that this is likely to hit Indonesia hardest (it is our biggest aid recipient) has already been noted in Jakarta.

A wildcard in the diplomatic mix is one tiny boat with six people aboard. The Pog, the last remaining vessel of the so-called Freedom Flotilla, set off on Monday morning from far north Queensland on the way to West Papua. The Pog carries Amos Wanggai, one of the indigenous Papuan men who disturbed relations between Howard and Indonesia in 2006 by sailing in the opposite direction and successfully seeking asylum in Australia.

West Papua is the poison apple in the bilateral relationship. After that refugee incident, Howard tried to find an antidote with the Lombok treaty of 2006, which guarantees Australian support for Indonesian control over Papua. However, many Indonesians simply do not believe the words, and think Australia still agitates for the province's independence, just as we did East Timor's.

The landing of the Pog, its interception by the Indonesian military, and the possible imprisonment of its sailors may pose an early challenge for Abbott and his foreign minister Julie Bishop.

Indonesia's economy is growing fast. Its military is gearing up. It is flexing its diplomatic muscles as the largest ASEAN economy. It is becoming more assertive about its place in the world.

It is also at the end of an electoral cycle. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's term ends next year and he already looks like yesterday's man. His replacement may well not be as sympathetic or measured towards Australia's needs, and the relationship remains full of potential misunderstandings on both sides.

Abbott can no longer pretend that his boats policy is unpopular in Indonesia because Labor spoilt the relationship. He must take responsibility for his own policies and set his own tone with an increasingly confident Indonesia, while projecting an image that allows him to work with whoever replaces SBY. It's not an easy task, and it begins soon.