The benefit show, dubbed Punks For West Papua, was initiated by NSW act Diggers With Attitude to highlight the ongoing genocide in West Papua, and quickly spread to other Australian states, seeing 50 bands in seven cities June of last year.

Brennan filmed the shows and decided to use the footage for a documentary, and after interviewing musicians involved, two-time Nobel peace prize nominee Benny Wenda, journalist Hugh Lunn and more, caught the attention of the United Liberation Movement For West Papua.

"Since the film's come out, punk bands from all around the world have contacted the campaign and have contacted us to start their own shows," Brennan told theMusic.com.au.

"Jody [Bartolo] from Diggers With Attitude is in negotiations with the campaign to have a global Punks For West Papua for June of this year, so we're very excited."

Funds from the sale of the documentary are being donated to the United Liberation Movement For West Papua, but Brennan said it's more about raising awareness for the cause.

"With more people aware of it, hopefully we can see some change. As a nation, we can then pressure the government. It will become an issue at an election."

Source: http://themusic.com.au/news/all/2016/01/29/documentary-transforms-sydney-charity-gig-into-global-event/

Lawmaker warns Indonesia to not underestimate Papua issue at MSG Forum

Tabloid JUBI - January 28, 2016

Victor Mambor, Jakarta, Jubi – Legislator Tantowi Yahya reminded the Indonesian Government to not underestimate the Papua issue and it has always been a burning topic among the Pacific countries under the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

"They (Pacific countries) have a desire to redo the referendum," said Tantowi, a member of House of Representatives Commission I, during a discussion held Wednesday (27/1/2016) by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences titled "Following Up on President Jokowi's Policy for Papua as Land of Peace".

"They even formed a fact-finding team on human rights violation in Papua. The relation between Indonesia with the MSG countries such as Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Vanuatu is good, but there's movement that cannot be underestimated. That is the movement to support the Freedom Papua," said Tantowi.

Major General Yoedhi Swastono, another speaker at the seminar, said the MSG is more likely to discuss social problems and Melanesian culture, including Papua.

"ULMWP is the Indonesian-Melanesian representative abroad. Internally it was declared on 6 October 2015 in Ambon. The Indonesian-Melanesian brotherhood has been established by five governors of Papua, Papua Barat, Maluku, North Maluku and East Nusa Tenggara," he said in this forum.

He said the Indonesian-Melanesian Brotherhood is the cultural organization under supervision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. "So, it is not right if talking about Papua diaspora abroad only representing the Papuan community group," he said,

But Tantowi disagreed, saying MSG is not the cultural forum but political forum. In every agendas set by the Pacific countries, it always put the human rights violations issue in Papua as topic of discussion.

According to him, the internationalized of Papua issues is very frightened. Now the result is started to see that more countries now give support to Papua to split from the Republic of Indonesia.

Within the last three years, he continued, he visited to Pacific countries for several times and conduct several secret meetings with Free Papua activists abroad.

"We see there is a change in desire. Previous they wanted the Indonesian Government to solve the problems of poverty, undeveloped and injustice. But now they finally found out that those issues are not marketable to be sold to the international community. Like or dislike it got the result, including the support from many countries who want Papua to be separated from Indonesia," he said.

He also said the political riot that recently occurred in Indonesia has become an opportunity for Free Papua activists to conduct diplomatic movement. He said do not think the Free Papua activists to not pay attention on the Indonesian political riot. Now the Papua issue in the international community cannot be blocked.

"The Papua's issue could not be solved only by the government, the coordination between ministries and government's institutions is also weak. Besides both government and legislative council have different opinion on Papua problems. The government considered the problems are still about poverty, social gap, underdeveloped and injustice. While we see there is a shift of struggle sounded by Free Papua activists," he added.

Meanwhile Latifah Anum Siregar said if the Indonesian Government wants to create a dialogue, it should integrate the stakeholders' point of view. There shouldn't be a different point of view. "Many parties also should be involved and those appointed by the president to manage Papua should be clear. Do not let one ministry come up with its agenda overlap with other ministries' agenda," said Siregar.

In the same place, Victor Mambor added that the question is now whether indigenous Papuans is really a concern of the Indonesian Government in Papua. Which one the most important, indigenous Papuans or the land of Papua with all natural resources included?

During the time when the indigenous Papuans were being shot, killed, or so on, Indonesia was very slow in give response; even it seems careless.

"But when it happened in other places, its response was fast and every parties cared. For instance, the Paniai case, the incident was occurred in the midday, witnessed by hundreds of people, there is evidence of bullet chasing, but the perpetrators have not yet revealed until now. It might be not the people, indigenous Papuans that it wants, but our land and natural resources," said Mambor.

Regarding to discussion raised by MSG countries members on Papua, he said, since 2010-2015 he had the opportunities to cover a number of MSG meeting. Papua issue did not appear from somewhere. He even considered that the issue discussed by MSG in 2015 was beyond compare to 2013.

"In that year it was clear that MSG stated it recognized the self-determination of West Papua and there were human rights violations. This issue would be raised all the time," he said. (Arjuna Pademme/rom)

Source: http://tabloidjubi.com/eng/lawmaker-warns-indonesia-to-not-underestimate-papua-issue-at-msg-forum/

Papuan rebels surrender, leader expected to follow: District Head

Jakarta Globe - January 27, 2016

Robert Isidorus, Jakarta – At least 10 rebels from the separatist group Free Papua Organization, or OPM, operating in the remote highlands of the restive province of Papua have surrendered to Indonesian security officials, a local government official told media on Tuesday (26/1).

Henock Ibo, district head of Puncak Jaya, said the surrendered fighters had been led Goliat Tabuni – who is believed to be behind several low-level insurgencies, including the shooting deaths of a number of soldiers in the mountainous area.

The rebels surrendered their arms after attending his office on Jan. 15, telling Henock they had become disillusion with Goliat's leadership. At least two of the rebels were trusted lieutenants of Goliat, he said.

"And about Goliat, I think it's only a matter of time [before he follows suit] as the government has built a relationship with him for long time," Henock told reporters at Papua Police headquarters in provincial capital Jayapura, Tuesday.

Source: http://www.jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/papuan-rebels-surrender-leader-expected-follow-district-head/

Jakarta-Papua dialogue is a dignified way to solve conflict in Papua

Tabloid JUBI - January 27, 2016

Victor Mambor, Jayapura, Jubi – Papuans want dialogue between with Jakarta and this has been constantly echoed in recent years, but there has been no response from Jakarta.

The Executive Secretary of the People's Network, Septer Manufandu, head of representative office Komnas HAM Papua, Frits Remanded, coordinator of the Papua Peace Network (JDP)

Seles Tebay and Coordinator of the Secretariat of Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation (SKPKC) Papua Yuliana Languwuyo also discussed the issue during a meeting with the ambassador of the United States to Indonesia, Robert Blake.

"He (US ambassador) also mentioned dialogue, and then we said that dialogue is a dignified way to negotiate the problems in Papua," Manufandu said.

"Everything must be placed in a dignified manner to look for a solution together and make a political commitment to live together in the future," he told reporters on last week.

Then US ambassador responded that dialogue is a good way, but there must be equation perception or view of the concept of dialogue both from government and public.

Earlier, coordinator of the Papua Peace Network (JDP) Neles Tebay said, there should be an internal dialogue in Papua first before dialogue between Jakarta and Papua is held.

According to him, internal dialogue is important for it is such a need, a longing for Papuans.

He also found that among the Papuans themselves, there is no common understanding of the Jakarta-Papua dialogue especially about the purpose and agenda.

There is a party that thinks that the Jakarta-Papua dialogue will be endangering the territorial integrity of Indonesia. There is also a view that the Jakarta-Papua dialogue is dangerous because it can destroy the ideology of Papuan independence.

While some people understand that the Jakarta-Papua dialogue is a solution to the conflict in Papua. Jakarta-Papua dialogue is not the goal but it is a means to identify problems and look for the best solution by involving all parties.

"Internal dialogue will be attended by all Papuans to discuss the concept and goal of Papua – Jakarta dialogue," Neles Tebay said. (Roy Ratumakin/Tina)

Papua churches say fundamentalists are a threat

Radio New Zealand International - January 25, 2016

Church leaders in West Papua appear concerned about religious extremism in the region.

Father Neles Tebay of the West Papuan Catholic Justice and Peace Secretariat says all mainstream churches in Indonesia's Papua region, including Christian and Muslim faiths, are pushing for local police to keep a watch on fundamentalist groups.

He says there's currently no clear information about established terrorist cells in Papua, but they know about pockets of fundamentalists. Father Neles says mainstream church leaders are in agreement about the threat.

"We all together encourage police to watch closely to identify religious fundamentalist groups. And once they are identified they should be expelled out of Papua because religious fundamentalist groups will destroy our effort to build Papua as a land of peace."

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/294842/papua-churches-say-fundamentalists-are-a-threat

U.S. Ambassador discusses human rights with church leaders in Papua

Antara News - January 23, 2016

Jayapura – U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Roberth O Blake held a meeting with Papuan church leaders here on Saturday.

No reporters were allowed to cover the meeting such as one the ambassador had earlier with leaders of local non-governmental organizations.

The meeting that began with breakfast at the Swiss-BelHotel was attended by chairman of PGGP Socrates Sofyan Yoman, chairman of KINGMI Papua priest Benny Giay, deputy chairman of Sinode GKI Priest Yemima Krey and other church leaders from Papua Barat.

Priest Socrates Sofyan Yoman said after the meeting discussions with the ambassador ranged from the present condition in Papua and human rights issue. "We discussed a a number of things with the ambassador such as human right issue in Papua," he said.

Blake and his group had been here on a working visit since Tuesday this week, meeting regional authorities and non-governmental organizations.

On Tuesday Blake met with leaders of Justice, Peace and Totality of Creation (SKPKC) Yuliano Languwuyo at a restaurant in Sentani with discussion focused on human rights issue.

Languwuyo said Blake told him that he wanted to see political situation and human right practices in Papua. He said he told the ambassador there was no progress in including in the protection of human rights in Papua.

Militarism and violence continued even under a civilian leader, he said referring to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). He said he told Ambassador Blake that the military is concerned more with the security of large companies like Freeport Indonesia and BP at Teluk Bintuni, Papua Barat.

PT Freeport Indonesia is a subsidiary of the U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold having larger copper and gold mines in Papua, and the British-based BP is operating a large gas reserves at Teluk Bintuni and a liquefied natural gas plant in Tangguh in that area. (Uu.H-ASG/O001)

Source: http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/102718/us-ambassador-discusses-human-rights-with-church-leaders-in-papua

Aceh

Aceh citizens take legal action to protect Sumatran jungle

Sydney Morning Herald - January 23, 2016

Michael Neilson, Jakarta – Activists are suing the Indonesian government in a bid to stop development they say will devastate the last remaining area on earth where Sumatran tigers, rhinoceroses, orangutans and elephants live together in the wild.

The world-renowned Leuser Ecosystem in the heart of the Sumatran jungle in Aceh is at risk of being destroyed by a government plan to allow roads in the area and by potential concessions for mining and plantations, campaigners say.

In the latest stage of a nearly two-year bid to have the plan retracted, nine representatives of the group Gerakan Rakyat Aceh Menggugat launched a civil lawsuit at the Central Jakarta District Court.

"[The plan] effectively dissolves protection of much of Aceh's remaining tropical rainforests, whitewashing crimes of the past, and paving the way for a new wave of catastrophic ecological destruction," GeRAM representative Farwiza Farhan said.

The short-term profits from the developments would not benefit the people of Aceh, she said. "They are after quick immediate short-term gains, but the consequences will be borne by the rest of the community."

The Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program says the Leuser Ecosystem is crucial for the survival of the Sumatran tigers, rhinoceroses, elephants and orangutans. "If you lose Leuser you lose all four of those species guaranteed," Sumatran Orangutan Program conservation manager Ian Singleton said.

"The... plan basically ignores the existence of the Leuser Ecosystem. It opens up massive areas of lowland forests to potential new concessions for plantations, mining, timber even, and it also legalises many roads that have been cut through the forest... and roads alone are enough to send these species to extinction."

The lawsuit is against both the Aceh government, which activists claim is acting unlawfully by not including the protected ecosystem in the plan, and the Ministry of Home Affairs, which they claim has failed to protect the Leuser Ecosystem.

The group claims the Ministry of Home Affairs indicated the plan would need to include protection of the ecosystem but has failed to take necessary action.

They are hoping to have the Aceh government redraw the plan and provide protection for the Leuser Ecosystem and proper environmental analysis.

The Leuser Ecosystem covers more than 2.6 million hectares across the provinces of Aceh and Northern Sumatra and is regarded by conservationists as one of the richest areas of tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia. Within the ecosystem is Gunung Leuser National Park, which is listed as a World Heritage Site.

"The Leuser Ecosystem is a jewel in the crown of the world's rainforests – and it's unbelievable that the Aceh government isn't taking stronger steps to help protect it," Professor Bill Laurance, of James Cook University, says.

"In a world in which invaluable ecosystems are vanishing almost daily, the Leuser is becoming one of the most alarming environmental tragedies unfolding anywhere."

The geographically diverse area consists of lowland rainforest, peatlands, mountain ranges, lakes and nine substantial rivers. In addition to providing a habitat to a number of endangered wildlife species it is also a life system for the more than 4 million people, and helps protect the area from natural disasters such as flooding and landslides.

Professor Laurance has been campaigning to have the Leuser Ecosystem listed as a World Heritage Site.

"Virtually anywhere else on the planet, the Leuser would be protected as a World Heritage Site – a crucial element of our global heritage. I think the best hope is that the Indonesian federal government might be persuaded to intervene in Aceh, just as we saw happen in Australia with the establishment of World Heritage sites in Tasmania and the Queensland Wet Tropics. I haven't seen much evidence that the Aceh government on its own is going to the swayed to protect Leuser."

The court will order a mediation between the two parties before the litigation proceeds.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/aceh-citizens-take-legal-action-to-protect-sumatran-jungle-20160123-gmcdld.html

Human rights & justice

Indonesia misses opportunities to protect rights: HRW

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2016

Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's first year in office produced a mixed record on human rights that lacked major initiatives to tackle the worst abuses, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its latest report released today.

HRW reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries in the 659-page World Report 2016, its 26th edition.

"Jokowi's first year as president was a missed opportunity to adopt urgently needed human rights measures," HRW deputy Asia director Phelim Kine said on Wednesday.

"But there is still time for him to adjust his policy priorities to actively protect human rights rather than turn a blind eye to serious abuses," he went on.

HRW noted that Jokowi released some Papuan political prisoners in 2015 and announced a plan to address decades of gross human rights violations, including the massacre of up to 1 million people in 1965-1966.

However, the group said, Jokowi largely ignored security force impunity for rights abuses and violations of women's rights and religious freedom.

"He also embraced the use of the death penalty for convicted drug traffickers, resulting in 14 executions in 2015, including a Brazilian citizen diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia," HRW said.

Citing rights group Setara Institute, HRW said 194 incidents of violent attacks on religious minorities had occurred in the first 11 months of 2015. They included the forced demolition by the Singkil regency, in the Aceh province, of nine Protestant churches in November, following the burning down of a church by militant Islamists on Oct.13, 2015.

The group praised Jokowi's policy to grant clemency to five of Papua's political prisoners in May 2015, followed by the release of Filep Karma, Indonesia's highest profile political prisoner, and in November. Approximately 45 Papuans and 29 Ambonese are still imprisoned for peaceful advocacy of independence, however.

"Despite Jokowi's pledge to thoroughly investigate and punish security forces implicated in the December 2014 deaths of five peaceful protesters in Papua's town of Enarotali, the government has failed to publicly release the results of three separate official investigations into the incident," said HRW, adding that Jokowi also failed to implement its promise to lift decades-old restrictions on foreign media access to Papua.

Citing the National Commission on Violence Against Women, HRW later criticized national and local governments, which passed 31 discriminatory regulations in 2015, leaving Indonesia with 322 discriminatory local regulations targeting women, ranging from compulsory hijab to tolerating polygamy. The government also failed to end the documented use of abusive and discriminatory "virginity tests" for female applicants to the Indonesian Military (TNI) and National Police.

"The Jokowi government's approach to human rights has been more rhetoric than reality, while serious rights abuses go unpunished," Kine said. "Jokowi can and should take strong actions to advance justice and curtail abuses in 2016." (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/27/indonesia-misses-opportunities-protect-rights-hrw.html

1965 mass killings

Visual art works to speed up reconciliation over 1965 tragedy

Jakarta Post - January 31, 2016

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Indonesia's civil society should give young people more opportunities to express their opinions about the 1965 tragedy through various ways, including visual art works, since through such work the survivors of the massacre could share their experiences, an expert has said.

The chairman of the Democracy and Society Study Center of the Research and Community Service Center (Pusdema LPPM) at the University of Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta, Baskara T. Wardaya, said that up until now, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has not yet resolved the 1965 tragedy, during which the state inflicted mass killings and discrimination on the Indonesian Communist Party's (PKI) members and their families, supporters and sympathizers.

While waiting for the state to implement measures to resolve the tragedy, Baskara said, Indonesian people could use visual artworks as a medium to produce alternative narratives of the 1965 events, artworks that promote dialogue and could encourage reconciliation.

"Initially, President Jokowi intended to resolve the 1965 case, but because of pressures from various parties, it seems that he now doesn't dare to do that," the researcher told thejakartapost.com on Friday. He was speaking after a public discussion entitled "Visual art work as a medium for alternative narratives of the 1965 tragedy".

"As what has been stated by [late] historian Benedict Anderson, the reconciliation is a kind of a joint project to create an Indonesia that could treat its people as a human beings," said Baskara.

He reiterated that the 1965 purge, which took a lot of victims, was one of the biggest humanitarian tragedies in the course of human history. The events, which diverted the course of the country's history, belonged not only to Indonesia but also to other countries in the world. The 1965 massacre was a universal humanitarian tragedy the whole international community must know about.

In the seminar, a lecturer from the Department of Communication and New Media, National University of Singapore (NUS), Dyah Pitaloka, said the public's dialogue over the 1965 narratives must be mastered by the second and third generations of the Indonesian nation.

During this time, many academic papers, research reports and films about the 1965 tragedy had been produced. All of those works did not belong to the victims, unfortunately, she said.

Through her Photovoice art work, Dyah created a photography project, through which the 1965 survivors documented problems in their own lives. "Their work will be uploaded on the website, enabling the people to give their responses," she said.

Through her work, Dyah said she aimed to create an ambiguous public sphere, so that there would be many more narratives of the 1965 tragedy created.

She said such a method would promote dialogue that would reconstruct the public's perception of the 1965 tragedy, which was not only new but also not dominated by a single narrative created by the New Order regime.

Meanwhile, an Indonesian artist who currently domiciles in Belgium, Elisabeth Ida Mulyani, said that in parallel, the artworks on the 1965 tragedy should be able to embrace all Indonesian people, both the victims and non-victims. Vertically, the art works should also be able to destroy the single narrative of the incident produced by the New Order regime. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/31/visual-art-works-speed-reconciliation-over-1965-tragedy.html

Labour & migrant workers

United in disappointment

Inside Indonesia - January-March 2016

Teri L. Caraway and Michele Ford – When Jokowi was running for the presidency, he promised that workers would prosper under his government. To counter Prabowo's 10-point political contract with unions, Jokowi promoted his 'trilayak' pledge: decent work, decent pay, and a better standard of living. When campaigning in worker communities, Rieke Diah Pitaloka – an immensely popular PDIP representative renowned for her dedication to labour causes – was often at his side. Two major union confederations endorsed his candidacy and used the trilayak pledge to encourage their members to vote for him.

But since entering office Jokowi has been luke-warm on labour. He has made overtures to trade union leaders – including Said Iqbal, who supported Prabowo in the lead-up to the election – and engaged in formal dialogue with labour movement representatives. But not only has he failed to make any strong statements on core issues such as freedom to organise or the need to ensure that employers respect labour law, his government has taken away unions' right to negotiate a living minimum wage.

Giving away the ministry

The fact that formal sector workers were not a priority for the new government was confirmed when Jokowi appointed his cabinet. Despite having three strong candidates for the Ministry of Manpower within his party and his campaign team, political expediency won out. It was not Rieke Diah Pitaloka, Teten Masduki – or union leader and PDIP member, Andi Gani – who was appointed to the ministry. Instead, Jokowi installed Hanif Dhakiri, the Secretary General of the National Awakening Party, the party that had last held the post.

Hanif has a history as a student activist with an interest in labour. And as minister he's demonstrated a strong commitment to improving conditions for Indonesians working overseas. He has personally attended surprise inspections on migration agents, migrant labour holding centres and the migrant worker terminal at Soekarno-Hatta international airport, as well as negotiating with governments in the region on migrant workers' behalf. But he had little to say on formal sector workers in Indonesia before suddenly moving to shut the unions out.

Shutting out the unions

Since the fall of Suharto, minimum wages have been set annually at the district level by tripartite wage councils composed of unions, employers and representatives of local government. Under pressure from demonstrating workers, these wage councils have recommended – and governors have approved – large increases in many industrial centres. When employers in low-wage sectors cried foul, the government responded by issuing a regulation changing the wage-setting mechanism. Government Regulation No. 78/2015 on Wage Determination, which Jokowi signed in October 2015, eliminates the annual wage negotiation process, which it replaces with a formula set by the central government.

According to the government, the existing system had resulted in unpredictable and overly generous wage increases that harmed Indonesia's investment climate. But the actual minimum wage increases since 2003 tell a different story. For many years, minimum wage increases basically mirrored the inflation rate, meaning that real wages were effectively stagnant. Things only began to change when unions began to flex their political muscle to convince local governments to support workers in wage negotiations. Since 2011, there have been real increases in the minimum wage, finally bringing wages in line with the government-defined minimum living standard in some industrial localities. This eventually had a knock-on effect, with minimum wage increases that outstripped inflation being approved in some non-industrial areas.

