Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia

Indonesia News Digest 31 – August 16-23, 2014

West Papua

Human rights & justice Women's rights Political parties & elections Media & journalism Internet & social media Environment & natural disasters Health & education Graft & corruption Terrorism & religious extremism Poverty & social inequity Land & agrarian conflicts Governance & administration Parliament & legislation Jakarta & urban life Mining & energy Economy & investment Analysis & opinion

West Papua

Joko Widodo promises to focus on West Papua

Sydney Morning Herald - August 23, 2014

Michael Bachelard – Indonesian president-elect Joko Widodo has promised to build a presidential palace on the shores of West Papua's picturesque Lake Sentani as a sign he will pay more attention to the resource-rich but troubled region.

The plan, which includes regular meetings for dialogue with Papuan leaders, has met a mixed reception from senior local figures.

A low-level armed separatist movement has racked West Papua since the 1960s, prompting a huge security presence in the province. Foreign journalists are virtually banned from going there, ostensibly for security reasons, and rampant corruption and discrimination impoverishes the Melanesian-Christian ethnic majority.

Outgoing president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono only visited the province three times in his 10 years in power – the third time late last week.

But there has been much optimism about Mr Joko, who travelled to West Papua twice during Indonesia's election season and said of access for foreign journalists: "Why not? It's safe here in Papua. There's nothing to hide."

In early August, Mr Joko, known as Jokowi, called a meeting with about 30 Papuan politicians and religious leaders and laid out a plan designed to increase dialogue and contact between the capital and Indonesia's easternmost province. John Djonga, a Christian leader from the remote highlands capital of Wamena, said after the meeting: "We have very strong hopes for Jokowi."

Mr Joko told the group the construction of a new presidential palace on the lakeside near the West Papuan capital, Jayapura, would "symbolise the presence of the central government in Papua", Reverend Djonga said.

Mr Joko also committed to dialogue with West Papuan leaders every three months involving either himself or key team members. Ongoing talks over self-determination and economic disadvantage has long been a goal of West Papua's leaders, who fear that poverty and mass migration from other parts of Indonesia, are steadily erasing Melanesian culture.

Reverend Djonga said the pressing issues in the region were health, education, infrastructure and official corruption, which was "worse than in Java" and which saw wastage of much of the money the central government sends to the region.

Papuan leaders have also told Mr Joko they want a better deal out of the massive, American-owned Freeport gold and copper mine, Indonesia's biggest single taxpayer. They want more money, a headquarters in Jayapura, not in Jakarta, and for long-standing grievances, including killings allegedly relating to the mine's operations, to be investigated.

Mr Joko did not talk politics or separatism with the group, but Reverend Djonga said: "If there is really concrete change in the society, if the situation improves, then even the hard-line [separatists] may soften."

Reverend Djonga said most of the people in the meeting were part of a "grey group" who were, "in their heart", separatists. But "they looked happy" with Mr Joko's commitments.

The new president, though, will need to overcome significant suspicion. "My experience of Indonesian politicians is that any program made for Papua makes no difference – that is, it creates more suffering," Reverend Djonga said.

The leader of the province's Baptist churches, Socratez Yoman, said solving problems in Papua would mean "long talking, long mediation". "Jokowi will not solve the West Papua case in the short term if he spends two or three days there," said Reverend Yoman, who was not at the August meeting. "We need a long process, involving all stakeholders, all parties."

That would mean withdrawing Jakarta's troops and police, stopping migration from other parts of Indonesia, freeing dozens of political prisoners and inviting exiled activists home.

"All people have to be involved, not partially, but comprehensively, seriously," Reverend Yoman said. "We are discussing the future of Papuans on their own land. The reality today is the Papuans have become marginalised economically, educationally, housing... like they became foreigners. This is negative progress."

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/joko-widodo-promises-to-focus-on-west-papua-20140823-107jd0.html

Little hope for Papua with Widodo, says Wenda

Radio New Zealand International - August 20, 2014

An exiled West Papuan independence activist, Benny Wenda, says he doubts Indonesia's newly elected president, Joko Widodo, will make any difference to the suffering of his people under Indonesia's military stranglehold.

The Vanuatu Daily Post reports Mr Wenda, who is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, as saying his people won't seek the support of the new president to help them. He says what is important is that 80 percent of West Papuans have boycotted Indonesia's election.

Vanuatu, which has been a lone supporter of West Papuans on the international stage, is to host a conference for leaders of the West Papua pro-independence movement.

The gathering, which is supported by the Vanuatu Christian Council and Vanuatu National Council of Chiefs, is to work on a new West Papuan application to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/252625/little-hope-for-papua-with-widodo,-says-wenda

Indonesia's Papua censorship obsession

The Diplomat - August 19, 2014

Phelim Kine – French reporters Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat have spent the past two weeks in a police jail cell on Indonesia's island of Papua.

The two journalists, who domestic media have reported were producing a documentary on the restive province for Franco-German Arte TV, are just the latest victims of the Indonesian government's Papua censorship obsession.

Police arrested the pair on August 6 on charges of "working illegally" without official media accreditation. But things may be about to get a lot worse for them. On August 14, the Papua police spokesman, Sulistyo Pudjo, suggested that the two journalists may face "subversion" charges for allegedly filming members of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM).

Dandois and Bourrat ran afoul of the Indonesian government's decades-old policy of preventing foreign media scrutiny of Papua. That policy makes it nearly impossible for journalists to report freely from the province.

Obstructions to foreign media access include requiring foreign reporters to get special official permission to visit the island. The government rarely approves these applications or else delays processing, hampering efforts by journalists and independent groups to report on breaking news events. Journalists who do get official permission are invariably shadowed by official minders, who strictly control their movements and access to interviewees.

The Indonesian government responds to foreign media efforts to circumvent the official obstacles to reporting from Papua with hostility. In July 2013, Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa defended the foreign media ban by warning of unnamed "elements in Papua who are keen to gain international attention by doing harm to international personalities, including journalists."

Police in Papua have rejected the French government's confirmation of Dandois and Bourrat's journalistic bona fides on the basis that neither possessed an up-to-date press card. Last week, Pudjo expressed concern that the Arte TV journalists "were part of an effort to destabilize Papua."

The government has reason to fear the prying eyes of journalists in Papua. Human rights abuses remain rife in the province. Over the last three years alone, Human Rights Watch has documented dozens of cases in which police, military, intelligence officers, and prison guards have used excessive force when dealing with Papuans exercising their right to peaceful assembly and association.

The residents of the Papuan town of Waghete are well-acquainted with the routine impunity for human rights abuses. It was there on September 23, 2013 that two officers with the National Police's Mobile Brigade ("Brimob") fired into a stone-throwing crowd, killing a 17-year-old student and seriously wounding three other people. The police posted guards at the hospital where the wounded were being treated, and required visitors to leave their mobile phones at the entrance. Domestic media reported that police confiscated the mobile phone of a nurse who had used it to take photos of the victims' wounds.

The Waghete incident – which the Indonesian government has yet to investigate – is just one of many troubling incidents of violence and impunity that have characterized life in Papua since Indonesian military forces deployed there in 1963 to counter a long-simmering independence movement.

The government justifies its restrictions on media access to Papua as a necessary security precaution due to the ongoing low-level conflict with the OPM. The OPM is small and poorly organized, though it has increased in sophistication in recent years. Tensions heightened in Papua in February 2013 following an attack on Indonesian military forces by suspected OPM elements. The attack killed eight soldiers, the worst act of violence against the military in the area in more than 10 years. The government also consistently arrests and jails Papuan protesters for peacefully advocating independence or other political change. Currently 60 Papuan activists are in jail for "treason."

The Indonesian government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been obstinate it its refusal to loosen its restrictions on journalists' access to Papua. But there's hope that Yudhoyono's successor, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, will finally end the tight cordon of official censorship that isolates Papua from foreign media access. Widodo won the July 9 presidential election and will be officially inaugurated in late October.

Widodo visited Papua on June 5, during the election campaign. When local journalists asked if as president he would open access to Papua for foreign journalists and international organizations, he replied "Why not? It's safe here in Papua. There's nothing to hide." Widodo needs the courage to end the Indonesian government's Papua censorship obsession to test that assertion.

[Phelim Kine is the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch and a former Jakarta-based foreign correspondent.]

Source: http://thediplomat.com/2014/08/indonesias-papua-censorship-obsession/

Human rights takes back seat to trade in NZ-Indonesian relationship

Pacific Scoop - August 18, 2014

Johan Chang – A recent seminar on human rights issues in West Papua has focused questions about New Zealand's priority on trade relations over press freedom and rights violations.

Hosted by the law faculty of the University Auckland, the seminar featured the first West Papuan journalist to visit New Zealand, Victor Mambor, and Paula Makabory, a Melbourne-based West Papuan human rights activist.

With a history marked by human rights abuse, Indonesia has been identified by the New Zealand government as the next superpower in the South-East Asia region, according to Catherine Delahunty, a Green Party MP.

"We [New Zealand] have a lot of interest in building up trade relationships, both exporting and strengthening ties, and that's across a range of goods and services," she says.

"It's about our prime minister being very interested in talking to the president of Indonesia about trade opportunities, and exporting our products and basically having a cosy relationship. It's about opportunities for money."

At the seminar, Delahunty expressed her belief that it was this focus on financial trading between New Zealand and Indonesia, alongside the blanket media ban Indonesia imposes on the Papuan region that has meant the New Zealand public has been kept in the dark.

"They [the government] want to have a relationship with another superpower, so therefore they will not upset that superpower by referring to the political integrity of West Papua," Delahunty says.

Political panel

A seminar political panel comprised Internet-Mana party candidates James Papali'i and Roshni Sami along with Delahunty.

Information released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade shows Indonesia has become New Zealand's 11th largest trading partner.

In December 2013, New Zealand's export to Indonesia has reached $886 million – nearly 20 percent of New Zealand's total exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with New Zealand having become a leading supplier of dairy products.

Dr Chris Wilson, a political science and international relations lecturer at the University of Auckland, says the New Zealand government recognises Indonesia as an incredibly important part of New Zealand's trade scheme with South-East Asia.

"Indonesia is bigger than Australia, in public-private partnerships (PPP) terms, but in absolute GDP terms, it's forecasted to be bigger than Australia," Dr Wilson says.

Important market

"It's a very important market, with a huge middle-class growing rapidly, so it's important to New Zealand economically, but it's also huge politically in the region."

Currently, a bilateral aid programme has been developed with Indonesia that is the largest outside the Pacific. The total indicative aid flow, including scholarship funding and activities funded by the New Zealand partnerships Fund is up to $20 million each year.

Interests in renewable energy, disaster risk management, and agriculture have been co-developed, with an emphasis on New Zealand as a priority international educational destination.

However, strengthening ties between the governments has not meant a greater access to Indonesia by journalists to cover New Zealand interests, as well as conflicts and human rights violations within the region.

Australian SBS Dateline reporter Mark Davis became one of the first journalists issued with a foreign journalist pass in more than a decade, in a special report broadcast in June.

Yet during the course of his sanctioned visit he was "constantly followed and filmed by seen and unseen forces". Such scrutiny against journalists attempting to seek entry into the West Papua region persists despite changes in Jakarta.

Corruption an issue

Corruption and a lack of centralised control on local government and military is a major part of the issue, according to Dr Wilson. Even if the central government supports change, there are possibilities that orders from Jakarta are ignored.

When asked if the local government and military could be acting without the consent of the central government, he believes that it is a real possibility.

"The military is decentralised. There are military command units in various particularly sensitive areas of Indonesia that will be acting, not entire autonomously, but certainly won't be entirely under the control of Jakarta," he said.

However, New Zealand journalists face a different issue. An article critical of the police training exchange programme New Zealand funds in Indonesia took four months to achieve publication.

Paul Bensemann, the freelance journalist who wrote the article, said the reason the article took so long to publish was mostly due to a Catch-22 situation.

"Because we haven't heard about the issue, and many of the editors and chief reporters have very little knowledge of the West Papuan conflict, they saw it as non-news," he said. "It wasn't news. It wasn't an issue that they were publishing on a daily basis".

Few correspondents

Another factor is the lack of foreign correspondents in any of the major media organisations.

"We don't have anybody in Asia, as far as I know, looking at things from a New Zealand perspective," Bensemann says. "We certainly don't have anyone stationed in the Pacific working for us".

The programme trained Indonesian police that after having returned to Indonesia, committed acts of violence against Papuans associated with the independence movement, as well as ordinary civilians.

The training programme, which started in a resumed cooperation with Indonesian armed forces at the end of 2006 as part of the bilateral relationship established, has ended.

Johan Chang is a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies student journalist on the Inclusive Journalism Initiative (IJI) programme at AUT University on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course.

Source: http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2014/08/human-rights-takes-back-seat-to-trade-in-nz-indonesian-relationship/#more-23308

Indonesia Independence Day celebrations in Lanny Jaya passes off safely

Jakarta Post - August 17, 2014

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Celebrations for Indonesia's 69th Independence Day in Tiom, the capital of Lanny Jaya regency, Papua, passed off peacefully on Sunday, with a flag-raising ceremony led by Lanny Jaya Regent Befa Jigibalom.

"The ceremony, which was attended by locals, representatives from the local consultative board (Muspida) and schoolchildren, ran safely without any disruptions," Jayawijaya Regional Military Command (Kodam) chief Lt. Col. Yusuf Sampetoding said.

Information had circulated earlier in the day, alleging that shots had been fired between security officers and armed civilians during the Lanny Jaya ceremony. "There was no shooting. Members of armed civilian groups fired shots into the air but they did not disrupt the ceremony," Yusuf said.

Lanny Jaya was part of Jayawijaya regency before it was expanded and, together with three other regions, namely Central Memberamo, Nduga and Yalimo, became a new regency in 2007.

Lanny Jaya regency has been in the spotlight since an armed group, led by Enden Wanimbo and Puron Wenda, shot dead two police officers on July 27. Security in the regency remains fragile as the group deemed responsible for the shooting is still at large.

"The group is waging guerrilla warfare, but security officers are continuing their security operations to protect the area from its threats," Yusuf said.

Hesty, a Tiom resident, told The Jakarta Post that the Independence Day celebrations had been both peaceful and lively. She said shots were heard when the ceremony was under way. "[The shots] apparently came from other districts, not in Tiom. The ceremony ran smoothly," Hesty said.

Tiom locals enthusiastically entered into the spirit of Sunday's celebrations by decorating their homes with colorful banners and raising Red-and-White flags in their front yards.

Similarly, Independence Day celebrations in the provincial capital Jayapura also passed off safely and smoothly, with a ceremony led by Papua Governor Lukas Enembe.

Although Independence Day fell this year on a Sunday, when most Papuans – who are Christian – go to church, local participation was high. "I went to church on 6 a.m. this morning so that I could attend the flag-raising ceremony," said Elisabeth, a teacher in Jayapura.

Several officials from neighboring Papua New Guinea (PNG), including Tourism Minister Hon Boka Kondra, Sandaun Governor Hon Paul Nengai, Vanimo Mayor Jerry Kina and Sandaun's head of protocol, Simon M.Ledu, also attended the ceremony in Jayapura.

Military personnel and senior high school students from Jayapura also gave special performances to liven up the celebrations in the city. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/17/ri-independence-day-celebrations-lanny-jaya-passes-safely.html

OPM members swear allegiance to Indonesia, hand over five firearms

Jakarta Post - August 16, 2014

Jakarta – The XVII/Cendrawasih Military Command chief spokesman Lt. Col. Rikas Hidayatullah said Saturday some 500 members of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) in West Papua swore allegiance to Indonesia and handed over the Morning Star flag and five firearms.

Rikas said the OPM members surrendered in Sumuruk village, Ransiki district in South Manokwari, West Papua province, as reported by Antara news agency.

He added that Cenderawasih Military Command Chief Maj. Gen. Christian Zebua received the former rebels and handed a red and white flag to them. "The 500 OPM members declared that they had surrendered and wanted to return to the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia [NKRI]," he said.

Rikas said the former rebels, known as the Kaswari 1 and Kaswari 2 groups, were led by village chiefs Yance Mandacan, Sayori and Ajis Mandacan to surrender to the authorities.

