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Indonesia News Digest – January 1-8, 2008

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 News & issues

Golkar's Soeharto call backfires

Jakarta Post - January 8, 2008

Adianto P. Simamora and Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – In response to the Golkar Party's call to drop legal proceedings against Soeharto, Attorney General Hendarman Supandji has said his office long ago ended criminal charges against the former president but that the civil cases against him would continue.

Speaking after attending a Cabinet meeting Monday, Hendarman said his office dropped the case because of Soeharto's illness and the results of several court decisions.

"So, Soeharto's (criminal) case is over. What's now proceeding is the civil case against seven foundations belonging to Soeharto," Hendarman said. "And the proceedings against the seven foundations are still going on."

The government says that the seven foundations – Dakab, Dharmais, Amal Bakti Muslim Pancasila, Supersemar, Dana Sejahtera Mandiri, Gotong Royong and Trikora – channeled much of the money given to them to companies belonging to Soeharto's cronies.

Hendarman said that pardoning Soeharto would not be possible under Indonesian law.

Currently, Soeharto is at Pertamina General Hospital in South Jakarta, where he was taken after suffering from anemia and a severe edema on Friday.

The Golkar Party surprised legal practitioners on Sunday when it asked the government to reconsider criminal cases against former president Soeharto out of respect for his contributions to the nation.

"The Golkar Party only called on the government to give certainty to the criminal cases of Soeharto, because we are afraid the government will still open the cases," chairman of the Golkar Party faction at the House of Representatives Priyo Budi Santoso told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Priyo said that the party only asked government to clarify its stance on Soeharto's criminal cases and not his civil cases.

"The government should just drop all criminal charges against him. We should remember that Pak Harto is an elder and he is in a critical condition," he said. "Besides we should respect his contributions when he was a country leader."

However, Priyo added that the party had yet to decide its stance regarding his civil lawsuit.

Golkar's concerns emerged after the government joined the World Bank-sponsored Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) initiative. In the StAR report, the 86-year old Soeharto was listed as the world's worst thief of state assets.

Golkar's move immediately drew criticism from various quarters. Hidayat Nurwahid and A.M. Fatwa, the speaker and deputy speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, which issued a decree to try Soeharto, asked the government to take him to court.

Hendardi from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association said the President, Vice President and elements of the New Order regime had over-reacted.

"It is only a repetition of the silly opera that always appears every time Soeharto is hospitalized," he said. He added that no president or attorney general since the fall of the New Order had had "the guts" to take Soeharto to court.

Emerson Yuntho of Indonesian Corruption Watch, however, insisted that the law must be upheld against Soeharto.

"It is the right moment for the government to show it has the political will to bring Soeharto to court," he said. "If Soeharto is then found guilty, it is the President's prerogative whether to grant a pardon or not." (dic)

'Drop charges' against Soeharto

Jakarta Post - January 7, 2008

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – As the country's longest serving former president lay in hospital over the weekend his loyalists appealed for all charges against him to be dropped.

After a Golkar meeting on Saturday, party chairman Agung Laksono asked the government to end the legal process against 86-year-old Soeharto.

"As stipulated in Article 35 in the law on the Attorney General's Office, this can be done by the attorney general," Agung was quoted by Antara newswire as saying on Sunday.

The law states that the Attorney General's Office can drop a case "for the sake of the public good."

Separately, Golkar Party executive Theo L. Sambuaga said that the request would only be applied to cases against Soeharto, not his children or his trustees.

The former five-star general was allegedly involved in a corruption case related to his foundation Supersemar. The Attorney General's Office dropped charges against him in early 2006 due to his ailing physical state and old age.

However the civil case continues, seeking to recoup US$240 million and Rp 185.9 billion in state monies allegedly misused by his foundation.

Meanwhile Soeharto's doctors said Friday he was recovering. Soeharto was rushed to Pertamina Hospital on Friday after suffering from anemia and a severe edema. Hospital director Djoko Sanjoto said Sunday that excess fluids in his body, especially in the lungs, has been reduced.

Reports said Soeharto received several visitors, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Constitutional Court Chief Justice Jimly Asshiddiqie. Visitors said Soeharto was able to smile and shake their hands.

Separately former president Abdurrahman Wahid, a pro-democracy activist when Soeharto was in power, said that the legal process against Soeharto should continue. "If the court has made a decision it is up to us whether to forgive him or not, but the process should be continued," he said after visiting Soeharto at the hospital.

Deputy chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly AM Fatwa, who was also among the visitors, also said the case against Soeharto should go on.

"I have forgiven him, I have no grudges," said Fatwa, a political detainee under Soeharto's regime. However the legal process should continue, he added, as quoted by Antara, "as it is part of the reform commitment."

In December, the National Commission on Human Rights said it was examining six major cases of human rights violations under Soeharto's regime.

Those cases were related to the political upheaval in the mid- 1960s, the prolonged imprisonment of political detainees on Buru Island, the mysterious shootings of criminals in the 1980s, the armed conflicts in Aceh and Papua, the 1967 killings of Chinese Indonesians in West Kalimantan and the 1996 attack on the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.

City's street musicians become walking ads

Jakarta Post - January 5, 2008

Jakarta – Jakarta's street musician, the one found playing beside a car waiting at a red light, on a public bus, or in small roadside restaurants, could be part of an advertising strategy.

Sources working in the music industry said many music labels and distributors are hiring street musicians to play their songs. "It's just a part of a creative marketing strategy," said Dodi Sukaman, a music producer and distributor.

Dodi said music distributors sometimes paid street musicians to perform songs without the knowledge of the producing label, or the other way around. "It's not exactly common practice, my company doesn't do it," he said.

A street musician is an informal job often associated with begging for money on the streets. The musicians appear on buses, on trains and other modes of public transportation, playing music and asking for tips.

Abimanyu, also a street musician who plays in the Fatmawati, South Jakarta area, said the job pays little, but can add to his income.

"I get Rp 30,000 to 50,000 (around US$5) a night, but I do this as a side job really," said the high school graduate who has also worked in sales promotions in malls.

Abimanyu said he believed his job could be an effective advertising campaign. "I usually play a lot of top-40 songs, something people can enjoy, but yes, I guess we're sort of advertising other people's music," he said.

Recently, the ubiquitous song on the street has been Matta's Band "Ketahuan" – or Caught. A street musician, asked to be identified as E for security reasons, said he was a part of the Telkomsel advertising campaign and was paid Rp 40,000 an hour to play their jingle on buses.

"That was during the Ramadhan month back in September, I was also paid Rp 80,000 to play in the terminal for two hours," he said.

Ramadhan is the Islam holy month of fasting when many companies used the momentum to sell Ramadhan themed products.

E said he had never heard of street musicians being given money to play certain songs, although he said they did get the occasional request from people on busses to play certain songs. "But I think that was more because they just want to hear it," he said. (anw)

 Demos, actions, protests...

Four protest actions to enliven Jakarta today

Detik.com - January 8, 2008

Iqbal Fadil, Jakarta – As many as four demonstrations at four separate locations will be held in Jakarta today, Tuesday January 8. Those who do not wish to be inconvenienced by the actions should avoid the following locations.

Quoting form the Metro Jaya regional police Traffic Management Centre (TMC), the first two protest actions will take place at around 10am. The first will be held at the State Palace on Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara in Central Jakarta.

Migrant Care, a non-governmental organisation that provides advocacy for migrant workers overseas, will be calling on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to fight for the protection of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia during a ministerial level meeting with Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi on January 11-12.

The second demonstration, which will take place in front of the Constitutional Court building on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat, also in Central Jakarta, is being organized by the People's Movement Against Neocolonialism and Imperialism (Gerak-Lawan).

If you don't want to be caught in traffic, it would be advisable to avoid the areas intersecting the National Monument at this hour.

Following on from this, the third demonstration, which will take place at around 11am in front of the Metro Jaya regional police building on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, will be held by the Social Network of Legal Concern (JAMPIH).

The final action will take place at around 12noon in front of the Attorney General's Office on Jl. Sisingamangaraja in South Jakarta. Protesters from the Student Movement for Liberation (GMP) will be calling for the Islamic religious sect Ahmadiyah to be disbanded. (bal/bal)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Air Force Land dispute cripples Polonia Airport

Jakarta Post - January 8, 2008

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Polonia Airport in Medan was paralyzed for almost three hours Monday when thousands of protesters staged a rally and blockaded the airport's entryway.

The protest, which involved more than 5,000 residents of Sari Rejo subdistrict, was peaceful, but airport authorities were forced to cancel a number of flights because crew members were unable to get through the blockade, while arriving passengers had a long wait to leave the airport.

Airport security deputy chief B. Sinaga confirmed the incident had disrupted airport activities and had caused flight delays because the crowd had prevented passengers from coming in.

The protest, involving members of the Sari Rejo People's Forum, also blocked a number of transportation routes to the airport.

A demonstrator, Dedi Pariadi, 36, said the protest was aimed at paralyzing the airport. He added that around 5,000 Sari Rejo residents were mobilized to take part in the rally, using 12 buses, 23 trucks, 25 private cars and 500 motorbikes.

"We intentionally assembled a large crowd because we want to paralyze the airport. This way, we can draw the attention of the provincial administration and central government because Sari Rejo residents are currently defending their rights to a 260- hectare plot of land which the Air Force wants to take over," Dedi told The Jakarta Post.

Dedi said that four months ago, the Air Force pressured the residents to give up the land they lived on, claiming it belonged to the Air Force.

The Air Force also recently prohibited state electricity company PLN, state tap water company PDAM and state-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom from serving residents in the area, according to a letter dated Nov. 15, 2007, and signed by Medan Air Force base commander Col. Agus Dwi Putranto.

"This is far too much because people have the right to water and electricity, as is stipulated in the 1945 Constitution. This is a form of intimidation committed by the Air Force, which indirectly wishes us to leave. The land we are occupying now is ours because we have been living here for dozens of years," said Dedi.

Another protester, Pahala Napitupulu, said the land on which residents had living was not disputed, according to a decision by the Supreme Court. "In 1995, the Supreme Court ruled that the land was owned by the residents. The problem is, the National Land Agency (BPN) has not yet issued a certificate for the land," said Pahala.

Pahala said 1,300 ha of land around the airport had been disputed previously, but residents were later entitled to the 260 ha of the land they lived on while the remaining area was designated Air Force property.

"The Air Force has sold most of the land to third parties to develop exclusive real estate. We heard that the residents' land will also make way for upscale housing," said Pahala.

Air base commander Col. Agus confirmed the rumor, saying that the land currently occupied by the residents was an Air Force asset that had been inherited from the Dutch administration by the state now.

Agus said the Supreme Court had ruled the residents were only entitled to 5.6 ha. "They are twisting the facts. The Supreme Court ruling authorized only 87 residents over a 5.6 ha plot which we no longer dispute because it is under the ownership of the people and received BPN certification," Agus told the Post on Monday.

Agus described the letter ordering electricity and water supplies to the area be cut as "just a request" and said it was not intended to restrict the rights of the residents. "It's just a request. If PLN, PDAM and Telkom want to provide services to Sari Rejo residents, please do so, because there's no restriction," said Agus.

Beware of demonstrations in South and Central Jakarta today

Detik.com - January 7, 2008

Fitraya Ramadhanny, Jakarta – Monday mornings are always a day full of hustle and bustle at the start of the week. Drivers should be the lookout for a number of demonstrations in the Jakarta area so they don't get caught in traffic.

Information from the Metro Jaya regional police Traffic Management Centre (TMC) for Monday January 7 indicates that a number of protest actions will be taking place in South and Central Jakarta today.

The earliest protest will be held at 9am at the Attorney General's Office and the national police headquarters. The action is being organised by the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) and the National Alliance for Freedom of Religion and Faith (AKBB).

At 10am there well be three simultaneous actions. Supporters of North Maluku gubernatorial candidate Abdul Gafur will be holding a demonstration at the General Elections Commission, while his competitors will hold a similar protest, also at 10am, at the Supreme Court to support gubernatorial candidate Thalib Armain.

The Society for Reform and Justice (MRK) will also be holding an action in front of the offices of the Corruption Eradication Commission. One hour later or at 11am, there will be an action in front the State Palace organised by the Social Network of Legal Concern (JAMPIH). (fay/ndr)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Vendors protest with roses

Jakarta Post - January 5, 2008

Jakarta – Hundreds of Barito market vendors distributed roses to passing motorists Friday in a subtle protest against their relocation to Radio Dalam.

Wearing black T-shirts and headbands, the vendors blockaded Jl. Melawai in South Jakarta, which leads to Blok M. As a result, traffic had to be rerouted to Jl. Barito Raya.

"We don't want to be relocated to Radio Dalam on Jan. 20 because the area is not strategic and is much smaller than Barito. It will kill our businesses," head of the Barito vendors association Tedi Pandji said Friday.

One of the vendors, Soleh, said the stalls in Radio Dalam were much smaller than their current 4x12.5 meter stalls in Barito.

As part of their protest, the vendors held up signs reading, "Should relocation create unemployment?" and "We will be relocated to a secluded area with 2x2 meter stalls. We'll die eventually".

Established 37 years ago, Barito market was once a city park. As more and more vendors arrived to start selling fish and flowers, the park slowly turned into a market.

The city administration plans to relocate the market's vendors so as the area can once again become a park. The construction of the park was planned by former governor Sutiyoso three years ago. – Detik.com

New Year kicks off with more protests, avoid Monas, Mega Kuningan

Detik.com - January 3, 2008

Maryadi, Jakarta – Jakarta could well be referred to as the 'repository' of protest actions, because not a day goes by without a demonstration, including for the start of 2008.

On Thursday December 3, protest actions will be happening again and drivers are asked to avoid these locations in order not to be trapped in traffic. According to information from the Metro Jaya regional police Traffic Management Centre (TMC), there will be a number of actions held today:

Time: 9am. Location: State Palace on Jl. Merdeka Utara and the Department of Religious Affairs on Jl. Banteng Square, Central Jakarta. Organisers: The All Java Assistant/Contract Teachers Goodwill Forum (FSGB).

Time: 10am. Location: Foreign Affairs Department on Jl. Pejambon and the State Palace. Organisers: Transport Sector Trade Union (SBST), affiliated with the International Transport Workers Foundation.

Time: 10am, Location: Chinese Embassy in Mega Kuningan, South Jakarta. Organisers: Falun Gong Indonesia.

Time: 10am. Location: Department of Culture and Tourism on Jl. Merdeka Barat in Central Jakarta. Organisers: East Jakarta Chapter of the Association of Islamic Students (HMI).

Time: 4pm. Location: State Palace. Organisers: Solidarity Network for the Families of Victims of Human Rights Violations (JSKKPH). (mar/nrl)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

 West Papua

Turning Papua into land of peace

Jakarta Post - January 3, 2008

Neles Tebay, Abepura, Papua – Papua Province has been the only Indonesian province still rebellious against the Jakarta-based central government.

However, all elements of civilian society in Papua, including the police, led by the leaders of all religions (Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism), have committed to work together for peace under the motto: "Papua, the Land of Peace".

The interfaith campaign for peace is based on and guided by an awareness and respect for diversity, justice, solidarity, harmony, and the general welfare.