The Jokowi government is right to be concerned about the competitiveness of low-wage industries. But minimum wages in core industrial areas in Indonesia are still lower than many competing nations, including Thailand, the Philippines, China, and Vietnam. What's more, according to the International Labour Organization's (ILO) 2014-15 Global Wage Report, at US$183 per month, average monthly wages in Indonesia are well under a third of those in China.

So it's not because they are paying higher average wages that Indonesian employers can't compete. The government could take action on other measures that arguably have a much larger effect on the cost of doing business in Indonesia. According to the World Bank's Doing Business report, Indonesia is one of the worst countries in the world for starting a business, enforcing contracts and paying taxes. One reason for Indonesia's low ranking on these indicators is the corruption that permeates almost every state institution.

But attacking these problems would require profound changes to Indonesia's political system. Rather than embarking on the necessary reforms, the Jokowi government has decided instead to appease investors by taking away workers' right to bargain for a living wage.

Diminishing democracy

These changes to the minimum wage determination system are not just taking money out of workers' pockets. They are also threatening Indonesia's standing with the ILO, the international body composed of employers, governments and trade unions that sets international labour standards. According to the International Trade Union Confederation, the regulation contravenes ILO Convention No. 131 on Minimum Wage Fixing, which requires governments to consult with unions and employers on the mechanisms used for wage determination.

Even more seriously, the changes have diminished Indonesia's democracy. The wage councils have been an important mechanism for building economic and political citizenship at the local level. In a context of rising cynism about democracy in Indonesia, they are perhaps the only place where working-class actors get a seat at the table with employers and the government, and where their needs are addressed through an institutionalised mechanism. Replacing the councils with bureaucratic procedures that prevent meaningful participation will destroy that, leaving unions with no choice but to resort to mass actions.

It's little surprise, given that Jokowi has broken his promises to workers, that they have voiced their dismay: even the unions that supported his candidacy have taken to the streets to demand that the regulation be rescinded. Ironically, then, the biggest achievement with regard to labour of Jokowi's first year in office was to unify Indonesia's divided trade union movement in its opposition to him and his government.

[Teri L. Caraway (caraway@umn.edu) is Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) in the United States. Michele Ford (michele.ford@sydney.edu.au) is Professor of Southeast Asian Studies and Director of the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre at the University of Sydney. Teri and Michele are currently completing a major research project on the re-emergence of political labour in Indonesia, funded by the Australian Research Council.]

Source: http://www.insideindonesia.org/united-in-disappointment

Layoffs likely amid plunging prices

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2016

Raras Cahyafitri, Jakarta – After previously taking efficiency measures to alleviate the impact of plunging oil prices, several oil and gas companies in the country may now be forced to take stiffer action: laying off workers.

Last year, oil and gas companies tried to renegotiate the value of contracts they had sealed with service companies as part of their attempts to make their activities more economical amid the declining oil price.

With the plunging oil prices showing no signs of rebounding, more oil and gas contractors in the country are considering layoffs.

Among the companies with production sharing contracts (PSC) that plan to cut back on employees is Star Energy (Kakap) Ltd. The company holds an interest in the Kakap block located in Natuna Sea. Previously, Chevron and ConocoPhillips were reported to be reducing staff numbers.

Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Task Force (SKKMigas) spokesperson Elan Biantoro said the regulator continued to work with the contractors. He added that there had been no massive layoffs affecting permanent employees of oil and gas companies to date. However, there have been layoffs at service companies, such as Schlumberger, globally.

"SKKMigas' position is that there shouldn't be any layoffs; not even a single person. If it is absolutely necessary, it should be in the form of natural wastage [through retirements], no new recruitment and voluntary redundancy," SKKMigas spokesperson Elan Biantoro said.

There are currently more than 50,000 people working in the oil and gas sector, according to Elan. As many as 32,000 of these are employees of oil and gas companies while the remainder are employed by service companies.

Oil and gas firms have been struggling to stay afloat as prices recently touched the lowest point for a decade because of a global glut of supply.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at US$30.84 per barrel on Wednesday, according to figures from Bloomberg. Another benchmark, Brent crude, was little better at $31.58 per barrel. Many analysts are predicting that prices could fall lower and business players are currently preparing for a "lower for longer" scenario.

"The situation is worse as oil prices continue plunging. At this moment we are reducing capital expenditure and squeezing operational expenditure. These will affect production, which means that in the future the present number of employees will not be efficient in the face of declining production," said Star Energy's Rudi Suparman.

Star Energy Kakap, which produces around 24 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas and around 2,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd), was planning to improve efficiency by up to 40 percent to cope with the declining price, Rudi confirmed.

"In the past, we've taken measures that didn't affect human resources. At this moment, we are at the stage of negative growth. We will not seek replacements for retiring employees and we have offered to move some employees to our other business lines such as geothermal," Rudi said.

The reduction in employment is expected to slightly affect the national production target. Total national oil production currently stands at 839,000 bopd, according to Elan.

Apart from the oil and gas sector, coal miners and service providers are also suffering. Jakarta Stock Exchange-listed United Tractors (UNTR) is also expecting to reduce the number of its employees as coal miners reduce production.

"Our mining contracting business is forecast to drop by 10 percent. For our own mining business, our internal target is to produce coal at the same level as last year at around 3 million tons. However, given that the price continues to plunge, we still don't know what will happen," UNTR corporate secretary Sara Loebis said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/28/layoffs-likely-amid-plunging-prices.html

Workers demand release of migrant worker facing death sentence in Malaysia

CNN Indonesia - January 28, 2016

Yohannie Linggasari, Jakarta – Workers from a number of different communities demonstrated in front of the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta today demanding that an Indonesian migrant worker named Rita Krisdianti who is facing the death sentence in Malaysia be released.

"According to information from family members, Rita will appear in court in Malaysia again today, possibly today there will be a verdict. We call on the Malaysian government to release Rita from charges that could incur the death penalty", said Indonesian People's Centre for Struggle (PPRI) action coordinator Ramches Merdeka in front of the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta on Thursday January 28.

Ramches said that Rita's family has not been provided with sufficient information on the legal proceedings against Rita and efforts by the Indonesian government to assist her have amounted to nil.

Ramches said that on May 24, 2012 Rita was registered as a migrant worker who would be dispatched by PT Putra Indo Sejahtera (PT PIS) in Madiun, East Java, to Hong Kong. On January 2013 Rita departed for Hong Kong.

Less than three months later, Rita was sacked by her employer and then returned to the agency in Hong Kong, which then sent her to Macau to wait for a new job and visa.

"In June 2013, Rita made plans to return home to Madiun because she had already been at the agency's reception centre in Macau for three months. It was when she was about to return home that a friend offered her a part-time job with a saree textile and clothing business", said Ramches.

Ramches related how Rita was directed to fly to New Delhi, India in relation to the saree clothing business where she stayed the night.

"There there was a person who entrusted a suitcase with her who said it contained clothing. Rita was asked to take the suitcase to Penang, Malaysia, because there was a person there who wanted to collect it", said Ramches.

Upon arriving at the Bayan Lepas international airport in Penang on July 10, 2013, Rita was arrested by the Royal Malaysian Police. It turned out that the suitcase contained a 4 kilogram packet of narcotics. The penalty for this in Malaysia is the death by hanging.

"Since mid July 2013 until now, Poniyati, Rita's mother, has met with the victim who has been held at the Penang district detention centre six times in the hope of being able to lobby for Rita to be released, but has failed. She has used her own money [for this] without assistance from the [Indonesian] government", said Ramches.

Ramches asks where the Indonesian government is when its citizen become prisoners in other countries. Ramches believes that Rita is a victim of a drug dealer from a narcotics syndicate.

"We demand that the government of Jokowi-JK [President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla] and the Malaysia prime minister urge the Malaysian courts to release Rita from a possible death sentence", said Ramches. (rdk)

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "Buruh Berunjuk Rasa Tuntut Pembebasan Rita dari Hukuman Mati".]

Source: http://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20160128133727-20-107363/buruh-berunjuk-rasa-tuntut-pembebasan-rita-dari-hukuman-mati/

Freedom of speech & expression

Government criticized for upholding libel article

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2016

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Activists have chastised the government for its apparent reluctance to remove an article on libel from the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.

They said the article could kill the potential of internet users to criticize political and business rulers in the country.

"The government's reluctance to revoke the libel article cannot be separated from the main paradigm of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration to discipline Indonesia's democracy so it won't disturb investment in the country," information watchdog Yayasan Satu Dunia executive director Firdaus Cahyadi told journalists in Yogyakarta on Monday.

He said the government had handed the draft revision of the 2008 ITE Law over to the House of Representatives but had, as of early 2016, maintained Article 27 (3) on libel. In the draft revision, the government only reduced sanctions imposed for libel to three years in prison from previously six years.

Article 27 (3) stipulates criminal punishment for anyone purposely and without authority distributing and/or transmitting and/or making electronic information and/or electronic documents with libelous and/or defaming content accessible to the public.

It is further stated in Article 45 (2) that violations of the regulation are punishable with imprisonment of up to six-years and a fine of up to Rp 1 billion (US$72,000). "It is almost certain that criminalization of internet users will continue in 2016," said Firdaus.

Yayasan Satu Dunia is an NGO concerned with the openness of information, communication, knowledge and technology for civil societies in Indonesia.

Firdaus said the libel article in the 2008 law caused fear among internet users to criticize the government and Indonesian business power, adding that the internet was a powerful medium of social control.

He claimed it was likely that disciplining democracy in cyberspace was part of the main paradigm of the Jokowi administration to create political conditions that were conducive for investment. This could be seen from a recent statement of Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Panjaitan, who had said that social media had to be disciplined for the sake of national interests.

Gadjah Mada University communication expert Wisnu Martha Adiputra said the libel article had to be removed as it contradicted the 1945 Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of speech and expression.

Wisnu, who is also a researcher at the media regulator, said the ITE Law also failed to protect private data of consumers making transactions via the internet.

In its 2015 year-end report, the Alliance of Indonesian Journalists (AJI) named the ITE Law as one of the obstacles to press freedom in Indonesia, because under the law, online media accused of libellous articles could be brought to justice. Since the ITE Law was passed in 2008, the number of victims of the libel article in the law has continued to rise. According to Safe Net data, the number of libel cases reached 62 in 2015, sharply increasing from only two cases in 2008. (ebf)(+)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/27/govt-criticized-upholding-libel-article.html

Police probe antigraft activist for TV talk show remarks

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2016

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The National Police have opened an investigation into Erwin Natosmal Oemar of the Indonesian Legal Roundtable (ILR) after he criticized the police during a televised talk show in August.

In a summons letter to Erwin, the police said they wanted to clarify the remarks he delivered on a tvOne talk show. During the program, Erwin called the National Police "a criminalization engine" to describe the various criminal charges that were slapped on former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioners Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto as well as senior investigator Novel Baswedan by the police following the antigraft body's move to name Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a suspect in a bribery case last year.

In response to the summons, Erwin said it was suspicious that the police had opened the case this year despite the fact that the show was aired on Aug. 25. "There's something suspicious about the probe," Erwin told The Jakarta Post on Monday, confirming that he was scheduled to be questioned on Feb. 4.

In a letter explaining the case issued by the police on Dec. 28, the police claimed that Erwin had tarnished the image of the National Police with his statement.

The new probe adds to the long list of defamation investigations on antigraft activists for public criticism of figures deemed counterproductive in the fight against corruption.

The police have questioned Emerson Yuntho and Adnan Topan Husodo of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) and former KPK advisor Said Zainal Abidin, who was reported by law professor Romli Atmasasmita for slanderous remarks allegedly made by Said in print media.

Said wrote a piece concerning Romli's possible appointment to the government's committee tasked with selecting the KPK leadership, and Romli did not take kindly to Said's thoughts.

The police have also named as suspects former Judicial Commission chairman Suparman Marzuki and former commissioner Taufiqurrohman Syahuri for criticizing South Jakarta District Court judge Sarpin Rizaldi for his controversial verdict in rejecting the corruption charges against Budi.

National Police director for the general investigations division Brig. Gen. Agus Andrianto confirmed the police probe into Erwin, adding that investigators working on the case had yet to name any suspects, but called on Erwin to answer the police summons in order to solve the case. "We hope [he] will be cooperative," Agus added.

Erwin's lawyer, Asep Komarudin, lambasted the National Police for ignoring a recommendation from the Press Council to hand over Erwin's case to the council because a talk show constituted a journalistic product protected by the Press Law.

"If the police move ahead with this investigation, then no one will want to come and talk on talk shows in the future. This is a threat to freedom of expression," Asep told the Post on Monday.

Asep reminded the National Police to honor the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) they signed with the Press Council in 2012 in which both parties agreed to cooperate on all police reports involving journalistic pieces.

Earlier, the National Police ignored the Press Council's call to stop their investigations into Emerson, Adnan, Zainal, Suparman and Taufiqurrohman.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/26/police-probe-antigraft-activist-tv-talk-show-remarks.html

Political parties & elections

Ministerial decree eases Golkar tensions

Jakarta Post - January 29, 2016

Tama Salim, Ina Parlina and Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – In an attempt to end the drawn-out leadership dispute between the two rival camps of the Golkar Party, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly issued on Thursday a decree extending the term of the leadership roster that evolved from the 2009 Golkar national congress in Riau.

The decree stipulates that the Riau management will be valid for a period of six months, within which the party's warring camps must get their act together to organize an extraordinary national congress (munaslub) and nominate a new chairman. "This is the best decision and hopefully both camps can now sit together to organize another national congress," Yasonna said in a press conference in Central Jakarta on Thursday.

The minister said the decision was based on Law No. 30/2014 on state administration, which stipulates that the government must provide legal certainty for political parties.

Leadership legitimacy in Golkar should have returned to the proponents of the Riau congress, which elected Aburizal Bakrie as chairman and Agung Laksono as his deputy, following a Supreme Court ruling that revoked a previous government decree recognizing the leadership of Agung, who became chairman at a national congress in Ancol, Jakarta, in December 2014.

The split persisted after the court ruling because it returned the leadership to the Riau management under Aburizal, whose tenure had expired in 2014.

As a remedy, the new ministerial decree stipulates that the Riau management board regains the authority to form a steering committee to organize the munaslub, which the ministry hopes will begin in three months.

Golkar lawmaker and Aburizal stalwart Firman Soebagyo expressed his hope that the ministry ruling would appease both camps and prevent further disputes.

Firman, who is deputy chairman of the House Legislative Body (Baleg), said the government was wise in bringing back the Riau roster, which included both Aburizal and Agung in leadership roles.

"If the leadership was handed back to [proponents of the] Bali congress, Agung's camp would protest. Bringing back the Riau roster was the right decision [...] because everyone is accommodated," he said at the House complex on Thursday.

House of Representatives Speaker Ade Komarudin, another known proponent of Aburizal's camp, said the party should focus on hosting the national congress.

"What's most important is how we are able to unite all the elements of a party that has split into so many fragments – that's the focus of the current debate. We can start discussing other matters [once we are united]," Ade told reporters on Thursday.

Separately, Agung's camp has also welcomed the decree, with officials saying that it paved the way for both camps to reunite in a forum that they both endorsed.

Agung supporter and deputy chairman of the central executive board, Priyo Budi Santoso, said the next step would be to form an organizing committee for the congress without any involvement from the government. Priyo said it was important to consolidate both camps at the regional branch level, which had also split following the leadership dispute.

He said Golkar must be able to determine whether the regional executive branches of both sides would retain their respective voting rights, or whether a merging of regional branch management rosters was in order.

In the meantime, Zainuddin Amali, secretary-general of Golkar under Agung's leadership, has asked the party elders who make up the recently established transition team to chaperone the passing of the leadership baton, despite the renewed legitimacy of the Riau management.

"It is the task of the transition team to ensure that the congress is fairly held, involves all stakeholders and most importantly, that the results will not lead to future legal disputes," Zainuddin told reporters on Thursday.

"If they leave it all to [the Riau management] to resolve, problems may arise later on. We need the transition team."

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung confirmed a closed-door meeting on Thursday between President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and former president BJ Habibie who is also a member of a transition team established to pave the way for the munaslub, however Pramono declined to reveal what was on the table during the meeting.

Pramono also stopped short of commenting whether or not the meeting signaled that Golkar would support the pro-government coalition, but said that "the government, particularly the President, wants the Golkar's [leadership] issue to be resolved as soon as possible".

He later reiterated that the government would not meddle with the issue, saying that the government appreciated the formal decision made during the recent Golkar national leadership meeting that agreed to hold the extraordinary congress.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/29/ministerial-decree-eases-golkar-tensions.html

PPP takes cue from Golkar reconciliation

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2016

Jakarta – The United Development Party (PPP) leadership formed at a November 2014 national meeting (mukernas) in Jakarta appears to have learned the lesson that current political reality dictates that only party leaderships that support the government will be considered legitimate.

After attending the closing event of the Aburizal Bakrie-led Golkar Party national leadership meeting in Jakarta on Monday evening, Djan Faridz, the PPP chair elected at the 2014 Jakarta mukernas, said he would bring his party into the ranks of political parties supporting President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla's administration.

"We will join those political parties supporting the government. We will hold a national leadership meeting to settle our internal conflicts," said Djan, who was accompanied by PPP secretary-general Dimyati Natakusuma.

Since taking office, the Jokowi administration has, in cases of parties having rival leaderships, consistently only legitimized those that back the government.

One day after he was inaugurated on Oct.29, 2014, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly moved to legalize the PPP leadership elected at a congress in Surabaya, East Java, on Oct.15-17, 2014, at which Muhammad "Romy" Romahurmuziy was appointed party chairman.

Prior to the minister's decision to legalize his leadership, the Romy camp had pledged allegiance to the government, declaring that it had left the opposition Red-and-White Coalition led by losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and joined Jokowi's Great Indonesia Coalition. A senior member of the Romy camp, Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, was subsequently appointed religious affairs minister.

The minister's decision was later overturned by a Supreme Court ruling recognizing Djan and the PPP leadership elected at the November meeting.

However, the court's ruling does not fully legitimize Djan's leadership, as party leaderships must be confirmed by a law and human rights ministerial decree. As such, in a bid to obtain such a decree, Djan has followed in Romy and Aburizal's footsteps and publically pledged support for the government.

In the Golkar meeting closing event on Monday evening, Aburizal conveyed the pledge of allegiance to the government to three ministers in attendance, namely Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut D. Panjaitan, Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo and Yasonna.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla witnessed the hand-over of the declaration statement signed by Aburizal and party secretary-general Idrus Marham.

"The Golkar Party declares that it will support and work together with the Jokowi-Kalla administration to carry out developments in various fields for the sake of the prosperity of all Indonesian people," the statement read.

Following the declaration, Kalla confirmed that the government would issue an approval letter for the Aburizal camp to hold an extraordinary national meeting. Any decision resulting from the meeting will have to be accepted by all parties, including the splinter faction led by Agung Laksono. (ebf)(+)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/26/ppp-takes-cue-golkar-reconciliation.html

No sign of compromise as Aburizal's camp kicks off meeting

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2016

Erika Anindita Dewi, Jakarta – The leadership dispute within the Golkar Party is unlikely to end anytime soon as the rival camps within the party still insist on their respective agendas.

The camp of Aburizal Bakrie, resulting from the Bali national congress kicks off its national leadership meeting (Rapimnas) on Saturday, while Agung Laksono's camp, resulting from the Ancol national congress, which is supported by senior Golkar politicians, including Vice President Jusuf Kalla and former president B.J. Habibie insist on preparing the national congress to elect a new party leader.

Aburizal, who is included in a transition team to prepare the national congress, has rejected this plan. Instead, he is seeking support from regional party leaders – provinces, regencies and cities – in a three-day meeting in Jakarta.

"Before the [Saturday] meeting, Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie had carried out a political safari, meeting with B.J. Habibie, Jusuf Kalla, Akbar Tanjung and Muladi," Aburizal's camp secretary general Idrus Marham told the press briefing on Friday evening. Akbar is former Golkar chairman, while Muladi is chairman of Golkar's internal dispute-resolution committee.

Idrus said that Aburizal had told the senior party members that the national leadership meeting was aimed at ending the party's internal conflict.

The split in the party started when the party's national congress in Bali in November, 2014, which elected Aburizal, was not recognized by rival politicians led by Agung Laksono. Instead, the rival camp organized their own national congress in Jakarta in December, 2014 which elected Agung as the party chairman.

Initially, the government accepted Agung as official chairman of the party, but later revoked its approval of the Agung leadership after the Supreme Court made a decision in favor of Aburizal's camp, which had filed a lawsuit against the government's approval.

The dispute within the party continues because the government also does not accept Aburizal leadership. Many politicians within the party, particularly Agung's camp believe that Golkar is in a leadership vacuum and a national congress is needed. Meanwhile, Aburizal'a camp insists that the three-day national leadership meeting will legitimatize Aburizal's chairmanship.

Meanwhile, Agung's camp have questioned the legality of the regional leaders invited to the national leadership meeting. "We will not come to the meeting," Ace Hasan Syadzily, a member of Agung's executive board, told thejakartapost.com on Saturday.

He urged Aburizal's camp to respect the decision of Golkar's internal dispute-resolution committee, which had formed a transition team, chaired by Jusuf Kalla.

"They don't need to hold a national leaders' meeting because the result is predictable: to support the government," Ace said on Friday, adding that such support should be decided in the Golkar National Congress, just like when Golkar joined the White and Red Coalition (KMP) in the Bali congress.

But, the Aburizal camp has ignored such a call, saying that more than 2,000 representatives of regional chapters – provinces, regencies and city – would come to the national leadership meeting in Jakarta. The organizers also claimed that representatives of Golkar's wing organizations would also attend the meeting. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/23/no-sign-compromise-aburizal-s-camp-kicks-meeting.html

Environment & natural disasters

RI, EU stalemate on timber licensing

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2016

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Indonesia is at risk of missing the opportunity to become the first country in the world to achieve full implementation of its timber legality system, called SVLK, as the Trade Ministry insists on relaxing certification for timber products.