"We are fed up with fighting in the jungle. It is useless and it is much better to return and rejoin NKRI. We hope our friends will follow our decision," one of the former members of OPM, which has been staging a low- intensity struggle for independence, was reported as saying. He added the former rebels handed over an SKS carabine, two revolvers, one M16A1 assault rifle and one double-barreled rifle. (alz/nvn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/16/opm-members-swear-allegiance-ri-hand-over-five-firearms.html

Papuans urge French journos' release

Jakarta Post - August 16, 2014

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Hundreds of Papuan students in Yogyakarta affiliated with the Papuan Students Alliance (AMP) rallied in Yogyakarta on Friday, demanding the release of two French journalists being held by the Papua Police.

"We urge the government to immediately release the two French journalists [being] held in Papua," AMP spokesman Abby Douw said in an address to the crowd in the Titik Nol area.

As reported earlier, the Papua Police have arrested the two French nationals, Thomas Charles Dandois, 40, and Valentine Bourrat, 29, on accusations that the two were doing journalism in Papua on tourist visas.

The AMP criticized the Indonesian government for the arrest, saying the act was undemocratic and that the two individuals were merely carrying out their journalistic tasks.

The students marched from a Papua student dormitory on Jl. Kusumanegara to Titik Nol under tight police escort. Along the journey, the students also chanted that Papua was not part of Indonesia.

"The Aug. 16, 1961 New York Agreement, signed between Indonesia and the Netherlands concerning the future of Papua, is illegal, as it did not include Papuan representatives," said Abby.

The AMP urged the Indonesian Military (TNI) and National Police personnel to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Papua.

The rally became tense as a group of men calling themselves the "Peace Loving Yogyakarta Community" suddenly appeared.

They unfurled banners saying "Papua + Jogja = NKRI (Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia)", "Jogja residents love Papua. Papua is part of NKRI", and "Papua is part of NKRI, NKRI or death".

When members of the Peace Loving Yogyakarta Community approached the AMP crowd, police stepped in to prevent them. Police then created a buffer zone of several meters between the two groups.

One member of the Peace Loving Yogyakarta Community threatened to attack the AMP group if they remained on location past 12 p.m., but the event ended without incident after police escorted the student group back to the dormitory.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/16/papuans-urge-french-journos-release.html

'New dawn' Jokowi may offer hope for West Papuans

Pacific Scoop - August 16, 2014

Lasse Underbjerg – After an election campaign filled with turmoil and nerve-wrecking rivalry, Joko Widodo has been elected as the new president for the world's third largest democracy with 53.2 percent of the votes.

Seven out 10 of the nation's 194 million eligible voters visited one of Indonesia's nearly half a million polling stations and exercised their right to directly elect a new president.

The General Elections Commission announced Widodo's victory over Prabowo Subianto (former chief of special forces in Indonesia) and Hatta Rajasa on July 22. Joko Widodo won in 23 of the country's 33 provinces and is expected to fend off the legal challenges from his rivals.

The new president, known as "Jokowi", will be the first person from an ordinary background to hold the highest political office. He and his vice- president, Jusuf Kalla, are expected to be sworn-in on October 20 for a five-year term.

As the dust settles after the heated election campaign, opinions differ about whether Jokowi will have the power to make real changes for a controversial contested part of the republic such as West Papua.

Victor Mambor, editor of the Jayapura-based newspaper and website Tabloid Jubi, as well as West Papua branch chairperson of Indonesia's Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), believes Jokowi comes with a desire for change, and he is looking forward to meeting him.

"I think – and I hope – that it is a change for the better," he says. "I hope to be able to talk with him about the self-determination of the West Papuan people."

Change possible

Sony Ambudi, a former journalist from Indonesia, now a human rights activist with the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Coalition (APHRC), has been following Jokowi for several years and he is optimistic over the possibility for change for the people of West Papua.

"I have seen what he has done before. He has done similar things (bringing in self-determination) on a smaller scale before, and I hope he can do it in West Papua as well," he says.

But while intentions may be good, Sony Ambudi is worried about the new president's entourage of advisers.

"Looking at the people surrounding him I am very worried because I think these people are killers. He had 35 generals in his campaign team and five of them have been responsible for human rights abuses, including the murder of activists and West Papuan people," he says.

And he is not alone with the worries about the military in Indonesia. Catherine Delahunty, Green list MP, is not optimistic about Jokowi's chances of changing the policy towards West Papua.

"I wouldn't get romantic about that," she says. "He himself is a more progressive character, but the military still controls West Papua. Any sign of progressive thinking in Indonesia is a good thing but I am not convinced that a new dawn is about to rise."

Populist approach

Jokowi became mayor of his hometown Solo in 2005 and governor of Jakarta in 2012 after his populist approach and willingness to stand up to powerful regional officials won national attention according to international news agencies.

But when Jokowi's president candidacy was announced, rumours started spreading that if he were elected, he would only be a "puppet-President" controlled by ex-President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

On the campaign trail, Prabowo repeatedly warned against electing a "puppet" president, suggesting Jokowi is little more than a president-for- hire who would be tightly on the leash of his chief political backers and the police. So far Jokowi has refused to comment on the speculation.

New Zealand journalist Paul Bensemann has been in West Papua working undercover, and he has seen the Indonesian military in action. He agrees that there are huge obstacles for the new president to overcome, if he is to be successful in implementing reforms in Indonesia.

"I think there is a degree of irrelevance about who the president is," he says. "From what I can gather, the police and the military have got a huge amount of power, unlike countries like New Zealand. The military and the police have a degree of control over the government."

Domestic issues

It is expected that Jokowi will prioritise domestic issues in the first part of his term in office, such as:

"With humility, we ask the people to go back to a united Indonesia," Jokowi said on the night he was elected.

So West Papua will not currently be getting self-determination, according to Ross B. Taylor, who is president and founder of the Indonesia Institute Incorporated, Western Australia.

"I don't feel there will be any change to policy on West Papua. Jokowi will be far more diplomatic and consultative, but generally Indonesia is very sensitive about having yet another "break away" province on their hands," he says.

"What Indonesia really worries about is to ensure this sprawling country doesn't end up fracturing into independent parts as more and more provinces seek to go it alone. One Indonesia is the core theme," he says.

Victor Mambor acknowledges the obstacles facing the new Indonesian leader, but he is adamant a solution exists.

"It is about perspective," he says. "In Indonesia the military system doesn't see the West Papuans as equals to themselves; they are different. So there needs to be a new perspective – and I hope Jokowi is the man to bring it."

[Lasse Underbjerg is an Inclusive Journalism Initiative (IJI) programme student journalist from Denmark on exchange at AUT University and on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course.]

Source: http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2014/08/new-dawn-jokowi-may-offer-hope-for-west-papuans/

Human rights & justice

Rights activists disappointed with Jokowi

Jakarta Post - August 21, 2014

Jakarta – Human rights activists have expressed doubt over president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's willingness to resolve past human rights abuse cases once he takes office.

Deputy coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Chrisbiantoro claimed that Jokowi lacked the conviction necessary to deal with past rights abuse cases.

He said that one of the indications of Jokowi's lack of commitment was the fact that human rights issues had not been discussed by members of his transition team.

"There has not been a task force established to deal with this issue. We have heard nothing about what the team would do about problems left by the previous administration," Chrisbiantoro said, as quoted by kompas.com.

Rights groups have previously criticized Jokowi for his decision to appoint former National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Gen. (ret) A. M. Hendropriyono as an advisor to the transition team. Hendropriyono is alleged to have played a role in the murder of Munir Said Thalib, a prominent human rights campaigner.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/21/rights-activists-disappointed-with-jokowi.html

Jokowi urged to enforce human rights

Jakarta Post - August 21, 2014

Jakarta – Rights groups have urged president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to implement his commitment to advancing human rights in Indonesia soon after the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) inaugurates him and vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla on Oct.20.

International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) program officer Hilman Handoni said it was hoped that Jokowi would create policies that increased the number of human rights-friendly cities in the country as a concrete measure to prevent human rights abuses in the future.

Hilman explained further that a human rights-friendly city was based on a concept of a city that could protect a plural society and develop facilities that were friendly to the disabled, women, children and the elderly.

"Wonosobo [in Central Java] is a human rights-friendly city. If [Wonosobo Regent] Kholiq Arif was able to make his city human rights-friendly, other regional heads should be able to do the same. Jokowi should urge them to make the same policy," Hilman said in a press conference on Wednesday.

Human rights watchdog Imparsial researcher Swandaru said he hoped Jokowi would give stronger protection to human rights defenders because many of them were still facing serious threats for advancing human rights in the country.

Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) deputy coordinator Chrisbiantoro said he hoped Jokowi would strengthen the National Commission on Human Rights' (Komnas HAM) capacities, which have been widely criticized for having weakened due to previous governments' tendencies to decrease the commission's power, leaving many rights abuse cases unresolved.

"Let's see unresolved cases such as the murder cases of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib and journalist Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin or Udin. Their killers are still free. That's Jokowi's homework," said Chrisbiantoro. (alz/ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/21/jokowi-urged-enforce-human-rights.html

Jokowi to inherit past rights abuse cases from SBY

Jakarta Post - August 19, 2014

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – President-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo will inherit a number of unresolved human rights cases, with outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono failing to bring closure to the cases after 10 years in power.

During his presidential campaigns of 2004 and 2009, Yudhoyono pledged that he would resolve past human rights abuses, including the murder of prominent human rights defender Munir Said Thalib. Yet, all cases remain unresolved due to a conflict of authority between the Attorney General's Office (AGO) and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

"Justice for all is the moral commitment as well as the agenda of the government I will lead from 2009 until 2014," Yudhoyono said during his speech at the House of Representatives last week.

But the facts show that Yudhoyono has failed to obtain justice for the victims of seven historic unresolved gross human rights violations. In his speech, Yudhoyono avoided mentioning the issue.

The gross human rights violations include the massacres of 1965-1966; the 1989 Talangsari massacre; a number of mysterious shootings in the 1980s; the Trisakti University shootings; the Semanggi I and Semanggi II shootings and the disappearance of pro-democracy activists in 1998.

Following Yudhoyono's dismal record, human rights campaigners have called on president-elect Jokowi to immediately take action to resolve cases of past abuses after he is officially inaugurated on Oct. 20.

Poengky Indarti, director of human rights watchdog Imparsial, suggested that Jokowi could sign a presidential decree to set up an ad hoc human rights tribunal to hear cases of gross human rights violations during the 1998 anti-Chinese riots.

"The only thing we need to finally set up an ad hoc human rights tribunal is a presidential decree. After years of negligence by the current President, Pak Jokowi must issue such a decree as soon as he takes office," Poengky told The Jakarta Post.

Article 43 of the 2000 Human Rights Law stipulates that an ad hoc human rights tribunal can be set up with a recommendation from the House and a presidential decree.

The House included the establishment of an ad hoc human rights tribunal in the recommendations it issued to Yudhoyono in 2009 but the outgoing President has yet to make any significant move to do so.

A report published by Komnas HAM in 2003 alleged that Prabowo Subianto, then commander of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus), and Wiranto, then commander of the Indonesian Military (TNI), were responsible for gross human rights violations that occurred during the extensive rioting in Jakarta in 1998, which preceded the end of former president Soeharto's long reign.

Prabowo, chief patron of the Gerindra Party, lost the election to Jokowi, while Wiranto, chairman of the Hanura Party, was a member of Jokowi's campaign team.

Activist Haris Azhar, who chairs the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS), urged Jokowi to come up with concrete policies on how to resolve past rights abuses.

"Jokowi's administration must create a concrete policy on solving all historic cases of human rights abuses. Revealing the truth and punishing the perpetrators is the only way to bring about justice," Haris said.

Jokowi himself has repeatedly said that his team was preparing a reconciliation plan as part of an effort to resolve past rights abuses, but declined to give details due to "the sensitivity of the matter".

"There will be a time to talk about it in detail. It is too sensitive a matter to discuss in the current heated political climate," Jokowi said recently. "Justice for all is the moral commitment as well as the agenda of the government I will lead from 2009 until 2014."

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/19/jokowi-inherit-past-rights-abuse-cases-sby.html

For Munir's widow, Jokowi's pick of Hendropriyono as adviser grates

Jakarta Globe - August 18, 2014

Dyah Ayu Pitaloka, Malang/Jakarta – The widow of slain human rights activist Munir Said Thalib has urged President-elect Joko Widodo to bar anyone serving in his administration with a questionable rights record, after one of the men linked to Munir's murder was named an adviser to the team preparing the new government for office.

"Joko Widodo has promised to resolve human rights abuse cases; the real action must start from now," Suciwati, who has campaigned ceaselessly for justice in her husband's 2004 murder, said on Monday in her hometown Malang, East Java.

For the past week Suciwati has taken to Twitter to bombard Joko and his vice president-elect, Jusuf Kalla, with criticism of their appointment of Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono, a former head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), as an adviser to their transition team.

"If you're consistent with your platform to uphold human rights and try the violators, you should have started by appointing no one with problematic human rights record @jokowi_do2," Suciwati, tweeting from @SuciwatiMunir, wrote in one of her tweets last week.

Hendropriyono was never charged over the death of Munir, who was poisoned while in transit in Singapore on a trip from Jakarta to Amsterdam, but his deputy at the BIN at the time, Muchdi Purwopranjono, was indicted and later acquitted in the case.

Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, an off-duty Garuda Indonesia pilot at the time, was convicted of killing Munir by giving him a drink laced with arsenic. Several indications of his links to the BIN emerged during his trial but were not followed up on.

Joko has dismissed any notion of Hendropriyono being involved in human rights abuses, citing the lack of proof.

"Is that [accusation] true? You can't just point your finger at someone and accuse them of involvement [in human rights abuses]. You can't do that. And I don't really understand if the accusation is true or not," he said last week as quoted by liputan6.com. "If you want to prove [Hendropriyono guilty], then prove it," Joko added.

But Suciwati criticized his statement, saying, "If you're the president @jokowi_do2, it's your obligation to bring the case to court. It's incorrect to [state that] Hendropriyono's involvement in human rights violations must be proven by us. That sounds defensive."

Suciwati told the Jakarta Globe on Monday that the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and other rights organizations had already compiled evidence about past rights abuse cases. Unfortunately, during President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's decade in office, their findings were never taken up by law enforcement agencies, Suciwati said.

"Joko must communicate with Komnas HAM and other organizations that have evidence of human rights violations. There should be trials to present all that [evidence]. He should not leave the matter of investigation with the public," Suciwati said.

"Human rights is not a political commodity. If he has promised [to resolve rights abuse cases], then he must fulfill it by forming a government that is free of human rights violators."

Hendropriyono was also involved in a bloody military crackdown on civilian protesters in Talangsari, Lampung, in 1989, notes Haris Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) – the rights organization founded by Munir.

Haris questioned the need for Joko to associate with Hendropriyono, much less have him serve on the team advising him during the transition of power from the Yudhoyono administration.

He called for a presidential decree to specifically address past human rights abuses. "We've conveyed this matter [the need for the decree] to Joko's legal team," Haris said.

He added that not only should the decree be used to bring perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice, but it must also include provisions to clear the names of rights abuse victims, including the tens of thousands of people subjected to prejudice and discrimination because of their alleged ties to the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

An estimated 500,000 people are believed to have been killed in the military-led purge of suspected PKI members and sympathizers in 1965-66.

Andi Widjajanto, a senior member of Joko's transition team, said that regardless of Hendropriyono's role in the team, Joko would keep his promise to address human rights abuses.

"He respects the legal standing of [Hendropriyono] and guarantees that there will be no impunity for anyone," Andi said last week as quoted by Tempo.co. "If any member of the team should undergo a legal process concerning any case, then they must be undergo the process."

Suciwati reminded Joko that many people, including human rights activists, voted for him in the July 9 election because of his promise to address human rights issues.

She also noted that his rival, Prabowo Subianto, was a former Special Forces commander with his own checkered record of human rights abuses, including the abduction of pro-democracy activists in 1997-98, and the alleged murder of civilians in East Timor during the early 1990s.

"Hendropriyono's appointment shows no good intention," Suciwati said. "That's why we must push and remind Joko that if he wants to lead this country, he should be different from his predecessor."

Yudhoyono, who took office in 2004, the same year Munir was murdered, at the time promised Suciwati that he would ensure all those responsible would be brought to justice. Ten years on, Suciwati is still waiting.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/munirs-widow-jokowis-pick-adviser-grates/

Women's rights

Indonesia's abortion clause at 40 days draws further ire

Jakarta Globe - August 19, 2014

Herman Genie, Jakarta – A new government regulation on reproductive health, which gives pregnant rape victims 40 days to decide whether they wish to keep the baby or undergo an abortion continues to draw controversy.