These are the shared underlying values of the concept of "Papua, the Land of Peace". They are also criteria for evaluating development policy. Thus all development activities should be aimed at establishing Papua as the Land of Peace.

To comment on prospective developments in Papau for peace in 2008, I would like to use a study done by Papuan religious leaders at the interfaith workshop, "Papua, the Land of Peace", taking place during the first week of December, 2007, in Jayapura.

They mapped potential conflicts in 2008 and proposed recommendations for conflict-prevention policy in the western half of the island of New Guinea.

The religious leaders recognized a lack of good will – whether in Jakarta or Papua – with regard to the consistent implementation of the 2001 Papua special autonomy law.

The absence of good will, on the part of the central government, has been manifested, for example, through the issuance of two presidential instructions, namely on the creation of the new province of West Irian Jaya in January 2003 and the acceleration of development in Papua and West Irian Jaya Provinces in May 2007.

By issuing these instructions, the government was deliberately violating the autonomy law. Instead of pushing the government to be consistent in implementing the autonomy law, the House of Representatives never raised any objection to the instructions.

This means that both the government and the House have no willingness to implement the autonomy law in Papua.

The Papuan provincial government and legislative council (DPRP) have not demonstrated their ability to implement the autonomy law. These state bodies have not issued the necessary special implementing regulations (perdasus) and the provincial regulations (perdasi), and without these, the autonomy law can't be implemented properly.

As a result, as recognized by the religious leaders, the level of the people's welfare has not improved. The quality level of education and health care services in Papua remains very low. Some 82 percent of all households in Papua's rural areas still live below the poverty line. The spread of HIV-AIDS continues to threaten the very existence of the indigenous Papuans.

The potential for horizontal conflict among civilians – who are united to a greater or lesser degree by differences of religion, sect, tribe, and village – lies in Papuans' realization that the autonomy law has been another government's empty promise and the possibility that the meaning of Indonesian rule will questioned. It also lies in establishment of new provinces and regencies with support from the central government and House.

The government's policy of establishing new military stations and deploying ever-more combat troops throughout Papua, in the eyes of the religious leaders, has also been a source of restlessness among civilians in Papua.

The newly deployed troops know nothing about local cultures, and tend to misunderstand the local population and apply a militaristic approach in dealing with the indigenous people.

The troops use "separatism" as an excuse to silence Papuans who criticize arrogance and actions that make people restless in their own land.

The massive exploitation of natural resources by legal and illegal logging and fishing companies will continue in 2008. There are also allegations of military involvement in these businesses, and also in bootleg alcohol.

The destruction of millions of hectares of Papuan rain forest for oil palm plantations will be another source of conflict in Papua.

The ideological differentiation between the government and the Papuans continues to be a hindrance for peace and development in 2008.

The difference has been used to justify the use by security forces of violent tactics against civilians and wrongfully stigmatize them as Free Papua Movement (OPM) members.

Despite repeated denial by the military, religious leaders suspect that the OPM issue is deliberately stirred up by the labeling carried out by the security forces.

There are even allegations that separatist groups receive assistance from security forces to create chaos and provoke conflict among civilians. This ideological difference, if not settled properly, could trigger vertical conflict in 2008.

All the above-mentioned potential conflicts should be settled peacefully through a joint conflict-prevention process involving the government and the Papuans.

Learning from the vertical and horizontal conflicts caused by the issuance of the 2003 and 2007 instructions, the central government should stop issuing instructions that conflict with the autonomy law.

Instead, the government should put in place the legal framework this law mandates.

A comprehensive evaluation enjoying backing from both the government and native Papuans on the implementation of the autonomy law is considered an urgent need that must be addressed in 2008 so Papuans can exercise their role as agents of development in Papua.

Instead of creating new provinces or regencies in Papua, the government should prioritize the implementation of the autonomy law.

As part of conflict-prevention policies, religious leaders have called for the government to reduce the number of military stations and troops, of which there are many throughout Papua.

The Papuan provincial government and the DPRP are encouraged by a special implementing regulation (perdasus) on the deployment of non-organic troops, more particularly the Army's Special troops (Kopassus), and the effectiveness of the role of the police in civilian life.

In order to address the ideological differences, the religious leaders call upon the government and the indigenous Papuans to engage in a peaceful dialogue, facilitated by a neutral third party.

The perpetrators of illegal logging, corruption and human rights should be brought to the court of justice to prevent further conflict.

Despite suitable proposals for a conflict-prevention policy, the prospect of peace and development in Papua, in my opinion, depends very much on the government's response to two questions.

Firstly, is the government willing to engage in a comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of the Papuan autonomy law that involves indigenous Papuans in the process?

Secondly, is the Indonesian government willing to engage in a genuine dialogue with the representatives of those Papuans who are considered separatists?

The proposed evaluation and dialogue will determine the progress of Papua's development and peace in 2008.

[The writer is a lecturer at the Fajar Timur School of Philosophy and Theology in Abepura, Papua.]

 Human rights/law

Human rights to remain 'a slogan'

Jakarta Post - January 5, 2008

Jakarta – Rights defense group Imparsial said Friday that human rights was little more than a government slogan last year and was likely to remain so. This was especially the case, they said, with the 2009 presidential elections drawing nearer.

Imparsial Executive Director Rachland Nashidik told a press conference that the government had failed to defend human rights, with many cases of alleged violations remaining unsettled.

Nevertheless, he said, loud claims by the government of upholding justice continued to be heard.

"When President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took office in 2004, he said that the death of human rights activist Munir was a test for our (Indonesian) history. However, three years have passed and we have yet to see the real perpetrators face charges."

Munir Said Thalib, who outspokenly criticized the Indonesian Military (TNI) for its alleged involvement in human rights violations in the troubled provinces of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and Papua, was found dead on board a Garuda Indonesia flight on Sept. 7, 2004. A postmortem examination proved he died of arsenic poisoning.

Three suspects – former Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Prijanto, former Garuda President Indra Setiawan and Rohainil Aini, secretary to Garuda's chief pilot – have been brought to court.

However, families and activists say that even if those people were involved, they were not the principals behind the assassination.

Rachland said accountability in human rights cases depended heavily on political lobbying – who was behind the violations and whom the settlements would benefit the most.

"In this case, court institutions, which are supposed to be the ultimate refuge of justice, are also involved in ensuring that political lobbying works on behalf of the powerful."

He cited a session of the Munir murder trials in which a taped telephone conversation between suspect Pollycarpus and Indra was played. Seeming to reassure Indra in the face of the allegations – in the recording – Pollycarpus referred to the chief of the Supreme Court, Bagir Manan, as "our man".

The tape recording also highlighted the involvement of top State Intelligence Agency (BIN) officials, but none have been brought to court so far.

Rachland said this year the record on enforcement of human rights would be no different than last year. "As long as human rights violations are still perceived as political bargaining chips, human rights enforcement will not be possible."

Bhatara Ibnu Reza, research coordinator for Imparsial, worried there would be even more lip service paid to human rights this year ahead of the 2009 presidential election – without any action to follow.

"Political groups will run a lot of human rights campaigns to attract grassroots voters. But whether there will actually be any action or not depends on political interests."

As compared to human rights, he said that stability and security were just likely to interest voters from the middle to upper income brackets.

"Human rights enforcement is merely a show here. You already have the law – the 1945 Constitution – to uphold human rights. But our leaders lack determination to put that into practice," said Bhatara. (lln)

Human rights becoming political commodity in lead up to elections

Kompas - January 4, 2008

Jakarta – Non-government organisations are pessimistic and concerned about the prospects for upholding human rights and solving past human rights violation. They say they hold little hope that there will be any improvements or progress in 2008.

This statement was conveyed during a press conference titled "Prospect for Upholding Human Rights in 2008", which was held by the Coalition of Human Rights Non-government Organisations (KON- HAM) and the Victims of Human Rights Violations (KP-HAM) at the Indonesian Human Rights Foundation (YLBHI) building on Thursday January 3.

The NGO activists predicted moreover that issues related to human rights and solving past rights violations will just be turned into a political commodity by the government as well as politicians and the political parties. Particularly given that there is only a year left until the general elections.

"The truth is that in the lead up to the 2009 general elections what has been happening is a commodification of human rights issues. [And] of course this is not to solve existing cases of human rights violations. This situation has also been followed inconsistent policies and an unwillingness on the part of the government to resolve existing cases", said Rafendi Djamin from the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG).

Aside from HRWG, also present were representatives from a number of other NGOs such as YLBHI chairperson Patra M. Zen, Usman Hamid from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Father Romo Sandyawan, Asfinawati from the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation and Rusdi Marpaung from Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial).

Representative from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the Indonesian Center for Democracy and Human Rights (Demos), the gay rights group Arus Pelangi, the women's organisation Kalyanamitra, the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (Infid), the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) and the secular based Wahid Institute also attended the press conference.

Djamin further predicted that the government's unwillingness to solve past cases of human rights violations along with its pursuit of inconsistent policies have become very apparent, for example in the case of the Indonesia-East Timor Truth and Friendship Commission (KKP).

According to Djamin, next February the Indonesia-East Timor KKP will release a report on the results of its activities. It is certain however that this report will only further reaffirm the lack of accountability by those who have perpetrated violence, the very accountably that the international community and the families of the victims are calling for. "So, it is not strange that human rights issues will only be turned into a political commodity by the political actors in the lead up to the 2009 general elections, particularly by those who are strongly suspected to be perpetrators of past human rights violations", asserted Djamin.

Sandyawan reminded participants that there is a way to prevent efforts to turn the issue of resolving human rights violations into a political commodity, that is to give precedence to accountability. "Not just state institutions, but all elements of society, including NGOs, having the courage to audit themselves and be politically responsible to the public", he said. (DWA)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Relatives in human rights cases want answers, state has none

Jakarta Post - January 3, 2008

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Indonesia and many other countries in the world have only recently commemorated World Human Rights Day, which fell on Dec. 10. But a question remains whether Indonesia has really succeeded in upholding and providing human rights protection for its own people.

Reality bites. Even after nine years of reforms which have given new hope to the upholding of human rights, there are still many people in Indonesia whose family members are missing or even dead and who are still waiting for justice to be upheld.

They are still waiting because Indonesia's law products cannot touch high-ranking officials – or it is simply because of the government's unwillingness to uncover the dark side of the country's history.

Despite the recent success of Indonesia's law enforcers in a number of sectors including their uncovering of a terrorist ring, drug dealer networks and their efforts to eradicate corruption, nearly-forgotten cases like the 1989 Talang Sari shooting spree in Lampung, the 1984 Tanjung Priok riots, the 1998/1999 Trisakti-Semanggi shooting incidents, and the 2004 murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib, all remain a mystery.

On the other hand, relatives of the victims are still living in anxiety, waiting to find out who the people behind those incidents were.

They might not seek to punish the perpetrators, as most of them accepted the death of their relatives a long time ago – they just need an answer, and it is their right to know who is responsible for the incidents that took their relatives' lives.

Isn't it the state's obligation to protect the rights of its people?

Unfortunately, of all the unsolved human rights violation cases, Munir's murder is the only one that has shown any progress so far.

The Attorney General's Office has sent two new suspects – former Garuda President Indra Setiawan and secretary to Garuda's Chief Pilot Rohainil Aini – to court and is waiting for the Supreme Court's decision on the case review filed against the main suspect in the case, Pollycarpus Budihari Prijanto.

Munir, known as a vocal critic of the Indonesian Military (TNI), had suspected the military's alleged involvement in several rights violations in the troubled provinces Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and Papua.

He was found dead after being poisoned with arsenic on Sept. 7, 2004, on board a Garuda flight to Amsterdam, which included a stopover in Changi Airport, Singapore.

The announcement and trials around new suspects in the case, however, does not really meet his family needs. Even if those people were really involved, they were not the key actors behind Munir's murder.

At this point, the main actor behind the case remains a mystery. And this is despite a recorded telephone conversation between Pollycarpus and Indra played in one of Pollycarpus' court sessions. The tape recording highlighted the involvement of top State Intelligence Agency (BIN) officials and high-ranking government officials.

However, the alleged perpetrators remain untouchable. Both the National Police and the fact-finding team established by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2004 expressed their intention to summon the BIN officials, but they have yet to prove it.

Fortunately, Munir's case will keep rolling on, due to the persistence of Munir's wife and his friends in the Commission of Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras). They have continued to struggle for a conclusion of the case.

In their ongoing efforts to push the government to finish the case, in March they took their fight to the United Nations Human Rights Council in March. International pressure on the government to finish this case has increased ever since.

Munir's case has become a "challenge" for the government to prove it is serious about handling human rights cases in Indonesia. A successful identification of the brain(s) behind Munir's murder will be a good precedence for law enforcement and human rights protection in Indonesia, as most past rights cases have yet to be settled.

Latest cases around the Lapindo mudflow and the Alas Tlogo shooting, both in East Java, have added to the list.

Around 600 families have lost their homes and thousands of children have been forced to move to other schools or even attend classes in emergency tents because of the mudflow, blamed on PT Lapindo Brantas' oil and gas drilling activities in Sidoarjo. This is not to mention the thousands of workers who have lost their jobs.

But regardless of the devastating impact of the mudflow, there has been no firm action taken by the government against Lapindo. Their one effort was the issuance of a 2006 presidential decree on the National Mudflow Mitigation Team. This obliged the company to pay a 20 percent downpayment to compensate the residents' losses.

Regardless of the decree, however, the problem has not been solved. The facts show most of the people have yet to receive a payment because of administrative problems.

Other than the Lapindo mudflow, the May 31 shooting incident by Marine officers in Alas Tlogo, Pasuruan, that took the lives of four residents, should also be noted.

The incident was triggered by a land ownership dispute between Alas Tlogo residents and the Navy. Despite the reasons that have been made available, they cannot however justify the officers' actions or their shooting of residents.

If past human rights cases cannot be solved, there will be more cases in the future, because Indonesians seem to have become used to human rights abuse cases and they no longer consider them extraordinary.

However, despite all these shortcomings in upholding human rights, Indonesia has secured respect from the international world on its rights protection commitment.

The recent visit of three United Nations human rights commissioners – UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders Hina Jilani in June, High Commissioner on Human Rights Louise Arbour in July, and Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak in November – were considered a notable achievement in the country's human rights sector.

The Indonesian government showed its commitment to human rights by giving these visitors the freedom to visit and meet anyone during their visit. Such freedoms might have been difficult to secure before the reforms.

These freedoms left a positive impression with them. However, any international recognition around the government's effort to promote human rights cannot mean a thing if Indonesians have yet to feel secured in their own country. They don't need a good image, the need some proof.

 Labour issues

Return embezzled fees to migrants, government told

Jakarta Post - January 5, 2008

Jakarta – Indonesian migrant workers, non-governmental organizations and students in Malaysia are up in arms over the anticorruption court's ruling that former Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia, Hadi A. Wayarabi, must return the funds he was found guilty of embezzling to the government of Indonesia.

"The money stolen by these public officials through corrupt practices was first collected from migrant workers, not the government. So that money must be returned to the migrant workers because it was the result of their hard work in Malaysia," said Ambar, head of the Bocahe Dewe Indonesian Migrant Workers Union in Selangor, Malaysia, on Thursday.