Indonesia had agreed to fully implement the SVLK by the end of 2015, a deadline laid down by the EU for the country to meet if it wanted free access for its timber products into the EU market.

The deadline is stipulated in the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT), which was ratified by Indonesia in 2014.

"We already have the SVLK. There's only one small step left to make, but we missed it. This has put us at risk of not becoming the champion of timber legality certification [in the world]," Indonesia's chief negotiator of FLEGT VPA, Agus Sarsito, said during a discussion on the future of the agreement held by the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) on Monday.

The country experienced a setback to its timber certification when Trade Minister Thomas Lembong issued Regulation No. 89/2015 in August last year, allowing for the export of 15 downstream timber products, including furniture, without SVLK certification.

"The EU has told me that it is ready to implement the FLEGT VPA only if the ministerial regulation is revoked or annulled," Agus said.

Since Indonesia missed the deadline, the EU has given a new deadline of April 1 this year. EU Ambassador to Indonesia Vincent Guerend promised that the EU would fully implement the agreement by the new deadline.

The FLEGT implementation, he said, would benefit Indonesia, which currently has a 40 percent market share in the EU tropical timber market. However, he said that timber products must have the required V-legal documents attached, as regulated by SVLK.

As V-legal documents would be considered equal to a FLEGT license, Indonesian timber would automatically pass the due-diligence examination that is usually required before products enter the EU market.

The Trade Ministry's trade security director, Okan Norwan, questioned the EU's readiness, saying that it was not serious in implementing the FLEGT.

"They only check [timber products entering the EU] randomly. Because it's random, illegal timber products from other countries can also enter the market. This is a disincentive for us," he said on Monday.

"There are also six EU countries that haven't been able to implement [the FLEGT] yet. Those which have been able to do so also can't do it optimally," he added.

Okan also criticized the EU for allegedly trying to force Indonesia to fully implement the SVLK, saying that it was up to business players to decide whether they wanted to implement the SVLK or not as not all countries required Indonesia to implement the SVLK.

With such sentiments from the ministry, Indonesia is at a crossroads on whether to proceed with the full implementation of SVLK, according to Agus.

"We don't have any certainty on when our agreement with the EU goes live. Do we want the FLEGT VPA to be implemented? Or do we want to give up because we can't revoke the regulation? If we can't, then we could just stop the negotiation process [with the EU] because what's the use? This is the worst case and we will be ridiculed by the international scene because we have ratified the agreement through a presidential regulation," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/26/ri-eu-stalemate-timber-licensing.html

Floods destroy thousands of hectares of farmland

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2016

Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru – The floods affecting a number of regions in Riau, Aceh and Bali have not only engulfed residential areas but also thousands of hectares of farmland, currently causing widespread crop failure.

In Kuantan Singingi regency, Riau, 1,012 hectares of rice fields have been destroyed after being swamped by floods since early January.

"The seedlings have just been planted, but they have been engulfed by flood water for weeks and have died," said Kuantan Singingi Agriculture and Food Crop Office head Maisir on Monday.

To relieve the burden on farmers, the office has requested seedling assistance from the Riau Agriculture Office and the Agriculture Ministry.

"We have proposed the immediate provision of seedlings from the National Seedling Reserve so that farmers can immediately replant their crops," said Maisir.

In Rokan Hulu regency, since Jan. 14, floods have engulfed more than 25 hectares of gogo rain-dependent rice crops in Rokan Timur village, Rokan IV Koto district. As many as 17 hectares of rice crops between 120 and 130 days old have been damaged after being swept flat by the swollen river.

"The total area of gogo rice paddies in Rokan IV Koto district is 1,032 hectares. The other areas were spared by the floods. Those swept by floods are located close to the river basin area," said Rokan Hulu Food Crop and Horticulture Office head Mubrizal.

Although not as seriously hit as Kuantan Singingi, Mubrizal expressed hope the Riau Agriculture Office would help to provide new seedlings for farmers. "We have submitted a proposal to the province, but have yet to receive a reply," he added.

In Bali, the Buleleng Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) has provided four makeshift tents to accommodate flood evacuees in Musi and Penyabangan villages, in Gerokgak district, northern Bali.

"The tents are in anticipation of evacuees with no relatives in the area," said Buleleng BPBD head Ketut Yasa in Singaraja on Monday. Yasa added that based on data gathered by the district office, a total of 92 homes in both villages were damaged and destroyed.

"In Musi village, the flash flood destroyed seven homes and caused minor damage to dozens of others. Around 50 families were forced to evacuate. Meanwhile in Penyabangan village, eight homes were destroyed and dozens moderately damaged. Around 36 families there have been evacuated," said Yasa.

In Aceh, the Central Aceh regency BPBD advised residents living at the flood and landslide locations in Kerawang village, Rusip Antara district, Central Aceh, to evacuate at least for the time being.

"We fear the landslide and mudflow potential remains given the high rainfall," said Central Aceh BPBD head Jauhari, during a disaster-site inspection and relief aid distribution on Sunday.

He added that the number of evacuees from the landslide and mudslide on Jan. 23 had increased from 12 to 15 families. Nine other families have evacuated to the homes of relatives or friends willing to accommodate them in Pantan Tengah village.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/26/floods-destroy-thousands-hectares-farmland.html

Health & education

Commission reports rise in young smokers

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2016

Jakarta – The National Commission on Tobacco Control has reported that there has been a dramatic increase over the past few years in the number of young smokers in the country.

Member of the commission Widyastuti Soerojo said that the number of smokers at the age of 14 had increased from 3.9 million in 2010 to more than 7 million in 2013.

"We're concerned about this trend," Widyastuti said as quoted by tribunnews.com after a meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Wednesday.

The commission further called on the government to act quickly or risk paying the health costs for the country's smokers suffering from cancer, stroke and heart disease.

The 2013 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) data revealed that more than 60 percent of smokers started smoking when under the age of 20. Meanwhile, data from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey revealed a rapid increase in young smokers aged between 13 and 15, from 12.6 percent in 2006 to 20.3 percent in 2009.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/28/national-scene-commission-reports-rise-young-smokers.html

Ministry cracks down on firebrand textbooks

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2016

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – The Culture and Education Ministry has prohibited the distribution and publishing of school text books that contain themes of religious violence and religious and racial discrimination.

The ministry's director general of early childhood education, Harris Iskandar, said that the ban was issued based on Ministerial Decree No. 82/2015 on the eradication of violence in the school environment.

"Early childhood is the right time to form character and values and because of this, any information given to them – whether written, visual or oral – must be free from any themes of violence, hate, pornography and racial and religious discrimination," he said.

The ministerial order had been sent to education agencies nationwide following reports of complaints about a textbook entitled Anak Islam Suka Membaca (Muslim Children Like Reading) that purportedly carried themes deemed unsuitable for children.

The Culture and Education Ministry said that the book, which was written by Nurani Musta'in and first published in Surakarta, Central Java, in 1999, encouraged children to be curious about acts of violence.

"In volume three, page 19, the book contains the sentence: 'willing to die for religion'. On page 27, there is the sentence: 'we won't stand for it if our religion is insulted, men will defend our religion and women will defend our religion, we are all willing to defend our religion for God'," a report from the ministry said.

Several volumes of the book also carry references to heavy weaponry such as bullets, bombs and bazookas. "With such references, these books are not suitable for young children and should not be used at any early childhood institution," Harris said.

Separately, Nurani and her husband, Ayip Syarifuddin, have denied that they inserted radical ideas in the book. "There was never any intention from us to deliver radical teachings," Ayip said as quoted by kompas.com.

Ayip said that they had long employed the words used within the book but only realized now the sensitive nature of the words. Calls for stricter regulations on media consumed by children have risen recently, especially with the recent increase in child bullying cases.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has called for stricter regulations on television programs so that children will not be exposed to on-screen violence.

According to the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), there were 970 cases of bullying reported in 2014, a tremendous leap from the 632 cases recorded in the previous year.

Earlier this week, Benny Ramdhani, deputy head of the Ansor Youth Movement (GP Ansor), Nahdlatul Ulama's youth wing, exposed the books' radical themes and claimed that the group had uncovered "efforts to use schools to plant seeds of radicalism in our community".

Separately, KPAI deputy chairman Susanto applauded the Culture and Education Ministry's move to ban the books.

"The teacher's perspective, the materials taught and even the method is very influential [to children]. So, if the materials carry radical themes, then it could definitely influence the way children think," he told the Post.

He said that though the ministry's order was commendable and necessary, he hoped that teachers, principals and officials from education agencies nationwide would properly implement the ban to make sure that Anak Islam Suka Membaca and similar radical material would not be further distributed and taught in schools.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/23/ministry-cracks-down-firebrand-textbooks.html

Gender & sexual orientation

Mayor takes stern action against FPI

Jakarta Post - January 30, 2016

Bandung – Bandung mayor Ridwan Kamil has ordered the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), a hardline Muslim group, to take down "provocative" banners targeting the gay community, officials said on Friday.

The move comes after FPI members raided a boarding houses in Bandung where they believed gay people were staying and put up signs requesting that they leave.

"I have reprimanded the FPI. They admitted what they did," Ridwan said in a text message forwarded to Reuters by an aide. "Provocative banners have to be taken down." An FPI spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (LGBT) is largely accepted in Indonesia, particularly in urban areas, but pockets of opposition remain. Most recently, a government minister called for a ban on campus-based LGBT organization activities at university.

In the conservative province of Aceh, where sharia (Islamic law) is implemented, the LGBT community faces government-sanctioned discrimination, meaning that people can be sentenced to 100 lashes for engaging in gay sex.

The FPI have a track record of using violence and is known for harassing Christians and religious minorities such as Ahmadiyah, an Islamic sect.

Last year, hundreds of FPI members forced the local government to tear down several churches in the conservative province of Aceh, claiming that they lacked proper building permits.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/30/national-scene-mayor-takes-stern-action-against-fpi.html

Growing conservatism fuels prejudice against LGBT

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2016

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Human-rights activists have condemned the persistence of prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people after controversy erupted recently surrounding a gender and sexuality counseling group at the University of Indonesia (UI).

Human rights watchdog Setara Institute said on Wednesday that the public, including state officials, had shown of late an increased degree of intolerance toward LGBT individuals.

"We have to understand that there's a growing conservatism within our society. It has happened not only in public, but also among our officials. That's why there are officials who broadcast their personal values [and condemn the LGBT community]," Setara Institute deputy chairman Bonar Tigor Naipospos told The Jakarta Post.

He was referring to Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister M. Nasir, who made a statement on Saturday arguing for the prohibition of LGBT students from university campuses. After a public outcry, he defended on Monday his earlier statement, saying he respected the right of individuals to choose their sexuality and had not intended to eliminate the discussion of LGBT issues on campus.

Nevertheless, the former rector of state-run Diponegoro University (Undip) in Semarang said the presence of LGBT groups in Indonesia should be examined thoroughly by academia given the fact that Indonesia was a country that upheld theological and moral values.

Bonar expressed criticism of Nazir's position and behavior. "He should have been neutral, not forgetting [his role] to protect all Indonesians without looking at their backgrounds," Bonar said. "Even though we don't have regulations protecting the LGBT community, we hope officials and the public will refrain [from harassing the community]."

After Nasir's statements, other public officials, including Culture and Education Minister Anies Baswedan, People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Zulkifli Hasan, Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil, delivered hostile remarks toward LGBT people.

Anies, for example, said that parents and teachers should be concerned about "deviant behaviors" among LGBT teenagers.

"They [the public officials] have said things that could escalate violence against LGBT people and could be used to legitimize the violent behavior of intolerant groups," Yuli Rustinawati, the chairperson of LGBT rights watchdog Arus Pelangi, told the Post.

The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) deputy chairman Budi Wahyuni condemned the government officials.

"We are pushing for officials to be just and level-headed and not so easily stigmatize people based on any little thing. They should refrain from making statements that could provoke violence and discrimination," he said on Wednesday. "We also ask that the state, the public and the media listen to the problems faced by the LGBT community, whether it's discrimination, violence or human rights violations."

According to a study by Arus Pelangi in 2013, 89.3 percent of LGBT people in three big cities, namely Jakarta, Makassar and Yogyakarta, had experienced some form of violence because of their sexual orientation.

"We are worried [that people are growing more hostile following uneducated remarks from officials]. Therefore, we are opening a hotline for anyone [from the LGBT community] who feels worried or who has already experienced violence. They can call us or text us via WhatsApp messenger at 081293332150," said Yuli.

She added that Arus Pelangi, alongside other activists, planned to send a letter to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo calling on him to stand up against the metastasizing discrimination and prejudice being directed toward the LGBT community.

"We are asking Jokowi to punish and reprimand the ministers and the lawmakers [who perpetuate discriminative behavior toward the LGBT community]," Yuli said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/28/growing-conservatism-fuels-prejudice-against-lgbt.html

Minister backtracks on LGBT ban but hostility remains

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2016

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Haeril Halim and Apriadi Gunawan, Jakarta/Medan – Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir has withdrawn his previous statement that members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community should be barred from university campuses.

Nasir said on Tuesday, LGBT communities were allowed to host on campus activities if they had been granted permission from their university. Furthermore, he specified that such groups would be allowed on campus as long they did not promote indecent acts, such as intimacy and sexual intercourse.

"I do not prohibit LGBT members from conducting activities on campus. [However] campuses are guardians of morality, so there should not be any activities that violate the conduct of decency, such as public displays of affection or making love on campus," he told the press in Jakarta.

"Gathering for academic purposes, as university students, is not the problem. If they want to conduct consultations, research and education that will help them, then go ahead," he added.

Nasir said that he did not have a problem with members of the LGBT community, adding that he once had a transgender friend during his time in university. "Even someone who identifies as transgender has the right to an education," he said.

LGBT activities on campus came into the spotlight recently when conservative media coverage attacked the Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies (SGRC) at the University of Indonesia (UI), highlighting its LGBT Peer Support Network, a counseling service in cooperation with melela.org, an online platform for LGBT individuals and their supporters to share their experiences. The group also encourages discussions and studies on topics surrounding gender and sexuality.

Messages have been circulating online calling on the public to establish anti-LGBT groups on campus and several lawmakers have slammed the SGRC UI.

Despite Nasir's retraction, the persecution against SGRC UI has triggered mixed reactions among academics. Indonesian Rector Forum head Rochmat Wahab said that the university campus was not a place for LGBT organization as it went against "normative" values.

"A campus is a place to develop character, leadership skills, social awareness and academia. If we look through the lens of our social norms, it is clear that it would be a violation to allow such groups to flourish," said Rochmat, who is also the Yogyakarta State University (UNY) rector.

The North Sumatra Muhammadiyah University (UMSU) in Medan welcomes LGBT individuals to study at the campus. UMSU spokesman Ribut Priadi said all students in the university were given Islamic education that would prevent them from partaking in any promiscuous act. "We believe this can prevent the deviant behavior of LGBT from developing," he said.

North Sumatra University (USU) rector Runtung Sitepu said he would dismiss any of his students involved in LGBT community activities on the campus. "What will the students become if they no longer maintain moral norms?" he asked.

A lecturer in law at Sam Ratulangi University in Manado, North Sulawesi, Flora Kalalo, said that sexual preference was an individual's right. She said that, as long as LGBT individuals did not disturb activities on campus, they were not "a problem".

[Lita Aruperes contributed to this article from Manado.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/27/minister-backtracks-lgbt-ban-hostility-remains.html

Bandung mayor against publicizing LGBT issues on social media

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2016

Bandung, West Java – Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil said on Tuesday he did not have any problem with citizens who supported or were involved in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. However, he called on LGBT community members not to publicize their movement, especially on social media.

"For me, I basically am not bothered about other people's personal matters. What becomes problematic is when there is a private matter that cannot be accepted as the norm and it is publicized," Ridwan said as quoted by tempo.co on Tuesday.

The Bandung mayor added that he would take action against citizens caught publicizing LGBT issues openly on social media, such as by suspending their accounts.

"We cannot live freely as we want. The fact is that there are people who are 'different', we don't know and that is their business. Sexual preferences should be a private matter and cannot be exposed or campaigned about publicly because there are social behaviors that are not acceptable in Indonesia," he said.

Ridwan said that despite it being a private matter, there were still rules people should adhere to when they accessed social media. He cited the example of rules against pornography, an issue which was considered inappropriate and not fitting public norms. Such boundaries were what the Bandung city administration would adhere to when deciding whether to take action or not, he added.

Ridwan said several accounts on Twitter had been suspended due to LGBT-related posts, showing that social media also had its boundaries.

Recently, a Twitter account that had been posting obscene homosexual images received strong condemnation from online users and has since been suspended.

Ridwan, who is an active user of social media, said he was not afraid of taking steps against those who were openly campaigning for LGBT.

"Entering the realm and opening oneself up and inviting others indirectly, in my opinion is a violation of ethics and social norms, and I will firmly take action against it," Ridwan said. (liz/ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/26/bandung-mayor-against-publicizing-lgbt-issues-social-media.html

Affectionate gay students should be banned from university campuses, Indonesian

ABC Radio Australia - January 27, 2016

Adam Harvey, Indonesia – Publicly affectionate gay students should be banned from the University of Indonesia's campuses, an Indonesian Government minister says, following controversy over news of an LGBTIQ support group established for students.

The LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and questioning) association called itself the Support Group and Research Centre on Sexuality Studies and planned to offer counselling services.

Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir heard about the service and announced that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people corrupted the nation's morals.

Indonesia's young gay and lesbian students have it tough: there are few openly gay Indonesian role models, and public discussion of subjects like safe sex or coming out are unheard of in the country. So the emergence of the support group for students at the University of Indonesia was a big step forward.

There were reports that Mr Nasir had said he wanted all gay students banned from campus. Mr Nasir said that this was not correct, clarifying his position with a tweet from his ministerial account.

"My prohibition against the LGBT community entering campuses is if they show inappropriate behaviour such as having sex, or public displays of affection on campus," Mr Nasir said. "This was what I meant that will cause damage to the morality of the nation."

LGBTIQ university support group goes to ground

The scandal is running hot and after 10 days of non-stop terrorism coverage, Indonesia's television networks embraced the opportunity to talk about something else.

Sociologist Musni Umar joined the debate and said that human rights were being used as a "cover up" by the LGBTIQ community.

"[They are saying] how it's their human rights, but human rights shouldn't oppose the basic values built by our founding fathers and the Government," Mr Umar said.

"I don't think the danger to our nation only comes from terrorism and drugs – of course they're dangerous – but this LGBT also causes damage to the mentality of the people. When people are not attracted to the opposite sex and instead are only attracted to people of the same sex it means that Armageddon is here."

Erlinda, the spokesperson for Indonesia's Child Protection Commission, said that people should not look at "this LGBT as a lifestyle" but instead "see that it's connected to other things like drugs that could then lead to committing crimes".

The University of Indonesia has distanced itself from the LGBTIQ support group, which has gone to ground. The ABC contacted one of the group's young organisers, but she said she and her friends were too depressed to speak publicly about the controversy.

Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2016-01-27/affectionate-gay-students-should-be-banned-from-university-campuses-indonesian-minister-says/1540417

FPI Islamic vigilantes search boarding houses in Bandung for LGBT people

Tempo - January 27, 2016

Putra Prima Perdana, Bandung – The coordinator of the Bandung Kulon chapter of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Tubagus Abbas Murodi, has admitted that the FPI conducted a sweep of boarding houses in the Bandung Kulon area.

The sweeps, which were carried out on the night of Monday January 25, were aimed at finding lesbians or homosexual boarding house guests.

Speaking with Tempo on Jl. Gempolsari, Bandung Kulon, in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung, Abbas said that the presence of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender or LGBT people has upset residents of Baturengat in Bandung Kulon.

Lesbian groups that have rented rooms in boarding houses there, he said, held an alcoholic drinking party three months ago. "They were also caught red handed committing immoral acts", said Abbas Wednesday January 27.

It was this that motivated the FPI to carry out the sweeps. The FPI operation as conducted in coordination with officials from the Bandung Kulon sub-district office, the Bandung Kulon sectoral police and the Bandung municipal population and civil registration office.

A number of boarding houses were checked and several of the rooms were occupied by two or more women. "Five women in one room were found. Although indeed it hasn't been proven that they are lesbians. We have referred the entire matter of the raid to the local authorities", he said.

Abbas explained that most of the women suspected of being from a lesbian group who rented rooms in boarding houses on Jl. Gempolsari and Baturengat worked at garment factories in the Cigondewah area.

Bandung Kulon Regent Dadan Heri Guratman has called on local residents to remain calm and not take the law into their own hands in response to opposition to lesbians or homos in their area.

"We don't know what the indications are of lesbians or homos. If residents feel there is something suspicious related to women lesbians, perhaps then. But [we] can't confirm whether or not they are lesbian", said Guratman.

Residents who oppose LGBT groups later put up posters in the vicinity of the boarding house. Guratman said that he is in fact concerned that banners, which are in the name of the FPI, will give rise to a polemic and misunderstanding.

Because they did not have permission to put up the banners they will soon be taken down. "We will ask that the banners be taken down because they violate bylaws on advertising", he said.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "Cari Kaum LGBT, FPI Sweeping Rumah Kos di Bandung".]

Source: https://nasional.tempo.co/read/news/2016/01/27/058739964/cari-kaum-lgbt-fpi-sweeping-rumah-kos-di-bandung

Indonesian media must uphold LGBT rights: Activists

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2016

Liza Yosephine, National – Members of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) groups in Indonesia are facing discrimination and stereotyping in media coverage, say activists who are calling on journalists to uphold their rights.

Concerned over the poor quality of media coverage on the LGBT, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia held a series of intensive workshops over the weekend.

"There was also a tendency for journalists to stigmatize the group," the head of Women and Marginalized Groups of AJI Indonesia, Yekthi Hesthi Murthi, told thejakartpost.com.

Research indicates violations of ethics often occur when Indonesian journalists are covering controversial issues concerning the LGBT in this, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, she asserted.

She added the press could be in a position to give a voice to those who are voiceless and allow them to stand up for their rights as citizens of this country.