Deemed ineffective in protecting the rights of women, activists argue that the 40-day timeframe would not give traumatized rape victims enough time to recognize the early signs of pregnancy.

Maesur Zaky, director for the Indonesian Family Planning Association (PKBI) in Yogyakarta added that the regulation would be difficult to implement.

"The fact is, based on previous cases, not many women realize they are pregnant during those [first five] weeks. Therefore, the government regulation will not be of much help," said Maesur, as quoted by Portalkbr.com.

Most rape victims discover their condition some six months into the pregnancy, he claimed. "A test pack accurately detects a pregnancy after three to four weeks. But during that time, women who have been brutalized by rape may not be able to recognize the symptoms," Maesur said.

The PKBI chief further argued that laws regulating such sensitive matters should remain flexible and each case should be treated according to its circumstances.

Budi Hartono, a senior researcher at University of Indonesia's Administrative Studies and Health Policies, urged the government to consider the psychological state of rape victims when formulating laws that may further impact their lives.

"Victims of sexual violence require guidance and assistance because of what they have had to endure," Budi said, as quoted by Harian Terbit newspaper. "Their weakened physical and mental state have to be taken into consideration; we must show some humanity."

Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi has reminded both activists and the public to remain calm about the controversial stipulation, assuring that "there are conditions [attached to the regulation] and it can't be done arbitrarily."

"There's no need for controversy," she said. Nafsiah said the government had considered the health and psychological ramifications of forcing a rape victim to bare the burden of giving birth, then raising a child conceived in violence.

"Do these children [of rape] have to suffer simply because the public won't treat them well? We also need to take this into consideration," she said, adding that the regulation came into play five years after the 2009 Health Law was passed.

"It may have been implemented in 2014, but it took years of discussions involving multiple parties, including officials from the Health Ministry and the Religious Affairs Ministry, as well as many legal experts," she said.

Abortions were declared legal in the 2009 Health Law, which stipulates that only victims of rape and women whose pregnancies threatened their life of that of the fetus would be allowed to terminate their pregnancy. It did not, however, mention a time limit.

Nevertheless, Nafsiah continued to defend the new government regulation, assuring it was implemented to protect the rights of women.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha echoed the health minster's claims, saying the regulation on reproductive health worked at improving the health of Indonesian women.

"It was formulated with good intentions; with the aim to protect. Should other implications arise, we can find a solution for them," Julian said.

"If the public has any input or suggestions regarding the health law – including matters concerning abortion – the government will surely consider them, so we may implement them at a ministerial level," he added.

The Health Ministry plans to issue a ministerial decree which contains six articles to support the new government regulation on abortion.

"The regulation will be explained in detail and cover matters such as [health] services before and after pregnancy, labor, and services the government will provide after the birth," Nafsiah said.

The decree will also cover issues related to contraception, sex education and training for doctors. "The decree will be completed soon," Nafsiah said.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesias-abortion-clause-40-days-draws-ire/

Political parties & elections

Red and White coalition still intact, Golkar and PAN Insist

Jakarta Globe - August 23, 2014

Jakarta – Middle-ranking officials from the National Mandate Party (PAN) and Golkar reiterated on Saturday that they had no plans to jump ship from Prabowo's Subianto's permanent coalition to join Joko Widodo's government.

The deputy head of research at Golkar, Ali Muchtar Ngabalin, said Golkar would be a check and balance against Joko over the next five years. "We choose to stay outside Jokowi's cabinet," he said on Saturday. "It is important that people think well of us as a balance to the government."

The question of Golkar joining Jokowi remains unanswered, but the party of former strongman Suharto has never been in opposition, and analysts are dubious of whether the party has any desire to change that track record. Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie continues to hold sway over the party, but it is understood that the knives are out for Bakrie.

Ali sought to play down talk of a rift within the party. "Golkar is a part of the Merah Putih coalition," he said. "It might seem that our party is shaken, but we're still solid internally." PAN deputy chairman Drajad Wibowo echoed Ali's sentiment, pointing to the need for constructive opposition.

"Do not look at it as a clash between the executive and the legislature," he said. "No, the opposition will correct the government's decisions because not all will be correct. We can rectify things from the parliament."

PAN's Drajad and Golkar's Ali have had to address widespread speculation that the Constitutional Court's dismissal of Prabowo Subianto's election appeal last week had put the writing on the wall for the coalition. "There are rumors saying that we are leaving," Drajad said. "The truth is that we met after the Constitutional Court ruling and we are very solid."

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political researcher Siti Zuhro said the coalition was far from solid. She believes a least two parties will join Jokowi's government.

"[The United Development Party] PPP has not been united since the first time they joined [the coalition]," she said. "They have endured internal conflict from the beginning because of their leadership issues."

Meanwhile, officials in Jokowi's Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) remain convinced that the sands will shift. "Every party will envision its own position in the future," PDI-P senior politician Maurarar Sirait said. "That is why we do not give out extreme statements that can later change. The political constellation will change before October."

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/red-white-coalition-still-intact-golkar-pan-insist/

Basuki to bill Prabowo supporters for trashing city parks

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2014

Lenny Tristia Tambun, Jakarta – A furious Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said on Friday that he would send a bill to the coordinator of Thursday's protests in support of Prabowo Subianto's Constitutional Court appeal – after those involved ran riot over parks around Jalan Medan Merdeka.

"I asked the head of Jakarta Parks and Cemetery Agency yesterday to send a letter to the coordinator," Basuki said on Friday. "We will fix the parks first, then we'll send them a letter to charge them the repair fee."

Hundreds of paramilitary and bussed-in protesters gathered in front of the Constitutional Court on Thursday as the judges prepared to give their verdict on Prabowo's appeal against the presidential election result. Trucks attempted to push through police lines and police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the mob.

Basuki, who is a member of Prabowo's Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) political party, was unamused by the anti-social behavior.

"It's the second time," the exasperated deputy governor said. "Previously, they did it at the KPU [General Election Commission] office, now in Jalan Medan Merdeka. That's why we ordered the head of the Parks and Cemetery Agency to send a comprehensive letter including pictures. Those supporters must have a coordinator."

Basuki even went as far as to say that the perpetrators could not be from Jakarta as residents of the capital would not have trashed their own parks. Anecdotal evidence of littering around Jakarta's parks indicates, however, that this may not apply to everybody in equal measure.

"The park damage shows that those who joined the rally weren't from Jakarta. Jakarta residents wouldn't want to ruin their own parks," Basuki said.

Parks agency chief Nandar Sunandar said the authority already had an estimate for the cost of repair.

"The damaged parks are located at the Bank Indonesia roundabout, the Patung Kuda traffic circle, and the park in front of the Constitutional Court," he said. "We have done the calculations for the repair – we will need up to Rp 200 million [$17,100]."

Basuki then said that the government planned to install 3,000 CCTV cameras throughout the city. "We are putting up CCTV cameras with sharper images so we can see who damages the parks," Basuki said. "Then we can put them in jail. We cannot do that now; We cannot even see who scribbles on walls. We will put up more sophisticated cameras that can detect faces."

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/jakarta/basuki-bill-prabowo-supporters-trashing-city-parks/

Six injured as protesters try to ram police with Unimog trucks

Jakarta Post - August 22, 2014

Yuliasri Perdani, Bandung – Six protesters and one policeman were injured on Thursday during a rally held by supporters of losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto prior to the Constitutional Court's reading of its verdict on the 2014 presidential election dispute.

The protest turned ugly when more than 6,000 people attempted to force their way through barbed-wire barricades isolating areas surrounding the court's compound on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat in Central Jakarta.

It was not until the protesters mobilized three Mercedes-Benz multi-purpose Unimog medium-duty trucks at around 2 p.m. to ram the barricades that the police started firing water cannons and tear gas at the unruly crowd.

The measures sparked a minor stampede, causing some female protesters to fall unconscious. Six protesters were rushed to the Gatot Subroto Army Central Hospital (RSPAD) and Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Central Jakarta. One police officer was rushed to a nearby medical clinic to treat a back injury.

"Three Unimog trucks have been confiscated from the scene as they were used by the protesters to ram our barricades. We're still identifying the owners of the vehicles," said Central Jakarta police chief Sr. Comr. Hendro Pandowo. "The Jakarta Police will file charges against the owners," he said.

As many as 3,900 police and military personnel, armed with tear gas and water cannons, managed to prevent thousands of Prabowo supporters from entering the court compound.

The authorities managed to control the situation around 6 p.m., as the crowd left after the court adjourned the reading of its 300-page verdict for maghrib (dusk prayers). Less than 100 protesters returned to continue the rally.

Meanwhile, Prabowo's flag-waving supporters began rallying at the camp's campaign headquarters at Polonia House, East Jakarta since 10 a.m.

Before arriving at locations near the court compound, the protesters rallied around the Religious Affairs Ministry building on Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta – where the Election Organization Ethics Council (DKPP) read out its ruling on alleged election violations filed separately by the Prabowo camp.

The crowd then gathered around a traffic circle located less than a kilometer away before moving to the court's compound. Some protesters were seen attempting to climb the fences at the adjacent Bank Indonesia headquarters, prompting the central bank's security personnel to tighten security and shut three of its four gates.

Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said that most of the protestors had not filed any reports on their planned protests to the police. Only Prabowo supporters from the Kompak group had informed the police of their plan to protest, Rikwanto said. "Around 6,000 protesters arrived, at most. Some of them were labor union members," he said.

Rikwanto said that the rally only resulted in minor incidents because the police had closely monitored protestors from outside of Jakarta attempting to enter the city. "Supporters found to have the intention of igniting a riot or carrying dangerous weapons were prevented from entering Jakarta," he said.

Aside from implementing maximum security measures around the court, 21,000 police and 10,000 military personnel were dispatched to safeguard public facilities, government offices and business centers around the capital, according to National Police spokesperson Insp. Gen. Ronny F. Sompie.

No major incidents occurred in other areas of the country. In Medan, North Sumatra – where Prabowo gained a slim victory in the election – protests were largely carried out peacefully. The police handed out oranges to protesters to help ease tensions.

In Makassar, South Sulawesi, only a handful of Prabowo supporters were seen holding a brief rally in front of the province's local election office. South Sulawesi Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Endi Sutendi said that security in the province was generally favorable. Several police personnel were seen guarding the residence and property of vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla. (fss)

[Arya Dipa and Andi Hajramurni also contributed to this story.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/22/six-injured-protesters-try-ram-police-with-unimog-trucks.html

Game over, Prabowo!

Jakarta Post - August 22, 2014

Jakarta – Exactly 16 years to the day that an Officers Ethics Council issued an order dismissing him from military service for his alleged role in the abduction and torture of political activists, the Constitutional Court just before 9 p.m. Thursday ended Prabowo's protracted legal challenge of the electoral victory of president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

The court's final verdict marked the definitive end of a poorly presented legal dispute filed by the losing ticket of Prabowo and Hatta Rajasa claiming widespread fraud in the July 9 election that resulted in a margin of victory of 8.4 million votes for Jokowi. It puts beyond any doubt the legitimacy of the current Jakarta governor who on Oct. 20 will be sworn in as Indonesia's seventh president.

The historical coincidence speaks volumes about a man who on both occasions – 16 years apart – came to the fore with such ballyhoo yet left with a whimper.

As commander of the Army Strategic Reserves Command, then Lt. Gen. Prabowo was at the height of his military prowess but was powerless when the council of generals on Aug. 21, 1998, issued him a dismissal letter.

Over the past week, as a defeated presidential candidate, Prabowo had insinuated resistance and chaos if the court rejected his dispute. Yet as court chief justice Hamdan Zoelva struck his gavel to end the five-hour reading of the unanimous nine-judge verdict rejecting every single charge filed by Prabowo's lawyers, the former son-in-law of Soeharto was nowhere to be seen or heard.

In fact, both Prabowo and Hatta were not seen in public at all on Thursday as the court read out 300 of the verdict's 4,392 pages.

Prabowo continued to sequester himself and left it up to his coalition partners to enter the humiliating public spotlight in the immediate aftermath to read a joint statement reacting to the verdict.

Spokesman Tantowi Yahya stopped short of conceding defeat but "acknowledged the ruling of the Constitutional Court". He added that even though the court's decision was final, "it does not reflect the substantive justice".

In a statement that was itself filled with platitudes rather substance, Tantowi said the coalition would "continue the struggle" and carry on with legal measures already being pursued along with future political ones. There was no suggestion of reconciliation from the Prabowo camp.

Fadli Zon, deputy chairman of the Gerindra Party, said Prabowo for now plans to rest "and does not want to think about politics, including whether to run in 2019".

Later in the evening, both Jokowi and vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla appeared together, thanking the court for its work. Jokowi toned down any animosity with his rival, saying that he and Kalla were "good friends" with Prabowo.

Kalla praised the court for its impartiality and handing down a unanimous decision despite several judges having been political members "from the other side".

Hamdan was a member of the Crescent Star Party (PBB), while justice Patrialis Akbar was part of the National Mandate Party (PAN). Both parties are key members of Prabowo's coalition.

Trimedya Panjaitan, the head of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) legal office, conceded that initially there were some worries as to the court's consistency in reviewing the case. "However, the court was able to elaborate on its arguments in a structured and systematic way, clearly and thoroughly," he said.

There is little recourse the fallen candidate can now pursue. "Prabowo and Hatta can do nothing to change it," constitutional law expert and Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) senior researcher Refly Harun told The Jakarta Post.

Refly called on Prabowo to accept the ruling, saying that any further efforts, including filing a lawsuit with the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) or setting up a special committee at the House of Representatives, would be futile. "It will be to no avail because it won't change the court's ruling," Refly said.

A member of Prabowo's legal team, Elza Syarief, has suggested the court's ruling would not end Prabowo's efforts to vindicate himself.

Constitutional law expert from the Bandung-based Parahyangan Catholic University, Asep Warlan Yusuf, further stressed that any other legal recourse pursued would change nothing. "That's the end of Prabowo and Hatta!" he emphasized.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/22/game-over-prabowo.html

Prabowo loses as court rules in favor of KPU

Jakarta Post - August 22, 2014

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – It appears to be the end of the road for chief patron of the Gerindra Party Prabowo Subianto after the Constitutional Court issued its verdict on Thursday, rejecting his demand to overturn the General Elections Commission's (KPU) decision to name Joko "Jokowi" Widodo winner of the July 9 presidential election.

As predicted by legal experts, the court rejected the demands made by the Prabowo-Hatta Rajasa legal team after it failed to prove that "structured, systemic and massive violations had taken place during and after the July 9 election.

"[We have] ruled against all the demands," Chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva said, reading the conclusion of the 3,000-page verdict document.

The bench concluded that the claims made by the Prabowo-Hatta camp, including on the surplus 1.5 million votes for Jokowi as opposed to their own alleged loss of 1.2 million votes in 155,000 polling stations, along with the claim that the KPU's potential voter list (DP4) and the additional special voters lists (DPKTb) had been used to mobilize votes for Jokowi, had no legal basis.

During the six-hour reading of the ruling, the nine justices said they found no evidence of the alleged violations.

The court in fact criticized the Prabowo-Hatta camp for not raising any objections when the votes were being counted at all levels, a lapse the bench considered as having undermined the lawyers' arguments. "There is no evidence that can be used to convince the panel that there were surplus and lost votes," Justice Muhammad Alim said.

In rejecting the claim made by the Prabowo-Hatta camp questioning the legality and constitutionality of the election process, due to unusually high numbers on the DPKTb, the court cited its own decision in 2009 that allowed voters to use their identification cards to cast their ballots. "The lists should be seen as a mechanism to protect the people's right to vote," justice Ahmad Fadlil Sumadi said.

The DPKTb, the list of eligible voters not registered in the final voters list (DPT), but who were allowed to cast votes by using their identification cards, had caused controversy with the Prabowo camp who accused the KPU of using the DPKTb as a means of mobilizing voters without legal basis. Again, the court found no evidence that the KPU collaborated with the Jokowi camp to mobilize voters using the DPKTb.

Expert witnesses presented both by the KPU and the Jokowi camp built a strong case for the use of the DPKTb. Former Constitutional Court justice Harjono, who testified for the KPU, and legal expert Saldi Isra, an expert witness for the Jokowi camp, argued that the 2009 court decision alone was enough to allow the use of the DPKTb.