Migrant Care Malaysia representative Alex Ong Kien Yen and head of the Indonesian Students Union in Malaysia, Muhammad Iqbal, made similar demands.

All the organizations expressed satisfaction at the court's sentencing of Hadi A. Wayarabi and former head of the immigration division, Suparba W. Amiarsa, to two and a half years in prison, but protested the court's decision to make the two corruptors return the money to the government.

Both Yen and Iqbal said because the two former officials imposed a higher fee and then submitted the legal, much lower, fee to the government, embezzling the difference, they had actually stolen from the migrant workers.

Hadi A. Wayarabi and Suparba W. Amiarsa reaped an estimated Rp 15 billion (US$1.58 million) from around 600,000 migrant workers per year during their tenure from 2000 to 2003 at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

"We insist the money be returned to the migrant workers, who have been sweating blood at their jobs in Malaysia. Once the government receives the money, it must allocate it for improving the living conditions of the workers," said Ambar, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Ambar said the union, which currently has 30,000 members, had received many complaints about illegal administration fees imposed by the embassy, but lacked the power to help the workers.

Another former Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia, Rusdihardjo, was also declared a suspect in similar criminal action by the Corruption Eradication Commission one day after his predecessors were declared guilty by the anti-corruption court.

He allegedly received between RM 30,000 and RM 40,000 (US$9,000 and 12,000) per month in illegal immigration fees between 2004 and 2006.

This practice has been allegedly carried out by Indonesian ambassadors since 1999, when a decree on the immigration fee issued by then ambassador Jacob Dasto opened a loophole.

Iqbal said many luxury cars owned by former embassy officials accused of corruption were still in Kuala Lumpur.

"The government could confiscate the cars, sell them, and allocate the money for the advocacy of migrant workers in Malaysia," he said.

He said the current focus of advocacy was still on domestic workers, while Indonesian workers in other fields, like farming, construction or trade, were rarely considered.

There were an estimated 1.3 million professional Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia in 2007, with only 300,000 of them working in informal sectors that include domestic employment. (lva)

Cigarette workers reject price rise

Jakarta Post - January 3, 2008

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Malang – Workers at small-scale cigarette producers in Malang, East Java, Wednesday staged a rally at the Malang Customs and Excise Office to protest a ministerial ordinance increasing the basic price of tabacco starting Jan. 1.

The protesters, representatives from 194 small-scale cigarette producers, categorized as Group III, were members of the Malang branch Small Scale Cigarette Producers Association (Parpeki).

They said the regulation had severely affected many small-scale producers that were now unable to pay the wages of cigarette rollers and packaging workers due to higher overhead costs, raw materials and taxes.

The new ordinance imposes a 22 percent tax on machine-rolled kretek cigarettes, on par with filtered hand-rolled kretek cigarettes in the same group, taxes on which ranged between 8 to 16 percent previously.

The ordinance also stipulates a hike in the specific cigarette tax, which is set at Rp 35 per cigarette, compared to the previous Rp 7 for a single cigarette.

"Dozens of small-scale cigarette factories are on the brink of collapse and at risk of closing down. Many factories no longer produce and have retrenched many of their workers," said rally coordinator Widianto.

Widianto, who is also the proprietor of the Wonk Tani Mandiri cigarette factory in Donomulyo district, Malang regency, said he could no longer buy tax stamps for cigarette packs because he could not afford them at the new rate.

He said thousands of hand-rolled and machine-rolled cigarette workers in Malang had been dismissed because their employers could not afford the new tax stamps. "This is the same as killing us slowly. The regulation also will spark rampant sales of fake cigarettes," said Widianto.

Paperki chairman in Malang Muhammad Geng Wahyudi has threatened to stage a bigger rally next week if the government does not heed their complaints.

He said that his company, Ageng Jaya, had been able to buy 1,000 sheets of tax stamps for Rp 62 million, but after the issuance of the ordinance, the price for the same amount of stamps surged to Rp 98 million, excluding the specific tax of Rp 35 a cigarette.

Geng said as many as 97 of the 194 small-scale cigarette producers grouped in Paperki had dismissed a number of workers since December, despite the fact that each of them employed at least 200 workers. Widianto, who employed 50 workers before, can only pay 17 now.

A worker at the Ageng Jaya cigarette company, Purwanti, 35, said her factory had already dismissed a number of workers since December and had also cut working hours, with the factor closing at midday rather than 4 p.m. "Workers have also complained of lower earnings because the company has erased overtime," said Purwanti.

In response to the situation, the local tax and excise office has said it will convey their grievances to the central government through the Directorate General of Customs and Excise.

 Environment/natural disasters

Humans 'contribute most to disasters'

Jakarta Post - January 7, 2008

Jakarta – Experts on Saturday blamed humans for contributing to environmental damages that eventually lead to so-called natural disasters.

"Flooding is not a natural disaster, but a man-made one," Gatot Irianto, director for water management at the Agriculture Ministry, told a discussion here Saturday.

He said the country lost three million hectares of forest and at least 1.7 million hectares of rice fields every year because of mismanagement and weak control of land conversion. "Bali has lost 700 hectares of its rice fields to the construction of housing complexes," Gatot said.

He said part of the responsibility should be shouldered by both the central government and local administrations. "Through decentralization, the local administrations have been given the authority to allow land conversion, which results in heavy land damages."

A control mechanism was needed, albeit in a system of decentralized government, he said. "We need good leaders to settle this mess," he said.

He said the 2007 law on disaster management didn't regulate punishment for officials who had allowed people to damage the environment. "The law only stipulates the administrative sanctions, not the legal punishment," he said.

Abdullah Azwar Anas, a legislator of the House of Representatives' housing and public works commission, said the government lacked seriousness in punishing people involved in illegal logging, citing an example in East Kalimantan.

He also cited the failure of the Jakarta province administration to ensure all housing complexes in the capital city allocate at least 30 percent of their areas to acting as water catchments.

"The luxurious Kelapa Gading housing area has been inundated by not having a sufficient water catchment," said Anas. "Six hours of non-stop heavy rainfall will inundate more than 1,000 villages, but it only takes two hours of heavy rainfall to inundate some areas of Jakarta," he said.

Bahal Edison Naiborhu, director for spatial land management at the Public Works Ministry, however, said both the government and the public were responsible for environmental damage.

"There is supposed to be a sharing of responsibility between the government and the public," he said. Zannuba "Yenny" Arifah Chafsoh Rahman Wahid, daughter of former president Abdurrahman Wahid and former presidential adviser, said the government should expedite the establishment of the National Agency on Disaster Management (BNPB).

"The government should finalize both the government regulation and the Presidential decree on the establishment of the BNPB," Yenny, secretary general of the National Awakening Party (PKB), said in a separate discussion Saturday. The agency is expected to replace the ad hoc Coordinating Agency for Disaster Management (Bakornas).

"I have just returned from a visit to Central and East Java, and I can tell you the government has been so sluggish in handling the aftermath (of the flooding disaster)," said Yenny. "Many people died not because they were drowned in the floods but because they were left starving in the cold."

Yenni said Bakornas failed to carry out its tasks as there had been no clear coordination among institutions involved in managing disasters. "The government must soon replace Bakornas (with the BNPB) because the ad-hoc agency apparently lacks authority to carry out coordination with ministries." (rff/lln)

Mud barriers collapse, hundreds flee in panic

Jakarta Post - January 5, 2008

Indra Harsaputra, Sidoarjo – An embankment built to contain the hot mud that has been flowing from an oil drilling well in Porong, Sidoarjo regency, East Java, has collapsed, forcing hundreds of residents to flee in panic.

The collapsed embankment has caused mud to flow into the area, paralyzing the nearby railway track and road transportation.

Mudflow Mitigation Agency's coordinating team head Soenarso said Friday the embankment collapsed at 10 p.m. on Thursday at Ketapang Keres village in Tanggulangin district, Sidoarjo.

"We've been able to repair the damage of the nine-meter embankment, but we will work hard to exhaust water and mud, which has submerged railway tracks and the main road with 20 to 80 centimeters of mud," Sonarso said.

On Thursday night, mud levels had reportedly reached one meter. Vehicles were trapped when a truck transporting instant food packages overturned in the flow of the water.

Soenarso said the collapse was caused by the sinking level of land surface around the main embankment near the well. He said the collapse had forced water and mud to be unable to flow into the Porong river and that it was instead flowing toward nearby residential sites outside affected areas.

"The embankment was strong enough to contain the water so that it collapsed," Soenarso said. "The condition was worsened by the heavy rain and opposition from local people to a plan for the construction of an addition embankment. I've reminded the residents about the danger of the hot mud flow, but they insist not to move on grounds they have not received compensation from Lapindo Brantas Inc."

Lapindo Brantas is the company responsible for the flow of mud from its oil drilling activities.

The Thursday's embankment collapse disrupted Jalan Raya Porong and the Surabaya-Malang and Surabaya-Banyuwangi railway traffic. Police were forced to detour land transportation to the Krian- Mojosari route, while seven railway schedules were delayed.

The deputy head of Gubeng railway station in Surabaya, Budi Setiono, said delays across seven routes had caused the state railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia to suffer losses amounting to Rp 150 million (US$16,600). All sold tickets were refunded, Budi said.

Soenarso said at least 135 people were forced to evacuate. "The affected residents will get assistance in the form of health services and food," he said.

But East Java Governor Imam Utomo said Friday residents affected by the Thursday's collapse would not get compensation or be relocated as the incident did not belong to any extraordinary occurrence. "The residents can still return to their houses after the mud and water subside," he said.

Agnes Tuti Rumiati, head of the community research agency of the Surabaya November 10 Technology Institute, said if the mud flow could not be fully handled, East Java province would suffer losses amounting to an estimated Rp 34 trillion.

"The losses are calculated based on the multiplier effect, ranging from the losses of jobs, closures of factories and disruption of traffic and trade," she said.

Study shows Java remains prone to landslides

Jakarta Post - January 5, 2008

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – A study has shown that Java island will remain the most prone area in the country for water- related disasters, because of violations of land use permits and the island's rapid population growth.

With the rise of rainfall reaching 50 millimeters per day from the monthly average of 200 millimeters, and the La Nina phenomenon expected until March, State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar said worse landslide tragedies would likely occur in the next two months.

"What we expect are worse disasters in the next two months," he told reporters Friday. He urged local administrations to relocate people living near disaster-prone areas across the country soon.

The ministry's study shows some 603 subdistrict areas in East Java province, 531 areas in Central Java and 430 areas in West Java as being "very vulnerable" to landslides.

Meanwhile in Sumatra, there are 43 regencies vulnerable to landslides, of which 16 areas are located in the West Sumatra province. It said 24 regencies in Sulawesi and 26 areas in Kalimantan were also exposed to landslides.

The government said West Java province experienced about 77 landslides during the period of 2003 to 2005, leaving 166 people dead. The landslides badly damaged some 2,000 houses and 140 hectares of paddy lands. The ministry of agriculture said floods had inundated about 70,000 hectares of rice fields in the past three months.

The recent landslides and floods that struck Central and East Java have killed more than 100 people.

The overflow from Java's longest river, the Bengawan Solo, has displaced tens of thousands of people – hundreds of thousands of whom remain in shelters.

Data from the ministry says about 31 percent of forest lands or about 11,023 hectares along the Bengawan Solo river have been turned to agricultural production fields since 2000. It said another 97,216 hectares of river bank land has been turned into residential areas.

Minister Rachmat said local administrations have worsened the environment, triggering natural disasters. "Officials at local administrations still award licenses for areas prone to landslides and floods for business aims," he said.

The ministry has proposed ways to improve environmental conditions to help reduce the occurrence of natural disasters. It said local administrations had to clean and extend the capacity of rivers to help avoid floods.

"There must be a temporary moratorium for cutting trees on Java island," the ministry said. Rachmat said his office had proposed the moratorium in the last two years to help save Java.

Masnellyarti Hilman, deputy minister for environmental management, said her office had also proposed the establishment of nets along the rivers to stop waste entering the rivers. "We also suggested the government continue transmigration and family planning programs to control the population," she said.

The ministry has also proposed the use of a vertical system for residential facilities in urban areas. The ministry's long-term plan is to introduce tougher law enforcements on land use management systems.

More than 100 die in Central, East Java floods

Jakarta Post - January 3, 2008

Indra Harsaputra and Suherdjoko, Bojonegoro/Semarang – More than 100 people have died due to ongoing floods across Central and East Java, a health ministry official said Wednesday.

Rustam Pakaya told Agence France Presse on Wednesday that 112 people had died in the last week.

Reports said 17 of 35 regencies and municipalities of Central Java alone were under water on Wednesday, destroying almost 30,000 hectares of paddy fields, including those ready for harvest.

Landslides and the overflowing of Java's longest river, the Bengawan Solo, which crosses the two provinces, continue to pose threats for local residents.

Tens of thousands evacuated their homes as floods reached the East Java town of Gresik, one of the last towns passed by the 600-kilometer Bengawan Solo.

The river starts in the hills above the Central Java town of Wonogiri and since last week it has flooded neighboring towns including Surakarta and Bojoneoro in East Java, with the latter being the hardest hit to-date.

A few elderly residents in Bojonegoro said this was the worst flooding since 1966. The area along the river has become increasingly populated.

Patients in Bojonegoro's hospital have been moved to higher floors in the hospital, Antara reported, and hospitals elsewhere in East Java were taking in patients beyond their capacity.

Sungkono, who operates a boat in Bojonegoro, said Wednesday he and his family, including three children, were still living in his boat. "We're sleeping, cooking and eating here because our home is still under water," his wife Supingah said.

Supingah said they were sharing their food supplies with other displaced residents and that their children, Rise, 13, and Sasa, 10, were doing their school work from the boat because school was temporarily closed.

Despite massive losses, residents have been actively helping each other cope with the flood crisis.

A number of displaced residents in Kudus, Central Java, were found living with goats around the local dike, Antara reported.

Undaan district is one destination that has seen a number of displaced residents gather, given its higher ground from the nearby river.

One resident called Supono, who was taking shelter near the dike, said he was also caring for his mother and his 16 goats.

He said he had prepared a separate shelter next to his goats, complete with all their belongings including cooking utensils and a television set. "Here I can look after my old mother and my goats all at once," he said.

Motorbikes were seen parked along the two-kilometer dike, indicating their owners had also taken shelter there.

Continuing rain in Kudas has also led to fears of a landslide, after one home and its surrounding crops were damaged late Tuesday. One village chief Mugianto said dozens of homes were located at the foot of a hill.

In Semarang, head of the provincial office of agriculture, Aris Budiono, said more than 29,000 hectares of paddy fields were destroyed – a figure he said was expected to increase.

Farmland around the Bengawan Solo makes up some of Java's largest rice centers.

But Aris said reserve stocks of more than eight million tons of rice would be enough for Central Java's population of 33 million. "We need people to report damage as soon as possible so officials can distribute aid to farming families," he said.

Indonesian landslides, floods toll at 107 dead: health ministry

Agence France Presse - January 2, 2008

Jakarta – Landslides and floods that struck Indonesia's main island of Java last week killed 107 people and left 12 missing, a health ministry official said Wednesday, as waters receded in the worst hit areas.