Citing research conducted by the alliance in 2015, local media had a predilection to write news stories in a sensationalized and bombastic manner, Hesthi explained.

Hesthi expressed disappointment on finding that news stories stating facts of the group's marginalization and neglected rights were seldom reported. She also said that there were instances of symbolic violence depicted by the choice of diction used within the written articles.

According to the research, LGBT issues received only a very minor portion among the wide array of news coverage across the majority of local and national media.

Hesthi believed such issues should receive more special attention because of the conditions that the group faces on a daily basis in which their existence tends to be ignored by the government and their rights are neglected.

She cited the example of a case in which students at the University of Lampung (Unila) who had gained confidence about revealing their sexual orientations subsequently became social pariahs while getting a stern warning from university officials that homosexuals were not welcomed at the university. "The right to an education is a basic human right," Hesthi said.

On a wider scope, the government's objection to dealing with LGBT issues is not uncommon.

Most recently, Technology, Research and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir said that LGBT people should be barred from university campuses, pointing to the educational institution as a moral safeguard while branding the community members as degenerates who risk corrupting the nation's moral values.

The minister was responding to information that an organization at the University of Indonesia (UI) named the Support Group and Research Center on Sexuality Studies (SGRC) offered counseling to LGBT students through their Peer Support Network program.

The controversy of the SGRC's activities at UI exploded into public attention after the group came into the media spotlight, which highlighted the group's support for the LGBT community.

The SGRC in turn received heavy criticism from the public and fellow students because of being depicted as being an established university entity that supported a growing LGBT population.

The fact that the LGBT community existed quite comfortably and openly on campus was not met well by several students who in turn voiced their disdain through the media.

SGRC co-founder Firmansyah published a statement on the group's official website, www.sgrcui.wordpress.com, that reiterated their mission statement as an organization that moves in the scope of the study of sexuality, reproduction and sexual orientation.

The Peer Support Network was only one of the wide ranging issues of concern within the group's organization.

Via its website, Firmansyah also said the reason to provide counselling for LGBT people was to respond to a study that found the LGBT group to be more susceptible to violence, while teens were more prone to suicide as a result of the rejection and discrimination they received from society.

Sexual diversity

"Vulnerable groups in this country still do not have a place," Press Council (Dewan Pers) member Yosep Stanley Adi Prasetyo said during the workshop.

Stanley, who is also a former commissioner at the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), observed the government's tendency to avoid the acknowledgement of the LGBT community despite its responsibility to uphold citizens' rights.

Stanley pointed to the lack of an official government census of LGBT people as an example of their ignorance. However, he said such refusal does not make them go away.

The government has not put enough importance on the Yogyakarta Principles, a set of international human rights principles relating to sexual orientation and gender identity, he added.

On further comments, Stanley argued that the identity card (KTP) could also be viewed as a "tool of discrimination" in situations where transsexuals do not have access to an ID of their own and therefore cannot vote nor benefit from the national health insurance provided by the Social Security Management Agency (BPJS).

From the public side, Stanley said there is a growing new perspective pointing toward progress on viewing LGBT, which has begun to understand sexual and gender identification through a more scientific pair of lenses.

RR Sri Agustine, director of the lesbian, bisexual and transgender organization called the Ardhanary Institute, a research and advocacy group, said Indonesia is still very much behind in recognizing the "highly complex and broad definitions of sexuality".

Additionally, she found the media's lack of research and use of the wrong terminologies as disconcerting and as potentially fueling the narrow-mindedness that could develop among members of the public, which in turn shapes widespread misconceptions and discrimination.

Aside from the rising number of countries legalizing same-sex marriage, Agustine pointed out that there are also seven countries who have legally recognized a third gender, including Australia, Bangladesh, India, New Zealand and Pakistan. In Cuba, the government will even facilitate qualifying citizens to have free sex reassignment surgery, she added.

The reality is, Agustine continued, the landscape of marriage, and thus the formations of family units, are diversifying along with the explorations of sexuality and gender identities.

A heterosexual family could be a marriage between a transgender man and a cis female or a trans man and a trans woman. Meanwhile, a gay couple could encompass a relationship between two transsexual men, Agustine said.

She urged journalists and the media in general to pay close attention to societal developments and report in truth to objectively bring up the issues to the public's awareness. (dan)(+)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/25/indonesian-media-must-uphold-lgbt-rights-activists.html

Minister on back foot over anti-gay remarks

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2016

Jakarta – A minister has found himself on the receiving end of angry scorn and fierce criticism following comments he made attacking the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir took to his Twitter account @menristekdikti on Monday to clarify the statement he made on Sunday, in which he said that LGBT "corrupted the nation's morals".

He tweeted that the presence of LGBT people in society necessitated in-depth studies by academics considering Indonesia's stance as a country that believes in God and upholds humanity and civilization. Nasir agreed that members of the LGBT community, as Indonesian citizens, were entitled to equality before the law.

"But that does not mean that the state legitimizes the LGBT status. Only their rights as citizens must be guaranteed by the state," he tweeted on Monday to his 16,500 followers.

His earlier comments that LGBT elements should be barred from universities as there were "values and moral standards to uphold" met with a wave of public fury and criticism.

His comments were in response to the establishment of the Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies (SGRC) at the University of Indonesia (UI). The group offers counseling for LGBT students. UI has denied all knowledge of the group, which it says is not an official university-affiliated student society.

On his Twitter account, Nasir backtracked on his previous comments, saying that universities should not prohibit any activities or discussions that aimed to educate students.

"I would only ban LGBT people from entering campuses if they engage in disgraceful behavior like making love or showing affection," he published. His message was subsequently re-tweeted by dozens of his followers.

He urged universities across the country to provide thorough mentoring for all students, noting that campus environment had a major influence on students. "It is an individual's right to be gay or lesbian, but the academic atmosphere must not be disrupted," he said.

A petition issued on change.org by a student named Poedjiati Tan from Surabaya demands that Nasir withdraw his comments regarding LGBT and morality, as well as his calls for a ban on LGBT people within universities. The petition, published on Sunday, had by Monday afternoon been signed by 1,362 supporters. (rin)(+)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/25/minister-back-foot-over-anti-gay-remarks.html

LGBT group faces state persecution

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2016

Evi Mariani and Aldrin Rocky Sampeliling, Jakarta/Depok – Several public officials issued statements on the weekend opposing the presence of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students on university campuses following the cancelation of an event at the University of Indonesia (UI).

Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister M. Nasir said that LGBT communities could taint the nation's morality if "the guardians of morality [do not] promote decency and the noble values of Indonesia", as quoted by Antara news agency.

Lawmaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Muhammad Nasir Djamil, also commented. "LGBT groups cannot be allowed to thrive and be given space. Especially considering that they have entered campuses through academic discussion," lawmaker Nasir said.

Sociologist and gay-rights activist Dede Oetomo told The Jakarta Post on Sunday that he would be generous and forgiving in his response, calling the statements of both Nasirs demonstrative of "limited knowledge in general, in particular on sexuality and human rights".

"We have to understand that even the international world and the United Nations have recognized the rights of LGBT [communities] only recently," he said. Therefore, he would not be offended by the statements. "They simply never learn anything new," he went on.

He said, however, that he had concerns about the welfare of LGBT communities on campuses after the weekend witch-hunt for the minority group.

Conservative Islamic newspaper Republika ran the headline "LGBT poses serious threat", on its front page. The article quoted sources that slammed LGBT people for "tainting the nation's morality", citing links between LGBT communities and promiscuity. Some other media outlets also presented LGBT issues as a threat, using terms such as "deviant sexual behavior".

The statements were made in response to the Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies (SGRC) at UI coming under the spotlight due to its "appropriation" of UI's name and logo.

An unofficial poster for the LGBT Peer Support Network, a counseling service provided by SGRC-UI in cooperation with melela.org, a website that provides a platform for LGBT people to share their stories and experiences as a way of improving the public's understanding of these minority groups, went viral on social media last week, triggering controversy among social media users.

Many social media users posted comments on #dukungSGRCUI voicing their support for the community's activities. Meanwhile, a number of messages circulated encouraging people to initiate anti-LGBT movements on UI's campus.

The controversy prompted UI authorities to issue a statement saying that the university was not responsible for the organization's activities because the organization had not registered as a university student society and had not obtained a permit from the university to carry out its activities.

The university has asked SGRC-UI to remove the university's name and symbol from the its logo. "It's important to note that SGRC is not a campus organization and UI has never given any permit to the community [to use UI's name and logo]," said Rifelly Dewi Astuti, UI's head of public relations and public information.

SGRC-UI is a community comprised of UI graduates, students and lecturers. The group focuses on gender and sexuality studies. The group was founded on May 17, 2014, by three UI graduates: Ferena Debineva, Arief Rahadian and Nadya Karima Melati. The organization often conducts activities on UI's campus in Depok.

Nadya said they had never had any problems with UI before, despite having conducted LGBT-related events previously. "UI never addressed our past activities, and they even published information on our seminars on their website uiupdate.ui.ac.id," she said. She added that the university had only reacted strongly when the unofficial poster suddenly appeared online. She said that the group's organizers were still discussing the project when the poster was published online.

"We are a study group that focuses on gender and sexuality issues. We firmly reject the notion that our broad scope of study is in fact small and limited because SGRC-UI is an LGBT community," a press release from the community stated.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/25/lgbt-group-faces-state-persecution.html

MPR speaker says LGBT groups must be banned from campus

Detik News - January 24, 2016

Elvan Dany Sutrisno, Jakarta – People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Zulkifli Hasan says he agrees with Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir who said recently that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups should be banned from campuses because they are not in accordance with Indonesian cultural values.

"Yes this is indeed a new phenomenon. It isn't in line with our culture, [they] must be banned because it doesn't fit with Indonesian culture", Zulkifli told Detik on Sunday January 24.

Zulkifli often speaks about issues that he believes are indecent such as seminars calling for the government to acknowledge same sex marriage.

"Several times I've been at HAM [human rights] seminars saying that it's a human rights violation not acknowledging same sex marriage. This is a new phenomenon which I don't think is in accordance with our culture", he asserted.

Earlier, Education Minister Nasir asserted that LGBT groups should be banned from higher education campuses because they are not in accordance with existing norms.

"These LGBT [groups] are not in accordance with the high values and morality of the Indonesian nation. I forbid them [from coming on campus]. Indonesian values are to safeguard morality", said Nasir when contacted by Detik by telephone on Monday morning, January 24.

Nasir's comments were in response to reports that the Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies (SGRC) at the University of Indonesia (UI) campus is offering counseling for LGBT people.

He says that LGBT groups cannot be allowed on campuses. "I forbid them from all higher education institutions in Indonesia that are under of the [authority] of the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education", he asserted.

Nasir explained that he contacted the UI rector after the existence of the SGRC on campus became widely discussed. "It turns out that even they (UI) banned [them] and said they didn't have permission", he said.

UI authorities have explained that the SGRC, which provides counseling for LGBT people, is not part of UI and that the study centre has never submitted a request for permission to do so from those in authority at UI.

On its website at , the SGRC does indeed include the name UI after its name so it reads SGRC UI and the SGRC logo also includes the Capricorn logo of UI.

On its blog the SGRC refers to itself as a student organisation at UI that is active in scholarly thinking. The organisation, which was established on May 17, 2014, strives for a more comprehensive understanding of gender and sexuality issues through discussion.

There are also monthly gatherings of members who discuss studies related to sexuality as well as seminars on sexuality. The SGRC emphasises that it never pushes people to becoming or cures people from being LGBT. (van/nrl)

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "Ketua MPR: Kelompok LGBT Harus Dilarang Masuk Kampus!".]

Source: http://news.detik.com/berita/3125816/ketua-mpr-kelompok-lgbt-harus-dilarang-masuk-kampus

LGBT groups should be banned from university campuses says education minister

Antara News - January 23, 2016

Zuhdiar Laeis, Semarang – Research, Technology and Education Minister Muhammad Nasir has asserted that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups should not be allowed into university campuses.

"How can they be [allowed] on campus? There are values and standards of decency that must be upheld. Campuses are the guardians of morals", he said after officiating the opening of the new PGRI University in Semarang, Central Java, on Saturday.

His statement was in response to the Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies (SGRC) at the University of Indonesia (UI) campus offering counseling to LGBT people.

Nasir said that upon receiving this information he immediately contacted the UI rector and was told that by the university that the SGRC had not obtained permission from the campus for the activity.

"Upon receiving the information I immediately contacted the UI rector. It turns out that the UI did not give them permission for these activities", said the former University of Diponegoro rector.

According to Nasir, LGBT groups could potentially destroy the morals of the nation and campuses as guardians of morality, which should be able to safeguard the proper values of decency and lofty values of the Indonesian nation.

Not long ago, a brochure was circulated by several LGBT groups on the UI campus that triggered a heated debated because many believed that the campus was allowing the seeds of LGBT ideas to grow.

A strong reaction was also conveyed by House of Representatives member from the Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS), Muhammad Nasir Djamil who said that LGBT groups represent a serious threat to the nation.

"LGBT groups cannot be allowed to develop or be given any space for their activities. Moreover LGBT communities appear to be penetrating campuses through study groups or scholarly discussions", he said.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "Kampus mestinya tidak dimasuki LGBT, kata Menristek".]

Source: http://www.antaranews.com/berita/541624/kampus-mestinya-tidak-

Graft & corruption

Soeharto family foundation pleads poverty in face of fine

Jakarta Post - January 30, 2016

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – The Supersemar Foundation, set up by former president Soeharto to provide scholarships for low-income students, has refused to pay a Rp 4.4 trillion (US$320 million) fine issued by the Supreme Court after it was found to have misused funds.

The deadline for the fine payment was set for Friday, eight days after the South Jakarta District Court convened a meeting attended by representatives from the foundation and the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to discuss the penalty.

The court has the authority to seize the foundation's assets if it fails to pay the fine on time. However, the Supersemar Foundation's lawyer, Denny Kailimang, insisted it could not pay the fine because it did not have the money.

"We do not have that much money. All the money we received from state-owned banks went straight to the scholarships given to students," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Denny said that an audit conducted by the AGO in 1998 revealed that the foundation only controlled assets worth Rp 309 billion. "We only have Rp 309 billion and if [the court] wants to confiscate that, fine. However, we do not have the [Rp 4.4 trillion] they are asking of us," he said.

The case dates back to 2008 when the AGO filed a lawsuit at the South Jakarta District Court accusing the Soeharto family and the foundation of misusing scholarship funds by diverting them to family-owned companies, including Bank Duta in 1990 and PT Sempati Air from 1989 to 1997.

The South Jakarta District Court found the foundation guilty and ordered it to pay a penalty. The Supreme Court upheld the decision in 2010 and demanded that the foundation pay $315 million and Rp 139.2 billion, which together amounts to Rp 4.4 trillion in current valuations.

However, an earlier decision by the lower court contained a typographical error, stating that the rupiah portion of the ordered payment should be only Rp 139.2 million, instead of Rp 139.2 billion.

Members of the Soeharto family confirmed that the foundation had given up on trying to pay the fine. Siti "Titiek" Hediati Hariyadi, Soeharto's daughter, said the foundation was currently strapped for cash. "[The foundation's funds] are insufficient. There simply isn't that sort of money," she said.

Titiek also denied that her family had siphoned off money meant for scholarships and maintained that the funds had been properly disbursed to approximately 2 million scholarship recipients, all from low-income families.

Meanwhile, South Jakarta District Court spokesman I Made Sutrisna confirmed that the Supersemar Foundation had not paid the fine and said that since the deadline had passed, the court would wait for the asset calculation results from the AGO, which first filed the lawsuit.

"Since the deadline has passed, we are now waiting for data from the filer of the lawsuit to ascertain whether or not [the Supersemar Foundation] currently has any assets that can be used to pay the fine," he told the Post.

There was however, no deadline for the AGO to submit such data. "There is no deadline for the submission, it is totally up to the lawsuit filer's initiative," Made said, adding that the court could not lawfully confiscate any assets without the AGO's audit results.

Separately, Attorney General HM Prasetyo said that the AGO was still calculating Supersemar's assets to determine if the foundation had the capacity to pay the fine.

He said the AGO would submit the data to the court if requested. "When [the data] is needed, we will submit it [to the court]. It is possible that we will send it [next week]," he said at the AGO headquarters in South Jakarta.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/30/soeharto-family-foundation-pleads-poverty-face-fine.html

Indonesia's corruption index improves despite 'weakened' KPK

Jakarta Globe - January 27, 2016

Jakarta – Indonesia's 2015 rankings in the annual survey conducted by Berlin-based Transparency International improved slightly despite a year marred by seemingly systematic efforts to undermine the country's anti-graft agency.

Indonesia scores 36, with 100 being completely clean of corruption, in the group's annual Corruption Perception Index study, which was released on Wednesday (27/1).

The score is a slight improvement from last year's 34, enough to increase Indonesia's ranking to 88 out of the 168 countries surveyed this year. Last year, Indonesia was placed at 107th out of 175 countries surveyed.

With a worldwide average index of 43, Indonesia's score still indicates weak or ineffective efforts to counter corruption, Transparency International Indonesia researcher, Ilham Saenong noted at the survey's release in Jakarta.

2015 has been marked with attempts to weaken the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) most notably the charging of then-KPK commissioners Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto, which many see as a retaliation for the anti-graft agency's decision in January to name Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan as a suspect for bribery just as he was being nominated as the country's top cop.

The KPK also had its top officials and investigators threatened with criminal charges by the police, some for cases dating back more than a decade.

The House of Representatives has also tried to strip the KPK from its powers by proposing a revision on the antigraft agency. The House postponed the plan after wide public backlash. Last year, lawmakers also decided to sideline experienced and credible candidates for a new batch of KPK commissioners during a House vetting process.

The attacks against the KPK seems to undermine President Joko Widodo's achievements to introduce transparency and reforms, most notably in the country's oil sector. Ilham said that Indonesia could have scored better if the attempts to undermine the KPK had not occurred.

"It's true that the KPK had been weakened, but there was an improvement in our bureaucracy and public services," Ilham said.

Denmark tops the survey with score of 91, followed by Finland with 90, and New Zealand with 88. Regionally, Indonesia comes in at fourth place, slightly lower than Thailand at 38, but far below neighboring Singapore (85) and Malaysia (50).

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/indonesias-corruption-index-improves-despite-weakened-KPK/

Terrorism & religious extremism

Indonesia blocks more radical websites

Jakarta Post - January 30, 2016

Nani Afrida, Jakarta – The Communications and Information Ministry has blocked more radical websites in an attempt to prevent the dissemination of radical ideas that could contribute to terrorism.

"This is a follow-up to a previous announcement from the ministry. Based on the meeting, the panel recommended blocking nine radical websites," the ministry's spokesperson, Ismail Cawidu, said.

Earlier on Monday, the ministry announced it had blocked 24 radical websites, bringing the total to 33. He said that the websites expressed support for the Islamic State (IS) movement and provided detailed instructions on how to make bombs.

Cawidu said that one of the radical websites belonged to Bahrun Naim, an IS member who is suspected of orchestrating the terrorist attack in Central Jakarta on Jan. 14. Bahrun is now living in Raqqa, Syria with fellow jihadists.

His website, bahrumnaim.space contains the teachings of IS, instructions on how to start a terrorist attack, including a how-to guide on assembling handmade guns and conducting urban warfare, as well as on avoiding intelligence surveillance.

Besides bahrumnaim.space, the government also shut down eramuslim.com, majanik.com, langitmuslim.blogspot.co.id, kajiantauhid.blogspot.co.id, muslimmori1.blogspot.co and pendukungdaulahislam.blogspot.co.id.

The websites were found in violation of Article 28 (2) of the 2008 Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law on promoting hate speech. The ministry has blocked more than 6,700 websites, 90 percent of which contained pornography.

"The government is concerned with websites carrying negative contents from pornography, gambling, illegal trade of drugs and medicine as well as radicalism," Cawidu said.

He said that the number of radical websites blocked by the government was small compared to pornography websites.

The ministry has also called on the public to join the fight against illegal websites. "We need help and people's participation to give information. They can report directly to us, or email as [email protected]," Cawidu said.

Terrorism expert Wawan Purwanto said the government needed to be persistent in cracking down on websites promoting radical beliefs. "The radical websites will return under a different name. It might be a tiresome process for the authority, but the government needs to be persistent," Wawan told The Jakarta Post.

He said that the government and terrorist groups were engaged in the same cyberwar. "The strongest will win. This is why persistence is very important for the government," Wawan said.

It was reported that the ministry had also given permission to the National Police, the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) and the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) to block websites or social media accounts containing radical or terrorism-related content.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/30/indonesia-blocks-more-radical-websites.html

FPI leader Rizieq defends Abu Bakar Ba'asyir

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2016

Cilacap – The leader of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) Rizieq Shihab has admitted to having had connections to terrorism convict Abu Bakar Ba'asyir through a fundraising initiative, but claimed it was for humanitarian purposes.

"But the funds given by Ba'asyir was for Muslim interests in general, including for Muslims in Palestine," Rizieq testified at a judicial review hearing at the Cilacap District Court in Central Java.

He denied that Ba'asyir, who was sentenced by the South Jakarta District Court in 2011 to 15 years in prison for funding military training in Aceh, was guilty as charged.

"He [Ba'asyir] supported a physical training exercise, but it was for Islamic forces, not terrorism," Rizieq claimed.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/27/islands-focus-fpi-leader-rizieq-defends-abu-bakar-ba-asyir.html

Police seek more funding for Densus 88

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2016

Jakarta – National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti has said that the institution is considering applying for more funding to support its counterterrorism squad, Densus 88, after the Sarinah terrorist attack.

"We are mulling increasing funds for Densus 88," said Badrodin on Sunday as quoted by kompas.com. He said the additional funding was needed to upgrade weaponry and personnel training.

"Basically, [the improvement] is to anticipate terrorism threats, regardless of changing motives and modus operandi," said the former East Java Police head.