Harjono also insisted there was no indication of systemic and massive fraud in the election. Other than using strong constitutional grounds, the panel of justices also applied simple logic in rejecting the plaintiffs' arguments.

Justice Ahmad Fadlil argued that the petitioners had acknowledged the legality of the DPKTb when they provided the court with a turnout figure of 133,574,277 voters, similar to the KPU's vote tally. "The number is actually similar to that of the KPU. If we make a connection between the two, their complaint becomes null and void," Ahmad said.

Prabowo-Hatta claimed to have won the presidential election with 67,139,153 votes (50.25 percent) against 66,435,124 (49.74 percent) for Jokowi-Kalla, which differed from the KPU final tally of 70,997,833 votes for Jokowi and 62,576,444 votes for Prabowo.

The panel of justices also rejected the plaintiffs' demands for a reballot in more than 5,000 polling stations in Jakarta, 14 regencies in Papua, 287 polling stations in South Nias regency in North Sumatra, five regencies in East Java and in all polling stations across West Papua and Central Java. The bench said there were no violations in those areas that warranted a reballot.

Maqdir Ismail, one of Prabowo's legal team members, said they accepted the defeat. "What can we do other than accept it?" he said.

KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik praised the ruling, saying that it validated the KPU's impartiality during the election process. "The ruling is final and binding, therefore the KPU's decision on the president-elect remains valid," he added. "It confirms the KPU's decision."

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/22/prabowo-loses-court-rules-favor-kpu.html

Prabowo camp accepts court ruling

Jakarta Post - August 21, 2014

Jakarta – Prabowo campaign team spokesperson Tantowi Yahya said Thursday that the losing presidential pair Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa accepted the Constitutional Court's verdict rejecting their lawsuit on alleged electoral fraud but insisted that the verdict did not reflect substantive justice in Indonesia.

"Even though the [Red-and-White] Coalition accepts the verdict, we insist that the decision does not reflect substantive justice nor truth in Indonesia," Tantowi said in a press conference held by the Prabowo-Hatta campaign team right after the verdict was read.

Tantowi insisted that despite the ruling by the court, the team still believed that the evidence presented to the court was legitimate and proved widespread and systematic fraud within the electoral system.

Separately, Golkar Party secretary general Idrus Marham noted that the coalition supporting the Prabowo-Hatta ticket would continue to be solid and monitor the country from outside the government. "We will continue to monitor the country from outside the government and make sure that the checks-and-balances system works," he said.

Marham also presented a written statement signed by chairmen of the parties supporting the Prabowo-Hatta ticket, namely Aburizal Bakrie of Golkar, Anis Matta of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Gerindra Party deputy chairman Fadli Zon, Drajat Wibowo of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Suryadharma Ali of the United Development Party (PPP) and MS Kaban of the Crescent Star Party (PBB). All leaders signed the letter stating their acceptance of the court ruling.

Neither Prabowo nor Hatta was present at the press conference as they were reportedly visiting hospitalized protestors who rallied outside the court on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat on Thursday. (dyl)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/21/prabowo-camp-accepts-court-ruling.html

Ethics Council verdict finds officials took bribes... From Gerindra

Jakarta Globe - August 21, 2014

Jakarta – As Indonesia's Constitutional Court continued to deliberate on its final verdict on losing candidate Prabowo Subianto's legal challenge on Thursday, the country's electoral ethics council said that it would sanction some electoral officers for opening some ballot boxes in violation of regulations.

Joko Widodo was declared the winner of the July 9 presidential election by a margin of 6 percentage points. Prabowo, however, refused to concede and has launched a wide-ranging legal challenge to try and force a rerun of the world's largest direct election.

In a move that undermined the substance of Prabowo's complaints of widespread electoral fraud, the council also ordered the dismissal of four local election commissioners for taking bribes from Prabowo's Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party.

All 14 other accusations of impropriety on behalf of the General Election Commission (KPU) were thrown out by the Election Organizers Ethical Committee (DKPP).

'Guilty of an ethical violation'

Prabowo and his running mate Hatta Rajasa filed a complaint to the DKPP saying the commission was guilty of wholesale violations of procedure.

"The defendant was guilty of an ethical violation," says Valina Singka Subekti, a DKPP member, as quoted by news portal Vivanews.com. Valina added that the infraction did not warrant termination of KPU commissioners – all seven commissioners will, however, be issued with warnings.

The KPU has been criticized for opening sealed ballot boxes without a court order. On July 9, polling stations across the archipelago opened ballot boxes to count the ballot after voting closed in the afternoon. The boxes were then sealed and sent to the KPU headquarters.

The KPU knew that defeated candidate Prabowo Subianto would challenge the verdict in the Constitutional Court, so they began to prepare their case by opening ballot boxes in order to gather the evidence for the court. This was done before the court gave them the official go-ahead – and Prabowo believes it allowed the vote-counting process to be corrupted.

The court's chief justice, Hamdan Zoelva, later said the KPU could go ahead and open the ballot boxes. "We give permission to the defendant to take documents out of sealed ballot boxes so that they may use those as evidence in the trial," Hamdan said. The Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) defended the KPU's move to open the boxes.

Nine local commissioners dismissed

The DKPP also announced that nine local commissioners would be dismissed from the organization for bribery. Four were dismissed for taking bribes from Gerindra in Serang, Banten province. Five others were dismissed for logistical failures that led to a heavily compromised election in Dogiyai district in Papua.

"Nine members have been dismissed, 30 have been warned, and 20 were found not guilty," DKPP chief Jimly Asshiddiqie said on Thursday, as quoted by Detik.com. Seven of the nine worked for the local KPU – two worked for the local election supervisory board (Panwaslu).

The DKPP also warned 30 election organizers for procedural violations – including the chief and four members of Jakarta KPU, South Jakarta KPU, North Jakarta KPU, East Jakarta KPU and Central Jakarta KPU, and five from the national KPU.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/prabowos-complaint-ethics-council-verdict-finds-officials-took-bribes-gerindra/

Jakarta KPU, Bawaslu guilty of misconduct: Ethics Council

Jakarta Post - August 21, 2014

Jakarta – The Election Organizers Ethics Council (DKPP) said Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU) commissioners breached ethical codes by opening ballot boxes without a court order.

DKPP member Nur Hidayat Sardini said Thursday that the Jakarta Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) erroneously gave a recommendation based on anonymous reports to the Jakarta poll organizer.

"In reality, the recommendation was baseless because there was no data of names or addresses at polling stations. Bawaslu should have rechecked this data first," Hidayat said.

"We assessed that the opening of the ballot boxes was not allowed. The Jakarta KPU's action could only be justified with a court order."

The complaint regarding the ballot box opening was filed by Ahmad Sully, a member of the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa campaign team, against 30 members of election organizers in Jakarta.

Prabowo's camp filed a report with Bawaslu, saying that fraud had occurred in the July 9 presidential election, citing that many voters went to cast their votes using only identification cards (KTP).

Bawaslu then recommended the Jakarta KPU open ballot boxes to check the ballots based on the complaint filed by the Prabowo camp.

Hidayat said the council assessed that Jakarta KPU commissioners had intended to follow correct protocol, but failed at doing so.

He said that these were severe violations as responsibility lied with the polling station committees (KPPS), whose functions had ended. He added that the KPPS members who had committed the violations would not be given any responsibility in the next election.

"Even though the Bawaslu was not included as plaintiff in the report, its chairman and vice chairman had carried misconduct so they could be dismissed," he said.

Hidayat said that the council decided to reprimand election organizers in North Jakarta, Central Jakarta and East Jakarta for opening ballot boxes without court orders.

He said the council had already rehabilitated the reputation of election organizers in West Jakarta. He added that the council had ordered the KPU to follow up with the decision and the Bawaslu to monitor the decision implementation. (put)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/21/jakarta-kpu-bawaslu-guilty-misconduct-ethics-council.html

Police stop Prabowo Subianto supporters from storming Constitutional Court

Sydney Morning Herald - August 21, 2014

Michael Bachelard, Jakarta – Supporters of Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto tried to overrun police lines and attack the country's Constitutional Court late on Thursday as the court's nine justices began reading a ruling expected to finally deliver the presidency to his rival, Joko Widodo.

About 3000 supporters of Mr Prabowo had gathered during the day, chanting and singing in front of hundreds of riot police deployed to protect the court.

At about 2.35pm, local time, as chief justice Hamdan Zoelva began reading the verdict, the front line of protesters suddenly attacked the police, prompting them to release a hail of tear-gas and deploy water cannon. The protesters failed to break through the police line and, after a brief skirmish, retreated.

The Constitutional Court was expected to pronounce Mr Joko, the Jakarta Governor, as president after Mr Prabowo's huge legal team mounted a weak and unconvincing case.

They had appealed against the announcement on July 22 by the country's electoral commission that Mr Joko had clearly won with about 53 per cent of the vote.

Mr Prabowo's appeal against the electoral commission's ruling was widely considered thin and ill-prepared, failing to provide evidence, as required by Indonesian law, of "systematic, structured and massive" vote-shifting.

An analysis by academics Jim Della-Giacoma and Veri Junaidi said Mr Prabowo's case was "more like a political statement than a well-argued lawsuit".

Where voting patterns did seem suspicious, it was ambiguous who might have benefited and involved relatively small numbers of votes: nowhere near the 8.4 million vote margin in favour of Mr Joko.

The judges criticised Mr Prabowo's witnesses for failing to have firsthand knowledge of events. One was scolded because his evidence was that he had read it in a newspaper.

One example of alleged intimidation raised by Mr Prabowo in a personal statement to the court was emblematic of much of the case. He told the court of a case in the village of Banyuwangi, East Java, where "the house of our witness was burned down".

Online media portal Detik.com sent a journalist to check the claim but found that, firstly, it was not the witness' house that was attacked, it was the Prabowo-Hatta campaign office, and, secondly, that it was not set on fire but someone threw stones at it.

Police told the journalist that the office was not specifically targeted but some people had been throwing stones that day at a number of neighbouring houses. It had nothing to do with the election but was purely a criminal incident, the police said.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/police-stop-prabowo-subianto-supporters-from-storming-indonesias-constitutional-court-20140821-106x7h.html

Prabowo won't go quietly

Jakarta Post - August 20, 2014

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – As the hearing on the July 9 presidential election dispute approaches its denouement at the Constitutional Court, the camp of losing candidate Prabowo Subianto vowed that if the court ruled in favor of president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, it would not acquiesce.

One of Prabowo's team of lawyers, Habiburokhman, said Tuesday that it could not be held responsible for any possible action taken by Prabowo's disappointed supporters, who have stepped up their street protests in the past few days.

Of late, supporters of the Prabowo-Hatta Rajasa presidential ticket have grown volatile and have begun making threats, including verbally abusing General Elections Commission (KPU) chairman Husni Kamil Manik and vowing to torch the offices of news station Metro TV, which is owned by Surya Paloh, whose NasDem Party supported Jokowi's presidential nomination.

"If we tell them not to take action, then what will happen is a fake reconciliation [with Jokowi]. These people may get frustrated and they could explode at any time," Habiburokhman said. "So, we won't push for reconciliation if it's not genuine."

His statement echoed that of Prabowo's brother, tycoon Hashim Djojohadikusumo, who previously said there would be no reconciliation with Jokowi's camp after the court delivered its ruling, which is expected on Thursday. "There will never be reconciliation," Hasyim said.

Habiburokhman, when asked what Prabowo's supporters could do to express their disappointment, said they were free to do what they thought was right because they lived in a democracy.

"We don't live under the New Order regime anymore. So, if there is injustice, then go ahead and respond [to the injustice], as long as it is within the law," he said.

Last week, Muhammad Taufik, a former graft convict and chairman of the Jakarta chapter of Prabowo's Gerindra Party, allegedly threatened to kidnap the KPU's chairman, Husni, if the police failed to arrest him for allowing massive fraud to take place during the presidential election.

Then last Friday, hundreds of Prabowo supporters staged a rally in front of the Constitutional Court and chanted threats against Metro TV, saying they would burn it down. The demonstrators said that Metro TV deserved such treatment for its ridiculing of Prabowo throughout the presidential campaign.

In recent days, the protesters have upped the ante by burning tires and blocking traffic on the road in front of the court.

Many have speculated that the same protesters have also targeted other institutions, including the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), whose headquarters is located less then a kilometer away from the court.

Jokowi's campaign team member, Eva Kusuma Sundari, said on Tuesday that she was growing increasingly concerned by the possibility that Prabowo's camp would not concede defeat, even though the Constitutional Court – the country's highest judicial institution – had accommodated its demand and reviewed its lawsuit according to the law.

"It will be an embarrassment if in this democratic country, which is founded on law and justice, a decision by the Constitutional Court is not accepted," she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Eva said that Jokowi had in fact offered a reconciliation plan to Prabowo's camp on a number of occasions, only to be rejected each time. "They initially said they were declining the offer because they wanted to seek justice. But once the legal means have been exhausted and the result does not suit them, they still refuse [to let go]," Eva said.

The court is currently verifying the evidence submitted by both Prabowo's legal team and the KPU.

Prabowo's lawyers submitted on Tuesday more than 5,000 pages of documentation to the court. Apparently, the documents were not new evidence for the lawsuit, but contained conclusions from hearings at the court to date.

Prabowo's legal team has been criticized by the court's justices for presenting uncorroborated evidence and witnesses offering conflicting testimonies.

One of the highlights from the court's proceedings was when one of the witnesses for Prabowo's camp, Novela Mawipa, claimed she was just a simple village girl from the mountains who supported Prabowo.

It was later discovered that Novela was a failed legislative candidate and Gerindra's chairperson for Paniai regency in Papua. Prabowo's team has pledged that their fight will not end in the courtroom.

"We will not be bound solely by the [Constitutional Court's] ruling. There's also the political arena. An inquiry committee [Pansus] will be set up at the House of Representatives. There is also [Prabowo's] permanent coalition, which will oppose everything [the ruling government proposes]," Habiburokhman said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/20/prabowo-won-t-go-quietly.html

Expert witnesses quarrel in special voters list row

Jakarta Post - August 16, 2014

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Expert witnesses helped the General Elections Commission (KPU) appear strong during a hearing at the Constitutional Court on Friday in its defense against the accusation by the camp of the losing Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa presidential ticket that there had been systemic and massive fraud in the presidential election.

In his testimony, former Constitutional Court justice Sarjono said there was no indication of systemic and massive fraud in the election.

Even if there was an indication of fraud, it had to be proven first that the fraud was intended to help a presidential candidate win the election, rather than just a case of human error. "As long as you cannot prove that, then it cannot be regarded as systemic and massive fraud," Sarjono said.

He then cited the example of the additional special voters lists (DPKTb), which are lists of eligible voters not registered in the fixed voters list (DPT), but who were allowed to cast votes by using their identification cards.

The lists had caused ongoing debate as the Prabowo camp accused the KPU of fraudulent mass voter mobilization by utilizing the DPKTb, seeing how there was an unusual ly large number of DPKTb.

Constitutional law expert Margarito Kamis, who stood as expert witness for the Prabowo camp on Friday, said the DPKTb was unconstitutional since it was not stipulated in any law and that the KPU only justified the use of it by saying that the Constitutional Court had already permitted its use during the 2009 presidential election.

"I understand that the Constitutional Court wanted to guarantee every public right, but if that's their way of thinking, then there's no need for the DPT [in the first place]," he said. "Therefore, the use of the DPKTb has to be perceived as a violation to the law."

Margarito, who used to serve as special adviser to the state secretary, added that the use of the DPKTb itself could be used as a basis for the court to decide that the presidential election was unlawful and thus justified that its results should be annulled. "There should be no legal action by the election organizer that is not stipulated in any law," he said.

However, Sarjono said the fact that there was no law stipulating the use of the DPKTb itself did not automatically mean the KPU had violated the law. "If we look at the intention, then the use of the DPKTb is aimed at facilitating people who wanted to exercise their voting rights, but were not registered in the DPT," he said.

Sarjono said that the use of the DPKTb could be perceived as an example of systemic and massive fraud only if it was done to rig the election in favor of a particular candidate. "But who benefited from the DPKTb? No one knows," he said. "No one knows because it [the voting] is conducted inside polling booths."

Likewise, public administration expert Saldi Isra, who testified for Prabowo's rival, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, said the use of the DPKTb itself would not have a significant effect on the election results.

"Our presidential election does not have electoral districts. Therefore, if people wanted to vote in other locations, there is no constitutional reason to forbid them," he said.