Torrential rains across Central and East Java provinces triggered landslides that engulfed homes and floods along the island's longest river which displaced tens of thousands of people, hundreds of whom remained in shelters.

"The death toll in landslides and floods in Central and East Java reached 107 dead, with 12 people still missing," health ministry official Rustam Pakaya told AFP in a text message.

He said that 78 lives were claimed and 12 people were missing in Central Java, where the worst landslides occurred and authorities have struggled to recover bodies, while in East Java 29 fatalities were recorded.

Pakaya said that about 20 tonnes of baby food and 15 tonnes of instant meals had been dispatched to the disaster zones along with two trucks loaded with medicines.

Red Cross official Rukman told AFP that more than 12,000 houses in both provinces had been damaged, including more than 300 destroyed.

In East Java's Ngawi district, which was worst hit by floods early this week, local official Sulami said that waters had receded in several areas and people had returned home to start mopping up.

In nearby Lamongan district, where floods peaked on Tuesday, district policeman Kasiri told AFP that flood levels were dropping but remained up to 1.5 metres (yards) high in some areas, with hundreds of families in shelters.

Landslides and flooding are common in Indonesia during the rainy season, which hits a peak from December to February.

Mud disaster still up in the air nearly two years later

Mud disaster still up in the air nearly two years later

Jakarta Post - January 2, 2008

Indra Harsaputra and Stevie Emilia, Sidoarjo/Jakarta – It has been nearly two years since the mud started gushing out of a gas exploration drilling site in Sidoarjo regency, East Java, erasing a number of villages from the face of the map. Since then, there is only one thing for certain – the disaster is unstoppable.

Since it first struck on May 29 last year, the calamity has forced thousands of people from their homes, made thousands of workers lost their jobs, put companies out of businesses and required other companies to spend more money either to relocate or transport their products.

The company at the heart of the disaster, Lapindo Brantas Inc., has paid some compensation to affected residents but its hard to put a value on the misery of having to find a new home, as well as a livelihood.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the company to complete paying out the first tranche of compensation by the end of the year, but the reality might not be so straightforward.

The President has also set a target for completing relocation of the affected infrastructure, which it is estimated will cost some Rp 2.1 trillion, by the end of next year.

But the relocation plan might be hard to be carry out, as well. The residents have been blamed for slowing down the relocation of various infrastructural facilities – including a turnpike, railway line and gas pipeline – by demanding high prices for their land.

"People are asking for high prices that will to be accede to as the land and building prices should refer to the estimates made by the independent team," complained Sidoarjo Regent Win Hendrarso.

The residents affected by the relocation plan in Jabon village, for instance, were demanding Rp 120,000 per square meter of their rice fields. This is similar to the compensation paid by the company to mudflow victims. On the other hand, the government is only willing to pay Rp 100,000 a square meter.

"I'm not sure the land acquisition problem can be solved by the end of this year. But I will not use a repressive approach. I will approach residents and remind them that the infrastructure relocation is crucial for Sidoarjo's economy and future," Win said.

Under the plan, the infrastructure will be relocated to the west side of the mud volcano, and will require a total of 132 hectares of land in 15 villages in Sidoarjo and Pasuruan regency.

Of the relocation funds, Rp 2.11 trillion of which came from the state budget, Rp 450 billion is to move the railway line, Rp 700 billion for the turnpike, Rp 300 billion to build a highway, Rp 60 billion for the gas pipeline, Rp 600 billion to pay for land acquisition and Rp 4.5 billion for overall relocation design work.

Altogether, the total losses caused by the mud volcano are estimated at Rp 7.6 trillion. Apart from relocation, it has cost Rp 612 billion to construct a canal to channel the mud to the sea, Rp 70 billion for operational expenses, Rp 50 billion to channel the mud to the Porong River, Rp 300 billion for dam construction and another Rp 4.2 trillion to cover social, housing and land losses.

Even then, this massive sum did not include the Rp 3.5 trillion in cash compensation paid by Lapindo, and the some Rp 40 billion in losses suffered by 12 companies located near to the mud volcano source and other companies whose distribution and service chains were disrupted when the mud cut the main Porong highway.

Phone company PT Telkom reportedly has suffered Rp 20 billion in losses as a result of the mud volcano. The company's public relations manager in East Java, Djati Soegiarto, said that this did not include the loss of 7,500 customers, or another Rp 750 million per month.

Apart from the slow progress in land acquisition for relocation purposes, Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency head Sunarso blamed slow payments out of the national budget as another problem hampering infrastructure relocation.

He said the money had only been disbursed in early December, and had to be spent by mid December. He added that his agency had proposed the extension of the budget-spending deadline to April next year.

"The late (funding disbursement) makes us unsure whether the infrastructure relocation project can be completed next year as targeted by the government. But if the government wants it completed in 2008, we're ready as long the money is there," Sunarso said.

The slow progress with the relocation plan means that businesses and residents are left further out of pocket.

The cutting of roads forces public transportation passengers to spend extra money and time while traveling through Porong, while each company has to spend some Rp 10 million per month on extra fuel when distributing their products.

"The extra cost reduces the company's profit," said a businessman in Malang regency. "We also run the risk of consumers losing their trust due to late delivery."

Train passengers are risk when passing the area as the mud has warped the track and left it open to subsidence, leaving railway company PT Kereta Api with no other option than to order train drivers to slow down to 5 km per hour when passing the affected area.

The victims are still there. Of the 12,777 affected families, 96 percent of them have received the first tranche of 20 percent compensation from the company, while the rest, more than 638 of them, are still taking shelter in Pasar Baru market in Porong.

"We have rejected the 20 percent payment since the money is not enough to start a new life in a new place. We are demanding 50 percent and will remain here until our demand is met," said 45- year-old Sumainah from Renokenongo village.

Syafrudin Ngulma Simeulue of the National Commission on Human Rights' mediation sub-commission said the commission had found strong indications of human rights violations He said the violations were especially apparent in the Porong market shelter as the people had been deprived of housing, health, education and a decent living.

"We want to know who is responsible for these human rights violations, especially ones related to environmental rights as provided for by the 1997 law and the 2007 law on people's economic, social and cultural rights," Syafrudin said.

He admitted, however, the finding the party responsible would not be easy due to the unclear status of the disaster – whether it was a natural disaster or industrial disaster. "The unclear nature of the disaster complicates the issue of finding who is responsible," he said.

 War on corruption

Prosecutor on Adelin's case demoted: AGO

Jakarta Post - January 3, 2008

Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office (AGO) will impose a one-year demotion on Sultan Bagindo Fahmi, a prosecutor in the illegal logging case built against logging boss Adelin Lis, who was acquitted of all charges by the Medan District Court last November.

"A leadership meeting of the Attorney General's Office has decided to punish (Fahmi) with the administration sanction," Junior Attorney General for Supervision M.S. Rahardjo told detik.com.

Fahmi is now director for economic and monetary crimes at the Office of Junior Attorney General for Intelligence. He was assistant for special crimes to the head of the North Sumatra Provincial Prosecutor's Office when the case against Adelin was built.

Besides Fahmi, Rahardjo said, the AGO will also impose a one-year demotion on Teuku Zakaria, the former head of North Sumatra's Provincial Prosecutor's Office, and Zakaria's deputy Muchtar Hassan, who will have his current salary reduced to his previous one.

Soehartos back in the courts

Sydney Morning Herald - January 2, 2008

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Even the former dictator seemed surprised. "I am becoming rich, suddenly," 86-year-old Soeharto told the Indonesian magazine Gatra after a court ordered he receive a staggering $US109.9 million ($125.8 million) in defamation damages.

But, three months after the shock decision against Time Inc, the magazine publisher's lawyers in Jakarta are preparing to file a 100-page legal challenge in what is seen as a test case for press freedom in Indonesia.

Todung Mulya Lubis, one of the lawyers, told the Herald the challenge included "vindication" of the journalistic practices used by Time when it published a cover story in 1999 alleging in part that Soeharto and his family had $US9 billion stashed in European banks.

"This is not only a case against Time Inc," said Mr Lubis, a prominent human rights lawyer. "This is a case that goes to the very fundamental principles of press freedom and democracy in Indonesia."

The case is expected to be back in the Supreme Court for review this month. The review will coincide with a series of multimillion-dollar claims and counter-claims being heard in other Jakarta courts relating to the business practices of Hutomo Mandala Putra, Soeharto's youngest son, who is more usually known as Tommy.

Since being freed last year after serving a third of a 15-year jail sentence for the murder of a Supreme Court judge, the 44- year-old has become locked in legal battles with the Government, which has vowed to confront corruption. It has moved to seize $US138 million from accounts in an Indonesian bank it says was illegally obtained by Tommy Soeharto.

The Government has indicated it would take legal steps to force companies controlled by Tommy to pay $US486 million of debt relating to the 1999 government-agency bale-out of one of his companies.

The Government and Tommy are also locked in a battle over at least $US52 million another of his myriad companies deposited in the British tax haven of Guernsey.

Soeharto told Gatra in a rare interview that he would donate 65 per cent of the Time Inc's damages payment to the poor and give the rest to the state. Government officials are sceptical of the offer and have revived efforts to bring him to justice despite his poor health.

The Government has filed a civil suit against him seeking $US1.4 billion in assets and damages relating to a charitable foundation he chaired while president. Prosecutors have alleged that millions of dollars in cash intended for educational and social programs ended up in the pockets of his cronies.

 Land/rural issues

Farmers suffer from booming palm oil

Jakarta Post - January 4, 2008

Jakarta – The Indonesian Farmers' Union criticized the government Wednesday for mismanagement in the food crop sector, highlighting the massive displacement of farmers by the expansion of oil palm plantations.

Union chairman Henry Saragih said the palm oil industry had been aggressively expanding plantations to capitalize on a continuing rise in crude palm oil prices expected to result from higher world demand, especially in India and China.

He cited 2006 records of the Agriculture Ministry showing oil palm plantations had grown by more than 200 percent during the last decade – from 2.7 million hectares in 1998 to 6.1 million hectares in 2006.

He said large-scale private companies, including PT Astra Argo Lestari and PT SMART, controlled 57 percent of plantation areas, while the government and small-scale private growers had the other 43 percent.

"As the oil palm plantations grew larger, the number of large- scale food crop farmers decreased, with many becoming small-scale growers (and even) farm laborers," he said.

Small-scale farmers are defined as having an average of 0.3 hectares under cultivation; farm laborers work for other farmers. Aggregate numbers have increased from 19.9 million families in 1993 to 25.4 million in 2003.

Henry also cited 2007 data indicating that poverty rates stood at 16.58 percent. "Some 63.52 percent of the poor people are villagers who mostly work as small-scale farmers or farm laborers."

He predicted that the conversion of food crop land areas would continue apace in the coming year, owing to the global campaign to replace non-renewable fossil fuel with sustainable bio-fuel. Such bio-fuel may be derived from agricultural products, including the palm.

"Food crop farmers will continue to see a hard time in the coming years because of the lucrative palm oil industry and the fact the government has apparently sided with the industry by issuing policies that facilitate the expansion of oil palm plantations."

He cited a law on investment endorsed by the government in 2007 and a decree issued by the Agriculture Ministry in 2002; they grant concessions as large as 100,000 hectares for up to 95 years. Those policies replaced previous regulations with 35 year and 20,000 hectare maximums.

Henry said takeover by big growers could hurt farmer's income and domestic food security as well. "The government had earlier promised that the country would be able to meet its domestic rice demands in 2005, but the fact is we still have to import rice and the amount keeps rising."

In 2007, Indonesia imported 1.5 million tons of rice, an increase by 78 percent from 840,000 tons in 2006. Henry said the rice imports had affected the price of domestic rice as foreign brands were cheaper. As a result, farmers suffered losses as they had to lower prices to compete.

"The government must stop the conversion of food crop land and revise its rice import policy to ensure that farmers stand a chance to improve their welfare." (lln)

 War on terror

Bali bombers seek edict on execution: lawyer

Reuters - January 7, 2008

Cilacap – Three Islamic militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings met their families on Monday, as their lawyer said they would seek an edict from Indonesia's Muslim body on the legality of execution by shooting.

The three – Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas – could face a firing squad possibly within a month unless they seek presidential clemency, an option which they have already ruled out.

Last week, prosecutors handed over copies of a Supreme Court verdict rejecting the men's final appeal, marking the start of a 30-day deadline for them to request clemency or be executed.

The three men were sentenced to death for their role in two nightclub blasts on Bali's Kuta strip on October 12, 2002, in which 202 people died, mostly foreign tourists. The attacks were blamed on the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

Samudra's mother, wife and four children visited the men in prison on Nusakambangan island, off the southern coast of Java island. Samudra's family traveled with the relatives of Amrozi and Muklas, accompanied by one of the men's lawyers, Achmad Michdan.

Michdan said the defense team was adamant in its rejection of the Supreme Court verdict on the grounds that the case review did not involve a retrial and re-examination of witnesses.

"We want the panel of judges who heard the case to be investigated," said Michdan. He said the Bali bombers' lawyers would lodge a request for the Supreme Court to hear the appeal case once again.

The lawyers would also send a letter to the Indonesian Council of Ulema, the country's highest authority on Islam, asking it to issue a fatwa on the legality of execution by shooting. The three convicts have asked to be beheaded, rather than killed by firing squad.

Previously, the bombers said in a statement read out by their lawyers, that if they were executed, their blood would "become the light for the faithful ones and burning hell fire for the infidels and hypocrites."

[Writing by Ahmad Pathoni; Editing by Sara Webb.]

Bali bomber feels 'beautiful' facing end

Sydney Morning Herald - January 5, 2008

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – One of the Bali bombers has written from his Indonesian jail that he feels so "beautiful" on the eve of his execution that "no words can describe how good the feeling is".

Mukhlas, the elder brother of the so-called smiling assassin Amrozi, posted a 10-page statement on the internet exhorting Muslims to show their support for him by turning out in mass numbers for his burial.

An Islamic militant's website is carrying the statement, fuelling fears the execution of the three bombers could ignite violence and arouse public sympathy for their cause in the world's biggest Muslim nation.

The controversial Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir warned last month of a "big disaster" in Indonesia if the executions were carried out. He made the comments after visiting the bombers in jail.

But the Jakarta security expert Sidney Jones says that while the executions are likely to generate anger and retaliation against Indonesian government installations or personnel, "careful security arrangements should be able to prevent any incident".

Mukhlas, a father of six who is also known as Ali Gufron, titled his jail writings The Right And Good Dreams.

"Please read my writing," he urged Muslims in the internet statement, which he called his "last will and testament".

"I would not trade how I am feeling now with anything else in the world," he said. Mukhlas claimed that Amrozi and the third bomber, Imam Samudra, are also writing books in their cells in a high-security jail on Nusakambangan Island, off Central Java.

A former Islamic preacher in his late 40s, Mukhlas has showed no remorse for helping to organise the 2002 bombings in Bali's Kuta tourist district, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Many of the victims were Muslims.

He claimed on the internet he has sympathy "from all Muslims in the world" for what he did as well as the "blessings of God". Earlier, the three bombers said in a signed statement smuggled from jail that their deaths would make them heroes to God and that being "thrown out of the country" would be "an adventure" and "a sightseeing trip".