A series of explosions and gunfire rocked an intersection of Jl. Thamrin where the Sarinah shopping center and several government offices, as well as the UN headquarters, are located. The Islamic State (IS) movement claimed responsibility for the attack that claimed the lives of all four assailants and another four civilians, and left dozens injured.

The four assailants were later identified as former participants of military training in Jantho, Aceh, under the guidance of firebrand cleric Aman Abdurrahman. The police said that the perpetrators received backing from IS through Bahrun Naim and Bahrumsyah, who also attended the training.

The police have also arrested 18 individuals suspected of involvement in the incident.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/25/national-scene-police-seek-more-funding-densus-88.html

Jakarta attacks sabotaged Abu Bakar Bashir's bid for freedom, lawyer says

Sydney Morning Herald - January 26, 2016

Jewel Topsfield and Amilia Rosa, Jakarta – Abu Bakar Bashir's lawyer has forcefully denied the radical Indonesian cleric had anything to do with the Jakarta terror attacks, declaring them an attempt to sabotage his client's bid for freedom.

"He has no knowledge of the situation, he has no knowledge of anyone who was involved with the attack," lawyer Adnan Wirawan said outside court. Mr Wirawan said the January 14 terrorist attacks in Central Jakarta that killed eight people damaged Bashir's struggle for freedom.

The extremist preacher, who inspired the Bali bombers, is seeking a judicial review of his 15-year sentence for supporting a terrorist training camp in Aceh.

"The one who was involved in the attacks, not only does he not have any relationship with Abu Bakar, we believe he is Abu Bakar's opponent, one who hates Abu Bakar," Mr Wirawan said. "Whoever is doing it, his actions sabotage our purpose."

He said Bashir had responded "like ordinary people" when he learned of the terrorist attacks, asking: 'Why did he do it?'. "It's against his beliefs."

Security, already tight at Bashir's last court appearance in the seaside port town of Cilacap, was further enhanced in the wake of the Jakarta blasts. There were 1500 security personnel, a local school was closed for the day and the roads blocked with barbed wire. Trucks with water cannons blocked the streets near the court..

Bashir was initially convicted of conspiracy over the Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, but his conviction was quashed after he served 26 months' jail.

However he was arrested again in 2010 and jailed for 15 years for supporting a militant training camp in Aceh.

He is seeking a judicial review on the grounds he was actually donating money to support the Palestinian cause in Gaza. "Witnesses will testify that Abu Bakar did not fund the military camp, he does not have anything to do with it," Mr Wirawan said.

The gunman photographed roaming the streets wearing a Nike cap, jeans and sneakers during the deadly assault, Sunakim (alias Afif) also served prison time for his role in the military training camp in Aceh.

Mr Wirawan said Bashir had no memory of Sunakim although he may have been one of his students at one time.

"What we have in Thamrin is just an act of suicide, it has nothing to do with the way Abu Bakar preaches about peace and about Islamic State," he said. "His idea about Islamic State is without violence – that is what we are trying to argue in this court hearing."

In 2014 Bashir pledged allegiance to Islamic State behind bars on Nusakambangan island, although another of his lawyers said earlier this month he no longer supported the extremist movement.

"He did in the past because he did not know what ISIS was," Achmad Michdan told Fairfax Media. "Now after he knows what ISIS is he does not support it anymore. He only supports anyone or any organisation who supports the upholding of the Koran and Hadith."

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/jakarta-attacks-sabotaged-abu-bakar-bashirs-bid-for-freedom-lawyer-says-20160126-gme5es.html

Hundreds of elite TNI members deployed to hunt Santoso

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2016

Ruslan Sangadji, Poso – Hundreds of elite Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers are set to swarm Central Sulawesi's Poso forests in an effort to capture the country's most wanted terrorist, Santoso, and members of his extremist group.

More than 1,000 soldiers from the Navy's Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion and the Special Underwater Unit arrived in Poso on Sunday morning on the KRI Banjarmasin-592 vessel from Surabaya, East Java.

The troops gathered at the Sintuwu Maroso Battalion headquarters in Poso before being assigned to several locations to hunt the Santoso-lead East Indonesia Mujahidin.

Around 880 soldiers from the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) also arrived at Mutiara airport in Palu on two Hercules airplanes on Saturday. The authorities restricted journalists from covering the arrival of the soldiers.

The soldiers' deployment was part of the government's Operation Tinombala 2016, held jointly between the police and the TNI, aimed at arresting around 45 members of the radical group.

The authorities believe Santoso, also known as Abu Wardah, and his followers are hiding out in Poso's forests. They are suspected of building a military training camp and conducting guerrilla strategies in the forest.

The group is believed to have been behind several attacks against police officers and police posts in Central Sulawesi since 2011.

The troops, along with the police officers, are set to hunt for Santoso in the forests up to Poso's borders. They will all have different tasks, Operation Tinombala commander and Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Idham Azis said on Sunday.

"There are groups assigned to go after Santoso and there are also others whose task is to isolate the Santoso group's movements," he said.

Operation Tinombala area chief Sr. Comr. Leo Bona Lubis admitted that the police faced difficulties in arresting Santoso, who is believed to have orchestrated attacks that killed several police officers in Poso and Palu, as his hideaways are hidden deep in the forest and are difficult to reach.

The East Indonesia Mujahidin terrorist group has around 45 members, including a woman from Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, and two Chinese Uighurs.

The police and TNI previously launched Operation Camar Maleo last year, which failed to catch the fugitive. A member of Santoso's group, believed to be a frontline executor, was killed during a raid last week. (rin)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/24/hundreds-elite-tni-members-deployed-hunt-santoso.html

18 terror suspects arrested after Jakarta attack

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2016

Callistasia Anggun Wijaya, Jakarta – Police have arrested 18 terror suspects, six of them were accused of being involved in the Jan. 14 Jakarta attack, killing eight people – four victims and four attackers – said National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti on Friday.

Police classified the 18 suspects, who were being interrogated by the police officers, into three groups, said Badrodin.

The first group are six people, who were arrested for their direct involvement Jakarta attack case. A suspect identified as BS aka YY aka BD from Cirebon, West Java had a role of buying gas tube used as a casings of bombs exploded on Jl. M. H. Thamrim, in Central Jakarta said Badrodin at the press conference.

Another suspect, AH aka A aka Al aka AM aka AIS, had a role to buy firearms, said Haiti, adding that the other suspects, who are linked to the Jakarta attack, were C aka D aka AS, J aka JJ, AM aka LL aka AL, F aka AZ aka AB.

The second group are six people, who were arrested for having illegal firearms and the plan to carry out terror attack and who supported East Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT) led by Santoso. This group also received fund from Bahrumsyah, Indonesian extremist lived in Syria now.

The third group were six people, who were borrowed from the Nusakambangan prison island in Central Java and a prison in Tangerang, who were accused of assisting the second group to own firearms.

"We are still hunting for some people so we can arrest all people involved in terror acts in Thamrin," Badrodin said.

The police started intensifying their manhunt operations against the terrorist suspects, following the attack – explosions and gunfire – occurred within the first ring of national security and represented a fatal blow to the security of the capital or just nearly 2.5 kilometer away from the State Palace.

During the press conference, the police chief also revealed three Indonesian nationals, who have prominent positions in the Islamic State (IS) terror group in Syria.

They are Bahrumsyah, who sent money to finance the Jakarta attack, Bahrun Naim, an expert of propaganda and Abu Jandal, who has high position in IS group. "Bahrun know well about IT. He frequently active communicates with those in Indonesia," he added. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/23/18-terror-suspects-arrested-after-jakarta-attack.html

Freedom of religion & worship

Government should not rely on MUI fatwa in handling Gafatar: Groups

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2016

Marguerite Afra Sapiie, Jakarta – The government should adhere to the 1945 Constitution in handling the Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar), an organization allegedly involved in recent missing person cases, and not issue any related regulations based on a fatwa from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), human rights activists have said.

Setara Institute deputy chairman Bonar Tigor Naipospos said since Gafatar had never declared itself as an organization affiliated with a particular religious group, including Islam, the government could not use MUI edicts to take measures against the organization's freedom of belief and association.

"MUI edicts cannot be a source of law [...] A government based on constitutional rights should not have its governing functions limited," Bonar said in Jakarta on Monday.

Even though the MUI, which was established in 1975 during the New Order administration of late former president Soeharto, is a civil society organization, the Council has been given authority to issue edicts on various governance issues.

As a result, Bonar said, the MUI had become a semi-governmental institution, and its function to represent the Indonesian Muslim community had been strengthened by various rules and regulations.

The rights activist said the tendency of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to support the MUI on the issuance of edicts had given the Council a green light to claim its voice in public affairs and undermine minority voices. "As a result, the government often thinks that MUI edicts should not be ignored," said Bonar.

Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin on Friday said the ministry would wait for an MUI edict on whether or not Gafatar had promoted deviant religious teachings before making an official announcement on the group.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) chairman Rafendi Djamin said it was still acceptable for the government to consider an MUI edict in making a decision on Gafatar, but added that the government should not use it like a source of law. "The government cannot refer to the MUI in issuing a law. It should refer to the 1945 Constitution and existing laws," Rafendi said.

In line with international covenants and declarations, the activist said, the 1945 Constitution protected the rights of the Indonesian people to freedom of belief and association as long as their belief did not involve violence and did not tend to make arbitrary interpretations over other religious teachings.

Rafendi said that since Gafatar followers were not proven to have committed religious practices in violation of existing laws and had only migrated to remote areas of Kalimantan to develop agriculture, the government had no excuse not to protect them.

Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH) spokesperson Pratiwi Febri pointed out that Gafatar had disbanded itself in December 2015. Followers of the organization, she said, had never declared themselves a religious group but declared that they were only citizens who pledged allegiance to the state ideology of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution.

Thus, Pratiwi said, it was irrelevant whether the government related the group with deviant religious teachings before first investigating it. (ebf)(+)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/27/govt-should-not-rely-mui-fatwa-handling-gafatar-groups.html

Minority Ahmadiyah Muslim group in Indonesia told: Convert or be expelled

Sydney Morning Herald - January 26, 2016

Jewel Topsfield and Karuni Rompies, Jakarta – A minority Muslim group has been ordered to convert to Sunni Islam or be expelled from Bangka island, off the coast of Sumatra, in the latest religious crackdown in Indonesia.

Ahmadiyah identify as Muslim and follow the teachings of the Koran but regard an Indian preacher, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, as a "messiah" who followed the Prophet Muhammad, a belief considered heretical by some Muslims.

In a letter seen by Fairfax Media, Bangka Island's most senior bureaucrat, Fery Insani, says: "The Ahmadiyah congregation are not allowed to spread their religion. Ahmadiyah followers in Srimenanti village must immediately repent in accordance with Islamic sharia that there is no prophet after the prophet Muhammad." He said if they did not abide by this a meeting had decided they must immediately leave Bangka and return to their place of origin.

The threatened expulsion comes as former members of Gafatar – a religious minority group labelled a "deviant sect" in Indonesia – were forcibly evicted from West Kalimantan last week when their homes were burned down by a rampaging mob.

Asro Matnur, an Ahmadiyah from Bangka island, said tensions began when the Ahmadiyah community distributed beef to their neighbours during Idul Adha, a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide.

"We did that without preaching about Ahmadiyah," he said. "But later on a local government official came to us and said that we violated the agreement of religious harmony that we should not preach our faith to people of a different faith."

Mr Asro said Bangka regent Tarmizi Saat told them: "If you don't leave, we will not be responsible for what happens."

He did not know what this meant but feared anarchists could "bring down our homes"."If that happens, why is it us who are blamed? We don't violate any law but it is us who will be arrested."

Mr Asro, a cassava farmer who has lived on Bangka island since 1992, said the government did not tell the Ahmadiyah where they should go.

"If I have to go, I don't know where to," he said. "Many Ahmadiyah followers fought for the independence war in Indonesia. Why can't we have the same rights as other Indonesians?"

The Indonesian state ideology, Pancasila, only recognises six official faiths: Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Hinduism.

However Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director, Phelim Kline, said Indonesia's constitution guaranteed freedom of religion. "President Joko Widodo needs to urgently intervene to uphold the Ahmadiyah's rights and to punish officials who advocate religious discrimination."

In 2008 the former Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono government announced a decree restricting Ahmadiyah activities outside of Ahmadi communities. Following the decree, three Ahmadiyah were killed by a frenzied group of Islamists in Cikeusik in 2011, while hundreds of onlookers cheered.

Professor Tim Lindsey, director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society at Melbourne University, said the cases of persecution of so-called deviant sects and minority groups had increased markedly post Suharto.

"There has been a rise of more assertive conservative Islamic groups, which now have much more influence on government," Dr Lindsey said. Indonesia's top Islamic clerical body, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), had been particularly aggressive against these groups, with a pattern of issuing fatwas.

"They get declared deviant and then communities are attacked, houses get burned down or worse. Often the leaders are prosecuted for blasphemy and their followers unable to return to their homes. The police and local authorities are often unwilling to act to protect them. It is now sadly predictable and has happened dozens of times," Dr Lindsey said. "It reflects the rise of conservative Islamic orthodox Sunni views."

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/minority-ahmadiyah-muslim-group-in-indonesia-told-convert-or-be-expelled-20160126-gmecm9.html

Gafatar members to be 'reeducate': Ahok

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2016

Jakarta – As many as 118 Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar) members from West Kalimantan currently housed in Jakarta would undergo five days of "reeducation," Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama said on Sunday.

"We will give them five days to reeducate them because Gafatar's teachings, mixing things [Christianity, Judaism and Islam] is wrong. The Indonesian Ulema Council has been overseeing the reeducation," he said at Griya Gus Dur in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

Ahok was recently awarded the Gus Dur Award by the family of the late Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, who was known as promoter of pluralism.

The head of the Jakarta Social Shelter, Harjanto, said the Gafatar members were traumatized by the violent eviction they experienced in West Kalimantan.

The Gafatar members are originally from Jakarta, Bogor, Sukabumi, Bekasi in West Java and Tangerang in Banten. The government outlawed Gafatar in November 2012, less than a year after it was established in January of the same year.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/25/greater-jakarta-gafatar-members-be-reeducate-ahok.html

Indonesia cracks down on 'deviant sect' Gafatar after village burned down by mob

Sydney Morning Herald - January 25, 2016

Jewel Topsfield and Amilia Rosa, Kalimantan, Indonesia – A so-called "deviant sect" living in a remote farming community are besieged by a mob who burn their settlement to the ground.

Hundreds of suspected members are taken to transit centres. The government deploys warships to transport them back to their home villages, where they will be "re-educated" by religious leaders.

It may sound like a B-movie script but these extraordinary scenes have played out over the past week in Indonesia, in a country still jumpy after the Jakarta terror attacks.

A little-known religious minority group called the Fajar Nusantara Movement, or Gafatar, recently came to public attention when a doctor and her six-month-old son disappeared from Yogyakarta in December. She was found two weeks later, living in a Gafatar community in West Kalimantan that had been established four months ago.

Gafatar was disbanded in August 2015. The Indonesian government suspected it of being affiliated with "deviant teachings", which are understood to be a combination of Islamic, Christian and Jewish beliefs. The Indonesian state ideology, Pancasila, only recognises six official faiths – Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Hinduism.

On January 19, more than 1000 Gafatar members were evacuated in police trucks after a rampaging mob attacked their settlement in Monton Panjang in the coastal West Kalimantan regency of Mempawah.

Video footage shows a baying crowd hacking at wooden houses before torching the settlement. Clothes and other household items are strewn in the dirt.

"The mass[es] told us to leave, so we did, with just the clothes on my body," Supriyadi, a 56-year-old father of four told Fairfax Media. "Why are they so vicious to us, what exactly did we do wrong? We used to be members of Gafatar, sure, but that was disbanded months ago. Even so, Gafatar was not a religious organisation."

Mr Supriyadi said he came to Monton Panjang from his home in Surabaya two months ago in order to farm. "We grow string beans and water spinach. We never stopped communicating with our family, they knew where we were. We practice the Koran just like other Muslims, we pray five times a day. We just finished building our mushola [Islamic prayer room]."

The evacuees will be returned to their home towns in Indonesian Navy warships. "We will convince them that they can lead normal lives. Of course this won't be easy, because they already have misguided thinking and principles. But we have to fix this," the co-ordinating human development and culture ministry's acting secretary-general, Agus Sartono, was reported as saying in the Jakarta Post.

Indonesia's top Islamic clerical body, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), is expected to issue a fatwa in February on whether Gafatar is a heretical movement. They suspect it is a new form of al-Qiyadah al-Islamiyah [Islamic Leadership], which the MUI has already declared heretical. Qiyadah's founder, Ahmad Moshaddeq, was jailed for four years for blasphemy in 2008 after he declared himself a prophet.

The head of MUI in Yogyakarta, Thoha Abdurrahman, told Fairfax Media it could take "months, years even" to re-educate the former Gafatar members.

"The ex-Gafatar members may claim that they are practising Islam just like everybody else, five times a day praying, reading from the Koran," he said. "But we know for sure they believe in a fake prophet. That's a deviation. The last prophet was Muhammad. That's what we will guide them back to."

While there is no proof to link Gafatar with acts of terrorism, many Indonesians are suspicious.

"Although it is too early to address Gafatar's links to terrorism, the group's recent recruitment influx is worrying, particularly amid the growing involvement of local radical groups with the Islamic State movement in Syria," a Jakarta-based security consultancy warned its expat clients last week.

But Human Rights Watch Indonesia researcher Andreas Harsono said the government and media should not mislead the public by calling Gafatar a radical Muslim group.

"They are exclusive, but they are not advocating violence," he told Fairfax Media. "They want to live by themselves, they want to have their own community like the Amish."

Mr Harsono said the last week's events represent one of the biggest religious minority crackdowns in Indonesia in recent years. "This is religious persecution. It is disturbing. Why should they be re-educated in Islam?"

Rasidi, a community head in Monton Panjang, told Fairfax Media it was not the local villagers who had asked the Gafatar people to leave or burned their camp down. "But we all support that they go back to wherever they are from," he said. "They are not part of our community."

Villagers selling supplies were not allowed past the gates of the camp, Mr Rasidi said. "What were they hiding? The recent stories were quite disturbing. Because they do not believe the same thing as us... It's best they return home. We felt for the children. But we can't have them here."

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/indonesia-cracks-down-on-deviant-sect-gafatar-after-village-burned-down-by-mob-20160125-gmdj11.html

Rights body blames government for eviction of ex-Gafatar members

Jakarta Post - January 23, 2016

Jakarta – The government is responsible for the eviction of over 500 former Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar) members from their homes and agricultural areas in West Kalimantan by locals because the government has failed to act as a mediator, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has said.

Komnas HAM commissioner Nur Kholis particularly blamed the Religious Affairs Ministry because, according to him, it had failed to prevent the burning of ex-Gafatar member's homes in West Kalimantan, forcing them to flee their properties.

"The Religious Affairs Ministry should have acted as a mediator so as to gain the trust of citizens," said Nur in Jakarta on Saturday as reported by tribunnews.com.

Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin has said Gafatar is an illegal organization that must not be followed by community members. Its spiritual leader, Ahmad Musadeq, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2008 for religious defamation after he declared himself prophet. The organization has also been has been linked to the disappearance of at least a dozen people.

Police and military personnel relocated hundreds of former members of Gafatar to Pontianak, West Kalimantan, following the burning of their homes in Mempawah regency earlier this week. The former Gafatar members were placed in temporary military shelters. Some of the evicted people, however, have returned to their hometowns in East and Central Java.

Meanwhile, deputy coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Puri Kenjana Putri questioned the eviction of former Gafatar members, saying that the group of people had contributed to society.

"They have tried to encourage each other to develop agriculture in an effort to have food security," said Puri, referring to the former Gafatar members, who preferred living in remote areas of Kalimantan to develop agricultural businesses.

House of Representatives Commission III overseeing security affairs member Tengku Taufiqulhadi said that the government should have monitored the activities of Ahmad if the government considered his organization illegal. "If the government knew what it was doing then such evictions would not have happened," Taufiqulhadi said. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/23/rights-body-blames-government-eviction-ex-gafatar-members.html

Land & agrarian conflicts

House blasted for abandoning indigenous rights bill

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2016

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – The Alliance of Indigenous People (AMAN) has criticized the House of Representatives for not listing the recognition and protection of the rights of indigenous people (PPHMA) bill on the priority list of bills under the 2016 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).

The PPHMA bill, proposed by the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), will cover, among other things, the definition of an indigenous community, their rights, a much-needed procedure to settle customary land disputes and a task force that will handle the matter of indigenous people at the central and regional levels.

"Postponing the ratification of the bill means ignoring the mandate of the Constitution and letting 70 million indigenous people in the country continue to lose their rights with no legal protections," AMAN secretary-general Abdon Nababan said on Sunday.

If the House and the government kept ignoring the draft bill, he said, indigenous people would face more human rights abuse, not to mention the widespread destruction of forests. "All of which has had a negative impact on their lives," Abdon said.

The fulfillment of the rights of indigenous peoples has become one of the country's biggest challenges in recent years. Jambi's nomadic Anak Dalam tribe, also known as Orang Rimba, for example, have seen their rights ignored and violated.

The tribe, which is spiritually and culturally bound to their landscape, traditionally lives in the forests of Sumatra, but has been gradually pushed out of late by the expansion of oil palm plantations and Industrial Plantation Forests (HTI). This industry cuts down the entire forest and then replants it with trees to make paper.

As a result, the indigenous people who live off the forest have experienced food crises that have led to health vulnerabilities.

According to Abdon, the crisis threatening the Anak Dalam tribe is an example of the problems characterizing indigenous communities in Indonesia.

He said that such a bill, therefore, was urgently needed to reduce criminalization against indigenous people and to reduce land conflicts caused by investment and the government's infrastructure projects.

"The bill could also highlight the role of indigenous people in global climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts," Abdon said.

This year, the House aims to pass 41 priority bills under the 2016 Prolegnas. Among them include revisions to Law No. 30/2002 on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

House Legislation Body (Baleg) member Arsul Sani said that the House had put the PPHMA bill on a longlist for the 2015 – 2019 Prolegnas, but not on this year's priority list because its draft and academic transcript had yet to be completed.