Associations for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) researcher Didik Supriyanto also pointed out how the DPKTb had already been used in this year's legislative election. "But no one made a fuss about it," he said.

Margarito said the law on legislative elections stipulated the use of the DPKTb, while the law on presidential elections did not, and therefore the use of the list in this year's presidential election had no legal basis.

Saldi, however, said that the court's decision in 2009 to allow the use of the DPKTb alone was enough as it was issued by the Constitutional Court itself.

The hearing of expert witnesses was the final session on the presidential election dispute at the court. The panel of justices is scheduled to deliver its verdict next Thursday.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/16/expert-witnesses-quarrel-special-voters-list-row.html

Media & journalism

End violence against journalists: Activists

Jakarta Post - August 18, 2014

Bambang Muryanto and Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, Yogyakarta/Padang – NGOs and journalists have drawn up a joint petition demanding the government declare August 16 as anti-violence against journalists day.

Pito Agustin Rudiana of Yogyakarta's chapter of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) said that Indonesia had been black-listed in terms of journalist protection.

"Since 1996, there have been at least 12 journalists murdered," she said after reading out the petition at the grave of murdered journalist Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin, also known as Udin, on Saturday, commemorating 18 years since Udin's murder.

She said the petition would be handed over to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Aljufri, Press Council chairman Bagir Manan and the president-elect.

The petition also demanded that the date of Udin's murder be included in the national calendar as the day to honor the press and to confirm the campaign of opposition to violence against journalists.

"We want the date set as the anti-violence against journalists day because Udin's murder drew attention both domestically and internationally," Pito said.

In a related development, AJI Indonesia has expressed opposition to the expiry of Udin's murder case after 18 years, arguing that as no new suspect had been named then no expiry date could be set for the case.

Udin was beaten by an unidentified person at his home in Bantul regency, Yogyakarta, on August 13, 1996 and died three days later at the Yogyakarta Bethesda Hospital without regaining consciousness.

According to AJI Indonesia's secretary Suwarjono, Article 78 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) stipulates that an unresolved case will be considered expired after 18 years and thus Udin's case would have expired on Saturday.

"But, we say no to that and want the police to continue investigating the case seriously and thoroughly," Suwarjono told a press conference in Padang, West Sumatra over the weekend.

Quoting Supreme Court judge Artidjo Alkostar, Suwarjono said that there was no expiry date for Udin's murder case because no new suspect had ever been named by the police after suspect Dwi Sumadji, alias Iwik, had been acquitted by Bantul district court due to lack of evidence.

He said the police's investigation resulting in Iwik being named a suspect was not thorough and as such the conditions as required by Article 78 of the Criminal Code were not met. "The police have to reinvestigate the case from the beginning and do it thoroughly," Suwarjono said.

He also said the AJI had on several occasions met with senior police officers to demand a thorough investigation into the case. However, there was no indication that the case would be reopened. "The case sets a bad precedent for press freedom in Indonesia," he said.

He added that the AJI was sure that Udin was murdered because of his stories that criticized the regency administration of Bantul, where he was assigned. If the case was closed or not investigated thoroughly, it could have a serious impact on journalists' safety in the field.

"People will simply say that the police will do nothing if a journalist is persecuted," Suwarjono said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/18/end-violence-against-journalists-activists.html

Internet & social media

Legislation must keep up with Internet

Jakarta Post - August 22, 2014

Jakarta – Experts have criticized the government, especially the Communications and Information Ministry, for failing to update laws and regulations to keep up with the rapidly expanding use of the Internet in the country.

A public forum on Internet governance held on Wednesday concluded that existing regulations should be improved and new laws were needed.

The number of Internet users in Indonesia has continued to grow year by year. Based on data from the Association of Indonesian Internet Providers (APJII), Indonesia had around 71 million internet users in 2013, up by 13 percent compared to the previous year.

To date, the government only has the Information Transaction Law and the Telecommunications Law as guidelines, neither of which is supported by adequate implementing regulations.

Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) executive director Indriaswati D. Saptaningrum said that Communications and Information Ministerial Decree No.19/2014, which was passed on July 17, indicated how far the government had fallen behind.

Under the decree, the ministry is allowed to block websites that are considered to have negative content. The decree, however, did not provide a precise definition of such negative content, Indriaswati said. The article specifically stipulates that a ban can only be imposed on websites containing pornography or illegal activities, without further defining those terms.

Indri said that without precise definitions as guidelines, the blocking of websites would be arbitrary and could violate the basic rights to information.

She said that currently the government was focused too much on controlling the Internet and forgetting to draft legal instruments to boost the protection of privacy on the Internet, which, according to her, was much more important.

"We lag far behind the US and other developed countries which already have Internet privacy laws," she told The Jakarta Post. She said the deliberation of the bill on privacy on the Internet had begun three years ago, but the ministry had not made it a priority and the process had stalled.

Aloysius Wisnubroto, law expert from Atmajaya University in Yogyakarta, said the process of drafting the law had been too long because it was heavily politicized.

He suggested laws on the Internet had to be amended to make them more relevant to the current situation. Aloysius cited Article 27, of Law No. 11/2008 on Internet-based defamation as being redundant as there was already an article on defamation in the Criminal Code. "We don't need two laws regulating the same offense," he said. (ask)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/22/legislation-must-keep-with-internet.html

Environment & natural disasters

Jokowi to get tough on illegal fire-starters

Jakarta Post - August 23, 2014

Jakarta – President-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has vowed tough law enforcement to fix the recurring haze problem, making it clear that the local authorities know who the culprits are.

Jokowi said that it was a question of political will and that he would use his power to give necessary instructions to the relevant authorities.

"For me, it's not a complicated problem, it's only a matter of managing the people and how we communicate with them. The haze is caused both by the people and the companies. If we have good, tough law enforcement, then it can be resolved," he said, gesturing to indicate that the problem would be swept away.

Jokowi made the statement during an interview with The Straits Times earlier this week. Smoke from Indonesian forest fires, which sometimes causes pollution in Singapore to reach unhealthy levels, has been one of the more frustrating aspects of relations between the city-state and its giant neighbor.

Jokowi offered his views on the haze issue only eight weeks before he is due to take over as the country's seventh president.

Jokowi will assume the presidency with a reputation for solving issues on the ground, after successful tenures as mayor of the city of Solo and governor of the capital city.

He promised to bring this to bear on the haze problem, saying that those guilty of illegal burning would be stopped. "Our local governments, also our provincial governments, they know where they [illegal burners] are," he added.

Acknowledging the importance of the issue, he noted that the haze had been recurring every year with a high degree of frequency. It was a question of the "political will to act or not", he added.

Asked how different his approach would be from his predecessors', Joko declined to comment on the progress made so far, but said: "When we have the power, we must use the power to solve the problem, not only respecting haze but also other problems. I'm sure that the governor or the Bupati knows where the problem is coming; for example, whether it's coming from this district or that district. They know. I'm sure they know."

A preliminary finding by a compliance audit conducted by a government- sanctioned team has uncovered several irregularities involving local governments and agroforestry companies in Riau province that are likely responsible for the rampant forest fires in the area. The audit examined 18 agroforestry firms operating around potential hotspot areas in Riau.

Another finding of the audit was that the majority of the audited firms were also embroiled in land disputes with local residents, conflicts that played a role in triggering forest fires. The team also found evidence that the Riau provincial government and the firms had failed to perform their duty to protect the fire-prone areas.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/23/jokowi-get-tough-illegal-fire-starters.html

Forest protection plans 'may face setbacks' under Jokowi's government

Jakarta Globe - August 22, 2014

Vita A.D. Busyra & Tunggadewa Mattangkilang, Jakarta – While environmentalists believe Indonesia has made "good progress" in its plans to protect its forests, the strategy could face setbacks under a new government, a recent report commissioned by forest aid donor Norway said.

The report, compiled by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, or Norad, stated that Norway, which in 2008 gave Brazil $720 million to help slow down deforestation, has also promised Indonesia, under the same deal in 2010, up to $1 billion, depending on its performance.

After the Amazon and the Congo basin, Indonesia has the third-largest rainforest area in the world, but it has cleared large tracts of forest to make way for palm oil plantations.

Norad said Indonesia has made good progress in its forest protection agenda but added that "upcoming governmental change and weaknesses in the legal basis" for forest protection "present a serious risk that achievements may be lost."

With President-elect Joko Widodo set to take over from incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in October, new priorities could emerge, shifting the emphasis to expanding palm oil plantations, said Ida Hellmark, who coordinated the Norad report. Indonesia has only received 2 percent of Norway's total pledge so far.

Yuyun Indradi, a forest campaigner at Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said that since the memorandum of understanding between Indonesia and Norway was performance-based, progress in the reduction and reversal of deforestation would directly affect the amounts received from the Norwegian government.

Progress in addressing deforestation will be measured by environmental agencies such as REDD++ and Greenpeace and the Directorate of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation.

During one of the presidential debates, Joko mentioned that he would restore 100.7 million hectares of degraded forests while also increasing development of a sustainable forestry industry. He did not provide, though, any specific details on the plan. This has lead to doubt on the part of Norad and the Norwegian government.

"If Joko later changes his priority on forestry such as on the bio-ethanol issue, the government actually needs to increase productivity levels on existing land, rather than converting more land for palm oil plantations," Yuyun said.

Meanwhile, Herry Purnomo, a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor), said he was uncertain of what message Norway was trying to convey regarding Joko's future environmental plans.

"I'm not sure whether Joko will either change or renew his priorities. You have to understand that the MOU between Norway and Indonesia is a marketing measure. Norway has agreed to purchase our carbon credits if we reduce deforestation under specific circumstances," Herry said on Wednesday.

He said Norway has become indecisive over Indonesia's initiative because of Joko's seemingly unpredictable environmental plan.

Sharing Yuyun's views, Herry said that ideally, renewable energy sources should be developed on already damaged forests or non-fertile lands, if possible.

The Forestry Ministry and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) have also stepped up efforts to prevent and eliminate corruption in the forestry sector. Their efforts include scrutinizing the conversion of forest utilisation approval permits, that are used to obtain mining business permits.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said his ministry no longer issued forest utilization permits, which could be used to convert the forests into mining areas. To date, up to a million hectares of forest land have been converted to mining areas.

Zulkifli said investigations showed that almost 12,000 forest utilisation approval permits in East Kalimantan had been used to open mining sites, which caused a major deforestation in the area.

The minster said the situation in South Kalimantan was even worse than in East Kalimantan, because four million forest utilisation approval permits have been misused by the holders to open mining sites.

"That's why we support the mining moratorium and KPK officials going [to South Kalimantan] every week to spread awareness on the issue so that mayors can revoke permits that have been misused, especially those in protected forests or national parks," he said.

[Additional reporting from Reuters.]

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesias-forest-protection-plans-may-face-setbacks-jokowis-govt/

Government deforestation to continue amid emission-reduction plans

Jakarta Post - August 16, 2014

Jakarta – The government will maintain its deforestation targets despite its pledge to control emissions.

Forestry Ministry secretary-general Hadi Daryanto said on Tuesday that the government would proceed with plans to clear 14 million hectares (ha) of degraded forest from 2010 to 2020. Indonesia currently contains 180 million ha of forested land.

According to Hadi, the degraded forest would be transformed into convertible forest as the country's growth has forced the government to provide more space for development needs, such as infrastructure, energy and food supply. "Deforestation is inevitable [for development], but we will allocate the land for better use," Hadi told The Jakarta Post.

He added that the government would carefully select which degraded forest to clear. He emphasized that this would be strictly supervised so as to prevent illegal logging and other environmentally detrimental activities.

"We will provide the forested land information on our website and we will invite people to monitor the process by using the satellite imagery to supervise the land," Hadi said, adding that the government would neither replace nor replant the degraded land.

Data published in the Nature Climate Change journal indicated that between 2000 and 2012, Indonesia lost over 6.02 million ha of primary forest. The study also revealed that by 2012, Indonesia began recording losses of 0.84 million ha a year, almost twice Brazil's annual primary forest loss of 0.46 million ha.

The study emerged despite the government's aggressive international campaign to reduce deforestation through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programs and the creation of a dedicated agency to run REDD+ programs.

The Forestry Ministry recently issued Ministerial Decree No. 63/2014, a milestone for realizing REDD+ projects. The decree sets an emission level of 0.816 gigatons per year. The number, according to Hadi, is based on average emission levels in the period of 2000-2006. Hadi added that while the current emissions level was lower than 0.816 gigatons, the government should work diligently to maintain it.

Yuyun Indradi, a Greenpeace Southeast Asia analyst, decried the announcement, saying it proved the government was not truly committed to reducing emissions. He added that the plans would accentuate the already alarming rate of deforestation occurring in Indonesia.

"Greenpeace disagrees with the plan. While we should be fighting deforestation, the government has decided to sustain its deforestation plan," Yuyun said.

Agus P. Sari, deputy chair of the REDD+ Management Agency, questioned the decree and said that the ministry should provide details on how it would still uphold its emissions targets, as well as release data regarding the country's true deforestation rate.

"The ministry only said that they used emission data from 2000 to 2006, but the real calculation to get the figure was never revealed," Agus said, adding that the decree should serve as a technical guide, not just for political purposes.

In a recent contribution to The Jakarta Post entitled "The inconvenient truth about Indonesia deforestation", Agus cited deforestation data from various sources and emphasized that the government should consolidate its forest and deforestation data.

"The Forestry Ministry currently works according to a jurisdictional definition of forests that may be smaller than the actual area of forests in the country," Agus said. (idb)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/16/govt-deforestation-continue-amid-emission-reduction-plans.html

Health & education

Council urges universal access to health coverage

Jakarta Post - August 20, 2014

Jakarta – The National Social Security Board (DJSN) has complained that the national health insurance (JKN) program, which is managed by the Social Security Management Agency (BPJS), has yet to cover everyone, despite its mandate to ensure health coverage for all members of society.

"Prisoners, vagrants, displaced people, lepers and people with mental illnesses have yet to be covered by the BPJS," DJSN head Chazali Situmorang said on Tuesday during a focus group discussion of the insurance program's future.

Chazali said that the structure of the program had resulted in a lack of coverage for people without a permanent address. "The BPJS uses a household structure and domicile as the basis for the program's membership, despite the fact that many people do not have a home," he said.

Even when people obtained a BPJS health card, he said, the lack of medical facilities and long waiting times at a number of hospitals were issues that needed to be addressed by the next government, and he urged the new administration to synchronize all the regulations related to the program and maintain the availability of budget funds to optimize the program's implementation.

On Jan. 1, 2014, the government established the BPJS, which unified two existing insurance providers: PT Askes, a national health plan for civil servants, and PT Jamsostek, a health insurance program for workers.

Deputy Health Minister Ali Ghufron Mukti said the government was working hard to improve the quality of the program, but emphasized that as it had been launched less than eight months ago, it was still in its transition period.

Ali said that all stakeholders needed time to adjust to the program, for which the government has issued a number of regulations in a very short period of time.

"Five new regulations have been issued within a year of the program's launch, whereas it took several years to establish the cigarette regulation," he said, referring to the recent regulation that requires cigarette manufacturers to print pictorial health warnings on all packets of cigarettes.

Ali said that now, a significant number of people was covered by the health-insurance program but added that they needed to have a comprehensive understanding of it to have it work properly.

"The BPJS covers more people than the combined populations of Australia and Malaysia, and we need time to raise their awareness," he said.

Based on BPJS data, as of Aug. 8, the program covered 126.4 million people – 96.4 million of whom pay monthly premiums of Rp 19,225 (US$1.58) per person per month – and cooperated with 1,551 hospitals nationwide. The program aims to cover the entire Indonesian population by 2019.

Meanwhile, Luthfi Mardiansyah, chairman of the International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group (IPMG), said the health-insurance program depended on state budget funds as well as cooperation between both public and private sectors to ensure its success.

"The next government should prioritize the program in its agenda based on the people's shared wish to have a social security system. The president- elect has promised to raise the quality of health care," he said. (idb)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/20/council-urges-universal-access-health-coverage.html

Behind the rise in Indonesia's HIV/AIDS numbers, weak policies

Jakarta Globe - August 18, 2014

Vita A.D. Busyra, Jakarta – Activists have blamed an ineffective health awareness campaign and ignorance about risky sexual behavior for the double-digit increases in HIV/AIDS infection and mortality rates in Indonesia since 2000, even as the global averages dropped.