"If we are executed, then our drops of blood that flow – with God's permission – will become light for those good Muslims and will become hell burning fire for those who are not Muslims and the hypocrites," they wrote.

A countdown for the bombers to face a firing squad has begun after prosecutors visited the bombers on Wednesday and told them they had 30 days to lodge an application for clemency or the executions would be carried out.

Lawyers for the men will seek final instructions when they go to the jail, expected within days. But the bombers have said repeatedly they will not seek clemency from the President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who would be highly unlikely to grant it for extremists who carried out the deadliest terrorist attack in Indonesia's history.

Ms Jones, of the International Crisis Group, said fears of more terrorist attacks in Indonesia had fallen and the risk of more Bali-style bombings was low.

"Most extremist groups here have concluded that indiscriminate attacks on civilians are counterproductive but they have not given up on local targets, even if their capacity to go after them is weak," she wrote in The Jakarta Post.

The militant group Jemaah Islamiah "is trying to sterilise and consolidate its ranks" after the arrest of a number of its leaders this year, Ms Jones said. Other militant groups were "reaching out to disgruntled members of other organisations and new groups are emerging and recruiting members, particularly in Java".

Ms Jones said the biggest danger to Indonesia "lies not in terrorism, separatism, election disputes or any external threat but in poorly managed communal tensions that have the potential to fray this country's social fabric".

 Islam/religion

Attorney general asked to defend religious freedom at home

Jakarta Post - January 8, 2008

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – An alliance of communities fighting for religious freedom has called on the Attorney General's Office to stick to the 1945 Constitution in determining whether the Ahmadiyah sect should be banned.

People grouped in the National Alliance for Freedom of Religion and Faith staged a demonstration in front of the Attorney Genera's Office building and the National Police headquarters on Monday demanding the attorney general disregard a fatwa issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).

"One of the reasons why we came here today was because we heard that the (Attorney General's Office) will hold a meeting with a body overseeing various beliefs in the public on Wednesday to determine the status of Ahmadiyah," Jakarta Legal Aid Institute director Asfinawati told reporters after meeting representatives of the office.

She said that alliance would encourage the office to use the Constitution rather than the to decide Ahmadiyah's fate.

The MUI issued an edict declaring Ahmadiyah a heretic sect after founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed he was a prophet. "The (Attorney General's Office) is the key to upholding religious freedom, so we expect the (office) not to make its decision based on the MUI's edict only," Asfinawati said.

She added that the alliance would also remind the National Police to be neutral and independent in responding to the case. "We see indications that the police have paid no attention to cases of violence against the Ahmadiyah community," she said.

"There were many threats that ended in violence against by Ahmadiyah members but the government and law enforcers did nothing about that." She added that they had sent letters of complaint to the National Police several times since 2005 but nothing had been done.

J.H. Lamardy, an Ahmadiyah member, said that the government had generally ignored violence against Ahmadiyah members. "Take the incident in Pangauban, Garut, West Java for example. The Ahmadiyah community received a threat a week prior to the violent action took place and reported it to the police. But the police did not respond," he said.

He also said that the destruction of Ahmadiyah property, took place in the presence of police personnel. "In the incident in Manislor, Kuningan, West Java, it was even worse. The Ahmadiyah community had received a threat two weeks before the real action," said Lamardy.

"The threat even more explicitly indicated that the attackers would do real damage and (that it would be a) bloody incident if we did not close our mosque."

He added such attacks had damaged seven Ahmadiyah mosques as well as dozens of houses of Ahmadiyah members and that the police had done nothing. "If the (Attorney General's Office) decides that Ahmadiyah is heretical, what will happen the 500,000 sect members?" Lamardy said.

A. H. Semendawai, deputy director of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy said that if the police continued to ignore the attacks, people would believe that they were sanctioning them.

Preacher Gomar Gultom said that the Ahmadiyah community was not the only group suffering. "In some regions, the administrations have even forcibly closed down some churches, like in Bandung, West Java and Tambora district, West Jakarta," he said.

Bogor night spots play it safe as religious group comes to town

Jakarta Post - January 7, 2008

Cafes and pool halls closed their doors Saturday when around a thousand Islamic organization members passed through Bogor's main streets.

While the group were passing from the city center to Ciawi subdistrict as part of a religious ceremony, business owners said they wanted to play it safe and avoid any attacks.

When the group passed Warung Jambu, several shops selling alcohol stopped work and several customers hid themselves. Pool hall owners on Jl. Jenderal Sudirman turned the lights out at the hall while guests hid inside the building.

One Bogor City Police officer who guarded the group along the main streets said they meant no harm to Bogor residents. "They are just passing, they mean no harm," the officer said as quoted by Tempointeraktif news portal.

The unidentified officer said, however, that he understood why people felt uneasy, given that many such groups had forced cafes, pool halls and bars to close on various occasions including Ramadan.

Traditionally Bogor does not have not have any special ruling for such outlets over religious festivals, or any other occasion.

In the past Muslim groups have sent mobs to such places when they felt these people interfered with the solemnity of their holidays.

A group of Muslims attacked cafes, brothels, small hotels and other businesses on the western outskirts of Bogor last October because (they said) they felt the businesses were "violating the sanctity of Ramadhan."

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Sisno Adiwinoto said all citizens, the police and the Home Ministry should consider all violent attacks and the radical organizations responsible for them, as a common enemy. He urged victims to file police reports, saying this was the only way to catch those responsible.

Sisno also suggested that the Home Ministry review the organizational permits of radical groups responsible for these and similar attacks. "I think the ministry should ban these groups to avoid this kind of incident," Sisno said.

Group asks AGO to ban Ahmadiyah

Jakarta Post - January 4, 2008

Jakarta – More than 50 Islamic organizations grouped under the Islamic Community Forum visited the Attorney's General Office (AGO) on Thursday to urge the government to ban the Ahmadiyah sect.

In a letter to Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, the group expressed the need for the government to declare Ahmadiyah heretical, prohibit all its activities and demand the followers be re-educated by the Indonesian Ulemas Council.

The forum's secretary-general, Muhammad Al Khaththath, said the letter was received by the junior attorney for intelligence affairs.

Around 20 men accompanied Al Khaththath to the AGO, including Ahmad Sumargono from the Indonesian Muslim Brotherhood (GPMI) and Achmad Michdan from the Muslim Defense Lawyers Team.

The forum claim more than 50 Islamic organizations support them, including Indonesia's two biggest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, as well as some political parties, such as the United Development Party, the Crescent Star Party and the Prosperous Justice Party.

Al Khaththath said the forum's visit was crucial due to the upcoming meeting of the Coordinating Body for the Monitoring of Religious Beliefs (Pakem) on Jan. 8, 2008. The body is an AGO unit tasked with supervising issues relating to religious beliefs in Indonesia. Institutions in the body include the National Police, the Religious Affairs Ministry and the National Intelligence Agency.

"Ahmadiyah continues to undermine the real teachings of Islam by, among others, saying Mirza Gulam Ahmad, not Prophet Muhammad, is the last prophet. That's why we are urging the government, especially President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to issue any regulation necessary to ban Ahmadiyah, including its organization, religious practices and literature in Indonesia," Al Khaththath said.

Junior Attorney General for Intelligence Affairs Wisnu Subroto said the AGO would treat the letter from the forum as a recommendation in the body's meeting, along with the recommendation from the Indonesian Ulemas Council submitted previously.

"The government needs to hear all the information from all parties, including from Ahmadiyah members. During the last meeting with the AGO, Ahmadiyah leaders explained they did not recognize Mirza Gulam Ahmad as a prophet, but merely as a pious leader.

"Many groups, including the forum's members, believed the clarification was just a game being played by the Ahmadiyah leaders to escape being banned (at that time)," Wisnu told The Jakarta Post by phone.

Commenting on the issue, Chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama Hasyim Muzadi said, as quoted by detik.com on Thursday, the Indonesian Ulemas Council must sit together with the AGO before a ban on the Ahmadiyah sect was issued. (uwi)

 Elections/political parties

Protest against repeat election continues

Jakarta Post - January 8, 2008

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – Civil servants Monday rallied at the governor's office in Makassar, South Sulawesi, the second protest against the Supreme Court's decision to call for repeat gubernatorial election in four regencies.

The state employees, among them heads of agencies, urged the central government, through the minister of home affairs, to install governor-elect Syahrul Yasin Limpo and his running mate Agus Arifin Nu'mang, as governor and vice governor respectively for the 2008-2013 term, according to schedule on Jan. 19.

A protester, Agus Sumantri, said: "We only wish the democratic process which occurred during the gubernatorial election on Nov. 7 last year be upheld and respected because it was based on the election results of the people of South Sulawesi." He added that Syahrul and Agus be sworn in according to schedule because there would be a negative impact on the people otherwise. "How can the government do their job if it's (the election results) are still unclear," said Agus, an employee at the gubernatorial office.

He said the new elections would hurt South Sulawesi because they would require budget funds which otherwise go to development and social welfare.

He intimated that new elections weren't worth the risk: "It would be favorable if it runs smoothly, but it could also spark unrest."

Neither Amin – the incumbent and loser in the Nov. poll – nor Syahrul – the incumbent vice governor who ran against Amin and won – were present during the protest.

It was the second protest by the civil servants. Amin had criticized the participation of staffers in the first rally but was unheeded. They urged that he accept defeat.

The rally took place peacefully despite disrupting public services. Employees returned to work after the rally.

'No political parties' in regional council

Jakarta Post - January 7, 2008

Jakarta – A coalition of NGOs voiced their objections on Sunday to a proposal that political parties be allowed to run candidates in elections for the Regional Representatives Council, which currently comprised of independents.

The coalition said the move could undercut the council's reason for existence, which was to represent regions, rather than parties, in policy making.

It said the interference of political parties in the council would make it no different to the "centralistic" House of Representatives, and could harm the bicameral, check and balance system supposed to take place between the two systems.

Hadar Gumay, executive director of the Center for Electoral Reform, a coalition member, said legislators had tried to "alter the (council's) regional characteristics" through the revision of two articles in the 2003 Law on Legislative Elections.

"One article bans party executives from running for office at (the council) while another article requires a candidate to have lived in an area for a certain period of time before he can run for it," he said.

A researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Indra J. Piliang, said that political parties had hardly spoken for the interests of local communities and focused more on "central issues".

Indra expressed concern over political parties' domination of the country's democratic system, citing their still "poor capacity" for legislative functions.

Another coalition member, constitutional law expert Refly Harun, said that the council should be given wider authority to strengthen its legislative function instead of weakening it by letting parties intrude into the council.

Meanwhile, chairman of the House's special committee deliberating the legislative election bill, Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, said legislators had agreed to allow party members, and not party executives to run for the Regional Representatives Council.

He said party members were not tied to parties as the executives were, so party members could run for council as individual candidates.

Ferry, who represents the Golkar Party, also acknowledged that legislators had abolished the residency requirement in the 2003 law and changed it into a requirement that candidates "must know and be known in the areas they will represent".

"And, we'll oblige them (through the revision of the law) to live in the area they represent after they're installed as council members, not as what happens now where the councilors left their regions for Jakarta," he told The Jakarta Post.

However, Regional Representatives Council member Mustani, who represents Bengkulu, said the residency requirement was needed because candidates would have an emotional connection with an area only if they had stayed there for some time.

He added that the council had no clear status because it only had a very limited legislative function. Mustani said the council should be given a wider authority in the deliberation of bills related to regional autonomy. (wda)

South Sulawesi rallies over court ruling election

Jakarta Post - January 3, 2008

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – The political situation in South Sulawesi is heating up following the issuance of a ruling by the Supreme Court on a repeat gubernatorial election in the province.

On Wednesday hundreds of people supporting one or the other of two governor-deputy pairs staged rallies in front of the local legislative council building in Makassar.

The first group of protesters were supporters of Amin Syam and Mansyur Ramli, the pair who lost the Nov. 5, 2007 election. A second group, arriving soon afterwards, supported governor-elect Syarul Yasin Limpo and deputy Agus Arifin Nu'mang. Police officers blockaded the council building to prevent clashes.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor on Dec. 19, 2007 of the losing pair who then brought a lawsuit demanding a repeat election in four regencies: Bone, Gowa, Bantaing and Tana Toraja. The Court ruled that a repeat election was in order because there were 8,000 illegal votes. It called for new elections within three to six months.

The South Sulawesi chapter of the General Election Commission had earlier declared Syahrul Yasin and Agus Arifin the victors. They garnered 1.43 million votes, or 39.52 percent of the total number of eligible voters, while the other pair got 1.40 million votes, or 38.76 percent.

Despite the police blockade, an Amin supporter was believed to have been struck by a demonstrator backing Syahrul. Amin supporters tried to retaliate but were prevented from doing so by police. Security officers then forced Amin supporters to leave the area and Syahrul supporters were allowed to enter the building.

They Syahrul backers, who oppose the Supreme Court ruling, asked the Minister of Home Affairs to install Syahrul and Agus on schedule, on Jan. 19. Amin supporters, meanwhile, have urged that the repeat elections be held as soon as possible.

They also complained that the Sulawesi election commission could not be considered independent because it had taken sides in the dispute. The commission should be frozen it said.

The opposing groups of supporters also appeared at the commission's offices but police prevented them from clashing.

The commission said it would try to influence the Supreme Court ruling on the election outcome through a "review note". "We're still preparing a review note. Hopefully it will be registered with the Supreme Court through the South Sulawesi High Court," Mappinawang, head of commission said Wednesday.

 Government/civil service

House plenary sessions inefficient: Experts

Jakarta Post - January 3, 2008

Alfian, Jakarta – The House of Representatives' plenary session is not an efficient forum to debate public issues, said political experts and commentators on Wednesday.

The commentators each said greater transparency in bill deliberation was essential to improve the performance of legislators.

Muhammad Qodari, a political observer from Indo Barometer political survey institute, said using the House's plenary session as a debating forum was inefficient – especially to pass bills in time.

"There are 550 legislators and they must have thousands opinions," Muhammad said. "Too many interruptions may slow down the process of deliberation. Even with the current system – in which public issues are discussed through levels including special committee, working committee, and commission – the House was unable to meet its 2007 legislation target," he said.

The Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (PSHK) in early December 2007 said House and government achievement levels for 2007, in terms of legislation quantity, was low. "The House and government only passed 40 from 78 targeted bills," the center said in a media release.

Senior researcher at PSHK, Bivitri Susanti, said both in the US and countries adopting parliamentary systems, plenary sessions were used for decision making only.

"The debates are conducted at a commission level for practicality sake," Bivitri said. "So it is not a matter of parliamentary or presidential systems," she said.

Muhammad said he regretted the House's low productivity in passing bills. He said the House's legislation function was essential to "build good systems".

The idea of using the plenary season as a forum for debating public issues, instead of decision making, was floated by House Speaker Agung Laksono. Agung said many legislators were reluctant to attend the plenary session because it was boring and a time- waster.

Agung's idea was supported by Effendy Choirie, leader of the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction at the House. "The plenary session so far has been long and trivial," Choirie told Detik.com. Choirie urged the House to immediately reformulate its internal regulations to support the change.