"We met with the government last week and decided to pass only the bills whose academic transcripts and drafts have been completed," said the United Development Party (PPP) lawmaker, who is also a member of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs and human rights.

Last year, the House listed 40 priority bills and only passed three laws: The Regional Election Law, the Regional Administration Law and the Credit Insurance Law. The failure to meet last year's target was mainly due to rivalry and political maneuvering among factions.

"However, the bill still has a chance to get some space on the priority list if we revise the 2016 Prolegnas mid-year," Arsul said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/25/house-blasted-abandoning-indigenous-rights-bill.html

Parliament & legislation

Fadli praises Soeharto

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2016

Jakarta – House of Representatives (DPR) Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon said that former president Soeharto had contributed a lot to the country and that he should be remembered as one of the country's most important figures.

"Despite all the criticism toward him, Pak Harto contributed a lot," Fadli said as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday. Fadli said that Soeharto's greatest contribution was the economic progress that he had created while he was in power for 32 years.

Soeharto died eight years ago at the age of 86. He was buried at a family cemetery in Astana Giri Bangun, Surakarta, Central Java.

Fellow House Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah earlier backed a proposal for Soeharto be given the title of national hero.

By promoting Indonesia's economic development, Fahri claimed that Soeharto had provided the country with strong infrastructure and a sound political structure. "Public disappointment is fair. It is the same for every president," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/28/national-scene-fadli-praises-soeharto.html

Jakarta & urban life

'Becak' drivers demand parity with app-based transportation

Jakarta Post - January 30, 2016

Dewanti A. Wardhani and Safrin La Batu, Jakarta – Becak (pedicab) drivers across Jakarta have called on President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama to allow them to operate their becak in the capital, as the two recently allowed app-based motorcycle taxis to operate despite the controversial legal basis surrounding such operations.

In a letter sent to Jokowi, Rasdullah, coordinator for becak drivers in Jakarta, reminded the President of his inconsistency, citing the rage he had shown over the Transportation Minister's decision to ban Go-Jek last year while turning a blind eye to the struggle of becak drivers who have been protesting for several years.

"Go-Jek was temporarily prohibited by the Transportation Minister. You [the President] defended them and they were allowed to operate in the end. Our becak have been confiscated [by the Jakarta administration] and therefore we ask for your protection," he said in the letter.

He went on to say, "we operate becak not to gain wealth, only to make ends meet. Besides, we do not operate in main streets, only in small alleys, traditional markets and within residential areas".

Accompanied by a #SaveBecak hashtag, the hand-written letter went viral on Twitter on Thursday, along with a wealth of sympathy toward becak drivers. However, becak sympathy was not as popular as #SaveGo-Jek had been during the Go-Jek ban.

"Mr. Jokowi, please listen to the complaints of becak drivers. Do you dare to defend them just as you defended Go-Jek?" wrote Devil Rinaldo on Twitter. "[Becaks are] the People's transport, the livelihood of small citizens, cultural heritage. They need to be conserved," wrote Rita Padawangi.

In December last year, Jokowi, who was angry with Transportation Minister Ignatius Jonan for banning Go-Jek, wrote in defense of the app-based transport on his official Twitter account a few hours after the minister issued the ban. The minister revoked the ban several hours later. Transport apps such as Go-Jek and Malaysian-based GrabBike are controversial because they use private vehicles, marked by black license plates, not yellow public vehicle plates, as stipulated in article 138 of Law No. 22/2009 on transportation.

Separately, hundreds of becak drivers paid a visit to City Hall on Thursday to demand Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama stop confiscating becaks and reconsider the prohibition of becak in Jakarta.

During the visit, the drivers took the chance to send Ahok hundreds of letters, asking him to put a stop to the ongoing confiscation of becak across the city and to revise Article 29 of Bylaw No. 8/2007 on public order.

The article stipulates that individuals or organizations are prohibited from making or selling becak or similar vehicles and are prohibited from operating or storing becak or similar vehicles.

The drivers also demanded that the Public Order Agency return more than 200 becaks, confiscated from drivers operating in various areas such as Penjaringan, Pademangan, Teluk Gong, Cilincing, Koja and Tanjung Priok, all in North Jakarta.

"Becak should at least be permitted to operate in neighborhoods and traditional markets. Many residents still need becak," said Kubil, a becak driver from Teluk Gong.

Kubil argued that becak are eco-friendly vehicles and should be kept as a form of public transportation in Jakarta. "We should at least be permitted to operate in traditional markets and neighborhoods," he said.

Another becak driver, Sugeng Sugiarto, a 47-year old father of three, said that driving a becak was his only skill thus the only way he could make money.

Responding to the becak drivers' demands, Ahok said that he had met with the becak drivers but insisted that the bylaw must be enforced. He said that the drivers must seek other work without help from the city administration.

"They must look for another job on their own. [Becak drivers in Jakarta] come from other cities. We can't change a bylaw that was issued a long time ago," Ahok told reporters at City Hall on Thursday.

Ahok explained that the city administration had thus far been lenient towards becak drivers and turned a blind eye when they operated in traditional markets.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/30/becak-drivers-demand-parity-with-app-based-transportation.html

Fishermen stage protest against eviction to Thousand Islands

Jakarta Post - January 29, 2016

Safrin La Batu, Jakarta – Hundreds of fishermen from Muara Angke in North Jakarta staged a rally in front of the Jakarta City Council (DPRD) offices on Thursday against the ongoing man-made islet projects off the North Jakarta and a related plan to relocate them to Thousands Islands regency.

Khafiddin, head of community unit (RW) 11, said to the several Jakarta councillors who met them during the rally that the man-made islets stirred up mud from the seabed, polluting seawater and killing fish in the area.

"Fishermen in the area have seen decreasing catches [since the start of the projects]," he said, urging councillors to force Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama to stop the projects.

He also said one of the projects, the construction of Islet G, had violated the law because it began without an environmental impact analysis (Amdal), a legally required document before developers start a project.

Man-made Islet G, a project by Muara Wisesa Samudera, subsidiary of publicly listed developer Agung Podomoro Land (APL), is part of the administration's plan to build 17 artificial islands on 2,700 hectares of sea along Jakarta's 32-kilometer-long northern coast.

Other developers involved in the reclamation besides Muara Wisesa Samudera include city-owned PT Jakarta Propertindo and PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol, publicly listed PT Intiland Development and developer Agung Sedayu Group's subsidiary PT Kapuk Naga Indah (KNI). KNI is also involved, having built Islet D and half of Islet C.

Muara Angke fishermen filed a petition against Ahok's approval of the projects at the Jakarta State Administrative Court in September last year, claiming that they had decreased their catches and damaged the environment. The legal battle is currently ongoing.

The fishermen particularly criticized Ahok's plan to relocate them to Thousand Islands. Ahok said the construction of low-cost rental apartments in Thousand Islands would begin next year.

He said the relocation was part of his effort to create order in North Jakarta. "The relocation is a hasty plan. People in the islands want to come and stay here in the city. How can we in the city be relocated to the islands. That's a crazy idea," said Muhammad Taher, a fisherman and head of the Association of Indonesian Traditional Fishermen (KNTI) in Jakarta.

He said thousands of traditional fishermen in the area could be impacted if the administration went ahead with the plan. "The fishermen have been living in hardship so far. Now the governor wants to worsen our hard life by relocating us to Thousand Islands," said another protester Rohidah.

She said she had been put through a number of relocations since she was born. "I was born in Ancol. My house was destroyed and I was relocated to Muara Karang [also in North Jakarta] before I was moved to where I live now in Muara Angke. Now they want to move me to Thousand Islands," she said. "I am not an animal that can be kicked out whenever they like," she added.

Muhammad Taufik, a Gerindra councillor and speaker of the Council, met with the group and said he would take the group's demands to a Council meeting, adding that the council needed to make a regulation regarding the reclamation to make it benefit fishermen.

"We have to have a regulation that says any company reclaiming land should contribute to fishermen. For example, they should regularly clean the market and dredge nearby canals. They should also ensure the well-being of local fishermen," he said.

Regarding the administration's relocation plan, the Gerindra politician said that the council disagreed with it and assured that it would not happen.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/29/fishermen-stage-protest-against-eviction-thousand-islands.html

Ahok popular, Risma likable: CSIS survey

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2016

Corry Elyda, Jakarta – A survey by the Jakarta-based think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has revealed that incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has the highest popularity among Jakarta's voters but Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini is the most likable among all other hopefuls on the CSIS list.

"Ahok's popularity is the highest with 94 percent, followed by Golkar politician cum entertainer Tantowi Yahya with 81 percent, Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil with 71.25 percent, City Council deputy speaker Abraham 'Lulung' Lunggana with 69.25 percent, PKS politician Hidayat Nur Wahid with 64.5 percent and elected Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini with 63.75 percent," CSIS researcher Arya Fernandes said.

The researcher said, however, that Risma received the highest likability level with 85.54 percent, followed by Ridwan at 85.02 percent, Ahok at 71.39, Tantowi at 66.25 and Hidayat with 62.55.

Popularity levels show the figures that are most known by the respondents, the likability level highlights those that are most liked by respondents, while electability statistics reflect the figures respondents believe are most suitable for the position.

The survey also shows that most Jakartans prefer independent candidates to those from political parties.

Arya told reporters on Monday that 54.75 percent of respondents recommended that Jakarta gubernatorial election hopefuls slated for 2017 should run independently. "Only 38.5 percent of respondents prefer candidates to be endorsed by political parties while 6.75 percent did not answer or did not know," he said.

The survey, held from Jan. 5 to 10, involved 400 random respondents, each with voting rights in one of the five municipalities in Jakarta, with a margin of error of around 4.9 percent and a trust level of 95 percent.

Arya said that those respondents who said that they would choose a particular political party, if the legislative election was held during the survey period, still preferred candidates to run independently.

Currently, only three figures have declared an intention to run for Jakarta's top position. The candidates comprise current Jakarta Governor Ahok, urban planning expert Marco Kusumawijaya and Adhyaksa Dault. None of them are endorsed by a political party.

Arya said that among those names, Ahok was the most popular. Marco's name is not even on the CSIS list. The survey shows that, on an electability level, Ahok takes first place in the percentage stakes, followed by Ridwan, Risma, Adhyaksa Dault, Tantowi and Hidayat.

That Ahok was listed among the top five for popularity, likability and electability, among names related to the gubernatorial election, is an indication that Jakartans are satisfied with his performance, according to Arya. "Sixty-seven percent of the respondents said that they were satisfied with Ahok's performance and only 29 percent said they were not," he said.

Ahok, through a volunteer group dubbed Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok), has managed to collect at least 631,000 ID-backed signatures, enough names to secure an independent ticket as a governor hopeful for the 2017 election. The ID cards have been photocopied and each will need to be verified by the General Election Commission. Ahok, however, said recently that he was also open to endorsement from the NasDem Party.

CSIS political researcher Philips J. Vermonte said that as Ahok had taken major steps for the election already, political parties would be better to announce their future candidates as soon as possible. "Most respondents chose independent candidates because their trust in political parties is very low," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/26/ahok-popular-risma-likable-csis-survey.html

Fishermen fret as city mulls moving them to Thousand Islands

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2016

Indra Budiari and Dewanti Wardhani, Jakarta – The sun was scorching over the coast of North Jakarta as Siti Haminah sat in front of her shack, her toddler in her arms. The silence was broken only occasionally by the sound of a cracking clamshell as a fisherman passed by.

"We've heard the bad news. Most of the fishermen here don't want to move to the Thousand Islands," Siti, a clam peeler and fisherman's wife, told The Jakarta Post recently at her home, which sits less than 100 meters from the shore.

She has lived in Muara Angke since childhood and considers the coastal district her home. Moving to the island regency would be tough, she said, as she and her family would have to spend hours a day shuttling to and from the mainland to sell their catch.

The Jakarta administration recently announced it was considering evicting fisherfolk from the coasts of North Jakarta and rehousing them in soon-to-be-built low-cost apartments (rusunawa) in the Thousands Islands.

Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama insists that fishermen would obtain better hauls in the regency, where the seafood is healthier. "That way, no one will eat clams from Muara Angke that have been contaminated by heavy metals, which can be fatal," Ahok said recently.

The governor said the city administration would build a subsidized apartment complex for the fishermen, as well as providing free ferry travel to the mainland.

Located 45 kilometers off the Jakarta coast, the Thousand Islands boasts a unique sea ecosystem, offering visitors beach accommodation and marine activities like diving and snorkeling. Infrastructure for residents is limited, however, with erratic power supply and scarce banking, public transportation and trade facilities.

Jakarta Housing and Government Buildings Agency head Ika Lestari Aji said that the administration was completing required documents, including an environmental impact analysis (Amdal), before commencing development on the fishermen's rusunawa.

She explained that the apartment would be built and funded by city-owned developer PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) and private developer Agung Podomoro Land as part of the latter's obligations, and would have 12 towers containing a total 680 apartments.

"We hope to begin construction in the first half of this year at the latest," Ika told The Jakarta Post after a meeting at City Hall recently.

However, fishermen and their families fear that adjusting to a new life on the islands is not as simple as getting subsidized housing and free travel to the mainland.

Zaenal, a fisherman in his 20s, said life would be tougher in the Thousand Islands, where the deeper sea makes it harder to catch fish or clams with tools as basic as those used by many Muara Angke fishermen.

"Not to mention the fact that there are already other fishermen there. Competition would be tough," he added.

The Indonesian Traditional Fishermen's Association (KNTI) advisory board head Riza Damanik described moving fishermen from North Jakarta to the Thousand Islands as "the worst idea the city administration has ever had".

The administration, Riza said, had failed to address the inability of the island's scant sources of energy to accommodate hundreds or even thousands of newcomers.

Shortages of electricity and water in the regency are a major problem for both residents and the local tourist industry. The electricity supply relies heavily on diesel plants, because there is no external power supply to the islands.

"Electricity needs will increase substantially. The quality of the water there is also very bad," he said. Riza also warned that a major influx of people would harm the regency's image and appeal as a tourist destination.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/26/fishermen-fret-city-mulls-moving-them-thousand-islands.html

Police urged to step up internal monitoring

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2016

Agnes Anya, Jakarta – Police observers have called on the Jakarta Police to more closely monitor officers in the wake of a report pointing to a steep rise in the number of city police officers implicated in criminal cases.

At the end of last year, the force released its annual report, which revealed the involvement of 112 police officers in various criminal cases. The statistic represented a serious jump from the previous year, when the annual report listed just 26 officers as having been implicated in crimes.

According to University of Indonesia police observer Bambang Widodo Umar, the report indicates that the Jakarta Police are failing to properly monitor their field officers.

"It shows that the Jakarta Police, through their internal affairs division, do not have in place a rigorous system to monitor officers, so that in the field, officers do whatever they want – leading, in some cases, to abuses of power," Bambang said.

Bambang recommended that the internal affairs division not only step up its monitoring of officers, but also reveal to the public the processes used to enforce the law against police officers.

According to Bambang, the public are skeptical about the sincerity of prosecutions of police officers, especially the chances of a final punishment.

Meanwhile, he added, the public, if made aware of monitoring and sanctioning processes, would be able to play a part in them, in turn encouraging officers not to engage in criminal activity or abuse of power.

He emphasized that the force would in doing so not tarnish its reputation, but would instead gain greater public trust. Bambang added that the police should also overhaul its recruitment system and tighten screenings to weed out those officers likely to abuse their power.

Concurring with Bambang was the National Police Commission's Edi Saputra Hasibuan, who separately said that the city police, through the internal affairs division, should improve the monitoring system.

"Officers found to have committed crimes should not be protected," Edi said. The force, he added, should also hold seminars and training programs for its officers to discourage them from engaging in crime. He suggested that the institution also establish a rewards system to promote professionalism among police personnel.

At the same time, Edi applauded the Jakarta Police's progress under recently appointed chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian.

Unlike Bambang, Edi said that the sharp rise in the number of officers implicated in crimes was indicative not of a rise in criminality, but of a greater will to apply the law to officers, rather than covering up police involvement in crime.

Last year, a number of cases involving city police officers made headlines.

In January last year, the Jakarta Police's narcotics directorate arrested five officers – including one member of the narcotics directorate – in a series of raids targeting drug possession. From the suspects, officers confiscated 717 grams of methamphetamine, 7,457 ecstasy pills, electronic scales, a glass pipe and a bong.

In November, meanwhile, a policeman identified as Brig. Dedi Aleksander Sinaga, along with three companions, was detained by the Taman Sari Police on suspicion of defrauding and sexually assaulting a woman at a hotel in West Jakarta.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/25/police-urged-step-internal-monitoring.html

Ahok insists on cutting environmental analysis

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2016

Dewanti A. Wardhani, Jakarta – After being denied by the Environment and Forestry Ministry, Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has turned to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo for help paring down environmental checks in order to encourage investment in construction projects in Jakarta.

Since late last year, the city administration has sought to scrap Environmental Impact Analysis (Amdal) documents, a step required before investors can obtain an environmental permit to begin construction.

The city administration prepared a gubernatorial instruction intended to simplify the permit process, and planned to also shift responsibility for issuing environmental worthiness letters from the Jakarta Environmental Management Agency to the One-Stop Integrated Services Agency (BPTSP), responsible for issuing various permits and other documents.

However, after consultation and discussion, BPTSP head Edy Junaedi said that the ministry had turned down the city administration's plan. "On Dec. 30, the ministry sent us a letter giving a red light to our plan," Edy told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

Edy explained that in the city's plan, developers would no longer need to submit an Amdal document to construct a building, only a simpler document called an environmental management scheme and environmental monitoring scheme (UKL-UPL). Development would refer to the 2014 Detailed Spatial Planning and Zoning Bylaw.

An Amdal is drafted after a thorough survey of a construction area and its surroundings, and consists of environmental, social and economic analysis. An environmental management and monitoring scheme document is similar to an Amdal, but simpler, and is meant for buildings that have a minimum impact on their surroundings.

However, Edy said that the Environment and Forestry Ministry had denied the city's plan, stating that the proposed bylaw had yet to consider environmental capacity, which refers to the number of individuals an environment can support without causing a significant negative impact. The capacity of an area is calculated in terms of food and water supplies, waste disposal, carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles and other factors.

Ahok has since turned to Jokowi, a former superior and a good friend, for help. Ahok claimed that the 2014 bylaw had been drafted in consideration of the environment, and thus an Amdal was no longer necessary for developments in Jakarta.

"The bylaw was drafted while already considering environmental impacts in Jakarta. Therefore, we can scrap the Amdal process," Ahok told reporters at City Hall recently.

Ahok said that he had turned to Jokowi for help as his plan had been hampered by the Environment and Forestry Ministry's regulation. He claimed that Jokowi had verbally permitted him to get rid of regulations that were complicated and no longer useful. "Pak Jokowi ordered me to get rid of unimportant [regulations]. Those regulations have existed since Dutch colonial era," he said.

Environmental law expert Mas Achmad Santosa, also known as Ota, said that sustainable development was stipulated in Law No. 32/2009 on environmental protection and management.

The mechanism of sustainable development consists of four steps: a strategic environmental assessment considering economic, ecological and social aspects, which would be the base of a provincial spatial plan; drafting a spatial plan with full consideration of the assessment and full participation by stakeholders; drafting an Amdal based on the spatial plan; and drafting an environmental permit based on the Amdal.

"If simplifying [those] steps meant getting rid of the essence of the protection of environmental capacity, then it would be a big mistake," Ota said.

Protecting environmental capacity, he continued, should not be compromised by making shortcuts in the process itself. Shortcuts could be made only so long as they did not sacrifice the values of environmental protection.

The Indonesian Association of Urban & Regional Planners president Bernardus "Bernie" Djonoputro said that an environmental impact analysis was an important part of a city's development. Bernie said that the Detailed Spatial Planning and Zoning Bylaw was different to an Amdal.

"The bylaw regulates spatial planning and zoning, and makes no mention of an environmental impact analysis. An Amdal is thus essential so we can see what kind of impact a project would have on the environment," Bernie said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/25/ahok-insists-cutting-environmental-analysis.html

Film & television

Local TV programs not suitable for children

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2016

Jakarta – A survey conducted by a Jakarta-based media watchdog group has found that the majority of programs aired by local television stations contained content unsuitable for children.

The Children Media Development Foundation (YPMA) found that of 1,401 television programs surveyed, at least 59 percent should be banned for kids, especially because of their liberal use of crude language and profanity.

"Kids should be protected and we want the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) to see if they should renew the licences for local stations," YPMA coordinator Hendriyani said as quoted by kompas.com.

Last week, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo called for the issuance of stricter regulations for television programs and improved filtering of TV shows that could potentially have a bad influence on children.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/28/national-scene-local-tv-programs-not-suitable-children.html

AJI asks govt review 10 Indonesian TV permits over ethics concerns

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2016

Jakarta – An Indonesian journalists group has asked the government to review the permits of ten free-to-air television networks that will expire this year, amid concerns over the exploitation of air time to serve the business and political interests of the network owners.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) said on Thursday that the ten televisions – RCTI, SCTV, Indosiar, TV One, Metro TV, Trans TV, Global TV and TV7 – had been warned frequently by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), a state regulatory body, for their journalistic violations.

"The government does not need to renew their permits if they keep doing so," the AJI chairman Suwarjono said in a press release.

AJI notes the violations of the ten televisions consist of sadistic, impolite conversation, neglecting children's rights and misusing the media for political campaigns.

Suwarjono said AJI supported the initiative of KPI to seek input from the public before making a decision on the ten television entities. The public is encouraged to offer suggestions and opinions until Jan. 31. "I hope KPI can be transparent," he asserted.

Previously, a lawmaker and the Indonesian Television Broadcasting Association (ATVSI) rejected KPI's initiative to carry out public assessment. "It does not make sense why a good intention has been rejected," Suwarjono said, adding the KPI initiative should be a tradition. (dan)(+)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/28/aji-asks-govt-review-10-indonesian-tv-permits-over-ethics-concerns.html

'Weak' KPI criticized for allowing political party ads

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2016

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani – The Coalition for Broadcasting Reform has lambasted the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) for what it sees as the KPI's tardiness in responding to complaints from the public and weakness in enforcing broadcasting regulations.