Indonesia had an HIV/AIDS incidence, or number of cases, of some 45,000 in 2013, and 14,400 deaths that same year, according to a study by the US- based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation published last month in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Those figures were up 28 percent and 87.5 percent respectively from 2000. During the same period, by contrast, the global HIV/AIDS incidence decreased by 3.9 percent and deaths declined by 1.5 percent.

"Various government programs to tackle HIV/AIDS are still considered ineffective, if not unsuccessful, because of poor campaigning methods," Soewarta Kosen, the Health Ministry's chief policy analyst, said at a recent seminar in Jakarta.

He cited the case of programs to encourage the use of condoms – always a sensitive topic in religiously conservative Indonesia, which doesn't even prescribe sex education in the public school curriculum.

"In Thailand and the Philippines, the spread of HIV/AIDS has dropped dramatically because of the success they achieved in condom use," said Soewarta, who was a co-author of the study.

Thailand saw a 9.6 percent decrease in deaths among people with HIV/AIDS between 2000 and 2013, while the Philippines recorded a 1 percent increase.

Risky sexual behavior, often willful, is also a major factor in the huge increase in new HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia, says Baby Jim Aditya, an HIV/AIDS activist. "Educating people on the importance of condom use isn't easy because they tend to be stuck in their own ways," she said of the general reluctance among Indonesian men to use a condom. "Such behavior is hard to change."

High-risk groups include sex workers, men who have sex with other men, and intravenous drug users. But experts have identified married women as being the fastest-growing group of people at risk of contracting HIV, and have attributed the phenomenon to serial philandering among many Indonesian husbands.

"Risky sexual behavior isn't a problem associated exclusively with young, single people – their chances [of contracting HIV] are actually much smaller than for married people," Baby told the Jakarta Globe.

"And housewives are the most vulnerable in that group, because of their husbands. So how do we protect these vulnerable individuals, including babies? Education is the key to overcoming such a serious problem," she added.

She lauded government programs such as ongoing education campaigns, an increasing budget allocation every year to tackle HIV/AIDS, the free provision of antiretroviral drugs and therapy, and efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

But she said they would only work if people with HIV/AIDS came forward to make use of them, which many were reluctant to do because of the stigma associated with the disease.

"So even though the treatment is available for free, there's no guarantee that people will come. It's hard to encourage them," Baby said.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/behind-rise-indonesias-hivaids-numbers-weak-policies/

Graft & corruption

Bureaucratic reform key to graft eradication

Jakarta Post - August 21, 2014

Jakarta – The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) has said that selecting professional candidates for the Cabinet of president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo could be the key to eradicating corruption.

ICW coordinator Ade Irawan said that the selection of professional candidates for ministerial positions was one of 20 points in an agenda proposal for Jokowi that has been drawn up by the anti-graft watchdog.

"The future Cabinet must consist of people who are capable, not well- connected," he said during a press conference in Jakarta.

Another ICW activist, Abdullah Dahlan, said that, in order to prevent future conflicts of interest, it was important for the new president not to give seats in his Cabinet to people with political connections.

He added that the current Cabinet of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was a cautionary tale for Jokowi, as it was full of people who were given positions for their ties to political parties. The result has been the involvement of sitting Cabinet members in a number of corruption cases, he said.

Another ICW activist, Febri Hendri, said that it would be better for Jokowi to pick young candidates for ministerial positions, so that the Cabinet could work faster and better to support the new president's efforts. "This would also accelerate the regeneration of bureaucrats in ministries and agencies," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/21/bureaucratic-reform-key-graft-eradication.html

Another PKS member accused of corruption

Jakarta Post - August 20, 2014

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said on Tuesday that it would launch a probe against Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician Fahri Hamzah, a fierce critic of the antigraft body, for allegedly receiving money from graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin.

Commission spokesman Johan Budi said the KPK would question Fahri to verify a court statement by Yulianis, former deputy finance director of PT Permai Group, a company jointly owned by former Democratic Party treasurer Nazaruddin and disgraced former Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, that Fahri had received US$25,000 from the firm.

"We will follow up on the statement from Yulianis. It is a strong evidence, as she was under oath when making the statement. If KPK investigators find enough evidence to confirm the claim then we will launch a new investigation," Johan told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Anas has been accused of taking billions of rupiah in dirty money from the Permai Group to support his successful chairmanship campaign during the Democratic Party congress in 2010 in Bandung.

Johan did not give details on when KPK investigators would launch the probe against Fahri.

Nazaruddin accepted about Rp 800 billion (US$86.50 million) through the Permai Group every year for rigging state projects, thanks to his extensive power as the ruling Democratic Party treasurer and member of the House of Representatives.

During Anas' trial on Monday, Yulianis said that she handed the $25,000 to Fahri at the Permai Group headquarters in Jakarta, adding that the money was to pay a down payment on a car ordered by Fahri.

"Just write down on the company's financial book that the money was for a car down payment. It was not related to the arrangement of the state projects budget deliberations [at the House of Representatives]," Yulianis said in court, quoting Nazaruddin's instructions to her.

Yulianis said that Fahri did not say a word when she handed the money to him. "When I ask him [Fahri] to sign the receipt [for the money] he just smiled at me. It was Pak Nazaruddin who later got the receipt and signed it himself," Yulianis said. Yulianis did not elaborate on why Nazaruddin was being generous to Fahri.

Fahri, who has been known for his incendiary statements, shrugged off the accusation on Tuesday, saying that he never had business with either Nazaruddin or Yulianis.

"I will let Nazaruddin and Yulianis give clarification about my presence at the Permai Group office. I have never been there and I don't know the location," Fahri said.

The PKS politician said that he would not file a complaint with the police against his accusers for defamation. "I won't put more burden on them because they are all in a difficult situation, especially my friend Anas. I always pray for the best for him in looking for justice in his case," Fahri said.

Fahri made headlines in 2011 for launching an unsuccessful campaign to dissolve the antigraft body, claiming that he had dug up the "KPK's dirty secrets" to support his arguments.

In May 2013 Fahri reported the KPK to the National Police following the antigraft body's move to confiscate luxury cars belonging to money laundering convict, former PKS chairman Lutfhi Hasan Ishaaq, insisting that the confiscation was not based on "proper" procedure.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/20/another-pks-member-accused-corruption.html

ICW urges end to sentence reductions for all corruption convicts

Jakarta Globe - August 19, 2014

SP/Novianti Setuningsih, Jakarta – A prominent corruption watchdog has urged Justice and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin to make sure that no corruption convict will receive another sentence cut.

Agus Sunaryanto, deputy coordinator at Indonesia Corruption Watch, said the sentence cuts that are still given to some corruption convicts – most recently as part of Independence Day celebrations – are not aiding the nation's fight against graft.

Agus said that a circular issued last year to modify an earlier decree banning sentence cuts for people jailed for corruption, drug offenses and terrorism should be revoked.

According to the 2013 circular, corruption convicts whose verdicts were finalized before the decree was issued – Nov. 12, 2012 – can still receive sentence cuts. Based on this circular, it was possible for notorious graft convicts like Gayus Tambunan, Anggodo Widjojo, Urip Tri Gunawan and Mochtar Mohammad to have their jail terms slashed last Sunday.

"The [2013] circular makes the [2012] decree discriminative, because now it only applies to 'new' corruption convicts – or those whose verdicts are final after 2012," Agus said on Tuesday. "The 'old' corruption convicts... can still receive sentence cuts."

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chief Abraham Samad has criticized the practice of giving corruption convicts sentence cuts on Independence Day or other holidays, insisting that only justice collaborators or whistle-blowers deserved such treatment.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/icw-urges-end-sentence-reductions-corruption-convicts/

KPK slams sentence cuts for corruptors

Jakarta Globe - August 18, 2014

Rizky Amelia, Jakarta – Corruption Eradication Commission chief Abraham Samad laments a string of sentence cuts given by the government to a number of graft convicts on Independence Day saying it will hinder the country's fight against graft.

"Sentence cuts should not be given to corruptors," he said in a text message on Monday adding that sentence cuts should only be awarded to corruption convicts who help law enforcers in their investigation as a whistle-blower.

The government routinely gives penalty cuts to convicts detained across the country as part of the Independence day celebration or their respective major religious holidays.

By law, all convicts who have served a certain length of their respective prison terms are eligible, but many have argued that such privileges should not apply to corruption and terrorism convicts.

The authority to hand out sentence cuts lies in the hands of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. According to the ministry, 74,468 convicts have their prison-terms slashed during this year's Independence Day, but the ministry did not elaborate on just how many corruption convicts were also awarded with such cuts.

Prison officials however confirmed that several high profile corruption convicts are among those receiving the Independence Day sentence cuts.

Among them is Gayus Halomoan Tambunan, a former tax official sentenced to 30 years in prison for bribery, aiding several companies to evade paying taxes, bribing law enforcers and forging his passport, got a five month sentence cuts this year.

Previously during Muslim holiday Idul Fitri, Gayus also received a one-and-a-half month reduction to his prison term. It is not known how much of Gayus's sentence has been slashed in total. But this year was Gayus' fourth year receiving both Independence Day and Idul Fitri sentence cuts.

This year's Independence Day sentence cuts were also given to at least seven high profile corruption convicts.

Johan Budi, spokesman for the antigraft agency known as the KPK, said the sentence reductions are not in accordance with the corruption eradication spirit the government has been boasting.

"Since the very beginning, KPK had urged that the cuts for corruptors be restricted," he said but added that the KPK can only give recommendations for the ministry to stop giving sentence cuts to corruption convicts.

The government issued a government regulation in 2012 barring corruption, terrorism and drug trafficking convicts from receiving sentence cuts, paroles and other privileges. But Justice minister Amir Syamsudin said the regulation does not apply to those convicted before the regulation is enacted. Gayus was found guilty and sent to jail in 2011.

Amir also said the government will continue to hand out sentence cuts, including to corruption convicts, as part of an effort to keep prisons from being overpopulated.

He said there are currently 162,964 inmates in prisons across the country while the prisons' capacity is only for a total of 109,011 inmates.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/kpk-slams-sentence-cuts-corruptors/

KPK launches anti-corruption television channel

Jakarta Post - August 18, 2014

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) launched on Sunday its own television channel, KPK TV, which will serve to educate the public about preventing corruption. For the time being, the channel is available for streaming at kpk.go.id/kanalkpk.

KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto said during the launch of the television channel that the anti-graft body had decided to build its own channel after learning that the mainstream media had lost interest in broadcasting news about graft prevention.

"The mainstream media focuses too much on corruption eradication. There are not many media outlets which have interests in producing news that could help us inculcate anti-corruption culture. We expect the channel to complement the current mainstream media, so that we can work together," said Bambang as quoted by Antara news agency.

Bambang added that another reason to launch the channel was the fact that people in the country preferred watching news reports on television to reading newspapers.

He also said that material broadcast from the channel would be mostly "light", in spite of the weighty topic. "Corruption will be discussed with humor. We will laugh in the KPK's style," he said.

He added that the commission was currently preparing the bulk of the content that would be broadcast by the channel, ranging from news, features, music, comedy, talk shows, movies and programs for children, such as animation and bedtime stories.

Bambang said that the KPK had accumulated lots of much materials throughout its 10 years of existence and was ready to work as a content provider for community televisions and private televisions. The KPK already runs a radio station, which the commission launched on Independence Day 2013.

The anti-graft body has also tried other means of engaging the public, including by maintaining an active social media presence. Currently, the KPK's Twitter account, KPK_Indonesia, is followed by more than 972,000 users and its Facebook page has received 611,000 likes.

Bambang said that the commission picked Independence Day as the day to launch the channel with the hope that it could give new meaning to independence.

"Humans can only truly be independent if they are free from corruption and this is consistent with what has been enshrined in the 1945 Constitution," he said. (ask)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/18/kpk-launches-anti-corruption-television-channel.html

Terrorism & religious extremism

Education important to suppress radicalism

Jakarta Post - August 16, 2014

Jakarta – The incoming government has to pay more attention to citizenship education as well as carry out structural changes in the Religious Affairs Ministry to control radicalism and promote tolerance, experts say.

Rights activist Siti Musdah Mulia of the Indonesian Conference of Religions and Peace said on Friday that to prevent religious radicalism, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from spreading in Indonesia, the new government should consider strengthening citizenship education at a basic education level.

While researching at several schools in Indonesia, Musdah found that rigid religious teachings "not in accordance with the Constitution," such as ISIL doctrine, existed in schools.

She said that one of the religion textbooks at a school stressed the importance of establishing a caliphate – an Islamic state led by a supreme religious and political leader – exactly as taught by the Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI). ISIL and HTI are known for using violence to achieve their aim, which is to build an Islamic state.

Musdah said that with such practices, school children were being taught the radical ideas in a structured and systematic way, often going unnoticed by their parents or the government itself.

"In the future, religious education in Indonesia should be built in line with the citizenship principals," she said during a national seminar in Jakarta.

The head of the Religious Affairs Ministry's research and development division, Muhammad Machasin, said that the new government should pay more attention to citizenship education to prevent such radicalism. "Indonesians have lost their wisdom," Machasin said.

Muhammadiyah secretary Abdul Mu'ti added that the new government should consider implementing what he called "soft pluralism" – the development of a tolerant mindset – toward Indonesians.

He said that to date, the government had failed to implement such practices. For example, in the development of a housing compound, the government did not do anything to develop social integration among religious affiliations in the compound.

"Our citizenship system should be inclusive," Abdul said, adding that the ministries, including the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Education and Culture Ministry, had to cooperate to make it happen.

Setara Institute vice chairman Bonar Tigor Naipospos said that aside from education, structural reform in the Religious Affairs Ministry was also important to promoting tolerance among Indonesians.

He said that the directorate generals in the Religious Affairs Ministry should not be classified based on religions but based on their functions. "The Religious Affairs Minister must be able to provide the same service for every religious group," he said. (ask)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/16/education-important-suppress-radicalism.html

Poverty & social inequity

Income gap widening despite development programs

Jakarta Post - August 22, 2014

Jakarta – Economists have concluded that despite the country's intensified development program, income inequality has worsened over the past 10 years.

"A number of indicators show that the income gap is becoming wider and wider in this country," said Arief Anshory Yusuf, an economist from Padjajaran University on Thursday during the launch of Indonesia's Development Gap from Various Aspects, a book about the widening gap between the country's rich and poor.

Arief said that one of the indicators was Indonesia's Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient is a way of portraying how income is distributed within a nation and is a measure between 0 and 1. A measure of 0 indicates a perfectly equal society, where 50 percent of the population receives 50 percent of the total income. A measure of 1 indicates the most unequal society, where 100 percent of total income is held by a single person.

Indonesia's Gini coefficient increased steadily from 0.33 to 0.41 – the country's highest-ever ratio – between 1990 to 2013, when development was booming.

Arief said that a number of issues, such as a high corruption rate and subsidies falling short of targets, were responsible for maintaining the wide gap. "There has been minimal progress on closing the income gap. Low income people are still having trouble getting formal jobs," Arief said.

Yustinus Prastowo, a tax policy consultant and one of the authors of the book, said that the government should tailor fiscal policy to address the rising income inequality. He said that short-term policies such as imposing high, progressive taxes for certain groups and redirecting budget funds from fuel subsidies to other sectors like health and education were imperative. "Very rich people who annually take in between Rp 1 billion and Rp 10 billion should pay around 40 or 45 percent in [income] tax," Yustinus said.

A study by the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) identified large income gaps in several regions in Indonesia in 2014. For example, the monthly minimum wage in Jakarta, which is set at Rp 2.5 million (US$213), is dwarfed by the salary of a state-owned enterprise CEO, which stands at Rp 250 million per month.

Meanwhile, Arif Budimanta, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker in Commission XI overseeing the economy, said that a state intervention was needed to close the income gap.

"The upcoming government must do something about it through State Budget policy. Under current conditions, the gap will become wider if we let the market work on its own," he said.

Arif added that aside from adjusting tax and subsidized fuel policies, the government must boost development in rural and border areas rather than focusing on urban development. He said further that the government must consolidate its demographic data before making any important policy.