But executive director of the Center for Electoral Reform Hadar N. Gumay said changing the plenary's mechanism was actually not essential to improve the House's performance.

"The biggest problem is in the stages before the plenary session," Hadar said. "The deliberation of bills has yet to be made transparent for the public. For example, the deliberation of a recently passed bill around a political party was conducted mainly during closed-door meetings. The House even held some of the meetings outside Jakarta, which made it seem legislators were trying to avoid media coverage."

Hadar said the United States' legislative system saw debates conducted at the commission level. But he said the final decision was based on voting and involved all legislators.

"In the US, the legislators' final decision is no longer a party decision, but an individual decision by which their track records are documented," Hadar said. "Indonesian legislators still perceive themselves as party representatives rather than representatives of the public."

 Regional/communal conflicts

Religion, ethnicity 'not main factors of strife'

Jakarta Post - January 4, 2008

Jakarta – Religious and ethnic issues rarely grow into communal conflicts without underlying political and economic motives to trigger unrest, an international relations and security expert said Thursday.

Deputy Executive Director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Rizal Sukma said most conflicts were rooted in political or economic problems instead of religious fanaticism or racial bias.

"Many studies have found that political and economic problems are always behind the communal conflicts," Rizal said. Violent incidents initiated solely by religious or racial issues are very hard to find, he said.

Executive director of the Centre for Dialogue and Cooperation among Civilizations (CDCC) Abdul Mukti said all religions taught their believers to refrain from violence. He was speaking at a press conference to welcome the new year.

"All religions teach us not to respond to differences, including differences in belief, with violent acts," Mukti said.

Rizal said religious or ethnic disputes were mostly the side effect of political and economic problems. "The people who trigger these conflicts use religious and ethnic issues for political power mobilization in order to fortify their positions," Rizal said.

He said it was unfortunate in high tension situations, identities became important elements for a community. "Identities, such as religion and ethnicity, could be used to develop self-defense mechanisms, which could escalate conflict," Rizal said.

He cited the example of the bloody communal conflict in Maluku province. He said although the clash was perceived by many as religious, the first incident was triggered by a competition between two gangs seeking control of a traditional market.

Rizal also cited the political dispute involving territorial rights behind the endless Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "However, the religious element plays a bigger role in this conflict because of the history of that territory," he said.

Also speaking at the conference was Muhammadiyah's leader Din Syamsuddin. Din, who is also one of the CDCC's founders, said any potential for conflict must be eradicated immediately before violence disintegrated the nation.

"In this regard, the state must be present effectively," Din said. "It cannot be absent or escapist, because this will lead to serious problems for the public," Din said.

Rizal said law enforcement was needed for conflict resolution and that efforts should be made outside the court system. "I think we should explore again Indonesian's local wisdom in resolving conflicts," he said.

Violent conflicts were one of the deadliest political diseases, Rizal said, and a culture of violence was unfortunately quite dominant in Indonesia. "How to eradicate the culture of violence is our biggest question," he said. (alf)

Communal tension a prime security threat

Jakarta Post - January 3, 2008

Sidney Jones, Jakarta – The security outlook for Indonesia in 2008 is reasonably good. The biggest danger lies not in terrorism, separatism, election disputes, or any external threat, but in poorly managed communal tensions that have the potential to fray this country's social fabric.

The fact that the climate change conference could be held for two weeks in Bali at the time of year that used to be called "bombing season" is an indication of how far fears of terrorism have fallen. The likelihood of another attack along the lines of Bali I or II in the new year is low.

Most extremist groups here have concluded that indiscriminate attacks on civilians are counterproductive, but they have not given up on local targets, even if their capacity to go after them is weak.

The execution of the three Bali bombers is likely to generate anger, and in a statement posted on the Internet in mid-December, Mukhlas exhorted his followers to show their support by turning out in massive numbers for his burial. If there were to be retaliation for the executions, it likely would be against Indonesian government installations or personnel, but careful security arrangements should be able to prevent any incident. (Despite the court decision earlier this year upholding the constitutionality of the death penalty, the Indonesian parliament would do well to abolish it. Quite apart from the human rights arguments against capital punishment, its politicized use in this country too often serves to fuel rather than ease social tensions.)

The weakness of salafi jihadi groups at the moment does not mean that they are on a slow steady path to eradication. On the contrary, Jamaah Islamiyah is trying to sterilize and consolidate its ranks; various Darul Islam groups are reaching out to disgruntled members of other organizations; and new groups are emerging and recruiting members, particularly in Java.

The government needs to be thinking not just about how to "deradicalize" about-to-be-released prisoners but how to provide options other than jihadi career paths to children in vulnerable areas who are now in their early teens.

Separatism has not gone away but neither is it a threat to Indonesian stability. The conflict in Aceh is no longer military but political, over how much authority Jakarta will cede. There are security problems in the province, some of them linked to the problems of poorly administered reintegration funding, but they do not appear to have the potential to trigger renewed fighting. In that sense, the peace is secure. Local politics will heat up before the 2009 elections, but isolated incidents of violence are not likely to spread.

In Maluku, there will always be a small group of RMS (Republic of the South Moluccas) supporters who raise their flag on April 25 in Haruku and other traditional strongholds, but Jakarta's fear of separatism there is overblown – the spectacle of pro-RMS dancers breaching presidential security in Ambon earlier this year notwithstanding. Hostility between the TNI and police in Maluku (and elsewhere) is a greater danger to the population than anything the RMS could dream up.

Papua will remain a problem in 2008, but the danger will not come from the OPM or outside agitators. It will continue to be from the cumulative impact of years of neglect of basic social services, unprosecuted past human rights violations, rapacious security forces and uncontrolled migration from elsewhere in Indonesia, with a divisive and unnecessary process of pemekaran – administrative fragmentation – further roiling the waters. Governor Bas Suebu and his overstretched advisers are doing their best to move forward, but the obstacles they face are enormous.

The Yudhoyono government is not helping matters by restricting access of journalists and NGOs. The stories that come out of the interior will not be pretty, but they could expose some of the sources of Papuan resentment that in turn could lead to better policy-making.

Authorities at all levels of government need to understand the social, political and environmental risks that palm oil investment can bring; they should use 2008 to undertake a thorough analysis of the social costs thus far of the Sinar Mas enterprise, now scheduled for major expansion.

Poso is a place to watch in 2008. Largely calm since police operations in January 2007, it remains a place where unresolved grievances could still come to the surface and, like Aceh and Papua, where poorly monitored funds thrown at a problem can create as many tensions as they solve.

Corruption of humanitarian funds has been a huge issue in Poso; with additional funding given to prisoners and ex-prisoners involved in the conflict with no clear criteria for how recipients are selected and no accounting for the funds, the likelihood of new resentments is high.

As far as 2008 local elections go, one that may carry a risk of trouble is the East Java governor's race, where the impact of the Lapindo mudflow disaster will be an issue. But in general, outbreaks of election-related violence have been easily localized and there is no reason to believe the East Java race will be any different.

Likewise, while the maneuvering for the national 2009 elections may bring an increase in rent-a-mob demonstrations, using various economic grievances as a theme, there is nothing on the horizon that suggests a potential for the phenomenon Indonesia most dreads, urban riots.

That leaves one big unresolved issue facing the country in 2008: Communal tensions. Protecting minority rights may be the government's biggest security challenge, and there are various ways in which its neglect of this fundamental function is undermining the national slogan, "unity in diversity".

Attacks by local Muslim vigilante groups on "illegal" churches, the beleaguered Ahmadiyah community and "deviant" sects picked up in 2007 and are likely to continue in 2008. Police have made few arrests in the face of mob action on the part of groups like the Anti-Apostasy Alliance (AGAP) in West Java.

Not only did the Yudhoyono government make no serious effort to punish the attackers or stress the importance of freedom of religion, but instead it endorsed the views of the conservative Indonesian Ulama Council (Majelis Ulama Indonesia, MUI) that such religious groups themselves are a greater threat than their attackers because they provoke community hostility.

It is not clear why religious vigilantism has been such a problem in West Java – one theory is that aggressive Protestant evangelicalism there has made inroads in strongly Muslim communities, creating fears of "Christianization" – but Muslims considered "deviant" have been victims almost as often.

The problem is that the success of vigilantes at a local level has national implications and can encourage similar attacks in Lombok, where the persecution of Ahmadis has been unremitting, or West Sulawesi, where the risk of local political conflict taking on a communal dimension remains high.

Once communal tensions are inflamed, they can be exacerbated by local power struggles. (That said, since direct local elections were instituted in 2005, Indonesian voters consistently have rejected extremist candidates.) The government has also failed to roll back local regulations that discriminate against non- Muslims, when it has a clear legal mandate to do so, under both the Indonesian constitution and the decentralization laws that left religion as the responsibility of the central government.

The result is a palpable sense among many non-Muslims, in North Sulawesi, Bali, Papua and elsewhere, that they are becoming second-class citizens in their own country.

In Manokwari in early 2007, that sense was one factor leading the local district council to propose, in an equally reprehensible move, that the city be designated a "Christian city" with some restrictions on other faiths. The proposal was not adopted but it led to efforts by some hardline Muslim groups to scope out the possibility for stirring up communal conflict there, and the story is not over.

Playing religious favorites or tacitly endorsing one version of the truth is a dangerous game in a country as diverse as Indonesia. Unless Jakarta takes a tougher stance against vigilantes and in favor of religious freedom and minority rights, internal security problems are likely to increase.

[The writer is Senior Adviser International Crisis Group.]

Central Sulawesi Police impose lenient measures

Jakarta Post - January 2, 2008

Ruslan Sangadji, Palu – The Central Sulawesi Police Headquarters said on Tuesday it will tone down security measures in Poso considering the gradual improvement of conditions in the regency.

Central Sulawesi Police Chief Brig. Gen. Badrodin Hait launched an operation called Siwagilemba following the conclusion of the Lantodago operation in Poso on Dec. 31, 2007.

In his year-end report Badrodin said there were a number of basic differences in the implementation of the Siwagilemba and Lantodago operations in Poso.

He said the Siwagilemba operation would be coordinated by the Central Sulawesi Police, using funds from the provincial budget and involving at least 500 police personnel from the provincial police headquarters and Poso city police.

The now-completed Lantodago operation was coordinated by the National Police Headquarters, funded by the state budget and involved 1,200 personnel.

"They are two different things," Badrodin said. "We focus more on persuasive measures by being involved in public awareness campaigns."

He said the security operation in Poso, where religious conflicts used to erupt and were usually followed by a series of violent terror acts, was crucial.

He said this was because there were still a number persons believed to be perpetrators of recent violent attacks in Poso. These people were on the police's wanted list and were still at large. Badrodin said the suspects, identified by the initials M, Id, U, I and S, were believed to be still in Poso or overseas, including the Philippines.

A number of groups were believed to be carrying out clandestine activities to undermine the peace process in Poso and areas deemed risky following the arrest of Basri and his gang members, he said. "We deemed Gebangrejo village as still risky and that security forces must continue to conduct small-scale security operations."

He said Poso still needed assistance to totally restore conditions, especially as the government was carrying out reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts after the conflicts. Badrodin said former gang members of Basri's group must be reformed in order to stop them from carrying out destructive actions, "because they could turn into a hardline group and then be ready to engage in violence in Poso anytime".

Another pressing issue requiring police intervention, he said, was the return of people's civil rights. "We deem that returning people's civil rights, in line with the Malino peace pact, that has yet to be implemented, would become a problem. "So, we deem the Siwagilemba operation as crucial," he asserted.

In Poso, New Year's Eve was a festive occasion. Nearly every subdistrict held parties to celebrate new year, including Poso Pesisir, where a traditional event was organized to see in the new year. Fireworks displays were also held at the Maroso Square, Poso Port, Penghibur Beach, as well as in Tentena.

Poso Regent Piet Inkiriwang urged residents to unite in peace when celebrating the new year and to work together to turn Poso into a better place in 2008. "We must unite and work hand-in-hand to develop Poso into a better place in the years ahead," Inkiriwang said.

 Armed forces/defense

TNI reform unfinished, not neglected: Suyanto

Jakarta Post - January 8, 2008

Jakarta – Outgoing Indonesian Military (TNI) chief, Air Marshall Djoko Suyanto, said Monday efforts to enhance the TNI's performance and continue internal reforms would not be affected by the change in leadership.

Suyanto will officially hand over his baton to Gen. Djoko Santoso at a ceremony at TNI headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, on Tuesday. Djoko, former Army chief of staff, was installed as the next TNI chief by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Dec. 28.

"Among other things crucial to enhancing the TNI's performance are improving the TNI's weaponry system and personnel education and training systems," Suyanto said at a press conference after a rehearsal for Tuesday's ceremony. "However, that will not be an easy task for the next chief."

Suyanto said under the government's long-term development plan the TNI had yet to receive an ideal budget to defend the country from both domestic and foreign threats.

The Defense Ministry and the TNI had agreed on a "minimum essential force" (MEF) degree of operational readiness the TNI needed to meet, but that the current budget fell far short of implementing it.

It is estimated the TNI needed some Rp 100 trillion (US$10.63 billion) to meet the MEF, or almost three times the Rp 33 trillion allocation of the state budget this year.

During the rehearsal, Suyanto was accompanied by Santoso, Air Force chief of staff Vice Marshall Subandrio, Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Sumardjono and Army chief of Education and Training Command, Lt. Gen. Cornel Simbolon.

Commenting on the TNI's reform agenda, Suyanto said there had been plenty of reform during his 23-month tenure as TNI chief.

"There are several agendas, such as the arrangement of the TNI's business activities, which are not yet finished. This, however, does not mean the TNI is neglecting matters," he said.

"In political practices, the TNI is no longer being represented at the House of Representatives. There also have been some significant steps taken to reform the TNI's internal organization, such as amending doctrine and restructuring operational function."

In the 2007 amended doctrine, the TNI declared it would no longer be involved in politics and that any soldiers wanting to get involved in politics must first resign.

Suyanto said TNI reform was an unfinished task and it would keep on moving, just like the challenges surrounding the TNI itself.

"That is why I need to say the TNI still, and always, puts a lot of hope in other institutions, whether they be governmental, non-governmental, academic and, of course, the press, to continuously provide input for the betterment of the TNI," he said. (uwi)

TNI will not affect election: Observers

Jakarta Post - January 2, 2008

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Observers and legislators agreed the changing of the Indonesian Military (TNI) commander and chiefs of staff would not affect the military's independence and neutrality ahead of the 2009 general elections.

"It's about time the President replaced the TNI chief and the chiefs of staff," Andrinof Chaniago, a political observer of the University of Indonesia, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. "If the president had delayed the replacements any longer, there would have been more speculation emerging."

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono installed on Friday the new TNI commander Gen. Djoko Santoso, replacing Air Marshall Djoko Suyanto; Army chief Let. Gen. Agustadi Sasongko Purnomo, replacing Santoso; and Air Force chief Vice Marshall Subandrio, replacing Air Marshall Herman Prayitno.

Earlier in November, the President installed Adm. Sumardjono to replace Adm. Slamet Soebijanto as the Navy chief. Yudhoyono himself is a retired four-star Army general.