In 2015, television watchdog Remotivi, through its application Rapotivi, recorded 853 verified complaints from the public regarding television programs deemed in violation of broadcasting regulations.

Around 120 complaints related to frequent advertisements for the United Indonesia Party (Perindo) on several TV stations belonging to the Media Nusantara Citra group controlled by media mogul and politician Hary Tanoesoedibjo.

According to Remotivi director Muhamad Heychael, the adverts violated the commission's 2012 broadcasting guidelines on program standards, which stipulate that no TV program may promote private or political interests over the public interest.

"We submitted the complaint reports to the KPI every week last year, but the commission has followed up only 10 percent of them so far. It hasn't even published the number of public complaints it received over the course of the year," Heychael said.

TIFA Foundation researcher R. Kristiawan said that Indonesia had adequate broadcasting regulations, but responsible institutions were weak in implementing them.

"It would be perfect if the KPI could work optimally. It has power and authority, but seems to be under the sway of certain players within the broadcasting industry," Kristiawan said.

The coalition also criticized the commission for its lack of transparency in dealing with broadcasting licensing and for not publishing reports on station performance.

The group called on the House of the Representatives to immediately evaluate the KPI's performance and to be transparent in the selection of new KPI commissioners, which is scheduled for June this year.

In response, KPI deputy chairman Idy Muzayyad said that his commission regularly sanctioned TV stations proven to have violated regulations, and had issued recommendations to the Communication and Information Ministry to revoke the broadcasting licenses of two stations for their excessive coverage of political candidates and parties during 2014 general elections.

Idy acknowledged that repeated party political broadcasts constituted a violation, unless a multitude of parties were given equal airtime. "The KPI has no authority to revoke licenses. We can only give recommendations to the ministry. Our power and authority are very limited," he said.

He claimed that the KPI had issued warnings to and recommended sanctions on several stations, but noted that stations were understandably loathe to publicize the reprimands.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker TB Hasanuddin from House Commission I overseeing information, defense and foreign affairs urged people not to blame the KPI alone and praised the commission for its work to date.

"People should be told that the KPI has the authority to issue warnings and reprimands, but that TV stations mostly ignore them," Hasanuddin said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/25/weak-kpi-criticized-allowing-political-party-ads.html

Armed forces & police

Jokowi orders TNI and police to support govt's projects

Jakarta Post - January 29, 2016

Ayomi Amindoni, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is ordering the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police to collaborate in supporting the government's priority projects, as part of the effort to boost economic growth.

Cooperation between the two forces was important amid a backlog of government's developments plans involving land acquisition, illegal fees and container dwelling times in the ports, Jokowi said on Friday in an executive meeting with high officials of the TNI and the National Police in Jakarta.

"I asked they settle those issues because they involve high-cost economic projects," he told journalists after the event.

The government was speeding up the development of projects as it focused on reaching 5.3 percent economic growth this year to create new job vacancies and a lower unemployment rate amid the current slowdown, Jokowi said.

The priority projects included Sumatran toll roads, railways, dams and ports in several areas in the country, Jokowi said.

"Therefore, the whole range of military and police should understand in which direction we will go. They must be ready and prepare measures," he added.

National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said his force is set to cooperate with the TNI and is committed to fully support the Jokowi administration's programs and polices.

"We will mobilize all resources and capabilities to make sure the national security and the country's sovereignity will meet the development goals," he said. (rin)(+)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/29/jokowi-orders-tni-and-police-support-govts-projects.html

Jokowi calls for end to conflict between military, police personnel

Jakarta Post - January 29, 2016

Ayomi Amindoni, Jakarta – The frequent conflicts between military and police personnel that occurred last year and in previous years have become a concern for President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who has called on both parties to put an end to such disputes.

The President said personnel of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police should instead optimize cooperation in order to strengthen nation security.

"In 2016, we hope there will no longer be disputes between the military and the police that lead to physical violence between [them]," said Jokowi during a meeting with high ranking officers of both institutions on Friday.

"It is necessary to strengthen cooperation through joint education and training as well as in joint operations," the President added.

During the meeting, Jokowi also expressed his appreciation for the good performance of the military and the police in addressing the crisis in Poso, Central Sulawesi, in fighting forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan, in relocating the former members of Gerakan Fajar Nusantara (Gafatar) from West Kalimantan and in dealing with a recent terrorist attack in Jakarta.

He said the quick response to the Jakarta terrorist attack got a lot of appreciation from other countries. "Many other countries gave praise to the quick reaction of our security forces to immediately return the situation to normal," Jokowi said.

Jokowi also ordered the military to help the police provide security to the community and make sure that the people get protection from various kinds of crimes.

"The military and police should be the guardians of diversity within the framework of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia," he said, adding the leaders of both institutions should not be reluctant to get into the field so that they could know what happens in society. "Give a quick solution if there are serious threats to national security," Jokowi said.

National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said the meeting was attended by 173 participants from both institutions. (bbn) (+)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/29/jokowi-calls-end-conflict-between-military-police-personnel.html

Intelligence & state security

House forms intelligence oversight committee

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2016

Tama Salim, Jakarta – The House of Representatives has established a national intelligence oversight team that will monitor the work of state intelligence officials and their clandestine operations.

"The formation of this team is a follow-up to Law No. 17/2011 on intelligence and the implementation of House Regulation No. 2/2014 on the national intelligence oversight team," House Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon said during a plenary session on Tuesday.

Hanafi Rais, a National Mandate Party (PAN) politician and member of the oversight body, said that the team would only get to work if there was any indication that intelligence officials had broken the law. For example, by performing illegal wiretapping or unwarranted arrests, he said.

Hanafi said the unit could hold closed-door meetings and had been granted the power to summon whomever they wanted, from state intelligence officials and people deemed relevant to ongoing investigations to intelligence experts.

"But all state secrets will be kept confidential and our meetings will remain closed-door so as to ensure national security," he said. He added that the formation of the oversight body had nothing to do with the recent act of terrorism that took place in downtown Jakarta.

"It's been long overdue. The [Intelligence Law] stipulates the formation of an external supervision team, comprising members of the House commission tasked with intelligence matters," Hanafi said. "It's high time the team was put together."

The unit comprises of 14 lawmakers from House Commission I overseeing intelligence, who were sworn in during the plenary meeting under an oath of secrecy, as they will be privy to state secrets and covert intelligence operations while carrying out their duties.

The team includes Commission I chairman Mahfudz Siddiq of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Gerindra secretary-general Ahmad Muzani, former high-ranking Army officer and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician TB Hasanuddin and United Development Party (PPP) secretary-general Dimyati Natakusumah.

The oath-taking and inauguration ceremony caught several members of the assembly by surprise, while others voiced concern that such processions were out of place in the plenary meeting.

Azis Syamsudin of the Golkar Party said that such a task-specific oversight team could instead have been inaugurated in a commission-level forum.

"Otherwise, if by extension we apply the prevailing jurisprudence at the House, the inauguration of all internal House bodies and their chairmanships must be conducted at the plenary level," protested Azis.

PKS politician Nasir Djamil concurred with his House Commission III colleague, saying there was no prior notice regarding the inauguration ceremony. "I'm in my third period at the House and I was flummoxed by the procession earlier. I support what Azis said, that we should take care not to blur the lines [of convention]."

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) questioned the impunity that may arise from having a supervision team consisting of politicians.

Puri Kencana Putri, KontraS' deputy coordinator for strategy and mobilization, took issue with the sudden establishment of the oversight body, which was done without any public awareness campaign.

"National intelligence supervisors need to have rules of procedure. Can the public file complaints with them? It should not be simply because someone is a politician sitting in House Commission I that he or she is so easily included on this committee," she said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/27/house-forms-intelligence-oversight-committ.html

Indonesian government 'using Sydney server for spyware program'

ABC 7.30 Report - January 26, 2016

An Indonesian spy server has been tracked to a street in Sydney, prompting the concern that Australia could get the blame for spying being carried out by other countries.

Transcript

Julia Baird, Presenter: Global espionage has been revolutionised by the internet and security researchers believe Western countries are being used as unwitting partners to mask online spying by countries that have dubious human rights records.

Now there's allegations this practice has arrived on Australia's doorstep with an Indonesian spy server being tracked to a Sydney street. Security experts are warning this means Australia could get the blame for spying carried out by other countries.

Conor Duffy and Lisa Main have the story.

Conor Duffy, Reporter: Across the globe, an arms race is under way as governments upgrade their capabilities to spy on those they deem a security risk. Intelligence capabilities that once cost billions can now be bought as a single piece of software.

Adam Molnar, Criminology, Deakin University: I think you can say on the whole that the use of sort of cyber offensive capabilities is proliferating massively. Over 60 countries right now have or are developing these capacities.

Conor Duffy: FinFisher is one such piece of tech. It's made in Germany and exported worldwide. It taps into every electronic secret on a target's computer or phone.

Bill Marzcak, Citizen Lab, Uni. of Toronto: FinFisher – obviously when a computer or phone is infected with FinFisher spyware, the spyware has to communicate back to the government that infected it and the way that it does that is it communicates to a master server and sends back the data, which includes the passwords that the user types in, including files on their computer or also even the spyware allows the government operator to turn on the microphone or the webcam of the computer or the phone.

Reporter: The Bahraini Government has been accused of apparently using surveillance on those who oppose its rule.

Conor Duffy: FinFisher suffered a massive and embarrassing hack in 2014. Despite many customers being revealed, it appears it's more popular than ever.

Reporter: Spying online is more sophisticated than ever before.

Conor Duffy: Bill Marzcak and a team of researchers used the information to track this secret network. It even turned up with one of our closest neighbours.

Bill Marzcak: It appears that Indonesia is definitely one of the largest customers of FinFisher. We were able to identify one specific government user inside Indonesia, the National Crypto Agency. But we also found evidence that there were many other government users inside Indonesia. I felt very concerned about the list of countries we had found. I think I would have felt far less concerned if the spyware was only turning up in countries which had robust rule of law and oversight of intelligence and law enforcement.

Conor Duffy: To hide their surveillance, FinFisher customers like Indonesia are routing their operations through decoy servers in other countries. 7.30 can reveal Indonesia is using a decoy server in Australia to mask its intelligence operations.

Bill Marzcak: As you say, we found this master server inside Indonesia which was using a proxy server in Australia, meaning that whoever the government agency in Indonesia was, their information was being – the information from the people they infected was going through Australia before it reached the final server inside Indonesia.

Conor Duffy: The researchers were able to track the Indonesian decoy spy server to a data storage centre on a busy Sydney street.

The data centre is run by a company called Global Switch Australia. It's now a vital, if possibly unknowing cog in Indonesia's intelligence machinery. It's not known which Indonesian agency is responsible for the decoy server.

Global Switch declined to respond to questions, as did its managing director, Damon Reid. I just wanted to ask you if you were aware that the Indonesians were using that decoy server?

Damon Reid, MD, Global Switch: I don't have any comment.

Conor Duffy: Can you answer if you knew it was there?

Damon Reid: No, I can't comment.

Bill Marzcak: If someone were to get one of these pieces of spyware, they'll see that their information – the information from their computer is flowing to a server in Australia. So one potential concern is that people might think, "Hey, this is Australia that's involved in the targeting here. Australia's somehow involved in the use of this spyware."

Conor Duffy: We approached ASIO and their counterparts in Defence Intelligence to see if they had concerns, but both declined to comment.

There are legitimate reasons for these surveillance techniques: terrorism and crime. However, human rights groups fear it can also be used against government opponents.

7.30 has obtained an Indonesian intelligence report from last year which human rights groups say lists a number of West Papuan independence activists, including students and Christian leaders. It identifies their weaknesses and lists its aim as being to suppress and divide the movement.

The Indonesian Foreign Ministry directed questions to the country's cyber security agency, which did not respond. Previously, Indonesian Defence has admitted spending millions on Gamma's products, but said it was for strategic purposes, not to spy on citizens. Gamma has previously denied reports from Citizen Lab on the locations of its servers.

Surveillance expert Adam Molnar says the server may not breach Australian law, but there's concerns over who is being targeted and what legal rights they have.

Adam Molnar: The Indonesian use of FinFisher, that really comes down to whether it's targeted at Indonesian citizens or non-citizens. So the legal protections would apply for Indonesians within Indonesia, for example, but those same protections wouldn't apply for Australian citizens.

Conor Duffy: There are fears the rules governing the use of this technology are failing to keep pace with this high-tech software. The suppliers thrive on staying in the shadows, but many would like to see some light shone on a product that's becoming ever more powerful.

Adam Molnar: I think that cuts to the heart of the problem is that there is so little transparency in this space. There's a lot of secrecy and I think we really need to remedy that in such a way that citizens can be aware of the types of services that their governments are contracting.

Julia Baird: Conor Duffy reporting.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4394903.htm?utm_content=buffera8a8c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Mining & energy

Freeport's export permit suspended

Jakarta Post - January 29, 2016

Raras Cahyafitri, Jakarta – Copper mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia will see its exports halted starting Friday after failing to realize its commitment to smelter development.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's mineral and coal director general, Bambang Gatot Ariyono, said his office had yet to issue a recommendation for the extension of Freeport's export license as the company had yet to meet the government's prerequisites for smelter development to process its products locally, as required by the 2009 Mining Law.

"We haven't issued the recommendation. They said that they would be cooperative [meeting the government's prerequisites]. However, they have yet to give details," Bambang said. The recommendation is necessary for the company to apply for an export permit with the Trade Ministry.

Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of the US-based Freeport-McMoRan Inc., had a six-month permit to export its semifinished copper concentrate that expired on Thursday. The permit is needed as the export of unprocessed minerals was banned at the start of 2014.

The government has asked Freeport to show progress on its planned smelter in Gresik, East Java, before it gives another recommendation for exports.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry proposed two conditions that would allow the firm to extend the permit for another six months: pay 5 percent in export tax and deposit US$530 million as a guarantee that the company will continue to make progress on the smelter.

"The company declines to pay US$530 million as a guarantee and has yet to propose options to replace the requirement," Bambang said.

Under a contract of work (CoW) signed in 1991 between the company and the government, Freeport Indonesia has the rights to export its product.

"If the company turns again to the contract of work, all points under the renegotiation will be canceled," Bambang added, referring to the government's attempt to adjust several matters in the previous contract to align with the 2009 Mining Law.

He also played down concerns that the miner would challenge the country in international arbitration.

The current export permit is the third Freeport has held since 2014. Previously, similar back-and-forth negotiations with the government also took place. The firm eventually found ways to obtain the permits.

"These points [5 percent duty and $530 million guarantee] are inconsistent with the agreement that we worked with the government in the beginning, in mid-2014, and our discussion with the government would continue," Freeport McMoRan CEO Richard Adkerson said earlier.

"We have full confidence that the government will come up with a favorable decision and issue the export license to ensure continuity of our mining operations, and in doing so will serve the interest of Indonesia's mining industry in general," he added.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said stated earlier, "I've received report that the company is asking for further consideration as it is currently affected by low commodity prices and poor finance. So, if it cannot meet the requirements, let's find a solution regarding things that can be the warranty for its commitment to progress the smelter project."

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/29/freeports-export-permit-suspended.html

Government eases stance on Freeport's export permit extension

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2016

Raras Cahyafitri, Jakarta – Amid concerns of a negative impact on the local economy, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has eased its stance over requirements for copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia to obtain an export permit extension.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said stated that the government was open to negotiation after the company requested that it be allowed to deposit US$530 million as a guarantee that it would develop a smelter.

According to an estimate by the ministry, the amount is what the company should have spent so far on building a smelter.

"I've received a report that the company is asking for further consideration as it is currently affected by low commodity prices and poor finance. So if it cannot meet the requirements, let's find a solution regarding things that can be a guarantee for its commitment to proceed with the smelter project," Sudirman said on Wednesday.

Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of US-based Freeport-McMoRan Inc, has a contract of work to mine in Papua. The company is currently seeking a recommendation from the ministry's mineral and coal directorate general for an extension of a permit to export copper concentrate for another six months. Its current permit expires on Thursday.

The minister earlier said the permit would be extended for another six months if the company met two requirements, namely agree to pay 5 percent export tax and a $530 million escrow deposit as a consequence of sluggish progress in the build of a smelter in Gresik, East Java. The smelter, which is estimated to cost $2.1 billion, is an obligation for mining firms as stipulated in the 2009 Mining Law.

Freeport Indonesia previously claimed that it had progressed 30 percent with the smelter project and expected to hold the groundbreaking in July this year. However, the mineral and coal office has refuted the claim, particularly because there were no physical signs of the project in Gresik.

Disruption in the company's ability to export will severely harm its operations, particularly because Freeport Indonesia continues to export most of its copper concentrate production and only delivers some to a domestic copper smelter.

During its release of 2015 earnings on Tuesday (early Wednesday Jakarta time), Freeport-McMoRan, which recently faced turbulence in its management lineup and business due to investment in the oil and gas sector, said it was confident of reaching a deal with the Indonesian government.

However, its CEO, Richard Adkerson, expressed the company's objection to the requirements of 5 percent export duty and a "sizeable escrow deposit to support smelter development".

"These points are inconsistent with the arrangements that agreement that we had worked out with the government on beginning in mid 2014 and our discussions with the government continues," Adkerson said.

"[...] we have full confidence that the government will come up with a favorable decision and issue the export license to insure continuity of our mining operation and in doing so will serve the interests of Indonesia's mining industry in general."

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/28/govt-eases-stance-freeport-s-export-permit-extension.html

Infrastructure & development

Rail project condemned for ignoring spatial plan

Jakarta Post - January 29, 2016

Arya Dipa, Bandung – The Bandung Legislative Council (DPRD) in West Java has expressed its concern over the planned Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, as the project has yet to receive formal recognition in the Bandung regency spatial plan (RTRW).

Speaking to The Jakarta Post on Thursday, DPRD Speaker Anang Susanto said the DPRD and Bandung regional administration had revised the regency's spatial plan for 2007-2027 late last year. The revision, however, did not mention the government's plan to build a train station in the regency's Tegalluar subdistrict.

"There's no clarity on the project. It is said that the transportation minister issued clearance for the railway's path from Jakarta to Tegalluar, but we haven't received any documents detailing such," he said.

The regency's newly revised RTRW, according to Anang, mentions that Tegalluar will be developed into a strategic area for commercial, residential and touristic purposes.

Former Bandung councilor Mokhamad Ikhsan, who was involved in the drafting of the regency's latest spatial plan, said the local administration would need at least three months to formally revise its spatial plan.

"According to existing procedures, the regional administration must discuss the changes first with the DPRD. The results will later be evaluated by the provincial administration and the central government," he said.

The ambitious rail project, the groundbreaking ceremony of which was led by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo earlier this month, will connect the country's capital with West Java's provincial capital via a 142.3-kilometer railway that will stop at four other stations – Halim in East Jakarta and Karawang, Walini and Tegalluar in West Java.

From the project's Environmental Impact Analysis (Amdal) documents, the Post learned that the US$5.5 billion project, primarily financed by the China Development Bank (CDB), will mean the eviction of residents from more than 2,300 houses and other buildings across nine regions of Jakarta and West Java.

According to the documents, the Greater Bandung area – which includes Bandung municipality, Bandung regency, West Bandung regency and Cimahi municipality – will be the most affected area with 1,224 houses currently located in the project's construction zone.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/29/rail-project-condemned-ignoring-spatial-plan.html

Economy & investment

Indonesia on right track despite challenges

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2016

Tassia Sipahutar and Grace D. Amianti, Jakarta – Indonesia will see its economy expand at a higher rate this year as the government and business players seek to develop untapped potential and spur higher investment realization from China, an investment forum concluded on Wednesday.

The event, dubbed the "Mandiri Investment Forum" and hosted by state-lender Bank Mandiri and its subsidiary Mandiri Sekuritas, saw the attendance of high-ranking government officials, central bankers and business players, among others.

In his speech at the event, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said the Indonesian economy had started to recover, as shown by the expansion in gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter of last year.

"We saw moderate growth in the first half of 2015, but that has since changed. Government consumption increased and we have already begun shifting from the commodities sector to the manufacturing sector," he said, adding that the change was also reflected by data on regional GDP.

The third quarter of 2015 saw GDP rise to 4.73 percent from 4.67 percent in the second quarter, according to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). Java – with its factories and manufacturing businesses – accounted for 58.27 percent of the economic distribution, and grew 5.39 percent year-on-year (yoy).

Sumatra and Kalimantan – known for their commodity resources – only grew at an annual rate of 3 percent and 0.4 percent yoy, respectively.

"Some regions in Indonesia had higher growth than the national GDP, such as Bandung and Central Java, which grew by 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively," Bank Mandiri president director Budi Gunadi Sadikin said, pointing out the need to push investment and economic growth across different regions.

Bambang acknowledged the dampening effects of the ongoing economic slowdown in China, but insisted that China was still in a strong position and offered a lot of opportunities for Indonesia.

"We want to change the products that we export to China to finished goods from commodities. We want to attract higher investment from China as well, not just commitments, but also realized investments."

"So we have to remain optimistic and find new opportunities. We have to maintain close economic ties with China," he said, adding that he was optimistic that Indonesia could achieve its 5.3 percent GDP growth target this year.

Meanwhile, Asian Development Bank (ADB) country director Steven Tabor said that Indonesia had not fully explored its export potential. "Indonesia accounted for 1 percent of global exports in 2014. There is still 99 percent to be captured, plenty of room for expansion."

Tabor also highlighted the importance of tourism and e-commerce as new growth sectors. "E-commerce contributes 9 to 10 percent of GDP in China, 40 percent of GDP in western Europe, but less than 1 percent of GDP in Indonesia."

The event was attended by more than 700 international and local participants and business practitioners. The event aimed to connect regulators, private companies, investors and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) through new partnerships and networking.