"Demographic data from the Central Statistics Agency [BPS] does not match with the Home Ministry's data. These figures should be consolidated and become the road map for any government policy," he said. (idb)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/22/income-gap-widening-despite-development-programs.html

Land & agrarian conflicts

AMAN tells Jokowi to protect customary land rights

Jakarta Post - August 21, 2014

Jakarta – The Indigenous People's Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) said on Wednesday that president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and his deputy Jusuf Kalla must keep their promise to protect the rights of indigenous people and preserve their customary lands

Rukka Sombolinggi, AMAN deputy secretary-general, said that Jokowi and Kalla had promised in their vision and mission statement to establish a commission focused on the recognition and protection of indigenous communities.

"AMAN and indigenous groups have pledged our support for the Jokowi-Kalla coalition in the hope that they will fight for indigenous peoples' rights," Rukka announced in Central Jakarta on Wednesday. The organization held a commemoration of the International Day of the World's Indigenous People, which fell on Aug. 9.

During the presidential campaign, Jokowi pledged that he would establish an independent commission that would report directly to the president. The commission would be tasked with preparing regulations and policies related to indigenous peoples' issues. Jokowi also promised that he would push for ratification of the Indigenous People's Rights Acknowledgment and Protection Bill that is currently stalled in the House of Representatives.

Rukka emphasized that the 2012 Constitutional Court verdict declaring that customary forests no longer belonged to the state could play a critical role in the customary lands issue, but that unfortunately it had yet to be applied by the government.

She added that even after the court delivered the verdict, the Forestry Ministry continued to issue policies that infringed upon indigenous people's customary forest rights.

Rukka also criticized President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for delays in issuing a decree to implement the court's verdict, which she blamed for the ongoing conflicts between private companies, governments and indigenous groups over rights to the forests.

"We hope the next president will set out an agenda for conflict resolution between the government and indigenous groups. It is time for indigenous people to feel that they are part of this country," she added.

Based on AMAN data, 150 land dispute cases involving indigenous people nationwide were submitted to the organization last year.

Contacted separately, Forestry Ministry secretary-general Hadi Daryanto denied the accusation that the ministry had not implemented the court's ruling on Law No. 41/1999 of Forestry. "The Forestry Ministry acknowledges the court's ruling. We believe that customary rights for indigenous people is a very important issue," he said.

Hadi added that the ministry had agreed to participate in a series of public hearings to be held in several provinces across the country from Aug. 27 to Nov. 28. The hearings will be sponsored by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

The public hearings will provide forums for parties – including indigenous people and the Forestry Ministry – to meet and exchange views regarding the land disputes. Komnas HAM plans to submit the results to the next president. "We agree that if these land disputes continue, the country will never achieve sustainable forest management," Hadi said. (idb)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/21/aman-tells-jokowi-protect-customary-land-rights.html

Governance & administration

Jokowi team eyes 'mafia' crackdown

Jakarta Post - August 19, 2014

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The transition team of president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has been largely operating in secrecy. But the team's end goal may well justify the means as it is working on a Herculean task of identifying "business mafias" that have long posed an impediment to transformative policies.

Aside from drafting working programs for Jokowi once he assumes office on Oct. 20, the team has been working on profiling the major business cabals and recommending ways of eliminating their dominance.

Jokowi, widely regarded for his integrity and clean track record, has highlighted his intention to keep his transition team's operations out of the public eye over concerns they could be influenced by pressure from vested interests.

While the outgoing Jakarta governor has refused to elaborate further on the nature of the operation, one of the team's four deputies, Hasto Kristiyanto, made it clear that one of the team's tasks was to identify the "mafias".

"In the future, the government must not surrender to the mafias by compromising the public interest," Hasto, who is also the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) deputy secretary-general, said recently. "We need figures who are brave enough to address the root cause of the country's chronic problems."

Regardless of the team's effectiveness in achieving this particular goal, the effort is consistent with the pledge voiced by Jokowi during his presidential campaign.

The two have repeatedly voiced the concern that business rackets impeded policymakers from carrying out policies that were accountable and pro- people, particularly in the energy sector. They have also highlighted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's lack of commitment to clamp down on such practices.

Irregularities in policies regulating the energy sector have been of particular interest for Jokowi's team, as during Yudhoyono's 10-year term the country became heavily reliant on fuel imports.

Policymakers have made no concrete attempts to cut fuel imports by building refineries at home, nor any aim at expanding the use of gas as an alternative fuel in power plants and motor vehicles.

"This country has been riddled by the mafias in the management of imports, haj [pilgrimage], oil and rice. All of these appeared complicated and the government seemed to display no courage for reform due to the many vested interests at play," Jokowi said recently.

"I am a new figure with no past burdens. That's why I cannot be held hostage [by the business mafias]," he said.

Because identifying the figures that make up the mafias is a difficult job, Jokowi recently agreed to include former chief of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), AM Hendropriyono, as a member of his transition team.

Despite the controversy surrounding Hendropriyono's appointment, the seasoned spy is well regarded for having established the foundation for the reform of BIN after the fall of Soeharto's dictatorship in 1998.

"Hendropriyono has skills in intelligence and that will be useful for the team's work," transition deputy Andi Widjajanto said.

Concerns over the potential of collusion between politicians and the business cabals may help explain the limited involvement of political parties in Jokowi's transition team. The Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla ticket was endorsed by four parties: the PDI-P, the NasDem Party; the National Awakening Party (PKB); and the Hanura Party.

"We are always open to input from any [political] parties. We particularly welcome any suggestions or ideas from them," Andi said.

Andi also denied rumors suggesting Kalla had been left out of the team because the latter's business ties posed a possible threat to the autonomy of the mission. "We have discussed the issue in the transition team with Kalla several times and we will see if he has ideas and proposals," Andi said.

Ahmad Erani Yustika, an economist from Brawijaya University in Malang, East Java, praised the team's commitment to identifying those behind the business rackets and seeking ways to disrupt their dominance.

"The next government must address the mafias in the energy sector first before considering any cuts to the fuel subsidy by raising fuel prices," he said.

Erani added that while the fuel subsidy was often the subject of debate, the government consistently overlooked inefficiency allegedly caused by the business rackets in the imports of subsidized fuel. Indonesia imports more than 70 percent of its fuel and crude oil to be used as subsidized energy.

Spending on fuel subsidies would rise by 18 percent, or Rp 44.6 trillion (US$3.81 billion), to Rp 291.1 trillion according to the proposed 2015 state budget presented by Yudhoyono to lawmakers on Thursday.

"The public may well accept the rise in fuel prices if the government shows them that it is serious in combating the fuel mafia first," said Erani.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/19/jokowi-team-eyes-mafia-crackdown.html

SBY maintains status quo in 2015 budget

Jakarta Post - August 18, 2014

Satria Sambijantoro and Ina Parlina, Jakarta – While President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has pledged to assist his successor wherever necessary, his proposed 2015 state budget appears to indicate an attempt to maintain the status quo.

In the draft state budget, the current government has proposed no plans to reduce spending on subsidies, despite energy subsidies swallowing 15 percent of the state budget of Rp 2,020 trillion (US$172 billion).

Yudhoyono instead raised the allocation for energy subsidies to Rp 363.5 trillion from the Rp 350.3 trillion in the 2014 budget. Of this fuel subsidies alone account for Rp 291.1 trillion, rising from Rp 246.5 trillion in this year's budget.

"The fuel subsidy is still too big; there is so much spending that would be more efficient, which would provide greater fiscal room [for reforms]" president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo told reporters after the Independence Day ceremony at the State Palace on Sunday.

The lack of fiscal room for development and growth-generating programs means that Jokowi's campaign pledge to spur economic growth to 7 percent within five years may not be achieved.

Fund allocations for development programs remained miniscule, Jokowi complained. "The hope here is that we can see the spending on development programs grow over time; instead of seeing the enlargement of growth for mandatory and subsidy spending," he said.

Inefficient state spending was also reflected by the fact that Yudhoyono has maintained the current status quo in terms of distributing funds to ministries, though this strategy has been widely criticized.

Funding for the Public Works Ministry, responsible for growth-generating infrastructure projects, will stand at Rp 74.2 trillion next year, or Rp 300 billion less than was earmarked in the revised 2014 state budget.

The lower allocation for the Public Works Ministry was in contrast to the increased allocation for the Defense Ministry, which will receive Rp 95 trillion, or Rp 11.7 trillion more than this year.

Yudhoyono also maintained high allocations for ministries frequently under the spotlight for their poor budget disbursement and corruption, such as the Religious Affairs Ministry, which has been earmarked Rp 50.4 trillion, the fourth-largest fund allocation of any ministry.

"The latest budget's structure shows that there isn't any 'performance- based mechanism' applied there, as some ministries with questionable track records in budget management are still able to receive higher funding," said Telisa Aulia Falianty, an economist with the University of Indonesia (UI).

Although government officials have described the budget as a "baseline", meaning it will offer ample space for the new government to revise it, Telisa argued that any drastic alterations would not be possible.

"In practice, major changes in mandatory spending will be very difficult to implement," she said on Sunday. "This will lock in the new government if they want to push for reforms."

Next year, any chance of spurring economic growth would only come through a brave move to hike fuel prices and allocate the funds to sectors considered as productive in having a multiplier effect on the economy, such as infrastructure and tax incentives, Bank Mandiri chief economist Destry Damayanti said.

She argued that the 5.6 percent economic-growth target stipulated in the proposed 2015 state budget might not be achievable with only a 10 percent growth in total spending next year.

"The growth target can be reached if Jokowi is brave enough to cut the fuel subsidies, which is painful in the short-term, but attractive for the medium- to long-term," she said.

"I think the current government will not take this final opportunity to cut the fuel subsidy, even though they can save around Rp 48 trillion in the budget, according to my team's calculations," Destry added. (gda)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/18/sby-maintains-status-quo-2015-budget.html

SBY leaves fiscal mess for Jokowi

Jakarta Post - August 16, 2014

Satria Sambijantoro and Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has effectively handed a poisoned chalice to his successor president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo as the former backed off from implementing much-needed fiscal and energy reforms in his final budget.

Spending on fuel subsidies will rise by an eye-watering Rp 44.6 trillion (US$3.82 billion) to Rp 291.1 trillion, a carryover from this year's spending, according to the 2015 state budget note presented by Yudhoyono to lawmakers on Thursday.

While acknowledging that the fuel subsidies were poorly targeted, as they are disproportionately enjoyed by the rich, Yudhoyono argued that he encountered "not a little political resistance" when he previously cut the subsidy and raised fuel prices.

"The budgeting policy faces the predicament of political acceptance of sensitive and unpopular moves, such as the reallocation of fuel and electricity subsidies to poorer citizens," Yudhoyono said.

The 2015 state budget "assumes no adjustment in fuel prices, which will be the full responsibility of the new government", Finance Minister Chatib Basri explained.

Coordinating Economic Minister Chairul Tanjung referred to the state budget as "business as usual" as the current administration would not be pushing for strategic programs.

From the total central government spending of Rp 1,379 trillion in next year's proposed budget, at least 31.5 percent will be spent on subsidies alone, which includes fuel, electricity and non-energy subsidies, while 11 percent will be allocated to debt payments.

Funds for transfers to regions, which have been frequently criticized for a lack of supervision and being prone to corruption by regional leaders, topped a record high of Rp 631 trillion, or 31 percent of the total state budget of Rp 2,019 trillion.

The budget means that Jokowi will not have sufficient fiscal space for productive, growth-generating spending, hindering his ambition to post 7 percent economic growth.

The fiscal deficit – the gap between revenue and spending – will be 2.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). By law the deficit must not breach 3 percent of GDP.

The proposed 2015 budget assumes annual economic growth of 5.6 percent, inflation at 4.4 percent, a rupiah exchange rate of 11,900 per US dollar and oil costing $105 per barrel with 845,000 barrels lifted per day.

Given the limited room for reform, Jokowi acknowledged that his campaign pledges on development programs might not be wholly accommodated in the budget currently being deliberated by lawmakers.

Jokowi said he planned to talk to Yudhoyono later this month to discuss the budget in order for him to be able to slip in reforms before the House of Representatives passed the budget at the end of September.

Yudhoyono's administration is set to leave office on Oct. 20 while the term for the current legislators will end on Oct. 1. "The priority is to get my programs on the basic sectors, such as education, health care, fisheries and agriculture, into the 2015 state budget," Jokowi said on Thursday.

"We will try our best to include the programs in the budget. If we fail to do so, we will revise it immediately," he said, adding that he would reject any back-room deals with Yudhoyono in exchange for including his reforms in the budget deliberation.

Andi Widjajanto, a member of Jokowi's transition team, said that revision of the budget could begin on Jan. 2, 2015, the first day the budget comes into effect.

"Jokowi's pro-people and reform programs could not be accommodated in the 2015 state budget as it was drafted by Yudhoyono's government and is being deliberated by the current legislators," he said.

Andi said the transition team's planned meetings with the current administration would focus on creating "sufficient and realistic" fiscal space in the budget to provide leeway for Jokowi's agenda.

"We don't have sufficient time to scrutinize all of the thousands of items in the draft state budget. Thus, we will only focus on dealing with the macro factors to ensure that the budget is fiscally realistic and that we will not be trapped by overly optimistic assumptions," Andi said.

He added that Jokowi's team had also been simulating several economic scenarios involving factors such as deficits, economic growth, tax ratios and the rupiah exchange rate.

"The simulations are aimed at preventing Jokowi getting shocks if the real economic situation turns out not to be as projected," Andi said, adding that the team had also prepared alternative sources to finance Jokowi's programs should the budget fail to provide for them.

[Ina Parlina also contributed to the story.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/16/sby-leaves-fiscal-mess-jokowi.html

Parliament & legislation

Perludem, women's organizations file for judicial review of MD3 law

Jakarta Globe - August 20, 2014

Yustinus Paat & Adelia Anjani Putri, Jakarta – The Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) together with several women's rights organizations has filed a judicial review request in an attempt to revise a controversial law that it says threatens to diminish women's participation in politics.

The organizations, which include the Coalition for Women's Leadership, the Movement for the Empowerment of the Women's Voice (GPSP) and the Gender Partnership Association, filed the request to review the revised 2009 Legislative Institutions Law, or MD3 Law, at the Constitutional Court on Tuesday.

The Coalition for Women's Leadership is led by politicians Khofifah Indar Parawansa and Rieke Diah Pitaloka, and activist Yuda Kusumaningsih. "Perludem's interest here is to see how the provision that empowered women was erased in the MD3 Law," Perludem executive director Titi Anggraini said on Tuesday.

The plaintiffs say the revised law diminishes women's chances to obtain key posts in supporting bodies of the House of Representatives.

The revisions to the law were endorsed on July 8, when the entire nation was focusing on the presidential election, which was held a day later. The law controversially contains an amendment that activists say is aiming to shield lawmakers from corruption probes.

But women's organizations are particularly concerned about the law's impact on their struggle for gender equality at the House.

"In the previous version of the law, there was the phrase pertaining to the mechanism of choosing leaders of supporting bodies of the House that said: 'in consideration of women's representation based on the number of women in each fraction,' " Titi said. "The phrase was deleted in the latest version."

"With this phrase being removed, it seems like the spirit to get women better represented in politics is also gone," she added. "It's not about how powerful the phrase is, it's about the commitment shown by the House to support women in politics."

The plaintiffs also say that the new MD3 Law was drafted behind closed doors, without consulting experts and interest groups.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/perludem-and-women-organizations-file-judicial-review-request-for-md3-law/

Jakarta & urban life

Experts reprimand city's approval of six toll roads

Jakarta Post - August 20, 2014

Corry Elyda, Jakarta – Experts have strongly objected to a decision made by the city administration to proceed with the long-stalled and controversial construction of six inner-city toll roads.

Urbanist Elisa Sutanudjaja said that she felt cheated upon learning that construction would commence. "I thought the project was cancelled after many people opposed it in 2012," she said.

Elisa, who has followed the development of the project since it was initiated by then governor Sutiyoso in 2007, said the toll roads would not ease the traffic congestion that had worsened in recent years as new social and environmental problems would arise.

"Ninety-five percent of the [proposed toll] roads will be elevated, so the houses, offices and commercial areas under the road will be affected," she said.

Elisa also pointed out that the construction of the 69.7-kilometer toll road project, which would cost some Rp 42 trillion (US$3.6 billion), would also affect thousands of families because the roads would pass through densely populated areas.

The first phase of construction plan, for example, would connect Semanan, West Jakarta, to Sunter, North Jakarta, affecting 19 subdistricts.

The city administration, the Toll Road Regulatory Agency (BPJT) and the consortium, PT Jakarta Tollroad Development (JTD), signed a joint agreement to initiate the project in July. The signing was witnessed by Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama.