Andrinof said this was the right moment to change all the chiefs of staff considering there was still enough time for the new chiefs to adjust to their new positions.

He said the appointment of new military chiefs did not have to be questioned, adding the TNI could maintain its neutrality despite much skepticism about the military taking side with certain individuals or parties.

"The Army chief has committed to defending the Army's independence," Andrinof said. "Besides, there is no use... to taking sides in the current environment where people are getting more critically aware of politics."

Indria Samego, a political observer at the Indonesian Science Institute, said it was difficult to find individuals (for the various posts) that had not had a close relationship with the President. "Whoever the president is, there must be a political consideration in his decision," he told the Post.

He said Indonesians could only wait and see whether the newly installed military chiefs would really implement reform in their institutions.

Joseph Kristiadi from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies told the Post the military's neutrality was not an issue anymore because the military was no longer a factor in politics.

Yuddy Chrisnandy of the House of Representatives' Commission I overseeing defense issues shared a similar view. "The TNI is getting more advanced and it will be difficult for the President to take advantage of the military for his political interests," he told the Post.

Another Commission I member, Andreas H. Pareira, expected the appointment of the new flag officers would be create momentum in speeding up reform within the TNI.

"The commitment of the newly installed Army chief not to be involved in practical politics should (be adopted by) all chiefs of staff," he told Antara on Tuesday. "In this way, the Army can prove its neutrality and independence from here forward."

New army chief to focus on personnel

Jakarta Post - January 2, 2008

Novan Iman Santosa, Jakarta – The Indonesian Army will prioritize personnel development to create a large, professional and strong Army while at the same time improving soldiers' welfare, new Army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Agustadi Sasongko Purnomo said Monday.

"Personnel development will be conducted from low-level units up to the top-level units," Agustadi was quoted as saying by Antara news agency. "Army personnel must have high levels of discipline, solidarity, faith and piety to produce a professional Army.

"The development is also part of plans to improve the Army's strength, development and reorganization."

Agustadi was speaking after a ceremony at Army Headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, in which he was installed to replace Gen. Djoko Santoso, who on Friday replaced Air Marshall Djoko Suyanto as chief of the Indonesian Military (TNI).

In his speech inaugurating Agustadi, Suyanto, in one of his last official acts, asked the Army to be serious in conducting its duties and roles with other parties despite its equipment shortages.

"The Army must prove itself as a strong and large professional military institution (that is able) to carry out its duties in defending the country's sovereignty," he said.

Agustadi also said that Army would take a neutral stance at the 2009 general election.

"It is already our commitment as part of the TNI and the Indonesian nation to remain neutral," he said. "We will take action against those who violate this commitment."

Also attending the ceremony were former Army chiefs of staff including former vice president Try Sutrisno, former TNI chief Wiranto, Ryamizard Ryacudu, Endriartono Sutarto, Tyasno Sudarto, Agum Gumelar and Wismoyo Arismunandar.

The ceremony was also attended by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto, National Police chief Gen. Sutanto and State Intelligence Agency chief Syamsir Siregar.

The Air Force chief of staff is now Vice Marshall Subandrio who replaced Air Marshall Herman Prayitno on Saturday, while Adm. Slamet Soebijanto was replaced as Navy chief of staff by Adm. Sumardjono on Nov. 12.

 Police/law enforcement

Centralization hampers police force effectiveness - researcher

Jakarta Post - January 5, 2008

Jakarta – The centralized structure of the police force hampers efforts to build an effective professional law enforcement body, a researcher said in a discussion Friday.

Muradi, program manager of the Ridep Institute said centralization had caused at least three problems. "The police are uncreative, too dependent on structural command, and face budget problems," he said.

Muradi was speaking at a focus group discussion in which he presented Ridep's research on the application of community policing in Indonesia. He cited the police force's response to disasters as an example of its lack of creativity.

"Unlike the Indonesian Military, who were immediately present in affected areas, the Police need two or three days because they have to wait for their superior's instructions," Muradi said.

He also cited the dreadful performance of local police in handling the bloody conflict in Poso, Central Sulawesi. "The conflict would not appear as a national issue if the local police were able to reduce the unrest," he said.

Muradi said the police force's dependence on structural command had created longer chains of command. "Can you imagine that a young officer working in Papua needs to get approval from Jakarta only to continue his study?" said Muradi, adding that bureaucracy had resulted in nepotism.

He said centralization had made the police strongly dependent on the budget from the central government.

"The regional administrations are reluctant to allocate part of their regional budgets for the police, because that is prohibited by regulation. The hesitation is also caused by the fact that the police only submit a budget report to the National Police," Muradi said.

In a decentralized system, the police would be obedient to regional policy, he said, and they would have to be responsible to the local authorities for their performance."The police need to submit their performance reports to both the National Police and the regional authority."

The National Police in a decentralized system would only be responsible for formulating general policy and strategy. "The police will then work closely with the regional authorities to implement policy and strategy," Muradi said.

The research by Ridep suggests the effectiveness of community policing in several countries depends on both the police force's service quality and cooperation among the police, community and local authorities.

The research recommends two models of community policing to be applied in Indonesia; the suburban and rural police and the community strategic police unit in urban areas.

"The first model is based on preventive efforts through guidance, counseling and campaigns," Muradi said. "While the second model is based on patrols and responds to communities' reports."

Also attending the discussion was Yundini, a lecturer from the College of Police Science (PTIK). She said the biggest challenge to public participation in community policing was the police force's image. "The police still present a terrifying face to the public," she said. (alf)

 Economy & investment

Sharia finance growth slowing

Jakarta Post - January 8, 2008

Jakarta – The growth of sharia-based finance in 2007 was just 30.1 percent, less than the 34.2 percent advance seen the previous year, due to a rise of non-performing transactions, according to Bank Indonesia.

BI director for banking Ramzi A. Zuhdi said Monday that last year's gross non-performing sharia transactions reached 6.26 percent, thus demanding increased attention from banks. Net non- performance in 2007 was 4 percent, he said.

"That problem forced the sharia banks to shift their focus away from boosting (sharia) finance services," he said as quoted by Antara, adding that fierce competition with conventional banks charging low interest rates also triggered the slowdown.

However, he said he was optimistic that the growth of sharia finance year would again this year be at least 30 percent because of the effect of expected regulations protecting against double taxation.

Customers of sharia-based finance – which forbids interest – sometimes pay double taxes, once on the goods they purchase from the sharia banks and once again on debt installments.

By contrast, conventional banking customers who receive cash loans pay interest on their loans but no additional tax. "Under the new planned rules, sharia financing will be better because it is expected to be cheaper," he said.

Ramzi said sharia banking had big potential in the country although the number of customers was still very small compared to the 85 million conventional banking customers.

He said BI was encouraging sharia banks to offer new banking products to attract customers, adding that the central bank also planned to promote sharia banking through a sharia economic festival. (ind)

Democracy, sound economy remain out of reach despite reform

Jakarta Post - January 5, 2008

Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – Corrupt behavior in politics and complicated bureaucracy are believed to be the factors keeping benevolent democracy and a sound economy out of Indonesia's reach even after 10 years of reform, experts said in a discussion Friday.

Siti Zuhro from the Center of Political Studies at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences blamed ethical shortcomings of politicians for failure to achieve full democratization and bureaucratic reform.

"Even though the government has committed to the reform of bureaucracy at every level... this has not yet materialized. Corruption, collusion and nepotism still happen everywhere," she said. "This is a matter of politicians' mentality. They're practicing politics and neglecting morality."

Siti, however, acknowledged there had been many changes in the organization of the state since the reform era. Especially important, she said, was the amending of the 1945 Constitution – on four occasions. "There has been considerable change in our country's politics, including in our election mechanisms and development of a multi-party system."

She predicted political diversity – new faces and more independent candidates – because the public was dissatisfied with political parties' perceived failing to represent the aspirations of the people.

"Political parties in the parliament have failed to support the people. And in this decentralization era, when people have put their hopes in the Regional Representatives Council, they (people) are once again disappointed because the council has also failed to show its power."

Siti said political parties should focus more on educating their members in an effort to improve their performance and to better accommodate the people. Economically, the country had yet to achieve independence, said Fadhil Hasan of the Institute for Development of Economy and Finance Indonesia (INDEF).

"Complicated bureaucracy and policies are not on the side of the business community, thus (foreign) investors are reluctant to come here. Indonesia doesn't have a suitable economic strategy, and its policies have not been able to protect national interests from being damaged by foreign ones," he said. He cited a banking sector controlled 60 percent by foreigners.

Energy, finance and food, he said, were the three key sectors whose weakness held back economic progress.

Ismed Hasan Putro, head of the Professional Civil Society, expressed similar views, saying the business climate in the country was not competitive and that illegal levies had led to huge cost inefficiencies that dissuaded investors.

 Opinion & analysis

Forgive but don't forget

Jakarta Post Editorial - January 8, 2008

There was a sense of deja vu when former president Soeharto was admitted to Pertamina Hospital in Jakarta over the weekend.

Just about everyone of importance in the country, from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to senior politicians, trooped in and out of his hospital room, to convey their best wishes as if for the last time, while Soeharto's loyal supporters demanded the government drop all corruption charges against him so he could die in peace.

But as in previous years this turned out to be another false alarm. Soeharto recovered and will, according to his doctors, soon be discharged and sent home. We have gone through this exercise almost every year for the last five or six years, and this latest incident followed what has by now become a predictable script. The same faces visited the hospital, and made the same remarks as the last time around.

As always, Soeharto's ill health, and the presumption of his imminent death, sparked a public debate on how the nation treats its second president. He is still facing charges of corruption and a human rights commission is still investigating or compiling reports of his poor human rights record while in office. Even without these official investigations, Soeharto is still seen by much of the public as someone who left behind as his legacy a violent and corrupt political culture.

To the younger generation, Soeharto is someone who stole a lot of money from the state while president. At least that was how he was portrayed when he called it quits in May 1998, and that is how he is still largely known by the young people of today.

To those old enough to have had a taste of his rule, Soeharto could be a hero, or a villain, or both at the same time. He saved Indonesia from communism, brought political stability and economic development. Granted, he had the oil money to help him spend his way to development.

Soeharto is remembered by many as someone who oversaw rapid economic growth, ensuring they had food on the table, that they were able to send their children to school and that they had access to affordable health care. Looking at conditions today, where these things no longer come cheap, it is not surprising that some people miss the "golden days" of Soeharto.

At the same time, Soeharto is also remembered as a corrupt president, or at least as one who was surrounded by children and cronies who abused his office to enrich themselves.

Soeharto is also the man responsible for the suppression of their freedoms and basic human rights, and for the killings that took place in East Timor, Papua, Aceh and other places in the archipelago. Older people remember him as the person who presided over the massacre of suspected communists in 1965 and 1966.

The sad part of Soeharto's story is not so much his prolonged illness but that he is squandering valuable time and opportunity to rectify the misdeeds he committed during his 32-year rule. He has never been tried for his alleged crimes, managing to duck trial in the 10 years since he left office.

Those demanding he be tried for corruption and human rights atrocities are doing so not so much out of revenge, as to give him the opportunity to come clean and help the nation establish the truth about the circumstances of the tragic events during his reign. There is no sense in exacting revenge on an ailing 86-year-old, but the man holds the answers to many unanswered questions surrounding important episodes in the life of the nation.

His family and lawyers have bent over backward to prevent Soeharto from ever going to court because they have their own personal interests to protect. They are not really looking after his interests, which is his public image.

As many people have proposed, Soeharto should be tried, even in absentia if he cannot attend the court sessions, and be held accountable for gross misdeeds (not the petty corruption cases now in the attorney general's file). As soon as the court convicts Soeharto, President Yudhoyono could issue an amnesty.

Indonesians are a forgiving lot, and while we may have some lapses of memories from time to time, the Soeharto legacy is too powerful to forget.

Living with disaster

Jakarta Post Editorial - January 5, 2008

Deadly natural disasters look to have struck too early for Indonesia, just after the country won praise for hosting a key climate change conference in Bali last month. A national follow- up plan prescribing forest conservation among other measures remained a work on paper when floods and landslides struck.

Over 100 people have been killed and thousands displaced as terrifying earth, wind and water pummeled parts of the country from North Sumatra to East Nusa Tenggara. The densely populated island of Java was the area hit hardest, as landslides buried 64 people in the Central Java regency of Karanganyar. The death toll stood at 112 with at least 20 still missing in the disasters that have struck Central and East Java since late last month.

The number of fatalities will rise if food and medical supplies do not reach the disaster victims.

With rainy season expected to peak between January and February, other regions of the country will have to brace for disaster. Jakarta is no exception and cannot take the "five-year cycle" for granted in attempts to forecast major flooding.

Massive flooding punished Jakarta last year, but the potential for a more devastating calamity remains. The Ciliwung River which dissects the capital city has already burst its banks in places, inundating adjacent residential areas.

Indonesia hasn't seen a flood and landslide-free year in the past decade. The flash flood which claimed about 200 lives in the Bukit Lawang resort in North Sumatra in November 2003 is perhaps the most severe recent disaster associated with heavy rainfall. That floods and landslides recur every year suggests the nation isn't learning from the past, or isn't acting fast enough to stop disasters.

The disasters are undoubtedly a result of negligent environmental stewardship, but there is a long-standing debate over whether deforestation is the culprit. The controversy prompted Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban to clarify that the Karanganyar landslides had nothing to do with deforestation.

Statistics however reveal that floods and landslides have spread as deforestation and conversion of forestland to other uses intensifies. Jakarta, for example, is prone to floods as 40 percent of it lies below the level of the sea to the north; but the denuding of forests to the south has exacerbated flooding.

Authorities have said the landslides in Karanganyar were made possible when trees were cleared to plant cash crops. Hillsides were turned into vegetable belts, unable to withstand relentless heavy rains and prone to landslides. Environmental experts raised an alert recently when they found that nature conservation areas at the foot of Mt. Lawu were being used for farming.

Environmentalists have long warned that the loss of forest cover, which acts to absorb rainfall and keep hillsides from slipping, can result in disaster. They also advocate extensive reforestation on Java, which has been largely stripped of its original forests, warning that more flooding and landslides will become more frequent otherwise.

Only in 2003 the government initiated a national land and forest rehabilitation plan (Gerhan), which includes reforestation of bare, high-risk lands. Trillions of rupiah have been spent so far, but corruption may have undermined the program. Leading group Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), while supporting the worthy objectives of the program, has found that much of the money allocated for environmental rehabilitation has been stalled for unacceptable reasons.

Investigation into alleged corruption in state funding for the Gerhan scheme should not hinder reforestation efforts. More resolute action is needed as the deforestation rate in the country is three times that of the rehabilitation rate under the scheme.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – then chief security minister – and Jusuf Kalla – then chief welfare minister – initiated the land and forest rehabilitation program. As such, the president and vice president are all the more responsible for saving the nation from future man-made disasters.

The Yudhoyono administration may introduce a breakthrough to follow up on the Bali conference by upgrading the Office of State Minister for the Environment to a portfolio ministry. Many had turned a blind eye to environmental conservation policies as they were unaccompanied by sanctions. Empowering the environment minister will help the government harmonize and enforce its pro- environment policies.