In order to invite more investment into the country, Mandiri Sekuritas president director Abiprayadi Riyanto said the event was also attended by 60 mutual fund managers with assets under management worth at least Rp 270 trillion (US$19.48 billion).

Despite looming market volatilities, Abiprayadi said investors and companies were confident that the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), the country's main stock exchange barometer, could hit 5,000 this year due to accelerated government spending.

"With an improved situation, we hope our clients who delayed and rescheduled their equity issuances in 2015 will continue their corporate actions this year," he said, adding that Mandiri Sekuritas had already booked seven mandates of debt paper issuances worth about Rp 9 trillion for this year.

Bank Mandiri finance director Kartika Wirjoatmodjo said the event also wanted to promote the digital economy and encourage the formation of startups as new players in the private sector.

Meanwhile, Gatot Trihargo, the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry's deputy for business services, said the ministry had completed a new roadmap for SOEs that would push them and their subsidiaries to build more partnerships with private companies and become global players.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/28/indonesia-right-track-despite-challenges.html

China likely biggest investor in Indonesia

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2016

Anton Hermansyah, Jakarta – China, and not Singapore, is believed to be the biggest foreign investor in Indonesia, as Chinese investors often invest in other countries through proxy companies that are based in other countries such as Singapore or Hong Kong.

According to the latest investment realization data from the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), Singapore is the largest contributor with US$5.9 billion in investment, a 20 percent share of total foreign investment. China was in ninth position with $0.63 billion despite a 47 percent year-on-year (YoY) increase, the highest growth in the history.

"Chinese investment is sometimes conducted through subsidiaries based in another countries. For instance, the investor of Sokonindo Automobile, the manufacturer of mini pickup DFSK is from the Chinese mainland but registered in Hong Kong," BKPM Director Azhar Lubis said in Jakarta. Unfortunately, he continued, BKPM could not monitor investments made through the proxy countries.

Most of investments coming from China were for smelters, especially in Southern Kalimantan, such as the construction of the first bauxite smelter in Indonesia. Another mega project in which China is providing investment is the high-speed railway between Jakarta and Bandung.

"The high-speed train project will increase the amount of China's investment in Indonesia drastically. There will be a big contribution in the supply chain as joint ventures will produce the train engines, carriages as well as spare parts," BKPM Chief Franky Sibarani said. (ags)(+)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/25/china-likely-biggest-investor-indonesia.html

Analysis & opinion

The politics of compromise

Inside Indonesia - January-March 2016

Ken Setiawan – Hopes were high when Joko Widodo or Jokowi, was elected. Many believed that a president without ties to military, political and business elites could make a substantial contribution to improving the country's human rights record – not least through addressing the human rights violations of the past.

The hopes held for the Jokowi leadership were not based on thin air. During his presidential campaign, he reached out to human rights activists and the victims of human rights violations. Human rights issues featured prominently in the Nawa Cita, a nine-point agenda put forward by Jokowi and his running mate, Jusuf Kalla. Its fourth priority, on law enforcement, stated that 'the just finalisation of past human rights violations' were of utmost importance, as they represented a 'social and political burden' on the country. It also identified a number of cases to be addressed under the Jokowi government. These included the 1965 massacres; Talangsari; Tanjung Priok; the disappearances of activists in 1997-98; the May 1998 riots and the shootings at Trisakti and Semanggi.

Human rights activists believed that the Jokowi administration would bring these cases to ad hoc human rights courts, but their hopes were dashed in May 2015 when the government announced the establishment of a Reconciliation Committee instead.

Frustrated hopes

The Reconciliation Committee is not the first attempt to address past human rights violations in Indonesia. A law passed in 2004 to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was promptly revoked by the Constitutional Court. An earlier law on human rights courts remains on the books, but has proven to be ineffective in addressing past human rights violations.

One of the main stumbling blocks has been the stance taken by the Attorney General's Office, which has repeatedly refused to act on preliminary investigations by the National Commission on Human Rights. This obstructive behaviour has been agonising for victims' relatives, who have recently petitioned the Constitutional Court on the matter.

The establishment of the Reconciliation Committee is a response to the failure of these mechanisms. It is led by Attorney General Prasetyo, whose support for the initiative is unsurprising, given that his office has effectively prevented cases of human rights violations from making it to court.

According to Prasetyo, a non-judicial approach is the most practical option, since it is difficult to collect evidence in old cases. Following this line of reasoning, the possibilities for a legal process are limited and are likely to lead to what he calls a 'sub-optimal outcome'. Thus, for him at least, reconciliation is a better choice.

Avoiding responsibility

More than six months later, the government had issued no further information regarding the Reconciliation Committee's formal mandate, except that it will be directly responsible to the president. In addition, human rights NGOs have been very critical of the composition of the Committee, which is dominated by representatives of the Coordinating Ministry of Politics, Law and Security, the National Police, the Military and the State Intelligence Agency. These bodies have all been involved in human rights violations, so there are serious doubts to what extent the Committee will address their complicity in the cases that it proposes to examine.

There is evidence of a lack of political will that backs up this assessment. At the time of the Committee's establishment, it was proposed that the president would express regret and offer an apology to victims of gross violations of human rights and their families. There were strong rumours that the first of these apologies would be offered this year, the 50th anniversary of the 1965 massacres. But senior government officials were quick to quash this speculation. Vice-President Jusuf Kalla observed that an apology was problematic. Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said that it was unnecessary. There are also reports that progress on the Committee has stalled following the appointment of Luhut Panjaitan as Coordinating Minister of Politics, Law and Security.

Since truth-seeking would be an unlikely priority for a state-led committee in which the military and the intelligence services have been given such a prominent role, its establishment appears to be yet another attempt by the state to absolve itself of its obligations to investigate past abuses. These suspicions were confirmed when – following strong pressure from the Islamic mass organisations Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah – Jokowi confirmed that that the government had no intention of offering an apology. In short, while the political elite was prepared to come out in support of reconciliation, it has no appetite for an apology, which would require both documentation and acknowledgment of what happened in the past and identification of who should be held responsible.

This watered-down approach is in direct contradiction with the decades-long efforts of human rights activists and the attempts by the National Commission on Human Rights to bring these cases to court. For victims and their families, the lack of representation on the Committee is particularly disappointing. To many of them, the approach taken to reconciliation illustrates that the government is unwilling to acknowledge past wrongs, once again denying victims and survivors justice. Many activists thus claim that the Commission is a diversion only serving government interests, and that the state should have focused on strengthening existing mechanisms.

Well-intentioned but weak

The establishment of the Reconciliation Committee is likely to have been influenced by Jokowi's presence and the human rights agenda put forward during his campaign. In the 2015 State of the Nation address, Jokowi once again argued that past human rights violations must be addressed so that 'generations of the future are not burdened by the past'. However, Jokowi commands little authority, even in his own party, and key power brokers are unresponsive – even hostile – towards human rights.

The political discourse surrounding this committee and the rejection of state apologies shows how fraught it will be to address past human rights violations during the Jokowi presidency. Jokowi's human rights agenda was always going to be challenging to fulfil, but it has proven near impossible given his limited political leverage and the presence of military hardliners in his cabinet. In such an environment, any progress is ultimately likely to be compromised, and the Reconciliation Committee is an example of that.

[Ken Setiawan (setiawan.k@unimelb.edu.au) is a McKenzie Research Fellow at the Asia Institute, the University of Melbourne.]

Source: http://www.insideindonesia.org/the-politics-of-compromise

Indonesia: Staying calm and carrying on

The Diplomat - January 27, 2016

William Mackey – It had been years since Indonesia had experienced an attention-grabbing terrorist attack. That changed on January 14. Early in the morning, four militants launched a brazen assault in downtown Jakarta, Indonesia's capital.

Several of the militants were suicide bombers, and detonated their explosives near a Starbucks outside of Sarinah, a popular shopping plaza. Others threw grenades, and fired at police officers stationed at a nearby traffic post. Once the smoke finally cleared, eight people were dead, including the four militants. More than twenty others were injured.

Soon afterwards, the Islamic State (ISIS) issued a statement via social media, claiming responsibility for the attack.

The attack, according to some, was the opening of a new battlefront for ISIS – yet another signal of how dangerous the group was becoming, not only in the Middle East but also in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country.

But such claims – that ISIS poses a major danger to the peace and security of Indonesia – are overblown. Yes, ISIS sympathizers and militants are active in Indonesia, as they are in other countries in the region, such as Malaysia and the Philippines. But that does not mean that they pose – or are capable of posing – a major threat to the Indonesian state and its people. Indeed, most Indonesian militants are poorly trained and largely incompetent, and prior to the January 14 assault they had failed to launch any large-scale attack, despite several attempts.

With this in mind, the Indonesian government response to the January 14 attack should be careful and measured. An overblown reaction risks the government losing popular support, and driving more Indonesian Islamists into the arms of ISIS.

It is important to note that a only tiny fraction of Indonesian Muslims has joined ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Indonesia has about 210 to 250 million Muslim citizens. Just five hundred or so have travelled to ISIS-controlled territory to fight with the group. As a proportion of Indonesia's total Muslim population, that amounts to just 0.00012 percent, or about 1.4 people per million. The ratio of ISIS fighters travelling from Australia, meanwhile, is 14 per million. From Belgium, it's 40 per million.

What's more, few Indonesian extremists travelling to ISIS-controlled territory want to come home. As Sidney Jones, a veteran Indonesia watcher and Director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, points out: Indonesian Islamists who have traveled to ISIS territory want to live in the caliphate. They do not want to return to Indonesia, making it all the more difficult for them to train a new generation of Indonesian terrorists. (Most of Southeast Asia's most-dangerous terrorists cut their teeth in Afghanistan, fighting against the Soviets in the 1980s. And when they returned to their home countries, they set up several deadly terrorist organizations, including Jemaah Islamiah (JI), an Al Qaeda affiliate.)

Indeed, in its struggle against ISIS, the Indonesian government is already winning on one of the most important fronts: the battle for public opinion. Many Indonesians practice a moderate form of Islam. They do not approve of ISIS's harsh interpretation of their religion or the acts of violence perpetrated by extremists in the name of their faith. According to a recent poll from Pew Research Center, about 79 percent of Indonesians view ISIS unfavorably, and after the attacks in Jakarta, Indonesians took to the streets and to social media to condemn the militants. Indonesia's two largest Muslim organizations – Nahdlatal Ulama and Muhammadiyah, with a combined following of 60 to 70 million people – strongly denounced the attacks, as well.

Indonesian response

What is concerning, though, is how the Indonesian government will respond to the January 14 attacks in the coming months. The government needs to maintain the support of moderate Indonesian Muslims, and it needs to avoid using heavy-handed tactics against the extremists and their sympathizers. Indeed, if the government does respond with excessive force, it risks empowering those very same extremists.

Unfortunately, that story has played out before. Previously, in Aceh, a small province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the Indonesian military and police used excessive force – such as extrajudicial killings – to quell a secessionist movement. Yet such tactics only enraged the local population, and over time, the leading secessionist group in Aceh, known as GAM, became increasingly popular.

Will the Indonesian government avoid making the same mistake? Given recent history, it seems like the government has learned from past experience. For instance, after the JI-orchestrated terrorist attacks in Bali in 2002, which killed more than 200 people, the Indonesian government created a new police counter-terrorism outfit. Known as Densus 88, the unit received training and funding from the United States and Australia. In a series of small-scale, surgical operations, the unit killed or captured many JI fighters, and within a matter of years, JI ceased to exist, at least in terms of being able to plan and conduct major terrorist attacks, as it had in Bali.

But Densus 88 was almost too successful. The Indonesian government saw the unit as a well-trained hammer, and a lot of the country's internal conflicts suddenly looked like nails. Soon thereafter, Densus 88 was deployed against secessionist movements in Maluku and Papua. But the unit did not fair so well in those environments. It had trouble, in particular, operating among hostile populations, and reports accusing Densus 88 of human rights abuses began to emerge.

Some Indonesian Islamist groups even began to accuse Densus 88 of unfairly targeting Muslims. No other group, they said, was treated so harshly by Densus 88 – not even the secessionist groups. The unit, along with the Indonesian government, they suggested, were waging a war against their faith.

Those claims, at the time, rang hollow to most Indonesians, and still do. But the Indonesian government needs to make sure that this does not change. It needs to avoid the perception that it is unfairly targeting Islamists, so it does not lose mainstream Muslim support. One way of doing that is to continue to treat counterterrorism as a police issue, rather than as a military one, and to only use Densus 88 for counter-terrorism operations.

So far, at least, it seems like the government is doing exactly that. After the January 14 attack, the government did not respond with bellicose rhetoric, and it did not launch a brutal crackdown on the country's Islamists. Rather, Indonesian President Joko Widodo – more commonly referred to as Jokowi – ordered the police chief and the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs to "pursue and arrest the perpetrators and their networks." It was a criminal matter, according to Jokowi, and not a war. The police should therefore handle it. "I hope that people remain calm," he added, "because it is all controllable."

Indeed, in Indonesia, terrorist attacks – particularly those against police outposts – are nothing new. They have occurred, if not regularly, then at least consistently, during the course of the last several years (although few have been as deadly as the January 14 assault). And just because the most recent attacks were done in the name of ISIS, does not mean that Indonesia needs to panic. It is still facing the same poorly trained and poorly armed extremists as before, and they do not, at the moment, pose a major threat to the state or its people, despite their recent claims of being ISIS fighters.

As Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, Indonesia's coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, told a press conference after the attack: "the government is planning to take a soft approach toward alleged IS sympathizers, in contrast to Western counterterrorism practices."

That, at the moment, is exactly what is needed, and the Indonesian police have already arrested several suspected ISIS militants. Depending on what happens during the course of the next few months, Indonesia's experience might ideally serve as a reminder about how effective a softer approach to counterterrorism can be.

[William Mackey is a Bosworth Scholar at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He previously lived in Indonesia, and worked at the US-Indonesia Society in Washington, DC. He has contributed pieces to The Jakarta Globe and Inside Indonesia.]

Source: http://thediplomat.com/2016/01/indonesia-staying-calm-and-carrying-on/

No 'magic bullet'

Inside Indonesia – January-March 2016

Vannessa Hearman – It has been a strange year for human rights under the Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, administration. Human rights activists were among those who invested a great deal of energy in Jokowi's election campaign. They volunteered individually, as well as setting up campaign groups to prevent the election of his rival, former Army Special Forces (Kopassus) commander, Prabowo Subianto. Unlike previous presidents, Jokowi is not part of the military or civilian power elite.

Successive presidents from Habibie to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) have proven unable to address human rights abuses dating back to the Suharto regime. These abuses include the 1965-66 mass violence against members and sympathisers of the Indonesian Communist Party, the disappearance of political activists in 1997-98 and human rights abuses in West Papua, Aceh and East Timor.

It would be reasonable to expect that Jokowi's administration would be better able to address these abuses, as he has no direct connection to any of these events. But the last year has revealed that Jokowi is not the 'magic bullet' for resolving human rights abuses in Indonesia. Instead, he has cultivated strong links with former and current military figures and has maintained the status quo with regards to the 1965 violence and human rights issues in Papua.

Optimism in the face of ambiguity

Activists welcomed Jokowi's campaign pledge of Nawa Cita, nine points which included a commitment to upholding the rule of law and implementing clean government. Jokowi's action program, unveiled during the campaign, pledged respect for human rights and to deliver justice for past human rights abuses. Those activists who threw their support behind Jokowi relied on these specific promises, as well as the fact that the alternative, Prabowo Subianto, was too unsavoury to contemplate.

The loyalty of activists was nevertheless divided during the presidential campaign. Jokowi supporters saw Prabowo as unpalatable. It was under his leadership that Kopassus was implicated in the 1997-98 disappearance of activists. Some of these activists developed techniques to try to influence the vote. For example, the Coalition Against Forgetting, which involved 25 human rights and civil society groups, urged voters not to support candidates with a problematic human rights record. Activists opposed to Jokowi pointed out on social media such as Twitter that his campaign involved generals with problematic pasts including the former head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), AM Hendropriyono, who was implicated in human rights activist Munir's murder in 2004.

A year of no gains

In office, Jokowi has shown himself to be a politically weak president. He does not enjoy clear support in parliament. Even within his own party, he does not hold a strong position. In particular, he is bound to satisfying the interests of Megawati Sukarnoputri, the party leader, who is close to certain military officers.

Since becoming president, Jokowi has made appointments aimed to keep the military on side. These appointments have attracted criticism. For example, he appointed former military officers Ryamizard Ryacudu as defence minister and Sutiyoso as head of the National Intelligence Agency. Ryacudu has expressed some hardline anti-separatist sentiments and is the first defence minister to have come from a military background since 2001. Sutiyoso is under a cloud for his role as the Jakarta military commander in 1996 during the violent invasion of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters in the 27 July incident. His coordinating minister for legal, political and security affairs is Luhut Panjaitan, a former Kopassus officer.

In many ways the Jokowi era has not represented a definitive break from the previous SBY presidency in terms of human rights. One example is the delivery of an apology to human rights abuse victims. In 2012, SBY promised to deliver such an apology but failed to do so. Similarly, the Jokowi administration in October 2015 rejected rumours that the president intended to deliver an apology to the 1965-66 abuse victims. The Jokowi adminstration's approach to other human rights issues shows similar ties with the past.

Special challenges: Anti-communist violence and Papua

Two of the most sensitive human rights issues in Indonesia are the 1965-66 violence and Papua. The 1965-66 violence involves powerful perpetrators such as the military and members of the religious organization, Nahdlatul Ulama. Papuans continue to suffer human rights abuses, despite the introduction of regional autonomy after the fall of Suharto. These cases, while difficult, are important to resolve if Indonesia is to make a break with the past.

Jokowi's position on the 1965-66 violence is contradictory. While he has promised to provide an apology to victims, he led the ceremony at the Lubang Buaya monument to the seven slain army officers on 'Sacred Pancasila Day' on 1 October last year, just as his predecessors had. The monument is premised on the New Order regime's misrepresentation of history. It does not mention the half a million people slaughtered as part of the anti-communist pogroms in 1965-66. To conduct an official ceremony on 1 October without commenting on the lies upon which it was founded simply reinforces that New Order's version of history at a time when Indonesia desperately needs a national consensus on the 1965 events rather than the usual moral panic about the reawakening of communism.

The question of Papua also highlights Jokowi's quandary. He is aware of the serious problems that exist in Papua and shows a level of sympathy with indigenous Papuans. Jokowi has visited Papua more than once, including during the election campaign, and has pledged to stop transmigration to Papua. In May 2015, he released five Papuan political prisoners under an amnesty program and has declared Papua open for international journalists to cover news there. He has, however, stopped short of discussing the drawdown of troops from the two provinces. Human Rights Watch in a report released in November 2015 has shown that, in reality, foreign journalists continue to have difficulties accessing Papua. In effect, Jokowi is caught in a bind as he cannot be seen to be giving too much green light to those questioning Indonesia's repressive Papua policies.

A disappointing start

Jokowi in office has proven to be a disappointment when it comes to human rights. For a start, he has not involved activist and survivor groups or NGOs in his efforts to deal with past human rights abuses, even though he embraced them prior to his election. While some well-known former activists are part of his administration, such as his chief of staff, Teten Masduki, at the same time more former military officers have joined the cabinet.

To break with the past, Jokowi has to confront two of the most sensitive issues in Indonesian history – the anti-communist killings of 1965-66 and decades of violence in Papua. He has shown on both fronts to be reluctant to break new ground. Without sufficient pressure from below and internationally, Jokowi's reign does not promise any great achievements for human rights for which he will be remembered.

[Vannessa Hearman (vannessa.hearman@sydney.edu.au) is lecturer in Indonesian Studies at The University of Sydney. She is a historian and her research interests include the 1965 – 66 mass violence and the history of human rights campaigning in Indonesia.]

Source: http://www.insideindonesia.org/no-magic-bullet

Dispatches: LGBT Backlash in Indonesia

Human Rights Watch - January 27, 2016

Kyle Knight – Last week in Jakarta, I met leaders of the Support Group and Resource Center on Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Indonesia, who were brimming with confidence about their work with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

What a difference a week makes. On January 24, the minister of research, technology, and higher education, Mohammad Nasir, denounced the group for not being "in accordance with the values and morals of Indonesia." Even worse, Nasir said he "forbids" the existence of LGBT-oriented academic groups. Although he later backtracked, the LGBT community interpreted his statement as a broader government assault on their rights.

The Conservative Islamic newspaper Republika ran the headline "LGBT poses serious threat", on its front page on January 26, 2016, following comments by the Minister of Higher Education saying he wanted to ban LGBT student groups.

Nasir's comments are the just latest in a surge of public pronouncements from prominent figures attacking LGBT Indonesians over the past year. And rather than defending those rights, Indonesian government officials are in some cases leading the charge in undermining them.

In March 2015, the Ulema Council (MUI), the country's most influential Muslim clerical organization, issued a fatwa, calling for same-sex behavior to be punished by caning. In October 2015, Sharia (Islamic law) police in Aceh province arrested a pair of young women for "hugging in public." In November, Brawijaya University authorities cancelled an LGBT event claiming they received threats. And last month the rector of the University of Lampung threatened to expel any students or lecturers involved in LGBT work.

The government's failure to protect the rights of LGBT people – to non-discrimination, privacy, and education, among others – runs counter to its obligations under international human rights and Indonesian law. The complicity of educators in denying LGBT rights is also deeply troubling.

The government of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo should publicly condemn Minister Nasir's comments and ensure he demonstrates his ministry's commitment to equality by encouraging all Indonesian universities to provide safe space and accurate information to LGBT students.

If Jokowi needs support, 12 United Nations agencies – many operating in Indonesia – recently signed a pledge to help governments end violence and discrimination toward LGBT people. He should also ensure that Indonesian authorities thoroughly investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of rights violations against LGBT people, including violent attacks, forced evictions, and harassment by law enforcement.

[Kyle Knight is a researcher with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program.]

Source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/01/27/dispatches-lgbt-backlash-indonesia