The physical construction of the inner-city toll roads, meanwhile, would begin in 2015, with roads expected to become operational by 2022. They have been designed to connect all five Jakarta municipalities.

The first phase of the construction would also include a 9.4-km road from Sunter to Pulogebang, East Jakarta. Routes from Duri Pulo, Central Jakarta, to Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta, and from Kampung Melayu to Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, were planned for the second phase.

The third phase of the project would connect Ulujami, South Jakarta, to Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, while the fourth would connect Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, with the Casablanca area of South Jakarta. Ahok has proposed that the roads be built simultaneously.

According to the Rujak Center for Urban Studies, many sections of the inner-city toll road would overlap and intersect with other public facilities like roads and railway stations.

One of the toll roads, for example, would pass Jl. Gajah Mada in Central Jakarta and rise over Jl. Zainul Arifin beside the Gajah Mada Plaza. The width of Jl. Zainul Arifin is only 15 meters, while the proposed toll road would have a width of 25 meters.

Urban expert Yayat Supriyatna said the toll road construction was actually in violation of the 2012 Spatial Planning bylaw. According to Article 29 of the bylaw, toll roads can be built only if several conditions are fulfilled.

These conditions include; optimal operation of 12-corridor Transjakarta buses and their feeders; a well-prepared traffic management strategy at each location; and a preparation plan for integrating toll roads with adjacent public transportation.

Yayat said that he questioned the intention of the city administration and the central government to tackle the traffic issue in the city.

He added that roads would only be enjoyed by 10 to 20 percent of the middle-class who could afford to pay for the tolls. "Meanwhile, millions of others will continue to struggle with public transportation, whose condition has not significantly changed over the years," he said.

Yayat added that the problem could be also addressed by constructing regular roads. "The city administration is more than capable of building its own elevated road, which would cost only around Rp 4 trillion," he said.

Yayat said building the toll road would only put common people at a greater disadvantage. "Residents will be suffering during the construction as the congestion will get worse. After that, they will have to spend money to enjoy the new facilities," he said. "Meanwhile, it will not ease the congestion," he added.

The plan was widely resisted by urban planners, activists and netizens in early 2013 and at least 4,000 people signed petition demanding that the city administration cancel the plan. After failing to reach an agreement in discussions with stakeholders, Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said he would consider building just two of the six planned elevated extensions of the inner-city toll road.

Those two routes would connect Semanan to Sunter and Sunter to Bekasi. However, the Jokowi administration has failed to revise the toll-road plan in the city administration's Medium Term Development Plan bylaw.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/20/experts-reprimand-city-s-approval-six-toll-roads.html

Mining & energy

The Indonesian housewife who took on mining companies and won

Thomson Reuters Foundation - August 18, 2014

Thin Lei Win, Bali, Indonesia – Under a full moon one night in 2006, 30 machete-wielding men surrounded Aleta Baun in the middle of a forest as she headed home to breastfeed her youngest daughter.

They said they had been hired to kill Baun, who was leading protests against mining operations in her West Timor community. She called her husband, a primary school teacher who was at home looking after their children.

"He said, 'We will come and help you,' and I asked, 'How many of you are there?'. When he said 'Five,' I told him, 'That's useless. Don't come. Stay at home so if something happens to me there's someone to look after the kids'," recalled Baun, now 54 and dressed in locally hand-woven clothes.

Baun escaped death that night. Her attackers decided to take the money she had on her – about $20 – rather than kill or gang rape her, after discussing both options in front of her. They hacked her legs with machetes, leaving her with scars she still bears today.

"Each of the men slapped me, pulled my hair and kicked me. They banged my head against a tree. I now get headaches often," she told Thomson Reuters Foundation. "It was very, very painful but I just prayed. I still feel thankful they just hit me and did not kill me."

This was one of Baun's closest shaves with death but by no means the only one. Baun's campaign of peaceful resistance against companies mining marble on Mutis Mountain, a place her Molo indigenous community considers sacred, made her powerful enemies.

Death threats forced her to leave home for a year. She could not live with her husband or children out of fear for their safety. She and her fellow activists faced harassment, arrests and beatings, both from the local authorities and thugs hired by the mining companies, Baun said.

Weaving protest

Baun, born into a farming family and affectionately known as Mama Aleta, began her activism a decade before the assassination attempt.

It was a June morning in 1996 when the housewife, standing on the side of the road, saw trucks laden with marble from Mutis heading to the biggest city nearby. She felt unbearable sadness.

Molo is located in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), the western half and Indonesian part of Timor island. An area rich in marble, manganese, gold, oil, gas and many other commodities, it lies south of Mutis Mountain, which is home to the headwaters of West Timor's major rivers.

In the 1980s, the district government began issuing permits to mining companies without consulting local villagers.

"The mining destroyed our land, water, forests and food," Baun said. "This earth is our flesh, the rock is our bone, the water is our blood, the forests are our hair and skin. If any one of the four elements is gone, we cannot live properly," she told the first "Summit on Women and Climate" in Bali this month, where her story became a source of inspiration for grassroots women activists risking their lives to protect the environment.

Baun and three others started organising local people in West Timor. The community set up Pokja Organisasi A 'Taimamus, an indigenous organisation, and expanded their campaign, mostly financed by Baun and her supporters.

In 2009, 150 Molo women spent an entire year sitting on marble blocks at one of the mining sites, quietly weaving their traditional cloth.

It was a conscious decision to have women on the front line since they are the ones who go out foraging for food, dye and medicine. During the protest, the men cooked, cleaned and cared for the children. By 2010, the mining companies had halted their operations at all four sites in Molo territory.

Provincial parliament

For her leadership and courage, Baun received the 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize awarded to individuals "for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk".

On hearing she had won, Baun insisted the $150,000 prize money should go to the whole community, said Nonette Royo, executive director of Samdhana Institute, which has supported indigenous communities in Indonesia for over a decade. Goldman responded that the prize is for individuals.

Samdhana stepped in to manage the money, placing two thirds in a fund. A third was spent on two trucks to transport community members to meetings, and to help market their farm produce and woven goods.

Money earned from the trucks pays for vehicle maintenance and funds activities led by Baun's organisation, including building a bridge over a river where many children died trying to reach a school on the other side. The rest of the prize money is gathering interest in a time deposit.

Baun, who was elected as a member of the provincial parliament in this year's elections, says her work is far from over.

"I'm quite sure it will bring me much more challenges and threats because my fight is no longer just for the women of my village but for the people in the province," she said.

Oil and gas companies have now expressed interest in developing coastal areas of West Timor. "So we may have to take them on in the future," Baun said.

"I've felt disheartened, disappointed and abandoned many times – but I realised I can't avoid these (emotions) because this is the path of my movement, my fight," she added. "If anyone kills me, I would accept it. Every human being will die one day."

[Editing by Megan Rowling.]

Source: http://www.trust.org/item/20140818092642-qdpr9/

Economy & investment

Shares, rupiah gain as Prabowo rejected

Jakarta Post - August 22, 2014

Satria Sambijantoro and Linda Yulisman, Jakarta – Investors and industry representatives on Thursday responded positively to the Constitutional Court ruling that dismissed Prabowo Subianto's challenge to the presidential election result.

The rupiah strengthened and the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) rallied as investors entered the market for late trading before the court formally announced its dismissal of Prabowo's legal challenge.

The rupiah strengthened 0.1 percent to 11,692 per US dollar, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg, while the JCI passed the 5,200 barrier for the first time this year.

The currency rebounded after it fell to as low as 11,743 in the afternoon following reports of minor clashes occurring in front of the court building in Central Jakarta, with police firing tear gas and using water cannons against supporters of defeated presidential candidate Prabowo.

In the equity market, foreign investors posted a new buy of Rp 409 billion (US$34.9 million) on Thursday, pushing up the JCI by 0.3 percent to close at 5,206, the highest level since May of last year.

"Movement in the equity market today was greatly affected by the court's ruling," said Ridwan Soetedja, a director with Panin Asset Management in Jakarta. "The market saw that the situation was under control and the clashes could be managed, thus easing their concerns."

Mohammad Anggun Indallah, the head of equity with Manulife Asset Management, predicted that the JCI would further rally to 5,400 by the end of this year, supported by optimistic views of the incoming government as well as a more certain political climate in Indonesia moving forward.

"Since Prabowo is well-funded, risk remains that protests will continue following the rejection of his claim by the court on Aug. 21, but the momentum is clearly turning against him," noted Sean Yokota, the head of Asian strategy with Stockholm-based financial group SEB AB.

Business representatives have complained that the investment climate in Southeast Asia's largest economy deteriorated due to political uncertainty in the wake of Prabowo's defiant refusal to accept the outcome of this year's presidential election.

The former lieutenant general challenged the result in the court over what he alleged to be "structural, massive and systemic fraud" during the casting of votes on July 9.

An official rejection from the court of Prabowo's challenge paves the way for the election's winner, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, to officially take office as Indonesia's seventh president on Oct. 20. Business representatives have high hopes that Jokowi will pass reforms and improve the infrastructure deficit in the country.

Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) deputy chairman Anton Supit expressed relief over the court's decision, saying that it would end the uncertainty and give a green light to business players, who had been adopting a "wait and see" stance that left business expansion plans in limbo.

"This is the most important ruling because what matters most for business players and investors is certainty and stability. We hope the court's ruling can create such an atmosphere," he said. However, Anton added that there was still one crucial task left for Jokowi that would affect investor confidence: the appointment of Cabinet members.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/22/shares-rupiah-gain-prabowo-rejected.html

Analysis & opinion

Prabowo a disgraceful loser

Jakarta Post Editorial - August 22, 2014

It will likely be just a matter of days before most of Prabowo Subianto's supporters completely abandon him after his failure to embarrass Indonesia in front of the international community with his ridiculous assertion that this country's democracy is much worse than that in North Korea, where democracy is absent.

Knowing the behavior of Indonesian politicians, it would be unthinkable that political parties like the Golkar Party and the United Development Party (PPP), which supported Prabowo's nomination in the July 9 presidential election, will remain loyal to him. They, too, will desert him for the sake of their own survival.

The Constitutional Court on Thursday unanimously rejected Prabowo's allegations of widespread, structured and systematic fraud in the presidential election. The court said that Prabowo lacked evidence to prove his claim.

We should commend the police for firmly handling Prabowo supporters who tried to disrupt the reading of the verdict. The General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) also deserve plaudits for their achievement in organizing the legislative election in April and the July presidential election in a free and fair manner.

Indonesians have proved to the world again that as a nation with the world's largest Muslim population, it is fully capable of holding democratic elections. Most supporters of Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Prabowo exercised their constitutional right to elect their leader in a very responsible way.

It is official now that Jokowi will become Indonesia's seventh president in October. The Jakarta governor will be accompanied by Jusuf Kalla to lead the nation for the next five years until 2019. Jokowi won the position through a fully democratic, transparent, direct and fair election, which lives up to Indonesia's billing as the world's third-largest democracy after India and the United States.

Jokowi will be the president of the entire nation, including those who wanted Prabowo to lead the country. He should be much more proactive in healing the wounds and conflicts that might have occured during the "fiesta of democracy".

The former mayor of Surakarta will take up the people's mandate, although the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and its coalition partners will not be able to form a strong coalition in the legislature. As he proved during his two-year tenure as Jakarta governor, opposition in the Jakarta City council was not able to bother him because of his ability to reach out to the public.

Jokowi won the hearts of the residents of Surakarta and Jakarta not because he was a genius in developing the two cities, but more because the people trusted his sincerity while most Indonesian politicians suffered from a huge deficit of confidence among their constituents.

There is no guarantee that Jokowi and Kalla will lead the nation to a much better society. But the people trust the pair because they pin high hopes on them. Jokowi should not disappoint the people who have lost faith in the political actors and elites of Indonesia.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/22/editorial-prabowo-a-disgraceful-loser.html

Budget allocation to villages

Jakarta Post Editorial - August 21, 2014

There are at least two pieces of good news from the proposed Rp 2.02 quadrillion (US$172 billion) state budget for the 2015 fiscal year beginning in January. One is the 6 percent rise in pensions and the salaries of civil servants, the military and the state police.

The second is the direct allocation for villages. This is the first time that village administrations, of which there are an estimated 73,000, will get direct allocations from the national budget, in compliance with Law No. 6/2014 on villages. Until now, grants or budget allocations to villages have been part of the total state budget allocations to regional (provincial, regency and municipal) administrations.

The new law stipulates that national budget allocations to villages shall gradually reach 10 percent of the total allocation from the national budget to regional administrations and shall be in addition to the funds the villages already receive from regency and municipal administrations.

The amount each village will get directly from the national budget is determined according to a formula taking into account the village's population, the size of its territory and its incidence of poverty. The funds shall be used primarily for development and for the empowerment of the local people.

As the villages' eventual 10 percent share of the total allocation to regional administrations is to be implemented gradually, the first budget allocation directly to villages next year is set at Rp 9.1 trillion rather than Rp 64 trillion (10 percent of next year's total national budget allocation to all regional administrations).

We think this gradual process is necessary to ensure effective, efficient and accountable use of the funds, given the inadequate institutional capacity of village administrations, which are the lowest level of public administration.

This process learns from the lessons of the launch of regional autonomy in 2001, the first time that national budget funds were allocated directly to regional administrations. Even now, 13 years on, many regional administrations have yet to implement adequate standards of financial accountability.

The Village Law also stipulates that the direct budget allocations can be reduced, deferred or even stopped altogether if villages fail to submit timely reports on the use of the funds, or if they abuse the funds, do not use the funds according to the directives based on their respective priorities, or leave the funds in banks for more than two months.

We urge the Finance Ministry to ensure that village heads and financial officials at village offices are sufficiently trained in budget administration to maximize the benefits of the direct budget allocation.

Village officials, through processes involving local people, also need to be trained in how to design priority programs, so as to ensure that the use of the funds receives stringent public scrutiny. We can also draw lessons from the designing and implementation of community-driven programs under the subdistrict-based National Community Empowerment Program in Rural Areas, which is also funded by the national budget.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/21/editorial-budget-allocation-villages.html

Graft-ridden House

Jakarta Post Editorial - August 19, 2014

At the end of their terms, a number of House of Representatives lawmakers have had to face the music at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) over allegation of fraud in the organization of the annual haj pilgrimage, in which former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali has been implicated.

After questioning three members of House Commission VIII overseeing religion last week, the KPK grilled commission chair Ida Fauziyah and three other members on Monday following allegations that Suryadharma had misused people's money in sending 33 people, comprising his relatives, ministry officials and lawmakers, on the haj in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

Such facilities, which the KPK has classified as gratuities, have been a common feature among House politicians serving from 2009 to 2014, as have corrupt practices thanks to their power to endorse government budgets and policies. The checks-and-balances mechanism to control the government has turned into a "give-and-take" scheme, in which the power of money is exercised to win political support.

The symbiosis explains the "Idul Fitri bonuses", worth US$200,000, that former Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas) head Rudi Rubiandini handed to members of House Commission VII on energy through its chairman, Sutan Bhatoegana, last year. Sutan has been named a suspect in the case, with the KPK is currently investigating.

The public will remember the current House, whose term ends on Sept. 30, for its tolerance of corruption, not only because top politicians have been convicted for graft but also given its repeated moves to undermine the fight against corruption, as evident in the House's support for bills to weaken the KPK.

Sadly, although it is difficult to prove, many new lawmakers who will assume their seats in the House on Oct. 1 are suspected to have won their seats through vote-buying.

A survey jointly conducted by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the Indonesian Survey Institute on June 1-10, found that most respondents deemed the 2014 legislative election worse than the previous election five years ago in terms of vote-buying.

Many disputes between fellow party members contesting legislative seats centered on allegations that one candidate poured much more money into their constituencies than the others to win the race.

New faces will mark the upcoming House, but they will not necessarily bring change or repair the legislative body's corrupt image, due to the control that central boards of respective parties will have under the 2014 law on legislatures. The law will reduce lawmakers to mere representatives of party bosses or, as apparent in most corruption cases involving politicians, money-making machine for their parties.

The Constitutional Court has cut the House's budgeting power to prevent lawmakers from enriching themselves and their parties, but as long as the political parties fail to end high political costs and get tough on corrupt politicians, the cycle of legislative corruption will beset the incoming House.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/19/editorial-graft-ridden-house.html


Home | Site Map | Calendar & Events | News Services | Resources & Links | Contact Us