It may be quite late given the environmental devastation the country is facing, but it's better than doing nothing.

The jobless among us

Jakarta Post Editorial - January 4, 2008

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported a decrease of 921,000 in the number of unemployed people between August, 2006 and August, 2007, to about 10 million or slightly over 9 percent of the 110 million-person workforce.

Since new job seekers increased by 3.5 million in the period under review, that means more than 4.4 million new jobs were created in one year.

What an impressive achievement it seems, since both government and private economists have often acknowledged that the quality of Indonesia's economic growth has steadily declined in terms of employment creation, and the economy was estimated to grow by only 6.3 percent last year.

We should therefore be careful in reading the findings of the agency's manpower and employment survey, otherwise the conclusions could lead to the wrong policy decisions.

First of all, the decrease in unemployment cannot be directly related to economic growth because gross domestic product measures only value added generated in the formal sector while almost 70 percent of the workforce is employed in the informal sector.

Moreover, the agency's definition of being employed is quite loose since a person who works only one hour within a week is considered fully employed. The survey also revealed that only some 28 percent of the labor force is employed in the formal sector.

Judging from these manpower and employment statistics, one can easily see how serious our unemployment and underemployment problem is. Even though the unemployment rate is officially estimated at only 9 percent, the definition used to measure employment makes the survey's findings rather meaningless.

The fact that nearly 70 percent of the workforce are engaged in the informal sector and most of them work in agriculture and trading support reveals the poor quality of the jobs most people have been engaged in.

This again supports the estimate often cited by analysts that more than 30 million people are underemployed. This means that more than 27 percent of the labor force either does unproductive jobs or are virtually jobless. Anyway, what can a person produce if he or she works only one hour a week?

Project these grim figures onto the estimated 110 million people in Indonesia still living on less than two dollars a day and one can see how gloomy has been the outlook of the employment sector.

Hence, one should not be misled by the agency's reports. The employment situation is not as good as described by the Central Statistics Agency's report. The prospects of job opportunities remain grim, unless the government takes concerted measures to attack the massive unemployment and underemployment.

Only direct investment either by the government or the private sector will create productive jobs, and they key to solving the unemployment problem once and for all is thus stimulating investment.

The long-delayed amendment of the rigid labor regulations does discourage new investment in labor-intensive ventures. But blaming the rigid labor laws as the main reason behind the slow growth in job generation in the formal sector could misdirect policy decisions both in the informal and formal sector.

The key to spurring job growth in the formal sector will have to come from policies that promote investments to diversify production activities into new areas and facilitate restructuring of existing activities.

The government also seems ignorant of the blunt fact that even though the rural sector is where the majority of the workforce is engaged, it has suffered from the neglect of the policy makers. No wonder it has remained a sector characterized by the highest rate of underemployment and low productivity in the country.

Our unemployment will remain massive unless the government increases public investment in rural infrastructure and expands the provision of agricultural extension services.

It is the productivity of work in the rural sector that is the key to improving overall labor market outcomes because higher productivity on the farm will benefit the non-farm rural economy as well as the formal sector.

Guarded optimism this year

Jakarta Post Editorial - January 3, 2008

Riding on the confidence and bullish market sentiment generated by the estimated 6.3 percent growth in 2007, the Indonesian economy is forecast to continue surging this year. The consensus among analysts put the growth this year in a range of at least 6.3-6.5 percent. Government economists are even more optimistic, projecting an expansion of between 6.4 and 6.8 percent.

The downside is that rarely has our economy been so vulnerable to unfavorable external factors as it is now. This is also by and large the view of analysts as carried in our special year-end outlook issues.

The high oil prices, weakening world economy and the global credit crunch will loom over Indonesia's economic prospects and, given the uncertainty about these external factors, our economy will have to depend mainly on domestic market demand for most of its growth. This means that private and government consumption and investment will have to expand at an even faster rate.

The key indicators do point to even stronger fundamentals for sustainable growth this year. The central bank's bench mark interest rate has now been cut to 8 percent, inflation is well under control, the rupiah fairly stable and balance of payments prospects seem bright with exports likely to continue rising on the back of the high prices of natural resource commodities such as palm oil, rubber, cacao, copra, coal and other non-oil minerals. Capital inflows, direct and portfolio (short-term), will also increase steadily.

The biggest potential threat to this optimism lies in the uncertainty about oil prices. This factor alone will have quite an adverse impact on the whole economy through its repercussions on fiscal sustainability, inflationary pressures and exchange rate stability.

Many energy analysts forecast oil prices this year at a range of $80-85 a barrel, substantially higher than the $60 average assumed by the government for fuel subsidies. Several analysts, however, consider these estimates rather conservative, instead expecting oil in the range of $90-100.

Whichever of these predictions materializes, the consequences will be quite severe for Indonesian economic management. The government has persistently claimed that the state budget and the economy will do fairly well if prices stay below $100. But again the big question is how the government would be able to prevent the misuse of subsidized fuels through illegal sales to industrial users and export smuggling with the difference between domestic and international fuel prices so wide.

Even though the government would not raise fuel prices this year, given the high political risks in view of the 2009 presidential election, industrial users have been feeling the brunt as they have to buy fuel at international market prices. Most companies still refrain from passing their higher costs on to consumers, given the fierce market competition with imported products. They prefer, for the time being, cutting their profit margins.

However, if oil prices continue above $80 or even higher, manufacturing companies will eventually have to pass the additional costs over to the consumers at the risk of creating stronger inflationary pressures, weakening the purchasing power of the consumers at a time when they are sorely required to act as the prime driver of economic growth.

It is certainly most imperative now than ever that the government make significant progress in bureaucratic reform to reduce business costs related to regulations and licensing procedures and accelerate the repair of crumbling infrastructure. Cost reduction in these sectors could offset the additional costs of fuel.

The optimistic growth estimate may be foiled if the pace of government capital spending, which has run very slowly due to bureaucratic inertia and procedural bottlenecks in the procurements of goods and services, does not materialize smoothly. The 2008 state budget, like that of 2007, has been designed for economic pump priming, but that would not mean much in the way of fueling growth if budget disbursement remains as slow as last year. Two weeks before the end of the 2007 budget, only 70 percent of budgeted capital expenditures had been realized.

So all in all, despite the uncertainty about the oil prices, the weakening world economy and the global credit crunch, our growth prospects remain rosy. provided inflation is controlled so that consumers' purchasing power remains strong, infrastructure development accelerates and budget implementation by the central government and regional administrations runs much faster than last year.

On top of that, deeper structural reforms are key to maintaining the robust economic growth required to reduce unemployment and poverty.

2008, the Year of Education

Jakarta Post Editorial - January 2, 2008

As we begin the New Year, we are all asking the same question: What does 2008 have in store for us? Looking at the horizon, one could say plenty.

The government has designated 2008 "Visit Indonesia Year", hoping to cash in on the growing global tourism industry. With a modest US$15 million promotional budget, the government has planned many events to attract not just foreigners, but also the burgeoning domestic tourist market.

In May, Indonesia will mark the centenary of what is officially called National Awakening Day. This recognises the founding of Boedi Oetomo on May 22, 1908, as the beginning if the first indigenous organization to have a a true vision of Indonesia. That movement, consisting largely of medical students, encouraged the formation of other nationalist organizations to challenge the Dutch colonial government of the time. They snowballed into a common struggle for freedom that culminated with the Independence Proclamation on August 17, 1945. It was a milestone in the modern history of Indonesia and is worthy of a big celebration.

Less conspicuous but an important moment for The Jakarta Post, is our Silver Jubilee celebrations. We intend to keep our anniversary low-profile, instead pushing to the forefront of the national agenda what we consider to be the most important and pressing challenge Indonesia needs to tackle: Education.

Our founding fathers laid out the vision that for Indonesia to advance as an independent nation, we have to strengthen and promote education. In the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution, they wrote that one of the tasks of the state is "to enlighten the life of the nation".

Nearly 63 years after we declared our independence, the vision of "an enlightened nation" through education has not become a reality. It remains as illusive as the other main goals of independence like justice and prosperity.

Where exactly do we stand in terms of our education? Compared with our situation 63 years ago, we can take pride in the fact that many more people are now going to school and that many more people go on to complete tertiary education.

But these statistics belie a deeper problem: More than two-thirds of our workforce have only a primary school diploma, creating a large pool of unskilled laborers that are neither helpful for the advancement of the country, nor for their own prosperity. The numbers of Indonesian college graduates, not to mention PhDs, are still meager compared to our needs.

This creates an anomaly whereby we have a surplus of unskilled or semi-skilled workers, but a shortage of managers, intellectuals, and most of all, leaders.

A better measure is to compare the performance our education with that of other countries in the region, most of which became independent much later than we did. In the 2007 UNDP Human Development Index, Indonesia ranked 107th, below Singapore (25), Korea (26), Malaysia (63), Thailand (78), China (81), the Philippines (90) and Vietnam (105). Education is very much part of the calculations of the index, and this is where Indonesia, in spite of a head start in independence, trails behind these countries.

The sorry state of our education raises serious questions about whether the nation is truly free and independent. It certainly makes Indonesia vulnerable to the new forms of tyranny and suppression of the modern era.

Rather than lamenting the sorry state of our education, it is not too late for the nation to act and remedy this situation. This much we owe to our founding fathers, who already paid with their blood, sweat and tears to secure our freedom.

The Jakarta Post feels very strongly about the need for this issue to take center position on the national agenda, especially in view of our celebrations of National Awakening Day in May.

Therefore, we are dedicating our Silver Jubilee celebrations this year to the promotion of the education sector. Besides publishing articles to underline the challenges and the search for solutions, we also plan to organize a major seminar in May on the relationship between education and nation building.

In our limited way, The Jakarta Post will help to promote the teaching of English, the language of a global world, at schools through the launching of the Youthspeak tabloid. We hope that this not-for-profit Newspaper in Education program will receive corporate sponsorship through CSR programs. We will also be organizing an English literary festival during the year.

The 25th anniversary logo, with the caption "Essential Reading for the Future" was designed with this concern in mind. This logo will appear throughout the year to remind us of our commitment to education.

We wish to use this opportunity to appeal to our loyal readers, advertisers and other stakeholders in the newspaper to join in our endeavor, individually or with us, to help bring about a greater national awareness of the need to address the challenges Indonesia faces in education and in nation building.

Let's jointly declare 2008 the Year of Education for Indonesia.

 Book/film reviews

Military ideology and the construction of Indonesia's past

Jakarta Post - January 6, 2008

[History in Uniform: Military Ideology and the Construction of Indonesia's past. Katherine McGregor. National University of Singapore Press, 2007.]

David Jardine, Contributor, Jakarta – In 1945 when Indonesia proclaimed its independence from the Netherlands it had no army- in-waiting, indeed no police, nothing at all in the way of a formal apparatus of repression or defense. The leadership was essentially anti-militarist and in the case of Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir avowedly anti-fascist.

Twenty years later the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) submerged the nation's leftists, principally but not solely the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in a bloodbath that took hundreds of thousands of lives.

That bitter episode continues to be the target of official obfuscation and falsification. The shameful 2007 burnings of school history texts offering alternative versions of the events of 1965-66 demonstrate a continuum between democratic Indonesia and Soeharto's New Order, at least where presentation of uncomfortable truths is concerned. The specter of the New Order continues to hover above writers and historians.

Those such as playwright Ratna Sarumpaet who insist that Indonesia face up to the crimes of the past face formidable obstacles, and may in effect be involved in a dialogue of the deaf.

How did such a powerful force as TNI arise ab ovo? Certainly, President Soekarno end the founding fathers felt no urgent need in 1945 for the creation of a national army but within five years it had come together from a rag-tag of different elements such as the "pemuda" militias.

How does TNI explain itself?

It is the second of these two questions that Australian historian Kathleen McGregor deals with in this important new book History In Uniform. Central to the book is the control of history, who decides what can and cannot be said about the history of Indonesia. Central to that are certain important individuals such as General Abdul Haris Nasution, former Chief of Staff of TNI, the pro-military University of Indonesia academic Nugroho Notosusanto and ex-President Soeharto himself as well as figures in the defeated and now banned PKI.

Battles over history have gone on in Indonesia for decades and continue as the book burnings orchestrated by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) in recent months demonstrate. History or the telling of it remains a theater of conflict. Versions of the tragic events of 1965-66 (I say "tragic" not because I am a sympathizer of the PKI but because of the huge loss of life) remain contentious, of which more in a moment.

Author McGregor knew when she took on this project that the military would vet her and seek to control her output and that she would thus work under constraints not imposed in her native Australia. Never willing to let the truth out at the best of times, TNI operates on a platform of suspicion and obfuscation in which independent researchers are seldom welcome.

Interestingly, however certain compromising material remains in military archives and skilled, determined researchers can unearth it.

The Armed Forces prefer their kept men and women, in this case historians such as Nugroho Notosusanto whose position as the head of the History department at the University of Indonesia and his closeness to the military pose serious questions about UI's independence even prior to the coming of Soeharto's New Order. Nugroho was the quintessential state-sanctioned academic and the leading spokesman of the so-called Generation of 1945, that age group which lays claim to being the true harbingers of independence through the armed struggle of 1945-49 which gave birth to TNI.

Nugroho became more or less the official historian of the military and one who could barely conceal his contempt for the founding fathers and their willingness to pursue negotiations and diplomatic means to advance the national cause. In particular he would have had in mind President Soekarno, Vice-President Hatta and PM Sutan Sjahrir, the last of whom was absolutely convinced of Indonesia's need to win international recognition and support.

As spokesman for the Generation of '45, it was Nugroho's purpose to write up the heroism of the armed struggle against the British and the Dutch, leaving out of course inconvenient matters such as the holding of Dutch civilian internees, men, women and children as hostages and the November 1945 Bekasi massacre of British and Indian troops and airmen.

We learn here that in the 1950s and especially the early 1960s PKI was doing what Stalinist parties everywhere tried to do (still do in North Korea), writing its own account of national history, omitting inconvenient truths or indeed anything that would cast it in poor light. Because this meant omission of the 1948 Madiun Affair and its role in the events in East Java, Nasution was desperate to put out a counter-view that would cast TNI in a good light in relation to the same period.

The TNI leader brought together a team to write an official, military-endorsed history and Nugroho, a man of aristocratic priyayi background from Central Java, did most of the writing. Out of this project, which succeeded in Nasution's aim of beating the PKI to the publication punch, came the Armed Forces History Center, which of course has since had the role of propagandizing on behalf of TNI. It would be a mistake to dismiss the Center lightly.

Nugroho was an admirer of Japanese militarism and of the ancient bushido warrior spirit that infused it. This would appear to place him close to the fascist end of the political spectrum but McGregor, without cautioning against the use of the term "fascist", does not openly say so. Certainly the historian was passionately anti-Western and no democrat. What mattered most to him was the integrity of the state, which should, according to integralist thinking, subsume society.

Arguing that only historians with a "national spirit", narrowly defined, could write national history, Nugroho offered up a template for some of the bleakest New Order censorship.

McGregor has done an essential service in this lucidly written account in highlighting the way in which the military has both erased much of Indonesia's history and shaped a conformist interpretation of it.


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